Fearless in the face of tyranny

The Times, UK November 25, 2006

            Simon Caldwell

            Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, in London this week, is a
resolute opponent of the Mugabe regime

            The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, the Most Rev Pius
Ncube, is a slightly shy, softly spoken and humble man - characteristics
that may seem to contrast with his leonine courage in the face of President
Mugabe's tyranny.
            He also appears tired. As he sinks back into his chair at the
London headquarters of Cafod, the overseas development agency of the
Catholic Church of England and Wales, he seems to carry in his demeanour the
desperation of his country's poor. It looks as if his long struggle with
Robert Mugabe may be taking its toll.

            It has been seven years since Mugabe triggered the decline of
his country by ordering "war veterans" to invade white-owned farms after he
lost a constitutional referendum. As Mugabe seized control of the judiciary
and the press, rigged elections, demolished shanty towns - making 700,000
people destitute - and starved his political opponents, Archbishop Ncube
came to prominence as the archetypal turbulent priest, Mugabe's most
implacably defiant domestic opponent, vowing to continue to speak the truth
even though his name was rumoured to be on a secret "death list".

            There are worse things than martyrdom to a man of the stature of
Archbishop Ncube, however. Among them is the realisation that people are
losing interest in his cause. Earlier this week in London he admitted to a
private meeting of MPs and peers that the plight of Zimbabwe was now largely
a "forgotten issue".

            "We cannot compete for attention in a world fixated by events in
Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Sudan and elsewhere," he said. "Yet we need the
international community to maintain pressure on Zanu PF [the ruling party]
now as much as ever."

            Although his trip to London was to raise money for a charity for
Aids victims, the Archbishop made sure that his audience understood that
Zimbabwe had become a world leader for all the wrong reasons.

            They heard that it has one of the highest Aids rates in the
world, with almost a quarter of the 12 million population infected. A
combination of malnutrition, poverty and Aids claims 3,500 lives a week, a
death rate higher even than the conflict in Darfur and the war in Iraq. This
has resulted in Zimbabwe having the lowest life expectancy in the world - 34
for women and 37 for men.

            The rate of inflation stands at 2,000 per cent, the highest in
the world. Zimbabwe also has the world's fastest-declining economy,
shrinking by 40 per cent in the past six years, and 80 per cent
unemployment. The World Food Programme estimates that 6.1 million people are
facing starvation in a country that was once so fertile that it used to be
known as the "breadbasket of Africa".

            Yet, as Archbishop Ncube pointed out, "Zimbabwe is not a nation
at war". Nor is it possible for these figures "just to be blamed on Aids".

            He implies that Mugabe has been complicit in the deaths of his
people through a combination of oppression and neglect. But getting anything
done about it is difficult. The Archbishop's interventions have failed to
persuade South Africa to provide a regional solution to the crisis - the
best chance for the people of Zimbabwe - but have succeeded in incurring
police harassment and smears of the state-run media.

            Such trials have been compounded by betrayals from those he sees
as friends or seeks to help. In September Archbishop Ncube attended the
episcopal ordination of Dieter Sholz, a German-born Jesuit. Mugabe was also
there and afterwards courted the congregation with a 35-minute speech.
Archbishop Ncube balked when the crowd applauded enthusiastically. "As far
as I was concerned, they should not have clapped for him, ever," he said.

            Then, a month later, Archbishop Ncube was furious when a
statement issued by the Churches called The Zimbabwe We Want: Toward a
National Vision was sabotaged by the Government before it was printed.
"Mugabe's cronies took it and removed a whole load of pages," he said. "That
was supposed to be our document. They totally changed the terminology. That
shows that the man [Mugabe] is not ready to change."

            The statement, he explained, must have been leaked to the
Government by one of a number of pastors who were beginning to side with
Mugabe and who had become "disloyal to God and to the people".

            Archbishop Ncube said it was typical of Mr Mugabe to turn up at
Pope John Paul II's funeral, to stand among world leaders and then to "force
himself on Prince Charles" in a "rude" manner during the sign of peace. Two
months later the archbishop found himself at the Vatican too, but taking
issue with Pope Benedict XVI for welcoming rigged parliamentary election
results as "a new beginning in the process of national reconciliation and
the moral rebuilding of society".

            "I informed him that things were bad and Mugabe was oppressing
the people and shouldn't be encouraged," he said, adding that the Pope was
deeply sympathetic.

            The Archbishop does not know where the problems with Mugabe will
end, but he suspects a Pauline conversion is out of the question. The
bishops tried that three years ago in a four-hour meeting that brought the
President and Archbishop Ncube face to face. "We talked to him about the
problems," the Archbishop recalls. "The inflation, the starvation, the
corruption, the youth militia, the violence, and told him that he should
talk to the [Movement for Democratic Change] opposition to finish the
problems. He was very defensive."

            He continued: "The problem is that Mugabe thinks he is our
owner. He is such an arrogant and proud man and he thinks he owns us and can
go around bullying us. Mugabe is so much in love with power that he hasn't
even groomed a successor. We are kind of held to ransom."

            For Archbishop Ncube, the only remaining hope is to educate
young people about the necessity for them to make governments accountable
for their policies. But this seems a distant prospect given the desperation
that has gripped the country and the pledge of Zanu-PF to rule until "Jesus
comes again".

            But things must change. Mugabe turns 83 in February and there is
a strong chance that Archbishop Ncube, who is 60 on December 31, will
outlive him. Meanwhile he will need the patience of Job and the inner peace
that only God can give.

Fleeing Mugabe: Crossing the Limpopo

The Independent, UK

Three to five million people have poured over 'Africa's Rio Grande', fleeing
meltdown in Zimbabwe for the promised land. But the flood of humanity is
bringing crisis to South Africa. By Daniel Howden on the Limpopo
Published: 24 November 2006
Following in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling's Elephant's Child, "I am
going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about by fever
trees, to find out what the crocodile has for dinner." It is first light on
the Limpopo and its banks are set about with fever trees, their
golden-balled flowers opening to greet the day but there's no grey-green,
greasy flow, not even a trickle. The river is dry.

