Sunday Mail 13.1.08
Zinwa to cut supplies for one week
By Susan
Tokwe
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has announced that
Harare and Chitungwiza residents will from tomorrow go without water supplies
for a week following major electricity power cuts at the authority’s Morton
Jaffray Waterworks in the capital.
Zinwa general manager Mr Lisben
Chipfunde told The Sunday Mail yesterday that intermittent power cuts
experienced between Friday and early yesterday morning had seen the water
treatment plant failing to process and pump water.
Mr Chipfunde
acknowledged the great inconvenience the situation will have on residents. He,
however, said the authority was working out measures to urgently restore
supplies to the affected areas. Zesa Holdings officials could not be reached for
comment last night.
"Harare and parts of Chitungwiza will this whole week
experience a loss of water supplies due to problems beyond our control," said Mr
Chipfunde. "We would, however, like to assure residents in the affected areas
that we are doing all we can to address the situation. We are really concerned
about the frequency of the power cuts, which are affecting our plant."
Mr Chipfunde said power went off at the water treatment plant at 9.55 pm
on Friday. Supplies were, however, restored at around 11.40 pm before another
power cut hit the plant at 1am.
Again, supplies were restored at 1.45am,
but power went off at 7.15 am yesterday. Residents in and around Harare
complained yesterday that they had spent the entire day without water flowing
from their taps. Central Harare and most western suburbs, including Highfield,
Glen Norah, Budiriro and Mufakose, were affected. Mr Chipfunde said the western
suburbs would be the first to receive water after supplies are
restored.
It will, however, take longer for areas such as Mabvuku and
Tafara. Mr Chipfunde said it usually took a week for pumping to normalise in the
event of an hour’s power outage.
This translates into 10 hours without
electricity, meaning the current situation may take longer to normalise, he
said. Morton Jaffray has a capacity to produce 500 megalitres of water per day
while Prince Edward sub-station produces 66 megalitres.
At the moment,
Prince Edward is the only functional plant. Said Mr Chipfunde: "Prince Edward
only produces about one tenth of the required water and will only feed a
fraction of the Chitungwiza area.
"Unlike in situations of power cuts
whereby everything returns to normal after reconnection, it takes a bit of time
to reset the pumps and have them channelling water to the other pump stations."
Yahoo News
Sun
Jan 13, 7:08 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Some villagers in Zimbabwe have
resorted to using human
excrement to beat an acute shortage of fertiliser
and enhance their crop
yields, state media reported Sunday.
"Chihota
villagers have invented optional fertiliser by turning human
excreta
(faeces) into organic manure with urine being used in the mixture
instead of
ammonium nitrate," the state Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
reported.
The human waste collected in specially designed toilets
replaces the
ordinary compound D and ammonium nitrate fertilisers which are
in short
supply across the country.
"The collected human waste is
commonly referred to as humanure and
ecological fertiliser," the report
said.
Chihota is about 50km (30 miles) southeast of Harare.
The
government-owned Sunday Mail newspaper said: "Abhorred as this may
appear,
the community's innovation is expected to produce better yields at a
time
the country is faced with an acute shortage of fertiliser."
Zimbabwe is
an economic crisis with inflation last announced at nearly 8,000
percent in
September. Economists estimate the real figure is now closer to
50,000
percent.
Fertiliser companies have suspended production after failing to
secure
foreign currency to import chemicals.
Monsters and Critics
Jan 13, 2008, 17:30 GMT
Harare - Zimbabwean police
disrupted Sunday several Anglican Church services
in Harare, arresting at
least three priests and a number of parishioners
opposed to a pro-government
bishop, a church official claimed Sunday.
The priests were dragged out of
church because they were conducting services
without the authorisation of
the police or that of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga,
who is a staunch supporter of
President Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF
party, according to the
church official.
Police have not confirmed the arrests. The Harare
diocese of the Anglican
Church has been torn apart since Kunonga pulled the
church out of the
regional mother body the Church Province of Central Africa
(CPCA) -
ostensibly because he opposed the province's stance on
homosexuality.
The CPCA replaced Kunonga with Bishop Sebastian Bakare and
said Kunonga was
no longer a member of the Anglican Church. But Kunonga and
his followers
have refused to recognise the new bishop's
appointment.
Police paramilitaries in riot gear and carrying batons
disrupted a service
at St Elizabeth church in Harare's middle-income suburb
of Belvedere, said
church spokesman Christopher Tapera.
'They
disrupted the service and asked everyone to leave. One woman who was
taking
a video was arrested,' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a
telephone
interview in Harare.
Police this week sent a circular to all parishes
ordering that only priests
loyal to Kunonga were allowed to conduct
services, he said.
'Police cannot interfere with the running of the
church unless there is
violence,' insisted Tapera.
At St. James
Church in the suburb of Warren Park, 16 parishioners loyal to
Bishop Bakare
were arrested, said Tapera. He did not know, if charges had
been brought
against the arrested.
One of the priests, who was arrested at the
Anglican Church in Harare's
upmarket Marlborough suburb was later released,
said Tapera.
Police at St. Luke's Church in Greendale eventually allowed
Bishop Bakare to
hold a service in the church hall, while Kunonga held a
service inside the
church, he said.
'The hall was packed. Kunonga
only had three people with him in the church,'
claimed Tapera. Meanwhile,
Kunonga has announced that he is creating a new
Anglican Church province,
the Church Province of Zimbabwe, official media
reported
Sunday.
Kunonga announced his decision at a press conference on
Saturday.
