Zim Online
Friday 12 January 2007
HARARE -
Shadreck Muponda counts the crumbled notes from his pocket,
murmuring to
himself and totally oblivious of his surroundings, only to be
reminded that
he is standing in the middle of the road by a sudden screech
of tyres and
insults from the driver of the vehicle.
Shaken, but still determined, he
finds a bench in the nearby Africa Unity
Square Park in the sweltering
afternoon heat, where he ponders his next
move.
But it cannot be easy
and one can only get to empathise with Muponda as he
tries to work out how
to stretch his Z$60 000 monthly salary to meet all
expenses for the
month.
Muponda needs $28 000 for bus fare to and from work, $30 000 for
the two
rooms he rents in Harare's working class suburb of Kuwadzana - and
already
this has chewed up his salary - which is not taxed starting this
month.
But he is not alone, as thousands more Zimbabwean workers earn far
less than
what he is getting. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
says the
lowest paid government employee gets $12 000 per month but the
union adds
that farm workers are paid even less, a measly $6 000, which is
not enough
to buy a kilogramme of meat.
"Life is very difficult my
friend, we are suffering," said Muponda, a
messenger at a private security
firm in the capital. "Now that you say
inflation has gone up again
obviously the shops will increase their prices
again. Tell me when will all
this come to an end?" he said - a distinctive
tone of hopelessness
unmistakable in his shaky voice.
Like Muponda, thousands of Zimbabweans
are feeling the dire effects of
hyperinflation, the most vivid illustration
yet of the country's worsening
economic crisis also seen in shortages of
basic commodities, fuel and
foreign currency and unemployment above 80
percent.
Official data this week showed inflation zooming to new record
levels of 1
281 percent in what analysts said had set the stage for the
figure to hit 2
000 this year.
Zimbabwe's inflation is the highest in
the world and has eroded incomes of
workers who have to grapple with rising
transport costs, rentals, medical
and school fees but have at the same time
suffered from electricity and
water cuts, burst sewers and crumbling public
infrastructure.
Analysts say the country's economic crisis, which is
widely blamed on
mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government, is
fuelling political
tensions in once stable and prosperous Zimbabwe to
dangerous levels.
"So this means we will be called again to top up the
school fees we paid
just this week," Florence Mawoyo, a 48-year-old mother
of four said,
referring to her two daughters that started secondary
education at a
boarding school near the eastern border city of
Mutare.
"Inga chegore rino ndicho chikuru nhai vanhu wee (we are in real
trouble
this year)," she said in a tone capturing the suffering of the
majority.
The government's Central Statistical Office says an average
family of five
now requires $344 256 every month for it not to be considered
poor. By that
measurement, analysts say 85 percent of the 12 million
Zimbabweans are poor.
Doctors and some nurses, who all earn less than $60
000 have gone on strike
to press the government for higher salaries to
cushion themselves against
galloping inflation with political commentators
warning the job boycotts
could spread to other sectors and become
violent.
Patients have been left without medical care at the hospitals as
the doctors
maintain they will only start work when their demands for a
salary rise of
more than 8 000 percent and higher car allowances are
met.
"Workers are suffering and what we are saying is that the government
has not
responded to our demands on the budget, which means we have little
choice
but to go on strike," ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo told ZimOnline.
-
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 12 January 2007
HARARE - A
former secretary general of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party on
Thursday
absolved President Robert Mugabe of assassinating a prominent rival
in the
last months of the country's independence struggle but said the
veteran
leader had become a liability to the once prosperous nation.
Edgar Tekere
- once a friend of Mugabe and credited with helping him seize
control of
ZANU PF at a time during the struggle years when the party was
virtually
leaderless and crippled by internal feuding - was expelled from
the ruling
party in 1988 after opposing plans by Mugabe to declare Zimbabwe
a one-party
state.
Speaking at the launch of a book he authored on his life and role
in the
struggle for Zimbabwe's liberation, Tekere said it was not true that
Mugabe
was involved in the death of Josiah Tongogara in a 1979 car accident,
just
months before independence was attained on April 18,
1980.
Tongogara was supreme commander of the Zimbabwe African National
Liberation
Army, the military wing of ZANU. He was an immensely influential
figure in
the liberation movement who many say could have pipped Mugabe to
become
independent Zimbabwe's first leader.
Tekere said: "I have
heard people whispering that Mugabe killed Tongogara.
That's a lot of
nonsense. Tongogara died in an accident. That's straight and
simple. He was
disobeying an order given by Samora Machel (late Mozambican
president) not
to travel by road."
According to Tekere, whose political autobiography is
entitled "A Lifetime
of Struggle" offers a fresh perspective from which to
understand the history
of the birth of Zimbabwe and why the country's most
recent history may have
taken the course it did, said Machel had told ZANU
PF leaders not to use
roads in the north of the country because they were
heavily mined.
ZANU PF used Mozambique as its rear base during the 1970s
war of
independence.
Tekere's assertion on the death of Tongogara is
new and is likely to find
few believers, with many people wondering why it
should take ZANU PF 27
years to simply explain that its former military
supremo was killed in a
land mine accident, something not unexpected in a
war situation.
ZANU PF has always explained Tongogara's death as having
been due to a car
accident in which there were no landmines involved - an
explanation many
have doubted especially given the bloody power struggles
that were not
uncommon in the party during the war.
Tekere, who was
first dismissed by Mugabe as ZANU PF secretary general in
1981 before being
chased out of the party altogether seven years later,
decried the veteran
President's stewardship of both the governing party and
Zimbabwe.
"Mugabe has become a liability to the party. He has become
a liability to
the whole population of Zimbabwe," said Tekere, adding that
an economic
crisis that has spawned hyperinflation, poverty and shortages of
every basic
commodity would worsen in 2007 if Zimbabweans continued to be
docile in the
face of Mugabe's excesses.
Tekere, seen by some as both
maverick and eccentric, served in various
senior positions in Mugabe's
cabinet before his expulsion. After he was
forced out of ZANU PF and the
government he went on to form his own
political party, the Zimbabwe Unity
Movement that put up a commendable
showing in general elections in 1990
before fizzling out.
Tekere has since rejoined ZANU PF but was barred
from taking up any senior
position reportedly at he orders of Mugabe. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 12 January 2007
BULAWAYO - Private doctors in
Zimbabwe's second biggest city of Bulawayo
have increased fees by 100
percent worsening the plight of patients battling
to access health care due
to prohibitive costs.
The latest fee hike, effected at the beginning of
the year, will hit hard
most Zimbabweans who had been forced to turn to
private doctors because of a
three-week strike by state doctors and
nurses.
The doctors want the government to improve their salaries and
working
conditions. Most government-run hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo
have
virtually ground to a halt as a result of the strike
action.
Specialist doctors increased their consultation fees from Z$15
000 to
between $30 000 and $40 000 while those on medical aid are now
required to
pay $3 000 to top up their fees.
