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HARARE (AFP) - Thousands of students were Monday evicted from
Zimbabwe's
main university campus after they protested at the weekend
against a
decision to deny them food for not paying their fees.
An
AFP correspondent witnessed students carrying suitcases and bags trekking
out of the University of Zimbabwe campus following an ultimatum to "pack up
and leave in 20 minutes" while riot police watched.
"We were all taken by
surprise this afternoon when we saw notices this
afternoon ordering us to
leave the halls of residence within 20 minutes or
risk being beaten up by
the police," said Chadwick Rugube, a second-year
commerce
student.
The university authorities ordered the students out of their
dormitories
after skirmishes on Sunday between university security and
students who were
protesting over a decision to deny them food for three
days after they
failed to top-up their school fees.
"The authorities
decided to extend the semester after we lost time during a
strike by
lecturers and said we should pay an extra one million dollars
(4,000 US
dollars or nine US dollars on the black market)," said Rugube.
"It's not
our fault that the lecturers went on strike and we were saying why
should we
be made to pay. That's why we had demonstrations on Sunday
evening."
The Zimbabwe National Students' Union spokesman Benjamin
Nyandoro said at
least 4,000 students were thrown out of their
hostels.
He said the union had filed an interdict at the high court and
was urging
students to resist the evictions.
Authorities at the
institution could not be reached for comment.
Scores of students were
stranded beside their luggage by roadsides.
"The majority of those who
stay on campus have no homes, friends or
relatives in Harare so they are
going to sleep in the open," Nyandoro said.
"It just shows how heartless
the authorities are. Some of us are starting
examinations next week and this
is going to affect us psychologically."
SABC
July 09, 2007,
17:00
Reports of a plan to rescue Zimbabwe's freefalling economy by
pegging its
dollar to the South African rand are unfounded, according to
government
officials.
Sources said today they had no knowledge of any
such plans. If anything was
being planned to help Zimbabwe survive its
economic meltdown, official
statements would have been forthcoming, they
said.
The Sunday Independent reported at the weekend that the Southern
African
Development Community (SADC) was putting together a plan to peg the
rand to
the Zimbabwe dollar. According to the paper, the multilateral
monetary area
(MMA) of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland would be
extended to
Zimbabwe.
Value of Zimbabwean dollar really low
The
Zimbabwe dollar is reportedly being traded on the black market for up to
250
000 for one US dollar.
In a statement today, Helen Zille, the Democratic
Alliance (DA) leader, said
while there was no question that it was in South
Africa and the region's
mutual best interest to stop the Zimbabwean
economy's freefall into chaos,
it was equally important that any proposed
rescue plan was linked to
specific and measurable political reforms. "All
too often, [Zimbabwe
president] Robert Mugabe went back on his word and
proved time and time
again that he cannot be trusted," she said.
This
made it essential before South Africa or any of the other SADC states
gave
financial assistance of any sort to the Zimbabwean government, that
there
was first demonstrable evidence that political reforms had taken
place.
These would include a complete halt to the systematic oppression of
the
opposition, lifting restrictions imposed on the media, and a commitment
to
hold fresh elections that were monitored by regional and international
observers.
The DA was also critical that South Africa did not
shoulder the burden alone
for any financial commitment. "If at any stage the
government does decide to
provide financial assistance, it must bring the
people of South Africa into
its confidence as they have every right to know
how their money is being
used," Zille said. - Sapa
Reuters
Mon 9 Jul
2007, 14:45 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwe
court on Monday fined dozens of business
executives for defying a price cut
ordered by President Robert Mugabe's
government in an effort to gain control
over the world's highest inflation
rate.
The southern African country
is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that
has sent official inflation
figures spiralling above 4,500 percent and
private economists estimate the
real rate may be far higher.
More than 1,300 shop owners, managers
and company executives have been
arrested for failing to cut prices since
the freeze was announced on June
25, but most have only been
fined.
On Monday, 33 business executives, some of whom spent the weekend
in police
custody, appeared in court for offences ranging from defying the
price
freeze to failing to display prices for basic goods.
Most of
them pleaded guilty to violating price control regulations and were
ordered
to pay 3 million Zimbabwe dollar fines, and were then set free.
But at
least two had their cases postponed to allow further investigations
and were
sent back into custody.
A crack team of police, military and intelligence
operatives is enforcing
the price freeze, which has been welcomed by
ordinary Zimbabweans used to
frequent increases in public transport fares,
rentals and hospital services
and fuel prices.
But some warn the
relief may be temporary. Basic goods like cooking oil,
maize meal and sugar
have already disappeared from shop shelves after prices
were slashed, with
economic analysts predicting that these would resurface
on the thriving
black market at even higher prices.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka
told the official Herald newspaper on
Monday many business people had paid
fines as high as Z$100 million.
Mandipaka warned of a wider crackdown on
business people and black market
vendors who are enjoying roaring trade as
goods become scarce in formal
shops. The government has already banned bulk
buying to ease shortages.
Mugabe, facing growing pressure at home from
the deep economic crisis that
has left four in five adult Zimbabweans
jobless and caused shortages of
foreign currency, food and fuel, accuses
firms of raising prices as part of
a plot to unseat him.
Mugabe --
whose government ordered a in slash prices after some basic goods
had risen
by up to 300 percent in one week -- said there was no coincidence
in the
price hikes.
The 83-year-old leader -- in power since independence from
Britain in 1980
and seeking another five-year term in 2008 -- has threatened
to seize and
nationalise foreign companies he says are sabotaging the
economy.
The defiant Mugabe says Britain has led a Western campaign, that
includes
the imposition of sanctions on Harare, to punish his government for
handing
over hundreds of fertile white-owned commercial farms to landless
blacks.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: July 9,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's economy veered closer to
the brink Monday with
no end in sight to chronic shortages of staple foods
and gasoline, and
predictions of a standstill in routine business within
days.
Police and government inspectors continued cracking down on
shopkeepers and
sales managers accused of defying orders to slash prices by
half in a
desperate attempt to halt rampant inflation.
Shelves were
bare of cornmeal, bread, meat and other staples, and witnesses
said many
shops and suppliers were cleaned out by convoys of ruling party
supporters
coming in after police and inspectors began enforcing the price
cuts on June
26.
"The crunch can't be far off," said economist John
Robertson.
Factories, stores and gas stations have been unable to replace
goods sold at
below the original cost. The sudden drop in prices has sparked
panic buying,
stampedes and near-riots by impoverished
Zimbabweans.
Fuel stock have run out, putting an end to the long lines of
cars at gas
stations. On Monday, the government ordered private commuter
buses to cut
fares by three-fourths, promising bus owners they would be able
to buy
subsidized fuel from the state oil procurement agency.
But many
ignored the directive and simply abandoned their routes. Businesses
reported
higher absenteeism, with workers failing to arrive at their jobs.
"We are
incurring huge losses. We can't go on like this for much longer,"
said one
industrialist. "We won't be able to pay our VAT (value added tax),
which
runs into the billions each month.
"We'll have to lay off quite a number
of our people very soon," he said.
"We've shot ourselves in the foot this
time."
He asked not to be identified. President Robert Mugabe warned
Friday that
the government would target uncooperative managers and seize
factories that
scaled down their operations.
More than 1,300
businesses have been charged and fined over the past two
weeks for defying
orders to slash prices in half or hoarding goods, police
said.
Several of 33 top company executives arrested in recent days
were fined up
to 100 million Zimbabwean dollars (US$6,600; ?4,850), court
officials said
Monday.
Robertson, the economist, predicted that
shortages would worsen dramatically
across the board.
"Retailers who
can't recover the money they spent on their goods are not
going to carry
them anymore, and manufacturers who are not allowed to charge
more than
their production costs are going to stop making them," he said.
By the
end of next week, "we won't have much mobility anywhere and we will
have run
out of options" as gasoline tanks run dry and gas stations and
stores go out
of business, he said.
Last week, the government announced it was reviving
the long-defunct State
Trading Corp. to run businesses that had collapsed or
were commandeered. The
corporation itself collapsed in the 1980s through
mismanagement.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said the crackdown was
"not a gimmick and
will be sustained at all costs to stop consumers being
ripped off," state
radio said.
Mandipaka appealed to rural villagers
and farmers "to compliment government
efforts by reducing prices of cattle
so butcheries can operate viably,"
radio said.
Beef, a traditional
favorite in the diet of Zimbabweans, disappeared from
shops more than a week
ago.
Cattle herds already have shrunk drastically since the seizures of
thousands
of white-owned farms disrupted Zimbabwe's agriculture-based
economy in 2000.
Cattle are a status symbol in rural communities and
often are used as a
dowry. It was unlikely villagers who have resettled on
former white-owned
land would heed Mandipaka's appeal.
Live goats
were being sold in Harare but goat meat has not appeared in
butcheries and
supermarkets. Women snapped up cabbages at one open air
market.
"It's
something to put on the table anyway," said one woman who only gave
her name
as Olivia. She said two large cabbages could be made to last about
a
week.
Official inflation is running at 4,500 percent - the highest in the
world -
though independent financial institutions estimate real inflation is
closer
to 9,000 percent.
The government accuses business leaders of
being part of a political and
economic campaign of "regime change" to bring
down Mugabe.
It has admitted to printing extra money to pay its way -
seen as a main
cause of inflation and an obstacle to reports that South
Africa could shore
up Zimbabwe's collapsing dollar by pegging it to the
South African currency.
Regional proposals to admit Zimbabwe to the
southern African Common Monetary
Area of South Africa's neighbors would
entail fundamental market-linked
economic reforms that Mugabe emphatically
has rejected in the past.
Robertson said the nation faces the prospect of
looting.
"I think the government will finally unleash the impatience and
the anger of
our normally agreeable and passive population," he said.
Mail and Guardian
Mail
& Guardian reporter
08 July 2007
11:59
Even amid Zimbabwe's increasing instability, life in
suburban
Harare has remained more or less predictable.
Which is why Sunday morning shoppers at a suburban shopping
mall, popular
with young professionals and the well-heeled, stood stunned as
they watched
the store manager of a branch of one of the country's largest
retail chains
being dragged out of his store by the back of his collar,
pinned to the
tarmac, whipped and finally thrown into the back of a truck by
police.
Minutes later hoards of bargain hunters descended
on the store,
scooping up goods at reduced government-imposed prices, as a
unit of what
has come to be known as "the inflation police" kept an eye on
the unfolding
stampede.
