http://www.businessday.co.za
President Jacob Zuma will present a report
on the political situation in
Zimbabwe at a SADC summit next week, the
department of international
relations and co-operation said
today.
Sapa
Published: 2010/08/15 05:42:46 PM
President Jacob Zuma
will present a report on the political situation in
Zimbabwe at a SADC
summit next week, the department of international
relations and co-operation
said today.
Zuma is in Windhoek, Namibia to attend the Southern African
Development
Community Summit for Heads of State and Government beginning
tomorrow.
"The inclusive government in Zimbabwe is making some progress
on the
implementation of the global political agreement under the mediation
of
South Africa," department spokesman Saul Molobi said in a
statement.
Matters such as the appointment of governors and attorneys
general had
already been dealt with.
"Nevertheless, discussions are
ongoing and it is hoped that there will be
further positive results by the
end of this year."
This week, SADC held the meeting of its council of
ministers and of its
standing committee of senior officials.
http://www.afrik-news.com/article18109.html
Sunday 15 August 2010 / by
Alice Chimora, Sakhile Modise
Zimbabwe's premier Morgan Tsvangirai and
South African leader Jacob Zuma
look headed for collision at the SADC summit
in Namibia on Monday, with
statements by their senior aides indicating the
two men are worlds apart in
their assessment of progress made by Zimbabwe's
troubled inclusive
government.
The Southern African Development
Community (SADC) summit will discuss the
Harare power-sharing government as
well as Zimbabwe's continued refusal to
adhere to rulings by the bloc's
human rights court or tribunal.
South Africa has been mediating in the
all-party talks in Zimbabwe for over
three years now and has blocked western
attempts at imposing illegal
sanctions on the country.
In the run up
to the summit, Tsvangirai's MDC and the South African
government have been
issuing conflicting statements on progress made with
Pretoria's foreign
ministry director General Ayanda Ntsaluba last Thursday
telling journalists
that Zuma will tell the meeting that Zimbabwe is "on the
correct
path."
However, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa says his party sharply
differed with
the South Africans' assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe.
Chamisa points
to a "cocktail of outstanding issues" from the 2008 global
political
agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the unity government last
year.
He says Zimbabwe was not on the "correct path" and said the MDC
would insist
that SADC intervenes to ensure President Robert Mugabe and Zanu
(PF) live up
to all their commitments under the GPA.
"Evidently there
are still outstanding issues, issues where there is a
deadlock, issues that
were agreed on but that Zanu (PF) refuses to implement
and toxic and
corrosive issues," said Chamisa.
"President Zuma, as the mediator, has
been engaged with the three principals
to the GPA and is aware of all the
problems. All these issues are also
contained in a letter sent to President
Zuma," added Chamisa.
He said the MDC wants the SADC to intervene to
ensure Roy Bennett is
appointed to the post of deputy agriculture minister.
The former opposition
party also wants regional leaders to pressure Mugabe
to rescind his decision
to unilaterally appoint his allies, Gideon Gono and
Johannes Tomana, as
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor and Attorney General
respectively.
The appointments are in breach of a communiqué issued by
the SADC on January
27, 2009, requiring Mugabe to consult Tsvangirai before
appoint senior
public officials.
In South Africa, Ntsaluba told
reporters in Pretoria that the overwhelming
picture in Zimbabwe's GNU was
favourable. "There is a semblance of stability
and Zimbabwe is on the
correct path," he said. The statement was sweet music
to Zanu PF. Its
spokesman Rugare Gumbo told reporters last Friday that there
are no
outstanding issues for SADC to discuss.
He said, "There are no
outstanding issues. The situation in the country has
generally improved. We
don't expect any major development from the SADC
summit, SADC is busy
pre-occupied with other important issues from the
region. They will not
spend much time discussing with the Zimbabwe issue,
because there are other
important issues."
http://www.diamonds.net
By Martin
Rapaport Posted: 08/15/10 09:20
RAPAPORT... Dear RapNet
members,
On August 11th 2010, the Kimberley Process certified
approximately 900,000
carats of rough diamonds from Marange, Zimbabwe. While
the trading of these
diamonds may be legal in certain jurisdictions it is
illegal for U.S., E.U.,
or U.K. citizens or entities to knowingly trade
these diamonds due to the
fact that the companies owning or selling the
diamonds are sanctioned by
these governments.
Furthermore, it should
be clear that the Kimberley Process (KP) does not
have a mandate to deny its
certification for diamonds involved in human
rights violations and therefore
there is no assurance that diamonds with KP
certification are free of human
rights violations.
Based on the above legal and moral considerations
RapNet will continue to
forbid the trading of any diamonds sourced from
Marange, Zimbabwe on our
network. RapNet members that knowingly offer
Marange diamonds for sale on
RapNet will be expelled from RapNet and their
names will be publicly
communicated. We strongly urge members to contact
their suppliers and obtain
written assurances that they are not being
supplied Marange diamonds. U.S.,
U.K. and E.U. members may have a legal
obligation to do so and should
consult their legal advisors.
RapNet
members that wish to cancel their subscription due to this trade
restriction
are invited to do so within thirty days and will receive a
refund for the
unused portion of their RapNet subscription.
