Mail and Guardian
Irin News Service
07 October 2005
11:59
Three hours of standing in a queue for maize meal
looked like it
was about to pay off when the line suddenly disintegrated
amid despairing
groans and some furious name calling. The supermarket had
just run out of
Zimbabwe's staple food.
Shoppers in
Bulawayo are rationed to 10kg of maize meal per
person, but finding it --
and, indeed, most other basic essentials -- on the
shelves is no easy
matter.
To get anywhere near a bottle of cooking oil, a bag
of rice, a
tube of toothpaste, a carton of milk, a packet of sugar, a box of
washing
powder or even a bar of soap, you need a reliable rumour, an eye for
a queue
worth joining and, above all, patience.
An Irin
reporter had heard that maize meal was on the shelves at
a local supermarket
and joined the queue. Seventy people were already
waiting. Conversations
inevitably revolved around the current hardships:
water rationing in the
city, the lack of basic items, the exorbitant prices
when they did become
available and President Robert Mugabe's recent response
to the crisis --
that people had the option of eating potatoes.
"Nowadays, we
eat just one meal a day," one elderly man informed
anybody in the queue who
was willing to listen. "During the day, we have
nothing at all and I have
heard my two grandchildren joke that they had air
pies for lunch. The only
time we have managed at least two meals is when my
son, who is in South
Africa, sends us some groceries."
Three hours later,
tantalisingly close to the tiny storeroom
from which the maize meal was
being sold, supplies ran out. As incensed
shoppers accused the supermarket
staff of hoarding -- "You want us to die,
what kind of people are you?" --
riot police, on the spot for just such an
eventuality, stepped in and the
trouble was over.
Plan B was a supermarket in the town
centre, but this time only
30 people were waiting in line outside,
suggesting that whatever was being
sold could not be that important. It
turned out to be bread rather than the
maize meal, rice or macaroni
Zimbabweans look to for filling their
stomaches.
Not much
was available but shop attendants were busy marking up
shockingly high new
prices. In the past few weeks, maize meal has shot up
from US50c for 10 kg
to $2,50, and rice from $3 for a 2kg bag to $7. The
current food basket for
a family of five costs $230 a month, yet an average
worker takes home about
$192, nowhere near enough to pay for rent, school
fees and other essentials,
and buy food.
September's 130% fuel price hike -- the second
increase in three
months -- is set to further stoke inflation, as will a
17,5% value added tax
on certain goods and services, the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe has warned.
VOA
By Patience
Rusere
Washington
07 October 2005
Hardliners in
the Zimbabwean government appear to have won an internal
debate over the
latest round of farm seizures, initiated following passage
and signature
into law of a constitutional amendment nationalizing all
farmland in the
country.
This new phase of Zimbabwe's land reform program has drawn open
opposition
from Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, who argues that it is
counterproductive at a time when food is scarce and the country faces deep
economic problems.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa threw his weight
behind Mr. Gono's position
late this week in remarks before a business
audience in the eastern border
city of Mutare.
But their opposition
has been fruitless against hardliners in the cabinet of
President Robert
Mugabe who see the way clear to make a clean sweep in land
reform.
Reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe asked
Deputy
Information Minister Bright Matonga to clarify government policy in
light of
the public disagreement between the country's economic managers,
and State
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who also holds the food security
and land
reform portfolios.
Many observers agree with the finance
minister and the central bank governor
that the new round of farm invasions
will not help Zimbabwe out of its
profound economic slump or result in
increased food production to relieve
widespread shortages.
But as
South African-based analyst Chris Maroleng tells Studio 7 reporter
Patience
Rusere, the new land offensive is not driven by economic
considerations.
Among the recently dispossessed is Dr. Petra Clowes,
wife of a farm operator
and the only medical doctor left in Chipinge, about
120 kilometers south of
Mutare.
Reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke with Dr. Clowes
about her medical practice in
Chipinge and ordeal at the hands of farm
invaders.
New Zimbabwe
By Alison
Musekwa
Last updated: 10/08/2005 10:11:12
DUNLOP Tyres (Pvt) Limited,
Zimbabwe's sole tyre manufacturing firm has shut
down operations throwing
820 workers into the streets.
The closure of the Bulawayo based firm is
also going to result in more that
30 000 workers employed in the downstream
industries losing their jobs.
Officials at the tyres manufacturer and
exporter said the firm had shut down
its plant last week due to shortages of
foreign currency, which has resulted
in the company failing to procure raw
materials.
Phil Whitehead, Dunlop managing director said the company has
not been
receiving foreign currency allocations from the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) since July 15, 2005.
The RBZ, under whose regulations
all Zimbabwean exporting firms surrender 50
percent of their export
proceeds, is also responsible for allocating foreign
currency to industry as
well as various arms of government.
"We stopped production last week and
workers are at home. This is a huge
disaster. You can not run an economy
without tyres," Whitehead said.
Zimbabwe, whose gross domestic product
(GDP) is expected to plummet by a
further 7 percent in 2005, is grappling
with severe foreign currency
shortages as well as bitter food, fuel and
electricity shortage.
