There is a very important Ndebele proverb that I would like to open
this
article with, it goes .. "Indlovu ibulawa yibunyonyo". The translation,
'An
elephant can be killed by small insects'. This quote represents a
key
message to Zimbabweans that many small things can overcome a big
thing.
What are the small things that can make a difference? Women
banging their
pots to sound out their anger that mealie meal is not
available, or that if
they want to buy it they must have a Zanu PF card or
have sex with a grubby
'green bomber'? Or the fact that millions of dollars
of production is lost
whilst desperate Zimbabweans queue for fuel, bread,
cooking oil, salt,
sugar, mealie meal, flour, tampons, milk and milk powder
for babies. We
queue to obtain our identity documents and even to get
married. We queue for
transport to go to work and then again to go home.
Zimbabwe has become a
nation of queues and a nation endowed with too much
patience!
What will make us impatient enough to revolt - is it that we
will become too
bored with perpetual queues or will our pockets empty and
wear our patience
thin?
There are many issues that have kept our
tempers in check:
· We are by nature peace loving and respectful of
authority.
· Politicians have polarised us across tribal, racial political
and class
lines.
· We give too much credit to the words of our politicians
and are blind to
their deeds.
· We fell for a false message of
reconciliation in 1980.
· Although we wanted constitutional reform and the
majority voted NO to Zanu
PF imposed amendments, we abandoned the fight for
change midway and went
back into our 'no politics' cocoon form of
existence.
· We lacked the discipline to say NO to a corrupted land reform
campaign and
accepted this version instead of one that would become a
'blueprint' for
Africa.
· Many of us then embraced the Movement for
Democratic Change and tasked
them with doing a job that we should have done.
MDC were found wanting in
living up to those expectations because they were
unrealistic in the first
place.
So now where are we?
Well in
the year 2000, Zimbabweans rallied together for a common cause to
change the
constitution. We won the day. However the prize is yet to be
awarded. The
'coveted trophy' - a new constitution - that embodies our
sovereignty and
reaffirms our status as a peace-loving nation has yet to be
secured. The
trophy will not be given to Morgan Tsvangirai or any other
politician - it
can only be awarded to Zimbabweans at large so we must queue
up to receive
it.
In joining this queue, we must ignore the fact that we are hungry -
6,7
million Zimbabweans are hungry with us. We must put out of our minds
the
fact that we are bitter about the Gukurahundi massacre, which was a form
of
genocide. 20000 people disappeared and many died, their families
still
greave amongst us. We must close our eyes to the past struggle
for
independence in which many lives both black and white were lost and focus
on
this new struggle for democracy.
We ache for those dying of the
HIV/Aids pandemic that is overshadowed by the
politics of the day. Those
patients cannot readily access good nutrition to
give them quality of life in
their final days.
We must brace ourselves for the crashing of the economy
as we head for the
IMF projected inflation rate of 522,2% next
year.
Farmers old and new need to queue with us for the right to produce
food for
the nation without political interference, but with access to
collateral and
support in terms of inputs for commercial
production.
Many people have already lost their jobs - they need to join
us to remind
politicians that they are more than a statistic. Unemployment is
now 85%,
and 75% of the population is living in dire
poverty.
According to an initial Census report, the number of resident
Zimbabweans
stands at 11,6 million, although indications are that it should
be 14
million. This means that approximately 2,4 million Zimbabweans are
now
living in the diaspora. They need to lobby in their new locations and
where
possible send help home.
Zimbabwe was already headed for the
economic doldrums before our short
awakening in the year 2000. But now our
attitudes seem steeped in despair
and we seem to lack the energy to issue the
necessary SOS call for urgent
help. We need to shake each other from this
sleepwalking and queue for
change and freedom to participate
politically.
If we are to find our way through this darkness we must have
as our lights
the values of: compassion, respect, human dignity and
collective unity. Many
a politician knows that they have deserted these
values, and if Zimbabweans
call for a restoration of such principles not even
'Mr Propaganda' could
dispute the call.
It was therefore interesting
to read the speech given by MDC leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai at a fundraising
event in Harare. The MDC leader has offered Zanu
PF a route back onto the
morale high ground.
Tsvangirai made a renewed call for President Mugabe
to retire immediately
and recommended that Zanu PF then work with MDC to
establish a transitional
government. He said, "Unless we begin to move in
that direction, Zimbabwe
will continue to bleed and slide into deeper
chaos."
This is an interesting development and Zimbabweans must watch
carefully to
see how long it will take Zanu PF to accept the olive branch or
if they
remain determined to crash and burn. We know that Zanu PF has
de-facto power
thru the flawed march election, and that a president can only
be changed
through a presidential election. We know that this is a route
certain people
are reluctant to travel.
However rumour has it that
there are those in Zanu PF who fancy that they
can go to confession and have
some of their sins absolved and once again
become refreshed. The olive branch
has been extended to this camp. Yes, we
know they will fight amongst
themselves as to who should be the messenger to
State house, who could do the
unseating and then they will squabble over who
could be the 'chief invader'
of the high chair.
Zimbabweans must queue to attend this 'contest' and
supervise from the
sidelines. Once a 'winner' has been announced, maybe even
at the Zanu PF
congress, we must bombard that person with our
expectations.
Their first priority will be to overcome the humanitarian
crisis facing our
country and secondly to ensure a conducive climate for free
political
activity without fear of violence.
This 'president on a
short leash' would work with MDC and stakeholders as a
transitional authority
and would be part of a crisis team. They would draw
up an 18-month recovery
programme and appoint an independent electoral
commission to organise fresh
presidential elections.
Guess what Zimbabweans - that means 18 months of 'we
talk and politicians
listen and make promises' until a fresh
election.
Well after all we have suffered; we could finally have a queue
worth joining
to get that 'coveted' trophy for winning the struggle for
democracy!
But remember it is many small things or insects that kills the
'elephant'.
Jenni Williams
Bulawayo 6th December
2002
Contact Jenni Williams on Mobile (+263) 91 300456 or 11213 885
Or on email
jennipr@mweb.co.zw
or
Fax (+2639) 63978 or (+2634) 703829
Office email prnews@mweb.co.zw
A member of the
International Association of Business Communicators. Visit
the IABC website
www.iabc.com
ZIMBABWE'S BAD SEED
House
Editorial
-----------------------------------------------------------
Just
what will the world do about Robert Mugabe, architect
of Zimbabwe's despair?
Zimbabwe's raging food crisis has
recently been reassessed, and experts now
say the country's
food crisis has advanced into an impending famine.
Meanwhile, America's options for dealing with
Zimbabwe's
president-by-fraud range from the unattractive to the
whimsical
to the potentially catastrophic. Choosing the best
course of action from this
menu is tricky enough. Getting
other countries to follow in kind implies
another set of
challenges.
Thanks principally to Mr. Mugabe's land
expropriation
policy, 12 million Zimbabweans are facing the threat
of
starvation in Zimbabwe, according to the World Food Program.
If this
hunger-dictator scenario seems too familiar (think
Somalia), it's because
Africa has seen much too much of it.
With visions of dead American soldiers
being dragged through
the streets of a far-away country still fresh in
the
collective memory, sending in forces to halt the hunger in
Zimbabwe is
an unlikely policy. So, if America isn't going
to literally wage war on
hunger and those that perpetuate
it, the Bush administration must weigh its
other options.
Mr. Mugabe's seizures of white-owned land represent
the
most destructive and self-serving approach to dealing with
the
country's colonial legacy. Rather than attempt a
negotiated settlement with
white farmers, such as phasing
out ownership or immediate forfeiture of some
land, Mr.
Mugabe has sought to seize virtually all of the thousands
of
white-owned commercial farms. And, when the best land is
taken, it's
not given to the people. Instead, it goes to Mr.
Mugabe's family and Cabinet
members. When ordinary
Zimbabweans have been given land, they have received
minimal
or no assistance in managing it. Meanwhile, white landowners
are
banned from farming the land they have owned for years.
So, eventual
famine was virtually a foregone conclusion in
Zimbabwe. Joblessness has
reached 60 percent, and
homelessness is rampant. And, the hunger has prompted
an
exodus. At least 1 million Zimbabweans are estimated to be
living in
neighboring South Africa, about 600,000 in Britain
and many more are working
or studying elsewhere in Africa,
and in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and
the United
States. About half of the nation's 60,000 whites are
estimated
to have emigrated since the seizure orders began.
The Bush
administration could cut all aid to Zimbabwe in
official protest of Mr.
Mugabe's reckless endangerment of
his own people, in the hope that the people
will rise up
against the government. But starving people aren't
effective
revolutionaries, and cutting food aid could lend
fraudulent
credibility to Mr. Mugabe's hate-mongering, racist
tirades
against the United States in Zimbabwe and beyond.
America's
food aid, on the other hand, is surely
lengthening the lifespan of Mr.
Mugabe's rule. That negative
impact could be tempered, though, by ensuring
food is
distributed by private organizations, rather than Mr.
Mugabe's
cabal. That has been the Bush administration's
approach, but Mr. Mugabe may
be gearing up to counter this
distribution system. Three weeks ago,
Zimbabweans calling
themselves war veterans detained, interrogated and robbed
a
delegation from the U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe that had been
assessing the
condition of displaced workers. The
Zimbabweans escorting the delegation were
beaten. Amazingly,
Mr. Mugabe's response was to summon the U.S.
ambassador,
Joseph Sullivan, for an explanation of why embassy
employees
had traveled outside the capital without permission.
"[W]e
have not and need not apologize for normal activities
in fulfillment of our
diplomatic and humanitarian mission,"
said U.S. Embassy spokesman Bruce
Wharton, adding that the
administrations had no plans to reduce its presence.
"We
make a clear distinction between the government and the
people of
Zimbabwe. We will continue to provide humanitarian
assistance to all
Zimbabweans who need it." Meanwhile, Mark
Bellamy, a State Department
official, said recently that
America was willing to take "very intrusive
interventionist
measures" to ensure food aid was delivered.
Fortunately, African countries are beginning to voice
clear
condemnation of Mr. Mugabe's thuggish policies. In Brussels
late
last month, legislators from Ghana, Botswana and
Mozambique harshly
criticized Mr. Mugabe. Sadly, South
Africa and other countries spoke out in
support of Zimbabwe
and were able to scuttle a planned meeting between
the
African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union
(EU) in
Brussels, after EU officials said Zimbabwe was
barred from participating in
the meeting.
U.S. diplomacy should vigorously encourage greater
momentum
for these condemnations. And, if the administration can
continue
distributing food without Mr. Mugabe's control, it
should continue to do so.
Hopefully, Mr. Mugabe won't take
away Zimbabweans' last hope. It is an
outrage that this
former breadbasket of Africa should turn into a
starvation
field.
-----------------------------------------------------------
This
article was mailed from The Washington Times
(http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20021206-79790313.htm)
For
more great articles, visit us at
http://www.washtimes.com
Copyright
(c) 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All
rights reserved.
Zim Independent
Motorists want more fuel, not fairy
tales
Muckraker
"SERVICE stations to get fuel supplies today," the
government assured us
last Friday. The Herald splashed the assurance by
Deputy Minister of Energy
and Power Reuben Marumahoko on its front
page.
"By tomorrow morning (Saturday) every filling station will
definitely be
having petrol supplies which means there will be no need for
the long queues
we have been seeing in the last couple of days," Marumahoko
confidently
asserted.
Come Saturday, the queues were still there.
The Herald reported that "most
filling stations in Harare started receiving
supplies" from Noczim
"yesterday" (Friday). A Noczim official said the
situation was expected to
improve at all filling stations in the city "in the
coming few days".
When there had been no significant improvement by
Tuesday, the story was
changed to say: "Drivers were still having to queue
for fuel yesterday
(Monday) but there were more places with fuel and queues
were significantly
shorter."
However, it was conceded that "the
situation is still far from normal". And
things hadn't changed, much by
Wednesday when the Herald once again assured
us that petrol supplies had
"improved".
Why, when forex is running out and Libyan and Kuwaiti oil
companies are
demanding cash up front, is it assumed that supplies are
"improving"? Is it
likely that supplies are "improving"? Why, week after week
and month after
month does the government press insist on misleading the
motoring public
with fairy tales about the fuel crisis being
over?
Here's a newsflash in Special English: There might be some fuel
on the way
which will provide a temporary respite as Christmas approaches.
But so long
as the means to pay for fuel is diminished by damaging economic
policies
which have seen scarce forex diverted to import food while
agricultural
exports and tourism receipts shrink, there will be less forex
and therefore
less fuel. Get it?
Meanwhile, we feel new Energy
minister Amos Midzi has been a little unfair
in his treatment of MPs. We
understand that Zanu PF MPs are not always frank
in explaining to their
constituents the reasons for the circumstances
Zimbabwe now finds itself in.
But that is no reason to regard them all as
completely
dishonest.
Midzi, in giving assurances about petrol supplies in
parliament last week,
had this to say according to Hansard: "I want to make
it clear that I will
now lie to you because I am now one of you."
We feel
that's taking party solidarity too far.
Talking about solidarity,
Muckraker was interested to note Kenyan President
Daniel arap Moi's visit to
the United States this week to discuss security.
Don't we recall President
Mugabe telling guests at a New Year's function
that Moi would be coming on a
state visit to Zimbabwe? What happened to that
visit? Indeed, how many state
visits have there been this year?
Is Chinondidyachii Mararike six years
old? We ask because an article he
contributed to the Herald last Friday
looked as if it was written by
somebody who was still in Grade I. Yet he
claims to be a lawyer!
Designed as a rebuke to the European Union states that
have imposed
sanctions on Zimbabwe, it was indisputably the most puerile
contribution to
have appeared in the Herald since - well, since his last
piece.
This is how it started: "And yet we have the same islanders
insisting that
sanctions Zimbabwe has imposed on Britain will hurt Zimbabwe
more than they
will hurt Britons..."
No introduction, no context,
no sense. Just picked up from where it left off
the week before. It is not
entirely Mararike's fault that the subs at the
Herald treated his material
this way. But what followed was all his own
work.
Britain was two
and a half times smaller than Zimbabwe, we were told, and is
"a poor
country". It had a "skyrocketing" population of 62 million that is
"bloated,
diseased and greedy".
Holland, we were informed, was "a Dutch
country". So no surprises there! It
continues to export flowers and beer to
Africa as it did to South African
Boers a century ago.
"This
country with nothing except pot (mbanje) and prostitutes (has) a
tarnished
reputation and image already smudged by pornography, child
fiddling and
bombastic self-dramatising apostasy."
Does Mararike know what
apostasy means or did he just chuck it in there? And
South African historians
may have difficulty tracing the beer and flower
imports.
Sweden
produced nothing but "a boring rock band called Abba" while Norway
gave its
name to lobsters and a species of ugly rats, Mararike said. "Then
there is
Luxembourg."
"Like Germany, Luxembourg came into existence only a
couple of years ago -
in fact in 1870..."
And so this clumsy
attempt at journalism stumbles fitfully on. The French,
in addition to being
backward, are also "rearward", we are informed,
although the distinction is
not made clear. It sounds like something the
president may disapprove
of.
Generally all the Europeans want to do is plunder
Africa.
"Listen comrades," Mararike advises. "Diamonds and gold are
so precious to
Westerners to the extent children poison their parents so the
former can
quickly inherit or take jewelry to make a quick buck. On the scary
streets
of London, people are daily murdered simply for the gold Rolex
watches on
their wrists."
Daily? Cde Mararike, you are clearly
under threat on those scary streets.
The world's fourth largest economy
evidently affords you no protection. Why
stay there? Why not come home and
enjoy the freedom and safety of Zimbabwe?
What's keeping you? Meanwhile, if
this is the best Zanu PF can do in terms
of polemics, it should give up now.
Please bring back David Martin, Olley
Maruma and Bright Matonga. All is
forgiven!
There appears to be some confusion over the number of displaced
farm
workers. Information minister Jonathan Moyo says there aren't any. But
at
the same time his colleague the Minister of Public Service, Labour
and
Social Welfare has been asking the United Nations to assist in conducting
a
national farm workers survey.
UNDP resident representative Victor
Angelo said the government had
approached the UNDP to help in carrying out
the survey.
"The survey is intended to identify the country's most vulnerable
groups for
assistance in commercial farming areas," Angelo said.
According
to the Zimbabwe Community Development Trust more than 150 000 farm
employees
and their families have been evicted since August.
Could July Moyo
please inform his colleague at the Information department of
the true
situation and explain what UNDP staff were doing at Melfort when
members of
their party were detained and assaulted by Zanu PF thugs
recently. The public
should not be misled by claims from the President's
Office whose officials
appear to be ignorant of dealings with international
agencies by other
departments.
As for the US embassy, officials there should enhance
their weekend reading.
They claimed they didn't know about the 40km
restriction on diplomats
venturing out of Harare. That move was fully
reported in the Standard
several months ago and in the Guardian. What the US
embassy should have said
is that it had not been officially informed of the
restriction and did not
in any case recognise its validity.
At
least embassy officials made it crystal clear that the Herald lied
in
claiming the embassy had apologised for the Melfort excursion.
We
wondered how long Media Commission chair Tafataona Mahoso would be able
to
resist the temptation to take a pot shot at journalists whose
accreditation
he is supposed to be supervising in an impartial and
professional
way.
He told the Herald that it was interesting to note that some of
the people
who had threatened to boycott the exercise were the first people
to come
forward with applications.
"Interesting enough, those from
the so-called independent media who had
threatened to boycott the
registration were the very first people to submit
their applications," he
confided to the Herald.
Should he be commenting on matters before him
in this way? And can we next
expect details of journalists' qualifications,
addresses and phone numbers
to be released to the Herald?
Last weekend
President Mugabe was frantically claiming Zimbabwe was not
involved in the
plunder of the Congo's resources. Despite the withdrawal of
Zimbabwe's
forces, the country's detractors would not stop their "song" of
trying to
portray the ZDF as "unwelcome plunderers of the DRC's wealth",
he
said.
The president was addressing a parade of forces returning
from the DRC.
Public turnout was reportedly poor except for a handful of
Johane Masowe
weChishanu supporters and party youths carrying familiar signs
saying
"Zimbabwe Defence Forces: African solutions to African challenges"
-
probably a reference to a successful plundering mission.
Earlier
that day the same youths had been driving around Mbare in a Zupco
bus,
assaulting people and trying to force them to attend the
parade.
Curiously Mugabe made no mention of Osleg or its functions in
his address.
When will the accounts of this shadowy company be published? We
want to know
exactly how much Zimbabwe - or rather some Zimbabweans -
benefited from its
operations. And why is the Minister of Defence so
reluctant to honour his
promise to tell us how much the Congo war cost? Why
is it a secret when
these were public funds?
In protesting
vehemently against reports - most notably the UN's - that
Zimbabwean forces
have plundered the Congo's resources, Mugabe at the same
time did little to
assure us that the same wouldn't happen here.
"You needn't worry,
there is still a lot of land to parcel out (and) we will
parcel it out to our
people," he told soldiers at the Chinese-built National
Sports
Stadium.
"This is our land and it shall remain our land, not just for
us who live
today but all of us who live here for ever and ever and
ever."
This is self-deception on a monumental scale. Does Mugabe and
his military
cronies really think they are going to be allowed to hang on to
the farms
they have seized for one minute longer than the ageing dictator's
departure
from office? "Parcelling out" land to the military may be part of
his
retirement insurance plan. But a quick phone call to Belgrade or Accra
might
be instructive on just how long that arrangement is likely to
last.
