Business Day
Zimbabwe's master of survival pulls if off again
With pledges on human rights, probing alleged political violence' and
election observers, Mugabe wins breathing space
Managing Editor
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has as usual weathered the storm of
international criticism over his failure to end his country's political and
economic crisis.
The conclusion of the special summit of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) left him with breathing space to prepare his bid for political
survival in the March election.
Instead, pressure has once more shifted onto his SADC colleagues and
outsiders for doing (or saying) "too little too late" to force him to end the
crisis in his country. The run-up to the Blantyre summit was characterised by
calls on the SADC to "get tough on Mugabe".
As expected, the SADC did not discuss or consider imposing any form of
sanctions on Zimbabwe or its leadership.
And, naturally, this has come as a disappointment to Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has been calling on SA, Harare's
rich neighbour, to impose "smart" sanctions the euphemism for limited sanctions
like travel bans targeting Harare's leaders.
Instead, the SADC tried to talk tough. But not tough enough, say cynics who
see the body as a club driven by blind solidarity.
After a heated, eight-hour meeting dominated by the crisis in what was once
the SADCs second-most industrialised economy the leaders wrung promises from
Mugabe.
These were that his government would respect "human rights (including the
"right to freedom of opinion, association and peaceful assembly for all
individuals"); the commitment to investigate "fully and impartially all cases of
alleged political violence in 2001..."; a well-funded and "independent"
electoral authority; and, crucially, that international observers would be
allowed to the March election, and that journalists, including foreign ones,
will be allowed to cover "important national events ... on the basis of
(Zimbabwe's) laws and regulations".
It is unclear, though, if the foreign media, which is accused of sowing
despondency, will be able to cover life in Zimbabwe outside "important national
events".
Curiously, although the SADC has distanced itself from a partisan army, it
did not seem to have secured a similar assurance from commander-in-chief Mugabe.
Mugabe also assured his colleagues that the elections would be free and
fair.
He committed himself to the independence of the judiciary, and to move
squatters to legally acquired property.
None of these promises are new. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge made them
last September to the Commonwealth. These promises have been broken, prompting
the Commonwealth ministerial action group to give Harare until January 31 to
comply or face sanctions.
The European Union (EU), which has a co-operation agreement with Zimbabwe,
has threatened sanctions if Mugabe fails to honour the pledges by Friday.
While using every opportunity to lambast Britain, the excolonisers, Mugabe
has allowed Mudenge to continue co-operating with the EU in the hope that he can
talk the EU out of sanctions and isolate the UK.
Zimbabwe's relief in escaping sanctions could be felt from the tone of its
propaganda machine yesterday. Zimday.com, the latest acquisition in its
propaganda arsenal, gleefully wrote that "Britain's machinations to engineer
anti-Zimbabwe sanctions in the SADC had hit a wall" in the Blantyre summit.
Meanwhile, back home, the SADC leaders are trying to "spin stabilise"
perceptions that they have, again, been soft on Mugabe.
MSNBC
U.S. to raise pressure on Zimbabwe - congressman
CAPE TOWN, Jan. 16 — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's
inner circle of top officials and army generals is sending money abroad and
going on shopping trips to Europe, a senior U.S. congressman said on
Wednesday.
Ed Royce, chairman of the Africa Committee of the U.S.
House of Representatives, said his government would pile pressure on Mugabe to
ensure presidential elections on March 9 and 10 are free and fair.
Washington has threatened targeted
sanctions if the elections are unfair. With the European Union, it has decried
as anti-opposition the legislation that Mugabe is pushing through parliament
about public order, election rules, the media and the rights of trade unions.
''Assets are being transferred out of
Zimbabwe by close allies, military officers close to President Mugabe and, as a
consequence of that, clearly we need to take steps to ensure that we are not a
part of basically looting a national treasury,'' Royce told reporters in Cape
Town.
Royce said the U.S. was aware of
significant deposits in American banks by Mugabe's allies and business partners.
He urged the administration to quickly locate the accounts ahead of a possible
decision to freeze them.
He said
European governments were reporting similar flows of funds out of Zimbabwe and
out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where officers in the Zimbabwean army's
11,000-strong contingent there have business concessions.
''We have a serious concern with the
fact that, while people are struggling in Zimbabwe, we see this type of free
spending and transfer of assets out of Zimbabwe and to accounts in the United
States,'' Royce said.
''You certainly
can expect the U.S. to continue to ratchet up the pressure for free and fair
elections between now and March 9.''
Under a law signed last month, the United States will oppose debt relief and
vote against loan credit or guarantees to the Zimbabwe government if it does not
change its ways.
''We do not want an
economic partnership with Zimbabwe at this time because it is not following the
rule of law, it is not respecting the rights of its citizens and it is not
following its own constitution.''
Most
foreign donors have suspended financial aid to the country, which was once an
economic showpiece in Africa, and are limiting support to direct food shipments
for people affected by economic collapse.
Amnesty International
Zimbabwe: SADC's 'Quiet Diplomacy' should not be silent
acquiescence in human rights violations
Zimbabwe's trail of broken human rights promises should make members of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) wary of taking at face value the
commitments made at the organisation's 14 January Extraordinary Summit in
Malawi, Amnesty International said.
"'Quiet diplomacy' should not become silent acquiescence to continuing
gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe," Amnesty International said.
"President Robert Mugabe has made promises of human rights reforms to the
Commonwealth, to the European Union (EU) and now to SADC – but there is no sign
that the war of killings, torture and intimidation against the political
opposition is slowing. Will SADC verify the promises they have received – and if
so, how?"
SADC's final communiqué from the Summit listed human rights undertakings
pledged by Zimbabwe, including full respect for human rights, commitments to
freedom of expression and to independence of the judiciary, and agreement to
accredit a range of national monitors and international observers.
Yet at the same time as President Robert Mugabe was in Malawi making these
promises of improved human rights to the Southern African heads of state, his
political party and its militia - the 'war veterans' - attempted the murder of
David Mpala, a member of Parliament of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), and several opposition activists.
On Sunday 13 January 2002, some 20 members of the government-sponsored
militia of 'war veterans' and ZANU-PF supporters abducted Mr. David Mpala in
broad daylight in the downtown of Lupane, in Matabeleland. His kidnappers
slashed him with knives and dumped him outside of town. Police have reportedly
arrested 11 suspects in connection with the incident.
One day earlier, more than 70 ruling party supporters wearing ZANU-PF
t-shirts attacked an MDC office in Murambinda, hacking and stabbing seven
suspected MDC supporters, two of whom had to be hospitalised with serious
injuries.
Zimbabwe had also promised the European Union on Friday 11 January 2002,
during talks under Article 96 of the Cotonou agreement, to allow observers into
the country, and stated that they would shortly issue invitations.
Amnesty International notes that the EU has requested access for
international election observers a full six weeks before the presidential
election in Zimbabwe. That would mean that the EU team should be deployed into
Zimbabwe by the end of next week. The human rights organisation sincerely hopes
that Zimbabwe will honour that undertaking, but urges the EU to monitor the
deadline closely and require that the deployment begin immediately as part of
the Zimbabweans' response to the EU.
"SADC, the EU and the Commonwealth should insist that observers, monitors,
and human rights fact-finders must be deployed by next weekend at the latest,
because now - and no later - is the time to verify the situation on the ground,"
the organisation said.
Amnesty International also noted that when in September 2001, Zimbabwe had
pledged to the Commonwealth in Abuja, Nigeria, to restore the rule of law in its
country, those promises were soon broken. Indeed, Zimbabwe appeared to increase
the state-sponsored violence after the Abuja agreement, including through the
deployment of further military-trained militias under the guise of a Youth
Service. President Mugabe seems sure that the Commonwealth will neither properly
monitor nor take effective action with regard to these broken promises. Instead,
the Commonwealth should insist that its Ministerial Action Group – blocked from
visiting the country – be allowed in.
"The commitments made at the SADC Summit risk becoming another set of empty
promises", Amnesty International said. "SADC should indicate how it will ensure
there is independent monitoring of action taken by President Mugabe to meet his
commitments made in Malawi. SADC should also demand that Zimbabwe invite the
United Nations' Special Rapporteurs on human rights as independent investigators
of allegations of political killings, torture, threats to journalists and
subversion of the judiciary."
Although President Mugabe also pledged his commitment to freedom of
expression and to allow freedom both domestic and international journalists to
operate, Amnesty International questioned the adoption of new laws that will
restrict freedom of expression. The passage last week of the Public Order and
Security Act criminalises non-violent political protest, and metes out prison
sentences to those "insulting the president" or "disturbing the peace".
"The whole world has watched as one inter-governmental body after another
have wrung promises of reform from Zimbabwe while at the same time the
government condones Zimbabweans being killed, 'disappeared' and tortured,"
Amnesty International said. "Pressure to stop state-sponsored violence in
Zimbabwe, exerted by African and European governments does not undermine
Zimbabwe's sovereignty, but reaffirms the standards that all states must uphold
to be members of the international community of nations," Amnesty International
said.
Background
An excerpt from the text of the SADC summit communiqué pertaining to
Zimbabwe:
"Summit welcomed the following actions to be undertaken by Zimbabwe: full
respect for human rights, including the right to freedom of opinion, association
and peaceful assembly for all individuals; the commitment to investigate fully
and impartially all cases of alleged political violence in 2001 and action to do
so; a Zimbabwean Electoral Supervisory Commission which is adequately resourced
and able to operate independently, the accreditation and registration of
national independent monitors in good time for the elections; a timely
invitation to, and accreditation of a wide range of international election
observers; commitment to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution
of Zimbabwe; reaffirmation by Zimbabwe of its practice of allowing national and
international journalists to cover important national events, including
elections, on the basis of its laws and regulations; commitment by the
government of Zimbabwe to the independence of the judiciary and to the rule of
law; and the transfer by the government of Zimbabwe of occupiers of
non-designated farms to legally acquired land".
The above list of actions to be taken by the Zimbabwe authorities was
lifted verbatim from the communique of the EU's meeting with Zimbabwe of 11
January 2002. In its communique the EU noted that the Zimbabwean Authorities had
expressed a willingness "to go some way towards meeting the EU's concerns with
concrete actions" on these points, but stressed that "at this stage it is not
satisfied that these concerns will be met."
Business Day
US smart sanctions against Mugabe
US congressmen visiting South Africa said on Wednesday the US will apply
smart sanctions to stop President Robert Mugabe's relatives and associates
taking money out of Zimbabwe and urged South Africa to do the same.
"You can
expect the US to continue to ratchet it up between now and March 10," Ed Royce,
congress representative for California, said, referring to the date set for
presidential elections in Zimbabwe.
Royce said Washington had begun identifying individuals who would be
punished under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act.
"There's concern over the vast amounts of money being taken out of Zimbabwe
into our banking systems and over shopping sprees by close allies and family
members of President Robert Mugabe who are spending in our country," Royce told
journalists.
"The legislation states that the administration has the authority to impose
sanctions and to catalogue bank accounts. The process is now continuing and I am
going to encourage them to speed up that process."
