VOA
By VOA News
08 December 2005
Zimbabwe
has suspended exports of ostrich and other poultry after
discovering a
strain of avian flu that can be lethal to birds, but poses
little risk to
humans.
Thursday, Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper The Herald reported that
the H5N2
strain of avian flu was detected on two farms in Zimbabwe's
Matabeleland
province.
It quotes the state veterinary services
director, Dr. Stuart Hargreaves, as
saying the virus was confirmed with
samples sent to South Africa.
The H5N2 strain of avian flu is not known
to pass from birds to humans,
unlike the H5N1 strain that has killed nearly
70 people in Southeast Asia
since 2003.
Dr. Hargreaves says all of
Zimbabwe's ostrich farms have been placed under
quarantine until a national
survey can determine the full extent of virus
outbreak.
Zim Online
Thu 8
December 2005
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe immigration authorities have
withdrawn the
passport of former editor and now publisher, Trevor Ncube, in
a fresh
onslaught against the Press and critics of President Robert Mugabe's
government.
Ncube's passport was seized at the airport in
Zimbabwe's second
largest city of Bulawayo.
A former editor of
the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, Ncube now owns
the paper and its stable
mate, the Standard. His highly regarded South
African title is a leading
critic of Mugabe's rule.
The seizure of Ncube's
passport is the first time the Harare
government has done so since
controversially changing the constitution to
allow it to withdraw travel
documents from citizens in the "national
interest".
Defending
the constitutional amendment in Parliament last August,
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa said it was necessary to curtail the
movement of citizens
who campaigned against the economic interests of the
country abroad by
urging foreign governments to impose sanctions against
Mugabe's
government.
Mugabe, his wife Grace and top officials of his ruling
ZANU PF party
and government are under targeted visa and financial sanctions
from the
United States, European Union, New Zealand, Australia and
Switzerland.
The Western nations imposed the sanctions on Mugabe
and his lieutenant
as punishment for the failure to uphold democracy, rule
of law and human
rights.
Many more journalists, civic leaders
and members of the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change are
expected to have their
passports withdrawn after the seizure of Ncube's
today.
But it has certainly been a bad week for Ncube, a prominent
fighter
for freedom of the Press after the Australian government released an
error-riddled list in which the Zimbabwean journalist was included as one of
the people banned from that country because of their association with
Mugabe's government.
Australian ambassador to Zimbabwe Jon
Sheppard has since admitted the
list was erroneous and promised it will be
reviewed. - ZimOnline
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
08 December 2005
Another voice
has been added to the existing chorus of calls for the
prosecution of Robert
Mugabe and his ruling elite in the International
courts. On Wednesday, the
United Nations humanitarian aid chief Jan Egeland
said Zimbabwean officials
should be prosecuted for crimes committed during
the mass demolition of
houses and businesses that took place earlier this
year. Egeland is the
second U.N. official to call for justice for the
families who were displaced
by the government's Operation Murambatsvina. The
demolitions were well
documented and a case could be brought against Mugabe.
Many believe the UN
should bring the case to the International Criminal
Court.
Special envoy for housing Anna Tibaijuka also called for the
perpetrators to
be made accountable after a tour of the devastated areas
back in July.
Several civic organisations, foreign governments, noted
individuals and
religious groups have made the same call. The U.K. Guardian
journalist
Andrew Meldrum told us that Egeland was visibly distressed by the
results of
the demolitions, and did not want to hide it. Egeland made the
comments in
South Africa after a four-day visit to Zimbabwe. Meldrum said
the U.N. envoy
could not accept Mugabe's explanation that Murambatsvina was
an urban
renewal programme.
Egeland also said he had open disagreements with
Mugabe, especially
when it came to the government's obstacles to
international aid. Meldrum
said this is most unusual because top officials
normally speak in diplomatic
terms. Egeland could have said he had full and
frank discussions with Mugabe
instead. Meldrum said it is important to let
Mugabe hear the truth in the
language his victims might have used, because
he is very removed and does
not communicate with them.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's ruling party meets this weekend triumphant after
solidifying its
grip on power with a Senate win over a deeply divided
opposition.
But
analysts said ZANU-PF was unlikely to use its new strength to address
the
country's mounting economic problems or the thorny question of who will
succeed President Robert Mugabe.
"These are issues they really should
be talking about but previous
experience has shown that they are unlikely to
do that," said government
critic and political commentator John
Makumbe.
"Coming after last month's Senate poll victory this conference
will be a
parade to say we are in power, we are ruling," he
added.
ZANU-PF holds its annual conference on Friday and Saturday at the
south-western district of Esigodini against the background of a deepening
economic downturn critics say is testimony to 25 years of post-independence
Mugabe mismanagement.
The venue ranks among districts hardest hit by
food shortages that critics
say are largely the result of flawed government
land reforms, which in the
last five years have turned what was once the
breadbasket of southern Africa
into a net food importer.
ZANU-PF
officials said the summit would discuss charges that some
beneficiaries of
the land programme, which saw the forcible redistribution
of white-owned
farms among blacks, have not fully utilised the land.
But analysts say
the party was likely to gloss over the country's other
economic problems --
chronic shortages of fuel and foreign currency,
unemployment of over 70
percent and rampaging inflation, which is expected
to revisit an all-time
high of 600 percent.
Mugabe, 81, denies he has misruled the southern
African country since
independence from Britain in 1980.
He says
former colonial power Britain has sponsored Zimbabwe's main
opposition party
since its formation in 1999 to topple him over his land
reforms.
He
also blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on Western
sanctions.
SUCCESSOR
ZANU-PF goes into this year's conference with
more power than ever before.
With its victory in last month's Senate
elections, the party now has final
say on all Zimbabwe laws and controls
virtually all the levers of patronage.
The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, by contrast, is beset by
factional infighting that
analysts say has hobbled its ability to challenge
Mugabe's
rule.
Within ZANU-PF a topic likely to be on the minds of members but
largely left
unspoken is selecting a successor to Mugabe.
"Even if
succession arises it will not be on the public agenda because there
are no
vacancies, the president is only retiring in 2008 and therefore there
is no
sense of urgency," Eldred Masunungure, a political analyst from the
University of Zimbabwe, told Reuters on Thursday.
Tensions still
exist from last year's ZANU-PF row over a successor to
Mugabe. The dispute
nearly split the party in two a few months before
crucial parliamentary
elections, which ZANU-PF went on to win despite the
internal
turmoil.
Mugabe persuaded his party faithful to endorse his preferred
candidate for
the vacant post of second vice president in ZANU-PF party and
government, a
post seen as a step up the ladder to his own
position.
Mugabe then cracked down on senior members of a faction which
had lobbied
for a rival candidate, suspending several from the party and
demoting others
both within ZANU-PF structures and government, quelling any
lingering
murmurs of discontent.
But the veteran leader has not
publicly anointed a successor.
Analysts said while privately some ZANU-PF
members wanted the succession
topic put up for discussion at Esigodini,
Mugabe had fine-tuned his grip on
the party by reshuffling his lieutenants'
positions to ensure that no one
stokes the fires that threatened to engulf
ZANU-PF at last year's
five-yearly congress.
"The faction leaders
from last year's debacle have retreated and it is still
too early for them
to re-enter the gladiator (arena) because the dust has
not settled,"
Masunungure said. -- Reuters
Mail and Guardian
Susan Njanji | Harare, Zimbabwe
08 December 2005
01:55
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe opens the annual
congress of
his ruling Zanu-PF party on Friday, buoyed by his recent big win
in
controversial senate elections and infighting that has left the
opposition
in tatters.
About 5 000 delegates of the
Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) will converge on
the small town of Esigodini
in the southern Matabeland province, an
opposition stronghold where the
party won all five seats for the new senate
in the polls last month.
The three-day congress held under
the theme "Consolidating Our
Gains" is to take stock of Zanu-PF's victories
in the March parliamentary
vote and the November senate elections, said
party spokesperson Nathan
Shamuyarira.
Under Mugabe's
leadership, Zanu-PF has kept a tight grip on
power in Zimbabwe ever since
the Southern African country won independence
from Britain in
1980.
Delegates are also to discuss land reform and there may
be new
appointments to senior party positions that will be closely watched
for
clues about possible contenders to succeed Mugabe, who has said he wants
to
retire in 2008.
Last year's congress was marred by a
party revolt over Mugabe's
choice of Joyce Mujuru to be his vice-president,
prompting the 81-year-old
leader to launch a purge of several senior party
officials including six of
the 10 provincial party
chairpersons.
Land reform to be debated
The
ruling party weekly newspaper The Voice said in its latest
edition that land
reform would be "widely debated" at the congress to assess
the performance
of new black farmers who were given land seized from white
farmers.
Top Zimbabwean officials have recently
acknowledged that the
apathetic attitude of many black farmers who were
given land was responsible
for the country's food crisis and warned that
some farms could be reclaimed.
More than four million
Zimbabweans are in need of food aid,
according to the United Nations World
Food Programme, which last week signed
an agreement with the government to
launch a massive food distribution plan.
About 4 000 white
farmers have lost their land under the policy
launched in 2000 to redress
imbalances created under British colonial rule
when the majority of farmland
was owned by whites.
But after facing a stiff challenge for
the past six years from
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
Zanu-PF is expected to
breathe easier.
The MDC remains
divided and weak over a bitter row sparked by
leader Morgan Tsvangirai's
call for a boycott of the senate elections.
Commenting on the
state of Zana-PF's main political rival, party
chairperson John Nkomo
dismissed opposition claims that the ruling party has
infiltrated the
MDC.
"Zanu-PF has never interfered with the MDC. MDC has no
agenda
and was bound to collapse," Nkomo was quoted as saying in the
state-controlled daily The Herald.
"The opposition party
was a creation of our former colonial
master to ward off the land reforms,"
he said.
'Fuel is abundant here'
The price of
fuel in Zimbabwe has been unofficially hiked nearly
six times, reports said
on Thursday.
Petrol is now selling openly in fuel stations
for up to Z$120
000 ($1,62) a litre, according to the state-run Herald
newspaper. The price
set by President Robert Mugabe's government in
September was Z$22 300 a
litre.
The Zimbabwe dollar has
lost value in the last three months and
private fuel companies have decided
that price controls no longer apply, the
paper said.
"It
is understood that most companies were using last week's
sentiments by the
Minister of Finance Dr Herbert Murerwa that it was
'critical that market
pricing mechanisms be embraced, which are central to
ensuring the viability
of industry, as well as the well-being of consumers'
to mean that there were
no more price controls," it said.
The price of basic goods
has also rocketed in supermarkets in
the last few days.
Zimbabwe has been suffering from a critical fuel shortage since
March this
year, and all but a few fuel stations ran dry. Drivers who could
afford it
turned to the black market for fuel where the commodity was
available but at
a much higher price.
Now some service stations appear to be
openly charging black
market prices.
"Fuel is abundant
here and if you want you can buy your coupons
and get as many litres as you
want," said one petrol attendant at a garage
in Harare's Kamfinsa suburb.
Twenty litres at the garage costs Z$2,4-million
($32), the Herald
said.
The state oil company appears to be turning a blind eye
to the
hikes.
"There has not been any price increases as
far as we are
concerned. They [filling stations] are charging the prices to
recover their
costs of importing the fuel into the country," an unnamed
official at the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) told the paper. -
Sapa-dpa,
Sapa-AFP
By Tererai Karimakwenda
08
December 2005
The international media watchdog Reporters
Without Borders has called
for the resignation of Dr. Tafataona Mahoso, head
of the Media and
Information Commission (MIC), which is responsible for the
news media in
Zimbabwe. In a statement released on Thursday, the group said
Mahoso must
step down after a journalist who resigned from the MIC board,
Jonathan
Maphenduka, alleged that Mahoso takes orders from his political
bosses.
Maphenduka claimed in High Court documents that the board
had agreed
to allow the banned independent Daily News newspaper, to register
with the
MIC and begin publishing again. But Mahoso allegedly bowed to
pressure from
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and ruled against
the popular
daily. Leornard Vincent of Re porters Without Borders told us
the evidence
of direct political control of the MIC involved in Maphenduka's
case is
enough to warrant Mahoso's resignation. The Reporters said: "The
MIC's
loyalty to the regime was already obvious but now there is proof that
it is
under the government's direct political control".
The
group also wants other officials on the MIC board to publicly
acknowledge
government interference and dissociate themselves.
The full
statement from Re porters Without Borders can be found on our
website at
swradioafrica.com
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
IOL
December
08 2005 at 08:02PM
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on
Thursday called on his
country's citizens to "celebrate" the return of their
land at the start of a
three-day ruling party conference.
Addressing members of his ruling party's central committee in the
small
southern Zimbabwe town of Esigodini, Mugabe said the country needed to
boost
harvests.
"Now our people can celebrate the final return of their
land," Mugabe
said.
"Our collective challenge is to give
impetus and support to the
economic turnaround effort by making sure that we
should grow and grow in a
big way, so our harvests from our fields can be
enhanced," he added.
Agricultural production plummeted after the
authorities started
seizing white-owned land for redistribution to new black
farmers five years
ago. Once a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe will this year
have to import 1,8
million tonnes of maize.
Mugabe's call comes
after a United Nations envoy this week described
as "very serious"
Zimbabwe's growing humanitarian crisis. The country is
suffering acute food
shortages, high rates of HIV and Aids infections and
homelessness.
At least 3 000 Zimbabwe African National Union -
Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF) supporters are expected to attend the conference
in Matabeleland
South province, traditionally a stronghold of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
But Mugabe's party took
all five seats there in senate elections last
month. The polls were marred
by record low voter turnout and a major split
in the MDC, which was divided
over whether or not to participate.
The theme of this year's
conference, which will be officially opened
Friday, is "Consolidating Our
National Gains".
Ruling party officials say the conference will
also look at ways of
arresting Zimbabwe's economic decline. The country's
annual rate of
inflation is more than 411 per cent, one of the highest in
the world.
The ruling party is reported to have spent billions of
Zimbabwe
dollars refurbishing Umzingwane High School, the main venue of this
year's
party conference. Trenches have been dug, a clinic set up, classrooms
painted and a borehole sunk, reports say. Roads in the area have also been
upgraded.
The meeting is also set to have its lighter moments.
Education
Minister Aeneas Chigwedere on Thursday presented "samples" of a
proposed
national dress to Thursday's central committee meeting, state radio
said.
"The proposal has come after intense research," Chigwedere
was
reported as saying. - Sapa-dpa
The Citizen, SA
HARARE - The price of fuel in Zimbabwe has been unofficially hiked
nearly
six times, reports said Thursday.
Petrol is now selling openly in
fuel stations for up to 120 000 Zimbabwe
dollars (1,62 US dollars) a litre,
according to the state-run Herald
newspaper. The price set by President
Robert Mugabe's government in
September was 22 300 Zimbabwe dollars (0,30 US
dollars) a litre.
The Zimbabwe dollar has lost value in the last three months
and private fuel
companies have decided that price controls no longer apply,
the paper said.
"It is understood that most companies were using last week's
sentiments by
the Minister of Finance Dr Herbert Murerwa that it was
'critical that market
pricing mechanisms be embraced, which are central to
ensuring the viability
of industry, as well as the well-being of consumers'
to mean that there were
no more price controls," it said.
The price of
basic goods has also rocketed in supermarkets in the last few
days.
Zimbabwe has been suffering from a critical fuel shortage since
March this
year, and all but a few fuel stations ran dry. Drivers who could
afford it
turned to the black market for fuel where the commodity was
available but at
a much higher price.
Now some service stations appear to
be openly charging black market prices.
"Fuel is abundant here and if you
want you can buy your coupons and get as
many litres as you want," said one
petrol attendant at a garage in Harare's
Kamfinsa suburb. Twenty litres at
the garage costs 2,4 million Zimbabwe
dollars (32 US dollars), the Herald
said.
