Despair, desperation and disillusion overthetop
By Brian Latham
SOMETIMES you have to veer from the normal route and take
a closer look at the weirdness of life, much as all ETs in the central African
regime have veered into filling stations. But they're not queuing so they can
fill up and ply their trade-or terrify road users with their Lagos School of
Motoring tactics.
No, they're filling up so that they can drain their
tanks, sell the petrol on the black market and join another queue. And why
not? Lives are being saved, for a start, and how else are they expected to earn
a living? Of course, propagandists earning a dishonest living under the
disinformation minister call this sort of thing "sabotaging the economy." The
propagandists forget it was the Zany party that sabotaged the economy in the
first place. That's why the central African dictatorship has black markets for
fuel, bread, sugar, milk, cement, fertiliser, cool drinks, cigarettes, cooking
oil and even money. Yes, it's true. The Zany party has made history by
creating the first cash shortage since 1945 when those power-crazed Germans
destroyed Europe's economy. (Actually, they destroyed a lot more than just the
economy, but we'll leave it there.) For the paltry sum of five percent, you
can now buy cash notes from traders. A cheque for $10 500 buys you $10 000 in
notes. Still, it's all part of the weird game of Zany economics. The same
economics that saw the capital's mayor suspended for failing to provide
services, but didn't see the energy minister suspended for failing to provide
fuel or power. Or the patently deficient agriculture minister suspended for
starving seven million people. Meanwhile hurried attempts to mend the
financial puncture-actually more of a blow out-in the central African banana
republic have all been stillborn, largely because there is no foreign currency
to buy a repair kit. And to top it all, the central bank hasn't got enough
money to print money. Analysts have told Over The Top that this is also a world
first. Never before in the field of world finance has a country's central bank's
cash flow been so depleted that it couldn't buy paper and fire up the printing
presses. Indeed, even the destitute (then) Zaire didn't sink quite so low.
Far from it, the country's loony leader hit on the brainy scheme of printing
bank notes with duplicate serial numbers. This allowed him to operate a "one for
you, one for me" scheme that saw one unit of currency deposited in his bank
account for each unit of currency that went into the national fiscus. Unable
to purchase paper to print enough money even for the country, the Zany Party
hasn't been able to institute a similar scheme in the troubled central African
nation. Instead, it's alleged, they just cart the stuff out in sacks as and when
they can lay their hands on it. Meanwhile the starving and destitute
citizens of the central African dictatorship say they've had about as much as
they can take. Workers have complained to OTT that, even assuming they can find
transport, it now costs more to get to work than they earn. This bizarre turn of
events is symptomatic of Zany Economics, say economists. And its worsened by the
fact that not going to work has also been declared an act of economic sabotage.
In a country where unemployment sits at 70% and rising, that makes three
quarters of the population economic saboteurs-surely odds not even the Zany
party at its most megalomaniacal can hope to overcome.
KADOMA-THE Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) has said that it shall call for an indefinite mass job
stayaway at the end of the month and advises Zimbabweans to stock up food and
keep some money when they get paid in the next few weeks.
Lovemore
Matombo, the ZCTU president told unionists in Kadoma on Friday evening to "store
a bucket of mealie meal and save a penny" in anticipation of an indefinite job
action at the end of this month. He said labour would "withdraw its
services" unless the fuel prices were reduced to previous levels. The government
has in the past ridiculed the ZCTU's demand for cheaper fuel saying the union
"was dreaming". Matombo said: "The government has to clearly, unreservedly
and unambiguously reduce the fuel prices if they dream to see the labour machine
roll out again. "We want you (workers) to go home and let the message filter
to others who are not here that they should store a bucket of mealie meal and
some savings of their meagre earnings at home because when we go on stayaway
this time around we will not come back until our demands are addressed," he
said. Matombo accused the government of constantly taking labour for granted
and disregarding its demands to peg the minimum wage at $125 000 per month.
"It has always been futile talking to the government about workers' woes
because they behave so inhumanely. It is like talking to an insensitive
Chimpanzee-they feel no remorse about the current crisis," said Matombo.
"But I promise you that if workers unite, we will tame the Chimpanzee. We
want all workers to earn at least $125 000 by the end of June," Matombo said to
a tumultuous approval from the 500 plus workers' representatives who braved the
early winter evening chill to converge at Kadoma's Rimuka Stadium. "Even if
there are state agents and the secret police among you, surely even the CIOs
should by now know that the life workers are living is unsustainable and
unpractical. How do you expect a worker who forks out at least $56 000 on
transport fares a month to survive on a $47 000 pay?" The ZCTU executive
council was holding a weeklong general meeting in this Midlands town to map out
a strategy to cajole the government into addressing workers' grievances. At
the same meeting, Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
secretary general, urged workers to "cane" any teacher seen going to work during
their ongoing strike. Teachers across the country downed chalk last week in
protest of low pay and poor conditions of service. The ZCTU's leaders were
yesterday expected to continue with their mission to win over workers' hearts
for a nationwide mass action with a meeting in Kwekwe.
Cash-hungry Zimbabweans turn to
dog-fighting By our own Staff
SOME dog owners in Harare are cashing in
on a lucrative but illegal dog fighting ring involving dangerous breeds
traditionally used in organised dog-fighting contests overseas.
The
dog owners mostly from around Arcadia, Braeside and Hillside bet on vicious
dogs such as the American Pitbuls and the equally dangerous Bull Terriers
which are induced to engage in the vicious organised fights. Large sums of
money exchange hands at the secret contests which take place at a bushy area
between Culverwell Road in Arcadia and the railway station. Meryl Harrison,
national co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA), confirmed that she knew of the ring saying they
had severely warned the culprits to stop the illegal dog fights. The
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act outlaws dogfights in Zimbabwe,
an offence that attracts a maximum of six months in jail or a fine. Said
Harrison: "Several of the dogs seen had fight wounds on their faces, some of
which had turned septic but had not received attention. "Further
investigations revealed that the dogs are beaten with sticks before a fight
in order to 'psyche' them up. Benzine on bits of cloth is also held to the
dogs' noses."
Zimbabwe Standard Byo hit by car-jackings By our own
Staff
BULAWAYO-A SPATE of armed car-jackings have rocked Bulawayo in the
last five months with dozens of luxury vehicles snatched from owners by vicious
robbers who have left some of their victims for dead.
Bulawayo has
previously not been affected by car-jackings but lately the quiet city has
turned into a hunting ground for car-jackers and robbers. Investigations by
The Standard revealed that motorists, especially those with luxurious cars, are
now resorting to installing sophisticated security features that include the use
of cellphones as a deterrent against hijackings. Vehicles that have been
targeted by the car-jackers are VW Golf Gti, Nissan Hard-body and Opel Astras
and 4x4s. Some motorists are now scared to drive their vehicles around secluded
areas and during late hours. Police in Bulawayo recently tracked down a car
hijacking syndicate resulting in the arrest of five suspects who are believed to
be linked to most of the brutal attacks on motorists. "We are even scared to
leave our cars unattended during the day because these car jackers are so
tactful and work as gangs. We are also unable to travel at night as we are being
followed by suspicious looking cars," said a motorist who survived death by a
whisker after an attack. During the recent Zimbabwe International Trade
Fair, some motorists reported that their vehicles were stolen despite the
'maximum security' that was provided. According to reports, six vehicles
valued at $230m were stolen at the Trade Fair grounds as motorists from
neighbouring countries thronged Bulawayo with their modern vehicles. The
Anti-Hijack Trust, an organisation which helps victims of car-jackings, said 21
people were counselled from January to date after they were brutally attacked
during the incidences in which they lost their cars. "We have counselled 21
people who fell prey to the car jackers and we have formed a support group for
post-medical stress," said an official.
THE
government on Friday deported Guardian correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, in clear
defiance of a High Court order granted earlier the same day interdicting him
from being deported and ordering his release.
High Court judge, Justice
Charles Hungwe, had ordered immigration officials to produce Meldrum, who they
had served with a deportation order after he was declared a prohibited
immigrant, in court on Friday afternoon. They did not do so. Meldrum was
bundled onto an Air Zimbabwe plane bound for London on Friday night despite the
fact that copies of the order had been shown to Air Zimbabwe officials. The
High Court order was served on senior immigration officers and Minister of Home
Affairs, Kembo Mohadi's staff at 2.00pm and 2.10pm respectively. After
immigration officers failed to produce Meldrum in the afternoon as directed by
High Court, Justice Hungwe issued a further order at 8.15pm ordering the
immigration department to produce him. Justice Hungwe also instructed Lois
Matanda-Moyo of the Civil Division in the Attorney General's Office, to
accompany Meldrum's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, to serve the order on immigration
officials at the airport. But Matanda-Moyo refused to accompany Mtetwa to
the airport. At the airport, Mtetwa tried to serve the order on the
immigration officer on duty, but she jumped out of her booth and ran away when
she saw Mtetwa coming.
Zimbabwe Standard Masipula Sithole remembered By our own
Staff
RELATIVES, friends and colleagues of the late professor, Masipula
Sithole, who died last month, remembered and celebrated his illustrious life
that was characterised by fierce resistance to an increasingly autocratic Zanu
PF at a memorial service held at the University of Zimbabwe.
Speaker
after speaker from different civic organisations hailed the late political
analyst as a true nationalist whose unwavering support for the democratisation
of Zimbabwe was undeterred. Professor Hasu Patel, a long time colleague of
the late Sithole, said this was not an occasion to mourn but to celebrate
Sithole's life and works that shall always be remembered. Masipula published
a number of works on politics, among these is the famous Zimbabwe-Struggles
within the Struggle. John Makumbe, who worked with Sithole, said. "I once
applied for promotion but the then vice-chancellor of this institution told me
straight that I was not going to be promoted as long as I continued to criticise
the government. I told Masipula this and he told me to calm down and let the
people judge for themselves," said Makumbe who is also the boss of Transparency
International Zimbabwe. Former students of Sithole believed in their
teacher's analyses said they will live to remember him as their source of
inspiration, with his famous saying, "Let them lead and we shall analyse."
THE Zimbabwe Council of churches (ZCC), deeply concerned about the
disappearance of media ethics at a time when the nation yearns to hear the
truth, has set up a communication office to gather and disseminate
information.
In a communique released after a four-day workshop, the
church body expressed deep concern about the current state of corruption, lack
of good governance and politicisation of food aid in the country. The ZCC,
which now have stringers throughout the country from various churches and
organisations, said it would strive to produce stories that reflected the
reality on the ground. The church body also expressed concern about the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which stifles press
freedom rather than guarantees it, as well as the effects of HIV/Aids on the
family unit.
Standard journalist up for CNN award By our
own Staff
THE Standard news editor, Walter Marwizi, has been selected a
finalist of the premier journalistic competition on the continent-the
prestigious CNN African Journalist of the Year 2003 award.
Marwizi, 28,
is the only Zimbabwean among 13 journalists drawn from South Africa, Namibia,
Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Benin, Tanzania and Malawi who are in the running for
the overall grand prize which is the most coveted journalistic award on the
continent. The CNN African Journalist of the Year and other winners of the
various categories of the competition will be announced at a gala at the Sandton
Convention Centre in Johannesburg, on 18 June. Announcing the finalists on
Tuesday, Doyinsola Abiola, the chairperson of the independent judging panel
which received hundreds of entries from 32 African countries, said: "It was very
rewarding and encouraging to see an even wider spread of nations taking part in
the competition. This year saw entries from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea,
Lesotho Mozambique, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, to name just a few. "The
finalists can all be very proud to have been chosen against stiff competition."
Marwizi will join the other finalists in Johannesburg on 15 June for the
finalists' programme, whose highlights include meeting the judges of the
competition and attending a workshop to discuss journalism in Africa.
Commenting on Marwizi's selection, Bornwell Chakaodza, the Editor of The
Standard, said: "Walter is unquestionably one of the finest journalists that
this paper has ever had and his selection as a finalist for the CNN award is a
clear testimony of that." The competition, now in its eighth year, is open
to professional journalists on the African continent.
Zimbabwe Standard Oil firms, government deadlocked By Caiphas
Chimhete
PRIVATE oil companies that were last year licensed to import
fuel to complement the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)'s efforts have
reached a deadlock with government over the pricing of the commodity, The
Standard has established.
The private companies have vowed that they
would only start importing fuel once the gazetted prices were reviewed upwards.
Presently, they are relying on the erratic supplies from the debt-ridden Noczim
for distribution on the market. The companies are importing fuel only for
their "commercial clients", who provide them with foreign currency in advance,
it has also been established. The new oil importers, most of whom are black
businesses with links to the governing party, have said petrol should cost at
least $1 300 per litre while diesel should go up to $620 a litre if they are to
make some profit. Presently, the pump price of leaded petrol is $450 a litre
while that of diesel is $200. "Negotiations are still going on with
government on the issue of pricing but what I can tell you is that no oil
company has started importing fuel for the retail market, except for customers
who provide their own foreign currency," said the source. Mobil Oil Zimbabwe
managing director, Stanley Njenga, confirmed the stalemate saying the problem
was compounded by the scarcity of foreign currency. "Firstly, we cannot
import any fuel because we will make huge losses if we import and sell at the
gazetted prices. Secondly, we do not have the foreign currency to import the
fuel," said Njenga. He said Mobil still relied on supplies from Noczim
"because it is subsidised and if we sell it we make a small profit". An
official with Caltex Oil Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited, who refused to identify
himself, also confirmed that the company had not started importing fuel. The
government last year invited private oil companies to import their own fuel to
lessen the burden on Noczim, which has failed to buy enough fuel to satisfy
local demand. Companies that were licensed to import fuel include Mobil Oil
Zimbabwe, Total Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited and BP & Shell. Also licensed are
small players of mainly black-owned companies like Comoil, Exor Petroleum,
Country Petroleum, Engen, Juvenna, Royal Oil, Wedzera, FSI Petroleum, Ateb
Investments and Power Fuel. Comoil (Pvt) Limited sales and operations
manager, Fanuel Kangondo, said hard currency shortages forced his company to
import fuel only for its commercial clients. "We can't import for everyone
because we do not have the foreign currency," said Kangondo. Regis
Nyamakanga, SMM Holdings' group corporate affairs executive, said at the rate of
US$1 to Z$1500, the price of diesel should be Z$620 per litre. Using the same
rate, a litre of petrol would cost about $1 395. Noczim boss, Webster
Muriritirwa, through his secretary, directed questions to the minister of
energy, Amos Midzi, who continually switched off his cellphone when contacted by
this paper. Last week, Midzi said fuel pumping through Feruka pipeline in
Mutare had resumed and was optimistic of an improvement in supply. However the
situation has remained critical. Zimbabwe uses about 67 million litres of
fuel a month, which it imports at an estimated cost of US$40m. The fuel
crisis, which has paralysed every sector of the country's economy, started
towards the end of 1999 when Zimbabwe started experiencing shortages of foreign
currency.
Zimbabwe Standard What strategy to dislodge Mugabe? newsfocus By
Henry Makiwa
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's seemingly unshaken stance in the
wake of two crippling national strikes, has amplified growing concerns over
whether the popular mass stayaways are the best way to push the veteran
politician out of State House.
In the past two months, the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU), have organised successful stayaways, sending a very strong message to
Mugabe's government about the people's anger now reaching boiling point.
Although the protests virtually paralysed industry and commerce worsening
Zimbabwe's economic crisis, Mugabe's political resolve apparently remained
largely unshaken raising questions about the ability of mass actions to show the
Zanu PF leader the exit door. While evidently there is a strong appetite for
more stayaways among the angry and hungry Zimbabweans who now have to contend
with a life on queues, The Standard has noted a growing feeling of frustration
among the populace many of whom have religiously heeded calls for stayaways.
The frustration stems from the fact that despite the obvious adverse effects
of the stayaways on the economy, Mugabe has largely remained unmoved, a 'granite
figure' stoically clinging to the helm of a crisis-wracked country. The
79-year-old Zimbabwean leader has, in fact, contemptuously shrugged off the mass
protests dismissing them as acts of terrorism by the opposition. His junior
Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo has also launched a deluge of Orwellian-type
propaganda advertisements in the government media aimed at portraying the
stayaways as acts of economic sabotage. That Mugabe is a battle-hardened
strongman who will probably need more than mere stayaways to end his
controversial reign - set to go on until the next presidential election in 2008
- appears to be the sad reality that is emerging. Some members of the public
told The Standard that they now doubted whether stayawys would force Mugabe out
of office. They noted, however, that mass action remained the only available
option to express their displeasure with Zanu PF. Albert Mutembo of Harare's
Kuwadzana high-density suburb said: "The people are starving; they have no money
and most basic commodities have become unaffordable. "Mass action is our
only way to communicate with this insensitive government that will not listen to
our cries of suffering," he said. "But I must admit I have not seen any
change of heart in Mugabe in response to the stayaways other than the increase
of state-fomented acts of repression," added Mutembo. Leon Khomu of Masvingo
said although the stayaways would not "necessarily put bread on our tables", he
urged Zimbabweans to graduate from being a docile and gullible lot and stand up
against the repressive government. "I think one positive aspect that has
come out of mass action is that Mugabe has finally recognised the existence of
the opposition. You can listen to his cries for recognition from the MDC," Khomu
said. Veteran nationalist and politician, Edgar Tekere who knows Mugabe on a
personal level, said the stayaways would gradually produce some results but the
"President was a very difficult old man". Tekere said: "Mugabe anonetsa,
anonetsaŠanonetsa. (Mugabe is very, very, very difficult). He is a
'Mr.-know-it-all' who will not entertain any voices of reason and advice.
"It is important to maintain the fire of mass action because it is the only
way the people can register and express their anger until Mugabe learns to
listen to the people," Tekere said. Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary
general, said his party believed the mass actions were producing the desired
results. "To the MDC, the purpose of mass action is not fulfilled in a
one-off event. Mass action has to be a systematic and sustained process
beginning with mobilising the people to face a regime that governs them contrary
to their will. "Such protests also teach the people to exercise their
democratic rights freely and to act collectively without fear of repression,"
said Ncube. Ncube, a university lecturer, added: "So the mere fact that the
people heeded calls for stayaways is to us a demonstration of success and that
the people are denouncing economic depravation and political mayhem. The people
must realise that despotic dictatorships of the Zanu PF nature should never be
expected to fall instantaneously." The fact that leaders of South Africa,
Nigeria and Malawi had now stepped up their efforts in trying to solve the
Zimbabwean crisis, was testimony of the effect of the mass stayaways, said
Ncube. The ZCTU, which also organised a successful three-day stayaway last
month, said similar types of mass action would continue. Lovemore Matombo,
the ZCTU president, said: "Agarira nhanzva, chasara kuenda kumawere (Mugabe is
doomed). If anything, Zanu PF's arrogance is a manifestation of their mental
delinquency." Educationist, traditional healer and acclaimed social
scientist Gordon Chavhunduka said the mass action forebode the demise of Mugabe.
"Stayaways and other acts of mass protests are only natural in a situation
such as Zimbabwe's," said Chavhunduka, a leading politician during the country's
1970s struggle for independence. He added: "All this fermenting anger is
expected once the political and economic set up of a country deteriorates. The
people are very angry and if Mugabe is asleep, achavhundutswa-the mass action
shall jerk him up."
Teaching profession loses its sparkle By Henry
Makiwa
FOR Freedom Hove and thousands of other teachers, the profession
has lost all its glamour and teachers are now the laughing stock of society
because of their poor salaries and the low regard they are being held by
society.
Twenty-seven-year old Hove says students in his class, who more
often than not are more affluent than he is, no longer respected their teacher
because they know that on his salary, he can not even afford a cellphone, let
alone a car of his own. Hove says it is a struggle every month to meet basic
expenses such as rent food, transport and clothes on his paltry pay of $60 000.
"My students know that I earn peanuts. I cannot afford a mobile phone and I
do not drive. I don't even own my own accommodation," says Hove bitterly. "I
know that behind my back some of them call me'mukomana wekuseri' (lodger) and I
am embarrassed to hike to work and home everyday when some of my students drive
to school. "When I stand right there in front of them I feel so humiliated
and degraded because they do not look up to me with the esteem befitting a
teacher," he says. For a profession that was once held with high regard and
respect in the entire southern African region, poor remuneration and working
conditions have reduced teaching in Zimbabwe to one of those professions taken
only by the most desperate. Retired teachers and headmasters talk wistfully
of the good old days when the profession was so well respected and admired that
teachers were leaders of their society and many of them became key to the
struggle for independence during the colonial era. In fact, it is from the
ranks of teachers and headmasters that the young nationalist movements
throughout Africa drew most of their leaders from. A good teacher's
reservoir of knowledge soon became noticed outside their communities and former
teachers such as the late Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda and Robert Mugabe-among
others-rose in the nationalist movements to even become the post independence
leaders of their countries. In Zimbabwe, teachers were indeed considered
special and handsomely remunerated during the colonial years to an extent that
they were considered the middle class of the black communities. Misheck
Sibanda, a retired headmaster in Chitungwiza, says the teaching fratenity's
problems started soon after independence. "Teachers used to be held highly
in the society. They were the trendsetters even in terms of dress, music tastes
and ownership of properties," he said. "But at independence, our new
government set out on a mass training exercise of teachers -some with mediocre
qualifications-in order to satisfy the need for a broad-based education
structure. The government was soon overwhelmed by too many teachers whom they
cannot pay adequately," Sibanda said. He said politics also contributed
adversely to the crumbling of the teachers' welfare and teaching as a
profession. "From onset, the first minister of education in 1980 Dzingai
Mutumbuka tried to politicise education. One could not be promoted from a
teacher to a headmaster if he was 'not politically correct.' "Subsequent
ministers such as Edward Garwe, Samuel Mumbengegwi and now Aeneas Chigwedere
have also inherited the same traits. To make matters worse, the education budget
was significantly reduced with resources being re-directed to cater for the war
in the Congo and the gratuities paid to the war veterans," he added. What
had also compounded the situation was the constant change of education ministers
since independence from Britain in 1980. Raymond Majongwe, the secretary
general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, says it was the constant
change in ministers that hindered the proper management of teachers' welfare
over the years. Majongwe said: "Education needs a clear and sustained
implementation programme Š. unfortunately our government appears unaware of this
truth. All they do is to change ministers like bed sheets while continuing to
disregard and discriminate teachers. "Each new minister comes with his own
lies and Chigwedere has dwelt on trivial matters such as the change of school
names, proposing a national uniform and promising hefty salaries that never
were," said Majongwe. Majongwe said teachers were no longer able to provide
for their families yet when he joined the profession in 1989 earning $1 200, "I
bought a radio, a television set and a bed with my first salary". A visiting
delegation of the global Education International last month ranked Zimbabwean
teachers as the least paid in the southern African region. The three-man
mission attributed the failure of 78 percent of "O" level students in high
school in Zimbabwe last year to possible low morale among teachers. Dennis
Sinyolo, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association described
local teachers as the "greatest casualties of the country's economic
turbulence". "Our salaries do not meet our basic needs because they have
been drastically reduced by the government. It is even more saddening to note
the huge disparities that exist between the salaries of teachers and other
members of the civil service such as soldiers, police officers and nurses who
earn much more," said Sinyolo. He said teachers had now lost patience with
the government over salaries and better working conditions and would continue
with the strike action that started when schools re-opened recently. The
teachers have been on strike over low pay for the past two weeks and indications
are that the job action, which had started on a very low key, was now gathering
momentum.
LACK of adequate personnel and under-funding of the office of the
Ombudsman has rendered it almost irrelevant at a time when it is greatly needed
to counter state-sponsored human rights abuses which have become too rampant,
analysts have said.
The office is operating with one law officer, who
handles most of the cases, a situation that has greatly affected its operations.
In its latest report produced last year, which covers the period from
January 1 to December 31 1996, the Ombudsman, Bridget Chanetsa, admitted that
the office was affected by the shortage of staff and financial constraints.
The Ombudsman's Office, established by an Act of Parliament in 1982, is
mandated to investigate cases of administrative malpractice and alleged
contravention of the Declaration of Rights by members of the defence forces,
police, government departments and the prison service on civil society. It,
however, does not have powers to enforce its findings but can only make
recommendations to various arms of government, which they can easily ignore, and
have tended to do. ZimRights chairman Arnold Tsunga said legally, the office
was toothless because it did not have the powers to enforce anything after
carrying investigations. "It is toothlessness and its failure to compile
annual reports makes the office irrelevant in the human rights field especially
now, when abuses by state agents appear to be more frequent," said Tsunga, who
however, pointed out that under normal situations the existence of such an
office would be necessary. Most people did not report cases of abuse to the
Ombudsman's Office because "it takes years before a case is looked into and
apart from that it is not known", said Tsunga. The office has a backlog of
more than 2 500 cases dating back to 1996. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
MP for Harare East Tendai Biti, lambasted the office describing it as useless
because the Act of Parliament under which it was established does not give it
enough powers. He added that the fact that the Ombudsman was a political
appointee made the office even more irrelevant. Said Biti: "Even if she
(Ombudsman) is given the powers, she can't use them because she is the wife of a
Zanu PF-appointed governor and she has taken a political position to support the
ruling party." Bridget Chanetsa, the current Ombudsman, is the wife of Peter
Chanetsa, the Zanu PF governor of Mashonaland West. Biti said the issue of
the Ombudsman's Office should be dealt with in the context of a new
constitution, giving it new powers and electing a non-partisan and non-political
head. Some analysts said as a result of the problems, the Ombudsman's office
has failed to investigate increasing incidents of government agents and
departments, which are being used by ruling Zanu PF party to abuse ordinary
citizens in order for it to cling to power. Government agents, especially
from the Central Intelligence Organisation, the police and the army, have been
implicated in cases of gross human rights abuses, including assaults and murder.
Among outstanding cases of abuse mentioned are those of people who have
disappeared without trace such as Rashiwe Guzha, whom the government has since
presumed dead, the late Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya-petrol bombed
allegedly by a CIO operative-and Tonderai Machiridza, who reportedly died after
being brutally assaulted by the police. However, Heneri Dzinotyiwei of the
University of Zimbabwe still believes the Ombudsman's office is relevant even
under the current political dispension. Dzinotyiwei said the Ombudsman was
failing to cope with her workload because the cases she handled were too many
and apart from that, she covered a wide diversity of cases at a time when the
country is in a political crisis. "There is need to strengthen the office in
terms of funding and staffing because when the political crisis normalises it
will function well," said Dzinotyiwei, who is also the chairperson the Zimbabwe
Integrated Programme (ZIP). Chanetsa turned down a request for an
interview.
"Sometimes a patriot has to protect his own nation against its
governmemt". This loaded statement is an accurate summary of the duty of an
opposition party. An opposition party provides checks and balances in any
democratic society.
However, the overall and encompassing purpose of any
political party, be it a ruling party or an opposition party, is to serve the
nation and its people. As such an opposition party should strive for wealth
creation, poverty alleviation and employment creation amongst other endeavors
aimed towards socio-economic development. Unfortunately at present our local
opposition do not seem to have a convincing strategy as to where they intend to
take Zimbabwe and how they intend on getting there. Why is it that the
opposition is only drawn into activity by some oppressive action on the part of
the government? People are only reminded of the existence of the opposition when
there is a fuel hike or other national grievances. Numerous members of the
MDC have been imprisoned. Some of these individuals have been imprisoned
justifiably and other unfairly. However, never once did Morgan Tsvangirai
come to the aid of his supporters. Job Sikhala, Nelson Chamisa and Learnmore
Jongwe are a few members of the opposition who have been harassed in one way or
another by Zanu PF, all to deafening silence from the MDC national leadership.
If the lowest Zanu PF cadre is harassed in any way by the opposition, hell
literally descends of the perpetrators. Surely is it too much to ask that a
shepherd protect his flock. A stayaway for the sake of a stayaway is nothing
more than an undeserved and illegal holiday. It is highly unlikely that a regime
that effectively controls the armed forces, various intelligence organisations
not to mention paramilitary groups, can be dislodged by stayaways. We have had
enough barking, what we now need is some biting. We all know the police
brutality, corruption, shopping sprees etc, currently going on. What we need is
a solid answer from the opposition on how they intend to solve these and other
perceived problems, given their much-publicised handicap of an even playing
ground. Incidentally Zanu PF fought also their own way to power on a grossly
uneven playing ground. They also had to challenge oppressive legislation, face
harassment from partisan security forces and other repressive factors that the
opposition face today. Ladies and gentlemen, let us avoid opposing for the
sake of opposing. Let all opposition be constructive, logical and aimed towards
nation building. Nyasha Dhliwayo Harare
"A dictator
is an authoritarian and absolute ruler who is not bound by any constitution or
law and acts in a tyrannical manner. Our President clearly does not fit the bill
of a dictator. In fact, he is probably one of the most democratic presidents"
(DN Sandleford, Harare, The Chronicle Tuesday 6 May).
I do not know
whether this writer is white or living in Zimbabwe or is just trying to be
funny. How can he justify the above statement when Mugabe wanted to eliminate
Joshua Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole during the early eighties. How can he
say Mugabe is the most democratic president when MDC MPs and members are
arrested and harassed on an daily basis. Hundreds of them have been killed and
maimed. Does he think what was done to commercial farmers was fair. You can not
correct a wrong by doing something wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Did Mugabe not order his soldiers to persecute thousands of defenceless
civilians in Matabeleland. Some people were buried alive, pregnant women had
their stomachs pierced using knives to kill the so called dissident babies.
Was Lookout Masuku not murdered by Mugabe's agents? What happened to
Tongogara, Chitepo and more recently Learnmore Juda Jongwe? Mugabe is indeed
a worse dictator than Idi Amin, Siad Barre, Mobutu Sese Seko and many others
before him. He should be tried and face the music. American and British
soldiers in Iraq showed us what should be done to dictators. Son of the soil
Bulawayo
TROUBLED national air carrier, Air Zimbabwe, which is battling
loss of business and lack of jet engine fuel has been forced to put some workers
on long unpaid leave in order to cut its huge wage bill, The Standard has
learnt.
Workers at the parastatal last week said management were
encouraging them to take long unpaid leave because of the worsening financial
crisis and the airline's huge debt to save on the wages bill. Many workers
were now opting for the "great trek" to the United Kingdom, taking advantage of
their cheap special travelling allowances provided for by the airline.
"Staff here is disappearing fast since this unpaid leave programme was
introduced. Most have now settled in the UK doing menial jobs even though they
might have been professionals back home," said one airline employee. Airline
sources said among those who have taken advantage of the cheap fares for
employees and the long leave to trek abroad for jobs are some of Air Zimbabwe's
top engineers. A senior airline official said the airline has been grappling
with a critical financial problem since the hard currency shortages that began
almost two years ago and the scarcity of jet engine fuel. Air Zimbabwe is
also in serious viability problems because of lack of business as many tourists
and businessmen have stopped travelling to Zimbabwe since the country acquired
its international pariah status two years ago. Local and regional travel has
also almost dwindled to a halt as many locals can no longer afford the huge
fares for domestic, foreign or regional travel because of the economic
hardships. An official source at the company said the airline was actually
encouraging workers to take the long unpaid leave and get employed abroad.
Airline spokesman David Mwenga admitted that some employees who had left the
country had not bothered to return for work at the end their leave days. "It
is true that some workers have skipped the country on unpaid leave but it is
also old news Š we have been doing it for almost two years now," Mwenga said.
Analysts say the national airline's survival might only be secured if it
sought an international partner or the government injected huge amounts into its
operations. Air Zimbabwe has an aging fleet that badly needs replacement and
its problems are also compounded by the lack of hard currency to buy spares from
foreign manufacturers.
Murerwa cobbles up supplementary budget By
Kumbirai Mafunda
THE ministry of Finance and Economic Development is
polishing up a supplementary budget to raise more money that will be tabled
before Parliament adjourns from its current sitting, but is likely to dampen
hopes of any economic recovery, it was learnt this week.
Standard
Business has been told by official government sources that Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa would seek more money to double government spending to about
$100 million. The sources said runaway inflation had gobbled up most of the
funds allocated to ministries during this year's Budget and they now needed more
money to pay salaries and other expenses. "The numbers are being done now
and we are consulting with Parliament for the exact dates of presentation," said
the source. It has become habitual for the ruling Zanu PF government to go
to Parliament every year seeking extra amounts because ministries would have
exhausted their allocations. Parliament approved a supplementary budget of
$52,97 million in July last year that was channeled towards food imports, cost
of living adjustments and the funding for agricultural inputs needed during the
agrarian reforms. Zimbabwean ministries' failure to live within budgets has
been heavily criticised locally and international for causing the government's
huge internal borrowings. Although Murerwa had allocated $266,5 billion to
cover the salaries and allowances for civil servants, analysts said the
spiraling inflation, which is officially pegged at 220.08 percent, had eroded
workers' remuneration. Most of the new money would therefore go to salaries
and allowances. Currently teachers are on strike demanding wage increments
of more than 100 percent and their colleagues in the civil service are expected
to ask for similar adjustments in the second half of the year. The other
amounts, analysts said, would be allocated to food imports and other critical
needs like electricity and fuel which have grounded industry to a halt.
Economic critics said with inflation blazing through to the stratosphere and
the current crippling food crisis, indications were that the government would
cobble up yet another supplementary budget towards the end of the year. They
said this would further push the budget deficit upwards and leave the
government, which has just embarked on a new economic recovery programme, in a
precarious position. "We have a much bigger problem coming up. By August,
current maize stocks and wheat stocks will be finished and we will be depended
on imports," said John Robertson, a leading independent economic consultant.
Robertson said with the current downturn in companies' profitability, it was
impossible for the government to raise taxes to finance the supplementary budget
leaving it with the only option of printing more money which in turn would fuel
inflation. "Raising taxes is unthinkable because of the fuel shortages,
power cuts and price controls. That leaves government with one option which is
to print money," he said. Tapiwa Mashakada, the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change's shadow minister of finance, rapped the government for
failing to live within its own means. "This crisis is a result of a
political choice that has had disastrous consequences for economic growth," said
Mashakada.
ZIMBABWE has once again shot itself in the foot-and in the full
glare of international media, for that matter-by deliberately flouting its own
laws and throwing caution to the wind just to allow Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo and the department of immigration to settle old scores.
We
are here talking about the government's handling of the residence permit issue
of Andrew Meldrum, the locally-based correspondent of the British newspaper, The
Guardian, who was bundled out of Zimbabwe on Friday night even though the High
Court had ruled last July that he was a bona fide resident of this country.
There is no doubt that the government, and Moyo, were highly embarrassed
after Meldrum successfully challenged their deportation order in the High Court
in July last year. In fact, it might even be now safe to say that the
decision to physically remove Meldrum from Zimbabwe must have been taken the day
that the High Court overturned his deportation order and allowed him to stay in
the country. It was only a matter of time before President Robert Mugabe's
vindictive advisers met to formulate what they believed would be the most
appropriate way to deal with the meddlesome Meldrum once and for all. But
dealing with delicate matters such as residence permits denied by the state and
then successfully challenged in court, does take a bit of time and some
sophistication which, alas, even our rocket scientists in the governing party do
not seem to have in abundance. What could have been a routine matter for the
courts to handle, for instance, filing an immediate appeal against the High
Court ruling in the Supreme Court, has left Zanu PF, Moyo and the department of
immigration with egg all over their faces. The way the government
-especially the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Home
Affairs and its immigration department-handled the Meldrum affair therefore
makes a mockery of Harare's monotonous and tired complains that Zimbabwe does
not deserve the bad press it is attracting overseas. What better way to
attract a negative international image can there be than the primitive,
amateurish and vindictive way this simple matter of a residence permit was
handled? Instead of filing an appeal in the Supreme Court, whose bench
incidentally is full of Mugabe appointees, the government chose to apply the law
of the jungle; kidnapping the defenceless journalist and physically bundling him
into an Air Zimbabwe flight bound for London-all in the full glare of the
international media. Do we need any further testimony that our rulers have
gone bonkers and now want to demonstrate to the whole world that the animal
called the rule of law is dead and buried in Zimbabwe? Sadly, the abuse of
Meldrum and his family, is not an isolated affair. There have been many
Zimbabwean journalists have who have been beaten, tortured, harassed, detained
and forced to leave this country because they dared report about the rampant
corruption that is perpetrated by the current Zanu PF administration.
Ordinary Zimbabweans have not fared any better: numerous reports have been
carried by the media in this country about the voiceless and powerless who, in
the dead of the night, have been pounced upon by state sponsored thugs dressed
in police and army uniforms. The crime that many of these Zimbabweans have
committed is that they have dared to complain that they are not being governed
properly. It is their own government that is daily abusing them in the
townships and the rural areas because Zanu PF believes it is its God-given right
to govern or misgovern this country. After all, we are told every day in the
daily lies peddled by the State media, it is Zanu PF that brought independence
to this country when it won the 1970s war of independence and so, by extension,
it is the only party that should rule Zimbabwe. But Zanu PF is like the
little village bully who rules through fear and violence but who surely one day
would have his bluff called. We Zimbabweans must comfort ourselves that
indeed Zanu PF's bullying days will soon be over because ordinary people in this
country have now decided to expose, once and for all, that the bullying Zanu PF
owl has no horns at all and that its day of reckoning is no longer far away.
No amount of posturing, that includes even the ridiculous show of trying to
link Zimbabwe's problems to the return of one half of the Zimbabwean bird from
Germany, will divert the populace from the real cause of their current misery;
the mismanagement of the country by the governing Zanu PF party. It is only
a desperate administration that tries to link a historical artefact that has
been rightly returned to its owners, and through dialogue, to the violent way it
has addressed very pertinent issues such as land hunger. Zimbabweans have
been fooled for 23 years but are now much wiser: they know the difference
between who is responsible for their current problems and who are not. And
it's certainly not Germany, Meldrum, the colonialists nor the one half of the
Zimbabwean bird! It is Mugabe and his governing Zanu PF party.
"GOD has no time for this country, my sister. This country is now on
auto pilot!"
Welcome to the Super Patriots and Morons where our "Great
Leader" is a tormented man. The "Great Leader" has not been well for quite
some time and now sees imaginary ghosts, and hears strange voices and sounds
every time he tries to convince himself that everybody still wants him.
"Look around you, you have failed! Throw in the towel if you care about the
people. Go whilst there is still time!" say the voices amidst the ear-splitting
sound of drums which make our "Great Leader" hold his ears with pain.
However, he remains quite defiant as he continues to pamper himself with
praise. "There is no history better than my history. Mine is a history of a
legend. ... I am their saviour. Their black Moses ...," he says, but the
ear-splitting sound of drums throws him to the ground and makes him hide under
his table. Super Patriots and Morons, which opened last Tuesday, is the
latest play at Theatre in the Park. Penned by the controversial Raisedon Baya
(Witnesses and Victims, Rags and Garbage, Madmen and Fools) and Leonard Matsa
(Ganyau Express), the story is about social and political survival as portrayed
by a pregnant woman who is on the brink of starvation after spending days in
queues just to get a loaf of bread. As her husband was killed by "The Militia"
of The Super Patriots the woman, who is expecting her fifth child, takes the
initiative to confront the "Great Leader" for answers to the country's problems.
"Maybe we should round up all the frustrated people from everywhere and
march to government square!" she finally says after enduring the intense pushing
and shoving at bread queues. "Ha, iwe mukwasha..." she shouts at a former
university student (Jasen Mphepo) who has been unemployed for the past six
years. While shoving the jobless cheeky young man replies: "If you don't want
any contact with anybody, then get out of the queue. There is no decency in a
queue and people become animals, and animals have no decency." The play is
set in a country suffering from severe food shortages, fuel and food queues
coupled with a repressive government which has cut a niche in using the fearsome
and dreaded state security agents to silence the dissenting masses. To the
"Great Leader", the people and voters are morons as they can't seem to think or
do anything for themselves, while the government and the ruling party are the
super patriots by virtue of being the chosen ones-the anti-imperialists.
They can never do wrong. Any dissent by the people is a sign of imperialist
infiltration which has to be crushed at all costs by "The Great Leader". To
cushion and reassure himself, he has a palace sangoma (played by Mackay Tickeys)
who licks his feet to stay alive. He also has Bazooka, his most trusted comrade.
Bazooka is also a boot licker. "...I see your face replacing that of
Franklin on the US dollar note. I see your birthday being changed to an
international holiday ..." licks up Bazooka, played by Obrien Mudyiwenyama.
This seems to do wonders to the "Great Leader" who immediately shouts: "I am
not giving up my throne, never ever!" Bazooka has to go out and investigate
and in the queues he faces the wrath of the people, led by the pregnant woman.
"So, tell me Bazooka, what are the people saying..." "You are always on
their lips yet very far away from their hearts ... ," Bazooka is quite open on
this one. Back on the streets the pregnant woman, played by Ehyara Mathazia,
is mobilising people in the queues and asking the people to sign a petition.
"Lets march towards government square saying, 'enough is enough!'"
Bazooka who is on a mission to spy suddenly bursts: "My sister, you will be
arrested for inciting people ..." "Do you think that being arrested is worse
than this living hell! The people are angry, hungry and frustrated Your
Excellency. They are saying you and your ministers should stop lying like
liars," she says as she braces for a showdown with the "Great Leader". But
what happens to her later as the "Great Leader" believes she is an agent of
imperialists? What of the people who she believes and trusts would pass on the
petition to His Excellency who turn out to be the notorious militias? Will she
manage to mobilise the people for the final showdown with His Excellency?
"Who has run this country better than me? Haven't I put subsidies and price
controls?" the "Great Leader" asks. "With all due respect Your Excellency,
how can you put subsidies on things that are not even there?" The play,
rehearsed in Sweden over two weeks, runs at Theatre in the Park until May 25. It
has all the humour and explosive quarrels which will leave audiences deep in
thought.
Khaleej Times Online Forty die of malnutrition in Zimbabwe:
Report (AFP)
18 May 2003
HARARE - Forty people have died
from malnutrition in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Bulawayo due to food shortages
gripping the country, a newspaper reported Sunday. Quoting a city health
official, the private Daily News on Sunday said the people had died in the first
two months of the year. “People do not have food,” the city’s director of
health services, Rita Dlodlo told the paper. Aid agencies say at the height
of food shortages last year, at least two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s 11.6 million
people required food aid. The numbers of those in need this year have been
revised downwards due to forecasts of better harvests.
Sunday Times - SA Zimbabwe elite 'looted DRC' Sunday Times Foreign
Desk
Key senior members of the Zimbabwe government are to be investigated
by the United Nations for allegedly looting and illegally exploiting natural
resources, including a fortune in diamonds, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to UN sources in Nairobi, investigators are to travel to Harare
within days, where they will question, among others, the Speaker of the
Zimbabwean parliament and former National Security Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa -
the man widely tipped as a possible successor to President Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa was identified in a UN report on the looting of Congo, released in
October last year, as the "key strategist" for the Zimbabwean branch of an elite
network that benefited from a variety of criminal activities in Congo, including
theft, embezzlement and the diversion of public funds, undervaluation of goods,
smuggling, false invoicing, nonpayment of taxes, kickbacks to public officials
and outright bribery. Mnangagwa told the Sunday Times he was unaware of any
investigation into his affairs while he served as chairman of a joint committee
of ministers responsible for the war-torn Congo. He also denied that UN
investigators had written to him or otherwise contacted him with their
questions. "But let them come," he said. "That report is full of lies. They
had better come now and talk to us." The UN document - titled The Final
Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources
and Other Forms of Wealth of DR Congo - details how this "elite network"
benefited from instability in Congo and sought to fuel that instability by
supporting armed groups opposed to Rwanda and Burundi. "The elite network of
Congolese and Zimbabwean political, military and commercial interests seeks to
maintain its grip on the main mineral resources - diamonds, cobalt, copper,
germanium - of the government-controlled area," the document says. "This
network has transferred ownership of at least 5-billion of assets from the state
mining sector to private companies under its control in the past three years
with no compensation or benefit for the state treasury." The document
identifies Mnangagwa's key ally as Zimbabwe Defence Force commander General
Vitalis Zvinavashe, and names several other key ZDF figures as being involved.
"The general and his family," it says, "have been involved in diamond trading
and supply contracts in the DRC." It also claims Air Marshal Perence Shiri,
a long-time ally of Mugabe, has been involved in military procurement and in
organising air support for the pro-Kinshasa armed groups fighting in the eastern
Congo. Shiri is also part of the inner circle of ZDF diamond traders who have
turned Harare into a significant illicit diamond-trading centre, the document
says. Zimbabwean Defence Minister Sidney Sekeramayi is also implicated in
the report. A preliminary report on the panel's investigation is to be
handed to the UN Security Council next month. A final report is due in
September. Meanwhile, a Ugandan probe following UN charges that Uganda and
Rwanda illegally exploited Congo's natural resources has exonerated Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni but has suggested members of his family and top
military officers may have been involved, Reuters reports. The judicial
investigation has recommended further investigation of Museveni's sister-in-law
and brother, the army commander and the head of military intelligence.
Mugabe
Policies Doing "Enormous Damage" to Zimbabwe Food System
(USAID chief
Natsios testifies before Congress) (880) By Charles W. Corey Washington
File Staff Writer
Washington -- The ongoing repression of the Zimbabwean
people by the Mugabe government and its ill-advised land and agriculture
polices have done an "enormous amount of damage" to the country's food
security system, warned Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).
In testimony before the Committee
on International Relations in the U.S. House of Representatives April 1,
Natsios said "the government seems not to understand that the confiscation of
the large farms by the state and then the giving of those farms to members of
the inner circle of the ruling party and relatives of President Mugabe has
done an enormous amount of damage..." to the nation's food
security.
The seizure of the farms, combined with bad management, has
resulted in an 80% reduction of food crops for this year, a "massive
reduction of food production in the country to a disastrous level," he
warned.
The USAID administrator also told the lawmakers that in a
relatively prosperous country, as Zimbabwe once was, people can usually
survive one year of drought without suffering mass casualties. "They cannot
do it for two years" in a row, he warned, and the second year has
begun.
The Zimbabwean people, Natsios told the committee, were among the
best educated in Africa with a 92% literacy rate, along with an
advanced infrastructure and agricultural system, but Mugabe "literally
destroyed that." Mugabe's Zimbabwe, he said, now stands as "one of the worst
examples in African history of gross mismanagement of predatory government
policy and of tyranny over its own people." Natsios also accused the
Mugabe regime of using food as a weapon, as he said has been the case
in Matebeleland.
"Matebeleland is a region of the country that has
traditionally been in opposition to Dr. Mugabe and his party. They have never
liked him and never voted for him," Natsios said, and the government has
"attempted to shut off all food distributions in those areas and prevents
reporters from going in to see what the consequence is. We are not seeing
mass starvation yet, but with the second year of reduced harvests, we are
going to face famine conditions."
Malnutrition rates are rising, he
warned, and "we have examples in some provinces...of children whose parents
are of the opposition being pulled out of feeding lines and told they will
not eat because their parents supported the opposition candidates in the last
election."
There is a "politicization" of food distribution going on,
Natsios said, but he stressed that the Mugabe government has not been able to
use U.S. food aid as a weapon. U.S. food aid, Natsios told the lawmakers,
"has gone through NGOs and the World Food Programme, and none of it has gone
through the government, nor will it go through the government.
"
Underlying the Zimbabwe crisis is the general African problem
of agricultural development. Natsios stressed the importance of
helping African nations wean themselves from emergency food aid and break
the constant cycles of famine through consistent agricultural
development. Although he cited recent increases in U.S. funding for
agricultural development, Natsios characterized them as woefully short of
what is truly needed.
In 2001, USAID spent $113 million (on
agricultural development); there has been a $50 million increase this year to
$163 million, he said, but that is still not enough. And there are other
competing interests for funding such as HIV/AIDS or environmental issues that
rely on their stronger constituencies to siphon money from agricultural
development.
"If you ask African heads of state, prime ministers, finance
ministers -- not the agricultural ministers who have a vested interest - and
other ministers where we should be putting money in Africa, they will all
tell you agriculture because 80% of poor people in Africa live on the farms,"
he said.
"If you want to reduce poverty, you have to invest in
agriculture," he stressed. As an example, Natsios cited three things that
need to be institutionalized to help Africa and especially Ethiopia survive
its current crisis:
-- Greater use of irrigation on a small-scale.
Citing India as an example, he said that country has not had a famine since
its independence, largely because it practices widespread agricultural
irrigation;
-- The utilization of new varieties of drought-resistant
wheat and maize now being developed through biotechnology in South Africa
that are specifically targeted at the African markets;
-- The
education of the next generation of African scientists to conduct appropriate
research focused on what is needed in Africa.
One of the key factors in
the last item, Natsios said, are the USAID agricultural scholarships that
once played so large a role in improving agriculture in Africa and around the
world. "In 1980, the United States funded 20,000 scholarships a year in
agriculture. Today, that number has shrunk to 900," he lamented.
"I
think it is scandalous that there has been such a dramatic reduction in the
number of scholarships to people from the Third World in
American universities -- to take that technology back to their own countries
and use it for their own benefit. So we are putting a new investment
into [agriculture] scholarships in the United
States."
Macheke/Virginia
lies 90 kilometres due east of Harare. It ranges in height from 1500 metres
above mean sea level (Macheke) down to 1100 metres above mean sea level
(Virginia). Soils mostly low fertility granite sands, some areas of red
soil. Traditionally a not very exciting dry land tobacco, maize and beef
area. After 1980 Macheke/Virginia underwent a farming transformation. Sons
and farm managers started taking over the family businesses. New ideas, and
enthusiasms pursued or created new opportunities. About 25 medium/large-sized
dams were built. Irrigated tobacco was grown alongside dry land.
Hectarage, yield and quality increased dramatically. Horticulture and
greenhouse production became a common feature. Wheat and barley featured in
the farming programme, particularly in the Macheke end of the district. In a
few short years Macheke/Virginia had transformed from a rather drab farming
address into an up-market place to be. Investment, confidence and enterprise
was the order of the day.
My wife and I plus our two married sons were
forced off our three properties 8 months ago. I had spent the past thirty
years working, paying off, investing and improving my farms. I was curious to
see my farms again and to take a look around Macheke/Virginia. We hope
one day to return to our homes and resume farming. I travelled south down the
Macheke-Murewa Road and turned into the Koodoo Range road at the 33 km peg.
My farm buildings were only 200 metres away, already they looked sad,
neglected and unused, long grass everywhere. I carried on for a couple of
kilometres, I wanted to see my dam again. Got a smile and cheery wave from
two of my ex employees. I stopped on the bridge I had built at the head of
the dam, obviously good rains, the dam was nearly full. Three women fishing,
when they recognized me they started waving their arms and shouting
"sekuru". Nice to know that someone misses me. I carried on for two more
kilometres to where I could get a good view of the Munykwe river valley. This
valley is highly arable, quite a bit of it red soil, all irrigable from 3
large dams upstream. Four farms shared this valley and normally at this
time of year it would be carrying a large hectarage of wheat. This year not
one hectare to be seen, nor was there any evidence that summer crops had
been grown. A few huts here and there, they did not look inhabited, no smoke,
no people, no chickens, do dogs and only a handful of mombies. Hundreds
of hectares of unused and unwanted prime land. Just over the crest is
the lat Dave Stevens farm. The awful irony attached to Dave's murder is that
for many years Dave was a strong supporter of Robert Mugabe. I went
back to the Murewa Road and headed down to Maryland Road. Several hectares
of tobacco next to the road. All reaped now, but looks as though it was
a fairly good crop, topped on the high side joined the Virginia Road and
went down towards the club, more of the same. A few huts here and
there, but no apparent increase from when I left. Harvested maize crops small
in size and area, most look as though the yield will hardly cover the cost of
planting. A few contours of sunflower and sorghum, new to the area. Called in
for tea with one of the few commercial farmers lift in Virginia. Says he had
a good tobacco and paprika crop and his cattle are doing well. He has
had a section 8 so he will be closing down soon. Very depressed and not sure
what he will do, probably emigrate. Carried on down the Settlers Road,
obviously been a bit short of rain at some time during the seasons, that's
not unusual for this end of the district. Arrived at the Mutare Road and
turned for Harare, our newly enforced home.
What I had seen over the
previous four hours was shocking and depressing, criminally so in a hungry
and bankrupt country. In my drive I did not see one tractor at work, I did
not see one hectare of land prepared for next year. I estimated the value of
what has been produced in Macheke/Virginia this year will not exceed 5% of
that produced four years ago.
In Harare the fat cat politicians and money
changers call what I have just witnessed land reform. In Macheke/Virginia it
is called poverty. The destruction that has taken place throughout the
commercial farming area is truly mind boggling. Only a rigid Zanu(PF)
mind could describe it as progress or visionary. It was an act of political
vengeance. There is no denying the MDC had wide support in the commercial
farming areas. Land reform was the battle standard under which the
second chimurenga was of liberation was fought. Today the so called
Third Chimurenga is being fought under the same battle standard. The
difference today is the battle standard is no more that a ghost from the
past. The third Chimurenga is a chimera and has no moral content. You may
recall V.I.D.C.O.'S and W.A.D.C.O.'s failed in the past because they were
political impositions. A1 and A2 settlement will also fail because they too
are political impositions. The real wealth of this country which all the
people can share will be generated in the factories, mines, the workshops and
the offices, not in the
fields.
I spent sometime in Zimbabwe in 1982 and visited many farmers there.
In particular I visited some wonderful friends the Hallams (Ruby and
Basil, and I was friends with their son Mike who I believed started to raise
Emu on the farm in Mvuma (sp?)). I have not heard from them in 3-4 years and
am wondering if you have information about them. Was there farm taken?
Are they still in Zimbabwe? etc
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Anya McGuirk Professor Agricultural Economics Virginia
Tech
I have received your Open Letters Forum via the e-mail and am
just wondering if Frank Urquart or Simon Spooner have been able to send
their letters to Interpol so that there may be some way of getting our
message through?
We, as a family, have also written to the British
Government (further to Jack Straw's statement last week) stating our reaction
to the appointment and will let you know if we receive any reply.
I
would appreciate if you treat this message with confidentiality and I look
forward to hearing from
you.
Title: ZTA on Demise of "Zimbabwe's Tobacco" in Farmer's Weekly
11.4.2003
In the article "Zimbabwean Tobacco" of the Farmer's Weekly of
11.4.2003 a report by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) is quoted giving
reasons for the halving of Zimbabwe's virginia tobacco production from 165
-million kg (2001/02 season) to an estimated 85-million kg (2002/03
current marketing season). They are: input shortages, and "uncertainty" in
the farming community. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In the
New York Times of 8 May 2003 (quoted by ZWNEWS), the real reasons are clearly
stated in an article entitled "Zimbabwe at the breaking
point" as:
"Zimbabwe is a mess. There are drastic shortages of food
and fuel, the rates of inflation and unemployment are soaring, coercive land
reforms have shrunk agricultural production, and public frustration is at a
breaking point."
The ZTA has, through its past, and continued policy
and actions of "quiet diplomacy" contributed its share to the demise of
Zimbabwe's vibrant, internationally competitive tobacco production
sector.
Foreign currency is available on the parallel market to source
any input required, including chemicals, fertilisers, and diesel for
transport. Zimbabwe tobacco growers do not use diesel for curing the crop (as
stated by Farmer's Weekly). For the ZTA to call the illegal, violent,
and wholesale eviction of approximately two thirds of Zimbabwe
commercial farmers from their land without due process, unbiased recourse to
the law, or compensation of any kind a factor of "uncertainty" in the demise
of tobacco and commercial farming in general in Zimbabwe, is to be cynical
in the least, and plainly dishonest.
Anyone still a member of this
threatened dinosaur?
On Friday the 2nd May
2003, I went to speak to Mr Chitomba, District Lands Officer for Hurungwe in
his office in Chinhoyi.
I had received a section 5 dated the 10th
January, in January. I lodged my objection with the Ministry of Lands
two weeks after receiving my section 5, and have not heard anything from that
office since then.
As a tobacco farmer, I need to start preparing my
seedbeds now in May so that I can sow seed early in June. I wanted to
know what was going to happen, because on the one side you have President
Mugabe saying at every opportunity that the lands issue is over, then on the
other hand you hear of people getting section eights and sevens.
Mr
Chitomba showed me my section eight form and that of many other
Tengwe people. He told me that all the farms in Tengwe are to be given
section eight's and those that had slipped through the net as far as section
fives were concerned, would be given their fives at the same time followed
by their eights. He then showed me the list of all the Tengwe and Karoi
farms that were to be served with section eights in the middle of May.
He did not want me to make any notes but I could read the list. I
looked for the farms of my children and those of my friends. They were
all on the list.
He then informed me that I would have to be off my farm
by the middle of August. I replied that I could not finish grading my
tobacco before then. He said that I could apply for an extension.
I do
feel that this must be exposed, as the present government is claiming to have
stopped all land reform. They are speaking to farmers, asking them to
please go back to their farms and farm because they have no food or money to
produce it with. The farmers are taking them to court, winning their
cases but with no law and order and police force to evict the squatters off
our lands, it is no point of taking them to court.
Once again it is time for Dairyman of the Year Field Days and AGMs
at Troutbeck.
If I was a dispossessed farmer, the sight of these
farmer jollifications at vast expense would make me quite ill. For many
years we have believed that these Expensive jaunts to high places are in ill
taste, and we maintain this view today, with even greater disgust.
We
cannot condone the "all right Jack" attitude, and we see no cause
for celebration when the viability of Dairy is so poor, when farmers who
are still in business have had to slaughter so many of their animals just
to stay in business, and when so many farmers have been forced from
their homes and businesses.
"So just stay away" Yes, we
will.
(Oh, and we see that there is a bus laid on from Harare - what
about the farmers who live away from the Centre of the World?)
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for
Agriculture.