http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Emailed report from an MDC official
26 May 2009
PASTOR
BEREJENA was abducted in a white vehicle
The MDC received a message today
that at 4pm on Monday PASTOR BEREJENA was
abducted in a white vehicle. No
further details available.
Pastor BEREJENA has been a close spiritual
friend of the Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and has also been a spiritual
strength to so many of the
victims of policital violence over the past 14
months.
He has been concerned for some time about strange people and
vehicles
shadowing him. Is it a crime to be a man of God in Zimbabwe today?
Have we
stooped so low that the legal and Church fraternity cannot do their
job???
Please pray for his safety. Please pray that the word of GOD will
reach the
abductors, through him, and that the abductors will SEE THE LIGHT,
that they
will see that brutality and torture is NOT THE WAY.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Nqobizitha Khumalo
Tuesday 26 May 2009
BULAWAYO - One of Zimbabwe's biggest
state hospitals, Mpilo Central
Hospital, can barely function after the
government allocated it a paltry
US$3 600 to cover costs for six months
compared to US$115 000 dollars the
institution requires to pay bills and
other costs in a single month.
Authorities said conditions at Mpilo, the
biggest referral centre in the
southern half of the country, had crumbled
because of a shortage of funds
with the state of decay at the institution
vividly illustrated by the old
hospital mortuary - overcrowded with corpses
and heavily infested by rats.
The mortuary is said to carry at any given
time more than 10 times the
number of bodies it was designed to hold while
senior officials said there
have been cases when corpses were found nibbled
at by rats.
"The rats are a menace and they are blocking the compressor
for the mortuary
and we are appealing for funds so that we can fumigate the
entire hospital,"
said Mpilo director of operations Duduza Moyo, speaking as
Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara toured the hospital at the weekend to
assess
conditions.
Mpilo chief executive Lindiwe Mlilo told Mutambara
that her institution did
not have cash to provide food, laundry services,
blankets, uniforms,
medicines or basically everything anyone would expect a
hospital to provide
its patients.
Mutambara toured hospital wards
where many toilets had broken down ages ago.
He toured the overcrowded old
mortuary and also visited the "new mortuary"
that has been under
construction since 2000.
Hospital authorities told Mutambara that
Treasury had not allocated more
funds for completion of the new
mortuary.
Zimbabwe's dilapidated public health sector - once a shining
example to
Africa - reflects the decayed state of the country's key
infrastructure and
institutions after a decade of acute
recession.
Thousands of doctors and nurses have fled the southern African
country over
the past decade to seek better paying jobs in neighbouring
countries, Europe
and other far away places - further straining a public
health sector that
was already on its knees due to under-funding, drugs
shortage and an
overload of HIV/AIDS cases.
A unity government formed
last February by President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has promised to revive the economy and to restore
health,
education and other basic services.
But the administration could fail to
deliver on its promise unless it is
able to unlock vital financial support
from Western donor governments that
have remained reluctant to provide aid
until they see evidence that Mugabe
is committed to genuinely share power
with Tsvangirai. - ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16945
May 25, 2009
By Raymond
Maingire
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has declared in no uncertain
terms that
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono will not leave
office before
his second term of office expires in 2013. Mugabe said there
was nothing to
justify local and international calls for Gono's ouster
saying the central
bank chief was not a thief.
He said clamouring for
his dismissal was, therefore, a waste of time.
The Zimbabwean leader said
Gono was being unfairly victimized for his
initiative and industry since his
appointment in 2003 when sanctions
affected Zimbabwe the most, leaving
government on the verge of collapse.
"The Reserve Bank became our
salvation," Mugabe said. "That is where all
assistance came from -
scotch-carts, ploughs, seed, fertiliser even buses.
"The farmers obtained
assistance from the bank so they could sustain the
population which remained
strong as a result. It is Gono who sustained us."
Mugabe was speaking in
Shona.
"That is the crime he is alleged to have committed," he said,
"that he stood
by the government of this man, Robert Mugabe. We must
collapse so that there
is regime change in Zimbabwe."
Mugabe was
addressing mourners who gathered for the funeral service of Peter
Tungamirai
Gono (57), the elder brother to the central bank chief, who died
on Saturday
after an illness. He will buried in Buhera Tuesday.
Several top
government officials and the service chiefs attended the
service.
Mugabe said, "And today those in Britain and elsewhere are
not happy that he
is where he is, still (at) the top of the Reserve
Bank.
"Even in the country, in the inclusive government, there are people
who do
not want him. They want him to go.
"I say he will not
go.
"They won't listen to that. They still want him to go. Mhosva yake
ndeipi?
Haana shereni kana cent raakaba (What is his offence? He has not
stolen a
single cent). He is not a thief, he is not a robber."
Mugabe
(85) was referring to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), his
new
partners in the coalition government, who have relentlessly campaigned
for
Gono's removal.
The MDC, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, says
Gono's appointment by
the Zimbabwean leader was in violation of the Global
Political Agreement and
the Memorandum of Understanding which it signed last
year with Mugabe's Zanu
PF.
Gono, reappointed for his second term in
November last year, has publicly
admitted that he invaded private foreign
currency accounts and used the cash
which the reserve bank has not been able
to reimburse.
The MDC is agitated by the continued tenure of office of
Gono when foreign
governments and the donor community have made if patently
clear they will
not disburse much needed economic assistance to Zimbabwe
while Gono remain
in office.
The MDC, which appointed the Minister of
Finance in the inclusive
government, accuses Gono of fueling what had become
the world's highest
inflation - of 230 million percent - through printing
loads of bank notes
which were mysteriously offloaded onto the black market
days before their
official introduction by the central bank.
It also
accuses Gono of abusing the central bank funds to bankroll Mugabe's
violent
election campaign for the June 2008 presidential election which it
says
claimed more than 200 of its supporters.
In March 2007, Gono infuriated
the MDC when he allegedly rewarded with lunch
perks police and state
intelligence agents who were alleged to have
brutalized Tsvangirai and some
MDC top officials who had defied a police ban
on a prayer march organised
under the auspices of a group of local churches.
Tsvangirai was treated
for head injuries after being brutally assaulted by
police officers and
suspected Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
operatives while in
custody at Machipisa Police Station in Harare.
In a lengthy letter
written to Tsvangirai two weeks ago, Gono demanded to be
protected by
Tsvangirai's from Finance Minister Tendai Biti who is the MDC
secretary
general. Gono alleged that Biti was victimizing him for his
enterprise in
sustaining Mugabe's government, albeit through unorthodox
means.
Biti
who has labeled Gono as an economic terrorist, who deserved to be
placed
before a firing squad, has not concealed his total dislike for
central bank
chief.
Tsvangirai said last week his party had referred its recurrent
deadlock with
Mugabe's Zanu-PF over Gono and Attorney General Johannes
Tomana back to
SADC, brokers of the Global Political
Agreement.
Mugabe's renewed support Gono will rile Tsvangirai and the MDC
leadership
who have virtually made the departure of the central bank
governor and the
Attorney general a condition of their remaining in the
government of
national unity.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
26 May 2009
Mugabe's statement on Gono
unacceptable
The statement by one of the principals that Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono is not going anywhere confirms that there is a
deadlock
over the central bank chief and the Attorney-General, Johannes
Tomana.
The MDC believes that the issue of Gono and Tomana is a political
hygiene
issue which stems from their unprocedural and unilateral
appointments which
were in violation of the letter and spirit of both the
Global Political
Agreement of 15 September 2008 and the Memorandum of
Understanding of 21
July 2008.
The RBZ governor, as confirmed by
Mugabe himself, was at the epicenter of
the erosion and corrosion of the
integrity of the central bank. Senior
appointments are embodiments of
confidence or lack of it.
The governor has created skepticism among
Zimbabweans and international
partners as to whether Zimbabwe can mount a
successful reconstruction
programme.
It is our understanding of the
SADC communiqué was that the issue of Gono
and Tomana was supposed to be
handled by the inclusive government. The
position of one principal on the
issue of Gono or Tomana cannot constitute
the position of the inclusive
government. There are three political parties
in the inclusive government
and any decisions and pronouncements must
reflect this new
arrangement.
In the same vein, in the absence of a forensic audit of the
RBZ, Mugabe
cannot be allowed to say that the RBZ never misappropriated a
single dime as
he told mourners in Buhera at the weekend.
The issue
is not about personalities but about principles and values; it is
about
creating strong national institutions that are transparent and
accountable.
The central bank and the Attorney-General's office are standing
between
Zimbabwe and progress. They are standing between the people of
Zimbabwe and
their happiness. They are the difference between poverty and
development.
They are a national impediment to real take-off in the
reconstruction
efforts.
It is the MDC's conviction that this deadlock over the AG and
Central Bank
governor is ripe and ready a matter for SADC and the AU to play
the role of
the umpire. We call upon SADC and the AU, as the guarantors of
the GPA, to
adjudicate over this issue as a matter of urgency because it
shakes the
foundation and threatens the health, stability and life of the
inclusive
government.
The MDC further calls upon the disputed
occupants of the two offices to put
the country first; to put national
interest ahead of personal interest. The
disputed occupants must do the
honourable, acceptable and expected thing and
save the country. The real
issue is about food, jobs, health, education, the
economy, a poor road
network and dilapidated infrastructure. The said
individuals must not be
allowed to overwhelm the government with peripheral
side-shows.
As a
party of excellence, we believe in accountability, transparency and
integrity. Together with the people, we will continue to march towards a new
Zimbabwe.
MDC Information and Publicity Department
| ||
|
Interview Broadcast 22 May
2009 Lance Guma: Hello Zimbabwe and welcome to another edition of
Behind the Headlines. My guest this week is Nelson Chamisa, the Minister of
Information, Communication and Technology in the current coalition government.
