From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 29 April
Harare reaches state
of collapse
Harare - Picture a township of 100 000 people going two
weeks without water,
suffering sewerage bursts, no fuel, and power blackouts
that often last half
the day. That is the reality in Mabvuku/Tafara
township, one of at least
seven Harare suburbs afflicted by the progressive
collapse of basic
services. "It's a recipe for disaster," said John
Chirosvo, of Mabvuku. "The
city's crumbling," says Mark Davies, chairperson
of the Harare Residents and
Ratepayers Association. "Water and power cuts
are widespread; the people who
have run the city for the past 25 years have
failed us." Davies said several
suburbs had gone for two months without
water, while there were intermittent
power cuts. In Mabvuku/Tafara residents
are surviving on water from
boreholes and streams that are considered a
health hazard. Timothy Mabhawu,
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP for
the constituency, said he had
been warned the township might be without
piped water for a year.
The Mail & Guardian witnessed scores of
Mabvuku residents trudging long
distances to collect water from streams in
Gosden. Marceline Nyika (32) was
interviewed while fetching water from a
borehole at RC Hondo building
contractors, meant for brickmakers. "We don't
know who's to blame," she
said, sitting on two tins in a 100m queue. "It's
two weeks now, and no word
from the government." About a kilometre south
sewerage pipes that burst a
few weeks ago remain unrepaired. Inquiries
established that the water supply
had been interrupted in six other black
residential areas in and around the
capital, including Ruwa, Epworth, Mbare,
Mufakose and the dormitory town of
Chitungwiza. Davies said up-market areas
of Harare, such as Borrowdale and
Greendale, had not been spared. The
"overall state of the economy" was to
blame. City engineers had told him the
government would need $100-million
for the construction of another
waterworks. The existing facility could
service only half the townships and
nearby industry.
Lake Chivero dam, about 30km west of Harare, has
been the traditional water
source for the city. However, rapid population
growth - fuelled by the
government's land reforms and the collapse of the
rural economy - has
outstripped capacity. To ease the pressure, the
government proposed building
Kunzwi dam and a new waterworks. The project
has been on the drafting table
for eight years, sources said, as its huge
budget required Cabinet approval.
Engineers at the city council said the
problem was that "everything is
centralised". "It was foreseen 50 years ago
that Harare would need a new
waterworks. But government has sat on the
plans." Mabhawu said he had tried
to break the water impasse. "Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo is
running meetings at the party
headquarters, and the mayoress and her town
clerk are at a trade fair in
Bulawayo," Mabhawu said. "There is nobody to
assist." Former Harare Mayor
Elias Mudzuri said nearly all the engineers had
left the council. "We now
have many incompetent people running city affairs
because the [national]
government bullied its way into council affairs," he
said. "[Local
Government Minister] Chombo is an educationist, not an
engineer," he
added.
Harare's regular power cuts flow from a crippling foreign
exchange shortage
that prevents the Zimbabwe government from servicing its
debts to Eskom and
Mozambique's Cahora Bassa.Zimbabwe's Standard newspaper
has estimated that
the Zimbabwe Electricity Authority owes $200-million, of
which $12-million
(R70-million) is owed to Eskom. However, Eskom
spokesperson Fani Zulu said
Zesa owed Eskom "less than R15-million". Eskom
was in no way responsible for
Harare's power cuts. "Several schools may have
to be shut down," Mabhawu
said. "Children can't use filthy latrines - it's a
health hazard." Driving
into town from Mabvuku, one sees meandering fuel
queues that have resurfaced
since the elections. Most Harare garages have
run dry. The woes of Harare
residents are compounded by a shortage of basic
food commodities at most
supermarkets. Sugar, maize meal, cooking oil and
margarine have disappeared
from shelves. The MDC on Wednesday said Zimbabwe
had run out of food,
including the national staple, maize, and demanded an
apology from President
Robert Robert Mugabe's government for lying about
abundant harvests. "The
country has run out of maize, this a fact," Renson
Gasela, MDC's shadow
agriculture minister told a news conference. The
government, which last year
claimed Zimbabwe had produced a bumper harvest,
should apologise for
misleading Zimbabweans and start approaching
international aid donors,
Gasela said. Mugabe admitted before the
parliamentary elections in March
that Zimbabwe would have to import grain
following drought and a poor
harvest.
Interfin Securities
economist Farayi Dyirakumunda said shortages of fuel and
basic commodities
were linked to Zimbabwe's critical forex problem. "People
could be holding
back on fuel supplies in anticipation of a devaluation of
the Zimdollar,
which would trigger price hikes," Dyirakumunda said. "Many
producers of
basic food commodities have scaled down their operations
because they don't
have forex to import inputs," he said. "The government
has aggravated the
situation with price controls." Zimbabwean economist Eric
Block confirmed
that the country's economy was "in continuing decline", and
that Harare was
suffering from a lack of forex to maintain equipment and buy
water
purification chemicals. Tourism was depressed, because of both the
political
climate and rising prices. The only bright spot was the fall in
the
inflation rate from a high of 622% in January 2004 to its current 123%.
However, Block predicted inflation would start rising again because of oil
price increases and Zimbabwe's poor harvest. The country had produced only a
third of the basic foodstuffs required to feed the population. Drought was a
factor in this, but "chaos in the agricultural sector" had also played its
part. Block suggested the government had subsidised food prices before the
election, but said this was not sustainable.
