Zim Online
Thu 10 November 2005
HARARE - Police yesterday arrested
six student leaders at the restive
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) while union
leaders arrested on Tuesday for
organising street protests remained in
detention as President Robert Mugabe
resorted to iron-fist tactics to crush
swelling public discontent.
Armed police swooped on the UZ campus
in the afternoon, grabbed
student leaders they found addressing students
about hardships at the
campus, beat up some of the leaders before taking
them away for detention.
The arrested student leaders are Zimbabwe
National Students Union
president Washington Katema, UZ Students Executive
Council president,
Hentchel Mavuma and four others: Collen Chibango,
Garikayi Kajawo, Mfundo
Mlilo, Wellington Mahohoma and Tawanda
Chitekwe.
The student leaders, who have not been
charged, were still in police
cells by late last night as Home Affairs
Minister Kembo Mohadi warned that
their arrest and detention should save as
an example to Zimbabweans that the
government would crush any illegal
protests.
Mohadi said: "Yes I can confirm that there were some
people who were
arrested for trying to stage an unlawful demonstration. They
broke the law
and they were picked up by the police. The government will
continue to
arrest those who willfully break the law."
Under
the government's draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA),
Zimbabweans
must first seek permission from the police before they can
gather in groups
of three or more to hold public meetings or demonstrations.
The
police have used the controversial law to clamp down on the main
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party and civic society groups by
banning
several of their meetings.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
president Lovemore Matombo, the
union's secretary general Wellington
Chibhebhe and about 200 workers were on
Tuesday arrested under the POSA for
organising public marches in Harare and
other major cities to protest
against Zimbabwe's worsening economic
hardships.
The union
leaders and the workers have not been charged yet but were
still locked up
in cells in Harare and the neighboring dormitory Chitungwiza
city.
Also detained by the police is the chairman of the
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) civic alliance, Lovemore Madhuku,
after his
group last Saturday organised demonstrations across the country to
demand a
new and democratic constitution for Zimbabwe.
The
demonstrations by the NCA, which groups together churches, labour
unions,
students' groups, women and civic rights groups, were also to
protest
against a senate election at the month-end.
In a long list of
detainees, the police are also holding the MDC mayor
of Chitungwiza, Misheck
Shoko, who was arrested on Tuesday. Shoko has
frequently clashed with Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo after the
mayor resisted attempts by the
government to wrestle control of Zimbabwe's
third largest urban
centre.
But indications were that the police might want to charge
Shoko with
corruption related to Z$2.2 billion provided by the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe
to the city which Chombo claims was misused. Shoko denies
misusing the
money.
The student leaders arrested yesterday were
planning to march to the
Ministry of Education offices in central Harare to
present a petition to the
Education Minister urging him to act to improve
fast deteriorating learning
and living conditions at the run-down UZ
Campus.
Likewise, the ZCTU leaders and workers arrested earlier in
the week
were also marching to the Ministries of Labour and Finance to
present
petitions, warning the government workers were "hungry and angry"
after six
years of an uninterrupted economic recession.
In a
statement issued after the arrest of the student leaders, the
Student
Solidarity Trust said: "These unwarranted arrests and the scale at
which
protests and arrests have both been taking place are a sure sign of a
state
in decay, where citizens are finding it hard to get by, and when they
say
it, they are brutalised for saying so."
The six year economic
crisis - which critics blame on mismanagement
and corrupt rule by Mugabe -
has seen inflation shooting to beyond 300
percent while food, fuel,
electricity, essential medical drugs and nearly
every other basic survival
commodity is in critical short supply because
there is no hard cash to pay
foreign suppliers.
An estimated quarter of the 12 million
Zimbabweans face starvation
unless more than one million tonnes of food aid
are urgently provided
between now and the next harvest around March/April
2006.
Mugabe, the only ruler Zimbabweans have ever known since
independence
from Britain 25 years ago, denies ruining the country's economy
and instead
blames the economic crisis on sabotage by Western governments he
says are
out to punish him for seizing land from whites and giving it over
to
landless blacks. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 10 November 2005
KAROI - The Zimbabwe government
has evicted the 18 last remaining
white farmers in the prime farming
district of Karoi but President Robert
Mugabe's friend, Billy Rautenbach,
has been allowed to keep his farm in the
area that lies 203km north-west of
Harare.
The farmers had survived the government's chaotic and
violent farm
seizure programme over the past five years but were in the
last week
ordered to leave their farms for new black owners, most of them
senior
officials of Mugabe's government and ruling ZANU PF party who
already own
several farms seized from whites.
The governor of
Mashonaland West province (under which Karoi falls),
Nelson Samkange,
confirmed the evictions, telling ZimOnline that the white
farmers had been
ordered to leave and pave way for blacks who were just as
good
farmers.
"It is true that they have been given notification letters
so that
they move out but who told you that we (blacks) are not capable of
farming
to feed the nation?" said Samkange.
Samkange would not
say what criteria had been used to allow Rautenbach
to keep his farm while
other white farmers in the area were being evicted.
The
controversial Rautenbach, who is wanted in South Africa to answer
to some
criminal charges, is said to be a personal friend of Mugabe.
The
latest farm seizures that come just as the main planting period is
getting
underway after the country received its first substantial rains
about a
week ago, flies in the face of assurances two weeks ago by Mugabe's
first
Vice-President, Joseph Msika, that the government was not out to
chase away
all white farmers.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor and Mugabe's
economics point man,
Gideon Gono, has also publicly stated that Harare
wanted to retain some of
the white farmers to help revive the mainstay
agricultural sector which is
in a state of near total collapse after the
farm seizures which began five
years ago.
But on the ground the
government appears determined to drive away all
remaining white farmers with
close to a hundred evicted across the country
in the last three
months.
One of the Karoi farmers ordered off his property, Ben
Tamblach, said:
"I was shocked because Vice President Msika and Gono have
since denounced
new (farm) invasions but unfortunately I have found no joy
from the Minister
of State Security Didymus Mutasa who is said to be out of
office for the
three days I have been to Harare."
Mutasa, who
oversees land reforms and food aid distribution, is one of
the government
hardliners over the land issue. He was about three months ago
quoted by the
local media as having said white farmers were filthy and
should all be
removed from the land.
Tamblach said a former chief executive
officer of a government-owned
agro-bank was eyeing his farm and had
deployed about 15 self-styled
veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of
independence to chase him away from the
farm.
The farmer said
he had 50 hectares of potatoes at the flowering stage
and had prepared 200
hectares of maize while another 100 hectares of winter
wheat had already
been harvested.
Zimbabwe has grappled severe food shortages since
the government began
its farm seizure programme in 2000. While erratic
rains have contributed to
the shortages, agricultural experts say farm
seizures are largely to blame
for falling food production which has tumbled
by about 60 percent over the
past five years.
An estimated
quarter of the 12 million Zimbabweans face starvation
unless more than one
million tonnes of food aid are urgently provided
between now and the next
harvest expected around March/April 2006. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 10
November 2005
NKAYI - Thousands of villagers in the dry Nkayi
district about 200km
north of Zimbabwe's second biggest city of Bulawayo are
surviving on wild
fruits as hunger deepens across the country.
The villagers told a ZimOnline news crew that toured the area
yesterday that
they were now surviving on wild fruits after running out of
their staple
maize-meal.
"We are now surviving on umkhemeswane/matamba (an
indigenous wild
fruit), and what we do is that we crush it open then eat
this brown stuff
inside. It's very delicious, but you can't survive on it
forever. We need
grain and maize-meal," said one of the villagers, Sibangani
Dube.
Another villager, who only identified himself only as Nsingo,
added:
"We are basically surviving by the grace of God. Imagine eating wild
berries
for a week and yet you still manage to go on, it's
amazing."
Zimbabwe is facing severe food shortages largely blamed
on President
Robert Mugabe's disruption of the key agricultural sector after
he seized
large white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks five
years
ago.
The chaotic and often violent farm seizures, knocked
food production
by about 60 percent to leave once food self sufficient
Zimbabwe dependent on
food handouts from international aid
agencies.
But Mugabe insists the food shortages are mainly a result
of drought,
rather than the land seizures, which he argues were necessary to
correct
colonial land ownership imbalances.
The Zimbabwean
leader last year barred aid agencies from distributing
food saying the
country had harvested enough to feed itself.
International aid
groups say at least four million of Zimbabwe's 12
million people may need
food help this year or they will starve. - ZimOnline
Press Gazette
Published: Thursday, November 10, 2005
By Caitlin
Pike
Freelance cameraman Cyrus V Nhara and camerawoman "Sara" were named
as the
winners of this year's Sony Impact Award at the annual Rory Peck
Awards on
Tuesday night.
They won for their film Zimbabwe: Forced
Evictions, which was the first
footage of the slum clearances to reach the
international community.
Sara has chosen to remain anonymous to protect
both her safety and ongoing
efforts to broadcast images around the world
from Zimbabwe.
Their footage, which was broadcast by ITN in June,
captured the devastation
caused by Zimbabwe's controversial slum clearance
policy.
The Sony Impact Award recognises humanitarian footage shot by a
freelance
that has had an impact worldwide and contains images that have
changed
perception or policy.
Alexander Lomakin, the first cameraman
to film the aftermath of the Beslan
school massacre, won the Rory Peck hard
news award for his film Beslan
Siege.
Ruhi Hamid's film about the
Asian tsunami, At the Epicentre, Proposal by
journalists and politicians to
film in main committee corridor is denied by
House of Commons claimed the
features award.
The two films portray different perspectives of the risks
facing freelancers
from natural and man-made events.
Lomakin said:
"We were not prepared for the events of 3 September, but in
the chaos I
managed to do a bit more, a bit quicker than colleagues from
other
companies, thanks to the support I received from my team on the
ground."
Hamid's film tells the story of the 7,000 survivors of the
Indonesian
village of Lampuuk, which was flattened by last year's tsunami.
Judges'
comments included: "At first I thought this was a big production
with a huge
crew and a director on board, but she did it all herself, which
is
absolutely amazing."
This year's Freelances' Choice Award was
presented to print journalist
Fatima Tlisova for her continuous bravery,
commitment to the story and
efforts to help fellow journalists.
The
Rory Peck Awards are the major fundraising event for the Rory Peck
Trust,
which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary. The trust was
established
in memory of Rory Peck, who was killed on assignment in Moscow
in 1993.
The Times November 10, 2005
By Jan Raath
a.. The American
Ambassador to Zimbabwe returned to Washington
for "consultations" yesterday
after President Mugabe's Government threatened
to expel him.
Diplomatic sources said that the high-level consultations "may
be followed
by important changes" in US relations with Zimbabwe.
Christopher Dell flew home after Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, the
Foreign
Minister of Zimbabwe, accused him of inciting revolt in a speech
last week
that blamed Zimbabwe's present crisis on the Government's
mismanagement and
corruption.
Mr Dell said that since 2000 the purchasing power
of Zimbabweans
had collapsed to what it had been in 1953 and that the
country's human
indicators of development, once the envy of sub-Saharan
Africa, were now the
lowest in the world.
"I know of no
other example in the world of any economy that, in
times of peace, has
contracted so precipitously in the course of six years,"
he
said.
His remarks were reviled in the state-controlled press,
and Mr
Mugabe said that the ambassador could "go to hell".
The Herald
By Zvamaida
Murwira
THE dissolved National Railways of Zimbabwe board has denied
allegations of
incompetence, inefficiency and lack of transparency levelled
against it last
week by the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr
Christopher
Mushowe, when he fired them.
However, Mr Mushowe stood
his ground yesterday, saying the board had failed
to perform to expectations
and deserved to be fired.
Announcing the dissolution of the board last
week, Mr Mushowe cited the
board's failure to implement turnaround
strategies approved by the Cabinet,
failing to recover debts and collect
rents on properties and bickering over
trivial issues.
"If they are
aggrieved by the decision to fire them they should come to me
or go to the
courts for recourse and not to the media because what I did is
provided for
by the relevant statutes. I am the one who appointed the board
and if I am
not satisfied with it I am empowered by the National Railways of
Zimbabwe
Act to dissolve it." said Mr Mushowe yesterday.
Responding to allegations
by the minister, former board chairman Mr Samuel
Geza said in a statement
his board could not implement the turnaround
document approved by Cabinet
because the ministry had instructed them in
July 2005 to suspend
implementation.
This, Mr Geza said, followed lobbying by some members of
the NRZ management
and some unionists who did not hide their hostility to
the turnaround plan.
Further, said Mr Geza, full implementation of the
turnaround plan was not
feasible, due to lack of funds, since the turnaround
document had not been
submitted to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for
consideration under the
Productive Sector Facility.
The turnaround
document approved by Cabinet in May 2005 proposed the
unbundling of the
parastatal into four strategic business units: freight and
equipment,
passenger services, infrastructure and road motor services.
Mr Geza said
the central bank was supposed to release $20 billion (later
raised to $1
trillion) to fund the recapitalisation of the NRZ from its
concessionary
rate facilities.
"As things were, the board's hands were tied in carrying
out the full
implementation of the turnaround despite the fact that NRZ at
that time had
only 13 fully powered locomotives out of a fleet of
175."
NRZ, however, received $69,05 billion from the central bank under
the
Parastatals and Local Authorities Reorientation Programme.
Mr
Geza also maintained that the minister did not respond to the board's
requests to appoint a substantive general manager following the departure of
Mr Munesu Munodawafa.
"On this issue the minister had prevented the
board from inviting
applications to fill the post left vacant in June 2005
by the previous
general manager, arguing that he had to clear the matter
with his principals
first."
He goes on to say: "The acting general
manager could have never been an
agent of change given the pressures from
his peers."
Turning to the Chitungwiza rail link, Mr Geza said the
minister took it away
from local empowerment groups and gave it to NRZ to
implement - but without
making the necessary funds available.
"The
empowerment groups had financial commitments from the local banking
sector
whose
funds would be released as soon as a BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and
Transfer)
agreement was signed between the ministry and the empowerment
groups and a
Government guarantee was obtained," he said.
"This
project should have been executed in 2004 with the NRZ being
subcontracted
to carry out the construction of the line and other civil
works, running and
managing the initial operations as well as carrying out
the necessary
maintenance work on equipment and infrastructure."
BOOT is a concession
to construct a facility, own and use it for a period of
time before
transferring it.
To give that project to NRZ implied Treasury would raise
the capital and
operating budgets, meeting the deficits and yet the
Government was fully
stretched, he said.
"Yet the empowerment groups
had come up with a model that generates
surpluses from an economic corridor
linked to the line to subsidise the
losses incurred by the commuter rail
services. At this rate, the residents
of Chitungwiza may not see the advent
of commuter rail services for a very
long time," he said.
Mr Geza
denied allegations of failing to collect rents, saying that was done
by
estate agents who were paid on commission for their services.
"With
neighbouring railway administrations NRZ has longstanding agreements
where
reconciliations of monies owed to each other are done on a quarterly
basis
through current accounts. Settlements are then made by way of payments
to
those owed by those owing the others," he said.
"However, NRZ has had a
dispute with Spoornet of South Africa on some items
of reconciliation going
back to 2003 which still have to be finalised with
the help of the two
central banks of Zimbabwe and South Africa."
Mr Geza said Spoornet, which
owed NRZ more than R10 million, was insisting
on paying in local currency,
which the parastatal was opposed to.
The other members of the dismissed
board were vice-chairman Mr James
Maphosa, Dr Ruth Labode, Mrs Martha Rukuni
and Mr Aaron Munzava.
The minister said a new board would be announced
soon.
In firing the board, Mr Mushowe announced the appointment of Air
Commodore
Tichafa Karakadzai as the new general manager, replacing Mr
Munodawafa who
has been assigned to another post in Government.
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn
2005-11-10 05:31:55
HARARE, Nov. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- National
Constitutional Assembly
Chairman of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change Lovemore
Madhuku and Chitungwiza Mayor Misheck Shoko have
been arrested for inciting
public violence, police said
Wednesday.
"They are in police custody for inciting public
violence. They
were arrested separately. Inciting public violence falls
under the Public
Order and Security Act as well as under Common law,"
Zimbabwe Police
national spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
said.
The spokesperson added that on two separate occasions
during the
first week of this month, Madhuku made utterances deemed to
betantamount to
inciting public violence and calling for the removal of
President Robert
Mugabe from office.
"The first incident
led to a demonstration on Saturday that
resulted in the bombing of a police
post and the injury of a policeman," he
added.
Turning to
the mayor of Chitungwiza, Bvudzijena said Shoko called
for the violent
removal of the government on November 6, 2005.
On that date,
the government announced that it had appointed
Chitungwiza District
Administrator Godfrey Tanyanyiwa to monitor the
operations of council, with
the mayor still required to carry on reporting
for duty.
"Shoko made the utterances at a creche in Chitungwiza. It was at a
meeting
attended by adults," said Bvudzijena.
The arrest of Shoko comes
a week after ruling party supporters for
two days running barred him from
entering council premises on allegations
that he was responsible for the
poor service delivery system in the town.
As a result, the
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and
Urban Development, Ignatius
Chombo appointed Tanyanyiwa as a measure to halt
the collapse in the service
delivery system of thetown. Enditem
The Herald
Herald
Reporter
POLICE have been put on high alert to crush any political violence
that
could arise ahead of the forthcoming Senate elections on November 26,
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has said.
He said although they were
happy with their preparations so far in pursuit
of a peaceful election, the
police would not tolerate any form of violence
from any quarter.
Comm
Chihuri said political violence would not be brooked, adding that the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) had already put in place measures and
strategies to guarantee security for all the people before, during and after
Senate elections.
He reassured contesting political parties and
individuals of their security
in the elections, saying they should not fear
to campaign within the
respective constituencies they are standing
in.
If they received any threats of violence or intimidation, Comm
Chihuri said
they should immediately report at any nearest police station
and necessary
measures would be taken.
"Senate elections are only two
weeks away. . . (I) take this opportunity to
reassure the nation that
everyone's peace and security will be ensured
before, during and after the
elections. Political violence will be dealt
with immediately and decisively
without fear or favour.
"The message of zero tolerance to political
violence propagated during the
March (parliamentary) elections remains
relevant and should be disseminated
to all and sundry."
Comm Chihuri
said it had always been his organisation's position and desire
that all
elections should be held in a peaceful environment.
"To meet this goal,
the ZRP has put in place a number of measures and
strategies to guarantee
security for all.
"Our preparations as ZRP started with the establishment
of the (Senate)
Elections Committee which is headed by Senior Assistant
Commissioner Nonkosi
Makhosana Ncube, who is presently the officer
commanding police in
Mashonaland Central Province," he said.
Comm
Chihuri said the committee had visited provinces, addressing officers
on the
expectations of both the organisation and the nation that each
individual
member should fulfil during the forthcoming elections.
He expressed
satisfaction that the visits had adequately prepared the police
officers for
any eventuality during the polls.
He said the other mandate of the
committee would be to effectively steer and
co-ordinate all police
activities related to peace and orderliness during
the elections.
He
said a comprehensive national operational plan that would guide
provincial
commanders on the duties of the police before, during and after
the
elections, was already in place.
He reminded political parties and
contesting candidates to abide by the law
during their campaign
period.
The Electoral Act specifies acts deemed improper in the conduct
of elections
as undue influence, and illegal transportation of voters. It
further
prohibits certain activities in the vicinity of polling stations
such as
canvassing for votes and distribution of leaflets and pamphlets,
obstructing
voters and wearing party regalia during the voting
period.
Comm Chihuri said police officers were conversant with these
regulations and
would act accordingly whenever breaches occurred.
The Mercury
November 10,
2005
by The Editor
The Zimbabwe government should feel
more concerned about deteriorating
conditions and attitudes within its own
borders than with the remarks made
by a foreign ambassador to a gathering of
students.
United States Ambassador Christopher Dell had the
audacity to say that
gross government mismanagement had contributed more to
wrecking Zimbabwe's
once prosperous economy than the drought and limited
sanctions that
President Robert Mugabe often blames.
As a
result of this the Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned
Dell to
protest about the speech. He was handed a diplomatic note and is
flying to
Washington "for consultations" following Zimbabwe government hints
that he
might be expelled.
Dell's views, unpleasant and possibly
undiplomatic as they may be to
the ears of Mugabe's cabinet, are hardly
likely to stir revolution among the
populace, as averred.
Far
more serious is the lack of freedom of speech which led to this
week's
arrests of scores of trade unionists. Zimbabwe police yesterday
charged more
than 120 people for staging protests to demand better living
conditions.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
had called protests in
six cities and towns to highlight the plight of
Zimbabwe's workers, who are
struggling with low wages, high inflation and
shortages of fuel and
medicines.
Their demonstrations were also
intended to draw attention to the
flooding of the local market with cheap
Chinese imports which have been
blamed for the closure of dozens of small
businesses.
However, the marches were broken up by heavily armed
riot police on
the contested grounds that the necessary authorisations had
not been
obtained and were a threat to public order. Such heavy handed
responses are
likely to do more harm to the Mugabe government than the mere
expression of
a foreign envoy's views.
Updated November 9, 2005
Please send any job opportunities for
publication in this newsletter to:
JAG Job Opportunities ; jag@mango.zw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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inserted 09 November 2005
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inserted 09 November 2005
A large overseas registered Public Listed
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Would suit older person without children. The company intends to
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Employment
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For
the latest listings of accommodation available for farmers, contact
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
(updated 9 November 2005)