SW Radio Africa News stories for Friday 18 June
By Alex Bell
18 June 2010
South African civil rights initiative, AfriForum, is set to take legal action against that country’s government, for refusing to protect the lives and property of South African farmers in Zimbabwe.
The group served a lawyers letter on the Department of Trade and Industry last week, demanding that the government intervene to urgently protect its citizens under threat of attack in Zimbabwe. The Department was given until Tuesday this week to respond or face legal action, but by Friday, there was still no response.
According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the letter was sent to the government, “because the state has not taken any steps to assist citizens, even after it had come to light that South Africans are now subject to a renewed onslaught.” He accused his government of being too “soft” on Robert Mugabe, saying court action was the only way to force the government to take action.
The letter followed a number of land invasions on South African owned farms in recent weeks in the ongoing onslaught against commercial farmers. The home of Mike Odendaal on the Wolwedraai farm in Chipinge has been vandalised and his employees have been driven from the property. Mr P. Hapelt from Grasslands farm in Somabhula has been terrorised by farm invaders and his workers have also face intimidation. Goff Carbutt from Oscardale farm was also arrested earlier this month and has since been barred from entering his property.
At the same time, game on the Denlynian Ranch, owned by Ian Ferguson, have reportedly been slaughtered after the property was invaded in April and looted by ZANU PF supporters, apparently working for co-Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi. Meanwhile members of the police force recently cut the power supply to the Highfields farm in Nyamandlovu, leaving Gary Godfrey’s 10 000 chickens, 130 cattle and 260 sheep without access to any water. It is understood that Mines Minister Obert Mpofu was behind this cruelty, and has been trying to force Godfrey to give up the farm for several weeks.
The South African farmers and their land are meant to be protected by a signed and recently ratified bilateral investment protection agreement between the two countries. This BIPPA was signed in November last year and ratified in May by Robert Mugabe, and is supposed to protect all South African investments, including farms. But legally the BIPPA will only come into force 30 days after both countries have notified each other that they have fulfilled their “respective constitutional requirements for entry into force.” The exchange of notifications has not yet taken place, so the BIPPA is not yet in force.
“In terms of the settlement reached between AfriForum and the South African government re-the BIPPA Trade Agreement, formalised as a court order by the Gauteng North High Court in Pretoria in November 2009, the South African government undertook to maintain the rights and remedies of victims of Zimbabwe’s illegal land expropriation programme,” AfriForum said.
SW Radio Africa News stories for Friday 18 June
By Alex Bell
18 June 2010
International campaigners on Friday demanded the release of jailed Zimbabwean diamond researcher, Farai Maguwu, who is set to spend a third weekend behind bars.
Judgement on Maguwu’s bail hearing has been reserved until next week and he is currently under heavy police guard in hospital, where he is receiving treatment for a throat infection. He was arrested on June 3rd shortly after a meeting with Abbey Chikane, the South African monitor appointed by the Kimberley Process to assess Zimbabwe’s compliance with international diamond trade standards. Within days of the meeting, police arrived at Maguwu’s Centre for Research and Development offices in Mutare to arrest him, allegedly because of the information he had passed to Chikane. Maguwu went into hiding but later turned himself in, after police had severely beaten a member of his family.
Chikane has since been singled out as the instigator of Maguwu’s arrest, with Maguwu himself saying that Chikane ‘shopped’ him to the police. A coalition of civil society groups, who have been calling for a reform of the Kimberley Process, have since said that Chikane’s credibility and viability as an independent monitor of the Zimbabwe diamond crisis is compromised. Annie Dunnebacke, a campaigner from one of the groups, London based Global Witness, told SW Radio Africa on Friday that Chikane should immediately be suspended as a monitor.
“Maguwu’s arrest is directly related to the information he handed in confidence to Abbey Chikane,” Dunnebacke said. “The whole monitoring system should be suspended just as Zimbabwe should be suspended from international trade.”
The coalition has also called for Maguwu’s immediate release, raising concerns that he is being deliberately silenced ahead of a Kimberley Process meeting in Israel. The Zimbabwe issue is set to dominate talks at the meeting and there is concern that diamonds from the Chiadzwa fields will receive legal certification. This is despite evidence of ongoing human rights abuses at the diamond fields and rampant smuggling of the gems, the proceeds of which Global Witness has said is lining the pockets of top ZANU PF officials.
