Zim Independent
Muckraker
Commissars, cowards and Mugabe's
mayhem
ZTV's Media Watch on Monday hosted by Supa Mandiwanzira saw ZBC's
Munyaradzi
Hwengwere and the Herald's Phillip Magwaza defending their
shamefully
unbalanced coverage of the election. New African editor Baffour
Ankomah, who
is being given saturation coverage in the state media, also
featured on the
programme.
Magwaza said all stories that had anything
to do with the MDC were spiked
because the party did not represent the wishes
of the people of Zimbabwe, as
it did not espouse land redistribution and the
liberation struggle. He was
not interested in British lies, he
said.
Speaking like a Zanu PF political commissar, Magwaza parroted the
party's
line on the MDC being a British creation. He was supported by Ankomah
who
said the election was between Mugabe and the British government whom
he
accused of trying to stage a coup using the media and local
people.
"We saw that in Ghana 40 years ago when Kwame Nkrumah was removed
from
power," he said. In fact Nkrumah was overthrown when the Ghanaian
people
became sick of his grandiose schemes which impoverished that
once
self-sufficient country. This week the Ghanaian observer team
said
Zimbabwe's election results were unacceptable because of the absence of
an
independent electoral commission and a biased media.
Hwengwere said
ZBC could not give equal coverage to Tsvangirai because he
only held eight
rallies while the president held 52. Mandiwanzira did not
challenge him on
why Tsvangirai was only able to hold eight rallies.
Ankomah appeared
incoherent and failed to answer a basic question on how the
local media
cover- ed the presidential election. He did not find time to
read the papers,
he said.
His performance on Makamba At Night was little better. Within
minutes of the
programme opening, and without any provocation from Makamba,
he became
excitable and incoherent, waving his hands around where words
failed - as
they often did.
Makamba, to his credit, steered him away
from ranting and raving about how
Mugabe was up against British imperialism
and asked him instead about Ghana,
Ankomah's homeland.
Makamba showed
considerable skill in drawing his guest out on how President
Jerry Rawlings
first lost the cities and then in two successive elections
lost his rural
base as well. Ankomah appeared not to grasp the significance
of
this.
It is extraordinary to think this unstable and prickly commentator,
who
could give Tafataona Mahoso a run for his money any day, is the editor of
a
significant London-based publication - or so we are told.
Who
sponsored his visit to Zimbabwe and who suggested to Makamba that he
feature
him on his show? We are keen to know.
President Mugabe's pronouncements
on land have over the past six or seven
years been so populist and racist
that it is difficult to recall there was a
time when he was a sensible and
reasonable leader. Speaking to a "Meet the
President" meeting in 1994 on the
land issue, Mugabe said war veterans, who
were demanding inclusion in all
government schemes, were no different from
ordinary Zimbabweans and deserved
preferential treatment only for
opportunities lost during the liberation
war.
Told by CFU president Anthony Swire-Thompson that Zimbabwe was not
producing
enough food, the president agreed.
"I want us to be
big-minded and look ahead," he said. "We cannot continue to
be a
mini-producer." Zimbabwe had the potential to feed other countries in
the
region, he said, but was not producing enough.
"With its technical
know-how, the country was capable of producing much
more," Mugabe
said.
Replying to a question on land acquisition and indigenisation from
Cleophas
Mandebvu of the Agricultural Graduates Association, Mugabe said: "I
want to
underline the point that land acquisition will operate equally
between
blacks and whites. I hope by indigenous you are not saying whites
must go
and blacks must take over."
Mugabe said by demanding
representation on corporate boards the war veterans
risked alienating public
sympathy.
"They shouldn't be seen by everybody else to be overplaying
their role.
Otherwise there would be resentment from the very people for whom
you fought
in the war. So let us not overdo our role. You want to be
everywhere!"
Last week we referred to a report in the Johannesburg Sunday
Independent
which said Peta Thornycroft, the Daily Telegraph correspondent
arrested
recently in Chimanimani for "pretending to be a journalist", used to
provide
cover to Jonathan Moyo when he was "pretending to be a journalist" at
Parade
magazine by giving him a nom de plume. We suggested the projected
media
commission should investigate.
This report immediately had Moyo
bristling with indignation in the official
media. He had instructed his
lawyers to take action against the Zimbabwe
Independent, he told the Herald,
for calling him unethical and
unprofessional. At no time did he hide
behind
a nom de plume, he pointed out, nor did he ever work as a
journalist.
The Herald account omitted reference to the original story
carried in the
South African media on March 31. For our part, we are happy to
retract our
remarks in so far as they may have suggested Moyo was unethical
or
unprofessional when contributing to Parade. But we obviously can't retract
a
story that appeared in another paper.
For the record, Moyo was
invariably keen for his byline to appear on his
articles, former Parade
editors told us this week. The Johannesburg paper
was misinformed, they
said.
We accept that. But we are surprised that Moyo is sensitive to
reports of
this sort when the public media over which he presides has been
cited in
several observer mission reports (including Ghana's) as partisan
and
unprofessional.
Thornycroft, according to Misa, has said she will
institute defamation
proceedings against ZBC whose website accused her of
being "in the forefront
of destroying (her) own country using the pen" and
called her "a former
Rhodesian journalist who could not accept black rule at
Independence".
Last November the state media, quoting unnamed government
officials, named a
number of journalists as "assisting terrorists", without
providing a scrap
of evidence. And on January 31 Moyo used the cover of
parliamentary
privilege to make abusive and prejudicial remarks about editors
and
journalists when speaking on his Access to Information and Protection
of
Privacy Bill.
Ministers who attack journalists in vitriolic terms
with impunity and then
hide behind the skirts of their lawyers when accused
of lacking
professionalism are political cowards. If they can't stand the
heat they
should get out of the kitchen.
Perhaps the best criticism of
the public media's role comes from Moyo
himself.
"The Zanu PF government
and its semi-official media both have a track record
of falsifying events,"
he declared in a Financial Gazette article to which
his name was clearly
appended in 1991.
Moyo was commenting on Dr Bernard Chidzero's failed bid
for the
secretary-general's job at the UN. Moyo said the former finance
minister had
not succeeded because of the political culture he
represented.
Moyo attacked the Sunday Mail for saying that celebrating
the end of the
Cold War was "the height of folly, if not one of the most
tragic jokes of
the century".
"Any country whose official media considers
the end of the Cold War to be a
tragic joke of the century," Moyo declared,
"does not deserve to be taken
seriously by the international
community."
If Chidzero had succeeded, Moyo said, it would have been a
"nightmare" for
the international community.
"This is because Zanu PF
would have mistaken the selection as a vindication
of its highly ideological
and divisive foreign policy which has left the
Zimbabwean government frozen
in the cold following the end of the Cold War,"
he said.
Yet
addressing a function organised by his department recently, the
minister
lamented the way in which Zimbabwe's presidential poll had been
globalised.
"That is one of the negative consequences of the end of the Cold
War," he
observed.
What changed his mind? His remarks on Chidzero's
failure to secure the post
are instructive. Any review by the UN of the
re-cord, he pointed out, would
reveal that "the conduct of the government of
Zimbabwe in foreign and
domestic policy has been based on divisive
radicalism, intolerance and
name-calling".
