Monday, 26 January 2009
|
Another effort is being made to resolve the political deadlock in Zimbabwe with a special summit in Pretoria attended by Southern African heads of state. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition MDC signed a power sharing agreement last September. But they have been unable to agree on forming an inclusive government. Zimbabwe is in a state of economic and social collapse, and nearly 3,000 people have died as a result of a cholera epidemic. There's scant hope that Monday's regional summit will lead to the formation of a power sharing government in Zimbabwe. It's the fourth such meeting since the inconclusive elections in March 2008. 'Real acrimony' A week ago, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai met in Harare, and failed to resolve their differences.
One analyst says those talks collapsed in "real acrimony". The main issue of contention is over who controls key ministries and other top public posts. President Mugabe has said he won't compromise any further. If there's still no agreement on Monday, he may ask the regional grouping SADC for the legitimacy to form a new government without the MDC opposition. SADC - which has called this emergency summit - looks powerless and has shown no willingness to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe. South Africa's foreign minister has said any solution lies solely in the hands of Robert Mugabe and his political rivals. |
AFP
43 minutes ago
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe will form a government
after Monday's regional summit in South Africa
with or without a deal with
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a minister
said.
"This summit is the last summit that is going to discuss this issue
of an
inclusive government. If it does not work today, definitely when the
president comes back here, he has to form a new government with or without
Morgan Tsvangirai," deputy information minister Bright Matonga
said.
"The way forward, soon after this summit whether there is an
agreement or
there is no agreement, President Mugabe is going to form a
cabinet, 15
cabinet ministers, eight deputy ministers of ZANU-PF," he said
in an
interview on public broadcaster SA FM.
"He will obviously try
to leave room for (the Movement for Democratic Change
leader) Tsvangirai so
that whenever he changes his mind ... but that is not
going to be for too
long. He will then come to join the all inclusive
government. There has to
be a government whether there is MDC or not," he
said.
A summit of
Southern African leaders will on Monday in Pretoria renew
efforts to break
Zimbabwe's political deadlock, as Mugabe comes under
increasing
international pressure.
Mugabe and rival Tsvangirai signed a deal more
than four months ago to share
power and form a unity government but it has
yet to be implemented because
of the failure to agree key posts.
The
pact has floundered since last September over which party will control
top
public posts, including the home affairs ministry which oversees the
police.
The latest attempt by the 15-nation Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) to forge a breakthrough comes one week after
talks in Harare between
the rivals collapsed in acrimony.
http://www.voanews.com
By Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C
26
January 2009
The diplomatic spat between Zimbabwe and Botswana
took another twist after
Gaborone demanded a thorough investigation into the
core issues surrounding
the political crisis in Zimbabwe ahead of the
Southern African Development
community (SADC) meeting Monday. The SADC
meeting is expected to be a
last-ditch attempt by leaders in the Southern
African region to salvage the
stalled power sharing agreement between
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and
the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change. Gaborone Sunday called
for Monday's crisis summit to go
to the core of the issues that have
prevented the formation of a unity
government in Zimbabwe and resolve
Harare's economic meltdown. Diplomatic
relations between Harare and Gaborone
have been frosty after Zimbabwe
accused Botswana of interfering in its
internal affairs. Political analyst
George Mkwananzi told VOA Gaborone seems
to be the only voice of reason in
the sub-region.
"It is quite refreshing that this time around we are
going to have the
presence of the government of Botswana, which has been
acting as a voice of
reason in this whole matter where the majority of the
SADC leaders have been
sort of afraid to confront Mugabe and tell him the
truth about the core of
the Zimbabwe crisis," Mkwananzi noted.
He
said it was unfortunate for President Mugabe to be accusing Gaborone of
political interference when Botswana has been siding with the ordinary
Zimbabwean.
"I think it would be hypocritical of the government of
Mugabe to start
pointing fingers at Botswana and complaining about political
interference
because that is the hallmark of being in communities such as
SADC where
members have the right to intervene where they think that the
rights of a
member state, particularly, the citizens of such a member state
are being
violated. So, it is really being hypocritical on the part of the
ZANU-PF to
complain about Botswana's stance," he said.
Mkwananzi said
he supports Botswana's call for Harare to be prevented from
participating in
any SADC meetings concerning the Southern African region.
"I think the
call for the prevention of Zimbabwe to sit in the SADC summit
by Botswana
then was in the context of giving one of the belligerents in the
crisis of
Zimbabwe that is ZANU-PF an undue advantage over the rivals in
this case the
MDC formation. I think this time around, if Robert Mugabe is
going to be
there then it is perhaps because Botswana or the head of
government of
Botswana realizes the fact that it would be necessary to let
Mugabe get it
loud and clear from member states that certain things that
have delayed and
caused this impasse have to be communicated directly to him
(Mugabe), and he
must get this message without any equivocation," Mkwananzi
pointed
out.
