| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
HARARE, Feb 12 (IPS) - Zimbabwe's
rural health delivery system, once
regarded as one of the best in Africa, is
now in a state of distress.
”Diseases are now part of life for most
people in rural areas. Families have
resorted to traditional herbalists,
known as 'vana tsika mutanda',”
researcher Bright Mombeshora told IPS after a
tour of Kasiyo in northern
Zimbabwe.
Mombeshora, who is also a social
commentator, said: ”The nurses we found in
one clinic didn't seem to be
working at all. If all the health centres in
the country's rural areas are
like that, then we have a time bomb on our
hands.
”We found the nurses
enjoying the sunshine. We asked them, without meaning
any offence, if they
were still on strike. They said they had no work to do.
And it looked like
they meant it,” he said.
Mombeshora said the biggest job he saw the
nurses doing was distribution of
condoms to mostly young clients.
Poor
drug supplies, staff shortages and transport problems have rendered
the
clinic a sham, he said. The workers said most rural clinics were in the
same
state.
Mombeshora said he spoke to ”a lot of people who claimed
they no longer go
to clinics, but have resorted to the services of
traditional healers. At one
time, I saw a family paying a traditional healer
two goats and another
giving away five cattle.”
Lower Guruve district,
in which Kasiyo is situated, is infested with malaria
and malnutrition, two
of the most deadly diseases that are claiming millions
of young lives in
Africa.
Mombeshora said aid agencies are now feeding children under the
age of five
in a scheme aimed to fight malnutrition. They also cater for
adults who have
not been spared by hunger.
The U.N. World Food
Programme (WFP) says more Zimbabweans now require food
aid than the 5.5
million people - 50 percent of the population - initially
forecast by a U.N.
study last year. Aid agencies have appealed for 197
million
dollars.
Mombeshora said heavy rains have created an atmosphere conducive
for
mosquito breeding. He said the aid agencies, apart from the feeding
schemes
they were carrying out, also distributed drugs to prevent and treat
malaria.
Health officials say malaria, which is transmitted by the female
mosquito
known as the anopheles, is an added strain on the health delivery
systems in
rural Zimbabwe, where HIV/AIDS is also on the
increase.
Around 2,500 people die of AIDS-related diseases in Zimbabwe
every week,
according to official statistics.
In Shurugwi district,
central Zimbabwe, the health delivery problem seems to
be confined to the
urban area.
Christopher Mapfuti, a municipal police officer in Shurugwi,
home to former
Prime Minister Ian Smith, said: ”All the places and houses
that used to be
the best in the town have been turned into gold mining sites.
You won't like
it if you had been to Shurugwi before.”
Mapfuti said
mounds of ore are found at most of the homes in the town. The
water, used to
extract the yellow metal, comes from the town supply. Then
the waste from the
final work is pumped into the main drainage and sewer
systems, which are now
continuously blocked, he said.
Mapfuti said the Town Council and the
ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) officials
spend most of their time
quarrelling among themselves. While the Town Council
would want to get rid
of illegal gold panning, party stalwarts want to
maintain support and would
not like to hear of a stoppage to the panning
activities.
”The two sides are working against each other, although the
council is made
up of ZANU-PF councillors, who should be working together
with the party,”
Mapfuti explained.
He warns that an outbreak of
disease looms in the town. The sewerage water,
he said, flows freely in front
of houses where children play and through the
streets, which themselves are
on the verge of collapsing due to neglect.
Peter Mataruse, a former Mayor
of Chinhoyi, a town close to the Zambia
border, said the economic problems,
caused mainly by Zimbabwe's
controversial land-reform programme and
sanctions, have paralysed the
country's health delivery system.
”The
structures that were built during the good times are collapsing.
Medicine
supplies were better before Zimbabwe fell out with the Western
powers and the
donor community,” he said.
The United States and the European Union (EU)
slammed sanctions on Zimbabwe
for allegedly refusing to uphold the rule of
law. Zimbabwe began descending
into chaos in 2000 after the government of
President Robert Mugabe ordered
the seizure of lands from 4,500 white
commercial farmers for resettling
landless black peasants. Critics say the
land-reform programme has destroyed
Zimbabwe agriculture, which was the
backbone of the economy.
Mataruse, who now runs a private clinic, said
the World Health Organisation
(WHO) and other non-governmental organisations
were helping in malaria
control and feeding schemes in his area.