RapNet and the Rapaport
Group are fully committed to maintaining honest
ethical standards and will
not tolerate the use of our trading networks for
the distribution of
diamonds involved in human rights violations. If any
member has information
about such abuses they are encouraged to contact
RapNet's legal counsel via
email legal@diamonds.net .
On
behalf of RapNet and all of us at the Rapaport Group I thank you for your
membership and continued support of our activities and ethical
standards.
Yours truly,
Martin Rapaport
For your
information The Rapaport Group has also published the following
Trade Alert
to the general diamond trade.
Trade Alert: Marange Diamonds - August 12,
2010
"The Kimberley Process has just certified approximately 900,000
carats of
rough diamonds from Marange, Zimbabwe. While the trading of
Marange diamonds
may be legal in certain jurisdictions, companies owning or
selling the
diamonds are sanctioned by the U.S., E.U., and U.K. governments
and their
trading may be illegal by citizens of these
countries.
Furthermore, the Kimberley Process (KP) does not have a
mandate to deny its
certification for diamonds involved in human rights
violations and there is
no guarantee that diamonds with KP certification are
free of human rights
violations.
Rapaport strongly advises all
diamond buyers not to trade in KP certified
Marange diamonds and to request
written assurance from their suppliers that
their diamonds have not been
sourced from Marange.
RapNet, the Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, will
not allow the trading of
any diamonds sourced from Marange, Zimbabwe.
Members found to have knowingly
offered Marange diamonds for sale on RapNet
will be expelled and their names
will be publicly communicated."
For
more information on Marange Diamonds, visit www.diamonds.net/zimbabwe .
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/12852
By staff writers
15
Aug 2010
A United Nations report has found that food security in Zimbabwe
has
improved signficiantly, but that agricultural and food assistance will
still
be vital for around 1.68 million people next year.
The report
follows a joint mission to Zimbabwe in June by the United Nations
Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme
(WFP) to
assess the national crop and food security situation.
The mission found
that food security in the country has improved following
government efforts
and an international assistance programme which has been
providing farmers
with subsidised inputs.
They say that the area planted under maize, the
main staple, increased by 20
per cent in 2010 to the highest level in 30
years and production rose 7 per
cent over 2009.
Compared with the
poor 2008 season when less than 500,000 metric tons of
maize were harvested,
production more than doubled in 2009 and 2010, to 1.27
and 1.35 million tons
respectively.
“The generous international support for the 2009/10 input
campaign
significantly contributed to this year’s relatively good harvest
results,
even if in some areas of the country rainfall distribution was
uneven,” said
Cristina Amaral, Chief of FAO’s emergency and rehabilitation
operations in
Africa.
The findings are likely to be seen as evidence
of what can be achieved with
international aid.
But it is not all
good news. “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
US dollars or South
African rand,” said the report's co-author, Jan Delbaere
of
WFP.
Liliana Balbi of FAO added, “Zimbabwe has only 1.66 million tons of
cereals
available as against a total needs forecast of 2.09 million tons in
the
marketing year 2010-2011. That leaves a 428,000-ton
shortfall”.
Part of this will be covered by commercial imports, projected
to total
317,000 tons of cereals, including 200,000 tons of
maize.
The mission estimated that 133,000 tons of food assistance will be
needed to
feed 1.68 million Zimbabweans in 2010/11.
The report's
authors say that general poverty and chronic food insecurity
had led to
reduced diversity of consumption and had also contributed to an
increased
prevalence of chronic malnutrition among young children. The
report
indicates that lack of liquidity remains a constraint to accessing
inputs
and increasing food production.
The 2009/10 input assistance programme
proposed a quick impact programme
that aimed to substantively boost
smallholder staple food production in
Zimbabwe. The report states that the
international community responded well
and FAO received contributions from a
number of donors, including the
European Union, the USA, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Spain and Finland. The EU
made the largest financial contribution,
€15.4 million.
In total 51,500 tons of fertilizer and 6,500 tons of maize
seeds were
distributed to 738,000 households. FAO say they also promoted
conservation
agriculture that helped farmers to improve soil fertility
through the use of
techniques such as maintaining soil organic cover,
reducing tillage and
better crop rotation.
The programme also
promoted the use of vouchers which farmers could use to
get the inputs they
needed from local suppliers. The report insisted that,
“The agricultural
support programmes need to be continued during the next
planting season to
consolidate the gains achieved so far”.
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) A South African civil rights group,
AfriForum has
accused the South African government on Sunday of failing to
protect its
citizens who continue to fall victim to Zimbabwe’s land reform
programme and
said it has plans to sue Pretoria for absconding on its
obligations towards
its nationals.
The group said a delegation of its
senior officials which returned from a
weeklong fact-finding mission to
Zimbabwe last week found persistent human
rights violations in the country
despite the formation of a unity government
by President Robert Mugabe and
former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
AfriForum’s delegation also
found that the South African government “does
not lift a finger to assist
South African citizens who fall victim” to the
continuing lawlessness on
Zimbabwean commercial farms.
“The South African government stands idly by
while its citizens’ farms and
possessions are stolen in Zimbabwe and while
some South Africans are
jailed,” AfriForum director Kallie Kriel said in a
statement.
More than 200 South African farmers have fallen victim to
Zimbabwe’s land
reform programme despite the existence of a bilateral
investment promotion
and protection agreement between the two southern
African neighbours.
