• Shortage of Bank Notes Makes Life Difficult in Zimbabwe
• MDC seeks overturn of ZANU PF victory
• Mwonzora has case
• Fuel shortages hit food aid distribution
• War vets back church dialogue initiatives
• Corruption, crime rise
• Dangerous games
• Mbeki’s selective diplomacy
• What a waste of resources
• JAG Training Communique

Zimbabwe's informal economy, where most people work, has been hit hard by
the deepening shortage of bank notes.

Outside a Harare supermarket Friday, vegetable sellers said their turnover
has slumped by 80 percent since the cash crisis began two months ago. One of
the traders said he has been selling vegetables outside the suburban
supermarket for 12 years, and that he traded in cash.

He said he was saved from starvation by the supermarket, which has long
tolerated competition from street traders because the store is keeping him
afloat by cashing checks written by his customers.

But the lucky beneficiaries of a benevolent supermarket are few, and most
struggle to survive.

The latest figures show more than 70 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed,
and the number of those losing jobs is rising as more and more businesses
close their doors. Over 400 large factories closed in a year, and the number
of failures of smaller businesses is not even recorded.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Finance said this week
people should use credit cards or check books. But informal traders - those
who don't appear in government records - say they cannot afford to buy check
books or even pay bank charges.

On Friday, a week after traditional payday, there were still long lines
outside every savings bank and building society, which serves those in
formal employment. Most say they managed to withdraw some cash, but even
they are dreading the day there will be no income coming in.

      The opposition members were last month prevented from submitting
nomination papers to the nomination court by suspected ruling ZANU PF party
youth militias, who attacked and chased them away from the Chegutu Town
House where nomination was held.

      Seven of the aspiring MDC candidates and six party activists sustained
various injuries when they were attacked with stones and sticks by the
suspected ruling party activists.

      They were treated at a private clinic in the town.

      All the MDC candidates were disqualified from contesting the election
because they had not submitted their papers while ZANU PF candidates were
declared winners because no contestants were registered against them.

      Chegutu mayor Francis Dhlakama, who was elected on an MDC ticket, said
in an affidavit to court that

      Mudede and the police had failed to ensure that the nomination process
was conducted in a free and fair manner.

      He said despite his persistent appeals to the police to provide
adequate security and the police’s own pledges to maintain order at the
nomination court, rowdy youths invaded an open space surrounding Town House.

      “I was personally confronted by one youth who had formerly supported
the MDC but is now a known ZANU PF supporter, who demanded from me a folder
that I was carrying into my office,” the mayor wrote in his affidavit.

      He added: “The general atmosphere was tense and threatening and the
Town Clerk and I phoned the officer-in-charge at Chegutu Central (police
station) and asked him to clear the Town House and its environs as
previously arranged. The police then deployed 10 officers to monitor the sit
uation.

      “However, shortly after that, I found that again the venue for the
(nomination) court and the premises of the Town House were full of people
who were in a large crowd and challenging anybody carrying papers,” Dhlakama
said.

      One candidate, Shepherd Jack, said he tried unsuccessfully to slip
into the nomination court with his papers tucked under his jacket.

      Revai Mahano, an aspiring contestant for Ward One, said he sustained
injuries on his face and back when a group of men raided his home and took
away his national identity card and other documents.

      ZANU PF and Mudede have not yet filed papers opposing the MDC
petition.

    Court Reporter

      Mwonzora, who is a lawyer in the city, is facing a corruption charge
in which he is alleged to have offered a $3 000 bribe to a police officer
who was investigating one of his clients.

      But the NCA spokesman’s lawyers had applied for the charge to be
dropped arguing that an audio tape recording of the alleged crime which was
done by the police was inaudible and could not be relied upon as the basis
of the state’s case.

      Defence lawyers led by Advocate Deepak Metha had also said that the
tape could have been tampered with.

      Macheyo ruled: “I am satisfied that the tape was audible and original.
Therefore, it should be produced in court as part of evidence. It,
therefore, means that the accused person has a case to answer.”

      Metha immediately made an application to engage an independent audio
recording specialist which was granted.

      The independent audio recording specialist is expected to give
evidence next week.

      The state alleges that sometime in April 2001, Mwonzora was
representing a client who was facing charges of theft of a motor vehicle.

      A trap was later set by the police and a conversation between the
investigating officer and Mwonzora was recorded on an audio tape.

      A government recording supervisor Constantine Masango on Wednesday
told the court that there were

      possibilities that the audio tape might have been tampered with since
he was not there when the recording was done.

      He said some parts of the audio tape were deleted or inaudible.

      Mwonzora was remanded out of custody to next Wednesday.

      Own Correspondent

      WFP official Robinah Mulenga on Thursday told journalists: “The
shortage of fuel has had negative implications on the transportation of
relief food to distribution points, especially in the Matabeleland province.

