International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: October 14,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Bakeries in Zimbabwe remained closed Sunday
and shop
shelves were empty of bread despite a 300 percent rise in the
official price
of a loaf.
The state Sunday Mail, a government
mouthpiece, said the National Prices and
Incomes Commission allowed the
bread price to increase to Zimbabwe dollars
100,000 (US 20 cents, euro 14
cents at the dominant black market exchange
rate) Friday as part of a review
to help businesses remain viable.
The rise came after the government
slashed the price of bread by more than a
half in June aimed at fighting the
world's highest official inflation.
Bread, the cornmeal staple, meat and
other basics then disappeared from
store shelves as businesses were forced
to sell their goods at below
production costs.
The independent
National Bakers' Association said chronic bread shortages
would continue
despite the price rise until flour supplies improved.
"Only a few bakers
have flour stocks ... the rest are likely to remain
closed," said Vincent
Mangoma, chairman of the association.
Earlier this month, the agriculture
ministry blamed daily power outages in
the crumbling economy for disruption
in production of irrigated wheat, with
harvests two thirds of what was
required.
Acute shortages of hard currency have delayed wheat
imports.
Mangoma said the new bread price remained insufficient and did
not include
soaring costs of scarce gasoline that accounted for about 27
percent of the
price of a loaf.
Gasoline is mostly sold by private
dealers for the equivalent of US$ 1 (euro
70 cents) a liter (US$4.50 (?3.18)
a gallon).
The value of the Zimbabwe dollar remained in free fall in the
past week,
reaching up to 600,000 to US$1 in black market deals. The
official exchange
rate is 30,000 to US$1.
The government has taken
over some 5,000 white-owned commercial farms since
2000 in often-violent
seizures that disrupted the agriculture-based economy
in the former regional
breadbasket.
Last month, the government hurried through legislation
forcing whites and
foreign interests to hand over 51 percent control of
their businesses to
blacks.
The Indiginization and Economic
Empowerment Bill has still to be signed into
law by President Robert
Mugabe.
New legislation proposing similar measures for blacks to take a
controlling
stake of the nation's mines goes before the Harare Parliament
when it
reconvenes Oct. 30.
In the worst economic crisis since
independence, independent estimates put
real inflation closer to 25,000
percent, and the International Monetary Fund
has forecast it reaching
100,000 percent by the end of the year.
Last week, the state central bank
acknowledged that farming in the nation
that was once a major food exporter
had become a "laughing stock."
It announced the free distribution of tens
of thousands of animal-drawn
plows, planters and cultivating equipment so
the upcoming agricultural year
would be what it called "the mother of all
seasons."
Among the range of incentives to revive food production was an
offer by the
central bank of a free vehicle, a family holiday in southern
Africa,
spending money and free fertilizer and chemicals for any farmer who
produced
1,000 tons of maize.
Zim Online
Monday 15 October 2007
By Justin
Muponda
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has moved to quash dissent in
his ruling
ZANU PF party by unleashing loyal war veterans on a campaign of
intimidation
to whip the party into line and pressgang unwilling lieutenants
to rally
behind his candidature in next year's presidential
election.
The veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war are holding
countrywide marches in
support of Mugabe, the country's sole leader since
independence from Britain
in 1980, as the "sole candidate" of ZANU-PF in the
presidential poll that
will be held together with elections for
Parliament.
Political analysts said although Mugabe would most likely
emerge
unchallenged at an extraordinary party congress in December, there is
growing disillusionment over the 83-year-old leader's style of
governance.
"I have no doubt no one will publicly stand up and challenge
Mugabe at the
congress but he is aware there are many pockets of opposition
and so the
marches by the war veterans are a message to say 'don't even
dare'," John
Makumbe, a senior political science lecturer at the University
of Zimbabwe
(UZ) said.
"But more importantly they should be seen in
the context of the internal
squabbling within ZANU-PF. War veterans have
always stood by Mugabe in his
hour of need, which is what they are doing.
They are reliable," he added.
Senior officials in ZANU-PF have presented
a united front over Mugabe in
public but some are quietly plotting his
ouster, seeking a candidate who
could pluck the country out of a deep
economic recession, they blame on his
controversial policies.
But
Mugabe, who has been in politics since the formative years of
nationalist
movements in the 1950s, has continued to out-manouvre his
opponents so far
in the party and outside to hang on to power amid the
economic
meltdown.
The crisis manifests itself in hyperinflation, the highest in
the world at
over 6 500 percent, unemployment around 80 percent, severe
shortages of
food, foreign currency and fuel and rising poverty
levels.
Analysts said by allowing free rein to the war veterans and their
leader
Jabulani Sibanda, who remains expelled from ZANU-PF, Mugabe was
creating a
parallel power base, afraid to rely on the army or his inner
clique.
"Mugabe has never trusted anyone, so he will not rely only on the
army or
officials in ZANU-PF because of the inherent political risks," said
another
UZ political scientist, Eldred Masunungure.
"The reason for
the marches is part of a strategy to try and draw out his
opponents into the
open and some have come out already and so he knows who
supports him and who
does not. Mugabe will not leave anything to chance even
if he knows he is
the sole candidate," added Masunungure.
The war veterans marches in
Bulawayo last week were sharply criticised by
senior leaders in the
province, including Vice President Joseph Msika and
ZANU-PF national
chairman John Nkomo, arguing that Sibanda had no mandate to
campaign for
Mugabe.
Mugabe's critics say he has emasculated the security forces but
is still not
guaranteed total support, adding that retired General Solomon
Mujuru, who is
known to be pushing for a rival candidate to succeed Mugabe,
also had some
influence in the military.
Mujuru is the power behind a
faction that helped Mugabe block the rise of
Emmerson Mnangagwa to the
position of vice president, in what was seen as a
plot to remove the ruling
party's ageing leadership.
But analysts have cautioned on the influence
of so-called power brokers in
the party saying Mugabe ultimately was the
only voice that commanded respect
from all and sundry in
ZANU-PF.
Several predictions of Mugabe's demise have not materialised to
date and
despite his old age, the former guerrilla leader looks to be fully
in charge
and continues to tighten his hold on power.
"There is that
tendency to overstate the influence of some of Mugabe's
opponents in the
party but we have seen time and again that Mugabe is still
the man in charge
in ZANU-PF," Makumbe said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 15 October 2007
By Simplisio
Chirinda
HARARE - The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) says it will
continue to engage
the government after a court ordered white Zimbabwean
farmers to vacate
farms earmarked for resettlement.
Several
Zimbabwean white farmers now face an uncertain future after Chegutu
magistrate Tinashe Ndokera last week ruled that those still on targeted
farms after a 30 September deadline to vacate the properties were in breach
of the law.
Any white farmer still on his land would be deemed to be
trespassing on
state property.
A number of white commercial farmers
have so far been arrested for defying
the government order to vacate their
properties.
CFU vice president Deon Theron said at the weekend that the
mainly white
commercial farmers body would continue negotiations with the
government on
behalf of its members.
"As CFU we will encourage our
members that we keep on engaging with the
government and look for ways in
which we can put these cases to finality,"
said Theron.
""We don't
want to get tied up in individual cases but we want to find ways
of breaking
the impasse and make sure that we reach a compromise with
government."
The CFU has over the years tried to engage the
government over the takeover
of farms without success.
Theron said
the affected Chegutu farmers are yet to come up with a common
position as to
what steps to take next following the judgment.
"I am not sure what the
farmers would like to do but some have indicated
that they would want to
appeal while others are thinking of abandoning the
legal
route.
"These are individual farmers but they don't seem to agree on what
course of
action they would like to take but have indicated that their
lawyer is
studying the judgment and should have a position on Monday," said
Theron.
The government has since the beginning of the year given
conflicting signals
on the fate of remaining white farmers, with some
officials saying they
would be allowed to stay and others saying they would
be evicted.
Nonetheless, evictions have continued sporadically.
This
has often led to contradictory statements from Vice President Joseph
Msika
and Lands and Land Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa, with the latter
insisting
that no white farmers would be allowed on the land by 31 December
2007.
Msika has without success told Mutasa to halt new farm
seizures, arguing
that chasing away the few white farmers left in the
country was not helpful
to the agriculture sector or food security and was
no longer in sync with
the popular mood in the ruling ZANU PF party. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 15 October 2007
By Tafirei
Shumba
BULAWAYO - An increasingly paranoid police has again stopped the
performance
of another provocative theatrical satire titled "Overthrown" as
artists step
up their challenge against President Robert Mugabe's
controversial rule.
The play was set to be staged on Friday at Amakhosi
Arts Centre in Zimbabwe's
second largest city of Bulawayo.
Police
also ordered the premature closure of the venue which has arts
offices, a
restaurant and theatres, where the play was set to perform the
same day
Mugabe was visiting the city on official business to cap graduating
university students.
Agents from the Police Internal Security
Intelligence (PISI) told artists
and guests, who had come to watch the
satire, that they were under
instruction from their "commanders" to stop the
play. They then ordered more
than 100 artists and guests to disperse and the
centre to close prematurely.
"The play is not going ahead and that is an
order from our commanders.
Everyone must now disperse," one of the PISI
officers said to grumblings
from the artists and guests who soon dispersed
after the officers warned of
"serious trouble" if the artists defied the
order.
"Serious trouble" is in reference to the unleashing of the brutal
riot
police who beat up people indiscriminately in similar
situations.
"Overthrown", written by Stanley Makuwe and produced and
directed by
playwright Cont Mhlanga, generally reflects the deepening
political and
economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
However, police were
adamant the play deliberately targets Mugabe and that
Mhlanga and his
artists wanted to embarrass the 83-year old President by
staging the satire
on the same day he was visiting Bulawayo.
Mhlanga told ZimOnline at the
weekend: "Yes, I knew Mugabe was coming to
town but that doesn't mean that
artists should stop breathing because Mugabe
is in Bulawayo. We are living
in a confused country where all State systems
are seeing ghosts at every
turn."
A populist Minister of Information and Publicity, Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu, who
wanted to score a personal "diplomatic coup" by meeting artists,
ahead of
the staging of the play, did not attend the scheduled meeting at
the last
minute.
ZimOnline learnt that police intelligence advised
the minister that meeting
the protest artists would not be viewed favourably
by Mugabe, who is
fighting to silence dissenting voices in his ruling ZANU
PF party.
Ndlovu, who had officially confirmed to Amakhosi that he would
be meeting
the artists, was not immediately available for comment on the
matter.
Some artists had questioned Ndlovu's motive, with others accusing
him of
seeking to hoodwink the arts industry that he was democratically
"accommodating" dissenting voices and yet state radio, television and
newspapers that are all under his charge censor critical
arts.
Mhlanga, who has seen several of his plays banned this year, told
ZimOnline:
"Yes, if you look at it the other way round, artists would have
loved to
meet the minister. He is part of the policy makers and we wanted to
let him
know what we think about their style of governance.
"But
closing us down like this won't help because the issues that we are
reflecting will still be there as long as humanity exists."
Mhlanga
has vowed to remain defiant saying he was now considering using
"invisible
theatre" which is performed spontaneously without notice in
public places
and is popular in repressive societies where critical satires
and other
tough arts are banned.
The playwright said he had written Mugabe and
Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri highlighting the use of police force
and the state heavy hand on
artists and how that worked against the
otherwise good spirit of unity in
the context of the ongoing SADC brokered
negotiations between ZANU PF and
the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party.
Zimbabwe's two biggest political parties are engaged
in talks under the
mediation of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki that
are meant to find a
democratic settlement to the country's eight-year
political and economic
crisis.
Apparently, "Overthrown" had been
given the green light by the state
Censorship Board.
Only last week
police arrested two theatre artists and a journalist in
Harare during the
performance of a satire "The Final Push" and punished the
artists "for
lampooning" Mugabe by making them perform the play repeatedly
in police
cells for a grueling nine hours non-stop.
The "Final Push" actors again
defied the police and on Friday performed for
journalists and diplomats at
the Quill Club, a club for journalists in
Harare.
Critical theatre
including sharp tongued musicians are viewed by government
as agitating
forces for the removal of Mugabe and are subjected to
harassment and
detention without trial. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 15 October 2007
By Lizwe
Sebatha
BULAWAYO - Several Zimbabwean schools have ordered parents to pay
a
"retention allowance" to teachers in a desperate attempt to stem the mass
exodus of experienced staff, ZimOnline has learnt.
Zimbabwean
teachers, who last week ended a two-week strike over poor pay and
working
conditions, earn about Z$14 million a month, a figure which is below
the
poverty datum line (breadline) that stands at Z$16 million.
Hundreds of
teachers have fled the country in search of better paying jobs
in
neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana and as far as
Australia, Britain and New Zealand.
To stem the mass exodus,
government schools in the second city of Bulawayo
have introduced the novel
idea of 'retention allowances' with some schools
ordering parents to pay
between Z$1 million - $2 million to "assist"
teachers.
The retention
facility is said to be currently focusing on science and
mathematics
teachers, who are the target of an aggressive recruitment drive
by foreign
employment agencies.
Several headmasters who spoke to ZimOnline on
condition that they were not
named confirmed the arrangement saying it was
the only way "they could
retain teachers as the government was not
interested in their welfare."
Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general of
the militant Progressive Teachers
Union of Zimbabwe that led last week's
strike, said it was true that schools
were now demanding retention
allowances from parents.
"That is why we have always asked for better
salaries and improved working
conditions to avoid a situation where our
teachers are reduced to surviving
on donations and charity like what is
happening.
"It is sad that they have to ask for donations from parents
when it is the
job of the government to pay teachers," said
Majongwe.
Education Minister Aneas Chigwedere could not be reached for
comment on the
matter yesterday but the ministry's director for the southern
region that
includes Bulawayo, Dan Moyo, said the practice was
illegal.
"We have heard such reports from schools but it is not part of
government
policy and it's illegal as it marginalises the poor that cannot
afford to
pay," Moyo said.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of an
unprecedented economic crisis that has
manifested itself in rampant
inflation of over 6 500 percent, massive
joblessness and poverty.
The
southern African country has suffered a massive skills and brain drain
as
professionals such as teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers and lawyers
flee
the country to seek better paying jobs abroad. - ZimOnline
Our fifth anniversary! Who would have thought 5 years ago that we would still be outside the Zimbabwe Embassy protesting against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and campaigning for free and fair elections. It was good to have recognition for our long commitment – shortly after we arrived the place was swarming with media: BBC, Channel 4, Sky News, the Press Association and others. There was even a report in Kenya.
The main event of the afternoon was the presentation of our petition to Kate Hoey MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, by a group of Vigil stalwarts: Dumi Tutani, Chipo Chaya and Luka Phiri. The petition reads “A Petition to European Union Governments: We record our dismay at the failure of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to help the desperate people of Zimbabwe at their time of trial. We urge the UK government, and the European Union in general, to suspend government to government aid to all 14 SADC countries until they abide by their joint commitment to uphold human rights in the region”. Kate criticized SACD countries fro keeping quiet about Zimbabwe and congratulated the Vigil on its years of dedication. She later went on BBC radio to defend the petition (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/realmedia/sunday/sundayauto.ram), pointing out that our target was not humanitarian aid but government-to-government aid. As always, she was a popular visitor to the Vigil, posing for photographs with supporters and handing out flyers to passers-by.
We were also pleased to be joined by Justin Shaw-Gray of our partner organisation in Zimbabwe, Restoration of Human Rights (ROHRZim).
It was wonderful to get an encouraging letter from Morgan Tsvangirai brought over from Zimbabwe by Cecilie Mariri, who lives in Zimbabwe and has joined us before. Mr Tsvangirai wrote: “As you meet to mark five years of a continuous presence and unity of purpose, demonstrating your revulsion with the situation at home, may I take this opportunity to record my deepest appreciation over the work you have done so far. Your vigils have kept a flicker of our struggle burning. Your vigils have highlighted the plight of desperate Zimbabweans to the world. Through your vigils you have shown a deep sense of patriotism and solidarity with us at home. Together you fought hard with us in our struggle. We are now on the home stretch, nothing has no end. Get ready for a New Zimbabwe. Prepare yourselves for a new society as we take on the Mugabe regime in this final and decisive phase of the struggle.”
Given Mr Tsvangirai’s strong endorsement of the Vigil it is doubly puzzling that elements within the MDC UK (who paid for Lovemore Moyo, the MDC Chairman, to come over) chose the day of our anniversary for an MDC UK meeting for Mr Moyo to discuss dissent within the party in the UK. This meeting could have easily been called for another day and we know that many MDC members who felt compelled to attend this last minute meeting had been planning to come to the Vigil. Since Mr Moyo was in the UK on the day of the anniversary, why did he not join us as his predecessor, Isaac Matongo, used to? We can’t believe he didn’t know. Well, the Vigil knows who the true activists are in the UK and who are the self-servers who bicker and jockey for position in countless meetings.
It was a very busy day for our volunteers who worked so hard to make the social event after the Vigil a success. Special thanks go to Agnes Zengeya, Luka Phiri and Gugu Ndlovu-Tutani who bought the food and to Jeff Sango and Fungayi Mabhunu who bought the drink. Thanks also to those who gave up their day to go the venue to cook, sort out the drinks and run errands in preparation for the evening. Apart from Agnes, Luka, Gugu, Jeff and Fungayi, these included: Netsai Matambanadzo, Daisy Zuvaradoka, Bernadine Mwanandimai, Julia Sakakomva, Colletta Moyo, Loicy Sibanda, Trecy Sibanda, Sheilla Chetsanga and Ivy Chawapiwa (on her birthday). Volunteers came from as far away as Oxford and Southampton.
The social event was a good occasion with much networking. Unfortunately our supporter Sue Shaw had to miss it to make her long journey home to North East England – more than 3 hours by train. We also missed Caroline Witts who had to make her way back to Devon. Kuchi Muchari who came from South Wales managed to get to the social event but had to leave early to return home. Thanks to Walter Semwayo and his team who provided such lively music. It accompanied some virtuoso dancing. Thanks also to Sam Takaravasha who tirelessly cleared up through the evening filling up black bag after black bag.
For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE RECORD: 169 signed the register. Supporters from Banbury, Bedford, Birmingham, Bolton, Brighton, Crawley, Derby, Exeter, Guildford, Ilford, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Morpeth, Newcastle, Orpington, Oxford, Reading, Romford, Sheffield, South Wales, Southampton, Southend, Stoke-on- Trent, Swansea, Tunbridge Wells, Woking, Wolverhampton and many from London and environs.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday, 15th October 2007 – Central London Zimbabwe Forum. More planning for our campaign re Mugabe and the Portugal summit. How can we neutralise Mugabe’s propaganda? Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John Adam Street, turn right and you will see the pub).
Vigil co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Business Report
October 14, 2007
By Tonny Mafu
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe
would need external financial support to slow its
dramatic economic decline,
its central bank has warned.
Delivering a recent monetary policy
statement, a straight-talking Gideon
Gono said balance of payments support
would be crucial for the world's
fastest-declining economy.
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor also urged the government to be
cautious
in its plans to force foreign-owned companies to sell majority
stakes to
locals.
"Noble as this objective is, however, our well-considered advice
to
legislators and government in general is that a fine balance should be
struck between indigenisation and the need to attract foreign investment,"
Gono added.
Bloomberg on Friday quoted a newspaper report that the
Zimbabwean government
and the main opposition were to discuss financial
support from foreign
donors, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden,
Holland, Norway,
Switzerland, Germany, the UK and Australia.
Zimbabwe
last received any external institutional financial support in 2001.
Between
1980 and then, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and
the
African Development Bank pumped a combined $2.4 billion (R16.2 billion)
into
the Zimbabwean economy.
The economy received its largest support in 1992
when the three funding
organisations injected almost $700 million into the
country.
However, since the government forced through a
controversial land reform
programme in 2000, all balance of payments support
from multilateral
institutions has dried up. Between 2000 and 2005 there was
capital flight of
more than $200 million.
Gono underscored the
importance of foreign investment to the Zimbabwean
economy, calling for
flexibility in the indigenisation process.
"Where foreign investors bring
in clear long-term benefits to the country, a
reasonable degree of
flexibility ought to be exercised in allowing investors
to hold majority
shareholding so as to accord them escalated dividends that
enable them to
plough back their initial investment outlays," he said.
He warned that
capital was a "timid commodity" which could exit at the
slightest
inclination of attack.
Gono recommended a gradual empowerment
process.
Investments of more than $500 million should be allowed 20
percent
indigenisation over a period of one to five years, which would
increase to
45 percent between year six and 10, eventually reaching 51
percent between
the 11th and 15th years.
Entities worth between $150
million and $500 million would start at 30
percent indigenisation, while
those with lower than $150 million would have
to comply with 51 percent
indigenous ownership immediately.
The Telegraph
By Byron
Dziva In Harare
Last Updated: 3:09pm BST 14/10/2007
The
shops are empty, petrol is only available on the black market, and
the
country's once abundant wildlife is under threat from hungry poachers -
so
come to Zimbabwe for a holiday.
Exhibitors at a four-day tourism
fair in Harare made no bones about
the difficulties they face selling the
country as a destination.
"Zimbabwe is treated with strong
suspicion, as if it's another part of
the world in the mould of Darfur,"
said one, who has taken part in
government-sponsored promotions
abroad.
"Convincing tourists they can come here and enjoy
themselves without a
scene requires all the energy a marketer can muster in
the world."
In fact the country has world-class attractions, from
Victoria Falls
on the border with Zambia to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe in
the south-east,
but nowadays visitors only have to share them with a few
other intrepid
travellers.
"Given the political challenges
facing Zimbabwe it's been difficult
convincing buyers, particularly in the
West, that it's a safe destination,"
the exhibitor added.
In
keeping with Mr Mugabe's 'Look East' policy, Harare is now trying
to draw in
tourists from Asia, and the few European buyers present said they
were only
there because of pleas from Zimbabwean embassies in their home
countries.
The authorities claim tourist arrivals were up 24
per cent in the
first half of this year, to just over a million, although
all statistics in
Zimbabwe have to be treated with caution and most visitors
only go to
Victoria Falls, many of them on day trips from
Zambia.
"It's politics at the end of the day, if it doesn't
change, we will
continue witnessing marginal improvements for many years to
come," said a
local hotel chain representative.
Tourism was
once a valuable source of foreign exchange, and officials
at the show
followed Robert Mugabe's practice of blaming the West for their
problems,
rather than his own gross human rights violations.
"Because of the
barbaric onslaught on Zimbabwe in the past six weeks
by some countries in
the west led by the United Kingdom, a good number of
our buyers from those
markets have withdrawn their participation at this
years' Travel Expo," said
Karikoga Kaseke, chief executive of the Zimbabwe
Tourism
Authority.
"We don't care, it's their own funeral, they are
drinking poison," he
added, in a not entirely welcoming manner.
The Zimbabwean
THE
VANGUARD ALERT
We will not sit idle and watch, We will not mourn but
FIGHT
The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) has been for the
past twenty
days calling on the government to intervene and guarantee the
immediate and
unconditional release of the Great Zimbabwe University
students
representative council secretary general Edison Hlatywayo who was
arrested
on 27 November 2007. Hlatswayo appeared before Masvingo Magistrate
Court
twice and unjustifiably remanded in custody at Masvingo Remand Prison.
He is
however yet to appear again on the 15th of October 2007.
The
students stand out and condemn in the strongest terms, the perpetration
of
violence and torture on students by the government of Zimbabwe. We have
of
late seen an escalation of arrests ,detentions, torture and threats to
students in institutions of higher learning. ZINASU further holds Robert
Mugabe and his government accountable to Edison Hlatswayo's threat to life
through various forms of physical and psycological torture.
The
Zimbabwe National Students Union strongly urge political parties, who
are in
negotiations to put issues of the operating environment as a priority
before
embarking on piecemeal amendments to the constituion, that do not
address
these key and critical issues as we approach yet another election.
It is our
view and we argue that it is not possible to have free, fair,
undisputable
and uncontested results under the current legislative framework
of the
constitution. Zimbabweans deserve a chance to elect a leadership of
their
choice in a free, fair and transparent way.
Against this
backdrop, students and colleagues from colleges in Masvingo and
other ZINASU
member institutions around the country will converge in
Masvingo to demand
the immediate and unconditional release of Edison
Hlatswayo. We urge those
who are handling the case to take heed of this
threat as we promise that we
will liberate one of our own through any means
necessary. We wish to remind
the police that we are a peaceful lot and urge
them to treat us as such. Our
move in solidarity with Hlatswayo.
Beloved Chiweshe
Secretary
General
Zimbabwe National Students Union
53 Hebert Chitepo Ave,
Harare,
Zimbabwe,
+263912471673/ +26311861104
zinasu@gmail. com
www.zinasu.org
From The Sunday Mail, 14 October
From Bulawayo Bureau
Zanu PF Politburo member and
chairman of Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project,
Dr Dumiso Dabengwa,
yesterday said those proposing drawing heavily sewer
polluted water from
Khami Dam should proceed to the dam with their cups and
drink it themselves
and leave city residents alone. He was responding to
calls by the water
authority to have Khami Dam water purified in an effort
to have the water
connected to the city's water supply systems, in an effort
to solve
Bulawayo's crippling water shortages. Speaking in an exclusive
interview on
the sidelines of a Zanu PF Provincial Co-ordinating Committee
meeting in
Bulawayo yesterday, Dr Dabengwa said Khami Dam water was
unsuitable for
human consumption as it was condemned a long time back.
"Ofuna ukunatha
amanzi eKhami kabuye lenkomitsho yakhe azowakha azinathele.
(If there is
anyone who wants to drink that water he should take his cup and
drink it
alone.). That water is unclean and you cannot expect people to
drink it," he
said.
Dr Dabengwa said the focus should instead be on the
rehabilitation of
boreholes at the Nyamandlovu aquifer as these provided an
immediate solution
to the city's perennial water woes. He said Khami Dam
water was a "non
starter" which should not even be considered as the water
was heavily
polluted beyond measure. The water activist said the thrust
should be on
providing clean water and the Mtshabezi- Umzingwane Dams
connection should
be given the priority it deserved. Khami Dam was
decommissioned in 1988
after a study proved that the water was unsuitable
for human consumption
following the dumping of raw sewer and industrial
waste. The dam has been a
dumping ground for sewer since then, making it
almost impossible for it to
be purified. Last week, BCC spokesman, Mr
Phathisa Nyathi said Khami Dam was
almost full, but had not received any
water from the rains, meaning that all
the water deposits were from sewers
and industrial waste. Zinwa suggested
that the best way to solve Bulawayo's
water problem was to tap and purify
the Khami Dam water. This caused an
uproar from residents and the city
fathers, who argued that the water was
beyond purification and would lead to
a health disaster.