Reuters
Sun Dec 30, 2007
9:04am GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - A legislator in Zimbabwe's ruling party has
fled to
Britain, fearing arrest in a police probe of foreign currency
payments he
made last month, official media reported on Sunday.
The
state-owned Sunday Mail quoted unnamed sources as saying police wanted
to
interview David Butau, the ZANU-PF member of parliament for a northern
constituency, about a 537,000 pound payment made for tractors from an
offshore account in the Channel Islands.
Butau was unavailable for
comment, but the Sunday Mail quoted him, speaking
from Britain, as denying
any wrongdoing and accusing Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono of
instigating the police investigation
against him.
"He (Gono) had the
state machinery at his disposal and I had to flee the
country. But I can
assure you that when authorities get the documents
absolving me, I will
definitely come back," he told the paper.
Police say they have been
trying to interview Butau for the past two weeks.
Chief police spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena told Reuters Butau was still on the
police wanted list but
would not confirm that he had left the country.
"We have not had any luck
with David Butau because he has not reported to
any police station in the
country. We are still working to establish his
whereabouts," Bvudzijena
said.
Butau chairs a budget and finance parliamentary committee that has
had a
shaky relationship with Gono. The committee has previously questioned
Gono's
monetary policies.
Zimbabwe has battled severe foreign
currency shortages since 2000, resulting
in a thriving currency black
market. In 2005 several bank executives fled
the country when Gono cracked
down on banks accused of illegally trading
foreign
currency.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Tim Pearce)
Reuters
Sun 30 Dec 2007, 9:58
GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's
state-employed junior doctors and nurses are
on strike for higher pay,
putting further strain on the country's crumbling
public healthcare
facilities.
Doctors and nurses have staged a series of strikes in recent
years as their
salaries have been steadily eroded by the world's highest
inflation rate --
currently officially running at about 8,000 percent in
Zimbabwe.
Thousands more continue to abandon the country in search of
better-paid jobs
in South Africa, Britain and Australia, hitting a sector
burdened by
shortages of drugs and the effects of HIV and
AIDS.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said on Sunday the government
was
negotiating with the doctors and nurses to return to work.
"We
are talking to them as we have always done through the Health Services
Board
and we hope to reach some agreement soon," Parirenyatwa said.
Doctors
earn 60 million Zimbabwe dollars a month and nurses half that
amount.
Student and army doctors and nurses were staffing government
hospitals while
the strike continued.
President Robert Mugabe's
government has barred health workers, and those
from other essential
services, from striking but doctors and nurses have
often defied the
directive.
Representatives of doctors and nurses were not immediately
available for
comment but a Reuters correspondent saw some patients being
turned away
early on Sunday at Parirenyatwa Hospital, the country's largest
referral
medical centre.
Some student nurses said the strike had
started on Christmas Day and that
they were only tending to serious
cases.
"I have been told to try again in the New Year. There are no
doctors," said
Martha Magaya, who had brought her 7-year-old son with a
cold. "Should my
son die because people are arguing over pay?" she
said.
Staff at private clinics -- which are more expensive -- have not
joined the
strike, but most Zimbabweans receive medical care through cheaper
state
hospitals and clinics.
Economic analysts have warned that
Zimbabwe is likely to see more strikes in
2008 by dissatisfied workers
grappling with an economic recession that is
marked by shortages of foreign
currency, food and fuel, and rising
unemployment.
The Herald (Harare) Published by the government of
Zimbabwe
INTERVIEW
29 December 2007
Posted to the web 30 December
2007
Harare
THE cash shortage that began two months ago continued
unabated throughout
Christmas while the incessant rains in most parts of the
country and
flooding in others affected the currency changeover programme
under
Operation Sunrise 2. It is against this background that Herald
Business
Editor Victoria Ruzvidzo sought to establish the contingency plans
that the
central bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono has, given these
circumstances. In a
wide-ranging interview yesterday, the RBZ chief opened
up on his thoughts
and strategies.
Question: What measures do you
have in mind to mitigate any unintended
losses due to floods and the
incessant rains now that the December 31
deadline is
near?
Answer: I just want the nation to know that currency changeover
or Operation
Sunrise 2 is a man-made operation. In other words, it has been
crafted by
man to achieve certain intended results. By the same token,
unlike natural
disasters for which man can do very little about, Operation
Sunrise 2 is not
a disaster operation and accordingly we will put in place,
at the
appropriate time, mitigatory measures to deal with any natural,
unforeseen
disasters such as those you are referring to.
