Zim Standard
By Foster
Dongozi
MOUNTING opposition to President Robert Mugabe's
desire to
extend his stay in office by two years last night forced the Zanu
PF
leadership to defer the adoption of resolutions to another
date.
Mugabe wants to extend his stay in power under the
pretext of
harmonising the presidential and parliamentary elections in
2010.
But the President's plan seemed to have fizzled out,
sabotaged
by his lieutenants, who were hoping to rise up the political
ladder
following his anticipated departure.
Although the
annual conference in Goromonzi yesterday was
carefully choreographed to give
the impression of unity around extending
Mugabe's term until 2010, sources
said Vice-President Joice Mujuru's backers
were seething with anger after
Mugabe whipped most of the provinces to
declare their support for the term
extension.
Most delegates in Goromonzi told The Standard
yesterday that
Mugabe needed to leave office by 2008, if the country was to
be saved from
further economic and political implosion.
"I think at 82, Mugabe needs to take a rest and let younger
people with
fresh brains take charge," said a delegate from Mashonaland
West.
With Mugabe uncertain of getting a total
endorsement to extend
his tenancy at State House from the restive conference
delegates, committee
resolutions were not adopted and will now be considered
by the Zanu PF
Central Committee.
In many ways, this is
unprecedented as at many other such
conferences, the adoption of the
resolutions is more or less routine and a
foregone
conclusion.
One such resolution was the harmonisation of the
presidential
and parliamentary elections which would be held in
2010.
Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980 is
scheduled to end
his term in 2008 but the harmonisation of the elections
would mean he would
remain in power for another two
years.
The Central Committee could be whipped into line to
adopt any
position the President may desire.
But
politburo sources said the faction backing Joice Mujuru, led
by her husband,
the former army commander, Retired General Solomon Mujuru
was reportedly
disappointed with Mugabe.
There were reports that the Mujuru
camp viewed his statement
that "there are no vacancies" as suggesting he
intended to die in office
without officially being declared Life
President.
A senior politburo source told The Standard: "For
the first
time, we have senior officials in Zanu PF who say they are not
happy with
Mugabe's handiende (I won't go) declaration. Mugabe appears to be
very much
aware of the level of disgruntlement that his clinging on to power
is
generating within the ruling party."
Mashonaland West,
Central, Harare and Manicaland provinces which
support Mujuru's candidature
as future president were initially opposed to
the extension of Mugabe's term
of office beyond 2008.
They only "supported" the idea after
being arm-twisted by party
heavyweights.
Mashonaland East
province, Solomon Mujuru's turf, had still not
made its position public on
extending Mugabe's term.
Mugabe hinted that he wanted to
cling to power in an address to
the Central Committee in Harare when he
declared there were no vacancies in
the party's top leadership
positions.
"Where are the vacancies? The time will come when
vacancies will
exist, but now; there are no vacancies. None at
all."
In an interview with a Canadian television news
crew,Mugabe
implied that he might use the excuse of holding the party
together as a ruse
to cling to power.
"I will retire, of
course, some day, but it all depends on the
circumstances. I can't retire if
my party is going to be in shambles."
Yesterday he said he
knew that people still wanted him as
President, as they did a few years
ago.
The Mujuru faction was last night said to be frantically
trying
to get a clear commitment from Mugabe to give a date on when he would
leave
office.
But Mugabe gave nothing away and probably
paid the price; the
amendments to the constitution, which would have paved
the way for the
extension of his term of office was abandoned.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
Belgian national and a Zimbabwean senior police
officer have
been arrested in Mutare where the discovery of diamonds in
nearby Marange
district has turned the once peaceful area into a hotbed of
crime.
Elquraish Ibrahim was arrested together with four
Zimbabwean men
at Marange turn-off last week while driving a hired
vehicle.
A Mutare magistrate on Friday heard that police
found "six clear
diamonds" on the Belgian, together with 272 diamond stones
in a bag which
was in the vehicle.
Fortunately for
Ibrahim, the State will not be able to produce
the exhibit because the
diamonds disappeared in the hands of a police
sergeant. The sergeant will
soon be arrested in connection with the theft,
police sources said
yesterday.
What added a dramatic twist to the case is that
the four men
caught with the Belgian national were released in controversial
circumstances.
A senior Mutare CID official, Inspector
Lazarus Zivengwa, has
been picked up in connection with their release. The
State alleges Zivengwa
facilitated their release after being paid $1.2
million which was to have
been shared equally with other officers involved
in the operation.
Zivengwa was hauled before the court on
Friday and charged with
corruption. He was remanded out of custody after
paying $25 000. He was also
warned against reporting to the CID offices and
interfering with witnesses.
Zivengwa will be tried on 21
December and so will the Belgian
national who was found with diamond testing
equipment and a scale.
Magistrate Tsungisai Madzivaidze
ordered Ibrahim, who paid $500
000 bail and surrendered his passport, to
reside at the Wise Owl motel
outside Mutare, which is the address he gave in
court. He will be charged
with unlawfully possessing precious
stones.
Meanwhile, the Mutare Magistrates' Court, facing an
alarming
increase in cases involving the theft of diamonds, are now
fast-tracking the
cases to deal with the mounting crime wave in the once
sleepy Marange.
Last week, the state managed to secure the
first convictions of
two Zimbabweans and a Mozambican national caught in
possession of the
diamonds.
Tsitsi Mukome, who was found
with 158 diamond stones valued at
$1 669 000 was slapped with an effective
two-year sentence. Amos Manduvi who
was caught with 41 stones of rough
diamonds valued at $267 000 was sentenced
to 24 months in prison. Six months
of the sentence were conditionally
suspended.
Stelio
Matavel, a Mozambican national, is in custody awaiting
sentence. He was
convicted on Tuesday of possessing 20 stones of rough
diamonds worth $343
230. He also carried US$1 000 and R4 800 in cash.
Sources in
Mutare say there is increasing concern over the fact
that police officers
charged with smashing the illegal trade in diamonds are
emerging as the main
culprits.
To date eight officers have been arrested following
the
disappearance of diamonds seized from illegal dealers. Three graduates
of
the National Youth Services, hired by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, are
also
being tried for stealing $2.5million and R2 000 from a South African
national who ventured into Marange.
"These are just a tip
of the iceberg," a judicial source said
yesterday.
"There
are many officers who are being caught on the wrong side
of the
law."
Zim Standard
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
MUTARE - The
Attorney General's office has raised the stakes in
its bid to bring to book
one of the most feared fugitives from justice in
the land - the Central
Intelligence Organisation operative Joseph Mwale.
The AG's
office wants Mwale's picture to be published in every
government media,
including newspapers and television, as a WANTED fugitive.
Along with the WANTED picture, the police will appeal to the
public to help
them apprehend Mwale, the man accused in the High Court in
Harare of
masterminding one of the grisliest political murders in Zimbabwe's
post-independence era.
The instructions come from Levison
Chikafu, the senior
prosecutor in Manicaland, who has written to the officer
commanding police
in Manicaland.
In his letter, Chikafu
says: "The State has abundance resources
at its disposal to launch a massive
manhunt.
"Your office can approach the Registrar General's
Office and get
Joseph Mwale's photo. The photo can be published in the
public media
appealing for information from members of the public who might
have
knowledge on the whereabouts of the accused."
Mwale's whereabouts are shrouded in secrecy although he is
believed to be
operating in the Nyanga area.
Chikafu said the CIO should
also assist with providing
information about Mwale's
whereabouts.
"It's hard to believe that an officer who was
employed by the
Central Intelligence Organisation office can just disappear
without trace,"
wrote Chikafu, adding: "Are we saying the Central
Intelligence Organisation
does not have control over its
officers?"
Chikafu said it was worrying to note that officers
from the
police law and order section were afraid of
Mwale.
"We have noted with great concern that some of your
officers who
are attached to the Law and Order Section are afraid to talk
about the
Joseph Mwale case," wrote Chikafu. "I am at a loss as to why the
matter is
being treated as a sensitive case. We are all equal before the law
and as
such there should be no discrimination in the manner in which
criminal
matters are handled."
Chikafu said Mwale should
be arrested immediately so he can be
tried during the next High Court
circuit in Mutare, which starts on 5 March
next year.
Mwale remains elusive six years after he masterminded the murder
of MDC
activists, Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika at Murambinda Growth
Point.
There are persistent reports he is being sheltered by top Zanu PF
politicians and his superiors in the CIO.
This is the
second time Chikafu has written to police bosses in
Manicaland to act on
Mwale.
Last September, he wrote to the police imploring them
to pursue
Mwale. There are reports that the Mwale docket could have
disappeared at the
police headquarters in Harare.
"It is
unfortunate that your good office did not have the
courtesy to reply to our
letter on or before the given deadline date and
thereby trivialising the
matter," Chikafu said referring to his first letter
to the police chief in
Manicaland.
Mwale, notorious for committing violence and
torture against MDC
activists in Manicaland, is a prominent campaigner for
Zanu PF during
elections.
Former High Court Judge James
Devittie recommended in 2001 that
Mwale be tried for the murder of Chiminya
and Mabika, with the judge noting
that there was a strong possibility that
the CIO agent could be found
guilty.
But he has remained
free and has been occasionally seen at Zanu
PF and government functions. -
Have your say: editor@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE MAPONGA
A Chitungwiza family, victims of
police brutality last week, are
ruing the day one of them was released from
remand prison in an amnesty.
In the wee hours of Thursday
morning, detectives from the
homicide squad stormed the Mukombachoto family
house in Zengeza 1 and beat
them up.
The detectives
demanded to know the whereabouts of Alfred
Mukombachoto, one of the suspects
released during a recent amnesty, after
spending more than four years on
remand.
"They jumped the fence and banged at the door," said
Godfrey
Mukombachoto. "When I opened the door, one officer fired a warning
shot into
the air, demanding to know where Alfred was."
He said he had no chance to respond as the officer knocked him
to the
ground, then asked him to crawl out of the house.
"They were
holding batons and sjamboks," said Godfrey. "They
then called for everyone
who was in the house to get out. They started
beating everyone, including my
wife, my two young brothers and my young
sister who is doing grade
four."
He said the attack was violent and took less than 20
minutes but
the damages were "gross". Mukombachoto said he tried in vain to
explain to
them he was not the one they were looking for.
"I think they were about six or seven and they sounded to be
very drunk," he
said. "I count myself lucky to be alive because one of the
officers had
suggested that they take me with them, but I don't even know
what happened."
He said the police were travelling in two vehicles, a black
Isuzu and a
silver Mercedes Benz.
Godfrey and his wife sustained broken
arms. They suspect the
attack may have been planned. By Friday, the injured
couple were battling to
get their broken arms in plaster after being told by
Chitungwiza hospital
staff to look for their own
materials.
Police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Oliver
Mandipaka said
he was not aware of the incident.
But a
police report by Constable Makara indicates the detectives
did assault the
Mukombachoto family members.
The report reads: "Patients have
been assaulted by the members
of the CID at their residence. On their
verifications, used to assault are
baton sticks and sjamboks. They need
treatment and a medical examination
from a doctor." - Have your say: editor@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE MAPONGA
CHURCH leaders behind the national
vision document, The Zimbabwe
We Want, have resolved to take the document to
a cross section of
Zimbabweans next year as part of wider consultation
process.
The church leaders met in Harare last week and
decided the
document, cobbled together last October by a group allegedly
sympathetic to
Zanu PF, remains "a discussion document and should not be
considered as
final".
The drafting of the document was
preceded by a meeting between
the leaders and President Robert Mugabe at
State House. Critics allege the
clergy were "wined and dined" in order to
soften their stance against the
government.
More than 50
church leaders from the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe (EFZ), Zimbabwe
Council of Churches (ZCC), Zimbabwe Catholic
Bishops' Conference (ZCBC) and
other churches noted that it was critical to
engage a cross section of
stakeholders for the final document to be accepted
by all
Zimbabweans.
Already, the Catholic Archbishop of the Bulawayo
diocese, Pius
Ncube, a fierce critic of the government, condemned the final
document for
not having included his and others' input as contained in the
original
paper.
"National engagement shall help to create
a conducive
environment for dialogue," the leaders resolved at the close of
their
two-day strategic meeting. "The churches shall also make sure that no
important sector of our society is left out in the process of
consultation."
They said the consultations should address the
crises facing the
country and call for solutions.
"These
should include issues around the constitution, the
economy, (and) social and
moral crises."
EFZ president Bishop Trevor Manhanga said the
process would take
six months.
"We have already started
receiving feedback from different
stakeholders and, hopefully, by the end of
June, we should have covered the
whole country. Some of the issues will
definitely come from the
consultations," he said.
Manhanga said they had approached all the main political
parties, noting the
parties intended to make their own contributions.
"We have
started the initiative of engaging the international
community and obviously
they all want to see what we are doing," said
Manhanga. "Most of the
ambassadors we have met so far have welcomed what the
church is trying to do
for Zimbabwe."
The leaders resolved that a church-appointed
programme director
would report to the steering committee, consisting of
members from the three
main church bodies, which would administer the
project.
The resolutions come after their document was
criticised by
opposition party leaders. One criticism was that the authors
had not
consulted widely before coming up with the
document.
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of the pro-Senate MDC
faction said:
"In pursuit of a national initiative such as the National
Vision for
Zimbabwe it is essential to ensure ownership and buy-in by the
generality of
the Zimbabwean people."
Morgan Tsvangirai
of the anti-Senate MDC called for Mugabe to
change his vision of
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe has already poured scorn on the initiative,
saying some
of the issues the document raised were
non-negotiable.
He was referring to the new constitution, the
land reform
exercise and sovereignty.
Zim Standard
BY
GODFREY MUTIMBA
DISTURBANCES continue on the farms in
Mwenezi district where war
veterans are interfering with operations on the
few farms still occupied by
white commercial farmers.
Last week three war veterans were hauled before a Masvingo
magistrate on
three charges of assaulting and kidnapping three farm workers
at disputed
Lot 21A farm, owned by Brian Cawood.
Nehemiah Muzorori (50),
Wensisilous Chikovo (54) and Runesu
Shumba (47) who invaded part of Cawood's
farm in 2001 during the height of
the chaotic land-grabbing exercise,
appeared before Masvingo magistrate,
Timeon Makunde.
The
court heard that on 17 October this year, the trio allegedly
assaulted three
farm workers - Nathaniel Ndlovu, Solomon Sithole and Thalani
Ncube - who are
employed by Cawood at his farm.
The war veterans accused the
farm workers of driving their
cattle out of the paddock owned by Cawood.
They claimed ownership of the
paddock.
Jatiel Mudamburi,
who represented the State, told the court that
the veterans assaulted the
farm workers with knobkerries, sticks, booted
feet and
fists.