Kriel said the information obtained from the visit
would be useful in
AfriForum’s two planned court cases in which the South
African government
“will be taken to task over its failure to fulfil its
duty towards South
African citizens living in Zimbabwe”.
“AfriForum
is compiling a report that will set out the details of several
human rights
violations against South African citizens in Zimbabwe,” he
said.
JN/daj/APA
2010-08-15
15 August 2010
STATEMENT
South Africa’s North Gauteng High Court ruled on Wednesday that the Government of Zimbabwe is responsible for the wasted costs of an urgent court application erroneously brought against three Zimbabwean farmers and AfriForum.
This ruling has been inaccurately reported on by NewsDay in an article titled “Government unmoved by SA land ruling”, published on August 13.
The journalist quoted Attorney-General Johannes Tomana extensively but failed to contact the Zimbabwean farmers concerned or their legal representative, Willie Spies of AfriForum, for comment.
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch responds to the article, and to the statements by the Attorney-General Tomana as follows:
The South African court order did not “oblige Harare to pay staggering amounts of money demanded by three dispossessed white farmers as reparation for delayed compensation”. The ruling was for legal costs that had been incurred unnecessarily by the farmers.
The Zimbabwe Government’s error was that it had lodged the urgent application because it believed an auction of Zimbabwe Government-owned properties in Cape Town, scheduled for 27 July and 10 August 2010, had been organised by AfriForm and the farmers.
This was in fact not the case. Although the farmers were the first to attach the properties via AfriForum, the auctions were in fact organised by German Banking Group KFW Bank Gruppe. The bank attached the properties in order to collect a judgment debt of €40m (about R400m).
AfriForum attached the properties after the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek had issued a costs award (or “taxation award” as it is known in legal terminology) in favour of the farmers (the complainants).
The Tribunal ruled that the Zimbabwe government was “in breach, and contempt, of the decision of the Tribunal of 28 November 2008 in the matter of Mike Campbell and 78 Others v The Republic of Zimbabwe (Case No SADC (T) 02/07).
The Tribunal ruled that the costs award was to be agreed to by both parties and asked the Zimbabwe Government to come to an agreement with the complainants regarding their senior advocates’ legal fees and travel costs.
However, some two days before the taxation day, the Deputy Attorney-General of Zimbabwe handed the Tribunal a letter from the Minister of Justice of Zimbabwe challenging the jurisdiction of the SADC Tribunal which had already been covered in the main Judgment which is final and binding.
The Tribunal therefore proceeded with awarding costs based on the bill of costs presented by the farmers’ legal representative in Windhoek. The costs award, stamped by the SADC Tribunal, was for US$5,816.47 or R112,780 13.
A further costs order related to the Government of Zimbabwe being found to be in contempt of the Tribunal on 15 July will be heard on 23 August.
The costs award of US$5,816.45, awarded purely for legal costs, is neither a “staggering amount”, nor was it awarded for “delayed compensation”, as the article claims in the opening paragraph.
Furthermore, it cannot be described as “security costs”.
The article reported that Attorney-General Tomana said government would appeal the ruling, arguing the “security costs” were too much.
The journalist went on to quote Mr Tomana as saying that “the three farmers are basing their argument on the judgement by the SADC Tribunal, which reverses the land reform.”
This is also not correct. The SADC Tribunal ruled that Zimbabwe’s land reform programme had not been in accordance of the rule of law and the human rights standards laid down in the SADC Treaty.
It also ruled that Zimbabwe had violated the Treaty
by failing to pay the dispossessed farmers fair
compensation.
According to NewsDay, Mr Tomana said the three
farmers were offered money, but refused to accept it.
“Accepting the money would mean accepting
acquisition of their farms. What the
three farmers want is not money, but for the government to return the farms,” Mr
Tomana continued.
We refute Mr Tomana’s claim that Louis Fick, Mike
Campbell and Richard Etheredge were offered money – either for their farms or
for improvements made on the land.
In fact, there is no money for compensation in the
government’s 2010 budget, nor in any other budgets in recent years.
The farmers want the rule of law to be upheld in Zimbabwe and for the
rulings of the SADC Tribunal to be respected.
Since being forced off their land, the farmers have no income and no pensions. Both Campbell and Etheredge are elderly and Campbell, as a result of the vicious beating he sustained in June 2008, is in poor health.
Ironically, even Constitutional Amendment Number 17 [not Constitutional Amendment 18 as the journalist erroneously reported], which converted all land acquired during the fast-track land reform programme into state property without any right to challenge the validity of acquisitions in any court, gave dispossessed farmers a right to claim compensation for improvements, is not being honoured by the Zimbabwe Government.
Until recently, there hasn’t even been a compensation committee in place, despite lawyers’ letters having been written over several years asking who constituted Zimbabwe’s compensation committee.
The journalist’s statement that a majority of the farmers have not been compensated is misleading. The reality is that considerably less than 1 percent of farmers have been compensated since the year 2000; and in recent years none of the dispossessed farmers have received compensation.
If SADC’s recognition of the ruling made by its Tribunal has given the affected farmers an opportunity to claim compensation plus the costs of delayed reparations as the article indicates, this is most encouraging.
At this stage however, the only beneficiary of the Zimbabwe Government-owned properties is the German Bank.
