Zim Online
Wed 14 December
2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe immigration authorities have released the
passport
of newspaper publisher, Trevor Ncube, to his lawyer after conceding
that it
was illegal for them to impound the travel document.
Ncube's passport was last Thursday seized by immigration officials who
told
him that they were taking the passport because his name was on a
government
list of citizens whose travel documents must be seized to prevent
them from
travelling abroad.
The newspaper publisher earlier this week
appealed to the High Court
seeking the court to direct the state to return
his passport.
Sources had told ZimOnline on Tuesday
that Attorney General Sobuza
Gula-Ndebele had advised the immigration
department to return Ncube's
passport saying it was illegal to impound it in
the absence of an Act of
Parliament empowering the state to withdraw
citizens' travel documents.
Harare lawyer Sternford Moyo,
representing Ncube in the matter,
confirmed that his client's passport had
been handed back to him.
Moyo said: "I have got Ncube's passport
here with me. The civil
division of the Attorney General's office called me
and advised me that the
passport had been released. So I sent one of our
lawyers to pick it up."
President Robert Mugabe's government last
August controversially
amended Zimbabwe's constitution to allow it to
withdraw passports from
citizens it deems may harm the "national interest"
if allowed to travel
abroad.
Political analysts and human
rights lawyers warned that the
constitutional amendment was aimed at barring
leaders of the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
and other government critics from
travelling abroad to mobilise
international pressure against Mugabe and his
ruling ZANU PF
party.
But the government has however not yet enacted a law in
Parliament
enabling it to exercise powers granted it under the
constitutional amendment
to withdraw citizens' travel
documents.
It was not clear whether top MDC politician Paul Themba
Nyathi, whose
passport was also seized a day after Ncube's was taken by the
immigration
department, had also been given back his passport.
His lawyer Nicholas Mathonsi said he had not yet spoken to Nyathi. He
however added that he expected his client to get back his travel document as
the circumstance under which it was seized were similar to Ncube's
case.
Analysts have said the seizure of passports of critics and
political
opponents suggested Mugabe and ZANU PF, who boosted their hold on
power with
a landslide victory in a controversial election last month, were
panicking
in the face of swelling public discontent because of worsening
economic
hardships. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 15 December 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe Information
Minister Tichaona Jokonya has threatened
to take tougher measures against
the country's small but vibrant independent
media which he said had become
"tools of the country's detractors".
Jokonya - a former ambassador
of Zimbabwe to the United Nations who on
his appointment as information
minister earlier this year called for a less
poisoned relationship between
the government and the Press - accused the
independent media of being bribed
by "enemies of the people" to tarnish the
image of President Robert Mugabe's
government.
The information minister who was speaking at a ceremony
hosted on
Tuesday by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe ironically to honour
journalists
said the independent media had become " tools or shall we say
victims of the
country's detractors . . . some journalists have . . . to use
a much abused
terminology, become weapons of mass destruction
(WMD).
"In their service to the foreign interests they
(journalists) apply
strategies of blending half-truths and outright lies.
These journalists
masquerade as independent journalists despite the fact
that we all know that
they are paid by the enemies of the
people."
Jokonya, who through the state Media and Information
Commission (MIC)
that he controls could easily order the closure of
newspapers or ban
individual journalists from practising, did not divulge
the extra punitive
measures he may be considering against Zimbabwe's
journalists and
newspapers, already some of the worst restricted in the
world.
Under the government's Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy
Act (AIPPA), journalists and newspaper companies must be
registered with the
MIC to practise or publish in Zimbabwe. The government
can cancel the
registration of a journalist or newspaper company it deems to
be erring.
Reporters face up to two years in jail for practising
without being
registered with the government commission while newspapers
that breach the
registration law will be forcibly closed and their equipment
seized by the
state.
Journalists also face up to two years in
jail under the government's
Public Order and Security Act for criticising
Mugabe in their stories.
More than a hundred journalists have been
arrested over the past five
years for breaching the tough media
regulations.
Zimbabwe's then biggest and non-government owned daily
newspaper, the
Daily News, was forcibly shut down in 2003 and its equipment
seized by armed
police because it was not registered with the government
commission.
The MIC has since rejected an application by the Daily
News and its
stable mate, the Daily News on Sunday, also shut down in 2003,
to be
registered. The two papers have appealed to the courts against the
commission's refusal to register them. The Administrative Court is still to
hear the matter.
The New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists ranks Zimbabwe
among the three most dangerous places for
journalists in the world. The
other two countries hostile to the media are
Iran and the former Soviet
republic of Uzbekistan. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 15 December 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe immigration
officials on Wednesday afternoon seized
the passport of trade union leader
Raymond Majongwe, just hours after the
Attorney General (AG) Sobuza
Gula-Ndebele admitted that it is illegal for
the state to withdraw citizens'
passport.
Majongwe, who is secretary general of the Progressive
Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe, had just arrived at Harare airport from Nigeria
where he was
attending an International Labour Organisation conference when
immigration
officials impounded his passport saying they were acting on
orders from
"higher authorities".
He told ZimOnline: "They
(immigration officials) took my passport soon
after my arrival from Abuja
but they did not tell me the reasons but simply
said they were acting on
instructions from higher authorities . . . it shows
the state's naked
aggression towards its citizens."
However in a show of apparent
confusion within the Government, Ndebele
had earlier in the day ordered the
release of newspaper publisher Trevor
Ncube's passport which immigration
officials seized from him last Thursday.
Ncube, who publishes the
Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard
newspapers from Harare and the Mail
and Guardian from Johannesburg, earlier
this week appealed to the High Court
seeking the court to direct the state
to return his passport.
The AG's office is said to have refused to face Ncube in court
apparently
after realising it could not justify the passport seizure when
there is no
Act of Parliament empowering the state to withdraw citizens'
travel
documents.
President Robert Mugabe's government last August
controversially
amended Zimbabwe's constitution to allow it to withdraw
passports from
citizens it deems may harm the "national interest" if allowed
to travel
abroad.
Political analysts and human rights lawyers
warned that the
constitutional amendment was aimed at barring leaders of the
main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and other
government critics from
travelling abroad to mobilise international pressure
against Mugabe and his
ruling ZANU PF party.
But the government
has however not yet enacted a law in Parliament
enabling it to exercise
powers granted it under the constitutional amendment
to withdraw citizens'
travel documents.
Analysts have said the seizure of passports of
critics and political
opponents suggested Mugabe and ZANU PF, who boosted
their hold on power with
a landslide victory in a controversial election
last month, were panicking
in the face of swelling public discontent because
of worsening economic
hardships. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu
15 December 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) party says it will mobilise for a rates boycott in
the country's major
towns to protest against the government's interference
in opposition-run
councils.
In a statement issued after Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo
extended the term of a commission he
appointed to run Harare after he fired
the capital's opposition-led council,
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa, said
that his party would rally urban
residents to boycott the payment of rates.
