International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: October 1,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: The state central bank announced
measures Monday that it
said would help to restock empty store shelves by
the end of the month.
Among the planned programs were cheap loans to
manufacturers to restore
productivity, and hard currency payments to farmers
to keep them in
business.
"I leave you with a promise most basic
goods should and will return to the
shelves in the next three weeks,"
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said on
state television.
Gono said
the bank also planned to change the nation's currency, striking
more zeros
off bank notes for the second time since August of last year.
In June,
the government issued an edict to slash prices on all goods and
services by
about half. This included a crackdown on overcharging in which
more than
7,000 corporate executives, business managers, traders and bus
drivers were
arrested, jailed and fined for price violations.
The price cuts were
meant to tame the world's highest official inflation of
nearly 7,000
percent. Instead, the effect was to worsen already acute
shortages of food
and basic goods in the crumbling economy.
Under a new central bank loan
program, producers and rural stores hard hit
by supply shortages would be
able to borrow funds to restore their
businesses at the country's lowest
interest rate of 25 percent over nine
months.
To boost production of
staple foods, the bank would help the government pay
the world parity price
of around US$200 (?145) a ton for corn and wheat,
half in local currency and
half in hard currency that could be used by
farmers to buy their own
gasoline, fertilizer and imported materials, Gono
said.
He said the
price crackdown had caused fear and mistrust between the
government and
businesses and called for what he called for "a spirit of
reconciliation and
healing" in the economy.
He said many of the nation's economic
difficulties were self-inflicted,
including the price cuts and a program to
seize control of white and
foreign-owned businesses.
In August last
year, the central bank slashed three zeros from the currency
and issued new
denominations of notes after basic transactions became
unmanageable and
calculators and accounting systems could no longer cope
with amounts
traded.
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. Bundles of bank notes are again common in basic
purchases.
Gono said the zeros had now returned, again making
transactions unwieldy. He
said a new currency would be issued possibly in
the next two weeks but gave
no further details.
"It's a process that
could turn into a hurricane for those who keep cash
outside the banking
system," Gono said. In the rampant black market, "cash
barons and dealers
are in the habit of creating mini central banks in their
homes."
Gono
said the printing of extra money, now a routine practice, contributed
to
inflation and was against "basic textbook economics."
"We are living in
extraordinary times and extraordinary measures are needed.
Once we are out
of the corner, we will have no problem formulating policy
playing by the
book. But for now, the game is one of survival," he said.
The Raw Story
Oct 1, 2007, 18:00 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - In a bid
to boost food production, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief Monday announced a
new scheme to pay farmers partly in foreign
currency for crops like maize
and wheat.
Zimbabwe's agricultural production has plummeted over the past
seven years
following a controversial programme to seize white-owned land
for
redistribution to blacks.
Up to a third of the population in
Zimbabwe, once known as the breadbasket
of southern Africa, will require
food aid by March.
Bread is in desperately short supply, with the
projected wheat harvest this
year less than a third of the amount
required.
Announcing the new payment scheme, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon
Gono said it
would make more sense to pay scarce foreign currency to local
farmers.
Zimbabwe's collapsing local dollar makes foreign currency vastly
more
attractive to local earners.
'Why should it make sense to pay
for the Zambian farmer, for the Malawian
farmer, for the South African
farmer?' said Gono in reference to Zimbabwe's
neighbours who have been
supplying the country with maize and wheat.
Now local cereal growers will
be paid out in US dollars for half of their
crops and in Zimbabwe dollars
for the remainder, Gono said.
Wheat and barley will fetch 250 US dollars
a ton, while maize will fetch 200
US dollars. Other food crops like soya and
sugar beans and sunflower are
also included in the scheme.
Gono said
the central bank had put aside 180 million US dollars to pay local
maize
farmers for their crops next year up to a limit of 1.8 million tons
the
country's total annual consumption.
The foreign currency earned by the
maize grower can then be used for holiday
purposes, for paying of school
fees, for payment of their own imports, said
Gono.
'We are now moving
towards a stage where we must let the farmer look after
his or her own
interests as opposed to depending on the state,' he said.
The exchange
rate for the Zimbabwean dollar is officially set at 30,000:1
US, but on the
flourishing black market for foreign currency the US dollar
this week
fetches around 450,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
SW Radio Africa
(London)
1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October
2007
Tichaona Sibanda
According to Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono the country's central bank
will soon launch a new currency in a
bid to curtail a widely-used black
market for foreign exchange and fight the
world's highest rate of inflation.
Speaking on Monday Gono also announced
that the central bank would raise its
main lending rate from 650 percent to
800 percent to tame the 'angry and
formidable' inflation. The opposition MDC
described the plan to introduce a
new currency as 'madness' and a dream by
the government.
The acting treasurer-general of the Tsvangirai camp,
Elton Mangoma said a
new currency at this stage of the economy won't help as
it would also
rapidly depreciate on a daily basis.
'I really think
these guys have no other plans for this economy. If they
believe their new
policies will work then god help them,' Mangoma said.
Presenting his
delayed mid-term Monetary Policy review statement, the
Reserve Bank Governor
warned it would be a 'hurricane' for those who keep
huge cash outside the
formal banking system.
'I can confirm that (a new currency) is coming and
coming very soon,' Gono
said. He added that dealers should not hold cash
outside the banking system.
The Reserve Bank governor also adviced the
cash and money barons who he said
are in the habit of creating mini central
banks to compete with the central
bank, to take heed of this advice, 'which
is free.'
On inflation, Gono said, 'the threat of continued inflationary
pressures
remains high. In order to repel speculative tendencies, the
overnight
accommodation rate has been increased, with immediate effect,' he
said.
In his televised speech, Gono said inflation should decelerate in
the medium
term but could come under more pressure from spending ahead of
the country's
joint parliamentary and presidential elections in
2008.
'I never dreamt that we would get to these levels of inflation but
I am not
deterred, the outlook in the short term is that our number one
enemy remains
very angry and formidable. In the medium term however, we will
see a steep
deceleration of the pace at which the enemy will be charging
towards us on
the back of improved production and supplies,' he
said.
Gono also urged lawmakers to consult widely before moving ahead
with a
controversial bill that would transfer majority control of foreign
banks and
mining companies to Zimbabweans.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
01 October 2007
06:13
Zimbabwe's central bank on Monday raised its main
lending rate
to 800% from 650% to tame "angry and formidable" inflation,
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono said.
The
central bank also will launch a new currency soon to try to
curtail a
thriving foreign-exchange black market, he announced in a
bi-annual monetary
policy speech that came amid deepening economic crisis.
"The
threat of continued inflationary pressures remains high ...
In order to
repel speculative tendencies, the overnight accommodation rate
has been
increased, with immediate effect," he said in the televised
speech.
The central bank raised the main lending rate to 650%
from 500 %
in April this year as part of a series of measures to curb the
world's
highest inflation rate.
Official annualised
inflation measured about 6 600% in August,
highlighting an economic meltdown
also characterised by a shrinking economy
and chronic shortages of fuel and
foreign currency.
Gono said inflation should decelerate in
the medium term but
could come under more pressure from spending ahead of
the country's joint
parliamentary and presidential elections in
2008.
"I never dreamt that we would get to these levels of
inflation
but I am not deterred ... the outlook in the short term is that
our number
one enemy remains very angry and formidable," he
said.
"In the medium term, however, we will see a steep
deceleration
of the pace at which the enemy will be charging towards us on
the back of
improved production and supplies."
Gono also
urged lawmakers to consult widely before moving ahead
with a controversial
Bill that would transfer majority control of foreign
banks and mining
companies to Zimbabweans.
President Robert Mugabe's
government has proposed the new law in
a bid to give Zimbabweans more
control over the economy, despite fears it
could further drive investors
from the country. -- Reuters
Reuters
Mon 1
Oct 2007, 14:27 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's central bank Governor
Gideon Gono said on
Monday the southern African nation had secured a $200
million credit
facility to boost fuel imports.
Zimbabwe is in a
severe economic crisis, marked by annual inflation of about
6,600 percent,
unemployment of more than 80 percent and chronic shortages of
foreign
currency and fuel.
"We are pleased to announce that $200 million in
favourable lines of credit
under a revolving facility has been secured for
fuel importation," Gono said
in a televised monetary policy speech.
Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (Bulawayo)
PRESS RELEASE
1 October 2007
Posted to
the web 1 October 2007
At 12pm today, hundreds of members of WOZA and
MOZA marched through the city
of Bulawayo. Representatives from Harare,
Mutare, Masvingo and rural Insiza
joined local members to demand 'peace -
not piecemeal amendments.'
The group of singing protestors marched from
near St Mary's Cathedral,
pausing outside to send messages of solidarity to
Bishop Pius Ncube, whose
courageous outspokenness against human rights
abuses in Zimbabwe have often
made him a target of the State. The group then
progressed several blocks to
Southampton House, the location of the Police
Licensing Inspectorate, the
office that receives and processes applications
for peaceful gatherings.
Several hundred members proceeded to sit
down peacefully on the pavement
outside Southampton House to await arrest,
which was not long coming. Three
armed police officers escorted a group of
approximately 200 into the
building where they still remain.
Human
rights lawyers are in attendance. Two mothers with babies that had
also been
arrested have been released.
One young member that is known to police was
separated from the others and
taken by uniformed police officers to Drill
Hall where she was questioned on
why she had been talking to Magodonga
Mahlangu, one of the WOZA leaders.
After being made to do several push-ups,
she was released.
The protest comes two days after an all-stakeholders
meeting with civic
society and citizens was held in Bulawayo to deliberate
on the implications
of Constitutional Amendment Number 18 and the SADC-led
mediation between the
ruling ZANU PF and opposition MDC parties. The outcome
of that conference
was a complete rejection of piecemeal amendments to the
current constitution
and a renewed demand for a new, democratic and
people-driven
constitution-making process as the foundation for resolving
the crisis in
Zimbabwe.
WOZA, as frontline women human rights
defenders that have often been on the
receiving end of police brutality for
having the audacity to claim their
constitutional rights of freedom of
expression and assembly, are also
demanding an end to violence as a
prerequisite to any meaningful change. See
'10 Steps to a New Zimbabwe';
WOZA's position on the mediation efforts,
available at www.wozazimbabwe.org. More information
will be made available
as it emerges.
Women of Zimbabwe
Arise (Bulawayo)
PRESS RELEASE
1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1
October 2007
The 158 members arrested today in Bulawayo were all
released late this
afternoon. The 127 women and 31 men were held in
Southampton House all
afternoon.
Police Internal Security
Intelligence (PISI) officers questioned two
leaders, Williams and Mahlangu
whilst the others had their names recorded.
Attempts were made to keep
Williams and Mahlangu in custody but the rest of
the members refused to be
released without them and vocalised this.
Two Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) officials, Maseko and Ndebele,
also attended and recorded
the life history of Williams, advising her that
they would now be frequently
visiting her home and monitoring her movements.
None of the activists
arrested were charged in the end.
The message delivered by WOZA was
delivered loud and clear and whilst we
recognise that police restrained
themselves from brutality today, WOZA will
continue to protest for an end to
violence against all Zimbabweans and for a
constitution-making process that
has people at heart.
Monsters and Critics
Oct 1, 2007, 16:59 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwe's
central bank governor Monday called for
controls on the selling price of
beer to be lifted, saying cheap lager was
turning the country into a nation
of drunkards.
The price of beer and many other commodities was slashed by
the government
in late June to try to stave off inflation now estimated at
more than 6,500
percent. A pint of lager is now only available in hotels and
is officially
cheaper than a bottle of mineral water.
But in a
monetary policy statement, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon
Gono
said reduced beer prices were having an adverse effect on the fabric of
society, as well as starving Zimbabwe of much-needed tax revenue.
'We
are creating a nation of drunkards because beer is so cheap,' Gono said
amid
laughter from the audience, which included army service chiefs and
government ministers.
'By doing what we did to beer, we are causing
disharmony in families because
husbands are coming home drunk every day,' he
said.
In some instances, decision makers at various levels (who are under
the
influence of the cheap beer) are making tragic decisions, he
said.
Breweries have cut back on production citing an unviable selling
price,
which the governor said had put unnecessary pressure on the
manufacturing
capacities of breweries.
Gono claimed even vagrants
were going to drink at Meikles, Harare's most
exclusive hotel, and beating
up tourists when they are drunk.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October
2007
John Kaninda
Johannesburg
THE odds are stacked against the
Zimbabwean opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) in next year's
presidential election, say analysts.
At an MDC rally in Masvingo at the
weekend, Morgan Tsvangirai, the president
of one of two MDC factions, told
supporters that the signing of an agreement
with ruling Zanu (PF) on a
constitutional amendment did not mean that the
party had "sold
out".
Tsvangirai said the deal would help create a conducive
environment for
elections next year.
"The objective of talking to
Zanu (PF) is to create a free and fair election
environment in this
country," Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters at his
party's eighth
anniversary celebrations.
He said the MDC would "walk to victory and
democracy" in joint presidential,
legislative and municipal elections next
year.
But he said he would not take part in national elections if
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe continued political repression
.
"There is no point in participating in repressive elections if the
environment is not conducive," the MDC leader said.
Tsvangirai
insisted the elections would be meaningless without the votes of
millions of
exiled Zimbabweans in countries such as SA, Botswana and the UK.
In a
surprise show of unity with Zanu (PF), MDC politicians last week
approved
constitutional reforms which provide for joint parliamentary and
presidential polls next year and the redrawing of constituency
boundaries.
Later reports said the MDC took the position at the behest of
President
Thabo Mbeki as a goodwill measure in talks with the ruling Zanu
(PF).
Tsvangirai was addressing Saturday's rally in the southern city of
Masvingo
to celebrate the MDC's eight anniversary of what it calls "unarmed
combat
against the dictatorship". Tsvangirai said it was encouraging that
Zanu (PF)
had agreed to hold talks with the opposition and that regional
leaders now
recognised that the country was suffering from a crisis of
governance.
Analysts said any opposition would be worthless without real
change both
before and after the elections .
"You are looking at a
very vicious regime, with a determination to stay in
power," said John
Makumbe, a political analyst at the University of Zimbabwe
.
"But it
is also desperate, because it has committed so many sins in the
past.
"It will move heaven and earth in order to stay in
power."
Because of this, some have given up on any chance of any faction
of the MDC
winning an election in 2008.
Joseph Kurebwa, a local
political analyst , said: "They don't stand a ghost
of a
chance.
"Even if they were to go to the polls united, they would still
face huge
hurdles. Now that they are split, that will significantly reduce
their
electoral chances."
For many analysts, the opposition has lost
its direction and strength since
it split and following the brutal
government crackdown in March.
They say the MDC needs a change of
strategy.
The Sunday Independent reported that Zimbabwe had told
foreign-owned
companies unhappy with a controversial company seizure law
approved this
week "to pack their bags and go".
The new
Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill approved by parliament last week
compels
all foreign-owned companies to sell at least 51% of their equity to
black
Zimbabweans or risk losing their trading licences.
Refugees International (RI)
Date: 01 Oct 2007
Refugees International is
traveling to Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa
for four weeks in October to
conduct an assessment mission of the
humanitarian situation of Zimbabweans
fleeing political and economic turmoil
in their home country. The Refugees
International (RI) team will evaluate
the overall effectiveness of the
response to the needs of Zimbabweans and of
efforts to provide assistance
and protection to groups that are particularly
vulnerable.
It is now
estimated that over three million Zimbabweans have left the
country, with
thousands more leaving on a daily basis. As humanitarian
conditions
deteriorate inside Zimbabwe, including widespread food shortages
projected
for later this year, RI will monitor how planning for an adequate
response
region-wide is developing. South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia are
increasingly deporting Zimbabweans, and RI will evaluate the conditions of
return. With elections also approaching in Zimbabwe, the potential for
political violence and the need for political asylum in neighboring
countries will also be examined.
The primary purpose of this mission
is to evaluate how international and
national aid agencies and the
governments of Zambia, Botswana, and South
Africa are assisting Zimbabweans
in light of the growing outflows. RI will
assess UN and humanitarian
agencies efforts to meet protection and
assistance needs and identify any
constraints. We will focus on the degree
to which responses to assistance
needs have included protection components
for those fleeing political
persecution. We will also examine how the
international response is being
coordinated as well as efforts to establish
longer-term planning in the case
of greater upheaval inside Zimbabwe. RI
will also assess the degree to which
the stateless population of Zimbabwe is
affected by the current crisis.
Kooperation Utan Gränser
2007-10-01 13:00
Now, the
international development cooperation organization Kooperation Utan
Gränser
/ Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) demands the creation of a food
observer
force. In the same way as the international community supervises
elections
in other parts of the world, an independent international control
of the
food aid is demanded to assume that it reaches those who most need
it.
The Swedish Cooperative Centre presents today the report "Be
loyal - or
starve!"
The report is, among other things, based on the
organization's own
interviews among some forty families from rural areas in
Zimbabwe. All
interviewed persons affirm that they lack enough food to
survive until the
next crop.
- Farmers whom we have interviewed
confirm that the distribution of food is
controlled politically, says Anna
Tibblin, director of the SCC in Southern
Africa.
The Swedish
Cooperative Centre/SCC exhorts the Swedish government to promote
that the
European Union and the World Food Programme (WFP) create a food
observer
force. The UN:s World Food Programme is today responsible for great
part of
the food aid to Zimbabwe. The Swedish Cooperative Centre/SCC
considers that
the surrounding world should urge the regime to accept an
increased
international control of the aid.
Read the report "Var lojal - eller
svält!" (in swedish) on
www.utangranser.se
For further
information contact Camilla Lundberg Ney: +46 703 098 884
The Swedish
Cooperative Centre (SCC) is an international development
cooperation
organization that helps people to fight poverty for themselves.
The SCC
supports development projects in more than 20 countries and has
supported
long term development projects for several decades in Zimbabwe
The Raw Story
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Monday October 1,
2007
Johannesburg/Harare- Central bank governor Gideon
Gono
Monday slammed well-connected Zimbabweans who he claimed
were
positioning themselves to muscle into profitable banks and
factories
in the wake of last week's approval of indigenisation laws.
In
rare criticism of the Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill, Gono
warned
against those who would want to amass wealth in a greedy and
irresponsible
manner while the indigent majority remain empty-handed
as in the
past.
He appeared to be referring to Zimbabwe's land reform
programme,
launched more than seven years ago. The controversial reforms saw
top
politicians and military staff cherry-picking prime,
white-owned
farms.
The Reserve Bank governor, who some consider a
possible successor
to longtime ruler Robert Mugabe, said a fine balance
should be struck
between opening up the country to blacks and attracting
scarce
foreign investment to Zimbabwe.
"We must avoid as a nation
schemes that create perceptions of
instant gratification," Gono said during a
two-hour long monetary
policy statement broadcast live on state
radio.
Ruling party legislators pushed the Indigenisation and
Empowerment
Bill through the lower house of parliament last week. It is
almost
certain to be approved by the ZANU-PF dominated Senate
before
awaiting Mugabe's signature to become law.
The new legislation
will allow locals to take over 51 per cent
shares in foreign-owned companies.
It has been viewed with alarm by
banks and mining companies still operating
in crisis-ridden Zimbabwe.
The tough-talking governor, who is the former
head of a commercial
bank, warned politically-connected Zimbabweans about
interfering in
the banking sector.
There were a number of senior and
well-connected personalities who
are already positioning themselves to muscle
into certain mining,
manufacturing banking and other entities that are
currently
performing well and contributing to the foreign currency inflows
of
this country, he warned.
"Of concern to us as monetary authorities
would be any attempt to
forcibly push the envelope of indigenisation into the
delicate area
of banking and finance," he added.
He said anyone who
wanted to become a bank shareholder would be
subjected to severe scrutiny by
the central bank involving checks on
their backgrounds, the source of their
money as opposed to "bringing
in crooks and those with ulterior motives into
the realm of ownership
of banks."
A number of foreign-owned banks,
including the South African-owned
Stanbic Bank and the British-owned Barclays
Banks operate in
Zimbabwe.
© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency
Harare admits land reform has failed as
the deadline passes for the last
white farmers to leave their
land
Chris McGreal, Africa correspondent
Monday October 1,
2007
Guardian Unlimited
A Zimbabwean shopper walks past empty
shelves at a supermarket in Harare.
Photograph: Bishop
Asare/EPA
Zimbabwe's bakeries have shut and supermarkets have
warned there will be no
bread for the foreseeable future as the government
admitted that wheat
production had collapsed following the seizure of
white-owned farms.
The agricultural ministry announcement that the wheat
harvest is only about
a third of what is required, and that imports are held
up by lack of hard
currency, came as a deadline passed today for the last
white farmers to
leave their land or face prosecution for
trespass.
The maize harvest is expected to be equally dire and
price controls to
contain hyperinflation have emptied the stores of most
other foodstuffs. The
World Food Programme says at least 3 million people -
one in four of the
population - will need food aid in the coming months. It
describes hunger in
some parts of the country, which used to be a food
exporter, as "acutely
serious".
Last week, the government said it plans
to import 100,000 tonnes of wheat
but acknowledged that a shipment of 35,000
tonnes was held up in Mozambique
because of a shortage of hard currency to
pay for it.
The agriculture minister, Rugare Gumbo, has blamed the food
shortages on
black farmers who have taken over formerly white-owned
land.
"I am painfully aware of the widespread theft of stock, farm
produce,
irrigation equipment and the general vandalism of infrastructure by
our new
farmers," he said.
"I am disappointed that our new farmers
have proved to be failures since the
start of the land reform programme in
2000. In spite of all the support
government has been pouring into the
agricultural sector, productivity and
under-utilisation of land remain
issues of concern."
The ministry of agriculture has also blamed
electricity shortages for the
wheat shortfall, saying that power cuts have
affected irrigation and halved
crop yields per acre.
The power
shortages are likely to continue. Mozambique has reduced
electricity
supplies to Zimbabwe because of a $35m (£17.1m) unpaid bill.
Shortages of
coal and spares for power stations and mining equipment have
also hit
electricity production and power cuts are now a regular feature of
daily
life.
Zimbabwe, once the world's second largest exporter of tobacco, has
also seen
production of its main cash crop nosedive, further undermining its
ability
to buy food from abroad. This year's crop is not likely to be much
better
than recent harvests, with many farmers saying that their seedlings
have
died for lack of irrigation.
Cigarettes are only available on
the black market at many times the official
price, and now cost more than
marijuana - a cash crop that does not appear
to have been severely affected
by the crisis.
The government's admission that the land redistribution
has failed to
deliver the promised boost to food production coincides with a
deadline for
the last white farmers to vacate their land. The farms were
nationalised
last year and the handover to the state was set for
today.
Any farmer remaining on their former land faces prosecution for
trespassing
on state property. About 50 farmers have already been summonsed
by the
courts.
White farmers say that senior ruling party, military
and intelligence
officials have been touring their former properties to lay
a claim and that
they have little confidence the land will be distributed
among the poor as
the government claims.
Zimbabwe's economic problems
are likely to be compounded by a law passed
last week that compels many
publicly owned companies, including foreign
firms, to sell a majority of
their equity to black Zimbabweans.
Critics say the legislation amounts to
expropriation because it effectively
forces the companies to hand over half
of their value by taxing them to
raise the money to "buy" the 51% stake for
black investors approved by the
government.
The government has
ignored the protests of some foreign investors, including
South African
banks and mining houses. With the collapse of tobacco
production, mining is
now the country's largest source of foreign currency.
Zimbabwe's minister
of indigenisation, Paul Mangwana, said those companies
that do not like it
can "pack their bags and go".
"If they feel that we went into the bush
[to fight against white rule] for
them to enjoy our wealth then they can
leave. We are talking about the total
liberation of this country. I have no
apologies for that," he said.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund
said that it would not renew
assistance to Zimbabwe until it adopts economic
policies rooted in
"reality". The IMF suspended dealings with Harare late
last year.
President Robert Mugabe continues to blame his country's
financial problems
on what he calls British-led economic sanctions. The UK
says that the
sanctions, imposed by the EU and the US, target leading
Zimbabwe officials
and have no impact on the economy.
SW Radio Africa
(London)
1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October 2007
Henry
Makiwa
Lecturers and staff at state universities in Zimbabwe on
Monday downed tools
in protest at poor salaries, scuttling the examination
preparations of
students.
The lecturers joined teachers at primary
and high schools whose strike is in
its fourth week now as pressure piles on
government to address the pay
plight of civil servants.
The
lectures are demanding a 2100 percent salary increment that will put
them
above the country poverty datum line pegged at Z$16 million. Currently
some
lectures and university staff are earning less than Z$1
million.
According to the state-controlled The Chronicle newspaper, the
strike will
hit students hardest, particularly those preparing for their
final
examinations.
The President of the Zimbabwe State Universities
Union of Academics, who is
also the chairman of the National Universities
Science and Technology
Educators Association, Mr Benard Njekeya, confirmed
to the paper that
lecturers and other university staff were not reporting
for duty.
Njekeya said: "We are however not on strike per se, but we are
finding
ourselves in a situation where we cannot afford to go to work
because of the
poor remuneration which we are getting."
He added: "At
the moment, the lowest paid worker gets a basic salary of $900
000 and that
person has to fork out about $4 million to go to work, so in
reality they
are subsiding the universities to come to work. What we want
translates to a
2 100 percent increment but we are not looking so much at
percentage but at
figures."
It is understood that representatives of state universities
held meetings
with officials from the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary
Education and
Ministry of Finance in Harare last week.
Following
disagreements, the lectures decided to go on strike until their
demands are
met.
Journalist, Stanley Kwenda said some state university workers were
earning
"less that three-meals worth of pay."
Kwenda said: "The
strike was well planned to come immediately after pay last
week, and a few
weeks before the final examinations so that students and
parents alike will
feel the pinch and draw government into action."]
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
01 October
2007
The Zimbabwe Teachers Association joined the rival
Progressive Teachers
Union of Zimbabwe on Monday in a nationwide strike that
began in
mid-September.
ZIMTA, considered by many to be aligned with
the government, had issued a
circular to its members last week telling them
to stop teaching effective
Monday until Harare met the organization's demand
of a monthly base salary
of Z$16 million (US$35).
The Progressive
Teachers Union wants a base salary of $18 million dollars.
On Monday
afternoon the government called an urgent meeting of the APEX
Council, which
negotiates on behalf of civil servants. Sources said late
Monday that no
progress had been achieved in the APEX negotiations.
Progressive Teachers
Union of Zimbabwe Secretary General Raymond Majongwe
told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his union
welcomed ZIMTA's
decision to join the strike, saying he hoped it was truly
committed.
Plus News
BULAWAYO, 1
October 2007 (PlusNews) - Zimbabwe's economic woes have taken
their toll on
Thembelihle House, (meaning 'Good Hope' in Ndebele) an HIV and
AIDS nursing
home in Mpopoma, a high-density suburb in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second
largest city, but the severe water shortage has been even more
crippling.
"This is the ninth straight day that we have gone without
[running] water,"
Priscilla MacIsaac, Thembelihle's sister-in-charge, told
IRIN/PlusNews. "It
makes us feel so helpless."
The region's
consistently low rainfall in the last few years has led to
dwindling water
levels in the city's dams. Three of the five main dams have
had to be
decommissioned, while another, Inyankuni, may suffer the same fate
in the
next month, leaving only one dam, Insiza, to provide most of
Bulawayo's
700,000 people with water.
Under normal circumstances, the city consumes
150,000 cubic metres of water
daily, but has been receiving just under
70,000 cubic metres since
water-shedding - controlled water cuts - was
introduced a few months ago. If
Inyankuni were to be decommissioned, the
city would be running on about
45,000 cubic metres, less than a third of its
average requirement. Some
areas, such as Old Lobengula, have gone without
tap water for months at a
time.
According to water-shedding
regulations, all residential suburbs should
receive tap water on at least
two days a week. "The only problem is that
when we reconnect water supplies
to certain areas, particularly those on
higher ground, the water reservoirs
will not have sufficient pressure to
push water up to them," said Pathisa
Nyathi, public relations officer for
Bulawayo City Council.
Nurses at
Thembelihle have resorted to pumping water from a borehole at a
neighbouring
school and carrying it to the home in 20-litre plastic
containers to wash
the patients and do laundry.
Although the home has a borehole, sunk with
donor assistance in 2006, the
pump stopped working as a result of the city's
erratic power supply. "Our
water problems were not so bad until our pump
packed up," said the home's
manager, Almah Mangena.
The home's
garden, which once flourished with crops of cabbage, spinach,
tomatoes,
lettuce, peas, sweet potatoes, butternuts and various medicinal
herbs, used
to provide affordable and balanced meals for patients. Now, with
only a few
stalks of wilting leaf vegetables surviving in the parched soil,
vegetables
have to be sourced from elsewhere, another challenge for staff.
"The idea
behind Thembelihle is to be a nursing home, whereby patients with
HIV and
AIDS are discharged from hospitals and admitted here, in transit to
home-based care," said Mangena.
Thembelihle opened in July 2003 and
since then has taken referrals from
hospitals, surgeries, home-based care
programmes and other AIDS service
organisations. It has received funding
from World Vision and Action Aid,
both international donor agencies, as well
as the Bulawayo South Rotary
Club, the National AIDS Council and various
private-sector organisations and
individuals.
But a five-year grant
from a United Kingdom-based trust recently expired,
and an organisation that
used to supply money to buy food has also stopped
doing so. "Ever since
supplies of basic commodities began to dwindle, we
have not received money
from them," said Mangena. Thembelihle opened a
children's ward in 2005, but
had to close it just three months later because
it lacked the funding to
recruit sufficient staff.
The home cares for up to 24 in-patients at a
time. Although it does not
provide antiretroviral treatment (ART), its
nurses help administer the
medication to patients already on the
drugs.
Donations from the local community pay for pain medication and
antibiotics
for treating opportunistic infections. "This place was not
really meant for
bed-ridden patients, but rather for patients whom we would
treat and release
back to their homes," said Mangena. "But it's never like
that." Most people
who were currently being referred to the home were
gravely ill and often
near death, she said.
The City Council has been
delivering water to strategic points in different
suburbs and Thembelihle's
staff store the precious liquid in pots, bottles
and containers. "This might
last us two days," estimated sister-in-charge
MacIsaac nervously. The
Council's deliveries are erratic and the home may
soon run dry
again.
So far, there have been no outbreaks of waterborne diseases, such
as
cholera, at the home, but the City Council's Nyathi has noted the public
health threat posed by water scarcity.
Cases of dysentery are on the
increase because some people have resorted to
digging their own wells to
reach water, which is sometimes contaminated with
harmful germs and bacteria
from seeping sewage. Others with their own
boreholes or access to water have
been taking advantage of the water
shortage by selling water for up to
Z$50,000 (US$1.50) for a 20-litre
bucket.
A steady drizzle begins to
pelt the Thembelihle office's asbestos roof, and
heavy grey rain clouds seem
to confirm national meteorological predictions
that Zimbabwe will experience
normal to above-normal rainfall this year.
"God has provided a drizzle,"
said Mangena wistfully. "Let's hope we can get
even more."
The Guardian
With Zimbabwe fast approaching
catastrophe, Robert Mugabe faces
international isolation and a possible
putsch.
Simon Tisdall
October 1, 2007 3:10 PM
Talk of a
"palace coup" against Robert Mugabe is growing as Zimbabweans seek
a way out
of the crisis threatening to crush their country.
But increasing numbers
cannot afford to wait. Up to one third of the 12.5
million population is
already in exile, and an additional 100,000 people
flee each month. On these
trends, President Mugabe could end up as King of
Nowhere.
Speculation
about a putsch within the ruling Zanu-PF party centres on
Solomon Mujuru, a
former army chief, and his wife, Joyce Mujuru, Zimbabwe's
vice-president.
General Mujuru's meeting with the British and US
ambassadors earlier this
year aroused Mr Mugabe's ire. He may even have held
talks with Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
Emmerson Mnangagwa, another
Zanu-PF veteran and longtime Mugabe crony, is
also mentioned as a possible
successor if Mr Mugabe is forced out. He is
best remembered, and feared, for
his role in the bloody suppression of
Joshua Nkomo's rival Zapu party in the
1980s, after independence from
Britain. Some say a Mnangagwa presidency
would make Mr Mugabe look benign.
"A palace coup is what everyone in
Zimbabwe is talking about," a senior
British diplomatic source said. "They
don't see Mugabe resigning.
"There won't be an uprising. Politically and
culturally, that's not
practical. He's unlikely to be outflanked politically
within the party. So
what's left? Gen Mujuru has a palace coup
option."
The source said Britain and its allies were not expecting or
encouraging
such action, which would be very risky for those involved. "He'd
only have
one shot at it. It's been tried before, and the people concerned
were
banished. That's not what would happen this time. The situation is much
more
serious."
But he noted that, while the odds favoured Mr Mugabe,
he would still need
the endorsement of an extraordinary party congress in
December if he were to
stand again, as planned, in presidential elections
due next March.
The British source said few believed the divided MDC
could beat Zanu-PF in
the polls. But informal talks were continuing with
more open-minded members
of the ruling party.
"We are in contact with
factions in Zanu-PF," he said. "Talking to us is bad
for their health. They
are not instinctive democrats. But we say we are not
enemies, we are not
seeking to recolonise the country, we're looking for a
rational approach,
and that Mugabe's departure is a necessary but not
sufficient condition for
[national] recovery."
Ruling party interlocutors had been told that, even
after Mr Mugabe left
office, a compromise would be needed between the
government, the
international community and the Zimbabwean diaspora. This
would have to
include a return to the rule of law, the repeal of repressive
legislation,
an end to human rights abuses and censorship, and free and fair
elections
under international supervision.
In return, the source
said, Britain, the EU, the US and international
institutions would normalise
relations, lift sanctions and fund the
country's aid reconstruction
requirements - a pledge reiterated by Gordon
Brown in Bournemouth last
week.
With Zimbabwe's government fresh out of cash, steeped in debt and
facing
renewed famine affecting 4 million people this winter, with the
abject
failure of its attempt to impose price controls now apparent to all
(unofficially, inflation is said to be touching 25,000%), and with the human
exodus now affecting all neighbouring states, even Mr Mugabe's traditional
regional supporters are getting nervous.
The source said there had
been an "enormous row" behind closed doors at the
recent summit of the
14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)
in Lusaka after
Zambia, backed by Namibia and Tanzania, proposed a
discussion of Zimbabwe's
problems. Mr Mugabe reportedly blew his top and
stormed out.
While
the organisation continued to maintain a united front in public, the
incident showed that Zimbabwe's leader "no longer has the SADC in his
pocket", the source said.
According to a recent report by the
influential International Crisis Group:
"Zimbabwe is closer than ever to
complete collapse ... [It] increasingly
threatens to destabilise the
region." And only the neighbouring states could
head off
disaster.
The practical solution favoured by South Africa and the SADC,
the ICG said,
was a government of national unity led by a reformed Zanu-PF
and including
the MDC. But a financial rescue package requested by Mr Mugabe
should be
granted by the SADC only if Zimbabwe's government fully cooperated
with the
current South African mediation process, dropped plans to
gerrymander rural
constituencies, and committed to genuinely fair electons
early next year.
But if Zimbabwe refused to cooperate, the ICG said,
financial assistance
should be withheld and all regional countries "should
refuse to endorse any
[subsequent] election and be prepared to isolate
Mugabe and his regime".
In other words, an African solution to an African
problem.
UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks
1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October
2007
Bulawayo
Thousands of lives have been put at risk since the
only two functioning
dialysis machines in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo,
broke down three
weeks ago.
The dialysis machines were at Mpilo
Central hospital, Bulawayo's main
referral hospital for more than a million
people, including those living in
far-flung rural areas in the three
southern provinces of Matabeleland North,
South and Masvingo.
In
the capital, Harare, 10 of the 18 dialysis machines at Parirenyatwa
Hospital, the country's largest referral centre, broke down a month ago.
Desperate patients now queue for treatment around the clock.
Machines
often break down in Zimbabwe, where economic recession and
hyperinflation
has severely crippled public health services. Zimbabwe is
saddled with
foreign exchange shortages and the world's highest inflation
rate, running
at about 6,500 percent.
Jonathan Nyathi, a Bulawayo resident, has been
unemployed for the past eight
months because of his deteriorating health and
will now have to seek
treatment in a private hospital, which could cost him
up to US$20 for every
four-hour treatment. Nyathi's wife, Sibonokuhle, earns
only US$10 a month as
a teacher. Two of Nyathi's brothers, who work
overseas, help him pay for his
medical costs.
"My husband needs at
least one session a week, and his condition has been
deteriorating since he
did not get treatment in the last two weeks, as we
had no money," said
Sibonokuhle, wiping the sweat off his face with a towel.
His face, ankles
and legs are swollen.
A dialysis machine is used to filter the patient's
blood when the kidneys
lose their ability to fully perform their main
function of filtering excess
fluid and waste products from the blood;
lowered kidney function can also
hamper the body's ability to fight harmful
bacteria and viruses.
Government assurances
Zimbabwe's Health
Minister, David Parirenyatwa, assured IRIN that the
dialysis machines would
be repaired soon. "We are working hard as a ministry
to ensure that the two
machines at Mpilo hospital [in Bulawayo] are
repaired - everything is being
done to ensure that they are ready for the
patients."
My husband
needs at least one session a week, and his condition has been
deteriorating
since he did not get treatment in the last two weeks, as we
had no
money
Lindiwe Mlilo, chief executive officer of Mpilo hospital, told IRIN
that the
two machines at the hospital have yet to be repaired because they
did not
have the equipment to identify the problem.
But while renal
patients continue to suffer, 54 dialysis machines donated by
the Swedish
government about three years ago are gathering dust in storage
rooms after
the government failed to reach an agreement with the donors over
servicing
the machines.
However, Parirenyatwa said an agreement had been reached
and the machines
would be installed soon. "The 54 dialysis machines donated
by the Swedes
will installed, and we expect them to be operational as soon
as the Ministry
of Finance has given us the guarantee that they will avail
funds for their
repair in case of breakdowns."
In the meantime, many
patients have resorted to consulting traditional
healers. "Last month we had
no money and I took my husband to a traditional
healer, who prescribed some
herbs that helped reduce his high blood
pressure," said
Sibonokuhle.
"But the traditional healer's medicine is not reliable for
his kidney
condition, but since the hospitals have no machinery and drugs,
we have no
options left."
[ This report does not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations ]
SW Radio Africa
(London)
1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October 2007
Henry
Makiwa
Outspoken Zimbabwean student leader, Mehluli Dube has been
charged with
treason for allegedly calling for the violent removal of Robert
Mugabe.
Dube, who is the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu)
national council
member, was arrested Saturday while attending a civil
society conference in
Bulawayo.
Allegations have been levelled
against Dube that he uttered statements
considered to be a threat to state
security during a recent public meeting
in Gwanda. Dube is alleged to have
told a meeting called by the Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition civic group in
Gwanda last week that "if President Mugabe
does not want to go, we will
remove him by the ballot or the bullet".
According to one student leader,
"a team of about eight Gwanda police
officers drove all the way from Gwanda
to Bulawayo to arrest the one student
leader" while he was attending a
meeting called by civil society to discuss
the just-passed Constitutional
Amendment Number #18. Dube was then taken to
Bulawayo Central police station
and questioned before the police preferred
the treason charges against
him.
An official with the Youth Initiative for Democracy, Sidney Chisi
said Dube
was "facing a night in custody" were it not for the intervention
of
lawyers Dzikamai Machingura and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
director
Arnold Tsunga.
Chisi said: "The police had the intentions of
taking Dube back to far-flung
and isolated Gwanda and God knows what they
were going to do to him. It was
fortunate that he was in the company of the
lawyers participating in the
meeting and they hastily arranged a defence
team to ensure he was not taken
away."
He added "The charges being
levelled against Dube are serious charges but
the police released him in the
custody of his lawyer and said they will
proceed in the matter by way of
summons in the coming three weeks."
Treason in Zimbabwe carries a death
sentence or a life in prison sentence.
Meanwhile, the National
Constitutional Assembly spokesperson, Maddock
Chivasa who was arrested in
Masvingo on Thursday is still detained in police
cells at Masvingo Central
Police station.
Chivasa was arrested while addressing a youth meeting in
the country's
oldest city, for allegedly "demeaning police authority" when
he presented a
paper that attacked police brutality and abuse of
power.
No charges have been leveled against him yet although there are
complaints
that the police are denying him access to food and
lawyers.
He was in Masvingo on a rural outreach programme under the
Zimbabwe Youth
Forum banner whose board Chivasa chairs. The organization is
on a national
offensive, engaging in civic and voter education of the youth
across the
country.
Reuters
Mon 1 Oct
2007, 15:13 GMT
By Pascal Fletcher
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegalese
President Abdoulaye Wade said on Monday he
would travel to Zimbabwe this
month to recommend multilateral mediation by
African heads of state to try
to solve the crisis in the southern African
country.
Wade said he
wanted to discuss with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe how
African
leaders, including himself and South African President Thabo Mbeki,
could
mediate between Mugabe and his opponents, both domestic and
international.
"I'm going to go there in two weeks' time ... to
talk with him (Mugabe) to
see what Africa can do," the Senegalese president
told a news conference in
Dakar.
Wade said the situation in Zimbabwe
was deteriorating, with inflation
running at well over 6,000 percent, the
highest rate in the world, and basic
goods running short.
Mugabe, 83,
who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980,
rejects
accusations that he has abused human rights and wrecked Zimbabwe's
once-prosperous economy.
He accuses Western countries of sabotaging
the economy as punishment for his
seizure of white-owned farms to resettle
landless blacks.
Wade, who like Mugabe is in his 80s, complained that
there was no official
African Union (AU) position on Zimbabwe and repeated
his view that mediation
should not be left to South Africa's Mbeki
alone.
A grouping of southern African nations has mandated Mbeki to
secure a deal
on constitutional reform between Mugabe and the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change ahead of March 2008 presidential and
parliamentary polls.
But Wade, who from his small West African country
has often sparred with
Mbeki over leadership on African issues, said
Zimbabwe should be dealt with
on a wider basis.
"Mbeki is a man of
goodwill ... (but) we should tackle the problem at the
level of several
heads of state, including Thabo Mbeki," he said.
Wade said any mediation
for Zimbabwe should also bring in former colonial
power Britain, which had
been party to a 1979 accord on reforms to end land
ownership imbalances
between blacks and whites in former Rhodesia.
Wade said the British
government had stopped compensating white farmers
under the land
redistribution reform accord, while Mugabe had stepped up
seizures of land
without redress.
"I think that this method is not acceptable ... the
whites should have
compensation," Senegal's president said.
Diplomats
said the compensation from Britain had been halted because London
felt
Mugabe's government was no longer respecting its side of the 1979
Lancaster
House accord which paved the way for independence.
Wade said the need for
mediation in Zimbabwe was urgent.
"There are elections next year. Who
will mediate between the government and
opposition?" he added, speaking in
English.
Wade said disagreements over how to deal with Zimbabwe were
threatening an
upcoming European Union/African Union summit planned for
December in Lisbon,
after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would
not go if Mugabe
attended.
The First Post
October 1, 2007
Moses Moyo
in Harare
EXCLUSIVE: secret plan to persuade the public that former
archbishop passed
on HIV virus
An extraordinary top-secret document,
leaked to me by an operative in
Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), reveals that President
Mugabe is not satisfied with just the
resignation of the Archbishop of
Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, after he became a
victim of a notorious
government-inspired 'honey trap'.
Ncube, a
strenuous critic of the Mugabe regime and recently revealed in The
First
Post to be a possible opposition candidate for President, is to have
his
reputation ground into the dust by means of a string of carefully
orchestrated scandals.
The document, from CIO Director General
Happyton Bonyongwe to all senior
commanders, has a reference as follows:
DG/mm2/ei Cleric. My source told me
that the DG stands for Director General,
and ei for executive instruction.
It reads in part: "Pius Ncube has
always and still remains a security
threat. Please be advised that Zim 1 has
pressed upon me to ensure that
Ncube keeps his silence and begs for
forgiveness from Zim 1." ('Zim 1' is
the CIO codename for
Mugabe.)
The document continues: "Collapse phase two and three into one
phase as per
attached guidelines and commence with immediate effect.
Esigodini payment
has been effected."
My source explained that 'phase
two' of this KGB-style masterplan was to
persuade Onesimus Sibanda, husband
of the woman allegedly having the
original adulterous affair with Ncube, to
file a second lawsuit against the
ex-Archbishop. This would allege that his
wife, Rosemary, had acquired the
HIV virus from Ncube, and that she had now
also infected her husband.
Sibanda, my source told me, has already been
paid Z$12bn, (US$34,000) for
his part in the management of the honey
trap.
Phase three of the plan, now apparently to take place at the same
time as
phase two, is the orchestrated emergence in the media of a story
that Ncube
has fathered two children with a married woman from Esigodini, in
Matabeleland South province.
The sentence in the document that reads
"Esigodini payment has been
effected" means that the CIO has overcome a
previous sticking-point in this
phase. The husband of the Esigodini woman,
Likwa Manjengwa, has now agreed
to say that the couple's children are not
his, but were fathered by Ncube.
According to my source, the Manjengwa
couple have been paid Z$3bn (US$8,500)
and are to receive the same amount
every six months for the next two years.
There is yet another phase, the
fourth, in this programme to destroy Ncube.
In 2005, a 17-year-old Bulawayo
girl, Tamai Chirenje, died of complications
from a failed abortion. The CIO
intend to link her pregnancy with Ncube.
There is no indication of when this
is supposed to happen.
Ncube supporters may hope that these plans will be
abandoned as the details
are published. But my source believes that the CIO
will go ahead, whatever
appears in the media.
He added that when
Ncube first resigned, Mugabe sent a spokesman, George
Charamba, to tell him
it would be futile and dangerous to continue with his
opposition. Ncube was
tipped off in advance, and refused to meet with
Charamba.
This master
plan, complete with its code names, its massive payouts, and its
extraordinary allegations, is the result.
FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 1,
2007
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk?storyID=8792
By Lance Guma
01 October
2007
Civil society groups met in Bulawayo at the weekend to map out a
response to
constitutional amendment #18, which both Zanu PF and the MDC
supported in
parliament. It had been predicted the groups would break away
from the
opposition but that position found no takers on Saturday. Instead
all that
came out was a watered down statement demanding a new, democratic
and
people-driven constitution as the foundation for resolving the crises in
the
country. The all-stakeholders conference rejected piecemeal amendments
to
the current constitution and reiterated the argument that it was a breach
of
principle for the political parties to have made the concessions in the
first place.
The organisations feel the SADC mediation by South
African president Thabo
Mbeki has not taken into consideration the input of
ordinary people as
represented by civil society organisations. Adding to
their concern is not
only the process but also the secrecy that shrouds the
talks between Zanu PF
and the MDC. Representatives from WOZA, Radio
Dialogue, Bulawayo Agenda,
ZINASU, Christian Alliance, NCA, NANGO, Save
Zimbabwe Campaign, ZESN, CHRA,
PTUZ, ISO and others pledged to remain united
and open to dialogue on issues
affecting the country. Despite the show of
unity evidence seems to suggest
sections of the coalition who are itching
for a breakaway only compromised
after failing to get the required
support.
Sources point to clause 5, inserted into the press statement by
the
coalition, as a statement of intent by those unhappy with the MDC. The
clause talks about convening a people's convention to consider the MDC's
response and then, 'map a practical way forward,' and we are told that those
wishing to form a so-called 'third force' political party inserted the
clause. Pedzisai Ruhanya a Programmes Manager with the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition meanwhile told Newsreel he personally felt the resolution to carry
out outreach programmes and 'spread the virtues articulated at this
conference' was a wrong decision to take. He said civil society groups
should not impose their views on people, but that ordinary people should be
allowed to express their opinions on the process.
The weekend meeting
also saw some participants talking about leadership
renewal in the MDC. This
drew criticism from some quarters that felt it was
hypocritical for civil
society leaders to preach about a concept they never
applied in their own
organisations. It was also put forward that the MDC
does not report to civil
society and as a political party had a right to
seek political power. Civil
society on the other hand had to serve as a
watchdog for those in power to
ensure citizen's rights are respected.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
zimbabwejournalists.com
1st Oct 2007 17:19 GMT
By Chenjerai Chitsaru
IN SPITE of his
public posturing, President Robert Mugabe must be as acutely
aware as most
of us are that he is being cut down to size, politically.
If this reality
had not hit him after the Zanu PF people's conference in
Goromonzi, then it
must have smashed into him within the ferocity of a
runaway express train
after the agreement between his party and the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) over the Constitutional
Amendment No. 18.
In
Goromonzi last year, Mugabe, typically, tried to "tough it out" by
publicly
pretending that the party had reached agreement on the
harmonisation of the
presidential and parliamentary elections in 2008.
In fact, there had been
no unanimity at all, as subsequent events were to
prove. A number of key
provinces, strongholds of politicians challenging his
leadership, were
loudly silent on the issue.
Moreover, the party itself seemed unusually
ambivalent on whether Mugabe
himself would help its cause if he stood for
president in 2008.
There were a number of potential candidates waiting in
the wings: John
Nkomo, the party chairman, had thrown his hat into the ring,
publicly. There
was always the likelihood of Emmerson Mnangagwa muddying the
waters with
another bid for the presidency.
But the surprising amity
between the party and the MDC on No. 18 was the
clearest indication so far
that Mugabe is now either in the throes of being
cut down to size or had, in
fact, conceded that his autocratic reign over
the party has now effectively
ended.
There was always the likelihood that some of his closest allies
would not
allow him a blank cheque, even if they too found this to be in the
best
interests of party unity.
Mugabe has always emphasised that for
the sake of party unity, Zanu PF
cannot afford to display publicly any signs
of division. His closest ally on
this stance was the late Simon Muzenda, who
constantly warned that if Mugabe
stepped down as leader, the succession
battle that would ensue would be
bloody.
All options are off for now,
it would appear. By accepting the MDC
amendments to No. 18, Zanu PF has
opened itself up to the real likelihood of
losing a free and fair
election.
Although the electoral reforms proposed by the MDC could still
be sabotaged
by the ever ruthless and uncompromising merchants of subterfuge
who have
rigged elections since 1985, the party and Mugabe are clearly
taking a huge
gamble.
It's not that the would-be saboteurs would
suddenly be conscience-stricken
to the extent of letting nature take its
course.
The problem is there may be among them, pro-MDC supporters who may
put into
effect their own agenda of a change of government.
This year
has disillusioned so many previously loyal Zanu PF supporters,
particularly
on the economic front, many have switched their loyalty to the
MDC -
anything, they believe, has to be better than Zanu PF's disastrous,
self-serving economic flip-flops.
Mugabe's stubborn refusal to
compromise with his Western enemies has
recently brought home to some of his
supporters the harsh reality of their
punitive measures.
Not many of
them expected the Australian government of John Howard to
implement the
expulsion of their children from institutions of higher
learning Down Under,
as one potent device of persuading them to ditch
Mugabe.
Many of the
Mugabe supporters have children studying at universities in the
United
Kingdom, the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, France, the
Nordic
countries, not to mention a number of the former Soviet bloc
countries who
have joined the European Union.
How soon before they too follow Australia
's example? The reaction to the
expulsion of their children from Australia
of some of the Mugabe supporters
was marked by anger, incredulity but very
little defiance.
Most of them must blame it all on Mugabe's policy of
brinkmanship: he could
make some concessions to the West, but is determined
to rub salt into their
wounds through such unnecessary "nationalist" devices
as the entirely racist
indigenization legislation which has raised hackles
even with industrialists
in neighbouring South Africa.
Moreover, the
international reaction to the recent price blitz and the
disappearance of
basic commodities in supermarket shelves has not been
entirely sympathetic
to Mugabe. A majority now believe that the president is
determined to use
his "regime change" bogey to score political points, even
if this entails
starving his own people of basic food.
Then there is Thabo Mbeki's role
in the equation: is it possible there was a
trade-off between amending the
electoral regulations and persuading those
European Union countries opposed
to Mugabe's presence at their Lisbon
meeting in December to welcome him
there?
The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, has been forthright on
this
issues. He would not attend if Mugabe was allowed there. The threat of
a
boycott by a number of Zimbabwe's allies - Zambia and Mozambique - if
Mugabe
was barred from Lisbon may not cut much ice with many other African
countries, even members of the Southern Africa Development Community
(Sadc).
They have their own economic problems, some of them so dependent
on EU help,
they dare not alienate the Europeans by joining in a boycott of
the talks
whose real significance could only be their own reckless support
of an
African leader so obsessed with his own place in history he is quite
willing
to sacrifice the lives of his own people in the
process.
Other indications that Mugabe has been or is being definitely
cut down to
size have emerged from two powerful provinces - Bulawayo and
Masvingo.
There are obvious divisions among party leaders in the two
provinces about
endorsing Mugabe as their presidential candidate in 2008.
Both provinces
have good reason to hesitate: the MDC has establaished itself
as a powerful
force in the two provinces.
The city councils in the
two cities are controlled by the MDC and there is
little likelihood that
Zanu PF could triumph in any local council elections
in the near
future.
Mugabe's hold on power may or may not have been affected by
reports of a
recent attempted army coup. If all the speculation about that
event is even
half the truth, then Zimbabwe is facing a crisis of leadership
that the
people may not have been aware of for a long time.
Apart
from a brief acknowledgement that there had been an attempt to take
over the
government by a group of army officers, there has been very little
disclosures from the government. If all the speculation about that event is
even half the truth, then Zimbabwe is facing a crisis of leadership that the
people may not have been aware of for a long time.
Apart from a brief
acknowledgement that there had been an attempt to take
over the government
by a group of army officers, there have been very few
disclosures from the
government itself.
An army investigation into the circumstances leading
to the death in an
accident at a rail crossing of one of the alleged leaders
of the attempted
coup decided it was a real accident, not the carefully
executed
assassination of the army officer by a government hit squad - which
many
believe it was.
The government must know that, in the view of
many Zimbabweans, the attempt
to take over the government by the army
officers was anchored on their
conviction that the country was headed for
political and economic disaster
under Zanu PF and Mugabe.
Inflation
has hit world records, unemployment is more than 80 percent and
millions of
the people can only be fed by international donors, millions
have fled the
country and are scrounging for food in neighbouring countries.
A
government accused of corruption and an attitude of concentrating on its
retention of power at all costs has shown such ruthlessness in adversity, it
was probably the senior officers' attitude that only they, in their
eminently advantageous position in relation to the seat of power, could make
a difference.
Like-minded officers may not be inhibited by the
failure of their
colleagues.