We remain in
control of the situation and your central bank has never been
short of any
adaptive strategies to whatever circumstances confronting us.
We will not
act in fear neither will we fear to act in any manner we deem
appropriate
for the circumstances.
Q: There have been long queues at most, if not all
the banks across the
country. Could this be a reflection of the central
bank's failure to provide
local currency or could there be other
reasons?
A: Naturally the period under review has heightened people's
awareness and
attention to the intricacies of commerce and the importance of
various forms
of intermediating such transactions in the economy. There is
no doubt that
the queues of the last few months have shown the extent to
which our economy
has drifted into the informal sector and which informal
sector is
predominated by cash transactions.
The cash shortages that
we see are a mere symptom of much deeper and greater
fundamental
misalignments in our economy than the ability or inability of
the central
bank to provide adequate cash.
The kind of queues you see out there for
local currency have been the kind
of queues that I live with everyday in the
area of foreign currency demand
only that you do not see them physically.
The local currency queues are no
different from the Governor's ordinary
day-to-day foreign currency demands
for industry, for electricity, for
fertilizer, for fuel, for Members of the
House of Assembly, for Members of
the Senate, for Air Zimbabwe, for the
National Railways of Zimbabwe, for
seed, for maize, for wheat, for
industrial spare parts, for debt servicing
and other operational
requirements for this economy.
These are not
noticed by the public but I live with them everyday and it's
not because of
the RBZ's inability to provide foreign currency in as much as
it is not the
inability of the central bank to provide local currency to the
queues that
we see out there.
We are back to economic fundamentals which we must
tackle head on without
any hesitation, fear or delay. It's about sanctions
whose debilitating
effects on the economy and on the ordinary lives of our
people must be a
matter for which we must all speak with one voice as
Zimbabweans to see that
these sanctions are lifted. It's about the
productivity of our people
whether talking about mines, agriculture,
manufacturing, tourism,
parastatals, local authorities and every form of
economic activity in the
country. We must raise the bar of productivity to
underpin our commercial
transactions.
It's also about economic and
pricing distortions, which we must deal with
decisively. It's about economic
patriotism. It's about discipline. It's
about building a corrupt-free
economy. It's about international relations.
So don't take a simplistic view
of the queues and simplistically place 100
percent responsibility on the
central bank or the Governor, however easily
tempting or fashionable it
might be.
This is the moment for every Zimbabwean in the queue or not in
the queue to
think seriously about how we can all work together honestly,
courageously
and uprightly to better our economy in the year to come. That's
my
interpretation of the cash queue. In the absence of a disciplined
approach
to our economic affairs, to corruption, hard work and economic
patriotism,
the winter of discontent with cash queues will not go
away.
However, coming back to the simplistic way of dealing with the cash
queues
which is what I believe every ordinary Zimbabwean is preoccupied
with, the
situation will and should improve from January 1 onwards on the
back of what
one can call a cocktail of mitigatory, offensive, defensive,
proactive and
realistic package of cash normalisation and injection measures
which may
take many by surprise but whether taken by surprise or not, the
resultant
effect of these measures, taken without fear or favour, will be to
improve
the cash situation. How that would be done . . . leave that to the
Governor.
Q: Have you extended the December 31 deadline by which the $200
000 bearer
cheque will cease to be legal tender as widely
rumoured?
A: Let's cross the bridge when we get there. What would give
you the
impression that it has been extended?
Q: What are the banking
arrangements then as the deadline draws nearer?
A: Today is going to be a
normal banking day like any other and banks should
open for normal
transactions up to midday as they normally do but extend the
opening hours
to 6pm for deposit-taking from both individuals and
corporates. On Sunday we
have directed that the banks operate for
deposit-taking only so that
last-minute genuine depositors are not
disadvantaged.
Monday is a
normal business day while on New Year's day the banks should
close and
re-open for normal business from January 2 onwards. That's why I
said things
should return to normalcy.
Q: What has been your experience and findings
to date with respect to
Sunrise 2?
A: As was the case with Sunrise 1,
a report will be released with
interesting revelations and patterns of cash
hoarding and the manner in
which that cash has been brought back but I do
not want to pre-empt that
report.
Q: What is your comment on the cash
baron caught last week with $10 billion
worth of the new $500 000 bearer
cheques?
A: Commenting on that matter while it's before the courts would
be what they
term sub judice, save to highlight the fact that the 100
colleagues that the
lady (Dorothy Primrose Mutekede) refers to as her
partners in crime goes to
prove the fact that the issue of indiscipline in
the economy is rampant and
widespread by her own admission. We do have a bit
to say about it at some
stage.
We now have a databank in the central
bank of who the major cash movers are.
Some who move with personalised cars,
some who go out misrepresenting
themselves and some who will stop at nothing
to beat the systems. I am
pleased to say that over the last year or so we
have been using all forms of
manner and methods to get that information and
we get enriched everyday by
members of the public who have information of
what is happening across many
sectors of our economy.
Our Financial
Intelligence Investigation, Evaluation and Security Division
of the bank,
which we set up in terms of the Bank Use Promotion and
Suppression of Money
Laundering Act Chapter 22:24, has really been at work.
Q: Are members of
the public aware of the Act and what it entails and what
measures have you
taken to educate them in this respect?
A: It's a pity that most people
venture into business without acquainting
themselves with various laws and
regulations that pertain to their areas of
operation, especially the
provision of this Act. While it's not our duty to
educate the public about
the laws of this country, and indeed they say
ignorance of the law is no
excuse, you do have a valid point about the need
for us to disseminate some
of these laws to the general public and even to
interpret and translate them
in local languages.
It's a challenge I will take up with my Minister of
Finance to see what can
be done.
Q: Going back to the cash baron
case, Mr Jonathan Kadzura, named as having
allegedly given the money to the
woman, sits on the Reserve Bank advisory
board, how do you view
this?
A: The advisory board to which captains of industry and commerce,
prominent
economists, permanent secretaries, bankers and other distinguished
members
of society belonged, fell away in January 2006 at the start of NEDPP
(National Economic Development Priority Programme) and we always amuse
ourselves when we hear comments to the effect that prominent person A or
prominent person B is an advisor to the Governor.
Well, the Governor
is accessible to all the 12 million Zimbabweans and it's
these 12 million
who constitute my advisory board including you as business
editor. I get
advice and information from so many editors through your
various
columns.
Q: In some quarters you have been labelled as the biggest
saboteur in the
economy and that the Reserve Bank is a major player in the
foreign currency
parallel market. How do you respond to this?
A: Some
accusations are made against the central bank, its Governor and his
team by
people who are genuinely ignorant of how we are constituted, under
which
laws we operate as well as what flexibility the central bank has.
I am
not at liberty to disclose what sanctions-busting strategies or tactics
we
are using to balance the twin objectives of sustaining this economy in
terms
of its day-to-day needs as well as ensuring that our exporters and
other
generators of foreign currency remain viable.
So these gymnastics belong
to my memoirs but in silence we take every blow
and every accusation that
comes our way whether it's to do with too much
rain, floods, too much
sunshine, lack of fertilizer, fuel, drugs or the
arrest of people. If we
adopt the habit of responding to every criticism
levelled against us we
would not accomplish anything. Let me give you this
quotation by Theodore
Roosevelt:
"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out
how the strong
man stumbled and where the doer of deeds could have done
better.
The credit or blame belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena; whose
face is marred by dust, sweat and blood; who strives valiantly,
who errs and
comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasm,
the great
devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows
in the end
the triumph of high achievement and who, at worst, if he fails,
at least
fails while daring greatly; so that his or her place shall never be
with
those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor
defeat."
And in our case failure is not an option. We will struggle, we
will sweat,
we will be criticised, we will be blamed, but our sights are on
victory, on
the successful turnaround of the economy.
Q: Are you
planning to take the traditional end-of-year break to recharge
for next year
so to speak?
A: Not before the conclusion of Sunrise 2. Throughout the
period from
December 20, my teams have been in rural areas, in the
provinces, in the
districts and the villages interacting with people,
including on Christmas
and Boxing Days. What kind of a leader would I be to
them, who goes on
holiday while they are out there in the bush.
I
have been taking care of the Sunrise 2 operational command centre here at
the head office to which all teams throughout the country report back at the
end of each day. So it would have been inappropriate for me to do
otherwise.
In Shona they say simba mukaka unosinina. During the lactation
period even
if a child sucks milk from his or her mother that milk will
never dry up.
After a short while the baby can feed again.
But more
importantly, my team at the Reserve Bank has taken its daily
physical
exercise programmes as a way of life and, therefore, the level of
our
resilience and fitness we believe, remains unmatched in the market.
From The Sunday Mail, 30 December
By Munyaradzi Huni
No one should interfere with the
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr
Gideon Gono as he executes his
duties and the Affirmative Action Group
should stop soliciting information
on cash barons from members of the public
on behalf of the central bank as
it has no mandate to do so, the Government
has said. The Government added
that Zimbabweans should not allow detractors
internally and internationally
to find easy room to destabilise the economy
by infiltrating the financial
mechanism of the country. Speaking at a press
conference yesterday, after
media reports that the AAG had formed a
taskforce to solicit information on
cash barons from members of the public
on behalf of the RBZ, the Minister of
Information and Publicity, Dr
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said there is no other
organisation that has the mandate
to operate on behalf of the central
bank.
"The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Monetary Policy and its operations
are
mandated by Government. No other organisation not mandated by Government
has
the right to operate on behalf of or purporting to assist the Reserve
Bank.
The Reserve Bank Governor therefore, must not be interfered with in
the
performance of his statutory duties. The public and all financial
institutions should cooperate with the central bank in its efforts to turn
around the economy and bring sanity to the financial sector in this great
nation of Zimbabwe. We should not allow our detractors internally and
internationally to find easy room to destabilise our economy by infiltrating
our financial mechanism. The AAG Task Force has not been approved by
Government to solicit information from members of the public on behalf of
the central bank. It must therefore stop its activities with immediate
effect," said Dr Ndlovu.
Adding his voice at the same press
conference, Dr Gono said the RBZ had not
been advised by Government nor was
it aware that such a taskforce had been
set up to assist the central bank to
deal with the cash situation "outside
the legal powers, parameters and
normal procedures that we have been
deploying to deal with the situation. As
I have repeatedly indicated before
in my pronouncements as Governor, banking
is a sensitive area which must not
be tempered with by anyone and everyone
no matter how noble their intentions
are. "The RBZ has the ability to deal
with the cash situation without the
help of the AAG or any other taskforce.
The help that associations such as
the AAG can give to the central bank and
indeed to the economy of Zimbabwe
is to instill in its membership the
virtues of discipline, public order,
respect for private property, economic
patriotism and uprightness in all the
individual businesses they are
involved in, shunning corruption and corrupt
tendencies and working hard to
turnaround the economy. The rest of the
issues will fall into place on their
own," said Dr Gono.
He said the country had enough taskforces and the
addition of the AAG
taskforce to deal with banking matters was not the
answer to the cash
situation. "The RBZ has adequate legal procedures which
it follows in
dealing with all matters pertaining to its jurisdiction. The
nation and the
banking public and bankers in particular should report to the
police any
form of harassment, threats or victimisation brought upon them by
anybody
outside the law," said the Governor. He asked: "If the AAG taskforce
gets
the cash from the cash barons, where are they going to take the cash
to?" Dr
Gono revealed that there were instances where some members of the
AAG were
going around intimidating banks and bankers by demanding to be
shareholders.
He said some of the members even went to the extent of
denouncing him. The
Governor urged those interested in opening their own
banks to approach the
central bank with their applications for vetting. The
Governor also
castigated some people who are going around spreading rumours
that a new
currency would soon be enshrined. He said a full statement
regarding the
cash situation and the way forward regarding the $200 000
bearer cheques
would be issued tomorrow.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
30 December 2007
07:36
Bare supermarket shelves, bank queues and burst
riverbanks --
for many Zimbabweans a bad year ended in a bad
way.
At least 27 Zimbabweans died in floods this month while
thousands have spent precious holiday days in bank queues, waiting for
scarce cash.
The government of long-time leader President
Robert Mugabe this
week tried to put a positive gloss on 2007, calling it
the Year of Tourism
following an estimated 55% surge in desperately needed
foreign tourists.
But few others will have positive memories
of the past 12
months.
Opposition officials have been
beaten up, a fearless archbishop
and Mugabe critic brought low in what many
saw as a state-orchestrated sting
and a controversial bugging law
passed.
"It would be fair to say it has been one of the worst
years of
our independence," said Bill Saidi, the deputy editor of the
private
Standard newspaper.
Ordinary people have really
been hard done by, he added.
Shortages of basics like bread,
milk and meat worsened following
a controversial 50% price slash in July,
which saw gleeful shoppers, some of
them linked to the police, and
influential figures empty shops, wholesalers
and fuel
stations.
More than 23 000 businessmen, informal traders and
shop owners
were arrested for defying price controls.
In
the last few weeks, some goods have reappeared in shops. But
they are
selling at prices way beyond the reach of many. A single chicken, a
favourite Christmas dish, in December cost more than Z$20-million, more than
the monthly salary of many teachers and lecturers.
Inflation, which has been on a relentless upward climb since
land reforms
were launched in 2000, has surged. The latest monthly figure
reportedly
leaked from the central bank this week is more than 24 000%.
