State secret agents quiz churchmen for"misleading" UN
envoy Wed 20 July 2005 HARARE - The Zimbabwe government's dreaded spy
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has in the past week quizzed some
clergymen, accusing them of "painting a negative picture" of the
government's controversial clean-up campaign to United Nations (UN) envoy
Anna Tibaijuka.
In what observers said could be early signals of a
possible retribution campaign against church and civic leaders who spoke to
Tibaijuka, armed police this week razed down several buildings belonging to
Mutare city's mayor, Misheck Kagurabadza, who was also publicly singled out
by government officials for "lying" to Tibaijuka about the clean-up
drive.
Sources in the intelligence community told ZimOnline
that the CIO last week summoned two senior Mutare clergymen, Michael
Bennett, of the Catholic Church and acting Anglican bishop for Mutare, Eric
Ruwona and quizzed them on why they gave negative reports about the clean-up
operation to Tibaijuka.
During the same week, CIO agents also
visited the Bulawayo offices of outspoken Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube,
who has led criticism against the clean-up operation. The government spies
were told the bishop was out of the country and is only expected back next
month.
Bennett yesterday confirmed being summoned for questioning
by the CIO but would not be drawn to give further details of what the secret
service agency wanted from him. "Yes I was summoned. But it is a complex
issue that I would rather not give details. But I am continuing with my work
and projects though," Bennet said.
It was not possible to get a
comment on the matter from Ruwona yesterday. But the sources said the bishop
had told his interrogators that he had only spoken to the UN envoy as part
of the church's duty to "tell the truth and help people."
According to the sources, no specific threats were made against Bennett or
Ruwona when they were summoned to the CIO offices in Mutare but the
well-placed sources could not rule out possible punishment against religious
and civic leaders especially if Tibaijuka's report, expected in days, is
harsh against Harare.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, under
whose portfolio the CIO falls, refused to discuss the matter yesterday. "I
am not going to help you," was all Mutasa would say after ZimOnline had
recounted to him the interrogation of Bennett and Ruwona by the CIO and the
visit to Ncube's offices by secret service agents.
UN-Habitat
boss, Tibaijuka toured Zimbabwe for two weeks as a special envoy of the
world body's chief Kofi Annan, to assess the impact of Harare's urban
clean-up campaign that left thousands of families on the streets without
food or water after the police demolished their city backyard cottages and
shantytown homes.
Annan on Tuesday issued a statement expressing
worry at the humanitarian crisis caused by Zimbabwe's clean-up drive in what
UN experts said was indication Tibaijuka's report, expected by Friday or
Monday will be devastating against Harare.
The United States,
European Union, Zimbabwean and international human rights groups have
roundly condemned the clean-up drive as a gross violation of human
rights.
President Robert Mugabe has defended the clean-up drive as
necessary to smash crime and restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's
cities.
But the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
opposition party, which is most supported in cities, says the exercise was
meant to punish urban residents for rejecting Mugabe and his government in
last March's disputed election.
In Mutare, police demolished
buildings worth over Z$20 million owned by Kagurabadza despite the mayor
showing them detailed plans to prove the structures were legal.
Kagurabadza, who angered the government when he showed Tibaijuka several
families sleeping in the open after their homes were demolished by the
government, claimed he was being targeted for victimisation.
"They
said the buildings were illegal despite that they are on the plan. I have
been under fire since I told the UN envoy that the clean up exercise had
caused a lot of suffering to the people. I also showed her families living
in the open and now I am in trouble," said Kagurabadza, who is a member
of the MDC. - ZimOnline
Bundestag wants home demolishers before International Criminal
Court Wed 20 July 2005 JOHANNESBURG - The German Parliament (The
Bundestag) has urged the German government to help ensure that those
masterminding Zimbabwe's demolition blitz are brought before the
International Criminal Court to account for their actions.
In
the strongest ever statement by a European institution, the Bundestag says
President Robert Mugabe's demolition blitz against informal settlements -
that has caused untold suffering among the poor - constitutes "a new
dimension of terrorism" against Zimbabweans.
The Bundestag's stance
is contained in a strongly worded motion moved by virtually all the major
parliamentary parties - the SPD, the CDU/CSU, Alliance 90/The Greens and the
FDP.
The motion called upon the German government to develop its
own initiatives concerning the situation in Zimbabwe, as well as initiatives
organised by the EU and the G8 states, in close co-ordination with
representatives of Zimbabwean civil society, in particular
churches and non-governmental organisations, and to support the work of
these groups.
The Bundestag also urged the German government to
ensure that sanctions against the Mugabe regime are implemented rigorously
and their scope widened if necessary.
The motion also called
upon African governments to fulfil commitments they have made in the New
Partnership for Economic Development (NEPAD) framework and apply these to
Zimbabwe.
The Bundestag urged the German government to "call on the
states of the African Union to become advocates for Zimbabwe's oppressed
population, and to make clear to them that Western pledges of assistance for
Africa are firmly linked to respect for human rights and the rule of
law.
The Bundestag also urged Gerhard Schroeder's administration to
"remind the South African government of its special responsibility vis-a-vis
its neighbour Zimbabwe and call on it to strive to ensure that the
government in Harare stops the forced evictions" of thousands of poor people
whose homes have been destroyed.
The demolitions are continuing
despite a Zimbabwe government pledge to "temporarily halt" them at the
weekend.
The Bundestag said it also wanted the German government to
ensure that actions of the Zimbabwe government, which demonstrated contempt
for human life, were dealt with in the United Nations Security Council and
that the "Security Council examines the extent to which those responsible
can be held to account by the International Criminal Court". - ZimOnline
ANALYSIS: Mbeki may shore up Mugabe to hold things together in
Zimbabwe Wed 20 July 2005 HARARE - South Africa is most likely to
financially bail out Zimbabwe because President Thabo Mbeki would rather
rehabilitate President Robert Mugabe's government than let it collapse under
the weight of worsening food and fuel shortages, analysts said
yesterday.