He described as baseless Harare's accusation that Gaborone is
harboring MDC
militants who seek to overthrow Mugabe's administration
through military
means.
"To start with, it is important that up to
this point in time, Zimbabwe has
been unable to corroborate these
allegations and prove that indeed such a
scheme is in existence. And also
the fact that the head of SADC at the
moment who is the president of South
Africa, President Kgalema Motlanthe
dismissed these things as false it also
means that Zimbabwe cannot continue
to pander to that kind of allegation
with credibility. So, they won't be
able to win any Botswana has often
accused President Mugabe's government of
abdicating its responsibilities to
the detriment of the ordinary Zimbabwean
who it said has been saddled with
shortage of food and diseases.
Gaborone also accused Mugabe of
fraudulently clinging to power after a
controversial second round of voting
after both the ruling ZANU-PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change failed to garner the needed votes
to with the first round of
voting.
Zimbabwe also accused Botswana of harboring militants who Harare
claims have
been plotting to overthrow Mugabe's
administration.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has
accused President Robert Mugabe's administration of failing
to fully
implement the power-sharing agreement.
http://www.businessday.co.za
26
January 2009
Dumisani Muleya and
Chantelle Benjamin
SOUTHERN African Development Community (SADC)
leaders face their most
critical meeting yet on Zimbabwe in Pretoria
today.
Diplomats fear the extraordinary summit could be
explosive.
The dispute on how to handle Zimbabwe could rupture the
regional body, which
has been battling to stay united amid widening
divisions.
The worries arise mainly from the standoff between Zimbabwe's
President
Robert Mugabe and Botswana's President Ian Khama, the only SADC
leader to
publicly reject Mugabe's disputed re-election last
year.
Mugabe has been trying to defuse the powder-keg situation by
reaching out to
Khama before the summit.
The SADC secretariat has
urged all SADC leaders to attend the meeting today.
Khama was in SA
yesterday.
Diplomatic sources said that Mugabe sent his close ally and
confidant,
Emmerson Mnangagwa, to meet Khama's envoys in Chobe, Botswana, on
Friday in
a bid to ease tension before today's meeting.
Mugabe
was said to be afraid that if he did not contain Khama, SADC could
end up
turning against him or split, forcing it to make concessions.
"Mugabe is
concerned that Khama might become the catalyst for an explosive
meeting and
as a result he has sought to defuse the looming crisis sending a
team of
envoys led by Emmerson Mnangagwa to Chobe to engage Botswana
authorities," a
diplomat said.
The agenda for the meeting included the SADC
summit, allegations that
Botswana is training Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) supporters to
overthrow Mugabe, immigration issues and souring
relations between the two
countries.
Millions of Zimbabweans live
illegally in Botswana. Hundreds are deported
every week, and violent crime
linked to Zimbabweans has increased across the
country. Mugabe conveyed the
message to Khama that they should stop
criticising each other in public. He
said it was incumbent on him and Khama
to preserve the "very good" relations
between the two countries, Khama's
father was a family friend and there was
no need for him to attack Mugabe in
public.
SADC leaders,
including chairman President Kgalema Motlanthe, Mozambique's
President
Armando Guebuza, acting chairman of the SADC organ on politics,
defence and
security, and mediator Thabo Mbeki, met Mugabe, MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai
and smaller MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara in Harare
last
Monday.
The meeting today will be attended by Mugabe, Tsvangirai, and
Mutambara,
Motlanthe and Guebuza.
SA's home affairs department
confirmed late yesterday that Tsvangirai would
attend. Also confirmed was
Zambian President Rupiah Banda and foreign
ministers from Tanzania and
Angola.
According to foreign affairs spokesman Thembela Ngculu, ministers
from the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Seychelles arrived early
yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
By Karin Brulliard and
Colum Lynch
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 26, 2009; Page
A07
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 25 -- Kumi Naidoo joined the struggle against
apartheid
as a teenager, signing up with a movement that fought for human
rights,
delivered democracy to South Africa and now governs the country.
Last week,
he began a hunger strike to pressure that government to confront
a different
oppressor, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
"The
bottom line is, the South African government has betrayed its record,"
said
Naidoo, honorary president of Civicus, an international alliance of
civil
society organizations.
His was one voice in a growing chorus of
frustration in South Africa at the
government's failure to condemn Mugabe,
even as Zimbabwe's humanitarian
crisis worsens, a cholera epidemic that
began there spreads throughout South
Africa, and the number of Zimbabweans
seeking asylum here surges.
