Zim Online
Wednesday 20 December
2006
HARARE - More than 200 000 workers in
crisis-hit Zimbabwe lost their
jobs in 2006 alone as a hostile operating
environment forced firms to either
scale down operations or close shop
altogether, according to the Labour and
Economic Research Institute of
Zimbabwe.
The institute, which is a research arm of the country's
largest worker
representative body, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions,
predicted more
jobs could be lost in the new year as hyperinflation and
severe shortages of
raw materials, machine parts, fuel, electricity and hard
cash forced more of
the country's limping industries to
collapse.
Speaking to ZimOnline on Tuesday, institute director
Godfrey Kanyenze
said research had established that from 998 000 people that
the government's
Central Statistical Office said were holding formal jobs in
2005 only about
700 000 remained in employment.
Kanyenze said:
"In 2005 the Central Statistical Office (CSO) reported
that 998 000 people
were in employment, while the CSO is yet to release
figures for this year
our research indicates that the number of people in
employment now is down
to about 700 000 due to problems such as Operation
Murambatsvina."
Operation Murambatsvina was the codename of
last year's controversial
slum clearing campaign by the government which saw
police destroying
shantytowns, city backyard cottages and informal business
kiosks in urban
areas, to leave at least 700 000 people without homes or
means of
livelihood.
The campaign, which the United Nations
said indirectly affected
another 2.4 million people, primarily targeted the
informal sector but also
hit hard many low-income factory workers who rented
accommodation in
shantytowns or backyard cottages.
Many workers
had to give up their jobs to return to rural areas after
the government
destroyed their makeshift homes.
Both Labour Minister Nicholas
Goche and CSO director Moffat Nyoni were
not immediately available for
comment on Kanyenze's figures on lost jobs.
The Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), which together with
the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), are considered the voices of
the business
community declined to give job figures saying it was yet to
complete its own
survey on the number of jobs on the market.
But ZNCC president
Marah Hativagone said many firms, especially in the
textiles sector, were
facing severe viability problems with at least one
company closing shop
every month.
"A number of companies have closed down. One company
in every month is
understood to be closing. Places are dead quiet and
nothing is going on in
industry as they (companies) can't find foreign
currency," said Hativagone.
The CZI reported at the end of July
that 1 000 companies folded over
the past six years, casting thousands of
workers onto the streets in a
country where conservative estimates put
unemployment at more than 70
percent.
Industrialist and
prominent member of the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party
Eddie Cross said police arrest in recent weeks of
business executives
accused of flouting state price controls could only mean
more job loses as
company officials would rather close down than be jailed
for charging market
prices.
"Firms are threatened with closure as managers are refusing
to
continue operations at the risk of their own safety and security (from
arrest)," said Cross.
Zimbabwe, once an African model economy,
is grappling with its worst
ever economic crisis, critics blame on
repression and wrong policies by
President Robert Mugabe such as his seizure
of productive white-owned farms
for redistribution to landless
blacks.
The chaotic and often violent farm seizures dislocated
agriculture,
the backbone of the economy. Disruption of the farming sector
had a ripple
effect on an estimated 60 percent of the southern African
nation's
industries that rely on agriculture and are now operating at around
30
percent of capacity. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 20 December 2006
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's petrified opposition has resorted to issuing
ineffectual threats
as the ruling ZANU PF party moves to re-draw the country's
Constitution to
entrench its rule, in what analysts say is the clearest
indication yet of
how moribund the once robust opposition has become.
At its weekend
conference in Goromonzi, ZANU PF recommended the
extension of President
Robert Mugabe's tenure at State House, albeit without
an election, saying
this was meant to "harmonise" presidential and
parliamentary elections that
are currently held separately.
In what some opposition and civic
society officials have called a
"civilian coup", Mugabe will no longer step
down in 2008 as scheduled, but
will stay in office until 2010, much against
growing public anger over a
crumbling economy that has heightened poverty
among the ordinary people.
ZANU PF will use its parliamentary majority to
amend the constitution to
extend Mugabe's tenure.
Analysts said
the opposition had been presented a chance to rally
Zimbabweans to not only
force an unpopular Mugabe to drop plans to hang on
to power - but to also
pressure the veteran leader to accept sweeping
political reforms, leading to
a new and democratic constitution and new free
and fair
elections.
"Clearly the opposition has again failed to seize the
initiative, they
have slumped into fatalistic silence, only reduced to
hissing ineffective
threats against ZANU PF," said University of Zimbabwe
political scientist
Eldred Masunungure.
"This (extending
Mugabe's rule) would be enough ammunition to propel
all the opposition
movements into some form of co-ordinated resistance
campaign but they seem
more intrigued by Mugabe's political machinations,"
he added.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which came
closest
to unseating Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF in elections in 2000 and
2002,
has been hit by divisions over tactics to confront the 82-year old
leader.
The larger faction of the splintered MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai -
buoyed by a successful congress in March this year - threatened
to roll out
mass protests saying "the dictator should brace for a rasping
winter of
discontent". But as the year comes to an end, there is little sign
of such
planned action.
A deep economic recession has fanned
political tensions in the former
British colony of 12 million people as the
majority battle with rising
prices of commodities, shortages of foreign
currency, food, fuel,
unemployment above 80 percent and collapsing
infrastructure.
"Surely how much more insult does one need to be
propelled into
action?" John Makumbe, another UZ political scientist and a
critic of
Mugabe, said. "Mugabe is ruling with impunity and people are
looking to the
opposition for direction."
Asked whether he
believed the opposition had failed, Makumbe said: "Oh
yes, that's what the
ordinary person out there is saying and I will not
blame them if they
thought there was a need for a leadership renewal (in the
opposition)."
Critics say Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since
independence in1980,
is largely responsible for driving the country's
economy into the ground,
pointing to his populist seizure of land from white
commercial farmers to
resettle blacks, which derailed the mainstay
agricultural sector.
The Zimbabwean leader, who has been shunned by
the West on charges of
rigging elections and human rights abuses, argues
that he commands majority
support and at one point boasted that no one could
have managed the country's
economy better than him.
Makumbe
said: "I believe the opposition and its civic society allies
will rue this
chance. Mugabe has rigged elections but this time he is not
even bothering
going through the ballot box. He is daring the opposition and
there they
are, issuing meaningless statements."
Last week, outspoken Catholic
Archbishop Pius Ncube said the two MDC
factions led by Tsvangirai and
academic Arthur Mutambara lacked visionary
leadership and had actually
become a stumbling block to efforts to achieve
democratic change in the
Country.
Presenting a report on increasing police brutality, he
said a
Ukrainian-style mass revolt by Zimbabweans to push Mugabe to embrace
democracy and human rights was still possible but only on condition there
was a drastic shake-up and reconfiguration at the top echelons of the
opposition movement.