'History has been made today,' the state-controlled Sunday Mail
quoted
Kunonga as saying, adding, 'We have formed our own province. It has
been
painful and sorrowful but out of that came the joy of our own
province,' he
said.
Bakare spokesman Tapera described the move as a
'mockery', insisting that
the Harare diocese was still part of the central
African church province,
which groups Anglican churches in Botswana, Malawi,
Zambia and Zimbabwe.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
IOL
January 13 2008 at 03:13PM
Harare - Axed Anglican bishop Nolbert
Kunonga, an ally of Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe, has formed a
splinter church after his ousting in a
dispute over homosexuality, a state
weekly reported on Sunday.
"History has been made," The Sunday Mail
quoted Kunonga as telling his
supporters in the capital.
"We
have formed our own province. It has been painful and sorrowful
but out of
that came the joy of our province."
He said the new entity would be
known as the Anglican Church of
Zimbabwe, with five dioceses in and around
Harare.
Kunonga, a vocal backer of Mugabe's controversial land
reforms,
attempted to pull his Harare diocese out of the Anglican Church's
Province
of Central Africa over its stance on
homosexuality.
He fell out with the
province, comprising Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and
Zimbabwe, for failing to
condemn the ordination of gay bishops.
"There is no bishop in the
Anglican Church in Zimbabwe whom I can
clearly say has sympathised, indulged
or compromised in homosexuality and we
follow the scriptures. We refuse to
embrace homosexuality," the Sunday Mail
quoted him as saying.
Following his decision to quit the province, the Anglican church
withdrew
his licence and appointed Sebastian Bakare as bishop.
But Kunonga
insisted he was the legitimate head of the diocese,
splitting it in two
factions that have in recent weeks engaged in fisticuffs
in a dispute over
church property.
Last week, police were called in to oversee the
Kunonga and Bakare
factions worship in different rooms of the main Harare
cathedral.
Kunonga, who has officiated at various state functions
and at Mugabe's
swearing-in in 2002, has praised the much-maligned
Zimbabwean leader as "a
true son of God".
He is on the list of
Mugabe allies banned from travelling to the
United States under sanctions
imposed after 2002 presidential elections
widely denounced as
rigged.
Mugabe, a Catholic, is also known for an anti-gay stance,
having once
referred to gays and lesbians as "worse than pigs and dogs." He
has called
Kunonga "my spiritual father". - Sapa-AFP
IOL
Basildon
Peta
January 13 2008 at 10:26AM
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace withdrew $100
000 (R700 000) of scarce
foreign currency from their country's central bank
to finance a lavish
three-week holiday and shopping spree in Asia, even as
poverty in the
country dramatically worsened.
The Mugabes bought the $100 000 from
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) at the low official exchange rate of
ZIM$30 000 dollars for one US
dollar before Christmas.
If they
had bought the greenbacks on the much more realistic black
market - which
ordinary Zimbabweans with no connections at the central bank
have to use -
they would have cost at least 60 times more, about ZIM$1,8
million to ZIM$2
million per US dollar.
"You might as well
just say he took the money out of the RBZ for
free," said a highly placed
RBZ source.
Authoritative sources said Mugabe and his wife had left
for Asia last
month with a dozen bodyguards whose salaries, allowances,
accommodation and
food expenses while with the president would all be paid
for by the state.
Sources said Mugabe sometimes covers up by
doubling his trips with
official duties, when he meets heads of state from
other countries while on
holiday.
While ordinary Zimbabweans
reel from a collapsing economy, only Mugabe
and a few of his cronies are
able to buy the little foreign currency that
trickles into the country from
mineral and tourism receipts at the official
exchange rate.
Some critics suspect that the government keeps the exchange rate at
unrealistically low levels precisely to enable those at the top to make
enormous profits by reselling the US dollars on the black market or using
them to buy goods cheaply.
Sources say the giant Makro store
near OR Tambo international airport
in Johannesburg has become one of the
shopping venues of choice for many
Mugabe cronies because of its proximity
to the airport.
Mugabe and his family are expected to return from
Asia in time for the
the start of the school term in February.
Details of the holiday trip have been kept a closely secret but it is
understood Mugabe visited Singapore and the plush holiday resorts of
Langkawi in Malaysia and Phukhet in Thailand. In Langkawi he usually meets
his old friend, the former Malaysian prime minister Mahatir Mohamed, with
whom he shares a dislike of the West.
On his return he is
expected to dissolve parliament in preparation for
a general election in
March, unless President Thabo Mbeki persuades him to
postpone it to create
more time to implement agreements reached in
negotiations in Pretoria with
the opposition.
Mugabe's refusal to postpone the elections so far
has deadlocked the
negotiations which Mbeki is mediating for the
region.
To try to break the deadlock, Mbeki has summoned the
negotiating teams
from both the ruling Zanu-PF and the MDC to Pretoria this
week for
discussions that he will personally take charge of.
Previous talks have been chaired by Sydney Mufamadi, the local
government
minister, on Mbeki's behalf.
Although the two parties have agreed
on several issues, including a
"transitional constitution", everything is
now stalled by Zanu-PF's
insistence that it will only implement the
agreement - including the new
constitution - after the March
elections.
The opposition argues that this defeats the whole
purpose of the Mbeki
mediation, which was aimed at ensuring that the March
polls would be based
on a new constitution to ensure they were free and
fair.
The opposition also accuses Mugabe of reneging on
implementing all
other agreed items, such as rewriting the voters roll,
freeing the media and
halting political violence.
Mbeki is
supposed to report soon to the Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
on the progress of his mediation. But with the SADC
politics, defence and
security troika now chaired by Angolan President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos, a
close supporter of Mugabe, the Zimbabwean leader might
feel he can afford to
stall, sources said.
"It would have been better if [Tanzanian
President Jakaya] Kikwete was
still in charge [of the troika] because he
appeared enthusiastic about
getting things done and prodding Mbeki for some
progress. But only the very
optimistic can believe that Dos Santos will make
a difference," said the
source.
"Unless Mbeki personally wields
the stick on Mugabe, chances are that
we will have elections without a
fundamentally changed environment in March.
If there was ever a time that
Zimbabwe needed Mbeki, it's now."
Officials in both factions of the
MDC say they now feel cheated
because they were "duped" into supporting a
Zanu-PF-inspired constitutional
amendment expanding the size of parliament
from 150 to 210 MPs as a
confidence-building measure and under the pretext
that more fundamental
reforms would follow.
Mugabe has since
allocated a majority of the 60 extra seats to his own
party stronghold in
Mashonaland.
This article was originally published on page
4 of Sunday Independent
on January 13, 2008
Zim Online
by Thenjiwe Mabhena Monday 14 January
2008
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s government has
enlisted the help of the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to
cobble up a new economic plan
to end an acute recession gripping Zimbabwe
since 1999, ZimOnline has
learnt.
The Harare administration, accused
by critics of ruining Zimbabwe’s once
vibrant economy through repression and
wrong economic decisions, has also
roped in business, labour and civic
society to help draft the Zimbabwe
Economic Development Strategy (ZEDS),
expected to be launched in 2009 and
run until 2013.
The UNDP -- which
signed a memorandum of understanding with Harare outlining
its involvement
in drafting of the policy document -- said in a statement
published on its
website that the broad consultative process to capture
input from various
stakeholders had already begun.
It said: “The broad consultative process
has begun with the project steering
and technical committees formed; 11
thematic groups constituted; project
secretariat in place; 19 stakeholder
sensitisation meetings held; key
technical drivers of the process trained to
equip them with the necessary
tools to lead the process.”
Thematic
committees that are headed by experts drawn from stakeholder groups
will
discuss key issues such as macro economic stabilisation and growth,
productive sectors, investment and export development, infrastructure
development, governance and poverty reduction.
The Ministry of
Economic Development, the lead agency in the drafting of the
new economic
plan, postponed its launch last October to allow for more
consultations with
other stakeholders. The ministry indicated at the time
that it would seek
the assistance of UN agencies in formulating the policy.
ZEDS is expected
to spearhead the country’s economic revival after nearly a
decade of
recession triggered by the violent removal of former white farmers
from
their properties which led to foreign currency shortages, fuel and
power
supply bottlenecks. Over the past 17 years, Zimbabwe has come up with
no
less than seven economic blueprints.
These include the International
Monetary Fund-sanctioned Economic Structural
Adjustment Programme in 1990,
Vision 2020, Zimbabwe Programme for Economic
and Social Transformation in
1998, the Millennium Economic Recovery Plan in
2001, the National Economic
Recovery Plan of 2003, the 10-Point Plan and the
much-hyped National
Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) launched
in
2006.
Launched with great excitement in April 2006, the NEDPP was the
latest
blueprint touted by the government as the panacea to the country's
economic
crisis.
At the time of the NEDPP launch, the government
claimed that there was
strong private sector participation in the programme,
then seen as the
answer to the problems of hyperinflation, unstable currency
and low foreign
currency generation.
The country has been operating
without an economic blueprint since the end
of the NEDPP, which was supposed
to be a short-term stabilisation programme
that sought to restore economic
stability through the implementation of
quick-win strategies in the last six
months of 2006.
Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product is estimated to have
contracted by between
30 percent and 40 percent since 2000 while inflation
is still the highest in
the world at more than 8 000 percent and a foreign
exchange crisis has led
to acute shortages of food, fuel and electricity. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by
Patricia Mpofu Monday 14 January 2008
HARARE –
Zimbabwe’s opposition on Sunday said it had resumed talks
with President
Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party in a bid to break the
deadlock over the
date for elections as well as the adoption of a new
constitution.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party, told about 5 000
party supporters at a
rally in Harare’s Glen View suburb that the party’s
negotiators left Harare
for Pretoria last Saturday for the make-or-break
talks.
Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti, the secretaries-general of
the two
factions of the MDC are representing the party in talks with ZANU
PF.
Chamisa said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Social
Welfare
Minister Nicholas Goche, who are leading the ZANU PF delegation,
also left
for Pretoria for the talks that have been deadlocked over ZANU
PF’s
rejection of a new constitution before the elections scheduled for
March.
“The dialogue is resuming. Our negotiators are in South
Africa right
now after President Thabo Mbeki stepped in to break the
deadlock,” said
Chamisa.
“Mbeki has called the negotiating
teams to try and break the deadlock.
The MDC is still insisting on a
transitional constitution as well as the
shifting of the election date,” he
added.
The MDC said it wants a new, democratic constitution that
has been
agreed at the talks to be implemented before the
elections.
It also wants the election date moved from March to
sometime in June
to allow democratic reforms and other legal changes agreed
to at the talks
to have effect on the ground before voting could take
place.
Mugabe has however rejected the opposition demands insisting
that the
elections will take place in March “without fail.”
Speaking at the same rally yesterday, MDC vice-president Thokozani
Khupe
said the opposition party was also pushing for every Zimbabwean
eligible to
vote to be allowed to vote using their national identification
card as
happened during the historic 1980 elections that ushered in
independence.
“We are campaigning for an environment that is
conducive for free and
fair elections. We want a situation whereby any
eligible Zimbabwean would be
allowed to vote using his or her national ID
card,” said Khupe.
The MDC, ZANU PF talks have the blessings of the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) that is eager to broker a
lasting solution to
Zimbabwe’s eight-year political crisis.
A
key objective of the talks is to ensure that the presidential and
parliamentary elections are free and fair.
Analysts say truly
democratic elections are vital to any plan to end
an acute economic crisis
gripping Zimbabwe and that is seen in
hyperinflation, a rapidly contracting
GDP, the fastest for a country not at
war according to the World Bank and
shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel. - ZimOnline
Monsters and Critics
Jan 13, 2008, 20:32 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - Changes
to Zimbabwe's press and security regulations
that were fast-tracked through
Parliament last month are now law, it emerged
late Sunday.
Legal
watchdog Veritas said that the laws were published Friday as acts of
Parliament in an extraordinary government gazette.
The changes to
Zimbabwe's notorious Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act
make it no longer compulsory for reporters to carry a press
card.
But
only accredited reporters will be allowed into Parliament and the courts
and
to cover national events.
The state-appointed Media and Information
Commission responsible for
shutting down four private newspapers in the last
five years will also be
reconstituted, and a media council to enforce media
ethics will be set up.
Independent press watchdogs have dismissed the
changes as piecemeal.
Under changes to the Public Order and Security Act,
it will now be harder
for police to ban rallies and street protests. The
amended laws come into
force with only two months to go before crunch
presidential, parliamentary
and local government polls.
The ruling
party's political commissar, Elliot Manyika, said this weekend
that he was
satisfied ZANU-PF would 'romp to victory.'
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
To our surprise, several
supporters were hugged by passers-by. It's a great
way to keep warm,
although it wasn't a particularly cold day for this time
of year. It turns
out that the "free huggers" were practicing for National
Hugging Day on 21st
January: yet another whacky phenomenon in the bizarre
kaleidoscope of
British life.
Who, for instance, would have expected - while we were
singing our demands
for freedom - that a red double-decker bus would drive
past with on its side
the slogan "Don't forget to register to vote"! If only
we could . . . .
A Zimbabwean group say they are to hold a demonstration
outside the Embassy
next Saturday afternoon in support of the diaspora
vote. It would have been
good to consult us as we have been here every
Saturday going on 6 years.
Anyway we are quite happy to give them a free hug
- especially if they are
not behind the emails and telephone calls received
by our supporters saying
that next week's Vigil has been called off. It
would appear that the Vigil
is coming under increased attack since the
success of our lobbying in
Lisbon.
We can assure our supporters that
the Vigil, as always, will be out there
demanding free and fair elections.
This is in line with the request by the
MDC Tsvangirai Secretary for
Information, Nelson Chamisa, who said that this
should be the main drive for
the diaspora. As for the diaspora vote, the
Vigil sees little point in
talking to the Zimbabwe Embassy .We will be
putting our concerns about this
to South Africa House, which is a more
vulnerable pulse to
press.
Another good attendance with marvelous singing and drumming and
some star
musicians among them. As always, we were humbled by people
traveling long
distances to be with us. Take Patrick Dzimba, for example.
He lives in
Glasgow in Scotland and caught a coach at 11 pm on Friday so he
could be
with us. When we said goodbye to him he headed off to Victoria
Coach
Station to catch a bus for 11.30 for his 8 hour journey home. Coaches
are
the cheapest form of transport. It was great to have you with us,
Patrick.
We are putting him in touch with one of our long-term supporters,
Ancilla
Chifamba , who has recently moved to Glasgow and wants to start a
Vigil
there.
Finally, our commiserations to Chipo Chaya of the Vigil
co-ordinating team
whose only brother has died suddenly in England. He came
from Zimbabwe
about a month ago on a visit. We grieve with you,
Chipo.
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
FOR
THE RECORD: 201 signed the registers
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday 14th
January at 7.30 pm. Central London Zimbabwe
Forum. This week forum
discusses how best the diaspora can support the
upcoming elections. Venue:
downstairs function room of the Bell and Compass,
9-11 Villiers Street,
London, WC2N 6NA, next to Charing Cross Station at the
corner of Villiers
Street and John Adam Street.
Vigil Co-ordinators
The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday
from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by
the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will
continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held
in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
New Zimbabwe
By Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 01/14/2008
03:46:50
ONGOING talks between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF party and the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) might this week be referred
to the
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) if no deal is struck, a
senior
MDC official has warned.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the MDC
faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai said
seeking SADC intervention remains an
option if current broker, South African
President Thabo Mbeki, fails in his
bid to get a the MDC and Zanu PF to
agree on a range of key legislative
changes ahead of joint presidential and
parliamentary elections in
March.
“There is a stalemate. We went into talks with Zanu PF and we both
agreed to
work around five key issues we identified as a way of promoting an
enabling
environment for the holding of free and fair elections,” MDC
spokesman
Nelson Chamisa told a rally in Harare’s Glen View suburb on
Sunday.
“So far, Zanu PF has failed to honour its commitment. If
President Mbeki
fails to help find a solution to this deadlock, then he will
have to refer
the talks to the SADC troika which first called for them in
March.”
Mbeki made last ditch efforts to save the talks on Saturday
evening when he
summoned both MDC and Zanu PF negotiating teams to
Pretoria.
