• Zimbabwe court orders police off paper's premises
• Finance scandal threatens Mugabe backers
• Zimbabwe Ruins African Unity
• 2004 will be worse
• Zanu-Mdc Talks: the Stumbling Blocks
• Health Woes Set to Worsen
• JAG Open letters forum no: 214
• JAG Classifieds
• Mark McNulty dumps Zimbabwe citizenship
• Freedom will give Africa its path out of poverty
• Mugabe shops while his country drops
• 110 Cuban doctors expected
• President has no properties outside Zim: Government
• Indigenisation under threat
• Tens of millions have died under the ‘progressive’ banner

SABC

 

The paper was closed down in September Zimbabwe court orders police off paper's premises January 09, 2004, 04:36 PM Zimbabwe's High Court has ordered police to vacate the premises of the country's largest privately owned daily newspaper and allow it to publish again in line with an earlier court ruling, a lawyer said today. The Daily News, which has been critical of President Robert Mugabe's government since the paper was founded in 1999, was first shut down by police in September after a court ruled that it was operating illegally without the licence required by strict new media laws introduced in 2002. The police re-occupied the paper's offices and printing press last month, hours after the paper had gone to print again following a ruling by the Administrative Court, a branch of the High Court, that the paper could get back to work more than two months after its initial closure. Today Gugulethu Moyo, the legal adviser for Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) which publishes The Daily News, said Tendai Ucheni, the High Court judge, had granted an order sought by ANZ for police to vacate its offices in central Harare and the premises of its printing press. "We obtained the order we sought...It means we can resume publication of The Daily News," Moyo told reporters after the hearing held in the Ucheni's chambers. "We are waiting to see if the police, who were present at the hearing, will respect the ruling and order their officers off our property," she added. Police were not immediately available to comment on today's ruling. Police have stationed officers at the newspaper's downtown Harare editorial offices but have allowed employees in to do administrative work. However, officials have completely blocked access to the newspaper's printing plant outside town. The government has appealed to the Supreme Court against an Administrative Court order directing the state-appointed media commission to award ANZ an operating license, and says the paper has no legal right to publish until the matter is finalised. The Daily News says media laws compelling media firms to register with the commission are aimed at muzzling government critics as the country grapples with a political and economic crisis widely blamed on state mismanagement. The government insists the laws are necessary to restore professionalism in journalism. It accuses private media of driving a propaganda campaign by Mugabe's opponents over the seizure of farms from minority whites for redistribution among landless blacks. - Reuters

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - A financial crisis unfolding in Zimbabwe's banking sector
is threatening the political careers and wealth of some of President Robert
Mugabe's top supporters in the business community, analysts say.

A week after police arrested two company directors accused of defrauding
billions of dollars in investor funds, Zimbabwe is awash with speculation
that a central bank drive to clamp down on speculative activity, and its vow
not to bail out banks in trouble, could take down the propertied and
powerful.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) drive has already seen a run on deposits
on six mainly black-owned banks, some owned by members of Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF party who regard themselves as champions of his government's black
empowerment programme.

Police and local media allegations that Philip Chiyangwa -- a flamboyant
businessman, member of parliament and ZANU-PF provincial chairman -- tried
to block the detention of the two directors of asset management firm ENG
Capital has fed the gossip about who might be heading for a fall.

The two directors have appeared in court on fraud charges involving more
than 61 billion Zimbabwe dollars in investor funds, becoming the first legal
casualties of a crisis analysts say could push some companies to collapse.

A Harare magistrate rejected their application to drop the charges on Friday
and denied them bail on grounds they might abscond due to the gravity of
charges against them.

BEGINNING OF A CRACKDOWN?

Chiyangwa went to court as a defence witness supporting the two men's bid
for release, saying he had no business interests in the firm but wanted a
political and legal arrangement that did not endanger black economic
advancement.

But analysts say Chiyangwa's reaction reflected worries among the
political-business elite that the central bank's tighter supervision of
banks and asset management firms could cut into their fortunes, made partly
from illegal foreign currency deals.

"If the Reserve Bank continues on this path, those who have been building
their wealth on illegal deals, or by acting as brokers, are going to go
down," said Zimbabwe political analyst Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei.

Dzinotyiwei said it was too early to be certain, but it looked like
Mugabe -- battling a severe economic crisis blamed on government
mismanagement -- was cracking down on corruption to ease political pressure
on ZANU-PF before general parliamentary elections next year.

"Some of his supporters and officials might get ruined in a crackdown on
corruption, and in his efforts to try to bring order into the economy...but
from a political point of view, the crackdown would be popular with the
people," he told Reuters.

And Mugabe has shown he is not afraid to bring down the rich and powerful,
if it means securing his own position.

Dzinotyiwei recalled how in 1989 Mugabe, facing a fierce electoral challenge
the next year from a former political lieutenant, proved wrong his
opponent's charges that he was soft on corruption by purging cabinet
ministers and state officials accused of selling cars on the black market.

"It's too early to say, but we might just be seeing the start of another
purge," Dzinotyiwei said.

The financial crisis has triggered an 18 percent drop in the Zimbabwe stock
market in the past week as investors balk at financial stocks which have
driven the bourse in recent years.

Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)

OPINION
January 9, 2004
Posted to the web January 9, 2004

Ferial Haffajee
Johannesburg

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki begins his political year alienated
from his most powerful ally in Africa, Nigeria's President Olusegun
Obasanjo, because of South Africa's obstinate support for Zimbabwe at the
Commonwealth Heads of Government (Chogm) meeting last month.

The rift has large implications for African unity. It may hamper coordinated
peace-keeping efforts on the continent and the implementation of Africa's
economic recovery plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(Nepad), suggest analysts.

Details have emerged of how Mbeki's divisive posturing embarrassed Obasanjo,
for whom Chogm was the most important political function on home soil during
his term in office. There was "anger and disquiet" at Mbeki's stance, say
highly placed Commonwealth insiders.

But Mbeki's spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, denied a rift, saying Obasanjo was
the last person the president saw in Abuja before flying home. "They parted
laughing and on a warm note. Zimbabwe will not damage the relationship."

The two men's positions on Zimbabwe have now diverged from the joint
approach still evident at the beginning of last year. At the Abuja summit,
Obasanjo supported a continued suspension from the Commonwealth, while Mbeki
is widely believed to have fronted a Southern African Development Community
(SADC) statement that "strongly disagreed" with the decision.

Obasanjo is said to have requested Southern African leaders not to make
their statement on Nigerian soil, though Khumalo says the SADC statement was
released in Lesotho and South Africa so that it would not be read as a snub
to the Nigerians.

Mbeki has been weakened globally by hinting, at CHOGM, that the entire SADC
bloc would pull out of the Commonwealth if Zimbabwe's suspension was not
lifted. South Africa denies making the threat. African members make up the
largest bloc of Commonwealth members and as a sub-group of 12, Southern
Africa is the largest.

Mbeki's attempt to oust incumbent Secretary General Don McKinnon by lobbying
for the Sri Lankan candidate, Lakshman Kadirgaman, also failed. The entire
SADC bloc did not vote for the Sri Lankan, again suggesting the president
has an overblown understanding of his sway and support in the region.

Kadirgaman, who announced his candidature two weeks ahead of the CHOGM, was
beaten by 11 votes to McKinnon's 40. An analysis of the voting pattern
suggests four Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and the
Maldives) and seven African states voted for him.

Initially pressed to run by, among others, the former Organisation of
African Unity leader Salim Ahmed Salim and the African Union commission
chair Alpha Oumar Konare, Kadirgamar said that he had been "let down" by
African states.

South Africa is angered by the publication of the vote; Khumalo called it
"un-Commonwealth" and said it flew in the face of convention in which voting
was always confidential. He would not comment on disunity in the SADC.

Mbeki may have thought the gamble would succeed if the African members voted
as an African Union bloc, but he again misjudged both his own influence and
African unity.

Mbeki's tactics displayed naivety, say analysts, because the Commonwealth is
more of a club of individual nations, without the tradition of bloc voting
and caucusing of other multilateral institutions.

For his part, Mbeki is said to have been angered because he felt the meeting
had not gone far enough in securing consensus on Zimbabwe and that Obasanjo
had not allowed sufficient debate.

The Chogm left Africa more divided than ever on Zimbabwe.

Obasanjo, who still favours rapprochement with Zimbabwe, is now likely to
work with Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius and Tanzania.

Each country supports the reintegration of Zimbabwe into the fold of
nations, but they have consistently maintained a stronger position on the
rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe's government than countries like
South Africa, Zambia, Lesotho and Namibia.

South Africa's position both as a global moral beacon and an African leader
were weakened at the Chogm. Analysts say it will take nimble political
footwork to repair the relationship with Obasanjo, a partnership that is a
key to advancing Nepad. And if political negotiations in Zimbabwe do not
quickly move from talks about talks to substantive engagement, South Africa
is likely to be further weakened.

While Mbeki's reassurances about efforts to break the logjam in Zimbabwe
placated United States President George Bush in June, a similar effort
failed at the Chogm. Mbeki reportedly told the Commonwealth heads of
government that a settlement in Zimbabwe was imminent, a position that was
read as over-optimistic.

      EDITORIAL: ONLY the starry-eyed, incurable sycophants of Zanu PF could
look forward to 2004 with unmitigated optimism.

      Most such people have learnt to ignore the realities of their country’
s pathetic political and economic situation on the nebulous grounds that it
couldn’t get worse.

      Unfortunately, all the statistics since 2000 and 2002 have proved them
wrong. After the 2000 parliamentary elections, they were told by their
leaders that things would prove.

      After the 2002 presidential election, they were again reassured that
with President Robert Mugabe back in the saddle, things would definitely
improve.

      Today, there is inflation hovering around 700 percent, unemployment,
poverty and hunger have all escalated. Nearly 80 percent of the people are
living below the poverty daetum line - and that is the official figure.

      The prospects for an improved 2004 cannot be based entirely on ”Wonder
Boy” Gideon Gono’s much-vaunted monetary policy, unveiled amid much pomp and
ceremony in Harare last month.

      Admittedly, the tightening of the screws on recalcitrant financial
institutions has had an immediate and salutary effect. Suspects have been
arrested and hauled into court to answer this or that allegation of
financial malfeasance.

      Ordinary, law-abiding and long-suffering victims of the govermnent’s
incredibly unimaginative economic policies over the last 23 years can only
hope that the new policy will result in a wholesale excision of the rot that
had been allowed to set in over the years, to benefit the fat cats protected
from the law by their loytalty to the ruling party.

      Zanu PF’s political and economic policies have failed this country.
The international climate may not have been concusive to the sort of
positive development that would favour a developing country like Zimbabwe.

      Even the developed countries, such as the United States, Japan and
Germany did not witness the spectacular economic results they envisaged a
year ago.

      But most of Zimbawe’s woes and wounds were self-inflicted. The boorish
manner with which President Mugabe’s government reacted to criticism of the
the savagery of the land reform programme’s

      implementation resulted in many developed countries suspending aid to
Zimbabwe, resulting in the “sanctions’ about which the government has moaned
loudly, mostly in vain.

      But the truth is that for the sake of retaining power at all costs,
Zanu PF decided it would not adopt pragmatic political and economic
policies.

      It would not engage in meaningful dialogue with the largest opposition
party in the country, the Movement for Dermocatic Change. Neither would it
pursue economic policies which could be endorsed, not only by the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but by the rest of the
developed countries which previously poured generous aid into the country.

      “Going it alone” or “going East” may be positive options in the
short-term, but in the Global Village the world has now become, only
policies which win international endorsement can succeed.

      Zanu PF’s collective ego may swell at the prospect of playing “lone
ranger”, but the people’s collective bellies will end up emptier and
emptier.

Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)

January 9, 2004
Posted to the web January 9, 2004

Paul Stober

Even though informal contacts between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have produced a number of
detailed options for ending the country's political and economic crises, the
two sides remain a long way off from the formal talks necessary to save
Zimbabwe from collapse.

And MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube, who is leading the informal talks
for his movement, insists that until both parties commit themselves to
binding negotiations, the contacts mean nothing.

"The MDC position is that the informal contacts about process cannot be
described as talks because they are not binding and they are exploratory in
character. Even if they stray to substantive matters, they don't amount to
talks because they are only exploratory.

"The informal talks between myself and [Zimbabwean Minister of Justice
Patrick] Chinamasa, to find a gateway to dialogue, are exploratory," he
insisted.

Ncube is of the view that once binding talks start an agreement could be
quickly hammered out and an election held soon after. "Our view is that once
political talks begin there would be more than enough time to prepare for an
election, which can be held well before those scheduled for 2005," he said.

In a nutshell, the informal talks have identified four stumbling blocks to a
political settlement in Zimbabwe.

The MDC is insisting the Zimbabwean government allow the paper, The Daily
News, to begin publishing again. The Zimbabwean government has repeatedly
violated court orders which gave The Daily News the right to publish and
forcibly closed the paper down.

The opposition movement is also demanding the disbanding of Zanu-PF
militias, widely accused of unleashing a reign of terror in the country in
an attempt to intimidate opponents of the ruling party.

The two sides are also wrangling about amendments to Zimbabwe's Access to
Information and the Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and
Security Act. The MDC and many local and international human rights groups
insist the legislation stifles free speech and free political activity.

Zanu-PF and the MDC seem to have a good idea of what amendments may have to
be made to the Zimbabwean Constitution to facilitate a political settlement
in the country. The MDC would like a limited review of the Zimbabwean
Constitution as a way of levelling the political playing field in the
country before the next round of elections.

"Interim constitutional changes would include the creation of an independent
electoral commission and a much more open electoral framework," says Ncube.
He confirmed that there have been informal talks between the movement and
Zanu-PF around possible constitutional amendments.

However, there are differences between the two over a date for an election
under an amended Constitution.

Ncube also insisted that any comprehensive review of the country's
Constitution would have to wait until after political settlement has been
reached - so that those talks could take place in an atmosphere of free
political activity.

There is no indication that formal talks between the MDC and Zanu-PF will
start any time soon. "We are waiting. We have not heard anything from
Zanu-PF, or the office of South African President, Thabo Mbeki, who we
understand has a commitment from Zanu-PF for unconditional dialogue," says
Ncube.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira refused to comment on the informal
talks or the status of contacts between Zanu-PF and the MDC.

Some analysts in Zimbabwe point out Zanu-PF is not likely to make any move
on the talks until Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returns from a private
visit to South East Asia.

In a further sign of Zimbabwe's disintegration, the country's banking system
is showing signs of failing, arguably the first sign of the collapse of the
formal economy. This week, six of Zimbabwe's 11 banking institutions have
stopped paying their debts to other banks because they did not have the
money.

The country is already suffering from inflation of 620%, unemployment of
over 70%, a shrinking economy and drought and famine. Economists say that
until there is an end to the political crises, there is no chance of saving
the economy.

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

January 9, 2004
Posted to the web January 9, 2004

Harare

Zimbabwe's already strained health sector will come under even greater
pressure after one of the country's biggest nursing schools failed to open.

Harare Central Hospital has an annual intake of 180 nursing students,
recruited three times a year in groups of 60. This year the nursing school
could not open its doors to new students, due to a crippling shortage of
tutors.

Students who were to have started their training two weeks ago were turned
away on 4 January, when hospital authorities said they would be called to
return at a later date.

An aspiring student nurse who was turned away told IRIN there was concern
that the delays could be indefinite, thus robbing many of a chance to become
professional health workers.

Nurses and doctors who talked to IRIN said the nursing school had been left
with only three tutors and needed a minimum of 15 to operate. The situation
is set to worsen further as the three remaining tutors have all submitted
their resignations.

Harare Central Hospital superintendent Dr Christopher Tapfumaneyi confirmed
that the school was experiencing difficulties.

"Like any other profession, tutors are leaving for greener pastures," said
Tapfumaneyi, who stressed that the problems facing the school were not
linked to the recently ended three-month strike by nurses and doctors.

Hospital officials who talked to IRIN on condition of anonymity said the
hospital was losing its tutors to the private sector, and many had left to
work in countries such as Britain and South Africa.

Samuel Mabhiza, a former tutor now working at the private Avenues Clinic,
told IRIN the main reason tutors were leaving was to better their salaries.
"Tutors get slightly above Zim $200,000 a month (about US $243 at the
official exchange rate) and yet the amount of work they do is enormous."
Tutors are paid a salary equivalent to that of a senior nurse.

Harare Central Hospital's nursing school is said to be under-equipped and
the library virtually empty. Tutors therefore had to use their own resources
to do research at the University of Zimbabwe and other private libraries.

The shortage of teaching staff has also affected the progress of second- and
third-year students. A final-year nursing student told IRIN that since
November 2003 they had attended hardly any classes, as they had had to fill
in for striking nurses at the hospital.

"We are likely to fail to graduate this year because we don't have any
lecturers at the moment, and we had to work full-time because our seniors
were on strike," she said.

The shortage of teaching staff at Zimbabwe's nursing schools has also
affected training in specialised fields such as midwifery.

The lack of new nurses is set to worsen Zimbabwe's health woes as many
hospitals and clinics in the countryside are already facing staff shortages.
A 2003 parliamentary report on the health situation in Zimbabwe noted that
office orderlies and nurse's aides are manning many clinics in rural areas.

Despite low salaries, thousands of secondary school graduates apply to
become nurses, mainly because nurses almost always find employment - an
important factor, given Zimbabwe's unemployment rate of over 70 percent.

The high demand for nurses in Zimbabwe, the region, and internationally has
also contributed to the popularity of the profession. Many view training as
a nurse as a sure way of getting a visa to the United Kingdom, and an escape
from Zimbabwe's worsening economic crisis.

      The Freedom House findings should be carefully read in the Union
Buildings. Because, of late, our African policy has tended more and more
towards the common wisdom which Freedom House disputes, that wealth must
precede political freedom.

      This was most apparent in President Mbeki's Zimbabwe policy last year,
where he virtually justified President Robert Mugabe's illegal land seizures
on the grounds that international donors had failed to deliver promised aid
to buy land from white farmers.

      Most of the world sees Zimbabwe destroying its wealth because of a
reversal of political freedom; Mbeki seemed determined to reverse the causal
link and see the descent into authoritarianism as a result of external,
economic causes.

      One can also see this growing "externalist" tendency in the increased
emphasis which Mbeki placed last year on democratising global institutions
such as the World Trade Organisation. These initiatives are of course
vitally important because fairer trade rules are good for Africa and the
developing world in themselves and because of their mostly beneficial
effects on political freedom.

      The danger arises when the democracy deficit in global politics
becomes an excuse for a democracy deficit in African national governments.
Mbeki moved into that danger zone with his defence of Zimbabwe in December.

      While the world's attention was focused on the drama of resolving or
not resolving conflicts in places like Burundi and Zimbabwe, the unsung
states of Ghana, Mali and Sao Tome and Principe were showing the rest of the
continent the real escape route out of Africa's vicious cycle of poverty and
repression.

      It's just that no-one seemed to be paying much attention.

      Mugabe was due to travel to Singapore on a shopping trip before
returning to Zimbabwe after about three weeks absence.

      His shopping spree in Singapore caused a storm in Zimbabwe last year
when his 25 large containers of shopping were photographed at an airport.

      He was photographed by Greg Mills, the director of the South African
Institute of International Affairs, who had bumped into Mugabe at the
airport.