Zim Daily
Monday, January 23 2006 @ 12:05 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
The ruling Zanu PF party has
threatened to "deal" with the
United People's Party, a new political
movement formed by former Zanu PF
provincial chairman Daniel Shumba. Zanu PF
Masvingo provincial commissar
Dzikamai Mavhaire told a press conference in
Masvingo that plans by Shumba
to launch his party in Masvingo would not be
tolerated.
Shumba, the interim president of UPP, said last
week that his
party would officially be launched next month. He said its
interim executive
would be announced on February 15. The party symbol is
raised crossed palms.
"We have now formed the UPP and we expect to
officially launch it next month
when the full interim executive will be
announced," Shumba said. "
We have printed at least two
million membership cards and we are
getting an overwhelming response from
the people on the ground." But
Mavhaire said: "Zanu PF will not accept such
nonsense and Masvingo will not
be used as a spring board to launch sell out
political parties. We will deal
with him and his supporters of he has any."
Although Shumba did not reveal
members of the UPP interim executive, he said
they included prominent
opposition and civil society activists. He also said
his party was
recruiting people with solid political credentials to occupy
leadership
positions and build strong party structures.
Shumba, a former senior Zanu PF central committee member and
businessman,
formally resigned from the ruling party last week after he was
last year
suspended for five years over a power struggle that rocked Zanu PF
in the
run-up to the party's 2004 congress. Mavhaire told journalists that
Zanu PF
was the ruling party and noone had the right to challenge it. "He is
a
political prostitute," Mavhaire said. "We will not allow him to divide the
people of Masvingo and of Zimbabwe in general. We wont allow it to
happen."
But Shumba has already drafted a party constitution,
printed
membership cards, set up structures nationwide, and says he is ready
to
launch his party. The party also has a position paper outlining its
policies
and the current state of the nation. The document deals with
constitutional
and electoral law and other democratic reforms which the
party says are
desperately needed. It also addresses human rights issues
such as the
gukurahundi massacres and Operation Murambatsvina, land
redistribution,
macro-economics, food security, health, education and
foreign policy. It
says the UPP believes in a free market
economy.
The document says: "UPP pronounces the people's will
and a
mandate for saving the nation from further demise. Recent episodes
have
subjected the generality of Zimbabweans to poverty, hopelessness and
victims
of misrule, greed, brutality, terror, corruption and dictatorship.
"Zanu PF
is using fear and terror to subdue and disenfranchise the whole
country,
thus guaranteeing its grip on power. It is now an offence to speak
the
truth, criticise and have a different opinion." Shumba, a former senior
army
officer, said Zimbabwe was ruled by a despotic regime which has looted
the
economy dry. He said Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change were failed political parties despite their past commendable
contributions.
Zim Daily
Monday,
January 23 2006 @ 12:04 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
President Robert Mugabe is set to reshuffle his
development
cabinet, with some non performing senior government officials
set to be
fired and replaced by officials from the ruling party's women
league.
Speculation of an imminent reshuffle to forge a strong, resolute and
competent Cabinet has been rife over the past few weeks, but gained currency
last week when President Mugabe reportedly told his lieutenants during a
heated Politburo meeting that he would overhaul his
cabinet.
Although there were no indications as to who would
face the axe,
highly placed sources said the Zimbabwean leader, who is
turning 82 next
month, worked on the new list of ministers during his
traditional annual
leave and was likely to make it public within the next
fortnight. The
sources said President Mugabe could however be forced to make
a few changes
to his list in light of allegations of graft raised against
some of his
ministers and govenors. Zimdaily heard that Mugabe was eager to
have Senate
president Edna Madzongwe and one of the luminaries in the
women's league
Tracy Mutinhiri in the new look cabinet.
"President Mugabe said he would reshuffle the cabinet soon,"
said a senior
ZANU PF official. The permanent secretary in the Department of
Information
and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet, George
Charamba,
denied any knowledge of the reshuffle. "Who is saying that?
Rumours are
rumours, there is nothing I can do about rumour mongering," said
Charamba.
The reshuffle, sources said, is being considered as an option to
give a
fresh impetus to the government, which has been blamed for the
deteriorating
economic situation.
President Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe
since it attained
independence from Britain in 1980, is desperately trying
to win public
support to placate opposition parties that have vowed to roll
out mass
protests this year if conditions continued to deteriorate.
Zim Daily
Monday, January 23 2006 @ 12:03 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
In a bid to lure foreign investors and boost the
country's
tourism industry, the government has established 'Tourism
Development Zones'
(TDZs). A number of incentives which include tax holidays
and duty exemption
on goods imported by an investor for use in the zones
have been provided by
the government. Tourism Minister, Francis Nhema, said
the TDZs are meant to
fast track development in specific areas with tourism
potential.
The areas that have already been designated under
the TDZ
facility include Great Zimbabwe and surroundings, Chiredzi,
Gonarezhou
National Park and surroundings and Beitbridge-Shashe-Limpopo area
and its
surroundings. "To fast track tourism development in specific areas
that will
have been identified to have the potential, government has come up
with the
concept of Tourism Development Zones," Nhema said at the EU-SADC
Tourism
Investment Partnership Promotion workshop .
Nhema, who also called for foreign investors, said numerous and
rewarding
investment opportunities are vast in the national parks, tourist
resort
areas and communal areas. "Realizing that the world investment
climate
remains challenging due to the global events that negatively impact
on
tourism, the government of Zimbabwe is encouraging partnerships between
Zimbabweans and foreign investors." However, the tourism minister said that
the projects, that will be offered by the corporate and individual operators
in the sector, must not just be bankable but should also be
competitive.
Recently the government set aside a $190 billion
for renovations
of its lodges in the Gonarezhou and Hwange national parks.
Nhema said that a
staggering $100billion and $90billion had been disbursed
as capital for
refurbishments of lodge facilities in Gonarezhou and Hwange
respectively.
The money will be used for infrastructure overhaul to keep up
with
international hospitality standards. Zimbabwe is battling to revive the
tourism sector following dwindling tourist inflows. According to a report by
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), the tourism sector experienced a 27%
decline in tourist arrivals in the third quarter of 2005.
Total arrivals declined by 27% from 463 471 to 336 971 over the
comparative
period, with the biggest decline of 65% being recorded in
arrivals from
Asia. The number of tourists from China declined by a massive
89 percent in
the third quarter, compared to the same period in 2004.
Zim Daily
Monday,
January 23 2006 @ 12:02 AM GMT
Contributed by:
Zimdaily
All UK residents are being asked to submit suggestions
on MDC
policy review and ideology, in line with preparations for the MDC
congress
on March 17 -19. The MDC UK co-ordinator for the policy review and
ideology
committee, Jonathan Chawora, said this request was being made on
behalf of
the party leadership which aims to involve MDC members in Zimbabwe
and in
the Diaspora in updating the MDC policy document.
The national committee, chaired by Mrs Sekai Holland, is taking
submissions
from MDC structures inside the country and outside, and the UK
committee is
chaired by Chawora. He said following the breakaway by Welshman
Ncube and
his group, the MDC wanted to consult everyone to ensure that
everyone's
ideas were taken on board. Proposals have to be submitted by 30
January
2006, so there is not much time, but Chawora said members and
non-members
could make suggestions in the following areas or more: land and
agriculture,
water resources and the environment, economic policy, social
policy and
welfare, child welfare and youth policy, health, education,
criminal justice
system, the army, the police, the intelligence services and
the judiciary,
race and ethnic relations, corruption, foreign policy and
trade.
Given the short notice that we were given and the
fact that
suggestions are being sought from Zimbabweans across the world it
is
advisable that submissions should not be detailed but short sharp and
sweet,
otherwise the people who are looking at these submissions will not
have time
to read, said Chawora. Make submission to jchawora@yahoo.com.au
African News Dimension
Monday, 23 January 2006, 1 hour, 50 minutes and 37 seconds
ago.
By ANDnetwork Journalist
THE Government yesterday
dismissed as hostile a report by a United
States-based food trends
monitoring organisation which warns that the
country will face "worse" food
shortages this year.
The Minister of State for National
Security, Cde Didymus Mutasa, who
is also responsible for food security,
said the report by the Famine Early
Warning System Network (FEWSNET) was
typically hostile to Zimbabwe.
In its report for last month that
was issued this month, FEWSNET says
the shortage of inputs such as
fertilizer, fuel and seed is likely to worsen
the food supply situation in
the country this year.
It further claims that more than one million
people require urgent
food aid between this month and harvest time in
April.
"They are always hostile to us. You will find out that
instead of
sympathising with the plight of the people that was created by
the economic
sanctions that they imposed on us they use the economic
challenges to
criticise us," said Cde Mutasa.
"We have
shortages of inputs because we lack foreign currency to
import them and
other materials required in their manufacture. The foreign
currency shortage
is a result of sanctions that have also seen credit lines
to us (Zimbabwe)
being cut. There is no country that can operate the way
Zimbabwe is being
forced to do," he added.
Cde Mutasa said the difficulties the
country was facing were a direct
result of a deliberate anti-Zimbabwe
campaign by the West, including the US.
"They imposed sanctions on
us to harm the economy and then they go on
to criticise us over the state of
that same economy. What sort of people are
they? I do not understand the
logic."
The FEWSNET report says there are "increasing levels of
food
insecurity across the country".
"Household food access
remains a serious concern with large numbers of
the most vulnerable unable
to meet minimum food requirements," it said.
It adds that there is
a shortage of maize meal in retail outlets in
some parts of the country,
which has seen prices of the staple food rising.
Cde Mutasa said
the fact that the Government was importing food from
South Africa meant that
there are limited supplies of food locally.
"But I do not know
whether their figure of people in need of food aid
is correct. The
Government is providing food to the people and the United
Nations World Food
Programme is also involved.
Source: The Chronicle
Business Day
Foreign
Staff
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
International Monetary Fund (IMF) is sending a fact-finding delegation
to
Zimbabwe this week to gauge its economic performance, after narrowly
escaping expulsion from the world lending body last year.
Economists
are sceptical over whether the team will leave with favourable
impressions
after their six-day visit, starting tomorrow.
"They (IMF) will be very
concerned with the upsurge of inflation. The other
problem will be that the
government still maintains 18 products under price
controls," economic
commentator Eric Bloch said.
The IMF has threatened to expel Zimbabwe
from its ranks for failing to pay
back loans since 2001 and has given the
southern African country until next
month to settle its accounts.
In
December, Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa predicted economic growth of
between 2% and 3% for this year, forecasting that agricultural production
would grow 14,8%.
"They (the government) based their projections on
inflation declining but
inflation is continuously going up," said economist
John Robertson.
"Prospects of a bumper harvest are bleak, all these
things are not on track
and the IMF will challenge these things," he
said.
The visit comes as Zimbabwe made a new payment of $2,5m to the IMF
last
week.
In October, central bank governor Gideon Gono promised
that the remainder of
Zimbabwe's debt - about $144,3m - would be paid in two
instalments, next
month and in November this year.
On the brink of
expulsion last year, Zimbabwe made a surprise payment of
$120m to the IMF in
September, winning itself a six-month reprieve.
Without the payment,
Zimbabwe risked becoming the second country to be
kicked out of the IMF
since the former Czechoslovakia in 1954.
But given the country's dire
economic straits, the payments prompted
speculation as to their source, with
economists noting that Zimbabwe could
not afford to spare hard
currency.
The central bank, which has paid back $148m since February last
year, said
the money came mainly from "free funds" and export
earnings.
The IMF said it would investigate the source of the loan
payback and report
on its findings to the executive board in
March.
It has expressed "deep concern over the continued sharp economic
and social
decline in Zimbabwe, with prospects of continued triple-digit
inflation,
further output declines, and increased poverty".
About 80%
of Zimbabwe's 13-million population lives under the poverty
threshold, more
than 70% are jobless and inflation stands at 585,8%.
The IMF team will
meet Murerwa, Gono, business executives, bankers and
officials from the
labour movement.
The body has requested from Zimbabwe strong fiscal
adjustment, full
liberalisation of the exchange rate and elimination of all
quasifiscal
activity by the central bank.
