MEPs were visibly moved upon hearing a speech by Ephraim TAPA,
spokesman of
the international campaign Save Zimbabwe, to the European
Parliament's
Development Committee on Wednesday. They gave a firm promise to
respond to
his appeal for help.
In his statement to
the committee, Mr Tapa stressed that the current
crisis in Zimbabwe was in no
way a fight against agrarian reform but the
result of 'political terrorism',
a 'battle between a tyrant and a suffering
people'. He added that Mr MUGABE
was using famine as an instrument of
political oppression. However, a glimmer
of hope remained: Zimbabwe had
enough infrastructure and goodwill, what was
needed was to set up a
legitimate regime. This was the goal of the Save
Zimbabwe campaign launched
in Durban in July 2002. He said the European
Parliament must encourage
African Heads of State who were reluctant to act
against Mr Mugabe. The
international community could help the reconstruction
of Zimbabwe by means
of clear political and financial undertakings, and this
must be a positive
test for the New Partnership for the Development of
Africa.
John CORRIE (EPP-ED, UK) deplored
Europe's impotence vis-à-vis the
Mugabe regime. What was needed, he claimed,
was a popular uprising in
Zimbabwe, which would happen sooner or later given
the situation there.
According to Ulla SANDBAEK (EDD, DK), regional sanctions
were preferable;
the countries bordering Zimbabwe should push for President
Mugabe's
departure. Nirj DEVA (EPP-ED, UK) felt that action was urgently
needed and
that Parliament should make its position clear by calling for
an
international arrest warrant to be issued against Mr Mugabe.
General
MORILLON (EPP-ED, F) drew a parallel with Serbia. He said one should
have no
illusions about any support for change coming from neighbouring
countries:
the people of Zimbabwe had their fate in their own hands. Only
subsequently
would Mugabe find himself facing the judges in The Hague. In an
impassioned
speech, Nelly MAES (Greens/EFA, B) voiced her indignation at the
widespread
torture carried out in Zimbabwe with no reaction from the
international
community, and with backed from John BOWIS (EPP-ED, UK) she
expressed
incomprehension that Zimbabwean leaders had recently been
authorised to go
to Belgium for an international conference. A resolutely
optimistic Miguel
Angel MARTINEZ (PES, E) pointed out that, like any
dictator, Robert Mugabe
had 'a biological end, which would not be far
off'.
Zimbabwe
02.10.02 Committee on Development
and
Cooperation
In the chair: Joaquim MIRANDA (EUL/NGL, P)
Press enquiries:
Alexandre Stutzmann - tel.
(32-2) 28 43439
e-mail:
deve-press@europarl.eu.int
Focus On Economic Impact of Land
Reform
UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks
October 3, 2002
Posted to the web October 3,
2002
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations
Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme has ignored the
critical role
played by the commercial farming sector in the economy,
analysts and farmers
have warned.
"President Robert Mugabe's ... land
reform policies are having profound
consequences not only for commercial
farming but for the agricultural sector
as a whole. However, land reform is
only one strand in a set of policies
undermining the economy and feeding
political instability," warned the
political think-tank Oxford Analytica in a
new report.
In previous years mining, manufacturing, services and
agriculture - both
large and small-scale - all contributed significantly to
employment and to
gross domestic product (GDP).
"Commercial
agriculture alone contributed some 17 percent. The economy
was
well-integrated with particularly strong linkages between
commercial
agriculture and services and manufacturing. It was axiomatic that
much of
the rest of the economy would benefit from reinvested earnings
following a
good agricultural season. Commercial farmers were also playing an
important
role in the rapid expansion of Zimbabwe's tourism industry through
the
conversion of marginal farmland into wildlife habitat," Oxford
Analytica
said.
But by the second half of 2002, the economy was
"rapidly unravelling" as the
government struggled to deal with a major food
crisis, blamed largely on its
own land reform programme.
The
government's programme was aimed at addressing the imbalance in
land
ownership in Zimbabwe, and landless blacks are supposed to be the
main
beneficiaries. However, it has been criticised for disrupting
commercial
agriculture and being undertaken in a disorderly
manner.
Given the central role of commercial farming to agriculture and
the economy,
it was important that the foundations of agricultural recovery
not be
weakened further, Oxfam Analytica said.
Both existing and new
commercial farmers required timely access to farm
machinery and equipment,
seed, fertiliser and water for irrigation and
livestock.
"Few newly
resettled farmers have the resources to purchase farm equipment,
and half of
the government-owned tractor fleet is out of service because of
the lack of
foreign currency to purchase spare parts. [Also] the extent to
which
seed-breeders' farms have been expropriated is unknown as is the
impact on
the supply of hybrid seed," Oxford Analytica said.
Rampant triple-digit
inflation had led the government to impose price
controls on fertiliser - "a
policy that has only exacerbated shortages".
This was because "the trend in
fertiliser use in older resettlement areas
has declined since adjustment
policies were introduced in the early 1990s,"
the think-tank
argued.
The 2002 drought was cutting food supplies at a time when many
dams were
full, "because no irrigation is taking place on the farms acquired
for land
reform".
Many of the people who received land reallocated
from large-scale farms had
"little or no commercial farming experience, so
technology and inputs - if
available - may be poorly or under-utilised if
practical training is not
provided".
But newly resettled farmers were
unlikely to receive adequate training as
"almost all of the country's 1,200
agricultural specialists applied for land
under the [redistribution]
programme and are among the best-qualified to
receive it".
While it
was not known how many had actually received land and would then
leave
government service, the government was "rapidly recruiting more than
5,000
new specialists and is assuming zero attrition among existing staff to
bring
total numbers to more than 6,000", Oxford Analytica added.
The Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported on Thursday that the
government would
soon embark on a land audit to assess land uptake on
designated farms. "The
minister for land reform, Flora Bhuka, said the
exercise will be done to
ensure that all land is occupied and put to good
use," ZBC
reported.
"The fast-track land reform programme has seen government
allocating land to
more than 310,000 families. Government is still in the
process of handing
over land to more than 54,000 families," ZBC
said.
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), meanwhile, said the
government's land
reform programme and "illegal" evictions of farmers by
ruling party
supporters had brought the commercial farming sector "to its
knees".
Ben Kaschula, regional executive officer for the CFU Mashonaland
Central
region, told IRIN that "commercial farming as we've known it before
has come
to an end ... very few, perhaps 20 percent, of commercial farmers
that were
previously on land will possibly farm to a reduced extent in the
next
season. We had 3,200 licensed commercial farmers for the year that
just
ended, it's likely to be about 1,400 now and that's being optimistic,"
he
said.
No less than 1,200 farmers had been forced off the land,
irrespective of
whether or not they had received government eviction notices,
Kaschula said.
In January 2000, the commercial farming sector employed
more than 350,000
workers, roughly one-third of all wage
employment.
"By mid-2002, most of these workers had been displaced, and a
former finance
minister reported that a third of all formal sector jobs in
the economy had
been lost. Other sources put the unemployment rate at above
70 percent. Many
of those who have lost jobs are now living in destitution,
but the
government is avoiding addressing the welfare implications of
massive
unemployment," the Oxfam Analytica report alleged.
Funding for
agricultural activities was a major obstacle to agrarian
recovery.
International donors have ceased all funding, save for drought
relief and
HIV/AIDS programmes, and financial institutions were reluctant to
grant loans
to land reform beneficiaries as they lack title deeds to their
new
land.
"In the face of debt, crop production and exports are generally
down. Of
major crops, only coffee and tea production was above 2000 levels in
2001.
Last year, commercial farming contributed some 38 percent of
Zimbabwe's
total foreign exchange earnings, but it is estimated that at least
90
percent of such earnings will be lost under the current land
reform
programme," the think-tank warned.
Production of staple maize
declined 31 percent in 2001 and even more in
2002, creating a need for
expenditure to import an estimated 1.7 million mt
of maize.
Tourism
earnings have also nose-dived - "not only because of international
anxiety
surrounding civil unrest but because of the widely publicised
poaching of
endangered wildlife in game conservation parks, where some 60
percent of
wildlife has been lost," the report said.
The domino effect of the
present land reform policy has resulted in
Zimbabwe's GDP shrinking by 4.5
percent in 2000, 7.5 percent in 2001. A
decline of between 12-15 percent was
forecast for 2002, "largely a
consequence of farm invasions and the
withdrawal of investors and foreign
donors", the report
noted.
IOL
Zimbabwe dropped as host of
2003 SADC summit
October 03 2002
at 04:24PM
By Manoah Esipisu
Luanda - Zimbabwe was
replaced on Thursday as deputy chair of the 14-nation
Southern African
Development Community (SADC), in what diplomats said was a
sign of the
region's displeasure with President Robert Mugabe's policies.
Zimbabwe's
role as acting deputy chair of the regional body had been
expected to be
formalised on Thursday at the SADC's annual summit in Luanda.
That would have
made Harare the scheduled venue for next year's meeting.
Instead Zimbabwe
was replaced as deputy chair by Tanzania, and the 2003
gathering will be in
its capital Dar es Salaam.
'I think it is
just another red herring'
"The whole reorganisation of the SADC bureau was
unscheduled and is meant to
send a message to Zimbabwe that the region values
peace, security, stability
and respect for greater democratisation," said a
diplomat, who asked not to
be named.
Mugabe's land policies and his
controversial re-election in March were not
on the official agenda of this
year's summit, which ends on Thursday.
But during the two-day gathering
in Luanda, several leaders called for
improved governance to lure foreign
investment and spur economic growth in
the region.
"The heads of state
and government did not have to discuss Zimbabwe's land
reform directly. Their
actions sent the right signal," another diplomat
said.
Angolan
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Malawi President Bakili Muluzi
and SADC
Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy all spoke passionately about the
need for
regional stability during the summit's opening ceremonies
on
Wednesday.
African leaders are currently promoting to the West a
continental recovery
plan called the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(Nepad).
It seeks to deliver good political and economic governance in
exchange for
more investment, better trade access and more debt relief from
rich Western
nations.
Zimbabwean officials were not immediately
available for comment in Luanda.
In Harare, Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald
newspaper said the country had
decided not to take over as deputy chair of
the SADC in order to concentrate
on its land reforms.
"That is a
priority which supersedes everything else. Being deputy chair
means hosting
the next summit and would therefore distract us from all
that," the Herald
quoted a government source as saying.
The SADC has previously criticised
Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms for
redistribution to landless blacks
and the election, which was condemned by
some Western nations.
But the
regional body has opposed sanctions, which have been imposed on
Zimbabwe by
the United States and European Union.
During ministerial meetings earlier
in the week, some ministers delivered a
stern message to their Zimbabwean
counterparts to resolve a political crisis
threatening investor confidence in
the region.
Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo rejected
complaints that the
land seizures had caused the region economic
harm.
"There is no one who is serious who believes that one country is
making
others pay. I think it is just another red herring being raised
by
British-led opposition to the land reform programme in Zimbabwe," Moyo
told
Reuters.
Mugabe, in power since the former Rhodesia gained
independence from Britain
in 1980, says his land reform is aimed at
correcting colonial injustice,
which left 70 percent of the country's best
land in the hands of white
farmers.
Flour Imports Gobble
$500m
The Herald (Harare)
October 3,
2002
Posted to the web October 3, 2002
Harare
Bakers Inn
Zimbabwe has spent $500 million on importing flour to stay in
operation as
allocations of local flour continue to be cut drastically.
The company
charges more for a loaf made with imported cake flour, to cover
the higher
costs.
This is labelled "premium bread" and is sold unsliced in basic
packaging to
keep the cost as low as possible although still costs more than
twice a
standard loaf made of local flour because of the high cost of
importing
flour.
But on the positive side the imports all Bakers Inn
to keep all bakeries
open, retaining all 2 000 workers in employment without
having to seek
retrenchments, and is baking enough bread to satisfy
demands.
The company, which is part of listed concern, Innscor Africa
Limited said
its bakeries started importing flour after the local supplies
dropped
drastically in the past few months.
The managing director, Mr
Burombo Mudumo, told Business Herald that local
supplies could further
deteriorate in the coming two months until the new
harvest was
milled.
Normally Bakers Inn buys 7 000 tonnes of flour every month.
Recently it has
been allowed to buy only around 2 000 tonnes, creating a
shortage of 5 000
tonnes.
"Bakers Inn took the decision to import,
from South Africa, while we wait
for the wheat which is now being
harvested.
"We are likely to see supplies improving around November, when
the harvested
wheat starts trickling in from the millers," he
said.
Bakers Association of Zimbabwe chairman, Mr Armitage Chikwavaira
was quoted
recently saying flour reserves have dwindled to critical
levels.
"We are getting something between 40 percent and 55 percent of
our flour
requirements every week," Mr Chikwavaira was quoted
saying.
Zimbabwe consumes 400 000 tonnes of wheat every year although
only 150 000
tonnes are expected this year down from 360 000 tonnes in
2001.
The supply of bread in most part of Harare is still erratic with
many shops
going for days without receiving bread.
Mr Mudumo said
Bakers Inn's decision to import flour was the best option to
save the 2000
jobs in the company as well as assuring the nation of constant
supplies of
bread.
"We don't want the plants to lie idle and we also don't want our
employees
to be retrenched," he said.
His company had survived in the
past from its strategic flour stocks, which
had now run out.
Flour
supplies started to decline in the last four months to levels where
Bakers
Inn only got 57 percent of its requirements in June.
Ensuing months saw
the flour supply situation declining to 53 percent in
July, 39 percent in
August and 29 percent in September.
The decision to import has meant that
Bakers Inn has to fork out more of its
resources to finance imports. It now
cost the company $212 000 to import a
tonne of cake flour.
A tonne of
flour sourced locally cost the company $60 000. Mr Mudumo said
the imported
cake flour was used to bake premium bread, which is not
affected by price
controls.
To make the bread affordable, the company has decided to stop
slicing the
product and using expensive packaging.
Commenting on price
controls, Mr Mudumo said talks for a review in bread
prices were underway
with the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade.
What Happened to
Principles?
Mail & Guardian
(Johannesburg)
OPINION
October 4, 2002
Posted to the web October 3,
2002
Iden Wetherell
Johannesburg
In what must rank as some of
the most fatuous remarks made so far on South
Africa's relations with
Zimbabwe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz
Pahad announced last
weekend that Pretoria will not bow to pressure to
"declare war" on its
crisis-torn neighbour.
"We don't believe that their megaphone diplomacy
and screaming from the
rooftops has helped anyway," he was quoted as saying.
"If it is not
diplomacy we pursue in dealing with Zimbabwe, then it is war.
We will not go
to war with Zimbabwe."
Pahad was replying to remarks by
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
expressing disappointment with the
failure of the Commonwealth troika, made
up of President Thabo Mbeki,
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo and
Australian Prime Minister John
Howard, to adopt a more robust response to
President Robert Mugabe's
suppurating misrule when they met recently in
Abuja, Nigeria.
Pahad
seemed in particular to resent the suggestion that the two African
heads of
state lacked commitment in dealing with Zimbabwe.
"What are they
proposing we should be doing?" Pahad asked. "Jack Straw and
others must tell
us what they expect the Southern African Development
Community [SADC] to
do."
Stop glossing over a brutally stolen election would be a
start.
Beginning with ministerial manipulation of the South African
observer
mission even before the result of Zimbabwe's presidential poll was
known in
early March, Pretoria has been busy underlining the legitimacy of
Mugabe's
rogue regime despite the fact he changed electoral laws to favour
his
candidacy, unleashed state-sponsored militias against members of
the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and prevented it
from
holding rallies or communicating through the public media.
Tens
of thousands of voters were arbitrarily removed from the voters' roll
ahead
of the election or turned away from polling stations in MDC
strongholds such
as Harare.
All this was okay with South Africa, ministers suggested.
Worse still,
Deputy President Jacob Zuma was shown on TV embracing his
counterpart in
Harare immediately after this brazen assault on the democratic
process.
Pahad wants to know what the SADC can do. Apart from ending
their collusion
with a regime whose supporters murder opponents with
impunity, adhering to
standards regional states have set themselves would be
a helpful step.
South Africa and other SADC countries have fundamental
rights enshrined in
their Constitutions that include a commitment to free and
fair elections,
independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press. The
SADC is
committed to specific electoral principles agreed only last year.
Instead of
upholding these democratic values, governments in the region have
endorsed
electoral hijacking in Zimbabwe and remained silent as the judiciary
and
press are manacled.
In last weekend's council elections opposition
candidates were in many
reported cases barred from registering or intimidated
into withdrawing as
Mugabe's repression grows. Lawless land seizures have led
to destitution and
famine.
Despite this record, regional leaders
persist in the pretence that the
negative press Zimbabwe receives abroad is
the product of reactionary forces
opposed to transformation. There has been
no attempt to spell out the
meaning of good governance, accountability and
the rule of law that are
fundamental to the success of the New Partnership
for Africa's Development
(Nepad), which Mbeki and Obasanjo are touting as the
continent's survival
kit.
African National Congress spokesperson Smuts
Ngonyama, interviewed by the
Mail & Guardian last week, repeated the
ruling Zanu-PF party's mantra that
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was beholden
to foreign "masters". Change must
come from within Zimbabwe, Ngonyama
insisted. Whether Mugabe should go was
not for the ANC to decide.
But
when the ANC is part of a regional bloc determined to shield Mugabe
from
measures designed to prevent him sabotaging his country's
democratic
institutions and pauperising its people, then officials like
Ngonyama and
Pahad who duck the issues by talking about megaphone diplomacy
and foreign
masters need to be reminded that their apparent lack of
principled resolve
in confronting tyranny presages a future South Africans
have every reason to
worry about.
Iden Wetherell is editor of the
Zimbabwe Independent
Chance for Zim to Clear
Image
The Herald (Harare)
October 3,
2002
Posted to the web October 3, 2002
Harare
THE biggest event
on the local travel and tourism calender, the travel expo,
begins in Harare
today and the timing could not have been more perfect.
At least 130
international buyers are expected to attend the four-day fair,
giving the
local industry and the country in general, a glorious opportunity
to market
itself and restore Zimbabwe's tarnished image.
The country has been
subjected to incessant negative publicity for the past
three years, mainly
because of the fast-track land resettlement programme.
The programme was
embarked upon by the Government to redress historical land
imbalances, which
saw the white minority holding more than 70 percent of
fertile land while the
black majority were overcrowded on barren land.
The programme has
attracted venomous attacks from the West, particularly
from Britain and
America in their futile bid to continue with their
dominance of Zimbabwe's
economic base.
These attacks fuelled negative perceptions about the
country's safety and
security as a tourist destination.
The outcome of
the March presidential election, in which President Mugabe
emerged the
winner, has also irked the so-called superpowers resulting in
even more
shameless attacks on Zimbabwe.
This has dampened activity in the tourism
sector, which has experienced a
sharp decline in arrivals and earnings over
the past two years.
However, the international community is now softening
its stance following
President Mugabe's speech at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg last month.
President Mugabe
set the record straight on the agrarian reforms.
A number of countries
are beginning to appreciate the actual state of
affairs in Zimbabwe,
resulting in the removal of travel warnings in major
source markets, much to
the chagrin of Britain and its allies.
The tourism industry has been
witnessing an upsurge in arrivals over the
past few weeks and prospects for
recovery now look promising.
It is against this background that local
tourism players should take
advantage of the presence of international buyers
from South Africa, UK, US,
Germany and France, among other countries to set
the record straight and
neatly package what the country has to
offer.
At least the buyers and other operators from the region and other
major
source markets are here to see for themselves the actual situation on
the
ground and they will obviously get first-hand information about
Zimbabwe.
Some visitors who have come to Zimbabwe over the past few
months have been
surprised by the peace and stability prevailing, which is in
sharp contrast
to what they have been made to believe by the Western media,
particularly
BBC.
Zimbabwe remains one of the best destinations in
Africa, boasting of such
attractions as the Victoria Falls, abundant wildlife
and the hospitality of
its people and no amount of bad publicity can take
that away from us as
visitors to the expo will discover.
The travel
expo also provides a platform for Zimbabwe to market the December
4 solar
eclipse.
The spectacle will naturally attract visitors but all
stakeholders need to
go out in full-force to ensure that tourists come in
their thousands to
witness the event from this side of the
Limpopo.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and the Zimbabwe Council for
Tourism have
been marketing the event since the beginning of the year but a
lot of
mileage will be gained at the travel showcase.
The tourism
industry, identified as one of the major pillars of the economy,
is heading
for better times and the expo will play a big role in charting
the
course.
VOA
Fuel Shortage in Zimbabwe
Creates Havoc for Commuters
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
03
Oct 2002, 16:58 UTC
Zimbabwe all but ran out of fuel
Thursday. For the first time in a year,
long lines for gasoline can been seen
throughout the capital and the second
city Bulawayo. Those worst hit by the
fuel crisis are commuters who must
wait hours to get to and from
work.
Thousands of Zimbabweans were late for work Thursday because of the
fuel
shortages, which are likely to continue, despite reports there is
fuel
outside Harare.
According to sources in the petroleum industry,
there are millions of liters
of fuel in storage, but Zimbabwe does not have
the foreign currency to
release it for distribution.
Proprietors of
gasoline stations around Harare say they have not been told
why fuel has
dried up, or when normal supplies will resume.
The government says
shortages of gasoline and diesel are caused by hoarding.
Last year,
President Robert Mugabe secured 70 percent of Zimbabwe's gasoline
and diesel
needs from Libya. Libya, whose leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has close
ties with
Mr. Mugabe, accepted payment in Zimbabwe's currency, which has
little value
outside the country.
But other countries are not being as generous as
Libya. Libya ships its fuel
to Zimbabwe by way of Mozambique, which then
pumps it from the port of Beira
to Zimbabwe. However, before Zimbabwe can
claim the fuel, Mozambique has
been demanding payment in foreign
currency.
On several occasions in the last year, fuel briefly ran short,
because
Mozambique had not been paid.
Last month, Mr. Mugabe visited
Libya, and the state-controlled media said
another year's contract had been
signed.
Financial analysts cite two possible reasons for the present fuel
shortage:
either Libya now wants to be paid in hard currency, or Mozambique
has not
been paid port dues and pumping fees.
If either or both these
reasons are behind the fuel crisis, then Zimbabwe is
in a deeper economic
crisis than ever before. Zimbabwe has no foreign
currency and its dwindling
mineral exports are held up in South Africa
because of a strike at the port
of Durban.
Meanwhile, donor agencies are concerned that, if the fuel
problem is not
sorted out quickly, their food deliveries to hungry
Zimbabweans in remote
parts of the country will be
interrupted.
Stress On the Rise Among Productive Age
Group
African Church Information
Service
September 23, 2002
Posted to the web October 3,
2002
Tim Chigodo
Stress, the silent pandemic, is presently
widespread in Zimbabwe although
many ordinary folks are not aware of
it.
The condition can be treated free of charge, but most people are
paying a
lot of money because they do not know that they suffer from the
condition.
Stress is an individual reaction to the environment or events
occurring in
one's surroundings. Anything that can disrupt one's mental,
emotional and
physical well-being can cause stress.
In such cases,
one's coping ability becomes impaired or overwhelmed by
circumstances in
one's life, which include loss of a job, marital problems,
divorce or death
of a loved one and financial problems.
The affected person does not see a
solution to the problem and that person's
life revolves around those issues
day in and day out. Studies have shown
that most local people suffer from
stress as a result of problems within
relationships and
marriages.
According to Dr Dickson Chibanda, a psychiatrist, the majority
of people,
particularly between 18 and 35 years of age, are disturbed by
interpersonal
upheavals.
"Only 20 percent of people in Zimbabwe who
try to kill themselves are
depressed and 80 percent are really crying out for
help," said Chibanda.
Depression is a higher stage of stress that needs
medical attention while
stress needs counselling only.
Chibanda said
that a relationship between HIV/AIDS and stress has not yet
been found though
the infection is rampant in the country. Many people are
killing themselves,
he said, because of misunderstandings in a relationship
not because they were
infected with the virus.
Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association
president Prof Gordon Chavunduka
said most people suffered from the condition
as a result of societal,
religious and cultural problems. "Marital and
societal problems which are
caused by the economy are the major causes of
stress," he said.
Cavunduka said most people were unaware that they were
stressed and said
members of his organisation referred some patients to
hospital. "Treatment
depends on the cause and at times we perform traditional
ceremonies, while
in some instances medical and counselling services are
offered," he said.
Another leading psychiatrist said stress was caused by
adverse things in
life. "People can even abuse alcohol or stop weddings
because of stress.
About two to 15 percent of people who visit clinics are
depressed," he said.
"Most people want to present the doctor with
respectable symptoms that are
physical. They don't want to say anything about
their emotional pain as it
seems like a weakness to them".
He said
non-respectable symptoms like fatigue, poor concentration, inability
to cope
and unhappiness were not spoken about. Sudden change could be the
worst cause
of stress, he added.
Stress can manifest itself through physical symptoms
like headaches,
abdominal pains, shivering and many other physical symptoms,
which are
easily misconstrued for an underlying physical illness.
If
not treated, it can lead people to abuse alcohol or drugs in an effort
to
find solutions by themselves. Chibanda observed: "They will do
whatever
makes them feel good".
Various ways of treating stress
include regular exercise, spending time with
your loved ones, setting
achievable goals and most of all communication. In
Zimbabwe free treatment is
offered to people suffering from stress.