The closure is also going to hit hard various arms
of government such as the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP) as well as the
Central Mechanical and Equipment Department
(CMED), which had placed huge
orders of tyres to Dunlop.
Whitehead
said his firm's plight has been worsened by an exclusive
arrangement entered
between Dunlop and RBZ where the tyre manufacturer
undertook to surrender
100 percent of its export proceeds.
Whitehead said Dunlop last month
surrendered US$687 000, its average monthly
export earnings, to the central
bank.
"We honoured our part of the agreement with the RBZ but they are
reneging.
They are using the money for food and fuel imports at our
expense,"
Whitehead fumed.
Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy has
been in free fall since the
government embarked on a controversial programme
to seize white owned
commercial farms in 2000.
Dunlop requires US$50
000 to manufacture tyres on a daily basis but
Whitehead said it would cost
US$100 000 to import the same tyres.
Whitehead the effects of Dunlop closing
down are even worse off on the
downstream industry and their
customers.
"The army, police, CMED and Willowvale motor industry are some
of our
biggest customers and imagine the army and police operating with no
tyres,"
Whitehead said.
He added that the RBZ and government have
virtually turned a deaf ear to
their pleas for help.
Zimbabwe
National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) president Luxon Zembe said the
RBZ was
affording industry only 6 percent of their foreign currency
requirements.
This has resulted in companies sourcing foreign
currency on the thriving
black market, where rates are high, Zembe
said.
"There is no sense of urgency in our politicians. The political
will is not
there. Industry is not getting the commitment it needs from
government,"
Zembe lamented.
In its latest report on the Zimbabwe
economy the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) projected a 7 percent decline
in GDP in 2005.
The Fund said the pace of the country's economic
deterioration slowed last
year but had resumed again in early 2005 due to
rising inflation, foreign
currency shortages and low agricultural output
because of drought and a
botched land reform programme.
The Zimbabwe
economy has crushed by 30 percent between 19978 ad 2003.
"Without a bold
change in policy direction, the economic outlook will remain
bleak, with
particularly detrimental effects on the poorest segments of the
population,"
the IMF said.
The Herald
(Harare)
October 7, 2005
Posted to the web October 7,
2005
Harare
A HEALTH hazard is looming in Harare city centre as
well as suburbs such as
Avondale where mounds of garbage have formed in
sanitary lanes and along
streets as the municipality has failed to collect
refuse for the fourth
consecutive month citing fuel shortages.
Shop
owners in central Harare are bitter about the municipality's failure to
collect the garbage saying this is exposing shoppers to a health
hazard.
"The city council has not been collecting rubbish here for the
last four
months and this morning I have phoned them six times but they are
responding
by putting me through to various departments which provide no
answer to my
query," lamented a businesswoman along Robson Manyika
Avenue.
She said other shop owners were now disposing rubbish in her
backyard
because the city council had failed to provide them with waste
bins.
Another shop owner said: "The scenario is a health hazard. The city
council
should wake up. We are paying rates for nothing; I wonder where the
money is
going," he said.
Harare City Council spokesman Mr Leslie
Gwindi said the council was working
hard to collect all garbage and refuse
accumulating in the city but this was
being affected by erratic fuel
supplies.
"It is only that we are not coping with the demand for rubbish
collection
all round the city as we are not getting enough of the council's
diesel
requirements to allow all waste trucks to provide the service," said
Mr
Gwindi.
A survey by The Herald revealed that mounds of rubbish
were not being
collected in many sanitary lanes around town.
Some
heaps of rubbish had also been lit up, churning out smoke into the
air.
"It is illegal to put up fires anywhere around the city centre,"
said Mr
Gwindi.
Dallas Examiner
By MICHAEL HARTNACK, Associated
Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's state-run hospitals can't
afford medicines and
equipment because of foreign currency shortages and
were turning away
patients, a government newspaper reported last
week.
The Herald quoted Tendai Nyakuedzwa, a laboratory scientist at
Chitungwiza
General Hospital, as saying the foreign currency shortage had
left the
hospital unable to import materials to test for HIV, the virus that
causes
AIDS. He also said equipment to test patients' responses to
medication had
been out of order for over a year.
The Herald said
Chitungwiza, on the southern outskirts of the capital, and
Harare Central
Hospital had been having problems for the past two years,
turning away
several HIV/AIDS patients or referring them to Harare's
Parirenyatwa Group
of Hospitals, a teaching facility that also is state-run
but has
international funding.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa also blamed
foreign currency shortages
for the lack of testing material and spare parts,
the Herald reported. The
teaching hospitals were named for the minister's
father, Samuel, Zimbabwe's
first Black doctor.
More than 23
percent of Zimbabweans are believed to carry HIV, with at least
3,000
AIDS-related deaths a week.
The Herald also reported that the Justice
Ministry lacked money to feed
witnesses brought from remote rural areas to
testify, affecting court
proceedings.
An 11-year-old murder trial
witness, who under Zimbabwean law cannot be
named, complained of hunger
while testifying Monday and Judge Paddington
Garwe postponed proceedings,
the newspaper said.
Justice Ministry officials last week told a
parliamentary committee they
needed 28 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (US $1.1
billion) to improve conditions
for 27,000 prisoners in jails built for
16,000, to run courts efficiently,
and pay off 40 billion Zimbabwe dollars
(US $1.5 million) in debts.
"Deplorable" prisons lacked basic running water
and washing facilities,
leading to outbreaks of tuberculosis and measles,
legislators heard.
A sometimes violent campaign begun in 2000 to
seize farms from whites and
hand them over to Blacks has been blamed for
accelerating economic collapse
in Zimbabwe. Agriculture had been the
country's major foreign currency
earner.
Zimbabwe faces 80
percent unemployment, 265 percent inflation, and severe
shortages of
staples.
From News24 (SA), 6 October
Harare - Human rights lawyers on Thursday went to court to try
to block the
eviction of 400 victims of Zimbabwe's demolitions blitz from
their new
makeshift homes in one of the country's poorest townships. The
targets of
Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive out Filth, were told by police
at the
weekend to leave their new shelters in Harare's Mbare Township.
Zvikomborero
Chadambuka of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said: "These
are people who
have nowhere to go and the police have not told them where to
go. We have
filed this morning for an interdict from the High Court to stop
these
evictions." On May 18, Zimbabwe launched the two-pronged Operation
Restore
Order and Operation Murambatsvina, razing shacks, homes, small
businesses
and market stalls in shantytowns and other poor urban areas. The
government
had portrayed the blitz that took place, amid severe food and
fuel
shortages, as an urban renewal campaign and said it was building new
housing
for those displaced in the operations that ended in late July. A UN
report
released in the aftermath of the blitz said the demolitions had left
700 000
people homeless or without sources of income, or both, in cities and
towns
across the country, while a further 2.4 million were affected in
varying
degrees. But, Zimbabwean authorities blasted the UN report, saying
it was
biased against the government and exaggerated the number of people
affected.
Chadambuka said at least 400 people who lost their homes in the
blitz were
living in plastic and cardboard shacks in the heart of the poor
suburb of
Mbare. The police eviction order came at the back of the arrest of
more than
14 000 illegal vendors and dealers in foreign currency and fuel
during
follow-up operations to the demolitions blitz. Inspector Loveless
Rupere of
police said the latest crackdown codenamed Siyapambili,
Hatidzokereshure
(Moving Ahead/No Turning Back) was "to monitor the city so
that we deal with
any of those who are returning to the city and conduct
shady dealings".
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
EDITORIAL
October 7, 2005
Posted to the web October
7, 2005
Johannesburg
IF EVER there were early warning signs that
events in Zimbabwe could take a
disastrous turn, take note of reports
earlier this week of protests by
soldiers in Zimbabwe.
Many have been
sent on forced leave because the army cannot feed them. This
is hardly
surprising, given the information contained in a report on the
Zimbabwean
economy released this week by the International Monetary Fund. It
points out
that the economy has contracted by almost a third in the past
eight years
and that there has been a high human cost to President Robert
Mugabe's
economic policies.
Economic decline and dissatisfaction in the Zimbabwean
army could prove to
be a dangerous brew for the region. Several recent
reports have cited
military sources as saying soldiers are increasingly
dissatisfied by the
government's refusal to raise salaries, a particularly
harsh decision in an
environment of hyperinflation. Instead of layoffs to
cut costs, the
Zimbabwean army is making troops go on forced leave so it
does not have to
feed them.
The Zimbabwean defence force has been
trying to calm the waters by saying
there will be a pay rise in January and
that people are taking leave due to
a use-it-or-lose-it policy. But this
public relations ploy may well be too
little, too late. While the top
echelons of the Zimbabwean military have
been heavily rewarded by Mugabe,
who relies on their support to stay in
power, the families of more junior
ranks are suffering heavily from
shortages and unemployment.
A mass
crackdown on ill-discipline and the resort to forced leave are
unlikely to
solve the problem. Zimbabwe's economic problems mean Mugabe can
no longer
distribute patronage on the same scale to those he needs to
support. A
failure to maintain army salaries in real terms in Zimbabwe is a
recipe for
instability -- several state leaders on the continent have fallen
victim to
coups due to such a scenario. Dissatisfaction in the military, as
well as
the ongoing decline of the economy, have significant consequences
for
Zimbabwe's neighbouring states, not least of which is a rising number of
refugees flooding across their borders.
The African Union and the
Southern African Development Community are setting
up formal early-warning
systems as part of their new architecture for peace
and security. The
question is, what happens once these early warning systems
are set up and
the red lights begin to flash? It's an important one, because
red lights
have begun to flash in the case of Zimbabwe.
IOL
October 07
2005 at 12:49PM
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has
declared November 26 as
the date for elections for a new senate, state radio
announced late Friday.
An official document announcing the poll
also set October 24 as the
date on which nomination courts will sit in all of
the country's 10
provinces to select candidates.
The main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has still not
decided whether
to contest the elections. The MDC was opposed to
constitutional changes
pushed through parliament by Mugabe's ruling party in
August that allowed for
the setting up of a second upper chamber in
parliament.