When the IMF visited last
September, the central bank maintained a managed
foreign currency auction,
where the local unit traded at Z$26000 to the US
dollar.
The central
bank relaxed the exchange rate in October last year, and this
week the
Zimbabwe dollar was trading at Z$95000 to the US dollar.
Economist
Witness Chinyama said the country had a long way to go in winning
the battle
with high inflation and foreign currency shortages. With Sapa-AFP
Zim Standard
By Foster Dongozi
THE
Attorney General's Office has ordered police to arrest and charge Zanu
PF
praise singer and leader of Destiny of Africa Network, Obadiah Musindo,
for
allegedly raping his maid five times.
The AG's Office has stamped its
authority despite concerted police efforts
to protect the "Reverend" who has
presided over State occasions at the
Heroes' Acre.
The Director for
Public Prosecutions, Loyce Moyo, told The Standard that
police had submitted
an incomplete docket to the AG's office for a legal
opinion.
She
said: "We found that rather unusual because how could they send us an
incomplete docket and then ask for a legal opinion? They had not even
questioned the accused. The normal procedure is for the police to send us a
completed docket and if there is no evidence, then we can decline to
prosecute."
In a move that has thrown the credibility of the police
into doubt, a female
police officer who was investigating the alleged rape,
Inspector Mathuthu,
was removed from the case.
Usually vocal women
and children's organisations were afraid to pursue
Musindo's case because of
his perceived Zanu PF and government links.
Although the alleged rape
occurred in July 2005, police have not even
questioned Musindo, who lives in
a two-bedroom government flat at St
Francis' Flats in Belvedere.
The
maid was recruited from an employment exchange by Diva Dick, Musindo's
assistant and taken to Musindo's offices at the Sheraton Hotel, before being
taken to St Francis' Flats where she was allegedly raped five
times.
"Proceed to charge the accused person (Obadiah Musindo) for rape
and record
a warned and cautioned statement from him. Charge accused person
for rape,"
reads an opinion from the AG's Office.
Attorney General,
Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, told The Standard during an
interview: "The AG's Office
is not in the business of suppressing cases. If
anything, it is in the
business of ensuring that cases are taken to their
logical
conclusion."
However, Assistant Commissioner Elliot Simbi in a letter to
the AG tried his
best to defend Musindo, saying the maid may have cherished
having the
accused's baby.
Zim Standard
By Walter Marwizi and Davison
Maruziva
PROPERTY owners adjacent to President Robert Mugabe's lush
retirement
mansion near Borrowdale Brooke have been asked to move out, The
Standard has
learnt.
Owners, reeling from the shock of the notices,
said they were at a loss as
to what to do. Several said they had lived there
for a long time. There was
obvious fear, among those The Standard spoke
to.
Scores of plush houses on the western side of the palatial mansion in
Borrowdale Brook overlook the retirement mansion.
Last week the
owners received letters from the Ministry of Local Government,
Public Works
and Urban Development, informing them that their properties
fell within a
security zone and that they were required to leave.
A copy of the letter
in possession of The Standard is dated 11 January 2006.
It is headed:
Proposed acquisition of property by Governmet (sic) and is
addressed to "The
House owner".
It has the reference "Helen".
It reads: "This serves
to advise you that your property falls within a
designated security area in
terms of General Notice Number 255 of 2004.
"As a result this office has
been instructed to enter into negotiations with
you, with a view to the
acquisition of the property by Government.
"We will therefore be
contacting you soon to arrange for inspection of your
property for valuation
purposes."
The letter is signed by L Chimba of the Ministry of Local
Government's
Valuations and Estates Management Department.
What has
puzzled many of the owners is the decision to turn the area around
the
mansion into a security zone when their properties pre-date construction
of
Mugabe's retirement residence.
They said if the intention was to provide
a security curtain around the
mansion it should have been built far away
from other residential
properties.
One couple that declined
identification said: "We have been here 25 years
and to think they want us
to go. Where can we move to?"
The couple is concerned that it is the
government, instead of private
property consultants, that wants to undertake
the valuation of the
properties ostensibly for the purposes of compensation.
They pointed out
that commercial farmers whose farms were acquired by the
State since the
chaotic land invasions in 2000 were still awaiting
compensation.
But they also doubted the capacity of the government to pay
for the
properties saying the government was abandoning "Operation
Garikai/Hlalani
Kuhle" because it did not have the resources to continue
with the programme.
Construction of the oriental styled mansion,
occupying two hectares began
between 2001 and 2002. It has three floors,
many bedrooms, a media centre
and overlooks a dam and a 20-hectare garden.
It is ring-fenced by a
four-metre high security wall.
One of Mugabe's
neighbours who spoke to The Standard said although he had
not seen the
letter, more than a year ago an approach had been made asking
whether he
would be prepared to move out.
The response the government was given then
was: "Yes, provided it is on a
willing-seller, willing-buyer
basis."
The owner had since heard nothing until neighbours began
whispering about
the evictions last week.
But others reacted angrily
to the eviction notices saying because the
mansion was a retirement home,
Mugabe would be a private citizen and would
revert to being like anyone
else. They cited cases of Bakili Muluzi, former
President of Malawi and
Nelson Mandela, the first President of a democratic
South Africa, whose
residences do not have a security curtain around them.
Other property
owners were worried about the effect of the eviction notices
on property
values around the palatial mansion in particular, and the impact
on rentals
in the city in general.
In May last year nearly one million Zimbabweans
were rendered homeless after
a government clean-up operation. Until last
week the clean up operation had
left Zimbabwe's elite largely unaffected.
The operation resulted in the
escalation of on rentals.
A leading
attorney, commenting on the eviction notices said yesterday: "From
a legal
point of view, it sounds like a minefield. It would be different if
it was
designated agricultural land, which they can acquire under
Constitutional
Amendment No 17."
Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development
minister Ignatious
Chombo whose ministry issued the letters could not be
reached for comment
yesterday. His phone kept on ringing without being
answered.
But the Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land
Reform and
Resettlement, Didymus Mutasa, said he was not aware that people
would be
moved from the area around Mugabe's retirement mansion.
Zim Standard
By our staff
POLICE
officers from the Law and Order section were yesterday hunting for
two Voice
of the People (VOP) radio station trustees, Nhlanhla Ngwenya and
Arnold
Tsunga.
Otto Saki, of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR),
yesterday told
The Standard that police descended at the homes of trustees
of the
privately-owned radio station.
At around 10AM yesterday, about
half a dozen plain clothes police officers
went to Ngwenya's house, where
the maid told them he had gone to the shops.
Two of them entered the house,
while the rest went to look for Ngwenya at
the shops. When it became evident
Ngwenya would not be back soon, the
officers ordered the maid to call
Ngwenya's wife and inform her they were
confiscating a television and radio
set.
When The Standard news crew arrived at the house, the officers had
just left
but without taking anything. At Tsunga's house, they took away a
driver and
a gardener.
"They arrested ZLHR driver, Anesu Kamba, and
Arnold (Tsunga)'s gardener."
said Saki yesterday afternoon. "I have been to
a number of police stations,
but I cannot find them."
In December
last year, police officers raided VOP offices in Harare where
they arrested
three reporters, and later, the executive director of the
station, John
Masuku.
Meanwhile our Mutare correspondent reports that Sydney Saize, a
Manicaland-based journalist arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of
violating the draconian Zimbabwean media laws, was released from police
custody yesterday morning after the State indicated it would proceed by way
of summons.
Saize, a former reporter of The Daily News and The
Eastern Star newspapers
in Mutare, both banned by the government, was
arrested in the city centre on
Wednesday afternoon and detained by members
of the Criminal Investigation
Department.
His lawyer, Innocent
Gonese, said yesterday he had successfully made an
urgent application "to
compel the State to bring" Saize before the court.
The State, he said, was
"dragging its feet" in bringing the matter before
the courts, saying further
investigations were under way.
"Saize spent three nights in police
custody and there was a likelihood he
would spend another two until Monday
morning before appearing in court,"
Gonese told The Standard shortly after
the reporter walked out a free man.
Zim Standard
By Caiphas
Chimhete
OUTGOING Chegutu mayor, Francis Dhlakama, is entangled in a
property wrangle
that could scupper his chances of re-election in the March
mayoral polls,
after accusations that he corruptly secured a stand in the
town. Opposing
affidavits filed in the High Court by a Chegutu businessman,
Chikazhe
Mubaiwa, say Dhlakama of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
used his
influence to wrest a 4 000 square metre stand from
him.
Mubaiwa says: "The applicant (Dhlakama) by virtue of being the mayor
abused
his position and drew up power of property to himself without the
knowledge
of council."
The revelations came after Dhlakama, whose term of
office expired in
December, filed a High Court order to evict Mubaiwa from
stand number 1081
Chegutu, claiming he is the rightful owner of the
property.
Both parties have signed agreements of sale with the
municipality but
Mubaiwa claims Dhlakama acquired the stand
unprocedurally.
The matter is set to be heard by High Court Judge Justice
Elphias Chitakunye
tomorrow.
In an affidavit Dhlakama says: "The
respondent (Mubaiwa) is in unlawful
occupation of my property and in the
circumstances I pray for an order" to
have Mubaiwa evicted from the
stand.
Dhlakama says he bought the stand and the transfer was effected on
29 May
2003 and in this regard has attached a copy of the Deed of Transfer
as
Annexure "B".
"The respondent shall vacate the premises known as
stand number 1081,
Chegutu township within seven days of the granting of the
order failing of
which the Deputy Sheriff shall evict him," says
Dhlakama.
But Mubaiwa says Dhlakama signed an agreement of sale
unprocedurally because
the municipality did not give him an offer letter.
Apart from that, Mubaiwa
says, the council never resolved to allocate the
stand to Dhlakama.
The property was initially allocated to a Mr F Z
Ganjani but was repossessed
by council in 2002 after he failed to develop
it. After repossession,
Mubaiwa said, he was offered the property and paid
$160 000.
Mubaiwa says transfer of ownership of the stand to him was
confirmed by an
ordinary council meeting in February 2003, which was chaired
by Dhlakama.
"It must be noted that the applicant, being the council's
executive mayor,
chaired the meeting at which this decision (to offer
Mubaiwa the stand) was
made," says Mubaiwa.
In September 2003, a
Chegutu magistrate court ruled that Mubaiwa was the
owner of the property
after Dhlakama failed to turn up for a hearing.
However, Dhlakama last year
filed an order with the High Court seeking
Mubaiwa's eviction.
The
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has announced that elections to choose a
new
mayor for Chegutu will be held on 4 March.
Zim Standard
By Deborah-Fay
Ndlovu
AGRICULTURE industry could be headed for a doom this season amid
reports
from farmers that the country is still to meet production targets.
Producers
have reduced targets for cotton and tobacco while only 2,5 million
hectares
have been planted for grain, a figure falling short of the
projected 4
million hectares.
Land tenure and security issues are
also hanging over the future of the
industry with farmer organisations
saying a full recovery would not be
attainable without "proper" lease
agreements.
Farmer organisations said the shortage of foreign currency had
compounded
the problem, hindering producers from meeting
targets.
"Acute shortages of foreign currency impacted negatively on
agriculture.
There were not enough spares. We are net importers of
agro-chemicals and
machinery and the sure way to agriculture is irrigation
but you cannot have
that without foreign currency," said the Zimbabwe
Farmers' Union's Director
Dzarira Kwenda.
"What limited us was also
the seed. Government went on to import but we did
not get to the target of 4
million hectares for grain. Fuel shortages and
lack of inputs hampered
tillage."
He believes that the 2,5 million hectares planted so far would
be able to
produce 1,7 tonnes of grain, which still falls short of the
targeted 2
million tonnes to ensure food security.
"We need 2 million
tonnes of grain, then we can be home and dry. This will
enable us to meet
demand for stockfeed, starch for newspaper industry and
human consumption,"
said the ZFU director. Millet, rapoko, sorghum and maize
are classified as
grain.
Agriculture has been on a free fall since the introduction of the
Land
Reform Programme in 2000.
Economic problems that have bedeviled
Zimbabwe have also contributed to the
decline of the industry but Commercial
Farmers' Union vice president, Trevor
Gifford said security of tenure had
hampered investment and future growth of
the industry more.
"We have
always been talking to government and are still awaiting their
response.
They have said they are going through the 99-year lease route but
they are
still to implement," said Gifford.
"Nobody knows if the land they have
will be theirs tomorrow and the reality
is that agriculture will not be
productive if these conflicts have not been
resolved. Who can invest, white,
black or foreigner if they do not know if
they are going to be there
tomorrow," he said.
He said his union was still to assess crop production
for the season but
indications were that "it will not be
successful".
"There is a lot of late planted crop and possibly that wont
be successful.
There has been a considerable shortage of fertiliser and the
crop is looking
yellow. The weed could also hinder the growth of the crop.
We will make full
assessment in six weeks time at tussling stage," he
said.
Cotton and tobacco will not be redeemed this season after hailstorm
and
input shortages destroyed tobacco seedlings.
Zimbabwe Tobacco
Growers' Trust chairman, Wilfanos Mashingaidze said they
would be lucky to
achieve 50 million kgs. The initial target for the crop
was 120 million kgs.
Cotton farmers have also revised their target to 300
000 tonnes from 400 000
tonnes.
Zim Standard
By Valentine Maponga
HOUSES
belonging to a spirit medium in the Nyabira area were burnt down and
property dumped along Chinhoyi road on Thursday as disturbances in the newly
resettled farms continued.
The Standard news crew on Friday found
Kretty Kanyonganise, a spirit medium
from Zvimba sitting helplessly with her
two young children. The older one is
disabled and cannot walk.
The spirit
medium who said she had been advised by chiefs in Zvimba to
settle at Plot 6
at Ballineety farm at the height of the farm invasions in
2000 watched
helplessly as her houses were destroyed.
The eviction follows a court
ruling declaring Alexander Dzenga, an official
with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs who got an offer letter for the same
plot, the legal owner of the
disputed property.
"Nyaya yedu yanga ichigadziriswa nemadzishe, saka
tanga takangomirira.
Munongozivawo nyaya dzemasvikiro dzinonetsa. (Our case
was being handled by
the chiefs)," said Kanyonganise referring to Chief
Zvimba.
However, she said the chiefs failed to get official confirmation
from the
government that the plot was legally hers.
"Right now, I
don't know what we are going to do but I know the gods see all
this and they
are not stupid," she said pensively.
Kanyonganise's husband, Croweight
Ncube, said he was disturbed by the
developments at the farm.
Ncube
said: "As a war veteran, it pains me to be treated this way. I have
realised
that most of my colleagues from ZIPRA are finding it very difficult
to
survive. Right now, I am just taking my family back to Chinhoyi and I
will
take action from there."
ZIPRA was the late Joshua Nkomo's PF Zapu
aligned army during the 1970s
liberation war that ended colonial rule in
Zimbabwe.
Ncube alleges that Paul Muguti, Dzenga's farm manager who
arrived at the
farm accompanied by the Messenger of Court torched the
houses. Muguti
however refused to talk to The Standard when it sought
comment from him.
Simbarashe Dzenga, a brother to Alexander, who accused
The Standard news
crew of siding with their adversaries, said they resorted
to the courts
because the "family had refused to co-operate".
He said
they were granted an order by the High Court barring Ncube and his
family
from the farm.
Meanwhile, a commercial farmer from Chegutu has been given
until Tuesday 24
January to vacate Wantage farm amid revelations that the
farm was allocated
to another new owner identified as Shoko
Mudavanhu.
The affected farmer, Dirk Visagie, said he bought the farm as
a foreign
investor in 2001. He obtained a letter of "no interest" from
government and
this is dated 12 May 2001, but a substantial portion of the
farm has already
been acquired.
"Mudavanhu arrived on Friday 20
January accompanied by his wife, a
policewoman and a lands officer. They
informed us that we would have to
vacate the property within four
days.
"The interest is not in the land, on which tomatoes, flowers,
cabbage and
paprika are grown with financing from the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, but the
main farm homestead. Mr Mudavanhu, accompanied by youths,
have repeatedly
threatened my family and workers with violence and disrupted
farming
operations," Visagie said.
He said the paprika is grown on
the farm for export, with a turnover of
around 1 million Euros.
"In
January 2005, after obtaining permission from the local lands committee,
we
planted a crop of sunflowers. We then went on to secure a productive
sector
loan from the Reserve Bank to grow and sell tomatoes under contract
for
Heinz (Olivine Industries)," said Visagie, who said a lot of his
property
had been dumped outside in past weeks.
Efforts to get comment from
Mudavanhu proved fruitless but the Commercial
Farmers' Union confirmed
receiving reports of the disturbances.
The organisation has appealed to
authorities to urgently bring stability and
predictability back to the
agricultural sector, so that all farmers can play
their role in restoring
food security and contributing to the recovery of
the economy.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
JOURNALISTS from The Standard, covering a dispute at a farm in
Nyabira were
on Friday accused of having performed rituals at the property.
Paul Muguti,
the farm manager of Alexander Dzenga who was given an offer
letter for Plot
6, Ballineety Farm, demanded that the three journalists
remove the spell
they had cast on the farm. The new owner is locked in a
wrangle with Kretty
Kanyonganise, a spirit medium.
The crew met
Muguti on their way from the farm and unsuccessfully tried to
seek comment
from him.
Muguti, who was driving an Isuzu KB registration Number 775-012D,
followed
the crew and blocked their way, demanding the crew return to the
farm and
"remove all the dirt" he had seen.
"Can we go back together
and you can remove all the dirt you have left
behind. You can't get into
other people's homes and perform rituals without
their consent," Muguti
charged.
The crew declined and instead suggested they go to the
police.
The police at Nyabira Police Station however dismissed Muguti's
allegations
saying: "Nyaya dzewitchcraft dzinonetsa."
Zim Standard
By Foster
Dongozi
WHILE Zanu PF senior officials have been helping themselves to
large tracts
of prime commercial farms, the widow of the late General Josiah
Magama
Tongogara, Angeline Kumbirai, was left in the cold as she has not
benefited
from the land redistribution exercise.
Most of
Tongogara's colleagues in the liberation war trenches now own land,
touted
as the supreme prize of Zimbabwe's uhuru but his widow said: "No, my
family
was not able to benefit from the recent land reform exercise."
General
Tongogara or Comrade Tongo, as he was affectionately known by his
colleagues, is credited with plotting the military defeat of Ian Smith's
regime as commander of ZANLA, the military wing of ZANU.
General
Nikita Mangena, who died in equally suspicious circumstances, was
the
commander of ZIPRA forces, linked to the late Joshua Nkomo's PF,
Zapu.
Zanu PF officials awarded themselves more than one farm each with
reported
cases of others grabbing farms for themselves, their wives and
children.
Tongogara was very passionate about the land during the
liberation struggle
and indicated that he would become a farmer as soon as
he delivered
independence to Zimbabwe.
His widow said: "I now fend
for my family working in the informal sector.
Although the late General
Tongogara's contribution to the liberation effort
of Zimbabwe was
extraordinarily phenomenal, I have lived a normal widow's
life."
She
did not say which informal sector she was involved in.
When asked if she
was not bitter that she was watching from the sidelines
while her comrades
were sharing the national cake. Her response was: "Many
were called but few
were chosen."
She also commented on the death of her husband in a
mysterious car crash on
26 December 1979 while returning to Zimbabwe at the
end of the liberation
war.
"I only know the official version because
that's what I was told and I was
not with him on the fateful day in
question," she said.
On why she had not sought to take advantage of her
husband's high profile to
seek public office as happened with Victoria, the
widow of former ZANU
chairman, Herbert Chitepo, she said: "Though it
appeared to have been the
proper thing, looking after five children from a
young age alone was not all
that easy and I needed all time and energy to
carry us through." She is a
freedom fighter in her own right.
She
also commented on the recent memorial service which the family held in
honour of the late national hero where the family did not invite Zanu PF and
government officials.
"General Tongogara's liberation war colleagues
in Zanu PF and government
were not invited to this occasion because we all
felt that it be a family
affair this time around. "Mainly for the above
reason, the family settled on
seeking solace from the Almighty God and
instead requested a memorial
service from the Anglican Cathedral in Harare
which I attend and we felt
highly honoured when they accepted to hold a mass
at home in his honour."
When asked what she thinks about marginalisation
of Tongogara among people
awarded Silver Jubilee awards, among others,
Herbert Chitepo and Jason
Ziyapapa Moyo, she said she respected the
decision.
"General Tongogara had his liberation war colleagues who are
the best to
decide whether he does or doesn't deserve such accolades. It was
a political
decision and I go by it."
She said: "The death of my
husband represented an immeasurable loss,
considering that the war was over
and (we were) ready to come home to a free
Zimbabwe and then such a tragedy
happens. Imagine losing someone you loved
very much and thought would live
together for a lifetime."
Before agreeing to grant The Standard an
interview, she displayed a healthy
suspicion for people prying into her
life.
"Why do you want to write about Tongogara 26 years after his death?
Nobody
had held a memorial service for him in all those years and as a
family we
decided to hold one for him," she said.
She was very
cautious about who she would grant the interview."Ndiyani
muridzi we
Standard? Ndi Ibbo? (Who owns The Standard, is it Ibbo
(Mandaza)?"
Zim Standard
By
Godfrey Mutimba
MASVINGO - A serious shortage of drugs in most rural
clinics has adversely
affected the provision of health services to the rural
population amid
reports that patients are travelling long distances to
provincial referral
centres, The Standard has learnt.
A survey
carried out by The Standard in Masvingo showed that patients from
as far as
Gutu and Chiredzi were returning home without medication because
of the
shortages and were resorting to Masvingo general hospital, which is
equally
struggling due to a severe shortage of staff and drugs.
When The Standard
visited Chin'ombe hospital at Bhasera business centre in
Gutu, scores of
patients who appeared hopeless said they were spending
several days without
receiving treatment as they were told to wait for the
drugs.
Sekai
Mafuratidze, a patient, said: "We have been here for four days now but
we
haven't received any treatment because they are no drugs. "
Patients are
travelling distances of more than 30 km on foot in order to
seek medical
attention at Chin'ombe hospital after being turned away by
their nearest
clinics.
Some come from as far as Chin'ai in Munyikwa communal area and
at Chin'ombe
they are referred to Gutu Mission hospital where they are
further referred
to Masvingo, more than 150 km away.
A senior nurse
at the hospital who declined to be named said they last
received stocks of
drugs for diseases such as TB and other chronic
infections last year in
October and were having problems keeping patients at
the hospital, when they
do not have drugs to treat them.
"We are facing a serious shortage of
drugs and this is making life difficult
for us as it is difficult to keep
patients when we know that we can't treat
them. The most affected are the TB
patients who need to complete their
courses without fail, we however refer
them to bigger institutions like Gutu
Mission or Masvingo," she
said.
However because of high bus fares being charged due to continued
fuel woes
or sometimes lack of transport, most villagers can't afford to
travel to
Masvingo and just return quietly to rural homes to die because of
no
assistance.
A Standard news crew also visited Masvingo general
hospital and found
stranded patients from other districts waiting to receive
treatment.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
TEACHERS have taken a unilateral decision not to pay school fees
for their
children at government schools with immediate effect, a move they
are now
communicating to headmasters throughout the country.
The
Standard established that teachers' representative organisations have
already written to the Secretary for Education, Sport and Culture, Dr Steven
Mahere, notifying him of the decision for all teachers not to pay school
fees.
Teachers said they will not back down on the resolution they passed
during a
meeting held in Harare a fortnight ago until government reviewed
upwards the
"meagre" 231 percent salary increment it awarded to
teachers.
In a letter sent to Mahere dated 7 January 2006 and signed by
the Progress
Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, secretary general, Raymond
Majongwe, the
teachers said as a result of the poor salaries they had no
option except to
insist on the school fees exemption.
"We would like
to place it on record that teachers are extremely
disappointed by the recent
salary awards by government. As a result our
members have resolved that in
order for them to make ends meet they wish to
be exempted from the payment
of school fees for their children at government
schools with effect from the
first term of 2006.
"Please note that we are already implementing this
resolution and urge you
to inform headmasters of government schools not to
expel teachers' children
for failing to pay school fees," reads part of the
letter sent to the
ministry.
Majongwe said the teachers had no option
but to make the unilateral decision
and inform the government
later.
"With immediate effect no teacher with a child at a government
school would
pay school fees, we are asking government to do what it did for
war
veterans' children and it is not asking for too much if we ask them to
do
that for teachers," Majongwe told The Standard.
He said teachers
have realised that whenever they ask for money government
always alleges
that the huge teacher's salary bill will fuel inflation and
hence teachers
were now asking for other packages.
"No headmaster should dismiss a
teachers' child for failing to pay school
fees, teachers can not afford to
send their children to school with the
current salaries," Majongwe
said.
Majongwe indicated that teachers would go for a job action after
they have
received their January salaries.
"The minimum figure we
were working on before negotiations was an 836
percent salary increment and
the government only gave us a mere 231 percent
and we are saying that is
unacceptable and teachers will make a decision
next week after receiving
their January salaries on the way forward,"
Majongwe said.
Teachers
together with other civil servants are living far below the poverty
datum
line and the rising inflation has not helped matters as more teachers
leave
the country for greener pastures.
"The PTUZ unequivocally rejects the
salary award of 231 percent and condemns
staff associations who signed in
agreement with the government," reads some
of the teachers'
resolutions.
The teachers also resolved to hold more consultative
meetings in Harare,
Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Masvingo ahead of the
planned job action this
month.
The Zanu PF national conference last
year in Esigodini recommended that
teacher's salaries be raised drastically,
raising hopes among the largest
civil service grouping in the
country.
Zim Standard
By Caiphas
Chimhete
DOES the Sekesai Makwavarara-led commission have the aptitude to
normalise
operations in the city? - this is the question uppermost in the
minds of
many Harare residents since the flamboyant ex-MDC member was
appointed the
acting mayor of Harare following the dismissal of her former
boss, Elias
Mudzuri.
Mudzuri was fired by the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and
Urban Development, Ignatious Chombo, for
alleged mismanagement of city
affairs. His executive was replaced by a
commission now led by Makwavarara.
With Mudzuri out of Town House, the
residents have watched Harare, once one
of the cleanest cities in Africa,
degenerate into a cesspool of waste and
rodents. The provision of clean
water has become erratic; refuse has not
been collected while frequent
bursts of raw sewage pipes have resulted in
the outbreak of water-borne
diseases.
The recent outbreak of cholera, which claimed 14 lives, is
clear testimony
of how Harare - once dubbed the Sunshine city - has
degenerated at the hands
of the government-appointed
commission.
Several commentators and residents who spoke to The Standard
last week
doubted the commission, which was handpicked by Chombo, had the
capacity to
turnaround the fortunes of Harare.
They said the
commission, whose term of office has been extended several
times, would not
succeed in restoring normalcy in Harare unless the
government addressed
issues of poor governance and economic meltdown.
John Makumbe, a
University of Zimbabwe political scientist, said the
commissioners lacked
the skills, mandate and financial resources to
transform Harare into a
habitable place.
He said: "Their (commissioners) calibre is suspect. All
of them have no
experience in governance of urban authorities. Theirs is
literally a trial
and error exercise."
Makumbe said the shortage of
foreign currency, a scarce resource key to the
turnaround strategy, was
another major impediment.
It was lack of insight and competence, said
Makumbe that the commission
failed to realise that before the rains come
they needed to fill up potholes
and collect garbage to avoid waterborne
diseases.
Apart from that, the council recently suspended key council
officials for
opposing a discredited turnaround strategy by the
municipality's strategist,
Chester Mhende. This seriously compromised the
operations of the city,
analysts said.
Among those affected are
chamber secretary Josephine Ncube, director of
works Psychology Chiwanga and
director of housing and community services
Numero Mubaiwa.
Mike
Davies, the chairman of the Combined Harare Residents' Association
(Chra),
attributed the fall in service provision to political interference
in
council affairs by government.
He described the commissioners as
"political stooges" who lacked the
technical know-how and financial
support.
Davies said: "The commission has no capacity at all. They are
not
technocrats. Makwavarara has no professional qualification. (Jameson)
Kurasha is an academic and (Terrence) Hussein a lawyer, what would you
expect?"
Makumbe concurred adding: "Their major qualification is that
they are Zanu
PF. Apart from that they have no idea of what they are
doing."
The president of the Zimbabwe Institute of Regional and Urban
Planning
(ZIRUP), Dr Sasha Jogi, criticised the commission for not informing
the
public about what they are doing.
He added: "The complexity of
the city demands that they create a plan about
how they want to turnaround
the city. It's a fallacy to expect them to
turnaround the city in a short
time. Let's give them time."
But Davies said the commissioners lacked the
drive to address the crisis
because they do not have the mandate from the
people.
Instead of taking action against the commission, Chombo appointed
an
additional team to help it in what analysts said was a cover-up for the
commission's dismal failure.
This is in sharp contrast to the swift
move that Chombo made in firing
elected mayors of Mutare and Chitungwiza,
Misheck Kagurabadza and Misheck
Shoko, respectively as well as
Mudzuri.
In 1999, the former Zanu PF mayor for Harare, Solomon Tawengwa,
was fired
after the city went for five days without water.
"Why
doesn't Chombo suspend Makwavarara? If Bob (President Robert Mugabe) is
clever, he must fire Chombo. Otherwise all the problems will be blamed on
him," Makumbe said.
Just recently, the commission also blundered when
it relocated the vegetable
market from Mbare to the City Sports Centre,
where conditions are not
conducive. The area has become muddy and there are
no enough sanitary
facilities, exposing more people to
diseases.
Commissioner Tendai Savanhu refused to comment referring all
questions to
council spokesperson, Madenyika Magwenjere, who could not be
reached.
Zim Standard
By our
correspondent
CHINHOYI - Angered by Chinhoyi council's failure to deliver
services to
residents and council's poor financial accountability, Local
Government
Minister, Dr Ignatious Chombo, dressed down the council's acting
town clerk,
Abel Gotora, accusing him of "an MDC spirit of
lethargy".
Addressing Chinhoyi councillors, Chombo used the meeting
to announce the
reinstatement of suspended Housing director, Ezekiel
Muringani, and declared
that he had "finished dealing with all wayward
MDC-led councils last year."
In expressing his displeasure about Chinhoyi
council, Chombo announced that
the town would not be accorded city status
because of its incompetence at
delivering services and financial
accountability.
Chombo blasted the councillors for being lazy and lacking
in vision and
innovative leadership. Among the issues that irked him was the
late
submission of the proposed budget for approval by his
ministry.
But Chombo admitted that despite his hard line stance against
MDC-led
mayors, local authorities run by the ruling party, Zanu PF, were
struggling.
During question and answer sessions, councillors said despite
objections to
the proposed budget by residents, Chinhoyi council had already
implemented
the budget although it has not been approved.
In a throw
back to the colonial era, Chombo said people who have no business
in towns
should not live in urban areas.
Zim Standard
By
our correspondent
MUTARE - Municipal workers in this eastern border city,
who for long have
endured chaotic paydays, are now poised to receive their
salaries promptly -
beginning this month, if promises by their employer on
Friday are anything
to go by.
The government-appointed commission,
which is running the city's affairs,
has also instructed the council's
management to review the salaries of
workers in the lowest grades as well as
carry out an across-the-board
cost-of-living salary adjustment for the
entire workforce.
Kenneth Saruchera, the chairman of the seven-member
commission, said: "We're
hoping the basic wage, currently $1.6 million for
the least paid worker, can
be revised upwards to at least $6.5
million."
However, even if implemented, the new $6.5 million basic rate
would still
fall far short of the $17 million a month basic salary under the
country's
poverty datum line.
The government earlier this month
approved the Mutare City Council's $708.5
billion revenue and expenditure
budget, a large proportion of which will go
towards the salaries bill in the
just started fiscal year.
Saruchera, who is the regional director for the
Zimbabwe Open University
(ZOU), did not disclose how the cash-strapped
council proposes to fund the
cost-of-living adjustments and meet a stringent
payroll schedule.
The Standard however, heard that securing a bank
overdraft facility is a
distinct possibility, especially in the wake of a
flurry of meetings last
week between council officers and representatives of
financial institutions.
Local Government Minister Ignatious Chombo, who
appointed the commissioners,
promised the council billions of dollars in
central government funds,
including $50 billion for the water reticulation
system.
Despite the commissioners' obvious eagerness to mollify their
employees and,
hopefully in the process, win over a majority of the city's
citizenry to its
side, the seven-member team faces a monumental task in its
attempt to
turn-around the city's infrastructure and financial
system.
Meanwhile, the commission must also deal with political
considerations,
especially in the light of the controversy that surrounded
its appointment -
deemed by many to have been a political decision at the
highest echelons of
government.
One resident said after the meeting:
"You have to weigh the commissioners'
actions so far with the controversy
surrounding their appointment. They are
aware they must win the hearts of
the workforce before they try to woo
residents."
The commission's
proposals, apparently cobbled together during marathon
meetings at Civic
Centre last week, are an obvious booster to employees,
whose sagging morale
was close to hitting the lowest ebb.
The jury, meanwhile, remains out on
whether or not Saruchera and his
colleagues are ready - let alone will and
capable - to rescue the city, once
the pride of the Eastern Highlands, from
the prevailing economic malaise.
But Saruchera, a former councillor and
deputy mayor, said: "We're ready to
roll. We're appealing for a real
partnership with all stakeholders,
regardless of political affiliation, to
make this city work... and we'll do
it."
Optimists, both within and
outside council suggest the commission's apparent
generosity probably
signals an imminent transformation of the city into
financial rejuvenation -
perhaps preparing it to reclaim its lost glory as a
locomotive of economic
growth.
But not so, counters the pessimists, among them members and
supporters of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who in
interviews
portrayed the commission's turnaround proposals as shrewd
manoeuvres to
drown a steady drumbeat of negative media coverage that has
accompanied
Chombo's appointments - not only in Mutare but in other urban
centres as
well.
"It's unfortunate people are reading too much
politics into our operations.
Our first and foremost objective is to
turn-around the city for everyone's
benefit," said Saruchera, who is the
ruling party's provincial spokesperson.
But there is a strong belief
among a considerable segment of the population
that the government
deliberately sabotaged the MDC-elected city
administration, including the
six-month suspension of the mayor and his
councillors.
Misheck
Kagurabadza, the mayor, and all the MDC councillors have all
resigned. Two
other city officials were suspended - the town treasurer and
his deputy also
resigned from the council last week.
Zim Standard
Comment
THE proposal to privatise and unbundle the National Railways of
Zimbabwe
(NRZ) is nothing more than an attempt to defuse a problem and in
the process
assuage public anger at declining customer service, rampant
neglect of
equipment, and total lack of a sense of how to redirect the
parastatal
towards viability.
What the NRZ needs first is an overhaul
and, secondly, people with some idea
of how to run the organisation in a
sound professional manner. Any attempt
to do otherwise will be doomed to
fail. The only privatisation that will
work for the NRZ is one where the
assets are sold off and handed over to
different entities free from the
clutches of government interference.
There is a self-evident argument for
such a drastic recommendation. A visit
to places such as the railway station
in Harare will reveal old stock in a
deplorable condition, worsened by
neglect. It is doubtful whether in other
countries current NRZ equipment
would be allowed to continue to ferry people
and goods. There is no evidence
of refurbishment or regular maintenance of
current equipment. A culture of
supervision and maintenance - essential to
the upkeep of stock - is
completely absent.
The poor maintenance explains the high accident rate
of NRZ trains and
wagons, while failure by the government to make public
results of
commissions of inquiry into accidents would suggest
acknowledgement of its
blameworthiness.
In the old days crews were
assigned to maintain stretches of rail track.
Occasionally a tram car would
go up and down the railway line with teams of
workers. This is how it was
possible to keep the railway lines well
maintained and ensure that accidents
were kept to a minimum.
Today, however, the level of neglect is
breathtaking. It is a miracle there
are no disastrous accidents every
week.
The Freedom trains - clearly one of government's election gimmicks
- have
been in existence for some time now but no infrastructure such as
platforms
or sheltered drop-off and pick-up points have been put in place
for the
convenience of passengers. Yet there are people drawing full
salaries every
month but who are unconcerned about providing better
facilities so that rail
travel can attract more passengers and freight. Rail
travel and freight used
to be the major mode of travel and movement of goods
in and around and out
of the country.
However, the rot at the NRZ
results from inappropriate appointments of
people to run the parastatal. The
second is inadequate resources, although
one can argue that once appointed
it is the function of management to ensure
the organisation generates
sufficient revenue for its requirements.
The three most significant
contributions successive managements at NRZ have
made at the parastatal are
to effect a systematic process of running down
equipment; undertake
wholesale retrenchments, and discourage industry's
reliance on rail freight
for movement of goods.
Yet proper maintenance of equipment would have
ensured availability of
resources to meet industry's freight requirements,
thus generating more
revenue for capital requirements. Mass retrenchment of
rail gangs, security
and other staff exposed the NRZ. Disbandment of railway
security led to
rampant theft of NRZ property and customers' goods. In the
first instance
the thefts endangered the lives of those dependent on trains
for transport
as accidents became more frequent. This is one reason why
trains have lost
customers to road transport. In the second instance, theft
of customers'
goods saw customers switching to road transporters. Thirdly
the loss of
experienced railwaymen resulted in more accidents and
consequently delays,
all attributable to lack of regular maintenance of
track, signals and other
equipment.
The departure of skilled staff to
other rail networks in the region affected
the capacity to service and
maintain NRZ's fleet and consequently it
developed a reputation for
unreliability. For example, the number of
available mainline locomotives
fell from 52 in 1999 to 26 in 2003, while the
majority of NRZ locomotives
are overdue for service.
About 44% of the wagon fleet should have been
retired three years ago
because they had been in service for at least 40
years, while of the 703
tankers only 431 were available for
use.
There were also drastic reductions in the number of container wagons
and
covered wagons in service.
The NRZ became uncompetitive and more
skilled staff - as many as 200 between
1999 and 2003 - joined the great trek
in search of greener pastures. It is
going to be difficult to claim its
previous share of the market, assuming
NRZ will ever get back on its
feet.
If the NRZ is sold off to private companies, then there is a chance
that it
will rise and make a meaningful contribution to the transport
sector.
However, if the government continues to interfere, such as in
appointments
as it does at Air Zimbabwe, we can only see a downhill slide
leading to
total collapse.
There have been fewer successes - Cottco
and DZL - than disasters in
government's efforts to turn around
haemorrhaging parastatals but both
government and management at NRZ are part
of the crisis that has led to its
near collapse. They cannot be part of the
solution.
The tragedy is that given Zimbabwe's high road accident rate,
rail has the
potential to offer safer travel, if competently run.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
CIVIL servants were incensed last week when they received pay slips
donning
an anti-corruption statement, which they said made a mockery of
their
salaries.
The employees who feel the statement was ill timed,
said it added insult to
injury but government moved to defend its action
making it part of the
anti-corruption drive.
The statement reads: Live
within your means, shun corruption.
A teacher from Chitungwiza who spoke
to Standardbusiness last week said the
statement made a mockery of their
salaries.
"It is as if they are acknowledging their failure to take care
of civil
servants but are saying be that as it may, just live with what we
have given
you," said the teacher.
"To me this is nonsense, they are
not living within their means and want us
to continue suffering. I would
rather we know what government is doing to
weed out corruption at the top.
They cannot be running after the small fish
and defending the perpetuators
of corruption," she said.
Civil servants are unhappy with their low
salaries which they say fail to
make ends meet. Their salaries are still
falling under the Poverty Datum
Line of $17,6 million per month even after
the 231 % increment effected this
month.
The Progressive Teachers'
Union of Zimbabwe has registered its
disappointment and resolved to have its
members exempted from paying school
fees.
"We would like to put it on
record that teachers are extremely disappointed
by the recent salary awards
by government. As a result our members have
resolved that in order for them
to make ends meet they wish to be exempted
from the payment of school fees
for their children at government schools
with effect from the 1st term of
2006," said PTUZ general secretary, Raymond
Majongwe in a circular addressed
to the Ministry of Education.
But Anti-Corruption and Monopolies Minister
Paul Mangwana said the statement
was meant to encourage civil servants to
take part in the anti-corruption
drive.
"We want to make civil
servants aware of the dangers of corruption as they
look at their new
salaries. Even if the salaries may not match their needs
they do not have to
engage in corruption. We would like to see them being
paid better salaries
but the economy does not allow," said Mangwana.
The Minister said the
anti-corruption drive would see the introduction of
ethics modules at
schools and tertiary institutions.
Asked about what his ministry was
doing to weed out corrupt among government
officials, he said: "If we get
the evidence they will be arrested. So far we
have a little of it but that's
a sensitive area that I do not want to
discuss further."
Reserve Bank
Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, implicated government officials in
widespread
corruption scams in his last monetary policy but is still to back
his
claims.
Economic turnaround a mirage
ON 24
December, 2005, I decided to take my traditional annual pilgrimage to
my
rural home in Hurungwe, for a well-deserved break. Owing to the hard
times
that have befallen us, going to our rural homes has become a
once-a-year
phenomenon and a luxury that the majority of Zimbabweans can ill
afford.
The journey proved to be an eye-opener to the general decay
that has
pervaded all sectors of our country.
I was at Mbare Musika by
7AM but only left after three hours as there were
inadequate buses to ferry
the few hundreds of prospective travellers who
could afford the journey. It
was indeed an excruciating three hours as we
had to endure the strong stench
of human waste that has become part of our
lives ever since political
turncoat Sekesai Makwavarara ascended to the
mayoral throne, courtesy of a
ministerial directive which overturned the
will of thousands of Harare
residents.
While rubbish lay strewn all over the place like confetti at a
wedding, the
number of rubbish bins at the country's biggest bus terminus
could be
counted on the fingers of one hand.
The journey itself was
uneventful and was unaccompanied by the usual
merriment of chatting and
boozing passengers. Instead, because of the sombre
and mournful atmosphere
in the bus one could have mistaken it for a funeral
hearse.
What
struck me along the way were the huge tracts of what were once fertile
and
very productive land that lay fallow. As a consolation, however, there
were
negligible portions of these vast farms on which our new farmers
dutifully
engaged in subsistence farming. Such was the disproportionate use
of the
land that one passenger remarked: "Inga gore rino kune nzara zvakare
(we
shall surely starve again this year)." At first I wanted to rebuke this
man
for being overly pessimistic but in no time he was vindicated by
events.
Some 60 kilometres from Karoi our bus stopped in order to refuel.
Two
unkempt young men emerged from the bushes and immediately struck a deal
with
the bus driver who bought 75 litres of diesel from this "bush" service
station. It appeared that this was not a once-off transaction since the
driver actually paid for only 40 litres with the remainder becoming payable
during the next transaction.
Enquiries revealed that the young men
were allocated farms in Tengwe and as
such were entitled to diesel
allocations at new farmer rates, which are way
below the market rate.
Realising that the diesel was a source of easy money
the young new farmers
decided not to "waste" their time in farming but to
become Zimbabwe's own
Roman Abrahmovichs, by making a fortune from fuel.
Bush service stations
are not the only development that our enterprising new
farmers have come up
with. They have gone a step further by setting up road
side shebeens,
commonly referred to in the ghetto as "speed bars".
It was amazing to see
hordes of young men of field-going age clustered at
these drinking spots
drinking opaque beer as if they had heard that the
world was about to come
to an end. One wonders when they attend to their
party-issued fields if
drinking beer has suddenly become a full-time pursuit
for most of
them.
If Gideon Gono really believes that his so-called economic
turnaround
programme really rests in the hands of these jokers, then we will
still be
turning around on Judgement Day.
When I finally got to my
rural township of Sengwe at around three o'clock, I
met villagers who had
already gotten into a party mood in spite of the
meagre resources at their
disposal. However their joy was short-lived as
thirty minutes later there
was a power blackout. I was to learn that this
was a regular occurrence
which at times lasted for up to nine days.
This has meant that the area,
which is a year-old beneficiary of the rural
electrification programme, has
failed to take advantage of this development
by setting up projects
dependent on electricity. The electricity supplies
are so erratic that it
would not make economic sense to invest in any
long-term income generating
projects. As a result the electricity has mainly
benefited beer hall owners
who are now selling their products until the
small hours of the
night.
I was devastated when I got home to realise that my father's herd
of cattle
had dwindled from thirty to only thirteen. When I asked I was told
that most
of the cattle had died owing to tick-borne diseases. The cattle
had only
been dipped thrice in the whole year due to shortage of the
necessary
chemicals. I was therefore even more shocked when the Minister of
Agriculture announced that farmers should use cow dung since Compound D
fertiliser was in short supply.
Is the minister aware that most
people in the rural areas have lost cattle
they owned and that they have had
to resort to zero tillage? Is it the most
prudent thing to do, announcing
that there is inadequate fertiliser in the
middle of the farming season? Why
has the minister been unable to learn from
his countless previous
mistakes?
Now that we are enjoying a normal rainy season what will be the
scapegoat if
we have a poor harvest? For how long should Joseph Made be
allowed to play
Russian roulette with people's lives?
Let all those
politicians, economic commentators, forecasters and other
fellow day
dreamers who are already predicting a bumper harvest be warned
that their
optimism is misplaced and actually contradicts the situation on
the ground.
Unless there is a change in attitude in our new farmers and
unless the
President finally summons his courage and decides to fire his
clueless
Minister of Agriculture we are unlikely to experience any economic
prosperity in the short-term.
R S Paratema
Warren
Park
Harare
-------
Tsvangirai sounding just like
Mugabe
I AM disturbed by the similarities in speech between President
Robert Mugabe
and Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai insults the pro-Senate group
just like
Mugabe insults his opponents.
He claims that Zanu PF bought
the pro-Senate group just like Mugabe claims
the West bought Tsvangirai. He
talks of "I will do this and do that" as if
everything rests with him just
like Mugabe. What about the committee he
leads?
He says the pro-Senate
group did not win the seven seats but was given them
by Zanu PF, therefore,
the Parliamentary seats the MDC won in March were
also a gift from Zanu PF,
so, I look forward to the MDC giving back those
seats to Zanu PF by their
MPs resigning from the Upper House. Give back to
Caesar what belongs to
Caesar. That's fair.
By the way, Mugabe had very credible evidence from
Ben Menashe that
Tsvangirai wanted to eliminate him, just as he has credible
evidence that
Zanu PF bought Welshman Ncube!
Nelson Chamisa should
also guard his tongue lest he becomes another Jonathan
Moyo before he left
Zanu PF! Some wise people say resorting to insulting
your opponent shows
that one is bereft of ideas.
If Tsvangirai has Mugabe's traits before he
assumes the highest office in
the land, what other traits will he copy when
he attains power? Food for
thought!
Anti-Abusive
Language
Masvingo
---------
Beating up people a sign of
weakness
THE split within the rank and file of the MDC does not need
anyone to
explain what caused it! What is just but beyond any reasonable
doubt is
that, and this is official, the split was caused by one man who
thought of
turning himself into a dictator!
No amount of denial from
those willing sidekicks can take away that fact.
The claim by Morgan
Tsvangirai that he was vindicated when people did not
turn up in their
thousands to vote in the Senate elections, is all but a
misplaced
thinking.
One conclusion that can be drawn from the voter apathy in those
elections is
that, Zimbabweans were not at all unwilling to participate in
the elections
but just that they had a message to send to the two Zimbabwean
dictators,
both ruling now and the-should-have-ruled!
By failing to
uphold his own party's constitution, what guarantee do we have
that he will
uphold the country's constitution? What more will he be able to
do should he
be elected president if right now he is setting up militias and
beating up
other party members?
I shudder to think what will happen to members of
the opposition then.
The greatest of all his weaknesses is shown by
beating up people with views
at variance with his.
What great minds
do when confronted with views at variance with one's, is to
try and convince
the other person why your view is better and not beating up
the other
person.
Lovemore Muchengedzera
Glen
Norah
Harare
-----
Moyo for President: not in a 1000
years
PROFESSOR Jonathan Moyo, the vicious former minister of
Information and
Publicity dreams that one day his party the United People's
Movement will
win an election and he will become the President of
Zimbabwe.
Can someone please tell the learned professor this will not
happen even in a
thousand years? After all, anyone who supports Moyo, in my
opinion, cannot
be in the right state of mind.
After his election as MP
for Tsholotsho, he deserted the people. This once
again exposed him as an
opportunist who wanted to use the people of
Tsholotsho to save his tainted
image in the face of his political demise.
Moyo fails the presidential
character test because he is self-centred. All
he is after is self
glorification. Remember how he claimed personal
responsibility for Zanu PF
victory in the two previous elections yet it was
clear that victory by fair
or unjust means was attained by Zanu PF as a
party and cannot be
personalised no matter how vigorously the said
individual worked.
No
individual has ever laid personal responsibly for Zimbabwe's
independence. A
president puts his country's people before self.
Moyo is rabidly
intolerant. Imagine what he would do given freewill over the
more than 30
000 army, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the police.
Have people
quickly forgotten how he contributed to violence in the previous
elections
by creating animosity against opposition supporters in the process
precipitating violence. That was uncivilised politics.
We will never
forget that dark era when he went about muzzling the press,
messing up the
public broadcaster, wasting billions of taxpayers' money
organising all
manner of nonsensical galas, all this at the expense of the
people.
I
ask of Moyo: Was it really necessary to turn back the hands of time 50-60
years adopting costly totalitarian propaganda techniques that would no
longer work even for their original proponents like Joseph Goebels? His
vision was to create a supernatural nation that thinks the same
way.
Moyo will go down the annals of history as a minister who lacked
foresight
and for pouring acerbic vitriol on his perceived opponents. He
will also be
remembered for his shopping spree in South Africa, causing
unemployment to a
multitude of journalists and penchant for uncivilised
propaganda. I will
never forget his claim that 70 000 people had attended a
rally at White City
stadium, the stadium has a spilling capacity of 12
000.
My final point is that while he may be intelligent and a terrific
spin-doctor I personally find his methods distasteful. His political
prospects even through his party the UPM are bleak.
In Ndebele we
say: Ubukhosi ngamazolo (You are a king, but for a
period).This saying fits
well in Moyo's situation and whoever coined it,
must have had him in
mind.
Asher Tarivona Mutsengi
Solusi
University
Figtree
---------
Gono should quit before
it's too late
WITH news that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr
Gideon Gono, has been
stopped from investigating high-ranking officials that
include ministers,
permanent secretaries and directors of parastatals
without consulting the
President, the only noble thing left in his option is
to flee the country as
resignation will not be tolerated by the beleaguered
regime.
For all the momentum that Gono had for re-building the country,
it seems
most among his pack in Zanu PF were pulling in antagonistic
fashion.
Regardless of what the government media has been feeding our minds
for the
past five years, the real enemy of the people is the government
itself.
They have a penchant for blaming the West and neo-colonialism for our
ills
when they know that they are the ones siphoning scarce resources and
lining
their pockets. It baffles the mind that all along President Robert
Mugabe
has been getting scarce foreign currency from the Cricket Union
without the
public's knowledge.
The people ruining, not running our
country, are guilty as hell and the
sooner open- minded people like Gono
leave the better for the vultures. Let
them devour the whole carcass and
only then will they realise that they are
faced with a hungry populace on
whom they can feed nothing.
Mr Turnaround, you have been led on a wild
goose chase. I know to you
failure is not an option but history will judge
you harshly if you decide to
be part of the rot and do nothing. Look what
they did to right-minded Dr
Simba Makoni. The same will happen to you sooner
or later.
I believe your memo to His Excellency got no reply and to smack
you in the
face, Cephas Msipa was given a dairy farm. I believe that's good
enough a
reply. Zimbabweans know that you were just used for a purpose with
no end
and the best turnaround strategy is turning to flee, for that an
ovation
awaits
you.
Runyamhere
Chitungwiza
---------
Jonathan
Moyo deserves what he is getting
I REFER to a recent article on one
of the online publications written by
Professor Jonathan
Moyo.
Although I have not read the full article, from the initial
paragraphs he
wrote, one gets the impression that Professor Moyo needs our
sympathy.
Unfortunately, we can forgive but not forget.
It seems
Professor Moyo is now no more than a fading political "has
been"struggling
to regain his status, which he unjustly got in the first
place.
The
single most important lesson that one gleans, reading through his
articles,
is that Zanu PF can, after all, manage to make one or two
resolutions in his
absence.
Well, the party exists and it will continue to manage without
those who
defended the illegal acquisition of farms pretending the farms
were meant
for ARDA (You remember Edwin Moyo, Roy Bennett etc).
And
more...when he told us that Justice Anthony Gubbay - a Supreme Court
judge -
was a liar? And many more... I feel Moyo deserves what he is getting
but
also would caution him against expecting any public sympathy for any of
his
causes - no matter how noble.
We think his obnoxious tendencies are only
temporarily moribund - waiting
for another chance. His type never gives up
but I say to him; it's never too
late to
repent.
Hlalelo
Tsholotsho
---------
Zesa
lied about cause of blackout
I AM dismayed by the level of propaganda
that is being paraded in Zimbabwe
and since most people have no access to
balanced information; most lies
prevail as the truth.
I am appalled
by ZESA officials who assert that the recent blackout in
Chitungwiza was
caused by lightning which struck the power station. I live a
distance of
about 500 metres from the station and surely our ears couldn't
have missed
the bolt as it struck?
I believe the cause of the damage was that of an
ageing transformer combined
with an overload. On the night that lighting is
said to have struck, there
was little rainfall at most a drizzle without any
thunderstorm. Anyone who
lives near the power station would confess that
many a times they have seen
bright light flashing, followed by a roaring
sound every week.
In all those incidents there has always been a bright
clear sky. Also on the
previous day, some areas of Zengeza 3 had reduced
power supply, hardly
enough to light a 100w bulb.
To say that the
station was struck by lightning would be an insult to the
intelligence of
the people of Chitungwiza, particularly those who live in
areas surrounding
the sub station.
I believe this failure has exposed those running the
monopoly for who they
really are. They claim to be electrifying the whole
country but are doing
nothing save to outstretch the incapacitated resources
that they inherited
from the Ian Smith regime.
What we are seeing is
just the demise of a once vibrant economy and at the
rate we are going, it
will become normal for people of Chitungwiza to live a
life that mirrors
that of people in the rural areas; cooking by the fire
with only a glitter
of light from Harare.
May God save our country before we become another
Liberia?
Runyararo
Mherekumombe
Zengeza
Chitungwiza
-------
Corruption
is the Zanu PF way
CORRUPTION is now official in Zimbabwe. This claim
may be a bitter pill to
swallow for some people in this country, but it is
valid going by numerous
events which have taken place over the
years.
Earlier on in the history of this country a car scandal involving
government
bigwigs took place. A Commission of inquiry was set up. It was
led by
Justice Wilson Sandura. Except for a suicide by a minister and a
forced
resignation by another, nothing came out of the Sandura Commission
because
corruption was already gaining legitimacy.
Many ruling party
members gained financially from the scandal but no one was
prosecuted in any
court of law. I know that Zanu PF shuns any form of
embarrassment but the
party would have cleansed itself by having a number of
its criminal members
jailed.
Can anybody come up with a list of ruling party members who have
been jailed
for criminal activities since independence? There is none
because of the
ruling party's well-documented double standards. It is a sad
fact but
ordinary people like me have been bombarded with ".Zanu PF members
will
never be arrested and prosecuted for any wrong doing." by Zanu PF
members
boasting to all and sundry.
The ruling party has, over the
years lost millions of supporters because of
such boasts. Zimbabweans are
generally law-abiding and seeing ruling party
members getting away with
criminal activities has driven supporters from the
party.
Following
the Willowgate car scandal was the Grain Marketing Board scandal
where the
country's maize was sold, benefiting an individual minister. The
arrest and
trial of this particular individual was a farce because the man
is free, and
laughing all the way to the bank.
Such a situation came into being
because our police force started involving
itself in party
politics.
Zimbabwe has brought a few officers to book but many Zanu PF
card-carrying
holders still flout laws they are supposed to
uphold.
Can we not start fighting corruption by organising
anti-corruption brigades
instead of turning these youngsters into killing
machines?
We find ourselves in a very sad situation, but our leaders are
very liberal
with lies and very conservative with the
truth.
Fight
Corruption
Masvingo
-----
Rentals and school
fees
I HAVE always wondered why we do not see on television or read
in the
newspapers of people complaining about the high rentals. All we see,
hear
and read about are complaints about school fees hikes.
Rentals
are increased all the time, sometimes by as much as 500% but no one
talks
about them. I think the reason is that the people who own a lot of
flats and
houses in this country and are charging their tenants millions of
dollars
for a room or small flat are the same ones who send their children
to
expensive private schools and do not want to pay the cost of the
education
of their children.
This is why there is all this noise. Is it not ironic that
people who are
quite prepared to exploit their compatriots by charging
extortionate rentals
for often poorly maintaned properties cry foul when
given a taste of their
own medicine courtsey of the schools charging
unrealistic fees.
For instance, what justification is there for one dress
uniform of a form
pupil costing $2 million?
M
Alima
Harare
Zim Standard
Sundayopinion by
Ralph Shingai Paratema
PRIOR to the March 2005 general elections,
President Robert Mugabe wondered
loudly why the majority of urban
Zimbabweans had decided to turn their backs
on his party. He is likely to
remain wondering until time immemorial if the
recent contemptuous attitude
portrayed by his Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and Urban
Development, Ignatious Chombo, is anything to go by.
Chombo must surely
rank as the most unpopular Cabinet minister, after
Jonathan Moyo, that
Zimbabweans have ever had the misfortune of having
thrust upon them since
independence. Being fully aware of the urban
population's massive dislike
for him, he has avoided contesting elections in
urban areas preferring the
comfort of his safe haven of Zvimba North.
During his tenure he has exhibited
a blatant disregard of the will of the
people and, in his overzealous stunts
to please the executive, has
shamelessly failed to rise above party
politics.
Lest it be forgotten, it was Chombo's ministry that unleashed
the diabolic
and brutally executed "Operation Murambatsvina" that brought
untold
suffering to the majority of urban dwellers resulting in nearly a
million
people being homeless. While the majority were left to wallow in
destitution, several hundreds of thousands others were left without means of
livelihood.
Although, as an afterthought, Chombo later launched
"Operation Garikai/
Hlalani Kuhle", the damage had already been done. His
deed was made even
more satanic by his relentless attempts to ensure that no
foreign assistance
was afforded to victims of his evil operation. The case
of the South African
church group clearly comes to mind.
Instead of
having a human heart, Chombo actually attempted to get political
mileage out
of the misfortune he had authored. Chombo presided over ground
breaking
ceremonies where he delivered grand political speeches and tried to
portray
the heinous operation as a well thought out government project
designed to
alleviate the shortage of urban housing.
Chombo is the main reason why
rentals in Harare have ballooned by over 600%
since the "successful"
completion of his operation as it unnecessarily
exacerbated an already
critical housing shortage. Common sense, which
unfortunately is not usually
very common, clearly dictated that government
should have first conducted
"Operation Garikai" before "Murambatsvina". Even
an ordinary villager is
aware that one first builds a cattle pen before one
buys the cattle and not
vice versa.
Before "Operation Murambatsvina", Chombo had gone on a
warpath against
opposition led councils throughout the country. The first
major casualty of
his relentless onslaught was Engineer Elias Mudzuri, the
former mayor of
Harare, who in 2003 was first suspended and later dismissed
after being
investigated and tried by a Zanu PF dominated Chombo-appointed
team.
During his short tenure as mayor Mudzuri had already started
rehabilitating
the city's roads while the collection of refuse and water
reticulation had
significantly improved. However this was not to last for
long as Chombo,
seemingly envious of Mudzuri's achievements, responded to
what he termed
complaints from Harare residents, who were, in fact, hired
Mbare thugs
engaging in what were supposed to appear like spontaneous
demonstrations.
Having successfully completed his mission Chombo turned
to Chegutu where he
was determined to get Mayor Francis Dhlakama's ouster.
The mayor was accused
of incompetence and financial impropriety. Chombo only
backtracked after
appointing a committee to "assist" the mayor run the
affairs of the council.
The minister's interest in the council at the time
perhaps stemmed from the
fact that this was the only opposition led council
in Mashonaland West,
which is the home province of both the minister and the
President.
Chombo, a one time Mashonaland West provincial governor, went
a step further
and was soon against the mayor of Bulawayo, Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube.
Ndabeni-Ncube was accused of causing water shortages to the
country's second
largest city despite the fact that the city's water
problems are well
documented and historical.
In spite of Chombo's
ranting and raving the mayor was re-elected in August
2005. From there the
Minister "looked east", and descended heavily on the
Mutare mayor, whom he
suspended and appointed yet another team of Zanu PF
patriots to investigate
him. In December all the 19 opposition councillors
were dismissed in order
to pave the way for a commission of Zanu PF
functionaries to run the affairs
of the border town
The energetic Chombo was not yet finished as he soon
descended on the
dormitory town of Chitungwiza and went after Mayor Misheck
Shoko's blood. At
the height of the Senate elections campaigning Mugabe
openly said that Shoko
should leave office. Chombo, in December 2005,
dutifully responded by
suspending the mayor who had suffered the ignominy of
having to report to a
District Administrator appointed by the minister to
"assist" the mayor run
the affairs of the town. Shoko was accused of
endangering the lives of
Chitungwiza residents by failing to properly manage
the sewerage system. In
November, the vindictive Chombo had asked Shoko to
produce a turnaround
programme within 24 hours. It is impossible to think if
any meaningful
programme can be produced within such an unreasonable
period.
Chombo has since extended Makwavarara's term as head of a
commission
responsible for running, if not ruining, the affairs of the city.
The
commission's term of office has been repeatedly extended because it is
doing
a sterling job and has come up with a "turnaround" programme. The
results of
this programme are there for all to see. Mounds of uncollected
refuse have
gradually emerged; streams of raw sewage are steadily flowing in
the
high-density suburbs while potholes and frequent water shortages have
become
the order of the day.
In fact, the Commission is doing such a
wonderful job that Chombo has
declared that there will be no elections in
the capital city until 2007.
Chombo proffered one of the clumsiest and
dumbest reasons for such an
important decision. He claimed that there was
need to redraw the boundaries
of the city. If President Mugabe can appoint a
Delimitation Commission to
demarcate constituency boundaries for the whole
country and it does its job
in only three months, why does Chombo need two
years to redraw ward
boundaries for Harare alone? Is this not incompetence?
Should we then not
appoint a commission to take over Chombo's
responsibilities? Does the
unwarranted extension of Harare's boundaries not
amount to gerrymandering in
order to dilute the opposition's influence in
the city?
Chombo's modus operandi has been very simple. In terms of the
Urban Councils
Act the minister is supposed to approve the budgets of the
urban councils.
The urban councils may not also borrow without the
minister's authority.
Chombo has simply ensured that the opposition led
councils are starved of
money by not approving their budgets on time or
refusing to approve them at
all. He has also refused to grant them borrowing
powers thereby
incapacitating them from carrying out capital projects like
housing and
improvement of sewerage and water reticulation systems. Chombo's
tactic has
been to starve the councils of cash and thereafter emerge as the
knight in
the shining armour by bailing them out. The most glaring example
was in
Chitungwiza, where he donated $5 billion at the height of the Senate
elections campaign.
The Bulawayo mayoral election recorded a meagre
voter turnout of only 10.1%.
The lack of interest, particularly in local
government elections, could
partly be traced to the undemocratic tendencies
displayed by Chombo. His
utter disregard of the people's choices has left
the electorate wondering
why it should waste time voting for a mayor whom
Chombo can kick out
willy-nilly. In fact, such elections have become a
façade through which the
outer world is fooled into believing that Zimbabwe
is a democratic society.
It is therefore imperative that Chombo's wings be
clipped through the
amendment of the Urban Councils Act.
Chombo has
indeed become one of the biggest obstacles in the country's fight
for the
setting up of a truly democratic nation. For as long as he persists
with his
autocratic style of ensuring that his party ultimately gets by
default what
it has failed to get through an election, and as long as he
continues to
exhibit such disrespect for the urban population then Mugabe
will for a long
time still be wondering why the "totemless" urban population
has decided to
take no notice of his "revolutionary" party.
Zim Standard
Sundayopinion by
Tinashe Chimedza
ANYONE who has routinely been frustrated by the lack of
institutions in
Africa that are independent, willing to be credible and
stand on the side of
progress and the rule of law, will view the recent
action by the African
Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACPHR)
condemning the government as
evidence that there is hope.
The
adoption of a resolution, by the 38th Ordinary Session of the commission
in
Banjul, The Gambia, that sat from 21 November to 5 December 2005, to
condemn
the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe is a sign that there is light
somewhere.
The commission did two important things: firstly, it condemned
the human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe, called on the government to restore the
rule of
law and specifically to protect the vulnerable. Secondly, the
commission
ruled, on four separate occasions, that the four cases brought
before the
commission by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) are
admissible,
meaning the commission can now proceed to deal with substantive
issues of
those communications.
The ZLHR noted immediately that the
decisions of the commission are an
indictment of the judiciary as well as an
unequivocal and significant
indicator that the judiciary and the justice
delivery system in Zimbabwe no
longer guarantees enjoyment of universally
recognised human rights and
fundamental freedoms.
The ZLHR further
stated, and surely so, that the decisions give "credence to
the allegations
that there exists a practice of state-sponsored impunity in
Zimbabwe". This
is an important signal that many of us have been struggling
for, which is
that African Union (AU) institutions must take the issues of
good governance
and the rule of law seriously.
The indictment of the Zimbabwe government
is a reflection of a paradigm
shift permeating some AU institutions which is
that good governance, the
rule of law and responsive governing can not be
shelved as Africa writhes
from the periphery of the global economy. The
commission was very clear and
precise in its condemnation, stating that it
is "concerned by the continuing
human rights violations and the
deterioration of the human rights situation
in Zimbabwe, the lack of respect
for the rule of law and the growing culture
of impunity" and that it
"condemns the human rights violations currently
being perpetrated in
Zimbabwe".
The Zimbabwean government's response was nothing but pathetic,
it was a mere
re-reading of the government's worn out script about British
imperialist
conspiracies. Such a reaction was expected but it displayed that
since the
departure of Jonathan Moyo the government has had no new
intellectual
spinning to add to its discredited conspiracy
obsessions.
While one can not rush to conclude that the AU Heads of State
will adopt the
resolutions of the commission surely the actions of the
commission must be
supported by Africa's pro-democracy movement.
Even
if the AU were to reject the resolutions, as has been the pattern, the
very
fact that the commission as an institution of the AU has taken an
independent step means that there is hope.
We must also remember that
the commission had a fact finding mission to
Zimbabwe from the 24 - 28 June
2002, mandated at the 29th Ordinary Session
of the African Commission held
in, Tripoli, Libya.
The mission in 2002 reported that "there was enough
evidence placed before
us to suggest that, at the very least during the
period under Review (2000),
human rights violations occurred in Zimbabwe and
that Government cannot wash
its hands from responsibility for all these
happenings".
As is practice now, the critical and scathing report was
dismissed by the
government, burying its head in the sand. The commission
even went ahead to
suggest specific recommendations: national dialogue and
reconciliation; the
creation of an environment conducive to democracy and
human rights;
independent national institutions; the independence of the
judiciary; a
professional police service; repealing restrictive media laws,
AIPPA, POSA
and so on and lastly that the government had a backlog in its
reporting
obligations.
The government did not tell us in 2002, but we
now know as we did then, that
the fact-finding mission was staffed with men
and women of undisputed
reputation. Take Professor Barney Pityana for
example, he is a rigorous
academic, the Principal of Africa's biggest
university, the University of
South Africa. Pityana's politics is the
political history of liberating
Africa, of fighting colonialism and
apartheid, from the militancy of Steve
Biko to the maturity of the congress
movement, his reputation as a fighter
and peace maker is not
doubted.
When Pityana involved himself with the fact-finding mission of
the
commission and freely willed to put his name on the reports and its
recommendations, it meant he and many others had been able to get to the
core of the Zimbabwe crisis - governance.
Pityana as Chairperson of
the South African Human Rights Commission also
pressured the South African
government over the situation in Zimbabwe. On 20
February 2001 he, on behalf
the South African Human Rights Commission, wrote
to the South African
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Dr NC Dlamini Zuma,
stating: "We have
observed, however, that far from the situation improving
(the Zimbabwe
situation), it is in effect escalating and may soon get out of
control. The
consequences of a sustained social and political instability in
our
immediate northern neighbour not least in trade and economic relations
as
well as in refugee inflows into South Africa are obvious. The early
warning
signs are there for the discerning and concerned observer."
The letter
went on further to state the state of affairs in Zimbabwe,
observing that,
"more ominously, is the official campaign against the
judiciary, the
harassment and victimization of judges, the demands by the
Minister of
Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, that
they resign
and the apparently forced resignation of Chief Justice Anthony
Gubbay, a
much respected juristic in Africa and across the world. Other
judges have
been given notice that they should resign".
Anyone who follows the
process of getting a human rights case heard before
the commission knows
that it is not an easy process. It is thorough and
impeccable. On the other
hand the government would have us believe that the
commission's work is
dictated by the whims of "imperialists" but the people
must be informed that
the truth shows otherwise.
The commission specifically requires that a
party approaching the commission
for remedies has to have exhausted local
remedies at their disposal in their
country, that is, there has to be a
practical test as to why the parties
approaching the commission can no
longer utilise the judiciary system. We
all know that there is ample
evidence of the government frog-marching the
judiciary, disregarding court
orders and the executive consistently
attacking members of the bench and
appointing family friends to the Supreme
Court.
As the commission's
charter states in article 55, for a communication to be
considered by the
commission at least seven members of the 11-member panel
have to separately
consent that there is a case here, this is referred to as
the "seizure
stage". After this the communication is then brought before the
full panel
where it has to be weighted, according to article 56 of the
charter, for
admissibility against all, not one but all, of the seven
conditions it
sets.
The commission is therefore effectively insulated from being
burdened with
preposterous, if not derisory petitions. People of repute and
rigorous
intellectual training and practice review and scour the pages of
these
communications. There is no obsession with Zimbabwe at the commission,
as a
matter of fact the commission has been very forthcoming by first
sending a
delegation to Zimbabwe in 2002 that investigated and made specific
recommendations but the government spurned the report.
The commission
is becoming an impeccable institution guided by known and
entrenched
procedures and rules that make the institution immune from abuse.
The
only institutional weakness at the commission is that it seems to be
deliberately underfunded so as to attempt to dilute its work. The African
Union member states are dragging their feet over the operationalisation of
the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and have even gone as far as
adopting a resolution to merge it with the African Court of Justice of the
African Union.
We must be ready to support the credibility and repute
of an institution
whose men and women are refusing to sing the script that
is given to them by
African presidents.
The Chronicle
By Thabani
Sibanda
THE Government will soon introduce intercity toll gates as part
of moves to
generate revenue to repair and maintain the roads in the
country, an
official has said.
Presenting a report during a
Matabeleland North Development Committee
meeting held in Lupane last Friday,
the Ministry of Transport and
Communications Provincial Road Engineer, Mr
Gordon Marambakuyana, said the
Ministry would introduce toll fees between
cities using the "User Pays"
concept, which was already being used by other
countries in the Southern
African Development Community region.
"The idea
is quite simple, people pay for other essential services such as
water,
electricity and phones towards their maintenance and viability, but
they do
not pay anything towards the infrastructure. The idea therefore is
aimed at
making people pay for using roads," he said.
Mr Marambakuyana said over the
years, the Ministry had been allocated a
significant amount of money for the
repair and maintenance of roads, but
because of inflation the money lost its
value, thereby reducing the amount
of work done on the country's road
network.
"The toll fees will therefore supplement road maintenance costs," he
said.
In Matabeleland North Province, he said, the establishment of toll
gates at
certain points on the road network was already under way.
"The
establishment of intercity toll plazas has started.
"We are currently doing
the designs.
"This means that we have located the places where they will be
located, a
soil test is being done in situ, and this will determine the
standard of
roads to be constructed there and we anticipate that
construction will begin
within the first quarter of this year.
"This will
involve the construction of six lanes, three on each side of the
road to
avoid congestion," said Mr Marambakuyana.
"One plaza will be located on the
Gweru Bulawayo 147 kilometre peg, while
another will be at the
HwangeVictoria Falls 343 kilometre peg.
"There will be two at the
BulawayoVictoria Falls peg, one at the 47
kilometre peg and the other at the
176 kilometre peg just after Lupane."
However, Mr Marambakuyana said the
Government was yet to determine the
amount to be paid at the intercity toll
gates.
"As it is, the same system is being used at border posts where
foreigners'
cars pay US$5 for a small vehicle, and locals pay the equivalent
in Zimbabwe
dollars.
"The Ministry hasn't however established the figures
to be paid within the
country. They will be announced once that is done," he
said.
Mr Marambakuyana said other provinces in the country were also working
on
establishing the plazas that will cover the road network between major
towns.
Last year, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Cde Chris
Mushowe,
announced that local and foreign registered motor vehicles would be
required
to pay toll fees in line with other countries in the Southern
African
Development Community (SADC) and that the money would be used to
repair and
maintain regional trunk road networks.
This was effected on 19
December. Light foreign vehicles are required to pay
US$10, 60 rand or 50
pula.
Locally registered light vehicles pay $300 000 and locally registered
trucks
are required to pay $600 000.
The Chronicle
Chronicle
Reporter
COMMUTER omnibus operators in Bulawayo have increased fares by
50 percent in
a move which will see commuters forking out $30 000 up from
$20 000 per
trip.
The Bulawayo Public Transporters Association
(BUPTA) chairman, Mr Strike
Ndlovu, told Chronicle last week that the new
fares were effected because of
high operational costs being experienced by
the operators. "Our association
held a meeting on Monday (last week) and we
unanimously agreed that fares
should be increased," he said.
Mr Ndlovu
said running a commuter omnibus business was challenging because
of the
shortage of spare parts in the country adding that the scarcity of
foreign
currency was worsening the situation.
He said a tyre now costs between $11
million and $12 million while the
Vehicle Inspection Department was charging
$500 000 for offering fitness
certificates. "It now costs $1,5 million up
from $200 000 to get a route
permit while the city council has also
increased parking fees at bus termini
from $430 000 to $2,9 million.
Insurance has gone up from $1 million to $10
million. So you see how
difficult it is to run a kombi and the only way we
have to remain viable is
to increase the fares," said Mr Ndlovu.
He said the commuter operators were
surviving on buying fuel from the black
market, which is being sold for $120
000 per litre.
Mr Ndlovu said the Government through the National Oil Company
of Zimbabwe
should make fuel available. "I don't remember when we last
bought fuel at
the gazetted $23 000 per litre. The black market is really
affecting us," he
said.
Mr Ndlovu said his association had presented its
case to the Government and
were awaiting a reply.
Repeated efforts to get
comment from the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and Urban
Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo, were fruitless.
African News Dimension
Monday, 23 January 2006, 6 hours, 56 minutes and 45
seconds ago.
By ANDnetwork Journalist
Municipal
authorities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city,
have in conjunction
with the Municipal Development for Eastern and Southern
Africa, embraked on
a series of agriculture programmmes aimed at alleviating
urban
poverty.
The Municipal Development for Eastern and Southern
Africa is part of a
global initiative aimed at promoting urban farming as a
way of alleviating
poverty in the towns.
Programme Co-ordinator
Takawira Mubvami said four pilot cities have
been identified in the region
to carry out pilot projects on urban
agriculture. These include Bulawayo,
Cape Town (South Africa), Lusaka
(Zambia) and Maputo
(Mozambique).
"These four cities that have been chosen will
disseminate their
experience to other cities in their countries and they
were chosen on the
basis that they have already put in place policies on
urban agriculture," he
said.
He added that a series of
workshops were being run by the organisation
in order to enhance
multi-stakeholders awareness on issues of urban
agriculture. The programme
is part of a global awareness campaign on urban
agriculture that would in
turn lead to poverty alleviation in urban cities.
He added that the
workshop would capacitate stakeholders in planning
agricultural activities
and in the drawing up of action plans for urban
farming projects. Dr Mubvami
said the Bulawayo City Council has a clear-cut
policy on urban
agriculture.
"Bulawayo has designated sites that are specifically
used for farming
purpose around the Richmond and Norwood areas and states
what crops should
be planted and specifies other sites in the city that can
be used for urban
agriculture," added Dr Mubvami.
He said the
city also has sites where they used waste water for
irrigation purposes.
During training, the stakeholders would be asked to
identify workable and
fundable pilot projects, which could in turn be run by
the
cities.
Dr Mubvami also revealed that Bulawayo City Council had
already
identified a plantation in Gumtree as a site for one of its pilot
programmes
to be funded by the global initiative.
Source: The
Sunday News
African News Dimension
Monday, 23 January 2006, 2 hours, 3 minutes and 24
seconds ago.
By ANDnetwork Journalist
Poachers are
stealing at least four tonnes of fish worth $700 million
every day from Lake
Chivero.
The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said
poachers work day and
night using dugout canoes, engine-powered boats and an
assortment of nets to
poach from the dam, which also supplies water to
Harare.
Failure by the authority's officials and commercial fishing
co-operatives to thwart poaching has resulted in tonnes of fish being
stolen.
It is suspected the fish is not only sold on some open
markets around
Norton, along the Harare-Bulawayo Highway and suburbs in
Harare, but also to
some established supermarkets and
butcheries.
The poaching also threatens Government efforts to
contain cholera as
the fish find their way into the informal and formal
trade.
In supermarkets, fish in unmarked packaging is going for
around $400
000 a kilogramme. In most cases, a packet of medium-sized fish
costs $120
000.
Last Thursday morning, Parks' staff arrested
two poachers on the south
bank of the lake while they were sorting out 337kg
of fish worth over $67
million (using the legal $200 000 per kilogramme
rate) they had netted
during the night.
Two of the poachers who
had thrown their nets some metres away from
the shore said they sold the
fish in Budiriro for $300 000/kg.
The poachers were about to make
up to $100 million just from the
morning catch before going for two other
catches.
"The truck that they used is mine and we come here more
often to catch
the fish," said the truck driver who claimed he was not
involved in the
actual poaching.
The authority's spokesperson,
Retired Major Edward Mbewe said the
authority had invoked the Parks and
Wildlife Act to impound the truck used
to ferry the fish.
"We
can only release the truck when the owner or the poachers pay $35
million as
stated in some sections of the act," he said.
Rtd Maj Mbewe said
fines imposed on the poachers amounting to $100 000
were not an effective
deterrent, hence the need to invoke other parts of the
Act.
He
said poachers have always taken advantage of the authority's
inability to
patrol all areas of the lake because of manpower shortages, and
accessed the
lake through private land.
The poachers are said to be making more
money than registered
commercial fisheries.
"They are not taxed
and pay no rates for activities they do. The worst
thing is that they use
home-made nets which catch all sizes of fish," Rtd
Maj Mbewe
said.
Parks officials based at Lake Chivero said there are fears
that the
fish might be depleted if no immediate action is taken to curb
poaching.
"We have been intercepting truck-loads of fish on a daily
basis but
the fines are not deterrent enough. Until recently, the farming
communities
living around the northern shore of lake have not been
co-operative enough
in the fight against poaching.
"The fishing
co-operatives feel protecting the fish from poachers is
not their prime
business," a senior warden with the parks authority said.
Source:
The Herald
Khaleej Times
(AFP)
23 January 2006
KHARTOUM - An African summit
opens in Khartoum on Monday with leaders set
to decide whether Sudan should
head the African Union despite warnings that
the move could derail peace
efforts in Darfur and tarnish the AU's
credibility.
The bid by
President Omar al-Beshir, who seized power in an
Islamist-backed coup in
1989, to take over the chair of the 53-nation AU has
overshadowed
preparations for the two-day summit.
"The essential issue is not the
chairmanship but rather the success of the
summit. This is our priority,"
Beshir said on the eve of the gathering as
disagreement over a Sudanese AU
presidency continued.
Human rights groups have raised the alarm over
the choice of Sudan to lead
the pan-African body, arguing that it would be
tantamount to rewarding a
regime accused by the United States of genocide in
Darfur.
On the eve of the gathering, Sudanese police broke up a meeting
of human
rights activists, detaining about 35 of them including EU diplomats
and
journalists for nearly four hours while they searched documents and
computer
files.
As AU leaders weighed Sudan's bid, Darfur rebels
taking part in
AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja announced that they would
boycott meetings
on Monday and Tuesday pending a decision from Khartoum on
the AU chair.
The rebels have warned that they will pull out of the
talks indefinitely
if Sudan wins the top position, arguing that African
Union cannot be an
impartial peace broker in Darfur with Beshir as its top
representative.
About 300,000 people have been killed and more than two
million displaced
since 2003 in the western region of Darfur, where rebels
are fighting
government forces backed by militias.
"As far as the
security on the ground is concerned, there is chaos, in
particular in west
Darfur where there are many parties fighting," the head
of the UN mission in
Sudan, Jan Pronk, said Sunday.
"There are still attacks by militias on
civilians," he said, referring to
the Arab Janjaweed militias accused of
atrocities in Darfur.
Sudan's campaign to win the AU chair came as the
body was seeking to shore
up its troubled 7,000-strong peacekeeping force in
Darfur with help from the
United Nations.
With many African
countries reluctant to back Sudan's bid for the AU,
Congo appeared to be
stepping into the limelight as a compromise candidate.
"It's not
impossible that President Sassou Nguesso succeeds Nigerian
(President)
Olusegun Obasanjo at the head of the AU because he is being
courted by
several of his counterparts asking him to take over the
chairmanship," Prime
Minister Isidore Mvouba told a news conference in
Brazzaville.
Obasanjo is among about 40 presidents attending the summit including South
African President Thabo Mbeki, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Moamer Kadhafi
of Libya but Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo, Chad's Idriss Deby and
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika are not taking part.
Africa's first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, is
expected to get a warm welcome as she makes her first foray onto the African
diplomatic stage.
In a major human rights test, African leaders
will be asked by Senegal to
decide whether to extradite Chad's former
dictator Hissene Habre to Belgium
where he is wanted to face trial for
crimes against humanity.
Acting on an international arrest warrant
issued by Belgium, Senegal
arrested Habre in November but then asked the
African Union to decide the
fate of the former Chadian leader, who ruled
from 1982 until 1990, when he
was deposed by Deby.
While it
appeared unlikely that African leaders would agree to hand over
Habre to
Belgium, a former colonial power, they could ask the AU to set up a
panel of
legal experts to come up with options for trying the former leader.
They will also take stock of the situation in Ivory Coast where four days
of
anti-UN protests last week prompted the UN Security Council to step in
and
consider sanctions at a meeting in New York on Monday.