All major cities are
strongholds of the MDC and elected the opposition
party into council ahead
of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party.
But Mugabe and his
government have retained control in Harare after firing
MDC mayor Elias
Mudzuri and his council accusing them of mismanaging the
city.
Chombo has said he will appoint another commission to run the eastern
border
city of Mutare where he has removed MDC mayor Misheck Kagurabadza
from
office. Chombo has also threatened to fire or suspend the mayors of
Bulawayo
and Chitungwiza cities, who are both members of the MDC.
Chamisa
said: "MDC councils have been doing a wonderful job running
the cities and
towns. Elias Mudzuri (the fired MDC Harare mayor) had a
record of success,
yet Mugabe's minions, appointed as commissioners
progressively failed to
provide services to residents.
"It is time Mugabe's antics are
resisted and we will now not hesitate
to call for a rates boycott
countrywide. We have had enough of this
dictatorial squeeze. We must
determine our own destiny. We must reclaim
Harare."
Chombo was
not immediately available for comment on the matter
yesterday
The Harare commission headed by Sekesai Makwavarara is accused of
running
down the capital which is overflowing with uncollected garbage while
residents in some parts of the city have gone for weeks without water
because the commission is unable to repair broken water pumps and pipes. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 15
December 2005
JOHANNESBURG - About 200 foreigners, the majority of
them Zimbabweans,
are sleeping in the open at Park Station in Johannesburg
after they were
forcibly evicted from their run-down apartments in the poor
suburb of
Hillbrow on Sunday.
The latest evictions come barely
a month after South Africa's
municipal police carried out similar evictions
of people who had taken over
some run-down buildings in a bid to revamp the
city.
South African police media officer Kariban Naidoo confirmed
the
three-day evictions which ended on Sunday but denied the police were
targeting Zimbabweans.
Naidoo said: "I can confirm that many
families have been evacuated
from dilapidated buildings around Johannesburg
. . . we are not targeting
Zimbabweans or foreigners. This is a joint
operation comprising the police
and the city council.
"What we
want is for the residents to abide by the city's by-laws and
they should
expect more of this as this is an on-going process to clear up
the
city."
But one of the Zimbabweans who was evicted from Hillbrow,
Ntombizidwa
Siziba, 38, accused the police of targeting flats accommodating
foreigners.
"This move is only meant to harass foreigners and is
highly
xenophobic. Now we are displaced and we have nowhere to go. We were
paying
R500 and we can't afford to move to leafy areas of the city where
they
charge about R1 500 per room," she said.
There are at
least three million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the
country's 12 million
people, who are living outside the country the majority
of them in South
Africa after fleeing political persecution and hunger in
Zimbabwe. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 15 December 2005
HARARE - President Robert
Mugabe's government, which is battling a
severe economic crisis, will fork
out Z$9.7 billion in monthly salaries
alone to 66 senators who were elected
in a controversial election last
month, documents in the possession of
ZimOnline show.
The senators will each get salaries of $14.7
million as well as a
housing allowance of $2.7 million. Civil servants in
Zimbabwe earn Z$3
million per month, way below the $11.9 million the
state-funded consumer
rights body the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an
average family of two
parents and four children need every month to
survive.
The senators will also travel in style after they were
each promised
an all-terrain four-wheel drive vehicle. Car dealers in Harare
say a brand
new four wheel drive vehicle costs about Z$2.8
billion.
At an induction meeting on Tuesday, the senators flatly
turned down
the government's offers to buy them smaller cars insisting on
the four-wheel
drive vehicles which they said were suitable for their larger
constituencies.
A senator will also claim an allowance of $500
000 for holding
meetings in their constituencies as well as hotel allowances
when they come
for senatorial business in Harare.
Movement for
Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and civic
groups have all
criticised Mugabe's reintroduction of the senate which was
abolished in
1990. They say the senate is a waste of resources for a country
that should
be focusing its energies to fighting hunger stalking three
million people or
a quarter of the 12 million Zimbabweans. - ZimOnline
Vietnam News Agency
12/14/2005 -- 22:29(GMT+7)
Kuala Lumpur, Dec.
14 (VNA)- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe,
during his visit to Malaysia,
had a meeting with Prime Minister Phan Van
Khai in Kuala Lumpur on
Dec.14.
President Mugabe expressed his pleasure at the
ever-increasing
development of relations between Viet Nam and Zimbabwe in
recent years. He
expressed his admiration for Viet Nam's achievements in the
renewal process
and his hope that Viet Nam would help Zimbabwe to
develop.
President Mugabe extended an invitation to Prime
Minister Khai to
visit Zimbabwe.
Prime Minister Khai
said that Viet Nam is willing to share experiences
and cooperate with
Zimbabwe. Relevant agencies of Viet Nam will support
Zimbabwe's partners in
the fields in which Viet Nam has strength. He said he
believed that the
Zimbabwe people will make great achievements in developing
their
country.
The Vietnamese delegation, led by Prime Minister
Khai, on the
afternoon of Dec.14, left Kuala Lumpur for Ha Noi, concluding
its mission in
Malaysia.-Enditem
By Violet Gonda
and Lance Guma
14 December 2005
The controversial passport
seizures by Zimbabwean authorities reached
new heights on Wednesday. On one
hand they returned passports to leading
newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube and
opposition politician Paul Themba
Nyathi, and on the other they confiscated
that of outspoken trade unionist
Raymond Majongwe as he arrived at Harare
International Airport from an AIDS
conference in Abuja,
Nigeria.
Trevor Ncube had filed an urgent High Court application
challenging
the seizure of his passport as unlawful. However his passport
was returned
before the courts considered the matter. Passports are being
seized under
constitutional amendment number 17, which allows the state to
bar travel for
perceived critics of the Mugabe regime.
Ncube
told Newsreel the Attorney General's Office had called his
lawyers on
Tuesday to collect his passport, thereby conceding that the
seizure was
unlawful. Nyathi on the other hand says he received a phone call
from
immigration authorities advising him that his passport would be
returned to
him.
Human Rights Lawyer Arnold Tsunga said the seizures are
illegal, as
amendment 17 is being implemented without an operational
regulatory
framework in place for this draconian legislation.
The legal expert said it is obvious that the seizures of the passports
violate fundamental principles of natural justice, and this is why the
Attorney General's office returned Ncube's passport. The seizure was not a
defendable case in court.
Tsunga said the latest action
concerning Majongwe shows that the
system of government has lost control
over organs of the state in the sense
that "the right hand does not know
what the left hand is doing." He implied
that this is the work of
overzealous state security agents who continue to
implement this action on
the basis of a list that was compiled by the
Registrar General's
Office.
Raymond Majongwe is the Secretary General of the militant
Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. A former University of Zimbabwe
student leader
who has also produced poetry and protest music, Majongwe has
been a thorn in
the flesh for the government having led several
demonstrations against them.
Briggs Bomba from the International Socialist
Organisation (ISO) told
Newsreel they had tried to mobilize civic society
leaders to go to the
airport and protest the seizure of Majongwe's passport.
The effort proved a
logistical nightmare, as they only knew of Majongwe's
arrival at the airport
close to the time he got there.
Immigration officials did not bother to tell Majongwe why they were
taking
his passport. Majongwe, according to his colleagues, was also aware
he was
on a special targeted list and knew his passport would probably be
confiscated upon arrival. He told AFP "This whole exercise is to intimidate
and mellow down people who want to take the ZANU-PF government head-on.I am
not intimidated by this. In fact I am inspired by the fact that the
government regards me as an influential figure in the democratisation
process."
Trevor Ncube said: "People should not relax. It's
time for civil
society to mobilise around this issue. We cannot have
legislation that
allows the government to use the passport as a way of
punishing people that
criticise it. It is very uncivilised to behave in this
manner."
Widespread condemnation at home and abroad fell on deaf
ears as the
repressive sanctions were welcomed at the ZANU PF national
congress this
past weekend. Speaking at the conference, Robert Mugabe vowed
to take "stern
action" against non-governmental organisations and critics of
his
government. Mugabe's party recommended on Saturday that the government
act
against hostile rights groups and asked security forces to draw up a
list of
people whose passports should be
taken.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Zimbabwe: Newspaper Chief says Army
Runs the Country
A leading journalist and publisher, whose passport has been
confiscated by
the intelligence services, claims Mugabe no longer holds the
reins of power.
By Chipo Chinemberi in Harare (Africa Reports No 48,
13-Dec-05)
Trevor Ncube, chairman of the Africa board of the
Institute for War and
Peace Reporting, has hit out fiercely at Zimbabwe's
ruling elite, alleging
that the deeply troubled southern African state is
now effectively being
ruled by the military and the intelligence agencies
rather than by President
Robert Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe passport of
Ncube, a distinguished journalist and publisher,
was confiscated by the
much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation, CIO,
when he arrived in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, from Johannesburg on
December 7.
It
appears Ncube's name was one of 60 on a list compiled by the Zimbabwean
government to have their travel documents confiscated as they passed through
passport control on their way either to or from Zimbabwe.
"The
seizure of my passport reminds me that I am not living in a normal
society,"
said Ncube said in a lengthy interview with IWPR. "As someone who
has been
declared an enemy of the state, I am aware anything can happen. I
have been
receiving mysterious phone calls, which are quite worrying."
Ncube has
filed an urgent appeal in Zimbabwe's High Court challenging the
seizure of
his passport by the state.
Ncube publishes the Zimbabwe Independent and
the Standard newspapers, both
weeklies and the country's last two truly
independent titles, while from
Johannesburg he publishes the legendary Mail
and Guardian, which was a thorn
in the side of the apartheid and is now a
trenchant critic of the ruling
African National Congress.
"It has
become clear Mugabe is not running the country," said the publisher.
"Remember after Operation Murambatsvina. It was revealed that it was the
Central Intelligence Organisation that was behind it." Operation
Murambatsvina, which translates into Shona as "Operation Drive Out The
Rubbish", resulted in somewhere between 750,000 and 2.3 million Zimbabweans
being made homeless when police, soldiers and militias of the ruling ZANU PF
party moved into working class suburbs in the cities and towns, hotbeds of
support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, and razed
many thousands of homes with bulldozers and sledgehammers.
"Mugabe
has no intention to leave [the presidency], and in fulfilment of
that he now
relies more and more on the military," continued Ncube. "In
other words we
have a military dictatorship in place.
"This [passport seizure]
operation, it's dictated by the 'securocrats', who
are the real people
running this country. They include (Registrar General)
Tobaiwa Mudede and
(Immigration Director) Elasto Mugwadi - but the people
pulling the strings
are military men.
"Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba, 24 hours after the
seizure of my
passport, was adamant nothing like that could happen in
Zimbabwe. Attorney
General SobhuzaGula-Ndebele himself was also in the dark:
he said it could
not happen because there is no legislation in place to
allow the state to
seize people's passports.
"You see, when civil
structures fail to deliver the military and the
intelligence agencies take
over. That is why Army Commander Constantine
Chiwengwa is now being touted
as a possible presidential successor."
Asked if he feared that the next
step by the intelligence services and the
military would be to detain him,
Ncube said the picture was much bigger than
that. "They want my newspapers,"
he said. "They want the Zimbabwe
Independent and The Standard.
"They
have been unable to do with us what they have done with Ibbo Mandaza's
Mirror newspapers and what they have done with the Financial Gazette, namely
to control them through the CIO buying into them through the back
door.
"They know I stand to lose a lot if I am unable to return to South
Africa.
They think I will leave the country illegally so they can have
something to
pin on me. Then they will specify me and my newspapers [for
criminal
offences] and that way take over my business."
Asked if he
felt physically safe, Ncube replied in the negative but went on,
"I feel
watched and listened to but I am a highly spiritual person who
believes
strongly that God has my life in his hands. But that is no reason
to be
careless and foolish. I won't walk into just any pub, nor will I walk
in
dark alleys nor drive at odd hours of the night."
Ncube said it was now
clear to him that there was no future for either ZANU
PF or the opposition
MDC in a future Zimbabwe. So, he was asked, what then
is to be
done?
"I have talked [and written] about a third way," said the
43-year-old
newspaperman. "It [the future] belongs to us, the younger
generation. We
should find the middle ground - that is, we should find the
good people in
Zanu PF and good people in the MDC. We should find good
people from across
the board to speed up our nation's aspirations. Let's
start afresh. Mugabe
and his generation delivered us independence but they
had no vision to take
the country into the 21stcentury.
"It needs
principled people. Unfortunately Zimbabweans are short on
principles. They
are easily bought. We need to redefine who we are and move
forward. We need
to establish the principle that never again will we allow
conditions that
would raise another Mugabe, a situation where the national
constitution is
trashed and our country ruined."
But how, Ncube was asked, has President
Mugabe been allowed to get away with
ruining a once prosperous country,
where inflation is more than 500 per cent
and rising, the highest in the
world, and where the gross domestic product
has declined absolutely each
year for the past seven years?
"Mugabe is highly intelligent, a shrewd
schemer, a real political fox," said
Ncube. He has played factions off
against one another - workers pitted
against employers; students
manipulated; the general populace manipulated
against "first gays and
lesbians and then white commercial farmers . He has
surrounded himself with
the greatest bootlickers when it was necessary to
get really intelligent and
robust people to move the country forward".
Turning to the international
community's response to the Zimbabwe crisis and
the widespread abuse of
human rights, Ncube singled out South Africa for
particular criticism,
asserting that its president, Thabo Mbeki, had let
down the ordinary people
of Zimbabwe. "If Mbeki had refused to endorse the
clearly stolen 2000
parliamentary election, I don't think Zimbabwe would be
in the fine mess it
finds itself in right now," he said. The crucial 2000
election, which the
MDC lost only narrowly, was widely condemned as rigged
by most non-African
countries and human rights organisations, but endorsed
by most African
leaders.
"The British miscalculated in thinking insulting Mugabe would
shake him," he
said. "No one can beat Mugabe at insults."
And, Ncube
asserted, in combating Mugabe the rest of the world had to take
into account
the paradox that beyond Zimbabwe he is an idol to downtrodden
Africans, "He
is a hero of a Third World short-changed by the West."
Ncube said a
tipping point would eventually come against the security
establishment,
Mugabe and ZANU PF, although it was unlikely to be sudden -
more an
accumulation of events. "However, a most unexpected little thing can
ignite
it," he added. "The general Zimbabwean has lost his self-respect and
become
docile and controllable. But even zombies can be unpredictable."
Chipo
Chinemberi is the pseudonym of a journalist in Zimbabwe.
Reuters
Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:18 AM GMT
By Andrew Quinn
JOHANNESBURG
(Reuters) - At Johannesburg's bustling Oriental Plaza, the
Chinese are
ruffling feathers.
Established under apartheid for South Africa's Indian
traders, Oriental
Plaza has in recent months seen an influx of Chinese
businessmen selling
goods so cheap that long-established shops cannot
compete.
About 3,000 km (1,900 miles) away in the oil-rich seas off
Angola, the
Chinese are busy bidding for concessions to power their economic
boom, while
Chinese-made jet fighters swoop over Zimbabwe in exercises that
are a
reminder of Beijing's support for President Robert
Mugabe.
Across Africa, China's economic and diplomatic presence is
expanding in an
accelerating push that is raising both hopes and hackles far
beyond African
shores.
Since China's President Hu Jintao used a visit
to Gabon last year to
announce a new drive to strengthen relations with
Africa, the Chinese have
been working to cement the gains of the past
several years.
Chinese diplomats feature at African summits, flying the
flag of Third World
friendship and offers to cancel some $1.3 billion in
bilateral debt.
Chinese businessmen snap up commodities, while Chinese
doctors treat
Africa's sick under assistance programmes that win friends
among people
often forgotten by the rest of the world.
"China's move
into Africa is displacing traditional Anglo-French and U.S.
interests on the
continent," said Martyn Davies, director of the Centre for
Chinese Studies
at South Africa's Stellenbosch University.
"The United States, and the
British, are particularly concerned about
increased Chinese
movements."
OLD FRIENDS, NEW PARTNERS
Reminders of China's ties to
Africa stand in many African capitals where
Chinese-built stadiums echo an
era from the 1950s and 1960s when Chairman
Mao's engineers forged
anti-Imperialist solidarity with Africa's
independence leaders.
But
the current Sino-African business boom is unprecedented, driven by
China's
increasing hunger for raw materials to power a market-driven economy
growing
at over 9 percent per year.
In 2004, China's total exports to Africa hit
$13.82 billion, up 36 percent
over the previous year while imports --
largely raw materials -- surged 81
percent to $15.65 billion, according to
Chinese statistics.
Chinese diplomats, while recognising African concerns
over competition that
has all but destroyed some low-tech industries such as
textiles, say the two
are ideal partners.
"China now finds herself in
a position to offer what African countries need,
namely, sophisticated
technology appropriate to African conditions at
relative low cost," Liang
Guixuan, an economic expert at China's embassy in
South Africa, said at a
recent trade meeting.
OIL HUNGER
Beneath the diplomatic veneer,
however, it is clear that China's immediate
interest in Africa is oil and
Chinese state companies are moving fast to sew
up deals in key producers
such as Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and Congo.
In Angola, China stepped in
with a $2 billion credit line secured by future
oil deliveries to upgrade
war-damaged Angolan infrastructure after talks
between Luanda and western
lenders stalled over issues of transparency.
China has since displaced
the United States as Angola's biggest oil
customer -- buying an estimated
323,000 barrels per day in 2004 against
306,000 barrels per day in U.S.
sales -- and close political ties promise an
increasing flow.
"Angola
needs China for its reconstruction efforts. When donors and the IMF
were
turning their backs, China was the only way for Angola to get funding
to
rebuild the country," one Luanda-based energy source said.
China has also
become a key supporter of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe,
who has
increasingly highlighted his government's "Look East" policy after
Western
powers imposed sanctions on his government.
Davies of Stellenbosch
University said China's activities in Angola and
Sudan, where China has
ignored concerns over atrocities in lawless Darfur to
become the biggest
foreign investor with $4 billion in projects, showed
Beijing was adept at
exploiting political openings.
"In key countries, China is becoming the
new IMF of Africa without the
strings, or at least only with strings that
tied to Chinese national
commercial interests," he said.
China's
deep-pocket strategy is showing political pay-offs for Beijing by
limiting
the activities of their rivals on Nationalist-ruled Taiwan. Senegal
in
October switched diplomatic recognition to China, reportedly with the
curt
reminder to Taipei that "states have no friends, they have only
interests".
MOVING DEEPER
But China's influence in Africa
extends beyond oil fields, and is moving
deeper into the
continent.
China is busy improving one of its 1960s era political gifts
to Africa --
the Zambia-Tanzania railway -- which is now proving useful as
a conduit for
Zambian copper that China uses to make telephone lines,
electronics and
construction materials.
Chinese tourism to Africa is
a fast-growing market, while environmentalists
blame China's appetite for
ivory for a new round of elephant poaching across
the
continent.
Peter Draper, a trade analyst at South Africa's Institute for
International
Affairs, said Chinese competition was visible across Africa,
particularly in
construction projects as Chinese firms win key contracts for
everything from
Rwandan roads to an Algerian airport terminal.
"From
a long term perspective, if we engage China the potential for them to
become
partners increases. If we confront them, we will probably come off
second
best," he said.
The Herald
(Harare)
December 13, 2005
Posted to the web December 14,
2005
Harare
BINGA Rural District Hospital has been without a
medical doctor for more
than six months, forcing thousands of patients to
travel as far as
Bulawayo -- about 450 kilometres away -- for specialised
treatment.
In an interview yesterday, Binga district administrator Mr
Cephas Mutale
said the situation was further compounded by a critical
shortage of
qualified nurses at clinics throughout the remote
district.
"People are having to travel long distances to get medical
attention from
doctors. Our clinics are being manned by unqualified nurses,
mainly school
leavers, who are elevated to nurse aides after some time,"
said Mr Mutale.
The situation is particularly difficult for women as they
often develop
complications during pregnancy.
However, Health and
Child Welfare Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa last week
said Government would
ensure that Binga got at least two medical doctors
soon.
"We are
fighting to have at least two doctors in this district so that
people do not
travel long distances to health institutions.
"It pains us as Government
to have such a situation, but we are trying our
best to address the
situation," said Dr Parirenyatwa.
