The Telegraph
By Peta
Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed: 09/02/2006)
President Robert Mugabe has
begun to reverse his "insane" land grab and
offer some white farmers the
chance to lease back their holdings in
Zimbabwe.
With the fastest
shrinking economy in the world, Mr Mugabe has had to
backtrack on six years
of chaos and his own determination to rid the country
of all white
farmers.
In an orgy of violence, Mr Mugabe seized the land, homes,
equipment and
infrastructure of about 4,000 white commercial farmers who
produced almost
half of Zimbabwe's foreign currency.
The U-turn is
expected to be announced within days. The ruling Zanu-PF
party's politburo
has been informed and selected journalists in the
state-controlled media
have been briefed on how to spin the policy reversal.
About 250 whites
remaining on small portions of their farms will immediately
be offered state
leases for the land they used to own. Some will be hoping
that their full
land holdings will be restored at a later stage.
The leases will, farmers
hope, give them some legal protection from local
warlords continuously
trying to evict them or seize their equipment or
crops.
In a second
stage, the leases will be extended to some white farmers who
have already
been evicted, particularly where there is no activity on that
land. Some
fled to Britain, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa and are
desperately
homesick.
The government is expected to admit in the next few days that
it has only
used about 50 per cent of the land it seized. In reality, land
economists
say the figure of idle land is nearer 80 to 90 per
cent.
The new policy is understood to have been approved by Mr Mugabe but
it is
unlikely he will announce it, as the government hopes to play down the
U-turn.
It will be executed by two of his most trusted lieutenants:
the lands
minister Didymus Mutasa and the agriculture minister Joseph Made.
Neither
was available for comment yesterday.
In anticipation of this
change of policy, the Commercial Farmers Union has
advised some members to
apply for leases, and some farmers have already
filled in lease applications
at the agriculture ministry.
The union yesterday issued a rare statement
calling for a ''moratorium on
land and agricultural policies''. All those
involved in agriculture should
get together and "rebuild the entire industry
to return as the principal
employer of labour and generator of food and
foreign exchange", it said.
"We have the energy and capacity to help
bring Zimbabwe back once again to
be the bread basket of the
sub-continent."
The statement was signed by the CFU president, Doug
Taylor-Freeme, who would
not comment on the change of policy. "We need to
create some stability on
the ground for existing farmers if we want any
investment in agriculture.
That's the first step.
"All land has been
acquired by the state for one reason or another but the
issue now is who
uses that land? We believe it should be farmers. When you
look at the state
of agriculture and the state of the economy we need to
find the right
balance."
Behind closed doors last week, the International Monetary Fund
told
Zimbabwe's finance minister Herbert Murerwa - who has helped himself to
a
white-owned farm - that land seizures should halt immediately and that
without increased agricultural production there was no chance of halting
Zimbabwe's slide.
While this is a reversal of Zanu PF's policy to rid
Zimbabwe of all white
farmers, some of those who lost their holdings are
cynical about any offers
from the government. Many will need convincing that
the offer is genuine
unless it is openly endorsed by Mr Mugabe and, even
then, they may still be
sceptical about a president who has broken promises
in the past. "The
government vastly underestimates the damage of its insane
policies," said
one of Zimbabwe's former top cereal producers. "They
probably believe that
allowing some of us to return will turn the economy
around in a single
season. We won't be able to do anything without
international finance, and
we won't get that until there is political
reform," he said.
"It's bloody miserable out there. All our friends have
gone, our equipment
has been broken, irrigation has been vandalised, our
homes have been
wrecked, the roads are a mess, our workers have gone so why
should we
return? I am sure there will be some clots who are so damn
miserable in
other countries or living in towns that they will go
back.
"We should be campaigning for compensation, not going back to help
people
who wrecked our country."
The Telegraph
By
David Blair
(Filed: 09/02/2006)
When a mob of President Robert
Mugabe's fanatical supporters dragged David
Stevens from his farm, they
subjected the father of four to hours of torment
before finally killing him
with shots to the head and chest.
Mr Stevens was the first white
farmer to be murdered at the outset of Mr
Mugabe's land seizures in April
2000. During the next 18 months, another
seven landowners and 39 of their
black workers would die at the hands of the
president's mobs. Scores of
farms were looted and burned to the ground,
armed gangs were unleashed
across Zimbabwe and law and order collapsed.
By the end, almost 4,000 white
landowners had lost everything. Families who
had tilled the soil for
generations were left with nothing.
One farming family - the Olds of
Matabeleland - lost a mother, Gloria, and
her son, Martin. Both were
murdered on separate occasions by men armed with
military-issue assault
rifles.
Tragically, 1.5 million black farm workers and their dependants
were also
deprived of their jobs and homes and poured into squatter camps
and
throughout Zimbabwe.
Mr Mugabe's justification for sowing this
violence and misery was that
Zimbabwe would be rid of the white farmers.
