Zimbabwe to conduct third population census
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Xinhuanet 2002-07-08 14:33:11 HARARE, July 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwe will
conduct its third population census since independence from August 18 to 22 this
year, according to the Herald on Monday.
As part of the preparation, the government officially opened a population
census training workshop at Harare Polytechnic last week.
Participants at the workshop, which will run until July 17, were drawn from
all the government departments.
Census information officer Ronica Gudo was quoted as saying that despite
the socio-economic changes that the country went through, the government would
train enough people to cover the whole country to ensure that everybody is
counted.
The first and second censuses were conducted in 1982 and 1992
respectively. Unlike in the previous censuses, which received substantial donor
assistance, the government will conduct the 2002census on its own.
The population census provides data on the demographic and related
socio-economic characteristic of the population at national and sub-national
levels.
It is also used for planning and implementing development programs such as
housing, provision of water, and sanitation.
The Scotsman
Harare treason witness in Diana fraud
Jacqui
Goddard
A FORMER Israeli intelligence agent at the centre of treason
accusations
against Zimbabwe's opposition leader is being investigated by
British police
for allegedly attempting to sell false information about the
death of Diana,
Princess of Wales, for £500,000.
Ari Ben-Menashe,
whose hotly disputed "evidence" in the Zimbabwe case could
send the
opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to the gallows, is accused of
trying to
convince Mohammed al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, into paying for
information
three years ago.
He is said to have approached Mr Fayed in 1999 with
claims he had evidence
the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, had plotted
to kill Diana. The
princess died in a Paris car crash in August 1997, along
with Mr Fayed's son
Dodi.
"Subsequent investigations established that
the Mossad conspiracy theory was
nonsense and the matter was reported to
police," said Mr Fayed's spokesman,
Chester Stern.
News of the alleged
deception, which Scotland Yard has confirmed is still
under investigation,
casts fresh doubts over the reliability of Mr
Ben-Menashe's evidence in the
case against Mr Tsvangirai. That case centres
on a grainy and dubiously
edited video purporting to show Mr Tsvangirai
discussing a plot with Mr
Ben-Menashe to assassinate President Robert
Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai,
whose popularity had threatened to unseat Mr Mugabe at
elections in March,
denies the accusations. The opposition leader claims he
was set up by Mr
Ben-Menashe, who has admitted to being a long-standing
friend of Mr Mugabe
.
The shadow justice minister, David Coltart, said yesterday: "We are
fast
building a strong picture of Ben-Menashe not exactly being a man of
good
standing."
The Canadian government yesterday confirmed that an
inquiry into if Mr
Tsvangirai might have a case to answer in Canada for
hatching the alleged
murder conspiracy with Mr Ben-Menashe in Montreal has
come to nothing. "The
investigation carried out by the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police has been
closed because I understand that all investigative avenues
were exhausted,"
said a foreign affairs spokeswoman, Marie-Christine
Lilkoff.
It has also been claimed that Mr Ben-Menashe's Canadian-based
consultancy
firm, Dickens & Madson, played a role in illegally trading
weapons for
diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A former
Mossad operative, Mr Ben-Menashe was also accused of lying under
oath during
the Iran-Contra affair in the United States and was dubbed a
"notorious and
chronic liar" by the Jerusalem Post after selling false
stories about
Israel's atomic weapons.
Daily News
Makoni says fixed exchange rate policy undermining
export sector
7/8/02 8:25:44 AM (GMT +2)
By
Columbus Mavhunga
Dr Simba Makoni, the Minister of Finance and
Economic Development, has
said the absence of "a rational, credible and
predictable exchange rate" is
undermining the export
sector.
Makoni said the government's fixed exchange rate is
failing to
stimulate the export sector to generate the much-needed foreign
currency.
In an interview with The Daily News on Friday, Makoni
said: "I agree
that our fixed exchange rate is a major disincentive to the
generation of
foreign currency."
The 21-month-old fixed exchange
policy has resulted in an acute
shortage of foreign currency. The Zimbabwe
dollar is pegged at $55 against
the United States dollar, but fetches up to
$800 on the open market.
Exporters have complained that their
businesses were no longer viable
as they were sourcing foreign currency for
raw materials on the black market
while their remittance for the exports were
pegged on the official rate.
"There is need for a rational,
credible and predictable exchange rate.
Our failure to do that has undermined
the export sector which generates
foreign currency," Makoni
said.
He refused to say why the government was not willing to
devalue the
currency so that the export sector becomes competitive on the
world market.
