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COMMERCIAL  FARMERS'  UNION - FARM  INVASIONS  UPDATE
 TUESDAY  23  MAY  2000
 
42 new invasions have occurred over the weekend.  The total number of
farms affected by invasions is 1477, and approximately 953 of those are
currently occupied.
 

Two regions have commented on the increase in Police activity to try and
control the criminal element on the farms.  This is a welcome sign for
CFU members. However, unreasonable demands continue on farmers where
political rallies are being held.
 
 
The Commercial Farmers' Union is to hold a Farmers' Association
Chairmen's conference tomorrow Wednesday 24th May.  This will consider
the implications of the proposed acquisition of 841 farms that it is
understood government is to acquire before the elections, using
Presidential Powers Temporary Amendment legislation.  Under this
scenario, the CFU will discuss how best to maintain the farming
communities, which are part of the fabric of rural society in Zimbabwe.
 
The objective of the meeting is to make positive proposals as to how to
move the land reform process forward in Zimbabwe, in a manner that will
attract both domestic and international support.  Removal of war
veterans from farms currently occupied is considered necessary in order
for Zimbabwe to hold a credible election.
 
The meeting will be followed by a press conference at 12.30 p.m. at
Agriculture House, corner Adylinn Road and Marlborough Drive,
Marlborough, Harare.


REGIONAL  REPORTS
 
MASHONALAND CENTRAL
Centenary - A peaceful group of +/- 200 congregated on Hillbury Farm to
carry out pegging.  Farmers feel that demands for transport and food are
getting out of hand.
 
Victory Block - A meeting is being held between war vets and farmers to
co-ordinate and reorganise the food programme which is being abused.
 
Mvurwi - The owner of Four Streams was not locked in a shed as reported
yesterday, but told to stay in the office after a guard found MDC shirts
in the office.  Police reacted and Comrade Advance reprimanded the
youths. Excessive demands are being made on Govete, Holme Eden and Msasa
farms.
 
Tsatsi - The farmer on Glen Devon was ordered not to plant seed beds but
to reap maize and leave the farm. The owner of Horta was ordered to sign
the farm over.
 
Glendale - A search for arms occurred on Chirobi Farm where nothing
incriminating was found.
 
Mutepatepa/Bindura - Locals from Madziwa invaded Butcombe Farm.
 
Mazowe/Concession - Invasions on Cardriff, Sable Peak, Normandale and
Mazowe Ranch.
 
Shamva - The Manager has been returned to Ceres Farm and situation
returned to normality.
 
MASHONALAND WEST (SOUTH)
Norton - An unknown group entered the house on Wilbred Farm making
threats and allegations. War vets on Idaho Farm are demanding that the
owner cut firewood for distribution to other areas.
 
Chegutu - On Burbank Farm war vets wanted a house from which the army
could carry out land redistribution.
 
Chakari - New invasions and pegging on Newbiggin, Milanwood, and
building of huts on Rondor farm roads.
 
Selous - New invasions on Zimbo Drift, Mout Carmel and Balolutha Farms.
 
Kadoma - War vets are demanding a house on Alabama Farm and movement is
taking place from there to Normany North and Georgia Farms.
 
General - a meeting was held with DISPOL who has promised to deal with
any new invasions, given assurance that no further rallies will be held
during working hours, and stated that farmers should not be compelled to
provide transport for rallies by any political party.
 
MASHONALAND WEST (NORTH)
Ayshire - Work stoppages took place at Cornrise Farm.
 
Raffingora - Movement was reported from Mvurachena to Bassett; war vets
from Nchefu Farm are moving onto Bassett Farm. 
 
Chinhoyi - There have been several new invasions.  A fence was cut to
drive cattle out and one cow was slaughtered for its liver.  Pegging
continues.
 
Doma - A new invasions and negotiations are taking place to allow
another farmer to return to his farm in the area.
 
Tengwe - On Kapena 3 people climbed over the security fence and camped
on the verandah.  War vets have informed the owner of Chitonga Farm that
they intend to hold a rally at the weekend and there will be an
intensification of political activity throughout the area in the next
three weeks.
 
A mob of 70 are pegging along the road from Alaska Farm, Magog,
Maramany, Magondi and Bandira, leaving a presence as they proceed.
 
Banket - Shelters are being erected on Templeton Ranch.
 
MASHONALAND  EAST
At the security liaison meeting yesterday, the new Dispol for Marondera
assured that instructions are now coming down to get lawlessness under
control.  He believes that many criminal acts going on do not get
reported. Instructions have been given by Propol to get patrols going in
the farming areas as is happening in Beatrice.   Dispol reported that
Homicide is making progress on the Stevens case.

Macheke/Virginia - War vet leader Muchemwa has been replaced by Matstsi
after he was abducted in one of the farmer's vehicles.
 
Marondera West - Youths with sticks on Sunday forced people to go to the
Rudhaka stadium and did not allow them to leave for some time.
 
Bromley/Ruwa/Enterprise - No report.
 
Wedza - 7 labourers on Exeter were assaulted on Sunday night for not
attending the rally on Sunday.
On Msasa pegging is ongoing and land prep for next year's crop is being
prevented.
There was an incident on Lamsdone Farm which has since been resolved. On
Markwe a Zanu PF youth fell off a tractor that was transporting them
around, was run over and subsequently died. This has resulted in a tense
situation.
 
Harare South/Beatrice - A few farmers have now returned to their
properties after yesterday's security meeting.  The owner of Portugal is
off his farm at the moment, and invaders are apparently having a field
day poaching and stealing maize in his absence.  Hut building is ongoing
at Greenlands and the farmer of Rocklands has been instructed to move
his cattle off the farm.
 
Marondera South - There was a work stoppage on Monte Cristo this
morning. One farmer has evacuated due to ongoing problems. Daskop has
been warned of an invasion, and on Knotsgrove the invaders have informed
labour that they are going to move into the house. Pegging is continuing
in the district.
 
Featherstone - Another 100 people moved onto Bassault/Featherstone B
yesterday, Pennyfather was invaded but no presence was left.
 
MANICALAND
2 new peggings on Meerbooth and Laverstock farms in Old Mutare where
invaders are cutting down trees and demanding food and transport.
Penhalonga police reacted with weapons within two hours and invaders
have left.  There has been no communication with Chimanimani and  Border
Timbers of Mutare.
 
MIDLANDS
Kwekwe - On Moyo/Erin Ranches verbal abuse continues and it appears that
two war vets have moved into the main house on Erin Ranch. Inogo Farm -
War vets and ZRP have instructed farmer to hand in personal weapons to
ZRP Kwekwe. A tense situation has resulted at Beta Farm.
 
MATABELELAND
Nothing to report.
 
MASVINGO
Mwenezi - Pegging continues on Quagga Pan Ranch and a large influx of
people onto Merrivale Ranch has been reported.  General destruction and
pegging on Klipdrift Ranch is getting out of hand.
 
Masvingo East and Central - Pegging taking place on Heathcote Farm.
 
Gutu/Chatsworth - Farmers have held meetings with politicians.
 
Chiredzi - An invasion into Gona-re-zhou Game Park has been encouraged
by the local MP but not supported by Governor Hungwe.   Violent threats
have been made by war vets to the farm manager of Malilangwe Ranch and
there has been a dispute regarding a vehicle belonging to the ranch.
Dispol   Chiredzi has been notified.