To make matters worse, banknote shortages brought misery to
millions in the
run-up to Christmas.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon
Gono blames the
shortages on cash hoarders and high-ranking officials
involved in shady
deals.
In an ironic twist this week, a
woman arrested for illegally
possessing billions of new bank notes
implicated a former Reserve Bank
adviser, alleging Jonathan Kadzura was a
regular buyer of foreign currency
on the illegal black
market.
'Turning point'
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the
year has been challenging. MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai was among dozens of
opposition and civil rights
activists beaten by police at an aborted prayer
rally in
March.
The brutal clampdown saw one opposition supporter shot
dead
during skirmishes with police and catapulted Zimbabwe once again into
the
international spotlight.
Observers wondered if this
would mark a new stage of sustained
resistance to Mugabe's 27-year-long hold
on power.
It didn't. Instead, following an emergency summit
by the
Southern African Development Community, the two factions of the MDC
and
Mugabe's Zanu-PF agreed to begin talks in neighbouring South Africa. So
far
the sides have agreed to some concessions, including the watering down
of
tough press and security laws.
"This is the year in
which we managed to drag Mugabe to the
negotiating table," said MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa, himself beaten up
and hospitalised in early
2007. "For us, that was a turning point."
Chamisa believes
elections due next March will make 2008 a
watershed year.
"It is a year in which the people of Zimbabwe have the
opportunity to save
their lives, their families and their country," he said.
Not
everyone has his confidence. Editor Saidi admits that people
are itching to
get back at the government.
But, he told the Deutsche
Presse-Agentur that "there are people
who think there's quite a probability
they [the government] will tinker with
the elections".
The Mugabe government has a reputation for attempting to silence
any
opponents.
The Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius
Ncube, was an
internationally respected critic of the regime, who once
famously said he
prayed for Mugabe's demise. He was forced to resign his
post in September
after state television showed grainy pictures of the
cleric getting into bed
with a married parishioner.
Quieter these days, Ncube continues to pray for a change of
government.
The former archbishop told the British-based
Zimbabwean Standard
newspaper this week: "I believe strongly that good will
triumph over evil
for what we are dealing with here is a cruel evil of the
worst kind." --
Sapa-dpa
Our last Vigil of 2007. It's
now our sixth New Year. People ask what drives
us to continue. Here's one
reason: with us today we had Guguzinhle Khumalo.
We asked her to write her
story for us. "I live in Romford, came to the UK
in December 2004. I was
abducted and taken to the Gwanda Green Bombers' Camp
in 2002 and trained in
combat. I was raped multiple times and had a child
(girl) who is still in
Zim with my mother. I had to flee because they
threatened and beat me up so
much. I left for South Africa and came here.
I have never seen my daughter
since I left her when she was 1 year, 7
months. I am now joining the
Zimbabwe Vigil cause. Hopefully we will bring
Mugabe and his evil associates
down. People are suffering and we are
suffering - enough is enough. I am
23 years old with no life at all. I don't
think this is right. I want to go
to school and be someone. For now I can't
do that. What about the future of
my daughter?" Guguzinhle also said that
when she tries to talk to people
here about what happened they can't believe
it. What future is there for
our land unless we all stand up and protest as
the Vigil does week after
week.
We have gone through our register and we find that our average
attendance
per Vigil this year has been 107. Last year the average was 62
and the year
before 37. The number of individuals who attended this year
was 1,594 as
opposed to 872 in 2006 and 574 in 2005. It seems that our
attendance is
increasing exponentially like Zimbabwe's inflation!
On
a cold, blustery day people from all over the UK gathered at the Vigil to
continue our protest against gross violations of human rights by the Mugabe
regime - despite efforts to destabilize us. We heard that several people
were phoned and informed that the Vigil was not happening and that they
should attend a meeting in Birmingham today.
We wish you all a happy
new year and pray that we won't be standing outside
the Embassy on Saturday
afternoons in a year's time.
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 138 signed the register.
Please note there will be no
Forum this week. The next Forum will be on
Monday, 7th January
2008.
Vigil Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy,
429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to
protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Los Angeles Times
Government stopped accepting new cases for treatment in 2006.
Desperate
people turn to traditional healers.
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles
Times Staff Writer
December 30, 2007
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE -- There are long
lines in Zimbabwe for everything from
food to money, but the queue that
defeated Alexander Mudewe and his wife,
Perpetual, could end up killing
them: the one for HIV drugs at the
government hospital here.
When
Alexander became ill three months ago, the couple decided to get
tested;
both were HIV-positive.
So they went to Mpilo Hospital. After
five hours in the line for
antiretroviral drugs, they were told that the
hospital wasn't registering
any new HIV-positive patients.
"I
actually cried," said Perpetual, 47. "I was not feeling well. They just
tell
you to come back tomorrow. You come back tomorrow and there's another
long
queue again."
"You end up giving up," Alexander said as a rat scuttled
across the floor of
the couple's small house. "You end up going
home."
Zimbabwe's financial crisis has seen the near collapse of its
health system.
Hit by foreign currency shortages and hyperinflation, the
government stopped
taking new AIDS patients in October 2006. Many people die
of AIDS
complications before they can get antiretroviral medicine.
In
Zimbabwe, 321,000 people need antiretroviral medicines, or ARVs,
according
to the World Health Organization, and only 91,000 have access to
them.
An April report by WHO and two other U.N. agencies says about
6% of children
in need of treatment were getting it. The government says
more than 2,200
Zimbabweans die every week of AIDS
complications.
Zimbabwe's delivery of ARVs is below average for low- and
middle-income
countries, according to the agencies' report. In sub-Saharan
Africa, an
average 28% of those in need of the drugs get them. For Zimbabwe,
the
percentage is about 24%.
As access to government treatment has
become impossible for most, the
private market is out of reach too. A
December report by International
Treatment Preparedness Coalition, an
international advocacy group, says the
number of private HIV/AIDS patients
dropped from 10,000 in July to 6,000
because government policies and
inflation had caused the cost of treatment
to soar.
Ahmed Leher, 52,
cannot bear to call his illness by its name. To him it's
"this thing" or
"this rubbish."
His weight has dropped by 50 pounds in a few months. He
is angry knowing
that there's a medicine out there that could save him, but
the hospital
system won't give it to him.
"I don't want to die
young," he said, his face anguished. "I know there's
still life. I know that
with ARVs I can live for years.
"I've seen my friends die. I've watched
the stages they go through. This
thing can just twist overnight. I'll be in
hospital. Tonight this thing can
just change me and when you look at me
again, I'll be a skeleton."
Nokuthula Zulu, 28, who has a 9-year-old
daughter, tested HIV-positive 18
months ago. When she tried to register for
treatment, she was told to come
back later, but she has not yet been
accepted for treatment.
Every Wednesday evening, she participates in a
support group, sharing her
experiences and praying with others who have been
denied treatment.
She wears clothes she inherited from her sister, who
became more and more
ill and died, but Zulu doesn't know whether it was
AIDS. Zulu has never had
a formal job, but sold peanuts on the street before
she became ill five
months ago.
In the absence of any diagnostic
test, the only available measure of her
decline is her weight: In five
months, she lost more than half her body
weight, dropping from 132 pounds to
61.
"I don't know what to do or what to think anymore," she said. "I pray
a lot.
I ask God to look after me and my child."
With no access to
medicines, people often turn to herbal remedies and
traditional
healers.
Alexander Mudewe spent a dollar on five tablets from a quack on
the street
that were supposed to cure AIDS.
"They said I'd get
better. I bought a couple. When you are desperate, you
just buy
anything."
Tapson Dhliwayo has been a nganga (pronounced nun-ga), or
traditional
healer, for 43 years. In his top-floor apartment under a baking
metal roof,
he has watched a steady trickle of patients grow to a flood of
desperate
people.
In his consulting room, a vinyl disc is suspended
from the roof amid
feathers, his red traditional robes and a horse-tail
brush. The power that
he says these objects confer is the last hope for most
of his patients. His
main treatment is an herbal remedy made from plants he
collects in the bush.
"In the past couple of months, a lot more people
are coming because there's
no medicine in the hospitals," he said, adding
that if people could afford
the transportation to visit him, he would be
overwhelmed with patients.
Taking a pinch of snuff from an animal horn,
he explained his theory on
AIDS.
"This is a punishment from the Lord
for the way we live today.
"It's the same as when Noah was instructed to
build the Ark and people
didn't listen and they drowned in the
flood."
Most people who sought his help had waited too long, he
said.
"There's a lot of people I try to help and they end up
dying."
Leher, who watched dying friends pass through various stages of
desperation,
has not yet reached the point of looking to traditional
remedies. But he
feels his illness catching up with him. When he walks a
block from his
house, it feels like five miles. He struggles for the words
to express his
pain.
"It's very tight inside. It's very hard to . . .
it's a very stiff
situation. I can sit and look at a picture of my wife and
I'll just drop in
tears. She sits and cries too."
robyn.dixon@latimes.com
IPSnews
By
Tonderai Kwidini
HARARE, Dec 30 (IPS) - A 20-litre bucket in hand,
Abigail Shonhiwa ponders
the stretch ahead in her journey to the next
watering hole, a distance of
about seven kilometres. Her suburb has been
facing recurrent water shortages
since 2000, in part because it is built on
a plateau in the Zimbabwean
capital, Harare.
The ageing treatment
plant at the Morton Jeffrey Water Works, located about
20 kilometres outside
of the city, has difficulty building up enough
pressure to push the water
through to the tap at Shonhiwa’s house. The
British colonial administration
put the water works infrastructure in place
several decades ago, and the
current government has not adequately
maintained or replaced the
equipment.
Shonhiwa can say little about the Water Act of 1998, which the
government
introduced in an effort to ensure that all its citizens would
have
sufficient access to water.
"I know nothing about that. All I
know is that ZINWA is now in charge of
water affairs," Shonhiwa told IPS
with an expression of resignation as she
set out on the remainder of her
journey.
ZINWA, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, a parastatal
organisation, is
tasked with managing the country’s water affairs. It was
set up in terms of
the Zimbabwe National Water Authority Act at the same
time as the Water Act
of 1998 was passed by parliament.
The two acts
together replaced an earlier Water Act of 1976, because
government wanted to
provide the people of Zimbabwe with more equitable
access to
water.
At the Zambezi Basinwide Stakeholders Forum held in the resort
town of
Victoria Falls in northern Zimbabwe last month, the country’s
minister of
water resources and infrastructural development, Munacho Mutezo,
said that
the previous legislation had made water provision and management
an
impossible task -- and that broader consultation was needed in this
regard.
In terms of the two acts of 1998, ZINWA would take over the
running of water
affairs and infrastructure at all levels of government,
including those of
municipal authorities. The parastatal was to assume
responsibility for the
construction and maintenance of dams, for all systems
required to ensure the
distribution of water and for billing
operations.
"The main purpose of the creation of ZINWA was to make water
available to
all the people throughout the country, as previously some
people in the
rural areas were still using water from unprotected sources
like rivers. Now
there are boreholes and dams almost everywhere," Mutezo
told delegates at
the Victoria Falls conference.
However, certain
water experts have a different viewpoint on the way water
resources are
being managed in Zimbabwe.
In a 2006 paper titled 'Water sector reforms
in Zimbabwe', Hodson Makurira
and Menard Mugumo acknowledged that "Although
Zimbabwe has the legal
framework for integrated water management, the
situation on the ground does
not reflect the policy."
The process of
taking over the various water authorities has been slow and
fraught with
controversy.
ZINWA was supposed to ensure that water was affordable and
accessible even
to the poorest communities in the country; yet where it has
taken over,
rates have increased ten-fold, taps run dry, and sewage and
water pumps
burst regularly -- while waterborne diseases have become part of
urban life.
To date, the agency has not built a single dam, while three
major dams
supplying water in the southern region of the country were
decommissioned
after drying up.
The agency has met with grim
resistance from residents of Harare since it
assumed control of water
management in the capital -- also Zimbabwe's
largest city. The Combined
Harare Residents Association (CHRA) says there is
no difference between the
Water Acts of 1927 and 1976 and that of 1998.
"This talk about
introducing pieces of legislation aimed at improving water
availability is
bar talk. The coming in of these new laws has actually
worsened the problem
of water shortages, particularly the vesting of all
water powers in the
hands of ZINWA. In all fairness, the coming in of ZINWA
heralded a new era
-- that of water shortages," said Jabusile Shumba, CHRA
senior programmes
and advocacy officer.
The distressing experiences in Harare have caused
residents of other towns
and cities to oppose ZINWA’s bids to take over
water management in their
respective areas.
For example in Gwanda,
about 125 kilometres south of Bulawayo, in southern
Zimbabwe, Mayor Thandeko
Zinti Mnkandla says his municipality will not hand
over its sewer
reticulation system to ZINWA because of that organisation’s
reputation for
incompetence.
Some commentators speculate that the national government
has insisted on
turning over water management in urban areas to a bungling
parastatal
because the cities and towns tend to support the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
"There is no hope for the
future. We don’t really know what’s happening at
ZINWA. Maybe the parent
ministry knows, but the past two years have been
appalling," MDC party
spokesman Nelson Chamisa told IPS.
ZINWA often attempts to defend itself
by saying that it does not have enough
foreign currency to purchase
essential water equipment.
A ZINWA official who spoke to IPS on condition
of anonymity explained, "We
have been bashed left, right and centre. People
blame us for the water
shortages, but we have only been operational for less
than two years. There
is no money to finance major projects such as the
rehabilitation of water
works, which we inherited in obsolete
state."
The past few years have seen a deepening crisis in Zimbabwe,
where
government has come under fire for economic mismanagement and
widespread
human rights abuse. (END/2007)
From The Sunday Times (UK), 30 December
Ben Laurance
A company that has just launched itself on
the London stock market as a
renewable-energy business is the same firm that
became embroiled in the
"blood diamond" scandals of the 1990s, in which
illegally traded diamonds
were used to finance civil wars in Africa, The
Sunday Times has established.
Energem Resources, with its head office in
South Africa and registered
office in Canada, used to be known as
DiamondWorks. It changed its name in
2004 and gained its London AIM listing
last month. Canaccord Adams, the
adviser that piloted it onto London's
Alternative Investment Market (AIM),
is headed by Tim Hoare, who sits
alongside rock star and champion of Africa
Bob Geldof on the board of the
television-production company Ten Alps. Hoare
has been a board member since
March this year. The hedge fund RAB Capital
owns nearly 25% of Energem. The
stock-exchange announcement of Energem's AIM
debut said the company was
concentrating on oil distribution, biofuels and
"procurement, supply and
logistics management to industry in sub-Saharan
Africa". It referred to
diamonds only in saying that last month Energem had
decided to give up
diamond-exploration rights in the Central African
Republic. Three of the
directors were said to have had experience in mining
diamonds. There is no
suggestion that the present management had any
involvement in the blood
diamond trade - an industry at one stage reckoned
to be worth $1 billion
(£500m) a year - in which civil wars, notably in
Angola and Sierra Leone,
were fuelled by selling the gems to buy arms.
Page 129 of Energem's
160-page AIM admission document discloses that Energem
was "formerly
DiamondWorks Ltd". And, in a brief corporate history, the
document says that
in 1997, the company's main assets were "diamond
exploration properties in
Sierra Leone and Angola. The Angolan mines were in
full production in 1997
and the Sierra Leone mines were in the process of
commissioning when civil
unrest in both these countries during 1998
effectively halted operations".
DiamondWorks came close to bankruptcy and
was the subject of a reverse
takeover in 2001. Its present management team
all joined after that rescue.
A stake in a Sierra Leone diamond mining
concern has been sold. A spokesman
for Energem said this weekend that "all
connections with its DiamondWorks
days have long-since been severed". In
2000, Peter Hain, then at the Foreign
Office, named Tony Teixeira - now
deputy executive chairman of Energem - in
parliament as being involved in
the illegal movement of diamonds and fuel in
Angola. Teixeira flatly denied
any involvement in the trade and challenged
Hain to repeat the allegations
outside parliament. The Energem spokesman
said that the allegation had been
investigated ahead of last month's
listing. "Mr Teixeira came out with a
clean bill of health," he said. In the
1990s, DiamondWorks came under
scrutiny in Sierra Leone for using the
controversial South African-based
mercenary provider Executive Outcomes to
secure its diamond mines during the
country's prolonged civil war. The 1990s
war, and the diamond trade that
sustained it, also came under the Hollywood
microscope in the 2006 film
Blood Diamond.
In 1997, DiamondWorks'
largest shareholder was Tony Buckingham, a former
British Army officer who
introduced Executive Outcomes into both Sierra
Leone and Angola. He was the
inspiration behind the London-based mercenary
outfit Sandline International.
Sandline, which provided mercenaries,
military training and arms, was being
run by former Scots Guards officer
Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Spicer. Sandline
and DiamondWorks shared offices in
London. Also linked to DiamondWorks in
the 1990s was Simon Mann, the Old
Etonian who was later arrested in Zimbabwe
accused of attempting to smuggle
weapons to Equatorial Guinea to help stage
a coup. Mann was DiamondWorks'
chief operations officer. Mann is still in
Zimbabwe, trying to resist
extradition to Equatorial Guinea. A certification
scheme was set up in 2000
with United Nations backing to stem the flow of
blood diamonds from Sierra
Leone where rebels used gems to fund the
country's 10-year war. Energem said
this weekend that, as far as it knew,
Buckingham was not a shareholder. The
company is concentrating on renewable
energy, and wants to farm jatropha, a
plant whose seeds can be turned into
biofuel. It is growing jatropha in
Mozambique, runs an ethanol plant in
Kenya and has oil-refining and storage
operations in Nigeria and Malawi.
Energem also has operations in Chad,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia
and Zimbabwe.