Zim Online
Mon 12 June 2006
JOHANNESBURG - The South African
government has again repeated it will
not copy President Robert Mugabe's
chaotic and often violent land reforms
that have plunged Zimbabwe into
severe food shortages.
Speaking in London last week, South Africa's
Agriculture Minister Lulu
Lingwana said there will be no Zimbabwe-style farm
invasions because
Pretoria had learnt valuable lessons from Mugabe's land
reforms.
Lingwana was in London to officially launch a new
programme for South
African farmers to pursue further studies in the United
Kingdom.
"We have learned from the Zimbabwean situation that force
does not
work. You've got to have the buy-in of all the people involved,"
said
Lingwana.
The minister's remarks, could
mark a policy shift by President Thabo
Mbeki's government which has often
refrained from publicly criticising the
Zimbabwe government preferring
instead to pursue a policy of "quiet
diplomacy" towards Harare.
Veterans of the country's 1970s liberation war, with Mugabe's tacit
support,
spearheaded a violent farm seizure exercise that left several white
farmers
and their black workers dead.
The farm invasions, which slashed
food production by more than 60
percent, are blamed for triggering
widespread food shortages in Zimbabwe
resulting in most people depending on
food handouts from international
donors for survival.
Mugabe
says his land reforms were necessary to rectify colonial
imbalances in land
allocation which saw the best farmland occupied by about
4 000 white
commercial farmers while the majority of blacks were cramped on
poor, sandy
soils.
Political analysts have often warned that South Africa might
go the
Zimbabwe route of farm invasions with blacks protesting over the slow
pace
of land reform in the country.
But speaking at the same
London meeting, the president of the black
National African Farmers Union
(NAFU), Motsepe Matlala, whose farmers will
benefit under the UK programme,
sought to lay to rest such fears.
"We have total confidence in our
government. There is no way this can
go as bad as in Zimbabwe.
"Besides, we in NAFU would not tolerate lawlessness by any of our
members,
and should anyone try to disrupt our orderly land reform process,
we would
help the police in getting people arrested, especially the
instigators," he
said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 12 June 2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwean journalists say
they will set up a voluntary
council to oversee ethics and standards of the
media in five months time.
Zimbabwe's media is one of the most
severely regulated in the world
with an array of harsh state laws under
which journalists can, for example,
be jailed for two years for practising
without licence from the government
or one year imprisonment for insulting
President Robert Mugabe in their
articles.
The Media Alliance
of Zimbabwe (MAZ), grouping journalists and freedom
of expression activists,
has for the last three years pushed to create a
voluntary media council to
regulate the media and in the process rebut
claims by the government that it
had to impose tough laws to bring order to
an industry that was disorganised
and did not have any binding code of
ethics or rules.
The MAZ
is made up of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), the
Media Institute
of Southern Africa, the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
and the
National Association of Freelance Journalists.
ZUJ president Mathew
Takaona told a meeting of civic leaders in
Bulawayo at the weekend that the
MAZ would convene a meeting of all
stakeholders in about three weeks at
which final input could be made before
the voluntary media council is
launched in October this year.
"The structure of the Zimbabwe
Voluntary Media Council is coming up
and in three weeks time, we will meet
as stakeholders to put final touches
to this whole project and by the end of
October we expect the media council
to be operational," Takaona
said.
The council will have a secretariat, reporting to a 12-member
board of
directors that will be chaired by a retired judge of the High
Court.
According to Takaona, the council will have representatives
from a
variety of players among them publishers, the church, civic society,
journalists and editors.
At present the government's Media and
Information Commission (MIC) is
the only regulatory body for the media in
Zimbabwe.
The MIC chaired by pro-Mugabe academic Tafataona Mahoso
has been
accused of bias against Zimbabwe's small privately-owned Press,
which it has
decimated by forcing four privately-owned papers including the
country's
largest circulating daily, the Daily News, to close
down.
The MIC has also instigated the arrest of several journalists
working
for privately-owned papers accusing them of breaching provisions of
the
state's draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act.
Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya has in the past said he
will
have no problems with journalists setting up their own regulatory body
although he has indicated the MIC will not be abolished. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon
12 June 2006
HARARE - In Zimbabwe's hyper-inflationary environment,
23-year old
Linda Gwaze has no qualms having to regularly adjust her rates
for services
rendered to her male clients in Harare's Avenues red light
district.
