Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI,
KHOLWANI NYATHI &
GODFREY MUTIMBA
ZANU PF was thrown
deeper into disarray on Friday when several party
members, including a
cabinet minister and a politburo member, filed
nomination papers, in open
defiance of the party’s presidium.
Finance Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi and Senator Dzikamai Mavhaire
brought their papers to the
nomination court in Masvingo and successfully
registered as Zanu PF
candidates.
Their names had not featured on the list of candidates
approved by
President Robert Mugabe.
Mumbengegwi will compete
for the Zanu PF vote with former Masvingo
governor Josiah Hungwe in the
Chivi/Mwenezi seat for the Senate.
Mavhaire, of "Mugabe must go"
fame, will face a prominent
businesswoman, Maina Mandava for the Masvingo
Senate seat.
Party sources noted the defiance signified growing
rifts in the ruling
party, rocked to its foundations when a former member of
the party’s
politburo, Simba Makoni, decided to challenge Mugabe for the
country’s No.1
political job, the presidency.
The Zanu PF
secretary for legal affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday
could not say
whether or not the senior party members who defied the
presidium would be
fired from the party.
"I am not aware that this is what happened.
Ask (Elliot) Manyika (Zanu
PF’s secretary for the commissariat). He should
have the correct
information," Mnangagwa said.
Manyika could
not be reached for comment.
Mumbengegwi and Mavhaire were not the
only politicians in Masvingo to
defy party rules. In fact, as one Masvingo
politician put it yesterday, "it
turned out to be a defiance galore" in a
province which used to be solidly
behind Mugabe.
Another Zanu
PF provincial executive member, Eddison Zvobgo Jnr, also
defied the party by
standing against the party’s official candidate,
businessman Edmund
Mhere.
Henrietta Rushwaya, another member of the provincial
executive, also
defied the presidium, filing her nomination papers in Gutu
South as a Zanu
PF candidate. Rushwaya, the Zifa chief executive officer,
lost in the party
primary elections in neighbouring Gutu East, but will
square up against the
veteran MP for Gutu South, Shuvai Mahofa.
And the contest between the Zanu PF candidates is promising
"fireworks"—
literally.
Mahofa’s husband, Rt Major Micah Madombwe (46), is in
custody after he
and three other Mahofa supporters, were accused of torching
the home of a
Zanu PF activist who refused to campaign for the former deputy
minister.
In court yesterday, prosecutors said the accused set the
home ablaze
in a bid to punish Joseph Muvadi, who allegedly received $240
million from
Mahofa but proceeded to campaign for Rushwaya.
In
what was speculated to be a pointer to the presence of a heavy
Makoni
element in the March election, 22 independent candidates registered
to stand
in Masvingo province.
Key members of the Makoni camp Ibbo Mandaza
and Rt Major Kudzai Mbudzi
filed their nomination papers successfully in
Mazowe West and in Masvingo
West, respectively.
In Manicaland,
the camp successfully lined up candidates to challenge
party heavyweights.
Prosecutor Levison Chikafu, the provincial co-ordinator,
will duel with Zanu
PF heavyweight Didymus Mutasa in Headlands.
Patrick Chinamasa, the
Justice Minister, will compete with a local
medical doctor Edwin Kusano,
while Chris Mushohwe will be challenged by Ruth
Chikuturudze.
Minister Joseph Made will be challenged by George Kawonza, a
businessman in
the area.
In Bulawayo and Matabeleland North, a high number of
independent
candidates filed their nomination papers
successfully.
Mark Mbayiwa, who had won a High Court interdict
against Zanu PF from
fielding Industry and International Trade minister,
Obert Mpofu, will stand
as an independent in Umguza
constituency.
"I am still a Zanu PF member but I want to teach
Mpofu a lesson that
politicians are chosen by the people," Mbayiwa said
after filing his papers.
What promises to be the most interesting
battle in Bulawayo will be at
Makokoba constituency, where key officials of
the two MDC formations,
Thokozani Khupe and Welshman Ncube, and Zanu PF’s
candidate, Retired Colonel
Tshinga Dube will battle it out.
Khupe is the sitting MP, Dube the executive director of the Zimbabwe
Defence
Industries, and Ncube the secretary-general of the Arthur Mutambara
formation of the MDC.
In Nkulumane, Gibson Sibanda of the
Mutambara faction faces a stiff
challenge from Thamsanqa Mahlangu, the youth
secretary in the Tsvangirai
faction.
Eddie Cross, won a
reprieve from the High Court after the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC)
had barred him from registering, claiming he was
a British
citizen.
He will be a candidate for the MDC Tsvangirai faction for
the House of
Assembly for Bulawayo South.
There were surprises
in the Tsholotsho North constituency, where
Mgelezelwa Ncube, the candidate
for the Arthur Mutambara formation filed his
papers against former
Information and Publicity minister, Jonathan Moyo.
There had been
reports that the professor had struck a deal that would
stop the MDC
factions from challenging him. Mutambara himself faces trade
unionist Collin
Gwiyo (MDC Tsvangirai) and Zanu PF’s Patrick Nyaruwata in
Zengeza
West.
In Harare, the Makoni camp will have two prominent women
standing on
their ticket, Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa and the former government
minister,
Fay Chung.
At the time of going to the press, the ZEC
was yet to release the
results of the nomination courts which sat on Friday,
in what observers
concluded signified how ill-prepared the commission was to
run the
elections.
Zim Standard
BY SANDRA
MANDIZVIDZA
ONISMO Murewa (59), endured the agony and indignity
of waiting more
than one week to bury his brother-in-law.
As a
struggling builder, Murewa, of Glen View, Harare, could not raise
enough
money to pay the undertakers to "fast track" his relative’s burial.
If he had been a superstitious person, he would have been haunted by
the
tortured soul of the deceased, howling at him from the back of the
beyond:
"Why are you punishing me?"
Sober, if a little frustrated, Murewa
said last week: "My
brother-in-law died and I went to book a grave at
Granville cemetery. I was
told to return after five days because there were
no ready graves that time.
"I tried to negotiate with them, but
they refused, probably because I
had no money."
Murewa’s plight
is a microcosm of the many nightmares of Harare
residents being fleeced of
their hard-earned cash by corrupt gravediggers at
council
cemeteries.
At Granville cemetery, aka KuMbudzi on the outskirts of
Harare, you
either pay twice to bury your loved one or face the anguish and
even terror
of spending days with the corpse in the house.
Mortuary fees have shot up beyond the reach of many, leaving most
people
with no choice but to pay what West Africans used to call "dash" to
cut on
mortuary fees and other funeral expenses.
An ordinary grave for an
adult at Granville Cemetery costs $57
million, while that for an infant
costs $28 million — nothing to be sneezed
at these days.
If you
want the process to be "fast tracked", cough up an extra $50
million and
your wish will be granted instantly.
A number of gravediggers at
the cemetery off the Harare-Masvingo road
admitted to The Standard they were
making money from death, but pleaded for
understanding for their ghoulish
profits: it was the only way they could
survive under the deadly,
hyperinflationary environment.
"My sister," said one of them, "we
earn less than $100 million a
month. How can you expect us to survive? If
someone comes and offers you $50
million to bury a relative quickly, can you
refuse?"
He spoke only on the understanding that he would not be
quoted by
name.
Others who had neglected to make that request
of the media had
subsequently lost their jobs, he said.
The
Standard spoke to mourners at the sprawling cemetery: they
complained the
graves were being dug too shallow.
If they wanted them dug deeper,
they said, they were asked to pay
more, to the gravediggers.
"We were told that we had to wait for a while as ‘something’ was being
done
on the grave. We later paid to have the grave dug deeper," said
Precious
Kagoro of Dzivaresekwa.
But the gravediggers dismissed the
allegations, saying a normal grave
they were supposed to dig was "5.2 feet
and seven feet" for a double grave.
Unlike in the past when the
place was always crowded with people
burying their relatives, the cemetery
had few mourners when The Standard
visited it last week.
The
gravediggers blamed the city council, saying it did not want to
employ more
gravediggers.
"The problem here is manpower," said a gravedigger.
"We are less than
15 workers here and that is why we just dig a few graves
for a few burials
these days."
But the assistant curator at the
cemetery, Clement Kudzamaoko, claimed
there was no shortage of labour. He
blamed the situation on the high death
rate in the city.
"The
death rate these days is alarming and that is why we have
problems of graves
ready for burial," he said.
Kudzamaoko said officially they allowed
people to buy graves and wait
for 24 hours before burial.
But
some mourners said they had been told to wait up to 72 hours.
The
gravediggers said their problems were not being addressed and most
of them
were constantly sick because of the dust they inhaled during the
digging of
the graves.
"Just look at us!" said one. "We look like people born
of the same
mother. We are all thin. Our health is at risk as we are not
given milk to
cleanse our chests."
He claimed a number of
gravediggers had died of tuberculosis caused by
their exposure to too much
dust. Others were ailing.
Kudzamaoko confirmed the gravediggers
were not getting the much-needed
milk because of the tough economic
conditions in the country.
Corruption at cemeteries throughout the
country is reportedly rampant,
as is the theft of council property from the
graveyards.
Gravediggers, mostly in the large cities, have been
accused of going
back to the cemeteries at night after the burials, to steal
coffins for
resale.
At Granville cemetery, one mourner is said
to have been bitten by a
snake last week. According to the gravediggers this
is because there is no
one to cut the long grass.
In 2005,
several people were arrested and convicted of digging graves
at Mabvuku
cemetery and stealing garments from the corpse of a toddler.
Harare
City Council director of Housing and Community Service, Justin
Chivavaya,
declined to comment, saying he was new on the job.
Efforts to get a
comment from Harare Town Clerk, Tendai Mahachi, were
also fruitless as he
said he was busy attending meetings.
Meanwhile, although the poet
John Donne once wrote "Death be not
proud", the gravediggers would not join
him in that plea, appealing instead
to Death to help them make a little
money on the side, in a country where
extra income can be made from
anything, including . . . Death.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) last week barred,
with
immediate effect, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) from
conducting voter education, The Standard confirmed yesterday.
It is feared that because of the complicated electoral process, the
ZEC
directive is likely to result in the highest number of spoilt ballot
papers
since 1980.
Voters will be required to vote for several candidates
at once in the
elections for president, parliament (House of Assembly and
Senate) and local
authorities.
ZESN responded with shock to the
directive. The national director,
Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, said they would
cease immediately their voter
education campaign, but would now focus on
civic education, as this did not
require ZEC approval.
Chipfunde-Vava said ZESN had last Monday submitted an application to
the ZEC
seeking authority to conduct voter education campaigns.
The ZEC has
been unable to conduct a nation-wide electoral education
campaign,
especially on areas of voter registration and inspection of the
voters’
roll, leaving the function to ZESN.
Although ZEC says it is
conducting a door-to-door voter education
exercise, with only six weeks to
go before the polls it is doubtful the
exercise will reach many potential
voters ahead of 29 March. There is no
immediate evidence of the voter
education campaign being conducted by the
ZEC.
For example, the
ZEC is yet to publish in the national media the
constituency and ward
boundaries, the number and location of the polling
stations, or how voters
can tell which wards they now fall under with the
new system of ward-based
voting.
But last night campaigners said the ZEC directive was
"petty" and
smacked of envy for the work ZESN was undertaking. They pointed
out that ZEC
had started late in running its campaign and that its
visibility and effect
were limited.
ZESN, on the other hand,
they said, started its voter education
campaign last year.
"They have no capacity, they started late, and they don’t appear to
have
adequate resources", one campaigner told The Standard yesterday. We are
complementing what they are doing and if they view ZESN as competitors,
surely that’s petty."
On Wednesday ZEC wrote to the ZESN: "We
note with concern that the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network has been
conducting voter education
through the medium of the print and electronic
media although the voter
education material was never sanctioned by the
commission.
"Be advised that the current advertisements being
flighted by
yourselves are in contravention of the law and you are therefore
requested
to stop any further publications forthwith until authority to
publish or
broadcast the same is obtained from the Commission."
The Commission said in terms of Section 15 (1) of the ZEC Act (Chapter
2:12), no other person other than the Commission, or a person appointed in
terms of Section 14 (3), or a political party should provide voter education
unless such person conducts voter education in accordance with a course or
programme of instruction furnished or approved by the Commission.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
ZIMBABWEANS starved of a daily alternative to the diet of heavily
biased
news offered by the State media, could soon get a reprieve.
Last
Thursday, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of
the banned
titles, The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, submitted a
fresh
application to the Media and Information Commission (MIC) for the
relaunch
of their newspapers.
John Gambanga, chief executive officer of ANZ,
confirmed to The
Standard the group submitted its fresh application on
Thursday afternoon.
"The provisions of the law give the commission
30 days and you should
start counting the days excluding the weekends,"
Gambanga said. "I am
confident that we will be registered. I see no reason
why we should be
denied the licence."
If there are no problems
with its papers, the publishing company could
be granted its licence by the
end of March — 30 days from day of submission.
Asked why it had
taken so long for ANZ to file its application when
the MIC wrote on 14
January inviting them to file a fresh application,
Gambanga said: "If you
take a look at the requirements you will discover
that there is a lot of
work that needs to be done. We had to consult a lot
of people to help us
fulfill the needs of the application after we received
the 14 January letter
from the commission giving us the green light to
apply. There was need to
deal with issues such as market research and the
cash flow."
Ownership of the newspaper group had not been an issue, he said.
"Certainly
not. All the application required are the names of directors and
it was not
a problem. It must be understood that this is not just an
ordinary
letter.
"They have 30 working days to look at it and make a
decision. I am
told they will give us the licence this time."
Asked whether they had an indication when they expected to be granted
the
licence, Gambanga believed this would be just before or after the
elections.
"But we are not an election paper," Gambanga said.
"The fact that we
get a licence is good enough for many journalists who are
roaming the
streets and churning out lies to overseas markets to make ends
meet.
"I had a long chat with (Chinondidyachii) Mararike prior to
the
submission. He says he will not allow past events to influence their
decision."
Mararike is the chairman of the special committee of
the MIC tasked
with considering the fresh ANZ application.
Mararike confirmed receipt of the ANZ application but was not
immediately
able to say whether its papers were in order. When The Standard
called to
speak to him, he said: "We are still going through them and we
have just
taken a short break."
But he said: "We are there to enable. We
reaffirm our commitment to
act in a very balanced and impartial manner. Our
processes are not at all
pre-determined. We consider the application as it
comes and there is a
checklist of things that have to be fulfilled."
Zim Standard
By Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO — Push carts now ferry the sick to hospitals in Bulawayo
after fuel
shortages virtually grounded the city’s ambulance service.
In an
unprecedented development, the local authority is also
contemplating putting
the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) on alert as its
capacity to react to
disasters, such as outbreaks of fire or fatal road
accidents has been
severely crippled.
The crisis has been spawned by critical fuel
shortages blamed on the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)’s failure
to provide council with
fuel over a month ago.
Local
authorities and government departments are not allowed to source
fuel from
private dealers, although Noczim is struggling to source fuel due
to foreign
currency shortages.
The Bulawayo city council said it had managed
to fuel six
petrol-driven ambulances, while the state--of-the-art ambulances
donated by
Toyota Zimbabwe last year have been grounded because of fuel
problems.
In December, the ambulances were only fuelled twice, the
council said.
Last week, the executive mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube
sent an SOS to
residents and the business community for fuel donations. He
said services
such as refuse collection, ambulance and fire were almost at a
standstill
due to the crisis.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
INDEPENDENT presidential candidate Simba Makoni says he
wants the 29
March polls to be a "contest of ideas" that will pull Zimbabwe
out of the
current economic and political quagmire.
He was
launching his manifesto under the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn banner
last week in
Harare at a press conference attended by business leaders,
youth
representatives and academics. Makoni said he did not want to see
"fists,
stones and knives" flying in this election.
"No-one is worth dying
for," he said, "not President (Robert) Mugabe,
Arthur Mutambara, Morgan
Tsvangirai. Certainly not Simba Makoni. No-one is
worth killing for . .
."
Makoni was until two weeks ago a member of the Zanu PF
politburo,
chaired by President Mugabe who has boasted publicly of having
"several
degrees in violence".
Makoni’s former party has been
accused of unleashing violence on
opposition supporters. In some cases,
ruling party militias have
petrol-bombed opponents in broad
daylight.
About his Zanu PF connection, Makoni said it was history
and he would
not concern himself with the past.
He said what
was important was that he had offered himself to lead a
process to reclaim
"Zimbabwe and its resources back to the people".
He said he was not
motivated by "negatives, not against President
Mugabe, not against Mr
Tsvangirai". All he wanted was to see national
re-engagement that would
result in national reconciliation and economic
prosperity.
If
elected president, Makoni said he would launch a National
Authority, a body
that would be charged with putting the country back on the
path of economic
recovery.
He did not say much on the composition of the body and
its mandate,
saying only: "The National Authority will represent all the
stakeholders. It
will roll the country out of the crisis."
Makoni described himself as "an activist and a simple man of rural
origins".
He appeared not too keen to reveal much about his campaign
strategy, and
who, in Zanu PF, was backing him.
Makoni said he was supported by
many people in Zanu PF, but was
unhappy with the way the extraordinary
congress in December endorsed Mugabe.
He said: "I can’t read the
roll call of the millions of Zimbabweans
who support us."
He
made the comment amid reports that a Zanu PF politburo member had
been
spotted at the hotel where Makoni launched his manifesto.
At
Makoni’s table sat Ibbo Mandaza, Rt Major Kudzai Mbudzi, Godfrey
Chanetsa, a
former Press Secretary for Mugabe-turned diplomat, and another
man
identified only as A. Mujeyi.
In his manifesto, Makoni
characterises Zimbabwe as full of fear,
stress and tension, disease, poverty
and a decline in capacity and policy
review capability.
Saying
there has been "failure in policy-making and implementation,
resulting in
stillborn attempts to turn around the economy", Makoni pledges
to re-examine
and re-define the mandate of the central bank and its
relationship with the
state, among other things.
He pledges that a new people-driven
constitution will be developed
after full consultation.
Makoni
affirmed the necessity for land reform, but says he intends to
ensure
transparent and equitable processes of land reform.
He promises to
restore the rule of law, "particularly in the mining
sector which is
critical for foreign currency inflows through the sales of
gold, platinum,
diamonds, chrome and other minerals."
He also promises to resolve
food, power and fuel, water and sanitation
problems which have blighted many
Zimbabweans lives.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
UNITED States President George W Bush on Thursday rebuked President
Robert
Mugabe as "a discredited dictator" and wished "the nightmare" caused
by his
leadership could be over.
Speaking on his African policy ahead of
his trip to five African
nations, Bush said Zimbabweans deserved to have a
better leader than Mugabe.
"In Zimbabwe, a discredited dictator
presides over food shortages,
staggering inflation, and harsh repression,"
he said.
"The decent and talented people of that country deserve
much better."
Bush said America would continue to support freedom
in Zimbabwe.
"And I urge neighbours in the region, including South
Africa, to do
the same," he said, adding that the US looked forward "to the
hour when this
nightmare is over, and the people of Zimbabwe regain their
freedom."
Bush has in the past criticized Mugabe’s government as
tyrannical. But
Mugabe has shot back by insisting that Bush could not
lecture him on human
rights, describing the US leader and former UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair as
allies bent on effecting "regime change" in
Zimbabwe.
Bush’s second trip to Africa began yesterday and will
take him to
Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.
Bush
said he was visiting the five nations because they were "a place
where
democracy is advancing, where economies are growing, and leaders are
meeting
challenges with purpose and determination".
Bush’s visit will look
at US initiatives that improve education,
reduce poverty and fight pandemic
diseases.
The US is working with Africa to overcome poverty by
helping African
economies grow.
Zimbabwe is in the seventh year
of recession. At 66 000%, its
inflation rate is the highest in the world.
Four out of five people are out
of work while citizens are worse off than
they were in the 1950s, an
unprecedented situation in a country not at
war.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
PARIRENYATWA Hospital has stopped all surgical operations
after it ran
out of theatre supplies last week, The Standard has
confirmed.
All urgent surgery is now being referred to Harare
Hospital, an
equally ill-equipped referral health centre.
Two
weeks ago, surgeons and anaesthetists stopped all operations in
protest
against poor working conditions.
The surgeons are worried about
ruining their reputations by going into
the operating theatre without
adequate supplies of anaesthetics, vital for
surgical
operations.
Sources say operations have been halted and patients
requiring urgent
surgery or emergency caesarian sections are being referred
to Harare
hospital at their own cost.
