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Schools opening in limbo

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Wonai Masvingise, Staff Writer
Saturday, 07 January 2012 13:00

HARARE - Thousands of children attending government schools could be left in
limbo when schools open on Tuesday amid a civil servants strike call for
Wednesday.

Parents reeling from the “January disease” and have battled to fork out
money for school fees, teacher incentives, boarding fees, as well as school
uniforms and groceries could find themselves stuck with their children at
home as signs show that government is unlikely to meet the salary demands.

Representatives of the 236 000-strong civil service yesterday agreed to take
“drastic” action if government fails to heed their demand for more pay by
Wednesday. Of this number close to half are teachers.

The Apex Council, which is the umbrella representative body for civil
servants, resolved at a meeting in Harare yesterday to confront the
government.

Tendai Chikowore, leader of the Apex Council, said civil servants had given
government until Wednesday to respond to their demands for salary increments
or face action, most likely a crippling strike.

Speaking after a joint meeting of civil servants representatives held at the
Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) offices in Harare yesterday,
Chikowore said government workers were now fed up with the apparent lack of
interest in improving their livelihoods.

“We are in agreement that civil servants are agitated and what we have done
as Apex Council is that we are demanding a meeting on Wednesday and if they
do not respond to us, we are going to present ourselves at the ministry of
Public Service and demand a meeting with the minister,” said Chikowore.

“If they do not give us a favourable response, we will definitely take
action,” she said.

Teacher representatives last year gave government an ultimatum to increase
their salaries by December 31, but the deadline passed without any positive
action from their employer.


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Colleges, Schools Demand Groceries From Students

http://www.radiovop.com/

Gwanda, January 07, 2012 – Government colleges and schools who have been
warned against increasing tuition fees have ordered students to bring their
own groceries when schools open next week.

Earlier this week the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture,
Senator David Coltart, said there will be no increase in fees structures for
all Government schools.

“I am aware that parents have been threatened with fee hikes from all angles
but a decision has been made. We therefore expect all schools to abide by
that decision as we will deal with those who will choose to go against
 this,” said Coltart.

Students at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo College who reside on the campus have been
told to bring their own groceries to augment the low fees they are paying.

Part of a letter addressed to the students reads, “Those who will reside at
the campus should bring 20kg Beef, 4kg salt , four rolls of tissue paper,
20kg mealie meal(pearlenta/ngwerengwere), 10 sachets Royco,” among other
items.

However health experts fear that the move to order students to bring fresh
products such as beef to college could result in some bringing poisoned
food.

“Some of the students at the college travel for two days from their
respective homes to get to college and there is likelihood that some of the
meat could be stale before it reaches its destination a situation likely to
cause serious health problems,” said Themba Ncube a senior nurse at Gwanda
Hospital.

Although authorities at Joshua Nkomo Polytechnic refused to speak to Radio
VOP a lecturer at the college who requested anonymity said the move to order
pupils to bring their own food was necessitated by the low fees being
charged at the college.

“The tuition fees are just too low for the upkeep of students for three
months and hence when they bring their own food it becomes better,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s education system once a shinning beacon in the African continent
has over the years plummeted to lowest levels as the country struggles to
recover from a decade long economic turmoil.


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Chiefs get 60 percent pay rise

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

07/01/2012 00:00:00
    by Staff Reporter I Radio VOP

THE cash-strapped government has effected a 60 percent increase on the
allowances of traditional leaders in what critics dismiss as a cynical
inducement ahead of elections crucial elections this year.

The increment comes at a the opening of the new school term next week
remains uncertain as teachers have threatened to go on strike after
negotiations with government over their conditions stalled.

Headman, acting headman, village heads and their officials will get a bump
in their allowances according to Statutory Instrument 148 of 2011 published
in the December 23, 2011 issue of the Government Gazette.

A headman now gets a monthly allowance of US$140 up from US$50 while an
acting headman now gets US$84. A village head now gets US$25 up from US$10,
a messenger of chief US$40 while a messenger of headman now takes home US$20
up from US$5.

Critics of Zanu PF see these increments as sweeteners ahead of fresh polls
President Mugabe is thought to be desperate to win against Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and his stubborn formation of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC-T).

Chief’s council president, Fortune Charumbira, told last month’s Zanu PF
national conference that traditional leaders would continue to support
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.

Charumbira said most chiefs suffered under Ian Smith’s brutal regime during
the liberation struggle adding they would, therefore, never betray a party
which led the fight for independence.

But Prime Minister Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe and Zanu PF of abusing
traditional leaders, including chiefs by forcing them to act as the party’s
political commissioners.

“While the MDC has tremendous respect for the institution of traditional
leaders in this country, it has no respect for those traditional leaders who
offer themselves as willing and overzealous stooges of political parties
especially Zanu PF,” MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said recently.


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Defiant Sikhala Threatens "Terrorist” Attacks on Polling Stations

http://www.radiovop.com/

Harare, January 7, 2012 - Firebrand MDC 99 leader, Job Sikhala has
threatened to lead his party into “terrorist” attacks on the country’s
polling stations during elections if President Robert Mugabe proceeds to
hold elections under the current contested conditions.

“Under these conditions we will sabotage them,” Sikhala said to journalists
at a party press conference Friday morning.

“We will change ourselves from a proper opposition movement to a terrorist
group. We will attack all polling stations throughout the country. People
who will go there we will also inflict terror on them.”

The former MDC legislator for St Marys constituency accused Mugabe of
keeping himself and his party in power through terror on ordinary
Zimbabweans and urged fellow opponents to Mugabe to join him.

He vowed to fight Mugabe’s terror strategies.

“People of Zimbabwe have not been able to vote freely since time immemorial
on the basis of the terror factor. So we also want to inflict terror and
fear into the heart of the tyrant.

“The tyrant must be afraid. When they hear Job Sikhala speaking they must
know that I
don’t give empty threats. I must follow words with action.”

Sikhala, who last led a handful of his party faithful into a street protest
march to President Mugabe’s Munhumutapa building last month, said he was
unperturbed by his small support base and the prospect of confronting Mugabe
who is backed by the army.

“An effective strategy does not involve numbers. (Former dissidents)
Gwesela, Gayigusu and Fidel Castro, the three fighters in Matabeleland gave
Zanu-PF headaches from 1980 to 1987. That is specifically our strategy.”

Sikhala said he did not fear death and urged Zimbabweans to join his call to
confront “the dictator”.

“We will expose him (Mugabe) to the international community,” he said.

“There is no leader in the world that had so oppressive an army and the most
oppressive intelligence system like Gaddaffi (Muammar) but he was retrieved
out of a tunnel. So dictators must know they are not indispensable. They are
just as human as all of us here.

“They also visit the toilet like you also visit the toilet. They think they
are super human.”

Sikhala demanded the scrapping of sections in the country’s electoral laws
which compel voters to display their folded ballots soon after casting their
votes saying this creates anxiety among the voters who fear being victimised
for voting against Zanu-PF.

He added, “Polling station based voting should be vigorously resisted. The
rule of law should be upheld. There must be security for all citizens. Fear
must be removed from the people.

“MDC(99), as the only political party that remains guided by the founding
principles of a Zimbabwe opposition movement committed to democracy,
exposing Zanu-PF and refusal to compromise with tyranny, will champion the
full exposure of the great electoral fraud and solutions to the attainment
of a democratic Zimbabwe in which free, fair and credible elections are
held."


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Zim Churches Rescue DRC Refugees From Police

http://www.radiovop.com

Bulawayo, January 7, 2012---The churches’ umbrella body Zimbabwe Council of
Churches (ZCC) came to the rescue of 26 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
refugees who belong to eastern African country’s opposition party Union for
Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) led by Etienne Tshisekedi.

Zimbabwe Police and immigration officials wanted to lock up the refugees at
Khami Maximum prison in Bulawayo saying there are threats to national
security.

The 26 refugees who include 14 adults and 12 children entered Zimbabwe
through illegal means on Tuesday through the Victoria Falls border; they
were dumped at an open space near Bulawayo’s Amankhosi Culture centre in
Makokoba High density suburb by a Commuter Omnibus which they hired from
Victoria Falls.

After two days at the open space ZCC got hint that there were stranded
refugees in the city and went to give food and medicine before sheltering
them at African Methodist Church in Makokoba.

However, armed police and immigration officials descended on the church with
the intention of arresting and locking them up at Khami Maximum prison
saying there were threat to national security.

“Heavily armed police and immigration officials wanted to arrest these DR
Congo refugees and detain them at Khami Maximum; they said there were
threats to national security.

“However we pleaded with them not to arrest them as they look innocent and
starving,” said Amon Mtombeni a member of ZCC who also a pastor at Africa
Methodist Church.

Bohojo Titus, the spokesperson for the refugees told Radio VOP that they are
of Tutsi tribe and belongs to Tshisekedi’s UDPS and they fled violence in
eastern DR Congo last week and travelled through Zambia until they reached
Zimbabwe.

