UN News Centre
Zimbabwe receives UN-HABITAT officer to advise government
on resettlement
25 July 2005 - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said
today that in a discussion
with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe he
stressed that the southern
African country's housing and market evictions
must be stopped and those
made homeless, estimated in a UN report at
700,000, must be adequately
housed.
Mr. Annan told journalists that
in a telephone conversation with Mr. Mugabe
on Friday, after the report was
made public, he "stressed the need for
action to be taken to help the people
affected, to stop the clearances and
to ensure that those affected are not
only looked after but they are given
adequate housing."
"We, the
international community, would want to muster the aid necessary to
help the
people (and) to work with the government in changing the
situation," he
added.
Mr. Annan said all 191 Member States had been given a copy of the
report and
it was up to the 15-member Security Council to decide on the next
steps.
The report on Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order) was written
by UN
Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Executive Director Anna
Tibaijuka
and her entourage after two weeks of criss-crossing the southern
African
country.
In it she said the demolitions were "carried out in
an indiscriminate and
unjustified manner, with indifference to human
suffering" and, beyond those
who had lost homes and businesses, indirectly
affected another 2.4 million
people.
UN Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric
said Ms. Tibaijuka had added a UN-HABITAT
officer to the UN country team in
Zimbabwe to help advise the Government on
the technical aspects of
resettlement.
Evictions continue despite international condemnation
[ This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 25
Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Ignoring a call by the United Nations to halt
evictions of
people living in unauthorised housing, Zimbabwean police on
Friday ordered
residents out of Porta Farm, one of Harare's oldest informal
settlements,
about 35 km west of the capital.
Since the launch of Operation
Murambatsvina ('Clean Out Garbage') in
mid-May, the UN estimates that
700,000 people have been made homeless or
lost livelihoods as a result of
the blitz on the informal homes and
unlicensed vending of the largely urban
poor.
A report by UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka after a
two-week
fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe recommended that the evictions,
"carried
out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference
to human
suffering", be stopped.
"The government of Zimbabwe should
immediately halt any further demolitions
of homes and informal businesses
and create conditions for sustainable
relief and reconstruction for those
affected," read the report, presented
last week to UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan.
The latest police operation at Porta Farm was the second time in a
month
they had tried to clear the 7,500 settlers from the area. At the first
attempt in June, homes and markets were demolished to force people to return
to their rural areas, or to a holding camp at Caledonia Farm, 15 km north of
Harare, but many of the residents refused to move.
Aid workers said
on Monday that the police were determined to clear the
remaining people.
Residents were being grouped according to place of origin
in preparation for
their transport out.
The evictions, part of a drive to "clean up" the
cities, have been carried
out despite the Porta Farm community having won a
high court order last year
allowing them to stay.
When IRIN visited
the settlement on Sunday, around 70 policemen were
monitoring the removal of
the residents, who are among the poorest and most
disadvantaged in
Harare.
"We have been camping here since Friday, and we will only go when
all the
people have been removed. This time our bosses have instructed us
not to use
force on the settlers," said a police officer - a reference to
the death of
11 people when police used teargas in a bid to evict residents
in September
last year.
In one corner of the camp, reduced to rubble
and heaps of household goods,
five young men defiantly beat a drum and
danced to an improvised song vowing
not to move. Elsewhere, people were
packing their belongings into trucks
provided by the army and Harare
municipality.
"I returned from Caledonia Farm two weeks ago because that
place was like a
prison for me and my three children," said Tabita Mugomba,
a 38-year-old
widow.
When the home she had lived in for 10 years was
demolished in June, she went
to Caledonia but left most of her belongings at
Porta.
"Besides, I had to fend for my children, who have since stopped
going to
school. Here at Porta Farm I had been surviving by selling fish to
motorists," said Mugomba, holding the hand of her thin seven-year-old
boy.
Mugomba said she would try and move in with her brother and his
family in
Harare's working-class suburb of Mbare but was unsure about how
well she
would be received, as she had been out of touch with him for some
time.
Porta Farm dates back to 1991, when the government moved thousands
of people
from unauthorised settlements in Harare; because it was supposed
to be
temporary, basic amenities like water, schools and health services
were
never provided.
Tibaijuka's report said Operation Murambatsvina
has indirectly affected 2.4
million people, and the humanitarian
consequences "are enormous".
"It will take several years before the
people and society as a whole can
recover. There is an immediate need for
the government of Zimbabwe to
recognise the virtual state of emergency that
has resulted, and to allow
unhindered access by the international and
humanitarian community to assist
those that have been affected," the report
noted.
The government has dismissed the UN's findings as biased. Local
Government
Minister Ignatius Chombo told IRIN that the people had been
evicted from
illegal settlements, "and I don't think the UN can sanction
illegality".
He stressed that the government's new corrective programme,
Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle ('Stay well'), would develop housing at an
estimated
cost of US $300 million. "Our people are much happier because the
government
is giving them land, they are getting stands, and are getting
government
assistance," Chombo insisted.
On Monday only five families
out of the original 4,500 people remained in
Caledonia Farm after the
authorities moved to close the transit camp at the
end of last week. The
government said that those without accommodation in
urban areas and who were
unemployed would be relocated to their rural homes
where chiefs were asked
to give them land and farming inputs.
Critics have questioned the ability
of the cash-strapped government to
afford the housing programme's price tag,
and pointed to the immediate needs
of the people - especially the young,
sick and elderly - displaced by
Operation Murambatsvina.
"The
government is acting irrationally and hypocritically, because it is
causing
further suffering to the very people it says it is providing
accommodation
to," said Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change.
Impact of demolitions greater than government's new plan
[ This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE,
25 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Although Zimbabweans are yet to tally the cost
of the
government's controversial cleanup campaign, there are already
expectations
that the financial losses will be significant.
A two-month demolition
campaign targeting "illegal structures" - mostly
informal homes and markets
in urban areas - has left around 700,000 people
without shelter, while the
UN estimates that the forced evictions have
affected up to 2.4 million
people to varying degrees.
A joint report released on Friday by the
Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA) and Action Aid, an
international development NGO, said
although it was difficult to quantify
the damage caused by the operation in
monetary terms, a recent survey
indicated major losses across a broad front,
ranging from shelter to
schooling.
Interviews were conducted among 81,955 residents over two days
in 26
high-density suburbs of the capital, Harare, that were affected by the
operation.
The report noted that 76 percent of respondents cited the
loss of shelter
and income as a direct consequence of the government's
eviction campaign,
while disruption in schooling had caused attendance to
drop by 22 percent
among children whose parents were
affected.
Families hosting orphans expressed very little hope of their
charges
continuing their education in the near future, due to lack of
income. Nearly
60 percent of 14,137 households sampled had become food
insecure, further
exacerbating the plight of the most vulnerable.
The
report argued that greater detail on the impact of the operation was
needed
for relief assistance to be effective.
"Lack of information is affecting
response programme planning,
implementation and inability to ascertain the
effectiveness of relief
efforts," the report observed. There was concern
that current assistance was
biased towards those with access to relief
assistance in holding camps or
sheltering in churches, leaving the most
vulnerable members of the affected
population to fend for
themselves.
"The bulk of those affected by this operation are invisible
and have had to
resort to various coping mechanisms. Those without shelter
have had to find
support from relatives who are already living in congested
accommodation.
Many of those who lost their livelihoods depend on
well-wishers for cash or
other entitlements, since most don't have any money
at all to buy food,"
David Mwaniki, humanitarian programme manager for
Action Aid in Zimbabwe,
told IRIN.
A number of families linked
deterioration of their health to the forced
evictions, but "in-depth
surveillance" was necessary to determine the impact
of the upheavals on
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts.
"The preventative process has
been disrupted, especially since informal
traders were a primary source for
condoms and other important anti-AIDs
awareness messages. The consequences
of this action, including the
disruption of the ART [antiretroviral therapy]
programme are likely to be
felt in the future," Mwaniki noted.
He
stressed that although the joint survey had produced an overview of the
current challenges, sector-specific research was necessary if the
humanitarian community was to provide tangible assistance to those needing
it. He also called for further interrogation of a government plan to
accommodate people affected by the cleanup.
At the end of June the
government announced the end of Operation
Murambatsvina ('Drive Out Filth')
and the launch of the Zim $3 trillion (US
$300 million) Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle ('Stay well').
Mwaniki commented: "It is important
that humanitarian actors ask some hard
questions about whether the proposed
plan will actually be adequate to
address all the needs of those
affected."
Zim Online
Annan keen to visit Zimbabwe
Tue 26 July 2005
HARARE - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is keen to visit
crisis-hit Zimbabwe possibly by September this year, the UN co-ordinator in
Harare said on Monday.
United Nations Development Programme
resident representative and
co-ordinator of the world body in Zimbabwe,
Agostinho Zacarias, told
journalists that Annan who last week released a
damming report against
Harare controversial urban clean-up campaign could
visit the southern
African nation before the Millennium Summit scheduled for
September.
"The Secretary General has shown interest in visiting
Zimbabwe to
discuss the way forward ..there are no firm dates as yet but
there are
suggestions for him to come before the Millennium Summit due in
September,"
said Zacarias.
Annan last week Friday released a
hard-hitting report by his special
envoy, Anna Tibaijuka, that castigated
President Robert Mugabe's clean-up
exercise as a "disastrous venture" that
had left 700 000 people without
homes or jobs and also blatantly violated
international law.
The report said another 2.4 million
people had also been affected by
the clean-up operation which it said had
sparked off a fresh humanitarian
crisis in a country already grappling
severe food shortages and HIV/AIDS.
Annan fully backed the report
calling on Mugabe and his government to
halt the demolition of city backyard
cottages and shantytowns and to bring
to book government officials behind
the clean-up exercise.
But the Zimbabwe government immediately
rejected the UN report as
biased, hostile and influenced by Britain and
other Western governments
opposed to Harare. Mugabe later challenged Annan,
when the UN chief phoned
him, to visit Zimbabwe and assess the situation on
the ground for himself.
Western diplomats at the UN, who have
unsuccessfully battled in the
past to bring the home demolition campaign and
Zimbabwe's wider humanitarian
crisis before the UN Security Council, are
expected to use the report to
introduce debate on the southern African
nation.
UN experts say such a development could see the world
organisation
taking a more direct and tougher approach to help resolve
Zimbabwe's crisis.
Harare has defended its clean-up operation as
vital to smash crime and
a thriving but illegal black-market for foreign
currency and basic
commodities in short supply in Zimbabwe.
Zacarias yesterday said the UN was concerned about continuing
displacements
of people in some parts of Zimbabwe saying this could hamper
relief
efforts.
He said: "It's difficult to assist a moving target, we can
only be
effective if the situation is static ..we have also received reports
of
displacements in Chipinge but the information still needs to be verified.
If
people continue to move it becomes difficult to assess."
Zacarias also said representatives from UN-Habitat had met with
Zimbabwe
government officials on Monday to discuss the way forward based on
the
recommendations contained in the UN report. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tsvangirai says MDC to engage consultant
Tue 26 July
2005
HARARE -Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC) party faces a tough existential challenge - how to re-mobilise
in the
face of growing frustration among its rank and file that the party is
failing/has failed to win power through democratic means.
Amid
reports of silent but vicious struggles among top leaders for
control of the
party, some are already writing off the party and calling for
a Third Force
to push for democratic change. ZimOnline at the weekend spoke
to MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai to gauge the mood within the party and to
find out what
new strategies the party proposes going forward. Excerpts:
QUESTION: The talk among opponents and sympathisers of the MDC alike
is that
all is not well within the party, that there is infighting between
yourself
and some senior leaders of the party: can you explain what exactly
is going
on?
ANSWER: You are aware of the disturbances that took place at
Harvest
House (MDC headquarters) about two months ago, when disgruntled
party youths
went on the rampage intimidating officials. Of course, we took
these
disturbances seriously. We investigated the matter and took
action.
We expelled certain youths and sanctioned certain members.
These
measures were necessary because we want to emphasise that the party
will not
subscribe to violence. To us as the leadership of the party,
violence is not
a means to solve grievances.
Q. But why this
unruliness in the first place? Why should the youths
be so indisciplined as
to commit violence on fellow party members?
A. You see, for the
past five years the party has not be able to
address certain issues posed by
ZANU PF. The electoral route has been
fraught with difficulties, not that we
have failed to fight in elections.
You know the elections have been
rigged all the time we are in the
race so our people, especially our youths,
the majority of whom are not
employed, have been frustrated. This
frustration has been building up each
time ZANU PF has added more stumbling
blocks in our way.
The violence is the manifestation of the failure
to achieve the goal
that we set out for ourselves at our formation about
five years ago - to
bring change in government. And of course some of the
youths have been
infiltrated by the enemy hence these
disturbances.
Q. So how do you intend to address these issues you
mention, the
growing frustration among party members and also at the same
time keep the
pressure on the ruling ZANU party and the
government?
A. It is clear that we now have to adjust, adopt new
strategies to
face the new challenges that have emerged in the past years we
have been
trying to wrestle power from ZANU PF through the electoral route.
At our
formation we employed tactics that we thought would work but all
these (old
tactics) have failed to deliver change.
We now need
to look at all the old strategies, review them and those
that are felt to be
outdated in the face of new challenges need to be
discarded and new methods
employed. We are re-invigorating the party and
restructuring it - the party
needs to go back to resistance mood.
Q. By resistance mood do you
mean resorting to the public protests,
mass job boycotts that you employed
before?
A. I think some of these are exhausted strategies. These
are the
things we need to revise and we are doing that. Some consultant has
been
hired to look at the whole structure of the party and advise on new
strategies to engage ZANU PF. This is one of the major challenges facing us,
how to renew ourselves in the face of the new challenges.
It is
no longer about winning power through the electoral route, we
have gone that
route before. The MDC leadership must now realise that we
need to be
relevant to the expectations of the people. The government has
continuously
failed them, a case in point is this Operation Murambatsvina, a
demobilisation strategy designed to divert the attention of the people away
from the real problems affecting the country.
Q. But many
observers say you have actually failed to take advantage
of the government's
urban clean-up campaign to mobilise people around your
cause?
A. The MDC has been in the forefront of alerting the international
community
of the humanitarian crisis. This international pressure is due to
us. We
have been very vocal hence the visit by the United Nations special
envoy.
Q. Back to your new strategies and leadership renewal,
who is losing
what post, what does this entail?
A. The
consultant will make a determination; we will read and debate
the report.
Certainly if the report says we should drop some things that we
have doing
in the past, then these will be dropped and new strategies
adopted. We are
talking about adopting new challenges to take us forward.
Some people
(office holders) will be affected at Harvest House, for
instance.
Q. What do you say to suggestions that this renewal
exercise is in
fact a purge by you of people you feel might be a threat to
your position as
party leader?
A. I am not under threat from
anyone. I am no dictator, I see myself
as a benevolent democrat. The things
you are raising are emerging because of
the changes taking place to
rejuvenate the party.
Changes in any organisation of the magnitude
of our party are bound to
cause uncertainty. People are afraid of change and
they come with these
theories. We are talking about a new political culture
in the MDC. There has
to be discipline, speaking with one voice and
collective responsibility.
Those that might fall by the wayside in the
restructuring will be recognised
because we know all those that have worked
tirelessly for the party since
its formation in 1999. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Asset firm shut down amid claims of stability in financial
sector
Tue 26 July 2005
HARARE - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) closed a Harare asset
management firm, hours after the central bank's
chief, Gideon Gono, assured
the public last Thursday that the troubled
financial sector was now "safe
and sound."
In his mid-term
monetary police review statement, Gono sought to calm
fears over the state
of the financial services sector declaring it
"generally safe and sound,
adequately capitalised, and profitable over the
half year ended 30 June
2005".
The banking and financial services sector has remained shaky
after
more than 20 banks and other financial services firms were either
closed or
placed under RBZ curatorship because of mismanagement or theft of
depositors'
funds. Several banking executives have been charged while others
fled the
country fearing arrest.
Closing down Guardian Asset
Management firm, RBZ officials said they
were doing so "following a
determination that the institution is conducting
non-permissible activities,
is financially unsound and is not operating in
accordance with sound
administrative and accounting practices and
procedures."
Gono
could not be reached for comment on the apparent contradiction
between his
statement of confidence on the financial sector and the closure
of yet
another assets management firm because it was among other things
financially
unsound.
Fragility in the key financial services sector aptly
reflects the
uncertain and precarious state of Zimbabwe's crisis-ripped
economy as acute
fuel and foreign currency shortages threaten to bring
commerce and industry
to a complete halt. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Harare says to focus on controversial NGO Bill soon
Tue 26
July 2005
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government will enact new and
tougher
legislation to govern the operations of non-governmental
organisations
(NGOs) once it has finished passing into law a proposed
constitutional
amendment Bill that it considers more urgent, Justice
Minister Patrick
Chinamasa told ZimOnline.
The controversial
NGO Bill, that among other severe restrictions
proposes banning NGOs from
carrying out voter education or receiving foreign
funding for humanitarian
and governance related work, was passed by
Parliament after fierce
resistance from the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party.
But the Bill must return to the House after Mugabe refused
to sign it
into effective law. Mugabe did not give reasons for declining to
sign the
law that civic society leaders say could have seen more than half
of NGOs
operating in the country closing down.
Widespread
speculation was that Mugabe might have refrained from
signing the law
because he did not want to see NGOs closing down en masse at
a time Zimbabwe
is grappling its worst ever economic and social crisis.
Chinamasa
said the dreaded NGO Bill, that also seeks to establish a
state-appointed
commission to monitor activities of civic bodies, would
become law once the
government was done with other more "urgent Bills"
before it.
"We have not even started looking at the Bill which the President
refused to
sign," said Chinamasa. "At the moment we have a number of Bills
to pass
urgently before we start looking at the NGO Bill," he added.
The
government wants the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill
urgently passed
into law to create a new House of Senate that Mugabe
publicly said before
last March's disputed election that he would use to
reward disgruntled
lieutenants in his ruling ZANU PF party by appointing
them into the second
chamber.
National Association of NGOs executive director Jonah
Mudewe said
civic society groups had not been specifically approached for
their views on
whatever additions or subtractions Mugabe wants on the NGO
Bill. But he said
the NGOs were anxiously hoping the revised draft
legislation will be "a more
tolerable Bill."
Critics of the NGO
Bill have said it will be used to silence civic
groups perceived to be
anti-government in the same way Mugabe and his
government have used harsh
Press laws to close down four independent
newspapers. -
ZimOnline
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 4:35 AM
Subject: Mayor Kagurabadza suspension retribution for showing
Tibaijuka the truth
Mayor Kagurabadza suspension retribution for
showing Tibaijuka the truth
The suspension of Mutare Executive Mayor
Misheck Kagurabadza and three officials is glaring retribution for his failure
to follow instructions by ZanuPF governor Tinayi Chigudu during UN Special Envoy
Anna Tibaijuka's visit to Mutare. The story of financial indiscipline by
proceeding with the purchase of vehicles when he had been instructed not to do
so is a mere red herring. Mutare Municipality officials have a contractual
right to the municipal vehicle loan scheme which they had not been able to
access for some 10 years, forced instead to take commercial bank loans at
punitive interest rates.
The regime had in fact instructed Mayor
Kagurabadza to delay the arrival of Mrs Tibaijuka and her team at the Oval until
they could clean the place up. This clean-up, like the rest of Operation
Murambatsvina, was not about getting rid of the empty coke tins and other
litter, but forcibly removing the people camped there so that she would not see
them. There were many families living in squalid conditions at the Oval,
because they had been evicted and their homes destroyed during the vicious
operation. It would be an embarrassment to the regime if she saw them, even
moreso if she got the opportunity to speak with them to hear their side of the
story.
Mayor Kagurabadza, however, knew that, as the
elected representative of all the people in Mutare including those evicted
families, he had a duty to allow them to speak to the envoy, so that she saw and
heard the truth. It is to his eternal credit that he stood firm as a
champion of democracy and social justice in solidarity with the
people.
It is the governor of Manicaland who should be
suspended, for trying to stage-manage Mrs Tibaijuka's visit to Mutare. Indeed,
Ignatius Chombo should be dismissed for flouting regulations and financial
indiscipline, not Kagurabadza. He is guilty of arrogant misuse of his office by
spearheading Operation Murambatsvina, thereby causing the suffering and ruin of
over a million people and burdening the fiscus with enormous unbudgeted
expenditure at this time of economic crisis. If he had any sense of honour,
Chombo would resign - along with the rest of the so-called Development
Cabinet.
Trudy Stevenson MP
Parliamentary
Spokesperson for Local Government and Housing - MDC
Dear Compatriot,
I have listened to the moaning and groaning as well as
the criticism for a
long time. There has been little or no
encouragement.
A generation is to follow and we must take responsibility
for our actions or
inactions when confronting issues that affect us. That
next generation will
judge us as custodians of their history and by the
nation we leave behind
for them.
This is a battle and in battle there
are winners and losers. We must chose
what we are to be as individuals.
Yes, there is security in numbers and
there is leadership as there are
organisations in the forefront but,
individuals must draw their own battle
lines and fight! In the struggle of
Zimbabwe today, a hostile and
illegitimate Government, funded by you, the
taxpayer, is throwing everything
at you, every resource of the state is
pitted against you, to convince you
to concede just as Hitler's Germany
attempted to subdue the British in
1941. ZPF know that they cannot win a
fight where you and the people
believe in winning. Already they behave and
act like losers and fear is
their one and only remaining weapon.
We have to ask ourselves again, are
we going to be the losers or the winners
? Are you going to make their task
easier by handing them victory on a
plate?
This is not about bullets
and guns but about who believes in victory the
most. Who is the stronger
and not the weaker. There can only be that one
winner and we must ensure,
at any cost, that that will be us. To lose, would
dishonour those that have
suffered so much.
This struggle is going to be in the history books one
day, not too far from
now, and is certainly the most notable of the 21st
century thus far. Will
our generation be able to look our children in the
eye one day in the future
and be able to say "we did our best"?
This
battle is not about forex, inflation, the cost of living, but about a
whole
Nation besieged by an unlawful authority. All Zimbabweans are
victims, bar
the ruling elite, and it is up to us to draw the line in the
sand together,
for everyone's sake and fight and not give up!
To finish, one of the best
antidotes for depression and despondency, is to
place that wasted energy at
the front line, in which ever way you can, to
confront the enemy. Join now,
the brigade of unpaid volunteers who believe
in that victory and WILL
win!
How quickly that victory comes, depends on how many compatriots,
like you,
who find the courage to stand shoulder to shoulder with
them.
Simon
The Beginning of the End
By
Philemon
Matibe
(Exiled Zimbabwean, USA)
Chinokanganwa idemo!! .
The axe forgets: The tree remembers.
Which buffoon ordered
Operation Murambatsvina? This time this is one
operation to far, mazorova
shumba nembama!!! It is now time to fight back.
I am pregnant
with anger and stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for
the freedom of
Zimbabwe, may all those who believe in democracy please stand
with me as we
confront a despotic dictator and his sycophantic cronies.
Forgive
me if this letter becomes a personal attack, but being Zimbabwean is
personal, it defines who and what I am, and how I am perceived. However I
recognize that by personalizing the various issues affecting Zimbabweans I
risk diminishing the importance and the suffering being endured by my
countrymen under the various spurious government sanctioned operations i.e.
Murambatsvina amongst others.
Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and
Zimbabwe is not Mugabe. However the imminent
economic meltdown rests
squarely on his shoulders. Mugabe has governed our
economy as if he were
operating a rural bottle store, and the results are
evident.
The current constitution is clear on the parameters
for the resignation of
the president. Subsection 26 of Act 31 of 1989
reads;
3) The President shall cease to hold office if a report prepared
by a
committee of Parliament, appointed by the Speaker upon the request of
not
fewer than one-third of the members of Parliament, has recommended the
removal of the President on the ground :-
a) that he has acted in a
willful violation of this constitution; or
b) that he is incapable of
performing the functions of his office for
reasons of physical or mental
incapacity; or
c) of gross misconduct
Mugabe
should be removed from office immediately based on the above
criteria. Only
a mad man can order and preside over the destruction of
homes, property and
cause so much suffering then declare it necessary. Why
didn't his regime
build houses first and then demolish illegal structures
later? Where was the
regime when all these structures we being built to
begin
with?
The exercise to remove Robert Mugabe requires one third of
the members of
parliament to recommend his dismissal. I urge every
constituent to lobby
their member of parliament for such a vote. Any MP who
that does not support
such a vote is complicit to the human rights
violations perpetrated by the
regime and shall therefore be held
accountable.
The illegitimate government of Zimbabwe represented
by ZANU (PF), Robert
Mugabe, his ministers, MP's and all ZANU (PF) members,
councilors and
partisan judges are all servants of the people, whose
function is to serve
under the guidance of the constitution of Zimbabwe.
Under the current
constitution all Zimbabwean citizens are guaranteed
shelter, education,
health and food.
The government has
systematically taken these rights away under the guise of
patriotism,
economic reform, land reform and a whole litany of other
ideological dogma.
There is no Zimbabwean dead or alive who has not been
cheated of their
rights to civil liberties by this very unproductive regime.
Who
are the politicians who authorized and issued instruction for operation
Murambatsvina? All Zimbabweans have been directly affected to varying
degrees, the recurring images of bulldozers tearing down homes during one of
the worst winter seasons has resulted in some level of trauma. Who's
bulldozer's where they? Who were the drivers of the bulldozers? If we assume
that operation Murambatsvina was at all legal, were any of the multiple
homes belonging to members of the Zanu (PF) Politburo, Central Committee or
any one of the ministers' homes demolished?
Every government
agent, Zanu PF functionary and state representative who
receives and obeys
an unlawful instruction and willfully carries it out
shall be held
accountable for their actions and are guilty of crimes against
humanity.
Such actions are not "just part of the job". Rhetoric such as "I
was just
following orders" will not be tolerated anymore.
My fellow army
officers, all commands to members of the uniformed forces
follow a written
procedure. All sources of command signals are known and
recorded, remember
it is a court marshal offence to issue an unlawful
military command, you
shall be answerable for your actions at some point the
future. Please note
this includes the infamous green bombers as they now
from part of the
military commend structure.
Fellow Zimbabweans for every time you
or your property is abused by a
government agent, at the very least, please
keep a journal of events i.e.
place, time and name. Record the license plate
numbers of their vehicles,
look the agents in the eye and have their faces
etched in your memories.
Your day for justice will come soon. Our property
rights are protected under
the United Nations charter of which Zimbabwe is a
signatory. I propose that
information on the ongoing demolitions be
collected and submitted to the
United Nations, the African Union and
International Court of Justice.
No one should ever be absolved
for these atrocities, each and every person
involved from the top of the
command structure to the foot soldier have to
be punished. Zimbabweans needs
to set the example for the rest of Africa.
The Mugabe regime hides behind
the claim of sovereignty amid international
criticism and declares this as a
cleaning up exercise to weed out criminals.
When a leopard wants
to eat its young it first accuses them of smelling like
goats.
Zimbabwe's sovereignty is respected by the world
community only when it
upholds international human right norms. What has
occurred now is tantamount
to state sponsored terrorism. Zimbabwe is now
embroiled in a low intensity
conflict with a government that is agitating
for war against the citizenry.
As a sign of protest I urge all
Zimbabweans at home and abroad to
participate in a prolonged civil
disobedience campaign. Let us forge a
united front and confront the regime.
We can all play a meaningful role in
this struggle for a better
Zimbabwe.
Why do Zimbabweans continue to queue in an orderly
fashion for commodities
that have been made scarce by the government's
economic mismanagement? You
now have been given your first ammunition in the
war against this
dictatorship. The bricks from the rubble of your homes
should now be the
first salvo in our civil disobedience campaign. Use these
bricks as a sign
of protest, place them in inconvenient locations, throw
them at ZANU PF
structures, houses belonging to government agents and
officials, businesses
belonging to supporters of the regime, and let the
results of this
destruction be your voice.
Our rich history
reminds us of our resilience and ability to enforce change.
We collectively
removed colonial rule through active participation in the
liberation
struggle. No one has a franchise for liberating Zimbabwe, don't
be fooled,
we liberated ourselves each contributing whichever way they
could.
Not everyone is a soldier, during the war of
liberation some helped with
logistics, and others provided intelligence,
shelter and food -Gandanga
haridye derere. Those abroad at the time provided
international awareness to
the struggle by holding demonstrations,
collecting clothes, funds and
medicines which were essential for the war
effort. Yes there are those who
spent a lot of time in prison case and point
Robert Mugabe, etc for how long
will we remain indebted to them? Who then is
indebted to us the citizens?
Our liberation from the yokes of colonialism
was not a personal struggle.
Diaspora Zimbabweans, the comfort of
your surrogate homes should not
diminish your passion for the resolution of
the humanitarian crisis
unfolding in Zimbabwe. Your existence and livelihood
in other people's
democracies should serve as a reminder of what we should
collectively strive
towards for ourselves.
Fortunately Mugabe
and his regime's demise is imminent, as Zimbabweans we
need to start
focusing on life after, Mugabe, Zanu (PF) and the usual
suspects. (Vakadziya
moto we mbavha.)
At 82 Mugabe should be enjoying retirement in
Zvimba but it seems as though
he is destined for an early retirement in
Chikurubi or the nearest maximum
security prison awaiting trial for crimes
against humanity. Mugabe should
urgently instruct Gono to craft another
ingenious instrument probably the
Prison Rehabilitation Special Purpose
Fund, so that his retirement home is
refurbished.
Enough is
enough. This is the end of a regime whose leader has devoured his
legacy and
flushed his liberation credentials down the toilet. Robert
Gabriel Mugabe,
your time is up, has been up for sometime, it was just hoped
that you would
come to this realization, using the intelligence from at
least one of your
many university degrees. Oops!! I had forgotten that they
are all degrees
in violence.
Philemon Matibe can be contacted at phil-matibe@excite.com
Robert, your honey moon is over
The daggers have been drawn
between the World's most powerful man and the
World's most despotic leader
albeit they are all Africans. Robert Mugabe
visas Koffi Annan, Anna
Tibaijuku is the referee. Whether it was by
coincident that UN envoy Anna
Tibaijuku from Tanzania (an African) or by
design and intend was given the
job of investigating the Operation
Murambatsvina, it indeed signal a new era
in African politics. She will go
down in History as the bullet that killed
the giant monster to save millions
of fellow Africans from
mayhem.
The report was exhaustive, frank and unbiased, reporting
it as it is. Her
choice of words was more than the bullet could have
achieved, ricocheting
right into the Mugabe regime's twisted minds. Words
like, "disastrous
venture, brutal and horrific", are the strongest words
coming from UN since
Mugabe went berserk. The fact that Mugabe has always
hid behind a race card
in his barbaric disastrous ventures makes it an
interesting scenario now
that it is the powerful sons and daughters of
Africa telling him to shut up
or else. May be Mugabe will label Anna
Tibaijuku as a white woman in a black
jacket. What will he say about Koffi
Annan? Who have described the report as
being, "profoundly distressing
...indiscriminate actions carried out with
disquieting indifference to human
suffering" Koffi Annan want the
International Community to intervene in
Zimbabwe, too good to be true for
all Zimbabweans out there. He wants the
Operation Murambatsvina to stop and
those who master minded the operation to
be brought to book. Being a
Zimbabwean and political analyst, I know pretty
well that there was no where
any Minster could have ordered such an
ambitious wanton destruction of
property without being ordered to do so by
the Executive President. Remember
Mugabe is not only a President but is an
Executive President whose actions
by virtue of his title are exonerated by
the law. He personally spoke of his
support of the operations only as a
formality.
Not surprising that the government reacted with attar
shock of the report
because they have become paranoid of reasoning.
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
describe the report as an inbuilt bias against the
government and operation
and he even unashamedly described it as ,
"upholding a pro -opposition tone"
Mr. Minster, if you think you are the
Jonathan Moyo in the making, you are
only displaying your utter stupidity
against logic. You allowed Anna
Tibaijuku to see for herself want your
government had done to its people.
She was only compiling facts as she saw
them on the ground. You did not
provide alternative accommodation did you?
Did you clean your messy after
destroying the houses? Tell us where you
housed them after you destroyed
their habitat? You and Robert still sleep in
state funded mansions, what a
shame. You expected a report sympathetic to
your barbaric government, you
must be joking. I have profound outrage of
your shallow mind next time just
shut up!
What if it was
Thabo Mbeki empowered to investigate the operation? He
certainly would have
submitted a blank report to the UN. I mean how do you
expect him to have
managed to get the answers that Tibaijuku got if he
believes in quiet
diplomacy? I say to Thabo Mbeki, you are becoming a
liability to
Pan-Africanism. Unashamedly, Mbeki speaks of not allowing
Zimbabwe to
collapse because that would mean South Africa inheriting the
consequences. I
thought you have always been aware of this Mr President and
why has it taken
Tibaijuku to knock sense into you. South Africa owes the
region all the
wisdom it inherited from its colonial master as is Nigeria to
West Africa.
Let's start thinking of an African Think Tank Committee (ATTC),
to which
sons and daughters of Africa like Anna Tibaijuku patriotic to their
motherland will champion the cause for conflict resolution and post conflict
rehabilitation. The AU has dismally failed Zimbabweans and hence an
Independent ATTC watch- dog.
A month ago I wrote a prayer
about Zimbabwe, calling for a divine
intervention, at least my prayers has
been answered! Well done Ms Tibaijuku.
Elliot
Pfebve
Lecturer & Political Analyst
www.itrc-pfebve.com
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
'Court ruling on 2000 poll now
irrelevant'
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date
:2005-Jul-26
THE Supreme Court has ruled that Zanu (PF) Gokwe South
legislator Jaison
Machaya was not duly elected in the 2000 general
elections, but the losing
MDC candidate says that was now irrelevant after
Zimbabwe's sixth parliament
was inaugurated early this year.
The former
deputy minister of mines and mining development had defeated MDC's
Lameck
Muyambi in those polls amid reports some members of Machaya's
campaign team
assaulted the loser.
In her judgment, Justice Vernanda Ziyambi in case number
SC4/05 upheld a
High Court decision Machaya had appealed against in the
highest court in the
land.
Ziyambi's judgment delivered on February 4 and
made available yesterday,
reads in part: "The learned judge (of the High
Court) also found that the
election of the applicant could not be saved by
the provisions of section
125 since the applicant on the evidence before her
had not taken any
reasonable precautions to prevent the commission of
corrupt practices at the
election.
"In the circumstances, I am not
persuaded that there are any reasonable
prospects of success on appeal and
the application is accordingly
dismissed."
Dismissing Machaya's appeal,
the judge also referred to the applicant's
failure to file heads of
arguments within the required 15 days.
Ziyambi was also of the view that even
if that had been done, the prospects
for the appeal succeeding were
slim.
"Despite this view, I considered the prospects of success and have come
to
the conclusion that they are slim. The respondent who contested the
elections as the MDC candidate for the same constituency, was, on 19 June
2000, severely assaulted by a number of Zanu (PF) supporters who included
Johannes Dzenga, a member of the applicant's campaign team.