“Mr. Maguwu and his group have been providing evidence of abuses at Chiadzwa and were set to put forward this evidence at the Israel meeting,” Dunnebacke said. “It is difficult not to conclude that Maguwu is being deliberately silenced to prevent him showing this evidence at the meeting.”
The civil society coalition also called on Kimberley Process member governments to take action, to halt state-sponsored human rights abuses and smuggling in Zimbabwe’s diamond fields and preserve the credibility of the diamond certification scheme. The coalition called on the Kimberley Process to take the following actions:
SW Radio Africa News stories for Friday 18 June
By Lance Guma
18 June 2010
Five student leaders arrested on Wednesday at the University of Zimbabwe remain locked up at the Harare Central Police Station. Zimbabwe National Students Union President Obert Masaraure, Vice President Tafadzwa Kutya, Tryvern Musokera, Archieford Mudzengi and Gamuchirai Mukura, are now likely to spend the weekend in custody as the state drags its feet over putting together the case.
According to their lawyer Jeremiah Bamu the students are being accused of ‘participating in an unlawful gathering with an intention to cause public violence.’ The lawyer told us that the students, who represent various colleges and universities in the country, visited the UZ to ‘monitor if there were any Day of the African Child commemorations.’
Bamu said the students ‘had not addressed anyone and they were not about to address anyone at the time of the arrest.’ He said when his clients were arrested they were taken to 5 different police stations. Masaraure was detained at Matapi, Kutya at Harare Central, Musokera at Mbare, Mukura at Braeside while Mudzengi was detained at Stodart Police Station. On Friday they were all brought to Harare Central.
The lawyer also confirmed that the students complained that they were denied food and blankets during their detention. Kutya and Mukura also complained that UZ security personnel had assaulted them during the arrest. The students were denied access to a phone to inform their lawyers and it was only Thursday the following day when Bamu managed to locate his clients.
By late Friday afternoon the police investigating officer had travelled to the University of Zimbabwe ‘to look for more witnesses to testify against the students.’ Bamu said it was now likely his clients will only be brought to court on Monday, over 5 days after being arrested. The law requires accused persons to be brought to court within 48 hours of arrest but in this case, like so many others, it will be a lot longer than that.
SW Radio Africa News stories for Friday 18 June
By Tichaona Sibanda
18 June 2010
Finance Minister Tendai Biti reportedly stormed out of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, leaving Robert Mugabe ‘stunned.’ Since independence no one in government or from any political party, has apparently ever stormed out of a meeting chaired by Mugabe.
It was so unprecedented and dramatic that even Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and several cabinet ministers were left visibly shocked by Biti’s action.
The weekly Zimbabwe Independent reported on Friday that Biti angrily walked out during a heated debate on the Reserve Bank debt restructuring plan, which pitted him against ZANU PF ministers.
The paper quotes unnamed ministers saying the finance minister was engaged in a ferocious fight, with ministers Patrick Chinamasa and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi over how to deal with RBZ’s debt profile.
Many ministers from ZANU PF have been stripping bare RBZ assets, via a flood of claims over unpaid debts. Many of the claims are believed to be fraudulent.
‘It was like nothing we have ever seen before. Towards the end of the cabinet session on Tuesday Biti furiously stormed out. He left in a huff and we were all stunned,’ one minister told the paper.
Another minister added; ‘Mugabe’s reaction was that of shock and disbelief. We could not believe what was happening. As for the rest of cabinet we were astonished and rendered speechless.
After Biti left party leader Morgan Tsvangirai defended his actions, accusing ZANU PF ministers of personalizing issues. It’s reported Mugabe did not say anything.
SW Radio Africa News stories for Friday 18 June
By Tichaona Sibanda
18 June 2010
Three of the country’s civil society organizations have joined forces and deployed 420 independent monitors countrywide, to keep a close watch over the constitutional outreach programme.
The highly respected Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) have joined forces to create ZZZICOMP - ZPP/ZESN/ZLHR Independent Constitution Monitoring Project.
Dzimbabwe Chimbwa from the ZLHR said the main goal of shadowing the parliamentary-led programme was to objectively monitor, observe and evaluate the process.
‘If you read our joint statement we’ve made it clear we’ll be independently assessing and evaluating the constitution-making process against established principles, benchmarks and standards expected of the process,’ Chimbwa said.
He added; ‘Where we see anomalies we will produce reports and discuss the issues with COPAC to see if they (issues) can be rectified. Otherwise we will not have a say on the way the process is conducted. Our role basically is to police the process to see if rules and regulations are being followed’. COPAC is the parliamentary body that is running the constitution outreach program and Douglas Mwonzora, co-chairman of the body, told us donors had pledged $7 million to the program.
The three principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) formally launched the initiative to rewrite the country’s constitution on Wednesday in Harare. The outreach has been plagued by delays, squabbling between the parties and lack of funds.
The GPA calls for a new constitution to be created, followed by a referendum and then elections. A specific date is not mentioned, but both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have suggested that elections will take place in 2011. Mugabe has even stated that there will be elections, with or without a new constitution.
The outreach process is expected to take 65 days and there will be 2,860 meeting countrywide, for Zimbabweans to contribute their views and opinions on what should comprise the ultimate law of the land.
But there is much concern the process will be marred by the violence that has been evident all year in some rural areas, where ZANU PF has already unleashed its machinery to intimidate villagers in rural areas.
Reports from the countryside, especially the volatile Mashonaland East and central provinces, indicate an upsurge in persecution to intimidate local communities from participating in the outreach.
Friday 18 June
Violet presents Hot Seat where her guest is the Director of the Research and Advocacy Unit, Tony Reeler, with his analysis of the unfolding events in Zimbabwe. His organisation recently released the report: What are the options for Zimbabwe? Dealing with the obvious! Mugabe says elections will be held next year with or without a new constitution and his counterpart in the coalition, Morgan Tsvangirai, agrees the way forward is for an election next year. But what needs to be addressed before it’s possible to hold a truly free and fair election in Zimbabwe?
On Callback Mguni says the government claims to support an ongoing programme of national healing but the mass graves filled with victims of the 5th Brigade during the Gukurahundi in Matabeleland remain forgotten and ignored; and, Dzinganisai says the situation on the ground appears to be improving but there is still an ongoing crisis and it is a great shame that the country could not take full advantage of having the World Cup on the doorstep.
Cathy Buckle has her Letter from Zimbabwe where she writes, “With the world's cameras just a few hundred kilometers away over the border, and the great spectacle of extravagance being unfolded in South Africa, it’s hard to believe the Dark Age events taking place in Zimbabwe.”
SW Radio Africa is Zimbabwe’s Independent Voice and broadcasts on Short Wave 4880 KHz in the 60m band.
Introduction
SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma speaks to the International Relations Advisor to South African President Jacob Zuma - Lindiwe Zulu. She is part of the facilitation team appointed to mediate in the endless power sharing dispute in Zimbabwe. Lance asks her if the perceived bias of the ANC towards ZANU PF is undermining the mediation and whether they can ever resolve the issue, raised by ZANU PF, of western targeted sanctions, when the other parties in the coalition have no power to remove them.
Interview broadcast 17 June 2010
Lance Guma: South African president Jacob Zuma’s International Relations Advisor expressed concern at the level of misinformation being peddled around their mediation efforts in Zimbabwe. Lindiwe Zulu who is one of the mediators to the endless talk’s saga in Zimbabwe was responding to media reports sparked by comments from Mugabe who claimed the team of facilitators from South Africa would fly into Harare on Monday this week.
Now the background is that Mugabe came back from South Africa on Saturday where he had gone to attend the FIFA World Cup and immediately told journalists at the Harare International Airport that the three party leaders had finalised a report on their position in the talks. Mugabe went on to say the South African facilitation team, that includes cabinet ministers Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Zulu was due to fly in on Monday and deliberate on that report.
Zulu however says she was surprised to hear that they were expected in Zimbabwe so Behind the Headlines tracked her down and the first question we asked her was what is the source of this confusion?
Lindiwe Zulu: I’m not exactly sure where the confusion was caused if there was confusion at all because from our side, the normal process and procedures which usually happen happened, the principals met, after the principals met they produced a report, a report which was then presented to the president, President Jacob Zuma and the next step for this is for President Zuma to engage with that report, the facilitation team to also engage with that report and take issues from there.
Because what is supposed to happen is that this report that we are getting, we are expecting a report like this from the principals because the last report we received was a report that was presented to the facilitation team by the negotiators. Then the negotiators were expected to present their report to the principals who then were supposed to endorse the report. If there are any issues which were outstanding, engage those outstanding issues and take the process forward by presenting their report to the facilitation team and the president, President Jacob Zuma.
Guma: Now I think part of the problem Ms Zulu was that President Mugabe came back from South Africa on Saturday where he had gone to attend the World Cup and told journalists at the airport that the three party leaders had finalised their report and that you were meant to come in on Monday.
