http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
10 August
2010
The police and military led 'clean-up' of the controversial Chiadzwa
diamond
fields reportedly intensified over the weekend, ahead of a visit by
an
international group of diamond industry experts.
The team of
inspectors from the Kimberley Process arrived in Zimbabwe on
Tuesday to
verify the country's compliance with minimum international trade
standards.
The review mission will take place until Sunday and coincides
with a visit
to the country by the Kimberley Process monitor, Abbey Chikane.
The
visits are a result of the agreement reached by the Kimberley Process
and
the Mines Ministry last month, which paved the way for diamond exports
from
Zimbabwe to resume. Sales had been suspended over human rights
atrocities at
the diamond fields, but despite ongoing reports of abuses
continuing, the
Kimberley Process has agreed to certify a stockpile of
diamonds from
Chiadzwa as conflict free. The multimillion dollar stockpile
will go on sale
on Wednesday.
The visits by the Kimberley Process review mission and
Chikane has seen the
police and military launch an intense clean up
operation, with armed
soldiers raiding business centres in areas surrounding
Chiadzwa over the
weekend. The operation is widely believed to be a blatant
attempt to hide
the ongoing abuses and irregularities at the diamond fields,
for the sake of
the international visitors.
On Saturday soldiers
reportedly rounded up several people they found
loitering at business
centres in Chakohwa, Hot Springs and Nyanyadzi. A
NewsDay crew apparently
witnessed soldiers rounding up about 20 youths at a
business centre in Hot
Springs. The youths were believed to be illegal
miners. Villagers have
previously reported seeing soldiers chasing miners
away from the area to
create a semblance of legality at the mining sites.
http://news.yahoo.com/
AFP
Tue
Aug 10, 12:26 pm ET
HARARE (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday
urged his army to protect
Zimbabwe's natural resources against
"imperialists", as investigators sought
to confirm that soldiers had ceased
blood diamond trade.
"My message to you today is for you to remain loyal
to your country and
jealously guard its independence, sovereignty and
natural resources," Mugabe
said in an address to troops to mark Defence
Forces Day.
"Remain wary of renewed subtle imperialistic efforts to
dispossess us of the
control of our natural resources," the veteran leader
said in an apparent
warning to Western countries.
Zimbabwe's military
is at the centre of controversy over diamonds from the
eastern Marange
fields, where an international watchdog last year said
soldiers had used
beatings, forced labour and other abuses against civilians
to gain control
of the region's diamond trade.
The global diamond trade watchdog
Kimberley Process in January blocked a
diamond sale in Zimbabwe, saying the
country had not yet complied with human
rights standards.
Kimberley
monitor Abbey Chikane said last month that Zimbabwe had met
minimum
standards, but his report failed to convince all the members of the
scheme,
which has allowed the country to make only two sales of existing
diamond
stocks.
Zimbabwe says it has handed operations at Marange to two South
African
firms, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners.
But Human Rights
Watch in June cited new reports that soldiers in Marange
were engaging in
forced labour, torture, beatings and harassment.
Last year the US-based
group said more than 200 people were killed after the
military seized the
fields in late 2008.
A Kimberley team visited the Marange fields on
Tuesday to confirm whether
abuses have ceased on the eve of the first
authorised sale of diamond stocks
in Harare, secretary for mines Thankful
Musukutwa told AFP.
"Some of the members will monitor the auctions on
Wednesday, while the other
members of the team will remain in Marange and
continue their review on the
operations by the companies there," he
said.
Chikane was in Harare meeting with government officials ahead of
the auction
Wednesday, Musukutwa said. He will certify and examine all
diamonds produced
by the two companies.
International auditors Ernest
and Young will oversee the sale as part of
Zimbabwe's agreement with the
Kimberley Process.
Mugabe had been expected to open the sale, but he left
Harare on Tuesday for
a visit to China to attend the World Expo in Shanghai,
according to state
television.
But political analyst Bornwell
Chakaodza said Mugabe's latest remarks cast
doubt on his commitment to
removing the military from the diamond fields.
"The defence forces should
be above politics. They have no business in
safeguarding natural resources,"
he told AFP.
"Defence forces are there to defend the country in the event
of an attack,
but where there are no such attacks they belong to the
barracks and not
anywhere else."
Zimbabwe's case posed Kimberley's
toughest challenge in years. Harare argued
that the scheme was created to
prevent diamonds from financing rebel
movement against legitimate
governments, which is not the case in Marange.