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Two major blows for Zimbabwe government as journalists freed
Zimbabwe Not Ready for Fair Elections-Observers
MDC Support Group Newsletter 21/5/00 Two major blows for Zimbabwe government as journalists freed

HARARE, May 22 (AFP) - Monday, May 22 7:54 PM SGT
The Zimbabwe government suffered two major blows on Monday when the Supreme Court dismissed charges brought by the state against two journalists, and an independent observer group said conditions do not exist for free and fair elections.
In a landmark judgement, the court found that the law under which the state brought the charges against the journalists -- for allegedly publishing false reports -- contravened a section of the country's constitution which allows for freedom of expression.
The journalists, editor of the independent Standard newspaper Mark Chavunduka and senior reporter Ray Choto, were charged with contravening the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act over an article in which they claimed that 23 senior army officers had been arrested over a foiled coup plot.
They faced seven years in jail had they been found guilty.
The court ruled that the charges against them should be dismissed with costs.
"This (judgement) removes this one threat, that if one publishes a false story you're going to be faced with a mandatory prison sentence," said Standard managing director Clive Wilson, who called for the scrapping of the act in its entirety.
He said the judgement gave him confidence that "the rule of law still applies in this country."
Reached by telephone in Sydney, Australia, where he is undergoing psychological treatment for stress he suffered when he was detained by the state after the article was published, Wilson told AFP the judgement was a "victory" for all Zimbabweans.
"We welcome today's judgement since it exposes some of the harsh and undemocratic pieces of legislation currently in use in the country," he said.
"The victory today is not for the Standard journalists alone, but for every Zimbabwean who subscribes to the concept of press freedom and democracy."
Meanwhile, in direct contradiction of last week's Commonwealth observer declaration that free and fair elections were possible in Zimbabwe, a US-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) said conditions were currently absent for democratic polling.
"The conditions for credible democratic elections do not exist in Zimbabwe at this time," former Nigerian vice president Alex Ekwueme, who is leading the NDI team on a pre-election assessment mission, told a news conference.
At least 25 people, most of them opposition supporters, have been killed and more than 100 people have been injured in clashes linked to the June 24 and 25 legislative poll.
"The violence has created an atmosphere of fear and anxiety," Ekwueme said after spending a week assessing the political atmosphere in the southern African country.
An NDI elections associate, Patrick Merloe, said: "The level of violence is unacceptable. ... It is the responsibility of the government, no matter who is perpetrating the violence, to bring the levels down."
Ekwueme warned that the cases of beatings, torture and rape could have "far-reaching effects" in the western Matabeleland area where people are still recovering from the aftermath of atrocities committed by government troops who crushed a rebellion there in the 1980s.
They were accused of brutality including the bayonetting of pregnant women, rape and families being forced to dance on the graves of their dead.
The NDI stressed that because of "serious obstacles" arising from the current violence and uneven electoral framework, the coming parliamentary elections warranted "heightened observation" by the international community.
The Commonwealth and the EU have promised observers for the vote.
The NDI made 10 recommendations which, if implemented in the 33 days left before the elections, could improve conditions.

Zimbabwe Not Ready for Fair Elections-Observers
Monday May 22 1:06 PM ET - By Ellis Mnyandu
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - A U.S.-based election observer group said Monday Zimbabwe was not ready to hold free and fair elections, while the opposition Movement for Democratic Change began a legal challenge against President Robert Mugabe.
Alex Ekwueme, head of the National Democratic Institute's (NDI) mission to Zimbabwe, said a campaign of violence and political intimidation meant ``the conditions for credible democratic elections do not exist in Zimbabwe at this time.''
``The effects of violence and attempts at political intimidation have undermined trust among Zimbabweans in the secrecy of the ballot and have raised fears of retribution for voting against the ruling political party,'' Ekwueme told a news conference in Harare.
But a spokesman for the ruling ZANU-PF dismissed the NDI stance, saying it was based on thin and unreliable evidence.
``It is a premature pre-election statement and it is best based on thin evidence,'' ZANU-PF spokesman Jonathan Moyo said.
``It fails to mention a single case of violence perpetrated by the MDC and creates the impression that all the violence has come from ZANU-PF. That alone makes the entire report unauthentic,'' he said.
The NDI, which has sent teams of election observers to 50 countries worldwide in its 16 years of existence, is a U.S.-based non-governmental organization loosely affiliated to the Democratic Party.

Mdc Seeks Deadline Delay

The MDC launched a bid in Zimbabwe's High Court Monday for a delay in the deadline for nominating candidates for June's parliamentary elections. The court said it would hear further arguments from MDC and government lawyers Thursday. The MDC filed the application Friday amid rising tension between its supporters and backers of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
At least 23 people -- black opposition members, four white farmers and a policemen -- have been killed and hundreds of black farm workers beaten or raped in a three-month campaign of farm invasions and terror that threatens to mar the elections.
The MDC, mounting a tough challenge to Mugabe's 20-year rule, argued that the 76-year-old former guerrilla leader violated the law by setting nomination and poll dates before a commission marking constituency boundaries ended its work. ``We are asking for the nomination deadline to be postponed until after the delimitation commission has reported, which could be done very quickly -- within a few days -- and therefore not affect the election date,'' MDC legal secretary David Coltart told Reuters Monday.
``Alternatively we would want the election to be held in the old boundaries,'' he said from Bulawayo.
The MDC says the May 29 date set for the Nominations Court to screen parliamentary candidates would not give enough time for parties to file nomination papers.

Election June 24-25

Zimbabwe, facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, goes to the polls on June 24-25, a ballot pitting ZANU-PF against the eight-month-old MDC led by former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai.
The six-member NDI team, drawn from Nigeria, Namibia, Mozambique, Canada, Kenya and the United States said conditions in Zimbabwe were such that special measures were needed to ensure fair elections.
It listed 10 conditions it deemed vital for the elections, including an end to violence, inspection of voters' rolls, more broadcast time for the opposition, and free access for election monitors and observers.
The European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to monitor the election and said they wanted former Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen to head the mission of about 150 observers.
In Harare, the Supreme Court dismissed charges against two journalists accused by the government last year of publishing a false report alleging a coup attempt against Mugabe. The court ruled the charges were unconstitutional.

MDC Support Group Newsletter 21/5/00

1. Election and Nomination Dates

Whilst the polling dates of 24 and 25th June, and nominations by 29th May have been proclaimed, the Delimitation Commission has still not published its report. As of today’s date the Voters Roll is still not available to the public for inspection. For nomination purposes there are practical difficulties that this impose. Prospective candidates do not know, for certain anyway, in which constituency they reside. The constituency boundaries are unknown. Candidates are not able to check that they are in fact registered voters in their constituencies (a prerequisite for standing). The same applies for their nominators who also have to be registered voters in the constituency of the candidate. There is no provision for acceptance of nominations after closure, currently 29th May. Thus if the nomination paper is not 100% right on nomination day, your candidate does not get into the contest.

There have been reports in the local newspapers that an interim informal report indicated that some constituencies will be removed, and others created.

Whilst Government have apparently acted within the law, the spirit has not been upheld, and the inadequacies of the law have been used to throw confusion amongst the opposition parties.

The MDC have lodged an application to the High Court to ensure that we have the 14 days (that is implied by the law) from the time of proclamation to nomination day for the purpose of preparing nominators and the required documentation.

If successful this may result in a delayed nomination day, but not necessarily delayed polling date, as we are ready to go to the polls. This case will be heard in the courts this week.

Each candidate needs at least 10, but space exists in the form for 15 nominators. Nominators must have their national registration cards handy and preferably proof of registration as a voter in their constituency. Nomination forms were handed out to candidates at their meeting last Saturday. More may be acquired from the local registrar general’s offices. A senior party official must sign these on behalf of the party. These too must have a letter of authority to do so. Candidates must also sign a declaration of indemnity???