      “As a result, the food is sometimes distributed late to the people and
we feel that is an inconvenience to the starving masses who are grappling
with widespread food shortages.”

      Mulenga, who was speaking during a tour of Tsholotsho, a district in
southern Zimbabwe and among areas worst hit by hunger, said much more work
needed to be done to cushion villagers from starvation.

      Zimbabwe, grappling with its worst economic crisis in 23 years, is in
the throes of severe food shortages blamed on poor rains and on
controversial and chaotic government land reforms which disrupted
agriculture.

      The food crisis has been exacerbated by an acute foreign currency
shortage that has left the government unable to import food to supplement
aid brought in by international donors.

      Donor groups say delays by Harare to appeal for 700 000 tonnes of the
staple maize grain needed to feed Zimbabweans for the 2003 to 2004 period
will further delay the delivery of food aid to the country.

      The WFP, which has led food relief operations in Zimbabwe, had scaled
down food distribution in Matabeleland North province, where Tsholotsho
lies, after indications that there had been significant harvests in the
area.

      WFP spokesman Luis Clemens said the food agency was now intensifying
relief operations in the area after realising that thousands of people
needed food.

     From Ntungamili Nkomo

      Staff Reporter

      Clemens said: “The down-scaling process started after this year’s
harvest when we got a report that there were people who had had significant
harvests from their fields.

      “We have, however, started scaling up operations in most districts as
we realise people have finished what they had harvested.”

      The WFP official added that his organisation was working on mobilising
more food aid from donors to forestall an “evidently catastrophic situation”
.

      But Clemens and Mulenga said they had not yet received reports of
hunger-induced deaths.

      The WFP was distributing food to about 157 000 people in Tsholotsho
alone before the figure had been scaled down to about 71 000 following
reports that more food had been harvested in the area.

      Meanwhile hundreds of villagers who gathered at Tsholotsho business
centre to meet Clemens and Mulenga accused the government of abandoning
responsibility to feed starving Zimbabweans to donors.

      Thubelihle Mpala, a widow who said she was looking after four orphans,
called on the government to provide maize through its Grain Marketing Board
which people with cash could buy.

      She said: “It is unacceptable for the government to watch at a
distance thousands of its people starving and doing nothing at all about it.

      “Most people are dying of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses that are hastened
by the shortage of drugs in our clinics and an unbalanced diet.

      “What we are, therefore, requesting from our government is that they
complement efforts by WFP to secure food in our area as deaths are bound to
occur if adequate supplies are not delivered.”

      One of Mpala’s two daughters died of HIV/AIDS, she said.

      Mulenga concurred with most villagers that the government should do
more to complement efforts by international donors to feed hungry
Zimbabweans.

      The militant Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association
(ZNLWVA) also accused some unnamed ZANU PF politicians of wanting to derail
proposed talks between Zimbabwe’s biggest political parties because they
were benefiting from the current economic crisis.

      ZNLWVA secretary-general Endy Mhlanga told the Daily News: “The
position of the war veterans is that the church leaders must be allowed to
do their work in a professional and non-partisan manner.

      “We believe that it is now time for patriotic Zimbabweans to come
together irrespective of their political affiliations to iron out their
differences.”

      Mhlanga, whose ZNLWVA has together with ZANU PF youth militias become
the mainstay of President Robert Mugabe and his government’s political
survival strategy, added: “There are people in ZANU PF who do not want
things to be corrected because they are benefiting from the crisis.

      “These are some of the people who are causing the cash shortages. If
they continue to disturb the talks for no apparent reasons, we will expose
them to the public.

      “We do not want such a spirit of destabilisation. People are not happy
with these shortages.”

      Mhlanga, whose ZNLWVA has in the past been accused of unleashing
violence against MDC supporters, spoke amid reports of divisions within ZANU
PF over proposed talks with the MDC, with hawks in the ruling party said to
be bitterly opposed to resumption of dialogue, which broke down last year.

      Talks between the two political parties collapsed last August after
ZANU PF pulled out of negotiations after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
petitioned the country’s High Court to nullify Mugabe’s re-election last
year.

      The court has set the hearing of the election petition for 3 November.

      Both Mugabe, Tsvangirai and their senior officials, in separate
meetings held in the last two weeks, told the leaders of the Zimbabwe
Council of Churches, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe
Catholic Bishops Conference that they were willing to resume dialogue
between their parties to find a solution to the country’s problems.

      The two parties were yesterday expected to confirm in writing their
commitment to resume dialogue.

      But there have been rumblings of disapproval of the church initiative
from some sections of ZANU PF, who have questioned the sincerity of
Sebastian Bakare, Trevor Manhanga and Patrick Mutume – the three clergymen
spearheading efforts by the church to restart dialogue in Zimbabwe.