Mugabe should learn the first rule of politics: there is no
such thing as
"for ever". Joseph Kabila is already acting against his
highly-placed
plunderers. They thought they were going to get away with it
"for ever" too!
Temba Mliswa says he is a changed man. But in a
no-holds-barred interview
with the Herald last Saturday we are left guessing
just how reformed the
wayward fitness trainer actually is. His weakness, he
confesses, is that he
"loves people" and wishes he was "blessed with so much
money that I can
share it with as many people in need as possible". In need
of what is the
question!
Temba is married to Gracious who lives in
the UK and seems to be prepared to
put up with a great deal.
"I
would be lying if I said I haven't cheated on her. I don't know when
men
really do grow up," he disarmingly submits, apparently unaware that not
all
men are unable to control themselves.
Temba has been receiving
counselling from our old friend the Rev Noah
Pashapa who doesn't appear to
have been altogether successful.
"Women can manage but men just
can't," Temba confides. "I last saw my wife
five months ago and I must
admit...there are times I've been lonely.
Sometimes you need a friend to talk
to and that's the role that the
mistresses play."
You see it's not
all Temba's fault. "Because I'm a public figure certain
women foolishly take
advantage of that and benefit in the process," he
complains. But any woman
taking advantage of him has to live with "the pain
of knowing that they are
second best" to his wife.
Whether his wife is happy with this
arrangement is not clear. But she will
be the first to know, like readers of
this exceptionally well-crafted
interview by the Herald's Nomsa Nkala, that
she has a big kid on her hands
who has yet to grow
up.
Although we are now firmly ensconced in December we have
a report left over
from last month. A family whose Guy on Guy Fawkes night on
November 5 bore a
close resemblance to a vocal minister complained to
Muckraker that the large
head wouldn't burn on their bonfire.
"The problem
this year is that we couldn't spare any petrol to hasten things
along," they
complained. He is obviously indestructible!
Zim Independent
Sandawana Column - Working in the Reserve Bank
eclipse
Sandawana
THOSE business people unable to get away for the solar
eclipse have been
watching one of a slightly different nature. Three weeks
after the Budget,
business still finds itself "working in the dark" as one
CEO told Sandawana
this week
Some companies who have approached the
RBZ for forex, have been told their
application had been approved, but, umm,
there is no forex in the coffers.
A straight answer like this you can
live with, but as Sandawana has said
before, it's the fibs, uncertainty,
irresolution and misinformation that
annoy businesspeople - who actually have
to plan ahead. It's the same with
petrol. People would rather be told that
there is no petrol and then make a
plan, rather than waste time and use the
little petrol they do have moving
between petrol stations. The RBZ is
apparently using all available forex to
shore up payments for fuel and
getting its officials to harrass the banks to
declare their FCAs. The RBZ has
been struggling somewhat since it does not
really have the personnel as it
effectively did away with some in 1993.
Meanwhile, it appears that
inflows to the country have fallen to half of
what they were previously. On
Friday, November 15 - the day after the
Budget - some US$1,9 million flowed
into the country. Over the past week,
inflows have averaged less than US$300
000 a day. There are rumours of a
policy statement on forex and the supposed
"exporters rate", but as yet
we've heard nothing. Anyway, back to the real
eclipse ... they have been
associated with war, crop failure, plagues,
downfall, death and advent of
kings and prophets, such as the crucifixion of
Christ and the birth of
Muhammad. But we're not that superstitious, are
we?
C'mon Zeeemmmbaaabwe!
"C'MON ZEEEMMMBAAABWE!" ...
Sandawana is also not a huge cricket fan but he
realises its wider social
benefits. Apart from the empty stands at
international matches, it can be
quite easy to forget there is a crisis in
this country. Fantastic food and
imported wine were available to those that
crossed the invisible picket line
and went to watch dismal Zeembabwe play
Pakistan. That's what made the
boycott excuse an easy one for many - the
national side is so very mediocre.
If we were winning, there would have been
very few part-time cricket fans who
would have missed the social
get-together for business.
That's why
bankers, accountants and brokers continued to throw money behind
the event.
If one was suffering ideological problems from their bank being
there, they
would struggle to find another bank to put their money in.
However you
look at it, cricket and the general social gathering there is
one of the few
international events we have to look forward to. It's the
same as the
Christmas party and there have not been too many of those that
have been
boycotted.
Speaking with loose tongue
Obviously the most
useful thing about going to the cricket is to gather
information, which
becomes pretty free-flowing after 6pm as the effects of
the sun and beer
loosen many a tongue. There was discussion on Tetrad, which
has been covered
elsewhere in this section, a variety of stories about where
the market rate
for the Zimkwacha is, what's happening with FCAs, who is in
trouble
financially, and Dairibord's cautionary announcement. The unnamed
company is
thought to be ME Charhon, in which Cairns has a 37,5% stake. With
all those
romantic Zimbabwean men buying women chocolates, it's no doubt a
very
profitable company. It contributed 21% to Cairns' profits after tax.
Perhaps
that is where there will be a bit of a tussle. When Cairns results
were
released in mid-October, MD Philip Chigumira would not comment on
whether
Cairns planned to increase its stake in the confectionery
manufacturer with
excess cash. Cairns' retained earnings shot up to $957,5
million at August 31
from $81,41 million a year ago. Sandawana would like to
comment on the
Intermarket/TA deal, umm except there is no paperwork
available yet. All we
know is that TA will be taking an effective 23,5%
stake in Intermarket, which
will be put to an EGM on December 20.
Chicken Man to fly the
coup?
Sandawana likes CFI's business philosphy that "today is
normal". Lo and
behold the day it is not - we won't know what to do with
ourselves. CFI is
one group that has performed admirably in the face of price
control almost
across the board. The agro-industrial-retail group managed to
please the
market once again with its latest set of results. With earnings of
649
cents, CFI easily beat the average expectation of 566,8 cents and was at
the
end of the 500-668 cents range of forecasts. It has managed to keep most
of
its proactive management and poultry will continue to be the engine
of
growth as chicken is now cheaper than beef. Milling still faces
major
hurdles, but while supermarkets managed to just keep ahead of
official
inflation in the financial year just past, a surge in sales in the
past few
months will see the group making last year's entire profit in the
three
months to December. There are also strong rumours that the group is
likely
to see a change of shareownership as apparently the famed Chicken Man
Kevin
James has indicated that he wants to sell his stake.
Through
Riverridge (Pvt) Ltd, and Riverridge Traders (Pvt) Ltd, James
effectively
controls around 38% of CFI. Management is the main contender and
there had
been speculation that Mutumwa Mawere's FSI Agricom would also take
a tilt.
But he told Sandawana it is not currently on his radar.
Crowns and
Baobabs
Both rights issues - Kingdom and Zimre - kicked off on Monday
with about the
same percentage of core shareholders saying that they would
follow their
rights. Sandawana talked about Kingdom last week and now its
Zimre's turn.
Unbundling - up till November 14 - seemed as much of a dead
certainty in
"unlocking value" for shareholders as borrowing loads of money
and buying
companies was for the entrepreneur. However, the bear market
appears to have
changed that for now. Fair enough, the Delta group of
companies took a while
before unbundling showed its real benefits. But it
seems that companies
involved in corporate activity decide to roll on with
plans regardless of
the overall sentiment on the market.
Why? Because
we have rampant inflation and that should make everything
alright. As for
Zimre, the group wants to improve its balance sheet to
increase its
underwriting capacity, regionalise operations and restructure
the group,
which includes spinning off Fidelity. Whether this will bring
immediate value
to shareholders remains to be seen. There are better
candidates on the ZSE
when its comes to unbundling.
business@zimind.mweb.co.zw
Zim Independent - Eric Bloch Column
Price controls will not alleviate
shortages
GOVERNMENT is very clearly on a roll! Having spent five years
continuing
endeavours to destroy the economy with an undeniable modicum of
success, but
without absolute achievement, government is clearly determined
to intensify
its endeavours. Three weeks ago it presented its 2003 budget
which was
totally devoid of substance, and would inevitably accelerate that
decline.
The budget contained no meaningful incentives to motivate foreign
currency
generation, investment or job creation. The budget showed that
government
has no intent to contain its expenditure and thereby curb
inflation.
And the budget evidenced that government resolutely disregards
all need to
prioritise its spending in alignment with the needs of the
populace. It
unhesitatingly continues to spend more on its Defence Vote than
it does on
Health. It is incomprehensible that a country whose people are
faced with a
desperate need for an effective health delivery system will
perpetuate
policies of spending more on the killing of people than upon
helping others
to stay alive!
The Budget Statement reiterated
lip-service adherence to the concept that
the private sector is an economy's
engine, with the Minister of Finance and
Economic Development claiming that
the private sector must be the engine for
economic recovery and growth,
whilst concurrently he enunciated policies
which could only cause the engine
to "seize-up" and be unable to operate.
Most of all, the economic measures
envisaged in the Budget Statement were
almost entirely resurrections of
policies and strategies long proven to be
ineffectual and catalysts for
disaster upon all sectors of the economy and
upon almost all Zimbabweans
(save, of course, for those in authority and
those related to
them).
The most appalling feature of all those catastrophic economic
measures,
policies and strategies was that they had all, in varying degrees,
been
resorted to previously, all had failed to achieve their declared
objectives,
and all had contributed markedly to the dismal state of
Zimbabwe's economy
and the impoverishment of the majority of the
population.
Amongst the extensive array of catastrophic economic policies
which have
bedevilled Zimbabwe have been government's steadfast refusal to
devalue
Zimbabwe's grossly overvalued currency. The president has
declared
devaluation as dead (and its advocates to be saboteurs and enemies
of the
state), and the Minister of Finance has pronounced devaluation to be
a
mirage. And yet government has, to all intents and purposes,
acknowledged
that the value of the Zimbabwe dollar is not what government
pretends it is.