Days earlier, President Robert
Mugabe had threatened the seizure
of businesses he said were sabotaging his
government, warning them to be
ready for a "rough game".
"Let everybody who is in business take note. This is now going
to be a rough
game. We own the resources. We are the owners of this economy.
We will seize
those companies, we will nationalise them. We will no longer
stand for their
dirty tricks."
Many were initially inclined to interpret
Mugabe's comments as a
continuation of his trademark fiery rhetoric. But by
Wednesday this week, a
police spokesperson said more than 200 business
people had been arrested
since the imposition last week of a directive from
Mugabe's government that
supermarkets slash by half the prices of all basic
commodities.
Supermarkets reacted immediately to the order by
removing basic
goods from the shelves. But now they have to contend with the
"price
monitors", an aggressive, mob-like mix of police and Zanu-PF militia
deployed to supermarkets, warehouses and even the homes of industrialists to
force them to sell all their goods at half price.
Until
now, the victims of state-sponsored violence have usually
been the poor. So
when wealthy supermarket owners faced direct threats
against their security,
their meek resistance was easily broken.
At OK supermarkets,
the country's largest supermarket chain,
executives said a computer program
updated prices at midnight, using the
latest cost of new inventory arriving
from suppliers. This meant every store
manager's first chore, before opening
every morning, was to replace the
previous day's price tags with new ones
showing higher prices.
But this week, under the scrutiny of
government officials, store
workers went about putting up new price tags
showing lowered prices, an
unheard of task in a country where prices are
known to double in a day.
This new direction in Zimbabwe's
struggling economy is
accompanied by an aggressive state media campaign to
portray business as the
driver of the country's world record inflation, an
attempt to deflect all
blame from Mugabe's
administration.
Critics speculate that Mugabe could be acting
with an eye on
next year's election. Although his party is expected to win,
he is desperate
to gain the vote of the urban poor, from which the
opposition draws much of
its support.
Mugabe is keen, say
critics, to show that he remains in control
of the inflation-ravaged
economy. A further sign that his government is
angling towards an all-out
command of the economy came last week with the
publication of a Bill it says
is meant to increase local ownership of the
economy.
"I
suppose the logic behind this thinking is that because, in
2000, the land
invasions won them an election, company seizures could do the
same in 2008,"
says Tony Hawkins, a business professor at the University of
Zimbabwe.
The most bizarre result of the price cuts has
been swarms of
shoppers stocking up on anything they can find on shop
shelves, even items
that have not really been marked down. Because stores
have stopped buying
new supplies, the next stop for the inflation police has
been the suppliers,
who are now being accused of withholding products from
retailers.
On Tuesday, police raided Irvines Chickens, the
country's main
supplier of poultry products, roughed up staff and demanded
that the company
sell whatever stocks it had left.
But
attacking suppliers could be politically tricky and
backfire, as it will
mean attacking senior Zanu-PF officials, many of whom
own large estates and
industries. A Zanu-PF senator has already been
detained briefly over the
price war, while a Chinese company with reported
links to the ruling party
has admitted to hoarding basic goods.
The Telegraph
By Sebastien Berger in
Johannesburg
Last Updated: 2:52am BST 09/07/2007
In
Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe terror is so endemic that not even the
daughter of
a former prime minister known as a supporter of black rights is
immune from
rape.
Judith Todd's father Sir Garfield Todd was Rhodesia's last
liberal
leader and she was imprisoned, force-fed and exiled under Ian
Smith's rule
for her efforts to promote black majority rule.
After independence she returned to head a development agency working
particularly with the war veterans who had fought for Zimbabwe. But when she
criticised Mr Mugabe's regime she was detained and raped by a senior army
officer, she revealed yesterday. It was, she said - both for her and her
attacker - an example of the culture of fear used to preserve Mr Mugabe's
rule.
The assault came a day after she told the then army
commander and
another senior officer that the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade
was
massacring civilians in a campaign of atrocities in
Matabeleland.
The next morning another senior officer picked her up
in a car and
drove to a house she believed was in the Chikurubi prison
complex.
"A servant let us in, not looking at us," she wrote in a
newly-published memoir, Through the Darkness: A life in Zimbabwe, in which
she names the man.
"The [senior officer] led me into a bedroom,
opened a bottle of beer
for each of us, unstrapped his firearm in its
holster, laid it on the
bedside table next to my head and proceeded. I did
not resist."
In her first interview on the subject, she told The
Daily Telegraph:
"It was rape. I was in a state of complete
terror.
"Now and again you have to face destiny. I had just been
reading these
documents which were full of rape, terror, mass
murder.
"I knew something was going to happen when that car came.
What
happened was actually a relief because I thought I was going to be
killed.
At least I was alive."
A quietly spoken woman now in
her sixties and living in Cape Town, she
bears no animosity towards her
attacker, no desire for vengeance.
Instead, having stayed in
Zimbabwe for many years afterwards, even
after being stripped of her
citizenship in 2003, she sees him as a victim in
the same way she
was.
"I have no reason to believe he wanted to do what he did,
quite the
opposite.
"It's so complex because he was obviously
so troubled and so unhappy.
I just regard him as a fellow victim . maybe
someone was watching him.
"That's what has happened to so many
people in Zimbabwe."
Mr Mugabe, who was once a teacher in the
Dadaya network of rural
schools set up by her parents, has entrenched
himself in power through both
money and fear, she said.
Although 24 years ago, the rape was typical, she added, citing an
incident
earlier this year when police beat up lawyers who were protesting
outside
the high court in Harare. The officers had been ordered to assault
the
group, she was told.
"They knew there were people watching them and
that if they didn't
beat them properly they themselves would be beaten," she
said.
"That's Zimbabwe now. Zanu-PF is the instrument of evil in
Zimbabwe.
For the future wellbeing of Zimbabwe Zanu-PF must be eliminated.
We need to
be cleansed."
Ms Todd's alleged attacker went on to
have a distinguished diplomatic
career. He could not be reached for comment
yesterday, and calls to Zimbabwe
government spokesmen went
unanswered.
. Judith Todd has signed a declaration waiving her
right to anonymity
as a rape victim for this interview. Through the
Darkness: A life in
Zimbabwe is available on www.amazon.co.uk
Business Day
09 July 2007
Dumisani
Muleya
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harare
Correspondent
THE political rift between Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe and his
principal pointsman on the economy, central bank governor
Gideon Gono,
widened at the weekend after the ruling Zanu (PF) resolved to
"intensify and
broaden" its price reduction blitz.
Zanu (PF)'s
central committee on Friday passed a Mugabe-sponsored resolution
backing the
government's fierce crackdown on prices. But in his first act of
open
defiance since his appointment more than four years ago, Gono opposed
the
campaign which has resulted in empty shop shelves across the
country.
Gono is a fierce Mugabe loyalist and the president's personal
banker. Up
until the past week's rift, which has left the ageing Mugabe
increasingly
isolated, Gono was one of a few people in the country who still
had direct
access to the president and was touted by some as Mugabe's choice
as heir
apparent.
Gono last week warned Mugabe that the price war,
which is politically
motivated and aimed at wooing voters in next year's
critical elections, will
drive the final nail in the coffin of Zimbabwe's
already crumbling economy.
Mugabe said on Saturday he knew that the
private sector was trying to use
economic pressure to ensure his defeat at
the polls.
He has said that business is dramatically increasing prices as
elections
draw near as part of an "illegal regime-change agenda".
On
Saturday, the party's highest organ, the politburo, and the national
consultative assembly came out in support of the crackdown.
Official
inflation is now 4500%, although analysts say it is double that
figure.
The row over the price blitz has exposed cracks within the
government over
the campaign - executed unlawfully until the government
rushed to legalise
it on Friday, following reports of its
illegality.
It also threatened Mugabe's already shaky grip on power,
political analysts
said yesterday.
Mugabe has publicly admitted that
Gono has kept his beleaguered government
going in difficult
circumstances.
Since Gono's appointment in 2004, he has gained
significant political clout
and was instrumental in the dismissal of former
finance minister Herbert
Murerwa. He is in charge of the treasury, and runs
almost all the key
economic ministries.
Through the central bank ,
Gono has been printing money on a massive scale
to fund essential state
operations, the army, police and intelligence, and
to procure food, fuel,
production equipment , drugs and chemicals.
Gono has also baled out vital
parastatals, which are all technically
insolvent. He has been sent on
numerous errands to China, Russia, South
Korea and SA, among other
countries, in search of economic rescue packages.
Last Tuesday,
Gono wrote to Elliot Manyika, acting chairman of the cabinet
task force on
price monitoring and stabilisation, condemning the crackdown.
Gono told
Manyika that the clampdown was futile because it would not reduce
inflation.
He said a "holistic package of measures that would uplift the
general supply
of goods and services in the economy" was needed.
"I write to make
recommendations on the ongoing efforts meant to stabilise
prices in the
economy," Gono said. "It is our strongest conviction that only
through a
holistic framework can we stabilise prices, without inducing
shortages in
the market."
Gono has also written to State Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa, who chairs
the joint operations command behind the blitz, saying he
opposed the
campaign.
This is said to have angered Mugabe, and left
him considering firing his
previously loyal right-hand man, a move that
could spell more trouble for
his embattled regime.
Residents surrounded by flowing sewerage while ZINWA keeps its silence
09
July 2007
Alert- KUWADZANA residents have lived with flowing raw sewerage
on their
streets and in their homes for the past month weeks but ZINWA and
City of
Harare have done nothing, claiming that the underground sewer pipes
had
completely broken down and need replacement. This means these people
have to
endure more days with sewerage around them.
The situation is
worsened by the power outages that have constantly hit the
suburbs. Most
residents are finding it difficult or even prepare their food
in their
yards. Most rely on firewood to make food.
It is now feared that these
people might actually contract the deadly
cholera, dysentery and skin
diseases if this situation is not addressed as a
matter of urgency. Other
affected areas include Highfield, Glen View, Glen
Norah, Budiriro, Mufakose,
Dzivarasekwa and Tafara-Mabvuku.
Drainages along the main road to
Gazaland Shopping Centre in Highfield,
sewerage is flowing without restraint
and also at the entrance of Rusvingo
Primary School. Children are at risk as
they attend school.
Tsitsi Kugara (0912 638 887), the Ward 25 Coordinator
told CHRA that
residents are set to meet tomorrow (Tuesday 10 July 2007) to
discuss way
forward over the health crisis.
When CHRA visited
Kuwadzana on Saturday and Sunday, raw sewerage flowed with
abandon along
55th, Street. This street stretches from Kuwadzana 4 Shopping
Centre up to
Seventh Day Adventist. Sewerage also flowed along in 62nd
street, from the
Kuwadzana Clinic. In Kuwadzana 5, sewerage flowed along
main streets from
almost every household, making the whole suburb stink.
In separate
interviews, residents accused both ZINWA and the City of Harare
of neglect
by their failure to immediately resolve the burst sewerage pipes
that
threatens the lives of over 300 000 in Kuwadzana.
Patience Hosoro, CHRA's
Ward 37 Chairperson said in her ward, the burst
sewerage crisis affected
mostly Kuwadzana 3 where almost all households
except for a few have it
flowing in their yards.
"We went to the City of Harare to report this
matter after children at
Kuwadzana 4 Primary School were turned away due to
water shortages and burst
sewer pipes, causing the whole school yard
impassable," Ms Hosoro said.
"They told us that the underground sewerage
pipes had completely broken down
and could not be repaired. They needed new
ones to replace the old broken
pipes."
Another resident, Mrs Grace
Kawaza, the Chairperson for Ward 38 in Kuwadzana
said worms were now coming
out of the decomposing raw sewerage and this was
now presenting a serious
threat to residents, particularly children who play
on the
streets.
She said: "School children at Kuwadzana Number 2 Primary were
send back home
after the headmaster found the situation no longer
unbearable, coupled with
the water shortages that affected us last week,
children were each asked to
bring a 2-litre bottle of water to school. In
our households residents are
witnessing raw sewerage coming out from their
toilets into their kitchens
and around their yards."
Parents with school
children in the Zero grades have been most affected as
their infant children
have occasionally fallen into the flowing sewerage,
making them more
vulnerable to cholera and dysentery outbreaks.
At one of the households
where orphaned children attend pre-school, the
owner Mrs Mapara was forced
to temporarily close down the creche. This has
happened for over four weeks.
Residents of Budiriro 4 in house numbers 7592
(Mudiwa), 7595 (Chitongo),
7596 (Gurupira) and surrounding closes have been
unable to freely move
around their yards due to flowing sewerage that has
remained unattended for
over a month now.
In Glen Norah B' residents residing at 6219, 6220 near
Kudakwashe Primary
School raw sewerage flows through a drainage that passes
through the school
to Glen Norah C' to Mukuvisi River. In Glen Norah B' at
6035, Mrs Gladys
Gonyora's house has sewerage flowing all over the
place.
ZINWA has dismally failed to repair burst sewer pipes that have
been
reported to them by the residents of Harare. In similar contempt of the
ratepayers, the City of Harare has been demanding that residents must pull
resources to purchase fuel, provide vehicles and money for the municipal
officials to repair the burst sewerage pipes.
CHRA urges residents to
take up lawsuits against the City of Harare, ZINWA
and the Ministry of
health and child Welfare for their failure to abide by
the Public Health Act
under Section 14 which provides that local authorities
should "take all
precautions for the prevention or dealing with the outbreak
of diseases.
Those interested in taking up legal challenges on their health
situation
should approach CHRA for guidance or their lawyers.
At international
level, the State, under Article 11 of the International
Convention on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, states that State
parties must
recognise the right of everyone to an adequate standard of
living for
himself and his family, including adequate food, clothes, housing
and to the
continuous improvement of living conditions.
Health as a human right is
imputed in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights under Article 25 and
under Article 16 of the African Charter.
If anyone wants to talk to CHRA
representatives they should call Mrs Kawaza
on 210323 or visit her at 2674
or visit House Number 380, Kuwadzana 1 or
call her on
210176.
______________________________________________________________________________
For
details and comments please contact us on info@chra.co.zw or call us on
mobile
numbers 011 862 012, 0912 924 151, 011 612 860, and 04-705114. You
can also
visit our website on www.chra.co.zw
Regards
Precious
Shumba
Information Officer
Combined Harare Residents'
Association
Mobile: 011 612 860 or 0912 869 294
Tel: 04-705114
Website:
www.chra.co.zw
"Stand Firm. Be of
Good Courage"
The Herald
(Harare) Published by the government of Zimbabwe
9 July 2007
Posted
to the web 9 July 2007
Tatenda Chipungudzanye
Harare
A WHITE
commercial farmer in Chinhoyi recently ploughed under 30 hectares of
30
centimetre-high wheat soon after the Mashonaland West land committee
listed
his farm for resettlement.
Doug Taylor-Freeme of R/E Romsey Farm near
Chinhoyi ploughed under the wheat
after he was officially told that his farm
had been listed for the purposes
of resettling Chief
Nemakonde.
On June 29 Taylor-Freeme instructed his tractor driver to
plough under the
wheat as "revenge to the land committee that had acquired
his farm".
Acting chief lands officer for Mashonaland West, Mr Farukai
Chikomba, said
his committee had listed Taylor-Freeme's farm to resettle
Chief Nemakonde
and that the committee had given the farmer a grace period
to wind up his
farming activities.
"Taylor-Freeme was angered that
the farm was being acquired to resettle
Chief Nemakonde and ended up
ploughing under the wheat that he had planted
in early May.
"All is
now set and Chief Nemakonde is only waiting for his offer letter.
Our
technical land team went to assess production at the farm and come up
with a
cut-off date.
"The cut-off date is the last date by which a farmer must
vacate the
premises and our technical team wanted to give him time until he
harvested
his wheat.
"This did not go down well with him and we were
only told by whistle blowers
that Taylor-Freeme was ploughing down the wheat
he had planted in May," Mr
Chikomba said.
Had the land technical team
not moved swiftly, said Mr Chikomba, the farmer
would have ploughed down the
entire crop.
"He only stopped when our team and the police rushed to the
farm claiming he
could not water the whole of his wheat fields because of
continuous power
cuts. By that time he had already destroyed 30
hectares.
"He said it made economic sense for him to plough down some of
the wheat as
that would leave him with a small manageable field," Mr
Chikomba added.
Mr Chikomba said he had already submitted a report to the
RBZ describing
what happened, since the farmer had received funding from the
central bank.
"It is up to the RBZ to take the issue from there or not
because they are
the ones who funded him and we also understand that he also
benefited from
the RBZ tractors scheme," Mr Chikomba said.
Zimbabwe
has been embroiled in a diplomatic row with the United Kingdom for
taking
land from former white commercial farmers and giving it to the black
majority.
At least 4 000 whites occupied about 70 percent of
Zimbabwe's arable land
before the land reform programme, while the majority
occupied the remainder,
which was hilly or sandy and unfit for human
settlement.
The Government managed to resettle some 72 000 families from
farms acquired
under the "willing buyer-willing seller" basis much
earlier.
The "willing buyer-willing seller" scheme was problematic in
that very few
farmers were willing to sell part of their land holdings and
in the few
cases when they obliged, they charged exorbitant
prices.
In 2001, the Government amended the Land Acquisition Act to allow
land
allocation without giving owners the right to contest
seizures.
Britain has since internationalised its bilateral dispute with
Zimbabwe over
land and many countries, among them the United States of
America and members
of the European Union by imposing sanctions on
Zimbabwe.
Financial Times
By Tony
Hawkins in Harare
Published: July 9 2007 02:16 | Last updated: July 9
2007 02:16
Zimbabwe has stepped up its campaign to arrest traders and
businesspeople
accused of ignoring government demands to cut consumer
prices.
At least 17 people including the top executives of two large
stock
exchange-listed food manufacturers and distributors, Innscor and
Colcom,
have been detained. The weekend arrests follow last Friday's
publication of
a law making it obligatory for firms to halve their
prices.
Until last weekend the authorities had used intimidation to get
their way.
Last weekend's arrests underline the government's determination
to cut
prices, regardless of the cost to the economy.
State media
reported on Sunday that police had instructed filling stations
to cut petrol
prices by two-thirds, while the industry minister, Obert
Mpofu, has ordered
bus owners to cut fares by 80 per cent because of the
reduction in petrol
prices. The government-owned Sunday Mail newspaper said
police will this
week "close in on the barons controlling the illegal
currency
market".
One government economist claimed that the price policy was
working, citing
the strengthening of the Zimbabwe dollar in the parallel
market from
Z$380,000 against the British pound two weeks ago, to Z$200,000
on Sunday.
But bankers say the Zimbabwe dollar has strengthened because
demand for
foreign currency has dried up.
"No one wants to bring in
fuel or any kind of imports and sell them at a
loss," said one
banker.
After rising 90-fold in the first half of 2007, share prices on
the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange peaked last Tuesday before falling by a third in
the second
half of last week. Dealers attributed the market collapse to the
combination
of fears that listed companies will be forced to trade at a loss
or risk
being taken over by the state as threatened repeatedly by government
ministers, including President Robert Mugabe.
Supermarket shelves are
emptying fast and basics - bread, milk, sugar,
cooking oil and meat - are
very scarce. A manager at the Spar retail group
said the company's main
Harare warehouse is virtually empty. "We have had to
send staff home because
there is nothing for them to do," he added.
Publicly ministers say they
believe the price rollback programme will work
and businesses will
comply.
"Businesses are not at risk," said a government official. "It is
just their
margins that have been much too high that will
suffer."
But privately officials and ministers are said to be alarmed at
recent
developments and have warned colleagues in government that price
controls
will fail.
"With rational people in control, one would
expect the government to blink
first," said a businessman, "but now that the
inmates have taken over the
asylum, I'm not taking any bets."
Moneyweb
Retail personnel arrested for
not cutting prices by half. Edgars, Spar give
Moneyweb the inside
story.
Chris Buchanan and Geoff Candy
09 July 2007
Edgars in
Zimbabwe, of which Edcon is a shareholder, suffered the strong arm
of the
Zimbabwean security forces and several of its staff were arrested for
cutting prices by 25% and not the enforced 50%. A senior staff member at
director level was subsequently arrested when he arrived to bail out the
staff members. All were released over the weekend.
Head of investor
relations at Edcon, Tessa Christelis, told Moneyweb that it
has been mayhem
in the stores and that there is not much stock left.
"Customers have been
restricted to one item per person and doors will soon
have to be
closed."
She says new stock will be a lot more expensive when it gets to
the shelves
but added that, while things are very difficult at the moment,
Edgars in
Zimbabwe was planning to continue as a going concern. She
emphasised that
staff and personnel in Zimbabwe are
terrified.
Christelis says the Zimbabwean government intends to adopt
price controls of
cost plus 25% across the board.
"We lost control
over the Zimbabwe business years ago and although we
provide support," says
Christelis, "it's a passive business on our accounts
and we have no
involvement in the day-to-day running of the operation."
Spar (JSE:SPP)
CEO Wayne Hook says the same of the relationship with its
Zimbabwean
interests. "First up we have a small interest in the business so
we don't
manage it. They are struggling, they have had retailers arrested
and it is a
dreadful situation, so that is a major problem," he told
Moneyweb.
Hook says Spar stores are all adhering to the latest
requirements and the
pricing that Spar has adopted is as stipulated on June
18 which is roughly
50% of last week's prices.
He says they are
trying to trade but it is very difficult as some of the
major suppliers are
in hiding. "It is not a satisfactory situation and
stocks are running low",
Hook added.
He says they are not 100% up to date on what's happening on
the ground and
that the situation is getting worse by the day, with people
running into the
stores and taking what they can.
"It is only a
matter of time, they can't pay for the stock and the retailers
are putting
pressure on suppliers to lower their prices". He says it would
appear that
it is a situation that cannot continue and that something has
got to
blow.
Meanwhile, Old Mutual, whose listed price has recently been used as
a proxy
for the real exchange rate in Zimbabwe, and has about 1,5m policy
holders in
the country, is watching the situation extremely
closely.
A spokesperson for the group told Moneyweb last night, "we have
been in
Zimbabwe since the late 19th century and we take our responsibility
extremely seriously. In respect of that, we will continue to invest in the
Zimbabwean economy on an assessed basis".
Moneyweb
Officials and ministers are said to be alarmed by these happenings,
says the
FT.com, and have warned colleagues in government that price
controls will
fail.
Moneyweb
09 July 2007
Zimbabwe is in
mayhem. It has stepped up its campaign to arrest traders and
business people
who fail to cut prices.
At least 17 people have been arrested indicating
government's determination
to cut prices, regardless of the cost to the
economy, says the FT.com.
The arrests follow Friday's publication of a
law making it compulsory for
firms to halve their prices.
Filling
stations have been instructed to cut petrol prices by two-thirds,
while bus
owners have been ordered to cut fares by 80% because of the
reduction in
petrol prices, says the online website.
The impact on the economy is
mixed depending on who you speak to.
One government economist argued that
the price policy was working, "citing
the strengthening of the Zimbabwe
dollar in the parallel market from Z$380
000 against the British pound two
weeks ago, to Z$200 000 on Sunday", said
the FT.com. But bankers say the Zim
dollar strengthened because demand for
foreign currency dried up.
The
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has responded negatively, after rising 90-fold
in
the first half of 2007 it fell a third in the second half of last week.
The
fall was attributed to fears that listed companies will be forced to
trade
at a loss or that they would be taken over by the state, reports the
FT.com.
Supermarket shelves are almost empty and basics like bread,
milk, sugar,
cooking oil and meat are scarce.
Officials and ministers
are said to be alarmed by these happenings, says the
FT.com, and have warned
colleagues in government that price controls will
fail.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs -
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Date: 09 Jul
2007
HARARE, 9 July
2007 (IRIN) - A diarrhoea outbreak has claimed the lives of
29 children and
five adults in the last two weeks in Zimbabwe, which has
been experiencing
water shortages as a result of frequent disruptions of
supplies, according
to a UN official.
"The problem [diarrhoea outbreak] is related to the
water pumping capacity
in the affected areas, and we are aware that it is
something that can happen
again and again," said James Elder, spokesman for
the United Nations
Children's Agency (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe. Most of the
deaths have occurred in
Kadoma, a mining town in Mashonaland West Province
in the north.
"We are taking the situation seriously and we are on the
ground, together
with WHO [World Health Organisation] and the Ministry of
Health and Child
Welfare. We have managed to contain the outbreak, but we
will continue
monitoring the situation so that lives are not lost again," he
added.
Water and power cuts are frequent in Zimbabwe, which is grappling
with an
economy hit by an annual inflation rate of around 4,000 percent,
shortages
of foreign currency and a steep increase in the cost of essential
services
such as health, water and electricity.
A severe shortage of
foreign currency means service providers cannot
maintain or replace ageing
water purification and distribution equipment, or
import power from
neighbouring countries to keep waterworks functioning.
Urban residents
are being forced to use water from streams into which raw
sewage and
industrial effluent are being discharged. A lack of potable water
is among
the root causes of the outbreak.
According to the WHO, cholera is an
acute intestinal infection caused by
ingesting food or water contaminated
with the vibrio cholerae bacterium. It
has a short incubation period, from
less than a day to five days, and causes
a copious, painless, watery
diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe
dehydration and death without
prompt treatment.
Last week the official daily newspaper, The Herald,
quoted Wenselaus
Nyamayaro, a provincial medical director, as saying that 20
people had died
in the mining town of Kadoma, which has a population of
about 80,000 people.
"The town has been hit by an outbreak of diarrhoea
over the past two weeks,
but we worked hard to isolate ... [the bacteria]
and we can now safely say
the situation is under control," he
said.
Unhygienic conditions
Richard Mbaleni, who lives in the
populous, poor suburb of Rimuka in Kadoma,
said deaths resulting from
suspected diarrhoea and cholera were "something
we live with every
week".
"For years, we have seen many people die because of the unhygienic
conditions under which we live. There are several sections of the suburb
that have gone without water for more than eight months, and residents are
forced to use the bucket system when relieving themselves, thereby getting
exposed to communicable diseases," he said.
"To make matters worse,
the sewer system is always breaking down and
children often come into
contact with flowing waste. It therefore comes as
no surprise to have so
many deaths."
UNICEF is installing water tanks in Kadoma's high-density
suburbs and
providing disinfectants in its fight to suppress further
outbreaks.
Following reports of the deaths, residents elsewhere fear that
they could
also face an outbreak.
"These deaths should send a clear
warning to the government and other
stakeholders, because the conditions
that have led to the diarrhoea
outbreaks in those areas are also present in
our own communities," said
Cecilia Mauto of Waterfalls, a residential area
southwest of the capital,
Harare, which often goes without water for long
periods.
"There is need to make sure that water supplies improve, even if
it means
having to dispatch water bowsers to areas that suffer ... water
shortages,"
she added. "Public toilets are pathetic, as they usually are
overflowing and
there is no running water ... if this is not attended to we
are bound for a
national tragedy."
This article does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or
its agencies.
By Violet Gonda
9 July
2007
There are reports that the Mbeki mediated talks between ZANU PF and
MDC did
not take place this weekend after the ruling party delegation failed
to turn
up for the planned meeting in Pretoria. Sources say the MDC
delegation of
Tendai Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube, ended up returning
to Zimbabwe on
Monday after waiting around for two days. It is not clear why
the ZANU PF
Ministers - Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche - failed to
show up as a
tight lid is still being kept on the progress of the talks, but
observers
say there is no political will on the part of ZANU
PF.
Eddie Cross, an official from the Tsvangirai MDC, confirmed to us
that the
meeting didn't take place: He said: "The MDC team has returned to
Zimbabwe
and no discussion took place in South. The ZANU PF team didn't
arrive, so
this creates a very difficult situation for Thabo Mbeki because
South Africa
is sponsoring these talks."
There are no details as to
why the ruling party didn't not show up but it is
believed that ZANU PF
would use the total economic chaos in Zimbabwe as an
excuse.
In March
SADC leaders mandated South African President Thabo Mbeki to bring
the
political parties to the negotiating table to establish conditions for
free
and fair elections for next year. But some analysts say the "no-show"
by
ZANU PF proves the regime is playing games and lacks the incentive to
enter
negotiations. At the same time the government is preparing for
elections
using the same tactics as in previous years where widespread
rigging and
intimidation was reported. Evidentially ZANU PF does not see
anything to be
gained by talks, neither are they too concerned about
snubbing President
Mbeki.
Although both sides finally agreed on an agenda for the talks last
month,
time is running out, as the parties have yet to start the actual
talks. The
demands of the opposition are well publicised but the latest
utterances by
Robert Mugabe this past weekend, demonstrate the lack of
seriousness the
regime is taking in the process. One of the demands of the
opposition is for
a new constitution to pave the way for a free and fair
election but Mugabe
said this weekend that there was absolutely no need for
a new one.
The state broadcaster said: "President Robert Mugabe says the
current
constitution serves the nation well and there is no reason to change
it."
In a related issue, regional leaders are believed to be working on a
financial rescue package to bail out the bankrupt regime.
The Cape
Times newspaper quoted SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao, who
has been
mandated to find an economic solution to the Zimbabwe crisis. He is
reportedly considering including Zimbabwe in the Common Monetary Area (CMA).
This is a solution where the Zimbabwean currency can be pegged to the
stronger Rand. This is believed to be the "sweetener or incentive" being
used to try to bring Mugabe to the talks as the "proposal would apparently
be conditional on Mugabe accepting the sort of fundamental political reforms
which are to be negotiated in the ZANU PF and MDC dialogue in
Pretoria."
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Moneyweb
Mugabe's government is
making the same mistakes that have been made by
governments since 200 BCE,
and ignoring solutions that are just as old.
Felicity Duncan
09 July
2007
In Proverbs 26: 11 King Solomon makes the timeless observation that
"Like a
dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly." He
might
have said that a fool who repeats the folly of others is like a dog
returning to another dog's vomit. This seems to be what is happening in
Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe's administration.
The Zimbabwean economy
is currently experiencing hyperinflation.
Hyperinflation is not a modern
invention. The Roman Empire was plagued by it
in 200 BCE; the French battled
it after the Revolution in the 1790s. It
bedeviled the Confederate states
during the American Civil War in the 1860s
and 70s, almost destroyed Germany
in the 1920s, and spread like a virus in
Latin America infecting Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Peru during
the 1980s and
90s.
Essentially, hyperinflation is rapid, out-of-control inflation at
double-digit rates per month and more. Savings effectively disappear as they
devalue overnight. People transport currency in suitcases to buy bread. It's
hard to imagine life under hyperinflation. A Brazilian acquaintance told of
shop assistants roller-skating up and down the aisles of the supermarket
changing prices hourly. A former Yugoslavian told of spending his entire
salary within minutes of receiving it in an attempt to capture some value
during the early 1990s when Yugoslavia battled hyperinflation. In recent
years, Zimbabweans have been struggling with similar conditions. Zimbabwe's
inflation rate is officially running at 5 000%, which would be bad enough,
but private estimates put the rate at 10 000%.