But others argued that the
scheme could not certify diamonds produced by
civilians, including children,
forced into labour by the military.
The Marange fields cover some 66,000
hectares (163,000 acres), but the gems
were only discovered there in 2006,
making them one of the few new sources
of income for Zimbabwe.
Mining
is the country's main foreign currency earner.
Finance Minister Tendai
Biti has told parliament that the Treasury could not
account for any of the
30 million dollars in Marange diamonds sold last year
before the Kimberley
ban took effect.
http://www.businessday.co.za
ERNEST MABUZA
Published: 2010/08/10
06:29:17 AM
THE Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Lawyers
Association has
urged regional heads of state meeting in Namibia next week
to condemn
Zimbabwe for its continued disregard of Sadc tribunal
rulings.
The tribunal, a judicial dispute settlement organ for the
region, ruled in
2008 that the occupation of farms in Zimbabwe by land
grabbers was illegal.
The tribunal also ordered the Zimbabwean government
to protect commercial
farmers and their workers and allow them to continue
farming their land. But
the Zimbabwean government flouted the tribunal's
judgment.
Last month, the tribunal issued another ruling confirming that
the
government was in contempt of the tribunal's previous ruling. In
response,
Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the tribunal
"could make
as many such judgments as possible" but this would not change
the government's
stance on the land issue.
"Clearly therefore, the
government of Zimbabwe is not going to abide by the
tribunal rulings on its
own free will. We therefore urge the . forthcoming
Sadc summit . to take a
principled stand and condemn the actions of the
Zimbabwean government in the
interests of regional cohesion and integrity,"
the association said
.
The association said heads of state should urge its member states,
including
Zimbabwe, to respect regional institutions, which played an
important role
in defining the region.
"Continued silence on the
actions of the Zimbabwean authorities will only
help to play in the hands of
sceptics who doubt the ability of the regional
leaders to deal effectively
with the government of Zimbabwe."
mabuzae@bdfm.co.za
http://news.radiovop.com/
10/08/2010 15:21:00
Harare, August 10, 2010
- Zanu (PF) member and businessman Temba Mliswa has
been freed by the High
Court after spending one and a half months in jail
following his public
statement attacking police commissioner Augustine
Chihuri.
Mliswa,
walked out of police cells on Tuesday afternoon after the state
consented to
the defence's submissions that he should be brought to court by
way of
summons on the numerous cases that were dug up by police since he
said
Chihuri was corrupt.The defence had applied for an urgent order to
release
the controversial businessman arguing that police were infringing on
his
rights by keeping him in jail.
For the state, senior law officer Rodrick
Tokwe consented.
Justice Ben Hlatshwayo granted the order and instructed
police to release
the outspoken businessman within 30 minutes. Police from
the homicide
section immediately took him from Matapi police station to
Harare Central
where he was released.
This time, there were no police
officers to arrest him like they had done on
three different occasions he
was released. Soon after being released, Mliswa
was whisked away to his
house by his family and lawyers.
His lawyer Charles Chinyama confirmed to
Radio VOP that his client was now
home.
Sources said police initially
wanted to resist releasing Mliswa claiming
that they had one more case
against him but his lawyers threatened to go
back to the High Court and
report a contempt of court case.
Chinyama also explained that Mliswa's
release did not mean that police would
stop investigations.
When
Mliswa was rearrested after being released last Friday, he was charged
with
attempted murder for an incident which happened at the height of the
farm
invasions 2003.
Mliswa's arrest was in defiance of a court order given by
magistrate Don
Ndirowei last week who said police must bring together all
the crimes he is
alleged to have committed and not to bring his cases in
installments.
The magistrate said by bringing cases one by one and making
sure they
arrested him each time he was given bail, police were infringing
on his
rights.
Mliswa had applied for bail in cases in which he is
accused of defrauding
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) of US$3, 5 million
and stealing
generators about eight years ago.
In his ruling, the
magistrate said Mliswa was a good candidate for bail
given that some of the
cases brought before the courts were old and dated
back to
2002.
Mliswa was granted US$1000 bail, ordered to surrender his passport,
reside
at his residence in Borrowdale and was also ordered not to travel 40
kilometres from Harare.
He was also ordered not to interfere with
state witnesses.
Mliswa's treatment is similar to that of Jestina Mukoko,
Roy Bennett and
many other human rights defenders and opposition officials
who have fallen
prey to the regime.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance
Guma
10 August 2010
Notorious war vets leader Jabulani Sibanda has
threatened Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, comparing him to a ‘fly’ that
could be easily killed by
swatting it against a window. Sibanda who has made
a political career out of
terrorizing and killing MDC supporters was
addressing villagers at Mashoko
Business Centre in Bikita West over the
weekend.
According to a report by Newsday Sibanda is terrorizing
villagers in Bikita
with the help of a group of war vets and ZANU PF
activists. ‘Tsvangirai is
just like a fly in a kombi or a bus. The fly can
sit on the driver’s seat
but that does not make it the one in charge of the
bus. He can be eliminated
in the political set-up anytime and life will go
on,” Sibanda ranted against
the Prime Minister.
It is the Shona
version of Sibanda’s speech which will be the biggest source
of concern.
‘Nhunzi unogona kuipwanyira pahwindo inobva yafa’ meaning ‘you
can kill a
fly by simply swatting it against a window.’ Two MDC-T MP’s
attended the
meeting and heard Sibanda make the remarks. Zaka Central MP
Harrison Mudzuri
and Masvingo Central MP Jefferson Chitando were part of the
crowd, unknown
to Sibanda and his group of thugs.
Despite police claims that they had
not received any reports of the threats,
MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa told
us one villager used a mobile phone
handset and had recorded a video of
Sibanda making the threats. The video
also showed that the war vets leader
was moving around with the Officer in
Charge at Mashoko Police
Station.
A day after the threats were made houses belonging to MDC
supporters were
burnt down.
Chamisa said ‘under a fair government’
Sibanda should have been arrested
immediately after making those remarks. He
said Tsvangirai has survived
death in the past ‘under miraculous
circumstances and for someone to make
such threats should not be taken
lightly.’ He said there was no chance of
promoting national healing when the
perpetrators were committing fresh
abuses against the population.
In
2008 Sibanda had moved out of his traditional Bulawayo base to operate
his
terror campaigns from Harare. In April that year Mugabe’s regime
rewarded
him with a plush home and 4x4 vehicle for his use in the capital.
While in
Harare, Sibanda axed an MDC supporter in the head during one of the
campaigns he directed. The wounded activist was one of the hundreds who
sought refuge at the MDC Harvest House headquarters in the city.
This
year Sibanda has been on a ‘tour of terror’ around the provinces,
intimidating mainly rural villagers from participating freely in the
constitutional outreach. He has terrorized people in Manicaland, Mashonaland
Central and West and now Masvingo where he has been camped for three weeks.
He is expected to ‘tour’ the other provinces, as ZANU PF rolls out its
military machinery ahead of possible elections next year.
http://news.radiovop.com
10/08/2010
10:38:00
Harare, August 10, 2010 - A female photo journalist was hurt
and taken to
hospital in an Air Force of Zimbabwe ambulance after a
paratrooper
accidentally landed on a group of journalists during displays by
the
military at the National Sports Stadium in Harare Tuesday.
The
injured journalist's name was not immediately established but was
believed
to be a Zimbabwean photojournalist based in South Africa.
The incident
happened after Mugabe had finished his official address of
Zimbabwe's
military during the annual defence forces day commemorations.
It is not
the first incident in which soldiers have been caught on the
negligent side
of action.
In 2008, 14 civilians were injured during a mock battle drill
by the army at
the Marondera Agriculture Show.
The freak incident was
described by the then Defence Minister Sydney
Sekeramayi as a result of
gross negligence by the soldiers.
Sekeramayi later told Parliament while
responding to a question by an MDC MP
during a question and answer session
that the soldier who fired the
ammunition was going to be brought before a
court martial.
http://af.reuters.com
Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:05am
GMT
* Aid still needed despite farm sector recovering
*
Poverty increases chronic malnutrition in children
HARARE, Aug 10
(Reuters) - Nearly 1.7 million Zimbabweans will require food
assistance in
the 2010/11 season despite the recent recovery of the
country's troubled
agriculture sector, United Nations agencies said in a
report on
Tuesday.
Agriculture plumbed new depths in 2008 when farmers produced
500,000 tonnes
of the staple maize against national requirements of 2
million tonnes, but
production has since picked up in the past two years to
1.35 million tonnes.
International aid targeting provisions of free seed
and fertilisers for
farmers in the once famine-threatened country, better
use of land, and the
end of hyperinflation have led to the improvement in
harvests.
