Silent diplomacy
can't stop Mugabe's mission to destroy homes and lives Kate
Hoey Plumes of smoke rise from houses that stood among meagre
patches of withered maize
IN TWO WEEKS' TIME, at
a luxury hotel in Scotland, Tony Blair will sit down to dinner with
President Mbeki of South Africa, an unashamed ally and apologist of the
monstrous Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. As the two leaders wine and dine in
Gleneagles, Robert Mugabe's riot police will be engaged on their brutal and
systematic mission to destroy the homes and livelihoods of some of the
poorest people in Africa. How can Mr Blair talk blithely of
making poverty history when African leaders led by Thabo Mbeki allow such
atrocities to continue unchallenged on their doorstep? The South African
President must take huge responsibility for the terror and humanitarian
disaster which I have seen over the past week in
Zimbabwe.
I write this from Harare, my fury overflowing after
days of avoiding police roadblocks and witnessing the terrible scenes left
behind in towns and villages destroyed by Mugabe's Operation Murambatsviva,
or Drive Out Rubbish, a violent programme that can be likened to Pol Pot's.
This week as we drove towards Killarney, a sprawling settlement on the
outskirts of Bulawayo, rumours were spreading that Mugabe's henchmen were
about to extend their crackdown from the vendors and informal traders in the
city centre to the outlying settlements.
Sure enough, the
roads are full of trucks with units of police and shaven-headed youth
militia drafted in to carry out the destruction ordered by Zanu-PF's high
command. My heart pounds as we take diversions to avoid checkpoints and
plainclothes agents loitering on the streets. Eventually we gain a vantage
point and look down on a grotesque scene of burning houses spread out across
the landscape. Plumes of smoke rise from blazing thatch where houses had
stood among meagre patches of withered maize stalks. I can see teams of
police clubbing the mud walls and throwing corrugated iron sheets to the
ground.
That night I am filled with guilt and anger at my
utter helplessness, mixed with shame that, although it has provided aid for
the people of Zimbabwe, my Government has continued to back the useless
"silent diplomacy" of Mr Mbeki.
Early next morning I
return to Killarney with a team of church and civil society activists to
offer help in moving families to a place of safety. It is an emotional
experience to join this small group of brave local people who, despite the
intimidation and fuel shortages, bring their own vehicles to carry a few
desperate families away from their homes. Shell-shocked mothers are
gathering up what remains of their earthly possessions, in most cases a few
enamel pots and a mattress. Near by, dozens of tiny children sit, quietly
traumatised.
Perpetua Mpofu, a grandmother and partially
blind, begs me to arrange transport for the few belongings that she and her
husband had managed to save when the police arrived. "They told us they will
come back with dogs and horses tomorrow if we have not gone," she says. I
help her clamber on to a truck as she leaves her home of 25 years. There is
a moment of comic chaos when another woman, Khanyisela, refuses to leave
with her three children until together we catch her chickens, her most
valuable possessions.
In the maze of narrow streets of
Makokoba, Bulawayo's oldest township, I see armed police, in riot gear and
vivid blue helmets, intimidating families who have been ordered to knock
down their own homes. Angry young men ask me what the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change can do to protect them from the regime. The years of
repression are finally pushing them to consider defiant
action.
As a tiny gesture of support I buy bananas from a
brave vendor who has returned to set up her stall amid the ashes of the
once-thriving market, which was officially licensed by Bulawayo city
council. "They've gone too far this time," she whispers.
At the largest store the shelves have been empty for weeks of staples such
as flour, cooking oil and soap. Near by I speak to a young man, his bicycle
piled high with boxes. Obert gulps nervously as he tells me that his only
income since leaving school has been from roadside vending. Last week armed
police ransacked his pitch and confiscated his entire stock.
I was driven north to Harare by a man who as a youth had fought for the
liberation of Zimbabwe. Today my friend is still risking his life to free
Zimbabwe. Passing through the towns of Gweru and Kwe Kwe we see an endless
trail of destruction. The noisy banter and bustle of a typical African
market are gone: the pitches are deserted, with the odd mangled wire or
plastic bag fluttering in the wind.
Whenever a roadblock
appears I freeze and dread being unmasked as a former minister in the
British Government, but my companion knows every ruse to avoid detection and
we arrive safely in Harare. The poorer suburbs of the city have been
bulldozed by Mugabe's storm troops leaving acres of flattened concrete - the
remains of the bustling workshops and the thousands of solidly built houses
razed to the ground, their contents destroyed and lives
ruined.
As I prepare to slip out of the country I try to
focus on what action must be demanded of the outside world. The humanitarian
need in the country is overwhelming. Zimbabwe was already a country staring
disaster in the face. Now, with nearly a million people displaced, most
without shelter or the means of earning a living, the situation is becoming
a catastrophe.
The African Union must demand that the
International Red Cross and United Nations relief agencies are given
unrestricted access to Zimbabwe to deal with the internal refugee and food
crisis, as they would in any other disaster situation.
The organisers of Live 8 must urge the millions of people who will enjoy the
concerts on July 2 to demand that politicians attending the G8 summit get
their heads out of the sand and push Zimbabwe's plight to the top of their
Africa agenda.
Mr Mbeki's presence at the G8 summit in July
is a reward for promising to tackle Africa's blight of bad governance,
corruption and human rights abuses. Disgracefully, he has rallied most of
Africa's leaders in wilful denial that anything is amiss in Zimbabwe and has
repeatedly blocked attempts at the UN to address the country's appalling
human rights record.
Instead of looking forward to a
convivial dinner of fine food and wine, Mr Blair should be insisting that
the South African President condemns the excesses of Mugabe's regime. If he
won't, the invitation to the Gleneagles summit should be
withdrawn.
Harare Clears Way for Relief of Those Displaced by
Cleanup By Patience Rusere Washington 15 June
2005
In an abrupt shift - and under mounting international
pressure - the government of Zimbabwe has given permission for local and
international non-governmental organizations to provide relief to those
displaced by the ongoing program mass evictions and home
demolitions.
The change in Harare's stance was announced
Wednesday at a meeting organized by the Father Fidelis Mukonori, a Catholic
priest. Present were NGO representatives, local government officials, and
National Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo.
National
Association of Non-Governmental Organizations Executive Director Jonah
Mudewe welcomed the move and said NGOs could move as soon as Thursday to
address what he called "a serious situation."
He said an
emergency aid committee has been set up as a contact point for the NGOs that
wanted to provide assistance to the internally displaced population which
has been estimated at 200,000.
Studio 7's efforts to contact Mr.
Chombo were unsuccessful. But Father Mukonori said in an interview with
Studio 7 reporter Patience Rusere that the government has undertaken to
provide housing for about 30,000 people in Harare, while new vendor stands
will be allocated to informal sector vendors with payment of fees over
several years.
International Pressure Mounts on Harare to Halt
Evictions By Blessing Zulu Washington 15 June
2005
World pressure is mounting on Harare to stop demolishing
shantytown homes deemed illegal. The European Union has expanded its list of
Zimbabwean officials under a travel ban and asset freeze from 95 to 120
names. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says the new list includes all
members of the new cabinet and politburo, and senior figures involved in the
"manipulation of elections."
The British Ambassador to Harare
voiced "strong concern" to Vice President Joyce Mujuru and State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa. In London, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Lord
Triesman summoned the Zimbabwean charge d'affairs to protest the crackdown.
Australia said Tuesday that all Zimbabweans, including diplomats, will need
visas to transit through its airports.
Information Minister
Tichaona Jokonya told Studio 7 this week that the sanctions were not
intended to hurt ordinary people. Government today carried on with its
crackdown. The focus has shifted to farms and the state's bulldozers were
turned toward Bob Farm near Mabvuku, and near Bindura and Mazowe in
Mashonaland West province. Police gave the settlers seven days to vacate or
risk losing property and crops.
Studio 7 reporter Blessing Zulu
spoke with University of Zimbabwe Development Studies Professor Brian
Raftopolous about the shift in the crackdown operation toward farms - many
of which were seized from white farmers and are now accupied by veterans of
the 1970s independence struggle who have typically been loyal to the ruling
party.
Almost a million people in Zimbabwe are now homeless
after police demolished about 190 000 homes in their ongoing crackdown on
residential areas. Many of those affected by the controversial operation are
unable to find proper shelter or food and are now living in the open.
Critics, both at home and abroad are describing the operation as an assault
on the poor. Human rights groups and countries like the US, Australia and
the UK have joined forces to condemn the government's actions. The United
Nations has described the operation as a clear violation of human rights.
But worldwide condemnation and all the protests are falling on deaf ears.
Police today continued with their crackdown. In Kuwadzana, Harare, a
constituency under the opposition party, the MP Nelson Chamisa told us
police were in the area continuing with their barbaric act of destroying
people's properties. In Glen Norah, also in Harare, residents were being
told to demolish their own houses while police were watching from a safe
distance. Lovemore Machengedzera, who toured the suburb today, said almost
every household has been affected by Operation Murambatsvina.
The
high-density suburb of Epworth outside Harare is reported to be dangerously
overcrowded as people who have been evicted from other areas of the capital
are flocking there to rebuild. Displaced families are choosing Epworth
because the area has not yet been hit by the ongoing demolition of
residential structures. Scores of pushcarts are being seen daily
transporting furniture, clothing and household goods down Chiremba road
which leads to Epworth. And the situation has quickly developed into a
health hazard. MDC MP for Hatfield Tapiwa Mashakada said that there is not
enough water and sanitation for all these people. He said the bush is the
toilet and the infrastructure is not developed to accommodate this
population explosion. Mashakada said he fears diseases will spread easily
under these crowded conditions. Many believe the police are afraid to
destroy homes in Epworth as they might ignite a serious riot there due to
the sheer numbers of people. Families have come to the Epworth area from as
far as Chitungwiza, Budiriro and Glen View, and are desperately trying to
build something where they can shelter from the winter cold. The government
destroyed their homes without enough warning and without providing any
alternative plans.
Armed riot police descended on the popular
Green Market in Mutare and burnt market stalls belonging to licensed
informal traders. MDC Information Officer for Manicaland Pishai Muchauraya
said that the police had initially warned the traders to remove their stalls
on Monday, but came back Tuesday and started the destruction. Today
everything else was burnt to the ground. This is a large home industries
market, where furniture and coffins made by the traders could be bought
cheaply. It's reported that riot police were also on a rampage in Nyazura
where tuckshops, back cottages and the Zanu PF offices were destroyed.
Scores of desperate people lost their livelihoods as police confiscated
goods which included welding machines and domestic appliances. Pishai
Muchauraya said that anyone who resisted was beaten. Most of the victims,
especially at the home industries market in Mutare, had licences and paid
rates to the local council. In Bulawayo police were destroying so-called
illegal houses in Entumbane, Njube and Mzilikazi today. Using sledge
hammers, they were seen busy destroying what was left of the buildings after
residents stripped off some bits themselves. Desperate residents could be
seen standing next to their destroyed homes contemplating their next move. A
resident in Bulawayo said that a culture of fear has gripped people and the
helplessness they are feeling cannot be put into words. On Sunday the city's
oldest suburb, Makokoba, had several homes razed to the ground. The affected
included a huge number of traditional healers who had set up shop in the
area over the years.
Some of the settlers who were encouraged by
government to illegally occupy Roy Bennet's farm in Chimanimani are now
victims of the current police blitz. Having served their political purpose,
they had their dwellings and property destroyed by the police as they
watched helplessly. Stone and wood carvers in the tourist catchment areas
also had their goods and stalls destroyed in the operation. It meant nothing
to the police that most of them were actually paying rates to the local
council. Some shops operating in Rusitu near the home of the Zanu PF MP
Samuel Udenge were also destroyed. Like most centres in the country,
Chimanimani is now dominated by cat and mouse clashes between police and
defiant vendors who are selling small bits of their wares in order to
survive. A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the rural areas as
displaced urbanites try to make use of limited resources in their new
makeshift settlements.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The
following is a statement by Nelson Chamisa, the MDC national youth chairman
to commemorate the Day of the African Child - 16
June
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By
Nelson Chamisa Last updated: 06/16/2005 10:02:47 THE Movement for
Democratic Change National Youth Assembly joins the rest of the world,
Africa and the young people of South Africa in commemorating the 16 June
2005 as the Day of the African Child. Much progress has been made across our
beloved continent to improve the lives of the youth and provide them with
hope for the future.
Regrettably, in Zimbabwe, little hope exists at the
moment under the Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF. We are faced with a bleak future
where unemployment, poor education delivery, homelessness and the effects of
the HIV/AIDS pandemic have caused untold suffering.
Mugabe appears
determined to destroy the hopes and aspirations of a whole generation in
order to strengthen his grip on the country.
For our generation, he is no
longer a hero but a villain who has betrayed the principles of the
liberation war in which our fathers and mothers fought to ensure that we
would have a future and live in a country where the principles of social
justice, freedom and equality for all would shape and guide our
society.
The minds of Zimbabwe's youth are being brutalized by the
national youth service training programme which was set up by the government
in 2001. Youth 'graduate' from this programme full of hate and anger and
with a distorted understanding of the basic values essential for peace and
stability in any society. Mugabe and Zanu PF are encouraging a whole
generation to regard violence and brutality as an acceptable societal norm.
They are sowing the seeds to perpetual instability and suffering in
Zimbabwe.
Our parents made huge sacrifices to ensure that our dignity and
pride as Africans was restored and our basic human rights promoted and
protected. Mugabe and Zanu PF have now taken these hard earned gains away,
impoverishing the country in the process. We, as the youth, must a play a
central role in the struggle to regain these basic rights and freedoms and
ensure that the sacrifices made by our parents were not in vain.
In
recent weeks the young people of Zimbabwe have been left homeless as a
result of the Zanu PF government's 'Operation Clean Up'. The informal sector
provided many with a means of survival but this has now been brutally
crushed by a Government determined to force people back to the rural areas
and reconfigure society in manner more amenable to its nefarious political
objectives. Young people have been forced out of schools, families have been
broken up and years of hard work destroyed.
The government claims to
the world that it is committed to tackling poverty. To achieve this
objective its strategy appears to be to 'wipe out the poor - make us
disappear.'
The MDC National Youth Assembly, seeks to make it
categorically clear, that on the occasion of commemorating the Day of the
African Child, it remains resolute in the struggle to deliver the young
people of the country to a democratic Zimbabwe that will work vigilantly
towards the creation of employment, provision of adequate education,
provision of adequate health services and the creation of a tolerant
political culture bereft of the political violence that has characterized
the Zanu PF government since 1980.
The MDC National Youth Assembly also
takes note of the problems that the young people of Africa continue to
experience: wars, state abuse, genocide, famine, unemployment and the
HIV/AIDS pandemic. We urge the leaders of the African Union to work
collectively to ensure that no African child is left behind and that today's
youth do not become yet another lost generation.
Consolidation of the
gains of National Independence, people centred development programmes and
progressive democratic politics should the core objective of the African
project. Nelson Chamisa is the MDC National Youth Chairman
By Thelma Chikwanha THE
World Bank has expressed its readiness to avail US$2 million towards
economic development in Zimbabwe.
The funds will be channelled
towards some of the economic turnaround strategies currently being
implemented in the country.
Mr Sudhir Chitale, the bank's chief economist
for Southern Africa's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Programme,
said the World Bank had designed a specific support programme for the
Southern African nation's economic revival and growth.
"We are ready
to support Zimbabwe's economic revival programmes and the approval of the
US$2 million assistance plan is good news.
"The programme has already
been approved and awaits launching in the country with assistance from the
Government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector," he told
an online publication.
This new assistance package comes at a time when
the Bretton Woods institution had long cut credit lines to the country
citing Zimbabwe's failure to service an existing debt.
The sudden
about-turn is therefore a welcome development as the bank funds would be
directed to agriculture, which is the mainstay of the country's
economy.
Agriculture accounts for nearly 70 percent of the country's
export earnings and has a direct influence on other sectors such as
manufactur- ing.
"There is need for assistance in Zimbabwe and this
initiative will go a long way. Zimbabwe has the best people to develop the
major sectors in the country. All they need are good ideas in areas of
agriculture, small enterprises and resource management," he
said.
However, of concern was the fact that the country was currently
failing to service an existing debt of US$347 million.
The World Bank
official noted that Africa was in dire need of more funding in order to
sustain its growth plans and commitments in attaining the Millennium
Development Goals.
He also said 11 other African countries were eligible
for aid if they met the criteria of good governance.
The idea was
mooted last Saturday during the G8 meeting where ministers decided to give a
hand to African countries whose economies were weighed down by grinding
poverty.
Mr Chitale called on the continent to explore other avenues of
funding, as the need for assistance was overwhelming.
By Golden
Sibanda FOREIGN exchange inflows over the first four months of this year have
dropped compared to the corresponding period last year.
Statistics
made available by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe show that the country
realised US$448,6 million in the period January to April last year while
over the same period, this year inflows amounted to US$385, 7
million.
The RBZ said earnings from gold were down by US$10,3 million to
US$80, 4 million. However, foreign currency inflows from the precious metal
over the last two years were much higher than those generated over the same
period in 2003 when a mere US$43,9 million trickled in from the
sector.
The drop in total foreign exchange earnings in the first four
months of this year could be attributed, largely, to the re-emergence of the
parallel market, where significant amounts could have been
diverted.
Side-marketing of gold also resulted in decreased supplies
through formal channels. However, authorities have since cancelled licences
of former gold buyers to introduce a new and more water-tight trading
system.
Gold is one of the country's top foreign currency generators with
a ready market. The computed statistics used to determine the overall amount
of foreign currency inflows comprise statistics of export proceeds, Foreign
Currency Accounts liquidations, free funds and pre-auction purchases, but
excludes the portion of gold sales allocated to the auction. The statistics
also include proceeds from facilities negotiated by the RBZ such as
Homelink.
Other major foreign currency generators in Zimbabwe are
tobacco, which had raked in US$2,1 million by the end of April and the
purchases on the auction floor, which amounted to US$71,9 over the period
January to April this year. A total of US$481 million of the foreign
exchange generated in the country from various activities where applied
towards purchasing of fuel, importation of electricity, Government debts,
settling obligations to the International Monetary Fund, contributions to
the Afri-Import and Export Bank and payments to gold
producers.
