FinGaz
Msika to go
Dumisani Ndlela
8/5/2004 8:32:03 AM (GMT
+2)
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's succession, for long considered a political
hot
potato, will not come up for discussion at the ZANU PF congress slated
for
December, but drastic changes to its supreme decision-making organ,
the
politburo, and the presidency are in the offing as the party gears up
for
the 2005 parliamentary poll.
Party insiders confirmed this week that
President Mugabe and his "inner
circle" were mulling far-reaching changes in
the politburo.
The imminent changes were meant to soothe the elusive
Matabeleland
constituency the ruling ZANU PF is anxious to capture, they
said. This could
see a number of key politburo posts being dished out to
members from that
constituency.
It was the Matabeleland constituency,
which Zanu PF had held together
because of the stabilising influence of the
late Co-Vice President Joshua
Nkomo, which almost handed over power to
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) president Morgan Tsvangirai in 2002.
Tsvangirai is disputing the
election results, saying Zanu PF stole his
victory in the poll.
In the mooted changes, the sources said,
Vice-President Joseph Msika, who
was recently embarrassed by the Minister of
Information and Publicity in the
Office of the President and Cabinet,
Jonathan Moyo, after losing out to
President Mugabe's propaganda chief on the
forced acquisition of Kondozi
Estate, could be retired at the
congress.
Msika is a former deputy to the late Joshua Nkomo in the former
PF Zapu,
forced into a marriage with Zanu PF in 1987 to end a bitter
anti-insurgency
operation by the North Korean-trained Five Brigade that
resulted in the
alleged massacre of over 20 000 innocent civilians in
Matabeleland.
The insiders say President Mugabe and his ZANU PF
colleagues were keen on
capturing the Matabeleland constituency, which has
long held a grudge
against both ZANU PF and the government for the pre-1987
massacres, and for
the perceived general lack of development in the
constituency since the
unity pact.
Msika who has failed to whip Moyo
into line, although he has publicly
announced his feelings of resentment for
the former University of Zimbabwe
political science lecturer's antics, is
likely to be replaced by John Nkomo.
Nkomo is the current party chairman and
also a former PF Zapu cadre.
Another Vice-President would be appointed
from members who had always been
in Zanu PF before the party's wedding to PF
Zapu. Once ushered into the
Vice-Presidency, John Nkomo is tipped to become a
favourite candidate for
succession.
Believed by many to have support
from the Pretoria administration, Nkomo is
also widely seen as "the fairest
person across the tribal divide in Zanu PF.
He goes along with everybody and
does not look at where you come from," a
top party member says.
The
sources indicated that President Mugabe's second Vice-President, to
replace
the late Simon Muzenda, was likely to be appointed at the
congress.
Although President Mugabe had anticipated appointing former
Zimbabwe Defence
Forces commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe as the second
Vice-President,
they said he had been constrained from doing so by
Zvinavashe's
deteriorating health.
Zvinavashe threatened prior to the
2002 presidential election, when it
looked almost inevitable that the MDC's
Tsvangirai would win the race
against President Mugabe, that members of the
defence and security forces
would not accept, nor salute, an individual who
negated "gains of the
liberation struggle", a veiled reference to
Tsvangirai.
"There is a feeling that they cannot get the winning vote
without capturing
the Matabeleland constituency. It's very clear the party
will have to play
tribal politics aimed a pleasing Matabeleland to win the
hearts of the
people in that area," a Zanu PF party insider
said.
However, this was expected to be done on a proportionate basis to
avoid
upsetting other key constituencies in the party. Matabeleland is
dominated
by Ndebele people, while the majority of the country's population
is Shona.
Other key politburo posts likely to come under scrutiny in the
delicate
balancing act to win over Matabeleland include that of secretary
for
information, in which Moyo deputises Nathan Shamuyarira, that of
secretary
for administration currently held by Emmerson Mnangagwa, and that
of
secretary for the commissariat headed by Elliot Manyika, who is deputised
by
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. The chairman's position is also likely to come under
the
spotlight.
Manyika was handed the portfolio ahead of Ndlovu, a
former PF Zapu cadre who
had been a deputy, following the death of party
activist Border Gezi.
Moyo, who has publicly clashed with his party boss
Shamuyarira over
President Mugabe's interview with Sky News, could move from
deputy secretary
for information to replace Shamuyarira. Shamuyarira, widely
believed to be a
confidante of President Mugabe, has long indicated his
desire to retire from
active politics. Both Moyo and Ndlovu are from
Matabeleland.
A senior member of ZANU PF said that another potential
candidate to succeed
President Mugabe from Matabeleland and the former PF
Zapu would be Dumiso
Dabengwa, but he is widely viewed with suspicion by many
Zanu PF members
because of his perceived aloofness. Even former PF Zapu
members feel that
Dabengwa, a very powerful member of the late Joshua Nkomo's
party who was
detained by the government after independence, "is too quiet
for comfort".
Ever since being dropped from President Mugabe's cabinet in
2000, he has
confined himself to a regional project aimed at drawing water
from the
Zambezi River for the drought-stricken Matabeleland. The project,
mooted in
the 1930s, has been frustrated by lack of government
commitment.
"Dabengwa has recoiled into a shell, shunning activities that
would give him
a national stature. Mugabe does not trust him as much as he
trusts John
Nkomo," a party activist noted.
Parliamentary speaker
Mnangagwa can only hope to be bestowed with power by
President Mugabe, but
sources say his relationship with the ageing
Zimbabwean leader has somewhat
deteriorated, although he still remains
influential in Zanu PF's
decision-making processes.
The Midlands State University balked from
conferring an honorary doctorate
in law to Mnangagwa in May after what some
academics suspected was an
instruction from President Mugabe, who is the
university's chancellor.
Mnangagwa has been discredited by his alleged
involvement in the plunder of
minerals from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, together with
Zvinavashe, which was highlighted by a UN-appointed
commission. He is also
loathed by former PF Zapu stalwarts because of his
alleged involvement in
the Matabeleland atrocities as the former chief of
security.
At the 1999 Zanu PF congress, Mnangagwa lost the party's
chairmanship to
John Nkomo despite President Mugabe's bidding on his behalf.
Retired army
general Solomon Mujuru, a kingmaker in the party, had mobilised
against
Mnangagwa, whom he has a strong gripe against for influencing
President
Mugabe to block his takeover of a 50 percent stake in key platinum
and
chrome mine Zimasco.
Mujuru, whose camp includes Defence Minister
Sydney Sekeramayi and former
finance minister Simba Makoni, bid for Nkomo's
election as chairman.
Sekeramayi, a medical doctor by profession, is seen
as another key contender
for President Mugabe's job. Insiders indicate that
he is acceptable to
former PF Zapu members in Zanu PF because he "never
rubbished Joshua Nkomo"
during the government-sponsored anti-insurgency
operation in Matabeleland.
Makoni, kicked out of President Mugabe's
cabinet for advocating market
reforms, is a dark horse in the race for the
country's top job. He lacks the
clout to hold his own in Zanu PF, but would
be able to stand in between any
factions just as much as John
Nkomo.
ZANU PF congresses, held every five years, elect the party's
leadership,
including its president. There are fears in Zanu PF that any
announcement of
President Mugabe's successor, or debate on the issue, would
scuttle the
party's prospects in the 2005 parliamentary election, scheduled
for March,
as no other candidate is expected to hold the party together amid
internal
bickering.
This means that President Mugabe is unlikely to
step down at the congress,
which should ideally elect his successor to
contest the 2008 presidential
race. He has indicated that he will not seek
re-election in 2008.
By President Mugabe's own acknowledgement, there is
already intense lobbying
and squabbling among ZANU PF members over the
party's top job, which would
give the incumbent a party ticket to contest the
country's presidential
election.
Interestingly, the party's women's
league is also pushing to have a woman
appointed to the position of
vice-president or party chairman at the
congress. The league's plea at the
1999 congress met no success, despite a
contingent including Thanjiwe Lesabe,
the women's league chairperson, Oppah
Muchinguri, Dr Olivia Muchena, Nyasha
Chikwinya and Tsitsi Muzenda, the
daughter of the late Muzenda, delivering
their petition to President Mugabe.
The women's league wants one of its
members to become a vice-president or
alternatively the party's chairperson,
a position currently held by John
Nkomo, who could then become one of the
party's two vice-presidents.