"Despite the improved availability of food, up to 1.68 million
people will
need food assistance because prices remain comparatively high
for families
with low incomes and little or no access to U.S. dollars or
South African
rand," co-author Jan Delbaere of the U.N. World Food Programme
said in the
report. Zimbabwe discarded the use of its worthless dollar last
year after
inflation reached 500 billion percent, but few U.S. dollars or
rand
circulate in rural areas.
A Food and Agriculture Organisation
official said in the same report that
Zimbabwe had 1.66 million tons of
cereals available against a total need of
2.9 million tonnes for 2010/11,
leaving a shortfall of 428,000 tonnes.
A Malawian government minister
said last week the country would export
300,000 tonnes of its surplus maize
to Zimbabwe.
The U.N. report said general poverty and food insecurity had
contributed to
increased prevalence of chronic malnutrition in young
children.
Once a regional bread basket, Zimbabwe has failed to feed
itself since 2000
following President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned
commercial farms
for black resettlement, leading to sharp falls in
production.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/
10 August, 2010
12:00:00 By
An American aid worker who was helping to feed hundreds of
starving
schoolchildren in Zimbabwe was shot dead by security forces at a
road block.
Dick Gilman, 58, a retired American software specialist from
Connecticut who
had been in the country for less than three weeks, was shot
near the border
with Mozambique on Monday. A US embassy official said two
American officials
had been sent to the eastern town of Mutare to
investigate the shooting.
Police in Harare said Mr Gilman had been "rude"
and had tried to run down
two policemen and was killed by a glancing shot
which lodged in his
shoulder.
His relatives angrily disputed this
account. His brother, Howard Gilman,
said he was stopped at a semi-permanent
road block manned by "aggressive"
police and armed soldiers, and asked to
produce his passport and customs
papers for his car, hired in South
Africa.
He said his brother did not have his passport on him, and left
his car
papers with the security forces at the road block.
"He came
back to the flat and we talked about what had happened. He had not
noticed
that the papers for the car he hired in Johannesburg had the wrong
date
stamped on them by customs - 1998 instead of 2002 - so he picked up his
passport and returned to the road block.
"The next thing I got a call
from the police to go to the central police
station, where I was abruptly
told my brother had been shot and was dead.
When I later saw him in the
morgue, I saw two bullet wounds, and wondered if
he had been left to bleed
to death by the side of the road."
Howard Gilman was working as a
volunteer at a United Methodist Church
university in Mutare.
He
added: "My brother came to visit me first in November 2000, and he was a
backpacker type. One day, he went off and found this poor school in the
hills, met the headmaster, and began to help with all sorts of things and he
has provided food for 840 children until next March." - Daily Telegraph
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Irene Madongo
10 August
2010
The Home Affairs Co-Minister Theresa Makone's 'silence' regarding
the war
vets continued attacks on MDC members is a sign her party is still
not in
control, a commentator has said.
Last week, assaults on MDC
officials and supporters intensified in the
Chipinge area of Manicaland,
with MDC-T Makoni South MP Pishayi Muchauraya
blaming war vets and ZANU PF
militia for the violence. On Monday the MDC in
Masvingo said war vets leader
Jabulani Sibanda has used inflammatory
speeches to terrorise thousands of
people at meetings for the past few
weeks. He recently told villagers that
people opposed to Robert Mugabe would
be killed.
Following Sibanda's
remarks, on Friday night Bikita MDC-T member David
Holman, lost property
after his house was torched by suspected ZANU PF
loyalists. This incident
was the last straw for the MDC members in the area,
who decided to boycott
the constitutional outreach programe.
Exiled Zimbabwean journalist
Tanonoka Whande said: "It has been going on for
a long time and there is no
end to it. ZANU PF is in control, there is
nothing Theresa Makone can do.
She came in, she can't make a difference,
there is nothing she can do," he
said.
Whande's comments on how the situation has not changed are in line
with
those of Tongai Matutu, the MDC-T's provincial chairperson for
Masvingo, who
said on Monday that despite the war vets criminal conduct the
police are
reluctant to make arrests because the police force is still
generally
sympathetic towards ZANU PF war vet.
Matutu added that at a
meeting on Friday at Mashoko in Bikita South, the
officer in charge of
Mashoko police station was actually present when
Sibanda incited violence
against the MDC.
Technically, as Home Affairs Co-Minister Makone, has the
power to order the
police to investigate and even arrest Jabulani Sibanda
and other war vets
who are attacking people.
But last month she went
to three different police stations demanding that
the police release the son
of ZANU PF Minister Didymus Mutasa. Mutasa's son
Martin was being held after
allegedly trying to seize shareholding worth
US$1 million in a company owned
by white businessman Paul Westwood.
Whande says despite hurrying to
intervene to help a ZANU PF member's son,
the MDC-T minister is powerless to
rescue her own party members from
militant war vets sponsored by ZANU
PF.
"Theresa doesn't have the interests of the MDC at heart," he said,
adding;
"Why don't we see a difference regarding the police? Is the person
responsible for the police saying anything? Why is she not making noise
about it?" he said.
Whande also said that generally, Makone's conduct
shows that the MDC-T does
not have any power over its own ministers. In
addition to trying to rescue a
ZANU PF minister's son from police custody,
he said he agreed with the view
that her role as director of ceremonies at
the Heroes Day commemoration in
Harare on Monday showed her conduct was
contrary to the mood of her party -
the MDC strongly opposes the current
system of deciding who is a hero.
Despite the law stating heroes status
should be conferred by cabinet, ZANU
PF alone has been making decisions,
ignoring the other parties nominations.
"The MDC itself does not seem to
have control over its people. They don't
seem to have control over their
agenda. Theresa was a master of ceremony
there, can't you see a little line,
she's making dots for us to join. It is
so clear," he said.
http://www.newstime.co.za/
Tuesday, August 10,
2010
Judgement will be handed down tomorrow (Wednesday 11 August 2010
at 9:00) in
Court 8B of the North Gauteng High Court on whether the
Government of
Zimbabwe should be penalised with a special order for costs
following an
earlier abortive urgent application brought by the Government
of Zimbabwe
against three farmers assisted by AfriForum.
This comes after
the Zimbabwean government erroneously lodged an urgent
application against
the farmers because the Zimbabwean government was
apparently under the
impression that the auction of properties in Cape Town,
scheduled for 27
July and 10 August, had been organised by AfriForum and the
farmers.
Although the farmers were the first ones to attach the
properties, the
auctions were organised by German bank group KFW Bank
Gruppe. Despite the
fact that the correct facts had been widely reported in
the media, the
Zimbabwean government erroneously lodged an urgent
application against the
Zimbabwean farmers Louis Fick, Richard Etheredge and
Michael Campbell.
AfriForum is assisting the farmers in their legal battle
against the
Zimbabwean government.
All three of the farmers were
forcefully removed from their farms and the
elderly Mr Michael Campbell's
health seriously deteriorated after he was
brutally attacked by occupiers
two years ago. He sustained serious head
injuries in the attack. His house
on the farm Mount Carmel was also burnt to
ashes.
Mr Louis Fick is
still being prosecuted in Zimbabwe because he allegedly did
not cooperate in
the land reform programme and if he is found "guilty", he
could be
imprisoned for two years.
AfriForum's legal representative, Willie Spies,
said that it is clear that
the Zimbabwean government is randomly trying to
further jeopardise the three
farmers by means of court applications.
Although they were deprived of their
income by the Zimbabwean government,
they have to incur excessive legal
costs to restore their rights. The
Zimbabwean government, in turn, refuses
to the honour orders to pay costs
that are overdue for more than a year
(including an order by the SADC
tribunal).
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Tafadzwa Mutasa Tuesday 10 August
2010
HARARE - International diamond watchdog Kimberley Process will
this week
certify Zimbabwe's controversial diamonds from Marange, raising
hopes of a
huge inflow of desperately needed foreign currency, but there are
growing
fears that diamond proceeds may end up lining the pockets of
influential
military and political figures with ties to President Robert
Mugabe.
The Marange gems have divided world opinion, with African and
Asian
countries backing Zimbabwe's bid to sell the diamonds while the West
and
rights groups opposed the sale, charging that the military killed
several
people while driving out illegal miners from the fields in
2008.
Zimbabwe has stockpiled more than 4.5 million carats of rough
diamonds since
the start of the year, which officials say could fetch the
country up to
$1.7 billion, nearly 80 percent of Harare's $2.2 billion
budget for 2010.
"There is no doubt that diamond sales will add value to
country's revenue
but this money should not go into the hands of
individuals," Tony Hawkins, a
University of Zimbabwe professor of Business
Studies said.
"The diamond industry should be nationalised, they ought to
be in the hands
of the state and revenue should be ring-fenced and be
channelled into the
construction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges,
housing stands,
hospitals and schools."
Two little known South
African private companies, Mbada and Canadile are
mining diamonds with
Zimbabwe's state mining firm Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation in
Marange and critics say the companies are
fronting powerful political and
military elites close to Mugabe.
KP monitor Abbey Chikane, who arrived in
the country this week, is expected
to certify the diamond stockpile
tomorrow, during a ceremony that would be
witnessed by Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
But questions still remain on whether all
proceeds from the diamond sales
would be accounted for by the treasury after
Finance Minister Tendai Biti
charged last month that $30 million from
diamond sales from Marange was
missing.
"Diamonds should not be
pocketed by some individuals . they should help to
improve the whole
country. Those with an appetite for individual
aggrandisement, please blunt
your appetite," Mugabe said last week while
burying his sister
Sabina.
Zimbabwe is struggling to attract meaningful economic aid from
the Western
donors despite the formation of a coalition government by bitter
rivals
Mugabe and Tsvangirai in February 2009.
The country needs US$10
billion to revive an economy that analysts say was
battered by a decade of
mismanagement by Mugabe's previous ZANU-PF regime as
well as resuscitating
its collapsed social services such as health and
education.
Pressure
group Kubatana said proceeds from the sale of gemstones should be
used to
improve food security at a time a third of Zimbabwe's children are
said to
be chronically malnourished.
Zimbabwe won its battle to sell the Marange
diamonds after ZANU-PF and the
Movement for Democratic Change put up a
united front urging the West to drop
its opposition to the auctioning of the
gemstones at a World Diamond Council
meeting last month in
Russia.
The southern African country was allowed to conduct two
supervised exports
of rough diamonds from Marange by September this
year.
The KP monitoring committee would then review the report issued by
the
review mission to formulate a position regarding future
exports.
Witnesses told ZimOnline yesterday that security at operations
run by Mbada
and Canadile had been heightened since the start of this year
and were now
at par with other diamond producing mines in the region, but
there remained
vast tracts of land which were manned by
soldiers.
"This is where soldiers are openly operating and they are using
illegal
miners to dig for diamonds for a fee and then share the spoils," an
illegal
miner said.
Rights groups say there is still widespread abuse
perpetrated by the army in
Marange. The Zimbabwe National Army refuses to
comment on the issue. --
ZimOnline.
http://www.ipsnews.net
By Mufudzi Moyo
HARARE, Aug 9,
2010 (IPS) - The memories of Zimbabwe's 2008-2009 cholera
outbreak are fresh
in the minds of everyone except the people who have the
safety of the
country's water in their hands.
Two years ago this month, a deadly
cholera epidemic took hold in Zimbabwe.
By the time it had burned itself out
in the middle of 2009, as many as 4,000
people were dead.
The risk of
another such outbreak remains, says Steady Kangata, spokesperson
for the
country's Environmental Management Agency. "Most local authorities'
pump
stations and biofilters are not functional and hence most of them have
resorted to diverting raw sewerage straight into the natural water sources,
causing a health time bomb."
In April, a typhoid outbreak in Mabvuku,
one of Harare's high density
suburbs, swiftly infected 300 people, killing
eight. Cholera and typhoid are
just two of the serious public health threats
caused by contamination of
drinking water and food which comes into contact
with sewage.
Previously, local authorities handled sewerage by first
separating solids
from effluent, then making manure with the solids while
treating the liquid
before discharging it into the environment.
But
according to Kangata, municipal authorities are now simply dumping
everything into water courses, prompting EMA to initiate legal action
against several councils. The watchdog has accused the councils of Harare,
Mutare, Marondera, Chinhoyi and others of contaminating water.
"The
way these authorities are managing the liquid waste is really
pathetic,"
Kangata said. "Most of them are treating waste management as a
peripheral
issue which they only attend to it after all other things -
including the
payment of their hefty salaries - are done."
Simbarashe Moyo, chairperson
of the Combined Harare Residents' Association
shares Kangata's view. He
complains that Harare City Council officials are
lining their pockets with
water and sewerage money.
"Residents are meeting their side of the
equation by paying rates - which
are too expensive anyway, especially
considering that some ratepayers are
still expected to pay even as they go
for prolonged periods without water,"
Moyo told IPS.
"But what do we
get in return? We get industrial waste and raw sewerage
flowing into the
rivers and then back into our taps scaring us from drinking
the water lest
we fall sick."
In his recent fiscal review, Finance Minister Tendai Biti
suggested that a
percentage of the money collected for water and waste
treatment be
ringfenced from general budgets and reinvested directly back
into the
sector.
Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said the Harare City Council
endorses Biti's
suggestion, but he refused blame for the current state of
affairs, saying
his council is doing everything in its power to revive
infrastructure it
found in shambles.
"The two sewerage treatment
plants in this city had been dysfunctional for
two to three years before we
came into office in 2008," he said.
"Another challenge is that the
population has ballooned beyond the capacity
of the plants."
Masunda
said it was everyone's duty to curb pollution of water sources,
adding that
individuals and households also contributed to the problem in
their own
small ways.
Treating Harare's waste water requires the use of unusual
amounts of
chemicals, costing around two million dollars each month; the
reasons for
this include industrial pollution, but the habits of individual
households
who dispose of all manner of substances into the city's sewers
add to the
challenge of managing the waste safely.
Masunda said his
council is not among those enriching themselves at the
expense of improving
service delivery.
The Urban Councils Act says 70 percent of money from
rates should go to
service provision, and 30 percent to administration, but
the common view is
that local authorities are spending the bulk of the money
on salaries, with
little left for service delivery. Reports indicate that
the mayor was
recently summoned by government over his alleged opposition to
a proposed
cut to top council officials' salaries; some of whom are believed
to earn as
much as $15,000 U.S. per month.
Water development minister
Samuel Sipepa Nkomo defends local authorities,
pointing out that the poor
state of the water sector can be traced back to
the previous Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front government's
failure to maintain
equipment for over a decade.
Nkomo said over the past eight months, his
ministry has been urging
municipalities to create separate water accounts so
they can reinvest water
money into the sector. Some have responded, but it
is too early to assess
the success of this measure.
He also said his
ministry was engaging government and the donor community
for
assistance.
"But money allocated for water in the fiscus is a drop in the
ocean," he
said. "We need about $10 billion to answer all the country's
water problems.
"Harare alone needs about $254 million, Bulawayo about
$100 million and most
of the remaining cities and towns also need millions
each to restore normal
service delivery.
"But as it is, nothing new
was allocated to water in the recent budget
review; there was no increase to
the amounts previously allocated."
Presenting his 2010 budget in December
2009, Biti allocated a total of $109
million for water and sanitation
infrastructure countrywide.
http://www.reliefweb.int
Source: United States Agency for
International Development (USAID)
Date: 09 Aug 2010
Tears
Wenzira is a hairdresser and peer educator working to teach her
customers
about the care female condom.
When she was younger, Tarisai "Tears"
Wenzira dreamed of becoming a nurse,
but when she was forced to drop out of
school to support an extended family
after her parents' death, money was
short.
With little education and few job opportunities, Wenzira drifted
into
marriage and motherhood at 17. After a few years, her marriage fell
apart.
Tears returned to her grandmother's home, daughters in tow. Again,
she
needed a job to help support her family and soon found one as a
hairdresser.
Then, Population Services International (PSI), with funding
from USAID,
trained Wenzira to promote and sell female condoms. The effort
to promote
female condoms is part of USAID's "ABC" broad approach to HIV
prevention and
control: abstinence, being faithful, and correct and
consistent condom use.
"A field officer visited our salon and introduced
the care female condom and
its role in HIV prevention," Wenzira said. "She
demonstrated how it is used
and coached us on how to teach our clients on
correct use of the condom as
well as negotiating for its use with their
partners. She sold some condoms
to us for resale to our clients, and when I
realized some profit from the
sales, I became interested."
Although
21 percent of Zimbabwean women-compared with 14 percent of men-are
HIV-positive, cultural and gender dynamics often prevent women from
purchasing or using condoms. According to research, hair salons can help
break through these cultural barriers. A majority of women in Zimbabwe visit
a hair salon at least once a week and spend about 45 minutes to an hour each
visit. Hair dressers trained through this program can often discuss how to
use a condom and let clients touch and feel the product.
Wenzira is
one of more than 2,000 hair dressers in Zimbabwe who work on the
care HIV
prevention program, co-funded by USAID and the U.K. Department for
International Development. She sells 100 female condoms per month and makes
enough to buy basics like bread and milk for her family.
"Despite my
incomplete secondary education, I can confidently speak about
the care
female condom to women and men, some of whom are professionals."