The shortages of surgical
supplies are said to have worsened since the
relocation of the giant
pharmaceutical company, Johnson and Johnson, to
South Africa, citing
viability problems in a foreign currency-starved
Zimbabwe.
Sources said the company was one of the most reliable suppliers of
surgical
equipment and drugs to many public and private hospitals.
After its
relocation, many hospitals are having difficulties sourcing
their own
foreign currency to import enough stocks of surgical supplies.
"This means hospitals, private or public, now have the task of
sourcing
their own foreign currency on the black market, or for those who
are lucky,
from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to procure these surgicals,"
said one
doctor on condition of anonymity.
"This will not be a problem of
public health institutions alone, but
includes the private sector. At some
private hospitals and the problems are
creeping in there too."
The source said apart from the problems at the theatre, shortages of
drugs
(including general painkillers and antibiotics) have worsened to such
an
extent that doctors are finding it difficult to monitor their
patients.
"Today," said one doctor, hardly able to disguise his
anger, "you may
find that there is amoxycillin (an antibiotic) and start
your patient on the
drug. But tomorrow when you come back, you will hear the
drug — of which the
patient is supposed to take a full course, normally for
a week— is not
available. It becomes really difficult to monitor the
progress of our
patients.
"A patient can develop drug
resistance to some of these drugs because
today you have given him this drug
and then tomorrow he has another one
which he might also stop taking because
it is not available. Seriously, how
can we work like this?"
The
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZAHDR) has
expressed
outrage at the worsening situation in government hospitals.
Douglas
Gwatidzo, ZAHDR chairman, said he feared lives could be lost
if government
fails to intervene urgently.
Chief executive officer of
Parirenyatwa hospital, Thomas Zigora, was
not immediately available for
comment at the time of going to press even
after The Standard left several
messages at his office.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
BAKERS have asked the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission (NIPC)
for a review of the price of bread to at least $5 million
a loaf, citing
viability problems.
National Bakers’ Association
(NBA) appealed to the NIPC last week to
raise the bread price from $3.3
million to $5.3 million.
NBA chairman Vincent Mangoma confirmed to
Standardbusiness the
industry had written to the NIPC to "urgently" look
into the bread price.
"The industry needs a price of $5.3 million a
loaf to break even."
Mangoma said inputs now account for $4 million
a loaf, which meant the
industry was operating at a loss.
He
said the major cost drivers — fuel and flour — were not readily
available.
Where they were available, the industry had to dig deep into
their pockets
to raise the cash.
Fuel accounts for 26% of the total costs but was
scarce, Mangoma said.
"If the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe was
able to supply fuel at
subsidized rates, the price of bread would be
reduced," he said.
The industry needs at least 80 000 litres a week
of diesel and
paraffin.
Mangoma said flour was not scarce on
the market as the milling
industry was struggling to meet
demand.
"Whatever wheat is available to the millers, the industry
is citing
viability problems such as water and power cuts," he
said.
The recommended price of flour is $600 million a tonne, but
bakers
were sourcing it at between $800 million and $1.2 billion as it was
not on
the open market.
"Those who offer a higher price get the
flour," Mangoma said. Flour
accounts for 18% of the industry’s input
costs.
Zim Standard
ANYWHERE else, news that inflation has topped 66 000% might have
sparked street
protests and sent nervous shudders through a government
facing an election
in just over a month.
But Zimbabwe’s economy
has sunk so low for so long, that many appeared
to have resigned themselves
to their fate, largely shrugging off Thursday’s
announcement that
year-on-year inflation had yet again shot to a record in
December.
Analysts say despite the decaying economy, President
Robert Mugabe
does not face much of a challenge to his 28-year rule during
the 29 March
election, given a deeply divided opposition and a political
climate of fear.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been in recession for seven
consecutive years,
resulting in chronic shortages of food, fuel, water and
electricity.
Zimbabweans have long become used to finding their way
around soaring
prices, using barter to trade goods from magazines to cooking
oil.
"The reality is that we see the effects of high inflation each
time we
visit the supermarket, the (inflation) figure tells us what we know
already," said Gabriel Makombe, a clerk at an insurance firm in central
Harare.
"The surprise, this time, is they actually released
such a figure
ahead of the elections," he added.
The government
statistics agency, often accused by analysts of
understating price rises,
said year-on-year inflation reached 66,212.3% from
26,470.8% in
November.
Zimbabwe has long had the world’s highest inflation rate
as it
grapples with a recession blamed on Mugabe’s policies, such as the
seizure
of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.
The
central bank was forced to issue high-value notes amid a bank note
shortage
between December and January.
But the highest denomination 10
million Zimbabwe dollar bill — worth
$333 at the official exchange rate but
only $1.25 on the black market — will
buy only two loaves of bread and is
rapidly losing value.
Apart from the chronic shortage of basics,
frequent power cuts, broken
sewers and bad roads mirror the economic decay
in a country where only one
in four adults is in formal
employment.
The government statistics agency has been increasingly
reluctant to
release the data, a tacit acknowledgement that authorities are
losing the
battle against inflation.
The official inflation
rate is nearly double that of the Weimar
Republic in 1923. But it is still
well below the worst modern-day
hyperinflation, when inflation in Yugoslavia
in 1994 peaked at 313 million
percent.
Mugabe (83), and in
power since independence from Britain in 1980, is
seeking re-election in the
general election. He faces challenges from former
ally Simba Makoni and old
rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change.
While the rotting economy has piled pressure on Mugabe,
political
analysts say a divided opposition might be too weak to unseat him
from
power.
"Despite glaring evidence of economic
mismanagement, chances of Mugabe
being voted out remain remote," political
analyst Eldred Masunungure said.
Mugabe denies ruining one of
Africa’s most promising economies and
says it has been sabotaged by Western
nations that have imposed sanctions on
Zimbabwe as punishment for his land
reforms.
Last year Mugabe ordered a blanket price freeze in a
desperate bid to
stem inflation, but the move backfired as supermarket
shelves were rapidly
emptied of basic goods, worsening widespread
shortages.
Although the government has gradually relaxed price
controls, many
producers are yet to recover from the devastating price blitz
and most shops
are stocked with imported products that are beyond the reach
of many.
Supermarkets that were flooded by consumers at the height
of the
government crackdown on prices are now relatively well stocked but
short of
shoppers.
"We simply cannot afford goods, like meat, a
pint of milk and a loaf
of bread, that we used to take for granted. Even the
single meal most of us
have grown used to is no longer guaranteed," said a
government worker who
declined to be named.
Salaries for most
government employees range from 200 million to 500
million Zimbabwe dollars
and a union representing teachers making up the
bulk of state workers is
pushing for a wage hike to at least Z$1.7 billion
to keep up with
inflation.
"My earnings are hardly enough for transport fares, let
alone school
fees and food," the government worker added.