Royce said Washington would also impose travel sanctions on Mugabe's allies
who were "spending money at the expense of the people of Zimbabwe".
Their actions also affected the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
since Zimbabwe's political elite had benefited from the ill-gotten gains of
timbering activities in the central African state, where Zimbabwean troops were
deployed in August 1998 to back the government against rebels, Royce said.
Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona said the US hoped that South Africa and
the European Union would follow its lead and target Zimbabwean leaders with
sanctions.
"If Mugabe's cronies are coming to the US and spending money, then they are
also doing it here. To the extent that South Africa can clamp down they ought
to," he said.
New Zealand Herald
Editorial: Mugabe the great pretender
17.01.2002
Off all the rogues who have ruled African states since their
independence, none is more disappointing than Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. Some may
have been more murderous and corrupt but for the most part they never pretended
to be otherwise. Mr Mugabe likes to pose as a civilised modern figure even as he
poisons Zimbabwe's economy and democracy.
With a presidential election due in March, he is moving to outlaw
opposition, using the parliamentary majority he gained by terrorism and economic
sabotage two years ago. And when the MPs fail him, he suspends the Parliament
and passes law by decree.
One dictate declares it an offence to "undermine the authority of the
President" or "engineer hostility" towards him. Another bans the release of
official information and bars foreign journalists. Nobody is allowed to publish
leaked information or "spread rumours that cause alarm and despondency." If all
this fails to ensure the climate is right for Mr Mugabe's re-election, his
roughneck supporters are being organised to deter wayward voters.
It can only be wondered why the likes of Mr Mugabe bother with the
electoral formalities. Possibly they derive some deluded sense of self-respect
from a contrived result. But his need of that satisfaction gives the
international community, particularly the Commonwealth, some leverage.
Britain and the US are talking of freezing his foreign assets and denying
him visas. The European Union is considering unspecified sanctions. New Zealand
is urging Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
After a meeting of African leaders in Malawi this week Mr Mugabe sounded
more conciliatory. He may allow international election observers and let foreign
media cover his poll.
In that event it remains just possible that his misgoverned populace will
dare to vote against him in such numbers that they will be rid of him at last.
MDC Leader's Electricity Cut
African Eye News Service (Nelspruit)
Posted to the web January 16, 2002
Marvelous Mpofu
Harare
Zimbabwe's electricity authority has disconnected the power supply to the
home of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) cut the electricity on
Monday after a BBC broadcast in which Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement
Democratic Change (MDC) called for South Africa to impose direct sanctions on
Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai's wife Susan said two men from Zesa arrived at their house in
the capital city of Harare and disconnected the electricity at about 3pm without
saying anything to her.
"Our accounts are up to date and we don't owe Zesa any money," she said on
Tuesday.
She said she was waiting for a response from Zesa authorities as to why
their electricity had been cut-off.
Zesa authorities declined to comment but a senior manager who asked not to
be named said they acted on "orders from above".
In the BBC interview Tsvangirai said South Africa should impose direct
sanctions on Zimbabwe by stopping fuel and electricity supplies and cutting all
transport links to the country.
"The threat to undermine the elections by the military and by President
(Robert) Mugabe himself, should send shock waves to South Africa who should say
we are going to cut fuel, we are going to cut the transport links," Tsvangirai
said.
Zimbabwe imports electricity from South Africa and relies on its southern
neighbour for a rail and road link to its fuel supplies from the sea.
In retaliation the Zanu PF government said Tsvangirai's statements
culminated from the MDC's futility in pursuing an agenda of violence and
intimidation.
This isn't the first time the government has tried to intimidate
Tsvangirai, who poses a formidable challenge to President Mugabe in the March
presidential poll.
He has been arrested on several occasions on charges of inciting violence
and earlier this month the MDC was labelled a terrorist organisation.
Zimbabwe already faces sanctions from the United States after President
George W Bush signed the Zimbabwe Economic Recovery Bill in December. The bill
will impose restrictions on outside travel to President Mugabe and top officials
in government. - African Eye News Service
MSNBC
Britain's BBC complains over Zimbabwe
slurs
LONDON, Jan. 16 — The British
Broadcasting Corporation, ejected from Zimbabwe a year ago for alleged bias,
complained bitterly on Wednesday about a rising crescendo of attacks against it
by President Robert Mugabe's government.
Among the accusations are
that the state-funded but editorially independent BBC has been acting as an
agent of the British government, at loggerheads with its former colony over the
emotive issue of land reform.
''(The
BBC)...regrets that the government continues to make misleading statements about
the BBC which, had we been consulted, we would have corrected,'' BBC World
Service director Mark Byford said in a letter to the Zimbabwe Herald newspaper.
A BBC spokesman told Reuters the
organisation had been continuously rebuffed in its efforts to persuade the
government to lift the ban and end its campaign of slurs.
''We have been trying to get some sort
of dialogue with the government of Zimbabwe for some time now. But they have
been simply issuing these statements about the BBC through the Herald,''
spokesman Mike Gardner said.
Mugabe,
seeking to extend his 21-year rule in presidential elections in March, has
sanctioned the often violent takeover of hundreds of white owned farms over the
past two years by black veterans of the 1970s liberation war.
Mugabe's government last week pushed
through laws in effect banning any criticism of the administration. Zimbabwe's
justice minister said on Wednesday amendments would be made to a separate bill
which had been seen as curbing media freedom.
The decision by the ZANU-PF party to
amend the bill came two days after Mugabe met southern African leaders and
promised to allow a fair election on March 9-10 and let international observers
and foreign journalists attend.
