http://www.businessday.co.za
08
October 2008
Dumisani
Muleya
Harare
Correspondent
ZIMBABWE's power-sharing deal is teetering on the brink of
collapse after
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) negotiators walked out
of a critical
meeting with Zanu (PF) yesterday as a dispute over ministerial
posts
intensified.
Unless the mediator, former president Thabo
Mbeki, intervenes to break the
deadlock, talks over the allocation of 31
government ministries might soon
be abandoned.
Three meetings
involving President Robert Mugabe and main MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai have
failed to resolve the issue.
The Southern African Development Community
and the South African government
have agreed that Mbeki can continue as
mediator.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai met on Saturday for the third time, but
deadlocked
over the distribution of ministries, the allocation of which
would have
paved the way for the formation of a new
government.
Under last month's power-sharing agreement, Mugabe is
entitled to 15
ministries, Tsvangirai 13, and the leader of the smaller MDC
faction, Arthur
Mutambara, three.
Mugabe is allowed eight deputy
ministers, Tsvangirai six and Mutambara two.
However, there is no agreement
on which portfolios go to which party.
There is also a dispute
over the sharing of the 10 posts of provincial
governors now held by Zanu
(PF).
Mugabe's party is also demanding revision of the agreement signed
on
September 15 to remove a clause which says if any of the parties lose an
MP,
they would not contest by-elections against each
other.
MDC negotiators said they were "poles apart" from
their Zanu (PF)
counterparts and did want to "waste time
talking".
MDC negotiator Tendai Biti confirmed the meeting broke down
because "we were
worlds apart". "Zanu (PF) came into the meeting with an
arrogant and
contemptuous attitude."
Biti said the allocation of all
31 ministries had not yet been resolved .
He said that in view of the
"interminable deadlock", Mbeki needed to help
resolve the
issue.
Zanu (PF) negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said the party did not
see the need
for Mbeki to intervene yet.
http://www.time.com
By Alex Perry and Simba Rushwaya/Harare
Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008
"A power-sharing deal meant to end Robert Mugabe's
28 years of one-man rule
in Zimbabwe appeared close to disintegrating,
Tuesday, with Mugabe's party
and the opposition deadlocked on how to divide
government ministries between
them. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki had
brokered the Sept. 15
agreement to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis and
set the stage for its
economic revival, but the deal's implementation has
stalled over how to
allocate the 31 government ministries between Mugabe's
Zanu-PF and the
Movement for Democratic Change MDC, led by Morgan
Tsvangirai. As fears
mounted that the agreement would collapse, Mbeki was
asked by the MDC to
intervene, but as of Tuesday, a spokesman said Mbeki had
no immediate plans
to return to Harare.
Although the
power-sharing deal had been hailed as historic, it left many
key disputes
unresolved. The two sides had agreed that Mugabe would remain
President
while Tsvangirai would take up the newly created post of Prime
Minister, and
that Zanu-PF would get 15 ministries, Tsvangirai's MDC would
have 13, and a
breakaway MDC faction would have 3. But the two leaders did
not specify
which ministries would go to which party. Reports at the time
suggested the
MDC would gain control of two key ministries, finance and home
affairs,
which controls the police, while Zanu-PF would retain defense. It
now
appears there was no such understanding - or if there was, it has since
been
reversed - prompting fears of a breakdown that will plunge the country
further into turmoil and uncertainty. On Tuesday, MDC spokesman Nelson
Chamisa told South African radio that signing a deal before agreeing the
detail had been "a big mistake."
But there's more at work here than
poor-dealing making: Since agreeing to
share power, the world around
Tsvangirai and Mugabe has changed. For one
thing, Mbeki is no longer
President of South Africa, Zimbabwe's powerful
neighbor on which it remains
heavily dependent. A few days after the
Zimbabwe deal was concluded, he was
ejected from office after losing a power
struggle in the ruling party
Although Mbeki has been asked to stay on as
mediator of the Zimbabwe talks,
his own authority has been much diminished
by his ouster. Global financial
turmoil has also pushed Zimbabwe off the
immediate agenda of the
international community. And the combination of
Mbeki's demise and
international distraction may have emboldened the
84-year-old Mugabe, and
some of his cohort, to push back on a deal whose
purpose had been to dilute
their power. Mugabe denied last month that there
was a deadlock, saying four
ministries remained to be allocated and that a
government would be
established by the end of last week. That didn't happen.
And according to a
source close to Tsvangirai, Mugabe has been warning the
opposition leader
with whom he now confers regularly that the deal is far
from done.
"Tsvangirai said [he and Mugabe] now talk like friends.
[Tsvangirai] asked
Mugabe how things were in the Zanu-PF. Mugabe [replied]
that some of his top
ministers were against the deal and think Mugabe sold
out."