The answer to Mr Tomana’s question regarding the legality of selling state-owned properties is that they can be attached and sold to cover legal and other costs – unless they are covered by the Vienna Convention which requires host countries to protect diplomatic property and personnel.
We request that NewsDay prints this statement in full in order to correct the serious misconceptions created by the Mr Tomana and the inaccurate reporting of the NewsDay journalist.
ENDS
Ben Freeth
Spokesman for SADC Tribunal Rights
Watch
Cell: +263 913 929 138
E-mail: freeth@bsatt.com
Hong Kong, Sunday
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe spent the weekend shopping for high-end suits and shoes in Hong Kong, where he owns a house and his daughter attends university, local media reported on Sunday.
Mr Mugabe's shopping trip came several days after he visited the World Expo in Shanghai for Zimbabwe Day. China is not a party to international sanctions on Mugabe, who is the subject of a Western travel ban and asset freeze.
A team of officers from the Hong Kong police VIP protection unit flanked the octogenarian president on Saturday as he visited high-end shops in the city's Kowloon district, local media said. "In general, police would make appropriate security arrangements for visiting foreign dignitaries," a spokesman said in an e-mail to AFP.
"Due to operational reasons, police would not comment (further)." A government spokesman was quoted as saying Mugabe was not on an official visit. Mr Mugabe's daughter Bona is studying accountancy at City University of Hong Kong and he owns a home in the outlying New Territories district, the Sunday Morning Post reported.
The leader's wife Grace sparked a diplomatic row last year when she escaped assault charges after allegedly striking a British photographer as he took her picture during a shopping trip. Hong Kong's justice department said she was entitled to diplomatic immunity as the Zimbabwean president's wife, a decision that sparked a storm of criticism.
In Shanghai on Wednesday, Mugabe thanked China for its support in helping his nation rebuild its shattered economy. He said his country "immensely benefited" from China's "generosity in several areas, including the supply of agricultural materials, and food assistance where inclement weather has affected our harvests".
Once a breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe's food shortages have been brought on by drought and Mugabe's crippling land-reform programme. United Nations' food agencies said last week 133,000 tonnes of food aid will be needed to help 1.68 million Zimbabweans between now and the next harvest in May.
In February, the European Union renewed sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle for another year, citing a lack of progress in implementing political and human rights reforms. Meanwhile, Southern African leaders meet on Monday in Namibia's capital to discuss Zimbabwe's strained unity government and its refusal to adhere to rulings by a regional tribunal.
Officially, the summit of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) marks the 30th anniversary of the organisation's creation. Then the grouping was known as the Front Line States, which sought to coordinate liberation movements in Namibia and apartheid South Africa.
Since Namibia's independence and the end of white-minority rule in South Africa, the organisation has struggled to assert itself as a political force -- mainly because its members are unwilling to submit to regional decision-making. The case in point is Zimbabwe, which signed a treaty creating a regional court based in Windhoek but has refused to obey its rulings.
The SADC tribunal has ruled in favour of white farmers in Zimbabwe, saying President Robert Mugabe's land reforms unfairly targeted them because of their race. Harare has flatly rejected the ruling allowing the farmers to stay on their land, raising questions about the purpose of a tribunal that cannot enforce its decisions.
SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao said justice ministers would present a report about Zimbabwe's non-compliance. South Africa will also brief leaders on the progress of the unity government. South Africa's foreign ministry said President Jacob Zuma was overall optimistic on Zimbabwe.
|
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=20829
By Gerald
Chateta
Published: August 14, 2010
Harare - COPAC has
ordered war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda to stop
holding political
rallies in areas where its activities are underway and
further referred the
war veteran leader's anti-Tsvangirai campaign matter to
Zanu PF chairperson
for a possible disciplinary action.
This comes after the Sibanda last
week denounced Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai whom he equated to a fly
that could easily be eliminated from the
political scene, a move likely to
cause discord within the outreach process.
Sibanda was addressing
hundreds of villagers at Mashoko business centre in
Bikita West Masvingo at
the weekend where he is allegedly terrorising
villagers with the help of a
group of war veterans and Zanu-PF activists.
In an interview with on
Friday, ZANU-PF Co-Chairperson Paul Mangwana
distanced his party from
Sibanda's activities saying he was only acting in
his own
accord.
Mangwana however said ZANU-PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo had the
authority to
decide how Sibanda's case was going to be dealt with, hence his
referring of
Sibanda's issue to the party.
Mangwana admitted that any
activities carried out by the war veterans is
usually associated with Zanu
PF saying that they have 'now ordered him to
stop' holding rallies in areas
where COPAC teams would be visiting.
"We understand that Sibanda is
doing his organisation's business which is
neither COPAC or ZANU-PF's, but
when a war veteran does anything, people
associate it with ZANU-PF - the
reason why I have approached his
organisation and ZANU-PF structures to deal
with him," said Mangwana.
Commenting on the same matter, MDC-T COPAC
co-chair Douglas Mwonzora said
Sibanda's activities were not in the spirit
of inclusivity.
"We learnt with regret Mr Sibanda's utterances which
incite violence. The
disappointing part is that he is moving around
denouncing one of the leaders
of the GPA and as COPAC we are very much
concerned," he said.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said statements
made by the man who led the
2007 pro-Mugabe one million man march to drum up
support for the Zimbabwean
leader ahead of a Zanu PF elective congress the
same year Sibanda, should
not be taken seriously.
