The Telegraph
By Neil Connery in
Mbare
(Filed: 04/12/2005)
They came in the quiet of the night to
unleash a wave of terror. Armed
police burst through rows of shacks, beating
and dragging people from their
beds and demolishing their
homes.
Isaac Julius felt the full force of the latest phase of the
Zimbabwean
government's eviction campaign, known as Operation Restore
Order.
"We were sleeping inside our house in Mbare, when they arrived and
told us
to go," he said. "They just started chucking everything out." He
lifted his
trouser leg to show a bloody and bruised leg.
Moses
Chombo, his neighbour, took up the story. "I tried to run away but
they
caught me and I got injured while being thrown into the car. The city
council police beat us. They took my door frames and iron roofing. I saw a
woman with a four-week-old baby struggling to put up a fight, but it was no
good."
The morning after the raid on November 14, Mbare was strewn
with broken
roofing sheets, smashed rocks and pieces of wood. The dazed
residents took
what belongings they could gather with them on the police
lorries to the
Hopley Farm holding camp, outside Harare, the capital. At
least 500 families
were uprooted.
Almost four weeks later, more than
3,000 people are struggling to survive in
appalling conditions at the camp.
There is neither running water nor
sanitation. A few sheets of plastic
provide the only shelter for each
family.
A woman called Linguilwe
said she had to eat insects to stay alive. She
opened her clenched hand to
show half-a-dozen dead mandere, or chafer
beetles, in her palm.
"We
were taken from Mbare at night. We didn't know where we were going," she
said. "There's nothing to eat."
Although the camp is watched over by
government security guards, its
occupants are free to leave. But most have
nowhere to go after their homes
were destroyed.
The United Nations
estimates that more than 700,000 people throughout the
country have lost
their homes or jobs as a result of the eviction programme
that began in
May.
Campaigning at a rally for last weekend's senate elections,
President Robert
Mugabe told ITV News that his international critics could
learn from him.
"They should look at how we are practising our democracy,
especially the
Americans."
The turnout for the elections was
estimated at 15 per cent. Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
Party, called for a boycott after Washington,
Brussels and London condemned
March's parliamentary elections as a
fraud.
Mr Mugabe, 81, insists that Operation Restore Order is simply a
slum-clearance programme. The MDC claims that the evictions have been mostly
in strongholds of their own supporters and are Mr Mugabe's way of taking
revenge on people who voted for the Opposition in March.
Samuel
Mboro, an unemployed printer, lives with 20 members of his family in
a tiny,
four-room house on the outskirts of Harare. "I can't describe how
difficult
life is here," he said.
"No one in our family is working, so we are
surviving on Red Cross handouts.
I am surprised that the government is
saying that there is enough food.
That's not true. Those who don't get
handouts are starving. People are dying
of hunger."
Nearby, there is
a two-mile queue for petrol. The taxi drivers had been
lining up for a week.
"How can you go and vote when you have nothing to eat
and there is no fuel?"
said one. Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed and
inflation is running at 400
per cent.
Last week, after insisting for more than a year that Zimbabwe
could feed
itself, the government agreed to allow the UN to supply food aid
to 3
million people.
White pensioners are also suffering. Len Huxley,
84, who was born in Britain
and served as a Royal Marine during the Second
World War, has spent the past
40 years in Zimbabwe. He survives in his small
flat on handouts from
volunteers.
"I have a jar of coffee which I
haven't dared use," he said. "I just sit and
look at it. I haven't had a
piece of bacon for four years. If I'm feeling
generous I might buy some
bananas and have them on toast."
John Sheppard, the co-ordinator for
Meals on Wheels, said many cases were
heartbreaking: "One man we know, who's
80, is forced to work as an
electrician, climbing into roofs and up pylons.
His wife is 87, almost
totally blind and crippled with
arthritis.
"Because of inflation, their pension is worth just 20,000
Zimbabwe dollars a
month (10p). Their daughter, who lives with them, has
Down's syndrome. If
they weren't helped, they'd die.
"We know of a
gentleman who starved to death in a caravan. He probably lost
the urge to
live.
"We know of a woman who lives in a cowshed wearing clothes made out
of
plastic. It's staggering what hyper-inflation really does."
Neil
Connery is ITV News Africa Correspondent. Some names have been changed.
Zim Online
Mon 5 December
2005
HARARE - A Z$150 billion fund created by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) to resuscitate the country's dairy sector could have been
misused with
less than $15 billion said to have reached farmers, ZimOnline
has learnt.
