| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
|
Zimbabwe tries to stabilise weakening
currency By Tony Hawkins in Harare Published: June 26 2001 09:50GMT | Last Updated: June 26 2001 11:17GMT | |
Zimbabwe on Tuesday tightened exchange controls in an effort to stabilise its weakening currency, and at the same effectively revalued the exchange rate for the Zimbabwe dollar. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said in a statement that with immediate effect all exporters must sell 40 per cent of their export earnings to the central bank at the official exchange rate of Z$55 to the US dollar. Until Tuesday, exporters were required to sell 25 per cent of their earnings at the official rate, selling the balance in the parallel market at a premium of up to 150 per cent. By reducing to 60 per cent the proportion an exporter can trade in the free market, the move effectively revalues the "blend exchange rate" for the Zimbabwe dollar from Z$118 to the US dollar to Z$106. But bankers say the free market premium - the US dollar is trading at around Z$140 in the parallel market - is bound to rise in response to these tighter controls. Simultaneously and bizarrely, the RBZ also effectively devalued the exchange rate by introducing a new export incentive scheme. This allows exporters to swap their hard currency for Zimbabwe dollars for a period of 90 days or longer at the prevailing exchange rate. The central bank will return the hard currency at the end of the swap period with an incentive payment, though the size of this incentive is not specified. Banks and other foreign currency dealers must sell 40 per cent of the foreign exchange they receive to the central bank to finance imports of fuel and electricity. Another 20 per cent must be sold to the RBZ for allocation to tobacco farmers to finance imports of essential inputs, while 10 per cent is sold to the RBZ to meet the government’s offshore commitments. The balance of 30 per cent is then available for all other imports. Also on Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance plans to halve the holiday allowance to US$2,500 per adult from $5,000 previously. Although this has not yet been formally announced a finance ministry spokesman said "In time so foreign exchange shortages for foreign holidays are not essential". In any event, he added, domestic tourism needed a boost because of the slump in foreign visitors. The moves to tighten exchange controls coincide with growing concerns about food shortages in the country later this year due to the sharp reduction in grain production and the ongoing fuel crisis. Oil companies say they are operating with about 40 percent of their 1999 fuel allocations. Earlier this month, Zimbabwe announced a 73 percent increase in the petrol price and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has threatened to call a two-day national strike in protest again the fuel price hike. Unless the government rescinds the fuel price rise, there will be a national strike next week. | |
Capital's Health System Faces Collapse
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
June 26, 2001
Posted
to the web June 26, 2001
Lovemore Mbengeranwa, Harare's Director of Health Services, told 'The Daily News' on Saturday that a lack of funds was crippling the City Health Department's ability to provide efficient services to the residents of the capital. According to his 2000 annual health report, the city council's water supplies are threatened, garbage cannot be collected, sewage cannot be adequately treated, drugs and dressings cannot be procured and staff are unsure whether they will be paid at the end of the month because of a critical shortage of money.
Mbengeranwa said rising poverty and unemployment were a cause for concern in Harare. "This is creating an environment conducive to widespread malnutrition, particularly among children. Tuberculosis is on the increase due to overcrowding and malnutrition. Added to this is the ever-increasing burden of HIV/AIDS," he added. The number of recorded cases of TB increased from 6,538 in 1999 to 8,819 in 2000. Mbengeranwa said the situation called for the speedy eradication of poverty.
The report depicts the deterioration of the nutrition status of schoolchildren. This, he said, mirrored the harsh economic conditions in the city. He said for the third year running, Harare was unable to fund its supplementary feeding programme for disadvantaged children. Mbengeranwa said fewer children under the age of five now visited clinics because of the high fees now being charged. Previously they received free treatment with an up-to-date immunisation record kept as an incentive to encourage child immunisation.
Government Finally Agrees to Host International Jurists
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
June 26, 2001
Posted
to the web June 26, 2001
The government of Zimbabwe has finally agreed to host an International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) fact-finding mission and is expected to set the dates in three weeks time, 'The Zimbabwe Mirror' reported on Friday. Justice, legal and parliamentary affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa told the newspaper that the government had decided to accept the ICJ visit, which is expected anytime between July and September. "Yes, I will write them in July to let them know when they have to come. We have not set the date but they should expect my reply in July," he said. ICJ legal officer Ian Seiderman also confirmed the government had finally agreed to the mission.
