Zim Online
Wed 15
March 2006
HARARE - United Nations (UN) officials in Zimbabwe on
Tuesday said
plans for Secretary General Koffi Annan to visit the crisis-hit
country were
still in place but said dates for such a trip were still to be
confirmed by
both New York and Harare.
An official in the
office of United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) Harare representative
Augustine Zacharius told ZimOnline that they
were looking forward to Annan's
visit to Zimbabwe, adding that all necessary
planning had been done pending
confirmation of final dates.
Annan is visiting South Africa as part
of a four-nation tour of Africa
that omits Zimbabwe despite President Robert
Mugabe inviting him last year
to visit the southern African country and
assess for himself the situation
on the ground following UN envoy Anna
Tibaijuka's damning report against
Harare's controversial clean-up
exercise.
The UN Secretary General was at the time said to have
accepted
Mugabe's invitation although subsequent reports suggested he would
only
visit Zimbabwe on condition Harare fulfilled certain conditions that
were
not made public.
The UNDP official in Harare
said: "Mr Annan is not coming to Zimbabwe
this month as it is not part of
his visit this time around.
"We are hoping that he will eventually
come but the dates for the
Zimbabwe visit have not been confirmed by both
New York and Harare. We look
forward to his eventual visit to Harare because
all the planning has been
done since Mr Annan indicated he will take the
invitation but this is not
within the current regional trip."
Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi was not
available
for comment while several senior officials at the ministry refused
to take
questions on the matter.
Annan, an African himself, has shown an
interest in helping resolve
Zimbabwe's six-year political and economic
crisis that has reduced the once
promising African country into a basket
case surviving on food handouts from
UN agencies and other donor
groups.
But Mugabe and his government furiously rejected
Tibaijuka's report
that said at least 700 000 Zimbabweans were left without
shelter or means of
livelihood after the government demolished shantytowns
and informal business
kiosks last year.
The UN report also says
another 2.4 million Zimbabweans were affected
by the home demolition
campaign that Mugabe defended as necessary to smash
crime and to restore the
beauty of Zimbabwe's cities and towns.
When UN under-secretary
general for humanitarian affairs and emergency
relief co-ordinator Jan
Egelend backed Tibaijuka's report during a follow-up
visit to Zimbabwe, an
angry Mugabe labelled him a liar and Harare said it
would not accept any
more envoys from the world body but would only welcome
Annan
himself.
From South Africa, Annan will proceed to Madagascar for
talks with
that country's President Marc Ravalomanana. He will then go to
Congo-Brazzaville to meet President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the current
chairman of the 53-member African Union.
The UN Secretary
General will complete his tour with a visit to the
Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC) for talks with President Joseph
Kabila. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 15 March 2006
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government is hoping
to resume ostrich and beef
exports to the lucrative European Union (EU)
market before the end of the
year after successfully stamping out the foot
and mouth disease.
Zimbabwe principal director of veterinary
services, Dr Stuart
Hargreaves, told ZimOnline on Tuesday that the
government had put in place
stringent measures to control the cattle
disease.
"We have improved the foot and mouth rehabilitation centre
as well as
fenced off the Gonarezhou National Park. All the birds with
positive
anti-bodies were moved to one farm and we are convinced the disease
would be
confined to one farm.
"We have to be in a position to
show that there has not been a
circulation of the virus for three months . .
. Before the end of the year,
we would have resumed exports," said
Hargreaves.
The EU suspended beef imports from Zimbabwe in 2004
after an outbreak
of the deadly foot and mouth disease.
But
Hargreaves said Zimbabwe had put in place adequate measures to
control the
disease and hoped the EU would lift the suspension of beef
imports from the
country. Zimbabwe is losing about US$38 million every year
in potential
earnings from beef exports as a result of the ban, according to
the
EU.
But analysts warn that Zimbabwe would be hard-pressed to meet
its EU
quota after war veterans and government supporters decimated the
country's
national herd as a result of the government's chaotic land
reforms.
Zimbabwe's national herd currently stands at 250 000 from
the 1.4
million cattle before farm invasions six years ago. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 15 March 2006
MUTARE - Zimbabwe High Court Judge
Charles Hungwe yesterday granted
bail to opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) politician Giles
Mutsekwa who is accused together with five
others of plotting to kill
President Robert Mugabe and to commit
sabotage.
But as Hungwe freed Mutsekwa in the eastern city of
Mutare police in
Harare arrested yet another MDC politician, Timothy Mubhawu
who is the
opposition party's Member of Parliament for Mabvuku
constituency.
Mubhawu, who is aligned to the faction of the MDC
that is led by
Morgan Tsvangirai and whose officials are being targeted for
arrest by the
police, was arrested when he presented himself to the police
after learning
that they were looking for him.