Senior RBZ officials said the central bank's governor,
Gideon Gono,
had ordered a probe into several financial institutions that
were tasked to
disburse the money after small-scale dairy farmers, who were
the intended
beneficiaries of the fund, complained that they had not
received the money.
"The funds could have been abused because we
understand some of the
banks are still holding on to the money when we
expect that it should have
already been disbursed to the farmers," said a
senior RBZ official, who
spoke on condition he was not
named.
Gono could not be reached for comment on the
matter yesterday.
But the chairman of small-scale dairy producers,
Tendai Makwavarara,
confirmed that the bulk of the farmers had not benefited
from the fund and
that they had raised the matter with the RBZ.
"We have asked the bank to investigate that and I understand the probe
has
already begun. Of the $150 billion, less that $15 billion has been
disbursed
and we wonder where the rest of the money is," Makwavarara said.
This is not the first time that public funds meant to assist farmers
increase production and end hunger in Zimbabwe have been
misused.
Parliament's portfolio committee on agriculture said in a
report two
weeks ago that about 60 percent of $118 billion provided by the
government
for farmers never reached them because it was stolen by officials
tasked to
distribute the money.
The misuse of the dairy funds
has put into jeopardy more than 30 dairy
projects that the RBZ had hoped to
boost and help increase production of
milk, which is in short supply in the
country.
As with all sectors of Zimbabwe's once vibrant
agriculture, the dairy
production is at its lowest after President Robert
Mugabe's chaotic and
often violent seizure of productive farms from whites
for redistribution to
landless blacks.
Although the government
had initially said it would not seize dairy
farms it went back on its
promise, allowing violent mobs of its supporters
to invade dairy farms and
in many cases slaughtering dairy cows for meat.
Zimbabwe has less than 40
000 dairy cows from the more than 100 000 it had
before the farm
seizures.
Mugabe's farm redistribution programme saw food
production falling by
60 percent mainly because black peasant farmers put on
former white
commercial farms did not have the skills or financial resources
to maintain
production, while most of the little money that the government
has attempted
to provide was stolen by powerful politicians and state
officials.
Zimbabwe, once a regional bread basket, has since
Mugabe's chaotic
land reforms six years ago survived on food aid from
international donors.
An estimated four million Zimbabweans or a quarter of
the country's 12
million people require more than a million tonnes of food
aid between now
and the next harvest around March/April 2006 or they will
starve. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 5
December 2005
HARARE - United Nations Emergency Relief Co-ordinator
Jan Egeland on
Sunday began meeting UN experts ahead of a country-wide tour
to assess the
humanitarian crisis triggered by the demolition of houses in a
controversial
government clean-up campaign last May.
Egeland,
who is on a four day visit to Zimbabwe, is scheduled to meet
President
Robert Mugabe today and visit areas affected by the clean-up
exercise which
saw thousands of houses and backyard shacks destroyed.
"He
(Egeland) is in Harare, holding some internal meetings with UN
experts in
the country," said Hiro Ueki, the acting director for the UN
information
centre in Harare.
The UN envoy is also scheduled to meet religious
and civil society
leaders during the visit. Church leaders and civic rights
leaders were at
the forefront in criticising Mugabe's housing
demolitions.
At least 700 000 people were left homeless after
Mugabe sanctioned the
housing demolitions in Zimbabwe's urban areas,
according to a damning UN
report penned by special envoy Anna Tibaijuka. The
UN envoy said another 2.4
million people were also directly affected by the
programme.
But Mugabe last July angrily rejected the report
insisting the housing
demolitions were necessary to restore the beauty of
cities and towns as well
as smash the burgeoning but illegal foreign
currency parallel market.
The Zimbabwean leader also rejected UN
aid for the clean-up victims
insisting the country had enough resources to
deal with the crisis. But last
September, Mugabe, whose country is grappling
a five-year economic
recession, made an abrupt U-turn when he accepted UN
aid. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 5
December 2005
HARARE - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon
Gono and his
officials have stepped up investigations into illegal foreign
currency deals
involving Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka and
managing director
Ozias Bvute, highly placed sources told ZimOnline
yesterday.
The investigations have also touched on a former
broadcaster and who
is now a businessman with close links to President
Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF
party.
"RBZ officials, at the
instigation of Gono last week intensified their
investigations and they are
close to completing their probe. It will not be
a surprise if one or two
people are picked up by the police this week.
"Gono wants to get to
the bottom of the scandal because he had also
been named in the scam. He is
determined to make sure everything is above
board," said the highly placed
RBZ source.
It is believed that at least 1 million pounds (nearly
US$2 million)
disappeared from ZC coffers early this year when the union
acquired an
outside broadcasting van from Europe. RBZ officials are also
investigating
allegations of externalisation of huge sums of money from
ZC.