"He was
hospitalised as a result of the assault and was allowed out in order
to vote
on June 25. Thereafter, he returned to the hospital for completion
of his
recovery process," the judge said.
Ziyambi said Machaya failed to comply with
the requirements of the court,
despite two requests to his legal
practitioners.
The judge also declared that explanations by the MP's lawyers,
Ziumbe and
Mtambanengwe, that they had not been duly informed that the
record was
needed are "wholly unsubstantiated".
Muyambi's lawyer, Lewis
Uriri of Honey and Blanckenberg, said in an
interview that the judgment had
since become academic and overtaken by
events since new polls have been
held.
Had the judgment come out on time, he said, then fresh elections would
have
been called for the constituency.
Uriri also expressed regret over
the late delivery of judgments by the
courts.
In 2000, the MDC challenged
the outcome of 37 of the contested 120 seats and
won 10 petitions in the
High Court, but the ruling Zanu (PF) appealed
against them
all.
Currently, MDC is challenging election results of 13 parliamentary seats
in
the Electoral Court after withdrawing four petitions.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Tobacco sales still low
Business
Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-26
TOBACCO sales last week marginally
gained US$4 million from the prior week
to fetch more than US$67 million
from more than 40 million kg sold through
auction floors and under contract
farming since the selling season started
in April.
During the same period
last year, farmers had sold almost one million kg
more and the crop had
fetched almost US$30 million more than what has been
earned to date.
The
fall in prices has been attributed to a poor quality crop produced by
farmers this year.
Last season farmers produced a quality crop that
fetched an average of
US$2,50 per kg.
This season's crop price is
averaging US$1,65 per kg.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)-in
its weekly sales report
for the period ending 20 July 2005-said that the
tobacco crop had earned the
country US$67 170 885 (Z$606 767 854) as of the
date.
The largest quantity of the crop sold so far totalling more than 28
million
kg was produced under contract farming.
The remainder of the crop
mainly from large-scale commercial farmers was
sold through auction sales at
the country's three main auction centres in
Harare.
TIMB reports that at
the end of last week farmers had sold a total of 44 407
085 kg of
tobacco.
Out of the total 28 056 390 kg were produced and sold under contract
farming.
Prices averaged US$1,66 per kg with highest bid at S$2,65 per
kg.
The lowest bid during the week was US$0,20 per kg.
Since the beginning
of the selling season prices have been generally low and
most farmers have
sold their crop under protest.
Bids as low as US$0,15 were recorded during
the first two months of the
selling season.
Since then prices slightly
firmed while highest bid during the week under
review was US$2,85 per
kg.
The prices had been frustrating tobacco growers with several smallholder
farmers contemplating quitting growing the crop. However, before the mid
term monetary policy government was paying a support price of $5 000 per kg,
before replacing this with an enhanced exchange rate of US$1: Z$17
500.
Government has, since the beginning of selling season paid farmers a
total
of $222 billion through the support price.
This time last year
tobacco farmers had delivered 45 746 250 million kg that
fetched a total of
US$ 92 001 758.
Players in the tobacco production sector last week revealed
that many
farmers were still holding bales of tobacco weighing several
millions of kgs
in tobacco barns.
The fuel crisis has been blamed for the
low volumes of deliveries.
The president of the Zimbabwe Association of
Tobacco Growers (ZATG) Julius
Ngorima confirmed that many large-scale
commercial farmers were still
holding their crop as they lacked transport to
deliver it.
"Our major problem is that whenever transport is available, the
transporters
are charging us exorbitant prices that have forced us not to
deliver our
crop," said Ngorima.
"We believe we are going to meet our
2005 crop target of 100 million kg. We
still have large volumes of tobacco
that need to be sold."
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
WFP to increase food aid to Zimbabwe
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-26
THE United Nations World
Food Programme (WFP) has said it will this year
increase food aid to
Zimbabwe, where about two million people face shortages
owing to the drought
spell.
The UN agency said it had so far fed between one and two million
people in
the country.
Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs, said the
WFP fed 4.5 million people last year, again
due to drought.
"This year's WFP total would have to be much higher, but
there has been a
desperate lack of funding for aid in Zimbabwe," he
said.
"Aids orphans and victims in Zimbabwe received only a fraction of the
assistance that went to infected people orphans in its neighbours," said
Egeland.
Zimbabwe received US$1.6 million against a request of US$7.5
million from
the international donor community for humanitarian cause.
-
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Red Cross gives aid to clean-up victims
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-26
THE Zimbabwe Red Cross
Society (ZRCS) has intensified human-itarian
assistance in the country,
providing aid to about 15 000 people affected by
the clean-up
campaign.
ZRCS said the blitz, launched two months ago and halted last week,
had left
many people vulnerable, forcing it to step up its humanitarian
mission in
Harare, Bulawayo and other major urban areas.
"The worst
affected are the elderly, home-based-care clients, people living
with HIV
and Aids (PLWHA), orphans and other vulnerable children (OVCs).
Also,
refugees present in the country have been affected," ZRCS said in a
statement.
Victims were being provided with food and makeshift shelter,
ZRCS added.
Relief items included tents, plastic sheets, blankets, san-plats,
jerry
cans, hygiene soap, treated mosquito nets, agriculture starter-packs
in
vouchers and various chemicals.
The items are being provided mainly at
Caledonia transit camp and Porta
Farm, and on church premises where some of
the affected have managed to
secure refuge.
New American
Democide in Zimbabwe
by William Norman
Grigg
July 25, 2005
As defined by political scientist R.J.
Rummel, "democide" is systematic
slaughter of a subject population by its
government. This can take the form
of genocide - a targeted attack on a
specific ethnic or religious group - or
"politicide," the liquidation of an
economic class or other groups deemed
enemies of the ruling state. Some
combination of the foregoing is underway
in Zimbabwe, as that nation's
Communist ruler Robert Mugabe conducts a
Cambodian-style "cleansing" of the
cities.
"After Mugabe handed over white-owned farms to his cronies who didn't
know
how to farm, a million jobs were lost and the workers and their
families
migrated to cities and towns," writes Roger Bate in the June 27
Weekly
Standard. "The current attacks on urban centers are part of a
corrective
strategy to drive perhaps two million people back onto the land.
Once there,
they will be cut off from the rest of the country and at the
mercy of
government-controlled food supplies." And scant "mercy" can be
expected from
the Mugabe regime. "We would be better off with only six
million people,
with our own people who support the liberation struggle,"
commented
secret-police chief Didymus Mutasa in 2002.
Mugabe's
regime has already made significant progress toward that demonic
goal,
reducing - through famine, murder, and the flight of terrorized
citizens -
Zimbabwe's population from 13 million just a few years ago to 10
million
today. "By the end of this year," Bate predicts, "Mugabe may be well
on his
way to halving his population."
theconservativevoice.com
African Aid
Monday, July 25, 2005 12:02:14
PM
By John Leppard
Having been overshadowed by the terror bombings
in London, national
attention is only now being directed at the G8 summit
held in Scotland and
the foremost problem it sought to address, African
poverty.
The summit and its principle issue were of course accentuated thanks
to the
self-congratulatory altruism of the Live 8 concerts where notable
development economists such as Green Day and Will Smith took to the stage to
"raise awareness" of the dire situation in Africa and offer their
suggestions for improvement, mainly the forgiveness of debt and large
increases in foreign aid. Already, the United States has pledged to double
its annual aid to Africa and agreed with Great Britain to write off the debt
owed by 18 of the poorest African countries. Similarly, European
politicians, such as Tony Blair, are calling for an African Marshall Plan.
So it looks like we're going in the right direction.
But things
aren't quite so rosy. Dave Matthews noted that ending poverty in
Africa "is
effortless. It's eight signatures [at the G8 summit] really."
This of course
conforms to the international activist notion that, no matter
what the
problem, it is somehow of our own making, either that or thanks to
callous
inaction on our part. All we need do is spend a little more money
and Africa
would be swimming pretty.
The idea that rich countries can pull poor
countries out of poverty
irrespective of their domestic condition,
politically and economically, has
long been popular among activist elites,
yet it is unprincipled and
misguided. In today's dollars, the Marshall Plan
amounted to about $100
billion dispersed over the course of four years after
World War II.
According to various Cato Institute studies, thus far Africa
has already
received the equivalent of about five Marshall Plans. Despite
nearly $500
billion in aid over the last 45 years, African GDP has declined
by .59% per
annum from 1975-2000. South Asia, on the other hand, received
just 21% of
that amount and has enjoyed a 2.94% annual increase in GDP over
the same
period. There are several reasons for such discrepancies in
results.
Critical to success is both domestic leadership and allocation
of funds.
Zimbabwe, for example, is in dire straights because it is under
the yoke of
a corrupt, murderous and authoritarian government that exploits
the
country's resources and foreign aid for its own benefit. When an
individual
like Robert Mugabe is at Zimbabwe's helm, no amount of aid is
going to make
a lick of difference, and one shouldn't be surprised when most
of the aid
recently paid to that nation ends up in a Swiss Bank, as has
generally
happened.
Likewise, any aid offered to the impoverished
continent should be available
primarily on a strict, results-oriented basis.
Blank checks to unaccountable
and corrupt regimes that actively impoverish
their own people clearly do not
work and instead act as an impediment to
progress rather than its enabler.
Yet more than aid, what is needed is
basic, market-centered reform, and when
the two do not work in tandem the
results can be even more detrimental than
had we never gotten involved in
the first place. Suzanne Fields of the
Washington Times had it right when
she said "it's not enough to teach an
African to fish, but we must show the
African how to sell the fish in a
market where competition is fair. He has
to learn how to keep government
officials from cutting in on his business.
Aid without reform is a dead-end
concept, literally.
One notable
example of when unaccompanied aid has actually made things worse
is that
offered up by Kenyan economist James Shikwati: food. Consider this
scenario:
"Famine hits Kenya, so Kenya goes to the U.N. and begs. So corn is
shipped
to Kenya, whereupon a portion of the corn often goes directly into
the hands
of unscrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe
to boost
their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends
up on the
black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices.
Local farmers
may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete
with the UN's
World Food Program. And if there were another famine next
year, the Kenyan
farmers, having been wiped out by the U.N.'s aid program,
wouldn't be able
to help."
It's for reasons like this that leads Shikwati to pronounce:
"For god's
sake, please stop the aid," at least until markets are given a
snowballs
chance to thrive. Trade and liberalization, not blindly altruistic
aid, is
what can really help Africa, as was the case in India. As helpful as
food
aid from abroad was during the worst of their famines, the long-run
policy
of continually giving wheat to India was just reducing the ability of
local
farmers to grow wheat and sell it for a price that would cover their
costs.
Eventually, and after years of stagnation, that aid policy was
stopped, a
reformist government came to power, and today India produces so
much wheat
that it has been able to send some to Africa to deal with the
famines there.
Similarly, they now have one of the fastest growing economies
in the world.
Thankfully, by the 1990's a long-delayed consensus emerged
among development
experts that aid that goes into poor policy environments
doesn't work.
Ultimately, according to Ian Vasquez of the Cato Institute,
there is no
correlation between aid and growth, but in Africa aid has
actually harmed
development by supporting governments whose policies have
actively
impoverished people. Yet for all the proof, I wouldn't hold my
breath for
any change in course when it comes to the activist mantra of
African aid.
The anti-globalist crowd will continue to rally-on about the
compassionless
West and clamor for an increase in nominal aid; so we might
as well just get
ready for the next Live 8 in 2015. African poverty isn't
going anywhere, but
sadly, many Africans will.
John Leppard is an
intern at Accuracy in Media. He can be contacted at
john.leppard@aim.org
News24
'Zim inflation outlook bleak'
Jul 25 2005
04:15:28:310PM
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's inflation will continue to
swell and make
the requirement for tighter monetary policy more urgent, says
Standard Bank
economist Robert Bunyi in his CPI alert released on
Monday.
He believes "the next move will be an increase in interest
rates due
to the extent of emerging strong evidence of rising inflation,"
which is
expected to intensify following the depreciation of the Zimbabwe
dollar.
A new consumer price index unveiled by the Central
Statistics Office
could also "lead to an inappropriate monetary policy
response in the period
ahead," he warns.
Under this new CPI
index, inflation is estimated to have reached
164.3% year-on-year. The new
CPI has 12 inflation groups compared to the
previous 10 groups and utilises
a new base year of 2001.
A significant change in the index
composition is the reduction in the
weighting of food and "given the current
situation of poor agricultural
output, inflation would probably be
underestimated from now on," Bunyi
writes.
Food has been
weighted at 31.9% compared to 33.6% in the previous
index. However, Bunyi
says the "significant level of price controls in the
economy renders
inflation estimates difficult to interpret," and direct
comparability
between the two inflation series is difficult to achieve.
iafrica.com
'Mugabe is Zim's real problem'
Mon, 25 Jul
2005
South Africa has little chance of staving off Zimbabwe's collapse unless
the
fundamental reality that the real problem in Zimbabwe, the power lust of
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF regime, is recognised, Democratic
Alliance Africa spokesperson Joe Seremane said on Monday.
He was
reacting to President Thabo Mbeki's statement on Sunday that South
Africa
had to consider providing financial assistance to cash-strapped
Zimbabwe or
face the consequences of its neighbour's economic ruin.
Seremane said
Mbeki had justified his continued solidarity and support for
Mugabe on the
grounds that South Africa could not afford Zimbabwe to
collapse right on its
door step, "but we have heard this tired old refrain
before" from as far
back as 2000.
Five years of deterioration
"Yet the president has
stood by for five years as Zimbabwe has collapsed
under the weight of the
Mugabe regime's increasing oppression. Zimbabwe is
far worse off now than it
was five years ago precisely because quiet
diplomacy has failed; yet it
remains the policy of the South African
government regardless," he
said.
In the years since 2000, the Zimbabwean people had been the victims
of
stolen elections, of disastrous land reform policies, the political
manipulation of food supplies, violence and intimidation, short-sighted
economic policies and, most recently, a clean up operation that was so cruel
it was viewed by the United Nations as a "clear violation of international
law".
There could be no solution to the economic crisis in Zimbabwe
without
resolving the political crisis in that country.
Unless the
Mugabe regime undertook and remained committed to political
reform, any
assistance offered might provide a stay of execution, but could
not prevent
Zimbabwe's ultimate collapse.
"Unless President Mbeki realises the
fundamental reality that the real
problem with Zimbabwe is the power lust of
President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF
regime, there is little chance that South
Africa will be able to stop
Zimbabwe's collapse.
SA should not
consider loan
"The South African government should not consider any loan
that would merely
continue to prop up a leader whose actions are an affront
to all accepted
democratic values and practices," Seremane
said.
Addressing the media in Pretoria on Sunday after last week's
Cabinet
lekgotla, Mbeki stressed the importance of Zimbabweans solving their
own
political and economic problems.
"But we engage them because we
don't want Zimbabwe collapsing next door.
South Africa would inherit all the
consequences of Zimbabwe collapsing."
Mbeki said discussions on economic
help to Zimbabwe were ongoing, including
a possible settlement of the
country's arrears with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
It
would be counter-productive, he said, to have Zimbabwe's membership of
the
global body terminated because of debt.
"It creates a bigger problem that
is going to require bigger resources to
solve," Mbeki said.
No help
to the ordinary - FF+
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said on
Monday that financial aid to
Zimbabwe would rescue Mugabe's presidency, but
not really help ordinary
Zimbabweans.
"It is therefore a mistake to
give financial assistance to Zimbabwe in this
way," he said.
Mbeki's
argument that financial assistance was necessary to prevent an
implosion in
Zimbabwe and thus prevent South Africa from inheriting the
consequences of
Zimbabwe's collapse was also flawed.
Zimbabwe, for the ordinary citizens,
had collapsed months ago and South
Africa had already inherited their
problems.
With the damning United Nations report on the situation in
Zimbabwe, it was
now time to apply the maximum amount of pressure on Mugabe
as he was the
most important factor causing the problems in
Zimbabwe.
"The only condition, upon which South Africa can loan money to
Zimbabwe, is
an undertaking from President Mugabe that he will resign.
Thereafter,
financial assistance is justified in an effort to rebuild
Zimbabwe," Mulder
said.
Sapa
Sunday Times, SA
'SA assistance will rescue Mugabe'
Monday
July 25, 2005 15:08 - (SA)
The financial assistance which the
Government will be giving to Zimbabwe
will rescue the presidency of
President Robert Mugabe but will not really
help the ordinary Zimbabwean,
says Freedom Front leader Pieter Mulder.
The only circumstances in which
South Africa could provide financial relief
to Zimbabwe was by getting an
undertaking from Mugabe that he would resign.
Mulder - whose party has
four seats in the National Assembly - said it was
"therefore a mistake to
give financial assistance to Zimbabwe in this way".
Zimbabwe has asked South
Africa for a one billion US dollar bailout after
the International Monetary
Fund called in the country's $900 million debt.
"(South African)
President (Thabo) Mbeki's argument that financial
assistance is necessary to
prevent an implosion in Zimbabwe and this prevent
South Africa from
inheriting the consequences of Zimbabwe's collapse is also
flawed. Zimbabwe,
for the ordinary citizens, collapsed months ago and South
Africa has already
inherited their problems."
Mulder said with "the damning" United Nations
report on the situation in
Zimbabwe, it was "now the time to apply the
maximum amount of pressure on
President Mugabe".
Zimbabwe was under
pressure from the International Monetary Fund, the United
Nations and the
European Union. "By extending a big financial loan to
Zimbabwe, South Africa
becomes the weak link in the international world's
pressure on
Zimbabwe.
"In contrast, the South African Government can regain its
international
credibility with regards to the handling of the Zimbabwe
situation by taking
the right decision now and assisting the world in
getting rid of President
Mugabe," he suggested.
On Sunday Mbeki told
reporters that South Africa had to consider providing
assistance to Zimbabwe
or face the consequences of its neighbour's economic
ruin.
I-Net
Bridge
Africa needs capitalism not more foreign
aid BY WALTER E.
WILLIAMS
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is
pressuring the rich nations of the world to give more foreign aid to Africa - to the tune of $25 billion a year by 2010. The
United
States already gave $3.2 billion last year. In
the wake of this pressure, we might ask ourselves whether it's foreign aid that
Africa needs most for economic
development.
A standard myth is there's a
"vicious cycle of poverty" that makes economic development virtually impossible
for the world's poor nations. This myth holds that poor countries are poor
because income is so low that savings cannot be generated to provide the kind of
capital accumulation necessary for economic growth. Thus, it is alleged, the
only way out of perpetual poverty is foreign aid.
Let's examine the "vicious cycle of
poverty" myth and whether foreign aid is a necessary ingredient for economic
development. The United
States, Britain, France, Canada and most other countries were
once poor. Andrew Bernstein of the Ayn Rand Institute wrote in an article
titled "Capitalism is the cure for Africa's problems" that pre-industrial Europe
was vastly poorer than contemporary Africa.
A relatively well-off country,
France, experienced several famines
between the 15th and 18th centuries, as well as plagues and diseases that
sometimes killed hundreds of thousands. In France, life expectancy was 20
years, in Ireland it was 19 years and in early 18th-century London, more than 74
percent of children died before reaching age 5.
Beginning in the late 18th century,
there was a dramatic economic turnabout in Europe. How in the world did these once poor and backward
countries break the "vicious cycle of poverty" and become wealthy, without what
today's development experts say is absolutely necessary for economic
growth
- foreign aid handouts, World Bank
and International Monetary Fund loans, and billions of dollars of debt
forgiveness?
The answer is simple: Capitalism
started taking root in Europe. Capitalism is an
economic system where there's peaceable, voluntary exchange.
Government protects private property
rights held in goods and services.
There's rule of law and minimal
government regulation and control of the economy.
Check out the Heritage Foundation's
"Index of Economic Freedom." Heading its list of countries with the freest
economic systems are those including Singapore, Luxembourg, Estonia, Ireland and New
Zealand. Bringing up the rear as the countries
with little or no economic liberty are North
Korea, Zimbabwe, Angola and Burundi. It's not rocket science to
conclude that economic liberty and the wealth of a nation and it's peoples go
together, n ot to mention greater human rights
guarantees.
Some economic development "experts"
attribute Africa's troubles to its history of
colonialism. That's nonsense, because some of the world's richest countries are
former colonies, such as the United
States, Canada and Australia. In fact, many of
Africa's sub-Saharan countries are poorer now
than when they were colonies, and their people suffer greater human rights
degradations, such as the genocide the continent has
witnessed.
The worst thing that can be done is
to give more foreign aid to African nations. Foreign aid goes from government
to government. It allows Africa's corrupt
regimes to buy military equipment, pay off cronies and continue to oppress their
people. It also provides resources for its leaders to set up "retirement"
accounts in Swiss banks.
What Africa needs, foreign aid cannot deliver, and that's
elimination of dictators and socialist regimes, establishment of political and
economic freedom, rule of law and respect for individual rights. Until this
happens, despite billions of dollars of foreign aid, Africa will remain a basket
case.
____________________________________________
Walter E. Williams is a professor of
economics at George Mason
University and a syndicated
columnist