• JAG Open Letter Forum No 228
• Let me say outright, we are alive & unharmed only by the protection & Grace of God,
• Missed chance
• Voter apathy a warning sign
• Will Mugabe invite spoil SA's big day?
• MDC wins court bid to launch economic plan
• Zimbabwe police try to delay opposition manifesto
• Aids levy rakes in $15bn
• Independent journalists further remanded
• Report about Zim investors coming, not true
• 7 Million Zimbabweans will Need Emergency Feeding, says WFP
• Mugabe moves against landowners' holdouts
• Zimbabwe's Grain Harvest Forecast As Lowest Ever
• Zimbabwe more democratic than most of Africa: Mugabe
• Mbeki passes land expropriation bill
• Gmb Starts Paying Farmers: Made
• Moyo sells R1,5m South African getaway
• Mbeki assassination plot' weird even by Hefer's standards

      But the launch of the detailed economic programme, designed to
demonstrate that the MDC offers a serious alternative government to that of
President Robert Mugabe, went ahead after the opposition group obtained a
court order overturning the police ban.

      Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader, said Zimbabwe's crisis was too
deep-seated to allow a quick-fix solution. But he said Restart - an acronym
for Reconstruction, Stabilisation, Recovery and Transformation - was the
best chance for a return to normality "within a bearable time-frame".

      Mr Tsvangirai said that almost 25 years after independence,
Zimbabweans were as poor as they had been in 1970. Life expectancy was at
its lowest for more than 40 years.

      The 70-page Restart document details measures to reverse this by
creating millions of jobs in the formal and informal sectors, improving
incomes, restoring relations with the international community, investing
heavily in health, education and poverty reduction and encouraging local and
foreign investment.

      The policy has already been attacked by the state-owned media, which
have claimed the MDC has no policy on land beyond returning confiscated
areas to white owners.

      But economists say Restart will resonate well with the donor community
and agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, because
it sticks closely to orthodox stabilisation policies and focuses on good
governance, anti-corruption measures, institution building and poverty
reduction.

      On the controversial land issue, Restart calls for comprehensive
agrarian reform extending well beyond the large-scale commercial farms,
formerly owned by some 6,000 white farmers, that have been the sole focus of
recent government policy.

      The opposition says the 42 per cent of the country classified as
communal land must also be the target of measures to raise productivity and
incomes. It argues that while land reform is an important element of
agrarian reform, it must be underpinned by support services in
infrastructure, credit, marketing, hospitals and schools, plus farmer
training and extension services.

      In contrast to the Mugabe government, which has no formal economic
plan, the MDC sets out detailed targets for gross domestic product growth of
more than 5 per cent annually after it takes office, supported by
projections for inflation, savings, investment, employment, the balance of
payments and foreign debt.

      One leading economist, who declined to be named, said the key
difference between the government's stance and that of the opposition MDC
was that the international community would support the MDC programme with
aid and debt relief, neither of which is available to Mr Mugabe's
administration.

      The companies, which were not named, were reported to be moving to
Botswana in an attempt to bolster trade relations between the two countries
and also because of the de-industrialisation in Zimbabwe due to political
turmoil.

      BEDIA’s Public Relations Manager Shandukane Mpoloka said that it is
not true that Zimbabwean investors are coming to Botswana.

      “We have had discussions with investors in Zimbabwe, but nothing has
been agreed upon yet,” Mpoloka said yesterday.

      However, he said should these investors come into the country, they
would not be a threat to Botswana firms, as their products are not meant for
the local market, but are destined for export.

      One textile firm owner said the investors should not be seen as a
threat.

      “There is no need to worry about the competition coming as this would
bring more customers,” he said.

      He said that the concentration of investors in the textile sector
would increase demand for their products in the US market.

      Most of the local textile factories export their products to the
greater US market under the duty free Africa Growth and Opportunity Act
(AGOA II).

      De-industrialisation in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector was brought
about after the controversial land repossession exercise, which left most
white farmers without land and compelled them to leave the country and go to
neighbouring countries like Mozambique.

      Recently, it was reported that white farmers in Mozambique and Zambia
have created massive job opportunities.

      Meanwhile, BEDIA, which promotes joint venture opportunities, will be
hosting Indian businessmen next month as part of promoting industrialisation
in the country.

      The delegation from India will represent the Information Technology
(IT) sector like computer software development.

      One local businessman who is in the IT industry, Phuthego Chere of
Data Link Systems, a company dealing in software said that he expects to
learn more from the Indians.