Just as the stewards in Harare's shops have to change
prices of goods
almost on a daily basis, so does Gwaze as she peddles her
flesh outside the
seedy night clubs and hotels dotted around the
Avenues.
Zimbabwe's annual inflation, already the highest in the
world outside
a war zone, surged to 1 193.5 percent in May according to the
latest figures
released by the government's Central Statistical Office last
Friday.
And it is not just prices of more mundane goods such as
soap or bread
that seem to be on an uncontrollable gallop - sex is not
coming cheap on the
streets of Harare.
Gwaze says most of her
colleagues in the Avenues are charging $2.5
million for a quick session of
sex of less than 30 minutes or $10 million
for a two-hour session, while a
full night of passionate sex costs a
princely sum of $20 million -
exorbitant charges indeed given that the
average worker in Zimbabwe earns
between $15 million and $20 million per
month.
"It's the
economy, stupid," says Linda, when asked how she and her
colleagues arrive
at such high charges for their services.
Gwaze, who is clad in a
black leather jacket with matching pants and
boots, argues that the charges
are line with Zimbabwe's skyrocketing
inflation
"Why should I
be charitable when things are going up everyday? I am in
business. You want
a service, you pay for it (sex) at the current rates (of
inflation) or go
and get it from your wife," she says, as she sways her
inviting heaps,
towards a potential customer.
Just over six months ago, female sex
workers in Harare's Avenues were
charging about $250 000 for a whole night
of passion when inflation was
slightly over 600 percent.
But
galloping inflation - itself the result of an acute economic
crisis gripping
Zimbabwe - has forced most ladies of the night to hike rates
to match the
country's record breaking inflation.
Thelma Dube, 17, who relocated
from her home in Bulawayo to peddle her
flesh in the streets of Harare about
three years ago, said the rates in the
Avenues were in fact cheaper than
what some of Zimbabwe's "big men" are
prepared to fork out for a session of
illicit sex at an upmarket hotel in
the city.
"The rates here
are cheap. At the Rainbow Towers (formerly known as
Harare Sheraton) some
clients fork up to $50 million just for a session but
where we operate the
men don't have that kind of money," says Dube.
"We need to pay rent
so $2.5 million for a quickie is okay because
with five clients a night you
are able to go home with a reasonable sum of
money," she added.
Despite the great risk of contracting the deadly HIV virus, Harare's
ladies
of the night are still prepared for to perform sex without condoms -
if the
client is prepared to pay more.
"If you don't use a condom, you
must be prepared to pay through the
roof because the cost of dying is also
subject to the ravages of inflation,"
Dube says, the burning cigarette in
her left hand the only blemish on the
youthful innocence so bountiful on her
chubby face.
But the rising inflation or the upsurge in the number
of teenage girls
such as Dube who are engaging in prostitution are just
symptoms of an acute
economic and social crisis gripping Zimbabwe since
2000.
The economic crisis, which the main opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change party and Western governments blame on repression and
wrong policies
by President Robert Mugabe, has also manifested itself
through shortages of
fuel, food, essential medicines, hard cash and just
about every basic
survival commodity.
Independent economic
analysts say more than 70 percent of the 12
million Zimbabweans live below
the poverty line and an equal number of
labour is not working while HIV/AIDS
is killing at least 3 000 people every
week.
Mugabe, who has
ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in
1980, denies ruining the
southern African country's once brilliant economy
and instead claims that
its economic problems are because of sabotage by
Western governments after
he seized white-owned farms for redistribution to
landless blacks six years
ago.
But for Gwaze and her colleagues in the Avenues it matters
little who
between Mugabe and his Western opponents is the author of
Zimbabwe's
economic crisis. The young prostitute is far more concerned about
whether
her rates are correctly aligned to rising inflation.
"It's either I do it (selling sex) at a realistic price or die as a
pauper,"
said Gwaze, as she wiggled her bottom at the driver of car passing
by. -
ZimOnline
-
Comfort Mabuza, writing for "The Swazi Observer".
Mbeki's London
statement that he was pinning his hopes on a solution to the
Zimbabwe crisis
on a proposal being worked out by U.N. Secretary-General,
Kofi Annan,
finally, is an admission that his policy of "quiet diplomacy"
towards the
crisis in Zimbabwe has failed. It has failed and one cannot
help thinking
that history will judge him harshly.
He has stood on the sideline and watched
the making of an appalling African
tragedy.
In the past decade life
expectancy in Zimbabwe has dropped from 57 years to
34 years -- the lowest in
Africa. A fall of this magnitude in the life
expectancy of 10 million to 12
million people translates into a horrendous
loss of life. As monstrous is
the suffering and hardship of the millions
whose lives are prematurely ended
by disease, hunger and a lack of the other
most basic human necessities such
as shelter. These people are dying while
their counterparts in other African
countries are in the bloom of their
lives.
The situation in Zimbabwe was
created and is driven by political corruption
and misrule and whatever spin
one puts on it, it is an undisguised atrocity;
nothing short of a crime
against humanity that cries out for justice.
While very clearly the villain
of the piece is Mugabe, one has to ask to
what extent the tragedy has
resulted from a lack of political courage by the
SADC leadership, and more
notably, that of the South African President
Mbeki.
On the face of it,
Mbeki was eminently placed to act as a mediator before
the Zimbabwean crisis
had become full-blown. He was the leader of the
wealthiest and most powerful
nation in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, he was
uniquely placed to influence
the outcome of political events in the SADC
region, more particularly, in
those countries dependent on South Africa for
their well-being and even their
survival. In addition, he was an ardent
proponent of the African
Renaissance, deeply committed to the success of the
African union and an
architect of the New Partnership for African
Development. He also had a
close rapport with a number of Western leaders
and a good working
relationship with the G8. And, like Mugabe, his roots
could be traced to the
liberation struggle, which gave him impeccable
credentials among his
peers.
In the light of this, one has to ask how things could have gone so
wrong.
In retrospect, to have expected Mbeki to have gone toe to toe with
Mugabe,
who he regarded as being an elder African statesman and, who was
probably
one of his role models during the liberation struggle in the 1960s
and 70s,
was simply asking too much. Further it is worth noting that
after
Zimbabwean independence in 1980, while the ANC was still banned in
South
Africa, Mbeki and a number of other members of the ANC leadership
were
frequent visitors to Harare, from where they conspired against
South
Africa's apartheid government. To have expected them to repay
Mugabe's
hospitality with open criticism, or worse still, economic sanctions,
was
simply not on.
The other issue which was of equal if not greater
importance in the way the
tragedy unfolded was the question of
race.
Mbeki, perversely or ingeniously, believes that the international
censure
aimed at Mugabe was the result of a preoccupation with race by Europe
and
the West; because of the deaths of a handful of whites during the
land
seizures (many blacks regard the redistribution of land as the final
outcome
of the liberation struggle). Under the circumstances, while Mbeki
was being
pressured to intercede in Zimbabwe, he did not really have any
problem with
what Mugabe was doing even if he did not see eye to eye with him
on the way
he was doing it.
To judge from statements made by a number of
his cabinet colleagues, this
was clearly a view they shared.
What Mbeki
and company, failed to see was that beyond the media storm over
the land
seizures, ordinary blacks who were opposed to Mugabe were being put
through
the wringer with a far more lethal ruthlessness than the violence
that was
being directed at white landowners.
Looking back, it is difficult to
understand, even if Mbeki was being given
biased intelligence, how he could
have been so blindsided by the brutal
reality of what was happening in
Zimbabwe. After all, he must have had a
pretty good idea or even a
first-hand knowledge of what had happened in
Matabeleland in the early 1980s
when Mugabe's security forces murdered some
5,000 to 10,000 people.
A
complicating factor in any negotiations between South Africa and Zimbabwe
on
the mounting crisis in that country was that South African observer
missions
had endorsed the outcome of Zimbabwean elections in 2000 and 2002.
The
implication was, Mugabe's government was legitimate and its actions
reflected
the will of the people. That political violence, intimidation and
other
skulduggery may have distorted the outcome of the election simply
never
entered the equation.
No doubt, Mugabe, the astute politician, quickly sensed
that Mbeki did not
have the stomach for an open confrontation. This was all
he needed to push
the boundaries of acceptable governance. When he wasn't
able to get his way
legally and constitutionally; he resorted to strong-arm
tactics such as
muzzling the press, depriving the population of other
political freedoms and
finally, subverting the rule of law and eroding the
most basic of human
rights, until the right to life itself came into
question.
The reluctance to confront the situation developing in Zimbabwe was
not
confined to South Africa. The other SADC countries also leaned
over
backwards to accommodate Mugabe, while they walked a tortuous path to
avoid
confrontation. However, barely a month ago a meeting of ministers of
the
SADC countries called on the international community to assist them
to
arrest the deteriorating situation there as it was spilling over into
their
own countries. This was probably the first time the SADC
community
acknowledged so openly that the crisis was assuming appalling
dimensions and
spinning out of control to the detriment of the entire
region.
The cruel and ironic trap, into which Mbeki and company have walked
by
allowing gross domestic violence in their neighbour's house to
go
unchallenged, is that at the end of the day the crisis in Zimbabwe is
going
to claim more lives than the Rwandan genocide.
What is more, unlike
the genocide, the brutal legacy of Mugabe's rule will
linger for a generation
or more after he has departed from the scene and in
that time many thousands
- even hundreds of thousands - of ordinary
Zimbabweans will continue to pay
with their lives for Mugabe's unchallenged
corruption.
History must surely
judge severely those leaders who lacked the courage to
speak up when it would
have mattered. Instead they callously turned their
backs on the gross and
violent abuse of more than a generation of
Zimbabweans.
Mail and Guardian
Shonga, Nigeria
11 June 2006
08:57
Forced off his land in Zimbabwe, 60-year-old Hunter
Coetzee has
farming in his blood, but it's Nigerian soil under his
fingernails now after
the first harvest in his new home.
"Nigeria has offered us hope and succour. We are here for good,"
he said
contentedly, six years after he thought he had lost
everything.
Coetzee is one of 13 white Zimbabwe commercial
farmers who
accepted an offer to resettle in Shonga, about 110km north of
Ilorin, the
capital of central state of Kwara where they began farming in
June last
year.
They all fled Zimbabwe after the
government of President Robert
Mugabe embarked on its controversial
land-redistribution programme in
February 2000, seizing prime farmland from
about 4 000 white farmers and
handing it over to the landless black
majority.
"We are here at the invitation of the state
government," Coetzee
said. "It's been one year now, and we have harvested
our first crops of
maize and Soya beans."
Their first
hesitant visit was in 2003, accepting a Kwara state
offer to inspect farm
sites. Today, their families have all joined them in
Nigeria.
"I have in my warehouse 600 tons of maize ready
for sale. My
colleagues have between 500 and 1 000 tons each and the price
is
competitive," said Coetzee, pointing to thousands of grain sacks in a big
compound near his 1 000ha farm.
He hailed Kwara Governor
Bukola Saraki for his agriculture
programme, which aims to boost production
in food and cash crops for both
local consumption and export as well as
develop local agri-processing.
"The governor has been
vindicated for his wise decision to bring
us here after we were rejected by
our own government," he said.
"With time we will not only
feed Nigeria, we will also bring in
foreign exchange by exporting surplus
grains abroad." The goodwill is shared
in Kwara state, where agricultural
officials said the project is right on
target.
"The
Zimbabweans have lived up to their billing as skilled and
successful
commercial farmers," said official Hassan Lawal. "We salute the
farmers for
their commitment and the faith in this government."
The
project also includes farm-extension activities to transfer
knowledge and
techniques into the small-scale subsistence-farming sector.
"The objective is to turn Kwara into the food basket of the
country and to
subsequently make Nigeria self-sufficient in food
production," Lawal
said.
Under the deal with the government, each white farmer
got 1
000ha on a 25-year lease, along with a $250 000 interest-free
loan.
The government also agreed to provide a guarantee for
another
$250 000 loan for each farmer from commercial
banks.
The only complaint so far is what farmers said were
difficulties
in obtaining the bank loans.
"All we want is
for the government to put pressure on the banks
to give us loans for our
business and to also link our farms with the public
power supply because we
are spending a lot to run our generators," said
Coetzee.
Farm manager Kehinde Oyewo felt "we would have performed better
if we had
got the necessary assistance from the banks. As soon as the needed
funding
is ready, we will go into dairy."
Undaunted, the farmers will
soon start their second year of
planting.
"We have
cleared more hectares for the second phase of the
project. The target is to
double harvests," said Oyewo.
For community leader Yusuf
Haliru, the presence of the
Zimbabweans has created jobs and gotten the
region more notice.
"Visitors and investors in
agriculture-related fields troop in
and out of our community these days
despite the poor condition of the roads.
"This is a positive
development. Besides, over 2 000 of our
people have been employed by the
foreigners on their farms," he said.
"As hosts, their coming
is a blessing. We are ready to welcome
more white farmers and their
families," he said.
Coetzee, who employs 150 people, said the
13 white farmers
"source our materials locally".
"It is
part of our agreement with the government. We are not
here only to boost
food production, we also have to empower the people by
creating jobs and
business opportunities for them.
"There are no regrets for
leaving Zimbabwe," said Coetzee, who
came from the town of
Mhangura.
Pointing to the expansive four-bedroom bungalow he
shares with
his wife and two sons when they are home from school in
Zimbabwe, he said:
"We have found a new home in Nigeria. The people are
receptive, friendly and
accommodating."
Zimbabwe,
meanwhile, is in its seventh year of economic
recession characterised by
four-digit inflation and shortages of basic
foodstuffs. At least 80% of the
population lives below the poverty
threshold.
In power
since independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe blames
the woes on Western
countries like Britain and the United States, which he
accuses of plotting
to bring about his downfall.
But Coetzee disagrees.
"President Mugabe is the architect of the
problems because of his
ill-conceived land-redistribution policy.
"His government
took our land and gave them to their brothers
who could not farm, now the
country is in a mess," he said.
Even if the policy is
reversed, he would not return to a country
where Zimbabwe's white-dominated
Commercial Farmers' Union says only 600
white farmers
remain.
"It is too late to do that. Where do you start from?
The damage
has been done."
Nigeria has "given us the
tools to work. Only a fool will not
reciprocate that gesture by helping the
government to succeed in its
agriculture programme," he said. --
Sapa-AFP
http://progressive.stanford.edu/2006.06_zimbabwe.html
by Anonymous Student Writer
Standard
political science theory defines "weak" and "failing" states as
those rife
with gaps in security?state monopoly over the use of force,
capacity?ability
to deliver basic services such as education and health
care, and
legitimacy?protection of basic rights and freedoms, rule of law,
and
widespread participation in government. How, then, can we describe a
state's
population that suffers not just from such gaps, but from the
intentional
denial of the requisites to all three areas by its leader?
Although a body
of academic theory and terms is lacking, we have at least
one word to use:
Zimbabwe. Failures in security, capacity and legitimacy,
though exacerbated
by a lack of resources, are the direct result of policy
decisions by Robert
Mugabe?Zimbabwe's "President" of 26 years. This article
is a profile of
peril?first detailing the landscape Mugabe has created, then
emphasizing the
urgent need for strategic coordination in dealing with not
just failed
states, but states who fail?before their failures yield
war.
Insecurity
Despite a tripling in military wages, basic
soldier salaries remain
significantly below the poverty line of $350/year,
and desertion of the rank
and file and crime are high. Meanwhile, the
influence of the security sector
over society grows: the expanded Zimbabwe
National Security Council, chaired
by Mugabe and including officials from
the Central Security Organization,
police and prison services, has been
designated to oversee the latest
economic and food security strategies. At
the bottom levels, the military is
eroding, while at the top military
authority is radiating throughout the
nation's
programs.
Incapacity
The symptoms of the Zimbabwean government's
unwillingness to develop state
capacity are many: 90% of the population
lives in poverty while the
unemployment rate hovers at 80%. At an estimated
24%, Zimbabwe's adult HIV
prevalence falls fourth highest on the global
scale. The result? Zimbabwe
now holds claim to the world's lowest life
expectancy?34 for women and 37
for men, and female life expectancy has
fallen two years in the last twelve
months. Zimbabwe also brags the world's
highest inflation rate?913% as of
March, and expected to hit four digits
soon. The shortage of foreign
currency has diminished the capacity to import
such basic supplies as fuel,
fertilizer, and medicines.
These
conditions are the direct result of government policy decisions. The
government printed approximately 21 trillion in Zimbabwean currency in order
to purchase American dollars to repay IMF debt. Hyperinflation followed, and
the government itself announced that the price of childbirth will rise by
463% by October, and funeral costs will increase 200%. Then, last year, the
government initiated the urban "cleanup" program "Operation Drive Out Trash"
in which an estimated 700,000 were left homeless, and destroyed the informal
urban economy that previously sustained an estimated 2.4 million. It was
followed by "Operation Going Forward, No Turning Back," in which police
drove away those who attempted to return to cities and rebuild. The UN has
begun constructing 2,500 homes, but the government has refused more
substantial assistance, "insisting that tales of suffering are inventions of
Western critics bent on deposing the Mugabe government."
In the most
recent development of government refusal to identify and respond
to the
needs of its people, Mugabe has blocked the UN Food and Agricultural
Organization from assessing crops for the third consecutive year. Says the
Minister of Agriculture, "Zimbabwe needs to have full facts itself. We are a
sovereign state." Although Zimbabwe possesses the land resources to feed
itself, last year it was forced to spend $135 to import
maize.
Illegitimacy
Zimbabwe refuses both to provide basic rights
to its citizens, and to allow
widespread participation in government. In the
latest infringement on
freedom of expression, a bill was pushed through
Parliament that seeks to
monitor internet access and electronic mail. The
Security Minister
threatens, "The net will soon close" on the remaining
journalists who choose
to criticize the government.
Heading into
winter, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)?the main
opposition
party?plans a "season of protests." The protests will highlight
the ongoing
deterioration of living conditions due to the economic crisis.
In response
to the promise of an active civil society, Mugabe states that
carrying out
the protests would be "playing with fire" and that any such
demonstrations
will be "crushed."
Proposals
Zimbabwe is a case study not in state
failure, but in the failures of a
state to acknowledge and remedy the
devastation of its people. The
government is more concerned with PR than
with devising policies that will
enhance the well-being of its population.
What degree of accountability does
the community possess for individual
leaders that repeatedly choose to
deprive their own citizens of livelihoods
and rights? Leadership is the sum
of a leader's choices, but how many
heinous choices by a leader of a poor
and faraway nation does it take for
the international community to respond?
And what does the current decision
by members of the international community
to tolerate reprehensible
sovereignties indicate about the nature of their
leadership? The emergence
in norms and rhetoric if not reality of the notion
that individuals should
not have to suffer because of the square mile of the
map onto which they are
born is laudable. However, Zimbabwe's plunge is yet
another example of the
disconnect between words and actions in the real
world. The ongoing plight
of millions of Zimbabweans illustrates the need to
devise?and execute?new
strategies.
Very hot - it must have touched 90
degrees F and scarcely changed during the
Vigil. We were all grateful for
the shade of the maple trees. The England
victory in their first World Cup
match kept up the temperature. The Strand
was certainly quieter during the
game but once it finished we had lots of
England supporters signing our
petitions and joining in the singing and
dancing. Adding to the carnival
atmosphere was a passing naked cyclist
taking part in The World Naked Bike
Ride in protest at our dependence on
cars.
We were pleased to have
with us two young Zimbabweans from Brighton, Alois
Phiri and Wellington
Chibanguza, who are part of a youth organization called
"Free Zim". They
are launching a political awareness campaign aimed at
young Zimbabweans in
the diaspora. They reported that many young people
they approached were
ashamed to admit they were Zimbabweans - others said
"We don't do
politics". The message was that they are making as much money
as they can
and as far as political change is concerned they would wait and
see what
happened. They also reported that many young Zimbabweans were
having
difficulty keeping up with the financial needs of their families back
home.
It was good to have several supporters from Milton Keynes
(Fadzanayi
Muchenagumbo, Frank Sanena and Vandirai Zano) who are in the
process of
trying to set up an MDC branch.
Great to have back Carrie
and Don Lapham, who visited the Vigil on 18th June
last year. They live in
Harare and are active human rights workers through
their church. Carrie
informed us she had been keeping in touch with the
Vigil through reports in
the Zimbabwean and was delighted to be back again.
Warm wishes from the
Vigil to Washington Ali, Chair of MDC-UK. His first
daughter (and fourth
child) was born this week. Name not decided yet but we
rejoice in another
Vigil baby.
Finally our condolences to Anna, one of the forum managers.
We were sorry
to hear that her mother has died.
For this week's Vigil
pictures:
http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
FOR
THE RECORD: 52 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Zimbabwe Forum,
Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28
John Adam Street, London WC2
(cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go
down a passageway to John
Adam Street, turn right and you will see the pub).
Monday, 12th June: the
speaker is Ephraim Tapa, Chair of MDC Central London
Branch, trade unionist
and international relations expert to discuss
developments in the MDC at
home and abroad.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current
regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue
until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in
Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
News24
09/06/2006 21:16 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's prisoners face acute food shortages and are
going weeks
without soap or toilet paper, reported a parliamentary committee
on Friday.
Some inmates have resorted to using pages ripped from Bibles
to wipe
themselves clean, said the report, which sounded the alarm about
deteriorating prison conditions amid Zimbabwe's worsening economic
crisis.
The report found that malnutrition and disease were widespread in
Zimbabwe's
overcrowded jails, designed for 16 000 people but holding many
more.
Prison authorities have insufficient funds to buy food, which lead
to the
spread of malnutrition-related ailments such as pellagra, intestinal
disorders and mental disorientation.
Water and power outages were
also common, said the committee, and sanitation
facilities were in urgent
need of repair at most facilities.
The report said blankets in the
prisons go unwashed for months. The Harare
Remand Prison had its water
supply cut off for failing to pay its bills.
Inmates miss court
appearances
Cooking pots and other kitchen implements at the prison were
filthy and "not
fit to carry food for human consumption".
When
Chikurubi maximum security jail ran dry, water was ferried in by chain
gangs
wielding buckets, said the committee, but 73 inmates had diarrhea as a
result of the shortages.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has been blamed
on disruptions to the
agriculture-based economy, linked to years of drought
and the seizure of
thousands of white-owned commercial farms for
redistribution.
Inflation is at 1 043%. There are acute shortages of hard
currency and
petrol.
The report found that prison authorities could
often not take inmates to
court for scheduled bail hearings and trial
appearances because they did not
have petrol.
According to the
report, five of the eight vehicles belonging to the Harare
Remand Prison had
broken down and could not be repaired due to a shortage of
spare
parts.
Lack of security at prisons
Few of Zimbabwe's families
could afford to pay the bail of more than 200 000
Zimbabwean dollars (about
R14), leaving many of the accused to languish in
jail, said the
report.
Delays in the court system also meant some prisoners remained in
custody for
more than five years.
Security is also a problem in the
prisons, reported the committee. Most
perimeter lights were not functioning
at the prisons they visited.
Closed circuit television and intercom
systems at the country's two maximum
security facilities were also not
working.
The reported identified at least 41 foreign nationals in
Zimbabwean jails.
Some were being held because the government "had no
money to deport them to
their respective countries".
journalism.co.za
Zimbabwe's parliamentary committee on transport and communications has
challenged the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), to open up the
airwaves by removing tough legal requirements, writes Torby
Muturikwa.
Presenting its findings to the House of Assembly on the
Zimbabwean
media, the committee said BAZ should allow other players to run
broadcasting
services as the current monopoly by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings (ZBH)
was tantamount to living in isolation.
"Other
players should enter the market. We cannot continue to live in
isolation. We
have only one licensed television station," read part of the
report. The
broadcasting act requires an aspirant broadcaster to show a
certificate of
funding and investment, declare the source of funds and
reveal the
investors. It does not allow foreign funding.
But the Committee said
BAZ should remove these requirements and
instead concentrate on issuing
licenses to private players, especially
community radio stations. BAZ
chairman Pikirayi Deketeke, who is also the
editor of the state flagship
daily, The Herald, refused to comment.
Since the enactment of the act
in 2001, the government has shut down
one radio station, Capital Radio, and
a television station, Joy TV. Joy Tv
was owned by exiled businessman James
Makamba while Capital Radio was
bankrolled by Gerry Jackson, who now runs
Short Wave Radio Africa (SW Radio)
station.
Radio Dialogue and
Munhumutapa African Broadcasting Corporation (MABC)
were denied operating
licences last year by BAZ for "failing to meet the
requirements". Currently,
Voice of The People (VOP) is facing charges of
violating the act and its
trustees and journalists are set to appear in
court on June 27.
The
government argues that VOP is broadcasting in Zimbabwe without a
licence
from BAZ and is in violation of BSA. However, VOP was registered as
a
Community Trust and broadcasts from Madagascar where it relays its
broadcasts from a transmitter stationed in the Indian
Ocean.
Sunday, 11 June, 2006
News24
11/06/2006 18:17 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe and China have signed a deal worth US$1.3bn
that will see
the development of thermal power stations in the southern
African country in
return for chrome, state radio reported on
Sunday.
The radio station said the memorandum of understanding was signed
in Beijing
and witnessed by Zimbabwe's vice president, Joyce Mujuru, who is
on an
official visit to China.
Three thermal power stations will be
developed in the Zambezi Valley and
Hwange. The radio report said that under
the agreement Chinese machinery and
expertise would be provided in exchange
for chrome.
Zimbabwe is experiencing acute shortages of electrical power.
Frequent power
cuts are disrupting business and manufacturing in the
country, adding to the
economic woes of a country already staggering under
inflation of 1 193%.
Under the agreement signed with China National
Machinery and Equipment
Import and Export Corporation, a new thermal power
station with an output of
600 megawatts will be built in Zimbabwe's remote
northern Dande district.
Zimbabwe already has power stations in Hwange
that have fallen into
disrepair.
President Robert Mugabe's government
has begun a new drive to obtain
international credit and investment through
bartering some of its extensive
mineral wealth.
Recently the
country's central bank signed a $50m deal with a French
commercial bank to
assist the country pay for fuel imports. The deal was
backed up by
guarantees from the Bindura Nickel Corporation, a major local
player.
Like much of the southern African region, Zimbabwe is next
year expected to
be hit by massive shortfalls of electrical power. Presently
Zimbabwe imports
30% of its electrical energy requirements from South Africa
and Mozambique,
as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC).
Sapa-dpa
People's Daily
Zimbabwe has raised 350 million U.S.
dollars in cash one month after
its introduction of the National Economic
Development Priority Program, a
senior official said on Sunday.
Minister of Economic Development Rugare Gumbo said although the
tree-month
target may not be met, the cash and investments secured so far
have raised
optimism that the program will succeed.
The program is close to
sealing investment deals between Zimbabwe and
foreign countries, Gumbo
said.
The funds were raised from resources that the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, the central bank, had mobilized, the minister said.
The minister revealed that representations for investment had been
received
from Russia and South Korea, and the key sectors earmarked for
investment
are mining, agriculture and industry, among others.
Source:
Xinhua
News24
11/06/2006 14:28 -
(SA)
Johannesburg - A South African man pardoned in Equatorial Guinea
after being
jailed over an alleged 2004 coup plot returned home on Sunday
and was
immediately taken to hospital, the South African government
said.
Marius Boonzaaier, one of 11 foreigners sentenced to between 14 and
34 years
in prison for plotting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's President
Teodoro
Obiang Nguema, was pardoned earlier this month because of ill
health.
"He arrived at Johannesburg International Airport this morning
and was taken
to a hospital," said Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesperson for South
Africa's foreign
ministry. Mamoepa would not disclose the nature of
Boonzaaier's illness.
Boonzaaier is the latest member of the convicted
plotters to be pardoned and
released by Obiang, who has ruled the oil-rich
central African country since
1979 and is accused by critics of running one
of Africa's most despotic
governments.
Zimbabwe jailed nearly 70
other men, all South African passport holders, in
connection with the plot
after their plane was stopped in Harare. Only the
ringleader of that group,
Simon Mann, remains in a Zimbabwean prison, on a
four-year
sentence.
Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher,
pleaded guilty in a South African court to funding part
of the scheme and
avoided jail under a plea deal with
prosecutors.