Gono is said to have taken it upon himself to bring back
normalcy to
cricket as the sport generates huge amounts of foreign currency
through
television rights.
The RBZ governor is said to be in
the process of trying to persuade
players not to quit the game. But captain
Tatenda Taibu, who quit the
national team in a huff, said he will only
consider returning to the squad
if Chingoka and Bvute are gone. -
ZimOnline
If nothing else, the Senate elections
have clearly revealed the futility of
elections in Zimbabwe as a means of
changing those who have the
responsibility of government. We knew it before,
but it has never been as
clear to us as it is now.
The results were
very revealing - if we adopt my hypothesis as spelled out
in the last weekly
letter, that Zanu PF held back in Bulawayo to give the
MDC pro Senate faction
some seats and that in those seats rigging was
minimal, then we get the
following picture nationally. In the five Bulawayo
Senate seats the poll was
7,5 percent of the voters registered. Across the
whole country 631 000 voters
turned out, 3 per cent spoiled their votes and
124 000 voted for the MDC
candidates despite the boycott call by Morgan
Tsvangirai. This meant that 450
000 voters voted for Zanu PF. The total poll
being 19,48 percent of the
voters registered in the contested seats.
Now if we assume that the
Bulawayo vote (where the MDC pro Senate faction is
strongest and has the best
case for participation) is a reflection of the
"true" vote, then this
percentage poll estimated for the whole country means
that some 388 000 votes
were fabricated to ensure a Zanu PF "landslide".
That is some 86 per cent of
the Zanu vote and suggests that the true poll
for Zanu was only a miniscule
62 000 votes or less than two per cent of the
number of registered
voters.
This may be an extreme calculation but it suggests the magnitude
of the
nonsense that goes on in an election here run by this collection of
clowns
masquerading as democrats. If we take just one seat - that for
Chipinge and
Chimanimani - here in an area where Zanu PF has not won a seat
in 25 years,
they polled 36 000 votes, some 22 per cent of the total number
of registered
voters. In the last election that could be counted as
reasonably run - June
2000, Zanu lost both seats by huge margins. This is
clearly simply not
possible. In fact I said to a friend who comes from the
area jokingly - "so
you guys have woken up and voted Zanu PF at last", to
which she replied
"come walk with me down the street of Chipinge and say that
in public and
you will be beaten to death!"
On the day that I went up
to Harare last week, the headline in the Herald
was "Mutare Mayor to be
thrown out". If we ignore the state of national
elections and look at what
has happened in local government elections the
situation is equally shameful.
In the last national local government
elections the MDC won comprehensively
in 13 out of 15 urban councils. These
victories were especially marked in the
larger centers.
Since then we have seen the Mayor and entire Council
forced out of office in
Harare, the Mayor of Chitungwiza suspended, the Mayor
of Mutare thrown out
of his office and now facing suspension and the Mayor of
Chivu thrown into
jail on spurious grounds. All other MDC Mayors face
constant threats against
their tenure and administration In the Rural
District Council of Hwange -
one of the few controlled by the MDC, the
elected Chairman was hounded out
of office and has now fled the area and is
living in Harare.
Local government is already in a terrible state - lack
of resources, the
State not paying its bills, shortages of foreign currency
for essential
imports and urban populations growing rapidly without any
consequential
investment in water and sewerage. Our cities are a health time
bomb. I
talked to the Mayor of Bulawayo the other day - a man who has done a
very
commendable job for the City. We discussed a private sector initiative
to
solve the cities water crisis - he concurred with the ideas but said
that
his biggest problem was that the Minister of Local Government would not
back
it because it would be seen as an MDC initiative. In the budget there
was no
allocation for the new water supplies either for Harare or
Bulawayo!
In the Presidential election in 2002, it was estimated by those
with access
to the data that some 800 000 votes were fabricated - we know who
did it and
where and how it was done. Without these fabricated votes Morgan
Tsvangirai
would have won that election by 65 per cent to 35 per cent for
Robert Mugabe
and we would have been living under a MDC government right now.
Instead
Mugabe claimed a massive victory over his rival and when this victory
was
taken to Court for an urgent hearing, it was simply sat on and today - 3
and
a half years later, has not been heard. In exasperation the legal
team
representing Morgan has now appealed to the Supreme Court to do
"something"
about the refusal of the High Court to hear the case. It took
the MDC three
years to force the Registrar General to bring the election
documents to
Harare for examination - a process which is only now under
way.
The people no longer have any faith in elections - and what a
tragedy that
is for the country and for Africa at large. I can remember like
yesterday
the enormous excitement in 1980 as millions went to vote to bring
about the
selection of leadership to take the country forward after years of
war and
isolation. I was on duty at a polling station and can recall the
queues of
ordinary people - the old, the young, the educated and the
illiterate,
workers and millionaires all standing in line with a common
cause. The
emotion of those for whom this was the first time to vote was
plain for all
to see and was deeply moving.
Now those same people say
what is the point of voting - we vote and they
steal the result, we vote and
they beat us, we vote and they starve us and
deny us access to jobs and
schools. Who can forget those vivid pictures from
the June 2000 election of
hundreds of thousands of people lined up at
midnight demanding "we want to
vote", the riot police using dogs and tear
gas to drive them away from the
polling stations when it became clear that
they could not all vote - Zanu PF
wanted to close the vote down while they
were ahead.
Who will not
forget the stunned expressions on the faces of all when in
2002, the State
radio announced the "result". Ordinary people everywhere
said, "We did not
vote like that!" For me personally it took about six
months to pick myself
off the floor of that election. What was just as bad
was to then watch the
Zanu PF administration punish those districts that had
dared to vote against
the monolith.
But if we cannot change our government or our Councils by
voting, then what
can we do to get change when we feel that those in power
are not acting in
our interests? Do we really have to start killing each
other again to get
change? Today as I write, the UN has a senior staff member
here to
investigate our situation. I guess it is too much to ask that all he
does is
insist that next time we vote - if we ever get there, we will have
the UN
supervise the whole process so that we can vote for real change with
the
confidence that we will not be cheated yet again.
We were told for
many decades that the struggle in places like Zimbabwe was
for "one man one
vote". Post independence history suggests otherwise.
However, this should not
in any way detract from the fact that our people
want to vote for the leaders
of their own choice. To deny them that make
mockery of everything the earlier
generations of leaders in Africa stood for
during the long road to democracy
in Africa. No one knows that better than
Mugabe.
Eddie
Cross
Bulawayo, 4th December 2005
News24
04/12/2005 18:06 -
(SA)
Harare - A Zimbabwean opposition MP was beaten up at a rally at
which leader
Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday his Movement for Democratic
Change would
press on despite a damaging split.
Timothy Mubhawu, a
MDC member of parliament, was bruised on the face when
party youths kicked
and punched him at a football pitch in the Harare
township of Highfield
before Tsvangirai arrived to address the rally.
The mob accused Mubhawu
of backing a faction which defied Tsvangirai's call
to boycott senate polls
held on November 26.
An AFP correspondent saw the mob chasing Mubhawu
before he drove off in a
truck.
Addressing several hundred
supporters, Tsvangirai deplored the attack on the
MP, but admitted the rift
in the party about participation in the polls
would not be
mended.
Tsvangirai said, referring to his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, and
secretary-general Welshman Ncube: "To Sibanda and Welshman we are saying
bye-bye."
Differences 'too deep'
Tsvangirai said Sibanda and
Ncube led a faction that supported 26 party
members who contested the senate
polls despite his call for a boycott.
"I called them after the senate
polls and thought we would resolve our
differences, but I realised our
differences were deeper," Tsvangirai told
MDC supporters.
"These
people decided to jump off the ship and they are going to sink while
the
ship continues to sail."
Tsvangirai scoffed at his suspension from the
party leadership last week by
a disciplinary committee chaired by
Sibanda.
"I will never be suspended by such a simpleton," he
said.
"I have a contract with the people of Zimbabwe and our agenda is to
fight
the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.
"We will not waste our
energy on these people who have fallen by the
wayside."
The crowd at
the rally chanted slogans and sang, denouncing the faction that
supported
the senate polls.
As Tsvangirai spoke, a group of supporters jogged past
him burning T-shirts
bearing the picture of Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga,
the member of
parliament for Glen Norah township.
The supporters said
Misihairabwi-Mushonga was in the faction that ignored
Tsvangirai's poll
boycott calls.
The MDC leader maintained that the elections were a waste
of money at a time
when the country was facing a severe food
shortage.
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF) won 43 of
the 50 contested seats, while the MDC picked up seven
seats in the elections
that were marred by poor turnout.
But the
split in the MDC has dealt a severe blow to the opposition party,
which had
been widely regarded as the most-credible challenge to Mugabe's 25
years of
uninterrupted rule.
Giant blue hands greeted
passers-by at the Vigil. The blue foam gloves read
"Hands Up 4 Freedom" and
on the other side "Join the MDC Today". A large
box of them was donated by
well-wishers in South Africa via the writer Geoff
Hill, Africa Correspondent
of the Washington Times and a Zimbabwean himself.
Geoff is a great supporter
of the Vigil and addressed the London Zimbabwe
Forum on Monday. He is very
keen to see the Vigil spread its activities to
Brussels, headquarters of the
European Union. Anyone there reading this,
please contact us.
Our
hands were blue even without the gloves. A downpour coincided with the
opening of the Vigil and we balanced unmusically on our slippery drums to
tie a string between our lampposts to support the tarpaulin. We were
grateful for the help of, Mkhululi, from Rotherham making his first visit to
the Vigil. The rain didn't dampen his spirits at all - nor the rest of us,
especially when we got a supporter all the way from New
Zealand.
Crowds along the Strand are building up with the approach of
Christmas.
Though our newsboards giving the latest information from Zimbabwe
draw lots
of attention, it sometimes seems as if we get as many enquiries
about the
way to Covent Garden as we do about Zimbabwe. A group of young
girls had a
go at the drumming and for them Covent Garden will always be
associated with
Zimbabwe. Next week we plan to mark the UN's International
Human Rights Day
by focusing on the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe such as
Murambatsvina and
the denial of basic freedoms.
FOR THE RECORD: about
30 supporters came today.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday, 5th December, 7.30 pm,
Zimbabwe Forum, Upstairs at
the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street,
London WC2 (cross the Strand
from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway
to John Adam Street, turn
right and you will see the pub - nearest stations:
Charing Cross and
Embankment). We will be discussing plans for the UN Human
Rights Day Vigil
and proposals to run a petition calling on the UK
Government to allow asylum
seekers to work to support themselves while in
the UK.
Vigil co-ordinator
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
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily
Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Dec-05
HARARE's source of drinking
water, Manyame Dam, is being polluted by raw
sewerage from Chitungwiza as a
result of the breakdown of the municipality's
pumps.
This has raised
fears that residents' health might be in danger.
A visit to the dormitory
town on Friday revealed that three out of
Chitungwiza's five pumps at its
biological nutrients plant are down,
resulting in raw sewerage being
released into Nyatsime River which flows
into Manyame.
All pumps at the
town's St Mary's substation are down and municipal workers
there have dug
trenches to direct the raw sewerage into the river.
Residents who live hardly
50 metres from the trench complained that they
were being exposed to a
serious health hazard.
In Zengeza, another manhole also releases raw sewerage
which runs into a
nearby trench which also feeds into Nyatsime
River.
Contacted for comment, Chitungwiza mayor, Misheck Shoko acknowledged
that
Manyame Dam is being polluted by the raw sewerage, but added that his
council could not do anything because the municipality was financially
hamstrung.
The mayor added that, recently, he approached the Japanese
Embassy to help
in the rehabilitation of the Biological Nutrients Plant
(BNF), as they had
helped in its building in the late 1990's.
"The
problem we have is that currently we do not have the funds to buy the
necessary equipment. Government promised us 850 000 rands, but up to now it
has not yet been released.
"The government also owes us nearly $28
billion, which, if made available,
would go a long way in addressing some of
Chitungwiza's problems," said
Shoko.
He added that, when a government
delegation comprising the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and
Urban Development, Ignatius Chombo and the
Minister of Health and Child
Welfare, David Parirenyatwa, visited
Chitungwiza recently, they had toured
some of the affected areas and
promised to help.
"I understand that the
Minister of Health also approached the Japanese
embassy on our behalf," the
mayor added.
Their efforts have not borne any fruits yet.
Contacted
yesterday, Parirenyatwa said he was unaware that the raw sewerage
was going
into the dam, but instead said it was going into Manyame River.
The
reservoir, though, gets its water from the river.
"I do not know that it is
going into Manyame Dam. What I know is that it is
going into Manyame River,
and it's not a new story," he said. The minister
could not comment on claims
that he had also approached the Japanese embassy
for assistance saying it
was not his brief and referred all questions to
Chombo.
Chombo yesterday
said: "We are waiting for the tender process to mature so
that we can help
with the supply of pumps and motors."
His mobile went off and further efforts
to reach him were in vain.
The dormitory town of Chitungwiza faces a myriad
of problems, such as water
shortages and non-collection of refuse which the
government blames on the
council.
However, the mayor insists that the
problems caused by foreign currency
shortages and the unavailability of fuel
are national issues beyond the
control of the council.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Paidamoyo Chipunza
issue date :2005-Dec-05
IN a
development that is likely to see a delay in revision of conditions of
service for government health personnel, the Health Services Board (HSB) was
allocated a paltry $2,8 trillion during the 2006 budget allocations, two
percent of what they had requested for.
The board had asked for $30
trillion - the bulk of which was earmarked for
remuneration of the
employees.
Presenting the 2006 budget, the Minister of Finance, Hebert
Murerwa said:
"Whilst recognising the need to improve the conditions of
services for
health personnel, Government can only afford to provide $2,8
trillion, which
is in line with the proposed $30 trillion employment cost
envelope."
Chairman of the health board, Lovemore Mbengeranwa, said since the
board was
established with a view to lure and retain qualified staff, it was
solely
based on financial resources for it to be successful.
"What we
were given is far, far below what we had budgeted for. We obviously
have to
go back to the drawing board because our turnaround strategy was
financially
based," said Mbengeranwa in an interview.
He added that the board had not yet
met to discuss the possible way forward
on the issue. "We are yet to meet
with other board members to discuss what
to do next. Hopefully by the end of
the week we would have come up with
something," he said.
While announcing
the budget, Murerwa said: "Treasury is, therefore, working
with the Health
Services Board with a view to coming up with cost recovery
and revenue
generating measures that will augment the limited resources
being provided
through the
budget."
The health services board was established in March
this year as a full-time
board by the Minister of Health and Child Welfare,
David Parirenyatwa.
The idea was mooted following massive exodus of qualified
health
practitioners to other countries and to the private sector in search
of
better remuneration and living conditions.
This has left government
health institutions manned mostly by unskilled and
unqualified staff.
The
development saw all health staff transferred from the Public Service
Commission to the new board.
Sunday Times
(Johannesburg)
December 4, 2005
Posted to the web December 3,
2005
Andrew Donaldson
London
THEY lay on a good spread at South
Africa House, the colonial pile on
Trafalgar Square that is home to the SA
High Commission in London. And don't
visitors know it.
One such
dignitary is Professor Kader Asmal, former Cabinet minister and
member of
the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.
He was
in fine form at SA House this week. When British lawyer Julia
Hausermann,
founder and president of Rights and Humanity, rose to open a
day-long
seminar and reception there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of
the
adoption of the Freedom Charter, with an officious call to the business
at
hand, it was Asmal who interjected: "Lunch! Lunch!"
And lunch, as it
turned out (again), was good: a fine selection of curries
and grilled
chicken with attendant veg that took the edge off a bitterly
cold
day.
Before then, however, speaker after speaker rose to sing the praises
not
only of the charter adopted by the Congress of the People in Kliptown,
Soweto, on June 26 1955, but also of the democracy that followed almost 40
years later. They included, among others, retired Judge Arthur Chaskalson,
George Bizos SC, and High Commissioner to the UK, Lindiwe Mabuza.
If
there was an edge of aggrandizement to proceedings, it came courtesy of
Asmal. He suggested that the charter was "ahead of its time" as a programme
for political, social and economic emancipation.
In the minutes
before lunch, it was left to the historian Shula Marks to
inject an element
of sobriety into which she termed a "triumphalist day".
Thanks to the
legacy of its history, she said, South Africa remained "a
grossly unequal
society", and an extraordinarily violent one at that.
Marks drew on the
Bible for a fitting parable: after their freedom from
Pharaonic bondage, the
Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. It
was to be hoped that the
South African democracy would not have to spend so
long a time in the
"wilderness" before it reached its "promised land".
However, 10 years -
that is, the decade since 1995 - remained a relatively
short time in the
desert, she cautioned. The challenges ahead were
considerable.
No one
disputed that. Certainly not George Bizos, who drew attention to the
provision in the Charter that can best be described as the surly rhinoceros
in the front parlour, that brooding beast whose presence remains unmentioned
for fear of spoiling the party: "The Land Shall Be Shared Among Those Who
Work It!"
There were, he bluntly stated, "pessimists among us" who
believed it was
"inevitable that we are going to have a Zimbabwe in South
Africa".
"That is not going to happen," he said - although land reform
was going to
be a painful process. "The reason for that is not one that is
difficult to
understand. It is inevitable for people who have been deprived
of land for
years to have a sense of grievance. Conflict is inevitable. What
we have
learned is not to deny that there will be conflict, but what
practical steps
we can take in regard to the land."
There are many
who believe that when the government steps up its land reform
programme next
year there will be, to use his phrase, "a Zimbabwe in SA".
The British
media, in particular, routinely view developments south of the
Limpopo from
a perspective heavily influenced by the Zimbabwean experience.
Which was
why they were invited to a briefing at SA House last week on the
pace and
progress of land reform - and another fine lunch.
Land and Agricultural
Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza and high-ranking
officials in her department
were there to inform them that they should
forget about Harare's "land
reform programme", and bear in mind that
absolutely nothing of the sort was
going to happen in South Africa when the
government comes for the land, as
the government must.
But the journalists would not let the matter lie,
and pressed Didiza on
"Zimbabwe".
Yes, the minister said, the South
African government "understands" the
widespread criticism that it is
reluctant to put pressure on Zimbabwe over
President Robert Mugabe's
controversial land policies but, no, it does not
regard such criticism as
"justifiable".
Didiza and her delegation - which included Land Affairs
Director-General
Glen Thomas, Agriculture Director-General Masiphula Mbongwa
and Chief Land
Claims Commissioner Tozi Gwanya - were at pains to stress
that whatever the
form of land restitution, it would be "fair and equitable"
and would take
place with due regard to the rule of law. In other words, no
Zimbabwe in
South Africa.
Pretoria has increased its power to
expropriate property for land reform. In
addition, it will introduce new
land taxes to discourage consolidated
holdings and scrap apartheid-era
ordinances that restrict the subdivision of
agricultural land.
As the
land summit in July revealed, progress has been slow - in 11 years, a
mere
2.9% of white-owned farm land has been transferred to blacks through
government programmes, raising doubts as to whether the "non-negotiable"
target of 30% in black hands by 2014 - regarded by some as unrealistic -
would be met.
Recent comments by Deputy President Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka that the
government was abandoning the "willing seller,
willing buyer" principle has
unsettled some.
This, according to
commercial farmers, was a vital tenet of the land market,
but, as Didiza
said, the "willing seller, willing buyer" principle had also
underpinned
land reform in Zimbabwe - and look at where it got them.
Add to this a
peasant clamour for wholesale expropriation, and for a
rewriting of the
Constitution to protect the right of the landless to invade
vacant land, and
it seemed, to the pessimists at least, that the rapid
decline into
Zimbabwe-style chaos was all but upon us.
Not on her watch, Didiza
stressed once more. "One of the advantages that we
have had as a country is
that we have never dodged our own issues. Neither
have we dodged other
issues that have happened on the continent and in the
world.
"Whether
that has been a feelgood for others or a little irritating,
unfortunately,
that is how we are seen, and I think that having faced those
issues
squarely, particularly for our own country, has helped us to move
forward.
"Obviously, the approach that South Africa took with regard
to Zimbabwe was
that we were going to engage with Zimbabweans, firstly to
understand from
themselves as to why they undertook to move the route that
they moved."
Didiza accepted that her government had failed to support
and train
agricultural land reform recipients.
A recent parliamentary
portfolio committee report revealed that too many
projects have
failed.
An audit of 177 land reform projects in North West found that 27%
of farms
were not producing anything, 24% had never produced anything, and
44% were
either not producing or in major decline. However, 42% were
producing
surpluses above subsistence needs for the markets - although this
did not
necessarily mean these were profitable operations.
"I would
agree with you," Didiza said. "The issue of agricultural training
for land
reform recipients is one of the areas that we have been trying to
focus on,
but we can still do more."
Whether this was an effective PR exercise or
brief or spin session, who
could say... Certainly, when it ended, talk among
the journalists drifted
back to the fare before them, a table groaning with
the fruits of the land,
as it were. Bottles of fine wine were opened, but
remained largely
untouched.
A pity. F ortification may be needed to
weather the coming storm.
CNN
Immigration reforms needed,
Chirac says
Saturday, December 3, 2005 Posted: 2201 GMT (0601
HKT)
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) -- France's president on Saturday said his
country would
help bring Africa out of poverty and called for the
dismantling of illegal
immigration networks that allow desperate Africans to
flee to Europe.
"The road we must travel down is long and uncertain," Jacques
Chirac said at
the opening of the 23rd French-Africa summit, attended by
dozens of African
leaders.
"But I'll tell you this: in the new
century, Africa will impress the world
with its achievements and its
success. France expects to contribute to this
renaissance," he
said.
Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure called for a European and
African
conference to deal with the immigration issue. Chirac said Africans
and
Europeans "have to dismantle the clandestine immigration
networks."
Year after year, tens of thousands risk their lives to get a
chance at a
better life in Europe, but some face deportation once they
arrive -- or die
before they get there.
"Thousands of young Africans
leave their homes in pursuit of opportunities
they hope to find elsewhere.
They travel by way of the Sahara, the straits,
and sometimes even the
landing gear of planes," Toure said.
"How many among them were drowned or
were lost forever in the desert, or
abandoned to their fates in makeshift
boats? We will never know," he said,
adding that African leaders must also
fight illegal migrant networks.
Two months ago, hundreds of African
immigrants made world headlines as they
repeatedly tried to scale razor-wire
fences to cross from Morocco into the
Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta
in late September and early October.
Last week, rescuers gave up all hope
of finding 22 would-be illegal
immigrants from northern Africa who had
drowned in rough weather off
southern Spain.
Before the gathering,
the Dakar, Senegal-based U.N. Office for West Africa
issued a report saying
nearly 75 percent of Africans under 30 are
unemployed.
The high
jobless rate is a "cause for profound social instability,"
according to a
U.N. report issued Thursday.
"As long as youths in the region regard
their prospects for securing work in
West Africa as unattainable, they will
continue to try to escape from what
seem lands of non-opportunity," said
Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, the U.N. special
representative for West
Africa.
West African youth in particular, he said, faced two options:
"violence or
migration, which in turn represents a security risk for
established, mature
democracies."
Toure said African leaders must
find solutions together to aid the
continent's youth and its wars. He said
he was "convinced that if the youth
refused to fight, many conflicts in
Africa would not last."
Conflicts in Sudan's violence-wracked Darfur
region and war-divided Ivory
Coast were also likely to be discussed during
the two-day summit.
Since the first summit, in November 1973 in Paris,
the number of
participants has continually risen, and now includes
non-Francophone
countries.
This year, all of Africa's 53 presidents
were invited. In attendance were
Liberia's president-elect Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe,
South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, and
Gabon's Omar Bongo, in power for 38 years
and Africa's longest-serving
leader. Chirac praised the re-election of
Bongo, though the opposition there
denounced the vote as fraudulent.
Notably absent was Ivory Coast
President Laurent Gbagbo, who has been
estranged from Chirac since French
troops wiped out the Ivorian air force
last year in retaliation for an
unexplained Ivorian air strike that killed
nine French troops deployed
there.
The Africa-France summit is held every two years, alternately in
France and
Africa. It ends Sunday.
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn
2005-12-04 14:50:05
HARARE, Dec. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The envoy of
the United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived here on Saturday
night to assess
Zimbabwe's clean-up exercise and to discuss with Zimbabwean
authorities
prospects of humanitarian assistance to the affected
people.
UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Jan
Egeland's
visitfollows an arrangement between President Robert Mugabe and
the UN chief
in September.
Speaking shortly after his
arrival, Egeland said the UN had
appealed to international donors for the
release of 270 million US dollars
to help Zimbabwe overcome the challenges
it was facing, including drought
and deteriorating health services, among
others.
He said he would during his visit, hold talks with
President
Mugabe, top government officials and several civic groups on the
critical
challenges that were affecting the country, adding that the appeal
for the
funds was part of on-going efforts to address Zimbabwe's
needs.
The visit by Egeland, who had initially been scheduled
for
mid-November, comes after President Mugabe invited Annan to get a
correct
picture of the situation in Zimbabwe in light of the "misleading and
unbalanced report" on the clean-up operation that UN special envoy Anna
Tibaijuka had produced.
The UN head, however, aborted the
trip after Britain and the
United States sought to politicize the planned
visit before assigning
Egeland to carry out the assessment
instead.
According to reports, Annan had told Mugabe at a
meeting on
thesidelines of the 60th Session of the General Assembly that he
had
deferred his visit because he wanted "to make sure the parameters were
right."
Reports also suggest that the UN secretary general
admitted that
his intended visit to Zimbabwe had been "highly
politicized."
In May this year, the Zimbabwean government
embarked on a clean-up
exercise in its towns and cities to rid the areas of
illegal settlements and
activities.
Although the exercise
attracted international interest, its main
objectives were fulfilled
especially in central business districts where
illegal structures and
activities had taken root. Soon after this massive
operation, the government
moved in with efforts to accommodate the affected
people under the
operation.
The program, which is in full swing in different
parts of the
country, seeks to establish business set-ups for informal
traders and
shelter to home-seekers.
Following the keen
interest the clean-up initiative had
sparkedinternationally, Annan sent
Tibaijuka to assess the program and its
effects.
The
damning report she later produced provoked mixed feelings with
the
government, on one hand, arguing that its contents were biased while
some
Western proponents hailed it.
In the report, the UN special
envoy said the operation had
beencarried out with "little or no warning"
resulting in 700,000 people
being directly affected while a further 2.4
million others were indirectly
affected.
The government,
however, said the report was biased, adding that
the document had not taken
into account the moves that were being taken to
resettle displaced people.
Enditem