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Increased
repression predicted after snub by Commonwealth
Sunday Times Foreign
Desk
Zimbabweans should brace for
intensified repression in the wake of President
Robert Mugabe's exclusion
from the Commonwealth meeting in Nigeria later
this week, a political analyst
has warned.
Professor Brian Raftopolous, of the University of Zimbabwe's
Institute for
Development Studies, said Mugabe would be vengeful after the
snub.
"In the short- to medium-term, I see him hardening his stance
and stepping
up repression in a bid to consolidate his
position.
"He is very disappointed with his exclusion from the
Commonwealth and that
his African allies have not
protested."
Zimbabwe has been suspended from the group of former
British colonies since
March last year following a presidential election
marred by violence,
intimidation and electoral flaws.
Raftopolous,
who is also chairman of Crisis in Zimbabwe, a coalition of
civic groups
campaigning for democratic reforms, said Mugabe's recent
crackdown on trade
unions was evidence of his political direction.
Mugabe's regime last
week crushed Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
demonstrations against the
country's economic crisis and arrested protest
leaders, including 350
activists.
The crackdown left unions bruised and weakened.
A truculent Mugabe has threatened to pull his country out
of the 54-state
organisation altogether.
He said on state radio:
"If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be
readmitted into the
Commonwealth, well, we will say goodbye to the
Commonwealth, and perhaps the
time has now come to say so."
He said Zimbabwe valued its membership
of the African Union, the Southern
African Development Community and the UN
because they treated it as an
equal.
"We expect no less from the
Commonwealth if it merits our membership, if its
claim to be a club of equals
is to be sustained. And I want to see whether
that principle of equal
membership shall be sustained as we proceed to the
next session of Chogm [the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting]."
He attacked African
countries that "are apologetic about being nationalists;
fear to be Africans;
hesitate to express solidarity with us and dread to
play keeper to another
African brother".
"They allow neo-colonialists and neo-imperialists
to drive us to apologise
for representing and pursuing our interests, for
being ourselves," he said.
In reaction to Mugabe's comments,
Zimbabwe's National Constitutional
Assembly chairman and civic activist
Lovemore Madhuku said: "It's a
dangerous development. If he withdraws from
the Commonwealth he will attack
his opponents while resisting being held
accountable.
"What he is saying is that he sees nothing wrong with
what he has been doing
and would rather pull out than change to gain
readmission.
"This means continued human rights abuses and political violence."
Madhuku said Mugabe could be dealt with only through
"internal popular
resistance and defiance".
Opposition Movement
for Democratic Change MP Tendai Biti said Mugabe would
just continue
"attacking us and violating human rights on a massive
scale".
However, South Africa's Institute for Security Studies
director, Jackie
Cilliers , said Mugabe's threats were a "storm in a
teacup".
Mugabe said his country's continued suspension was the work
of the "white
Commonwealth" - particularly Britain and Australia - which have
voiced
objections to the country's land reform programme.
"Is it
the strength and power of the few whites in the Commonwealth that
should
dominate the view of the Commonwealth?" Mugabe asked, singling out
Australian
Prime Minister John Howard - who, along with the heads of Nigeria
and South
Africa, is on a Commonwealth troika on Zimbabwe - as one of those
allegedly
with a vendetta against his country.
"They tell me he's one of those
genetically modified because of the criminal
ancestry he derives from,"
Mugabe said, adding that "criminals were banished
to Australia and New
Zealand by the British".
Howard and Commonwealth Secretary-General
Don McKinnon, of New Zealand, were
instrumental in deciding to maintain
Zimbabwe's suspension beyond its expiry
after a year in March.
Sunday Mirror (Zimbabwe)
Govt hands over Zapu properties
Pamenus
Tuso
In a move widely seen as a desperate attempt to contain
increasing
discontent among former Zapu politicians within the ruling Zanu
PF,
government has returned Zapu properties which it seized from the
political
party in the 1980s, it has emerged.
During the height of the
internal conflict between Zapu, then led by the
late former vice president
Joshua “Mqabuko” Nkomo and Zanu PF in 1984,
government confiscated the
political party’s properties that included farms,
buildings and vehicles
following the discovery of an arms cache at one of
the properties. At the
time Zapu disassociated itself from the arms cache,
saying it was set up by
the government. The government, on the other hand,
by unleashing its
notorious North Korean trained fifth brigade soldiers in
both Matabeleland
and Midlands regions to ruthlessly crackdown on what it
called dissident
activities. Highly placed sources within former Zapu
circles in Bulawayo told
the Sunday Mirror last week that the returned
properties, which include The
Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo, Woolglen farm
in Mguza, West Egg farm and
Hampton farm in Gweru, were handed over to
Nitram management team. Nitram
Holdings Company was formed in 1981 by more
than 20 000 Zipra freedom
fighters. The company was bought with $50,000 they
had raised while they were
still at the Assembly points. Ex-Zipra
commanders, including the party’s
former intelligence supremo Dumiso
Dabengwa, organised the deal whose main
objective was to assist
disadvantaged Zipra cadres and their families. An ex
Zipra combatant who is
part of the team compiling an inventory on the assets
said last week: “Some
of our major assets that were at the motel and farms
disappeared. These
include refrigerators, cattle, chickens and other
livestock.” The Castle
Arms is also said to have developed a number of
architectural defects due to
lack of maintenance. Some of the properties were
placed under liquidation by
the government and only a meagre $113 000 was
realised from the liquidation
process. Although the government has formally
handed back the properties to
their rightful owners, it is understood that
the company is finding no joy
in securing legal titles to these properties.
Bulawayo politicians who spoke
to the Sunday Mirror last week questioned the
timing of this latest
government move which they say was supposed to have
been done immediately
after the signing of the unity accord in 1987. “It’s
almost 16 years after
the signing of the unity accord. Why was the government
clutching on to the
properties? Given the recent events in the party in this
region, we are
bound to suspect that the return of these properties is a last
minute bid by
government to contain increasing disgruntlement in former PF
Zapu cadres in
the unified party,” said one politician who declined to be
named. Recently,
there has been reports of squabbles with the merged party
with former PF
Zapu cadres accusing government of marginalising them and the
province. The
party also maintained that the boiling point in the simmering
acrimonious
relationship between the two factions in the ruling party was the
politburo’
s unprecedented decision last month to declare the late former
Zipra
intelligence chief, Tarcisious Swazini Ndlovu, a national hero, six
days
after his death, and when he had already been buried at Stanley Cemetery
in
Bulawayo. This politburo’s belated decision to confer Ndlovu with
national
hero status, according to senior party members from the former Zapu,
was
taken following intensive pressure from his colleagues, especially
Dabengwa,
whom the late Ndlovu worked closely with during the liberation
struggle.
“Apart from John Nkomo all former Zapu senior party members in both
the
government and war veterans from this region were united in their bid
to
lobby for Ndlovu’s national hero status. They all felt enough is
enough”,
said another party source. Speaking during Ndlovu’s burial, which
was
largely ignored by veteran politicians from the pre-unity accord Zanu
PF,
Dabengwa said, “I have no doubt that Swazini, whom we are burying now is
a
hero. We do not know this new phenomenon that one becomes a hero through
the
pen. The heroes we know are the ones who fought with a spear. Indeed, he
is
a hero.” When reached for comment last week, Dabengwa said he was
attending
the funeral of the late former Deputy minister of political affairs
and the
party’s central committee member, Norman Zikhali and will only be
able to
comment on the issue this week. Zikhali who died at his home in
Bulawayo on
Monday, was declared a national hero.
Zim Standard
$1,3bn for Zanu PF Congress
By Parker
Graham
MASVINGO — AS 5,5 million people face starvation, a mouth
watering
feast awaits delegates to next week’s Zanu PF annual People’s
National
Conference in Masvingo where state security agents will mount the
largest
security operation ever witnessed in the history of the small
town.
About 3 000 Zanu PF officials and delegates are expected to
descend on
the town on Thursday for meetings with the top party leadership,
including
President Mugabe, for four days.
Investigations by The
Standard established that at least 23 herd of
cattle will be slaughtered and
over a billion dollars spent during the
event, which political analysts say
will most likely turn out to be the
usual Zanu PF talkshops generating a lot
of hot air but not providing any
useful direction towards resolving the
country’s nagging problems.
Shortages of commodities such as fuel
persist while prices of basic
commodities continue to skyrocket beyond the
reach of the majority of
Zimbabweans. Inflation is projected to soar to 700
percent before year end,
casting a dark shadow on any hopes of relief in the
new year for the
suffering masses.
A committee charged with fund
raising for the party has so far raised
$1,3 billion, mainly from indigenous
banks, business people and farmers and
Zanu PF is expected to chip in with
several millions of dollars.The party is
understood to have spent a fortune
on party regalia that will be used at the
conference.
A Zanu PF
official close to the fundraising committee who preferred to
remain anonymous
said delegates, most of whom were coming from the rural
areas where hunger is
tightening its grip, were in for a rare treat.
“As I speak, some
donations in cash and kind are continuing to pour in
and we are convinced
that every delegate will be well fed and well looked
after,” said the
official.
The committee had set a target of $500
million.
Local hotels, lodges and transport operators are gearing
themselves
for a business boom anticipating the patronage of thousands of
Zanu PF
officials and members as well and police and army personnel likely to
be
deployed in the city for the duration of the conference.
All
hotels and lodges that were contacted by The Standard
correspondent yesterday
said they were fully booked from the 4th up to the
7th of
December.
Functions such as weddings and business meetings that had
been
scheduled to take place at the Masvingo Civic Centre and some hotels
have
all been cancelled to make way for the conference.
By
yesterday, several police details, the army and the dreaded
operatives of the
Central Intelligence Organisations had been deployed in
Masvingo to “make
necessary security arrangement that will make the
conference a
success”.
However, insiders say apart from sloganeering and empty
speeches, not
much was expected out of the gathering.
A copy of
the programme of events shows that the conference opens with
Masvingo
provincial governor Josiah Hungwe welcoming delegates. Speaker of
parliament
and Zanu PF’s secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa,
will then
present delegates, province-by-province to the presidium after
which Mugabe
will deliver his keynote address and table the report of the
central
committee.
The session will end with the reading of “solidarity
messages” from
Zanu PF’s friends and supporters from various coutries. This
will be
followed by a closed session during which delegates will discuss the
land
reform, the state of the economy and international
relations.
Zanu PF spokesman Dr Nathan Shamuyarira refused to talk
to The
Standard about the congress.
Zim Standard
MDC alleges voter intimidation during Kadoma by
election
By our own staff
VOTING in the Kadoma by election
started at a slow pace yesterday amid
reports that war veterans and Zanu PF
youths were intimidating supporters of
the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
MDC candidate, Charles Hokoyo Mpandawana, is battling it
out with Zanu
PF’s Tichafa Mutema, to fill a seat left vacant following the
death of
opposition legislator Austin Mpandawana.
There were
reports yesterday that war veterans had fired shots to
scare MDC youths at
Kanyemba Polling Station early in the morning but they
could not be
independently verified.
Electoral Supervisory Commission
spokesperson, Thomas Bvuma, confirmed
hearing about a shooting
incident.
“I have heard about it but I have not been able to
confirm it because
that particular polling station is out of town,” said
Bvuma.
He said elsewhere the atmosphere was quiet and calm and that
there was
a “fairly good turn-out” of voters. He estimated that at least 30
percent of
registered voters cast their votes at the 21 polling stations set
up in the
constituency.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
yesterday said he had not
received any information on the shooting.
Zim Standard
‘Bush degree’ brings Mugabe face to face with
reality
By Richard Musazulwa
GWERU— President Robert
Mugabe last Saturday witnessed first hand the
poor state of Zimbabwe’s new
universities, touted by his regime as post
independent Zimbabwe’s major
success story.
Over the past decade, the Zanu PF government has
rolled out a massive
programme of State universities in most major towns, but
without providing
adequate resources to match the requirements of such
institutions.
Last Saturday, Mugabe came face to face with reality
when he was
conferred with a honorary Doctor of Commerce degree at a bushy
site where
the Midlands State University (MSU) campus is to be
built.
After receiving the degree, conferred on him by MSU vice
Chancellor
Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe, a visibly disappointed Mugabe, looking at
the trees
still to be cleared for the university campus, said of the
scrubland venue:
“I am very disappointed to be awarded a degree in
the open like this.
This is the first time I have been awarded a degree
‘Mudondo’ (in the
bush).”
Mugabe’s disappointment was probably
worsened when a gust of wind blew
a cloud of dust leaving some of the people
gathered including Zanu PF
dignitaries, academics and students covered with
dust.
A seething Mugabe, who last visited the campus in 2000 when
he laid
the foundation stone, appeared to have been misled by both his
advisers and
MSU authorities about progress made in the construction of the
university as
he looked unhappy about the ‘bushy’ venue.
Canaan
Dube, MSU Council chairman, in an apparent effort to placate
Mugabe, told the
gathering that the institution had already raised a total
of $51 million and
construction would start early next year.
But despite Dube’s
explanation, Mugabe, as if to rub salt into the
wounds of the embarrassed
officials, threatened to invade the campus and
construct pig sties by the end
of January next year if the place is not
developed.
MSU has been
using the former Gweru Teachers’ College (GTC) buildings
near Fletcher High
School in the old suburb of Senga. Despite the fact that
Mugabe laid a
foundation stone in 2000, to signal the beginning of
construction, no
development has taken place.
The institution has also taken the
nearby Senga Training Centre
facilities where the authorities have
established a bar, kitchen and
accommodation quarters for
students.
The President, who was accompanied by his wife Grace, was
honoured for
his excellence in “commerce and industry”. Ironically, Mugabe’s
policies are
blamed for ruining the country’s economy, where inflation rate
has risen to
526 percent and unemployment has reached a record 80
percent.
Zim Standard
Sendekera jingle costs taxpayers $1,1bn
weekly
By Bertha Shoko
THE vulgar and nauseating pro-land
reform jingle, Sendekera Mwana
Wevhu, currently being broadcast more than 70
times daily on each of the
country’s radio stations, is costing the taxpayer
about $1,1billion weekly,
StandardPlus can reveal.
The jingle,
whose production was bankrolled by the Department of
Information in the
Office of the President and Cabinet, is the latest
composition done by
government sympathisers to drum up support for the
chaotic agrarian reform
programme.
A full-colour and full-page advert, depicting the same
jingle, is also
included in each copy of newspapers in the state-controlled
Zimpapers stable
and the ruling party-aligned Sunday Mirror, pushing the
burden on the
taxpayer even higher.
The Department of
Information’s attempts to use music as a tool to
garner support for the land
reform programme are entirely paid for by the
taxpayer, as the department
gets its funding directly from State coffers.
The costs and graphic
content of the latest jingle have raised the
hackles of ordinary Zimbabweans,
preoccupied with surviving the prevailing
economic recession.
The jingle, played an average 72 times a day on each radio station,
costs
$243m a week on Spot FM, $385m on Radio Zimbabwe, $291m week on 3FM
and
$1,99m on National Languages FM, according to the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Corporation airplay and tariffs regime.
A minute of
airtime is most expensive on ZTV’s prime time segment
around Newshour,
costing $652 838. Ironically, the jingle is played mostly
between 5.30PM and
9.30PM, the most costly times on the television station.
On radio,
a minute of airtime is most expensive on Radio Zimbabwe,
going for $382
878.
“The fact that government can produce, broadcast and advertise
this
boring jingle every 30 minutes at such a high cost to the finance
ministry
is ample proof of its misplaced priorities,” fumed Raymond Masocha,
a viewer
who phoned StandardPlus last week.
“There is no need to
advertise the land reform programme because
government has been claiming that
more than 300 000 families are already
resettled on the land,” he
added.
“Zimbabweans cannot eat adverts on land reform — what we
want is value
for our taxes, not being inundated by meaningless messages on
stations we
fund,” another listener, Tapson Ndlela said.
Ndlela
said the jingle’s content was offensive to the eye and mind,
going against
the country’s cultural values which the ruling party is always
harping on
about.
“On television, you are forced to see people gyrating in
sexually
explicit dance routines, busy enjoying themselves at the expense of
our
sanity.
“Wouldn’t the money used for making that rubbish
have been better used
in restocking, poverty alleviation, grain imports,
input provision or
education and health?”
Added Ndlela: “It
would appear that someone up there has convinced
himself that our poverty is
his joke of the year.”
The Department of Information has, since the
elevation of Jonathan
Moyo to its helm, busied itself with painting a rosy
picture of the country’
s crumbling agricultural sector.
It has
spared no expense in portraying in positive light, the largely
chaotic and
economically destructive agrarian reform programme by vainly
playing the
patriotism card on viewers and listeners.
Zim Standard
Govt dips into FCAs
By Kumbirai
Mafunda
COMMERCIAL banks have begun to suck into individual foreign
currency
accounts (FCAs) by ordering account holders to sell 50 percent of
their
earnings at the frozen exchange rate as the government desperately
tries to
get its hands on any little foreign currency available.
Individual FCA holders told StandardBusiness that they were stunned to
be
informed that they will be getting 50 percent of their earnings at the
fixed
official exchange rate. This new decree means that the remaining other
half
would be remitted to the Reserve Bank.
The depreciating Zimbabwe
dollar has since February been frozen
against major trading currencies at
$824 to the American greenback, $1 300
to the Pound Sterling and $105 to the
South African rand but is selling for
far much more on the parallel
market.
The introduction of the new measures follows a directive
from the
Reserve Bank commanding banks and other financial institutions to
effect the
latest decree.
Already corporate FCA holders are
obliged to surrender 50% of their
export earnings to the central bank at the
official exchange rate whilst the
remainder is kept with the RBZ and released
on demand.
Through the central bank, government will then access
that money to
meet its costs.
President Robert Mugabe’s
administration is presently burdened with a
monstrous import bill for food,
energy requirements and other essential
commodities, among its other
needs.
Official sources said the recommendation to seize part of
the FCAs was
passed by a special Cabinet taskforce appointed by Mugabe
recently to
proffer solutions to the foreign exchange squeeze now in its
fifth year. The
new directive might be publicly announced in Reserve Bank
Governor Gideon
Gono’s monetary policy statement to be made public within two
weeks.
Banking officials said some FCA holders had quickly emptied
their
accounts when they got wind that the government intended to pounce on
their
savings.
Other analysts last week said far from solving
the foreign exchange
problem, the raid on FCAs was likely to drive
Zimbabweans with foreign
accounts into transferring their savings
offshore.
“Zimbabweans will find other ways of evading or even
closing those
accounts. It is not a full course method,” said a bank
official.
Zim Standard
Police stop JAG meeting, arrest members
By
our own Staff
ARMED police officers from Borrowdale police station
stormed a Justice
for Agriculture (JAG) meeting on Friday and dismissed all
the farmers who
had gathered at ART Farm in Harare to discuss the way forward
on the
compensation issue.
Leaders of JAG who include David
Connelly, John Worsick, Wynard Hart
and Ben Freeth were arrested by the
police and taken to Borrowdale police
station to answer charges of
contravening the Public Order and Security act
(POSA). They were all later
released without charge.
The mostly white former commercial farmers
driven off their land in
the wake of the government’s controversial
fast-track land reform programme
have rejected State offers of compensation
saying the amounts involved are
unacceptable.
They say the
evaluation process was not done independently and they
will not accept the
compensation being offered. “Our farmers are not happy
with the way the
government valued their properties. It was done by
unqualified A’ level
students, who do not know how to value properties,”
said a farmer who
declined to be named.
The Standard was told that the police had
also arrested a farmer who
was taking pictures at the event and took him to
Borrowdale police station.
Chris Shepherd, a farmer who had come to
attend the meeting said they
had been ordered to disperse as the meeting was
said to be illegal.
“We have been instructed to go back home
because they say the meeting
is illegal under POSA. They said it was an
illegal gathering,” said
Shepherd.
Contacted by The Standard for
comment, officers at Borrowdale police
station said the officer-in-charge was
not available and no one present was
qualified to comment.
The
four farmers were released without being charged after being
detained for
more than six hours. John Worsick, JAG vice president confirmed
that all the
members of the association who had been arrested were released
without being
charged.
“They released us without charging us, but they
successfully disrupted
and eventually stopped our meeting. They had said they
would charge us under
POSA but this did not happen,” he said.
Zim Standard
Court stops State move to grab farm
By
Caiphas Chimhete
THE High Court last week issued an interdict
stopping Joseph Made, the
Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement and Joseph
Matowanyika, the chief executive of the Agricultural
and Rural Development
Authority (Arda) from seizing farm equipment and
interfering with the
operations of Wallacedale farm in Manicaland
province.
The interdict, issued by Justice Gowora, followed reports
that Made
and Matowanyika, allegedly threatened to seize the equipment
belonging to
Wallacedale and intimidated the farm’s workers.
“It
is ordered that the 1st and 2nd respondents (Matowanyika and Made)
not to
interfere with the orderly relocation and/ or transfer of the
applicants’
movable assets from Wallacedale Farm, as more fully described in
Annexures
“J1”, “J2” and “J3” to the application, pending the determination
of the
application in the High Court,” reads the interdict.
Made and Moyo
had indicated to Edwin Moyo, the farmer leasing
Wallacedale farm, also known
as Kondozi, that the farm had been acquired by
Arda and that the parastatal
would take over equipment and crop production
with immediate
effect.
According to the founding affidavit by Moyo filed with the
High Court
, the duo’s actions threatened the viability of the horticultural
project,
which exports flowers, baby corn, sweet melons, butternuts, peas and
beans
to the US and South Africa.
Apart from that, it also
threatened over 4 000 jobs at the farm, which
also trades as Canvest Farming.
The company makes an annual turnover of
US$35 million.
The
horticultural project is a joint venture between Moyo, who holds
52 percent
shareholding, and Piet de Klerk the remainder.
Moyo said Made and
Matowanyika ordered him out of the farm although no
formal sections 3, 5, or
8 were ever served on the property in terms of the
Land Acquisition
Act.
Made could not be reached for comment. But Cassian
Mufanebadza
Jakachira of Jakachira Gahadzikwa & Company, who is
representing Arda,
insisted that notices were served in 2001.
“I
have instructions that the notices were served way back in 2001,”
said
Jakachira, who however confirmed the issuance of the interdict by the
High
Court.
In his affidavit, Moyo said Made had also indicated that “I
was to
arrange the hand over of my business — lock, stock and barrel — to
Arda” and
no compensation would be paid in respect to loss of business. Apart
from
that, Canvest Farming’s debts amounting to US$15 million would
remain
liabilities for Moyo and Klerk.
On November 21 this year,
Matowanyika wrote to Moyo informing him that
Arda had taken over the farm,
including crop production and processing
operations. “Arda intends to
purchase the moveable assets at the farm
including the processing plant and
equipment at an agreed price and after a
valuation having been carried out,”
said Matowanyika’s letter.
Minutes of a meeting held between Moyo
and Matowanyika together with
other Arda officials confirms Moyo’s
assertions.
“Arda intends to continue the production of
horticultural produce on
the farm,” read the minutes.
However,
Moyo has insisted that he be given enough time to wind up
operations and that
he be allowed to remove his moveable equipment, worth
US$80 billion, so that
he can restart his export business elsewhere.
“Arda has a lot of
under-utilised farms countrywide, I don’t know why
they are interested in
this one, one that is being leased to a black
indigenous person. It is
obvious that they do not want the farm but my
equipment,” said Moyo, when
contacted for a comment.
Last week, Arda deployed about 30 security
guards at the farm creating
“tension within the labour force.” The guards are
already camped on the
farm.
“My worst fear is that the situation
might degenerate into an
industrial action like the one we had some two weeks
ago after the spread of
malicious rumours on the takeover of the farm by
Arda,” said Canvest Farming
human resources manager, a Maravanyika in a
letter to Moyo.
Moyo has written to vice President Joseph Msika in
his capacity as the
chairman of the national Lands and Resettlement Committee
appealing for his
intervention.
“It would appear that both the
Member of Parliament for the area Mr
Chris Mushowe and the Ministry of
Agriculture are refusing to accept the
joint venture arrangement. Their
allegations are that I am not a shareholder
in the business.
“I
enclose, herein, two copies of my share certificates,” read a copy
of a
letter to Msika dated 14 October. Both Mushowe and Msika could not
be
contacted for a comment.
Despite the existence of share
certificates that proves his 52 percent
shareholding, said Moyo, Made and
Matowanyika, insist on taking over both
the farm and equipment.
Zim Standard
Zimbabwe doomed without donor funding
By
Kumbirai Mafunda
ZIMBABWE’S Finance Minister, Herbert Murerwa,
disappointed many
Zimbabweans who had hoped he would give some indication on
how the
government intended to mend relations with international
development
partners such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in his
2004 National
Budget, seen as a pre-requisite for Zimbabwe’s reconstruction,
say analysts.
In his 32-page statement tabled in Parliament,
Murerwa remained mum on
the intricacies involved in trying to stitch tattered
relations with key
international development partners including the World
Bank and the IMF.
Since 1999 multilateral lenders have severed
relations with Harare
pointing to Harare’s pariah status and the lawlessness
associated with its
controversial land reforms.
Last year,
Murerwa pledged to devote more energy in working towards
amortising debts
owed to international lenders, thereby improving
Zimbabwe’s
creditworthiness.
He also pledged to restore better
relations with the two Bretton Woods
institutions who have frozen critical
balance of payments support to Harare.
However, in his 2004
National Budget, Murerwa skirted around
addressing mending of the problematic
relations.
He blamed sanctions slapped on President Robert Mugabe
and his
henchmen by the European Union and the US as the cause for
Zimbabwe’s
runaway inflation, skyrocketing prices and mounting
poverty.
At a time world economic output is on an upward trend and
estimated to
grow by 3,2% this year and by 4,1% later, Zimbabwe has revised
its figures
and says its economy will shrink by 13,2% this year against a
projected
7,2%.
Economic analysts said Murerwa’s failure to push
through his intention
to normalise relations with the World Bank and the IMF
was a clear sign that
Zimbabwe had abandoned all hopes of a quick economic
recovery.
Trust Holdings group economist, David Mupamhadzi, said it
was
imperative for developing countries such as Zimbabwe to work with
rich
countries.
“It is important that Zimbabwe re-looks at its
relations with the
international community to refoster its marriage,” said
Mpamhadzi.
Mupamhadzi said the complexion of Murerwa’s Budget could
have been a
different one if the country had been receiving donor
funding.
Owing to the drying up of alternative sources of funding,
the
government has turned to the domestic market for almost all its
borrowing.
Currently, State entities such as ZESA, Noczim and GMB
have been
raiding the local money market in a desperate search for funds,
both local
and foreign.
“Getting sources outside the domestic
market gives the country a
leeway and breathing space in terms of borrowing,”
said Mupamhadzi.
Rashid Mdala, an analyst with First Mutual, warned
that Zimbabwe would
remain short of foreign currency unless ties with
international development
partners are sawn.
“We need to give
priority to the mending of relations before we start
talking of any recovery
because international investors take a cue from
organisations such as the IMF
and other multilateral lenders,” said Mdala.
Zim Standard
WOZA plans protest
By Our own
staff
A women’s group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza), will next
week stage
street protests against high prices of food and shortages of
basic
commodities, which it said were forms of domestic
violence.
In a statement on Friday, Woza urged women to descend
onto the streets
beating pots in protest “so that our message will be
delivered with impact.
“Why can Zimbabwe not feed its people? Woza
regards this as a form of
‘domestic violence’. Let us beat our pots to
protest against this form of
domestic violence,” said the Woza
statement.
The march is part of numerous events lined up during the
16 days of
activism against domestic violence.
Woza said by
beating empty pots, women would be demanding affordable
food and that
supermarkets stop profiteering from the hungry masses.
Zimbabwe has
been experiencing a number of socio-economic and
political problems in recent
years. However, women, children, the disabled,
the terminally ill and the
elderly bear the biggest burden, says Woza.
According to the United
Nation’s World Food Programme about 5,5
million Zimbabweans will be in need
of food aid this year.
In the rural areas, most households are now
female headed as the
husbands are employed or unemployed in urban areas,
leaving mothers to fight
a lone battle in providing for the family.
Zim Standard
Internal squabbles rock ANZ
newsfocus By
Walter Marwizi
CRACKS have appeared within the ranks of the
beleaguered media
organisation, the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe,
casting doubt on the
company’s ability to forge a united front in its
protracted battle to bring
back onto the streets its flagship, The Daily News
and its sister paper, The
Daily News on Sunday.
From September
12 when The Daily News was abruptly closed by the
government for operating
without a licence, all seemed well at ANZ with both
workers and management
demonstrating a determined spirit, and promising each
other to fight to the
bitter end until the popular paper hit the streets
again.
“We
won’t let The Daily News ink pot run dry”, seemed to be the
clarion call as
sympathies poured in from many organisations and governments
across the
world.
But last week’s events painted a completely different
picture
altogether revealing for the first time that for most workers, the
resolve
to fight for the “people’s paper” was fast disappearing like due in
the sun.
On Friday, the workers resolved at a highly charged
meeting that
management had to come up with a voluntary retrenchment scheme
that would
benefit those employees who wanted to pack their bags and leave it
to fight
its own battles with the government.
Already some key
staff at the printing press, a photographer, an
editor and other workers in
other departments have left the company.
And this was not just a
case of abandoning a sinking ship, the workers
told The Standard yesterday,
but a result of a careful appraisal by workers
over the way the company had
been run over the past few months.
“Fighting to bring back to life
The Daily News had become second
nature to us but what can you do when you
find that it is not everyone who
cherishes the same goal,” said a
representative of the workers.
To make matters worse, over the past
week, workers and management at
the ANZ were trading accusations of asset
stripping and abuse of company
property, among other things.
Plates worth $40 million had allegedly disappeared at the printing
factory,
and so had computer equipment worth millions of dollars, and
management
pointed fingers at the workers.
The workers, for their part, are
convinced it is some people in
management who are stealing the equipment.
They argue that it is not
possible for an ordinary worker to get out of the
building carrying a
computer without being detected by the company’s security
guards. They also
allege abuse of company fuel which they claim is being
diverted for personal
use.
And as the accusations and
counter-accusations intensified, Daily News
Editor Nqobile Nyathi called a
meeting on Wednesday and told the editorial
staff that management had
resolved to send them all on forced but paid leave
because of the problems.
They all had to surrender their keys to the
newsroom, they were
told.
The workers refused to comply, charging such a decision could
only
come from the likes of Jonathan Moyo, the junior minister for
Information
and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet, whom
they said was
keen to stop them from writing stories and not from a
management committed
to the revival of The Daily News.
“We would
treat that as a lock out which could only be resolved by the
labour court,”
the workers told Nyathi.
They then demanded audience with the ANZ
human resources personnel.
The meeting failed to bear fruit as the
journalists made it clear they would
only go on forced leave if they received
the directive in writing.
Meanwhile, the emplo-yees revived their
workers committee on Friday,
putting in new leaders to champion their cause
to demand exit packages from
management.
“We have lost
confidence in the management which is playing with our
lives. We feel
betrayed. Right from the start, it was management that made a
decision not to
register the paper with the MIC. What kind of principles did
they have that
were not shared by other independent news papers such as The
Standard and the
Zimbabwe Independent which are still publishing. They
should just give us
packages so we can go,” said another distressed worker.
ANZ chief
executive officer Samuel Sipepa Nkomo yesterday admitted all
was not well at
the media house but there is a hidden hand behind the
company’s problems.
“It’s a strategy. A strategy by those who want to
destroy us. It’s not of our
own making,” said Nkomo.
“We have moles: people who are being paid
to tell everything that goes
on at the ANZ. Five minutes after a meeting, I
get a call from The Herald
asking about the things we were discussing. We
have been infiltrated and we
are aware of the strategy,” he
said.
Turning to the issue of forced leave, Nkomo said: “When
people just
come to work to sit and do nothing, the tendency is for them to
abuse the
phone. We have incurred huge telephone bills. We used to pay about
$2-3
million dollars a month but in September we paid close to $9
million.”
Apart from the telephone bills, Nkomo alleged some
workers were
vandalising company equipment.
“My own laptop was
stolen in the office even though there was no
break-in. Computers ha-ve
disappeared.”
He also dismissed as untrue allegations that he was
diverting company
fuel to his farm in the Midlands. “I bought 200 litres of
diesel from the
ANZ after talking to the transport manager about it. I do not
see anything
sinister about it,” he said.
Zim Standard
US envoy urges political dialogue
By Bornwell
Chakaodza
UNITED STATES ambassador to Zimbabwe Joseph Sullivan said
dialogue is
the only way to salvage Zimbabwe from the current political and
economic
crisis bedeviling the country.
“Zimbabweans,” said
Sullivan “I believe want a democratic dispensation
and that’s what we want as
well. It is up to Zimbabweans to define precisely
how to reach that point but
I think dialogue is the way forward as a means
of returning to democratic
legitimacy.”
The ambassador’s remarks come at a time when talks
between the ruling
Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) appear to
have floundered.
Zanu PF pulled out of the talks
citing MDC’s refusal to drop a court
case in which the opposition leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, is challenging
President Robert Mugabe’s election during
the 2002 presidential plebiscite.
“Zimbabweans’ capacity to discuss
among themselves to find a way
forward is complicated but if there is
political will, a way forward would
be found,” noted the ambassador. Sullivan
said the US, together with the
international community, would like to see
Zimbabwe adhere to the principles
of its Constitution to enable it to prosper
and move forward as a country.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe has not
respected its own constitution as
evidenced by the absence of the rule of law
and the rampant abuse of basic
human rights by Mugabe’s regime, he
said.
“The Constitution of Zimbabwe specifies that Zimbabwe is a
country
committed to democratic governance and the rule of law and what
President
Bush and Secretary Powell has indicated is that Zimbabwe is not
adhering to
these commitments,” said Sullivan in an interview with The
Standard.
He said Zimbabwe’s failure to respect its Constitution
was driving
away investors and straining relations with the international
community.
Refuting allegations that the US was responsible for Zimbabwe’s
current
economic recession, Sullivan said investment would always flow to
countries
with a favourable investment climate.
“There are other
reasons for the decline of the Zimbabwe’s economy…
certainly not US
sanctions. We are doing everything we can to help the
people of Zimbabwe,”
said the envoy.
The US ambassador conceded that relations between
Zimbabwe and his
country were not what they ought to be. “Certainly, there
are times when
relations between governments are negative and this is such a
time.”
Due to the bad blood between the US and Zimbabwe, Sullivan
rarely
speaks to Foreign Minister, Stan Mudenge. Contacts between his office
and
foreign affairs are normally at permanent secretary’s level and heads
of
regional desks, said Sullivan.
However, dispite the poor
relations, the US continues to fund a number
of projects in the country. In
the past two years, the US has provided
assistance worth US$140 million to
Zimbabwe, with a huge chunk of the money
going to food assistance, social
welfare and health, including HIV/Aids
programmes and other forms of
assistance.
The only US-sponsored programme that suffered political
interference
was the Mopani Junction, which was abruptly switched off the air
by the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) in June. The project was
designed to
protect and educate youths about the dangers of
HIV/Aids.
“Our assistance is mostly through NGOs so that we can be
assured that
it reaches the intended beneficiaries,” said Sullivan, who added
that his
country was eager to see Zimbabwe prosper and take its rightful
place in the
family of nations.
Zim Standard
TNF on verge of collapse, say major partners
By our own Staff
THE Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) has all but
collapsed due to
political differences, which are halting dialogue between
the forum and the
government, Standard Business has established.
Delegates to a workshop held in Harare last week heard that the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions was getting tired of the governing Zanu PF
party’s
interference in the tripartite negotiation forum.
“We need to work
with organisations which are not political so as to
yield better results in
working out of poverty in Zimbabwe,” said Wellington
Chibhebhe, the ZCTU
secretary-general.
The theme for the workshop was Working out of
Poverty in Zimbabwe and
the meeting comes ahead of the 10th African Regional
Meeting of the ILO to
be held in Addis Ababa next month.
The TNF
members include labour, business and government and
organisations such as the
ZCTU, the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe
(EMCOZ) and government
ministries, among others.
According to delegates, dialogue between
tripartite members and the
government died in April this year after the State
increased fuel prices.
“We support you to work with your government
and if national
conditions regarding business and social dialogue are not
conducive, the ILO
produces blueprints,” said Ullrich Flechsenhar, a senior
official of the
International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Delegates also cited the lack of social and political will by
Zimbabweans to
alleviate poverty and heard that everyone was now pinning
their hopes on
organisations such as the ILO to find solutions to the
problems.
Currently, the government — through the assistance of United Nations
agencies
— is carrying out the Second Poverty Assessment Study Survey (PASS
2) which
is aimed at providing policy makers with updated statistics and
information
on poverty to enable them to make decisions on poverty
alleviation
interventions.
Zim Standard
Refuse pile-up lowers Harare property values
By Valentine Maponga
CONTINUED failure by the Harare City Council
to collect refuse is
impacting negatively on the property market as values of
houses in areas
where dirt is accumulating are depreciating.
Harare, once the pride of Africa and one of the world’s cleanest
cities two
decades ago, has now become a garbage town with piles of refuse
all
over.
The council has attributed the failure to collect refuse to
shortages
of fuel and vehicles. It says it is also planning to launch a
24-hour refuse
collection system to resolve the situation before it becomes a
disaster in
terms of the health of the general public.
Open
sanitary lanes piled high with refuse are now a common sight in
Harare,
reducing the value and the security of many properties, say
property
valuers.
An underlying notion of the relation between
property and value is
that the value of a home (sales price or rent) is
related to the traits that
the home possesses.
Considering the
typical real estate listing: it will contain
information about the structural
traits of a home or retail shop (stone or
wood, baths, bedrooms, age, type of
heat, square footage, family room,
garage and other special
features.)
The traits of an attractive neighbourhood include where
the home is
located such as schools, quietness, access to the city, access to
ocean or
mountains and whether area is free from crime.
Property
valuers say the traits collectively determine the value of
the home — this is
what people have in mind when they say “putting in
another bathroom will pay
for itself”, say valuers.
But, one of the most important traits
that people care about is
environmental quality — a home in a polluted area
will rent or sell for a
smaller amount than will a home in a cleaner
area.
Property consultants said property values tend to go down if
the place
is not clean and appreciable.
“It gives a very bad
impression to buyers to see that the area in
which they want to buy is dirty
or to find that the sanitary lanes are open
and full of refuse,” said Lennon
Muchingadare, a property consultant based
in Harare.
Richard
Mutengambiri, a property manager at Paradise Property, a real
estate company
also in Harare, said there were a lot of conditions and
traits that people
always looked for when deciding to buy or rent property.
Zim Standard
Trillion dollar charade
Sundaytalk with Pius
Wakatama
I, for one, did not wait in breathless suspense in
anticipation of the
presentation of the 2004 budget proposals. I had long
concluded that it was
going to be a non-event. It was just that.
But, given the existing political and economic circumstances, what
could the
Minister of Finance, Herbert Murerwa, have done apart from
admitting that the
task was impossible and resigning. He just had to come up
with something. If
it was me, I would have jumped from the sinking ship for
I am no
juggler.
At least Murerwa is able to think in terms of trillions of
dollars.
That’s more than I can do. In fact, I have not yet learnt how to
write
trillions in figures and never before imagined that such sums of
money
existed or could exist in our heavily looted national coffers taking
into
account the fact that our productive capability is now next to
zero.
But, seeing as how I now need a bagful of thousands of bank
notes to
buy only the very essential groceries for the week, I can understand
Murerwa
’s dilemma. Trillions in Zimbabwean terms are just worthless pieces
of
papers.
Murerwa did his best even though the whole exercise
was just a
charade. It is part of the band aid being put on Zimbabwe’s
festering cancer
which is eating away the flesh. But, we just have to keep up
appearances by
any means, don’t we?
Really, how can a moral and
thinking government allocate $1,27
trillion to defence and security ahead of
such vital sectors as health,
which got 701,2 billion, the much celebrated
“agricultural revolution,”
which got $439,8 billion and education which got
$557,7 billion? Not to
mention mining and tourism, which are real income
generators but got cursory
treatment.
Our health delivery system
has virtually collapsed. The whole health
infrastructure has crumbled into a
sorry heap of rubbish. Hospitals have no
essential drugs and cannot feed
patients adequately. Working cond-itions for
medical personnel have reverted
to the primitive and most of them have left
for better pastures
elsewhere.
The current strike by nurses and doctors has struck the
final blow to
the whole system. Hundreds of patients are dying on hospital
doorsteps
without attention. The HIV/Aids pandemic is totally out of control
and
threatens the whole population.
Shame on you Mari-yawanda
Nzuwa, chairman of the Public Service
Commission for calling upon the police
to arrest striking doctors. I should
say the laws that make it an offence for
doctors to strike under any
circumstances are unjust and deserve to be
ignored. The striking doctors
have been patriotic enough by remaining in this
oppressive and impoverished
country.
After all a fraction of
their salaries overseas would make their
starving parents millionaires
overnight. As for the Hippocratic oath, even
Hyppocrates himself would have
supported the striking doctors and soundly
condemned those who have brought
about the deplorable economic conditions in
Zimbabwe today.
As
your name Mariyawanda suggests, you probably have lots of money.
These
doctors need it too, in order to live decent and meaningful lives.
They did
not go to school so that they would sacrifice for the paucity of
morality and
thought of greedy and corrupt politicians.
Under the present
circumstances wherein our health delivery system has
virtually collapsed one
would have expected a caring government to declare
it a national disaster and
appeal for international intervention. The
proposed budget allocation is not
even enough to rehabilitate Harare,
Parirenyatwa and Mpilo hospitals to their
former glory. The country is broke
and cannot get itself out of this
mess.
I was surprised to read in The Herald of November 21, 2003
that Tapiwa
Mashakada, MDC member for Hatfied had welcomed the budget
proposals with joy
because the contributions from the opposition party were
taken into account.
He was quoted as saying, “We are happy that the increase
of the tax
threshold, which we proposed during the budget formulation
meetings, has
been taken into account.
It is true that the good
Book says we should count our blessings and
be thankful for all small mercies
but, is there any justification for
bubbling with joy for this budget given
our overall political and economic
situation? Mr. Mashakada, what
significance is there for the raising of the
tax threshold when less than 30%
of the population is employed? And with the
ever-spiraling inflation, for how
long will the raising of the threshold
benefit the tax payer?
Tendai Biti, MDC Member of Parliament for Harare East, was closer to
the
truth. He said, “The budget does not address fundamental issues of
inflation,
attracting foreign and local investors and the security of
investors. It is a
stand still budget.”
The 2004 Zimbabwe budget proposals send a very
clear message. It is
that our government is lost in the jungle and has no
idea whatsoever of how
to get out of this political and economic wilderness.
As long as it remains
in power, our suffering will get worse and worse and we
will all perish in
the jungle.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions president, Lovemore Matombo read
the message correctly and was very
forthright. He said the budget was
primarily geared to continue oiling the
ruling Zanu PF machine. He said,
“This government has failed. they have
nothing to offer. In any democracy
the only prudent thing to do is to
resign.”
Can you imagine the Zanu PF government led by Comrade
Robert Mugabe
resigning? No Sir, they will have to be pressurised out of
power by the
people in the same way Shervadnadze was recently pushed out of
power in
Georgia or through the ballot box.
It is, therefore,
imperative that the MDC stop playing diplomatic
party politics of dwelling on
trivia as they now seem to be doing. They
should recognise the fact that the
MDC is not just a political party but a
democratic movement which is raring
to go.
It needs to be organised and mobilised. It therefore, needs
strong and
creative leadership with above average organisational skills.
Above all it
needs transparent and outspoken leaders of the calibre of the
late Learnmore
Jongwe who will not beat about the bush but call a spade a
spade.
I was rather disappointed by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s
re-sponse
to a question from a reporter after meeting with Nigerian
President,
Olusegun Obasanjo. Hewas asked what the subject of their
discussion was and
he replied, “Don’t ask me, Ask Obasanjo.”
This just won’t do. What does Tsvangirai owe Obasanjo or anybody for
that
matter? At this time we need opposition leaders who will inform
their
followers candidly about what is going on. Secret deals are
out.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Zim Standard
Chogm: Hiding behind sovereignty
futile
FOR President Robert Mugabe, the decision by the
Commonwealth not to
invite him for the Abuja summit must have come as a
terrible blow, not only
to his personal ego but more importantly, to his
blazing political career
which started in the late 50s culminating in the
disputed Presidential
elections of 2002.
There is no doubt
President Mugabe was desperate to be in Abuja,
Nigeria. His statements during
last week’s visit to Harare by summit host,
President Olusegun Obasanjo
attested to this. Counting on the support of
fellow African leaders in his
crusade against the ‘racist’ West, the
President left no stone unturned in
his desperate attempts to make a last
ditch stand to continue being a member
of the Commonwealth Club.
Now his ego was dealt a mortal blow when
President Obasanjo, acting on
behalf of the Commonwealth as a whole, informed
him he could not travel to
Abuja. He is a disappointed and angry
man.
What angers President Mugabe the most must be that his attempt
to
divide the Commonwealth across racial lines has come unstuck.
His
pontificating about how Africans must stand together in defence of
their
sovereignty is a telling admission of his foiled agenda had he been
allowed
to attend Chogm in Abuja this week. He has been denied the chance to
poison
the atmosphere in Abuja and the opportunity to score an immense
propaganda
‘victory’ over British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australia’s
John
Howard.
And piqued by the exclusion from Chogm, Mugabe’s
talk now is one of
wanting to leave this Club of largely former British
colonies. In an
emotional piece of theatre to a captive audience of mourners
at Heroes Acre
during the burial of former deputy minister, Norman Zikhali,
he had this to
say: “If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be
readmitted into the
Commonwealth, well, we will say goodbye to the
Commonwealth and perhaps time
has come to say so.” Many must have wondered
what the connection is between
his exclusion from Chogm and Zimbabwe’s
sovereignty.
It is worth noting that whenever President Mugabe has
been confronted
with uncomfortable realities, his tendency has been to take
refuge in the
issue of the country’s sovereignty. Over and over again he says
it as if it
is the panacea to the country’s ills. In the absence of tangible
economic
benefits and democratic space for self realisation, sovereignty is
nothing
more than a nebulous concept.
It does nothing to improve
the lives of the country’s long suffering
masses. For how long should
Zimbabweans accept to be innocent victims of the
President’s fiery rhetoric
and dynamic bombast which does nothing to bring
relief to their country’s
mounting economic and political problems.
The truth of the matter
is that President Mugabe’’s pariah status is
self-inflicted. He has brought
upon himself the political humiliation that
he is suffering. It is a dramatic
irony that President Mugabe today stands
accused of persistently breaching
democratic principles drawn up during a
Chogm summit in Harare in 1991. How
times have changed – the same principles
have returned to haunt him and he is
now paying a high price for violating
them consistently for the past three
years or so.
The outcome of the Harare Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting
(Chogm) of 1991 gave the Club what is now called the
Commonwealth Harare
Declaration.
The Declaration effectively
became the Commonwealth’s ‘Mission
Statement’ setting out the Commonwealth’s
commitment to such key principles
as democracy, human rights, the rule of
law, the independence of the
judiciary, freedom of expression and
association, the right of citizens to
choose freely the men and women who
would govern them and an undertaking to
pursue sustainable economic
development, among many other issues.
These basic democratic
benchmarks and values are universal and have
nothing to do with any one
country’s sovereignty.
Needless to say, the Zimbabwe government’s
score card in upholding
these basic tenets of civilised governance is dismal.
Instead, our leaders
are noted for their arrogant, self-seeking obstinacy in
refusing to listen
to both friend and foe. In direct violation of the
Commonwealth Harare
Declaration , the Harare government has gone ahead and
crafted obnoxious
pieces of legislation notably the Public Order and Security
Act (Posa), the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa)and the General
Laws Amendment Act among others.
As a
consequence of these repressive laws, an independent newspaper,
The Daily
News was shut down, to say nothing of the deteriorating human
rights
situation in the country: the growing lawlessness and
the
politically-motivated violence that has gripped a country that was once
the
envy of the world.
A country that was once the breadbasket
of the region has been reduced
to a basket case. The economy has crumbled.
Food shortages are stalking the
land compounding the deadly pandemic HIV/Aids
on its deadly march. President
Mugabe’s inflexibility might appeal to his
faithful as a sign of strength of
character and purpose but the truth is that
he is prolonging the suffering
of Zimbabweans in his otherwise unwinnable
war.
The political embarrassment that President Mugabe has suffered
by not
attending Chogm for the first time since Zimbabwe’s independence is
entirely
of his own making. The litany of misdemeanours on the part of the
Zimbabwe
government has evoked a strong Commonwealth response —and rightly
so.
An anguished President is threatening to pull Zimbabwe out of
the
Commonwealth at a time when countries are queuing to join it.
The
Commonwealth has undisputed moral authority and shared values and we
are
cock sure no country or leader in his right mind would want not to
be
associated with it.
Zimbabwe has benefited immensely from the
Commonwealth and we believe
no individual, not even the President has the
right to hold a whole country
like Zimbabwe to ransom.
If this
were to happen, history will judge such a person harshly.
Zim Standard
What’s in a name? Quite a lot
overthetop By
Brian Latham
That horrid Mr William Gates, a source of constant
irritation to
millions of computer users, has one redeeming feature: the
spell check
thingy that so very often suggests more appropriate spellings
for
Zimbabweans words and names.
Mugabe, for instance, becomes
“mutate,” which is something most people
would like to happen to him. It also
suggests megabit, whatever that is, but
interestingly not
mugger.
Meanwhile, Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo becomes
Flashgun
Basenji – and if Mr Gates were a Zimbabwean, no doubt Obasanjo
would
translate into mbanje, a substance some believe he’s partial
to.
Meanwhile, the country’s curious police commissioner Augustine
Chihuri
interestingly turns into the English county of Cheshire, but again a
Shona
dictionary might suggest a more appropriate alternative. The computer
also
suggests chirurgic, an archaic word pertaining to surgery, no doubt of
the
head.
Rather amusingly, poor old “Trousers Down” Mpofu
becomes “pouf,” which
is an interesting variation on spelling, but the
general meaning is clear
enough.
Further South, Thabo Mbeki
becomes Taboo Meeker, and you’d be hard
pressed to find a better description
of the continent’s most craven leader.
Nkomo turns into nomad or
Naomi, while Muzenda becomes mused or
pudenda, but one shouldn’t speak ill of
the dead.
Meanwhile, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa can thank
his parents
for sticking with Patrick, because his suggested surname of
Chainmesh is
altogether more sinister – not to say fitting.
Meanwhile, Peter Chanetsa could be Chinese, a chalet or even a
chanteuse. The
latter seems unlikely, while size and weight might suggest a
chalet would be
too small for a man who requires such impressive space.
But what of
their opponents? Morgan Tsvangirai, my computer says, is
really called Morgan
Sangria, which is perhaps why he leads the More Drink
Coming Party. And
Welshman Ncube becomes Cubed – or Cuban, which is
something no one would
welcome.
David Coltart becomes David Cultrate, which means sharp or
knife
edged, which is perhaps why he’s pitted against Mr
Chainmesh.
On the periphery, there is of course Swanepoel, which
becomes
swinepoxes and is entirely self-explanatory.
The new
head of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, also provides some
amusement, with
Goon, Gonzo, Gong and Gone being offered as suitable. Most
Zimbabweans would
opt for the last choice, but it seems unlikely to happen
soon.
And security minister Nicholas Goche becomes Gauche, Gopher or
Gnocchi. It’s
hard to find a connection with an Italian food, and it’s not
my place to
suggest that the man who controls the goons is gauche or anyone’
s
gopher.
Meanwhile, Justice Paddington Garwe becomes Gore or Grace,
both of
which might seem mildly offensive, so we’ll avoid
comparisons.
Presidential spin-doctor George Charamba is, according
to my laptop,
actually a charabanc, but that can’t be right because a
charabanc is useful.
The unlamented Enos Chikowore should be called
Chokebore, says Mr
Gates. But that can’t be right either, because a chokebore
is a shotgun with
a muzzle that narrows at the end — not something that can
be truthfully said
of Mr Chikowore.
And while there are sadly no
amusing suggestions for Jonathan Moyo,
his alter ego Nathaniel Manheru is,
appropriately enough, given Masher as an
alternative.
Of course,
all these suggested names are selected randomly and the
fact that some point
to certain characteristics is purely coincidental. Any
similarity to persons
living or dead is entirely in your imagination and
does not exist in reality,
whatever your computer says. Computers lie, just
as Mr William Gates does
when he tells us how well these contraptions work
with his products.