Herald
Last Updated: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Herald Reporter
AIR Zimbabwe grounded its entire fleet
yesterday after running out of fuel,
forcing the board to suspend chief
executive Dr Tendai Mahachi and another
senior official pending
investigations into flight disruptions.
All flights were cancelled until
further notice owing to a dearth of Jet A1
fuel, inconveniencing hundreds of
passengers.
The board moved swiftly and suspended, with immediate effect,
Dr Mahachi and
the divisional director for finance and company secretary —
Mrs Tendai
Mujuru.
The suspensions were also "pending investigations
into the serious
disruptions of the national airliner’s operations and
services to
customers," board vice chairman Mr Jonathan Kadzura said in a
statement.
Captain Oscar Madombwe was appointed the acting group chief
executive
officer until further notice.
Passengers were left stranded
at the Harare International Airport after Air
Zimbabwe abruptly suspended all
flights — including those to Johannesburg,
Singapore, Entebbe, Lilongwe,
Lusaka, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.
"The board would like to sincerely
apologise to all its valued customers for
the inconveniences and disruptions
caused by the cancellation of flights and
would like to assure the public of
its full commitment to address the
critical operational issues affecting
service delivery of the national
airline," Mr Kadzura said.
The Harare
International Airport yesterday morning was host to irate
passengers milling
around while others crowded Air Zimbabwe counters trying
to get help from
booking officers.
An official, who declined to be named, said the airline
would make other
arrangements for its passengers.
A frustrated
passenger, Mr Ivan Jaji, said the airline did not even have the
courtesy to
inform them of the cancellation of flights.
Mr Jaji wanted to fly to
Johannesburg on business.
Mr Samuel William was angry saying he had lost
quite a substantial amount of
money due to the cancellation of the flight to
Lilongwe.
"I have actually lost business today. They did not inform us in
time. I was
supposed to be doing something profitable but I’m stranded here
and I am
going to incur a lot of costs. I have to phone people who were
waiting for
me that I am no longer coming," he said.
Mr William, who
was scheduled to travel on the 1pm flight to Lilongwe, added
that last week
he had a similar experience after Air Zimbabwe delayed his
flight to
Zambia.
"They took us to Victoria Falls and dropped passengers there
before we
proceeded to Lusaka. It took us two hours for a one-hour journey.
You can’t
even plan when flying on Air Zimbabwe," he said.
Air
Zimbabwe has over the years been dogged by mismanagement, losing
its
reputation of being one of the best airlines in Africa.
Early this
year, the airline flew one passenger from Dubai to Harare on a
plane that
carries more than 200 passengers. Boards, chief executives and
other top
managers have constantly been changed without results.
Numerous
turnaround strategies have also bore no fruit.
Appointed in December last
year, Dr Mahachi replaced Mr Rambai Chingwena,
who resigned in May last year
after a short stint as managing director with
the airline.
Recently,
the Government bought the airline two small planes for regional
and domestic
routes in a bid to revive its fortunes.
IOL
November 22 2005 at
08:36AM
Zimbabwe's financially troubled national airline has
resumed flights
after the company's entire fleet was temporarily grounded
due to lack of
fuel, state radio reported Tuesday.
Hundreds of
passengers were left stranded at Harare International
Airport on Monday
after Air Zimbabwe cancelled all local and international
flights due to a
shortage of Jet A1 fuel, the official Herald newspaper
said.
In
an interview with state radio Tuesday, the airline's vice
president,
Jonathan Kadzura said authorities were working to normalise the
situation at
the beleaguered airline.
"We got into a situation where fuel was
simply not available," he
said. "We know that the immediate thing to be done
is to ensure that the
airlines get sufficient fuel, which we are moving to
normalise.
"We can assure our travelling public that the
position in Zimbabwe
will change and flights will be maintained and flights
will take off on
time, with no disruptions whatsoever," Kadzura
added.
A reservations clerk with Air Zimbabwe said flights "are
normal now.
We resumed flying yesterday (Monday)".
Zimbabwe has
been dogged by erratic fuel supplies for the past six
years but the
shortages became acute starting last March. The country does
not have the
hard currency needed to pay for fuel and other imports, such as
medicines
and electrical power.
Air Zimbabwe has also been struggling to
maintain its small fleet of
Boeing aircraft. Several flights were cancelled
in July, partly because of a
lack of spare parts for the planes. -
Sapa-dpa
[ This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 22 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - NGOs in Southern Africa
say they can
contribute to strengthening food security but have been ignored
by regional
governments.
"Civil society organisations have an
advantage over government bodies, as
they are based within communities, they
work closely with the people and are
often the first to access information
on [impending] food security
disasters," said Tobias Takavarasha, a
Zimbabwe-based agricultural
economist.
Churches, in particular, have
played a key role in providing relief to
communities in the region
struggling with four years of successive droughts
and poor
harvests.
Lack of NGO participation was identified as one of the major
weaknesses in
food security policies at a Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
workshop last week on 'Enhancing Civil Society
Participation in SADC Food
Security Processes'.
The discussion was
organised by the Southern African Regional Poverty
Network (SARPN) in
collaboration with the Overseas Development Institute and
the SADC's Food,
Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network.
An estimated
12 million people in six countries will be food insecure until
early next
year, and SARPN has argued that a more coordinated civil society
role and
greater cooperation with national and regional governments was long
overdue.
"When policies around food security issues are debated at
SADC, NGOs often
do not know who to approach - there is lack of
coordination," explained
Alfred Hamadziripi of SARPN.
Civil society
could play "a very important role in evidence collection on
issues such food
insecurity, and influence and lobby policies on access to
safe food, and
nutritional value of food available on the ground," he noted.
"It is for
governments to appreciate the gap NGOs fill between policy
development and
implementation," Hamadziripi pointed out.
Acknowledging their potential
role, Zambia's Agriculture Minister, Mundia
Sikatana said Southern African
NGOs should become more proactive to ensure
that their voices were heard on
food security policy issues in the region.
"NGOs should organise
themselves into a single body on food security issues,
because now we often
don't know who to get in touch with," he commented.
"Civil society can make
a tremendous contribution, whether it is in an
advisory capacity, or with
research or sensitising the government or
community on
issues."
According to Takavarasha, SADC was currently debating a proposal
to create a
permanent desk for a civil society representative in its
secretariat.
22 November 2005
By Violet
Gonda
The rancour within the MDC reached new heights on Sunday,
when leaders
from the pro-senate camp launched a scathing attack on
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Four MDC leaders, vice
president Gibson Sibanda, secretary general
Welshman Ncube, his deputy Gift
Chimanikira and St Mary's Member of
Parliament Job Sikhala told the
gathering that Tsvangirai was now
campaigning for ZANU-PF to win the senate
elections, by campaigning for a
boycott.
Sikhala claimed at the
rally that Tsvangirai hadunsuccessfully tried
to enlist the support of
African leaders and a senior Zimbabwe National Army
officer to convince
Robert Mugabe to appoint him Vice President of Zimbabwe.
Sikhala claimed
Tsvangirai has proved to be worse than Mugabe. He said
Tsvangirai sent him
and former MP Tafadzwa Musekiwa to go and speak to
Commander of the Air
Force of Zimbabwe, Air Marshal Perence Shiri and assure
him that he would
not be tried for the Gukurahundi massacres should he win
the presidential
election in 2002.
On the programme Hot Seat, Sikhala reiterated the
same accusations and
claims that it is in retaliation to statements made by
his President that
some people in the pro-senate camp had been bought by
ZANU PF. The MP said
the gloves are now off and it's time to tell the world
who Tsvangirai really
is, ". a hypocritical power hungry dictator who sent
us to negotiate for him
to be part and parcel of the current
government."
Tsvangirai's spokesman William Bango, described
Sikhala's allegation
as nonsense and said the MP has lost credibility as a
politician and anyone
who took him seriously does so at their peril. He said
the verbal attacks
were consistent with a Zanu PF strategy to demonize
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Undeterred, Sikhala warned Bango to tell his
boss that he was going to
expose more "truths" saying, " We have tried to
make him see sense
(Tsvangirai) and failed. If Jesus Christ was alive today
we could have asked
him to come and exorcise our president of the demon that
is causing him into
confusion today."
The leaders at the
Bulawayo rally said they would take disciplinary
action against their
president soon after the Senate elections for violating
the party's
constitution. They urged party supporters to go out in their
thousands to
vote for the MDC senate candidates on November 26.
Gift Chimanikire
also took the opportunity to lash out at the MDC
leader, saying he was
promoting tribalism in the MDC.