A crowd of footprints break the earth where the bank meets the riverbed in
the shadow of giant baobab tree. Before dawn, dozens of border jumpers were
huddled here waiting for a signal from the far bank. A trampled cap has been
left behind.

Their tracks strike out for the middle of the once-mighty river. Somewhere
out there is Zimbabwe's border with South Africa. This trodden earth is now
being called Africa's Rio Grande as thousands of impoverished Zimbabweans
flee the meltdown of their country and seek illegal entry to the promised
land. It is a frontier of renegade soldiers, human traffickers, embattled
farmers, crocodiles and leopards.

Andrew is one of the few holding out. A white farmer, he now camps on what
used to be his land, waiting to see if things will change. Pointing at the
sandal prints in the riverbed he says: "If I were them, that's what I would
do. On this side, their wages are worthless. Their only chance for survival
is to get across the border to earn what they can in rands and smuggle it
back."

On the far bank, there are three walls of fencing, erected in the apartheid
era they are relics of an old battle that now form the frontline of a new
crisis. Put up by the white government of the little-lamented P W Botha they
were originally an electrified barrier to the guerrillas of the ANC.

Today's South African government is run by the ANC and needs the fences to
stem the tide from the north that has been stoking internal discontent. A
decade on from the birth of the rainbow nation, many ordinary South Africans
are still waiting for their dividend. In this politically tense atmosphere,
mass migration has sparked the first signs of black-on-black racism

Far from an impenetrable barrier, the power was turned off more than a
decade ago, and the fences are shredded. President Thabo Mbeki is now under
intense domestic pressure to close the border to illegals. Thousands of
border police fight a daily battle in South Africa to drive back the
Zimbabweans and those that get through to Johannesburg face often brutal
migrant sweeps and unpleasant stays in the notorious Lindela holding camp.

The Limpopo, however, is their lifeline and they will keep coming.

Nobody knows how many Zimbabweans have headed south, estimates stretch
anywhere from three million to five million. But this human traffic has now
become a stampede.

The border post at Beitbridge is a crash course in the complexities of a
country in freefall. The town, such as it is, grew up around a bridge built
in 1920 by the German mining tycoon Alfred Beit. Developers have flanked the
road with shining filling stations and supermarkets with asphalt car parks.

But this is a charade. There is no petrol or diesel at the pumps. The car
parks are empty. At the supermarket, the prices change hourly. Economists
expect Zimbabwe's inflation rate to pass 2,000 per cent this year. To put
that startling number in context, the next worst rate in the world is Burma
with 60 per cent. Since the turn of the century, this country's once
sophisticated economy has shrunk by half. The result is 80 per cent
unemployment, and 85 per cent of the population living in poverty.

It was not always so. When, in 1980, Robert Mugabe won the first free
elections in independent Zimbabwe, he was feted by Western liberals as a
beacon of hope for Africa and hailed by his people as a liberator. His early
approach of soothing racial rivalries and respecting property rights
encouraged many. But that was never the whole truth. Soon after taking
power, he launched a brutal pogrom, the Gukuruhundi, against the minority
Ndebele people, killing as many as 10,000. By 1995, when Nelson Mandela came
to Beitbridge to open a new bridge and salute the liberator, Mr Mugabe's
grip on power was starting to loosen. His strategy for holding on was to rip
the country apart.

With a cynical eye on the restless veterans of the independence war he
turned on the white population in 1998, accused them of being traitors and
launched a chaotic and destructive series of farm invasions dressed as land
reform. Zimbabwe plummeted from feast to famine. A country that fed its
neighbours was forced to accept emergency food aid as agricultural output
was decimated and foreign currency reserves collapsed. It did, however,
allow Mugabe to shore up his power base. Thanks to carefully engineered
elections and the political control of food aid he now stands largely
unchallenged, the opposition in splinters.

Sitting slumped in a chair in his office, Pius Ncube looks tired. The
Catholic Bishop of Bulawayo is one of Mugabe's last remaining public
critics. His anger and eloquence have provided a rallying call amid the
rivalries and splits of an opposition poisoned from within by agents of the
secret police. "We're in a state of paralysis. What can we do? We have
neither a leader nor a credible party. People are so afraid."

On the walls, a parade of black and white saints vie for space with secular
heroes. A beaming Nelson Mandela sits two icons away from a portrait of
Martin Luther King. "We need a Mandela, a Gandhi. Someone to stand up
against Mugabe and kick this man out."

Ncube leans forward, eyes half closed and his voice quiet as a whisper. "
We're on a silent march to I don't know where... Why must we be held to
ransom by one silly man."

Zimbabwe's real economy, or what's left of it, is in the teeming slums and
flea markets that surround the ghostly modern Beitbridge. Here everything is
for sale. Filthy single-storey brothels service the lorry drivers. No one is
testing for HIV - they don't need to; the infection rates are near total.
Touts rush to open car windows offering petrol, paraffin, hard currency, all
the things that can only be bought on the black market. Bundles of the
monopoly money of hyper-inflation are passed shiftily from hand to hand.

Everyone knows they are being watched. Mugabe's spies are everywhere. The
secret police of the Central Intelligence Organisation - plain clothes
informants - they are on the look-out for smugglers, border hoppers,
opposition members, anyone who could pose a threat or offer an income. They
are also on the look-out for journalists. The Mugabe regime would rather the
world looked elsewhere, so reporting without permission now carries a
two-year prison sentence.

On the other side of Beitbridge, there is a new camp for the deported
migrants. Wilson is standing behind a tall wire fence, leaning on an
automatic rifle and wearing an outsized uniform. Despite working as the
camp's guard he has time to talk.

"It's been a quiet day," he says, gesturing in the direction of hundreds of
exhausted looking people standing in a queue that snakes twice round a white
tent. The people are deportees, rounded up in Johannesburg and dumped en
masse back across the border by South African police. "We usually get about
600 to 700 a day." They are queuing for a meal, paid for by the
International Organisation for Migration. They will then take an arduous
four-hour bus journey north to Bulawayo where many will begin the long march
back to the border. "Most of them will go straight back across again," he
says with a shrug.

