Zim Online
Tuesday 23 October 2007
By Farisai
Gonye
HARARE - Zimbabwe police officers were two weeks ago asked to prove
they
were able to defend President Robert Mugabe's controversial land
reforms
with "passion and conviction" as part of a test to determine
eligibility for
promotion, sources told ZimOnline.
According to
sources, 40 senior officers sitting for a promotional
examination at Morris
depot in Harare on October 10 were each asked to give
a 10-minute address to
an imaginary group of foreign journalists defending
the chaotic and often
violent land reforms as top commanders watched and
recorded the mock
speeches on videotape.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka refused to take
questions on the matter
saying it was an internal police issue and
confidential. "Contents of
internal police examinations are confidential,"
he said.
The sources said the police officers, all chief superintendents
and seeking
promotion to the rank of assistant commissioner, were required
to show that
land reforms blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food
shortages were a
model agrarian reform programme carried out in an
"exemplary manner."
"You are the Officer Commanding (Crime) and you have
been asked to address a
group of visiting international journalists. You
know fully well that the
outside world has a wrong and negative view of the
land reform programme,"
read the police question paper shown to ZimOnline on
Monday.
"You are supposed to correct this view, clearly illustrating to
them that
the land reform is a model and that the government was justified
in
embarking on this exercise and that it was done in an exemplary manner.
You
have 10 minutes to prove that you can defend and promote the land reform
programme with passion and conviction."
Such examinations for senior
officers aspiring for higher rank normally
focus on managerial issues in
addition to the usual questions to do with law
enforcement
operations.
"We were caught off guard, but I did my best to praise-sing
President Mugabe
during the mock address to foreign reporters," said a
police officer, who
refused to be named as this would jeopardise his chances
of promotion.
The opposition and human rights groups often accuse the
police of
selectively applying the law, targeting government opponents for
arrest.
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, a self-confessed supporter
of Mugabe
and his ruling ZANU PF party, denies charges of being partisan and
says his
officers will arrest all suspects regardless of their political
affiliation.
Zimbabwe, also grappling with its worst ever economic
crisis, has since 2000
when land reforms began, relied on food imports and
handouts from
international food agencies mainly due to failure by resettled
black
peasants to maintain production on former white farms.
Poor
performance in the mainstay agricultural sector has also had far
reaching
consequences as hundreds of thousands of people have lost jobs
while the
manufacturing sector, starved of inputs from the sector, is
operating below
30 percent of capacity. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 23 October
2007
By Farisai Gonye
HARARE - More
than 20 people sustained serious injuries following
violent clashes as war
veterans, villagers, and ZANU-PF supporters ganged up
to block the eviction
of a white farmer by militias aligned to a top ruling
party official in
Zimbabwe's rich eastern farming district of Burma Valley.
The
clashes, which have been going on for the past week, only stopped
after
Manicaland provincial governor Tinaye Chigudu promised the villagers
that he
would personally take up the issue with President Robert Mugabe and
have the
white farmer's eviction reversed.
The local traditional chief,
Eddie Musabayana, war veterans from the
area, villagers, and ZANU-PF
supporters told Chigudu during a meeting to
calm tempers at Mapetu Farm last
Monday that they would "continue laying
their lives on the line" to protect
white farmer Heather Guild.
Chigudu's delegation included
Manicaland provincial police commander
Obert Benge and senior government
officials.
Guild is facing eviction from Fungai Chaeruka, a ZANU-PF
official
appointed to head Mutare City Council following the dismissal of an
opposition-led council in 2005.
According to eye-witnesses who
attended the meeting, the villagers
told Chigudu that ZANU-PF risked losing
their support in elections planned
for next year if Guild was removed from
the farm.
When ZimOnline visited the area at the weekend, the
atmosphere in the
surrounding villages was tense, with some villagers
claiming that militias
aligned to Chaeruka had destroyed an onion crop worth
over $1 billion after
destroying irrigation equipment to force Guild off the
farm.
Among those injured was a prominent elderly ZANU-PF activist
identifying herself as Eunah Matimba.
"We have been fighting
Chaeruka's militias since last week. We cannot
allow Guild to be removed
because she has immensely assisted the community
here," 62-year-old Matimba
told ZimOnline.
Chigudu confirmed the clashes but claimed he "was
now on top of the
situation".
"There was a bad situation in
Burma Valley. The locals want the farmer
to stay and I am taking it up to
avoid a situation that might end up turning
fatal. The locals are united
that Comrade Chaeruka could have sabotaged the
country by destroying the
crops," Chigudu said.
Musabayana also confirmed the clashes and
warned that the villagers
would "fight" Chaeruka to the end.
"We are united, the war veterans, our people and the party (ZANU-PF)
here
that the land reform is no longer about removing white farmers. We want
her
to stay and work with her," said Musabayana.
"As for Chaeruka,
wherever he derives his power, we will resist him
and he will find no peace
here. His militias will be driven out no doubt,"
the chief
warned.
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 while others are saying they
would be evicted.
The evictions have continued
sporadically.
Zimbabwe, in the grip of its worst ever economic
crisis, has since
2000 relied on food imports and handouts from
international humanitarian
groups due to failure by new black farmers to
maintain production on farms
taken from the whites. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 23 October 2007
By Thando
Ncube
HARARE - A senior official of the main opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) party, Lucia Matibenga, has filed papers at the High
Court
challenging her ouster as the chairperson of the party's Women's
Assembly.
Matibenga, who is also the first vice-president of the Zimbabwe
Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU), filed the urgent interdict seeking to bar
the MDC from
going ahead with elections to elect new leadership in the
women's wing.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC two weeks ago dissolved the
Women's executive
led by Matibenga in a move that has plunged the opposition
party, into
serious chaos ahead of next year's presidential and
parliamentary polls.
In a statement released yesterday, Matibenga lashed
out at the MDC
leadership accusing it of violating the party's
constitution.
"The MDC leadership is breaking the constitution left,
right and centre. I
have applied for an interdict to stop them holding an
extraordinary
conference on 28 October (to elect new leaders).
"My
application is an attempt to force the MDC to follow its constitution,"
said
Matibenga.
The former women's leader said the MDC's standing committee
had no powers to
dissolve the Women's Assembly as it had no decision-making
powers with such
powers only vested in the party's National
Council.
Matibenga also said the party's constitution was clear that
changes in the
make-up of the Women's Assembly could only be effected after
an
extra-ordinary party congress.
"The MDC leadership is showing it
is allergic to strong women, they want
women they can manipulate," said
Matibenga in the statement.
MDC deputy secretary for international
relations, Grace Kwinje, said
Matibenga's case was a cause for concern
adding that Zimbabweans were tired
with autocratic management.
"This
is no longer just about women, but about how men and women in the MDC
leadership uphold the laws that they have put in place.
"They adopted
both the Women's Assembly and National Party Constitutions and
it is absurd
that they are violating them," said Kwinje.
MDC spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa could not be reached for comment on the
matter last
night.
The MDC is a shadow of its former self after it split two years
ago after
Tsvangirai overturned a National Council decision to participate
in
senatorial elections.
Respected academic, Arthur Mutambara, now
leads a rival faction of the MDC.
Political analysts could Mugabe could
still win next year's presidential
election ahead of the two MDC factions
despite a worsening economic crisis
that has been described by the World
Bank as unprecedented for a country not
at war. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 23 October 2007
By Thulani
Munda
HARARE - Troubled Air Zimbabwe is mulling plans to charge
passengers in
foreign currency for specific routes in a bid to correct the
mismatch
between its revenue and cost streams, a parliamentary portfolio
committee
heard yesterday.
Air Zimbabwe board chairman Mike Bimha
told the parliamentary portfolio
committee on transport that this was one of
the avenues the embattled
airline could take to remain
afloat.
"Passengers that go on board British Airways and South African
Airways pay
in forex. Why can't they give that forex to Air Zimbabwe," Bimha
said.
Bimha told the committee that if approved, the proposal would give
Air
Zimbabwe wings to survive "some of the challenges" the airline was
facing.
"We can't ask the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to give us forex
when we
can generate our own," he said.
More than 70 percent of the
airline's costs are in hard currency while only
10 percent of its revenue is
in foreign currency.
The board chairman, however, said the proposal to
charge airfares in hard
currency would exclude vulnerable groups such as
students or those going out
of the country for medical attention.
Air
Zimbabwe chief executive Peter Chikumba told the same committee that the
airline's management and board have had several meetings with RBZ governor
Gideon Gono, adding that the airline had "support from that
front".
Air Zimbabwe fares are the lowest in the region. It charges $87
650 000 for
a return ticket to Johannesburg. South African Airways charges
R2 120
inclusive of airport taxes.
Zimbabwe's national carrier has
since the country's economic crisis started
in 2000 lost its position as one
of the best airlines in Africa to one of
the worst due to mismanagement and
interference from the parent Ministry of
Transport and Communications. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
22 October
2007
Persistent electric power outages across Zimbabwe
are having deadly
consequences: in Harare at least five patients have died
at Parirenyatwa
Hospital due to a lack of electricity to run essential
medical equipment,
hospital sources say.
Medical sources at the
hospital said five patients requiring emergency
surgery died when the
hospital was without power Tuesday for 12 hours - one
a pregnant
woman.
Hospital doctors speaking on condition they not be named said the
hospital
generator did not provide enough power for surgeons to operate on
all
patients needing care.
The hospital sources said that although
power has been restored,
Parirenyatwa, one of the capital's main public
hospitals, faces power cuts
of two to three hours daily.
Staff at the
private Avenues and West End clinics said those institutions
have been
deprived of electricity for more than a week. Generators have
provided some
power, but the staff said some medical procedures have had to
be
suspended.
Meanwhile, residents of Avondale, the Avenues area and
Cranborne Park in
Harare said they have been without electricity for nearly
10 days. Some said
they have been forced to move out of their homes or to
empty their
refrigerators.
In Mutare, Bulawayo and other cities,
residents report that they are have
electricity for only two hours a day -
usually in the middle of the night.
In some areas, residents are only
getting power two to three days a week.
Senior officials of the Zimbabwe
Electric Supply Authority could not be
reached for comment - employees of
the utility said they were locked up in
meetings.
Opposition lawmaker
Priscilla Misiharambwi Mushonga, a member of the house
committee on public
accounts, which has been looking into operations at the
deeply troubled
power utility, told reporter Carole Gombakomba that the
worsening power cuts
indicate that ZESA has moved beyond mere load shedding.
VOA
By Patience Rusere & Blessing Zulu
Washington
22 October 2007
The faction of
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change led
Morgan Tsvangirai,
summoned by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi over
allegations that its
members have been the victims of police violence, says
that before the
meeting Mohadi should order provincial police to stop
harassing opposition
members.
Faction spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the MDC was not setting a
condition
for the meeting, which has been set for Wednesday, but requesting
that the
minister show that the government is serious about stopping
political
violence.
VOA could not reach Mohadi, who summoned
Tsvangirai and other officials
saying he wanted them to substantiate their
charges, issued in a news
conference last week, that members have been
killed or injured by
state-sponsored political violence.
Police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, an assistant commissioner of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police, said the opposition had cooked up the figures for political
gain.
Chamisa, confirming that a delegation of the MDC faction will
meet with
Mohadi, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that
the government's intentions are not clear but that the party
will give
authorities a chance.
Though Southern African leaders
headed by South African President Thabo
Mbeki have urged the Harare
government to investigate and halt alleged
official violence, unlawful
arrests and intimidation of opposition and human
rights activists appeared
to continue this week. In the Mashonaland Central
town of Bindura,
authorities arrested 15 MDC members on Sunday for attending
a party youth
forum, sources said.
Thamsanqa Mahlangu, an MDC provincial youth
chairman, told reporter Blessing
Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
the youths arrested in Bindura
were beaten by liberation war veterans before
being handed over to the
police.
Also in Mashonaland Central, ruling
party militants evicted five opposition
members from Ruwanga Farm, citing
their political affiliation, MDC sources
said.
The Tsvangirai faction
wrote to Southern African Development Community
leaders last week
threatening to quit the talks Mr. Mbeki is mediating if
the violence in
Zimbabwe did not stop. SADC leaders urged Harare to take
action to save the
talks.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
22 October
2007
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network expressed
satisfaction Monday that the
government will be launching a second mobile
voter registration exercise
beginning on Friday, October 26, and running
until November 15.
A spokesman for the organization, which fielded
thousands of election
monitors in the 2005 general election, said the
previous mobile registration
campaign failed to reach many Zimbabweans who
wanted to register to vote,
and said it hopes those who did not succeed last
time will have better luck
getting their names on voter lists.
The
government said it was launching the follow-up registration drive due to
the
many complaints registered about the earlier operation, which ended in
September.
But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change faction
of party founder
Morgan Tsvangirai said it does not expect this new round of
mobile
registration to cover all the areas of the country that were
under-served by
the previous campaign.
MDC Bulawayo District
spokesman Felix Mafa said two teams per district is
not enough as the
extended mobile registration will last only three weeks.
ZESN Chairman
Noel Kututwa told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe
that little information has emerged about the new registration
round so the
government has a lot to do to launch the program Friday as
announced.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
22
October 2007
Zimbabwe and eight other nations stand to gain
from a fundraising drive in
Norway Sunday, that raised nearly US$40 million
for HIV/AIDS prevention
programs targeting youth.
The US$1.9 million
earmarked for Zimbabwe will be split between the United
Nations Children
Fund, to receive US$1 million, and the national Sports and
Recreation
Commission, which will receive US$900,000.
The money will be disbursed
over a three year period, based on performance,
with the first allocation
expected to be disbursed in January 2008.
The funds will be channeled
into programs linked to sporting events and
other venues where youth
commonly gather. Peer leaders and counselors
disseminate AIDS prevention
messages and advise.
Other countries earmarked for the money from the
fundraising drive are
Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ukraine,
Vietnam and Jamaica.
Funds to fight HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe have dwindled,
over the years, for which
some have blamed the political crisis. But
significant funding has come from
the United States, Britain, Sweden and the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has disbursed
close to US$9 million from
Round Five approved in 2005.
UNICEF-Norway
Executive Director Kjersti Flogstad said Sunday's televised
fundraiser
drive, held annually since 1974, was the most successful to date,
bringing
in 212 million kroner, or some US$39.6.
She attributed the large response
to UNICEF's credibility as an
organization, but also to participation by
celebrities like former
Manchester United Player Ole Gunnar Solskjater, a
UNICEF goodwill
ambassador.
Flogstad told reporter Ndimyake
Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that the organizers chose
Zimbabwe because it has a high HIV prevalence
rate, but at the same time has
shown commitment to reducing the spread of
the
pandemic.
UNICEF-Zimbabwe communications chief James Elder said that
while more money
is needed, the donation will go a long way to help prevent
the spread of
HIV/AIDS among the young, adding that sports is an effective
channel for
anti-AIDS messages.
The Herald (Harare) Published
by the government of Zimbabwe
23 October 2007
Posted to the web 23
October 2007
Perry Kaande
Harare
The cost of living for an
urban family of six has climbed 30 percent to
$21,7 million in September
from $16,7 million previously, statistics availed
by the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe reveal.
Roller meal incurred the highest price increase of 222
percent followed by
cooking oil and meat, which rose 104 percent and 172
percent respectively.
Rentals surged by 34 percent while transport costs,
white sugar and
detergents remained stagnant. Surveys conducted by the
consumer watchdog
reveal that flour, maize meal and rice are still in short
supply. However,
there was a slight improvement in the supply of
commodities, although
production levels are still too low in comparison to
the needs of consumers.
CCZ said support given to agriculture and
manufacturing by the central bank
would go a long way in addressing product
availability and price stability
in the short term.
"Facilities
accorded to the agriculture sector through the Agriculture
Sector
Productivity Enhancement Facility will witness improved agriculture
production where local goods will feed into the system, cutting down on
imports, stabilising the inflation figure and ultimately maintaining the
rate at which prices increase," the council stated. The consumer body also
pointed out that the Basic Commodities Supply Side Intervention (Baccosi)
facility would boost production through targeted financial support from the
RBZ. "If companies source foreign currency from the formal market, prices of
goods and services will be deflated rather than if they had sourced it from
the informal market." Further, the National Incomes and Pricing Commission
is being urged to ensure products are available at affordable
cost.
"With the National Incomes and Pricing Commission now firmly on the
ground
the CCZ hopes there will be improvements to accord the consumer a
fair deal
on the market place." The Consumer Council acknowledged that the
support
would translate into more affordable pricing in line with product
availability. The consumer watchdog lambasted exorbitant parallel market
prices saying the NIPC remains critical to addressing the woes of consumers
so that it not only focuses on prices but incomes as well to ensure a
balance is maintained. Products such as roller meal, washing bars and
cooking oil are being sold at 211 percent, 167,6 percent and 102 percent
more than the gazetted prices of $290 000, $94 000 and $246 000
respectively. The survey is conducted twice during the first and last weeks
of the month.
The total cost of the food basket and the price of each
commodity are
arrived at by averaging prices obtained from retail outlets
throughout the
country
The Herald (Harare) Published by the
government of Zimbabwe
23 October 2007
Posted to the web 23 October
2007
Martin Kadzere
Harare
There is a slight improvement in the
availability of goods in some
supermarkets in Harare but prices have
drastically shot up, putting them
beyond the reach of the average
shopper.
A survey by Herald Business this week reveals that goods such as
laundry and
bathing soaps, washing powder, meat, salt, margarine and soft
drinks, among
others, were now available. However, it seems consumers will
have to pay
through the nose for the products.
A bar of laundry
soap is selling at an average $1 million, a Geisha bathing
tablet is priced
at $700 000 while a kilogramme of beef has shot up to $1,5
million. A
kilogramme of washing powder is going for between $1,7 million
and $2,3
million. In the past two weeks, a kilogramme of beef was selling at
an
average price of $700 000, meaning it has shot up by 100 percent in the
past
week or so.
Products such as cooking oil, sugar, flour and milk, rice,
maize meal are
still unavailable on the official market. However, some small
retail
supermarkets chains have been re-stocking, shelves for big retail
shops like
OK and TM have remained empty. Some branches have actually been
closed down.
For example, several branches of OK supermarkets in Harare have
been closed
for several days now while TM supermarkets had very little
stocks on their
shelves. Although no comment could be immediately obtained
from OK Zimbabwe,
the company said the closure of some of its branches was
not linked to
unavailability of goods but was precipitated by power
cuts.
The company was responding to media reports that the country's
largest
retailer was scaling down its operations in protest at the
Government's
price blitz. Giant furniture and clothing outlets such as
Pelhams, Edgars,
Truworths and Topics are also still empty. Edgars has so
far closed at least
five shops across the country, and has threatened to
close more unless the
supply situation improves.
An official with TV
Sales & Hire said it was going to be difficult for the
firm to
adequately restock since it did not have enough foreign currency to
import
electrical appliances, which were its lifeline.
"We are not sure whether
we will be able to restock to the levels prior to
June 18 when the
Government launched the price controls. "We need foreign
currency to import
some of the products like radios, TV sets, fridge and
various electrical
gadgets so it is going to be a very difficult task," said
the official.
Fashion retail shops have also remained virtually empty. Big
names like
Topics and Truworths had very limited stocks with the exception
of Edgars
and Bata that have started restocking.
Meikles Africa subsidiaries
Barbours, Greatermans and Meikles stores, which
suspended consumer credit
facilities, have a slight edge than their
competitors in terms of stocks, as
their prices have remained relatively
higher. Small fashion shops are the
only ones that have enough stocks mainly
imported from Dubai, China and
Tanzania. Last week, the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe through its subsidiary,
Fiscorp gave the green light to commercial
banks to start considering
applications by manufacturers intending to
benefit from the Basic
Commodities Supply Side Intervention Facility
(Baccosi).
Producers
intending to benefit from the facility will access the funds at a
concessional interest rate of 20 percent per annum. The central bank said
the facility seeks to stimulate productivity to levels prior to the June 18
price cuts.