The Telegraph
By Peta
Thornycroft, in Johannesburg
Last Updated: 12:17am BST
06/10/2007
Ten white farmers appeared in court in Zimbabwe
yesterday accused of
growing crops on their land - in a country where
millions of people will
need food aid within the next few
months.
The case in Chegutu district, 70 miles southwest of Harare,
exposes
the perversity of President Robert Mugabe's policies. Commerical
agriculture
was the mainstay of the economy in the days when Zimbabwe was a
food
exporter.
Since 2000, when the government began seizing
white-owned farms, many
of them violently, the agricultural sector has
collapsed and the economy has
gone into freefall, with inflation now at
6,600 per cent, the highest in the
world.
The World Food
Programme estimates that it will be feeding 4.1 million
Zimbabweans, one
third of the population, by the end of the year.
But none of that has
stopped the Zanu-PF regime.
Now the Chegutu group is charged with
violating the Consequential
Provisions Act, which gave the few hundred
remaining white farmers a final
deadline of Sep 30 to leave their land and
homes. The colonial-era Chegutu
courtroom was packed by the so-called "war
veterans" who are Mr Mugabe's
staunch supporters, and "beneficiaries" who
stand to be given the properties
should the 10 be convicted.
Among them are Edna Madzongwe, the speaker of parliament, and Nathan
Shamuyarira, a former information minister and one of President Robert
Mugabe's closest aides.
The farmers, aged from 38 to 75,
produce a variety of food from
chickens to oranges and have already given
two-thirds of their farms to the
government for resettlement. All but one
still work their remaining land
intensively and say they intend to try to
continue.
They were remanded on bail and their lawyer David Drury
sought to have
the case referred to the supreme court, which is due to rule
on the
constitutionality of the land law. They pleaded not guilty and face
up to
two years in prison if convicted.
"We have also said that
no farmer has received any payment of any kind
whatsoever and that the way
compensation is decided means farmers would be
paid nothing, given that
Zimbabwe's inflation rate is over 6,000 per cent,"
he added.
But a prominent lawyer in Harare said the courts were blocking urgent
applications over land cases. "The atmosphere in the courts has changed
dramatically in the last week," he said.
Didymus Mutasa, the
lands minister, has said that the few hundred
remaining white farmers will
be forced out, one way or another.
"The position is that food
shortages or no food shortages, we are
going ahead to remove the remaining
whites," he said recently. "Too many
blacks are still clamouring for land
and we will resettle them on the
remaining farms."
In fact many
farms were given to members of the government and their
cronies, and one
minister has admitted that the new farmers have failed in
their cultivation
efforts.
Outside the court, the scruffy shops of Chegutu were empty
of basic
foods, and street vendors sold small, sour oranges.
They came from a once-prolific citrus farm in the district now
devastated
after it was seized by Bright Matonga, the deputy information
minister,
earlier this year.
Financial Times
By Hugh
Williamson and Alec Russell in Pretoria
Published: October 6 2007 04:10 |
Last updated: October 6 2007 04:10
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki
on Friday predicted an imminent
agreement between Zimbabwe's opposition and
ruling party.
Mr Mbeki, appointed by regional leaders to mediate in
Zimbabwe, has been
involved in talks between the ruling Zanu-PF party and
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change but has not previously
commented on progress.
On Friday he said the negotiations were addressing
most of the MDC's demands
to ensure a free and fair election campaign ahead
of presidential and
parliamentary polls scheduled for next March, including
new independent
electoral institutions. The talks would be concluded in time
to allow the
agreements to come into force before the poll, he
said.
"We are quite confident that there will be a positive outcome [to
the
elections] that will create the political conditions to address the very
serious economic crisis in Zimbabwe," he said at a press conference with the
visiting German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Pretoria.
Mr Mbeki's
rosy comments chime with the assessment of MDC officials who are
more
confident that Zanu-PF will agree to most of their demands, including
rewriting the constitution. But the MDC is much less confident that
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled increasingly
autocratically since
independence in 1980, will keep to any
agreement.
German officials suggested the timing of Mr Mbeki's comments
might have been
linked to the visit by Ms Merkel, who has publicly urged the
South African
leader to be more assertive in his mediation efforts. She did
not comment on
the prospects for the talks, which have been criticised by
many opponents of
Mr Mugabe as ineffectual, but she indicated that she did
not see eye-to-eye
with Mr Mbeki on the crisis.
She said she had
given Mr Mbeki "my assessment of the situation as I saw it
and he shared his
assessment of the situation as he saw it?.... The
situation is a very
difficult one, not to say a disastrous one, which I very
clearly stated in
our conversation".
Ms Merkel's strong language on Zimbabwe reflects her
determination to
highlight human rights concerns as part of Germany's
diplomatic agenda.
She has also made clear that she believes the European
Union needs to
rebuild relations with Africa following a lull caused by
divisions over
Zimbabwe.
The crisis there has threatened a European
Union conference on Africa
scheduled for Lisbon in December.
Zim Online
Saturday 06 October 2007
By Lizwe Sebatha
BULAWAYO -
Zimbabwe's leading clothing retail chain Edgars Stores has sent
scores of
workers home after closing some of its shops in Bulawayo, ignoring
a
government threat to take over firms downsizing in response to a
controversial state blitz on prices.
Edgars had last month announced
plans to close 19 of its 55 outlets citing
viability problems triggered by a
controversial government blitz on prices
that forced producers and retailers
to sell at a loss.
The retail chain said it would be closing down five of
its branches in
Bulawayo, Gweru, Chitungwiza, Highglen and Gwanda.
It
would also close 14 of its Express shops in Harare, Bulawayo, Marondera,
Rusape, Chitungwiza, Bindura, Chegutu, Chiredzi, Plumtree, Gokwe, Karoi,
Mutare and Kwekwe.
Industry and International Trade Minister Obert
Mpofu reacted to the news by
threatening to take-over Edgars at a meeting
held with clothing shops at a
Bulawayo hotel last month.
ZimOnline
established yesterday that Edgars ignored Mpofu's threats and
proceeded to
shut down some of its shops in Bulawayo, citing difficulties in
restocking
after the government's order to companies to halve prices in
June.
Edgars managing director Raymond Mlotshwa confirmed the
closures yesterday.
"We are struggling to restock and have closed some
retail shops in Bulawayo.
The current restrictions make it difficult to run
a formal retail business,"
said Mlotshwa.
He said they had
communicated to the authorities the problems "we have
encountered."
ZimOnline understands that re-stocking costs now
outweighed sales income,
which presented challenges to the company,
including difficulties in meeting
workers' salaries.
The company
manufactures some of its merchandise through a subsidiary called
Carousel.
In the interim financial results released last month,
Edgars spoke of a
bleak future, warning that in addition to the negative
effects of the
government price blitz, the retail giant also faced a serious
debt problem.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Mpofu said Edgars should
approach the
government before closing its outlets.
"The government
will not allow a situation where workers are left with no
jobs and something
will be done to make sure that the jobs are protected,"
the minister said
without elaborating. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Saturday 06 October 2007
By Nqobizitha
Khumalo
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwean junior doctors on Friday called off their
strike after
they struck an agreement with the Health Services Board that
will see the
government hiking doctors' salaries by a significant
percentage.
The junior doctors downed tools last month demanding that the
government
hike their salaries from Z$8 million to Z$120 million a
month.
Hospital Doctors' Association president Amos Severegi said
although they had
not been offered the salaries they had been demanding,
they had reached a
"reasonable" compromise with the government.
"We
have reached a consensus with the government on salaries, we will
continue
with negotiations while we are back at work and all this was done
with the
interests of the patients," said Serevegi.
Severegi refused to divulge
the new doctors' salaries saying they had put
under oath not to reveal the
figures.
"We were put under oath and what I can only say is that we met
halfway with
the government. We did not get want we wanted but we reached a
position
where the salaries were acceptable to both parties," Severegi
said.
The doctors' strike had paralysed operations at all major state
hospitals in
Zimbabwe with reports suggesting that some patients were being
turned away
at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.
Strikes by doctors
over poor pay and working conditions are common in
Zimbabwe that is
grappling a severe economic crisis that has been described
as unprecedented
for a country not at war.
Hundreds of Zimbabwean doctors have left the
country over the past seven
years to seek better paying jobs in the southern
African region and
beyond. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
05
October 2007
Shelves in some Zimbabwean supermarkets are
starting to look less empty,
months after being emptied by an ill-conceived
government price-cutting
drive, but food items are being snatched by black
market dealers for sale at
much higher prices.
Food experts say that
while Zimbabwe has experienced food shortages since
2001, the price controls
imposed in July have dramatically worsened the
crisis, leaving more than 5
million people across the country in need of
food aid.
President
Robert Mugabe and his government continue to deny the country
needs
assistance. United Nations sources said that when he met recently with
U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, he turned down humanitarian aid
including
food.
Mr. Mugabe was said to have told Ban that problems in Zimbabwe are
as a
result of "illegal sanctions" imposed by the United States and other
Western
countries.
But critics say the shortages reflect bungled land
reform and poor economic
policies.
A U.N. source said the
international organization cannot force humanitarian
or food aid upon on a
country, if its government declines the offer, but
said Mr. Mugabe's
position could result in the U.N. declining to issue an
appeal to
donors.
Meanwhile, ordinary Zimbabweans say they are running from one
store to
another in search of basic commodities such as bread, flour, mealie
meal,
cooking oil or sugar.
Western nations including the United
States, Britain and Australia continue
to provide food aid through the U.N.
World Food Program and non-governmental
organizations such as the Consortium
for Southern African Food Security
Emergency, which unites CARE, Catholic
Relief Services and World Vision
International in aid provision.
With
presidential and parliamentary elections due next year, opposition
members
and other human rights groups say the need for food assistance is
now
greater and that the use of food as a political tool is already in
evidence
through out the country.
The Swedish Cooperative Center, a Swedish
non-governmental organization,
urged the European Union and the WFP to set
up an observer force to monitor
food aid distribution in Zimbabwe to prevent
its politicization. But the WFP
said there is no need for an observer force
to monitor the distribution of
food assistance in Zimbabwe.
For
perspective,reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
spoke
with Richard Lee, WFP Southern African regional spokesman, and
Reverend
Forbes Matonga, national director of Christian Care, a main WFP's
partner in
Zimbabwe.
Matonga said demand for food aid is increasing in rural and
urban areas
alike.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
05 October
2007
The Zimbabwe government averted a damaging strike by
civil servants this
week, said sources close to negotiations between the
government and the
Public Service Association, which represents state
employees other than
those in uniform.
PSA officials could not be
reached for confirmation or comment. But sources
said the PSA had canceled a
strike set for Monday, releasing a statement
saying civil servants had
received an increase in salary sufficient to call
off the threatened strike
- though it fell short of demands, so the PSA
would continue to engage the
government.
The association had asked for base salaries over the poverty
line now at $16
million a month. But the Internet-based news agency
ZimOnline reported that
the deal meant most civil servants would earn $14
million a month or about
US$28.
The increase of some 420% was the
same as that granted members of the
Zimbabwe Teachers Association, which
settled with the government though its
larger rival, the Progressive
Teachers Association of Zimbabwe said its
strike would
continue.
Director Dennis Nikisi of the Graduate School of Management at
the
University of Zimbabwe told reporter Patience Rusere that the new deal
will
stoke inflation as the government does not have the funds and will have
to
print more money.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
05 October
2007
While they negotiate in Pretoria, South Africa,
Zimbabwe's ruling party and
opposition are arguing in Harare over
preparations for proposed March 2008
elections.
This week the Morgan
Tsvangirai faction of the Movement for Democratic
Change put a question in
parliament to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
one of the ruling party
negotiators in crisis talks being mediated by South
African President Thabo
Mbeki. It asked whether voter rolls would be
established for each ward in
all constituencies - including those created
under the constitutional
amendment passed last month.
Chinamasa said there would be no new voter
registration or revision of voter
lists.
Chinamasa added that
redistricting would be carried out as soon as after
President Robert Mugabe
signs constitutional amendment legislation, making
it law.
But the
opposition said there must be a registration exercise between now
and March
to allow all voters to confirm their registration and re-register
if
necessary.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the Tsvangirai MDC faction told
reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the refusal to
hold such an
exercise indicates that ZANU-PF is not negotiating in good
faith in the
Pretoria talks.
allheadlinenews.com
October 5, 2007 11:55 p.m. EST
Vittorio Hernandez -
AHN News Writer
Harare, Zimbabwe (AHN) - Despite the fact that the price of
beer has
skyrocketed over 100 percent to $280,000 from $70,000 a pint,
Zimbabwe's
inflation rate nevertheless registered a slowdown to 6,592
percent in
August; down from July's 7,635 percent. On Friday, a new consumer
monitoring
body was established to keep an eye on price tags. Zimbabwe's
Central
Statistical Office attributed the inflation deceleration to price
controls
imposed in June by President Robert Mugabe.
According to the
state statistical body, last year's annual inflation rate
of 1,193 percent
as of May 2006 pales in comparison to this year's runaway
numbers. It said
August's deceleration was mainly applied on food and
non-alcoholic
drinks.
To address the country's runaway inflation - currently the
world's highest -
Mugabe has issued edicts punishing price gougers with up
to six years in
prison.
Zimbabwe's soaring prices are just a part of
the nation's economic meltdown.
Supermarkets have empty shelves, electricity
is cut off and unemployment at
an all time high. Those who can no longer
bear the harsh life are leaving by
busloads for neighboring South
Africa.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 10/06/2007 06:28:11
ZIMBABWEAN police have arrested
a self-styled spirit medium who duped the
government into believing that she
had "discovered" pure diesel oozing from
a hill in Chinhoyi, official media
reported.
Rotina Mavhunga, alias Sekuru Mboni, reportedly skipped the
country to South
Africa after it was discovered that her story was a
hoax.
Mavhunga was arrested at Police General Headquarters in the capital
Harare
on Tuesday this week by detectives who lured her by saying Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri wanted to see her over some personal matter
needing her super-natural expertise.
Believing that Chihuri was her
latest "high profile" customer, Machunga
rushed to PGHQ, into a police
trap.
She was on the wanted list for two months. The state-run Herald
newspaper
said a high-ranking government official it did not name had been
harbouring
Mavhunga.
In May, Mavhunga was sucked into Zanu PF's
contentious succession saga
together with two senior ministers in President
Robert Mugabe's cabinet.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa and Local
Government Minister
Ignatious Chombo - whose connections to Mavhunga came
under the spotlight in
both the cabinet and the politburo -were linked to
the 35-year old healer.
Mutasa and Chombo were confronted by Mugabe in
cabinet over their
presidential ambitions. The two heavyweights enlisted the
services of
Mavhunga to divine their prospects of becoming
president.
So serious was the belief in the diesel story that President
Mugabe set up a
Cabinet taskforce to look into the project. The initial
report was that
there "was diesel", but doubts set in when scientific
investigations
discovered that the diesel coming out of the mountain was
pure. Scientists
later raised suspicion, causing a collapse of Mavhunga's
plan.
Mutasa was part of a delegation headed by Defence Minister Sydney
Sekeramayi
including Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and police and
intelligence
officers, to Maningwa Farm in Chinhoyi in June to ascertain the
veracity of
the fuel claims. He also visited Makuti, another site where
diesel was
allegedly discovered.
A number of ceremonies were
conducted in order to access the diesel.
However, the team abandoned its
mission on June 18 after Mavhunga failed to
show them where the diesel was
located. The team concluded the diesel claims
were a "hoax".
Mutasa
is later reported to have asked Mavhunga if there was anything she
could do
to cleanse him to become president. A cleansing ceremony is said to
have
been held in Rusape where Mutasa made his intentions clear that he
wanted to
succeed Mugabe. State security agents are said to have reported
the issue to
Mugabe. The Zimbabwean leader - who has repeatedly complained
that top Zanu
PF politicians were approaching witchdoctors to get charms to
be president -
is said to have been riled by this incident.
As details of how Mavunga
ran her scam emerged, state media said se teamed
up with long distance truck
drivers who supplied her with diesel. The diesel
would be fed into a pipe on
the hill and released in spats to deceive people
who visited the hill into
believing that it was coming from the hill.
She said the diesel was from
ancestors who wanted to help the country that
was "suffering" due to
critical fuel problems.
Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Oliver
Mandipaka confirmed the arrest.
"I can confirm that we have arrested
Rotina Mavhunga but that's all I can
say at the moment. We are still
carrying further investigations into the
mater," he said.
The
detectives took her to Chinhoyi, some 100kms north west of Harare for
indications on the site where she operated from. She showed police skins and
other tools of her trade at the scene.