Army forces research institutions to grow maize

Zim Online

Monday 05 February 2007

HARARE - The Zimbabwean army has ordered two leading agricultural research
institutions to abandon their research activities and throw their weight
behind an army-run maize production programme, ZimOnline has learnt.

The army has since 2005 moved onto former white farms across the country to
produce strategic crops such as maize and wheat under a Stalinist-style
command agriculture programme code-named "Operation Maguta".

According to sources within the agriculture ministry, the soldiers told
agronomists at Domboshawa Research Station outside Harare on 12 January this
year to stop their research work and put close to 100 hectares of land under
maize.

A similar order was issued out at Mokoholi institute in the southern
Masvingo province.

The two institutions own farms that they use for research and conduct trials
on agricultural seed varieties and technologies.

But agronomists at the two institutions refused to accept the instruction
arguing that it would be a waste of resources as it was already too late to
plant any maize.

The maize-planting season in Zimbabwe begins between mid-October and late
November.

In a show of force, the soldiers who threatened to beat up the agronomists,
then dumped the maize seed and bags of fertilizer at Domboshawa insisting
that planting should go ahead as per their instruction.

The crop had still not been planted last week owing to a serious shortage of
fuel for tillage, sources said.

Last week, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, ordered the two institutions to
use draught power to till the land and plant the maize with the minister
insisting that the "army was serious on the project".

An agronomist at Domboshawa told ZimOnline: "Planting should normally be
completed by early December. Maize takes 90 days to mature for short season
grains and 120 days for long season varieties.

"But the soldiers were adamant that planting should go ahead, and even
threatened to beat us up, accusing us of trying to sabotage Operation
Maguta.

"Made says we must go ahead because the army is serious about food
production. They are hoping that the rain season would miraculously stretch
to April or May."

Made could not be reached for comment on the matter yesterday.

But Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi confirmed that the army was pushing
agricultural research institutions to spearhead maize production in the
country.

"The army has come out of the barracks to ensure food security and we cannot
leave anything to chance. Everything else is coming second.

"We are in charge of the programme and we are dictating the pace," he said.

The Zimbabwean government has in the past admitted that the army-run food
production programme had failed with very little food having been produced
at the farms because of lack of resources.

Zimbabwe has grappled with severe food shortages over the past seven years
after Mugabe seized white farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

The food crisis is only one of many acute symptoms of an economic crisis
that has also spawned shortages of fuel, electricity, essential medicines,
hard cash and just about every basic survival commodity.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and major Western
governments blame Mugabe for ruining the country. Mugabe however denies the
charge blaming the crisis on sabotage by Western governments opposed to his
seizure of white land. - ZimOnline

MDC supporters seize grain in protest over discrimination

Zim Online

Monday 05 February 2007

By Menzi Sibanda

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe opposition supporters in the southern district of Nkayi
at the weekend impounded eight tonnes of grain as tempers flared over unfair
grain distribution in the district.

Nkayi, which lies about 230 kilometres north of the second biggest city of
Bulawayo, is a stronghold of the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party.

Police had to be called in to quell the disturbances between the ZANU PF and
MDC supporters apparently fed up with the distribution that favoured ruling
party supporters.

Sources with the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the only body that is allowed
to sell grain to individuals, told ZimOnline yesterday that trouble began
after ZANU PF hoarded the grain which was meant for distribution to
villagers in the district.

But MDC supporters, fed up with discriminatory practices in food
distribution, impounded the grain that was meant to be sold to ruling party
supporters.

Contacted for comment, police spokesman for Matabeleland North province,
Augustine Zimbili sought to downplay the clashes saying it was a "minor
issue."

 "There was a problem indeed but it was a minor issue that we quickly
resolved," said Zimbili.

A senior official with the GMB confirmed the scuffle over food.

"There whole thing appears political because each time we deliver maize, it
goes straight to ZANU PF supporters who sell it amongst themselves and deny
MDC supporters from buying the maize."

Nkayi legislator, Abednico Bhebhe, who belongs to the smaller faction of the
splintered MDC, blamed the riots on politicisation of food handouts in the
district.

"I was there when our supporters impounded the maize and I had to intervene
to cool down the tampers.

"The maize was meant to be sold to everyone, but because of ZANU PF's
culture of politicising everything, they tried to sell it amongst
themselves, leaving out our supporters," said Bhebhe.

Bhebhe said the two rival political parties later reached a compromise
leading to the maize being later sold to everyone regardless of political
party affiliation.

The MDC and human rights groups have in the past accused ZANU PF of using
food aid as a political weapon, a charge the ruling party denies. -
ZimOnline

MP hires soldiers to chase white farmer from farmhouse

Zim Online

Monday 05 February 2007

By Regerai Marwezu

MASVINGO - A former white commercial farmer last week fled his home in
Chiredzi after a senior ZANU PF legislator Titus Maluleke hired armed
soldiers to forcibly remove him from the farmhouse.

According to sources within the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), the former
farmer, Collin Labat, lost his farm in Hippo Valley Estates in Chiredzi
under the government's controversial land reforms in 2003.

He was however allowed by the government to stay in his farmhouse as long as
he did not interfere with newly resettled black farmers who were allocated
sugar cane plots on his farm.

Maluleke, who was among those allocated plots on the farm, had since 2003
tried without success to push out Labat from the farmhouse.

Relations between Maluleke and Labat reached boiling point last week after
soldiers clad in full military gear stormed the farmhouse and gave Labat 48
hours to vacate the property.

"I can confirm that Mr Labat was chased away by armed soldiers. As I speak
now we do not know anything about his whereabouts," said Clive Cow a senior
official with the CFU.

"He had been allowed to stay in his farm house but we are surprised by the
move taken by the MP," he added.

Contacted for comment at the weekend, Maluleke confirmed that he had taken
over the farmhouse but denied he hired soldiers to chase away the former
farmer.

'"It is true that I moved into the farmhouse after Mr Labat departure. I
invited the soldiers to stay with me at the farmhouse temporarily because
they do not have anywhere to stay in Chiredzi," said Maluleke.

Earlier this month, the government ordered 15 white farmers to vacate their
properties as the purge against the farmers that began in 2000 continued.

Zimbabwe has grappled with severe food shortages over the past seven years
following the disturbances on white commercial farms.

The country has relied on food imports and handouts from international food
agencies because the new black farmers have failed to maintain production on
the farms. - ZimOnline

Media body says there is no law barring setting up of voluntary council

Zim Online

Monday 05 February 2007

BULAWAYO - The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) says it is forging
ahead with plans to set up a voluntary media council despite criticism from
President Robert Mugabe's nephew.

Last week, Leo Mugabe, told journalists that the council could only be set
up if the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) was
amended to allow the council to exist alongside the state commission.

Mugabe is the chairman of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Transport and
Communications.

In a statement released at the weekend, MISA-Zimbabwe said "there is no law
in Zimbabwe that stops the formation of a voluntary body that regulates the
operations of the media."

MISA also rejected charges by Mugabe that the media were being
confrontational in setting up the council.

"MISA-Zimbabwe is cognisant of the fact that the path to media
self-regulation has historically been fraught with bitter struggles between
the media industry and the government(s) that believe in a compliant and
sycophant media.

"When the media then embarks on a self-regulatory mechanism, it cannot,
therefore be accused of being reactionary and confrontational as alluded by
Hon Mugabe. It must be noted that there were no consultations when AIPPA was
passed into law," said Misa.

The Media Council of Zimbabwe is a brain-child of the Media Alliance of
Zimbabwe (MAZ), which groups the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, the Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum as well
as the Zimbabwe Association of Editors.

MAZ said it will go ahead with plans to launch the council at the end of
this week.

