The Zimbabwean
BY JOHN MAKUMBE
'We
might not need any elections at all come 2008'
First it was on the commercial
farms that the ruining Zanu (PF) unleashed
its notorious jambanja, and the
results are living hell for all of us to
this day. With the near complete
destruction of the agricultural sector, the
whole national economy is now in
the intensive care and extremely unstable.
On Sunday 8 July, the sickening
ZBC showed footage of the destruction of one
ARDA farm in the Lowveld, and
the pictures were depressing. There were heaps
and heaps of drying cane
sugar left on the ground while the nation is
struggling to obtain sugar. The
level of incompetence of the ARDA management
is entirely
inexplicable.
Now jambanja seems to have been visited upon the commercial
sector of the
economy as the demonic Mugabe regime desperately tries to
control the
nation's enemy number one, inflation, now estimated to be well
above 20 000%
and soaring.
The Mugabe government's directive that all
prices of goods and services be
restricted to the June 18 levels caused
pandemonium in most supermarkets
across the nation as poorly paid people
bought everything in sight at the
reduced prices. Zanu (PF) hoodlums were
full of praise for the ruining
party, which they claimed had the people's
interests at heart. The myopic
nature of the regime's policy-makers
befuddles the mind.
Less than two weeks after the supermarket jambanja there
is hardly anything
in the shops for anyone to buy. Some supermarkets have
literally closed down
and dismissed their workers. Wholesalers across the
nation report that they
are struggling to sell their goods since most
retailers that had placed
orders with them subsequently cancelled them
following the jambanja.
Manufacturers of most of the affected products have
ceased operations,
rightly arguing that they cannot afford to manufacture
the requisite
products at a higher cost than they can sell them. For some
strange reason,
the moronic rulers of this country are unable to comprehend
this logic. It
is obvious that the Mugabe regime is fully aware that if it
allows the rate
of inflation to continue on its merry upward way, it will be
so high by the
time the 2008 elections are held that no one in their right
mind will bother
to vote for the ruining party.
In other words, the
current supermarket jambanja is a futile attempt to rig
the rate of
inflation. What is most interesting, however, is that now all of
us cannot
get any of the basic products that we used to purchase from
supermarkets.
It will be interesting to find out whether the people of
Zimbabwe will vote
for a political party that has effectively destroyed our
normal way of life.
No attempt has been made to address the real reason why
the prices of all
commodities have escalated beyond affordability.
We all
know that the main reason for this is the selfish continued
stranglehold on
political power by Robert Mugabe and his stinking party,
Zanu (PF). We all
know that the prices of goods and services cannot be
dictated by a bankrupt
regime, which is hell bent on destroying everything
that might benefit a
Zimbabwean. We have experienced this phenomenon over
and over in this
country. This time, however, the regime may have shot
itself in the
foot.
By the time the 2008 elections are held, we will be importing bread
from
Botswana, Zambia and South Africa. Alternatively, we might not need any
elections at all come 2008. Without regime change the prices of all our
goods and services will only go up, or go missing altogether.
The Zimbabwean
BY
MUONGORORI
BULAWAYO
I hope nobody thinks that next week will be business
as usual. This week the
private sector has gradually wound down its
operations. The retail sector -
most retailers carry stock for a month
approximately, are the last to shut
down but already you can see empty
shelves and shortages of all the fast
moving basic items are now
widespread.
Butcheries and bakeries that work on stock levels of about a week
are
already closed as their stocks ran out. The same with filling stations.
Manufacturers must work with quite significant stock levels - especially of
imported items and they will run these down and then close unless there is a
U-turn on the part of the government and new directives which are half
reasonable.
There are no signs as yet as to what the State will do when
this shutdown
occurs. But all that we are seeing and hearing right now are
threats and an
insistence that this situation is going to be maintained for
some time.
The most immediate problem is the very basics - fuel for transport
and the
essential foods, maize meal, rice, bread, meat and milk. By Monday
all of
these will be virtually unobtainable. Farmers with pigs and poultry
are
pondering what to do with their animals as they run out of stock feed,
dairy
farmers also face huge problems as they cannot pay their feed bills
and must
start winding down - how do you tell a cow in milk, used to being
milked
three times a day, that she must stop producing?
Hundreds of
thousands of workers and non-formal sector businesspersons are
being faced
with no work and are being forced to stay home - at present on
full pay, but
in a few weeks what then? There is no law to turn to; there
are no political
leaders to go to with any sort of sense and authority. We
are in the hands
of a madman who has nothing to loose but his life and has
his back to the
wall and is using the only tools that he knows to try and
stay afloat while
the country drowns.
How will the average Zimbabwean respond? Friends of mine
are doing a day
trip to Francistown in Botswana - just 200 kilometers away,
today. They will
buy what they need for next week and return. A few will do
the same. Others
are going on holiday, unable to stand the spectre of
seeing all that they
have built up over the past decades swept away. They
are the lucky ones -
what about the rest?
