The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.

Back to Index

Back to the Top
Back to Index

ZIMBABWE:
THE POLITICS OF LAND AND THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
 
by
 
BLAIR RUTHERFORD
 
 
 
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
 
 Author of: Working on the Margins: Black Workers, White Farmers in Postcolonial Zimbabwe (Harare, London and New York: Weaver Press and Zed Books, 2001).
 
 
From Green Left Weekly, April 10, 2002. Issue #487
 
http://www.greenleft.org.au
 
 
Some progressives have celebrated Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's designation of almost all white‑owned commercial farms for redistribution to smallholders or black commercial farms as the delayed conclusion to the liberation struggle against settler colonialism.
 
 
Many others condemn the exercise and the land occupations which accompany it. Such critics point out the narrow political interests of the ruling Zimbabwe National African Union‑Patriotic Front (ZANU‑PF) — which pinned its recent electoral “successes” on the policy — and decry the politicised violence associated with it. They suggest that the program has limited economic sustainability given the lack of planning and the paucity of domestic and international resources directed towards it.
 
 
There is broad support for land redistribution in Zimbabwe, but this is in spite of, not because of, the ZANU‑PF and its narrowly defined interests. For a genuine land reform program in Zimbabwe that benefits the people, not simply the country's elite, there is a need to move beyond both the simple anti‑colonial nationalism of ZANU‑PF and the managerial, modernising nationalism of the opposition Movement for Democratic (MDC) and its international supporters.
 
The position of Zimbabwe's approximately 300,000 men, women and children who worked on the 5500 or so predominantly white‑owned commercial farms at the start of the land invasions in early 2000 illustrate this point.
 
 
Although the plight of farm workers is used by the international media and Western governments as a rhetorical stick with which to beat ZANU‑PF's claims about land redistribution, the implications of their situation has rarely been drawn out in a way that shows the limitations of the alternatives proposed to ZANU‑PF's so‑called “fast track” land resettlement program.
 
 
`People of the soil'
 
 
“We went to register for land with the local war vets but they told us to go away. ‘You support the whites. This land is not for you!', they told us. But all we do is work for the whites and as our jobs are disappearing, we are desperate'.”
 
 
Shadrek, a middle‑aged farm worker in Goromonzi district, raised a common refrain heard from many farm workers. With government statistics showing that, as of October 2001, only 1.7% of the households resettled during the previous 18 months were headed by a farm worker, the tens of thousands of workers retrenched or evicted from white‑owned farms since the start of the invasions underscore Shadrek's anxieties.
 
 
The “fast‑track land resettlement program”, pitched as the final transfer of land from the MaBhunu (“Boers”) to the vanhu vevhu (“people of the soil”), as President Mugabe often describes it, resonates with many anti‑imperialist progressives around the world.
 
 
Their assumption is that, when it comes to land redistribution, the end of giving land back to the poor African masses justifies the means, which go against common values of democracy and human rights.
 
 
Yet as Shadrek's widely held sentiments suggest, the “people” or “African masses” are narrowly defined by ZANU‑PF. Not only are many farm workers excluded from acquiring land, but so are many women, those identified as supporters of the MDC and many others discriminated against on other grounds by those who are distributing the land.
 
 
On the other hand, those who are acquiring land come from all classes and locations. Not only are landless peasants benefiting, but so are urban businessmen and senior government officials. Colonialism's legacy is being addressed, but to assume that the liberation of “the masses” is taking place misunderstands what is happening on the ground and the anti‑populist historical tendencies of Zimbabwe's rulers.
 
 
Land occupations are not new in Zimbabwe's 22 years of independence. What is new is that the ZANU‑PF government is not, as they have done in the past, reacting with mass evictions, the burning down of homes built by those accused of “squatting”, and the dumping of evictees on the side of the road with what belongings these “people of the soil” had managed to gather during the raid.
 
 
Knowing this history of the ZANU‑PF government's heavy‑handed removals of “squatters”, many currently state‑approved land occupiers and war veterans are quite uneasy. They fear that, if their presence is no longer needed politically by the ZANU‑PF leaders in the near future, the police will be unleashed on them.
 
 
This, combined with limited government support to the new settlers, not only discourages the settlers to invest heavily in the “stand” they have been assigned on occupied commercial farms. It also dissuades those that have land rights elsewhere to give them up.
 
 
At the same time, there is an increasing number of people looking for land due to growing joblessness as Zimbabwe's economic crisis deepens, including by tens of thousands of evicted farm workers. A dramatically reduced rainfall throughout the country means that famine has become a real threat.
 
 
 
`Agro‑industrial revolution'
 
 
But Shadrek's claims, like those of many other farm workers, are about being excluded, not about rejecting land redistribution in and of itself. It is here, in meeting the popular demand for land in the country in a comprehensively inclusive process, where the MDC and its national and international supporters flounder.
 
 
Their solution to the land inequities, sketchy as they tend to be, is to establish an independent land commission composed of relevant national stakeholders to come up with an equitable and economically sound land redistribution to the landless. This would rely on future Western donor funding and programs to provide the environment for such a scheme.
 
 
The MDC's (slim) policy on land adds that all smallholder farmers will get individual title as part of an “agro‑industrial transformation program”. As Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, declared at an election rally in Mutare in February, the MDC would stop “villagising” the whole country as the chaotic fast‑track program is doing: “Mugabe wants to create peasants out of the whole country, killing the productive commercial sector that is supposed to produce for the country.”
 
 
Such an invocation conjures up a tired formula: an image of a technocratic state that, after due consultation with appropriate “stakeholders”, and with promised international financial support, will act as a midwife for a transformative modernisation, allowing the magic of freehold tenure to enable productive black farmers to increase their enterprises and to persuade unproductive farmers to sell their land and become full‑time workers in expanding industries and other urban jobs.
 
 
This alluring yet deeply flawed image guided the colonial Southern Rhodesia state of the 1940s and 1950s and the post‑colonial ZANU‑PF state throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s. It is a disempowering, impoverished and impoverishing image. Aside from the reliance on a heavy‑handed state to enforce the new property regime, which in turn generates new forms of resistance and legitimacy crises (note the Mugabe government's former aversion to “squatters”), African history is littered with examples of how land titling increases landlessness and poverty as the promised “industrial revolution” fails to materialise.
 
 
As for farm workers like Shadrek who want both land for security and some farming and a job, they would likely be disqualified from this “new” approach to modernisation on the grounds of lack of finance, ability or appropriate “development” outlook. They would be consigned instead to a future of only farm work, until another opportunity arises for land struggles.
 
 
That the MDC reiterates this exhausted formula being peddled by some of its well‑wishers in Washington and London speaks to its own myopia when it comes to the land issue.
 
 
Other routes
 
 
One possible route out of these limited alternatives is to worry less about the “national level”, with the aim of either redistributing land to the “people of the soil” or ensuring a productive modernised future, but to focus instead on localities. Cooperation and sharing are occurring between various land occupiers, and between some of them and commercial farmers in many places, though such bonds are often built on mutual suspicion and are highly susceptible to antagonism.
 
 
But they show that different models of land‑ownership and resource‑access are possible. Not all land invaders, let alone farm workers who also want land, wish white or black commercial farmers to disappear. They often want, instead, access to unutilised land, commercial farmers' expertise and access to a wider range of networks of resources, as well as better working conditions.
 
 
If a legitimate government can facilitate discussions in the various localities to reach agreement on such arrangements among all interested parties, including those such as farm workers and women who are typically excluded, then the current chaos can possibly lead to improved living conditions for many.
 
 
But the violence and discrimination against perceived enemies of the government needs to end to permit activist and civil society networks to emerge and operate freely in the countryside.
 
This would enable the promotion of alternatives to what Patrick Bond and Masimba Manyanya have called exhausted nationalism, and from history's trash‑heap of failed “agro‑industrial revolution” pipe‑dreams.
 
 Until then, the desperation cascading out of ZANU‑PF's violent and narrowly political attempt to resolve its version of the land question will only increase, leading to grim conditions for countless Zimbabweans such as Shadrek.
 
Back to the Top
Back to Index



Rory Carroll in Rome
Tuesday June 11, 2002
The Guardian

Ignoring cold stares from delegates, President Robert Mugabe defended
Zimbabwe's farm seizures at the food summit yesterday and pleaded for aid to
avert the threat of famine partly caused by the seizures.
He blamed drought for the food shortages affecting six million Zimbabweans
and, to gasps of indignation, said his policies would ease poverty and
improve food security.

"The government of Zimbabwe responded to the people's cry for land. The land
of Zimbabwe must belong to the people of Zimbabwe, while before it belonged
only to a handful of colonial farmers."

Mr Mugabe sidestepped an EU exclusion order by entering Italy to attend a UN
event, as he is entitled to under international law.

Before addressing the delegates he said the summit should focus on helping
Africa and Asia to increase food output.

"I think the most important aspect should be on how we can get the
developing world, that is the world where hunger is, to marshal resources so
production of foodstuffs can go up."

A disputed election in March, encouragement of militants to invade mostly
white-owned farms which has been blamed for crippling Zimbabwe's agriculture
have made Mr Mugabe notorious.