As night closes in on the northern outskirts of the border town, the rusted
pick-ups wait for fresh border jumpers. They are beginning to fan out along
the 170-mile frontier and deliver their human cargo to the staging posts
where they can start their dangerous trek again.

Hours from anywhere in the deep bush, torches shine angrily at the
windscreen. The scratched barrel of an AK-47 pokes through the open window,
holding on to it is a skinny looking soldier. A calm exchange follows.
Questions are asked about the white man in the passenger seat but the
soldier knows the driver so nothing ensues.

"Why do you think he's out here in the cold in the middle of the night?" The
driver asks.

He answers himself: "He's freelancing. No one pays him to guard this track
he's here to get bribes from the traffickers."

On the other side of the border the same rules apply. Mistreatment of
migrants is commonplace according to Human Rights Watch and police see
vulnerable migrants as a ready source of income. With no child soldiers or
civil war, South Africans don't understand what Zimbabweans are running
from.

Despite the brutal dictatorship in their northern neighbour only 114
Zimbabweans were granted refugee status last year. The others are shepherded
into disease-ridden camps before being shunted back across.

Any day now, the rains will come and the greasy tide will wash away the
tracks. Kipling never actually saw the Limpopo or its fever trees. But when
the grey-green water starts to flow the desperate people will form human
chains across the river holding hands to ford the strong current. Those that
can't hold on will be washed away, offering a darker answer to the Elephant
Child who asked: "What does the crocodile have for dinner?"

Following in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling's Elephant's Child, "I am
going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about by fever
trees, to find out what the crocodile has for dinner." It is first light on
the Limpopo and its banks are set about with fever trees, their
golden-balled flowers opening to greet the day but there's no grey-green,
greasy flow, not even a trickle. The river is dry.

A crowd of footprints break the earth where the bank meets the riverbed in
the shadow of giant baobab tree. Before dawn, dozens of border jumpers were
huddled here waiting for a signal from the far bank. A trampled cap has been
left behind.

Their tracks strike out for the middle of the once-mighty river. Somewhere
out there is Zimbabwe's border with South Africa. This trodden earth is now
being called Africa's Rio Grande as thousands of impoverished Zimbabweans
flee the meltdown of their country and seek illegal entry to the promised
land. It is a frontier of renegade soldiers, human traffickers, embattled
farmers, crocodiles and leopards.

Andrew is one of the few holding out. A white farmer, he now camps on what
used to be his land, waiting to see if things will change. Pointing at the
sandal prints in the riverbed he says: "If I were them, that's what I would
do. On this side, their wages are worthless. Their only chance for survival
is to get across the border to earn what they can in rands and smuggle it
back."

On the far bank, there are three walls of fencing, erected in the apartheid
era they are relics of an old battle that now form the frontline of a new
crisis. Put up by the white government of the little-lamented P W Botha they
were originally an electrified barrier to the guerrillas of the ANC.

Today's South African government is run by the ANC and needs the fences to
stem the tide from the north that has been stoking internal discontent. A
decade on from the birth of the rainbow nation, many ordinary South Africans
are still waiting for their dividend. In this politically tense atmosphere,
mass migration has sparked the first signs of black-on-black racism

Far from an impenetrable barrier, the power was turned off more than a
decade ago, and the fences are shredded. President Thabo Mbeki is now under
intense domestic pressure to close the border to illegals. Thousands of
border police fight a daily battle in South Africa to drive back the
Zimbabweans and those that get through to Johannesburg face often brutal
migrant sweeps and unpleasant stays in the notorious Lindela holding camp.

The Limpopo, however, is their lifeline and they will keep coming.

Nobody knows how many Zimbabweans have headed south, estimates stretch
anywhere from three million to five million. But this human traffic has now
become a stampede.

The border post at Beitbridge is a crash course in the complexities of a
country in freefall. The town, such as it is, grew up around a bridge built
in 1920 by the German mining tycoon Alfred Beit. Developers have flanked the
road with shining filling stations and supermarkets with asphalt car parks.

But this is a charade. There is no petrol or diesel at the pumps. The car
parks are empty. At the supermarket, the prices change hourly. Economists
expect Zimbabwe's inflation rate to pass 2,000 per cent this year. To put
that startling number in context, the next worst rate in the world is Burma
with 60 per cent. Since the turn of the century, this country's once
sophisticated economy has shrunk by half. The result is 80 per cent
unemployment, and 85 per cent of the population living in poverty.

It was not always so. When, in 1980, Robert Mugabe won the first free
elections in independent Zimbabwe, he was feted by Western liberals as a
beacon of hope for Africa and hailed by his people as a liberator. His early
approach of soothing racial rivalries and respecting property rights
encouraged many. But that was never the whole truth. Soon after taking
power, he launched a brutal pogrom, the Gukuruhundi, against the minority
Ndebele people, killing as many as 10,000. By 1995, when Nelson Mandela came
to Beitbridge to open a new bridge and salute the liberator, Mr Mugabe's
grip on power was starting to loosen. His strategy for holding on was to rip
the country apart.

With a cynical eye on the restless veterans of the independence war he
turned on the white population in 1998, accused them of being traitors and
launched a chaotic and destructive series of farm invasions dressed as land
reform. Zimbabwe plummeted from feast to famine. A country that fed its
neighbours was forced to accept emergency food aid as agricultural output
was decimated and foreign currency reserves collapsed. It did, however,
allow Mugabe to shore up his power base. Thanks to carefully engineered
elections and the political control of food aid he now stands largely
unchallenged, the opposition in splinters.

Sitting slumped in a chair in his office, Pius Ncube looks tired. The
Catholic Bishop of Bulawayo is one of Mugabe's last remaining public
critics. His anger and eloquence have provided a rallying call amid the
rivalries and splits of an opposition poisoned from within by agents of the
secret police. "We're in a state of paralysis. What can we do? We have
neither a leader nor a credible party. People are so afraid."

On the walls, a parade of black and white saints vie for space with secular
heroes. A beaming Nelson Mandela sits two icons away from a portrait of
Martin Luther King. "We need a Mandela, a Gandhi. Someone to stand up
against Mugabe and kick this man out."

Ncube leans forward, eyes half closed and his voice quiet as a whisper. "
We're on a silent march to I don't know where... Why must we be held to
ransom by one silly man."

Zimbabwe's real economy, or what's left of it, is in the teeming slums and
flea markets that surround the ghostly modern Beitbridge. Here everything is
for sale. Filthy single-storey brothels service the lorry drivers. No one is
testing for HIV - they don't need to; the infection rates are near total.
Touts rush to open car windows offering petrol, paraffin, hard currency, all
the things that can only be bought on the black market. Bundles of the
monopoly money of hyper-inflation are passed shiftily from hand to hand.

Everyone knows they are being watched. Mugabe's spies are everywhere. The
secret police of the Central Intelligence Organisation - plain clothes
informants - they are on the look-out for smugglers, border hoppers,
opposition members, anyone who could pose a threat or offer an income. They
are also on the look-out for journalists. The Mugabe regime would rather the
world looked elsewhere, so reporting without permission now carries a
two-year prison sentence.

On the other side of Beitbridge, there is a new camp for the deported
migrants. Wilson is standing behind a tall wire fence, leaning on an
automatic rifle and wearing an outsized uniform. Despite working as the
camp's guard he has time to talk.

"It's been a quiet day," he says, gesturing in the direction of hundreds of
exhausted looking people standing in a queue that snakes twice round a white
tent. The people are deportees, rounded up in Johannesburg and dumped en
masse back across the border by South African police. "We usually get about
600 to 700 a day." They are queuing for a meal, paid for by the
International Organisation for Migration. They will then take an arduous
four-hour bus journey north to Bulawayo where many will begin the long march
back to the border. "Most of them will go straight back across again," he
says with a shrug.

As night closes in on the northern outskirts of the border town, the rusted
pick-ups wait for fresh border jumpers. They are beginning to fan out along
the 170-mile frontier and deliver their human cargo to the staging posts
where they can start their dangerous trek again.

Hours from anywhere in the deep bush, torches shine angrily at the
windscreen. The scratched barrel of an AK-47 pokes through the open window,
holding on to it is a skinny looking soldier. A calm exchange follows.
Questions are asked about the white man in the passenger seat but the
soldier knows the driver so nothing ensues.

"Why do you think he's out here in the cold in the middle of the night?" The
driver asks.

He answers himself: "He's freelancing. No one pays him to guard this track
he's here to get bribes from the traffickers."

On the other side of the border the same rules apply. Mistreatment of
migrants is commonplace according to Human Rights Watch and police see
vulnerable migrants as a ready source of income. With no child soldiers or
civil war, South Africans don't understand what Zimbabweans are running
from.

Despite the brutal dictatorship in their northern neighbour only 114
Zimbabweans were granted refugee status last year. The others are shepherded
into disease-ridden camps before being shunted back across.

Any day now, the rains will come and the greasy tide will wash away the
tracks. Kipling never actually saw the Limpopo or its fever trees. But when
the grey-green water starts to flow the desperate people will form human
chains across the river holding hands to ford the strong current. Those that
can't hold on will be washed away, offering a darker answer to the Elephant
Child who asked: "What does the crocodile have for dinner?"

State security agents raid civic group's offices

Zim Online

Saturday 25 November 2006

      BULAWAYO - Armed state security agents on Friday raided the Bulawayo
offices of Christian Alliance - an umbrella grouping of churches, opposition
political parties and civic groups - that is pushing for sweeping political
reforms in Zimbabwe.

      Four officers from the government's dreaded spy Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) and the police swooped on the alliance's offices and
"ransacked the place looking for documents", according to a Christian
Alliance official.

      The security agents had a search warrant required by the law before
they can search private property.

      "They just came and said they were looking for documents. They
ransacked the whole office and it appeared they did not find what they
wanted. They left after about thirty minutes without saying anything much,"
said Useni Sibanda, the administrator at Christian Alliance.

      The raid comes barely two days after civic groups and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party, under the leadership of the Christian
Alliance, held surprise demonstrations in central Harare demanding a new and
democratic constitution for Zimbabwe.

      The groups say they shall hold protests every Wednesday on lunchtime
although the government has warned it will ruthlessly deal with future
demonstrations.

      Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the main faction of the MDC led by
Morgan Tsvangirai, described the raid on the Christian Alliance offices as
"barbaric."

      "Raiding offices and viciously attacking activists will not solve the
country's problems. These raids and arbitrary arrests will not put brakes on
the gathering momentum of the national demand for political change in
Zimbabwe," Biti said. - ZimOnline

Detectives accused of confiscating diamonds granted bail

Zim Online

Saturday 25 November 2006

            MUTARE - Three police detectives who were arrested on Thursday
for confiscating diamonds from an illegal dealer in Marange were on Friday
released from custody after paying $5 000 bail each.

            The four seized the diamonds worth about Z$20 million from an
illegal dealer in the eastern district of Marange and failed to hand over
the precious stones to the state.

            Mutare magistrate Noah Gwatidzo, remanded the three detectives,
Watts Nhema, Tinashe Ivines and Garikayi Muzanenhamo out of custody.

            They will appear again in court in a fortnight.

            State prosecutor Fari Matinhure told the court that the three
suspects "arrested" a diamond dealer on November 9.

            But while on their way to the police station, they illegal set
free the diamond dealer and the three failed to surrender the 1 040 pieces
of the precious stone to the police station.

            Two other detectives, Timothy Gombera and Bhekithemba Nkomo, are
also facing similar charges after they allegedly confiscated an undisclosed
amount of cash from South African diamond dealers while on patrol in
Marange.

            The two are still to appear in court after their docket was
referred back to the police for fine-tuning.

            There have several reports in the press of massive looting of
diamonds by illegal dealers in Marange following the discovery of the
mineral in the area about three months ago.