However, earnings generated are still far from meeting
demand.
"Zimbabwe remains a high import dependent economy, requiring that
greater focus be placed on further supporting all generators of foreign
exchange," said the RBZ.
It is against this background that RBZ has
set aside funds from which bona fide export-oriented companies can borrow at
a special interest rate of 5 percent per annum.
Firms with confirmed
export orders and in need of pre-shipment working capital can easily access
the funds.
In line with the central bank's thrust to jumpstart the
foreign exchange generating capacity of the economy, a further $100 billion
has been earmarked for development of new export markets.
With its
ambitious programmes to bring the economy back on track, the RBZ believes by
the end of next year most of the misalignments troubling the economy would
have dissipated and the country's foreign currency generating capacity
greatly enhanced.
STATE Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa - whose growing influence has ruffled many feathers in government -
has clashed with provincial governors after assuming full control of all
matters relating to the emotive land redistribution programme.
Mutasa, who had appeared to be on his way to retirement, bounced back from
relative obscurity in 2003 and is now widely considered the most powerful
Cabinet minister, has told the country's 10 provincial governors to cede
their powers over land redistribution to his office with effect from June
30. President Robert Mugabe expanded Mutasa's portfolio after April's
cabinet reshuffle to include responsibility over land reform. The
National Land Board, headed by Liberty Mhlanga and officers from the lands
ministry - now under Mutasa's expanded portfolio - would be in full control
of land reform, effectively relegating provincial governors to mere
supervisors. The development has set the stage for another tug-of-war
within the faction-ridden ZANU PF. And sources told The Financial Gazette
this week some of the provincial governors are up in arms against Mutasa,
who is the ZANU PF secretary for administration, whom they feel needs to
have his wings clipped as he has become too powerful. Land has
become one of the biggest platforms for influence peddling in ZANU PF, a
party which runs on an intricate system of patronage, hence the battle to
control its controversy-tainted distribution, five years after the
programme's chaotic genesis. Mutasa, the country's first black
Speaker of Parliament and one of President Mugabe's trusted lieutenants, is
now in charge of state security, land reform and food security. "In
fact, it is Flora Bhuka (who now works under Mutasa) who is the chief
architect of everything. Mutasa only endorsed her plan," said a
source. An ebullient Mutasa told The Financial Gazette this week
the land ministry would soon issue a statement to the effect that other
actors in the land reform exercise report to his ministry and are not
independent players anymore. Previously, President Mugabe had given
provincial governors greater powers over the controversial land reform and
had made them directly accountable to his office, in an attempt to speed up
the rationalisation of the exercise which, among other factors, is blamed
for plunging Zimbabwe's once robust economy into crisis. "In future
much of the work will be assigned to the Land Board and the board will
report to the minister whatever activity they are undertaking," Mutasa said,
adding that the Land Board, which came in as a result of recommendations by
the Land Review Committee headed by former secretary to the President and
Cabinet, Charles Utete, would also have subordinate committees at provincial
and district level. "They (provincial governors) should understand that
changes do occur and should not be disgruntled when they take place. They
should go along with what has been decided by the government," said
Mutasa. Clarifying the future role of provincial governors,
Mutasa said they will be there to supervise every activity of
government in their provinces but the line ministries would have the overall
responsibility. "I am in charge of land and I am responsible to the
President and Cabinet and don't report to governors and they have no
responsibility of allocating land. They only recommend and at times I can
ignore their recommendations or endorse them," he said. The state
security minister claimed the land ministry has the capacity to supervise
the land reform, which has been fraught with irregularities and allegations
of multiple farm ownership linked to top ZANU PF and government
officials. Sources said Mutasa, who two weeks ago hinted at
widening the controversial clean-up campaign that has affected nearly 200
000 families to the farms, might execute the exercise to its full
expression. Zimbabwe has 10 provincial governors; namely Cain Mathema
(Bulawayo); Cephas Msipa (Midlands); Ephraim Masawi (Mashonaland Central);
Nelson Samkange (Mashonaland West); Ray Kaukonde (Mashonaland East); Willard
Chiwewe (Masvingo); Tinaye Chigudu (Manicaland); Thokozile Mathuthu
(Matabeleland North); David Karimanzira (Harare) and Angeline Masuku
(Mashonaland West).
SUSPENDED ZANU PF
Mashonaland West chairman Philip Chiyangwa's political fate will be decided
on July 1 when a disciplinary committee, chaired by party chairman John
Nkomo, is expected to rule on the businessman's case.
ZANU PF
political commissar Elliot Manyika last week dodged an explosive encounter
with the party's supporters in the province when he postponed elections for
the provincial leadership to next month, apparently pending the resolution
of Chiyangwa's case. Manyika, who could not be reached for comment at
the time of going to print, tasked John Mafa, who masterminded the
suspension of Chiyangwa, to continue in his acting capacity until the
disciplinary committee - made up of Nkomo, Nicholas Goche, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, Tracy Mutinhiri, and a Mr Mangena - reaches a verdict.
It has, however, emerged that the party's top leadership intends to install
Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange as the party's chairman in the
province. Sources said Samkange is seen as a neutral choice among
candidates in the running for the position. The candidates are Mafa,
Chiyangwa, Reuben Marumahoko and Webster Shamu. "They want a
neutral person and Samkange fits the position. Ideally, the party wants to
have governors heading the party's provinces for the smooth coordination of
programmes," said a source. In Manicaland, Tinaye Chigudu, provincial
governor for that province, was last week installed as provincial
chairman. "If they want me to be chairman, we will need to talk first
but at the moment I am not a candidate," Samkange said when contacted this
week. The sources added that despite Mafa being a favourite in the
province, he does not have the support of the party's top brass. On the
other hand, Chiyangwa has lodged an appeal, arguing that despite being
arrested twice, he has never been convicted. Chiyangwa, who has
been in and out of remand prison over the past year, was first arrested for
perjury, contempt of court and obstruction of justice in a countrywide
crackdown on corruption in the banking sector and later on allegations of
spying on behalf of foreign powers. He is desperate to regain the
chairmanship of the Mashonaland West amid fierce resistance from the
incumbent provincial leadership.
THE epic failure last
week by a coalition of opposition groups to rally support for protests
against mass evictions has given the starkest evidence yet that the
opposition remains blunt against increasingly brazen state
repression.
Political analysts however say Zimbabweans have become
demoralised after a string of earlier protests, stayaways and even elections
have failed to ease deepening economic hardship. Zimbabweans should
also now expect even further violation of their freedoms by the government,
now more confident than ever after watching the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) fail dismally to defend its urban support base
against the boldest ever state assault on city residents, the analysts
warn. The government has sent in armed police and pliant city councils
to dismantle illegal homes and markets, leaving over a million people
jobless and homeless. However, the MDC and its civil society allies last
week failed to draw on passionate opposition to the clean-up operation among
the urban poor. The stayaway's collapse gave pro-establishment
critics the arsenal they needed to declare the end of the MDC as an
influential force in Zimbabwean politics, claims they had already made after
ZANU PF won a big majority at the March 31 general election. According to
these commentators, the failed protests reveal the dearth of capable
leadership in the opposition. "The MDC is hopelessly divided and
enervated, a predicament compounded by a visionless leadership which takes
desperate measures as a substitute for clear vision and planning. The
so-called mass action called by the MDC worked out to be a popular stayaway
from the MDC," said an evidently disappointed Herald columnist, Nathaniel
Manheru, at the weekend. There has been criticism that organisers
failed to raise a rallying point clear enough to attract broad support for
the strike, while the MDC came late to the party with a damp endorsement of
the planned stayaway. MDC chairman Isaac Matongo, only a day ahead of
the planned protest, urged Zimbabweans to "organise themselves" against the
government. "The party fully supports and endorses the initiatives
being taken by all democratic forces to organise themselves to protest
against the actions of this criminal state which is rendering millions of
Zimbabweans homeless, destitute and jobless," Matongo said in a hesitant
statement that appeared to steer the MDC away from the core of the protest's
organisers. However, for other observers, the failure of the stayaway
is only the latest show by Zimbabweans that they have grown weary of
politics. Even if the coalition had been more organised, workers fatigued by
previous protests would still have ignored any calls to stay away from what
remains of their daily livelihoods. University of Zimbabwe
Institute of Development Studies associate professor Brian Raftopoulos was
quoted as saying: "The organisers had a genuine reason to call for a strike,
but Zimbabweans were pre-occupied. It takes a lot of patience and effort to
make sure that Zimbabweans resume taking heed to a call for a
stayaway." Lovemore Madhuku, one of the organisers of the stayaway, had
been fiercely confident last Wednesday, predicting huge support for his call
for the mass work boycott. Asked last week why he believed the
stayaway would succeed, Madhuku told The Financial Gazette that workers
would back the stayaway because his coalition, the Broad Alliance, had
"focused on the core issues that are affecting the people at the
moment". "These are issues relating to transport shortages, the
demolition of homes and businesses and the general failure by the government
to address economic issues. We are protesting against the outright arrogance
of this government, as shown by its insistence on a senate while people
starve," Madhuku said. As it turned out, however, Zimbabwean
workers have a different view of what "focusing on the core issues" really
means. Past protests by a previously vibrant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions, backed by rights groups, forced the government to take notice. In
December 1997, protests forced the government to abandon a proposed tax to
fund gratuities for war veterans.
THE epic failure last
week by a coalition of opposition groups to rally support for protests
against mass evictions has given the starkest evidence yet that the
opposition remains blunt against increasingly brazen state
repression.
Political analysts however say Zimbabweans have become
demoralised after a string of earlier protests, stayaways and even elections
have failed to ease deepening economic hardship. Zimbabweans should
also now expect even further violation of their freedoms by the government,
now more confident than ever after watching the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) fail dismally to defend its urban support base
against the boldest ever state assault on city residents, the analysts
warn. The government has sent in armed police and pliant city councils
to dismantle illegal homes and markets, leaving over a million people
jobless and homeless. However, the MDC and its civil society allies last
week failed to draw on passionate opposition to the clean-up operation among
the urban poor. The stayaway's collapse gave pro-establishment
critics the arsenal they needed to declare the end of the MDC as an
influential force in Zimbabwean politics, claims they had already made after
ZANU PF won a big majority at the March 31 general election. According to
these commentators, the failed protests reveal the dearth of capable
leadership in the opposition. "The MDC is hopelessly divided and
enervated, a predicament compounded by a visionless leadership which takes
desperate measures as a substitute for clear vision and planning. The
so-called mass action called by the MDC worked out to be a popular stayaway
from the MDC," said an evidently disappointed Herald columnist, Nathaniel
Manheru, at the weekend. There has been criticism that organisers
failed to raise a rallying point clear enough to attract broad support for
the strike, while the MDC came late to the party with a damp endorsement of
the planned stayaway. MDC chairman Isaac Matongo, only a day ahead of
the planned protest, urged Zimbabweans to "organise themselves" against the
government. "The party fully supports and endorses the initiatives
being taken by all democratic forces to organise themselves to protest
against the actions of this criminal state which is rendering millions of
Zimbabweans homeless, destitute and jobless," Matongo said in a hesitant
statement that appeared to steer the MDC away from the core of the protest's
organisers. However, for other observers, the failure of the stayaway
is only the latest show by Zimbabweans that they have grown weary of
politics. Even if the coalition had been more organised, workers fatigued by
previous protests would still have ignored any calls to stay away from what
remains of their daily livelihoods. University of Zimbabwe
Institute of Development Studies associate professor Brian Raftopoulos was
quoted as saying: "The organisers had a genuine reason to call for a strike,
but Zimbabweans were pre-occupied. It takes a lot of patience and effort to
make sure that Zimbabweans resume taking heed to a call for a
stayaway." Lovemore Madhuku, one of the organisers of the stayaway, had
been fiercely confident last Wednesday, predicting huge support for his call
for the mass work boycott. Asked last week why he believed the
stayaway would succeed, Madhuku told The Financial Gazette that workers
would back the stayaway because his coalition, the Broad Alliance, had
"focused on the core issues that are affecting the people at the
moment". "These are issues relating to transport shortages, the
demolition of homes and businesses and the general failure by the government
to address economic issues. We are protesting against the outright arrogance
of this government, as shown by its insistence on a senate while people
starve," Madhuku said. As it turned out, however, Zimbabwean
workers have a different view of what "focusing on the core issues" really
means. Past protests by a previously vibrant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions, backed by rights groups, forced the government to take notice. In
December 1997, protests forced the government to abandon a proposed tax to
fund gratuities for war veterans.
A DISTRAUGHT Dumi Ngorima agonises
over his next move while seated on a pile of rubble in one corner of shanty
Mbare high-density suburb - vestiges of a once-thriving backyard enterprise
razed to the ground in the government's ongoing clean up
campaign.
Ngorima's only source of comfort, if any, is the flimsy
strength that comes from numbers as nearly 200 000 poor families have been
affected by the blitz on informal traders. "We have been moved 20
steps backwards and none forward," lamented the 40-year-old carpenter whose
family of four needed to make a quick decision - either to go back to their
rural home or look for alternative accommodation after their "cottage" was
demolished in the crackdown. The government-sponsored clean-up exercise
has worsened an already bad operating environment for an informal sector
plagued by shortages of fuel and foreign currency as well as resurgent
inflation, which reached 144.4 percent last month. Before the
campaign, described by a United Nations official as a new form of apartheid,
the informal sector had contributed enormously to Zimbabwe's teetering
economy in the form of jobs and disposable incomes in a country where
unemployment has scaled past 70 percent. With very little prospects for
school leavers and hordes of able-bodied men and women thrown out of formal
employment through sector-wide retrenchments, the informal sector had become
a fashionable way to make a living. It is estimated that 700 000
school leavers enter the labour market each year - competing for 40 000
jobs, a figure widely believed to be exaggerated. Those who fail to make the
grade have had to go one way - they have to depend on home-based income
generating activities. Nearly four million people are now in informal
employment, accounting for 25 percent of Zimbabwe's gross domestic product,
according to the International Labour Organisation. This figure is by far
greater than the estimated 1.3 million people in formal employment.
In short, the informal sector that, according to the government, had become
synonymous with all forms of criminal activity had become the backbone of
the country's enfeebled agro-based economy, which took a nasty knock after
veterans of the liberation struggle seized land in 2000. "We had
endured the hardships: failure to get employment plus the high cost of
living. Although we had denied them (government) the urban vote, we had
opted to soldier on in our own modest ways, while letting them rule until
kingdom come. But now what do they expect us to do after destroying our
livelihood?" asked Ngorima. As an afterthought, Local Government
Minister Ignatius Chombo unveiled a $300 billion facility for the
construction of market stalls and factory shells to accommodate the affected
informal traders. But the government has acknowledged not everyone will find
space on the new complexes. Meanwhile, the few who can be accommodated
may not have the seed capital to relaunch their enterprises because law
enforcement agencies confiscated their stock and work in progress during the
clean-up raids. "What will they be doing between now and the time they
will get into the new structures?" asked Farai Dyirakumunda, a local
economic commentator, adding it would be difficult for the government to
reorganise the informal sector when the economy was sliding into the
abyss. "The fact that they were left for so long without any action
implied acceptance, though illegal," Dyirakumunda added. The
government has defended the blitz, saying it was intended to flush out
illegal dealers fuelling parallel market activities that it alleged posed
the biggest threat to the country's economic survival. Godfrey
Kanyenze, a local labour economist, said this week that the government had
put the cart before the horses and now faced an even greater human
catastrophe at a time it was least prepared to spend on unbudgeted
items. He said politicians were now removed from the people and
cared less about implementing ideas without consulting their
constituencies. Kanyenze, pointing out the government should have
consulted the various constituencies before embarking on the exercise, said
the blitz had virtually killed the informal sector, a potential footbridge
towards micro and small-scale enterprises. "It means people are now
going straight into abject poverty. What we used to have was veiled poverty
but now it will be real naked suffering where you see unemployment and
homelessness openly with no alternative sources of income. At the same time,
these people need to survive and cannot wait for assistance from
well-wishers and so crime and prostitution might be on the rise," said
Kenyenze. "We also need social workers and psychologists to deal with
the tension and pressures created by this exercise so that those affected
can be helped to normalise. The problem with these people is that they
become too suspicious and put everyone in danger. Social institutions should
now come forward," he said. The labour economist said various ways
- such as creating value channels linking the sector to the formal economy -
could have been considered to formalise the sector instead of outright
destruction. A number of informal traders, particularly those who were
making furniture, could have been easily formalised into the mainstream
economy, he said. "We should have been selective because outright
destruction like we have done ends up destroying even the positive aspects
of it and stigmatising people. We need a systematic strategy that upholds
the positive side so that it starts contributing to the fiscus," he added.
"It is also a violation of human rights. You cannot destroy their shacks
unless you have found alternative accommodation for them." In Latin
America, the urban informal sector was the primary job generator in the
1990s, with an average of six out of every 10 new jobs being created by
micro-enterprises, own account workers and domestic services.
Informal sector employment grew by 3.9 percent per annum in the region,
while formal sector employment grew by only 2.1 percent.
Hoisting an axe high
above her head, 11-year-old Loveness Mpinga swings it down and deep into the
wood. Her pretty face is sweaty, and her eyes are red and swollen from dust.
It is her job to prepare fuel to cook her extended family's evening-and
only- meal.
The oldest of her eight orphaned cousins, Loveness must
also bathe the younger children, clean their two-room shack, and tend to the
vegetable garden. There is no time for school. There is no money
for clothes. And there are no parents-mothers and fathers are long dead, all
from AIDS-related illnesses. Now cared for by their ailing
82-year-old grandmother, Loveness and the others all show signs of
malnutrition. Tonight, after her chores, Loveness will lie down on an
icy cement floor and pull a dirty blanket across her and the four other
little girls. And yet today is Loveness' and her cousins so-called
special day: Today is the Day of the African Child. This year's theme is
"Orphans-Our collective responsibility". Yet it is children and grandmothers
across Zimbabwe who are taking more than their fair share of this
responsibility. None of them will celebrate this day. Nor should
we. "I know that I must work in the fields and look after our house,
for I am the oldest now," says Loveness, "though it can be very hard.
Sometimes the little girls cry themselves to sleep. What can I do? I am just
eleven." Loveness' story is all too common. One hundred infants become
infected with HIV here everyday, and one in five Zimbabwean children is now
orphaned. That's one million Zimbabwean children orphaned by
AIDS. These are the numbers behind Zimbabwe's orphan and HIV/AIDS
crisis. They are as ghastly as they are growing, and yet they represent
just one view of the situation unfolding in Zimbabwe and across the
region. For behind each of these numbers is a child; a Zimbabwean child
who has lost the chance for education, for good health, who was traumatised
as they watched their parents die, and who, at the end of it all, is at
greater risk of HIV infection. Impoverished orphans such as
Loveness are being propelled into so-called "survival" sex at early ages to
support themselves and their siblings. The result is that Zimbabwe's
orphaned girls are now three times more likely to become infected with HIV
than their non-orphaned peers. The Day of the African Child proclaims
that Loveness-and 14 million orphans like her in sub-Saharan Africa- are our
responsibility. It follows that preventing a further rise in their
numbers must be our goal. For this to happen we must reach out to
Zimbabweans and empower the women of this country: They run the households,
grow the food, assume virtually the entire burden of care, look after the
orphans, and they do it all with an almost unimaginable stoicism.
Their children's cycle of disease, death, burden, and impoverishment must be
broken. Thankfully, it can be. UNICEF is reaching more than 100 000
orphans with education, counseling and psychological support. These efforts
are made possible thanks to funds from: the UK's Department for
International Development (US$3.36m); the European Commission Humanitarian
Office (US$2.9m); and the Japanese Government's support to the UN Trust Fund
(US$952,000). Over the next five years Zimbabwe's National Plan of
Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) seeks to greatly build on
these efforts, providing OVC with access to school enrolment, birth
certificates, improved nutrition and health services, and by supporting
those communities absorbing Zimbabwe's orphaned children.
Zimbabwe's National Plan of Action for OVC is costed and includes a clear
monitoring and evaluation plan. But it now desperately needs an injection of
funds to become a reality. Time is on no-one's side. By the end of
today, The Day of the African Child, another 435 Zimbabwean children will be
orphaned. By the end of this year it will be another 160 000. The Government
of Zimbabwe and the international community must work on resolving this
desperate situation. There is no excuse for letting Loveness and the
children of this country suffer so dramatically without working harder to
find solutions for helping them. But if we do focus and fight on behalf of
children, then we may give them real reason to celebrate . next
year. * Dr Festo Kavishe is UNICEF's representative in
Zimbabwe
ZIMBABWE, whose economy has collapsed
into a recessionary heap, has its back firmly against the wall. Although
metaphorically speaking no country is an island - Zimbabwe is, to all
intents and purposes, edging towards being one. And it is all the worse for
this considering the economic meltdown. There is no need to pretend
otherwise because, to put it mildly, Zimbabweans are right now marooned on a
deserted island of stagnation and utter misery.
The country
is increasingly ostracised. Friends are few and far between. Critical
support and funding from key international agencies, which could help
stabilise the country's finances, remain on ice. Foreign direct investment
levels have hit their nadir with investors, whose risk appetite is saggy,
sitting on the fence maintaining a wait-and-see attitude. In a nutshell,
Zimbabwe has transformed into the land of contagion of uncertainty and fear
which is why it is shunned by investors and financiers. That the
economy which, having lurched from crisis to crisis is finally caving in on
the back of increased international isolation, underscores the need for
Zimbabwe to nurture a deeper rapprochement with the broader international
community. And urgently. Just as well fences have not yet irretrievably
broken down. There is still a flicker of hope. And it is therefore
imperative that the country, feeling the pinch of the continued
international isolation, should take the initiative to mend fences because
the world does not owe us a living. The unpalatable truth is that the world
does not need Zimbabwe but Zimbabwe needs the world. We cannot therefore
afford to be arrogant and continue to give the world the middle
finger. President Robert Mugabe admitted as much when he recently
alluded to the fact that Zimbabwe cannot continue to be at odds with the
international community and should therefore seek to be reintegrated into
the community of nations. So has the pragmatic Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe when
it said the government should work on a frame to regularise bilateral
investment protection agreements (BIPAs) that were inadvertently adversely
affected during the emotive stages of the land reform programme. We couldn't
agree more. This is nothing short of victory for pragmatism. It means
government is now doing what it should have been doing all along - listening
to the voice of reason and influence of realities. The tragedy is
however that despite all the evidence that the country has its needle well
and truly stuck, some bungling government departments see it fit to sing
from a completely different song sheet - introducing a discordant note to
government policy over the fate of farms that fall under BIPAs. Press
reports this week quoted government officials with a reputation for
arrogance as having said something to the effect that there were no such
agreements. We have here in mind the utterances attributed to State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa, which sentiments have not yet been denied. If there
were no such agreements why would the RBZ, spearheading the country's
economic recovery plan, make an issue of it? Given our badly
damaged international credibility and the resultant crisis of confidence,
what message are Mutasa's tragi-comic antics sending to the international
community whose patience with Zimbabwe is wearing thin? We shudder to think
of the implications and gravity of Mutasa's utterances given that he is not
only a key but also important voice in the inner circle of the ruling ZANU
PF. This is puzzling and confusing to say the least, coming particularly at
a time when an investment-led economic recovery must of necessity be ushered
in by a recovery in investor confidence. It is the timing of the
utterances that we find perplexing in view of Zimbabwe's desperate efforts
to regain international acceptance. We ask again as we did on November 11
2004 about the Honourable Mutasa's well-documented gaffes: Could it be
possible that the minister does not have enough gumption to realise the
improbability and far-reaching implications of what he says? The mind indeed
boggles. The minister's antics are indeed what Zimbabweans need as much as
they need holes in their heads! We feel that Mutasa really put his foot
in it because it is our considered view that above everything else,
infrastructural investment is a real lifebelt that could turn the tide for
Zimbabwe. The question however begs an answer: How then do we hope to
attract infrastructural investment into the country when agreements are not
worth the paper they are written on? It should not be forgotten
that, whether we like it or not, the violent seizure of farms was a major
point of bitter attacks by the international community. And honouring the
bilateral agreements would, to a certain extent, see Zimbabwe shed the rogue
state stigma and help it ease its way back into the community of nations. It
could lead to the thawing of relations with key nations with whom we have
long-running diplomatic rifts. The need to restore relations with these
countries, without which it would be difficult to re-engage the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), cannot therefore be
over-emphasised. We have never said that Zimbabwe, on whom the
international monetarists slammed the door in the late 1990s, needs the IMF
for its money per se. Like we have said before, what the country might get
from the IMF in terms of balance of payments support amounts to the
proverbial drop in the ocean, considering the magnitude of its external
support requirements. It does not take a rocket scientist to realise however
that the IMF is much more important as a quasi credit-rating institution.
Its presence is widely seen as a seal of approval by other international
financiers and donors. And we do not need to belabour the point that this is
where its importance lies. This is why, with all due respect to
government's much-vaunted "Look East" policy, we feel that there is need for
a paradigm shift in Zimbabwe's international relations policy. It is not
about looking east or west but looking to the global village that is the
world.
Zumed-out IN a move uncharacteristic
of African leaders, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa this week
confirmed his no-nonsense stance on corruption by cashiering his deputy,
newsy Jacob Zuma, whose name had been soiled all-round by the high-profile
corruption case which resulted in the recent jailing of his close associate,
businessman Schabir Shaik.
Imagine the Great Uncle sacking one of
his not-so-useful officials for soliciting bribes from displaced white
commercial farmers, for defying the government policy of one-man-one-farm,
or for simply dipping their fingers into the near-empty public
purse! Just imagine it! A hero of the country's liberation war being
told to go home because he has not been honest to the public? This cannot
happen - even to nobodies who were only invited to join the razzle-dazzle
yesterday! Yet Mbeki did not even flinch from the pre-emptive obloquies
coming from Zuma's equally corrupt sympathisers who rightly felt they would
be eviscerated by his sure denouement as a politician of substance. And he
went on to dismiss Zuma - one of the quintessential ANC anti-apartheid
fighters and a presidential hopeful - from his cabinet. He could not even
buy his cock-and-bull story when all evidence adduced pointed to the fact
that his dealings with Shaik were "generally corrupt." As we speak
today, the man who at the beginning of this week was seen as Mbeki's
possible successor, is now one of the many pipsqueaks roaming the streets of
Joza! Even locally, a few of the usual sclerotic anti-western critics
started seeing some putative link between Zuma's obvious downfall and an
imperialist plot. These people, who include CZ's "namesake" at the
state-controlled daily, were this week raising ire and opprobrium about Zuma
being tried and convicted by the white media in that country. Jeez!
This is not at all surprising because they are so used to the chef-chef
culture here, where all goons in high office are considered infallible,
untouchable and/or impregnable!
Koga-gate And this one is
called Koga-gate. Guess what? He is indeed a war vet on a mission. He
is said to have been preying on helpless little orphans, impregnating them
before schlepping them back to the street! So last week there was a
case in our courts . . . this little rape victim was seeking to get a
maintenance payout. Is it not dangerous to give positions of influence
and/or authority to perverts who are likely to abuse them? CZ is not going
to delve into the juicy bits and pieces from those who claim to know the man
better, but what he can say is that until recently, the fellow was
well-known in the media fraternity to be inoffensively generous with fulsome
interviews, and many female colleagues have a lot more to say!
There are lots of well-documented stories in the aviation industry. And now
there is also a new story being told about women and cell phone lines . . .
you all know cell phone lines are in short supply! Don't you? Please
don't quote CZ because, like all undisciplined "O" vets, the man has a good
reputation for becoming physical with people who don't praise him.
CZ cannot help but wonder what the Great Uncle is thinking about this. Is he
comfortable being surrounded by perverts? No one would begrudge him if he
were to take his Tsunami/ Cyclone Gushungo to Munhumutapa, Mukwati, Kaguvi,
Karigamombe, Chaminuka and Mhlahlandlela buildings among others. Just to
take the clean-up to its logical conclusion. Anyway, who the eff is CZ?
It's all up to him as the sole owner of this country but let him be advised
of the witty saying that you become the company you keep. Let's await the
reaction of those noisy women NGOs. A well-known person has raped an orphan.
And he is still strutting around like a peacock. Isn't this a handy
opportunity to justify donor funds? Quiet A CZ fan thought he
could share this "thought of the day" with fellow Zimbos: I kept
quiet when they tried to kill Morgan Tsvangirai in 1997. I am not a trade
unionist. I kept quiet when they tortured Ray Choto and Mark
Chavunduka. I am not a journalist. I kept quiet when they called
homosexuals worse than pigs and dogs. I am not homosexual. I kept
quiet when they beat, arrested and killed the students. I am not a
student. I kept quiet when they chased homeless people off the streets.
I am not homeless. I kept quiet when they killed white commercial
farmers. I am not a white commercial farmer. I kept quiet when they
chased away the farm workers. I am not a farm worker. I kept quiet
when they terrorised teachers. I am not a teacher. I kept quiet when
they murdered Tichaona Chiminya, Talent Mabika and hundreds of opposition
activists. I am not an opposition activist. I kept quiet when they
tortured Job Sikhala, jailed Roy Bennett and harassed other opposition
politicians. I am not an opposition politician. I kept quiet when they
arrested and beat the women members of WOZA. I am not a woman. I
kept quiet when they chased away thousands of vendors. I am not a
vendor. I kept quiet. I am ashamed that I kept
quiet I am nothing. I have no voice. Who will speak
for me?" -Anonymous
Sorry! It is a pity that many Zim
children this week "celebrated" the Day of the African Child without roofs
over their heads and/or out of school because of Operation Restore
Order. Newsflash: News reaching CZ is that the Great Zimbabwe monument
has been demolished in the on- going Operation Restore Order because it was
not built according to plan! This is CZ. Hope to see you at
Caledonia Farm.
EDITOR - I have just watched a truckload of riot police
pick up and beat a destitute, mentally limited gentleman who sits outside
the Vainona food court.
I was told that these big, brave
policemen were cleaning up a "mess". This gentleman has been around for
years and is totally harmless. Where will they take him and how will he
survive? Have we become so paralysed with fear that we have lost our
humanity!