Reuters
Zimbabwe denies any farm nationalisation plan
Mon 14 June,
2004 20:38
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has denied it plans to nationalise
all farmland
in the country, saying this only applied to plots seized from
whites under
its controversial land reforms.
The official Herald
newspaper quoted Land Reform and Resettlement Minister
John Nkomo last week
as saying the government had stepped up efforts to
acquire more productive
farmland with the aim of nationalising all of it.
The report did not give
a schedule for the programme but said President
Robert Mugabe's government
would issue 99-year leases for farmland and
25-year leases for wildlife and
conservation areas.
Zimbabwe's Information Ministry issued a statement on
Monday clarifying the
policy.
"It is emphasised that this position
only applies to land acquired by the
state under land reforms and does not in
any way invalidate or supersede
other lawful forms of tenure," the ministry
said.
"There has not been any change of government policy or law in
respect of
land tenure and ownership."
Mugabe's government has forced
about two-thirds of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white
commercial farmers off their land
over the past four years under a drive to
redistribute the plots among
landless blacks, drawing international
condemnation.
Critics blame the
programme for a sharp decline in farm output over the past
four years which
has led to food shortages affecting millions of Zimbabwe,
but the government
points largely to drought.
Mugabe defends the programme as necessary to
restore land to blacks
dispossessed when Britain colonised the country over a
century ago and white
farmers took the best farmland.
But critics say
the land reforms have been chaotic and have largely
benefited Zimbabwe's
political elite rather than the most needy.
Mugabe, in power since
independence in 1980, says local and international
opponents of the land
seizures have sabotaged Zimbabwe's economy, leading to
record inflation and
unemployment as well as chronic foreign currency and
fuel shortages.
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 3:25 PM
Subject: Urgent - The Dispossessed
Dispossessed farm workers
As a follow up to our appeal of the 10th June, we
advise that we are a bit more structured.
Grateful thanks to all those who have tried to
assist including all those from outside the country.
Two collection points have been established - one
each in Bulawayo and Harare respectively. Donations both in kind and money may
be deposited at these points. Overseas donations can now be sent direct or to
families with a request to forward to the respective Churches. Each donation
should be endorsed " For the Dispossessed" for identification
purposes.
Bulawayo.
Cheques should be made out to :- The Presbyterian
Church (Independent) and addressed to :-
The Rev. Kevin Thompson
The Presbyterian Church (Independent)
J. Moyo Street/5th Avenue
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe This is also
the drop off/collection point for all donations in in Harare.
Harare
Cheques should be made out to :- The Northside
Community Church and addressed to ;-
The Rev. Gary Cross
The Northside Community Church
8, Edinburgh Road
Borrowdale
Harare
Zimbabwe This is also
the drop off/collection point for all donations in in Harare.
Already, people have expressed thier grateful thank
to all who have assisted so far. This kind of help is not readily available from
NGO's, so any donation will be appreciated. We have been advised that their are
now 1400 men women and children living in the open in this one case
alone.
Thany you all for your support
Regards as ever
Mike and Fiona.
Email - 10 June
Lift required for 100 blankets from Byo to Mutare,
for dispossessed of their belongings farm workers in the Chimanimani area. May I
say more? Donations for more blankets would be appreciated. People in Chipinge
have also had their homes burnt to the ground and left with
nothing.
Regards in hope of response
Mike and Fiona
Zim Observer
Anti-Zim demos in UK
by DAILY MIRROR
(6/14/2004)
ABOUT 2 000 people mostly Zimbabweans exiled in
the UK demonstrated outside
their country's embassy, Zimbabwe House, in
London over the weekend where
Gideon Gono was addressing embassy officials as
the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and Britain intensified their
campaign to thwart efforts aimed
at persuading locals in the Diaspora to
channel their much needed foreign
currency back home.
The Reserve Bank
Governor, who is in the British capital on a mission to
entice Zimbabweans
based abroad to repatriate their money home, is believed
to be the target of
the demonstrations.
But efforts to get what was actually happening within the
embassy compound,
and whether Gono himself was actually barricaded inside
together with
embassy officials he had been addressing as suggested by some
sections of
the Western media, could not immediately be verified.
The
central bank chief's crusade which has netted financial crooks and
caused the
flight abroad of some of the country's best banking brains, is
viewed by
industry watchers as a gallant and patriotic attempt designed to
improve the
country's foreign currency reserves. The foreign currency
repatriation
intiative, Homelink is geared to make the nation's economic
recovery
programme embodied in the Reserve Bank's famous monetary policy, a
viable
reality.
The MDC has joined forces and openly supported a group called
ZimVigil, a
so-called Zimbabwe group that has been holding weekly vigils at
the Zimbabwe
Embassy in London and which began mobilising in the previous
week, vowing to
besiege Zimbabwe House where Gono was expected to attend a
reception on
Saturday.
Apparently, similar "vigils" were held in the
United States with the MDC in
that country saying on its website that it had
organised "successful
demonstrations." It is in this light that the
demonstrations outside
Zimbabwe House come. The Zimbabwe Vigil was set up by
the MDC UK branch in
2002 at the suggestion of Roy Bennet amd Tony Reeler of
Amani Trust and it
holds the so-called vigils every Saturday.
The British
government and opposition MDC, contrary to reason and the
interests of
progress, have called for the widening of sanctions against
Zimbabwe to
include the likes of Gono.
The British shadow foreign secretary Michael
Ancram has called upon the
European Union to extend its sanctions net to
include all the people that
support the government financially. This falls
within the European Union and
US'strong-headed stance that they would not
rest until there is "regime
change" in Zimbabwe. Part of the strategy
includes emaciating the nation's
food and forex supplies so much that the
people of Zimbabwe turn against the
ruling regime, as was the case in
Kosovo.
But to date, the strategy has not paid off as the country has managed
to
survive the "mysterious" disappearance of food from the shelves of
shops
frequented by black Zimbabweans and in black residential areas.
For
the first time in the nation's history, there was an even more
"mysterious"
disappearance of Z$500 notes in 2003 which saw the country
going through a
severe cash shortage. At that time national forex reserves
were virtually
non-existent. But the RBZ governor's drive to make the
private economic
sector accountable to the nation has since revealed that
many fly-by night
financial groups and what were thought to be respectable
banks had men at
their helm who were busy surreptitiously externalising
forex, mainly to the
UK and US.
In light of Gono's major success within a short period in weeding
out
anti-Zimbabwe Zimbabweans, it is not surprising that Ancram's call
was
mainly targeted at Gono who is expected to arrive in the Britain
anytime
this week. The visit is part of his sterling efforts at
persuading
Zimbabweans in Diaspora to send money home through government set
channels
which have become a national talking point though the ease and
convenience
of the Homelink outreach programme.
Ancram has said that if
the EU refused to act, Britain should tighten
sanctions unilaterally.
Mr
Ancram told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We have always called for
the
sanctions to cover not just those directly involved in the regime, but
also
those who support the regime financially, because the regime
without
financial support would be very severely weakened.
"We could act
unilaterally, but certainly I think the EU should further
tighten its
sanctions."
The claims by Britain are that if locals in Diaspora are to send
money back
home, it is likely going to be used to help the ruling Zanu PF's
campaigns
in 2005 Parliamentary election. Working on this assumption Ancram
has called
for the tightening of International sanctions against
Zimbabwe.
And in a move that is bound to propound ruling party's assertion
that the
MDC gets its cue from the former colonial masters, opposition MDC,
through
its branches abroad is working tirelessly to keep Zimbabwe on its
knees.
"Why would they want to support a scheme which to all intents and
purposes
is aimed at strengthening the very government that drove them into
exile in
the first place and took away their right to vote?" Professor
Welshman
Ncube, Secretary General of the MDC is quoted as having
said.
Ncube attacked the government saying it wants people to send money home
but
at the same time deny them their basic right to have a say in how
their
country is governed.
"It is hypocrisy of the highest order," added
Ncube.
Ncube went out of his way to reinforce the claims being made by the
British
government, saying that the current visit by Gono and Reserve
Bank
delegation emphasises the need for "EU targeted sanctions to be expanded
to
include all individuals who play a leading role in perpetuating
the
illegitimate rule of Mugabe and his Zanu PF government."
This is not
the first time that MDC has tried to derail government's
initiatives aimed at
reviving the economy which has suffered considerably
from targeted sanctions
mainly from the West, led by a rabid British
anti-Zimbabwe blitz. The MDC
offices in the United States organised and
staged what the opposition termed
"a successful demonstration" at a time
when the party's coffers at home are
hardly in a rosy state.
Ironically the opposition party is trying to persuade
Zimbabweans in
Diaspora to fund its next parliamentary campaigns. The move by
the MDC to
seek funding from Zimbabweans abroad comes hard on the heels of
its failure
to pay salaries for its workers at Harvest house on time.
"The
MDC seems to be preoccupied with a desire to cut its nose in order to
spite
its face in that it views any policy and initiative that comes from
the
ruling party as an act of war against their own, usually bankrupt,
policies.
When thy are not threatening to sue the President of South Africa,
they are
beating up government ministers in parliament or boycotting
rallies." A
leading analyst says.
The MDC has long been a party seen by many observers to
be lacking in
ideological content that would provide Zimbabwe with a socially
ameliorating
vision. RESTART was their economic programme designed to counter
governor
Gono's monetary policy but after making a great hue and cry at the
time of
its launch, the MDC initiative is now conspicuous by its silence, and
the
copycat attempt to access money from Zimbabweans abroad sends signals
that
the party is in dire need of a political RESTART programme.
The
recent defection of one of the country's well- known turncoats, defeated
Zanu
PF aspirant in the 2000 parliamentary primaries, and one of the
founding
members of the politically insignificant NAGG, Dr Shakespeare Maya
does not
seem to have injected the intelligence and political wisdom that
would help
the party make a distinction between Zanu PF and Zimbabwe.
They have thus
been embroiled in many shameful acts of sabotage aimed at
Zanu PF but which
inevitably derail the nation's efforts to become self-
reliant in the face of
an ongoing siege and onslaught by the UK and US
governments
WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE - WOZA ZIMBABWE - JUNE 2004 Edition - WOZA MOYA/
HUYA
MWEYA (Meaning: Come Holy Spirit/ Cleansing Wind) Website under
construction
www.wozazimbabwe.com
Walk with
WOZA on World Refugee Day! Are YOU a REFUGEE ISIPHEPHELI /
MUPOTERI?
WOZA
(Women of Zimbabwe Arise) SAYS
Life for many Zimbabweans is the life of
refugees. Stripped of rights that
protect our nationhood we at home go
without from day to day. And the regime
responds by telling us to become
social and economic exiles, asking you to
send money home, which will fund
their ongoing campaign to keep us `resident
refugees'.
WOZA will be
marking world refugee day on Saturday 19th June by gathering to
demand cause
for hope. 'Resident refugees' will risk arrest and assault
to
march.
BULAWAYO, HARARE March venues to be advised - Time 12
noon
Solidarity Protests:
UK Solidarity Group - Zimbabwe House, 429 the
Strand on Saturday 19th June,
12 noon.
PRETORIA, South Africa - Zimbabwe
House
'GONO URGES LOCALS TO WORK ABOARD'
"The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
is now encouraging Zimbabweans to work in the
diaspora because of their
foreign exchange generation potential which
exceeds that of any other
economic sector," said the governor, Dr Gideon
Gono ,at a public lecture at
the Midlands State University in May 2004. He
said the export of human
labour would be encouraged as the brain drain has a
lot of potential in terms
of generating foreign exchange for the country if
the money came through
official channels. Gono went on to say: "The brain
drain is our export. We
should encourage Zimbabweans to take up posts
outside."
Ask yourself
how they can ignore the suffering of millions and fly abroad to
ask for your
forex.. WOZA calls on non-resident refugees - 1.3 million in
the United
Kingdom, 1.5 million in South Africa, those in the United States
and other
countries - to resist being duped out of hard-earned cash. Your
money will
not go towards creating hope but into buying votes, using food
and propaganda
to try and convince us we are not oppressed and life is worth
living. Vast
amounts will be spent rigging the 2005 election to make people
think we
voted in a leadership of our choosing and have reason to lie back
and be
optimistic
WOZA says ZVAKWANA - SOKWANELE - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
For more
info: Box FM701, Famona, Bulawayo Ph: 011-213-885 / 09-63978 Email:
woza@mango.zw or wozazimbabwe@yahoo.com
Xinhua
Zimbabwe proposes to change electoral bill
www.chinaview.cn 2004-06-14
02:37:34
HARARE, June 14 (Xinhuanet) --The Zimbabwean
Electoral
SupervisoryCommission (ESC) said here Monday that it has sent
amendment
proposals to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs for
inclusion in the Electoral Amendment Bill 2003 currently before
the
parliament.
