Reuters
Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:43 AM GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's dollar is expected quickly to lose half its
official
value on a new interbank market, which would push inflation up, but
exports
will rise as it weakens, analysts said on Friday.
The Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) on Thursday announced the reintroduction
of an interbank
trading system to determine the exchange rate for the local
dollar, but
exporters will still have to remit 30 percent of their earnings
at a rate to
be determined by the bank.
Treasurers from commercial banks met the
central bank on Friday to clarify
the guidelines on the floating exchange
rate system and trading was expected
to start on Monday.
Analysts
said the Zimbabwe dollar was likely to fall to around 60,000 per
dollar
versus the official 26,000 during the first week of trade and
gradually
weaken to near rates on the thriving black market of 90,000/U.S.
dollar.
"We should see the Zimbabwe dollar trading at around 60,000
in the first
week which will be followed by a gradual depreciation to within
parallel
market levels, that's where it should settle," said a dealer with a
Harare
commercial bank.
Black market activity would continue since
official avenues would not meet
the higher appetite for imports, dealers
said.
Analysts said with the local unit expected to weaken sharply as it
seeks a
market-determined rate, inflation would spike before subsiding in
the first
quarter of 2006.
Reserve bank governor Gideo Gono on
Thursday said inflation, which reached
359.8 percent in the year to
September, would ease to between 280-300
percent by
year-end.
INFLATION FORECAST STILL CONSERVATIVE
Although the
bank's forecast is higher than the initial 50 and 80 percent
target,
analysts say it was still conservative.
"In the short term we are going
to see inflation going up beyond 400 percent
because a lot of our inflation
is coming from the import side," James Jowa,
a Harare economist, told
Reuters.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since
independence from
Britain in 1980. Acute shortages of foreign currency,
whose rate was
controlled by the central bank, created a black market for
almost
everything -- resulting in hyperinflation, prolonged recession and
rampant
poverty.
Consultant economist Eric Bloch said it would take
time for exporters, who
have become key in generating foreign currency for
Zimbabwe, to benefit from
the new exchange rate regime.
"This move is
going to be positive but it's not a quick fix to our problems.
There is a
time lag for (exporters') response and I can't see that happening
until
around April next year," Bloch said.
Analysts urged the government to
create conditions for foreign investment
and attract balance of payment
support crucial in stabilising the local
currency and easing inflationary
pressures.
Zimbabwe has been without donor support since 1999 after
foreign lenders led
by the International Monetary Fund withheld cash over
policy differences
such as the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle
blacks.
On Thursday Gono stepped up criticism of fresh invasions of
commercial farms
and said lack of respect for private property rights made
investors
apprehensive and scared them away to other more secure
destinations.
"We need to have a shift in government policy so that it
meets international
norms of law and order and until that happens we are not
going to see
balance of payment support or foreign investors coming to
Zimbabwe," Bloch
said.
MDC PRESS
21 October 2005
Since the MDC was
established 6 years ago, the party’s agenda and progress has been shaped by its
guiding principles – democracy, freedom, equality and social justice. These
principles are enshrined in our constitution.
The scale and depth
of the support that the MDC now enjoys across Zimbabwe would not have been
possible if the party lacked the principles that underpin our collective vision
for a new beginning in Zimbabwe. If we allow any party member, regardless of
their rank or position, to act with impunity and violate the basic values and
principles that we stand for then we are no different from Zanu
PF.
Left unchecked, these violations will corrode our progressive
vision, destroy our credibility and will lead to a betrayal of the millions of
Zimbabweans who have entrusted in the MDC leadership their hopes for a better
future. Moreover, if left unchecked these violations will ultimately blur the
difference between ourselves as a democratic movement and the Zanu PF
dictatorship. We owe it to the people to get our house in order.
The people of Zimbabwe, most of whom have no jobs and are
desperate for food, expect the leaders of the MDC to be loyal to the democratic
struggle in deeds as well as words. Rhetoric is easy; actions provide proof.
Upholding the values of the MDC, and protecting its image in the
eyes of the people and the outside world, is the reason why many of us in the
party have publicly opposed those who refused to accept the democratic outcome
of the secret ballot held by the National Council on the issue of participation
in the senate elections. This democratic transgression is the very antithesis of
the MDC’s overriding objective – the democratization of Zimbabwe.
Undermining the institutions and structures of the party, by
rejecting the authority of the National Council through a claim to possess some
indeterminate power accountable to no-one, is, to all intents and purposes, a
coup d’etat against the party and its constitution.
Accepting the
outcome of a free and fair democratic process is a basic rule of representative
democracy. We lost an opportunity to reaffirm our democratic credentials to the
people of Zimbabwe, the region and the broader international community.
The National Council is the highest authority of the party in
between congresses. Its decisions are sacrosanct. How can Zimbabweans entrust
their freedoms and liberties, and their good governance, to men and women who
have no respect for their own party’s constitution and who now embrace and
celebrate violence, intimidation, thuggary and
authoritarianism?
All of us in the MDC have worked hard, often
putting ourselves and our families at risk, people have been killed and
thousands tortured to build this party and offer the people an entity capable of
tackling the issues blighting our everyday lives.
It is therefore
deeply regrettable that the two divergent camps have not reached a compromise
acceptable to both parties. We have sought high level mediation, and have
attempted to engage the MDC president to urge him to put the party and the
people first, and act in accordance with the constitution. Both efforts have
thus far yielded nothing.
Instead, those of us who have taken a
principled stand in order to defend the basic values of the party have been
vilified and threatened with violent retribution. We have been subjected to
unqualified accusations including ballot rigging, playing the ethnic card,
pursuing personal interests, and acting as Zanu PF stooges. None of these
palpably false and absurd accusations are worthy of a response and do not stand
up to scrutiny.
Accusations of ethnicity and tribalism, when
people are unable to win an argument, are easy to make but extremely dangerous.
It is akin to riding on the back of a tiger. To suggest that some provinces have
no right to take a position on an issue less they be accused of ethnicity, is
totally absurd.
Such intolerance, and shameless appeal to
ethnicity, stokes the ethnic fires. Our recent history as a country should
counsel against such a blind, myopic and dangerous strategy. As a nation we are
still recovering from the wounds inflicted on our national unity by the
massacres perpetrated by the Mugabe regime in the Midlands and Matabeleland
provinces during the Gukurahundi period of 1981-87.
For the MDC it
is essential that pockets of anger and hostility give way to reason. Time and
energy, which should be spent leading the social liberation struggle, are being
misdirected and it is those on the ground who are suffering as a consequence.
It is time everyone in the party got back in touch with what the
MDC is all about and focused on the needs of the people. It is time everyone
re-attached themselves to the principles and the unity of purpose that brought
us together in the first place.
If the MDC is to offer a real
alternative to Zanu PF we have to hold ourselves accountable to the highest
democratic standards and values. The people of Zimbabwe do not deserve anything
less. They have suffered 25 years of dictatorship, poverty and powerlessness.
The people have been waiting but they will not wait for forever.
Paul Themba Nyathi
MDC Secretary for Information and
Publicity
IOL
Basildon
Peta
October 21 2005 at 03:20AM
Zimbabwe's worsening
economic climate could easily spawn a popular
uprising against President
Robert Mugabe, according to a confidential
security document obtained by the
media.
Zimbabwean state security agencies have expressed serious
fears that a
popular uprising is increasingly becoming real as economic
hardships erode
the patience of long-suffering Zimbabweans.
A
document by the Joint Operations Command, comprising heads of the
Zimbabwe
Republic Police, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the
Zimbabwe
National Army, has been obtained by Zimbabwe's online newspaper
ZimOnline.
It warns of the severe consequences of Zimbabwe's
continued economic
meltdown.
'We must not fool ourselves
in believing that the situation is
normal'
In an attempt to
forestall a possible mass uprising, the document
shows that the security
agencies have drawn up a list of 55 political and
civic leaders described as
"most dangerous individuals" who have to be kept
under surveillance to
ensure they do not mobilise Zimbabweans.
Main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai tops the list
that also includes Mugabe's former chief
propagandist and now independent
parliamentarian, Jonathan Moyo.
The 20-page
internal document quoted by ZimOnline reads: "We must not
fool ourselves in
believing that the situation is normal on the ground
because we risk being
caught unawares.
People have grown impatient with the government,
which they accuse of
causing their problems and doing nothing to alleviate
them and they will do
anything to remove it from power."
National Constitutional Assembly Chairperson Lovemore Madhuku,
outspoken
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
President
Lovemore Matombo, Zimbabwe Progressive Teachers' Union
Secretary-General
Raymond Majongwe and Felix Mafa, of the Post Independence
Survivors' Trust,
are among the people recommended for permanent
surveillance.
This article was originally published on page
10 of The Mercury on
October 21, 2005
Reuters
Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:00 AM GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's central bank chief urged President Robert
Mugabe's
government on Thursday to arrest people invading commercial farms,
branding
them saboteurs of the ailing economy who were scaring off
investors.
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono stepped up his criticism
of recent land
invasions, warning that the resultant disruption was damaging
agriculture.
Land invasions began five years ago with the tacit approval
of a government
pursuing its own controversial land reforms. Local media
have reported a
series of fresh invasions of white-owned farms in eastern
Zimbabwe in recent
weeks.
"Anyone invading farms now is not working
for the interests of this country,
is a criminal and ought to be locked away
until after the harvest," Gono
said during a monetary policy
presentation.
"Our hearts at the central bank bleed with each story of
such levels of
economic disregard, such irrationality and such economic
sabotage," he
added.
Mugabe's government has said it would outlaw
occupation of state land after
reports of fresh farm seizures in eastern
Zimbabwe, but Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa told Reuters recently the
protection would not cover
privately owned farms.
"Where no respect
is given for the sanctity of private property rights,
investors become
apprehensive and instead plough their resources in other
more secure
destinations," Gono said on Thursday.
"It is for this reason that we
implore the relevant authorities to institute
stringent laws that protect
private property."
Mugabe signed constitutional changes into law last
month effectively
nationalising all white-owned farms that had been seized
by his government
for the resettlement of black Zimbabweans over the last
six years.
Gono called on newly resettled black farmers to exploit their
land to the
full to reduce Zimbabwe's dependency on food imports, saying
they should not
use the land "as weekend picnic ventures."
Critics
say land expropriations are partly responsible for waning commercial
agriculture and food shortages since 2001. New farmers are battle to raise
production in the face of a lack of adequate funding and commercial farming
skills.
Mugabe has defended farm seizures -- some of which have been
carried out
through legal procedures, others by gangs of armed independence
war
veterans -- as necessary to correct colonial imbalances that left 70
percent
of Zimbabwe's prime farming land in the hands of a few whites.
ABC Radio, Australia
This is a transcript from PM. The program is
broadcast around Australia at
5:10pm on Radio National and 6:10pm on ABC
Local Radio.
PM
- Friday, 21 October , 2005 18:46:00
Reporter: Zoe Daniel
MARK COLVIN: There's a potential split in the Government of Zimbabwe,
which
may prove the biggest threat yet to President Robert Mugabe's
regime.
The Government's so-called "Operation Restore Order"
campaign was
supposedly designed to clean up slums and crime.
Instead it's made hundreds of thousands of people homeless and
scattered
them into the countryside.
The attack on the most vulnerable people
in Zimbabwe is causing
increasing disquiet among senior members of President
Mugabe's own party.
One such man has told the ABC that there's a
looming political split
which is likely to result in the presidency being
challenged at the next
election.
Africa correspondent Zoe
Daniel reports from Harare.
ZOE DANIEL: The only way to speak to
Pearson Mbalekwa is in secret ...
The former secret police chief
and member of President Mugabe's inner
circle is now a target because he's
deserted the ruling party - ZANU PF - in
response to Operation
Murambatsvina, the so-called slum clean up campaign
that's gone too
far.
PEARSON MBALEKWA: The whole thing went out of control. They
went into
living quarters, in some suburbs, and started destroying what
they're
calling shacks and so forth. And I said to (inaudible) what the hell
is
going on?
ZOE DANIEL: Pearson Mbalekwa is the first to
resign from ZANU PF in
response to the demolitions which have made hundreds
of thousands of people
homeless, and affected millions.
As a
former head of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation, he
comes from a
body that endorses intimidation and violence. But he says he
can't endorse
the Government's attack on the most desperate Zimbabweans.
PEARSON
MBALEKWA: I didn't want to be part and parcel of a policy
which I was not
part of, so I said no, my party, this is ridiculous, I will
not be used in
this whole callous exercise.
ZOE DANIEL: Pearson Mbalekwa's
resignation is not an isolated
incident.
Since President Mugabe
overlooked obvious successors to appoint a
female vice president last year,
there's been dissatisfaction within ZANU
PF.
Now Mbalekwa is
testing the ground for a new political party - on
behalf of others within
the Government who he says want out.
PEARSON MBALEKWA: There's a
lot of disillusionment within the party,
not only from the young generation
in the party, but even from the senior
leadership members of party bureau,
central committee, and members of
Parliament and so forth.
ZOE
DANIEL: Those who have lost their homes and livelihoods in
Operation
Murambatsvina are desperate for change.
Dickson says "ZANU PF has
killed us", as he explains that his shop was
destroyed in the demolitions,
and now he's supporting his family - including
a disabled daughter - on
about $50 a month.
His wife cries as she points to an eating area
where once the family
cooked chicken, eggs and meat, but now Zimbabwe's
economic crisis means
there's only porridge for dinner - and not much of
that either.
Operation Murambatsvina has been interpreted as a
deliberate attempt
by the Zimbabwean Government to scatter opposition
supporters into rural
areas where they can't mobilise against it -
especially when they're
starving and cold.
SEKAI HOLLAND: The
Operation Murambatsvina is to ensure the
destruction, it's the final blow,
the final blow, to the development of
opposition in Zimbabwe.
ZOE DANIEL: Sekai Holland was once ZANU PF's representative in
Australia,
but now she's one of the Government's most vocal opponents
despite serious
intimidation - including an attempt on her life.
She says Western
governments must take some responsibility for Robert
Mugabe, because they
lauded him as a hero for helping liberate Zimbabwe from
white
rule.
SEKAI HOLLAND: The inaction of Africans over Zimbabwe is
really saying
to the West, he is your baby, deal with it.
ZOE
DANIEL: There's a sense that the main Opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change now has little chance of toppling the Government, with its
supporters
scattered and scared.
In the meantime, destitute families like
Dickson's can merely pray.
This is Zoe Daniel in Harare, Zimbabwe,
for PM.
IOL
October 21
2005 at 09:45AM
By Angus Shaw
Harare - Opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, facing a split that
could destroy his party,
campaigned among its branches and received
overwhelming support for a
boycott of upcoming Senate elections.
William Bango, Tsvangirai's
spokesperson, said on Friday that 10 of
the party's 12 provincial districts
support the call for a boycott.
"The national sentiment is against
the Senate structure," Bango said.
But top party leaders in a vote
narrowly rejected Tsvangirai's call
for a boycott of the November 26
election for a new Senate.
Party officials favouring participation
have said they will nominate
their candidates for the November election on
Monday.
Tsvangirai's supporters say party dissidents may run as
independent
candidates but they would risk suspension from the
party.
Bango said Tsvangirai was confident the
boycott will be observed.
Tsvangirai himself made no comment because "he
prefers not to heighten the
political temperature."
Tsvangirai's deputy, MDC Vice President Gibson Sibanda, on Thursday
accused
the party leader of breaching the party's constitution by defying
the
October 12 internal ballot of the executive committee, known as the
National
Council, on participation in the Senate poll.
Sibanda also said
inquiries into intimidation and "violent activities"
against some national
and provincial party officials established the
involvement of Tsvangirai's
office and his bodyguards.
Bango told state radio on Friday there
were no provisions in the
party's constitution for dissidents to seek
Tsvangirai's impeachment as
party leader.
The labour-backed
party, formed in 1999, presented the first major
challenge to President
Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule. But it
has lost three
elections amid allegations of vote rigging and intimidation.
A new
66-seat upper house, including 50 elected members, was created
by a recent
constitutional amendment. The opposition opposed the amendment
and
Tsvangirai argues that participating in the election will give
credibility
to the chamber and a fraudulent poll.
The opposition won just 41 of
the 120 elected seats in parliament's
150-seat lower house in March. -
Sapa-AP
BBC
Top officials from
Zimbabwe's main opposition party are visiting South
Africa, reportedly to
meet President Thabo Mbeki.
Movement for Democratic Change leader
Morgan Tsvangirai is not on the
trip.
The visit comes amid
signs of a split in the party over elections next
month. Mr Tsvangirai has
announced a boycott, while some officials want to
take part.
Mr
Mbeki has been trying to mediate a solution to Zimbabwe's political
and
economic crisis for several years.
An MDC source told the BBC News
website that the group visiting South
Africa comprised at least four of the
party's top six officials, excluding
Mr Tsvangirai.
According
to the source, the delegation includes party deputy
president Gibson
Sibanda; secretary general Welshman Ncube; deputy secretary
general Gift
Chimanikire and national treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube.
Earlier
this week Mr Sibanda accused Mr Tsvangirai of "wilfully
violating the
constitution of the MDC" and breaching its code of conduct by
insisting on a
boycott.
'No split'
But after meeting Mr Tsvangirai on
Wednesday, Mr Sibanda rejected
suggestions that the party was about to
split.
Correspondents say there is a strong desire among the
southern
Ndebele-speaking members of the MDC to take part in the Senate
elections and
not hand victory on a plate to Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party.
But in the northern ethnic Shona areas of the country, the
MDC is less
organised and is ill-prepared to contest elections.
Mr Sibanda, Mr Ncube and Mr Dulini-Ncube are all from the southern
Matabeleland region.
The National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA), a coalition of
pro-democracy groups, added its voice to the call for
a boycott of the
Senate election, calling it "meaningless" and a "waste of
time and
resources".
Elections were called after a recent
constitutional change
reintroduced an upper house into
parliament.
Government critics say the change was introduced to
strengthen the
hold on power of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party.
The MDC believes violence and fraud have made previous poll
results
unfair.
Zimbabwe has had a single-chamber parliament
since 1987, when Mr
Mugabe abolished the Senate.
But the
government now says the reintroduction of the Senate will
boost the
authority of parliament.
The Senate will comprise 10 traditional
chiefs, 50 senators elected on
a constituency system and six appointed by
the president.
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 11:58 PM
Ref the story about the refuse
being collected:-
We, in our part of Hatfield have not had a Refuse
collection since the
second week of January 2005!!
I have been to
remonstrate with the man in charge of the vehicles and he
said he would "let
me know on my cell" the day we should get a truck
round to pick up the
mountain of black bags - but to no avail; we are
still waiting, 5 weeks
since this last promise. Our neighbors all around
have for months been
burning their household refuse weekly or
fortnightly, with a fairly constant
blanket of carcinogenic smoke
blowing into our house, mostly after a night
of nocturnal burnings, or
rather "slow smoulderings". Bleating to the Health
authorities has
failed to get anything done about it, even thoiugh there are
Bylaws
against such burnings.
P & I, like the idiots that we are, dig
holes and bury the black bags
- to date we have covered over about 6 big
holes, which has robbed the
crows of a tasty restaurant!
Anyway, life
goes on.
The Sun, UK
By SUN ONLINE REPORTER
THE
High Court has ordered the conviction of a traditional African
healer and
spirit medium who refused to provide a blood specimen for testing
after
being suspected of drink-driving.
In what was described as a
"bizarre case", Nyararia Mukandiwa, from
Dalton, Huddersfield, had earlier
escaped conviction at a magistrates court
after saying he could not give
blood "for spiritual reasons".
He was described in court as a
licensed traditional healer from
Zimbabwe, registered with the Zimbabwe
National Traditional Healers
Association, known as Zinatha.
He
also said he was a spirit medium, known as a Mhondoro, and
considered
himself possessed by spirits, and therefore had to avoid
situations that
unexpectedly drove him into a trance.
Professor Richard Werbner,
professor of African anthropology at
Manchester University, had given expert
evidence on behalf of the
33-year-old at Huddersfield Magistrates' Court
that "the sight of a corpse,
extreme anger and the spilling of blood" could
all send him into a trance
that could result in violence to himself or the
police.
District Judge Bennett ruled in September 2004 while
sitting at
Dewsbury Magistrates' Court that Mukandiwa's spirit medium role
meant there
could be "a risk to health" if required to give
blood.
That was "a reasonable excuse" for him not providing a blood
sample
under the 1988 Road Traffic Act, said the judge, and refused to
convict him.
Judge Bennett said: "I was satisfied that this man's
fear of giving
blood
related to his going into a trance and the
consequences for the
police, who would not know how to respond to the
situation, with which they
would be totally unfamiliar."
Today
the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed to the High Court,
and two
senior judges ruled there were "fatal flaws" in Judge Bennett's
decision and
Mukandiwa must be convicted.
During the two-hour hearing, Lord
Justice Scott Baker, sitting with Mr
Justice Newman, observed: "The district
judge seems to have got mesmerised
in this case."
The
alleged risk of blood causing a trance "could easily have been
avoided by
Mukandiwa shutting his eyes or looking away", said the lord
justice.
The evidence was that it was the "spilling" of blood
which was the
problem and might cause a risk to health. There was no finding
that the
"sight" of it was a problem.
Lord Justice Scott Baker
added: "Even if he went into a trance, the
district judge conducted no real
analysis of the likely consequences, other
than concluding Mukandiwa might
be violent to himself or others.
"It seems to me to be a far cry
from the evidence shown that to give a
sample would entail a substantial
risk to Mukandiwa's health."
The judge described how Mukandiwa was
stopped by a police patrol after
his Peugeot car strayed across a white line
in February 2004 on a
Huddersfield road.
At first the police
gave him the benefit of the doubt over
drink-driving
because a
breath-testing kit was not available.
But he was arrested and taken
to Castlegate police station because, as
he went to drive off, he clipped
the central reservation.
He was asked to give blood after he
failed, through medical reasons,
to complete a breath test at the
station.
He replied: "I can't give blood for spiritual reasons" and
was
subsequently charged.
Allowing the DPP's appeal, Lord
Justice Scott said the High Court had
also been asked to consider whether
the police should have been obliged to
require the healer to provide a
sample of urine, not blood.
But that issue never arose in the
magistrates' court and it was too
late to raise it now.
Cricinfo staff
October 21,
2005
The row over the future of Phil Simmons took another twist today
with the
news that he faces deportation by Zimbabwe's immigration
department.
Simmons, who was replaced as national coach in August, had
his contract
terminated by Zimbabwe Cricket earlier in the month, but 30
national players
presented a petition to the board on Tuesday demanding his
reinstatement.
Simmons, meanwhile, claimed the dismissal was
unconstitutional and was
consulting lawyers over his options.
But
sources close to the situation claim that someone inside ZC approached
the
immigration authorities, with the result that he has been told that he
will
have to leave the country as he no longer has employment there.
Simmons
is said to be considering challenging the order, while the players
are
reported to be livid at the latest development.
© Cricinfo
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 October
Iden Wetherell
Zimbabwe's
main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
is fighting
a civil war over whether to participate in elections for an
upper house of
Parliament next month. And it's not a pretty sight. The
battle is being
fought in full public view as newspapers carry daily reports
of party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's increasingly desperate attempts to block
candidates from
filing nomination papers. A slim majority of party officials
want to take
part in the contest scheduled for November 26. Tsvangirai is
strongly
opposed to participation. He wants to prevent any further
collaboration with
an electoral management system that he says "breeds
illegitimate outcomes"
and which he blames for the party's setback in the
March general election.
The majority believes that if the party is to retain
its presence at the
centre of the nation's political life it must contest
seats for the revived
Senate, some of which it will undoubtedly win.
The MDC's strength
lies in its urban constituencies, which, in March firmly
slammed their doors
on President Robert Mugabe's political pretensions. The
party's secretary
general, Professor Welshman Ncube, is seen as heading the
faction of the
party that favours participation in the Senate poll. It is
largely based in
Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, and reflects the MDC's
strong presence in
the southern Matabeleland provinces. Tsvangirai's support
lies mostly in the
capital, Harare. This has given the struggle an ethnic
dimension. But to
portray it in those terms would be to miss several salient
points.
Tsvangirai had his reservations about entering the March poll borne
out when
the party was placed at a disadvantage by the refusal of the public
media to
allow the opposition anything more than token space during the
campaign and,
more seriously, by what he regards as the institutional bias
of the
electoral system. These concerns are shared by civil society
organisations
such as the National Constitutional Assembly which believes
the problem of a
lopsided electoral playing field will not be solved until a
democratic
constitution is introduced. The MDC's national council voted to
participate,
an outcome the party leader declines to recognise.
While Tsvangirai's
critics see him as dictatorial and headstrong, few doubt
his popularity with
grassroots supporters and the trade union movement or
question his courage
in facing down Mugabe's menaces. He has twice been
charged with treason.
Certainly no one else in the party leadership would be
able to draw the
large crowds he can summon at the hustings. His only
serious rival, Ncube,
while a master of legislative detail, is viewed by
some in the party as
over-anxious to pursue the politics of accommodation.
Ncube is the MDC's
negotiator in suspended talks with Zanu PF on
constitutional reform. The
state-owned media has been having a field day
publicising the divisions in
the ranks of the opposition that have
conveniently obscured Zanu PF's
internecine fighting over the succession to
Mugabe. The 81-year-old ruler
would welcome an MDC boycott, analysts
suggest, because it would enable him
to use the Senate as a retirement home
for surplus personnel. The MDC, on
the other hand, would be yielding ground
in areas where Zanu PF has no
prospect of winning votes. Divisions deepened
this week as Tsvangirai
stepped up his campaign against participation while
the opposing camp
proceeded with the selection of candidates.
The MDC has overcome
formidable obstacles over the past six years in
mounting a challenge to
Mugabe's sclerotic rule, coming within a whisker of
winning the 2000 general
election. It offers a comprehensive package of
policies on governance and
economic recovery that many parties in Africa
would be happy to embrace. But
it has now lost focus on the big picture of
how to confront the regime and
is instead absorbed in a destructive battle
of its barons who refuse to
agree on tactics, a struggle that has resonance
in the fragmented politics
of Kenya and Malawi. Its spokespersons suggest
the current unedifying
spectacle points to healthy debate at the top. It
more realistically
reflects the conundrum of how a party committed to
democratic values can
take on a regime determined to use brute force to
prevent it. There are no
easy answers to that. Meanwhile, it looks as if
Zimbabwe's best hope for a
democratic future is determined to go down
fighting - itself!
Iden
Wetherell is group projects editor of the Zimbabwe Independent and
Standard
newspapers
The Zimbabwean
BY A
CORRESPONDENT
HARARE - The High Court has barred police from evicting some
350 squatters
from makeshift shelters in Mbare after a magistrate,
apparently nervous of
retaliation from the Justice Ministry, refused to hear
the case.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), which represents the
group - among
thousands of urban dwellers whose homes and livelihoods were
destroyed in
Operation Murambatsvina - said the High Court on Oct. 10
provisionally
barred the eviction. "It was by consent. The City of Harare
said they had
never threatened eviction," said Zvikomborero Chadambuka of
ZLHR. The group
will now be seeking a final court order barring their
eviction until they
have been found alternative
accommodation.
Provincial Magistrate Ms. Chigwaza refused to hear the
case Oct. 5, claiming
that magistrate's courts have no jurisdiction in
Murambatsvina cases,
although there is a register of such cases having been
heard in lower
courts.
Most of the group, including children, have
been living in squalid
conditions in makeshift shelters on an open area near
Tsiga Grounds in
Mbare. They were evicted from their homes under the purge -
reportedly
organised by the Central Intelligence Organisation to fend off
feared
demonstrations against the Mugabe regime. Police armed with dogs
showed up
on October 2 threatening them with violence unless they moved.
The Zimbabwean
BY
CHIKWAPURO
HARARE - My attempts to forecast the exchange rates during the
past two
weeks have had to be revised so often that in the end I had to
start again.
The parallel rate has come under serious additional pressures
from the
decision to rake in money to pay the IMF, and this has added to the
instability.
Another issue that needs to be factored in is on the
ballooning domestic
debt. Government has at last accepted the need to pay
reasonable interest
rates, but it appears not to have the means to service
that debt and a
massive increase in debt-service requirements is about to
surge onto the
money market.
Through the aggressive conduct of Zimra
against everybody in general and the
share market in particular, through the
exacting of "dues" from banks via
the 60% Statutory Reserve Ratio, from the
swingeing sweeping of surpluses
from the market in exchange for two-year
Treasury Bills and its extravagant
(and hopefully failed) attempts to exact
bigger inflows by setting
Prescribed Asset Ratios at the market, rather than
the book values of
pension funds' physical assets, government seems to have
come to the end of
its fund-raising options.
As it has clearly not
succeeded in raising nearly enough from this shrinking
economy to cope with
its debt service needs, we might have good reason to
fear what might come
next. A debt rescheduling ploy might be tried, or
possibly something more
drastic. If the Reserve Bank's purchase of Treasury
Bills has to be stepped
up, this will add as significantly to inflationary
pressures as would
further increases to government's overdraft with the
Reserve Bank. Both
amount to money-printing, both help to sustain consumer
demand without
adding a single product or service into the supply chain, and
both add to
the demand for imported goods that are already so scarce and so
highly
priced that any additional demand will put disproportionate pressure
on the
parallel market exchange rate.
The parallel market rate could come back
down, maybe to around Z$80 000
again, if we finally land that South African
loan, but a lot depends on how
much it will be and the terms. As the
parallel rate is presently being
driven by a much more serious scarcity
factor, if a very big loan came
through it could reduce the scarcity enough
to bring to a stop the sales
above Z$80 000, at least for a while. But if it
is small and highly
conditional it might not make much difference at all,
and the rate in
October could climb above Z$140 000 to one US dollar. That,
in turn, would
bring much closer the possibility of inflation at above
1000%.
In most countries that have suffered inflation at such levels,
changes in
government have followed soon afterwards. South Africa's
influence here
could be decisive: loans could be offered, but only on
condition that the
elections are run again in 2006 under international
supervision and only if
opposition newspapers together with the freedom of
movement and safety of
opposition candidates were restored and guaranteed.
It seems to me that,
like it or not, we are soon to experience some
far-reaching changes.
The Zimbabwean
BY A
CORRESPONDENT
LONDON - Zimbabwean nurse Itai Nyamatore, who until 1997 was
director of the
Zimbabwe National Association for Mental Health, has won a
top award for a
project to help black and ethnic minority communities get
better mental
health care in Britain.
Mrs. Nyamatore, 49, received the
Mary Seacole Leadership Development Award,
which carries a £6,250 sterling
bursary for research, in a presentation at
the London headquarters of the
Royal College of Nursing. She is now
Strategic Nurse Manager at Northampton
Primary Care Trust, a state-funded
hospital group located some 150 kms north
of London
"Inquiries and studies indicate that black minority and ethnic
users
(patients), particularly those of African Caribbean origin, do not
receive
the same treatment, care and service as other service users," she
said.
Mrs. Nyamatore, from Mrewa, was educated at Nhowe Mission near
Macheke. She
came to Britain in 1997 to train as a mental health nurse, and
graduated in
1982. "As soon as I qualified, I rushed back home," she told
The Zimbabwean.
"Zimbabwe was independent and I couldn't wait to give my
services to my
country and work with my people."
She worked at
Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital before joining the Zimbabwe
National
Association for Mental Health in 1990. In 1998, with her two eldest
sons,
twins born while she trained in Britain, wanting to further their
education,
she returned and took a job with Derbyshire Mental Health Trust.
It was
there that she began work on her award-winning project.
The twins, now
aged 24, have also prospered - one a graduate of Manchester
University works
for British Airways, and the other is doing business
studies. Mrs. Nyamatore
and her husband, Augustine, who has joined her in
Britain, also have two
younger sons aged 18 and seven.
The Mary Seacole award is funded by
Britain's National Health Service.
"Since its foundation, the NHS has always
depended on the contributions of
diverse communities," said Lord Warner, a
government health minister who
presented the award. "The NHS is a real,
living organisation which must .
develop in order to deliver appropriate
services to all its communities."
The Zimbabwean
ROGER BATE, Resident
Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, argues
that Washington should
punish regional leaders who fail to act but simply
wait for Mugabe to
die
WASHINGTON - Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, spent the earlier part
of
this year rigging an election, then turned to bulldozing the urban
settlements where it is believed the opposition had majority support, and
the time in between amending the constitution to extend again his rule and
again curtail property rights of his citizens.
It is hard to believe
that even Mugabe thinks he can get to retirement
unscathed, but so far he
has gotten away with doing exactly what he likes.
Hamstrung by indecision,
the UN will not act, the African Union is once
again demonstrating that it
is a club for dictators, and that its
'democratic' actions against
dictatorial regimes, such as in Togo, are
isolated cases against those
outside the clique. The UK appears incapable of
any meaningful action and in
the US democracy support has been slashed.
Perhaps saddest and most
baffling though, is that the opposition in
Zimbabwe, unquestionably the
government in waiting, has been so quiet. In
doing so, it has prolonged the
crisis. There is an urgent need for personal
leadership, which will generate
a powerful rallying point. This beautiful
and once bountiful country is
being ruined; people are being displaced,
dispossessed, terrorised and even
murdered by the State. A third of the
population may have already left, for
the rest there is no apparent
likelihood of civil disorder or armed
conflict. And without an obvious
conflict the impotent international
community will apparently not intervene,
as it has done in Sudan and
elsewhere in Africa.
International diplomacy is active but it is, by
definition, limited. Two
weeks ago, Jendayi
Frazer, Assistant Secretary
of State for Africa, announced tough travel
sanctions to be placed on more
cronies of the Mugabe government and their
extended families. It is a pity
these restrictions weren't effective in
preventing Mugabe's recent
ignominious and galling display of chutzpah at
the UN.
The
International Monetary Fund was preparing to expel Zimbabwe for
non-payment
of debt, but $120 million was produced just in time as part
payment. This
money it is suspected, was part-raided from private bank
accounts on the
grounds of a newly-minted technicality over holdings of
foreign exchange. In
any event, given that the Mugabe regime has stolen so
much, the IMF has
undoubtedly accepted stolen funds.
The US is taking action against Mugabe
while trying to support the
Zimbabwean people suffering from food shortages
and human rights abuses. US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with
South African President Thabo
Mbeki after the UN meeting and seemingly
encouraged a stronger stance
against Zimbabwe. And Mbeki has responded,
abandoning his long-held faith in
'quiet diplomacy'. A loan deal included
conditions that Mugabe should open
talks with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, and repeal a
series of repressive laws and implement
ambitious economic reforms. Mugabe
rejected it and berated his officials for
coming home with such a deal.
Meanwhile action by the US is in reality
weakening. Deflection and blaming
Mbeki for lack of action is no longer
cutting any ice with exiled
Zimbabweans or concerned Africa-watchers. No one
has seriously been calling
for military intervention, but some have demanded
far greater actions,
including strong economic pressure on neighbouring
states, changing trade
deal priorities to other regions, lowering of general
aid and increasing US
assistance to civil society groups inside Zimbabwe.
Democracy aid has been
slashed from $7m to $3m for the new calendar year.
This is a disgrace, when
so much can be gained with so little in this
wretched country.
For now, Frazer's overall approach smacks of the
African style diplomacy -
no meaningful action. Ultimately, the US has to
hold the region hostage over
Zimbabwe, or we will simply watch more
Zimbabweans (many with HIV) leave
their country with nothing or die from the
cold, starvation and disease.
There is also the danger that Zimbabwe's
excesses will be copied elsewhere.
Namibia expropriated its first white farm
last month, and pressure on Mbeki
in South Africa to do likewise has finally
paid off with an announced
appropriation shortly in South Africa's North
West Province. There are many
differences between these countries and
Zimbabwe, but bad behaviour that
goes unpunished encourages those with
similar agendas.
Finally, what is the point of development aid to a
region that will condone
mass murder and the wholesale theft of property
rights? There should be a
cost for those in power who are simply waiting for
Mugabe to die.
The Zimbabwean
Editorial comment
The Zimbabwe
government has been sending confusing messages to potential
investors in the
last few weeks. First we had Dutch farmers, who were
protected by a
bi-lateral investment treaty, suing the government for
seizing their farms
without compensation in breach of the international
agreement. Government
did nothing, forcing the farmers to take their case to
international
arbitration - a costly, time-consuming exercise.
This particular case will
seriously damage the credibility of Zimbabwe's
respect for the rule of law -
if any remains, that is.
Then we had the minister in charge of the
spooks, Didymus Mutasa, jumping
into the fray and saying no international
agreements would be respected
because they interfered with Zimbabwe's
sovereignty and were not worth the
paper they were written on. Nobody in
authority has rebuked him or denied
that this is, indeed, government
policy.
And now the president has come in with 'reassurance' to foreign
investors
that property rights would be respected in Zimbabwe. In a document
released
last week titled 'Investing in Zimbabwe' and signed by Mugabe
himself, the
government says 'investment remains a key pillar of the
country's economic
turnaround'.
"Government is committed to
protecting the sanctity of international
agreements," says the document
sanctimoniously. Has Minister Mutasa seen
this document, we wonder? Or given
his approval? Have the war vets, who are
continuing to invade farms in the
eastern Highlands and elsewhere, been made
aware of this?
What was
that about not being worth the paper it is written on? .
The Zimbabwean
WINDHOEK - Namibia's
National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) joins several
other national and
international human rights defender organizations in
welcoming the first
ever indictment by the permanent International Criminal
Court (ICC) of
individuals accused of grave breaches of international human
rights and
humanitarian law.
UN's Democratic Republic of Congo Special Representative
William Swing
announced recently that the ICC had issued arrest warrants for
elusive
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony and four other LRA
commanders. LRA rebels have been accused of having committed untold
widespread atrocities against the civilian population, including torturing,
raping, murdering, kidnapping and maiming children.
"Such indictments
should send a stern signal to war criminals, dictators and
other abusers of
power anywhere under the sky that sooner or later their
judgment day is
coming", warned NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh.
The ICC has
universal jurisdiction to ensure that genocide, crimes against
humanity,
ethnic cleansing and war crimes do not go unpunished. Established
under the
Rome Statute on July 17 1998, the Court has automatic jurisdiction
when any
of the said crimes are perpetrated on the territory of a country
that has
ratified the Statute. The Statute entered into force on July 1
2002.
"This means that anyone, regardless of his or her political
position or
social status, who after July 1 2002 is accused of having
committed any of
the crimes listed under the Statute, is liable to be
prosecuted by the ICC.
When a certain country is unwilling or unable to
prosecute a war criminal,
then the Court automatically steps in" ya Nangoloh
observed.
Namibia has deposited its instrument of ratification of the ICC
on June 25
2002. The country has also ratified several other relevant
international
human rights and humanitarian treaties, including the Geneva
Conventions of
1949 and the 1977 Protocols additional thereto, the Genocide
Convention of
1948 and the 1984 UN Convention against Torture.
"This
therefore means that, as from June 25 2002 anyone in Namibia,
including a
standing head of state, who is accused of grave breaches of
international
human rights and humanitarian law is liable to be hauled
before the ICC at
The Hague.Under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction
national courts of
ratifying States can try all cases of gravest crimes
under international
law, even if such crimes are not committed in the
national territory of a
State Party and even if a head of state of another
country commits such
crimes" explained ya Nangoloh.
Recently there were several other
noteworthy developments concerning the
doctrine of universal
jurisdiction:
In one such development, a rare case is currently under way
in The
Netherlands. Two former military intelligence generals in the then
Soviet-backed Naji Bulla regime in Afghanistan have been hauled before the
District Court of The Hague. They are facing indictments of gruesome
atrocities committed against Afghan civilians between 1983 and 1991. They
have been indicted under two Dutch laws based on the Geneva Conventions of
1949 and the 1984 UN Convention against Torture. Generals Heshamuddin Hesam
(57) and Hadibulla Jalalzoy (59) fled the Taliban regime and sought
political asylum in The Netherlands.
Secondly, Spain's Constitutional
Court ruled on September 28 2005 that
subordinate national courts may try
cases of genocide and crimes against
humanity committed outside the country,
whatever the nationality of the
victims and perpetrators.
Thirdly, on
September 28 2005 a Belgian court has issued a warrant for the
arrest and
extradition of former Chadian despot Hissene Hahre (62) on
charges of
torture and other atrocities committed during his eight-year rule
between
1982 and 1990. Habre, who currently lives in exile in Senegal, is
wanted
under a Belgian universal jurisdiction law. In 1992 a truth
commission
accused the Habre regime of some 40,000 cases of political murder
and
torture.
Fourthly, the World Summit held on September 14-16 2005 in New
York adopted
inter alia a doctrine of the "responsibility to protect". In
terms of the
doctrine the international community has a responsibility to
intervene in a
country where genocide, ethnic cleansing or crimes against
humanity directed
at the population of that country is taking place.
Speaking at a UNHCR
Conference in Geneva on October 5-6 2005, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan
said that it is the responsibility of all UN Member
States to protect
civilian populations against genocide, war crimes, ethnic
cleansing and
crimes against humanity perpetrated by their own
governments.
In a fifth development a British court sentenced Afghan
warlord Zardad Khan
(42) to a 20-year jail term for atrocities committed
during civil war in his
native Afghanistan between 1992 and 1996. Khan fled
to Britain during 1998
using a false passport in search of political
asylum.
In another landmark resolution on March 31 2005, the UN Security
Council
voted to refer perpetrators of human rights abuse in Sudan's Darfur
region
to the ICC. The adoption of Resolution 1593 importantly marks the
first time
the Security Council has referred a case to the ICC.
The Zimbabwean
BY EMMANUEL ABALO
A careful
examination of the track record of Zimbabwe's Zanu (PF) government
since
1999 spells grim prospects for any real political, economic and
judicial
reforms in the near future.
The financial picture remains dismal at best.
According to a review
conducted by the International Monetary Fund, IMF,
last month Zimbabwe was
overdue on its financial obligation to the
organization and declared
ineligible to utilize or borrow resources from
what is called the Poverty
and Growth Reduction Facility (PGRF).
This
PGRF program is part and parcel of remedial measures that delinquent
countries are encouraged to undertake to address their financial obligations
to the organization.
As of June 2005, the indebtedness of Zimbabwe to
the IMF was estimated at
US$290.7 million dollars and its total external
debt is US$2.6 billion
dollars. The government had pledged to reduce its
indebtedness to through
incremental payments of US$9 million dollars
quarterly and won a temporary
six month reprieve from the organization's
Executive Board which had
threatened expulsion. The goal is to payoff the
remaining debt of US$160
million dollars by 2006. Zimbabwean state radio
welcomed the reprieve,
calling the decision by the IMF executive board an
"achievement against all
odds."
Zimbabwe recently made a US$135
million dollars payment to the IMF in an
effort to show good faith in
addressing its financial obligation. Had
Zimbabwe being expelled, it would
have made history as the first country to
be bounced from the IMF since
Czechoslovakia in 1954. Inflation is at an all
time high of 255% and
unemployment is quoted at 80%. About 3 million
Zimbabweans have already fled
to Botswana or South Africa. The government
military expenditure for 2004
fiscal year was US$217million dollars.
According to international
intelligence analysts, the military command is
increasingly finding it
difficult to continue to defend the autocratic
tendencies of the government.
Even the military is smarting from food
shortages and shrinking wages and
has had to stop providing three square
meals daily for soldiers. But
officially, the government and the military
command deny that such problems
exist.
The government has so far successfully maintained the loyalty of
the
military in such a potentially explosive national environment by
strategically doling out patronage; be it promotions, "fat" pensions or the
awarding of farmlands taken from white owners in the controversial
"land-grab".
There appears to be reluctance by Zimbabwe's neighbours
to confront the
downward spiral and some sympathizers in the media have
begun to play
defence for Mugabe. In an editorial, the South African weekly
newspaper,
Mail and Guardian, accused Mugabe's critics of "hypocrisy" and
former
colonial power Great Britain of "demonizing President Robert Mugabe."
The
paper argued further that millions of people are resettled somewhere in
the
world every year to "make room for tourists, dams, roads and airports."
Shocking!
- Emmanuel Abalo is an exiled Liberian journalist, media
and human rights
activist.
The Zimbabwean
Nostalgia website www.Zimdays.com looks back on how we used to
do things at
home.
Zimbabweans scattered across the globe today hold
poignant memories of the
vast open roads of home. Zimdays.com has captured
the best of these days in
memories written by those of us who were there at
the time.
In the 1950s the tarmac roads we know today did not exist. One
member fondly
recalls: 'I wonder how many folk remember the incredible old
strips that
were our roads in the 1940s and 1950s These were much better
than plain dirt
roads, as at least you had a firm foundation to travel on
when it had been
raining for a couple of days. It was scary stuff though, as
one travelled
along, to see a car coming towards you. The idea was that each
car would
move over to the left, with the right wheel on one strip, until
each had
passed, and then back onto the two strips. But there was always
that sort of
"will he, won't he" feeling about the other driver actually
being a
gentleman and moving over'.
As late as the 1970s this cat-and
mouse-game continued, with typical Zim
etiquette as this former Zimbabwean
recalls: 'Remember the good manners
driving when on strips or narrow tar in
the 1970s? - at a narrow bridge, the
unspoken law was: whoever was heading
into town had right-of-way! Always
waved "thank you" when
passing'.
Remember the vehicles we affectionately owned, used and
polished on our
weekends in the 1980s? Those old Peugeots come top of this
list as many
recall - 'The 'in' car in the 1980s was the Peugeot 404, the
ones that
became the first ETs (emergency taxis), those days we called them
pirate
taxis dzamaigara kumashure makapesana pesana makatambarara makumbo
so!
(where you used sit in the back with your legs in between the person
opposite you) And the fare was 20c going into town'.
The Peugeots
became renowned for their strength and resilience. Another
member recalls:
'Memories of my car are great, being a 404 Peugeot - one of
the strongest
cars, in those days better known as the lion of the road. That
car never
disappointed me on the road. I used to travel long journeys cross
country,
no problems!' Many of these Peugeot work horses are still in
service on
Zimbabwe's roads today.
Other cars that made the 1980s special include
the Pulsar, 120Y, Bluebird
and the Citroens. Some remember their first
driving lessons in these
vehicles - 'The car I learnt to drive in at 16
years old was my mother's
green Pulsar. Brand new out of the box! I used to
drive up and down the
driveway and outside on the newly tarred cycle track
for practice'. Remember
when most of the Rixi Taxi's where Renault 4's - in
some you had to hold a
wire to keep the door shut!
Others recall the
Citroens DS 'frog car' - 'I remember my Dad had a Citroen,
those big flat
cars that looked like kind of like a frog. Am not sure
whether it was an
'in' car then as well or not but we loved it to bits and
we would clean it
and polish the wheels with Silvo on the rims and black
shoe polish on the
tyres and then go for a drive namudhaara (with the old
man) afterwards!'
More memories of the 'bamba dachka' recall - 'Man that car
is so weird. It
looks like a frog, and had power steering, something called
ABS, lights that
turn in the same direction as the wheels and to make it
worse, you had to
wait for the car to go up and down when you start it or
switch it
off!'
Lately driving in Zimbabwe is tinged with the tension of whether or
not you
have enough fuel to complete your journey. Who has lived or
travelled in Zim
after 2000 and doesn't relate to this memory? 'The longest
trip I ever made
between Harare and Bulawayo (435kms) was in 2000 at the
height of the fuel
crisis. I had to travel to Bulawayo to attend my
grandfather's funeral and
could only scrape up 40 litres of fuel, which was
supposed to get my
pregnant wife and me to Bulawayo, and be enough to move
from station to
station in search of fuel for the return journey. It was a
painfully long
trip and we arrived in Bulawayo that day in time for the wake
before the
funeral the next day. We certainly travelled by grace and faith
and, after a
full day in a fuel queue after the funeral, we painfully
travelled back to
Harare at the same slow speed.'
The memories
recalled here were contributed by members of www.Zimdays.com -
Zimbabwe's largest
nostalgia and reunion site. Membership is currently free
to Zimbabweans
across the world.