Makoni's remarks come amid reports that there is a
plot to oust him
because his fiscal policy to shore up the tottering economy
is not going
down well in the ruling Zanu PF party circles.
Makoni and Dr Leonard Tsumba, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor,
are said
to be calling for a devaluation and the introduction of an official
exchange
rate based on inflation differentials between Zimbabwe and its
trading
partners.
This would bring out a commercial rate based on
prevailing
macro-economic fundamentals.
Asked about the plot,
Makoni said: "I only read about it in the Press
and I am not aware of it. But
maybe as the person being planned to be ousted
I will be the last person to
know."
Zanu PF is reportedly against devaluation as that would push
up
inflation and further dent its waning popularity.
But
economic commentators have been arguing that the dollar is
overvalued by more
than 120 percent and there is an urgent need to devalue
it.
Devaluation would see foreign currency starting to trickle into the
reserves,
thereby stemming the thriving parallel market.
A myriad of exchange
rates - for the gold support system, the tobacco
support programme, the fixed
official exchange rate, as well as various
other unofficial rates - have a
major distorting effect on the well-being of
the economy.
"Exporters, who are the major earners of foreign exchange, are not
averse to
a single reasonable exchange rate system that recognises a fair
return on
their exports," said the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
president,
Jacob Dube, last week.
"We believe that a solution to the present
problem of the multiple
exchange rate valuation system should take into
consideration the interests
of all foreign currency earners and not just some
of them."
Daily News
Police refuse to shed light on MDC activists'murder
docket
7/8/02 8:50:34 AM (GMT +2)
By Pedzisai
Ruhanya Chief Reporter
WAYNE Bvudzijena, the police spokesperson,
on Thursday refused to say
why the police have not handed over to the
Attorney General (AG)'s Office a
docket on Joseph Mwale of the CIO and Tom
Kainos "Kitsiyatota" Zimunya, a
war veteran, the alleged murderers of two MDC
activists in the June 2000
parliamentary election
campaign.
Bvudzijena said: "Even if I was not on leave, I
was not going to give
you a comment."
Bharat Patel, the deputy
Attorney General, yesterday said he had told
the police he was still waiting
for the docket more than two years after the
incident happened.
Patel said the director of public prosecutions in the AG's Office
on
Wednesday wrote to the senior staff officer responsible for crime at
the
Police General Headquarters asking him to send the docket his
office.
Patel said: "I have checked with the director of public
prosecutions
who advised me that he had written to the senior staff officer
responsible
for crime to hand over the docket to the AG's
Office."
In May, Patel said the AG's Office had written to ask the
police for
the docket because they wanted to study it before taking
action.
But more than a month has passed without police
action.
Chiminya and Mabika were allegedly killed by Mwale and
Zimunya in
April 2000 at Murambinda growth point in Buhera while campaigning
for Morgan
Tsvangirai, the MDC president, in the run-up to the June 2000
parliamentary
election.
In July last year, Andrew Chigovera, the
AG, ordered the police to
investigate the murders after being instructed by
the retired High Court
judge, Justice James Devittie.
Devittie
made the order in May last year after Mwale and Zimunya were
named as the
alleged killers in the on-going election petitions in the High
Court.
Daily News
Gasela blames Made for food crisis
7/8/02
8:42:32 AM (GMT +2)
By Rhodah Mashavave
RENSON
Gasela, the MDC shadow minister for agriculture has blamed the
government's
chaotic land reform programme and its reluctance to listen to
advice from
other sectors for the current food shortages in the
country.
Last year, Gasela warned the government there
would be a shortage of
maize but Joseph Made, the Minister of Land, Rural
Resettlement and
Agriculture, then vehemently denied Gasela's assertions as
false.
Made insisted the nation had enough food reserves to last
until the
next harvest and there was no need for food imports.
But since November there has been an acute shortage of maize and wheat
stocks
are almost depleted.
"Last year in April, I warned the government
there would be a shortage
of maize but the government ignored the warning.
Now the State has turned to
accusing the MDC of causing all these shortages,"
Gasela told a Press
conference on Friday.
He said the shortage
of bread has been caused by the disastrous
fast-track land programme which
prevented most farmers from planting wheat.
Gasela said: "Maize was
only imported in January this year and the
government sold wheat as a maize
substitute to the starved nation. The
shortage of maize meal increased the
demand for bread and this resulted in a
higher depletion of the wheat
stocks."
He said that the country only had less than 50 000 metric
tonnes of
wheat, about a month's supply.
The new wheat crop was
expected to be ready for harvest in two months'
time and until then,
Zimbabweans were likely to face a severe shortage of
bread and other
confectioneries, he said.
Gasela said some parts of the country,
including Harare were already
experiencing shortages of bread.
"The nation should realise what is happening. Made is lying to the
nation in
an effort to continue safeguarding his ministerial position,"
Gasela
said.
The government-sponsored haphazard land reform exercise has
been
largely blamed for the country's food crisis.
Daily News
Army captain missing
7/8/02 8:22:48 AM (GMT
+2)
By Pedzisai Ruhanya Chief Reporter
Ernest
Moyowangu Chuma, an army captain, has been missing for the past
three months
after he reportedly escaped interrogation by the army's
counter-intelligence
branch at Cranborne Barracks for allegedly supporting
the opposition
MDC.
According to his lawyer, Nikita Madya, Chuma was also
being questioned
for allegedly supplying certain documents to Major Peter
Guhu and Major
Besenia Tshuma.
In February, the two majors took
the army commander,
Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, to the High
Court contesting their
alleged unlawful dismissal.
Both senior
officers, like Chuma, were accused of supporting the MDC.
One of
Chuma's relatives confirmed he was missing but refused to give
details,
referring all questions to the army.
On 25 April, Madya wrote to
Chiwenga notifying him of Chuma's
desertion.
The letter read:
"As you might be aware, Captain Chuma is away from
duty without official
leave. He disappeared from the offices of the Army
Counter-Intelligence
Branch at Cranborne Barracks on 12 March 2002."
Madya said prior to
the incident, Chuma, 28, was recalled from Nyanga,
where he was attending a
staff training course. He was based at KG VI army
headquarters in
Harare.
"On 12 March 2002, he was interrogated from 8am until early
in the
evening by the army personnel from the Counter-Intelligence
Branch.
"We are advised that he was being accused of having
supplied certain
documents to Guhu and Tshuma who are presently challenging
their discharge
from the army," Madya said.
He said it was
alleged that Chuma took the documents from the army
personnel division to
enable Tshuma and Guhu to use them in their case,
which is pending in the
High Court.
"We are also advised that he was accused of being a
sympathiser of the
MDC and they repeatedly asked him for his membership
cards.
"During the interrogation, he was repeatedly warned that his
life was
in their hands and that no one could save him," the letter
reads.
However, Chuma denied the charges, Madya wrote.
Madya said after several hours of interrogation, Chuma was told to go
and
rest on a bed in a room which was next to the one where one Captain
Knowledge
Ncube was also subjected to interrogation.
He said it was
established that Ncube was undergoing the same kind of
interrogation for
allegedly leaking army documents to Tshuma and Guhu.
"From his room
Captain Chuma could hear the ongoing interrogation of
Ncube. Soon thereafter,
Ncube was then subjected to beatings by members of
the army
Counter-Intelligence Branch. He heard his cries as he was subjected
to severe
beatings," Madya said.
Madya said he was advised that Chuma left
the room in a trance "as he
is possessed with (sic) a medium
spirit".
"When he woke up from the trance, he was at some
traditional healer's
residence where he is currently receiving
treatment."
Madya said that Chuma was affected by the torture of
Ncube and feared
the same could happen to him, hence the lawyer's letter to
Chiwenga to
ensure that he would not be subjected to a similar ordeal if he
went back.
"He is willing to hand himself over to your offices
without any
further delays as he believes that he has now recovered enough to
resume his
duties. Are you prepared to give us these assurances for the sake
of our
client?" Madya asked Chiwenga.
Madya said he only
received Chiwenga's reply on 13 June, well after he
had lost contact with his
client.
He said: "We have now lost contact with Chuma. We cannot
locate him."
However, in his reply through Major-General Mike
Nyambuya, Chiwenga
acknowledged that Chuma was absent from duty, but denied
the allegations of
torture.
"I am not aware of the alleged
torture. Neither do I approve of it.
Investigations will, however, be
instituted into the allegation you raised,"
Nyambuya said.
He
said whatever investigations would be conducted against Chuma, if
any, would
be undertaken professionally, in accordance with the Defence Act
and relevant
regulations.
Nyambuya said: "We appreciate your effort to try and
re-establish
contact with the officer. As you correctly pointed out, he is
absent from
duty without leave and it is neither in his interest nor that of
the Army
that he remains absent."
He said in terms of military
regulations he was required to recommend
cancellation of Chuma's commission
should he remain absent for a period of
90 days.
Nyambuya said
for as long as Chuma remains absent without leave, he
was committing a crime
and it was the army's submission that the higher
obligation of a lawyer in
Madya's position in such circumstances, was
towards bringing an end to the
commission of crime.
In the late 1980s, Captain Nleya of the army
went missing and was
later found dead.
The Scotsman
Gaddafi grabs solo spotlight at summit for
unity
Fred Bridgland in Durban
MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI
made sure he was the main attraction yesterday as
African leaders assembled
for one of the most significant gatherings in the
continent's modern
history.
The Libyan strongman flew in with three giant Antonov
transport
planes, out of which rolled 60 armour-plated limousines that then
headed off
to parade through the South African port of Durban. Local
officials clipped
the maverick dictator's wings, however, banning his cars,
worth millions of
pounds, from the city's streets.
Mr Gaddafi's
huge security team clashed verbally on the tarmac with
their South African
counterparts, who confiscated the Libyans' weapons and
said that, although
the cars could not be impounded because of diplomatic
protocol, only one
could leave the airport.
A South African spokesman said individual
security arrangements by
visiting heads of state were unnecessary. South
Africa would handle security
and no delegation would be permitted to take
weapons beyond the airport.
Mr Gaddafi plans to drive with 59 of
his cars the thousands of miles
from Durban to Tripoli. The 60th, an armoured
Mercedes stretched limousine,
is a gift to South Africa's president, Thabo
Mbeki.
The Libyan grandstanding was an effort to steal the thunder
of the
South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who will preside over three days
of
talks, starting in Durban today, at which more than 50 African heads
of
state will bury the Organisation of African Union (OAU), which for nearly
40
years has been the continent's main pan-African forum.
It
will be officially replaced this week by African Union (AU), a body
modelled
on the European Union.
Mr Gaddafi is resentful of Mr Mbeki's
campaign to become the first
chairman of the AU, and for it to have a
permanent base in South Africa.
Instead, Mr Gaddafi wants the chairmanship
for himself and for the HQ to be
in his capital, Tripoli. He has already
allegedly bribed several heads of
state to vote for him, including Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe, who faces a
massive campaign of protests against him in
Durban.
Demonstrators will include human rights activists,
homosexual and
lesbian militants, farmers supporting Zimbabwe's white
commercial farmers
who are facing a brutal crackdown, and members of the
country's opposition.
If Mr Gaddafi wins, it will be a disastrous
and probably fatal start
for the AU, the objectives of which include the
promotion of democracy and
economic transparency and the exclusion of leaders
who came to power by
force.
Zambia's president, Luke Mwanawasa,
said he would urge fellow heads of
state to vote for Mr Gaddafi as AU leader
and Tripoli as the organisation's
HQ. "Libya is one of the richest countries
in Africa," he said. "Libya must
be encouraged to play a very pivotal role in
the AU's work."
Mr Mwanawasa was recently given nearly £2 million
by Mr Gaddafi to
catch up with Zambia's debts to the OAU. At least ten other
countries are
known to have received similar payments from
Libya.
Around the Mbeki-Gaddafi struggle, a number, perhaps a
majority, of
Africa's leaders will attempt to make sure the AU is launched as
a potent
force for the late-realised values of a new Africa - peace,
democracy, human
rights, good governance and escape from poverty. Cynics say
the AU will be a
paper tiger. The metaphor may be apt because, on paper at
least, the AU will
be a ferocious beast.
The OAU prided itself
mainly on decolonising Africa, but said nothing
about democracy, human rights
and other individual freedoms. Instead it
placed heavy emphasis on absolute
national sovereignty and non-interference
in the affairs of member states. In
effect, this meant: 'Leave me to run my
own country and I will do the same
for you.'
For most of its history, the OAU's leaders closed ranks
to keep
democracy and human rights at bay. It is why Uganda's president,
Yoweri
Museveni, also in Durban, once called it "a trade union of dictators,
whom
you were supposed to accept because they hid under the cloak
of
sovereignty".
When the talking begins, the leaders will
attempt to establish at
least 17 pan-African institutions, including an
African Union parliament, a
court of justice, an economic community, a bank,
a stand-by military force
and a security council.
"This
transformation to new ideals will be far from smooth," said
Francis Kornegay,
head of the Centre for Africa' s International Relations
at Witwatersrand
University. "Our continent's history tells us it will be a
protracted
struggle. A whole culture has to be changed, but at least this
will be a
start."
News24
Mugabe arrives in SA for summit
Durban - Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe arrived in South Africa on
Sunday for a summit to
launch the African Union, witnesses said.
He landed at Durban Airport and
was whisked away amid tight security. He
joined some 20 other heads of state
in the Indian Ocean city ahead of a
summit starting on Monday to wind down
the Organisation of African Unity and
launch the African
Union.
President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo -
mandated by
the Commonwealth to mediate in Zimbabwe's political crisis - were
due to
hold talks with the Zimbabwean leader on the situation in his
country.
Earlier on Sunday, African leaders agreed by consensus on a peer
review
mechanism, under which leaders such as Mugabe could be held to account
for
economic and political governance in their countries.
Mugabe
retained the presidency after controversial elections described as
daylight
robbery by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. International
observer
groups, including the Commonwealth, said the polls were deeply
flawed.
ABC NEWS
AIDS epidemic ravages survival chances of worst-hit
countries
The world's biggest AIDS conference was getting under way in
Spain amid
evidence that some African states are being so ravaged by the
disease that
they face an uphill battle to survive.
Around 15,000
doctors, researchers and activists from around the world
gathered in
Barcelona, holding council on a war that is now entering its
third decade and
has seen many defeats and few victories.
New research by the US Census
Bureau, released just before the opening
ceremonies, showed that seven
countries in sub-Saharan countries now have
life expectancies of less than 40
years of age.
In Botswana, where 38.8 per cent of the adult population
has the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), life expectancy is only 39 years,
compared
with 72 years if it were not for AIDS.
"The AIDS pandemic is
dramatically changing the demographic makeup of
African countries," said
Karen Stanecki, the author of the report.
"Unfortunately, many African
countries are only beginning to see the impact
of these high levels of HIV
prevalence."
The study found that five countries - Botswana, Mozambique,
Lesotho,
Swaziland and South Africa - will experience negative population
growth by
2010, meaning that more people will die than babies are
born.
Population growth in Zimbabwe and Namibia will be close to zero, it
warned.
The head of the UN's specialised AIDS agency said that
AIDS-ravaged
countries faced the risk of turmoil, given the stress to their
economy and
social fabric.
"If one-third of your adult population,
including the professionals, die
within a decade or so, that means an
implosion of society. When you have
millions of orphans growing up in an
environment without families, you have
what I would call desocialised youth,"
UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot
said.
"You are definitely going
into very unstable states, where people are
desperate."
UNAIDS last
week estimated that in just over 20 years, 20 million people
have died of
AIDS and the disease could reap three times that harvest in the
next two
decades unless a major rescue effort is launched in poor countries.
Forty
million people have HIV, 70 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa,
but the
former Soviet Union and parts of Asia, particularly China, are also
big risk
areas, it said.
The Barcelona conference is expected to throw up fresh
data about the quest
for an AIDS vaccine and new treatments that will control
the virus, but not
eliminate it from the body.
| Zimpapers suspended
from Harare exchange |
|
According to the Business Day, the Zimbabwean state-run
newspaper chain has been suspended from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. This
occurred as a result of the company contravening regulations and going against
some of the provisions of the Companies Act. The company failed to publish
financial results for the year ended December 2001 and it also failed to hold an
annual general meeting. The stock exchange was left with no option but to
suspend the company |
MDC lobbies AU leaders to 'save'
Zimbabwe
By Sipho Khumalo
Famine-stricken Zimbabwe is set to be in the
spotlight during the launch of the African Union in Durban as the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Tuesday launches a high-profile "Save
Zimbabwe" campaign.
Aimed at highlighting the plight of Zimbabweans, the
campaign will see opposition leaders lobbying heads of state who are gathered in
Durban for the African Union summit to put pressure on Zimbabwe to end human
rights violations.
MDC chairperson Isaac Matongo said although they were
not in South Africa to campaign for the exclusion of Zimbabwe like the delegates
from Swaziland and Madagascar, they believed the AU should target Zimbabwe when
enforcing its peer review mechanisms.
He said Zimbabwe should be
pressured to reconsider conducting elections because the March 2002 elections
were "defrauded".
"There are still no go areas where the opposition is
refused the right to campaign or open structures. Farm workers are being
displaced and rendered landless and farming has been criminalised while a
population of about six million is starving," said Matongo.
MDC
secretary for International Affairs, Sekai Holland, said the MDC was pinning its
hopes on the Commonwealth initiatives led by Australian Prime Minister John
Howard, President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Save Zimbabwe campaign will be launched to the media on Tuesday.