| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Saturday
November 08, 2003 16:23 - (SA)
HARARE - Zimbabwe's top military
commander, General Vitalis Zvinavashe on
Saturday declared himself ready for
"national political duty" when he
retires next month.
Zvinashe, who
has been seen as a likely successor to President Robert Mugabe
because of his
policies, has indicated his support for widespread seizure of
white-owned
business assets in Zimbabwe.
This was similar to Mugabe's "revolutionary
land reform programme" that
started in 2000, which urged lawless ruling party
followers to invade and
occupy 95% of the 11-million hectares of land owned
by whites.
Zvinashe had been linked to political violence, corruption and
involvement
in the illegal "blood diamonds" trade during the war in the
Democratic
Republic of Congo.
He said that he would refuse to obey
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if
he was elected to
power.
"Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was created by
foreigners and
some Zimbabweans who have become willing British
collaborators. These
collaborators are prepared to wash away the wishes of
thousands of young
Zimbabweans who shed blood in pursuit of a free and
liberated Zimbabwe,"
said Zvinahe.
He said his party will not accept,
support nor salute anyone with a
different agenda that threatened the very
existence of their sovereignty,
their country and people.
However, he
said there was "nothing wrong with opposition parties," but
added an
opposition which went against the wishes of the people became
irrelevant in
any political structure.
In the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper,
he said he stood ready to
accept any national task bestowed upon him by the
leadership of the country
in post-military life.
However, he has
dismissed reports that he would mark his entry into
Zimbabwe's political
mainstream by campaigning for a parliamentary seat in
his home area in
southern Zimbabwe.
"I would never opt for a district position. I am the
commander of the
Zimbabwe defence forces, which is a national position," he
said.
Although Zvinashe has shown the willingness to take over the
presidency,
Mugabe has given no indication whether he will retire.
The
pressure from within his ruling Zanu-PF party and from the
international
community has not been successful in forcing him to step
down.
However, many people believed that he will make an announcement
when the
ruling party holds its annual conference in the southern town of
Masvingo
next month.
One senior Zanu-PF official said Mugabe's
resignation was the first step
that had to be taken before the country can
start to end the worsening
economic and social crisis.
Sapa
Gentlemen,
Another quiet day
at the office,shuffling papers and watching the
potplant wilt.
George
Theart and his wife were ostensibly "arrested"at a Police roadblock
about 5
km outside Bulawayo this morning.They were en route to Botswana to
clear
their belongings at the Plumtree Border Post.
They were in possession of
R1800-00,which,according to the law,they could
lawfully hold without the need
for any permit or authority.George had
documentation proving that he had
declared the money when he entered
Zimbabwe.
The Police were not
inclined to be distracted in their mission to confiscate
money by mere
technicalities such as the Law.They had a "Directive"which
they were
following.
The Police were of the opinion that" staff from the Reserve
Bank were coming
to decide whether the monies seized would released back to
the person from
whom it was seized or declared 'confiscated'".The people at
the RBZ failed
to arrive for an hour.When contacted by radio they asked
akward questions
like"In terms of which law have you arrested these
people?"and "In terms of
which law do you want us to confiscate this
money?".
The Police seemed to realise that all was not going according to
the Grand
Plan spelled out in the Directive.It was time to switch to 'plan
b'.
Assistant Inspector Chiure,Member-in Charge Donnington Police Station
and
mastermind-in -charge of the roadblock,then announced that the RBZ
personnel
were waiting at Mabutweni Police Station and would process the
people there.
The convoy of vehicles duly set off,with Police personnel
stategically
placed in various cars to both give direction and ensure that
no-one
absconded.We arrived at Mabutweni Police station which is a tiny
Police
station on the edge of the high density suburbs on the western side
of
Bulawayo.As far as I could see there were three small offices,one of
which
was a Charge office,and two cells at the back.
Surprisingly,the
RBZ people were not waiting for us.They seemed
reluctant to get
involved.
Half an hour later Det.Inspector Moyo arrived in a dark
blue
LandRover.He parked in the driveway and assessed the situation.Our
lawyers approached
him and showed their Law Society Identity cards.They
discussed the situation and
asked on what legal basis money was being
taken.Moyo was unpeturbed.He said
that proper receipts would be
given.
When that did not satisfy our lawyers and they showed him the
Legal statutes
which allowed persons to lawfully hold foreign currency D.I
Moyo decided
things were getting a bit out of hand.
The effects of Robert Mugabe's regime are forcing
thousands of people to
seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries - a situation
that is threatening
to destabalise the whole region, writes Tim Butcher in
Gabrone.
Less than a mile from the mirror-panelled banks and
high-rise offices of
Botswana's richest firms, penniless Zimbabweans gather
on dusty street
corners begging for work.
Unregistered, unkempt and
unlawful in a foreign land, the desperate men
whisper "Piece work, piece
work" sotto voce, meaning "odd job" to any
passer-by.
If you are brave
enough to stop your car at what appears to be an empty
junction, a
mini-stampede erupts as Zimbabweans surge towards the vehicle,
hands flapping
for car door handles in an unseemly scrum to be first
in
line.
Malnourished and haggard, the men try anything to convince
would-be
employers. Some brandish O-level certificates as proof that they
passed
through Zimbabwe's once respected but now barely functioning
education
system.
Others show references from employers back in
Zimbabwe long closed down or
even character references from the country's
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, to indicate that they are not
tainted by association with
President Robert Mugabe's regime.
All the
documents have to be retrieved from a carefully secreted position -
tucked in
a sock or hidden behind a belt. To be found with such paperwork by
the police
is grounds for the bearer to be kicked out of Botswana as
an
illegal.
"I have been coming across the border regularly for two
years now," said
24-year-old Mqondisi from Zimbabwe's second city,
Bulawayo.
"We get a few days' permission to be here, but we all stay to
look for work
because a little bit of money here in Botswana is more than we
can hope for
in Zimbabwe. The police catch us and stick us in the trucks that
take us
back over the border, but after a few days we come back."
The
problems caused to southern Africa by the Mugabe regime's
systematic
destruction of the economy and the democratic system are causing
worsening
trouble.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans are seeking
sanctuary in neighbouring
South Africa, while 400,000 have gone to
Mozambique. Anything from 10 to 20
per cent of the Zimbabwean population have
left their homes to seek job
security and wages in neighbouring
lands.
Trains, buses and lorries have been used by the South African
authorities to
deport 498,321 since the crisis began in 2000, according to
official
figures, although it is believed that only one in six illegal
immigrants is
caught.
Even desperately poor Mozambique is now
attracting Zimbabweans. Thousands
have streamed over the mountainous eastern
border into Manica province,
hoping to be paid in any currency other than the
Zimbabwean dollar.
Ironically, many black Zimbabweans are leaving for
Mozambique to work on
farms being run by the same white farmers kicked off
their land by Mr
Mugabe.
Zimbabwe may hate the white farmer, but
scores have been welcomed into
Mozambique by the authorities keen to lure
agricultural specialists,
especially in the tobacco sector.
Botswana,
too, has also been inundated. A rare African economic success
story, it is
now under threat from hundreds of thousands of illegal
immigrants. It is
dramatic proof of the regional chaos caused by Mr Mugabe's
chaotic
rule.
With a tiny population of only 1.7 million, Botswana faces being
overwhelmed
by those fleeing the economic chaos, political violence and
spiralling
lawlessness of Zimbabwe, which has a population more than eight
times
greater.
The flood has led inexorably to tension, with
Botswanans blaming the
arrivals for a surge in petty crime and for stealing
jobs. Local police have
been accused of beating the arrivals and other human
rights abuses.
Spencer Mogapi, editor of the independent Botswana
Gazette, said: "If we had
10,000 illegal Zimbabweans here we would not be
able to cope because we are
so small.
"But our government says
officially that there are 60,000 here already and
most people believe the
real number to be much more than that."
The suburb of White City in the
Botswanan capital, Gaborone, offers clear
proof of the scale of the problem.
As the crisis in Zimbabwe has worsened,
the illegal immigrant situation in
Botswana has become steadily worse,
although the secretive government of
President Festus Mogae rarely speaks
publicly about the problem.
He is
understood to be concerned about the influx, which threatens the
economic and
social stability of his small country, and as a result he is
believed to be
one of Mr Mugabe's fiercest regional critics.
A new detention centre for
illegal immigrants has recently been built near
Botswana's border with
Zimbabwe, and Botswana is erecting an electrified
fence along the border to
stop illegal immigrants and diseased cattle.
There was no response from
the president's spokesman after an approach by
The Telegraph, and a western
television crew was asked to leave the country
recently after attempting to
film a report on the issue.
Don McKinnon, secretary general of the
Commonwealth, discussed the regional
fall-out from Mr Mugabe's economic
mismanagement recently and let slip that
Botswana might have as many as
200,000 illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe.
Alfred Dube, Botswana's
ambassador at the United Nations, hinted at the
threat of vigilantism against
illegal Zimbabwean immigrants who are blamed
for everything from petty crime
to spreading Aids.
"We are concerned about what is going on," said the
ambassador. "It is very
unfortunate that we have our houses being burgled
every day and our children
being harassed. We understand why our people are
saying Zimbabweans must
go."
Back in Gaborone, Mr Mogapi said death
provided the starkest proof of the
scale of the problem. "There are so many
of them that when they die they are
filling up our mortuaries for days as
their families do not have the means
to come to collect them," he
said.
"The authorities here have to bury them in unmarked graves. It is a
very sad
situation."
The Herald
Forex dealers outwit police
By Rex Mphisa
POLICE
seem to be making little or no progress against illegal foreign
currency
trading, which has now spilled from Roadport international bus
station to
Harare's Fifth Street after the deployment of uniformed riot
police this
week.
The illegal transactions are now being conducted on other streets
and flea
markets.
The police's desperation to curb the practice was
manifest in the deployment
of riot police who the illegal money-changers can
easily identify and evade,
instead of plainclothes
detectives.
Observers say the presence of riot police at the
international port creates
an impression that Zimbabwe is not at peace and
paints a bad image to
tourists and travellers coming into the
country.
However, police spokesperson Inspector Cecilia Churu said of the
deployment:
"We are only chasing them away and the main aim is to curb the
illicit
dealings especially in the city centre.
"We will continue
making tireless efforts until such practices are put to an
end and we will
leave no stone unturned in bringing to book anyone found
dealing in these
activities."
In the past, hundreds of illegal foreign currency dealers
had besieged the
terminus and its periphery where trade is fast-fuelled by
cross-border
travellers who use the international terminus.
"Pane
mupurisa ndipo pane mari (where there are police is where wealth is)
and they
cannot stop us, we see them from afar and walk away," said one
dealer who had
just been fined $25 000 for "obstructing passengers".
He said all people
arrested at the terminus were not charged for illegally
dealing in foreign
currency but for either loitering or other offences
attracting lesser
penalties than that of dealing in foreign currency.
Some dealers said the
illegal foreign currency trade would not be easy to
put under control because
it involved some "chefs" and they funded those
involved in the trade - a
claim that could not be substantiated or
dismissed.
But dealers even
laughed at the police for their apparent lack of tact and
said they should
have deployed detectives who could dupe people into
believing they were
buyers.
The illegal foreign currency traders whistle or make signs of
money with
their fingers to motorists passing along Fifth
Street.
After riot police moved in at the port, the dealers simply spread
out and
positioned themselves along all roads leading to
Roadport.
They moved into George Silundika Avenue and other nearby
streets.
The dealers have lost respect for traffic and block vehicles as
they wave
down motorists and make signs of their illegal trade.
They
have become more daring as they embark on their style of
"aggressive"
marketing of foreign currency.
Last year, government
closed bureaux de change outlets.
Members of the Apostolic Faith sect,
who call the shots of a similar trade
and have virtually taken over sections
of Bulawayo, are fast descending on
Harare.
"We are not even afraid of
them (police) because they also want to survive,"
said one woman.
A
14-year-old boy who sat with some women dressed in white clothes along
George
Silundika Street on Thursday introduced himself as someone who sells
foreign
currency.
"I am not going to school today and I am working," he said
pointing to a
small bag containing South African Rands.
Apart from
foreign currency dealers, Roadport terminus has become a haven
of
pickpockets.
The proliferation of pickpockets has been blamed on
the arrival of scores of
pirate taxi operators who hire touts to load their
vehicles.
The Herald
Gold scam unearthed
By Peter Matambanadzo
THREE gold
dealers who were arrested for allegedly smuggling 144,6
kilogrammes of gold
with a street value of US$161 100 (ZW$96,6 million) to
South Africa yesterday
appeared before a Harare Magistrates' Court.
Ian Hugh Macmillan (60), a
retired businessman, his son Ewan Macmillan (24)
who owns two gold mines in
Shamva and Bindura and Claire Lynn Burdett (33),
a pilot appeared before
provincial magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe facing
charges of contravening the
Gold Trade Act.
The three, who were also alternatively charged for
breaching the Customs and
Excise Act, were brought to court under heavy
security escort.
They were remanded in custody to Monday when a ruling on
their bail and
refusal to be placed on remand applications would be
made.
Outlining the State case, chief law officer Mr Joseph Jagada said
the three
connived to smuggle gold to South Africa.
He said Macmillan
and his son had been buying gold from illegal panners and
processing it
before taking it out of the country in contravention of the
Gold Act, which
prohibits the export of gold by individuals or companies.
Mr Jagada said
on October 3 this year Macmillan Senior went to Zambia to
obtain documents,
which purported to authorise him to export gold from
Zambia under the name of
a company called Scopion Metal Limited.
On October 8, the State alleges,
Macmillan Senior took some substance (raw
metal) to the Geological Survey of
the Ministry of Mines in Zambia.
It is alleged that the raw metal weighed
144,6kg and when it was examined it
was discovered that it contained some
gold valued at US$161 100.
Gold was this week trading at US$378,75 per
ounce.
Macmillan Senior was then allegedly issued with a valuation
certificate
number 433-2003 by the Ministry of Mines in Zambia and an
authority to
export the raw metal to Rand Refineries in South
Africa.
After obtaining the documents, it is alleged that Macmillan, his
son and
Burdett then created similar documents to those obtained from the
Zambian
authorities.
They allegedly forged a valuation certificate
with a value of US$1 611
208,95 instead of US$161 100 and the signature of
the authorising person in
Zambia.
They also forged an authority to
export the raw metal now valued at US$1 611
208,95 and cited the reference
number of the forged valuation certificate
433/03, the State
alleges.
It is also alleged that they forged a Customs Declaration Form
CE20, which
indicated the registration number of the plane to carry the
consignment as
SA-034.
The three further allegedly forged a signature
of a senior Zambia Revenue
Authority official purporting that the consignment
was inspected and had
been cleared when it had not been checked.
The
accused persons, the State alleges, then gathered gold, which they had
bought
from illegal gold panners in Kadoma, Kwekwe, Bindura and Shamva which
weighed
144,6kg, the same weight as the raw metal which had been examined
and
authorised for export in Zambia.
They then allegedly flew the gold from
Zimbabwe in a Cessna 210 aircraft
registration number Z-MAC to Beira,
Mozambique and then Johannesburg in
South Africa.
Acting on
information received from South African authorities, police in
South Africa
detained Burdett and confiscated the gold after she produced
the alleged
forged documents.
The documents were also seized and held as
exhibits.
According to the State, the gold was examined and it was
discovered that it
was not South African or Zambian.
Records recovered
from Macmillan Junior's mines indicate that the gold they
sold to the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe was less than the amount of gold
produced at the
mines.
The three's lawyer Advocate Eric Matinenga assisted by Advocate
Metah Deepak
said there was no reasonable suspicion that the three had
committed an
offence.
He said the aircraft had flown out of the
country lawfully and nothing
illegal was being carried on it.
"The
State has to put a reasonable case that the gold found in South Africa
is
Zimbabwean. There is no basis of placing the accused persons on
remand.
Having failed to establish the originality of the gold the question
of
jurisdiction arises," he said.
Adv Matinenga also submitted that
there was no indication where the gold was
from and at which port it was
smuggled through.
"Accused three's arrest is absurd and outrageous. He
was detained because he
owns two gold mills," Adv Matinenga said referring to
Macmillan Junior.
Responding to the submissions, Mr Jagada said that at
this stage the State
was only requesting the court to place the accused on
remand on facts it
provided.
"The State's view is that the facts it
has presented warrants accused
persons to be put on remand. It is clear that
the documents were forged and
it was not disputed by the defence," he
said.
Mr Jagada said there was reasonable suspicion that the accused had
used
different information to facilitate the smuggling of the
gold.
"The gold was seized by South African authorities. There is no
documentation
where the plane departed from Zimbabwe. The plane is not even
insured. What
the defence has submitted is not for remand but for trial," he
said.
Mr Jagada further submitted that the Gold Trade Act requires
registered
dealers to have proper records but in this case the accused did
not have
them.
"We are here only to apply for the accused to be placed
on remand since we
believe that there is reasonable suspicion that they
committed an offence,"
Mr Jagada said.
IOL
Bob plans to 'sneak' into Commonwealth talks
November 07
2003 at 09:27PM
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe is battling to sneak into the
forthcoming
Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, next
month after
he was initially barred from the meeting because of his
unrelenting human
rights abuses.
Reports from Nigeria and in Zimbabwe
say intensive discussions are under way
between Mugabe and Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo and Mugabe could
still make it to the
summit.
Quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, the Zimbabwe Independent
newspaper said
Mugabe's "critical talks" with Obasanjo could secure him a
belated
invitation to the biennial summit, even if it may not mean
full
participation.
The newspaper claimed that President Thabo Mbeki,
who remains upbeat about
the prospects of a resolution of the Zimbabwe
crisis, was part of
negotiations to secure Mugabe's attendance of the
meeting.
Mbeki has said he does not see any reason why Mugabe
should not be
invited
Mbeki, who has said he does not see any reason why
Mugabe should not be
invited, said recently he would leave the final decision
to Obasanjo.
Mugabe has not been invited to the meeting because his
government, which is
suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth, has
failed to comply with
demands for fundamental democratic reforms set out in
March last year.
Any invitation of Mugabe to the meeting is likely to
throw the summit into
disarray as leaders of Western Commonwealth nations
have threatened to
boycott the event.
British prime minister Tony
Blair, Australian premier John Howard, the
outgoing chair, and New Zealand
prime minister Helen Clarke have reportedly
threatened to boycott the meeting
if Mugabe attends. Commonwealth
secretary-general Don McKinnon has said
Mugabe would not attend the meeting
unless he embraced serious
reforms.
A report from Nigeria posted on the Zimbabwe News website quoted
Obasanjo as
not ruling out Mugabe's invitation. The report quoted Obasanjo as
saying he
was still in negotiations with other Commonwealth states over
Zimbabwe's
participation at the summit.
Although Mugabe has publicly
displayed a "don't care" attitude over any
decision to ban him from the
meeting, he is known for his love of
international summits, particularly
those held in Africa as they provide him
with a platform to take a swipe at
the West and justify his policies.
The Zimbabwe Independent said evidence
of Mugabe's battle to get into Abuja
mounted this week with reports by the
Nigerian taskforce that Obasanjo and
other leaders were locked in high-level
consultations over the suspension of
Zimbabwe and Pakistan from the
Commonwealth.
A spokesperson said although Zimbabwe and Pakistan remained
barred from the
December 5 to 8 meeting "for the time being", Obasanjo was
still working on
the issue.