Mugabe's government
has reacted to the sapping effects of hyperinflation in
the same way that
many others have reacted: it has sought to implement price
controls, fixing
the prices of goods at so-called reasonable levels. This
seems to make
sense. Prices are rising very fast, so decreeing that they
stop should solve
the problem. Unfortunately, it doesn't work this way.
Prices, in a market
economy, reflect the value that people assign to a good.
Consider the oil
market. When demand for a limited supply of oil rises, the
price rises. This
encourages oil companies to invest more to produce more
oil. It enables more
expensive oil resources, like Canada's tar sands, to be
exploited.
By
fixing the price of goods, the Mugabe's government will effectively short
out this relationship between supply and demand. The effects of this are
depressingly familiar. Shops rapidly sell out of goods, and have no
incentive to restock. People who produce goods no longer have any incentive
to continue producing. Massive shortages result. This has happened again and
again. In Zimbabwe, shops are emptying rapidly, and will not be easily
restocked as long as price controls remain in place.
Price controls
have been tried many times, and have always failed. Consider
the Roman
emperor Diocletian. When he ascended to the throne in around 200
BCE, the
empire was a mess. Civil war, politically motivated land
confiscation and
looting had sapped the economy. Inflation was rampant.
Virtually all the tax
money collected went straight to the army, leaving
nothing for government to
spend on other projects. The government reacted by
"printing money", which
pushed inflation ever higher. Diocletian tried to
solve the problems by
fixing prices, issuing the "Maximum Price Edict" which
was supposed to end
inflation. Instead, goods were driven to the black
market, and large parts
of the Roman empire reverted to a barter economy.
No period of
hyperinflation has ever been ended by price controls.
Monetary economists
prescribe one solution to hyperinflation: stop printing
money, and link your
currency to hard assets. In Bolivia, for example,
hyperinflation was ended
when the government raised the price of petrol,
which it had been selling at
a loss to quiet popular discontent. The
hyperinflation ended very quickly as
Bolivia started bringing in foreign
currency by selling its oil abroad.
Under Diocletian, hyperinflation ended
when the emperor abandoned price
controls, restructured the tax system and
implemented reforms aimed at
stabilising the Roman economy. The only
solution to hyperinflation appears
to be stable government, a predictable
legal structure, a credible central
bank, a sensible money supply policy and
a set of functional markets. Until
these appear in Zimbabwe, price controls
will only serve to worsen
shortages.
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington,
D.C.
08 July 2007
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe
says there is no need for a new
constitution ahead of next year's
presidential election. This follows
demands by opposition parties for a new
constitution. They contend that the
existing constitution has been
manipulated by Mugabe's government to win
previous elections. Opposition
parties say government's refusal to change
the constitution will permit the
ruling ZANU-PF party to perpetuate its
numerical strength in parliament as
well as allow President Mugabe to choose
a successor. The opposition says
this would derail the SADC (Southern
African Development Community)
organized peace talks, which seek to ease
political tensions in the
country.
In Harare, spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the main opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party tells VOA English to Africa
reporter Peter
Clottey that partisans across the political divide are
endorsing the demand
for a new constitution.
"The country needs a new
constitution, in fact there is a national chorus
and national demand for a
new constitution. People are for a new
constitution including those in the
ZANU-PF. But Mugabe understandably,
would not want a new constitution
because the current constitution serves
his purpose, that is, to perpetuate
dictatorship, and to perpetuate
tyranny," he said.
Chamisa says as
long as the government fails to give the people a new
constitution, the
problems the country is facing will not be resolved.
"We are not going to
realize the resolution of the crisis until we have a
new constitution
because the new constitution is basically is going to be
the covenant
between the governing people and the governed people. As far as
we are
concerned, we have a feeling that to the extent that we don't have a
new
constitution in place, we will continue the breakdown of the rule of
law,
impunity which is being catalyzed and fertilized by the regime itself,"
Chamisa pointed out.
He said the existing constitution is not
representative of the aspirations
of the people.
"The current
constitution does not make it possible for the will of the
people to
prevail. It doesn't make it possible for the legitimate concerns
and voices
of Zimbabweans to be heard and to be articulated. And for that
reason, we
are then going to have a predetermined outcome from this kind of
constitutional dispensation," he said.
Chamisa said the people want a
constitution that would give them hope.
"What Zimbabweans want is a law
for themselves, by themselves and written to
make sure that we face our
hopes and aspirations. The current constitution
does not in anyway speak to
the values that Zimbabweans have. It does not in
anyway articulate the kinds
of vision Zimbabweans would want to realize and
that is quite tragic," he
noted.
The MDC spokesman says the people called for a referendum for the
purpose of
having a new constitution, which Chamisa contends the government
has so far
failed to give to the people.
"This is why there was a
referendum in 2000. The referendum was
particularly, after the pressure has
been given on the government and on
this regime to make sure that we put in
place our own indigenous
constitution as Zimbabweans, so that we would have
our own legitimate and
sovereign document. We don't have that at the
moment," he said.
Chamisa said he is baffled that President Mugabe is not
listening to the
demands of the people.
"It's shocking to hear Robert
Mugabe saying that there is no need for a new
constitution. But clearly, we
understand that what Mugabe would want is a
constitution which allows him to
continue to abuse power and authority, and
this is why we have this crisis
in this country. The crisis in this country
is a crisis of governance, is a
crisis of the law of the land which is not
born out of the peoples
struggle," Chamisa said.
He called the existing constitution a temporary
document.
"In fact what we just had in 1980 was a power transfer
document, which was a
temporary document, which did not speak to the values,
the tenets
Zimbabweans would want to see. and that is what we are fighting
for in the
MDC," he said.
Monsters and Critics
Jul 9, 2007, 13:23
GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai
Monday predicted chaos as a result of the government's clampdown
on the
business community, which has seen the prices of many goods more than
halved
and over 1,300 business people arrested.
Tsvaingirai, whose
party is engaged in secret talks in South Africa with
President Robert
Mugabe's ruling party to end the economic and political
crisis at home, said
the blitz on shops and businesses was an election
gimmick that would cause
serious problems for ordinary Zimbabweans.
'We are now approaching
another election and Mugabe is on us again,'
Tsvangirai, a former trade
union leader said in reference to presidential
and parliamentary elections
due next March.
'Mugabe and ZANU-PF have gone full scale for the business
community,
pursuing a populist policy against the national interest,' the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader said in a statement, adding,
'Mugabe and
ZANU-PF must never be allowed to get away with his dangerous
experiments
that impoverish us further.'
The opposition leader's
comments came as police announced Monday that 1,328
shop owners and business
executives had been arrested countrywide since the
launch of Operation
Reduce Prices last week.
The clampdown, which has Mugabe's blessing, has
seen teams of police and
state-appointed price inspectors raiding shops and
ordering them to slash
prices to those quoted on or before June
18.
Police have ordered shop owners to sell goods at half price in many
cases,
leaving them with huge losses and unable to replace their stock.
Goods like
bread, cement and fuel have now all but disappeared from the
formal market
and reappeared on the black market.
Tsvangirai warned
Monday that the low prices would be a 'short honeymoon'
causing greater
hardship in the long-run.
Already supermarket shelves throughout the
country are fast emptying of
basics. Economists predict it will be difficult
for urban dwellers to find
food and fuel by mid week.
'The poor
cannot afford the goods sold on the black market,' Tsvangirai
said.
He urged Zimbabweans to unite and oppose Mugabe's
government.
'We must mobilize ourselves and defend our businesses, our
property and our
rights,' said Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe is in the throes
of its worst economic crisis ever, with inflation
officially pegged at more
than 4,500 per cent but believed to be much
higher.
The Zimbabwean
dollar is fast becoming worthless. Unconfirmed reports at the
weekend
suggest there are plans by regional economic bloc SADC to
incorporate
Zimbabwe into a common monetary group including South Africa,
Namibia,
Lesotho and Swaziland, all trading with the South African rand.
© 2007
dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Fin24
09/07/2007 14:57
By: Staff
writer
Johannesburg - While it is in South Africa's best interest to stop
the
Zimbabwean economy's freefall into chaos, it is equally important that
any
proposed rescue plan is linked to political reforms in the country, the
Democratic Alliance says.
"All too often, Robert Mugabe went back on his
word and proved time and time
again that he cannot be trusted," the official
opposition party charged.
Before SA or any other SADC countries
financially assists Zimbabwe, they
must prove that political reforms have
taken place.
"These would include a complete halt to the systematic
oppression of the
opposition, the lifting of restrictions imposed on the
media, and a
commitment to hold fresh elections that are monitored by
regional and
international observers."
The party also said that the
SADC and the broader international community
help to shoulder the burden of
any financial commitment made to Zimbabwe.
"Ultimately, any financial
assistance package as well as plans to extend the
rand monetary area into
Zimbabwe must not be used to prop up the
increasingly tyrannical rule of
Robert Mugabe. It can and should only be
used to restore democracy and the
rule of law in our northern neighbour,"
the DA said.
If the
government does decide to provide financial assistance, it must bring
South
Africans into its confidence as they have every right to know how
their
money is being used.
BBC
Monday, 9 July 2007, 12:20 GMT 13:20 UK
There has been a wave of panic buying
in many shops in Zimbabwe as the
government enforces radical price cutting
measures to try to tackle the
world's highest rate of inflation - more than
3,700%.
One resident of Harare describes how the inflation is making
life
difficult for everyone, even those who are relatively well
off.
"At the pharmacy, I wait again in the gloom to have a
repeat
prescription filled.
It is for Phenobarbital tablets for
my partner's mentally handicapped
son, who suffers from
epilepsy.
The tablets have gone up by 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars
($0.93 at the
official exchange rate; $0.10 at the dominant black market
rate) in a single
day.
Hundreds of people are clamouring around
the supermarkets, so I assume
there has been one of the rare deliveries of
basics like sugar or salt.
There is nothing I can
afford.
A single banana costs 15 times more than I paid for my
four-bedroom
house seven years ago.
One candle now sells at
120,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US $3.70; $0.42).
That is twice as much
as the government's stipulated farm worker's
wage.
"This isn't
living, it's barely surviving," I tell myself, but I know
that so many
Zimbabweans are not even surviving.
They are dying of hunger,
malnutrition or preventable diseases. "
SABC
July 09,
2007, 16:45
Media reports say four South African owned businesses have
been charged for
defying the Zimbabwean government's order to slash their
prices in half.
Robert Mugabe's government last week ordered business
owners to reduce their
prices to levels used on June 18, or face arrest. A
special police unit,
accompanied by government officials, has launched a
blitz on businesses to
ensure compliance.
The companies have been
named as Innscor Africa Ltd, which owns Nando's,
Chicken Licken, Spar,
Edgars and Colcom. State radio reports that 33 top
company executives have
been arrested since Friday. They are expected to
appear in court on charges
of violating government's order to cut prices and
hoard goods. Police say 1
328 businesses charged with failing to heed
government orders have already
been fined more than R40 000 each.
According to weekend reports, the
Southern African Development Community
(SADC) is putting together a plan to
rescue Zimbabwe's economy by pegging
the Zimbabwean dollar to the South
African rand. The reports also say South
African-mediated talks between
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF and the opposition
MDC will be held at a secret
venue in Pretoria this week. Chris Maroleng, an
Institute of Security
Studies analyst, says the two parties would have to
agree on significant
reforms for Zimbabwe.
Moneyweb
Impala Platinum will import basic
foodstuffs into Zimbabwe to ensure the
continuation of its operation
there.
Geoff Candy
09 July 2007
Impala Platinum will look to import
basic foodstuffs into Zimbabwe to ensure
the continuation of its operation
there.
Speaking to the Moneyweb Power Hour today CEO David Brown said the
group
has, until now been able to operate almost completely within the US
dollar
economy that exists within the country, but as the situation worsens,
the
interface with the local economy becomes more marked.
"One of the
issues that is beginning to rear its head in terms of the
interface with the
local economy is around electricity supply, what is
happening now will begin
to have a marked impact on the security of supply."
Brown adds that the
group has been taking the necessity of direct
importation of foodstuffs and
other household basics for its employees into
account in its scenario
planning models.
Asked how Implats has managed to remain so unaffected by
the economic
meltdown that continues to worsen, Brown told Moneyweb, that
the group laid
down strict requirements in terms of the security of its
investment climate,
before it reinvested in 2001.
"We have the
ability to import food stuffs and fuel directly, which means we
are less
affected than others," he says.
Asked if he is concerned that the mining
contract will be rescinded on a
whim, Brown says, "The mining agreement is
still in place, but there will be
greater pressure as the country does
unfortunately slip down the road to
crisis."
Adding, "We will
continue to ensure that we are in a position to take
appropriate action to
safe guard our employees "
New Zimbabwe
By Mutumwa D. Mawere
Last updated: 07/09/2007
08:49:07
THE events of last week in Zimbabwe expose how notions of the rule
of law,
of a Constitutional government, of a free press, and of a
development state
that are all elements which are valued and cherished by
all progressive
Africans can be rendered irrelevant in the pursuit and
sustenance of
absolute political power.
Zimbabwe's judiciary,
legal system, bureaucracy and police are all great
institutions derived from
the colonial state that should have been of
service to Zimbabwe but
unfortunately they now seem to be privatised and
partisan.
After 27
years of independence, one would have expected that the idea of
Zimbabwe as
enshrined in the Constitution, with its emphasis on the
principles of
democracy, the rule of law, above all, the equality of all
citizens
irrespective of social standing, ethnicity and race would by now
have had
deep roots in the nation's culture and contemporary civilisation.
It
appears that the ideas associated with the age of enlightenment that has
visited many former colonial countries (newly industrialised countries) have
failed to influence Zimbabwe's political establishment to see the futility
of pursuing misguided policies and programs.
The Zimbabwean
constitution should have remained a testimony to the enduring
interplay
between what is essentially Zimbabwean but is very British in its
intellectual heritage. The realisation of Zimbabwe (by no other leader than
Mugabe) as an inclusive and plural society at independence should have drawn
from the best of both traditions.
It is evident starting from the
Matabeleland massacres, the Willowgate
scandal, the Executive Presidency,
agriculture, and now mining and industry
that the experiment of building a
democracy within the framework of a mixed
economy, multi-cultural,
multi-ethnic, and multi-party society has failed in
Zimbabwe. Instead of
encouraging Zimbabweans to walk the path of democracy
and move to a new
dispensation free of poverty, ignorance, intolerance,
disease and the threat
of state tyranny, Zimbabwe's founding fathers seem
determined to undermine
the interests that inform any progressive nation.
The journey that
Zimbabwe was supposed to travel under the stewardship of
its founding
fathers was expected to be an exciting journey full of
challenges and
opportunities. The restoration of sovereignty to the people
of Zimbabwe at
independence was surely meant to ensure that citizens would
never again be
victims of their own creation i.e. the post colonial
Republic.
I am
sure that many Zimbabweans had no contemplation that exercising their
democratic choices would be classified as treasonable acts and anyone
advocating regime change would be viewed as less patriotic than
incumbents.
At a time when Zimbabwe was expected to teach the world about
the new
African civilisation based on tolerance, the country has now become
an
example of how countries should not be governed. In fact, Zimbabwe and
the
UK were expected to learn from each other and teach the world how former
adversaries can mutually cooperate in an increasingly inter-dependent and
globalised world that we live in. However, the big picture that is emerging
in Zimbabwe is extremely negative and corrosive.
The business climate
is negative. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and
other events of the
late 1980s and early 1990s may have proved to countries
like India and
Vietnam once and for all that capitalism was a better system
than
socialism/communism, but it appears that these events did nothing to
settle
the debate about which model is best suited to Zimbabwe.
At the time of
India's independence, the UK government was socialist and
there was
widespread belief like in Zimbabwe that the state could bring
greater
prosperity to the working people and the wider population if it
controlled
the means of production. We now know that after many attempts
around the
globe, that governments are not actually good at running anything
or
protecting the interests of the vulnerable and poor. In the UK, it took
about 30 years (or 3 years less than Mugabe's rule) before the winter of
discontent and a realisation that there was a better way of running a
country.
In the case of India, the economy only started to grow
positively in the
early 1990s as it became evident that the communist
experiment was a
monumental disaster.
It seems that the government of
Zimbabwe is determined to arrest the
entrepreneurial spirit of Zimbabweans
and throw the country into darkness by
uprooting the remaining diminishing
points of light.
Instead of supporting the private sector, the government
of Zimbabwe has now
targeted this sector for political expediency and
ensuring that the results
of the 2008 elections are predetermined. Although
the government is busy
trying to convince itself that the enemy is from
without, it is clear that
the current economic meltdown is largely self
created.
Bad policies can never be expected to produce positive outcomes.
It is easy
to blame Blair and Bush but the experience in India and China has
shown that
progressive nations can leverage their social strengths into
economic gains
and the dream of a better life for our grandchildren and
children can be
realised within a lifetime.
Having been the first
business victim of the misguided policies of
nationalisation based on
trumped up allegations of externalisation, I often
wondered whether the
Zimbabwean business sector was smart enough to know
that the day of
reckoning was around the corner. It is clear that the
government needs
someone to blame and any point of light (performing assets)
is naturally a
target.
While the land reform was justified on the basis of sovereignty
and righting
a colonial wrong, the nationalisation of economic assets is
being justified
on the presumed regime change conspiracy. What is being
argued by the
government of Zimbabwe is that anyone who increases prices is
aiding and
abetting the imperialist inspired regime change agenda. Based on
this logic,
it is clear that if Zimbabweans voted for another party in 2008,
it is
unlikely that Zanu PF will consider that to be their genuine
expression.
Zimbabwe needs its government activities at all levels to
become known for
efficiency, integrity, meritocracy and transparency. This
requires new and
strong leadership to achieve. For the past 27 years,
Zimbabwe has failed to
produce such leadership and the scale of the
challenge is such that no one
in Zanu PF is up to the task. It is now
apparent that even Gideon Gono is
now running scared and disowning the
misguided policies and programs
(remember Project Sunrise and the Zero Sum
Game).
It is clear that Zanu PF will not accept that at the core of the
Zimbabwean
problem is policy bankruptcy and lack of leadership. However,
from a
national perspective it is important that Zimbabweans bite the bullet
and
have the courage to say: "enough is enough".
Even if the
so-called sanctions were to be lifted, command policies have
been
discredited and any interventionist strategy is unlikely to deliver the
change that Zimbabwe urgently needs.
President Mugabe has the full
backing of his party to do the wrong things
confirming the deep seated
nature of the crisis and injury. Zanu PF believes
that the bureaucrats and
securocrats are the best custodians of sovereignty
without any empirical
evidence that such is the case.
To use an old economic example: although
there may be a superficial benefit
in using one team of bureaucrats to
harass businesspeople, it is clearly
better if the money being paid to such
"policemen" is used to pay people who
can make a greater contribution to
development.
If the government keeps too many people on its payroll
(price inspectors
with the active support of war veterans), then the taxes
it has to raise to
pay them will not be available to the already
overstretched consumers and
companies to use on their own more productive
purchases.
The Zimbabwean economy, like a deck of cards, is crumbling
fast and yet the
cause of the problem appears to be a contested issue
requiring a critical
analysis of the record of the post-independence in a
holistic manner.
Conspiracy theories are normally good raw materials for
failed states and
can conveniently give life support to terminally sick
patients.
Mutumwa Mawere's weekly column appears on New Zimbabwe.com
every Monday. You
can contact him at: mmawere@ahccouncil.com
http://www.cathybuckle.com/indexph.shtml
Sunday 8th July 2007
Dear
Friends.
'Only Connect' said EM Forster the writer. He was talking about
relationships and the need to reach out and make connections with different
people, different races and cultures. By extension, I take that to encompass
events in different countries and continents; it's all about making
connections. Mugabe's regime would rather we didn't make those connections;
he keeps the journalists out so that the world will not hear what's
happening inside Zimbabwe but in these days of instant communications he
cannot silence the flow of information. And once people know what's going
on, they begin to compare and they make connections.
On July 4th,
American Independence Day, Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist
was released
from his 16 weeks of captivity in Gaza. Johnston had chosen to
live and work
in one of the most dangerous places in the world, Gaza City.
He had been held
in solitary confinement by a group calling itself the Army
of Islam. No one
quite knew why he had been taken or whether he would come
out alive but
after 16 long weeks he was released. There had been
demonstrations all over
the world calling for his freedom, not least by the
people of Gaza itself
where Johnston was held in high esteem.
The absolute dignity and compassion
of Alan Johnston's first words struck a
very particular chord for people all
over the world who are held in
captivity for unnamed crimes, victims of
power-hungry dictators and unjust
systems of government.
' You have to
have been a prisoner to know how good freedom is, he said.'
And later he
remarked that it was ' as extraordinary a fourth of July as I
could
imagine.'
Far away in Zimbabwe, officials at the American Embassy were
also
celebrating the Fourth of July. As is customary, members of the
diplomatic
community gathered to celebrate America's National Day. This year
though,
there was a difference; the host country Zimbabwe was not invited.
Ambassador Dell, you see, had dared to speak out very bluntly about the
causes for the economic crisis engulfing Zimbabwe and had even predicted
total economic collapse by the end of the year. As a consequence, President
Mugabe with his usual cheap, populist rhetoric had nicknamed the Ambassador,
'Go to hell Dell'. The Ambassador had become Public Enemy No.1 and to show
the regime's displeasure with him he had not been invited to Zimbabwe's
Independence Celebrations back in April.
Undeterred by the lack of an
invitation to the American Embassy, an official
from Zimbabwe's Foreign
Ministry gate-crashed the Fourth of July
celebrations saying that he simply
wanted an opportunity to respond to
Dell's criticisms. The official
commented 'It is always fair to have
balance.' Coming from a government that
has banned every source of balanced
news reporting and comment in the
country his comment must have raised some
wry smiles among the hundred or so
guests. The official went on to argue
that if Dell was able to predict so
specifically the time frame for
Zimbabwe's collapse, then ' this leaves the
impression that the meltdown is
being engineered from outside Zimbabwe'. As
I have said before, logic is not
Zanu PF's strong suit! But the Ambassador
had the last word; explaining why
he let the Foreign Ministry official take
the microphone at a US function in
US embassy grounds Dell said it was
because democracies believed in the
historic adage, ' I may disagree with
everything you say but I will defend
to the death your right to say
it.'
Hardly an adage Mugabe would have much connection with!
It
took the UK Financial Times to make a connection even further back in
history this week. The FT comments on economies around the world- those that
are doing well and those that are spectacularly failing. Describing the
absolute chaos that has engulfed the Zimbabwean economy this week following
the government's decision to order the prices of staple food items to be
halved in the shops, the FT takes us back to ancient Rome for the
connection!
The year is AD 301 and a certain Emperor Diocletian
renowned, says the FT,
for his persecution of the Christan minority is in
power. Rome is suffering
hyperinflation so the Emperor orders all prices to
be slashed by half. He
sets minimum prices for all basic goods but in the
meantime he keeps on
minting coins and the population is reduced to
bartering and scavenging as
goods disappear.
The connection with
ancient Rome is so close that it's uncanny. Zimbabweans
will remember how
Mugabe boasted that no one could have run the economy
better than he had.
Even now he is not admitting that any of the economic
chaos is of his
making. It's all being engineered by foreigners Mugabe
claims; the Brits,
the Americans or anyone else who dares to tell him he's
making a terrible
mess of things and his people are worse off than they've
ever been. Mugabe
doesn't want to acknowledge cause and effect; he doesn't
want to see the
connections.
It would be good to tell you that the Roman Emperor came to
a nasty end
after all the suffering he inflicted on his people. Sad to say,
the FT
reports that Diocletian survived the economic chaos he had created
for
another twenty one years and retired in his old age to grow cabbages in
some
distant outpost of the Roman Empire.
President Mugabe hasn't got
an empire but he has his 'Look East' friends.
Maybe there's a connection
with his ancient Roman exemplar after all.
Picture it, Mugabe in a toga,
sweating and slaving over his makabichi on
some distant Malaysian or Chinese
field while Amai Mugabe struggles to cook
sadza on a smoky fire for her 104
year old husband!
Punishment enough would you say?
Ndini shamwari yenyu.
PH.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
9th Jul 2007 16:22 GMT
By Chenjerai Chitsaru
IN THE
West, most parliamentary democracies have two major political
parties: one
representing the rich, or conservative sector, another
standing for the
rights of the poor, underprivileged or people's rights or
the workers - or a
variation of all three.
In the developing countries, including that part
of Europe recently freed
from the communist jackboot, the parties may be
anchored on ethnicity,
regional bias or even religion.
In Africa,
particularly, there is no discernible domination of parties
standing for the
rights of the underprivileged.
In both South Africa and Nigeria, arguably the
largest democracies on the
continent, neither the ANC nor the party led by
former president Olusegun
Obasanjo can lay claim to have as their
preoccupation the interests of the
poor.
Neither can both claim to
represent the interests of Big Business, although
they have both been
accused by their critics of "sleeping with the enemy",
Big
Business.
For the ANC, this must be a bitter pill to swallow. Backed
during the
struggle by "the mother of all communist nations" the Soviet
Union, their
fiercest critics now turn out to be their partners in
government, the
Congress of South African Trade Unions
(Cosatu).
Recently, that partnership was put to its severest test when
Cosatu called
out public servants in a strike that threatened to cripple the
public
sector.
Whatever the outcome of that confrontation, it did
not, the end, disrupt an
economy that remains the strongest on the
continent.
Newspaper reports of South Africa bailing out the tattered
Zimbabwean
economy by allowing the orphaned Zimdollar to be adopted as a
foster child
by the Rand are not to be sneezed at.
That act of
benevolence would settle better with many people in Zimbabwe
than the
present scenario of an economy propped up by the printing of more
useless
money and a central bank whose governor is whistling in the wind
every time
he gives the government his expert advice.
The imprisonment and
persecution of leaders of Big Business is an element
which might, in the
end, bring into existence an alliance involving the
ordinary people, the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change and Big
Business - an unholy
alliance, some might say.
Yet a brief examination of the relationship
between Zanu PF and all three
would suggest it is also inevitable. Zanu PF
has promoted itself, since the
end of the struggle as the party for the
people, the champion of the rights
of the poor, the underprivileged and the
marginalized.
Right now, most analysts would say the party has reneged on
that promise,
starting with the land reform programme and ending with the
recent blitz on
prices.
With all these high-handed, ill-conceived and
basically Stalinist measures
it has brought misery to ordinary people. They
have suffered severe food
shortages and a steep rise in the prices of food
when it is available.
A host of other crippling increases in the cost of
everything - from school
fees to postage stamps - has multiplied their
misery tenfold. A number of
them have responded, rather emotionally, by
publicly heaping verbal abuse on
none other than the President Robert
Mugabe himself.
No longer, it would seem, are they prepared to be used as
canon fodder by
Zanu PF - which they have been for the last 27 years. Zanu
PF has pretended
to be championing their cause for all this time.
Yet
the stark reality is that their life expectancy has dropped to 34 years,
their lives have been blighted by avoidable diseases, caused by a lack of
such basic commodities as drugs, water and electricity.
The current
campaign against captains of industry might spawn a strange
alliance: of Big
Business, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) and its major
constituency, the poor, the workers and the
marginalized. Big Business has
never had an identifiable representation in
Parliament.
The reason
for this could be that they always felt Zanu PF took care of
their
interests. Yet there has been much evidence that Zanu PF, from the
beginning, promoted a Marxist-Leninist economic dispensation, which
eminently excluded all traces if conventional capitalism.
They know
now that the last people to qualify as their allies belong to Zanu
PF.
Incidentally, this is exactly how the poor and the workers must feel
about
the ruling party. Zanu PF has persecuted both of them, as they have
persecuted the opposition MDC.
Moreover, they have been painted with
the same brush - that of allies of
the Western conspiracy of a regime
change.
In addition, they all three been victims of the bashing ordered so
publicly
by Mugabe.
What more could unite them than a similarity of
enemies - Zanu PF - and a
similarity of persecution, the public bashing by
the same Zanu PF?
The strongest incentive for all three to unite is the
likelihood of
conspiring, unwittingly, with Zanu PF, in the destruction of a
country
loaded with the potential of greatness.
The path to political
and economic perdition has been charted by Zanu PF, in
its wild campaign to
lure votes for the 2008 harmonised elections.
The party is throwing
everything into this campaign, including the kitchen
sink - the economy.
Some would call it "going for broke", which is richly
ironic, for a country
virtually broke.
In recent weeks, Zanu PF watchers have discerned a
distinct lack of
enthusiasm among listeners to Mugabe's customary vitriol
against his
perceived enemies, foreign or domestic.
In fact, if the
television footage of the audiences has been accurate, there
would appear to
be a definite lack of animation to Mugabe's abuse of his
enemies. In one
shot, we were shown fairly senior Zanu PF figures looking
decidedly cross
with whatever Mugabe had said.
Normally, there would be footage of them
applauding almost hysterically, at
every foul language he used against his
foes.
It is highly likely that, perhaps at the highest level, the Zanu PF
hierarchy is beginning to realize the inevitable horror of what lies at the
end of their tendency to let Mugabe have his way.
In warning, at one
meeting, that "we will let Mugabe do want he wants to do",
one senior leader
seemed to be suggesting that they had the capacity to
alter Mugabe's
direction, if they thought he was going too far.
It is possible that such
leaders have carefully, patiently gauged the
reaction of ordinary members of
the party and have concluded that the chips
are down, that the misery the
party has visited upon every member has become
unpardonable, and that
someone has to pull the rug from under Mugabe's feet,
if the party is to
survive a mauling from the opposition, even divided as it
is, come
2008..
An alliance of Big Business and the MDC would seen to suggest
chalk and
cheese. Yet, throughout the political history of the world, there
have such
extraordinary unions, when the end-result seemed to justify such
awkward
alliances.
Zimbabwe is in a truly extraordinary political and
economic quagmire: a
political party now so self-absorbed in survival it is
prepared to kill its
own citizens, if this will advance its agenda, an
economy requiring major
surgery - perhaps from outside its borders - to have
even the remotest
chance of survival.
And, finally, a political
leader so wrapped up in his own rhetoric of
invincibility he needs a big
dose of reality to remind him he is mortal,
and definitely not invincible
in a continent where some of the most arrogant
dictators were sent fleeing
into exile, their thick, well-fed tails between
their equally fat legs.
Mail and Guardian
Mail & Guardian reporter
08 July 2007
11:59
In most supermarkets in the sprawling township of
Zimbabwe's
capital, Harare, empty shelves and butcheries with no meat in the
cold rooms
tell of a desperate reality.
Even chickens are
hard to come by. The government's crack price
monitoring teams will soon
have no jobs, because "there will be nothing to
monitor as all commodities
have disappeared from shelves", says Mercy Tiripo
(32) of Mabvuku township,
about 20km east of Harare.
Tiripo believes the worst is still
to come. "They targeted
houses because they feared the people will rise
against the government after
the parliamentary elections in 2005; now they
are targeting shops and there
will be no more shops by year end," she
says.
"We will be left with nothing because shops are not
restocking
any time soon," says Tiripo.
In the same
township, Teresa Mtikani (not her real name) a
45-year-old shop owner, says
she will have to lay off some of her employees.
"There is nothing to sell
any more, why should I keep them in the shops,"
she asks.
"Unemployment will rise to 110% and there won't be any shops. I
can't even
resort to sewing - there isn't any electricity," Mtikani says.
"You can't
plan anything anymore."
"Price controls were okay, but if
they are now going to create
shortages, we are wondering if the government
was right in the first place,"
says Absalom Phiri (35).
"If it's going to be the government creating shortages, we will
have serious
problems with it, because they failed to manage this situation
properly,"
Phiri says.
"Many people are now walking to work. They can't
walk on empty
stomachs, and they will obviously turn their anger against the
government,"
he says.
Economists predict companies will
be shut down within months,
with many employees being thrown onto the
streets. "It's dangerous. If
producers are not supplying shops with
products, who is going to be paying
the wages? Companies will be laying off
workers and that builds up the
public anger," says Daniel Ndlela, an
economist, says: "It's going to
boomerang."
Jonathan
Moyo, Mugabe's former spin doctor, says developments in
Zimbabwe are not
without precedent. "In eastern Europe, governments that
tried to
nationalise, seizing companies, all these economies have one thing
in
common: they are now history, and you can only find them in the dustbin
of
history."
Moyo says "it's normally [the] behaviour of a
government on its
way out, [one] that has no confidence in itself. It's
trying to please
voters, it's nothing to do with consumers. They are trying
to give the
impression they have nothing to do with the economic meltdown,
[and the]
shortages of goods and services. It's been trying to blame the
business
community for job losses."
Dear Friends
The Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum this week in Harare released a report on
our
participation at the 41st Session of the African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights, Accra Ghana 16-30 May 2007 including the 41st NGO Forum
Session held12-14 May. Please find attached.
Our member organisation,
The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
released its Weekly Media
Update 2007 - 25 attached here. The update points
to the scant attention
given by the media in Zimbabwe to the on-going voter
registration
exercise.
Our member organisation, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) staged
a peaceful
demonstration demanding electricity in the eastern city of Mutare
this week.
Read more about their actions to demand 'power to the people' on
their web
site at:
http://www.wozazimbabwe.org/
The
Solidarity Peace Trust will be launching their latest report
"Destructive
Engagement: Violence, Mediation and Politics in Zimbabwe" next
week. For
those of you in South Africa, there will be a launch at The
Devonshire Hotel
in Bramfontein, Johannesburg on Tuesday 10th July at 10.00
to mark the
launch. Speakers will include Archbishop Pius Ncube, Bishop
Kevin Dowling
and Professor Brian Raftopolous. Find enclosed the press
release on the
launch. We will send out the report from here on Tuesday.
The Crisis
Coalition has today 06.07.07 issued an alert on the manner in
which ZANU PF
is 'celebrating victory' as queues mount in Harare following
the imposition
of price controls. Please find their statement attached
Zimbabwejournalists.com
9th Jul 2007 16:06 GMT
By Nyasha Nyakunu
HARARE - The right to
freedomof expression has been criminalised in
Zimbabwe. This was said by
National Chairman of the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA), Dr Lovemore
Madhuku on 5 July 2007.
Addressing journalists gathered at the Quill
Club, which is the National
Press Club, on the Constitutional amendment 18
gazetted last month, Madhuku
said that the ruling regime was using the
amendment to hold on to power,
regardless of the consequences for the
country. He stated that the political
parties in the country agree on the
elemental problems currently bedevilling
the country but have failed to
agree on the solutions.
Madhuku said that the ruling party has resisted
the realisation of free
expression as fundamental in the solution of the
problems currently
bedevilling the country.
"If you want to express
yourself, you are said to be working on the regime
change agenda."
At
the same meeting, Madhuku pointed to the need for civic society's
inclusion
in the mediation initiative currently underway. He said that the
political
weight of the two groups had been considered instead of their
representation
of the population of the country and ability to come up with
lasting
solutions. In his view, the initiative is another way of buying time
and
will not yield any lasting solutions for the country.
Madhuku reiterated
the need for a new, people drive constitution to solve
the problems of
Zimbabwe .
Mineweb
Zimbabwe's
state run coal operation is producing way below capacity and is
failing to
meet its supply commitments to some of the country's major
utilities and
manufacturers.
Author: Tawanda Karombo
Posted: Monday , 09 Jul
2007
HARARE -
Hwange Colliery Company (HCC), Zimbabwe's state run
coal mining concern has
hit hard times amidst revelations that the company
can no-longer sustain its
market, which constitutes the country's
manufacturing companies and the
state electricity monopoly, the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority
(ZESA).
Despite Zimbabwe sitting on some
of the biggest natural coal reserves in the
mineral rich Southern African
region, local companies have been forced to
import coal from neighbouring
country Botswana.
A Hwange Colliery Company distribution sector chart
shows that the company
is only meeting 52 percent of demand leaving most
companies to import coal.
Against a national demand for coal of around
380,000 tonnes per month,
Hwange is managing a meagre 197,300 tonnes which
it is supplying to
Zimbabwean companies. This leaves a 182,700 tonnes
shortfall every month.
According to the chart, Hwange is supplying the
state's Zimbabwe Power
Company (ZPC) with 153,000 tonnes of coal against the
company's monthly
needs of 180,000 tonnes.
Mineweb can also reveal
that Hwange is currently supplying 9,000 tonnes of
coal to the Zimbabwe Iron
and Steel Company (ZISCOSTEEL) against a monthly
demand of 15 000
tonnes.
"Hwange has failed to supply industry with coal and most
companies have
since 2005 been importing their own fuel from Botswana," said
Callisto
Jokonya, president of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Industries
(CZI).
A company spokesperson for the Coal mining concern admitted that
the company
was facing difficulties in meeting its targets but declined to
discuss the
matter further.
"The new machinery that government
sourced is frequently breaking down and
most of the mining equipment was
frozen underground and will need to be
rehabilitated.
"The situation
is critical and we have since resorted to importing coal
from Botswana. But
with the price controls issue, most companies will simply
stop doing so,"
said the official.
9 July
2007
Fellow Zimbabweans,
The current siege on the
struggling business community following a decision
by the Robert Mugabe
dictatorship looks set to back fire and plunge the
country's economy into
serious chaos. Already, our embattled nation has
begun to feel the pinch:
shortages of fuel, basic commodities and a
systematic destruction of the
formal sector.
Zimbabweans realize the dangers of the short honeymoon.
The future, in the
short term, looks bleak. More businesses are going to
close. More jobs lost.
Our shops and market shelves are already empty. Our
families, our schools,
our hospitals, hotels and most public outlets are
without basic foodstuffs
and essential commodities.
When Mugabe
launched Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands
in the
eighties, his actions were motivated by his desire to retain power by
neutralizing all potential opposition forces.
When Mugabe descended
onto the commercial farming sector in 2000, it is now
clear to all, his
actions were directed at liquidating a powerful voice of
the farm workers by
dispersing and liquidating that constituency.
Zanu PF destroyed
commercial agriculture, resulting in rampant food
shortages and a major
economic meltdown. As if that was not enough, in 2005
Mugabe targeted the
urban voters through operation Murambatsvina. Today, he
is at
again.
Mugabe and Zanu PF have gone full scale for the business
community, pursuing
a populist policy against the national interest. He is
even talking of
wholesale nationalization, a concept that was tried and
tested, but failed
dismally throughout Africa soon after the advent of
decolonisation.
The regime runs 32 parastatal companies and none of them
have a record of
success since independence. How he hopes to take over the
entire country in
the face of glaring failures boggles the mind.
Like
the state-sponsored farm invasions, the attack on the business
community is
a poor election gimmick. Our experience shows once a key
economic sector is
targeted by this regime, the poor and vulnerable often
bear the brunt of
such recklessness.
Mugabe and Zanu PF enjoy the blame game. For nearly
three decades, they have
targeted the opposition and people of Matabeleland
and the Midlands to
defend his power-base. Mugabe has smashed the media; he
has attacked white
Zimbabweans, white farmers and the West; he has gone for
the church and
church leaders; now he turned his axe onto the business
community.
The collapse of agriculture saw a dwindling supply side of our
economy,
leading to incessant controls on our staple: grains and cereals.
The result
was corruption and shortages, high prices and a thriving informal
market.
An informal market ravages the poor in any society as speculators
and
beneficiaries of a government patronage system thrive on the scarcity of
goods and services. The poor cannot afford the goods sold on the parallel
market.
In 2005, Zanu PF clearly lost the parliamentary election and
in a fit of
rage went out of way to declare war onto the people, through
Operation
Murambatsvina. We are now approaching another election and Mugabe
is on us
again. Mugabe failed to secure a postponement to 2010; he failed to
liquidate the MDC; he failed to arrest an economy on a free fall; and now
wants to finish-off the little that still remains.
In an era of
globalisation and regional business linkages, the business
sector represents
a sensitive community, with tentacles across the globe.
Investors at home
and abroad customarily shun locations and destinations
managed outside
universal norms, standards and known practices. It is folly
to try to force
inflation down through policy flip-flops designed to satisfy
a political
ego. The fundamentals must be put right.
My message to the people is that
the time is now ripe for us to unite
against tyranny. There is no room for
doubts on Mugabe's intentions. He has
failed all of us as a nation. We must
mobilize ourselves and defend our
businesses, our property and our
rights.
Let us prepare for a new Zimbabwe. Let us stand ready for a
society awash
with food and jobs for our people. The temporary setbacks we
are all facing
shall vanish as soon as we mobilise and claim our
space.
Mugabe and Zanu PF must never be allowed to get away with his
dangerous
experiments that impoverish us further. For 10 years after
Independence, he
toyed around with socialism. For another 10 years, he
embraced the Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). When all these
policies failed to
address the people's needs, he turned to violence. Let us
save Zimbabwe from
the rapacious clique that has ruined our livelihood and
tarnished our image
as a country within the family of nations.
We are
near the end game. A new Zimbabwe shall soon be with us.
Morgan
Tsvangirai,
President.