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Friday,
August 13, 2010
Victoria Falls Correspondent
A potential health disaster is
looming here as the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority has intensified water
rationing to compel the municipality to
settle its raw water bill of about
US$1,5 million.
As a result of water rationing, some parts of the resort
town - especially
the high-density areas of Chinotimba and Mkhosana Township
- have gone for
weeks without water.
In an interview last Friday,
chamber secretary Mr Philip Ndlovu said the
council was broke and had no
money to service the over US$1,5 million water
bill.
He said
defaulting residents and other ratepayers who owed council more than
US$2
million were making life difficult for everyone. "The water problem is
a
result of increased water rationing introduced by Zinwa because we have
not
cleared our debt.
"It is a Catch-22 situation because residents owe
council, council on the
other hand owes Zinwa, and Zinwa owes Zesa," said Mr
Ndlovu.
"The situation could be worse if Zesa cuts power."
He
urged residents to pay the little they had so that council settled the
Zinwa
bill.
"The solution is in the hands of the residents. They should come
forward and
settle their bills.
"If, for example, a resident owes us
US$300, he/she should come forward and
negotiate because paying something is
much better than paying nothing.
"We are worried that the residents and
other stakeholders who are paid up
will end up losing heart because of the
erratic water supplies."
Mr Ndlovu said the council might be forced to
start water disconnections as
a way of forcing defaulters to pay.
"We
are all worried about our tourism sector. Such small matters can paint a
bad
image of the country and we do not want that," he said.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by ZIMCODD
Friday, 13 August
2010 14:58
There is need to limit the executive powers of the President
and Finance
Minister to increase accountability and transparency and
effectively manage
public debt. (Pictured: Finance Minister Tendai
Biti)
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) recommends this in
its
programme to educate the Zimbabwe’s grassroots on the country’s debt.
The
Coalition said government should prioritise an urgent review of the
current
legal framework and systems governing public loan and debt
management as the
first step in formulating a debt sustainability
framework.
One way of achieving this was to ensure the executive powers of
the Minster
of Finance and the Presidency be limited to ensure
accountability,
transparency and depersonalisation in public business and
the administration
of state matters.
"Parliament must approve all
borrowing and there should be a consolidated
law on getting loans and debt
management," it noted.
It said Parliament's capacity in issues of public
finance management must be
built so that it avoids rubber stamping proposals
without carrying due
diligence.
Debt audit
It also recommended the
establishment of a Public Debt Commission and the
need to conduct an
official debt Audit.
"There is need for an audit of all Zimbabwe debts so
that this informs the
debt strategy that is to be pursued. “This commission
should utilise the
doctrine of odious and illegitimate debt, and recommend
the repudiation of
any past loans which fall in this category. Any contracts
and agreements
that involve such debts and liabilities should therefore be
amended or
cancelled. Relevant, contextually appropriate changes to debt
management
policies will be informed by a debt audit."
It called on for a
stronger Office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General.
"The law should give
this office strong powers, with protection similar to
that afforded to
judges. Furthermore, the selection, nomination and removal
of the
Comptroller and Auditor-General by the President be subjected to
confirmation by Parliament. This office should be able to audit all
accounts. Nothing should prevent any accounts from being audited, even if
they raise national security issues. The reports from this office should be
easily available to the public.”
There is need for legal provision that
requires the government to consult
civil society groups and project
beneficiaries before borrowing from
external sources to ensure that the
development priorities outlined in loan
agreements reflect the aspirations
of the people.
There should be the involvement of Parliament, the Public
Accounts Committee
(PAC) and possibly that of another body such as a Public
Debt Commission
which actually has definitive power in acquiring loans. The
borrowing and
repayment procedures of these entities must be reviewed to
reduce the levels
of public liability. Periodic reports to Parliament must
be made binding on
such entities and their respective Ministries.
Loans
and their terms and conditions must be publicised in the Gazette and
national newspapers before the contract is signed. Both creditor and debtor
should guarantee transparency. ZIMCODD said for as long as a country used
its borrowed capital for other purposes than productive investment, debt was
created. "Used productively, sustainable economic development will be the
result and consequently, prosperity, and better fulfilment of the human
rights of the populace," it said.
It also recommended the monitoring and
clamping down on tax evasion and
corruption. "A transparent and progressive
tax system with no loopholes will
reduce the need to borrow externally as
the country earns more from economic
activities."
ZIMCODD is a
socio-economic justice coalition established in February 2000
to facilitate
citizens' involvement in making public policy and practice
pro-people and
sustainable. It views Zimbabwe's indebtedness, the unfair
global trade
regime and lack of democratic people-centred economic
governance as root
causes of the socio-economic crises in Zimbabwe and the
world at
large.
The Citizens' Guide on Understanding Debt was originally published in
2003
as the first of three pamphlets focusing on the public debt. It was the
first in the series which included: Understanding debt, the Social effects
of debt and Developing an Economic Justice Movement.
The publishing of a
second edition comes at a critical juncture in the
country's history, and
ZIMCODD's existence as a coalition focusing on debt.
The country is in a
delicate political transition to a power sharing
government after years of
deep political, economic and social crisis, which
hit vulnerable groups such
as workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, women
and children.
