HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe has less than five days worth of fuel stocks with no immediate prospects for fresh supplies, industry officials said.
Most garages ran out of fuel stocks on Thursday and one industry official, who declined to be named, said state oil importer National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) had no foreign currency to buy more.
"We have run out of both diesel and petrol and from what we gather there are no prospects for fresh supplies any time soon," one attendant at a Harare garage said.
A coalition of oil industry stakeholders said the fuel situation "is extremely critical countrywide" and urged motorists to conserve fuel so that essential services could remain in operation.
Zimbabwe has been grappling with a fuel shortage since NOCZIM had its credit lines cut over a Z$9 billion ($180 million) debt. Several of the company's senior managers have since been arrested for alleged corruption. NOCZIM has also been hit by an acute foreign currency shortage.
Last month President Robert Mugabe raised fuel prices by up to 26 percent and promised more hikes, saying NOCZIM was selling petroleum products at prices of between 30 and 40 percent below the cost of procurement.
On Thursday, the private-owned Daily News quoted a NOCZIM official as saying Zimbabwe's fuel suppliers, including Independent Petroleum Group of Kuwait, were withholding deliveries because of non-payment.
The official said a number of fuel tanks were docked at neighboring Mozambique's port of Beira but no fuel could be piped to land-locked Zimbabwe since the suppliers had not been paid.
Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved.
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition warned on Thursday that President Robert Mugabe's government would plunge the country into further chaos if it took illegal steps in resettling black peasants on seized white farms.
``The government cannot lawfully acquire these farms within the time available, implying that it intends to use...extra-legal means, hence plunging this country into further anarchy,'' Tendai Biti, land secretary of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told a news conference.
Mugabe has announced plans to take over nearly half the 12 million hectares (30 million acres) owned by about 4,500 white farmers. Last week the government began settling black families on 200 farms whose acquisition the farmers have not contested.
On Wednesday the government said that before the start of the rainy season in three months' time it would have resettled landless peasants on about 100 farms in each of the country's eight provinces.
Biti also warned that the ``fast track'' resettlement approach would not allow the cash-strapped government to equip peasants with the means to farm the land, further undermining the key agricultural sector which contributes 20 percent to gross domestic product.
``Our people will be dumped on unsurveyed pieces of land, in the middle of the bush, under circumstances where there are no access roads, no social infrastructure, no support services and no capital support,'' Biti said, adding that Mugabe's land program made no mention of title deeds for resettled people.
``What the government is doing is sentencing people to perpetual subsistence,'' Biti said. ``If people don't have titles to land, how are they going to borrow from banks?''
OTHER DANGERS
The program would also displace about 500,000 farm workers and their families and threaten the viability of financial institutions exposed to targeted farms, Biti said.
``We estimate that the 804 farms that have been targeted for acquisition were indebted to about Z$5 billion ($100 million) to financial institutions. Surely it is foreseeable that domestic finance capital will collapse,'' he warned.
Self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's war of independence have invaded almost 1,000 farms since February, disrupting farming activity and damaging the vital agriculture sector.
Farmers say the invaders are still stealing, poaching, assaulting and threatening farmers and their laborers despite assurances from the police that they would stop the violence.
Commercial Farmers' Union President Tim Henwood said last week that the group of mostly white farmers was dropping a court application challenging the constitutionality of government plans to forcibly acquire white-owned farms to resettle blacks.
He said the union was committed to working with the government on land reforms.
At least 31 people, mostly opposition supporters, were killed during the farm invasions and a wave of violence that swept across Zimbabwe ahead of a June general election which the ruling ZANU-PF party narrowly won.
Mugabe has passed legislation making former colonial power Britain liable to pay compensation for land ``stolen'' from blacks by colonialists.
Britain says it will only fund a fair and transparent land reform process that benefits the needy.
Harare, Zimbabwe, Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabweans may see the price of their staple food, maize meal, increase as much as 45 percent in coming days, the weekly Financial Gazette, reported, citing Titus Ncube, president of the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe.
The planned increase of 25 to 45 percent comes after a similar increase in wages at grain milling companies last month and the 24 percent devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar, which has increased the price of imported packaging.
``We are certainly under pressure because production costs are killing us,'' Ncube told the newspaper. ``We use imported material to package some of our products and we had budgeted on the old exchange rates.''
The maize meal price increase, the second this year, would spur inflation, already at 59 percent, as prices rocket in the wake of the devaluation, which aimed to revive flagging export earnings.
In addition, motor fuel queues are lengthening after the government failed to pay for fuel delivered to the Mozambican port of Beira, where it is being stored until payment is received. Zimbabwe has been short of fuel since December.
(The Financial Gazette 8/17)
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government welcomed on Wednesday the withdrawal of a court challenge by white farmers to its land reform program but warned them against ``playing games,'' state media reported.
``We appreciate that they (white farmers) want to work with us,'' the state news agency ZIANA quoted Vice President Joseph Msika, who also chairs the government's land acquisition committee.
He added that whites had in the past secretly worked to thwart the program.
``If farmers continue to play games we will lose control of the people. We want to establish a system that will not bring chaos but sustain stability,'' Msika warned.
Commercial Farmers' Union President Tim Henwood said last week that the group of 4,500 mostly white farmers was dropping a court application challenging the constitutionality of government plans to forcibly acquire white-owned farms to resettle blacks.
He said the union was committed to working with the government on land reforms.
Msika said before the start of the rainy season later this year, the government would have resettled landless peasants on about 100 farms in each of the country's eight provinces.
Mugabe has announced plans to take over nearly half the 30 million acres owned by about 4,500 white farmers. Last week the government began settling black families on 200 farms whose acquisition the farmers have not contested.