      “I think the Indians would help me develop my software move from the
small scale to the larger scale,” Chere said yesterday.

      Chere said that the elevation to a large scale would help his company
tender for bigger projects unlike at the moment.

      “We encourage joint ventures with the Indian companies,” Mpoloka said.

Regional crop forecasters say Zimbabwe's coming grain harvest will be the
lowest ever, and at the same time the United Nations says the number of
people in need of food aid has increased to its highest level ever.
Crop plantings in Zimbabwe are down between 20 and 30 percent compared to a
year ago, according to Fewsnet, the U.S. Agency for International
Development's Famine Early Warning System for east, west and southern
Africa.

      Uncultivated farm near Harare
Last year, the maize harvest produced less than one million tons. Zimbabwe
needs at least 1.2 million tons for human consumption alone.

Fewsnet says the even lower level of planting this season was caused in part
by a lack of seeds and fertilizer.

There is a seed shortage because few of the new farmers who have taken
formerly white-owned land have had success growing the difficult and
expensive seed crops.

      Overgrown farm in Zimbabwe
Economists say fertilizer factories needed imported ingredients and there
has been little foreign currency available to buy them.

The World Food Program says seven million Zimbabweans, more than half the
population, will need emergency feeding before the harvest in April and May.

Officials say there has been a slow response to Zimbabwe's food shortage
this year. Some experts say part of the reason is that the main donors the
United States, Britain and the European Union, see the crisis as a result of
bad policy, rather than bad weather or some other natural disaster.

For generations Zimbabwe was the breadbasket for the region, both feeding
itself and exporting its surplus.

Agricultural economists say small-scale communal farmers traditionally
produced slightly more than half of Zimbabwe's summer grains, and white
commercial farmers produced most of the export crops.

Communal farmers have been weakened by the high cost of agricultural inputs,
when they are available, and by HIV and AIDS. The commercial farming sector
has been largely wiped out by the seizure of more than 90 percent of
formerly white-owned land. Most of the new farm owners do not have the
skills or the financing to cultivate the land.

Fewsnet has launched an alert on the deepening food crisis in Zimbabwe and
has noted that the urban population, which receives minimal assistance,
cannot afford to buy enough food. Zimbabwe's inflation rate is more than 600
percent.

The World Food Program recently asked the Zimbabwe government to release
240,000 tons of maize from last season to fix the shortfall over the next
three months. So far, the government has not responded.

    LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
    HARARE, Zimbabwe — President Robert Mugabe moved against Zimbabwe's last
handful of white landowners yesterday when a new law allowed the seizure of
large plantations and estates.
    Among those stripped of all protection from confiscation are the huge
Hippo Valley sugar estates, owned by Anglo American PLC, and the
British-owned Eastern Highlands Plantations.
    Mr. Mugabe's regime has already taken more than 90 percent of land
belonging to individual white farmers, a few hundred of whom remain.
    The way is now clear for the seizure of several large plantations
growing tea, citrus fruit and sugarcane simply by publishing a notice of
intent in the government's Gazette, a publication sold by government
printers.
    Earlier in the week, the Zimbabwean Parliament passed a law that will
allow the government to take land more easily from white farmers.
    Parliament, which is dominated by lawmakers from Mr. Mugabe's ruling
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), passed an
amendment to the Land Acquisition Act after intense debate Wednesday, the
Zimbabwe Inter-Africa New Agency reported.
    The new law allows the government to acquire white-owned farms by simply
publishing a notice of intention to take over the land.
    It eliminates the old requirement that a preliminary notice of
acquisition by the government should be served personally on the farm owner.
    Some 4,500 whites used to own a third of the country's land — 70 percent
of prime farmland — before the government launched a "fast-track" land
reform program in 2000.
    Fewer than 400 white farmers now remain in Zimbabwe and own 3 percent of
the land.

Regional crop forecasters say Zimbabwe's coming grain harvest will be the
lowest ever, and at the same time the United Nations says the number of
people in need of food aid has increased to its highest level ever.
Crop plantings in Zimbabwe are down between 20 and 30 percent compared to a
year ago, according to Fewsnet, the U-S Agency for International
Development's Famine Early Warning System for east, west and southern
Africa.

Last year, the maize harvest produced less than one million tons. Zimbabwe
needs at least one-point-two million tons for human consumption alone.

Fewsnet says the even lower level of planting this season was caused in part
by a lack of seeds and fertilizer.

There is a seed shortage because few of the new farmers who have taken
formerly white-owned land have had success growing the difficult and
expensive seed crops.

Economists say fertilizer factories needed imported ingredients and there
has been little foreign currency available to buy them.

The World Food Program says seven million Zimbabweans, more than half the
population, will need emergency feeding before the harvest in April and May.

Officials say there has been a slow response to Zimbabwe's food shortage
this year. Some experts say part of the reason is that the main donors --
the United States, Britain and the European Union -- see the crisis as a
result of bad policy, rather than bad weather or some other natural
disaster.

For generations Zimbabwe was the breadbasket for the region, both feeding
itself and exporting its surplus.

Agricultural economists say small-scale communal farmers traditionally
produced slightly more than half of Zimbabwe's summer grains, and white
commercial farmers produced most of the export crops.

Communal farmers have been weakened by the high cost of agricultural inputs,
when they are available, and by HIV and AIDS. The commercial farming sector
has been largely wiped out by the seizure of more than 90 percent of
formerly white-owned land. Most of the new farm owners do not have the
skills or the financing to cultivate the land.

Fewsnet has launched an alert on the deepening food crisis in Zimbabwe and
has noted that the urban population, which receives minimal assistance,
cannot afford to buy enough food. Zimbabwe's inflation rate is more than 600
percent.

The World Food Program recently asked the Zimbabwe government to release
240-thousand tons of maize from last season to fix the shortfall over the
next three months. So far, the government has not responded.

      Thabo Mbeki, South African president, has signed into law a
controversial bill that gives the minister of agriculture the power to
expropriate land for restitution purposes without a court order or the
farmer's agreement. Some commercial farmers have slammed the new Restitution
of Land Rights Amendment Act as a violation of property rights and the
prelude to a Zimbabwe-style land grab. But the government insists the Act
will speed up the restitution process, thereby preventing the kind of land
invasions and lawlessness witnessed under Robert Mugabe's regime.

      "The Act does not give the minister the power to expropriate land in
an arbitrary manner," Pretoria's chief land claims commission said in a
statement on Friday. "No person, group or institution including an organ of
the state will be allowed to deprive landowners of land in an arbitrary
manner."

      The Act applies only to land from which blacks were forcibly removed
under the colonial and apartheid regimes, and the minister will only use her
power to expropriate land in cases when farmers are "unreasonably opposed"
to selling or when negotiations have dragged on for too long. The
expropriated farmer will always be given "just and equitable" compensation.

      South Africa has until now had a strict "willing seller, willing
buyer" policy which has slowed down the land restitution process, government
says. Over 45,000 out of 70,000 urban and rural land claims have been
settled, but the government is determined to settle the rest within two
years.

      Nearly 10 years after the end of apartheid, less than 3 per cent of
farmland has been transferred to black owners. Government's initial deadline
of 2005 for the transfer of 30 per cent of white-owned land to black farmers
has been extended to 2015.

      In stark contrast to South Africa, Zimbabwe this week passed an
amendment to its expropriation law, which removes the need for a preliminary
notice of acquisition to be served on the land owner, effectively making it
easier for government to confiscate land, including farms, sugar
plantations, forests and wildlife sanctuaries.

The Herald (Harare)

January 30, 2004
Posted to the web January 30, 2004

Harare

THE Grain Marketing Board is now paying farmers who were not paid after
delivering their maize to GMB depots last season, the Minister of Lands,
Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Cde Joseph Made told Parliament on
Wednesday.

"We initially had problems of securing the money to pay the farmers since
financial institutions were lending the bonds to us at very high rates but
now we have the money because of the low interests rates," he said.

The minister said this in response to a question by Chief Jonathan Mangwende
during a question and answer session in the House.

Chief Mangwende had asked the minister why it had taken long for the
Government to pay farmers for their proceeds in view of the fact that they
wanted to use the money to buy inputs for this season.

Cde Made said the erratic rains had affected farmers' produce during the
last three years hence the Government had not asked them to repay the loans
advanced to them.

He denied some Press reports that the Government was withholding 240 000
tonnes of maize while some people were starving in the country.

"It is not correct that we are withholding maize because the maize which we
have in stock was either purchased from the farmers or we imported it," he
said.

"We will continue to buy maize and wheat from local farmers as well as
importing and we will continue to distribute maize to needy families."

Cde Made said this while responding to a question by Bulilimamangwe MP Mr
Moses Mzila Ndlovu (MDC) who had asked him to confirm Press reports alleging
that the Government was withholding 240 000 tonnes of maize while some
people were starving.

The Minister of Energy and Power Development Cde Amos Midzi said the
deregulation of the fuel industry has seen positive developments as the
price of fuel was going down.

"This has made it possible for indigenous players to take part in the fuel
procurement industry and more than 60 applications of companies that want to
procure fuel are being considered right now," he said.

Cde Midzi was responding to a question from Seke MP Mr Tumbare Mutasa (MDC)
who had asked whether the deregulation of the fuel industry had so far
yielded positive results.

The Minister of Rural Resources and Water Development Cde Joyce Mujuru said
the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project was estimated to cost about Z$500
billion and most of the money would be required in foreign currency.

She said this was the reason why the idea of a build, operate and transfer
(BOT) was mooted to encourage private investors to participate alongside the
Government to develop the project.

Cde Mujuru said this while responding to a question from Matobo MP Mr
Lovemore Moyo (MDC) who had asked about the progress made on the project.

She said the first step in the implementation of the project was the
construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam where water for the region would
initially be withdrawn from the Zambezi River.

"The contractor has already started some work on the site under the
supervision of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority," Cde Mujuru said.

"Progress has been hampered by the shortage of foreign currency for bringing
in the plant and as a result work on the actual dam wall has not started."

The minister said if the dam and the pipeline were constructed concurrently,
the project could be operational by the end of 2006.

Foreign Affairs Minister Cde Stan Mudenge said Zimbabwe was still studying
the New Partnership For Africa's Development peer review mechanism for good
governance and democratic practices before committing itself to it.

He said out of the 53 countries in Africa, only 16 had signed the Nepad peer
review mechanism as the rest were still studying the issue.

Cde Mudenge was responding to a question from Nyanga MP Mr Leonard
Chirowamhangu (MDC) who had asked why Zimbabwe had no yet signed the peer
review mechanism.

The minister said the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security had asked
foreign ministers to draft electoral standards both for the Sadc and the
African Union.

"The opposition parties in the Sadc region refuse to accept defeat. When you
take part in an election you should be prepared to accept defeat and if not
so you are an enemy of democracy," Cde Mudenge said.

Nepad is a programme in which the West promises financial assistance to
developing countries in exchange for good governance and democracy.

Health and Child Welfare Minister Cde David Parirenyatwa said the Premier
Medical Aid Society had reached an agreement with the Zimbabwe Medical
Association on the use of medical aid cards.

"I understand the two have reached an amicable agreement and the problem is
with the National Medical Society and I will be meeting with Namas today
(Wednesday) to see how we can resolve the issue," he said.

Dr Parirenyatwa said this while responding to a question from Makoni East MP
Cde Shadreck Chipanga (Zanu-PF) who had asked him to enlighten the House on
the wrangle between Zima and Namas on the use of medical aid cards.

Some private doctors are demanding cash up-front from patients following
allegations that the medical aid societies were taking long to pay them.

Cde Parirenyatwa said major hospitals such as Harare Central, Mpilo and
Parirenyatwa were now distributing anti-retroviral drugs to patients while
some local companies that were manufacturing the generic drugs were donating
them to the Government.

The Minister of Industry and International Trade Cde Samuel Mumbengegwi said
Zimbabwe had two trade attaches in South Africa and Geneva and would appoint
six other attaches this year.

He sad this while responding a question from Murehwa North MP Cde Victor
Chitongo (Zanu-PF) who had asked the position of the ministry in regard to
trade attaches.

Local Government and National Housing Minister Cde Ignatius Chombo said the
ministry was contemplating appointing a commission of inquiry to look into a
number of issues relating to traditional leaders. These included
resuscitating positions abolished by the former white regime.

Cde Chombo said this in response to a question from Makoni West MP Cde
Gibson Munyoro (Zanu-PF) who had asked why it had taken long for some
headmen in his constituency to be officially installed.

The minister said Government wanted to build 2,5 million housing units in
urban areas for the next five years.

He said the Government had identified several farms that had been earmarked
for development in urban areas with the view to ease the housing shortage n
urban areas.

Cde Chombo said this while responding to a question by Mbare East Tichaona
Munyanyi (MDC) who had asked what the Government was doing to alleviate
overcrowding in Mbare.

Cde Chombo said additional flats would be constructed in Mbare and the
Harare City Council had identified land behind George Stark School for this
purpose, while current flats would be renovated to accommodate more
families.

The council, he said, was also developing the Hopley/Tariro housing project
that would provide stands to people living in the Joburg lines of Mbare who
were likely to be displaced by the construction of the new Mbare Musika Bus
Terminus.