IOL42 MDC supporters arrested in Zim - report
April 29 2005 at
12:20PM
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested 42 opposition
supporters
after they allegedly assaulted ruling party supporters and stoned
houses in
a district of southeastern Zimbabwe, the state- run Herald
newspaper claimed
on Friday.
Police spokesperson Brian Makomeke
said the 42 Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) supporters were arrested
earlier this week in the Chipinge
South constituency in Zimbabwe's eastern
Manicaland province, the Herald
reported.
The paper claimed
"millions of dollars worth" of property had been
destroyed. Opposition
spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said that he had not
received any
information on the arrests and could not comment.
The MDC lost to
President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union - Patriotic
Front (ZANU-PF) in disputed elections held on
March 31.
ZANU-PF won 78 seats to 41 for the MDC.
The opposition says Mugabes
party used vote-rigging and intimidation
to win the polls, and has launched
court appeals against 13 of the seats won
by the ruling party. -
Sapa-dpa
Zim Online
Armed police summoned as fuel crisis worsens
Sat 30 April
2005
HARARE - Armed police were yesterday called in to control
rowdy
motorists at the few garages in Harare that still had petrol or diesel
as
Zimbabwe's five-year old fuel crisis deepened this week.
With the majority of workers preparing to go on holiday mostly to
their
rural areas to celebrate Workers Day on Monday, long and winding
queues
characterised most filling stations in Harare as motorists waited for
fuel
deliveries - which in most cases never came.
Prices immediately
shot up on the illegal black market where fuel is
readily available but at
more than four times the official pump price.
.
Black-market traders risking arrest by the police could
be seen doing
brisk business ironically just outside NOCZIM House, the head
office of the
government's fuel procurement National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe. Prices there
were ranging between $80 000 to $90 000 per five
litre gallon of petrol
compared to about $18 000 garages charge for the same
quantity.
At a Total garage, a few metres away from NOCZIM House,
baton-wielding
and gun-toting policemen could be seen battling to bring to
order agitated
motorists who had started gathering at the garage as early as
5am.
After showing signs of easing a little a few months ago, the
fuel
crisis is worsening with only a few filling stations receiving fuel in
Harare this week. But there were virtually no deliveries outside the capital
except in the second largest city of Bulawayo where the government has made
contingent plans to ensure supplies to ensure the on-going Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair is not disrupted.
The shortage of
diesel and petrol has left commuters countrywide
failing to get to work on
time and arriving home late.
Meanwhile, commuter omnibus operators
have taken advantage of the fuel
crisis to hike fares with some charging as
much as $10 000 a trip that would
normally cost $2 000.
Fuel is
one among a long list of vital commodities including food,
electricity and
essential medical drugs in short supply in Zimbabwe because
there is no hard
cash to pay foreign suppliers.
Zimbabwe has grappled an acute forex
crisis since the International
Monetary Fund withdrew balance-of-payments
support to the country over
differences with President Robert Mugabe on
fiscal, land policy and human
rights.
Mugabe's seizure of
farmland from white farmers only helped worsen the
forex crunch after
destabilising the agriculture sector that generated the
bulk of Zimbabwe's
export earnings.
The Zimbabwean leader denies he is to blame for
the unfolding economic
crisis saying it is the result of sabotage by Britain
and other Western
nations opposed to his expropriation of white farmland for
redistribution to
landless blacks. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
MDC supporters flee retribution campaign in Chipinge
Sat 30
April 2005
MUTARE - Dozens of opposition supporters from Chipinge town fled
their
homes for dear life this week as war veterans and ruling ZANU PF
militants
intensified retribution against opposition supporters in the small
farming
town, 200 km south of Mutare city.
Some of the families
- who told ZimOnline yesterday they had fled
after receiving death threats
from ZANU PF militants - alleged that some
members of the police in Chipinge
were actively assisting the ruling party
militants in persecuting people
suspected of having voted for the main
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party in last month's
parliamentary election.
A
spokesman for the police in Manicaland Province under which Mutare
falls,
Brian Makomeke, refused to discuss the matter when contacted by
ZimOnline
last night.
But MDC provincial vice-chairman, Prosper Mutseyami,
said ZANU PF
leaders were moving around Chipinge, a stronghold of the
opposition party,
urging their militant supporters to weed out opposition
sympathisers. He
said the activities of the local ZANU PF in Chipinge had
been brought to the
police who had so far not moved to stop harassment of
opposition members.
Mutseyami said: "In rural Chipinge, traditional
leaders, ZANU PF
supporters and the police are actively involved in the
evictions. In
Chipinge urban, ZANU PF leaders are moving around urging their
militias to
weed out MDC sympathizers."
A senior clergyman in
Mutare, whose church has offered sanctuary to
displaced MDC supporters in
the city, also said the families had told him of
widespread victimisation of
opposition supporters in the small town.
"We are helping about 12
families from Chipinge who fled their homes
after the elections. But we are
doing it clandestinely because we too will
be targeted for helping these
people," said the church pastor, insisting
that his name and that of his
church not be mentioned for fear of reprisals.
The run up to last
month's election, controversially won by ZANU PF,
was relatively peaceful
compared to previous elections in 2000 and 2002 when
war veterans and ruling
party militias tortured and murdered MDC supporters.