The court heard that the veterans apprehended Sithole
who had
sought refuge in his employer's car.
They
kidnapped him and drove him away in the car to their
homesteads where they
continued to assault him.
But Sithole managed to escape and
informed his employer who
eventually reported the incident to the police,
leading to the veterans'
arrest.
The veterans were
remanded out of custody to 16 January next
year.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
CONTROVERSY rages in the Midlands over
the way a provincial
governor, a top official in the President's office and
an MDC official
accessed a combine harvester ahead of ordinary farmers whose
wheat crop was
ruined by the early rains.
Several farmers
who wanted the services of an Agricultural Rural
Development Authority
(ARDA) harvester could only watch as the rains savaged
their wheat crop
recently.
But the Midlands Governor, Cephas Msipa, and
Misheck Sibanda,
the Secretary to the President and Cabinet offices and
surprisingly, an
official of the pro-Senate MDC faction, Renson Gasela,
smiled all the way to
the bank after their plots were harvested - thanks to
Arda's assistance.
Information obtained by The Standard
indicates the rains also
affected Arda's 250-hectare wheat
crop.
Msipa confirmed he had used a combine harvester from
Arda
dispatched to his province as the rains set in a few weeks
ago.
"Inyaya here iyoyo? "(Is it a story worth writing?) he
said last
week.
"It is known there is no combine
harvester in the Midlands and
there was an arrangement that a combine
harvester from Arda be dispatched to
harvest wheat in the
province.
"Farmers were allowed to hire it and this is what I
did," said
the governor.
Msipa denied he managed to use
the harvester ahead of other
farmers because of his position in the province
and the ruling party.
"I didn't get it because I am governor.
I booked, like everybody
else. If you think this was an arrangement for Zanu
PF politicians, you need
to know that it was Gasela who first got the
combine harvester."
The governor said Sibanda, the Secretary
to the President and
Cabinet, had also benefited.
"It
(combine harvester) started harvesting wheat at Gasela's
farm, then it came
to my farm and then to Sibanda's. They also hired it. It
was not a
secret."
Sibanda's secretary at Munhumutapa Building referred
all the
questions to the acting Minister of Information and Publicity, Paul
Mangwana.
"Dr Sibanda is in a meeting; phone the
Minister, he should be
able to respond to your inquiries," said the
secretary.
Mangwana could not be reached for comment as he
was attending
the Zanu PF conference in Goromonzi.
Gasela, the former general manager of the Grain Marketing Board,
confirmed
he was the first farmer in the Midlands to access the
much-sought-after
machine.
He said he was aware that there was disquiet in the
Midlands
over the way he had obtained use of the combine harvester, ahead of
other
struggling farmers and Zanu PF heavyweights.
"I
also know that Zanu PF politicians may want to have a field
day over the
issue," Gasela said.
The MDC official said he negotiated with
Arda officials so that
the combine harvester could first work on his farm.
He said he had paid $240
000 for his four-hectare crop to be
harvested.
"There is a huge outcry: why was Gasela the first
to get the
combine harvester? I am aware many farmers are angry after their
wheat crop
was ruined by the rains. There are others who are saying why
wasn't Gasela's
wheat ruined as well? I know Arda officials are in trouble
because of this,"
Gasela said.
Joseph Matowanyika, the
Arda chief executive officer, could not
explain the circumstances in which
the combine harvester was dispatched to
the Midlands and how the officials
were the first to get its services as the
rains set in.
He switched off his phone after a reporter from The Standard
sought his
comment on the matter.
Zim Standard
By
our correspondent
BULAWAYO - Outspoken activist, Arnold
Payne, who 15 years ago
walked over 400km to highlight the urgency of a
permanent water source for
Bulawayo, says government has failed to
prioritise the long-term provision
of water to the city.
Payne (68), who on Friday was named as one of four residents in
the 2006
City of Bulawayo Civic Honours list, said his epic walk from the
resort town
of Victoria Falls to Bulawayo was in vain because the city's
water woes are
still far from over.
"I feel honoured in that this
recognition is given by people who
are not out to give me a carrot to buy my
silence. If it was given by Zanu
PF I would say it was for something else,"
Payne told The Standard last
week. "Council is recognising some
justification in what I have been doing
in calling for action to address the
water problem in Bulawayo. Personally I
feel let down by the government
because they have other priorities such as
security, defence and
repression."
The City of Bulawayo, home to more than 1
million people, is
running dry owing to its location in a drought-prone
region. Besides,
current dams are not located in the best catchment
areas.
Efforts have been made to secure a permanent water
source for
the city which was once the industrial and commercial hub of the
country. In
1912 plans were mooted to build a pipeline from the Zambezi
River to
Bulawayo as a permanent water source. The Zambezi water project -
though
subject to international and regional protocols - can in one fell
swoop end
Bulawayo's water headaches.
Besides, the
Gwayi-Shangani Dam whose construction is underway,
presents a closer reality
to the dream for a water-secure Bulawayo which has
in the past been forced
to ration water and impose stringent penalties for
violators.
The government has been accused of not acting
to solve the water
problems in the city. Cited is its lethargy in building a
new dam for the
province.
Worst still has been
government's cold response towards raising
money for the Zambezi water
project, currently envisaged to cost well over
US$30 billion to
complete.
Critics point out to the approval, construction and
completion
of Mutare's Pungwe water pipeline in 1998, which was proposed
several years
after the Zambezi water scheme.
Payne, who
pushed a drum of water on a tri-wheel cart during his
campaign, said his
first reaction on being told about the Civic Honour was
to turn it
down.
"Then I thought it might be construed as sour grapes. I
realised
it can be a platform of some kind. It may not be now but in the
future. I
walked in the first place to try and activate government
priorities but
government's priorities have all become political," he said.
"I do not think
government priorities will change at all. I think people
should now be more
active in lobbying for water
collectively."
He added that as an individual he did not
believe that he had
been regarded as useless. However, greater people
participation would make a
difference in restarting the political machinery
in Zanu PF.
"If it would mean a result, I will walk again
because I think I
walked in vain; 15 years on, Bulawayo and the region are
still threatened by
an insecure source of water."
In
August this year, the City of Bulawayo hosted a Water Donors'
conference in
a bid to raise $4,8 billion and US$3,4 million for emergency
water projects.
The conference only raised $96 000.
Between 1928 and 1974 the
City Council used to commission a dam
every 12 - 15 years to meet the
projected 10 to 15 years demand of a growing
population and industry but for
the last 25 years the city has not had a
reliable water source.
Zim Standard
BY GODFREY
MUTIMBA
MASVINGO - Over 700 families were left homeless
after the
government ordered them to vacate their plots as a new phase of
Operation
Murambatsvina hit the province.
Fearing that
government would carry out its threat to unleash
bulldozers on their homes,
the new farmers, most of them war veterans, opted
to destroy their houses to
salvage the little building material they could.
The families
had occupied Clipsham farm, about 10km east of
Masvingo
city.
They said the government informed them they were
illegal
settlers, giving them two weeks to vacate the farm so that farmers
with
offer letters would replace them.
The disgruntled
families said they were being victimised since
they were properly resettled
by the then Masvingo governor, Josiah Hungwe in
2000.
Willard Chiwewe has since replaced Hungwe.
The families said
they had nowhere to go since they abandoned
their rural homes at the height
of the land invasions in 2000.
When a reporter visited the
farm, scores of families were
waiting by the roadside with their belongings
pondering their next move.
Mrs Douglas Tinarwo, who looks
after eight orphans, said she and
her grandchildren had nowhere to go as the
eviction caught them unawares.
"We were served with a letter
by officials from the government
who told us that we settled at the farm
illegally, and should move out. We
were given two weeks to pack our things;
they said if we didn't, bulldozers
would move in as the evictions were under
the Murambatsvina programme," she
said.
Another affected
plot holder who refused to be identified said:
"We were told that we had to
move because the farm was too close to the
city. But what surprises us is
that we were resettled here by the provincial
land committee led by former
governor Hungwe."
Some of the affected were former workers of
the former owner of
the farm who fled the violent farm invasions of
2000.
Zanu PF Masvingo provincial land secretary, Isaiah
Muzenda
confirmed the government had evicted everyone at the farm. "There
are about
700 families who are illegally settled at Clipsham farm and have
since been
given eviction orders," said Muzenda, in an address to a Zanu PF
provincial
conference.
Zim Standard
By our staff
ZANU PF and the party it dethroned at
independence, the Rhodesia
Front, share something in common, The Standard
can reveal.
During recent meetings, in Bulawayo and Harare, a
seven-member
team from African Solidarity says participants expressed
similar sentiments
regarding engagement with the government, with some
taking a hard line in
favour of more defiance, active resistance and
demonstrations.
An oppressive political environment against
and frustration at
lack of opportunities for the majority black population
drove many young
people to join the liberation struggle.
"In both meetings," says the team's report, "young people were
the strongest
in expressing the view that the government can only be removed
through a
violent resistance, considering that authorities have resorted to
using
brutal force against demonstrators, even women - some with children on
their
backs."
The team made up of civil society representatives
from different
African countries was in Zimbabwe until 1 December. The team
met with
Zimbabwean non-governmental organisations, trade unions, women's
movement,
churches, students, and individuals in businesses and
government.
"In one of the high-density suburbs," the team
observed,
"participants were vehemently opposed to the way the government is
dealing
with the situation the country is in. They expressed serious
disagreement
with the way government is operating, including the emphasis on
'operations'
or projects, without any programme to resolve the main sources
of the crisis
in the country which they identified as one of governance and
legitimacy.
The aim of the mission was to provide an
opportunity for
regional civil society and the international community to
offer solidarity
to Zimbabwean civil society during the country's current
humanitarian and
human rights crisis.
The team says it
was informed about the high levels of serious
violations of human rights,
such crimes as rape and torture and the
struggles of ordinary Zimbabweans to
attain a decent standard of living.
Team members were made up
of John Kapito (Malawi), Don Deya
(Tanzania), Jeremias Langa (Mozambique),
Hannah Forster (The Gambia), Don
Mattera (South Africa), Luckson Chipare
(Namibia) and Fatoumata Toure
(Uganda).
"At all public
meetings," says the report, "the team observed a
high degree of intolerance
towards opposing views, even among civil society
leaders. Those who
suggested engaging the government were booed into
silence. This is a cause
for concern."
The team members visited an informal settlement
south of Harare
where around 200 families are living, having been affected
by Operation
Murambatsvina in 2005. But they were denied entry into Hopley
Farm in the
south of the Harare where some of the Operation Murambatsvina
survivors are,
as it can only be accessed after obtaining permission from a
military
officer in charge.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
WORKERS at the
Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) have hired lawyers
in a long-drawn dispute
over a 300 percent pay increase authorised by the
government three years
ago.
The non-academic workers won the Cost of Living
Adjusment boost
in July 2003. "From that time we have been trying, in vain,
to negotiate
with management for an internal settlement," said a disgruntled
worker who
preferred not to be named for fear of
victimisation.
The lawyers, Musunga & Associates, last
month wrote to the
Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare insisting their
clients were "most
anxious for a finality in this
matter".
A ministry arbitrator awarded the workers a 300%
from July 1
2003.The long-distance education institution, saddledwith a huge
debt, has
so far failed to pay the workers a cumulative $510 000 000 as at
June 2006.
The figure excludes interest.
Workers allege
the administration has embarked on "dirty
tactics" to force them to cease
their agitation for the increment.
"They have tried to
incapacitate us by suspending six members of
the workers' committee and
writing to the remaining four, telling them they
no longer had any mandate
to represent the workers," the worker said.
The university
was accused of extending its dirty tactics to a
plot to have the case
withdrawn from the Ministry of Labour. Workers allege
it has roped in the
Academic and Administration associations into the fray.
These bodies have
sought to have the matter withdrawn. Musunga & Associates
last week
wrote to the Arbitrator, A G Nyazika, protesting against this
campaign.
"Further to the aforgoing, we advise that ZOU,
as represented by
one Katsande, does not have the mandate to withdraw this
case. We represent
non-academic staff and they are still pursuing the
matter," they said.
Elizabeth Karonga, the Director of
Information and Publicity,
dismissed the workers' allegations. She said ZOU
mutually agreed with its
employees to withdraw the case from Ministry of
Labour at a joint Works
Council meeting held on 3 November
2006.
ZOU engaged individual workers after "the Workers
Committee's
term of office had expired on 30th August, 2006." she
said.
As part of the agreement, ZOU had undertaken to pay two
months'
salary to the employees. "The employees who signed the settlement
agreement
did so in their individual capacity," she said.
Turning to the alleged victimisation of members of the workers'
committee,
she said:
"The suspension of some employees is totally
divorced from the
Arbitration issue but was a result of misdemeanours
catered for under the
disciplinary code of conduct. It was for employees
across the university who
had misbehaved," she said. - Have your say: editor@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
By Foster Dongozi
THE police recently
seized a consignment of sanitary pads
intended for farm workers as police
repression hit a new low, according to
human rights
analysts.
Getrude Hambira, the secretary-general of the
General
Agricultural and Plantation Workers' Union (GAPWUZ), said the
sanitary pads
were confiscated in November at a road-block along the
Harare-Bindura road.
Her office had been trying without
success to locate them.
"We have engaged the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights to help
us trace the pads, valued at more than $130
000."
Hambira said the police in Mvurwi had also seized
sanitary pads
worth more than $300 000 after developing an unusual interest
in why the
union was distributing sanitary wear to its
members.
The pads were sourced by GAPWUZ locally and
internationally to
assist its underpaid union members, most of whom work for
senior government
officials.
There are now fears that
female police details could have
distributed the pads among themselves,
while male officers could have given
some to their wives or
girlfriends.
"We as GAPWUZ would like to condemn the police
action in seizing
the pads which were to be distributed to our union
members.
"If there are some female police officers who want
to use the
pads or some officers who want to give them to their girlfriends,
they
should first remember that these were pads meant for very poor farm
workers
who can hardly afford to buy them."
She pleaded
with the police to release the pads as many farm
workers were using
newspapers and tree bark during menstruation.
"If the police
want assistance in sourcing such pads, we can
always give them guidance. For
them to seize our pads under some silly
excuse that the locally made
sanitary pads would poison farm workers, so
that there would be a labour
shortage on farms, is not acceptable."
Hambira said with farm
workers earning $8 300 a month, the pads
which cost $3 000 a pack would make
a severe dent on their budgets.
Police spokesperson,
Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said he was
not aware of the seizure of the
pads.
NGO umbrella organisation, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
condemned the seizure of the pads.
"As the world
recognises 16 days against gender-based violence,
it is time the government
put political differences aside and tried to work
for the well-being of
their populace," said Thabani Moyo, an official with
the NGO. - Have your
say: editor@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
By Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO -
Scores of Plumtree villagers, desperate to escape the
crisis in their own
country, are posing as members of the Nswazi community
in the hope of being
relocated to prosperous Botswana.
