Wednesday, 14 June, 2000, 17:54 GMT 18:54 UK -BBC
Winnie and Hunzvi
(is the cellphone a permanent implant? -Pen)
Former South African President Nelson Mandela's ex-wife,
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has visited two farms occupied by squatters near the
Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
The head of the African National Congress'
Women's League was accompanied by Chenjerai Hunzvi, the leader of the illegal
invasions of more than 1,000 white-owned farms in recent months.
The illegal occupation of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe has
led to a violent atmosphere in the run-up to elections on 24-25 June.
We are the last people to point the finger at anyone who is
trying to resolve their land issue
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Mrs Mandela is reported to have expressed shock at the sight
of hundreds of black families squatting at Hofmoor farm, east of the capital,
but has made little comment about Zimbabwe's political crisis.
"What is gratifying is that in fact some of the farmers are
co-operating with people ... and are providing services for the people who are
occupying the farms," she said.
Winnie is visiting Zimbabwe at the invitation of the Zimbabwe
Football Association and has also met the South African election observer team.
Monitoring
Election monitors from Commonwealth and European countries
have started deploying across the country.
The 44 strong team of Commonwealth monitors say they will
travel extensively to inspect preparations for the poll and consult the
political parties before overseeing the voting itself.
European Union monitors who've had operational difficulties
with the Zimbabwean government said they had so far been well recieved by all
sides.
Commonwealth observers: Will go to the farms
Last week, the United Nations withdrew from its role as
co-ordinator for the various observer teams after accusing the Zimbabwean
Government of putting too many restrictions in its way.
The leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, said on Wednesday that some 3,000 ruling
party supporters prevented him from holding a rally in the town of Mutoko,
north-east of the capital.
On Tuesday, a similar number of ruling party supporters
besieged an opposition party rally in the nearby town of Murehwa and police had
had to intervene.
Farm visits
On Tuesday, President Robert Mugabe promised Commonwealth
observers that they would be allowed to visit occupied white-owned farms.
If you [observers] speak to the workers, that is politics -
that is interfering and we cannot accept that
Chenjerai Hunzvi, War
Veterans' leader
Mr Mugabe made the pledge during a meeting with former
Nigerian President Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is chairman of Commonwealth
Observer Group.
The leader of the self-styled war veterans, Chenjerai Hunzvi,
welcomed the decision, but warned the observers not to make contact with
farmworkers.
"If you want to visit you are welcome, but just don't speak to
the workers, because you will speak about land and that is a separate issue. It
has nothing to do with this election," he said.
AFP
Mugabe feels sorry for Hansie Cronje
EMSIE FERREIRA,
Johannesburg | Wednesday 2.00pm.
FORMER South African cricket captain Hansie
Cronje has won the sympathy
of someone catching as much flak as he is -
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe.
The Star newspaper on Wednesday
quoted Mugabe as saying: "Im
heartbroken by what the chap is going through. I
never thought he would
be lost to cricket so early in his career. "He used to
be very good but,
as he said, Satan got the better of him." Mugabe was
referring to a
much-ridiculed confession by Cronje in which he said the devil
made him
take money from a bookmaker. Cronje was fired in April after
he
admitted that he had accepted 10 000 to 15 000 dollars for
providing
information and forecasts on matches during a triangular series
with
England and Zimbabwe.
The King Commission of inquiry into
corruption in South African cricket
has in the past week heard that Cronje on
several occasions also offered
team mates money to
under-perform.
Mugabe said he was an avid cricket fan and was following
the work of the
Commission closely. "Even here at home I follow cricket very
closely. Im
actually a patron of the local team. See, Im not anti-white," he
told
The Star. "I had great, great respect for that young man. What
a
marvellous captain he was. What is even more sad is that it wasnt
even
much money. Its a pity, a real pity," Mugabe said.
Mugabe is
facing the worst moment of his 20-year rule. Zimbabwe is in
economic crisis,
political violence is rife in the run-up to elections
and he has been slated
for plans to seize white-owned farms. ?
Wednesday, 14 June, 2000, 14:59 GMT 15:59 UK BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_790000/790930.stm
'Conflict
gem' trade targeted
Illicit gem trade has fuelled civil wars
across Africa
Government officials and diamond dealers from around the
world are meeting
in the Angolan capital, Luanda, to discuss the illicit
trade in diamonds by
rebel groups.
The talks come as mining giant De Beers
calls for a co-ordinated
international response to stop the trade in
so-called "conflict diamonds".
Under the spotlight at the two-day
conference are gems mined in Angola,
Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
The delegates will discuss the possibilities for
self-regulation and
legislation within diamond producing countries, and
trading centres such as
Antwerp in Belgium, are being
examined.
Participants at this week's diamond conference in Luanda are
seeking to
formulate a series of proposals that could be considered by
African leaders
during next month's OAU summit to be held in
Togo.
De Beers Millennium diamond from the mines of
Congo
But Angola has declared that it will not attend, because it
says Togo has
links with the main Angol rebel group, Unita.
Angola is
carrying out an intensive diplomatic campaign to encourage other
countries to
join the boycott of the meeting.
The production of diamonds worldwide is
put at more than 6bn dollars. It has
been estimated that 4% of these gems can
be described as "conflict diamonds"
or diamonds that originate in rebel-held
areas.
Calls for ban
In a letter to industry leaders ahead of next
month's World Diamond Congress
in Antwerp, De Beers Chairman Nicky
Oppenheimer and Managing Director Gary
Ralfe said the diamond industry should
expel those people found trading in
conflict stones.
De Beers, which
controls 60-70% of the world market in rough, or uncut,
diamonds, has since
March guaranteed all stones sold through its
London-based Central Selling
Organisation as being "conflict-free".
In the United Kingdom a government
campaign to halt trade in "conflict
diamonds" has scuppered a planned
floatation of the mining company Oryx,
because of its links with the
governments of Zimbabwe and Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), which are
fighting together in a bloody civil war
in the country.
Leone scheme
'working'
A government official in Sierra Leone says the country's new
system of
certifying diamonds to stop smuggling is proving its worth,
despite
widespread predictions that it would be unworkable.
The
official, Ndola Myers, told Reuters news agency that exporters he had
never
seen before were appearing at his office to pay tax on their diamonds,
and
government income had jumped from almost nothing to up to $1m a
month.
The diamonds are issued with a certificate of origin to identify
them as
legal - the system is aimed at blocking gems mined by rebels of
the
Revolutionary United Front - who hold the diamond-rich fields around
Koidu
and Tongo.
MAPUTO, June 14 (AFP) - Zimbabwe has run up a 35-million-dollar
(36.5-million-euro) debt to Mozambique-Portuguese owned
Hidroelectrica
de Cahora Bassa (HCB), a cabinet minister said
Wednesday.
Zimbabwe
accumulated the debt over the last two years,
Mozambique's mineral
resources and energy minister Castigo Langa
said.
Zimbabwe imports
power from the hydroelectric Cahora Bassa dam,
as well as from South
Africa.
"We are very concerned about the issue and hope that Zimbabwe
will find the solutions to settle its debt," Langa said, attributing
Zimbabwe's failure to honour its debt to the economic problems
besetting
its neighbour.
The southern African country which is undergoing its
worst
economic crisis since independence 20 years ago, risked power cuts
earlier this year when it failed to pay South Africa a
17-million-dollar
bill because of an acute shortage of foreign
currency.
The country is
also short of fuel because of debts stemming from
a severe shortage of
foreign exchange and corruption in the state
oil procurement company, but
President Robert Mugabe has of late
been accusing Britain of interferring
with Zimbabwe's fuel
supplies.
Mozambique has a major hydro-electric
potential of about 14,000
megawatts (MW). However, only about 2,000 MW are
currently being
generated mainly for export to neighbouring countries, as it
consumes only 200MW.
From the Joburg Star
Mines are next target on Mugabe's list
June
14 2000 at 11:07PM
By Abbey Makoe
Harare - Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe says his country's
mining industry will be targeted as soon as
his government has
redistributed millions of hectares of white-owned land.
During an exclusive interview in Harare this week, Mugabe also
confirmed that Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent
Kabila had
offered Zimbabwe and Namibia a diamond mine each as
reward for their
military help.
But Mugabe strongly denied speculation that he or
Namibian
President Sam Nujoma stood to gain from the gift from Kabila. He
also dismissed reports that he was one of the richest people in the
world and had bought a castle in Scotland.
Mugabe further revealed
that a number of leading High Court judges,
who are still British citizens,
would be forced into early
retirement "but with full pension". Zimbabwe
abolished dual
citizenship in 1985 .
"Unfortunately, we cannot fire
those judges. They are there by
virtue of our appointment, and all I can say
is that we should have
known better."
He gave a personal
undertaking that parliamentary elections
scheduled for June 24-25 would be
free and fair.
"I will also be ready and willing to accept the outcome,
whichever
way it goes," Mugabe said.
On his plans to redistribute
ownership of the mines, he said:
"After the land issue, we are going to now
be forced to look at the
mining sector. Who's there? There must be Africans
in there, as
owners.
"At the end of the day, black people must be
able to say, 'ah, the
resources are ours'."
On the diamond mines
from Kabila, Mugabe said: "What Kabila has
suggested to us, and we have
worked on as payment for operations in
the DRC, is that there are these
mines, some of the mines, which
the owners left some time ago.
"He
has said 'let us be partners in regard to this mine and
partners with
Namibia in regard to that mine'. So there are two
mines, but so far we
haven't got a single diamond from them because
we are still working on the
paperwork." - The Star Foreign Service
And now this .......................
ZESA (ZIMBABWE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY AUTHORITY)
Further to my email of 9th June I advise that CFU met with Zesa hierarchy on
Monday 12th June.
Zesa informed us that it was concerned about the level and frequency of the
load shedding currently taking effect. This was necessitated because supply
was unable to meet peak demand due to low levels of plant availability and
insufficient forex for extra imports of current.
Presently the following situation prevails:
· Only 3 out of 6 generators at Hwange Power Station are functioning
· 5 out of 6 generators at Kariba are operational
· The three small thermal power stations, Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare are
running at well below capacity because of a shortage of coal (washed peas
grade)
· Zimbabwe normally has to import about 45% of power requirement from
neighbouring countries because domestic supply is unable to cope with
domestic demand. The main external suppliers are HCB (hydro Cobora Bassa)
400 MW, Snel (DRC) 100MW and Eskom (RSA) 150MW. These imports have to be
paid for with forex and the available forex is inadequate to pay for any
increase, let alone service past debt. Zesa is now perceived as an
unreliable debtor and is on interruptible supply, which means external
suppliers can cut its supply at very short notice.
Zesa is fairly optimistic that there will be an improvement in the power
supply situation in the near future as a result of the following repairs and
arrangements it is carrying out i.e.
Hwange Power Station
The technical problems on Unit 6 should be resolved before the end of the
month. All spares required for the repair are available.
The transformer on Unit 3 is being moved to Unit 4 which has been out of
service for some time because of a faulty generator transformer.
Save for the unseen, Zesa is expecting that by the end of June 2000, Hwange
will have five machines running.
The only unit that will be out is Unit 3, which will await the arrival of a
generator transformer and repair to the generator itself. The generation
situation should improve and lead to less severe load shedding except for
unforeseen problems.
3 Small Thermal Power Stations
It is hoped that Whange Colliery will be able to mine and store the low
grade surface coal thereby exposing the better grade washed peas whose
availability will improve the generation output of the small thermal power
stations resulting in firm supplies to customers.
Kariba Power Station
Two machines at Kariba have been upgraded and refurbished to increase the
output from 111Mw to 125MW. One machine is under refurbishment and is
expected to be complete by September 2000. Another machine which was due to
be taken out of service for upgrading and refurbishment has been deferred
pending the improvement in generation availability.
Imports of Power
There is not much room to maneuver on this issue as Zesa is not entitled to
pay the parallel rate for forex and any chance of procuring US$ from the
market at 38:1 is very limited.
Conclusion
In the light of our discussions with Zesa we believe it is likely that
unscheduled load shedding will continue.
Hopefully the situation should improve towards the end of this month, by
which time 5 of the 6 generators at both Hwange and Kariba should be
operational.
However, we don't see any improvement in Zesa's ability to import power and
existing supply is so tightly stretched that any small breakdown could
result in further unscheduled outages.
We have a good relationship with Zesa who are worried about the effects of
load shedding particularly regarding the winter wheat crop. They have
promised to keep us informed of developments and we therefore believe
farmers should approach he next few months with guarded optimism regarding
Zesa's power supply.
John Dickens
COMMERCIAL EXECUTIVE
13 June 2000
COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT
Visit the CFU Website:- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu