| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Iden
Wetherell, editor of the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent, says he
stands
by the story that landed him and two reporters in jail for
the
weekend.
The men were released on bail on Monday. They were
arrested after printing a
report that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe had
"commandeered" an Air
Zimbabwe plane to go on holiday.
Wetherell (55),
news editor Vincent Kahiya and reporter Dumisani Muleya were
granted bail of
Z$20 000 by Harare magistrate Kudzai Tongogara. They
appeared on charges of
"criminal defamation" against Mugabe.
“It is essential that President
Mugabe is accountable to the Zimbabwe
public. That’s the whole point. We will
continue to examine how much he
spends, and where and when. We will continue
to follow him in terms of
public accountability,” Wetherell told the Mail
& Guardian Online on
Tuesday.
Wetherell said a remand hearing had
been set down for January 29, but he had
no idea when the trial would
start.
Wetherell was charged under a criminal defamation law that he said
had been
struck down by courts in most Commonwealth and former
Commonwealth
countries.
He said the law’s jurisdiction was
incompatible with democratic practice and
had recently been revoked by Ghana
and Sri Lanka.
“It is regarded as an anomaly and has been used by
colonial governments to
deal with outspoken critics in the press. It lurks in
the armoury of the
Zimbabwe government.”
He said the conditions in the
Harare Central prison had been “pretty awful”
and said he would not recommend
an overnight stay. He said conditions had
been crowded at times, but that on
the whole, they had been treated well.
Wetherell said there was no
material difference in the facts reported by the
Zimbabwe Independent and
those supplied by the state.
“We’re all in agreement. The plane was taken
and used by Mugabe.”
Asked about press freedom in Zimbabwe, he said:
“It’s not dead yet -- we
wouldn’t even say it’s dying."
He said his
paper fulfilled an important role in ensuring that there was a
measure of
diversity in the media.
He highlighted the fact the state has
contemptuously ignored court orders in
keeping the Daily News off the
streets.
“Mugabe is effectively acting extra-legally. It’s a continuing
worry the way
in which the state refuses to obey court orders. The rule of
law is being
steadily eroded. The voice of the press is being trampled by a
rogue state
with no respect for the law,” he said.
The three were
arrested on Saturday after the newspaper reported on Friday
that Mugabe last
week "commandeered" an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 to fly him
and his family
around Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore on his annual
holiday.
The
state claimed that the story was "false and criminally defamatory of
the
president".
On Saturday, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said
the report was
"blasphemous".
Emerging unshaven from the brief
hearing, Wetherell said: "We certainly
stand by our story and any suggestion
that it was false we reject. We will
be putting up a robust
defence.
"This clumsy attempt to silence us by locking us up for 48
hours,
prosecuting us over a story where much of the facts are agreed, will
do
nothing to silence the voice of the Zimbabwe Independent." -- Sapa
SABC
Zimbabwean minister's SA getaway up for sale
January 13, 2004,
06:55 PM
A house in South Africa belonging to Jonathan Moyo, the
Zimbabwean
Information Minister, will be auctioned off at the end of this
month. This
follows a Johannesburg High Court order. The house is situated in
Saxonwold,
Johannesburg.
The minister is in arrears with his bond
repayments to Nedbank. The bank is
mum over the exact amount. The house has
four bedrooms, and is valued at a
couple of million. Moyo also owes money to
a South African television
production company.
Financial Times
Zimbabwe $ cut 80% at auction
By Tony
Hawkins
Published: January 13 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: January 13 2004
4:00
The Zimbabwe dollar depreciated by an effective 80 per cent
yesterday
as a new foreign exchange auction came into operation, falling from
Z$824 to
the US dollar at the official rate, to a new market rate of
Z$4,196.5.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said US$5m (£2.9m,
€3.9m) had been on
offer at the twice-weekly auction, with bids ranging from
Z$4,000 to
Z$4,900.