BAN ON BBC CONTINUES
BBC
correspondent Joseph Winter was expelled from Zimbabwe and the organisation was
excluded last February amid accusations from Mugabe's ZANU-PF government that it
was trying to destabilise the country.
Since then it has run its coverage of the former Rhodesia from neighbouring
South Africa and tried in vain to persuade the government to lift the ban.
''The BBC is...deeply disappointed
that, despite our repeated requests, the government of Zimbabwe continues to ban
our correspondents and reporting teams from operating there,'' the letter said.
''Even at this late hour in the run-up
to the elections in March, we ask the government of Zimbabwe to reconsider its
ban on the BBC,'' it added.
The letter,
sent to the pro-government Herald on Wednesday but also made available to media
in Britain, flatly rejected the most recent charges that the BBC was involved in
allegedly anti-government broadcasts.
The broadcasts in the local Shona and Ndebele languages are beamed into the
country from outside Zimbabwe.
''The
BBC has no links whatsoever with this activity. The BBC World Service does not
broadcast in Shona and Ndebele and we have no plans to do so -- either on our
own or in partnership with any other organisation,'' it said.
Irish Times
Robinson expresses alarm over Zimbabwe
Last updated: 16-01-02, 16:53
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson, today expressed
alarm at the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe where President Robert Mugabe
has clamped down on opponents and the media.
Ms Robinson called for action over what she described as a real human
rights crisis in Zimbabwe.
"The scale of documented cases of rights abuses against members of
opposition groups, the independent media and human rights groups is alarming,"
she said in a statement.
Zimbabwe has been plunged into its biggest political and economic crisis
since independence from Britain in 1980, with widespread violent seizures of
white-owned land and attacks on the independence of the judiciary.
Ms Robinson said she was worried the situation would deteriorate further,
with the risk of ever-wider confrontation in the run-up to elections set for
March.
President Mugabe, who has ruled since independence, has called the ballot
for March 9-10 but opposition leaders say the election will be neither free nor
fair.
The government will send an amended version of a controversial media bill
to parliament next week. Local journalists and Western governments have said the
bill will destroy press freedoms in the country.
Ms Robinson said the recent human rights breaches were aggravated by a
climate of impunity, particularly since the attacks on the judiciary
intensified.
"Real democracy requires full respect for human rights immediately," she
said, adding her office was ready to extend any help it could in moving toward
that objective.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe postpones measure limiting press - faces new
international criticism
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARARE,
Zimbabwe, Jan. 16 — Zimbabwe's justice minister postponed a bill that would
muzzle the press as the government faced new condemnation on Wednesday by human
rights officials and U.S. lawmakers.
The bill, which proposes a ban on
foreign correspondents and subjects local journalists to a licensing system, had
been condemned by international leaders. It was part of a package of legislation
aimed at silencing dissent against President Robert Mugabe ahead of March 9-10
elections.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa told Parliament he had suggested some amendments to the draft law,
including letting foreign correspondents in the country for ''specific events'',
after consulting with international media organizations and fellow ruling party
members.
Moves by Mugabe, 77, to clamp
down on dissent ahead of the presidential vote, in which he is running for
re-election, have sparked concern among Zimbabwe's neighbors, who worry that
unrest there could spread.
Since last
year, opposition supporters have been attacked and sometimes killed, bands of
ruling party militants have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms and the
independence of the judiciary has been compromised.
On Wednesday, Lorne Craner, the
visiting U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights, met with Parliament
Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa and other officials. Details of the meetings were not
released.
Craner also visited rural
areas, the scene of some of the worst violence.
In the latest clash Tuesday, about 150
supporters of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party besieged a court building at Marondera, 50
miles east of Harare. They demanded the removal of local magistrates who they
claimed were sympathetic to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Two firebombs were thrown at a ruling
party supporter's home in Marondera, causing extensive damage but no injuries,
police inspector Tarwireyi Tirivavi said.
Meanwhile, the independent Daily News,
a fierce government critic, said ruling party activists burned copies of the
newspaper Monday to prevent them from being distributed. The paper's employees
have faced government harassment, and last year its printing presses were blown
up.
The paper reported Wednesday that
the state-owned electricity company had tried to cut off the electricity to
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's home.
In Geneva, United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson added her voice to the growing
international outcry about Zimbabwe's deteriorating human rights record.
''The scale of documented cases of
rights abuses against members of opposition groups, the independent media and
human rights organizations is alarming,'' Robinson said.
In South Africa, a visiting delegation
of U.S. congressmen warned Mugabe that Zimbabwe would face intensified
international pressure.
''You can
expect the U.S. to ratchet up the pressure for free and fair elections,'' said
Rep. Edward Royce, R-Calif., who chairs the Africa subcommittee of the House
International Relations Committee.
Last
month, President Bush signed a law that would allow targeted sanctions,
including travel bans against Mugabe, members of his family or government
officials. The measures have yet to be implemented.
Royce said the U.S. and the European
Union had evidence that senior Zimbabwean government officials and army officers
were plundering the national treasury and stashing money in foreign banks.
''We are going to freeze their assets,
we are going to stop their visas if the rule of law does not return to
Zimbabwe,'' Royce said.
Wednesday, 16 January, 2002, 18:24 GMT
Mugabe backs down on media law
Parliament will reconsider controversial bills next
week
Zimbabwe's Government has agreed to amend its controversial
media law, following a week of intense pressure.
However, the changes have not been made public so it is not clear if the
stringent regulations have been watered down.
There is a real human rights crisis in Zimbabwe and
action must be taken now 
|
|
Mary Robinson
United Nations
|
On Tuesday, a
dissident MP from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party said that a proposed
law enabling the government to ban trade unions was unconstitutional.
Correspondents say these pieces of legislation are key to Mr Mugabe's
campaign to win presidential elections on 9-10 March.
Last week, parliament passed laws giving the police powers to disperse
demonstration and banning non-government election monitors.
Objective media
On Monday, Mr Mugabe promised his counterparts from southern Africa that the
elections would be free and fair and that foreign journalists would be allowed
to cover them.
The draft media law banned foreign correspondents from Zimbabwe and forced
local journalists to apply for annual government licences or face two years in
prison.
"After some lengthy consultations with objective-minded media organisations
and deliberation with honourable members on my side, I have suggested some
amendments to the Access to Information and Privacy Bill," Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa told parliament on Wednesday.
He said that Information Minister Jonathan Moyo would consider the changes
before the new proposals were put to parliament in a week's time.
Meanwhile, the BBC has urged Zimbabwe's Government to reconsider the ban on
its reporters ahead of the elections.
'Ratchet'
Also on Wednesday, a senior United States legislator has confirmed reports
that the US is investigating Mr Mugabe's foreign assets, ahead of possible
sanctions.
Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representative's Africa Committee, said
that the Bush administration would "ratchet up" the pressure to ensure that the
elections were free and fair.
The constitution prohibits... the registration of trade
unions in order for them to come into existence
|
|
Eddison Zvobgo
Zanu-PF
|
Both Kofi Annan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Mary Robinson, have expressed their concern about Zimbabwe.
"There is a real human rights crisis in Zimbabwe and action must be taken
now," Ms Robinson said in a statement issued in Geneva.
Eddison Zvobgo, who was sacked from cabinet in 2000 and is well known for his
rivalry with Mr Mugabe, on Tuesday blocked the new labour law.
He is chairman of the parliamentary legal committee.
"The constitution prohibits... the registration of trade unions in order for
them to come into existence," he said.
As a result of these findings, this legislation is also now being
reconsidered.
Union power-base
Zanu-PF does not have enough MPs to change the constitution.
The opposition would require 19 ruling party MPs to vote against the
government to block any proposed legislation.
COMMERCIAL FARMERS’ UNION
Background briefing
SADC Heads of State Summit: 13-15 January 2002
CONTENTS
- Executive overview
- Ongoing violence, intimidation and disruptions in commercial farming areas
- The impact of amendments to the Land Acquisition Act
- The A2 commercial farmer resettlement scheme
- Food security – maize production
- The future of commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe
1. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
The purpose of this briefing is to update SADC member States on
significant developments in the commercial agricultural sector since the SADC
Foreign Ministers meeting in Harare in December 2001. A copy of the CFU
presentation to this SADC meeting is included as Annexure 1.
The endurance of CFU members has been tested to the extreme.
Nearly two years of an unrelenting and ruthless campaign, intended to undermine
the strength and confidence of the sector, is beginning to take its toll. CFU
members have been remarkably resilient and, against the odds, have managed to at
least maintain the critical mass in most of the key agricultural commodities
over the past two agricultural seasons. Sincere efforts by CFU members to play a
constructive role in land reform and to maintain national agricultural
production during the transformation have been largely thwarted through
political expediency and revolutionary politics.
1.1 Violence, intimidation and disruption in the commercial
farming areas continues unabated.
In contrast to the opinion captured in the SADC Foreign
Ministers communiqué of 10th December 2001, in the month immediately
following that meeting there were two deaths, two armed robberies, sixty-one
cases of assault, twenty-three cases of abductions or barricades, forty-four
cases of illegal evictions of farmers and nineteen cases of illegal eviction of
farm workforces recorded in commercial farming areas.
1.2 Political efforts aimed at economically annihilating the
CFU structure and its membership are at an advanced stage:
- 95% of land held by CFU members has been gazetted for compulsory
acquisition.
- Legislation has been amended, through Presidential Powers, to enable
acquisition and resettlement of land prior to confirmation in the Courts
through a Section 8 Acquisition Order. At least 1000 CFU members have
already received Section 8 Orders and virtually all other CFU members can
realistically anticipate service of Section 8 Orders at any time.
- Beyond the immediate agricultural season, it would appear that the CFU
sector has been virtually disregarded in terms of future Government policy
planning and access to finance is by no means certain with the collapse of
the agricultural collateral base.
Under these circumstances, the CFU is unable to advise members
who have received Section 8 Orders to commit any investment to future cropping
plans in the absence of unequivocal policy directives on production.
The deception that CFU members will be left with 6 million
hectares of land after the fast-track programme, which even formed part of the
argument in the Chidyausiku Supreme Court judgement of 3rd December
2001, simply does not follow mathematical logic. At the start of the fast-track
programme, CFU members owned 8.6 million hectares of land. The intended
acquisition of 8.5 million hectares of the remaining 11.8 million hectares
leaves a total of 3.2 million hectares for the entire large-scale
commercial agricultural sector, including State land, State leases, parastatal
land and land held by non-CFU members.
1.3 There are dire consequences to the commercial agricultural
sector of reverting to a command economy:
- The sale of produce, in particular tobacco, at artificially controlled
foreign exchange rates pegged at 15% of the real-market rate, whilst inputs
are purchased at the real-market rate, is unsustainable.
- Price controls, at sub-economic levels, of key agricultural inputs such
as seed, fertiliser, chemicals and machinery spares are an immediate threat
to the survival of local agricultural input suppliers and will impact
negatively on the whole of agriculture.