The government has given its support to the invasion of white-owned farms by war veterans since February, which has disrupted farming activities and threatens to damage the key agriculture sector.
FARM INVASIONS CONTINUE
The CFU said on Wednesday that, despite pledges from police that new invasions would be blocked, there had been 78 new occupations and reinvasions during the past week.
Veterans had forced laborers to stop work on dozens of tobacco farms and 12 farmers had been issued eviction notices.
The invaders also continued to wreak havoc on farms, stealing, poaching and threatening farmers and their labourers, the union said.
Mugabe insists former colonial power Britain must compensate white farmers for forcibly acquired land because its nationals ``stole'' the land from blacks when they colonized the country more than a century ago, leaving more than 70 percent of Zimbabwe's best land in the hands of minority whites.
Britain has said it will only fund a fair and transparent land reform process that benefits the needy. Critics say land acquired since independence in 1980 has largely benefited Mugabe's cronies.
At least 31 people, mostly opposition supporters, were killed during the farm invasions and a wave of violence that swept across Zimbabwe ahead of a June general election which the ruling ZANU-PF party narrowly won.
Southern African leaders have pledged support for Mugabe's land drive and have asked South African President Thabo Mbeki and Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi to press Britain to support the program financially.
BULAWAYO - A mealie-meal price hike of
up to 45 percent is looming within days as hard-pressed millers here seek to
recoup spiralling input costs due to the devaluation of the dollar and the
recent fuel price increase, milling industry sources said yesterday.
The sources said salary hikes of up to 45 percent awarded to workers in the
industry last month were also putting immense pressure on millers to increase
the price of mealie-meal, the staple diet of the majority of Zimbabweans.
"We have had certain production inputs going up in the last few weeks.
Several millers, especially small millers, are looking at upping the price of
the end product in the next few days," Titus Ncube, president of the Grain
Millers Association of Zimbabwe, told the Financial Gazette.
"We are certainly under pressure because production costs are killing us. For
instance, packaging has become expensive following the devaluation of the
dollar. We use imported material to package some of our products and we had
budgeted on the old exchange rates," Ncube said.
The local currency was two weeks ago devalued by 24 percent from $38 to $50
against the American greenback.
Petrol has been hiked by 25 percent to $27, 46 a litre while diesel has gone
up 19 percent to $23,67 from $19,80 a litre in the past few weeks.
"With such increases we also need to adjust our prices," Ncube said. "But it
is going to be difficult to effect a blanket increase of up to 45 percent
because of stiff competition in the market.
"It is up to individual millers to decide what increase to put in place but
it will be between 25 and 45 percent."
For the past few months, millers in the country have been pressing for a
price hike of up to 45 percent. The last increase was in February when the price
of mealie-meal went up by between four percent and nine percent, lifting the
cost of a 50-kg bag of roller meal from $471,32 to $491,34.
Some millers were yesterday said to have already hiked the price of the
staple diet.
THOUSANDS of litres of fuel destined
for Zimbabwe are docked at Mozambique's port of Beira because the government has
failed to raise payment for the supplies, it was established this week.
An official from the troubled state oil procurement company, the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), yesterday confirmed that fuel had been off- loaded
from ships into storage tanks at Beira this week but could not be pumped into
the pipeline to Zimbabwe because the government had no money to pay for it.
"We have got sufficient supplies at Beira to sustain us for some days but we
have not paid yet," the official, who declined to be named, told the Financial
Gazette.
He said 24 tankers containing an assortment of fuels had also been loaded in
South Africa and were expected in Harare today to ease a worsening shortage.
The NOCZIM official spoke as panic set in among consumers countrywide
following reports that the scarce fuel supplies were dwindling fast.
"The overall supply situation is extremely critical countrywide," a
spokeswoman of the oil companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
Since the end of last year, NOCZIM - crippled by massive corruption and
foreign currency shortages - has been unable to import enough quantities of
fuel, triggering a crisis that threatens to bury an already tottering economy.
While queues for diesel had become an almost permanent feature around
Zimbabwe in the past few months, petrol was still relatively easier to get. But
from yesterday, long and winding queues for petrol could be seen at many pump
stations in Harare.
Many of the stations in the capital were rationing both petrol and diesel.
Most of those visited by the Financial Gazette in Harare yesterday limited
motorists to only $500 worth of fuel.
Illuminating paraffin, used for cooking and lighting by many of the country's
poor urban households, was also in short supply, with long queues forming at the
few garages that sold it in Harare's high-density suburbs.
In Mutare, two of the three main fuel stations in the city centre were also
selling no more than $500 worth of fuel to motorists.
The situation was the same in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, and in
Masvingo and Gweru where pump stations fixed various limits to the amount of
petrol, diesel and paraffin that could be bought by a customer.
The biting fuel shortage has gripped Zimbabwe since the end of last year,
although the government has repeatedly assured the nation that supplies would
improve.
In March, ZANU PF stalwart and then Transport and Energy Minister Enos
Chikowore resigned over the crisis amid allegations that he had failed to stamp
out corruption at NOCZIM.
More than $1 billion has been reported missing from the state company's
coffers in shady deals involving some of its managers and some government
officials.
Several senior NOCZIM officials have since appeared in court on various
charges of corruption. President Robert Mugabe's office then took over the
critical oil procurement, promising to end the country's fuel problems but a
severe foreign currency shortage and half-fulfilled promises of oil by his
Kuwaiti friends have put paid to his promises.
The crisis, now under the office of former State Security Minister and new
Mines and Energy Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, is worsing rapidly.
Sekeramayi could not be reached for comment yesterday. His office said he was
"out of town".