Mr Chamisa, thank you for joining us. Nelson Chamisa: OK thank you, how are
you? Lance: I’m OK Mr Chamisa. Now firstly the principals to
the unity agreement have agreed to leave your ministry intact after Mugabe had
unilaterally taken the communications sector away from you. Now aside from the
interception of communications which has been hived off to the ministry of
transport, are you relieved the matter has been
settled? Chamisa: Well yes. You must also remember that I’m supposed
to be in charge of Trans-media and broadcasting but you’ll see that those have
already been given to Media, Information and Publicity so it was a question of
an amicable and compromise position in terms of resolving this issue. I’m
reasonably satisfied but of course I would hope that in the interests of the
country and in the interests of the people of Zimbabwe and indeed the continent
we need to move with the trends to the convergence of broadcasting and telecoms
into what is called the ICT, its imperative. Lance: There are a lot of people who feel that ZANU PF
and Mugabe have given with one hand while taking with the other. Is there a
feeling that this is what they have done? Chamisa: Well not necessarily, I mean this is part of a
process. The ICTs are basically supposed to be dealing with all the technology
that have to do with the dissemination of information and the transaction of
communication and these obviously range from your TV sets, your radio, your
gadget hardware, issues to do with the software that enables that to be
possible, issues around your mobile, storage of information on the iPod, you
talk about devices the iPhone, even the platforms and applications like Twitter,
FaceBook. All these applications are very crucial to understand in the context
of the global trend but I must say that in Zimbabwe we are lagging behind so
even in terms of the appreciation from a paradigmatic point of view of what we
are trying to do in the ICT, there wasn’t that appreciation so I feel that yes,
we are moving forward and you know that the walls of government aren’t usually
that fast I’ve no doubt that in the shortest possible time we should be able to
have the convergence like what is the case in other
countries. Lance: Before I move to your plans in terms of the
development of ICT, I just have one more question. Is there any particular
reason why the MDC felt retaining control of these spying functions previously
under your ministry was not important? There’s a general worry that ZANU PF will
abuse this. Chamisa: Well like I said, this is an inclusive government.
It is a creature of compromise, a creature of a diluted vision of the MDC and
therefore we did not get things the way we want them. It is not the ideal but
the reality is that what we have is basically what is attainable and achievable
within our own situation and context and I’ve no doubt that the issue of spying
is a thorn in the flesh for the people of Zimbabwe. I know the controversies
around, the discomfort around that piece of legislation but we must appreciate
that such is the situation with our compromise circumstances and we would want
to obviously find an amicable way forward. Spying and snooping people’s phones I
don’t think is something that is quite necessary in the long
run. Lance: You’ve laid out an ambitious plan in terms of the
development of ICT in the country and at one time you were quoted as saying:
“You want the herdsmen in the rural areas to call each other about their lost
cattle”. Now a proper ICT framework means opening up of democratic space, do you
think your colleagues in ZANU PF are ready and will embrace this
easily? Chamisa: We have one government and that government is an
inclusive government with its different shades of political opinion and I’ve no
doubt that whatever decisions we do, they are done in the context of collective
responsibility and collective accountability. The policies that we have
enunciated and articulated in the 100 day programme are policies that have been
endorsed by Cabinet, by the entire Cabinet, in fact the entire government, both
ZANU PF and MDC have adopted our programme. It’s not a Chamisa programme neither
is it an ICT ministry programme per se. It is a government of Zimbabwe programme
particularly the Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme document and also the
100 day plan. So the various benchmarks and yardsticks we have set ourselves,
are those which we feel are attainable and are for the good of the country both
from a democratic space point of view and also from a reconstruction point of
view because what we need to do is obviously to have time for reconstruction,
its time for building. We need to make sure that we come together to build our
country and of course from my point of view I don’t see impossibilities, I see
possibilities. I don’t see obstacles, I see opportunities. I don’t see
challenges, all I see is success and I have no doubt that we are going to make
it even within the context of the inclusive
government. Lance: A few months ago you instructed POTRAZ to issue
Econet with a licence for their 3G service, a lot of excitement in the industry,
what has been the progress so far of this particular
initiative? Chamisa: Well it was not just for Econet. You see the 3G
licence authority to be on the 3G platform is a licence that goes to all the
various operators, NetOne, Telecel and Econet and this 3G platform is basically
in sync with our vision to make sure that the internet is accessible to all and
internet is available for use to all at very affordable prices and also at
reasonable speeds. Our challenge at the moment is that we have a big, big
problem with the issue of infrastructure and we are dealing with the
infrastructure by building a national backbone that is dependable and reliable,
making sure that we have fibre optic cables across the whole country so that our
networking is enhanced and also even e-commerce in government, all the other
platforms, your e-agriculture, e-medicine, e-health they are going to be on the
back of an effective national infrastructure, or national backbone. So that’s
the first point. The second point obviously the one you are talking about, the
issue of access and use, what has been called by the world economic forum
through their network Digital Access index. The issue of intensity, the issue of
impact, the issue of efficient and effective use of ICT, is only possible when
we have such services like the 3G, when we have such services like the 4G in
other countries but of course for our own circumstances would want to make sure
