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Inflation: We are in real trouble this year

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


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Former ZANU PF chief absolves Mugabe of killing rival

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


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Zimbabwe private doctors hike fees

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.


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Police crackdown claims three more illegal gold miners

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


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Harare refuses to hand over Mengistu to serve life sentence

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


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'We produced a creature that destroyed this country' - Nkala

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


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Zimbabwe urges doctors to end crippling strike

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.


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Public service institutions unable to operate



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


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Hawkins predicts further decline in economy despite Gono's policies


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


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Beef Export Plans Hang in Balance



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.


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Aid agency calls on EU to renew targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe

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.


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Zimbabwe's River Ranch says to double ore output

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.


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Border jumpers feared dead trying to cross flooded Limpopo river



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


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Save Zimbabwe Coalition resolve to engage in civil disobedience over Mugabe term extension



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


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EU Urged to Fill Global Leadership Void

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.


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'SA hasn't implemented human rights'

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


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South Africa tries to close the back door



[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.


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Mengistu is handed life sentence

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.


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Scepticism over govt plan to treble ARV beneficiaries



[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.


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Bulgaria Sends National Security Head as Envoy to Zimbabwe

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."


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City Council Recruits 1 000 Casual Workers to Cut Grass



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.


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Comment by Eddie Cross

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


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Zimbabwean Literature - a Nervous Condition



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

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