Zim Standard
Comment
THE loss by many sitting ruling party MPs during
recent primaries is
not just a vote of no confidence in their leadership. It
is also a rejection
of the party they represent, portending an ominous
outcome to the 29 March
harmonised elections.
For the first
time in nearly a decade, the new political landscape
gives rise to hopes of
turning over a new leaf and a chance for this country
to move forward and
regain lost ground.
The party that will emerge victorious in just
over a month away is one
that is not only able to promise an immediate
return to normality. It is
also the party that can articulate the specific
measures necessary for the
country to reach the Promised Land.
It is possible that in its desperation, the government will ensure a
marked
improvement in the supply of fuel in the country, going into the
March 2008
harmonised elections, possibly as Equatorial Guinea rewards the
government
for handing over Simon Mann. But this would be a mirage. For
nearly 30
years, Zimbabweans have been fed rhetoric that is long on promises
but short
on delivery. Now is the time to deliver.
But it is also time
Zimbabweans learnt to identify, name and shame
those who have colluded with
the regime in inflicting unparalleled suffering
on Zimbabweans. It is also
important to make a distinction between friends
of Zimbabwe and those of the
ruling elite. The government believes the
people of this country will
quickly forget about the fuel, food, water and
power shortages, if it can
show improvement — however little this is — ahead
of the March elections. It
has a very dismal opinion of the electorate.
It is also crucial
that at this point in the run up to the elections
that the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) launches a campaign on the
exact locations of the
polling stations and familiarises the electorate with
the four ballots
voters will be handed out when the electorate turns out to
vote on 29 March
2008.
After so many elections since 1980, the level of spoilt
ballots
continues to be unacceptably high. This year, the ZEC must ensure
that
people are conversant with the voting process and that more importantly
at
this stage of Zimbabwe’s development it should be unacceptable for voters
to
be assisted – it is an indictment on ZEC’s voter education campaign.
Polling
officials should be wary of people being assisted because they would
be
voting under duress. These cases need to be documented because they are
blatant attempts at denying Zimbabweans their right to free and fair
elections.
All parties taking part in the elections should not
only pledge their
commitment to free, fair and peaceful elections and
demonstrate their
abhorrence of violence. They should all commit themselves
to controlling
their unruly members and supporters. They should also desist
from the
penchant of abusing other contestants.
Anyone offering
to lead this country needs to engage and secure the
commitment of the
international community on its willingness to assist so
that the majority is
absolutely certain of what they will be voting for.
Such an arrangement
would promise a departure from the hardships and
isolation of the past
decade and half. What Zimbabwe needs right now is
someone who can connect
with and open channels of communication with the
rest of the
world.
Re-engagement of the international community and getting its
support
would ease pressure from internal expectations.
At the
same time, the international community could unveil a package
that is linked
to the willingness of the new leaders to implement widespread
reforms.
International institutions such as the International
Finance
Corporation, with a record of supporting the private sector, could
be
approached so that they weigh in with support for the recovery of
industry
and the manufacturing sectors.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion By Bill
Saidi
OUR vote is secret —they keep telling you before an election.
But
there is nothing illegal in sharing a few choice guidelines with fellow
guardians of democracy.
First, does this candidate have a track
record as a fearless defender
of the rights of all people?
They
may not have prostrated themselves in front of a Cabinet Minister’s
Mercedes
Benz, until that worthy contributed free of charge 50 000 litres of
fuel to
all the commuter omnibuses plying the city-Mbare route (it could be
any
other route, but I pick this one for sentimental reasons).
Secondly, have their party been involved in gratuitous violence
against
citizens, like the Women of Zimbabwe Arise! (WOZA), unarmed students
protesting against steep tuition fees, or journalists protesting against
AIPPA?
Thirdly, has their party existed for the entire period
of our
independence? If it has, was it the opposition or the ruling
party?
If the latter, then there can be no equivocation: under this
party,
thousands of people died needlessly, thousands of jobs were lost
needlessly,
thousands of children died needlessly, thousands died of hunger
. . .
Under that party, the Zimdollar became worthless, and the
country lost
many friends, needlessly.
If you still decide to
vote for this candidate, then you have to
answer to your Conscience,
assuming there is someone looking after you.
Somewhere during your
miserable life, the question may be asked: "Do
you really care about life,
liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?"
Seriously, a party which has
wreaked such havoc on people’s lives
could not provide cast iron evidence of
its right to another term. The
country is now the butt of many, mostly sick
jokes, from Anchorage, Alaska,
to Darwin, Australia.
As a
voter, you are expected to justify your endorsement of this
party. Wherever
you live in Zimbabwe, your life has been blighted by its
stultifying
bungling. In 28 years, has this party been a pillar of strength
for
you?
Or has it been violent, arrogant, uncaring, diffident,
indifferent and
insensitive to your every need?
If you think
it’s presumptuous of a columnist to advise you on your
choice on 29 March,
you could be right.
But since freedom of expression is not
proscribed in this land, you
can’t very well sue the columnist for this
generous advice.
Even under the almost lawless Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA), there is no provision for
imposing sanctions on a
columnist who offers free advice to would-be
voters.
After all, any lessons on freedom and democracy can be
obtained in any
library in the country. There, you will find the 1948 United
Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which your government, the
same one
we are rubbishing, signed.
Article 1: All human beings
are born free and endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards
one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 3: Everyone has the
right to life, liberty and security of
person.
There are other
Articles, including Article 19, which refers
specifically to freedom of
expression: your inalienable right as a free
citizen.
The
argument has been made that all this is rather airy-fairy, as the
world is
not perfect. People’s rights are violated daily and in many
instances, there
is no redress. Even soldiers of the United Nations are
violating the women
they are sworn to protect.
Zimbabwe has been accused of gross
violations of citizens’ rights.
Since there has been no other government
since independence, it is the
government of the party seeking re-election on
29 March to blame.
You may argue that since you, personally, have
not been subjected to
any torture or inconvenience — being allowed to quaff
your libation every
night after work, in your favourite watering hole, with
your closest male
and female friends around you — what’s the big
deal?
It may be difficult for you to appreciate your status if you
were very
young in 1980, when this country became Zimbabwe, shedding the
name of
Rhodesia.
That name was derived from Cecil Rhodes, a
white adventurer and
capitalist seeking to plunder the country for the
enrichment and glory of
his motherland, Great Britain.
A
liberation war was launched against the descendants of the British
occupiers
and, after much bloodshed and destruction, Britain handed over the
country
back to its owners.
As represented by Zanu PF, the new owners have
brought the country to
what it is today: a penniless pariah state, with
everything —except
politicians — in short supply, including food, water,
electricity, other
basic necessities.
The election is designed
— really! — for you to decide whether this
party has done such a magnificent
job it should be afforded another
opportunity to . . .
You have
your check list. Work on it.
saidib@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
sunday opinion By
Masola Wa Dabudabu
IN history, we learnt how,
in one way or the other, the Munhumutapa
Dynasty managed to have their
citadel of Great Zimbabwe turn into ruins. Now
in our time, in front of our
glaring eyes and with our silent approval, we
have witnessed RGM committing
a grand murder of our country. We have
witnessed Zimbabwe, a great country
turn into a great ruin.
Zimbabwe is no more; yet more sadly; some
Zimbabweans went down and
continue to go down with her!
In this
piece, I dedicate a special moment to all those who have since
died in
pursuit of emancipation from RGM’s crippling tyranny. May their
courageous
souls rest in eternal peace! Let it be boldly told that their
blood; drained
from their veins by RGM’s goons and Zanu PF dim-wits; was not
shed in
vain.
They all died in pursuit of the shared values of freedom and
we still
yearn for freedom! We long for liberty. We still dream the dreams
our
fore-fathers dreamt during the days of slavery. We still face the same
nightmares our great-grandfathers experienced during colonialism. The
suffering is unbearable.
Our voices long to sing without being
fettered and our wounded bodies
long to be cleansed of their festered scars.
We profoundly recognise that
liberty; the absence of coercion; is an
expensive commodity for anyone to
beget and to perpetually
behold.
When we got independence, we thought and felt as if we had
achieved
liberty. It was an ephemeral imagination; a crazed delusion. Now we
all
realise that the essence of liberty appears to be perpetually
gone!
Notwithstanding our current predicament; I shall still repeat
the
dedication to those who have so far perished in pursuit of genuine
liberty
from inhumanity such as the one exercised by RGM on the people of
Zimbabwe.
May their courageous souls rest in eternal
peace.
And now to those who as yet have managed to survive the
onslaught on
the people; greetings from the Diaspora!
Greeting
you from the Diaspora conjures memories of neglect of
national duty on the
part of the people in the Diaspora. In brief, I have
employed the term
Diaspora as collective reference to Zimbabweans who find
themselves
displaced from their beloved motherland by the current turmoil in
Zimbabwe
.
I particularly resent referring to Zanu PF sponsored tourists (or
terrorists if it tickles your fancy) who throng most western countries as
part of the Diaspora. (I hope I do not incur the wrath and might of His
Eminence The Police Commissioner-General Chihuri who sadly had his not so
brilliant offspring shown the way from Brisbane to Harare ).
I
digress!
Anyhow, we find ourselves separated from our country due
to RGM’s
insidious handling of the country’s socio-economic and
socio-political
affairs. In our hearts, we hold a hope; at least an
evocative desire to be
able to one day return to a Zimbabwe that hopefully
would be in a manageable
state.
If it makes those who have to
face the injustices, the evil, the
wickedness, the tyranny, the prejudice,
the totalitarianism and the horror
feel better; I shall let it be known that
life in the Diaspora is not all
sweet smells and enchanting
sounds!
As long as one is a Zimbabwean and not RGM’s crony,
wherever one is
and whatever one is doing; the signs of suffering and
torment show on one’s
weary face. The suffering shows on everyone! Meeting
fellow Zimbabweans who
consider RGM as an old man with repulsive manners and
outright foolish
policies is the most heart-rending moment in the Diaspora.
Telling that the
soul is tormented becomes as easy as ABC.
Perhaps I should be allowed to graphically describe a typical
Zimbabwean in
the Diaspora; usually rotund, fat, over-fed, stout, plump,
corpulent,
fleshy, podgy, meaty, chubby, obese, big, huge, enormous and so
on but
lacking in confidence. The confidence has been eroded by RGM’s
despotic
tendencies back home. Their spirits; instead of growing
proportionally to
the individuals’ weight gain; are diminishing!
Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora walk with bent heads as they project souls
in anguish, like oxen
that have no means to express their sexuality. Most
Zimbabweans who found
themselves turned into peasant farmers over night, by
dint of fortune for
some and a dint of misfortune for others, will recall
how an ox is renowned
for providing the power that is required of it as a
beast of burden but
fails to deliver the vital components for perpetuating
the
genus.
With due respect to family values; Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora are
like oxen that have had their aspirations to reproduce young
ones of their
kind dashed by the emasculating effect of the castrating
equipment. In oxen,
testosterone refuses to kick in to accentuate and to
promote the development
and maintenance of male sex
characteristics.
Again, with respect to Zimbabweans, especially the
cowardly ones in
the Diaspora, our manhood has been reduced to nothing. We
are neuters whose
only strength lies in docile compliance even to
instructions to
self-destruct. We are hopeless in our spirits. We are dead
weight in the
struggle for emancipation.
We are people who can
only talk of a nation that was once proud and
envied by all of Africa and
beyond. We have nothing to say in our defence.
We have failed our countrymen
in the fight for freedom from autocracy.
RGM derives sadistic
pleasure from our state of limbo. He feeds on our
lack of zest to exercise a
satanic stranglehold on the bloody reigns of
power. The effect of RGM’s hold
on the people’s collective manhood; albeit
remote; is debilitating. For most
of us in the Diaspora, the results of RGM’s
misrule leave us in awe dismay
as we are fully knowledgeable that we cannot
do anything to
help.
At RGM’s behest, Zimbabwe’s economy has ground to a
screeching halt.
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have removed themselves from
Zimbabwe’s
political formula and as a result have lost the opportunity to
stand up and
be counted as people with esteem.
We are hopeless;
helpless and hapless! I salute those who genuinely
soldier on from the
cauldron itself. It is my sincere hope that their
gallantry will be rewarded
during their life-times.
When I see the hopelessness and the
helplessness of the situation,
tears roll on my cheeks. I look back with
envy on the men and women who gave
up their lives during the people’s
gallant fight against Ian Smith’s
hegemony that had been born out of UDI. In
the revised list, RGM is not
included as he has since desecrated the
sanctity of the struggle! We now
make him out as a manipulative coward who
relied more on crook than on hook
to usurp the results of a concerted
collective effort.
Zimbabweans should not weep for ever as we might
become the notorious
weeping stock of the world. Let us not weep no more but
rather crack the
whip. Together we can weave a whip to lash at RGM’s wicked
flesh. Perhaps
when the tears of weeping roll no more; the crackling sounds
of the whip go
silent; the death-telling whines of our children die down and
the chickens
truly come home to roost; the milk and the honey will start to
flow.
What really matters in Zimbabwe today is not RGM but it is
the people.
RGM has removed himself from the realm of reality. He is now a
devil’s
angel. Perhaps RGM should change his name to RLM; the L signifying
his new
role of the devil Lucifer!
I cry for mercy.
Zim Standard
sunday view
by Benjamin
Chitate
The entry of Simba Makoni into the
Presidential race has created a lot
of excitement among desperate Zimbabwean
intellectuals.
I can’t blame them; they are desperate. Mutumwa
Mawere, Trevor Ncube,
Alex Magaisa based in the UK, among many
intellectuals, are ululating,
trying to influence Zimbabweans to vote for
someone who has been tried, but
has never produced any convincing
results.
The crisis in Zanu PF now is about (President Robert)
Mugabe’s
overstay in power, not about any ideological
differences.
Like Mugabe, Makoni has also over-stayed his
usefulness. Makoni was a
minister in Mugabe’s government in 1980, 28 years
ago. His stay was cut
short after he was appointed executive secretary for
SADC. What did Makoni
achieve at SADC? Did he leave a happy
man?
His stay as CEO of Zimpapers did not improve the company’s
fortunes.
He was fired after clashing with the Editor of The Sunday Mail one
of the
newspapers under the Zimpapers’ stable. But can his praise-singers
tell us
what he achieved at Zimpapers?
Some have described
Makoni as a wealthy businessman. What do we know
about Makoni’s businesses?
If you are asked who is a more successful
businessman in Zanu PF among
Philip Chiyangwa and Makoni, Makoni comes last.
Makoni may have won
a lot of admiration for "his" decision to devalue
the Zimbabwean
dollar.
I call it "his" decision because it wasn’t his decision.
Makoni is not
an economist — he was simply communicating advice given by the
economists
employed in the Ministry of Finance.
And what did he
do? He betrayed the economists by chickening out. He
failed not only the
economists, but the entire nation by being spineless
when it mattered
most.
Makoni was there when ESAP was introduced under the late
Bernard
Chidzero.
I can’t remember whether Makoni was at SADC
that time, but, as head of
a regional institution, he was supposed to advise
the government against
Economic Strustureal Adjustment Programme
(ESAP).
Among people who advised against ESAP was none other than
Morgan
Tsvangirai. I am not bootlicking here. All in doubt must read "Beyond
Esap",
a book published by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU).
We never heard Makoni speak a word against
ESAP.
I couldn’t control my laughter when I read him being quoted
as saying.
"My security is in my people." Now, like Grace Mugabe, Makoni
owns people?
Or was he misquoted? Let me try to list some of
Tsvangirai’s
achievements.
He galvanized the ZCTU into a
modern, vibrant labour organization.
Most of you may be mistaken that the
ZCTU was only popular for street
protests. I have already referred to
Tsvangirai’s position on ESAP. Through
his hard work, the ZCTU established
what at some point became the regional
resource centre for labour
issues.
The first librarian to run the ZCTU library was the late
Nomore
Sibanda, who was later joined by another lady whose name I cannot
remember.
Several other librarians joined the team later. This demonstrates
Tsvangirai’s
vision for information as a tool for
decision-making.
Because of his leadership abilities, Tsvangirai
was elected as
chairperson for the National Constitutional Assembly, where
he led a team of
enthusiastic academics, trade unionists, students, workers
— defeating
Mugabe in the constitutional vote of 2000.
An avid
reader, Tsvangirai qualified for a post-graduate diploma in
Governance at
the Harvard University.
He is one of a few Zimbabwean politicians
holding such a
qualification.
It must be against this
background that I hear civic society in
Zimbabwe seems to be distancing
itself from Makoni.
He must realise that Zimbabwe lacks chemical
engineers with a vision,
and should use that to revive Zimbabwe’s chemical
industry in a country
ruled by one with a qualification in
Governance.
www.cathybuckle.com
Saturday 16th February 2008
Dear Family and Friends, Now is not
the time to give up! This is the
rallying call in Zimbabwe and its getting
louder by the day as elections
draw ever closer.
This week I met a
friend who had been transferred to a town nearly 400km
away. We had not seen
each other since August last year and those times,
just six months ago, seem
like they were from another era. It is hard to
believe that back in August
inflation had just topped one thousand percent
and that now its sixty six
thousand percent. Its a percentage so high that
none of us can comprehend
what it really means. When I last saw my friend in
August, a litre of milk
was thirty thousand dollars; six months later its
five million dollars! My
friend isn't surviving on his salary anymore. He
can't afford for his wife
and child to live with him and he survives only
thanks to the subsidies
given him by his parents who have a plot in the
rural areas. My friend's
entire monthly salary is sufficient to buy him a
two litre bottle of cooking
oil and one loaf of bread. It costs more than
his entire monthly salary to
travel the 400km back to the town he once lived
in, to see his friends and
relations.
As is the norm in Zimbabwe today we talked about plans for
survival. The
usual question that was uppermost in the conversation was:
Wouldn't it be
better to leave the country? Go somewhere that has food in
the shops, water
in the taps, regular electricity and where even a menial
job earns enough
for you to pay your rent and buy a months supply of basic
foodstuffs.
Despite all the hardships, we agreed that now was not the time
to be making
decisions and that we must wait till after the elections.
Everyone is just
trying to hold on until after the elections.
Hope
for real change is now less than six weeks away. It is undoubtedly
going to
be a gruelling six weeks. Since the Africa Cup of Nations football
games
ended, so too did the supply of electricity and many residential areas
are
back to fifteen hour a day power cuts. With these come water cuts and
with
66 thousand percent inflation come prices that change at least once a
day
and businesses that are closed more than they are open.
There is a
feeling of real anticipation in the air of Zimbabwe and whether
it is a
protest vote or a ballot for a new democratic order, we stand ready
to
rebuild our battered land. Despite all the negatives attached to every
aspect of the coming elections, we are ready.
Until next week, thanks for
reading, love cathy.
www.cathybuckle.com
16th February 2008
Dear Friends.
One of the
hardest lessons in life is learning who to trust. It's a sign of
maturity
when individuals and nations acquire the judgement to know who to
trust and
who to be wary of. Slowly, with experience we discover the people
who will
not let us down; we know they will be there when we need them and
do what is
right for us, the people who trust them. Elections are occasions
when we get
the chance to exercise that judgement on a national level.
At
Independence in 1980, we trusted Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF to do what was
right for us as a nation. We, the people, gave Robert Mugabe the power that
he has enjoyed for twenty-eight years. One of the hardest truths for
Zimbabweans to accept is that our trust was misplaced. We look around and
see a nation tearing itself apart. We no longer know who to trust; Mugabe
has succeeded in turning what was once a trusting - some would say naïve -
and united people into a fractured collection of individuals who can no
longer be sure who to trust. We have lost faith in each other and in our
leaders, traditional, political and even religious. Mugabe and Zanu PF have
almost destroyed the moral fibre of our society.
We have repeatedly
been told by Mugabe and his followers that the only thing
that counts is
loyalty to the ruling party, anything less is betrayal. MDC
supporters and
anyone else who dares to think differently are branded
traitors.
'Vatengesi,' sellouts scream the likes of Joseph Chinotimba.
According to
the ruling party, liberation credentials are still the only
criteria of the
true patriot. That is the Zanu PF mantra, the very basis of
their belief
that only they are entitled to rule Zimbabwe through whatever
crooked means
they choose. How else can they claim as they did this week
that they are
99.9% certain of winning the elections!
Enter one Simba Makoni. As Eddy
Cross remarked this week, 'He has a very
nice smile' to which I reply,
'Beware the smile on the crocodile!' Where was
Makoni during Murambatsvina?
Where was he when MDC leaders were being beaten
to a pulp? Where was Makoni
when the brave women and men of Woza were
arrested and beaten for handing
out roses on Valentine's Day or when the
police repeatedly misused their
powers against the NCA to prohibit any form
of demonstration? Where was he
when our economy was diving into free fall,
when education and healthcare
were being destroyed? Where was Makoni when
the press was being muzzled and
all dissent was being crushed?
The answer to all these question is that
Makoni was nowhere to be seen. Not
once did he raise his voice in protest.
Instead he was there in the Polit
Bureau, at the very heart of the ruling
party, part of the machinery of
government that sanctioned all the
repressive legislation designed to keep
Zanu PF in power. All his political
life, Simba Makoni has been an integral
part of the ruling party and now he
tells us, the people of Zimbabwe, that
he will 'bring about change through
national re-engagement- whatever that
means! He speaks of 'national healing'
a process of reconciliation which he
says which will be achieved ' with the
help of friends'- Thabo Mbeki
perhaps?
I can no longer afford to
travel regularly to London for the Vigil but I
understand that Zimbabweans
toy-toying outside Zimbabwe House are divided in
their view of Makoni's
entrance onto the presidential contest. Some are
saying that it's a brave
move, he's an honest man and that they might vote
for him - if they had the
vote that is. Some of these Zimbabweans have been
away from the motherland
for a long time and may not even be Citizens any
longer. They seem to have
forgotten that the Zanu PF government of which
Makoni was a part was
responsible for that piece of disenfranchisement.
From what I hear on SW
Radio Africa there are divided views on the Makoni
question back home too.
Zimbabweans have short memories it seems. Have they
forgotten why they are
in the mess they are in? Have they forgotten that it
was Morgan Tsvangirai
who led them in the call for change, that it was
Morgan Tsvangirai who was
imprisoned and beaten, tried for treason while all
around him his colleagues
were beaten and arrested? Yes, he has made
mistakes but they were political
blunders, serious errors of judgement; he
too has sometimes been too
trusting, but not, I believe, lacking in
integrity.
And yet, Zimbabweans
are prepared to put their trust in a man like Makoni,
who states quite
categorically that he is not against Zanu PF, not against
Robert Mugabe.
Surely, that is trust carried to the point of blind naivety -
but perhaps
that is just what Mugabe is banking on - and the support of
Arthur Mutambara
who has thrown his weight behind Makoni. Does anyone else
smell a
rat?
Yours in the struggle. PH
IOL
February 16 2008
at 08:41AM
By Peter Fabricius and IFS Reporters
The
South African government is often urged to cut off power to
Zimbabwe to
force President Robert Mugabe to behave himself. But, strangely,
it turns
out that power actually flows the other way.
Last month, South
Africa imported 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity
from its disempowered
neighbour.
It exported nothing in return, and has not done so for
about a year.
This anomaly explains little about the odd behaviour of
electricity - but a
lot more about the parlous state of the regional power
network.
The power utilities of SA, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia,
Mozambique,
Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi and Tanzania are all members of the
Southern
African Power Pool (SAPP), a network launched in 1995 to enable its
members
to buy and sell surplus electricity to their neighbours. At that
time, SA
had a large surplus and could supply all the needs of the smaller
countries.
However, like SA, the SAPP exhausted
its reserves last year, and is
now in deficit of about 1 000MW.
Eskom has contracts to supply Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia,
Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but because of the deficit in SA, it now
supplies only Botswana (350MW), Lesotho (24MW) and Swaziland
(180MW.)
Eskom is importing 180MW from the Democratic Republic of
Congo and 1
200MW from Mozambique's Cahora Bassa hydroelectric generator -
and,
intermittently - as with that 100MW last month - small amounts from
Zimbabwe
and Zambia. This usually happens at about 3am when the demand in
these
countries is lowest.
So, among the state power utilities
of the SAPP, powerhouse SA is
actually a net importer of about 750MW. But if
you add in Eskom's
contractual supplies to specific industrial users, like
Mozambique's Mozal
aluminium smelter, which takes a whopping 950MW, SA
becomes a slight net
exporter.
But many South Africans are
unhappy that the country is exporting
electricity at all, while some foreign
investors are contemplating suing the
SA government for damages to reclaim
their losses caused by the power
failures.
They plan to argue
that SA has violated bilateral investment treaties
that demand favourable
conditions for investment, including adequate power.
Some mining
companies are considering seeking compensation in an
international court,
arguing that they are being discriminated against
because Eskom is exporting
to the region, while they are being forced to cut
production.
But Eskom has responded that it must honour existing export contracts
and
that it exports only around 5 percent of its capacity - about 1 400MW to
1
600 MW.
"Some of the region's utilities are dependent on Eskom for
up to 80
percent of their energy needs," Eskom says.
"If
exports are stopped, these countries would experience substantial
energy
shortages, which would have a crippling impact on their economies and
put
additional pressure on SA's socio-economic position.
"Zero exports
would only have a small impact on reducing domestic
load-shedding
needs."
Eskom also pointed out that it supplied power only to
countries with
firm contracts - Botswana, Swaziland and
Lesotho.
To others, like Namibia, it was exporting on a day-ahead
basis when
excess power was available.
Eskom also points out
that it is striving to increase its imports from
the region. It already gets
1 200MW from Cahora Bassa, 110MW from the DRC's
Inga hydroelectric plan and
an occasional 100MW from Zambia's Kariba.
Eskom is helping to
refurbish and extend these and other plants and is
negotiating with the DRC,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and
Mozambique.
Most
notably, it has an interest in the plans to build Inga 3 and 4
hydroelectric
stations on the Congo River, which would supply about 32 000MW
to the SAPP
grid.
Some analysts argue that this clean power has the potential
to make
the building of further coal and nuclear-powered generators in SA
unnecessary, but Eskom seems reluctant to risk further power failure
disaster down the road by not building its own capacity.
As in
SA, mining - now Zimbabwe's biggest earner of foreign currency -
is being
hit hard.
Botswana lost 25 percent of its power last week to load
shedding,
partly because Eskom had reduced its contractual quota from 425MW
to 350MW
last year, while Namibia is scrambling to find alternatives and is
bracing
itself for a crash soon.
Namibia has said it plans to
build its own nuclear power station.
This article was
originally published on page 4 of The Star on
February 16, 2008
Reuters
Sun
Feb 17, 2008 12:15am IST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Olympic
champion Kirsty Coventry set a world
record in the 200 metres backstroke
with a time of two minutes 6.39 seconds
at the Missouri Grand Prix on
Saturday.
The 24-year-old Coventry, who lives and trains in the United
States, broke
the previous mark set by Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi in
August 1991 by
0.23 seconds.
Coventry, who won the gold medal in the
women's 200 backstroke at the Athens
Olympics in 2004, finished more than
four seconds ahead of second-placed
American Margaret Hoelzer who clocked
2:10.76.
The Missouri Grand Prix, being held at the University of
Missouri's Mizzou
Aquatic Center in Columbia, Missouri, is an event leading
to the Beijing
Olympics.