The
government has initiated various programmes to revive the economy for a
new
beginning to take place. Unfortunately, the country cannot generate all
these resources internally in the short term, hence the need for external
funding.
However, Zimbabwe is saddled with an unsustainably high level of
debt,
estimated to be in the region of US$5,7 billion owed to various
multilateral
and bilateral creditors.
Debt debates leaving out the
grassroots
ZIMCODD is worried that current debates on the best debt
sustainability
framework are tending to proceed at a purely technocratic
level leaving out
the voices of the grassroots. "Publishing an updated
edition of this
grassroots manual is ZIMCODD's way of taking this debate
back to the people,
to raise their level of economic literacy, and start a
process of including
the views and participation of marginalised
communities, " said Dakarayi
Matanga ZIMCODD Executive Director.
"This is
also a process of ensuring any proposals and solutions on
Zimbabwe's debt
remain firmly grounded in principles of social and economic
justice."
"The launch of this booklet also coincides with ZIMCODD's 10th
anniversary.
We pay a heartfelt tribute to all the activists, researchers,
academics,
organisations, and partners who laid the foundation for a vibrant
coalition
on social and economic justice in Zimbabwe." ZIMCODD said African
countries
should ensure that real solutions to the debt crisis were firmly
grounded in
principles of social and economic justice and offer a permanent
exit.
While organisations like the World Band and the International Monetary
Fund
(IMF) dominated the global financial system with pervasive impacts on
human
development, there was no corresponding global governance structure to
protect the interests of the weak. "Many poor countries end up devoting huge
portions of their national budgets paying back foreign creditors at the
expense of delivering on the well-being of their people.
"Social
indicators are therefore declining whilst interest payments on debt
increase. A democratic or rights-based framework for resolution of the
current debt crisis is therefore necessary. " Persistence of the debt crisis
faced by severely indebted low-income countries and the inability of the
international community to find both immediate and sustainable solutions,
has raised concern, leading to debates over various strategies on the
debt.
"However, the solutions currently promoted by creditors to deal with
the
crisis exacerbate the problem and do not offer a permanent exit from
debt.
It is clear that most approaches are actually abstract means of giving
more
relief to the creditors themselves than the debtors by 'recycling
debt',"
said ZIMCODD. As a social and economic justice network focusing on
the debt
problem, ZIMCODD would like to contribute constructively to policy
debates
in search of a lasting solution to the country's debt problem.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by CAJ News
Friday, 13 August 2010
08:15
JOHANNESBURG - Exiled Zimbabwean Chimurenga musical guru, Thomas
Tafirenyika
Muchadura Mapfumo, says he wants to come back home, but
reassured fans that
he would not stop singing about corruption and political
violence being
perpetrated against those that perceived to be anti-Zanu
(PF).
Mapfumo, who is based in the United States of America (USA), jetted
into
Johannesburg over the weekend to meet with international organisers
preparing to host one of his best ever-musical concerts in the country
before end of year.
In an exclusive interview with CAJ News on
Monday, Mapfumo, popularly known
as 'Mukanya', said the worsening poverty in
Zimbabwe was his biggest
concern.
"Only a few are enjoying every
minute of life yet the majority people are
living in abject poverty. This is
unacceptable! A few crooks calling
themselves a government do not own
Zimbabwe. A true government cares about
the poor, old, orphans and children
in general," said Mapfumo.
He says it pains him most to see government
officials, particularly
politicians, driving in expensive cars such as
Hummers, latest Mercedes
Benz, Lexus, Range Rover Sport and expensive BMW
when the poor were getting
worse with each day that passes.
"What
worries me most is that we have a government that is not even ashamed
of
using other nations' money. Where is our own currency?
"Instead of being
accountable to the people, the nation is answerable to the
government. This
defeats the whole purpose of going to the liberation
struggle against the
Rhodesian oppressors during the 1st and 2nd Chimurenga
wars. "It's mind
boggling! What is the difference between our government
today and that of
the Ian Smith regime which always undermined people's
integrity," asked
Mapfumo.
When asked which political party he supported in Zimbabwe today,
Mapfumo
said: "I don't belong to any political party. I leave politics to
politicians, but one thing is sure, I will not shut up when the mass is
being oppressed."
He said he did not support Zanu (PF) or MDC, but
supported the government
that stands for people's justice, needs and wants.
Mapfumo is regarded as
King of Chimurenga music throughout Africa, and he
has won various accolades
for singing against corruption, political violence
and child abuse.
When asked if he was afraid of being arrested upon his
arrival in Zimbabwe,
he said he never wronged anyone or committed a
crime.
"I have not done anything wrong to anyone, so why should I be
arrested? I am
a Zimbabwean national returning to my mother-land," said
Mapfumo.
He called upon the International Criminal Court (ICC) to widen
and
accelerate the hunt for political leadership throughout the world linked
to
perpetrating crimes against humanity, political torture and killings to
be
tried.
He also took a swipe at traditional leaders, whom he
accused of letting the
local culture and tradition vanish into thin air
while promoting politics of
patriotism.
"We have lost our identity!
We need to go back to old roots, and rediscover
ourselves if we are to be
called human beings with human dignity," Mapfumo
said.
Mapfumo went
into exile in the US in 2004, and hopes to come back and
rebuild the nation
with other forward-looking Zimbabweans.