Labour Minister Nicholas Goche and Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa,
representing Zanu PF, flew into the South African capital on
Saturday
evening while Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, representing the two
MDC
factions, left Harare on Sunday morning.
Chamisa said: “As we
gather here in Glen View, our representative in the
talks, Honourable Biti
and others are meeting President Mbeki. We hope a
solution would be found
but if it’s not, then the talks would be
unfortunately referred to the SADC
troika.”
Talks between Zanu PF and the two MDC factions -- currently in
negotiations
to reunify the party after an acrimonious split in 2005 -- were
initiated by
the regional trade bloc to cool political tensions in Zimbabwe
after
Tsvangirai and several senior MDC officials were beaten up in police
custody
in March.
The talks centred around five key issues, including
opposition demands for
amendments to security, media and electoral laws, a
new constitution and
cessation of political violence.
Zanu PF made
concessions on media and security laws, but has ruled out a new
constitution
before elections in March.
Thokozani Khupe, Tsvangirai’s deputy, told the
same gathering: “As the MDC
we are preparing for free and fair elections. We
can win under free and fair
elections but Zanu PF is not committed to what
was agreed on in the talks.
There is still violence, newspapers have
remained shut and the delimitation
process is almost complete without us
being consulted.
“All we are saying is we must have sufficient time to
implement what would
have been agreed in the talks. That would make the
elections free and fair.
Despite changes to media laws, The Daily News has
remained closed. Where is
The Daily News, where are other
papers?”
Khupe said the MDC wants a voter registration exercise that
gives people
adequate time to register, an independent electoral commission
and
Zimbabweans outside the country to be allowed a vote.
She said
her party supports a voting process that would allow citizens to
vote even
with any identity documents, like what happened during the 1980
elections
which catapulted Mugabe to power.
The harmonised elections will result in
an increase in the membership of the
House of Assembly from 150 members to
210 in the Lower House, and from 66 to
93 in the Upper House.
About
5,6 million Zimbabweans have so far registered for the polls in which
the
83-year old Mugabe -- who has ruled since Independence in 1980 -- has
been
controversially endorsed as the ruling party’s presidential candidate.
New Zimbabwe
By Fikile Mapala
Last updated: 01/14/2008
03:49:50
ZIMBABWE’S opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will this
weekend
officially launch its 2008 election campaign with 300 rallies lined
up for
rural constituencies until the end of January, officials
said.
Zimbabweans vote in joint parliamentary, presidential and council
elections
in March.
The fractious MDC is currently holding talks
aimed at reunification. Arthur
Mutambara and founding leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, lead rival factions.
Tsvangirai’s faction will begin its
campaign with four rallies in Harare on
Saturday and Sunday, officially
kicking off the race for State House, and
this despite threats by Tsvangirai
to boycott the elections if a new
constitution is not put in
place.
The MDC and Zanu PF have been engaged in talks to discuss the
electoral
ground rules, but the two parties have failed to reach agreement
on a new
constitution, which President Robert Mugabe says will be introduced
after
the elections.
A meeting of the MDC’s powerful standing
committee on Wednesday resolved to
press ahead with preparations for the
watershed elections while
simultaneously pursuing talks with Zanu
PF.
The committee which received its mandate from the party’s December 16
national council meeting also resolved to vigorously pursue unity with the
breakaway faction led by Mutambara as well as the prospect of a united front
with other opposition parties.
January 31 has been set as the
deadline for the conclusion of all talks with
Zanu PF, the Mutambara-led MDC
and other opposition parties.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the
safari dubbed the New Zimbabwe
Campaign will assume four dimensions namely;
the campaign for free and fair
elections, the people’s campaign against
poverty, the campaign for a united
front against Zanu PF and the
international campaign for the Diaspora vote.
“The New Zimbabwe Campaign
is a national outreach program that will be held
throughout the country with
special emphasis on rural areas. 300 rallies
have been slated for the rural
areas up to the end of January,” said
Chamisa.
During the campaign,
the MDC says it will demand that the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) be
reconstituted before it undertakes a new, transparent
and all-inclusive
voter registration and delimitation exercise.
The MDC wants a new
constitution before the next election and the date of
the election that
allows implementation of comprehensive reforms and
tangible
deliverables.
Other campaign demands include international observation
and monitoring of
the polls at least three months before the actual
elections.
The opposition party is also calling for equal access to the
government
controlled public media.
In the event that a new, credible
voters’ roll cannot be put in place ahead
of the poll, the MDC wants every
eligible Zimbabwean to be allowed to cast
their vote upon producing their
national identity card as happened in the
1980 elections. However, it
remains doubtful whether the Zanu PF government
will capitulate to all the
demands by the opposition.
The ZEC, appointed by President Mugabe, has
ruled out the postponement of
the elections to June as demanded by the
MDC.
Commission chairman George Chiweshe has argued that it would be
unconstitutional to defer the joint elections as they are regulated by an
act of parliament.
“The focus is on elections being held in March.
There have been suggestions
that the commission should wait for the
conclusion of the talks between Zanu
PF and MDC. We do not work like that,”
Chiweshe said.
He added: “We simply consider the law and we know that
harmonisation of the
elections was captured in the law accordingly. If any
changes are to be
made, they should be reflected in the law.”
Zanu PF
has also rejected the demand for a transitional constitution
preferring to
introduce a new constitution after the polls.
The ruling party has also
dismissed the MDC demand to allow Zimbabweans
abroad to vote, arguing that
the opposition has an unfair advantage because
of travel sanctions which
prohibit Zanu PF officials from visiting Western
countries to
campaign.