It has determined not only the official rate, but also a
"support price" for
gold and another for tobacco. A vast range of imports are
valued, for duty
purposes, at almost 10 times the official
rate.
Similarly, government's foolhardy endeavours to destroy the
parallel market
in foreign exchange can only be counterproductive in the
extreme. Exporters
cannot afford to export if proceeds are only realisable at
the official
exchange rate, which rate fails to recognise inflation
officially cited at
more than 144% but is in reality at least 175%. The
unavoidable results are
massive losses if exports are continued, and
therefore discontinuance of
exports is invariably the case, resulting in yet
lesser inflows of foreign
exchange, diminished operations for - or closure of
- export operations,
increased unemployment, lesser consumer spending power
impacting adversely
upon all sectors of the economy, and reduced revenue
inflows to the fiscus.
All this has been repeatedly brought to the attention
of government, which
ignores the facts. Instead, it offers so-called export
incentives most of
which are of so little, if any,
benefit.
Concurrently, government reneges upon its undertakings and
assurances given
when it permitted the establishment of bureaux de change by
terminating
their right to operate (and, compounding insult to injury, giving
their
operators only two weeks' notice of closure, irrespective of legal and
moral
commitments to employees, lessors and others). Moreover, far from
such
closures enhancing availability of foreign currency within the
formal
economy, they can only fuel increased black market operations,
undoubtedly
of particular benefit to some of the politically
influential.
However, amongst the most ill-considered, pernicious
policies that
government is determined to pursue with increased intensity is
the control
of prices. In doing so, it pretends a deep-seated concern for the
victims of
inflation. The unemployed, elderly pensioners, and recipients of
low incomes
are the greatest sufferers of the hyperinflationary environment
which is
wholly attributable to govern-ment's mismanagement of the
economy.
As government is incapable of admitting error (the omnipotent do
not make
mistakes!), it attributes the blame for rampant inflation to others.
It
accuses industrialists, wholesalers and retailers of making
excessive
profits out of others' needs. That they cannot afford to trade
without price
increases to compensate for their ever-rising costs of
operation is
cavalierly dismissed. That in a free economy competition is the
greatest
curb upon prices is ignored. Instead, government remains determined
to show
Zimbabweans how much it cares for them (which it actually rarely
does!) and
equally determined to divert all criticism of its chaotic handling
of the
economy away from itself and directed against its enemies, actual
and
perceived.
Therefore, it resorts to price controls. It did so in
the last quarter of
2001 and succeeded only in creating an even harsher
environment for
consumers. Bakers could not afford to sell bread at a
wholesale price of $54
a loaf when the then cost of production exceeded $60 a
loaf, and retailers
could not afford to sell bread for $60 a loaf when it
cost them $54 and the
remaining $6 did not suffice to cover rent, salaries
and wages, electricity,
and numerous other unavoidable overheads.
The
same held good for milk, beef, cooking oil and other controlled
products. The
result was immense scarcities as more and more producers
discontinued or
cutback on production, or diversified into the production of
products whose
prices were not controlled. What little was produced rapidly
found its way
into the black market which thrives on scarcity. There are
always some that
are able and willing to pay extra for that which is not
readily available,
and others who, although unwilling, will do so for that
which they
desperately need.
Thus, the injudicious application of price controls in
2001 created
increased burdens for the consumers instead of assuaging their
ills.
Periodically, to reinforce its contentions that the ineffectiveness of
the
price controls were only because of the diabolical extortion of the
private
sector and of government's political opponents, it would arrest
storekeepers
for breaches of the price control and they would be subjected to
payment of
fines. On very rare occasions this would be extended also to
black
marketeers. In the main, the storekeepers thereafter ceased selling
price
controlled products, enabling the black market to thrive even more,
and
circumstances for the oppressed consumers became even more
stressful.
Despite irrefutable evidence of the failure of price controls
to address the
needs of Zimbabwe's people, and of the massive extent to which
those
controls have contributed to hyperinflation and to shortages of
essential
commodities, government has resorted to them yet again. The
Minister of
Finance recognised that the country's inflationary environment
could
transform in the event that a social contract was reached between the
state,
labour, commerce and industry. But government pre-empts any such
contract by
legislating a further price control order, prescribing a
six-month price
freeze. In terms of that Order, prices are frozen on all
products and
services specified in the Order for a period of six months from
November 15.
The range of effected foods extends over four pages of the
Order, including
non-alcoholic foods stuffs and beverages, agricultural
produce, building
materials, petroleum fuels not covered by other Orders,
drugs and medicines,
most clothing and much else.
All those
commodities as are subjected to the Order's provision can only be
sold,
during the ensuring six months, at the price at which the sellers sold
like
products on November 15. As those sellers will undoubtedly be
confronted with
ongoing escalation in operating costs, including salary and
wages reviews,
rent increases, and so forth, they will soon be unable to
comply with the
Order, for they will be faced with unsustainable losses.
Therefore shortages
will become more intense, availability will be limited
to the black market at
higher prices which will cause yet further inflation.
Many businesses
will collapse, the unemployed will be even greater in
number, and the
economic decline accelerated. Of course, government's
parastatal, Zimpost,
will not be affected in the way private enterprise will
for, within a
fortnight of the Price Freeze Order, it announced
substantially increased
charges!
Zim Independent - Comment
Zanu PF openly thwarts popular will
THE key
accusation made by those countries that have imposed sanctions on
Zimbabwe is
that the government is using the powers at its disposal to
thwart the
democratic will of the people. Nowhere is that clearer than in
Chegutu where
the Movement for Democratic Change executive mayor elected
last year has been
thwarted at every turn by Zanu PF local bosses and
councillors who are
determined to prevent him from carrying out his mandate.
In Harare, the
MDC mayor is constantly under siege from the Local Government
minister who
has no popular mandate from the voters of the capital but
insists on
intervening to make the mayor's task as difficult as possible and
to retain
ruling-party supporters recruited by the previous council who add
nothing but
costly deadwood to the city's management.
The pattern of resistance to
democratic outcomes was established as early as
2000 when, having consulted
extensively on a new constitution for Zimbabwe,
the Chidyausiku Commission
allowed the government to insert clauses on land
acquisition and presidential
powers that had not been proposed by the
public. In the referendum that
followed, the proposed constitution was
rejected - in part because it was
seen by the majority as hostage to the
ambitions of an unpopular and
unreconstructed regime.
Despite the blandishments of its exponents who
insisted that the removal of
the "colonial" Lancaster House document was
vital to national sovereignty,
the government, following its defeat,
immediately dropped constitutional
reform from its agenda and told the public
it was no longer a national
priority. It then proceeded to suppress any
popular movement that advocated
reform.
A report by New York City
councillor Charles Barron and three colleagues
says the imposition of
sanctions by Britain and the United States is unfair.
Barron, whose trip to
Zimbabwe was funded by the Zimbabwean authorities, is
a predictable apologist
for the regime. He managed to swallow everything he
was told by the
government - including the fictional "one farmer, one farm"
policy - during
his visit here and then regurgitated it all in his
"findings".
He
studiously ignored the unfairness of a political system in which the
wishes
of voters have been overturned by a ruling party that refuses to
accept
democratic outcomes.
Events in Chegutu have exposed that system in all
its ugly manifestations.
The executive mayor of the little town, Francis
Dhlakama, has on several
occasions been harassed by Zanu PF thugs who have
refused to accept the
defeat of their party. Instead of allowing him to
execute the mandate of
voters, Zanu PF councillors want to foist their
party's wishes on him - a
clear sign that President Robert Mugabe and his
party pay only lip-service
to issues of democracy and pluralism.
In
the capital, Minister Ignatius Chombo has made no secret of his antipathy
for
the MDC-led council and its mayor, Elias Mudzuri. According to
ministerial
directives, all designed to hamper the effectiveness of the
mayor, council
cannot hire or fire personnel in certain categories without
the approval of
the minister. By similar ministerial fiat, council is
forbidden to
appropriate funds for development projects without Chombo's
say
so.
The latest imposition is Chombo's attempt to foist an
unelected so-called
ministerial commission on the council to offer advice on
a turn-around
strategy for the city. Chombo should be told in categorical
terms that
Harare residents chose their councillors so they could change the
fortunes
of the city unfettered by an overweening central government whose
numerous
past commissions presided over the city's
degeneration.
Government's encroachment on civil society's domain has not
been restricted
only to local government. The control freaks have extended
their tentacles
to the media and non-governmental organisations which have
been coerced to
register with government under conditions designed to render
them
ineffective in their duties as public watchdogs.
The National
Constitutional Assembly has been barred from campaigning for a
new
constitution. On numerous occasions its members have been arrested
for
holding peaceful protests under the Public Order and Security Act
which
abridges rights laid down in the constitution.
Other
people-driven NGOs such as Amani Trust have been vilified for their
role in
trying to rehabilitate victims of Zanu PF's terror gangs who
continue to roam
the land with impunity.
The sum total of all these draconian measures is
to restrict the public's
sphere of political and civic activity and leave the
government with
sweeping powers to do as it pleases in complete disregard of
people's
wishes. Zanu PF's bullying tactics against the Chegutu mayor are
part of a
wider plan to revive its quest for a one-party state - decisively
rejected
by the people of this country since 1990.
As it faces
intimations of its own mortality, the politically bankrupt and
economically
diseased ruling party is resorting to brute force and crude
manipulation to
purchase a few more years of life. Why when its
anti-democratic agenda is so
explicit should there be any hesitation by the
international community in
refusing to be associated with such a regime?
The horror that is almost beaten
Melissa Denes
Saturday December 7,
2002
The Guardian
Ninety miles north-east of Harare, on scrubland
broken by humps of granite
rock, lies a small community of two-room houses
and a medical clinic. The
village is called Mutemwa, which in the Shona
language means "you are cut
off". The name is taken from a 1,000ft cliff
nearby, but it is doubly
apposite: Mutemwa was first established as a leprosy
community in the
mid-1930s, a centre where patients from all over Zimbabwe
(and from
neighbouring Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania) could be both
isolated
and treated. In the 1940s, a period when the disease was endemic,
Mutemwa
was home to around 1,000 patients. But towards the end of that
decade, a
cure was found - the drug dapsone - and the disease began to be
contained.
Patients were gradually sent home to be cared for by their
families, and in
1962 the leprosarium officially closed.
But not everyone
had a home to go to, and around 200 patients stayed on at
Mutemwa. Many of
them were migrant workers who had come to Zimbabwe to work
on white farms,
and no longer felt or had any real connection with their
birthplace; others
feared facing the hostility and superstition that
continued to surround the
disease and its symptoms. In the 1960s, it was not
widely known that leprosy
was treatable, and people who developed symptoms
were often excluded or
abandoned. At Mutemwa, they had friends, partners,
understanding and
security; the hospice had become a home.
In 1968, an independent
organisation called Friends Of Mutemwa was set up to
raise funds and
contribute towards care at Mutemwa. Many of the patients
here are blind and
missing fingers and toes; they need help with cooking and
hygiene. The
leprosy bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae , proceeds by attacking
the nerves
and body tissues, particularly in the hands, feet, eyes and nose,
so that
patches of skin lose all feeling. Once the nerve endings are
destroyed, the
patient feels no pain, and in this way the body's
early-warning system is
shut down. The oil glands and tear ducts cease to
function, and patients are
extremely susceptible to burns and infections.
It's a myth that lepers simply
"lose" body parts; instead, they develop
lesions and serious infections,
leading to deformity and, in some cases, the
loss of fingers, toes and
eyesight. Occasionally, Mutemwa will admit a new
leprosy case, but with
treatment - a course of pills called multi-drug
treatment - the disease can
now be halted within six months to a year.
Research into the spread of the
disease is ongoing, but it is not highly
contagious; doctors and nurses are
far more likely to contract malaria from
their patients than they are
leprosy.
Between 1969 and 1979, the warden of Mutemwa was a Franciscan
missionary
called John Bradburne. A poet and mystic who grew up in a
middle-class
family in Cumbria (the playwright Terence Rattigan was a
cousin), Bradburne
found in Mutemwa the fulfilment of a lifetime's ambition
after years spent
travelling through Europe, Israel and Asia, looking for
some kind of a
purpose. He built a thatched chapel at Mutemwa and spent hours
writing
poetry about the people and the place on a typewriter on the ground.
He
often appeared less well-nourished than his patients, and called himself
"a
strange vagabond of God". When Bradburne clashed with Mutemwa's
management
committee - there were disputes over money and a proposal to put
tags around
patients' necks - he was sacked and moved to a tin hut nearby,
continuing to
visit patients in an unofficial capacity.
By the late
1970s, the community had become increasingly isolated from the
rest of the
country. While Bradburne had little interest in politics, and
neither
supported nor opposed the African nationalist parties in their
guerrilla war
against the Rhodesian security forces, he started running into
trouble with
the locals - bringing himself to the attention of local
supporters of Robert
Mugabe. Neighbouring farmers had been allowing their
cattle to graze on
Mutemwa's crops of maize, vegetables, bananas and beans,
and an old man who
attended mass at Bradburne's chapel was shot and killed
by guerrillas. On
September 2 1979, Bradburne was abducted by "mujibhas",
the eyes and ears of
Mugabe's guerrillas, who accused him of being a
Rhodesian spy. Three days
later, his body was found by the side of the
road - he had been
shot.
A memorial to Bradburne was erected on a granite hill overlooking
Mutemwa,
and in England and Zimbabwe there has been a movement to have him
canonised
(though it's safe to assume that this is not an issue high on
Mugabe's
list). On the anniversary of his death this year, 20,000 Zimbabwean
pilgrims
visited the site.
Today, Mutemwa houses around 38 patients
disabled as a result of contracting
leprosy when they were younger. Many of
them are now very elderly. While
there have been new cases of leprosy in
Zimbabwe since the 1960s, patients
are now commonly treated at home, and so
Mutemwa's population has continued
to shrink. In the 1980s, new homes were
built for patients, but a monthly
grant from the government has recently been
terminated and the money now
needed to maintain the community comes from the
Zimbabwe Leprosy Association
and the John Bradburne Memorial Fund. Government
health spending is now
directed more towards Zimbabwe's growing Aids crisis -
in 1995, a community
for abandoned children with HIV was established not far
from Mutemwa.
Last year, the World Health Organisation announced that
leprosy had been
eliminated as a public health problem: incidence of the
disease has been
reduced by 90% over the past decade. But 760,000 new cases
were reported
worldwide last year, and leprosy remains endemic in India,
Brazil,
Madagascar, Mozambique, Burma and Nepal. India alone accounts for 75%
of the
world caseload. A spokesperson for Lepra, a British medical charity
with
representatives in India, Bangladesh, Brazil and Mozambique, says,
"Poverty
and a lack of health provision are the biggest factors in preventing
people
from seeking treatment, and we still have a long way to go. The
statistics
are complicated by social stigma, which means people don't come
forward when
they develop symptoms, and by war and political instability. In
Angola,
Mozambique and Sierra Leone, it's hard to monitor the health of a
poor,
shifting population." Next week, the International Federation
of
Anti-Leprosy Associations, which has 16 member NGOs, will meet in
Edinburgh
to review and plan its health and education policy worldwide. The
disease
may be a very old one, but it has not yet beaten.
The John
Bradburne Memorial Society can be contacted at
johnbradburne@hotmail.com. For
information about Lepra, go to Lepra
The Herald
Harare runs dry
Herald Reporter
WATER taps in
several suburbs of Greater Harare yesterday ran dry as the
bungled
procurement procedures by the Harare City Council begin to hit
the
city.
Council cut supplies because it had no chemicals to purify
the water.
More suburbs will be without water in the coming days unless
the council
sources more chemicals for water purification.
It is
understood that the council had received additional chemicals
yesterday - 25
tonnes of lime and ecol 2000 - but this is only enough for a
few
days.
Council needs an estimated 150 tonnes of lime, which is used to
correct the
water imbalances.
Residents are bitter that the council
failed to sound alarm bells well
before the chemicals ran out.
They
charged that because of poor planning and corruption in the awarding
of
tenders, the council found itself without chemicals for water
purification.
Hardest hit suburbs yesterday were Kambuzuma, Rugare, Glen
View, parts of
Budiriro, Epworth, Ruwa, Greendale, Msasa Park and Park
Meadow-lands.
Some residents in Epworth and Kambuzuma were resorting to
unclean water from
nearby streams and shallow wells, a situation which poses
a health hazard.
Harare City Council yesterday attributed the water crisis to
lack of foreign
currency to import the necessary chemicals.
Council
spokesman, Mr Cuthbert Rwazemba, said council was working hard to
ensure that
water supplies were restored.
"Harare has at least seven days of clean
water supplies and we urge
residents to use the water sparingly,'' he
said.
Mr Rwazemba promised to issue a statement regarding the water
situation last
night but failed to do so at the time of going to
Press.
However, sources said the water situation could worsen in the next
few days
if council failed to secure the foreign currency needed to
purchase
chemicals to purify drinking water.
"The worst part is the
fact that the chemicals are not available in Zimbabwe
but in South Africa and
the United Kingdom,'' said a source.
The council said it had written to
the Government and the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe to be allocated foreign
currency needed to import the chemicals.
"The chemicals needed are very
important because they kill the algae in the
water. If the chemicals are not
secured, the purification machines will be
blocked and that will be a
disaster,'' he said.
Efforts to get comment from the Ministry of Local
Government, Public Works
and National Housing and the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe were fruitless.
Last year, the central bank agreed to allocate
the council US$15 000 a month
to enable it to import some of the
chemicals.
In Msasa Park and Park Meadowlands, residents complained that
they had gone
for two days without water.
"Whoever is responsible for
this mess must correct it quickly because we
cannot continue to live without
water. How are we supposed to survive
without water which we need for laundry
particularly napkins for the babies,
'' said Mrs Fiona Nhakwara in Park
Meadowlands.
Another resident from New Msasa Park, Mr Johannes Moyo, said
that his toilet
had blocked and he feared an outbreak of
diseases.
"The city council has obviously failed and they must either
resign en masse
or correct the situation as a matter of urgency. We pay rates
for quality
service and we do not understand why we are being exposed to a
healthy
hazard by the city authorities,'' he said.
In Rugare, Mrs
Shilla Mwenje said residents were receiving erratic water
supplies. She said
that in the past two days they received water supplies
between 11 pm and 3
am. Residents were getting water from a nearby water tap
located at Rugare
Football Stadium.
When The Herald visited the area, a number of residents
were helping
themselves from the water tap at the stadium.
"We expect
to see the water bills reduced this month because we have not
received enough
water supplies. Council must reduce the fixed charges on
water bills because
they have failed to deliver,'' said one woman.
Glen View and Budirrio
residents said that they were receiving sufficient
supplies although the
water was dirty.
In Ruwa residents had no water and electricity also went
out just after 5
p.m, adding to their misery.
Harare was plunged into
a serious water crisis in 1998 after the then
Solomon Tawengwa-led council
failed to pay a contractor hired to upgrade the
Warren Control Booster Pump
Station.
Barwe to Pull Out of Farm
The Herald (Harare)
December 6,
2002
Posted to the web December 6, 2002
Harare
ZBC's chief
correspondent, Reuben Barwe says he is pulling out of Sunnyside
Farm in
Norton following clashes with war veterans.
He had already planted maize
and soya beans on more than 50 hectares and had
borrowed agricultural inputs
worth $5 million.
He said yesterday he had advised the District
Development Fund about his
decision to stop all farming activities. The DDF
provided him with tillage
services worth $1 million.
He said he had
also communicated to Delta which gave him agricultural inputs
worth $3
million. Delta is one of the companies that unveiled agricultural
inputs
schemes worth billions of dollars to support the country's land and
agrarian
reforms.
Barwe said due to the incident, Delta and the other companies
might not
consider applications from other newly settled farmers for inputs
support.
"This is because the offer letters from the ministry are not
adequate
security for accessing loans. All those who are in the business of
offering
loans might also consider refraining from assisting the farmers for
security
reasons," he said.
The principal director of lands in the
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and
Rural Resettlement, Mr Patson Mbirimi,
refused to comment on the issue and
referred all questions to his minister,
Cde Joseph Made.
The minister, however, could not be reached for
comment.
Police said yesterday they are still investigating the shooting
incident
involving Barwe.
From Business Day, 6 December
Expectation low ahead of talk
shop
Harare Correspondent
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party is expected to
confront a pile of problems
besetting the country during its annual
conference in Chinhoyi next week.
Zanu PF secretary for administration
Emmerson Mnangagwa said the agenda of
the meeting, which would be held from
December 11 to 15, included the
controversial land reform programme, the
state of the economy, and the
country's international relations. Other major
issues that would be discussed
were the food and fuel shortage crises,
shortages of various commodities,
elections, party restructuring, and the
2003 national budget. Mnangagwa,
widely regarded as Mugabe's likely
successor, said Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made and his land reform
counterpart, Flora Bhuka, would present audit
reports on the land
redistribution exercise detailing how much land had been
acquired and the
progress on farming activities by the resettled farmers. But
the major
debate who will succeed Mugabe has already been suppressed. Party
spokesman
Nathan Shamuyarira said at the weekend that the issue would not be
discussed
, but would be considered at Zanu PF's next congress in
2006.
This has dampened the spirit of the party's Young Turks, who
were anxious to
raise the matter during the Chinhoyi meeting. Party chairman
John Nkomo is
expected to present a report on the state of the party and its
performance
in the recent elections. However, Mugabe is unlikely to make
major changes
to party structures. The last changes in Communist-structured
Zanu PF were
during the 1999 congress in Harare. Those changes, which saw
dissenting
heavyweights like former ministers Eddison Zvobgo and Dumiso
Dabengwa being
flushed out, were confirmed only during the party's
extraordinary congress
in Victoria Falls last year. Zanu PF's annual
conferences, which differ
slightly from the congresses held every five years,
are meant to offer party
members an opportunity to discuss freely policy
issues and matters affecting
the party at large. This year's conference comes
at a time of great economic
and political instability. Zimbabwe is reeling
from an economic meltdown
with inflation at 144%, a chronic food shortage
that will affect more than 6
million rural Zimbabweans, and shortages of
other basic commodities,
particularly fuel. Past conferences of Zanu (PF),
which often postures as
the sole embodiment and articulation of national
interests and patriotism,
have not been particularly decisive in resolving
economic and political
problems. This year Mugabe is likely to use the
platform to attack his
detractors at home and abroad for isolating his regime
over his political
repression and violent land reforms.
The Herald
Ministry recruiting more inspectors
Herald
Reporters
THE Ministry of Industry and International Trade has embarked on an
exercise
to recruit more inspectors to monitor overcharging and hoarding of
basic
commodities, an official in the ministry has said.
The official,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were recruiting
about 42
inspectors to complement their staff.
"The interviews are in progress and
the ministry needs about 42 inspectors,
who would be deployed in various
areas to fight overcharging and hoarding of
goods," the official
said.
The official said the inspectors would monitor overcharging by
retailers as
well as hoarding of the basic commodities by unlicensed dealers
on the
thriving black market.
Overcharging of basic commo-dities by
retailers has been rampant in all the
shops in the country, taking advantage
of the scarcity of the goods.
Many of the goods, which are no longer
available in the shops, are easily
found on the black market selling at
prices that are beyond the reach of
many people.
In a bid to curb
overcharging, those found to be flouting price controls
would be banned from
trading goods they would be selling above the gazetted
prices.
"So far
there is one renowned retail shop that has been banned in trading in
sugar
for breaching the price freeze order," the official said.
The Government
re-introduced price controls on basic goods last year
following unwarranted
price hikes by some manufacturers and retailers bent
on pro-
fiteering.
Last month the Government widened the price controls to
include more goods
such as electrical appliances, motor spares and other
essentials by freezing
their prices.
However, retailers have been
defying the price freeze, resulting in police
fining some big supermarket
chains such as OK Zimbabwe, TM Supermarkets, Bon
Marche and Batanai
Supermarkets for over- charging.
Consumers have been calling on the
Government to intervene and bring sanity
in the pricing of basic
commodities.
They said the fines for overcharging should be harsh, with
some suggesting
figures as high as $5 million and withdrawal of trading
licences.
Bakers Inn Under Probe
The Herald (Harare)
December 6,
2002
Posted to the web December 6, 2002
Harare
Police have
started investigations into the operations of Bakers Inn after
impounding
another 4 000 loaves of bread from one of the bakery's unlicensed
agents in
Kuwadzana Extension yesterday.
Police spokesman for Harare Province,
Assistant Inspector Paul Nyathi said
preliminary investigations to establish
how the bakery distributes its bread
were underway.
"There should be a
good reason for their abandoning licenced outlets and
moving into an
unregistered market. We need to establish what they are
benefiting from the
new development," Ass Insp Nyathi said.
He said a task force had been set
up to monitor Bakers Inn's daily
deliveries.
"We are expecting them to
supply us with the list of their registered
outlets today (yesterday) so that
we can properly monitor their deliveries."
Police impounded a hired
vehicle delivering 4 000 loaves of bread at a tuck
shop belonging to one Gift
Pengapenga in Kuwadzana Extension.
Pengapenga did not have a trading
licence and is said have paid $219 800 for
the bread which according to him,
was to be sold at black market prices.
Ass Insp Nyathi said they
interviewed Bakers Inn's marketing manager, Mr
Lemmy Chikomo after the arrest
of Pengapenga.
"Mr Chikomo confirmed that Pengapenga was their agent but
could not produce
confirmation documents and was aware that their agent was
not licenced," Ass
Insp Nyathi said.
Hardwork Damba, a Bakers Inn
agent based in Glen View who was arrested on
Monday after being found with 4
000 loaves of bread without a licence was
yesterday convicted by Mbare
magistrate Mr Simon Kachambwa.
Damba will be sentenced today after he was
found guilty of trading without a
licence and trying to bribe four informants
who exposed the bread scam.
Dear Family and Friends,
A little after eight one morning this week, two
hours after a hot sun had risen in the sky, a glorious red-winged starling
called repeatedly and then settled down to sleep in the pine tree outside my
study window. The dogs curled up and went to sleep and there was a strong and
cold wind in the darkening sky. My 10 year old son, Richie, and I rushed outside
with a mirror, a piece of smoke-blackened glass and a sheet of cardboard with a
small circular hole punched into it. What utter delight and spectacular beauty
we saw as everywhere the shadows were suddenly filled with little half moons.
Richie and I stood with our backs to the sun, held the cardboard up and
watched the little reflected circle of white light change into a finger nail
sliver and then fill with a glorious rainbow of colours onto the kitchen
wall. For a chilling 40 seconds Zimbabwe grew dark and completely quiet as
the moon passed over the sun in a total solar eclipse. Going back to my desk I
watched the light return, the dogs yawn and stretch and the red winged starling
sit up and fluff out its feathers. The beautiful bird preened briefly, called
twice and flew away.
Another great darkness is about to engulf Zimbabwe,
but it hasn't been preceeded by peace and beauty, it isn't only going to last
for 40 seconds and will undoubtedly result in hundreds of thousands of people in
graves. This week our Agriculture Minister Joseph Made finally admitted that
things were far from being under control on the 3000 odd farms that have been
grabbed by the government. First Dr Made said that his department had no money
to import the maize needed to satisfy our starving population. When he was asked
how much maize had been planted by the people he has supposedly resettled on the
farms, Made said: " we don't have the projected figures of what we have planted
this season and this is a big problem for us." The Minister went on to say that
he "hoped" there would be enough food to support the country. Hope
is not enough. 7 million people face starvation. Aerial photographs taken by the
Daily News this week reveal the reality on the ground. These horrifying pictures
showed miniscule little squares of green in the centre of huge un-used fields
which stretch to the horizon. Next to these vast empty fields are dams, still
full of water which could be used to irrigate but that resource is also not
being used.
A massive disaster is now overwhelming us.
Preliminary results from the latest census show that our population has dropped
to 11.6 million; that over 3 million Zimbabweans are living outside of the
country and that one person is now dying from AIDS every 5 minutes in the
country. Headlines in the latest local weekly newspaper, the Financial Gazette,
report that at least half of the country's manufacturing, mining and
agro-industrial companies will close next week for the Christmas break but they
will not re-open until March as they simply cannot survive the inflation and
overall economic collapse. Weather experts have begun issuing warnings that
rainfall predictions and patterns are not looking at all good for a number of
Southern African countries - for Zimbabwe this will be utter disaster. There are
almost no crops planted on the seized farms and even our road-side crops are
already wilting, the leaves of the maize going pale and curling up like onions.
It does not make a scrap of sense that our leaders do not at least allow some of
the commercial farmers to go out onto those huge fields and plant food for
us.
Schools have now closed for the Christmas holidays
and I sat in the baking sun watching Richard's Christmas play. I could not help
myself from letting out a roar of laughter and giving a standing ovation to
the children who were playing the Three Wise Men. They arrived at the nativity
on bicycles with rucksacks on their backs. They did not produce gold,
frankincense and myrrh. They presented one loaf of bread, one bag of a sugar and
a large piece of white paper which read "One US dollar". These things are the
most precious gifts in Zimbabwe. Thank you all so much for the hundreds of mails
received this week in response to my letter about my book Beyond Tears, I am
indebted for your help and support. Until next week, with love,
cathy.
Daily News
Aids council sidelining workers, says ZCTU
12/6/2002 (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
THE Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), yesterday backed charges
that the National
Aids Council (NAC) was sidelining workers in the funding
of HIV/Aids
awareness and prevention programmes.
Wellington Chibhebhe, the ZCTU
secretary-general, described as "a drop
in the ocean" the financial
assistance they had been offered by the NAC.
He said: "The
ZCTU runs a health and safety department which caters
for the physical
welfare of thousands of workers whose labour unions are
affiliated to
us.
"The NAC offered us a meagre $5 million to fund our Aids
combating
scheme. We had requested $30 million which we intended to use in
starting
HIV/Aids training programmes for couples.
"At the
moment we are getting more international assistance in
fighting the Aids
scourge than from the NAC, even though our affiliates
contribute to the
government's Aids levy," Chibhebhe said.
The Aids Fund,
administered by the NAC, was established by the
government in 1998 and draws
its finances from the government's Aids Levy,
set up to curb the spread of
the disease. The Progressive Teachers' Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ), on Tuesday
led the calls for an enquiry into the running of
the NAC.
Raymond Majongwe, the PTUZ secretary-general, said his union had
observed the
developments at the NAC with "utmost disgust at the hypocrisy,
insensitivity
and lack of practical seriousness on the part of NAC in
involving organised
labour in the fight against HIV/Aids".
Daily News
Leader Page
The legitimacy of student unrest in
Zimbabwe
12/6/2002 (GMT +2)
ONE girl, a
third-year law student at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ),
jumped form her
first floor window and sustained serious injuries. She and
other students had
been sent scurrying for dear life when a tear-gas
canister was discharged
into the New Complex Hall in the early hours of the
morning some time in
October. She was hospitalised at Parirenyatwa for some
time.
Students from the UZ, particularly members from the Students'
Executive
Council, had been playing hide-and-seek with the authorities.
Their crime:
going on strike to press for lectures to resume after teaching
staff had
resorted to industrial action, demanding overdue salary
increases.
All these events come in the wake of other
student upheavals that have
occurred across Africa in recent months. In June
this year, there was
violence at Zomba, in Malawi, that saw more than 300
university students
from the country's institution of higher learning going
on the rampage,
protesting perceived injustices.
There were
also violent clashes with students in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nearly 400 students
took to the streets protesting police brutality and
insensitivity to student
needs. This incident occurred following the murder
of a young man from the
university during a raid on a drug hideout by the
police.
Stone-throwing protesters fought running battles with the police.
Tear-gas
canisters and rubber bullets were also used to suppress the
demonstration,
during which students stoned and set cars alight in late July
this
year.
The events in both Malawi and Kenya are very likely to
repeat
themselves in this country.That same month saw more than 350
medical
students boycotting lectures, protesting against an increase in fees
and the
late disbursement of loans at the UZ.The Ministry of Higher Education
and
Technology had raised the medical students' tuition fees from $1 800 to
$3
500 a year with effect from 1 August this year. All in all, medical
students
are now required to pay more than $93 000 but the current funding
system
does not cover a $20 000 shortfall, an amount that students have to
pay
themselves.
Against this background, the police have
been cracking down heavily on
student demonstrations since the beginning of
the year. The police have
become so suspicious of gatherings at the
institution that they descended
with the same brutality on a group of
university students celebrating the
end of their examinations in
August.Students at polytechnic and technical
colleges are no better off than
their university counterparts. The situation
is so dire that students have
been reduced to a diet of light foodstuffs.
Officials at tertiary
institutions argue that maize-meal which is used to
cook sadza, our staple
food, is now too costly.In any case, the reality of
the matter is that all
across the nation students are starving. Hungry
students are bound to be
angry students.
The events witnessed in both Malawi and Kenya
show how destructive and
violent student demonstrations can be. Quite
recently, students from
Masvingo Technical College boycotted classes after
they were directed by Dr
Samuel Mumbengegwi, the then Minister of Higher
Education, to go and perform
national service duties, alongside the "Green
Bombers" from the Border Gezi
National Youth Training Centre. The students
had a legitimate reason not to
accept that directive since it was unfair to
them and smacked of political
intimidation. The boycott of lectures was
regarded as student activism,
which is understood to be a situation when
students take up their cause and
campaign actively for it in order to either
maintain or change a status quo.
The student rebellions of the 1960s and
1970s in both America and Europe, or
the student strikes that led to the
collapse of the Suharto regime in
Indonesia, are good examples of student
activism.
Because they resorted to student activism in
Masvingo, three members
of the students' representative council were
suspended, pending expulsion.
When students are hungry, paying
exorbitant fees, hardly able to
secure employment after graduation and being
intimidated by politicians with
ulterior motives, don't they have a credible,
if not legitimate, cause to
stand up for their rights?
The
history of student activism in Zimbabwe is very brief, long enough
to embrace
someone like Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for
Information
and Publicity in the President's Office. At one time he
personified the
collective will of the youth in Zimbabwe, through his fierce
campaigns
against corruption in high places, even though he was already a
lecturer.
Unfortunately, life has changed completely since the heady days of
the 1990s
for some of us.
Education fees are skyrocketing, fuelled by
runaway record inflation
rates. No meaningful mechanisms are being put in
place to alleviate the
plight of the cash-strapped students.
Already plans are afoot to legalise the compulsory enrolment of all
tertiary
education undergraduates into the new national youth service
training centres
being established across the country.
Furthermore, the
privatisation of catering at government institutions
is ensuring that a state
of hunger exists in these colleges, as students
cannot cope with rising
costs.
Accommodation is becoming unaffordable and most students
have resorted
to squatting, raising serious concerns about their future
well-being.
Disregarding the plight of students, rendering student
unrest and
activism illegal by throwing students into jail and expelling
them, is like
giving them a box of matches. Sooner or later a fire will break
out.
As long as students do not get what they want, they will
continue to
fight for the betterment of their welfare. Students have suffered
in silence
for too long. The key word here is "fight".
Daily News
Tsvangirai offers olive branch to ZANU PF
12/6/2002 (GMT +2)
By Lloyd Mudiwa
MORGAN
Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, has offered the Zanu PF government
an olive
branch.He said his party would help haul back the country from the
brink of
economic catastrophe and civil strife on condition President Mugabe
retires
immediately and establishes a transitional government.Tsvangirai
said the
transitional authority would, in conjunction with Parliament, be
required to
address the abandoned constitutional reform programme and
appoint an
independent electoral commission to organise fresh elections.
Tsvangirai was speaking at a fund-raising dinner for survivors of
political
violence in the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2000
and March
2002 respectively held in Harare on Wednesday night.
Victims of violence, most of whom broke down midway through
their
presentations, narrated heart-rending ordeals to a shell-shocked
audience at
the dinner attended by Elias Mudzuri, the Executive Mayor of
Harare and a
number of MPs, among others.
The victims
included Abednico Bhebhe, the MP for Nkayi, a 16-year-old
girl who was
allegedly raped by Zanu PF youths, and an MDC supporter who
alleged that
Saviour Kasukuwere, the MP for Mt Darwin, gouged out his eyes,
leaving him
blind.The dinner raised about $3 million.
"As a party whose
victory was clearly stolen by Mugabe and Zanu PF, we
have fought hard to
restrain our people from taking the law into their own
hands," said
Tsvangirai. "We fought hard to calm down emotions and tempers
after the
majority realised that the struggle was still far from over.
"I
wish to state here today that we cannot continue to play this role
because of
the pressure on us from a desperate people whose avenues to be
heard are
constantly being closed off by the regime."
Bemoaning the fact
that Zimbabwe's neighbours and the global community
had abandoned the
country, he said the majority of the people were saying
they could no longer
take the repression, despite the MDC's appeals to them
to remain
calm.
Attempts by Zimbabweans to defy unjust and inhuman laws
were being met
with brute force, intolerance and reprisals, Tsvangirai said,
adding mass
action was a universal right.
He said: "People
must be allowed to express themselves and register
their displeasure with the
manner in which unpopular regimes handle the
fundamental question of
governance in any society.
"We have waited for our neighbours
to assist in resolving these
issues, to no avail. The global community seems
frozen in its seat and
preoccupied with other issues. Zimbabweans are on
their own, in this
gruelling struggle to remain alive."
Tsvangirai said the transitional government would have to come up with
a 12
to 18-month programme to be supervised by representatives of key
interest
groups, including the major political parties."Unless we begin to
move in
that direction, Zimbabwe will continue to bleed and slide into
deeper chaos,"
he said.
Daily News
Leader Page
State activates Project
Reclaim
12/6/2002 (GMT +2)
SOMEWHERE in
Cabinet files probably lies an assignment called Project
Reclaim or
something, under which the government will seek to regain the
mayoral and the
parliamentary seats it lost to the opposition MDC.
The problems the
mayors of Bulawayo, Chegutu and Harare have run into
with the government are
part of the project to reclaim the electoral losses
at national and local
government levels.
Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, the executive
mayor of Bulawayo, has been
dragged before the courts for allegedly
attempting to bribe a voter. The
intention was to force his resignation so
new elections, which could be
manipulated, would be held.
He
has also complained of attempts by Zanu PF councillors to
frustrate
him.
Yet one very prominent ruling party leader
from Mashonaland West
publicly offered money for votes, while his party gave
food to villagers
during the 26-27 October 2002 rural district council
elections in exchange
for votes. In both cases, no one has been arrested.The
mayor of Chegutu,
Francis Dhlakama, has come under immense pressure to throw
in the towel. His
attackers still walk the streets of Chegutu freely. The
objective is to try
to force him out of office.
In Masvingo,
Alois Chaimiti, the executive mayor has been besieged by
coffin-carrying Zanu
PF youths, determined to intimidate him into resigning.
Chitungwiza's
executive mayor, Misheck Shoko, last month warned that the
government was on
a mission to remove opposition mayors.
An example of what he
was referring to is the situation of the
Executive Mayor of Harare, Engineer
Elias Mudzuri, whom the Minister of
Local Government, Public Works and
National Housing, Dr Ignatius Chombo, has
ordered not to do anything without
ministerial authority, a restriction that
effectively subverts the role of an
executive mayor.
The whole plot behind Project Reclaim could be
first to create a
facade of mayors whose councils have reneged on their
election promises. The
second is to portray them as incompetent and therefore
deserving of the
sack.The case of Harare brings the problem into sharp
focus.
Chombo has tended to court, but sometimes read the riot
act, to the
mayor of Harare. The strategy is either to force him to cross the
floor or
to force him out. But with each failure and frustration has come
increased
pressure. It manifests itself in various forms.
For Project Reclaim, the route to kick the mayor out of office is by
creating
problems with the supply of water to the Greater Harare area.
Reports this week that there could be as little as three days' supply
of
clean water left for residents of Chitungwiza, Epworth, Harare, Norton
and
Ruwa, has to be seen in the context of a project to undermine the Harare
City
Council, with a view to preparing grounds for its dismissal.
Solomon Tawengwa, the former mayor of Harare, was shown the door,
along with
his executive because the capital and the surrounding towns had
gone for days
without water.
The latest problems, however, are in two phases.
The first is to
suggest that this council is prepared to jeopardise the
health of millions
of Greater Harare residents, by not treating water
supplied to the
populations in these areas.
The second
phase, could be that Zanu PF functionaries contracted to
supply the council
with its requirements can arbitrarily increase their
charges for services
provided to the council, in the hope that council will
object or refuse to
pay, resulting in the companies refusing to supply
services, thus creating a
crisis and providing justification for council's
dismissal.
Behind all these machinations lies the fear of what successfully run
MDC
local authorities mean to Zanu PF's survival and continued rule. The
fear is
that if MDC-run councils do well and score more successes than Zanu
PF
councils were ever able to achieve, the electorate could be persuaded to
give
them a chance to govern the country on the basis of their record at
local
government level. That could spell doom for Zanu PF.
Daily News
Zanu PF card passport to maize-meal in
Highfield
12/6/2002 (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
There was chaos at the Zanu PF district offices at
Machipisa shopping
centre in Highfield, Harare, yesterday as thousands of
people, mostly women,
battled to buy maize-meal by proving they were
card-carrying Zanu PF
members.
A by-election for the Highfield
parliamentary seat is due soon as the
Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, this week declared it vacant
after the expulsion from the party of
the MDC MP, Munyaradzi Gwisai.
Under the Constitution, an
MP who resigns or is expelled from the
party on whose ticket he was elected
to Parliament, loses his seat.But most
of those seeking the precious
commodity went away empty-handed because, in
the predominantly MDC
constituency, few could produce the passport to maize
meal - a Zanu PF
membership card.
This latest campaign to offer food in exchange
for Zanu PF cards was
staged in Highfield despite repeated government denials
that it has
politicised the distribution of food in the face of severe
shortages.Nathan
Shamuyarira, the Zanu PF secretary for information and
publicity, denied any
knowledge of the maize-meal sales by the party at
Machipisa and elsewhere.
He said: "I don't know anything about
that. That is the job of the
government and the private sector. If you know
who is selling the
mealie-meal at the party offices, please tell me. I need
it and I would like
to buy some."
The 10 and 20kg bags,
which were selling for $300 and $600,
respectively, at the Zanu PF offices,
were delivered on Wednesday.
The news spread quickly in the suburb,
resulting in people descending
on the offices from very early yesterday
morning.
The police, members of the youth brigade and Zanu PF
youths and
officials had a hard time controlling the huge crowd. Tempers
occasionally
flared, graphically illustrating the seriousness of the food
shortages. The
youths ordered the people to queue according to their Zanu PF
branches,
while party officials clutching lists with the names of their
members
collected money to pay for the maize-meal.Those who were not on the
lists
ignored the orders, adding to the confusion.
One said:
"Do they think all the people on their lists are their
members? If they want
to gain support for their party in the coming
by-election they should just
make the maize-meal available to everyone."
Another by-election
is due in Kuwadzana constituency in Harare,
following the death of the MDC
MP, Learnmore Jongwe, in remand prison in
October.
Zanu PF
has reportedly sold maize-meal in that constituency as well -
but only to
those with Zanu PF membership cards. Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC
spokesman,
said: "The MDC condemns in the strongest terms the use of food as
a
vote-buying weapon and invites the United
Nations and humanitarian
organisations to closely monitor developments
in Kuwadzana and
Highfield."
An estimated 6,7 million people, about half the
population of the
country, are at risk of starvation, according to the World
Food
Programme, an agency of the United Nations.
Daily News
Riot police beat up workers at labour
meeting
12/6/2002 (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
Riot police beat up workers at a labour forum in Harare on
Wednesday
evening, charging that it was illegal, a top trade unionist
reported
yesterday.
Wellington Chibhebhe, the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
secretary-general, yesterday said the workers fled in
all
directions.Earlier, around 5pm, the riot police had arrested Collen
Gwiyo,
the ZCTU deputy secretary, and five workers outside the Crowne
Plaza
Monomatapa Hotel.
Gwiyo was directing workers to
Gorlon Building in Jason Moyo Avenue,
the venue of the meeting, after police
denied the ZCTU permission to hold
the meeting in the Harare
Gardens.
Chibhebhe said: "There were about 100 workers at
Gorlon when the riot
police attacked. We had originally planned to hold our
labour forum meeting
at the Harare Gardens and informed the police. They
wrote to us on Tuesday
denying us permission."He said the police told them to
hold the meeting
indoors.
Chibhebhe said it had then been
decided to hold the meeting at Gorlon
Building after they failed to secure a
venue at the hotel.Gwiyo said: "When
the riot police checked the Harare
Gardens to see whether we were going
ahead with our meeting and found no one,
they came to the hotel. There were
about eight of them and they arrested me
and five others who were just
standing around.
"On the way
to Harare Central Police Station, they beat us and ordered
us to sing MDC
songs but we refused. It was a trick, because they wanted us
to arrive at the
police station singing so they could charge us."We were
released after about
two hours after the policemen at the station realised
that we had not
committed any crime."
Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU president,
said: "We unreservedly condemn
this infringement on our freedom of
association as enshrined in both the
country's Constitution and Convention 87
of the International Labour
Organisation."If this continues we will have to
tackle the situation
head-on."
He said the ZCTU had been
consulting workers across the country and
they were clamouring for action to
protect their interests.
He said: "The workers are far ahead of
the leadership in calling for
action. While we are saying that we will follow
the channel of dialogue,
these actions by the police will leave us with no
choice but to take the
action demanded by the workers."
Late
last month, the ZCTU embarked on consultations over the course of
action to
take after the government ignored demands for significant tax cuts
in last
month's National Budget.
Zim Independent
DRC intervention costs $100b
Dumisani
Muleya
ZIMBABWE'S four-year military expedition in the Democratic Republic of
Congo
(DRC) cost the country over $100 billion and at least 150 lives, it
emerged
yesterday.
Official sources said the cost of the war - which
at its height sucked in
nine African armies and displaced more than 3,2
million people - included
expenses incurred in arms and spare parts
purchases, transport, equipment,
fuel, salaries, food, medication and
administration.
The withdrawal of the army added to the cost in a big
way. Government
recently gave the military $480 million for the exercise when
at least $700
million was needed. Insiders said the exercise in the end cost
up to $1
billion.
Sources said the 150-person casualty list
included those killed in combat,
those who went missing in action and those
who died out of action.
In 1999, the Independent obtained information
on 92 casualties, including
names, times and places of fatalities in some
cases.
But the total number of casualties has never been disclosed.
Although
government has promised to release the information, it is yet to do
so.
The financial cost of the war, which drained scarce national
resources, was
heavy. Government sources this week put the figure at $100
billion.
In 2000, former Finance minister Simba Makoni told
parliament that the
country had sunk $10 billion into the costly adventure,
but evidence showed
the figure was much higher.
Official
information obtained by the British government from Treasury
indicated at the
time Zimbabwe was spending US$3 million a month in
the
Congo.
After plunging into the DRC conflict in August 1998,
Zimbabwe ordered two
large consignments of military hardware, including
bombs, guns and fighter
planes from Aerotech of Switzerland for $3,7 billion
and other weaponry from
China for $3,2 billion. The country made several
other large purchases.
But sources said Zimbabwe lost a lot of
equipment during pitched battles and
bungled missions despite President
Robert Mugabe's denials over the weekend.
There were persistent
reports during the war that the army had abandoned
tanks, personnel carriers,
recovery vehicles, anti-aircraft guns and rocket
launchers in the
field.
In 1999, a Zimbabwean Allouette 3 helicopter gunship was shot
down behind
rebel lines. The bodies of Colonel Alfonso Kufa and Squadron
Leader Herbert
Vundla and the wreckage were not recovered.
Sources
said the cost of the war escalated when Zimbabwe decided in late
1998 to take
the war to the Rwanda and Ugandan-backed rebel groups in the
eastern part of
the country where it had to build costly air bridges and
establish
communications across thick jungle terrain.
Battles such as those at
Kabalo and Kamina, which Zimbabwe won, also
consumed considerable resources.
The army also used massive resources at the
battles at Bandaka and Pweto
where soldiers ended up fleeing into Zambia
after being routed.