Gibson Sibanda told the rally that
the MDC has participated in three
previous elections and there was no reason
to boycott the senate elections.
Welshman Ncube compared Tsvangirai
to a general who led his troops to
capture a large territory and then
decides one day to surrender it to the
enemy.
Among the MDC
leaders present were Paul Themba Nyathi, Fletcher Dulini
Ncube, Renson
Gasela, Trudy Stevenson, Bulawayo city councilors, the
provincial leadership
of Matabeleland and senatorial candidates from
Masvingo, Midlands and
Harare.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
This Day
(Lagos)
November 21, 2005
Posted to the web November 22,
2005
Tunde Sanni
Ilorin
In its determined efforts to ensure
that the hosting community of its pet
agricultural project, the New Nigerian
Farmers, Tsonga reaped the benefit of
its august visitors, the Kwara State
government has assured that the
community electrification project would be
connected to the national grid
soon.
It would be recalled that the
emigrant farmers from Zimbabwe tagged the
White Farmers were relocated in
the community and has since become the toast
of both national and
international attention.
The Commissioner for Rural Development, Alhaji
Issa Bawa who gave the
assurance hinted that the Tsonga community was among
the 50 rural
communities electrification that would be connected to the
national grid as
soon as the government takes full delivery of the 150
transformers.
Bawa while inspecting the first batch of the 200 KVA
11,415transformers at
the state rural electrification board assured rural
communities in the state
of the good intention of the government to ensure
that they benefit from the
rural development focus of the
administration.
The commissioner said that the government has committed
about N275million
for the purchase of 150 units of different types of
transformers as part of
efforts towards the provision of rural
electrification in the state.
According to him, the state government was
expecting different types of KVA
transformers and added that the 23 units of
200KVA transformers just
delivered was being tested by the board engineers
and the contractor to
guarantee the quality of the transformers.
He
stressed that the state government was determined to complete the
project.
He advised the staff of the board to be prepared to meet up the
challenges
ahead, stressing that all would-be benefiting communities of the
government
transformers should also be prepared to guide against its
vandalisation.
Conducting the commissioner round the board, the
General Manager of the
Rural Electrification Board, Alhaji Sulaiman Ilobu
expressed satisfaction
with the pace of activities by the board since the
advent of the
administration and told the commissioner that the new
transformers were
being tested to ensure that they are in good condition at
the point of
delivery to benefiting communities.
Daily Trust
(Abuja)
November 22, 2005
Posted to the web November 22,
2005
Aisha Umar
Just like the famous poem "London Bridge is
falling down", Zimbabwe's
opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), may be falling as it
has entered a dilemma that might change the
politics of opposition in the
country.
The dilemma arose from a split
which was reported last week over the party's
participation in the
senatorial elections scheduled to take place on the
26th of November, this
year.
Morgan Tsvangirai accused some members of supporting the party's
participation in the senate elections and went further to say that members
were working in cohorts with the ruling ZANU-PF to destroy the party. The
crisis in the MDC followed Tsvangirai's overruling in a national council
decision in October to participate in the senate
elections.
Tsvangirai wanted the MDC's to ignore the poll on the grounds
that it would
be a waste of tax-payers money, and that the senior chamber
would be
dominated by the ruling party.
From there on, the party
cleaved with the Morgan Tsvangirai faction
emerging, backed by the party's
vice-president, Gibson Sibanda, and the
party's secretary-general, Welshman
Ncube, controlling the other half of the
party.
Mr. Tsvangirai sought
to convince party leaders to boycott the senate
election and on Oct. 12,
overrode a close vote by the MDC Nat-ional
Committee for partici-pation in
the election of a rec-onstituted upper
house. But the faction led by Mr.
Ncube objected to Mr. Tsvangirai's
effective nullification of the vote,
calling it a violation of the party's
constitution, and the pro-election
side has fielded 26 senate candidates.
While the pro-election faction
moves ahead with senate campaigns,
particularly in the southern Matabeleland
region which is a traditional MDC
stronghold - and ther-efore has a good
chance of electing some MDC
senators - the anti-election faction has been
urging rank-and-file
opposition members to stay away from the
polls.