Zimbabwe has some of the harshest media laws in the world which have seen at
least four newspapers being shut down in the last four years for allegedly
violating the tough laws. - ZimOnline

South Africa "should consider cutting electricity to neighbours"

The Raw Story

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday February 4, 2007

Johannesburg- South Africa's national electricity supplier Eskom should
consider cutting its exports to neighbouring countries if it cannot meet
domestic demand, a report cited by The Sunday Independent recommended in the
wake of recent widespread blackouts. Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique and
Lesotho have long-term supply contracts with Eskom, while Namibia, Zambia
and Zimbabwe have short- term agreements with the semi-state company.

The confidential report, compiled for the department of public enterprise
last July, also criticized Eskom for what it called its lack of transparency
on supply security.

The company should look at how it could limit exports given that its
reserves could hardly cover South African needs, the reports' authors
recommended, according to the Independent.

South African businesses and consumers were hit by widespread power outages
in mid-January as supply shortages prompted Eskom to engage in load-shedding
across the country.

Eskom blamed the outages on technical problems at some of its generating
stations but analysts warn the country is headed for more blackouts given
Eskom's perilously low level of reserves.

One energy expert told the Independent that a healthy level of reserves was
about 15 per cent and estimated that Eskom was currently operating at under
1 per cent below full capacity.

Eskom has budgeted 97 billion rand (13.5 billion dollars) towards improved
generation, transmission and distribution but new base-load stations are not
expected to come online for several years.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency

High fees, staff exodus ravage Zim schools

Mail and Guardian

Fanuel Jongwe | Harare, Zimbabwe

04 February 2007 10:03

            The empty chairs in the classroom at Hatcliffe, a township north
of the Zimbabwean capital Harare, are a familiar sight in many schools in
the economically-blighted country.

            A few weeks after schools opened for the year's first term, six
pupils in a class of 34 had not shown up and schoolteacher Aaron Maturure
was beginning to worry.

            "Maybe their parents have failed to raise school fees for them
or their parents can't buy them school uniforms ... as you know prices have
shot up," Maturure said.

            "The children enjoy school so much they would never miss classes
for flimsy reasons."

            Government schools are not free in Zimbabwe but charge lower
rates than private ones. There are a handful of bursaries for some poor
students.

            Takavafira Zhou, president of the radical Progressive Teachers'
Union, said at least 45 000 pupils had dropped out of school when the new
term began in January, while up to 5 000 teachers had left the government
service.

            "This is lowering standards as it heaps the burden on the
remaining teachers," he said.

            "Access to education is now based on means rather than merit.
This is retrogressive. It reverses the gains made over the years."

            A steep rise in school fees and the exorbitant price of uniforms
and stationery have driven the cost of education beyond the reach of many.

            Poor families reeling under record inflation which peaked to a
new high of 1 281% in December often face the tough choice between
starvation and educating their children.

            "Two of my three children are supposed to be in school but I
failed to raise school fees after they went up," said Norice Kachaka, a
resident of northern Harare.

            Authorities raised school fees by up to 1 000% in a move aimed
at improving facilities in state schools, which mostly operate without
adequate textbooks and laboratory equipment. Some of the buildings need
urgent repairs.

            "Tell me what future there is for these children who can't even
go to primary school because of the high fees?" said Farisai Mutanga, whose
three children were sent home for not wearing proper uniforms.

            A primary school pupil pays an average of Z$30 000 ($120) a term
in fees, up from around Z$7 000 last year.

            School uniforms, which includes shoes, sneakers, a pullover, a
blazer and a hat, can now cost up to Z$400 000.

            To skimp on uniforms, which are compulsory, some parents stitch
it themselves but the price of material is also making that option
unaffordable.

            A metre of cloth ranges from Z$12 000 to Z$20 000.

            A lack of resources, high fees and an exodus of teachers are
reversing the gains of Zimbabwe's "education for all" policy launched in the
1980s, which made the Southern African country one of the most literate on
the continent.

            Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZMTA) chief executive officer
Peter Mabande said scores of trained teachers were heading to South Africa
to do menial jobs that paid more.

            Mabande said they often left without informing school
authorities or their union, making it difficult to estimate numbers but
underlined that it was "a huge investment going to waste".

            "We have heard cases of our members doing menial jobs on farms
in South Africa, hoping to get a teaching job later," Mabande said.

            "We can't take three years training professionals only to lose
them. The situation is bad, they want to survive on their salaries which are
a pittance really.

            This, he said, was driving teachers to moonlight as street
hawkers, farm labourers or traders to supplement their income.

            "Some of the things teachers end up doing for survival are
demeaning to the profession. You have teachers who cross borders nearly
every week to buy things for resale and in the end they are no different
from the ordinary trader."

            President Robert Mugabe, himself a former teacher, last month
pledged to improve the lot of teachers and make education affordable to all.

            He rapped schools charging exorbitant fees, saying: "We are not
saying run schools at a loss. No. We are saying there should be a little
margin of profit but not outrageous ones." - Sapa-AFP

Workers run from Mugabe's farmers

From The Sunday Times (SA), 4 February

Own correspondent

Harare - John Mtisi, a former farm labourer at a sprawling maize farm
allocated to one of President Robert Mugabe's henchmen under the government's
controversial land reform programme, can't remember the number of times he
has been arrested and fined for peddling all sorts of goods at illegal
vending sites on the streets of Harare. The thirty-five-year-old father of
four also has no qualms about paying the occasional bribe to avoid arrest.
"These new farmers don't pay," says Mtisi, in reference to the black farmers
occupying properties seized by President Mugabe under his land
redistribution programme. "I would rather take the risk and pay a fine. They
pay slave wages." He was getting Z$5000 a month for working on the maize
farm, which previously belonged to a white commercial farmer now exiled in
neighbouring Zambia. (Zambia extended an olive branch to about 100 of
Zimbabwe's former commercial farmers.) Nowadays, Mtisi, just like millions
of unemployed Zimbabweans, is eking out a living on the streets and has to
continually deal with law-enforcement agents in the fight to put food on the
table for his family of five, including his unemployed wife Sandra.

Pointing at his makeshift stall filled with vegetables, used clothes and
fuel funnels, Mtisi says: "Here I can make thrice what we were being offered
at the farm in Mazowe." And Mtisi is certainly not alone in this
predicament. Kumbirai Pfende traded in his gumboots and farm overalls to pan
for gold in the disused mines in Kadoma town, situated 140km from Harare. He
also cites poor pay and appalling working conditions as his reasons for
leaving the farm he worked at in Norton, a rich farming region about 40km
northwest of Harare. The father of seven said the property, which used to
produce flowers destined for export to Europe, had been reduced to a dust
bowl as disgruntled labourers migrated to nearby Harare and other towns
offering alternative menial jobs. "I was paid in old overalls and other used
clothes instead of cash. If the clothes were not in tatters, they were
oversized," he said. "We were better off with the varungu [whites]," he
added nostalgically. Pfende had clocked up 15 years with his previous white
employer John Smith, now farming in New Zealand, before being "inherited"
together with other labourers by a new black boss, known by his Chimurenga
name as Pedza Mabhunu, which means "kill whites".

The General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe , which
represents 250000 farm workers, says it is still compiling statistics on the
staff exodus that has hit the commercial farming sector. "The figure is
high. It runs into several thousands, as workers are running away in droves
because of insulting low wages," says Gertrude Hambira, the union's
secretary general. According to the union , most farm workers in Zimbabwe
are paid a monthly salary of Z$8300, which is not enough to buy a kilogram
of beef at Z$15000. Statistics released by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
, show that a low- income family of five needs about Z$350000 to buy basic
foodstuffs such as bread, cooking oil, meat, vegetables and soap. Hambira
says most new farmers behaved as if they are doing farm workers a favour yet
they are contributing to their predicament. "We don't want donations but
cash, just like any other working person in Zimbabwe," she says. Walter
Mzembi, the chairman of Zimbabwe's parliamentary portfolio committee on
agriculture, lands, land reform and land resettlement, says the government
is worried about the exodus of staff in the sector, with newly resettled
black farmers complaining that workers are reluctant to work on their farms.
"This is disturbing and does not augur well for development in agriculture,"
says Mzembi, whose committee has instituted a probe into the contentious
issue of low salaries. "The new farmers should pay just as the former white
farmers used to do. "

In Africa, China's expansion begins to stir resentment

Investment boom fuels 'colonialism' charges; a tragedy in Zambia

02 February 2007

CHAMBISHI, Zambia - 

Chinese President Hu Jintao embarked on an upbeat tour of Africa this week, doling out aid and lauding China's growing economic and political ties with the continent.