      Justice Minister and ZANU PF’s legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa this
week blasted the church leaders labelling them “MDC activists wearing
religious collars”.

      Mhlanga accused people opposing attempts by the church to help restart
dialogue of being ignorant of the role the church had played in the past in
encouraging reconciliation in the country.

      He said: “The suffering we are enduring needs committed Zimbabweans to
stop it. The stance taken by the churches is commendable and should be
supported. Father Mukonori did it during our land occupations and those who
oppose the talks are ignorant of the role of churches.”

     Staff Reporter

      Criminal activity and corruption arising from economic hardship is
dignified by the euphemism “survival vices”.

      President Robert Mugabe’s embattled government has acknowledged that
the Southern African state has been hit by the scourge common to many
countries on the world’s poorest continent.

      Mugabe told parliament last month that his government would soon
introduce a tougher anti-corruption law and legislation to fight
money-laundering.

      Some of Zimbabwe’s “survival vices” have emerged as comic or tragic,
others have earned grudging admiration for creativity.

      Beggars and the jobless have turned commodity shortages into an
industry by charging desperate consumers to stand for them in endless
queues; some prostitutes offer their services to motorists spending the
night in their cars as they wait for fuel at petrol stations.

      Last month, two mortuary workers were arrested and accused of renting
corpses to motorists to enable them to take advantage of special fuel
preferences given to hearses.

      Some enterprising Zimbabweans have responded to a severe cash shortage
by hoarding money and selling it for a fee.

      Zimbabwe’s banks have literally run of cash and some have been forced
to call in riot police to control angry crowds.

      The government has no foreign exchange to import the special paper
required to print money.

      The government says some people are hoarding money for use on the
black market and that cash supply has not matched inflation, now at a record
365 percent – one of the highest rates in the world.

      The Zimbabwe chapter of the corruption watchdog Transparency
International says the country is now classified as one of the most corrupt
in the world, ranked 45 this year from 71 in 2000 in a “corruption
perception index”.

      “Our recent survey shows that over 80 percent of Zimbabweans believe
corruption is rising as a result of the economic crisis, and that because of
shortages even those who want to stay on the right side of the law are
breaking some laws as a matter of survival,” said an official with
Transparency International Zimbabwe.

      “There is a culture of survival vices taking root because the formal
market is slowly breaking and giving way to the black market,” he said.

      Cement, sugar, paraffin, fuel, foreign currency and the staple
maize-meal – which are in short supply – are all found on the black market,
in most cases at five times the official price.

      Those who sell these goods deny they are charging extortionate prices,
arguing the rates reflect a market where they are forced to fork out a
premium in bribes to suppliers and producers.

      Police raid the black market every now and then. But while they have
noted a big rise in crime – from house breaking to bank fraud – they have no
figures yet.

      In addition to corruption and crime, Zimbabwe political analysts say
the country has been hit by another scourge – greed.

      “This country is falling on account of greed,” said Brian Kagoro,
co-ordinator of the rights campaign group Crisis Zimbabwe.

      Mugabe, 79, denies mismanaging the economy, and says it has been
sabotaged by local and foreign critics in retaliation for his controversial
programme to seize white-owned farms for distribution to landless blacks. –
Reuter

      The minister seems to be suggesting that Zimbabweans must just forget
their recent bloodied past in order to move forward, hardly the formula for
any successful national healing process.

      The church leaders have rightly criticised the criminal human rights
abuses being perpetrated on innocent Zimbabweans by ZANU PF’s political
thugs – as should all right-thinking people – which makes them even more
qualified to take the “peace” process forward because they know first-hand
the devastating effects of the current madness on the nation.

      The stance of the minister, himself reportedly involved in parallel
talks with the MDC, will not help efforts by Zimbabweans who want to see
genuine reconciliation between the two opposing political parties for the
sake of the country’s future.

      If anything, Chinamasa’s comments are likely to harden many within and
outside Zimbabwe who believe that ZANU PF can never be trusted to negotiate
in good faith and that the latest talks, just like previous ones, are only
aimed at buying time for the beleaguered regime.

      Chinamasa and all others within ZANU PF who think like him need to
know that these talks perhaps give the ruling party its very last chance to
negotiate a peaceful exit from power because the party has not only
miserably failed its own members but the larger population of Zimbabwe.

      ZANU PF stands to gain more than the MDC or anyone else from these
negotiations, which offer the governing party an opportunity to depart from
the political high ground with some semblance of dignity or the party faces
the people’s wrath.

      If there are any ZANU PF members who still believe that they can hold
back the winds of democratic change for much longer, they are clearly
daydreaming.

      C.B. Dziva

      Masvingo

      Res Ipsa Loquitur

      Harare