            Earlier this month, the Zimbabwe government deployed armed
soldiers to cordon off the area to prevent illegal mining operations in
Marange. - ZimOnline

Months After Big Overhaul, Zimbabwe Dollar Seen Tumbling Again

VOA

By Blessing Zulu
      Washington
      24 November 2006

A prominent Harare economist has warned that the Zimbabwean dollar, now
trading in the informal market around Z$2,000 to the U.S. dollar, could
slide to Z$4,000 by the end of December and plummet to Z$180,000 by the end
of 2007.

Economic consultant John Robertson said the country's economic decline will
continue unless the government institutes bold economic and political
reforms.

The official exchange rate was set at Z$250 to the U.S. currency on July 31
when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe devalued and lopped three zeros off the
currency. The official rate has not been adjusted since then despite
parallel market losses.

Robertson said in an interview with reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that his currency projection was not overly pessimistic given
the country's huge fiscal overruns and chronic extreme shortages of hard
currency.

The International Monetary Fund has said Zimbabwean inflation will exceed
4,000% in 2007 unless major changes are made in economic, fiscal and
monetary policy. Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono has predicted inflation
will fall to 50% next year.

IMF Africa Department Deputy Director Siddharth Tiwari has said there are no
limits to how high inflation could go barring serious corrective measures by
Harare.

UN Humanitarian Agency Sees Bleak Outlook For Zimbabwe In 2007

VOA

By Blessing Zulu
      Washington
      24 November 2006

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has
launched an appeal to donors for US$215 million for humanitarian aid for
Zimbabwe, saying the country's already crippling economic crisis is likely
to worsen in 2007.

The so-called consolidated appeal unites agencies like the United Nations
Children's Fund, U.N. Habitat, the World Food Program and the U.N.
Development Program with non-U.N. organizations such as Zimbabwe's National
Association of Nongovernmental Organizations, the Danhiko Project, Oxfam-UK
and Childline.

The U.N. office said the funds would go to mitigate effects of the declining
economy on the availability and quality of basic services for the country's
most vulnerable people.

The agency detailed a grim list of problems looming in Zimbabwe:
increasingly scarce inputs for agriculture, significant food shortages,
vulnerable populations on the move, and "continued impact of contentious
human rights and governance issues and reduced resources for humanitarian
programming."

Advocacy and Communications Manager Fambayi Ngirande of the National
Association of Non-Governmental Organizations told reporter Blessing Zulu of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Nango members need funds in particular to
monitor the distribution of humanitarian aid in the run-up to the 2008
presidential election.

Mugabe's loyalty to corrupt cabinet allies intensifies infighting

      By Tererai Karimakwenda
      24 November 2006

      Cases of corruption involving top officials within the ruling party
are piling up as Robert Mugabe refuses to sanction their arrests. His
loyalty to some of them, especially the retired General Solomon Mujuru, has
been unquestionable to date. And whatever hold they have over him is strong
because his continued protection in the midst of mounting evidence is
beginning to tear ZANU-PF to pieces.

      Mugabe imprisoned two ministers and several bankers in what seemed to
be a blitz after he established an anti-corruption commission last year. But
critics and opposition officials dismissed the arrests calling them small
fish. They have since maintained that Mugabe is protecting the real
culprits, among them his closest allies.

      Solomon Mujuru is husband to Vice-President Joyce Mujuru. It is widely
believed he made her appointment happen, due to his influence over Mugabe,
which dates back to the liberation struggle. But as the battle for who will
take over after Mugabe heats up Mujuru's enemies are pressuring Mugabe to
give the order to arrest Mujuru.

      According to an extensive report in the Mail & Guardian this week
Mujuru's involvement in illegal forex dealings nets him an estimated Z$40
billion a day! The report says police insiders have dubbed him the
"Godfather" of murky foreign currency dealings in Harare. It also says
Mujuru has been investigated by the police for flouting exchange control
regulations and running illegal shelf companies. Z$40 billion a day is a lot
of money. And any government claiming to be fighting corruption would have
arrested Mujuru already. But the general is not only free. He continues to
add more billions to his stash.

      Max Mkandla from Zimbabwe Liberators Voice said Mujuru helped Mugabe
to gain influence with the fighters during the liberation war so they have a
bond. He said: "The real truth is Mujuru is the most corrupt, uneducated
person who has failed to make any meaningful ministerial post in ZANU-PF
just because of illiteracy." Mkandla said Mujuru, who was known as Rex
Nhongo during the war, influenced those in the high command of the military
forces to accept Mugabe. He believes since then they protect each other and
are aware of each other's dealings. He said Mujuru is actually protecting
the first family and the first family is protecting him.

      According to the M & G report, police insiders have said no top chef
in the Cabinet or ZANU-PF's politburo can be arrested or prosecuted without
a directive from Mugabe. The police and Attorney General are said to adhere
to this, but the impunity enjoyed by some is raising eyebrows as the race
for Mugabe's position when he retires intensifies.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Mugabe running out of begging options as fuel supplies dwindle

      By Tererai Karimakwenda
      24 November 2006

      The Independent newspaper reports that Robert Mugabe's recent trip to
Iran was a desperate bid to secure fuel by mortgaging Zimbabwe's mineral
resources. This would not be the first time that Mugabe has used the country's
mineral wealth to guarantee these ill-advised deals. His "look east" policy
allows China to rape Zimbabwe's resources and flooded the country's markets
with cheap products known as "zhing zhongs", forcing many local businesses
to shut down. And there were deals with other countries that gained access
to Zimbabwe's agricultural and mining sectors.

      In the end these deals all go sour because Mugabe can only mortgage so
much of the country's wealth. The Independent report revealed that China and
Russia had also received mineral rights in exchange for financial, trade and
investment deals, the details of which remain shrouded in secrecy. But both
countries have reportedly not given Mugabe any credit lines. Experts say the
lawless business environment that Mugabe himself created has killed any
lingering investor confidence. Soon ZANU-PF will have to travel the world
begging at the doorsteps of other rogue states.

      According to the Independent Iran proposed a number of measures to
assist Zimbabwe with fuel and oil products which the Zimbabwean delegation
welcomed. It was agreed a group of Iranian experts would be assigned to help
renovate Zimbabwe's oil refineries, after which Iran would supply crude oil
to meet the country's fuel consumption needs.
      In return the report claims Iran was promised an array of minerals.

      The list of countries to whom Mugabe has attempted to sell Zimbabwe's
natural resources is getting longer as he gets more desperate. Iran joins
Kuwait, Angola, Sudan, Nigeria and Venezuela and China.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Zimbabwe Signs Fuel Deal With Iran

ZCTF REPORT - Shearwater elephant capture

SA relaxes visa requirements

News24

24/11/2006 09:12  - (SA)

Johannesburg - South Africa has temporarily scrapped stringent visa
requirements for Zimbabweans, say reports.

It was reported that this emerged during the second session of the
Zimbabwe-South Africa Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security in
Harare.

SA Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told the session on Thursday that the two
countries' home affairs ministers would meet as a matter of urgency on the
issue of visas.

Lekota added: "Existing arrangements have been suspended. No more
(stringent) visa requirements subject to further consideration by the two
governments."

He rejected claims that Zimbabweans were fuelling crime in SA. It could not
be assumed that Zimbabweans were largely responsible for crime in SA.

Migrant workers 'arrested, deported'

The minister said: "There is nothing to suggest that Zimbabweans are
exclusive to crime problems we have. It's not the position of the government
of SA."

Lekota also touched on complaints by Zimbabwean migrant workers that they
were being arrested and deported each time they sought their pay from SA
employers.

The media in both countries should help by reporting on the disadvantages
and dangers of working illegally in any country.

Lekota said it was important for Zimbabweans to have the required documents
to work in SA for them to avoid the embarrassment of being rounded up and
deported.

Low wages paid to Zimbabwean workers without proper documents negatively
affected the SA labour market as many employers now chose to underpay their
staff.

Lekota said Southern African Development Community countries were working on
an integrated economic vision, which would see workers in the sub-region
enjoying equal rights.

He said: "We want a common regime that protects workers' rights."

Prof Mugabe's course in basic economics

Business Day

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST-year economics students - and budding politicians - should all be
obliged to visit Zimbabwe for a crash course on what can happen when you get
the basics wrong.

Veteran Zimbabwean political commentator Eddie Cross, whose regular e-mails
are one of the few remaining sources of first-hand information on how people
are suffering under Mugabeonomics, reported this week that dairy farmers had
stopped sending their milk to market. Also, many retail chains had removed
cooking oil from their shelves and sent them back to the manufacturers.

This rather odd behaviour can be explained by Zimbabwe's price controls,
which Cross says have been enforced with more rigour lately. Since in many
cases the controlled retail prices are lower than the producers can make
them for, it makes no sense for retailers to stock them.

The price-controlled goods are invariably basic necessities such as bread,
maize meal and milk that people cannot do without, so they inevitably find
their way on to the black market, where they fetch far higher prices than
the retailers would have sold them for had they been allowed to do so.

Ironically, the ostensible reason for the price controls is to keep a lid on
inflation. Yet, as Cross points out, with the official inflation rate at
over 1000%, retailers must make more from each consignment that comes in to
be able to buy new stocks, for which they have to pay ever higher prices.

Zanu PF star players in corruption game

New Zimbabwe

By Tendai Biti, MP
Last updated: 11/25/2006 00:32:27
AS THE Zimbabwean economy shrinks and as we continue to experience
continuous and persistent negative growth rates, one thing that is not
shrinking is the massive looting and corruption that now characterises the
State and senior officials in Zanu PF.
In failed States such as Zimbabwe, the State becomes an arena and vehicle
for personal aggrandisement.

Not only that, the State and the economy are cannibalised and vulturised
through a systematic and well-oiled machinery of asset-stripping. Indeed, in
present-day Zimbabwe, patronage, clientelism and rent-seeking activities
have become a national religion.

It is an indictment on the regime that 26 years after independence, Zimbabwe
is now ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with a ranking
of 159 out of the most corrupt states.

The International Anti-Corruption Index gives Zimbabwe the henous index of
2.6 which in the SADC region is only "bettered" by the DRC. In reality, this
means thatonly 20 cents out of every $1 paid by the taxpayer is used for
legitimate national causes. The rest is haemorraged through overt and covert
acts of corruption.

The recent revelations at Ziscosteel in which the country's two vice
Presidents and other ministers have been named and shamed, reflects a
crudity in the magnitude of corruption in Zimbabwe. It representative
primitive accumulation without standard, without national objective, without
rationale and without morality. The looting of funds and the bribery scams
at ZUPCO are an ugly reflection of this unmitigated aggrandisement.

The importation of fake fertiliser, the pruchase of useless and substandard
aircraft from China are all reflections of the self-sustaining madness and
momentum of this corruption, a momentum and force which leaves no one in
government innocent.

The land reform programme has been nothing but a massive transfer of assets
to cronies and proxies of the ruling regime. The importation of fuel has
become an arena in which Zanu PF sharks swim at each others' throats. All
major parastatals, in particular GMB, NOCZIM, NRZ, ZINWA, ARDA, Air
Zimbabwe, Net One and TelOne, have become "automated teller machines" (ATM).
Of these ATMs probably, the biggest one is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).

Local authorities, chief among them the city of Harare, have traditionally
proved to be the hunting grounds of the ruling elite. They have thus taken a
double battering from corrupt councils and residents in the allocation of
stands and other services.

The most disturbing element about corruption in Zimbabwe is that it has
undermined the value of education and clean hard work ethics. The youths
watch daily as as lazy, incompetent and corrupt people make it to the top of
the social ladder through patronage and clientelism and not through
education and hard work. This complete Zanunisation of the moral fabric of
our society, more than the state of the economy and the barbaric murders of
the innocent over the years, will remain Robert Mugabe's biggest dislegacy.

Equally unacceptable is the culture of impunity that exists in the State.
The kleptocratic State does not have the political will and technical
capacity of dealing with corruption. The thousands who have looted farms,
the War Victims Compensation Fund, the Pay for Your House Scheme and the
diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to roam the
country in their air-conditioned Mercedes Benzes.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is a lame duck legally defined to be impotent
and further disabled by ;ack of independence and institutional resources.

As the MDC, it is our firm belief that the only way to deal with corruption
is by addressing the political question first. Zanu PF is corruption itself
and the only solution is a new, democratic Constituion, followed by free and
fair elections under international supervision. Without this, not only will
corruption multiply, but so too will the deterioration of the State and the
slow death of the same.

Tendai Biti, MP, is the secretary general of the MDC faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai

Report Card: Human Rights Council in Downward Spiral

UNwatch

      Geneva, Nov. 24, 2006 - In advance of Monday's renewed session of the
UN Human Rights Council, UN Watch today released a report card that warned
of a downward spiraling of the body formed only six months ago.  The
Geneva-based monitoring organization also issued recommendations for
concerted action by democracies to stop the council's regression.

      UN Watch appealed to High Commissioner Louise Arbour to urgently
intervene by taking a more vocal role to ensure council action against
ethnic killings in places like Darfur and Iraq, as well as for victims of
political and religious repression in China, Cuba and Zimbabwe, and in
another 20 countries having the worst human rights abuses.

      The UN Watch report card assessed the council's recent performance in
detail and gave the following grades:

        a.. Ending politicization and selectivity:  FAIL
        b.. Addressing gross human rights violations:  FAIL
        c.. Establishing effective mechanisms:  NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
        d.. Ensuring robust NGO participation:  SATISFACTORY
        e.. Creating a new culture of dialogue and cooperation: POOR
        f.. Championing the UN Charter's democratic values:  POOR

      According to UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, despite high
expectations following the reform adopted in March, "the new council has
replaced the former commission, but remains a place where the foxes are
asked to guard the chickens."  Neuer said the 47-nation body "has failed to
take any action on genocide in Darfur, mass killings of Shiites and Sunni in
Iraq, or repression in Belarus, China, Zimbabwe, or to scrutinize any other
of the serial abusers that require immediate attention."  Instead, said
Neuer, contrary to the repeated appeals of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
for objectivity and universality, "the Council has devoted 100% of its
censure powers to one-sided condemnations of Israel, in four
country-specific resolutions and three special sessions."  It has yet to
pass a resolution or convene a special session against any other state.
"Victims of human rights violations around the world were promised change
and they deserve it."

      Neuer said that "abuser states have been more proactive, better
organized, and more cohesive than the liberal democracies and as a result
have consistently dominated the debate.  The Council's human rights
supporting states must immediately redouble their energy and start working
together to retake the Council, before it is too late."

       UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993
to monitor UN compliance with the
      principles of its Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative
      Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an
Associate NGO to the UN Department
      of Public Information.

Harare-Maputo flight grounded

      November 24, 2006

      By www.andnetwork .com

      AIR ZIMBABWE has put on hold plans to re-introduce a direct flight
between Harare and Maputo after failing to meet the crew complement.

      The flight was expected to begin on December 1, along with the
Harare-Kariba flight.

      Air Zimbabwe chairman Mr Mike Bimha indicated in the last issue of Air
Zimbabwe in-house magazine, The SkyHost, that the national airline would
re-introduce the Harare-Maputo flight to for the convenience for
businesspeople travelling between the two neighbouring countries as well as
enhancing tourist traffic.

      "We have put the flight on hold probably until next year. We have
problems in the crew complement and we have also established that we need to
further market the route before resuming the flight," airline spokesperson
Mr David Mwenga said in an interview.

      The Harare-Maputo flight was suspended in the mid-1980s and has gone
unserviced since then.

      However, the resumption of the Kariba flight will proceed as planned
on December 1. On the same day, Mr Mwenga revealed that Air Zimbabwe will
launch a new route -Harare-Lusaka - and London twice a week in a
code-sharing partnership deal with Zambia Sky Airways.

      The partnership deal is expected to be signed next week. Under the
deal, Air Zimbabwe will also fly the Harare-Lusaka- Lilongwe-Dubai route.

      Mr Mwenga said the national airline had decided to embrace Zambia Sky
Airway in the code-sharing partnership deal signed between Air Zimbabwe and
Air Malawi in July this year to achieve economies of scale.

      Air Zimbabwe and Air Malawi are also expected to sign another
code-sharing partnership deal that will see Air Zimbabwe flying between
Harare, Lilongwe and London and back once a week.

      "This will enable us to enhance foreign currency generation, improve
partnership in the region and minimise operational costs," said Mr Mwenga.

      www.herald.co.zw

Zim civic groups gather in Johannesburg

New Zimbabwe

By Daniel Fortune Molokele
Last updated: 11/24/2006 10:23:37
ON SATURDAY November 25, all roads lead to the Holy Trinity Church in
Braamfontein in Johannesburg.

The church's conference hall will be the venue of the second ever Annual
General Meeting of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Civic Society Organisations Forum.

The Forum is a network of at least 28 different Zimbabwean civic society
groups that are based in South Africa.

It was formally launched on November 27, 2005, with an initial membership of
about 18 different Zimbabwean CSOs.

The Forum seeks to co-ordinate the Zimbabwean CSOs common vision and
strategy in the struggle for a new democratic dispensation in Zimbabwe. The
vision of the forum is of a democratic Zimbabwean society where all citizens
are able to participate in all decision-making processes that have an impact
on their lives be it at home or abroad.

The mission of the forum is to promote civil society by uniting and
strengthening the CSO sector to enable it to influence development policy
and advocate for a new prosperous and democratic Zimbabwe.

The strategic objectives for the Forum have been formulated as follows:

. The establishment of a strong and vibrant Zimbabwean civil society in the
Diaspora that is well suited to serving the interests of the poor through
building the capacity of the CSO sector;

. To influence development policies in Zimbabwe, and have ensured that all
government programmes and policies effectively serve the needs and interests
of all the nation's citizens.

This weekend's indaba is expected to have at least 60 participants since
each member organisation is expected to send two representatives. Added to
that, several prominent Zimbabwean activists and public personalities have
also been invited in their personal capacities as observers.

There will also be some participants from the local South African NGOs that
are actively involved in the solidarity campaigns for a new democratic
Zimbabwe.

The AGM is a non-elective one and as such will not feature the emotional
hype and innuendos of electioneering. Elections will be held next year since
the Executive Committee has a two year term of office system.

That aside, the AGM is still likely to be an emotive one since there are
various debatable issues on the agenda. These include among others, the
Chairperson/Cordinator report, Treasurer's report, solidarity speeches,
among other issues.

However, it is the agenda item that has its focus on the proposed first ever
global Diaspora conference that might steal the limelight this weekend. It
is anticipated that the historic event will be held in Johannesburg, South
Africa sometime in 2007.

The Diaspora conference will seek to create a global platform that will
discuss both the short and long term role of the millions of Zimbabweans now
living outside the country.

The Diaspora conference will seek to create a global platform that will
discuss both the short and long term role of the millions of Zimbabweans now
living outside the country. Some of the major outcomes of the conference
include the following:

. The setting up of a global forum and leadership for all Zimbabwean
institutions and organizations that are based in the Diaspora. The global
will also have national and continental chapters all over the Diaspora.

. The adoption of a visionary policy document that will help to define the
role of the Diaspora in the political and socio-economic development of
Zimbabwe from both a long term and short term perspective.

. A critical and thorough analysis of both the opportunities and challenges
that are affecting Zimbabweans now living in the Diaspora

This process is meant to benefit the people of Zimbabwe back at home. A well
organized and co-ordinated Diaspora is most likely to make strategic
interventions on both the political and socio-economic development of
Zimbabwe.

Daniel Molokele is a Zimbabwean Human Rights Lawyer who is based in
Johannesburg. He can be contacted at zimvirtualnation@yahoo.com

Zimbabwe nurses union won't intervene in Australia crisis

New Zimbabwe

By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 11/24/2006 12:27:16
THE Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZNA) will not step into the brewing storm
between Australia and Zimbabwean nurses who are being investigated over
forgery claims, an official said Thursday.

New Zimbabwe.com revealed last week that the Australian Nursing and
Midwifery Council (ANMC) had ordered a stop to the recruitment of new nurses
from Zimbabwe until checks on thousands of nurses already in the country are
completed.

In a message posted on its website, the Australian Nursing Council said:
"The ANMC is currently not processing or accepting applications from
Zimbabwe nurses. We have recently received advice from the Nursing Council
of Zimbabwe that fraudulent verifications have been issued.

"An investigation is being conducted by the ANMC in conjunction with Nursing
and Midwifrey Regulatory Authorities into these matters. Until the ANMC has
been assured that the information received is authentic and accurate, no
applications will be processed or accepted."

The New Zealand Nursing Council, meanwhile, is said to be sending a
representative to Zimbabwe to meet Nursing Council of Zimbabwe (NCZ)
officials and discuss the forgery claims.

The ZNA -- the trade union body for public sector nurses -- on Thursday said
none of its members had reported concerns about the Australian investigation
and it would not be intervening.

Doreen Choruma, the ZNA spokeswoman said: "We have yet to get any
communication from our members affected by the Australian developments. I am
sure if any of them were stranded, they would communicate with us."

Choruma suggested that some of the information coming from the Australian
authorities might be "propaganda", without elaborating.

The Nursing Council of Zimbabwe (NCZ), meanwhile, has not yet issued a
public statement following claims that it sparked the whole investigation by
claiming that tens of nurses may have forged their Certificates of Good
Standing -- a prerequisite for nurses in Commonwealth countries to have
before they are allowed to practise.

A woman answering the NCZ phones on Thursday said she had no permission to
comment. She said there would be no official comment until Friday.

Several Zimbabwean nurses have contacted New Zimbabwe.com in the past week
to complain about delays by the NCZ in issuing Certificates of Good
Standing. This may have forced some nurses desperate to quit Zimbabwe to
forge their papers, they said.

So far, Australian authorities have revealed that two women were suspended
from direct care in South Australia after their Certificates of Good
Standing we found to be fraudulent.

The Australians have not suggested that unqualified Zimbabweans may have
been allowed to practise.

But for nurses found to have acquired some papers outside official channels,
the prospects look grim.

Nurses who have been denied registration can be blacklisted, making it
difficult for them to work in any Commonwealth country.

Some Zimbabwean nurses in Australia are worried about the effects of the
publicity around the investigation on their relationship with patients.
Unconfirmed reports say at one hospital, some elderly patients put newspaper
cuttings about the probe on a notice board and refused to be seen by a
Zimbabwean nurse.

One nurse said: "The worst thing is that the Zimbabwean nurses in Australia
have no representation. If there could be some union that can clarify all
this
with the council and state facts as they are, then it will be possible to
save thousands of Zimbabweans from going home in the next few weeks.

"We really have less than a week to come up with something like a Zimbabwe
nurses society in Australia. Maybe it could help."

Australia, meanwhile, is thought to be considering new moves to force
foreign nurses to undergo a period of unpaid supervised practise for three
months starting in January next year.

Alongside the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, Australia tops
the list of destinations for Zimbabwean professionals, political refugees
and economic migrants driven away by a failing economy at home.

Harare Magistrate Dismisses Charges Against Zimbabwean Activist

VOA

By Jonga Kandemiiri
      Washington
      24 November 2006

A Harare magistrate cleared National Constitutional Assembly Chairman
Lovemore Madhuku of charges that he organized an illegal protest early this
month. Magistrate Chip Matibiri ruled there was no evidence he had organised
the demonstration.

Madhuku, charged under Zimbabwe's draconian Public Order and Security Act,
was free on bial and represented by attorney Alec Muchadehama, who argued
that the demonstration was organised by the NCA as an entity, not by Madhuku
himself.

The state argued there was reasonable suspicion he committed the offence as
some protesters came from rural areas, indicating an organized effort.

Madhuku told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for  Zimbabwe the
decision frees him to devote more time to the NCA and pursue further
action - the National Constitutional Assembly seeks a sweeping rewrite of
the constitution.