Meanwhile, NOCZIM said this week it was still the sole importer of fuel in
Zimbabwe, dismissing reports that some black business leaders had been licenced
to import oil and ease the chronic shortage.
The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation earlier this week reported
that four indigenous-owned companies ¾ Atrax Commodities, Migdale Investments,
Kadoma Haulage and Exar Enterprises ¾ had been given licences to import fuel.
The NOCZIM official said the four had merely been given permission to
purchase fuel for specific end-users and not for resale to the public.
"The four companies have only been registered as oil companies and under a
temporary arrangement agreed in February they can import fuel for end-users who
can provide their own foreign currency, just like the established companies like
Mobil and Total are doing," the official said.
Officials of two of the four companies - Exar Enterprises and Kadoma Haulage
- confirmed that their licences limited them to the importation of fuel for
end-users only and not for general resale.
"NOCZIM is the only one with the mandate to generally import oil to meet the
general fuel needs of this country," the NOCZIM official said
ZIMBABWE'S commercial farmers say
growing uncertainty is gripping the sector because of the government's failure
to release a new list of farms it is targeting for resettlement, a development
which has forced farmers to stall production.
The government announced three weeks ago it was acquiring an extra 2 237
farms on top of more than 800 others it had already earmarked for seizure
earlier this year, but the list of the farms
to be acquired and the criteria to be used have not been made public.
The government intends to use the extra farms to rapidly resettle thousands
of peasants ahead of the coming
rainy season, which starts around October/November.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) spokesman Steve Crawford said this week the
government's refusal to name the farms it intends to acquire had created a
confidence crisis which had forced some CFU members to temporarily halt farming.
"Farmers are waiting for direction as of now, which means they cannot plan
nor work. Most of
the farmers are uncertain about their properties because the list of extra
farms to be acquired is still to be made public," he told the Financial Gazette.
"Even banks say they are in a difficult situation to provide finance for this
season's cropping because there is concern over security of tenure on most
farms," he added.
Land preparation for planting major cash crops, which is underway, had
already been severely disrupted by independence war veterans who have seized
more than 1 600 farms since February.
Most individual farmers are expected to challenge the latest acquisition of
their farms, a development that is likely to lead to long-running legal battles.
Massive disinvestment in the sector, Zimbabwe's economic mainstay, is likely
to occur as the government moves to issue notices of acquisition of the farms.
Under the amended Land Acquisition Act of 2000, the government can forcibly
acquire land without paying compensation except for improvements made on farms
and if money is available.
Crawford said despite earlier statements by the government, the veterans
still remained on farms, and described the situation there as generally quiet.
But there had been reports of skirmishes between farmers and veterans in Macheke
district in Mashonaland East.
In a dramatic about-turn last week, the CFU withdrew court cases it had
lodged against President Robert Mugabe, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri
and the Zimbabwe War Veterans' Association and its leader Chenjerai Hunzvi on
the roles they have played in the farm invasions.
The CFU said the decision to drop the cases was aimed at creating an
atmosphere conducive to dialogue among the major players involved in the land
reform exercise.
The wave of invasions has resulted in the deaths of five white farmers, a
policeman and a farm foreman. Scores of farm workers have been harassed and
assaulted. Some claim to have been gang-raped by the marauding mobs.
Farming industry sources say the CFU, by dropping its court cases, expects
the government to move all veterans off the farms, a development most analysts
say is unlikely because Mugabe says he will not do so until his supporters are
given the land.
Analysts say the move by the CFU was ill-conceived and will not yield the
desired results, pointing out that previous talks involving Mugabe, the farmers
and the veterans had failed to end lawlessness on the farms.
Mugabe accuses white commercial farmers and their workers of supporting and
bankrolling the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which narrowly lost
the June 24-25 parliamentary election to the governing ZANU PF
party.
ALL right-thinking Zimbabweans will be
dismayed by the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) decision to be cowed into
withdrawing litigation which sought an end to lawlessness on farms and the
eviction of those illegally occupying their properties.
The union has succumbed to intimidation and arm-twisting, setting an
intolerably dangerous precedent on a fundamental issue that affects not only its
members but the entire country.
The restoration of law and order throughout Zimbabwe is not negotiable
because it is a basic and cardinal right of all who live in the land, and the
CFU cannot suspend this right for its members because of short-term gains,
however useful and whatever they are.
President Robert Mugabe's government is taxing and testing the nation's
patience to the limit precisely to see how far it can get away with the
suspension of the rule of law and we cannot have any groups of Zimbabweans
aiding this illegality.
In fact, the government-sponsored violence on farms and in the run-up to the
June general election was a clear payback for the country's paralysis when
confronted by this evil that was left to go unpunished during several past
elections.
Because no one acted to end mayhem then, the government was emboldened to
step up the assault, both physical and pyschological, on the nation in the
just-ended polls.
We can be certain that there will be real armageddon come 2002 when the
stakes will be that much higher, precisely the reason why the current violence
on farms and in towns and cities is not relenting. Mugabe is simply preparing
the nation for the very worst and to begin to accept that state lawlessness can
go unchallenged.
Holding peace talks among belligerents is, under normal circumstances, always
the preferred route to conflict resolution but both sides must be sincere in
these efforts.
In Zimbabwe's case, repeated talks and pleas from the public in the past on
so many burning issues have failed to move the government even an inch from its
chosen path, however perilous it is.
Indeed the CFU should know better, having held a series of such futile
negotiations with Mugabe and the war veterans during the violent run-up to the
parliamentary ballot.
Then as now, the talks will achieve nothing because the government is not
serious nor sincere in ending a conflict which it precipitated. It simply wants
to use the violence as a negotiating tool while at the same time escalating it
to achieve its political goals.
