• More Zimbabwean workers survive on less than US$1/day
• ZBC throws lavish dinner for Gideon Gono
• Measures needed to prevent collapse
• Domestic debt soars again
• Zimdollar now worth one cent
• Made at it again. . .
• Why doctors demand 'black market' salaries
• EU condemns rights abuses, use of force in Zimbabwe
• Foreign ministers call for "constructive engagement"
• Oryx and Harare secret gem partners, court told
• Water crisis deepens
• Zim needs 27 000 more tractors for ploughing
• Mugabe must fix human rights record, says Howard
• Bid to oust Commonwealth chief
• What happened to our dignity?
• Military Coup
• MDC PRESS: SADC Leaders Should Focus On Making The Abuja CHOGM A Success
• Byo SPCA
• Harare priest takes on the Bishop

Using the parallel rate which is now widely accepted as the market rate it
means that the bulk of workers in Zimbabwe are now living on less than
US$0,30 a day. The international standard is at least US$1 a day.

The breadbasket for a family of six is now worth $560 000 a month which is
far more than most workers are paid per month.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said the situation was
deteriorating every month and the country's average minimum wage is now far
below international standards.

"Zimbabweans are starting to doubt whether it is worth going to work at all.
It is a sad scenario where your salary cannot even take you home," said
ZCTU's public relations department.

"The government gazetted minimum wage has not changed since the start of
this year. Yet things are changing, inflation is eroding the worker's
earnings," said the labour group.

Newly elected president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC)
Luckson Zembe said the workforce is sinking into poverty.

"We have a workforce that is sinking deeper and deeper into misery each day
they go to work," said Zembe.

"We need to gradually move towards the international standard of at least
US$1 a day, otherwise we will have a poverty stricken and malnutritioned
worker who will obviously fail to perform.

"What we have here is not a minimum wage but a poverty wage that should be
reviewed immediately for the benefit of the employer and the business,"
Zembe said.

Although government has stuck to the minimum wage gazetted this year, most
companies have since reviewed wage levels.

The new wages which according to ZCTU average $100 000 a month still fall
short of the standard and the poverty datum line.

They are still far below the required international standards.

The International Labour Organisation had not commented on the issue by
yesterday.

Analysts say Zimbabwe's labour relations situation is likely to worsen in
the near future courtesy of simmering conflict between employer and employee
over salaries.

Job actions have become a common sight in Zimbabwe.

The health delivery system is on its knees due to the ongoing strike by
doctors and nurses.

The postal system has also been affected by the perennial strikes by
workers.

Government last week announced a massive $3,18 trillion wage bill for wages
and salaries in the civil services.

The ZBC and Zimpapers are government's chief megaphones.

Analysts, however, disputed Mutasa's impressive statistics, saying the
cash-strapped corporation could not be making that kind of money when
advertising revenue had dwindled.

They said advertisers had been kicked out of ZBC because of the new
political regime led by government chief spokesman Jonathan Moyo.

Moyo also attended the dinner but did not give a speech.

Gono, who was chief executive officer of the government-influenced Jewel
Bank, told invited guests that he had been in control at the ZBC at a time
when things were very tough.

He said in April and May last year ZBC had almost collapsed.

"The company could not pay its bills and we had to bail them out," Gono
said. "The company was simply sinking in debt."

He said he decided to devise survival strategies at the ZBC.

"It takes a village to raise a child," Gono said. "We had to bite the bullet
when we moved into ZBC. There were those who thought they were Mr or Mrs ZBC
and we had to deal with them. It was a trying period to have to deal with
retrenchments at ZBC."

The corporation underwent a retrenchment period whereby it offloaded 60% of
its staff.

Senior staff, some of which had worked for more than 25 years at the
corporation, were booted out.

The ZBC had to go to its bankers to acquire money for the retrenchments.
Workers told businessdigest that to date however the majority of the workers
have still to receive the million-dollar retrenchment packages.

The ZBC kicked out senior veteran journalists such as Musi Khumalo who had
worked for the corporation for 25 years, Annan Maruta (21 years) and chief
executive officer Luke Munyawarara who had been only two years at the
corporation's helm.

"It was very emotional during this period and we had to go through a period
of blood sweat and tears," Gono said. "Some senior members of staff were
going to politicians, even to the president to try and not be retrenched but
we as a board said there were no sacred cows. We simply said the company is
more important than the individual."

The incoming RBZ governor said he would look back at ZBC and say he had
managed to do his best.

"I tell them that they must not look to the RBZ and think all the revenue
will be coming from there," he said.

Gono said despite Jonathan Moyo's "tough character" he had managed to work
"very well with him" during his tenure as ZBC boss.

Commenting on his new appointment probably for the first time before taking
office, Gono said as RBZ governor he was not allowed to speak too often
because his sentiments could affect the country's financial sector.

"I have been told that anything I say can affect the stock market," Gono
said. "I can tell you that I will only speak twice every year - in June and
in December. When you see me in town just wave at me because I will not have
anything to say to anyone."

He said the job at the RBZ needed to be done and he would not leave it for
miracles.

"I have policies and I will be implementing them. If however there are
mistakes made I should not be the only person to be blamed."

Analysts said he would simply rubber-stamp Zanu PF out-dated rhetoric and
would not change anything at the central bank.

Meanwhile, ZBC chief executive officer Munyaradzi Hwengwere said he was also
bidding farewell to the corporation after a "short stint" as boss. He did
not say where he was heading. "I'll be farming somewhere in Goromonzi,"
Hwengwere said.

Manufacturers, mining companies, farmers and companies in the tourism
industry are all struggling with the consequences of government's policy
choices.

Commercial, banking and financial services and employment levels in all
areas of the economy will be even more drastically affected if no changes to
the policies are made.

We have a government that claims to be left wing or socialist. Normally a
left-wing government will claim that its policies are designed to side
vigorously with labour in any conflict that labour has with employers.

To put the usual pattern into just a few words, socialist or left wing
governments say that workers need to be helped in their never-ending
conflict with employers.

Workers' unions therefore automatically team up with government to put
employers in their place.

Right wing or conservative governments' policies are usually directed more
towards the interests of employers.

For them, the basic belief is that if employers are well placed and
successful but have to compete for their markets as well as for good
employees, they will do a better job of looking after workers than the
government can.

No doubt, politicians from every point across the spectrum from hard left to
hard right would claim that they are trying to ensure employees get a fair
deal.

However, few people have pointed out that this objective appears to have
been forgotten by Zimbabwe's ruling party politicians in the last few years.

This amounts to a significant change in this relationship. This belief that
government is on the side of labour is so deeply seated that very few people
have openly discussed the natural alliance that has emerged between workers
and employers.

Both groups have come to see themselves - and each other - as equal victims
of very rough treatment from government. The policies that have emerged are
equally hostile to the interests of both groups.

This is one aspect of the deconstruction of labour relations that has taken
place. Government has been careful not to make a public issue of this fact
but was very disturbed by the development.

It reacted to it by withdrawing its recognition of the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) and trying to impose in its place a new national labour
movement.

Perhaps we should have anticipated that government would support an
alternative labour movement when the ZCTU was seen to be helping to form an
alternative political party.

But whatever all of us could or should have foreseen, we need to accept that
government now wants labour to feel it has become a political football so
that it will turn to government for protection.

By attacking businesses government has caused the most serious losses of
jobs ever experienced in this country. Job security and steady growth in
employment opportunities featured strongly in this government's party
manifesto but just about everything government has done in recent years is
in conflict with that objective.

Immediately after the land policy was announced, confidence in the economy
slumped and that drastically reduced productive investment.

Employment growth depends on significant investment so employment growth
came to a stop and then went into reverse.

The Zimbabwe dollar was also an immediate casualty. When your currency falls
import costs rise and local prices rise. Demand for some goods goes down and
jobs are lost from among the workers who used to make those goods or used to
supply the materials to make those goods.

As the official pronouncements always claim that the blame lies outside the
administration, all policy proposals and decisions are still being directed
away from dealing with - or even identifying - the root causes.

With few exceptions, the economic measures proposed have been designed to
put the blame on others.

This means that the ruling party is determined to suppress or otherwise
prevent the dissemination of the politically painful truth at all costs. The
latest casualty has been the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday.

The basic truth being suppressed is simply that every one of the country's
economic difficulties has its origins in the political choices made and that
every employee in the country is a victim.

Consequently, all the economic problems now require a sequence of political
steps to repair the damage done.

However, considerable financial assistance will be needed to place Zimbabwe
onto a recovery path, not least because the bulk of the country's savings,
which might have funded a large part of the recovery, have been dissipated
through government's recurrent expenditure.

The international help needed will not be offered to the current
administration, so Zimbabwe's recovery is conditional upon our first making
far-reaching political changes that allow the country to requalify for that
help.

Alternatively, Zimbabwe could continue on its present course, which has
already brought about the destruction of a substantial proportion of what
was a complex and functioning economy.

The consequences of remaining on this course will be increasingly profound
economic devastation.

Having already achi-eved a cut in manufacturing output of about 35%, the
policies will further de-industrialise the economy.

The economy's isolation from all investment flows will reduce the
effectiveness of any businesses that survive

Agricultural output, particularly in respect of export commodities and food,
has suffered a much sharper decline.

Further shrinkages are in progress as, without the effective backing from
support manufacturers and services, the viability of much of commercial
agriculture has fallen away

Through the destruction of property rights and the cancellation of the
collateral value of farmland, the prospects of a recovery under the new
agrarian policies are remote in the extreme.

The dismantling of the linkages between farmers and the financial services
sector is certain to marginalise even the best of the resettled farmers.

Already more than a million economically active people have migrated to
improve their earnings prospects. The loss of skills is one of the causes of
falling productivity and is threatening the viability of many companies.

On its current course, Zimbabwe's population will prove to be too big to be
provided for by an economy that has been drastically reduced in size.

Whether planned or not, the combination of further emigration, a rising
infant mortality rate, a shorter life expectancy and government's continued
hostility to descendants of non-Zimbabweans might lead to the population
falling sufficiently to fit this dull subsistence economic model.

In such an outcome, government might be expected to more decisively work at
reducing the power of the trade unions and to bring the business sector
under more comprehensive controls.

These possibilities describe the evolution of circumstances so unpleasant
that it might be assumed the population will strenuously oppose them. The
very poor business climate might thus be made more uncomfortable by frequent
periods of civil unrest.

Government's response is likely to be further repression, as it will be
unable to solve problems.

Zimbabwe's trauma has already slowed the economic growth of the entire
southern African region and might soon cause a severe decline in investor
interest in neighbouring countries.

If these possibilities are considered unacceptable, a few basic facts can be
presented to outline the options before us.

Zimbabwe cannot hope to achieve a recovery within a reasonable time without
considering foreign assistance.

Under current self-imposed political con-ditions, Zimbabwe does not qualify

for any form of assistance, other than the grudging recognition that
humanitarian aid is essential if innocent lives are to be saved.

The current political leadership constitutes the major barrier preventing
the country from obtaining help from support bodies and potential donors.

The current leadership therefore needs to stand down to permit new elections
and the appointment of new administrators who can earn the respect of the
international community.

To earn this respect, the new leadership and administrators must fully
accept the need to quickly restore all the civil and property rights that
have been compromised or destroyed.

Help from abroad will be severely discouraged if conflict develops between
employers and employees.

Workers' best interests are likely to be served by persuading them that they
should help sustain conditions within which their employers can survive.

Those living a precarious existence in the informal economy and those who
are unemployed are experiencing an increased need for welfare.

The informal sector, now almost as important as the formal sector, needs
urgent help to restructure its operations as formal businesses that do not
depend upon black market activities.

Advance warning and careful planning will be needed to prevent the adoption
of appropriate economic policies from having excessively harsh consequences
for heavily indebted businesses.

From the employers' point of view, the experience of falling turnover,
narrower profit margins and steep increases in the costs of all inputs has
left most of them with few options. Any improvements in the business
environment will have to be supported by investment-led growth and the
development or new export markets.

If the country is to experience better rates of economic growth in the
coming years, investment spending will have to lead the way.

This immediately highlights the need for lower inflation, moderate interest
rates and conditions that will help stabilise the exchange rate. The
exacting standards of good fiscal management and good economic planning will
have to take over completely from the slap-dash policies of
government-sanctioned looting and pillaging that we have seen in the last
five or six years.

Perhaps employers and workers should now be consolidating their alliance to
better permit them to defend themselves against government and to reach
working arrangements that they could now agree will not be altered by
government intervention.

A vigorous exercise in forward-looking policy formulation is now essential,
partly because the world's investors have never been more difficult to
impress and partly because Zimbabwe has recently burdened itself with a
serious credibility problem.

If we do manage a political turnaround the country will be coming into the
investment scene from a very long way behind.

We will be rejected as an investment option unless our policies and
attitudes can be shown to be outstanding.

Good labour relations are there essential.

-John Robertson is an economic consultant. He made these comments at the
recent IPMZ briefing on labour relations.

MDC Shadow Minister for Finance Tapiwa Mashakada said government does not
have fiscal discipline.

"Neither does it possess the know-how and political will to do so," he said.
"For it is common knowledge that over the past years government has failed
to live within its means. Extravagance with public resources has been the
hallmark of its fiscal stance."

"Inflation has escalated sharply in the last three years, rising from an
average of 55% in 2000, to 455,6% by September," the RBZ said. "This has
significantly eroded the purchasing power of currency - one dollar in 1995
is now worth less than a cent, at current price levels."

The high inflation levels have forced the central bank to print new $1 000
notes and bearer's cheques in $5 000, $10 000 and $20 000 denominations.

However, due to the serious foreign currency shortage the RBZ is now
concentrating on bearer cheques and has allegedly dumped the printing of
notes.

Economists point out that this has increased inflation because there are too
many cheques chasing too few goods.

Former RBZ governor Leonard Tsumba, when introducing the $500 note and the
$5 coin in August 2001, said very high inflation had significantly eroded
the value of money in circulation.

He said then that for example, a 1990-dollar was only worth six cents.

Tsumba said this had dramatically increased the cost of supplying notes and
coins and was hurting budgetary provisions.

Zimbabwe now has a $1 000 note - the highest since Independence.

Tsumba said the increase in inflation from 15,5% in 1990 to 22% in 1995
necessitated the introduction of high bank note denominations - the $50 note
in March 1994 and the $100 note in January 1995.

The former governor said the surge in inflation to 64,4% by June 2001 had
further increased the public's demand for higher currency denominations and
a notable increase in the usage of the $100, thus the introduction of the
$500 note.

The RBZ said during the week ending September 19 the Zimbabwe dollar
depreciated by between 0,6% and 1,2% against other major trading partner
currencies.

The dollar remains pegged at $824 against the greenback.

"We know the saboteurs," Made said. "They are now hiding combine harvesters
in warehouses. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, former farmers are holding on to
them to sabotage the country."

The minister said government was trying its "level best" to deal with the
issue of property rights because this had been raised by some commercial
farmers who are challenging their eviction notice in court.

"We will however amend the Land Act," Made said.

There are high ethical standards in the medical profession. The Hippocratic
oath is a mere summary of these ethics. Doctors are expected to be
dedicated, compassionate, diligent, enduring. They are supposed to represent
all that is good. Circumstances in Zimbabwe's hospitals test these human
qualities to the limit. Drugs are scarce, even the most life saving of them.
Patients have to buy most drugs from the private sector and a significant
number cannot afford these drugs.

Diagnostic equipment is rundown, obsolete or simply not available.
Paramedical and nursing departments are short-staffed, workers are
overworked, underpaid and demoralised. How then can they provide coordinated
and efficient patient care? Add to all this the usual plagues of government
institutions: corruption, inefficiency and bureaucracy. Doctors are
demoralised and frustrated.

All around them is the greatest plague of our day: Aids. I am not so sure
about the Minister of Health's statements that HIV infection rates are
falling. Hospitals are teeming with HIV positive patients. Aids is incurable
but there are drugs that improve the quality of life for these patients. Our
hospitals hardly ever have these drugs. If the country's doctors were well
paid would they not be motivated to research and find a cure for this
disease?

After five difficult years in a medical school undergoing vigorous training,
young doctors come face to face with the collapsed health care system. Our
state hospitals are in ruin and working in them is a gloomy experience.
Everyday doctors face the realistic chance of accidental infection with the
HIV at work. Our hospitals constantly run out of gloves, antiseptics, needle
bins and protective clothing. Accidental needle pricks are a reality doctors
face.

Besides HIV, there is also the deadly Hepatitis B virus and many other
infections that can be transmitted this way. The prophylactic antiretroviral
drugs are hardly ever available. So our underpaid, traumatised young doctors
go through life trying to dodge HIV infection both at work and in their own
private lives! How are doctors supposed to cope with all this and then
struggle with the daily routine of shortages in the black market economy?

Despite being ready and willing to negotiate, the doctors have been ignored
or intimidated by the authorities. There have rarely been negotiations with
the Public Service Commission to preempt strikes. If the authorities use the
same logic that allowed them to conclude that the cabinet deserved a 1 000%
salary adjustment earlier in the year, then why not let the same laws of
logic hold true for its downtrodden doctors?

-Hughes Makoni is a junior doctor based in Bulawayo.

      Browne said that in 1998, the Congolese government offered the
Zimbabwean defence force (ZDF) the mining concession in return for help
during its civil war.

      The ZDF approached Oryx, which set up a joint venture with a ZDF
company called Osleg, of which the ZDF commander, General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, and the country's defence secretary, Job Whabira, were
directors.

      However, plans for Oryx to float on London's financial markets in May
2000 were abandoned after City regulators warned of the "utter
unacceptability of a London listing for a company involved with the
Zimbabwean military in the exploitation of diamonds in a conflict zone", he
told the court.

      Last year Oryx received £500 000 from the British Broadcasting
Corporation over an untrue allegation that a shareholder was linked to
al-Qaeda.

      JOHANNESBURG - Sri Lanka has named a candidate to challenge
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon for a new term in a move that
could rock next month's summit of the 54-member group, diplomats say.

      The December 5-8 summit in Nigeria has already been overshadowed by
debate over the exclusion of Zimbabwe, and one diplomat linked Sri Lanka's
move to that controversy.

      New Zealand's McKinnon has led a group of mainly white Commonwealth
members including Britain and Australia in seeking to maintain sanctions on
Zimbabwe, suspended from the group last year after charges that President
Robert Mugabe rigged his re-election.

      Several African Commonwealth members have sought to have Zimbabwe
re-admitted -- although these efforts failed this week when the summit's
host, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said Mugabe would not get an
invitation.

      McKinnon had been expected to easily secure a second four-year term at
the Abuja meeting. But yesterday a diplomatic source in Abuja said Sri Lanka
had sprung a surprise challenge by naming former Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar as an alternate candidate.

      A Commonwealth diplomat in South Africa close to the developments said
he knew of Kadirgamar's candidacy.

      "The information you have is correct. His name is being put forward,"
the diplomat said yesterday, asking not to be named.

      No comment was immediately available from the London-based
Commonwealth, whose members are mostly former British colonies.

      The diplomatic source in Abuja said Kadirgamar's candidacy was
apparently backed by South Africa, which has clashed with Britain and other
Western governments over the proper approach to Zimbabwe.

      "The Sri Lankans have sent letters to governments promoting his
candidature. We believe South Africa is behind it," the source said. "This
is Zimbabwe, once again coming to the fore, and causing quite a bit of
havoc."

      South African President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman had no immediate
comment on the Sri Lankan move but played down media reports that some
African states could boycott the summit.

      "Boycott of the Abuja meeting is categorically out of the question,"
spokesman Bheki Khumalo said.

      Speaking specifically about South Africa, he said: "We are going there
to engage with the issues, however difficult or controversial they might be.
We do not subscribe to the idea of a boycott."

      Mozambican Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao said at regional talks in
Pretoria his country would continue to back McKinnon for a new term.

      "We don't know about another candidate yet. They have not contacted
us, but we are very supportive of Don McKinnon. We think he has done a great
job and we would be supporting him in Abuja," said Simao, whose country, a
former Portuguese colony, is a late entrant to the Commonwealth club.

      - Reuters

      In 1968, a new white teacher at a mission school went to visit some
friends of overseas relatives of his.

      He borrowed an old Ford Prefect and drove to their house for dinner.
Their gardener opened the gate for him and he thanked the gardener in Shona.

      The 'madam' heard this, and from there on his evening was changed.
They did have dinner. The hosts did ask him all about his relatives, their
friends overseas.

      But they did it without warmth or enthusiasm. He came away feeling he
had not been really welcome there and he was never invited again.

      He said later that this incident brought home to him the horrors of
the settler system more than all he had heard and read about the many worse
things that happened in those days.

      I can understand that. A wise old missionary who quietly helped trade
unionists and budding nationalists hold discussion groups at that time
summed up all the terrible things he heard by saying 'they suffer from a
sense of wounded dignity'.

      That may sound mild. Weren't people suffering from being driven off
their land, from poor housing, unemployment, low pay, arbitrary police
harassment and political repression?

      Of course they were, but the one thing that united all these things
was that they were attacks on the victim's human dignity.

      That was a main pillar of the system. It denied that its victims had
any dignity. That settler family recognised that.

      Their visitor treated their gardener with ordinary politeness,
respecting his dignity, and

      that was an attack on all that their position of privilege was built
on.

      It wasn't just that he didn't know their customs: he was a threat to
all that those customs supported.

      If you recall the way that the colonial police, administrators,
commercial farmers and the whole settler community behaved when faced with
an educated African, it looks as if their attitude was based on their own
sense of insecurity.

      If one of the oppressed who was cleverer than them was a serious
threat, they must have felt his less educated friends and relatives a threat
of sorts too.

      If they treated the people they exploited as less than human, or
certainly not adults, every time they spoke to them, they helped to convince
themselves that, ignorant and ill-educated as they themselves were, 'these
people' we more so.

      This justified to themselves their keeping control and was designed to
make the oppressed feel unable to challenge that.

      If they didn't feel inferior, as they were meant to, they at least
felt powerless.

      But why, you may ask, do I go on about this ancient history? That is
all over. Those people have gone away, we have won our independence. True,
but have won our dignity?

      Are we living in less squalid conditions?

      By Magari Mandebvu

Military Coup

Somewhere in the past I read that SADC had various defense treaties under
which they would intervene if any member states were attacked or overcome by
means of  force. I assume this extends to military coups. Now in Zimbabwe we
have the present party blatantly using the army and police to rig elections
and to ensure that the democratic and civil rights of the people are denied.
The evidence for this is shown by the confessions in South Africa recently
by some ex-army senior officials, now in exile. We should also remember
statements by top army officials that they would not accept any party but
ZANU PF, before the last elections. I remember how the results of the last
rigged election were announced on TV. The registrar general was flanked by a
senior law enforcement officer and another bigwig. The way it was presented
I am sure thet the registrar would have been afraid to announce anything but
that what he was told. In the elections there were so many stories of police
and army people involved in sinister activities, from intimidation to
unlawful arrests, to frustration of the oppostion, and support of acts of
violence. Then there were rumours of helicopters ferrying secret ballot
boxes around, some ballots being destroyed. Then there is the army
involvement with farm invasions - a method to weaken opposition. The army
and police being rewarded with farms for their mercenary behaviour.
Contracts being given to senior army peoples families such as Mr Chiwengwa's
wife, state hunting concessions etc. The movement of ex army people into
senior government positions by the president. There is a daily list of
activities which are blatantly evil. Remember the bible says "the thief
comes to steal, kill and destroy" John 10:10. (We just have to look around
us on a daily basis to see this) This sounds so much like ZANU PF and should
be their slogan, as they serve the devil. What we have in Zimbabwe is a
mafia-like criminal organisation, which  has used clever military and other
means to take power and force a one party state. Using successful propaganda
techniques and playing on the race card, they have been able to do all this
under an incredible smokescreen. In light of this and so called "quiet
diplomacy" I believe that South Africa and other regional countries are
failing in their mandate to do whatever they have promised to do under the
defense treaty and they should rescue the country from this violent
takeover.

MDC PRESS

28 November 2003

SADC LEADERS SHOULD FOCUS ON MAKING THE ABUJA CHOGM A SUCCESS

Senior officials from South Africa, Mozambique and Lesotho who are meeting today under the auspices of the SADC Troika of the Organ for Politics, Defence and Security, to discuss the issue of Zimbabwe in the context of CHOGM, should focus on making the Abuja CHOGM a success. This is the direction in which African solidarity should be directed. A successful CHOGM is good for Africa.

Threats by certain members to boycott CHOGM, in a show of solidarity to the excluded Mugabe government, is a great disservice to the noble concept of African renaissance and the efforts being made by leaders such as President Obasanjo and President Mbeki to take Africa in more democratic and sustainable direction.

CHOGM represents an opportunity for Africa to collectively show case the progress our continent is making to the broader international community. A strong message can be sent out that Africa is breaking away from a past characterised by colonial exploitation, bad governance and endemic corruption. Through the AU and NEPAD we now have the potential framework, and necessary vehicle, for developing a continent characterised by good governance and sustainable development.

This strong message will become blurred if solidarity is directed towards a leader whose style of government is anathema to the concept of African renaissance. Misplaced solidarity would render the Abuja CHOGM a missed opportunity for Africa.   

Moses Mzila Ndlovu

MDC Shadow Foreign Minister

Harare priest takes on the Bishop

By Pat Ashworth

A priest in Harare has charged the Bishop of Harare, the Rt Revd Nolbert
Kunonga, with victimising him. His accusation is likely to force the
Archbishop of the Province of Central Africa to act. The Bishop is an
apologist for President Mugabe. His flagrant breaches of the canons, and his
attempts to transfer all power to himself, have led to many calls for an
inquiry into his behaviour. The priest who claims he has been victimised,
the Revd Joseph Makunga, is now bringing matters to a head in the diocese by
making a list of serious allegations against the Bishop. Enough priests and
lay communicants have now signed Mr Makunga’s list to require the
Archbishop, Dr Bernard Malango, and Dean of the Province of Central Africa
to bring the Bishop before an ecclesiastical court.

Mr Makunga, who is Rector of St Peter’s, Harare, an examining chaplain to
the Bishop, and a lecturer at Bishop Gaul Theological College, was summarily
suspended by the Bishop in August for "canonical disobedience". He has set
out his allegations in two letters to the Chancellor of the diocese, Robert
Stumbles, and is prepared to back their content in a court of law. The
charges date from the time of the presidential elections in 2002, when Mr
Makunga alleges that the Bishop tried to enlist his help in a plot to have
churchwardens and councillors at Harare Cathedral and St Luke’s, Harare,
killed by war veterans. Other allegations involve a request from the Bishop
for the transfer of $200,000 from a trust fund at All Saints’, Kadoma, into
his discretionary account. Mr Makunga concludes his first letter to Mr
Stumbles with the words: "I am not sure whether or not Canonical Obedience
entails [sic] a priest to co-operate with the Bishop in murdering the flock,
misappropriating funds, eliminating members of the Church he deems ‘not my
guys’, and preaching what he [the Bishop] prefers to be preached by a priest
every Sunday."

Mr Makunga’s second submission charts the process by which the Bishop
unilaterally removed him from office. He was suspended after asking the
Bishop, in front of the churchwardens, to state clearly what crime he had
committed. Mr Makunga declares in the letters his confidence that God will
intervene in "the mess the diocese of Harare has been plunged into".
Cathedral churchwardens and councillors, whom the Bishop took to a secular
court last year after they protested at his open support for President
Mugabe, have appealed to Dr Malango, the Archbishop. But in response to the
most recent plea for intervention, the Archbishop directed his Provincial
Secretary, the Revd Martin Mgeni, to answer: "Please note that the issue at
the cathedral is a domestic issue." Mr Stumbles, who alerted members of the
diocesan synod in September to the Bishop’s attempts to amend the diocese’s
acts and regulations in his favour, said in a letter: "It remains to be seen
how swiftly the Dean and the Archbishop of the Province act to convene an
impartial, just and fair court to hear the charges." At the time of going to
press, Dr Malango had not responded to a request for comment made by the
Church Times on Monday.