Zim Online
Friday 03 November
2006
MUTARE - Defence lawyers on Thursday asked the
High Court to grant
bail to an ex-soldier accused of plotting to assassinate
President Robert
Mugabe, saying it was unfair to lock him up in jail until
the court is able
to conclude his case next year.
The court,
which permanently sits in the two cities of Harare and
Bulawayo, is hearing
the matter in the eastern Mutare city where it is on
circuit until
today.
Lawyer Eric Matinenga for the defence told Justice Alfas
Chitakunye
that last minute amendments by the prosecution had caused delays
to the
start of the trial of Peter Michael Hitschmann, a former soldier in
the
former white government of Rhodesia - Zimbabwe's name before
independence in
1980.
Hitschmann, who the state alleges was
working with a shadowy military
outfit called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement
(ZFM), is accused of illegally
stockpiling arms of war and plotting to
murder Mugabe and other leaders of
his ruling ZANU PF party as well as white
farmers perceived as sympathetic
to the government. He denies the
charges.
Matinenga said that because of the delays, the court could
not
conclude trial in the little time left and would have to finalise the
matter
during its next sitting in Mutare in March 2007.
But it
would be unfair to keep Hitschmann in jail until then because
the former
soldier "has been in prison for too long," the defence lawyer
said.
Hitschmann has remained in prison since his arrest last March.
Chitakunye will rule on the application for bail today.
Meanwhile,
Matinenga cross-examined Zimbabwe army major Israel Phiri,
who is chief
witness for the state and who, earlier this week, told the
court that he was
recruited by Hitschmann to join the ZFM.
Phiri said he agreed to
join the ZFM in order to gather information on
the organisation and its
plans to assassinate Mugabe, adding he did this on
instruction from his
commanders in the army.
Matinenga accused Phiri of cooking up facts
and lying, quizzing the
Major why - if he was a government undercover
operative - he was arrested,
detained and intensively interrogated by the
same state security agents who
should have known he was one of their
own.
"Despite being one of them, surely how could they have
interrogated
you for the whole night," Matinenga asked.
And to
which Phiri replied: "That is how the operation had been
planned. I could
endure the interrogation."
Matinenga also told the court that Phiri
had lied when he claimed in
his evidence-in-chief that he was given two UZI
rifles by Hitschmann for use
to commit sabotage.
The defence
lawyer said Phiri had in fact ordered the rifles from
Hitschmann, who is a
licensed arms dealer, adding the Major had wanted to
use the guns at a
security company he was planning to set up.
The hearing continues
today.
Hitschmann was initially arrested together with several
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party officials. But the
state later
dropped charges against the opposition officials. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 03 November
2006
HARARE - Mike Nyambuya, the Minister
of Energy and Power Development,
on Tuesday shepherded his Petroleum Bill
through the House of Assembly,
confident the compliant legislature would
pass with minimum debate proposals
he has introduced that seek to end the
crippling fuel crisis in Zimbabwe.
"This Bill seeks to create a
level playing field in the petroleum
sector," Nyambuya, a retired army
Lieutenant-General, assured the ruling
ZANU PF party-dominated legislature
during the Bill's second reading.
The minister, who also represents
the Mutasa North parliamentary
constituency (ZANU PF), said he was confident
fuel supplies would improve if
the Bill becomes law - solely on the basis of
"fair competition", the
"licensing" of sector players and the introduction
of a fund to "stabilise"
extreme exchange rate movements.
There
are, however, a growing number of people skeptical of Nyambuya's
optimistic
projections of the proposed law's effectiveness, who represent a
large
cross-section of the country's political, social and economic
spectrum.
"Let's have a reality check here. We're talking of
the situation on
the ground in Zimbabwe in 2006 and the truth is no hard
currency, no fuel,"
says an executive with a privately-run energy
firm.
"Our foreign currency situation is unlikely to improve as
long as our
economy remains stuck in neutral gear," the executive said,
declining to be
identified. "The economy is going nowhere in terms of growth
and the
potential to earn the required levels in forex are next to
nil."
Given this scenario, there is increasing talk, especially
among those
in the country's power and energy industries, of actively and
seriously
exploring alternative sources of fuel, such as ethanol, derived
from sugar
cane which is abundant in Zimbabwe.
Proponents of
this ethanol fuel are even suggesting that the country
could soon find
itself developing this source of fuel not as one of the
options, but clearly
out of necessity, as supplies of imported petrol and
diesel dry up due to a
scarcity in hard currency.
There is equal concern, including among
supporters of the government's
current energy policy, that even if the
minister's Petroleum Bill is enacted
into law, it would still be tantamount
to applying a "Band-Aid" solution to
a chronic problem to which major
surgery is recommended.
But what, exactly, is ethanol
fuel?