There is only one way out and
that is across the Limpopo. I must warn South
Africa that they will now face
a huge upsurge in economic refugees and they
had better brace themselves for
that if nothing effective is done to halt
this madness. I mean hundreds of
thousands of new, desperate, hungry
Zimbabweans flooding in and disappearing
into the vast urban slums that
surround all South African cities.
The
alternative is a military coup led by the junior officers with the
compliance of some in the ruling Party who see that this situation is not
sustainable and that it is creating a regional crisis of substantial
proportions. Such an event would close the door to the SADC process under
way today in South Africa and plunge the country and the region into a huge
political crisis that would require military intervention. Am I being
alarmist? I do not think so. The actions of this rogue regime in the past
week have been enough to tip us over and into a state of crisis we have
never faced before.
Irreparable damage is being done to the country and
if this is not stopped
in its tracks by immediate and radical measures taken
by regional
governments very serious consequences are going to
follow.
The humanitarian and economic crisis that is about to break out in
Zimbabwe
is simply staggering and certainly way beyond the capacity of the
country to
handle on its own.
The Zimbabwean
HIV-positive Zimbabweans have
slammed President Robert Mugabe's populist
policy of slashing prices, saying
this has led to critical shortages of the
life-prolonging anti retroviral
drugs (ARVs).
"This is matter of life and death," said an HIV positive woman
in her late
20s. "The drugs have disappeared from pharmacies. Mugabe should
simply stop
politicking with our lives."
Before the price slash, a
month's supply of a fixed-dose combination of
antiretroviral cost Z$1,2
million. Following the price reversal, they were
selling for $600,000. But
they have disappeared, causing critical
repercussions for patients on
treatment.
Zimbabwe, which has the world's fourth highest rate of HIV
infection, is
going through a severe economic crisis with serious fuel and
food shortages
due to recurring droughts and the government's fast-track
land
redistribution programme, which have disrupted agricultural production
and
slashed export earnings.
"People are giving up (their) drugs because
they can't find them. Since the
prices were cut, ARVs have become scarce,"
said Lyn Francis, who runs The
Centre, an HIV/AIDS NGO with 4,500 registered
clients. Francis warned that
people who were forced to interrupt their
treatment regimen because of
scarcity were putting their health at risk.
"These drugs need to be taken
continuously ... any kind of hiccup can cause
resistance [to the ARVs]," she
noted.
According to Douglas Shoniwa,
president of the Retail Pharmacists
Association, even local generic drug
manufacturers were being hamstrung by
the scarcity of foreign currency.
The Zimbabwean
Money-changers are among the few people doing well out of
Zimbabwe's
crumbling economy.
Hotels in Harare's central business
district used to be the preserve of the
well-heeled businessmen and tourists
who flocked to Zimbabwe, particularly
from the West.
As high-powered
business deals were concluded inside the hotels, the
prostitutes would wait
outside to ply their trade. As soon as you stepped
out of the hotel lobby
during the evening, scantily-dressed women would try
to attract your
attention from behind parked cars. Just in case you missed
the furtive
signals, they would pop up beside your car and tap discreetly on
the
window.
But no more - the ladies of the night have grudgingly yielded to a
new and
rapidly growing breed of entrepreneurs, the black-market
money-changers.
Zimbabwe's moneychangers do not operate at night. They hang
around on the
approaches to luxury hotels like the five star Meikles Hotel
or the equally
prestigious Holiday Inn, occasionally moving up and down the
street to avoid
detection by the police.
As soon as you park your
vehicle, they are all over you, asking what
currency you want to buy. They
have all sorts of foreign currency in every
possible denomination, even
though the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's coffers
are empty. American dollars
are the most popular, then the South African
rand and the British pound,
followed by other currencies.
The traders come in all shapes and sizes,
united only by their determination
to drive a hard bargain. At one end of
the spectrum is the well-dressed
gentleman leaning against his slick
Mercedes Benz and tinkering with the
latest-model cell phone. At the other
is the school-leaver or the woman who
looks as though she would be more at
home working at a market stall.
Some are there to change money sent home by
their relatives in the diaspora.
Others are agents working for big
businesses, desperate to acquire foreign
currency to stay afloat.
Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono has described the thriving black market
trade in
foreign currency as Zimbabwe's own "World Bank". Some argue that
the
parallel currency trade keeps the economy going when it should long
since
have imploded, and that its existence has therefore averted widespread
popular unrest.
The black market took off after the Zimbabwean economy
began contracting by
an average of four per cent annually in 1997, and
especially since President
Robert Mugabe's land seizures from 2000 onwards
precipitated a steep
economic decline.
The formal banking system still
uses an official exchange rate pegged at 250
Zimbabwe dollars, ZWD, to the
US dollar. On the illegal parallel market the
American dollar is worth up to
100,000 or 150,000 ZWD, an astonishing
difference which makes precise
comparisons redundant.
In addition - and of course closely linked to the
ZWD's devaluation on the
street - the country is suffering alarming
inflation rate. In May, prices
showed a 4,500 per cent increase on the same
month in 2006. Economists are
even more worried by the rate of increase -
prices at the end of May 2007
were 100 per cent higher than they had been
four weeks earlier.
Wages have been increasing in nominal terms, too, but
nowhere near enough to
keep pace with inflation. The average monthly wage of
a factory worker is
800,000 ZWD - a respectable 3,200 US dollars at the
official exchange rate
but just eight dollars on the black market.
Rather
than try to use the two widely diverging exchange rates as a measure
of
comparison, it is more useful to set these wages against the minimum cost
of
living level, which the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said was 5.5 million
ZWD for an average family of six in May. Even though teachers and nurses now
earn around four million ZWD a month, their incomes clearly fall well below
the minimum they need to get by.
One of the factors driving inflation is
that imported goods are bought using
foreign currency acquired on the black
market, so the retail price expressed
in ZWD is accordingly
high.
Tonderai, a young man from Eastlea who has never been in formal
employment
since leaving high school two years ago, explained how the system
works in
practice. He trades in the money his sister sends back from the UK
in
British pounds.
"If I change 100 pounds in the bank they will give me
4,500 ZWD," he said.
"A single loaf of bread costs 23,000 ZWD. Work out for
yourself whether it
makes sense. On the black market I can easily make 25 or
30 million ZWD from
what my sister sends me a month. How many Zimbabweans
who go to work every
morning earn that kind of money?"
Transactions take
place right on the street, or out of sight in cars and
even in lifts. Once
the deal is done, the traders move further out of town
into the Avenues
district, a red-light area which is the haunt of the
big-time currency
dealers. Here, foreign currency sells at a premium to
businesses that need
to make foreign purchases.
Some of the buyers are private enterprises, both
legitimate importers and
also the firms which illicitly bring in fuel from
South Africa. Then there
are the government officials who want to buy luxury
goods or pay their
children's school fees abroad.
Even government
agencies are said to buy currency in this way to fund
essential imports of
items like grain and electrical power, as there are not
enough dollars and
rands in the country's Reserve Bank. - IWPR
The Zimbabwean
BY STANFORD MUKASA
Final acts of
Matibili, the madman from Ngomahuru
WASHINGTON
Robert Mugabe's latest act
of madness involving attempts to force down
consumer prices to levels that
make it unprofitable to do business in
Zimbabwe are undoubtedly part of the
overall strategy to win the combined
elections scheduled for next
year.
There is no rational explanation for forcing businesses to trade at a
loss.
The simplest law of business is that one must sell goods at prices
above,
not below, what it cost the business operator to procure them. Any
law or
activity by any government that seeks to control business and trade
must
take into account this basic principle of why and how businesses
operate.
Price controls, if needed, must be aimed at reducing the level of
profit a
business is making rather than killing the goose that lays the
golden egg.
Mugabe's threat to businesses to "produce more or be taken over"
is a
smokescreen for his real intentions - to invade retail businesses the
way he
destroyed commercial agriculture.
Mugabe tried this stunt seven
years ago when he ordered the invasion of
commercial farms. He did this
because there were very clear indications that
he and his party were headed
for a landslide defeat in the 2000 elections.
The invasions effectively
destroyed commercial agriculture, which had been
one of the main pillars of
the country's GDP. Commercial agriculture has
traditionally contributed
between 15 and 20 percent of the country's GDP and
nearly 50 percent of the
country's exports. Agriculture contributed to the
livelihoods of about 70
percent of the country's population.
There is a direct correlation between
the level of poverty and economic
decline in Zimbabwe today with the
destruction of commercial agriculture.
Zimbabwe is the only country in the
SADC region and the continent that has
recorded, for seven years in a row, a
negative economic growth rate.
Instead of working to address the root causes
of the economic decline,
Mugabe is using the collapsed economy for yet
another of his personal
survival strategies. His game plan is to use
businesses to reward his
cronies and supporters into voting for him again
next year. What he does not
seem to care to know is that his support base
has diminished significantly.
There is no more mass support for Mugabe, if
ever there was any. There is a
myth that Mugabe has a strong rural support
base. What is left now is a
handful of supporters who have benefited from
his patronage. Those
supporters are not enough to secure a victory for him
at the next elections.
But Mugabe needs them to do all his dirty tricks like
rigging elections,
assaulting members of the opposition, misinforming the
public and protecting
him. Mugabe has no illusions he can ever win elections
by a popular vote. He
is like a jilted lover who is now arm-twisting his
wife to love him.
In trying to manipulate business, with his characteristic
violence, Mugabe
faces a backlash that he cannot control.
The first is
businesses have refused to restock. And stores now have rows
upon rows of
empty shelves. That is a recipe for a mass demonstration, if
only
Zimbabweans would heed the wake up call, when people cannot find basic
commodities. Already Zimbabweans have been pushed to the corner. In this
situation they cannot be pushed anymore without fighting back.
The second
is many of the affected businesses are owned by top Zanu (PF)
officials.
This puts Mugabe on a tightrope. Already he is making concessions
by
printing more money to compensate businesses for the losses they
incurred.
There can be no doubt that when it comes to compensation
businesses owned by
ZANUPF top officials will be the first, and possibly
only ones, to receive
the compensation. Mugabe is now completely oblivious
about the inflationary
impact of printing more money.
Yet another backlash is the fact that the
police, youth militia thugs and
others sent to enforce the directive to
lower prices are themselves now
looting the same goods and selling them at
an even higher price in the black
market.
The irony of it all is that the
retailers who bought those goods and are
selling them to make a profit are,
especially if they are not prominent
officials of Zanu (PF), being hunted
down like common criminals and jailed.
But absolutely nothing is being done
to the real criminals, the police,
thugs and Mugabe's cronies who are now
looting and fuelling the black market
and inflation.
The Zimbabwean
BY ITAI
DZAMARA
HARARE
Three government ministers are involved in the illicit
hunting of elephants
and dealing in ivory through their concessions,
investigations by The
Zimbabwean have revealed.
Minister of Policy
Implementation, Webster Shamu dismissed as untrue
allegations that the
Hunting Safari he allegedly co-owns with Charles Davy
was involved in
illicit deals. Another minister, Obert Mpofu, of Industry
and International
Trade, also said that he wasn't involved in any illicit
deals after
highly-placed sources alleged that he ran a hunting concession
and traded in
illegal ivory.
Shamu denied that he is a co-owner of HHK Safaris together
with Davy, but
investigations show he is one of the directors of the
company, which was
implicated by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority
in illegal hunting
operations as well as illicit trade of ivory. Another
minister (name
withheld), who could not be contacted for comment has also
been implicated.
Sources at the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority
revealed that a
recently-impounded consignment of an undisclosed quantity of
ivory led to
investigations implicating HHK Safaris, which has operations
based mainly in
Matabeleland as well as in neighbouring Mozambique.
"The
impounded consignment came after a lot of efforts by the Wildlife
Authority
aimed at establishing information regarding what clearly appear to
be shady
deals by a number of companies," a top source said. "HHK has been
under
investigation and it became easy to link a lot of things when the
impounded
consignment was traced to the same company."
Shamu flatly dispelled reports
and information linking him to the company
and said: "I am not involved in
any hunting or trade of ivory". It was
difficult to obtain comment from
Davy. A woman who answered the telephone at
HHK Safaris' offices in Harare,
said: "Minister Shamu is part of the
business but he is based in Harare and
I don't have his number."
Mpofu runs a hunting concession operating by the
name of his farm, Kanando,
which has been implicated in illegal hunting of
elephants and other wild
animals as well as trading in ivory
illegally.
"The minister (Mpofu) runs the operation and it was discovered to
be dealing
in ivory as well as other animal products," a Parks and Wildlife
official
said. Through highly-placed sources, this paper recently
discovered a
syndicate of agents said to be working for Mpofu. A place in
Bulawayo was
discovered, which is alleged to be the base for keeping ivory
as well as
processing of elephant skins by Mpofu's company.
Mpofu also
flatly denied the allegations and refused to further discuss the
matter.
Zimbabwe has been surreptitiously bartering tons of ivory with
China, in
return for military hardware amid reports the State has been
systematically
pillaging natural resources and poaching endangered elephants
to enrich a
few ruling elite.
The Zimbabwean
South Africa should seriously
consider issuing Zimbabweans fleeing from
political persecution in their own
country with a special document
recognized by the police in order to avoid
unnecessary deportation back
home.
This call was made by the Consortium
for Refugees and Migration in South
Africa (CRMSA) following the arrest and
deportation of thousands of
Zimbabweans between May and June this
year.
This is the second time CRMSA has publicly urged the SA government to
stop
deporting Zimbabweans, arguing that they will face persecution and
violence
at home.
In a recent report released by the Consortium Professor
Loren Landau, who is
the CRMSA director and the director of the Forced
Migration programme at
Wits University, said.
"Our recent report revealed
that refugees and asylum seekers are being
arrested and persecuted when they
are deported back to Zimbabwe. We are
against this continued arrest and
deportation of Zimbabweans and
unaccompanied children by South African
police and the Department of Home
Affairs."
Landau who condemned the
current conditions at Lindela Repatriation Centre
where 3 000 are said to be
awaiting deportation, urged the department to
provide all Zimbabweans
arriving in South Africa to seek refuge or asylum
status after facing
persecution in their own country with a temporary
document that is
recognized by police.
"The current conditions at Lindela are not in line with
the Prison Act of
South Africa and we call on the government to look at and
address this
issue," he said.
Jack Redden, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees regional
public information officer, said the
South African government "should
recognize that the number of Zimbabweans
coming here to seek protection is
increasing. This acknowledgement will
assist the Department of Home Affairs
to resolve the backlog by
fast-tracking the issuing of permits. - Nokhutula
Khumalo
The Zimbabwean
South Africa's Joint Standing
Committee is set to push for the total closure
of all illegal entry points
from Zimbabwe to South Africa in a move to
reduce the ever- increasing
number of illegal immigrants.
The Committee, which includes the South Africa
Police Service (SAPS) and
Department of Home Affairs intelligence will
descend on Beitbridge border
post on Friday to assess ways in which illegal
entry can be stopped.
"South Africa's border posts will be scrutinised to
check how staff are
coping with the prevention of crimes, ranging from
illegal entries by
immigrants to human trafficking and car theft," read part
of the
presentation to the SA parliament. - Trust Matsilele
The Zimbabwean
Plans are underway for mass
deportations of Zimbabweans if the Mugabe regime
fail to bow to pressure on
constitutional amendments and a transitional
government as proposed by South
Africa President Thabo Mbeki.
The Zimbabwean has it on good authority that
Botswana and South Africa plan
to deport Zimbabweans. "Zimbabweans should
brace themselves for mass
deportations. The two countries are fed up with
Mugabe and the exiles, who
appear unable to force or vote Mugabe out," said
an intelligence officer
from National Intelligence Agency who is privy to
the plan.
The deportations code named 'Mugabe take your people' will mean
hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans will be deported even.
"The
deportations will cause confusion on the Zimbabwean side. At least 100
coaches will leave for Zimbabwe every day and 20,000 will be deported in a
week's time," said a South African intelligent agent. Mugabe will be caught
unaware as 'his people' flood back to their roots to vote in en masse,"
alleged the source.
The South African government is also irked that some
Zimbabwean exiles are
now behaving like Mugabe supporters who are benefiting
from the regime. Many
Zimbabweans in exiles are working against the
democratic forces while
members of Central Intelligence Organisation have
infiltrated many civic
society organizations.
"The people who are coming
from Zimbabwe are acting as Mugabe people and
they are trying to prop up
Mugabe regime. People will be deported to go and
vote in their country,"
added the agent. - Trust Matsilele
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
MDC
(Tsvangirai) spokesman Nelson Chamisa has dismissed President Robert
Mugabe's claim to have secured fuel and forex from his long-term ally
President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya as a waste of time.
"Mugabe is wasting
time trying to solve problems that are getting worse by
the day as he clings
onto power. It is pointless for him to want to address
problems that are a
result of his mismanagement and worsen by the day as he
refuses to leave,"
said Chamisa.
Sources told The Zimbabwean that a desperate Mugabe had secured
fuel and
other forms of assistance from President Muammar Gaddafi if Libya,
who used
a carrot and stick strategy on the Zimbabwean leader who promised
to step
down from power at the end of this year.
The Libyan leader is
said to have reported to his colleagues in the African
Union and especially
President Thabo Mbeki that Mugabe had promised to step
down and not stand
for next year's elections.
Mugabe visited Libya last month to hold meetings
with Gaddafi after former
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair had visited
that country and is
understood to have urged the Libyan leader to ratchet up
pressure on Mugabe
to go in order to save Zimbabwe.
"There is no way
anyone like Gaddafi is going to waste resources on such a
project, it is the
usual story of deception. Besides, we all know that
Mugabe has never been
sincere about his promises to leave office," said
Chamisa
Political
commentator, David Tera from the University of Zimbabwe also
believes
Gaddafi will soon be disappointed by Mugabe. "If that is true, then
we
should expect news about Gaddafi demanding whatever belongs to him
because
Mugabe has a record of making promises he never fulfills. Mugabe has
made it
clear he is not willing to step down under whatever conditions,"
Tera
said.
Mugabe is said to have obtained a loan of US$100 million from Libya on
the
strength of him having promised to step down.
"Gaddafi literally used
the carrot and stick strategy on Mugabe who went
there with a begging bowl
as well as hoping to get assistance from the
oil-rich country," a top source
revealed. "They were also both enthusiastic
about the formation of the
United States of Africa (USA) and Gaddafi also
used the rapport on that
basis to push Mugabe into a corner. He advised
Mugabe to step down and
consider using his experience to work for the
establishment of the USA
whilst allowing for the rebuilding of Zimbabwe."
Minister of Energy Michael
Nyambuya confirmed that "there is fuel being
brought into the country by
government from various sources" but said the
finer details about where it
is coming from were confidential.
The Zimbabwean
This edition of The Zimbabwean
raises more questions than it answers. In
this we believe we accurately
reflect life in our beloved Zimbabwe today, as
well as among our friends in
the wider world.
How on earth did it come to this?
How are people
surviving?
How much longer?
Does anyone out there care?
How can one
crazy old man be allowed to do this?
What can be done to stop him?
What
does Thabo Mbeki really think?
What will it take for him to act
decisively?
What will tomorrow bring?
How many hungry babies will die
today?
How many HIV-AIDS sufferers, deprived of their regular medication by
the
price war, will die in the coming weeks?
When will the international
community act?
What should they do?
Are we going to have elections next
year?
Is the opposition serious about unity?
How are we ever going to
rebuild this mess?
What of tomorrow?
Where have all the flowers
gone?
The Zimbabwean
ZESA Holdings, reeling from
persistent foreign currency shortages, has
revealed that load-shedding will
increase due to reduced power generation
at Hwange Power Station.
In a
statement seen by The Zimbabwean, Zesa Holdings said this had been
sparked
by limited coal deliveries from Hwange Colliery Company following a
series
of breakdowns on the coal conveyer plant.
Sources at Zesa said the utility's
failure to pay debts due to acute foreign
currency shortages had resulted in
continued power cuts.
"As soon as there is enough coal stocks, Zimbabwe Power
Company will
increase generation at Hwange Power Station," read part of the
statement.
Residents in Highlands, Lewisham, Greendale and Mandara have gone
for up to
two days without power owing to underground cable faults.
Many
Zimbabweans are shivering their way through a long dark winter because
of
extensive outages.
There is rampant cutting of trees as householders resort
to buying firewood
for cooking and heating purposes. Recently ZESA hiked its
tariffs by at
least 350%, shocking Zimbabweans already struggling with
massive price hikes
in shops, buses and clinics.
The Zimbabwean
The Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and the government of Zimbabwe
should illustrate seriousness in
finding a solution to the country's crisis
to cushion President Thabo
Mbeki's facilitation of political dialogue,
Foreign Affairs Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in her recent budget
vote debate in the National
Assembly.
"The success of President Mbeki's facilitation largely depends on
the
political will of the Zimbabwean government and opposition political
parties
to take Zimbabwe out of this crisis," Dlamini-Zuma said.
The
Democratic Alliance, meanwhile, has described as "regrettable" the South
African government's lack of condemnation of the situation in
Zimbabwe.
"Daily, thousands of Zimbabweans illegally enter South Africa in
search of
money and food in order to keep their families alive," said DA
foreign
affairs spokesperson Douglas Gibson.
"The Department of Foreign
Affairs should make it clear that they would not
support a government that
does this to its citizens," he said.
The Inkatha Freedom Party said the talks
were doomed to fail if ordinary
Zimbabweans, Churches and the country's
business community are excluded from
the negotiations.
National
Constitutional Assembly chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku recently
dismissed
Mbeki's involvement as a ploy to buy more time for embattled
President
Robert Mugabe.
He said solutions to the crisis lay with Zimbabweans; putting
faith in Mbeki
was "a waste of time".
Madhuku said Zimbabweans must
ratchet up pressure on the 83-year-old
Zimbabwean leader and his government
by staging massive demonstrations in
the coming months.
"We have
solutions to our problems and these solutions come from
Zimbabweans. Mbeki
must never fool us. He is buying time for Mugabe and his
government by
promising us that he can help mediate on the crisis.
"All Mbeki wants is time
for his friend (Mugabe). Mbeki does not want us to
have demonstrations or
put pressure on Mugabe. We have seen Mbeki before.
What has he done for us?
As Zimbabweans we must realise the power and means
of escaping poverty and
hunger lie within us," said Madhuku. - Allan
Muzhingi
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
The
Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission (ZERC) Commissioner General
Mavis
Chidzonga has allegedly abused a fuel facility worth almost Z$600
million on
the open market, documents at hand reveal.
An internal audit report titled
"Fuel Usage summary January-April 2007"
allegedly show that between January
and April this year, Chidzonga siphoned
about 5000 litres of petrol and
diesel worth almost Z$600 million. Reliable
sources have said that the
petrol and diesel was fed to Chidzonga's
relatives' buses known as Nyamweda
Bus Service. Nyamweda is her maiden name.
Chidzonga denied the allegations.
"I am not aware of such transactions and
the Commission records do not
reflect any such transactions. The Commission
is not missing any such fuel.
The Nyamweda brothers are ready to testify.
Nyamweda Busses have never
needed Dr Chidzonga for fuel," she said.
The audit report shows that in
January, Chidzonga, who is entitled to
350litres per month exceeded her
allocation by 640 litre despite also
receiving a further 535 litres under
the guise of operations. In February
she withdrew an excess of 555 litres
and received a further 165 litres as
operations. In March, Chidzonga
exceeded her limit by 1185 litres and
received a further 370 litres as
operations. In April, Chidzonga exceeded
her limit by 1515 litres and
received a further 245 litres as operations.
ZERC is the regulatory authority
of the electricity industry and is funded
from license fees from power
utility ZESA, currently struggling to pay
creditors for electricity
supplies.
The audit report has become the basis of an investigation by the
Accounts
and Audit Committee, which held a meeting on last month to probe
Chidzonga.
The chairperson of ZERC's Audit and Finance Committee, Desire
Mutize
Sibanda, said new arrangements had been put in place following a
meeting
with Chidzonga over the issues contained in the report.
But
highly placed sources said Chidzonga went hysterical, accusing Sibanda
of
harbouring intentions to take over her position at ZERC. She then stormed
out of the meeting claiming that she was being stressed. Chidzonga also
allegedly claimed she was sick on to avoid attending the Finance and Audit
Committee meeting, which was held on Friday and geared to grill her on the
matter. Sources said she was overwhelmed at the evidence obtained against
her by the committee.
"We are satisfied that the new arrangements will
assist the parastatal to
strengthen controls and institute any improvements
in both human and
financial administration. The areas targeted for controls
include
recruitment, fuel and hire of vehicles," said a diplomatic
Sibanda.
"The Audit committee has however tasked the internal auditor to work
closely
with the Commissioner General to strengthen internal controls in
areas which
may have given rise to these allegations," he added.
He said
his committee was tasked by government to ensure financial
accountability at
the ZERC.
"Our role as the Audit committee of ZERC is to ensure financial
accountability in the management of ZERC. A meeting of the ZERC Audit
Committee was held last week, among other things to examine the allegations
contained in the letter you sent me. I also had a meeting with the
Commissioner General," said Sibanda.
Sources alleged that one James
Mugozhi, Chidzonga's former driver was the
conduit who delivered fuel from
an Exor garage in Pomona to Nyamweda Bus
Service premises in Western
Triangle. Mugozhi was dismissed together with a
former messenger at ZERC
after they claimed that the fuel he had stolen was
far too little compared
to what Chidzonga has been siphoning since she was
appointed ZERC
Commissioner General in June 2005.
Chidzonga admitted that Mugozhi was at
some point sent to Nyamweda Bus
Service and had since been fired for
stealing.
"James (Mugozhi) was only sent on one occasion to pick up empty
drums from
Nyamweda Brothers," she said. "It would be of benefit for your
office to
know as background to this matter that James Mugozhi was dismissed
from
employment last week for stealing and selling ZERC fuel."
Chidzonga
conceded that she had given ZERC fuel to her Anglican church
reverend.
"I
am entitled to a monthly personal fuel allocation of 350 litres. This
was
part of my allocation that I gave to the Reverend (30 ltrs). He was my
Parish priest whom I assisted when he had a funeral," she said.
Out of
the 18 ZERC employees, seven are allegedly Chidzonga's relatives.
(names
supplied). She denied this but said: "As regards Tonderai yes he is a
relation, For a personal driver one needs someone they can trust . I have
young kids to be picked up and I need someone I know and trust to drive me
and my family. James was a personal driver for the previous Commissioner but
refused to drive me and opted to be a pool driver. Records are available for
you. I then had to hire another driver. This was done transparently through
a hiring agency."
Energy and Power Development minister Mike Nyambuya
could not be reached for
comment.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
The University of
Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor, Professor Levy Nyagura, has
evicted all students
from the campus residence after disturbances that
rocked the oldest
institution of higher learning last week. Students are
protesting against
the Z$1 million top up fees caused by the extension of
the semester.
The
students are questioning the rationale of being forced to pay for the
incompetence of the university administration in failing to end the semester
as scheduled because of the lecturers who went on a three months long
strike.
On July 3 more than 3000 students converged at New Complex 4
residence and
before they could make resolutions armed police descended and
started to
assault students indiscriminately. In the melee, more than 15
students were
injured and three were arrested.
On Saturday heavily-armed
police with sophisticated artillery, teargas
canisters, Israeli water canons
and vicious dogs descended on the students
as they held a peaceful review
meeting.
Seven students were arrested, including Saun Matsheza, the student
union
vice President and Caeser Sitiya, Student Representative Assembly
member. At
the time of going to press they were still languishing in the
filthy and
overcrowded cells of Harare Central Police Station. Several
students were
seriously injured and received treatment at Avenues Clinic,
one of them,
Jotham Shumba sustained a broken limb.
The whereabouts of
the Students' Union President, Lovemore Chinoputsa, are
not known, his life
is in danger and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) are working
flat out to assist the students. - Zinasu
The Zimbabwean
Operation of Hope medical foundation will
return to Zimbabwe later this year
to perform another marathon of hope that
last year saw 43 surgeries
performed in six days on children afflicted with
cleft lip/palate.
No-one can know the personal anxiety of a mother hoping for
a brighter
future for their child than they can give. The desire to change
their
children's circumstances saw numerous parents visit the Harare
Hospital
Children's Ward and dare to hope against all odds that their
children would
receive the corrective surgery for cleft lips and
palates.
When Busi, mother of two-year-old Lucy saw a news item about the
Operation
of Hope team from USA, coming to Zimbabwe, she realized that she
had the
chance to help her daughter. Lucy was born with a cleft lip, a
genetically
disposed condition that creates an opening in the upper lip
between the
mouth and nose affecting feeding, speech and self-esteem.
"I
had never seen anyone with this deformity and seeing my child for the
first
time made me feel helpless. I did not know where it came from and why
it
happened to my child. I was anxious to minimize the ridicule that I knew
she
would have to face throughout her life," said Busi.
"When I heard that this
team of specialist surgeons would be available to do
this operation, I knew
I had to try and get my child there to see them"
Travelling 48 hours from
her rural home became minor to quench her
anticipation of a heavily
subsidized miracle for her child.
Dr. Joseph Clawson started Operation of
Hope, soon after his retirement from
medical practice, re-engaging in a
long-abandoned desire from his childhood
to help.
allAfrica.com
11 July 2007
Posted to the web 11
July 2007
Cape Town
Zimbabwe's rulers have adopted a deliberate
strategy of exacerbating
tensions between the two wings of the country's
divided opposition,
according to a new report by a church-sponsored human
rights group.
In a 44-page report on the current political and human
rights situation in
Zimbabwe, the Solidarity Peace Trust said it was clear
that President Robert
Mugabe was preparing for elections next year by
"decimating the structures
of the opposition".
The group issued
an appeal to South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is
acting as a
mediator in talks between the Zimbabwe opposition and
government, to
recognize that the protection of human rights was central in
resolving the
country's political crisis.
The report, entitled "Destructive Engagement:
Violence, Mediation and
Politics in Zimbabwe," was released by Archbishop
Pius Ncube of Bulawayo,
chair of the trust, at a news conference in
Johannesburg on Tuesday. It gave
a detailed overview of human rights
violations in Zimbabwe over recent
months, including the beating and
abduction of opposition leaders, torture,
assaults in people's homes and in
public places, and attacks on lawyers.
One of the report's findings was
that the vast majority of attacks was on
the faction of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change headed by
Morgan Tsvangirai. "It appeared
that at first this was fortuitous," the
report said, "but the advantage of
using this as a divide-and-rule tactic
became apparent to the state and they
thereafter made it a strategy."
Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu
had publicly described the Tsvangirai
faction as "violent", contrasting it
with the "non-violent" MDC faction
headed by Arthur Mutambara. And
justifying the beating of Tsvangirai by
police earlier this year, President
Mugabe had said of him: "He is supposed
to be a leader, aspiring to be
president, and he should know how to behave.
Mutambara was not beaten
because he knew how to behave."
The trust noted that the ruling Zanu-PF
party was reported to be recruiting
10,000 "war veterans" into the country's
army as a "reserve force" ahead of
elections scheduled for next year, as
part of a strategy to prevent the MDC
from organizing in rural areas. It
also recorded high levels of random
assaults by police of members of the
public in the opposition-supporting
urban areas.
"The intention of
state violence in public places," it said, "is to send a
general message of
repression and control, to leave civilians in areas
believed to be
opposition strongholds in a state of fear and insecurity, so
that social
drinking, or attending football, or going shopping become
activities that
could result in being beaten. This lowers morale and makes
people
disinclined to be linked to opposition politics."
The report said that
Zanu-PF was most comfortable about negotiating with its
opponents when the
environment in the country was one of repression. It was
thus imperative
that the mediation led by President Mbeki should recognize
that:
· "An essential part of any conditions for a free and
fair election
in Zimbabwe must include the end to state violence and human
rights
abuses..."
· "Discussions on a new constitution must
allow for transitional
justice issues, such as accountability for human
right abuses, and the truth
about such abuses, to be placed on the political
agenda at the earliest
possible stage of a political transition."
and
· "It must be recognised, in particular by the. mediation
process,
that the protection of human rights is one of the central issues in
resolving the political crisis in Zimbabwe. Any any long-term reconstruction
of the economy must be premised on the grounding of human rights issues at
the centre of Zimbabwe's political transformation."