The harmonised elections will result in an increase in the
membership of the
House of Assembly from 150 members to 210 in the Lower
House, and from 66 to
93 in the Upper House.
About 5,6 million
Zimbabweans have so far registered for the polls in which
the 83-year old
Mugabe -- who has ruled since Independence in 1980 -- has
been
controversially endorsed as the ruling party’s presidential candidate.
The Zimbabwean
Sunday, 13 January 2008 05:54
PRETORIA- AFRICAN leaders have been challenged to
desist from holding on to
power either by hook or crook as this undermines
the principles of
democracy, rule of law and human rights, African National
Congress (ANC)
President Jacob Zuma announed on Saturday.
Addressing
over 30 000 party faithfuls at Super Stadium, Atteridgevile,
Pretoria, Zuma
took a swipe on fellow African presidents, who hold on to
power through vote
rigging and dishonest arguing that such moves should be
condemned in
strongest terms. Zuma did not rightly point at Zimbabwean
president Robert
Mugabe, who is clinging on to power since the country
attained its
independence from Britain in 1980, but the whole of
Africa.Mugabe, who has
received international condemnation for gross human
rights abuses, election
rigging as well as clinging on to power was
represented by his embassy
officials in Pretoria."We remain steadfast in our
position to interfere with
the democratic right of people to elect a
government of their choice, to
vote rigging, or any dishonest means of
attaining power. "As Africans we
must continue to work in 2008 to eradicate
such practices from our
continent," said Zuma, receiving much appluase from
thousands of Zimbabweans
present.Zuma also took a swipe on the events that
are unfolding in Kenya
saying such disturbances should be resolved as a
matter of urgency."We
express our deep concern at the situation in Kenya,
which has severe
political, social, econimc and humanitarian implications.
We are concerned
in particular about the loss of human life, homes and
livelihoods that have
been visited upon ordinary Kenyans in recent days. "We
urge all parties to
co-operate in the process of finding a just, peace and
lasting solution to
this crisis," said Zuma.He said other troubled countries
such as the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Somalia and Burundi
needed
attention from the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) in
order
to resolve the conflicts- CAJ News.
Punch, Nigeria
By Our
Reader
Published: Sunday, 13 Jan 2008
The tragedy happening in Kenya is an
undiluted product of the sit-tight
mentality that African leadership has
come to represent.
Recently, I read in the papers that Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
was contemplating making a constitutional amendment
that would enable him to
run for an extended term in office. There is also
the case of Robert Mugabe
of Zimbabawe, who has been the only leader the
southern African country has
known. Foreign presidents have called for his
removal, yet, surprisingly, no
African leader has thought it wise to lend a
voice in that respect.
We cannot so easily have forgotten how our own
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
sought to extend his rule by yet another four years.
But his political
opponents were able to whip up enough courage to stall his
evil attempt.
All over Africa, this crazy trend seems to exist where
there is a seat of
power. The continent has become known for its awkward
leadership style and
governmental approach, rather than for anything else.
This malaise is slowly
spreading to the lower cadre of leadership on the
continent.
In all honesty, the election that was conducted in Kenya last
December was
no worse than the general election in Nigeria last April. But,
unlike the
Nigerian experience, the Kenyan people decided to fight for their
freedom.
They stood up against the powers of the incumbent, who has decided
to
subvert their will and wishes.
They decided to stand up for the
sake of morality against the enthronement
of slavery; they chose to put
their destinies in their hands. They decided
to control the manner in which
they should be ruled. They sought for a
government of the people, by the
people and for the people.
It is unfortunate lives were lost, more so
innocent blood. But that was all
the result of Mwai Kibaki’s devious
intention to remain in power against the
wishes of the majority of the
electorate.
Awenlimobor Sylvester,
12 Jida
Road,
Agbara,
Ogun State.
Many people who observe the Zimbabwe situation
fail to recognise that Mr.
Mugabe has made several serious errors of judgment
in the past year - errors
that, in my view, will cost him the Presidency in
2008.
For the purpose of
this missive I will deal with each of those
errors of judgment in sequence,
rather than consequence.The first error is an
observation rather than a
specific event. Had Mr.
Mugabe co-operated with
President Mbeki in his various efforts over the past
7 years to find a
solution to the Zimbabwe crisis, we would have been in a
very different
situation today. In all probability we would have seen Mr.
Mugabe retire some
years ago and a "reformed Zanu PF" regime ushered in with
a reformist agenda.
MDC would have been relegated to the opposition benches,
international
recognition would be creeping back and Zimbabwe would be
slowly
recovering.Instead Mugabe has repelled all attempts to persuade him
that his
time is
up, humiliated and subdued the alternative leadership that is
available in
Zanu PF and insisted on remaining in power despite the clear
failure of his
administration in all spheres of government.It was against
this backdrop
that his decision to try and defer the
electoral challenge
from March 2008 to June 2010 in December 2006 came as
such a shock to South
Africa. He had talked about this for some time, it was
expected but it was
not until he announced this decision at the December
Zanu PF conference that
it actually sank home in South Africa that this
might impact on the World
Cup. The South African government is determined to
hold the World Cup and to
make a success of this huge event at all costs.
Nothing will be allowed to
disturb the path to May/June 2010!Mbeki brought
his Zimbabwe team back
together and instructed them to think
about a solution to the Zimbabwe
crisis, one that would protect the World
Cup and get the Zimbabwe situation
off South Africa's back. One major
consideration that had changed since
2002/2005 was the rise of Jacob Zuma
and the understanding that this meant
the ANC alliance was no longer under
threat by the possible withdrawal of
Cosatu.The subsequent foreign policy
review led to the meeting in Accra on
the 7th
March where President Mbeki met Mr. Mugabe and persuaded him to
revert to
March 2008 for the next elections. He also broached the subject of
the
conditions under which those elections might be held.Mr. Mugabe's third
mistake was not to read those signals right and to under
estimate his
opponent in the form of President Mbeki. He assumed (wrongly as
it turned
out) that he could "deal" with Mbeki in the same way that he had
dealt with a
challenge from Mr. Mandela in the late 90's when the latter
tried to get him
to step down from a senior position in the SADC. He thought
that he had
enough friends and supporters in the SADC region to be able to
blunt the SA
initiative. He was wrong on both counts.President Mbeki knew
his man - he
understood very clearly just what type of
character he was dealing with and
prepared his ground very carefully. SADC
was fully briefed and he also drew
in the international community to be sure
that they would support the new
initiative. So when Mbeki called the March
29th emergency SADC summit - it
had been carefully set up and prepared and
Mr. Mugabe faced a united group of
10 SADC Presidents and 3 Foreign
Ministers when he walked into the hall in
Dar es Salaam.Even then, having
learned of the consensual nature of the
decisions he was
faced with in SADC, Mr. Mugabe believed that he could
manipulate SADC and
avoid the full implications of the SADC decisions on the
March 2008
elections. Because he was so confident he made his fourth mistake.
When the
two negotiating teams were scheduled to start work in May and June,
Mugabe
simply ignored the meetings and instructed his Ministers to go about
their
ordinary work. The timing of the second snub could not have been worse.
The
Presidents of 5 African countries were scheduled to meet with the
G8
leadership in Germany and had thought that they had done enough to
ensure
that the Zimbabwe crisis would not ambush the G8 summit again. Instead
of
being able to say that the Zimbabwe crisis was being dealt with - they had
a
letter from Mr. Mugabe listing all the reasons why Zanu PF would not talk
to
the MDC. Mbeki was furious.The unthinkable then happened - the talks began
with no fanfare and for the
next 6 months Zanu PF arrived on time and on
schedule for all arranged
meetings and eventually a complete package of
reforms were agreed and
signed. Then Mr. Mugabe made mistake number five. He
tried to avoid
implementing the deal just completed. MDC responded with
outrage - what had
the past six months of painful negotiation been for? The
proposed delay in
the whole reform process was rejected and the facilitators
were confronted
with a complete impasse.President Mbeki had his own problems
to deal with
and said to the MDC that
he would deal with the situation as
soon as he had completed the ANC
Congress in Polokwane. When he finally got
back to the Zimbabwe situation he
did the necessary preparatory work to
ensure he did not fire any damp squibs
and then called a meeting of the
negotiating teams for this past week.
Mugabe then made his sixth mistake - he
instructed his people not to attend.
President Mbeki was informed that "we
have an election to contest, we do not
have the time for these futile
meetings!"Needless to say, the cattle prod
came out of its box and was used
and I
understand the negotiating teams are in South Africa today for what
is
expected to be final talks about the whole process. President Mbeki and
his
SADC colleagues have too much at stake to allow Zanu PF to prevaricate,
this
time a deal will be done and it will be implemented. Kenya has driven
that
lesson home to regional leaders, there is just too much at stake.I think
that because of these key events and mistakes of judgment by the
Mugabe
team, Zimbabwe will get its elections - probably sooner rather than
later,
they will be reasonably free and fair, compromises will be made and
time
alone will give the outcome. They often say about tennis, that you lose
the
game more from your mistakes than for the brilliance of your game. Mr.
Mugabe
must ponder on that truth as he starts the final match of
this
contest.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo,
12th January
2008
Mail and Guardian
Godfrey Marawanyika | Harare,
Zimbabwe
13 January 2008 07:30
Kennedy
Tsambo's faith in Zimbabwe's banking system finally hit
breaking point over
Christmas when he spent an ultimately fruitless three
days queuing to
withdraw cash in order to buy a bus fare home.
"This was not
a donation that I was queuing for, it's my own
money which I should be able
to withdraw as and when I like," said the
37-year-old, who works as a
mechanic in Harare but whose family lives in
eastern Nyanyadzi
district.
"Now I am thinking of taking out all my money. I
won't deposit
any more in the bank until this chaos is
over."
Tsambo is among tens of thousands of casualties of a
cash crisis
in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe which has seen banks regularly run
out of
notes since mid-October.
Central back chief Gideon
Gono blames the crisis on cash barons
he says have been hoarding Zimbabwe
dollars and exchanging them for scarce
foreign currency.
Despite unveiling three new currency denominations last month in
a bid to
ease the shortages, winding queues are still a common feature at
banks as
the cash crisis persists.
Mairos Chigwada, a self-employed
upholsterer, vowed he would
"never repeat that mistake again" after
depositing all the money he had
earned during the peak month of November
into his bank account.
"Now I can't withdraw the money," says
Chigwada standing near
the tail-end of a queue outside a bank in Harare's
Samora Machel Avenue.
"It's just not fair. It's hard enough
working for that money and
it shouldn't be another pain taking it out of the
bank where I put it in the
first place."
With the cash
crisis showing no sign of abating, many
Zimbabweans are losing faith in the
banking system, according to analysts,
and could revert to the old days of
stashing vast sums of money into pillow
cases.
"Nobody in
their sense would sell their goat, for example, and
take the money to the
bank when they are not sure they can withdraw it when
they want it," said
Daniel Ndlela, an independent economist.
Godfrey Kanyenze,
chief economist of the Zimbabwe Congress said
depositors had no incentive to
keep money in the bank.
"There is no incentive of keeping
money in the bank any more,"
said Kanyenze.
"There is a
crisis, everything is now collapsing on its face.
Ultimately, this is a
national problem."
A banking executive painted a gloomy
picture of the sector,
predicting massive withdrawals while potential
depositors stashed their
earnings at home.
"The sector is
bound to face serious problems when it comes to
deposits," the executive
said on condition of anonymity.
"Why would one go back to the
bank after spending so many hours
in the queue? These cash shortages are the
sort of things which will cause
people to riot in other countries," he
added.
The current cash shortages are a repeat of a similar
crisis from
May to September 2003 which prompted the central bank to
introduce bearer
cheques -- temporary currency denominations with a short
lifespan -- as a
stop-gap measure.
The country has 14
registered commercial banks, five merchant
banks and four building
societies, but Gono said the number of banks was too
large for Zimbabwe's
economy.
"My view is that we have got too many banks relevant
to the size
of the economy," Gono told reporters last
week.
Two weeks ago, Gono was forced to extend the deadline
to
exchange bills of Z$200 000 (about $8) just hours before they were to
cease
being legal tender after chaotic scenes at banks across the
country.
Gono said Zimbabwe had Z$100-trillion in circulation
but
analysts say the cash shortages were due to a combination of waning
confidence in the banking system and a deliberate withholding of cash by the
central bank.
But the Z$100-trillion which is in
circulation could easily have
been eroded by inflation. Assuming that the
money was shared equally by six
million economically active people, each
person would get Z$16,6-million
daily -- just enough to buy one kilogram of
beef.
Eric Bloch, an economist from the second city of
Bulawayo, said
although bank queues had eased, the shortages might recur
within three to
four months.
"The cash shortages led to a
loss of confidence in the central
bank and government," he
said.
"The government forgot that due to massive inflation, a
person
needed 25 times the money in December compared the previous
year."
Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with
annual
inflation officially put at nearly 8 000% but economists say it could
be
nearer 50 000%.
Unemployment is running at around 80%
while there have been
widespread shortages of basic goods like sugar and the
staple cornmeal. -AFP
All Headline News
January 13, 2008 9:10
a.m. EST
Mayur Pahilajani - AHN News Writer
Mozambique, South
Africa (AHN) - Tens of thousands of residents of
Mozambique have been
displaced after devastating floods caused by heavy
rains battered the
region. However, relief efforts are being stepped up.
Other regions
including Malawi Zambia and Zimbabwe have also been affected
and they still
need evacuation and food aid as the regions tackles with the
heaviest rains
in more than 100 years.
BBC reported that a ship carrying 3,000 tones of
food, which is enough to
support 250,000 people for one month, has arrived
in the port of Bira.
Floods have hit hardest in Mozambique's northern and
northwestern provinces.
The supplies will be distributed by the United
Nations World Food Program
overland except remote areas where aid agencies
may not be able to reach
sooner.
According to the local newspaper,
Independent Online, aid agencies have
warned that the heavy rains might have
swamped major agricultural areas in
Zimbabwe, which can further aggravate
the current food shortage situation in
the region.
Additional damages
could include roads and bridges that can hamper the
relief process in the
region. The floods have killed six people in
Mozambique, according to the
official reports.
Meanwhile, the ship in Mozambique has started sending
life-saving cargo by
trucks to Caia, where the main relief effort is being
coordinated, the BBC
reported.
The government troops have been
working along with the aid agency workers to
help stranded flood victims
move to a much safer region. More than 50,000
people have been reportedly
rescued in a relief operation and they have been
transported to temporary
accommodation centers, away from the river.
BBC's correspondent reporting
from the region said that the Mozambique
disaster management authority has
only one helicopter but an airlift was not
possible with the current
conditions in the affected region.
The authorities also have some boats
for shallow floodwaters to rescue
people stranded in several pockets of less
flooded areas.
Mozambique's disaster management officials had warned that
due to the
swelling of the Zambezi River caused by the heavy rains, the
Cahora Bassa
dam operators may have to open the dam's floodgates
fully.
Mozambique usually is hit hard by the flooding in southern Africa
compared
to Zambia and Malawi. Last year, more then 40 people were killed
due to
floods and over 250,000 residents lost their shelters and
livelihood.
The worst affect was noted in 2001 when heavy rains killed
700 people in
Mozambique.
Monsters and Critics
Jan 13, 2008, 19:42 GMT
Harare - Cash-starved Zimbabwe
soaked up 7.8 billion US dollars in foreign
investment last year with China
as the biggest investor, state media
announced Sunday.
The Zimbabwe
Investment Authority (ZIA) approved 98 projects in the
agricultural,
manufacturing, tourism and mining sectors, said the Sunday
Mail
newspaper.
Manufacturing projects were worth 3.5 billion US, while the
value of the 20
mining projects approved totalled 2.5 billion. Most of the
projects are
partnerships between local and foreign investors. Exact
investment figures
for China were not given.
'The investment trend
shows a strong appetite driven by an economic growth
spur from the Asian
subcontinent,' said the Sunday Mail.
As Zimbabwe's economic crisis
deepens, President Robert Mugabe has urged
companies and businessmen to turn
away from traditional Western investment
partners and look east to Asia and
in particular China, the country the
longtime ruler calls Zimbabwe's
'all-weather friend.'
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur