An estimated 4 million people have fled Mugabe's regime,
many of them finding work in South Africa, STEPHANIE NOLEN
reports
By STEPHANIE NOLEN Saturday, November 6, 2004 -
Page A22
ATTERIDGEVILLE SQUATTER CAMP,
SOUTH AFRICA -- Climb the hill through the shacks and past the water pump.
Take a right at the Luv is in Da Hair beauty salon, built in half a shipping
container painted turquoise. Here, 20 minutes outside Pretoria on a dirt
road crammed between houses constructed of scrounged metal scrap, is the
workshop: Behind thick green tarp to block prying eyes, 30 men labour,
sawing old shipping pallets and turning them into crude
furniture.
It's hot, and the curls of sawdust stick to
sweat-streaked skin. The men work seven days a week, from early morning
until long past dark. They risked drowning, crocodiles, electrocution and
worse to get here. But they can earn the equivalent of $40 a week, a fortune
for their families back home.
All of these men are Zimbabwean,
and with one exception are 17 to 25 years old, the prime age for forced
recruitment into the Green Bombers, Zimbabwe's notorious youth
militia.
They fled their home country, where the fields are empty,
the stores are empty, inflation runs at about 400 per cent and any suspicion
of sympathy for the opposition to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his
regime is enough to have the police pounding at the door in the dark of
night. "We live," July Bistongo said, "between danger zones."
There are an estimated four million Zimbabweans, or a quarter of the
population, in exile. Some are political exiles -- judges, journalists,
lawyers driven out of the country for supporting the opposition or simply
attempting to operate independent news media. Others are the so-called
"economic refugees," like this group, although their exile, too, has its
roots in politics.
A decade ago, Zimbabwe was an African
success story, with one of the highest literacy rates on the continent, a
thriving economy and an agricultural sector so healthy the country fed many
of its neighbours. Then Zimbabwe was hit hard by structural-adjustment
programs put forward by international institutions such as the World Bank,
which badly undercut spending on health and education.
The
country really went off the rails in the late 1990s, when the Movement for
Democratic Change emerged as the first serious opposition to Mr. Mugabe's
Zanu-PF Party. Mr. Mugabe had embarked on a heavily politicized "fast-track
land-reform" program that was supposed to see the large, mostly white-owned
commercial farms that dominated the agricultural sector handed over to
landless black Zimbabweans.
In reality, however, most of the farms
were transferred to the wealthy colleagues of Mr. Mugabe. Many white farmers
and their considerable expertise were driven from the country. The black
farm workers who once worked for the white farmers are jobless. The large
farms lie idle and the great majority of blacks are subsistence farming on
small plots.
The region is experiencing a drought this year, as it
has for the past several years, and that exacerbates the problem. Zimbabwe,
once so productive, will have a serious food shortage this year, though the
government continues to insist there is no problem.
About 4.8
million people will be critically short of food, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization warned.
The FAO estimates the harvest this
year at 950,000 tonnes (as opposed to the government figure of 2.4 million
tonnes) and said that an estimated 30 per cent to 40 per cent of farmers are
running out of food (the next harvest will be in April).
Meanwhile, the average labourer earns enough only to feed a typical family
for two days a week, and the price of corn has doubled since April.
And there is only one sort of job to be had these days in rural Zimbabwe.
"You can't work if you don't go and do their training, join their forces --
but the only job you get from that is beating people or being one of 10 guys
to rape a girl, and you get AIDS," said Timothy Mhlang, 25, one of the
workers in the bustling little furniture co-operative, part of the secretive
network of ways in which Zimbabweans refugees try to assist each
other.
Human-rights groups such as Amnesty International has
documented numerous incidents of forced conscription into the national youth
militia that is ostensibly a skills-training program for young people, and
of assaults and gang rape by militia members.
Suspicion of
sympathy for the opposition is enough to have you killed. It's also enough
to keep you from being fed.
"Everybody needs food at home now,"
said Mr. Bistongo, 23, who left home in Chipenga two months ago. "But if you
don't show a membership card [in the Zanu-PF] or if they think you are
opposition, you can't get it. Sometimes there are soldiers with lists [of
Zanu members, at distribution points for heavily subsidized food by the
National Grain Marketing Board] and sometimes they just have their spies
there to say who should be allowed to get food."
Such
allegations are confirmed in a new Amnesty International report called
Zimbabwe: Power and Hunger, Violations of the Right to Food.
Rocky
Rakings, 19, in charge of varnishing table tops, left home in Checheche,
Zimbabwe, last month. His family could no longer survive on the 40,000
Zimbabwean dollars (about $8) he was earning each month doing agricultural
labour. He has saved $40 from the furniture shop to take home to his
parents, four brothers, wife and baby son, none of whom can find
work.
But the journey from Checheche was perilous, and he
dreads the thought of returning to deliver the money. "To come here, you
must travel through the bush, and then you have to cross the [Limpopo] River
-- there can be crocodiles and hippopotamus. Sometimes you must swim. When
you get across, there are the fences."
Here, Mr. Mhlang took up
the narrative.
They cross at night, to avoid patrolling South
African helicopters. The first fence is not so bad, about 1.5 metres, he
said, and they climb over or dig under that one.
The next
fence, though, is much higher and electrified. He used a couple of tools
from the workshop to mime the pole-vaulting technique they use to clear
it.
"The third fence is better, but it has razor wire at the
top."
Once over, often bleeding, they head for the bush again, to
avoid patrolling jeeps. Travelling at night, they finally reach the highway,
and flag down a truck headed for Johannesburg, Durban or Pretoria, somewhere
they can get lost in a squatter camp like this one.
"You have
to say everything you need to say to your family when you go," Mr. Bistongo
said, his voice cracking a little. "Because you don't know when you're
coming back."
The men said they were glad to have the work in South
Africa, but life is hard here, too. They pay about $20 a month to rent
living space in shacks, and they are in constant fear of raids.
South Africa, with 40 per cent unemployment, does not want the immigrants.
And the government takes a weak stand on Zimbabwe because much of the prime
land in South Africa is still in white hands and because Mr. Mugabe is still
revered here for his role in the liberation of Zimbabwe. So South Africa
will not acknowledge the political crisis in Zimbabwe, and thus few refugees
can claim asylum; they must live as "illegals."
"It's worst at the
end of the month, when the police are short of money. They come and pick you
up and they want 100 rand or 80 rand [about $20] to let you go," Mr. Mhlang
said.
None of these men was an active or formal member of the
opposition. "You must keep your political affairs only in your heart," Mr.
Rakings said. There will be an election in Zimbabwe in March, but the men do
not think it will change things.
"You know who will win," one
said. "So we will stay here, earning money to give our families."
A
ZIMBABWEAN expert on wildlife conservation is due to visit Edinburgh to talk
about efforts to save the rhino.
Dr Chris Foggin, principal scientific
research officer with the national parks of Zimbabwe, has been invited by
the Hwange Conservation Society to speak at Edinburgh Zoo and the Royal
(Dick) School of Veterinary Studies next week.
The Sighthill-based
charity works to help protect the wildlife and environment of the Hwange
National Park in Zimbabwe.
John Gillon, chairman of the organisation,
said:
"Dr Foggin is a real expert on wildlife preservation and on the
rhino in particular.
It will be fantastic to hear him talk about his
veterinary work and his experiences of working with animals in the
wild."
Dr Foggin, whose speech is entitled Rhino and other wildlife
veterinary work in Zimbabwe, has been involved in the capture of rhinos in
Zimbabwe in an effort to conserve them from poachers. This often involves
darting and relocating them for breeding purposes. As well as his work with
rhinos he is also involved in all aspects of wildlife veterinary work
throughout the entire country.
He has worked closely with the Hwange
Conservation Society, which runs projects including sponsoring research into
wild dog populations, donating money to provide piping for water supplies
and supplying video camera and tracking receivers to assist in hyena
research.
Dr Foggin will speak at Edinburgh Zoo on Monday at 7pm, and the
Royal (Dick) Vet next Thursday at 7pm.
'Let's not put all eggs in one basket in Zim' November
06 2004 at 04:46PM
The Congress of SA Trade Unions on Saturday said
South Africa could not afford to place all its Zimbabwean eggs in one
basket.
The trade union federation was replying to media comment on
an apparent attack on the labour movement in the ANC Today, the party's
online publication.
While reaffirming its support for all
attempts to reach a diplomatic solution to the Zimbabwe problem - and while
acknowledging "the sincerity and integrity of the SA government and the
African National Congress in their efforts to achieve this", Cosatu said
diplomacy had to be "supplemented by mobilisation of the people to change
their own circumstances".
"Diplomacy has its role and place,
but we cannot afford to place all our eggs in the basket of diplomacy. Mass
mobilisation and solidarity have an equally important role. The challenge is
to co-ordinate these efforts to reinforce one another and not use one to the
exclusion of the other," the organisation said in a statement on
Saturday.
Cosatu added it had a right and duty to act in solidarity
with fellow trade unionists.
The federation itself is a product
of international solidarity and understands the value of support from the
international community. Apartheid South Africa would not have been brought
down in 1994 purely through diplomatic pressure. Apartheid was ended firstly
by the struggle of the mass liberation movement, assisted by an
international solidarity campaign. While Zimbabwe is not of course equal to
apartheid South Africa, there is still a need to express our solidarity with
our fellow workers in their fight for trade union rights and for political
space, Cosatu explained.
"Cosatu has consistently taken a similar
view of attacks on trade unions rights in Swaziland, Nigeria and other
places and will continue to do so.
"Cosatu cannot be held
responsible for either the ignorance of those who suggest we have suddenly
woken up to target Zimbabwe nor we can be made to account for selective
amnesia of others.
"Nor can we be held responsible for views
expressed by the media, opposition parties and political commentators, in
response to the expulsion of the Cosatu mission. Most of the time our views
are freely available in our public positions and
resolutions.
'It has unfortunately not become a
reality' "The aim of our mission was not to undermine the Zimbabwean
government, nor to embarrass the ANC or President Mbeki. We reject any
insinuation that Cosatu seeks to unseat the ZANU-PF government. All we have
called for is free political activity, repeal of repressive legislation and
ending of routine harassment of trade unionists.
"It is also
preposterous to say that the expulsion of the mission somehow suggests a
split in the alliance or that Cosatu both deserved and invited expulsion
from the Zimbabwe government," the statement added.
If other groups
such as the Democratic Alliance opportunistically derived political capital
out of the Cosatu mission, "this should not serve as grounds to delegitimise
our position," Cosatu stressed.
"The letter to Cosatu from the
government of Zimbabwe stated that the mission was 'not appropriate' because
it bypassed a process agreed upon between the governments, labour and
business leaders of South Africa and Zimbabwe which was to address the
political dimension of labour in Zimbabwe.
"An article in ANC Today
refers to this as a 'Joint Tripartite Commission' between South Africa and
Zimbabwe. But in fact no such structure exists. This untruth is being
peddled in order to create an impression that Cosatu and the ZCTU (Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions) failed to use existing structures to address their
concerns and therefore had other intentions when it sent the mission to
Zimbabwe.
Cosatu said the "commission", which to its and the ZCTU's
knowledge never materialised, was a consequence of an informal meeting at a
International Labour organisation meeting in 2003, where Labour minister
Membathisi Mdladlana had suggested to Cosatu and business representative
Bokkie Botha that South Africa's they should initiate a more constructive
engagement between the parties in Zimbabwe.
"Both the ZCTU and
the Minister of Labour of Zimbabwe agreed that a meeting involving all the
tripartite parties of both countries could be held."
This never
happened.
"Giving the initiative a name 'Joint Tripartite
Commission' is an attempt to give a non-existent structure political weight.
This forms part and parcel of a strategy to launch a political attack on
Cosatu and ZCTU by the Zimbabwe government. The question that must be asked
is when was this so-called Joint Tripartite Commission inaugurated? Who are
the commissioners? When was its first or last meeting? Who attended such a
meeting? Certainly COSATU and ZCTU were not part of the meeting. Neither
were the employers.