In recent weeks, the region's Catholic
bishops have called on South Africa
to cut off support for Mugabe, and Nobel
Peace laureate Desmond Tutu has
urged his ouster by force. Graca Machel,
Nelson Mandela's wife, said
Wednesday that southern African leaders have
"blood on their hands" for not
stopping Zimbabwe's crisis, while trade
unions are demanding that leaders
reject Mugabe. Newspapers feature scathing
attacks on the stance of South
Africa, whose leaders galvanized
international support in their own fight
against oppression.
"Our
country's stand makes me feel ashamed to be a South African," one
reader
wrote to the Cape Times last month.
But as the 15-nation Southern African
Development Community meets Monday in
Pretoria to discuss the crisis in
Zimbabwe, there is little sign that South
Africa, the group's chair and
regional powerhouse, will call for an end to
Mugabe's 28-year rule or even
criticize it.
Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa's interim president, has
said that the best
solution is the implementation of a power-sharing pact
signed by the
opposition and Mugabe, whose security forces have been accused
of abducting
and torturing activists while the rival parties haggle over
details of the
deal.
Critics say South Africa should openly condemn
Mugabe, as Botswana's
government has done, or try to bring down his regime
by cutting off supplies
of electricity, fuel and food to Zimbabwe. Some have
called for South Africa
and other nations to refer Mugabe to the
International Criminal Court, a
move that a senior South African Foreign
Ministry official, Ayanda Ntsaluba,
recently said would be
"counterproductive."
"We don't see this as assisting, and I don't think
we can expect South
Africa to join this chorus in the near future," he said,
adding that South
Africa's approach is "guided by what holds promise for
peace so that more
lives can be saved."
The continuation of South
Africa's "quiet diplomacy" toward Mugabe has
disheartened those who had
hoped for a firmer response after the ruling
party ousted Thabo Mbeki, the
policy's architect, as president in September.
But regional leaders kept
Mbeki as mediator of Zimbabwe's political crisis,
despite the opposition's
protests.
Mark Gevisser, the author of the biography "Thabo Mbeki: The
Dream
Deferred," has attributed Mbeki's insistence on negotiation in part to
his
deep distrust of the West and a sense of indebtedness to Mugabe, a
patriarch
in a "family of freedom fighters" who had backed the battle
against
apartheid.
But Mbeki's brother and the deputy chairman of the
South African Institute
of International Affairs, Moeletsi Mbeki, said the
policy belonged not just
to Mbeki but also to South Africa's liberation
movement-turned-ruling party,
the African National Congress, or ANC. Elitist
party leaders view themselves
and their counterparts in Mugabe's Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic
Front, or ZANU-PF, party as "superior to
the black masses" that propelled
Zimbabwe's main opposition party to
prominence, he said.
"They see the lower class as a threat to their
power," Moeletsi Mbeki said.
The approach extended to South Africa's
recently ended two-year term on the
U.N. Security Council, where the country
promoted African initiatives and
positioned itself as a counterbalance to
the council's dominant Western
powers, challenging U.S.-backed efforts to
impose sanctions on Iran and
condemn rights abuses by autocracies including
Burma and Zimbabwe.
That enhanced its standing among members of the
United Nations' influential
Third World blocs. But it has eroded its moral
standing in the West.
"Given South Africa's own history, one would have
really hoped for more in
terms of lining up on the side of those who are now
victims of human rights
abuses," said Steve Crawshaw, the U.N.
representative for Human Rights
Watch.
South Africa's U.N.
ambassador, Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo, said critics have
a "romantic view" of
his government's role as
a champion of human rights. He said his
government has been defined by
pragmatism.
"We sat across the table
from people who were worse than Robert Mugabe,"
Kumalo said, referring to
the political settlement with the rulers of the
apartheid regime. "The
situation in Zimbabwe is terrible," he said, but he
added: "It won't
function if you just zero in on one guy."
Still, South Africa's policy
could shift. The nation's departure from the
Security Council could open the
door to stiffer action against Mugabe's
government, U.S. and European
diplomats said, although Obama administration
officials said it would be
hard to rally support for tough measures from
China and Russia without South
Africa's acquiescence.
Critics hope that consent will come if ANC leader
Jacob Zuma becomes South
Africa's president in general elections this year,
as expected. Zuma, who is
strongly backed by the trade unions that support
Zimbabwe's opposition, has
spoken more harshly of Mugabe, saying recently
that he could no longer call
Mugabe and his party "comrades."
ANC
spokesman Carl Niehaus said in an interview Sunday that Zuma, if
elected,
would apply "a more vocal condemnation" and "stronger diplomatic
pressure"
on Zimbabwe, while urging other southern African leaders to do the
same. One
senior ANC official said Zuma is also prepared to "turn the
economic screws
on Zimbabwe."
In a recent interview, however, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai said he would expect "a difference in style but not
in substance"
under a Zuma presidency.
For their part, activists such
as Naidoo said they think growing public
outrage in South Africa could hold
sway. Last week, he, Machel and other
activists announced a "campaign of
solidarity," to include hunger strikes
and protests.
About 2,000
mostly Zimbabwean migrants sleep on floors and in stairwells at
the Central
Methodist Mission, having fled a "huge human catastrophe" in
their homeland,
said Bishop Paul Verryn.
"Insofar as the South African government and the
South African people owe a
debt to Zimbabwe, and we do, it is not a debt to
Robert Mugabe," Naidoo
said. "That is a debt we owe to the Zimbabwean people
as a whole."
Lynch reported from New York.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=10406
January 25, 2009
Jupiter Punungwe
A NUMBER
of things are set to happen this week that in theory should be
milestones or
turning points in the Zimbabwe crisis.
First, SADC is supposed to hold
the penultimate summit in its efforts to
tackle the Zimbabwean crisis.
Secondly either Mugabe is going to get the
green-light to go it alone or the
MDC-T will finally jump into the lion's
den to try to tame the Zanu-PF lion
from within a government of national
unity.
Lastly the government of
Zimbabwe is going to try and announce a budget
whose basis nobody really
knows as the country no longer has what can
practically be called a
currency.
In my own books all three things are likely to be non-events in
terms of the
suffering of Zimbabwe's people. None of them immediately
addresses the root
cause of Zimbabwe's problems - corruption and greed
leading to economic
mismanagement. None of them also offers any detail on
how the problem is
going to be addressed in the long term.
Judging
from immediate past experience, even if the MDC and Zanu-PF agree to
form a
government they are probably going to spend a lot of time arguing
about what
to do next. However, I hope that at least we will be able to move
beyond the
mere political confrontation that has kept us bogged down for a
year.
Whether Zanu-PF and the MDC Tsvangirai faction agree to work
together it is
up to them. The MDC cannot be dragged, like a goat tied up
for the
slaughter, into a unity government it doesn't want to be part of.
Similarly
there is no immediately practical way of making Zanu-PF hand over
power
unless they want to do it themselves. In short the two sides have no
practical choice apart from agreeing to work together, but they still don't
seem to realize that.
In my view the paramount interest should not be
to force Mugabe and
Tsvangirai into the same bed. The paramount interest
should be to save the
people and the region from the voodoo bone-thrower
type of economics that
have been practiced since Gideon Gono was appointed
governor of the RBZ.
The guy has written a book and I am sure he is busy
patting himself on the
back for having finally written an 'economics book'.
In fact the book is
nowhere close to being an academic examination of
economic theory that we
all expected. Instead it is a collection of
political fable, myths and
unsubstantiated claims about being offered
international jobs.
Gono must be removed from the RBZ not because he is a
Zanu-PF supporter, but
because he is absolutely clueless about how to run a
monetary system and
that deficiency has had devastating effect on Zimbabwe's
economy. In fact he
is so clueless that in a week's time he is likely to
have no monetary system
at all to run, everything having been
dollarized.
According to an independent weekly newspaper published in
Zimbabwe, the
government is likely to introduce special coupons to pay civil
servants
which will have US dollar equivalent face values.
What this
means is that the government is going to try and finance itself by
printing
pieces of paper with US dollar figures printed on them. The
important
question is how far up the supply chain the coupons are going to
be
accepted.
Suppose a supermarket in Zimbabwe accepts the coupons, will the
supermarket
be able to buy from a supplier in South Africa using the
coupons? Obviously
no. A piece of paper printed by the Zimbabwe government
is not US currency,
and is not legal tender in terms of international law.
If the Zimbabwe
government does manage to print notes which look exactly
like real US
dollars it is an act of forgery and when one government forges
another
government's currency it is usually considered an act of
war.
Will the supermarket be able to go to the government and immediately
get
foreign currency to re-stock? Obviously that is unlikely since the
reason
the government is printing the coupons in the first place is it
doesn't have
real foreign currency to pay civil servants. More precisely the
government
will rather use real foreign currency to finance extravagant
lifestyles and
Far East holidays for senior officials and their cronies
while they try and
pull the wool over the eyes of the civil service with
these worthless
coupons. I would like to see Mrs Mugabe go and pay for a
stay at Shangri-La
Hotel with those coupons.
So the supermarket,
having given its goods to civil servants, is left with
worthless paper
printed by the Zimbabwe government, and we are back to
square one - empty
shelves. Or the pieces of paper themselves will become a
commodity and start
trading at values other those printed on their face so
inflation doesn't go
away.
On the other hand, you cannot ask teachers to work for charity when
somebody
who has no productive role in government like Grace Mugabe is being
allowed
to go and spend 2000 British pounds a night in Hong Kong. If the
government
could find money for Grace to go on holiday then they have no
reason to tell
anyone that they can't find money to pay teachers who will
teach our
children. Not just wages, but living wages.
Instead of
pushing political leaders to just agree, SADC also should be
stressing the
need for sensible economic management. As long as voodoo
economics continue,
there will be no meaningful change to the crisis.
Save the Children
Thousands of teachers could fail to return to school when
Zimbabwe's new
term begins on Tuesday, denying millions of children their
education.
A new report by Save the Children suggests that many teachers
are being
forced to spend their time scraping together enough to survive
rather than
returning to their schools. This, combined with the country's
food crisis,
is likely to deprive many of the country's 4.5 million
school-age pupils
their education, with severe consequences for the
country's future.
Zimbabwe's education system has completely
disintegrated over the last year.
As late as 2007, 85% of children were
still going to school. By the end of
2008, attendance was already down to
around 20%, and figures are likely to
drop even further. Of 300 teachers,
parents and pupils interviewed by Save
the Children, teacher pay, hunger and
lack of stationery were identified as
the three biggest problems keeping
children out of the classroom.
Schools that do re-open, particularly
those in urban areas, will pose a
significant risk for cholera infection, as
many have little or no access to
clean water and no money for disinfectant
or cleaning materials. Cholera has
killed nearly 2,500 people in Zimbabwe,
many of them children.
Rachel Pounds, Save the Children's country
director in Zimbabwe, said: "Less
than ten years ago Zimbabwe had the best
education system in Sub-Saharan
Africa, with nearly every child going to
school. Now a majority of children
are out of school and the system is in
tatters.
"Pupils and teachers who do make it back to the classroom could
be faced
with an increased threat of cholera. Sanitation is now so bad in
schools
that they may become a breeding ground for infection unless there is
more
money made available to put precautions in place.
"A generation
is at risk of growing up without any education in Zimbabwe,
and that will
have catastrophic consequences for the country's recovery."
The food
crisis in Zimbabwe has had a disastrous effect on children's
attendance
rates. 5.1 million people are now dependent on food aid to
survive in
Zimbabwe, and thousands of children are forced to spend their
days working,
scavenging or begging for food rather than getting the
education that is so
vital for their development.
The country's raging inflation means that
the current teacher salary, around
35 trillion Zimbabwe dollars per month,
is now only enough to buy a few
loaves of bread, with the value decreasing
every day. With no funds to buy
chalk, pens or paper, and often little
ability to feed their families, many
teachers are now forced to spend their
days trying to find enough money to
get by.
By the end of last year,
an estimated 30,000 teachers had already dropped
out of Zimbabwe's education
system, with at least 10,000 now living in South
Africa. For the 70,000
thought to be still in the country, morale is
rock-bottom and a significant
proportion are inexperienced or untrained.
Save the Children's research
shows that pupils are increasingly subject to
corporal punishment and
exploitation by teachers unable to cope with
deteriorating conditions, scant
resources and lack of support.
Ms Pounds continued: "Lack of education
may not be life-threatening in the
short term, but in the long-term it can
kill. Already in Zimbabwe one in ten
children die before the age of five.
The single biggest factor that affects
child mortality is whether mothers
are educated.
"Children in Zimbabwe are going hungry and many have
already lost family or
friends. With classes closed, children feel they have
no hope. They want to
learn, be with their friends, take exams and create a
future for themselves.
"The world must act now to get children back to
school before a generation
of children lose their education. With money for
school feeding programmes,
basic stationery and teacher support packages,
aid organisations like Save
the Children can help get classes going and
pupils learning within weeks."
Save the Children is running a major
emergency response in Zimbabwe, and
will be supporting schools by
distributing text books, stationery and
cleaning materials, as well as
providing vital cholera prevention training
for teachers and
pupils.
To donate to Save the Children's Zimbabwe appeal, go to
www.savethechildren.org.uk
ENDS
For
information or interviews in the UK call Save the Children's media unit
on
+44 207 012 6841 / +44 7831 650 409 (24-hour line)
Notes to
Editors
We're the world's independent children's charity. We're outraged
that
millions of children are still denied proper healthcare, food,
education and
protection. We're working flat out to get every child their
rights and we're
determined to make further, faster changes. How many? How
fast? It's up to
you. For further information about our work please visit
www.savethechildren.org.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Hong Kong's
government on Sunday came under fire for allowing the daughter
of Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe to live and study in the city despite
international
sanctions against her father and his regime.
By Simon Parry in Hong
Kong
Last Updated: 12:21AM GMT 26 Jan 2009
Bona Mugabe, 20, enrolled
under an alias at the University of Hong Kong in
the autumn.
Emily
Lau, a senior Hong Kong legislator, on Sunday called for a review over
the
decision to admit Miss Mugabe, saying many people in the city found her
father's regime "obnoxious".
Australia last year deported eight
students whose parents were senior
members of the Mugabe regime, saying it
wanted to prevent those involved in
human rights abuses giving their
children education denied to ordinary
Zimbabweans. The United States and the
European Union have imposed sanctions
on Mugabe's ruling clique, including
asset freezes and travel bans.
Zimbabwe is currently in the grips of a
cholera epidemic and has been in
political turmoil since Mr Mugabe last year
refused to accept the outcome of
a presidential election won by his rival
Morgan Tsvangirai. The two rivals
signed a deal to create a coalition
government last September but the
proposed coalition has never been
implemented and last week talks to save
the power-sharing agreement
collapsed.
Asked about Miss Mugabe's admission, a University of Hong Kong
spokesman
said: "We believe that education should be above politics and
young people
should not be denied the right to education because of their
family
background or what their parents have done."
A university
official, who asked not to be named, said most students were
unaware of the
presence of Miss Mugabe, who has gone to Zimbabwe for the
Chinese New Year
holiday.
When she returns to Hong Kong, the university would "keep a
watchful eye
more from a student life perspective", the official said.
However, the
source added: "We are aware of the impact and significance of
this. After
all, he is a dictator, no one will deny this - but education,
frankly, is
above politics."
Law Yuk Kai, director of Human Rights
Monitor in Hong Kong, said: "A child
who has not done anything wrong should
not be asked to take the burden of
the wrongs of their parents - and in
accordance with international human
rights, the interests of the child
should be our first principle."
But he added: "If the money she is
spending was siphoned off the ordinary
people, there is a problem. Just like
other members of the international
community, Hong Kong should do its part
in imposing sanctions."
Source: Government of Zimbabwe; World Health Organization (WHO) Date: 25 Jan 2009 ** Daily information on new deaths should not imply that these deaths
occurred in cases reported that day. Therefore daily CFRs >100% may
occasionally result A. Highlights of the day: - 655 cases and 26 deaths added today (in comparison 1906 cases and 21 deaths
yesterday) - 36.2% of the districts affected have reported today (21 out of 58 affected
districts) - 88.7 % of districts reported to be affected (55 districts/62) - Revised figures for Bindura deaths from 19 to 21 - Cumulative Institutional Case Fatality Rate 2.2% - Daily Institutional Case Fatality Rate 1.9%
*Please note that
daily information collection is a challenge due to communication and staff
constraints. On-going data cleaning may result in an increase or decrease in the
numbers.
Any change will then be explained.
USAID BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN
ASSISTANCE (DCHA) OFFICE OF U.S. FOREIGN DISASTER ASSISTANCE (OFDA)
Zimbabwe – Cholera Outbreak
Fact Sheet #6, Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 January 23, 2009
Note: The last fact sheet was dated January 16, 2009.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS NUMBERS AT A GLANCE SOURCE Total Reported Cholera Cases in Zimbabwe
50,003 WHO – January 22, 2009 Total Reported Cholera Deaths in Zimbabwe
2,773 WHO – January 22, 2009 Reported Cholera CFR in Zimbabwe 5.5 percent WHO – January 22, 2009
FY 2009 HUMANITARIAN FUNDING PLEDGED TO ZIMBABWE FOR THE CHOLERA
OUTBREAK USAID/OFDA Assistance to Zimbabwe
..............................................................................................................$6,800,000
Total USAID Humanitarian Assistance to Zimbabwe for the Cholera
Outbreak ...........................................$6,800,000 CURRENT SITUATION Humanitarian Coordination and Information Management On January 15, USAID/DART staff attended the monthly U.N. education cluster
meeting. With schools scheduled to reopen on January 27, humanitarian staff
noted the need for an immediate survey of school water systems, followed by
school social mobilization campaigns and distribution of hygiene supplies to
students and teachers. • USAID/OFDA continues to support information coordination through U.N.
clusters in order to improve data collection, analysis, and dissemination,
enabling humanitarian organizations to direct expertise and resources where most
needed. WASH Health
Emergency Relief Supplies
USAID HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FOR ZIMBABWE’S CHOLERA OUTBREAK
USAID HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO ZIMBABWE FOR THE CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN FY 2009 Implementing Partner |
Activity |
Location |
Amount | ||
USAID/OFDA ASSISTANCE 1 | |||||
Multiple |
Emergency Relief Supplies; Humanitarian Coordination and Information Management; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene |
Affected Areas |
$1,544,212 | ||
Multiple |
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene |
Bulawayo, Chirumanzu, Gweru, Harare, Kadoma, and Mutare Districts |
$4,843,020 | ||
UNICEF |
Emergency Relief Supplies |
Affected Areas |
$299,180 | ||
Transport of Emergency Relief Supplies |
Affected Areas |
$65,632 | |||
Administrative Support and Travel |
Countrywide |
$47,956 | |||
TOTAL USAID/OFDA |
$6,800,000 | ||||
TOTAL USAID HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO ZIMBABWE FOR THE CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN FY 2009 |
$6,800,000 |
1
USAID/OFDA funding represents anticipated or actual obligated amounts as of January 23, 2009.PUBLIC DONATION INFORMATION
• The most effective way people can assist relief efforts is by making cash contributions to humanitarian organizations that are conducting relief operations. A list of humanitarian organizations that are accepting cash donations for cholera response efforts in Zimbabwe can be found at www.interaction.org.
• USAID encourages cash donations because they allow aid professionals to procure the exact items needed (often in the affected region); reduce the burden on scarce resources (such as transportation routes, staff time, and warehouse space); can be transferred very quickly and without transportation costs; support the economy of the disaster-stricken region; and ensure culturally, dietary, and environmentally appropriate assistance.
• More information can be found at:
USAID/OFDA bulletins appear on the USAID web site at
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/ http://www.herald.co.zw
Monday,
January 26, 2009
New
Ziana.
Air Zimbabwe should charge realistic fares to enable the country
to attract
more foreign tourists, a visiting Iranian delegation of tour
operators has
said.
Speaking at a media briefing last Wednesday, head
of delegation Bozorgzadeh
Hazary said air transport costs had made
Zimbabwe's tour packages one of the
most expensive in the
world.
Hazary said the pricing structure in the country was unrealistic
compared to
other African airliners.
"The pricing structure should be
addressed," she said, adding "a local
flight for tourists in the country is
equivalent to a regional flight at
other African airlines."
She said
the present fares impacted negatively on tourist arrivals and
suggested that
special fares for tourism groups could boost the number of
visitors into the
country.
"An average group fare in South Africa costs about R8 000 while
in Zimbabwe
an individual pays about
R4 000," she
said.
Meanwhile, the delegation accused some local tour operators of high
profiteering, a development she said could derail efforts to resuscitate the
local tourism industry.
"There are operators charging as much as
US$40 000 for a return trip to
Masvingo and Victoria Falls, an amount that
is enough to buy two minibuses."
"We are not interested in buying buses
but only hiring them," she argued.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief
executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said they
would engage Air Zimbabwe to discuss
sustainable prices for tourists.
He was recently in Iran to market
Zimbabwe in the Middle East country. - New
Ziana.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=10434
January 25, 2009
By Mxolisi
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on African
leaders to
suspend Zimbabwe from the African Union (AU) if President Robert
Mugabe's
government continues to persecute the opposition and
civilians.
In an open letter addressed to AU Chairman, Jean Ping last
Friday, HRW's
Africa director, Georgette Gagnon, said that the continental
body should
attach top priority to civilian protection and the bringing of
human rights
abusers to justice during its summit in Ethiopia.
The
summit runs from January 26 to February 3.
The letter, which cites human
rights cases in Somalia, Zimbabwe, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Sudan, and Guinea, said that the
humanitarian crises in these countries were
dire and in need of urgent
intervention.
HRW accused Mugabe of being
responsible for Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis.
The organisation
described the Addis Ababa summit as "one final chance" for
the African
leaders to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, after apparent
failure by the
regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc
to help set up a
national unity government in the country.
"The African Union has one
final chance to ensure a change of course in
Zimbabwe before the country
collapses," said Gagnon.
"The AU summit should condemn ongoing abuses by
Zanu-PF and insist that it
end politically motivated violence, enforced
disappearances, and torture."
Gagnon also suggested that former South
African President, Thabo Mbeki
should be removed from mediating in the
Zimbabwean crisis.
Mbeki was appointed by the SADC to mediate in the
political deadlock between
Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) after the country's
ill-fated elections last year.
MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March elections but did not
secure
enough votes to form a new government, according to official figures
released after about five weeks.
Mugabe later claimed victory in a
one-man Presidential poll rerun of June 27
boycotted by Tsvangirai and
condemned as a sham.
The MDC claims that more than 100 of its supporters
were killed in election
violence, while thousands of others were displaced,
after their homes were
burned down by Zanu-PF supporters.
Mbeki is
now under fire from the mainstream MDC, which accuses him of being
biased
towards the 84-year-old Mugabe, who has been at the helm in Zimbabwe
since
1980.
"The AU should appoint a new emergency team of independent,
impartial
mediators, who can set clear benchmarks and timelines for
resolving the
crisis," said Gagnon in his letter.
"Finally, the AU
should suspend Zimbabwe if - within a specific time frame -
Zanu-PF does not
stop its abusive practices."
The human rights group said that without
such stern action from African
leaders, Zimbabwe would collapse as the
humanitarian crisis continues to
worsen.
"More than 2 000 people have
died in a cholera epidemic and tens of
thousands are infected. Thousands
have also died from hunger and HIV or
related diseases," said
HRW
"More than 5 million Zimbabweans - half the population - need
international
food aid. With victims of political repression also fleeing
across Zimbabwe's
borders, the regional situation is dire. Zanu-PF's leader
Robert Mugabe will
attend the summit despite having lost elections in
2008."
HRW said that after the AU summit, held in Egypt in June last
year, soon
after Mugabe was "sworn in", had appealed to all sides in
Zimbabwe to
refrain from actions that would negatively impact on dialogue,
the
octogenarian leader had refused to comply.
"By continuing to
abduct and torture its opponents, Zanu-PF has clearly and
blatantly ignored
that appeal," said HRW
http://www.mirror.co.uk
By Martin Geissler
Itv News Africa Correspondent 26/01/2009
A new low for Mugabe's Zimbabwe
EXCLUSIVE
There is something different about Nigel Mutemagau.
It
took a while for me to put my finger on it. He sat quietly in front of
me,
sucking a biscuit and cuddling his grandmother.
But he wasn't like other
two-year-olds.
He didn't smile.
For 76 days Nigel was, perhaps,
the world's youngest political prisoner.
Locked up in Zimbabwe's
Chikurubi jail with his mum and dad, activists for
the opposition MDC
party.
It is claimed that Nigel was beaten in custody. The guards hit him
with
their belts, either as an evil means of torturing his mother or just to
shut
him up when he cried.
He was released after protests from local
officials but his parents are
still in prison.
The family home has
been torn down by the authorities. Nigel is now in
hiding in a one-room
brick shack with his grandmother, brothers and sisters.
Where else on earth
would a toddler be given such an atrocious introduction
to life?
But
Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is not like anywhere else.
People in other
countries suffer.
And Mugabe doesn't have a monopoly on tyranny or human
rights abuse. But
what sets him apart is the speed at which he's ruined a
prosperous and
wonderful place. Forbes, the respected business publishers,
put the
country's annual inflation at around 6.5 quindecillion
novemdecillion
percent.
Familiar with that number? Neither was I.
It's 65 followed by 107 zeros.
It's difficult to imagine what that looks
like, much less what it means in
real terms. Put simply, anything you buy
today will have lost more than half
its value by tomorrow.
But the
fact is most Zimbabweans don't care about inflation. When you don't
have
money, the figures don't matter. A friend told me about a once wealthy
acquaintance who paid the bill for last month's internet connection with a
tray of eggs. A country reduced to medieval bartering for modern technology.
The irony would be wonderful if it wasn't so tragic.
We drove into
rural Zimbabwe, past the fields which used to feed much of
southern Africa.
We stopped at a house, miles from anywhere, to ask
directions. The owner,
Lillian, and her five children are starving to death.
They used to run a
200-acre farm. But now they can't afford to buy seed.
Much less the
fertiliser needed for crops.
Her husband died last year, now every day is
a struggle.
"We hunt for bees", she told me. "When we find the hive, we
take the honey,
and my son walks 10 miles to the village and swaps it for
grain."
When I met them they'd gone four days without food. Her
daughters, Alice and
Beauty, were clearly malnourished. I asked Lillian when
they'd get a
reliable source of food. "When our maize is ready by June," she
said,
pointing to a few stumpy corn stalks.
If her kids survive it
will be a miracle. And she knows it.
Aid agencies say they're feeding
Zimbabwe but the villages I visited hadn't
seen a charity worker since 2001.
Most hospitals are closed. Men, women and
children are, as a doctor told me,
"dying quietly in the bush".
Back in the capital, Harare, we met up with
one brave cameraman who risked
imprisonment to film pictures for us. He
managed to get into an area
quarantined due to cholera.
We watched
the tape. Men in masks were digging a row of graves.
A car pulled up - in
the back, a coffin so makeshift the sides had scarcely
been nailed together.
The dead man must have been tall because the end of
the coffin had been sawn
off to allow his feet to stick out of the end.
Friends or family weren't
allowed to attend - a vain effort by the
authorities to contain an epidemic
that has spiralled out of control.
Today the presidents of southern
Africa will meet again to talk about
Zimbabwe. They will try to form a
"unity government" there. They've been
trying for almost a year
now.
The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai will come under pressure to
sign up
with Mugabe. It's an awful dilemma for the opposition. Do they make
a deal
and risk legitimising his government? Or do they turn their backs on
him and
face a future in the political wilderness?
Back across the
border, churches are packed with people praying for a
miracle - looking to
the Bible for help. If they turn to the Book of
Revelation they'll read
about the four horsemen of the apocalypse, bringing
lies, violence, famine
and disease.
The awful prediction has come true in Zimbabwe. But it
didn't take four
horsemen to deliver all this upon them. One man did it
alone.
Martin Geissler's report is on tonight's ITV Evening News and News
at Ten.