He said Government was working
tirelessly to promote the health of women,
especially those in a state of
pregnancy because of their susceptibility to
illness.
Binga,
alongside Lupane, Kariba, Hwange and Chiredzi, is among areas worst
hit by
malaria.
The situation has been exacerbated by constant breakdown of the
two
ambulances, which service a population of about 300 000 people, coupled
with
lack of transport.
Displaced still waiting for formal housing |
BULAWAYO, 14 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - Many of
those affected by the Zimbabwe government's controversial Operation
Murambatsvina clean-up campaign are still waiting for the new houses the state
promised them.
Among them is Munetsi Takadini, 57, whose two-roomed shack
in Bulawayo's oldest suburb, Makokoba, where he had lived with his family of
eight for over 20 years, was demolished during the campaign.
Five of his
school-going children have had to drop out due to distance and financial
constraints since he lost the income from his backyard shoe-repair business when
such informal enterprises were also outlawed by the government during the
clean-up campaign.
Two weeks ago Takadini watched from his tent in Cowdry
Park, west of Bulawayo, as the government handed over completed houses and
stands to other victims of the clean-up campaign. So far 5,000 people have been
allocated stands and houses under the reconstruction programme.
"We were
told that we would be the first to be given houses. I have been on the housing
waiting list for over 12 years, but my name is not on the list of beneficiaries
of the housing scheme because I can't afford the deposit," he
complained.
The deposit ranges from Zim $600,000 (US $8) to $7 million
($93), depending on the size of the house.
Dubbed 'Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle' (Shona and Ndebele for live well), the government
reconstruction initiative aims to roll out 1.2 million houses a year, with 4,900
being built within a few months.
But its criteria for the allocation of
houses, which include payment of the initial deposit, proof of formal employment
and a specified salary, have made them unaffordable to people displaced by
Operation Murambatsvina, like Takadini.
As a result, four of Bulawayo's
old informal settlements have slowly come back to life.
At the Methodist
Church in Bulawayo's central business district, Nokuthula Mpofu, a mother of
four, waited to receive her monthly allocation of maize-meal and beans sourced
by 150 pastors under the Churches of Bulawayo banner, which has been assisting
displaced people.
"I have been on the housing list for many years, but
when I realised that I wasn't one of the beneficiaries and could not afford the
deposit, I returned to the squatter camp," she told IRIN.
Mpofu was one
of many residents who returned to Matseumhlophe informal settlement, which was
deserted for three months after being destroyed during Operation
Murambatsvina.
Martha Nyakuni of the Zimbabwe Homeless People's
Federation said a large proportion of those displaced by the clean-up campaign
had not been accommodated in the first phase of Operation Garikai.
"These
people were staying in shacks - not because they wanted to, but because they
could not afford the rental in decent houses," she pointed out.
Nyakuni
added that the implication was that the 5,000 beneficiaries of the first phase
of Operation Garikai were gainfully employed and had not been affected by the
demolitions.
The government required all urban councils to produce lists
of intended beneficiaries for housing so that it could "vet the names in terms
of ability to pay, which includes earning a government-scale salary".
A
Human Rights Watch report, 'Evicted and Forsaken', highlighted the plight of the
people displaced by Operation Murambatsvina in December.
It said
Operation Garikai had little to do with a humanitarian relief effort, as the
vast majority of the internally displaced would not be among its beneficiaries
because they were unlikely to meet the criteria for ownership of the new
houses.
The report also said the number of houses being built was
"negligible" compared to the hundreds of thousands of people rendered homeless
by the evictions; a concern echoed by UN Humanitarian Relief Coordinator Jan
Egeland during his recent visit to the country.
Addressing Parliament
last week, President Robert Mugabe said his government was committed to
providing decent houses to those displaced by the clean-up
campaign.
Although the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and
National Housing, Ignatius Chombo, admitted that many displaced people were yet
to be included in the government's housing scheme, he was confident that the
government would be able to accommodate them.
"We never said we would
accommodate everyone at once - this programme is moving in phases," Chombo told
IRIN. "Of course, it is true that some deserving cases are still without
accommodation, but they should not worry because the next phase is theirs. We
hope to be through with the reconstruction programme by May next
year."
IOL
December 14
2005 at 08:31PM
Harare - Members of Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party said Wednesday they would launch
fresh bid to win legal
backing for their decision to suspend party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
High court judge Yunus Omerjee on Friday
dismissed an application by
MDC deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire
who asked him to enforce a
decision taken three weeks ago by a party
disciplinary committee to suspend
Tsvangirai.
"We will appeal
against the court ruling or resubmit the application,"
the MDC's
vice-president Gibson Sibanda told journalists after a meeting of
the
party's national council.
"The judge ruled on technical issues such
as Mr Chimanikire's legal
standing in the matter. He (judge Omerjee) did not
look at the substance of
the court application."
The meeting scoffed at a suspension by a faction of six top party
officials
two weeks ago on charges of abandoning their official party while
leading a
clique opposed to Tsvangirai's leadership.
"The entity that seeks
to carry out the suspensions is
unconstitutional," Sibanda said of the
committee that suspended him and five
other party officials including
secretary-general Welshman Ncube and
treasurer Fletcher Dulini
Ncube.
"The said officers should not co-operate with or appear
before the
bogus disciplinary committee."
Sibanda accused
Tsvangirai of hiring thugs to bar members of his
faction from entering the
party's headquarters in Harare.
Once a major political force
challenging President Robert Mugabe's
grip on power, the MDC has been bogged
down in infighting over Tsvangirai's
decision to call a boycott of the
November 26 elections.
Tsvangirai maintained that the elections
were a waste of money at a
time when the country was facing severe food
shortages, but his opponents
within the MDC contended that voters should be
given a choice at the ballot
box.
Tsvangirai had dismissed the
suspension as unlawful and defied the
committee's ban on holding rallies,
making public statements, visiting party
offices or using party
property.
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF) won
43 of the 50 contested seats, while the MDC picked up seven
seats in the
elections that were marred by poor turnout. - Sapa-AFP
MDC PRESS
14 December 2005
It is becoming clearer to all
reasonable men and women in Zimbabwe and
elsewhere that the dispute in MDC
had nothing to do with the Senate
elections but was a calculated albeit
unsuccessful agenda by a few among us
to usurp the people's power through
the back door by ostracising the
President of the MDC who was elected at our
National People's congress in
2000.
The rebels have once again shown
their true colours by organizing a bogus
and clandestine meeting of losing
candidates of the recently concluded
Senate elections masquerading as
National Council members. The meeting must
be dismissed with the scorn it
deserves for being both politically naļve and
unconstitutional.
In terms
of the MDC constitution all National Council meetings are chaired
by the
National chairman Isaac Matongo. Matongo is still the legitimate
Chairman
and he did not chair that meeting and neither was he invited.
Again in terms
of the constitution, the only officer of the party who
reports to the
National Council is the President who was neither invited nor
attended that
meeting.
No amount of chicanery by the rebels will bring the people behind
them. With
respect to the Disciplinary hearing, the rebels asked for a
postponement to
December 17, 2005 through their lawyers, Coglan and Welsh in
Bulawayo and
were granted the postponement in the interests of the
principles of natural
justice. The hearing as far as the party is concerned
is proceeding as per
the agreed date between the National Disciplinary
Committee and the accused
members.
It is sad to note that only two
weeks ago, Paul Themba Nyathi was saying
their group was taking the matter
to court because they believed in the rule
of law. Now that Justice Yunus
Omerjee ruled against them, they suddenly do
not respect the rule of law.
One would have thought that since they had a
professor of law among them in
the name of Welshman Ncube, he would advise
his colleagues in this rag-tag
grouping of rebels against the kind of
actions they have embarked
upon.
Nelson Chamisa
Secretary for information and Publicity
CNN
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Posted: 10:19 a.m. EST (15:19
GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Crocodiles took a narrow lead over
elephants as the
most dangerous animal to man in Zimbabwe this year, a
conservation group
reported Wednesday.
Crocodiles dragged away 13
people -- including children -- and ate them in
the first 10 months of 2005,
according to the Communal Areas Management
Program for Indigenous Resources,
known as Campfire.
Elephants charged and trampled 12 others, including
some villagers trying to
protect their crops from the giant herbivores who
eat an average 300
kilograms (660 pounds) of fodder a day as adults, the
group said in its
annual report.
Buffaloes and hippopotamuses, also
considered among Africa's most dangerous
animals, killed one person apiece
bringing the total to 27.
Lions are reported to have killed 17 cattle
belonging to a traditional
leader in western Zimbabwe in November, but there
were no fatal attacks on
humans. Rogue lions who acquire a taste for human
prey are usually hunted
down.
The Campfire group was founded after
independence from Britain in 1980 to
promote the management of wildlife and
use of wildlife products in sparsely
populated areas. The report is part of
its efforts to educate remote
communities about the dangers of animal
attacks.
"Most of the time there is no recognition of that fact, that
communities are
always on the front line of the battle between man and
beast," said Campfire
director Charles Jonga.
Crocodiles prey on
villagers who fish and wash in rivers and lakes,
conservationists say.
Elephants can become enraged when confronted by
people, or when females are
separated from their young. Buffalos and hippos
can also attack when
disturbed.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
14 December 2005
On Tuesday, white commercial
farmers in Masvingo won a court battle in
which they were fighting the
illegal seizure of equipment from their
properties. According to the
Commercial Farmers Union, 7 of its members had
successfully petitioned the
courts to force the Masvingo Farm Equipment and
Materials Committee to
return all equipment taken illegally. The group, led
by Assistant
commissioner Mrs. Ndanga and consisting of police, war vets and
CIO agents,
has been taking equipment illegally from farmers in the Lowveld
area.
Our contact in Chiredzi, farmer and manager Gerry
Whitehead, was one
of the victims. He lost equipment that belongs to Whitro
Engineering, which
has nothing to do with his farming operation, and does
not fall under the
farm equipment category. Whitehead estimated its value at
about 5 billion
Zimbabwe dollars.
We have reports that some of
the stolen equipment had already been
auctioned, and it is not clear what
will happen in those cases. It also
remains to be seen whether the police
will comply with the court order or
ignore it, as they ignored an earlier
order to stop taking the equipment in
the first place.
With
pressure growing on the farming community to produce, the police
may find it
difficult to escape this time. Again, it all depends on whether
Robert
Mugabe takes Gideon Gono's advice and finally take steps to save
agriculture
in Zimbabwe. Enforcing the court order would be an appropriate
first step,
followed by the prosecution of anyone who interrupts farming
activities.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
e
By Lance
Guma
14 December 2005
Zimbabwe's hypocrisy in its
economic dealings came to the fore when
its very own Central Statistical
Office (CSO) admitted South Africa and
Britain remain its major trading
partners. Government has been at the
forefront of promoting a "look east"
policy, and going by Robert Mugabe's
vitriolic attacks on Britain, the fact
Zimbabwe relies heavily on the UK for
business exposes the double
standards.
The Acting Director of the CSO, Moffat Nyoni, told a
recent press
conference South Africa supplied 57,49% of imports with the
United Kingdom
accounting for 37%. Much talked about China contributed only
3,95% of
imports, with Mozambique providing 3,15%. The look east policy
started three
years ago but the country is still relying on its traditional
markets. 81,37
percent of Zimbabwe's exports were going to Africa and
Europe.
Zimbabwe exported US$ 801million worth of goods in the
first 6 months
of this year, with US$323 million (about 40,25%) of that
going to Europe.
The country still has business dealings with the United
States (US$ 22
million), while Australia and Canada import goods worth a
combined US$
2,3million. The CSO says the country earned US$ 1,7 billion
from trading
with both Africa and Europe last year but blames a rise in
imports for the
lack of foreign currency in the country. Economic analysts
however blame the
country's problems on political meddling in the running of
the economy.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
VOA's Studio 7 - news for Zimbabweans by Zimbabweans - has an exciting Christmas Promotion where we'll be giving away lots of radios. All you need to do is tune in to Studio 7 tonight (and for the rest of the week) at 7pm to find out more! Please make sure to tell your friends and colleagues. And don't forget to tell your relatives all over the country as well!
The promotion is open to one and all: share the news, share the excitement.
Studio 7 has been a reliable source of objective and balanced radio news for the people of Zimbabwe since 2003. Studio 7 reaches listeners in southern Africa every Monday through Friday evening in Shona, Ndebele and English from 7 to 8:30pm. Studio 7 radio offers stories about Zimbabwe, Africa and the world as well as features about Zimbabwe's people, society, economy, culture, sports, and music.
You can get information on our Christmas Promotion by listening to Studio 7 on the 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th December at 7pm - be a winner and listen to Studio 7!
Tune in on 909 Medium Wave or 4930, 9830, 12080 and 17785 kilohertz Short Wave at 7pm.
Visit: www.voanews.com/english/africa/zimbabwe/
Reuters
Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:07 AM GMT
NGEZI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimplats
Holdings Ltd will more than double
underground ore production next year as
it gradually phases out its open
cast mine ahead of total closure two years
from now, officials said on
Tuesday.
Zimplats, majority owned by
South Africa's Impala Platinum Holdings
(Implats), will ramp up underground
ore output at its Ngezi mine to 787,800
tonnes next year from 311,054 tonnes
by the end of 2005.
Ore production at the open cast mine will be reduced
by 379,164 tonnes to
1.45 million tonnes ahead of a total shutdown by
December 2007.
Officials said major expansion plans were still on hold
awaiting
clarification on the government's empowerment
policy.
Implats targets most of its growth in Zimbabwe, which has some of
the
richest platinum group metal (PGM) ore deposits outside of South Africa.
Zimplats, 83 percent owned by Implats, is due to eventually increase output
by about 70 percent to 145,000 ounces of platinum per year.
"There
are certain political restrictions we have to overcome to grow," Jack
Murehwa, Zimplats corporate services executive, told journalists during a
tour of the company's Ngezi mine southwest of capital Harare.
Murehwa
was referring to planned legislation by the government on black
ownership,
which has been in the pipeline for the past year and a constant
source of
speculation.
He also referred to a statement by President Robert Mugabe
last week saying
the government had started negotiations with Zimplats to
give up some of its
properties for joint ventures between a Zimbabwe state
firm and Chinese
investors.
Murehwa said Zimplats had not engaged in
any negotiations with the Chinese,
but said there had been "inconclusive
talks" with state mining firm Zimbabwe
Mineral Development
Corporation.
"The discussions centred on the possibility of giving
possible ground to
ZMDC for their own use and it was a commercial discussion
which we have no
reason to refuse," Murehwa said.
VOA
By Tendai
Maphosa
Harare
14 December 2005
Zimbabwean
authorities say an independent newspaper publisher and an
opposition party
official whose passports had been seized may have them
back. But, another
government critic has had his passport seized.
Trevor Ncube's passport
was released before an application for its return
lodged by his lawyer was
heard by the High Court.
Mr. Ncube's lawyer, Stanford Moyo, told VOA the
attorney general's office is
not contesting his application to the court and
he could collect his
client's passport.
Mr. Ncube is on a list of 64
Zimbabweans whom the government wants to stop
from traveling abroad. It says
their travel harms the national, defense or
economic interests of the
state.
A constitutional amendment approved earlier this year allows the
government
to seize the passports. But Mr. Moyo says the change to the
constitution
does not make passport seizures legal.
"Constitutional
amendment number 17 does not remove the right to freedom of
movement. It
purports to modify the right to freedom of movement, but the
right to
freedom of movement remains in section 22 of our constitution," he
said.
"The right to freedom of movement includes the right to leave one's
country,
the right to re-enter one's country, the right to enter other
countries
where one is allowed to enter."
Mr. Moyo said Zimbabwe is also bound by a
number of international agreements
guaranteeing the freedom of movement of
its citizens. He added that the
government's action was illegal as they
took his client's passport without
giving him a chance to defend
himself.
Paul Themba-Nyathi, an official of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change, was also asked to collect his passport. It was seized on
his return
from a trip last week to South Africa.
But as the two men
were celebrating getting their passports back, another
government critic,
Raymond Majongwe, who is the secretary general of a
teachers union, had his
withdrawn. It was seized at Harare International
Airport on Mr. Majongwe's
return from a trip abroad.
Attempts to get some clarification from the
relevant government officials
were unsuccessful.
UN News Centre
14 December 2005 - In a bid to raise funds to provide shelter for
Zimbabweans who have been evicted from their homes and Pakistanis who have
been displaced by the massive earthquake that struck in October, the United
Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) met with donors today in
Nairobi, Kenya.
The President of UN-HABITAT's Governing Council,
Ambassador Wojciech
Jasinski of Poland, together with the Chair of
UN-HABITAT's Committee of
Permanent Representatives, Petr Kopriva,
symbolically kick-started the
consultation by pledging personal funds to
build houses in Zimbabwe and
Pakistan.
Opening the consultation,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy on
Human Settlements Issues to
Zimbabwe, Anna Tibaijuka, cited an "urgent need
to stabilize the shelter
conditions of the poor people who were evicted and
who have now been living
out in the cold and in the open for almost six
months."
In addition,
Mrs. Tibaijuka, who is also UN-HABITAT's Executive Director,
pointed to the
"desperate need to meet the shelter demands of those affected
by the
earthquake in Pakistan especially now that winter has set in."
UN-HABITAT
has a number of proposals to help victims of the earthquake,
which rendered
more than 3 million people homeless, including one involving
a special
winterized shelter that incorporates materials that can be reused
in the
construction of permanent housing in the spring.
Similar materials are
being used in Zimbabwe, where the Government has
approved a UN shelter
programme. UN-HABITAT said the initiative will not
only help resolve the
humanitarian crisis caused by operation Murambatsvina
that led to large
numbers of people still living in the open or in
transition shelters but
will also be critical in the distribution of other
humanitarian assistance,
including providing for the chronically sick and
those with HIV/AIDS.
From The Financial Mail (SA), 9 December
By Tony Hawkins
Harare - Zimbabwean finance
minister Herbert Murerwa's 2006 budget is
getting a better press than it
deserves, with some local analysts claiming
the sharp reduction in the
budget deficit reflects an underlying economic
recovery. This is not true.
In his August mini-budget, Murerwa announced a
budget deficit for the first
half of the year of Z$ 5,7 trillion (about
US$80m at current exchange
rates), partly because revenue at Z$9,7 trillion
was well below forecast.
This forced him to increase Vat from 15% to 17,5%
from September 1. But in
the second half of the year, revenue is estimated
at almost Z$20 trillion -
double the first-half inflow. Why? In a word,
inflation. Prices rose 150% in
the first half of 2005, but with inflation
reaching 411% in October and
projected to top 500% by year-end, it will
average at least 350% in the
latter half of the year. This explains the
surge in revenue, which allowed
Murerwa to reduce VAT to its original 15%
with effect from January 1.
Government spending increased by only a third
while revenue was doubling, as
a result of which the first-half deficit of
Z$5,7 trillion is projected to
decline to less than Z$3 trillion by
December, giving an annual budget
deficit of 3% of GDP - less than half the
7,3% estimated
earlier.
Indeed, Zimbabwe is turning economic theory on its head.
Normally a large
budget deficit translates into high inflation. In Zimbabwe,
however, a
negative relation has developed, so that as inflation rises, the
deficit
falls and vice versa. How come? Part of the explanation is that
inflation is
being driven, not by the budget deficit, but by the so-called
quasi-official
deficit, which is public spending financed not by the
ministry but by the
central bank. In other words, the real deficit is much
larger than Murerwa's
figures because it is being financed off-balance sheet
by the central bank
and simply does not show in the estimates approved by
parliament. In 2006,
Murerwa will try to pull the same three-card trick.
Spending and revenue
will both increase by nearly 300%, taking the national
budget next year to
Z$124 trillion (US$1,75bn) or about 41% of GDP. Revenue
will grow over 270%,
leaving a budget deficit of Z$13,9 trillion or 4,6% of
GDP. With government
forecasting real GDP growth of 2%-3,5% - the first
positive growth since
1998 - the assumption is that prices must rise 250%
for revenue to increase
270%. But the official inflation forecast is 80% by
the end of 2006, which
looks to be mathematically
impossible.
Murerwa's forecasts bear little resemblance to those in
his budget a year
ago. He blames drought for this, whereas the IMF puts it
down to the
"effective destruction" of commercial agriculture. Government
admits real
GDP will fall 3% in 2005 - about half the IMF forecast of minus
7%.
Agriculture, targeted to grow almost 30% in 2005, actually declined
12,8%,
while mining was down 5,7% and manufacturing 3%. Next year, however,
all the
main sectors, including tourism, will turn around, with farm output
up 14%,
mining production 27% and industry growth 3%. "More money for the
people"
was the headline in the state-owned Herald newspaper - a reference
to the
reduction in VAT and the increase in the tax threshold from
Z$1,5m/month to
Z$7m, meaning that families earning less than Z$7m/month
will pay no tax.
Government's improbable claim that people will be better
off as a result of
this budget was spoilt somewhat by the publication of the
Zimbabwe Consumer
Council's minimum subsistence budget for an average-sized
family. It comes
to Z$12,9m/month, prompting the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions to demand
that the tax threshold be raised to this poverty datum line
level. There is
nothing in this chewing gum and sticky tape budget to
suggest government has
a strategic plan for overcoming the economic and
social crisis. It is
looking to donors to bail it out. After months of
argument, the UN's World
Food Programme has resumed food aid shipments to
Zimbabwe, feeding an
estimated 2m people in November. It plans to supply 300
000 t of food over
the next year, mostly funded by President Robert Mugabe's
"enemies" in
Washington, Brussels and London. Harare also hopes this week's
visit by UN
emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland will result in US$276m
in UN aid
for some of the 700 000 people evicted in June from their homes
and
businesses during Operation Clean Up.
Western donors are
reluctant to back any UN assistance, partly because they
are funding food
aid, but also because they believe it sets an unfortunate
precedent to
finance the rebuilding of homes destroyed by government when
there are so
many demands globally for humanitarian assistance due to
natural, not
man-made, disasters. As if the picture were not bleak enough,
the outcome of
last week's senate elections, in which the ruling Zanu PF
party won 43 of
the elected 50 seats in a 19,5% poll, appears to have
deepened the split in
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The pro- senate
faction, now in effect expelled from the party, expected to
win far more
seats than it did. Indeed, even in the MDC heartland of
Matabeleland where
it won seats, the turnout was less than 10%, suggesting
its supporters, like
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, see little point in
contesting skewed
elections. Signs are that Tsvangirai will emerge as the
winner from the
split, but with a more militant stance. None of this bodes
well for the
future, or for President Thabo Mbeki's efforts to revive
political dialogue
in Zimbabwe.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sokwanele" <info@sokwanele.com>
Sent: Thursday,
December 15, 2005 4:46 AM
Title: The Sandmonkey is now
Ranting - please keep voting!
Dear Zimbabwe Situation
readers
Depending on where you are in the world, today, 15th December, is
the last
possible day for voting for 'This is Zimbabwe' - Sokwanele's blog -
in the
2005 Weblog Awards (Aussies have a little extra time on the 16th
because of
time differences).
Please click on the flashing icon in the
top left column on Zimbabwe
Situation to vote, or visit this link:
http://weblogawards.org/2005/12/best_middle_east_or_africa_blo.php
We
had a great response to our call for votes yesterday (see our appeal here
on
Zimbabwe Situation at this link:
https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/dec14a_2005.html#Z12
).
When we sent out our email yesterday, our votes stood at 514. The
current
totals at the time of writing this email show that we increased our
votes by
a whopping 275 votes overnight! (Current totals are the figures in
brackets,
followed by yesterday's score).
Iraq the Model (2352) ---
1540
Regime Change Iran (2089) --- 1536
This is Zimbabwe (789) ---
514
Rantings of a Sandmonkey (766) --- 661
Israelly Cool (375) ---
344
The Religious Policeman (265) --- 231
6000 Miles from Civilisation
(174) --- 150
Secret Dubai (70) --- 65
Timbuktu Chronicles (55) ---
50
The Fishbowl (37) --- 35
360 Degrees of Sky (36) --- 33
Voice in the
Desert (34) --- 29
Digital Africa (10) --- 8
Mission Safari (9) ---
8
Jared's Mozambique (8) --- 7
Yesterday we asked if you could help us
to become the top African blog in a
category that we share with the Middle
East (Best Middle East or Africa
blog). Our closest competitor comes from
Egypt - Rantings of a Sandmonkey.
Well, we've now moved past the
Sandmonkey - and the Sandmonkey is really
ranting! Here's what he posted on
his blog a shortwhile ago!
*****
Wednesday, December 14,
2005
Please vote for the angels' sake!
There is only 2 days left and
Zimbabwe is gaining on me. I don't know how
they manage to pull 150 votes a
day, but I am guessing they must be using
some zimbabwean internet Voodo
rituals or something. In case you didn't
know, using internet vodoo rituals
gives angels cancer. Show them that you
oppose Vodoo and giving angelscancer
and vote for me. I figure a good 300
vote margin should send them
Vodoo-using-angel-cancer-giving-zimbabweans a
message that says loud and
clear that "Giving Angels Cancer is not cool!" by
you. Otherwise, what would
the children say? That you allowed angels to get
cancer when you could've
stopped it because you were too lazy to vote for
the sandmonkey? What a great
role model you are being. SHAME!
Stop Vodoo Voting now and vote for me.
Do it for the angels. Ohh and the
Children. Don't forget the
children!
*****
"Vodoo-using-angel-cancer-giving-zimbabweans" ....
Come on guys, let's show
the Sandmonkey that he has a lot more to ranting to
do.
Please vote for us again today! You can vote once a day until voting
closes.
The polling site will tell you if you have voted within the last 24
hours.
But please don't give up. Please try again later. We can't sit back
and let
a sandmonkey accuse us of voodoo rituals and not react!
We had
an email today from someone who is walking around his office and
asking his
colleagues all to vote for us. He pointed out that this should be
called -
'One computer, one vote, once a day'. It's great getting those
votes, but
even more fantastic that, through this competition, more people
are learning
about what is happening in Zimbabwe.
Here's a reminder of when voting
closes:
Voting officially closes at this time: 11:59:00 p.m. Thursday
December 15,
2005 USA - Eastern time
This means that voting closes at
the following times in other cities around
the world:
07:00:00 a.m.
Friday December 16, 2005 in Africa/Harare
05:00:00 a.m. Friday December 16,
2005 in Europe/London
04:00:00 p.m. Friday December 16, 2005 in
Australia/Sydney
Our thanks to all of
you
Sokwanele
--
SOKWANELE - ZVAKWANA - ENOUGH IS
ENOUGH
Visit our website at: www.sokwanele.com
Visit our blog at: www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe
Please
help us build our mailing list by asking your friends to subscribe to
our
newsletter. They can do so automatically via our website, or they can
send us
an email at newsletter@sokwanele.com.
Thank
you for your support.