“We left DR Congo’s Kivu province last week as the situation there was now
serious, clashes between our party supporters and government security forces
were now serious.

“So we decided to leave home together with our families and we thank
Zimbabwe Council of Churches for helping us, as police wanted to arrest and
detain us,” said Bhohojo.

The DRC refugees were however handed over to UNHCR yesterday by the country’s
ZCC and were transported to Tongogara refugee camp in Chipinge.

Tshisekedi, who came second on November 28 poll rejected DRC President
Joseph Kabila's re-election and “sworn in" himself as the country’s leader
last week.


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State Opposes Bail for villagers In Row with Mohad

http://www.radiovop.com

i

Beitbridge, January 07, 2012- Eight villagers among them two war veterans
residing at a farm in Beitbridge West, who have a long standing dispute with
co-Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi will spend the next seven days
languishing in prison after the state invoked Section 121 of the Criminal
Procedure and Evidence Act to deny them bail.

Gwanda resident magistrate, Ms Sheila Nzombe had remanded Given Mbedzi, his
mother Philani Ndou, Soforia Ndou, Jameson Mbedzi, Alifa Mbedzi, and
Philemon Marubini Ndou, Ignatius Ncube and Knowledge Muleya out of custody
on their own cognisance.

However the state represented by Mazwi Goto invoked section 121 which gives
the state seven days in which to oppose bail with the High Court.

Messrs Kucaca Phulu and Matshobana Ncube of Phulu and Ncube Legal
Practitioners had successfully applied for refusal of remand on stock theft
charges against Philani.

Philani is alleged to have cut a piece of fence from a farm belonging to
Minister Mohadi, which resulted in several herd of cattle straying, and
these are still unaccounted for.

The lawyers argued that this did not form the essential elements of a case
of stock theft, as there is no evidence to show that their client had stolen
any cattle.

Philani and her alleged accomplices also face malicious damage to property
charges after they damaged a door belonging to Minister Mohadi’s son,
Campbell Junior.

The suspects have a long standing dispute with Mohadi over some plots
adjacent to his farm and were arrested at the farm last Saturday afternoon.

They deny the charges and say they are an attempt to force them out of their
plots.

Two offer letters were issued to both parties for same plot; Given Mbedzi
has an offer letter issued in 2003 while Mohadi’s son Campbell Junior was
issued with a similar letter in 2009 after Mbedzi reportedly abandoned it.

The case was moved to 12 January when it is hoped the state would have made
a decision on granting them bail.


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Air Zim strike continues

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Ngonidzashe Mushimbo, Staff Writer
Saturday, 07 January 2012 11:40

HARARE - Air Zimbabwe workers have continued with their strike action after
the cash-strapped national airline failed to address their salary demands.

The workers say they are living in abject poverty as they have not been paid
for the past seven months, with some relocating to rural areas.

Others are now staying as squatters at a nearby camp.

Air Zimbabwe has been hit by labour disputes, crippling debts, interference
from senior government officials and politicians as well as lack of funding
and poor management.

Striking workers claimed that Transport minister Nicholas Goche was ignoring
their pleas for intervention and “instead is giving us a deaf ear and a cold
shoulder”.

Workers told the Daily News that Air Zimbabwe’s acting chief executive
Innocent Mavhunga came to the scene in an effort to address the striking
workers but they snubbed him saying he “would preach the same gospel”.

Mavhunga is said to have continued with his address despite the growing
disgruntlement from the striking workers.

“He told us that the airline is in no position to pay its workers as it has
no money but instead is using the available money to refund the people who
had purchased tickets on abandoned flights,” said a disgruntled Air Zimbabwe
worker.

Workers said Mavhunga and his entire management team should be sacked for
failing to pay outstanding salaries and retrenchment packages as well as
running down the airline.

“Why does he continue coming to work if he is not being paid? What is he
coming here to do because we are not coming to work?

“This guy and his team should be shown the exit door and give room to new
independent management because they have failed to revive the airline,”
argued another disgruntled worker.

When asked to comment, Mavhunga told the Daily News that he was in a
meeting.

On Thursday, Mavhunga confirmed that some workers held a demonstration at
the company’s Harare International Airport offices.

With schools opening next week, the workers claimed they were told to use
letters written by the company committing to pay their salaries to negotiate
with schools over the payment of fees and utilities such as electricity and
city council rates, the workers claimed.

Goche was unavailable for comment.


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Bromley Farm: Murerwa intervenes

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer
Saturday, 07 January 2012 11:41

HARARE - Lands and Rural Resettlement minister Herbert Murerwa has
intervened to end the nightmare of 130 families that were living in the open
along a railway line after being evicted from Bromley Farm on the outskirts
of Harare.