He
said it would not be possible for Zimbabwe to stand on its own if
the
international community was to pullout from supporting the country's
health
system.
The biggest problem facing the rural health system is
the shortage of
doctors and nurses, who mostly prefer to work in towns where
facilities are
better.
Chivhu General Hospital in Mashonaland East
Province, for example, has no
doctor. Cuban doctors, who had been deployed to
the town, went home on
leave. And the lone Zimbabwean doctor in charge of the
health facility
joined the private sector as most of them are now doing. Some
have gone to
Britain, South Africa, Australia, Canada and New
Zealand.
The staff at Chivhu hospital referred all questions to the
Provincial
Medical Director, who was also not available, for comment when IPS
called.
Residents interviewed by IPS said the hospital mortuary, which
caters for 36
clinics and hospitals, was built to hold eight bodies at one
time. It now
holds as many as 32 corpses. AIDS, cholera and malaria are
reported to be
the main cause of death.
Immediately after independence
from Britain in 1980 Zimbabwe launched a
programme to build clinics and
hospitals throughout the country. These
structures are now either falling
apart due to lack of maintenance or are
without beds and equipment as a
result of poor and erratic funding.
Recently doctors went on strike
demanding an 8,000 percent pay rise. They
said the increment was necessary in
a country which is reeling under a
galloping inflation, now estimated at 600
percent.
Statement
Women unite against Rape
CRISIS COALITION supports
Women's Coalition in condemning in the deepest
possible terms the rape of
women and children. The gang rape of a
38-year-old woman in the city centre
by five "street men" brought emotions
to a boiling point as women came
together to say "Enough is Enough: No to
Rape".
The incident sent
shockwaves within the organisation as it brings other
issues to the fore. The
gender insensitivity of the police was raised as the
force found enough
manpower to round up unescorted women at night but they
now they are can't
contain the problem of street men.
The Executive Mayor of Harare, Ms
Sekesai Makwavarara got the ball rolling
by speaking out against rape as it
scars the victim for life. She narrated
how a girl was raped by her own
brothers. This shocking incident highlights
the fact there is nothing called
a safe place for a woman, they are
vulnerable even in their own homes. Rape
cases are also being reported at
churches, which used to be safe havens for
women.
Crisis echoes the sentiments put forward by Janah Ncube, the
Women's
Coalition director who demanded the end to violence against women
and
children because they make the backbone of society. She
challenged
legislators to push through the Sexual Offences Bill which has
been on the
Parliamentary shelves for four years. Representatives of
different
organisations did not mince their words as they drove home the
message that
there is no place for rapists in Zimbabwe.
Songs and
placards manifested the determination of the women to rid society
and the
streets of rapists. They were numerous calls to castrate rapists and
deny
them bail should they be caught. For Mr Matutu of Musasa Project anyone
who
stooped so low as to rape is mentally deranged and as such he must be
removed
from society. But they message that carried the day for the women
was the
call to castrate the rapists.
Recommendations
¨The legal framework
must be tightened so that rapists do not get away with
light penalties and
they must not be granted bail under any circumstances.
¨The powers must
clamp down on the street family camps that have spouted all
the country's
CBDs because so much more sexual violence is being perpetrated
against those
women and children who stay on the streets. About 124 street
girls, some as
young as 11, are being treated for STIs and some are
even
mothers.
¨Crisis also urges the societies that deal with the
welfare of children to
embark on an aggressive and sustained grassroots
campaign to empower those
who might need information on how to deal with rape
within families.
¨Society has to change attitudes towards rape victims as
stigmatisation will
result in the victims going underground and the
perpetrators will go
unpunished.
¨Men must be a forefront of
anti-violence campaigns.
Women have a right to free movement and the
right to be protected against
sexual violence !!
Issued 11
February 2004
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is a grouping of more than 350
civil society
organisations fighting for a democratic Zimbabwe.
WE wish to register our disappointment at the new Cabinet reshuffle by President Robert Mugabe. We are perturbed that the new cabinet reshuffle does not show any commitment on the part of government to resolve the ever-deepening economic and political crisis in the country.
Apart from the recycling of Ministers, especially in such crucial ministries like Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Health and Higher Education, there is total disregard of peoples’ concerns which were captured by the Constitutional Commission appointed by President Mugabe in 1998.Zimbabweans have said they do not want a huge cabinet as this puts a strain on the national coffers.
When they were giving
evidence to the Constitutional Commission, the people said there is no need for
deputy Ministers but to our utter disgust the deputy ministers have been brought
in again and furthermore Governors for
We as Crisis Coalition
maintain that
Although the appointment of the Cabinet is the President’s prerogative, we are of the view that appointments to public office must be reflective of the people’s aspirations. Instead of expediting the process of the appointment of an Independent Anti-Corruption Commission, the President appoints a Minister who is answerable to him. We need an independent anti-corruption watchdog that is not answerable to the President but to Parliament.
Issued on the 11th of February 04
|
Crisis in
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New evidence in treason trial
In the High Court yesterday, Judge Paddington Garwe admitted
into evidence
key documents from a legal action instituted by the MDC against
Ari Ben
Menashe currently underway in Canada. The documents completely
contradict
the evidence given earlier in the trial by Ben Menashe, the
Canadian
businessman who claims he was contracted by Tsvangirai to
assassinate Robert
Mugabe. When the trial last adjourned on 28 January,
defence advocate George
Bizos submitted these documents to the court, asking
for them to be admitted
as part of Tsvangirai's defence. State lawyers
objected, and Judge Garwe
said he would issue a ruling on the documents when
the trial resumed
yesterday. The documents absolutely shatter the already
shaky evidence given
by Ben Menashe.
The evidence Ben Menashe gave
to the court when he appeared in person last
year was that the assassination
of Mugabe was discussed during EACH of three
meetings at which both he and
Tsvangirai were present, on their own and with
others. The meetings took
place in London on 22 October and 3 November 2001,
and in Montreal on 4
December of that year. When Tsvangirai was indicted,
the State said there
were audio tapes of the first two London meetings, and
a video tape of the
third Montreal meeting - all of which would show that an
assassination plot
was discussed in ALL the meetings. The audio tapes of the
London meetings
were never produced in court - the prosecutors said they
were inaudible. With
difficulty, defence lawyers eventually forced the
Attorney General to produce
the transcripts of the audio tapes, which were
full of gaps, and which showed
no evidence of any assassination plot being
discussed. Indeed the transcripts
were entirely consistent with what
Tsvangirai and his colleagues had said all
along, namely that the meetings
were to discuss a political consultancy
agreement, not an assassination
plot. Ben Menashe was forced to claim that
the discussions regarding the
"plot" were not contained in the transcripts
and must have taken place
during the "gaps" in the transcript.
The
video tape of the third meeting was grainy, of poor quality, and
itself
barely audible in places. It also showed signs of being doctored. At
that
meeting, Ben Menashe repeatedly used the word "elimination" and spoke of
the
"agreement" that he alleged had been reached in the previous two
meetings.
In evidence he alleged that the "agreement" reached in the first
two
meetings in London was to assassinate Mugabe, because nowhere in the
video
tape of the Montreal meeting is there any discussion regarding
an
assassination plot. In other words the third meeting in Montreal does
not
stand alone evidentially, and a conviction for treason is entirely
dependent
on the State being able to prove that both the first two meetings
had a
sinister purpose. Accordingly, Ben Menashe's verbal assertion that the
first
two meetings had a sinister purpose is absolutely crucial if the State
is to
prove Tsvangirai guilty of treason.
In April 2003 the MDC
began legal proceedings in the Superior Court in
Montreal, where Ben
Menashe's company Dickens and Madson is based, to
recover US$97 600 it paid
to Dickens and Madson for consultancy services
which were never provided. In
their reply to the MDC's court documents filed
in October 2003 (called a
"contestation"), Dickens and Madson and Ben
Menashe say that "very shortly
after Plaintiff (the MDC) contacted Defendant
(Ben Menashe and Dickens and
Madson) and entered into the contract, it
became apparent...that the purpose
of the meeting was to seek the overthrow
by violence of the Government of
Zimbabwe". The contract, accepted by Ben
Menashe in his "contestation"
document as being legitimate, was signed on 23
October 2001, AFTER the first
meeting in London. Therefore, by Ben Menashe's
own admission in his legal
submission to the Montreal court, assassination
was not discussed at the
first meeting - in complete contradiction of his
evidence given in the
criminal trial that the assassination plot was
discussed at the first
meeting.
The first tranche of payments to Dickens and Madson was paid
on 1 November
2001. A second tranche was accepted by Ben Menashe's company on
8 November,
shortly AFTER the second London meeting. In the High Court in
Harare, Ben
Menashe claimed that the contract was merely "a cover" for the
assassination
plot. Yet in the document submitted to the Canadian court, Ben
Menashe
contests the MDC's right to recover the money on the basis that the
contract
was a legal agreement. And he accepted a second payment of money
AFTER the
second London meeting, at which, he claimed in Harare, the
assassination of
Mugabe was discussed. The inference contained in Ben
Menashe's
"contestation" document is that when the contract was entered into
it had an
innocent purpose and that likewise when he received the money,
pursuant to
the contract, he was entitled to hold on to the money because it
was a
lawful contract. The final inference contained in his "contestation" is
the
allegation that because it was the MDC that was in breach of the
innocent
contract (not him), that is to do political consultancy work, he is,
as a
result, not obliged to return the money. Furthermore, in Ben
Menashe's
"contestation" document filed in Montreal, he again contradicts the
evidence
he gave in the Zimbabwean criminal court. He claims that the second
meeting
in London on the 3 November 2001 was videotaped, and that the tape
was
"produced as evidence" in the criminal trial, something that never
happened.
The only video tape ever produced was of the third meeting in
Montreal.
The nub of the matter is that Ben Menashe's evidence in the
treason trial
was that the "contractual" discussions were sinister from the
very first
meeting in London. In his determination to hold on to the money
paid to him
by the MDC, he has now driven a horse and carriage through his
own evidence
in the treason trial, by stating in the Canadian courts that the
first two
meetings were entirely innocent and that he only "discovered" the
MDC's
nefarious intentions later. Given that the third meeting does not in
itself
provide evidence of the "plot", the State case is now in tatters, not
that
there was any case in the first place. An honourable, professional
Attorney
General would now admit that this is now "caedit questio" (the end
of the
trial) and withdraw proceedings against Tsvangirai. However given the
fact
that this trial has everything to do with politics and nothing much to
do
with law or justice, a withdrawal of charges is
unlikely.
Chronology
22 October 2001: first meeting in
London.
23 October 2001: contract signed
1 November 2001: $50 000 paid to
Dickens & Madson
3 November 2001: second meeting in London
8 November
2001: $22 196 paid to Dickens & Madson
4 December 2001: third meeting in
Montreal
AFP
Zimbabwe inflation reaches new high
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's official rate of inflation, which
dropped 20.8
points in December, came in at a new high of 622.8 percent in
January
compared with the year earlier, according to government
statistics.
The Central Statistical Office (CSO)
figures showed that the rate of
inflation jumped 24.1 points from 598.7
percent in December. In November
inflation had stood at 619.5
percent.
The rate remains one of the highest in the world,
translating to almost
three times the January 2003 rate of 208.1
percent.
Former Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa in November
predicted the southern
African country's inflation rate would hit 700 percent
in the first three
months of this year before climbing
down.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono in December said measures
would be put in
place to bring down inflation to below 200 percent by end of
this year.
Analysts said the jump in January was expected as the
slight drop
experienced in December was artificial as "the underlying
inflationary
pressures have not diminished yet."
One analyst said
the drop in December was "a flash on the pan" as the month
was a slow one
with factories shutting down for holidays and retailers
trying to get rid of
their stocks.
"The increase in year-on-year inflation was largely
accounted for by the
increases in the average prices of beverages, bread,
cereals, meat, fruits
and vegetables," said the CSO.
Zimbabwe's
average annual inflation has been climbing upwards since 2000
when it stood
at 55.9 percent, rising to 71 percent a year later. It reached
133.2 in 2002
before it shot to 365 percent last year.
The country has in recent
years been plagued by political and social
instability as well as severe food
shortages, caused partly by drought as
well as a controversial land
redistribution programme dispossessing white
farmers.
Zimbabwean Crisis Affects Mozambican Railways
Agencia de
Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
February 11, 2004
Posted to the web
February 12, 2004
Maputo
The central branch of Mozambique's
publicly owned ports and railway company
(CFM-Centro) has failed to attain
its targets in terms of cash collected,
and it blames the situation largely
on the economic crisis in neighbouring
Zimbabwe, its main client, reports
Wednesday's issue of the Beira daily
"Diario de Mocambique".
Of the
targeted 445.7 billion meticais (about 18.6 million US dollars), the
company
collected last year only 426.4 billion meticais, resulting from the
handling
of various types of cargo along the Beira Corridor.
