Zimbabwe Inflation Falls To 598.7% In Dec Vs 619.5% Nov
Copyright © 2004, Dow Jones Newswires
HARARE, Zimbabwe
(AP)--Zimbabwe's record-high inflation rate fell
below 600% in December, the
first improvement for more than 18 months, data
from the state Central
Statistics Office showed Tuesday.
The statistics office said the
inflation rate fell by almost 21
percentage points to 598.7% in December from
619.5% in November. Inflation
in Zimbabwe remains among the highest in the
world.
The government says new monetary policies, announced by the
central
bank last month to curb speculation and fraud in the financial sector
and
reign in illegal black market currency deals, have started to take
effect.
But independent economists question government figures,
saying while
prices for a few imported goods have come down, most have
continued to
spiral up.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2004 11:02 ET (16:02 GMT)
SABC
Zimbabwe's parallel forex market collapsing
January 19, 2004,
10:40 PM
The parallel forex market in Zimbabwe is collapsing, following
the
introduction of the new auction system, where banks trade their forex in
an
open system at the central bank. Most major currency rates have taken
a
major knock in the market and this is helping to enhance foreign
currency
inflows.
When the greenback sneezes and takes a knock on the
new auction system, the
parallel market catches a cold. Over the past week,
the new auction system
has seen major currencies trading for a lot less, with
one US dollar
fetching just over 4000 Zimbabwe dollars, from a high of almost
8000 less
than a month ago. However, it is the rand that has been hardest hit
-
dropping from 900 to 500 Zim dollars in under a week.
Zimbabwe has
been losing about two and a half million US dollars on the
black market
recently. Analysts say the new monetary policy measures
announced by the
central bank should ease the country's foreign currency
crisis.
With
speculation on forex almost gone, the havoc it caused on the economy
is
likely to remain a telling reminder that fixing rates can take their toll
on
an economy. In the past, the Zim dollar was pegged at $824 to the
greenback.
Now it is an open auction market operating where the ruling rate
rules.
VOA
Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Denies Hiring Assassin to Kill
Mugabe
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
20 Jan 2004, 17:27
UTC
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, on trial for
treason,
says he had hired the Canadian businessman who later became
the
prosecution's key witness to represent his party in the United
States.
Mr. Tsvangirai told the High Court that he hired Ari Ben
Menashe to
represent his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, in North
America.
Mr. Ben Menashe was the state's main witness when the
treason trial
began last February, claiming that Mr. Tsvangirai hired him to
kill Mr.
Mugabe and stage a coup.
The opposition leader said he
believed every word Mr. Ben Menashe told
him about his high flying contacts
in Washington and other parts of the
world. Based on that, he agreed to hire
the Canadian as a lobbyist and a
fund raiser.
But the
businessman secretly filmed Mr. Tsvangirai at their last
meeting in Canada,
and claims that the recording proves that he had been
hired by the opposition
party to assassinate President Mugabe.
Mr. Tsvangirai himself has
denied the allegations, and told the court
that Zimbabwe would have been
plunged into chaos and even civil war had Mr.
Mugabe been
assassinated.
According to independent polls just before the 2002
presidential
elections, Mr. Tsvangirai had a comfortable lead over the
incumbent
President Mugabe. But he lost the election, and is still
challenging the
result in the courts.
Two opposition legislators
accused of treason with Mr. Tsvangirai were
acquitted in December.
BBC
Mugabe killing 'could spark war'
|
Tsvangirai faces two separate treason
charges | Zimbabwe's
opposition leader has said any attempt on the life of President Robert Mugabe
could spark civil war.
Morgan Tsvangirai, who is on trial accused of plotting to kill Mr Mugabe,
said any such attack would unleash anarchy and chaos.
He says he had no reason to plot to assassinate Mr Mugabe, as he expected to
beat him at the polls.
"All political assassinations have consequences that undermine democracy,
justice, freedom," he told the court.
Duped
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader has been testifying for a
second day in the case, which began in February 2003.
Mr Tsvangirai said he and two senior officials of his party, Welshman Ncube
and Renson Gasela, were duped into believing that Mr Menashe was interested in
promoting the MDC's image.
He said the consultant had promised to help them raise funds for the party
and lobby for international support for its political activities in Zimbabwe.
The prosecution case hinges on a grainy video tape made by the Canadian
political consultant in which Mr Tsvangirai allegedly discusses Mr Mugabe's
"elimination".
In his testimony, Mr Ben-Menashe said that Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) had signed a $500,000 contract with his firm and
promised $10m to the head of the air force, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, to stage
a coup after Mr Mugabe's assassination.
If convicted, Mr Tsvangirai could face the death penalty.
|
Comment from ZWNEWS, 20 JanuaryLambs to the slaughter
By
Michael Hartnack
It’s just not true there is no law and order in
Zimbabwe. There is law,
there is punishment for crime. But both are part of
an intricate system of
political patronage brilliantly run since Robert
Mugabe came to power in
1980. The system is reminiscent of the sheep and
goats in St. Matthew’s
Gospel being directed to separate folds. One lot - the
chosen lambs - go
through a door marked "Help Yourselves, Comrades". The
others, the stinking
goats, are channelled toward a door surrounded with
pious admonitions on the
evils of capitalism. This door is marked, "Beware of
the wrath to come,
capitalist exploiters and economic saboteurs". Under the
system, Mugabe’s
cronies and other favour-seekers have to keep coming round,
day after day,
so even after 23 years a sheep may suddenly find itself
corralled with the
goats. Then indeed beware. An army of police fraud squad
detectives and tax
and licence inspectors may fall upon you, banks will
suddenly recall
long-overlooked concessionary loans, your leases and title to
a wide variety
of property may be withdrawn. And all this amid sanctimonious
oratory about
suppressing corruption, nepotism and exploitation of the
poor.
Witness Phillip Chiyangwa, self-proclaimed billionaire
businessman, ruling
party mogul and Zanu PF member of Parliament. He thought
he was untouchable
when he told a magistrate on January 8 that three
investment trust
operators, his business partners, ought not to be prosecuted
on charges of
converting Z$61 billion of clients' money into expensive cars,
real estate
and foreign exchange. "I am wealthy enough, if I wanted I could
have paid
all (their) creditors. The excited policeman who brought these
allegations,
I will deal with him at some stage," boasted the former
Rhodesian policeman
who entered the business world as a penniless boxing
promoter in 1980.
Chiyangwa aroused the wrath of Joseph Msika, acting
president while Mugabe
is on holiday. "What political muscle? Who are you? I
will show that I have
more political muscle than you," 80-year-old Msika
exploded in the midst of
a speech opening a rural supermarket. Rambo-like,
Msika then showed off his
biceps. Chiyangwa was reportedly associated with
moves in December to
replace Msika as a vice-president. Despite being even
older than Mugabe,
Msika proclaims he is willing to take over if the Zimbabwe
leader, who turns
80 next month, retires.
Suddenly, police are
finding great wads of share certificates and enough
posh cars to start a
showroom, all somehow linked to shady dealings by
Chiyangwa. He was belatedly
arrested for obstructing the course of justice,
perjury, and contempt of
court. Police have refused to release him although
his lawyer, Happias Zhou,
twice obtained High Court warrants. Zhou said
Chiyangwa's detention was
"political", linked to "the succession issue"
(i.e. who takes over from
Mugabe). Or put it another way, Chiyangwa and
Msika belong to different
factions within the ruling party, delicately kept
in balance by Mugabe
through his sheep-and-goats feed-lot system. The past
23 years has been
littered with financial scandals involving the sheep:
Mugabe's elite paying
"ghost" ex-guerrillas in assembly points in 1980;
Samson Paweni's scam with
foreign-sourced famine relief during the 1982-84
drought; the "Willowgate"
racket in cars from the state assembly plant were
bought by ministers at
cut-rates and resold on the black market; diversion
of land, bought by
Britain for peasant resettlement, to the elite; the
Industrial Development
Corporation fraud implicating commerce minister
Christopher Ushewokunze; the
millions in unrecovered loans given by Zimbank
when it was state-owned. Roger
Boka's "Universal Merchant Bank" which dished
out similar millions, never
recovered; payments for bogus "war
disabilities".
After each
initial outcry, police dockets quietly gathered dust. Few
offenders were
prosecuted. In the rare cases where convictions were
obtained, the public was
offered the example of speedy pardon and
rehabilitation, rather than exposure
and lasting disgrace. The system of
patronage - of permission to flout the
laws applied to lesser mortals -
dovetails with the grassroots organisation
of the Zanu PF. Party moguls are
expected to keep specific communities loyal
and submissive. They are
encouraged to create business empires and systems of
economic dependency,
involving their relatives and friends, in those specific
areas. Or, as the
state media puts it, to "show leadership in smart
partnership for
development". They stage rallies in that area, and their
vassals (including
the subservient local police, licence inspectors, loan
organisations, etc)
ensure a good turnout. One sure way to get reclassified
as a goat is to
stray outside your area of designated pasture. Not only will
people fail to
attend your rallies there, but your business activities will
receive notice
from new jacks- in-office. Only the shepherd himself has the
free run of the
whole of Zimbabwe. Chiyangwa's friends from the Chinhoyi area
are mightily
alarmed by his plight. Their best hope lies in the fact that
goats are
constantly tantalised with hints they might be re-admitted with the
sheep.
Every now and then, sheep caught misbehaving and reclassified as goats
are
miraculously transformed back into sheep if they exhibit suitably
humble
behaviour. That, too, is key to the shepherd's flock-management
trick.
Big question now is, who else gets the goat treatment? If
things get out of
hand, Zanu PF will be thrown into disarray. Having shoved
the wife and kids
in the back of the family Boeing 767-200, Mugabe is home
from his Asian trip
but is still enjoying his hols. The drama may be allowed
to run on a little
longer while Msika is, theoretically, head of state. It
would be like old
times if, once Mugabe is formally back in control, unctuous
clemency
replaces the rigour of the law, and the lambs may be led gently back
to the
right path. But how long can this system go on? The sheep have
eaten
virtually all the pasture. And no one, certainly not Msika, has the
skill to
run this system once its designer goes.
EUbusiness
EU has "serious concerns" about Zimbabwe ahead of sanctions
review
20 January 2004
The EU remains very seriously
concerned about the worsening situation in
Zimbabwe, Irish Foreign Minister
Brian Cowen said Tuesday, while declining
to predict if it will maintain
sanctions on Harare.
Cowen, whose country holds the rotating EU
presidency, noted that the EU is
due to decide on February 18 on whether to
maintain sanctions imposed
against the regime of President Robert
Mugabe.
"I can't predict what the outcome of that discussion will be," he
said, but
added that one thing was for sure: "There are very serious concerns
about
the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe."
The EU in 2002 imposed
travel restrictions on 72 of Zimbabwe's top
government and ruling party
officials, including Mugabe, accusing them of
human rights abuses and
electoral fraud.
"What we're trying to achieve is a reform and a
democratization here. It's a
question of us agreeing the means to do so and
there are different views on
that, as to how best to expedite it," he
said.
IRIN
ZIMBABWE: Concern over STI infections among street
kids
|
© IRIN
Harare's pavements are home to an estimated
5,000 street children |
HARARE, 20 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Each month
as many as 150 children sleeping rough in the capital, Harare, are being treated
for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), underlining their extreme
vulnerability, according to a local NGO.
Streets Ahead, an organisation
trying to improve the welfare of Harare's 5,000 street children, said they
discovered the STI outbreak when the children visited their offices for
counselling and other support programmes.
"We have more than 150 street
children coming in on a monthly basis to get letters for them to receive free
treatment for sexually transmitted diseases with a doctor we have identified in
Harare. The age group of the children is worrying, as most are below the age of
16. These children are continuously being exposed to the HI virus," the Streets
Ahead outreach programme officer, Jack Maravanyika, told IRIN.
Doctor
Masimba Mwazha, who treats the children infected with STIs, said many of them
were being picked up and abused by adults.
"Most of the children are
enticed with offers of money and food, and they are easy prey for the perverted
members of our communities who have no respect for the basic rights of these
children," said Mwahza.
A young orphan, who said he did not know how old
he was, told IRIN: "Some of the boys and girls are being sexually abused by the
older members of the street community, but a lot are also being abused by the
'normal' people."
UN Children's Fund Project Officer for Child
Protection, Ron Pouwels, described the reports as "shocking and
disturbing".
He added that what was worrying, other than the abuse
itself, was that the children were also being exposed to HIV. As many as 34
percent of Zimbabwean adults are estimated to be HIV-positive, and more than
600,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.
IPSNews
Debt Collectors Come Under Scrutiny
Wilson
JohwaBULAWAYO, Jan 20 (IPS) - He could well be a lawyer, what with
his reputation
for having more to do with legal affairs than most people in
that
profession. In fact, many people in town think he is - a label that no
doubt
enhances his business profile.
But Khoza is a debt collector,
with clients that include a hospital, a bank,
a high school and a major
pharmacy.
Although he's part of what is becoming a booming trade in
Zimbabwe, his
office - located in the seamier part of town - shows no signs
of prosperity.
Ironically, his phone lines have been disconnected because he
failed to
settle the last bill.
The fact that Khoza has an office
doesn't necessarily mean he is easy to
locate, either. Prospective clients,
or curious journalists, may find
themselves at a dead end, despite several
efforts to reach him.
Khoza knows how to find you, however - as do other
debt collectors, some of
whom may be less than gentle when they track you
down.
So, after numerous complaints of harassment from debtors - many of
whom are
battling to meet their obligations in Zimbabwe's inflationary
environment -
the government has decided to act.
Through its Law
Development Commission, the state is investigating the
activities of debt
collectors, whose operations are presently not subject to
regulation or
sanction.
In a recent paper on the matter, the commission said declining
standards in
the Zimbabwean judicial process ”may have contributed to
the...growth of
extra-judicial debt collectors”.
However, it placed
most of the blame on a general desire to avoid costly
trials, and to maintain
privacy in financial matters. For those who simply
wish to avoid the red tape
of legal proceedings it's also faster to enlist
the services of debt
collectors, despite their reputation for employing
unorthodox methods to
recover money.
To remain in business, the debt collector must get debtors
to pay - at all
costs. This, says the commission, places huge pressure on the
collector,
while creating a climate that is conducive to
malpractice.
Debt collectors often resort to ”strong arm” tactics to
intimidate the
debtor, or their family, into settling with their creditors.
These typically
include threatened or actual violence, abusive and offensive
letters,
frequent personal visits and unlawful dispossession of
property.
A magistrate who spoke on condition of anonymity, said debt
collectors base
their operations on a legal procedure that allows one person
to take over
the claims of another.
”They get you to sign the
cessation letter giving them the right over your
(claim). Then they charge
you a fee, take the matter to court - and whatever
the outcome, you still pay
them money.”
Among the biggest complaints is that collectors over-charge
debtors, often
demanding interest as high as 900 percent.
In addition,
certain collectors stand accused of misrepresenting themselves
to debtors as
court officials or members of the legal profession.
”It is illegal for
persons who are not lawyers to render legal services for
a fee,” says
Stanford Moyo, President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, which
has received
numerous complaints in this regard. The Law Society is also
part of the Law
Development Commission's sub-committee on debt collectors.
In Zimbabwe's
current political and economic environment, which Moyo
describes as
”chaotic”, anyone can also claim to be a debt collector. This
is because
collectors operate in a completely unregulated environment where
there is no
way of checking who actually belongs to the profession.
Unlike legal
practitioners, Moyo adds, debt collectors don't operate a
client protection
fund which means their customers have no cover: ”They are
fraudulent and some
of their methods extortionate. That is clearly inimical
to the public
interest.”
The Law Development Commission says debt collectors have
made
representations to the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs,
calling for recognition. It is likely that they will get a special
status
under the law - in exchange for defined responsibilities.
The
drive to regulate the activities of debt collectors in Zimbabwe seems
set to
follow the lead taken by neighbouring South Africa, where the 1998
Debt
Collectors Act was enacted after recommendations by the country's Law
Reform
Commission.
The Act provides for the establishment of a Council for Debt
Collectors
which exercises control over the occupation of the debt
collector.
(END/2004)
ZWNews
Zimbabwe's Cottco in graft probe
author/source:Business Day (SA)
published:Tue 20-Jan-2004
posted on this site:Tue 20-Jan-2004
Blue Ribbon is alleged
to have entered into contract deals with
farmers in Mashonaland West to buy
wheat at Z$1,2m a ton, compared with the
board's purchase price of Z$750
000
Bulawayo - The multi-billion dollar corruption scams affecting
several
banks and financial services providers in Zimbabwe deepened
yesterday, as
the home affairs ministry announced a probe into the dealings
of the
country's largest buyer of cotton, the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe
(Cottco).
Since the new year, several high-level corruption scandals
involving more
than Z$300bn have been unearthed by police, prompting the
arrest of Zanu PF
MP and businessman Philip Chiyangwa. Thus far, companies
that have been
caught up in the crackdown on corruption include ENG
Management Asset
Company, Trust Bank and First Mutual Life Assurance. The
crackdown was
prompted by President Robert Mugabe's recent speech in which he
vowed to
root out high-level corruption in the public and private sectors.
Yesterday,
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said the government was
probing
allegations of fraud and impropriety involving senior officials of
Cottco.
Although Mohadi would not elaborate, insiders said the cotton
company's
management was suspected of irregular dealings involving contract
cotton
farmers and the export of the commodity. "Cottco is heavily involved
in the
contracting out of farmers and the company is virtually controlling
the
purchase price of cotton and its export," he said.
An
insider said: "The allegations of corruption centre on this. Since
Cottco is
a listed company, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is watching
developments in the
case." Police said at the weekend that they were
investigating one of the
country's largest grain millers, Blue Ribbon , on
allegations of
side-marketing wheat. Maize and wheat were declared specified
commodities in
2000, and only the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board has
authority to
buy the commodities from farmers. Blue Ribbon is alleged to
have entered into
contract deals with farmers in Mashonaland West to buy
wheat at Z$1,2m a ton,
compared with the board's purchase price of Z$750
000. The scandals come a
month after central bank governor Gideon Gono
announced a new five-year
monetary policy that aims at tightening loopholes
in financial transactions
and restore business confidence in Zimbabwe's
economy. However, critics feel
that the current crackdown is likely to be
hampered by the influence of
powerful individuals in the ruling party, who
have declared interests in some
of the companies under investigation.
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE P R COMMUNIQUE - January 19, 2004
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
On
National Public Radio in America two days ago, the World Food
Program's
representative in Zimbabwe, Kevin Farrell, gave a misleading
synopsis of
the country's food crisis. Not only did he refuse to acknowledge
the root
causes of the food shortages, namely the Mugabe regime's reckless
economic
and land reform policies (and its inability to fulfil its estimated
quotas
through the Grain Marketing Board - see Daily Telegraph (UK) report
below),
he chose instead to focus on the donors for showing a reluctance
to
increase their support. This is not true. The American government,
through
USAID, donated in FY 03, $125,000,000 in humanitarian assistance.
This
fiscal year alone (October to now) it has donated an
additional
$72,000,000. Please see attachment.
Kevin Farrell discusses
the World Food Program having to cut food rations
to Zimbabwe by
half
National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Morning Edition (11:00 AM AM
ET) - NPR
January 12, 2004 Monday
ANCHORS: RENEE MONTAGNE
BODY:
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The UN World Food Program says because of a drop in
international aid, it
is having to cut by half food rations to Zimbabwe.
Nearly three million
people there need assistance, and there are fears that
the shortages could
extend to other southern African countries
Joining
me now is Kevin Farrell, the World Food Program's country director
for
Zimbabwe. Good morning.
Mr. KEVIN FARRELL (World Food Program): Good
morning.
MONTAGNE: Why the drop in international aid?
Mr. FARRELL:
There are concerns, of course, with respect to southern Africa
in general.
It's difficult to measure, but I'm fairly sure that the demands
for food
assistance in other parts of the country have probably impacted
as
well.
MONTAGNE: Are donors reluctant to give because of what many
Western
countries see as ruinous land redistribution policies of President
Robert
Mugabe? Does that have any part in this?
Mr. FARRELL: Well, I
think the first thing I'd like to say is that donors
have, in fact, been
very, very generous in the past two years throughout
southern Africa and
including in Zimbabwe. Some of the hesitation perhaps
at this time may relate
to some difficulties that donors have with economic
policies,
yes.
MONTAGNE: What kind of rations are you running out of?
Mr.
FARRELL: The one that we have had a problem with or a shortage of over
the
last month or so has been the cereal, the corn.
MONTAGNE: And how long do
you expect supplies to last?
Mr. FARRELL: We've had to go onto half
rations in December. The January
supplies, we may be able to go back up close
to a fuller ration of cereal
in January, but then February/March is looking
very, very poor. Zimbabwe
and indeed all over southern Africa, the harvest
would normally come in
about April, so the next two or three months,
February, March and up until
that harvest, those are essentially the hungry
months. Those are the
difficult months, before harvest.
MONTAGNE:
Zimbabwe used to export food. Could you remind us quickly
what
happened?
Mr. FARRELL: Certainly. In the last two years, drought
has been a factor,
particularly in the 2001-2002 season. We're looking,
though, at the whole
range of economic difficulties. There's apparently an
inflation rate of
about 600 percent. There's unemployment of about 70
percent. On top of all
of that, you do have a major problem throughout
southern Africa, but I
think perhaps especially in Zimbabwe at this stage, a
problem of HIV
infection. And that is having an impact both on the general
economic
situation and more specifically on food production.
MONTAGNE:
Will the shortage of food relief affect other countries in that
area or
elsewhere in Africa?
Mr. FARRELL: The other major recipient of food
assistance in southern
Africa is Mozambique, and I believe that they are
having problems probably
similar to our own. What we're now, of course,
looking at are the prospects
for the coming year or at least for the current
growing season. And that is
certainly not looking good throughout southern
Africa. Indeed, there are
some concerns about whether South Africa, which of
course has been the
major procurement source for food, we're told fairly
reliably that that
situation, that the harvest in the coming year in South
Africa, is not
going to be up to average. So that will have a major impact on
food
availability generally.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much.
Mr.
FARRELL: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: Kevin Farrell is the UN World Food
Program's country director for
Zimbabwe.
In contrast:
>From
The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 December, 2003
Mugabe is blamed as UN
slashes food aid
Harare - The World Food Programme has slashed by half
food handouts to
Zimbabwe's starving millions because President Robert
Mugabe's government
failed to alert donors to the scale of the disaster. The
WFP, a United
Nations agency, said it had cut rations since the beginning of
the month to
ensure it could feed more than five million people, about half
the
population, until the harvest in May. The agency said it had not
raised
enough money to buy the necessary supplies. The WFP's appeal went out
six
weeks late in the middle of the year because the Zimbabwe government
had
not quantified its needs until it was too late to get the long "food
chain"
moving, according to donors in Harare yesterday. Foreign food
suppliers
were also showing fatigue at what most see as a "man made crisis".
Zimbabwe
was once southern Africa's "bread basket" with huge and efficient
farms
producing surpluses for sale abroad. But since Mr Mugabe began
seizing
white-owned farms in 2000, production has tumbled, leaving millions
without
food.
Even the United Nations, reluctant to criticise
President Robert Mugabe's
administration, has admitted that the government's
confiscation of 90 per
cent of productive land from white farmers had been a
major cause of the
crisis. "When the government finally got its act together,
and said how
much it needed, we also discovered we would have to fund all
food imports
without any contribution from the Zimbabwe government," said an
executive
of a major donor agency yesterday. The government also tried to
interfere
with the donor community's long established rules by insisting that
its own
officials oversee the distribution of donated food. The government
finally
backed down, although donors say they are still worried that
as
parliamentary elections draw close, probably later next year,
the
government may try to launch another bid to hijack food distribution.
Kevin
Farrell, country director of WFP, said: "The worst months will be
January
[to] April, before the harvest. Our food stocks are very, very
fragile and
even if more donor money arrives, it takes time to get the food
here." He
said the WFP was worried about people in the dry south of Zimbabwe,
in the
Matabeleland province, and in the far north, where few crops grow,
even in
the best of times.
Zimbabwe used to grow more than 1.8 million
tons of grain to feed its
people and their livestock. This summer, the fourth
since President Mugabe
confiscated most white-owned farms, the harvest is
predicted to be down to
a third of normal production, the lowest in more than
50 years. The US,
Britain and the European Union provide more than 90 per
cent of funds used
to feed Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe police have arrested
two men in connection with the murder of an
Australian accountant, Philip
Laing, 51, who died last Friday after being
forced to drink acid. Two of Mr
Laing's clerks who were similarly attacked
on a British owned tea estates are
still gravely ill in hospital, with
internal and external acid burns.
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
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Letter
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All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Dear Ben
I am deeply touched by your outstanding
letter.
Each night when we sit down to supper in suburban Bulawayo, we
pray for all
those that are not having supper in their own homes.
Be
assured that, throughout the country there are bands of committed
patriots
that are working every day and night "building the far bigger wave
to sweep
over our land and cleanse it".
Stay strong.
Simon
Spooner
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JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
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Internet:
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Please
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PROPERTY RIGHTS
Dear Sir
In a
country where wealth is gauged by how many wives you own, children
you
possess, cattle you acquire, it is fascinating to watch a certain
highly
influential man "with direct links straight to the top" find that
his
wealth may well be imagined - with over 30 cars recovered from his home
and
family, his share certificates for his companies surrendered to the
state,
his fear of spending time in a state hotel and his need to have his
wife
sit next to him as he is formally booked into the hotel...with his
mistress
looking on. One wonders whether the 5 or so country estates which he
so
successfully affirmative shopped, ignoring the need to buy the
properties
on a willing buyer willing seller basis, will still be part of his
wealth
when he comes home from his enforced holiday?
Its interesting
too, to see that a certain junior, unelected minister has
had his mansion in
a neighbouring country put up for sale by his bank as a
result of unpaid
instalments on the property loan. Surely properties should
be affirmative
shopped?
And then there is the equally interesting saga of the editor who
has bought
a number of properties in an arid north western part of our
country who
finds that it is possession and power which dictates ownership of
property,
not title!
So while this jockeying for possession takes
place we ponder - what is more
important? Possession or title?
Best
regards
" Possessor or Title holder?"
Move By Some White Farmers Commendable
The Herald
(Harare)
January 19, 2004
Posted to the web January 19,
2004
Caesar Zvayi
Harare
"IF you can't beat them join them" is
an age-old adage that advised the
vanquished to exist in harmony with their
conquerors through the ages.
The wisdom inherent in the phrase is lost on
the quisling Frankenstein but
his creator seems to be the wiser. What with 60
white commercial farmers
ditching the xenophobic and retrogressive Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) for
the eclectic and progressive Zimbabwe Commercial
Farmers Union (ZCFU), an
indigenous farmer organisation that puts the country
before self.
For the record, the CFU is an exclusive club of white
commercial farmers who
are all descendants of the brigands who stole our
forefathers' land during
the colonial era.
The dispossession was an
act of unprecedented brutality, as black people
were condemned to the arid
and unproductive agro-ecological regions.
All the farmers in the CFU grew
up as young "bosses" on "their" farms,
lording it over cowering black
labourers of all ages.
Coming from such a checkered background, most of
them are white supremacists
who view all black people as suitable only for
labouring in the fields, thus
they fought tooth and nail against the land
reform programme.
They used the full gamut of strategies, from creating
and funding a stooge
movement in the hope of maintaining the status quo of
skewed land ownership
and distribution under the guise of change.
They
used physical violence by setting their workers on the newly
resettled
farmers as well as legal recourse (for then the bench was full of
McNallys,
Gubbays and others).
The Third Chimurenga, however, saw a
lot of the racist judges vacating the
bench when their racist bias was
exposed.
Their proxies were rejected at the polls, and the farm workers
finally
realised that by fighting for their "baas", they were actually
fighting
against themselves as they also stood to benefit from the land
reform
programme.
The diehard Rhodie farmer was thus abandoned on the
battlefield.
The foot soldier, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, recently confirmed
the battle was
all but lost at his party's conference at the Exhibition Park
on December 20
last year when he said: "We will not go back to the pre-2000
land
distribution and ownership position, nor will we endorse the status quo,
the
current chaos."
As usual, he contradicted himself as he was
apparently parroting somebody's
words.
The statement was a dunces
acknowledgment that land reform was a fait
accompli, and a major shift from
the 2002 sentiments of the grasshopper,
Fidelis Mhashu, who on the BBC's Hard
Talk programme claimed that his party
would return all land to the white
farmers if elected into power.
Being the CFU's last hope, and after
proving to be a mirage at that, is it
any wonder then that the farmers who
sponsored him in the CFU are seeing the
light, recognising that they are
Zimbabweans and pledging to work within the
ZCFU for the good of the
country?
60 white commercial farmers crossed the floor to the ZCFU on the
9th of this
month. Their move has been hailed as a landmark development that
would see
more white farmers leaving the beleaguered CFU to complement
Government
efforts in the agrarian revolution.
To date, the CFU has
been sabotaging the land reform programme by killing
livestock, hiding
equipment in warehouses, incapacitating immovable farm
equipment as well as
smuggling movable equipment to neighbouring countries,
principally Mozambique
and Zambia.
A case in point being JJ estates of Mhangura who were caught
red-handed by
The Herald on December 31 last year loading billion-dollar
equipment into
containers destined for Zambia.
This externalisation of
farm equipment contravenes the Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures)
Acquisition of Farm Equipment or Material Regulations
of 2003, which outlaw
the smuggling, hoarding or vandalising of equipment.
Diehard racists in
the CFU even formed a breakaway group calling itself
Justice for Agriculture
(JAG), which has in its ranks racist geriatrics like
Ian Smith, who still
dreams of a return to Rhodesia.
JAG was formed with the objective of
confronting the Government on all
fronts and subsequently bit more than it
could chew and choked to death.
Many people wondered which justice they
wished to advance by fighting to let
4 000 white farmers keep control of 70
percent of the most productive land
while 14 million black people were
crammed on 30 percent of the most
unproductive land, but such is the double
talk of imperialists.
The farmers' defection to the ZCFU is commendable
but should not just be
symbolic. The farmers must show a genuine will to work
for Zimbabwe by
working with their colleagues in the ZCFU.
They should
expose the lies peddled by the CFU by telling the outside world
the real
Zimbabwean story. The very existence of the CFU is a testimony that
not all
white farmers lost "their" land, contrary to opposition claims.
Already
their move has been received with mixed feelings as some people are
wondering
why it has taken them so long to realise that they are
Zimbabweans, while
others are hailing them for responding to the President's
calls for unity of
purpose among Zimbabweans.
The sceptics cannot be blamed for one of the
farmers, Mr Bezuidenhout from
Darwendale, said as much on the Newsnet
programme, Newshour. He said his
farm, which is all he owns, was being
demarcated and he looked to the ZCFU
for assistance.
If their farms
have been earmarked for resettlement, then they must still be
acquired
regardless.
Some farmers tried it with the then Zimbabwe Joint
Resettlement Initiative
(ZJRI) in 2001, when they voluntarily released 302
farms with a total
hectarage of 1 495 564 for resettlement, some of which
were not even
earmarked for acquisition.
This move was at first hailed
as a sign of co-operation from previously
defiant farmers, but it was later
discovered to be a red herring meant to
divert attention from their other
multiple farms.
President Mugabe lambasted the farmers in his address to
the 48th session of
the Central Committee on September 21 2001 when he said,
among other things:
"they think they can mollify the landless by releasing a
handful of farms so
they can keep the rest."
One hopes the defection
is not a case of history repeating itself, but a
genuine gesture of sanity
and unity of purpose, which the President has been
calling for all
along.
It is up to the farmers to assure the sceptics.
The ZCFU
also has a role to play by giving the farmers all the assistance
they afford
their members.
It was pleasing to hear that the farmers would not be
accorded any special
treatment.
The farmers move', what ever motivated
it, is a major boost for the
agricultural sector as unity of purpose is what
is needed to restore our
country to its breadbasket status.
One hopes
the surrogates will follow the masters' example for it is said
mhembwe rudzi
inozvara mwana ane kazhumu.
Mbeki's Justifiable Indignation
Daily Champion
(Lagos)
January 19, 2004
Posted to the web January 19,
2004
Andy Ike Ezeani
Lagos
South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki
is reportedly stunned and seething with
anger. Across the border up north,
Zimbabwe's embattled and calumnized
president Robert Mugabe had been stung
too and is no less livid. The source
of their common discomfort can be found
in one location: Nigeria.
For both of these Southern African leaders,
something must have gone
terribly wrong with a man they used to know as a
brother. It is either that
or they had been wrong all along in their reading
of the real constitution
of the source of their present discomfiture. The
probability that the latter
is the case is obviously more disconcerting.
Which ever of the two it is,
there is pain in the hearts of the two
men.
It is pain made obviously more agonizing by the fact that its source
is one
from whom they had every cause to expect empathy and appreciation of
their
history and circumstances. After all, their three states; South
Africa,
Zimbabwe and Nigeria were co-members of the committed and hand-in
arms
brotherhood of nations chummily identified as Frontline States in the
heady
days of the anti-apartheid struggle.
Members of that alliance
consisted essentially of countries located within
the southern African
region. Their vast, rich lands were the hotbed of the
apartheid onslaught and
rabid colonialism that refused to recede even up to
the last quarter of the
20th century.
Nigeria, of course, never shared physical borders and
geographical links
with the other Frontline States. Nor was its political
experience exactly as
traumatic as that of the Frontline States on the actual
frontline. What it
lacked in physical location and internal experience,
however, Nigeria made
up in empathy and total commitment to the struggle to
rid the region of
apartheid and colonialism. It was an unwavering brotherly
commitment, one
that the countries of the Southern African region never
failed to
acknowledge.
When years after the apartheid struggle some
governments in Nigeria acquired
colorations and profiles that were as
uncomplementary as they deserved total
repudiation, the Southern African
brother nations lived with a
responsibility to maintain fraternal affinity.
They never easily took sides
against the brother Frontline state on the far
west side of the troubled
African continent. The responsibility and the
duties are reciprocal, or
ought to be.
Indeed, it remained a cardinal
aspect of Nigeria's foreign policy for years
to be on the watch and never to
close its eyes to, not to talk of
subscribing to, any development in the
international arena that sought to
erode the gains of the decolonization
efforts. That now seems to be then.
Nothing in this relationship ever
entailed defending or justifying wrong
policies of the government of a
brother country. Everything in this mutual
fraternal responsibility, demands,
however, that the countries of Africa as
one should understand the challenges
of their history. Here obviously lies
the source of the pain and perplexity
of Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe.
The land redistribution issue in
Zimbabwe which has been twisted and added
pepper by the West is no more than
a critical imperative in the development
of Zimbabwe. For the West to refuse
to understand the imperative of such a
policy amounts to no more than their
vote for continued subjugation of Black
Zimbabweans.Now that will be worse
than anything Mugabe has done.
It is possible that some aspects of the
policy came out too heavy on one
side or the other. Of course, even the best
of policies can be faulted, more
so in the realm of politics. To have a
country where 80 per cent of the
people (Blacks) live in 20 per cent of the
land, the wretched part of it,
while the rest of the 20 per cent of the
people (Whites) live in and
cultivate 80 per cent of the good portion is
certainly not Mugabe's idea of
independence for his country. It should not be
any honest person's idea of
equity either, whether black or white.
If
the European and Western political leaders and societies do not for
parochial
reasons see the problem Mugabe is faced with, Olusegun Obasanjo
ought to
appreciate the situation better.
The question of Mugabe being in office
for too long or being returned to
office by an election that was not free and
fair is nothing but charges
gathered by the West to give their case a
civilized face. The stance of the
Commonwealth on Mugabe is premeditated and
well nigh insensitive to the
history and circumstances of Zimbabwe. That was
why South Africa and other
countries of the Southern African region easily
parted ways with Britain and
others on the matter. It is understandable,
therefore, that Mbeki and Mugabe
are peeved and wondering who exactly
Obasanjo is. Is this still their
brother? Or is this some lackey of the
West?
Indeed, if one of the major charges of the West against Mugabe that
he was
returned to office through a flawed election were to be taken
seriously
Obasanjo should be in the fore of Mugabe's defenders for very
obvious
reasons.
It is bad enough that Obasanjo as Nigeria's president
weighed on the side of
those who want Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth
because Mugabe is pursuing a
land policy designed to give his people some
more foothold. To now go
forward and ask White farmers who are threatening to
leave Zimbabwe in
protest to relocate to Nigeria as was recently credited to
government
sources is the height of insensitivity and shallowness. This is
one foreign
investment Nigeria does not need. Whatever attraction the coming
of the
farmers of Zimbabwe to Nigeria offers, it should simply be
discouraged.
Nigeria should be more decent than to seek to make profit out of
a problem
in its brother's heart.
Nigeria's stance on the Zimbabwean
matter at the Commonwealth forum is a
testament on the present state of its
foreign policy. As it seems, all past
policy foundations are gone. In their
stead, unfortunately, void seems to
reign.
The prevailing skin-deep
policy framework cannot but be, considering that
much of what passes for
Nigeria's foreign policy activities in the last five
years has been staccato
initiatives of summit hosting and conference
attendance by President Olusegun
Obasanjo.In all of these, appallingly,
there is hardly any evidence of a
cohesive, vibrant and abiding policy
framework, the type that can help a
student of international affairs
identify with certainty what Nigeria
presently represents in critical global
issues.
If the maxim that
foreign policy is an extension of local policies still
holds valid (and it
will always hold), then it is not difficult to
understand the basis of
Nigeria's foreign policy paralysis. For beyond the
paid for and
understandable pitches of governmental spin meisters, the truth
remains that
much of the foundation and thrust of government's policies
within the last
five years have been at best confused.
Even NEPAD which is presented as a
flag of African initiative and which flag
President Obasanjo and his
lieutenants fly with so much relish seems to come
across substantially as an
impenetrable policy guide that is still very much
on the work.
Now,
even that piece of policy peg may come unstuck, courtesy of the
awkward
policy on Zimbabwe, which the countries of Southern Africa see as
a
betrayal.
Excerpt from The Vanguard, Nigeria
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/columns/c420012004.html
Zimbabwe’s
loss, Nigeria’s gain
Who says globetrotting does not pay? Those who have
criticized the president
over the years for his frequent trips round the
world apparently in search
of foreign investment and debt forgiveness have
just been proven to be
lacking in the golden virtue of patience. The farmers
are coming from
Zimbabwe, and it is not by fluke that they picked Nigeria.
Even though most
of the president’s trips took him in directions not on the
same side of the
world as Zimbabwe, and though the young Kwara State Governor
Bukola Saraki
it was who first made the invitation, such vivacious attempts
at PR must
have got something to do with it.
If Mugabe thinks he has
nothing to lose by letting go of all that expertise
and, worse still,
capital, it is because he hasn’t yet seen the full effects
of his
foolhardiness. In the meantime, Nigeria is enjoying seeing telecoms
and a lot
of information technology reduced to affordability and
availability before
our very eyes. There will be further reductions, more
availability, and more
hunger, unless someone does something about our food
situation.
The
investment of the White farmers will probably bring more funds into
the
sector than has ever been done, but the most immediate impact their
presence
will have is our acquisition of their already existing export
markets.
Competition will go up and the quality of agricultural production
will
immediately go up. New crop technologies which afford higher yield will
also
come with them, with their bitter and their sweet.
If they do come,
it will be the best thing by far that has happened to
Nigeria in a long
time.
SABC
EU pledges aid to save Zimbabwe food programme
January 20, 2004, 08:52 PM
The European Union said today it was
donating an additional 20 million
euros ($25 million) to shore up a flagging
UN food aid programme for
Zimbabwe, suffering economic crisis.
The EU said donors had now pledged 80% of the funds needed by the UN
World
Food Programme in Zimbabwe, which last month slashed rations for more
than
2.6 million Zimbabweans after global donors failed to come up with
enough
money.
"The additional funds are being made available to avoid any
serious
disruption in WFP operations that may have occurred because of delays
in the
receipt of product from other donors," the EU said in a
statement.
It added that the government of Zimbabwe needed to play its
part in
filling an estimated import gap of 1.28 million tonnes of cereal
during the
2003/04 marketing year.
The EU has been a consistent
critic of human rights violations in
Zimbabwe and the seizure of white owned
farms by the government of President
Robert Mugabe. While it has imposed
travel bans and an asset freeze on the
southern African country's political
leadership, the EU continues to offer
humanitarian aid to
Zimbabweans.
"We can begin to scale up distributions again. By
February the planned
monthly caseload could exceed four million people,"
WFP's Zimbabwe director
said in the EU statement. The new money takes the
total EU contribution to
Zimbabwe, including aid from member states, to 65
million euros since August
last year. - Reuters
New Zealand Herald
New land laws worry South African
farmers
14.01.2004
By BASILDON PETA
Seated behind his office desk,
Rhys Rolfe has the face of a frightened man.
The devastating drought
threatening to wipe out his vast plantations of
maize is a huge worry for the
South African farmer.
But he does not hide the fact that new land
expropriation laws planned by
the South African Government are an even bigger
worry. He is starting to
wonder whether his family has a future in
farming.
South African President Thabo Mbeki launched his re-election bid
amid an
outcry from the white farmers who fear he has ordered Zimbabwe-style
land
policies to bolster his chances of winning a second term.
The
farmers say they are outraged by amendments to the land restitution
law,
which come into force next month as Mbeki's re-election campaign
gathers
momentum.
The amendments, which Mbeki's Government said are
meant to expedite land
reform and reverse the legacy of apartheid, will
empower his Minister of
Land Affairs to expropriate land without a court
order and without the
landowner's agreement. Critics have attacked the
amendments as a carbon copy
of Zimbabwe's Land Acquisition Act, which
deprives farmers of legal recourse
once their land has been
confiscated.
Ian Grant, a farmer, said: "Once the role of the judiciary
in adjudicating
disputes is removed and politicians are given the power to
expropriate land,
then you are firmly on the Robert Mugabe
route."
Free State farmers don't disagree with the need for land reform
to address
the inequities of land ownership but they all vehemently oppose
the new
laws.
Rolfe's wife, Norma, shared her husband's pessimism. "We
thought we were
caretakers of these resources for our children and other
future generations.
We no longer see it that way."
Rolfe, 59, owns
6000ha of land. His family has farmed at their Huntersflay
Plantations since
1903. The land was legitimately bought by his ancestors,
but he admitted it
was not right for him to cling to his holdings amid the
cries for
redistribution.
"It's simply not right that a few white people own 80 per
cent of the
fertile land in a country with 40 million or so blacks," he said.
"There has
to be transformation. It's a question of how.
"The
Government's idea of just letting a minister take land at the stroke of
a pen
is just not on."
After the end of apartheid in 1994, the Government
pledged to transfer 30
per cent of white-owned land to blacks in five
years.
But 10 years later, only 2 per cent has been transferred. More
than nine of
every 10ha of commercial farmland remains in the hands of about
50,000 white
farmers. Since 1991 more than 1500 white farmers have been
killed, although
the Government attributes this to crime.
Rolfe is
prepared to give up some of his land but he emphasised he will not
"give
anything for nothing".
Unlike the Mugabe regime, Mbeki's Government has
promised to pay fair
compensation for expropriated land. But Rolfe believed
that was highly
unlikely.
The power of the courts to adjudicate
disputes and the rights of the farmer
to negotiate the acquisition of his
land were not guaranteed. He did not
want to lose the right to negotiate the
details of the amount of land and
which land to give up.
He did not
think the Government was serious about creating viable black
farmers. It had
not done much to prepare successful black farmers.
Neighbouring farmer
Chris Botha, 29, believed it was no coincidence that the
new laws were being
effected ahead of Mbeki's bid for re-election.
He did not believe the
Government arguments that the whole idea was to speed
up land reform and
restitution.
Mbeki's Government said critics who accuse South Africa of
following the
Mugabe model are narrow minded.
Land Affairs Minister
Thoko Didiza says the new amendments are meant to
avoid the violent land
seizures that have rocked Zimbabwe.
Mbeki's Government has promised not
to use the new law to settle scores or
to order arbitrary confiscations. But
the political opposition and farmers
are not convinced.