But the MDC
has rejected the poll result claiming President Robert
Mugabe and ZANU PF
secured victory through fraud. The opposition party has
filed petitions in
court challenging the results of 16 constituencies in an
exercise it says is
intended to demonstrate how Mugabe and ZANU PF stole the
March 31
ballot.
The situation has remained relatively peaceful but tense
across the
country with several reports of militant supporters of ZANU PF
victimising
MDC supporters as punishment for backing the opposition party. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Media institute bemoans cowing of free media
Sat 30 April
2005
HARARE - The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) says there has
been
a 54 percent drop in incidents of media freedom violations in Zimbabwe
but
said this was more a reflection of how repressive laws had effectively
cowed
the media.
A more determined enforcement of the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act, inhibiting independent and free
journalism and
the Public Order and Security Act that prohibits criticism of
President
Robert Mugabe, meant journalists had to be extra careful in what
they
published.
The closure of at least four independent
newspapers including the
country's largest non-government-owned daily paper,
the Daily News, also
effectively reduced capacity for critical and
independent reporting, meaning
less clashes between journalists and the
state, according to MISA.
As a result, the regional media rights
watchdog issued 47 alerts on
Press freedom violations in Zimbabwe last year
compared to 102 such alerts
issued the preceding year.
"The
closure of the Daily News in September 2003 and that of the
Tribune in 2004,
impacted decisively on critical and independent reporting,"
MISA said in a
report on media freedom in the region released this week
ahead of World
Press Freedom Day on May 3.
The report entitled "So this is
Democracy? - State of Media Freedom in
Southern Africa 2004", assesses media
laws and operating environments for
journalists in southern African
countries.
A total of 169 incidents of media freedom violations
were recorded
across the region in 2004, a drop of 10 percent compared to
188 reports in
2003.
Zimbabwe, where journalists can be jailed
for up to two years for
writing stories without obtaining a licence to do so
from a
government-appointed Media and Information Commission, is considered
one of
the most dangerous places for the media.
The southern
African nation was last year listed by the World
Association of Newspapers
among the three worst countries for journalists in
the world. The other two
are Iran and the former Soviet Republic of
Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the government's media commission Tafataona
Mahoso, yesterday called off a meeting he was supposed to hold with
management of the banned Daily News to discuss the possibility of the paper
returning to the streets.
Mahoso's action puts a damper on
hopes that the Daily News might
resume publishing soon. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Trade unionists arrested
Sat 30 April 2005
MUTARE -
Police in the eastern city of Mutare on Wednesday swooped on
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders planning May Day
celebrations in the
city and arrested them for meeting without police
permission.
ZCTU information officer, Mlaleli Sibanda, said the five trade
unionists:
Eliah Mandipe, Tambaoga Nyazika, Stephen Chakandibata, Superior
Boka,
Medicine Muringi and Hilarious Ruyi were still in police custody by
late
yesterday afternoon.
"The five were arrested and detained at Mutare
charge office," Sibanda
told ZimOnline. The ZCTU official said the police
had indicated that they
were arresting the unionist because they had not
sought permission from the
police for their meeting.
"The
police said they have to apply for permission from the police if
they want
to hold any meetings ... (but) the ZCTU should not apply to the
police (to
hold meetings) under POSA (Public Order and Security Act)," he
said.
Under the draconian security Act, Zimbabweans must seek
police
approval first before meeting in groups of three or more to discuss
politics. But professional bodies, trade unions and churches are exempt from
this requirement.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not
be reached for comment on
why the unionists were arrested or what charges
the law enforcement agency
will lay against them.
The police
have routinely used the tough security law to prevent the
main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party, civic society
organisations and other
groups perceived as opponents of the government from
holding meetings with
ordinary Zimbabweans to propagate their ideas and
programmes. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Water Crisis Hits Schools
The Herald
(Harare)
April 29, 2005
Posted to the web April 29,
2005
Harare
SOME schools in Harare's eastern suburbs are ending
lessons at mid-morning
due to the critical water shortages that have
continued to haunt the
capital.
Although there have been intermittent
water shortages throughout Harare, the
situation has remained critical in
the eastern and southern suburbs of
Mabvuku, Tafara, Zimre Park, Waterfalls,
Uplands, Ruwa, Hatfield and
Epworth, forcing most residents to rely on
untreated water from streams and
unprotected wells.
So acute is the
problem that there has been interruption of classes at most
schools in
Tafara and Mabvuku, which are now conducting lessons only for a
few
hours.
At Donnybrook Primary, Tafara Primary, Mabvuku Primary, Simudzai
Primary,
Batanai Primary, Tashinga Primary, Tafara High 2 and Mabvuku High,
pupils
could be seen leaving at around 10:30am.
A visit to the
affected schools on Wednesday and yesterday saw pupils being
released at
break time as school authorities moved to avert a looming health
hazard.
"We have to turn away the students at tea break because we
cannot keep them
for the whole day as there is no drinking water and none
for toilet use,"
said a headmaster at one of the schools who declined to be
named.
The headmaster told The Herald that schools in Mabvuku and Tafara
were
facing difficulties due to the persistent water shortages.