ESC spokesman Thomas Bvuma said the
proposals, including the
creation of an all-inclusive electoral authority,
were aimed at improving
Zimbabwe's electoral system.
"The
ESC recommendations are aimed at improving the electoral
process and at
removing the negative perceptions that people have of
Zimbabwean elections,"
he said.
He said the new electoral authority proposed by the
ESC would
combine the functions of the Registrar General of Elections,
the
Delimitation Commission, the Electoral Supervisory Commission and
the
Election Directorate.
The country is amending its
electoral laws as part of an ongoing
process to enhance democracy and improve
the electoral landscape.
The Electoral Amendment Bill 2003 is
undergoing parliamentary
scrutiny, and is likely to be passed before next
year's legislative polls.
Enditem
'Standard' Editor, Reporter Appear in Court to Face Allegations
of
Contravening Public Order And Security Act
Media Institute
of Southern Africa (Windhoek)
PRESS RELEASE
June 14, 2004
Posted to
the web June 14, 2004
On 8 June 2004, Bornwell Chakaodza, editor of
"The Standard" newspaper, and
reporter Valentine Maponga were remanded out of
custody to 14 August for
contravening Section 15 of the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA).
Allegations against the two journalists first arose
on 16 May when they
published a story entitled, "The family of slain mine
boss blames government
officials". The story said the family of murdered
Trojan Mine boss Leonard
Chimimba was blaming government officials for his
death. Chakaodza and
Maponga relied on a named source who has since distanced
himself from the
article.
Chakaodza and Maponga appeared before
Magistrate Memory Chigwaza. The state
contends that the two journalists erred
in implicating certain unnamed
senior government officials as being behind
Chimimba's murder. The mine boss
was alleged to have been in possession of
information connected to nickel
theft in South
Africa.
BACKGROUND:
Chakaodza and Maponga were arrested on 21 May.
They were released the same
day on Z$50,000 (approx. US$9) bail each.
ANZ Directors Plead Not Guilty to Charges of Publishing Without a
Licence
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek)
PRESS RELEASE
June 14, 2004
Posted to the web June 14,
2004
On 9 June 2004, four directors of The Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe
(ANZ), publishers of the banned newspapers "The Daily News" and "The
Daily
News on Sunday", pleaded not guilty to charges of publishing without
a
licence.
The four face charges under Section 66 of the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) for publishing without a
licence granted
by the government-appointed Media and Information Commission
(MIC). The
state contends that ANZ directors Samuel Nkomo, Rachel Kupara,
Michael
Mattinson and Brian Mutsau published "The Daily News" illegally on
24
October 2003, six weeks after the paper was shut down. "The Daily
News"
comeback edition was published a day after an administrative court
ruled
that the MIC had erred in denying the ANZ a licence when it applied for
one
in September.
MIC executive chairperson Tafataona Mahoso testified
that the newspaper
editors misinterpreted the court ruling and should have
waited before
restarting publication of the newspaper. On 23 October, an
administrative
court ordered that the ANZ be granted a licence by 30
November. Resuming
publication immediately was "the accussed's
interpretation" of the judgment,
said Mahoso.
"Following the judgment
of 23 October 2003, [the paper] should have waited
until after 30 November,"
he contended. "In my understanding, the Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe was
publishing outside the law," said Mahoso.
If convicted, ANZ directors
could each be fined Z$300,000 (approx. US$55) or
be sentenced to two years in
prison. The trial was scheduled to continue on
10 June.
News24
Couple survives bloody attack
14/06/2004 21:49 -
(SA)
Harare - A Finnish woman and her white Zimbabwean husband, both
in their
fifties, escaped with their lives on Monday after a savage mauling
by
President Robert Mugabe's youth militia using iron bars and rocks to try
and
force them out of the village they live in.
Birgit Kidd said the
mob of youths, led by secret police, attacked her and
her husband, Shane,
both active supporters of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, when
they were trying to assert a court order allowing
them to return to the
party's office on Monday in the picturesque tourist
village of Chimanimani in
Zimbabwe's southeastern districts.
Kidd said an attempt was made to burn
down the MDC office in a building
which the couple own three weeks
ago.
Speaking from her hospital bed in the neighbouring town of Chipinge,
she
said she had a dislocated shoulder where she was hit with an iron bar,
15
stitches to wounds in her head where the youths threw rocks at her
and
bruises all over her body.
Her husband was bleeding from the ears,
mouth and lips and also suffered
multiple bruises. "I thought I was going to
lose my life," she said.
"Everything that was available they were throwing at
us. They were trying to
finish Shane off with a huge rock. They were shouting
at us they were going
to kill us.
"We have done nothing wrong. We (the
MDC) don't beat anyone, we don't rape
anyone, we don't burn anyone's
houses."
The incident was the latest in a five-year reign of violence and
terror
controlled by Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party in the Chimanimani
area.
The election of a popular white farmer, Roy Bennett, in 2000
triggered a
backlash directed against MDC supporters. - Sapa-dpa
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12 June
Moyo burns his
fingers
Dumisani Muleya
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
propaganda chief Jonathan Moyo was
stopped in his tracks by the old guard of
the ruling Zanu PF when he tried
to elbow his way into the top echelons of
political power. Their move came
as Moyo began openly to make a power play
ahead of the party's critical
congress scheduled for December. The congress
comes at a time when Mugabe
has indicated he will step down as president of
Zimbabwe when his present
term expires. Moyo has of late been making open
attempts to build a power
base for himself in his rural home in Zimbabwe's
Matabeleland North
province. In the process he has found himself in conflict
with powerful
rivals within the party. Moyo recently clashed with
Zimbabwean
Vice-President Joseph Msika over the government's seizure of a
farm,
Kondozi. Although Moyo managed to hold on to the farm, Msika warned
that he
would not be defeated by "little immoral boys". The high-profile
clash,
which was widely interpreted as evidence of a scramble for power,
has
deepened the divisions within the faction-ridden Zanu PF.
Moyo
threw fuel on the fire three weeks ago when he launched a thinly
veiled
attack on Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira. In the state-owned
daily The
Herald Moyo criticised Mugabe's interview with British Sky News. He
said
those who still believed that it was better to promote Zimbabwe's
interests
through the "colonial and imperialist" media houses rather than on
the
"national media" were "outdated". This was seen as a broadside
against
Shamuyarira, who had facilitated the interview without Moyo's
approval. In
his outburst, Moyo also suggested that Mugabe had wasted time
answering
questions from "British intelligence operatives masquerading as
journalists"
that were either "very crude or very stupid". This was seen as
an unwitting
attack on Mugabe, and it further infuriated Zanu PF leaders.
Shamuyarira,
the president's confidant and a former journalist, apparently
thinks that if
he is allowed to speak to the global media, Mugabe could be
useful in
fighting negative publicity about Zimbabwe. By contrast, Moyo seems
to think
that exposing Mugabe to long interviews with "hostile" media
organisations
can only worsen the situation, especially at a time when the
president seems
to be losing his grasp on many issues. As shown over the past
three years,
Moyo's strategy has been to ring-fence Mugabe and control the
free flow of
information. Following hard on the heels of the government's
enforcement of
its repressive media laws, which resulted in the banning of
the Daily News
and other papers in January, new measures are planned to gag
Internet and
e-mail communication. The government is targeting Internet
service
providers, who could soon be forced to divulge the source of any
e-mail
deemed objectionable, unauthorised or obscene. The new regulations
mean that
Internet service providers will have to sign a contract agreeing
to
cooperate with the authorities in tracing the sources of
"offensive"
e-mails. It forbids the service providers to undertake any
"anti-national
activities". But most of the Internet firms have vowed to
resist the
official censorship drive.
The clash between Moyo and
Shamuyarira sparked a series of events that
appears to have led to Moyo's
isolation. It is understood that the attack on
Shamuyarira forced Zanu PF
chairperson John Nkomo to complain in his weekly
column in the party
newspaper mouthpiece, The Voice, of lack of discipline
and insubordination.
Moyo was seen as the target. Matters came to a head
last week when Nkomo was
openly slammed in The Herald by war veterans over
the current tussles over
land and farms. War veteran leader Joseph
Chinotimba attacked Nkomo over the
issue. Angered by the rising trend of
attacks on senior party officials, Zanu
PF bigwigs closed ranks and
confronted Moyo during the politburo meeting.
Insiders say Shamuyarira
tabled the issue before luminaries such as Msika,
while retired General
Solomon Mujuru - widely seen as the Zanu PF king-maker
- led the assault on
Moyo and other "undisciplined cadres". Zanu PF sources
say the attack in the
politburo has left Moyo weakened and isolated. After
the politburo meeting,
Nkomo wrote another column that insisted that "party
members need to respect
hierarchy". Moyo's situation was worsened by Mugabe's
statement, last week,
that party officials who have been unprocedurally
nominated as Zanu PF
candidates for next year's general election will be
rejected. Moyo is one of
those. His supporters in Matabeleland North recently
claimed he had been
nominated by "consensus" in a move seen as an attempt to
help him avoid
internal primary elections. Zanu PF big shots are said to be
plotting to
block Moyo in the primaries to ensure that he remains a powerless
appointed
MP. However, observers say that, despite the setbacks, Moyo is not
finished
yet, as Mugabe still needs his services as a spin doctor.
The Scotsman
Africa's plight will not end with aid
IN A week
packed with news did you notice president Robert Mugabe's
declaration he is
going to nationalise all the farmland in his already much
blighted Republic
of Zimbabwe? You do not need sophisticated economics to
know the certain
consequence will be starvation.
In many nations across Africa the
institutions we in the West take for
granted are entirely absent. The people
of these miserable territories are
not incompetent. They are the same as us.
Without the rule of law, private
property rights and an infrastructure for
basic transportation, water,
electricity and phones, we too would be a
broken, diseased and starving
people.
Africa's horrors are not solved
by sending aid. The word "aid" sounds
kindly, even generous. It is
pernicious. It mostly props up the bandit
regimes. Mr Mugabe's thugs rip off
the labels of wheat or maize from the
United States or European Union and
re-label it as the benevolence of the
dictator. The Sudanese government, too,
routinely plunders aid consignments.
At best, aid breeds a dependency
culture; at worst it funds barbarism.
What Africa needs is open markets
where property rights exist, contracts can
be enforced and exchanges can
multiply. This was clearly the message of the
Kenyan TV journalist Akinyi
"June" Arunga as she travelled from Cairo to
Cape Town in BBC 3's The Devil's
Footpath recently.
More specifically, Africa needs a period in which
major Western companies
take over either specific roles over long periods or
perhaps even entire
territories. If this sounds condescending or "colonial"
let me offer a
European analogy.
Kosovo is in a sort of limbo. It is
neither in Serbia nor in Albania. To
stop the bloodbath, the UN is operating
a sort of trusteeship. Diverse roles
that are quite beyond the bereft civic
institutions of Kosovo are being
performed under long-term contracts or
leases. In a career move he can never
have imagined, the former Liberal
Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown is a de
facto governor general - even if he has
no such title.
Let us take some specific examples. Sierra Leone had
declined into a
condition of utter desperation. The only policy initiative
its leaders had
was to cut off opponent's limbs. The British sent in no more
than a few
platoons of troops and some sappers. The brutality ceased. Sierra
Leone has
the most marvellous port site in West Africa. It is rich in
minerals;
diamonds in particular. It is highly fertile. It can feed itself
and export
food, except the EU bans its exports.
Sierra Leone should
be adopted by Scotland. My intentions are benevolent but
they can be led by
profit. Let the dynamic chief executive of Scottish
Power, Ian Russell, take
over its energy utilities. Let Scottish Water be
contracted to open and
extend its water supply. Paul Jowett would become a
local hero.
Just
abut every Edinburgh company could enhance life for the people of
Sierra
Leone.
Bechtel, the mighty and diverse US corporation, assumes contracts
that are
more like leases to run large projects under agreement. It runs
airports,
docks, generating stations and even sewage systems. This is not
kindly but
limp charity. Rather it structures a contract that ensures a
profit. This is
grown-up capitalism that delivers vastly improved public
services on the one
hand and a reasonable return on the other. There is
little new in this
suggestion. Canada is basically the creation of two
companies - the Hudson's
Bay Company, based on the brisk trade in beaver
pelts, and the Canadian
Pacific Railway, a timber venture.
Assuming
control of tracts of Africa is easily dismissed as "imperialistic".
I'm not
concerned to paint the map pink. My purpose is to rescue the almost
countless
millions from the butchery and misery that seems to be their fate.
The
good-hearted outfits such as Oxfam and Christian Aid are not going to
rescue
Africa. What Africa needs is capitalism - and its first cousin - the
rule of
law.
Mr Mugabe's people with their land ownership crushed will relapse
into
pre-industrial levels until it restores its markets. It is a vivid model
of
how not to run a country. Capitalism has a nobility. It lifts us all
from
primitive conditions. Free markets could free Africa.
The author
is director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Business Report
Indignation as Harare seeks funds in UK
June 14, 2004
By Alexandra Hudson
London - A
fundraising trip to Britain last week by the head of the
Zimbabwean central
bank outraged members of the country's opposition and
prompted calls for
tighter sanctions on the southern African state.
Gideon Gono went
to the UK to address Zimbabweans resident there and
encourage them to use a
new foreign currency transfer system when they send
money home to their
families.
About 400 000 Zimbabweans live in Britain and many of
whom use private
transfer companies such as Western Union to send money
back.
Under Harare's new system, which offers a more attractive
exchange
rate, foreign currency would flow directly to the country's
treasury.
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, under fire from the
West over the
alleged rigging of an election in 2002 and the persecution of
political
foes, has been banned, along with 98 senior officials of his
Zanu-PF Party,
from travelling to any EU country since 2002. But Gono is not
on the banned
list.
Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said
any money sent back could
help fund Mugabe's party campaign in future
elections.
Ancram told the BBC last week: "We have always called
for the
sanctions to cover not just those directly involved in the regime,
but also
those who support the regime financially, because the regime
without
financial support would be very severely weakened."
"We could act unilaterally, but certainly I think the EU should
further
tighten its sanctions."
A foreign office spokesperson said Britain
had spearheaded a robust
global response to the Mugabe regime and was behind
the EU travel ban in the
first place.
Gono was not identified as
a suitable candidate for the list when it
was last updated earlier this year,
and Britain would not act alone on what
was a multilateral issue, she
said.
Silence Chihuri, the British treasurer of Zimbabwe's
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change said: "We are very disappointed
that the
British government has allowed him into the country."
"Gideon Gono is wielding more power than even the finance minister
in
Zimbabwe at the moment. He is very influential in trying to turn around
the
fortunes of the government."
Chihuri added the he hoped Gono
would get a hostile reception from
expatriates.
A demonstration
was planned for Saturday at the Zimbabwe high
commission in London, where
Gono was expected to attend a function. The
commission declined to comment on
the visit.
Sunday Times (SA)
Zimbabwe steps up media onslaught
Monday
June 14, 2004 06:57 - (SA)
By Susan Njanji
HARARE - The closure of
another independent paper in Zimbabwe is seen here
as the latest blow in a
campaign by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party
to reshape the media
landscape ahead of crucial elections early next year.
The Tribune, a
weekly owned by a ruling party lawmaker who criticised
Zimbabwe's media laws,
was shut down on Thursday, just days after the
government moved to tighten
control of the internet.
The government said the one-year closure of The
Tribune, launched two years
ago, was decided after the weekly's publisher
failed to notify the
state-appointed media commission of changes including in
its ownership
structure and title.
The Tribune, which plans to
challenge the decision in court, said the
closure signalled "the death of
press freedom in Zimbabwe".
"This is the worst assault on press freedom
in modern Zimbabwe," said
Tribune publisher Kindness Paradza.
"Our
belief is that there is a hidden hand behind all this," he said,
charging
that the media commission was not "only unreasonable but barbaric
in an
independent and democratic Zimbabwe."
The closure of the Tribune came
within months of the closure of the highly
critical Daily News and its sister
paper, the Daily News on Sunday, early
this year.
Zimbabwe's media
laws, adopted shortly afer Mugabe was re-elected in 2002,
require all news
organisations to register with the state-appointed
commission to be allowed
to work in the country.
Close to 20 journalists and other media staff
have been arrested, some of
them more than once, for allegedly violating
media laws since 2002.
The closures, which have left hundreds jobless, is
seen as an attempt to
silence the free press ahead of parliamentary elections
only eight months
away.
"The ongoing closure of objective channels of
information by the ruling
authorities dilutes people's capacity to make
informed choices at the ballot
box," said the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) in a
statement.
In an editorial published
Friday despite the ban, the Tribune said "we see
the move ... as one designed
to ensure that no credible voice will be around
come voting next
year."
Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF) is
gearing up for the March elections, hoping to secure a
two-thirds majority
in parliament that will give it a free hand to change the
constitution.
Brian Kagoro of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a rights
lobby group, said
ZANU-PF is waging an onslaught on the media as part of a
broader bid to
create a one-party state.
"This control of the media is
not only to silence dissent but to create a
particular citizen, who is
docile, compliant and uncritical. You will have
the officialisation of
puppetry or parrotry so that everybody sings one song
and there will be only
one choir master," said Kagoro.
"The latest development demonstrated that
the laws had no intention of
regulating the media but controlling it and
switching off those media the
government is most afraid of and cannot control
directly," said Andrew
Moyse, head of the Media Monitoring Project, an
independent media monitoring
agency.
"There is no light at the end of
the tunnel," Moyse said.
Along with the chokehold on the media, the
government has asked internet
service providers to sign contracts that compel
them to monitor, report and
even block "malicious messages" and any other
material deemed in violation
of Zimbabwe law.
Due to the high cost of
telephone calls, the internet has become the most
inexpensive mode of
communication, widely used by both opposition members in
exile and economic
refugees to send messages back home.
Zimbabwe has the worst record on
media freedom among the 10 countries of
southern Africa, according to the
Windhoek-based Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA).
Reporters
Without Borders, a Paris-based media watchdog ranks Zimbabwe
number 141 out
of 166 countries on its press freedom index.
AFP
www.StuartNews.com
Stuart News
editorial: Poor Zimbabwe
Nationalization of farmland leading African nation
toward starvation
June 14, 2004
Robert Mugabe seems determined
that the nation he leads, Zimbabwe, will die
a slow-motion
death.
After running the once-prosperous African nation's economy into
the ground,
Mugabe has decided to put the finishing touches on its ruin with
a loopy
scheme to nationalize all farmland. Private ownership of land will
be
abolished.
A scheme to confiscate land from white commercial
farmers, who accounted for
most of Zimbabwe's agricultural exports, has now
expanded to confiscate land
from everybody. That should make a bad situation
worse, much worse. Once a
food exporter, Zimbabwe now grows only half the
food it needs. Now it is
unlikely to grow even that.
Thanks to
Mugabe's dictatorial mismanagement and goofy socialist schemes,
Zimbabwe's
once-vital mining and manufacturing sectors are moribund,
unemployment is
rampant, foreign investment and aid nil, and its currency
virtually
worthless.
In confiscating white-owned land, Mugabe turned over the best
of it to his
cronies, who have proved incapable of farming it, and the rest
to small
farmers who are unable to farm it because they cannot afford to buy
seed,
fertilizer, fuel and farm machinery. And without clear title to their
land,
they are unable to borrow.
The latest scheme, which envisions no
compensation for land nationalized,
calls for the farmers to be issued
99-year leases, which the government
feels will be collateral enough for
lenders. This dismissal of the rights of
private property ensures that
Zimbabwe's entrepreneurs will be unable to
raise capital.
But even if
lenders trusted the Mugabe government, which they don't, "The
banks aren't
going to lend to an individual against a lease that belongs to
the state," a
local economist told the Associated Press. "It doesn't work
that way. You
can't borrow on the strength of something you don't own."
The Mugabe
government's explanation for the economic disaster is a plot by
the white
nations to restore colonialism. That argument was bogus when it
was first
made and is laughable now. If anything, Mugabe has probably made
colonialism
seem a desirable alternative to his people.
There are precedents for
land-nationalization schemes like Mugabe's. In
1932-33, the Soviet Union
forcibly collectivized its agricultural sector; 7
million died from
starvation in Ukraine alone. From 1958-62, China's farmers
were forced into
the Great Leap Forward that left an estimated 30 million
dead from
starvation.
Sadly, something like that may be the fate of Zimbabwe if
lunacy persists.
The Star
Mugabe's legacy
June 14, 2004
After
his decision last week to nationalise all land, President Robert
Mugabe can
now safely retire. In his own mind, he will have completed the
process of
decolonisation which various compromises with reality thwarted
him from doing
since he took power in 1980.
Now he can tell his supporters that
they "own" all of the land - and
whites own none.
The sad irony
of Mugabe's legacy will be that the only way he could
find to restore the
land to the black majority was by making it almost
worthless to them. Mugabe
is attempting the great socialist conjuring trick
of "giving" blacks back
their land - through their "ownership" of the state.
But, of course, only
Mugabe's cronies and a few others have enjoyed anything
like real beneficial
ownership of land.
For the great majority, the real legacy of this
great Pyrrhic victory
will be more hunger and poverty. The only salvation for
Zimbabwe's people -
and Africans everywhere - is private ownership of land.
As many economists
and analysts have pointed out, it is only this which can
save the continent.
It is only through being able to use land as security for
gaining credit,
that ordinary Africans will be able to gain a foothold in the
otherwise
inaccessible market economy - to become entrepreneurs and lift
themselves
out of the status of perpetual worker status and
poverty.
The failure to give blacks back the land in any really
useful form is
the great tragedy of Zimbabwe. No doubt white farmers must
share some of the
blame. But Mugabe must bear the greater burden. He has,
after all, led the
country since independence. Through a long-term,
systematic and orderly
programme of reform, he could by now have dramatically
rectified the balance
of land ownership. But he chose instead to do almost
nothing for two decades
and then grabbed it all for the sake of political
survival.
History will surely judge him harshly.
Pretoria News
Where to now for alleged coup plotters?
June
14, 2004
By Gail Wannenburg
Judge Bernard Ngoepe has
dismissed a case brought by a group of
alleged mercenaries to compel the
South African government to request their
extradition from Zimbabwe to stand
trial in South Africa under the Foreign
Military Assistance Act. The 70 men
were arrested in Zimbabwe after the SA
government alerted authorities in
Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea that they
were part of a group captured in
Equatorial Guinea that have confessed to
plans to launch a coup d'etat
against the government of that country.
The men's attorneys argued
that the SA government should request their
extradition because there was no
prospect that the men's constitutional
rights to a fair trial or humane
treatment would be respected in either
Zimbabwe or Equatorial Guinea
.
The precedent for this action was the Constitutional Court
judgement
on Khalfan Mohamed, an illegal immigrant, deported to the US by the
South
African government and convicted for his part in the bombing of the
US
embassy in Kenya in 1998.
The court found that his
deportation was illegal and that the SA
government should have obtained
guarantees that Mohamed would not be given
the death sentence, outlawed in
SA.
The alleged coup plotters' attorneys argued that, by its
actions, the
SA government had caused the arrest of their clients and there
was a similar
obligation on the government to protect their constitutional
rights. Justice
Ngoepe said that the men, unlike Mohamed, had voluntarily
removed themselves
from South Africa and the SA government did not incur any
legal obligation
to protect them by warning the authorities in Zimbabwe of
their plans.
He also noted that it was in the discretion of the
South African
government to decide the timing and nature of any
representations it might
make on behalf of the men and that he was not in a
position to make findings
on the legal systems in Zimbabwe and Equatorial
Guinea. The judgment does
not close the door to further legal action by the
plaintiffs because it does
not explore the nature and extent of the South
African government's duty to
its citizens.
There are several
international precedents that outline the duty of
states with regard to the
trial of their own and foreign nationals in third
countries for criminal
offences. States can apply to the International Court
of Justice when they
believe that the rights of their citizens have been
violated.
Meanwhile, the alleged mercenaries find themselves in an invidious
position.
If they had confessed to a coup plot in their court papers, the
South African
government could charge them in terms of mercenary
legislation, thereby
facilitating their extradition to South Africa.
But proclaiming
their guilt puts them at the mercy of the legal
systems in Zimbabwe and
Equatorial Guinea where it seems they are unlikely
to receive a fair trial.
Their right to remain silent in terms of SA law is
threatened by this
dilemma.
There is no legislation outlawing extra-territorial
mercenary activity
in Zimbabwe. They have been charged with offences related
to their alleged
breach of firearm control and public order legislation. The
prima facie case
against them appears to be weak. An army colonel in the
Zimbabwe Defence
Industries allegedly sold firearms to the alleged coup
plotters without
adequate documentation. There has been no explanation from
the Zimbabwean
authorities as to how this occurred. No evidence has come to
light that
there was a plot against the Zimbabwean government so it is
unlikely that
public order charges will stick.
The Zimbabwean
government tacitly acknowledged this dilemma by passing
legislation allowing
the extradition of the men to Equatorial Guinea after
they arrested the men.
It is an established principle of many jurisdictions
including Zimbabwe that
legislation cannot be applied retrospectively.
Reports that the
Zimbabwean government has agreed to illegally
extradite the men to Equatorial
Guinea in exchange for oil raises further
concern about the rule of law in
Zimbabwe.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International claim
that there is
no rule of law in Equatorial Guinea. Opponents of the
government have faced
execution without due process. This is the possible
fate of the alleged coup
plotters if extradited to Equatorial Guinea. The
South African National
Prosecuting Authority, media reports suggest, has said
that there is little
prospect that the men will receive a fair trial. The NPA
was sent to
Equatorial Guinea to assist the authorities in ensuring a fair
trial but has
no real authority to intervene.
The South African
government also finds itself in a difficult
position. It now has to rely on
diplomatic measures to protect the rights of
the accused.
Arguably, the government has not provided an adequate explanation to
the
South African public as to why it cannot prosecute the alleged
coup
plotters.
The fact that the government alerted the
authorities in Zimbabwe to
the men's activities suggests that it may have had
sufficient information to
establish a conspiracy to provide military
assistance to overthrow a foreign
government, even if the men had not
committed an overt act of hostility - an
offence provided for in the Foreign
Military Assistance Act.
It is understandable that the SA
government wishes to send a clear
signal that mercenary activities will not
be tolerated. But it also has an
obligation to protect its citizens against
arbitrary justice in
international law. This includes the right to be
regarded as innocent until
proven guilty and to be heard in a competent
tribunal. The jury is still out
on whether the SA government and our courts
have done enough to protect the
rights of the alleged mercenaries now facing
trial. The SA government still
has a chance to request their extradition or
to make formal representations
to the governments involved to respect the
rights of these men to a
transparent and fair legal process and humane
sentence if found guilty.
.. Gail Wannenburg is a Research
Fellow at the SA Institute of
International Affairs.
Dispatch (SA)
EDITORIAL OPINION
Chinese arms in Africa
THE
purchase of 12 jet fighters and 100 military vehicles would raise
eyebrows in
most parts of the world. Where the buyer is Zimbabwe and the
seller is China,
the inflow of weapons raises concerns close to home.
There is evidence of
an accelerating arms race between Zimbabwe, Namibia and
South Africa,
according to statistics compiled by the South African
Institute of
International Affairs.
The sale apparently flies in the face of requests
to China by South African
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma not to sell
arms into the southern
African region, according to the journal Armed Forces
International
published in the United States.
The purchase had been
confirmed by Zimbabwe's permanent secretary for
defence, according to the
Movement for Democratic Change shadow minister for
defence Giles Mutsekwa
yesterday. Asked why the arms had not followed tender
procedures, secretary
Trust Maphosa repeatedly cited security reasons.
South Africa's concern
is that an arms race in the southern African
sub-continent could have severe
economic and security repercussions.
Zuma's request "reveals that SA has
observed a growing pattern of Chinese
arms sales" in its own backyard,
according to the journal, and provides
"evidence of its serious concern about
the matter". The journal also
suggested South Africa wanted to protect its
own arms industry by
discouraging sales from China.
The Zimbabwean
order also defies an appeal by United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan in
1998 that defence spending in southern
Africa be frozen for 10 years at 1,5%
of any country's GDP.
While South Africa claims to have stuck to this
figure, SAAIA figures show
our arms spending is closer to 1,7% of GDP, while
Zimbabwe is spending
around 3,4% and Namibia 3,6%. We are also a significant
manufacturer of
arms. Only Zambia and Swaziland have stuck to the UN
limit.
According to the journal, Zimbabwe's order for 12 Chinese FC-1
jets could
pose a "credible challenge" to the 28 Gripen JAS-39 multi-role
fighters
which South Africa has on order.
The percentages are
misleading, however. Our economy is many times greater
than any of our
neighbours and could therefore buy many times more armaments
for a lesser
part of GDP. We also control virtually all Zimbabe's fuel and
power
supplies.
Concerns of a different level are raised by the expansion of
Chinese arms.
China understands like no other country what it means to
produce in bulk. It
has spent 50 years developing a military force and
weapons to take on their
American equivalents on Taiwan.
Relations
between the mainland and the island have warmed in recent years
and the
threat of direct conflict has subsided.
This cannot be said with
confidence of the developing world and the
emergence of China as a major
supplier is a matter for concern. It would be
enthusiastically welcomed by
everyone who would like to see a real military
challenge emerging to hold off
the United States.
But it could also prove immensely costly to the
developing world, at a time
when Africa is engaged in a bold attempt to live
in peace so that it can
develop prosperity.
IOL
Uproar over Mugabe gift
June 14 2004 at
04:35AM
By Basildon Peta
A Malaysian
anti-corruption watchdog wants to know why former prime minister
Mahathir
Mohamad did not disclose his gift of timber to President
Robert
Mugabe.
The watchdog has also asked if Mahathir had obtained
cabinet approval before
giving Mugabe timber for his lavish 25-bedroom
mansion.
"And why was the gift not disclosed to Malaysian taxpayers?",
the Kuala
Lumpur Society for Transparency and Integrity asked in a statement
published
in the Malaysiakini newspaper.
The statement was a reaction
to Mahathir's admission on Friday that
Malaysian timber had been shipped to
Zimbabwe for the construction of
Mugabe's house. The former premier
reportedly said this was common practice
in promoting Malaysian
timber.
Mugabe said he had received timber from Mahathir and roofing
materials from
the Chinese government to build the mansion.
Malaysia's
parliamentary opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang, was quoted as
saying: "We
know Mugabe is a good friend of Mahathir (but) there was no
parliamentary
approval to fund this rotten and corruptible regime."
.. This
article was originally published on page 2 of The Mercury on June
14,
2004
Business Day
Inflation fall will not
last'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
HARARE
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate, the highest globally, continued
last month
to slow for the fourth month in a row, and fell to less
than
450%.
However, economists said yesterday it was inevitable the rate
would
accelerate again soon.
The official Central Statistical Office
said yearon-year inflation in the
fifth month of the year was 448%, 57
percentage points lower than the 505%
for April. However, month-on-month
inflation rose from 4,8% in April to 6%
last month, according to the figures,
also after registering a decline since
early this year.
Zimbabwe is in
severe economic crisis, characterised by the world's fastest
shrinking gross
domestic product 30% in the past five years which is
projected to sink more
than 9% this year.
Reckless economic decisions, corruption, violent
repression and destruction
of its formerly lucrative agricultural sector
under President Robert Mugabe
are widely blamed for the collapse of what
until five years ago was one of
Africa's most robust
economies.
Inflation hit a record 623% in January, but has slowed
substantially during
the past four months thanks to new monetary policies and
devaluation, says
Harare. Sapa-DPA
Chingoka defends Zimbabwe's corner
Wisden Cricinfo staff
June 14,
2004
The Zimbabwe Cricket Union held a press conference in Harare
this afternoon
to brief the media on last week's talks with the ICC in Dubai
and insisted
that Zimbabwe's Test status had not been suspended.
Peter
Chingoka, the chairman of the ZCU, told reporters that the board had
agreed
to "revision" of the four Tests scheduled for later this year until
2005. He
explained that Zimbabwe's Test status had never been up for review
at the
Dubai meeting and that it had "its Test status and enjoys all the
benefits
and obligations that come with it, just like the other nine full
member
countries."
And Chingoka tersely dismissed accusations that the ZCU was
guilty of
discrimination. "Nothing could be further from the truth than
the
unjustified accusation of racism mischievously levelled against the ZCU,"
he
said. "Our integration process is not just all-embracing in intention
but
also in implementation. We have continued to promote, develop and
administer
the game of cricket for the benefit of all Zimbabweans
without
discrimination of any kind.
"We remain committed to the full
implementation of this document, whose
contents have stood the test of
time."
He went on to explain that India, Australia and South Africa had
all offered
their support to try and help Zimbabwe gain much-needed
experience. The
three countries have offered places within their
high-performance programmes
to Zimbabwe's promising players, as well as
making available facilities for
the development of coaches and
umpires.
Chingoka defended the constitutional process for the appointment
of the ZCU
board which, he insisted, "involves an independent panel made up
of senior
and respectable citizens.
"The meeting was impressed and
satisfied with our presentation and requested
that we make a similar
presentation to the ICC executive board which meets
in London on the 30th of
this month."
And he concluded by repeating that he hoped that the dispute
with the rebel
cricketers could be resolved but reiterated the board's line
that the matter
was not one which needed the involvement of the ICC disputes
committee.
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd
VOA
Zimbabwe Hosts HIV-AIDS Conference
Tendai Maphosa
Harare
14
Jun 2004, 14:45 UTC
With the HIV virus and AIDS running rampant
across Africa, Zimbabwe is
hosting its first conference on what has become a
major medical problem.
The four-day conference is expected to bring together
more than 500
international and local delegates from governments, the private
sector, and
civic society groups.
The theme of the conference is
Taking Stock: Looking to the Future.
According to Zimbabwe's minister of
health, Dr. David Parirenyatwa, the
delegates will examine what has been
learned since Zimbabwe's first HIV case
was identified in 1985, and how they
can profit from the experiences of
experts from other
countries.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will officially open the
conference. Among
the high-profile speakers will be former Zambian president
Kenneth Kaunda,
whose son died of AIDS in the 1980s and is now an activist in
the war
against the disease.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV rates
in the world. A national HIV-AIDS
estimate puts the figures of those infected
at 25 percent out of a
population of 11.6 million. In addition, 3,000 deaths
a week are attributed
to AIDS.
Zimbabwe declared HIV-AIDS a national
disaster in 1999 and introduced a
three percent levy on income tax to finance
AIDS-fighting programs.
A local pharmaceutical company is now
manufacturing generic anti-AIDS (ARV)
drugs, but the medicines are available
only to the less privileged. Those
with the means to do so have to
pay.
Tribune Closure Throws Hundreds Out of Work
Zimbabwe Standard
(Harare)
June 13, 2004
Posted to the web June 14, 2004
Our Own
Staff
AT least 60 full-time workers, 20 of these journalists, could
be out of
employment following the closure of The Tribune by the Media
Information
Commission (MIC) last week.
The move also affects 200
vendors who survived on commissions from selling
the paper.
'We are
really in a serious situation because we have to publish in order to
get
salaries for employees,' said Publisher, Kindness Paradza who is also a
Zanu
PF Member of Parliament for Makonde.
The Tribune becomes the third paper
to be shut down after The Daily News and
its sister paper The Daily News on
Sunday were banned by the MIC.
Yesterday, there was widespread
condemnation of the closure of the paper Ñ
locally and abroad Ñ on the basis
that its new owners, Africa Tribune
Newspapers, had failed to inform MIC of
material changes in terms of Section
67 of Aippa.
Ann Cooper,
executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in
the United
States, attacked President Mugabe for trying to stifle
Press
freedom.
'President Robert Mugabe is killing off Zimbabwe's
independent newspapers
one by one,' said Cooper.
'The victims are the
people of Zimbabwe who are cut off from information
about their own
government.'
Annika Soder, Sweden's Secretary of State, said her country
was worried by
the closures of newspapers in Zimbabwe.
She said it was
impossible to say there was a democracy when there is no
freedom of speech in
the country.
Matthew Takaona, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ)
president also
condemned the closure of The Tribune.
'Press freedom is
dead and buried in Zimbabwe and democracy is critically
affected when there
is such a scenario,' said Takaona.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Misa) and the Media Monitoring
Project in a joint statement,
said:
'This latest onslaught against free expression and particularly
the
privately owned media, demonstrates precisely why so many of the
provisions
of AIPPA are clearly anti-democratic and grossly repressive.
IOL
Mugabe and main labour union to work together
June
14 2004 at 10:18AM
Johannesburg - South African Labour Minister
Membathisi Mdladlana welcomed
an agreement between the Zimbabwean government
and a labour union to work
towards resolving that country's problems on
Monday.
In a statement released after the standards committee of the
International
Labour Organisation (ILO) discussed Zimbabwe in Geneva,
Mdladlana said the
best way of resolving the issues raised was by encouraging
an
intensification of the processes of social dialogue.
"I also am
pleased that the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions and the
Zimbabwe
government delegation have reached agreement about the importance
of
restarting the mechanism and process of social dialogue," Mdladlana
said.
He said this was the third time the government of Zimbabwe had
appeared in
front of the standards committee in connection with violations of
Convention
98 of the ILO, which deals with fundamental rights of collective
bargaining.
"The Zimbabwean government made it clear in 2003 that it was
committed to
addressing the concerns put before the committee on questions of
collective
bargaining and social dialogue within the country. Since 2003,
the
Zimbabwean government has already promulgated legislation that
speaks
directly to these concerns," Mdladlana said.
"We welcome the
Kadoma Declaration as an outcome of discussions between the
government of
Zimbabwe and its social partners. The parties confirmed that
this declaration
lays the basis for an agreement to collectively confront
the problems being
faced by their country.
"Zimbabwean workers and the government have
expressed a willingness to take
the process of social dialogue forward. The
ILO should be supportive and
encouraging of such a process," Mdladlana added.
- Sapa