Having succeeded in whipping many in rural areas and on farms into supporting
the governing ZANU PF party in the parliamentary vote and having also convinced
the directionless SADC that there is nothing amiss about this, the government
will raise the tempo of the violence in the impending presidential polls.
It is the only instrument that ZANU PF now has because Zimbabweans are truly
fed up with its corrupt misrule which has killed a promising and resourceful
country in a short 20 years.
All patriotic Zimbabweans - and their genuine friends and partners across the
globe - must stand resolute and firm against any state-led violence and the
usurpation of their hard-won freedoms and rights.
No one - and this includes the CFU - must ever negotiate to dilute these
God-given rights. It would be treason of the worst order and a monumental
betrayal of all who paid the ultimate price to free this country from oppression
of man by man.
Yes, let us have the land being given back to blacks but let us have law and
order.
Murdering a farmer or worker cannot and will not aid or accelerate the land
redistribution plan. It is purely murder and a bestial criminal act that must be
punished most harshly by any civilised society.
EDITOR - Driving around the industrial
areas and the suburbs of Bulawayo, I see a growing number of African women
setting up tiny stalls selling sweets and a few oranges and bananas as they
endeavour to eke out a living.
My heart bleeds for them as I doubt that they make enough profit in one day
to afford a single loaf of bread. Brothers and sisters, we are becoming a nation
of beggars. This is what Zimbabwe has come to and make no mistake - it is set to
get much worse in the next two years.
Meanwhile, our maniac masters Robert Mugabe and Chenjerai Hunzvi ride the
gravy train with no concern for the people as they mastermind our slide into
total poverty.
I cringe when I see Mugabe and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa holding hands like
schoolgirls and see the support Mbeki, Sam Nujoma and other Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC)leaders are giving him.
Mugabe's SADC, comrade leaders, must be shown that we the people of Zimbabwe
are not prepared to settle for crumbs. We want a Zimbabwe where we can live with
dignity and in harmony.
We have the land and people to achieve great things but we cannot afford to
have 11 million people being held to ransom by Mugabe, Hunzvi and a handful of
war veterans and unemployed thugs who are totally ruining our country.
At the constitutional referendum and the election we took one small step for
the people of Zimbabwe. Now it is time to take one giant leap.
Everyone who loves this land must down tools and take to the streets in
peaceful demonstration until Mugabe goes, until law and order return and our
troops are withdrawn from the Congo. It would be better to suffer a few weeks of
hardship now than to go on like this for another two years. Let's get this
madness over so that we can get on with restoring our country to a better state.
Our brave leaders who have opposed ZANU PF must act as the catalyst for this
last step. ZANU PF Members of Parliament could short-circuit this exercise by
working with the opposition to rid us of this problem or they may find that they
too will be ousted when the people have their way.
Mugabe is reported to be one of the richest men in the world, while thousands
of women are sitting on street corners selling sweets and oranges to buy a loaf
of bread!
Chinja - the time is now! N Etnus, Harare. EDITOR - This is an open letter to all
ZANU PF Members of Parliament.
I realise that I must be a bit on the slow side and I am therefore requesting
help from you.
Foreign donors (first among them Britain) have offered money and help to
redistribute land, with their only condition being that the exercise be
transparent and fair. If you do this, infrastructure will be set up, loan
schemes made available and farmers compensated, etc.
My questions are:
Since you reject this, it therefore means that you prefer secrecy and
unfairness. Why?
Since you have singled out white farmers and in fact, Mugabe called whites
"enemies of the state", do you all admit to being rabid racists?
Gentlemen and ladies, these are two questions I wish to get answers to. They
are pure fact, therefore do not try to talk around the issues - just answer
these two questions, no "but . . ." or "what about . . .", and so on.
Answers can be sent to e-mail: nicholas etnus@mailandnews.com and I await
your responses. Hudson Yemen Taivo, Harare.
EDITOR - Eddison Zvobgo has repeatedly
maintained his belief that ''politics is a voluntary assumption of risk''.
While no one will disagree that politics was indeed a risky profession when
Zvobgo and his contemporaries ventured into it during the colonial era, I do not
think it is wise to maintain this belief 20 years after independence.
If Zvobgo and company were fighting against these and other injustices of the
colonial governments, we expect them to adopt a new political culture where
killing, maiming and torture are permanently erased from the political
thesaurus.
The focus should be on improving the economy and standards of living for the
people.
Political parties should not see each other as enemies, but as brothers
working for the good of the country, albeit with different approaches.
It is unfortunate that because people like Zvobgo still associate politics
with risk, more than 30 lives were lost in the run-up to the elections.
Zvobgo (who is my hero) is an intellectual who still commands respect from
different sectors of the country and, as such, should desist from issuing
irresponsible statements. What does ZANU PF prefer?
Politics is no longer voluntary risk-taking
17 August 2000
From The Star (SA), 17 August
Zimbabwe warns farmers not to 'play games'
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government has welcomed white farmers' withdrawal of a court challenge to its land reform programme but warned them against "playing games", state media reported. "We appreciate that they (white farmers) want to work with us," the state news agency Ziana quoted vice-president Joseph Msika, who also chairs the government's land acquisition committee, as saying on Wednesday. He added, however, that whites had in the past secretly worked to thwart the programme. "If farmers continue to play games, we will lose control of the people. We want to establish a system that will not bring chaos but sustain stability," Msika warned.
CFU President Tim Henwood said last week that the group of 4 500 mostly white farmers was dropping a court application challenging the constitutionality of government plans to forcibly acquire white-owned farms to resettle blacks. He said the union was committed to working with the government on land reforms. Msika said that before the start of the rainy season later this year the government would have resettled landless peasants on about 100 farms in each of the country's eight provinces. Mugabe has announced plans to take over nearly half the 12 million hectares owned by about 4 500 white farmers. Last week, the government began settling black families on 200 farms whose acquisition the farmers have not contested. On Wednesday, the CFU said that, despite pledges from police that new invasions would be blocked, there had been 78 new occupations and re-invasions during the past week. Veterans had forced labourers to stop work on 42 mainly tobacco farms and 12 farmers had been issued with eviction notices. The invaders also continued to wreak havoc on farms, stealing, poaching and threatening farmers and their labourers, the union said.
From The Daily News, 16 August
Terror returns to commercial farms in Matabeleland North
Bulawayo - THE violence that haunted Matabeleland North farms before the parliamentary election in June has resurfaced, says the CFU provincial chairman, Mac Crawford. Referring to the alleged abduction of two farm workers by war veterans and Zanu PF supporters from Alex Goosen's Goodwood Farm in Bubi District last weekend, Crawford said the CFU provincial wing was highly concerned about the latest developments in the region. "It looks as if Matabeleland North is being targeted once again. It is disturbing to see people, farm workers in particular, being pushed around and forced to belong to such and such a party," Crawford said. "As it is, farm workers are now scared even to go to work because they are afraid they may be harassed. Everyone has the right to belong to a political party of their choice. Morale is at its lowest ebb within the farming community. We are just praying that things change for the better," he said. In March, farm workers in Bubi vowed to fight off any war veterans who dared occupy their places of work. The threat came after a group of war veterans was attacked by farm workers for trying to occupy Gourlays Farm. After the skirmish, two men employed by Goosen, Isaac Ezekiel Kamoyo, and James Ndlovu, were picked up by the CIO. Four days later, about 25 ex-combatants camped outside Dudley Nicholas' farm, about 25km west of Gourlays. A number of farms, including Gourlays and Goodwood, had been earmarked for invasion by the war veterans at the time, sources said.
From The Star (SA), 16 August
Zim food prices soar with political woes
Harare - Zimbabwe's butchers and bakers have hiked their prices by as much as 25 percent in the last week, which has left many families scrambling for alternatives to put on their tables. "It doesn't affect me," said Norman Makiyi, who was at one shopping center here. "I raise my goats and chickens at my home, and I prefer to eat those." Makiyi works during the week in Harare, but returns to his home about 50km north of the city on the weekend. He said he uses his own animals for almost all his meat, because it's now too expensive for him to buy.
Oliver Takawire is a butcher in downtown Harare. He said that many people are buying cheaper and smaller portions of beef, while steaks sit in his cooler. The price hikes came after the government devalued the Zimbabwean dollar by 24 percent on August 1, setting the official exchange rate at 50 to 1 US dollar. Businesses had begged for the devaluation, and economists said the government should have set the exchange even lower. But consumers, who already face runaway inflation estimated at 60 percent and unemployment levels over 50 percent, suddenly found their money doesn't go as far as it used to. Slaughterhouses and the refrigeration companies that store and transport beef quote their prices in US dollars. The devaluation sent their prices up 24 percent overnight, and one week later the Zimbabwe Association of Butchers announced a 25 percent hike in prices.
Although Zimbabwe produces much of its own beef, rising prices mean that many families can't afford to eat meat every day. One consumer group has started organizing clubs to buy beef in bulk - by purchasing an entire cow directly from ranchers and dividing it up themselves. Elizabeth Nerwande, executive director of the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, said the people most affected by the price increases are the ones least able to afford it. She also said that by not eating meat, many people may have trouble keeping their diets balanced and avoiding protein deficiencies. Bakers have faced a similar problem. During the winter months, Zimbabwe imports wheat until its own wheat crops are ready for harvesting. The weaker Zimbabwean dollar quickly made foreign wheat more expensive to buy, and the National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe announced last week that most of its members would raise prices 15 percent to compensate.
The food price increases come amid widespread uncertainty about the future of agriculture here. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said the government will seize 3 000 of the nation's 4 500 white-owned farms to resettle them with landless blacks before the rainy season begins. But it remains unclear whether Mugabe will be able to pull off the resettlement programme, and the government has only identified 804 farms that will be seized. That leaves many commercial farmers, who work the most productive land, unsure how much to plant or whether to plant at all. The occupations have already disrupted wheat crops, which are harvested later this year. Reports here have said the smaller plantings will leave Zimbabwe in need of 250 000 tons of flour to meet its consumption needs. And some cattle ranchers have started slaughtering their breeding stock, which means smaller supplies of beef over the next year as well.
From The Star (SA), 16 August
Mugabe threatens to pull troops out of DRC
President Robert Mugabe publicly criticised DRC President Laurent Kabila on Tuesday and is understood to have told him he will withdraw most of Zimbabwe's troops by the end of the year. Kabila's intransigence has wrecked yet another regional summit aimed at getting the deadlocked DRC peace process back on track. The summit in Lusaka ended early on Tuesday without conclusion after Kabila rejected appeals to accept former Botswana president Ketumile Masire as facilitator, and to allow United Nations peacekeepers to be deployed in government-held war zones. "President Kabila has refused to listen or discuss the matter. He says he does not want Sir Ketumile Masire - period," Mugabe said after the talks.