"We
are appealing to the responsible authorities to at least drill boreholes
at
all schools because schools cannot do without water. It's unhygienic and
hazardous to operate without water," the headmaster said.
Another
school head said some officials from the Ministry of Education,
Sport and
Culture toured schools in Mabvuku and Tafara to assess the
situation.
"They (ministry officials) came here on Wednesday and we
discussed the
problems facing the school due to the persistent water
shortage. They
assured us that they were going to look into the issue and
see how best they
can address the problem as soon as possible," he
said.
City of Harare director of works Mr Psychology Chiwanga yesterday
ascribed
the water supply cuts to the low levels in most of the city's
reservoirs.
"Most of the levels are low. This can be attributed to the
current dry
spell, which has led to increased demand for
water.
"Water supplies which were cut in the southern suburbs will be
restored in
line with our demand management programme.
"However, we
will be reviewing the programme and we will advise residents
accordingly,"
said Mr Chiwanga.
But by late yesterday afternoon, there was no water in
the long-affected
suburbs.
Several residents of Mabvuku expressed
displeasure with the City of Harare,
saying the municipality should urgently
come up with ways of addressing the
situation.
"We have not received
a drop of water since last week. The scarcity of water
has been persistent
for the whole month and it's seriously inconveniencing
us," said Mr Togarepi
Gandiwa of New Mabvuku.
Mr Gandiwa said the water cuts had forced many
residents to resort to
untreated water from streams and
wells.
"Unless supplies are restored urgently, a serious health hazard is
looming.
The city fathers have to do something before this time bomb
explodes," he
said.
Another resident, Mr Mike Banda, said the water
woes had to be addressed as
a matter of urgency to avert the increasing
likelihood of a disease
outbreak.
Mr Banda said although the
Commission running the affairs of the Harare City
Council had commendably
worked hard since its appointment to solve the many
deep-seated problems
faced by the city, it should act without delay to find
and implement
effective and lasting measures to address the water problem
which has become
perennial.
"Residents have been patient and we are so happy that there
have been no
cases of violence arising from the water shortages," he said,
commending the
Zimbabwe National Army, which has voluntarily come to the aid
of the
residents by delivering water in bowsers to the suburb.
This,
Mr Banda said, was proof enough that the Government was concerned with
people's needs. He dismissed claims from some quarters that the cause of the
water woes was political.
"Anybody who wants to politicise the water
problems because the ruling party
lost in urban areas is merely expressing
hogwash," Mr Banda said.
In Waterfalls, residents were relying on
Mukuvisi River, which carries
industrial effluent, for washing clothes while
they turned to deep and
shallow wells for drinking water.
"We are
suffering as it is. You just cannot do anything without water.
Please tell
the responsible authorities to address the problem," said an
elderly
woman.
She said it was sad that they had to rely on dirty water they
fetched from
Mukuvisi River and streams flowing into it.
In a related
matter, some Mabvuku and Tafara residents have been vandalising
water pipes
that feed Donnybrook reservoirs from Letombo in order to draw
the water from
the resultant leakages. This has had the effect of scuttling
efforts by
council to address the long-standing water supply problem in the
suburbs.
The Herald observed at least six points along the pipeline
which were either
vandalised by residents or by sand poachers. At all the
points, residents
were fetching water, doing laundry and taking bush
baths.
Yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Public Works
and Urban
Development, Cde Morris Sakabuya, Harare Commissioner Professor
Jameson
Kurasha and senior council officials visited the area to acquaint
themselves
with the situation.
Cde Sakabuya was, however, not
impressed with the city's public relations
department, which has failed to
regularly update residents on the situation
by way of issuing notices,
resulting in blame being heaped on the
commission.
"Your public
relations unit should tell the people what is happening. It
should have
explained the problem. If the residents are told the truth, they
will
appreciate," he said.
Cde Sakabuya said it was worrying that Government
only got to know of the
extent of the problem through the
Press.
Chamber secretary Mrs Josephine Ncube said plans to sink boreholes
had
reached an advanced stage. The boreholes are envisaged to augment
supplies
in the absence of a new source of water.
Engineer Dumisani
Sithole said the construction of Kunzvi Dam would solve
the problem. He said
council was unable to supply the required amounts of
water because of the
heavy pollution of Manyame River and Lake Chivero, the
main
sources.
Cde Sakabuya said the commission should deploy more bowsers in
the area,
especially at schools and clinics.
"We should not close
schools because there is no water," he said.
The deputy minister took
time to address residents at the vandalised water
points, urging them to
desist from the practice.
He said destroying the pipeline only delayed
the filling-up of reservoirs at
Donnybrook and worsened the
problem.
The residents, however, shot back, saying they "vandalised" the
pipe out of
desperation because authorities were not updating them on the
situation.
US$2 Billion Needed to Avert Power Crisis: Zesa Chief
The Herald
(Harare)
April 29, 2005
Posted to the web April 29,
2005
Bulawayo Bureau
Harare
ZESA Holdings says there is an
imminent shortage of electricity in the
country due to an envisaged
shortfall in power supplies in the region in the
next two years and the
power utility needs to spend over US$2 billion
between this year and the
year 2010 to avert a crisis, chairman Dr Sydney
Gata said
yesterday.
Addressing delegates at an international business forum held
on the
sidelines of the ongoing 46th edition of the Zimbabwe International
Trade
Fair, Dr Gata said Zimbabwe was already experiencing power shortages
as a
result of the deficit in power supply in the region.
The
shortfall, which is expected to widen in 2007, is attributed to the fact
that South Africa will not be generating excess electricity to export to
neighbouring countries beyond that period due to its expanding economic
base.
Zesa imports electricity from Eskom of South Africa and other
regional power
utilities to offset local deficit during peak
hours.
The country would need to generate an extra 650 megawatts to
compensate for
the imports and a further 600 megawatts required to support
the forecast
economic growth between this year and 2010. An extra 450
megawatts would be
required for new irrigation and rural electrification
demands.
"Zimbabwe needs to address the basic issue of self-sufficiency
in
electricity generation in respect to the projected shortfall in the
supply
of electricity in the region by 2007. There is an absolute need to
deal with
the projected deficit," Dr Gata said.
"We, in Zesa, might
sound alarmist but there is a real problem that will
emerge in 2007. Already
there have been times where we have failed to get
electricity supplies from
Eskom at peak hours even after making payments in
advance."
"I have
no doubt that Eskom has the capacity to service the South African
economy
beyond 2007, but it will not have surplus to export to us."
He said there
was no hope that Zimbabwe could secure a new power supplier
elsewhere in the
region when Eskom stops exporting.
"I do not think there is anything
coming up in the region in terms of an
alternative. As we speak no one is
building a power station in the region,"
he said.
Dr Gata said some
of the projects that Zesa is planning to embark on include
generation
projects through investments in coal mining, heavy engineering
and power
telecommunications, among others.
However, Dr Gata said Zesa had already
secured agreements with China, India
and Iran who have committed themselves
to funding some of these projects.
"Zesa alone will not afford to address
the imminent deficit, thus, there is
need for the public sector to get
involved to finance the shortfall," he
said.
Some of the projects
where the private sector could be involved in include
the increasing of
power generation at the Hwange and Kariba hydro-power
stations and the
exploitation of the Lupane Methane Gas Project.
He said there were also
areas where Zesa could join forces to mine coal for
electricity generation
in the country.
On a positive note, Dr Gata said Zesa had managed to
reduce debt to Eskom
from $66 billion last year to about $10 billion this
month.
Dr Gata added that some of the problems faced by the power utility
included
the shortage of coal and foreign currency, which have forced the
parastatal
to default on payments. Some of the utilities that supply the
authority such
as HCB of Mozambique now demand that Zesa should pay for
electricity
supplies in advance.
"The operational challenges that we
face include the shortage of coal at all
the power stations and the
projected power deficit in the region in 2007.
"Due to the shortage of
foreign currency we have not been able to honour our
payments on time and as
we speak, we only have one firm import contract for
2005 from Snel of the
Democratic Republic of Congo," he said.
"We have to make prepayments for
current power imports from Eskom and HCB of
Mozambique and all the new
import contracts are now under much tougher terms
for the period 2006 to
2007.
"There is also the threat of reduced power generation at Kariba due
to a
suspected wave of droughts."
Dr Gata paid tribute to South
Africa for its continued support to Zimbabwe
during the difficult economic
period characterised by shortage of foreign
currency.
From: Elliot Pfebve
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 7:12 AM
Subject: Mathew
Pfebve remembered: Murdered by Mugabe.
Aluta
continua!!
Today the 30th of April in 2000, my brother retired Inspector
Mathew Pfebve
was murdered by Robert Mugabe in cold blood. Mathew a family
man and a
symbol of the Pfebve family was murdered by ZANU(PF) in cold
blood, his
crime being a brother to Elliot Pfebve the MDC political National
Executive
member and MP candidate for Bindura. He was murdered 2 months
after having
retired from the ZRP after having served the same government
that killed him
for 21 years. Today Mathew could have been 50, energetic and
contributing to
the development of his country. His Death Certificate
number 672017
registered at MT Darwin District Office confirmed the cause of
his death as,
"Massive brain injury from trauma, assault and laceration of
right lung" and
this was signed by Dr. Kabanda and countersigned by the
informant Officer-
In- Charge Mkumbura Police, Inspector Daniel Dennis
Makaure. 5 years after
he was murdered nobody has been brought to book for
the murder despite the
fact that the people who murdered him are well known
and moving freely doing
their normal business, scaring and probably
murdering more people in
Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe and his ZANU (PF)
government did not issue any statement to
condone those who murdered my
brother other than unilaterally declaring an
amnesty to all those who could
have been involved in political crimes and
murders. 5 years down the line
more and more people continue to die, maimed,
raped and displaced from a
country of their birth. The massive exodus of
Zimbabweans fleeing the
country meant that Zimbabwe will never be the same
again. The impact this
had on social and economic factors is beyond human
imagination yet today the
international community has watched from the
terrace while we Zimbabweans
continue to live under the yoke of tyrant and
systematic persecution.
Zimbabwe today has even been rewarded by being
elected to the UN Human
Rights Commission in New York on the 27 April 2005.
What this means is
Mugabe for the next 3 years will advice the UN on Human
Rights Issues in the
region and beyond, what a shame!
I dream of a Zimbabwe where the young
get charge and the old get change. I
believe in a country where the
President is from the people and by the
people. I believe in a new Zimbabwe
where the people of Zimbabwe are free to
be free. I believe in a world of
peace liberty and stability. I don't
believe in politics of patronage, I
believe in a natural selection of
leadership which is democratically
changeable. At 81, we Zimbabweans are
fighting with our ancestors. I salute
all those who had been murdered in
cold blood in pursuit of a true
democratic Zimbabwe. I salute those who
languish in filth jails serving
politically motivated crimes they did not
commit. I salute those who voted
in the past election against the lord of
darkness.
Long live
Zimbabwe! Long live the struggle for peace and justice! Long live
civil
disobedience against tyrant!! Long live the match to victory!! Aluta
continua!!
The Age, Australia
High finance behind Zimbabwe's market
stalls
By Rochelle
Mutton
Age Correspondent
Bulawayo
April 30,
2005
An illegal foreign exchange dealer holds a $US10 bill
and its Zimbabwe equivalent, $Z350,000.
Photo:
Reuters
The foreign currency black market booms as the
economy goes into freefall.
A shonky market fringing Zimbabwe's second city,
Bulawayo, shows little enthusiasm for selling its hoard of clothing,
kitchenwares and stereos: The real business here is the deals behind the stalls
- selling foreign cash.
With the devastated economy plunging further into the
financial abyss since last month's disputed elections, the black market is
increasingly eager for US dollars, British pounds and euros.
Dubbed "The World Bank", Bulawayo's illegal foreign
exchange dealers run the only bank without a queue and ready stocks of foreign
cash.
This is a seller's paradise, securing up to three
times more than the official rate, with a staggering 30 per cent rise in black
market payments for foreign cash since the March 31 election.
But first you have to know where to find
it.
Rickety wooden tables displaying goods of dubious
origin are manned by up to 100 women, mostly dressed head to toe in the white
dress-code of a local religious sect.
This is all a charade - the real game is brokering
foreign currency deals for the local dollar in a dilapidated shack behind the
market stalls.
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Say the magic word - "forex" - and the white-cloaked
women will step back and allow you to pass into their inner sanctum, behind the
makeshift high wall that surrounds the dealer's shack.
The white-cloaked woman who led me behind the
partition is crestfallen to learn I have come without forex and hisses, with
urgency, for me to return with cash. "Don't change in the street, my friend,
they will cheat you. You will cry, my friend," she warns.
In the past few weeks, Zimbabwe has almost run out of
the staple maize meal, power supplies are erratic, fuel supplies have run dry
and basic commodities are scarce.
After five years of seizures of white-owned farms,
compounded by a drought, Zimbabwe has harvested only 500,000 tonnes of maize,
and another 1.3 million tonnes is required to feed 4 million people - a third of
the population.
But the Zimbabwe Government does not have the
estimated $300 million in foreign cash to buy the necessary maize and its
hostile new laws targeting aid agencies have helped scare away donor
funds.
Government department officials have been seen
visiting Bulawayo's "World Bank" where the black market dealers hold the strings
to the foreign exchange.
Zimbabwe economist Eddie Cross says the parallel
market of foreign exchange dealers is a response to the Zimbabwe Government
overvaluing the Zimbabwe dollar and pocketing the
difference.
Belfast Telegraph
Mugabe protest being held in Belfast
By Ben
Lowry
29 April 2005
Zimbabweans who live in Northern Ireland are
holding a demonstration in
Belfast in protest at the country's dictator
Robert Mugabe.
Organisers described the event outside the City Hall at
2pm tomorrow as a
peaceful occasion, timed to coincide with a major
demonstration outside the
Zimbabwean Embassy in London.
One of those
behind the Belfast vigil, Gudrun Witt (41), said: "Zimbabwe is
a country
with so much potential in terms of natural resources, in terms of
resilient
and warm people - I feel that because of the mismanagement of
these human
and natural resources by the present administration, the bread
basket of
Africa and now it has become a basket case."
Ms Witt, who is a midwife,
moved to Northern Ireland because she so much
enjoyed a brief visit here in
2000.
A white Zimbabwean, Ms Witt said there were also many black
Zimbabweans
living in Northern Ireland, including many nurses.
"Many
have come over as economic refugees. They are concerned about life
expectancy."
Her co-organiser, Adelyn Carr, who also moved here from
Zimbabwe, said:
"More and more Zimbabweans are leaving the country. I think
Mugabe has been
very cruel to a certain percentage of the population and has
retained power
through fear."
President Mugabe won re-election last
month in highly controversial
circumstances.
Daily News online edition
Campaign launched against Africa's insult
laws
Date: 29-Apr, 2005
JOHANNESBURG - A campaign
to rid African countries of "insult laws" -
laws ostensibly intended to
protect the dignity and reputation of people in
high office but which are
actually used to protect presidents,
parliamentarians and in varying degrees
other state officials from scrutiny
of their conduct in office - is to be
launched in Lusaka, Zambia, on Monday
during a workshop which coincides with
World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
"Insult laws" are continually
invoked against the media in Africa when
personal references to heads of
state or officials are deemed insulting or
when journalists allege official
or other misconduct such as corruption and
maladministration especially when
related to the police or military.
Cases of editors and
journalists being charged or imprisoned for such
reports abound. These laws
apply in varying degrees of severity in 48 of the
53 countries in Africa,
including Zimbabwe which has one of the harshest
laws.