"Lets leave politics to
politicians, but if they mess with the people's
lives, then we would not
shut up," he added. Mapfumo is now 63-years-old.
Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force
Landline: 263 4 336710
Landline/Fax: 263 4
339065
Mobile: 263 11 603 213
Email: galorand@mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zimbabwe-art.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15148470211
As
regional leaders prepared for the SADC meeting in Windhoek, Vigil supporters
were disturbed to read the comments on Zimbabwe by South Africa’s top foreign
ministry official, Ayanda Ntsaluba. He said:
“
The Vigil believes Mr Ntsaluba’s
picture can only be seen with head buried in the sand – but then there is plenty
of sand in
Mr
Ostrich Ntsaluba’s comments deflated hopes that the Southern African Dictators’
Club would take any steps to honour its commitment to ensure that Mugabe
observes the abortive GPA. As one Vigil supporter said “They can’t manage their
wives, let alone Mugabe”.
The
Vigil believes that it is long past time for the international community – or
the small part of it that cares about human rights – to take a tougher approach
to the SADC countries. It could, for instance, take a closer look at the nasty
regime in
A
strong supporter of the Zimbabwe Vigil has been a Swazi lady Thobile Gwebu, who
in January started a Vigil outside the Swaziland High Commission in
Vigil
supporters signed the following petition for immediate dispatch to the Home
Office:
Petition to the Home Secretary
The most prominent Swazi
pro-democracy activist in the
Thobile is the co-ordinator of the Swaziland Vigil which has been campaigning for
human rights outside the Swaziland High Commission in London since January, see:
www.swazilandvigil.co.uk.In May the Swazi Times
quoted her extensively in an article about the Swaziland Vigil. The paper also
interviewed a Swazi government minister about the the
The
Suporters of the
Thanks to Luka Phiri of the Vigil
management team and Vigil supporter Eunita Masolo who dropped everything to
visit Thobile at the Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre on Friday and take her
thoughtful necessities and further thanks to Luka who is faxing our petition
(signed by more than 300 people this afternoon!) to Theresa May, the Home
Secretary. Luka was an ideal person to visit Thobile as he has been in the same
position. His visit gave her great comfort.
Other
points
· The sight of the day was Vigil
Co-ordinator Dumi Tutani circling the Vigil on one the bicycles now rented out
by the
· Thanks to Kelvin Kamupira who took
charge of the back table with the merchandise and register today.
· Everyone signed Francesca Toft’s
birthday card. She turned 20 yesterday
and after many years with the Vigil has become very popular and is always a
great help in looking after children.
·
Vigil
supporters were interested to see the article by Eric Bloch on Mugabe’s recent
outburst (Zim: A man-made economic
hell) that the West could go to hell. Mr Bloch said this was an
invitation to the West to remain in
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
For the latest ZimVigil TV programme check the link at the top of the home page
of our website. For earlier ZimVigil TV
programmes check: http://www.zbnnews.com/home/firingline.
FOR THE RECORD: 155
signed the
register.
EVENTS AND NOTICES:
·
The Restoration of Human Rights in
Zimbabwe (ROHR) is
the Vigil’s partner organisation based in
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
·
Ministering to the Diaspora: a case
study of Zimbabweans in
·
Vigil Facebook
page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts
·
Vigil Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil
Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429
Dear Family and Friends,
While international supermodel Naomi Campbell was
testifying about a
pouch of "dirty little stones" at the war crimes trial of
ex Liberian
President, Charles Taylor, Zimbabwe's own controversial, dirty
little
stones, began making headlines.
Everything about Zimbabwe's
Marange diamonds is highly contentious
including:
- The legal ownership of
the mines;
- Supreme Court orders that have been ignored;
- Parliamentary
portfolio teams repeatedly barred from visiting
Marange;
- At least 30
million dollars from previous sales that never made it
to government
coffers;
- The detention for a month of Farai Maguwu, who publicized abuses
at
the diamond fields.
Most damning of all is the 61 page report by
Human Rights Watch
issued in June
2009 which details a litany of abuses
perpetrated by the military at
the Marange diamond fields. Abuses that
include forced labour,
beating, torture, sexual abuse and mass
killing.
Despite it all, however, Zimbabwe managed to get Kimberley
Process
approval and started selling diamonds this week. 893 thousand
carats,
apparently mined during the past two months only, were certified to
be
"conflict free" by Kimberley Process Monitor Abbey Chikane.
Chikane
said the soldiers had gone from the two fenced off mines that
had
yielded the stones and that "minimum international standards" had
been
met. The diamonds were sold for 71 million US dollars - a figure
from which
the government apparently gets around 10% from the sales in
royalties, taxes
and dividends.
Diamonds from the rest of the Marange mines were not sold
this week
and are still banned from auction because of ongoing
abuses.
A friend asked me this week what I would do if I was given a
pouch of
dirty little stones from Marange. I didn't hesitate, a brief glance
at
pages 34 -38 of the Human Rights Watch report said it all for
me.