Zimbabwe's economic revival will depend on an extensive
infusion of foreign
aid and investment, which won't be forthcoming until the
political conflict
has been settled. Unemployment now stands at 80%,
inflation has long-since
spiraled out of control, and, with the collapse of
farming, aid agencies are
warning of widespread hunger in the next few
months. But Mugabe's
lieutenants have little incentive to compromise. Their
hold on power has
facilitated corruption, while many have also profited from
the recent chaos
by seizing land and making millions of dollars by working
the difference
between the black market and official rates of exchange
between Zimbabwean
and foreign currencies. A senior Zanu-PF official told
TIME on condition of
anonymity that the Sept. 15 deal was "a hundred steps
backwards". She added:
"These MDC people are coming into this government
with vindictiveness. They
are just coming to rob our gains. They want to
give back the farms to the
whites and that is unacceptable. If I were
comrade Mugabe I would not have
embraced those people." One Harare-based
political analyst, who also asked
not to be named, added: "The problem is
that Mugabe is surrounded by
vultures who are hovering over the resources of
the country. These are
extremely rich people who don't want Tsvangirai in
the picture because they
fear crackdown."
But given the global
financial turmoil and the political infighting in South
Africa, Zimbabweans
may have to bear the yoke of Mugabe and his regime for
some time, yet.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
07 October
2008
Zimbabwe's troubled power-sharing process stumbled again on
Tuesday as
negotiators met but again failed to agree on how ministries
should be
distributed among the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe and
the two
Movement for Democratic Change branches.
The delay in
forming a government following the signing of the unity pact on
September 15
led the government of neighboring Botswana to express its
concern. Its
foreign ministry issued a statement saying the deadlock was
"disturbing
and...cannot be ignored."
Gabarone warned that delay will only add to the
suffering of the Zimbabwean
people.
But the head of South Africa's
ruling African National Congress, Jacob Zuma,
said Tuesday that Zimbabwe's
political parties should keep talking to
resolve the impasse.
He
expressed confidence that former South African president Thabo Mbeki can
resolve the crisis if called upon to help. But ZANU-PF officials say Mbeki's
help is not needed.
Tsvangirai's MDC formation says ZANU-PF wants to
monopolize central
portfolios such as Foreign Affairs and Finance, as well
as Defense and Home
Affairs.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of Tsvangirai's
MDC wing told reporter Blessing
Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
after negotiating for two hours
negotiators again hit a
snag.
South African political analyst Hermann Hanekom, in an
interview from Cape
Town, said President Mugabe and ZANU-PF are not
negotiating in good faith.
The MDC formation of prime minister-designate
Morgan Tsvangirai has urged
the Southern African Development Community, with
the African Union a
guarantor of the power-sharing deal that ended months of
post-election
turmoil, to intervene to break the deadlock.
In an
appearance Monday in Washington, former president Festus Mogae of
Botswana
said SADC leaders "must speak with one voice" and tell Zimbabwe's
government
that "it is time to stop the suffering of the Zimbabwean people."
Mogae
issued the appeal during a symposium on his decade at Botswana's helm
at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars.
Among other points he
criticized Mbeki's role in the crisis, saying Mbeki
could have spoken more
firmly but did not, preventing SADC from taking
stronger positions on
Zimbabwe.
Mogae told his Washington audience that it is in the interest
of all parties
in Zimbabwe to come to a settlement, establish peace, and
rebuild.
Midlands correspondent Taurai Shava reported that with cabinet
posts the
focus of talks the allocation of provincial governorships has yet
to be
addressed - yet residents of Gokwe say they are being pressed for
contributions to celebrate the inauguration of Jason Machaya of ZANU-PF as
governor of the province, donations they can ill afford.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5409
October 7, 2008
By Mxolisi
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean security chiefs are pressuring President
Robert
Mugabe not to hand over any of the country's key ministries to the
opposition, warning that such a move would render the country
ungovernable.
Mugabe and MDC leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, who signed a
power-sharing deal three weeks ago, have so far
failed to resolve an impasse
on key cabinet posts.
The mainstream MDC
led by Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe of trying to make it
a junior partner
in the day-to-day running of the unity government.
According to the deal,
brokered by regional Southern African Development
Community (SADC) bloc,
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party is entitled to 15 cabinet
posts, Tsvangirai's MDC 13
and its breakaway faction, led by Mutambara, the
remaining
3.
However, the agreement does not specify which ministries should go to
which
party and this has been the main cause of the current
haggling.
According to the opposition, Mugabe wants all key ministries,
especially
Defence, Home Affairs, Information, Finance and Agriculture,
which form the
backbone of the Zimbabwean government.
"Mugabe wants
to grab everything for himself and relegate us to just
by-standers in the
day-to-day running of government," said Nelson Chamisa,
spokesman for the
MDC led by Tsvangirai.
"He wants to render us irrelevant and that is what
we do not want because we
are supposed to be sharing, not getting chuff from
Zanu-PF. So as it stands
now, talks on the formation of the new government
are deadlocked and SADC
and the African Union (AU) should come in to resolve
this."
Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu-PF's chief negotiator, hit back, accusing
the
opposition of bringing a Western influence into the
negotiations.
"They have always been western puppets and that has not
changed," said
Chinamasa. "They want to steal power from us and that will
not happen. We
are still in control of this country and they must accept
that. We will not
give them more than what we have offered."
However,
Zanu-PF insiders reveal that Mugabe was committed to the deal when
he
appended his signature to power-sharing agreement, but things changed
after
he met the security chiefs and his party's politburo and central
committee a
day later.
These told him that handing over any of the key ministries to
the opposition
would be as good as surrendering power. Apparently, senior
members of Mugabe's
party, who have previously relied on his politics of
patronage, fear that
they might lose their jobs and want the deal to fail in
order for them to
remain relevant.
Mugabe met with his party in
Harare a day after the signing of the deal,
when he was supposed to be
meeting the opposition to discuss the sharing of
cabinet posts. It is during
this meeting that the party's powerful politburo
and central committee
advised their leader to make sure that he retained
control of
government.
Mugabe's loyalists within the country's security forces, who
have kept the
Zimbabwean leader in power since the MDC was formed in 1999,
came with an
even tougher stance, when they all threatened to resign if any
of their
parent ministries were handed over to the
opposition.
Sources within the country's security forces revealed Tuesday
that the
commanders met Mugabe at State House in Harare early last week and
told him
in no uncertain terms that they could not work directly under the
opposition
leaders, especially Tsvangirai, saying that such an arrangement
would render
the country ungovernable.
The security commanders, who
included Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander,
General Constantine Chiwenga,
Zimbabwe National Army Commander, Lieutenant
General Philip Valerio Sibanda,
his Air Force counterpart Air Marshal
Perrence Shiri, Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri and Prisons
Services Commissioner,
Paradzayi Zimondi, are said to accuse the MDC leader
of having a "hidden
vendetta" against them.
All these have previously vowed that they will
not salute Tsvangirai even if
he were voted into power. On the other hand,
the MDC has accused the
securocrats of brutalizing its supporters in order
to keep Mugabe in power.
The army falls under the Ministry of Defence,
police under Home Affairs
while the Prison Services falls under the Ministry
of Justice - all of which
are some of the key ministries that Mugabe wants
to keep in the new
government.
"They told the President that they
will all leave their jobs if he handed
over their ministries," said a senior
member of Mugabe's party. "They
complained that, after what has happened
over the past eight years, it would
be best for them to quit their
jobs.
"They said that Tsvangirai is itching to try them for the alleged
brutalization of him and other members of his party during the past few
years. The President now has no choice although he knows that the deal will
be best for the country,"
However, Chamisa maintains that there will
be no deal if his party is not
given some of the key
ministries.
"There is no going back. We are supposed to be equals here,
and as long as
Zanu-PF wants to become big brother, then we have a deadlock
that should be
resolved only by the SADC and AU," he said.
The MDC
has in the past published names of military personnel it says were
responsible for the death and brutalization of its members at the
instigation of Mugabe.
Tsvangirai still maintains that human rights
violators will have to answer
for their actions, while human rights bodies
in the country have also
suggested that the new government should set up a
truth and reconciliation
commission to handle cases of human rights
violations in Zimbabwe.
Against that background, the service chiefs fear
that Tsvangirai might use
the ministries that he gets to pursue his "hidden
agenda", in what they say
will turn the security forces against one another
and render the country
ungovernable.
Mugabe, who has previously
relied on the military to bolster his control of
power, is said to have
promised the security chiefs that he will not
"betray" them and will not
hand over their ministries, in what has been
attributed to the current
deadlock.
However, Zimbabwean political analyst, Professor John Makumbe,
who has
previously described the power-sharing deal as "fragile", has
decried the
deadlock, saying it is a clear sign that the unity government
cannot work on
its own.
"This shows that this kind of government will
always need someone to baby
sit it all the time and that is not a way to
work," said Makumbe, a
University of Zimbabwe Political Science
lecturer.
"No one will have faith in such a government and investors will
not be
interested in coming to Zimbabwe."
http://www.nehandaradio.com
08 October 2008
By Lovemore
Matombo (ZCTU President)
ON 13 September 2006, thousands of workers
around the country took part in
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
demonstration against poverty
afflicting 80percent of
Zimbabweans.
They were demanding wages that were linked to the Poverty
Datum Line (PDL)
and Government's commitment to fight inflation. They also
wanted to benefit
from the HIV and AIDS fund through free distribution of
anti-retroviral
drugs.
They also demanded a stop in the
implementation of the compulsory National
Health Insurance Scheme that was
to be administered by the National Social
Security Authority
(NSSA).
The result of the action shocked the world. With tacit approval
from State,
a number of trade unionists were battered and tortured in the
streets and
police cells. President Robert Mugabe approved the beatings. He
told those
that were gathered at the Zimbabwe Mission in Cairo
that:
"If you want an excuse for being killed, be my guest go into the
streets and
demonstrate. The police were right in dealing sternly with
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions leaders during their
demonstration..because the trade
unionists want to become a law unto
themselves. '
'We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in
places not allowed
and when the police remove them, they say no. We can't
have that, that is a
revolt to the system. Vamwe vaakuchema kuti tarohwa,
ehe unodashurwa. When
the police say move, move. If you don't move, you
invite the police to use
force".
The injuries were particularly
serious for those who were detained at Matapi
Police Station.
Besides
the above, a number of citizens were beaten up and some suffered
severe
injuries. Today were remember the gallant trade unions who are at the
forefront of defending the rights of workers under immense state brutality.
Some of the injured have become permanently disabled.
As we gather
here today, we hear they are talks going on in the country, we
hope the
talks will usher in a new era in Zimbabwe were no any Zimbabwean
will be
beaten up for trying to demonstrate in the streets. This is what we
have
been fighting for, our freedom.
Lets we forget, I would like to remind
you that the ZCTU is not against the
current talks.
However, our
position, as espoused by the ZCTU general council was and
remains that of a
neutral transitional authority leading to a free and fair
elections. We
remain convinced that this is the only feasible way forward.
Let me end
by saying that the ZCTU believes that a better Zimbabwe is
possible.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
08 October 2008
Three
weeks after the signing of the political settlement by the three
principals
of the political parties in Zimbabwe, the country finds itself in
extreme
distress as Zanu PF's intransigence over key ministries and
governors sends
all sectors of the economy facing collapse.
Zanu PF's insensitivity has
left many people across the country dying of
starvation, pupils failing to
attend school because the teachers are on
strike, parents failing to access
their money from the banks, patients
failing to get treatment as doctors and
nurses are on strike and the
hospitals have no medicine.
In short,
there is a national paralysis. Zanu PF does not seem to appreciate
the
magnitude of the crisis in the country. The whole nation is hanging
characterised by anxiety, uncertainty and speculation.
The paralysis
has resulted on a serious catastrophe as it has affected
families who will
starve to death. It has been a wasted academic year. It
has been a lost
business year.
It also looks like a wasted agricultural season, as
Zimbabwe cannot be
expected to make adequate preparations for the current
farming season. We
must always put the people first ahead of petty interests
as Zanu PF is
doing. We cannot take the people for granted.
Zanu PF
is insisting on running all the key ministries in the country when
the same
party has in the past 28 years crippled the economy of a once
vibrant
country.
Our argument for equal sharing of responsibilities is motivated
by the
desire to change the way we have been doing business in order to
improve
people's lives. Unlike Zanu PF our religion is not power but the
people's
aspirations.
We are glad that Zimbabweans in their majority
understand and support our
position of insisting on genuine power sharing.
The people are on our side.
The MDC is calling for equal distribution of
key ministries so that it is in
government in a partnership of
equals.
Zimbabweans want a new and responsive government in place so that
it begins
to address the people's concerns of food, jobs, medicines and
education.
MDC Information and Publicity Department
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5397
October 7, 2008
By a Concerned
Medical Doctor
ACCORDING to the United Nations Development Programme it
will take Zimbabwe's
economy some 16 years of uninterrupted growth at
roughly five percent per
year to get to the level it would have been had it
not been for this past
decade of mind numbing mismanagement in our
government.
With life expectancy in our country sadly pegged in the early
thirties
primarily because of the HIV devastation, many of our people will
succumb
and fall to this great nemesis in this eleventh hour of the
struggle.
A sizeable number of Zimbabweans will not live to see or
realise the fruit
of their current sacrifices and toils upon which they
forcibly and
repetitively embark day in and day out. The breakdown of the
fabric of our
health care sector has seen an unchecked rise in deaths among
the poor of
our nation whose numbers swell as each day passes. Even the
long-forgotten
and once conquered cholera is back and claiming lives in
Harare and
Chitungwiza, a sure sign of collapse in service
delivery.
This, indeed, is heartbreaking.
HIV is no longer that
death sentence of the past in most developed
countries. Many nations that
have carried on in the path of economic growth
have also begun to realise
the same as true. We do not have real access to
HIV treatment in Zimbabwe.
The few figures who wield the real power to
change this have embarked on a
peculiar disempowerment of the population of
Zimbabwe, even going to the
extent of denying them access to basic health
care and life extending drugs
intentionally or unintentionally.
It is worrying that we also do not have
proper access to the treatment of
simple day to day ailments like flu,
tonsillitis, anaemia, and headaches, to
mention but a few, the common causes
and effects of which ultimately play a
part in the gradual degradation and
eventual overwhelming of the immune
system by HIV. It is not only the supply
of expensive antiretroviral drugs
that will raise life expectancy in our
country. It is rather primarily the
availability of that basic medical care
as was the case in the recent past
when our health care delivery system was
one of the best in Africa that
needs to be restored to secure our short and
medium term livelihoods.
Given the life expectancy statistics, there is
not a lot to be excited about
by the signing of a deal that is clearly
unlikely to herald and establish a
change we will be part of. Is there any
point filling our minds with these
fictitious dreams of a utopia that will
be the Zimbabwe of the future when
we clearly know many of our friends and
relatives will have a health too
frail to notice any such awaited change
when it eventually comes?
I do not think so. We continue to be witness to
the disconcerting
insincerity of some who are party to the signed deal. We
have all seen the
condescending demeanour with which our President has
approached the well
meaning elected stewards of our eagerly anticipated
emancipation.
What indifference and naivety!
Common sense demands
that Mr Robert Mugabe and his close friends take
cognisance of their
irrelevance to the path and process of change our nation
has
chosen.
Unless a plausible and acceptable distribution of key ministries
like Health
and Finance takes place, millions of our citizens will, sadly,
not live to
behold the restoration of the former glory of our great nation
that is
Zimbabwe.
Sad isn't it?
VOA
By Patience Rusere, Mark Peter Nthambe & Jonga
Kandemiiri
Washington
07 October 2008
Shops and
fuel stations in Zimbabwe licensed to charge for goods in hard
currency
opened for business this week amid complaints that their prices
were
exorbitant.
Supermarket chain Spar was among retailers who also sell
items for local
currency. But sources said shelves were still empty at the
TM-Hyper and OK
chains. Smaller shop owners said they were still trying to
pull together
enough hard currency to restock.
An official at the
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said business people in
Bulawayo were still
trying to gauge public reaction to paying hard currency
for ordinary
commodities.
The state run-Herald newspaper reported that Spar Borrowdale
Brooke was
offering 20 kilos of roller meal for US$18.50, flour for US$3.50
and two
litres of cooking oil for US$8.
Correspondent Mark Peter
Nthambe offered a first-hand look at so-called
Foreign Exchange Licensed
Warehouses and Retail Shops, in an interview with
reporter Brenda
Moyo.
National Income and Pricing Commission Chairman Godwills
Masimirembwa told
reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that the advantage
of the hard currency pricing is that prices can readily
be compared.
Masimirembwa added that his commission intends to take action
against
overpricing goods for sale in the local currency.
The
officially sanctioned launch of hard-currency shops follows a
well-established trend of dollarization in the battered Zimbabwean economy.
Many goods are offered in the parallel or black market only for hard
currencies, and many landlords demand rents in forex.
Meanwhile,
banks were running out of local currency despite the introduction
last week
by the Reserve Bank of notes in higher denominations of Z$10,000
and
Z$20,000.
Bankers say they are not receiving enough notes from the
Reserve Bank, while
others blame the central bank's suspension of electronic
transfers last week
for the intensification of the cash crunch, as consumers
and businesses
deprived of the electronic payments system now need
significantly more cash
to carry out essential larger
transactions.
Economist Prosper Chitambara told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri
that although
hyperinflation is the root cause of chronic cash shortages,
the central bank
has failed to provide the banking system with enough
physical banknotes.
http://www.radiovop.com
MASVINGO, October 8 2008 - The early
rains that fell in some parts of
the province this week have left farmers
panicking as they lack enough
inputs, especially seed and
fertilizer.
"We do not know where we are heading this
farming season. There is no
maize seed in sight by now, yet by August, most
farmers would have stocked
their inputs. This is unheard of, and I have no
doubt the consequences will
be deadly," said Ariel
Mazungunye.
Mazungunye, a plot owner, said most farmers were
left biting their
fingernails early this week when some showers fell in some
parts of
Masvingo.
"The rains were a wake up call for many
of us who do not have enough
farming inputs. We have tilled the land, but we
do not have any seed," he
said.
He blasted the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for dishing out ploughs
and tractors when there is no
seed.
Most shops including the black market have not stocked up
seed due to
the economic crisis that has resulted in world record
hyperinflation in the
country, shortages of foreign currency and
fuel.
Panic stricken farmers who spoke to RadioVOP fear more
food shortages.
At present nearly four million people are said to be in dire
need of food.
The farmers said they were uncertain that most of
them would get seed
in time, given the government's lack of proper
agricultural support scheme
policies.
While the bulk of
maize seed is imported from South Africa,
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo
admitted the country might fail to get
inadequate stocks in time.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/
Moses Mudzwiti Published:Oct 08,
2008
MEMBERS
of Zimbabwe's parliament - some of whom jeered and heckled President
Robert
Mugabe several weeks ago - have been subjected to an induction course
on the
"rules of debate".
The crash course on etiquette took place
despite the fact that Mugabe and
the Movement for Democratic Change leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, are still at
odds over the allocation of the 31
ministries and the formation of the new
government.
The two-day
course attended by MPs and senators ended yesterday. Authorities
said the
induction was necessary as parliament was likely to sit next
week.
During the opening of parliament in August, MDC MPs heckled and
broke into
song during Mugabe's address.
Soon after the
public humiliation, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa vowed
to "correct"
the "unbecoming behaviour" of the MPs.
The Times
October 8, 2008
Jan Raath in Harare
The class of 2008 will not receive an
education. Since the school year began
in January, Zimbabwe's 4.5 million
pupils have had a total of 23 days
uninterrupted in the classroom, teaching
unions say - a sorry state for a
country that once had the highest standard
of education in Africa.
President Mugabe became an African hero of rare
distinction when he carried
out a big expansion of the education system in
the early years of his rule.
As with most of the country's infrastructure,
that system is now in the
process of total collapse.
In the mid-1990s
there was a national O-level pass rate of 72 per cent. Last
year it crashed
to 11 per cent. Many schools recorded zero passes.
To avoid the
humiliation of total failure in 2008 the Government has
cancelled the
academic year. "It would be criminal if the Government allows
examinations
to go ahead," Raymond Majongwe, the secretary-general of the
Progressive
Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, said.
In January teachers went on a
prolonged strike over their salaries. In
April, Mr Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party
accused them of supporting the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) during
the March elections and blamed them for
the President's first-round
defeat.
Six teachers were murdered and thousands assaulted by Zanu (PF)
militia in
the violence that marred the second-round presidential election
on June 27.
Schools were looted and turned into torture centres. Teachers
disappeared.
Many are still unable to return for fear of being
disciplined.
Now the coup de grace to the education system is being
delivered by
hyperinflation. Teachers had their salaries doubled last week
to the
equivalent of £5.70 a month - barely enough for bus fares and bread
for four
days.
The handful of private and state schools where parents
can pay large
supplements to teachers' salaries are the only ones operating.
In most
schools where teachers do turn up pupil attendance is
dwindling.
"We come to school and we entertain the kids until 10am, then
we send them
home," Amos Musoni, from Sengwe primary school in the south of
the country,
said. "There were ten teachers last week, out of 32. They are
there because
they have no money to leave. We don't even have chalk, or red
pens, never
mind books."
At one of Harare's government boys' high
schools, benches are being sawn up
to provide wood for O-level woodwork
examinations - not that anyone knows
when they will happen.
"O and
A-level pupils go home next week to study for their finals," the
headmaster
said. "But there is no timetable. Nor do we have their June
mid-year
results."
Urban schools have been overwhelmed by water and power cuts.
One primary
school in Mabvuku township, Harare, has not had water for five
years. A
Harare girls' school has been seeking an axe to chop down trees for
firewood
to cook food.
Providing school food at a time of
comprehensive agricultural failure is a
struggle. Mr Majongwe said hundreds
of rural schools had sent their boarders
home because they could no longer
feed them.
Mr Musoni, from Sengwe, is pathetically thin. "There is no
food," he said.
"People are starving." Students at Harare Polytechnic rioted
last week after
they were served sadza, the stiff maize porridge that is the
national
staple, without salt or cabbage.
The country's four leading
universities have failed to open since the start
of their first term in
mid-August. At the University of Zimbabwe, the
country's leading tertiary
institute, a notice with last Friday's date on a
faculty building tells
students that lectures will begin "on a date to be
advised".
Levy
Nyagura, the Vice-Chancellor, said that the university had "no water,
no
electricity and no funds".
Ellen Murogodo, a would-be first-year social
work student, keeps returning
to the campus to register only to be told to
try again a week later. To pay
for her journey she sets up a stand outside
the university's Great Hall
where she sells popcorn and
cigarettes.
"Mugabe was a teacher himself [in the 1950s]," Mr Majongwe
said. "He knows
the potential of teachers as agents for change. That is why
he has
deliberately destroyed education."