But there is little love for China in this ramshackle township, which had to be dropped from the agenda of President Hu's weekend visit to Zambia because of likely unrest.

Set amid rolling hills in Zambia's copper belt, Chambishi was supposed to be a showcase of Sino-African friendship. China's state metals conglomerate, China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., bought the mothballed copper mine here in 1998, bringing plenty of jobs and investments. Initial gratitude, however, quickly turned into seething discontent, as the new Chinese owners banned union activity and cut corners on safety. In 2005, dozens of locals were killed in a blast at the Chinese explosives facility serving the mine -- the worst industrial disaster in Zambia's history. Then, the following year, protesting Zambian employees were sprayed with gunfire. "The Chinese, they don't even consider us to be human beings," complains Albert Mwanaumo, a former Chambishi miner who says he was shot by a Chinese supervisor. "They think they have the right to rule us."

Yaroslav Trofimov

Chinese-owned shops now dominate the main market in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

Similar feelings of resentment about China's unfolding scramble for influence in Africa are beginning to bubble up across the continent. African leaders still hail China's burgeoning involvement as a solution to Africa's woes and a welcome alternative to the West. But among ordinary Africans, appreciation of this unprecedented influx of Chinese investments, products and settlers isn't nearly as uniform. Recognizing this opinion shift, South African President Thabo Mbeki has repeatedly cautioned in recent weeks that China risks replicating in Africa a "colonial relationship" of the kind that existed under white rule.

These concerns testify to China's maturing as a global economic and political superpower, a force that's beginning to challenge world-wide influence of the U.S. and Europe. That's especially true here in Africa, a continent dismissed by many Westerners as a hopeless case, and treated by Beijing as a high-priority area of national interest.

Nowhere has this grass-roots backlash been stronger than in Zambia. In elections last fall, opposition leader Michael Sata ran for president on a platform of outright China-bashing, unleashing against Beijing the same kind of fury that populist radicals in Latin America or the Middle East direct at the U.S. "Zambia is becoming a province -- no, a district -- of China," he thundered. "We've removed one foreign power and we don't want another foreign power here, especially one that is not a democracy."

Widespread Support

Though Mr. Sata failed to dislodge the China-backed incumbent, his Patriotic Front movement secured widespread support: It now controls Zambia's capital city Lusaka and most municipal governments in the nation's copper-rich mining areas. Following the Zambian campaign, similar political sentiments came to the open in neighboring countries, such as Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Lesotho.

"Among ordinary people, a very strong resentment, bordering on racism, is emerging against the Chinese," says Henning Melber, a former activist in Namibia's struggle for majority rule who now heads the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation think tank in Sweden. "It's because the Chinese are seen as backing the [African] governments in oppressing their own people."

China's hunger for raw materials is the main reason why it's become so involved in African affairs. Sino-African trade in 2006 more than quadrupled to more than $55 billion since 2002, and is expected to hit $100 billion by 2010. Angola has overtaken Saudi Arabia as China's main source of oil, with large-scale supplies also flowing from Sudan and Nigeria. Chinese companies have sought Guinea's bauxite, Namibia's uranium, and the assortment of rare metals that are found in the Congo, formerly known as Zaire.

In Zambia, a landlocked country of 11.5 million, the main draw for China is copper -- and the recent outcry is rooted in the tragic events that followed China's investment at the mine in Chambishi. China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining purchased the mine, which had been shuttered since 1987, for $20 million. It stepped forward after a Canadian company that had initially won the tender pulled out of the deal. Investing more than $100 million in the property, the Chinese conglomerate's Zambian unit, called NFC Africa Mining PLC, restarted production in late 2001, ramping up output to reach 50,000 metric tons of copper concentrate last year.

Dozens of Chinese managers and supervisors settled in the township, a maze of trash-strewn dirt alleys set across the paved road from the mine. Inside the mine itself, a red Chinese flag was hoisted above a wall covered with inspirational words of Wu Bangguo, chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress: "To Rouse Yourself in Vigorous Efforts to Make the Company Prosperous!"

As part of its prosperity plan, the mine's management paid Zambian employees less than the minimum wage, currently $67 a month, and strictly prohibited union activity, according to employees and union officials. A 2004 memo to staff, which still hangs inside NFC Africa offices, warned of "severe punishment" for anyone attending meetings of the "so-called action group [of union organizers], which is illegal." People suspected of union involvement were fired on the spot, says Gillian Mubanga, the current union leader at the mine.

To drive up production and save on costs, NFC also established on the Chambishi property a joint venture with the Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dubbed BGRIMM Explosives Ltd., it set out to manufacture cheap explosives for the region's mining industry. "BGRIMM -- Turning Your Rocks Into Gold," boasted advertisement billboards that still dot the roadsides across Zambia's Copper Belt region.

Then, one sunny morning in April 2005, Chambishi was rocked by a huge blast. Earth shook and windowpanes broke in nearby houses. A runaway chemical reaction turned the BGRIMM facility into a giant fireball, pulverizing the entire structure. A total of 46 Zambian employees of BGRIMM were killed, their charred body parts strewn around the smoldering crater. Eyewitnesses say the Chinese staff had hurriedly driven away from the site shortly before this explosion occurred. Local residents theorize that the Chinese realized something was about to happen and didn't bother warning African employees before fleeing themselves.

Anger Intensifies

Unable to identify individual remains, the victims' families have had to bury plastic bags packed with flesh randomly collected at the site. Anger against the Chinese was intensified by widespread belief that safety rules had been flouted in pursuit of profit at the plant. "The Chinese didn't care about our children -- they just sacrificed them," said Iris Chibuye, a grieving mother whose 24-year-old son Sledge and 27-year-old daughter Vennie, a computer technician educated in Britain, both died in the BGRIMM disaster.

Though the Chinese government sent condolences to victims' families, and eventually paid compensation of about $10,000 per killed employee, the anger didn't abate. As the Zambian government began an inquiry into the accident, the absence of union oversight was cited as the key cause of safety failures at BGRIMM. Public pressure made it impossible for the mine's management to continue prohibiting union activity any longer.

In November 2005, NFC Africa deputy CEO Wang Xiaowei shook hands with Zambia's National Union of Miners and Allied Workers leader Albert Mando, and signed a collective agreement that finally installed new safety measures and promised a salary increase. Assuring that the company treats its Zambian workers as "family members," Mr. Wang also urged the union "to understand that the high operational costs may often compromise the working conditions of employees," according to NFC Africa's in-house newsletter.

After drawn-out negotiations with the unions, NFC Africa set July 25, 2006, as the date for giving its workers back pay, in accordance with the new agreements. Miners had been expecting payments of as much as $500 each -- but were told on payday that they would receive only a few dollars, and in some cases even owe money to the company. On the evening of July 24, night-shift miners, stunned to hear that they wouldn't be getting the expected cash, stopped work, vandalized equipment and beat up a Chinese supervisor. The following day, furious morning-shift employees blocked the main road in Chambishi with tree trunks and stones, marching toward the mine.