Mr. Tsvangirai told a rally in Bulawayo, the capital of
Matabeleland, that
the pro-election faction was serving the interests of
President Robert
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party. The MDC's nominal
spokesman, Paul
Themba Nyathi, who has joined the pro-election fact-ion,
responded that Mr.
Tsva-ngirai was unfit to lead.
In another twist to
the debacle, the party expelled the 26 aspiring Senate
candidates who
ignored the party's directive to withdraw their candidature
in the
forthco-ming senatorial elections set for November 26.
The MDC candidates
were given seven days to wit-hdraw their candidature from
the senate polls.
The ultima-tum expired last Saturday.
The MDC President Mor-gan
Tsvangirai was quoted by a newspaper that
accor-ding to the party's
constitu-tion, the members had "auto-matically
expelled themselves from the
party."
He said standing regula-tions stipulate that any mem-ber who goes
against
the deci-sion of the party's national council on elections ceased to
be a
party member forthwith and would stand as an inde-pendent
candidate.
The pro-Senate faction led by Professor Welshman Ncube has,
however, refused
to recognize this council mee-ting that Tsvangirai
conve-ned, saying it was
an illegal gathering that could only be described
as a "kangaroo council."
MDC Deputy Secretary-General Gift Chimanikire
said last Saturday that none
of the aspiring MDC Senate candi-dates would
heed the directive to withdraw
their candid-ature from the polls because the
solution passed by the
"kangaroo council last week" was "a
non-event."
He said the meeting was improperly constituted, as other
members of the
national council that had on October 12 voted in favour of
participating in
the polls were not present.
In fact, he said,
candidates in different provinces were already campaigning
and were going to
stand in the elections "as MDC candidates and under an MDC
banner."
He, however, pointed out that the MDC leadership was still
discussing this
conten-tious issue with a view to reaching a common
underst-anding on the
route the party should take.
The crisis within
the opposition has been festering since mid-October but
has grown deeper in
recent days with reports of violent clashes between
supporters of the two
factions.
According to a report by an insider close to mediation efforts
to resolve
the differe-nces, "A split is inevitable. It will considerably
weaken both
sides both factions are going to lose out." Tsvangirai is seen
as a man with
mass sup-port and national profile, while Sibanda and Ncube,
who are elected
members of parlia-ment, also represent MDC's. The MDC is the
most serious
opposition ZANU-PF has faced since independence in 1980. But
the party is
seen as supported by western world to overcome President Robert
Mugabe, who
they call as a dictator or tyranny and who has allegedly
infringed on the
rights of Zimbabwe citizens.
Some efforts had
followed an unsuccessful attempt to organize a parley
between the two sides
on November 5, which failed to bring the pro-election
Ncube faction to the
table.
The party has repeatedly challenged President Mug-abe's longevity
in power
and every policy that the adminis-tration has made. It is believed
that the
West is backing the party to disconcert Mugabe's government and so
far, it
has done so through the interna-tional media.
The MDC has
criticized the land reforms which saw the exit of white farmers
in Zimbabwe
and the ongoing demolition exercise which reports have claimed
to have
rendered 700, 000 people homeless.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Trust,
the Zimbabwean ambassador to Nigeria,
John Mvundura, lambasted the
oppositions, especially the MDC, that they were
puppets that are
remote-driven by the western world to effect regime change.
Now, what
becomes of the MDC and how does this tran-slate to Mugabe's
continued grip
on the reigns of power? With the statement that Mug-abe's
party has
infiltrated the MDC party, the future of the party looks bleak for
the
opp-osition party. With the deter-mination on both sides to mai-ntain
their
position, the party might lose out in the Senatorial elections,
thereby
reinforcing and consolidating the ruling party's domination in the
parl-iament. This trend could be the last time in many years to come for the
opposition to gain ground in any arms of the government.
Going by
allegations that the party is West-sponsored, the party's split
could ruin
consistent pressure from the international community on Mugabe's
government
to revert on the land reforms or step down from the pinnacle of
Zimbabwean
affairs. Already, the US and British governments have already
branded the
country as one of the 'undemocratic' regimes in the world that
needs
cha-nge. There has not been any reaction from the West on the MDC
problem
yet. The que-stion that springs up, putting this alleged western
support in
context is, will the West strengthen one of the factions to
channel its
distaste about the government or are they going to pick another
party for
that purpose?
Other than the political crisis in Zimbabwe, the cou-ntry
is also battling
with a food shortage problem and a chronic budget deficit
which has spurred
Mugabe going to China and South Africa for aid. Zimbabwe
is also striving
under sanctions from the Commonwealth and the US.
Comment from cricinfo, 22 November
Henry Olonga
It's uncanny how what is happening
in Zimbabwe cricket so closely mirrors
what is also happening in the
political arena there. I won't dwell on this
but the signs are plain to see.
Deadwood, who have nothing communally
constructive or beneficial to offer.
Lives bent on furthering personal
agendas and empires, desperate to cling on
using increasingly desperate
methods. It defies belief how far Zimabwe
cricket is falling in sight of the
world. Even more surprising is the
international community's silence - to be
fair, it is also predictable. The
odd murmur here and there about it being
an appalling situation, a disgrace,
a tragedy, a fall from grace etc. I'm
sure we've heard it all before. The
world stands aside, getting involved
everywhere else, it seems, but there.
Afraid, I guess, of being labelled
meddlers. The all-too-familiar guilt trip
about race.
The most painful thing for me as a Zimbabwean watching at
a distance is that
the greed of a few individuals bent on self-serving
interests has left
nothing for future generations, in cricket and outside
it. An analogy, if I
may - cricket is a team game played by individual
players, yet no team can
succeed if they don't pull together as one. Even
when the Zimbabwe team
pulled together in the past it was always going to be
difficult for them to
beat the best. Team spirit was key when things went
well, but was even more
crucial when things went badly. Now I think that the
worst place to be in
any team sport is to be hung out to dry on one's own.
When no one looks one
in the eye due to bad performance or gives one as much
as a pat on the back
to encourage when things go pear-shaped. Many
cricketers have been there. Or
to have a coach who reigns in some
waywardness and keeps one honest. To feel
uncomfortably unwelcome yet
tolerated.
Zimbabwe has become that underperforming team-mate on the
world stage, and
world cricket has become the silent team, creating an
uneasy atmosphere by
not saying a word for fear of offending. Nothing said,
negative or positive.
At some stage a team member who isn't performing gets
dropped as his poor
form may affect the team's morale. There is always a
place to maintain
confidence in a player who is struggling, and some players
who are
struggling bring a lot to a team in other ways, but poor form has
limits.
That's just the way the game works - or should. Perform or, soon
enough, one
gets dropped. The way the Zimbabwe issue has been dealt with has
set a
dangerous precedent. How can world cricket turn a blind eye when all
that
has happened in Zimbabwe goes against the core values that make this
game so
credible? This great game which has a unique spirit has shown it has
an
undesirable side to it - at least, as far as administration
goes.
When people turn a blind eye to corruption, mismanagement,
rights abuses,
unfair play, bullying tactics, threats of violence or poor
form in full view
of the world, and then go on to enforce the opposite noble
values in a rule
book, then most people look past the rule book. They look
instead at the
actions of those who enforce the rules. I am afraid that the
ICC has shown
us the face of cricket that makes lesser mortals, with no
influence, wealth
or power, ask a pertinent question. What about the Spirit
of Cricket. What
if they cannot uphold the very values they attempt to
instill? A player
hesitates over a decision on TV and gets fined, or has a
bat logo too large
and gets the same treatment. A whole nation's cricket
fraternity is about to
collapse, and because of some weird rule in the
constitution, it cannot get
involved. Could someone help me out here. I am a
little confused. It seems
the rule book only applies to players. Maybe money
has the power to blind
judgement. I hope for cricket's sake we will see some
action now, maybe this
is a step too far by the powers in Zimbabwe and the
ICC's hand has been
forced. But it didn't have to come to this.
Henry
Olonga is a former Zimbabwe international. His cricket career ended
with the
famous black-armband protest during the 2003 World Cup. He now
lives in
England and works as a broadcaster, musician and artist
Mmegi, Botswana
11/22/2005 3:44:23 PM (GMT +2)
The Republic of Zimbabwe is under
the spotlight. Not because uncle Bob
recently told the American ambassador,
Christopher Dell to go to hell. No.
Aster all comrade Bob has not minced
words in the past, to imply that
President Bush himself only short of a tail
and horns to stoke the
everlasting furnace! Since the year 2000, Robert
Gabriel Mugabe the
President has been ruffling feathers left and right, at
home, in the
continent and abroad by his redistribution programme. As a
result, the whole
wor1d knows who Robert Gabriel Mugabe is. The
hard-talking, charismatic
leader of the Chimurenga for change in Zimbabwe,
is a self-made man, revered
and feared by colleague and adversaries, near
and far. 'His controversial
programme of land distribution has divided
opinion at home and abroad as to
where he stands on the most important
question of democracy. Is he a
democrat, is he not? He argues that without
equitable land redistribution in
Zimbabwe, Chimurenga cannot be said to be
over..
Very few observers will criticise uncle Bob for the
principle of
redistribution of the land to the indigenous people of
Zimbabwe. Even Blair
and Bush, his whipping boys for all the country's woes,
have yet to express
themselves in opposition to the principle of the
distribution of land as
advocated by uncle Bob and his Zanu-PF cronies. What
the two gentlemen
criticise and many agree with them, is the way it is done.
The violence that
has accompanied the exercise and the expropriation of
land, not based on any
legal instrument as should be the case in a
democratic state, is and has
been the primary objection in the otherwise
politically correct programme.
Both the Presidential and the Parliamentary
elections in Zimbabwe since the
year 2000 have been violent and in violation
of human rights. There have
been disagreement by observer missions on
whether the elections have been
free and fair. But few will dispute that
these elections were run on
multipartism and majority principle. That is why
both Zanu-PF and MDC could
capture some constituencies and lose others in a
First Past the Post
contest. In this situation, it is not surprising that
uncle Bob is seen as a
democrat by some and dictator by others.
What about Tsvangarai? Until a couple weeks back, the world and many
Zimbabweans pinned their hopes on him and his party, as someone who was the
exact opposite of comrade Bob. He promised to restore true democracy to
Zimbabwe through his party, the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC). The
entire democratic world looked up to him, sympathised with him when he was
arraigned before the courts to answer allegations of conspiracy to depose
Mugabe by unlawful means. Sympathisers believed, the charges against him
were a fabrication by Zanu-PF. Some of us suspected though that there was a
bit of fabrication in the charges as well as political immaturity in the way
the MDC leader comported himself among new acquaintances in foreign
places.
Give every man thine ear but few thy voice. This elementary
self-preservation rule by all street-wise politicians, was unknown to Morgan
Tsvangarai who blurted his feelings against Mugabe to any new acquaintance
he happened to have tea with.
Morgan, frustrated by the
futility of all his actions against the
government of uncle Bob, is now
resigned to inaction. He has tried
participation in the Presidential/general
elections in the past and watched
his support, decline fast; intermittent
mass action has not been successful
either. Small wonder that Tsvangarai now
faced with the latest of Mugabe's
political gimmicks, in the form of the new
Senate elections sees only one
option to save himself from further
humiliation. In his mind, the coming
Senate elections have been rigged even
before they are held. He sees only
one option, boycott! Boycott of course is
always a legitimate option in
anything one is asked to participate in. One
can choose to participate or
not to participate. Tsvangarai or anybody for
that matter, can do either.
What has shocked and disappointed many, is that
Tsvangarai, the democratic
hope for Zimbabwe, the leader of the Movement of
Democratic Change is
prepared to subvert an important principle of the
democratic process, by
overturning the decision of his council which by a
majority of 2 has opted
for participation in the Senate elections. Democracy
rests on 3 pillars: the
rule of law, democratic elections and human rights.
In any election any
majority; including a majority of 1 (one) is
binding!
Tsvangarai to make matters worse, was even prepared to
lie, by
distorting the results as a tie, and that he had used his casting
vote as
the leader of the MDC to support a boycott decision! The national
council of
MDC had decided to intervene in the decision to participate or
not to
participate, after 6 of the 12 provincial structure had expressed
themselves
in favour of participation against 2 undecided. The results in
the council
was 33 - 31 in favour of participation. One of Tsvangarai's
grounds for
boycotting Senatorial elections was that "the MDC had been
infiltrated by
Zanu-PF to blunt an opposition campaign to oust Mugabe over a
deepening
economic and political crisis.." Opposition campaign,
indeed!
Once Tsvangarai's lie was exposed by his colleagues, he
came out to
tell the world who he is. According to reports from the
state-owned Herald,
Tsvangarai was quoted as saying, "I am giving all the
MDC members who choose
to go against my will and contest the elections seven
days to withdraw or be
fired from the party." And again, "VP (Sibanda),
secretary-general (Welshman
Ncube) and their supporters should know that I
hold the keys of the party.
As long as I am still the leader, they have to
do what I want, since they
are my juniors." Has he ever heard of inner party
democracy?
If the above utterances attributed to Tsvangarai by a
state-owned
newspaper, (which necessarily evokes precautions before jumping
to final
conclusion), is to be believed, we can only say, "cry the beloved
Zimbabwe."
For who is left in the ongoing socio-political and economic
crisis in that
country to bring hope to the Zimbabweans? Tsvangarai seems
poised to better
Mugabe on the dictatorial scale!
Reuters
Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:41 PM GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is dangling offers of
uranium deposits as
part of a strategy to ease Western pressure on his
government, foreign
diplomats and analysts said on Tuesday.
In power since independence from
Britain in 1980, Mugabe has been isolated
by Western countries who back
opposition charges that he has rigged polls in
the last five years to hold
on to power.
Mugabe announced at the weekend that Zimbabwe had recently
found deposits of
uranium but would only use the mineral for electricity
generation, not to
supply nuclear weapons programmes.
Analysts said
Mugabe's statement -- delivered without details at a routine
function in his
home village -- was designed to draw attention to Zimbabwe's
vast mineral
wealth, including uranium.
"What Mugabe was saying ...(is) that he has
things the West would want and
does not want to fall into enemy hands," one
senior Western diplomat in
Harare said.
"Mugabe is indirectly saying
to the West: you guys will have to go easy on
me if we have to work out some
deals for mutual benefit," he said.
Mining industry experts say there are
sizeable uranium deposits in Kanyemba
district in Zimbabwe's Zambezi Valley,
and several companies from Western
countries, including Australia, Canada,
Britain and the United States, are
interested.
But whether the
country possesses enough of the metal in sufficient grade to
be economically
viable remains unclear.
COLLAPSE
A major uranium find in Zimbabwe
would be a boost for Mugabe's beleaguered
government, which has seen its
economy all but collapse following the
seizure of white-owned farms to give
to landless blacks.
World uranium demand is expected to grow partly
because of plans by China --
a close Mugabe ally -- to build nuclear power
plants. Spot prices for
uranium are at record highs above $30 per pound,
against $20 per pound last
year.
Zimbabwe mining officials say
foreign firms have approached the government
for rights to exploit uranium
deposits that were found two decades ago,
although it is not known if these
are the same deposits that Mugabe was
referring to.
Enriched uranium
can be used to fuel nuclear power plants or, in a more
enriched state, to
produce a nuclear weapon, although Mugabe said Zimbabwe
had no plans to
provide uranium for "bomb making".
But western diplomats note that, along
with China, Mugabe's government is
drawing closer to Iran and North Korea,
both of which are at loggerheads
with the international community over their
nuclear programmes.
Zimbabwean political commentator Eldred Masunungure
said Mugabe was using
Zimbabwe's economic promise to remind the West that he
was not to be trifled
with.
"Almost all the big mining companies here
are from Western countries, and if
Zimbabwe has uranium Mugabe will
certainly try to use that too as a
bargaining chip," said Masunungure,
chairman of the political science
department at the University of
Zimbabwe.
irrawaddy.org
By
Sean Yoong/AP Writer/Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
November 22,
2005
Governments across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and
Latin America agreed
Tuesday to launch their own Internet-based news network
to counter what they
called prejudiced reporting by the Western
media.
Plans to create the Nonaligned Movement News Network were endorsed
by
information ministers and senior officials from more than 80 mainly
developing nations such as Cuba, Iran, Syria, Myanmar [Burma], North Korea,
Sudan and Zimbabwe, many of which claimed their reputations have suffered
because of foreign media coverage.
Countries will start using the
network in early 2006 to supply news on
domestic events to each other and to
rebut "smear campaigns which developing
nations have suffered from biased
and distorted Western media reports," the
ministers said in a joint
statement after a two-day conference in Malaysia.
"The ministers opposed
the use of the media as a tool for hostile propaganda
against developing
countries," the statement added. "They also regretted the
continued tendency
of the Western media in stereotyping and profiling
perpetrators of terrorist
acts as Muslims."
The Nonaligned Movement comprises 114 mostly developing
nations that tried
to stay neutral during the Cold War. Not all sent
representatives to the
Kuala Lumpur meeting.
Malaysian Information
Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said newspapers and
news agencies from
the movement's member countries plan to share stories and
photographs on a
Web site that will help them reduce their reliance on the
Western media for
international news.
"The Western press has been very nasty to us," said
Abdul Kadir, whose
country currently chairs the movement. "If we keep on
receiving bad
coverage, no one will want to invest in us or visit our
countries."
Malaysia's state-owned news agency, Bernama, will oversee the
network and
coordinate efforts to help poorer nations boost their technical
infrastructure and expertise to contribute to the initiative, Abdul Kadir
told reporters.
"We're determined to do all that it takes to ensure
this becomes a credible
network to represent our voice," he said, adding
that Malaysia's Cabinet has
approved an unspecified financial allocation to
set up the network.
Citizen, SA
HARARE - Four people have died of dysentery in northern Zimbabwe
in
what appears to be the first outbreak of the disease outside the capital,
a
newspaper reported Tuesday.
The four victims, all elderly people
from a home for the aged in
Zimbabwe's northwestern farming town of Karoi,
died in the past week from
the disease, the state-controlled Herald
said.
"Several other people... were reported to be also suffering from
a
similar disease in Chikangwe Township" in Karoi, the paper said.
Although there does not appear to be laboratory confirmation yet that
this
is dysentery, the paper said the victims had blood in their faeces, one
of
the key symptoms of the disease.
An outbreak of the highly contagious
diarrhoeal disease was reported
earlier this month in the capital Harare and
its satellite town of
Chitungwiza. Two hundred people were
hospitalised.
Most of Zimbabwe's municipalities have been hard-hit by
the country's
economic crisis, marked by triple digit inflation and acute
fuel and foreign
currency shortages.
As a result, conditions for
healthy living have deteriorated, with
refuse piling up in many poorer
suburbs of towns and cities. Burst sewage
and water pipes go
unrepaired.
Earlier this month 14 children below the age of five were
reported to
have died recently in some of Harare's poorer suburbs from food
poisoning. -
Sapa-dpa.
22/11/2005 17:04:29
bernama.com, Malaysia
November 22, 2005 14:16 PM
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama)
-- Over the past four years, Zimbabwe has
witnessed the creation of hostile
broadcasting stations by powerful nations
that churn out hostile propaganda
aimed at subverting its people, said its
Ambassador to Malaysia Lucas Pande
Tavaya.
He said that newspapers were also being printed outside Zimbabwe
and
distributed clandestinely in the African country in open defiance to the
country's national laws.
The same detractors have also gone to
establish dedicated websites that also
churn out hostile propaganda, he said
during a debate on the final day of
the Sixth Conference of the Ministers of
Information of Non-Aligned
Countries (Cominac VI) here, Tuesday.
He
said that these websites were western-media online creations which were
specifically designed to portray Zimbabwe in a bad light.
"In an
apparent adherence to the concept of `towing the flag', the current
policy
of the Western media is that no journalist from their newspapers
should ever
report on anything good that comes from Zimbabwe.
"Any event in the
country, no matter how positive it may be, is deliberately
recast to convey
a negative picture that must be consistent with the above
policy," said
Tavaya who led his country's delegation to the conference
which ended here
today.
Tavaya said these developments should stand up as a constant
reminder that
anyone among the NAM countries could be victimised in the same
way.
"At this juncture, I wish to express Zimbabwe's deep gratitude to
all the
NAM countries for their unwavering support in many international
fora where
our detractors were prevented from isolating us from the
international
community," he said.
He said it was against this
background that Zimbabwe welcomed Malaysia's
proposal to invigorate the
concept of a news pool in the form of NAM News
Network (NNN).
He said
Zimbabwe feels that the ownership, institutional and legal framework
for the
creation of NNN should guarantee viability and sustainability as
well as
conformity with "our NAM objectives with a vision that projects
beyond the
current chairmanship."
He said the relevance and effectiveness of the NNN
proposal would depend on
the good qualities of news agencies in member
countries.
"I implore this conference to seek and implement measures that
will
strengthen our national, sub-regional and regional news agencies in the
areas of personnel training, news gathering and dissemination," Tavaya
added.
-- BERNAMA