New owner of the farm Samson Chauruka had denied a report in the Daily News
earlier this week that he had evicted the families.

The Daily News based its report on extensive interviews with some of the
families during a visit to the area.

Yesterday, the families were returning to the farm after Murerwa’s
intervention following the Daily News report.

Faison Kome, one of the people who were living along the railway line,
yesterday said Murerwa called for a meeting of both parties to seek a
solution to the crisis that had left the families in a dire health
situation.

“We were invited by the minister yesterday (Thursday) for a meeting and he
told Chauruka to allow us to return to our houses. He told Chauruka to
construct new homes for all those people whose houses were demolished,” said
Kome.

“We hope that he (Chauruka) will be able to do the best thing for us because
we have suffered for a long period of time,” he said.

When the Daily News team visited Bromley Farm yesterday, tents pitched up by
a humanitarian organisation International Organisation for Migration had
been brought down, a sign that the families were now going back to their
homes.

Women and children could be seen busy transporting their belongings back to
the farm compound using wheel- barrows.
When the Daily News finally got hold of Samson Chauruka to find out when he
would be constructing these families new houses, he said he could not speak
to newspapers as the matter was still in the courts.

“As you know this matter is still before the courts I cannot comment. But I
can confirm that we held a meeting with the minister and other details I
cannot reveal to you,” said Chauruka.

Bromley Farm has been at the centre of dispute following the “purchase” of
the farm by Chauruka from Lesley Lombard, a white farmer who is now residing
at an old people’s home in Marondera.

According to former farm workers who were employed by Lombard, the white
farmer owes them huge sums of money in unpaid salaries and terminal
benefits.

The workers claim that they had struck an agreement with Lombard that they
would remain on the farm until their dues were settled.

A copy of the agreement seen by the Daily News shows that Lombard had
appended her signature to the agreement giving the workers a right to remain
on the farm and carrying on with the business.

Lombard gave the workers a right to use tobacco barns at the farm for them
to earn a living pending the payment of terminal benefits and wages.

Bromley is a tobacco processing concern.

However, the white farmer later on decided otherwise and sold the farm to
Chauruka who then evicted the workers.

Efforts to get hold of Lombard were fruitless as a visit to the old people’s
home in Marondera yielded nothing.

She was said to have gone out of her cottage.


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Govt abandons bonding of nurses

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

07/01/2012 00:00:00
    by Staff Reporter

NEWLY trained nurses are now be free to seek alternative employment after
the government suspended a requirement that they must work for the state for
three years following qualification.

The government imposed the requirement – under which the Health Ministry
also withheld certificates and diplomas -- in 2007 in a bid to protect its
investment as hundreds of state-trained nurses left the country for better
opportunities abroad.

However, a freeze on recruitment by the cash-strapped government left
hundreds of qualified nurses without work and unable to seek jobs elsewhere
because they could not get their certificates and diplomas.

But a Ministry of Health official, Jane Madyira said Friday the bonding
arrangement had now been suspended because the government could not employ
the nurses.

"Registered general nurses and primary care nurses who graduated between
2009 and 2011 who are still unemployed and registered for the release of
their certificates and diplomas with the ministry are requested to collect
their diplomas," Madyira said.

The move will see the Ministry release 532 diplomas for registered general
nurses (RGNs) and 529 certificates for primary care nurses (PCNs) trained
since 2009, but are still unemployed.

However, state hospitals remain understaffed and the Health Services Board
(HSB), which represents workers in the health sector, said it would continue
negotiating with treasury over the recruitment ban.

"This (suspension of bonding) is out of the realisation that Government
cannot continue to deny the nurses other opportunities by holding on to
their certificates when we cannot give them jobs," HSB director Michael
Sande said.

"We hope that the Ministry of Finance can accommodate our establishment
expansion request to ensure that our health institutions have more
appropriate manpower levels.”


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Zimbabwe Takes Over Chinese Diamond Company, Herald Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/

By Brian Latham - Jan 7, 2012 7:17 PM GMT+1000

The state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp. has taken control of
Sino-Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd., a miner in Zimbabwe’s eastern Marange diamond
fields, the Herald said, citing ZMDC Chairman Goodwills Masimirembwa.

The Chinese gem miner stopped operations last year, saying the area it had a
license to mine lacked diamonds, the Harare- based, state-controlled Herald
said on its website. ZMDC is recruiting other miners and carrying out
further exploration to continue operations, the Herald quoted Masimirembwa
as saying.


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Chinese labour practices haunt Zim factory workers

http://mg.co.za/

DAVID SMITH   HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Jan 06 2012 10:19

In the evening gloom the vast complex emerges into view. Beyond a high
security wall, insects dance in the beam of a giant floodlight. Men are
still hard at work in the skeletons of concrete tower blocks and standing at
the centre of it all is the arch of a Chinese pagoda.

Zimbabwe's national defence college is under construction within a
sprawling, heavily guarded compound, the brooding presence of which sends a
clear message to any would-be revolutionary. Some have dubbed it the "Robert
Mugabe national school of intelligence".

The construction site north of Harare has also become the lightning rod for
another source of simmering resentment -- Chinese labour practices.

Surrounded by a perimeter wall that runs for a kilometre through what was
once farmland, the shadowy military academy is being built by a Chinese
contractor whose managers are accused of meting out physical punishment,
miserable conditions and meagre pay.

"The beatings happen very often," said a 28-year-old carpenter, wearing blue
overalls as he made the long walk home after a 14-hour shift. "They
ill-treat you and, if you make a mistake, they beat you up."

He estimated that there are about 600 Zimbabwean and 300 Chinese workers on
the site. Around 50 of the Chinese are managers. Some Chinese people have
"nice homes inside", and others live in wooden shacks just outside the
complex. The Zimbabweans and Chinese rarely mix, he said. "They don't speak
English so we use sign language. The Chinese eat off plates, then give us
the leftovers."

The carpenter said he gets up at 4am and works from 7am to 9pm every day.
For this he is paid $4 a day, but at least it is work so he can feed his
wife and three children. "We don't have a choice because we need to survive.
But if it was possible to chase all the Chinese away, I would."

Reports of abuse by managers at the Chinese contractor, Anhui Foreign
Economic Construction Company, are widespread, as are complaints that the
government is turning a blind eye because it cannot afford to lose such a
valuable partner.

"We tried to go on strike but the leader was beaten up and sacked. The
government doesn't say anything, even though it knows people are beaten up.
I saw them undress some workers and beat them with helmets," a builder said.

"We feel angry but we need money, so there is no choice. If you don't work
10 hours, there is no money."

Attempts to contact the contractor by telephone and email were unsuccessful.
The company's website refers to projects in Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique and
Zambia and describes how the project team of the Zimbabwe national defence
college raised money for a carpenter whose son needed treatment for
leukaemia.

Zimbabwe received a Chinese loan of $98-million to build the college. The
loan will be repaid over 20 years through earnings from the Marange diamond
fields, which are being mined by another Chinese firm amid widespread claims
of human-rights violations.

Okay Machisa, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, said:
"Parliament approving such a debt without consulting Zimbabweans is very
serious. Why are we prioritising an army intelligence college instead of
universities and hospitals?

"Harare has no electricity most of the time and the water is not good for
human consumption. It shows we are trying to keep Zimbabwe under the control
of state security."

China's commercial empire has expanded enormously in Africa in the past
decade and Zimbabwe is trying to catch up. Trade between the two countries
stood at $550-million last year, according to the Chinese embassy. The
government in Harare has also announced that China is planning up to
$10-billion in investments in the next five years.

Diamonds and other mineral resources are the main attraction, but Chinese
entrepreneurs have also seized opportunities in construction, manufacturing
and retail. Chinese restaurants are booming, attracting top politicians and
businessmen. Shops are flooded with cheap Chinese imports, or zhing-zhong,
of dubious quality. Zimbabwean vendors claim they are being undercut and put
out of work.

Just as a recent Human Rights Watch report alleged poor conditions at
Chinese-run copper mines in neighbouring Zambia, so there is growing
antipathy and mistrust in Zimbabwe. Trade unions have called for action and
even members of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have expressed disquiet.

Machisa said: "We've got alarming, shocking human-rights abuses in firms
operated by the Chinese. We've got empirical evidence that is going to shock
the people of Zimbabwe. They are physically abusing the workers. They are
psychologically terrorising the workers."

Others believe the problem is a cultural misunderstanding. A Chinese
immigrant, Li Chen, said: "If Chinese people work from 8am till 8pm they
have no problem. "It's a different culture. If people sit down and talk and
understand each other, it should change."


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Chinese Become Unwelcome Guests

http://www.ipsnews.net/

By Stanley Kwenda

HARARE, Jan 7, 2012 (IPS) - Alec Marembo has built his family fortune making
bricks in Dzivarasekwa, a sprawling high-density suburb north of the capital
of Zimbabwe. But due to the economic crisis of the last decade, his fortune
started crumbling. Although he could break even when the downturn started,
he finally gave in to competition from the Chinese.

"I don’t understand how our government can allow the Chinese to come here
and take over small jobs that we consider family ventures and pass them on
as investment," Marembo told IPS as he gazes into the distance where a new
Chinese brick factory lies.

The government of President Robert Mugabe introduced the "look east" policy
in 2004, after top government officials and state companies were slapped
with sanctions by the UK, the United States and other western countries for
alleged human rights abuses.

The policy has encouraged China and other Asian countries to invest in
Zimbabwe, which they have done without attaching any conditions in the
manner of trading partners in the west.

Times have been hard for many Zimbabweans due to the closure of a number of
industries caused by the crippling economic crisis.

So when Chinese investors started arriving they were welcomed with open
arms. But the trade relationship is now raising questions.

"The Chinese, like any other investors, are welcome but they have to come
and build industries which will offer people employment," Thulani Mkwebo, a
small shop owner in downtown Harare, told IPS. "If I had a choice I would
drive them out."

Resentment against the Chinese can be felt in many parts of Zimbabwe.

Recently there were wildcat strikes at several Chinese-run business
ventures. Last month some 600 Zimbabwean construction workers employed by a
Chinese construction and mining company, Anhui Foreign Economic Construction
Company (AFECC), downed their tools.

They were protesting bad labour practices ranging from physical abuse to
irregular working hours and low wages pegged at four U.S. dollars a day –
far below the rates set by the Zimbabwe National Employment Council (ZNEC)
for the construction industry, which are between 1.00 and 1.50 dollars an
hour.

The company is building a 98 million dollar military college just outside
Harare, financed with a Chinese loan to be repaid with diamonds.

AFECC is mining diamonds in eastern Zimbabwe, in partnership with the
Zimbabwean military, according to the Ministry of Mines.

The Chinese have many interests in this southern African country. But the
retail sector, mining for diamonds and minerals, construction, manufacturing
and agriculture are the main attractions.

According to a 2011 report by the Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analysis and
Research Unit, Zimbabwe's exports to China rose from 100 million dollars in
2000 to 167 million dollars in 2003, but fell to 140 million dollars in
2009.

Imports from China, meanwhile, climbed from 30 million dollars in 2000 to
197 million dollars in 2007, before taking a dip in 2008.

This country's exports to China are largely in the form of raw materials,
with tobacco and minerals being the main products, while Zimbabwe receives
loans and various finished products - most of which are popularly referred
to here as "ZhingZhongs" (poor quality products).

But this has not deterred the Chinese, who have set up small businesses
pushing locals, particularly cross-border traders, out of business as they
cannot compete with cheap Chinese products.

Mara Hativagone, a former president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce (ZNCC) and chairperson of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA),
said the Chinese should not compete for the downstream industries
traditionally reserved for locals.

"We want to see more technology transfer from foreigners. They must not come
here and do all sorts of funny things, taking advantage of the existing
relationship between the two countries," Hativagone told IPS.

"There is no way Zimbabweans can compete with the Chinese, because they use
cheap labour and mass produce while half the time we have no water and
electricity in our industries to produce," she said.

She also accused the Chinese of being cheats. "Sometimes the Zimbabwe
Investment Authority gives them manufacturing licenses, but they go and open
restaurants under such big Chinese names as Wing Wah International Hotel and
Shangri-la," she said.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to China between 2002 and 2007, Chris Mutsvangwa, who
now runs MONCRIS, a consultancy firm which helps people from China set up
businesses in Zimbabwe, said he does not expect the Chinese to flood
business opportunities reserved for locals.

"Any end of the industry anywhere in the world should be reserved for
locals. I would not expect Zimbabweans to go to China to compete with the
Chinese in small businesses, and I don’t expect the Chinese to do the same,"
Mutsvangwa said.

"The Chinese have to come and exploit other areas where we have a shortage,
but we should not completely bash them but look at other things that they
have done for us. They have helped offer competition for the Americans, and
now the girlfriend has another boyfriend."

After the government's land reform programme began in 2000, U.S. business
interests left in droves to relocate to neighbouring South Africa, depriving
Zimbabwe of millions in potential foreign exchange earnings.

Beijing is aware of the jitters and has warned against undoing the existing
relationship.

"China understands the need for indigenisation and empowerment but we hope
Zimbabwe will protect the legitimate right of Chinese businesses in the
country," Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan told the media during a visit to
Harare last year.

But there is also popular support for the Chinese doing business here.

"The Chinese are welcome, we love them, they bring us cheap goods, and
whoever says they don’t want them should first create jobs for us," said
Zvikomborero Moyo, a hair and clothing boutique worker in downtown Harare.
"With Chinese help, we can start businesses, we buy from them very cheaply
and resell in the suburbs and that way we are able to make a living."


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Mugabe's plans for early elections meet obstacles

http://www.globalpost.com

Analysis: South Africa and other neighboring countries could press Mugabe to
make reforms.
Zimbabwe GlobalPost CorrespondentJanuary 7, 2012 08:21

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s main political parties, Zanu-PF and the MDC,
are set to renegotiate the so-called Global Political Agreement, analysts
disclosed last week. This is a major setback for President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe has decreed that there will be elections this year, which many saw as
a bold move to push the MDC out of government.

The 87-year-old ruler is planning to outmaneuver his MDC partners while he
is still able.

“The time has come now for us to prepare for elections next year,” Mugabe
told his Zanu-PF party last month.

He repeated the mantra that he was the victim of a forced coalition with the
MDC.

“There are those among us who lost the elections completely,” he said in
reference to the MDC. “They were rejected by the people. We asked parliament
to regard them as if they won. Now we have them in government.”

Mugabe is supported in his plans to hold elections by the army, police and
intelligence service.

Mugabe's government has already begun a crackdown on the media and has
deployed military and party militia across the country to intimidate rural
and urban voters.

Yet Mugabe has encountered some stumbling blocks. He has been told by the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that it has insufficient resources to hold
elections.

He has also been told by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma — who is
heading a regional initiative to prevent electoral violence of the sort
witnessed in 2008 — that fundamental reforms must be implemented before
elections. These changes include opening up the media and curtailing human
rights abuses.

Mugabe repeatedly claims he was deprived of victory in the 2008 poll by
foreign forces, most notably American NGOs headed by the National Democratic
Institute and the International Republican Institute. But in fact he lost
both the parliamentary and presidential polls to Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) according to official results. But
Mugabe insisted there had to be a runoff election, because he said that
Tsvangirai did not win the required 51 percent. Mugabe won the runoff
elections by unleashing widespread violence in which hundreds of
Tsvangirai's supporters were killed, according to international observers.
Tsvangirai boycotted the second round so Mugabe won. But South Africa and
the neighboring states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
pressured Mugabe and Tsvangirai to form a power-sharing government.

Mugabe’s repeated denunciation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the
MDC has led to a dysfunctional government.

Mugabe’s coterie, and in particular the armed forces, refuse to recognize
the prime minister’s authority. This has in turn damaged investment
prospects.

But Mugabe’s followers who have been vitriolic in demanding early elections
are in for a shock. Evidence is mounting that as a result of Mugabe’s
refusal to meet the terms of the pact that binds him to the MDC in the
coalition government, the so-called Global Agreement will have to be
renegotiated.

Analysts are already talking of a GPA 2.

Elections, as Mugabe wishes, under existing conditions could reverse
everything that has been achieved by the coalition so far, warned political
analyst Ibbo Mandaza. Although the joint government has been unwieldy and
often dysfunctional, it has succeeded in taming Zimbabwe's billion percent
inflation and in reopening the country's schools. Therefore there will be a
push for the revision of the GPA.

Other analysts point out that regional body SADC cannot do any more than it
has already done in knocking heads together.

Related: Zimbabwe MP freed after being charged with calling Mugabe gay

“There has to be political will among the political parties,” said
university lecturer Lawson Hikwa in a newspaper interview. “There has to be
political will among the parties to move forward and implement the
outstanding GPA reforms like the constitutional review and various
legislative amendments for the holding of free and fair elections.”

Other legislation that needs root-and-branch reform is the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act which contains clauses from the colonial era
designed to suppress nationalist voices. Mugabe is still using the powers.
Editors and politicians have been arrested under this act.

If South Africa insists that Mugabe stick to the terms of the agreement,
then it must be renegotiated before Mugabe can hold elections. This may well
deprive Mugabe of the head start he needs to place the MDC on its back foot.

After over two years of horse trading, the parties are in reality no further
forward than they were in 2009.

But one thing has changed. Mugabe’s intention to press ahead without
consulting his government partners and in the absence of essential reforms
such as repealing the sinister Public Order and Security Act, which outlaws
public demonstrations, will oblige South Africa and other neighbors in SADC
to draw a line in the sand and demand that Mugabe make the fundamental
changes that Zimbabwe needs to return to democracy.


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Herald story on PM bribes mischievous

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Stanley Gama, Editor
Saturday, 07 January 2012 11:53

HARARE - On Thursday afternoon, I received a strange call from Tendai
Mugabe, a reporter at The Herald.

He asked me a weird question that I, together with the NewsDay Editor Brian
Mangwende and The Independent Editor Constantine Chimakure, had been bribed
by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai not to write stories about his supposed
marriage to Locadia Karimatsenga.

I did not know whether to laugh or cry about this mischievous allegation but
nonetheless I decided to respond.

The Herald went on to publish the story yesterday. What is strange about
this plot is that The Herald is accusing the Daily News and other newspapers
of not writing the Tsvangirai story yet The Herald itself is not writing
anything about the same story.

Were they also bribed by Tsvangirai not to write the story? If they have the
story why are they not writing it?

Before going into the conversation, I want to make it clear that for the
record, the story that private media journalists received bribes from
Tsvangirai is not only false, it is foolish.

This story has been going on for some time and last year, there were reports
that private media editors had been given credit cards with $3 million
dollars.

Where has that ever happened, even in Utopia?

If anything, the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, papers which I am
editor, extensively covered the Tsvangirai/Karimatsenga story and I believe
we wrote more stories on the issue than The Herald.

Our coverage of the story actually invited negative criticism from
Tsvangirai’s people who accused us of wanting to destroy their leader.

We did not stop writing what we thought was news then and up to now if
anything newsworthy comes out of the Tsvangirai/Karimatsenga issue, we will
not hesitate to publish it without fear or favour.

The story about editors being bribed in The Herald yesterday is not only
false but does not meet the basic standards of journalism.

Let me also take this opportunity to state clearly that I have lots of
respect for The Herald editor, William Chikoto and the Zimpapers chief
operating officer Pikirayi Deketeke.

I salute the two God-fearing men for helping me walk in the field of
journalism when I came crawling, back in 1998.

This is not the kind of journalism they taught me and I was not surprised to
hear that the real editor of The Herald was not on duty when this weird
story was written.

Having worked at Zimpapers, I have many friends and I must point out that
most of them are professionals.

I have no problems with The Herald at all but I raise issue with the editor
who passed the story for publication.

The basic principles of journalism were not met in The Herald story.

Here I am talking of the five fundamental and basic principles of
journalism — who, what, why, how and when. These were not answered.

The story does not tell the people when this happened, where we met
Tsvangirai, and more many questions which remain unanswered.

Any editor who passed through a journalism school like most of us would have
easily answered the above before publishing the falsehoods.

I appreciate that there might be some editors who did not go through
journalism school but surely these are basics which the worst of editors,
including those parachuted through political backdoors should understand.

These are basics which are learnt on the first few days at a journalism
college.

Really our journalism has gone to the dogs. As an editor, I would be ashamed
to run such a story even under extreme political pressure.

To the editors who passed the story for publication, I need to ask a
question — if the Daily News gets rumours that a senior editor at The Herald
is sexually abusing young vulnerable female journalists or we receive
unsubstantiated reports that the editors there are employing their
girlfriends, do we rush to write a story?

No, because some of us went through a journalism school where we were taught
ethics.

It is a shame that a few individuals at The Herald allow themselves to be
used by some uncouth politician and gay gangster masquerading as a political
strategist for Zanu PF.

I know the story was manufactured by this gangster politician, whose mission
is nothing except to get rid of President Robert Mugabe.

He has tried it many times and later became desperate and even engaged
Americans to help him but so far he has failed all because he is a fool.

However, I have problems with him using gullible editors to pursue trivial
issues in a bid to silence the private media from writing about Zanu PF.

But we will not be silenced, you can silence me by killing me (I hear there
is a plot like that by some political prostitutes) but you can’t silence the
people. I am only one out of 14 million people.

As I pointed out in my response in The Herald, I don’t believe presidential
spokesperson George Charamba is involved because since we started publishing
last year, we have had a very professional engagement.

At times we argue, he points out where he thinks we would have gone
overboard but the engagements have remained professional and I have lots of
respect for someone like that.

I don’t understand why Zanu PF trusts the man who manufactured this rubbish.
They will regret one day.

We are aware it will be dog eat dog come election time but with this kind of
behaviour so early in the year, it means towards elections our heads will be
cut off.

Lastly, I would like to point out that the story that I received cash from
the Prime Minister makes interesting reading because this Christmas was the
most miserable I have ever experienced because I was extremely broke.

If only I had that kind of money!

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