"I am uncomfortable when any head of state that is tyrannical and predatory
comes to a conference like this. He is causing the crisis in Zimbabwe," said
Andrew Natsios, the head of the US agency for development.

An EU commissioner lamented his presence. "Obviously it is distasteful to
see the president of Zimbabwe giving the impression as if he was really
caring about his citizens and about the fight against poverty because there
are so many policies that go against this."
Back to the Top
Back to Index

The Times

            June 11, 2002

            Mugabe exploits his hour upon the stage
            By Richard Owen



            A DEFIANT President Mugabe told the World Food Summit yesterday
that he was "responding to the people's cry for land" by requisitioning
white-owned farms in Zimbabwe.
            "Zimbabwean land belongs to Zimbabweans," he declared as he
disclaimed responsibility for his country's increasingly desperate food
shortages.

            But while Mr Mugabe's speech was applauded by his fellow African
leaders Western officials deplored his presence at a four-day summit devoted
to combating hunger.It was "distasteful to see the President of Zimbabwe
giving the impression he really cares about his citizens", a European
Commission spokesman said.

            "I am uncomfortable when any head of state that is tyrannical
and predatory comes to a conference like this," Andrew Natsios, head of the
American development agency USAID, said.

            President Mugabe should acknowledge that he was himself
"primarily responsible" for much of the hunger and economic deprivation
afflicting Zimbabwe, Mary Robinson, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, said.

            Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change said that
it was "shocked and dismayed at the sheer hypocrisy of Mr Mugabe's
attendance". It blamed his irresponsible land reform policy and blatant
economic mismanagement for the fact that up to six million Zimbabweans were
starving.

            Leaders were angered by Mr Mugabe's use of a loophole in a
European Union directive banning him from setting foot in EU countries
because of his treatment of political opponents, human rights abuses and the
media. The directive, imposed when Mr Mugabe expelled EU election observers
in February, makes an exception in the case of "international conferences".
Italy said that Mr Mugabe was "an unwelcome guest", but Rome had no choice
but to let him attend the summit.

            Mr Mugabe used the United Nations summit in Rome to circumvent
the ban and, in the absence of most Western leaders, he enjoyed centre
stage. He said that whereas Zimbabwe had previously been farmed by "only a
handful of colonial settler farmers", now it had more than 260,000
"indigenous farmers on varying sizes of land" who were transforming Zimbabwe
into "vibrant agricultural zones".

            He boasted that his "Fast Track Land Acquisition and
Resettlement programme" - launched two years ago - had "enabled people to
fight poverty by directly working on their own productive and fertile land .
. . Their own, I say with emphasis, because land is the most important
natural resource of any country and must belong to and be truly owned by the
country's indigenous people. "Zimbabwean land must rightly belong to
Zimbabweans - that is the true test of our national sovereignty."

            Mr Mugabe said that agriculture played a dominant role in
Zimbabwe's economy and society and his Government had therefore launched its
"Plan of Action" to "yield improved incomes and greater food security".

            He added: "Contrary to widely disseminated misrepresentations by
our detractors, there is now a brighter future for our farming community
across colour, gender and ethnic divides . . . we applaud those members of
the international community who have stood by us and shared our vision." Mr
Mugabe admitted that there were "food shortages in both rural and urban
areas", but said that they were due to drought.

            Mrs Robinson argued that some leaders of developing countries
"do not always adopt good policies." She hoped that Mr Mugabe would
acknowledge that even African leaders were beginning to "recognise the need
to tackle corruption, strengthen the rule of law and adhere to human rights
. . . there are grave problems with Zimbabwe and I am very concerned about
the situation there".

            There were, however, "millions of people for whom this is not a
political issue but a terrible crisis of food security".
Back to the Top
Back to Index

MUGABE STARVING ZIMBABWEANS

Peter W. Mayer
ASSOCIATED PRESS

-----------------------------------------------------------

ROME - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe sought to deflect
accusations yesterday that his program of confiscating
white-owned farms is exacerbating the country's food crisis.

Mr. Mugabe spoke to the U.N. World Food Summit in Rome,
skirting a European Union travel ban. EU and U.N. officials
said the ban couldn't prevent him from attending an
international meeting.

"My government has responded to the people's cry for land,"
he said. "Contrary to widely disseminated misrepresentations
by our detractors, there is now a brighter future for our
farming community across color, gender and ethnic divides."

Mr. Mugabe called the land seizures a "firm launching pad"
to fight poverty and hunger. Critics say the program has
been disastrous.

The goal is to confiscate 95 percent of land owned by the
nation's 4,000 white farmers and redistribute it to landless
blacks.

But since it began in 2000, the program has helped drive
hundreds of white farmers and tens of thousands of their
black workers off the land.

About 60,000 whites live among 13 million blacks in
Zimbabwe. Some 4,000 white farmers own a third of the
nation's land.

Mr. Mugabe's opponents also accuse the government of
withholding food aid from its supporters even as the country
is experiencing a major food crisis.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said it
was "shocked and dismayed at the sheer hypocrisy of Mugabe's
attendance at the U.N. World Food Summit in Rome."

"The Mugabe who talks about the need for international aid
to help tackle the food crisis is the same Mugabe who is
blatantly denying food to hundreds of thousands of people
suspected of voting for the MDC in the recent presidential
elections," it said in a statement.

EU spokesman Gunnar Wiegand also criticized Mr. Mugabe's
presence here, even though he acknowledged Italy couldn't
block him from attending.

"It is distasteful to see the president of Zimbabwe giving
the impression he is really caring about the poverty and the
provision of food of his people" when his policies showed
otherwise, Mr. Wiegand said.

The European Union imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions
against Mugabe's government after he refused to let EU
observers freely monitor Zimbabwe's presidential election.
Mr. Mugabe was re-elected in March, a vote widely criticized
as deeply flawed.

The European Union cut off $110 million in development aid,
banned all travel to the EU for Mr. Mugabe and 20 of his
cabinet ministers and froze their assets in Europe.

Nearly one fourth of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are
facing hunger according to an estimate by the U.S.-funded
Famine Early Warning System Network.

The World Food Program estimates half the population will
need food aid to avert starvation this year.

Five other southern African countries are also at risk of
starvation because of drought, floods, government
mismanagement and economic instability, WFP says.





-----------------------------------------------------------
This article was mailed from The Washington Times
(http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020611-70839.htm)
For more great articles, visit us at
http://www.washtimes.com
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

      37 perish in bus disaster

      6/11/02 10:02:03 AM (GMT +2)


      From Energy Bara in Masvingo

      THIRTY-SEVEN people, most of them student teachers, died after a hired
bus they were travelling in collided with a haulage truck on Sunday night.

      At least 20 people were burnt, their bodies charred beyond
recognition, after the two vehicles burst into flames on impact.

      The accident happened on the 52km peg near Chartsworth along the
Harare-Masvingo highway.

      A total of 65 passengers were seriously injured when the Mhunga bus
hired by Masvingo Teachers' College collided head-on with the truck at about
10pm.

      The drivers of both vehicles died on the spot.
      Only 20 bodies had been positively identified by last night.

      It is alleged that more than 100 passengers were travelling on the
      ill-fated bus.

      The truck, operated by Trans Truck Charters, was carrying a full load
of bags of maize, and the scarce commodity went up in smoke.

      Witnesses said the accident occurred after the truck encroached onto
the right lane, into the path of the oncoming bus. Owen Mutombeni, one of
the survivors, said: "The truck encroached onto the right lane resulting in
the collision. Police and members of the Fire Brigade from Masvingo took
hours to arrive at the scene. Some deaths could have been avoided if the
rescue operation had started earlier."

      Police and hospital authorities transferred some bodies to morgues at
private funeral parlours in Masvingo because the Masvingo General Hospital
mortuary could not accommodate all the bodies.

      A police spokesman in Masvingo, Inspector Learn Ncube, said because
some of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition frustrated relatives could
not identify them.

      The student teachers were returning from a sporting trip in Harare.
      College officials decided the students should watch the
Amazulu-Dynamos soccer match at the National Sports Stadium in Harare after
their own sports activities.

      Simanga Beji, another survivor said the bus departed from Harare
around 6pm but its progress was slow as passengers requested several stops
for refreshments.

      Said Beji: "I managed to escape through the back of the bus. The
police did not attend to the scene on time. We were taken to hospital by
private motorists because there was no one to help us."

      Other witnesses confirmed it took the police from Masvingo a long time
to reach the scene.

      The Fire Brigade and the police from Gweru were the first on the scene
after their counterparts in Masvingo suggested the accident had occurred
outside their area of jurisdiction.

      Inspector Ncube denied this allegation.

      Scores of injured students were lying along the corridors outside
Masvingo General Hospital yesterday.

      The hospital was too full to admit them.

      Meanwhile, Masvingo Teachers College was temporarily closed yesterday.
College authorities granted students time off to visit injured colleagues in
hospital.

      The atmosphere in Masvingo town was gloomy as the death toll continued
to rise from the initial 34 to 37 by late mid-afternoon.

From BBC News, 10 June

Zimbabwe declares disaster after crash

The Government of Zimbabwe has declared a state of national disaster after a road accident in which 37 people were burnt to death near the central town of Masvingo. This means that the relatives of the victims, mostly trainee teachers, will receive financial assistance from the state. The students died when the bus they were travelling on collided head-on with a truck carrying maize, eyewitnesses said. According to varying sources, between 10 and 35 people survived the accident and are being treated in Masvingo's hospital. The students were returning from a sports tournament in Harare when their bus was hit by a lorry carrying bags of maize at around midnight local time (2200 GMT Sunday). The accident occurred 240km south of Harare.

An eyewitness told the BBC's Lewis Machipisa in Zimbabwe that he had heard a loud bang when the truck veered to the side and bags of maize fell on the bus, catching fire in the process. "You could barely recognise that this was a bus," says our reporter, who visited the scene of the accident. Ten hours after the crash, the shoes of some of the students were still burning. On the evidence of what little remains of the vehicles involved in the crash, our correspondent says that it is surprising that there are any survivors. "People were screaming for help, some trying to get out," said a road construction worker who saw the accident. He said he and his colleagues managed to save a few people, but a dozen others were burnt beyond recognition while they stood helplessly. It is not yet clear how many people survived the crash. "We are still trying to get details on how many passengers were actually on the bus because we understand that more students jumped on the bus than those who were registered to go on the trip," a police spokesman said.

The Zimbabwean Government has expressed shock and the Vice President, Joseph Msika - acting on behalf of President Robert Mugabe while he is attending the UN food summit in Italy - has declared the accident a national disaster. Our correspondent says people are now angry at the government for not widening the road on which the accident happened. There have been many accidents on this narrow road linking Zimbabwe and South Africa, and motorists have been advised not to use it at night because of its narrowness. The governor of Masvingo, Josiah Hungwe, told the Zimbabwean state media that the bus crash was one of the most horrific traffic accidents in the country's history. Zimbabwe has a bad road safety record. Last year, two government ministers were killed in traffic accidents within a month. Many accidents are caused by drink-driving and speeding.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

      Cab driver shot dead at roadblock

      6/11/02 10:19:11 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      A 34-YEAR-OLD Harare taxi driver, Lloyd Midzi, was shot dead by a
policeman at a roadblock along Coventry Road yesterday morning.

      Midzi, of Old Canaan in Highfield, Harare, was carrying three
passengers at the time. They all said the policeman shot at the taxi without
warning.

      Stoel Mutimbe, 51, one of the passengers, said: "Some 50 metres from
the roadblock, a police officer raised his gun and fired a single shot."

      One eyewitness said it was not clear why the policeman opened fire.
The bullet hit the driver's door and penetrated into Midzi's groin, killing
him instantly.

      Dorothy Mhishi, in the car at the time, said Midzi was unsure if the
police asked him to stop. "When he decided to go ahead, we heard a gunshot,"
she said.

      "He yelled and said he was shot. We did not believe him at first until
the car started to swerve out of the road. Mutimbe told him to apply his
brakes, but he was already unconscious."

      Mutimbe then tried to control the taxi, but he could not and the car
rammed into a wall, about 400 metres from the roadblock.

      The roadblock was one of many mounted by the police yesterday on all
major roads leading into Harare.

      In some cases, motorists were ordered to get out of their cars while
the police searched the boot.

      The ZBC yesterday quoted Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, as
saying the searches and roadblocks were linked to rumours of a pending mass
stayaway.

      When asked for comment by The Daily News, Bvudzijena said: "Just say I
refused to comment."

      Superintendent Rangarirai Mushaurwa, the deputy officer commanding
Harare traffic police, at the scene refused to comment.

      "We have to investigate what happened first," she said of the fatal
shooting of the taxi driver.

      Jonah Chitengu, the chairman of Rixi Taxis Co-operative where Midzi
had worked for nearly six years, said: "We are shocked. He was still a young
man, hard-working and respectful."

      Chitengu said Midzi is survived by his wife Letwin Mawadza and three
children.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

      MDC supporters afraid to return to Epworth after threats

      6/11/02 10:22:19 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      THANDIWE Ncube, 37, and two other MDC supporters from Epworth are
living in fear following repeated death threats by war veterans and Zanu PF
supporters who have forced them to abandon their houses.

      Ncube is the MDC ward one chairperson in Epworth.

      She said she has stayed in Chitungwiza since last July for security
reasons following the death of her husband, John Kamonera, allegedly at the
hands of Zanu PF youths and war veterans.

      Kamonera was beaten to death in July 2001 by his neighbours and
suspected Zanu PF supporters at the height of clashes between MDC and Zanu
PF supporters in Epworth.

      They wanted him to tell them where his wife had gone. He was not
actively involved in the MDC, according to Ncube.

      Ncube said she now wanted to go back to her house and stay there with
her four children because the MDC could no longer afford to pay her rent and
fully support her family.

      However, some Zanu PF supporters have denied her access to her house,
threatening to kill her every time she tried to come back, she said.
      "I have made several reports to the police without much success. My
daughter was assaulted and forced to leave the house. It is now deserted,"
Ncube said.

      She said her 20-year-old daughter, Ellen, and her four-year-old child,
Talent, were beaten up recently by suspected Zanu PF supporters.

      Ncube said the assailants locked the two inside their four-roomed
house where they spent over 10 hours.

      She said she made a report at Harare Central Police Station, Case No
IR 052656 but was referred to Domboramwari police in Epworth.

      The officer-in-charge at Epworth who only identified himself as Tiki
said he only learnt about the issue after a meeting with Ncube and two other
MDC activists.

      "I have been told the story but I only got to know about it after
meeting them. However the situation now as I see it is peaceful. They are
afraid to come back because of the way they left their houses," Tiki said.

      He said full investigations will be launched to establish the truth.
      Ncube said when she returned to Epworth on Monday, the
officer-in-charge allegedly invited one of the Zanu PF youths, identified
only as Bandira, to try and resolve the matter.

      She said Bandira, with the consent of the officer-in-charge, ordered
her to attend a Zanu PF meeting scheduled for Domboramwari where she was to
publicly apologise for belonging to the MDC and renounce her membership in
the opposition party.

      Meanwhile, two other victims of political violence in Epworth, Fanny
      Jabangwe, 42 and Angeline Motsi, 46, have been threatened with torture
if they returned to their houses.

      Both are staying in Glen View since their evictions in June and August
last year.

      Motsi was severely assaulted and sustained serious internal injuries
to her left breast, resulting in continual bleeding. She said she has sought
treatment at private and public health centres without much success.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

      Students forced to join Zanu PF youth brigade

      6/11/02 10:21:07 AM (GMT +2)


      From Chris Gande in Bulawayo

      MORE than 100 students at the Guyu Vocational Training Centre near
Gwanda have been forcibly recruited into the Zanu PF youth brigade after the
college was turned into a militia training centre.

      More than 1 50 members of the youth brigade now conduct drills at the
centre. The 100 who were undergoing training in agriculture, hotel
management and catering, building and electrical engineering, among other
skills, have been absorbed into the government's political programme.

      The students pay $9 500 a term in tuition and boarding fees.

      Two recruits, who say they escaped from the centre by scaling a fence
at the institution, told The Daily News that trouble started on 2 May when
the 1 500 youth brigade members moved in.

      Hundreds of the youth brigade members who were trained at the Border
Gezi Youth Training Centre in Mount Darwin were at the forefront of
President Mugabe's violent re-election campaign ahead of the 9-11 March
presidential election.

      "All the students who had been studying at the college were told that
they were now part of the training programme," said one of the
      escapees who spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of
victimisation.

      He said the students, including females, had their heads shaven.

      They were reportedly being forced to jog for about 40 kilometres every
morning.

      The youth brigade members are given sticks which they use in place of
guns during their drills, he said.

      The members of the youth brigade were each being paid $1 000 every
fortnight in addition to provisions such as toothpaste and soap.

      The escapees said the students were severely assaulted by the Zanu PF
youth brigade members when they refused to participate in the drills.

      "No one is allowed to go out of the centre now. Anyone who falls sick
is taken to hospital under the guard of the youth brigade members, to
      ensure that they don't escape or reveal what they are going through,"
said one of the recruits, who escaped from Guyu Vocational Training Centre.

      He said letters written to parents were censored, while those
considered to be anti-Zanu PF were destroyed.

      "Some parents have tried to come and collect their children but have
failed," said the escaped youth.

      He said besides the drills and exercises which include chanting Zanu
PF slogans and praise songs, they were made to watch videos of the
liberation war. Contacted for comment by telephone a man at the institution
who identified himself as Captain Ndlovu, said the youths were undergoing
training as part of national service.

      He refused to entertain further questions on the plight of the
students.


Back to the Top
Back to Index

Journalist faces test trial in Zimbabwe

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - An American journalist accused of publishing a false story goes on trial on Wednesday in a test case of Zimbabwe's tough new media laws, under which President Robert Mugabe's government has charged nearly a dozen reporters.

Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper, will be the first to go on trial on charges of publishing falsehoods, a crime which carries a heavy fine or a two-year jail term.

Meldrum is accused of publishing a false story alleging that Mugabe's supporters beheaded a woman in a rural district while her two young children watched.

Meldrum, 50, and who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe for the last 21 years and now holds a permanent residency permit, is charged with two other journalists over the story, which was first published by Zimbabwe's privately-owned Daily News.

Daily News reporter Lloyd Mudiwa will go on trial on June 20, while the paper's editor Geoff Nyarota is yet to be tried.

The Daily News published an unverified story on April 23 citing a man who claimed his wife had been beheaded by ruling ZANU-PF party militants for being an opposition activist.

The paper later said the story was false and apologised.

But the government says the false story was part of a Western-backed campaign to damage Mugabe's image and advance the interests of the main opposition party.

Meldrum's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said she would use Meldrum's case to demonstrate that the law is "fascist in word and spirit."

LOBBY GROUP CONDEMNS TRIAL

"We are going to appeal to the courts that you cannot have a law that does not recognise that people make mistakes..., a law which is selectively applied against one group of journalists," she told Reuters on the eve of Meldrum's trial.

The Harare-based media lobby group, Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), condemned the government move to put Meldrum on trial, saying it was a worrying situation.

"We feel it is an unfortunate development that the government is going ahead with the decision to persecute Andrew. It is very worrying, we don't know what could happen," MISA director Sarah Chiumbu told Reuters.

"The law is so vague that journalists just don't know whether anything they write could get them into jail. We fear journalists might end up practising self-censorship," she added.

Critics accuse Mugabe's government of cracking down on journalists since the March 9-11 presidential election which was rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and Western powers.

Last week, the government appointed a media and information commission which will be in charge of licensing media houses and accrediting local journalists under the new law.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act imposes heavy fines and jail terms of up to two years for "abuse of journalistic privilege" such as publishing "falsehoods."

The government argues that the law is necessary to regulate an industry rife with unprofessionalism.

Mugabe accuses some foreign journalists and sections of the private media of pursuing a hate campaign against his party, in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

The government has arrested 11 local and foreign journalists under the law in the last two months in a crackdown.

Journalists working for foreign media in Zimbabwe have gone to the country's highest court to challenge the law. The Zimbabwe Foreign Correspondents Association wants the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

U.S. reporter in Zimbabwe test case

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- A U.S. journalist accused of publishing a false story goes on trial on Wednesday in a test case of Zimbabwe's tough new media laws, under which President Robert Mugabe's government has charged nearly a dozen reporters.

Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper, will be the first to go on trial on charges of publishing falsehoods, a crime which carries a heavy fine or a two-year jail term.

Meldrum, 50, is accused of publishing a false story alleging that Mugabe's supporters beheaded a woman in a rural district while her two young children watched.

Meldrum, who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe for the last 21 years and now holds a permanent residency permit, is charged with two other journalists over the story, which was first published by Zimbabwe's privately owned Daily News.

Daily News reporter Lloyd Mudiwa will go on trial on June 20, while the paper's editor Geoff Nyarota is yet to be tried.

The Daily News published an unverified story on April 23 citing a man who claimed his wife had been beheaded by ruling ZANU-PF party militants for being an opposition activist.

The paper later said the story was false and apologised.

But the government says the false story was part of a Western-backed campaign to damage Mugabe's image and advance the interests of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.

Meldrum's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said she would use Meldrum's case to demonstrate that the law is "fascist in word and spirit."

"We are going to appeal to the courts that you cannot have a law that does not recognise that people make mistakes...a law which is selectively applied against one group of journalists," she told Reuters on the eve of Meldrum's trial.

The Harare-based media lobby group, Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), called the government's decision to prosecute Meldrum an "unfortunate development."

"It is very worrying, we don't know what could happen," MISA director Sarah Chiumbu told Reuters.

"The law is so vague that journalists just don't know whether anything they write could get them into jail. We fear journalists might end up practising self-censorship," she added.

Critics accuse Mugabe's government of cracking down on journalists since the March 9-11 presidential election, which was rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and Western powers.

Last week, the government appointed a media and information commission that will be in charge of licensing media houses and accrediting local journalists under the new law.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act imposes heavy fines and jail terms of up to two years for "abuse" of journalistic privilege" such as publishing "falsehoods."

The government argues that the law is necessary to regulate an industry rife with unprofessionalism.

Mugabe accuses some foreign journalists and sections of the private media of pursuing a hate campaign against his party, in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

The government has arrested 11 local and foreign journalists under the law in the last two months in a crackdown.

Journalists working for foreign media in Zimbabwe have gone to the country's highest court to challenge the law. The Zimbabwe Foreign Correspondents Association wants the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Parastatal Debt Soars to 755 Million US Dollars in Zimbabwe

Xinhuanet 2002-06-11 15:12:17

HARARE, June 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Parastatal debt in Zimbabwe has risen to 755 million U.S. dollars over the past year, according to the Herald on Tuesday.

It said that efforts to curtail the soaring debt have not been successful because of the prevailing shortage of foreign currency and operational constraints facing public enterprises.

The bulk of the companies are not adequately capitalized.

Latest Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe figures reflected a 33 million dollars increase in debts incurred by public enterprises from 722 million dollars as of December 2000.

The public enterprise debts slowed down between 1995 and 1998, but started going up again in 1999.

At least 246 million dollars of the total debt is owed to bilateral institutions, while the balance is owed to multi lateral creditors.

Witness Chinyama, a local economist, recently said that the public enterprises were unable to service their external debts due to the shortage of foreign exchange.

The interest burden has been getting heavier each month.

"The public enterprises have also not been performing well. Thereforms that were expected to enhance their performance have not gone as was anticipated," said Chinyama.

There is need therefore, to speed up the process of turning public enterprises into commercial entities. The government can only divest from these institutions once they start operating viably.

Chinyama said the government should maintain its stranglehold in those institutions that can not be parceled out to the private sector for strategic reasons.

He said the rising debt could worsen the public enterprises' credit rating, making it difficult for them to access loans.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Simba Makoni,said reforms in the public sector were a critical component of the economic recovery program.

At least 7 billion Zimbabwean dollars (about 127.3 million U.S.dollars) was raised last year from the privatization of public enterprises.

Makoni is this year expecting to earn 40.9 billion Zimbabwean dollars (about 743.6 million US dollars) from the exercise.

"Of this amount, a minimum of 150 million U.S. dollars will be in foreign currency.

We also hope that the current dialogue on the land reform program will unlock foreign currency inflows as we re-engage international co-operating partners," Makoni said in his 2002 national budget.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Tuesday, June 11, 2002
Thirty-four people injured in bus accident in Zimbabwe in another crash

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP): Thirty-four people were injured in a bus accident
in
eastern Zimbabwe, the day after 37 people were killed in another bus
crash,
state radio reported Tuesday.

Two people were seriously injured Monday when the bus veered off the
highway
and overturned near Odzi, 230 kilometres (140 miles) east of Harare, the

capital, state radio said.

Meanwhile, the death toll from Sunday's accident rose to 37, after one
of
those injured died in the hospital.

Most of those killed in Sunday's crash burned to death when the bus
collided
with a grain truck and burst into flames about 60 kilometres (35 miles)
from
the southern provincial center of Masvingo.

Most of the dead and injured in Sunday's crash were student teachers
from
the Masvingo Teachers Training College.

The government declared the crash a national disaster to enable
relatives of
the victims to receive state assistance.

The Herald state newspaper said the bus, hired by the teachers college
to
take students to sporting events in Harare, carried 106 passengers,
above
the usual seating capacity of about 80.

Some of the victims died after bags of corn flew from the truck onto the

bus, trapping passengers inside and fueling the blaze, police and
rescuers
said.

Bus crashes, often of overloaded vehicles, are common in Zimbabwe. Many
are
blamed on speeding on open roads as well as poor maintenance and
shortages
of new tires and spare parts due to the crumbling economy.

In Zimbabwe's worst bus accident a decade ago, 96 children died when
their
school bus plunged over a ravine in eastern Zimbabwe.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Zimbabwe Bus Crash Kills 11
      The Associated Press, Tue 11 Jun 2002

      HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Eleven people were killed Tuesday in the
third
major bus accident in Zimbabwe in three days, state radio reported.

      Only one of the twelve people in the minibus survived the crash
near
the town of Chivi, about 25 miles southwest of the southern provincial
center of Masvingo, the radio said.

      The passengers were mostly shoppers returning from neighboring
South
Africa to their homes in central Zimbabwe.

      On Monday, 34 people were injured when a bus veered off the
highway
and overturned near Odzi, 140 miles east of Harare, state radio said.

      The death toll from a collision Sunday between a bus full of
student
teachers and a grain truck rose to 37 after one of the injured died.
Most of
those killed were burned to death when the bus burst into flames.

      The government declared the crash, about 35 miles from Masvingo, a

national disaster.

      The state Herald newspaper said the bus carried 106 passengers,
above
the usual seating capacity of about 80.

      Some of the victims died after bags of corn flew from the truck
onto
the bus, trapping passengers inside and fueling the blaze, police and
rescuers said.

      Bus crashes, often of overloaded vehicles, are common in Zimbabwe.

Many are blamed on speeding on open roads as well as poor maintenance
and
shortages of new tires and spare parts in the crumbling economy.

      In Zimbabwe's worst bus accident a decade ago, 96 children died
when
their school bus plunged over a ravine in eastern Zimbabwe.

Back to the Top
Back to Index