Zulu: Well I cannot really talk about that because I was not there and it’s possible that President Mugabe might have had a discussion with President Zuma and there was that element of a meeting but in as far as we are concerned the process at the moment is such that the president has to engage with the report and then take it from there. If he is comfortable with the report, he will then take the report to the chairperson of the Troika. If there are issues that he still thinks that he needs to engage with the principals, he will do just that.
Guma: Now there’s some slight confusion there over who really will move this process forward – President Zuma or President Guebuza of Mozambique who is the chairman of the Troika. Can you clarify that for us?
Zulu: There is no confusion either in that because President Zuma was mandated by the SADC to take the process forward and it clearly stipulates and indicates that President Zuma will have to report to the president of Mozambique who is currently the chairperson of Troika and President Guebuza will then present his report to SADC.
Guma: Now these negotiations have taken quite some time, we know the Southern African Development Committee is due to hold a summit in August, is it clear whether by then Zimbabwe will probably be an item on the agenda? Do you know?
Zulu: Well Zimbabwe will continue to be an item on the agenda from a perspective of the Global Political Agreement and its implementation. Until such time that those issues have been resolved, Zimbabwe will continue to be on the agenda on those basis. Other than of course the fact that Zimbabwe is part and parcel of the SADC community but in this particular case what SADC is seized with is the implementation of the Global Political Agreement and the resolution of all challenges that Zimbabwe is facing from a perspective of the Global Political Agreement.
Guma: There’s a worry among Zimbabweans that as soon as the World Cup is over, South Africa will lose motivation to help sort out the political crisis. Can you assure them that this is not the case?
Zulu: The basis for our engagement with Zimbabwe and assisting in resolving the conflict in Zimbabwe was not based on 2010. We have been engaged in the situation in Zimbabwe even before President Zuma came into office, president, former president Thabo Mbeki was engaged in it, we continued with it because we truly believe that we’ve got a role to play as South Africa until such time that Zimbabwe is back to normal.
Guma: One other issue that I’d want to also ask and a lot of Zimbabweans are quite curious on this, in September 2008 the political parties signed up to the Global Political Agreement, so the obvious question for many is what is there to negotiate when a document was signed in September 2008? There are no concessions there, people signed up to an Agreement so why not simply implement it?
Zulu: That’s exactly what we are dealing with. It’s about implementing that Global Political Agreement which all the principals signed upon but also to deal with any challenge that comes across because signing an Agreement and implementing an Agreement are two different issues. You sign an Agreement and in the process of implementing what you have agreed upon, we are bound to come across challenges.
Guma: You’ve expressed concern Ms Zulu about the level of information, misinformation rather which is being peddled around your mediation in Zimbabwe, would you think maybe part of the problem is the secrecy shrouding the talks, that not enough information is coming from those taking part in the process and this is why there are a lot of speculative stories around it?
Zulu: I’m not sure about shrouding or hiding or keeping any information – for starters the negotiators themselves have always spoken about the process, their negotiations and how far they are; the facilitation team itself, including President Zuma’s visit to Zimbabwe, there’s always been press conferences thereafter, journalists have always been able to ask questions but at the end of the day, also negotiations are not always about going, running out and saying this is where we are. There are times when the negotiators need to lock themselves in their room and deal with these issues in such a way that they are not able to immediately communicate almost all the time these issues – that must be understood, that’s the nature of negotiations anywhere else in the world.
Guma: ZANU PF is insisting on the removal of targeted sanctions, the MDC are saying they have no power to have these taken off. How are you going to be able to resolve such a sticking point?
Zulu: I don’t think it’s a sticking point at all because all three political parties have agreed that there is a need for them in unison to go out there and convince those that imposed the sanctions to lift the sanctions, number one. Number two there isn’t confusion either around this issue because SADC also as a regional body took a decision that all of them must work towards the lifting of sanctions, so in our opinion, there isn’t any confusion there.
Guma: There’s one issue the MDC has raised, that of hate speech in the State media. We continue to hear reports of particularly the president’s spokesperson George Charamba continuing to incite hate speech in the State media. Are these issues that you bring up when you are taking part in these negotiations and if so, is there anything being done to stop this?
Zulu: The Zimbabweans themselves are doing something about that because hate speech was part of the agenda item, if you recall, they had 27 item agendas from December, that issue of hate speech was part of it and they all agreed on what needs to be done about that and we are confident that continuously they will to try to work towards ensuring that that issue of hate speech as they have agreed they implement the decision they themselves took without anybody pressing them to take such decisions.
