| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
I just spent a few days with my family in Harrare, young people
desperately
trying to return to their farm before the next season, before
they run out
of money completely, before they have to leave the
country.
I see the min of financial finanglings is expecting all you
ex-zimbos to
donate to the running of the country, send more money so's the
security
forces can get paid. Oh do donate, fast....poor chap, I think he
missed a
point somehow!
I tell you what tho, driving into town last
week - sorry, Harare (makes my
husband really mad when I don 't call gweru a
town any more!) - it was a bit
disconcerting to look up near Harare South
Golf Club and see these three
army choppers coming straight at me....Lucky
they passed straight over. It
would have been an incongruous sight though,
of all things in present day
zim, an old fashioned farmers wife in a car full
of old fashioned farm
produce, getting taken out! I mean, bags of manure,
milk, butter, eggs,
nyama, vegetables (just imagine the pumpkin and the
cabbages flying!) - this
just doesnt happen these days you know - it is a
most bizarre feeling to
realise that.
I had this hot line in road
block procedure ready. I only got to use it
once, at a Lalapanzi block, when
the pleasant cop came over with big smile
(you have to practise this, smile a
LOT at road blocks!) and said he was
looking for weapons - I said "weapons of
mass destruction", and he fell
about laughing. Thanks George!
The next
line was for when they wanted to actually search, and I would say
"now we're
in the shit" because there really were 4 big bags of manure in
the back.
Talk about working for the future. But the road blocks werent
interested in
people like me, and there werent that many anyway - I suspect
the cops were
all busy somewhere else. Catching thieves no doubt.
But Harare is
great. You can buy anything there. You can use your credit
card again now,
no charges - the banks have no money! I tried to pay my
grocery bill with
cash, and my daughter nearly had a heart attack. But I
could buy salt for
the staff, and bar soap - and flour for me, and bread,
bread bread, oh wow.
And Kath bought a case of baby cereal. We passed on
coffee and a scone -
coffee at 650, and a scone at 1400, EACH, hey, thats a
bit much to pay for a
snack. I shall have to do more retail therapy to get
used to that
one.
You live in this bubble, where everything is so nice, but then you
notice
this mazda-full of army chappies roaring down the road, notice the
cops, and
coming in through the industrial sites, could do NO business, as
the whole
place was closed - quite eerie. So no staff overalls yet, sorry
guys.
Consider yourselves lucky to get paid with money. I did a bit of
shopping
at the Wholesalers, last time I was there in 2000I spent $9 000,
yesterday,
it was 256 000!
But there is this kind-a hush, as if we are
all waiting for something, but
sadly I fear the revo'lution will not be one
of those grand spectacular
things - I was really brave and watched our hon
pres on tv on Sunday - now
that was endurance. But watching it, at last I
understood why the leaders
from a'frica get persuaded - he really can be
charming, and it was all so
reasonable, about the drought, and righting the
injustices from the past,
and those naughty brits being so mean. But one
just wonders why
intervention can only come after the guns are used, and the
chaos is so well
developed. It is so ridiculous.
Meanwhile I saw one
queue for maize, near Chivhu, getting their food hand
outs - that means they
have run out of food already, its only June for
heavens sake. The granaries
should be full - and Chivhu had loads of rain,
I can assure you.
And
along the road a major disaster - two fuel tankers, who had obviously
been
dicing, and came too close with approaching traffic (sound familiar?),
and
crunched together in a huge pile up.- fuel all over the road, just think
what
that cost. I wonder if they were paid by the brits?
Our crops just got
rained on - I came home to 2 inches in the rain gauge - I
mean, really, can
we have it better distributed this season, not now. And
its jolly cold here,
so, good night.....
Best wishes everyone, A
Business Report
Architects of Nepad notable by absence
June 12, 2003
By Quentin Wray
Durban - Only one of the
five architects of the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (Nepad) is
attending this year's World Economic Forum
(WEF) Africa summit, despite the
fact that Nepad is one of the conference's
key features.
President Thabo Mbeki has made the trip but Nigeria's Olusegun
Obasanjo,
Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade, Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika and
Egypt's Hosni
Mubarak are all absent.
There are only three presidents in Durban
for the three-day summit:
Mbeki, Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano and
Madagascar's Marc Ravalomanana.
Another surprise is that there is
no mention of the economic and
political crises wracking Zimbabwe on the
summit's official agenda.
Haiko Alfeld, the WEF's director for
Africa, said this was a
deliberate move as he had felt the WEF could not make
a positive
contribution to finding a solution there.
But
Zimbabwe has sent the second-biggest delegation, headed by
industry and
international trade minister Samuel Mumbengegwi. It also
includes
representatives from the media, financial houses, industry
and
agroprocessing.
There is no indication whether Mumbengegwi
will address the media and
the understanding is that he will be tied up in
behind-the-scenes meetings
with his South African compatriots and business
leaders about how to get his
country's beleaguered economy back on
track.
A Mumbengegwi press conference will eclipse all the
other
announcements likely to come out of the summit after meetings on
Nepad,
Africa's reintegration into the world economy, competitiveness,
HIV/Aids and
small business development
.
This week
Mumbengegwi announced the Zimbabwean government had decided
to revoke the
business licences of six companies that shut their doors in
apparent sympathy
with last week's mass protests organised by the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change.
Zimbabwe, with inflation shooting towards 300
percent and unemployment
at record levels, is seen as a key challenge to
international and local
perceptions about Nepad's ability to deal with
economic and political
crises.
The lack of big political names
is echoed in the business delegations
and there are not as many foreign
interests as have been seen in previous
years.
Some delegates
have interpreted the turnout as the onset of "summit
fatigue" and fear the
WEF has become just another talk shop rehashing issues
better raised in
meetings such as the annual Group of Eight meeting and the
World Trade
Organisation.
Alfeld said there was a far greater pan-African
presence at the summit
than previously.
The summit's three
co-chairs - Patrice Motsepe of ARMgold, Sam Jonah
of Ghanaian mining house
Ashanti and Credit Suisse First Boston's global
head of investment banking
Adebayo Ogunlesi - all said the forum would be
about implementation and not
"speechifying".
Motsepe said it remained the prime gathering of
business and
government leaders and would lead to "forthright and frank"
discussions
where "diplomacy would be given a back seat".
SABC
Tsvangirai awaits ruling on bail
application
June 12, 2003, 08:00
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change, spent his sixth night behind bars tonight, pending
a
ruling on his bail application. Tsvangirai is facing charges of treason
-
under the Public Order Security Act - for allegedly inciting people
into
demonstrating and removing President Robert Mugabe from office
following
last week's mass action in which the army and police launched a
crackdown on
MDC protesters across the country.
Tsvangirai
appeared at the High Court earlier yesterday amid
cheers from the public in
leg irons and handcuffs, clad in khaki prison
garb. An immediate application
was made by the defence to have him appear in
his usual civilian clothes, as
he was not a convict. The state led by Morgan
Nemadire, a Chief Law Officer,
said it was an unimportant matter and that it
was up to prison authorities to
decide. Susan Mavangira, a High Court Judge,
then made a quick ruling that
Tsvangirai attend court proceedings in
civilian clothes.
The defence, led by Advocate George Bizos, submitted before
Mavangira that
nowhere in his press and star rally statements was Tsvangirai
quoted urging
for the violent removal of Mugabe. Bizos said instead he was
urging people to
stage peaceful demonstrations against the deteriorating
economic and
political situation.
Bizos attacked today's edition of the
state controlled daily The
Herald, which declared in its headline that
Tsvangirai had been denied bail
before the High Court had even made a ruling
on the matter. Bizos said the
article amounted to a contempt of court and
misled the public. The paper and
a banner were presented as affidavits and a
ruling on the matter will be
delivered in due course. The state will also
present its submissions
tomorrow before the judge can make a ruling.
The Star
ANC pats Bob's back
June 12, 2003
While Mugabe's Zanu-PF regime steps up its terror with a door-
to-door
repression campaign, the South African government refuses to help
the
suffering people of Zimbabwe with anything other than vague ramblings
about
quiet diplomacy.
Acting as the champion of the Mugabe
regime, one is forced to come to
the conclusion that what the government is
practising is not quiet
diplomacy, but silent approval.
Home
Affairs Minister and IFP leader, Mangosutho Buthelezi pointed out
this
hypocrisy, in contrast to the condemnation by the ANC of the US war
against
Saddam Hussein, reminding us that South Africa should be more
concerned about
Zimbabwe than helping tyrants who blackmailed the world
with
WMD.
One thing that seems to be consistent is the ruling
party's affinity
for brutal totalitarian regimes, such as Red China, Cuba,
Libya, Zimbabwe,
coupled with a vehement hostility towards other
democracies.
What about some compassion for the victims of human
rights abuses in
these countries. Do the "progressive" credentials of these
regimes mean
human rights no longer matter?
Gary
Selikow
Johannesburg
Cape Times
SA does an about-turn on invite to Zimbabwe
minister
June 12, 2003
Zimbabwe's Science Minister Olivia
Muchena flew back to Harare on
Tuesday after the South African government did
an about-turn on its
invitation to her to participate in a Commonwealth
conference despite that
country's suspension from the council of the world
body.
Amid a storm of controversy over Muchena's presence at the
21st
meeting of the Commonwealth Science Council in Johannesburg, Arts,
Culture,
Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane instructed the
Commonwealth
Secretariat to withdraw Muchena's invitation.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said last night Muchena had
flown
out of the country on Tuesday night after her invitation
was
withdrawn.
The invitation for Muchena to participate in the
council, of which
South Africa - represented by Ngubane - is currently chair,
had been
"erroneously issued" by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the department
of
foreign affairs said yesterday.
Muchena said earlier Zimbabwe
considered the suspension null and void
and that it was Zimbabwe's view that
the suspension had ended on March 19. -
Political Bureau
The Star
Africa's uphill battle
June 12, 2003
By the Editor
It has not been a good week for Africa. Our continent
- desperately
seeking to free itself from oppression - has witnessed major
turmoil in both
Liberia and Mauritania, and then Zimbabwe and the Democratic
Republic of
Congo continue to fester.
Liberia is cause for
particular concern.
It is presided over by a former warlord,
Charles Taylor. He got
himself elected president in 1997, but only after
being the leading figure
in a prolonged civil war in that country. Now he has
been indicted by a
UN-backed special court probing crimes during Sierra
Leone's 11-year civil
war.
The fighting continues in Liberia and
rebels earlier this week got
within 5km of the centre of the capital
Monrovia. Peace efforts are being
led by the Ghanaian foreign minister on
behalf of other West African states.
Although he is confident that they will
broker a ceasefire, the question may
well be asked whether Liberia is not
caught between a rock and a hard place.
Can Taylor be dislodged? And what
comes after him?
In Mauritania, that country's president claims to
have seen off
Sunday's attempted coup. But he came to power in a 1984 coup
and is now
parading himself as a civilian leader.
A high-powered
UN peace mission arrived in the DRC this week and
warned that tribal fighting
around the town of Bunia was "unacceptable" and
that those involved could be
charged with war crimes. Fighting there between
Hema and Lendu tribesmen has
left some 50 000 people dead and 500 000
displaced since 1999.
And that brings us to our northern neighbour, Zimbabwe. Robert
Mugabe
continues to cling to power. He is not only ruining that
country
economically, but is brutalising his own people as he does so. This
is very
bad news for the whole of the Southern Africa.
The
message is clear: Africa's century of revival has got off to a
very shaky
start. But that should not deter the continent's leaders, it
merely means
they must redouble their efforts to establish peace and
good
governance.