About 500 Nswazi villagers
from Bulilima in Matabeleland South
are being relocated to their native area
by the Botswana government.
The Zimbabwe government approved
their relocation last month.
The Nswazi villagers who are
being resettled in Marapong and
Nswazwi areas in Botswana are being provided
with food rations worth P300
and temporary shelter by the Botswana
government.
The Standard established that scores of Plumtree
villagers were
claiming to be Nswazis and have been undergoing the screening
exercise.
It could not be established if any of the villagers
had
succeeded in their endeavours as the screening committee was at the
border
when reporters visited Plumtree recently.
The
screening exercise by theBotswana taskforce team on
relocation has been
extended to allow the Nswazi who missed the first
vetting process to be
included.
Violet Moyo from Mangwe admitted she was not Nswazi
but was
willing to try her luck in the screening process. She believed she
might
succeed and start a better life in Botswana.
"I
intend undergoing the exercise and if I am successful, I will
leave this
country," Moyo said.
"There are no jobs in the country and
that is why almost each
and every home has a relative or family member
either in Botswana or South
Africa," she said.
Another
villager, Elvis Khuphe, said: "This is a lifetime
opportunity for one to
leave this country, though we are not Nswazis. We are
forced to enter
Botswana illegally to try and make a living."
It is
apparently not just Zimbabweans who are eager to leave
Zimbabwe.
The Nswazi villagers themselves said they were
happy to be
finally returning to their native Botswana, where there were no
economic
problems such as they faced in Zimbabwe.
The
chairman of the Nswazi community, Nelson Khuphe, said: "We
are happy and
ready to start a new life in Botswana. Most people have
already packed their
belongings and sold their livestock and it is a sign
that they are raring to
go."
He said for the young, this was an opportunity for them
to
realise some of the dreams they never would have in Zimbabwe, where there
were no jobs.
Tshenetsi Moyo (34) said he had never been
formally employed in
Zimbabwe and was overjoyed to leave as he was "fed up"
with unemployment and
starvation in Zimbabwe.
The Nswazi
community settled in Bulilima in the then Southern
Rhodesia with the late
Chief John Nswazi in 1947, fleeing civil strife in
the then British
protectorate of Bechuanaland.
Chief Nswazi died in 1965 and
his remains were exhumed and
reburied in Botswana in 2002, 36 years after
Bechuanaland achieved
independence.
The community
expressed its interest to be relocated to their
native Botswana and
subsequent negotiations between Zimbabwe and Botswana
culminated in the
repatriation that started a fortnight ago.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
THE dispute over the
ownership of the Beitbridge mine, River
Ranch Limited, took a new twist last
week amid revelations that diamonds
were being illegally sold in breach of
international procedure.
Standardbusiness heard last week
that diamonds were being sold
in breach of the Kimberly Process
Certification Scheme (KPCS) which
prohibits the sale of any stones not
certified as produced from a legitimate
claim, and which are not accompanied
by a Certificate of Origin from that
country's regulatory
body.
This may result in the country facing investigation by
the
United Nations, who administer the KPCS. Affidavits in possession of
Standardbusiness show that River Ranch had violated KPCS by engaging in
mining.
"I can tell you that the diamond mine has been
working since
20th June 2006," reads an affidavit sworn by one of the
workers last month.
"It only stops for maintenance, breakdowns and
power-shedding. I can confirm
that quite a number of Govt officials, mine
officials and police have been
to the mine. All these people know that the
mine is working full time.
"I can confirm that lots of
diamonds have been recovered and
that lots have left the mine. Where these
have gone, I do not know, however,
it is said some have gone to
RSA."
Another affidavit said: "I can confirm that on the
10/11/06 I
saw Lloyd Dass and John Tsokota remove to (sic) boxes with
diamonds in the
from (sic) diamond room and take them to the admin block.
I'm not the only
person who saw this happen but, it was also seen by a
number of my work
mates.
"Shortly after this Lloyd Dass
left with them in vehicle
registration number AAQ9041, Toyota Surf, grey in
colour and his vehicle was
followed by Mr. Shava in his vehicle and they
proceeded to RSA together.",
The affidavits are in contrast
to an earlier pledge by Dube,
Manikai & Hwacha to Bubye lawyers Hussein
Ranchod & Company that his clients
would abide by the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme.
"Our client has maintained its stance
of neutrality in the
dispute between your client and River Ranch Limited
throughout, in
accordance with provisions of the Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe
Act and its undertaking made at the outset. In
addition, our client has at
all times observed and will continue to observe
the principles behind the
Kimberley Certification Process, as well as the
terms of the Provision Order
granted by the High Court on the 2nd February
in Case no HC 278/06," the
lawyers said.
River Ranch
Limited is an off-shore company with two known
owners, Rani International
Limited and Khupukhile Resources Limited. Rani is
controlled by Arabian Adel
Aujan, while Khupukhile is controlled by retired
General Solomon Mujuru and
Tirivanhu Mudariki.
However, Aujan entered into an agreement
with the Farquhars (the
Shareholders of Bubye Minerals) to invest such funds
from offshore as were
necessary to acquire the shares in River Ranch Limited
in partnership, with
70% going to the Farquhars and 30% going to Aujan. Part
of the agreement
would be that Bubye Minerals would be the mining and
operational partner,
and hence the holder of the Special
Grant.
Aujan unilaterally breached the partnership and gave a
percentage of the shares intended for the Farquhars to General Mujuru. Bubye
Minerals has been fighting through the Courts to regain possession of the
mine. There have been four previous court hearings surrounding the ownership
of Special Grant 1278, in all of which Bubye Minerals has been
successful.
However, two weeks ago High Court Judge Lawrence
Kamocha threw
out an application by Bubye to compel the Minister of Mines
and Mining
Development to reverse his decision to cancel a special grant to
the mine on
the grounds that it had not been properly ceded to them by the
owners, River
Ranch Ltd. But Bubye has since filed a notice of appeal in the
Supreme
Court.
Bubye owners are contesting that despite
an Interim Order
granted by Justice Bharat Patel, upholding Bubye Minerals'
right to Special
Grant 1278, both the Ministry of Mines and the police have
failed to
implement that Order, condoning the illegal exploitation of the
mine by
River Ranch Limited.
Zim Standard
By Our Staff
ZIMBABWEAN
industries could be under siege from fresh threats of
"dumping" prompted by
requirements to open up its market under the Common
Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (Comesa) and Economic Partnerships
Agreements
(EPA).
Both trade agreements have raised fears of the
collapse to the
unprepared entrepreneuers whose problems are compounded by
an unfavourable
exchange rate and the harsh economic
conditions.
Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) treasurer,
Andy Hodges,
predicted 2008 would be the year of reckoning for local
industry.
In 2008, Comesa Customs Union and EPAs negotiated
by the African
Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries with the European Union
will come into
effect.
"It can be quite bad," said
Hodges. "Our markets will be opened
for other countries to set up companies
here, at very low entry costs. They
have better equipment and their
economies are stronger than ours. Zimbabwean
companies will have to pull up
their socks and produce high quality
products."
Comesa
will in 2008 transform its Free Trade Area to a Customs
Union. The
transformation will be characterised by the integration and
merger of
customs territories into a single customs territory and result in
common
customs laws, external tariff, tariff nomenclature and common
legislation to
deal with unfair trading practises, competition issue and
investment.
Zimbabwe is also a member of ACP, presently
negotiating for EPAs
with the European Union. The EPAs are aimed at
redifining the trade regime
between the two parties by replacing the Lome
Agreement of preferential
access to EU markets for ACP with new Free Trade
Agreements.
This has raised anxiety among the underdeveloped
members of the
ACP.
For Africa, the Conferedation of
Zimbabwe Industries chief
executive officer, Joe Malaba said it meant an
influx of cheap goods from
the EU and a threat to the survival of local
industries.
"Our markets will be open to the EU and there
will be an influx
of cheap goods," Malaba said.
But he
sees hope for Zimbabwe with its wealth of resources. "The
need here might be
to value add because we have the competitive advantage of
resources."
Local companies have in recent years
complained about the influx
of cheap products from Asia although the
government has turned a deaf ear to
their pleas for action. Their cries
could be louder in 2008, analysts
predict, if they do not start preparing
now for the inevitable.
The EPAs are even more worrying. The
global community have seen
them as a "multilateral patchwork quilt of rules
that favour the rich over
the poor".
Arguments are that
the free trade would be a risk for the ACP
countries, which would be put
under severe strain from cheap and subsided EU
imports, almost always of
poor quality too.
But the ACP countries will be unlikely to
get better access to
the Western markets.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR CORRESPONDENT
MUTARE - The commission running Mutare city
has proposed an
increase of over 3 000 percent in rates, rents and services
for the 2007
budget.
The proposed hikes have raised fears
among low-income residents
in Sakubva, for instance, that the impact on
their lives will be unbearable.
The average monthly income of
the residents has been estimated
at $15 000, but rentals for houses in
Chineta and Mazhambe have been raised
from $360, 92 to $10 827, 71 in
January.
In May the figure will rise to $32 483, 13 and $64
966, 27 in
September.
Detached three-roomed houses in
Chisamba, Nyausunzi, Avenues and
Tenderere areas, now renting for $601, 51 a
month will cost $108 277,11 by
September. Single accommodation, previously
$208, 77 will rise to $37 578,
05.
In Dangamvura, a
high-density suburb for working class
residents, rents, rates and service
charges will go up significantly. Houses
being let for $360, 92 will go up
to $64 966, 27.
Clinic and hospital charges will rise from $4
000 for children
to as much as $240 000. Adults who currently pay $8 000
will have to fork
out $480 000.
Zim Standard
Comment
HARARE
residents have become so timid; the day may not be far
away when they would
fold their arms in despair, as their once great city
drowns in its own
garbage.
How else is one to interpret the silence as the
government, with
typical impunity, decided to foist on the city the
incompetent, arrogant and
luxury-loving Sekesai Makwavarara, once
again?
Perhaps the residents are praying for Providence to
intervene,
as a certain Minister of Finance keeps calling on the Almighty to
put some
stuffing into the perennially empty sausage skin that is the annual
national
budget.
The Zanu PF provincial leadership is fed
up with Makwavarara;
most residents speak of her performance in language
which is not for young
ears. Even housewives, who you would expect to back
her up; on the basis of
a gender sorority, have been heard to hiss
obscenities once her name is
mentioned within their
earshot.
One man who is thoroughly besotted with her,
politically, is the
Local Government minister, Ignatious Chombo; she can do
no wrong. No one
else could do for Harare what Makwavarara has done, since
Chombo removed
Elias Mudzuri from office.
Free and fair
elections may not be held in Harare for a long
time to come. Chombo is an
educated, politically savvy man. He knows if free
and fair elections were
held soon, Zanu PF would be thrown out on its ear -
as it was in
2002.
Incidentally, it is for this same reason that his party
is
avoiding an election in 2008; only the most fanatical supporter could
predict an easy ride for Zanu PF. Most people know change is
imperative.
Recently, the party won by-elections by default;
a divided
opposition party. The by-elections are basically meaningless and
would not
affect the balance of power nationally.
But for
Harare residents, the lethargy against the rape of their
city by Zanu PF is
almost grotesque; in the high-density suburbs, garbage
piles up everywhere,
uncollected.
Not even the government media can ignore the
anger and anguish
of ordinary, low-income housewives whose children are
being subjected daily
to the threat of disease as they frolic in dirty water
in which human waste
is floating, after damage to the sewer
system.
If the government, in collusion with the city
council, was
trying to drive opposition-voting residents out of the city, in
a ghoulish
version of Operation |Murambatsvina, then they would not have
chosen a more
effective method.
Residents are being made
to feel so insecure in their own homes
most must be thinking perhaps they
would be better off in their rural homes;
at least, they would not have to
pay for services which are non-existent.
As with their other
acts of impunity over the years, Zanu PF
must know that it is stoking the
dangers of a fire next time. The impunity
with which it has allowed the
economy to deteriorate would not have been
countenanced in most African
countries.
In Harare and in Zimbabwe as a whole, people's
rights have been
trampled underfoot and there has hardly been a whimper of
protest. This is
why Chombo and Makwavarara can waltz in and out of the Town
House without
fear of any protest.
This is not a call to
arms, but an acknowledgment that unless
the people get rid of their
self-inflicted fear of the unknown, they will
surely drown in their own
filth, before long.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion By Kofi Annan
NEARLY 50 years ago, when I
arrived in Minnesota as a student
fresh from Africa, I had much to learn -
starting with the fact that there
is nothing weird about wearing earmuffs
when the temperature is 15 below.
All my life since then has
been a learning experience. Now I
want to pass on five lessons I have learnt
during 10 years as United Nations
Secretary-General - lessons which I
believe the community of nations needs
to learn, as it confronts the
challenges of the 21st century.
First, in today's world we
are all responsible for each other's
security. Against such threats as
nuclear proliferation, climate change,
global pandemics, or terrorists
operating from safe havens in failed states,
no nation can make itself
secure by seeking supremacy over all others. Only
by working to make each
other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security
for
ourselves.
This responsibility includes our shared
responsibility to
protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing
and crimes
against humanity. That was accepted by all nations at last year's
UN summit.
But when we look at the murder, rape and starvation still being
inflicted on
the people of Darfur, we realise that such doctrines remain
pure rhetoric
unless those with the power to intervene effectively - by
exerting
political, economic or, in the last resort, military muscle - are
prepared
to take the lead.
It also includes a
responsibility to future generations - to
preserve resources that belong to
them as well as to us. Every day that we
do nothing, or too little, to
prevent climate change imposes higher costs on
our
children.
Second, we are also responsible for each other's
welfare.
Without a measure of solidarity, no society can be
truly stable.
It is not realistic to think that some people can go on
deriving great
benefits from globalisation while billions of others are left
in, or thrown
into, abject poverty. We have to give all our fellow human
beings at least a
chance to share in our prosperity.
Third, both security and prosperity depend on respect for human
rights and
the rule of law.
Throughout history human life has been
enriched by diversity,
and different communities have learnt from each
other. But if our
communities are to live in peace we must stress also what
unites us: our
common humanity, and the need for our human dignity and
rights to be
protected by law.
That is vital for
development, too. Both foreigners and a
country's own citizens are more
likely to invest when their basic rights are
protected and they know they
will be fairly treated under the law. And
policies that genuinely favour
development are more likely to be adopted if
the people most in need of
development can make their voice heard.
States need to play
by the rules towards each other, as well. No
community anywhere suffers from
too much rule of law; many suffer from too
little - and the international
community is among them. This we must change.
My fourth
lesson, therefore, is that governments must be
accountable for their
actions, in the international as well as the domestic
arena. Every state
owes some account to other states on which its actions
have a decisive
impact.
As things stand, poor and weak states are easily held
to
account, because they need foreign aid. But large and powerful states,
whose
actions have the greatest impact on others, can be constrained only by
their
own people.
That gives the people and institutions
of powerful states a
special responsibility to take account of global views
and interests. And
today they need to take into account also what we call
"non-state actors".
States can no longer - if they ever could - confront
global challenges
alone. Increasingly, they need help from the myriad types
of association in
which people come together voluntarily, for profit or to
think about, and
change, the world.
How can states hold
each other to account? Only through
multilateral institutions. So my final
lesson is that those institutions
must be organised in a fair and democratic
way, giving the poor and the weak
some influence over the actions of the
rich and the strong.
Developing countries should have a
stronger voice in
international financial institutions, whose decisions can
mean life or death
for their people. And new permanent or long-term members
should be added to
the UN Security Council, whose current membership
reflects the reality of
1945, not of today's world.
No
less important, all the Security Council's members must
accept the
responsibility that comes with their privilege. The Council is
not a stage
for acting out national interests. It is the management
committee of our
fledgling global security system.
More than ever today
humanity needs a functioning global system.
And experience has shown, time
and again, that the system works poorly when
its member states are divided
and lack leadership, but much better when
there is unity and far-sighted
leadership and engagement of all major
actors. The world's leaders, of today
and tomorrow, have a great
responsibility. The people of the world must see
that they live up to it.
* Kofi Annan is outgoing
Secretary-General of the UN. This
article is based on an address at the
Truman Presidential Museum & Library
in Missouri
Zim Standard
sundayopinion By Bill Saidi
ADOLF
Hitler 's death in the Berlin bunker ought to have taught
all future
would-be dictators that their day of reckoning would be
messy.
Call it the "wages of sin", "the revenge of the gods",
or God's
vengeance.
Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean
dictator who died last
week, may have had his loved ones around him. But,
like Hitler who killed
himself and his lover, he must have felt relief that,
at last, he would
escape the pain he had endured for so
long.
Before that, he must have felt the world and its
brother would
persecute him for his sins until he expired, from entering and
leaving this
or that court.
His own country was
determined he would not escape punishment.
Even if a dozen specialists
certified he was senile and had Alzheimer's
disease, they would not let him
off the hook.
Pinochet's demise ought to warn other dictators
that their
inevitable comeuppance will entail the same excruciating pain
that this
91-year-old former dictator endured.
Yet we all
know, life is not that simple; people will commit
acts which they know will
bring them grief. That is the way of fallible
humankind.
Slobodan Milosevich must have gone to meet
his Maker knowing
what he had done to God's innocent people would earn him
the Almighty's
eternal wrath; yet up to the end, he protested his innocence,
as Pinochet
did.
Those who believe in the existence of a
Supreme Being will
assert, comfortably, that Pinochet is an example of how
Humankind must know
the terrible reward for going against the tenets of The
Supreme Teacher -
Jesus Christ, Mohammed or the Buddha.
The atheists will ascribe Pinochet's demise to a heavy dose of
guilt. His
mind and body were terrorised incessantly by memories of innocent
people
being flung from helictopers into the ocean, or being smashed into
smithereens by the gun butts of his soldiers.
In the end,
the man cracked, his body giving up under the
anvil-like weight of this
guilt: moreover, he was 91 years old. How much
longer can an immune system
last after that age?
Most Africans will not bother
themselves with Pinochet's death:
after all, they have their own dictators'
death to worry about. Will they
hang on to life until they are 91? Will they
expire before then, saving the
taxpayer a lot of money in medical
bills?
Pinochet came to power in 1973 after overthrowing the
Marxist
regime of Salvador Allende. In those years, Africa had not yet
cornered the
entire market of military coups; it's true that the former
Belgian Congo,
Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and a few former French colonies had
been taken over
by soldiers.
Yet South America, with its
"banana republics", led the field.
Africa would take over soon
enough.
For me, the coup in Chile was played out in the Hotel
Rusia in
Moscow, at that time the largest hotel in Europe. Three Chilean
women were
huddled in a corner of the massive lounge, crying quietly. Our
interpreter
told us they had heard of the coup; they were Salvador Allende's
supporters,
visiting Moscow as the guests of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union;
they would not return to their country, until democracy was
restored.
Like most South American republics, Chile was
hardly a model of
democracy before Allende.
His problem
was that the Cold War dictated the geopolitics of
the world then. The United
States government, under the soon-to-resign
Richard Milhous Nixon, was
livid. The Central Intelligence Agency is
reported to have plotted Allende's
downfall.
As with most things Uncle Sam did in the pursuit of
beating the
Soviet Union, the success in Chile turned into something of a
pyrrhic
victory: Pinochet and his brutal regime were hardly what they had
bargained
for.
Still, that the killings and
disappearances continued for 17
years would seem to suggest Washington was
not in a hurry to "demo cratise"
its client state - as it did not do with
Mobutu Sese Seko's Congo, which the
former colonel renamed Zaire as the LSD
of power got to his head.
Incidentally, Mobutu himself
provided one of the most salutary
lessons for all dictators: it may take
long, but God or Allah or Something
or Someone can guarantee that your end
is going to be ignominious, whichever
country offers you
sanctuary.
Zim Standard
sundayview By Renson Gasela
THE growth in agricultural
production in the communal areas has
been facilitated by private sector
companies who found that it was in their
interest to do so, so as to get raw
materials and stay in business.
The Cotton Company has been a
leader in this. Even when it was
the Cotton Marketing Board, it started a
scheme of contracts with farmers
where it provided inputs. Farmers would
then sell their cotton to it. After
cotton was decontrolled, and then
privatised, companies such as Cargill also
came in. They contracted with
farmers and supplied inputs. Farmers would
then sell their seed cotton to
these companies.
The end result of this is that cotton
production has actually
not been adversely affected by the chaotic land
reform programme. Pioneers
in these contracts include Delta Corporation, who
for many years contracted
large-scale farmers for barley and red sorghum
production.
The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has also been a
major player in
this. The GMB would contract farmers and supply them with
all inputs for
various crops that would have been agreed. Before harvest,
farmers would
also obtain empty bags from GMB and sign stop orders
authorising the GMB to
recover their costs. The GMB would monitor that
farmers who accessed inputs
and empty bags from them would have to meet
their obligations by selling
their produce to it.
The
overall benefit to the farmers from this system is proven by
the success of
the Cottco and Cargill scheme.
In April/May this year, wheat
producers were availed the same
facility by the GMB, as has been done over
many years. As a matter of fact,
only the GMB had wheat seed and
fertilizers, making it difficult for those
farmers with their own money to
access inputs from elsewhere. These inputs
would only be availed if you
entered a contract with the Board to grow and
deliver wheat to them. Even
those farmers who wanted to buy for cash from
GMB were not able to do so as
the inputs were available only on credit for
contracts.
Ever since I bought my farm in 1996, I have been a regular
supplier of
produce to the GMB. In April this year I entered into a contract
to grow and
sell wheat to the GMB. I got the necessary inputs but I was not
invoiced.
The contract did not show the costs of seed and fertilizer
because, I was
told, at that time, they did not have the prices.
Over the
wheat growing period - May to September - I went to the
GMB a number of
times and was repeatedly told that they still could not
invoice me as they
did not have the prices. They confirmed that they had
paid for the inputs
but did not know how much to charge the farmers as that
decision came from
the government.
In early September, I phoned Minister Joseph
Made about the
invoicing problem. I explained to him that if farmers were
not invoiced, the
GMB would want to do that first before they could pay as
they should recover
input costs supplied to farmers. He denied it was the
government preventing
the GMB from invoicing the farmers. However, he
undertook to talk to the
GMB.
Soon after this, I was
advised by the GMB that they now had the
prices and would start debiting the
farmers. With this assurance, I
harvested my wheat and delivered it to GMB
on 26 October, and was promised
payment would be the following
week.
I called the GMB on Tuesday, 31 October asking that at
least
they advise me how much they were going to deduct for inputs since up
to
that date, there was no invoice. The lady on the phone, to my utter shock
and disbelief, told me that the GMB had been instructed not to recover
anything for inputs. She said that the instruction was that deductions would
be done next year.
It is obvious that the government
never intended the GMB to
recover the wheat input costs from farmers. I do
not believe that the GMB
did not know how much to charge the farmers since
they had paid for these
inputs from suppliers. It was, as lawyers put it,
with malice aforethought.
There are serious implications to
this self-enrichment action of
government. It is common cause that chefs
took for themselves the farms that
were well-equipped, with irrigation
infrastructure.
They are the ones who have the ability to
grow wheat as it is a
wholly irrigated crop. They also are the ones who have
the ability and clout
to finance themselves. The decision to postpone
payment of the inputs was
naturally made by themselves with themselves in
mind.
* Renson Gasela is the Secretary for Lands and
Agriculture in
the MDC (Arthur Mutambara).
Zanu PF too heartless to rule beyond
2010
I write to express my disappointment at the heartlessness
and
lack of seriousness by Zanu PF and the government. Please note that my
disappointment is not sudden, but is inherited from many
years.
During the 2001 Budget proposal, the Minister of
Finance, Dr
Herbert Murerwa, promised he would allocate $4 billion for the
development
of schools in rural areas. Its major thrust was towards
construction and
maintenance of about four schools in each
district.
Furthermore, Murerwa promised to allocate $8,2
billion towards
the construction of new schools in order to do away with
hot-seating.
When I first heard about the proposed phasing
out of hot
seating, I dismissed it as a joke. The late headmaster of
Emakhandeni
Secondary School, Bulawayo, Phineas Mazarura Kandenga, told me
there was a
strong objection towards this from a majority of headmasters in
the province
and I agreed with him.
In order to phase out
hot-seating in the country you don't have
to just expand existing schools,
but to build new ones. How many schools as
big as Luveve, Mpopoma, Gwanda
and Msiteli high schools can be built by this
government? The most logical
step towards improving learning conditions is
to build new classroom blocks
at existing schools and abolish annexure.
Those who have
taken time to observe the operations of schools
with annexes such as Inyanda
and Amhlope Secondary Schools will agree with
my observations. However, the
big question is: does the government have the
capacity to foster development
in accordance with people's expectations? My
view is: No it does not
have.
Under a Zanu PF government, the people in Matabeleland
can
forget about development. There shall never be a science laboratory at
Ratanyana Secondary School. Enrolment shall continue to deteriorate. I left
Ratanyana and Tshelanyemba because I saw that the places were not ideal for
education.
How does the Minister of Education, Aeneas
Chigwedere explain
that a school serving a huge catchment area covering
Ratanyana, Homestead,
Mashumba, Makoloyi, Simphane, Nkantini, Maminyela and
Number Four only has
eight classrooms without a science laboratory? How does
he explain that
almost none of the classrooms have doors and
windows?
The people of Matabeleland must wise up and learn to
understand
issues beyond the stated words because districts that are home to
highly
placed or top government officials are adequately supported by the
government.
Matobo District, home to the late Dr Joshua
Nkomo, is never
considered and as a result it continues to be
underdeveloped. Look at what
they did to the Bulawayo-Maphisa road when
Ananias Sithomi Nyathi was
campaigning for the Senate elections. It is now a
year since the Senate
elections and we will not see any development until
the next elections.
I want to declare that Zanu PF has
overstayed its welcome to the
extent that they have become so incompetent
that they cannot become the next
government.
We should
learn to ignore what President Robert Mugabe, Dr
Gideon Gono and Murerwa say
because as long as Zanu PF remains in power, we
will have no economy to talk
of. Let us make adequate preparations for a new
beginning.
Discent C Bajila
Jahunda
Gwanda
-------
Unimpressed by Zima awards presentation
AS an avid arts and
music follower, I was unimpressed by
the way the Zimbabwe Music Awards
(ZIMA) was conducted in Harare recently.
Firstly the
stage was too small, it looked squashed and
the decorations were not the
ones you would expect for musical awards for
the best artistic performers in
our country.
What dismayed me the most was the way
Professor Fred Zindi
announced Oliver Mtukudzi's award. He hinted who he was
giving the award to
even though he had not even started opening the envelope
containing the name
of the winner.
He said
something to the effect that wherever he went
people would ask him if "this
guy comes form Mars . . ." This was revealing
since Iyasa was also nominated
and Iyasa is not a "he".
This could be inferred that he
knew who had won the award
and I think this casts a dark cloud on the
credibility and transparency of
the whole process.
I think we need to look closely at other international
awards presentations
and emulate how they conduct their presentations.
We
could study the MTV Music Awards, KORA and Grammy's.
There is nothing to
stop us from matching international standards with a
definite Zimbabwean
feel.
As things stand, the Zima awards presentation
that we
witnessed were a study in mediocrity.
Rutendo Chabururuka
Ballantyne
Park
Harare
--------
Double standards over Chinese
firm
IN societies where governments really care about
their citizens and where democracy is vibrant, the Chinese brick making
factory that has been in the news lately would not be allowed anywhere near
government contracts such as Operation Garikai or any other construction
projects.
There would be a clause stipulating
that before a
company can participate in government contracts it must have
demonstrated it
implements fair labour
practices.
Ordinary consumers would boycott the
company's
products until it started conforming and conducting its affairs in
a manner
that is generally expected of it. The same approach was employed
effectively
to ostracise companies that conducted business with Apartheid
South Africa.
Parallel to the actions by
consumers, the opposition
would demand explanations from the government on
the circumstances under
which companies are allowed to flout Zimbabwe's and
international labour
standards.
But this is
Zimbabwe and government politicians can
sacrifice voters in the name of
foreign investment, while the opposition,
trade unions and civil society
behave as if appalling working conditions are
the norm. Would the same have
be tolerated had the company been British or
American-owned?
One of the reasons why
workers are reluctant to take
part in any organised mass action is because
they realise that they are
being used as cannon
fodder.
V L
Enin
Mbare
------------
ZTV viewers in the
cold
UNTIL recently, I used to thoroughly enjoy
reading your "What's on air column". However, it is now obvious that the
author of this column no longer watches ZTV and has resorted to reviewing
DStv channels (last week's column bears ample testimony to
this).
While this is not a bad thing in
itself, since
there is sizeable percentage of the Zimbabwean population that
no longer
watches the local TV station, I believe it is imperative that you
also
continue to cater for those of us that still watch
it.
My suggestion is that you create
another
column penned by a writer that actually watches ZTV and leave
Stewart
Chabwinja to concentrate on his DStv analysis. It would be grossly
unfair to
force him to watch ZTV just so he can have something to
write.
G
Kunaka
Harare