Zimbabwe Medical
Association (ZIMA) chairman, Chad Tarumbwa, said the
increases were
necessary to keep the private health sector viable.
"It is the economic
fundamentals of the day that are pushing us. For private
doctors, drugs and
other raw materials are very expensive out there, and if
we don't increase
our charges, we will certainly collapse.
"There are electricity bills to
be paid for, salaries and commercial rates
to be settled and we are of the
opinion that our move is justified," said
Tarumbwa.
A Bulawayo
resident, Nomalanga Ndlovu said the new fees will push out most
patients
from accessing specialist treatment from private doctors.
"The latest fee
increase will keep most patients at bay. The charges are
just too
prohibitive," said Ndlovu.
Meanwhile, Health Minister David Parirenyatwa
yesterday called on the
striking doctors to go back to work saying
Zimbabweans were suffering as a
result of the strike.
"I am urging
the doctors to come back to work because the patient is
suffering, the
Zimbabwean patient is suffering," Parirenyatwa said in
remarks broadcast on
state radio.
"It is very, very critical that we don't allow our patients
in this country
to die and that is why I am urging them to come back for
their patients'
sake, because that is what they trained for - the other
issues we can
discuss," he added.
But Zimbabwe Doctors' Association
president Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa said the
doctors will not return to work
until their concerns were addressed.
Zim Online
Friday 12 January
2007
BULAWAYO - Three more illegal gold
miners died in Filabusi district in
southern Zimbabwe after a disused gold
mine collapsed on the miners as they
sought to evade arrest by the
police.
The police officers are said to have fired teargas into the
disused mine to
smoke out the illegal miners. But the miners were trapped
after the mine
collapsed and buried the trio as they stampeded to get out to
safety.
The dead miners were identified as Matron Ncube, 37, Daniel
Ndlovu, 33 and
Sipho Dlamini, 28, all of Filabusi.
"Daniel Ndlovu and
Sipho Dlamini died on December 28 when a disused mine
shaft fell on them
after police had thrown teargas into the shaft to force
the gold panners
out.
"This led to a stampede as the miners trampled on one another while
trying
to get out of the pit. Three other unnamed gold panners were injured
in the
fracas," said a police source.
The third miner, Ncube died on
January 2 from his injuries.
Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka
confirmed the deaths of the illegal
gold miners but rejected charges that
the police were responsible for the
deaths.
"Yes I can confirm the
deaths, but our police officers were not responsible
for causing the deaths.
The panners died while dangerously trying to evade
arrest," he
said.
Zimbabwean police have since last year been cracking down on
illegal gold
mining activities around the country under a massive operation
codenamed
Operation Chikorokoza Chapera.
At least 18 000 people have
been arrested so far under the operation.
The latest deaths bring to six
the number of people who have died since
December as a result of the police
operation.
Last week, ZimOnline reported that three people collapsed and
died on
December 24 because of hunger and exhaustion after they were forced
to fill
up trenches for more than a week.
The three were identified
as Thulani Moyo, 23, Mathew Shumba, 30, and Gift
Sibanda, 37 from Inyathi
communal area in Matabeleland North. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 12 January
2007
JOHANNESBURG - The Zimbabwean government on Thursday
said it will not hand
over former Ethipian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam
who was yesterday
sentenced to life in prison by an Ethiopian
court.
Mengistu, who was convicted of genocide by an Ethiopian court last
December,
has been living in exile in Harare since 1991.
Zimbabwe's
deputy information minister Paul Mangwana yesterday ruled out the
possibility of Harare handing over Mengistu to serve his sentence in
Ethiopia.
"Despite the judicial ruling in Ethiopia, Comrade Mengistu
still remains a
special guest of the Zimbabwean government," said
Mangwana.
"The government of Zimbabwe is fully aware of the judicial
process that has
taken place in Ethiopia and we respect it," he
said.
An Ethiopian judge, Nur Mohammed, sentenced Mengistu and 11 of his
top aides
to life imprisonment for genocide.
"The death sentence will
not be conducted because the court believes that
other punishments are
adequate.
"The court has decided that life imprisonment is the most
extreme punishment
today here," said Mohammed.
Mengistu was accused
of killing thousands of people during his 17-year rule
which began with the
toppling of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and included
war, brutal purges
and famine.
Mengistu, who now reportedly works as a security consultant
for President
Robert Mugabe, is said to have advised the Zimbabwean
President to pre-empt
a possible mass revolt by depopulating
opposition-supporting urban areas
through the controversial slum-clearing
exercise last year.
The slum demolition exercise condemned by the United
Nations as a violation
of poor people's rights left at least 700 000
Zimbabweans without home or
food while another 2.4 million people were also
indirectly affected by the
clean-up exercise. - ZimOnline
New Zimbabwe
By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 01/12/2007
07:55:46
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe had no ambitions for the top job
but took
the position after much persuasion, two leading figures of the
country's
independence war from white colonial rule claimed
Thursday.
Former ministers and Zanu PF founding fathers Edgar Tekere and
Enos Nkala
said this in separate speeches during the launch of the former's
book, A
Lifetime of Struggle.
Tekere said he has never seen Mugabe
campaining for a leadership position.
He added that apart from the
presidency, Mugabe was also appointed to the
post of secretary general for
Zanu in 1963 in absentia.
Tekere said Mugabe's rise to power which he and
others facilitated is "an
unfortunate happening.
On his part Nkala
said: "We made the mistake to appoint Mugabe...I do admit
I
was part of
the mistake.
"He was refusing to take the leadership position he now
enjoys. We produced
a
creature that destroyed this country. I am not
saying it out of anger, but
this
is a fact."
Nkala said during the
war "young boys" in Lusaka wanted to turn on Mugabe
saying he had staged a
coup, but Tekere and others had pacified them saying
it was them who had put
him there.
Nkala said Mugabe, 83 next month, must resign to save
Zimbabwe.
"He has to go and go so that this country can be repaired. The
reconstruction
cannot take place for as long as Mugabe remains
president," Nkala added.
Nkala said he remained a loyal Zanu PF
member as the party was formed at his
house.
He said Zanu PF national
chairman, John Nkomo, who signed a letter informing
Tekere that he could not
have any position in the party is a "mafikizolo who
was once an informer for
Ian Smith", the former Rhodesian leader.
He added that there are
classified documents to that effect and the
information will be published in
a book he is writing.
Tekere said Zanu PF was his own party and predicted
that 2007 is going to be
very tough for Zimbabweans as long as Mugabe remains
in power.
"It is going to be worse if you continue with this slogan,
Pamberi
navaMugabe (forward with Mugabe)," Tekere said.
A Lifetime of
Struggle is published by Sapes Books. You can e-mail
info@sapes.org.zw for a copy. The book will
be distributed by African Book
Collectors in London
Reuters
Thu
Jan 11, 2007 1:27 PM GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's health minister on Thursday urged doctors to
end a pay strike
that has crippled public medical care, saying they should
return to work to
save the lives of suffering patients.
Junior doctors at public hospitals
began a work boycott three weeks ago to
demand salary increases of more than
8,000 percent and higher vehicle
loans -- leaving hospital waiting rooms
jammed with patients needing
treatment.
They have since been joined
by senior doctors, all but paralysing public
medical care in the crisis-hit
southern African country.
"I am urging the doctors to come back to work
because the patient is
suffering, the Zimbabwean patient is suffering,"
Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa said in remarks broadcast on state
radio.
"It is very, very critical that we don't allow our patients in
this country
to die and that is why I am urging them to come back for their
patients'
sake because that is what they trained for, the other issues we
can
discuss," he added.
But the doctors remained defiant, saying the
government had not put anything
on the table.
"We met again as
doctors today and we unanimously agreed that no matter what
we will not go
back to work until our demands are met," Kudakwashe
Nyamutukwa, head of the
Hospital Doctors Association, told Reuters.
POLITICAL
TENSIONS
Analysts say strikes for higher wages could trigger wider work
boycotts and
spontaneous street protests, escalating political
tensions.
Last week workers from electricity utility ZESA Holdings staged
a brief work
stoppage and disconnected large sections of Harare and the
central business
district to press management for better pay to cushion
themselves against
galloping inflation.
Zimbabwe's inflation, the
highest in the world, zoomed to a record 1,281
percent in December, setting
the stage for more price increases.
At Parirenyatwa -- Zimbabwe's largest
public health centre, named after the
current health minister's father --
only three specialist doctors were
attending to critically injured patients
with the help of nurses while the
rest waited, hoping the strike would
end.
"She can't talk, eat or do anything since yesterday but there is no
one
attending to her," said Rita Kamungeremu pointing to her 23-year-old
daughter, an AIDS patient who lay motionless on the pavement near the
hospital entrance.
The strike has worsened the situation at public
hospitals, which are already
grappling with shortages of critical drugs and
a flight of doctors and
nurses abroad for better paying
jobs.
Parirenyatwa was quoted as saying the government had chosen not to
invoke a
law barring state employees who offer essential services, such as
the army
and police, from going on strike.
Under the law, the workers
would face a jail term if convicted. The doctors
said they were prepared to
go to prison until their conditions of employment
improved.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
11 January 2007
The lack of adequate water and
electricity which has plagued many parts of
the country is not likely to be
resolved any time soon. With the general
economic crisis and political chaos
there has come a serious lack of
resources that has left many service
institutions unable to operate. Power
and water cuts are also contributing
to a decline in production. And fuel
shortages are hampering the movement of
much needed food and other basic
products.
The Crisis Coalition
released a statement Thursday which said there was a
governance crisis in
Zimbabwe. Part of it read: "The policy failures mainly
characterized by the
breakdown of the rule of law, lack of respect of
property rights, thriving
corruption within the public sector, lack of
transparency , accountability
and the belief in violence as a tool to
silence critics by the government
has led to such unfavourable statistics."
The situation in Bulawayo is
one such example. The city has not had
consistent water or power supplies
for a long time, but the end of 2006 and
beginning of 2007 have seen the
situation deteriorate even further. Bulawayo
businessman Eddie Cross
reported that there was a marked deterioration in
power supplies this week.
He said on Tuesday the City was without power for
most of the day and feared
that factories due to open on Monday would
increase demand.
Heavy
rains belted the Bulawayo area recently damaging power and water
equipment
in many parts of the city. Xolani Zitha, a coordinator at Bulawayo
Agenda
said the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) failed to
respond
within a reasonable length of time. Trees that fell were blocking
roads for
days. And given the ongoing shortages of fuel, prolonged response
times by
all service providers are nothing new. Zitha said the lack of
resources at
public service institutions exacerbates problems that would
otherwise be
resolved quite easily.
There does not seem to be a solution to the crisis
in the country that does
not involve wholesale political change. Businesses
do not feel secure while
government enforces price controls and continues to
arrest owners and
managers. As a result no-one will invest in this unstable
climate. Without
foreign currency and without confidence in our country by
investors,
resources will remain scarce and the situation will continue to
deteriorate.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Violet
Gonda
11 January 2007
2006 was a trying year for Zimbabweans and 2007 is
going to be a very tough
year. This is according to economist Tony Hawkins.
He said inflation is
going to be a great deal higher than it has been, the
exchange rate is going
to depreciate a great deal, output production will
continue to decline and
businesses will find their cash flow
squeezed.
The economist said to reverse the economic crisis the solution
has to be
political but there is no sign of any political
change.
Giving his 2007 economic outlook on SW Radio Africa Hawkins said
Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono's policies have also failed. "He came with
all the
promises to reduce inflation which was about 580% when he took over
and to
turn the economy around. Well three years later the economy is still
going
down hill and inflation is probably double or slightly more than when
he
started," he said.
Hawkins also believes bad government policies,
like the November Budget,
have put Zimbabwe on a very inflationary path. He
said; "Only solution to
inflation is to reduce government expenditure. But
to say reduce government
expenditure is like saying commit political suicide
to this government
because the only thing that keeps the government going is
that they can
spend money which they have printed."
Critics accuse
the government of also mortgaging the country's minerals to
get much needed
foreign currency. Hawkins believes there is a lot of
smuggling of minerals
like gold and diamonds which don't go through the
official channels but the
parallel market. "And the most frightening thing
is what we are seeing is
the flood of new vehicles in the country which
appear to be paid for by
people who are getting access to this cheap foreign
currency."
It's
reported some parastatals have been spending vast amounts of money for
new
vehicles. On Sunday, The Standard newspaper also reported that the
Reserve
Bank Governor recently imported a luxury car costing US$365 000, in
a
country struggling to cope with a critical shortage of foreign
currency.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald
(Harare)
January 11, 2007
Posted to the web January 11,
2007
Bulawayo Bureau
Harare
PLANS by the Cold Storage Company
to export beef to Hong Kong and Malaysia
have been stalled following a
no-show by officials from those countries to
inspect the meat processor's
facilities.
Exports had been scheduled to commence early this year after
negotiations
were concluded late last year.
However, CSC chief
executive officer Mr Ngoni Chinogaramombe yesterday said
this had been put
on hold because inspectors from those countries were yet
to come and check
on CSC abattoirs.
"We are ready to start exporting, but inspectors from
both markets have not
turned up as of last year for the formal inspections
of our facilities. So
we cannot start exporting until they come," he
said.
Mr Chinogaramombe was quick to express optimism that they would
"come any
time".
Both Hong Kong and Malaysian officials have already
received beef samples
from the parastatal. The inspectors were expected in
the country last year
in November, but had not arrived as
planned.
Asked whether the deals could be resurrected, he said: "We
cannot start
talking about so many things now. What is important is to
concentrate on
getting those markets."
Hong Kong has already approved
the export deal and is seen as a step into
exporting beef into the rest of
China, a country of more than 1,2 billion
people.
Initially, CSC was
expected to export 5 000 tonnes of beef to Hong Kong,
with a view to
increasing the quantity, as the deal does not have quota
restrictions.
The parastatal requires at least $82 billion to
recapitalise and revive its
operations, mainly for buying cattle and
restocking its farms. It was
allocated $10 billion in the 2007 National
Budget.
ekklesia, UK
11/01/07
Evangelical aid agency Tearfund is calling on the
European Union (EU) to
renew targeted sanctions against the
country.
In February, the EU is due to decide whether or not to extend
existing
sanctions for a further year.
The agency has expressed
concern that some countries in the EU would prefer
to suspend the sanctions,
believing that dialogue with Zimbabwe leaders
could bring about
change.
The sanctions are directed at President Mugabe and other leaders
who
campaigners say, have led the country into economic and political
chaos.
The sanctions are designed not to hurt Zimbabwe's
poor.
Tearfund is urging supporters to put pressure on the EU to maintain
the
sanctions by writing to MEPs.
The sanctions currently prevent
Mugabe and his associates from travelling to
the EU, freeze any assets they
hold in the EU and include an arms embargo.
They were first imposed in
2002 when the Zimbabwe elections held that year
were neither free nor fair,
and because of human rights abuses being
committed by the government of
Zimbabwe.
The EU has renewed these bans each year
since.
Campaigners say that to abandon these sanctions when living
conditions in
the country continue to worsen will send the message that the
EU no longer
deems good governance and respect for human rights to be
essential
prerequisites for discussions about development in
Zimbabwe.
Life expectancy for women is only 34 - the lowest in the world.
Inflation is
the world's highest and Zimbabwe is now the country with the
highest number
of orphans.
A new survey, compiled by Zimbabwe's
public service and social welfare
ministry, suggests that living standards
have declined by 150 per cent in
the last ten years.
In May 2005,
Operation Murambatsvina saw the destruction of homes and jobs
of some of
Zimbabwe's poorest people by the government. One year on from
this
devastating action, few of those made homeless have been re-housed as
promised.
In May 2006 when church leaders were detained and warned
that prayer
services to mark the anniversary would be broken up and people
would be
arrested.
Tearfund's campaign is being held in conjunction
with Action for Southern
Africa (ACTSA) - a campaigning body which tries to
influence British and
European policies that affect southern
Africa.
Mining weekly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zimbabwe's
River Ranch diamond mine, under the spotlight after reports it
had smuggled
diamonds, said on Wednesday it would double monthly ore output
to 160 000 t
after settling an ownership dispute.
"Our current mining rate is 80 000 t
per month, but we are looking at
doubling that," Munashe Shava, the mine
manager told reporters during a tour
of the mine.
"Of course we have
had problems, which are affecting the industry, such as
unscheduled power
cuts, the hyperinflationary environment and high borrowing
costs, but we are
currently exploring nine sites in order to increase
production," he added,
refusing to give further details.
River Ranch restarted mining in June
2006 after going into voluntary
liquidation in 1999, but is currently dogged
by an ownership wrangle.
Zimbabwe is a small diamond producer with
official figures available only
from Murowa, 78% owned by mining group Rio
Tinto and 22% by RioZim Ltd,
listed on the Zimbabwe stock
exchange.
Rio Tinto said that its share of output at Murowa was 148 000
ct during the
first nine months of 2006.
Industry body The World
Diamond Council is worried that gens from Zimbabwe
may be finding their way
onto the black market, a violation of rules
established to curb so-called
conflict diamonds that fuel civil wars.
The diamond sector is making
extra efforts to police itself amid fears
jewelry sales will be hit by the
release of the Hollywood film "Blood
Diamond" which shows atrocities in
African civil wars financed by illicit
gems during the 1990s.
The
council had reports that diamonds from River Ranch and from the Marange
were
being smuggled into neighbouring South Africa and certified as
legitimate
and exported, its chairman, Eli Izhakoff, told Reuters last
week.
Izhakoff, who was replying to written questions, said he sent a
letter last
month to the incoming chairman of the Kimberley Process, a
watchdog body set
up to stamp out trade in conflict diamonds.
But
River Ranch has denied the charges, saying it was still seeking
government
approval to export its gems.
George Kantsouris, the company's executive
director, told Reuters he had
been called to a meeting on Thursday with the
European Union's ambassador in
Harare to explain the mine's
operations.
The EU, which has slapped Zimbabwe with sanctions for alleged
human rights
violations, is the incoming chair of The Kimberly Process,
under which
governments issue certificates to legitimate diamond
exports.
"There is nothing of the sort alleged by the World Diamond
Council. That
madness should stop. We know they think they have found
sufficient grounds
to vilify us ahead of plans by the EU to renew
sanctions," Mines and Mining
Development Minister Amos Midzi said during the
tour.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
11 January 2007
There are unconfirmed reports that as
many as 30 border jumpers from
Zimbabwe could have been swept away by the
flooded Limpopo river last week.
On Thursday police in Beitbridge denied
reports of any border jumpers
drowning although residents in the town say a
high number of people were
killed and many more were left homeless after
flash floods swept through
large parts of the country's southern
districts.
Heavy rains that had fallen since 31 December only ended on
Monday this week
having caused isolated incidents of flooding in the
country. Floodwaters
have reportedly destroyed crops in some border lying
areas of Shashe, Pande
and Chikwarakwara.
Major roads in these areas
have also been rendered impassable as a result of
incessant rain since the
new year but the full impact of the floods is still
unknown as areas are
still completely cut off.
Beitbridge resident George Gotore told Newsreel
from the border town on
Thursday that the Limpopo rose rapidly during the
festive season forcing
many of the border jumpers to put off plans of
crossing the flooded river.
'The town is full of news that many of those
who were impatient were swept
away trying to cross the crocodile infested
river. Since most of the border
jumpers are not people from Beitbridge it is
extremely difficult to verify
the reports,' Gotore said.
Three years
ago, the United Nations launched a multimillion-dollar project
to prevent a
recurrence of the massive loss of life caused by flooding along
the Limpopo
river.
The project, funded by the UN Environment Programme's UNEP wing of
the
Global Environment Facility and executed by the UN Human Settlements
Programme, HABITAT, was expected to improve the way land along the river is
managed. It was also expected to boost the ability of governments, local
authorities and communities to respond to extreme flooding events and
establish early-warning systems. It is not clear however if Zimbabwe is
actively involved in this exercise.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance Guma
11 January 2007
The general
council of the Save Zimbabwe Coalition on Thursday resolved to
engage in a
civil disobedience campaign against plans by Zanu-PF to extend
Mugabe's
presidential term. The coalition groups together leaders from the
opposition
parties, civic society, student movement and church groups.
According to
Pedzisai Ruhanya the programmes manager for the Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition
who are also participants, 'several forms of protest
within the limits of a
democracy,' are being planned in 2007. He was
unwilling to provide Newsreel
with the actual details saying this would
compromise the
programme.
The coalition, a brainchild of the Christian Alliance, is
demanding
elections in 2008 under a new democratic constitution. Last week
Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa issued threats to the grouping, warning
that any
planned demonstrations will be illegal under the country's laws. In
December
Mugabe used his State of the Nation Address to warn opposition
forces that,
'While the country respects and affords everyone the right of
assembly and
association, the use of such platforms as tools to advance the
British-inspired regime change agenda cannot be tolerated.'
Ruhanya
however told Newsreel that Zimbabweans were united in the suffering
and
repression they faced from Zanu-PF and would make their views known as
stakeholders. Morgan Tsvangirai, representing his MDC party, and Romaldo
Mavedzenge standing in for the Arthur Mutambara MDC were in attendance.
Arthur Mutambara offered his apologies after attending veteran politician
Edgar Tekere's book launch. Welshman Ncube his Secretary General is said to
have attended a funeral. Also present were Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) leaders Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibhebhe.
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairperson Lovemore Madhuku and
leaders from
the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human
Rights (ZLHR), Bulawayo Agenda and Bulawayo Dialogue were among
the others
who attended. The coalition is reported to have at least over 23
member
groups.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
IPS News
Jim
Lobe
WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (IPS) - With Washington's reputation as a leader
on human
rights gravely damaged by abuses committed in its five-year-old
"global war
on terror", the European Union (EU) remains the only credible
candidate for
filling the vacuum, Human Rights Watch said
Thursday.
But the EU's "lowest-common-denominator approach" to taking
collective
stands on human rights, its expanding membership, as well as its
members'
own complicity in some of the abuses associated with the war on
terror, have
made it difficult to provide the leadership that is so
desperately needed,
according to the New York-based group.
"Since the
U.S. can't provide credible leadership on human rights, European
countries
must pick up the slack," according to Kenneth Roth, HRW's
executive
director, who released the latest in the group's annual "World
Report"
series here Thursday. "Instead, the European Union is punching well
below
its weight," he added.
The 556-page report, most of which covers human
rights-related developments
during the past year in some 70 countries around
the world, was released to
coincide with the fifth anniversary of the first
shipment of detainees
captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. naval
base at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
The treatment of those and other
detainees seized by U.S. forces in the
George W. Bush administration's war
on terror contributed heavily to the
dramatic plunge in Washington's
credibility as a human rights leader,
according to the report, which added
that its ability to recover its
previous standing depends in major part on
the actions of the new
Democrat-led Congress.
"The new U.S. Congress
must act now to remedy the worst abuses of the Bush
administration," Roth
said.
But with both China and Russia embracing friendly dictators abroad,
as well
as cracking down on dissidents at home, and with many of the
developing
world's new democracies still relatively timid about criticising
their
neighbours, human rights groups increasingly look to the EU as the
most
credible advocate for their concerns in the international system,
according
to the Roth's introduction to the report, "Filling the Leadership
Void:
Where is the European Union?".
This year's report singles out
the violence in Darfur -- which has now
spread beyond Sudan's borders into
Chad and the Central African Republic --
as the most pressing human rights
crisis of the year. Between 200,000 and
400,000 people, mostly members of
African ethnic groups, have died as a
result of the violence over the last
four years, while another two million
have been displaced in Darfur
alone.
"Civilians in Darfur are under constant attack and the conflict is
spilling
across Sudan's borders," Roth said. "Yet the five permanent members
of the
U.N. Security Council managed little more than to produce stacks of
unimplemented resolutions."
In his introduction, Roth noted that the
Bush administration's occupation of
Iraq and its belated effort to justify
the invasion as a humanitarian
intervention had made it easier for Sudan to
build opposition at the U.N. to
proposals to dispatch a peacekeeping force
to protect civilians in Darfur
from attacks by Khartoum and
government-backed militias.
The report also cited the sharp rise in
violence -- which slid dangerously
toward all-out sectarian civil war -- in
Iraq, as well as the resumption of
civil war in Sri Lanka, its persistence
in Colombia, the resurgence of the
Taliban in Afghanistan, and last summer's
war between Israel and Hezbollah,
as among the most alarming abuses of
2006.
It highlighted as well the persistence of harshly repressive
regimes in
North Korea, Burma and Uzbekistan and the repression of
dissidents in
Russia, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe, among other
countries, as major
concerns.
HRW also expressed strong
disappointment with the United Nations' new Human
Rights Council. Despite
hopes that with more stringent membership
requirements, it would take a more
balanced approach to its work than its
predecessor, the U.N. Human Rights
Commission, the Council managed in its
first year of operation to condemn
the rights record of no other country
besides Israel.
But not all of
the news during 2006 was bleak, according to HRW, which noted
that both
former Liberian President Charles Taylor and former Chadian
President
Hissene Habre now face trials on charges of serious human rights
abuses as a
result of pressure by the African Union (AU).
It also commended the
determination of Latin American, Caribbean and some
African countries to
resist U.S. pressure to sign bilateral accords that
would exempt U.S.
citizens from the jurisdiction of the International
Criminal Court
(ICC).
But these bright spots did not make up both for the continuing
decline in
Washington's credibility as a human rights champion and the
failure of any
other country or group of countries to fill the vacuum,
according to the
report.
Because of the Bush administration's abuses
-- including the use and defence
of torture and "disappearances" against
terrorist suspects -- Washington's
stance now "rings hollow, an enormous
loss for the human rights cause,"
according to Roth, who also noted that
such tactics have proven
counter-productive in that they spur terrorist
recruitment in communities
that identify with the victims.
As for
other great powers, China "has often made matters worse," according
to
Roth's essay. "Its burgeoning economy and thirst for natural resources
have
led it to play a more assertive international role, but it has
studiously
avoided using that influence to promote human rights."
Its support for
Sudan, Zimbabwe, Angola, Uzbekistan, and Burma -- all
sources of key
commodities -- has undermined the cause in some of the
world's most
repressive nations, Roth charged.
Russia's record is similar, according
to the report, which deplored in
particular Moscow's continued repression in
Chechnya as well as its close
ties to "entrenched dictators" in Belarus, the
Caucasus and Central Asia.
Meanwhile, democracies in the developing
world, some of which like South
Africa "could have special moral authority
on human rights," have, with a
few exceptions, failed to take consistent,
principled positions in
international forums or toward neighbours.. "They
have yet to show
themselves ready to fill the leadership void," according to
Roth.
That leaves the EU which, however, "is nowhere near picking up the
leadership mantle," according to the report, which observed that the group
has been notably passive and defeatist at the Human Rights
Council.
One of the main obstacles to a more assertive role, according to
the report,
has been the EU's requirement that it reach consensus among all
27 members.
"It takes only one government with deeply felt parochial
interests -- Cyprus
on Turkey, Germany on Russia, France on Tunisia -- to
block an effective EU
position," according to Roth.
What he called
Berlin's "new Ostpolitik" toward Russia, for example, has
effectively
undermined a strong EU human rights position on Moscow-backed
dictatorships
in Central Asia. Similarly, EU members have been reluctant to
make human
rights a priority in relations with other great powers, including
China and
the U.S. itself.
IOL
January
11 2007 at 06:20PM
Washington - Twelve years after the end of
apartheid, South Africa has
yet to implement the human rights protections
called for in the
constitution, a rights group said Thursday.
"Particular areas of concern relate to the rights of migrants,
refugees and
asylum seekers, sexual violence against women and children,
access to
primary education in rural areas, and the government's response to
one of
the world's most serious HIV and Aids epidemics," Human Rights Watch
said in
its annual report.
The report of the New York-based group analysed
75 countries worldwide
and concluded that no situation is more pressing than
the bloody crisis in
the western Sudanese region of Darfur, with
its
timated 200 000 dead, two million displaced and
4-million dependent on
international food relief.
On South
Africa, the report highlighted the problems that the many
migrants from
other African countries encounter in South Africa.
"Persistent
administrative obstacles and delays in the processing of
claims for asylum
put asylum seekers at constant risk of unlawful arrest and
possible
deportation," it said.
The report's comments on other African
countries: -Zimbabwe: There was
no letup in rights violations in Zimbabwe in
2006. "President Robert
Mugabe's government maintained its assault on the
media, the political
opposition, civil society activists, and human rights
defenders."
-Democratic Republic of the Congo: The country
installed its first
democratically elected president in 40 years, but both
government soldiers
and armed groups "continued killing, raping, and
otherwise injuring
civilians, particularly in the east.
-Nigeria: "The lack of political will to improve the country's poor
human
rights situation and ensure accountability for abuses not only
threatens to
undermine the fragile gains made since the end of military rule
but also
poses daunting challenges to holding credible and violence-free
elections in
2007."
-Ethiopia: The government "continued the heavy-handed
suppression and
punishment of any form of political dissent as reintroduced
following the
2005 elections."
-Sudan: Patterns of arbitrary
arrest and detention, torture, and other
abuses by Sudanese military and
security forces "remain widespread in Darfur
and other areas of the
country."
-Chad: Rights abuses in eastern Chad worsened in the wake
of Chadian
government efforts to repel a Darfur-based Chadian insurgency.
"There were
indiscriminate and targeted attacks by Sudanese militia on
Chadian civilians
left unprotected by the Chadian military, and Chadian
officials were
complicit in the forced recruitment of refugees, including
children, by
Sudanese rebel movements." - Sapa-AP
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
BEITBRIDGE, 11
Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Zimbabweans returning illegally to South
Africa in search
of work after visiting family and friends for the Christmas
holidays are
having a harder time than usual getting back into the country,
whereas
previously a backhander to immigration officials might have
sufficed.
It is estimated that as many as three million Zimbabweans
live legally and
illegally in South Africa to escape their country's
economic meltdown, which
has seen inflation levels reach 1,280 percent and
unemployment levels touch
80 percent. The massive influx of Zimbabweans has
stoked xenophobia among
South Africans, who blame Zimbabweans for crime, and
"stealing jobs" from
locals, although there is no official data to support
these claims.
Khulekani Ndlovu, 24, breadwinner of a family of seven, who
has worked in
South Africa for the past six years, said Beitbridge, the main
border
crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe, had always been "a
nightmare"
because immigration officers on both the Zimbabwean and the South
African
side accused him of faking his South African identity card and
passport, but
a bribe always secured his passage.
This time Ndlovu
has joined dozens of other Zimbabweans stranded in
Beitbridge after their
travel documents were seized by South African
authorities when they
attempted to cross back into South Africa.
"Immigration authorities would
not take any bribe this time around. I tried
them with R500 (US$70) but they
threatened to throw me in jail for attempted
bribery. They seized my
passport and now I cannot enter South Africa
legally.
"Yet I have a
job ... which has paid me enough to provide for my family for
the six years
that I have worked in Jozi [Johannesburg]. I should have
started work on the
third of this month [January] but here I am, still
stranded in Beitbridge. I
now fear I may lose my job," said Ndlovu, who
works in a restaurant in the
inner-city suburb of Braamfontein.
Like many others denied re-entry into
South Africa, the region's economic
powerhouse, Ndlovu is determined to
return. The only alternative is to cross
the Limpopo River, a natural border
between the two countries, but recent
rains have made the water level
dangerously high.
Another Zimbabwean looking for a way to get back into
South Africa is Langa
Dube. "As soon as the river subsides we will cross
over, because staying in
Zimbabwe is obviously not an option," he said.
"Things are not that rosy in
South Africa but at least we manage to keep our
families going with our
little earnings. Zimbabwe has no jobs; the economy
is poorly performing;
goods are either not there in shops or expensive and
life in general is just
difficult."
Bongani Maphosa told IRIN the
prevailing economic conditions back home would
keep driving people out of
Zimbabwe, especially the youth. "With or without
passports, these people
will always find a way here [South Africa]." He
migrated to South Africa two
decades ago and is now a permanent resident.
"Zimbabwe is like a fire at
the moment, and simple logic has it that when
you are in such a situation
and you have the vigour, you just jump out, and
that is exactly what many
Zimbabweans are doing. Not that they love crossing
flooded rivers and
getting harassed by South African police officers every
day, but it's the
poor economy and unemployment back home that's pushing
them," he
commented.
"Otherwise, given a chance, some of them would love to stay
and work in
their country. But their families depend largely on them for
remittances,
which somehow enable them to cope in the face of food shortages
and high
prices," said Maphosa.
To avoid arrest and deportation,
illegal immigrants to South Africa have
bribed home affairs officials in
order to obtain false identity documents
allowing them to pose as South
African nationals. President Thabo Mbeki has
admitted that there was
"widespread corruption" in the home affairs
department, and said a new
management system with additional staff would be
put in place to try to
normalise the department's operations.
South African Immigration
officials told the local media that since late
December 2006 they had seized
more than 200 South African passports held by
Zimbabweans.
According
to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), South
Africa deported
80,000 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants between May and
December of 2006, 950
of who were unaccompanied minors. The statistics were
recorded at the
Beitbridge IOM Reception and Support Centre, established
last year to assist
deportees.
BBC
Former Ethiopian ruler
Mengistu Haile Mariam has been sentenced to life in
prison on genocide
charges.
The former leader was found guilty last month after a 12-year trial,
although he is living in exile in Zimbabwe.
After his conviction,
Zimbabwe said it would not extradite him and many fear
he will never face
justice.
In a notorious campaign - known as the Red Terror - thousands of
suspected
opponents were rounded up and executed and their bodies tossed on
the
streets.
Mengistu could have faced the death penalty.
He
has refused to recognise the legal basis of the trial, accusing those who
overthrew him of being mercenaries and colonisers.
[This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
BULAWAYO, 11 Jan 2007 (IRIN/PLUSNEWS) - The Zimbabwean
government has
announced its intention to treble the number of people on its
free
antiretroviral (ARV) programme in 2007, but experts are sceptical about
the
health sector's capacity to achieve this goal.
Continuing
hyperinflation, now hovering around 1,200 percent annually, and a
scarcity
of foreign currency have crippled healthcare provision, creating
shortages
of drugs, medical equipment and even personnel, who have migrated
in search
of better salaries and living conditions.
Owen Mugurungi, National
Coordinator of the government's HIV/AIDS and
Tuberculosis programme, this
week told the media that government had pulled
together resources that would
be channelled into improving the lives of
people living with the virus and
increase access to the life-prolonging
drugs.
"We hope that by end of
2007 about 160,000 people would have been enrolled
under the ARV rollout
programme, and we are working very hard to ensure that
this happens," he
said. Only 50,000 of an estimated 500,000 Zimbabweans in
need of ARVs are
receiving the drugs from state institutions.
AIDS activists were quick to
question Mugurungi's targets, describing them
as "empty and just too
ambitious".
Dumisani Nkomo, deputy chairperson of the Zimbabwe National
Network for
People Living with HIV/AIDS, said he doubted the government's
ability to
treble the number of those accessing treatment.
"It is a
welcome development to hear government make such a pledge, but it
would
appear just too ambitious to me. What they need to do is to go an
extra
mile, way beyond simple pledges and promises, and harness resources
that
would promote free or affordable distribution of ARVs.
"There are
hundreds of thousands of infected people who die prematurely due
to lack of
access to drugs, and it is high time our government manoeuvred
from its
cocoon and faced reality; we need treatment as soon as possible,"
said the
activist, who has lived with HIV for more than a decade.
A month's course
of antiretroviral medication, which cost anywhere from
US$200 to $400
(according to the official rate) on the parallel market in
2006, shot up by
another US$100 in January 2007.
According to official statistics, the
southern African country has one of
the highest HIV prevalence rates in the
world, with 18 percent of its 11.5
million people infected. Statistics show
that about 3,500 people succumb to
the disease every week, and health
experts have attributed the large number
of deaths to lack of treatment,
which is extremely difficult to obtain in
rural areas.
Anita Mhlanga,
25, an activist from rural Madlambuzi, a village in southern
Zimbabwe, is
living with the virus. She said the government has done little
to improve
the lives of those infected, especially in the countryside.
"At clinics
they tell us there will be treatment programmes soon; they
started saying so
a long time ago, and now I am afraid I will die even
before the programme
starts because I can now feel I am terribly sick and
weak. My child passed
away two weeks ago and I know I am next. My boyfriend
is also not feeling
well ... if we had the ARVs that we hear people talk of,
I think we would be
better off and live longer. Government should work hard
to make treatment
accessible to all communities," said Mhlanga.
Zimbabwe started rolling
out drugs at its Opportunistic Infection Clinics
four years ago, but the
programme has largely been confined to urban areas.
The second city of
Bulawayo has four of these clinics, which cater to 5,000
patients.
According to the authorities, most of the drugs the
government wishes to
roll out will be manufactured locally by the country's
main supplier,
Varichem, which requires at least US$1 million in scarce
foreign exchange
every month for importing raw materials to produce the
life-prolonging
medication.
Sofia News Agency
11 January 2007, Thursday.
Bulgaria's chief of the
National Security Service Ivan Chobanov has been
replaced by his deputy to
open way for an ambassadorial post.
Chobanov will be the country's new
envoy to Zimbabwe, Darik News reported.
Ivan Drashkov, the new NSS head,
has served in the system of the Interior
Ministry since
1986.
Drashkov has received a number of awards, including the highest
honour of
the Ministry, the "Interior Ministry Sign of Honour."
The
Herald (Harare)
January 11, 2007
Posted to the web January 11,
2007
Harare
HARARE City Council, reeling under heavy criticism for
failing to cut grass
across the city, has heeded pressure and is now
recruiting more than 1 000
casual workers to cut grass.
The city's
parks department, which is responsible for the maintenance of the
city's
parks and scenery, is heavily incapacitated with only five functional
tractors for the whole city.
Council spokesman Mr Percy Toriro
said interested candidates should approach
district offices and
register.
"We want to work with locally-based groups to cut
grass.
"Those who feel they are physically fit can approach our district
offices
for recruitment," he said.
He said the council was happier
recruiting people from the local
neighbourhood to work in their locality and
cut on transport costs.
"We have discovered that the rate of growth of
the grass and our cutting
rate are not tallying. We have now resorted to
plan B", he said. He said the
city was also appealing to all people with
tractors to approach their
relevant district offices for grass-cutting
contracts.
Uncut long grass has always presented motorists with
visibility problems,
especially at sharp bends while the public has reported
muggings and
robberies when walking past grassy areas.
Gold Industry
By our estimate some thirty tonnes of gold is mined and
sold through the
informal sector each year. This is worth a considerable sum
at current gold
prices of over US$600 per fine ounce and provides a living
for some 500 000
people - almost as many as are employed in the formal
sector. All of this
activity is now under threat.
Miners - even the
larger mining operations with underground activities and
surface level
facilities and crushing and processing equipment are being
arrested, they are
then being forced to cede control of their gold recovery
equipment to the
State and to pay a million dollars to register their
operations. In addition
they are being required to fence their operations
with security fencing at
their own cost.
Even those who are simply refining and processing gold
concentrates are
being arrested and harassed. Small scale surface miners (who
are the great
majority) are being forced to fill in their working and to stop
their
activities altogether. This will put many hundreds of thousands at risk
and
unable to make a living in any form. Already there are signs of an
increased
exodus to South Africa and Botswana.
Eddie
Cross
Bulawayo, 10th January 2007.
--------
Electricity Supplies
There has been a marked deterioration in power
supplies to the City of
Bulawayo in the past two days. Yesterday the City was
without power for most
of the day. With factories due to open on Monday
demand will start to rise
again and it is difficult to see what ZESA can do
to avoid serious power
cuts.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo 10th January 2007
--------
Price Controls
Serious problems are emerging in respect to the
operation of the new
regulations covering price control. The Price Control
authorities are
approving price increases but are then unable to get
Ministers to sign off
on the price increases. Sugar supplies are the latest
casualty. All sugar
producers are withholding sugar supplies until they get
the price increase
that has been approved by the required authorities but
Ministers are unable
to sign off on because of the political
ramifications.
In the mean time raids by officials - many without any
credentials are
continuing.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 10th January 2007
Fahamu
(Oxford)
OPINION
January 11, 2007
Posted to the web January 11,
2007
Brian Chikwava
Brian Chikwava comments on the literature
of Zimbabwe. "Thankfully, in spite
of or because of the difficulties that
Zimbabwe is going through, the turn
of the century has seen a quiet
adjustment in the publishing of fiction,
giving new voices a better platform
to be heard," writes Chikwava.
One can argue that great literary works
are rarely about good sentences or
syntax. Given a good literary mind, these
are insignificances that will
normally sort themselves out. More often than
not, it is the pulse of the
mind behind a piece of work that either turns it
into a shoddy bundle of
words, or a creation that will find resonance across
cultures and connect
people's experiences in ways unenvisaged before. Such
minds have been seen
in geographically disparate corners of the world: Nawal
el Saadawi in Egypt;
Augusto Roa Bastos in Paraguay; Abdullah Hussein in
Pakistan; Ngugi Wa
Thiong'o in Kenya; Boris Pasternak in the Soviet Union;
Steve Biko in South
Africa; the list is endless.
Whilst this is a
literary pantheon that many a Zimbabwean writer can only
dream about
belonging to, one hopes that perhaps an urgent pulse is entering
the work of
Zimbabwean writers, both established and the upcoming
writers.
Thankfully, in spite of or because of the difficulties that
Zimbabwe is
going through, the turn of the century has seen a quiet
adjustment in the
publishing of fiction, giving new voices a better platform
to be heard.
In this regard there has been amaBooks' Short Writings From
Bulawayo,
Volumes I to III, Weaver Press' short story anthologies Writing
Still and
Writing Now, of which a natural progression ought to be Writing
Nervous, for
it is a nervous pulse that beats beneath the face of any
Zimbabwean, be it a
writer or a crack lipped mother in the rural areas who
knows first hand the
kind of tricky relationship a child can have with its
empty stomach, or a
nurse in diaspora who dreads the text message from her
family asking her to
wire more money back to their family who find
themselves increasingly unable
to look after themselves in an economy
ravaged by inflation, the unemployed
citizen who braves the aquatic
predators of the Limpopo to become an illegal
immigrant in South Africa, or
the firebrand intellectual who dabbled in
utilitarianism of a Stalinist
variety - advocating the tearing down of the
social fabric and national
institutions in the name of the final revolution,
the third chimurenga - and
now finds him/herself sitting at his/her desk;
pondering the question of
again cutting whatever is left of our national
nose to show what we are
capable of when push comes to shove. All are in a
nervous condition; all are
hostages. That includes the president himself,
who held hostage by his own
will, is nervous about the future. Nervous
because although he may have seen
the moral shallowness of imperialism,
colonialism, global capitalism and
mutations of such, far from raising
himself above such moral conventions, he
continues to live in a moral
depravity that he makes up for by exercising
brutal power over ordinary
citizens. His would be a fascinating contribution
to Writing Nervous.
That Zimbabwean writers of wildly differing opinions,
whether inside or
outside the country, find themselves moved to commit pen
to paper in larger
numbers, is a healthy development for Zimbabwean
literature. And it is
perhaps fitting and natural that such developments
should be accompanied by
the appearance of the above mentioned short story
anthologies that have
given new writers platforms to be heard. Gone are the
euphoric and rather
innocent days when the unknown short story writer had to
look to the
magazines Parade and Moto or the Sunday Newspaper supplements to
cut their
teeth.
Those were the days when Auntie Rhoda, Parade
Magazine's famed agony aunt,
had the answers to all the citizens' questions,
from the challenges of
living with alcoholic husbands to handling bad
tempered mothers in law who
were going through '...a mental pause' (sic).
Today the social pulse is a
different one, the questions are bigger and
perhaps true of Cameroonian
scholar Achille Mbembe's view of many a post
colonial African country: '...a
reality that is made up of superstitions,
narratives and fictions that claim
to be true in the very act through which
they produce the false, while at
the same time giving rise to both terror,
hilarity and astonishment.' No
doubt there are still issues that Auntie
Rhoda would still be able to take
in her stride, but even she would probably
quiver at the thought of an
impending whack on the head were she to give
answers that are sympathetic to
one political 'truth' at the expense of
another. Because of this, it is
appropriate that some of the tricky
questions be dealt with in these recent
short story anthology series; the
conversation can no longer be with Auntie
Rhoda, but amongst the writers
themselves.
Perhaps due to these and other developments, new writers have
come into
visibility, myself included. These include Stanley Mupfudza, Gugu
Ndlovu,
Andrew Aresho, Edward Chinhanhu, Chris Mlalazi and Lawrence Hoba
among many.
Some have come into the public eye through the British
Council's Crossing
Borders programme, amongst them, Chaltone Tshabangu,
Adrian Ashley and
Blessing Musariri, while from the diaspora poet Togara
Muzanenhamo, Stanley
Makuwe and Petina Gappah (who was recently shortlisted
for the 2007 HSBC-SA
PEN Literary Award along with Chris Mlalazi) are
emerging. And to add an
urbane and gritty realism to this cacophony of
voices is a gang of spoken
word practitioners like The Teacher, Manikongo,
Lucius, Comrade Fatso and
Mbizo who, through their performances at The Book
Café poetry slams have
over the years been creating another row in the
choir, right behind such
seasoned performance poets like Chirikure Chirikure
and Ignatius Mabasa.
The names mentioned here are only a handful picked
from many equally good
writers. In the years to come, some will be able to
tap into the national
psyche and produce inspired and great works, while
many more of us, will be
lost in the fog of our condition. Today, with the
aid of digital chatter,
our perceptions of our epoch are set to multiply
dizzyingly, and from this
heap of words, facts, fictions, sophistries and
startling lies, one hopes
that something will emerge, something that will at
least measure up to the
past works of names such as Charles Mungoshi, Tsitsi
Dangarembga, Yvonne
Vera, Chenjerai Hove or Shimmer Chinodya. No doubt, the
hurdles ahead are
many, and the intellectual demands on the writer or poet
of today are
greater. Whereas yesteryear it was enough to talk of
Zimbabweans' suffering
in the colonial era and during the war, today it is
the fictions of
liberation that must be put under scrutiny; it is time to
ask harder
questions, and perhaps soberly consider, creatively enquire and
consider in
our own different ways, such assertions as those of Czech born
playwright
Tom Stoppard who in reference to communism in Eastern Europe
suggested that
'...revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of
suffering.' To question
continuously, put one's finger on a nation's pulse
and at the same time hold
the mirror to its collective face without
flinching, one imagines, is the
staff of works whose worth is not only
judged by syntax or the number of
adverbs.
This issue features work
by some of the writers/poet mentioned here, who in
their own ways, are
questioning and revealing today's Zimbabwe. In Chris
Mlalazi's story,
choices evaporate, Chaltone Tshabangu revisits the
hilarities of the
traditional matrimonial arrangement, Nyevero Muza relives
the siege, while
in Stanley Makuwe's story, the undead mothers, fathers and
children of the
revolution, threaten insurrection. In his poem, Mass
Murdering Silence,
Victor Mavedzenge (a.k.a. Lucius) is carried by tender
memories. There is
also some inspired poetry from the Book Café's poetry
slams on the
accompanying podcasts.
. Brian Chikwava, is a Zimbabwean writer who lives
in London. In 2004 he was
the winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing
and is currently is
working on a novel alongside a short story
collection.
. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at
www.pambazuka.org