These "racists" and
"oppressors", as he usually called them, would be driven
from the country.
Yet suddenly the president realises that it was all for
nothing. The murders
and beatings, the poverty caused by destroying the
backbone of Zimbabwe's
economy, were entirely pointless.
Mr Mugabe
appears to have accepted that some of those white farmers must now
be
allowed to return.
But how do you rebuild something which has been
smashed into a thousand
pieces?
Some inescapable facts lie behind the
impending U-turn. Entirely
predictably, Mr Mugabe's violent land grab has
caused an economic
catastrophe. Commercial agriculture is the pillar of
Zimbabwe's economy.
Recovery is impossible unless production of tobacco for
export and maize for
domestic consumption revives dramatically.
So
the officials with the unenviable task of rebuilding Zimbabwe's economy
have
reached the unavoidable conclusion: some of those hated white farmers
must
be allowed to return.
Mr Mugabe now appears to agree. He will not, of
course, eat humble pie. He
will probably pose as a magnanimous leader,
inviting back his former enemies
in the interests of national
recovery.
Yet how many farmers will trust Mr Mugabe and return? How many
would accept
assurances from a man who has gone to such lengths to destroy
them?
When farmers remember the murder and destruction, they are likely
to respond
to Mr Mugabe's offer with a simple phrase - "too late".
The Telegraph
(Filed: 09/02/2006)
2000: About
4,000 white farmers are Zimbabwe's biggest export-earner,
employing 300,000
black workers. Mugabe encourages armed mobs to invade
white-owned land.
Supreme Court rules land grab illegal.
2001: Mugabe packs Supreme Court
with supporters. Land grab deemed a "matter
of social justice and not
strictly speaking a legal issue". Squatters on
1,500 farms allowed to stay.
Maize crop falls by 42 per cent.
2002: Regime lists 5,872 farms for
seizure - 94 per cent. By end of 2002
fewer than 1,000 remain.
2003:
By year end only about 400 white farmers left. Zimbabwe dependent on
World
Food Programme (WFP).
2005: Zimbabwe suffers disastrous slump. Third of
the economy wiped out
since 2000. Inflation at 502 pc. Fuel runs out and
currency crashes. Only
about 250 white landowners left.
IOL
February 08
2006 at 08:46PM
Harare - A Zimbabwean court on Wednesday quashed a
ban on a popular
daily by a state media commission and ordered the body to
review its
decision to muzzle the newspaper under draconian media laws, a
lawyer said.
The Daily News, known for its anti-government line,
and its sister
paper, The Daily News On Sunday, were closed down in
September 2003 on
charges they violated the media laws.
The
media commission has twice refused to grant it a licence despite a
Supreme
Court ruling in March last year that threw out the ban on the
newspaper.
"The High Court has set aside the decision of the
Media and
Information Commission to refuse to grant Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe
a licence," said lawyer Mordecai Mahlangu, representing the
publishers.
"Justice Rita Makarau also ordered the MIC to
reconsider ANZ's
application for a licence to publish," he
said.
Lawyers for the newspaper had gone to court to challenge the
decision
of the media commission, arguing that the chairman of the body had
refused
to recuse himself from the case despite the Supreme Court ruling
which found
that he was was biased.
The commission said the
company breached media laws by among other
things employing unaccredited
journalists, failing to submit copies of its
newpapers and employing a
reporter convicted of criminal defamation.
Mahlangu said ANZ's
application satisfied registration requirements
but the media commission
denied it a licence because of a previous breach of
the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Once the country's
best-selling daily, identified by its blue
masthead, the Daily News has been
reduced to a handful of former managers
and journalists occupying a small
office in central Harare.
In its heyday, The Daily News had a
circulation of 150 000 and offered
an alternative voice to the state media,
even though sales were mostly in
cities and major towns.
President Robert Mugabe signed the repressive media law in 2002,
barring
foreign correspondents from working in Zimbabwe and forcing all
local
journalists to seek accreditation to work. - Sapa-AFP
Zim Daily
Thursday,
February 09 2006 @ 12:06 AM GMT
Contributed by:
makushalondon
Nelson Chamisa addressing supporters in
Birmingham, UK
By Makusha Mugabe
Zimbabweans have the right to engage in peaceful resistance
against those
bent on perpetuating their misery and will not be intimidated
by state
security agents or government propaganda, says Nelson Chamisa.
Despite
attempts by the state to lie about purported meetings between the
MDC and
Freedom House officials in Zambia, MDC will continue to mobilize the
people
for confrontation and the second national congress will provide the
initial
platform to chart the new course, said the MDC spokesman.
The
Zambian debacle was part of a CIO plot to harass the MDC
whereby they
created a mythical story of intrigue to justify its attempt to
stop an
ordinary party meeting in the Zambian town of Livingstone," said
Chamisa.
"The truth of the matter is we held a normal meeting. By the time
the CIO
managed to arm-twist their Zambian counterparts (to take action
against the
MDC officials), the meeting was over. We were due to leave
Zambia the
following day.
"Some members of the Zambian secret service
confirmed to us that
they were acting on orders from their counterparts
across the border who had
told them the MDC delegation had weapons of war,"
said Chamisa. The Zambians
were misled and put under pressure to act on MDC
officials who had violated
no law. The lesson to be learnt from the Zambia
debacle is that if a simple
trip by the MDC leader and eight officials can
cause such panic among the
CIO and their Zambian counterparts, then the
party is as alive as ever.
"It means the MDC is a the
main political driver in Zimbabwe as
it still holds the hope of millions of
living in abject poverty." There is
massive starvation in all parts of the
country, no maize meal on the
supermarket shelves and no maize on the fields
because senior government and
party officials looted the input scheme; the
Zimbabwe dollar is on a free
fall and the breadbasket has once again
skyrocketed to over $21.8 million
per month for a family of six, a figure
far above the average monthly income
of Zimbabwean workers. "The country is
facing a serious crisis but instead
of focusing on these issues, the
government machinery chooses to focus on
President Tsvangirai's trip to
Zambia. "This is why the people of Zimbabwe
will enter a new phase in the
struggle for democracy next month which will
see the rebirth of the of the
MDC and renewal of its leadership, said.
Chamisa who has
concluded a series of consultations with UK
structures of the MDC also said
party president Morgan Tsvangirai was
continuing his consultations in
Zimbabwe and had already completed meetings
in Manicaland, Masvingo, Gweru
and other parts of the Midlands. The
consultative meetings are meant to keep
the President close to the people to
hear their problems. Meanwhile the
national chairman, Mr. Isaac Matongo, and
the transport portfolio secretary,
Hon. Thoko Khupe are also on consultative
visits with overseas structures.
"Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, our executives at
all levels are in constant
consultation on the state of the party and the
state of the struggle for
democracy," adding that the people of Zimbabwe are
positive that next month
they will mark a new phase of democratic
resistance. "There is no other way
to national salvation except to confront
this regime and take charge of our
destiny. We reserve our democratic right
to engage in any process that will
make this regime realize the folly of its
ways," he said.
Zim Daily
Thursday, February 09 2006 @ 12:06 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
Moves by SA to halt power supplies to Zimbabwe have
virtually
crippled Zimbabwe's industry sounding a death knell to an economy
already
overburdened by critical shortages of fuel, foreign currency and
food.
Frequent power outages owing to Zesa Holdings' diminishing generative
capacity has virtually ruled out any chances of the much hoped for economic
recovery, especially in the manufacturing sector where capacity utilisation
is expected to be below 40 percent.
Zesa, which
previously generated up to 65 percent of the country's
power requirements,
generated an average 49 percent throughout 2005, due to
lack of
recapitalisation, coal supply bottlenecks and unrealistic tariffs.
As a
consequence of the latter, Zesa recorded a disastrous $8 trillion loss
in
2005. Power outages have become the order of the day in Zimbabwe's towns
and
cities, and industrial zones have not been spared.
"Electricity is an essential input," said an economist "Efforts
to turn
around this economy will remain a pipe-dream because low industrial
production levels simply precipitate a low GDP. Industrial output has
collapsed by nearly 40 percent and is still shrinking and the last thing we
need are these power cuts."
Firms have been battling
foreign currency shortages, loss of
credit lines and escalating costs of raw
materials over the past six years
with the acute power supplies set to
enfeebled meaningful production.
Contacted for comment Zesa executive
chairman Sydney Gata said the situation
has been exacerbated by the foreign
currency crisis, which has made it
difficult for the utility to import power
from regional suppliers. South
Africa's Eskom has stopped supplying
Zimbabwe, citing local generative
constraints.
Zim Daily
Thursday, February 09 2006 @ 12:05 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
The US Embassy in Harare has accused the State
owned Sunday
Mail newspaper of lying 100% on it's report claiming America's
Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) was behind opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai's
recent trip to Zambia that ended in his deportation. The Sunday
Mail claimed
the US embassy in Harare arranged a meeting between Tsvangirai,
the head of
the legitimate Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and a
US-funded
civic group called Freedom House in Livingstone,
Zambia.
The broadsheet, which is government's official
mouthpiece,
claimed the meeting "could have been organised to plot ways of
causing an
upheaval in Zimbabwe". Tsvangirai and an eight-member delegation
were
unceremoniously deported from Zambia in the early hours of Thursday
morning
after they were accused of flouting immigration regulations.
Zimbabwe's
notorious CIO tracked the delegation all the way to Zambia,
confirming
government's real fear of the charismatic leader's influence in
shaping
events in the country.
The US Embassy in a
statement issued yesterday denied "arranging
any meeting for Mr Tsvangirai."
"These reports are baseless," the
hard-hitting statement said. "The
government of Zimbabwe routinely alleges
that democratic opposition leaders
are in league with Western governments,"
the statement added. "We view this
as part of disinformation aimed at
blackening Tsvangirai's reputation."
Tsvangirai's spokesperson William Bango
has also shot down the claims.
In-fact Bango yesterday wrote to Herald
Editor-In-Chief Pikirayi Deketeke
complaining about conspiracy theories
against Tsvangirai being hatched by
the Herald's disgraced political editor
Ceasar Zvayi, "whose journalistic
credentials are suspect."
In an unrelated development, the
State owned Chronicle newspaper
is set to lay off more than 20 reporters
after the paper recorded an
appalling Z$11 billion loss. Zimdaily heard that
the Bulawayo based paper,
which also prints monthly magazine Trends and
vernacular newspaper Umthunywa
has been ordered to restructure by Zimpapers
chairman Justin Mutasa in a
move aimed at mitigating
losses.
Zimdaily heard that Mutasa has also ordered the
closure of
Trends and Umthunywa that were launched by ex Information
minister Jonathan
Moyo in 2004. Reporters have received the news of
retrenchment with
indignation. "It is not right," complained a senior
reporter at the paper.
"Where will we be employed now since they have closed
all the newspapers?"
Zim Daily
Thursday, February 09 2006 @ 12:03 AM
GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
President Robert
Mugabe's neighbours are bringing a legal
challenge to the Supreme Court
against eviction orders they were served
recently aimed at creating a
security cordon around the 81 year old despot's
retirement home. Zimdaily
heard that the 15 Borrowdale Brooke residents who
were served with the
eviction notices met Monday where they decided to
engage Harare law firm
Atherstone and Cook to represent them in their legal
challenge. Borrowdale
Brooke Residents Association chairman John Ridgewell
confirmed the move but
declined to comment further saying "the issue is
sensitive."
Sources close to the legal challenge heard
that Atherstone &
Cook lawyer Innocent Chagonda, who coincidentally is
also opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's lawyer, is handling the case.
While it was not possible
to obtain comment from Chagonda up until late
yesterday, sources told
Zimdaily that the residents were seeking to prove
that the eviction was
irregular as the properties concerned did not
constitute agricultural land
but urban land. Zimdaily understands the
residents have already written to
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo
informing him of their intended
legal challenge.
Chombo
yesterday declined comment on the matter. Zimdaily was
told that the
residents will base their legal challenge on Section 24 and
Section 18 of
the Zimbabwe Constitution which guarantees full protection of
any citizen by
the law and also allows aggrieved citizens to seek legal
relief straight to
the Supreme Court. The residents are said to be also
looking at getting
"proper, fair based compensation" for the properties
should their legal
challenge fail. Zimdaily was unable to obtain comment
from the First Family
spokesperson Lawrence Kamwe as he was said to be still
attending his
father's funeral.
The 15 homeowners had warning letters
served on them two weeks
ago from the valuation department of the Local
Government Ministry. The
letter read: "This serves to advise you that your
property falls in a
designated security area in terms of general notice of
255 of 2004, and we
will be in contact with you soon with a view to
inspecting your house for
valuation purposes." Zimdaily understabnds that
among them are older couples
hoping to sell their homes and retire closer to
children who left Zimbabwe
during the upheavals of the past six
years.
An estate agent specialising in Borrowdale properties,
was
quoted recently saying: "These letters wiped out the value of any
property
close to the president's palace. "Those who have actually received
letters
warning them their homes will be acquired must know that they will
never be
able to sell their homes and that they will receive no
compensation." The
Zimbabwe government is bankrupt and is struggling to pay
its civil servants'
wages. It has no money to import essentials such as
fuel. Only a handful of
more than 4,000 white farmers whose homes, lands and
businesses were
confiscated by the state in the past six years received
compensation, in
most cases less than two per cent of the value of their
property.
Zim Daily
Thursday, February 09 2006 @ 12:01 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
ABOUT 150 people displaced by Operation
Murambatsvina are living
destitute lives along Mukuvisi River and the area
adjacent to Glen Norah C'
where they drink contaminated water and use the
bush as latrines. This
lifestyle goes on unabated yet the government of
Zimbabwe has told the whole
world that Operation Murambatsvina victims have
been assisted with shelter
and food. The victims have built shacks using
plastics and broken pieces of
furniture which they use as their houses. They
sleep together, irrespective
of gender. It is the children sleeping together
with their parents on the
open ground covered with either plastics or
cardboard boxes.
John Maburutse, 63, from Mberengwa, his wife
Beulah Mariki
Maburutse, 49, live in the same shack with their eight
children. He has kept
records of the victims of Operation Murambatsvina
between Glen Norah C' and
Mukuvisi River. Others who spoke of their problems
are Onias Mhou, 44, from
Jerera in Masvingo, used to survive on part-time
jobs as a mechanic. This
kept his family of three children
well-fed.
His wife Shelter Masirembwa, 36, now does manual
jobs to
supplement their meagre earnings. "I have joined other women in the
old home
industries in digging out bricks for resale at $1 million for a 1
000
bricks," Masirembwa said. "The situation is worse these days of heavy
rains
because the ground is muddy and sticky. Digging is a bit
difficult."
Admire Chuma, 31; of Gutu in Masvingo said they
lived destitute
lives. Blair toilets which the City of Harare had built for
them were
destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina. The open holes that
remain in some
cases are now being used as toilets by the victims. In
separate interviews,
they said the Harare Municipality prohibited them from
putting any
structures around the 'toilets' but has instead demanded that
they vacate
from the place. Charles Chinyepe, 35, from Zaka in Masvingo, who
is a
builder and carpenter by profession, said he lived in descent lodgings
before the vindictive operation was launched. In the aftermath of the
demolitions, he has found himself living in the shacks with his wife and
three children. For several months they tried to find alternative
accommodation but failed.
Asked how they were making a
living after their industry was
destroyed, Chinyepe said they were drinking
water from small wells and
boreholes they dug prior to the exercise. "We try
as much as possible to
make an honest living but it is proving difficult,"
he said. "There are no
jobs, construction work which was picking up has been
destroyed and now we
horde some agriculture produce for resale as a vendor.
The municipal police
occasionally raid us and confiscate our wares and the
police have also
threatened us with arrests. We have no option but to
continue struggling to
make ends meet."
Elizabeth
Munyoro, 25, from Mutare works as a security guard
with Watch Yard Security
told this author that they have no food and enough
blankets to warm
themselves at night. She lives together with her workmate
Precious Nyakudya
and both lived in Glen Norah A' before Operation
Murambatsvina was launched.
Nyakudya has a wife and two children. There have
been cholera outbreaks in
the area which affected nearly 50 people.
According to the shack dwellers,
some people nearly died in October,
November and December. The situation
remains desperate.
Combined Harare Residents Association spokeman
Precious Shumba
said: "Talking to the victims' one is left with a feeling
that these people
might one day unite and form a base for a calculated
resistance against the
Zimbabwe dictatorship," Shumba
said.
Conmen have capitalised on the victims' destitution for
their
benefit. At the beginning of the year, some men claiming to be home
owners
wrote down their names and collected $20 000 from each person. But
they soon
disappeared leaving no trace of their whereabouts. Another group
came later
with some forms and claimed to the victims that they would
process their
applications for residential stands but nothing materialised.
They parted
with their $50 000 and remain exposed to more fraudsters
masquerading as
responsible citizens.
These people are
some of the 700 000 who lost their livelihoods
through Operation
Murambatsvina as reported by the UN Secretary General's
Special Envoy Anna
Kajumulo Tibaijuka in her final report, rejected by the
government of
Zimbabwe as exaggerated and lacking truths. The government has
also rejected
another independent report crafted by Action Aid in liaison
with the
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human
Rights (ZLHR), and the Zimbabwe Peace Project which concluded that
about 850
000 people had been left traumatised by the exercise.
The Mercury
February 9,
2006
Lusaka: A senior Zambian official said yesterday the country
did not
want to get involved in the affairs of Zimbabwe's opposition, days
after a
delegation from Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change was
expelled from
southern Zambia.
Information Minister Vernon
Mwaanga was speaking after MDC party
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and a group of
his party colleagues were expelled
from the southern tourist town of
Livingstone.
"We felt that some of the discussions he had would be
better discussed
in Zimbabwe rather than in Zambia," Mwaanga said in Lusaka,
stressing Zambia
had good relations with its neighbour to the south. Mwaanga
did not disclose
what it was that Tsvangirai and his eight-member delegation
had been
discussing at a meeting in a Livingstone hotel before being
escorted out by
security officials last Thursday.
Upheaval
"We did not want those meetings held on our territory," he
stressed,
adding that Zambia did not want to get "even remotely involved in
any way"
in Zimbabwean politics. Initial reports on the incident described
the
expulsion of the MDC delegation as a "deportation".
Zambian immigration authorities later admitted they had curtailed the
Zimbabweans' visit but denied any political motive. On Sunday, Zimbabwe's
official Sunday Mail claimed that the US Central Intelligence Agency was
behind the meeting, which it said was aimed at fomenting "upheaval" in
Zimbabwe. Harare launched an investigation into the incident, describing it
as "a matter of national security" that it "cannot ignore".
On
Monday, Zimbabwe's national Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa,
said: "We are
grateful to Zambia, and we hope other countries in the
Southern African
Development Community will act like that in the future."
-
Sapa-DPA
IOL
February 09 2006
at 01:25AM
Harare - Five more people have died of cholera in
Zimbabwe, bringing
the total number of known deaths from the highly
infectious disease to 19,
state-controlled radio reported on
Wednesday.
The new deaths were recorded near the central mining
town of Kwekwe
and nearby Gokwe South district, the report
said.
Three of those who died contracted cholera after they washed
the body
of a cholera victim, the report said. The first victim had
contracted
cholera after attending a funeral, it added.
The
authorities have been warning that the cholera threat is still
very serious
in Zimbabwe, even though there had been no reports of new
deaths since
mid-January.
Earlier this week, Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa said Zimbabweans
should stop shaking hands, even at funerals,
to minimise the risks of
catching cholera.
He also advised
people not to buy fruit and fresh fish from unknown
sources, even if it was
cheap. Three members of the same Harare family died
of cholera last month
after buying fish from a police auction. - Sapa-dpa
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror
Reporter
issue date :1901-Nov-12
THE Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and Urban Development
Ignatius Chombo yesterday stressed that
Harare Town Clerk Nomutsa Chideya
was in overall charge of the city's
affairs as the battle for supremacy
between Chideya and strategist Chester
Mhende rages on at the municipality.
The minister said he would issue a
comprehensive statement on the matter
tomorrow after being briefed by his
officials.
The war of words pitting Mhende and Chideya erupted last week
after the
government appointed strategist refused to take orders from the
town clerk.
The verbal fight has since turned nasty with Mhende having gone
as far as
even suggesting that Chideya should be investigated for allegedly
siding
with suspended director of waste management, Leslie Gwindi, whose
disciplinary hearing commences today.
Chombo explained: "The position is
that the Town Clerk is the engine of the
city and all operations. The
strategist came in for the implementation of
the turnaround strategy and
that is what he monitors and advises on, but the
Town Clerk monitors the
whole city.
The strategist is only there for a short period while the Town
Clerk is
there for a longer period."
The minister, however, said it was
the responsibility of the commission
running Harare chaired by Sekesai
Makwavarara to restore sanity at Town
House.
"At the moment I just want
them to talk together, but it is the commission
that was mandated to
implement the turnaround programme and should therefore
restore order at
Town House to ensure that it (turnaround) succeeds.
"However, check with me
on Thursday when I would be in a position to issue a
comprehensive statement
after I have been briefed by my officials," Chombo
added.
Yesterday,
Makwavarara said she would only comment on the matter on Monday
next
week.
Mhende was appointed last year to lead the implementation of Harare's
turnaround strategy designed by suspended Air Zimbabwe boss Tendai
Mahachi.
Mahachi drew up the plan well before he was appointed to head the
national
airliner.
Chombo extended the city strategist's term by another
year two weeks ago
with all heads of departments reporting to him. Since
then, Mhende has been
accused of usurping the powers of heads of departments
while simultaneously
trying to muscle out Chideya in the overall supervision
of senior council
staffers.
He has also resisted orders to submit his
curriculum vitae (CV) to the
council's human resources department as
required by the municipality. In a
letter to Ottilia Dangwa, Harare's acting
chamber secretary, Mhende asked
that an investigation into Chideya's conduct
be instituted.
He wrote: "It has come to my attention that Mr N.M. Chideya in
his capacity
as Town Clerk has ordered your department to suspend the Gwindi
hearing from
proceedings at 09:30 tomorrow morning (3rd
February).
"Accordingly, after consulting the chairperson, the hearing must
proceed and
be concluded in the next 10 days, failing which, please extend
reasons to
the commission chairperson and our minister (Ignatius Chombo),
given the
potential irregularity before us. Similarly, please proceed to
cause an
inquiry into the act hearing of the Town Clerk and report to the
commission,
the chairperson and our minister."
Dangwa however, said it
was not her jurisdiction to call for such action.
She said: "As regards your
instruction for me to cause an inquiry into the
acts of the Town Clerk and
the reporting to the commission, the chairperson
and our Minister, please be
advised that I am not qualified to institute an
inquiry into the Town
Clerk's conduct.
In terms of Section 139 of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter
29:15), the duty
to conduct an inquiry or cause an inquiry to be conducted
into the Town
Clerk's conduct is the council, it having been initiated by
the mayor, if it
appears to the mayor that the Town Clerk has been guilty of
such conduct."
Other top council officials including chamber secretary,
Josephine Ncube,
director of works, Psychology Chiwanga and director of
housing and community
services Numero Mubayiwa where also suspended last
year for allegedly
resisting Mhende's ideas.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Business Reporter
issue date :1901-Nov-12
THE price of
fuel on the black market went up yet again over the weekend for
the second
time in as many weeks, forcing a further jump in urban commuting
fares.
The scarcity of the commodity has also seen most service
stations that have
access to it charging the same prices as the parallel
market following
recommendations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to
local monetary
authorities to remove all price controls.
Harare commuter
transport operators interviewed by The Daily Mirror said
they were
contemplating raising bus fares in reaction to the new fuel prices
and other
operational costs.
Diesel, which sold at $130 000 a litre a fortnight ago, is
now priced
between $140 000 and $160 000.
Some commuter transport
operators have already hiked their fares from the
average $30 000 to $40 000
a trip. Buses plying the city to Mufakose trip
were the first to effect the
new fares on Monday, which commuters have
complained against.
"Shall we
work for transport? What is this world coming to?" queried one
Mufakose
commuter on being asked to pay the new fare.
Moleen Matienga, the manager for
Mupazviriwo Transport, whose fleet plies
the Harare-Norton highway, said
input costs had become prohibitive and
would not be affordable to new
entrants to the transport industry. "If you
want to invest in this business,
it's better to hold on to your capital
because you would only work for fuel.
It's much better to buy a house than a
commuter omnibus. I have just ordered
my driver to park one of our vehicles
because there is no fuel and besides,
$160 000 a litre is too much for
anyone," she complained.
Phillip
Mupfiga, a bus driver, said fares would continue skyrocketing so
long as the
price of fuel increased.
He lamented the fact that privately-run public
transporters were losing
business to the State-subsidised Zimbabwe United
Passenger Company (Zupco),
whose fares were always marginally lower than
those of other companies.
The buses, for instance, charge $20 000 between the
city centre and
Dzivarasekwa, when other buses demand $30 000.
Besides
fuel, other maintenance costs for public transporters were also
prohibitive.
Five litres of engine oil cost $1,5 million while a single
tyre is priced at
$15 million.
Munyaradzi Mbera, a conductor, said his
30-seater bus plying the
Harare-Norton trip for a fare of $60 000, grossed
$9 million on an average
day.
From this amount, the bus crew would have
to deduct their lunch allowances
and buy fuel for the next day's business,
if available.
To fill up a 90-litre tank for such vehicles, they would have
to fork out
$14,4 million, which represents a loss of over $5 million a
day.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :1901-Nov-12
AGRICULTURAL production
has been on a downward trend since 1999 owing to a
number of technical and
environmental factors, a research by a leading
fertiliser manufacturing
company has shown.
Chemplex chief executive Eben Makonese blamed the state of
affairs on the
acute shortage of key farming inputs such as fertilisers,
chemicals, seed
and draught power particularly in 2004 and 2005.
This had
reduced crop hectarage hence low yields.
"There is reduced viability for
crops brought about by increased costs
without corresponding increases in
income generated by the crops. This
resulted in farmers reducing the
hectarage that they grow and mostly
affected commercial maize, tobacco and
paprika," said Makonese.
The Chemplex boss said Zimbabwe needed 550 000
tonnes of ammonium nitrate
fertiliser each season to have a good
agricultural season, but due to lack
of foreign currency to import critical
inputs, the southern African country,
once the breadbasket of the region,
now has the capacity to produce only
about 300 000 tonnes.
A comparison
of hectarages of crops grown between 1999 and 2006 showed that
86 000 of
tobacco
was planted in the 1999-2000 season.
The hectarage was reduced to
64 000 in the 2001-2002 season and again to 46
000 the following
year.
This season, only 35 000 hectares of tobacco was grown.
The downward
trend also registered in the yields as they nose-dived from 190
000 to 135
000 to 95 000 and 68 000 tonnes (estimate for the current season)
respectively for the seasons under review.
The hectarage of commercial
maize was similarly affected as 155 000 hectares
were grown in the 1999-2000
season, 65 000 the following season and 60 000
hectares for the 2003-2004
and 2005-2006 seasons.
The used hectarage for small-scale maize, however,
remained unchanged at 1.2
million tonnes in all seasons and is expected to
remain there this season.
The nation needs at least 1.2 million tonnes of
maize a year to be
food-secure and feed its population of about 13
million.
Chemplex, however, revealed that 2 million tonnes of maize were
produced in
the 1999-2000 season, 1.5 million and 1.3 million, respectively,
for the
subsequent two seasons.
This season, an estimated 1.2 million
tonnes of maize will be produced.
Other crops that registered decline in both
hectarage and yields for the
same periods were soya beans, cotton, wheat,
sugar cane, paprika and roses.
Tea was the only product whose hectarage was
increased with 65 000 being
planted in the 1999-2000 season and increasing
to 6 800 hectares for the
succeeding seasons.
Makonese said cropping was
also affected by series of droughts that occurred
during the period under
review.
He said: "The droughts reduced the yields that were achieved by each
crop.
"They also negatively affected winter wheat cropping since dams and
underground water reserves that are used to supply the irrigation water had
low levels."
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date
:1901-Nov-12
POLICE are still clueless on the whereabouts of fugitive
Judge Benjamin
Paradza who skipped bail soon after his conviction mid-last
month.
Chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the
police
were still-hunting for Paradza who was found guilty of corruption and
is
believed to be now in the UK after escaping reportedly via South
Africa."We
are still looking for the judge," he said.
Bvudzijena said the
police could not rely on unsubstantiated reports that
the judge was in the
UK.
Paradza, who became the first judge in independent Zimbabwe to be found
guilty of corruption, was issued with a warrant of arrest after he failed to
turn up in court for sentencing.
Speculation is rife that he fled the
country to avoid being jailed.
Retired judge Simpson Mutambanengwe, was
expected to hear mitigation before
sentencing Paradza.
Paradza's defence
counsel Eric Matinenga instructed by Selby Hwacha and
Canaan Dube, on the
day of the conviction expressed ignorance about his
client's whereabouts.
Mutambanengwe immediately ordered that copies of the
arrest warrant be faxed
to all border posts and airports and also indicated
that Paradza's bail was
provisionally forfeited to the State.
The State had proved that Paradza
approached Bulawayo judges Maphios Cheda
and George Chiweshe to release the
passport of his safari business partner,
Russell
Labuschagne.
Labuschagne, then on bail for killing a fisherman in Binga, is
currently
serving a 15-year jail term for the offence.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :1901-Nov-12
THE South African
government on Monday dismissed reports that it instructed
oil companies to
cut off supplies to Zimbabwe, while regional power concern
Eskom also
rejected reports that it had halted electricity exports to
Harare.
Reports linking Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission (ZERC)
chairperson Mavis Chidzonga indicated at the weekend that "forced outages"
in power supply from Zimbabwe's southern neighbour, coupled with a slide in
coal supply from Hwange Colliery Company had put power supplies under
stress.
While Eskom confirmed the interruptions to local power company,
Zesa
Holdings, it said no decision to suspend exports had been reached
although
there were a series of planned maintenance, which had affected
Zimbabwe.
Eskom spokesperson, Fani Zulu was on Monday quoted in the South
African
media saying his company had instead assisted Zimbabwe to get
alternative
sources of power.
"At no point did we cut our supply to
Zimbabwe, we have a very healthy
relationship. We had a lot of maintenance
outages that were planned, it is
normal at this time of the
year.
"Because most of the plants are going through mid-life maintenance and
refurbishment it took longer to bring the plants back into supply," he said.
Zulu noted that Zimbabwe's contract with the Eskom worked on "a day ahead"
basis where Zimbabwe stipulates that it would need certain megawatts (MW) up
to 300MW.
Eskom said in the last 10 days Eskom had supplied enough power
to Zesa.
Zesa imports about 50 percent of Zimbabwe's power requirements from
Eskom,
Hydro de Cahora Bassa of Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of
Congo
(DRC)'s SNEL but previously struggled to timeously settle debts.
As
at December 31 2005, Zesa had accumulated US$330 million in debts amid
high
operating loses of Z$8 trillion.
Kariba generates 750 Megawatts (MW), but due
to poor rehabilitation of
electricity generation plants, HPC is generating
550 MW against a 920 MW
potential.
Yesterday, Zesa said as part of its
agreement with Eskom, the local utility
prepaid for all power requirements
and was currently paid up.
It added that in the past week, however, Eskom had
struggled to supply
enough power and it ad communicated the
circumstances.
South African government spokesperson, Yvonne Mfolo on Monday
said the
energy department was not aware of the decision to halt export to
Zimbabwe
and checks with related government departments had revealed that no
such
decision had been made.
A senior South African High Commission in
Harare told The Daily Mirror on
Monday that no communication to that
effected had been forwarded by their
government.
As far as they were
concerned, he said, the power deal between Zesa Holdings
and Eskom was
intact while fuel supplies were ongoing.
Petroleum companies in South Africa
also said any supply bottlenecks to
Harare could be a result of disruption
in production volumes from a plant at
Natref refinery in that
country.
The refinery - co-owned by Sasol and Total South Africa was reported
to have
experienced an unscheduled shut down of its crude distillation unit
at the
end of January.
Oil companies in Zimbabwe source their fuel from
South Africa because the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) is facing
acute operational
challenges due to foreign currency shortages.
Academic
and politician Shakespear Maya, who claimed that he had done a lot
of
feasibility studies in power development in southern Africa said while
Chidzonga's statements could be true, they were unfortunate in that they had
the potential to affect foreign investment inflows.
He added that such
statements must only be made at cabinet level due to
their serious
nature.
"The work of a regulator is to rationalise and demonopolise the
sector not
to administer Zesa. On the other hand, Zesa has talked about
expansion plans
since independence (but) nothing has been done. That is the
reason why we
are facing these problems; there is no forward planning," he
said.