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| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
| Mugabe exiles lift Zambia |
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By ANTONY SGUAZZIN and ANTHONY MUKWITA |
| Miklos Marffy lost his home, his farm and his crop two
years ago when Zimbabwe's Government seized his land. Last year, he grew
US$460,000 ($648,000) of tobacco in neighbouring Zambia after a "reassuring"
visit from President Levy Mwanawasa. Zimbabwe's neighbours are profiting from President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution programme, which, since 2000, has destroyed the world's second-biggest tobacco export industry. More than 340 farmers have relocated to Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania, creating jobs and boosting exports from some of the world's poorest countries. "The entry of Zimbabwean farmers into Zambia is a blessing to agriculture," says Chance Kabaghe, 50, the chairman of Zambia Seed, who was deputy agriculture minister until last month. "They bring with them the latest technology and knowledge." Universal, the world's biggest tobacco-leaf merchant, and No 3 Standard Commercial are backing the farmers so they can get bank loans. Zimbabwe last year accounted for about 4 per cent of global exports of the highest quality flue-cured tobacco. Five years ago, it had about 20 per cent of world exports, second only to Brazil. "Some of the world's best-quality tobacco suddenly disappeared," said Antonio Abrunhosa, chief executive officer of the International Tobacco Growers Association, based in Castelo Branco, Portugal. Chimwemwe Mtonga, senior manager of business support at Lusaka-based Barclays Bank Zambia, said farmers had to invest at least US$150,000 to buy land, install irrigation equipment and build the necessary barns and furnaces. Some had borrowed more than US$1 million. Virginia-based Universal and North Carolina-based Standard Commercial are contracting farmers to grow the tobacco at guaranteed prices and also expect the bigger growers to advise their smaller colleagues. "We expect the commercial farmers will provide expertise to small farmers in a sort of mentoring system," said Universal spokeswoman Karen Whelan. Last year, Universal bought 15 million kg of flue-cured tobacco and 3.5 million tonnes of lower-grade burley from 47 large growers and 5515 small farmers in Zambia. That compares with 3.1 million kg of flue-cured and 1.8 million kg of burley in 2000. The company forecasts Zambia will produce 26.7 million kg of tobacco this year. Universal bought about 14 million kg of tobacco in Zimbabwe last year, down from 100 million kg four years earlier. Abrunhosa said the effect of the farmers moving "has been important in boosting tobacco production. The economic impact is huge." The 150 Zimbabwean farmers who have moved to Zambia also grow soy, wheat and flowers. Some export seed corn to Zimbabwe, once an exporter of crop seeds. In August, Mwanawasa met about 20 former Zimbabwean farmers and promised that the Government would obey the law and respect their property rights. "It was really reassuring to have the President welcome you," Marffy said. Tobacco production is helping reduce Zambia's dependence on its major exports of copper and cobalt. Kabaghe said agriculture now accounted for 17 per cent of economic output. In 1990, the figure was 12 per cent. Tobacco production has more than tripled in the past four years and the Government forecasts exports of the crop will total US$40 million this season. Zimbabwe's land seizures, which began in 2000 as Mugabe pledged to return land stolen from blacks in colonial times, have shut most of the country's 4000 commercial farms, displaced many of the country's 310,000 farmworkers and deepened a six-year recession. The IMF said the economy shrank 30 per cent in five years and unemployment was more than 70 per cent. - BLOOMBERG |
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Mugabe calls key Zimbabwe elections for March 3102-01-2005, 17h58 |
HARARE (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe set March 31 as the date for key parliamentary elections that will be closely watched to gauge whether Zimbabwe can live up to its pledge to hold free and fair polls. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has yet to decide whether it will take part in the elections for the 120 contested seats in the 150-member parliament. The announcement was made in a special copy of the government gazette which said parliament will be dissolved on March 30, a day before the nationwide vote. "I do by this proclamation fix Thursday the 31st March 2005 as the day of the general election," Mugabe said in the decision contained in the gazette. The move was criticised by the MDC which reiterated its view that Zimbabwe was not ready to hold elections that would be internationally-recognized as democratic. "This date will have the effect of disabling the institutions that needed more time to establish themselves," said MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube. Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, which has been in power in the southern African country since independence in 1980, is hoping to consolidate its hold on power. Riding a wave of discontent over plummetting living standards, the MDC managed to pose a serious challenge to Mugabe in the last elections five years ago, winning nearly half of the 120 contested seats. The polls are being seen as a litmus test of Zimbabwe's commitment to hold transparent elections following controversial polls in 2000 and 2002 which were marred by allegations of violence and fraud. Mugabe has said his government would allow only election observer groups from Third World countries. The MDC charges that the conditions for holding the elections are flawed, citing police harassment of their supporters and new election laws that give Mugabe the power to appoint members to a commission supervising the vote. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the polls would help end 25 years of "tyranny" regardless of whether or not his party contested the elections. "For the first time in 25 years, it is clear to the tormentor and the tormented that the end is in sight," he said in his weekly newsletter. "Whether we opt to stay at home or not, the ensuing consequences (of the polls) shall push the political temperature beyond boiling point and hasten the demise of tyranny in our country." The government earlier decided to drop its appeal against a court ruling acquitting Tsvangirai of plotting to kill Mugabe. ZANU-PF has in the run-up to the poll tried to shore up its image by holding primary elections to choose popular candidates. Four ministers were felled in the process. Also axed from the upcoming polls is the country's once powerful Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who was allegedly barred for supposedly plotting a coup against Mugabe, a charge he denies. The party's image has however taken a bashing with some senior members allegedly accused of selling inside party information to a South African spy, who is now in detention in Zimbabwe. But ZANU-PF, through the state media, has been playing up its role as well as Mugabe's in "liberating" the country. Zimbabwe marks its 25th independence anniversary on April 18. The other problems dogging the party relate to the abysmal state of Zimbabwe's economy, which critics say was partly fuelled by the controversial seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks leading to a decline in production. Zimbabwe currently has the world's highest inflation rate, 70 percent unemployment and there are fears of food shortages. |
| Harare 01 February 2005 |
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| Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe |
Two weeks of national voter registration ended on Sunday with many people in various parts of Harare complaining that their names were no longer on the roll. Some people have reported to the MDC that some of them discovered they had been transferred to other districts, far from their homes. Others say their names do not appear anywhere on the voters rolls.
Mr. Biti said he was going to court using one well-documented example of exclusion to prove his point about the voters roll.
A woman from another electoral district in Harare said last weekend, shortly before voting registration ended, that she had been voting in the same area all her life. She said she discovered she was no longer registered as a voter in her home area. She said she did not have resources to travel to the city center to see the national roll and check if her name was on it.
Mr. Biti said the constitution also allowed non-citizens who were permanent residents to vote, but he said he knew of several who had been excluded.
Voter registration took place without any observers and there is no right of appeal under present electoral laws, except recourse to the courts.
The registrar-general's office controls voter registration and there were no officials in the office to take calls.
The MDC has more than 30 legal challenges outstanding from the last general election in 2000 and the presidential poll two years later. Much of the evidence the MDC says it would present to court if it had the opportunity would be allegations about duplications on the voters roll.
The registrar general's office has refused to give the MDC an electronic version of the voters roll so the party can check duplications through unique identity numbers.
There are 5.6 million registered voters in Zimbabwe, nearly half the
population. A recent report on the population published by the University of
Zimbabwe's department of statistics predicted a maximum of about 4.8 million
voters should be eligible if 80 percent of people above age 18 registered. The
MDC is expected to announce it will participate in the elections after a meeting
of its national council Thursday.
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - A group of Zimbabweans based in Britain have filed an
urgent application in the Supreme Court challenging laws that bar them from
voting in elections due in March, their lawyer says.
Under existing electoral legislation, only those Zimbabweans out of their
home constituencies on national duty during elections can cast postal votes -- a
stipulation critics say has disenfranchised more than 3 million Zimbabweans
living abroad.
Harare lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said on Tuesday she had filed court papers on
behalf of six Zimbabweans who argue that the law "curtails our rights to freedom
of expression as it clearly curtails our rights to express ourselves politically
through the electoral process".
In the application, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, the
six said President Robert Mugabe's government should honour the right of
nationals abroad to vote in Zimbabwe's elections in the same manner it had
accepted their help in reviving the southern African country's ailing economy.
"This acceptance has manifested itself through programmes such as the
Homelink in terms of which Zimbabweans in the diaspora send to Zimbabwe through
government channels much needed foreign currency which is in turn used for such
necessary imports such as fuel and electricity," the application said.
An estimated 3.5 million Zimbabweans live outside the country, some having
fled political turmoil over the past five years, while the majority sought
better living conditions in the face of an economic crisis which has seen
inflation soar to three-digit levels. Unemployment is over 70 percent.
Critics blame the crisis on Mugabe's government, which they say wants to
block Zimbabweans abroad from voting because it perceives them to support the
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has emerged as the
stiffest challenge to Mugabe's 25-year grip on power.
The MDC says the ruling ZANU-PF party rigged parliamentary elections in 2000
and a presidential vote which Mugabe controversially won two years later.
Mugabe insists he won fairly, and charges the MDC is a puppet of former
colonial power Britain which Harare claims has led a campaign to undermine the
economy over the seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution
among landless blacks.