Guma: Now Ms Zulu there have been fears expressed by some who have looked at relations between the African National Congress (ANC) and ZANU PF and expressed worries that the ANC’s rather too close to ZANU PF and this would, in a sense, affect the mediation process. What’s your response to that?
Zulu: That cannot affect the mediation process because from the very beginning when we started the mediation process we were treating people equally as people that had signed the Global Political Agreement. They all committed themselves to the Global Political Agreement. Our engagement with them is based on the fact that SADC mandated us to deal with this issue and it’s a government related issue, it’s not a party political (issue). We are not necessarily representing our political party in this issue. We’ve been mandated in as government to deal with the issue from government to government.
Guma: Is there a time in this or is there a period in this mediation where you’ve had to be, in a sense, frustrated because people point at times and say it’s pretty obvious who is impeding progress? Do you ever have those moments?
Zulu: No we have not been frustrated by any element of the progress because once you understand what are the principles of negotiation, what’s the purpose of negotiations. Purpose is to make sure that you come to a point where everybody is in agreement with what is on the table. What we’ve been working towards is firstly to treat them equally by demanding on them that they all signed the Political Agreement, the Global Political Agreement, we are holding each and every one of them accountable to an agreement that they all agreed to without being forced by anyone to do so.
Guma: And finally, clearly there is no time scale, are you working with an open time scale here or is there a particular time where you say right this should be resolved by this time?
Zulu: We do put those timeframes because we can’t continuously, endlessly work with a timetable that has got no limit. There’s always a limit to time and therefore the negotiators and the principals have always understood that we are coming in wanting things to be resolved, we can’t be working just generally for the sake of generally working. There’s always a timetable, yes in negotiations you don’t necessarily always stick to the timetable because there’s challenges from time to time but we do have a timeframe, which by the way is a timeframe which was given by SADC, the grouping that mandated us.
Guma: Could we know this time frame?
Zulu: Well no, I can’t put the timeframe at the moment, I mean it’s something that you would find in the Global Political Agreement itself. I don’t have the Global Political Agreement in front of me.
Guma: That was South African president Jacob Zuma’s International Relations Advisor Lindiwe Zulu joining us on Behind the Headlines.
Feedback can be sent to lance@swradioafrica.com or http://twitter.com/lanceguma
SW Radio Africa is Zimbabwe’s Independent Voice and broadcasts on Short Wave 4880 KHz in the 60m band.
A letter from the diaspora
Dear Friends.
When he arrived back in Harare from the World Cup, Robert Mugabe announced that the South African facilitators would shortly be back in the country to continue with their attempts to mediate in the endless ‘talks’ between the MDC and Zanu PF.
Not so, declared Lindiwe Zulu, the spokesperson for the facilitators. They are not returning to Harare in the immediate future; President Zuma is too occupied with affairs of state at home. “Does that mean,” she was asked, “that South Africa is disengaging from their efforts to settle Zimbabwe’s crisis”? No, Lindiwe Zulu answered, “South Africa would “remain engaged until Zimbabwe is back to normal.”
That phrase, ‘back to normal’ must have raised a few cynical smiles from Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora. Just what exactly constitutes ‘normality’ in Zimbabwe and how do we measure it - except by comparing life now with what we experienced in the past? The answer, I suppose, depends on who you are and what sort of life you lived before the country descended into its present state of ‘abnormality’ which led an estimated 5 million people to leave the motherland in search of a better life in foreign countries.
The trouble is that the ‘abnormality’ has been going on for so long that it seems like ‘normal’. Rather like the old song, ‘I’ve been down so long it seems like up to me’, Zimbabweans at home have forgotten what it was like to live in a ‘normal’ country where things work. A country where traffic lights function and roads are repaired; where you are not subject to police harassment and brutality merely for having a different point of view – or a different skin colour; where the phones work and where there are not daily 16 hour power cuts that make modern life impossible; where you can be sure your money is safe in the bank and the courts will be impartial should you be unfortunate enough to be picked up by the police and charged with some fictitious crime. ‘Normal’ is living in a country where there is rule of law and all are equal before the law, a country where political allegiance is not the sole determinant of your value as a citizen.
Ms Zulu’s definition of ‘normal’ may differ but she would not, I think, disagree that her own country can be considered ‘normal’ for a democratic state in the “21st century. In the same week that she made her remark about Zimbabwe’s return to normality, came the news that Farai Muguwu had been ‘snatched’ from Harare Central Prison and taken to the infamous Mtapi Police Station where the conditions have been deemed ‘unfit for human habitation’ by a High Court judge. Farai Muguwu is of course the brave man who, through the Centre for Research Development, has attempted to blow the whistle on the downright theft and corruption going on in the diamond mines. He was arrested on June 3rd and has been incarcerated ever since and refused bail. The truth behind his arrest and mistreatment may never be known but from all reports it seems that it is not unconnected with one of Ms Zulu’s fellow countrymen who was anxious that the truth should not be told about the criminal behaviour of certain high profile names inside Mugabe’s government, not excluding at least one MDC Deputy Minister. But that is ‘normal’ in Zimbabwe today and the MDC are powerless to intervene or even to speak out, it seems. Their silence about this and so many other issues of justice and human rights in Zimbabwe, from the continuing onslaught on the white farmers to the violence and intimidation going on in the villages in the run-up to the Constitutional Outreach programme, does not suggest that Mugabe’s partners in the Inclusive Government are overly concerned with a return to ‘normality’. Commenting on Tsangirai’s powerlessness in the face of Mugabe’s tenacious grip on power, a foreign diplomat remarked that the Prime Minister appeared content to ‘live with it’.
For those of us who were deeply uneasy about this so-called power sharing government from the beginning, our worst fears are being realised. The MDC is being swallowed up by Zanu PF and, in the process is besmirched by the culture of greed and self-interest that permeates among the Zanu PF chefs. Mugabe’s professed claim at the launch of the Constitutional Consultation that “We don’t want violence” during the process is totally misleading. We all know – as Tsvangirai himself knows - that it is Mugabe’s Youth Militia, CIO and war vets who are already committing acts of violence and intimidation in the rural areas before the consultation even starts. Schools are being used as bases for the Militia all over the rural areas and in Mashonaland East I hear that the Teacher Training College in Mutoko where I taught has been invaded – not for the first time - by Zanu PF thugs who force trainee teachers to attend political lectures. Children at schools in this area and many others are being forced to attend ‘training’ sessions where they are taught violence. Operation Chimumu it’s called – deaf and dumb; that is what these thugs want the general populace to be, unless of course they speak the Zanu PF language. But still the MDC remain virtually silent. Either they are naïve to the point of blind credulity or they are simply unwilling to jeopardise their own positions in the Inclusive government. Whichever way you look at it, this cannot be described as a ‘normal’ situation. Perhaps the South Africans have been deafened too by the blast of their World Cup vuvuzelas and can no longer hear the cries of their brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe?
Yours in the (continuing) struggle
PH.aka Pauline Henson author of Case Closed published in Zimbabwe by Mambo Press,
Going Home and Countdown political detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available from Lulu.com
(AFP) – 7 hours ago
HARARE — Parts of Zimbabwe and most of
neighbouring Zambia suffered a massive blackout for about 10 hours on Friday,
as a fault crippled the hydro-electric dam that supplies most of the countries'
power.
A breakdown at Kariba dam disrupted the
entire electrical grid and caused problems at secondary stations, said Fullard
Gwasira, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).
"We had a system disturbance this
morning in Kariba leading to loss of power in the country," he told AFP.
"The systems disturbance has
resulted in loss of power from Kariba North, South and Kafuwe gorge (in
Zambia). This system disturbance resulted in the loss of 736 megawatts which
has resulted in some parts of the country and Zambia not having
electricity."
Zimbabwe only generates a total of 900
megawatts of power, and needs about 2,100 megawatts to keep the lights on
across the country.
About 10 hours later, five of the six
units at Kariba had been restored.
"One unit is still down until
Sunday, so there will be continuous blackouts in some parts of the
country," Gwasira said.
Most of Harare lost power for the day,
leading to gridlock throughout the city as traffic lights stopped working.
All of the Zambian capital Lusaka lost
power and national radio went off the air as electricity in most of the country
disappeared for about 10 hours.
"There was a fault at Kariba dam
power station, which affected almost the entire country," said Lucy Zimba
of Zambia's state power company. She said engineers were still trying to
determine what caused the fault.
The blackouts came one week after
Zimbabwe authorities had assured the country that power would run continuously
through the World Cup.
Gwasira said engineers were
"attending to the problem and trying to find what led to this system
disturbance."
Zimbabwe's ageing power generation
stations have been facing growing technical problems as a result of neglect due
to years of economic crisis.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights
reserved.