As a scuffle broke out at the gate, mine security fired at one of the protesters, wounding him. According to witnesses, as false rumors that he had been killed spread across Chambishi, another group of about 40 NFC Africa miners from a later shift rushed toward the residential compound of Chinese employees, set on a winding road inside the township.

At the white-and-blue gate into the walled compound, a Chinese supervisor, known to the Zambian miners simply as Mr. Qui, took out a shotgun and opened fire as the crowd approached, according to witness accounts. Hit by the shots, three demonstrators collapsed on the ground, blood gushing out. Mr. Mwanaumo, a 34-year-old jackhammer operator who says he didn't take part in the initial protest, ran to the site after hearing that a close friend had been shot. As Mr. Mwanaumo pulled his injured comrade away, a new volley of fire burrowed into his back. According to his medical report, two lead fragments are still lodged in his body, too close to the vital organs to be safely extracted in the local hospital.

A day after these shootings, Mr. Qui hastily left Chambishi. Mr. Mwanaumo, like the other wounded workers, was fired. Feeling too sick to work, he spends his days in a tiny, dark hut set amid sewage-soaked mud, hoping that relatives and friends will collect enough money to file a compensation lawsuit.

Investigation Continues

The Zambian government investigation into the incident is still continuing, as is the inquiry into the 2005 BGRIMM disaster. Xu Riyong, NFC Africa's company secretary and manager of administration, declined to discuss the details of these events, or elaborate on Mr. Qui's status, saying that the company has already made a comprehensive report to the Zambian government on the matter.

"By complying with the laws of Zambia, we are confident that no problems will come to us," said Mr. Xu, the only NFC Africa official who agreed to be interviewed for this story. "We will do our best to run this mine successfully. We have to keep quiet and to keep working. Why should we fear?"

The Zambian government has so far apportioned no blame for the Chambishi tragedy. In an interview, Zambia's minister of mines, Kalombo Mwansa, declined to forecast when the investigations into the explosion and the shootings at the mine might be concluded, when the report will be released, and whether any penalties might be levied against the Chinese company. In the meantime, he said, NFC Africa's BGRIMM affiliate has been allowed to rebuild and reopen an explosives factory at the site of the 2005 tragedy. NFC Africa has also announced that it will invest $220 million into a crude-copper smelting plant in Chambishi. President Hu was scheduled to visit Chambishi this weekend to lay the cornerstone for the smelter -- but, according to Zambian officials, this part of his schedule was called off because of planned protests by miners and families of BGRIMM explosion victims.

The risks in Chambishi are real. Sitting next to Mr. Mwanaumo, the worker who was shot in July, a friend currently employed by NFC Africa warned of even bloodier unrest to come at the mine. "There will be a strike soon if they don't improve our salary, and a lot of people will die," he said. "This time the police won't be able to contain us." The management seems to be getting the message. On a recent afternoon, workers were busy at the Chinese staff's Chambishi residential compound. Perched on the perimeter wall, they reinforced fortifications, installing a new row of high-voltage fencing atop an existing layer of spiky glass shards.

Poetry and Race Relations in Zimbabwe

OhMyNews

An interview with author John Eppel

            Ambrose Musiyiwa

Published 2007-02-04 12:42 (KST)

      In addition to writing short stories, John Eppel is also an
award-winning poet and novelist.

      His list of achievements is impressive. His first novel, D.G.G.
Berry's The Great North Road (1992), won the M-Net Prize in South Africa.
His second novel, Hatchings (1993), was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and
his third novel, The Giraffe Man (1994), has been translated into French.

      His first poetry collection, Spoils of War (1989), won the Ingrid
Jonker Prize. Other poems have been featured in anthologies that include The
Heart in Exile South African Poetry in English 1990-1995 (1996) while his
short stories have appeared in anthologies that include Writing Now: More
Stories from Zimbabwe (2005).

      In a recent email interview, John Eppel spoke about his writing.

      When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

      About age 12. Around that time I stopped believing in God, I became
consciously aware of my mortality, I began to feel uneasy about my
privileged status as a white boy, and I fell in love with a girl who barely
noticed me. So even at that age, it was a sense of loss combined with a
flair for rhyme, which made me want to become a writer. Perhaps because I'm
left-handed, I think metaphorically, which is the way lyric poets apprehend
the world.

      Who would you say has influenced you the most?

      British writers and, marginally, North American and European writers.
In my formative years I had no access to literature in English which was
coming out of Africa and other colonised parts of the world. Our teachers in
primary school were expats from England, Wales and Scotland, and they were
very patriotic about the homes they had abandoned. Our little heads were
stuffed with characters like Robin Hood, King Arthur, and the Billy Goats
Gruff.

      Two writers who have had quite a strong influence on me are Charles
Dickens and Thomas Hardy (the poet, not the novelist); Dickens for his
humour, his characterisation and his concern for the marginalised people of
his world; Hardy for his exquisite sense of loss, not just personal loss but
the loss that is felt by an entire people in times of dramatic
socio-political change. I've also been influenced by the great satirist
poets, in particular Chaucer and Pope.

      What are your main concerns as a writer?

      My main concern in my poetry is to find a voice, which merges British
form (prosody) with African content (mostly nature) so that, if not in my
life, in my art, I can find an identity which is not binary, not
black/white, African/European colonizer/colonized. My main concern in my
prose is to ridicule greed, cruelty, self-righteousness and related vices
like racism, sexism, jingoism, and homophobia. Of course I am under no
illusion that my satires will make the slightest bit of difference, but
nobody, not even those who are ashamed of nothing, likes to be laughed at. I
am also acutely aware that satirists are themselves prone to
self-righteousness and I keep before me the words of Jesus: Let him who is
without sin cast the first stone.

      As a younger person, in the 70s and 80s I was quite preoccupied with
guilt and self-loathing, a crisis of identity -- all the baggage of
apartheid. But now, after a quarter of a century in independent Zimbabwe,
things have balanced out a bit. In the last seven years especially, the now
tiny settler community (the few filthy rich wheeler-dealers notwithstanding)
seems to have paid (and continues to pay) its dues. The government
controlled media, aping the ZANU PF hierarchy spews out virulent anti-white
propaganda reminiscent of Rwanda just before the genocide. We are called
scum, insects, Blair's kith and kin. The once neutral Ndebele word for a
white person, Makiwa, now has pejorative connotations equivalent to mabhunu
(boer) or even kaffir.

      I am beginning to see bad behaviour more in terms of class than race.
Blacks with political connections, who have been catapulted into shocking
wealth, the so-called middle class (in a country where 80 percent of the
people live in abject poverty) behave just as badly as their white
counterparts behave. They are Rhodies too; their desire for ostentation,
parading their Pajeros (the women at 40 km per hour!) and their Mercedes
Benzes, acquiring not one suburban home but a dozen; not one farm but a
dozen; not one overseas trip per year but a dozen, makes me sick at heart.

      Something else which deeply concerns me is the place, the "soil," the
people where I grew up and where I still live: Matabeleland. But here a dark
cloud hovers above me. I grew up speaking, not Ndebele but fanakalo, a kind
of 'lingua franca', which originated in the gold mines of South Africa where
migrant workers speaking many different languages were employed. It is a
language of oppression which I have not been able to unlearn and which
interferes with my attempts to speak proper Ndebele. I am always afraid of
accidentally saying something offensive; consequently I keep quiet or speak
in English. Most Africans, even those with little formal education, speak
several languages.

      The spirit of Matabeleland is to be experienced most potently in the
Matobo hills, which were inhabited thousands of years ago by the aboriginal
people of this region. They left a legacy of awesome rock paintings. It is
also the location of a sacred shrine (at Njelele) revered by Ndebele and
Shona alike; it is a retreat for Christians, Moslems, Jews, Hindus and
poets. It is epiphanic!

      How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your
writing?

      A lot, of course. I was four years old when my parents emigrated to
Rhodesia from South Africa. My father was a miner; my mother was a
housewife. They never owned one square inch of this land. When my parents
left Zimbabwe shortly after Independence they took with them an old Volvo
station-wagon stuffed with their worldly goods, and a meagre pension. So
when I get lumped by the new colonisers, the NGOs (shortly to be replaced by
the Chinese), with tobacco barons, safari operators, and mining magnates, it
is a personal experience I resent, and it nourishes the satirist in me.

      The experience of fatherhood, on the other hand, and being a school
teacher, and, yes, a lover, have enriched me beyond words. That's the bitter
logic of lyric poetry: expressing the inexpressible.

      When I was in my early twenties, the girl I was hoping to marry was
killed in a car accident. In my late 20s I spent two years in the Rhodesian
army. I lived for several years in England working variously as a steam
cleaner, picker, packer, furniture remover, nightwatchman, assistant on a
cargo ship. As a Rhodesian I was labelled a fascist; as a Zimbabwean I was
labelled (at least in the early years of Independence) as a
Marxist-Leninist. These are all personal experiences, which have influenced
my direction as a writer. Of course there are many others, not least being
the ageing process, and the prospect of having to work until I drop dead.

      What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?

      The same challenges that most Zimbabweans face, linked to the economic
collapse of the country: how to pay the bills, how to put food on the table;
how to stay alive as long as possible because it's too expensive to get sick
and die. There is no social welfare left in this country, the extended
family system has collapsed; pension funds and other savings have been
looted by people with huge bellies and wallets of flesh on the backs of
their necks. And then there is AIDS.

      Zimbabwe is, de facto, a police state. It is routine now for people to
be beaten up in prison, whether or not they have been charged. People live
in fear as well as hunger and illness. People are depressed. Those who can't
get out, turn their faces to the wall. There is no culture of maintenance,
there is no accountability, there will always be someone else to blame. Like
the Jews in history, the whites, and to a lesser extent, the Indians, have
become scapegoats. When these marginalized groups have gone, it will be the
turn of the Ndebeles. Then, God help this country. You ask me why all this
is happening. It's simple. It's because of a megalomaniac who refuses to
relinquish power.

      How do you deal with these challenges?

      I write, I work hard, I cherish the company of my children and my few
friends; I drink more than I should; I fall in love! In between I read and
listen to the BBC World Service. I used to watch videos but my machine broke
down and I can't afford to have it repaired. The same goes for my washing
machine, my music centre, my electric frying pan, my jaffle machine and my
toaster. You see, I was once quite rich for a schoolteacher.

      Maybe I should get more politically involved, but it's difficult if
you are white. You tend to become a liability to the party if it's in
opposition to this government.

      How many books have you written so far?

      About 11. My first book of poems, Spoils of War, was published in 1989
by a small press in Cape Town called Carrefour (now defunct). It took me 12
years to get it published. Baobab Books in Harare rejected it. It won the
Ingrid Jonker prize.

      My first novel, D. G. G. Berry's The Great North Road took me 15 years
to find a publisher. No Zimbabwean publisher, including Baobab Books, was
interested in it. It won the M-Net prize. Only 500 copies were printed. My
second novel, Hatchings, was shortlisted for the M-net prize. In the same
year I wrote a third novel, The Giraffe Man. Both were published in South
Africa.

      When my second book of poems, Sonata for Matabeleland, came out in in
1995, Baobab Books, for the first time, reluctantly put their logo on its
cover. It was published by Snailpress in Cape Town, and Baobab's commitment
was to undertake to sell 100 of the 1,000 copies printed. As it turned out I
sold 70 of those at my launch in Bulawayo. Most of the remaining 30 were
sold through the Bulawayo Art Gallery.

      My next two novels, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato and The Holy
Innocents, were provisionally accepted by Baobab Books, on the
recommendation of Anthony Chennells. Nothing was done about them for several
years and then Baobab Books collapsed. Then I and some friends created
'amaBooks publishers for the initial purpose of getting those two novels
into print. We got started thanks to a generous donation by an ex-pupil of
mine called Ilan Elkaim. International donors like HIVOS and SIDA and the
British Council will not support white Zimbabwean writers, no matter how
poor they may be. These novels were published in 2001 and 20002. In 2004
'amaBooks brought out The Caruso of Colleen Bawn and other Short Writings
and they may, finances permitting, bring out my most recent book, White Man
Crawling and other Short Writings, next year.

      Incidentally, I submitted the last named book to Kwela Books in South
Africa. It was rejected on the basis of this reader's report -- I quote the
final paragraph: "While the author has a pleasant conversational writing
style and some stories are fairly well written, it is doubtful whether this
collection is publishable as it stands. Even if the African setting of some
stories might have suited Kwela's publishing philosophy, this is not a truly
original African voice, let alone an original South African voice."

      In 2001 Childline published my Selected Poems 1965-1995, and in 2005,
Weaver Press published 80 of my poems in a collection called Songs My
Country Taught Me. Last year Hatchings, with an introduction by Dr K. M.
Mangwanda was re-published by 'amaBooks.

      How much time do you spend on your writing?

      Very little. Like most serious writers I earn almost nothing from my
books. I teach full time at Christian Brothers College. In between I give
private lessons, and I also teach Creative Writing modules (which I wrote)
for UNISA. I am also a single parent so I have untold household chores to
perform. I reserve school holidays to catch up on my reading and writing.
That is why I now find very short stories an appropriate form.

Zimbabwe mauled again by Tigers

BBC

One-day International, Harare: Bangladesh 260-9 (50 ovs) bt Zimbabwe 215 (48
ovs)

Zimbabwe suffered their 13th successive one-day defeat as Bangladesh won the
opening game of a four-match series by 45 runs at the Harare Sports Club.

Put in by Prosper Utseya, the Tigers compiled 260-7, largely thanks to a
fourth-wicket stand of 105 between Saqibal Hasan and Habibul Bashar.

That was significant as five wickets later fell for a mere 12 runs.

The required rate for Zimbabwe was beyond a run-a-ball, and though Chamu
Chibhabha made 57, it took 117 balls.

Having made his 13th half-century, Bashar was reprieved on 70 when Gary
Brent failed to hold a return chance.

Zimbabwe were always struggling to avoid a sixth consecutive defeat against
Bangladesh, with Mashrafe Mortaza (4-31) ripping through the middle-order,
and it needed Elton Chigumbura's breezy 47 from 27 balls featuring three
sixes to bring some respectability to the card.

When the center cannot hold

New Zimbabwe

By Mutumwa D. Mawere
Last updated: 02/04/2007 22:33:55
AS PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe approaches his 83rd birthday on February 21, he
can look back and reflect on the journey traveled and in the quietness of
his time carefully examine the proposition that the promise of independence
may have been significantly eroded by a combination of bad policies, lack of
leadership, clinging to a discredited ideology, and pursuit of directionless
policies and programs.

In the final analysis he will, as he should, take responsibility for the
current economic and political quagmire that has visited Zimbabwe with no
prospect for salvation even from Your Governor.

I have no doubt that President Mugabe will not think that it is unfair for
him to answer the following questions: Has post-colonial era lived up to the
expectations of Zimbabweans? Who should be culpable for condemning a
promising nation into the current state of hopelessness? Is it fair in 2007
to exclusively blame third parties for what many may regard as internally
generated problems? What, if any, was the Zanu PF plan for the
transformation of Rhodesia into an inclusive and dynamic nation? When
economic indicators are stubbornly showing that the nation is in intensive
care, has the time not arrived for President Mugabe to put the country's
interests first?

Since December 2003, the management of the economy was outsourced to the
unelected Dr. Gideon Gono who never conceptually appreciated the gravity of
the economic and political situation and mistook the RBZ for the commercial
bank that he is erroneously credited for turning around on the back of a
patronage banking architecture and profiting from artificially created
distortions.

Messrs. Tendai Biti and Arthur Mutambara have already eloquently critiqued
the so-called Monetary Policy Statement that essentially confirmed what was
predictable that the wheels were off since Gono's appointment and there
appears to be no driver after all. What has not been said is what the real
costs of Gono's experiment with power have meant for the country. The
Governor has suddenly run out of enemies to blame or externalise and appears
to have come to the realisation that President Mugabe was wrong in
entrusting the stewardship of the economy to a blind and paranoid process.

What Gono failed to mention in his statement is the real cost of his
misguided policies. It would be simplistic to apportion blame on Gono alone
as if he appointed himself. In addition, it is evident that Gono enjoys the
support of the President and indeed the cabinet. I am acutely aware that
many who have read my recent articles may have come out with the impression
that I was trying to absolve President Mugabe from taking responsibility for
his record at the helm of the nation's political economy. Having been one of
the victims of the misguided policies, I am not naive to know who ultimately
is culpable.

However, it is important that the conversation is broadened to include the
totality of the governing structures including the political institutions
that give legitimacy to the government.

Some have argued that the salvation of the country lies in a reformed Zanu
PF without acknowledging that President Mugabe's record has to be evaluated
in a holistic manner that recognises the contribution of the party and its
actors in the systematic collapse of the nation. It is important that we
recognise that it is hypocritical to isolate one person when the passengers
and spectators to a 27 year process of mortgaging the country's future are
many. Even those who have continued to watch at close range while prudent
and rational economic solutions are discarded in preference for untried and
bizarre policies are aware of the cost to the nation but choose to remain in
silence.

I think that it is important that the conversation be broadened to
critically examine as any nation should whether the current government is
capable of addressing the challenges that confront the economy. Gono has
thrown the towel and seeks to escape scrutiny under the guise that the
salvation lays elsewhere as if he suddenly had a revelation. I am sure that
if President Mugabe's actions are informed by a national interest, he would
be the first one to accept responsibility that he has failed the nation.

Surely for example, if I acquired a house 27 years ago, it would be foolish
for me to blame the previous owner for cracks without taking responsibility
for the lack of maintenance during the period of occupation. Yes it is true
that indeed freedom is latent, and if you stay in someone's house you can
never be free. Can Zimbabweans after 27 years of self government be
considered to be free when they find themselves vulnerable? Is it true that
Zimbabwe belongs to its inhabitants or now belongs to a club called Zanu PF
whose decisions become binding for everyone even when it is common cause
that citizens live in fear today than at anytime in the nation's history?

Harmonisation of Presidential and Parliamentary Elections

I thought it may be useful for me to add my voice to the debate on the above
mentioned project. There has been talk that the project may be derailed by
the so-called 'Mujuru faction' who are presumed to be anxious to change
guard in 2008. It is ironic that the future of the Presidency is now
somewhat premised on the actions of Zanu PF, suggesting that there may be no
plan B to save the country than depend on the same forces that have
collectively put in place measures to alienate citizens from their future.

While many argue that the project will not succeed because of internal
opposition in Zanu PF, no-one has been able to explain how a poison pill in
the party will be removed to allow for another person being a leader of the
party before 2009. The last Zanu PF congress was in December 2004 and
President Mugabe was elected as party President for a five year term. His
current term as President of the Republic expires next year and if the
tradition in the party is observed it falls to reason that he is the only
legitimate nominee of the party for the Presidency.

If this is true, even if the harmonisation project does not succeed, the
party will have to convene a special congress to elect new leaders and to
date we have not heard any of the factions calling for a special congress
suggesting that there may be no other candidate for the party until 2009.
The question is whether the party that is credited with reducing Zimbabwe to
a basket case can abandon its leader who has managed to entrench the party
in power against the interests of the country in terms of economic
development.

Some have said that President Mugabe would agree that if the economic
indicators were a barometer for the success or failure of the independence
project, Zanu PF would be considered a dismal failure and not fit to run any
economic enterprise let alone a nation of 15 million. The economy has
already spoken against the harmonisation project and yet political analysts
and political actors have failed to articulate why it is not in the
interests of the country to continue with failed policies and programs while
the nation continue to be blind folded by propaganda.

Some have argued that since Zanu PF parliamentarians did not campaign on the
basis that they wanted to implement the harmonization project and Zanu PF's
manifesto did not anticipate the proposed constitutional changes, the party
has no legitimacy to change the constitution using its parliamentary
majority. This argument does not hold any water as the actions of elected
officials are not bound by manifestos or what was said during elections. We
may have to accept that there may be no legal grounds to challenge the right
of parliament however illegitimate it may be to amend a constitution.

However, it would be wrong for anyone to seek to remain in power when the
governed are condemned to a life that even President Mugabe would agree was
never part of the independence deal. It is time for those that sacrificed a
lot to bring about sovereignty to speak out like Edgar Tekere and Enos Nkala
on the key values that they fought for and whether Zimbabwe under the
leadership of Zanu PF has lived up to their expectations.

Only last week, I met in Washington DC with a former senior government
official who is working for a multilateral development institution and is
about to retire. His concern was whether to retire in Zimbabwe or South
Africa. He is convinced that Zimbabwe has been sufficiently damaged to give
him the standard of life that he expects. I am sure that many pensioners in
Zimbabwe who have had to be subjected to voodoo economic policies would
agree that they have effectively been condemned to death by a government
they trusted so much that they voted it into power consistently since
independence while consistently being betrayed. I am sure that even
President Mugabe would agree that he has run out of ideas and even the Look
East policies many not yield the desired outcomes that people of Zimbabwe
deserve.

The real question that people are asking President Mugabe, while using
convoluted constitutional arguments, is whether he is aware of the poverty
trap that independence has created for many Zimbabweans who have not been
able to escape. When you have the majority of the population now carrying
their CVs and prostituting the skills for any interested bidder who is out
of the country then you know it is time to go. I believe that if President
Mugabe is a man of the people as he claims to be, he will agree that it is
time to exit in the interest of the nation. It may be a source of
encouragement to see leaders like Hugo Chavez experiment with their citizens
but the difference is that in Zimbabwe people are now tired of living on
borrowed time and lies.

Reflections on Gonomics

I have written a lot about the role of the RBZ in undermining democracy in
Zimbabwe not because I have anything against Gono but because I care about
Zimbabwe to remain silent when foolish policies are inflicted on a people
already battered by bad governance. I am acutely aware that if Gono was a
man of principle he would have resigned that participate in robbing citizens
of their future without their consent. I thought it would be beneficial to
add my insights into the monetary policy statement that read more like the
State of the Nation address.

Dr. Gono said that he would not devalue the Zimbabwean dollar. He said: "No
devaluation from this governor." Zimbabwe's dollar has been fixed at an
official rate of 250 to the US dollar since July last year, but the market
exchange rate is about 20 times this rate. Gono, like a politician, said it
was not his responsibility to inflict the pain on defenseless consumers that
rising prices would bring. He went on to say that: "No amount of devaluation
will lead to planeloads, truckloads of foreign exchange flowing into
Zimbabwe in a sustainable way."

Like a failed General he pointed out that he had already authorised more
than eight devaluations since he took the reins at the central bank in
December 2003.

Yes the Governor like President Mugabe may think that accepting market
fundamentals is poisonous but the market has a strange way of educating
fools.

Yes, the Soviet Union fought against market principles and the jury only
spoke after about 75 years at a great cost to the country and not the chefs.
It is important that we bring the issue of devaluation into some
perspective. The hypocrisy of the Governor is what is inexcusable. While he
pontificates that he would not devalue, it is common cause that he is the
chief player in the parallel market where the RBZ is a significant purchaser
of foreign currency from the market. Is it beneficial for a Governor to
pretend that there is a market in Zimbabwe where a person with US$1 will be
willing to exchange it for Z$250 when he knows that he can get 20 times more
from the parallel market.

Imagine that fuel in Zimbabwe at a cost of Z$5,000 per liter that translates
to US$20 per liter at the official exchange makes the country the most
expensive for any foreigner to visit and rent a car. While the Governor is
bold to say that he will not devalue he makes no statement about the impact
of inflation on exporters when their revenues are constant through a
manipulated exchange rate that is effectively a tax on enterprising people.

The exchange rate issue is not exclusively a Gono matter but arises from
President Mugabe's deeply held belief that the poor can be protected by
refusing to accept market principles. The position of President Mugabe on
devaluation has not changed and it appears that Gono is now a willing
disciple without being honest to his principal that the official exchange
rate does not exist other than for the extortion rate extracted from
exporters by the RBZ. It appears that no government official has managed to
convince President Mugabe that the black market is a real market and unless
the government accepts that wrong policies have consequences, no salvation
will come.

Quasi Fiscal Operations

Gono revealed that the RBZ has stopped forthwith engaging in quasi fiscal
activities although he stated that the RBZ will finish off the activities it
had started. He said: "The RBZ will, with immediate effect, bring to an end
such interventions and wishes to concentrate on core business activities. An
agreement has been reached although some people were doing their work."

He said a new company, FISCORP Private Limited, will be unveiled soon to
administer and collect outstanding loans parceled by the RBZ during the
interventions in its quasi fiscal activities. FISCORP will start operating
on March 1.

We are now told that the RBZ has stopped engaging in quasi fiscal activities
without the benefit of knowing how much was disbursed and whether the funds
were used for intended purposes. There have been allegations that corruption
underpinned these opaque operations that were hidden from parliament. As the
Governor has now said, parliament will once again be denied the opportunity
to review these operations and independently confirm that the funds were not
used for other purposes or to further the political aspirations of the few
who see a real and serious power vacuum created by President Mugabe's
management style that is not detail oriented but long on politics and
conspiracy. Why would limited liability company takeover quasi fiscal assets
without the people of Zimbabwe being privileged to know how their funds were
used. Why set up a special purpose vehicle to warehouse proceeds of what may
be termed corruption without allowing the Minister of Finance to present to
the nation how the funds were disbursed and utilized and the repayment plan.

In my company's case, I have only been made aware through court documents
that instructions were given personally by Gono for Z$1 trillion (old money)
to be disbursed to SMM Holdings under the control of Arafas Gwaradzimba. No
report has been produced on how the funds were used and why the government
would agree to pay Gwaradzimba a fee of 6% of the turnover of all companies
without any third party verification of what is going on.

It is important that Gono is made to account for the crazy transactions that
he has been personally involved in so that obscure vehicles like Fiscorp are
not used to hide the operations of the government from its citizens. I have
no doubt that President Mugabe would agree that if there is corruption
involved in the quasi fiscal operations, this must be exposed and it would
be unfair for him to extend his term if he is not able to supervise the
operations of the government effectively. Anyone who has been following Gono's
activities would agree that he has a propensity to use special purpose
vehicles to perform functions of the government as if the government is a
private affair of the President. I am sure that the President would equally
be concerned about the manner in which the Governor conducted himself in the
case of the mysterious car.

In conclusion, I think it is important to use this month to highlight to the
President how under his watch the operations of the government have become
opaque to the extent that citizens feel they no longer own the development
process. Indeed, it is evident that the process of governance may have been
outsourced sufficiently to alienate the governed from their future.

I have confidence that President Mugabe would agree with the observations of
many that he must take responsibility for the decay and if it can be
confirmed that the wheels are off and things have fallen apart, then change
has to come because without it, the independence project is at risk of being
the greatest sham and robbery by a few using democratic manipulation to
sustain and entrench a regime that never had direction.

As citizens try to reclaim their Republic, there can be no better place to
start than investigate Gono and the role of the RBZ in undermining
democratic institutions.

Ultimately when things fall apart, the center cannot be expected to hold and
I am not sure whether Zimbabwe still has a center of gravity or is
gravitating to the precipice!

Mutumwa Mawere's weekly column appears on New Zimbabwe.com every Monday. You
can contact him at: mmawere@ahccouncil.com

EU to extend sanctions on Zimbabwe: diplomats

New Zimbabwe

By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 02/04/2007 22:34:09
THE European Union (EU) is set to extend sanctions on Zimbabwe for another
year including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on President
Robert Mugabe and other top officials, EU diplomats say.

The 27-member bloc, which accuses Harare of widespread human rights
violations, plans to go ahead with the move despite the risk that the travel
ban on Mugabe could again scupper longstanding plans for an EU-Africa
summit, they say.

A new split in the EU was feared, with both France and Portugal said to be
considering summit invitations to President Mugabe that would weaken the
diplomatic isolation of his regime that Britain is trying to maintain.

European officials said there is an agreement in principle to continue
five-year-old EU travel sanctions against senior Zimbabwean officials, and a
formal decision is due to be announced on February 20.

However, loopholes in those sanctions could allow France and Portugal to
invite Mugabe or his aides to summits in Europe, undermining British efforts
to keep the Zimbabwean leader under pressure for human rights abuses.

A French official said he could not confirm whether President Jacques Chirac
had invited Mugabe to a France-Africa summit in Cannes on February 14. "The
invitations are still being sent. The list will be published only later."

Portugal is also hoping to invite Mugabe to Lisbon for an EU-Africa summit
in November. Both Lisbon and Paris are concerned that if he is excluded,
other governments from the region, particularly South Africa, might boycott
the meetings. Neither France nor Portugal has so far applied for exemptions
to the sanctions regime to issue invitations on the grounds that the
meetings they are planning will address human rights issues.

But British officials and human rights groups have argued that Zimbabwean
participation in such high-profile events would make sanctions all but
meaningless.

The Harare government has denounced the sanctions as illegal. Nathan
Shamuyarira, a spokesperson for the ruling Zanu-PF party, said recently:
"Britain is pursuing a colonial practice, repression of other nations, and I
hope other countries will not be dragged in its sinister agendas."

The list of visa bans and freezing of assets includes more than a hundred
ministers and officials.

The EU accuses them of human rights violations, and violations of freedom of
speech and assembly in Zimbabwe.

"They will be prolonged for another year," an EU diplomat said of existing
sanctions due to expire on February 20.

"Every year the European Commission does a report on the situation in
Zimbabwe, it has not changed so the conclusions are the same," another
official at the EU executive said.

The sanctions were initially triggered by the controversial distribution of
white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002.

Critics say the seizures have destroyed Zimbabwe's economy, turning the
country from a regional agricultural leader to a nation barely able to feed
itself amid a deepening crisis marked by food and fuel shortages and
inflation above 1,200 per cent.

Mugabe says the sanctions are responsible for Zimbabwe's economic crisis and
he says his land policy was necessary because former colonial power Britain
did not make good on promises at the time of Zimbabwe's independence in
1980.

Eldred Masunungure, chairman at University of Zimbabwe's Political Science
Department, said the EU sanctions have failed to reach their objective and
have if anything hit the population of Zimbabwe.

"I think the sanctions by their very nature are a blunt instrument and their
impact tends to spread beyond the target persons," Masunungure said.

"On the government's side they have been felt but as you can see Mugabe has
not changed his policies." - Reuters

From pan-Africanism to national purity

Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 3 February

Gugulethu Moyo

For a government that has hoisted its image on the African continent by the
flag of pan-Africanism, the Zimbabwean government's recent parade of its
policy of essentialist nationalism may seem like a weird contradiction.
Until last November, it had probably never before occurred to Trevor Ncube,
publisher of the Mail & Guardian, The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard,
that he might be a national of a country other than Zimbabwe. He was born in
Zimbabwe, in 1962, and has always been resident there. In 1989, at the age
of 27, he obtained his first Zimbabwean passport. Five times after this, the
Zimbabwean authorities renewed Ncube's passport, as most governments do for
their citizens, without quarrel. Then, two months ago, when Ncube tried to
obtain a new passport, Zimbabwe's Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, faxed a
note to Ncube's office, informing him that his passport would not be
renewed.

In a triumph of bureaucratic efficiency rarely witnessed in Zimbabwe, the
registrar had excavated an essential detail of Ncube's family history from
the national database: Ncube's father had, years before he fathered Trevor -
and before he applied for and obtained what was then Rhodesian citizenship
in 1959 - once been a citizen of Northern Rhodesia, in what is today Zambia.
According to the registrar, the unavoidable legal consequence of this
unfortunate genealogy - that Ncube has Zambian blood coursing through his
veins, and that he is not "pure" Zimbabwean - was that he had, from the
instant that this information was known by the registrar, lost his
citizenship. A non-citizen cannot hold a Zimbabwean passport. Ncube was told
politely that he should not expect his sixth Zimbabwean passport in the
post. To Ncube, who had visited Zambia on only three occasions - once for
just a few hours to take in the breathtaking sight of the Victoria Falls
from the other side of the Zambezi River gorge - the experience must have
seemed Kafkaesque.

It took almost two months of letter writing and pages of legal submissions
by Ncube's lawyer, the expert evidence of Zambian Advocate Nchimo Nchito,
hours of argument in court and the unequivocal ruling of a Zimbabwean high
court judge, to make plain to the country's registrar what has been obvious
since the whole legal farce began: that Ncube is a Zimbabwean national,
entitled to hold a Zimbabwean passport, without interference. The registrar's
actions seem even more absurd considering the broader context. Hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans - a significant number of whom hold high office in
government - suffer, by virtue of the shared histories between the peoples
of Zambia and Zimbabwe, from the same "defective" heritage that, in the
registrar's opinion, automatically disqualified Ncube from Zimbabwean
citizenship. When one considers the self-righteous, demagogic campaign on
the international stage by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to promote and
revive pan-Africanism to rally the support of the peoples of Africa for his
rogue government, this case stands as a towering monument to hypocrisy.

Not so long ago, in the days of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,
between 1953 and 1963, when the territories now known as Zimbabwe and Zambia
were part of a single British political entity, the colonial administration
routinely transferred civil servants from one place to the other; voluntary
movements within the region were also not uncommon. Evidence of migration
within the region persists today: in Zambia, for instance, there remain
enclaves in the Kasisi, Monze and Mumbwa districts, of Ndebele and
Shona-speaking people who originate from Zimbabwe. The venerated, fallen,
former Zanla leader Josiah Tongogara is still claimed by Zambian people as a
"Mumbwa boy". These ties strengthened after Zambia gained independence in
1963. Zambia hosted and assisted liberation fighters from Rhodesia in their
struggle for independence. The man who would later become Zimbabwe's
president lived and worked as a teacher in Zambia in the 1950s, and the home
in which he stayed is a Zambian national monument. Mugabe's liberation war
comrades - now Zimbabwe's ruling elite - consorted with and, in some cases,
had children with Zambian nationals. Many of the offspring of these unions,
some of whom were born in Zambia, live in Zimbabwe today, are recognised as
Zimbabwean citizens and hold passports with no trouble. They can probably
count on it that no bureaucratic discoveries will be made that could deny
them their rights.

But any appearance of policy irrationality and ideological inconsistency
probably does not matter to a government that is desperate to squelch
political opposition. When you're desperate, you'll try anything. And there
is a precedent: this particular fix has been tried before elsewhere -
including, ironically, in Zambia. In 1999, the government of Frederick
Chiluba tried, without success, to withdraw the citizenship of the founding
father of modern Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, after Kaunda had criticised Chiluba's
government as inept and corrupt, and had announced plans to run for
president. Before the action to withdraw citizenship was taken, Chiluba
repeatedly had Kaunda and top members of his party arrested, usually on
treason charges that were later dropped. Ncube may not be seeking political
office, but his position in relation to the ruling establishment is not too
different from that of Kaunda in those days. With opposition political
parties having been incapacitated by years of violent persecution, Ncube's
newspapers, The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, with their fearless
reporting and editorials, are just about the only strong public opposition
that remains within Zimbabwe to the corruption and ineptitude of the Zanu PF
government.

Previously, less bizarre methods to silence these newspapers have been used:
journalists and managers, including Ncube himself, have been arrested and
charged with various offences against the state. Some charges have failed,
others have been dropped. While this latest scheme has failed, the attempts
to silence Ncube have not stopped. A day after the High Court declared Ncube
a citizen of Zimbabwe and ordered the authorities to issue him with a new
passport, the state-controlled Herald newspaper carried an ominous
prediction, penned by the columnist Nathaniel Manheru - widely thought to be
the alter ego of Mugabe's spokesperson - and addressed to "Aphiri", a term
used in derogatory fashion to refer to Zambian immigrants: ". [the] game
[you play] . will one day hurt you". What this means in practice remains to
be seen.

Gugulethu Moyo is a lawyer who works for the International Bar Association

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary - 3rd February 2007

Welcome back to Jeff.  Only two weeks ago we began the diary with 'welcome
back to Caroline'.  All too many Vigil supporters get locked up for problems
with immigration, visas, passports etc.  Anyway it was great to have Jeff
back with us.  He was released only yesterday after serving half of a nine
month sentence for having a bogus passport.  He looked better than ever and
blamed this on the good food he'd had in Canterbury Jail.  Jeff said the
Archbishop of Canterbury came to visit the prisoners on Christmas Day. But
life in jail had its down side.  Jeff said he came across a number of
prisoners who were seriously depressed.  By all accounts Jeff seems to have
been a great help to a number of Zimbabwean and other inmates.

It was a brilliantly sunny day which always lifts the spirits in mid-winter.
It also brought a good crowd of supporters including people from
Wolverhampton, Bradford, Leeds, Blackburn, Manchester, Birmingham, Sussex
and Luton, and Catherine Feeny visiting us from the Bristol Vigil.  People
in London struggled with public transport today.  It took Lynn 2 hours to
reach Charing Cross from Golders Green because of delays on the Northern
line - normally a journey of about half an hour. So we were pleased to have
Luka at the Vigil so early especially as he had been at the French Embassy
protest yesterday.

Everyone was kept busy either with the singing and dancing and drumming or
with sending our "Make Mugabe History - Free Zimbabwe" postcards to Mugabe
for his birthday.  We posted a batch to him last week and we have even more
to send him this week.  Some of the messages: "Happy birthday, you are way
past retirement age - go with grace! You are not our president you did not
win a democratic election", "Time is up. Can't you see the suffering
 masses?", "Rob, it's time to admit you have failed us!! For our sake please
leave office before your next birthday, (signed) hungry angry exile".

Among the hundreds of people who passed by were many Scotsmen in rugby
shirts and kilts - by the end of the day they were pouring into pubs to
drown their sorrows as Scotland lost to England in the Six Nations rugby
match.

For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/

FOR THE RECORD:  76 signed the register.

FOR YOUR DIARY: Central London Zimbabwe Forum. Upstairs at the Theodore
Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand from the
Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John Adam Street, turn right and
you will see the pub:
-         Monday, 5th February, 7.30 pm - discussion about renewing EU
targeted sanctions and the possibility of Mugabe being invited to the
France/Africa summit in Cannes later this month. Report back on ACTSA
protest outside the French Embassy on 2nd February.
Monday, 12th February, 7.30 pm.  The speakers will be Promise Mkwananzi,
President of ZINASU (Zimbabwe National Students Union) and Washington
Katema, Co-ordinator of ZINASU.

Vigil co-ordinator

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk