Reuters
Thu 31 Jan
2008, 16:01 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's inflation soared to a
record high of 26,470.8
percent as the economy contracted by 6 percent, the
central bank said --
dealing a blow to President Robert Mugabe's government
ahead of March
general elections.
The veteran leader will seek
another five-year term on March 29, against the
backdrop of an economic
meltdown widely blamed on his skewed political and
economic
policies.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Gideon Gono said inflation galloped to
26,470.8
percent year-on-year in November, 2007, from 7,982.1 percent in
September.
There were no inflation data for October.
The jump in
inflation prompted the central bank to increase interest rates
to 1,200
percent from 975 percent.
"The continued threat of high inflation
warrants that interest rates be
periodically realigned to discourage
speculative borrowing and inflationary
credit expansion," Gono said in a
statement.
"The economy is estimated to have declined by about 6 percent
in 2007. This
contraction in economic activity has been mirrored in output
decline in all
sectors of the economy with the exception of a marginal
increase in
agricultural output," he added.
Zimbabweans have over the
last eight years or so grappled with chronic
shortages of food, fuel,
foreign currency and more recently water and
electricity in a crisis many
say has its roots in Mugabe's controversial
seizure of white-owned
commercial farms.
They say the haphazard implementation of the programme
has left what was
once southern Africa's bread basket struggling to feed
itself since 2002.
In his statement, Gono said the Reserve Bank had
imported food worth $142.2
million in 2007, up from $114.2 million the
previous year, to bridge gaps
from domestic output.
Mugabe denies
responsibility for Zimbabwe's crisis, and in turn accuses
Western opponents
of his land reforms of sabotaging the economy.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: January 31, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa:
South African police descended on a downtown
Johannesburg church where
Zimbabweans had taken refuge, taking people in
nightgowns and pajamas to a
police station in scenes reminiscent of
apartheid-era pass
raids.
Bishop Paul Verryn was hosting some 1,200 people at the Central
Methodist
Church, which has become a haven for Zimbabweans fleeing their own
country's
political and economic meltdown. Verryn said police arrived around
11 p.m.
(2100 GMT) Wednesday. Two hours later, police were still taking
people by
the van load to the central police station.
Police at the
scene said they were not authorized to speak to reporters but
they could be
heard asking people taken from the church for their residency
permits.
Police spokesman were not immediately available. Officers on duty
at
Johannesburg Central Police Station, where those detained were taken
could
also not comment.
"I saw people assaulted when they were put in the
vans," Verryn said. "When
I said, "You can't do this,' they told me not to
interfere. They pulled me
down the stairs by the scruff of my neck and one
police officer kicked
something at me."
Verryn said he had been told
police were looking for illegal immigrants,
drugs and weapons.
He
added police damaged doors and windows in the church as they searched
it.
Outside the church, where about another 500 Zimbabweans sleep, hundreds
of
men, many barefooted and bare-chested, lined up in an orderly fashion
before
being marched off into the vans by police. A teargas-like smell hang
in the
air and some of the men said police had used the mace sprays they
could be
seen carrying.
A handful of men tried to run away but police
chased after them. One man was
dragged back by his arms and legs and was
left unconscious in the street. A
church official eventually removed
him.
"This is a church. We thought we were safe," said Fredrick Chibungu,
who has
been in the country for seven months and is waiting for his asylum
papers to
be finalized, a lengthy process.
"They are going to deport
us. There is nothing we can do. It is better to go
back home and make a plan
to come back," he said.
After about an hour police allowed about 100
women, whose documents and
papers had been found in order, back inside the
church where they were
looking after a number of children.
After the
last police van left at 2:30 a.m (0030 GMT) a group of several
hundred men,
whose documentation were also approved and who had been
separated from the
others were also allowed to return to the building.
They immediately
began searching for their belongings while members of
church began tidying
up, creating piles of lost shoes, passports, and
photographs of
children.
Inside the dark church, blankets and bedding lay abandoned on
floor where
those seeking refuge sleep crowded next to one another.
A
number of doors, including one adjoining Verryn's office, showed sign of
being forced and cupboards in a kitchen had been opened and foodstuff left
on the floor. One of the chapel's windows had been smashed.
In the
room used as a sick bay, suitcases had been left open or turned
upside down
after police searched them, leaving their contents in messy
piles.
Verryn, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, said it was
the first such
incident in the four years since he opened the church's doors
after seeing
increasing number of Zimbabweans on the streets of
Johannesburg. Word
spread, and soon the four-story building was home to more
than 1,000.
Verryn said the Zimbabweans organized themselves, with
teachers among them
holding literacy and other classes and others enforcing
rules such as bans
on smoking, drinking and fighting in the
building.
Disruptions to the agriculture-based economy that began with
the
government-ordered and often violent seizures of thousands of
white-owned
commercial farms in 2000 has sent Zimbabwe into freefall.
Zimbabwe's
inflation rate is the highest in the world, and food, fuel and
jobs are
scarce. President Robert Mugabe also has cracked down on his
political
opponents, beating and jailing dissenters.
As a result,
hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have left their homeland,
many for
neighboring countries. South Africa is believed to have one of the
largest
communities of Zimbabweans, with estimates consistently refer to 3
million
Zimbabweans living here.
The Telegraph
By Peta
Thornycroft in Johannesburg
Last Updated: 10:08pm GMT
31/01/2008
A former SAS officer accused of planning a
failed coup in West Africa
has disappeared from Zimbabwe's maximum security
prison. Fears were growing
last night over the fate of Simon
Mann.
The Old Etonian had lost an appeal against extradition to the
West
African state of Equatorial Guinea, the oil-rich dictatorship which
accuses
him of recruiting mercenaries to overthrow its president, Teodoro
Obiang
Nguema.
Mann was jailed in Zimbabwe in 2004 when 67
mercenaries arrived in
Harare on a Boeing 727, allegedly en route to
Equatorial Guinea. Mann, who
met the group at Harare airport, served four
years for trying to buy illegal
weapons, allegedly for the
operation.
Equatorial Guinea sought his extradition and on
Wednesday Zimbabwe's
High Court dismissed Mann's appeal and approved his
extradition.
Jonathan Samkange, Mann's lawyer, filed another appeal
to the Supreme
Court. But when Mann's lawyers tried to visit him at
Chikurubi maximum
security prison yesterday, they were told he was no longer
there and had
been taken away by police.
Diplomatic sources in
Harare said Mann's lawyers would make an urgent
application to the High
Court demanding to know his whereabouts. There were
growing fears that Mann,
55, may already have been flown to Equatorial
Guinea. If so, he will
probably be consigned to Black Beach Prison in the
capital,
Malabo.
In 2005, Amnesty International reported that inmates in
Black Beach
were in danger of starving to death, surviving on daily rations
of a cup of
rice and one or two bread rolls. Some prisoners had routinely
gone without
food for up to six days. A new wing has been built and the
authorities say
that conditions have improved but Equatorial Guinea has one
of Africa's
worst human rights records. Mann's appeal against extradition
was dismissed
on the day that Equatorial Guinea withdrew an invitation to
Manfred Nowak,
the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, who had
been invited to
gather "first-hand information" about detention facilities.
The regime has,
however, pledged to refrain from executing
Mann.
The alleged plot to overthrow President Nguema and replace
him with
Severo Moto, an opposition leader living in exile in Spain,
involved a
remarkable array of characters and was compared at the time to
the 1978
Roger Moore film The Wild Geese about a group of mercenaries in
Africa.
Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of the former Prime Minister,
was a friend
of Mann, who lived near him in Cape Town. Thatcher was
convicted under South
Africa's anti-mercenary laws after he admitted hiring
a helicopter for Mann
which would have been used in the alleged
plot.
So far, Mann's prison years have been spent in relatively
benign
conditions. In Zimbabwe, he enjoyed a single cell and his lawyers
brought
him books.
Mann has seven children in Britain,
including two sons serving in the
Army. His youngest child, a boy, was born
after his arrest. His second wife,
Amanda, lives on the family estate in
Hampshire. Those who have known Mann
describe him as poker-faced, mysterious
and secretive. Yet he emerged into
the limelight in 2002 to play a British
officer in a documentary film about
the Bloody Sunday killings in Northern
Ireland.
Yahoo News
HARARE (AFP) - Lawyers for Simon Mann -- the alleged
mastermind of a foiled
coup in Equatorial Guinea -- lodged an appeal
Thursday in Zimbabwe's supreme
court in a final bid to stop his extradition
to the west African state.
"We have filed the appeal in the supreme
court and served our appeal papers
on the attorney-general," the Briton's
chief attorney Jonathan Samkange told
AFP.
"We will file heads of
argument as soon as possible, then the court can
decide a date for the
hearing."
Mann was convicted by a magistrate in Harare in May last year
of planning to
oust Equatorial Guinea's long-serving ruler Teodoro Obiang
Nguema and
ordered that he be extradited to Equatorial Guinea.
His
lawyers appealed to the high court against the magistrate's decision but
high court judges Rita Makarau and Bharat Patel dismissed the appeal on
Wednesday.
A former member of Britain's crack SAS troops, Mann was
arrested with 61
others when their plane landed at Harare international
airport in March
2004.
They were accused of stopping off to pick up
weapons from Harare while on
their way to Malabo to oust Nguema, who has
ruled the central African state
with an iron fist since 1979.
Mann
said he and his co-accused were on their way to the Democratic Republic
of
Congo and needed the weapons for a security contract at a mine.
He was
sentenced to seven years in jail, but the term was later reduced.
Most of
his co-accused were released from a Zimbabwean prison in 2005.
Mann has
been held at Chikurubi on the outskirts of Harare on an immigration
warrant
since completing his sentence on arms' charges in May last year.
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Friday 01 February
2008
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s nephew,
Leo, allegedly ordered
ruling ZANU PF youths to murder a black farmer in a
wrangle over a former
white-owned farm, according to court papers shown to
ZimOnline.
The farmer, Nomhle Mliswa, claims Leo wanted her killed
in order to
pave way for his white farmer-friend Myles Hall to repossess a
farm in
Mashonaland West province that was seized from him by the government
under
its chaotic land re-distribution exercise.
Mliswa claims
she is the rightful owner of the Summerhill Farm after
the government
allocated the property to her and wants the High Court to bar
Leo and Halls
from interfering with operations at the farm.
"On 29th September
respondent (Leo) addressed youths, inciting them to
go and invade my plot at
Summerhill Farm for the purposes of driving me out
. . . they were told to
kill me," Mliswa said in papers filed with the
court.
She
claimed that after failing to find her, the youths proceeded to
the farm
compound and attempted to incite workers to revolt and take over
the farm.
Mliswa said she has been constantly harassed and threatened by Leo
and Hall
and has not known peace since moving onto the farm.
Mliswa said she
reported the threat against her life as well as the
frequent harassment to
the police who have not acted at all, forcing her to
seek protection from
the courts.
Leo was not immediately available for comment on the
matter that is
yet to be set down for hearing at the courts.
Leo is the son of Mugabe’s sister, Sabina. He is a legislator of ZANU
PF and
operates several businesses in addition to also running a farm seized
from a
white farmer.
The claims made by Mliswa against Leo only highlight
the chaos,
violence and thuggery that have characterised the government’s
land reforms.
On paper, the land reforms were to benefit poor black
peasant farmers
deprived of arable land by former colonial governments but
most of the best
farms seized from whites ended up in the hands of Mugabe’s
officials, their
relatives and friends.
Land reform has led to
hunger after Mugabe’s government failed to
provide blacks resettled on
former white farms with inputs and skills
training to maintain
production.
An estimated four million Zimbabweans or about a third
of the country’s
12 million population are in need of food aid, according to
international
relief agencies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Tafadzwa Mutasa Friday 01 February
2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe’s top platinum producer Zimplats
Holdings recorded a hefty
jump in revenues in the late quarter of 2007 as
production rose but worries
abound on over electricity shortage, the mining
company said yesterday.
Revenue generated for the last three months of
last year amounted to
US$60.67 million, up from US$38.57 million in the
previous quarter due to
improved production and deliveries of matte from the
processing of
concentrates that had been stockpiled during a furnace
re-line.
Platinum group metal and gold sales rose to 47 516 ounces from
34 049 ounces
over the period.
Zimplats is majority owned by South
Africa's world number two producer,
Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd.
But
increased revenue also meant the company’s operating costs surged 54
percent
on the previous quarter, mainly due to Zimbabwe’s spiraling
inflation, which
is the world’s highest even officially at 26 000 percent,
according to
figures released yesterday by the central bank.
"Costs for the period
were negatively affected by high fuel prices, an
exchange rate that did not
adequately reflect the prevailing rate of
inflation as well as an increase
in the electricity tariff," the company
said.
The country’s top miner
registered a healthy 62 percent jump in operating
profit due to the
continued rise in platinum, rhodium and gold prices on the
world
market.
But Zimplats said it remained concerned by acute power cuts
experienced in
the country, which have worsened since the start of the year
and is blamed
on a serious economic meltdown mainly blamed on President
Robert Mugabe’s
rule.
“Since the end of the quarter, operations have
been adversely affected by
power outages which resulted from problems within
the power supply network
in the sub-region," Zimplats said.
"Although
these problems have been resolved for now, management remains
concerned
about the ongoing power generation and transmission difficulties
and the
possible impact on operations."
Power cuts are one of a myriad problems
threatening the future of Zimbabwe’s
lucrative mining industry, not least
plans by Mugabe’s government to force
foreign-owned mining firms to transfer
majority stake to local blacks,
including a free 25 percent stake to the
state.
A draft government Bill to force share transfers tabled in
Parliament last
December lapsed after the House adjourned without passing
the proposed law.
However, if Mugabe’s government is re-elected in March –
as is most likely –
it could still re-introduce the Bill in Parliament. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
31 January
2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has increased
perks for top army and
police officials and boosted monthly stipends to war
veterans in what is
widely seen as a generous round of patronage to ensure
loyalty with
elections set in March.
Mr. Mugabe upgraded the title of
Augustine Chihuri, formerly commission of
police, to commissioner general of
police, in line with a constitutional
amendment passed last year. He
re-appointed other loyalists including
Defense Forces Commander General
Constantine Chiwenga and Lieutenant General
Philip Sibanda, the army
commander.
Both have publicly expressed their support for Mr. Mugabe and
the ruling
ZANU-PF party. In October 2004, five months before the last
general
election, Chiwenga stated publicly that the army would not support
any
change of government that was "foreign driven," implying that the
opposition
was in the hire of the British government.
They and other
top uniformed officials are to receive new vehicles.
The war veterans,
who from 2000 on served as Mr. Mugabe’s political shock
troops in his
controversial land reform program, will receive Z$200 million
(US$30) a
month.
Chairman Jabulani Sibanda of the War Veterans Association
confirmed the
increase in payments. Economists warned that such generosity
will further
damage the economy by increasing public debt and adding fuel to
already
roaring hyperinflation.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze, director
of the Labor and Economic Development
Research Institute, told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that more money must be printed
to finance what look like
election-year handouts.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: January
31, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa: President Thabo Mbeki
was to report to southern
African leaders on mediation efforts in Zimbabwe,
which were at a "delicate"
stage following the Zimbabwean president's
decision to schedule election
months earlier than the opposition
wants.
Mbeki was to brief a committee of the Southern African Development
Community
Thursday on the fringes of the African Union summit in the
Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa, a statement from the department of foreign
affairs
said.
Mbeki was chosen by SADC as chief mediator last year to
try to resolve
Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crisis through
dialogue between
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
However, there are concerns that the process has been
undermined after
President Robert Mugabe last week unilaterally proclaimed a
March 29 date
for general elections. The opposition had wanted the vote put
off until June
to allow time for political reforms first.
At a media
briefing Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad
said the
facilitation process was in a "very delicate situation."
"The Zimbabwean
issue is a matter that we've been saying for many years is
vital for the
future of our whole region. This is why we've spent an
inordinate amount of
time and resources to get the Zimbabweans to find a
solution," he
said.
Mbeki has long been criticized for his policy of "quiet diplomacy"
toward
Zimbabwe over confronting Mugabe, who is accused of overseeing his
country's
economic and political collapse.
iafrica.com
Aderogba
Obisesan
Thu, 31 Jan 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may have
dealt a fatal blow to Pretoria's
"quiet diplomacy" by calling an election in
the middle of mediation efforts
by his South African counterpart, say
analysts.
Mugabe's announcement last Friday that polling would be on
29 March appeared
to pre-empt a bid by South African President Thabo Mbeki
to get an agreement
between Zimbabwe's government and opposition on the
framework of the ballot.
Mbeki, who has steadfastly refused to publicly
criticise Mugabe despite the
economic meltdown of Zimbabwe, has once again
bitten his lip over what
analysts have interpreted as an insult and a
repudiation of his
softly-softly approach.
"I am not surprised any
longer by whatever Mugabe does. He has always
treated Zimbabwe as his
personal fiefdom," the political analyst and author
Xolela Mangcu told
AFP.
"His latest decision is a demonstration of the failure of Mbeki to
persuade
Mugabe to behave decently."
Mbeki was handed the poisoned
chalice of mediating between Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party and the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change last April by
his fellow leaders from the
Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The 14-member bloc had
hoped that as the leader of the region's powerhouse,
Mbeki was best placed
to bring pressure to bear on his northern neighbour
after Mugabe's security
forces had beaten up several MDC leaders.
But despite Mbeki's assertion
on a trip to Harare a fortnight ago that "good
progress" had been made in
the talks, the opposition was growing
increasingly frustrated at the South
African's failure to squeeze
concessions from Mugabe.
Senior MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa saw no reason to spare Mbeki's
blushes,
describing the election announcement as a "slap in the face" for
his
mediation.
Dirke Kotze, a researcher at the Pretoria's based University
of South Africa
(Unisa), said that Mbeki's task was now even harder if not
impossible.
"Mugabe's decision to unilaterally fix the election date will
definitely
complicate the mediation process. It may even terminate it,"
Kotze told AFP.
"It is an insult to President Mbeki and a slap in the
face of the opposition
... a negative action by Mugabe to suggest that the
negotiation was not
making progress, and so, it could as well come after the
poll."
South Africa's deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad, one of Mbeki's
closest
confidantes, declined to say whether the president had received
prior notice
from Mugabe about the election announcement.
"I do not
want to venture into the Zimbabwe situation at the moment," he
told
reporters at a regular briefing in Pretoria.
"The talks and facilitation
(mediation) are of such a sensitive nature. To
that extent, I would rather
prefer the president to do the briefing on
Zimbabwe."
Adam Habib,
executive director of South Africa's Human Sciences Research
Council
thinktank, said that Mbeki could not help but feel slighted by
Mugabe who
has long resented the idea of anyone interfering in Zimbabwean
politics.
"It will definitely unsettle any mediation effort and
undermine the position
of Mbeki as a mediator. It is Mugabe's direct slight
on Mbeki," said Habib.
Mbeki has been widely criticised for the so-called
"quiet diplomacy" even
though up to three million people are thought to have
fled into South Africa
from Zimbabwe where the official rate of inflation is
now nearly 8,000
percent.
"This quiet diplomacy has not worked," said
Mangcu.
"There is a need to adopt a new approach to the Zimbabwe
problem."
Sapa
Zim Online
by Lizwe Sebatha Friday 01 February
2008
BULAWAYO – National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) workers
have downed tools
demanding salary increases of between 700 and 1 000
percent, ZimOnline has
learnt.
Sources at the NRZ said the workers,
who embarked on a go-slow last Friday,
finally downed tools on Wednesday
after management refused to bow to their
demands.
The NRZ is said to
have only agreed to hike the workers’ salaries by 230
percent, an amount the
workers say is not enough given Zimbabwe’s massive
hyper-inflationary
environment.
A 230 percent salary hike would see the lowest paid worker
at the state
parastatal earning about Z$120 million, up from the current $30
million.
The latest strike by rail workers has hit Zimbabwean workers the
majority of
whom rely on the cheap service for transport. The strike has
seen commuters
in the second city of Bulawayo waiting for hours on end for
transport.
NRZ spokesman, Fanuel Masikati, confirmed the strike action by
workers
adding that the situation was still under control.
“It’s only
a few unruly workers who are trying to influence the negotiation
process.
However, everything is still under control,” said Masikati.
NRZ general
manager, Retired Air Commodore, Mike Karakadzai, said the
“illegal” job
action would cost the company a staggering Z$2 trillion.
“In monetary
terms, the drop in tonnage means whereas the organization had
hoped to earn
income of $5.4 trillion in January 2008, it is now projected
to earn only
$3.6 trillion,” said Karakadzai.
Workers at the NRZ who spoke to
ZimOnline yesterday vowed to press on with
the industrial action until their
demands were met.
“What we are demanding is a living wage and not the
slave wages that
management is offering,” said a member of the NRZ workers
union who refused
to be named for fear of victimisation.
The state
rail firm nearly went into liquidation three years ago due to
gross
mismanagement and underperformance.
The NRZ, now a shadow of its former
self after years of under-funding and
mismanagement, has over the years
struggled to remain viable amid
allegations of interference by the
government. - ZimOnline
By Lance
Guma
31 January 2008
The United States government on Wednesday added
more Zanu PF officials and
companies to a growing list of those under
financial and travel sanctions.
Robert Mugabe’s nephew Leo Mugabe, Happyton
Bonyongwe the head of the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and two
companies with links to Zanu
PF are the new additions. ZIDCO Holdings and
Jongwe Printing and Publishing
Company are said to be controlled by the
ruling party and have joined the
list of blacklisted companies whose
business activities benefit the
oppressive regime in Harare. What the
measures mean is that any bank
accounts or financial assets found in the
United States will be frozen.
The measures are part of attempts to
increase pressure on Mugabe’s regime,
that last week brutally crushed an
opposition march demanding a new
constitution and free and fair elections.
American businesses are barred
from doing business with any of the officials
or companies on the targeted
sanctions list. Adam Szubin, a director in the
Treasury Office of Foreign
Assets Control said, ‘Today’s designations are
part of an increased effort
to pressure those who are aiding Mugabe's
efforts to cripple Zimbabwe,
including through violence and
intimidation.’
Mugabe’s regime has tried to sell the argument that the
entire country is
under sanctions and that this is the reason for the
economic crisis which
has seen inflation unofficially pegged at over 100 000
percent. Observers
however say this is an opportunistic argument as only
selected Zanu PF
officials and companies are targeted. Australia, the United
Kingdom and
other European countries have similar travel and financial
restrictions on
members of Mugabe’s regime.
Last year Australia took
the policy further by deporting the children of
Zanu PF officials studying
in that country. The country’s foreign minister
said it was not the interest
of the country to host these children while
their parents helped commit
human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
SABC
January 31, 2008,
05:45
Church authorities have condemned the manner in which a police raid
was
conducted at the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg last
night. The midnight police raid resulted in the arrest of dozens of illegal
immigrants.
The Central Methodist Church gives shelter to over 1 000
Zimbabweans and a
smaller number of migrants from other countries.
Police
began by rounding up nearly 400 people sleeping in the streets before
assembling those inside the church building.
Men and women, young and
old were loaded onto police trucks and vans and
transported to the John
Vorster Square Police Station.
However, two hours later, those found to
have their papers in order were
brought back to the church. The rest face
the prospect of being deported.
31 Jan 2008 16:43:00 GMT
Source:
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC) -
Switzerland
by Mark South
Website: http://www.ifrc.org
Zimbabwe
has been severely affected by the floods that hit southern Africa
over the
last few weeks, including the Muzarabani area. We have asked four
flood
victims currently staying at an Agricultural Rural Development
Authority
Farm (ARDA) in Muzarabani (Zimbabwe) to explain how they have been
affected.
They all received Red Cross aid in their villages before
evacuating to the
government-run ARDA farm.
Many of the beneficiaries brought Red Cross
issued items with them to the
farm where they have access to clean and
reliable water, sanitation and
food. Most families left some members behind
sheltering in Red Cross tents
pitched on higher ground above the level of
the floods; even though almost
all crops have been destroyed, they do not
want to completely abandon their
fields and villages.
Ribetia Mutoro,
65, from Mvundura Village in Muzarabani
"The floods came early in the
morning. It was seven a.m. and we were getting
ready to go out to the fields
when suddenly the water came in through the
door of my home. My family lost
four huts, they were completely flattened by
the water. I used to have ten
chickens but only one survived. I came to the
ARDA on my own after the
floods last week, even though they are ruined my
two sons and three
grandchildren didn't want to leave our fields behind, I
have no idea where
they are now. We heard a truck was coming to rescue
people from the village
but the truck got stuck and we had to come on foot -
it took me two days to
walk the 80km from my village to the farm here. After
the floods the Red
Cross came and helped us very quickly. They gave us some
blankets, kitchen
equipment, a jerry can, a mosquito net and most
importantly a tent so we had
somewhere to shelter. Then we moved to some
higher ground to keep out of the
water and put the tent up, as far as I know
my family is still there, but I
don't know. When the water came it was
terrifying, I'm getting better now
but whenever I think about what happened
I feel so scared and I've been
having nightmares about it. ater came it was
terrifying, I'm getting better
now but whenever I think about what happened
I feel so scared and I've been
having nightmares about it.
Living at the farm is okay, I miss my family
but at least here I'm away from
the danger of flooding and I know I can get
clean water and food. I've been
told by our village head that he will help
us find a new place to live on
higher land away from the river. I wouldn't
want to return to my old home -
my house has been destroyed and I'd be too
scared of the floods coming
again.
I'd really like to say a big thank
you to the Red Cross and everyone who
helped me and my family, we couldn't
have had any future without the help
they gave us. We had nothing and it was
this help that kept us alive and
gave us the will to carry on, otherwise we
might have given up.
I don't want to go back to my old village, I can't
go back. I am an old
woman but my children and grandchildren are still young
and I want to
prepare a better future for them without the threat of these
floods. All my
food and crops were washed away so I have no chance of
harvesting anything
and nothing to go back to even if I wanted to, I would
just face the same
problems and dangers all over again."
Gertrude
Chamadzi, 22, and two-year-old daughter Gamuchiria Mawrara from
Chadereka
village
"When the floods came, my family's two huts were destroyed and a
lot of our
food stores were washed away. We took refuge in a secondary
school at first
and then a government truck came and brought me and my two
younger sisters
to this farm. Here it is better but there are a lot of
problems in the
flooded area, we can't get clean water and there are a lot
of mosquitoes. We
only had dirty water to drink and we had to give it to the
baby too so I'm
very worried for her health. I don't think she's really
aware what is
happening but she has been very upset. She cries a lot more
now and I think
maybe she has suffered some shock because of the
changes.
The Red Cross gave our family a jerry can, some blankets and a
kitchen set -
although our huts had been destroyed we didn't need a tent
because we moved
to the school. Our houses and everything we had inside them
had gone so the
help from the Red Cross was vital. We were stunned because
we had lost
almost everything and I don't know how we would have managed to
cope without
help from the Red Cross.
The future is looking quite
bleak for us, we've lost our home and our crops
and I don't know what is
going to happen next - things are so uncertain at
the moment that I can't
even begin to plan what to do. I want to be able to
give my daughter a more
certain future so that when she is my age she will
be able to look after
herself and won't face problems like this."
Juliet Chari, 20, came to the
farm from Chadereka with her 3 children:
daughters Ropafadzo, five, and
Rumbidzai, three, and son Frank, three months
"We came in the truck with
my aunt, and left my husband and mother-in-law in
the village. It's been
really difficult to cope, especially with three
children to look after. We
lost everything including all my children's
clothes and the baby's nappies,
so things are really tough. Because the
village is flooded there isn't any
clean drinking water, which is why I
brought the children to the farm. The
Red Cross helped us out with blankets
and a jerry can and a kitchen set, but
what I'm most worried about now is
that we couldn't get a mosquito net and
Frank, my baby, is getting bitten.
I'm really scared he could get
malaria.
I am quite new to the area, Chadereka is my mother in law's
village which is
why I moved here, but I don't want to go back. I don't know
where we will
move to but it will have to be higher ground than before, I
can't face all
this happening again. I want my children to have a safe and
more secure
future, I don't want them to suffer like this.
The help
from the Red Cross has been vital and it without it we would have
been in
real trouble, now I know we're safe, I just hope I can get a
mosquito net,
more nappies for my baby and clothes for my children."
(Before leaving
the farm Zimbabwe Red Cross supplied Juliet with a mosquito
net for her and
her family.)
Leon Cheuseni, 43, from Makombie Village
"At around
six in the morning I was helping friends who had been affected by
the
floods. When I returned home to check on my own property the water was
almost a meter deep in both my huts. To begin with the water came very
slowly so we didn't realize how serious the situation was, then very
suddenly the water was overwhelming. We managed to retrieve a few items but
the flood has left me and my family with basically nothing.
The Red
Cross supplied my family with a kitchen set of cups, spoons, pots
and
plates, a tent, a jerry can and a mosquito net. Without that help I
really
don't now what we would have done - the Red Cross put a roof over our
heads
and made sure we were safe, without them I don't want to think about
what
could have happened.
Now I have to find a new place to live and work
really hard to recover, but
I know I can't live in the same place again,
even though the land there is
good for growing my crops, I'm too scared of
the floods coming back. I lost
everything and now I have to start again from
scratch."
Trudy Stevenson MP, Secretary for Policy and
Research, MDC 31 January 2008
"Why bother going for another election?
You'll lose again, so what's the
point?" This apathy seems common in the
middle and high income groups, and
is now being reinforced by well-funded
civil society leaders, who seem to be
organizing a national publicity
campaign to boycott the forthcoming
elections.
Where in the world has
a boycott of elections ever worked? Do you know of
any country where an
election boycott has led to free and fair elections in
the next round? All
that ever happens is that the dictator just carries on
dictating! I
disagree that participating in an election legitimizes the
outcome. We
declared that the 2002 election was rigged, and that the
outcome was
illegitimate. It is widely recognized internationally that
indeed that
election was rigged - but did it change anything? Comrade
Robert continued
to rule, and the ZanuPF regime was accepted as a de facto
government, if not
de jure.
If citizens boycott the election, what will they do the next
day, when
Comrade Robert and co are back in power with even more seats?
Will they
stop sending their children to government schools because they
don't
recognize the government? Will they refuse to get their passport and
ID,
etc, because they don't recognize the government? How will they travel
in
and out of Zimbabwe, if they don't recognize ZIMRA and the immigration
officials and allow them to stamp their passport, etc? Will they refuse to
use Zimbabwe currency, because they don't recognize the government which
issues it?
What are the alternatives to elections? Demonstrations?
Strikes? Go-Slows?
Marches? The Final Push? Appeals to the outside world?
None of those has yet
removed Mugabe, in the 10+ years people have genuinely
wanted to remove him
from office. In fact, fewer and fewer people are
prepared to march or
demonstrate or strike or go slow, because of the
likelihood of torture or
arrest at the very least. The only other
alternative is the gun. Surely
the apathetic or aggressive "boycott" voice
does not seriously propose to
substitute the bullet for the ballot? Or does
it? If so, that voice is
mad.
We in the Movement for Democratic
Change are committed to peaceful change
through the ballot box. We totally
reject the idea of a new armed struggle,
and we totally reject any form of
violence as means to an end. The
Chimurenga armed struggle brought
independence to Zimbabwe, but its bitter
harvest failed to bring real
freedom or empowerment to the majority of its
people. The MDC believes that
the "how" is as important as the "what" - and
yes, that also applies to
making a new national constitution.
The logic of "boycott because you
can't win" is seriously faulty. To follow
this logic through, no person
should be born, because s/he is going to die
anyway - so what's the point?
So no one should have children, and no one
should themselves have been born
and brought up to participate in society,
because they are going to die one
day, anyway - so why bother? Why
participate in any sport, if you are not
sure you will win? Why do all
those people run in the Comrades, or the
London Marathon, when they know
they won't win? Why write an exam, when you
don't know if the examiner will
be fair or not? Is life fair?
Surely
to try and fail, even over and over again, is better than not to try
at
all? Surely every person's life has meaning, even if that person is
destined to die in the end? Surely there is value and meaning in
participating in any activity for its own sake? Even in a faulty election,
because by participating you are making a statement about what you believe
in and what kind of society you want to build and protect. And surely the
more you try, the more likely you are to win, as you become more
experienced? The opponent will eventually be worn down - even Robert
Mugabe!
Notably, it is the poor and suffering - the majority of
Zimbabweans - who
are most vehement about wanting to vote, in Zimbabwe.
They know Mugabe is
not going to make things easy for his opponents, and
that he will do all in
his power to retain power - whatever it takes. No
government in power has
ever made things easy for its opposition to take
over. There will be no red
carpet leading to the gates of State House! But
the poor and suffering are
ready to go and vote him out, because they know
there is no alternative.
I believe we have already entered the transition
phase, in this country.
Even 6 months ago, I would not have believed you if
you had told me ZanuPF
would agree to all the consessions they made during
the SADC-led talks, when
even Mugabe recognized the MDC. I believe that now
a small breach has
opened up, it cannot be plugged, and will open wider and
wider until real
change sweeps the incumbents away in a torrent. To refuse
to participate in
an election at this stage is mad, because it will be
elections which bring
further transition and real change to Zimbabwe.
Participants in elections
will remain relevant, while those who do not
participate will become
irrelevant.
Let us bother to participate, for
the sake of our country and our future.
Let us not abandon the poor and the
suffering, but join together and vote to
change Zimbabwe for all our
sakes.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Cheap phone calls are available to everyone, but rock-bottom
prices are
clogging up the networks and making it hard for businesses to get
through to
each other.
By Tichaona Chingombe in Harare (AR No. 153,
30-Jan-08)
What with frequent power outages, long periods without running
water and
unreliable telecommunications, doing business in Zimbabwe has
become a
nightmare.
Mobile phones, introduced a decade ago, have also
been affected. As the main
means of communication following the collapse of
other systems, the cellular
network is now under such strain that doing
business by phone can be a
maddening experience.
The government-owned
TelOne, which runs the landline network, has virtually
collapsed and cannot
repair existing lines, let alone install new ones. The
telephone wires are
continually vandalised by unemployed youths, who steal
the metal to sell on
to unscrupulous dealers.
In the absence of working landlines, Zimbabweans
have switched en masse to
mobile technology. Because the government controls
the amount networks are
allowed to charge per minute, the rates have been
kept phenomenally low and
many poorer members of society can now just about
afford mobiles.
As a result, Zimbabweans have become one of the most
talkative nations in
the world, with usage levels that defy the logic of
rising poverty levels in
both rural and urban areas.
Once considered
a status symbol, the mobile phone is now accessible to
everyone, even in the
poorer rural areas. Rich and poor are separated only
by how expensive their
handsets are.
Douglas Mboweni, chief executive of Econet Wireless
Zimbabwe, the biggest
network, says Zimbabweans stay on the phone longer
than anywhere else in
Africa. While the international average for mobile
phone use is 40 minutes a
month, Zimbabweans clock up 200
minutes.
However, the boom in mobile use has a downside - network
congestion is so
bad that people complain it takes them an average of five
attempts to make a
call. The situation worsens during peak hours and gets
even more difficult
at the weekend, when charges are even
lower.
Overuse of the networks has become a major headache for
businesses. An
industry expert who did not want to be named said the
congestion problem had
arisen because of the government’s price cap, imposed
despite evidence from
all over the world that such policies do not
work.
“The real cause of network congestion is not lack of capacity per
se,” said
the expert. “What we have is overuse of the networks because the
rates
charged are simply too low. A lot of business is lost because the
networks
are clogged by idle talk by people who spend hours on the phone
without
generating any revenue for government.”
Added to this were
the frequent power cuts that increase the burden on the
transmission
stations still in operation, he said.
He pointed to the many unemployed
youths who throng the Roadport bus
terminus in Harare, where most of the
black-market currency takes place.
In a normal economy, these young
people would be struggling to buy a prepaid
charge card, he said. “But in
Zimbabwe, these are the people who spend the
day determining the latest rate
of the US dollar to the Zimbabwean dollar.
They have enough airtime to phone
any part of the country and even abroad
any time and virtually control the
foreign currency rate on any given day.”
He concluded, “The long and
short of it is that while government thinks that
low rates will give access
to information to the poor, they are frustrating
expeditious business
operations through network congestion and promoting
illegal foreign currency
deals by the unemployed.”
Nor does this all activity translate into
significant income for the network
companies, as the amount they can charge
is so low at 50,000 Zimbabwean
dollars, ZWD, or one US cent per
minute.
All three networks - Econet Wireless, NetOne and Telecel -
complain that
they cannot increase their network because of the limitations
imposed by
Potraz, the government agency which allocates frequencies and
sets prices.
Econet is the largest operator with nearly a million
subscribers on
contracts or using its popular two prepaid card brands,
Libertie and Buddie.
It is followed by the state-controlled NetOne with some
350,000 subscribers
and then Telecel International with about
200,000.
The companies do not have the foreign currency they need to
import equipment
to expand their coverage or to print new SIM cards. The
only foreign
currency widely available comes from the illegal black market
where one US
dollar now sells for five million ZWD.
The network
operators say they would need to charge at least 450,000 ZWD or
nine US
cents a minute to remain viable, but even this would not be enough
to cover
the costs they have to pay for international calls, which have to
be settled
in foreign currency.
The congestion is exacerbated by the presence of
millions of Zimbabweans
abroad, either in South Africa and other regional
states or in places like
Britain and Australia. According to independent
estimates, the diaspora
accounts for between a quarter and a third of
Zimbabwe’s total population of
close to 12 million.
The emigrants
call home regularly and spend long periods on the phone
speaking to each
family member in turn.
TelOne has recently launched a fixed wireless
system with the help of
Chinese company Huawei Technologies, but this
network is already suffering
the same problems of congestion because
handsets and charges are so cheap.
Tichaona Chingombe is the pseudonym of
a journalist in Zimbabwe.
31 January 2008
Our Ref PR 03/2008
ZEF
Statement on:
South African Police Crackdown on Zimbabwean Refugees
Criminal
Until now South Africa has appeared on the face of it to be
sympathetic to
survivors of human rights abuses from Zimbabwe. However,
yesterday night’s
events compel us to have serious doubts. Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum (ZEF) has
been informed that at around midnight yesterday, the South
African Police,
together with Home Affairs officials, raided the
Johannesburg Methodist
Church. They were ostensibly searching for
undocumented Zimbabweans taking
refugee in the church. Those affected reveal
that Zimbabwean refugees were
beaten up severely with baton sticks, and such
belongings like Television
sets, cell phones, radios and food were
confiscated by the police. Our
informants have confirmed that excessive
force and violence were used, such
that even Bishop Paul Verryn was
assaulted during this operation.
ZEF contends that there is no legal
basis for the police to confiscate
people’s belongings; in fact it is
criminal for them to do so. It is indeed
hypocritical for the South African
government to appear to sympathise with
their Zimbabwean counterparts when
its departments are terrorizing
Zimbabweans in South Africa. It is also in
utter contempt of the church
environment and a desecration for the police to
use violence in a church,
apart from it being cruelly ironic that the very
same people who fled police
brutality from Zimbabwe have to face it again on
this side of the border.
Many of the Zimbabweans facing deportation after
yesterday’s crackdown are
the very people who are awaiting their asylum
status determination by Home
Affairs Department, and amongst them are people
who run the risk of being
tortured upon arrival in Zimbabwe.
In view
of the above, ZEF urges the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister
of Safety
and Security and the Commissioner of Police to reign in their
employees and
urge them to comply with both international and national
refugee laws, to
which South Africa is a party. We also urge them to
publicly condemn what
transpired yesterday. Lastly, ZEF calls upon the
Minister of Foreign Affairs
to accept the request by the African Union’s
African Commission on Human and
People’s Rights Special Rapporteur on
Refugees and Internally Displaced
Persons, to visit South Africa and see for
himself the horrors that
Zimbabwean refugees are sometimes subjected to.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
31 January 2008
12:50
Former Test cricketer Mark Vermeulen has been cleared
of arson
attacks on the Zimbabwe Cricket Board's headquarters after a court
found he
was suffering psychiatric problems, his lawyer said on
Thursday.
Eric Matinenga said Mishrod Guvamombe, the
presiding magistrate
at Wednesday's hearing in Harare, had delivered a
"special verdict", which
meant Vermeulen had not been in control of his
actions when he carried out
the attacks.
"A special
verdict is retained when a person commits an offence
while they are not well
up there. If the person is considered to be
dangerous to society, he is
committed to an institution," the lawyer told
AFP.
"If he
does not pose a danger to society, as was found in this
case, the person is
freed."
At the start of his trial, Vermeulen pleaded not
guilty over the
torching of the cricket association offices at the Harare
Sports Club in
October 2006 and an arson attack at the national training
academy the next
day.
Vladimir Rajkovic, a private
psychiatrist in Harare who examined
Vermeulen, told the court his client
suffered from partial complex epilepsy
and impulsive behaviour disorder
after he was hit and injured by a cricket
ball during a match in
Australia.
The doctor said the condition could only be
controlled by
medication and could not be cured.
The
29-year-old batsman played the last of his eight Test
matches in 2004. --
AFP
IPSnews
By Ignatius
Banda
TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe, Jan 31 (IPS) - They left the country in
search of jobs
to better their lives, but village elders in rural
Tsholotsho, say young men
who left home to fend for their families are
losing their lives at alarming
rates to HIV/AIDS related
ailments.
Tsholotsho, about 150 kilometres south-east of Bulawayo, is one
of many
rural outposts in Matebeleland that have seen thousands of young men
making
the trek to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana in search of
jobs.
But this immigration -- while helping sustain families back home --
has come
at a high price, village elders say.
In Zimbabwe, female
life expectancy stands at 34 years, while for males it
is 37 years,
according to U.N. statistics. Zimbabwe has the lowest life
expectancy in the
world.
"We are witnessing high HIV/AIDS related deaths, with young men
returning
home on their death beds," Norman Dube, a retired secondary school
headmaster who has settled here, told IPS.
"There is an increase in
the number of children being raised by their
grandparents," Dube said,
stressing that, "we now have instances where
funerals are being postponed as
elders say they cannot cope with burial
after burial."
The World
Health Organisation (WHO) and other field experts have noted that
migration
trends especially in sub-Saharan Africa have provided fertile
ground for
HIV/AIDS as spouses are separated for long periods of time and
there is
resistance to the use of prophylactics among rural communities.
"Migrant
labourers have disposable income which could lead to multiple
partners once
they are in South Africa. The men also irregularly use
condoms, especially
with their wives in Zimbabwe," a Southern African
Regional Poverty Network
(SARPN) report titled ‘Mobility and HIV/AIDS in
Southern Africa’
noted.
Zimbabwe's economic crisis has seen millions flee the country in
search of
jobs abroad and in neighbouring countries. While the government
last year
announced a drop in the number of HIV/AIDS statistics, the U.N.
Development
Programme (UNDP) together with the WHO said this could be
because
immigration had made it difficult to adequately trace infection
trends.
In 2007, the Zimbabwean health ministry said HIV prevalence had
fallen to
15.6 percent from 18.1 percent in 2005 and 24.6 percent in 2003,
but these
gains are yet to be reflected in rural communities.
James
McGee, U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, told journalists in Bulawayo the
decline
could be the result of mistaken attribution of deaths to natural
causes and
the inability to identify new diseases amidst such high mortality
rates.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change-controlled
Bulawayo city
council has begun to invite the ire of authorities for
reporting that it is
running out of burial space because of the high
incidence of HIV/AIDS
related deaths.
Maria Guyu, an official with a
faith-based NGO working in rural Tsholotsho
said the continued immigration
of young men and women was worsening the
spread of HIV/AIDS. Rural
communities were especially bearing the brunt of
the problem as they also
lacked critical resources to deal with the crisis,
Guyu said.
"There
are no drugs and anti-retrovirals are unheard of here," Guyu
stressed.
"There are also no medical personnel as young nurses and doctors
do not want
to work in rural areas. We rely on missionary doctors but this
is not
enough. Patients need food, but though we have seen enough rains,
villagers
are starving."
Health workers here say that there is an ever present
reluctance among
partners that condoms cannot be used by couples who --
despite being
separated for long periods -- feel the introduction of condoms
implies one
of them has been unfaithful.
"It is frustrating because
while everyone seems to know young people --
especially who leave the
country -- have sexual relations as seen by the
growing number of deaths to
HIV/AIDS, there is resistance to the use of
condoms," a nurse working in
Tsholotsho told IPS.
"What can we do? We try our best but the greatest
challenge has always been
trying to convince people to change their sexual
habits," the nurse said,
asking that her name not be used for fear that she
may lose her job. "The
immigration of the young people has only made it
worse," she said.