Pretoria, under mounting international pressure to act
on Zimbabwe and itself increasingly irritated by events in its northern
neighbour, would also want to give part of the US$1 billion requested by
Harare to "buy more leverage on Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party," they
added.
But University of Zimbabwe political commentator, Heneri
Dzinotyiwei, said Mbeki was likely to approve the financial rescue package
chiefly because he would rather have a reformed ZANU PF - minus Mugabe -
continuing in charge in Harare than an opposition he remains suspicious of
and regards as an unknown quantity.
"For Mbeki the way out of
the Zimbabwe crisis is to rehabilitate Mugabe and hope that he will
gradually leave the political scene (on his own)," Dzinotyiwei told
ZimOnline.
Mbeki, designated the point-man on Zimbabwe by United
States President George W Bush and other key world leaders, has repeatedly
refused to publicly flog Mugabe over his excesses while his Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has ably blocked censure against Harare at
international fora such as the United Nations (UN).
Zimbabwe's
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party two months ago
pulled out in a huff from a Mbeki-driven mediation process accusing the
South African leader of open bias in favour of Mugabe and ZANU PF. But
communication has since been resumed between Pretoria and the MDC with Mbeki
meeting the opposition party's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, two weeks
ago.
Pretoria insiders however insist Mbeki remains strongly
unconvinced that the MDC, a coalition of trade unionists, civic rights
activists, student leaders, lawyers and other intellectuals, could keep
Zimbabwe together, let alone pull the crisis-sapped country from
the brink were Mugabe and ZANU PF to go.
But Dzinotyiwei said
Mbeki's strategy of shoring up Mugabe bidding for the day the Zimbabwean
leader will give up power to reformists in his ZANU PF party was hurting
ordinary Zimbabweans, shouldering the burden of a severe and uninterrupted
six-year economic recession.
He said: "That (Mbeki's time buying
strategy) is of course at the expense of the majority."
Zimbabwe's crisis has deteriorated in recent months with government
officials admitting that targeted sanctions imposed by the West were hitting
the country hard.
Annual inflation surged by nearly 20
percentage points to 164.3 percent last month effectively throwing state
economic policies off the rails while a burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic is
killing at least 2 000 Zimbabweans every week at a time public
health institutions have collapsed after years of under funding and
mismanagement.
A fuel crisis that began six years ago after the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut financial support citing Zimbabwe's
poor fiscal record and bad policies has reached critical levels, grounding
public and private transport and forcing many people to walk to and from
work.
The IMF board, which meets today, might recommend Zimbabwe's
expulsion from the fund for nonpayment of a US$306 million debt and the UN
is within weeks expected to strongly censure Mugabe's controversial urban
clean-up drive that left thousands of families homeless.
The
US$1 billon loan sought by Harare is equivalent to about nine months of
Zimbabwe's total annual foreign currency earnings and if granted could go a
long way to ease pressure on Mugabe and his government.
Harare-based economic consultant John Robertson said there were no economic
or financial conditions South Africa could attach to the loan that a broke
Mugabe could meet, adding Pretoria might and should instead seize the moment
and set political conditions for the loan.
"There are no economic
conditions that Mugabe will be able to meet, South Africa needs to set
political conditions," said Robertson. "There is need for a strong message
that if you are behaving badly nobody will lend you money," he
added.
But South Africa, which has advanced smaller loans to
Zimbabwe before, has in the past resisted calls by Tsvangirai to use its
economic and political clout to pressure Mugabe into line.
Meanwhile, Mugabe is expected to visit old ally, China, later this week to
seek a similar financial rescue package and Beijing might oblige to whittle
down Pretoria's growing leverage on Harare. -ZimOnline
Banned newspaper takes battle back to the courts Wed 20
July 2005 BULAWAYO - Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of
the country's banned Daily News newspaper, last night said they will appeal
to the Administrative Court against the state Media and Information
Commission's refusal to licence the paper.
Accusing President
Robert Mugabe and his government of waging a political campaign through the
media commission to "kill dissent," ANZ chief executive officer, Sam Sipepa
Nkomo, vowed to carry on the "struggle" at the courts.
"The
whole thing smacks of a repressive government which is determined to kill
dissent, which in this regard is overtly represented by The Daily News and
its sister publication, the Daily News on Sunday," Nkomo told
ZimOnline.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the MIC decision
and we shall be filing papers shortly with the Administrative Court
contesting Mahoso's ruling.. The struggle will definitely continue, Aluta
Continua!" said Nkomo. He did not say when exactly ANZ will file its court
appeal.
The Daily News, Zimbabwe's largest circulating paper at the
time of its closure and the smaller Daily News on Sunday were forcibly shut
down by the police following a Supreme Court ruling that the two papers were
operating outside the law because they were not registered with the state
commission as required by tough government media laws.
The
state's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) requires
journalists and newspapers to register with the commission. Journalists can
be jailed for up to two years for practising without being registered while
newspapers will be shut down and their equipment seized by the state
for the same offence.
ANZ had refused to register and applied
to the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the requirement
that it registers to publish its newspapers.
The court in March
this year dismissed the private publishing firm's constitutional challenge
but also ordered the state commission to review an earlier decision in 2003
not to register the ANZ papers.
Yesterday, the commission announced
through the official Herald newspaper that it had rejected a fresh
application for registration submitted by ANZ after the March 2005 Supreme
Court ruling.
The commission said it had rejected the application
because ANZ had published an edition of the Daily News in September 2003
after the Supreme Court ruling that the company's newspapers were operating
outside the law because they were not registered.
It also
accused the ANZ of employing unaccredited journalists in violation of AIPPA.
But the company's journalists were not registered only because the
commission refused to do so until the papers they worked for were first
registered.
The commission said ANZ had also contravened the Press
Act by failing to deposit copies of its newspapers with the state media
body.
Nkomo said the reasons cited by the commission were the same
ones it put forward when it refused to register the ANZ papers two years
ago. "From the reasons given, it is apparent that they did not consider our
most recent application, they only revisited the reasons they gave
in 2003 and put them forward in their (new) ruling," he said.
The ANZ boss said the company shall in its appeal to the Administrative
Court argue that commission chairman, Mahoso, should have recused himself
from the panel that decided on the company's application for registration of
its papers.
Mahoso is well known for his hatred of the Daily News
in particular and independent media in general. The Supreme Court noted in
its ruling earlier this year that the long articles the commission chairman
has published in state newspapers condemning the independent media did not
inspire confidence in his impartiality on deciding matters to do with the
same media.
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and worker
representatives at ANZ condemned the commission's refusal to allow the two
papers back.
ANZ staff committee member Columbus Mavhunga said the
commission ruling worsened already strained relations between the government
and independent media in stark contrast to pledges by new Information
Minister Tichaona Jokonya to foster a new and less poisoned relationship
between the two.
"It is a sad chapter in the history of Press
freedom," said Mavhunga, adding that continued close of the two papers meant
more suffering for journalists thrown onto the streets when the papers were
shut down two years ago.
"It is a sad day for journalism .we
feel we have been robbed by Mahoso at a time the media industry in Zimbabwe
was already shrinking," added ZUJ secretary general Augustine Mukaro. Both
Mahoso and Jokonya could not be reached for comment on the matter last
night. - ZimOnline
SA churches gear up for massive Zimbabwe relief
campaign Wed 20 July 2005 HARARE - A South African church group on an
aid mission in Zimbabwe said on Tuesday the challenges created by President
Robert Mugabe's home demolition programme would see the churches undertaking
their largest ever relief campaign.
Irvin Abraham, the South
African Council of Churches delegation's spokesman told ZimOnline last night
that the group was, together with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, creating
a data base of the affected people and the assistance they
require.
Aid groups say at least 300 000 people have been left
homeless by the government's blitz on city backyard cottages and shantytown
homes but the opposition puts the figure at 1.5 million people.
"I have no doubt that this will be the biggest appeal being undertaken by
the South African churches," Abraham said after meeting with Zimbabwe church
groups. "There will also be international appeals because of the scale of
the challenges and already there are some pledges from some churches," he
added.
The demolitions have attracted international condemnation
from the Commonwealth, European Union, among others and last month led
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to send a special envoy to
investigate the operation.
President Robert Mugabe has defended
the crackdown as necessary to rid urban settlements of crime and to end
black market trading in basic commodities in short supply in
Zimbabwe.
The government has however temporarily halted the
operation in more affluent suburbs a move seen as buckling to pressure from
South Africa, which has reportedly asked the government to end the
demolitions.
Harare officials, including central bank governor
Gideon Gono last week met his South African Reserve Bank chief, Tito
Mboweni, to discuss a possible financial rescue package for crisis-hit
Zimbabwe.
Annan's office on Tuesday said the UN boss would receive
his envoy's report in the coming days and would study its contents to
determine the next steps to be taken by the UN.
South African
President Thabo Mbeki, designated the point-man on Zimbabwe by United States
President George W. Bush and other key Western leaders, has also said he
will act after the UN report is released. - ZimOnline
Impact of housing demolitions worries UN ahead of
report Wed 20 July 2005 NEW YORK - United Nations secretary general
Koffi Annan has again expressed concern over the impact of the government's
demolition of homes in Zimbabwe blamed for throwing close to a million
people onto the streets.
In a statement released in New York
yesterday, Annan's spokesperson Marie Okabe hinted that the world body may
come down hard on President Mugabe's government over the
demolitions.
"The secretary-general is increasingly concerned by
the human rights and humanitarian impact of the recent demolitions of what
the government of Zimbabwe has called illegal settlements."
The
statement comes as UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka flew to New York to hand over a
report on her two-week assessment of the controversial clean up exercise as
international pressure mounted on Mugabe to stop the
demolitions.
The UN together with the United States, Britain
and human rights groups have already criticised the operation as an assault
on the rights of the poor.
But Mugabe has defended the
programme saying it is necessary to clean up cities which had become havens
of crime in order to smash a thriving foreign currency parallel market
blamed for Zimbabwe's economic woes.
Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party says close to a million people have
been rendered homeless in the government crackdown.
Yesterday,
former United States president Bill Clinton added his voice to the chorus of
criticism of the 81-year old Zimbabwean leader urging people to speak out
over Mugabe's human rights abuses. - ZimOnline
ZIMBABWE will soon have
a constitutionally created electoral commission. According to a Constitution
of Zimbabwe Amendment (No 17) Bill gazetted last week, the government
intends to abolish the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and replace it
with ZEC. Currently the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which was
created last year, is constituted through an Act of Parliament. The Bill
also seeks to reconstitute Parliament by establishing a bicameral house
consisting of a 150 member House of Assembly and a 66 member Senate and put
in place a provision confirming the acquisition of land for resettlement
purposes since 2000. Part of the Bill reads: "Parliament will be
reconstituted as a bicameral legislature consisting of a House of Assembly
of 150 members (120 elected on a constituency basis, the 10 Provincial
Governors, eight chiefs elected in accordance with the Electoral Law to
represent the eight non-metropolitan provinces and 10 persons appointed by
the President) and a senate of 66 members (made up of five senators elected
in each of the 10 provinces, plus the President and the Deputy President of
the Council of Chiefs and six senators appointed by the President)." One
shall become eligible for election as a senator if he or she is a registered
voter and is above the age of 40. According to the proposed amendment, when
the senate first meets, it shall elect a presiding officer who shall be
known as the President of the Senate. The individual shall be elected from
persons who are or have been members of the Senate or the House of Assembly,
but who are not members of cabinet, deputy ministers or provincial
governors. In terms of the transitional provisions for the first election of
senators, the President shall not later than 90 days after the commencement
of the constitutional amendment provide for days on which the voters' roll
shall be regarded as closed for the Senate election through a
proclamation. The President will also provide for a day on which the
nomination court shall sit, not less than 14 days or more than 21 days from
the publication of the proclamation, with a polling day being provided not
less than 21 days or more than 45 days from the day candidates submit their
papers to the court. The amendment also seeks to provide for compensation
for improvements on acquired land. A person having interest in the land
will not be allowed to challenge the acquisition in court and no court shall
entertain such a challenge, the Bill says. The constitution will also set
limitation on freedom of movement for instance where "it is discovered that
a person intends to depart Zimbabwe for purpose of engaging in terrorist
training abroad," reads the Bill.
PERSISTENT fuel shortages have thrown the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) and the government into an energy policy uncertainty that
reached its climax this month when the government overturned a central bank
decision to reduce the number of private fuel procurers. The RBZ in May
announced that it would curtail the number of fuel importers in an effort to
destroy the fuel black market that triggered an unending fuel
crisis. "The number of companies licensed to import fuel and who constitute
the PMZ/IPMZ membership and, therefore, expect foreign exchange allocation
from the limited Reserve Bank pool, extends to more than one hundred and
twenty (120). This number is, in our view, excessive to optimal requirements
for players in this market and we urge the responsible authorities to
withdraw some of these licenses. "We believe that the maximum number of
players should not be more than 20. The rest should either amalgamate or
simply close shop because they are distorting the currency allocation from
the auction," RBZ governor Gideon Gono said. Barely a month after the
announcement, Energy and Power Development Minister Mike Nyambuya
liberalised the energy sector and gave licenses to private firms and
individuals to import fuel in a bid to offload the burden from the National
Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM). Nyambuya could not be reached for comment
yesterday to explain the sudden policy somersault. But analysts told this
newspaper that discretionary policies are testimony of the government's
perplexity regarding the country's energy policy and its commitment to
policy decisions, tendencies which make monitoring and evaluation
difficult. Socio-economic critic Wozani Moyo said: "When you concentrate too
much on putting out a fire, the problem is you don't make room for strategic
planning. Everything you do becomes spontaneous and capricious. "It
becomes difficult to signal to the market and monitoring and evaluating
government policies becomes difficult too. At the moment the government does
not show a firm commitment to its policies. It just wakes up one morning
announcing a decision, which it revokes the next day. "If liberalising
fuel procurement is the best policy, then, let it be made unambiguously and
unequivocally clear. "But as with any policy reforms, proper sequencing is
very important. This is an area, which the government needs to revisit. What
it has done was to bring in more players, without regularising issues of
pricing and marketing. Are the individual procurers going to sell the fuel
at their homes? Where are they going to get the foreign currency? Given the
price of foreign currency and the absence of fuel subsidies, what prices are
they going to charge? These issues are a mater of guesswork at the
moment." Nyambuya hinted that the government is mulling a full-fledged
liberalisation of the energy sector with the goal of charging market
prices to keep the pipeline running. This follows shocking revelations that
NOCZIM has been importing and selling fuel at a loss since April, about $297
billion in aggregate terms, pushing its external debt to US$80 million debt
($840 billion at the official auction rate). In the three months the company
has been making a loss of about $4 250 per litre of petrol and $4 050 per
litre of diesel, against a surge in world oil prices. The liberalization
of fuel procurement is a response to clamors by the industry to stimulate
autonomous inflows of fuel through price incentives. During the first four
months of the year, the country has only managed to import fuel worth
US$111.1 million - an average of about US$28 million per month, against the
country's average monthly requirement of over US$60 million, which could
increase again in response to the devaluation of the local dollar. But
there are fears that the absence of a comprehensive operational framework to
regulate the activities of private players could re-ignite the parallel
market for the scarce commodity. Jonathan Kadzura, an economic commentator,
defended the government's ad hoc policy decisions saying the parallel market
would only end the day foreign currency shortages ended. Said Kadzura:
"The ad hoc policies and actions we have now are a result of shortages. The
ideal situation would be where we have a regularized system with reliable
participants, but because we are unable to allocate sufficient foreign
currency to our traditional fuel importers we cannot have a regularized
system. "That is the essence of liberalization. Of course, this has an impact
on the black market, but there may not be an end to the black market for as
long as the supply side is shrinking as the demand side is
overshooting."
POLICE
have remained mum on their investigations into the alleged tampering of
voting material used during the 2002 Presidential poll. It has been alleged
that the ballot voting material was tampered with at the High Court in
Harare, where they had been lodged pending an inspection by the
MDC. Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday
declined to give details on progress made so far. He said: "At the moment
I cannot comment any further. Why don't you try the High Court?" Last
week, he told The Daily Mirror that the police were indeed investigating a
breach of security at the court. The Master of the High Court, Charles
Nyatanga, had also promised to issue a statement on the matter but has still
not done so. "I cannot comment on the issue. Can you please contact my
superiors," Nyatanga said. Inspection and verification of the ballots was
initially set for July 11, but has been on hold since then. The
opposition party has alleged irregularities in the conduct of the last
presidential poll and hopes to prove its case through the inspection and
verification of the voting material used. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is
challenging President Robert Mugabe's victory in the election.
The Governments inhumane acts in its so called
operation `Restore Order', as well as the general lack of fuel, foreign
currency and basic goods that characterizes the country continue to be yet
more fine examples of the gross mismanagement and misgovernance of this once
great country by those at Jongwe house. Since coming to power in 1980, the
ZANU PF government has systematically decimated this once great country: its
formerly robust economy is in intensive care; its citizens have been
tortured, raped and beaten to silence; its justice system is one that
protects the robber and punishes the robbed; the education system once the
pride and joy of Africa is in tatters and the health system is on the brink
of collapse. To add insult to injury, we are told ad nauseum that that the
cause of the country's current malaise is Tony Blair and George Bush- As if
it were Blair and Bush that made the disastrous decision to go to War in the
DRC, as if it were the two who were party to the politburo decisions to
embark on land invasions with no thought to the consequences on
agricultural production, as if it were the two who made poor socio-economic
decisions that have left the Zimbabwean economy in tatters. ZANU PF's
admission of failure to govern Zimbabwe is evidenced by their total silence
on the immense challenges facing this once great country. The president has
failed to engage with his colleagues in cabinet to effectively address the
root of the problems facing Zimbabwe today.
In the meantime, the
ordinary long suffering citizens of this country have been helplessly
watching as these shocking events have rapidly unfolded before their very
eyes. Those who have been courageous enough to apply their citizenship to the
fullest of its meaning in a bid to offer constructive criticism have been
branded `sell-outs, traitors, uncle toms,' 'racists' (recent letters by
Kingston Dutiro been a typical example) and all sorts of other terms not fit
to published in any media. They have also been systematically and brutally
denied their inalienable entitlements to freedom of speech, expression and
association by the very government whose principal duty is to uphold and
protect those rights.
Through `rule by law', ZANU PF has propagated
unjust laws that have made it near on impossible for Zimbabweans to lawfully
express their disquiet at the status quo in the streets as well as the press.
To parody Mugabe's own words, the citizen's of this country have been
terrorised and coerced into the political-cum-religious doctrine that there
is but one God in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and that Joyce Mujuru is his
prophet.
However, such coercion and oppression can only be tolerated for
so long: As the great American civil rights leader Martin Luther King once
said, `there comes a time when people get tired of been trampled by the iron
feet of oppression'. Zimbabweans are tired of the ZANU PF government using
their hard earned tax dollars to fund the beating, torture and incarceration
of their brothers and sisters; to travel to talk shops in New York,
Addis Ababa, Geneva and Mauritius to pontificate ad nauseum on the so
called hypocrisy of Tony Blair and George Bush instead of exercising their
minds to address the fundamental issues that concern the citizen's of
Zimbabwe today: social justice, corruption, rampant crime, abuse of human
rights, food, shelter, HIV/AIDS and a functioning economy. They are tired of
their hard earned tax dollars been abused by the likes of Bright Matonga
and propaganda machinery (it would be a blatant lie to call ZBC, the
radio stations and Zimpapers anything else) to brainwash them into believing
that the immense challenges we face in Zimbabwe are to blamed on Bush and
Blair when it is as clear as day that they have come about as a direct result
of the gross negligence and incompetence of a political party that has
been too long in power and no one else. They are tired of their hard
earned funds used to maintain the upkeep of a police force and military
machine that protects the robbers, instead of them the robbed. They are tired
of been told by the powers that be in Jongwe house that they are
`colonised', or `stooges' of imperialist governments when they have openly
cried out at the litany of abuses perpetrated by ZANU PF. They are tired of
the selective application of unjust laws by ZANU PF.
It is common
knowledge that was the MIC an impartial entity, Zimpapers would have been
shut down for the sort of articles that are published in its presses on a
daily basis. ZANU PF claims that there is rule of law and justice for all.
What rule of law is there when the Supreme Court has failed to deliver
judgements on over 20 pending election petitions that were made over 5 years
ago by the opposition party? What rule of law is there when the government
does not follow rulings of the courts that it finds unpalatable to its taste?
There have been hundreds of judgements made against it by the courts that it
has not bothered to uphold. What rule of law exists when they imprison an MDC
member of parliament for one year with hard labour, when the minister who
taunted him and also threw a punch is left to go unpunished? What rule of law
exists when the same government that imprisons this MDC Member of Parliament
for a simple crime of common assault, illegally takes over his farm despite
several lawful judgements against them doing so? What rule of law exists
when the police fail to carry out orders of the courts or punish members of
government? Zimbabweans are tired of the nonsense emanating from the
government that there is rule of law in Zimbabwe when none exists.
For
several years since this crisis began Zimbabweans have been told
`wait' `chete!', `chilla kani!' Mbeki is exercising `quiet diplomacy' (I did
not know such diplomacy existed until Mbeki came into power). The
long suffering citizens of Zimbabwe certainly did not exercise `quiet
diplomacy' when it came to supporting the ANC against Apartheid in South
Africa, a fact Thabo Mbeki has conveniently forgotten) to end the crisis.
"Wait!" MDC is in informal talks about formal talks with ZANU-PF to end the
crisis, "Wait! "Don't leave the country yet, zvinhu zvichanaka! For several
years now they have heard the word "Wait" It rings in their ears with
piercing familiarity. This "Wait!" has almost always meant "Never'. Like
Martin Luther King, they have come to see that justice too long delayed is
justice denied.
The fact of the matter is that Zimbabwe simply cannot
survive with another 5 years of more and the same from a ZANU PF led
government. Perhaps it is easy for Thabo Mbeki to tell Zimbabweans to "Wait!"
for the dividends of his `quiet diplomacy'. But I put it to Mbeki and his ANC
government, when you have seen vicious mobs torture your mothers and fathers
at will while the "police" stand by watching; when you have seen thugs rape
your sisters and aunts; when you have seen the vast majority of your fellow
Zimbabweans smothering in an airtight cage of poverty; when you find it
necessary to pay bribes to government officials for services that are meant
to be provided free; when you cannot leave your money in a bank account
because it becomes more worthless each and every hour that it remains there;
when you can no longer afford to put your child through school; when you have
to wake up early in the dawn of the day to queue for bread, water, fuel
and the Lord knows what else; when you have to sit and watch ZBC spew out
its propaganda telling you to stay determined for entertainment; when you go
to hospital and it has no drugs or doctors; when you are harried by day
and haunted by night by the fact you support a political party of your
choice, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to
expect perhaps then Mbeki will understand why Zimbabweans are increasingly
finding it difficult to wait.
Zimbabweans have failed to get rid of
Mugabe and his government because they have been incapacitated by fear. From
now on they need to stick together as citizens of this once great country and
say with boldness and determination and one voice to Mugabe and his
government- go! Unity is the greatest need of this hour and if they are
united they can get many of the things that they not only desire but which
they justly deserve. Do not let anybody frighten you. You should not be
afraid that what you are doing is wrong when you protest. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with getting together and organising and protesting for your
rights. Your true liberation heroes Tongogara, Moyo, Chitepo, Mangwana and
other glorious dead sacrificed their lives for these very rights; your war
veterans fought for these very rights (though one cannot tell given their
recent behaviour). There is never a time in Zimbabwe's history that you must
ever think you are wrong when you protest. You reserve that right. Have
the moral courage to stand up for your rights. God grant that you do it
before it is too late.
Dear Family and Friends, Zimbabwe is shuddering to a stop just 14
weeks after Zanu PF declared they had won the 2005 parliamentary elections.
Chronic shortages of petrol and diesel have almost shut the country down.
There is a silence spreading over the land and with it is coming a sense of
camaraderie and unity as Zimbabweans literally walk to the end line of these
years of madness. I sit here on a cold but crystal clear winter morning in
the silence that has become suburban Marondera and flip through many hundreds
of weekly letters I have written since this began and wonder if this will be
the last winter of discontent. If I did not see my own words in black
and white I would not believe that such things could have happened or that
our prosperous country and her wonderful people could have endured
such horrors.
In July 2000, four months after our farm had been
invaded by war veterans and government supporters, I wrote: " Went down to
the little dam today ...Once densely enclosed with trees, the surrounds are
now sparse and a cold wind blew through the haven where our cattle used to
drink. The dam wall had been broken and water gushes out... the entire
surface area of the dam is covered with thick, choking, suffocating red
Azolla weed. Floating and bloated in the water is a dead animal
..."
In July 2001 I wrote : "I cannot tell you how I felt this week when
a grandfather phoned me to see if there was anything I could do to help
his son, daughter in law and three grandchildren under 10 years old who
had been barricaded into their farmhouse by two dozen war veterans. Gates
had been smashed down, fires had been lit on the lawn, dogs had been
cowed into submission and through the night the war veterans sang and
drummed and pelted the roof of the house with rocks to try and chase this
family out."
In July 2002 : "I have an 84 year old man living two
doors away from me and he stood at my gate again this week. He calls me his
Guardian Angel and begged that I give him $60 for a loaf of bread. He is
white and his need is as great as the 14 year old black boy who runs
alongside my car when I turn in at the supermarket. He too begs for money to
buy a loaf of bread. If only the men and women in our government would stop
their motorcades, get out of their chauffeur driven limousines and see
this immense tragedy, see the huge suffering of all black, white and
brown Zimbabweans."
In July 2003: "I heard how 200 Kamativi villagers
are hiding in the mountains to escape the violence of the government youth
militia who have hounded them out of their homes accusing them of not
supporting Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF. I can hardly bear to think of how those
people are surviving. It is the middle of winter here and as my son and I
cycle to school every morning wearing coats and gloves and wooly hats, the
frost lies in thick white sheets along the roadside. What sort of
government could knowingly allow their supporters to force people out of
their homes and into the freezing elements..."
In July 2004: "The
issue under the spotlight at the moment is the Government Ministers and high
ranking officials who have got, taken or been given more than one farm... One
of the Ministers concerned said the withdrawal letters were 'preposterous and
annoying.' He said of the multiple farms credited to him, one had been
reallocated to his cousin and another to his mother."
And now, many
winters later, in July 2005, I quote the South African Council Of Churches
who have just visited Zimbabwe: "In God's name, stop Operation Murambatsvina
...This operation is inhumane and causes widespread suffering to the people."
..."They [the Zimbabwean government] have no idea what to do with the people,
and this is the sadness of it," The Church report estimated the number of
people thrown out on the street to be between 800 000 and one million. Until
next week, love cathy Copyright cathy buckle 16th July 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears"
are available from: orders@africabookcentre.com ; www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and New
Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa: www.exclusivebooks.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for
Agriculture.
Harare - The long-awaited economic
turnaround of Zimbabwe after six years of recession was doomed to fail
unless the government liberalised the exchange rate and introduced fiscal
discipline, analysts said yesterday.
Official forecasts predict growth
will resume this year, but the country is still grappling with its worst
economic crisis since independence from Britain 25 years ago marked by acute
foreign currency, fuel and food shortages.
It also has one of the
highest inflation rates in the world.
The central bank has put in place
measures to revive the economy - once the breadbasket of the region - but
analysts see no prospects for success as long as the exchange rate stays on
a crawling peg system and the government overspends.
"A reversal will
only take place if the exchange rate is liberalised so that it is in line
with the purchasing power parity," said Luxon Zembe, the president of the
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce.
The central bank's administered
currency auctions are only meeting about 10 percent of the foreign exchange
needs of local companies, which are unable to import vital
machinery.
On May 19, the bank devalued the local unit by 31 percent to 9
000 against the dollar, and allowed it to slide further at the weekly
auctions. It was quoted at 10 800 against the dollar at Monday's auction,
bringing its depreciation since the devaluation to 16.7 percent.
But
black market rates are said to be double that price.
Analysts argue that
the foreign currency crunch could be alleviated if the government adopts a
managed float system for the exchange rate.
"They have to bite the bullet
and liberalise the exchange rate. There will be an inflation shock, but it
will just be once off," said one analyst, who wished to remain
anonymous.
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate accelerated to 164.3 percent
in June from 144.4 percent the previous month, but was still lower than its
record peak of 623 percent in January 2004.
The bank has forecast
inflation averaging between 50 percent and 80 percent this year, a target
seen as too optimistic by most.
Zimbabwe's money supply grew by 207.6
percent in the year to April after surging by 210.4 percent in
March.
Zembe said companies were operating at 30 percent capacity because
of shortages linked to the lack of foreign currency.
The government
is due to table a supplementary budget, which analysts estimate at Z$12
trillion (R7.40 billion) to meet a huge food import bill as well as fuel
costs. It is reportedly seeking to borrow money from neighbouring South
Africa to meet these requirements.
20 July 2005 15:21 Mbeki told to trade loans for
Zimbabwe reforms By Basildon Peta in Johannesburg Published: 20 July
2005 Pressure is mounting on Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, to
demand comprehensive economic and political changes in Zimbabwe before
granting Robert Mugabe's request for $1bnto buy fuel and food.
A
desperate Mr Mugabe dispatched Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe,with a begging bowl to South Africa at the weekend as the
embattled southern African country faced total collapse.
No fuel
imports have been made into Zimbabwe in the past three weeks due to a severe
foreign currency crisis. Power cuts are frequent, forcing companies to scale
down operations. This has in turn worsened a dire food situation with
supermarket shelves now empty of basic foodstuffs, and at least four million
Zimbabweans in need of food aid.
With the Mugabe regime having completely
destroyed the tobacco export sector through the violent eviction of more
than 4,000 white farmers, and with virtually no prospects of foreign
currency trickling in after the IMF and World Bank rejected Mr Gono's pleas
for new loans, the country desperately needs foreign help to avert
collapse.
Analysts said Mr Mugabe's plea for help from South Africa
provided Mr Mbeki with the best-ever opportunity to demand a package of
reforms.
South Africa has already set some conditions, including a demand
that a demolition blitz of informal settlements in opposition strongholds be
stopped. The blitz, which has earned the ire of many including former US
President Bill Clinton who is visiting South Africa, has left hundreds of
thousands homeless.
After South Africa's intervention, Mr Mugabe's
government announced at the weekend that the demolition campaign was being
temporarily stopped. But analysts said Mr Mbeki should make more demands
before considering any help.
The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) said Mr Mbeki should demand that Mr Mugabe restore the rule of
law and engage the opposition and civic society for a settlement of the
political crisis before considering help to Zimbabwe.
MDC spokesman
Paul Themba Nyathi said Mr Mbeki should address the real causes of the
crisis in Zimbabwe instead of its symptoms.
South Africa's main
opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has vowed to resist attempts to
use South African taxpayers' money to bail out a "rogue regime" unless
strict conditions were put forward.
Mr Mbeki's cabinet confirmed the
bail-out request from Mr Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean government also confirmed
it needed help. President Mugabe leaves for China on Saturday to beg for
more loans.
Pressure is mounting on Thabo Mbeki, the South African
President, to demand comprehensive economic and political changes in
Zimbabwe before granting Robert Mugabe's request for $1bnto buy fuel and
food.
A desperate Mr Mugabe dispatched Gideon Gono, the governor of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,with a begging bowl to South Africa at the weekend
as the embattled southern African country faced total collapse.
No
fuel imports have been made into Zimbabwe in the past three weeks due to a
severe foreign currency crisis. Power cuts are frequent, forcing companies
to scale down operations. This has in turn worsened a dire food situation
with supermarket shelves now empty of basic foodstuffs, and at least four
million Zimbabweans in need of food aid.
With the Mugabe regime
having completely destroyed the tobacco export sector through the violent
eviction of more than 4,000 white farmers, and with virtually no prospects
of foreign currency trickling in after the IMF and World Bank rejected Mr
Gono's pleas for new loans, the country desperately needs foreign help to
avert collapse.
Analysts said Mr Mugabe's plea for help from South Africa
provided Mr Mbeki with the best-ever opportunity to demand a package of
reforms.
South Africa has already set some conditions, including a demand
that a demolition blitz of informal settlements in opposition strongholds be
stopped. The blitz, which has earned the ire of many including former US
President Bill Clinton who is visiting South Africa, has left hundreds of
thousands homeless.
After South Africa's intervention, Mr Mugabe's
government announced at the weekend that the demolition campaign was being
temporarily stopped. But analysts said Mr Mbeki should make more demands
before considering any help.
The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) said Mr Mbeki should demand that Mr Mugabe restore the rule of
law and engage the opposition and civic society for a settlement of the
political crisis before considering help to Zimbabwe.
MDC spokesman
Paul Themba Nyathi said Mr Mbeki should address the real causes of the
crisis in Zimbabwe instead of its symptoms.
South Africa's main
opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has vowed to resist attempts to
use South African taxpayers' money to bail out a "rogue regime" unless
strict conditions were put forward.
Mr Mbeki's cabinet confirmed the
bail-out request from Mr Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean government also confirmed
it needed help. President Mugabe leaves for China on Saturday to beg for
more loans.
By Paul
Nyakazeya THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says it is disheartened by
the continued shortage of basic commodities and exorbitant prices at which
goods are being sold and would ensure appropriate action is taken to anyone
found on the "wrong side of the law".
In a report on the shortage of
basic commodities, the consumer watchdog said the supply of bread, flour,
cooking oil, toothpaste, bath and washing soaps, milk and mealie-meal had
remained intermittent in the last six months.
CCZ said manufacturers of
basic commodities interviewed attributed the current shortages mainly to
foreign currency constraints and viability problems, "which has seen the
majority of them working below 50 percent, and therefore failing to meet the
demand for goods".
"Despite the recent review of basic commodity prices,
their supply remains irregular. Last month all brands of locally produced
laundry and bath soap joined the long list of shortages, opening the
floodgates for imported products," CCZ said in the report.
The
Consumer Council said it observed that many producers were increasingly
evading controlled products by making sure they supplied the market with
expensive substitutes, which probably gave them better returns.
"This
is being witnessed in the bread, mealie-meal and flour industries where
producers now make more expensive bread and fancy cakes at the expense of
ordinary bread and super refined mealie-meal instead of roller meal. In the
flour industry, cake flour is more available than plain flour.
"As CCZ we
do not understand the rationale behind all this.
"Why not just make
enough of what everybody eats. Strategies must be put in place to make sure
that production scales are tilted in favour of the majority of people," said
CCZ.
The consumer watchdog said from the survey, it appeared producers
were not happy with the prices of goods they were charging particularly
those producing controlled products, which partly explained the
shortages.
"Our observations are that for controlled commodities, when
they are available many retailers are not charging the gazetted prices with
the exception of some major retailers.
"This is cause for great
concern. But our main concern would probably be on monitoring goods, while
the CCZ appreciates that these are not controlled products, it is perturbed
by industry's resolve to increase prices without any form of consultation
and notification to consumers," CCZ said.
Proposals for further increases
were said to be before the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade.
The only agreement to increase price guidelines was made in May
when some price guidelines were agreed to. The report said no one had really
observed the agreement and continued to charge "unjustified
prices".
"Producers and retailers are just charging prices as they deem
fit. If you confront some of them over incessant increase they argue that it
is because their suppliers had increased prices. This means that business is
dialoguing in bad faith.
"Shareholders are not being truthful to each
other, and for as long the situation remains like that, the economic
turnaround will be a mirage, because people are not genuinely supporting
it," the report said.
Furthermore, CCZ said it was worried about the
shortage of foreign currency, questioning how retailers were managing to
stock their shops with imported products.
"CCZ is not against
international trade, it encourages intra-country trade because this promotes
competitiveness and choice for consumers, but something is wrong somewhere
and needs to be checked," the report said.
By Jeffrey
Gogo STOCK prices have been running unchecked on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
during the last two weeks, as investors deserted en masse from the money
market, particularly in the face of rising year-on-year
inflation.
While rates on short-term deposits have been firming as a
result of the central bank's recent decision to raise accommodation rates,
returns on the money market have continued to lag behind annual inflation
presently running at 164 percent as at the end of June.
Equities have
of late been running strongly, driven by expectations of higher inflation.
The mismatch between the money market rates and the inflation rate has
remained high, driving investors back to the equities market or other
investment vehicles.
This flies in the face of the Reserve Bank policy on
interest rates, which was designed to dampen the churning of huge
unproductive funds on the equities market. Increased buying pressure on the
market in the last fortnight saw the key industrial index breaching the
three million mark to reach new four-week highs at 3 195 691,00 points on
Monday this week.
The index put on 27 094,81 points on the day after
having surged a weighty 13 percent from the previous week's opening figures
of 2 801 146,19 points.
In Monday's trade, the index was spurred by gains
in Natfoods up $600 to $6 400, ZSR rose $105 to end at $805 while tobacco
processor TSL and Old Mutual added $100 apiece to close at $650 and $46 000
respectively. On the downside were Econet, which lost $200 to $18 300 whilst
most counters traded unchanged.
On a week-on week basis the major
gain in last week's trade was clothing retailer Edgars, which went up 54
percent to close at $3 700 followed by Interfresh, up 50 percent to $165.
Other counters to record reasonable gains were heavyweights Old Mutual,
Barclays and Econet.
The main loser for the week was Kingdom, down 10
percent to close at $540 and Gulliver which lost 10 percent to
$450.
Minings have also maintained a bullish pattern driven by persistent
gains in rejuvenated Hwange and gold producer Rio Tinto.
The index
put on 44 175,30 points on Monday to end at 570 815,33, just shy of record
highs of slightly above 600 000 achieved earlier in the year.
Financial
analysts believe there is still value in the market and predict the bull run
will persist into the foreseeable future, particularly for as long as the
money market returns continue to lag behind inflation.
"Investors are
also taking positions ahead of the reporting season that starts in early
August," commented a Harare analyst.
"Whether the current rally is
sustainable remains to be seen. We are of the view that investors should
take positions in counters that are cash-rich and have well-structured
balance sheets."
The agreement to include Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park in the Great
Limpopo Transfrontier Park may result in the end of the Kruger National Park
as a sought-after international tourist destination.
It is a fact
that Gonarezhou has been invaded by thousands of homeless, starving
Zimbabweans who are now permanently residing there and resorting to
slaughtering wildlife for their survival.
The situation is now out
of control and reversing it will prove a mammoth task. Professional poachers
are also now taking advantage of the situation and killing endangered and
rare species. As a result, tourists to Gonarezhou are a thing of the
past.
Unfortunately, with the Transfrontier agreement in place,
this situation has the very real potential to spill over into the park,
resulting in a massive increase in poaching.
Another concern
for Kruger is what is due to happen with the Massingir Dam in Mozambique
(see July edition of Getaway Magazine). The dam, on the Olifants River, is
set to have its wall raised, which will result in the drowning of the
Olifants Gorge withi Kruger.
It is almost a certainty that the
gorge as we know it, which sustains its own unique ecosystem, will also
disappear as a result. The public has still to be advised as to whether an
environmental impact study has been conducted and, if so, what the findings
are.
Due to the lack of meaningful feedback from the
departments of environmental affairs and tourism and water and forestry
regarding Gonarezhou and Massingir, one can only presume that these issues
are being given very little attention.
The departments do not
make themselves available to answer concerns raised, nor do they seem
prepared or willing to confront our neighbouring countries on these two
issues.
Apart from the usual lip service granted to such issues,
the departments come across as dismissive of the concerns raised and inept
in their approach when dealing with these problems.
The Kruger
Park is under serious threat and our inability to deal with the problems it
faces could prove a disaster for wildlife protection in the southern African
region. The time for talking is over and meaningful action now needs to be
taken by those in positions of power. Mark Hackney Cape
Town
It has taken what seems like an inordinate amount of
time, but it appears the South African government is finally preparing to
take a stand against the human rights atrocities being committed in
Zimbabwe.
We would like to believe President Thabo Mbeki is
following the lead of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has
voiced his "increasing concern" over Zimbabwe's so-called clean-up campaign,
Operation Murambatsvina.
Earlier this week Annan's spokesman,
Marie Okabe, said Annan was preparing a plan for UN action, following which
special UN envoy Joaquim Chissano said he had been asked to intervene in the
crisis.
There has also been strong condemnation from the European
Union for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's actions and calls for the
African Union to respond.
"There was strong and widespread
condemnation of President Mugabe's policy of demolition and clearances,"
said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the EU
presidency. "We called on the African Union to use its influence to bring an
end to the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe."
While
there has still been no official response from Mbeki's office as to what
steps South Africa is planning to take, chief government spokesman Joel
Netshitenzhe told The Mercury on Monday that "there has been intensive
interaction with the Zimbabwean government over the last few
days".
Some of the "interaction" is believed to have included a
meeting between SA and Zimbabwe reserve bank governors on Friday, which
could see SA providing its controversial neighbour with a loan in return for
political and economic reforms.
The talk of a $1 billion loan
follows a visit by SA Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Zimbabwe's
capital, Harare, last week, and a planned visit to SA later this week by
Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi.
While the
increasingly precarious state of Zimbabwe's economy is obviously high on the
agenda, the world's outrage at Mugabe's campaign to destroy informal shacks
and hawkers' kiosks in the cities has to be a top priority.
As
a respected role player in Africa's rejuvenation, Mbeki can no longer sit on
the fence while Zimbabwe quite literally burns.