| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
SOKWANELE
Enough is
Enough
PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY
We have a
fundamental right to freedom of
expression!
Despite a police clampdown on the national protest called by the Zimbabwe Congress for Trade Unions on Tuesday, Bulawayo workers took to the street in solidarity before riot squads broke up the meeting outside the government complex here.
An estimated 2000 strong crowd turned up outside Mhlahlandlela Building along Bulawayo?s 10th Avenue and Lobhengula Extension for an address by representatives of the ZCTU. Shortly after lunch, fully armed riot police in military green Defender vehicles and Puma trucks stormed the meeting they had been watching from a distance and brutally ended it. Some workers were injured in the stampede to flee the choking tear gas while others like John Ncube escaped under extreme duress.
?Police started beating people randomly, many were not even aware of the meeting called by the ZCTU. I ran towards Renkini bus terminus to seek refuge,? Ncube explained. ?The meeting began with slogans from ZCTU and suddenly tear gas cannisters were fired sending us in all directions.?
Ncube (24) has a one year old daughter
and laments the high cost of living. From his fast diminishing monthly salary he
can barely pay for transport, if available, food, clinic bills and rent. He long
ago stopped thinking about new clothes or other past luxuries. The basic needs for
an average family comes to Z$106 000, not including school fees or any extras,
Ncube, an average worker, nets an income of $Z80
000.
?It is time that workers strengthened the cause of the ZCTU by participating in its protests,? Ncube believes.
?The issue of high taxes is an issue of great concern to me and my fellow workers. I believe success will come if we are all united under the ZCTU and have one purpose,? said Ncube
Sokwanele
Comment on the Repression of Freedom
Zimbabwe?s illegal regime proves once again they are unfit to participate in the international arena as evidenced by continuing police brutality.
Zimbabwe?s battle hardened riot police operate in marked contrast to British law enforcement officers who co-operated with demonstrators to ensure their wishes were heard and public safety maintained as seen in anti-Bush demonstrations held in London today.
The call for protests held
in Bulawayo today came from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to end government?s
lethargy in solving the country?s current crises, including high levels of taxation, ever rising prices
and the cost of living and the violation of Human and Trade Union
Rights.
The protest preceeds the National Budget announcement on 20 November
2003.
President Obassanjo was in Zimbabwe yesterday to assess Zimbabwe?s eligibility to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Nigeria next month. The evidence presented today reconfirms the fact that Zimbabwe remains a brutal dictatorship and is in no uncertain terms fit to re-enter the Commonwealth.
Vicious state sponsored violence against the mothers of grandmothers of Zimbabwe are not grounds for the growth of democracy, instead it is a sign of a dictatorship that has no shame.
Eye witness reports have come in of extreme brutality.
Thousands of Zimbabwean workers responded to the ZCTU
call. Many were seen walking down the
main industrial artery road in small groups prior to the meeting. Even then, the riot police were hot on their
tails. Troop carriers holding groups of
riot police were seen in pursuit of any action deemed to be anti-state. In two
separate incidents trained dogs were set upon the potential protestors, leaving
the victims savaged.
Several areas in the city were blanketed by tear gas,
with at least five separate explosions from canisters being heard. Pumas carrying AK-toting police dispersed the
thousands of people converging on the site of the meeting to be held outside a
prominent government building. No less
than three eye witness accounts have come in of people beaten whilst fleeing the
riot police batons.
The ?Women of Zimbabwe Arise? (WOZA) group joined their
colleagues and now five have been taken to clinics for treatment following
severe beatings by the riot police. A
woman handing out sweets outside a popular supermarket, was manhandled and
arrested by three riot policemen.
Despite today?s heavy handed tactics used by the police against their own people, the crowds remain committed to discourse. Today, crowds of potential protestors stood up to their attackers using their voices, not fists. Only one incident of revenge has been reported with a police land rover surrounded in the city center and its windscreen smashed. No injuries occurred.
The brutal mugabe regime time and again uses force to
crush any expression of freedom, yet the people go on. Zimbabweans, especially its mothers, will not
be defeated.
Ends.
Zimbabwe's rate of inflation has been
on a steep upward trend in
recent years, from an average 55.9 percent in 2000
to 71.9 percent in 2001,
133.2 percent in 2002 and 525.8 percent so far this
year. - AFP
Mail and Guardian
'Many of us are badly wounded'
Harare,
Zimbabwe
18 November 2003 15:19
Zimbabwe police arrested
scores of trade unionists and rights activists on
Tuesday as they gathered to
stage protests across the Southern African state
against alleged rights
abuses and the sky-rocketing cost of living in
Zimbabwe, witnesses
said.
In the second-largest city, Bulawayo, riot police moved in
immediately to
disperse about 2 000 people who had gathered outside
government offices to
hand over a petition to the governor of the
province.
The protesters held running battles with riot police, and
several people
were injured, according to a witness and an official from the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which organised the
protests.
"The people just massed," the union official said via
cellphone, adding that
the police had initially failed to prevent the
protesters gathering.
But minutes later police could be heard breaking up
the demonstration. They
also made an unknown number of arrests.
Jenni
Williams, a spokesperson for the rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise,
who
took part in the demonstration, said she had been briefly handcuffed
and
arrested in the police crackdown.
The "peaceful demonstration" was
broken up by police with batons and dogs,
she said.
"They were forcing
us to run by beating us so they could set the dogs on
us," she asserted via
cellphone from Bulawayo.
"Many of us are badly wounded by baton sticks,"
she added.
In the capital, Harare, the ZCTU had announced plans to march
to government
offices to hand over a petition to the Finance Ministry, but
groups of
baton-wielding riot police stood guard on every street
corner.
About 40 rights activists and union leaders were arrested as they
gathered
outside the town hall in central Harare for the protest, one of
those
arrested said by cellphone from the police station.
Lovemore
Madhuku, a prominent constitutional lawyer, said top officials of
the ZCTU,
the largest labour grouping in Zimbabwe formerly headed by
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, were among those arrested.
The ZCTU had last week
called for nationwide demonstrations to protest at
deteriorating living
conditions and alleged rights abuses under the
government of President Robert
Mugabe.
The labour group's secretary general and president, Wellington
Chibebe and
Lovemore Matombo, were arrested in the police swoop in Harare,
according to
Madhuku.
Photojournalists were also among those arrested,
according to an eyewitness.
Earlier on Tuesday nine officials of the
union's general council were
arrested at a hotel in central Harare as they
held a meeting, ZCTU
spokesperson Mlamleli Sibanda said.
Sibanda said
those arrested included the labour grouping's vice-president,
Elias Mlotshwa,
and the head of a teachers' union, Raymond Majongwe.
Eight more union
officials were arrested in the central city of Gweru,
another in Bulawayo,
and one in Gwanda, a southern Zimbabwean town, Sibanda
said.
He
claimed one person was struck and injured by a lorry as he tried to flee
the
police in Bulawayo.
Police were not able to immediately confirm the
arrests, but they had
declared the planned nationwide protests illegal and
threatened to clamp
down on any such action.
On Monday a defiant
Chibebe vowed that the protesters would not be deterred.
He said Mugabe's
government should not "interfere with bona fide trade union
work and [should]
let the workers of Zimbabwe express their feelings over
the mess the economy
is in".
Zimbabwe is in the throes of severe economic hardship, with the
annual
inflation rate above 525%, 70% of the work force unemployed and
chronic
shortages of food, fuel and medicines due to a lack of hard currency
to
import them.
Those Zimbabweans who do have jobs have seen take-home
wages eroded to
levels that barely cover monthly transport costs.
Last
month close to 200 ZCTU activists and officials, including Chibebe,
were
arrested for holding demonstrations in cities around Zimbabwe.
--
Sapa-AFP
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE COMMUNIQUÉ - November 17, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Membership Communiqué
2. Security Update
3. PR Communiqué
1.
MEMBERSHIP COMMUNIQUÉ
JAG MEMBERSHIP
In our previous transmission
of this mail we neglected to include payment
details. Apologies are in order
and herewith, below, a rectification of
this oversight.
JAG has now
been constituted for 12 months and requires new annual
membership fees to
continue. Most work at JAG continues to be done on a
voluntary basis. We
ask you to support this work which nobody else is
doing regarding justice,
accountability, restitution/compensation and a
vision for the future of
agriculture which we implicitly believe in.
We are asking for $100,000
per member/annum for the period 1st September
2003 - 31st August
2004.
SUPPORT YOUR FUTURE!!
All membership fees and donations will
be gratefully received.
WHAT CAN JAG DO FOR YOU?
· JAG is a farmer
led, farmer run registered Trust. It is run by committed
individuals who
believe that there is a future for commercial agriculture
in Zimbabwe and
want you to be part of it. JAG is a non-partisan group
that believes in
standing against what is wrong in Zimbabwe and uniting
around what is
right.
· JAG believes that the past has to be sorted out in order for the
future
to be made secure. Sorting out the past includes:
· Documenting
the truth of the injustices and human rights abuses that have
taken place in
the agricultural sector through the JAG Loss Claim Documents
and the JAG
accountability databases.
· Taking those injustices through the courts
through the Quinnell case, the
JAG Social Justice/Rule of Law case and other
cases that become opportune
both locally and internationally.
· Holding
the perpetrators accountable for these injustices through the
courts and at a
future Truth and Justice Commission.
· Seeking compensation and restitution
to open up your options through the
courts and reserving your legal rights to
those options in the future.
· Sorting out the future involves:
·
Putting together a Vision document for agriculture in Zimbabwe along
with
civic society and future policy makers.
· Working with the CRISIS
Coalition to bring a Truth and Justice Commission
together for a new
Zimbabwe.
· Putting together a full independent land audit so that everybody
knows
what has to be sorted out.
· Creating openness and transparency
within our society.
· Getting finance activated for rebuilding our farms and
the agricultural
sector.
· JAG offers members:
· An open door
policy for you to get advice and support.
· As much legal assistance as we
can give you.
· 25 facilitators to assist you with Loss Claim documents for
getting
restitution/compensation.
· All the financial benefits that will
accrue from the court cases we are
running.
· Notification of legal
developments as they occur.
· The chance to openly express yourself on the
Open Letters forum.
· Assistance for job opportunities.
· Free counselling
for stress and trauma.
· Emergency financial assistance for critical
situations.
· Assistance with food aid procurement for displaced workers or
workers
still on your farms.
· Unity with civic society and the CRISIS
Coalition.
· Publicity of injustices as they take place
· The Kukurira
Orphan Project for farm workers children.
· Inspirational talks countrywide
to bring a plan, hope and a future.
WE ARE THERE FOR
YOU!
MEMBERSHIP FORM - 1st September, 2003 to 31st August,
2004
Full
Name:
_______________________________________
Farm Name (as per
Title Deed):
_______________________________________
District in
which farm is
situated:
_______________________________________
Province in
which farm is
situated:
_______________________________________
Contact
Address:
_______________________________________
Contact Phone
Numbers:
_______________________________________
E-mail
Address:
_______________________________________
I,
___________________________________(name) hereby authorise The JAG Trust
to
take any representative or class legal actions that the Trust deems fit,
to
bring justice where injustices have been perpetrated in the
Agricultural
Industry.
Signature:_________________________________
Cheques
in favour of Justice for Agriculture can be dropped in at or posted
to our
offices at 17 Phillips Ave, Belgravia, Harare or payment in bearer
cheques or
cash will be accepted at the office. Those members wishing to
pay via
inter-bank transfer should email or phone in on 04 799410 for bank
account
details. All payments will be kindly received, receipted
and
acknowledged.
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2.
Security Update
More than 50 heavily armed soldiers and senior civil
servants invaded Roy
Bennett's Charleswood Estate-Farm in Chimanimani,
Manicaland Province in
Zimbabwe on Friday 14 November 2003 causing serious
disruptions at the
farm.
Roy Bennett is the opposition MDC member of
Parliament for Chimanimani. His
farm has been in the past invaded several
times by the government agents
and soldiers. In all these invasions the court
ruled in Bennett's favour
since
the farm does not fall under the category
for seizure by the government.
The farm has an Export Processing Zone
(EPZ) status and a tourist centre
(Mawenje Lodge-World class standard ).
However Friday's event took everyone
by surprise as government trucks brought
in armed soldiers, police details
and senior government officials to the
farm. These government officials are
from the Agricultural Rural Development
Authority (ARDA) Headquarters in
Harare and are under the leadership of one
Veryson Musiyapo a war veteran
and agricultural expert. The soldiers are
under the commandship of Major
Masabeya also from the Zimbabwe National Army
Headquarters in Harare.
On their arrival they camped at the main farm
offices where they evicted
the office workers. Chris who works in the farm
computer room was told to
remove his computer from the office. They then
occupied all the offices and
availed themselves to all the files in the
office. The ARDA team leader and
Major Masabeya went to the office of the
farm manager Mr Themba Nyambo (49)
and told him that the farm now belongs to
ARDA and Zimbabwe National Army.
They also said Themba Nyambo should provide
them with all the farm details
that include the hectarage of the farm,
animals kept at the farm, number of
vehicles, tractors and various farming
implements. They said all these
things are now the property of the state and
that all the farm workers are
now government employees. However Themba said
he could not cooperate with
them because he had no knowledge that the farm
belongs to the state. He
said he would continue to direct farm operations on
the auspices of the
present management (Bennett Brothers). The invaders
warned him to guard
against being used by what they called "British puppets"
referring to Roy
Bennett. They said such resistance by Themba or any farm
worker would lead
to serious consequences. They also said that they have
brought with them
some security guards to make sure that no property is
removed from the farm
including vehicles as everything now belongs to the
state.
Today (Saturday 15 November 2003) at 5.00am the soldiers and
police details
fired some gunshots in the air with aim of intimidating the
farm workers.
They also severely assaulted two farm workers Chengetai
Munyepfu a driver
and Jotham Mlambo a security officer at the farm. Chengetai
Munyepfu was
wearing an MDC T-shirt and it was torn into pieces. Also today
the
government brought in 3 new ARDA managers with some motor cycles to
manage
the farm. More security guards were also brought to the
farm.
These fresh invasions at the farm came barely a week after the
appointment
of a soldier Major General Michael Nyambuya to be the Governor
for
Manicaland Province. Another Zanu Pf Central Committee member and
terror
master Morris Sakabuya has also been appointed the Provincial
administrator
for Manicaland. The two sit in the Provincial land committee
and they are
strategically positioned to advance Zanu Pf interests and to
abuse human
and property rights. Last year Morris Sakabuya whilst still a
district
administrator in Chipinge orchestrated a spate of human rights
abuses in
Chipinge district by abusing police responsibilities giving
them
irresponsible missions - random and indiscriminate arrest and torture
of
opposition supporters on trumped-up charges. He also directed the
green
bombers to burn homes of purported MDC supporters.
This new
invasion is also a government's ploy to distance Roy Bennett from
the people
of Chimanimani. However this is not going to work if no force is
applied
because Bennett has long been a darling of the people. He has
helped the
people of Chimanimani on civic, economic and political needs on
several
times. After the devastating year 2000 cyclone Eline catastrophe
Bennett
spent millions of dollars repairing damaged bridges, dams,
canals,
schools,
roads, hospitals and rehabilitating victims of the
disaster. He is also
providing food and seed maize at this juncture to the
people of
Chimanimani.
JAG condemns in strongest terms the invasion at
a time when the
international community is expecting peace in this country
and maximum
human rights respect. We are also worried about the volume of
destruction
that is happening at Charleswood Estate when there is need to
address food
security in Zimbabwe. It is also boggling to note the magnitude
of the hate
campaign against one man by senior government officials including
Robert
Mugabe at the expense of purporting to be addressing land
issues.
Roy Bennett is contactable on +263 91-231298 or +263
11-757997.
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3.
PR Communiqué
Regime change inevitable, warns Bush
By Mduduzi
Mathuthu/IPS
07/11/03
GEORGE Bush launched what has been hailed as an
historic campaign by
America to "spread liberty and democracy around the
world", describing
Zimbabwe as an outpost for oppression. Referring to
President Robert Mugabe
's regime in Zimbabwe, Bush warned, "Militarism, and
rule by the capricious
and corrupt are the relics of a passing
era."
"Our commitment to democracy is tested in countries like Cuba and
Burma and
North Korea and Zimbabwe, outposts of oppression in our world."
Bush's
latest warnings come against the backdrop of a long-standing
American
policy of regime change in Zimbabwe. "Our government has not changed
our
opinion about the need for the region to deal with Zimbabwe and
the
leadership there," Bush said earlier last month.
"When President
Mbeki (South Africa) says they are working on it, to
achieve this goal, I
take him for his word. And I am going to remind all
parties that the goal is
a reformed and fair government. And that hasn't
been achieved yet. And we'll
continue to press the issue, both privately
and publicly." America is
concerned about the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe
fuelled by President
Mugabe's failed economic policies and land seizures
which have reduced food
production causing half the country's population to
go hungry. Mugabe's
repression against his opponents and the closure of
independent media houses
is also a cause of concern to the Americans.
In what the White House
billed as a major address, President George W. Bush
also announced Thursday
the United States has adopted a new policy he
called "a forward strategy of
freedom in the Middle East." The speech,
which comes amid growing public and
congressional unease about the costs
and duration of the U.S. occupation of
Iraq, appeared designed to rally
support by casting the occupation as part of
an historic mission by
Washington to spread liberty and democracy around the
world. The speech was
addressed to the 20th anniversary celebrations of the
National Endowment
for Democracy (NED), a quasi-governmental agency created
under President
Reagan that funds political activities
abroad.
Invoking Reagan repeatedly, Bush insisted that the occupation in
Iraq marks
"another great turning point signalling the next stage of the
world
democratic movement" after the Cold War. "Communism, and militarism,
and
rule by the capricious and corrupt are the relics of a passing era,"
Bush
declared, noting that "our commitment to democracy is tested in
countries
like Cuba, and Burma and North Korea and Zimbabwe, outposts of
oppression
in our world."
"We will stand with these oppressed peoples
until the day of liberation and
freedom finally arrives," he added. Bush said
decolonisation in the Middle
East had led to the creation of "many
dictatorships", some of which allied
themselves "with the Soviet bloc and
with international terrorism.
Dictators in Iraq and Syria promised the
restoration of national honour, a
return to ancient glories. They've left
instead a legacy of torture,
oppression, misery and ruin," he
added.
In spite of this history, he went on, "governments across the
Middle East
and North Africa are beginning to see the need for change." Bush
cited in
particular political reforms implemented by Morocco's King Mohammed;
recent
elections in Bahrain and Jordan; the extension of suffrage to all
adult
citizens in Oman; a new constitution in Qatar; `a multi-party
political
system' in Yemen; and a directly-elected national assembly in
Kuwait.
"These are the stirrings of Middle Eastern democracy," he said, "and
they
carry the promise of greater change to come."
In Iran, Bush
claimed, the demand for democracy "is strong and broad," and
he warned that
the "regime in Teheran must heed the democratic demands of
the Iranian people
or lose its last claim to legitimacy"
As for the Palestinians, "the only
path to independence and dignity and
progress is the path of democracy," said
Bush, who, without naming elected
President Yasser Arafat, warned that
leaders "who block and undermine
democratic reform and feed hatred and
encourage violence are not leaders at
all."
Democratisation need not
take the form of "westernisation," Bush stressed,
suggesting that Middle East
states could be "constitutional monarchies,
federal republics or
parliamentary systems."
But they should include certain "central
principles", like limits on the
powers of the state and the military; the
rule of law; space for civil
society, political parties, labour unions and a
free press; religious
liberty; the privatisation of the economy; and
guarantees of women's
rights. All of these, Bush said, are now being applied
to Afghanistan and
Iraq.
"The failure of Iraqi democracy," he warned,
would embolden terrorists
around the world, and increase dangers to the
American people and
extinguish the hopes of millions in the
region."
As a result, Washington should put an end to "60 years of
western nations
excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle
East (which)
did nothing to make us safe, because in the long run, stability
cannot be
purchased at the expense of liberty".
"Therefore the United
States has adopted a new policy -- a forward strategy
of freedom in the
Middle East."
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
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Letter
1:
Dear Open Letters Forum Reader,
Thought this would be of
general interest considering its origin anonymous:
Dispelling
myth
Judge's verdict 10/11/03
MUCH has been written and documented
about Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Mugabe)
and his management of Zimbabwe. This
contribution is restricted to certain
crucially important
aspects so as to
address incorrect perceptions.
Mugabe's conduct has induced emotive
debate. He stands accused on an
indictment alleging anything from
mismanagement to genocide. In the war of
words, as in all wars, the first
casualty has been truth. Mugabe, his
spin-doctors and various apologists have
been extraordinarily successful in
misleading the international community.
Hence the existence of certain
myths.
The Land Question
Central to
all these is the so-called "land question". The inequality as
regards land
ownership in Zimbabwe is an historical fact. That it required
attention is
unarguable.
What is also unarguable is that Mugabe had the means to address
this issue
from day one, being 04 April 1980 when he came to
power.
However Mugabe was not concerned to meaningfully address the
matter of
land. Conversely he was concerned to reassure white farmers of
their
security of tenure to such an extent that
he was even prepared to
put his Commander in Chief, Edgar Tekere and his
subordinate soldiers on
trial for the murder of a white farmer despite
Tekere's claim that he and his
men had acted in terms of national security.
The simple fact, and law, of
the matter is that the Zimbabwean government,
as with most governments in the
world, has always had legal power to simply
expropriate land if national
imperatives required this, provided it did so
in accordance with the law.
Simple enough if a government is acting in the
national interest and
respectful of its own constitution, laws and its
courts.
At the time of
independence there was already a wonderful precedent called
the Mkwasine
project rolled out in the Lowveld (rich sugar growing area) in
terms of which
black
Zimbabweans were allocated land for sugar farming in a managed
and
supported format. It needed only that the lessons learnt from this
very
successful model be extended
nationally.
In 1981 Samora
Machel, president of Mozambique, and confidante of Mugabe,
visited and
delivered a powerful speech exhorting unity between ZANU,
Mugabe's Shona
based party, and ZAPU, Joshua Nkomo's Ndebele based party
who at the time
were involved in a convenient but tensioned alliance called
the Patriotic
Front. No sooner had Machel left then the Lowveld was overrun
by ZANU
"commissars" and their operatives who conducted such a reign of
terror on
Ndebele people that many, such as the resident hospital sister
and the chief
court interpreter, had to be "smuggled" out overnight to the
safety of
Matabeleland, the traditional home of Ndebeles. At his trial for
publicly
flogging Ndebeles the most senior
commissar explained that they had been
acting on the personal orders of
Mugabe. He applied to the presiding
magistrate, to call Mugabe as his
witness. This poor man was
visibly
shattered, disillusioned and bitter in his naiveté when he
was
telephonically warned off by Mugabe's office from seeking the attendance
of
his patron.
Empirical evidence showed clearly that Mugabe was not
interested in such
things as unity, or land redistribution for that matter,
at the time. He
was concerned with power, i.e., total domination in terms of
a one party
state. Daily the country, via the media, was regaled with the
virtues of
having a one party state and totalitarian regimes such as North
Korea and
Romania were held up as model states. In fact on the very day that
Mugabe
was lauding Nicolae Ceausescu as a great leader at a ZANU
congress,
unbeknown to him this dictator was being put to death by his own
people.
Typical about this obsession was a television program called "The
Road To
Socialism", run by a brilliant ex patriot academic designed to
convince the
nation of the virtues of a one party state along Marxist
Leninist lines.
The simplest analysis of the print media of the time will
bear out this
obsession. Land was not an issue!
Unsurprisingly
therefore a so called "dissident" problem ascribed to ZAPU
was blown up to
such proportions as to lead to the infamous Gukurahundi
campaign and genocide
of Ndebele people. Undoubtedly there were dissidents.
It would be somewhat
naïve to believe that there were no ZAPU elements who
resented Shona
domination. Colonial settlers had not wrested the country
from the Shona. At
the time of settler occupation the country was ruled by
a Ndebele King called
Lobengula who had kept the Shona majority subjugated.
What is not
generally publicised is that the dissident problem originated
in
inter-factional fighting amongst the amalgamated forces at a place
called
Entumbane. This was made subject of an official investigation by a
State
commission, appointed on 29 April 1981, headed by Enoch Dumbuchena,
later
appointed as Chief Justice. Mugabe declined to adopt the findings of
the
Commission stating it "had not gone far enough". Instead arms
caches were
then "found" on ZAPU properties and genocide started. As
regards a later
"Commission of Enquiry" into the activities of the infamous
Gukurahundi Fifth
Brigade
there was simply a deafening silence.
Symptomatic of the
situation was a well publicized incident where the High
Court sentenced a
Mugabe operative to death for executing, Gestapo style,
an alleged dissident
whom he had brazenly wrested from police custody.
Within days Mugabe pardoned
the convict who was set free to continue his
nefarious mandate. Again what is
not generally known is that Mugabe did
this on numerous occasions, and many
of his operatives, even those
sentenced to death, were set free despite
having been convicted in the
courts of law. Reference is not being made to
amnesties, which were of
general application, but to ad hoc pardons of party
henchmen. Note that
these criminals did not have their sentences commuted but
were set
completely free.
Unsurprisingly therefore ten (10) ZAPU
members found themselves put on
trial in 1983 on charges alleging an
attempted coup and conspiracy to
murder Mugabe. A finding of guilty would
have very neatly augmented the
case against ZAPU and supported the creation
of a one party state. The only
evidence against the accuseds was that of an
accomplice and confessions
extracted whilst the accuseds were being kept
incommunicado. In a trial
lasting over nine (9) months not once did they
betray their guilt to their
counsel. Any counsel will tell you that you learn
very quickly whether your
client is involved or not.
That the
so-called attempted coup was a stage-managed sham was pathetically
obvious.
Over half were acquitted. The others were released in the
subsequent deal
brokering involving
the capitulation of Nkomo. It is now well-established
history that Mugabe's
notorious fifth brigade enacted its own
brand of the
"killing fields" in Matabeleland.
It does not require "rocket science" to
see that all these stratagems
finally succeeded in ensuring the capitulation
of Nkomo and his commander
in chief Dumiso Dabengwa. In 1987 both were
assimilated into government and
a de facto one party state materialised. Land
was not an issue!
Power, not land, was the issue and the simplest
analysis of media content
over the period 1980 - 1995 bears this out in that
there is no reference to
any substantive land issues but a preoccupation with
consolidating power.
What is also not generally known is that in the 1990
presidential elections
Mugabe lost to Edgar Tekere as regards urban based
voters
but got home on account of rural support by a relatively narrow
margin.
This undoubtedly was the first warning bell for Mugabe.
The
land issue arose for the first time after Mugabe's constitutional
reforms
were rejected by national poll and protest demonstrations
commenced. It is
undoubtedly the
cruellest of political "gimmicks" very belatedly raised by
Mugabe in order
to salvage political credibility at a time when to his
horror, for the
first time, the black masses were openly criticising and
rejecting him as
their leader. Seizing on the hitherto unattended land issue
should properly
be seen as an artful ploy to exploit a fundamentally emotive
issue in order
to rescue his flagging status as leader.
In the result,
just as it was convenient to victimise the Ndebele people in
order to secure
a one party state, it became convenient to victimise white
farmers in order
to trade on black peoples emotions as regards a sacred
issue. Such emotive
obfuscation is not new. It has a notorious precedent in
Hitler and the Jews
for instance.
In this ploy Mugabe has been spectacularly successful. In
the result the
so-called "land issue" is bandied about in the media as being
central to
Zimbabwe's problems. Many people, black and white, have been taken
in and
are naively supportive of Mugabe. There is a mindset that
romanticises
about "war veterans" meting out long overdue justice like some
modern day
Robin Hood and his merry men. The international media has been, in
effect,
duped into use of the labels "land issue" and "war veterans". Both
are
myths. Land is not the issue. Power is. The so called "war veterans"
are
not ex freedom fighters but comprise brainwashed youths galvanised
as
gangsters. Concomitantly the plight of "white farmers" receives
prominence
whereas, in reality, the vast majority of victims in this power
mad
stratagem are black people who are being assaulted, tortured, raped
and
murdered in their thousands so as to silence and subjugate.
As for
the whites, despite being citizens, they now present with all the
pathos
depicted in George Orwell's "Animal Farm" as unequal and not
deserving of the
protection of law in
terms of the cliché "some are equal but others are more
equal ..."
In the milieu of posturing, spin, half-truths and political
gamesmanship
the international community remains paralysed whilst a country
and its
people are destroyed. As said, truth has been the first casualty.
That this
continues to be guaranteed is ensured by the fact that, once again
in total
contempt of the rulings of the country's courts, Mugabe is ensuring
that a
valiant newspaper is closed down and its patrons hounded and
imprisoned
including a former High Court judge Washington
Sansole.
Zimbabwe is being betrayed on every count. Despite the lessons
of history a
despot is permitted, even supported and encouraged, in the worst
excesses
of human rights abuse
including systematic assault, torture rape
and murder. Its people are
confused, frustrated and bitterly disappointed.
They cannot even turn to
the courts as judges are raided, threatened,
arrested and imprisoned. The
rule of law is non-existent. But then again what
is new as regards Africa.
Is it not a fact that Idi Amin used to receive
standing ovations at the
United Nations despite full knowledge of his
crimes?
It would seem that despite the existence of the United Nations,
sacred
charters and all kinds of high sounding conventions the
international
community is unable, or is it unwilling, to act on human
rights? Surely
this cannot continue to be so? Surely somewhere, somehow,
someone can and
will do that which is right and proper to address this
madness?
The writer of this article is a former High Court Judge and his
identity
is
protected
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2:
Letter 1: Reply to Simon Spooner's letter to B Norton In the first
place
Simon, thank you for helping to create a bit of a platform for
some
interesting material for debate. In Simon's second letter to me he
has
stated that. No 1. (I quote) The M.D.C. policy has been available
since
2000 (unquote). I am sorry but I seem to have missed that one. But I,
and I
am certain, many more would appreciate a good look at that one. I
wonder if
either Jag or the C.F.U. have examined this document? However I
welcome the
idea that the new document, due sometime in November, will
include
specifics pertaining to the destruction since then. Does this
mean
destruction in every direction, or are we talking only
Agriculture?
I can confirm that the MDC has had a clear policy on land
and agriculture
since the election in 2000. This was first developed for the
purpose of a
manifesto for the June 2000 Parliamentary elections and then
totally
revised for the March 2002 presidential elections. At the time that
these
policy documents were being prepared organised agriculture showed
little
interest or concern.
We are again involved in a massive review
of Party polices. This is
intended to bring all policy documents up to speed
in the light of the
massive changes that have taken place since last year.
The final policy
statements will be agreed by the National Executive on the
22/23 November
and will then go to the National Conference for ratification
in December.
However it was agreed at the last meeting that our land and
agriculture
policies would stand - we see no need to amend them in any
substantive form
from what they were in 2002.
No 2. I quote. I would
encourage you to attend the next M.D.C. meeting and
feel free to ask as many
questions as possible. Unquote. Thank you for
the invitation and I take it
that this invitation is open to any Zimbabwean
who may be interested. . I
would like to ask whether this is a public
meeting or a meeting of the
executive, and what would be the subjects
covered in such a meeting? I would
also like to know whether members of Jag
and C.F.U. executives attend these
meetings?
To the best of my knowledge, very few formal meetings between
the MDC and
organised agriculture have taken place. I know that our shadow
Minister
(Rensen Gasela) is in regular contact and has a good relationship
with the
organisations that represent Agriculture. We hold regular
meetings
throughout the country all the time and many are specifically
organised for
farmers and their families. If Ben lived here he would be aware
of this
activity. We do not invite outsiders to MDC executive meetings for
obvious
reasons.
No 3 (I quote) you would be welcome to write to them
(Unquote.) I have
written to a member of the executive and have had what I am
afraid, was not
a very satisfactory reply.
It never has been easy to
satisfy Men Norton - on almost any subject!!
No 4 (I quote), I am told
that Jag have produced survey results that show
that the majority farmers
will return to the land given a governing
authority that promotes agriculture
and business in a user friendly manner.
(Unquote) This is really news to me
and I hope that Jag can throw some
light on the subject, and perhaps the
C.F.U would also like to have a look
at such results.
As I said in my
previous letter the number of farmers who would be willing
to return to their
farms would depend on what the incoming Government has
to offer, and I still
submit that not more than 10 % would be willing to
take the gamble.
I
understand that there are about 600 farmers still on their farms and
farming,
this may have come down a bit in recent months, but there still
are more than
10 per cent of large scale commercial farmers on their farms.
In addition
there are a significant number living on their farms but not
farming. This
may be as many as are farming. In addition some 1700 farmers
are in town
waiting for the conflicts on their properties to be resolved.
These three
categories amount to over 60 per cent of all white, large-scale
commercial
farmers. Ben Norton's arguments are nonsense in this respect.
No 5. I am
really pleased that the M.D.C are fully aware of the importance
of commercial
agriculture and realise that a healthy and prosperous
commercial agricultural
community is VITAL to the economy. You do mention
"agrarian reform" I wonder
if you would care to enlarge on that statement,
as this is an aspect of
commercial agriculture that I am very concerned
about, and could really be
thought of as commercial agriculture in the post
Mugabe area.
As Ben
knows full well, the term Agrarian Reform" embraces a much wider
field than
just "land reform" or agricultural policy - all of which would
be embraced by
the former.
No 6. This one is very important and you have not answered my
question, and
that was " who will remove the settlers, and what will done
with them when
moved. You see I do not accept that they are all squatters or
fat cats, but
there are many who believe that they have been given this land
legally and
now would have nowhere to return to.
Most observers now
believe that less than 15 per cent of all A2 settlers
are still on the
properties they were illegally allocated during the fast
track exercise. In
addition we understand from many sources that less than
120 000 A1 settlers
remain. In fact we have conducted a detailed study in
one province and found
only 10 000 settlers or squatters on over 4 million
hectares of land. Dealing
with these people is not going to be the huge
task we once thought it would
be. Most have three "homes" - one in the
urban areas, one in the communal
areas and another on some commercial farm
somewhere. Most have made little or
no effort to build permanent
accommodation and when the State stopped paying
them (they received a per
dium plus food for the early parts of the farm
invasions) they simply
packed up and left.
When a farm owner wants to
go back to his property once the rule of law is
restored it will be the
Government's responsibility to deal with the
squatters that have to be
relocated. This will be tackled in a humane and
responsible way by a MDC
administration.
No 7. Thank you for having passed my letter on to the
M.D.C executive, and
I hope that that they enter the debate.
I am a
member of the National Executive of the MDC.
No 8. As you are not an
elected official, what authority have you to speak
on behalf of the
M.D.C?
Simon is a businessperson who has made a huge sacrifice for the
MDC and the
future of this country. He spent several weeks in prison for this
activity
and is as closely associated with the leadership of the MDC as any
person I
know. He is in an excellent position to comment authoritivly on
MDC
matters. Unlike a few fence sitters that I know all too well!
The
following is not from Simon Spooner but is something that has really
got me
worried. I have just spoken to an ex farmer who is down in this part
of the
world for a bit of R & R and she told me that there is a very
big
difference in the thinking of compensation between the C.F.U and J.A.G.
and
that is the C.F.U would like compensation to be paid for the farms
first
and that the more lengthy process of consequential loss be tackled
later,
as opposed to J.A.G. who feel that both be tackled at the same time.
I
wonder if Jag could elaborate.
Just a short note on the issue of
compensation. Any government that abides
by the rule of law in Zimbabwe will
have to deal with the issue of
compensation. This is not going to be easy or
quick. In fact it will take
years to sort out and all those affected must be
aware of this. No donor is
going to fund compensation, all compensation will
be paid out in Zimbabwe
dollars and farmers will have to validate their
claims in a court of law.
Loss of income claims are going to be almost
impossible to prove and claim
and may have little end value because of
inflation.
I am worried as I am living on capital and need a bit of
compensation as
soon as possible. I wonder what the rest of your readers
feel? Good night
and hope that you do not sleep well but give these problems
a bit of
serious consideration.
Ben
Norton
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3: Proudly Zimbabwean
Dear Family and Friends,
I have often wondered
if, as a white and an ex farmer, my writing about the
situation in Zimbabwe
has done more harm than good for this country that I
love so much. In the
last three and a half years I have written two books,
almost 200 weekly
letters and about 150 newspaper and magazine articles on
events here as they
have happened. Looking back on some of my writings over
the last 46 months
and having written so many millions of words on
Zimbabwe's chaos I think
today's letter and its topic is probably long
overdue. Hopefully it will help
people understand a little better just
exactly why I do what I do and why I
stay in Zimbabwe.
I am white and was born here long before Zimbabwe's
independence. I did not
approve of the repressive rule of Ian Smith and his
Rhodesian Front and I
do not approve of the repressive rule of Robert Mugabe
and his Zanu PF. I
was appalled at the human rights abuses, torture and
detentions of
Rhodesia's government when they struggled to hold on to power
in the late
1970's and am equally appalIed at the violence, brutality and
human rights
abuses of Zimbabwe's government as it tries to hang on to power
30 years
later.
In 1990 when we legally bought a farm with government
approval in Marondera
it was because we wanted to live in the countryside and
try and make a
living from farming. People who have read African Tears will
know that
those 10 years on the farm were incredibly hard in every sense
-
financially, physically and mentally. Having the farm seized by
drunken
government supporters in 2000 and living side by side for 7 months
with
what became a war veterans headquarters and later a torture camp, was
any
mother's worst nightmare. Seeing our employees being abused,
intimidated
and forced to attend political rallies; witnessing politicians
paying the
war veterans to stay on our farm and watching a so carefully
tended and
much loved piece of land being turned into nothing more than a
political
beerhall finally gave me the courage to speak out. In those 7
months I saw
at first hand what was going on. There was not a shadow of doubt
in my mind
then that our land had been squatted not because we were white but
because
a political party were desperate to stay in power and that we were
merely
scapegoats. I also knew that if I did nothing and told no one about
what
was happening on our farm and in the country then I did not deserve to
live
here and be called a Zimbabwean.
I wrote African Tears not
because I was a disgruntled white farmer who
wanted her land back but because
I wanted the world to know what was
happening. A year later I wrote Beyond
Tears because I wanted people to
read for themselves what the Zimbabwean
government were doing to their own
people - black, white and brown. There
were only a handful of people who
were prepared to let me tell their stories
for that book because,
regardless of skin colour, we are a nation afraid of
our leaders. I
continue to write about the Zimbabwean situation for only one
reason and
that is to expose the truth. I have tried to speak out for all
victims
regardless of their colour, professions or financial standing but it
is not
an easy path that I have chosen, it is lonely, exhausting, frightening
and
often dangerous - perhaps doing the right thing is always like
this?
In the last 46 months many other white Zimbabweans have chosen to
walk this
path and each one of us has lost everything in the process but we
do it
because we love not "the" country but our country. We do it, not
because we
want to go back to "the good old days" but because Zimbabwe is our
home too
and we want to be a part of the future. We are tired of being
labelled and
stereo typed as white racists. We are tired of repressive rule
and we are
tired of racists and bigots be they black or white and we just
want to
stand together and build a democracy that our children, and Africa,
will be
proud of. Our mission lies in the future and not the past. It is a
vision
which cannot be achieved by brushing things under the carpet yet again
but
by demanding accountability from the people who lead us.
My reason
for writing on this topic today is because all Zimbabweans,
regardless of
their sex or colour, are again preparing to try and make our
government hear
our desperate calls. A weekend of national prayer and
fasting is in progress
as I write and on Tuesday the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions, supported by
civic society, have called for a national
protest against horrific levels of
taxation, inflation and violations of
human and trade union
rights.
Black skin or white, brown or beige, we are proud and
determined
Zimbabweans looking to the future and ask particularly for your
prayers and
support in the days and weeks ahead. Until next week, with love,
cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 15th November 2003.
http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears"
are
available from: UK contact handzup_02@hotmail.com ; Australia and
New
Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com ;
Africa: www.kalahari.net
www.exclusivebooks.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
4: Communal Lands
Post Mugabe Agriculture.
Letter No 3
6 A.M.
Sunday morning. Good morning my good friends, both positive and
negative. We
have a lovely sunny morning down here and I cant help
wondering what the day
will bring forth for the beleaguered wonderful
Zimbabwe. My sincere
admiration to those stalwarts who are battling on.
Keep going, the dawn is
near. To the Zimbabwean cricketers congratulations
for a brilliant
performance.
This morning I feel like having a look at the communal lands
of Zimbabwe.
This is where it all began and this is where it can end. So we
ask Gods
guidance in choosing the right path.
The communal lands
embrace an enormous proportion of the land surface of
Zimbabwe and yet their
contribution to the economy is very limited. This
through no fault of the
inhabitants, is a tragedy. I believe given time,
encouragement, proper
planning and access to much required finance, they
could become the most
productive area in Zimbabwe
Each of the five ecological regions of Zim
have their fair share of
communal lands, and each has its own set of
problems, and I have not got
the time or knowledge to talk about each one. I
can only speak in a very
limited way about the high rainfall areas.
To
start with I think we should have a close look at the inhabitants of
the
area. I divide them into four different categories, and these
are:-
No 1. The old people; - these are people who have no pension but
live in
the traditional style of being dependant on their grandchildren,
and
handouts from their children. I am not sure if I am correct but I
have
heard that each child gives his eldest child to his parents, and it
is
these youngsters that grow up and provide for the old people. As can
be
imagined this group comprises quite a large proportion of the
inhabitants
of the communal lands, and are probably the most unproductive,
especially
as the youngsters are being encouraged to go to school and no
longer have
time to hoe the family garden or herd the family cow and goats. I
have seen
old crones herding the livestock. I have seen youths of 16, wearing
dark
glasses, leaning against the gatepost listening to their walkman
while
their old grandmother milks the cow, and you know why, because the
youth
goes to school and this is his holiday and he must rest.
No 2.
The drunk layabout; -. who is not at all interested in improving
his
miserable mode of life. As long as the beer is always there, and his
wife
grows the necessary food. Except these days the wife also sits in the
shade
and holds out the begging bowl. This group is probably the
most
unproductive, and yet there are some people who say give them
"freehold"
title so that they can borrow money to buy some more
beer.
No 3. The group I really feel sorry for and who are probably the
most hard
working, and these are the women who have no husbands. This is a
large
group who are growing in number by the day, due to the ravages of
aids.
This group is becoming much more vocal, and the days where the man sits
in
the sun while the wife sweats it out, is numbered, and they are also
the
group you would most likely get your money back from.
No 4. This
is the group on which nations are built. They probably have a
little
education and have learned the art of proper planning. I would like
to recite
an experience I had with one of these families. This old chap had
a plot of
12 acres of arable land, and he had divided this into rotated
areas where he
grew good maize, marketed vegetables, nemu beans and
mazambans, a small patch
of cotton, a small gum plantation, and a small
plot of legumes which
comprised three varieties. This plot was used to
supplement the veldt
grazing, By grazing the legumes for an hour a day by
the two milk cows, he
had a small very primitive dairy with the hay
platform above. He had built
himself a small house and invited us in for
lunch. Everything was spotless,
manners were impeccable, and the meal was
delicious. It would give me a
great deal of pleasure to take any dignitary
in the world to visit this old
man, and study his methods.
In my travels around the communal lands I was
surprised to see groups of
farmers sitting in the shade listening to the
agritex officer. I have also
been surprised at how keen the agritex officers
were to show these people
around my legume pasture, and I have given a lot of
legume seed and grass
seed to agritex and farmers. I say given as they have
asked for it and have
apologised that there was no money to pay for the seed.
One group who
arrived in a bus sent their leaders to my house and presented
my wife and I
with pumpkins and various other vegetables and stated that I
was now their
brother.
I have also had busloads of mainly black
university students come to my
farm to study Legumes. I was really surprised
at the enthusiasm shown and
the standard of questions asked.
So, in my
opinion, the black people of Zimbabwe are not the same as the
Australian Abbo
or the South American Indian or the North American Indian
or the Namibian
Bush man, but are a people who can and want to accept the
modern world, and
as has been shown in the rest of Africa, the black man
wants and needs the
help and expertise of the white man. What they don't
need and resent, is
being exploited by the white man.
Zimbabwe is about to be liberated and
will be starting again from scratch
and what must be avoided are the mistakes
of the past, and I feel quite
sure that if we all add just a little bit that
possibility can be avoided.
The communal lands of Zimbabwe have enormous
potential and contrary to
popular thought are more fertile than the tobacco
lands. To save Zimbabwe
we need to remember that the tobacco lands need to be
handled with kid
gloves by either white or black farmers - they cannot be
occupied by
subsistence farmers.
In my next letter I will give you my
ideas on how we should handle the post
Mugabe agricultural policy, and if we
all added our little bit I feel quite
sure that the fundies at the top will
map out a path that will put the
Pearl back where it belongs.
Now I am
off to church and then to watch the froggies get eaten by the poms
who
themselves need a wakening kick in the butt.
Think, think. Think, and not
just about ourselves.
Ben
Norton.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Mugabe insists he will go to summit
Threat of Commonwealth
split
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
Tuesday November 18, 2003
The
Guardian
The threat of a damaging split within the Commonwealth loomed
yesterday
after the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, insisted he was
determined to
secure an invitation to a summit of leaders next month.
His
remarks followed a flying visit to Harare by the Nigerian president,
Olusegun
Obasanjo, who has been attempting to broker a deal to prevent a
rift over
whether Zimbabwe, which has been suspended from the Commonwealth
council,
should be allowed to attend.
When asked at a press conference if Mr
Mugabe will be invited to a summit of
the 54 leaders of the commonwealth
countries, Mr Obasanjo said: "I am still
consulting."
However, Mr
Mugabe, who was standing next to him, stepped in and
interjected: "Yes,
consultation is always necessary and we look forward to
attending."
Mr
Mugabe has put Mr Obasanjo into an awkward position, and his stance
threatens
to split the Commonwealth along racial lines if he is not invited.
If he
goes, Tony Blair is unlikely to attend.
When asked if the British prime
minister would go to the Commonwealth summit
if Mr Mugabe was there, a
Foreign Office spokesman said: "This remains a
hypothetical question but
suffice it to say it would create significant
difficulties for the
participation of the UK as well as a number of other
Commonwealth
countries."
Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Commonwealth council
since March 2002,
following the finding by Commonwealth observers that Mr
Mugabe's re-election
was marked by state violence and evidence of massive
vote rigging. Since
then, Mr Mugabe has waged a determined effort to get the
suspension lifted
and to be invited to the Commonwealth summit in Abuja,
Nigeria, December
4-8.
Mr Mugabe has lobbied other African
Commonwealth members with the slogan,
"There is no Africa without Zimbabwe"
and urged a boycott of the summit if
he is not invited. Mugabe has argued
that the "white Commonwealth", chiefly
Britain and Australia, have ostracised
Zimbabwe because they object to his
seizure of white-owned farms. Mugabe has
urged a split of the Commonwealth
along racial lines over the issue of his
exclusion.
But Mr Mugabe has not taken any steps to lessen his repressive
policies.
Most Commonwealth members, including African countries, appear
to have taken
the view that Zimbabwe remains suspended and therefore Mr
Mugabe cannot be
invited.
Mr Obasanjo met Mr Mugabe for 90 minutes
yesterday in what Harare diplomats
said was a last-ditch effort to keep
dialogue open.
Mr Obasanjo is an ally of Mr Mugabe's, but he recently
said unless there is
a "sea change" in Zimbabwe, Mugabe cannot go to the
summit.
Mr Obasanjo has made little progress in his bid to broker talks
between Mr
Mugabe and Zimbabwe's opposition - a key Commonwealth
demand.
In recent months he has closed the country's largest newspaper,
the Daily
News, and police have illegally arrested and beaten trade union
leaders and
lawyers.
African diplomats say Mr Obasanjo views a
successful summit in Abuja as a
matter of pride for Nigeria and does not want
to risk a crisis by inviting
Mr Mugabe.
Mr Obasanjo met opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai earlier yesterday. Mr
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change is pressing a court challenge to
Mr Mugabe's re-election on
the grounds of state violence and ballot
stuffing.
Sunday Times (SA)
MDC and Zanu-PF talking, says
Mugabe
Tuesday November 18, 2003 06:45 -
(SA)
HARARE - Zimbabwe's ruling party is engaged in informal talks with
the main
opposition aimed at finding a solution to the country's political
crisis,
President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying by state
media.
"There are informal talks with the MDC (Movement for Democratic
Change), but
nothing is formal," said Mugabe, according to the ZIANA news
agency.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who along with Thabo Mbeki,
brokered
inter-party talks in
Zimbabwe last year, held talks yesterday
with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and Mugabe's party officials.
The
formal talks between the MDC and Zanu-PF were deadlocked last year after
an
agenda had been drafted and following the MDC's decision to legally
challenge
Mugabe's victory in controversial polls.
In July church leaders launched
efforts to persuade Mugabe and the MDC to
meet again to seek ways of pulling
the southern African country out of dire
economic straits and months-long
political stalemate over the disputed
presidential election of March
2002.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in September that only
pre-negotiation
talks were under way.
AFP
Independent (UK)
Mugabe set to flout Commonwealth ban
By
Michael Hartnack in Harare
18 November 2003
President
Robert Mugabe said yesterday that he expected to attend the
summit of the
Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies despite
Zimbabwe's suspension
from the group.
Mr Mugabe's attendance at the summit, between 5 and
8 December in
Abuja, Nigeria's capital, could prompt a boycott by the Queen
and by Tony
Blair, as well as the prime ministers of Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and
Pacific countries. Some members of the 54-nation Commonwealth
said that Mr
Mugabe's presence could split the organisation.
"We
look forward to attending Abuja," said Mr Mugabe after 90 minutes
of talks
with the summit host, Nigeria's President, Olusegun Obasanjo. The
Nigerian
President said he was consulting with Commonwealth leaders about a
possible
invitation to Zimbabwe. "I have undertaken to consult as widely as
possible,"
President Obasanjo said.Zimbabwe was suspended by the
Commonwealth after Mr
Mugabe's disputed re-election last year.
The organisation's
secretary general, Don McKinnon, who is from New
Zealand, and John Howard,
the Australian Prime Minister, have repeatedly
criticised Mr Mugabe for human
rights violations. But state-controlled radio
in Harare accused white
governments of threatening to tear the organisation
apart because they
opposed Zimbabwe's land reform programme. White-owned
farms were seized
without compensation for redistribution to thousands of
poor, landless
blacks. While some were redistributed, manywere given to
government and
ruling party officials.
The South African President, Thabo Mbeki,
had earlier argued
unsuccessfully for an end to the suspension.
Mr Obasanjo held a 40-minute meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai, the
leader of
Zimbabwe's main opposition party the Movement for Democratic
Change. He did
not comment after the meeting. (AP)
18 November 2003 15:06
New York Times
We Welcome You to Lush Zimbabwe! Your Wallet,
Please!
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: November 18,
2003
OHANNESBURG, Nov. 17 — Underscoring the rising desperation in
Zimbabwe's
economy, the police and paramilitary squads have begun seizing
foreign money
from tourists and moneychangers in an effort to allay an acute
shortage of
hard currency, Zimbabwe citizens familiar with the situation
there said
Monday.
Reports in the government-controlled press said the
government was
collecting foreign currency to buy gasoline for farm
vehicles.
But one knowledgeable Zimbabwean, who refused to be identified
for fear of
retaliation from the government, said the government appeared to
be hoarding
money to buy fuel for its military as a precaution against civil
unrest.
Zimbabwe has been critically short of gasoline for
months.
An independent newspaper in Zambia, The Post, reported on Sunday
that police
officers in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, stopped a
busload of
Zambian tourists and seized large sums of American dollars, South
African
rand and other foreign currencies.
In Victoria Falls, on the
Zimbabwe border with Zambia, the police were
reported to have confiscated all
foreign currency from major travel agencies
and safari companies.
The
hard currency seizures run counter to Zimbabwe law, which permits
both
residents and visitors to carry foreign currency. John Robertson, a
private
economic analyst in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, said in an interview
on
Monday that the government had apparently been forced to confiscate
hard
currency because its own appetite for foreign exchange was causing the
value
of Zimbabwe's dollar to plummet.
Zimbabwe's dollar, officially
valued at anywhere from 50 to 800 per American
dollar, has traded lately on
black markets at about 3,400 per American
dollar. Mr. Robertson said the
government's efforts to buy foreign exchange
had caused the market to spike
to as many as 6,000 Zimbabwe dollars for one
American dollar.
"It's
certainly a mark of desperation," he said.
Pundits Condemn Crackdown On Foreign Currency Holders
African
Church Information Service
November 17, 2003
Posted to the web
November 17, 2003
Ntungamili Nkomo
Bulawayo
Police last week
launched a massive crackdown on illegal foreign currency
dealers in
Zimbabwe's major cities and towns, confiscating millions of
dollars from
tourists and visitors, a move which analysts say will only
cause the
country's ailing tourism sector more trouble.
Several tourists and
foreigners throughout the country complained of
incessant police harassment,
with some threatening to sue the Ministry of
Home Affairs for unlawful
detention and confiscation of their cash.
Code-named Inotho Yethu,
meaning "our economy", the operation started last
Monday in Harare and
Bulawayo, the country's major cities, following the
formation of a
nine-member Cabinet taskforce to monitor foreign
currency
inflows.
Chaired by Joyce Mujuru, the taskforce will be
responsible for compiling a
databank of all exporting companies, and examine
foreign currency leakage.
Eric Bloch, a prominent Bulawayo-based economic
commentator, described the
indiscriminate confiscation of foreign currency as
"prejudicial, very
unlawful, and suicidal to the country's battered
economy".
"I don't have any problem with the Police enforcing the laws
governing the
country, but I get extremely disturbed when the very law
enforcers
misinterpret the law to suit their own unreasonable whims," he
charged.
"The blitz is unlawful and I am afraid it will adversely
contribute to the
woes bedevilling our tourism industry, as the few tourists
that still have
the courtesy to visit our country are harassed and robbed of
their money by
the government," said Bloch.
The ministerial taskforce
is expected to suggest a foreign currency
allocation mechanism in accordance
with national priorities, and recommend
an appropriate Central Exporting
Authority. It should complete its task in
three weeks.
The Zimbabwean
government has blamed the deep-seated foreign currency
shortages on illegal
dealers and multinational companies, that it alleges
are working in cahoots
with the British government to sabotage the country's
economy through
external banking.
Many people entering Zimbabwe through Beitbridge and
Plumtree border posts
said they were severely harassed by the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority (ZIMRA)
officials, who seized their foreign
currency.
Eddy Cross, another economic pundit and special adviser to the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), condemned the operation and urged the
government to
find "intelligent, lawful and reasonable" ways of addressing
the foreign
currency shortages.
"The operation is very radical and
unreasonable. People continue to be
harassed everyday by the police who seize
their hard-earned cash. To make
matters worse, foreigners and tourists, the
very people we should be working
closely with to end the foreign currency
shortages, are the main targets,"
said Cross.
Kembo Mohadi, the
Minister for Home Affairs, vowed last week that his
ministry would intensify
the operation to address shortages of foreign
currency.
The Herald
UK’s bid to derail land reform fails, says Moyo
Chief
Reporter
ATTEMPTS by Britain to derail land reform using local media to
create
conditions for regime change have failed, the Minister of State
for
Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, said
yesterday.
While it was the democratic right of citizens to debate issues
of
leadership, the Government realised that the debate had become misplaced
and
was being trivialised to a point where it was no longer an issue
of
succession but of regime change.
Prof Moyo said this while
addressing students at the Zimbabwe Staff College
where he had been invited
to give a lecture on the role and challenges
facing the Department of
Information and Publicity in the Office of the
President.
The major
challenge facing the department since the beginning of the year
was to deal
with Britain and its local allies who sought to undermine and
derail land
reform.
Prof Moyo said it was not a coincidence that the country's body
politic was
obsessed with succession debate.
"Everything that has been
seen, identified, described as a major issue in
Zimbabwe today has been
related to two things; one, it has been related to
the attempts by the
British and those allied to them outside our country as
well as in our
country to derail the land reform.
"We should not make a mistake that the
greatest challenge of our
communication today has been about communicating
the meaning, purpose,
historical significance of land reform."
The
fact that the Government had succeeded in disseminating that information
had
made the challenge even greater.
A number of tactics were employed to try
and dilute the success of land
reform and promote an environment that would
make for regime change.
Some even speculated openly that after the
invasion of Iraq by the US and
Britain the next target was Zimbabwe because
of the land issue, said Prof
Moyo.
Those pushing the succession debate
would want to make it appear that the
target was the President, when in
actual fact the aim was to uproot the
country’s whole social
fabric.
"The debate has been conducted in such a way that it makes it
possible for
us to lose ideological continuity so that we become
ideologically neutral
without roots."
Any debate on succession outside
the institutional framework was dangerous.
"We should not be misplaced as a
nation that the succession issue is
important for everybody when those who
are pushing for it seek to redefine
our social being."
The judiciary
had been the first choice of attack in efforts aimed at regime
change since
almost the whole bench was hostile to land reform.
This was the reason
why it had become difficult to find legal representation
when dealing with
conflicts based on the land reform.
On the economic front, Prof Moyo said
the British and the Americans wanted
to give the impression that politicians
were living well while most people
were suffering, when in fact there are
some people who live luxurious lives
but are not necessarily in
Government.
It was surprising at a time of economic hardships with
ordinary people
finding it difficult to survive, that there were some people
who were able
to buy luxurious goods including posh cars.
The economy
had become a battleground to push for regime change. The fact
that there was
so much externalisation of foreign currency and smuggling of
resources like
gold indicated that the economy was under siege from some
local
businesspeople who have become allies of forces pushing for
regime
change.
The Government faced a similar problem of subversion
from the now closed
Daily News whose directors decided to deliberately flout
the law and claim
that what they were doing was equivalent to what the
country's founding
fathers did when they challenged Rhodesian oppressive
laws.
"The same people who founded the Daily News are the ones pushing
for a
regime change. It’s the British: it’s the British
establishment."
After failing to incite regime change through the media,
the British and the
Americans were now using different tactics by putting up
medium wave
transmitters in neighbouring countries broadcasting to large
parts of
Matabeleland North, Midlands and Masvingo.
The Americans were
also using local journalists to churn out negative
propaganda about the
country using pseudo names.
"Now it has been obvious to those who have
been trying to use the media for
regime change that they have failed. They
have become standardised
failures."
People were tired of the
propaganda from the country’s private media, which
had been predicting for
the last four years that the country would collapse
in the next three
years.
Journalists writing for those newspapers had become spent forces,
far
removed from the reality. "The predicted downfall of the Government has
not
come and is not coming."
Realising their futility in using the
local media, the British had now
decided to use other African media outside
the country’s borders to churn
out propaganda against Zimbabwe.
This
new tactic was aptly exemplified in the inaugural edition of
the
Nigerian-funded but South African-based ThisDay newspaper, which
dedicated a
whole supplement to Zimbabwe.
Prof Moyo said the attempt
was to have a fresh voice from an African country
like Nigeria putting a
spotlight on Zimbabwe.
The British had also decided to create something
called Doctors for Human
Rights who joined forces opposed to the Government
and were willing to
present any evidence of injury as a sign of torture in
Zimbabwe. The
Government was watching this development with keen interest but
would not be
idle when certain sections were seeking to uproot the country’s
whole social
fabric.
The Minister said the completion of land reform
had given the department
more time to deal with more societal issues relating
to the making of the
country’s identity.
"That is why you find us for
example proudly supporting our national
football team, the Warriors and doing
so from the point of view of the
public engagement. There has been a lot of
misunderstanding about that as
well. Some colleagues joke and call us a
co-Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture and we tell them again that no
that’s not possible because we are
not a ministry. We are a department."
The Herald
US$350m gold smuggled
Herald Reporters
POLICE are
intensifying efforts to plug the smuggling of more than 70
percent of
Zimbabwe’s gold production out of the country and have made
several more
arrests.
Zimbabwe produces from all sources almost 40 tonnes of gold a
year, about
1,28 million troy ounces, worth more than US$500
million.
However, only 30 percent of this, mainly from the larger mining
companies,
is sold through the only legal channel to Fidelity Printers and
Refineries,
a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The rest,
worth US$350 million is simply not accounted for.
Just four years ago, in
1999, 29 tonnes of gold were delivered to Fidelity
and even then a lot was
smuggled since almost nothing from the vast panning
industry was reaching the
sole official buyer.
A year later deliveries sunk to 24 tonnes and last
year just 18 tonnes were
delivered.
This year has seen just 11 tonnes
sold to Fidelity.
Gold smuggling has proved difficult to stop. Much of
the national production
comes from small producers and there are large
numbers of people involved in
the trade.
Last week another suspected
smuggler, Mark Matthew Burden, was arrested by
the police Gold Squad in
Kwekwe. But the magistrate in the town declined to
place him on remand
because of "insufficient evidence".
Burden, who owns eight milling
plants, which allegedly operate 24 hours a
day, was found with almost 3,3kg
of gold, say the police. This was allegedly
not recorded in the register as
is required under the Gold Trade Act.
And, there are allegations that he
was also breaching the Act by not
limiting his milling operations to between
8am and 6pm.
In terms of the Gold Trade Act, every holder of a licence
shall keep a
register with the date of transaction, the names of parties to
the
transactions, the weight of the gold transacted, the price, if any,
received
or paid recorded within 24 hours after every
transaction.
Apparently most of the millers in the Midlands have not been
submitting
returns every month to the mining commissioner in the province as
is
required by the Gold Trade Act.
Information with the police says
some gold millers are buying gold for $60
000 a gramme, more than twice the
$28 000 a gramme offered by Fidelity
Printers and Refineries. This price
would only make sense if the gold was
sold on the black market or smuggled
out of the country. Certainly no legal
trade could take place at that
figure.
Other suspects have been arrested over the past few days as
police widen
investigations into illegal gold mining and smuggling after the
arrest of
three suspected illegal gold dealers who had allegedly smuggled to
South
Africa more than 144kg of gold worth US$1,16 million.
Ian Hugh
Macmillan (60), his son Ewan Macmillan (33) and Claire Lynn Burdett
(24) were
granted bail by the High Court last week. The Macmillans are out
on bail on
$12 million each while Burdett is out on $5 million.
In addition to the
cash bail, Macmillan Senior was ordered to surrender his
two aircraft, a
Cessna and a Beechcraft, to the Civil Aviation Authority of
Zimbabwe and
title deeds to immovable property to the magistrates court.
This property is
worth many times more than his cash bail.
Burden was taken to court on
Thursday last week for initial remand but was
released on Saturday without
being remanded, a decision that has strongly
disappointed law enforcement
agencies.
Another suspect, Casper Hillary Tsvangirai, believed to be the
brother of
MDC president Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested for contravening
the Gold
Trade Act. He was allegedly found with 57g of gold and failing to
maintain a
register. But he, when he appeared in court, was placed on remand
to
November 27 on $30 000 bail.
Some in the police have expressed
concern at the release of Burden to face
trial later on summons while
Tsvangirai was released on bail when their
charges were very
similar.
Enforcement, say some, is made more difficult because some
prosecutors were
reluctant to take up cases while in some areas, particularly
in the
Midlands, several police officers were also involved in the illegal
gold
activities.
Contacted for comment last night on the
disappointment over the different
remand decisions in the Midlands, the
Minister of Justice Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs Cde Patrick Chinamasa
referred all questions to the
Acting Attorney General Mr Bharat Patel, who
was the responsible officer in
law for prosecutions.
Mr Patel said the
magistrate who presided over the Burden case believed that
there was no basis
to place him on remand, possibly because he felt there
was a lack of evidence
presented to the court. Mr Patel had instructed the
director of public
prosecutions, Mr Joseph Musakwa, to apply for either a
fresh remand or appeal
against the court's decision.
The Acting Attorney General said he was not
aware of any court officials
reluctant to handle cases involving suspected
illegal gold dealers and
smugglers. "We don’t know this. But it is possible
you can’t confirm or deny
at this stage." Mr Patel said his office was
working flat out to prosecute
those found on the wrong side of the
law.
The Minister of Home Affairs Cde Kembo Mohadi said he was aware of
the
cases, but could not comment over the phone. He promised to discuss
the
matter today.
A senior Zanu-PF Politburo member said the time had
now come for the State
to review bailable offences and make those involving
gold smuggling
non-bailable by magistrates because these were bleeding the
economy, in
effect murdering the economy.
Under Zimbabwean law there
are several serious offences, such as murder,
rape, treason and robbery,
where bail can only be granted by the High Court
even though a magistrate
presides over the remand hearing.
The Herald
Supporters on looting spree
By Robson Sharuko
ZIFA
will introduce a stricter selection process for fans accompanying
the
Warriors on foreign tours of duty following incidents that tainted the
image
of the nation during the trip to the World Cup qualifier in
Mauritania.
Acting Zifa chairman Vincent Pamire said there was an urgent
need for the
complete overhaul of the selection process or else the nation
will be
embarrassed at the 2004 Nations Cup finals in Tunisia.
This
follows incidents involving Zimbabwean fans in the Ghanaian capital
Accra and
the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott last week.
A number of Zimbabwean fans
stole an assortment of goods from a duty-free
shop in the transit lounge of
the Kotoka international airport in Accra.
Airport officials in Accra
allowed the Zimbabwe delegation to relax in their
transit lounge as their
chartered Boeing 737 jet was being refuelled for the
last leg of its trip to
Mauritania.
The Zimbabwe delegation had earlier stopped in the Angolan
capital Luanda
where their jet was again refuelled but they did not leave the
plane during
the hour-long exercise.
However, a request was made to
the Air Zimbabwe staff on board for them to
ask the Ghanaian authorities to
grant the players and supporters permission
to stay in the transit lounge as
their jet was being refuelled.
The Ghanaians agreed and the local
delegation, comprising players, their
coaches, journalists, Warriors
trustees, Zifa officials, fans and airline
staff, left their plane and
trooped to the transit lounge.
Scores of supporters went into a duty-free
shop that was offering the
cheapest prices for beer and their numbers
overwhelmed the skeleton staff on
duty.
In the ensuing chaos some of
the fans stole perfumes, whisky, cans of beer
that were selling for US$1 per
item, chocolates, sweets, magazines, to name
but a few.
A Zifa
councillor travelling with the team witnessed a number of
supporters
virtually looting the shop that was manned by just two shop
assistants.
The overwhelmed shopping assistants did not see the theft and
probably only
detected the missing goods after the travelling party had
left.
But if the Zifa officials thought the looting in Ghana was an
isolated
incident then there were in for a big surprise.
Once the team
had arrived in Mauritania there was a section of the
supporters who conned
the local people into believing that the Zimbabwe
dollar was just as
convertible on the international scene like the United
States
dollar.
Taxi fares were settled in Zimbabwe dollars while toys and an
assortment of
goods were bought at the markets using the dollar.
The
traders were advised that the Zimbabwe dollar was trading at the
equivalent
of one dollar to one United States dollar.
With banks closed on Friday in
Mauritania the local people probably only
discovered that they had been
conned when they went to the banks on Sunday.
A number of fake United
States dollars also surfaced at the hotels, which
were housing Zimbabwean
supporters.
Zifa boss Pamire slammed the conduct of the supporters and
said the actions
of a few bad apples had tarnished the image of the
country.
"It is really embarrassing that someone can travel all the way
from Harare
under the pretext that he is going to watch a football match in
Mauritania
when he has some sinister motives.
"When fans travel with
the team then they are part of the Warriors, part of
Zifa and their conduct
will have a bearing on our reputation.
"We are really concerned with the
behaviour of some of our supporters in
Mauritania and we believe we need an
overhaul in the selection process of
the fans in future assignments," said
Pamire.
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe chief executive, Karikoga
Kaseke, who
travelled with the team in his capacity as a Warriors’ trustee,
condemned
the incidents and said stricter control would be in place next
time.
Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association vice-president,
Eddie
"Mboma" Nyatanga, said they had launched their own investigations and
would
deal with those implicated.
"It is a serious issue and when you
have adults you expect them to behave in
a certain manner but this is not
what happened. We are making our own
investigations because we believe that
this is just a minority and their
actions should not taint the good image of
the majority of supporters.
"We had reputable businessmen and corporate
leaders on board who came to
support their team and such people can never
lower themselves to steal a can
of beer. It’s a tiny minority and we will
deal with it," said Nyatanga.
This is the second time that the supporters
have disgraced themselves on a
chartered plane carrying them to an
international assignment.
Earlier this year airline security staff at
Harare International Airport had
to be called on board a Boeing 767 long-haul
jet after an altercation
between supporters just before take-off to
Malawi.
Daily News
Obasanjo demands repeal of repressive laws
Date:18-Nov, 2003
NIGERIAN leader Olusegun Obasanjo is believed
to have yesterday
requested the repeal of repressive legislation and the
resumption of
dialogue so that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe could be
allowed to
attend next month's Commonwealth summit.
Obasanjo,
who arrived in Harare yesterday, shuttled between Mugabe's
State House
residence and a local hotel, where he met opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai twice.
Although the Nigerian
president would not disclose his agenda to the
Press, authoritative sources
said one of the issues he discussed with Mugabe
was the resumption of talks
between the ruling ZANU PF and Zimbabwe's main
opposition party, the
MDC.
The sources said the Nigerian leader had also brought up the
repeal of
the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act
(AIPPA).
Mugabe is believed to have earlier this year
indicated to southern
African leaders that his government would repeal or
amend AIPPA and the
Public Order and Security Act, which critics say have
undermined basic
freedoms in Zimbabwe.
AIPPA has been used to
arrest more than 60 journalists since it was
enacted last year, and to close
Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper,
The Daily News.
Sources said Obasanjo wanted Mugabe to do more to justify his
attendance of
the Commonwealth summit, which will be held in Abuja, Nigeria
early next
month.
The sources said the Nigerian leader would travel
extensively to
convince other Commonwealth member states to invite the
Zimbabwean President
to the meeting of former British colonies.
"The result of the meetings will only be known at the end of this week
or
early next week, but chances are that Mugabe will be invited to Abuja,"
said
a top official at the Nigerian High Commission in Harare.
"President Obasanjo demanded that President Mugabe repeal Press laws
as he
promised and engage the opposition in constructive talks, but he will
now
travel extensively to convince other member states."
There was no
immediate comment from the Zimbabwean President's office
about Obasanjo's
agenda, while Tsvangirai declined to talk to the Press,
referring all
questions to Obasanjo.
Mugabe, however, told journalists at State
House that he was looking
forward to the Commonwealth summit.
"I
am happy that President Obasanjo is here because consultations are
necessary.
I look forward to being in Abuja for the summit," he said.
But
sources said Tsvangirai had told Obasanjo that Mugabe was not
sincere and was
not serious about engaging the opposition in talks.
Asked whether
Mugabe had been invited to Abuja, Obasanjo said he was
still consulting with
Commonwealth member states.
"A decision has not yet been taken, we
are still consulting with
member states. As you know, there are those members
who think Zimbabwe
should attend and those who think Zimbabwe should not
attend," he told
reporters after meeting Mugabe.
Daily News
MDC challenges Chinhoyi mayoral poll
results
Date:18-Nov, 2003
ZIMBABWE'S main
opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), has filed a High
Court petition challenging the results of mayoral
elections held in Chinhoyi
last month, citing violence and the the lack of
relevant qualifications by
the winning ruling ZANU PF candidate.
Edeline Chivimbo Huchu, the
MDC's candidate, cited ZANU PF's Ray
Kusipa Kapesa and Registrar General
Tobaiwa Mudede as the respondents in the
application, which was filed last
week.
In papers filed with the High Court, Huchu alleged that prior
to the
sitting of the Nomination Court on 28 October, there was widespread
violence
in Chinhoyi perpetrated by ruling party supporters.
She
said the violence was directed against her supporters, making it
impossible
for her to campaign freely for the 29 to 30 October
mayoral
elections.
Huchu added that a group of ZANU PF
supporters known as "The Top Six"
approached her and demanded her nomination
papers so that she could not file
them.
"Before I could make
good my escape, I was assaulted by one Issau, who
continued to ask for the
nomination papers. I told them I did not have any.
One of them put a stone
under my neck as I laid helplessly on the ground,
while the other savagely
stepped on my neck with his legs," she said in her
founding
affidavit.
Huchu indicated that her nomination papers were
submitted in advance
and that she was left with only paying the nomination
fee of $500 on the
election's nomination day.
However, Huchu
said she could not be nominated because she was told by
the presiding
registrar that her papers disappeared after "the court was
invaded by
criminal elements during a commotion which lasted for
30
minutes".
She also told the court that she had information
that the winning
candidate, Kapesa, who won without contest, did not have the
qualifications
required by the Urban Councils Act, which governs local
government
elections.
"Kapesa does not have five Ordinary Level
subjects as required by the
Act. I am informed the he possesses a Grade 'E'
in English and this is not
the pass envisaged by the Act as it is
embarrassingly next to nothing. In
addition, Kapesa does not possess post
secondary education as envisaged by
the Act,'' said Huchu, a primary school
teacher trained at Seke Teachers
College.
She further said that
she received information that members of the Top
Six gang, which is allegedly
aligned to ZANU PF, invaded the Nomination
Court and assaulted officials from
the Registrar General's office before
they confiscated her
papers.
''The prevailing circumstances were not conducive to a free
and fair
nomination atmosphere. Proceeding to declare all the ZANU PF
candidates duly
elected in light of this case was not only treacherous, but
an attack on the
very fabric of electoral laws and indeed democracy and good
governance,''
Huchu said.
She said the court should nullify the
results and allow a new
Nomination Court to sit before elections were held in
a free and fair
atmosphere.
Zimbabwe begins seizing hard currency
Michael Wines NYT
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
JOHANNESBURG Underscoring the rising
desperation in Zimbabwe's economy, the
police and paramilitary squads have
begun seizing foreign money from
tourists and money-changers in an effort to
allay an acute shortage of hard
currency, Zimbabwe citizens familiar with the
situation there say.
.
Reports in the government-controlled press said
that the government was
collecting foreign currency to buy gasoline for farm
vehicles. But one
knowledgeable Zimbabwean, who refused to be identified for
fear of
retaliation from the government, said Monday that the government
appeared to
be hoarding money to buy fuel for its military as a precaution
against civil
unrest.
.
An independent newspaper in Zambia, The Post,
reported on Sunday that police
officers in Bulawayo stopped a busload of
Zambian tourists and seized large
sums of U.S. dollars, South African rand
and other foreign currencies.
.
In Victoria Falls, on the Zimbabwe border
with Zambia, the police were
reported to have confiscated all foreign
currency from major travel agencies
and safari companies.
.
The
seizures run counter to Zimbabwe law, which permits residents and
visitors to
carry foreign currency. John Robertson, a private economic
analyst in Harare,
Zimbabwe's capital, said on Monday that the government
had apparently been
forced to confiscate hard currency because its own
appetite for foreign
exchange was causing the value of Zimbabwe's dollar
to
plummet.
.
Zimbabwe's dollar, officially valued at anywhere from 50
to 800 per U.S.
dollar, has traded lately on black markets at about 3,400 per
U.S. dollar.
Robertson said the government's efforts to buy foreign exchange
had caused
the market to spike to as many as 6,000 Zimbabwe dollars for one
U.S.
dollar.
.
The New York Times
Yahoo News
26 die in cholera outbreak in northern Zimbabwe:
UNICEF
Tue Nov 18,10:21 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - At least 26
people have died of cholera in two districts in
northern Zimbabwe in recent
weeks, the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF)
confirmed.
The 26 deaths were among the 173 reported and
confirmed cases of the highly
infectious water-borne disease in Kariba and
Binga district near the border
with Zambia.
Government and
non-governmental organisations are taking steps to ensure the
disease does
not spread further, UNICEF said in a statement Tuesday.
There are
however, fears that the cash-strapped Zimbabwe government might
fail to
supply all necessary chemicals to treat drinking water, posing a
serious
threat to people who drink from untreated water sources.
"As the
rainy season approaches, and the government is not able to guarantee
the
supply of chemicals to treat water, the danger of cholera ... poses a
very
serious health threat," said UNICEF.
Cholera is an infectious,
potentially fatal disease that thrives in
conditions of poor hygiene and
inadequate water supplies. It is generally
caused by using dirty water for
drinking and cooking.
IOL
Ailing apartheid spy denied treatment
November 18 2003
at 04:24PM
Harare - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has turned down a
request by a jailed
former apartheid South African spy to travel to South
Africa for medical
treatment.
Kevin Woods, 50, a former member of the
Rhodesian security forces, is
serving a life sentence in Zimbabwe following a
fatal raid on a "safe house"
belonging to the then banned African National
Congress in Bulawayo in 1987.
Woods, along with two accomplices, was
sentenced to death in 1988 but later
the sentences were commuted to life
terms.
Woods had asked the court to order the government either to
release him on
medical grounds or sponsor his trip to South Africa for
specialised
treatment of a heart ailment, according to the state-run
Herald.
But the state opposed Woods's travel outside the country for
security
reasons.
Defence lawyer Julia Wood had argued that Woods was
not receiving the
medical care he was entitled to while incarcerated at a
maximum security
prison in Harare.
Woods was among former Rhodesian
troops enlisted by South African military
intelligence to sabotage and spy
against Zimbabwe as part of the former
regime's destabilisation activities in
the region.
In 1988 Woods and his accomplices hired a Zimbabwean man to
drive their
booby-trapped car and killed him when they detonated the bomb by
remote
control while he was inside the car outside an ANC house in
Bulawayo.
After the murder, Woods and his accomplices were granted South
African
citizenship. - Sapa-AFP
Defiant Mugabe brings Commonwealth split closer
By Andrew Meldrum in
Pretoria and Tom Allard
November 19,
2003
The threat of a damaging split within the
Commonwealth is looming after
Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, insisted
he was determined to secure an
invitation to a summit of its leaders next
month.
His remarks followed a flying visit to Harare by the Nigerian
President,
Olusegun Obasanjo, who has been trying to broker a deal to prevent
a rift
over whether Zimbabwe, which has been suspended from the
Commonwealth
council, should be allowed to attend.
Asked at a press
conference whether Mr Mugabe would be invited to the
summit, Mr Obasanjo
said: "I am still consulting."
However, Mr Mugabe, who was standing next
to him, stepped in and
interjected: "Yes, consultation is always necessary
and we look forward to
attending."
Mr Mugabe has put Mr Obasanjo in an
awkward position, and his stance
threatens to split the Commonwealth along
racial lines if he is not invited.
A spokesman for the Australian Prime
Minister, John Howard, said it "would
not be appropriate" for Mr Mugabe to
attend, but would not be drawn on what
would happen if he did secure an
invitation. However, an Australian
Government source said yesterday: "If
Mugabe goes, the PM won't go."
Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is
also unlikely to attend if Mr
Mugabe goes. A Foreign Office spokesman said it
"would create significant
difficulties for the participation of the UK as
well as a number of other
Commonwealth countries".
Zimbabwe has been
suspended from the Commonwealth council since March 2002,
following the
finding by Commonwealth observers that his re-election had
been marked by
state violence and huge vote rigging.
Since then, Mr Mugabe has waged a
determined effort to get the suspension
lifted and be invited to December's
summit in Abuja, Nigeria.
Mr Howard, along with South Africa's Thabo
Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo, has
spearheaded the Commonwealth's response to Mr
Mugabe's regime, but
Australian initiatives for tough action have been
repeatedly thwarted.
Government sources said Canberra was increasingly
frustrated with the
Commonwealth, with senior ministers privately questioning
its relevance.
They are also angry at South Africa's role in pressing for
Zimbabwe's
readmission to the forum amid concerns that not enough pressure is
being
applied to Mr Mugabe despite evidence of human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe.
Mr Mugabe has urged a boycott of the summit by African members
if he is not
invited, and has argued that the "white Commonwealth", chiefly
Britain and
Australia, has ostracised Zimbabwe because its objects to his
seizure of
white-owned farms. Mr Mugabe has urged a split of the Commonwealth
along
racial lines over the issue of his exclusion.
Most Commonwealth
members, including African countries, appear to have taken
the view that
Zimbabwe remains suspended and therefore Mr Mugabe cannot
be
invited.
Mr Obasanjo met Mr Mugabe for 90 minutes on Monday in what
diplomats said
was a last-ditch effort to keep dialogue open.
The
Guardian
Daily News
Mugabe continues quest for eternal glory
Date:18-Nov, 2003
HE is probably aware that posterity will not
be kind to him.
Certainly, he will be remembered for leading one of the two
liberation
movements which wrested Zimbabwe from white
colonialism.
Not many will forget him for the 2000 farm seizures,
which accounted
for many innocent lives as well.
His supporters
will want to remember this episode differently: the
beginning of the return
of the land to its rightful owners.
There will be heated debate for
a long time as to the true
beneficiaries of the seizure of the farms and
their redistribution to the
“new farmers”, men and women more familiar with
the oxen-and-plough
subsistence farming, than with the mechanised farming of
giant combine
harvesters or huge tractors the size of an average family
village hut.
But he will most certainly be remembered, perhaps most
vividly, for
the massacre of 20 000 men, women and children in Matabeleland
and Midlands
in the 1980s.
Years after the event and only after
a damning report by the Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace, he
conceded it was a “madness” that should
never happen again.
Earlier, he had insisted it was “part of the struggle” for
liberation.
Unable to convince anyone how such an outlandish
interpretation could
be sustained, he changed his tack.
Today, a
few weeks before a crucial summit of the Commonwealth Heads
of Government
(CHOGM) in Abuja, Nigeria next month, President Robert Mugabe
of Zimbabwe is
still trying one last time to have his name etched in the
annals of African
history - one way or the other.
He has two stark choices: to be
remembered as the man who saved
Zimbabwe from being thrown out of the
Commonwealth for refusing to conform
to the tenets which have guided that
group of nations since they threw out
the apartheid regime of South
Africa
after the Sharpville massacre in the 1960s; or as the man
who tried
and failed to break up the Commonwealth by playing his racist card
to the
hilt, to divide the group between black and white over his
autocratic,
bloody and racist reign of a country once admired as the
breadbasket of
Southern Africa, but now reduced to penury.
Mugabe, his reputation for globe-trotting still relatively intact in
spite of
Western “smart sanctions² which bar him from visiting most European
capitals
and the United States, would like to be in Abuja next month.
He was
in Windhoek, Namibia for two days last week, for talks with
President Sam
Nujoma, one of his most loyal allies and almost his
ideological
protege.
The talks were to do with security in the region, the
official media
in the two countries said.
But the men must have
touched on the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM)
in Abuja.
The Windhoek trip was not without controversy, which now
dogs Mugabe
wherever he goes outside Zimbabwe.
Human rights
groups in Namibia reportedly demanded that he be arrested
for human rights
violations. Some protested the visit had not been given
enough prior
publicity - or they would have gathered at the airport to
effect their arrest
of the president.
On Monday, he met Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo in
Harare; CHOGM was the
subject. Obasanjo also met the leader of the main
opposition party, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
But even when he is at
home, controversy now seems to cling to Mugabe
like a leech.
Last month, there were widespread reports of his death, after
reportedly
suffering a stroke or a heart attack - or some such
life-threatening
ailment.
Mugabe could rightly complain that “reports of my death
are
exaggerated”, as someone else once said famously in another
century.
He turned out to be alive and kicking, although some
observers thought
he looked a little out of sorts when he made his first
public appearance to
quash the rumours of his death.
His face,
they thought, looked a little wan.
He spoke on the environment at a
United Nations conference in Victoria
Falls and for once did not attack
anyone - not Britain, not the United
States, not his political nemesis,
Tsvangirai - not even The Daily News,
shut down by the police on 12
September.
Other observers said the man appeared preoccupied,
although they were
not certain with what: the instability in his party as the
jockeying to
replace him as Zanu PF president heats up ahead of the party
conference next
month, the tragic state of the economy since the rest of the
world deserted
him after the 2000 land reform bloodshed and the 2002
presidential election.
Or the Abuja CHOGM?
Mugabe has
not been officially invited to the summit because his
country was suspended
from the councils of the group after the 2002
presidential election,
described by his losing opponent, the Movement for
Democratic Change¹s Morgan
Tsvangirai, as the “biggest election fraud in
history”.
Mugabe
is likely to use every strategy to try and be at the
Abuja
summit.
His chief weapon is a threat to the very existence
of the Commonwealth
if his country is not allowed re-entry.
Mugabe may calculate that there is enough support for his position
among the
Afro-Asian members of the group to sway the older white members of
the group
- Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
But this could turn
out to be a grave miscalculation. According to
sources close to Don McKinnon,
the Secretary-General of the group, there is
no chance at all of any group
threatening to pull out of the Commonwealth en
masse over Mugabe's failure to
have his way.
According to the sources, most moderate Afro-Asian
members are
thoroughly fed up with Mugabe’s misgovernance, the racist thrust
of his
economic policies since the bloody seizure of white commercial farms
in 2000
and his heavy-handed treatment of opposition groups and the
independent
media.
Most believe he is in the mould of the
dinosaurs of the last century -
Daniel arap Moi, Mahathir Mohammed, among
others.
He has been in power since 1980 and shows no inclination to
step down
quietly, as Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere and Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda –
both
“darlings” of the Commonwealth - did.
Their legacy remains
positive: posterity will credit them with going
out when the bell tolled for
their exit.
For Mugabe, the heroism of the struggle could turn into
the villainy
of a tyrant, a ruthless dictator who destroyed his country over
a trifle –
his own ego.
- By Mbaiso
ABC Australia
Zimbabwean economy rife with corruption, conference
hears
Zimbabwe's economy is being undermined by contradictory and
ineffectual
government policies, corruption, greed and the country's negative
image
abroad, a high-level conference has heard.
The two-day
conference - organised by the government and a group of
business, labour and
civic organisations, is designed to discuss ways of
resolving the southern
African country's economic crisis.
Participants at the no-holds barred
talks, which are being held just days
before the announcement of the
country's 2004 national budget, said it was
vital to restore confidence and
stability in Zimbabwe and improve its image
abroad.
"Without
confidence people cannot save or invest in our country; without
confidence
capital flight will be the order of the day; without confidence
we will have
the black market instead of the formal market," Anthony
Mandiwanza said, head
of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.
Zimbabwe is suffering from a
shrinking economy, hyperinflation at 455 per
cent, rising poverty and
unemployment, and shortages of most basic goods and
services.
Several
participants at the conference said the sharp decline of key sectors
of the
economy in recent years was, at least in part, the fault of the
government -
including its foreign exchange, pricing and monetary policies.
The
government of President Robert Mugabe launched an ambitious recovery
program
in February.
But speakers at the conference, among them a former central
bank governor,
said hardly anything of the plan had come to
fruition.
"I think we need to take ourselves seriously - there is quite a
little bit
of disorder in our country which we need to sort out," Kombo
Moyana said,
who headed the central bank in the late 1980s.
In 2000,
Zimbabwe embarked on a land reform scheme which involved
confiscating land
from the white minority to give to landless blacks.
The reform has been
severely criticised by many observers and has they say,
contributed
significantly to the country's current food shortages.
Agriculture, which
contributed $US886 million to the economy in 1997, is
forecast to bring in
only $US250 to $US300 million this year, Mr
Mandiwanza
said.
Manufacturing sector revenue declined from $US900
million in 1997 to $US263
million last year.
Tourism income fell from
$US700 million in 1999 to $US71 million last year.
-- AFP
Resettled Farmers in Need of Aid
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
November 18, 2003
Posted to the web November 18,
2003
Johannesburg
A recent survey of households in Zimbabwe's
northwestern Zvimba district, in
Mashonaland West province, indicates that
newly resettled communal farmers
are in desperate need of humanitarian
aid.
However, there appears to be reluctance by donors to assist
these
communities, as this might appear to be giving tacit approval to
Zimbabwe's
controversial land reform process, the international NGO Save the
Children
UK (SCUK) told IRIN.
The report, released by SCUK on Monday,
also pointed out that former
commercial farm workers - jobless and displaced
by the government's
resettlement of landless blacks on former commercial
farms - were in need of
assistance.
Chris McIvor of SCUK told IRIN
that the "Household Economy Assessment Report
on A1 Communal Resettlement
Areas and the Mutorashanga Informal Mining
Communities" pointed to a gap in
humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe.
The Mutorashanga informal mining
communities consist of a significant number
of former commercial farm workers
and former commercial mine workers who
were retrenched.
"Former
commercial farming areas have populations that are as vulnerable as
the other
populations that are receiving food aid. [Yet] those sections of
the
population are not being adequately targeted [for assistance by
aid
agencies]," he said.
Assisting these communities has "been
problematic for some donors ...
[perhaps] because it [may be] seen as tacit
approval of, or acceptance of,
the land reform programme, and that may have
prompted some reluctance to
engage these communities", McIvor
added.
The report noted that "poor harvests in 2002 left settlers with no
grain
stocks; maize availability in markets was a problem; and
alternative
foodstuffs were often unaffordable".
While the situation
had improved from March this year, "as green maize
became available", many
new farmers harvested just enough to last them an
additional five to seven
months. "For most settlers, therefore, at the time
of this survey, grain
stocks had run out or were remaining only for up to
one month," the report
commented.
It added that for the landless as well as settlers, "different
types of
casual labouring remained the most importance income source". But,
"overall
for the 12 months to September 2003, the landless groups had [food]
deficits
of 10 to 20 percent of their minimum needs; the poor settlers had
deficits
of 5 to 15 percent".
McIvor told IRIN that, as a result of
difficulties in accessing food, some
young girls were turning to
prostitution, "which, in some ways, is a death
sentence".
"The
international community needs to stand a bit more solidly behind
the
principle of vulnerability. If they are vulnerable, and if they are
needy,
they should be [receiving food aid]," he added.
The report
states that "donors and humanitarian agencies must apply the
humanitarian
principle of need and impartiality in implementing their
programmes and,
therefore, must include resettlement areas in their
activities, where needs
have been identified".
The government should address medium- to
longer-term issues "if the land
reform programme is to be successful". In
particular, the report said, a
serious shortage of inputs and the resulting
lack of preparation for the
coming season was reported and observed - a
situation which had to be
addressed urgently.
The government began its
fast-track land reform programme in July 2000 after
a wave of often violent
farm invasions led by veterans of Zimbabwe's armed
struggle. The
controversial programme was initiated to redistribute land
from white
commercial farmers to landless black Zimbabweans.
Tobacco Auction Floors Reopen for Mop Up Sales
The Herald
(Harare)
November 18, 2003
Posted to the web November 18,
2003
Harare
THE country's three tobacco auction floors today
reopen their doors for the
second mop up sales with about one million
kilograms expected to go under
the hammer.
This is the first time in a
number of years that auction floors have had to
open for clean up sales twice
within the same selling season.
Some tobacco farmers are allegedly
holding on to their crop with the hope of
selling it in other countries in
the region where they are paid in hard
currency.
It is against the
rules and regulations governing the growing and selling of
tobacco in the
country to carry over a crop realised in any season without
the authority of
the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
Locally, farmers are being paid
$824 for every United States dollar that is
earned from the sale of the crop
at the three auction floors which are
Burley Marketing Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe
Industry Tobacco Auction Centre and
the Tobacco Sales Floor.
Tobacco
representative organisations said they were encouraging their
members to
abide by the laws of the country.
"I personally have not yet met anyone
who said he or she is holding on to
their crop but what we are telling our
members is that they should make sure
that the crop is not carried over to
the next season as required by the law.
"As an organisation, we also want
to make sure that the farmers are
successful, and at the same time they abide
by the laws governing the
growing of the crop," said the president of the
Zimbabwe Association of
Tobacco Growers, Mr Julius Ngorima.
He said
the representative organisations did not have the capacity to
monitor the
activities of all the tobacco farmers.
TIMB is working flat out to ensure
that all the tobacco is sold during the
second clean up sales.
The
board has already sent letters to tobacco growers reminding them that
all
tobacco should be sold as per regulations.
The mop up sales will run for
up to three days.
This was announced by TIMB after it was realised that
there were some
farmers who had not sold all their tobacco from the 2002-2003
season.
Carrying over of tobacco is also discouraged to reduce
post-harvest pests
which would chew into the production of the succeeding
season.
The first mop up sales kicked off on October 29 and ran for two
days with a
total of 1,59 million kilogrammes of the leaf having passed
through the
three auction floors.
This brought to 82,9 million kg
worth US$189 ($151,2 billion) the total
amount of the crop that has gone
under the hammer in the 2003 selling
season.
A kg of the gold leaf was
fetching an average US$1,81 when the clean up
sales kicked
off.
Despite a 50 percent fall in production from the amount that was
delivered
to the auction floors last year, it is estimated that the crop will
account
for around 40 percent of the country's total
exports.
Tobacco has an edge over all the other crops, minerals and
products which
are exported by Zimbabwe because there are tight regulations
which enable
TIMB to monitor all foreign currency inflows.
Tobacco is
also estimated to contribute 15 percent, up from 12 percent, of
the country's
Gross Domestic Product in 2004.