"It is not good that President Kabila does not want to listen. It is important that he sees the views of other leaders - if the problem is to be solved." Senior Zimbabwean government sources said Zimbabwe Finance Minister Simba Makoni had told Mugabe two weeks ago that he could not rescue the plummeting economy while the 13 000 Zimbabwean troops in the DRC were draining Z$1,3-billion a month from the treasury. Most analysts believe Kabila cannot survive without these troops. Meanwhile, the United States has issued a stern warning to Kabila to support United Nations-backed efforts to end the two-year war. Nancy Soderberg, a senior member of the United States mission to the United Nations, said on Tuesday the talks had produced "broad consensus on a number of key issues" among all those taking part except Kabila. She described the 1999 ceasefire agreement as "the most viable means for bringing the conflict to an end" and said Kabila's government "must provide the requisite security guarantees, access and co-operation that will enable the United Nations to deploy its peacekeepers".
From The Star (SA), 17 August
Congo says FW's the man to mediate talks
Kinshasa - The DRC's embattled government is looking for help from former South African president FW de Klerk. DRC Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia said on Wednesday that De Klerk would be a more suitable internal mediator than former Botswana leader Ketumile Masire, the current facilitator. The former president had shown a willingness to accept change and had won a Nobel peace prize alongside former president Nelson Mandela, another mediator, said Yerodia, explaining his preference. This latest move in the intricate game of the DRC peace process comes as the foreign minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, blamed DRC President Laurent Kabila for the impasse in the implementation of last year's peace accord, ahead of claims by Zambian President Frederick Chiluba that Kabila had changed his mind on at least allowing United Nations peacekeepers into the country. Other candidates suggested by Yerodia were South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda, former Senegalese president Abdou Diouf, and former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar. The OAU's choice of Masire was not acceptable, Yerodia insisted. However, the DRC's minister of information, Didier Mumengi, could not confirm or deny that Masire had been ruled out by Kinshasa. Negotiations were still going on in Lusaka, he added. The Kinshasa government claims Masire is not impartial.
From The Star (SA), 16 August
Miners' strike contunues
Harare - About 15 000 of 40 000 mine workers affiliated with Zimbabwe's national Chamber of Mines continued their strike on Tuesday as violence escalated in the country. The government unofficially declared the strike over pay rises illegal. A written order for work to resume immediately is expected on Wednesday. A meeting between the National Mineworkers Union, the employers and the government broke up after government mediators were apparently repeatedly insulted by union officials. The worst violence occurred at Freda-Rebecca gold mine, owned by Ashanti of Ghana, where a car was set alight and several people were beaten up. "The situation is essentially the same as Monday," a senior industry official said, "except that more incidents of violence are being noted." Political observers say the violence could be politically motivated. "There has been a pattern of incidents in areas where the ruling Zanu-PF party holds sway and it could be because mineworkers virtually all voted for the opposition MDC and are venting their frustration on ruling party followers," said one analyst. There has also been intimidation of staff involved in essential services and safety maintenance.
From The Financial Gazette, 17 August
ZANU PF stalwarts mull name change
SOME ZANU PF stalwarts are working towards the revival of the Patriotic Front as the new name for the restructured ruling party, sources said this week. ZANU PF politicians from the southern provinces of Matabeleland, the Midlands and Masvingo are understood to be lobbying for the return of the Lancaster House-era name as one way to boost the party's flagging fortunes in their provinces. Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF and the then ZAPU, which was led by Joshua Nkomo, participated jointly in the pre-independence Lancaster House peace talks in London in 1979 as the Patriotic Front. ZAPU was absorbed into ZANU PF after the merger of the two parties in 1987 and the newly formed party retained the name of ZANU PF.
The ruling party's name has been said to be a source of irritation for some former ZAPU members who feel that the merger completely obliterated Nkomo's party. The sources said this week that senior party politicians in the three provinces had met under the aegis of the so-called "south-south" co-operation and were understood to be lobbying for the change of name of the ruling party. The "south-south" co-operation is said to be a lobby group of politicians from these provinces who are fighting to end the Zezuru domination of ZANU PF. Some politicians in Matabeleland have openly complained that the name ZANU PF did not go down well politically in the province and that its continued use was one of the reasons for the waning popularity of the party in the region.
The issue was said to have been part of an agenda of a meeting held in Bulawayo last week and chaired by former Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa. Dabengwa, said to be one of the leaders at the forefront of efforts to revive the Patriotic Front as the name of the ruling party, this week said the Bulawayo meeting was a post-mortem on why ZANU PF had fared badly in Matabeleland in the June 24-25 election. He denied that "south-south" co-operation was discussed at the meeting. "It (the Bulawayo meeting) was a closed meeting with an intention to address issues. As for the south-south co-operation, I am hearing it from you and I have no interest in it," Dabengwa told the Financial Gazette. Among some of the political issues that formed the agenda of the meeting was the need for proper retirement plans to be worked out for the party's ageing leadership, the review of its constitution and a fresh look at the unity accord between ZAPU and ZANU PF. The agenda also highlighted the need to engage regional leaders in the ruling party's internal conflict resolution. Follow-up talks are expected to be held in Bulawayo at the weekend.
Jonathan Moyo, ZANU PF's spokesman and Information Minister, confirmed yesterday that there were some politicians who were mooting the return of the Lancaster House agreement name but dismissed it as a desperate act to salvage dimming political careers. "We are aware of these developments but this act is by politicians whose ideological imagination has run full circle," Moyo said. "This is being done by a few leaders who have vested interests and have become desperate and think that the only way to revive their falling political fortunes is by opening old and healed wounds."
Among other issues discussed at the Bulawayo meeting was the Zambezi Water Project to draw water from the Zambezi River to Bulawayo and the surrounding areas. The project is seen as the future lifeline of the semi-arid Matabeleland region but some leaders in the provinces have repeatedly complained that the government is reluctant to see its speedy implementation. Several companies, citing Bulawayo's erratic water supplies, have in the past relocated from the city to Harare which has better water resources. The meeting also urged the government to stick to an orderly and transparent land redistribution programme in line with the wishes of Nkomo, who died last year and has been declared a national hero.
From The Daily Telegraph, 17 August
Voice of democracy is heard at last in Mugabe's talking shop
Harare - Zimbabwe's parliament has been turned from a rubber stamp for the president to a packed debating chamber, where the traditions of Westminster are scrupulously observed and a government is coming under sustained pressure for the first time. Zimbabwe's parliament, once crushed under the weight of President Robert Mugabe's one-party state, has been transformed by the election of 57 members from the opposition MDChange. Until the election in June all but three of the 150 seats were held by the ruling Zanu-PF party and vital legislation passed without the formality of a vote.
Things are different now. Cheered by the MDC benches, Job Sikala, an opposition member, accused the president of "betraying our country and selling out our people" and called for his immediate impeachment. The resounding shouts of support left Zanu-PF members visibly shocked and prompted veteran cabinet ministers to shake their heads in disbelief. Parliament may be powerless to obstruct Mr Mugabe's policies - the constitution allows him to rule by decree and the legal changes necessary for his land grab were pushed through before the election - but the noisy debates show that his one-party state is no more.
Until the election, it would have been inconceivable for an MP to demand impeachment. Government and opposition benches were packed with Zanu-PF members, organised dissent barely existed and all criticism was dismissed as subversive. Budgets, new taxes, even declarations of war sailed through the House without debate. Mr Mugabe went to war in the DRC in August 1998 without any parliamentary discussion. But the MDC's electoral success has broken the mould of Zimbabwean politics and the ornate debating chamber, with a large portrait of the Queen in its entrance, is now a forum where the grievances of the nation are vigorously expressed. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker, was forced to call the House to order amid the uproar caused by Mr Sikala.
The young MP's outrage arose from Zimbabwe's chief grievance against Mr Mugabe, the wave of political violence before the election that claimed 37 lives. MDC members find it hard to contain their rage against Zanu-PF. "It is difficult being in the same room as those fascists and murderers," said one member of the shadow cabinet before entering the chamber. Their fury is directed at one Zanu-PF member in particular, Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, leader of the War Veterans' Association and the prime mover behind the illegal occupation of white farms and the brutal onslaught against the opposition. Mr Hunzvi appeared in the chamber during Mr Sikala's speech and immediately accused his opponent of high treason for daring to suggest impeachment of the president. He shook his head in anger as Mr Sikala said the election violence was "almost genocide". One of many Zanu-PF members horrified by Zimbabwe's new democracy, Mr Hunzvi shouted threats at the opposition. Yet insiders suggest that the feelings of Zanu-PF pale by comparison with the anger of the architect of the one-party state, who has seen his creation come crashing down.
From The Daily News, 16 August
Party enquires on State funding
THE MDC has written to the government to ask when the party is likely to receive its share of the money due to it under the Political Parties (Finance) Act. The MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube, yesterday said they had written to the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa. "It is now 51 days since the last day of the parliamentary election and the Act gives the Minister 60 days to publish a notice announcing how much each of the contesting parties will receive," Ncube said. The MDC won 57 of the 120 contested seats in the June parliamentary election to become the major opposition party in Parliament.
According to the Political Parties (Finance) Act, parties must win the support of at least 5 percent of the voters in a general election to qualify for State funding. The act used to stipulate that a party must win at least 15 of the 120 seats until the United Parties won a High Court order compelling the government to amend the law last year. Ncube said the MDC had won about 48 percent of the total votes cast while Zanu PF won close to 52 percent of the votes and the two parties would get almost similar amounts of money. In this year's budget, Zanu PF received $65 million after winning 117 seats in the 1995 election. "All we want to know is how much we will receive and when we will receive it because the stipulated 60 days for publication of the public notice are running out," Ncube said.
From The Daily News, 16 August
Chihuri on the warpath
AUGUSTINE Chihuri, the Commissioner of Police, is suing The Daily News for alleged defamation resulting from the publication in the paper on Monday of his picture as he slept while President Mugabe spoke at the National Heroes' Acre last Friday. Chihuri, a former freedom fighter, whose term of office has just been extended for the second time, demanded a retraction and an "appropriately worded apology" of equal prominence to the picture and caption. A letter addressed by Chihuri's lawyers, Kantor and Immerman, to the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief, Geoff Nyarota, and chief executive, Muchadeyi Masunda, yesterday, reads: "We refer to the photograph published on page 2 of the Monday edition of your newspaper headed, 'Taking a snooze', depicting our client. "We address you at the instance of our client. Our instructions are that the clear and expressed objective of the publication of this photograph was to convey the false impression that our client took a nap during the Heroes' Day commemoration proceedings. Our client denies that he was snoozing and further, close scrutiny of your own photograph will reveal that our client was not asleep."
The picture, according to the lawyers, therefore, gave a false, scandalous and defamatory impression in that it suggests that Chihuri, who is a senior officer of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, was in breach of a statutory duty, in that he took a nap while on duty. The lawyers say the article further demeaned Chihuri in the eyes of the rank and file of the police force, the readers and the public in general. They state: "The impression created by the publication in the eyes of the public in general and in particular of the serving police officers and of Chihuri's principals, is that he has no respect for the nation, national events nor his seniors to the extent that he will sleep whilst on duty." The letter states that as a result of the publication of the picture, Chihuri had been inundated with calls by a number of people asking for an explanation and had to endure the unnecessary inconvenience and embarrassment of explaining the correct state of affairs concerning the photograph.
But The Daily News photographer, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, who took the allegedly defamatory photograph and another as the police chief started to doze off, says his photograph is a factual portrayal of an event that happened at Heroes' Acre last Friday. He says he kept the police chief under observation for some time after he noticed that he was dozing off intermittently. He stole two shots of the commissioner, once as he started to doze off at one point and again after he succumbed to the soporific effect of the presidential address. "The commissioner dozed off for about 30 to 60 seconds at a time," said Mukwazhi yesterday. "This went on for about 20 minutes during President Mugabe's speech." Mukwazhi said he had positioned himself appropriately to take the pictures after he noticed this unlikely behaviour on the part of the Commissioner of Police. Nyarota said yesterday that Chihuri would make legal history in Zimbabwe if he sued and won the case. "The Daily News reserves the right to sue any member of the public who suggests that its photographs are false impressions," he said.
(This report included two photographs - one showing Chihuri dozing off, and one showing him fast asleep.)
| Transcript 15/08/00 White Zimbabwean families make their way to country Qld KERRY O'BRIEN: Australia has watched with the detachment of distance Zimbabwe's latest crisis between its black and white citizens. 20 years after independence, President Robert Mugabe has been seizing properties owned by white farmers, to redistribute the land to the black veterans who helped him win power after a long and bitter civil war. Although none of the dispossessed farmers have come to Australia yet, increasing numbers of white Zimbabwean families have made their way here, with many of them making a new home in Toowoomba in regional Queensland. Simon Royal reports. TIM HOWMAN: We love the country, we love all of the people there. That's why we've stayed. But there comes a time when you've got to fear for your own safety and a lot of people were getting killed. We'd told our boys to get out early, to leave Africa. SIMON ROYAL: Tim and Leslie Howman have taken the advice they offered to their two sons. Now the whole family is out of Africa and in Toowoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs. Two months ago, the Howmans gave up their plumbing business, packed up their home in the capital, Harare, and became part of a growing exodus. They're escaping from a government in Zimbabwe they say doesn't want them. The country's President, Robert Mugabe, has labelled white farmers in particular as the enemy. President Mugabe needs the farms to keep promises of land he made to veterans of the country's independence war. TIM HOWMAN: It's heading, in my opinion, for chaos, anarchy. It's a sad thing to say, but I think that's where we're heading and we just didn't want to be there when that all happened. SIMON ROYAL: The Howmans consider themselves lucky -- living in Harare meant they weren't directly affected by the violence. As yet, none of the families who've come to Toowoomba have been those displaced by President Robert Mugabe's policy of seizing white-owned farms, but some of these families have been at the sharp end of the breakdown in Zimbabwean society. For 20 years, home for Don and Rona Fraser was this farm about 100km out of Harare. DON FRASER: Today's 24 September, 1999, and I'm just going to have a quick look around the farm here to see what we've done here this year. SIMON ROYAL: Don Fraser took a home video of the property just before he leased it to another farmer. As yet, the Fraser farm has not been seized but the family decided to leave last year after one of their neighbours was held up at gunpoint. DON FRASER: We got the radio call to say that they had left the home and could we try and block the roads off, because they thought their daughter had been kidnapped. And after sticking a Landcruiser across the road to block my access road off, they arrived. And after challenging them, a couple of shots were fired and one went through the windscreen of the Landcruiser. RONA FRASER: It was the final straw for me, but I think the the decision was made when we picked up the newspaper and saw that there was an immigration lawyer who was coming to talk. SIMON ROYAL; The Frasers and the Howmans are just two of about 30 families who've made new lives in Toowoomba over the past two years. Their arrival is not the result of happy coincidence, but rather, a determined marketing program by Toowoomba Council and several Queensland immigration agents. Damien Griffiths is a Darling Downs local. He's spent the past three years travelling throughout southern Africa seeking new migrants for Queensland. DAMIEN GRIFFITHS, IMMIGRATION AGENT: Toowoomba has all the selling points, because it has the excellent education, it has the agricultural background, housing is affordable and it's close to Brisbane. So, a lot of people, when they emigrate from a country like Zimbabwe, don't want to go and live in Sydney and Melbourne. They don't want to live in a large city. They want to go and find a smaller city, somewhere they can call home. And that's why Toowoomba all of a sudden became very attractive. SIMON ROYAL: The Federal Government's business migration program has also been crucial in attracting Zimbabweans to Toowoomba. Australia currently accepts 12,000 people a year on refugee and humanitarian migration programs. The quotas are strictly enforced. In fact, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock doesn't think the violence in Zimbabwe is bad enough to qualify anyone as a refugee. But business migration numbers are a different matter. PHILIP RUDDOCK, IMMIGRATION MINISTER: The category is one that I call "demand-driven", so we take as many as we can get. It is highly beneficial. SIMON ROYAL: 5,000 people come to Australia a year on the business migration program. Toowoomba Council thinks it's not enough. So keen is the town on attracting more migrants -- just as long as they're business migrants -- the local mayor thinks Canberra should offer financial incentives. DIANNE THORLEY, TOOWOOMBA MAYOR: I would like to see that there's some sort of sponsorship with them to get them here. Even though they have money, I believe that you should put a bit up first and get them to come. PHILIP RUDDOCK: The Government is not in the business of providing capital for people overseas to establish businesses. SIMON ROYAL: But that refusal doesn't seem to matter. Toowoomba's message of security and prosperity has struck a chord in Zimbabwe and with President Mugabe on the verge of seizing thousands of farms, it's expected many more white Zimbabweans will join the queue for Queensland. TIM HOWMAN: There's a future here, there's a long-term future. You could plan your future for three generations hence, whereas there you couldn't even plan for a month's time. We've cut our bridges. We'd like to go back in years to come, if things are still right, and just see people. But, no, we're here for good now. |
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