Called: "Diamonds in the Rough," the report described
military
helicopters with mounted automatic weapons; indiscriminate firing
of
live ammunition and tear gas; mass graves and piles of
decomposing
bodies. One extract, given by medical staff in Mutare in
November
2008 is horror beyond belief, it reads:
"..soldiers had brought
in 107 bodies from Marange, of which 29
bodies were identified and collected
by relatives. 78 bodies we
marked 'Brought in Dead"
(B.I.D.) from Marange,
identity unknown. We entered cause of death as
unknown although many of the
bodies had visible bullet wounds. The
soldiers who brought them informed us
that the bodies were of unknown
illegal diamond miners..."
Surely, I
thought, if I had a Marange diamond, everytime I wore it I
would have blood
on my hands and see the letters B.I.D. engraved on
the stone. Surely, surely
we have lost our way when stones are more
valuable than human life. Until
next time, thanks for reading, love
cathy. c Copyright cathy buckle14th
August 2010 www.cathybuckle.com
Friday August 13. 2010
It was a honey-tongued Robert Mugabe who addressed the
crowds gathered at
Heroes Acre in Harare to commemorate Heroes Day. Gone
were the threats and
promises of blood and violence against his perceived
enemies; instead, all
was sweetness and light.
"For the sake of our
children and posterity I want to urge all of you to
note that the process of
reconciliation is national. It does not seek to
ferret out supposed
criminals for punishment but rather calls on all of us
to avoid the deadly
snare of political conflict."
It was all very noble-sounding, all in keeping
with the spirit of national
healing and reconciliation. Or was it? Justice
surely requires more than a
blanket amnesty to enable the victims of
violence to come to terms with what
has happened to them and to be able to
move on with their lives. But, rather
than instruct the police to do their
job without fear or favour and arrest
all perpetrators of violence,
regardless of their political persuasion,
Mugabe has, in effect, declared an
amnesty for his thugs and bully-boys who
are still terrorising the rural
population. "No one is going to be arrested
for politically motivated
violence." he declared. No doubt he felt
completely confident in making that
statement since he can be absolutely
sure that none of his blatantly
partisan police force will be 'ferreting'
out 'supposed criminals' even when
there is overwhelming evidence of
criminal behaviour. It is not the first
time Robert Mugabe has used his
presidential powers to declare an amnesty
for criminals, just in time to
ensure he wins another election. Who was it
said that no man is above the
law?
A day or so after Mugabe made this
speech in the presence of the Prime
Minister, other top MDC officials and
many ordinary MDC supporters in the
crowd who have personally experienced
politically motivated violence, the
War Veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda was
on record threatening that he could
squash Morgan Tsvangirai 'like a fly',
"Just because a fly sits on the
driver's seat," he said, "that doesn't prove
the fly is driving the bus."
Sibanda is in the middle of a 'tour of terror'
in Masvingo Province intended
to put the fear of God into any poor innocent
villager who was thinking of
expressing a contrary view during the
Constitutional Outreach programme.
Where else would Sibanda get away with
such an overt threat, secure in the
knowledge that no policeman would dare
charge him with what was clearly
criminal intent against no less a personage
than the Prime Minister of the
country?
Heroes Day is always followed by
Defence Forces Day and it is Mugabe's
chance to address 'his' army. He is
the Commander in Chief and his address
this year urged the troops "to
jealously guard its independence, sovereignty
and natural resources." By
those 'natural resources' he was of course
referring to the diamonds which
the army is allegedly 'guarding' not against
the hated foreigners Mugabe
warned them about but against desperately poor
Zimbabweans who have yet to
benefit from the fabulous wealth on their land.
The first 'legal' sale of
diamonds took place this week in the presence of
the Prime Minister. As
always, on delicate occasions, Mugabe was
strategically out of the country-
this time on a trip to China - leaving
Morgan Tsvangirai to officiate at the
sale. Only a small portion of Zimbabwe's
huge diamond reserves was up for
sale but we are told that buyers from all
over the world were there. 71
million dollars was raised from the sale of
900.00 carats of diamonds and,
said Morgan Tsvangirai, "We are working out
the modalities of how the money
is to benefit the people of Zimbabwe."
Meanwhile the Constitutional Outreach
Programme has been deferred because,
so we are told, there is no money for
fuel to enable the teams to reach the
more remote places. The whole process
of consulting the people on a new
constitution has been utterly chaotic from
the start but that was exactly
what Zanu PF wanted it to be. Genuine
consultation with the people was never
on their agenda in the run-up to the
next election, whenever that is to be.
Despite the evidence on the ground to
the contrary, South Africa's President
Zuma will apparently tell the SADC
Summit next week that Zimbabwe is on the
correct path. Note that Zuma
doesn't stipulate exactly where that path is
leading but Zimbabweans have a
pretty shrewd idea that it's more of the
same. South Africa, of course
backed the diamond sales and a Foreign
Ministry official is quoted as saying
at a news conference held in Pretoria,
"This is a legitimate process and
Zimbabwe is beginning to use its natural
resources to improve the lives of
its people." Anyone who was hoping for
some tough talking on the Zimbabwe
question in Namibia next week is headed
for disappointment. With the
connivance of South Africa and most other
African nations, Robert Mugabe
remains in power and his honey-soaked words
are just that: meaningless words
which thinly disguise his true intention to
remain in State House till the
end of his days. With the example of Charles
Taylor and blood diamonds so
much in the news lately, perhaps Robert Mugabe
would be wise to watch his
words, honeyed or otherwise. The world is
listening.
Yours in the
(continuing) struggle PH aka Pauline Henson.