And perhaps to prove Ncube and other
critics right, Tsvangirai and top
leaders of the smaller MDC faction were
this week literally falling over
each other to issue statements denouncing
plans by ZANU PF to change the
Constitution so Mugabe could remain in
power.
Some top officials of the opposition movement were even
quoted in the
media promising they would fight the proposed constitutional
changes in
Parliament - a hopeless and puerile threat given ZANU PF does not
require
co-operation from the MDC as it has absolute majority in the
House.
"On reflection the opposition will realise this (failure to
act) was a
fatal blunder. They will realise they let a chance to make a big
political
victory go by and with it a chance to restore the people's
confidence in the
opposition," Masunungure said.
Mugabe has in
the past used security forces to clamp down on protests,
including those
organised by labour unions and has vowed to deal harshly
with opponents who
threaten his grip on power. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 20 December
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe is one of only two
African countries forecast to
register negative economic growth in 2006 and
the sluggish performance by
these economies is seen putting a damper on an
otherwise robust growth for
the continent, according to the World Bank's
2007 Global Economic Prospects
released last week.
The report,
released on 13 December, shows that only Zimbabwe and
Seychelles are
forecast to register negative economic growth at a time when
most African
economies are projected to expand by an average five percent.
The
embattled Zimbabwean economy, in a lurch since 1999 when major
donors
stopped economic support for the country, is projected to shrink by
3.3
percent this year while Seychelles is seen declining by 1.8
percent.
"The economies of the Seychelles and Zimbabwe continue to
contract,
while those of Eriteria, Lesotho and Swaziland are estimated to
have
expanded by less than two percent," said the World Bank.
The Bank report coincides with the assessment of an International
Monetary
Fund (IMF) mission that left Harare last Friday after being in the
country
since 4 December to assess economic performance.
The IMF team
warned of more economic hardships in the coming year
unless the Harare
authorities bite the bullet and accept to implement
comprehensive economic
reforms.
The IMF had previously warned that unless drastic measures
were taken
to contain spending and adopt macroeconomic best practices,
Zimbabwe's
inflation - already the highest in the world at 1 098.8 percent
in
November - could breach the 4 000 percent mark by the end of
2006.
Other economists are now seeing that target becoming a
reality by
mid-2007.
According to the World Bank, the African
economy is set for a fourth
consecutive year of above-average growth, with
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
forecast to increase by 5.3 percent in
2007.
This would mean that the continent would have maintained the
average
recorded over the 2004-06 period.
When South Africa,
the region's largest economy, is excluded, the
continent's average growth
rates are even more impressive at 5.6 percent a
year since
2003.
The World Bank attributes Africa's robust economic expansion
to
"favourable international conditions, improved economic policies in
Africa
itself, accelerated regional exports (to China especially), and
higher
commodity prices, most notably for oil and metals".
The
Bank noted that growth in small oil-importing countries is
projected to pick
up somewhat during the coming two years, "although growth
in Eriteria,
Lesotho, the Seychelles, Swaziland and Zimbabwe is projected to
remain below
two percent".
Zimbabwe is, in fact, the only African country
projected to suffer a
decline in economic growth during the coming two
years.
The economy is seen shrinking by 2.9 and 2.1 percent in 2007
and 2008,
respectively.
The Seychelles is expected to reverse
its slump by registering growths
of 0.4 and 0.9 percent in 2007 and 2006,
respectively.
Lesotho is estimated to grow by 1.7, 1.8 and 2.1
percent in 2006, 2007
and 2008, respectively. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 20 December
2006
KAROI - Residents in Karoi
town, some 200km north-west of Harare have
complained of violation of their
rights, assault and harassment by police
deployed in the area to hunt down
illegal gold panners.
The residents told ZimOnline yesterday that
the police were
unnecessarily heavy-handed when dealing with civilians
during search
operations for the illegal miners, hundreds of who live in the
town.
Police have in the past few weeks arrested more than 9 000
illegal
gold miners around the country under an operation to sstamp out gold
panning
codenamed Operation Chikorokoza Chapera.
The police
have also burnt down scores of makeshift mining compounds
built by illegal
miners and also confiscated mining tools during the blitz.
Chipo
Meki, an illegal gold panner at Chikuti, near Karoi, accused the
police of
using excessive force in dealing with the gold panners.
"We were
forced to sleep in the open after they razed down our homes.
They later beat
us up and forced some of us to refill the trenches we had
dug in search of
gold," she said.
Several other illegal gold miners also complained
of harassment by the
police.
Contacted for comment yesterday,
police spokesman Chief Superintendent
Oliver Mandipaka denied charges that
the police were harassing the gold
panners.
"We do not have
bush officers who can just harass people for no
reason," he
said.
The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government says it has been
prejudiced of
millions of dollars in foreign currency over the past few
years because of
illegal mining activities around the country.
The government says illegal miners sell most of their gold and other
precious minerals to black market traders inside the country and beyond. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
19
December 2006
Zimbabwe's leading independent election
monitoring body has called for a
referendum before the ruling party moves
ahead with a proposal to postpone
the 2008 presidential election until 2010,
thus extending President Robert
Mugabe's term by two years.
The
Zimbabwe Election Support Network acknowledged that the ruling party is
unlikely to seek public approval of the change. But ZESN's founder said it
would be advisable to do so before the ZANU-PF dominated parliament proceeds
to an amendment of the constitution authorizing the so-called
"harmonization" of national elections.
ZESN's founder and chairman,
Reginald Matchaba-Hove, told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that although there could be
benefits from synchronizing
presidential and parliamentary elections,
postponing the next presidential
election until 2010 could deepen the crisis
in the country.
But
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairman George Chiweshe said that despite
the
hue and cry being raised by opposition parties and civil society, the
"harmonization" of elections will provide time for improvements in electoral
logistics.
Jamaica Gleaner
EDITORIAL
published: Tuesday
| December 19, 2006
It has been suggested that Robert Mugabe, the
President of Zimbabwe, may
visit Jamaica during next year's Cricket World
Cup - perhaps in a private
capacity.
But whether Mr. Mugabe wants to
come to Jamaica as a private citizen or on a
state visit, our Government
should make it plain to him that he will not be
welcome. And if he insists
on coming, he must be told that he should expect
no special
courtesies.
That is not an easy position for us to take and at which we
arrived at
lightly. For Robert Mugabe used to be a hero to the Jamaican
people and our
country played an influential role in ending Zimbabwe's
guerrilla war
against white minority rule and the country's move to
legitimate
independence.
For those who may be ignorant of this once
cherished relationship and of Mr.
Mugabe prior to his descent into
irrationality and vulgar authoritarianism,
Mr. Mugabe led the bush war
against white minority leader, Ian Smith, after
the latter's declaration of
what was then Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration
of Independence from
Britain. Jamaicans by and large supported the freedom
fighters and pushed
intransigent British governments to take action against
Smith's racist
administration.
At the 1979 Commonwealth Summit, the Jamaican Prime
Minister, the late
Michael Manley, was among those who laid out the moral
and political
argument to a resistant Margaret Thatcher for a credible
British policy in
Zimbabwe, ending halfway measures whose practical impact
would be to
maintain the white minority in ascendancy. Indeed, Bob Marley
was the
featured performer at the country's independence in 1980.
But
unlike the example of Nelson Mandela in neighbouring South Africa a
decade
and half later, Mr. Mugabe lacked the inclination and moral stature
to lead
the country he inherited into a state of healing and renewal. Mr.
Mugabe has
been consumed with personal power and self-aggrandisement.
His ZANU-PF
party has sought to gain a monopoly on power, a grab it at first
found
relatively easy because of its command on popular support. More
recently,
Mr. Mugabe and his party have continued the erosion of democracy
through the
rigging of elections and attacks on the free press, which has
been subject
to repressive laws and its members to intimidation, beatings
and arbitrary
arrest.
In the process, Mr. Mugabe has led his country to economic and
social ruin.
At the start of the decade, in an attempt to divert attention
from his own
policy failures, Mr. Mugabe grabbed farms from white farmers in
a crude land
redistribution programme that led to a collapse of agriculture.
Inflation
has jumped beyond the 1,000 per cent mark, food shortages and
hunger are
rampant, and life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen to below 40
years.
Now, at 82, Mr. Mugabe wants to extend his current six-year term,
which
expires in 2008, by another two years - a move that would require a
change
in the country's constitution. Apparently, Mr. Mugabe and ZANU-PF
want the
extra time to ensure that he can find a successor in his own
image.
Jamaica must tell Mr. Mugabe that his actions and general
behaviour are
unacceptable and that unless he mends his ways he cannot be a
guest in our
country. If he comes, he should expect no warm
welcome.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect
the
views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us:
editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223.
Responses should be no longer than
400 words. Not all responses will be
published.
Jamaica Observer
Editorial
Tuesday, December 19,
2006
There seems no end to the despotic actions of Mr Robert
Mugabe who has
easily distinguished himself as one of the world's most
immoral leaders.
According to an Agence France Press report out of
Zimbabwe published in
yesterday's Daily Observer, three key arms of Mr
Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe
African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)
party passed a resolution
at the party's annual conference last weekend to
have Mr Mugabe's term
extended to 2010 by postponing presidential elections
scheduled for 2008.
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Mr
Edmund Masunungurehe is
correct in his analysis that the resolution is
disastrous for the ZANU-PF
and "will damage international relations almost
irreparably".
But even more important is that the proposal has
demonstrated that Mr Mugabe
and his party see no wrong in trampling on
Zimbabwe's democracy for
political gain.
Indeed, the proposal is a
roguish manoeuvre aimed at capitalising on the
disunity in the Opposition
which, we are told, is so fragmented that they
would not be able to win an
election in 2008.
But that is not the issue.
The point that must be
made clear to Mr Mugabe and his confederates is that
no government should be
allowed to violate the democratic process under any
circumstances.
For
once a government gets the impression that it can run roughshod over the
people's right to choose their political leaders, this opens the door to
tyranny.
But Mr Mugabe, we fear, has already gone through that
door.
From his land seizure policy, to the rigging of elections, to the
bulldozing
of people's homes - particularly those of his political opponents
- to the
confiscation of the passports of critics of his government late
last year,
Mr Mugabe has been showing the utmost contempt for
democracy.
Quite frankly, Mr Mugabe has become a major embarrassment to
Jamaica and the
other countries that were at the forefront of the
anti-apartheid liberation
struggles in southern Africa.
His crackdown
on dissent and muzzling of the press have betrayed the
freedoms that he,
many of his countrymen and others the world over, fought
to secure from the
racist Rhodesian government.
And Jamaicans, we are sure, will feel
particularly let down by Mr Mugabe,
given that it was our very own former
prime minister, Michael Manley who, at
the 1979 Commonwealth Summit, helped
in no small way to break the deadlock
that stood in the way of Zimbabwe's
independence.
No doubt Jamaica's role in that effort, as well as reggae
superstar Bob
Marley's musical campaign for the dismantling of Ian Smith's
racist regime,
led to Mr Marley's special appearance at Zimbabwe's
independence
celebrations.
By their latest action, Mr Mugabe and his
ZANU-PF party have struck another
blow to Zimbabwe's already collapsing
economy. And we agree with Mr
Masunungurehe that those countries that
probably were thinking of adopting a
softer stance and normalising relations
with Zimbabwe will now hold back.
South Africa has been one of those
countries that has sought to effect
change in Zimbabwe through diplomacy.
That, obviously, is not working. It is
time, therefore, for President Thabo
Mbeki to rethink that strategy.
Cape Times
December 19,
2006
Editorial
Maybe it's just desperate, wishful thinking,
but did a hairline crack appear
in dictatorial Zimbabwean president Robert
Mugabe's otherwise impervious
façade of power this past weekend?
A
resolution was tabled at the conference of the ruling Zanu-PF to
"harmonise"
the country's |legislative and presidential elections which
would have
effectively postponed presidential elections from 2008 to 2010
and allowed
Mugabe to stay in office until then.
By then he would have clocked up a
neat round figure of 30 years at the
helm. Mugabe made it clear that he was
ready to stay on, warning aspirants
for his job that there was no vacancy at
the top.
The conference is widely reported to have endorsed the proposal
to keep
Mugabe on until 2010. But in fact it did not adopt the resolution to
that
effect. The delegates could not agree and referred the resolution back
to
the provincial committee and the central committee to
decide.
Resistance to the proposal was led by the two main presidential
aspirants,
Vice President Joice Mujuru and housing minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa,
according to some observers.
It would be foolish to
underestimate the shrewd and ruthless Mugabe and it
is entirely possible
that he will now suppress this resistance as he has
brutally suppressed all
other opposition to his 26 years of autocratic rule.
Still, this was a
hopeful, if small, sign that discontent may be rising
within the ruling
party against Mugabe because of the terrible mess he has
made of the
country.
Inflation has now passed 1 000% and shows no signs of levelling
off. Hunger
grips the land and millions of its people are fleeing as
refugees into
neighbouring countries.
The country's situation is
desperate. The international effort to bring
Zimbabwe to its senses has run
out of steam and the internal opposition is
impotent.
The only hope
for change now lies within Zanu-PF. The big question is
whether Mugabe's
impatient would-be successors can outsmart the old fox.
CNN
POSTED: 1:45 p.m. EST,
December 19, 2006
By Jeff Koinange
CNN
Twelve-year-old Beatrice
returns from the fields with small animals she's
caught for
dinner.
Her mother, Elizabeth, prepares the meat and cooks it on a grill
made of
three stones supporting a wood fire. It's just enough food, she
says, to
feed her starving family of six.
Tonight, they dine on
rats.
"Look what we've been reduced to eating?" she said. "How can my
children eat
rats in a country that used to export food? This is a
tragedy."
This is a story about how Zimbabwe, once dubbed southern
Africa's bread
basket, has in six short years become a basket case. It is
about a country
that once exported surplus food now apparently falling
apart, with many
residents scrounging for rodents to
survive.
According to the CIA fact book, which profiles the countries of
the world,
the Zimbabwean economy is crashing -- inflation was at least 585
percent by
the end of 2005 -- and the nation now must import
food.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to United States, Machivenyika Mapuranga,
told CNN on
Tuesday that reports of people eating rats unfairly represented
the
situation, adding that at times while he grew up his family ate
rodents.
"The eating of the field mice -- Zimbabweans do that. It is a
delicacy," he
said. "It is misleading to portray the eating of field mice as
an act of
desperation. It is not."
Western journalists aren't allowed
in Zimbabwe. CNN gained access via a
cameraman who operated under the radar
of the Zimbabwean government.
Mapuranga said that there are news agencies
allowed to film there but that
the country was "under siege" by media
outlets like CNN and the BBC, "which
have shown themselves to be hostile to
the people of Zimbabwe."
Critics: Mugabe rules with iron fist
Critics
point to one man for the nation's downfall -- 82-year-old President
Robert
Mugabe, one of the longest-serving rulers in Africa. They say he
rules with
an iron fist and has reduced Zimbabwe to a nation of beggars.
On Friday,
Mugabe downplayed the situation in the country.
"I know we are in
difficult times; it's hard times that we are going
through. You are bearing
a fair share of the burden, we know that [but]
Zimbabwe will never
collapse," he told a meeting of his ruling political
party, the Zimbabwe
African National Union - Patriotic Front, or ZANU - PF,
according to
Reuters.
But Shadrack Gutto, of the Center for International Political
Studies, said
Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse.
"The reality is
it's really grinding down and not improving," he said.
The downslide
began, critics say, in 2000 when the government crippled the
country's prime
commercial farms by running off white farmers and
redistributing the land to
Mugabe's cronies. At least a dozen white farmers
were killed and dozens were
injured and hospitalized. Thousands more fled
the country and the land. Most
of that land now lies empty and abandoned.
Mapuranga said the program was
"the greatest thing that has happened to
Zimbabwe."
The ambassador
said the Africans who had been marginalized by whites before
can now own
land and control natural resources.
"This generation may suffer, but we
are actually laying the foundations of
prosperity and Zimbabwean control,"
he said.
Mugabe's political rivals have been neutralized. The official
opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has been fractured by
infighting
and disunity. Its leader, former trade unionist Morgan
Tvasngirai, just
barely survived being convicted of treason after a video
was released
showing him discussing plans for the supposed "elimination" of
Mugabe.
Last year, a few months after the presidential election, the
government of
Zimbabwe bulldozed homes and businesses in the capital of
Harare. It was
called "Operation Murambatsvina," which in the local Shona
language means
"Drive Out Rubbish." The United Nations said more than
700,000 people were
left homeless, and critics say they were targeted for
their political views.
'We live like animals'
In the midst of the
rubble that litters the once-scenic capital, Winnie
Gondo, a mother of five,
uses any means available to survive. She lives in a
burned-out
vehicle.
Gondo told CNN she lost not only her home but a twin son, who
died from the
squalid conditions.
"I've lost everything," she said.
"We live like animals here and there's no
relief in sight."
Zimbabwe
has been reduced to a nation of beggars, Archbishop of Bulawayo
Pious Ncube
said.
"Life has become extremely difficult in Zimbabwe and a lot of
depression ...
people are very much depressed and they can no longer think
idealistically.
They're looking all the time for food -- 'Where do I get my
next meal,'" he
said.
Ncube traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa,
to show a video that he says
details numerous cases of police brutality and
illegal clamping down on
anyone who opposes Mugabe.
The archbishop
said that Mugabe wants to hold on to power, in part to avoid
the same fate
as Charles Taylor, who once ruled Liberia. After being forced
from office in
2003, Taylor now is in a prison awaiting trial at The Hague,
charged with
war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ncube believes that if Mugabe
keeps control, Zimbabwe will continue to sink
into an "abyss," and experts
agree the only way the nation will eventually
get off its knees is when a
new president is elected.
"The key will be when Robert Mugabe moves out
of the picture as a leader of
Zimbabwe," Gutto said.
Until such time,
Zimbabwe seems set to remain as a nation of food lines and
fuel queues, of
shacks and squatters, of rats and rat-eaters -- a nation
fast grinding to a
halt.
"I can't remember the last time I ate real food," says Elizabeth,
the mother
feeding her family. "We can't afford anything anymore. We're now
just eating
these rats to survive."
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
19 December 2006 11:47
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday urged Zimbabwe
to institute
sharp cuts in public spending to prevent a further unravelling
of its
economy after wrapping up a two-week assessment.
"Going
forward, the key will be first to ensure that sharp cuts
are made in real
terms in fiscal spending, including quasi-fiscal activity
previously
undertaken by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe," the global lender
said in a
statement.
The IMF called for a battery of policies to halt
the country's
economic crisis, warning that Zimbabwe's economy could further
deteriorate
if President Robert Mugabe's government did not change
tack.
"Zimbabwe's economic crisis calls for the urgent
implementation
of a comprehensive package comprising mutually reinforcing
actions," it
said.
"Without a fundamental change in
policies, prospects are for a
continued deterioration in the economic
situation.
"A crucial element of this package will be strong
fiscal
adjustment."
The IMF team arrived in Harare on
December 3 to assess
Zimbabwe's economic health ahead of the global lender's
meeting early next
year in which it is expected to decide on whether to keep
Zimbabwe in its
fold.
Zimbabwe, which narrowly averted
expulsion from the IMF last
September for debt arrears of $295-million
through a surprise payment of
$120-million, still owes the IMF
$125-million.
The former British colony is in the throes of
economic crisis
characterised by world-record inflation, 70%-plus
unemployment and chronic
shortages of basic goods like fuel and the staple
corn meal. -- Sapa-AFP
The Herald (Harare)
December 19,
2006
Posted to the web December 19, 2006
Harare
"MERRY
Christmas and a Happy New Year", so goes the age-old saying. But
there is
nothing really to suggest this year's festive season will be merry
for most
Zimbabwean families, as the cost of living has continued to go up.
A
tough Christmas awaits most shoppers this year with basic foodstuff prices
hitting the roof while disposable incomes have shrunk to unreasonably low
levels due to high inflation.
Rates, rents, bread and cereals,
health services, meat and sugar among other
basic commodities have risen
sharply in recent months, and analysts say
there is no immediate respite
unless agricultural output goes up. But the
next harvest is not due until
April or may next year while the rains appear
erratic.
November
annual inflation came in marginally higher at 1 099 percent fuelled
by food
inflation. As has become the norm, food prices rose faster than
non-food
prices during the month under review
Economists predict there will not be
a change for the better on the
inflation front until about the second half
of 2007 -- meaning more
hardships for the consumer.
"The Christmas
cheer has been taken out from within consumers due to the
continued increase
in prices and yet this has not moved in line with income
level growth,"
Harare economist Mr Midway Bhunu explained this week.
"Yes, this would be
another bleak Christmas for the people. Food shortages
might be a thing of
the past, but the people have no money to purchase the
commodities."
Analysts say celebrations will take place but more in
the spiritual sense as
opposed to merrymaking characterised by a string of
parties where families
get together to celebrate the goodness of life by
eating and drinking.
There will be some relief for workers in January
when the new $100 000
income tax-free threshold becomes effective, but
analysts warned, by then,
rising inflation will have taken its toll,
rendering it a drop in the ocean.
What was more important was to adjust
the non-taxable portion on a quarterly
basis, as a way of cushioning the
poor against rising poverty, but without
necessarily hurting Government's
revenue base.
Most low-income earners take home about $60 000 per month,
which puts them
outside the tax net. The Central Statistical Office recently
reported that
the average worker needed at least $70 000 per month for food
only.
When you factor in transport costs, housing and clothing then that
figure
would have to rise to over $225 000 per month. But only a small
proportion
of the working population earn that much.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 12/19/2006 21:15:03
MORGAN Tsvangirai faced an open
rebellion from members of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) UK branch
this week, confidential e-mails obtained
by New Zimbabwe.com
reveal.
Tsvangirai, leader of one of the two MDC factions, instructed
officials from
the UK branch to stop "unauthorised" meetings with British
government and
European Union officials.
But defiant MDC officials in
the UK told Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro,
Tsvangirai's emissary: "We will
not listen to you, not by the left ear, not
by the right ear, not today, not
tomorrow but forever."
The fiery exchanges threaten to spark further
divisions in the feuding MDC
which split into two groups in October last
year - one led by Tsvangirai and
the other by Professor Arthur Mutambara, a
former NASA rocket scientist.
The e-mail exchanges obtained by New
Zimbabwe.com reveal concerns by
Tsvangirai and senior leaders in Harare that
the UK officials were
"virtually operating like dangerous loose canons" and
organising diplomatic
meetings without approval from Harare.
In an
e-mail dated Decembber 18, 2006, and addressed to Ephraim Tapa, the
chairman
of the faction's MDC UK, Mukonoweshuro said Tsvangirai was
"painfully aware
of the irregular and unsanctioned activities that you have
continued to
perpetrate in spite of the advice and clarifications given to
you."
Mukonoweshuro, the secretary for international affairs in
the Tsvangirai
faction, told the UK officials that diplomatic activities in
the UK were
solely the prerogative of Hebson Makuvise and Emily Madamombe,
chief
representative and deputy chief representative respectively.
He
said: "The President (Tsvangirai) has now directed me to formally
instruct
you to stop meddling in diplomatic activities, which are clearly
outside the
scope of your responsibilities
"We are also aware that you have now
arrogated to yourself the
responsibility of representing the party in
mainland Europe without
authority from anybody whatsoever. You are not to
meddle in the party's
affairs in mainland Europe, diplomatic or otherwise,
without authority.
"We are aware that you are currently making frantic
efforts to visit the
Home Office as an MDC representative, without any
mandate, authorisation or
sanction from either the President, the Department
of International Affairs
or the Chief Representative and Deputy Chief
Representative.
"I need not remind you that you are the Chairman of the
UK MDC Province and
your remit totally excludes the areas you are
incrementally encroaching on
by stealth."
Mukonoweshuro accused Tapa
and his colleagues in the UK branch of "virtually
operating like dangerous
loose canons", warning: "This is not going to be
tolerated anymore and must
stop forthwith, right now!"
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, the secretary of the
MDC UK branch immediately hit
back at Mukonoweshuro, saying they would only
taking instructions from the
faction's national chairman, Isaac
Matongo.
In an e-mail also dated December 16, 2006, Dewa said it was in
fact him, and
not Tapa, who had organised a meeting with officials from the
UK
Commonwealth and Foreign Office.
Dewa also told Mukonoweshuro that
the MDC UK branch did not recognise
Makuvise, the man identified by
Tsvangirai to represent the party in the UK.
"Professor (Mukonoweshuro)
if you are truly MDC you should know that the
party at the moment is reeling
from the cover of accusations such as
"kitchen cabinets" and by blowing the
trumpet without even pausing to think,
you are confirming what has been said
before; that there is a very wide
propensity in MDC to disregard the elected
in favour of the appointed," Dewa
said in the e-mail.
"As a person
you have brought shame unto yourself because you did not care
to get the
facts for yourself. You accuse us of going to the FCO. Well it is
not Tapa
who arranged that, it's me, Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa who arranged
it, and
I will be going again not once, not twice but whenever I want to.
"We
will also go to the Home Office, where we will be representing MDC UK
and
Ireland and the many people who are here whom you do not know but who
are
living lives of destitution because they do not have (immigration)
papers.
They are the people who are financing the party by their
subscriptions, and
no volume of words will ever stop me from representing
them."
He
added: "We were elected to represent, and that's what we are doing and
please stop the nonsense that you write because we are not going to
surrender that to anyone who was not elected."
MDC sources say the UK
officials, thought to be backed by Matongo, could now
face disciplinary
procedures.
"There is certainly this view in Harare that the foreign
branches only cause
chaos and contribute little to the struggle, which is
partly why Tsvangirai
had to appoint representatives outside the UK
structures," an MDC official
said from Harare.
The MDC, once seen as
a potential next government, has split into two camps
following
disagreements among senior leaders, including the claim that
Tsvangirai was
listening to an unelected "kitchen cabinet".
Tsvangirai was also accused
of dictatorship after going against a vote of
the national council to
participate in senate elections. He rejects the
accusations and accuses his
former colleagues of disloyalty.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Sheila Ochi
HARARE - The ruling Zanu-PF
party has failed to reap any benefits from
the split within the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and
unity is at its worst due to
infighting over the choice of President Robert
Mugabe's successor, the
party's security organ has noted.
In its contribution to the
party's Central Committee report at the
just ended Zanu PF annual
conference, the security department said the party
was not at its strongest
and needed urgent revamping.
The succession war between warring
party factions lining up to succeed
President Mugabe and a collapsing
economy threatened Zanu PF's continued
dominance of the political turf, the
security department warned.
"It is noteworthy that the split in the
opposition did not benefit the
ruling party in terms of membership inflows,
but only diluted the threat
that a united MDC had hitherto caused. The
split, nonetheless affords Zanu
PF an opportunity to restructure, rebrand,
and recast as a party of choice
in Zimbabwe," read part of the security
department's comments.
The MDC, the first opposition to give a
strongest challenge to Mugabe's
leadership, split into two factions last
year following disagreements over
whether to participate in Senate elections
or not.
Several provinces and delegates to the Zanu PF conference
encouraged
President Mugabe to stay on 'as both party leader and state
president in
order to stabilize the party.'
President Mugabe in
power since independence from Britain in 1980, had
already pushed party
cadres to harmonize presidential and parliamentary
elections to be held
together in 2010. This would stretch his term, due to
expire in 2008, by a
further two years.
But fierce divisions have emerged within the
party as differing camps
fight to replace the 82-year-old leader, who had
initially promised to step
down in 2008.
The security
department said this succession war had threatened to
tear the party apart.
The succession battle is seen mainly as between long
time heir-apparent,
Emmerson Mnangagwa and retired army general, Solomon
Mujuru, who wants to
put at State House someone of his choice.
"The succession debate
has worsened the factional fighting as the
various camps champion the
aspirations of some senior members of the party
who want to lead Zanu-PF in
future. These aspirants have remained largely
inactive but continue to
instigate counter productive activities, which are
motivated by selfish and
leadership ambitions," reported the security
department.
Observers note that while President Mugabe's desire to hang on to
power
stems from a fear that he could be indicted for crimes against
humanity if
he leaves office, a genuine fear that the party's collapse after
his
departure also haunts him.
They say President Mugabe realizes that
without him, his cronies would
bring the party down to its knees as they
fight for his position, hence the
need to buy time and settle the succession
issue.
As if to reinforce this view, Oppah Muchinguri, the Minister
of Gender
and Women's Affairs and the chairperson of the party's women
league implored
Mugabe to stay in power. As she presented her committee's
report to the
conference on Saturday night, Muchinguri said President
Mugabe's departure
would fragment the party.
"If you leave
(Mugabe), the party will be in trouble. You are the
security of the
continued survival of the party. Too many people have lined
up for up your
position and they are at each other's throats. The women want
you to remain
in your position. We were very happy to hear you say that
there are no
vacancies in the presidium," said Muchinguri in the local shona
language.
She added that President Mugabe was being misled
about the state of
the affairs within Zanu PF across the country, saying the
party was facing
serious grassroots problems.
"President, the
reports you receive are all lies. They are misleading
you. Not everything
is well on the ground. The party is in tatters on the
ground. They give
you reports that party structures are functioning
properly when at times
they are non-existent. Impositions are the order of
the day," she
said.
The security depart said the declining economy threatened
Zanu PF's
power base.
"The declining economy continues to be
the major threat to the ruling
party's popularity. This is so at a time
when the electorate looks up to
Zanu PF to guide the government in turning
around the fortunes of the
country in keeping with its pledges. The state
of the economy therefore
provided the opposition with ammunition to use
against Zanu-PF."
OhMyNews
Masimba Biriwasha
Published
2006-12-19 09:35 (KST)
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party
endorsed a controversial amendment on
Sunday that will extend President
Robert Mugabe's term of office. Extending
the 82-year-old's reign puts paid
to any hope for a recovery from the
spiraling political, economic and social
fallout in the short-term.
According to state-run newspaper The
Herald, the extension of Mugabe's
term by two years is to facilitate the
"harmonization" of presidential,
parliamentary and local government
elections in 2010. Zimbabwe has been
holding separate presidential,
parliamentary and local government elections
since 1980.
"What
it means is that presidential elections will have to come in
2010. In the
two years that will have to be bridged, we have to decide on an
amendment to
the constitution which permits that bridge to be crossed, and
the bridge
will, in the circumstances, be bridged by the president," The
Herald quoted
Zanu-PF's national secretary for information and publicity,
Nathan
Shamuyarira, as saying.
The proposal will go to parliament, which
is largely dominated by the
ruling party, for final approval. It is expected
to pass. It was a
long-expected decision; one that many thought would never
come to pass. But
with the opposition in a shambles, the political ground in
the country is
very much open for Mugabe to play ball as he
wants.
Commenting on the state of the opposition, the outspoken
Roman
Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, said, "The country's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change party lacked visionary leadership
and had become a stumbling block to efforts to achieve democratic change in
the country."
Zimbabwe's divided opposition has failed to
provide the necessary fire
critical for mobilizing the country's
discontented masses. If anything, the
opposition has tended to be a
reactionary mouthpiece, always voicing
invectives against the ruling party
at the expense of real action.
In this state of affairs, the only
threat to Mugabe's power base is
from within the ranks of his political
party, but as far as things stand the
former schoolteacher cum freedom
fighter appears to be holding his own.
However, Mugabe's exit threatens to
create a gap within the party, and
jostling for his position has created
serious rifts.
"We're dead," said Juliet Masiya, a travel
consultant in Harare, the
capital of Zimbabwe. "He's old and has nothing new
to offer expect continued
disintegration."
Unemployment in the
country is over 80 percent; four-fifths of the
population is living below
the poverty line. The controversial land reform
program begun in 2000 has
not brought any gains to the majority of the
country's citizenry. Over 1.9
million of the country's 12 million people are
in need of food aid. Once
described as the region's breadbasket, the country
has experienced six
successive years of declined agricultural output.
Against this
bleak background, HIV and AIDS are wreaking havoc on
communities, leaving
impoverished survivors scarcely able to feed
themselves. An estimated 18
percent of the population is infected with HIV,
one of the highest rates in
the world. Only 40,000 out of the 300,000 people
living with HIV have access
to life-saving drugs.
Inflation is hovering over 1,000 percent and
the World Bank describes
the Zimbabwean economy as the worst performing in
the world, outside a war
zone.
Not that Mugabe really cares. As
has been the trend since 2000, Mugabe
continues to wax lyrical about U.S.
President George W. Bush, and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, accusing
the pair of harboring imperialistic
intentions against
Zimbabwe.
The veiled racist tone of Mugabe's speeches has enabled
him to
maintain his posture as a revolutionary leader within his party. But
for the
majority of long-suffering Zimbabweans, it has only meant more
rhetoric and
hunger.
However, other Zimbabweans were not at all
surprised by the freedom
fighter turned tyrant's decision to hang onto
power.
"It is not at all surprising. It was to be. How can people
be so
shocked when it was highlighted some weeks ago that Mugabe would
extend his
grip on power," Kevin Zorodzai said. "Looking at the state of the
politics
in the country, there was no way that Mugabe could have accepted
elections
in 2008. He would have lost outright. Already, he has resolved the
succession issue within the party for the time being, and he will retain his
position till whenever."
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Ian Nhuka
Bulawayo- Bulawayo
executive mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube hit out at the
goverment for its
failure to address the economic crisis which he said is
ruinous to the local
authority's service delivery.
In his strongly-worded annual review
for this year, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) mayor said the poor
state of the economy, which also
manifests itself in the world's highest
inflation and fuel shortages, among
others has forced council to abandon
some of its critical social services.
"Council is facing disastrous
and difficult financial realities," said
Ncube. Unlike businesses that can
cushion themselves against spiraling
inflation and operational costs by
passing on the costs to consumers, we as
council cannot do
that.
"We just face the music and hence the impact of inflation is
felt and
experienced head-on as it erodes the budget, the end result being
the
deterioration of service delivery. Your council is in that dilemma and
sorry state."
Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's second City. The City's
fire and ambulance
fleet sometimes fails to respond to distress calls from
patients, including
pregnant women thus complicating their conditions or
sometimes leading to
loss of life.
As a result, the local
authority now advises patients to seek
alternative ambulance services,
which are more than thrice as expensive.
Ndabeni-Ncube, a war veteran, has
often clashed with Ignatius Chombo, the
Minister of Local Government, Public
Works and Urban Development because of
his straight talk.
A few
months ago, he angered the government when he released grim
statistics
showing that scores of Bulawayo residents had starved to death
because of
lack of food since the beginning of this year.
His council, once the
country's best-run, has also fallen victim to
the economic decay with piles
of uncollected rubbish forming at every street
corner now and over-flowing
sewer lines going unrepaired for long periods.
Recently, he said
Bulawayo was owed up to $1, 2 billion (more than $1
trillion in old
currency) with the government accounting for up to half of
that amount.
This, he said made it difficult for council to render a decent
service to
residents. He predicted a more harsh future for the local
authority as the
economy continues to decline.
"Just as you residents face these
devastating conditions in your daily
dealings outside council confines, we
together face utter frustration in
council work. The economic situation is
hitting us hard and viciously," he
added.
Because of the
worsening fuel shortage, council was only able to
transport some 10 200
patients to hospitals using its ambulances, compared
with more than 25 000
in 2005.
The Herald
(Harare)
December 19, 2006
Posted to the web December 19,
2006
Harare
THE water supply situation in Harare Metropolitan
Province is expected to
stabilise beginning today following agreements
reached between the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority and Zimphos over the
supply of aluminium sulphate,
a key chemical in the treatment of domestic
water.
The two organisations met yesterday and agreed on the supply and
payment
modalities.
At least 100 tonnes of the chemical are expected
to be delivered to the
Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant this
morning.
The water authority needs at least 130 tonnes of the chemical on
a daily
basis.
Zinwa water supplies director Mr Douglas Kagoro
confirmed that supplies
would get back to normal starting today after Zinwa
had agreed with Zimphos
on the delivery of the water treatment
chemical.
"We are getting back to normal water treatment chemical
supplies. We hope to
have built up our water reservoirs by tomorrow morning
(today)," he said.
At the weekend, Zinwa reduced water supplies to Harare
by 40 percent owing
to the critical shortage of aluminium sulphate. The
authority had warned
residents of supply interruptions.
Zinwa
officials on Sunday and yesterday held emergency meetings to avert the
looming serious situation.
Sources close to the water authority have
indicated that because of the
rising cost of treatment chemicals, the new
water tariff of $130 per cubic
metre effective from this month, from the
previous $8/cu.m, is inadequate to
meet running costs.
"The real
issue is about money. There is no money. Zinwa has asked for money
from
Treasury and nothing has come yet," said the source.
Because Harare Bulk
Water, which manages water for the capital city, is
broke, it has been
borrowing money from other supply stations to sustain the
city but at the
same time affecting the operations of those stations.
Zinwa was recently
given the added responsibility of distributing and
billing consumers. All
workers formerly with City of Harare who were
directly involved in such
aspects were also transferred to Zinwa.
The Herald
(Harare)
December 19, 2006
Posted to the web December 19,
2006
Harare
PARLIAMENT has demanded an explanation on the recent
release of more than
600 000 cellular phone lines by NetOne, Econet and
Telecel, a move that has
created massive congestion on the
network.
The Ministry of Transport and Communication has been asked to
issue a public
statement on the rationale behind the release of the lines by
the three
mobile phone service providers.
The Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communication said it
has been
inundated with calls from concerned Zimbabweans from all walks of
life
questioning the logic of offloading new lines on to the market by
Zimbabwe's
mobile service providers without adequate upgrading and expansion
of base
stations.
People are complaining that they are getting a shoddy service,
mainly seen
in difficulties in making calls, a problem being attributed to
network
congestion.
NetOne, Econet and Telecel have all recently
released thousands of new lines
in response to overwhelming growing
demand.
NetOne availed 200 000 lines, Econet released 300 000 lines while
Telecel
brought 120 000 new lines onto the market within the past two
months.
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Cde Leo Mugabe told the
Secretary for
Transport and Communications, Engineer George Mlilo, that the
public was
anxious to know what was happening and what the ministry was
doing to deal
with the situation.
Cde Mugabe said this yesterday when
Eng Mlilo and Air Zimbabwe officials had
come to give oral evidence on what
the airline was doing to turn around its
fortunes.
"As a committee,
our duty is to deal with policy issues but we have received
these concerns
(whereas) we do not have the mandate to deal with the
issues," said Cde
Mugabe, who is Makonde MP (Zanu-PF).
"We would, therefore, ask you to
make a public statement explaining the
release of these new lines because
there now seems to be congestion of the
network. This issue is for the
Executive to explain and we need to know what
is happening."
Eng
Mlilo said he would soon make a public statement explaining what his
ministry was doing to mitigate the problem and why the three companies
released the lines.
Many companies and individuals have been
complaining that while the release
of new lines was a welcome development in
that it gave them more
accessibility, it was fraught with inconveniences as
instant connection had
become very difficult.
They said the release
of the lines has created a lot of pressure on the
network and this was
costing them business as clients were having a
nightmare trying to make
calls.
They have called for the creation first of sufficient capacity to
control
traffic after which the mobile phone operators release additional
lines.
Subscribers have complained that intra-network connection, which
used to be
easier in the past, was now as difficult as inter-network
connection owing
to the release of the new lines.
Zimbabwe's total
subscriber base is expected to be pushed to about 1,5
million users by the
end of the year as mobile service providers battle to
kill the thriving
black market for lines.
Cde Leo Mugabe told Air Zimbabwe officials to
furnish the committee with
their turnaround plan and arrange a tour to the
national airline's premises
so that the committee could familiarise itself
with the parastatal's
operations.
"We would want to meet with you in
the New Year after all these things have
been done and you would also be
telling us how far you would have gone in
implementing the turnaround
strategy," he said.
"Your company runs a complex industry. We want to
understand your operations
and perhaps we need to undertake a tour and see
how the airline is run. We
are not experts in running companies like Air
Zimbabwe, so we need to learn
before we can ask you questions.
"We
understand that in the budget you did not get any money, we would also
want
to know how you intend to run the company without support from the
fiscus."
Cde Mugabe urged the airline to address its problems
expeditiously to avoid
embarrassing situations and unnecessary bad
publicity.
Other members of the committee are Chiredzi North MP Cde
Celine Pote
(Zanu-PF), Zengeza legislator Mr Goodrich Chimbaira (MDC),
Pumula-Luveve MP
Mr Esaph Mdlongwa (MDC), Zhombe lawmaker Cde Daniel
Mackenzie-Ncube
(Zanu-PF), Kadoma West legislator Cde Zacharia Ziyambi
(Zanu-PF), and
Rushinga MP Cde Lazarus Dokora (Zanu-PF).
From SW Radio Africa, 18 December
By Lance Guma
The Member of
Parliament for Glen View Paul Madzore is still being held in
police custody
5 days after he was arrested on allegations of engaging in
public violence.
Four MDC youths are also being held over the same charges.
According to his
wife who went to visit him at Harare's remand prison on
Monday the MP was
arrested last week Wednesday following what the state
called an attempt to
force people in his constituency not to go to work. Mai
Madzore told
Newsreel her husband is moving around in tight leg irons and
when she saw
him his legs were visibly swollen. The legislator was initially
being held
at Harare Central Police station Wednesday through to Thursday
last week.
Soon after his court hearing on Friday where he was denied bail
he was moved
to the remand prison. State prosecutors allege that Madzore
organised youths
from the MDC headquarters to produce flyers that were
distributed in various
suburbs calling on people to stay-away from their
work places in protest at
the escalating cost of living.
The group is also alleged to have met
on the 12th of December and barricaded
roads using boulders and stones to
stop people from from going to work. Last
week Newsreel reported how a
truckload of soldiers arrived at High Glen
shopping centre and beat up
commuters in an attempt to remove the same
stones and boulders. Madzore's
wife maintains they are targeting the MP
because they believe he wields
influence in the area and that since he is
the Organising Secretary nothing
could have been done without his knowledge.
She complained of not being
given enough time to speak to her husband and
inquire about his welfare
saying she only got time to give him food. His
lawyer Alec Muchadehama is
expected to launch a bail application in the High
Court but this is only
expected to be heard Wednesday. This means Madzore
will spend another 2 days
in custody.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington, DC
19
December 2006
Harare has again declared its desire to stamp
out corruption, but some
wonder if there is really the political will to
clean up a government
plagued by scandals.
Anti-Corruption Minister
Paul Mangwana, speaking in Bulawayo on
International Anti-Corruption Day,
said such crime jeopardizes development.
He said everyone should fight
corruption, which he said is fueled by
"loopholes in the legal framework and
a fragmented anti-corruption policy."
The minister noted that Zimbabwe has
ratified conventions on corruption of
both the African Union and United
Nations.
However, Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Johannes Tomana
recently
criticized Harare for failing to crack down hard enough on official
corruption.
Reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe spoke with
chairman Goodwill Shana of Transparency International
who told her that such
anti-corruption statements mean nothing in the
absence of the political will
to enforce them.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
19 December
2006
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was expected to deliver his
2006 state of
the nation address Wednesday to both houses of the country's
legislature -
but one faction of the fractured opposition says it will
boycott Mr.
Mugabe's speech.
A spokesman for the Movement for
Democratic Change faction of founding
president Morgan Tsvangirai said its
house members - it has no senators,
having boycotted the November 2005
senate election - will not be there to
hear Mr. Mugabe's remarks.
But
members of the rival MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara will
attend.
Government-opposition relations are more strained than usual
these days
because the ruling ZANU-PF party has just proposed to extend
President
Mugabe's term by two years by postponing the presidential election
due in
2008 until 2010. The ruling party says this will "harmonize" the
presidential and general election schedules.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa
of the Tsvangirai MDC faction told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's studio 7
for Zimbabwe that the grouping is done
listening to Mr.
Mugabe.
Gabriel Chaibva, spokesman for the Mutambara MDC faction, said
boycotting
doesn't make sense because regardless of all else Mr. Mugabe
remains head of
state.
The tactical divergence replayed the divisions
in the opposition division in
July when the Mutambara faction attended the
opening of parliament in the
presence of Mr. Mugabe, while members of the
Tsvangirai faction boycotted
the event.
The MDC's initial split in
October 2005 was over the question of taking part
in senate elections that
November. Tsvangirai opposed contesting the
elections.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Jennifer Sipho Moyo Chirango
THE Zimbabwean
economy has been and is being destroyed by the ZANU PF
government through
corruption. I wonder who can stop this evil in our
country. The recent
moving of the ZANU PF leader from the State House to the
Palace shows that
corruption started from the TOP BRASS.
This is an indication that
this regime is corrupt. The luxury mansion
is the evidence of how these
cronies are. Where did they get this money
from? How did they raise such
large sums of money in a country where the
economy is on its knees. So many
questions can be asked but no true answer
could be given. Mr President
claims ZANU PF built this mansion for him but
in thanking him for
what?
It is sad to hear that the mansion is three times the size of
the
State House. Is this leader happy to live like a king when the people
whom
he claims to be leading are scavenging for basic commodities. To make
matters worse, this is not the only luxury mansion he has. Can we ask for
more evidence when it is right in-front of our eyes.
Zimbabwe's
crumbling economy started from the regime's leadership. The
land reform
programme which they claim that they gave to the landless was
infact given
to the ZANU PF loyals. Is that not corruption? They claim that
they are
tackling the corruption in their ranks when in the actual fact
things are
getting worse.
It has been reported in the newspapers that the
police chefs are
smuggling goods from South Africa through other people and
threatening the
ZIMRA officers at border posts that they will be transferred
because of
doing their job.
The genuine ZIMRA officers, police
officers like the officer in charge
of Hillside police station and court
officers trying to deal with corruption
cases are harassed by the top
officials associated with ZANU PF and all
those cases are thrown away. So l
see no reason why they should waste their
time and resources telling us that
there is an anti corruption ministry.
Whom do they think they are fooling?
People now know the truth from this
regime.
We hear of some
ministers involved in corruption at the ZUPCO and
ZISCO steel. The vice
president is also named in the ZISCO Steel scandal.
The looting and bribery
are the order of the day in this country and all
this are done by people
associated with the regime.
The poaching in the Gonarezhou National
Park by government authorities
is also another example of corruption.
Instead of these people to be brought
to book but all is not done because
they belong to ZANU PF. The environment
is being destroyed everyday and
nothing is being done. Costly foreign
education for ministers' children is a
big examples of these misfortunes we
are experiencing in our
country.
The treasury is being drained by these authorities so as
to enrol
their children in prestigious universities abroad. All this in the
name of
corruption.
ZANU PF will never end its evil corrupt
activities. Let the face of
the earth know the truth happening in Zimbabwe.
The most worrying factor is
that President Mugabe has remained silent when
all these scandals are
uncovered but quickly comments when people are
tortured and beaten by agents
of evil.
He is watching the
country crumbling because of his policies and his
ZANU PF cronies. Our
political and economic crisis emanated from corruption
and it is sad because
it is done by the leaders themselves. All Zimbabweans
really are desperate
for change. Let us all unite and together we shall
complete the change and
fight this corruption.