And, could this alternative source of energy be a possible
panacea to
ultimately halt Zimbabwe's fuel blues - which manifests
themselves in petrol
selling for up to Z$1 700 a litre, more than five times
the Z$340 a litre
the government is recommending?
Brazil, the
world's top sugar producer, pioneered ethanol fuel
production from sugar
cane beginning 30 years ago, investing billions of
dollars in research and
development.
The South American country now boasts one of the
leading ethanol
production industries in the world, with a majority of its
service stations
having two sets of pumps, one for ethanol fuel and the
other for petrol or
diesel.
Brazil introduced its ethanol
programme in 1975, in the wake of the
much-publicised global energy crisis
of 1973, and 10 years later more than
800 000 vehicles that were being
manufactured or assembled in that country
were running on ethanol fuel of
the sugar cane variety.
This year, President George W Bush of the
United States publicly said
his administration would financially support
research and development into
new technologies designed to improve
production of ethanol fuels. His call
was prompted by global prices of oil
hitting the US$70-a-barrel mark.
In Zimbabwe, ethanol is produced
only by Triangle Limited, a sugar
estate in the country's Lowveld area. To
be sure, the energy and power
minister deserves credit for encouraging the
use of ethanol fuel during his
tour of the Triangle Limited plant in
September last year.
Triangle Limited, controlled by a South
African-based conglomerate,
suspended production of ethanol fuel at the
height of the 1991-92 drought
which led to a drastic cut in the production
of sugar cane.
Nyambuya offered the government's support in helping
revive the
ethanol plant, which notched an average of 40 million litres of
ethanol fuel
prior to its operations being suspended. It has since been
limiting its
production to small quantities of industrial
ethanol.
Farai Musikavanhu, the director of agricultural planning
at the
Triangle estate and one of the officials who oversees the ethanol
project,
was unavailable for comment this week.
He, however,
has previously indicated the plant requires upgrading to
achieve commercial
capability - an exercise, no doubt, that would involve a
substantial outlay
in foreign currency resources.
Back in Parliament on Tuesday,
Innocent Gonese, the chief whip for the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party, insisted on engaging
a somewhat reluctant Nyambuya in
debate over the Petroleum Bill.
Queried Gonese, who represents the
Mutare Central legislative
constituency: "How does the minister propose the
government generates the
foreign currency for fuel?"
Nyambuya,
with a straight face, wondered loudly how the legislator
would even bother
to ask such a question. He said it was, after all, the MDC
that had urged
the imposition of economic sanctions on the ZANU PF-led
government, whose
ability now to raise sufficient levels of foreign currency
was severely
hampered. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 03 November
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe police were by late Thursday
still holding prominent
human rights campaigner Lovemore Madhuku and two
others who they arrested
earlier this week for demanding a new and
democratic constitution for the
country.
Harare lawyer Alec
Muchadehama, who is representing the jailed
activists, said he will apply to
the High Court if the police fail to
release them by end of day
today.
"We might have no option but to resort to the High Court,"
said
Muchadehama.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvunzijena was not
immediately available to
shed light on when the law enforcement agency
planned to release the
activists or take them to court.
Madhuku, who is chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
that
campaigns for a new constitution, was part of a group of about 150
members
of the civic alliance who were marching in Harare demanding a new
constitution when armed police pounced on them.
The police
severely assaulted the demonstrators who they also
arrested. They later
released the rest of the demonstrators except Madhuku
and two other
activists whom the police allege stoned one of their
vehicles.
-ZimOnline
VOA
By
Blessing Zulu
Washington
02 November
2006
Police have charged National Constitutional Assembly
Chairman Lovemore
Madhuku with breaching the draconian Public Order And
Security Act for
having organized a protest Wednesday in central Harare by
more than 200
members of his group.
Witnesses said police beat the
protesters while arresting Madhuku, NCA
Masvingo official Marko Shoko, and
member Frank Nyagumbo. The two men have
alleged that they were severely
assaulted by police and others believed to
be army troops.
NCA lawyer
Alec Muchadehama told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe
that Shoko and Nyagumbo were severely beaten by the police.
The Zimbabwe
National Students Union has condemned Madhuku's arrest, calling
it an
"illegal detention" ZINASU threatened to protest in solidarity with
the
detained.
VOA
By
Blessing Zulu
Washington
02 November
2006
Sources in the Zimbabwean house say that President Robert
Mugabe's cabinet
has blocked the presentation in parliament of a committee
report on alleged
asset-looting at the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, or
ZISCO, in a
burgeoning scandal.
The house committee on trade and
industry conducted its own investigation
into the alleged high-level
corruption in and around ZISCO, producing the
report.
Recommendations
in the report urge parliamentary leaders to invoke special
powers to
prosecute Trade Minister Obert Mpofu for giving "contradicting,
false"
evidence.
