Business Report
August 21,
2006
By Ethel Hazelhurst
In 1997 it took only Z$10 to buy US$1. By
last month the official rate was
Z$101 000 to the US unit, while on the
parallel market a greenback was
reportedly fetching Z$555 000.
Faced
with inflation running at around 1 000 percent and a collapsing
currency,
the Zimbabwean government finally took action. It adjusted the
value of the
currency so that now it takes only Z$250 in the new (more
valuable) currency
to buy US$1.
A happy ending? Not at all. The country is being sucked into
a bureaucratic
quagmire.
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono gave
Zimbabweans three weeks to exchange
the old notes for new and people are
scrambling to meet today's deadline.
"There's not enough cash," an
accountant in Harare told the BBC website.
"You deposit your old money in
the bank and you go to an ATM and it gives
you old notes."
To add to
the sense of insecurity, people are being searched and relieved of
cash that
the Reserve Bank says exceeds the limits they are allowed to hold
in the
week.
When leaders are unable to distinguish between their own fantasies
and the
reality of the financial markets, routine events that normally take
only a
little time and energy suddenly become major obstacles to consumption
and
production.
In the real world, exchange rates have different
dimensions.
Last week the rand, which according to Bloomberg had the
biggest weekly drop
in eight weeks, ended at about R7 to the US dollar on
Friday.
This came after Nedbank treasury's monthly currency insights
recorded that
between July 17 and August 17 the rand had strengthened
against all major
currencies.
In that month-long period, it
appreciated 5.3 percent against the dollar,
reducing its deprecation against
the US unit in the year from 13.7 percent
on July 17 to just over 9 percent
on August 17.
The local currency was not alone in its recovery. With the
help of the US
Federal Reserve board decision on August 8 to leave its
target rate at 5.25
percent, the Hungarian forint, Mexican peso and Turkish
lira all did well in
the period.
The good news last week was the
cease-fire in the Middle East, which brought
a 6 percent fall in the oil
price in four days. The benchmark Brent blend
ended the week at $72.50
(R508) a barrel.
So far, news from the US suggests that Fed chairman Ben
Bernanke made the
right call on interest rates. Bloomberg reported that
economic data "are now
breaking Bernanke's way for the first time since he
took the central bank's
helm in February".
It listed the figures
supporting his decision to pause: a fall in the
measure of wholesale prices;
an easing in one gauge of consumer inflation;
an unexpected 0.1 percent fall
in the index of leading economic indicators
in July; and reports of slowing
sales from Wal-Mart Stores and HomeDepot.
This cheered the US stock
market, which, in the week, recorded its
"strongest winning streak" in five
months, according to Bloomberg.
WorldNetDaily
Barbara Simpson commentary
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted:
August 21, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006
Fabulous news,
wasn't it?
Then again, maybe not. Stay with me.
The presidents of
three southern African countries were together last week
to officially open
a new border crossing. It's another step in the
development of what's touted
as the ''world's largest animal kingdom.'' When
completed, it will be a
huge, wildlife preserve, spanning three countries:
South Africa, Mozambique
and Zimbabwe.
Yes, that Zimbabwe - but more about that later.
The
three men, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Armando Guebuza of Mozambique,
and
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, presided over the formal opening of the
Giriyondo
border-crossing road.
President Mugabe was an hour and a half late - no
reason reported - keeping
the 500 varied dignitaries cooling their heels
waiting for the dedication to
begin.
The preserve plan has been in
the works for years and is finally reaching a
semblance of fruition.
Officially, it's called the Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Park. At 13,500
square miles, it's larger than Switzerland.
The land, which is to be
protected from hunting (and, it's hoped, poaching
too) will allow the free
movement of wildlife along natural migration
routes, enabling threatened
species to thrive.
The park is also seen as a means to develop
ecologically sound tourist
destinations, raising money for park maintenance
and providing jobs for
local people. This is especially important since many
villages and residents
are being moved out of wildlife migration
routes.
South Africa's Kruger National Park, home to a greater number of
wildlife
species than any other African game sanctuary, is part of this new
park.
It's hoped the additional land will enable the relocation of Kruger's
overpopulation of elephants - 10,000 of them. Inasmuch as South Africa is
seriously considering the culling of those elephants - read that
''killing'' - because of their growing numbers and danger to people, the
idea of the animals being able to migrate to new territory pleases
conservationists.
The new Great Limpopo Park will include Kruger as
well as Zimbabwe's
Gonarezhou National Park and the Coutada Park in
Mozambique. However, it
will take years to complete and to remove the fences
and barriers that have
marked not only the borders of the three countries
but varied land uses
within the acreage.
President Mbeki said,
''Today our wild animals - the elephants, rhino,
antelope and many others -
are once again beginning to roam freely.''
He noted that it's the
''beginning of a new era when we will bring down the
colonial fences, which
divided our nations over several centuries.''
Maybe. Follow the
money.
South Africa reportedly spent $5.8 million improving Kruger,
Mozambique
received $25 million for its park from a German company, but not
a penny in
donations for Zimbabwe.
I wonder why? Do you think it
might be related to the fact that Robert
Mugabe, a heartless dictator and a
communist at that, has persistently
destroyed his country? Once the
breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe's
agriculture is gone.
In 2000,
Mugabe instituted a policy of ''land reform'' which really was the
forcible
seizure of 4,000 commercial farms from white owners, the beating,
raping and
killing of many of them, the theft of their property, the beating
and
killing of blacks who worked for them and the wanton destruction of farm
animals.
The stolen land was parceled out to Mugabe's political
cronies and to poor
blacks, who had no idea how to farm. Land went fallow
and the entire
agricultural economy was ruined.
Now, more than 4
million people are starving, the infrastructure is in
shambles, and
inflation rampant, over 1,000 percent. People literally need
wheelbarrows to
carry enough money to buy bread or eggs - if they can find
any. Unemployment
is more than 80 percent.
Mugabe insists his people are happy.
This
same man, who praised the new wildlife sanctuary last week, was
responsible
for the wholesale slaughter of big game in his country over the
last two
years, ordering the military to wantonly kill, using military
weapons. Most
of the animals were left to rot.
Maybe he's hoping those new migration
routes will provide him with more
targets.
Speaking of targets,
Zimbabwe earned some $1.5 million last year selling
rights to foreigners to
shoot big game for trophies. Bids came from across
the world. There's also
big business in poaching and an ivory-smuggling
syndicate is being
investigated that involves South Africa.
Remember all those South African
elephants?
Let's take this a step further. Throughout all of the chaos in
Zimbabwe over
the last 6 years, South Africa has been conspicuous in its
silence about the
atrocities.
Maybe now we know why.
It's been
simmering under the radar for the last few years, but South Africa
has been
quietly instituting its own land restitution program. They want
white
farmers to sell their land to the government so it can be given to
blacks.
There are more than 50,000 white farmers. So far, only about
4 percent have
agreed to ''sell.'' That wasn't fast enough, so on the same
day the new
animal park was announced last week, the South African
government announced
a deadline. White farmers will ''agree'' to sell within
6 months, or their
land will be seized and they will face ''compulsory
eviction.''
Zimbabwe redux, although President Mbeki has repeatedly said
he would not
copy the Mugabe land reforms that ruined
Zimbabwe.
However, Lulu Xingwana, South Africa's new agriculture minister
takes a hard
line: ''We will no longer waste time negotiating with people
who are not
committed to transformation,'' ''. not committed to the
empowerment of black
people.''
Her department already has a list of
properties that will be seized first.
It's a tragedy in the making and
ultimately will be the destruction of
another prosperous African country.
The once thriving Zimbabwe is lost and
now South Africa is going down the
same path.
As those governments self-destruct, Islam is making strong
inroads there in
terms of pure numbers and influence.
The world
ignores this at its own peril.
And it is being ignored. When did you see
any of this in the news?
Taipei Times
By Andrew
Meldrum
THE GUARDIAN ,
Monday, Aug 21, 2006
On the streets of Harare
and across Zimbabwe, people of all races and all
walks of life are lugging
large satchels, backpacks and suitcases stuffed
full of money. Many are
using the cash in wild sprees to buy goods ranging
from cars and stoves to
cows. Far from a sign that the country's battered
economy is picking up, the
mad spending is a frantic attempt to turn cash
into assets. Poorer
Zimbabweans are carrying their money to banks to
exchange it for new
bills.
This is Zimbabwe's big currency change-over, a chaotic and
confusing
exercise that will see current bills replaced by new notes with
three zeroes
removed. For instance, a Z$20,000 (US$0.32) note will be
replaced by a new
Z$20 bill. The value remains the same.
"From zero
to hero" is how the exercise has been trumpeted by Gideon Gono,
governor of
Zimbabwe's central bank. According to economists, it is nothing
more than a
cosmetic change.
Knocking off the zeroes will turn a Z$100,000 note into
a Z$100 bill, but it
will not reduce the country's hyperinflation, which is
raging at more than
1,000 percent a year, according to Harare economist John
Robertson.
"That will only be achieved by fundamental changes in economic
policy such
as controlling the budget deficit," he said.
From today,
old notes will no longer be legal tender, so Zimbabweans are
rushing to
spend their cash or deposit it in a bank.
But in typically iron-fisted
fashion, President Robert Mugabe's regime is
treating people carrying cash
as criminals. Police at roadblocks, border
posts and airports are searching
the bags to see that no one is carrying
more than Z$100 million.
Huge
stashes of cash are being seized, particularly from rural peasants
bringing
their money to the cities to deposit in banks. More than 3,200
Zimbabweans
have been arrested at roadblocks and Z$700 billion has been
confiscated,
according to the state media. Hundreds of businesses are also
under
investigation.
In a macabre twist, mourners transporting their dead to
funerals are forced
to open the coffins to prove that they are not smuggling
illegal sums of
cash along with the remains of their loved ones.
At
Harare airport last week police seized several large containers that were
filled with more than Z$1 trillion. The money was being smuggled back into
the country by three large financial institutions, according to the
state-owned Herald, to be exchanged for new currency.
Rampant
inflation has rendered the once proud Zimbabwe dollar nearly
worthless.
Supermarket shoppers must push a trolley-full of currency to buy
a
trolley-full of basic groceries. Calculators, cash registers and
checkbooks
fail to cope with the number of noughts needed as prices for
daily goods run
into millions, houses and cars cost billions and company
budgets are in the
trillions. Taking off three zeroes will make the
Zimbabwean currency easier
to deal with until inflation adds the zeroes back
on.
At the official
rate of exchange Z$250,000 is worth US$1. But realistically
the Zim dollar
is worth much less because no dollars are available at the
official rate. On
the illegal but thriving parallel market it takes
Z$600,000 to buy
US$1.
"Our Zim dollar is useless," said Iddah Mandaza, a Harare factory
worker.
"It costs Z$600,000 to take a bus to work. We pay millions to buy a
bit to
eat. This striking off the zeroes is not going to change anything. We
all
know that. It will be easier to carry money around but it is not going
to
stop inflation and it is not going to make shortages of food and fuel
disappear."
The currency switch-over highlights the severity of
Zimbabwe's continuing
economic collapse. In eight years, the country's GDP
has declined by more
than 40 percent, an unprecedented contraction by a
country not at war,
according to the World Bank. Other economic indicators
are equally dire.
Unemployment is estimated at 70 percent to 80 percent.
Agricultural
production has dropped by 60 percent and factories are
operating at less
than 20 percent of capacity, according to
economists.
The result of the economic collapse is that Zimbabwe's
population, once one
of Africa's most prosperous, is impoverished and
hungry. Ten years ago about
30 percent of Zimbabwe's population lived below
the international poverty
line. Now more than 70 percent do. Mugabe
maintains that the economic
decline has been caused by sabotage and
sanctions by Western countries
opposed to his seizures of white-owned
farms.
Ordinary Zimbabweans and economists alike blame Mugabe's chaotic
economic
policies, which deny open access to foreign currency, support
bloated state
corporations with huge deficits and force banks and pension
funds to invest
in government bonds at negative rates.
Zimbabwe's
budget, according to a new supplement presented to parliament by
Finance
Minister Herbert Murerwa on July 27, is running a deficit at 24
percent of
GDP. The government is paying for its profligacy by printing
money. It
became too expensive to print standard currency two years ago so
the
government began producing cheaper "bearer cheques," which are printed
on
only one side and have an unsettling resemblance to Monopoly money.
The
urban rich and the cross-border traders are busy finding ways to avoid
being
caught out by the remuneration. Many fear it is the rural poor who
will be
left holding the bag of unusable Zim dollars on the deadline today.
"The
poor and the poorly educated will be hurt most," said John Makumbe, a
Zimbabwean political science lecturer. "They are being treated like economic
saboteurs. Their money is being seized if they travel with more than Z$100
million, yet they often have school fees to pay of Z$300 million. These are
supposed to be Mugabe's strongest supporters, yet they will bitterly
remember the day that the government confiscated their cash."
"There
are growing fears that there will be riots over the currency change.
Mugabe's fiercest opposition is the economy. He can rig elections, he can
control the press, but he cannot rig the economy. The economy refuses to
obey his orders," Makumbe said.
OhMyNews
Zimbabwean
man forced to flee country after attack by 'war
heroes'
Nelson G. Katsande (NELKA)
Published 2006-08-21 15:12
(KST)
A man tormented by Mugabe's Liberation War Heroes
opened his heart and
talked about his grueling experience at the hands of
what he calls "Mugabe's
thugs." Manyowa (not his real name) is now a refugee
in neighboring South
Africa.
On a Saturday afternoon in October
2004 as Manyowa was driving to
Kadoma in Mashonaland West, he was confronted
by the so-called "War Heroes."
Manyowa was working in Harare. As usual, he
was delivering groceries and
medicine to his sick mother in Kadoma at the
end of every month. On this
particular day he was unlucky, and his prospects
of seeing his mother were
dashed as he later woke up in the hospital the
following morning.
Manyowa was driving his Mazda pick-up truck
along the Harare-Bulawayo
road when he noticed a group of people in the
middle of the road just before
the Norton turn-off. As he got closer, he
blew his horn to notify them of
oncoming traffic. Surprisingly, they did not
budge, but started to dance and
wave placards with the message, "Land to the
people." They had barricaded
the road, and as he approached them he was
ordered to stop. Upon noticing
that they were holding machetes, knobkerries
and knives, Manyowa complied.
One of the men, who appeared to be
the ring leader, came to him and
asked, "Can I see your membership card?"
The only membership card Manyowa
held was for his local gym. Sensing danger,
he produced his driver's license
upon which the man called the others to
draw closer. In the meantime, the
rest of the group was chanting Liberation
War songs and denouncing
opposition leade, Morgan Tsvangirai.
"I want to see your Zanu (PF) membership card and not your license. Do
I
look like a driving examiner?" the man asked with an authoritative voice.
Manyowa replied that he was non-partisan and as such does not hold any
political party cards. One of the gang members called him a sellout and he
was beaten with a baton stick which left bloody markings on his back and
shoulders. The ring leader opened his small bag and produced one Zanu (PF)
membership card. He was ordered to buy one before they could let him
go.
Reluctantly, he did as he was told. But unknown to him, more
trouble
was to follow. After he was handed the card, they told him he was
now part
of the group and was ordered to drive them to a nearby farm.
Fearing for his
life, he allowed the members to get on board. They were 27
in total, but
they could not all fit in his truck, so he took with him 14
members. Along
the way, he was ordered to join them in song as they chanted,
"Zimbabwe
ndeye ropa" ("Zimbabwe was attained through blood").
His pleas for mercy were ignored as they took turns harassing him.
He was directed to a farm where upon arrival the gang demanded to see
the
white owner. The farm workers told them that he had just left for
Harare.
They turned their frustration on Manyowa whom they accused of
driving slowly
which resulted in them missing the farmer. They started to
kick and punch
him. He fell unconscious and the next thing he remembered was
waking up at
Norton town hospital the following morning.
The "thugs" took his
groceries and medicine. His truck was later found
dumped at Lake Chivero. No
one was arrested for the offense. Asked whether
he knew if the farm was
grabbed by the war veterans, Manyowa said had had no
knowledge of what later
transpired at the farm.
Manyowa is not the only one who suffered at
the hands of the war
veterans. Some had their cash stolen and cars hijacked
and were stripped of
their clothing. Unfortunately for some, they died at
the hands of these
brutal supporters of Mugabe. The war veterans are now the
most feared group
in Zimbabwe.
In September 2003, police in
Harare with the help of the Liberation
War Veterans stormed the offices of
The Daily News and shut the newspaper
down. Prior to the closure, any member
of the public seen reading the paper
was attacked by the war
veterans.
In Zimbabwe, any report to the police against war
veterans falls on
deaf ears; the veterans see themselves as above the
law.
Irked by his experience, Manyowa later joined the Zimbabwe
opposition
political party to Mugabe's government, the Movement for
Democratic Change.
Manyowa, who is 37 years old, finally fled in December
after constant
harassment from Zanu PF supporters. He now works in South
Africa for an
online newspaper and regularly writes for
zimgreats.com.
Another big turnout to draw attention
to the worsening situation in
Zimbabwe. 88 people signed the register and
no doubt there were some people
who did not sign in. This made it one of
the biggest Vigils in our four
years - exceeded only by those where
demonstrations were held to mark
special occasions. Our records show that
on the same Saturday two years ago
we had 43 people so something is
happening. When we joined hands in a
circle to sing the national anthem at
the end we took up the whole piazza
outside the Embassy. Passers-by were
magnetised. Some of them even joined
the circle while others snapped away
with their cameras.
We managed to avert a threatened downpour at the
start by rushing to put up
our tarpaulin when a few drops fell... to be
followed by a balmy afternoon.
We were pleased to have many first-timers -
some of them asylum seekers
dispersed around the country and keen to be
active but they are hampered by
a lack of money to travel to London and no
information about local organised
groups. We try to put them in touch with
others where they live - hopefully
if they meet other activisits in their
area they could start similar vigils
as the one in Bristol. They can
certainly rely on our help.
Wellington from Free-Zim Youth in Brighton
told the Vigil of their new
initiative to set up a meeting with the South
African Embassy to discuss
South Africa's attitude to Zimbabwe and
Zimbabwean refugees. They are
waiting for agreement on a date at the end of
September. They plan to have
a demonstration outside the South African
embassy ahead of the meeting,
which we will certainly support.
We
have evidence that the Zimbabwean is read avidly at the Embassy - a staff
member we happen to know came by and asked for four copies.
For your
information, local authorities in the UK are now updating their
electoral
registers. Believe it or not Zimbabweans are allowed to vote as
members of
the Commonwealth, even though Zimbabwe withdrew several years
ago. (The
British Government has yet to change the relevant legislation.)
Wherever you
are living you should consider being put on the register so
that you can
vote in both parliamentary and local elections. This will give
you an
opportunity to put pressure on your MP and Councillors. (Surprisingly
we are
in a more privileged position than residents from other EU countries,
who
cannot vote in parliamentary elections here.)
For this week's Vigil
pictures:
http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
FOR
YOUR DIARY: Monday 21st August, 7.30 pm, Zimbabwe Forum - another
session on
the multi-signatory letter targeting South Africa to coincide
with the next
session of the UN Human Rights Council on 18th September.
Upstairs at the
Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2
(cross the Strand
from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John
Adam Street, turn
right and you will see the pub).
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday
from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by
the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will
continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held
in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Business Day
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MASERU
- Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Lesotho
Prime
Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, said Zimbabwe - considered by some to be
the
weak link in the regional bloc's integration aspirations - was
"strengthening and the government has reversed its land seizure
policy".
"The situation in that country is of concern. We have been
engaged with the
leadership of Zimbabwe on how best we can recover the
economic viability of
that country. (But) there has been progress," Mosisili
said.
Economic hardships, including rampant inflation, have
dogged the country
since 2000. And, as an example of political instability,
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe issued direct threats of state violence
aimed at
opposition party supporters before he left for Maseru.
But
Mosisili said on Friday after a special session on Zimbabwe and
Swaziland
that the country was showing signs of a revival and was addressing
the
country's challenges.
He also explained why
Zimbabwe and Angola had not signed a protocol aimed at
aligning the body's
finance and investment policies with its objectives on
Friday. "Some
countries first need the approval of their parliament . they
will be signing
because there is no doubt they are in agreement."
Mugabe attended
only part of the summit sessions on Friday. However,
Mosisili said nothing
should be read into his absence. "President Mugabe is
not a young man," he
said.
Zimbabwe's government is reviewing a land-seizure programme that
saw most of
the country's white farmers stripped of their property,
Lesotho's leader
said. The country's economy is in its sixth year of
recession, and its 994%
inflation rate is the world's highest.
"The
Zimbabwe government is on record as inviting some of the previous white
farmers to come back," Mosisili said at the conclusion of the
summit.
"They are reviewing the whole question of land acquisition.
Indeed there is
progress."
The leaders of 12 member states,
including President Thabo Mbeki, signed a
finance and investment accord
setting out the framework for establishing a
regional monetary union by
2016.
SADC appointed a task team of finance, economic and trade ministers
to look
into the need among member countries to speed up the implementation
of its
integration agenda.
"They directed the task force to report
back to an extraordinary session to
be held not later than October 2006,"
said SADC council of ministers
chairman Timothy Thahane, who is Lesotho's
finance minister.
Southern African states recommitted themselves to an
economic integration
plan on Friday that requires them to scrap tariffs and
adopt a common
currency within the next decade.
"In a globalising
world, we understand the importance of negotiating
together as one people,"
Mosisili said.
Member states maintained "unity and cohesion toward the
implementation of
the regional integrated strategic development plan that
has laid the road
map for our integrated community."
The community
includes SA, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania,
Malawi,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mauritius, Angola, Swaziland and
Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Member states also were asked to review their
membership of other regional
groupings.
"It is in this light that the
summit appealed to all member states to decide
which regional grouping each
member state wants to belong to".
The summit also deliberated on the
Seychelles rejoining SADC and decided
that members would deliberate the
matter further.
Mosisili said discussions were continuing about the
Seychelle's financial
contribution to SADC.
SADC has already written
off the Seychelles' debt of R2,6m. Sapa, Bloomberg
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Correspondent, Toronto,
Canada
TENS of thousands more people from Zimbabwe will become
infected with
the dreaded HIV/Aids virus if the government does not end its
abusive
policies towards the country's citizens, a Human Rights Watch
official has
said.
Speaking at the just ended International
AIDS Conference in Toronto,
Joe Amon, Human Rights Watch's director for HIV
and AIDS programmes, said
although Zimbabwe has seen a drop in the HIV
prevalence rate from about 26
percent in 2000 to about 20,1 percent last
December, some of the government
policies were increasing vulnerability to
infection for many people and
making it difficult for the infected to access
drugs.
"Unless Mugabe's government puts an end to these abuses,
tens of
thousands more people will become infected, and the gains it has
achieved in
the fight against AIDS will amount to nothing," he
said.
Human Rights Watch re-launched its report on the HIV/Aids
situation in
Zimbabwe, released beginning of August, at the conference.
Titled "No Bright
Future: Government Failures, Human Rights Abuses and
Squandered Progress in
the Fight Against AIDS in Zimbabwe," the 72-page
report gives insights into
how the human rights organisation views President
Mugabe's clean up campaign
of last year and how it continues to have a
telling effect on patients'
access to ARVs.
"Zimbabwe has been
hailed as a 'success story' in the fight against
AIDS. but abusive
government policies are blocking treatment for those who
desperately need it
and making even more people vulnerable to infection,"
Amon
said.
The Zimbabwe government has since dismissed the report saying
it was
biased and authored by an organisation that was not interested in
finding
out the truth about the pandemic in the country.
While
welcoming the HRW's recommendation for international assistance
to be
channelled to Zimbabwe for HIV/Aids programmes, Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa said his government would not lose sleep over the report since
it had sampled only129 respondents.
More than 1.6 million people
are living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe,
yet only about 42 000 people have
access to subsidised antiretroviral drugs.
At least 3 000 people are dying
weekly because of AIDS-related illnesses.
The report indicates that
last year's Operation Murambatsvina
disrupted access to treatment and
healthcare for many people living with
HIV. More than a year after the
evictions, says Human Rights Watch, scores
of people infected with HIV are
still living in squalid conditions while
others are without
shelter.
This exposes them to opportunistic infections like
pneumonia and
tuberculosis, the hard-hitting report adds. It adds that some
victims of the
clean up campaign lost their livelihoods since they worked as
vendors. Now
because their sources of income were destroyed, they cannot
afford proper
nutrition which worsens the health of people living with
HIV.
Others, especially women, the report continues have been
forced into
high-risk behaviour like commercial sex work. Amon said the
government
should realise that human rights abuses have a huge impact on the
country's
fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Human Rights
Watch implored donors to scale up their programmes to
fund anti-AIDS
activities in the country.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
BULAWAYO - FOUR key Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members will appear
in court today to answer
charges of disrupting peace after successfully
organising protests in the
City of Kings against the unjustified rise in
school fees, the falling
standards of living, the political situation in the
country and related
issues over the past few months.
Jenni Williams and Magodonga
Mahlangu were served with summons to
appear at the Western Commonage
Magistrates' Court in Bulawayo after police
spent a week failing to subpoena
the women. Mahlangu and three others will
appear in court tomorrow while
Williams, the WOZA co-ordinator, is expected
to answer to charges of
disrupting peace on the 4th of October.
WOZA alleges officers from
the Law and Order section has harassed its
members as they tried in vain to
serve the summons on the two women. In one
incident WOZA says the police
detained Mahlangu's sister to entice her to
the police station so they could
serve her with the court papers.
"Law and Order police officers
staked out the home of Mahlangu hoping
to catch her leaving for a Bulawayo
Agenda Public Meeting," said a WOZA
official. "Meanwhile Mahlangu had left
home earlier in the day. Another team
of officers awaited Williams and
Mahlangu at the Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel
where Williams was due to speak at
the public meeting."
"Upon receiving news that Mahlangu's young
sister was under siege by
eight officers, a lawyer was retained to accompany
Mahlangu to Bulawayo
Central Police station to collect the summons only to
be redirected to the
Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel where Officer Tshuma was waiting
to serve summons on
Williams."
Mahlangu was then served with a
summons to appear for trial tomorrow
with three others. Advocate Perpetua
Dube will defend the four women on
trial.
The women, together with
another three, will be charged under the
obnoxious Public Order and Security
Act (POSA).
Meanwhile 63 WOZA members in Harare are due to receive
judgement on
their trial at Rotten Row Magistrates Court on Monday 28 August
for charges
emanating from arrests during protests in the
capital.
Business Report
August 21,
2006
By Mike Cohen
Maseru - Southern African nations have
recommitted themselves to an economic
integration plan that requires them to
scrap tariffs and adopt a common
currency within the next decade.
"In
a globalising world, we understand the importance of negotiating
together as
one people," Lesotho's Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili said at
the closing
ceremony of a summit of leaders of the 14-nation Southern
African
Development Community (SADC) in Maseru on Friday.
Member states
maintained "unity and cohesion towards the implementation of
the regional
integrated strategic development plan that has laid the road
map for our
integrated community".
The community groups South Africa, Botswana,
Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique,
Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Madagascar, Mauritius, Angola, Swaziland
and the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Twelve member nations signed a finance and investment accord
setting out the
framework for establishing a regional monetary union by
2016. The leaders of
Zimbabwe and Angola had not signed because they needed
to consult their
governments first, which was a formality, said Lesotho's
finance minister,
Timothy Thahane.
The group has also agreed
to scrap tariffs on 85 percent of all goods by
2008, form a customs union by
2010 and a common market by 2015. Member
countries' finance and trade
ministers were tasked with formulating measures
to speed up the
implementation of those accords and reporting back by the
end of
October.
"The matter of economic integration was lagging," Mosisili said.
"It is high
time we did something about that."
Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe arrived late and did not attend the
closing ceremony.
Zimbabwe's economy is in its seventh year of recession,
with inflation of
994 percent, the world's highest.
"The situation in [Zimbabwe] is of
concern," Mosisili said. "We have been
engaged with the leadership of
Zimbabwe on how best we can" revive its
economy.
Regional leaders
have been loath to criticise Mugabe, a political ally. -
Bloomberg.