The company's
executive director, Joaquim Verissimo, says there are a number
of factors to
explain this shortfall of 19.2 billion meticais, about 4.3 per
cent of the
expected sum.
But the main factor, he stressed, was the economic crisis
in Zimbabwe, which
uses the Beira port and rail system for much of its
imports and exports.
The economic chaos in Zimbabwe means that the
country's trade has shrunk,
and that it is unable to pay on time for its
reduced use of the Mozambican
facilities.
Currently, according to
Verissimo, Zimbabwe owes CFM-Centro 336,000 US
dollars, that it is not paying
"for lack of hard currency". The debt must be
paid in hard currency - CFM
stopped accepting the increasingly worthless
Zimbabwean currency two years
ago.
Furthermore, CFM's counterpart, the National Railways of Zimbabwe
(NRZ) "is
in no condition to meet the established indicators in terms of
'transit
time', the length of time that CFM wagons stay on the other side of
the
border, and also it fails to make available in time the necessary
rolling
stock", said Verissimo.
CFM-Centro's response to lower than
expected income is to reduce production
costs. This was partly managed last
year, when 216 billion meticais were
spent, instead of the expected 232.4
billion, a reduction of about seven per
cent.
These costs concern the
maintenance of equipment, including wagons,
locomotives and other rolling
stock, and the repair and protection of
infrastructures. Verissimo said that
to render this area more profitable,
the company is striving to create stocks
of spare parts "to allow
maintenance operations to become regular and
continuous", and also should
have a procurement system, whereby "whenever
there is need of spare parts we
may be able to locate the supplier in time to
solve specific problems, and
always have equipment available".
The
company has also decided to get rid of its own body of security guards,
since
Verissimo believed that it is CFM's vocation to manage a security
force.
Instead, this job has been given to a private company, and CFM will
no longer
have to manage and pay for its own security guards. Any losses
through
negligence will be charged to the private company, rather than paid
for by
CFM.
Speaking of the dramatic scaling down of the workforce, Verissimo
said that
the process has been almost completed. Out of a total of 6,014
workers the
company once had, CFM-Centro is now left with only
1,148.
This has permitted a substantial increase in the wages of those
who remain
and, through a social reinsertion programme, the retrenched
workers have
received training in various areas, and many have started their
own small
businesses. The minimum wage at CFM has now risen to 2,151,000
meticais
(about 88 US dollars) - more than double the statutory minimum of
994,611
meticais a month.
Transparency International
Zimbabwean analyst terms "reshuffling dirt"
recent changes in Mugabe's
cabinet [Interview with TI's John Makumbe]
BBC
Monitoring Service from Short Wave Radio Africa 10 Feb 2004
Robert Mugabe
announced a mini reshuffle of the cabinet yesterday. Only one
cabinet
minister has lost his post while Mugabe has reinforced his cabinet
with
former senior soldiers and CIO [Central Intelligence
Organization]
operatives. Former parliament Speaker Didymus Mutasa is now
minister of
special affairs in the president's office in charge of the
anti-corruption
and anti-monopolies programme. Mugabe sacked Edward
Chindori-Chininga, the
mines minister, and replaced Herbert Murerwa, the
finance minister, with
Chris Kuruneri.
Murerwa returns to his former
post as Minister of Higher and Tertiary
Education. Mugabe retained his
ministerial team - which he called the war
cabinet - largely intact. Jonathan
Moyo is still information minister,
Patrick Chinamasa the justice minister
and Joseph Made, the agriculture
minister. John Nkomo retains special affairs
minister in charge of lands,
land reform and resettlement.
New
governors have been appointed for Harare and Bulawayo. Two new ministers
of
state have been appointed. These are Webster Shamu, who was
appointed
minister of state for policy implementation and Josiah Tungamirai,
who is
the minister of state for indigenization and empowerment. Brig
(retd)
Ambrose Mutinhiri takes over from Elliot Manyika as minister of
youth
development and Manyika becomes minister without portfolio. I spoke
with
political analyst [Dr] John Makumbe about this cabinet
reshuffle.
[Makumbe] Well, it's really reshuffling dirt. It's, you know,
when you have
rubbish in the bin and it's smelling terribly, you just take a
piece of wood
and you reshuffle it around, it doesn't make any difference. It
still smells
terribly.
[SW Radio announcer Violet Gonda] [Laughing]
So, were you surprised with any
of the changes though?
[Makumbe] Oh,
yes, I was surprised that, you know, he appoints, you know,
Didymus Mutasa, a
well-worn out and expired, you know, former minister,
former Speaker of
parliament and a man who terrorizes people in his own
constituency. He
appoints him to the cabinet as minister of anti-corruption
and monopolies,
anti-monopolies programmes. You know, it is really a joke
because there are
very few people who are, you know, less transparent than
Didymus
Mutasa.
[Gonda] What about Joseph Made? He has lost the lands portfolio
and that's
been given to John Nkomo. Is this a demotion or what? What is
really
happening there? What's your take on this one?
[Makumbe] No,
it's not a demotion. He still has the agriculture and he now
also has the
resettlement. Now the resettlement is now in both John Nkomo's
third
portfolio [laughing] and in Made's portfolio, which shows you the kind
of
brain that was doing the designing of the cabinet, because the, you
know,
Lands is taken from agriculture, but resettlement is now in both
agriculture
as well as in lands. It's a bit of a distortion, it's a bit of,
you know,
senility.
[Gonda] And what about Elliot Manyika? He becomes
minister without
portfolio. Does this mean that he wasn't really doing well
with the militia
because that was - the militia were under his
ministry?
[Makumbe] Well, I think he has not really been demoted as such.
He is the -
the phrase minister without portfolio is simply because Mugabe
doesn't want
to openly call him minister of the commissariat. He is going to
even
concentrate more on the militia and on ensuring that more hooligans
and
hoodlums are trained to beat up people as we get to the 2005 election.
But
of course Mugabe couldn't have called him minister of the
commissariat
because that would have been obvious.
[Gonda] And is it
worrying that now that ministry is going to be led by a
retired Brigadier
Mutinhiri?
[Makumbe] It is very worrying because this is, again, part and
parcel of the
militarization of the government, which Mugabe has been, you
know, pursuing
for some time with the appointment of military personnel into
Noczim
[National Oil Company of Zimbabwe], into the GMB [Grain Marketing
Board],
into the governorship for Manicaland, and now it is also gone to
the
ministry of employment creation, youth, and it is obvious that this is
going
to be a double-effort with, you know, that minister and that ministry
with
Manyika's ministry working very hard on the commissariat, and on
ensuring
that the Green Bombers [ZANU-PF militia] do their job, the war
veterans do
their job and even the military are brought in to, you know,
subdue the
people.
[Gonda] And I understand that Harare and Bulawayo
now have governors. Are
these really necessary since there are mayors in
these areas?
[Makumbe] These are superfluous positions because they have
nothing to do,
because there are executive mayors in both Bulawayo and
Harare, and even as
we talk I think the two guys appointed wonder where their
offices will be.
They can't be at the town houses, they can't be at the civic
centres. They
probably will be in the Ministry of Home Affairs or local
government. It is
really superfluous. It is really jobs for the boys, that's
all it is.
[Gonda] And the two new ministries, one that's going to be led
by Webster
Shamu and the other by Josiah Tungamirai, I think Tungamirai is
going to be
the Minister of State for Indigenization and Empowerment, and
Webster Shamu
is going to be the Minister of State for Policy Implementation.
Are these
also necessary?
[Makumbe] These are totally unnecessary.
It's like saying all the other
portfolio ministries are not really concerned
about policy implementation.
How are they running? What do they do if it is
not policy implementation?
And then the indigenization and empowerment for
Tungamirai in what sense?
All ministries, all government departments should
be empowering everybody,
should be empowering all Zimbabweans, whether
indigenous or not. These are
really, again, jobs for the boys. Tungamirai is,
of course, being rewarded
for behaving himself and allowing, you know, [late
Vice-President] Muzenda
to hold on to the Gutu North Constituency and then
winning this election. So
he's being rewarded duly.
Webster Shamu is
obviously a well-known hooligan of the party. He's one of
those ZANU-PF
hoodlums who will beat up a person and then say whom did we
beat up, you
know. And he is being brought in preparation for the
2005
[election].
[Gonda] And Chris Kuruneri takes over, you know, has
taken the finance
ministry from Herbert Murerwa. Can he handle that
job?
[Makumbe] I don't really think so, but I think he is probably better
that
Herbert Murerwa, who really knew precious little about the ministry
of
finance. Kuruneri at least knows a few things, at least he knows what
GNP
means. But he is as much immersed in the, you know, scandals that are
going
on to do with businesses and shady deals as any of the lot in
ZANU-PF.
[Gonda] And what about Chinori-Chinenga, who has lost his job?
He is the
only minister that has lost his job. What is your take on
this?
[Makumbe] I think he was a clear non-performer. He did nothing
while he was
in charge of mining. People were smuggling gold and taking it,
you know,
out. They were smuggling several mineral ores - unprocessed and,
you know,
dragging them out of the country. He was a clear non-performer and
he
deserved what came to him.
[Presenter] Political analyst John
Makumbe.
Source: SW Radio Africa
Kuwait Times
Renewed EU sanctions may harden
Mugabe
The renewal by the European Union of sanctions
against Zimbabwe will
stiffen the intransigence of President Robert Mugabe's
government and worsen
the economic crisis in the southern African country,
analysts and
politicians in Harare have said. The EU is due next week to
begin debating
whether to maintain the sanctions, which include a travel ban
on Mugabe and
71 of his top associates, imposed in February 2002, on grounds
of human
rights abuses and electoral fraud. Western diplomats in the
Zimbabwean
capital say the sanctions are likely to be renewed and even
widened to
include more of Mugabe's aides. But renewal might not achieve the
desired
results, and if anything could harden the government's stance,
according to
political scientist Joseph Kurebwa. Kurebwa said sanctions
usually had the
effect of achieving a "siege psychosis. "Instead of forcing
the target
regime to democratise, sanctions tend to have the opposite effect,
of
hardening the regime," he said. The opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC), which has argued that Mugabe stole the March 2002
presidential
poll from its leader Morgan Tsvangirai, wants the sanctions
maintained. MDC
vice president Gibson Sibanda said: "They (sanctions) have
had an impact,
they (leaders) are squealing", adding that those targeted
could no longer
"fly out of the country to buy luxury goods which are no
longer available to
everyone else". Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union - Patriotic
Front (Zanu-PF) has blamed the sanctions for the country's
economic crisis:
inflation exceeds 600 percent, unemployment is above 70
percent and about 80
percent of the population lives in poverty. But the
MDC's Sibanda riposted:
"There is nothing that the sanctions have done to the
economy. The economy
had already melted down. The sanctions are aimed at
individuals." Kumbirai
Kangai, a member of Zanu-PF's decision-making
politburo, said
sanctions-which have also been imposed by Australia, New
Zealand, Norway,
Switzerland, and the United States -- "have done damage to
the country", but
not the leaders they were intended to punish. "In fact the
sanctions hurt
most the average person. They are meant to hurt leaders, but
far from it.
The leaders still... move without much inconvenience," he said.
The
Commonwealth, which groups mainly former British colonies,
suspended
Zimbabwe from its governing councils after the 2002 elections, and
renewed
the suspension last December at a summit meeting in Nigeria,
prompting
Mugabe to pull Zimbabwe out of the grouping. Political analyst
Kurebwa said
some of the funding that could have come through bilateral deals
with some
European countries has been suspended "because we are now an
international
outcast." The EU has restricted assistance to Zimbabwe to
humanitarian aid
since 2002 -- about 52 million euros over the past six
months alone to
combat the effects of famine. Rights activist Brian
Raftopuolous said,
"Symbolically (sanctions) will help to confirm the
isolation of the regime,"
adding: "I think the situation has not improved
sufficiently for them to
remove the sanctions. "There has been no substantive
improvement in
politics, the press. The judiciary has shown that its agenda
is the agenda
of the ruling party." Zanu-PF's Kangai, meanwhile, is convinced
that
"nothing has happened which would justify the extension of the
sanctions.
"The situation in the country has improved significantly... there
is no
political violence," said Kangai. "There is no... subversion of
the
judiciary. We take the position that the sanctions should be removed,"
he
said.
Libya in a Noose
New Vision (Kampala)
ANALYSIS
February
12, 2004
Posted to the web February 12, 2004
Abdul Rahim
Tajudeen
Kampala
On Tuesday Feb 10, Libya's foreign minister, Mohammed
Chalgam, met with
embattled Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Tory Blair in
Downing Street. It is
not usual for foreign ministers of small countries from
the third world and
even less so from Africa to be so received.
Even
some of our all powerful heads of state struggle hard to get a few
minutes of
photo opportunity in front of the Downing Street fireplace before
they are
huddled off to some Junior foreign office minister, or at best the
beggars
department otherwise known as the Department for International
Development
(DFID).
But Libya is not and has never been just another third world
country.
Since the Al Fatah revolution of 1969 which overthrew feudal
regime of the
pro-Western King Idris Sanusi and brought the young Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi
and his peers of Arab nationalists, Social revolutionaries
and
anti-imperialist regime into power, Libya has remained a thorn in the
flesh
for the West.
At the height of the Cold War, Libya was regarded
as being in the Communist
camp even though among the Soviet Union bloc
countries, Libya was not a
usual customer.
Unlike many hapless
recruits into this ideological war between the East and
West Europeans, Libya
dared to thread a 'third way' through its 'Green Book'
which sought to
resolve the contradiction between capitalism and socialism
and offer a new
basis for ordering society.
Essentially, Libya's ideological position
centered on Arab nationalism,
Islamist solidarity and anti-imperialist
internationalism internationally
and populist welfarism at home. Its oil
resources gave it choices that were
not readily available to many poorer
nations.
The populist domestic agenda gave the regime a secured popular
base that
ensured that it could do whatever it pleases
internationally.
The confrontation with the West became the defining
character of the regime.
The more the West ostracised the regime, the
more popular it became.
Gaddafi's ideological mentor, Gamal Abdul Nasser of
Egypt, used to say that
any day he woke up and did not hear, see or read the
Western media insulting
him, he wondered what he did wrong the previous
night.
As long as they were calling him names, he knew he was on the
right track!
That was the mould of Libya and Gaddafi in the 70s through to
the 90s. Libya
became a Mecca for all kinds of revolutionaries from across
the world
seeking support for their causes.
It gave Libya an
international presence that was disproportionately larger
than its size and
even that which its relatively considerable oil resources
entitled it
to.
The confrontation with the west has been the most consistent leit
motif of
the regime for more than three decades. That is why when the Soviet
bloc
collapsed, Libya still remained ideologically hostile to the West
and
America in particular.
Western opposition to Gaddafi rather than
being a hindrance, has become a
great ally to the Libyan regime in
maintaining power. Now that Tripoli is
playing chummy with the West, I am not
sure how it will play out in the end.
There are objective reasons for
this pragmatism. One, sanctions really
affected Libyan society in many ways
and they paid a very heavy price for
it. On balance, the billions of dollar
they agreed to pay for Lockerbie and
related acts of international terrorism
is nothing compared to what they
have lost due to sanctions and will lose if
it stays.
Two, the world has changed for the worse in terms of
progressive
internationalism in favour of reactionary forces and Libya is
responding
pragmatically.
Three, many governments and political groups
associated with Libya whether
in Africa, Latin America or the middle East are
engaged in real politics
with imperialism and Libya became tired of standing
on its own.
Four, sanctions forced Libya to begin to cut its coat
according to its size;
it is not able to support global revolution on its
own. Five, Libya started
counting its gains against imperialism instead of
losses. Many groups it
supported are either ruling regimes or significant
partners in government.
Take a sample of Libya associates: ANC/PAC; AZAPO
(South Africa), SWAPO
(Namibia), ZANU (PF) (Zimbabwe), NRA (Uganda), RPF
(Rwanda), PNDC (Ghana)
and others in Africa. In South America, you have FMLN
in El Salvador, Lula
in Brazil, Chavez in Venezuela, the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, etc.
And in the Middle East and Asia, you have
mainstream/factions of the PLO,
various Arab nationalist/Islamist groups. In
other parts of the world you
have all kinds of nationalist and
anti-capitalist groups such as the IRA,
Basque Nationalist, Black separatist
groups in America, etc.
The other side of this array of discontents and
global revolutionism are the
reactionary regimes supported by Libya such as
Idi Amin in Uganda, Charles
Taylor in Liberia and through him, Fodey Sankoh
in Sierra Leone. However
contradictory foreign policy positions are typical
of many countries, big or
small.
By the time the Pakistani Father of
he Islamic Bomb sang and he was promptly
'pardoned' by president Musharaf,
too many waters had passed under the
bridge.
Libya confessed when it
was clear that the secret would be outed anyway. It
will no longer have any
capacity to go ahead with its nuclear program. So
its full disclosure did not
amount to much. It would have been found out
anyway.
Disclosures on
WMD became the cheaper option politically and economically. I
can see what is
in it for both Washington and Tripoli for now, but in the
long run, I do not
know. But my guess is that Gaddafi has opened a window he
can no longer
close.