The investigation arose from the collapse of an agreement with
Global Steel
of India to Indian inject US$400 million into the state-owned
firm over 20
years. The deal is said to have collapsed when Zimbabwean
officials demanded
stakes in the venture. The Indian partner is also said to
have been appalled
by the state of operations at the enterprise, which has
been hobbled by
irregular deliveries of iron or and coal.
Mpofu has
acknowledged that the deal cannot be revived, and ZISCO is now
hunting for a
new chief executive following the collapse of the short-lived
joint
venture.
The committee first learned from Mpofu that the National
Economic Conduct
Inspectorate had issued a report said to implicate
ministers, lawmakers and
senior ZISCO managers in the diversion of assets
and resources of the
enterprise.
Called before the committee a second
time, Mpofu backtracked and said the
unnamed officials that he had
implicated were not personally involved in
looting ZISCO but merely had ties
to companies that were connected with the
scandal.
Sources close to
the investigation said senate president Edna Madzongwe and
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa ordered the chairman of the trade and
industry committee,
Enoch Porusingazi, to shelve the report until the return
Tuesday of
parliamentary speaker John Nkomo, said to be away this week in
Europe.
Porusingazi's committee has written to Nkomo asking him to
open proceedings
to prosecute Mpofu for giving misleading testimony to the
committee.
Meanwhile, Anti-Corruption Minister Paul Mangwana, countering
charges from
house officials that the cabinet is stonewalling the ZISCO
scandal, said
there was no reason to think that the government would
interfere with the
business of parliament.
Lawyer Dewa Mavhinga, a
program officer for the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt
and Development, said the
scandal illustrated the extent of corruption in
Zimbabwe.
[This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE
, 2 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - As Zimbabwe's ruling party romped home to
victory in
the recent rural district council elections, an independent
election monitor
has expressed concern over the alleged hold traditional
leaders had over
voters.
"The influence of the traditional leaders over voters was
widespread. In
many areas they abandoned their neutrality in the community,"
claimed
Reginald Matchaba-Hove, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network
(ZESN), an electoral monitoring organisation.
In many
districts, traditional leaders used access to state-subsidised maize
to
influence voters, alleged a ZESN report on the elections. "It was
reported
that residents were told that if the election outcome was not
favourable to
ZANU-PF the price [of the state-subsidised maize] would be
increased. Voters
who were turned away on polling day were disgruntled
because it would mean
that they would be unable to purchase maize. Even a
polling officer who was
ineligible to vote in that ward, asked to have her
finger dipped in the
indelible ink so that she could claim to have voted and
have access to
purchase the maize".
ZESN observers said they had also received reports
of delivery of
state-subsidised maize in districts a week before the
elections. The
election monitor said intimidation and threats to influence
the vote were
electoral offences and has urged action.
The weekend's
rural district council elections were the first to be held
under the
supervision of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission since its
inception in
2004. The last rural council polls were held in 2002.
Utoile Silaigwana,
the spokesman for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, told
IRIN that they had
not seen any anomalies during the elections.
"The elections went on
smoothly and we did not experience any problems that
had been anticipated by
some. Everything was in place when the elections
kicked off. It was a
tranquil and peaceful election."
The ruling ZANU-PF, whose support-base
is largely rural, took 1,247 out of
the 1,340 seats, with the two factions
of the largely urban-based, main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
managing to make a small dent
with 89 seats in the elections held on 28
October.
Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of one of the MDC factions,
cited alleged
intimidation by traditional leaders as a reason for their
failure to make
significant inroads in the rural areas and said there was no
consultation on
issues such as voter registration and location of polling
stations. "...We
had polling stations being moved away from MDC strongholds
and being located
in ZANU-PF strongholds".
However, in one
significant result in the Kariba rural district in the
northern Mashonaland
West province, the home of President Robert Mugabe, an
MDC faction snatched
two rural wards away from the ZANU-PF.
The election was also marked by a
low voter turnout, according
Matchaba-Hove. The ZESN had yet to calculate
the numbers of votes registered
in all the district councils, but said the
voter turnout was as low as nine
percent in the mayoral election in the town
of Kadoma in Mashonaland West,
which was also held on the same
day.
"People are aware of the uneven playing field - they know they will
not be
able to bring about any meaningful change," explained John Makumbe, a
senior
political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.
ZESN
has proposed an intensification of the voter education exercise.
Fin24
02/11/2006
19:12
Harare - Zimbabwe's cash-strapped power company, in the
firing line
for its erratic supplies, has been given the green light to
raise rates by
up to 270%, the electricity regulator said on
Thursday.
The commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe electricity
regulatory
commission, Mavis Chidzonga, said the increase was long overdue
and the
state-run Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZEDC) had been
charging
"sub-economic tariffs" as a result of the country's record
inflation rate.
"The commission ... has granted to ZEDC a tariff
increase of 95% for
vulnerable groups such as high-density domestic
consumers, rural consumers
and agriculture and government institutions,"
Chidzonga said in a statement.
Rates for heavy-duty consumers would
go up by 270%, the statement
added.
ZEDC last increased its
tariffs in June. But Chidzonga said the power
utility said was unable to
generate or import more power due a paucity of
funds and added that even the
new rates would not meet its expenses.
Zimbabwe has been hit by
skyrocketing inflation, which now stands at
more than 1 000%.
Power supplies have become frequently erratic
"The percentage
increases (in tariffs) take into account soaring
generation, transmission
and distribution costs involved in the supply of
electricity," the Chidzonga
said.
"The commission also considered the cost of importing an
average of
35% of Zimbabwe's electricity requirements ... as local
generation capacity
is insufficient to cover the national maximum demand of
around 2 000
megawatts."
The southern African nation imports
40% of its power needs - 100
megawatts a month from the Democratic Republic
of Congo, 200 megawatts from
Mozambique and up to 450 and 300 megawatts from
South Africa and Zambia
respectively.
Imports are expected to
stop in 2007 due to an anticipated power
deficit across southern Africa
resulting from increased demand.
Zimbabwe's once-model economy has
been on a downturn for the past five
years, characterised by four-digit
inflation and shortages of foreign
currency and basic
commodities.
Power supplies have become frequently erratic and
families in the
cities are turning to firewood for cooking and heating
because of outages.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Dennis Rekayi
MUTARE - Peter Michael
Hitschmann, the former police constabulary
facing charges of illegally
possessing dangerous weapons, finally got
underway on Tuesday with
the
State alleging he tried to recruit a senior army instructor to join
the Zimbabwe
Freedom Movement, a shadowy group the government has
linked to the
opposition MDC.
The State alleges Hitschmann, 46,
violated provisions of section 10
(1) of the controversial Public Order and
Security Act (POSA). He is alleged
to have plotted to assassinate President
Mugabe and two senior Zanu PF
members in Manicaland province after he had
stocked dangerous weapons of war
for purposes of carrying out an insurgent,
banditry, sabotage or terrorism.
If convicted he can be sentenced to life in
prison.
After delays caused after the state had included new sets
of
ammunition which was being disputed by the defence the trial eventually
kicked off on Tuesday.
The defence conceeded to the state's
application to have the new sets
of ammunition brought in as
exhibits.
A senior army officer, Major Israel Phiri, who is stationed
at the All
Arms Battle School in Nyanga, told a packed courtroom that
Hitschmann
approached him with the intention of enlisting him into the
Zimbabwe Freedom
Movement.
Major Phiri said Hitschmann
contacted him through an SMS on his cell
requesting the two meet in
Mutare.
"I queried why a whiteman who did not want to disclose his
name wanted
to see me," Phiri said. "He (Hitschmann) went onto say the
meeting had a
serious bearing on my personal interests."
Phiri said
he became suspicious and immediately advised his superiors
at the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces. Phiri said he was given the green light to
meet Hitschmann
and the two eventually met at Aloe Bar, behind Holiday Inn.
He
claimed Hitcshmann then invited him into his vehicle and drove to
the Cecil
Kopje, a game park overlooking the city.
Phiri said Hitschmann told him
he had been given his details including
his war credentials which included
military operations he conducted in
Mozambique, Somalia and the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
He said Hitschmann declined to disclose the identity
of the person
that had given him his details promising to do so after he had
undergobe a
"credibility test" in South Africa to ascertain his loyalty to
the group
that was enlisting his services.
"He told me that the
political wing of the MDC had failed to remove
the government and it was now
time for military action to be taken," Phiri
told the court. Phiri said
Hitschmann told him the objectives of the
operation was to effect regime
change and to reverse the land reform
programme.
"He said he
was not looking at a pro-longed armed insurgency but a
hard hitting commando
like operation," Phiri said. Phiri said after the
first meeting he went
straight to Three Brigade in Mutare and gave a
detailed and documented
report of what Hitschmann had allegedly told him to
the military
intelligence desk. He said the report was
forwarded to the army
headquarters in Harare who were already in the
picture of what was
transpiring.
Phiri said he communicated on several times with
Hitschmann until they
met again on 12 December 2006 in Mutare and proceeded
to Cecil Kopje. This
time, Phiri said, he told Hitschmann he was ready to
take up the job but
wanted security guarantees.
"I told him it
was a risky job since i had a family and he said they
will be given
Mozambican visas," PHiri said. He said he was told by
Hitschmann his family
would be evacuated to Mozambique and given sanctuary
should the operation
flopped. Phiri said he was promised US$500 a month as
remuneration. He told
the court he was promised a firearm for his personal
security.
He said on their third meeting on 11 January 2006 they discussed the
matter
while driving around the suburbs in Hitschmann's vehicle he was told
him
that donors were not happy because some arms that were supposed to be
delivered for the operation had not yet been delivered. Phiri said
Hitschmann told a certain white man had gone to the United Kingdom
pertaining to the funding of the operation.
Phiri told the
court that Hitschmann told him donors wanted to see
military action on the
ground.
"He said there were individuals they were targeting who
should be
taken out before the President's birthday," Phiri said.
The trial continues on Wednesday with Phiri giving more evidence.
Hitschmann
is denying the charges.
From The Times (UK), 2 November
By Jane
Macertney
China aims to make new friends and show the West that it is
a force to be
reckoned with
Chinese tour guides are brushing up
their Swahili, most cars have been
ordered off Beijing streets and officials
have been told to cycle to work.
Hotel chefs have created African menus, the
flags of African nations fly
over Tiananmen Square and the airport highway
has been closed to everyone
but African leaders arriving for the largest
diplomatic gathering the
Chinese capital has seen. The Beijing summit runs
over the weekend with as
many as 48 of the heads of Africa's 53 countries in
attendance. It will be a
landmark in the foreign policy of the country most
likely to become a new
superpower. It is not insignificant that China -
which calls itself the
world's biggest developing nation - is eager to give
prominence to its
relations with the largest bloc of developing countries.
The summit is not
only an opportunity for China to nurture its ties with
countries that are
becoming among its most important sources of raw
materials to feed its
industrial boom. It is also a chance to underline the
view of itself as the
closest and most reliable friend to the Third World
and to show the West
that its diplomacy makes it a force to be reckoned
with.
This is no longer the Cold War age, when Beijing sought
"anti-imperialist"
friendships in Africa to counter the United States and
its allies. This time
cold, hard business will be at the root of whatever
statements on strategic
partnership and mutual trust emerge on Sunday. Trade
deals are the main
incentive behind the slogan "Friendship, Peace,
Co-operation and
Development" that has appeared on billboards across
Beijing. Reductions in
tariffs, more aid and training programmes and
possibly debt forgiveness will
also be on the agenda. China's trade with
Africa ballooned to $40 billion
(£21 billion) last year from $5 billion a
decade earlier. Trade soared 30
per cent and is expected to grow by at least
25 per cent this year to more
than $50 billion. Angola has overtaken Saudi
Arabia as China's largest
supplier of oil and African oil now accounts for
one third of total imports.
Africa's natural resources are attracting
Chinese investment across the
continent: phosphates from Morocco, copper and
cobalt from the Democratic
Republic of Congo and Zambia, iron ore and
platinum from South Africa,
timber from Cameroon and Gabon and cotton for
China's textile plants.
China is interested not only in minerals; it
also wants more diplomatic
partners - specifically the five African
countries that recognise Taiwan as
the government of China. Beijing has
invited representatives of Gambia,
Malawi, Burkina Faso, Swaziland and São
Tomé to attend the summit as
observers, clearly with the aim of persuading
them that they have more to
gain by switching recognition to Beijing and
away from an island that China
regards as a renegade province. While
officials do not yet know how many, if
any, of the five will send
representatives, any who do attend are certain to
be offered financial
incentives to switch sides. Taiwan gives medical aid
and infrastructure
assistance to diplomatic partners but does not reveal the
amounts. Oil-rich
Chad was the latest country to switch, recognising Beijing
in August and
becoming the sixth country to change allegiance since 2000.
China has rolled
out a red carpet for the visitors and more than a million
police and
volunteers will maintain security. Posters of elephants, giraffes
and zebras
with the slogan "Africa - the land of Myth and Miracle" line city
streets;
conference centres have been carpeted with grass. Hoardings show a
black
hand and a yellow hand clasped or touching fingers. However, one false
note
was struck on a billboard displaying huge photographs of tribesmen with
painted faces and a curved bone piercing their noses - only these were from
Papua New Guinea.
It is unlikely to harm China's prospects in
Africa, even though there have
been murmurings in some countries that the
Chinese buy their resources and
sell light industrial goods without regard
for African economies. Paul
Wolfowitz, the President of the World Bank,
accused China recently of
disregarding social and environmental standards
when lending to developing
nations in Africa. China has defended its
scramble for Africa. Wei Jianguo,
the Vice-Minister for Commerce, said that
its soft loans and investments
were "like sending firewood in the snow".
Chinese products were better
suited to African consumer needs, he said.
"Chinese investments have greatly
benefited the local people and have been
popular among them." Zimbabwe has
been a big beneficiary, with Beijing
funding a new university department
that will offer Chinese language and
culture courses. In June Harare
announced a $1.3 billion deal with China to
set up coalmines and three
thermal power stations. As President Mugabe said
shortly before leaving for
the summit: "We have nothing to lose but our
imperialist chains." Critics
say China's dealing with countries with poor
human rights records, such as
Sudan, and its principle of non-interference
in other countries' internal
affairs could jeopardise the long-term benefits
of its investments. And it
is far from certain that when China builds a
railway or a stadium it will
also transfer technology to African countries.
China rejects the criticisms,
emphasising that its help comes with no
strings attached - unlike Western
countries or the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund. Wen Heping, an
Africa expert at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences, said: "China wants
them to boast of sustainable
development. Western countries are interested
only in resources. To give
them aid is not to put cash in the pockets of a
few presidents."
IOL
November 02 2006 at
04:11PM
Harare - Women in central Zimbabwe are selling sex to truck
drivers
for fuel, reports said on Thursday.
They say it is more
profitable than being paid in cash, police
spokesperson Costa Taduwa told
the Daily Mirror, which is a private but
mainly pro-government
newspaper.
It said the young women, from Midlands province, were
soliciting truck
drivers on the busy highway between Harare and Beitbridge,
the border post
with South Africa.
"It is really alarming that
young women are exchanging sex for
20-litre containers of diesel or petrol,"
said Taduwa.
Fuel has been in short supply in Zimbabwe on and off
for several years
now, and there is a lucrative black
market.
The government has set the price of fuel at
just over ZIM$300 (about
R9) a litre, but it sells on the streets and in
privately-run service
stations for up to ZIM$2 000 a litre.
Sexually-transmitted infections were increasing in the area, the
acting
matron of a local hospital confirmed.
Gladys Takawira of Mvuma
District Hospital told the Daily Mirror that
the cases of STIs treated by
her institution monthly had dramatically risen
in the last five
months.
"Every day we treat different cases and we are seriously
worried about
this," she said.
Around 3 000 people die from HIV
and Aids in Zimbabwe every week. -
Sapa-dpa
Daily Mail, UK
Last updated
at 18:23pm on 2nd November 2006
Former Zimbabwe cricketer Mark Vermeulen has
been with arson over a fire
that destroyed the offices and pavilion of the
country's cricket academy.
Police spokesman Andrew Phiri said 27-year-old
Vermeulen, who reportedly
suffers from depression, was being held in custody
and was due in court on
Friday. He could be jailed for at least two
years.
Zimbabwe Cricket, the sport's governing body, quoted witnesses
saying
Vermeulen was seen near the site of the fire that razed the
two-storey
straw-thatched building in eastern Harare late on
Tuesday.
The fire destroyed national squad equipment including kit used
by players
preparing for a trip to Bangladesh, computers and files in
offices at the
pavilion. There were no reports of injuries.
Officials
said Vermeulan, who played eight Test matches and 32 one-day
internationals
for Zimbabwe, had recently been under medical care for head
injuries
received in a car accident.
In September, he was banned from playing in
England for three years after
throwing a ball at spectators and brawling
with one of them. Two of the
three years were suspended.
Vermeulan
was rumoured to have returned to Zimbabwe to fight for a place in
the team
for next year's World Cup and may have been rebuffed by officials.
He was
briefly arrested last month after presenting himself at the gate of
Zimbabwe
president Robert Mugabe's heavily guarded official residence in
Harare. He
was demanding an interview with the patron of cricket in the
troubled
southern African nation.
Suspicion of arson arose after Zimbabwe Cricket
reported an earlier fire,
damaging carpets and curtains, in the boardroom of
its offices on Monday.
Cricket in Zimbabwe has been afflicted by internal
rivalry and charges of
racism between officials, resulting in a strike by
national players and the
departure to play abroad of most experienced white
players, including former
captain Heath Streak.
Zimbabwe is one of a
dozen Test-playing nations but has only played one-day
internationals since
the exodus of its main Test players.
Tatenda Taibu, Streak's successor as
skipper, fled Zimbabwe after allegedly
receiving death threats during a
dispute over the captaincy.
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
BULAWAYO, 2 Nov
2006 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's state-owned Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) said this
week that it had only collected 480,000 metric tonnes of
maize, about 25
percent of the country's requirement.
But GMB chief executive Samuel
Muvhuti dispelled any concerns of food
security arguing that the grain
collected so far was a reflection of the
surplus attained and not all the
harvested maize.
Next month heralds the critical lean season, when the
farming season starts
and lasts until March 2007. During this period
households traditionally have
limited access to food stocks and lack the
money to buy food even if it is
available.
Zimbabwe's annual cereal
requirement is about 1.9 million mt. Independent
estimates suggest only
800,000mt of maize was harvested this year, or less
than half of the
country's annual requirement; the government has insisted
that around 1.8
million mt were produced.
Muvhuti was confident that the increase in the
producer price of maize,
announced by government on Wednesday from Z$31,350
(about US$175) per mt to
Z$52,450 (about US$209) would motivate farmers to
deliver their grain to the
GMB depots.
"We take delight in that we
are about to reach our target of 500,000mt of
the 2005/2006 harvest, and
with the new producer price, we may even slightly
surpass our target as
farmers will surely be motivated to deliver their
stocks...After all the
next farming season is about to start and the grain
that we have will
definitely take us to the next harvest," insisted Muvhuti.
But
independent food security analysts noted that Muvhuti's revelations
about
the 2005/2006 grain produce appeared to be true, and expressed concern
that
Zimbabwe would be unable to pull through to the next harvest.
A recent
USAID-funded report on informal trade in Southern Africa said
Zimbabwe would
have to import cereals. According to the South African Grain
Information
Service, Zimbabwe has imported nearly 100,000mt from South
Africa since
April this year.
Faced with a fast crumbling economy, dubbed the worst
perfomer outside a war
zone by the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe has
grappled with serious
food shortages, since 2000 when government embarked on
a fast-track land
reform programme.
Humanitarian aid agencies
estimate that 1.4 million people out of a
population of about 12 million are
in urgent need of food-aid.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwean
trade union leaders have asked parliament to stop
a bid by President Robert
Mugabe's nephew to demand the state fire labour
officials opposed to the
government.
Leo Mugabe, a lawmaker from his uncle's ruling ZANU-PF,
has tabled a
motion in parliament for the removal of the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions leaders "for unethical conduct" and "abandoning its core
business of
representing workers".
Mugabe was expected to move
the debate this week, but officials say he
did not because there were other
issues on the legislature's diary as well
as ongoing consultations around
the the proposal.
Under Zimbabwean law, the labour minister can in
special circumstances
suspend or fire union officials over cases of gross
mismanagement, criminal
conduct or the failure to execute the mandate of
unions to represent workers
on labour issues.
The government
charges that ZCTU leaders are involved in what it calls
a Western-sponsored
programme to end its rule after the seizures of
white-owned commercial farms
for landless blacks.
In an open letter to Speaker of Parliament
John Nkomo ZCTU
Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe said the motion tabled
by Mugabe and
co-sponsored by another member of parliament was sub judice
because some of
the issues were before the courts.
"The motion
contains factual and legal inaccuracies," he said, adding
parliament could
not debate a case in court and that the ZCTU had not been
given a chance to
comment on the "scandalous" charges Mugabe and his
colleague were
making.
"The honourable members of parliament have taken the
liberty to
gratuitously condemn the ZCTU without giving them an opportunity
to
respond," Chibebe said.
"This is against the rules of
justice."
The ZCTU secretary-general and two other union officials
have a
pending case in court over charges of breaching foreign exchange
regulations.
Chibebe and his colleagues say this and other
accusations that they
are mismanaging union affairs are part of a drive by
the government to oust
them over political differences.
Chibebe
and 30 other union leaders were arrested six weeks ago and
accuse police of
assaulting them while in custody over accusations of
holding an illegal
protest over wages.
President Mugabe has said the union leaders --
who are out on bail and
want to challenge the constitutionality of their
arrest -- had defied
authority and deserved the beating.
On
Sunday the ZCTU denounced Leo Mugabe's parliamentary motion as
another
attack on democracy.
The president's nephew was not immediately
available for comment on
Thursday.
Reuters
Zim Online
Friday 03 November
2006
JOHANNESBURG - The Chinese government
on Thursday defended its close
ties with African countries accused of human
rights abuses saying it will
never impose its will on the impoverished
continent.
The remarks come a day after the United States-based
human rights
group, Human Rights Watch, issued a damning report on China 's
role in
propping up dictatorial regimes in Africa .
Human
Rights Watch said China should use its clout to press for
improved human
rights record in troubled African states such as the Darfur
region in Sudan
and Zimbabwe.
The human rights body accused China of propping "up
some of the
continent's worst human rights abusers" and weakening "the
leverage of
others trying to promote greater respect for human
rights."
Speaking ahead of a summit with 40 African states in
Beijing
yesterday, foreign affairs spokesman Liu Jianchao dampened hopes
that China
could whip Harare and other rogue states into line.
"Our principle when handling our relations with other countries is to
never
try to impose our social system, development mode, values and ideology
upon
other countries," said Jianchao.
President Robert Mugabe's
government has over the past six years
increasingly looked to China and
other Asian countries for support after the
West imposed sanctions on Harare
over human rights abuses.
The international human rights body wants
China to halt the supply of
materials and technology to Harare that could be
used to suppress human
rights.
Mugabe is expected in Beijing on
Friday for the China-African
summit. - ZimOnline
The Herald
Herald
Reporter
HARARE Central Hospital - one the country's largest referral
centres - has
gone for two days without water, which has compromised the
hygiene of
patients, staff and the public.
The hospital is relying on
water bowsers from the City of Harare after the
intervention of the Ministry
of Health and Child Welfare.
Hospital chief executive officer Mr Jealous
Nderere told dignitaries
gathered for a handover ceremony of US$200 000
worth of laboratory equipment
donated to the Ministry by World Health
Organisation yesterday that the
situation at the hospital was
bad.
"We had no water since yesterday (Wednesday). This is the longest
period we
have gone without water as a result of these water cuts. Our
hygiene
standards are being compromised.
"I have already informed our
Minister of Health and Child Welfare and he is
aware of the situation. He is
putting pressure on the city council and
Zinwa," Mr Nderere said.
Mr
Nderere said the hospital had requested the City of Harare to provide
mobile
water bowsers.
The Harare City Council and Zinwa are failing to cope with
the water demand
and have resorted to water rationing.
Zinwa, which
is responsible for bulk water treatment, only treats about 550
megalitres a
day, which is far less than the required water in the capital
city.
Of the 550 megalitres, almost half is not accounted for as it
is lost
through leakages and clandestine water use by companies and
individuals.
VOA
By Jonga
Kandemiiri
Washington
02 November
2006
It is exam season again in Zimbabwe's schools from grade
seven through
advanced levels, and once again reports are circulating of the
theft or loss
of exam papers, obliging education officials to recall and
reissue
examinations.
Last month, ordinary level exams were stolen
from a headmaster in Karoi, a
town in Mashonaland West, by a man to whom he
had given a ride in his car.
Kwekwe district schools failed to receive
scannable exam sheets from the
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council, or
ZIMSEC, which oversees the exam
system. So grade seven students wrote their
answers on ordinary paper with
teachers later transposing answers to scanner
sheets, raising the
possibility of alterations in the process.
The
secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Raymond
Majongwe, commented recently that the exam system is deeply flawed. An
official of the school examinations council, Taonashe Dube, demanded
questions in writing when approached for comment about the troubled
examination system.
Chitungwiza parliamentarian Fidelis Mhashu stated
in the house yesterday
that the continued leakage of examination papers
discredits the national
education system.
Mhashu,who is education
spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change
faction of Morgan
Tsvangirai, told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio
7 for Zimbabwe
that the government must address the problems at the
examinations council
before Zimbabwean students become discredited
internationally.
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
JAG
Hotlines:
+263 (011) 610 073 If you are in trouble or need advice,
please
don't hesitate to contact us - we're here to help!
+263 (04) 799 410 Office
Lines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1 - S. Taylor
Dear JAG
I'll bet you a pound to a pinch of sh......
that our great "leader" will not
end up in the Hague.
For starters,
the world and its lawyers seem scared of him - secondly,
everyone that says
he must go, are so busy procrastinating that by the time
anything is done
about it, he will be too old.
Meanwhile, we die a slow death. We are
down but not out, and if you have
the bucks (I don't know how I'm still
around, as I have NO bucks - but am a
little resilient!), you can get
anything in Zim and we are still a great
nation with a great people - but the
top management must now look elsewhere
for jobs. It's done its damage and
must just be replaced, as this country
needs to be driven by more than just a
bunch of revolutionaries and bandits,
especially the agricultural industry,
an extremely sophisticated and complex
machine.
Maybe we should think
about a different m.o. instead of just whining about
our lot. Imagine if
2million people just woke up one morning and said
they'd like to vote before
they did another day's work!!
Go well.
S.
Taylor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2
Dear JAG
N Herley of New Zealand comments that only those still
living in Zimbabwe
should down tools, stop paying their dues etc to bring an
end to the
madness. He really does not know from afar exactly how we - who
are left
behind - are managing to survive daily intimidation.
Store
owners are thrown in jail for minor things like not having price
stickers on
packets of milk and other such perishables - firstly having to
report to
pint-size interrogators to admit guilt - then face jail and the
courts. (a)
there is no sticker available that will STICK on fridge items,
and (b) the
prices change so rapidly it is impossible to keep re-sticking
prices on
items.
This is one of many incidents that are ongoing. There is no
protection, no
law that can help the very ones struggling on in already
difficult
conditions, to provide much needed services to the public.
I
cannot see how anyone can risk the wrath of downing tools and sitting
in
jails of horrendous conditions and abuse. Remember jails here are a
death
sentence, after being gang-raped with HIV rapists.
If anything,
ending the madness is only likely to come from afar, where
there is freedom
to operate successfully.
Unknown
(for obvious
reasons)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.