The RBZ said the highest bids of Z$4,900 had
been rejected. However,
the devaluation was broadly in line with market
expectations and the new
auction rate remains significantly stronger than
that on the parallel
market. Tony Hawkins, Harare
Zimbabwe's Auction Rattles a Few Cages
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
January 13, 2004
Posted to the web January 13,
2004
Rob Rose, Financial Services
Correspondent
Johannesburg
ZIMBABWE's first foreign currency auction
took place yesterday as the
country's Reserve Bank tried to curb the black
market for foreign money, but
the auction could get buyers for only 10% of
the $5m on offer.
The auction came as the country struggled to tackle a
crisis that threatened
to cause a meltdown in its banking sector, partly
caused by some banks
speculating on the parallel markets for selling
currency.
This parallel market means that while the official exchange
rate is Z824 to
the dollar, the rate on the thriving black market is between
Z4500 and Z5000
to the dollar a huge gap that Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono wants to
eradicate.
Gono was hoping to short-circuit the black
market through this auction,
which would provide Zimbabwean businesses that
need foreign currency with
access to dollars without having to use the black
market.
But the response at yesterday's first currency auction underlined
the extent
to which the official exchange rate of Z824 to the dollar does not
come
close to reflecting the market value of the Zimbabwean dollar. The
average
bid was placed at Z4196,58 nearly six times the official exchange
rate but
in line with the black market rates.
In all, $5m was put on
offer but only $477557 was bought, representing a
lukewarm response to the
first such auction.
Standard Bank economist Robert Bunyi said the fact
that less than 10% of the
available dollars were bought indicated the Reserve
Bank appeared reluctant
to accept bids that were too high.
"The
Zimbabwe market could also have adopted a wait-and-see attitude to
the
auctions, or possibly the administrative process of securing
foreign
exchange control clearance was too slow, (but) I would expect the
demand at
the auctions to pick up," he said.
At first the Reserve Bank
wanted to hold daily auctions, but it would now
hold them twice a week. Gono
has nonetheless succeeded in rattling the cages
of black market currency
traders.
Sources in Zimbabwe said that black market trading was down
markedly last
week in anticipation of this auction, which represented a
chance for
business to get foreign currency through legal
channels.
Until last week, R1 cost as much as Z900 on the black market,
but this has
fallen to about Z500 a major drop that could continue under the
new regime.
While in the past, some of the banks had speculated on the
currency by
buying and selling dollars through the parallel markets, Gono's
recent
efforts to crack down on errant behaviour have made it harder for the
banks
to continue doing this.
One banker said the market was
"desperate to see the system work", and the
banks would be supporting the
auctions.
"This is now a legitimate way for business to get foreign
currency. We fully
expect to see the black market system take a knock with
the auction," he
said.
But other commentators were less convinced,
noting with concern that the
Reserve Bank had turned down the higher bids at
the auction. Analysts said
unless the auctions were able to deliver exchange
rates consistently similar
to those available on the black market, the
parallel system would remain
very much alive.
Political, Social Woes Blamed for Zimbabwe's Banks
Crisis
Business Day (Johannesburg)
January 13,
2004
Posted to the web January 13, 2004
Rob Rose, Financial Services
Correspondent
Johannesburg
AS ZIMBABWE's banking sector struggles to
prevent liquidity problems at six
of their 17 banks from infecting the rest
of the banking system, ratings
agency Global Credit has blamed the crisis on
the country's socioeconomic
and political woes.
With concerns that the
crisis could hit South African banks and have an
effect on sentiment towards
African banking stocks, analysts are keeping a
close eye on whether newly
appointed governor Gideon Gono can resolve the
delicate situation.
In
a report released yesterday, Global Credit said the socioeconomic
and
political crises that had emerged over recent years had contributed to
an
environment in which certain banks engaged in "speculative
activities".
According to the ratings agency, many banks had tried to
take advantage of
the parallel exchange rate, in which the official exchange
rate of Z800 to
the US dollar contrasted starkly with the unofficial parallel
rate of Z6000
to the dollar, to make money.
Global Credit pointed out
that "certain banks also were tempted to ... hold
large foreign currency
positions" on these parallel markets.
At the same time, there was a sharp
mismatch between the interest rates of
about 100% and an inflation rate
higher than 600%.
Investors and banks tried to preserve value by taking
debt at comparatively
low interest rates to buy assets with quantifiable
value, such as property,
vehicles and equities assets that soon gained in
value due to the rocketing
inflation rate.
Some of these banks
allegedly used the reserve bank's concessionary funds,
which are available
for banks to use in certain circumstances, to fund
this
speculation.
Gono said he would target institutions involved in
funding such "nefarious
activities". His efforts to crack down on
inappropriate activities last
month led to fallout as some banks were locked
into assets or speculative
positions in the parallel market, causing a sharp
increase in interest
rates.
As liquidity problems became evident,
Global Credit said that "loss of
public confidence resulted in a significant
flow of funds from those banks
perceived to be in difficulty to those
perceived to be strong ... (which)
culminated in a number of banks failing to
meet their commitments and being
excluded from the clearing house."
By
last Friday, the reserve bank had suspended six of the country's 17
banks
from settling interbank debt due to concerns they could not pay the
other
banks.
Overall, the Global Credit report paints an ugly picture
of an industry that
has been under-regulated in the past few years,
positioned in a contracting
economy in which economic anomalies could be
exploited for the benefit of a
few individuals. But illegal activities also
complicated the situation .
Last year, the banks felt heavy
competition from a rash of new asset
management companies which sprang up
many of which made lots of cash because
asset managers were unregulated .
Gono brought asset managers into the
regulatory net , and his efforts to get
tough on banks and asset managers
have been hailed by most analysts as a step
in the right direction.
Global Credit director Dave King says Gono's
actions at the weekend to stem
the crisis should play a major role in
arresting any further contagion
effect which could jeopardise the rest of the
sector.
Mail and Guardian
Zimbabwe 'apologist' cracks the whip
Harare
13 January 2004 15:00
A day
after a Zimbabwean editor and two reporters were released from jail,
they
found themselves threatened by the government again, this time for
alleged
racism.
A letter from Tafataona Mahoso, the head of the Media Commission
which is
the government's press control body, accused the privately owned
Zimbabwe
Independent weekly of racism after the newspaper published a letter
saying
Zimbabweans were as docile as "a herd of wild beasts".
He said
the letter was "typical of the worst expressions of racism from the
former
slave territories of the United States, from apartheid South Africa,
and from
the days of (white minority) Rhodesia".
Mahoso, whose organisation
controls the licences for journalists to
practise, said: "All publishers and
editors in Zimbabwe should consider this
statement as a warning to them as
well, and not just to the Zimbabwe
Independent."
Independent editor
Iden Wetherell said that Mahoso's threat was linked to
the commission's
ability to "manipulate the issue of licences to
journalists".
On
Monday Wetherell and reporters Dumisani Muleya and Vincent Kahiya
were
released on bail after being accused of "criminal defamation" for a
report
last week that said President Robert Mugabe had "commandeered" one of
the
national airline's planes to take him on holiday to the Far
East.
Wetherell said he rejected the charges and would mount a "very
robust
defence" to the case against them.
The letter denounced by
Mahoso, signed apparently by a black Zimbabwean,
said Zimbabweans were "a
stupid lot" and compared them to "a herd of wild
beasts" who stand and watch
while one of their number is caught and killed
by pride of lions.
The
letter was complaining about Zimbabweans' failure to defend
themselves
against the repression of Mugabe's regime.
Mahoso said the
alleged racism in the letter was "absolute and sweeping."
Wetherell said:
"We do not accept his view that writers are necessarily
being racist when
they say Zimbabweans are docile in standing up to tyranny.
That is a view in
the national discourse, whether we as a society are doing
enough to fight the
depredations of the Zimbabwe regime.
"Mahoso is an apologist to the
regime and he won't allow criticism of the
regime. He is dressing it up as
racism."
He referred to a recent report by the Media Monitoring Project
in Zimbabwe
last month that accused the government media of "hate mongering"
and
"inciting violence," and said they were was copying of the
propaganda
strategy of Radio Machete, the "hate" radio station in the Rwanda
genocide
in 1994.
"It is shocking that Mahoso has never acted on these
issues, or on the
unprofessionalism of the state media," he said. - Sapa
ZIMBABWE: NCA calls for "people-driven" constitutional reforms
HARARE, 13 Jan
2004 (IRIN) - Lobby group the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) has
vowed to frustrate any talks on constitutional reform
between the ruling
ZANU-PF party and the opposition.
It argues that only Zimbabweans - not
political parties – have the right to
decide on the matter.
NCA
chairman Lovemore Madhuku told IRIN he would consider negotiations
on
constitutional reforms between the two parties an "illegitimate
process",
even though the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had
its
roots in the NCA and the labour movement.
"Political parties could
only discuss the modalities on how to involve the
people," he
said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, on a visit to Zimbabwe in
December, and
the church, have both urged ZANU-PF and the MDC to negotiate a
solution to
the country's deep political and economic crises.
While
the MDC has denied that any talks have so far taken place, it has
insisted
that the focus of any dialogue should be on constitutional reforms,
to ensure
future elections are free and fair.
The NCA, an umbrella civic
organisation, successfully lobbied in 2000 for
the rejection by referendum of
a controversial draft constitution by the
government-appointed Constitutional
Commission.
After that defeat, President Robert Mugabe said the country
would stick with
its original constitution, which has been much criticised
for the power
vested in the presidency.
The NCA proposes
"people-driven" reforms, based on a national
consultative
process.
ZIMBABWE: Anthrax outbreak continues
HARARE, 13 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Three
people have died and close to 200 have
been infected by an outbreak of
anthrax as Zimbabwe struggles to contain the
disease, which affects both
humans and cattle.
The outbreak, at present confined to the southeastern
province of Masvingo,
has so far affected 191 people and caused the deaths of
more than 60 head of
cattle since it emerged last month.
Masvingo
provincial medical director, Tapiwa Magure, said the largest number
of people
affected was recorded last week with 50 new infections.
"The number of
cases of anthrax affecting people continues to rise at
alarming levels. We
are also concerned about the effect it is having on
livestock," he was quoted
as saying.
The causative agent of anthrax is the bacterium, bacillus
anthracis, the
spores of which can survive in the environment for years.
Humans generally
acquire the disease directly or indirectly from infected
animals. Control in
livestock is therefore the key to reduced incidence,
according to the World
Health Organisation.
The veterinary services
department had launched a vaccination exercise in
the province to try and
contain the disease, while awareness campaigns had
been launched. "We have
dispatched more officials to Bikita, the hardest hit
district in the
province, to try and contain the disease," Magure said.
Zimbabwe's lack
of foreign exchange to buy the vaccines had hampered the
government's efforts
to control anthrax, as well as an epidemic of
foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)
that was threatening the country's beef
industry. Lucrative beef exports to
the European Union were suspended in
2001 after the first signs of a serious
FMD outbreak.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made and the director of
vetinary services have
reportedly travelled to Iran to source anthrax and FMD
vaccines.
The outbreaks have been linked to the uncontrolled movement of
cattle by new
settlers benefiting from the government's land redistribution
programme.
"There is no way cattle diseases can fail to thrive when
cattle are being
moved without permits from one part of the country to
another," said a
senior official in the veterinary department, who preferred
anonymity.
Mail and Guardian
Former Zim farmers bring jobs to
Mozambique
Maputo, Mozambique
13 January 2004
15:37
White Zimbabwean commercial farmers have created more than 4
000 jobs in
neighbouring Mozambique, where they settled after being ousted
from their
land back home, a regional governor said on Tuesday.
"The
Zimbabwean farmers with about 1 000ha of land each have so far
generated a
total of 4 118 new jobs," said Soares Nhaca, governor of the
central
Mozambican province of Manica, where the farmers settled.
Nhaca said
there are about 100 Zimbabwean farmers in the fertile districts
of Manica
province, growing traditional cash crops such as tobacco, cotton
and
maize.
Most of the new jobs are on tobacco farms, the governor said,
adding that
some farmers also grow mangoes and millet for export to South
Africa.
The majority of the Zimbabwean commercial farmers have been
alloted land in
the two districts of Barue and Sussundenga, near the border
with Zimbabwe.
Mozambique has taken a cautious approach to requests from
white farmers for
land, hoping to avoid replicating Zimbabwe's inequitable
pattern of land
ownership, in which the tiny white minority owned more than
one-quarter of
the nation's land.
In 2000, the Zimbabwean government
accelerated a land reform programme under
which land was seized from white
farmers and redistributed to landless
blacks.
Since then, more than
three-quarters of Zimbabwe's 4 500 white commercial
farmers have been
expropriated of about 11-million hectares.
All land in Mozambique belongs
to the state and cannot be sold.
The Constitution only allows land to be
leased.
Manica province, which borders Zimbabwe, is the most sought-after
by foreign
farmers.
Nhaca said his government has also received land
requests from South African
farmers.
The whole of central and northern
Mozambique possesses land with almost the
same characteristics as those in
Manica -- good soil and climate. --
Sapa-AFP
Date for Public Hearing on Land Acquisition Amendment Bill
set
The Herald (Harare)
January 13, 2004
Posted to the
web January 13, 2004
Harare
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
on Lands, Agriculture, Water
Development, Rural Resources and Resettlement
will on Thursday conduct a
public hearing on the Land Acquisition Amendment
Bill that seeks to repeal
some provisions of the Land Acquisition
Act.
The Bill that is before the Parliamentary Legal Committee for
consideration
seeks to consolidate the gains of land reform by removing
bottlenecks in the
acquisition process.
In a public notice, Parliament
said views ga- thered from the public hearing
would be analysed and
considered by the portfolio committee in their
deliberations on the
Bill.
"The committee will come up with a report that shall be tabled in
Parliament
with possible incorporation of the views in the Bill," read the
public
notice.
Written submissions could also be submitted to
Parliament by tomorrow.
One of the major amendments the Bill seeks to
make is the abolition of the
requirement that the preliminary notice of
acquisition should be served
personally upon the owner of the land to be
acquired for resettlement and
the holder on any other registered real right
in that land.
The preliminary notice of acquisition was supposed to be
served by the
acquiring authority personally under Section 5(1)(b) of the
Land Acquisition
Act.
"This provision has proved difficult to
implement under the land reform
programme because often the employer no
longer occupies the land and cannot
otherwise be located," reads the
memorandum introducing the Bill.
Judicial Officers Granted Bail
The Herald (Harare)
January
13, 2004
Posted to the web January 13, 2004
Harare
PROMINENT
Harare lawyer Wilson Manase, provincial magistrate Caroline-Anne
Chigumira
and prosecutor Blessmore Gorejena, accused of irregularly granting
bail to a
suspect in the $7,7 billion Trust Bank fraud, were yesterday
brought before a
Harare magistrate court to answer allegations of
corruption.
The three
were not asked to plead when they appeared before magistrate Mr
Simon
Kachambwa. They were remanded to February 13 on $500 000, $100 000 and
$300
000 bail respectively.
They are also required to report once to the CID
Fraud Squad at Harare
Central Police Station and reside at their respective
Harare homes until the
matter is finalised.
Charges against the three
who were arrested over the weekend arose after a
key suspect in the Trust
Bank fraud involving $7,7 billion, Witness Mahata,
was granted bail in
chambers. Mahata initially appeared in court on December
23 last year facing
charges of fraud and money laundering.
He was remanded in custody to
Christmas Eve for his bail application and he
appeared in court and his
application was postponed for a month to allow
police to continue with
investigations.
The police and prosecution were opposing the granting of
bail to Mahata, who
was represented by Mr Alex Mombesasa of Kantor and
Immerman, the State
alleges.
On December 31, it is alleged, at around
1 pm Mahata appeared in court
represented by Manase and Mr Mombesasa for a
bail application. In an
application for the bail, the State alleges that they
misrepresented to the
court that they had liaised with the investigating
officer in the case,
Assistant Inspector Ambrose Mandovha, and that he had
consented to bail.
According to the State, this was false as Asst Insp
Mandovha had not
consented to bail. As a result of the alleged
misrepresentation, Mahata, who
the police had difficulties in arresting, was
released on $6 million bail
coupled with stringent reporting conditions. The
State alleges that it was
not in the interest of justice that he was granted
bail.
In making the misrepresentation, the lawyers were aware that their
conduct
might defeat or obstruct the administration of justice, the State
alleges.
Ghana Home Page
Why Are We Where We Are?
It is a face-glaring fact
that we have not developed at a fast pace as we
should. Given our immense
endowment of human, natural, agricultural and
mineral resources Africa and
Africans are still wallowing in abject poverty.
We still live in squalid
conditions of hunger and desperation. This is not
the result of our stupidity
or lack of intelligence.
Individual persons of African descent are able
to master every complex
concept and excel when given the opportunity in
different environments. Why
could we not display such excellence in our own
environment?
The structure and the institutions of governance and modern
states are alien
to us. We did not have the time to internalize the art of
modern state-hood
at the time independence was granted. We lacked and still
lack the
traditions and ethos of nation-hood. These traditions and ethos
evolve with
time. These structures were never tried nor tested. Though our
founding
fathers would like us to believe that we were ready for
independence, an
objective analysis reveals that we were not. Yet we admire
them for fighting
for independence for the white man would not have
surrendered power at his
own volition. Like soldiers however, because we were
ill-trained for
independence, we are in danger to ourselves and our comrades
or in this
metaphor, to our citizens and neighbors.
We are not poor
intellectually. Africans and Ghanaians when given the right
system function
creditably anywhere. The classic examples of Kofi Annan and
Dr. Ashitey
Trebi-Ollenu (of NASA) are adequate proofs. Besides Kofi Annan
Ghanaian
trained medical practitioners, nurses, accountants and a host of
others with
critical skills are selling their skills the world over. It is
simple because
the system in which they are employed outside Ghana works.
Individual
Ghanaians are like skillful and talented soccer players with a
lot of
potential. Because well managed football teams do not exist, let
alone proper
national soccer leagues, they display their skills elsewhere.
What Ghana
needs are the teams and the professionally managed leagues, the
players would
come home. In Ghana now a citizen can obtain a driving license
without
stepping in any motor vehicle department. It takes for ever to
register a
land. These occur because there are no operative systems
in
place.
Even when the system exists, it is regularly subverted
because of
corruption. Here in the USA one can obtain a passport by picking
an
application form from a post office, mail the filled form with
the
prerequisite documents to the nearest passport office. Bingo the passport
is
received in the mail. This is because there is system that works
and
officials are accountable for delays.
We need to acknowledge that
the systems as they exist in our respective
countries are not working. This
is not a poor reflection on our abilities.
It took the British many years
(since 1215) to establish parliamentary
democracy. As intelligent as we are,
it would take us more than 50 years to
internalize such practices. Even Haiti
which has been independent for more
than 200 years has not tried and tested
good governance. Same can be said
about Liberia, Ghana and Zimbabwe. But when
Haitians arrive in the USA, with
little command of the English Language, they
not only survive, but triumph
as well because the system works in the USA.
Time per se is not the most
critical variable, the willingness and commitment
of our political leaders
and elites is more critical. If time alone is so
critical, Haiti would have
been more stable than Botswana or Liberia more
developed than Zimbabwe.
It is not time to change the past. We in Ghana
at least are on the right
course. We need to establish systems that would
stand the test of time so
that a typical Ghanaian can perform in Ghana as he
does in Australia or
Japan. The NPP Administration under President Kufour has
introduced a
feature to Ghanaian political landscape. This is the so-called
Peoples
Assembly. This concept and idea needs to be nurtured and expanded.
District
and Metropolitan, Township and Village Assemblies, Traditional
Councils and
Regional House of Chiefs should all open their gates and
encourage ordinary
citizens to observe and ask questions. Such a feature
could be Ghana’s
answer to the weekly Question Time of the British Prime
Minister in
Parliament. I live in a small town in New Jersey. I have attended
council
meetings on numerous occasions when council members listen to the
pros and
cons of allowing certain businesses to establish in the town. The
views of
affected property owners are actively solicited before the Council
takes a
decision.
We are not lazy. Neither are we stupid. It is our
system and character that
are stupid.