The
polls for 50 senators will be the second major poll this year,
following
disputed parliamentary elections in March won by Mugabe's Zimbabwe
African
National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).
Ten other
senators will be drawn from traditional chiefs, generally
loyal to Mugabe,
while the veteran Zimbabwean leader gets to appoint an
additional six
senators. - Sapa-dpa
New Zealand Herald
08.10.05
Two Zimbabwean families are selling the market
garden business they took on
when they fled to New Zealand, writes Estelle
Sarney.
Home Fresh, Cnr Matakana Rd and Sharps Rd, Matakana.
The
concept of receiving money in return for the sale of their property has
become a novelty for the two couples selling the Home Fresh farm near
Matakana.
Peter and Carolyn Beamish were moved off three farms for no
return in their
native Zimbabwe, before deciding to give up their homeland
to Robert
Mugabe's dictatorial government and start anew in New Zealand
three years
ago. Carolyn's sister, Anne Tremlett-Johnstone and her husband
Charlie, who
had also been moved off their property for no return, came with
them.
"There was no hope in Zimbabwe of tertiary education for our
children," says
Carolyn, "and then a friend of ours was killed. We decided
that for our
children's education and our security we had to leave. It was a
big upheaval
because we'd all grown up in the area in which we farmed, and
had to come
out into the big world. It was a bit of shock."
This was
partly why they were attracted to New Zealand, which was smaller
than
Australia, and then to the small town area of Matakana and
Warkworth.
"The children have settled in really well," says Carolyn, who
has two at
Matakana School and one at Mahurangi College. "We've all made
friends around
here. We want to stay in this area."
She and Peter
farmed cattle in Africa, while Anne and Charlie grew tobacco,
maize and
paprika. They put their agricultural knowledge to use by pouring
what money
they had into the Home Fresh business, which produces about
63,000 lettuces
a year, plus mesclun, basil, rocket and tomatoes. Carolyn
and Peter live in
the comfortable weatherboard house on the property, while
Anne and Charlie
have a house in Warkworth.
"We'd never grown lettuce before," says Peter,
"but we got advisers in to
teach us the ropes. We're still learning things,
but the basics are easy.
Hydroponics is one of the easiest ways of growing
things, and it's very
clean."
A dam and a bore on the property mean
there is never a problem with water
supply for a business that relies on
keeping its plants' feet wet.
About a third of the families' income is
made through the shop at the front
of the property, although this fluctuates
throughout the year. They also
supply the Progressive supermarkets and other
vegetable shops in Auckland,
and cafes and restaurants in their
area.
The business is well set up to hand over - there's a seedling
house, a
hothouse for the tomatoes, basil and rocket, a packhouse, several
chillers
to keep different vegetables at their required temperatures, and a
seeding
machine that does the week's planting in two hours.
The
lettuce farm has allowed the families to find their feet in New Zealand,
but
they now want to move on to other things. Anne and Charlie would like to
get
into renovating houses. Carolyn and Peter aren't sure where the wind
will
blow them, but it will be somewhere around their newfound home in
Matakana.
"We've just got our New Zealand residency," says Carolyn.
"So we feel like
we belong here now."
Vital Statistics
SIZE:
Land 4.7 ha, house 185sq m.
PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected above $1
million. Tender closes November
4.
INSPECT: Sunday
noon-1pm.
CONTACT: Ben and Nola Kloppers, Harveys, ph 021 425 599 or 021
425 597.
FEATURES: Hydroponic farm growing lettuce, basil, rocket,
mesclun and
tomatoes for local and Auckland market. Several outbuildings
including 912sq
m seedling polyhouse, 2600sq m tomato polyhouse, and packing
shed. Seeding
machine. 232sq m shop on the corner of two busy roads.
Comfortable
weatherboard house.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
07 October 2005
Judges hearing the Zimbabwe
immigration case in the UK listened to
final submissions from lawyers
representing the Home office and those for
the Legal Refugee Centre on
Friday. They will take evidence presented by
both sides and determine
whether it is safe to return failed asylum cases to
Zimbabwe.
There was a lack of medical reports and sworn statements from
Zimbabweans
who were tortured upon return home because many are too afraid
to document
their stories. On the other hand, the home office team that
visited Zimbabwe
to investigate did not speak to many of the appropriate
organisations that
have evidence of torture and harassment. A decision will
be announced next
Friday that will affect all Zimbabweans applying for
asylum in the
U.K.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
New York Times
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: October 8, 2005
JOHANNESBURG,
Oct. 7 - Against a backdrop of mounting economic collapse, the
police in
Zimbabwe say they have arrested nearly 15,000 street merchants
since late
September in a reprise of a campaign in May that cleared
destitute squatters
and vendors from urban areas.
A tomato vendor in Harare in September had
to look out for the police. A
crackdown is criminalizing one of the
economy's few parts still working.
The United Nations estimates that at
least 700,000 Zimbabweans were routed
from their homes and driven into rural
areas during the last campaign,
dubbed "Operation Drive Out Trash." The new
campaign, "Operation No Sneak
Return," is aimed at vendors who, stripped of
any way to earn a living, have
tried to return to the cities to resume
business.
Because the government effectively bars foreign journalists
from working in
Zimbabwe, it is difficult to ascertain details of what is
occurring. But
telephone interviews and reports in the nation's press
indicate that this
week, riot-equipped police officers swept through some of
the poorest areas,
mostly informal settlements outside major cities, and
seized goods being
sold by vendors.
In a number of cases the vendors
chose to fight the police - a measure, some
experts say, of the rising
desperation among ordinary Zimbabweans who are
increasingly unable to buy
essentials for their families.
Basic foods have been in short supply for
years, and gasoline has been all
but unavailable for months. Newspapers this
week reported that there was a
mosquito infestation in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second-largest city, because
the city government had no gasoline to dispatch
trucks to spray breeding
areas.
The International Monetary Fund
forecast this week that Zimbabwe's economy
would shrink by 7 percent this
year and that inflation, now officially
pegged at 265 percent a year, would
exceed 400 percent by December. Some
experts consider those figures
conservative.
Perhaps most ominously, shortages of seed and fertilizer
are threatening to
devastate next year's harvest.
Officials told the
pro-government newspaper The Daily Mirror that the sweep
of vendors, which
has resulted in 14,706 arrests, was a routine operation
that had met no more
than ordinary resistance.
But telephone interviews with some Zimbabweans
suggest that resistance was
more widespread. Joseph Rose, 40, lives in
Tafara, an impoverished
settlement of about 100,000 on the eastern outskirts
of the capital, Harare.
Paramilitary forces demolished countless homes there
in May and June, and
Mr. Rose said the police were now rousting people from
shopping centers and
even from homes where they had been quietly selling
goods to passers-by.
"On Tuesday there came some police constabularies,"
he said. "They came to
arrest people, and I understand they were beaten up
by the vendors at the
Kamunhu shopping center. There were three police
beaten up, three of them."
The police later returned in force and
arrested three men suspected of
having taken part in the beatings, he said.
His report could not be
independently verified.
But The Daily Mirror
and other news sources in Zimbabwe have reported that
there have been
running battles between the police and some vendors in
Harare's destitute
suburbs and that crowds of people have besieged some
markets where scarce
commodities like sugar were rumored to be available.
Those accounts tend
to bolster the suspicions of some analysts that
Zimbabweans may be running
short of patience - and their government cracking
down on dissent - after
years of privation and growing shortages. The Daily
Herald, considered the
government's most reliable media ally, reported this
week that the campaign
in May to send the urban poor into rural areas had
been ordered by President
Robert G. Mugabe to head off any peasant-led
revolt like those that toppled
governments in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan earlier
this year.
Mr. Mugabe's
government has steadfastly argued that its campaign was a civic
beautification drive, intended to eliminate unsightly shacks and stalls from
the landscape.
But critics say the crackdown on vendors is a measure
of economic
desperation, an attempt to assert state control over the
underground
economy, which operates free of taxes and free of currency
exchange rates,
set by the government, which have little grounding in
reality.
And by any measure, it is apparent that the country's already
parlous
economic situation has turned for the worse in recent
months.
Recent news reports have indicated that the government is paring
down the
40,000-soldier army because it is no longer able to feed the
troops, and
that some soldiers have protested the absence of any raise in
salary since
January despite a steep decline in the value of the Zimbabwean
dollar. The
South African newspaper Business Day quoted anonymous Zimbabwean
officials
as saying that some soldiers could be court-martialed for their
role in the
protests.
John Robertson, an economist and onetime
official of Zimbabwe's reserve bank
who is harshly critical of the
government's economic policies, said in a
telephone interview on Friday that
a shortage of foreign currency had all
but dried up the supply of seed,
fertilizer and other basic commodities
needed to begin planting for the
crops that are supposed to be harvested
next May and June.
"Even
before the rains have come, we have a crop failure," he said. "It's
done a
great deal to demoralize people, and made them realize that the next
year's
foreign currency earnings are going to be used to buy foreign maize."
The
government says the latest roundup of street vendors is aimed at
alleviating
the economic crisis. It accuses the street merchants of
encouraging runaway
inflation by selling goods at black-market rates.
Many of the goods that
were confiscated - particularly staples like corn
meal, cooking oil, sugar,
rice and soap - are all but unavailable in
Zimbabwe's stores, in part
because merchants cannot obtain the foreign
currency needed to buy the
products from foreign-based wholesalers. Zimbabwe
suffers a dearth of
foreign currency because its shrunken economy produces
little that can be
sold profitably abroad.
Mr. Robertson said a headlong decline in the
Zimbabwean currency's value was
driven in part by the government, which
soaked up most of the nation's
foreign exchange last month to make a payment
to the International Monetary
Fund on a long overdue billion-dollar
debt.
Manufacturers and merchants who needed foreign currency to buy
ingredients
and other supplies outside the country were forced into a
bidding war for
the few American dollars that the government had not seized,
he said.
October 06, 17.30 HRS BST
Authorities believe returning asylum seekers are being deliberately sent back as "agents of regime change," the
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal heard.
The warning came from Lawyers who are challenging the deportation of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers by the UK Government in the test case in London.
Deportations prompted hunger strikes and public protests earlier this year.
During the summer, Zimbabwean asylum seekers held in immigration removal centres launched a national hunger strike to protest against returns.
At least 50 people took part in the protest, supported by members of the Zimbabwean community and asylum campaigners.
The Home Office has rejected claims that returnees were subjected to abuse - but it suspended removals in July after Mr
Justice Collins in the High Court said there was an "arguable" case that asylum seekers were at risk of ill treatment.
He ordered a stay of all cases until the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal heard a test case on the current situation in Zimbabwe.
Interrogation claims
Launching the test case, Mark Henderson of the Refugee Legal Centre told the tribunal that Home Secretary Charles
Clarke had conceded that the deportees were being handed over to Zimbabwean authorities on arrival in Harare.
He said investigations had shown that returning asylum seekers were being subjected to "in-depth questioning" by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) Zimbabwe's secret police.
"That is in any ordinary words interrogation," Mr Henderson told the hearing.
"It appears to be accepted in the light of the Secretary of State's evidence that there is a unique hostility towards the British State on the part of the Zimbabwe regime.
"Indeed, the evidence not only as presented by ourselves but also presented by the Secretary of State, refers to Zimbabwean authorities viewing such people as traitors, guilty of treachery and betrayal.
"Anyone who sought asylum in Britain will, at least, be at real risk of ill treatment. Mugabe believes they [the British Government] are leading an international campaign to effect regime change."
Mr Henderson said that the CIO had taken "particular interest" in flights from the UK - and a "malevolent interest" in returning asylum seekers. Some of these were regarded as "Blair's spies" or "agents of regime change", he told the tribunal.
For the Home Office, Steven Kovats said an official delegation visited Zimbabwe in September to investigate the claims of abuse.
"The Secretary of State concludes that on the totality of evidence of the field reports that failed asylum seekers as a class are not at real risk of treatment contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, nor are they at real risk of persecution," said Mr Kovats.
Some 12,000 people from Zimbabwe claimed asylum in the UK between 2002 and 2004.
The British government has described the regime there as one suffering political and social unrest that has led to death and serious injury.
According to the more recent figures, almost a fifth of Zimbabweans who appeal against a rejected asylum decision win their case.
The hearing continues.
- Reuters.
journalism.co.za
Angola Press
Xinhua
VOA
Mail and Guardian
Business Day
Zimbabweans deported home are regarded as traitors or spies by Robert Mugabe's government, a tribunal has been told.
Zimnam paper faces bleak times
The future of Namibia's joint-venture State newspaper project with
Zimbabwe,
The Southern Times, is hanging in the balance because of the
reluctance of
the two countries to finance the project, writes Christof
Maletsky in The
Namibian.
Most of the close to 20 correspondents based in
different countries of
the region have not been paid for the last six
months, and it is not clear
how long the three permanent staff members in
Windhoek will still have jobs.
The newspaper, set up in September last
year, is in the red as it
struggles to remain afloat.
It has
failed to make inroads into the regional advertising market.
When
it was set up, Namibia contributed N$1 million as a 50 per cent
shareholder,
while Zimpapers pumped in N$1,4 million.
Sources said that was the
last money Zimbabwe contributed to the
project and that Namibia continued to
pay the salaries of the permanent
staff for months.
The
Chairperson of the Board of The Southern Times, Vilbard Usiku,
reportedly
made several trips to Zimbabwe for talks to have that country's
government
pump in more funds, but it has yet to pay off.
Usiku denied
knowledge of any financial problems at The Southern
Times.
He
said whoever informed The Namibian was probably one of those who
had
received the paper with scepticism and "was spreading alarm".
"It's
all a misrepresentation of facts. There are serious commitments
from both
governments. If there is a change, I still have to know," he said.
Zimbabwe admits will miss inflation target
Harare, Zimbabwe, 10/06 - Zimbabwe admitted Thursday it will
miss a year-end
inflation target of 80 per cent, blaming it on a range of
problems,
including drought and high oil prices on the international
market.
Economic Development Minister Rugare Gumbo said inflation,
currently
standing at 265.1 per cent, would close the year at around 260 per
cent,
more than three times the projected figure.
The southern
African country has been ravaged by drought, forcing it to
import huge
amounts of food which, coupled with the prevailing high oil
prices, have had
a heavy knock-on effect on the economy.
Originally, the government had
projected a year-end inflation target of
between 50 and 80 per cent but now
says it would be way off the mark.
"The annual rate of inflation, which
had been targeted to come down to
between 50 and 80 per cent by year end is
now projected to end the year at
around 260 per cent," Gumbo said.
He
said the government would continue maintaining fiscal restraint, and use
financial support to industry in a targeted and much more discretionary way
to help fight inflation.
Zimbabwe negotiates preferential trade accords with
Angola, Iran
www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-07 22:46:46
HARARE, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwe is negotiating preferential
trade
agreements with Angola, Iran and Zambia as the government seeks to
increase
trade volumes and boost foreign currency inflows, a top official
said on
Friday.
"Once the rules of origin are met, our goods receive
preferential
treatment such as duty free, in the territories with whom we
signed trade
agreements," Industry and International Trade Minister Obert
Mpofu said.
He said the disclosure at the second annual
conference of the
Shipping and Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe
(SFAAZ), whose theme
was "Growing Zimbabwe's Economy Through International
Trade."
The minister called on the business community to take
advantage of
existing bilateral trade agreements with other countries in the
region to
increase trade levels.
Zimbabwe has already
signed agreements with various countries
including Botswana, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia and South
Africa.
Zimbabwe is a member of the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) and Common Market for East and Southern Africa
(COMESA), among
others.
Analysts have, however, noted that
the business community is
failing to fully utilize these agreements for the
economic benefit of the
southern African country.
The
minister noted that a vibrant freight-forwarding sector was
critical to
complement the government efforts in the enhancement of regional
and
international trade.
"If the shipping and forwarding industry
ails, the whole economy
ails, because there is lack of trust between the
supplier of products and
the consumer of the product far away," he
said.
SFAAZ was a strategic partner in the country's economic
turnaround
program and played an important intermediary role in the
collection of
revenue by the government through payment of import duties and
taxes, he
said.
He called for the highest degree of
efficiency and honesty on the
part of freight forwarders, as
unprofessionalism would be costly to the
trader and the
country.
SFAAZ is a representative body of shipping companies,
freight
forwarders, customs clearing agents and transporters. Enditem
Zimbabwe: New Global Fund Grant Approval Long Overdue -
NGOs
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
October
7, 2005
Posted to the web October 7, 2005
Johannesburg
The
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved around
US
$105 million to help boost Zimbabwe's ailing health sector.
Lynde Francis
of The Centre, an AIDS NGO based in the capital, Harare,
described the move
as "long overdue", and told PlusNews she welcomed the
Fund's
decision.
"The approval has come at a time when the nation needs it most,
especially
in light of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the population. The country
has one of
the highest prevalence rates in the world," Francis
said.
At least one in every four adults is estimated to be living with
HIV/AIDS,
but only 20,000 HIV-positive people are reportedly receiving
antiretrovirals
from public healthcare facilities.
Francis, who is
also a board member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism
(CCM), the body
responsible for coordinating the submission of a national
proposal for
funding, said although the grant application had been approved
there were
still a few outstanding issues.
"The Global Fund requirements are quite
convoluted [and] great care has to
be taken in deciding how the funds would
be spent. We [the CCM] have the
added task of electing the appropriate
organisations to work with," she
noted.
Aid to Zimbabwe had
previously been frozen by Western donors in response to
the government's
controversial land reform programme, leading government
officials to believe
that delays by the Global Fund were also politically
motivated.
However, Jon Liden, a spokesman for the Fund, told
PlusNews that a country's
internal politics had never influenced previous
Fund decisions.
"Last year the Fund rejected Zimbabwe's request for US
$218 million over
five years for technical reasons but, with the assistance
of UNAIDS, the UN
Development Programme and some private sector concerns
such as
Anglo-American, Zimbabwe was able to submit a truly high- quality
proposal.
It focused on community participation and expanded access to
treatment,"
Liden explained.
NGOs have also been actively calling on
the global community to
differentiate between the politics and the people of
Zimbabwe, especially
children affected by HIV/AIDS. The UN Children's Fund
estimates that a
Zimbabwean child dies of an AIDS-related illness every 15
minutes.
The grant will be disbursed in as little as six months from now,
with
anti-AIDS initiatives set to receive more than $62 million, malaria
programmes around $30 million, and more than $13 million going to tackling
tuberculosis.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of
the United Nations ]
Zimbabwe Carries Out New Evictions in Harare Township
By Carole
Gombakomba
Washington
07 October 2005
A group
of Zimbabwean human rights lawyers have asked the country's high
court to
take urgent action to halt a renewed campaign by police and local
authorities
to evict residents of a Harare township from shelters they
rebuilt following
the government's May-July slum-clearance drive which left
hundreds of
thousands homeless.
Some observers say the latest action is a resumption
of Operation
Murambatsvina, or "Drive Out Trash," which was later documented
in a damning
United Nations report.
Parallel to this, the country's
embattled informal sector has also felt
renewed pressure with some 15,000
street vendors arrested in the past two
weeks.
Witnesses said police
with rifles, shields and dogs went to Tsiga Ground
Number Five, an open space
originally intended for recreational activities,
and ordered families that
had rebuilt shanties there to leave or see their
dwellings
bulldozed.
Sources said the country's home affairs minister, the national
commission of
police, and the commission governing the city of Harare were
notified of the
development.
Reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke with
executive director Arnold Tsunga of the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
who said that the appeal was lodged with
the high court after a magistrate
refused to hear it.
China demands protection for citizens in
Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe
07 October 2005
10:37
China's embassy in Harare has appealed to the
Zimbabwean
government to protect its nationals following the murder of a
Chinese man in
the capital, a newspaper reported on
Friday.
In a statement, the embassy noted with concern that
several
Chinese nationals and companies had been "plundered by armed
robbers", the
state-controlled Herald reported.
"We hope
the Zimbabwean authorities [will] make thorough
investigations of these
cases," said the statement following the murder of
an unnamed Chinese
national outside the home of a colleague last week in the
upmarket Harare
suburb of Avondale.
"We also hope the Zimbabwean side would
do something to
strengthen the security [and] protection of foreign
citizens, including
Chinese nationals," said the
statement.
The embassy also urged the police to create a safe
environment
that was necessary "for foreign investment and trade in
Zimbabwe".
The same report cited police sources as saying
that the Chinese
man could have been killed by his own collegues due to a
disagreement over
foreign currency.
There have been
several reports of Chinese nationals being held
up at gunpoint in their
houses in Zimbabwe while large amounts of money and
electronic goods were
stolen.
Chinese visitors to the African country are
increasing following
the government's push for more investment from the
Asian economic giant.
Flea markets and shops are awash with
cheap Asian imports, many
of them from China. The Financial Gazette reported
on Thursday that at least
35 local textile companies had been forced to
close in the past three years
because of the competition. - Sapa-DPA
Zimbabwe clears
SA, Mozambique power
debt
Posted to the web on: 07 October 2005
Reuters
HARARE
- Zimbabwe's state power utility has cleared its outstanding debt
with its
counterparts in South Africa and Mozambique and is now able to pay
in
advance for its imports, a senior official said.
Zimbabwe imports 35% of
its electricity from SA, Mozambique, Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) but has battled to pay for imports as a
result of biting foreign
currency shortages.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has
struggled to repair
power generation equipment over the foreign currency
crunch, leading to
frequent power cuts that have disrupted industrial
production as the
southern African country battles its worst economic crisis
in decades.
But on Friday the official Herald newspaper quoted ZESA
spokesman Obert
Nyatanga as saying the utility had cleared outstanding debts
of $25m to
Eskom and $30m to Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) of
Mozambique after
receiving funding from the central bank.
Nyatanga
said Zimbabwe was importing 650 megawatts of electricity each week
from
Eskom, HCB and the Democratic Republic of Congo's Snel at between R22m
and
R25m.
"The money is enough to cater for electricity importation and we
actually
pay it in advance and at the moment we do not have any debts
arising from
power importation," Nyatanga said.
Nyatanga and other
ZESA officials were not immediately available for comment
on Friday.
Drought tightens grip on already parched Matabeleland
[ This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
BULAWAYO, 7 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - Persistent water shortages in
Zimbabwe's
second city, Bulawayo, have forced local authorities to deploy
bowsers in
several high-density townships to ease the
situation.
Water rationing has also intensified, with each household
being allowed only
60 litres a day. An average bath takes 50 to 150
litres.
Parts of Bulawayo have been without water for the past two
months, mainly
because two of its major dams have dried up, leaving the city
with the
option of two other sources that authorities fear are also fast
running low.
While the municipality blames poor rainfall for the
shortages, it has also
chided the central government for failing to take
decisive action to solve
the city's recurrent water
woes.
Matabeleland, a vast region in southern Zimbabwe where Bulawayo is
located,
has been dogged by chronic drought that has affected both water
supplies and
food security. The city's executive mayor, Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube, described
the situation as "dire and most
unfortunate".
"The problem is far beyond our control, and what we are
waiting for is the
rains. The real issue is that our major sources, Upper
Ncema and Umzingwane
dams, have gone dry because of the ongoing drought,"
Ndabeni-Ncube told
IRIN.
"We have, however, done all we can as a
municipality to alleviate the
situation, but still the water is not
adequate," he said.
Last week the situation deteriorated further as
bowsers failed to provide
water because the municipal fleet had no fuel,
forcing many township
dwellers to negotiate with borehole owners, who hiked
prices by charging Zim
$20,000 (around US 10 cents) for a bucket of
water.
Residents complained because they were forced to use the nearby
bushes as
toilets.
"Our toilet is stinking and we are also dirty
because there is no water. We
can no longer afford to bath; it's very
unhygienic. What makes the situation
more unbearable is that it is summer
time and the sun is very hot. We just
pray that there is no outbreak of
diseases," said resident Anastasia Dube.
Last week the local authorities
finished drilling 22 boreholes in the city's
outlying areas, which provide
an additional 300 cubic metres a day.
Bulawayo's population of slightly over
a million people usually consumes
140,000 cubic metres a day but at the
moment the city is only getting 90,000
cubic metres.
An engineer with
the Ministry of Water Resources, who wished not to be
named, said
Matabeleland's water problems could only be addressed by
implementing the
Matabeleland-Zambezi Water Project, an ambitious pipeline
scheme for
obtaining water from the Zambezi River to supply towns in the
perennially
dry region.
The project was first mooted by the former colonial
government over a
century ago but was quickly shelved due to high costs.
President Robert
Mugabe's government also had a go at implementing the
scheme but has been
hamstrung by lack of funds.
It would take a
whopping Zim $500 billion - way beyond the coffers of the
government, which
is battling high inflation and a critical shortage of
foreign exchange.