Women's league members tipped to occupy the
any of the top positions in the
party include Lesabe, Muchinguri and Joyce
Mujuru, a cabinet minister in
President Mugabe's government since
independence and wife to Solomon Mujuru.
Joyce is understood to be the
front runner: she was the first women's league
chairperson in 1979 when it
was formed and was the only woman member of Zanu
PF's Dare Rechimurenga (War
Council) during the liberation war. She was also
the commander for female
combatants during the war.
FinGaz
A tale of two cities
Charles Rukuni
8/5/2004 7:07:23 AM
(GMT +2)
It's a tale of two cities. Not Charles Dickens', but Bulawayo
and Harare.
They are so alike, yet they are so different. They are both under
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) councils, yet Harare's elected mayor was
booted
out while Bulawayo's hangs on.
Service delivery is
deteriorating in both cities, but Harare is worse. Local
Government Minister
Ignatius Chombo meddles in their affairs more than he
does in other local
authorities, yet he appears to be harsher on Harare,
where he has sacked at
least 19 councillors, and the remainder are reported
to be threatening to
quit.
Harare, whose supply dams are full, is under water rationing yet
Bulawayo,
which has a decades-long water problem, does not have
any.
Harare residents are threatening to stop paying their electricity
bills and
money they owe the council for rates and services because of poor
service
delivery while Bulawayo residents are being encouraged to pay
up.
Harare residents blame Chombo for the deteriorating service delivery
while
Bulawayo residents blame the council.
Despite these differences,
the two principal local authorities are in a
quandary. Their service delivery
is deteriorating rapidly.
Refuse collection is haphazard. The few tarred
roads are full of potholes.
There is no street lighting. Sewerage treatment
works are collapsing. As a
result, the councils are polluting rivers or
streams, some of which feed
into dams that supply the cities with drinking
water.
Even the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, which polices the
country's
rivers and dams, is at its wits' end. It has red-carded the
municipalities
on so many occasions that continuing to fine them now looks
like extortion
because it knows their problem and the fact that they do not
have a solution
to the problem.
The recent government freeze on rate
increases could worsen the problems as
the cash-strapped local authorities
will be hard-pressed to stretch their
grossly inadequate
budgets.
Combined Harare Residents Association chairman Mike Davies said
services by
the Harare City Council were facing imminent
collapse.
"People in urban areas need clean, potable water. This is the
cornerstone of
any urban area because unlike people in rural areas who have
access to
uncontaminated water sources, those in urban areas do not," he
said.
"Health services are collapsing and they are now overloaded because
of
inadequate funding as well as an influx of internally displaced
people
either fleeing from violence and intimidation in rural areas or
simply
coming to the capital to seek survival.
"Schools are
deteriorating because the government dumped them on local
authorities without
providing adequate support. Roads and street lights
are
declining."
Davies said services were deteriorating not just
because of the general
economic climate but also because people were
resorting more and more to
council services because they were cheaper than
those provided by the
private sector.
He stressed that another major
cause of the decline in services was the
interference by the Ministry of
Local Government in the affairs of the
councils.
"The whole system of
representation has broken down. Central government has
destroyed the system
of council representation. People can no longer go to
their councillors and
demand service because their elected representatives
have been fired by the
government," Davies said.
"Nineteen out of 45 councillors have been
fired. The other four have either
defected to ZANU PF or are now independent.
But though they have forfeited
the mandate to represent the people, they are
being kept in council. Even
acting mayor Sekesai Makwavarara has been
rejected by the people of
Mabvuku."
Davies said the situation was
pathetic because political squabbles had cost
Harare free water pumping
equipment and refuse removal trucks that had been
promised by its twin city,
Munich of Germany.
Asked whether residents were not exacerbating the
situation by not paying
their rates and for services, Davies said this was a
"chicken and egg
situation". He said that while it was true that the council
could not
deliver services if people did not pay, residents could not pay for
services
that they were not getting.
"We support the right of
residents to withdraw their financial support if
they are not getting
services," he said.
The Financial Gazette could not establish how much
Harare residents owe the
city council. The council's public relations
department had not responded to
questions sent by the paper up to the time of
writing.
On whether the freeze on rate increases imposed by Chombo would
not worsen
the situation, Davies said his association did not support the
freeze, not
because it felt the rate increases were justified, but because
the freeze
was political.
"He (Chombo) does not have the interests of
the people of Harare at heart,"
Davies said.
He said the only way
forward was to resolve the national economic crisis.
"The difficulties
people are now facing at local government level are a
reflection of
difficulties at national level," he said. "So you have to
resolve the
national crisis first before tackling problems at the local
level. These are
problems of governance."
Bulawayo United Residents Association (BURA)
chairman Winos Dube was less
confrontational. But he said service delivery in
the country's second
largest city, once reputed to be the best in the
country, was deteriorating.
"Certainly we cannot compare our situation
with that in Harare but the
Bulawayo of today and the Bulawayo we used to
know are different," he said.
"Refuse is not being collected on time.
Just take a ride to Vundu Hostels in
Makokoba and you will see heaps and
heaps of rubbish that has not been
collected. Roads are full of potholes.
There is no street lighting, and
therefore no security at night."
Dube
said every time the association appealed to the council to improve
its
services, it was told the municipality had no money.
"We are
therefore appealing to residents to pay up. We want to see what will
happen
when the residents have paid up because once they have paid up, we
expect the
council to give us the best service available."
Residents owed the
council $18.6 billion up to the end of May.
Dube said his association had
also approached the governor and resident
Minister of Bulawayo, Cain Mathema,
to help. Government departments owed the
council a further $5.6 billion up to
the end of May.
Dube dismissed allegations that BURA was giving the
council a hard time
because it was pro-ZANU PF.
"We are a pressure
group. Calling us ZANU PF is malicious. We are the
mouthpiece of the
residents of Bulawayo.
"BURA has been in existence since 1964 and has
been fighting ever since to
ensure that ratepayers get the best service for
their money. Even the
previous ZANU PF council disliked us," he
said.
Dube said BURA was above party politics and would not be silenced
by the
accusations.
"We are the main stakeholders in governing this
city, so we want council to
be accountable to the residents. For example, we
hear that Ingwebu Breweries
(the council's now privatised brewery) has made
super profits. We want to
know where these profits are being ploughed because
in the past profits from
beer were used for most of the major improvements in
the city.
"We cannot be against the council because we want the best
service from the
same council. And we avoid confrontational approaches. We
want dialogue,"
Dube said.
While the debate rages on, services will
continue to decline. Perhaps the
only person who will be happy is central
bank governor Gideon Gono because
the freeze on increases in rates and
service charges helps curb inflation,
which he has declared the country's
enemy number one.
Rents and rates are weighted at 15.8 percent of the
consumer price index,
used to calculate inflation, making them the single
largest determinant of
inflation.
Though food is weighted at 33.6
percent, it comprises nine items. Bread and
cereals contribute the highest
figure of 12 percent, followed by meat at 6.6
percent, and fruits and
vegetables at six percent.
FinGaz
UN spying on Zim
Hama Saburi
8/5/2004
8:33:16 AM (GMT +2)
THE United Nations (UN) has secretly sneaked
one of its top envoys
into the country to assess the volatile political
situation in what could
result in the world body toughening its stance on the
Zimbabwean government,
which has been battling to defend its human rights
record.
The UN, which has twice rejected attempts by
Britain and the United
States to punish the southern African state for
alleged human rights abuses,
clandestinely dispatched the world body's
assistant secretary-general for
political affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh, on a
closely guarded mission.
Kalomoh, who is being hosted by the Centre
for Peace Initiatives in
Africa, arrived at the Harare International Airport
from New York at around
9:00pm on Monday this week and is expected to depart
for his base on
Saturday at around 1:10pm.
While government
officials said they were unaware of Kalomoh's visit,
sources told The
Financial Gazette this week that the UN, which had taken a
softer stance
towards Zimbabwe, was now interested in seeing marked
improvement in the
country's political situation.
The UN envoy, who led a special
mission to Liberia at the height of
the insurgencies last year, wants to get
an independent feel of the
political situation in Zimbabwe and produce a
report that would guide the
world body in dealing with Harare.
The Zimbabwe situation has been made tense by the feuding ruling ZANU
PF and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which have
remained at
loggerheads despite intervention by eminent African leaders such
as South
African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian leader
Olusegun
Obasanjo.