The
Lusaka meeting is the first of a series of sub-regional advocacy
workshops
on these laws in sub-Saharan Africa to create awareness of the
legislation,
broaden knowledge about their application and effects and
devise an action
plan to campaign for their removal from the statute books.
This
campaign has taken on an additional thrust with the introduction
of the
African Union's NEPAD African Peer Review Mechanism process in
relation to
the assessment of good political governance in countries.
The
Media Institute of Southern Africa and other organisations
involved in this
campaign believe that countries cannot be assessed by the
NEPAD African Peer
Review Mechanism as practising good political governance
if it has such
legislation as "insult laws" preventing the disclosure of
information about
the conduct of those in government.
Among the other
organisations taking part are the World Press Freedom
Committee, the SA
National Editors' Forum, the Southern African Editors'
Forum, the Southern
African Journalists' Association, Journalistes en Danger
(JED) of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the Organisations of the Media in
Central
Africa, the Media Foundation for West Africa and the Media Rights
Agenda in
Nigeria.
The purpose of the action plan is to devise strategies
and methods to
tackle governments so that, like Kenya in Africa and a number
of countries
in South America, they remove the legislation from their
statute books and
foster freedom of expression and freedom of the media as a
people's right. -
SABC
Mining decline hits workers hard
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 29 Apr 2005 (IRIN) -
The sudden closure of mines in Zimbabwe five
years ago is still having a
negative impact on the livelihoods of thousands
of former
employees.
Forty-four year old Sara Muwati was among the 1,300 workers
who lost their
jobs when the Mhangura copper mine in Mashonaland West
province shut down in
2000.
"Ever since we were retrenched, after the
mine closed, life has been
miserable for me and my family, not to mention
many other people who were
employed by Mhangura," she told IRIN.
A
mother of five, Muwati worked as a clerk at the mine offices in the small
town of Mhangura for 15 years, some 150 km northwest of the capital, Harare.
Her husband, Tom, had been an underground miner since 1979. When the
operation shut its doors they received retrenchment packages totalling Zim
$82,000.
The Muwatis used the money to rent a bottle store in the
city centre, but
poor patronage forced them to abandon the venture, setting
off a string of
financial problems.
2000 was a difficult year for
Zimbabwe's mining sector - a second straight
year of negative economic
growth, high unemployment, a 60 percent inflation
rate and a crippling
shortage of fuels and spare parts had started to damage
the operations and
viability of the manufacturing and mining sectors
severely.
All gold
had to be sold to the central Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, with
payment in
local currency at a fixed rate, which was lower than the rate at
which
companies could buy foreign exchange. Three major mines and several
small
operations ceased operations, including the Connemara, Eureka and
Venice
mines.
Worker unions said the loss of the mines had been a disaster for
former
employees and their families.
"The sudden and swift closure of
mines that took place in the late 1990s,
particularly from 2000, present
well-documented cases of suffering and
misery for the majority of those who
were employed in the mining industry,"
Collin Gwiyo, the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU) deputy
secretary-general, told IRIN.
ZCTU
attributed the spate of closures mainly to the reaction of donors and
investors to the government's controversial fast-track programme of violent
farm seizures in 2000.
"The land redistribution programme, which
entailed the forced removal of
white farmers from their properties, gave
rise to the perception that the
country is a risky, unfriendly destination
for investors," said Gwiyo.
Research carried out in July 2004 by the
Labour and Economic Development
Research Institute of Zimbabwe, in
conjunction with the Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung, a German-based foundation,
revealed that the mining sector had
also been dealt a body blow by declining
global mineral prices.
"The fluctuating international commodity prices
have hit the (mining) sector
hard, resulting in erratic variations in
production and foreign currency
earnings," the report noted.
It also
pointed out that domestic economic trends had contributed to the
slump in
mining activities. "The massive depreciation of the local currency
in the
1990s resulted in soaring input costs, thereby undermining the
viability of
most mineral producers," the report observed.
While the capital-intensive
mining industry provided six percent of total
employment in 1980, data from
the Central Statistical Office showed that
this figure had fallen to a
paltry 0.8 percent by 2002.
Although Muwati was among the fortunate few
who were given houses as part of
their retrenchment packages, everyday life
remains an uphill battle.
When their liquor business collapsed, she and
her husband decided to look
for employment elsewhere. "Tom moved from one
mine to another doing piece
jobs [contract labour]. His visits back to
Mhangura became less and less
frequent and, after a year, he stopped coming
home. I then heard that he had
taken another wife," said
Muwati.
Confronted with the task of fending for the children alone, she
sold
second-hand clothes from a stall set up outside her home. However,
clients
were few and far between, because the other town residents had been
equally
adversely affected by the closure of the mine.
Then she tried
smuggling foreign currency from Mozambique to Zimbabwe and
selling it on the
parallel market.
Two of her sons took to illegal gold panning and one of
them was maimed in a
brawl stemming from a quarrel over the ownership of a
gold claim at an
abandoned mine, while her daughter took to prostitution in
the tourist town
of Kariba.
When IRIN visited Mhangura town, once
characterised by roaring blast
furnaces, all that was left were mounds of
slag left over from the
operation. The neglected water and sewerage systems
suffered constant
breakdowns, causing a health hazard to the
residents.
"The mine used to subsidise the education of our children, and
when it
closed there were massive dropouts. There have been many deaths
because the
mine hospital was closed and the nurses were also retrenched,"
said Muwati.
Two leading banks, Standard Chartered and Barclays, moved
out when the mine
shut down and the few remaining shops took advantage of
reduced competition
to hike their prices.
Similarly, former employees
of the Venice gold mine, about 50 km northwest
of Kadoma in Mashonaland
West, complained of the hardships they had endured
since the mine
closed.
"Most of the people here are unemployed and survive by doing odd
jobs and
selling second-hand clothes. But most of the youths have been kept
going by
gold panning in the disused shafts," said Goodman Marufu, a shop
assistant
in the small business centre of Venice town.
Over the past
three years, Marufu said, former employees of Venice who could
not make ends
meet had trekked back to their rural homes.
Experts call for new assessment to determine food shortages
[ This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 29 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Agricultural experts have
called for an
"objective" assessment of crop production in Zimbabwe, as
preliminary
forecasts point to yet another year of widespread food
shortages.
"There is consensus around the view that food production in
the 2004/05
agricultural season will be poor, and not nearly enough to
satisfy the needs
of the country in the next consumption year. However,
objective and
transparent assessments need to be undertaken in order to
determine the
magnitude and geographic spread of the production shortfall,"
the Famine
Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) cautioned in its latest
food
security update.
Last week IRIN reported that Zimbabwe had
turned to Zambia, Uganda and
Tanzania for grain imports as the state Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) sought
to restock dwindling maize and wheat holdings.
Minister of Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare Nicholas Goche
confirmed that over the past month
about 150,000 mt of grain had been
received from South Africa, the major
supplier.
Since last year
Zimbabwe has been involved in a war of figures with
international donor
agencies on the country's projected harvest for 2004/05.
The main growing
season usually runs from October to March.
The GMB recently reported to
the National Taskforce on Food Security that,
rather than government's
harvest estimate of 2,4 million mt, only 600,000 mt
of grain had been
delivered to its silos after the 2004/05 harvest. The
country needs 1,8
million mt of grain annually to meet domestic consumption
requirements.
FEWS NET warned in March 2005 that up to 4.5 million
people were in need of
immediate food aid, compared to government estimates
that 1.5 million would
require some kind of assistance.
The early
warning system stressed that assessments were critical to
establish "the
2004/05 food crop production prospects, current levels of
national food
stocks, the government's import capacity and, ultimately, the
national
2005/06 consumption year food deficit".
"Such assessments will help the
government of Zimbabwe to determine whether
they will need outside
assistance to close the food gap, and how much
assistance may be required,"
FEWS NET pointed out.
The major food security problem remains the
inability of a significant
proportion of poor households to generate enough
income to buy the food they
need.
Although the annual rate of
inflation has maintained a downward trend, from
505 percent in April 2004 to
123.7 percent in March 2005, household incomes
continue to trail general
price increases, the early warning system
observed.
Washington File
29 April 2005
Zimbabwe's Election to Human
Rights Body "Unacceptable"
U.S. ambassador to U.N. calls for reform after
election of rights violator
By Charles W. Corey
Washington
File Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States is "dismayed"
that Zimbabwe was elected a
member of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights and finds such a
result "unacceptable," the acting U.S.
representative to the United Nations
stressed April 28.
Ambassador
Anne W. Patterson told the press after the election that the
United States
considers the election of Zimbabwe to a body that "is supposed
to maintain
the highest standards of human rights compliance in the world"
to be
"totally inappropriate."
"It is simply unacceptable that countries like
Zimbabwe sit on the Human
Rights Commission," she said. "What's wrong with
Zimbabwe is its repressive
press, [its] electoral process and its generally
repressive government."
Patterson said efforts have been under way to
reform the commission. "This
is one of the issues outlined in the
secretary-general's report" on the
matter, she explained, adding that the
elections of known human rights
violators are good examples of why the
entire human rights machinery of the
United Nations needs
reform.
Asked to detail the U.S. position on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's
effort to reform the commission, Patterson said: "We believe that
the Human
Rights Commission needs exceedingly widespread reform. He has
certainly
presented a number of interesting and useful ideas, and we'll be
looking at
them closely."
Citing the fact that China sits on the U.N.
Human Rights Commission, a
reporter asked whether it was hypocritical to
castigate the election of
Zimbabwe to the panel when the United States
recently voted in Geneva on a
resolution to denounce China's human rights
violations.
Patterson responded that the permanent members of the
Security Council are
automatically accorded seats on all U.N. bodies, but
the issue in this
instance was the election of "countries like Zimbabwe and,
in previous
years, Sudan, and, of course, Cuba . human rights violators of
the first
order," to the commission.
Patterson acknowledged that
Zimbabwe "was chosen by its peers," but cited it
as "one of the things that
is wrong with the system, because regional groups
put up slates of their
neighbors and they're elected with basically very
little
discussion."
Zimbabwe was among 15 countries chosen April 28 to sit for
the next three
years on the 53-member commission.
Although members of
the U.N. Commission on Human Rights are elected by the
U.N. Economic and
Social Council, seats are allotted to regional groupings,
which often put
forward most of the candidates without opposition.
(The Washington
File is a product of the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