Police had by
last night not yet charged Mubhawu. But the police have
in the past few days
indicated they might arrest and charge more MDC
activists in connection with
an arms cache the law enforcement agency claims
it discovered in Mutare and
which it says were to be used to overthrow
Mugabe's government.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the arrest of Mubhawu, like the
arrest of
other activists of the opposition party in the last week, was part
of a plot
by the state to derail a congress scheduled for the weekend that
Tsvangirai
has said he will use to galvanise supporters for what he calls
"popular
resistance" against Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party.
"ZANU PF's
behaviour (arresting of Mubhawu and other officials) only
confirms that our
congress has sent shock waves in the corridors of power.
The regime has
become jelly-kneed because across the nation, our 13 000
delegates are
raring to converge at our Congress venue to announce to the
world that the
party is alive," said Chamisa in a statement.
In Mutare, Hungwe
freed Mutsekwa on Z$50 million bail following an
urgent application by his
lawyers.
As part of the bail conditions, Mutsekwa, who is the MDC
secretary for
defence and also the party's MP for Mutare North constituency,
was also
ordered to reside at his house in Mutare's Greenside suburb and to
report to
the police every Friday.
Magistrate Fabian Mashete
will today hear the bail application of
Peter Hitschmann, a former soldier
of the white army before Zimbabwe's 1980
independence and at whose house
state security agents say they discovered
the illegal arms
cache.
More than 10 MDC activists are believed to be in police
custody in
connection with the weapons cache.
According to
reports in the government-owned media, security agents
discovered an array
of weapons at the home of Hitschmann including AK-47
automatic rifles,
machineguns, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, tear gas
canisters, flares,
thousands of rounds of ammunition and a two-way radio
communication
system.
The MDC has strongly denied knowledge or any links to the
weapons or
to any group planning an armed insurrection against
Mugabe.
Meanwhile Hungwe, who was in Mutare on other official
business, also
yesterday ordered the police to release all MDC activists
remanded by the
courts to prison authorities who should detain them as they
await to appear
in court.
Hungwe made the order after lawyers
for the opposition activists told
him that the police were holding onto
their clients and torturing them.
Once suspects have formally
appeared in court and they have not been
granted bail, they are supposed to
await trial at remand prison and not in
police cells. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 15 March 2006
HARARE - The
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has accused
senior government
officials of denying food aid to hundreds of opposition
supporters staying
at a camp outside Harare after their homes were
demolished by the police
last year.
At least 300 people, among them supporters of the
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change and the ruling ZANU PF parties,
are staying at Hopley
Farm after their houses and backyard shacks were
destroyed last year during
a controversial government clean-up exercise in
urban areas.
According to the ZLHR, government officials overseeing
food
distribution were singling out MDC supporters and denying them food as
punishment for backing the opposition party.
In a letter
addressed to Harare provincial administrator, a Mr
Kamupira, the lawyers
group accused senior social welfare officer, Ezekiel
Mpande, of spearheading
the politicisation of food aid at the camp.
"It has come to our
attention that he (Mpande) has engaged in
politicisation of food
distribution during the carrying out of his
above-noted duties at Hopley
Farm.
"In the circumstances, we ask that your office as the office
in charge
of administration in Harare Metropolitan province use such
administrative
powers to ensure that fairness is re-established . . . to
ensure the
well-being of persons transported to Hopley farm," reads the
letter.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Mpande rejected charges
that he was
denying food aid to opposition supporters.
"This is
just malice. The distribution of food is not done along
political lines. You
should know that where there are people, there will
always be complaints,"
said Mpande.
Human rights groups and the MDC have often accused
President Robert
Mugabe's government of denying food aid to opposition
supporters in a bid to
force them to shift allegiance to the ruling ZANU PF
party. Mugabe's
government denies the charge. - ZimOnline
[ This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 14
Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Life is never easy for people afflicted by
leprosy, but
Zimbabwe's fast deteriorating socioeconomic conditions have
made it even
more challenging.
At the Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement in Zimbabwe's
northeastern Mutoko communal
lands, 90 km east of the capital, Harare, the
patients are desperately in
need of food, clothing and financial assistance
as the centre's coffers are
empty. The centre also urgently needs money for
bedding, repairs and
maintenance of the facilities.
Auxillia Chiviya,
an official at the settlement, which was founded in 1937,
told IRIN the
situation could become disastrous if no solution to the
centre's financial
problems was found within the next month.
The already critical situation
at the settlement has been worsened by the
current economic crisis in
Zimbabwe. Basic commodities such as fuel, food
and medical supplies are
scarce and galloping inflation, currently at 782
percent, has made what
little stocks are available inaccessible to the poor.
Rodney
Kasiyapfumbi, a patient at the settlement, said donations that used
to come
in have dried up. Another patient, Nurse Kambarami, said she had
been
surviving on a small helping of sadza (maize-meal porridge) every
day.
According to Chiviya, in the 1940s and 50s the settlement grew into
a huge
leprosarium with nearly 1,000 patients. Later, with the advent of the
drug,
Dapsone, which halts the disease, many patients were sent back to
their
homes, where relatives could care for them.
Mutemwa Leprosy
centre is home to 50 patients who have suffered severe
deformity and are
disabled and destitute - some have lost limbs and others
have been blinded
by the disease - who would otherwise have no-one to care
for
them.
Despite the ongoing deprivation suffered by the patients as a
result of the
harsh economic conditions in the country, the centre has
remained a haven
for people affected by leprosy, as they often suffered
rejection by the
broader populace.
"Some people do not want to share
utensils with you ... [or] to be close to
you because you are a leper," said
Kambarami.
Faith Chimanda, a supporter of the settlement, said many
people did not
understand the disease. "Stigmatisation of people affected by
leprosy dates
back to biblical times, where they were seen to be cursed
people," she
commented. "In the current crisis in Zimbabwe there is more
need than ever
to raise funds for the work to continue, to supply basic
needs and medical
care for the patients."
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington,
DC
14 March 2006
Zimbabwe's main opposition group, the
Movement for Democratic Change, says
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF
government is panicking. This follows a
late night address on state
television by Didymus Mutasa, minister of state
security, who threatened
physical harm to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. In a
press statement, the MDC
said for a minister to appear on national
television and issue a chilling
statement serves to confirm how the regime
is panicking. The statement added
that the dictatorship is suffering from a
guilty conscience over its
authorship of the Zimbabwean crises and is now
engaged in shameful acts of
shadow boxing and shadow chasing.
Nelson Chamisa is a spokesman for the
opposition MDC. Speaking with English
to Africa reporter Peter Clottey, he
said, "What we have to realize is that
this government seem to be [barren]
of ideas and it has manifested in
extraordinary levels of desperation and
they have no solution for the
political and economic crises that we are
facing for the social decay we
have witnessed in the
country."
Reacting to the arms recently found arms cache linked to the
MDC, Chamisa
said, "If you look at what they are now doing, they
deliberately planted
some arms. And what they forget is that in the MDC, we
are not a rebel
movement; we are a legitimate opposition political party."
He added that
there is glaring evidence that suggests the government wants
to eliminate
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mail and Guardian
London, United Kingdom
14 March 2006
04:39
London-based human rights activist Peter Tatchell on
Tuesday
dismissed Zimbabwean government allegations that he was linked to a
plot to
overthrow President Robert Mugabe.
Tatchell, who
has attempted citizen's arrests of Mugabe and a
court bid to have him
arrested and extradited to Britain on torture charges,
described the claims
as "Mugabe fairy tales" and "downright laughable".
The
allegations came to light last week after an arms find in
the eastern
Zimbabwean city of Mutare, prompting a number of arrests,
including a
Zimbabwe opposition legislator and opposition local
functionary.
One of those arrested was said to be a man named
Mike Peter
Hitschmann, state television reported, saying he worked for a
shadowy
organisation called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement
(ZFM).
Tatchell, an outspoken gay activist as well as a
strong critic
of Mugabe, who is equally virulent in his opposition to gays,
said he has
never been involved with the ZFM, which he is accused of forming
in Britain
in 2003.
"Once in 2003, I was asked by
Zimbabwean activists to distribute
in the United Kingdom a ZFM launch press
communiqué and video recording," he
said in a statement. "That was the start
and finish of my connection with
the ZFM.
"Mugabe's
henchmen claim I was involved in opening a bank
account in Mozambique to
finance the overthrow of the Zimbabwean government.
This is a
joke.
"I can't raise enough money to staff an office for my
own human
rights work, let alone fund an insurrection. The idea that I am
bankrolling
a coup is laughable."
Tatchell claimed
instead that Mugabe said in 2003 that the ZFM
did not exist but is now
acknowledging it out of political expediency.
"The coup-plot
allegations are obviously a ploy to discredit the
opposition and to pave the
way for further repression of the Zimbabwean
people," he added. Attempts to
link it to the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, which has
denied any connections, is a "crude bid" to
discredit the party before its
congress in the coming weeks.