The state oil company appears to be turning a blind eye to the hikes.
"There
has not been any price increases as far as we are concerned. They
(filling
stations) are charging the prices to recover their costs of
importing the
fuel into the country," an unnamed official at the National
Oil Company of
Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) told the Herald. - Sapa-dpa.
08/12/2005
17:37:08
From Themba Nkosi in
Bulawayo
07 December 2005
Villagers in Tsholotsho district in northern
Matabeleland have told SW Radio
Africa that during the senate election
campaign they were asked by ruling
ZANU-PF councillors and officials to
choose between life and death.
They were told that choosing life meant
voting for the ruling party. Voting
for the opposition MDC was like choosing
starvation and death. The villagers
said they were left with no choice but
to choose life by voting for the
ruling party candidate, Josephine Moyo
despite the fact that the area is an
opposition stronghold.
'We had
run out of food and we were threatened that if we continued voting
for the
MDC, aid organisations would be stopped from distributing relief
food,' said
one villager, Mluleki Nyathi of Siphepha village.
According to the
villagers, a few days before the election, aid workers from
the Organisation
of Rural Associations for Progress, ORAP, arrived in their
villages
accompanied by Zanu (PF) officials.
Zanu (PF) officials addressed the
villagers before ORAP workers handed over
relief food. This was however in
contravention of electoral laws. A high
court Judge in October ordered
ruling party officials to stop using food
during election periods. The Judge
said this during the hearing of two MDC
election petitions.
But it
appears the ruling party continues to defy the electoral laws by
using food
as a political tool. ORAP is the partner of World Food Programme
(WFP), the
United Nations relief agency. ORAP has been distributing relief
food in
Matabeleland on behalf of WFP. We were unable to get a comment from
ORAP
officials in Bulawayo.
A teacher at Siphepha, who was one of the polling
officers during the
elections, told us that villagers were given a choice of
choosing starvation
by voting for the opposition or to vote for ZANU-PF and
continue to receive
food.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Media Briefing
AI Index: ACT 30/029/2005
(Public)
News Service No: 335
8 December 2005
Excerpt
from:
Make Some Noise - case studies
The following are examples of cases
on which Amnesty International is
campaigning.
Speaking out for
women in Zimbabwe, Jenni Williams
"Strike a woman and you strike a rock. We
are not going to be deterred."
As one of the leaders of the human rights
activist group Women of Zimbabwe
Arise (WOZA), Jenni Williams has been
arrested or detained by police in
Zimbabwe at least 15 times in the last two
years.
In March 2005 hundreds of WOZA women were arrested when they tried
to hold a
peaceful post-election prayer vigil in Africa Unity Square,
Harare. As they
were gathering they were surrounded by police.
"They
started intimidating and provoking us," recalls Jenni. The police
crammed
150 women into open-topped vehicles, beating them as they did so,
then took
them to the station where they beat them again as they got out.
Despite
continued intimidation, Jenni and WOZA have continued their struggle
in an
inspiring display of strength and courage.
Public
Document
****************************************
For more information
please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20
7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org
United Press International
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- China has become the top supplier of
fighter-bombers to Sudan's Muslim regime, whose attacks on Christian rebels
in the south have made Khartoum notorious.
Sudan's air force recently
bought $100 million worth of Shenyang fighter
planes, including a dozen
supersonic F-7 jets, and also purchased 34 other
fighter-bombers from
Beijing, Middle East Newsline reported Thursday.
In exchange, Chinese oil
companies have become big stakeholders in Sudan's
oil and natural gas
fields.
The state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., for example, owns
40 percent
of Sudan's largest oil field.
"China rarely attaches any
political strings to its assistance to Africa,"
said a report from the
Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.
"This has opened up space for
China to deal quite profitably with some of
the more heinous regimes on the
continent. It is no coincidence, for
example, that Sudan and Zimbabwe now
play host to a very large Chinese
economic presence."
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Chakanetsa Chidyamatiyo
issue date :2005-Dec-08
THE High
Court cannot involve itself in MDC matters because the opposition
party is a
voluntary organisation with adequate mechanisms to deal
appropriately with
its internal affairs, Morgan Tsvangirai's lawyer Selby
Hwacha has
said.
Hwacha made the remarks yesterday responding to an urgent chamber
application filed by the pro-Senate MDC faction seeking the court to uphold
Tsvangirai's suspension.
Justice Yunus Omerjee reserved judgment
indefinitely after hearing
submissions from Hwacha and Advocate Garikayi
Mandizha representing the
applicant, the anti-Senate faction.
In his
heads of argument, Hwacha drew a parallel between the MDC, which he
said was
a voluntary association, like a football club, whose operations are
guided
by its constitution.
"Courts are generally reluctant to be arbiters of what
is essentially a club
matter, especially where there are in existence
sufficient mechanisms for
the resolution of disputes.
"The same principle
arises in this matter. Nothing has been placed before
the court to encourage
that it should, or must entangle itself in a
voluntary association's
affairs," Hwacha stated in his heads of argument.
The lawyer maintained that
Tsvangirai's suspension was null and void as
there were disagreements on the
membership of the MDC committee that
suspended him.
"The basis of the
application was a purported suspension (of Tsvangirai).
The respondent's
position is that the suspension was invalid ab initio (from
the onset) and
in any event, that it had been set aside," Hwacha said.
He further indicated
that the MDC disciplinary committee had no jurisdiction
to suspend his
client, adding that Section 10.5 of the party constitution
empowered the
committee to suspend one only if "found guilty" of an offence.
Hwacha
stressed that Chimanikire, who claimed to belong to the disciplinary
committee, was biased.
"Even now when he claims that the respondent
(Tsvangirai) was suspended, he
is also at pains to be a witness," the
lawyer said.
Mandizha told journalists soon after the hearing that his
client (the group
including Gibson Sibanda and Welshman Ncube) was seeking
an interdict
stopping Tsvangirai from using party structures.
"Judgment
has been reserved indefinitely. The issue is, the applicant was
seeking an
interdict against Tsvangirai on certain things to be complied
with," the
advocate said without elaborating.
The MDC pro-Senate faction represented by
Chimanikire in the application
would like Tsvangirai to stop using Harvest
House, the party's national
headquarters in Harare, insisting that he should
return some party vehicles
and stop using the party's logos and slogans
during his suspension.
The pro-Senate faction suspended Tsvangirai from the
MDC soon after the
Senate elections, accusing him of deliberately
disregarding the party's
constitution when he campaigned against
participation.
Tsvangirai immediately dismissed the move saying it was
improper.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
From
Nkululeko Sibanda in Bulawayo
issue date :2005-Dec-08
ALERT railways
security personnel last week arrested three company employees
they caught
red-handed allegedly draining fuel from the parastatal's storage
tanks.
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) public relations manager
Fanuel Masikati
confirmed the incident yesterday, but said he was yet to get
the finer
details.
"The three senior railways employees were arrested by
NRZ security details
for allegedly draining an unspecified amount of diesel
from tanks at Mpopoma
workshop," he said.
"I am, however, yet to get more
details about the incident, but I can
confirm to you the arrest."
An NRZ
source told The Daily Mirror the trio had long been sabotaging the
troubled
public transporter by draining millions of dollars worth of diesel.
"This has
been going on for some time. These guys have been making money
selling
diesel drained from storage tanks on the black market," the source
said.
He added: "They were spending their ill-gotten loot lavishly in
town and had
also been showing off and telling other workers that they were
reaping where
they didn't sow."
The sources said the suspects - a fitter
and turner and two diesel engine
artisans - would cause unnecessary
blackouts by switching off power supplies
to the locomotives
workshop.
"After switching off the power, one of them would drive the vehicle
carrying
the drums into the workshop pretending to be supplying light
inside," the
source said. "Once the vehicle reached the tanks, the lights
would be
switched off. Fuel would be drained into containers loaded on the
vehicle."
Concerned workers reported the theft to management and a trap was
set up
leading to the trio's arrest.
The Daily Mirror is reliably
informed that the same trend had also
manifested itself at workshops
belonging to the Bulawayo Beitbridge Railways
(BBR) where claims abound that
workers drain fuel from locomotives for the
black market in
Beitbridge.
Masikati urged the public to alert the parastatal or the police
if they find
any railway staffer selling fuel on the black market.
"This
is what is called sabotaging the parastatal. We have been forced to
suspend
traffic on some routes thinking that the nationwide fuel shortage
was also
impinging on us. We have only come to realise it now that some of
our
problems are internal jobs orchestrated by NRZ employees," Masikati
said.
"Also it must be publicly announced that while it may appear as if
the
employees are sabotaging the NRZ as an entity, it is actually the
national
economy that is being sabotaged as the railways has emerged the
biggest
transporter of bulk goods and people in Zimbabwe. The public should
report
to the NRZ or police railways worker seen selling fuel on the black
market."
In the past few years the NRZ has been rocked by a series of
challenges that
have caused it to fail to deliver.
The serious
operational and managerial hitches have also been blamed for a
spate of
derailments some of which have claimed many lives and declared
national
disasters.
Last month, the NRZ board of directors chaired by Sam Geza was
dissolved by
Transport and Communications minister Christopher Mushohwe and
replaced
with an interim general manager who replaced Munesu
Munodawafa.
Mudodawafa has since been reassigned as a principal director in
Vice-President Joice Mujuru's office.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Business
Reporter
issue date :2005-Dec-08
THE cost of private tillage services
has gone up from around $300 000 to
more than $1,5 million per hectare, in a
development that is set to further
worsen new farmers' ballooning costs of
production The cost hike came into
effect last month.
It was established
last week that most commercial farmers in the high
rainfall regions of
Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, East and West provinces
have already
finished planting and are offering tillage services to new
farmers.
The
farmers are not charging the services at the District Development Fund
(DDF)
rates of $350 000 per ha although farmers deriving services from DDF
are
expected to provide their own fuel.
A senior official with the Zimbabwe
Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU)
yesterday confirmed that large-scale
commercial farmers with tractors had
finished tilling their land and were
now providing tillage services to
interested new farmers.
"Even if there
were stipulated rates, we would not be able to monitor our
members to ensure
compliance, because the tractors belong to individual
farmers who cannot be
forced to stick to any stipulated charges especially
at this point in time
when fuel is being
procured on the black market," the senior official
said.
"Our members come up with charges that they feel ensures that they
break
even."
It is feared that the high cost of tillage services will
have a negative
impact on food prices after harvest. This is especially so
if government
accepts farmers' demands for high commodity prices based on
fuel sourced
from the black market and services rendered under market driven
forces."
Government has indicated that it will be offering post-harvest
producer
prices after determining input costs.
The chairman of the Grains
and Cereal Producers Association (GCPA) Denford
Chimbwanda felt that
whatever producer prices government came up with were
unlikely to match
costs incurred by all farmers in the production process.
"There is no unison
in the manner in which most farmers are procuring inputs
including tillage
services," said Chimbwanda.
One farmer pays a certain amount for a certain
input commodity while another
pays a different price for the same
commodity."
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Oswelled Ureke
issue date :2005-Dec-08
A WEARY mother
trudges along the busy streets of the city.
But she is not part of the
business. She ceased to be months ago. Now she is
just part of the system -
flowing with the numbers.
Her enterprise lies elsewhere, not inside the
towering buildings of the
industrialised city. She is a mere vendor.
But
besides that she is something else. She is also a single mother of three
emaciated children who look up to her for food, shelter and clothing
daily.
Her youngest child is in Grade Four. Since she divorced the girl's
father
when the little girl had just begun her first grade, the poor lady
has been
fending for her daughter single-handedly through vending.
This
is the plight and sad script of many a local vendor. Vendors suddenly
find
their vocation outlawed and have nothing else to do for survival. They
get
arrested and yet come back to their inconspicuous mini-marts dotted in
and
around the city.
"It's unlawful for these people to trade on the streets. We
arrest them
today, but tomorrow you find them on the same spot again," says
Harare
Province police spokesperson Inspector Loveless Rupere. "We will keep
on
arresting them because it is our duty to do so in accordance with the
law."
City spokesperson Leslie Gwindi has acknowledged the determination by
vendors to return to the streets and make ends meet, but he said the
municipality had already embarked on measures to ensure that the situation
does not persist.
"We are in a major drive to revamp municipal police
with the view of
sustaining pressure on the vendors," Gwindi said. "We
should see a sustained
enforcement of the city's by-laws."
Once caught,
vendors pay a $25 000 fine, a figure Gwindi said
did not act
as a deterrent hence the need to revise it upwards.
Despite being outlawed
from Harare's streets, vendors take advantage of the
night to parade and
sell their wares on the periphery of the city's central
business district
(CBD). Vending is very rampant around Harare Street, Mbuya
Nehanda Street,
Park Lane, Samora Machel Avenue, Fourth Street, and the
Avenues area as well
as in high-density suburbs.
To curb the problem, Harare City Council has
enunciated by-laws guiding
vending in the city. This would see the CBD
expanding to some areas outside
the city centre.
City authorities would
also issue flea market licences subject to renewal
after a year on condition
the operators don't violate vending rules and
regulations.
The
guidelines, would among other things, also empower the director of
health
services to determine the number of stalls that can be accommodated
in any
flea market area and the type of goods to be sold.
Licensed vendors would
also be required to ensure adequate provision of
refuse receptacles. The
conditions would seem as knotty as council's wheel
clamping exercise.
In
response, desperate vendors are now resorting to hide and seek strategies
with the police. These cat and mouse ploys translate into the vendors
temporarily removing their merchandise upon noticing police details. The
defiant lot would then reappear as soon as the police have left.
"There
is nothing we can do. If the police get us, it's tough luck, but
business
has to go on. We have no other option," says a vendor who has set
up shop at
the corner of Kaguvi Street and Samora Machel Avenue.
Among the items sold
are sweets, cigarettes, green vegetables, maize meal,
cooking oil, firewood,
maize, tomatoes, a range of other foodstuffs and an
assortment of toiletries
and household goods.
In areas such as Mabelreign where flea markets
officially operate on
Saturdays, clothing is the major
merchandise.
Despite attempts aimed at stopping their ventures, vendors are
adamant they
will never stop trading, as this is their major source of
income.
They feel that with the pressing economic hardships that have seen
unemployment hovering above 70 percent the unemployed have no choice but to
sell the goods.
"I was sent to school using money obtained from vending
on the streets. It
is a clean act. I do not see why it should be outlawed.
If I cannot sell
something and get some profit, what am I going to survive
on? Shall I go and
steal," queried a Fourth Street hawker who also
masquerades as a newspaper
seller.
Police also realise the challenge they
are facing in trying to stop the
illegal trade. Recently, a top police
officer arrested some unscrupulous
fuel dealers during a business tour while
accompanying Harare Metropolitan
Governor David Karimanzira.
"The $25 000
fine is not deterrent at all. After arresting a vendor, you
find that he or
she returns to the same place because the fine does not
scare them. He can
easily make $25 000 by selling a single apple," Rupere
said.
"We urge
authorities to review upwards this fine if we are to stop the
problem of
vending once and for all."
But is vending a universally accepted
problem?
While vendors may seem a nuisance, to some they are a
convenience.
All over the world, vendors can be found at most street corners,
but are
only arrested when it is convenient for the affected
authorities.
Besides the Mbare market, there is little alternative for a
person who
resides in the city centre or in a low-density suburb like
Borrowdale for
instance, if they do not have a well-maintained garden at
home.
"My wife is pregnant and she needs fruits. I cannot afford those fruits
they
sell in the supermarkets and in any case I cannot stand in their long
queues, so I just pick the fruits here on my way home," explains a man while
buying oranges from a Fourth Street vendor.
While there have been
stringent measures taken to stop vending in Harare,
the same has not applied
for smaller cities and towns like Kwekwe, Kadoma
and Chegutu.