that we have broadband facilities, we roll out WiMax in some cases WiFi to make
sure that the entire country is wireless zoned or what we call wireless enabled
and we would want to make sure that we have access to the internet everywhere,
wherever you are in Zimbabwe. I was jokingly saying to a particular audience but
when you touch down at Harare International airport you get disconnected which
is quite an antithesis because in other countries when you touch down maybe at
the Heathrow or even at Oliver Tambo in South Africa, you actually get connected
so we have to reverse even the kind of arrangements that we made in March that
we are number 132 out of the 134 countries in the league of Bolivia, Bangladesh
and Ethiopia, we want to make sure that we move up the ladder to be in the top
ten of ICT facilities because of the smartness of our people, because of our
capacity as a people and because our engineers, our skilled manpower are in New
Zealand, London, Washington, even on the African continent, they are dotted
everywhere, we want to make sure that those services are availed to our people
for the betterment of our country. Lance: The issue of high tariff charges pegged in foreign
currency by the service providers under your ministry’s and others, particularly
NetOne, TelOne and others continues to be a thorn in the flesh for many
customers, how is the government handling this in view of most civil servants
earning US$100 a month? Chamisa: Well I’m very conscious of the debilitating effect
of high tariffs in terms of business viability, productivity and even the uptake
of ICT because each time you have a high increase in the prices that affect the
output of ICT I am quite conscious of the challenges we are facing. In fact it
has been observed through the London School of Business that for every 10
percentage increase in the subscriber base, it’s actually a point six percentage
contribution to the gross domestic product. What it means is that if we are
going to have that uptake high because we reduce the tariffs we then have to go
volumetric, we increase the issue of volumes, we will be able to recoup the kind
of costs they would want to recoup just by charging people very extortionate
prices so I’m actually engaging the operators as well as POTRAZ the regulatory
authority to say yes, they have indicated that they have reduced their prices
from for example 30 cents per unit, and a unit has got about three minutes, to
about 21 cents which is basically seven cents per minute. That again is still
very huge because when one looks at the average, because of the termination
rates it will remain at 17 cents per minute, that is not achievable and that is
not affordable for a lot of our people. Particularly when one looks at the
parity, the regional parity, we need to reduce our prices and that is a message
we’re carrying through and I’m going to enforce that. What has been clouding and
cluttering that drive has been this gadfly of people disputing mandates and
everything and this was really causing problems in terms of us, effecting
certain decisions in the interests of business, the public and even the
government. So we are hopeful of moving speedily in terms of resolving that will
be a thing of the past because we can’t be talking about tariffs, we can’t be
talking about non-availability of sim cards or the very exorbitant prices people
are paying for sim cards. Those are issues that are very close to my heart
particularly Mr Guma, when one looks at the World Cup which is supposed to be
providing a window, of a boost in productivity, a boost in our economic capacity
and even our capacity utilisation in the various sectors of our economy, we need
the ICT to be the driver, to be the enabler, to be the locomotive industry in
terms of the multiplier effect in other industries booming and also getting this
dynamic mode. Lance: Is not another solution Mr Chamisa bringing in new
players to give these guys competition to force prices
down? Chamisa: Well competition is good but you must also
understand that we are also emerging from very difficult disasters, a
cataclysmic situation where almost everyone is in a state of what I would call
economic catatonia. The people virtually failing to move because of the
circumstances that they were in, you know there’s a liquidity crunch in the
country so we also need to help the existing operators in terms of giving them
the breathing space so that we see they’re not able to meet the demand. If they
fail to meet the demand after a particular window period we have given to them,
then we will have to look at the options of bringing in competition from outside
but we don’t want to just bring competition so that we then kill other companies
which have really patriotically managed to hold fort under difficult
circumstances. So we need to make sure that yes, we respond to the demand but
manage the demand in a sustainable manner and in a manner that is not seen to be
dumping those who really tried to serve the country under difficult
circumstances. Lance: That was Nelson Chamisa, the minister of Information, Communication and Technology joining us on Behind the Headlines. Mr Chamisa thank you so much for your time. – ZimOnline |
http://news.sky.com
12:21am UK, Tuesday May 26, 2009
Sky News Online
in Harare
Zimbabwe could collapse into "complete anarchy" in a year if
foreign aid
does not bolster its failing economy, a former judge has told
Sky News
Online.
The nation is battling to pay nurses, teachers, police
and soldiers, despite
adopting the US dollar as its first currency to tame
hyperinflation with its
own.
Starvation and a cholera outbreak have
also been wreaking havoc in the
southern African state.
Foreign
powers are prepared to boost Zimbabwe with a multi-billion pound
rescue
package - but only if Mugabe abides by a power-sharing deal.
The country
has been in turmoil since elections eventually led to a
coalition of the
president's Zanu PF party and opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC).
But other nations are still not convinced Mugabe is sharing power
fairly
with the MDC or addressing human rights issues, like press freedom
and the
release of political detainees.
George Smith, a former High
Court judge who served under both Rhodesian
Prime Minister Ian Smith and
President Robert Mugabe's regimes, spoke
exclusively to Sky in capital city
Harare.
Despite international opposition to Mugabe, Mr Smith insisted:
"It's
essential the outside world comes in with aid as soon as possible,
even if
it comes in bits and pieces and makes each step
conditional."
The judge, who played a key role in the Lancaster House
negotiations in 1980
that brought about Zimbabwe's independence, admitted
"the big problem" with
the unity government was Zanu PF's reluctance to
fulfil the power-sharing
deal's promises.
Referring to reports of
police refusing to protect farmers from groups
seizing their land, he said:
"The failure to implement what was agreed and
the arrests of political
activists and journalists make a lot of people
unsure the inclusive
government is working as one.
"The problem is not the president, but
there are people in the parties or in
the police who are doing their own
thing."
But he insisted holding back aid threatened "to destroy" the
unity
government, with internal political party tensions mounting, as the
economy
declines.
Meanwhile, Mr Smith said, the Southern African
Development Community should
be entrusted to ensure the power agreement is
honoured.
President Robert Mugabe
"Africa should be
left to police itself. If aid does not come in, the whole
thing will
collapse and people are going to suffer," he said.
"I do not think it
[the economy] will be able to last a year."
Mr Smith said failure to pay
civil servants will inevitably lead to chaotic
strikes in crucial
services.
"It will be complete anarchy, if people are not paid. They will
steal what
they can from shops... steal from anyone who has anything," he
said.
"If we have not got a police force working effectively and
properly, there
will be anarchy."
:: Sky News is currently banned
from reporting in Zimbabwe.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet
Gonda
26 May 2009
Last Thursday Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told
journalists Zimbabwe is
seeing significant improvements in media freedoms
and that the Media and
Information Commission (MIC) ceased to exist in
January 2009 as a result of
the agreements in the GPA. He said this meant
there is presently no legal
obligation for foreign or local journalists,
media houses or news agencies
to apply for accreditation until a new Media
Commission is established and a
framework put in place.
But on Saturday
Webster Shamu's Ministry of Information issued a statement
through the
Herald newspaper, contradicting the Prime Minister. It said
journalists
wishing to cover the forthcoming Comesa Summit in Victoria Falls
would need
to be accredited first. Foreign journalists were told to apply
for
accreditation with the MIC, before they could get clearance to cover the
Summit. This contrasted sharply with the Prime Ministers statement that the
MIC no longer existed.
Andy Moyse, the Director of the Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ),
said this is yet again another indication of the
friction that exists in
Zimbabwe at the moment - where you get one half of
government saying one
thing and the other half of government insisting on a
different reality.
He said the media fraternity was shocked to see the
Ministry of Information
statement in the newspaper on Saturday urging Comesa
journalists to register
with the 'illegal MIC.' He said: "Actually it's
hardly an illegal one, it
simply doesn't exist. The fact that (Tafataona)
Mahoso is still there doesn't
make it an existing entity or a Media and
Information Council."
Moyse said the Information Ministry is obviously trying
to undermine Prime
Minister Tsvangirai and he said it is extraordinary that
a commission, which
is non-existent in law, continues to ask for fees from
journalists.
Meanwhile, a showdown is now looming between the Ministry of
Information and
the media fraternity over the issue of accreditation. The
Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) is urging its members to ignore the
order to register for
the Comesa summit that starts on 28th May.
In
another example showing how government continues to send mixed signals,
last
week George Charamba, Mugabe's press secretary and permanent secretary
in
the Information Ministry, announced that foreign media organizations such
as
CNN and the BBC were welcome back in Zimbabwe and that overtures had been
made to the media houses. But nothing has really changed. Kim Norgaard,
CNN's
Johannesburg Bureau Chief, told SW Radio Africa last week that such an
invitation had not been extended to them. Furthermore Sky News on Tuesday
said it 'is currently banned from reporting in Zimbabwe'.
It would be
interesting to see CNN fly in and film one of the many farm
invasions, as a
test of the governments assurances that the situation for
journalists has
changed.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
26 May
2009
Zimbabwe has this week been rated as the most food-aid dependent
country in
the world, a title that comes as the unity government continues
to refuse to
act on the ongoing land invasions.
According to a report
released by the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent
Societies this week, up to 80 percent of the population
relies on food-aid
to survive. The report also revealed that more than half
of the children who
died as a result of the cholera epidemic, were
critically malnourished. The
details in the report are a shocking indication
of the severity of the
ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe, which used to be regarded
as the 'breadbasket of
Africa'.
The Global Political Agreement (GPA) that set out the guidelines
for the
formation of the unity government, called for the production of food
to be
encouraged to counter the desperate food crisis in the country. But,
in
complete violation of this point in the GPA, farm invasions have
intensified
and even been encouraged by Mugabe, to the point that food
production is
mostly nonexistent. The ongoing and increasingly violent land
attacks are
therefore the leading cause of the country's suffering and lack
of
investment, and yet the unity government seems unable to take any action
to
stop the attacks.
During an interview about the 100-day milestone
of the Global Political
Agreement last week, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai even played down the
serious nature of the invasions, calling
them 'isolated incidents' that have
been 'blown out of
proportion'.
"We have investigated examples of those so called farm
invasions," the Prime
Minister continued, repeatedly referring to the land
invasions as 'so-called'
attacks. "We have asked the minister of lands (ZANU
PF) to give us a
detailed report of what has been happening over all these
so called farm
invasions and the outcry over that."
Tsvangirai also
insisted that the matter was being attended to, despite the
clear lack of
action by the government that has already sparked anger in the
beleaguered
farming community. Justice for Agriculture's (JAG) John
Worsley-Worswick
explained on Tuesday that the Prime Minister's comments are
a gross
"misrepresentation of the facts," that will ultimately jeopardise
the future
of the country. He further explained that "papering over the
cracks," by
playing down the severity of the land attacks, will not solve
the bigger
problem, saying: "We have a massive humanitarian crisis on our
hands that
will not be solved until the MDC challenges the Mugabe
administration on
issues such as the land attacks." The JAG official
expressed frustration and
disappointment over the MDC's unwillingness to
confront ZANU PF, explaining
the party is becoming complicit with ongoing
crime.
"Farmers are now
being exposed as a soft target because no one will take
action to stop these
attacks happening," Worsley-Worswick explained. "The
continued infringement
of property rights is a crime that no one is doing
anything
about."
Many farmers have been forced into hiding as a result of the
latest attacks,
while more than 100 are already facing prosecution on
trumped up
land-related charges. The physical land attacks have also become
increasingly violent in recent weeks, and in most cases, farm workers have
been the victims of beatings and harassment at the hands of land invaders.
Thousands more workers have lost their jobs because of the forced takeover
of land by ZANU PF loyalists, adding to the 94% unemployment already
crippling the country.
Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Date: 26 May 2009
It is likely that at
some point in the coming week, the 100,000th case of cholera will be officially
reported in Zimbabwe. So far, 98,309 cases have been reported, with some 4,283
deaths.
100,000 cases: The spectre of cholera remains in Zimbabwe - a report issued today by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) - warns that although rates of infection have dropped over the past months, the risk remains.
"(The) eradication of cholera in Zimbabwe or the complete conclusion to this current epidemic is unlikely unless the underlying causes of the health crises are addressed," the report states.
"Central to this outbreak remains the almost complete collapse of Zimbabwe's basic water, sanitation and health infrastructure. Communities across the country are still without access to potable water and basic sanitation, and health facilities continue to be understaffed and under resourced."
The report notes that low funding for the Red Cross Red Crescent cholera operation – which at one stage was estimated to have constituted about 60 per cent of related humanitarian work in Zimbabwe – continues to have a negative impact.
"Unfortunately, because of this lack of funds, our operation had to be down-scaled earlier than hoped and earlier than had been needed," said Ms Emma Kundishora, ZRCS secretary general. "But now we have to look to the next phase of our operation, and we call again on donors to support these efforts."
The next phase will focus on mid- to long-term efforts to give 665,000 households in high-risk areas sustainable access to clean water and basic sanitation. For example, an estimated 3.75 million Swiss francs (3.44 million US dollars/2.47 million euro) is urgently required to rehabilitate 1,150 non-functional water sources, drill 263 bore holes and construct 3,755 latrines.
"The government estimates that the necessary rehabilitation of water and sanitation infrastructure will take years," said Stephen Omollo, the IFRC's representative in Zimbabwe. "Our efforts are designed to bridge this gap and we believe that this will reduce the likelihood of further cholera outbreaks."
Despite the lack of funding, the Red Cross Red Crescent cholera operation has produced significant results since it was launched in December 2008. Seventy-five treatment centres have been supported, 450,000 people have been given access to clean water, 700,000 water purification sachets have been distributed and 700,000 people have been reached with potentially life-saving information materials.
For more information please visit: www.ifrc.org/zimbabwe
For further information, or to set up interviews, please contact:
Matthew Cochrane, communications manager (Johannesburg) Tel: + 27 83 395 52
66
Stambuli Kim, communications officer (Zimbabwe Red Cross) Tel: + 263 11
517 264
Paul Conneally, head of media (Geneva) Tel: +41 79 308
9809
Jean-Luc Martinage, communications officer (Geneva) Tel: +41 79 217
3386
Geneva media duty phone Tel: + 41 79 416 38 81
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare - Constitutional
pressure group National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) has started a national
outreach programme to educate
Zimbabweans on the flaws of a parliamentary
led constitutional making
process.
"We are conducting
public meetings throughout the country to educate
Zimbabweans on the
constitutional making process," said Ernest Mudzengi, the
NCA National
Director.
"We are saying to them a process driven by politicians is not
people
driven and they should reject it."
The NCA is opposed to a
parliamentary led constitutional making
process. It has already launched a
"No Vote" campaign similar to the one
that resulted in the 1999/2000
government led process being rejected by the
people.
Several
posters urging people to reject a constitution produced by a
parliamentary
driven process can be seen on many streets of Zimbabwe's urban
centres.
But representatives of a 25 member parliamentary
constitutional
committee say they are the best placed to represent the
people's views.
"We are closer to the people than anyone. We have the
strength and
legitimacy to talk on behalf of the people that we represent,"
said Edward
Mkhosi a co-chair of the parliamentary constitutional
committee.
The Zanu PF party believes the civic movement will not have
a second
time lucky.
"This time they will not win. Zimbabweans now
know that these
organisations are opposing the process as a way of
fundraising for money
from donors, they understand what the government is
trying to do through
their own representatives in parliament," said Ephraim
Masawi, Zanu PF's
Deputy Secretary for Information.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet Gonda
26 May
2009
Buhera West Member of Parliament and Constitutional and
Parliamentary
Affairs Minister, Eric Matinenga, who was facing charges of
inciting public
violence, was acquitted Tuesday by Manicaland Regional
Magistrate Hlekani
Mwayera.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
said Magistrate Mwayera ruled 'that
the State had failed to prove its case
against the Buhera West legislator.'
The MP was arrested during the run
up to last year's elections. He was
arrested at Buhera Police Station where
he was investigating the arrest of a
group of MDC activists. ZLHR said: "He
had also intended to serve a court
order he had obtained against the
Zimbabwe Defence Forces for their
immediate removal from his constituency
over alleged harassment, torture and
political persecution of perceived MDC
supporters in the constituency in
violation of the military's constitutional
mandate and functions."
Meanwhile last Friday, a Murambinda Magistrate
freed 11 MDC members who were
arrested in March this year on allegations of
public violence. They had been
accused of burning ZANU PF properties around
the time of the Prime Minister's
wife's funeral.
The lawyers rights
group said they were acquitted after all state witnesses
exonerated them
from the alleged crime. However six other MDC activists were
sentenced to 36
months in jail. A total of 18 months were suspended on
condition that the
activists pay compensation to the complainants.
ZLHR said it felt
"vindicated in its belief that Matinenga's acquittal shows
that his arrest,
unlawful and prolonged detention and drawn-out trial were
tools of
persecution rather than prosecution and illegitimate attempts to
prevent a
legal practitioner from carrying out his professional duties with
the full
protection of the state and the law."
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Lizwe Sebatha
Tuesday 26 May 2009
BULAWAYO - A planned new constitution
should ensure devolution of power to
provinces and protection of minority
rights, civic society and church groups
from Zimbabwe's southern regions
have said.
The groups also said the new governance charter that the
power-sharing
government has undertaken to write within the next 18 months
should provide
for proportional representation as opposed to the
first-past-the-post
formula that the country uses to elect leaders and which
some analysts say
disadvantages smaller population groups.
"We demand
among other important national issues, the following must be
given
prominence and priority in the new constitution: devolution of power,
proportional representation and the promotion of minority rights," the
groups resolved at a meeting held in Bulawayo about a fortnight
ago.
The southern Matabeleland provinces and parts of the Midlands
province are
dominated by members of the minority Ndebele ethnic group or
people who
speak the Ndebele language. Several leaders from the region say
it has
lagged in development behind the northern parts of the country
dominated by
the majority Shona ethnic group.
The southern civic
groups numbering 30, whose meeting in Bulawayo was
organised by the Bulawayo
Agenda, Habbakuk Trust and the Bulawayo
Progressive Residents Association
said devolution of power and promotion of
minority rights would ensure their
region is able to develop and catch up
with the rest of the
country.
The civic groups also tasked themselves to "carrying out massive
civic
education and playing a meaningful role to influence the constitution
making
process in order to come up with a people driven, democratic
constitution
that will accord the rule of law, development, prosperity and
general
happiness".
A special parliamentary committee comprising
members from President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU PF party and the two former
opposition MDC formations will
oversee the drafting of the country's new
constitution as outlined under a
power-sharing agreement signed by
Zimbabwe's three main political parties
last year.
The draft
constitution shall be put before the electorate in a referendum
expected in
July next year and if approved by Zimbabweans will then be
brought before
Parliament for enactment.
Once a new constitution is in place, the
power-sharing government is
expected to then call fresh parliamentary,
presidential and local government
elections.
Zimbabwe is currently
governed under the 1979 Constitution agreed at the
Lancaster House talks in
London.
The Constitution has been amended 19 times since the country's
independence
in 1980 and critics say most of the changes have only helped to
entrench
Mugabe and ZANU PF's stranglehold on power. - ZimOnline
http://news.iafrica.com
Article By: Rahima Essop
Tue, 26 May 2009
13:55
Zimbabwe's Deputy Agriculture minister designate, Roy Bennett, says aid
to
the impoverished country must be properly managed so that it does not
fall
into the wrong hands.
Norway has promised to donate
$9-million (R74.88-million) to Zimbabwe. It
has taken precautions to ensure
Robert Mugabe does not get hold of it.
The aid will be channeled through
the United Nations, the World Bank and
non-governmental
organisations.
It will finance health and education programmes in
Zimbabwe.
Bennett says Zimbabwe has recently seen positive
changes.
"We never ever thought this will be an easy process and
therefore at least
we are making head way. The governor is getting sworn in,
I am getting sworn
in and the other issues have been resolved," says the
Movement for
Democratic Change politician.
Eyewitness News
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
26
May 2009
The price of mobile phone sim cards came down this week after
the Telecel
network reportedly released over 100 000 new sim cards onto the
market. The
company, now under the Orascom Telecom group, says it is able to
offer
additional connections after carrying out a network capacity upgrade
six
weeks ago.
Telecel public relations officer, Monica Malunda, said
the new connections
will increase their subscriber base to just over 350
000. The company says
it began the first phase of its upgrade in Harare and
Bulawayo and the
second phase will involve expansion to provide travellers
with signal
coverage on main roads. Coverage will also be expanded to rural
areas and
they plan to release more lines into the market after this second
phase is
completed.
Two weeks ago thousands of people queued up to
buy sim cards from the
biggest mobile phone operator, Econet Wireless, who
released about 50 000
additional lines. Prior to this sim cards were being
sold for over US$100 on
the black market, but the price has since gone down
to about US$25.
Econet says it wants to increase its subscriber base from
900 000 to 1,2
million. They are planning a further increase of 500 000
subscribers, saying
they secured a US$95 million cash injection from one of
their major
shareholders.
The price of sim cards in the country has
always been high due to the phone
companies failing to upgrade their
networks. A combination of political
upheavals and an economy in collapse
militated against them being able to
expand. Foreign currency, so crucial to
any upgrade, was also in scant
supply.
Last week Information,
Communication and Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa
told us he was not
happy with the price of sim cards in the market and that
these remained
expensive compared to other countries.
Experts say only proper
competition will ensure a reduction in prices and
tariffs. Several South
African mobile phone networks are said to be already
eyeing the Zimbabwean
market and we are told this is why Econet, Telecel and
Net One are trying to
increase their subscriber bases rapidly.
http://www.kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p=1774
I have heard of a number of households in high density
suburbs that have
received fixed telephone bills of up to USD1,500 and had
their phones
disconnected. A guy told me the other day he got a bill for
USD125 and also
had his phone disconnected.
We get pronouncements
from ministers in charge of state utilities assuring
consumers that they
will never be cut off from these essential services and
yet these reports
continue with consumers being clueless about recourse.
Electricity,
water, telecommunications etc appear to be riddled with odious
political
machinations one has to wonder if these directives issued by the
ministers
mean anything to the utility administrators.
These directives appear to
be simply ignored and if consumers do not have
the protection of the
ministers, where then do they turn for relief when
their phones are cut off
because of these ridiculous charges?
Everyone knows there is no
Zimbabwean worker who earns a USD1,000 and we
know civil servants get a
measly USD100, and these are the folks who back
then enjoyed the so-called
mod-cons (fixed phones included) so how the heck
are they expected to pay a
USD1,500 phone bills.
It will take them a cool 15 months to settle that
bill and this means in the
meantime they won't be eating anyting or paying
any other bills! All this
for a telephone? Only in Zimbabwe!!
These
families will never again have a telephone in their homes, and if it
is
folks who had stuff like dial-up internet connection, they are then
forced
to patronise internet cafes where they will pay for a service they
rightly
should be accessing in the comfort of their homes.
Not only that, the
inconvenience is inconceivable in this age where
virtually every family has
a member living and working outside the country
who cannot get through the
frustrating mobile phones.
Fixed phones then have been a godsend for
these families as calls from
abroad get through without any headaches, but
who is listening. This is not
an appeal for the service provider to ignore
defaulting rate payers but
rather simply to review these outrageous
bills.
As long these rates are not revised, it's a sure return to the
Stone Age.
This entry was posted on May 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pm by Marko
Phiri
A recent traveller through Beitbridge border post commented that there are some delays on Zimbabwean side, but that he found the South African side to be far worse since the visa restrictions were dropped. There are streams of young adults walking along the road from Musina towards Johannesburg carrying small bags and water bottles.
With the visa restrictions dropped, Zimbabweans can stay in South Africa for 90 days, renew in South Africa for a further 90 days, then leave for a few days and repeat the process. The general view is that South Africa seems to be doing all it can to attract cheap Zimbabwean labour.
In South Africa, casual labour is not allowed, but migrants are allowed to work as casuals. Zimbabwean labour is cheap and hard working. 2010 is around the corner and it seems that Zimbabweans are filling the World Cup labour gap, as SA labour will not accept low rates. In addition, Zimbabwean teachers, professionals etc are filling a huge need in South Africa.
The traveller told us that while he was driving through South Africa he listened to a radio interview with Tim Modise. One SA official, responding to questions about the influx of Zimbabweans, claimed that by dropping visas at least now the South African government knew how many Zimbabeans were entering South Africa. A member of Black Sash also being interviewed apparently said, “They [Zimbabweans] work like hell, and we pay them nothing!”.
A Zimbabwean refugee currently living in South Africa sent us this blog describing his views on the new visa laws:
The travelling has been made a little easier for Zimbabweans since the government of South Africa has nullified the use of Visas for the travellers from Zim. The move also gives opportunities for Zimbabweans and other African refugees without documents to access them through their embassies.
What a relief! I will also try to access my child’s study or a resident permit so she can be with me here. I am happy the South African government is beginning to open its eyes. I will now be able to look for work freely without being troubled by the police.
I really support the idea 100% and this will reduce the number of skilled refugees sleeping in the streets of Johannesburg. I am confident I will get a job because even those companies who were afraid to employ Zimbabweans will do so since the matter has been legalised.
This entry was posted by Hope on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm