• Mugabe Appears on Zimbabwe TV; No Sign of Illness
• Zimbabwe court grants bail to newspaper directors
• Zimbabwe dispatches army and prison doctors to replace striking hospital staff
• JAG Communique dated 28 October 2003
• JAG Open Letters Forum No. 173
• Forex Taskforce Formed
• A free press and Zimbabwe
• 'Arrests in Zimbabwe Intended Only to Punish'
• Mugabe treated at home
• Zim media chiefs on remand
• Zimbabwe's sad story
• Health System Weakens As Nurses Strike
• Zim students clash with police
• Zimbabwean situation
• Jailed Zimbabwe news chiefs 'suffering'

      Mugabe Appears on Zimbabwe TV; No Sign of Illness
      Wed October 29, 2003 12:14 PM ET

      (Page 1 of 2)
      HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
appeared on state television Wednesday, smiling and showing no visible sign
of the health problems reported by some media in South Africa and Britain.
      The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation showed footage of Mugabe
addressing an international cultural conference in the northwestern tourist
resort of Victoria Falls and urging delegates to take time to enjoy one of
the wonders of the world.

      "Even as you go through your busy schedules you should not forget to
enjoy the visit and in particular the Victoria Falls and other natural and
cultural heritage sites that this country offers," said Mugabe.

      Tuesday, the government dismissed as "wishful thinking" and
"mischievous" South African and British media reports that Mugabe had been
secretly flown to South Africa for treatment after suffering either a stroke
or a bad fall.

      Rumors about Mugabe's health have cropped up more frequently as
Zimbabwe sinks into a political and economic crisis that critics blame in
part on his policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.

      Hotel employees and other witnesses reached by telephone from the
capital Harare said Mugabe appeared his normal self when he addressed the
conference.

      "There was a lot of curiosity, people trying to see whether there was
anything wrong with him after all those reports. He appeared fit and okay to
me," said one employee, who asked not to be identified.

      There has been speculation that Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's
independence from Britain in 1980, has suffered both throat and prostate
cancer in the past.  But in frequent appearances on state television, Mugabe
has been seen rallying supporters or busy with affairs of state.

      Zimbabwe, once southern Africa's breadbasket, faces chronic food, fuel
and foreign currency shortages, unemployment of more than 70 percent and one
of the world's highest inflation rates.

      Mugabe denies mismanaging the economy and says he is being sabotaged
by domestic and foreign enemies. He has also vowed not to step down before
the end of his term in 2008.

      The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), formed in
1999, emerged as the biggest threat to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party when it
won nearly half the 120 contested seats in a parliamentary election in 2000.

      MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who faces treason charges of plotting to
assassinate Mugabe, is mounting a legal challenge to the president's
re-election last year in polls that both the opposition and several Western
governments said were flawed.

      Mugabe dismisses the MDC as a puppet of former colonial power Britain
and other Western countries.

The Herald (Harare)

October 29, 2003
Posted to the web October 29, 2003

Harare

GOVERNMENT has formed a special taskforce to urgently address the management
of foreign currency after realising that the root cause of the obtaining
economic problems was the unaccountability of foreign currency by exporters
and other players.

The taskforce - made up of nine Cabinet Ministers - was formed through the
reconstitution of the taskforce on the cash crisis, which successfully
resolved the shortage of bank notes that had gripped the country.

It will be tasked with compiling a data bank of all major exporting
companies and examining foreign currency leakages and externalisation of
funds by some exporting companies including Export Processing Zones.

"There are at least 8 000 exporting companies in Zimbabwe but less than 10
are accounting for their foreign currency on time.

"The rest have virtually acquired Export Processing Zone status which means
they do not remit their foreign currency which they keep offshore and claim
that they are creating employment yet employment figures are going down.

"That anomaly is one of the root causes of foreign currency shortages," said
one analyst.

Analysts also gave an example of the tourism sector, which was grossing less
than US$2 million per month even though tourist arrivals and bookings were
increasing.

The taskforce will also find ways and means of mobilising all gold from
small-scale miners and panners to market it through Fidelity Refineries.

It will check whether all banks and other authorised dealers are complying
with the requirement to acquit CD1 forms within the stipulated period as
well as work out water tight mechanisms of remitting foreign currency to the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The taskforce will recommend the best foreign currency allocation mechanism
in accordance with national priorities and recommend an appropriate Central
Exporting Authority.

It is expected to table its report to Cabinet within three weeks.

The Minister of Rural Resources and Water Development Cde Joyce Mujuru will
chair the taskforce which comprises the Minister of Finance and Economic
Development Cde Herbert Murerwa, the Minister of State for Information and
Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for National
Security Cde Nicholas Goche and the Minister of Industry and International
Trade Cde Samuel Mumbengegwi.

Other members are the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Cde Edward
Chindori-Chininga, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement
Cde Joseph Made, the Minister of Environment and Tourism Cde Francis Nhema
and the Minister of Home Affairs Cde Kembo Mohadi.

A Government spokesman said the root cause of the economic instability,
characterised by relentless price increases and the shortage of such
critical agricultural inputs as seed, fertiliser and diesel, was the
unaccountability of foreign currency.

"All available evidence indicates that this economy is generating more
foreign currency today than it did three years ago.

"But this foreign currency is being externalised and abused in the black
market for reasons which are either political mischief or economic sabotage
and the time to stop this rot has come," the spokesman said.

"This (taskforce) is due to realisation by the Government that unless we
deal with the shortage of foreign currency we will not be able to stabilise
prices, reign in inflation and stimulate supply response," the spokesman
added.

He said the instability in prices was threatening agriculture as the high
cost of inputs meant farmers would demand higher producer prices, which
translated into higher consumer prices.

Sources in Government said there were indications that forces hostile to the
country were still hoping to derail the land reform programme by killing
agriculture through black marketeering and profiteering where prices have
nothing do to with real costs.

The sources said the task force came against the background of failure by
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to effectively monitor foreign currency
transactions.

"In an economy which some analysts say grosses US$700 million a month from a
combination of agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing products, the
RBZ is said to be getting a paltry average of below US$5 million a month,"
said one source.

The RBZ had also failed to provide foreign currency to critical needs of the
economy notably the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority, which observers say have been the major
culprits in driving the foreign currency parallel market.

"The moment Zesa and Noczim get out of the parallel market sanity will
return but that will not happen without the central bank playing its role.

"Rather than having the two companies depend on the parallel market, there
is a growing feeling in Government that managing to get foreign currency at
the official rate is the solution.

"The Reserve Bank has no reason to be there if it cannot meet the minimum
foreign currency requirements of Zesa and Noczim," said a source.

The shortage of fuel was threatening agriculture and had also grounded the
Government fleet of vehicles and paralysed the public transport sector.

Analysts said the dual fuel pricing system was unworkable because it was
being abused in the same way the dual exchange rate system, in which
exporters had a support rate of $824 to US$1 while the official rate was $55
to US$1, was being abused.

"Government is particularly concerned that these developments are negatively
affecting not only the farmer but ordinary people such as commuters who are
being charged high fares.

"Benchmarking prices in US dollars is the cause of the ridiculous salaries
of $30 million per month that doctors are demanding. All these are based on
black market rates. There has been too much opening of the economy although
the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme is dead.

"This is what the Cabinet taskforce chaired by Minister Mujuru will look
into."

      The worst thing about this circus is that nothing will happen to the
very officials who are supposed to uphold the law but have done the exact
opposite. They are, it would seem, above the law.

      All of this has been done with one aim - to silence the Daily News.
And there is absolutely no doubt that this harassment is being carried out
because the paper is critical of Mugabe and his government.

      We are aware that serious attempts are being made by Zimbabweans to
find long-lasting solutions to their problems.

      Efforts are being made to set up a draft constitution and soon we may
see a new political dispensation. Shelves in the shops are not empty
anymore. But the high price of foodstuffs remains a problem.

      So there is hope.This is why the action by Zimbabwe's police is so
wrong and should not go unpunished. A free press plays an important role in
nurturing democracy. And Zimbabwe's is in great need of such nurturing.

Business Day (Johannesburg)

October 29, 2003
Posted to the web October 29, 2003

Johannesburg

HARARE The publisher and three directors of the Daily News, an independent
newspaper highly critical of President Robert Mugabe's government, were due
to appear in court yesterday after being arrested for publishing without a
licence, but the hearing was delayed for no stated reason.

A company lawyer, Gugulethu Moyo, speculated that the police were merely
seeking to punish the owners of the country's only private daily newspaper.

"The police are detaining people not because they require time to
investigate, but it seems they intend to punish them before they have
actually been convicted of any crime, and it's very disappointing," Moyo
said outside the courtroom.

The charges against the newspaper's owners follow the short-lived return to
the news stands on Saturday of the Daily News, six weeks after it was shut
down by the authorities.

The reappearance of the popular newspaper followed a court ruling on Friday
that a state-appointed media commission had been wrong to deny the paper a
licence.

Police, insisting that the newspaper may not publish until it has a
certificate, shut down the paper's city offices on Saturday for the second
time and briefly detained 18 staff members.

Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, signed into
law by Mugabe just days after his disputed re-election, all publications and
journalists must be licensed.

      According to some media reports Mugabe was collected in Harare by a
South African military aircraft and flown to Pretoria for treatment on
Monday. Defence spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said he did not know if Mugabe had
been in South Africa but other defence officials denied firmly that he had
been treated in any South African military hospital.

      Independent Newspapers contacted most of the major civilian hospitals
in Gauteng and they all denied Mugabe had been treated there.

      Top sources in Mugabe's ruling ZanuPF party and his spy agency, the
Central Intelligence Organisation, (CIO) said Mugabe had recently suffered a
minor stroke but was treated by Chinese doctors in Harare and had recovered.

      One source said: "If you only knew the President's paranoia over white
'Rhodies' in South Africa, you would not even imagine he might want to spend
a night in a hospital there." Rhodies is a description of white Zimbabweans
who lived in the country when it was still called Rhodesia and under white
rule.

      During his last official visit to South Africa, when he attended the
funeral of ANC veteran Walter Sisulu, the Independent Foreign Service
established that Mugabe had refused to be served any food by staff at the
five-star Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg.

      Mugabe brought his own cooks who prepared food from Zimbabwe for him.

      Sources also say he does not trust South African military hospitals.

Harare - A Zimbabwean magistrate's court on Wednesday placed four directors
of the independent newspaper the Daily News on remand, quashing a defence
bid to have the charges against them dropped.

The four are facing charges of contempt of court and publishing the
newspaper, a harsh critic of the government of President Robert Mugabe,
without a licence.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe ordered them each to pay bail of Z$50 000 and
return to court on November 13.

The magistrate placed them on remand to allow himself time to study a ruling
on Monday on a similar matter involving another of the paper's directors,
who was freed by the High Court in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo on
Monday.

Defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa had pointed to the Bulawayo court's finding
that no grounds existed to place Washington Sansole, who had been arrested
on Saturday, on remand.

Mtetwa said the facts surrounding Sansole's case were similar, and argued
against applying the law selectively for the others.

"It will clearly be discriminatory. The constitution provides against
selective application of the law," Mtetwa said.

The four - Samuel Nkomo, Rachel Kupara, Brian Mutsau and Sturat Mattinson -
were locked up in police cells for two days and two nights.

"Clearly the intention is to lock up the accused not because they committed
any offence but (because) someone has to be punished," Mtetwa said.

"There is nothing that justifies the accused having been placed in custody
for two nights," she said.

Elizabeth Mwatse-Simowah argued on behalf of the state that the four acted
in contempt when they proceeded to publish on Saturday against a Supreme
Court ruling that they should get registered first.

The charges follow the short-lived return to the news stands on Saturday of
the Daily News, six weeks after it was shut down by the authorities.

The reappearance of the popular newspaper followed a court ruling on Friday
that a state-appointed media commission had wrongly denied the paper a
licence when it applied for one in September.

It ordered the paper to be licensed by November 30.

      Editorial: Zimbabwe's sad story

      President Robert Mugabe mugged Zimbabwe's frail democracy last year,
clinging to power in a rigged election during which the army signalled it
wouldn't tolerate a change of regime, as opposition supporters were beaten,
arrested, burnt out of homes and murdered.

      Then Mugabe, who is a pariah in the Commonwealth, pressed thousands of
white commercial farmers to surrender their land without any compensation,
compounding a major economic disaster that has left most people jobless and
half of them hungry.

      Last week, Human Rights Watch accused Mugabe of using food as a
political weapon by denying relief to critics of the regime.

      And now, as Zimbabwe's crisis deepens, Mugabe has silenced the Daily
News, the only private newspaper and a persistent critic.

      Staff at the News are used to being "bombed, arrested, tortured," says
Strive Masiyiwa, who heads the paper. They are fearless. But the regime is
determined to suppress them.

      So the police have just invoked Zimbabwe's draconian media law to
shutter the News, one day after it won a court ruling that it should be
allowed to operate after a six-week closure. The law empowers a
government-appointed commission to grant or deny licences to newspapers. The
News was refused. Critics rightly see the law as a garrotte to free speech.

      This latest abuse by Mugabe's corrupt, autocratic regime deprives 12
million Zimbabweans of a spirited opposition voice. The state now controls
the only "legal" mass media.

      This is a low point in Mugabe's 23-year rule, which now will not
expire until 2008. And it spells more misery for a country that was once
southern Africa's breadbasket.

      With characteristic pluck, the Daily News has set up a new Web site
just beyond Mugabe's reach, in neighbouring Zambia
(http://www.daily-news.co.za).

      Meanwhile, "we will continue to fight (in court) to get the Daily News
back on the streets ... telling the Zimbabwean story like it is," Masiyiwa
promises.

      Embattled democrats must hope this story isn't over yet.

Business Day (Johannesburg)

October 29, 2003
Posted to the web October 29, 2003

Johannesburg

BULAWAYO Nurses at Bulawayo's state hospitals have joined the four-day
strike by doctors for pay rises that keep pace with spiralling inflation.

This will push Zimbabwe's health delivery system closer to collapse. The
Hospital Doctors Association, which is leading the strike, has vowed to
continue in spite of Health Minister David Parirenyatwa's warning that their
actions are illegal.

Hundreds of patients are being turned away from United Bulawayo Hospitals
and Mpilo Hospital. On Monday, some nurses at private health clinic Galen
House joined the national strike.

The nurses demand rises to match runaway inflation of 469%, in a move likely
to signal the start of general strikes in the civil service. Strikes in
state-run health services have in the past triggered strikes among teachers
and other public servants.

Parirenyatwa said the doctors' demands were unrealistic. Hospital Doctors
Association president Phibion Manyanga said doctors would go back to work on
condition that government made a commitment to a "reasonable" pay
adjustment. Michael Mhlophe

Harare - Zimbabwe's main university said on Wednesday it had suspended
several students who led demonstrations that turned into riots, causing
damage to campus buildings, shops and a bank.

Riot police fired tear gas at the protesting students during the
demonstrations on Tuesday and beat them, said Jonga Tutsirayi, a member of a
students' union.

The vice chancellor's car was damaged and another car was burnt to "ashes",
according to a statement fromn the University of Zimbabwe.

"Students were protesting peacefully when riot police came and started
firing teargas and beating up students. Otherwise there was no violence,"
said Tutsirayi.

Tutsirayi said the students were demonstrating against delays in the release
of their grants, which they said have not been paid out since the semester
began in mid September.

He said some students who did not reside at campus in a plush suburb of
Mount Pleasant in Harare, have not attended lectures because they do not
have money for transport.

The students are also demanding more money. Each student receives Z$300 000
(US$375) in grants per year.

"The money has not been released on time and the students want a review," he
said.

Tutsirayi said he understood some 23 students had been arrested following
the clashes and that they had paid a fine.

Public demonstrations are illegal in Zimbabwe unless cleared by the police.

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the disturbances that had
taken place at campus, but said he was not aware of the arrests.

     Opinion/Letters
            Zimbabwean situation

            10/29/2003 10:23:38 AM (GMT +2)

            DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights wishes to
express its concern about the continuing deterioration of the human rights
situation in Zimbabwe.

            The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in their statement of 22
October 2003, publicised information about:

            ¥ the denial of access by lawyers to members of the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), who had been arbitrarily arrested and
detained by the police on the morning of 22 October 2003, and

            ¥ the intimidation of lawyers by the presence of the riot squad
at the entrance to the Harare Central Police station.

            DITSHWANELO calls upon: The Government of Zimbabwe to uphold the
rule of law and human rights; SADC leadership to urge Zimbabwe to abide by
the SADO Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, which
provides for the observance of universal human rights; and the Southern
African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) to also
urge the Zimbabwe Republic Police to abide by the SARPCCO Code of Conduct
for Police Officials.

            DITSHWANELO urges the government of Botswana to contribute
towards regional stability by registering its concern with the government of
Zimbabwe about the deteriorating human rights situation in that country.

            DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights

            GABORONE

      10/29/2003 10:18:21 AM (GMT +2)

      A lawyer representing four directors of Zimbabwe's only independent
daily newspaper has complained that they are being imprisoned in inhumane
conditions.

      The directors were arrested on Monday after the paper, the Daily News,
was closed down over the weekend.

      Their lawyer, Gugulethu Moyo, told the BBC that the four - Samuel
Nkomo, Rachel Kupara, Michel Mattinson and Brian Mutsau - were being held in
a tiny, unsanitary prison cell and had been denied medicines.

      Ms Moyo, who is the newspaper's legal adviser, said the director of
public prosecutions had told her they would appear in court on Wednesday,
charged with operating without a licence and of contempt of court.

      The closure of the Daily News at the weekend came after the paper had
reappeared on newsstands for the first time in six weeks.

      With a front-page headline saying "We're back", the daily went on sale
on Saturday, following a court ruling that the authorities were wrong to
refuse it a licence.

      But the resumption of publication turned out to be short-lived as
police shut the newspaper's offices and detained one director, Washington
Sansole.

      The authorities said Friday's court ruling did not give them
permission to start publishing.

      The paper's lawyers disagreed, saying the ruling rendered media
regulations invalid.

      On Monday, chief executive Mr Nkomo and three other directors were
arrested and charged with publishing without a licence, bringing the total
in custody to five.

      This is the latest setback for the Daily News, which is known for
being highly critical of President Robert Mugabe and his government.

      Under controversial legislation introduced last year, all newspapers
must apply for a licence through the state's Media and Information
Commission (MIC).

      The newspaper says media regulations are invalid

      In September, police seized computer equipment and closed down the
Daily News offices after a ruling by the supreme court that the paper was
operating without a licence.

      The commission then denied the paper a licence, saying it had missed
the deadline for applications and failed to supply the commission with free
copies of the paper, as required under the law.

      In Friday's ruling, the judge said the commission had not been
properly constituted invalidating all its actions to date.

      The court has now ordered the MIC to issue a licence by 30 November.