Early last month Chinamasa denied press reports claiming that the ICJ had been granted permission by the government to conduct its fact-finding mission in the country. In an interview this week, Seiderman said instead of the mission coming to Zimbabwe in early July as reported earlier, his organisation expected the government to communicate its conditions and date proposals. The agenda of the Geneva-based legal NGO is to examine the allegations of lawlessness levelled against President Mugabe's government. Since the 2000 parliamentary elections which were marred by violence, legal experts have repeatedly implored the government to restore the rule of law.
Although it insists that its hands are clean, the government has been implicated in violence. Recently the Amani Trust produced a report implicating ZANU-PF in by-election torture allegations. The ICJ will not be the first international legal organisation to dispatch a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. Recently the International Bar Association (IBA) produced a controversial report ruffling government feathers. The damning report, produced by a delegation of distinguished international lawyers and judges, was dismissed by the government as biased.
| Government lists Gloria Olds’ farm | |
|
6/26/01 9:00:38 AM (GMT +2) |
Business Reporter
The Nyamandlovu farm
where Martin Olds was shot dead by war veterans last year has been designated
for compulsory acquisition and resettlement by the government.
Yonder of Compensation,
registered in the name of Olds' father, Alfred Geoffrey Olds, covers 2 467,98
hectares.
The other farm, Silver Streams, where Martin’s 72- year-old
mother, Gloria, was shot dead early this year, does not appear on the latest
list of designated farms.
On 30 March, Albert Ncube, of Mpopoma, appeared in
court in Bulawayo charged with the murder of Gloria Olds. He was remanded in
custody to 9 April this year.
There are 421 properties on the new list
published last week under the Land Acquisition Act (Chapter 20:10) for the
Preliminary Notice to Compulsorily Acquire.
The deaths, particularly that of
Gloria, contributed to the view held by the international community that
Zimbabwe was in the grip of government-sponsored terror and lawlessness.
Other farms designated for compulsory acquisition include that of Max
Rosenfels, who is deceased.
Before his death, Rosenfels clashed with war
veterans who had invaded his farm, Good Luck, in Figtree near Bulawayo.
The
Olds were among 35 people killed shortly before last year’s parliamentary
election.
Some critics say that the government is cynically using the land
issue to boost its flagging fortunes in the face of a serious challenge from the
MDC.
In the case of Martin, war veterans armed with AK47 rifles arrived at
the farm in 12 vehicles. The besieged Olds was shot dead in the ensuing
gunbattle.
Olds was the second white farmer to be killed following the
slaying of Dave Stevens, a Macheke farmer.
Meanwhile, a four-hectare plot
owned by the Vice-President Simon Muzenda has also been designated for
resettlement, although Muzenda says he is not aware of it.
“I am hearing
this from you,” he said.
Muzenda complained that previously it had been
alleged that his farm had been designated. “Now, it’s my plot,” he said. “I have
no farm in Gutu.”
| Farm designation bowls Streak | |
|
6/26/01 9:05:41 AM (GMT +2) |
Mduduzi Mathuthu, Bulawayo
ZIMBABWE cricket
captain, Heath Streak, who shocked the nation by his resignation last Saturday,
was apparently upset by the listing of his family’s farm in the government’s
land acquisition blitz last week, it has emerged.
However, Streak was on
Sunday understood to have changed heart after heavy persuasion by teammates and
management.
The farm, in the Turk Mine area, includes a thriving game park
and has previously hosted the team as a camping facility.
It is among 577
farms, including Vice-President Simon Muzenda’s Chomufuli Farm in Gutu, that
have been designated for compulsory acquisition by the government for
resettlement.
Streak dropped a bombshell when he announced that he would not
captain the squad for the first one-day international against the West Indies in
the triangular series, also including India, in Harare last Saturday. The
official explanation for his resignation was that he was not happy about the
team selection.
Streak, it is said, wanted Donald Campbell to be the
wicketkeeper in place of injured Andy Flower, but the selectors had settled for
Tatenda Taibu, 18, who was then uncapped.
However, cricket sources said the
burly Heath, a fluent Ndebele speaker, was among other things, protesting the
government intention to acquire Formona Farm owned by the Streaks for
redistribution under the fast-track resettlement programme.
“Heath is upset
and very low about it. He is also concerned about the team selection and felt it
was too much for him,” said an official close to the cricket team.
Two farms
belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, two owned by the National Railways of
Zimbabwe, two more of the Cold Storage Company and two State farms have also
been designated for resettlement.
Former Zimbabwe Election Support Network
chairman and war veteran, Philiat Matsheza, also stands to lose his 590-hectare
Arbeidrus Farm after it was included on the acquisition list issued by the
Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Dr Joseph Made.
The
government has embarked on a rushed compulsory and controversial land
acquisition exercise for the resettlement of thousands.
| Masvingo commercial farmers lose property worth over $50 million | |
|
6/26/01 9:07:10 AM (GMT +2) |
Energy Bara, Masvingo
PROPERTY worth over $50
million was lost on commercial farms in Masvingo province through thefts and
vandalism by the farm invaders, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said on
Sunday.
Mike Clarke CFU regional
chairman said on Sunday the commercial farmers in the province have lost cattle
through thefts while property worth thousands of dollars have been either stolen
or vandalised.
Scores of war veterans and Zanu PF supporters moved on to the
farms following the rejection of the government sponsored draft constitution
disrupting farming operations.
Clarke said: “Farmers continue to lose their
livestock to farm invaders everyday and police are doing nothing to arrest the
thieves.
“About $10 million worth of cattle have disappeared from the farms.
The loses commercial farmers have suffered are very huge and well over $50
million.”
Wildlife losses to the tune of $28 million have been suffered in
the province while fence valued at $15 million has been lost.
The animals
were either found dead or snared by poachers.
Clarke also said a serious
environmental hazard is looming following the indiscriminate cutting down of
trees and burning of pastures by the farm invaders.
“Due to the cold spell
the farm invaders are destroying forests and it seems no one in taking stock of
the serious environmental damage.”
He said there is need for the government
to reconsider its position and ensure that the rule of law returns to the
country.
“Although the land issue is political there is need to consider its
effects on the economy of the country,” said Clarke.
On the country’s food
security the CFU regional boss said Zimbabwe is facing serious food shortages
because agricultural production was heavily affected by the farm invasions.
He said commercial farmers in Masvingo did not grow maize, the country’s
staple food because of disruptions on the farms.
“Commercial farmers managed
to grow maize for stock feed and not for sale.
There is going to be
starvation due to serious food shortages in the country.”
In Masvingo
province about 600 000 people were already facing serious food shortages and the
government was failing to feed them.
About $1 million for each district
disbursed by the government in Masvingo under the public works programme has
been used up.
Masvingo provincial administrator, Alphonse Chikurira, said
the most affected areas were Chiredzi and Mwenezi districts where thousands of
families had not recovered from the effects of the Cyclone Eline floods.
| Teachers’ association attacks government | |
|
6/26/01 9:07:38 AM (GMT +2) |
Staff Reporter
THE 60 000-strong
Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) has criticised the government for its
inaction on the increasing violence against teachers by the war veterans.
Reacting to the expulsion
of 32 teachers in Buhera last Monday by war veterans, the Zimta
secretary-general, Dennis Sinyolo, said teachers must be protected from violence
by war veterans and political hooligans if they are to deliver quality service.
He said the Buhera incident was not an isolated one.
“We are aware of
the Buhera incident and many other incidents of violence against our members
across the country, dating back to the pre-election period last year. We have
raised the matter with the relevant authorities, but are disappointed that they
have done nothing.
“They have assured us that they will take remedial
measures, but they have not done so,” Sinyolo said on Friday.
He said Zimta
had on several occasions taken up the issue with the parent ministry and that of
the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, but the authorities had been
“conspicuous by their silence”.
“We can’t accept that kind of treatment,” he
said.
He said if the war veterans and other elements continued to threaten
teachers, schoolchildren would lose out on one of their basic rights, which is
education.