"The UN would want to get his own assessment
of the political
environment. It's a very discrete visit and they don't want
it to be known,"
said the source.
"They were no diplomatic
protocols followed," claimed the source.
The visit by Kalomoh comes
a few weeks after the African Commission on
Human and People's Rights (ACHPR)
released a damning report that put to
shreds Zimbabwe's human rights
record.
The ACHPR report, which was shelved after a spirited
opposition from
the Zimbabwean-government led by Foreign Affairs Minister
Stan Mudenge noted
with concern the suppression of the basic freedoms of
expression,
association and assembly.
It also condemned in the
strongest terms a flurry of new legislation
such as the Public Order and
Security Act and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act,
which are meant to stifle the media and basic
human rights.
Harare, which is yet to respond to the report, dismissed the document
as yet
another attempt by Britain and its allies to weaken President Robert
Mugabe's
government, which has ruled Zimbabwe since Independence in 1980.
It
said the African Union secretariat could have been infiltrated by
forced bent
on influencing the course of events on the continent.
In the past,
the UN has been critical of the independence of the
judiciary following the
arrest of retired judge Fergus Blackie, which it
said was another clear
systematic attack on the basic fabric of democracy,
i.e. the rule of
law.
Eight judges including former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay
were forced
to leave the bench by government through a campaign of
intimidation.
But despite the criticism, it has rejected attempts
by Britain, the US
and other European countries to have Zimbabwe punished for
alleged human
rights abuses.
The head of the Centre for Peace
Initiatives in Africa, Leonard
Kapungu remained tight lipped about the visit
when contacted for comment
yesterday.
Kapingu said: "It is
confidential for now, try go get in tough with me
after his departure, say on
7 August."
Kalomoh has been a special representative of the Kofi
Annan, the UN
secretary-general in Liberia. He has served as the permanent
secretary in
the Ministry of Foreign Affair of Namibia and as Namibia's
ambassador to the
United States of America and High Commissioner to
Canada.
Kalomoh was educated in Namibia and India and he holds a
diploma from
Indian Academy of International Law and Diplomacy in New
Delhi.
He acts the role of conflict resolution that occupy the UN
Security
Council in Africa's troubled spots such as Angola, the Democratic
Republic
of Congo, Madagascar, Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
While Mudenge could not be contacted for comment as he had
accompanied
President Mugabe on a visit to Malaysia, his deputy Abdenigo
Ncube said he
has not heard anything about Kalomoh's visit.
He
referred further questions to a Mr Mazemo from the Foreign Affairs
division
of Europe and America who could not be contacted for comment by the
time of
going to press.
FinGaz
Meikles loses $1bln goods to thieves
8/5/2004 8:38:05 AM (GMT +2)
MUTARE - Police are investigating an
incident in which goods worth
about $1 billion were stolen from a
departmental store, which is part of the
blue chip Meikles Africa Limited,
amid indications that it could have been
an inside job.
Goods ranging from decoders, DVDs and an assortment of mobile phone
handsets
were stolen from Meikles Departmental Store on Sunday soon after
staff had
just finished conducting a stock take for the day.
Although the
police and management at the departmental store declined
to divulge the value
of the stolen goods, insiders estimated the total cost
to be close to $1
billion.
Goods such as decoders, DVDs and mobile handsets are in
high demand in
neighbouring Mozambique where they are sold in hard
currency.
Edmund Maingare, a police spokesman for Mutare, confirmed
the incident
saying investigations were in progress.
"We do not
have the correct figure at the present moment, but
investigations are in
progress," he said:
Police revealed on Tuesday that the incident
might have occurred
between 7:30pm on Sunday after staff had finished
conducting a stock take
for the day and around 7:30 am on
Monday.
Although management refused to discuss the break in,
sources suspected
that it could be a well-calculated inside job. - Own
Correspondent
FinGaz
Is Zimbabwe the perfect dictatorship?
Njabulo
Ncube
8/5/2004 7:03:07 AM (GMT +2)
PERUVIAN writer Mario Vargas Llosa
once remarked that Mexico had a "perfect
dictatorship". According to the
South American writer, who at one time had
presidential ambitions, the
dictatorship was made perfect by its camouflage.
"I do not think Latin
America has any other similar dictatorship which
effectively uses
intellectuals for its own ends, skillfully keeping them in
submission by
appointments to well paid jobs, high public posts, without
demanding
flattery: this is a technique of cruder dictatorships . . . This
system even
encourages intellectuals to take a critical stand . . ." a
Soviet weekly, the
New Times, quoted him as having said in early 1990.
According to the
newspaper, he was speaking at an international meeting for
intellectuals
called "20th Century: the Experience of Freedom", sponsored by
the Mexican
magazine, Vuelta.
Closer home, when speaking of perceived African
dictators that once roamed
the continent, two names stick out like the
proverbial sore thumb - Jean
Bedel Bokassa and Idi Amini, formerly the
presidents of the Central African
Republic (CAR) and Uganda respectively. The
two African leaders, for whom
many across the continent shed crocodile tears
when they died, had out-shown
each other with their ruthless leadership
styles, rightly or wrongly earning
themselves notoriety as the continent's
celebrated "dictators".
In fact, history has recorded the two former
presidents as the worst
dictators that have walked this continent, citing the
alleged mysterious and
still unsolved killings of political opponents,
charges of cannibalism,
unparalleled corruption and mismanagement of their
economies.
A dictator, according to the latest Oxford dictionary, is a
ruler who has
complete power over a country, especially one who has gained it
using
military force. Or a person who behaves as if they have complete power
over
other people, and tells them what to do.
The question now is
where does Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a target
of bitter attacks
from western governments and local political opposition
parties who has been
called all sorts of names, stand in this
unflattering
categorisation?
This question is bound to provoke
confused reaction because very few people
within ZANU PF know the full
profile of President Mugabe except what they
read from both the local and
international media.
At the height of the war of liberation he was, to
the West, a hardline
terrorist who should have been stopped dead in his
tracks. But at
independence President Mugabe was grudgingly hailed by western
critics as an
embodiment of moral integrity and cordiality when he
"surprisingly"
pronounced reconciliation as a national policy to heal the
wounds of the
bitter war of liberation and help to bring together the
previously feuding
parties. The same western governments, whose political
yardsticks keep
changing to suit their own interests, now demand his
departure on the
pretext that he has lost the confidence of the
people.
Indeed the Zimbabwean leader has of late been referred to as "the
caricature
of an African leader" with dictatorial tendencies by some of his
critics,
notably Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
But is
President Mugabe, who has been at the helm of the Zimbabwe
political
landscape for the past 24 years, a tin-pot dictator or a
misunderstood
benevolent nationalist driven by his strong Pan-Africanist
beliefs?
Apart from allegations of being a dictator, opposition
politicians accuse
him of intolerance for political opponents and deep-seated
hatred for
compromise. His ZANU PF supporters are also accused of fanning
violence,
murdering, bullying and intimidating his opponents. The government
is also
accused of waging a war of attrition against the private
press.
President Mugabe himself, portrayed by government spin-doctors as
being
driven by the need to protect the rights of the common people, has
not
chafed at the criticism and allegations and seems to have instead
gotten
used to them. Again one cannot help but recall Llosa's remarks that
a
perfect dictatorship allows criticism against itself.
Ruling ZANU PF
party insiders who claim to be close to the introverted
Zimbabwean leader who
gives away very little if any, in terms of his true
self, say that those who
accuse President Mugabe of dictatorial tendencies
can have never known his
convictions, nurtured from the days of the
liberation struggle which he led
up to independence in 1980.
Political analysts and politicians who spoke
to The Financial Gazette this
week were agreed that President Mugabe, accused
of bludgeoning his political
opponents into submission, is not in the same
league with the "ruthless and
barbaric" Bokassa and Amin or other tin-pot
dictators that have made Africa
a laughing stock in the eyes of the
West.
They however said President Mugabe's penchant to use crude words
against the
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change and the West made
his critics
draw parallels between him other less brutal Africa leaders still
holding
sway in Africa.
Ibbo Mandaza, a political commentator widely
seen as sympathetic to ZANU PF,
said it would be morally wrong and naïve to
lump President Mugabe together
with perceived dictators in
Africa.
Mandaza was adamant President Mugabe was a greatly misunderstood
nationalist
of the same mould as that of former Presidents Nelson Mandela of
South
Africa and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.
"He (Mugabe) is in the same
mould as the other old nationalists such as
Mandela and Kaunda. They all get
angry when they realise what they set out
to achieve when they fought for
freedom has not been attained. In the case
of Zimbabwe, the land reform and
in South Africa, black economic
empowerment. The failure to balance the
legacy of colonial rule make these
nationalist agitated. The slow pace of
achieving these things frustrates
them," said Mandaza.
Eldred
Masunungure, who teaches political science at the University of
Zimbabwe,
said President Mugabe's complex character made it extremely
difficult if not
next to impossible for people not close to him to grasp his
thinking and
actions. He said because of this, it was easy for critics and
political
opponents to label him, rightly or wrongly, a "lesser"
dictator.
"President Mugabe is difficult to penetrate, to really know who
he is, hence
the aspersions that he is a typical African dictator,' added
Masunungure.
"Because he is difficult to penetrate and sway away from his
Pan-African
beliefs, The West and others see Mugabe as having several faces.
People from
a distance see a dictator while others see a nationalist. They
are some that
see him as a rebel," said Masunungure.
Because of his
perceived Pan-African beliefs President Mugabe, Masunungure
said, was held in
high esteem among African leaders sharing the same
principles.
Brian
Raftopoulos, a social sciences lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe,
described President Mugabe as an authoritarian nationalist created
by ZANU
PF for the benefit of the ruling party and its general
membership.
"I wouldn't call him a tin-pot dictator but an authoritarian
nationalist.
Within ZANU PF, they have created an authoritarian political
structure in
which there is little or no room for dissent or plurality of
opinion," said
Raftopoulos.
Masunungure added: "All these names -
dictator, autocrat and rebel can not
be correct. Whoever coins them is
influenced by his or her ideological
position. But one thing that is clear is
that Mugabe has stuck to his
principles, principles that are embodied in his
Pan-African beliefs. In his
party they see consistency in him, dating from
the days of the war of
liberation. He has stood up to the West, telling them
that Zimbabwe is a
Pan-African village."
A ZANU PF central committee
member based in Matabeleland said: "Those
looking from a distance, especially
the opposition, see a partial picture.
The real Mugabe is not known hence the
widely parroted statements in the
international media that he is dictatorial.
(Ian) Smith (the former
Rhodesian Prime Minister) would not be here if Mugabe
was a dictator. We
(ZANU PF) have not seen it, maybe you, the
media."
Some commentators refused to discuss whether there was some
semblance of
logic in describing President Mugabe as a dictator, citing the
repressive
Public Order and Security Act and Access to Information and
Privacy Act.
"In the context of our politics, this is a delicate matter.
Mugabe's
gate-keepers will like to jump on us and demonstrate his power,"
said a
political analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity.
FinGaz
Steep rise in seed prices looms
Felix
Njini
8/5/2004 8:34:30 AM (GMT +2)
FARMERS will have to
brace for a steep increase in the price of seed
if the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange-listed SeedCo fails to secure the $105
billion it has applied for
under the Productive Sector Facility (PSF), The
Financial Gazette can
reveal.
The leading seed-producer, which has subsidiaries
in 11 regional
countries, is asking for $105 billion from the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) to buy 28 000 tonnes of seed for resale.
SeedCo
has been, without success, pressing for an increase in seed
prices and has
been holding marathon meetings with Industry and
International Trade Ministry
officials pleading its case.
Sources said the seed prices will
increase by at least 200 percent if
the company fails to access cheaper
money, which attracts interest of about
50 percent. Funds accessed outside
the PSF are attracting as much as 200
percent interest.
They
said central bank authorities, who have been sitting on the
application for
weeks now, are said to be viewing the loan
application
suspiciously.
Morgan Nzwere, the group finance
director for SeedCo, did not rule out
the possibility of seed prices
increasing should the company fail to dip its
fingers into the cheap
funds.
Nzwere said the company was still discussing with the
agriculture
ministry on the final selling price.
The company,
which was buying maize seed at $1.5 million per tonne in
2003, will this year
be sourcing it at $3 million per tonne.
The likely resale price,
Nzwere said, would be $10 million per tonne.
"If we do not get the
money from the RBZ, the price of seed will go
up. That is why it is important
that we get the money."
SeedCo has in previous years been borrowing
money from the open market
for seed purchases. With current rates of up to
200 percent, this would mean
a more than 250 percent increase in the retail
price of seed, Nzwere
intimated.
"The interest bill will go up
four-fold and this will be reflected on
the price of seed," Nzwere
said.
He said that finance charges per tonne of maize seed
accounted for
almost $6 million.
"In addition to finance
charges, there are also research and
administrative charges plus the fact
that we also want to make a profit,"
Nzwere said.
The government
has said it requires 80 000 tonnes of seed for this
year's farming
season.
SeedCo, which has tended to be export-orientated, has
achieved
self-sustenance status in countries such as Zambia and
Malawi.
In the 2003 financial year, Seed Co posted a $93 billion
turnover, a
687 percent increase, with regional operations contributing $41.2
billion.
Regional sales grew by 649 percent on the back of higher
selling
prices and a depreciating local currency.
Market
analysts have tipped SeedCo to increase seed production this
year and bank on
prospects of seed being used as an electioneering tool in
polls scheduled for
various regional countries in the next 12 months.
The group has
managed to turn around the Mozambican operation from a
loss-making entity to
a profit-making one.
Insiders said the Maputo research operation is
making progress in
coming up with early maturing maize varieties suitable for
the coastal belt.
FinGaz
Vultures circle over Mawere's empire
Zhean
Gwaze
8/5/2004 8:39:06 AM (GMT +2)
CORPORATE vultures are
lining up to swoop on ostracised business
tycoon Mutumwa Mawere's unfettered
assets following the government's
decision to specify the South African-based
businessman.
Well-placed sources said investors were
queuing to pounce on Mawere's
struggling operations amid speculation that the
Africa Resources Limited
chairman, whose deal-making dexterity first came to
light in 1998, is
exiting Zimbabwe.
The predatory manoeuvres are
aimed at companies within the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange-listed CFI Holdings,
agro-concern FSI Agricom and stationery
operation, Textbook
Sales.
CFI Holdings, which has fallen on hard times since the
emergence of
Mawere as a major investor, is saddled with a $67 billion debt
which is
attracting punitive interest.
The group, which has a
strong presence in agriculture, also operates
retail outlets, milling,
irrigation equipment manufacture and a construction
firm.
Steve
Kuipa, CFI group chief executive, said that the firm was
disposing of its
non-core businesses to retire the $67 billion debt and
improve its cash
position.
Crest Breeders International, Town & Country, Farm
& City and
Maitlands, which fall under CFI Holdings, have become a
subject of frenzied
speculation with pointers suggesting that the poultry
operation could be
snapped up.
Upmarket retail outlet, Town
& Country is likely to be spinned off to
Jaggers Wholesalers for an
undisclosed amount.
The assets are being parcelled out for a song
to offset accrued debts
and improve the remaining operations' cash positions,
sources said.
Crest Breeders' operations have been hamstrung with
demand for day-old
chicks slackening.
Kuipa said strengthening
of the local currency early this year had
affected exports of day-old chicks
and hatching of eggs became difficult.
"The local market has not
fully absorbed all the production
necessitating the discounting of prices.
This has put tremendous pressure on
margins," Kuipa said.
Mawere
was specified by government last month following an
unsuccessful attempt by
the state to extradite him from his base in South
Africa.
It has
however emerged that the government has not yet formally
notified management
at some of Mawere's business interests about its
intention to take over the
operations.
Mawere has been residing in South Africa since 1995 and
is wanted in
Zimbabwe to answer allegations of violating exchange control
regulations.
Allegations are that Mawere, whose business tentacles
extend to every
facet of Zimbabwe's economy, faces trial for fraud involving
$300 billion.
The government has expropriated farms owned by FSI
Agricom under the
controversial Land Acquisition Act and allocated them to
the poorly run
state-controlled Agricultural and Rural Development Authority
(ARDA).
Four of the farms - Risboro, Pogate, Bosbury and Essex -
measuring in
excess of 4 305 hectares have been served with Section 8 notices
and have
been handed over to ARDA despite the parastatal's stark failure to
live up
to expectations.
CFI borrowed heavily under the
productive sector funding facility.
"The move to dispose of Town
& Country has been prompted by the need
to restructure the company's debt
and improve its cash position," Kuipa said
Analysts have also
indicated that the retail arm had not fully
recovered from the effects of
price controls introduced by the government.
CFI's milling
divisions have been jolted by the shortage of grain and
cereals in the
country.
Mawere had also invested into UKI Limited, Africa
Associated Mines,
SMM, Steelnet, Turnall, General Beltings, First Banking
Corporation and
ZimRe Holdings among others.
FinGaz
Comment
Lest we forget
8/5/2004
7:17:41 AM (GMT +2)
WITHIN a few days, Zimbabwe will be
commemorating Heroes Day holiday.
This will be in honour of the gallant sons
and daughters who, even in death,
are today a symbol of black people's
resistance to white racial
discrimination. They are the reason Zimbabwe has
experienced a rupture with
what can only be described as the darkest of its
historical periods - the
pre-democracy days of black subservience to a
minority regime which brought
about deeper reactive consequences in the
would-be freedom fighters.
They will forever have a special
place in the hearts and minds of all
who appreciate the political meaning and
indeed basic significance of their
invaluable sacrifice in the bloody war of
liberation, which inflicted
permanent emotional scars on the nation. Of
course brutal wars like the one
liberation movements, the now defunct PF ZAPU
and ZANU PF, waged against the
Rhodesian regime are not a stroll in the park.
Soldiers are decorated to
kill and demoted for not killing sufficiently. But
to have lost the freedom
fighters to a war that could have been avoided were
it not for the rabidly
racist Ian Smith's intransigence was to the nation
hard enough and to their
families unbearable.
The memory of
these men and women of exceptional personal
responsibility who paid the
ultimate price for the sake of a democratic
Zimbabwe could never be interred
with their bones. It is a sacrifice that
transcends parochial party political
affiliation. A sacrifice for a national
cause hence the ropa rangu munoriwana
pasi pemureza weZimbabwe ("I'm
prepared to die for my country at all costs")
war-time emotional clarion
call.
No doubt, given the depressing
developments unfolding in the country
which have spawned inevitable
socio-economic difficulties, stagnation and
misery, there are misgivings
about the hero status of those of our current
leaders who even President
Robert Mugabe has since admitted have a terrible
aura of bloated
self-interest - but who also nonetheless accepted and
endured torture in
Rhodesian jails for the sake of Zimbabwe. Be that as it
may, there is no
shadow of a doubt that for those heroes that have since
gone the way of all
flesh, Monday will indeed be a fitting tribute they can
be accorded and
deservedly so.
But we are afraid, that alone, will unfortunately
not be enough. This
is because we feel that the fallen heroes could rest in
peace if those of us
lucky enough to be enjoying the independence they paid
for through their
lives, could be reasonable enough not to turn what should
be a day of
national reflection and stock-taking into some annual orgy
of
self-congratulation, beating our chests to no end. Come Monday, our
leaders,
against whom there is a deep well of disenchantment, should not try
to, as
has been the tradition, erect an edifice of philosophy on a wasteland
of
sterile dogma. The Heroes Day holiday is neither the time nor place
for
that!
Instead, our leaders who seem to erroneously think
that everything in
this day and age revolves around their participation in
the liberation
struggle, need to have a modicum of sensitivity, humility as
well as
self-introspection and disabuse themselves of the notion that the
liberation
struggle is going to be a rallying point for the future because it
will not
be. And there is no reason to pretend otherwise.
Admittedly the traumatic epoch-defining war of independence which
widowed
wives, orphaned children and maimed hundreds of thousands of our
people will
forever remain probably the most outstanding chapter in our
history. It
evokes feelings of both pride and achievement, loss and sadness.
But we have
to come to terms with the fact that it now belongs to the past.
True, it is a war and a past that we should be proud of but it would
not only
be wrong but retrogressive to live in that past. The 1970s war of
liberation
is now more relevant as a reference point to help us redefine our
national
goals in terms of the sacrifice, principles and selflessness of the
freedom
fighters. These values should be the springboard, nay, the rule of
thumb in
all else we do. Acknowledging the aforesaid will enable us to move
on with
the rest of the world, otherwise we risk being frozen at the point
of
liberation. Yet the fallen heroes never meant for Zimbabwe to be caught
in
some time warp.
This can only be achieved if our liberation war
politicians, most of
whom are our leaders today, are flexible, courageous and
evolutionising
enough. Then and only then, will we be able to muster the
political will and
that seemingly all-elusive political maturity to see the
broader picture and
start asking uncomfortable but pertinent questions about
ourselves. The
questions should include issues such as whether what we have
now is a strong
and self-sufficient country which caters for broad-based
population needs -
a Zimbabwe that the heroes envisaged or one that will not
make posterity
spit on our graves?
Can we safely say that all
the despicable isms practised by Smith were
swept away with the rubble of his
tyranny and regime? Does the Zimbabwe of
today have the credibility,
prestige, friends and indeed prosperity that it
deserves? If not, how did we
lose it when there was so much promise at the
turn of independence in 1980?
Why is there such heightened disillusionment
and disenchantment that one can
literally cut with a knife at a time when
Zimbabwe should be experiencing the
true meaning of independence and the
value of hope? Indeed, where did we go
wrong ad infinitum?
Such an honest self-assessment will help us
revisit the sacrifice,
principles and the selflessness of the liberation
struggle heroes earlier on
alluded to, which in essence should and must be
the guiding compass for all
Zimbabweans, particularly those entrusted with
the leadership of our beloved
country's national institutions in the
discharge of duty and vocation for
the few who have uplifted themselves to
that wavelength.
Such a stance will enable us to search deeper as
we embark on a path
of self-correction to come up with measures to
re-integrate Zimbabwe into
the community of nations after its ostracisation,
restore ebbing foreign and
indeed local investor confidence as well as rid
the country of the growing
political intolerance and confrontation. Otherwise
we could risk bequeathing
a terrible legacy to posterity - obsolete
socio-political and economic
structures. And the fallen heroes will forever
turn in their graves on
seeing that picking up the maxim gun was the beginnin
g of a road to nowhere
other than a banana republic. That will not only be
sad but also terrible.
FinGaz
...and now to the Notebook
8/5/2004 8:30:31
AM (GMT +2)
It is interesting that, at the
weekend, our
partisan police camped at the home of MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai,
purportedly in search of some arms of war that might have been
used by the
party's officials to defend themselves when they were attacked
by ZANU PF
thugs while campaigning in Mashonaland West.
That was quite
interesting - a competent police force scouring a
single house for more than
two days in search of weapons?
We wonder what sort of weapons the
fellows were looking for that
needed so much time, if ever they were looking
for anything at all,
otherwise the opposition leader risks something
incriminating being planted
at his house by these goons.
Even
the most foolish of all fools would not be so stupid as to hide
illegal
weapons under his pillow when it is definite that the ruling party
and its
police force are looking for someone to lock up.
There are so many
cases involving firearms by ZANU PF officials and
their rogue war veterans,
but the police have never bothered to camp at
their houses. Too many to
mention, including cases in which the weapons have
been used to kill people,
but the same police are not excited.
If this is how the coming
election is going to be handled, then it
better be cancelled because it is
worse than no election at all.
FinGaz
Tobacco farmers plead for funds
8/5/2004
7:38:07 AM (GMT +2)
THE government, whose controversial policies
have been blamed for the
collapse of the tobacco industry, has been urged to
find ways of financing
the golden leaf instead of relying on the risk-averse
private sector.
The call follows last week's announcement
by the Finance Ministry that
it would no longer guarantee borrowings made by
tobacco farmers.
Davidson Mugabe, president of the Zimbabwe
Commercial Farmers' Union,
said the government's dithering on the financing
of next season's crop could
destroy the industry.
He said
funding was critical because preparations for the next crop
were now at an
advanced stage, with the deadline for seedbed planting being
August
15.
"This is the time to make funds available for tobacco, for the
country
to attain average yields. If we miss this month's deadline, then we
should
forget about having any meaningful yields.
"The
government should look at other forms of financing the crop and
remember that
the farmers require local currency to finance a crop that will
bring foreign
currency into the country," he said.
Mugabe said industry
stakeholders were reconvening to map out
strategies before approaching the
government to reconsider its position.
"We will definitely organise
ourselves (stakeholders in the tobacco
industry) before we meet with the
government to explain the implications of
the situation."
Tobacco output has nosedived during the past three years because of a
myriad
of viability problems, including lack of inputs, finance, erratic
weather as
well as low international prices.
Latest figures indicate a 32
percent decline in output from last year'
s 83 million kg. Last year, the
auction floors closed at a selling price of
US$2.25 per kg, higher than the
current price of US$1.88 per kg.
Tobacco farmers earn 75 percent of
their proceeds at the auction floor
rate of $5 600 to the greenback. The 25
percent balance is paid at $824.
They also enjoy a support price of $750 per
kg.
From Zim Online (SA), 5 August
World Food Programme retrenches
workforce in Zimbabwe
Harare - The World Food Programme (WFP) has
retrenched 140 members of its
workforce in Zimbabwe following President
Robert Mugabe's insistence that
the country has harvested enough to feed
itself and will not require outside
aid. ZimOnline has established that out
of the 230 workers that the WFP
employed in the country, 140 have been
retrenched, with the first batch
having already left and the last group set
to leave at the end of this
month. Sources at WFP' Harare office said this
week that management had sent
a circular stating that retrenchment was
inevitable due to the refusal by
Mugabe to accept humanitarian assistance.
Richard Lee, WFP's
Johannesburg-based Regional Office corporate affairs
manager, yesterday
confirmed the retrenchment exercise, saying it was
necessitated by a drastic
reduction in the number of Zimbabweans receiving
food aid. 'We have scaled
down (the workforce) to 140 from 230. We have
scaled down because the number
of people we are feeding has gone down from 4
million to just over 600 000.'
There seems to be controversy over what some
of the retrenched workers
described as 'peanuts' in terms of terminal
benefits and exit packages. 'I
wouldn't comment on the issue of
disgruntlement over the packages. The
Harare office will have to speak on
that,' said Lee. Makina Walker, the WFP
spokesperson in Harare, was said to
be on leave yesterday. WFP still gives
'targeted assistance' to starving
Zimbabweans and reports are that the
Harare office has been receiving more
requests for food aid from across the
country. Government, however, is
understood to have reminded WFP and other
donor agencies that their
'assistance is not required this year and it would
be appreciated if they
stopped operations'. Mugabe has repeatedly claimed
that the country had a
good harvest this year and that donor agencies had to
'look elsewhere for
hungrier people'.
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 9:57 PM
Subject: To all Zimbabweans concerned about their
future.
In the past 10 days, the Zimbabwe Republic Police have barred
President Morgan Tsvangirai from addressing 11 meetings convened for grassroots
officials of the MDC in Bikita East, Bikita West, Masvingo North, Guutu South,
Gutu North, Gokwe Central, Gokwe East, Gokwe West, Kadoma Central, Silobela and
Hwedza.
Mr Tsvangirai believes the police are abusing their powers in
denying a political leader of his stature, with millions of supporters and
followers, from performing his national duties. He has no option other than to
put up a test case in the courts to get clarity on the police interpretation of
the Public Order and Security Act. He says POSA merely requires political
parties to inform the police as a formality, not to ask for their approval, to
hold meetings.
Mr Tsvangirai is further disturbed by the fact that the
planned meetings were not open, public rallies but consultations with officials
from the MDC's structures in the rural areas. Such meetings are not covered by
POSA, according to Mr Tsvangirai's understanding.
The reasons given by the police vary from place to place. The
most common is that there is a shortage of manpower, or that Zanu PF also wants
the same venue, or that the officer who is supposed to give the go-ahead is
off-duty. Mr Tsvangirai is very concerned about this new development which
casts serious doubt as to whether Zimbabwe can have a free and fair election in
2005.
He is watching the political situation closely with a view to
seeking permanent remedies to the anomaly.
T W Bango
Spokesperson for the President,
Movement for
Democratic Change, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Zim Online
ZIMBABWE POLICE ARREST TOP TRADE UNIONISTS
Thurs 5 Aug
2004
GWERU/JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe police today arrested top trade
union
officials in an apparent fresh crackdown on the labour
movement.
They are Southern African Trade Union Coordinating
Council (SATUCC)
president Lucia Matibenga, the secretary general of the
Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU), Wellington Chibhebhe, and an
advocacy officer, Timothy
Kondo.
The three were picked up by
police while conducting a labour workshop
in the city of Gweru, about 300
kilometres west of Harare. By late afternoon
they had not been charged and
are being held at Gweru Central police
station.
ZCTU president
Lovemore Matombo told ZimOnline: "The reason for their
arrest is that they
were holding a workshop. The government is anti-ZCTU in
this country and
they would take every action to disrupt any activity
organised by
ZCTU."
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not be reached for
comment on
what charges police would lay against the trio or when they were
likely to
be released.
The arrest of the trade unionists comes
as the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU) plans to send a fact
finding mission to
Zimbabwe to investigate alleged threats and harassment of
labour activists
as well as other human rights abuses.
COSATU
official Pat Craven said they had 'agreed in principle (on the
mission) but
we haven't agreed on the date'. The arrests, he said, had made
the planned
mission even more urgent.
Craven said trade unions in Zimbabwe were
no longer free to organise
meetings and hold demonstrations.
An
ally of South Africa's ruling African National Congress party,
COSATU has on
several occasions in the past disagreed with Pretoria's policy
of 'quiet
diplomacy' towards President Robert Mugabe and his government,
particularly
on matters relating to infringement of labour and other human
rights.
ZimOnline
Concerns over possible maize shortage
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 5 Aug 2004
(IRIN) - Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has
received about 119,000 mt
of maize, out of an expected 1.2 million mt since
the beginning of the
marketing season in April, the official newspaper, the
Herald reported on
Wednesday.
The newspaper quoted GMB's acting chief executive Winston
Dzawo as saying
that the parastatal had been receiving about 30,000 mt of
maize every week
and deliveries were expected to reach a peak in the middle
of this month.
The Zimbabwean government has since the beginning of this
year forecast a
bumper harvest of over two million mt for the staple maize.
However, other
analysts have consistently warned the crop is likely to be
well below
national demand, estimated at 1.8 million mt.
Reacting to
the newspaper report, Pierre-Luc Vanhaeverbeke of the European
Union's food
security division in Harare expressed concern that "if by the
beginning of
August, the board has only received 119,000 mt of maize, how
will the country
meet the shortfall?"
Zambia's Food Reserve Agency told IRIN last month
that it had received
export queries from Zimbabwe.
Other food relief
agencies have expressed concern over whether the GMB has
the logistical
capacity to receive 30,000 mt of maize every week.
The Herald also
reported that the board has been paying cash upfront to
farmers who delivered
maize. "The parastatal [GMB] had by mid-last month
paid farmers $40 billion
[about US $7 million] out of the $100 billion
[about US $18 million] released
by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to purchase
grain," the newspaper
said.
Cape Times
Zimbabwe recognises whistles as weapons of mass
destruction
August 5, 2004
By John Scott
Friends have returned safely to Cape Town after a two-month motoring
trip to
Zimbabwe, having survived countless roadblocks and requests to open
their car
boot. Fortunately they had no children's plastic whistles in
their
luggage.
The police in that embattled country hate toy
whistles.
This week they arrested Jenni Williams, a Woza (Women of
Zimbabwe
Arise) leader and confiscated 2 000 such whistles to stop the women
blowing
the whistle on Robert Mugabe's excesses.
The
investigating officer interrogated Williams for more than four
hours about
the whistles, then said he would release her if she confessed
where the
whistles had come from.
Naturally she refused to divulge such
damaging information, so he
released her anyway, but she has to appear in
court again tomorrow with 45
other women for "blocking the pavement" and,
presumably, blowing her
whistle.
I'm not surprised the
Zimbabwean authorities are keen to rid the
country of whistles.
There is no more potent weapon than a whistle if someone phones you
and
breathes heavily in a threatening kind
of way.
Ask Helen
Suzman. In her day she received umpteen nasty calls, and
blew them all away
with her whistle.
I used a referee's whistle to good effect myself
during the people's
revolt of 1976.
Late at night I had to cross
the railway line via a subway
spray-painted with the slogan KILL THE WHITE
PIGS.
One blast on my whistle in the confined space was enough to
freeze any
attacker into a state of immobility for three seconds - enough
time for me
to make a long-legged getaway.
So a whistle is
not to be scoffed at.
