Reuters
Zimbabwe Raises Mugabe, Cabinet Salaries
Sat July 5, 2003
01:26 PM ET
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has raised
the salaries of President Robert
Mugabe and senior government members by
nearly 600 percent -- almost double
the inflation rate, the official Herald
newspaper reported on Saturday.
The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) condemned the
increase and said it amounted to tacit
acknowledgment by the government that
inflation could be much higher than the
official figure of 300 percent.
"But while Mugabe looks after Mugabe, he
is unable to do anything for the
ordinary, suffering people of Zimbabwe," MDC
spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi
told Reuters.
Zimbabwe has been hit by a
series of strikes for higher pay -- the most
recent by junior doctors --
because of surging consumer inflation, ranked as
one of the highest rates in
the world. Companies struggling in a harsh
business climate have failed to
increase wages to match rising costs.
Critics say Mugabe has ruined the
economy through 23 years of mismanagement,
causing chronic food and foreign
currency shortages and record unemployment
of more than 70
percent.
MUGABE SALARY RISE
The Herald said Mugabe's salary would
rise to Z$20.2 million a year (about
U.S.$11,222 at black market rates or
$25,250 at official rates) from Z$3
million. His two deputies would earn
Z$18.4 million a year, up from Z$2.7
million.
In addition, Mugabe
would receive more than two million Zimbabwe dollars in
allowances, the
Herald said, citing a government gazette notice. A copy of
the gazette was
not available on Saturday.
The Herald said cabinet ministers' salaries
would rise to Z$16.5 million
from Z$2.4 million. Salary increases were also
awarded to members of
parliament, some of whom are from the MDC.
The
Zimbabwe dollar trades at around 1,800 against the U.S. dollar in a
thriving
black market -- more than double the official rate of 800.
Last month,
the MDC led a five-day strike against Mugabe's rule that shut
down industry
and commerce in the capital Harare.
The U.S. administration of President
Bush has urged African states to step
up pressure on Mugabe to allow
political change before Zimbabwe was ruined.
Nyathi, speaking by
telephone, was in South Africa where the MDC has sent a
team to lobby senior
U.S. officials during Bush's visit to Africa next week.
The opposition
says another team will travel to an African Union summit in
Mozambique next
week to ask African leaders to apply more pressure on
Mugabe, in power since
Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980.
Mugabe denies
responsibility for the country's economic malaise and blames
it on sabotage
by local and international opponents angry over his seizure
of white-owned
farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
The Scotsman
Bush billions designed to buy stability
Fred
Bridgland
SURELY no more symbolic site can be imagined for the
beginning of the first
visit to Africa by a Republican president. The "Door
of No Return", on the
tiny Senegalese offshore island of Gorée, is the oak
one through which
passed many of the 20 million black African men, women and
children who were
sold into slavery.
Yet it is here, amid the memories
of chains and shackles, at the door that
was carved and erected in the same
year as the United States’s independence,
1776, that George Bush has chosen
to make a major speech on Tuesday. The
White House hopes it will set the tone
for his week-long swing through five
key African states, and perhaps begin to
soften the cynicism that questions
the motives behind his safari through
Africa, summed up by a rash of
cartoons showing a puzzled White House chief
studying a book entitled Africa
for Dummies.
He has already won over
one convert. Bob Geldof, the rock star behind Live
Aid, has written of Mr
Bush’s programme: "You’ll think I’m off my trolley
when I say this, but the
Bush administration is the most radical - in a
positive sense - in its
approach to Africa since Kennedy."
The Gorée Island speech, being
previewed as a "Message of Compassion", was
crafted long ago to show the US
cares about Africa, not least because the
ancestors of many millions of
Americans passed unwillingly through the Door
of No Return - and next year
there is a US presidential election, nod the
cynics.
However, Mr
Bush’s African agenda is much bigger than whether he can swing a
few black
American votes in 2004.
The events of 11 September, 2001, triggered a
realisation in Mr Bush and his
more percipient advisers that a chaotic Africa
can breed and nurture
American enemies. US policy-makers have learned that
poverty-stricken
states, with weak institutions and brutally corrupt rulers,
can pose as
great a danger to American national interests as strong
ones.
The Twin Towers disaster cast the August 1998 bombings of the US
embassies
in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam - in which more than 200 Africans and
12
Americans were killed and thousands of people injured - in a
sharper
retrospective light in Washington. The dangers lurking in Africa were
again
emphasised just seven weeks ago, when al-Qaeda bombers launched an
attack on
Casbalanca in which 24 people died.
Mr Bush entered the
White House after a campaign in which he seldom spoke
about Africa and failed
to include it in the "areas of strategic importance"
he argued were central
to US foreign policy.
The airborne terrorist attacks of 11 September
changed all that and
convinced Mr Bush that Africa, with its huge potential
as a key terrorist
base and battleground, had become crucial to national
security and that
Washington needed to exercise its influence
there.
So, as well as fine words, Mr Bush will arrive in Africa with a
sack
containing the most generous aid package ever for the world’s
poorest
continent; a separate offer worth $15 billion to fight AIDS that
has
infected, and will kill, 30 million Africans in addition to the 15
million
who have already died; a determination to achieve "regime change" in
at
least two states; a $100 million plan to fight terrorism in East Africa;
an
agenda to secure US oil supplies; and a controversial plan to end hunger
in
Africa with magical genetically modified seeds patented by
technological
wizards in America.
The aid package, which will total
some $5 billion a year by 2006, is tied to
a Marshall Plan for Africa devised
by the presidents Thabo Mbeki and
Abdoulaye Wade of South Africa and
Senegal.
The core idea of the plan, ponderously titled the New
Partnership for Africa
’s Development (NEPAD), is a trade-off with the
world’s aid-weary major
powers. Africa, in an effort to shake off its
persistent begging-bowl
disorder, commits itself to democracy, good
governance, financial discipline
and market-oriented policies in return for
more help from the developed
countries, especially in the form of better
access to their markets for
Africa’s exports.
The intricate plan has
obvious merit. It was drafted by Africans for
Africans and so is free of any
imperialist taint. Presidents Olusegun
Obasanjo of Nigeria and Abdelaziz
Bouteflika of Algeria are also co-authors.
NEPAD’s godfathers know the
developed countries are sick of pouring their
taxpayers’ money into Africa
only to see it end up in the pockets and
offshore accounts of corrupt leaders
while the ordinary people - Franz Fanon
’s "wretched of the Earth" - sink
into ever deeper poverty.
NEPAD’s ultimate grand ideal is to end Africa’s
conflicts, encourage
accountable government and achieve growth rates that can
at least absorb
into employment the millions of African children who leave
school each year,
let alone the many millions who get no education at
all.
Mr Bush intends putting his stamp on NEPAD and the five states he
will
visit - Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Botswana and Nigeria - have
been
selected as those nearest to achieving NEPAD standards.
But Mr
Bush will also turn up the pressure on Africa’s leaders to deliver on
their
side of the bargain if they want to obtain $65 billion in Western
investment
to kick start the African Marshall Plan.
Nowhere will talks be more tough
and tense than in Pretoria on Wednesday,
when, despite huge public bonhomie
and thousands of yards of red carpet, Mr
Bush will tell Mr Mbeki that NEPAD
will be dead in the water unless he
seriously helps to topple Robert Mugabe,
in neighbouring Zimbabwe, from
power.
Colin Powell, the US Secretary
of State, this week ratcheted up the pressure
on both Mr Mugabe and Mr Mbeki
by demanding, on Mr Bush’s behalf, that Mr
Mugabe step down from
power.
"Robert Mugabe and his cohorts may cry, ‘Blackmail’, but we should
ignore
them. Their time has come and gone," said Mr Powell.
"If
leaders on the continent do not do more to convince President Mugabe
to
respect the rule of law and enter into a dialogue with the
political
opposition, he and his cronies will drag Zimbabwe down until there
is
nothing left to ruin."
Mr Mbeki endorsed Mr Mugabe’s fraudulent
election last year and has refused
to criticise the Zimbabwean president’s
increasingly oppressive and
economically destructive rule. Mr Mbeki recently
said: "The reason Zimbabwe
is such a preoccupation in the UK, in the US and
in Sweden is because white
people died and white people were deprived of
their property. All they say
is Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe."
If Mr
Mbeki repeats that mantra, Mr Bush and other G8 nations will quote a
line in
their Africa Action Plan, the developed world’s necessary twin
to
NEPAD.
That line goes: "We will not work with governments which
disregard the
interests and dignity of their people."
If Bush has to
say that, Africa’s renaissance with Western help will have to
wait a while
yet.
The Herald
‘I’m ready for presidency’
By Nomsa Nkala
MUCH of
his adulthood was spent under the guidance of the late veteran
nationalist Dr
Joshua Nkomo.
Together they dreamt, endured and watched with pride the
fruits of their
toil as Zimbabwe was born.
A spirited, outspoken and
selfless character, Vice-President Cde Joseph
Msika — a key player in the
liberation struggle — says he will call it a day
only in response to the
wishes of the people.
"The question of me leaving right now does not
arise since I am still
serving my term and servicing important national
issues as chairman of the
national land committee. But after finishing
serving my term it would be up
to the people to decide what I should do
next."
And if chosen to succeed President Mugabe?
"Personally, I
have no presidential ambitions, what I have gone through in
my life, with the
time I spent in the liberation struggle, is enough. But if
the people choose
me (to lead the country) I will have no option but to
comply.
"I will
do anything that people ask of me. I'm neither a tribalist nor am I
a
regionalist or racist.
"I love to see the manifestation of the general
welfare of our people
especially uplifting their standard of living by
developing our national
economy.
"I have made my contribution to the
country to my personal satisfaction and
I believe to the satisfaction of the
people I lead," confided Cde Msika.
Born in Mazowe almost 80 years ago,
others may say Cde Msika is too old to
assume a role of that
significance.
But does age really matter?
"It’s up to the people
to decide. What does age matter?"
As a young man Cde Msika had big dreams
even as he herded cattle in Mazowe.
His Shangani father and Shona mother
lived by their sweat as peasant
farmers.
His father’s four daughters
from his first marriage also herded cattle under
Cde Msika’s
guidance.
"My sisters loved me a lot because I was the only boy. We were
a farming
family and my father was a transporter. He had a wagon and a lot of
cattle
so he used to transport crops for other people.
"You see, there
were no lorries for transporting people's produce from the
reserve to the
market. We saw the first lorries called Central Services in
1931 owned by
white transporters. These took over the wagon business
confining them only to
moving goods within the community.
"As a herdboy, I used to get up very
early in the morning even earlier
during ploughing time to start ploughing
before sunrise . . . Then, I used
to think that my father was a cruel person.
Only when I grew up did I
realise that what my father had done was to prepare
me for adult life."
Cde Msika did his schooling at Howard Institute and
later enrolled for
carpentry at Mount Silinda.
It was there that he
acquired a junior certificate through private studies.
He first worked as
a teacher at Usher Institute in Matabeleland.
At the time, he managed to
do his matric by correspondence.
It was while at Usher that Cde Msika met
his Tswana wife who had been a
student there.
"She was preparing to go
to South Africa for secondary studies but that did
not happen as we decided
to get married."
In 1950 Cde Msika left teaching and went to Bulawayo
where he first worked
for a furniture removal company before joining a
ladies' wear factory.
When the firm shut down, he joined Consolidated
Textile Mills now known as
the National Blankets Limited.
There he
rose through the ranks to become the most senior black person in
the company
after rising from doing clerical work to dealing with human
resources matters
at managerial level.
Having lost his father at the time, he took the
responsibility of educating
his siblings.
That period also saw the
visionary take an interest in politics.
In 1952 he had taken part in
trade unionism and become the national
president of the Textile and Allied
Workers Union.
"It was there that I got political
background.''
Together with his peers, Cde Msika was inspired by the many
African
contemporary leaders, including former Ghanaian president Kwame
Nkrumah, who
were studying overseas but communicated through writing
books.
"We used to read a lot . . . These people inspired us. It was then
that I
made a commitment to fight the colonial regime. I felt that if other
people
could liberate themselves why couldn't we?''
Inspired by the
youth league of the South African National Congress, Cde
Msika alongside
others formed a youth league for Matabeleland for which he
was
chairman.
As they became bigger and more vocal, they were regarded as a
militant
group.
Their seniors in the struggle even considered them as
mad youths with
impossible ideas.
To reinforce the struggle, Cde
Msika's group invited on board its seniors
who included late Vice-President
Joshua Nkomo.
Cde Msika had first met Dr Nkomo while the late nationalist
was working as a
trade unionist for National Railways.
While others
turned down the invitation to join Cde Msika's group ruling
them out as mere
radicals, Dr Nkomo came on board and was subsequently
unanimously elected
president having been the only one in the group who had
acquired a university
degree then.
Cde Msika became the treasurer-general of the African
National Congress.
At that stage the whole country had become politically
charged.
The group became even more vocal, openly criticising the
colonial regime.
"For the first time we promulgated a policy based on
nationalism and one of
our basic principles was that the black people should
have adult suffrage in
order that they rule themselves and achieve
self-determination.
"The white colonialists were bitter about this policy
and did not want to
accommodate us. They wanted to remove us from the
political scene. That saw
the banning of the ANC. So as we were fighting
colonialism and attempted
federation we found ourselves bundled together
behind bars at Khami Prison
in Bulawayo while others were imprisoned in Gwelo
(now known as Gweru).
"(Dr) Nkomo was in Ghana attending an All African
Convention conference when
we were arrested. So while in prison we wrote to
him on a toilet paper and
smuggled the note out through the prison warders
telling him not to come
back.
"We were then transferred from Khami to
Gweru and then Marondera prisons.
"It was in Marondera that President
Mugabe visited us.
"A prison warder called me and told me that a man from
Ghana wanted to see
me. I went to see him and was surprised when the man from
Ghana said to me
'makadii VaMsika' (How are you Mr Msika). I asked him where
he knew me from
and he told me that he was a Zimbabwean from Zvimba teaching
in Ghana.
"He said he got to know me when he was teaching at Hope
Fountain in Bulawayo
and used to come to our meetings.
"He was in the
country on sick leave. He told me that he was impressed by
what we were doing
and intended to resign from his job as soon as he went
back to Ghana and come
and join the struggle, which he did.
"I went and called my colleagues who
included my best friend (the late
national hero) Jason Moyo to come and meet
(President ) Mugabe.''
While the other inmates who were considered less
violent were released, Cde
Msika and his colleagues were viewed as
unrepentant and kept in jail. They
were in turn given three stars, which
symbolised the category they belonged
to.
"But that did not deter us,
we were ready to give up our lives for the
struggle. Our slogan was 'forward
ever backwards never'. We were fearless
and prepared to die. When I think
about it now I don't think I can ever be
like that again. We were
militant.
"We urged those who were released to go and form another party
which they
did. They formed the National Democratic Party (NDP) which was led
by Cde
Michael Mawema. When the annual conference was called, Dr Nkomo was
elected
president in absentia.
"When we were released from prison we
found President Mugabe already in the
executive of NDP, fulfilling the
promise he made to us while we were in
prison. Like the rest of us, Mugabe
was stung by this nationalism bug and
found himself adopting the slogan
'forward ever backward never.'
He has remained a true
nationalist.''
Cde Msika was in prison at different times for a total of
15 years while
others spent 20 years behind bars.
Before his arrest,
Cde Msika operated a shop in Bulawayo.
"In my absence my wife was running
that shop. That’s how she managed to look
after and educate our
children.''
The couple had six children, all degreed but two of them are
deceased,.
Although Zapu later split resulting in the formation of Zanu,
the two groups
co-ordinated and fought together to overthrow the colonial
regime under the
Patriotic Front.
"The whites were frightened of
nationalism and were panicking. It was very
clear that they were going to
declare Unilateral Declaration of Independence
(UDI) to blot out nationalism
but this failed dismally. We didn't want to be
caught napping so we arranged
that some go outside the country and organise
the struggle while others
remain behind and face the possibility of
imprisonment.''
It was at
the height of the war that Cde Msika and others were arrested and
taken to
Gonakudzingwa Dentention Camp now the Gonarezhou Game
Reserve.
"Vice-President Nkomo, (late hero) Josiah Chinamano, his wife
Ruth and
myself were the first people to be taken to
Gonakudzingwa.
"They took us there because they had realised that we now
had the support of
prison warders. It was a bush with nothing except animals.
You could hear
lions roaring, it was terrible, more frightening than prison.
We lived there
for 11 years. We were isolated for too long that we even
forgot how women
looked like. I remember we used to argue whether they had
eyebrows or not,
we got confused until the time when our families were
allowed to visit us.''
And prison was no fun either The group was
subjected to various forms of
torture and inhuman treatment.
"When I
first went to prison I was very frightened because this was my first
time but
two to three months later I got acclimatised to the environment and
that
removed all fear. We were determined to achieve our goal and liberate
our
country. What I learnt from that experience is that if you want someone
to
repent don't put them in jail for too long.''
As the war intensified
several attempts were made by Britain "to get us into
agreement with several
conferences they were proposing and we resisted.
(Former British Prime
Minister) Harrod Wilson visited Rhodesia and the top
leadership including
myself was taken from prison to meet him. He tried to
talk us into agreeing
to his country's proposal that we should abandon our
policies and work with
them. He told us in no uncertain terms that the
British government would not
send its army to remove UDI. We were surprised
but determined to go on
fighting in prison and outside the country.''
The liberation struggle was
carried out in several stages.
"While in the country, we were throwing
petrol bombs and sabotaging the
infrastructure. The second phase included the
armed struggle.
"We managed to get arms from friendly countries. The
western countries
refused to either give us or sell us arms. We intensified
the war and
fighting was really raging between whites and blacks in Zimbabwe.
It was
after they realised that the war had intensified and losses were heavy
on
whites that they panicked.''
Again several talks were held in an
attempt to resolve the issue but all was
in vain. After the talks had failed
the group was sent back to prison.
"Britain and America convinced
frontline states that we should abandon the
struggle and attend the Lancaster
House conference.''
The fighters were forced to the negotiating table but
the meeting broke down
on the land question.
The Zimbabwean issue was
finally resolved when Britain agreed to the
distribution of land but on
condition that it was implemented 10 years after
Independence.
"One of
the major goals of the struggle was to acquire land which had been
forcibly
taken away from blacks. That we have now done through the Land
Redistribution
Programme.
"We have managed to give this very important resource to its
rightful
owners. In doing so we didn't remove all whites from the land, our
aim was
to share land equitably leaving whites with an agreed maximum size.
This was
an achievement on which there can be no going back whatever the
price, there
is no price too high to pay for the land
redistribution.''
While other things may change, Cde Msika and other
liberators will forever
remain the heroes and architects of Zimbabwe's
independence.
"We have achieved national unity, peace and tranquility all
due to the
foresight of our leadership especially Dr Nkomo and President
Mugabe and all
those who supported them.''
From The New York Times, 5 July
Criticism of a hero divides
blacks
By Rachel L. Swarns
Washington - When the
TransAfrica Forum decided to speak out last month
against Zimbabwe's
president, Robert Mugabe, for condoning the jailing,
beating and killing of
black opposition party supporters, it shouldn't have
been all that
surprising. After all, for decades, TransAfrica, a research
and lobbying
group based here, has been speaking out on the struggles of
Africans on the
continent and elsewhere. In the 1980's, for instance, it led
the
anti-apartheid marches that helped press the American government to
change
its policy of "constructive engagement" with the white government of
South
Africa. In the 90's the group protested against the repressive black
regimes
in Haiti and Nigeria. In this latest action TransAfrica's president
and other
prominent black Americans from Africa Action, an advocacy group
here; Howard
University; and church and labor unions wrote a public letter
to Mr. Mugabe,
assailing what they described as the "increasing intolerant,
repressive and
violent policies of your government." But the decision to
condemn Mr. Mugabe
publicly - which was hailed as long overdue in some
quarters - has also
touched off an outcry among some black intellectuals,
activists and Africa
watchers. Mr. Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since white
rule ended in 1980, is
still considered a hero by some African-Americans.
And in some e-mail
messages and on radio talk shows, the signers of the
letter have been
described as politically naïve, sellouts and misguided
betrayers of Africa's
liberation struggle. Angry critics have sent e-mail
messages to those who
signed the letter, saying in one instance that they
"do not represent
African-Americans." On a left-leaning radio station in New
York City,
WBAI-FM, several people have called to complain. "Whatever black
Africans in
Zimbabwe decide to do," said a caller who identified herself as
Missy from
Queens, "I think black Africans here, we should join them." The
furor has
highlighted a long-simmering debate about how to respond to
authoritarian
leaders in Africa when those leaders happen to be black.
Bill
Fletcher Jr., the president of TransAfrica, says black Americans
cannot
afford to romanticize African leaders if they hope to remain relevant
to the
struggles on the continent. They must be willing to condemn
wrongdoing, he
said, even if that means criticizing some revered leaders.
When the enemy
was evil white people in South Africa, that was easy," Mr.
Fletcher said in
an interview at his office here. "But when the enemy becomes
someone who
looks like us, we're very skittish about taking that on. "It's
very
difficult to accept that a ruling class has emerged in Zimbabwe that
is
oppressing its own people, but you've got to face the reality," he said.
"I
felt like we had to speak out." Mr. Fletcher said African-Americans
had
often been on the right side of history, supporting African leaders
who
fought against white rule and then worked for their people, including
Nelson
Mandela of South Africa, Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania; and Samora
Machel of
Mozambique, among others. Mr. Mugabe, who expanded access to
education and
health care, was also praised for more than a decade by Western
governments
as well as by blacks for building one of Africa's most prosperous
nations.
But when white governments began to fall away, thorny questions
began
emerging. In the 70's some blacks quietly questioned whether they
should
continue supporting Uganda's violent despot, Idi Amin, but decided
against
criticizing him publicly. In the 80's some Africa watchers made a
similar
decision about Angola's government, which was dogged by complaints
of
corruption. In 1996 Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat who was
a
senator then, stirred a furor when she flew to Africa to visit Gen.
Sani
Abacha, Nigeria's corrupt dictator. By then TransAfrica and other
prominent
black individuals and organizations had already launched a public
campaign
to criticize and isolate Nigeria's government, which was detaining
and
killing its critics. In the criticism of Zimbabwe, Mr. Fletcher was
joined
by Salih Booker, director of Africa Action; William Lucy, president of
the
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Horace G. Dawson Jr., director of
the
Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University; the
Rev.
Justice Y. Reeves of the Progressive National Baptist Convention;
the
coordinating committee of the Black Radical Congress and others. "We
view
the political repression under way in Zimbabwe as intolerable and
in
complete contradiction of the values and principles that were both
the
foundation of your liberation struggle and of our solidarity with
that
struggle," the group said in its letter to Mr.
Mugabe.
Critics complain, however, that Mr. Fletcher and his
colleagues are playing
down the importance of the ongoing struggle for land
in Zimbabwe. They say
Mr. Mugabe has been demonized in the West because he
decided to seize
white-owned farms on land stolen from blacks during British
colonial rule.
Zimbabwe's tiny white minority - less than 1 percent of the
population -
owned more than half of the fertile land until the government
began seizing
most of it in 2000. "I'm not on his side with respect to his
repression of
the opposition," Ronald Walters, a professor of government and
politics at
the University of Maryland, said of Mr. Mugabe. "But I am on the
side of the
people who claim there's a justice issue in terms of the land.
You can't
escape the racial dynamic, and you can't escape the political
history." Some
critics say the violence in Zimbabwe has mostly occurred
between supporters
and opponents of land redistribution. They also fear that
the Bush
administration, which has already signaled that it might intervene
in
war-torn Liberia, might use the letter from TransAfrica and Africa Action
to
suggest that prominent black Americans favor an American intervention
in
Zimbabwe. Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Booker say they would vigorously oppose
an
American-led military intervention in Zimbabwe. TransAfrica also opposes
the
idea of sending American troops to Liberia, saying an African
peacekeeping
force financed by the American government would be preferable.
"I'm
sympathetic to it," Mr. Walters said of the stance taken by TransAfrica
and
Africa Action. "But this letter makes them sound like the guys who
simply
want to beat up on Mugabe just because he took land from some white
people."
Mark Fancher, who heads the international affairs unit of the
National
Conference of Black Lawyers, raised similar concerns. He said Mr.
Mugabe's
critics neglect to note that he still has support among some
Zimbabweans,
even though he has been widely accused of rigging last year's
presidential
election. "The one thing nobody disputes is that, whether he won
or not,
Mugabe got a lot of votes," Mr. Fancher said. "This is an African
problem, a
Zimbabwean problem. For people who are really disconnected from
the
day-to-day lives of people in Zimbabwe to reach these kinds of
conclusions,
we don't feel that's appropriate."
But Mr. Fletcher
and Mr. Booker of Africa Action say Mr. Mugabe's supporters
are not paying
attention to what is happening on the ground. Much of the
seized farmland
that was intended for the poor has actually ended up in the
hands of Mr.
Mugabe's friends and political allies. Mr. Mugabe emphasizes
the importance
of redistributing land now, but during much of the 90's it
was not a priority
for his government, some of his supporters acknowledge.
He focused on the
issue, which resonates with many black voters only when it
became clear that
a powerful black opposition party was threatening his grip
on power. And
despite rhetoric to the contrary, the majority of victims of
political
violence in Zimbabwe are not white farmers, the police and human
rights
groups say. They are mostly ordinary black people who dared to
support or
vote for the opposition. Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, a senior member of
Zimbabwe's
opposition party, hailed the statement from TransAfrica and the
others as an
important step. But he wondered why it took so long for the
groups to speak
out. Mr. Booker said he, Mr. Fletcher and others had first
tried to work
behind the scenes, meeting with Zimbabwean diplomats and
urging them to
respect human rights and to initiate formal talks with the
opposition to
improve the deteriorating political situation. When that
failed, he said,
they wrote their letter. "Mugabe was my hero," said Mr.
Booker, who worked at
TransAfrica in the 80's and helped arrange Mr.
Mugabe's first visit to the
White House. "He was a liberator, the defiant
hero. Zimbabwe was a country
where we had a lot invested emotionally and
politically." "But we had to ask
ourselves: `Who are we in solidarity with
in southern Africa? The aging
heroes or the new African civil society?' he
said. "It's not just about
Zimbabwe. We have to be clear who our allies are.
We should not be standing
shoulder to shoulder with African governments who
are abusing their own
people. The time had arrived for us to take a public
stance."
Reuters
Mugabe warns Bush to stay out of Zimbabwe's affairs
Sat July
5, 2003 03:52 PM ET
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE, July 5 (Reuters)
- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on
Saturday southern African states
would reject any attempt by U.S. President
George W. Bush to interfere in
Zimbabwe's affairs when he visits Africa next
week.
"If he's coming to
dictate to us as to how we should run our countries, then
we will say: 'Go
back, go home Yankee'," Mugabe told supporters at a rally
in the southern
province of Masvingo. His remarks were carried by
state
television.
Last month, the United States urged southern African
states to put more
pressure on Mugabe to allow political change, warning that
unrest and
economic chaos in Zimbabwe would carry on threatening stability in
the
region if they did not act.
Bush will visit two of Zimbabwe's
neighbours, South Africa and Botswana,
during his July 7-12 trip to
Africa.
Washington has taken a hard line against Mugabe since he won
presidential
elections last year that Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) and several Western states denounced as
fraudulent.
Bush has said Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence
from Britain in
1980, is not a legitimate leader.
The Bush
administration has been trying to isolate Mugabe's
government
internationally, but Zimbabwe's neighbours have been reluctant to
do so.
Botswana and Angola said last month public criticism of Mugabe would
only
make him more intransigent.
MUGABE SALARY INCREASE
The
MDC, which has accused Mugabe of violence against its supporters, on
Saturday
condemned a government decision to raise the salaries of the
president and
senior government members by nearly 600 percent -- almost
double the official
inflation rate.
"While Mugabe looks after Mugabe, he is unable to do
anything for the
ordinary, suffering people of Zimbabwe," MDC spokesman Paul
Themba Nyathi
told Reuters.
Zimbabwe has been hit by a series of
strikes for higher pay -- the most
recent by junior doctors -- because of
surging consumer inflation, ranked as
one of the highest rates in the world.
Companies struggling in a harsh
business climate have failed to increase
wages to match rising costs.
Critics say Mugabe has ruined the economy
through 23 years of mismanagement,
causing chronic food and foreign currency
shortages and record unemployment
of more than 70 percent.
Mugabe
denies responsibility for the country's economic malaise and blames
it on
sabotage by local and international opponents angry over his seizure
of
white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
The official
Herald newspaper said Mugabe's salary would rise from Z$3
million a year to
Z$20.2 million (about U.S.$11,222 at black market rates or
$25,250 at
official rates).
In addition, Mugabe would receive more than two million
Zimbabwe dollars in
allowances, the Herald said, citing a government gazette
notice. A copy of
the gazette was not available on Saturday.
The
Zimbabwe dollar trades at around 1,800 against the U.S. dollar in a
thriving
black market -- more than double the official rate of 800.
Last month,
the MDC led a five-day strike against Mugabe's rule that shut
down industry
and commerce in the capital Harare.
Business Day
Bush pressures Mbeki on
Zim
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President
Thabo Mbeki must push harder for new elections and democratic rule
in
Zimbabwe, says United States President George Bush.
Speaking during an
interview with SABC television filmed at the White House
and broadcast in
South Africa on Friday evening, Bush said Mbeki should
insist the conditions
necessary for Zimbabwe to become prosperous again were
in
place.
"Insist that there be elections. Insist that democracy rule.
Insist that the
conditions necessary for that country to become prosperous
again are in
place," Bush said.
The US president was responding to a
question on "what you would like to see
President Thabo Mbeki do in Zimbabwe
that he's not already doing?".
The interview comes ahead of Bush's visit
to South Africa and four other
African countries next week. He will be the
first sitting Republican
president to make such a tour.
His comments
on Zimbabwe follow a recent call by US Secretary of State Colin
Powell for
South Africa to "play a stronger and more sustained role" in
resolving
matters in that country.
Bush told the SABC he agreed with Powell's
call.
"I certainly don't want to put any pressure on my friend (Mbeki).
But
Zimbabwe has not been a good case study for democracy in a very
important
part of the world.
"And we hope that not only Mr Mbeki, but
other leaders, convince the current
leadership to promote
democracy."
Asked if he thought "quiet diplomacy" could work, Bush said
he hoped any
diplomacy would work, but so far it had not.
He said
Zimbabwe was a "bad example".
"Let me give you one reason why. There are
a lot of starving people in
Sub-Saharan Africa, yet Zimbabwe used to be able
to grow more than it needed
to help deal with the starvation.
"We're a
nation that is interested in helping people that are starving.
We're going to
spend a billion dollars this year on programmes to help
the
hungry.
"It would be really helpful if Zimbabwe's economy were
such that it would
become a breadbasket again, a capacity to grow more food
that's needed so
that they could help deal with the hunger.
"And yet
the country is in such a condition that the agricultural sector of
its
economy is in shambles right now".
Questioned about the war against Iraq,
and the reaction this had drawn from,
among others, former president Nelson
Mandela, Bush said: "I did the right
thing."
"My job is to make sure
America is secure. And if some don't like the
tactics, that's the nature of a
free world where people can express their
opinion.
"I admire Nelson
Mandela ... I just happen to disagree with him on his view
about how best to
secure America.
"But you can be rest assured that if I think America is
threatened, I will
act," he said.
On speculation the US is poised to
send troops to join a multinational
peackeeping force in strife-torn Liberia,
Bush said he had not yet made a
decision on this.
"We're in the
process of determining the course of action necessary to see
that peace and
stability reign in Liberia, and some of our people are
meeting with Ecowas
(Economic Community of West African States) leaders
today, and I haven't made
a decision yet.
"The one thing that must happen is that Charles Taylor
has got to leave. The
condition for any kind of operation that stabilises the
country is for Mr
Taylor to leave the country, and hopefully we can achieve
that objective
diplomatically.
"Colin Powell is working closely with
(United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and others at the UN to prepare
the groundwork if possible for Mr.
Taylor's departure," Bush
said.
Sapa
MSNBC
Zimbabwe court orders date for vote
challenge
HARARE, July 5 — Zimbabwe's High Court has ordered its
registrar to set a
date by next week to hear the main opposition leader's
challenge to
President Robert Mugabe's contested 2002 re-election, one of his
lawyers
said on Saturday.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai filed
his challenge 15 months ago and his lawyers
applied last month for a date to
be set, suggesting the state had delayed the
case for fear Mugabe's victory
would be overturned.
''The judge
ruled yesterday that the registrar must set a date within
seven days,''
Tsvangirai's lawyer Adrian deBourbon told Reuters, saying the
hearing was
likely to start within about 45 days.
Tsvangirai wants a new election.
The opposition and several Western
countries said Mugabe won in 2002 through
fraud.
Tsvangirai, who faces two separate charges of treason for
alleged
activities against Mugabe, says he lost the 2002 presidential poll
because
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party harassed MDC supporters, blocked hundreds
of
thousands of voters and used corrupt methods to steal the
election.
Mugabe says he won the March vote fairly and accuses the
West of
trying to impose Tsvangirai as leader of the southern African state,
now
gripped by its worst political and economic crisis in more than two
decades.
National Post, Canada
Mugabe close to running out of gas
Kelly McParland
National Post
Saturday, July 05,
2003
There is a cheerfulness to Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper, as loyal an
organ of
state boosterism as Africa enjoys, which breezily observed one day
this week
that many of the capital's workers hadn't made it to work on
time.
The problem was the "unavailability of transport." There are no
buses
because there's no gas. There hasn't been gas in Zimbabwe for months,
so
people spend hours standing at bus stops waiting for a ride that isn't
going
to come, eventually giving up and going home, or setting off for a long
trek
on foot.
The gas dried up about the same time Libya realized it
wasn't going to get
paid for the fuel it's been sending under a deal signed
two years ago.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, an old revolutionary friend of
Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe, used to provide 70% of the country's supply and was
supposed to
receive sugar, beef and tobacco in return. But Zimbabwe, once
among Africa's
more reliable agricultural producers, can't feed itself, much
less send food
to Libya.
No gas is one thing. The bigger problem is
decrepitude. Rot is contagious,
and tends to work its way through the system
until pretty soon nothing works
at all and can't be fixed because no one has
any money. And no one can get
any money because nothing works. Zimbabwe has
it in spades.
Recognizing the danger, and the possibility that even
people accustomed to
23 years of Mr. Mugabe's rule may have a limit to their
patience, the
government has been trying, in its own special way, to remedy
the shortage.
Mainly it is doing so by restricting supply. For a time,
funeral operators
had ready access to fuel, funerals being more or less
necessary once people
die. But suddenly there was a rash of hearses turning
up at fuel depots,
many of them -- once attendants began to check --
noticeably lacking in
corpses. Now if there's no body, there's no
gas.
Long-distance travellers suffered a similar fate. With relatively
few gas
stations between towns, people commonly carry spare fuel in
containers. But
the black market opportunities were obvious to everyone, so
the government
banned gas being dispensed to any container other than the
actual vehicle
itself.
Still, scams proliferate. Old cars are towed to
gas stations to be filled at
the official rate, then the fuel is resold at a
higher rate.
Similarly, bus owners discovered they could make far more
money by reselling
their allotments at a mark-up than they ever could by
ferrying around
passengers. So they do a couple of runs, then quit for the
day and sell off
the surplus.
Some gas dealers simply claim they have
run dry, then sell to "bulk"
suppliers. Gasoline bought at the official price
can be sold for four or
five times the price on the "parallel"
market.
The government sought to counter this with a system of coupons.
Buses, which
are by far the main source of transport, would get gas coupons
only if they
produced certificates of fitness, road permits and other
documents.
But most of the buses couldn't pass the fitness test. A
shortage of spare
parts meant they couldn't make repairs, and the currency
crisis -- did I
mention the currency crisis? -- meant they couldn't buy more
parts.
The government tried again. The energy ministry ordered oil
companies to
import more fuel and bus companies raised fares to offset repair
costs. But
fewer people could afford the fares, so traffic declined and bus
operators
lost money.
"The commuters that are here today are those who
were not aware of the new
fares, and I can assure you there will be a reduced
number of people
boarding buses when they know of this," one bus operator
grumbled.
With few other options, Mr. Mugabe has been turning to friends
for help.
Reports in Zimbabwe indicate he approached France, the only
western country
which, for reasons fathomable only to President Jacques
Chirac, has remained
on amicable terms with his decrepit regime. Zimbabwe
would like a piece of
the action in Angola, where French interests have
multi-billion dollar oil
projects. He is also said to have tried Kuwait,
Sudan, Iran, South Africa,
Botswana and Nigeria, so far without much
luck.
So this week Mr. Mugabe set off for Libya to try and talk Col.
Gaddafi into
being more reasonable. Unable to produce even a few crops to
meet Zimbabwe's
existing gas bill, Mr. Mugabe has apparently taken to
bartering away
national assets.
Col. Gaddafi is driving a hard
bargain. Zimbabwe's Independent newspaper
says he is demanding the
government's shares in Petrozim, whose assets
include an oil pipeline running
to the capital, Harare. He'd also like some
service stations and Petrozim's
oil depot.
That may have been a bit rich even for Mr. Mugabe's blood.
When the talks
ended, the two sides issued a report indicating their energy
ministers had
met to "review the bilateral co-operation path and the ways to
reinforce
that co-operation in oil and investment in various economic
fields." There
was no reference to any firm agreements.
That doesn't
sound too promising for the folks down at the bus stop, waiting
for the rides
that won't come.
Not to despair though. Mr. Mugabe, in one of his regular
diatribes against
his foreign enemies, noted that at least Zimbabwe doesn't
have to worry
about being invaded by the United States because, unlike Iraq,
it doesn't
have any oil.
That ought to cheer things up.
©
Copyright 2003 National Post
SABC
Seven SA citizens arrested in Zim
released
July 05, 2003, 20:45
Seven of the
eight South African men who were arrested in
Zimbabwe in connection with
poaching have been released. Ronnie van Zyl, the
leader of the hunting party,
is however still in police custody. He
organised the hunting trip, and
apparently has concessions to hunt in
Zimbabwe.
Andries
Botha, the spokesperson for the group, says the released
men are on their way
to Beitbridge and are expected to return to South
Africa tomorrow. At this
stage it is not clear on what charges Van Zyl is
been
detained.
The group of 12, including four young boys between
the ages of
10 and 13, were arrested in a roadblock near Beitbridge on
Thursday. The
four boys were released earlier, and are already reunited with
their
families in Pretoria.
Daily News
State withdraws attempted murder charge against
farmer
MASVINGO – The state has
withdrawn charges
against Brian Andrew Cawood, a white commercial
farmer accused of trying to
kill a war veteran on his farm in Masvingo.
Cawood, 46, whose trial
was supposed to start on Thursday at the
Masvingo Magistrate Court, was
charged with the attempted murder of Sack
Maranda, whom he allegedly tried to
hit with a car.
The charges against him were withdrawn before
plea.
Withdrawing the charges, the state, led by Benson Taruvinga,
cited
lack of sufficient evidence against the farmer.
“The
evidence to show that the accused tried to kill this man is
insufficient so
we have decided to drop the charges levelled against him,”
he
said.
The state said the police officer who investigated the matter
did not
do a thorough job.
Cawood was accused of trying to kill
Maranda, one of the farmers
resettled under the government’s controversial
land reform programme, by
running him over with his Land Rover.
The state alleged that Cawood tried to hit Maranda with his motor
vehicle
while he was in a donkey-drawn scotch cart heading for his plot.
However, Cawood denied the charges, saying he did not intend to kill
the new
farmer and that the incident was the result of an accident.
The
court heard that the police officer who investigated the case did
not attend
the scene of the accident and based his investigation on the
statement given
to him by the complainant.
“The police officer was supposed to
attend the scene of the accident
and would have drawn a sketch plan of the
scene. He was also supposed to
treat this matter as an accident,” said
Taruvinga.
Own Correspondent
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Police reserve decision to ban NCA’s
all-party convention
POLICE yesterday backtracked on an earlier
decision to bar the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) from holding a
meeting of opposition
political parties in Masvingo and instead allowed
meeting to go ahead.
The law enforcement agency, which has in the
past prevented several
meetings by civic and opposition political groups, had
said the NCA meeting
could not go ahead because President Robert Mugabe would
be addressing a
rally in Chivi communal lands, about 70 kilometres west of
Masvingo, today.
According to NCA officials, the police had also
indicated that they
were not happy with some of the people invited to speak
at the convention
who included NCA chairperson Lovemore Madhuku and
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party youth chairman Nelson
Chamisa.
Under the government’s draconian Public Order and Security
Act (POSA),
Zimbabweans must seek permission from the police before holding
political
meetings.
But the NCA had vowed to defy the police ban
saying it would go ahead
with its meeting with or without police
permission.
Madhuku yesterday told the Daily News that the
convention was
proceeding at the Great Zimbabwe Hotel after he had secured an
agreement
with the police for the convention to go ahead as
planned.
“I have personally written to the police advising them
that we were
going ahead with the meeting despite their order, so they
finally phoned and
we reached an agreement,”
“I told them that
even under the POSA, there was no legal basis for
them to arrest us for
holding that meting,” he said.
Madhuku said all the expected guests
and participants had come just on
time to prepare to face the
police.
He said although two police officers were sent to also
attend the
convention, this would not deter them or even affect the contents
of their
deliberations.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka
yesterday refused to comment on the
matter.
Staff
Reporter
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Tsvangirai vows to keep up pressure on
Mugabe
OPPOSITION Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai yesterday vowed to intensify internal pressure to
force change in
the country saying regional powerhouse South Africa neither
had the will nor
courage to pressure President Robert Mugabe to agree to
negotiate a solution
to Zimbabwe’s crisis.
Tsvangirai, who was
last month jailed for two weeks after organising a
mass protest in a bid to
pressure Mugabe to the negotiating table, yesterday
told the Daily News that
it was misguided to believe that South Africa’s
President Thabo Mbeki would
ever pressure Mugabe to leave office.
He said: “To expect the South
South African government to openly
criticise Mugabe is to expect too
much.
“The international community should continue to exert
pressure in
order to bring Mugabe to the negotiating table but Zimbabweans
must know
that all the efforts to resolve the crisis in the country will only
bear
fruits when the internal forces continue to be visible. Our strategies
to
exert internal pressure will continue.”
Tsvangirai was
speaking ahead of talks between Mbeki and United States
of America President
George Bush next week at which Bush is expected to
pressure Pretoria to use
its economic leverage to pressure Mugabe to leave
power.
Bush
and his senior advisors have openly called on Mugabe to step down
and allow a
transitional government to take over and organise a fresh free
and fair
election.
The Americans say Mbeki, who is Mugabe’s most important
ally, must do
more to ensure the Zimbabwean leader agrees to leave
office.
But Mbeki has publicly said Pretoria will not prescribe a
solution to
its northern neighbour preferring to continue with his policy of
quiet
diplomacy, which critics say has dismally failed to achieve
meaningful
results.
Tsvangirai said that while South Africa had
the necessary economic
muscle to influence change in Zimbabwe, the strong
ties forged between that
country’s ruling African National Congress and
Mugabe’s own ruling ZANU PF
party were such that Pretoria would sympathise
with the Harare
administration.
The Zimbabwean opposition leader
said he could not dictate what role
South Africa should play in helping
resolve Zimbabwe’s crisis but said he
could only urge Mbeki and his
government to play a “constructive role”
because the two Southern African
nations are intricately linked to each
other.
Once a showcase
African state at independence in 1980, Zimbabwe is
mired in its worst
economic, political and social crisis, which critics
blame on Mugabe’s
23-year rule.
A controversial land reform plan under which the
government seized
productive farms from white farmers without paying
compensation and
redistributed the farms to landless blacks is largely blamed
for causing
food shortages in the country because the government did not
provide the
peasants with inputs or skills training to maintain food
production.
The International Monetary Fund, other key trading and
development
partners have, meanwhile, abandoned Zimbabwe because of
differences with the
government on fiscal policy and governance
issues.
Meanwhile, High Court judge Ben Hlatshwayo yesterday
granted an order
sought by the MDC compelling the Registrar of the High Court
to set a date
for the hearing of an application by the opposition party
challenging Mugabe
’s controversial re-election last year.
Tsvangirai filed the election petition 15 months ago disputing Mugabe’
s
victory citing what he termed “massive electoral irregularities
and
pre-election violence.” The court is still to set a date for the
hearing.
South African lawyer Jeremy Gauntlet, who represented
Tsvangirai, told
the court that his client had requested a preliminary
five-day sitting for
the hearing to deal with legal and constitutional issues
relating to the MDC
’s election petition.
Gauntlet said an
election petition was a matter that should be heard
urgently and the delays
in hearing the MDC’s election petition were
tantamount to denying Tsvangirai
his right to justice.
Staff
Reporter
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Civil society needs to challenge party
talks
There is a blind side to the manner in which civil society
in
Zimbabwe has begun to operate. Gone are the times of concerted
action
towards a common democratic objective. There is the occasional
historic
pride about how civil society strongly influenced the “No” vote
during the
constitutional referendum in 2000.
There is the
regular pointing of fingers at which civic organisation
is doing the right
thing and which one is in pursuit of individual agendas
that do not serve the
people of Zimbabwe. And as all this is going on, the
newspapers scream
headlines of “exit plans”, “transition plans” and on how
ZANU PF and the MDC
are talking about “talks”.
Civil society is in a quandary that is
tantamount to self-betrayal.
Like the citizens of the country, civil society
has relegated itself to the
role that Zimbabweans are so akin to when they
watch the national football
team fail again and again to qualify for the
African Cup of Nations or the
World Cup.
There is no public
engagement by civil society about the transition
talk that is currently going
on in Zimbabwe. The various interests that
civil society organisations (CSOs)
represent are rarely a talking point
within the ambivalent talk about
President Robert Mugabe’s exit.
The latter has been focused solely
on power sharing agreements between
Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and not on the
principles of democracy that civil society is
meant to uphold.
At best, civic organisations will issue paid-for
Press statements in
the private media to comment around the issues of the
arrests of political
leaders as well as in pursuit of the usual individual
organisational
agendas.
It is no longer playing its crucial role
of always keeping the people’
s interests above the political battlefield and
addressing issues of
political principle. Because of this, some important
points need to be
raised around the role of civil society in the purported
political
transition that the media has been overplaying to the Zimbabwean
populace on
a daily basis.
The first point relates to the
impressions that CSOs have been
creating around the issue of transition. The
position of the majority of
CSOs is that there shall inevitably be some form
of political transition
settlement between ZANU PF and the MDC.
So convinced are some CSOs that they do not envision a role for civil
society
in the whole transition fray. Observer status is good for
election
supervision but it doesn’t begin to address as critical an issue
as
political transition.
There is no need for one to go into the
superlatives of what occurred
in South Africa as the situation there does not
apply to Zimbabwe. Neither
is there need to prioritise matters of
international networking in order to
acquire a desired
transition.
The essential question is: what does civil society want
out of the
transition, if ever it is to occur? This is a question that
touches at the
core of the values that civil society has been espousing for
the last 23
years.
All the principles that are the bedrock of
civil society must be
brought to the fore in this current political
opportunity that is presenting
itself, even if there is no confidence in
transition ever really occurring.
The assumption that the talk of
political transition is about the
sharing of power between two political
parties is a misleading one. The
people of Zimbabwe are fighting for
democracy. This must be the basis of the
entrance of civil society in the
transition talks.
It is an entrance which must of necessity
generate public
participation in drafting some of the terms and the
anticipated changes to
the political environment in our country. If there is
no public
participation, then the transition process is
unsustainable.
The second point that follows closely on the heels
of the first, is
that of the failure of civil society and the opposition to
build a
mass-based social movement.
From the formation of the
MDC to present, the call as well as the
anticipation was that now there would
be a people-based mass movement that
would consistently act in defence of the
democratic wishes of the people.
That did not occur. The opposition
went the way of elections, thus
taking upon itself the burden of translating
the struggle for democracy
through the acquisition of positions of influence
in society, ie Members of
Parliament and President.
In
retrospect this can be argued to have been a strategic move at the
time
because of the assumed resilience of the Zimbabwean people to
electoral
violence and in their willingness to go to the voting booth in
order to
effect democratic change.
The essential and oft
overlooked issue, however, is that there is no
organic mass movement in the
country at present. Indeed, civil society has
structures and so does the
opposition, but most of the time these structures
are inactive. They rise out
of their slumber to effect demonstrations,
organise workshops and attend
rallies on behalf of the leadership. There is
a limited sense of ownership of
the mechanisms of bringing about the
struggle for democracy.
There is also limited political consciousness on the part of the
everyday
person about strategies of struggle to the extent that there is no
sense of
ownership about ethodologies of effecting the struggle.
As a
result, there is no willingness to put the struggle before self
within the
Zimbabwean populace, even though it remains conscious of the need
for
democratic change.
Civil society must have felt that its role had
been played out to the
full after the formation of the MDC. The mobilising
strength of the MDC was
all but too obvious and civil society began to ebb in
its community-based
presence.
At the same time, there was the
shrinking political space because of
numerous repressive laws that were
brought through Parliament and,
therefore, civil society felt the real battle
was now left to the opposition
to challenge for political space and if
successful, the latter would then
create a conducive environment in which
civil society would operate.
This, in our view, was a mistake that
has contributed to the diluting
of the struggle for democracy to one of bread
and butter as well as one of a
false anticipation of the power of spontaneity
in Zimbabwe’s citizens.
Civil society still has its work cut out.
It has to demand certain
principles to be observed in as drawn a process as
transition. Instead of
applauding these talks as a solution, there must be
engagements of the two
powerful political parties by CSOs on issues relating
to reform of the
constitution and creation of independent regulatory
authorities for the
media, elections, reconciliation and
education.
If the talks are left to the opposition and ruling
parties alone, then
the people’s struggle for democracy would have been
negated and true to the
sceptics, our struggle would never be recognised as a
struggle for democracy
but one for power as an end.
Takura
Zhangazha is a member of the Media Institute of Southern
Africa
By Takura Zhangazha
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Doctors resume strike
action
ZIMBABWE’s junior and middle-level doctors yesterday
resumed
industrial action to press the government to review their salaries
after a
one week period set by the Labour Court for the government and the
doctors
to resolve their salary dispute expired yesterday.
Hospital Doctors’ Association president Phibeon Manyanga told the
Daily News
yesterday that members of his association were downing tools
because the
Public Service Commission (PSC) had not addressed complaints by
doctors that
a job evaluation exercise by the government had left them
earning less than
before.
Manyanga said: “The doctors are back on strike with
immediate effect
as our employer the PSC has not offered us anything.” The
PSC is the
employer of all government workers except those serving in the
armed forces.
The Labour Court had last month given the PSC up
until 4pm yesterday
to find a solution to the doctors’
grievances.
PSC chairman Mariyawanda Nzuwa could not be reached for
comment on the
matter by the time of going to press last night.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa could also not be reached for
comment on
the issue.
Doctors last month went on strike complaining that the
job evaluation
exercise that the government says was meant to rectify salary
distortions
affecting its 140 000-plus workers had seen some doctors’
salaries being
slashed, while those of the junior doctors had remained
stagnant.
The Labour Court directed the PSC to work out a new
salary structure
for the junior and middle doctors, who are the backbone of
Zimbabwe’s ailing
public health sector.
Manyanga accused the PSC
of failing to act on the court’s order. He
said: “It is also sad to note that
the PSC officials have not bothered to
communicate to us what their position
is concerning the delay in announcing
the new structures. And as a result we
cannot take them seriously.”
Under the new government salary
structure, the lowest paid doctor will
earn $167 000 a month, which is far
below the minimum $2 million junior
doctors are demanding.
The
current industrial action by the doctors is likely further strain
operations
at all public hospitals that are facing serious staff and
drug
shortages.
Staff Reporter
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Divisions rock ZANU PF over
candidate
THERE is division within the ruling ZANU PF party over
the choice of
a candidate to represent the party in the forthcoming Makonde
parliamentary
by-election with rival party stalwarts said to be backing their
own
political allies to represent ZANU PF in the poll scheduled for next
month,
The Daily News established this week.
ZANU PF sources
told this newspaper on the sidelines of a meeting of
the party’s Central
Committee meeting held in Harare this week that senior
politicians from
Mashonaland West province were making frantic moves to
impose candidates on
the constituency but were facing stiff resistance from
the local Chief
Makonde, who is said to be insisting that his people be
allowed to select a
candidate of their choice.
Both ZANU PF national chairman John
Nkomo and the party’s political
commissar
Elliot Manyika could
not be reached for comment on the emerging split
in the party over who should
represent it in the upcoming poll.
Mashonaland West, in which
Makonde constituency lies, is the home
province of President Robert Mugabe
and had until now not seen factional
fighting that has weakened the ruling
party in other provinces such as
Manicaland and Masvingo.
According to the sources, Mugabe’s sister Sabina was trying to push
for her
son Leo Mugabe to represent ZANU PF in the by-election.
Leo is the
former chairman of the Zimbabwe Football Association where
he was booted out
over alleged maladministration.
Another faction allegedly headed by
ZANU PF’s information and
publicity secretary Nathan Shamuyarira was said to
be backing another party
activist for the seat ahead of Mugabe’s
nephew.
Local government Minister Ignatius Chombo and Parliament
deputy
speaker Edna Madzongwe were reportedly canvassing for Lashiwe Murefu,
an
administrator at the government provincial hospital in Chinhoyi, to
stand
for ZANU PF in the ballot in which the ruling party battles it out with
the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) .
ZANU PF
chairman for Mashonaland West Phillip Chiyangwa is meanwhile
said to have
thrown his weight behind yet another candidate ,Artwell
Seremani. The
outspoken Chiyangwa, who is also the Member of Parliament for
Chinhoyi
constituency, is said to be close to Seremani.
The seat for Makonde
constituency fell vacant following the death
early this year of Swithun
Mombeshora, who in the run-up to the 2000
Parliamentary elections was imposed
on the constituency after the politburo
forced journalist Kindness Paradza to
step down.
Paradza, who sources yesterday said enjoys the support
of Chief
Nemakonde, has no godfather in the province
Paradza is
however seen as a dark horse in the race to represent ZANU
PF in the
by-election because of his perceived close association with the
party’s
secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa.
One of the power
brokers in ZANU PF, Mnangangwa is widely seen as the
leading candidate to
succeed Mugabe when and if Zimbabwe’s ageing leader
steps down. ZANU PF
insiders say the split on the choice of candidate to
represent the ruling
party in one of its safest constituencies was also
linked to the battle to
succeed Mugabe quietly raging within the party.
Competing camps
were battling to ensure their allies occupy
influential posts throughout the
party structure, the sources said.
A rural constituency that has
overwhelmingly voted for ZANU PF in
previous elections, Makonde is relatively
safe for the ruling party with
whoever is chosen to represent ZANU PF in the
by-election almost assured of
victor.
The sources said senior
party politicians were expected to sent a team
to Makonde next week tasked
with coming up with a candidate through
consensus but several other ZANU PF
party members from Mashonaland West
expressed fear the party chiefs would
merely impose a candidate of their
choice without consulting ordinary party
members.
According to the findings by the provincial team
dispatched to Makonde
in May with the task of building a consensus over who
should represent the
party in the by-election, the people in the constituency
are said to have
made it clear they wanted to be allowed to select a
candidate of their
choice.
Sources said the MDC was closely
watching the infighting in the ZANU
PF camp before they field their own
candidate in the by-elections.
Staff Reporter
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Zvishavane proposes massive tariff hike
to meet local polls bill
ZVISHAVANE – The Zvishavane Town Council
has proposed a 100 percent
hike in rates and tariffs in order to raise money
to fund local government
elections scheduled to take place sometime next
month.
Town chief executive officer Alfonce Chimombe said the local
authority
required about $13 million to cover the cost of running elections
in the
small mining town.
The new rates and tariffs would be
effective from 1 July if there are
no objections from residents, Chimombe
said.
“Any objections must be lodged in writing not later than 30
days of
publication of this notice,” a statement released by the town
council
yesterday read in part.
Local government authorities are
this year expected to finance
elections of mayors, councillors and board
chairpersons in their areas. In
the past the government has provided funds
for the holding of the elections.
But several of the local
authorities, who are failing to provide
adequate services to residents
because they have no money, have indicated
they might be unable to fund the
elections.
For example in Zvishavane the town council is battling
to raise money
for the refurbishment of the town’s overstretched water
reticulation system.
Residents had to go without clean drinking
water for about eight days
after the town’s ageing water pump stations broke
down and cut supplies to
several parts of the town.
The
council’s water reticulation system was installed in 1979 and most
of the
equipment has outlived its lifespan.
“We inherited an old system
which needs to be totally revamped if we
are to provide quality service to
residents,” said Chimombe.
In the proposed budget, water charges
are expected to increase from
$51 per cubic metre to $99.45 per cubic metre
while fines for residents
found tampering with water metres are expected to
increase from $8 000 to
$15 000.
Licences for wholesale shops
are also expected to double from $5 000
to $12 500 a month.
The
council also plans to increase cemetery fees from $200 to $500
while burial
fees for weekends will be pegged at $6 000.
Hardest hit is the
town’s lifeline, Shabanie Mine, whose monthly fixed
water charge was pegged
at $500 000 up from $120 000. The asbestos-producing
Shabanie Mine is the
largest employer in Zvishavane.
Own Correspondent
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Majority struggle as poverty
rises
‘A combination of two successive years of drought, the
government’s
fast-track land acquisition programme, the impact of HIV/AIDS
and a collapse
in social services left more than half the population in need
of food aid in
2002 . . .’
JOHANNESBURG – The tide of
statistics marking Zimbabwe’s economic
decline – inflation at 300 percent,
6.5 million in need of food aid, 70
percent unemployment, “the world’s
fastest shrinking economy” – eventually
blur into
incomprehension.
But behind the figures is the struggle by ordinary
families to put
food on the table, send their children to school, and look
after elderly
relatives.
The hardships seem a far cry from when
Zimbabwe was the bread basket
of Southern Africa, its infrastructure and
skilled workforce the envy of the
region.
According to the World
Bank, Zimbabwe has been experiencing an
economic and social crisis since
1997, induced by declining prices for its
key exports, poor economic
policies, a large fiscal deficit and loss of
investor confidence arising from
uncertainty about domestic policies.
A combination of two
successive years of drought, the government’s
fast-track land acquisition
programme, the impact of HIV/AIDS and a collapse
in social services left more
than half the population in need of food aid in
2002.
Recovery
has been delayed this year due to another season of erratic
rainfall. In
addition, the limited availability of seed and fertiliser as a
result of
foreign exchange shortages, and the newly settled farmers not
being able to
utilise all their land due to a lack of adequate capital and
inputs has
worsened the situation, according to a Food and
Agriculture
Organisation/World Food Programme (FAO/WFP) assessment
mission.
The agencies estimated that 4.4 million people in rural
areas and 1.1
million in urban areas would require food assistance in
2003/04.
The urban poor have been largely overlooked in Zimbabwe’s
food
emergency. UN agencies and NGOs are now in the process of preparing an
urban
vulnerability assessment to map and monitor poverty levels outside the
rural
areas. “Food security within the urban and peri-urban areas continues
to be
an issue of major concern due to the rapidly declining economy,” noted
the
latest Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation report by the UN’s Relief
and
Recovery Unit.
“What’s clear is that the urban vulnerable
definitely need to be
included in humanitarian relief efforts this
year.
“The indications are that the coping mechanisms, which are
generally
more robust (than in rural areas), are being eroded, and some of
the effects
we’ve seen in the rural areas – children dropping out of school
and child
labour – we’re seeing in the towns,” Chris McIvor of Save the
Children Fund
said.
“The million dollar question is, how this
can be done? I would imagine
it would be a mix of ensuring that for those
that can afford it there is
enough maize in the shops, as part of a joint
exercise between the private
sector and the government, and a social safety
net programme for the most
vulnerable, but it would be a complex
exercise.”
Among the challenges would be the identification and
targeting of
beneficiaries in communities with much less cohesion than rural
areas, the
issue of government price controls on the staple maize-meal, and
the
distribution monopoly of the Grain Marketing Board.
The last
vulnerability assessment undertaken in Harare was in May 2001
by the
US-funded Famine Early Warning Network and the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe
(CCZ).
At that time, the assessment team calculated the Food
Poverty Line
(FPL), the minimum expenditure to ensure that each member of a
four-person
household received 2.100 calories, as $2 650. Roughly 10 percent
to 20
percent of households in Harare fell below the FPL.
The
CCZ priced a low-income “food basket” for a family of four at $11
000.
Between 60 to 70 percent of households could not afford to meet those
costs,
the assessment report said.
The poorest households in May 2001 were
regarded as those earning less
than $4 000 per month. They,
characteristically, had only one income source,
either because there was only
one able-bodied person of working age in the
household, or because of a lack
of capital to start up an informal sector
activity.
Some
households in this group included formal sector workers at the
lowest salary
levels, such as security guards, shop assistants and
factory
workers.
They often had only two meals per day and most
of their calories came
from maize-meal, with a small amount from cooking oil,
sugar and,
occasionally, dried fish. The households typically said that they
could not
afford health care or transport.
“Households were
clear about the types of shocks that cause them
problems. Everyone complained
about inflation and the fact that they are
constantly battling to keep up
with rising prices.
“Associated with this were specific complaints
about devaluation,
increases in owners’ rates on housing and electricity
costs, and rising bus
fares,” the assessment report found.
“For
those working in the formal sector, the threat of retrenchment
and
unemployment is a constant worry. In the informal sector, households
fear a
crackdown by the local authorities on ‘illegal’ businesses, which can
result
in businesses losing goods, tools and/or capital.
“Households in
both the formal and informal sectors are vulnerable to
the illness or death
of, or divorce from, the main income earner, and this
tends to result in a
major drop in standards of living.
“AIDS is a particular threat in
this regard. Large, unexpected
expenditures – such as on funerals or
medicines – also cause major problems
for poor households, often forcing them
into debt,” the report noted.
Since the 2001 assessment, there has
been a significant deterioration
in the economy. The large-scale commercial
farming sector now produces only
about one-tenth of its output in the 1990s,
the FAO/WFP mission report said,
which has had serious knock-on effects for
the agriculture-dependent
country.
Most basic products and
services are in short supply – bank notes,
fuel, electricity, and the foreign
exchange to allow the country to import
the goods and inputs it
needs.
Production of the main staple, maize, is estimated at
803.000 mt this
season, 61 percent up on last year, but 46 percent lower than
in 2000/01,
said the FAO/WFP report.
In May this year inflation
reached 300 percent. The government had
projected that it would fall to 90
percent.
According to the CCZ, the cost of a food basket for a
family of four
has jumped to $125 000, but an estimated 80 percent of formal
sector workers
earn less than $20 000 a month.
The government
introduced price controls in November 2001 in a bid to
protect consumers from
rising costs on basic commodities.
In November 2002 price controls
were extended to cover a wider range
of goods, despite protest from
manufacturers who complained that they could
not cover their production
costs.
The authorities, however, were unable to enforce the
regulations, and
the result was a boom in the black market and shortages in
official retail
outlets.
Under the National Economic Revival
Programme introduced earlier this
year, price controls have been eased and an
unofficial devaluation allowed.
New minimum wages are to be
introduced, along with periodic utility
cost adjustments. The measures are
expected to further fuel inflation in the
short term.
At the
beginning of June, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
suspended Zimbabwe’s
voting rights over differences with the government on
economic policy and
arrears in debt repayments.
“The Zimbabwean authorities introduced
some policy measures since
early 2003 to arrest the decline in economic
activity, including a
devaluation of the exchange rate of the Zimbabwean
dollar from $55 to $824
per US dollar for most transactions, adjustments in
fuel and electricity
tariffs, rolling back price controls, and raising
interest rates
moderately,” an IMF statement said.
“However,
the authorities have not adopted the comprehensive and
consistent policies
needed to address Zimbabwe’s serious economic problems.”
–
IRIN
Daily News Saturday 5 July
Hunt for Chipangano
fugitives
POLICE have launched a manhunt for 10 members of the
notorious
Chipangano vigilante group that has been terrorising residents in
Harare’s
Mbare high-density suburb, The Daily News learnt
yesterday.
The 10 fugitives escaped arrest during a raid last
Sunday on their
base in Mbare in which 20 other gangsters were nabbed by the
police’s
anti-terrorist Support Unit squad.
The police, who in
the past have virtually stood by while Chipangano
harrassed members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party, acted against the
group following repeated reports by residents that
they were being harassed,
robbed and sometimes tortured by members of the
gang.
A Zimbabwe
National Army soldier was also severely attacked and
wounded allegedly by the
Chipangano gangsters, a development some residents
believe could
have led the police to crack down on the group.
Chipangano, whose
members have assaulted MDC supporters and forcibly
evicted some from their
homes, claims to have strong links to the ruling
ZANU PF party.
The ruling party denies links with the group.
According to
witnesses, armed police swooped on Chipanagano’s Magaba
Hostels headquarters
early last Sunday morning, surprising the gangsters,
several of whom
were
arrested on the spot.
A Mbare resident, who spoke
on condition he was not named, said: “They
(Chipangano) were taken unawares
and they were surprised when the police
made a go at them.
“They
tried to seek cover in the public but one woman who was with the
police
seemed to know them very well and she kept pointing them out as they
were
flushed out from the
public.”
Police spokesman Andrew
Phiri yesterday refused to take questions on
the police crackdown on
Chipangano. Phiri
referred this reporter to another police officer,
Oliver Mandipaka,
who in turn said he was too busy to entertain questions on
the issue.
But a police officer at Harare Central police station
said the
law-enforcement agency, which had been heavily criticised for
inaction
against Chipangano, had stepped up efforts to arrest the remaining
10
members of the group in a bid to cripple its reign of terror.
The policeman said: “We are looking for 10 others. Once we get those
then we
know the group is crippled. Those arrested are still locked up.”
Some residents expressed relief yesterday that the police had finally
moved
against Chipangano but many said they were afraid of reprisals once
the
gangsters were released from police custody.
Last Saturday, before
the police pounced on Chipangano, 20 families
that were accused by the group
of belonging to the MDC were thrown out of
their homes at Nenyere
flats.
In typical fashion, the gangsters allegedly demanded a
minimum of $10
000 from each of their victims before they could allow them to
return to
their homes.
Members of the Chipangano group are also
said to have disrupted last
month a funeral wake for Tichaona
Kaguru.
He was an MDC activist who was allegedly abducted and
murdered by
state security agents during mass protests organised by the
opposition party
last month.
Staff Reporter
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 2:24 PM
Dear Family and Friends,
All Zimbabwe's eyes, hearts and hopes will be
directed towards South Africa in the coming week as US President George Bush
meets with President Thabo Mbeki. Everyone here is talking about the visit,
wondering what the American President can possibly say to Mbeki to persuade him
to abandon his so called "quiet diplomacy" over the horrific state of
everything in Zimbabwe.
For nearly three and half years Zimbabweans have
felt so utterly betrayed by the South African president. Mbeki has not
once condemned the seizure of land which resulted in over half a million
destitute farm workers and 70% of the country's population dependant on World
Food Aid. When it became common knowledge that the main beneficiaries
of land grabs were Zimbabwean ministers, politicians and army, police and
security personnel, Mbeki said nothing. While over 200 people have been murdered
for their involvement in opposition politics (only 12 of whom were white people)
Mbeki has said nothing. When evidence was given that people were beaten and
tortured by police and state officials, when members of the opposition were
prevented from holding rallies or even openly wearing MDC T shirts, Mbeki said
nothing. When presidential elections were condemned by the international
community as being flawed last year, Mbeki said nothing. When legislation was
introduced which severely restricts Zimbabweans' freedom of speech, movement,
association and even worship, Mbeki did nothing. As Zimbabwe has slowly sold
or given our farm land, hotels, hunting concessions and fuel stations to
Libya, whose own President has been in power for a staggering 33 years, Thabo
Mbeki has sat back and watched, saying that Zimbabweans must resolve their own
problems. Thabo Mbeki has clearly forgotten who helped him get to power. He has
forgotten that apartheid was not only broken by South Africa but by massive help
from almost every country in the world. President George Bush and his team have
an awesome task ahead of them and there are 11 million Zimbabweans who will be
hanging on his every word and move. We feel like Bush is our last hope to talk
sense to Africa's leaders. At the very least we want Mbeki to be openly
honest about our horrors and admit that his black brothers over the border
are dying and being tortured while he does and says nothing.
Ordinary Zimbabweans are not the only ones who will
be watching President George Bush this coming week. Our government are already
bracing themselves for what may be about to happen. Addressing his closest
support group in the form of members of his politburo this week, President
Mugabe said: "When Bush visits it shouldn't send tremors to your spines. I
understand there are shivers in some of our circles. Would he dare do to us what
he did in Iraq? Of course not, he knows that the situations are different. And
anyway we don't have the oil that Iraq does, nor do we have the weapons of mass
destruction... ."
How I wish that Presidents Mbeki and
Bush could have been with me this afternoon as I went to visit Jane,
the woman who was tortured with a hot steel bar when she worked on our farm
in 2000. Jane was burned across her upper lip because she could not produce
a membership card for the ruling party. The scars from her horror will be
with Jane forever and it is always very humbling to visit her, witness her
mental healing and perhaps give her something to ease her burdens. After reading
about Jane in "African Tears" a woman in South Africa sent me a small wrist
watch to give to her. Jane's hand shook as she opened the parcel, her smile
split her face and she danced, ululated, sang and wrapped her arms around
me saying again and again that she hadn't been so happy for 3 years, since
that dreadful day. The people like Jane are the ones who have lost so much in
Zimbabwe's hell, they are the real people, the ones whom these world Presidents
need to meet if they are ever to understand what's been going on here. If
only they could, they would see it has not been about land or race, just
political power.