Chidzero was given the
impossible task not simply of trying to prove that he
was a good apple in a
basket in which the rest were suspected of being
rotten, but that there were
no rotten apples at all, Moyo said.
"The Zanu PF government had to
convince the international community that it
had abandoned its track record
of ideological adventurism and that it was
now, not only competent to
understand the changing international
environment, but also able to
contribute positively to the emerging new
international political order
driven by respect for human rights and
democracy." That was too tall an
order, he felt.
The other point worth reproducing from his 1991 article
was his claim that
it was "imprudence bordering on sheer folly" for the OAU
to have endorsed
the Nigerian candidate, General Olusegun Obasanjo, for the
UN post.
"Nigeria embarrassed Africa by putting forward a coup leader as
a
candidate," Moyo declared.
We hope Prof Adebayo Adedeji takes
note.
We liked the bit in the president's speech to the central committee
about
feeling "the throb and vibrancy of the party which stood everywhere
like a
giant and formidable monolith".
Was this the "throb and
vibrancy" of the crowds which surged for the exits
during his seemingly
end-
less pontificating in Marondera, Kadoma and Chinhoyi just ahead of
the
election? We gather most were forced back in by the police and
local
militias. But some made it safely to the buses.
"All the way," he
declared to the central committee, "I readily knew that
victory was certain
to be ours."
Of course he did. He had made provision for it!
"More
shock was in store for the British," he claimed. "Uzumba Maramba
Pfungwe
would disgorge a record 41 090 voters, 37 341 of them voting for
the
party."
It was not just the British that were shocked. It was those
who thought they
knew how many registered voters there were before Zanu PF's
hordes were
"disgorged" into the polling stations.
Elsewhere, Mugabe's
rollcall of "victories" read like a road map of Zanu
PF's trail of violence.
Chimanimani, Mutasa, Midlands ("throb- bing and
pumping blood"), Mhondoro,
Bubi-Umguza, Tsholotsho - all succumbed to
militias and state
terror.
And those prelates Mugabe praised - Kunonga, Msindo, Nzira - can
be counted
among the state's willing agents.
The chiefs and headmen
pledged the support of their followers, Mugabe
boasted. And we know how! A
large pay rise also helped.
The president compared the election to a battle
between an elephant and a
tiny ant. He meant to suggest Zanu PF was the ant.
But who controlled the
machinery of the state, the resources, financial and
otherwise? Who bribed
and threatened, who supplied the trucks, who promised
retribution, who
assured voters they would know how they voted, who
controlled the broadcast
media? Some ant!
Mugabe compared the MDC's
international support network to the Berlin
Conference of 1884 which carved
up Africa. But contrary to his claims, no
foreign power thought the MDC would
win. They knew what they were up
against. The government media reported their
envoys as signalling
Tsvangirai's likely defeat. That was before anyone
factored in the "daylight
robbery".
So how can Mugabe now pretend that his
"victory" came as a shock? What came
as a shock was the fact he only managed
to claim 56% of the poll after such
assiduous rigging and violence. That was
the real shock!
Mugabe said he told the people he "would help them
overthrow this throttling
monster which sapped and wiped out all the social
gains we made in the first
decade of our Independence".
So how come he is
still here?
From The Mail & Guardian (SA),
12 April
No end to the land-grab in
Harare
Ruling Zanu PF MP and Zimbabwe's former ambassador to
Yugoslavia Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri has forcibly taken control of a tobacco
farm in Marondera, near Harare. Devastated farm owner Guy Cartwright (68) - who
was not home when Mutinhiri, accompanied by war veterans, occupied his property
- served a restraining order on the former army official on Tuesday. Cartwright,
speaking to the Mail & Guardian from his hiding place in Harare this week,
said he had been assured by the local land committee that deals with restitution
issues that Mutinhiri had been warned about invading his property on Friday. The
land committee officials apparently also told Cartwright that should Mutinhiri,
MP for Marondera West, go ahead with the occupation he would have to vacate his
parliamentary seat. Mutinhiri won the Marondera seat in a controversial
by-election in November 2000, amid accusations that he had bought votes and
intimidated the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters.
After his victory, in an interview with a local newspaper, Mutinhiri defended
the forcible occupation of land, calling it a "revolution, given that those
without land are prepared to fight for it, while a minority group with it are
resisting to part with it". Cartwright, who inherited his farm known as
Waltondale from his father who bought it in 1934, said his property had not been
designated for redistribution. The farm, which produces tobacco and maize and
has 700 head of cattle, is estimated to be worth Zim$400-million, including its
tobacco crop. "All of which the brigadier has announced now belongs to him,"
said a despondent Cartwright, who is a Zimbabwean citizen.
Cartwright said he had built homes with water and electricity
for his workers, constructed a farming school attended by 400 children on his
property and donated millions of dollars worth of medical equipment to the local
hospital over the years. It was taken away in a flash when he went out for a
drive with his wife last Saturday night. While there were several reports last
weekend concerning the forcible occupation of farms where the farmers had ties
to the MDC, Cartwright had not been involved in politics. However, Mutinhiri has
allegedly accused Cartwright's late father of being involved with the former
minority-run regime. Another farmer, Alistair Coulson, based in Esigodini near
Bulawayo, told the M & G last month that he feared becoming the war
veterans' target as he had actively campaigned for the MDC in the presidential
elections. "People like me have become exposed and are now vulnerable," a
disillusioned Coulson remarked after the outcome of the presidential poll. This
week Coulson and his family were forced to leave the farm that had been their
home for the past 11 years. The Coulsons had been under siege since last week.
During the course of the week, after he has persuaded his family to leave,
Coulson stayed on in his home to protect his workers. In a show of solidarity
with Coulson farmers in neighbouring areas also under siege remained behind. The
M & G was unable to contact Coulson this week. However, Marc Crawford,
president of the Matabeleland branch of the Commercial Farmers' Union, said that
on Tuesday negotiations with the war veterans had failed. At the time of going
to press, Coulson was preparing to move out of his home. Crawford said farmers
and farm workers who had assisted the MDC during last month's presidential polls
are increasingly becoming targets of the war veterans. Since the elections,
Crawford said 10 cases of forcible occupation had been reported to him.
One of the world's most successful black rhino breeding farms
was occupied by war veterans last weekend in Turk Mine, located in the Bubi
district of Matabeleland, and farm owner Richard Pascal was arrested for
attempted murder. Pascal's 22 000ha farm is home to 33 black rhino and has a
breeding rate of 12 to 14% a year - the highest for the highly endangered black
rhino. War veterans began occupying portions of Pascal's farm in February 2000.
Last month they demanded that Pascal vacate the property and the rhino were
confined to a smaller area. Since March 25 the rhino have been denied water as
Pascal no longer has access to the water pump. Owing to the stressed conditions
one of the rhino died two weeks ago. On Monday, after being released on bail,
Pascal realised he was homeless. While he was in the lock-up, war veterans took
over his entire farm. Pascal describes the occupation as a betrayal of
assurances given by the Zimbabwean Environment Ministry that farms devoted to
breeding wildlife will not be taken over for redistribution.
Pascal's ordeal began on Friday night, April 5, when war
veterans broke into his home, ordering the farmer and his friends to leave. With
the help of some members of the police, Pascal managed to send the war veterans
away. But they returned the next morning. When Pascal went down to address them,
he was attacked by youths armed with spears, axes and catapults. Pascal's
friends rushed to his rescue and fired shots into the air. By then the war
veterans were firing stones from catapults. Pascal returned to his home to
collect his gun and then fired more shots into the air to disperse the crowd.
The war veterans claimed that a bullet wounded one of their members and Pascal
was arrested on murder charges. Pascal believes the war veterans had the backing
of certain policemen who were interested in rhino horns. When the rhino died two
weeks ago, Pascal brought the National Parks officials in to collect the horn.
He said the war veteran squatters got agitated that they had not been consulted
as they had wanted the trophy fee for the animals. Pascal bought his farm 15
years ago. Ten black rhino were brought into the farm as part of a
government-backed initiative to save the endangered species. Since then South
Africans, Americans and the British have pumped money into the farm as part of a
two-pronged approach - saving the wildlife and community development. "I have
already committed 4 000ha of my property for resettlement. I am a Zimbabwean
citizen. I was quite prepared to spend the rest of my life here," Pascal
said.
Daily News
Court denies bail to suspected farm looters
4/12/02
8:42:16 AM (GMT +2)
Chief Reporter
THIRTY-SIX war veterans and
Zanu PF supporters who were arrested on Sunday
after they allegedly looted
$17 million worth of property on three farms in
Karoi were on Tuesday
remanded in custody by the Karoi Magistrate court.
The 36
suspects were denied bail by the court and were remanded to 23 April.
A
source at the court said the Zanu PF supporters were denied bail after
the
State opposed their request because the police were still investigating
the
matter.
He said they are charged with theft and malicious injury
to property. “The
police are determined to stop all criminal activities on
the farms which are
not related to the government’s lawful land reform
programme. They indicated
that they wanted enough time to fully investigate
the matter,” said the
source.
The Zanu PF supporters and war veterans
chased away more than 300 farm
workers at Mukuyu, Toekoms and Lanlory farms
since October last year. They
gave the farmers until Saturday to leave the
farms and on Monday the farmers
were complying with the illegal
orders.
They looted compressors, fertiliser and maize and assaulted
workers on the
farms whom they accused of refusing to leave the farms for
their occupation.
Since Mugabe’s disputed victory in the March presidential
election, Zanu PF
supporters and war veterans have been occupying more
commercial farms and
assaulting workers, with the police taking little action
against their
illegal activities.
Daily News
Libya threatens to cut fuel supplies over debt
4/12/02
8:34:27 AM (GMT +2)
By Sandra Nyaira Political
Editor
PRESIDENT Mugabe is back in Harare after a four-day working visit
to Libya.
Sources say he was scouting around for assistance to ease
Zimbabwe’s
worsening economic crisis following a threat by President Muammar
Gaddafi to
cut the fuel life-line over non-payment of bills by the Harare
government.
Diplomatic sources told The Daily News that Libya and
most of the companies
supplying Zimbabwe with fuel had threatened to
discontinue supplies.
The arrangement between Libya and Zimbabwe was only
a stop-gap measure but,
the sources said, Gaddafi, one of Mugabe’s closest
allies, had threatened to
cut fuel supplies to Harare following the
government’s failure to pay.
“Mugabe had first indicated that he wanted to
pay through a barter deal in
exchange for beef since the country faces a
serious foreign currency
problem,” one well-placed source said. “The Libyans
turned this proposal
down, saying they would only accept Zimbabwean beef if
the European Union
resumed beef imports from the country.” Mugabe departed
for Tripoli as talks
between Zanu PF and the MDC kicked off on
Monday.
Mugabe has been increasingly isolated by the world in the wake of
his
controversial victory in last month’s presidential election amid
reports
that Zimbabwe is virtually mortgaged to Libya in exchange for oil and
money.
The Libyans are said to have been allocated farms by the
government. No
official comment could be obtained from the Libyan ambassador,
Mahmoud
Azabi, who was said by his office to be out of the country. Reports
in the
State-controlled Herald yesterday said Libya was now providing 70
percent of
Zimbabwe fuel imports.
A 12-month US$330 million (Z$18,15
billion) oil deal signed by Mugabe and
Gaddafi last year for Libya to supply
Zimbabwe with oil expires in two
months’ time and Mugabe was reportedly
anxious to secure an extension to
avert another crisis in the tense period
after the presidential poll. “The
bottom line is that Libya has been unable
to get the products promised by
Mugabe when the deal was sealed,” another
source said. “That is why Mugabe
had to go and plead with Gaddafi.” The deal,
under which Gaddafi supplied
oil in exchange for land, agricultural produce
and stakes in key enterprises
in the tourism sector, helped Mugabe reduce the
magnitude of the crippling
fuel crisis which started in October
1999.
With the exception of Gaddafi, the rest of the world’s suppliers
had stopped
oil supplies to Zimbabwe due to non-payment.
Gaddafi, who has
emerged as Mugabe’s key foreign ally, described Mugabe’s
disputed win in the
presidential election as a “victory for Africa” at a
dinner organised for
Mugabe during the trip.
Mugabe is increasingly being isolated on the
international scene over his
controversial re-election and repressive
rule.
The Minister of Mines and Energy, Edward Chindori-Chininga, last month
went
on a whirlwind tour of the world as he tried to secure more fuel for
the
country to no avail.
Daily News
Three arrested over missing MDC funds
4/12/02 8:36:56
AM (GMT +2)
Chief Reporter
TWO MDC officials and a party
activist in Mashonaland West province were
last week arrested by the police
and remanded in custody by the Chinhoyi
Magistrates’ Court for allegedly
converting to their own use $441 000 meant
to pay the opposition party’s
polling agents.
Washington Chimedza, the Zvimba North youth
chairman, Ben Moyake, the
security officer for the district, and Jafarin
Ngunda, a party activist,
were last Friday remanded to 19 April on charges of
theft by conversion. The
State alleges that the three MDC activists converted
party funds to their
own use after they failed to pay the MDC polling agents
for their role in
the March presidential election.
Gift Konjana, the
MDC administrator for Mashonaland West, yesterday said on
12 March Chimedza,
Moyake and Ngunda were given the money by the party to
pay 144 polling
agents.
“When some of the polling agents gathered at the Chinhoyi
Showgrounds to
receive their money, the three told them to disperse because
Zanu PF
supporters were coming to attack them,” Konjana said.
He said
the polling agents dispersed but quickly regrouped when they
realised that it
was not true that Zanu PF supporters wanted to attack them.
“Chimedza, Moyake
and Ngunda then told the polling agents that the money was
missing and they
could not pay them,” Konjana said. He said the three
culprits told the
polling agents that they were going to present the case to
the provincial
executive but they instead ran away.
Konjana said the MDC’s security
officers then caught Chimedza in Harare last
Thursday and took him to the
police in Chinhoyi, who arrested him.
Ngunda was arrested by the police in
Mutorashanga, while Moyake surrendered
himself to the MDC and was taken to
the police. “While the case is being
handled by the court, we have met our
polling agents and assured them that
the party was aware of their problem. We
are securing funds to pay them,”
Konjana said.
Daily News
Mine workers victimised
4/12/02 8:38:50 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff Reporter
ZANU PF supporters in Shamva have unleashed
a reign of terror at Shamva Gold
Mine, where they are victimising workers
suspected of supporting the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
The ruling party’s supporters have established a base at
the mine. About 20
workers have been ordered to leave the mine for Harare,
where they were
instructed to look for new jobs from Morgan Tsvangirai, the
MDC leader.
Misheck Kanengosha, 43, a worker from Shamva Gold Mine who has
been working
at the mine for 23 years, said: “I was forced to leave the mine
after 96
Zanu PF supporters stoned my house last week. “They threatened to
kill me
and my family,”Kanengosha said.
He said the police refused to
intervene when he reported his ordeal. They
told him they could not deal with
the Zanu PF supporters because it was a
political issue.
Kanengosha
left the mining town last week after the supporters set his
property, worth
$550 000, on fire.
“The supporters are screening people whom they suspect to
be among the 4 000
people who voted for the MDC leader during the
presidential election,”
Kanengosha said.
The police in Shamva refused to
comment on the issue.
Zim Independent
Targeted sanctions bite RBZ
Barnabas
Thondhlana
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is the latest casualty of
targeted sanctions
from the international community, with its corresponding
banks in Europe
developing cold feet on dealings.
Though the sanctions
are more subtle than those imposed on political leaders
and their cronies,
they are biting all the same.
RBZ spokesman Ignatius Mabasa was
reserved in his response to enquiries from
the Zimbabwe Independent on the
sanctions.
"In response to your questions, please be advised that the
RBZ is not aware
of any sanctions being imposed by EU banks on its
operations. Relationships
with our EU correspondent banks presently continue
as normal," Mabasa said.
The RBZ's corresponding banks include the
European Investment Bank, Chase
Manhattan, National Westminister, Sumitomo
Bank Ltd, Citibank Pvt and
Bankers Trust Company.
According to
Alex Kramer, the European Commission's economic advisor in
Harare, Zimbabwe
had defaulted on external obligations in May 2000, and as a
result would find
it difficult to access credit from international
financial
institutions.
"Zimbabwe defaulted on payments to the EIB
in May 2000, and has been in
arrears since," Kramer said. "The amount is
quite substantial."
He declined to give a figure citing bank/client
confidentialities. Figures
released by the Ministry of Finance show that
Zimbabwe's total external debt
arrears as at September 30 2001 were US$723,1
million. The debt to the EIB,
for both government and parastatals, stood at
US$28,3 million.
A random survey of corresponding banks'
relationships with the central bank
hit a brick wall with most banks
declining to comment on bank/client
relationships.
A
Johannesburg-based spokesman for Citibank was more forthcoming, but
would
only say the bank had extensive business dealings with Zimbabwe and
the
central bank.
"We are well represented in Zimbabwe, and do not
know anything about the
sanctions you are referring to," the spokesman
said.
However, central bank sources confirmed the RBZ was
increasingly being
isolated by the international community.
"There
is a contagion effect from the political morass the country is in," a
source
said.
"The country's pariah-status has spread to the banking sector
and will soon
permeate a lot of other industries as well."
It is
understood while some banks have a soft spot for Zimbabwe owing to
the
presence of nationals holding top posts in those banks, the question of
how
funds extended would be repaid was the stumbling
block.
"Zimbabwe's exports are insignificant, the agricultural
produce has been
badly affected by the drought and the little to be harvested
is tied to
Malaysia under a forward selling deal and prospects of future
harvests are
under threat from the war veterans and the land-resettlement
programme," the
source said.
The central bank has raised issue
with its corresponding banks on the
sanctions issue, questioning why it was
being targeted when initial
indications were that these would be restricted
to politicians alone.
One international banker said sanctions was too
strong a word for the
relationship the central bank had with its
corresponding banks, preferring
instead to refer it as a boycott. But he said
the effects were the same.
Zim Independent
Forward selling mulled to rescue Zim
Barnabas
Thondhlana
A NUMBER of proposals have been put forward to rescue
Zimbabwe's
deteriorating food crisis, among them forward selling of gold and
tobacco,
the Zimbabwe Independent has established.
An estimated eight
million people are starving in the coun try, the majority
of them in rural
areas, long considered the ruling party Zanu PF's
stronghold. In the recent
March 9/11 election, incumbent President Robert
Mugabe romped home to victory
on the back of a massive rural vote - and what
some have charged was the
stuffing of ballot boxes - beating a spirited
challenge from Movement for
Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
However, Mugabe's
nation-wide promise that nobody would starve from the
effects of the drought
and the man-made errors of the land redistribution
exercise is under threat
of ringing hollow as financing constraints bring
the spectre of hunger into
Zimbabwean homes.
Zimbabwe's tenacious foreign currency position has
affected the importation
of maize as the little currency on the market is
quickly used up in payments
for fuel and electricity. While 70% of Zimbabwe's
fuel needs are being met
by Libya - which has opted for internal investment
in Zimbabwe dollars as
payment - the remainder still has to be imported over
land. The export
sector exists in name only, and half-hearted incentives
government put in
place last year to revive the sector are still to bear
fruit.
A Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe spokesman said forward selling of
gold had not
yet been considered but could not be ruled
out.
"Please be advised that the RBZ has not done anything like
forward selling
of gold for maize purchases, but the fact that we have not
done it does not
preclude us from exploring that option in the future," the
RBZ spokesman
said.
However, in 2000, the RBZ forward sold three
years of Zimbabwe's gold output
to raise foreign currency and money for
various purposes. That avenue is at
the moment closed to
government.
It is understood forward selling of tobacco is another
option which
government and financial institutions were looking at. The
tobacco auction
floors open in May, and a number of international buyers are
expected in the
country to look at the crop. This year's crop is estimated at
167 million
kilogrammes, down from the 200 million of last year. But industry
players
said tobacco was not accessible to government as it was sold
through
merchants.
"Zimbabwe is now desperate as the maize market
is now a seller's market and
conditions obtaining are now much stiffer than
was the case before," said
one analyst. "Zimbabwe is now considered a risky
market and even banks which
would normally rush to finance such imports are
now sceptical. So any trade
in maize is on a cash basis
alone."
One bank executive said the country's needed a Good Samaritan
not worried
about the country risk.
Zim Independent
Zimbabwe pays price of Mugabe's
self-alienation
Vincent Kahiya
NELSON Mandela came to the presidency
in South Africa in 1994 proclaiming
"human rights will be the light that
guides our foreign policy". His
successor, Thabo Mbeki, called for an African
Renaissance and an end to the
dictatorships that have disfigured the
continent's political landscape.
The foreign policy statements enunciated
by the two presidents bore
testimony that in a globalised world international
relations can no longer
be divorced from a country's domestic outlook.
Zimbabwe's image, which has
been tarred by reports of violence, instability
and abandonment of the rule
of law, has created serious challenges which
require astute statesmanship.
Foreign minister Stan Mudenge in a policy
document on Zimbabwe's foreign
policy in January 1999 wrote that "Zimbabwe's
foreign policy objective is
fundamentally to help safeguard and enhance the
security and prestige of the
country and the quality of life of its people by
engaging with other
countries at various levels in order to influence their
behaviour so that an
international environment conducive to the attainment of
these goals is
created and maintained.
"The challenge for our foreign
policy is to formulate a series of policies
and principles that would help
create an international environment conducive
to the attainment of that
goal," Mudenge said.
He added: "What are those challenges? Security for
the country. Peace and
stability in the country and its environs to allow and
encourage investment
and economic development. They also include forming
partnerships with others
to create larger markets both for attracting greater
investment interest
from outsiders and regional players and also for our own
companies to
benefit from the economies of scale that come with those bigger
markets."
The sought-after environment has over the past two years
evaporated in the
heat of President Mugabe's quest for political martyrdom as
he implements
his inter- nationally-condemned agrarian reform. Allegations
that he stole
the presidential election last month have peeled off the
wafer-thin veneer
of legitimacy from his government.
The challenge for the
Zimbabwean leadership should be how best to formulate
a foreign policy that
guarantees global interactions beneficial to national
interests of which the
prime needs are investment, food aid and balance-of-
payments support. But
Zimbabwe has continued to lose friends and has elected
to engage in a loud
war of words with the West as foreign policy is now
centred on the ego of one
man instead of strategically positioning Zimbabwe
in the global
economy.
President Mugabe, in a diversionist manoeuvre which stems form
failure to
come up with candid policies to solve the problems at home, has
continued to
brandish his threatening fist at the British and Americans and
in fact at
whoever questions his disastrous policies. But will this attitude
"enhance
the security and prestige of the country and the quality of life of
its
people"?
Political commentators have questioned who, in the
entirety of Zimbabwe -
other than Mugabe - cares whether there are gays in
the Tony Blair
government or whether the same government consists of "little
men" who were
in high school during the time of the liberation war in
Zimbabwe?
As the situation at home continues to deteriorate, Zimbabwe has
continued to
lose friends. The country has been suspended from the
Commonwealth, a club
of former British colonies now largely African/Asian in
complexion. The
European Union and the United States have applied targeted
sanctions.
Scandinavian countries, which have supported Zimbabwe's social
services,
especially health, have cut aid and have threatened to close their
missions
here.
African states which hope to reap from South African
President Thabo Mbeki's
New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) have
begun to regard
Zimbabwe's bad policies as the blight that would fatally
poison the plan in
its infancy.
The US has promised African countries
US$64 billion in trade and investment
in exchange for respect for democratic
values and an end to civil strife on
the continent. Zimbabwe, which has
elected to pick a fight with the West, is
not set to get a piece of the
cake.
As pressure mounts on Mugabe, he now believes that the problems
Zimbabwe is
facing stem from racism and an attempt to recolonise Zimbabwe by
the
British. Since the Abuja Agreement arrived at in Nigeria to bring
normalcy
to Zimbabwe's skewed land policy and relations with the UK, Mudenge
has
tried to drive a wedge between EU countries and predominately black
ACP
countries.
"One gets the impression that Mudenge hopes that
because the ACP countries
are not white they subscribe to de-valued values,"
said the opposition MDC's
Paul Themba Nyathi in an article in the Zimbabwe
Independent in January.
"We all know that within both the EU and ACP,
there are nations whose
records of governance stink to high heaven. However,
the Cotonou agreement
means that they all at least avoid behaving like
Zimbabwe. So for Mudenge to
try and invite the ACP countries to participate
in Zimbabwe's disregard for
the rule of law is misplaced," he
said.
Zimbabwe will claim that its salvation will not come from the West
but from
its Far Eastern comrades under the banner of South-South
co-operation.
Mugabe believes that relations with countries like Indonesia,
Malaysia,
Thailand, China and Libya are more beneficial than engaging the
West.
But in Zimbabwe's time of need, the so-called friends have been
found
wanting. Their messages of solidarity have not been translated
into
assistance. The country still has to see the benefits of going to bed
with
the former South East Asian Tigers as no real investment has come
to
Zimbabwe from that source.
Independent economist John Robertson said
Zimbabwe's foreign policy focus
had only derived short-term benefits at a
huge price to the nation.
"Relations with countries like Libya, Saudi
Arabia and Malaysia have
short-term benefits in that they have helped in time
of crisis," said
Robertson.
"This has been at a high price because it
depended on them getting something
out of it just like Rhodesia depended on
South Africa but the help was never
for nothing."
Malaysia/Zimbabwe
relations will be best remembered by the controversial YTL
deal which sought
to parcel part of the Hwange Power Station to the
Malaysian power utility.
The deal appears to have fallen through. The
Libyans are currently supplying
fuel to Zimbabwe in return for land and a
stake in the Jewel Bank.
The
country desperately needs food aid and the programme being co-ordinated
by
the World Food Programme (WFP) has failed to raise the required
US$60
million, as the international community does not see the need to assist
a
country that has systematically sabotaged its food security.
No
financial support has come from the "friends" and ironically the bulk of
the
$20 million so far donated to the WFP aid plan has come from the UK and
the
US. Such is the government's ingratitude that the national broadcaster
ZBC in
its main news bulletin last Tuesday omitted to mention that the US
had
donated food at a ceremony in Bindura.
It is no longer clear who
Zimbabwe's real friends are or whether the country
would be able to court any
new friends as long as the internal politics are
not right, said opposition
MDC shadow Foreign minister Tendai Biti.
"If there is no internal
neighbourliness it is hard to be friends with any
external person," said
Biti.
Zim Independent
Civil servants undergo security vetting in
crackdown
Jacob Mutambara
AS part of its post-election crackdown the
government now requires civil
servants to undergo security vetting to
determine their political
affiliation.
The Zimbabwe Independent is in
possession of the new security vetting forms.
In his inauguration speech last
month President Mugabe said that the civil
service should be
purged.
In the past civil servants were vetted to check if they had
any criminal
record.
A number of civil servants especially
teachers taking up new posts in the
rural areas have so far received the
current security vetting forms.
Under the new vetting system, Zanu PF
chairmen, war veterans, councillors,
village heads, police officers, Central
Intelligence Organisation officers,
and Criminal Investigation Department
officers, among others, will vet the
civil servants.
These
individuals will have to state whether they know and for how long they
have
known the applicant. They are also asked whether the applicant belongs
to any
political organisation and, if so, which. Again, the vetting officers
are
also required to state whether the applicant supports government
policies
and, if not, they should state the reasons.
Lastly, they need to know
whether the applicant had been arrested for any
offence and whether he or she
should be appointed to the public service.
Most civil servants who
spoke to the Independent said they were totally
against the vetting system
which was tantamount to witch-hunting aimed at
victimising non-Zanu PF
supporters.
They said the government was trying to turn all civil
servants into Zanu PF
stooges.
One civil servant who refused to be
identified said promotion must be based
on merit and not political
allegiance.
"The whole vetting procedure is a gross violation of
democratic principles
and human rights. It is also a violation of the
Zimbabwean constitution and
all the international charters and conventions to
which the government is a
signatory," he said.
Yesterday, Charles
Chiveru of the Public Service Commission said they hadn't
received any
complaints as yet but those affected were free to visit them
with the forms
and they would take it up with the respective ministries.
Zim Independent
ZFTU 'persuades' factory workers to join its
ranks
Loughty Dube
THE Joseph Chinotimba-led labour organisation, the
Zimbabwe Federation of
Trade Unions (ZFTU), this week swooped on factories
and companies in
Bulawayo's industrial areas persuading workers to join its
ranks.
The officials, moving around in groups of five, told workers to
dump the
Zimbabwe Congress of trade Unions (ZCTU) and join the ZFTU after
promising
to force the workers' management to grant them hefty salary
increments.
The ZFTU officials, whose ranks mainly include war
veterans and Zanu PF
supporters, this week visited companies in the Belmont
and Thorngrove
industrial sites of the city telling workers to join their
union.
Industry sources said the ZFTU is targeting companies that had
been rocked
by strikes and confusion over salary negotiations in the past and
is
promising to intervene in the labour disputes.
The ZFTU, a Zanu
PF-affiliated trade union, has told workers that they are
preparing them for
the takeover of white-owned companies once the owners
have been forced to
leave the country.
President Mugabe during his campaign before the
hotly disputed presidential
election threatened to take over white companies
that shut down and give
them to workers.
The president of the
ZCTU, Lovemore Matombo, this week said he was aware of
cases of intimidation
by the ZFTU to gain membership countrywide.
"People have been coerced
and intimidated to join the ZFTU and we are aware
that this is happening in
both urban and in rural areas," Matombo said.
A general manager of
one Belmont-based company visited by the militant ZFTU
officials said the
ZFTU members ignored management and went on to address
the workers where
numerous promises were made to them.
"The ZFTU is coercing workers to
join its ranks and they have been telling
workers that the companies would be
theirs once they have thrown white
owners out of the country. The workers are
actually believing that," said
one manager speaking on condition of
anonymity.
The ZFTU officials are said to have threatened managers
with unspecified
action if they prevented the workers from joining the
association whose
initial joining fee is $300. Members are then expected to
pay 1% of their
net wages as membership fees monthly.
"Our workers
were told unconditionally to leave the ZCTU because it was an
MDC affiliate.
Once the company takeovers begin those in ZCTU will not
benefit and most
workers believed that," said the manager.
The ZFTU officials are
operating from the Zanu PF provincial headquarters
near
Makokoba.
Chinotimba, the vice president of the ZFTU, gained
notoriety before the 2000
parliamentary election after his organisation
arm-twisted employers to pay
workers' huge settlements for labour cases in
dispute. Chinotimba is the
Zanu PF political commissar in Harare province and
is also a municipal
policeman.
Zim Independent
Chefs dodge sanctions net
Vincent Kahiya
HOLES
are becoming evident in the United States' sanctions net as a
government
minister visited the US last month while children of politicians
studying
there will not be deported as there is no set policy on how to deal
with
them, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week.
Environment and Tourism
minister Francis Nhema was in the US last month to
attend the Safari Club
International (SCI) meeting in Las Vegas despite the
travel ban on ministers
imposed by George W Bush's government.
Nhema only returned to
Zimbabwe last week. But businesswoman Jocelyn
Chiwenga, who is the wife of
army general Constantine Chiwenga, was denied
per- mission to attend the same
SCI meeting.
While President Bush signed the proclamation
imposing the travel ban in
February the State Department did not begin
implementing it until after the
election.
Nhema said yesterday he was
not on the original list but now is.
Explaining the confusion, a
US embassy spokesperson said it was illegal
under the US Protection of
Privacy Act to divulge information regarding
persons specified for
sanctions.
"All the lists which have been circulating in the
media are highly
speculative because it is illegal under the Protection of
Privacy Act to
divulge information regarding visa applications and other
issues of
confidentiality," the spokesperson said.
US sources
said there was debate in the administration over the handling of
the issue of
chefs' children who are studying in schools and universities in
the US. Hawks
in the administration want a total travel ban on the officials
and their
children while others advocate less stringent measures when
dealing with the
children. There is debate on whether the travel
restrictions should affect
adult progeny as well as minors, and whether
those already there should be
targeted.
"There is no settled policy yet," an official told the
Independent.
Reports that Mashonaland West governor Patrick Chanetsa
travelled to the US
last week could not be confirmed. His office would only
say he was in South
America.
The European Union has also
imposed a travel ban on Zimbabwean officials but
last week Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa was in Geneva, Switzerland, on
official business.
Switzerland is not a member of the EU but it has
independently imposed
sanctions on Zimbabwe.
A Swiss Foreign Affairs ministry
spokesperson, Daniela Stoffel, this week
confirmed issuing a visa to
Chinamasa.
"We issued a visa to your minister Patrick Chinamasa
because he was due to
appear before the United Nations Human Rights
Commission," said Stoffel.
She said there was a proviso in the
sanctions declaration which allowed the
targeted individuals to travel to
Switzerland on humanitarian grounds.
Meanwhile, the suspension of
Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth has removed the
country from important events
on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
(CPA) calendar prejudicing
local MPs and parliamentary staff of important
training on parliamentary
procedures and activities.
The CPA is influential in the training
of newly-elected MPs in procedures of
the House, parliamentary accountability
and the role of the opposition in a
democracy. Zimbabwean MPs are also
accorded the same status as local MPs of
the country they are visiting. This
preferential status has been removed by
the
suspension.
Parliamentary staff such as the Speaker, the Clerk
and librarians will not
be invited to seminars, training workshops or
conferences organised by the
CPA.
The suspension of Zimbabwe
from the club resulted in the cancellation of a
CPA regional meeting
scheduled to be held in Harare on March 25. Zimbabwe
will also not be invited
to the CPA Fifth Southern Africa Regional
Parliamentary Workshop scheduled
for Botswana from May 6 to 11.
Minister of State in
Vice-President Joseph Msika's Office Olivia Muchena is
a regional
representative of the Africa region of the CPA while Clerk of
Parliament
Austin Zvoma is the regional secretary. Muchena will not attend
the CPA
executive committee meeting to be held in Kiribati in the
Pacific.
The Independent learnt this week that Zimbabwe would
also not be invited to
attend the regional annual CPA conference to be hosted
by Uganda in August.
Britain still wants Zimbabwe to attend the
Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said
on Wednesday he had not received any
"representations to me on behalf of
ordinary Zimbabweans or the opposition
saying the sports people who want to
take part in the Commonwealth Games are
Mugabe stooges", adding the situation
would change if he received any such
representations.
The original of this article in german follows the automatic translation
by
Google Translation http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
TI
DAILY Corruption News Full text service
http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=30038
Robert
Mugabes billion Imperium (Robert Mugabe's trillion dollar empire)
South
German newspaper 08 April 2002 (Copyright © sueddeutsche.de)
State
apparatus serves above all personal enriching
Zimbabwes president
controls a powerful party company, whose entwinements
are enough the far over
national borders
By Michael Bitala
An old man runs Amok - and
nobody stops him. Zimbabwes head of state Robert
Mugabe governed the country
in reason and soil. More than two thirds of the
population live below the
poverty border, three million humans are
threatened on hunger, and the
economy is in the free case. An improvement is
not in view, because straight
only could be confirmed the greise dictator by
a choice farce again for
further six years. Why however isn't Mugabe in its
destruction illusion
braked? Why does nobody fall it? Why doesn't Zanu PF a
correct resistance
move in its government party? Why doesn't the military
meutert? Also there
everyone must have understood long that it can become
only worse with
Mugabe.
In order to understand the present happening, one must say
good-bye to the
idea that Mugabe - as usual in many other countries of Africa
- is only
alone dominant a Despot. It would be just as wrong to regard its
government
party Zanu PF as political combination. It is an enormous
business
enterprise, which is led by a hand fully men, who belong all
together to the
closest familiar ones of the president. If this would have
fallen through
with the choice, this billion-losses would have meant. Mugabes
clique has
entire power in the hand, the government, the economy, the law,
the security
forceses and the military. And you do not go it around
prosperity, democracy
or liberty, it go to it only around how she can keep
the billion business
upright for their own advantage.
A party at
business takes part
The power base Mugabes is the Zanu PF. The party
possesses two companies,
Zidco of getting thing and the M&S group for
more than twenty years, at
which Zidco holds again 55 per cent. By these two
enterprises the party is
involved in almost all important business in
Zimbabwe. It has portions of
Duty Free Shops, Catering companies, building
contractors, banks, real
estate companies, machine and armament makers and of
import and export
trades, in order to call only some fields. This does not
only make the Zanu
PF, its key figures for incomes possible in billion height
can by the party
also lucrative posts in the economy secure itself. Robert
Mugabe has
officially no portions, it dressed also no offices in these
companies. Above
all its two familiar Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sidney
Sekeramayi and the family
of the Joshi originating from Asia settle that.
Mnangagwa, Sekeramayi and
two brothers from the Joshi Klan divide the
vierkoepfige management of
Zidco.
The Joshis had developed itself
first its Geschaeftsimperium in Malawi. When
they had to leave the country
because of corruption reproaches, they found
accomodation with Mugabe. They
spendierten millions for the party and let
also the children of prominent
Zanu PF people in Europe and America train.
But they got Zimbabwes of special
rights in the economy. Today Jayant Joshi
is for example not only a director
with Zidco, but sits also in the
executive committee several Zanu PF
companies, for example the roofridge
bank corporation, Zidco of engine,
M&S Syndicate, Catercraft, Oporto
Investments, national Blankets, Treger
of getting thing and star Travel. It
is also in the executive committee of
the Londoner Zidco branch, Eagle
Investment, sits, which stands for years in
the suspicion to transfer money
on Mugabes private accounts.
Trade
with "blood diamonds"
Until today the connections between the dictator
and the Joshis are very
close. Mugabes Mrs. Grace is considered as a friend
of Heena Joshi. This
played not only a key role in the building of the new
airport in the capital
Harare, but also in the company Oryx of dia. moon,
whose planned stock
exchange course in London became before two years the
scandal. At that time
it became admits that by Orxy the simbabwische and the
Congolese government
wanted to sell "blood diamonds so mentioned" from the
civil war country the
Congo. At Oryx of dia. moon the Zidco had 237000
portions. In the meantime
it is in the possession of a South African lawyer,
by whom it is reported
that he acts particularly with clean diamonds so
mentioned out of South
Africa and Namibia.
Political power secures
itself Mugabe particularly by its familiar
Sekeramayi and Mnangagwa, which
control the secret service since
independence Zimbabwes more than twenty
years ago. Both men know the
financial secrets of the party, which did not
publish ever a balance.
Sekeramayi works today directly in the office of the
president, so that
Mugabe with him has the direct guidance of the security
forceses. For the
head of state Emmerson Mnangagwa is still more important.
It is not only
considered as the successors chosen of Mugabe as a president,
it by its
proximity to Mugabe, by its role in the party, in the secret
service and in
the economy also gladly as a "son of God" is designated. In
former times he
was a treasurer of the Zanu PF, then Ministers of Justice.
After the man
hated in the population had lost his own constituency with the
parliamentary
elections 2000, Mugabe short hand made him the speaker of the
parliament.
Change of power hardly possible
Mnangagwa sits in the
executive committee of 14 companies, in which Zidco is
involved, and is
considered as the economical head of the party. It was also
the key figure,
which contrived more than one dozen of contracts with the
Congolese
government. Since August 1998 is involved the military Zimbabwes
with
approximately 10000 soldiers in the civil war in the democratic
Republic of
the Congo. It supports the government in Kinshasa against the
Besatzer from
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The campaign is considered as
economic fiasko,
since Zimbabwe must apply daily one million US dollar for
it approximately.
As return close trusted friends received mine and digging
concessions or
lucrative orders from Mugabe from the government in Kinshasa.
Mnangagwa
contrived a majority of these business. Thus it mediated between
Chinese
armament makers, current factory, one bank and two transport
enterprises,
which came all together with the former Congolese dictator
Laurent Kabila
into the business.
As one of the most important contracting parties for
Mugabe and also for the
Congo today the company Zvinavashe transport is
considered. It supplies
weapons and military equipment from Zimbabwe to the
Congo and belongs to
general Vitalis Zvinavashe, to the boss with of the
simbabwischen army. It
could itself secure by its business relations with
Kabila also lucrative
concessions in Congolese diamond mines. Thus Mugabe has
in the long term at
least the guidance of the military behind itself.
Zvinavashe was it then
also, before the presidency elections in Zimbabwe
announced, which will not
recognize military other head of state than
Mugabe.
Another business partner, which Mnangagwa of the Congolese
government
obtained, is John Bredenkamp, which even "as the largest weapon
supplier in
the democratic Republic of the Congo" calls itself. It is
considered as the
key figure, which weapons from Bulgaria unite and former
Soviet republics on
Zimbabwe into the Congo bring. Bredenkamp, Zvinavashe and
Billy lozenge
brook, which is located in South Africa on the list of the 20
largest
economiccriminal, supply everything from weapons over telephones up
to
gasoline to the Congo and leave themselves for it with concession
for
diamonds -, cobalt or ore mines to pay, at which the Central African
country
is rich. Billy lozenge brook received the majority at the Congolese
mine
company of GEC amine, the contract over his company Ridgepoint
contrived
Emmerson Mnangagwa, as he had to admit 1999 before the press. That
also
Robert Mugabe received a license for diamond promotion in the Congo,
the
Minister of Justice at that time denied however.
Since the war in
the Congo continues and remains the Zanu PF further with
Mugabe at power, the
business of this power clique might function further.
By the in such a way
specified "smart sanctions", those the European union,
which Switzerland and
the USA issued against Zimbabwe, might have become
more difficult it for
Mugabes trusted friend to transfer their profits into
the west. It might be
just as difficult however to make the personal
accounts of the dictator
abroad - Mugabe has it, contrary to some its
familiar ones, until today
created to emerge in not one corruption scandal.
For national indignation so
far only the out-curving life-style of its wife
provided, who flew so far
almost weekly to London for buying - while the
Zimbabwer had to endure
forwards for hours empty business. By the sanctions,
which contain an entry
prohibition in the European Union countries and in
the USA for Mugabes family
and its familiar ones also, the president wife
will have herself to search
now another Einkaufsparadies.
Copyright © sueddeutsche.de
Newspaper Prices Go Up
The Herald (Harare)
April 12,
2002
Posted to the web April 12, 2002
Business Reporter
THE
cover prices for three titles published by the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group
have
been increased by between 25 and 42 percent, with effect from April 15
this
year.
The Herald, the flagship of the six titles under the Zimpapers
stable, will
cost $50, up from $35.
The new price for the weekly
Sunday Mail is now $70, up from $50.
Kwayedza, the country's only
national vernacular weekly paper, now costs
$25.
The last increases
were in October and the group has attributed the
increases to the cost of
inputs.
While the increases range between 25 percent and 42 percent the
printing
costs have risen by even higher margins.
"The printing costs
went up by more than 60 percent since the last newspaper
price increase in
October last year," Zimpapers chief executive Mr Bramwell
Kamudyariwa said
yesterday.
He said for some time the company has been cushioning the
readers but it had
reached a point where it could not absorb the costs
anymore.
"Since the last increment, the price of newsprint, ink and other
consumables
increased by an average of 60 percent.
"It must also be
realised that labour costs increased after some salary
adjustments this year
but there was no corresponding adjustment in the price
of the newspapers," he
said, adding that the price of newsprint had also
been increased
recently.
"We are not transmitting the full cost to our readers but want
to operate on
a break-even position," Mr Kamudyariwa said.
The prices
of printing consumables have increased significantly in the
last
year.
Newsprint price went up more than five times last year
alone.
Police Blitz Nets Assortment of Basic Commodities Worth $1million
The
Herald (Harare)
April 12, 2002
Posted to the web April 12,
2002
Herald Reporter
MBARE Police yesterday recovered an
assortment of basic commodities valued
at $1 million as it steps up its
clampdown on illegal traders on the black
market.
Police
Superintendent Shakespear Marange yesterday said the raids were now a
major
priority and more personnel would be deployed there.
He said previously
there had been a skeleton staff as most officers were
deployed in various
centres throughout the country during the presidential
election.
"The
raids are now our major priority to ensure that members of the public
are not
shortchanged," Supt Marange said.
Also present during the raids were
officials from the Grain Marketing Board
and security officers from the
Harare Municipality.
About 15 illegal street vendors who were caught
selling commodities at
inflated prices were arrested during the raids.
Commodities on offer
included washing soap, mealie-meal, sugar and cooking
oil.
At the Mbare market, a bar of soap costs at least $170 while in
retail shops
the price is around $98. A packet of 2kg white sugar retails at
about $76
but fetches $150 on the black market.
A 2 litre bottle of
cooking oil is fetching $900 while in retail shops it
costs around
$400.
Most residents of Harare who fail to secure mealie-meal at nearby
shopping
centres, frequent the market to buy bags of mealie-meal for at least
$500.
Supt Marange said this was the reason why most household
commodities were
scarce in retail shops.
"There is profiteering going
on at the expense of helpless people," he said
adding that the recovered
commodities would be sold at a public auction and
so far, five public
auctions have been held.
Police are also targeting tuckshop owners.
Harare Not in a Hurry to Re-Enter EU Beef Market
The Daily News
(Harare)
April 12, 2002
Posted to the web April 12,
2002
Columbus Mavhunga
ZIMBABWE stands to lose at least US$20
million ($1,1 billion) because the
government is not yet committed to
resuming beef exports to the European
Union (EU) market.
In an
interview, the director of the Department of Veterinary Services, Dr
Stuart
Hargreaves, said the country was not in a hurry to resume beef
exports to the
EU.
The beef exports for the EU market were suspended last year in
August,
following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Masvingo and
Matabeleland
South and North provinces.
"I cannot say we are in a
hurry to re-enter the EU markets," said
Hargreaves. "We have started other
initiatives to open other markets. Maybe
the earliest we can resume beef
trade with the EU is next year."
Zimbabwe has an annual beef export quota
of 9 100 tonnes to the EU and 5 500
tonnes to South Africa, but it has failed
to fulfil both quotas in the last
four years. The situation might be
compounded by the closure of the
government-owned Cold Storage Company's
Bulawayo abattoir and the
below-capacity output at the meat-processor's other
main abattoir in
Chinhoyi since February.
This comes against a
background of depleted foreign reserves for almost
three years
now.
Hargreaves said Zimbabwe is eyeing Asian and Middle East countries
such as
Malaysia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, among others, as
new
exporting markets. It intends to tap other markets in North Africa
in
countries such as Libya, he said.
"There is a fair amount of work
that needs to be done before we think of the
EU," said Hargreaves. "When the
EU veterinary inspection team came, they
asked us to rehabilitate the Save
Conservancy fence that is now in
progress. Moreover, the team said we need
to improve on the identification
of animals, especially from the smallholder
farmers. The Livestock
Development Trust is already working on that. But all
that will take some
time.
"But our new markets have the potential to
far exceed the EU quota." Asked
if that would be too ambitious given that the
herd is declining as a result
of the collapse of the commercial farming
sector, Hargreaves said: "We are
going to involve the smallholder sector so
that it commercialises its
activities and earns forex."
An official
with the local EU office said the government was not making
frantic efforts
to resuscitate its exports to the EU. "It seems there is no
sense of urgency
on the issue of resuscitating beef exports to the EU," said
the official. "It
is glued to the land reform issue and to the issue of a
winter maize crop to
avert starvation. The ball is in its court to address
its priorities,
otherwise the EU is ready."
Minister Quashes Rumours of Fuel Increase
Zimbabwe
Independent (Harare)
April 12, 2002
Posted
to the web April 12, 2002
Vincent Kahiya
THE National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) is currently
sitting on a $12 billion surplus after successfully paying off its debt, also
estimated at $12 billion, at the end of last year.
Industry sources this week said Noczim was in such a good
financial position that the price of fuel would not go up even if the Zimbabwe
dollar was devalued to 120:1 to the greenback.
Transport and Energy minister Edward Chindori-Chininga
yesterday said there would be no fuel increase, quashing rumours in the market
that fuel was expected to go up any time now. The rumours had been fed by a 25%
fuel price increase in South Africa last week and the volatility of the
commodity's price on the international market.
"We have done our calculations and there is not going to be
a price increase," said Chindori-Chininga.
"Noczim's investment in the financial sector amounts to
approximately $6 billion. In addition to this amount there is an amount of
approximately $6 billion in cash collaterals for current foreign denominated
debt," he said.
The sources said the financial position of Noczim and power
utility Zesa had influenced the decision by the Reserve Bank and the Finance
ministry to devalue the dollar, which is currently pegged at 55:1 to the United
States dollar.
Sources this week said Noczim had managed to build reserves
because fuel prices on the international market had been sup- pressed before
this month's jump. There should have been corresponding cuts in forecourt prices
of the commodity. This did not happen resulting in Noczim making a profit.
The oil company is currently using the reserves to buy hard
currency for fuel purchases from sources other than Libya. Zimbabwe also imports
fuel from IPG of Kuwait and Sasol in South Africa.
Libya has meanwhile continued to supply fuel to the country
in exchange for national assets.
Chindori-Chininga said the Libyan fuel was being paid for
through investments and exports to Libya. The government has ceded part of its
stake in the Jewel Bank and hospitality counter Rainbow Tourism Group in
exchange for fuel. The Libyans have also shown interest in infra-structural
development in oil-related industries and land.
Chindori-Chininga said some of the fuel was being paid for
through a beef exports deal secured by Farirai Meats, which is headed by
businessman John Mapondera.