"If I was part of a plot I
would be shouting it from the
rooftops, in the same way that in the 1970s I
was open and proud of my
support for [Mugabe's] Zanu-PF [party's] war of
liberation against the
white, racist regime of Ian Smith," he stated. --
Sapa-AFP
PANOS (London)
March
13, 2006
Posted to the web March 14, 2006
Kudzai
Chingarande
Harare
Farming with GMOs is banned in Zimbabwe, not only
because of potential
health and environment risks, but also for economic
reasons - because the
European Union does not import any food containing
GMOs.
But in February 2006 a well-known American advocate of
biotechnology,
including genetic modification, visited Harare on a lecture
tour to urge the
country to embrace biotechnology. Prof Tom De Gregori of
the University of
Houston, who came at the invitation of President Robert
Mugabe, said
Zimbabwe could turn around its fortunes by applying
biotechnology to
agriculture and health.
Pro-biotech
lecture
Delivering a lecture at the University of Zimbabwe, De Gregori
said African
countries should follow the examples of China and Malaysia and
improve
agricultural productivity through biotechnology. "Biotechnology
results in
increased soil protection, reduction in pests and increased
yields," he
said.
The comments have prompted speculation that GM
plants may be introduced in
Zimbabwe.
So far, there has been little
national debate on this issue, although some
farmers are aware of the fears
associated with GMOs, including the
contamination of non-GM
plants.
Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, it is the
responsibility of
governments to inform and consult the people before
allowing the
introduction of GMOs. Yet, in practice, the Zimbabwean
government has done
little to consult farmers - at a time when such
consultations are most
needed. A Bill apparently seeking to promote the safe
application of
biotechnology is awaiting introduction before the House of
Assembly.
The draft Bill seeks to establish a National Biotechnology
Authority - a
statutory body that will be responsible for managing the
import, research,
development, production and use of biotechnology in
Zimbabwe.
The proposed law also seeks to ensure that the introduction of
biotechnology
does not have adverse effects on health, environment, economy,
national
security and social norms and values.
Fund to boost
cotton
Under the Bill, a National Biotechnology Fund will be established
to promote
the marketing and production of transgenic crops as well as
research into
modern biotechnology. It empowers the Minister for Science and
Technology
Development to impose levies on producers, processors and buyers
of any
biotechnological product - money that will go into the Biotechnology
Fund.
The move is aimed at boosting the production of mainly cash crops,
notably
cotton, which in turn could help beef up Zimbabwe's dwindling
foreign
currency reserves.
"Our rate of uptake of the upcoming
biotechnology is really not encouraging
as biotechnology is poised to
revolutionalise the way we do business through
increased food production,
which will also be exported to boost foreign
currency reserves," says
Science and Technology Development Minister, Dr
Olivia Muchena.
But,
she admits, "there are also concerns about biotechnology that GMOs may
not
be safe to eat; these concerns need to be discussed openly".
Enter
Chinese firms...
Experts also point to the potential role of Chinese
firms in rolling out GM
crops. Chinese companies have set up in a big way in
Zimbabwe's countryside
and President Mugabe, facing increasing isolation
from Western governments,
has adopted a 'Look East' policy aimed at
facilitating investments from
China and other Asian
countries.
"Zimbabwe will continue turning to the East as we seek to
explore growth
opportunities and strengthen economic ties," the President
said recently.
Zimbabwe and China have also sealed several economic deals
that would see
the Chinese funding the production of flue-cured tobacco and
cotton among
other products. As a result cotton industry sources are
predicting a huge
increase in production this year - around 750,000 kg
compared to just
200,000 kg last year.
But there are fears that these
Chinese-run farms may not be subject to
strict biosafety controls. For
example, there are reports that following the
entry of Chinese and other
foreign firms into farming, some farmers have
held illegal field trials with
Bt cotton without an operational resistance
management plan.
And
Western multinationals too
The Chinese aren't the only ones waiting in
the wings. In 1998, Monsanto,
the world's largest agribiotech company,
planted Bt cotton seeds without
official permission. But the Ministry of
Land discovered it and ordered the
crop to be burnt before it could
flower.
Syngenta, a major Swiss biotechnology multinational, will also
watch the
outcome of the debate on the biotechnology Bill. Syngenta has a
significant
financial stake in Seed Co, Zimbabwe's largest seed producer,
whose
spokeswoman Marjorie Mutemererwa says she believes transgenic crops
would
enrich farmers.
"I do not see anything wrong with controlling
the seed market because we
strive to come up with the best product. In fact
farmers will benefit and
ensure food self-sufficiency for Zimbabwe. We must
grow seeds that we are
sure of," Mutemererwa says.
Over the past five
years, Zimbabwe has had to cope with a string of poor
harvests of maize,
forcing it to import the grain from South Africa,
Argentina and Brazil among
other countries.
But the promise of achieving food self-sufficiency needs
to be weighed
against the possible negative effects using
GMOs.
Legalising GM crops, for instance, could compromise Zimbabwe's
exports to
the European Union: the country enjoys a preferential arrangement
by which
it can export up to 9,100 tons of GM-free beef to the EU every
year. For
Zimbabwe, which has been facing a severe shortage of foreign
currency, this
export is vital.
No debate but many
views
Although there has been no public debate as yet, there is a wide
range of
views among key Zimbabweans involved in agriculture
policy.
Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa says
Zimbabwe is
suspicious of GMOs, mainly for health reasons.
"We will
not import GMO food. We have not changed policy and will not in the
near
future. Our policy not to import unmilled maize [because GM maize may
be
mixed in and could be planted] is steadfast, and we continue to maintain
it.
It has not been reviewed and the Cabinet has not changed its position,"
says
Mutasa.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Davison Mugabe said
farmers
would support anything as long as it enhanced productivity. "We want
our
scientists to come clear on GMOs, whether they are harmful or not, and
advise us accordingly. We do not want a biased approach," he
says.
Davison Mugabe says he believes transgenic seeds are a major
problem until
proven otherwise, and adds that many others are of the same
view.
Out in the country, farmers too have been weighing the pros and
cons of GMO
crops. Town Chingarande, whose farm is located 500 km west of
Harare, sees
major advantages in planting GM crops, making him a rare voice
on a
continent where the technology has struggled to find
favour.
"They help to increase your yields and reduce your input costs.
If you have
a crop that is resistant to being eaten by pests you don't have
to spend
money on spraying with insecticide," he says.
The main
concern appears to be over environmental contamination. Dr Eddie
Mwenje of
the National University of Science and Technology was recently
quoted in the
press saying: "We have started doing our analysis and results
so far show a
higher possibility of genes being transferred to the natural
environment".
'Caution needed' - Joseph Made
Influential
agriculture Minister Dr Joseph Made says there is need to
exercise caution
in introducing GMOs - the wholesale introduction of GMO
foods, he says,
might cause irreparable damage to crops and soil fertility.
"If we just
introduce GMOs without first carrying out extensive research we
might end up
regretting it. As you know there is no precision in science.
Mistakes might
happen, so we need to introduce them gradually and after
doing serious
research and this is where Africa has been lacking," he says.
"The
researchers should include health personnel, who would come in to look
into
things like allergies and other related issues. Consumers also
determine how
much we should produce - hence the need to be cautious when
tampering with
nature."
"My concern is on the production side - that anything we do with
GMOs should
not destroy our biodiversity," Made says.
There is little
doubt that Zimbabwe and other southern African countries are
being groomed
by industry as potential candidates for GM crops. But there is
uncertainty
over what will follow if these crops are introduced - or if
multinational
corporations wrest control of the seed market.
IOL
March 14 2006 at
02:26PM
Harare - Zimbabwe faces a shortfall of 1,1 million tons of
the
national staple maize this year, the United States' (US) food monitoring
Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) said.
Fewsnet, in
an assessment report received here Tuesday, said the
southern African
country is most likely to harvest 700 000 tons of maize for
the 2005-2006
farming season against an annual consumption of 1,8 million
tons.
"It is still expected that cereal harvest will exceed
last year's
drought-affected harvest," Fewsnet said, pegging this year's
harvest at 700
000 tons.
Zimbabwe's farming season ends in
May.
The report classifies Zimbabwe as a country for "High
Priority-Urgent
Action Required," along with Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya
and Somalia.
"Agricultural preparedness in the country was very
poor and this has
led to failure to take full advantage of good rainfall,
with farmers forced
to plant late and reduce planted areas as a result of
late acquisition or
non-availability of necessary inputs," the report
said.
The US agency also said that the widespread shortage and
high costs
of farming inputs such as seeds, fuel, fertilisers and power had
severely
limited the farming capacity of both small and commercial
farmers.
Zimbabwe is currently in the throes of economic crisis
characterised
by runaway inflation, soaring poverty levels, an unemployment
rate hovering
at over 70 percent and chronic shortages of fuel and basic
goods like
cornmeal.
Over four million Zimbabweans in a
population of 13 million face food
shortages, according to United Nations
agencies.
President Robert Mugabe's government has attributed the
food shortages
to drought, denying that it was a result of its controversial
land reforms
which saw agricultural productivity grinding to a near halt
after some 4 000
white farmers were forcibly removed from their properties
since 2000.
At its peak, the agricultural sector accounted for
about 16,5 percent
of gross domestic product, 33 percent of foreign exchange
earnings and 26
percent of employment, according to finance ministry
figures. - Sapa-AFP
Mail and Guardian
Cape Town, South Africa
14 March 2006
02:32
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is to visit
Zimbabwe
in a further attempt to resolve that country's
problems.
Briefing the media in Cape Town after discussions
with President
Thabo Mbeki, Annan said Zimbabwe had great potential and an
important role
to play on the continent.
The current
situation in the country was extremely difficult for
Zimbabwe itself, the
region, and the world, and had to be resolved, he said.
Annan
was responding to a question about South Africa's policy
of pursuing "quiet
diplomacy" to resolve the problems there.
"We live in an
interdependent world," he said.
There had been a tendency by
African countries not to get
involved in the internal affairs of other
African countries. However, in
this day and age, very few crises remained
internal, and usually soon
affected neighbouring
countries.
Annan said South Africa had done a lot in trying
to help resolve
the crisis in Zimbabwe, and that country's neighbours should
be encouraged
to work with the Zimbabweans to solve their
problems.
He intended to visit Zimbabwe -- not on his current
trip -- but
on a special visit, to "discuss the issues" with the Zimbabwean
authorities.
Because of its history, its potential, and the
important role it
had to play, it was necessary to restore Zimbabwe to the
position it ought
to occupy, Annan said.
He thanked South
Africa, and Mbeki personally, for his efforts
in helping to resolve
conflicts on the African continent, including the
Ivory Coast, Burundi, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, and Darfur in Sudan.
"I have
always been able to count on the president [Mbeki] as a
very reliable
partner," Annan said. -- Sapa
IOL
March 14 2006 at
10:42AM
Three Zimbabweans who got into difficulties in the Limpopo
river while
trying to enter the country illegally have been arrested, police
said on
Tuesday.
"They were trying to swim into South Africa
but got stuck in the
waters. Locals spotted them and called the police. When
divers arrived the
community had already saved them," Superintendent Ailwei
Mushavhanamadi
said.
They were pulled out of the river three
hours after being spotted.
The three were taken to Musina police
station and would be deported on
Tuesday, Mushavhanamadi said. -
Sapa
News24
14/03/2006 12:48 -
(SA)
Harare - Government officials, politicians and their relatives
who seized
houses built for those who lost their homes under Zimbabwean
President
Robert Mugabe's controversial shack demolitions last year are to
have them
taken back, says a cabinet minister on Tuesday.
Ignatius
Chombo, the minister of local government, said "undeserving" people
had been
allocated some of the new homes constructed under the official
Operation
Garikai (Settle and Prosper) scheme, launched in June last year.
Reports
said that people found to have been wrongly allocated houses and
plots
"would have their properties withdrawn".
This was one of the few times a
senior government official had admitted new
homes had been wrongly
acquired.
Undeserving people
Chombo said: "This programme is for
those without residential addresses. We
already have problems in Beitbridge,
Bulawayo, Gwanda and other areas, where
undeserving people have been
allocated the houses."
Chombo was addressing a monitoring team for the
Operation Garikai programme
in Matabeleland North province, in the west of
the country.
The government launched Operation Garikai just weeks after
police began
demolishing tens of thousands of shacks they said had been
built without
official permission.
The United Nations said that at
least 700 000 people lost their homes and
livelihoods in the clean-up,
dubbed Operation Restore Order.
Lack of foreign
currency
Initially, the government said more than a million new houses
and plots
would be established across Zimbabwe in the next four
years.
But, the programme had run into big problems because of Zimbabwe's
chronic
lack of foreign currency as well as vital inputs such as building
materials
and fuel.
Official figures announced last month put the
number of housing units built
so far at 3 000.
Recent reports said
the construction of new homes had all, but stopped and
the authorities were
now merely handing out housing plots.
Chombo said: "Councils should
remove the names of their relatives,
government officials, members of
parliament, politicians and relatives from
the operations waiting
list."
He said the officials had to wait to be allocated housing
plots.
By Tichaona Sibanda
14 March 2006
MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa has said the congress set for this
weekend is the
last platform for members who defected from the party to use
as a
springboard to come back to the fold.
Invitation letters have been
sent out to almost all members who split
from the Tsvangirai camp, but
analysts believe none of them will turn up for
the congress.
Asked what this would mean Chamisa said; 'Their absence is going to be
an
indictment on their part because they would have shown the whole world
that
they are not interested in the struggle for a new Zimbabwe. If they don't
turn up, the train will go full steam ahead. The congress juggernaut has
already started rolling.'
On amendments to the party
constitution the national youth chairman
said it was necessary to revisit
some sections because they had caused a lot
of problems in the past. He said
by amending the constitution it was in the
hope that they will be enhancing
and enriching democratic institutions
within the party.
'What
we are simply doing is to make sure that we don't create
institutions out of
individuals. We already have institutions and systems
that are working in
the party,' said Chamisa.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance
Guma
14 March 2006
The African News Dimension (AND)
network reports that a group of war
veterans shut down a sports club owned
by the National Railways of Zimbabwe
last Friday, for allowing opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai to address a
meeting there earlier in the month.
Tsvangirai was a guest at the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
silver jubilee celebrations and addressed
the gathering at Raylton Sports
Club.
The war veterans are said to have travelled all the way from
Bulawayo
arriving at the club in the morning where they allegedly began
assaulting
patrons. Club manager Norman Ushe was manhandled and beaten up.
The group
had been drinking heavily and shouted obscenities saying
Tsvangirai was a
'dog and should not have been allowed the platform to
speak'. According to
the AND news network 'they started demanding food and
went ahead and looted
the canteen'. The police failed to attend to the
incident despite calls by
worried patrons.
Raylton is a members
only club that groups together mostly NRZ workers
although outsiders are
free to join. The Zimbabwe National army's Major
General Engelbert Rugeje is
reported to be a frequent visitor to the club.
No link has however been
established between his visits and the raid by the
war veterans. Premier
soccer league champions Caps United also use the clubs
facilities.
Last Tarabuku, a projects officer with the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade
Unions, says apart from the raid by the war veterans,
workers at the sports
club are still undergoing continued harassment for
availing the ZCTU of its
facilities. He says the labour body now struggles
to get venues for its
meetings because venue owners are demanding clearance
letters from both the
police and local councils.
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Opposition figure Roy Bennett told IWPR he had no plans to
leave Zimbabwe,
just before police put him on their wanted list in
connection with an
alleged coup plot.
From Jacob Uriri in Mutare (AR
No.56, 14-Mar-06)
Leading Zimbabwean opposition figure Roy Bennett spoke
of his determination
to continue the struggle against President Robert
Mugabe's regime in an
exclusive interview he gave to IWPR shortly before
going to ground last
week.
Zimbabwean police have been looking for
Bennett since early last week, when
eight people including four policemen
were arrested and charged with a plot
to stage armed attacks on the Mugabe
administration. An arms cache was
allegedly found at the home of one of
them.
The group are accused of plotting to kill Mugabe when he travelled
to the
eastern town of Mutare to celebrate his 82nd birthday on February 25,
by
spilling oil on the road to make his motorcade have an
accident.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, of which
Bennett remains
a prominent member, has denied all knowledge of the alleged
plot.
Bennet emerged from prison last year after serving a 12-month jail
sentence
for pushing Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to the ground. It
was a
sentence imposed by the ZANU PF majority in parliament - in which
Bennett
sat as an MDC deputy - rather than by a court of law.
As a
white Zimbabwean farmer, Bennett had already seen his cattle and coffee
landholdings looted and expropriated by soldiers and ZANU PF militants, his
farmhouse burned down, his wife beaten so badly that she lost the baby she
was carrying, two farm workers killed by soldiers and female workers
raped.
Immediately before Bennett was placed on the wanted list for the
alleged
plot against Mugabe, IWPR carried out the last known interview with
him. He
spoke about his stay in the Chikurubi maximum security prison,
outside
Harare, which he said was one of the most gruelling experiences of
his life,
and also about his hopes for the future.
IWPR: It is eight
months since you came out of prison for shoving Patrick
Chinamasa. What you
have been up to since your release?
Bennett: Just trying to survive in
these harsh economic conditions and still
fighting for democracy in this
country. I am still determined to fight for
democracy.
IWPR: But Roy,
you have been quiet since you came out of prison Are you
still actively
involved in politics?
Bennett: Yes, in fact I was elected the [MDC]
chairman for Manicaland
province. And that is how I am fighting our struggle
for democracy. The
struggle against this regime is just
beginning.
IWPR: But the MDC, of which you are a member, has split. In
which faction do
you hold that position of chairman?
Bennett: I am
the chairman of MDC, the party, and not a faction. There are
no factions in
Manicaland. Here it's "MDC, the party". I am leading people
towards
democracy and not towards a faction. [The MDC split late last year
on the
issue of whether or not to contest elections to a controversial new
upper
house of parliament. Bennett remains loyal to MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai
who was against fighting the Senate election.]
IWPR: Can you tell us what
was going on through your mind when you were in
prison and what the
conditions were like there?
Bennett: It was terrible. The conditions are
terrible. It's a terrible life
that those prisoners are living there. It's
totally inhuman.
IWPR: What kind of people did you meet
there?
Bennett: I met both hardcore and petty criminals. But what really
struck me
were the petty thieves who were locked up for months for stealing
chickens
and even groundnuts. Most of these people were below 25 years of
age. And
that told me that there was something terribly wrong about this
system.
IWPR: So what does that indicate to you?
Bennett: It shows
me that all these boys in jail were trying to survive.
They were pushed to
do criminal activities because of the economic collapse.
They were jobless
and they were trying to survive. It is government policies
that destroyed
this economy.
IWPR: And the conditions in jail?
Bennett: Well they
kept on changing me, but sometimes I was with as many as
50 people in one
cell. It was so crowded that you can't sleep on your back.
You have to sleep
on your side because there is no space. The ablution
systems have broken
down. The food is even worse.
IWPR: Did that break your
spirit?
Bennett: No, because I knew this was part of the struggle for
democracy.
IWPR: Before you were sent to prison, the government had
already started
moving on you at your Charleswood Farm. Can you tell us more
about that?
Bennett: The government had already taken over my farm
through the army. I
was chased out of my farm and left with nothing except
the clothes I was
wearing. They took everything that I had. Everything that
I have worked for,
for years. They harvested my 70 tonnes of standing
coffee. They took my 170
head of cattle and 300 sheep. They also took over
my Export Processing Zone
factory with its state-of-the-art coffee milling
plant.
IWPR: The government is now giving slight hints that it might
compensate
commercial farmers who lost their land in President Mugabe's
so-called land
reform programme. Were you given anything?
Bennett:
They took everything and they never paid a cent for it. Now the
army has
moved out and given the farm to Arda (a government-owned
agriculture
company) to run it. Arda is busy slaughtering my cattle and
sheep and taking
the money. There is complete lawlessness in this country.
IWPR: Did you
seek redress in the court?
Bennett: Yes I did, and the court said it was
an urgent matter. There were
eight judgments in my favour and Mugabe simply
overrode every one of them.
Only last week, Arda took 21 head of cattle and
60 sheep for slaughter at
the Surrey Abattoirs. But I now understand that,
after realising that we
have gone to court, they took the animals back to
another farm in
Chimanimani, not my own.
IWPR: So retribution has
continued?
Bennett: Yes. I am suffering for pushing Chinamasa who, as you
know, had
provoked me. They are still punishing me for that.
IWPR:
Have you ever considered leaving Zimbabwe, as other white farmers are
doing?
Bennett: No, the battle is here. I will stay and fight it out
in Zimbabwe.
We need to fight this regime.
Jacob Uriri is a pseudonym
for a journalist in Zimbabwe.
March 14, 2006
By Tagu
Mkwenyani
Harare (AND)ARTHUR Mutambara, the president of the
pro-senate faction
of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
has started firing
broadsides at his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai who is the
president of the anti
senate faction.
Analysts say Mutambara
might be spoiling for a political fight with
Tsvangirai who remains the
greatest threat to his plan to lead a united
opposition party that will take
President Mugabe head on. Tsvangirai remains
very popular with the
grassroots and analysts say Mutambara will have to do
much to convince
ordinary Zimbabwe that he is better than Tsvangirai.
Mutambara's tirades
come a few days before Tsvangirai's camp holds its own
congress during the
weekend.
Over 10 000 delegates are expected to attend the congress
where
Tsvangirai is expected to be re-elected unopposed. Key stakeholders
such as
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) are expected to endorse
Tsvangirai publicly as the geniune leader of the opposition Movement in
Harare. Meeting provincial leaders of his faction on Sunday, Mutambara hit
out at Tsvangirai saying he was a dictator who needed to repent. "We are
not-pro Senate, but pro-Zimbabwe.
The dispute we have with
Tsvangirai is because we do not want those
who use violence on opponents.
They are our friends, but we do not want
those that breach the party's
constitution with impunity. "They must repent,
be punished and join the
party as followers. We don't want dictators. We
want democracy, democracy
and democracy," Mutambara was quoted as saying by
a Zimbabwe daily paper,
The Mirror. The paper said Mutambara also fired a
broadside at Tsvangirai.
"If Tsvangirai wants to be president of Zimbabwe,
he should come through
Mutambara, after competing with me.
When I said he was my hero I
didn't mean that I was scared of him."
Although Tsvangirai has not yet
responded to the taunts, his aides said he
is likely to hit back at the
congress after re-election. "After getting the
mandate from the congress,
President Tsvangirai will speak about pretenders
to the throne. He will
certainly tell Mutambara to shut up," said an aide.
AND
Zimbabwe