THE PRIORITY NOW IS TO GET NOMINATION FORMS PREPARED AND READY FOR SUBMISSION. PLEASE OFFER ALL POSSIBLE ASSISTANCE AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO GET THESE DONE. WE CANNOT TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT THE COURT ACTION WILL BE SUCCESSFUL. USE NOMINATORS THAT WERE DEFINITELY ON THE 1995 VOTERS ROLL

Prospective Candidates Meeting
A successful meeting of prospective candidates was held in Harare this last weekend and a very positive mood prevailed. Candidates contributed and were briefed on nomination and the electoral process and the party position papers. Only a few constituencies remain to have their candidates confirmed. The official list will only be announced on nomination day.

Support Group Help
The Government sponsored campaign of threats and intimidation on our movement supporters has, without question, had a severe effect on levels of open support. Many supporters have withdrawn altogether, or "gone to ground". The absence of an election date also reduced the urgency.

Now that we have dates it becomes imperative to reactivate our courage and support. The rural candidates and supporters who undoubtedly carry the major burden of threats need maximum support in the lead up in the next few weeks. Candidates are going to need help with transport and logistics especially during this week in arranging their nominations.

We appeal to our supporters to unite and encourage the candidates and their co-ordinating committees to work out what needs to be done.

Thereafter, they will need help in logistics and transport in the training of election and polling agents. Later still will be collection and distribution of pamphlets and posters. Local meetings have to be arranged and the youth wing has to be mobilised for smooth uninterrupted running of meetings.

Monitors, Election and Polling Agents
There are important differences between these. Election monitors form part of the Electoral Supervisory Commission and necessarily do not belong to any political party. The NCA has already trained many of these.

Each candidate may choose one election agent (campaign manager) and enough polling agents for every polling station, 2 per station. Thus there could be as many as 100 polling agents in a constituency. These will have to be trained on the rights and the training of trainers at provincial level has already taken place.

Monitors, election agents and polling agents have right of access to the polling station at all times and the right to witness all the processes within the station, except of course, in the booth.

Candidates will need help with logistics and transport of election and polling agents, both for training and on polling days.

The names of election and polling agents have to be published in a local newspaper, and this will be done at the last possible time. However, it is necessary to have the names, addresses and national registrations ready well in time. Election and polling agents do have have to be registered voters or even Zimbabweans.

5. Polling Days

On polling days candidates will need help with transport between polling stations, and they will need assistance to ensure that an effective communication system of vehicles, cell phones etc. is in place to convey messages up the line in the event of irregularities. Constituencies should report to their provincial structures and they in turn to the national structures. Support groups are now asked to prepare these communication plans and thought should be given to their implementation. The remote rural constituencies will need more organisation than urban ones where it will only be necessary to see that cell phones are in place.

6. Violence

As has been announced in the press, foreign observers will be here soon and this should bring with it a degree of confidence, and hopefully a reduction in the levels of violence. We will let out more information on this when it is to hand. Do not forget the MDC HOTLINE number is 091 240919. Please document all acts of violence and intimidation as they happen, no matter how small, and even if you are too frightened to do anything with it now, you may want to use it later.

Finance

The campaign of intimidation has had a significant detrimental effect on fund-raising. We appeal to all to dig deep as we have now entered the final straight in this important race.

Donations can be made to the MDC Trust Fund, P O Box MP 374, Mt Pleasant, Harare. If you wish your donation to be totally anonymous, then take cash to Pricewaterhouse Coopers at Arundel Park in Harare, or contact the support centre in Harare on 091 367 151/2 or in Bulawayo on 011631 229-30 for further advice.

Keep up the momentum!
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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION - FARM INVASIONS UPDATE
WEDNESDAY 24 MAY 2000

REGIONAL REPORTS

MASHONALAND CENTRAL
Tsatsi - 15 people purported to be lead by a war vet, invaded Sandown Farm yesterday afternoon.
Victory Block - Large numbers of communal area cattle grazing in the district. 6 labourers assaulted during an all-night pungwe on Birkdale Farm. Mvurwi - two new death threats received.
Mazowe/Concession - Southmoor Farm told in anonymous phone call to fire supervisor purported to be involved with MDC, or risk personal assault. Glendale - Work brought to standstill on Brawlands.
Nyabira - a new invasion on Middle England occurred today

MASHONALAND WEST (SOUTH)
Norton - There has been a significant reduction in winter cropping on Parklands and Merton Park with continued theft on Parklands. Owner of Idaho Farm has left due to death threats.
Kadoma - Invaders on Normandy North have based themselves next to the school, upsetting the headmaster.
Chakari - ZANU PF rally held on Balwearie this morning - no further details to hand.

MASHONALAND WEST (NORTH)
Karoi - Youth wing continue to demand that labour attend meetings. On Jenya Farm farmer forced to slaughter cow in exchange for allowing his herd to graze.
Threatened to cut fences. Karoi farmers have been asked to make donations to ZANU PF.
Raffingora - Task Force dealing with work stoppage on Cornrise Farm caused partly by invasion and partly by assumed right to stay because of an ancestral belief. ZANU PF wearing MDC tee shirts. Large meeting to be held on Chinhomwe Estates at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday, to be addressed by Minister Chombo.
Tengwe - ZRP have dispersed verandah invaders on Kapena Farm. Pegging reported in the area of Rhodes and Quo Vadis farms.
Chinhoyi - Invaders removing wood from stumped land near Lions Den for sale at Shackleton and Alaska. At Mutala Farm demanded that farmer shoot kudu for food.

MASHONALAND EAST
Macheke/Virginia - A meeting is to be held this afternoon to choose the new war vet representative.War vets are pegging Rifle Range which is State property. Marondera South - Small invasion on to Lendy, demanding goods from farmer. They left to bring back-up but were intercepted and the situation has been defused. 11 peggers have moved on to Mutemwa to build permanent homes. Police have taken petrol from Tranquility and Chipesa farms without permission.
Marondera North - New invasion on Rocklands yesterday and increased numbers on Surrey. 4 War vets demanded details of all surrounding farms from Lockwat Grove. Aggressive invasion on Longlands, but situation defused. War vets called immediate meeting with labour at Mukwa Farm during working hours, without prior notice.
Beatrice - 100 people moved onto Zanka and sat around all day. Presumed to be waiting for arrival of people who had pegged previously.
Positive meeting held between owner of Rocklands and war vets who have left contact number in case of any further problems.

MANICALAND
Task Force meeting in progress. Nothing further to report.

MATABELELAND
Beit Bridge - Invasion on Twin Rivers (Jopempi). A safaris operator in the area has been told not to allow any hunting and this has prejudiced a German hunter who was already on the property.
Nyamandhlovu - 4 of the 6 remaining war vets on Hilton Farm are at the old homestead and 2 are building shelters at the lower end of the farm. Preventing farmer from cutting grass for stockfeeds as they require it for thatching. 6 War Vets and 100 locals held peaceful meeting with owner of Spring Grange at the homestead. Left peacefully but intend to return.
1000 hectares of Standish pegged on Sunday, deposit charged for allocation and monthly fee payable. Gained entry to homestead by cutting lock and chain from gate.

MASVINGO
Chiredzi - All fencing surrounding Ngwane Ranch has been stolen by war vets who have advised of a meeting to be held in the area between farmers and war vets next week. Have told farmer to remove his farm manager.

MIDLANDS
Gweru East/Lalapanzi - 50 Invaders claimed Hillside Farm, broke electrical fence, demanded farmer's weapons and ordered cattle to be removed. Lalapanzi Police arrived but would not act. Shurugwi Police have subsequently called to say they are in possession of the weapons which will be returned on presentation of licences. Weapons and ammunition also taken from Palsworth Farm. Managers of Central Estates have been warned not to report to CFU.
Shurugwi - Youths from Highlands Farm (not War Vets) have warned farmer not to return to Edwards/Outward Bound. Owner not allowed access to Highlands Farm where war vets and youths are aggressive and stolen enormous amount of goods, including meat from freezer in homestead. Harrassing visitors to farm.

OTHER
There will be a further Stress Management Seminar – due to demand – on Friday 9th June at 9am, Agriculture House, Marlborough. Please book early.

Those wishing to make donations to the Widows Fund can forward cheques made payable to the Commercial Farmers’ Union for onward distribution.

Donations for farm workers should be made to the National Employment Council and further information can be obtained from the ALB, Agriculture House, Marlborough – Mrs S Wooler.

The CFU has a database of offers of help for displaced farmers both local and international. This includes offers of accommodation, families overseas willing to give refuge to farmers’ children, etc.

For further information on any of the above please contact Jan Wentworth – janwe@cfu.co.zw or Nicky Petersen – nickyp@cfu.co.zw Phone 309800 P O Box WGT 390, Westgate, Harare.

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HARARE, May 24 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has enacted special powers to allow the seizure of white-owned land without paying compensation -- just a month before parliamentary elections, a presidential spokesman said Wednesday.
The law was published in the official gazette late Tuesday, spokesman Munyaradzi Hwengwere said.
The law clears the way for government to take over 841 farms it has identified for redistribution to landless blacks but which have been the subject of a protracted court battle between government and the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU).
The action came under fire from commercial farmers and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
CFU president Tim Henwood warned that such an "accelerated resettlement proposal" would have severe implications for production.
"As the accelerated resettlement proposal does not envisage providing any infrastructure to people being resettled other than the availability of water, it must be assumed that in the initial phase at least production will be at subsistence levels.
"It is, therefore, assessed that net loss of production will initially be in excess of five billion Zimbabwe dollars (132 million US dollars)," he said.
CFU director David Hasluck said the CFU believed that the government at this stage was not able to seize the farms, as it had not yet published a full list of the properties to be seized.
"If they do intend to take the land they'll have to publish a list notifying the owners. Until they do, this legislation does not have any force and effect in respect of the original 841 farms."
Parliament amended the constitution in April. Mugabe had to amend the Land Acquisition Act of 1992 because Parliament was dissolved last month.
Using his Presidential Powers Temporary Amendment Act, President Mugabe was able to amend the act without first having to gain the consent of parliament.
It is regarded by government as a key step in resolving a crisis that has seen thousands of landless blacks -- mostly liberation war veterans -- occupying more than 1,400 white-owned farms since late February, with the blessing of Mugabe.
The president's opponents, however, claim Mugabe is using the row over the land imbalance -- in which some 70 percent of the country's prime agricultural land is owned by 4,000 or so white farmers - to win votes before the June 24-25 parliamentary poll.
They say Mugabe has had since 1987, when special laws were passed allowing for the redistribution of land, to resolve the problem but has only now raised issue because he fears he may lose the poll.
MDC legal spokesman David Coltart told AFP the publication of the measure "was the act of a desperate despot who is trying to give legitimacy to an act which is unlawful and immoral."
"The president is not entitled to use special presidential powers for such a purpose," Coltart said.
"The act is quite clear that these special powers can only be used in urgent situation. This is not a situation of urgency."
He said the government had had since 1987 to resolve the land problem.
"To enact this legislation just four weeks before an election is simply a political gimmick."
"I have no doubt that if the case is taken to the Supreme Court, the president will be shown to have acted not just in breach of the Presidential Powers Act but in breach of the constitution."
War veterans leader Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi last week said the law would defuse violence linked to the farm occupations.
"We're set to fairly redistribute land and that should answer the questions and the problems of the people of Zimbabwe," Hunzvi said.
Four white farmers have been killed and scores of farmworkers beaten in the land invasions.

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Z I M N E W S
From News24, 24 May 2000

ANC questions whether Zim poll can be free

Parliament – The African National Congress has questioned whether free and fair elections are possible in Zimbabwe because of the political violence and intimidation in that country. In a notice of motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the ANC condemned the loss of human life, brutality and thuggery in Zimbabwe. Last month it also moved a motion urging MPs to condemn the continuing loss of life and destruction of property in that country, despite silence from President Thabo Mbeki who has opted for quiet diplomacy rather than the big-stick approach. ANC MP Dr Pallo Jordan, who gave notice of the motion on Tuesday, called on Parliament to acknowledge that the loss of life, brutality and thuggery, severely compromised the possibility of a free, fair and credible election. He called on all role players in Zimbabwe to ensure a free and fair election that would be to the credit of that country and the continent.

While Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon believes free and fair elections can take place in Zimbabwe next month, the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which sent observers to Zimbabwe, said on Monday that conditions for credible democratic elections did not exist. The elections will be held on June 24 and 25. At least 25 people, mostly opposition party members, have died, more than 100 people have been seriously injured and thousands have fled their homes in escalating political violence.

From Reuters, 24 May 2000

South Africa's Mbeki says Zimbabwe ready for poll

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON - South African President Thabo Mbeki has dismissed suggestions by a U.S.-based election observer group that Zimbabwe is not ready to hold free and fair elections next month. "We don't agree ... It is not correct to be making any prejudgments. If you stand there a month before the elections and already discredit them, I don't think that is correct," Mbeki told reporters while on a state visit to the United States. The National Democratic Institute's (NDI) mission to Zimbabwe said on Monday that a campaign of violence and political intimidation meant the conditions for "credible democratic elections in Zimbabwe do not exist at this time". The NDI, which has sent teams of election observers to 50 countries worldwide in its 16 years of existence, is a U.S.-based organisation loosely affiliated with the Democratic Party. Zimbabwe's first black chief justice said on Tuesday that the mayhem released by President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party was out of control and that the June 24-25 elections would not be free or fair. At least 23 people - black opposition members, four white farmers and a policeman - have been killed in a three-month campaign of farm invasions and violence. Mugabe, who insists the elections will be free and fair, has refused to call off hundreds of self- styled veterans of the guerrilla war against white minority rule from their occupation of white farms, saying they were addressing the historic injustice of colonialism. Mbeki said the "bad maldistribution of land under the colonial system" had to be resolved in Zimbabwe, where he said half of the land was given to the whites at independence from the colonial power Britain in 1980. On the issue of sending electoral observers, Mbeki said South Africa was sending in parliamentary monitors on Saturday, adding that as many independent observers as possible should be sent to Zimbabwe. "We will look at everything so that before election day, if anything wrong happens, we can sound the alert so that the matter is corrected," Mbeki said. Mugabe is reported to have insisted that observers from Britain be kept out of any Commonwealth or European Union mission to oversee the elections.

Mbeki said it was quite clear that tensions had risen between Zimbabwe and Britain and it would be difficult for British observers to monitor the poll in Zimbabwe in a free and fair manner. "Let the rest of the world go in (and monitor the elections)," Mbeki said.

From Independent Online (SA), 23 May 2000

Zimbabwe war vets on murder, kidnap raps

Harare - A total of 46 Zimbabwe war veterans and government supporters appeared on Monday before a magistrate charged with kidnapping and murder linked to bloody political violence last week, said a state-run news report. The violence, in which members of the ruling Zanu-PF party clashed with supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare's south-western Budiriro suburb, left one person dead and scores injured. Political violence has escalated ahead of parliamentary elections on June 24 and 25, with at least 25 people, most of them MDC supporters, being killed.

The state-run Ziana news agency said the accused appeared in court in seven different groups and were not asked to plead by Magistrate Jefta Makhaza. The state claims the group kidnapped individuals it suspected were MDC supporters last Wednesday and interrogated them about the party. It alleges also that 12 members of the group, who are now facing murder charges, tortured one man, Takundwa Chipunza, for being an MDC supporter. He died later in hospital.

The 12 were remanded in custody to June 5. Their lawyer demanded bail because, he claimed, some of them were injured in the clashes with the MDC supporters and were not receiving medical attention in prison. "They were not given soap to bath and it is not good because some have wounds which were caused by MDC supporters," said lawyer Pisirayi Kwenda. A number of war veterans had head wounds and some still had blood-stained clothes when they appeared in court, the report said. The other 34 accused, who are not facing the murder charge, were remanded in custody until Wednesday.

Three MDC supporters appeared separately in the same court to answer charges of damaging three houses belonging to Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) supporters in Budiriro. The three were remanded in custody until Wednesday.

From Independent Online (SA), 23 May 2000

Zanu-PF pins election hopes on war vets

Harare - A senior member of Zimbabwe's ruling party has admitted they could be trounced by the new opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in next month's elections. Eddison Zvobgo, Zanu-PF secretary for legal affairs, was quoted by the independent Daily News as saying that a February referendum rejecting a government-backed constitution was an early indication that the MDC could win the parliamentary vote. "We are afraid that history can repeat itself and we can lose the elections," said Zvobgo, who is also a minister without portfolio, at an election rally in the southern town of Masvingo. "We really have tough homework because the MDC poses a serious challenge," said Zvobgo.

He said he was grateful that the invasions of white-owned farms by war veterans in the run-up to elections had helped the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) regain some of its lost support. "If the former fighters had not invaded the farms, then we could be facing serious trouble," he said, adding: "The invasions helped the party to garner support from the people."

Veterans of the country's war of independence have spearheaded the often-violent occupations of more than 1 300 white-owned farms since February. Zvobgo, the first ruling party official to openly admit the threat posed to its continued rule by the labour-backed party, said however that none of the present MDC officials had enough leadership ability to run Zimbabwe.

United States-based pre-election observers from the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs have said Zimbabwe is not ready for free and fair elections because of high levels of violence and intimidation of the electorate in the run-up to the vote, set for June 24 and 25. At least 25 people, most of them opposition supporters, have been killed and more than 100 people have been injured in election-related violence.

From Reuters, 23 May 2000


Zimbabwe violence spreading to town schools
By Jeremy Lovell

HARARE - Zimbabwe's political violence is spreading from the countryside to schools and businesses in urban areas as general elections approach, according to the main opposition party and other witnesses. "At least 80 schools have been forced to close either for a day or for longer as teachers have been abducted and beaten for allegedly supporting the opposition," one senior teacher told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "In one case that I know of, one teacher was saved by his seventh grade pupils. But they (attackers) still came back to get him later and take him for a beating," he added.

In the latest incident ahead of elections next month, suspected supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government briefly raided a secondary school in the hamlet of Raffingora north of Harare on Monday. A school spokesman said the invasion ended peacefully after police arrived and chased the assailants off. Mugabe has denied that his party is organising a campaign to intimidate opposition voters and has told Commonwealth leaders he is committed to a free and fair election due on June 24-25.

A spokesman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) countered: "They are targeting anyone who can read and write." The Zimbabwe Teachers' Association, which represents 52,000 of the country's 95,000 teachers, condemned the school attacks. "The teachers' association is concerned about the violence in the schools thatt is disturbing the schooling of children, particularly those nearing mid-year exams," Association Chief Executive Peter Mabande told Reuters. At least 23 people, mostly blacks, have been killed, hundreds have been beaten or raped and many others forced to flee their homes during government-sponsored land invasions and political intimidation in the past three months.

Mugabe has said the invasions by ZANU-PF supporters and war veterans of more than 1,000 of Zimbabwe's 4,500 mainly white-owned commercial farms is justified because land redistribution has been far too slow. Critics and opponents say the campaign is aimed at diverting public attention from the collapsing economy and creating a smokescreen to hide daily beatings and political indoctrination. ZANU-PF is facing its strongest electoral challenge in 20 years since independence from Britain, but Mugabe himself will not have to submit to new elections until 2002. The government has accused Britain of reneging on past promises to help settle the thorny land redistribution issue and laid the blame squarely at Whitehall's door. But Zimbabwe's first black chief justice, Enoch Dumbutshena who retired in 1990, said the government itself had rejected proposals for land resettlement put forward by the farmers. "It is a betrayal. These people were told that one of the purposes of the war was to give the people land - a legitimate expectation as far as Africans are concerned. But the government has failed them," he told Reuters in an interview. The ongoing violence has prompted many white farmers to consider moving to neighbouring Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. About three dozen Zimbabwean farmers have bought land in nearby Zambia in the past 12 months. The southern African country's largest farm group said on Tuesday many more farmers had visited Zambia since the invasions began in February. "The ZNFU has received inquiries from Zimbabwean white farmers who have visited with a view to buying ready, developed farms...," Ajay Vashe, President of the Zambia National Farmers' Union (ZNFU), told Reuters.

The turmoil in Zimbabwe has further alienated many foreign donors who last year halted annual aid amounting to $1 billion. "Donors are not going to come on board for quite some time and they will first wait to see the composition of the new government after elections," said private economic consultant Edmore Tobaiwa.

From The Daily news, 23 May 2000
Zanu PF candidate threatens whites in Kariba with death
By Fidelis Zvomuya

Isaac MacKenzie, the Zanu PF candidate for Kariba, has threatened whites in Kariba with death if they support the opposition parties, especially the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). MacKenzie was addressing his first campaign rally at Nyamhunga Stadium in the resort town. Kariba's mainstay, tourism, has suffered a severe knock because of the widespread violence, fuel shortages and general lawlessness. MacKenzie said: "Let me assure you whites here, that once you support MDC, Zanu PF is not going to treat you as business people, but as politicians. Then if you are treated as politicians, it is like signing your own death warrants. The political storm will not spare you. Let you be informed that our reserve force, the war veterans will be set on you."

There were five white people at the rally whose total attendance was in the region of 1 000. He warned the people that any association with MDC was tantamount to signing "your own death warrants, as Zanu PF will spit fire on you". Kariba has also suffered severely because of a slump in the number of visitors. Hotels and holiday outlets have begun retrenching hundreds of workers, while others have been put on forced leave. A premier tourism resort, the town particularly felt the impact last month when it was rocked by scenes of unprecedented violence which saw a sharp decline in the number of visitors to Kariba. "Tourism is the lifeline of this town," said one hotel manager at the rally. "We are having a more than 80 percent downturn in business forcing us to lay off workers. We are surprised the people who should instil tourists’ confidence are fuelling violence making the political temperatures rise again. For the industry to go back to its feet, peace and a free movement of tourists were essential," he said. "We are considering closing down, if business remains like this," he said.

From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
5 Brigade fear grips Matabeleland
Bulawayo – Terrified villagers in Matabeleland South, with fresh memories of the 5 Brigade brutalities, melt away into the bushes at the sound of vehicles as the country experiences its latest wave of political violence.

With the talk in rural areas that the notorious Gukurahundi "5 Brigade" might be brought back, every car seen plying in an area where vehicles are not commonplace, is treated with the utmost suspicion. The villagers’ fears are worsened by the intimidation and beatings meted out by war veterans and Zanu PF youths who threaten all kinds of horror if the ruling party is not voted back in power. During a tour of Wenlock in the Gwanda district, where some people were recently beaten up after a Movement for Democratic Change meeting, numerous villagers were seen disappearing into the bushes.

From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Chidyausiku postpones MDC hearing
Court Reporter

JUDGE President Godfrey Chidyausiku yesterday postponed to Thursday, the hearing on the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s application for an order to delay the dates for nomination of candidates ahead of next month's parliamentary elections. The postponement was to give the Registrar-General, the Delimitation Commission and President Mugabe enough time to respond to the opposition party's charges. The MDC had cited Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, Delimitation Commission chairman, Supreme Court judge Justice Wilson Sandura, and President Mugabe as the respondents, in the application which could see the delay of the eagerly-awaited elections set for 24 and 25 June.

Chidyausiku made the ruling following an application for a postponement by Attorney-General Patrick Chinamasa, who is representing the government. The MDC is arguing that the government had violated the law when it set nomination and election dates before the Delimitation Commission had completed its work.

From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Police officers protest to minister on Zanu PF
Staff Reporter

POLICE officers have protested to Dumiso Dabengwa, the Minister of Home Affairs, against being used to support Zanu PF. A police internal signal, a copy of which was sent to The Daily News, shows that some officers were unhappy with orders allegedly issued by Dabengwa on 1 April, apparently during the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) march. The lawmen told Dabengwa that he should be cautious when issuing certain orders to police officers. The officers, who signed themselves as the "True ZRP Officers Nationwide" do not give details of the orders issued. Part of the signal read: "Exercise extreme caution before issuing orders such as those issued nationwide on Saturday. We represent a vast majority of ZRP officers who do not accept our role as a party police for any political party. We expect the situation to be addressed as a matter of urgency in line with the Criminal Procedure and Evidence and Police Acts and in line with the court's ruling."

The court had ruled the NCA go ahead with the march after the police had told them to cancel it because war veterans were having their march at the same time. The police officers said Dabengwa should comply with their request. "Failure to

comply or a repeat of such orders as issued last Saturday will see us take a stand," they said. Dabengwa said he was unaware of the signal or the orders referred to. Inspector Bothwell Mugariri, the police spokesman, said the signal was fake. "That did not emanate from our system," he said. A peaceful march by the NCA turned riotous after war veterans disrupted it on 1 April. The war veterans accused the NCA of backing the Movement for Democratic Change. Riot police were called in to quell the violence in which the war veterans attacked all and sundry with impunity.

From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Biti calls for tax boycott to bring down Zanu PF
Political Reporter

Harare lawyer, Tendai Biti on Friday said opposition political parties and civic organisations must unite and boycott taxes to bring down the Zanu PF government. "Until we realise that we have to fight that war, we are doomed. Unfortunately most of us are accomplices of Zanu PF," he said. "We have to come together, both civic and political organisations to organise a boycott of taxes and our responsibilities to the government." Biti, speaking on the escalating political violence in the country, said: "We are a country gripped by the forces of evil. People are being killed every day and they are running away from violence, leaving their homes and belongings." He said President Mugabe had replaced Zanu PF, its organs, the politburo and central committee, and was "personalising" the army. There was need for all citizens to fight the government by abdicating their responsibilities as citizens. The government, he said, has failed to perform because of corruption and gross misgovernance. "It is time Zimbabweans came together for us to win this fight. The Movement for Democratic Change or any other political parties cannot do this alone," said Biti.

"The Movement for Multiparty Democracy in Zambia was able to remove the then ruling United National Independence Party led by former president Kenneth Kaunda from power because it was a mass gathering of people and various organisations, and apartheid in South Africa crumbled not because of the African National Congress alone but because of an alliance of the people of South Africa." He said pressure groups and most non-governmental organisations were not doing anything to save the situation that has gripped the country as lives continued to be lost to political violence. The violence perpetrated by war veterans and Zanu PF supporters has seen at least 5 300 people, mostly villagers and schoolteachers, being displaced. The violence started soon after the rejection of the government sponsored draft-constitution in February. At the last count more than five schools, mostly in rural areas have been closed.

From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Chikomba becomes 'war zone’ as Hunzvi fights for support

Chikomba constituency in Mashonaland East province has become a ‘war zone’. The war veterans' leader, Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, is alleged to have unleashed a reign of terror to whip people into backing him in a re-run there of Zanu PF's primary elections.

"What I am waiting for now is a directive from the President,"said a confident Hunzvi back in Harare, "which will come any time now and I am going to have my rally which I want him to address." Hunzvi, excluded from the first primaries as the party's politburo had to decide on his fate because of his pending court cases, says he is the sole candidate for Chikomba, held by former army commander, Retired General Solomon Mujuru. Hunzvi says he has, in his own words, chased Mujuru out. Mujuru declined to comment. Hunzvi is alleged to have deployed former Zipra combatants to conduct a ‘cordon and search’ operation of all known Zanu PF supporters' houses whose residents refuse to support him. They are said to be threatening to kill people not willing to vote for Hunzvi.

The first primaries were won by 42-year-old ex-Zanla combatant, Bernard Constantine Makokove, now in hiding in Harare. Hunzvi denied he had deployed the ex-Zipra fighters, but said almost everyone was backing him for the seat. Former Zipra combatants are said to have terrorised Makokove's stronghold at Masasa, Chivhu, Manyene, Nharira and surrounding areas. "Chikomba has been under-developed for a very long time now and because I'm doing a lot for the country in terms of land redistribution, I know I can do a lot better for the people of Chikomba," said Hunzvi. He claimed the politburo had sanctioned his takeover of the constituency from Makokove. He claimed that Zanu PF politburo members, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Dumiso Dabengwa, were opposed to his bid to enter Parliament and had urged Makokove not to pull out of the race. Dabengwa referred all questions on Hunzvi to the party's secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa and Mnangagwa who was said to be out of the country.

Makokove said he was still the Zanu PF parliamentary candidate for Chikomba constituency. "Zanu PF is trying to pacify Hunzvi by letting him take over Chikomba, which is wrong," a nurse at Sadza hospital said. "People are even scared of coming to seek treatment because of the violence. They have created a monster which they cannot control now." Makokove has lost a truck, allegedly to the ex-Zipra fighters. "My life is under threat but as far as I'm concerned, I'm still the Zanu PF candidate for Chikomba. The people of Chikomba voted for me to represent them," said Makokove. A headmaster told The Daily News most schools had closed and teachers had fled the terror in the area. "In Chikomba it isn’t Zanu PF against the Movement for Democratic Change," said the headmaster. "The terror is due to the former Zipra cadres who are beating up people on behalf of Hunzvi." The Politburo ordered fresh primary elections after approving Hunzvi's participation. People were being abducted, tortured and told to support Hunzvi in the primaries, the headmaster alleged. "They are threatening to kill people who won't support Hunzvi," said a man who refused to be named. "But we will not accept him because we have already voted for a candidate of our choice. If the Politburo wants Hunzvi, then they will have to ask the President to appoint him a non-constituency MP because we have already voted."

From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Sekeramayi threatens commercial farmers
Staff Reporter

THE Minister of State for Security in the President's Office, Sydney Sekeramayi, the Zanu PF candidate for Marondera East constituency, on Sunday threatened unspecified action against white commercial farmers and their workers if it turned out that they were lying that they had changed their allegiance from opposition parties to Zanu PF. Addressing about 10 000 people at Marondera's Rudhaka Stadium, Sekeramayi told white farmers among the audience: "If we eventually find that you were lying to us, we shall meet each other. Like we say in a Shona proverb, 'you can't hide the truth forever'. After the votes, we will see who has been fooling who and we shall deal with each other."

White farmers and their workers, baselessly accused by the government of influencing the black majority to reject the draft constitution in February, have been the targets of violent attacks in a terror campaign aimed at infusing fear of Zanu PF and the government. Sekeramayi advised his supporters to be of exemplary behaviour in the presence of international observers expected to arrive to monitor the polls, set for 24 and 25 June. He accused the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of trying to win the sympathy of the observers by complaining that they were being attacked by Zanu PF when, in fact, they had provoked the ruling party by first attacking its supporters in Mahusekwa, Landas and Marondera. "We don't want people that are violent when the observers are here. Do not be like children who misbehave when there are visitors in the house," said Sekeramayi. "That is what the MDC is doing. They are forgetting that they will still have to deal with us after the observers return to their countries." He said some of the observers were already in Zimbabwe and he did not want them to get an opportunity to write negative reports that the elections were not free and fair in Marondera. Twenty-three people, including four farmers, have been killed since March, disrupting farm operations, preparations for winter cropping and crop harvests. Thousands of farm workers have gone without pay and are spending their time in Zanu PF loyalty classes to cow them into supporting the ruling party, say farming sources. Last Sunday, church buildings, shops, fuel stations, market stalls and even tuckshops in high density suburbs were all closed in Marondera. The minister of State Security in the president's office, Sydney Sekeramayi addressed a 10 000-strong crowd that gathered at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera for a rally that brought business in the town to a complete halt after people had been force-marched to attend the rally. Sekeramayi took the opporunity to display T-shirts and party cards allegedly surrendered by opposition party supporters who joined Zanu PF.

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GWERU, Zimbabwe, May 24 (AFP) - It's all a ploy by the Americans and the British to topple "Comrade Mugabe" and maintain the white man's privileges, according to Munyaradzi Chinodaku and Owen Makamure.

Their view of the situation in Zimbabwe is broadly in line with that of President Robert Mugabe himself, who has repeatedly blamed Britain for the current land crisis, charging that London reneged on promises made more than 20 years ago to fund land reforms in its former colony.
In the dusty little provincial town of Gweru, his two followers aged 20 and 23 squatted on the sidewalk, proclaiming their loyalty to the chief by their choice of attire -- T-shirts advertising the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party -- and sounded off about the real villains.
Support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is "a ploy by the Americans and the British to topple Comrade Mugabe and maintain the whites' privileges," Chinodaku said.
Like half the population, both Chinodaku and Makamure are unemployed. But they are fiercely loyal to the leader.
"Comrade Mugabe liberated the country from oppression during the second Chimurenga (the 1972-79 war for independence from Britain). We owe him everything," said Chinodaku, himself born in the year of independence, 1980.
"We have no first-hand knowledge of this period, but our parents told us how it was and we learned the glorious history of the guerrillas at school," he said.
Both from humble homes, the two youths admitted that the country faces an unprecedented economic crisis with 60 percent inflation ravaging the lives of the poorest.
But they insist it is not the government's fault.
"We had a good life before 1990," Makamure said. "We had state controls on prices, everyone had access to education, there were job opportunities."
They say the economic crisis was imported from the United States and Britain which, they believe, basically run the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In 1990, after a decade of socialist-style state-directed economy, the IMF was brought in and imposed draconian conditions to get Zimbabwe's economy back on track.
This included price deregulation, which immediately provoked a sharp rise in the price of basic commodities such as maize, the main staple food.
"The Americans and the British have found this means to destabilise a country which was too independent for their liking," Makamure commented.
"They work hand in hand with the whites, who are not true Zimbabweans but remained British and want to destroy Zimbabwe from the inside to carry on making profits," he added.
Veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war have led often violent invasions of more than 1,400 white-owned farms since February, and at least 25 people have died in related political violence ahead of elections set for June 24-25.
Mugabe's two young admirers charged that Washington and London wanted to control Zimbabwe by making sure their "puppets" in the MDC are elected.
They called MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai an enemy agent and dismissed his party as a white people's interest group.
Both said they considered the farm invasions legitimate.
"Blacks are merely reclaiming what has been theirs for generations," Chinodaku said. "White people do not want to let the land go, they cling on to it. We have been too patient with them since independence."
The opposition claims that ZANU-PF militants have been involved in the occupations and violence against black farm employees.
Chinodaku and Makamure did not deny the charge, saying they felt duty-bound to defend Zimbabwe.
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Mugabe 'to start land grab within two weeks'
By Anton La Guardia in Harare and Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg

THE Zimbabwean government will begin seizing white-owned farms without compensation within two weeks, a cabinet minister said yesterday. The announcement came amid speculation that President Mugabe is about to announce the date for the general election, probably from early to mid June. With parliament dissolved, his officials said he would adopt special powers to bring legislation into line with last month's constitutional amendment abolishing the need to pay compensation for land taken for the resettlement of peasants.

Asked when the government would begin compulsory acquisitions of white farms, Chen Chimuntengwende, the Information Minister, said: "Within two weeks. The process has begun now. The people cannot wait."

Land reform is expected to be discussed today at the regular cabinet meeting, but there seem to be differences among ministers over how to go about it. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Justice Minister, said the government already had large amounts of land that had not yet been resettled and thought it unlikely that more land would be taken over.

Many of the farms that have been redistributed since independence have gone to Mr Mugabe's cronies. The opposition says that up to two million hectares from previous reform schemes are lying unused in government hands.

But Mr Chimutengwende insisted that the land in government control was not suitable for resettlement. "It is within commercial farming areas, and the peasants need to be resettled near communal areas. You cannot just put peasant farmers all over the country. Some parts of the country are not suitable for crops, but can be used only for ranching."

Leaders of the white farmers said they were expecting the government to make a show of taking some land ahead of the election to highlight its pledge to end the "last colonial question" by redistributing large swathes of white-owned farms to poor blacks.

At least 15 people have died in political violence this year, mostly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The unrest has prompted Britain and other governments to draw up contingency plans for the evacuation of foreign nationals through neighbouring countries.

Reports suggest Britain is considering a military-style evacuation of up to 70,000 of its own and other Commonwealth citizens by gathering them at central urban points and escorting them out in road convoys to South Africa and Mozambique. But any such operation would face formidable logistical problems and most white Zimbabweans say they are determined to stay.

Mr Chimutengwende was scornful about the evacuation plan. He said: "It's not serious. There are many countries where there is worse violence, as in South Africa, and they have not evacuated anybody. How many British people have been attacked on the streets of Harare?"

The South African government said it had no plans to evacuate the many thousands of its own citizens. A spokesman said: "If South Africans were perceived to be specifically under threat then I am sure arrangements would be made to ensure their safety. We believe that no such an emergency is likely and that Zimbabwe's problems are being resolved by negotiations within its own borders."

South African military sources said that because of serious fuel shortages in Zimbabwe substantial fuel supplies would have to be put into place before any road evacuation could be undertaken. There is only one direct border crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe, the narrow and congested Beit Bridge over the Limpopo. Moving many thousands of people over the bridge would take days if not weeks and entail the military control and supply of the entire area on the Zimbabwean side.

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Leader's gaze falls on the ordinary Zimbabweans he betrayed
Zimbabwe: special report
Gary Younge in Harare
Wednesday April 26, 2000
The Guardian

Robert Mugabe looks down from almost every wall at the provincial hospital in Marondera. His mouth is stuck between a grimace and a wince; he wears a thin strand of moustache.

His eyes do not follow you around but are fixed in a glare which is too stern to be avuncular but not piercing enough to be sinister. Omnipresent and omniscient - there is no escaping the father of the nation.

In Ward One lies one of his victims. Florence Mutengiwa was badly burned when supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party smashed the windows in her home, threw grass inside, poured petrol on it and set it alight while she and her husband Ishmael were sleeping.

The attackers locked the door from the outside, leaving Florence and her husband to burn. They were just two of the dozen or so black farmers on the Dean farm near Marondera, east of Harare, who were beaten and burned because they were sus pected of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

They are now in the frontline of the power struggle in Zimbabwe as Mugabe supporters have switched their intimidatory tactics away from white farmers to their labourers - one of the most poorly paid and downtrodden sections of the nation's workforce.

The couple were transported to the hospital in Marondera in the truck of their employer, Craig White. Ishmael, a farm supervisor, escaped with only burns to his hands, others had their arms broken.

Florence was not so lucky. Her top lip, nose, cheeks and forehead are all charred and puffy. Her left eye is nothing but a squint; her head is horrifically misshapen. She is a young woman who did not so much lose her looks as have them brutally taken away from her - possibly forever. Her face is so swollen that she cannot speak.

Outside the ward young men in Zanu T-shirts roam the yard making sure that nobody else speaks either.

A small group of patients admitted yesterday with newly broken limbs shoo the Guardian away as one of the Zanu supporters approaches. A foreman who was killed nearby 10 days ago had his lips cut off and was paraded around the area as a warning to his peers to keep quiet.

Underneath a portrait of Mr Mugabe, the hospital administrator Dr Mojak sits in denial. As a government employee he is almost certainly a member of Zanu.

At the mention of Monday's attack at Dean farm he shuffles nervously and starts to stall. First he says Florence is not there; then that he has no knowledge of her being there; and finally that she is there but it is not possible to see her without first talking to the minister of health.

Because of an influx of patients with cholera and diarrhoea Florence's admission had completely slipped his mind, he insists. "You must go through the official channels," he says, "to protect her human rights."

© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000
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Something rotten at the heart of an ailing country
As African profiteering goes it is small beer, but the consequences have proved disastrous

Zimbabwe: special report
David Pallister
Wednesday April 26, 2000
The Guardian

The head of the armed forces in Zimbabwe is a director of a private company dealing in the mining and trading of gold and diamonds, ostensibly to finance the war effort in the north which is supplied by the general's transport firm.

Another director is the defence ministry permanent secretary whose other benefits include a lease on an 800,000-acre state farm for just over £1 a year.

The agriculture minister has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act with taking £3.5m from public funds and is out on bail. Two other permanent secretaries and the former head of the national oil company are under investigation for fraud.

The head of state's nephew represented a consortium which dubiously won the £1.5m contract to build the capital's new international airport.

His brother-in-law received a record £14,000 payout from the fund for war veterans which has been plundered by members of the ruling elite. A judicial commission alleged that many of the claims were fraudulent.

His young wife, a serious shopaholic, took £100,000 to build a mansion from a public housing scheme. Two years ago, without being lived in, it was put on the market for more than £400,000.

Welcome to Zimbabwe. In the scale of African profiteering, this is small beer, partly because the country does not have the sort of riches that encourage massive illegal expropriation. In Transparency International's index of perceived corruption, Zimbabawe ranks around the middle of 99 nations, along with Brazil, Morrocco and Malawi.

Despite calls for the investigation and freezing of Mugabe's personal assets held abroad, most observers believe that the teetotal and, even at 76, fitness-fanatic president is more interested in clinging on to power than in lining his pocket. He hasn't even been able to buy a presidential jet, though he can commandeer planes from the national airline.

While ordinary Zimbabweans are convinced that he has the mandatory Swiss bank account, most observers are convinced that he cannot match the cupidity of Nigeria's Abacha or Zaire's Mobutu.

The same cannot be said of those who surround him, though it would be an heroic senior civil servant or general in most African countries who denied himself the opportunities to get rich while in office.

The problem for Mugabe is the perception - in a highly literate population - that he has done very little about reining in the excesses of his family and party cronies.

John Makumbe, an academic critic at Harare University, says: "Experience has taught Zimbabweans that the (ruling) Zanu-PF government is very good at setting up all manner of schemes, funds and programmes to benefit the poor and the needy. But soon after gathering the money, it loots everything with impunity for the benefit of big chiefs."

After 20 years in power, it was only this month that the constitution was changed to provide for an anti-corruption commission and the fraud squad started to make some very high level arrests of officials and executives in key state organisations.

In a country that ranks 130 out of 174 in the United Nations human development index, and where life expectancy has dropped to an alarming 44 years - due to the Aids crisis - the flagrant abuse of state funds has become a critical election issue. Last July, Mugabe publicly recognised the problems with this admonition to his cabinet about the way contracts are awarded. "I know they are buying you for tenders and that some of you are accepting huge bribes, but can you have the courage to say to them you've lost the tender at the end of the day?"

The most serious scandal since independence in 1980 concerned the war veterans fund - compensation for the very people that Mugabe is now using as his political stormtroopers. General Vitalis Zvinavashe, the army commander now in private business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where 11,000 Zimbabwean troops are based, claimed 55% disability. Police commissioner Augustine Chihuri petitioned for 20% and his deputy Godwin Matanga for 92%.

The opposition MP Margaret Dongo said: "There are so many cabinet members, army officers and police officers who are claiming funds for serious disabilities, it is a wonder the government can function at all." Judge Chidyauysiku, who conducted an investigation into the scandal, just managed to keep his sense of humour. Confronted by a 92% disability claim from a former Zanu-PF MP of considerable girth, he remarked laconically: "I see here that one of your claims was for loss of appetite."

The ordinary veterans lost out, too, on the distribution of state-owned tenant and commercials farms. But Zimbabwe's democratic process, however skewed, does allow light to be shed on these matters. It was Mrs Dongo, the president of the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats, who asked for and was given a list of all farms leased out since 1990. Recipients of government munificence include the attorney general, the cabinet secretary, several civil servants and prominent business people.

Transparency does not exist, however, in Zimbabwe's 20-month involvement in the DRC in support of President Kabila against the Uganda and Rwanda-backed rebels. Mugabe's government has urged local business to take advantage of the economic opportunities in minerals-rich Congo, and his senior people have been enthusiastically showing the way to pay for a war costing up to £60,000 a day.

Besides General Zvinavashe's gold and diamond company, Olseg Private Limited, which is a joint venture with a company owned by the Congolese military, Zimbabwe also has an interest in the DRC's other main asset, the cobalt and copper mining enterprise, Gecamines.

For a year until last November, the chairman of Gecamines was the South African-based Zimbabwean entrepreneur Billy Rautenbach, introduced to Kabila by Mugabe's right-hand man and principal deal-maker, the justice minister Emerson Mnangagwa. For reasons that are still unclear, Kabila sacked Rautenbach last November just as he was placed under investigation in Johannesburg for fraud, tax evasion and alleged involvement with organised crime. Last September, the Zimbabwean magazine Legal Forum described the country as a "racketeering state" characterised by minimal economic development, stagnation leading to recession and unbridled greed by the ruling elite. Little wonder that President Mugabe and his friends are not keen to take a rest.

© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000
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