- Consumer focused price controls on basic commodities at sub-economic
levels, imposed after inputs had been purchased at real-market prices, have
undermined confidence in maize, wheat, oilseed, sugar, beef, poultry and
milk production.
- Statutory imposition of unsustainable minimum agricultural wages, well
above collective bargaining agreements, in combination with controlled
commodity prices, will have unavoidable downsizing consequences.
1.4 Impending food security crisis
Rapid erosion of confidence and disruptions to farming
operations has led to a decline in maize production from the commercial sector.
Against a background of vehement denials of looming maize shortages, Zimbabwe is
in the desperate and humiliating position of having to import maize and plead
for food aid despite successive good rainy seasons. Seizure of farm maize
stocks, held for consumption by employees and for livestock enterprises, is an
indicator of panic and desperation.
- The future of commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe
CFU members are loyal Zimbabweans, committed to playing a
constructive role in the future of the Nation. The commitment of commercial
farmers has been established beyond doubt through the Zimbabwe Joint
Resettlement Initiative (ZJRI) through which over one million hectares of land
has already been collated for acquisition on an uncontested basis. ZJRI
demonstrates that a sustainable land reform programme can be achieved, in
parallel with production stability, on the basis of consent rather than
conflict.
CFU welcomes better racial integration of the commercial
farming sector and through its "Farming into the Future" strategy has undertaken
to play a constructive role in the transformation of the sector. The instant
transformation of the sector in one season, especially so late in the season,
will inevitably have a severe production impact, the effects of which are
already beginning to be felt. It is crucial to the economic survival of Zimbabwe
that there is a realistically phased period of adjustment for the transformation
of the commercial agricultural sector.
During the past year about 250 CFU members out of the total
membership of 3 500 have either been forced off their farm or to leave Zimbabwe.
Of the remaining members, at least 1 200 have been seriously affected by partial
or total work stoppages on their farms. Despite these alarming trends, the
critical mass of the CFU sector is still intact, and the CFU remains willing and
able to participate in the economic recovery of Zimbabwe under an environment of
peace, stability and rational agricultural policies.
2. ONGOING VIOLENCE, INTIMIDATION AND DISRUPTIONS IN COMMERCIAL
FARMING AREAS
2.1 Summary of CFU incident reports for the month following the
SADC Foreign Ministers meeting in Harare – 10th December 2001 to
7th January 2002 inclusive.
The CFU collates and disseminates twice-weekly reports
primarily on incidents related to farm occupations. These reports include a
disclaimer that not all incidents are reported, mainly for fear of retribution.
The detailed reports are included as Annexures 2.1 to 2.6.
In the period under review, conflict and disruptions were
prevalent in the lead up to the Christmas period, then the situation eased over
the holiday period, but hostilities, particularly assaults, abductions,
evictions and political intimidation, have intensified in the post-holiday
period. It is anticipated that the situation will continue to intensify in the
lead-up to the Presidential elections scheduled for the 9th and
10th March 2002.
During the period under review, the following incidents were
recorded:
- Two deaths following political torture and assault by a known war
veteran leader in the Wedza District of Mashonaland East. The perpetrator
was detained overnight, then released.
- Two armed robberies in Mashonaland Central.
- A total of 61 cases of assault including ten cases of assault of farm
owners or managers and fifty-one cases of assault of farm workers.
- Twenty-three cases of either abductions or barricading of farmers for
periods of time ranging from a few hours to a few days.
- Forty-one cases of illegal eviction of farmers or forced abandonment of
the farm, twenty-three of which were part of an area-specific eviction
campaign in Mashonaland Central.
- Nineteen cases involving the illegal eviction of farm workforces either
from their homes or off the farms.
- Twenty-five cases of labour disputes generally incited by war veteran
and occupier elements.
- Twenty-nine specific reports of poaching or stock-theft incidents and
fifteen general reports of ongoing poaching and stock-theft.
- Twenty-three specific reports of serious theft and four general reports
of ongoing theft.
- Nineteen cases of wilful destruction to property.
- Eight cases of extortion.
- Eight cases of illegal occupation of farm homesteads.
- Four cases where farmers have been prevented from moving assets off
their farms, the most prominent of which is the case of Beatrice farmer, Guy
Watson-Smith.
- Sixteen incidents involving political indoctrination and intimidation.
- Thirty-two cases of disruption to cattle management through unrealistic
demands to remove cattle from the farms, driving of cattle onto main
highways and restricting cattle to the homestead areas, in some cases
resulting in starvation and death.
This period is representative of the situation prevailing in
commercial farming areas over recent months. This contradicts observations
contained in the communiqué of the SADC Foreign Ministers meeting in December
2001 of an "improved atmosphere of calm and stability" and that "there had been
a decrease in incidence of violence."
The most significant development since the Harare SADC meeting
in December 2001 is the deployment of the national service youth league and
other politically motivated youth groups that have engaged in a violent campaign
countywide in an attempt to frustrate support for the opposition party.
Some specific cases affecting CFU members over the past four
weeks highlight the current situation on commercial farms:
2.1.1 Mashonaland Central evictions (Annexure 3 – News
Release):
Twenty-three tobacco farmers in Mashonaland Central have been
forced to leave their farms since 3rd January 2002, some at a
moment’s notice, by marauding groups made up of youths, women and war veterans.
These evictions took place without regard to even the recent draconian
amendments of the Land Acquisition Act. The evicted farmers were told that they
would be permitted to return to their farms once they had persuaded President
Bush of the USA to reverse the Zimbabwe Economic Recovery and Democracy Act.
Most of the farmers have been unable to return to their farms, so it has not yet
been determined how many farm workers were injured during the violent
demonstrations. Police are cautiously attempting to stabilise the situation.
2.1.2 Eviction and seizure of assets – Beatrice, Mashonaland
East (Annexure 4 – News Release):
The Watson-Smith family of Hanagwe (Pvt) Ltd, a farming
business in the Beatrice district of Mashonaland East, were summarily evicted on
the 18th September 2001 and instructed by the local war veteran they
would be "taking over". It has subsequently become apparent that retired General
Mujuru, who led the ZANLA forces during the Independence war, has a personal
interest in the property. After attempts at a civilised withdrawal of assets
failed, the owner was granted an injunction on 28th December 2001
through the High Court instructing the authorities to facilitate the safe
removal of assets. Fearing for their lives, the Watson-Smith family have taken
refuge in South Africa. On Wednesday 9th January 2002, a mob of about
100 people stormed the offices of the Watson-Smith’s legal representatives. The
assets have not been secured to date and there are reports of looting of farm
inputs, theft of goods and unauthorised use of tractors and vehicles.
2.1.3 Assault of middle-aged farming couple, CFU Regional
Executive Officer, a passing motorist and two farm workers – Chegutu,
Mashonaland West (Annexure 5 – News Release):
On the 4th January 2002 farmer’s wife, Mrs
Bezuidenhout of Farnham Farm in Chegutu, was humiliated and assaulted by a group
of ZANU PF Supporters and occupiers. Subsequently the owner, Mr Bezuidenhout,
was assaulted and made to concede to extortionate demands in the presence of the
police. The following day, he was abducted, held for several hours, beaten with
sticks and repeatedly had a 9mm pistol pointed to his head. The CFU Regional
Executive Officer was mobbed and severely assaulted by a group of 25 when he
came to offer support. A motorist and two farm workers were assaulted by the
same group. Police defused the situation, but no arrests have been made.
3. THE IMPACT OF AMENDMENTS TO THE LAND ACQUISITION ACT
(CHAPTER 20:10)
3.1 95% of land owned by CFU members has been gazetted for
compulsory acquisition.
Allowing for duplicates, repeats and de-listings, 4 500 farms,
representing 8.5 million hectares of large-scale commercial farmland, have been
gazetted for compulsory acquisition. Government persist with the deception that
CFU members owned anything from 11 million to 15 million hectares of land prior
to the fast-track programme and will be left with 6 million hectares of land
after the completion of the fast-track programme.
It is common cause that at Independence there was 15.5 million
hectares of large-scale commercial farmland and that 3.7 million hectares of
that land was subsequently resettled in Phase 1 of the land reform programme.
(Annexure 6: extract from the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme Phase
II). The remaining 11.8 million hectares includes State land, State leases,
parastatal land and land held by non-CFU members. Information available to CFU
indicates that 11.27 million ha was held by the large-scale commercial sector
prior to the fast-track programme and CFU members owned 8.6 million hectares of
land. (Annexure 7: Land ownership schedule). Non-CFU members have
generally been exempted from compulsory acquisition through the process of
de-listing. With the ongoing listing of commercial farms for compulsory
acquisition, it is clear that the political target is to acquire all land owned
by CFU members.
The deception that CFU members will be left with 6 million
hectares of land after the fast-track programme, which even formed part of the
argument in the Chidyausiku Supreme Court judgement of 3rd December
2001, simply does not follow mathematical logic. The intended acquisition of 8.5
million hectares Government’s figure of the remaining 11.8 million hectares
leaves a total for the entire large-scale commercial agricultural sector
of 3.2 million hectares.
3.2 Draconian amendments to the Land Acquisition Act (Chapter
20:10) have deprived landowners of property rights and, upon implementation,
their means of livelihood.
CFU raised its concern about recent draconian amendments to the
Land Acquisition Act at the SADC Foreign Ministers meeting in Harare on
10th December 2001. Annexure 8: SI 338. Annexure 9: CFU communiqué
to members on the impact of SI 338.
The effect of Statutory Instrument 338 of 2001 (SI 338),
promulgated through Presidential Powers on 9th November 2001 is that
upon service of an Acquisition Order, under the amended Section 8 of the Act
(Section 8 Order):
- The entire fast-track resettlement process can take place prior to a
confirmation hearing through the Courts, thus denying landowners fair access
to the Courts;
- The landowner and other rightful occupiers are subject to a 90-day
eviction notice from the date of service.
- The landowner and other rightful occupiers are restricted to their
homestead areas immediately upon service of a Section 8 Order.
- By strict definition, the landowner may not continue with normal farming
operations, including crops-in-progress and livestock enterprises, without the
written permission of the Acquiring Authority.
- The amendments are backdated to May 2000, thus retrospectively
legitimising components of the fast-track programme, notably resettlement
prior to confirmation, which had previously been declared illegal.
Section 8 Orders are being systematically served upon listed
farmers, in mid agricultural season, as speedily as possible within logistical
constraints. Estimates of the number of valid Section 8 Orders served prior to
SI 338 range from 500 – 840. Subsequently, at least an additional 500 Section 8
Orders had been served upon CFU members by the end of 2001. Accordingly, at
least 1 000 CFU members faced the consequences of Section 8 Orders by the
year-end and virtually all other CFU members can realistically anticipate the
service of a Section 8 Order at any time.
It would appear, where the authorities do not receive a hostile
reaction from the landowner, that there is an intention to allow recipients of
Section 8 Orders to complete crops-in-progress and to be permitted to wind down
the business in an orderly manner. However, it is apparent that the full force
of the amended legislation will be invoked if there is any challenge to the
process. These extraordinary discretionary powers of the authorities over
landowners are wide open to abuse.
Under the current politically charged environment, where
landowners and other rightful occupiers are being summarily evicted by elements
on the ground, irrespective of the legal acquisition status of the farm, it is
of little comfort that a final eviction order can only be confirmed through a
competent Court.
Given the powers of the State to summarily expropriate land and
even standing crops, with no certainty of fair compensation, the risk of lending
to the agricultural sector has increased exponentially. One bank has issued
foreclosure notices to members who have received Section 8 Orders, but since a
large proportion of the CFU sector is approaching peak seasonal overdraft,
financial institutions have generally adopted the pragmatic stance of continuing
to lend to farmers who have received Section 8 Orders to enable harvest and sale
of the current crop. However, with the collateral base of commercial agriculture
having virtually collapsed, the financial sector has no sound basis upon which
to formulate future lending policies.
Thus, beyond the immediate agricultural season, it would appear
that the CFU sector has been virtually disregarded in terms of future Government
policy planning and access to finance is by no means certain with the collapse
of the agricultural collateral base.
Under these circumstances, the CFU is unable to advise members
who have received a Section 8 Order to commit any investment to future cropping
plans in the absence of unequivocal policy directives on production.
4. THE A2 COMMERCIAL FARMER RESETTLEMENT SCHEME
The ongoing publication in the daily State newspaper of 54 000
beneficiaries under the A2 commercial farmer resettlement scheme has exposed the
policy of allocating land principally to ruling party supporters including the
Commissioner of Police, Ministers, security forces personnel, police officials,
prominent war veterans, civil servants and businessmen. The approach by A2
beneficiaries to commercial farmers has been variable, ranging from open
hostility, including threats and violence, to a pragmatic business-like
approach. Given the policy requirement for beneficiaries to establish a presence
on their allocated farm within 30 days and to fully establish themselves in 90
days, there have been cases of farmers being coerced into ‘management
agreements’, in some cases under threat of death.
The allocation of land, which is still pending confirmation of
acquisition, to A2 beneficiaries, in mid agricultural season, generally too late
in the season for the new setters to take advantage of the season, defies
production logic.
5. FOOD SECURITY – MAIZE PRODUCTION (Annexure
10)
Forecasts for the commercial sector production of key
agricultural commodities were included in the CFU presentation to the Harare
SADC meeting in December 2001. (Annexure 1). The most significant
development in the past four weeks has been the impending reality of a serious
food security crisis.
Commercial maize production has rapidly declined from 150 000
ha in the 1999/200 season to 45 000 ha this season. The combination of forced
work stoppages, viability constraints, price controls, rampant theft of maize
and now the seizure of maize by the State has eroded confidence in maize
production. Given the generally late start to the season by settlers and
occupiers, limited access to tillage support and inputs and intense weed
pressure, it is almost certain that national production this year will once
again fall short of national requirements.
Desperate recent changes to the legislation, compelling
producers to deliver maize and wheat stocks to the Grain Marketing Board no
later that 14 days after harvest, are an indicator of overdue panic over the
food security crisis in Zimbabwe. Commercial farmers generally hold maize stocks
to meet employees’ requirements and for livestock enterprises. The Grain
Marketing Board is now seizing maize from commercial farmers under a
‘certificate of seizure’, immediately threatening the food security of farm
workers and their dependants and jeopardising the future of all intensive
livestock enterprises.
Having consistently assured the Nation that there will be no
shortage of the staple food, maize, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement has now reported that as at the end of November 2001, there was a
total national stock of 226 000 tonnes, sufficient to feed the country until
mid-February 2002 at an average monthly consumption of 150 000 tonnes per month.
Zimbabwe has belatedly decided to import 150 000 tonnes of maize from South
Africa and has sought food aid relief from the World Food Programme. The 150 000
tonne maize order has only recently been placed and deliveries of food aid are
constrained by transport logistics.
The National Forecasting Committee issued warnings in May last
year and a comprehensive Food Security Plan was submitted to the Ministry of
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement in September last year. The Minister
disregarded the reports as inaccurate, insisting that Zimbabwe would not need to
import maize and spurned the proposals.
6. THE FUTURE OF COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE IN ZIMBABWE
CFU members are loyal Zimbabweans, committed to playing a
constructive role in the future of the Nation. The commitment of commercial
farmers has been established beyond doubt through the Zimbabwe Joint
Resettlement Initiative (ZJRI) through which over one million hectares of land
has already been collated for acquisition on an uncontested basis. ZJRI
demonstrates that a sustainable land reform programme can be achieved, in
parallel with production stability, on the basis of consent rather than
conflict.
CFU welcomes better racial integration of the commercial
farming sector and through its "Farming into the Future" strategy has undertaken
to play a constructive role in the transformation of the sector. The instant
transformation of the sector in one season, especially so late in the season,
will inevitably have a severe production impact, the effects of which are
already beginning to be felt. It is crucial to the economic survival of Zimbabwe
that there is a realistically phased period of adjustment for the transformation
of the commercial agricultural sector.
During the past year about 250 CFU members out of the total
membership of 3 500 have either been forced off their farm or to leave Zimbabwe.
Of the remaining members, at least 1 200 have been seriously affected by partial
or total work stoppages on their farms. Despite these alarming trends, the
critical mass of the CFU sector is still intact, and CFU remains willing and
able to participate in the economic recovery of Zimbabwe under an environment of
peace, stability and rational agricultural policies.
Harare, Zimbabwe
11th January
2002