New talks on a
power-sharing government in Zimbabwe failed yesterday to end
a stalemate
over Cabinet posts, the opposition MDC said.
http://www.radiovop.com
CHIPINGE, October 8 2008 -
Some children in the Chikore area of
Chipinge district in Manicaland
province are now attending neighbouring
schools in Mozambique, as most of
the local schools have closed due to lack
of
teachers.
Most of the children in the area, which
borders Mozambique, are now
attending the nearby Esupungabeira and Alberto
primary and secondary schools
in Mozambique.
"Children from
Chikore and Zona areas of Chipinge are now attending
lessons in
Esupungabeira where Zimbabwean teachers - fleeing the current
harsh economic
in the country - have been employed," said James Chikisa a
former teacher at
Chikore primary school who now teachs mathematics at
Alberto Primary
School.
Chikisa said most of the schools on the Mozambican side
were failing
to cope up with the large influx of children who are seeking an
education in
that country, whose education standards was considered
inferior to Zimbabwe
only a few years ago. Some of the pupils were
reportedly walking distances
of up to five kilometres to reach the
schools.
"This arrangement is not new ...During the height of
banditry
activities in Mozambique in the 80s children from Mozambique also
used to
attend our schools here. Infact the local communities share the same
cultural background with the Mozambicans" said Rebai Sithole, a local parent
whose son now attends a school in Mozambique.
http://www.hararetribune.com
Tuesday, 07 October 2008 20:31
And it seems as though
some of Africa's lowest paid civil servants view
themselves as being more
special than others.
Members from Zimbabwe's civil service, the police,
army and prisons have
adopted this annoying and offensive attitude and made
it a culture whereby
they don't stand in a queue like everybody.
They
have cultivated this obscene and shameless habit and have crafted it
into an
art. Its vey much insulting for somebody to jump a cash queue made
up of
large number of disgruntled people, who have been standing in the
scorching
October sun for more than 5 hours, some having slept in the queue,
just
because he or she is employed in the civil service and tries to
capitalize
on intimidating the civilian population using his or her
uniform.
Arguments arise in queues on a day to day due to this habit, and
it is being
reported that fist fights are occurring between fed up people
and members
from the civil service. Everybody is struggling due to the
current situation
and has to spend valuable time standing in a queue, time
that could have
been used doing something productive that brings food to the
table.
Members from the civil service are not special in any way, and
thus have no
right to jump queues on the pretext of being having busy
schedules. But hey,
this is Zimbabwe we are talking of.
The Zanu PF
attitude and way of thinking based on selfishness and
intimidation has
effectively sunk its roots in the mindsets of members from
our civil
service. It's the same typical attitude displayed by Zanu PF youth
and the
so called war veterans, responsible for the assault, and murder of
supporters from the MDC post March 29 and June 27.
The Zimbabwean
civil service was highly regarded and respected after the
country attained
its independence in 1980 but today is a shell of its former
glory.
Re-education, taking the form of multiple refresher courses is
very
necessary to re-install professionalism and public confidence in the
civil
service. Respect and tolerance, not intimidation and fear are the
building
blocks that need to be laid in order to rebuild Zimbabwe and
restore her to
her former glory.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own
Corresondent Wednesday 08 October 2008
JOHANNESBURG - The
South African health department on Tuesday said a
mysterious flu-like
illness that has killed three people in the country and
put medical
authorities on high alert may be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
(CCHF).
"We suspect that it may be Congo hemorrhagic fever but we
have not made a
diagnosis yet," Frew Benson, the South African Health
Department's deputy
director of communicable diseases, told
reporters.
The country's authorities said they were closely monitoring
the disease,
which causes external and internal bleeding, but called on the
public not to
panic over the deaths of three people from the strange
illness, saying the
disease was not airborne but transmitted through bodily
fluids.
South Africa was set to send blood samples to the United States
Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Tuesday, Benson
said.
The first casualty was a Zambian woman who came to Johannesburg's
Morningside Medi-Clinic with flu-like symptoms on September 12. She was
treated for tick-bite fever and other potential infections but died two days
later.
Two other people have died from the same flu-like symptoms at
the hospital
since September, including a Zambian paramedic who had
accompanied the first
patient into South Africa.
A cleaner at
Morningside Clinic who was suspected of contracting the disease
died of an
unrelated condition, said the hospital's spokesperson, Melinda
Pelser.
The outbreak of the mysterious disease raised fears that it
could easily
spread to South Africa's neighbours, particularly its
strife-torn northern
neighbour, with an estimated three million Zimbabweans
believed to be living
in South Africa and tens of thousands others passing
through Beitbridge
border post everyday.
Zambian authorities said on
Monday they, together with the World Health
Organisation (WHO), have mounted
investigations into the unknown disease.
CCHF, which causes death in
around 30 percent of hospitalised patients, is
carried by domestic animals
and can be transmitted by ticks. It is found in
Africa, Eastern Europe and
Asia.
CCHF first appeared in Crimea in 1944 and was later identified in
1956 as
the cause of an illness in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo.
Cases
have been recorded in Kosovo, Albania, Iran, Pakistan and South
Africa.
Symptoms include headaches, back pains, vomiting, severe bruising
and nose
bleeds.
The World Health Organisation says that CCHF can be
treated but recovery is
slow and if treatment is not provided in time, death
can occur in the second
week of illness.
Other strains of hemorrhagic
fever, include Ebola and Marburg, which have
killed hundreds of people in
outbreaks in Africa. These diseases cause
bleeding from multiple sites and
can have very high death rates.
Ebola is rare, but there is no known cure
and the virus usually kills
between 50 and 90 percent of its victims and is
spread through contact with
bodily fluids of a patient. - ZimOnline
http://www.morningmirror.africanherd.com
If you need entertainment in
Zimbabwe, book a trip on an Air Zimbabwe
flight.
Times are tight with
Air Zim (Scare Zim some folk call it )
They are pretty short of planes
and its becoming rather obvious. How they
juggle theirpilots and planes
is anybody's guess, and trust me , it is a GIANT GUESS !!
They say the
country is in melt down, well we were in total melt down last
Wednesday
inmore ways than one..... when we were booked to fly to
Johannesburg.
Now HeeHoo and I are quite used to flight delays, we settle
down with our electronic toys
and can keep ourselves completely absorbed
for many hours, but this was
rather different.
For example the
Bulawayo Airport is still situated in an old metal aircraft
hanger, and
has
been since time immemorial.
Air conditioning ? Nah ...... Catering
? nah ..... Cold drinks on sale ? nah ....
With perspiration pouring
down our backs, we all made lifelong friends with
one another ,
and did
as Zimbabweans are wont to do ... made the best of it....
The pilot
needed some rest we were told initially, then it was too hot for the
Chinese
propellor plane to take off, and so on and so forth ....
It
must have been 45 degrees in mid October, dehydration set in and there on
the shelf inthe bar fridge were some vaguely cold bottles of water but
we just could not
afford them !!
We pooled our cash and managed to
round up 8 thousand Zimbabwe dollars, one tiny
bottle of water however
was 9 thousand Zimbabwe dollars.
Gasp gasp, lets pay in forex we
suggested tentatively but the bank rate
would have made
the bottled water
prohibitively expensive and so I cupped my mouth around
the tap in
the
bathroom instead ..... praying that the Matsheumhlope River Gut Rot God
was
too far away to affect me !!
Five hours into the torrid wait a
complimentary crate of tepid bitter lemon and lemonade
was dumped
unceremoniously on the floor in the middle of the departure
lounge and
we
all rushed frantically to grab one, searching furiously in our baggage for
an opener.
Six hours into the torrid wait, some wilting cheese and
tomato sambos were passed
around gingerly, with the ground staff standing
guard to see no one took
more than his or
her share !! Nothing even
remotely edible for sale in the shop, even if one
could possibly
afford
it !!
Eventually HeeHoo made an executive decision and sent for the
company Food
and
Beverage Manager , Noel aka "HeeHoo Must Provide Liquid
Refreshment." ......
A giant polypropylene sack full of ice cold Castles
arrived and our party began ....
After an extraordinarily lengthy wait ,
as dusk fell, (now remember we had
been there since 8 am !! ) we were at
last poured onto the bus, which drove at high
speed towards the
now cool
plane, only to be told that no, sorry , mistake, that plane was now
going
to Harare instead.
Patience had now run out totally, and several
passengers argued loudly with
the Scare Zim staff while HeeHoo and Barry
doggedly but surreptitiously pushed the baggage train
towards the loading
ramp of the plane !!
Having none of that we were unceremoniously bundled
back into the bus and returned to
the hangover hanger !!
The
Harare lot were rather snooty about commandeering our plane and
haughtily embarked, we forgave them however, as many had a connection to
London that
night, and we returned to our perch on the baggage carts
under the stars. Besides we
were having far too much fun !
At
least it was cooler now and some wag had found his way secretly into a
fridge at the back and was providing us with purloined cold cold beers
!!
Anxious eyes scanned the darkening sky looking for the jet, which was
now
promised to take us to Johannesburg. There were a couple of
Traditional Healers on the
plane heading for a conference in Joburg and
maybe they used some of their magic to
conjure up a plane at long last to
take us on our merry way !!
Question ? Did the left hand actually know
what the right hand was doing ?
Sadly the phrase "Headless chicken" comes
to mind .......
We pray for better days once again and remember longingly
when Air Zimbabwe
was known as " the Jewel of Africa."