COMMERCIAL
FARMERS' UNION
Farm
Invasions And Security Report
Friday 10
May 2002
This report does not
purport to cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial
farming areas. Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers
from reporting all that happens. Farmers names, and in some cases farm names,
are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisals.
NATIONAL REPORT IN
BRIEF
· Marondera North
reported five farmers received Section 8 orders.
· Raffingora - There
was trouble at Marasha Farm with a Lt. Colonel pressurizing the owner for a
homestead and pumps to be returned to the dam ready for wheat
operation.
· On Caskey Farm,
Selous, 56 snares were picked up in a single day on this wildlife operation.
Wire was stolen from fence lines, to fence in the riverbank cultivation taking
place, which is also preventing wildlife from accessing
water.
· Nobody in Kadoma is
allowed to plant wheat even though farmers are constantly visiting with DA's,
PA's, Governors, "war vets" and other politicians to negotiate a way
forward.
· The Kayansee Ranch
owner, in Mwenezi, went to investigate the removal of belts and a crank handle
from a water pump engine. At the scene,
a "war vet" attacked him, attempting to stab him with a knife. Fellow settlers restrained the attacked
before he could inflict injury.
· Chief Gutu from
Gutu/Chatsworth visited at least five properties, telling the owners to move
off.
REGIONAL
NEWS
MANICALAND
Nothing to report – everything very
quiet.
MASHONALAND
CENTRAL
No
report received.
MASHONALAND
EAST
Harare South - Another farmer was
evicted and had to hand over his keys to the settlers. Labour on another farm
was threatened with eviction as the owner of this farm is currently away. Other
farmers are threatened with eviction.
Marondera North - Pegging reported on one
farm, and huts built on another farm. It was reported Section 8 orders were
received by five farmers.
Wedza - Police arrived at one farm
looking for a tractor belonging to another farmer. One owner, who had Zimstock
Sales weighing cattle, was told he had to be off in 30 minutes. This was later extended to two and he is in
the process of moving. Another farmer who has already conceded three of his
farms to Government on the understanding one of his farms would be delisted was
forced off his property and is in the process of moving.
MASHONALAND WEST
(NORTH)
Raffingora - Alan Grange last report has the
owner waiting for Lands Committee to visit the farm. At Mafuta Farm DDF tractors prepared a little
bit of land for wheat. The owner is
still off farm trying to negotiate a portion for himself. Chiwe reports New Assistant Inspector
(ex-Macheke) Chiwanza, second in charge at Mutorashanga, was quite helpful in
providing a Police escort to recover the farm motorbike. The tractor and trailer are still outstanding
together with the butchery equipment.
Negotiations still continue via Chinhoyi. At Raffingora Estates and Manga Farm it is
much quieter, with work ongoing on the seed maize. The owner is still off farm, and not happy to
come back and negotiate with the settlers at present. The Minihaha owner came back on Tuesday
hoping to remove his belongings from the house. The Police were very unhelpful
and advised he went nowhere near the farm.
Despite numerous phone calls to D.A. Temba, and Chief Land Officer Nduku
they all palmed him off referring him to Governor Chanetsa. He has not contacted the latter. The A2 settlers are making themselves more
permanent. There was trouble at Marasha
Farm with a Lt. Colonel pressurizing the owner for a homestead and pumps to be
returned to the dam ready for wheat operation.
Agritex is pegging Dalston Estate despite a wheat crop being sown. The owner was also told to speak to Governor
Chanetsa. The FA Chairman has heard negotiations for wheat continue, but some
farmers have had Section 8’s delivered after the negotiations. Theft in the
district continues at an alarming rate: affected are irrigation equipment, in
particular brass hydrant spindles, maize, soya beans and bananas.
MASHONALAND WEST
(SOUTH)
Norton - The situation
on the Porta Road continues with majority of farmers still not allowed to return
to their houses. On Gowrie Farm, Sabina Mugabe is busy ploughing and the
murdered Terry Ford’s equipment was commandeered for this. His son is having
great difficulty taking livestock off the property. It is clear from the local
authorities there is no authority for the perpetrators of these illegal
evictions to continue but police appear powerless to upset the plans of these
criminals. Property developers from the Rutimo group also appear to be wanting
to develop stands on these farms, some of which are not even listed for
acquisition.
Selous - On Caskey Farm, 56 snares
were picked up in a single day on this wildlife operation. Wire was stolen from
fence lines, to fence in the riverbank cultivation taking place, which is also
preventing wildlife from accessing water. On Mt Carmel, Agritex peggers stole
oranges and told the owner that as it was now state land they were allowed to
take what they liked. On Spencer one hopeful settler with his free inputs has
planted some wheat on a ridge over 1 km away from the nearest water!
Suri Suri - On Kufaro
settlers demanded a shed and the owner had to remove all his cattle and
tobacco. On Lourie there is an illegal strike.
Chakari - Nobody is allowed to grow
wheat. On Chevy Chase, which is not listed, the owner did manage to plough some
land but is now stopped from planting.
Kadoma - Nobody is
allowed to plant wheat even though farmers are constantly visiting with DA's,
PA's, Governors, "war vets" and other politicians to negotiate a way forward.
Although there was a positive meeting at the beginning of the week, the DA has
now said that it is up to each farmer to negotiate with the people who have been
given the irrigation lands.
Battlefields - It
appears that maybe one farmer will be allowed to grow some wheat. On Twintops,
which is a single owned Wildlife and irrigation property, settlers have killed
130 zebra so far through snares. The zebras are just left to rot because they
do not like the meat. 74 sable and approximately 300 wildebeest have also been
poached. In the last month alone the owner has had to spend ZW$ 450, 000
darting buffalo to take the snares off them.
General - No land prep
for tobacco is taking place on the vast majority of farms and only a few farms
are allowed to grow wheat, but the banks are requiring letters by DA's or
Governors particularly where farmers have Section 8's. The DA's and the
Governor are not issuing these letters of comfort at this time.
MASVINGO
Masvingo East and Central – Springfield’s
Farm, Sangokwe Farm, Elandskop Farm, Midrivers Farm all received Section
8s.
Chiredzi – Several properties belonging to
the Sugar Cane Growers’ Association received Section 7 Notices. Ongoing poaching, snaring, wire theft,
ploughing, tree-felling movement of people and cattle continue.
Mwenezi – Lot 21 reports five settlers were
delivered by an Agritex vehicle on 04.05.02.
The complainant, a "war vet", never came to court in a case in which the
owner allegedly assaulted him. The
police now wish to arrest the complainant.
At Kleinbegin Ranch the Veterinary Department organised for an FMD
inspection. The owner suggested the
S/AHI Beitbridge start by inspecting the settlers’ cattle, after which he would
take him around to his cattle. The S/AHI
drove out past the homestead after supposedly inspecting settler cattle, because
they had not been rounded up. The owner
then ordered his cattle released. The
Kayansee Ranch owner went to investigate the removal of belts and a crank handle
from a water pump engine. At the scene,
a "war vet" attacked him, attempting to stab him with a knife. Fellow settlers restrained the attacked
before he could inflict injury. Fires in
this area are starting up with a vengeance.
All the usual criminal activities continue unabated.
Save Conservancy – ongoing
poaching.
Gutu/Chatsworth – a Government vehicle
registration GAGL029 was seen visiting the properties mentioned in this
section. A Miss Hungwe from the District
Lands Committee was present, with twenty other people said to have been from the
Lands Department, Masvingo. Chomfuli
Farm was visited by Chief Gutu and the owner told to move off as soon as
possible. This farm received a Section
8. The Endama Ranch owner was visited by
Chief Gutu and told to move off. The
Claire Farm owner no longer resides on farm.
Settlers broke into the homestead and have taken up residence. Settlers broke into the Thornhill Farm
homestead and moved in. The Blyth Hill
owner was visited by Chief Gutu and told to move off and leave all assets. The Felixburg Farm was also visited by Chief
Gutu and told to move off. The Irvine A
owner received a Section 8.
MIDLANDS
No report received.
MATABELELAND
No
report received.
aisd1@cfu.co.zw
Visit the CFU Website www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
Zim Independent
Mugabe turns on white allies
Vincent Kahiya/Augustine
Mukaro
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has turned on his white supporters and
approved the
listing of their farms for acquisition as he enters the final
phase of his
contentious land reform exercise.
The Zimbabwe
Independent this week learnt that long-time Mugabe ally John
Bredenkamp's 1
300-hectare, $1,75 billion Thetford estate in the Mazowe
valley 35km north of
Harare has been listed for compulsory acquisition.
Farms owned by
commercial farmers who last year thought they had brokered
deals to save
their properties from acquisition have also been listed.
Bredenkamp
(62), the country's richest businessman with a fortune of 720
million pounds,
is said to have close links with President Mugabe and Zanu
PF. He last year
employed his political clout to convince politicians to
accept the farmers'
offer of an organised resettlement programme as an
alternative to the
fast-track scheme.
Bredenkamp and former Commercial Farmers Union
president Nick Swanepoel last
year emerged as central brokers in finding
middle ground between the farmers
and the government, by putting together the
Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement
Initiative.
Swanepoel's Avalon Farm in
Mashonaland West has now been listed for
compulsory acquisition. Pegging was
underway at the farm this week.
Bredenkamp reportedly financed the
drive by Swanepoel to persuade the
farmers' union to accept the loss of
nearly half its members' land.
Swanepoel, for his part, laboured to convince
white farmers to drop all
legal cases objecting to Mugabe's fast track land
seizures.
A spokesman for Bredenkamp yesterday confirmed that
Thetford had been
listed.
"The farm is currently listed," he
said.
"There have been a couple of times when there have been
misunderstandings
with invaders but there is no-one on the farm at the
moment," he said.
Bredenkamp bought the farm from the Gulliver family
in 1999 after obtaining
a certificate of no interest from the government. In
September 2000 the farm
received a Section 5 order which was withdrawn in
October of that year after
representations from Bredenkamp that the farm did
not qualify for
resettlement because it was highly industrialised and had
large investments
on it.
On March 22 the farm was again listed and
since then war veterans have been
disrupting operations at the farm,
sponsoring industrial action last month.
Out of the 1 300 hectares,
40 hectares are arable and the rest is used as a
game park. Bredenkamp is
understood to be leasing a farm next to Thetford,
growing flowers. The farm,
which employs 500 people, also boasts a little
suburb for the workers with
tarred roads and running water.
There is a large volume dam and
state-of-the-art drip irrigation facilities
together with glass houses. The
key landmark on the property is Bredenkamp's
splendid residence, Thetford
House, once a hotel with an ante-bellum
portico, which enjoys a commanding
view over the Mazowe Valley.
Bredenkamp is listed 33rd in the London
Sunday Times' "Rich List" of Britain
and Ireland's top 1 000 monied
people.
Daily News - Leader Page
Who is afraid of Joseph Chinotimba?
Everybody
5/9/02 11:41:19 AM (GMT +2)
THE
political spinelessness of most Zimbabwean politicians and their
followers
has been on graphic display with the continuing saga of
Joseph
Chinotimba.
This one-time Harare municipal
security guard boasted, at the height
of the 2000 commercial farm invasions,
that he was the B3commander of the
invasionsB2. With his then superior, the
late Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, they
launched this violent campaign to remove
commercial farmers from their
properties, to the loud and enthusiastic
applause of President MugabeB9s
government.
A number of
people, some of them farmers, others farm workers and
still others ordinary
citizens trying to go about their normal innocent
business, were killed. At
least one off-duty policeman was murdered in cold
blood.
Many
women were raped and many others maimed in a campaign that
ensured Zanu PF
won the 2000 parliamentary election in the rural and farming
areas, which h
became B3no-goB2 areas for the opposition parties and anyone
else who thought
as free citizens they could go anywhere in their own free
country and be
safe.
Next to Hunzvi, taken out by Mother Nature long after he had
done his
dirty work for his party, Chinotimba was the most high-profile war
veteran
during the campaign and long after it.
He became heavily
involved in the company invasions that followed the
election, which led to
his emergence as a bizarre trade unionist, ostensibly
fighting tooth and nail
for the rights of all workers. There were stories of
extortion, but
Chinotimba was never brought into court on any such charges.
Meanwhile, he continued to be on the payroll of the Harare City
Council. This
was amazing after he was allegedly involved in the assault of
council
officials, one of whom had to take time off work because of the
seriousness
of her injuries.
No charges were brought against him, although he was
hauled into court
for the alleged shooting of an MDC member, a woman living
in the same suburb
as Chinotimba.
Still, he remained on the
payroll of the council, now promoted to the
rarefied position of a senior
inspector of the municipal police.
He is a favourite with ZBC-TV,
which is not saying much, considering
how puerile the network became shortly
after the hapless Alum Mpofu took
over.
How do the residents of
Harare react to the accusation that they are
absolutely spineless for letting
this man continue to be paid out of their
budget while he, early in his
career, led a violent campaign in which people
were killed, then another
campaign against companies in Harare, some of
which had their chief executive
officers roughed up by war veterans and were
the victims of
extortion?
Today, the MDC-dominated city council is pussy-footing,
showing the
same lack of spunk as it fails to act decisively to remove this
man from its
payroll and ending a period of acute humiliation for all
Zimbabweans.
What would have happened if Hunzvi had not been taken
out by Nature?
Where would he be now? Commentators, both foreign and local,
have expressed
amazement at the Zimbabwean capacity for tolerance. They are
so slow to
anger and outrage they seem to have made a virtue out of
spinelessness.
There are very few countries in the world where a
council security
guard could have abused his position for so long
and
benefited so immensely.
The truth is, of course, that
he, Hunzvi and their followers prospered
because the rule of law in Zimbabwe
had been suspended as far as their
activities were concerned. They had become
a law unto themselves.
The world watched and was outraged. The
Commonwealth, the European
Union and the United States watched and decided
they could not support such
a government, in which a presidential election
campaign featured people like
Chinotimba.
If the new council can
remove this man from the payroll, in spite of
the resistance of his mentors
in government, they will have shown more spunk
than the entire government and
population of Zimbabwe.
Daily News
1 300 evicted farm workers meet to discuss their
future
5/9/02 12:14:02 PM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
THE 1 300 evicted workers of Rainham Farm in Dzivaresekwa
Extension on
Tuesday met to discuss their future following their summary
dismissal from
the farm by Zanu PF supporters.
The farm manager,
Ian Nakomo, yesterday said the stranded workers
discussed their predicament
at the meeting, where most of them expressed the
hope that sanity would
prevail and the government would allow them to to get
back to the farm and at
least harvest their crop.
"We do not know what is going to happen
and some of the workers have
nowhere to go," he said.
The
invaders were led by a woman identified only as Mai Zvikaramba,
who has taken
over the farmhouse with her children. The other invaders have
occupied four
other houses on the farm.
The story of the Rainham invasion has led
to the arrest of Pius
Wakatama, a columnist of The Daily News.
The police accused Wakatama, who was later released, of publishing
falsehoods
when he referred to the invasion in his column last Saturday.
Nakomo, said the workers were only given $2 000 each and had nowhere
to turn
to after their summary dismissal.
"These invaders have seriously
affected our means of livelihood."
Nakomo said he was "running
around" trying to find school places for
his children and many of them were
facing similar problem.
He said some of the evicted workers,
especially the pensioners, were
being kept by a neighbouring farmer at
Ducrona Farm.
"The harvesting of a 208-hectare soya bean crop was
long overdue and
the farm would have realised in excess of $70 million," said
Nakomo.
Two factions of so-called war veterans have clashed over
the invasion
of Rainham Farm.
The other faction, led by Never
Kowo whose group is camped at a
beerhall in
Dzivaresekwa 5
Extension, wants the farm workers left on the farm or
to be allowed to remove
their property.
Nakomo said on Tuesday some of the evicted workers
had sought
accommodation in the cabins of some houses in the suburb. He said
they were
likely to be evicted soon.
He said two senior Zanu PF
politicians were behind Zvikaramba's
actions.
Daily News
Nabanyama: war vets face murder charges
5/9/02 12:13:28 PM (GMT +2)
From Chris Gande in
Bulawayo
Nine war veterans accused of the abduction of an MDC
polling agent,
Patrick Nabanyama, in June 2000 will now face murder charges
when their case
is heard, after the opening of the High Court in Bulawayo on
26 May.
According to documents at the High Court, the nine
will face murder
instead of the kidnapping charges preferred against them
earlier.
They are Jackson Ncube, Ephraim Moyo, Frackson Ndlovu,
Aleck Moyo,
Stanley Ncube, Ngoni Dube, Julius Sibanda, Howard Ncube and Simon
Rwazi.
Nabanyama, the polling agent in Bulawayo South for
opposition MDC's
David Coltart in the run-up to the parliamentary election in
2000, was
abducted from his house in Nketa suburb on 19 June in broad
daylight and in
full view of his wife and children.
Coltart went
on to win the seat resoundingly.
On 21 December 2000, two of the 10
men suspected of the abduction
walked free after they were acquitted of
kidnapping another person, Welcome
Makama.
The prosecutor
withdrew the second charges against them in line with a
Presidential clemency
order.
In January last year, the docket relating to the Nabanyama
case
disappeared after it had been sent to the Attorney General's Office in
June
2000 for a decision on whether or not to prosecute. Lawyers said without
the
docket the case would be "a non-event".
The docket was
eventually found and the nine have been remanded on
more than five
occasions.
The then Bulawayo provincial chairman of the Zimbabwe
National
Liberation War Veterans' Association, the late Cain Nkala, who was
buried at
the National Heroes' Acre in Harare, was one of the
suspects.
Nkala was abducted and killed in November last
year.
The police immediately arrested nine people Sony Masera, Army
Zulu,
Simon Spooner, Remember Moyo, Khethani Sibanda, Sazini Mpofu, Gilbert
Mpofu
and two MDC MPs, Moses Mzila of Bulilimamangwe and Fletcher Dulini
of
Lobengula-Magwegwe.
Daily News
Teachers forced to pay protection fee
5/9/02 11:09:03 AM (GMT +2)
From Brian Mangwende in
Mutare
ZANU PF youths and war veterans forced 107 503 teachers
throughout the
country to pay them money running possibly into millions of
dollars in
protection fees between February 2001 and April 2002, a report
released by
the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
says.
The report says 20 994 teachers countrywide were kidnapped
and later
released, 15 659 either assaulted or harassed, 14 442 displaced by
political
violence, while 4 926 received death threats.
The
amount of money paid by the teachers varied from one area to
another and was
meant to ensure they would not be harassed by the war
veterans and Zanu PF
supporters.
Takavafira Zhou, PTUZ's president, said yesterday
Mashonaland Central
province had the highest number of extortions, with about
32 120 teachers
forced to pay money to the war veterans. It was followed by
Mashonaland East
with 24 217 and Mashonaland West with 20 171
victims.
Zhou said: "Thousands of teachers have paid and continue
to pay
protection fees to war veterans and Zanu PF youths, while many have
had
their properties burnt and looted. PTUZ unreservedly and
unequivocally
condemns the brutalisation of teachers throughout the country,
long after
the presidential election. We fail to understand why a party which
claims to
have won the election would continue to unleash terror on
defenceless
teachers."
Winnie Chirimamhunga, the Ministry of
Education, Sport and Culture's
regional director, denied any knowledge of the
racket.
"Our records show no such thing," she said. "We have not
received
reports to that effect. I am hearing it from you for the first
time.
Definitely, I will investigate and get to the bottom of the
allegations."
But Zhou insisted: "Teachers have come to regional
education offices,
particularly in Mashonaland Central, East and Manicaland,
not knowing their
fate after being dismissed by war veterans and Zanu PF
youths from their
schools. Twenty teachers have been murdered in cold blood
since February
2000, while thousands have been tortured, brutalised,
terrorised, raped and
dismissed from their jobs."
In Manicaland,
he said, 15 720 teachers were forced to pay protection
fees.
Masvingo had 5 124, Midlands 6 276, Matabeleland North and South 2 666
and 1
777 respectively, Bulawayo 32 and Harare six reported cases
of
extortion.
War veterans and Zanu PF youths have been on the
warpath against
teachers since Zanu PF lost 57 of its seats in the June 2000
parliamentary
election.
Zanu PF activists have accused their
victims of backing the MDC, which
President Mugabe says is funded by the
British government.
Zhou said 4 221 teachers lost their property
after their houses were
set on fire by war veterans and Zanu PF youths, 1 755
were unlawfully
arrested, 1 535 listed for retribution, 958 almost killed,
190 raped and 20
murdered since February 2001 to
date.
Zim Independent
Govt pays Ben-Menashe US$400 000 for lobbying
Dumisani
Muleya
GOVERNMENT has paid US$400 000 to Canadian publicist Ari Ben-Menashe
to
revamp and promote its battered image abroad, according to a United
States
public relations firm, O'Dwyer' PR Daily.
Ben-Menashe has so
far received US$400 000 through Dickens & Madson due to
heavy
travel-related expenses, the online PR company claims. The contract
which is
awaiting an upward review was initially worth US$225 000.
Ben-Menashe
has been touted as the state' star witness in an alleged
assassination plot
against President Robert Mugabe by opposition Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The controversial
lobbyist, who has been
involved in a series of international scandals,
signed the deal with the
government in January.
"Dickens & Madson (Canada), the firm that
spread news of an alleged
assassination plot against Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe, has a contract
worth US$225 000 from his government," O'Dwyer'
PR Daily said.
"The firm has received US$400 000 from Zimbabwe due to
heavy travel-related
expenses, says its president Ari Ben-Menashe. The
parties have not as yet
issued formal amendments to the
contract."
The US firm said the deal includes a provision for a US$20
000 bonus, if by
the end of the year: "Zimbabwe is generally perceived
internationally as
being a peace-loving and progressive member of the
international community.
The pariah state label currently attached to
Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe
government should have disappeared and one measure
of success would be that
Zimbabwe would have become eligible and acceded to
the United States Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) by the end of the
contract for the bonus
to be payable."
Former US president Bill
Clinton booted Zimbabwe out of Agoa - which offers
developing nations
preferential access to US markets - in October 2000 due
to lawlessness,
violence, land seizures and repression. Other countries that
were not
included were the DRC, Angola, Burundi, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan,
Sierra
Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic
and
Swaziland.
Dickens & Madson registered in March in the US to
promote Zimbabwe' image.
Ben-Menashe recently confirmed this to the Zimbabwe
Independent.
O'Dwyer' PR Daily said: "Dickens & Madson (Canada)
Inc, 310 Victoria, #204,
Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3Z 2M9,
registered March 14, 2002 for
the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe,
President' Department, Harare,
Zimbabwe, regarding meeting with government
officials and members of the
press in various nations."
Zimbabwe
is also said to have recently paid US PR firm Cohen & Woods US$5
million.
Cohen & Woods has a US$200 000 contract with the DRC government.
The
company also does work for Angola, Niger and Burkina Faso. It
collected
US$700 000 from the five countries in the last six
months.
Other African governments that have engaged US PR companies
include Malawi,
Liberia, and Eritrea.
Malawi, which endorsed
Mugabe' disputed re-election, is paying former US
senate majority leader Bob
Dole' VLMM & H US$300 000 annually. The same firm
is working for
Afghanistan and Montenegro.
ZIMBABWE: Stock market goes boom, economy goes bust
JOHANNESBURG, 9 May
(IRIN) - Zimbabwe's stock market could experience a mini boom, but for all the
wrong reasons, analysts told IRIN.
Harare's Financial Gazette reported
speculation that the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) would experience "a mini
bull-run in the coming month as edgy investors move back into equities [shares]
after jittery trading in the first four months of the year".
Market
analyst George Glynos, of Standard and Poor's Money Market Service in
Johannesburg, said a bull-run occurred when the investing community started to
buy back into the stock market creating an "upward thrust in share
prices".
Independent market analyst Raymond Brand told IRIN the ZSE's
"mini boom" was being fed by local investors with precious few investment
options.
He said: "There are a number of reasons for the investment in
shares, one of which is there's little else to invest in. People or companies
who have spare cash, have nowhere to put it. That has led to a mini boom on the
exchange, even though the country appears to be going downhill fast. It's mostly
Zimbabwean investors, with the uncertainties around the exchange rate, it's not
really a market foreigners want to invest in.
"It also looks as though
the government may depreciate the Zimbabwe dollar in the near future. On the
grey market the exchange rate is about ZW $300 to one US dollar, whereas the
official rate of exchange is ZW $55 to US $1. Foreigners do not want that kind
of currency depreciation risk," he added.
He said the shortage of foreign
exchange in the country forced Zimbabwean investors to put their money in the
ZSE.
The Financial Gazette reported that "the main industrial index on
the ZSE last week breached the 50,000 point psychological barrier for the first
time since September 7 2001, leaving most analysts speculating that the ZSE is
headed for a mini bull-run".
However, Brand pointed out, this was almost
a no-win situation. With the ZSE being the only place to put money investors who
held stock were not selling because they could not take their money out of the
country.
"At the moment [investors] will take anything that's going, but
there are no sellers because where do the sellers then put their money. It's
almost impossible to get money out of the country, unless you can buy foreign
currency on the grey market at exorbitant premiums. With inflation being the way
it is you do not want to invest in fixed interest securities either," he
said.
ZIMBABWE: Rights groups slam Mugabe's visit to the US
JOHANNESBURG, 10
May (IRIN) - A leading Zimababwean human rights organisation on Friday slammed
the US government's decision to allow President Robert Mugabe to attend the UN
Special Session on Children in New York.
ZimRights programme manager,
David Jamali, told IRIN: "Mugabe's visit to the US makes a complete mockery of
the travel ban they placed on him. What America has shown by this kind of
leniency, is that they really aren't serious about the deteriorating situation
in the country."
The US slapped a travel ban on Mugabe and members of his
inner circle in February because of their alleged support for lawlessness and
refusal to hold a free and fair presidential ballot. The ban includes people
who, through their business dealings, benefit from the policies of the
government in Harare.
According to news reports, while Mugabe was
allowed into the US he would be restricted to the UN headquarters.
On
Thursday The Zimbabwe Financial Gazette reported: "If for example he wants to go
to San Francisco, even for shopping or sightseeing, that visa will not allow him
that latitude."
Bruce Wharton, the US embassy spokesman in Harare told
IRIN: "President Mugabe is a guest of the UN and not the American government.
While he has been allowed to travel to the States, our policy toward the
president has not changed. The travel ban was put in place as a direct result of
the breakdown of the rule of law and the fundamentally flawed
elections."
Wharton refused to comment on the technicalities of Mugabe's
visa saying: "I am not at liberty to discuss specific visa cases."
But
Mugabe's presence in New York has shocked and angered opposition leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, who in a statement said: "We are left wondering what message Mugabe
can possibly have for the children worldwide when his illegitimate government in
Zimbabwe is a living example of how not to treat children.
"The party he
leads has set up militia bases countrywide where people with a different opinion
to ZANU-PF are abducted and tortured. Most of the people in these camps are
youngsters below the age of 20 who are being trained to brutalise their fellow
Zimbabweans."
Political analysts were not surprised that Mugabe had
managed to beat the travel ban.
"Mugabe is obviously trying to test the
limitations of the travel ban. He also wants to show his detractors that he
still has the ability to connect with other political players on an
international platform. The decision of the US government, however, throws into
question their sincerity in dealing with the Zimbabwean government," political
science researcher at the Johannesburg-based Africa Institute, Winston Meso,
told IRIN.
This would be the first time that Mugabe would be subjected to
restrictions under the travel ban. His case has reopened the debate on the
effectiveness of targeted sanctions against Zimababwe's ruling elite.
Nel
Marais, a political analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria
said: "Targeted sanctions are practically unenforceable. While western
governments, in Zimbabwe's case, are able to identify and monitor the overseas
bank accounts of government officials, they have no power to freeze their
accounts, unless they can prove without a doubt that the money in those accounts
is linked to criminal activity.
"This would take years. The kind of
punitive measures taken against Mugabe and his cabinet is unlikely to have any
real effect on the government's policies. If anything, the government seems to
have hit back at the international community by coming down harder on its own
people."
He claimed that Mugabe had "never been preoccupied" with
children's rights prior to this summit.
"Therefore it is safe to assume
that he saw New York as the perfect opportunity to dialogue with a number of
people he felt may be able to support him," Marais said.
Meanwhile, the
state-run newspaper, The Herald, reported on Friday that Mugabe held talks with
Zambian President and chairman of the Southern Africa Development Community Levy
Mwanawasa on the sidelines of the summit. Mugabe is also expected to meet with
Mozambican President Joacquim Chissano.
Zim Independent
Tsvanagirai queries Mugabe' role at UN
conference
Blessing Zulu
THE rift between the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and the
ruling Zanu PF party continues to widen with
the MDC again questioning
President Robert Mugabe' legitimacy as leader of
the nation.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in a press statement, expressed
shock at
Mugabe' presence at the United Nations Children's Conference in New
York.
"We are left wondering what message Mugabe can possibly have
for the
children worldwide when his illegitimate government in Zimbabwe is a
living
example of how not to treat children," said
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai took a swipe at the Zanu PF leader for his
terror campaign.
"The party that he leads has set up militia bases
countrywide where people
with a different opinion to Zanu PF' are abducted
and tortured. Most of the
people in these camps are youngsters below the age
of 20 who are being
trained to brutalise their fellow Zimbabweans," said
Tsvangirai.
He also blamed Mugabe' policies for displacing farm
workers and their
children. He said Mugabe was responsible for the collapse
of the health
delivery system and the once vibrant
economy.
Tsvangirai called upon the international community to snub
Mugabe.
"Those who genuinely believe in human rights, and indeed
children' rights
have a duty to say no to Mugabe' violence. He must be told
in no uncertain
terms to disband Zanu PF militia camps and stop the violence
in Zimbabwe,"
he said.
In another statement, MDC chief whip
Innocent Gonese said the MDC did not
recognise Mugabe'
leadership.
"MDC parliamentarians reject the poll outcome and do not
recognise Robert
Mugabe and his cabinet as the government of Zimbabwe," said
Gonese.
"The sitting ministers who are purporting to execute
executive functions are
illegitimate because Zimbabwe' real cabinet ministers
are yet to be
appointed by the new legitimate President of the Republic of
Zimbabwe."
Gonese said his party was however not going to boycott
parliament.
"MDC members of parliament will, however, continue to
attend parliament and
their presence in parliament does not in any way imply
tacit recognition of
the flawed presidential election outcome and the
consequent illegitimacy of
the current regime," he said.
Gonese
said the executive was now transforming itself into a
fully-fledged
dictatorship.
"We should however point out that this
violent dictatorship shall and indeed
should remain isolated for as long as
it continues to stand by its daylight
theft of elections," he
said.
Gonese said the MDC were now focusing their energies on calling
for fresh
elections under free and fair conditions.
The prospects
of a government of national unity are now remote as Zanu PF
has flatly
rejected an election re-run.
ZAMBIA-ZIMBABWE: Little hope of lost maize millions being
repaid
JOHANNESBURG, 10 May (IRIN) - Ari Ben-Menashe, the man at the
centre of Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's treason case, has been
ordered to repay millions of dollars to the Zambian goverment in a maize deal
gone wrong, the Financial Gazette reported.
However, the Zambian
government is unlikely to see the US $6 million plus interest the London Court
of International Arbitration (LCIA) ordered repaid after as Ben-Menashe's
Carlington Sales Company, which was contracted to supply 50,000 mt of maize in
the late 90's, has been liquidated.
Ben-Menashe's name hit headlines this
year when Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai and two others
were arrested for allegedly plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai
met Ben-Menashe with a view to hiring his public relations company Dickens and
Madson to improve the MDC's image abroad. He was then secretly filmed saying he
wanted to "eliminate" Mugabe, leading to the treason charges.
The
Financial Gazette reported that the 50,000 mt of maize was never delivered.
South African bank Nedcor, acting on behalf of the Zambian government asked the
court to get the money back.
However, despite the positive judgment,
Willem Kruger, Nedcor's head for legal affairs said: "We are unable to effect
our rights in terms of the arbitration because Carlington has liquidated
itself."
The maize scandal goes back to 1997 when the government decided
to buy 100,000 mt of maize through the Canadian based Carlington Sales Company
at a price lower than the Zambian price. Ten percent of the final price of US
$24 million was forwarded by the Bank of Zambia to cover shipping costs but the
maize never arrived. The contract was renegotiated several times as the Zambian
government battled to raise the money. Eventually US $5.24 was paid for 50,000
mt but still the maize never arrived.
An additional US $2 million was
allegedly paid to Ben-Menashe on the orders of former president Frederick
Chiluba so that Ben-Menashe's public relations company could lobby for
investment in Zambia's mines.
However, the newspaper said Ben-Menashe
claimed that he was forced to bribe many Zambians and claimed that former
opposition politician Paul Tembo was murdered because he was going to testify on
his behalf. The judge rejected his offers to provide evidence of this calling it
a delaying tactic.
The LCIA ordered Ben Menashe to pay Nedcor, to whom
the Zambian government had ceded the contract, US $4,988,508 for breach of
contract plus interest of US $1,120,313. He was also ordered to pay the court
costs, the newspaper reported.
Kruger said Nedcor was currently trying to
recover some of the money from the Carlington liquidation
process.
Reacting to news of the court settlement rights monitoring group
Afronet chief executive Ngande Mwanajiti told IRIN: "The Zambian government
hasn't done anything about it. The people involved are still serving in
government."
BBC
Friday, 10 May, 2002, 16:06 GMT 17:06 UK
Zimbabwe talks postponed
Many MDC supporters say there is nothing to talk
about
Talks in Zimbabwe between the government and the opposition
to resolve differences over the presidential election appear to have collapsed.
The semi-official Herald newspaper reported that the talks, scheduled for
Monday, have been shelved pending the outcome of an opposition legal challenge
to President Robert Mugabe's election victory.
Zanu-PF is not ready for talks 
|
|
Welshman Ncube MDC |
The talks, brokered by South Africa and Nigeria, were due
to start up again after they were adjourned a month ago.
But the BBC's Lewis Machipisa in Harare says there is little chance of them
being resurrected.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change alleges that the polls were
rigged and has demanded a re-run of the voting.
Many Western observers agree that there was a "climate of fear" during the
poll, with opposition activists being attacked by government supporters.
The government says the reports of violence were exaggerated, fuelled by an
international campaign against it.
'Arrogance'
MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube said the postponement was indicative of
Zanu-PF's "arrogance and determination to suppress our freedoms" according to
the French news agency, AFP.
Ncube will use 'all means
necessary'
|
"Zanu-PF is not ready for talks," he told the agency. "They're gravely
mistaken if they think MDC needs the talks. Zanu-PF needs the talks."
He said the MDC would now resort to various forms of resistance.
"We'll use all means necessary to have our freedoms restored," he said.
Mr Ncube said the MDC leadership was under pressure from members not to
continue talking with Zanu-PF.
'False stories'
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is leading the Zanu-PF delegation to
the talks, has written to the Nigerian and South African mediators in the
dialogue "asking for the talks to be deferred because of a number of new
development, said the Herald.
"My delegation believes that the adjournment of the dialogue should be
extended until the finalisation of the matter now before the court," he said.
Chinamasa is unhappy at the MDC's legal
challenge
|
The Herald also cited the "planting of false stories in the media" as one of
the reasons for the postponement.
This was an apparent reference to a report made by the MDC and later
retracted of the decapitation of an opposition activist by Zanu-PF supporters.
Four journalists have been arrested in connection with the story, which was
carried by the private media last month.
Zim Independent - Muckraker
No fury like unappeased soccer
spirits
THE traditional cleansing ceremony at the National Sports Stadium
convened
by Claude Mararike and presided over by Zifa officials led by
development
director Dumiso Gumede and Zinatha secretary-general Peter
Sibanda seems to
have done little to mollify the soccer spirits. If anything
it has
infuriated them!
The hope was that the string of poor results
by the national team would come
to an abrupt end after invoking the
assistance of the ancestors. But the
national teams have remained jinxed as
they have dismally failed to qualify
for either the continental showcase or
the World Cup.
The spirits appear not to have been amused by the
intervention of Mararike,
Gumede and Sibanda when the team went on to lose
2-1 to Ghana at the
"cleansed" stadium.
The fury of the spirits did
not spare even the president during the
Independence celebrations when the
Independence flame unceremoniously went
out.
Last Sunday the spirits
were back with a vengeance when the national team
again lost to continental
minnows Swaziland by 2-0. The presidential guard
band played Elliot Manyika's
"song" Nora during half-time when the team was
trailing by one goal but the
spirits were evidently unimpressed as the
team's performance deteriorated.
The presence of Jonathan Moyo-at-eight and
Cde Chinos only dampened the
fighting spirit in the Warriors.
Chinos's track record with the Warriors
is not good. The team has lost
nearly all the matches he has attended.
Readers need not be reminded that
Chinos was present when we were eliminated
by the DRC in Kinshasa last year.
Can someone from Zifa remind him to
concentrate on his job as a security
officer at the Harare City Council where
he has been giving himself leave
every week.
Has the Business Herald
given up being taken seriously? For a while there
appeared to be a serious
effort by the Herald and Sunday Mail's political
masters to keep crude
political views of the sort found elsewhere in the two
government papers out
of the business columns. All concerned understood only
too well the danger of
scaring off business readers with crass political
amateurism.
Now,
with the scorched earth agenda reaching into every facet of the
public
sector, we have opening paragraphs in the Business Herald like
this:
"Workers who are currently preoccupied with bread and butter issues
were
surprised this week when the irrelevant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions
called on its members to fight a government they
elected."
Apart from the obvious fact that few if any ZCTU members were
likely to have
voted for this government, the next claim that ZCTU members
were "expected
to join the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions which is more
articulate of
the issues affecting the workers" was equally
preposterous.
Anybody regarding Joseph Chinotimba and his gang of thugs
as "articulate" is
clearly short of analytical skills. The ZFTU is an
instrument of the party
whose policies have seen the eradication of hundreds
of thousands of jobs
over the past three years. Over 140 000 have gone in the
construction
industry alone. How many others have gone in agriculture-related
services,
tourism and manufacturing?
Then there was the devastating
impact of company invasions and the threat of
more to come. What has that
done for business confidence?
If the Business Herald cannot see what is
happening before its very eyes,
what are businessmen and women going to
conclude about it as a useful guide
to the business scene?
The same
fate has befallen the Zimbabwe Mirror. Described by the
Commonwealth Press
Union observer team as "pro-Zanu PF with nuance", the
nuance part appears to
have been thrown out of the window. Its front page
last week showed a farm
worker from the Butler Sands Farm near Harare
"showing off his dancing
skills" at the ZFTU May Day celebrations at Rufaro
Stadium last
week.
"Farm workers at Butler Sands had every reason to rejoice at
the
ZFTU-organised celebrations," the Mirror told us, following the
union's
intervention on their behalf.
This dross would have been
unremarkable in the Sunday Mail, but what should
we conclude when it appears
in the Mirror?
The paper must be congratulated however for an even-handed
report on the
rival May Day rallies. After several days of false claims in
the Herald, the
Mirror pointed out that the ZFTU's rally at Rufaro only
picked up when the
ZCTU's rally at Gwanzura had concluded and just before the
soccer match
commenced.
Fifteen thousand had attended the ZCTU's rally
at Gwanzura, the Mirror said.
Despite Herald claims that a number of
companies had exhibited at Rufaro,
the Mirror said: "Unlike previous years
where many companies displayed their
products at the stadium, only Butler
Sands and Flowers, a company invaded by
war veterans last year, displayed
some flowers."
The ZFTU event was supposed to have started at 9.30am but
owing to poor
turnout was postponed to 11.30 - "after a reasonable crowd had
gathered in
the terraces", we were told. Apart from the Nyau dancers, the
crowd was
"entertained" by Mbira Dzenharira, Chopper Chimbetu, and Toilet
Tambaoga.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Mirror Mutumwa Mawere, who insists
he is not an
apologist for Zanu PF, can be seen claiming that the party is
the "champion"
of land reform while it has embraced black empowerment as the
only guarantee
of Zimbabwe's stability.
It would be useful to know
from him how much stability we have at present
and exactly why he thinks
arbitrary land seizures constitute a programme of
land reform?
He
criticises the ZCTU for not defining its policies on these issues. But
like
everybody else in the country, the ZCTU has been perfectly clear on the
need
for transparent and orderly land reform that does not dispossess
and
impoverish tens of thousands of workers or sabotage food
production.
Contrary to Mawere's facile claims, the ZCTU and civil
society are very much
involved in the empowerment discourse, exhibiting a
healthy scepticism about
empowerment apostles who remain wedded to a party
that is destroying the
economy and ruining the prospects of thousands of
young Zimbabweans who
would like to succeed if the political climate was less
toxic.
But Mirror columnists appear generally to be in denial. The author
of the
Mirror's "Behind the Words" column doubts that raping, pillaging,
maiming
and killing are actually happening in Zimbabwe. They are the
"reveries"
(dreams) of Daily News columnist Pius Wakatama, the paper
claims.
Wakatama, arrested this week for commenting on the severed head
story among
other things, presciently pointed out last Saturday that the
government was
squeezing every drop of juice out of that episode in order to
paint the
Daily News and the independent press generally as
unreliable.
Journalists should realise, he said, "that they are being
watched by an
unblinking and vengeful hawk, ready to pounce on them for any
misdemeanour,
imagined or otherwise".
The hawk then pounced on him
despite a clear apology by the Daily News
pointing out that his column had
gone to press earlier in the week before
the paper's front-page retraction on
the story.
The Sunday Mail reports that the police are to investigate the
MDC's "death
list" to see if the people concerned really died of political
violence.
"It's important for us to investigate all the alleged victims of
political
violence because these reports have done enormous damage to the
country," a
police spokesman said.
What has done enormous damage to
the country is the image of a police force
that has only now decided to
investigate these deaths. Does this mean the
killers of Tichaona Chiminya and
Talent Mabika will be brought to justice?
Does it mean the abduction of
Shepherd Nabanyama will be solved? Or that the
known killers of David Stevens
will be brought to book?
BBC World's Correspondent programme recently
carried interviews with
eye-witnesses to the burning alive of Chiminya and
Mabika who said the
police did nothing to help them. Meanwhile, Joseph Mwale
walks free and
continues to wreak terror in Chimanimani undisturbed by a
court request that
his case be investigated.
Zimbabweans "still live
under a regime that murders people and gets away
with it", the programme's
author, John Sweeney, concluded.
Moyo needs to be confronted with that
shocking fact the next time he claims
to be enforcing the law.
Moyo's
sidekick, George Charamba, was in the Sunday Mail, this week holding
forth on
the subject of "media falsehoods". It is always good to see George
showing
off his literary erudition and to know that British taxpayers' money
wasn't
entirely wasted on his education in Wales. But here are a few
pointers if he
wants to be taken seriously.
Firstly, get the name of the editor you are
attacking right. It indicates
you are reasonably familiar with the
subject-matter. Secondly, only use
quotation marks if you are genuinely
quoting somebody. It is unethical to
put your own remarks in inverted commas
in order to link them to the
individuals you are trying to
discredit.
We will charitably presume the use of Posa as an abbreviation
for the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act was not your
error, although a
conflation of the two measures is entirely understandable.
We liked the
analogy of a "suppurating boil in a dirty armpit" but wondered
who best fits
the image of "an escutcheon irretrievably blotted by thuggish
political
zealots".
And was it an "undignified limb" or limp that we
are supposed to be hobbling
about with?
Finally, we doubt if it was
entirely judicious to refer to your boss as
"mad", whatever everybody else
may think. If you have problems with your
copious copy you should send it
over here and we will put our subs to work
on it. That way it would afford
less room for comradely sabotage. We hate to
think of all those literary
pearls being trampled by your own pet porkers!
Readers familiar with the
daring exploits of Britain's Royal Marines may be
surprised to hear that,
while training for duty in Afghanistan, they
recently invaded the wrong
country. The Guardian reports that a platoon
based in Gibraltar stormed
ashore from a landing craft at the Spanish town
of La Linea, carrying 60mm
mortars and SA80 assault rifles. They took up
defensive positions on the
beach until two municipal policemen informed them
they were in Spain.
The
marines beat a hasty retreat to Gibraltar which locals said could be
easily
identified by its 1 398ft-high rock.
They are now in Afghanistan looking
for Bin Laden who is apparently rather
less obvious!
Zim Independent - Editor's memo
'Outright falsehoods'
LAST Friday
was World Press Freedom Day. This is a day dedicated to the
media, not
governments that trample on us. But the state-owned media
predictably
afforded Information minister Jonathan Moyo generous space to
pontificate on
what he thought about relations between the government
and
newspapers.
Moyo claimed government accepted a diverse media but
would not tolerate
falsehoods.
"When people begin to
institutionalise falsehoods they should expect us to
correct them," he
declared.
The next day he was denouncing the Zimbabwe Independent for
publishing
"outright falsehoods" over a broadcasting licence story. But he
seems intent
on ignoring falsehoods in that sector of the media for which he
is
responsible.
Last Friday the Independent published a statement
by the Commonwealth
Secretariat condemning "unfounded allegations" by the
state media about the
conduct of the Commonwealth Observer Group which
monitored the recent
presidential poll.
Government newspapers have
claimed the observer mission head, General
Abdulsalami Abubakar, had
distanced himself from the group's report.
"General Abubakar
presented the interim report of the Commonwealth and
stands by what he said
then and what was contained in the final report of
the group," the
secretariat said. "It is a matter of great regret to the
Commonwealth that
the Herald has published these unsubstantiated reports,"
it
said.
"The article in the Herald by Lovemore Mataire on 29 April
which states that
the Commonwealth is 'about to institute a commission of
enquiry into the
conduct of its observers' is yet another entirely false
allegation."
So on World Press Freedom Day an important international
organisation
complains of manifest falsehoods carried in the government
press. But the
complaint is ignored both by the minister and the
government-owned newspaper
that carried them.
Guardian
correspondent An-dy Meldrum's attorney Beatrice Mtetwa, speaking in
court
last Thursday, pointed out that the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act is being applied selectively - that it targets
only the
independent media. We now have sufficient evidence of that.
The
Independent has a policy of correcting its mistakes. We often carry a
box
prominently headed "For the Record" or "Correction" pointing out the
error
and apologising for it.
In proper democracies government press
officers find a calm and unemotional
statement of the facts the best antidote
to media claims or alleged
distortions. The newspaper concerned simply ends
up looking silly - by far
the best punishment.
In Zimbabwe
officials from the Office of the President rant and rave,
hurling abuse and
vitriol at newspapers, imagining everywhere a plot of
colossal proportions.
They end up looking bad and, whatever the merits of
their complaint, the
public refuse to take them seriously.
Moyo said in his Press Freedom
Day remarks that the government would accept
different points of view "but we
must not differ to the point of destroying
our country".
Here we
have the nub of the problem. We cannot have politicians like Moyo,
part of a
government which has arguably done much to destroy the country,
claiming
others are to blame and then limiting their freedom on the basis of
that
false and self-serving claim.
Zanu PF did this during the election.
They declared the opposition to be
British-backed and then attempted to deny
them the right to campaign on the
basis of that puerile claim. In so-doing
they breached provisions of the
constitution relating to freedom of
expression and prevented voters making a
free or informed
decision.
The danger of the current state agenda is that, in having a
chilling effect
on the media and closing down another democratic space, the
government will
thereby enhance its capacity to distort information and
deceive the public
with a view to perpetuating its arthritic grip on power.
Given evidence of
economic collapse and widespread starvation, that is
clearly not in the
public interest.
It is always nice to give
credit where it is due. Last week, the Independent
criticised Unesco for its
subdued voice on human rights issues. This was not
wholly without
justification given its role in trying to get us to swallow
the totalitarian
New World Information Order in the 1980s. But things have
changed since
then.
Last week the UN body was hardly out of the news. Amidst great
fanfare it
awarded a Press Freedom prize to Daily News editor Geoff Nyarota
in Manila
in recognition of his role in standing up to bullying and
repression by the
state. At the same time, together with Misa, it hosted a
World Press Freedom
Day meeting at a local hotel where Brian Kagoro and I
were guest speakers. I
took the liberty of inviting Andy Meldrum and Collin
Chiwanza to join me at
the podium because I knew people would be interested
to hear their accounts
of arrest and incarceration.
The meeting
was very well-attended and offered a welcome demonstration of
solidarity
between the free media and civil society. It revealed, if any
proof were
needed, how Zanu PF has lost the hearts and minds of the
younger
generation.
At the same time ZTV broadcast one of its
partisan news clips saying the
public regarded the media as "polarised". This
is hardly surprising when a
significant segment of the media is owned by the
state which uses it as a
crude propaganda mouthpiece. The editor of the
Herald was shown saying the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act was a good thing!
So long as there is a divide between real
journalists and those who see
themselves as government public relations
officers there will inevitably be
"polarisation". The public have shown who
they trust by their support for
the independent press. And so long as the
state designates the independent
media as the enemy and continues to charge
it under laws that have no place
in a democratic society it will only
strengthen our appeal to a thoroughly
disaffected public. That the government
can't see this is testimony to its
blindness.
Zim Independent
POSA and Police Service Charter incompatible say
critics
Vincent Kahiya
THEORISTS on the function of the police in a
democracy say law enforcement
agents should be able to build trust with the
general public because, as
servants of the law, they are responsible to the
public and not the state.
The evolution of modern-day policing - from the
1829 legislation by Home
secretary Sir Robert Peel which saw the recruitment
of 3 000 officers for a
new Metropolitan police force for London to the
present-day involvement of
civic representatives on supervisory boards - has
seen growing co-operation
between the police and the public in Britain, where
Zimbabwe's force finds
its foundations, and other advanced
democracies.
The relationship between the police and the people they
serve has grown with
the development of democratic institutions under which
the police are seen
as both governed and guardians.
However, in an
environment where the state is deemed to be flowing against
the tide of
democratic accountability, the duty of the police to the public
can be
vitiated by partisan pressures.
Zimbabwe's policing scenario brings to
the fore the important issue of who
the police should be accountable
to.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, in a statement to the
Zimbabwe
Independent, this week set out the philosophy of the Zimbabwe
Republic
Police (ZRP).
"The policing philosophy of the ZRP is to
police with the people and not to
police the people," said
Bvudzijena.
"This policing theory has greatly assisted the ZRP to manage
crime in the
country. It is not surprising that this philosophy has enabled a
local
police station and its community to come up with policing mechanisms
such as
the public's involvement in crime consultative committees," he
said.
Critics of the police force have however said enactment of the
Public Order
and Security Act has in general rendered the Police Service
Charter a dead
letter as the police have become an instrument of the ruling
party and not a
partner of the public in combating crime.
University
of Zimbabwe law lecturer and chairman of the National
Constitutional Assembly
Lovemore Madhuku said the charter was incompatible
with the current raft of
draconian legislation.
"For them to have any charter in this environment
of draconian laws is an
insult to the intelligence of the people," said
Madhuku.
The police have become a partner of a repressive government in
implementing
the anti-democratic laws, critics argue.
Last month the
police arrested more than 300 NCA members holding a meeting
in Westwood in
Harare. The police have also broken up NCA-organised protest
marches and
arrested Madhuku and other NCA leaders in the process.
The ZRP last month
relaunched its Police Service Charter - a document that
makes an attempt to
render legitimacy to the force as being accountable to
the public.
In
the charter the police promise "high quality service to the public"
and
maximum co-operation. The police promise to be transparent in
their
operations and accountable.
The charter says the police have
developed a graded response system, which
classifies calls for assistance
into grade A and B. Grade A cases include
calls where there is a danger to
life or where violence is being used or
threatened. It also includes
instances where evidence may be lost by delay.
The response time in these
cases, the charter declares, should be 10 minutes
in urban areas and two
hours in rural areas.
Grade B cases are "all calls for assistance where
police attendance at the
scene is necessary but which are not under grade A".
The response time is 48
hours in rural areas and at the most three hours in
urban areas.
The charter says officers are expected to work diligently,
courteously,
without fear or favour, with honesty and integrity, within
limits of the law
and with due respect for human rights.
Analysts say
there is a direct correlation between human rights and the
functions of the
police force. Reports by human rights organisations
indicate that
professional policing has been undermined by
political
instructions.
The groups say the ZRP is being used in a
political manner to suppress
peaceful, non-violent public assemblies of the
opposition, students,
striking unionists and other protestors.
In the
heat of the campaign before the presidential election in March,
the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused the police of working
in
cahoots with Zanu PF youths to scuttle its rallies. The MDC also branded
the
police a willing tool of Zanu PF in its quest to silence the
opposition.
The police have also come under fire from the Commercial
Farmers Union which
has accused the force of failing to respond to incidents
of violence on the
pretext that such incidents were "political".
It is
on record that the police refused to intervene in the case of the
Bayleys, an
old couple who were barricaded inside their farmhouse for almost
a month by
Zanu PF militias at Danbury Farm in Mount Hampden. The police
refused to
evict Zanu PF supporters who forcibly occupied houses owned by
MDC activists
in Bindura. The CFU has accused police officers of setting up
roadblocks and
confiscating farm property that legally belongs to farmers.
Last year,
riot police were accused of savagely beating a University of
Zimbabwe
student, Batanai Hadzisi, who subsequently died. Two years ago a
Chitungwiza
woman was severely tortured and beaten on the private parts by
police who
wanted her to confess to the murder of her maid. The woman was
cleared of the
crime but not before the officers permanently maimed her.
In January 1999
police arrested two journalists from the Standard, Mark
Chavunduka and Ray
Choto, on allegations that they wrote a false story about
an alleged coup.
The two were tortured for a week in army custody before
being taken to
court.
High Court judge Justice George Smith ordered the police to
investigate the
abduction and torture of the two newsmen but no progress in
the
investigations has been reported.
Amnesty International in its
1997 report on Zimbabwe said police torture had
continued because
investigation mechanisms were weak.
"Often allegations of torture are
investigated internally by police," said
an Amnesty International (AI)
report.
AI said conclusions of investigations were not always made
public. The
government Ombudsman is under the law prohibited from examining
police or
military misconduct.
The efficiency of the police is best
measured by its ability to conform to
the declaration in its
charter.
ZimRights national programmes co-ordinator James Jamali said the
ZRP had
failed to act as a neutral law enforcement body because of
the
politicisation of senior officers who make up the police
command.
"The police has not been on top of the situation in political
cases," said
Jamali. "If the police fail to act as a neutral body, it has a
bearing on
the politics of the country and its human rights record also goes
down.
"We have had case which we had to refer to the Police General
Headquarters
after getting no help from officers commanding districts and
provinces.
"In some instances the cases have been followed up but there
is a lot to be
done to improve investigation of political violence because
the police has
done nothing. This is a mockery of the whole Service Charter,"
he said.
Bvudzijena however said the criticism of the police was
unjustified.
"It is unfortunate and sad that most of the criticism that
the organisation
has had to endure emanates from uninformed sources and
groups with their own
agendas which do not coincide with those of the ZRP and
the nation.
"The ZRP is not there to do what it pleases but to follow the
dictates of
the law as provided. We as an organisation can only sup with
those who obey
the law and should anyone infringe it, he or she should expect
its wrath to
visit upon him or her," said Bvudzijena.
He said
criticisms such as that of selective policing were not being used in
the
"practical context but a political context with a view to perpetuate
certain
stereotypes".
Zim Independent
MDC leader sues Australia's SBS
Blessing
Zulu
MOVEMENT for Democratic ChanOge leader Morgan Tsvangirai is suing
the
Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and Ari Ben-Menashe
for
alleging that he was guilty of conspiring to murder President Robert
Mugabe.
Tendai Biti, the MDC MP for Harare East and spokesman for
International
Affairs, said the party was targeting Ben-Menashe in his
personal capacity.
"We are going to sue Ben-Menashe in his individual
capacity and his company
Dickens & Madson,"said Biti.
"We are
suing Ben-Menashe for breach of contract, confidentiality and
fiduciary
relationship for negotiating with us in bad faith.
"They had a
contract with us while at the same time they were dealing with
Zanu PF,"said
Biti.
"The (SBS) programme is a total falsehood. SBS was duped by
Mugabe's stooges
into publishing material that no respectable journalist
anywhere in the
world would touch," he said.
The suit claiming
unspecified damages will be heard in the Supreme Court of
New South
Wales.
SBS is being sued for flighting the documentary on its
Dateline programme in
February.
In his court papers the MDC leader
took exception to the following words
used during the programme: "Tonight we
present evidence that the opposition
leader has had no intention of letting
the electoral process take its
course. While parading his supposed democratic
credentials, Mr Tsvangirai
has, in fact, been plotting to kill President
Mugabe."
Tsvangirai avers that this statement was defamatory and
damaging because it
implied that he was guilty of conspiracy to murder
Mugabe.
Zim Independent
Farm seizures spell doom for ZJRI initiative
Blessing
Zulu
THE on-going land grab exercise, characterised by ad hoc farm
seizures,
spells doom for the proposed Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative
(ZJRI)
which was designed to secure an orderly redistribution of
land.
The ZJRI - mooted by commercial farmers - was approved by
government and
given the nod by Sadc nations. It was designed to remove the
tension between
the government and the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) by
allowing the
farmers to play an active role in the redistribution
exercise.
The initiative would have seen commercial farmers
delivering to government
an initial tranche of one million hectares of
suitable land for acquisition
by government on an uncontested basis to enable
the resettlement of at least
20 000 families.
The commercial
farmers also promised to provide free tillage to each of
these new families.
The farmers proposed that they would assist resettled
farmers with $60
million which would have been disbursed through the
existing channels, such
as Cottco, Agribank, the Farmer's Development Trust
and other
organisations.
The initiative's success hinged on the government
implementing the
resettlement programme according to the law, but the looting
on the farms
and forced evictions of property owners has rendered the
proposal a dead
letter.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made last
month announced that all white
commercial farms would be listed for
compulsory acquisition.
The CFU's Malcom Vowles, in charge of the
initiative, last week said through
his secretary that he was too busy to
comment on the issue. However,
Matabeleland CFU chairman Mac Crawford said
the initiative would not work as
long as the government failed to adhere to
laid-down procedures in the
resettlement process.
"There is
massive eviction of farmers, theft of equipment and workers'
compounds are
being trashed," said Crawford.
"What is happening is basic theft and
breakdown in law and order. What we
want is sustainable agriculture but what
is happening now is the demise of
commercial agriculture."
CFU
sources said the initiative depended largely on farmers staying in
business
to raise the funds.
The commercial farmers had also promised to avail
$1,4 billion for soft
loans through the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Bank to
support the
government's Commercial Farmer Settlement Scheme. The programme
was also
meant to offer three consultants per province to assist resettled
farmers
with technical advise.
The commercial farmers also
proposed to embark on an international promotion
campaign to publicise
Zimbabwe's ability to settle its internal problems
amicably and secure the
much-needed donor support for the land reform
programme.
That
looks unlikely now.
Zim Independent
AG's office concedes Todd's citizenship
claim
THE government conceded on Tuesday in the High Court that it cannot
strip
rights activist Judith Todd of her Zimbabwean citizenship, even if she
could
qualify for a passport from another country.
"I concede the
heads of argument presented by the applicant, so I have no
further
submissions to make," Nelson Mutsonziwa from the Attorney-General's
Office
told the court.
The government had refused to renew Todd's passport,
saying she was a
citizen of New Zealand because her parents were born
there.
Government argued that a 1943 New Zealand law gave citizenship
to anyone
whose parents were born in that country.
Todd's lawyer,
Bryant Elliot, said Zimbabwean law required an expert from
New Zealand be
present in court if that nation's laws were to be considered.
He also
argued that Zimbabwean law automatically gives citizenship to anyone
born
here. Judge Sandra Mungwira was expected to hand down her judgment
on
Friday.
Both Todd's parents were born in New Zealand, but she
was born in Zimbabwe,
when it was the British colony of Rhodesia. Her father,
Garfield Todd, was a
prime minister of Rhodesia.
She has never
sought a New Zealand passport. Judith Todd is an activist who
supported
Zimbabwe's liberation struggle but who now opposes President
Robert Mugabe,
accusing his government of widespread human rights abuses.
Todd's
case could have wide-ranging implications for all Zimbabweans of
foreign
descent. In March last year a law was passed that required anyone
wishing to
retain Zimbabwean citizenship to renounce any right to foreign
citizenship -
even if they had never held a foreign passport.
A High Court judge
had ruled in February that people cannot give up a right,
but only a
citizenship they actually hold. The law targeted the estimated 30
000 white
Zimbabweans who were entitled to a foreign passport and tens of
thousands of
blacks whose parents or grandparents had immigrated from
neighbouring
nations.
Government critics had feared the law would bar people with
foreign-sounding
surnames as well as the small white minority from voting
because they had
not renounced their entitlement to foreign
citizenship.
The legislation was viewed as part of a wide-ranging
strategy to ensure
Mugabe's re-election in the poll. - Staff Writer/The
Star.
New24
Zim-born citizens inalienable
Harare - A High Court
judge ruled on Friday that the government cannot strip
citizenship from
people born in Zimbabwe, and ordered the state to renew the
passport of
rights activist Judith Todd.
"According to the papers before me, I find
that Judith Todd is a citizen of
Zimbabwe. I order the registrar general to
renew the applicant's passport
within 14 days" of her asking for a new one,
Justice Sandra Mungwira said.
The judge castigated registrar general
Tobaiwa Mudede as having "arrogantly
and unashamedly" carried out duties that
belong to the police and
attorney-general.
"The attitude of the
registrar-general is that he has taken it upon himself
to grant citizenship
under the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act, which is the
attorney-general's and
police's job," Mungwira said.
Under the citizenship act, a person born in
Zimbabwe becomes a citizen by
birth and "that right cannot be renounced",
Mungwira said.
In March 2001, government passed a law that required
anyone wishing to
retain Zimbabwean citizenship to renounce any right to
foreign citizenship -
even if they had never held a foreign
passport.
Targeted white Zimbabweans
The law mainly targeted an
estimated 30 000 white Zimbabweans who were
entitled to a foreign passport,
and also tens of thousands of black workers
whose parents or grandparents had
immigrated from neighbouring nations.
Government critics had feared the
law would bar people with foreign-sounding
surnames, as well as the small
white minority from voting because they had
not renounced their entitlement
to foreign citizenship.
The legislation was viewed as part of a
wide-ranging strategy to ensure
President Robert Mugabe's re-election in
March.
Todd is a rights activist who supported Zimbabwe's liberation
struggle but
who now opposes Mugabe, accusing his government of widespread
human rights
abuses.
Both Todd's parents were born in New Zealand, but
she was born in Zimbabwe,
when it was still the British colony of Rhodesia.
Her father, Garfield Todd,
is a former prime minister of Rhodesia.
She
has never sought a New Zealand passport. - Sapa-AFP
Farm Seizures Spell Doom for ZJRI Initiative
Zimbabwe
Independent (Harare)
May 10, 2002
Posted to
the web May 10, 2002
Blessing Zulu
THE on-going land grab exercise, characterised by ad hoc
farm seizures, spells doom for the proposed Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement
Initiative (ZJRI) which was designed to secure an orderly redistribution of
land.
The ZJRI - mooted by commercial farmers - was approved by
government and given the nod by Sadc nations. It was designed to remove the
tension between the government and the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) by
allowing the farmers to play an active role in the redistribution exercise.
The initiative would have seen commercial farmers delivering
to government an initial tranche of one million hectares of suitable land for
acquisition by government on an uncontested basis to enable the resettlement of
at least 20 000 families.
The commercial farmers also promised to provide free tillage
to each of these new families. The farmers proposed that they would assist
resettled farmers with $60 million which would have been disbursed through the
existing channels, such as Cottco, Agribank, the Farmer's Development Trust and
other organisations.
The initiative's success hinged on the government
implementing the resettlement programme according to the law, but the looting on
the farms and forced evictions of property owners has rendered the proposal a
dead letter.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made last month announced that
all white commercial farms would be listed for compulsory acquisition.
The CFU's Malcom Vowles, in charge of the initiative, last
week said through his secretary that he was too busy to comment on the issue.
However, Matabeleland CFU chairman Mac Crawford said the initiative would not
work as long as the government failed to adhere to laid-down procedures in the
resettlement process.
"There is massive eviction of farmers, theft of equipment
and workers' compounds are being trashed," said Crawford.
"What is happening is basic theft and breakdown in law and
order. What we want is sustainable agriculture but what is happening now is the
demise of commercial agriculture."
CFU sources said the initiative depended largely on farmers
staying in business to raise the funds.
The commercial farmers had also promised to avail $1,4
billion for soft loans through the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Bank to support
the government's Commercial Farmer Settlement Scheme. The programme was also
meant to offer three consultants per province to assist resettled farmers with
technical advise.
The commercial farmers also proposed to embark on an
international promotion campaign to publicise Zimbabwe's ability to settle its
internal problems amicably and secure the much-needed donor support for the land
reform programme.
That looks unlikely now.
Zimbabwe: peaceful political change very unlikely - IISS
LONDON - Zimbabwe raises the most concerns of any African country and
peaceful political change there is "almost inconceivable," a report by the
International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) said
yesterday.
Robert Mugabe's
re-election for a sixth term as president after a very violent campaign and a
ballot plagued by irregularities, was highlighted as the continent's prime
concern by the IISS in its annual retrospective view of the years political and
military trends.
"Despite condemnation as well as diplomatic and economic isolation by
virtually all major powers, the refusal of regional leaders - in particular
South African President Thabo Mbeki - to seriously question the result helped
Mugabe to remain unrepentant for his coercive land seizures and gross economic
irresponsibility," said the report.
"Whether popular upheaval or state repression carries the day is a key
question for southern African stability," it continued.
"Either humanitarian disaster or a further deterioration in security could
prompt aggressive outside diplomatic, economic or even military intervention.
"In any event, Mugabe's sustained excesses have made Zimbabwe's political and
economic rehabilitation a long-term project," it concluded.
A forgotten continent, Africa and its ever-worsening poverty and health
problems again grabbed the attention of the international community in 2001
after the September 11 attacks.
The focus was immediately on Somalia "as a possible safe haven for terrorists
and as a potential target for US military action following the war in
Afghanistan", the IISS said.
"It is possible, however that September 11 will rebound to Africa's benefit
in this regard," the report continued.
"The West's long-term strategic interest in depriving terrorists of safe
havens may animate greater economic and political involvement in the region to
remedy or forestall state failure and, perforce, greater attention to the
devastating problems of poverty and AIDS."
The report highlighted the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad),
devised by Britain, South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria, as a possible vehicle for
aid from Western donors for economic development.
Last year's terror outrages in New York and Washington have already changed
the situation in Africa and forced certain states to change.
"Sudan's government, though still highly problematic, has appeared more
inclined to end its international isolation in co-operating with the US-led
counter-terrorism campaign and with peace initiatives aimed at ending Sudan's
civil conflict," the report said.
Countries in the Horn of Africa "manoeuvred to promote themselves as
important allies in the global campaign against terrorism," the IISS said,
highlighting Ethiopia and Kenya, to a lesser extent, as trying "to use
counter-terrorism as a rationale for actions against domestic opponents."
"In civil-war riven Angola, on the other hand, a single military development
may have increased the potential for peace," said the defence think tank.
This was the killing on February, 22, 2002 of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi by
government forces which led to peace talks between the government and rebel
forces.
The IISS expressed surprise also at the improvement in West Africa where
Liberian President Charles Taylor "has been and continues to be the principal
'spoiler' in the region".
"Heightened outside scrutiny after September 11, and an emerging indigent
insurgency appeared to dampen Liberia's support for Sierra Leonean and Guinean
rebels," it concluded. - Nampa-AFP
Friday, 10 May, 2002, 11:30 GMT 12:30 UK
Zimbabwe's proudest man
Mudzamiri (left) had to pass a fitness test in
Seoul
By
Steve Vickers in Harare
Zimbabwean referee Brighton Mudzamiri is set to make history by becoming the
first representative of the country to appear at the World Cup finals.
Mudzamiri, who works as a police superintendent in Harare, will be an
assistant referee at Japan and South Korea.
He officiated at this year's African Nations Cup, and performed well enough
to be given the task of officiating the final between Cameroon and Senegal.
The Zimbabwe national team has never qualified for the World Cup finals, so
Mudzamiri's presence will provide some national interest.
The referee is understandably excited to be going to the World Cup.
"This is the greatest achievement of my lifetime and I'm hoping not to let
the nation down," he said.
"I'm not feeling nervous, I'm raring to go, especially after the
pre-tournament seminar in Seoul where we had a fitness test."
However, Mudzamiri did confess to being hesitant about one thing.
"In each stadium there will be 23 television cameras, so if I make any
mistakes they'll be picked up and shown to the world, including everybody back
home."