Two thousand blown simultaneously might
topple the Mugabe government,
like the trumpets flattened the walls of
Jericho.
No wonder they subjected Jenni Williams to the third
degree.
Having proved to the police that they were clean as a
whistle, my
friends quite enjoyed Zimbabwe.
Beers only cost Z$6
000 (about R6), petrol was cheaper than in South
Africa (having been imported
from South Africa in the first place) and for a
couple of nights they had the
luxurious Leopard Rock hotel/casino all to
themselves, because tourists are
as rare these days as unseized farms.
Potholes were the biggest
problem. Car-swallowing craters.
Everywhere.
Motorists
drove a zigzag course down the roads to avoid them, hitting
other motorists,
cyclists and even pedestrians, who were also swerving to
avoid
them.
Road signs were all gone, melted down to make coffin handles,
and
traffic light bulbs were now illuminating private homes in red and
green.
"That was by day. Driving at night was more difficult," said
Will.
"Just be thankful you weren't transporting whistles," I
said.
"They may never have let you come back."
Sunday Times (SA)
Another Zimbabwe bank bites the
dust
Thursday August 05, 2004 14:47 - (SA)
HARARE - A local
commercial bank in Zimbabwe that was teetering on the brink
of bankruptcy was
shut down for a period of six months, the fifth to be
closed down this year
due to liquidity problems.
All deposits at the Royal Bank of Zimbabwe
have been frozen and a curator
has been named to manage the bank, founded two
years ago, the central bank
said in a statement.
"The Reserve Bank
took this action upon discovering that Royal Bank was not
in a sound
financial condition," it said.
"In particular the bank is facing serious
liquidity and solvency problems
which are attributable to poor corporate
governance practices," it added.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has this
year placed several of Zimbabwe's
newly opened banks and asset management
firms under its direct control.
Thousands of depositors have been unable
to withdraw their savings as a
result and many are returning to the
established international banks such as
Standard Chartered, Stanbic Bank and
Barclays Bank.
In April the central bank announced new measures to
tighten the operation of
locally-owned banks which have been blamed for
plunging the country into
economic crisis.
Several high-profile
bankers, businessmen and politicians have been arrested
or fled the country
for alleged financial crimes, including funnelling
foreign currency
abroad.
Zimbabwe's financial sector crisis came to light after President
Robert
Mugabe appointed a new central bank governor who unearthed the
malpractices
and mismanagement in the sector.
A "troubled banks fund"
was created to help with liquidity support while
other banks faced
closure.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono said the house-cleaning in the
banking
sector "has helped a great deal to avoid a system-wide collapse of
our
financial sector".
AFP
Rights-Zimbabwe: Media Environment Bodes Ill for 2005 Poll
Inter
Press Service (Johannesburg)
August 5, 2004
Posted to the web August
5, 2004
Moyiga Nduru
Johannesburg
When two reporters and a
lawyer traveled to Zimbabwe recently on a
fact-finding mission, they found it
a journey of the most arduous kind.
The delegation - from Botswana,
Mozambique and Zambia - was sent by the
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA), with support from the Southern
Africa Media Project of a German
foundation: the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
(MISA is a non-governmental
organisation based in the Namibian capital,
Windhoek.)
The aim of the
team was to examine first hand the state of media freedom in
Zimbabwe in the
run up to parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2005.
"We did it
under a very difficult condition and hostile environment," said
Fernando
Goncalves, editor of the Savanah newspaper in Mozambique. He was
addressing
journalists at the launch of a 22-page report on the group's
findings,
'Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe: June 2004'. The event took
place in South
Africa's commercial hub of Johannesburg on Wednesday, Aug. 4.
One day
after the team's arrival, Zimbabwe's state-run media were calling
for the
closure of the local MISA office, noted Goncalves.
His colleague, Pamela
Dube, editor of the Mokgosi newspaper in Botswana,
used the work "chaos" to
describe the state of the media in Zimbabwe. She
told reporters that news
outlets had become polarized along political lines.
"The battle lines is
no longer the terrain of the political opponents - the
media is the battle
field...In the fight for dominance on the one hand and
survival on the other,
journalistic ethics are being compromised," she
observed.
Added
Goncalves, "The political environment in Zimbabwe is extremely
volatile and
polarized. The two main political parties (the ruling ZANU-PF
and opposition
Movement for Democratic Change) each see their continued
existence and
dominance as only possible with the elimination of the other.
This breeds
violence."
The MISA report accuses the state-controlled media of putting
out hate
messages against perceived political opponents.
"Violence
seems to be encouraged by hate messages that are carried out in
the state
media, particularly the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
and the
country's main daily newspaper, The Herald," it says.
According to MISA,
state media hardly mention activities carried out by the
opposition. When
they do, the reports are invariably filled with derogatory
terms that portray
opposition leaders and their supporters as unpatriotic,
subversive elements
who are seeking to instigate violence and overthrow
the
government.
One example cited was the coverage given to the
Catholic Archbishop of
Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo, Pius
Ncube. The cleric has been
subjected to a campaign of vilification and
ridicule because of his views on
politically-motivated violence in
Zimbabwe.
"Violence and intimidation is extensive to journalists and
lawyers.
Independent journalists are not allowed to cover certain events,
while
lawyers find it increasingly difficult to access their clients who
would
have been arrested on politically trumped-up charges," the report
notes.
According to MISA, Zimbabwe registered 102 attacks on the media in
2003 -
the highest number in the Southern African Development Community
(SADC).
These included incidents of assault, imprisonment and legal
threats.
The organisation says this has created a feeling of uncertainty
amongst
reporters - many of whom have also lost trust in each other.
Journalists
feel restricted, and find it difficult to hold the government
accountable.
MISA's report notes that reporters, from the state media in
particular, have
fallen into the habit of supporting authorities and ZANU-PF
without
question, at times even taking a position on factions within the
ruling
party.
In addition, MISA laments the closure of Zimbabwe's only
private daily
newspaper, The Daily News, last year. Amongst other things,
this has
deprived independent voter education groups of a forum where they
can place
adverts that encourage Zimbabweans to register.
The closure
took place under Zimbabwe's draconian media law - the Access to
Information
and Protection of Privacy Act.
Basildon Peta, a Zimbabwean journalist
based in South Africa, told reporters
at Wednesday's launch that "Zimbabwe,
which is further tightening its media
laws, has descended into
totalitarianism comparable only to Burma
(Myanmar)."
The government is
reportedly also planning to acquire equipment for the
purpose of monitoring
internet communications.
In the absence of any privately-owned radio or
television stations, the
internet has become a popular source of news for
Zimbabweans. It also serves
as a valuable method of communication for many of
the 3.5 million citizens
who have left the country for political or economic
reasons.
Rural voters who depend on the radio have been particularly hard
hit by the
lack of independent broadcast media, says Goncalves: "People in
rural areas
are so scared to listen to shortwave radio because of the
consequences. They
listen to it in the hiding or inside the house - not in
the public - because
of fear."
MISA said shortwave radios are not
allowed into the country by Zimbabwean
authorities. This is largely to
prevent the population from listening to a
London-based radio station run by
Zimbabwean nationals, SW Radio Africa -
and another which broadcasts from
within Zimbabwe: Voice of the People.
IOL
MDC men acquitted after marathon court case
August
05 2004 at 07:27PM
Harare - A controversial year-long murder trial
that revealed torture
and a state plot to incriminate six members of
Zimbabwe's main opposition
party in the killing a ruling party activist ended
on Thursday with their
acquittal.
Fletcher Dulini Ncube,
national executive member of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change,
and five junior party members were
discharged by Harare High Court judge
Sandra Mungwira, who said that state
lawyers had failed to produce any
evidence against them.
She said police witnesses were manifestly
unreliable and the
confessions obtained from them one of them under torture
and used against
them were inadmissible.
They were accused of
abducting and strangling Cain Nkala, a leading
member of the notorious war
veterans militia of President Robert Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party in
2002.
The ruling is seen as a major embarrassment to Mugabe, who
turned the
killing into a major political strategy against the
MDC.
He declared at Nkala burial at Heroes Acre, the shrine outside
for
Harare reserved for ruling party officials, that the killing proved that
the
MDC was a party of violence and urged party supporters to extract
vengeance
from the opposition party.
Now, opposition figures
said, the blame for the murder points to the
regime.
Mugabe's
rhetoric was followed by a series of violent mob attacks on
the MDC, the
burning of offices and assaults and abductions of hundreds of
members in a
wave of terror shortly before presidential elections in 2002.
The
MDC six were arrested soon after Nkalas abduction in November
2001. Ncube
lost an eye in detention after officials refused to allow him to
see a
doctor.
Three of the group spent 21 months in appalling conditions
in jail as
authorities repeatedly ignored court orders for their
release.
The whole courtroom shrieked when the judgement was handed
down, and
people started crying, said Edith Mushore, one of the defence
team.
"This is a very serious indictment against the police and
the
intelligence services," said David Coltart, the MDC's legal director.
"It
raises the question, who killed Cain Nkala? Zanu-PF has a long history
of
killing their own to achieve their political objectives."
He
said he expected Zimbabwe's attorney-general to pursue the case,
and look
closer to home for the answers.
Nkala was himself arrested in 2001
in the western city of Bulawayo
over the abduction and death of an MDC
official a year earlier.
During the trial of the MDC six, evidence
was led that he had named
senior government officials as the killers of the
abducted MDC official.
Soon after, Nkala disappeared, and his body
was found in a shallow
grave outside Bulawayo. The six MDC officials were
arrested and charged with
murdering him.
Defence lawyers
challenged police evidence, and were granted a special
hearing to examine
their statements.
After months of a trial-within-a-trial, judge
Mungwira ruled in March
that the police investigating the killing had
shamelessly lied. She
described the state case as surreal and said the police
investigation record
was an appalling piece of fiction.
She
found that police had arrested the six and accused them of murder
before it
was known that Nkala was dead.
She also accepted evidence that a
shadowy third force, comprising
secret police, soldiers and war veterans, had
been controlling the police
investigation.
After she gave her
ruling in March, state prosecutors said they would
bring new witnesses. None
were produced, and the judge pronounced her
verdict.
Lawyers
said the judge had delivered her ruling in an atmosphere of
intimidation by
the government to produce a guilty verdict.
Through much of the
trial, she was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
"She's a very brave
woman," said one of the defence team.
All of the defence advocates
said they were trailed by secret police
during the trial, and repeatedly
received threatening telephone calls. -
Sapa-dpa
News24
Zim police want white farmer
05/08/2004 14:26 -
(SA)
Harare - Five men have been arrested in Zimbabwe for trying
to smuggle farm
equipment worth millions of dollars to neighbouring Zambia
where most of the
white farmers have resettled, police said on
Thursday.
"The five were arrested this week in connection with the
attempted smuggling
of farm equipment to Zambia using forged documents,"
Assistant Police
Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said.
Under new laws
that came into effect in December last year, it is an offence
for a farmer to
get rid of any equipment without authorisation from the
lands
minister.
The law was passed after the government accused white farmers
who lost their
land under Zimbabwe's controversial land reforms of trying to
export, lock
away or destroy their equipment.
"The tip of the
iceberg"
President Robert Mugabe's government ruled that it would
"compulsorily
acquire" any farming equipment and material left behind by
white farmers.
Bvudzijena said the equipment was seized in the western
city of Bulawayo and
that the five who worked with two private freight
companies and the customs
department will appear in court to face charges
once the investigation is
finalised.
"It's a lot of equipment which
includes tractors, planters and electrical
gadgets," he said.
Police
were searching for a Harare-based white farmer, who allegedly
organised the
export of the equipment.
"We are still looking for the white farmer,"
said Bvudzijena.
"We suspect this could be just a tip of the iceberg.
There could be a racket
going on between the farmers, freight agents and
ZIMRA (customs) officers,"
said Bvudzijena.
In 2000, the government
embarked on the controversial reform programme to
acquire millions of
hectares of land from whites and redistribute it to
blacks.
About 4
500 white farmers owned 70% of prime farmland in the country, but
now only
around 500 remain as many have resettled in Zambia, Mozambique,
Uganda and
Nigeria or have moved to Australia or New Zealand.
In April, the
government started selling farming equipment to the new black
farmers. Land
Minister John Nkomo said the machinery used to be owned by
white farmers "who
are largely hostile and unsupportive to the land reform
programme". - AFP
SABC
Lawyer for 'mercenaries' disappointed but satisfied
August
05, 2004, 09:04
Alwyn Griebenauw, the legal representative for the
accused in case of the 70
alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe, says his clients
are disappointed with
yesterday's judgment, but it is sound in law. The
Constitutional Court
dismissed an appeal for the extradition of the men being
tried in Zimbabwe.
They are facing charges in connection with an alleged plot
to topple the
government in Equatorial Guinea.
Griebenauw says there
is a positive aspect to the judgment. He says this is
because the South
African government has a duty to consider any help for the
men, if they are
approached, especially if there is a possibility that their
constitutional
rights will be infringed in another country. "We are
satisfied with the
judgment and obviously we will now approach the South
African government on
that basis and ask them for help as far as the men are
concerned in
Zimbabwe."
He says according to the Zimbabwean the request for
extradition to
Equatorial Guinea is still pending. "Our major concern is
extradition to
Equatorial Guinea and the imposition of the death penalty in
Equatorial
Guinea if found guilty there."
New Zimbabwe
Moyo sues Zimbabwe Independent journalists over 'mole'
story
By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 08/05/2004
07:38:59
INFORMATION Minister Jonathan Moyo is suing the Zimbabwe
Independent
newspaper for $50 million claiming defamation over a story which
he says
insinuated that he was a mole within the ruling Zanu PF
party.
The Independent story carried in the current issue was written by
News
Editor Dumisani Muleya who is cited as the first respondent in the
suit.
The story at the centre of the storm was a front page splash under
the
headline: "Nkomo hits back: I won't be scared by infiltrators" and the
other
on the second page under the headline "Moyo exposed".
"The
aforesaid statements were wrongful and defamatory of the plaintiff
(Prof
Moyo) and intended to damage his reputation and fair name," Moyo's
papers
filed at the High Court said.
The Independent story was quoting Land
Reform and Resettlement minister John
Nkomo who warned ruling party
"infiltrators and saboteurs playing to the
gallery in the deepening multiple
farm allocation row that their antics will
no longer be
tolerated."
The story went further to state that Moyo "was allocated more
than one farm
despite his angry denials, official documents
show."
Moyo claims the statement was understood by members of the public
to mean
that he was allocated more than one farm and in particular that he
was given
four farms, which also damages his reputation and "fair
name".
Nkomo told the Independent he was proceeding to recover surplus
farms
ministers and high-ranking officials were allocated, despite protests
by
those affected.
"I won't be intimidated, per-turbed or frustrated
by those causing all this
hullabaloo," Nkomo told the paper.
"There
are some people now abusing Zanu PF for personal ambitions and gain.
As
chairman of Zanu PF and, indeed, as minister I will stand firm in defence
of
the party. Zanu PF has come a long way and at different times it has
had
infiltrators and people planted within - the fifth columnists - but
they
have always been flushed out."
"We can't have people who behave
like the opposition among us. Sooner or
later Zanu PF shall cleanse itself of
these elements," he said.
Business Day
MDC suspicious of
overture
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Business
Day Correspondent
NEWS that Zimbabwe's ruling party, Zanu (PF), is making
overtures to end
hostilities with the opposition, the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
ahead of next year's parliamentary elections, was greeted with
scepticism
yesterday.
Nathan Shamuyarira, Zanu (PF)'s secretary for
information and publicity, has
asked the MDC to support his party's declared
intention to amend the
country's constitution so that electoral reforms can
be effected before next
year's election.
Shamuyarira made the appeal
at a Southern African Development Community
(SADC) meeting convened in the
resort town of Victoria Falls to discuss
electoral reforms in the region. The
aim of the meeting was to set new
standards for the running of elections in
(SADC) member states.
Shamuyarira said Zanu (PF) only needed four votes
in parliament from the MDC
to push through reforms that could see key
revisions to the process.
Among the likely revisions could be the
appointment of an independent
electoral commission that would marry the
operations of four controversial
electoral bodies.
However, under the
plan, President Robert Mugabe would appoint the chairman
of the commission,
while its five commissioners would be appointed by
parliament a factor that
could prove to be the stumbling block for the
exercise.
Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, said the only news his party had of
the
proposed electoral reforms had been what he had seen in the media. "We
have
not been approached to discuss the much-needed reforms."