"While this was an excellent initiative...
it has unfortunately not become a reality." - Sapa
Police on manhunt for banker Chanakira by
STAFF EDITORS (11/6/2004)
Zimbabwe police have launched a manhunt
for prominent banker and Econet Wireless board member, Nigel Chanakira. He
is wanted in connection with allegations of foreign currency
externalization. Chanakira, one of a genre of young successful entrepreneurs
in Zimbabwe, is the founder of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed Kingdom
Financial Holdings Ltd, but sits on its board as vice
chairman.
Chanakira is believed to be in South Africa.
Police
sources yesterday confirmed that they were looking for Chanakira. Earlier
this week, they picked up five Econet executives - chief executive Douglas
Mboweni, executive director (customer services and billing) John Patterson,
and Nyasha Zhou, Athony Eastwood and Tawanda Nyambirai.
Econet is
Zimbabwe's second mobile phone service provider.
Sources told reporters
yesterday that fraud squad detectives who arrested the five on Tuesday, also
swooped on Chanakira's Harare residence. They were told by one of
Chanakira's workers that the businessman was out of the
country.
Chanakira, just like Econet's chairman Strive Masiyiwa and
SMM Holdings chairman Mutumwa Mawere, has made South Africa his second home.
Mawere, who is also wanted by the police on externalisation charges, is now
understood to have sought refuge in the United States.
Police
spokesperson, Wayne Bvudzijena, yesterday confirmed that police searched for
Chanakira at his home but failed to find him.
"The issue is about the
directors of Econet. Whether we went to Chanakira's home or not is
irrelevant, the issue is whether we are looking for him or not. As it
stands, his whereabouts form part of our investigations," Bvudzijena said,
without elaborating.
The suspects currently detained face allegations
that they deposited in offshore accounts US$3,6 million due to the company
from outside Zimbabwe.
The arrests signals the fact that the anti-graft
initiative has shifted a gear up following the arrests in Harare this week
of officials at Telecel Zimbabwe, the country's third largest mobile
operator.
Telecel Zimbabwe chairman, James Makamba, managing director,
Athony Carter and corporate secretary, Edward Mutsvairo, have since appeared
before the courts on allegations of externalising over US$70 000.
If
Chanakira refuses to come to Zimbabwe, he will join several bank executives
who fled the country this year amid allegations of massive foreign currency
externalisation and public funds mismanagement, among other irregular
deals.
These include NMB executives Julius Makoni, Otto Chekeche and
James Mushore, as well as Barbican Holdings chief Mthuli Ncube.
An
estimated $31trillion is stashed in several European countries where
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have clung onto their investments fearing the
"unstable economic environment" back home.
Persistent fuel shortages, a flourishing
foreign-currency black market and empty pharmacy shelves at state hospitals
seem to jar with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono's portrayal
of the economy. During his Monetary Policy Statement for the third quarter
last week he described the economy as being in the "spring season
characterised by improvements all round". Economists maintain that the
central bank boss has missed most of his targets and that he set the bar too
high when he was appointed in December last year. Targets included bringing
inflation down to 200% from a peak of 622,8% in January; strict supervision
of the banking sector and the unification of multiple exchange rates to
stimulate foreign currency inflows. Inflation is currently at 251%. A dual
interest rate system was introduced to fight inflation. Through this
exporters and companies in the productive sector pay 50% interest, up from
December's 30%, while importers and local consumers pay between 261,5% and
271,5%, down from about 920% at the beginning of the year. "The objective,
desire and passion are there to turn around the economy. But his mistake is
that he thinks he can do it alone," said Godfrey Kanyenze, director of the
Labour and Economic Development Research Institute. Gono has managed to coax
President Robert Mugabe into agreeing to depreciate the Zimbabwe dollar from
$820 to $6 200 to the greenback. He has also restored sanity in the banking
sector, albeit at a high cost. "Dr Gono can - and does - claim to have
slowed the inflation rate and brought stability to the exchange rate, but
his achievement has been at very considerable cost to exporters, many of
whom have downsized their operations and some of whom have closed down,"
said economist John Robertson. A report entitled The State of the
Manufacturing Sector released by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
shows that about 2 600 jobs will be lost when 25 companies are forced to
downsize and eight to shut down.
Gono's go-it-alone approach and
drive for immediate compliance in the banking sector has had dire
consequences. Of the country's 40 banks, 29 have met capital adequacy
requirements, two others have three months to reach the desired levels while
a further seven banks are under curatorship and two others are under
provisional liquidation. "The financial market was crazy and he has managed
to tame it, but at very high cost. He has created panic, bankers are
fleeing, and he has chased away brilliant minds," said Kanyenze. Unification
of the exchange rate is yet to be attained and the Zimbabwean police have
been unable to stem the trade in foreign currency on the black market where
the greenback fetches at least Z$8 000. But the central bank governor's
biggest hurdle is his policy variance with Mugabe: they differ on the
country's relationship with international bodies - the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank; who the country's major trading partners
should be; and how to get the Zimbabwe diaspora to repatriate their
earnings. Mugabe wants nothing to do with the "imperialist" IMF; is looking
east for trade partners; and is steadfast in refusing migrant Zimbabweans
the vote in return for remitting foreign currency. Gono, on the other hand,
is wooing the IMF and has stepped up repayments to the body from
$1,5-million a quarter to $5-million since June; remains focused on the West
for trading partners and backs the Homelink initiative - a money transfer
system introduced by the central bank for migrant Zimbabweans to channel
foreign currency into the country. "Every one of the economic problems has
its origins in political decisions and it is these that have to be attended
to ... it is political leverage, rather than economic leverage, that should
be used to bring the government into line with international standards of
acceptability," said Robertson.
In power forever Saturday 6th November 2004 Dear Family and Friends, While
the eyes of the world were on America this week, Zimbabwe seemed to be
completely uninterested and totally unconcerned with the US election. When
asked by the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper if President Mugabe was going to
comment on the re-election of George Bush, official government spokesman
George Charamba said: "What has Mr Bush's win got to do with the Zimbabwe
government." That short comment summed it all up for Zimbabwe's ruling party
which seems far more concerned about China. Day after day this week, radio
and television headline news in Zimbabwe has been about China. It appears
that China is now Zimbabwe's closest ally and all week we've seen film
footage of acres of Chinese goods that have just arrived in the country.
These products include electricity transformers, agricultural implements and
defence and security equipment. Not to mention the tons and tons of other
Chinese products like cheap clothes, luggage and electrical equipment that
have flooded our shelves and flea markets lately and are suffocating
Zimbabwean companies and driving our own manufacturers out of
business.
This week our agriculture minister Joseph Made also climbed
onto the Chinese bandwagon. Despite being repeatedly and grossly mistaken
about crop harvests and food security in Zimbabwe, Doctor Made has just
announced that our growing relationship with China is imperative for his new
"35 year agricultural programme." This is the same Doctor Made who struggled
to see a year into the future not so long ago. In April 2001 Doctor Made
said that he'd flown all over Zimbabwe assessing the crop situation and as a
result of what he saw he was convinced that there would be no food shortages
in Zimbabwe and no need to import any wheat or maize. Less than a year later
7 million Zimbabweans were being fed by the World Food Programme
I
cannot imagine how any Minister of Agriculture could put together a three
and a half decade plan in a country where farm ownership changes almost
every season, where title deeds are worthless and where police disregard
court rulings if they involve land, white skinned Zimbabweans or anyone who
doesn't support the ruling party. Dr Made talks about a dramatic increase in
trade with China and exports of all sorts of agricultural products,
including, of course, tobacco. Dr Made seems to have forgotten that this
year's tobacco crop was the smallest ever to have been produced by
Zimbabwe.
While America looks to just the next four years of Bush's term
in office it seems Zimbabwe 's government can see much, much further into
the future and seems to think it will be in power for ever and ever. Perhaps
George Charamba is right after all when he asks what Bush's victory has to
do with Zimbabwe?. Like it or loathe it America is at least the real world
whereas Zimbabwe daily loses touch with reality. Until next week, with
love, cathy