Row over Mugabe mansion funding From correspondents in
Kuala Lumpur May 27, 2004
A POLITICAL row brewed in Malaysia today
over claims the government was partially funding the construction of a lavish
£5 million pound ($12.62 million) mansion for Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe.
Mugabe, in a recent interview with Britain's Sky News television,
denied the 25-bedroom mansion near Harare was being financed by Zimbabwean
taxpayers, saying the Malaysian and Chinese governments were providing
partial funding.
Malaysian opposition party leaders and rights groups
expressed outrage at Malaysia's reported support for Mugabe, who is accused
of having ruined his country economically and impoverished his
people.
Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party
said Mugabe's statement was "shocking".
"I call on the Government to
issue a ministerial statement as we want to know whether we have secretly and
unlawfully funded the 25-bedroom mansion," he said.
A local
corruption watchdog, the Kuala Lumpur Society for Transparency and Integrity,
said the Government "owes it to its people to confirm or deny Mugabe's
assertion. "If true, the Government must explain why it funded such a luxury
for a political head reputed to be a dictator," its deputy president
Param Cumaraswamy said.
"Zimbabwe is in serious political and economic
disorder. The unemployment rate exceeds 70 per cent. Agricultural output has
been so ravaged that Zimbabwe now has the highest number of citizens starving
to death in Africa," he said.
Mugabe's government has come in for
similar criticism from Western countries, which also accuse him of abuses of
human rights and democracy.
Several Malaysian government officials
questioned by reporters said they were unaware of the deal but would
investigate.
"I have no information about that. I will check," Deputy
Prime Minister Najib Razak was reported as saying by The Sun daily
today.
Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African country for the past 24
years, did not disclose the exact sum involved or when the money had
been channelled to him but said former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad
had also provided the timber for the structure.
Mahathir, who retired
last October after 22 years in power, was an ally of Mugabe's, with the two
men sharing a love of anti-Western rhetoric stoked by a history of British
colonialism in both countries.
But while Zimbabwe's economy has suffered
under Mugabe, Malaysia flourished under Mahathir, who turned it from a rubber
and tin exporting country to a high-tech manufacturing
powerhouse.
Unicef Zimbabwe gets US$1m for HIV/Aids programmes
The
Japanese government yesterday donated US$1 million to Unicef Zimbabwe towards
its HIV/Aids programmes.
Japanese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Tsunehige
Iiyama handed over the funds availed through the UN Trust Fund for Human
Security.
The ambassador described the contribution to Unicef Zimbabwe as
part of Japan's mission to tackle the insecurity and the pain caused by the
Aids pandemic, which has left many children orphaned and
vulnerable.
"We hope this contribution to Unicef will provide some of
those most in need, the opportunity to learn how to cope better with their
circumstances and ultimately provide them with better strategies to ensure
their human dignity and security," he said.
The Japanese government
had undertaken a number of initiatives, of which the UN Trust Fund for Human
Security was a very important one, he said.
The Trust Fund was set up in
1999 to translate the concept of human security into concrete activities
implemented by the UN agencies through supporting projects that address
diverse threats including poverty, environmental degradation, conflicts,
landmines, refugee problems, illicit drugs and infectious diseases such as
HIV/Aids.
Ambassador Iiyama said by 2002 his country had provided US$203
million to the Trust Fund.
Currently the fund supports more than 90
projects all over the world.
Speaking at the same ceremony, Unicef
representative Dr Festo Kavishe said the money would contribute to the
psychological well being of those affected by the HIV/Aids
pandemic.
"The funds will help them to cope with their emotional loss and
prevent them from being vulnerable to all forms of abuse," said Dr
Kavishe.
He said the funds would be spent over two years in nine
districts including Mt. Darwin, Bulilimamangwe, Buhera, Zaka, Zvishavane,
Gokwe North, Hurungwe, Hwange and Mudzi. - New Ziana.
Lamb poised to join ECB exodus By Angus Fraser 27
May 2004
Tim Lamb is expected to resign from his post as chief
executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board this morning. Lamb has been
in charge of the ECB since its inception in January 1997 but has come under
increasing pressure because of the ECB's indecisive handling of the Zimbabwe
issue and the recent proposals put forward for the future structure of
domestic cricket.
The 51-year-old former Middlesex and
Northamptonshire player told David Morgan, the chairman of the ECB, of his
decision on Monday but an announcement has been delayed until a severance
deal has been agreed. Lamb, the highest paid official at the ECB, is on a
salary of about £140,000 a year.
Lamb is the third senior official to
leave the ECB in the last month. Des Wilson resigned from the board after his
paper stating that moral considerations should be taken into account before
England decide to tour was not adopted. And on Monday the ECB's marketing
director, Mark Sibley, decided to resign after only a year in the
job.
Their departures threaten to leave the ECB in disarray. All three
would have played key roles in negotiations over the ECB's next television
deal, which will take place later this year.
Although the counties are
disillusioned with Lamb's dismissive attitude towards the county game, many
will be disappointed that he no longer feels he has their confidence.
Counties are now run by a new breed of chairmen, who want to have greater
control over the business of the ECB, and their influence appears to have
played a part in the recent exodus.
John Carr, the operations director,
has been thought of as Lamb's replacement but there have been suggestions
that someone from outside the present administration will be offered English
cricket's top job.
* Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, is
expected to say today whether he is retiring.
By Brian Benza THE
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe financial bills have begun to mature and
are expected to pour a huge $2 trillion into the already heavily liquid
market.
Maturities of the bills is set to cause a nightmare to the
monetary authorities who have been keen to mop up excess liquidity in the
market using the underperforming Treasury Bills.
Monday was the first
day to record maturities of the bills, which were discontinued towards the
end of March, effectively leading to a collapse in money market interest
rates.
Maturities of around $30 billion were recorded on Monday against a
$15 billion allotment of Treasury Bills at an effective yield of 109,92
percent.
The central bank is now faced with the daunting task of cleaning
the excess funds and will be expected to come up with better open market
instruments than the Treasury Bills if they are not prepared to raise the
return on the underperforming bills.
While the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe financial bills are very attractive to investors in terms of return,
there have been concern that the cost of the bills to the central bank may be
excessive.
The continued issuance of the bills to mop up surplus
liquidity translated into a huge interest payable bill on the part of the
bank.
Following the conversion of the compulsory 10 percent per annum to
the instruments, the volume of bills in issue amounts to over $1,16
trillion while the interest payable on these bills will be over $900
billion.
To complement the Treasury Bills, the central bank will be
expected to issue new bills of over $2 trillion to roll over the ones that
have just begun to mature.
The central bank will be caught in a
dilemma with regards to the appropriate interest policy to pursue to wipe up
the surplus, which, in real terms, is over $250 billion.
Locally
registered stock for 728 days, which closed last Wednesday, was allotted up
to a paltry $95 billion at a coupon rate of 140 percent.
While central
bank officials may be tempted to raise interest rate on their bills, in line
with their new monetary policy, prevailing levels of interest rates will not
be attractive enough to mop up the huge surplus figure.
The RBZ held
91-day Treasury Bill auctions on every trading day last week and at each
auction $100 billion was on offer.
On Monday, $30 billion was allotted at
an effective yield of 107,67 percent while Treasury Bill maturities of around
$8 billion were recorded.
On Tuesday, all bids were rejected at the first
auction, while at the second auction, $41,7 billion was allotted at an
effective yield of 107,79 percent.
Wednesday saw $49,2 billion being
allotted and the effective yield firmed to 108,14 percent and the effective
91-day Treasury Bill yield firmed further to 109,09 percent on Thursday as
$38,7 billion was allotted.
Amnesty describes the nightmare that Nepad aims to make
a dream May 27, 2004
By Basildon Peta
International human rights watchdog Amnesty International painted a bleak
picture of human rights across southern and eastern Africa in its annual
report detailing rights abuses in the world, published yesterday.
From repression of political opponents in Zimbabwe to crimes against women
and children in Burundi and the Congo, the report lamented the continued lack
of respect for human rights and the failure of many governments to live up to
professed standards of governance.
Persecution of human rights
defenders and the political opposition, violence against women, and limited
access to justice for the most marginalised in society, blighted the human
rights situation in many African countries, Amnesty said.
Many
are denied civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights,
particularly of the most vulnerable - women and children, refugees and the
internally displaced, people living with HIV/Aids, the poor and those who
lack formal education.
On the bright side though, Amnesty said
regional initiatives to establish greater respect for human rights did make
progress, including through intervention and mediation in conflicts such as
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or in the protection
of human rights defenders.
In Zimbabwe, though, it said
President Robert Mugabe's government stepped up attacks on critics of the
government, including torture and kidnappings, gagged the media and misused
scarce food stocks for political ends.
"Perpetrators of human
rights violations continued to enjoy impunity and allegations against state
agents were not investigated. The majority of abuses were committed by ruling
party supporters and police, security and army officers against opposition
supporters.
"Police officers were implicated in torture,
ill-treatment and unlawful killings."
Government forces and
armed opposition groups frequently abused human rights in conflicts such as
those in Burundi, Central African Republic, CTte d'Ivoire, DRC, Liberia,
Sudan and Uganda.
In eastern DRC clashes between armed ethnic
groups supported by outside powers cost the lives of tens of thousands of
people.
"Men, women and children were slaughtered, raped and
mutilated indiscriminately, treated as mere pawns in the power play of
those benefiting from the frequently illicit exploitation of resources that
has fuelled years of conflict," the report said. "Tens of thousands of
people were internally displaced (in the Congo)."
Amnesty
said the United Nations panel of experts on the illegal exploitation of
natural resources and other forms of wealth in the DRC had again revealed the
responsibility of businesses for the human rights and humanitarian crisis in
eastern DRC.
Amnesty said governments of countries used malicious
prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as
tools of political repression.
In many countries torture and
ill-treatment of suspects continued to be widespread.
The report
however noted that some progress in conflict resolution had been achieved,
mainly in Burundi where a new government including several parties to the
conflict was formed in November.
And in Sudan new security
agreements were signed in September by the government and the armed
opposition group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army.
However
scores of civilians were killed in Burundi by government forces and armed
groups and in Sudan the conflict in the western province of Darfur claimed
hundreds of lives and led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of
people.
In the Central African Republic numerous extrajudicial
executions and widespread sexual violence were reportedly carried out by
several parties involved in a coup last march. In Uganda a
government military initiative against the armed group, the Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), led to an
intensification of the conflict in the north.
The LRA continued to abduct children to abuse them as combatants and sex
slaves.
Amnesty said widespread poverty, high illiteracy rates and
large disparities in wealth, remained major obstacles for many
people.
In spite of frequent declarations of goodwill and important
regional initiatives for greater national and international investment, such
as under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), most
governments failed to live up to their promises, resulting in the
spiralling deterioration of opportunities for the most marginalised and
vulnerable to have access to the most basic level of livelihood.
It takes quite a lot for African organisations to
criticise an African election, as we have seen in Zimbabwe. So the African
Union's criticism of last week's Malawi election must be taken
seriously.
The ruling party's Bingu wa Mutharika won a disputed
poll, marred by opposition charges of cheating, which led to demonstrations
in which several were killed, mostly at the hands of the police. Opposition
parties are challenging the results in the courts - probably in vain, as
Mutharika has already been sworn in.
The opposition could be
criticised for provocation - most notably for declaring victory before the
results were announced. But it is also clear from most observer reports that
opposition parties were themselves provoked by blatant government
manipulation of the instruments of power. This must be judged the prime cause
of the unrest - as well, of course, as seriously undermining the credibility
of the new president's mandate.
The African Union observer mission
said: "The excessive use of public media and other resources by the ruling
party did not provide a level playing field for all opposition parties." The
European Union and Commonwealth said much the same.
The
Southern African Development Community's parliamentary forum said the public
media had given no coverage to the opposition and that the ruling party had
handed out cash and "material inducements" to voters, possibly undermining
democratic processes.
But the official SADC observer team -
representing SADC governments - was the odd man out. Only it gave the
election a clean bill of health, declaring it "free and fair and credible"
apart from "some minor, isolated administrative incidents, which were
promptly handled".
SADC itself has developed very explicit
guidelines for holding elections, which include the concerns raised by all
the other observers. But these mean nothing if observers simply do
not see - or claim not to see - the malpractices that everyone else
does.
This report bodes ill for the peer review process, of which
Africa's partners are expecting so much.
By
Innocent Chofamba Sithole and Masimba Rushwaya Last updated: 05/27/2004
09:26:39 THE government's blitzkrieg on corruption has claimed its biggest
corporate scalp to date following the arrest of South African-based
Zimbabwean business mogul, Mutumwa Mawere in Johannesburg this
week.
South African police spokeswoman, Mary Martins last night confirmed
to the Daily Mirror that Mawere was picked up by Interpol officers in the
plush Johannesburg suburb of Sandton on Tuesday afternoon.
"He was
arrested yesterday at 12:30 pm in Sandton on a warrant of arrest after being
declared wanted by Zimbabwean police," Martins told the independent Daily
Mirror.
She said Mawere was nabbed on charges of violating the Zimbabwe
Exchange Control Act.
But the businessman, who Martins had reported as
having been detained in police cells in South Africa's capital, Pretoria,
adamantly maintained last night that his arrest had no basis at law as the
Exchange Control Act only applied to people resident in the country. He did
not say whether he had been bailed out of detention.
"How can a person
who's been a non-resident for 15 years be accused of externalisation?" Mawere
quipped. He said he had been living outside the country since
1989.
There have been numerous unconfirmed reports that Mawere had
allegedly undervalued the quality of exported asbestos, and thus prejudiced
the State of lots of foreign currency. Asbestos is one of the major foreign
currency earners in the mining sector, with Shabani and Mashava mines
officially earning the country an estimated US$40 million per
year.
"He is due to appear in the Randburg magistrate court for
extradition purposes," Martins added. However, local police had last night
remained mum on the case, with police spokesman Superintendant Oliver
Mandipaka professing ignorance over the arrest of Mawere.
Mawere
contended that he was not directly involved in the operations of the local
companies in which he has interests.
"I don't sit on any boards of
Zimbabwean companies. The exporters are the companies, which have legal
personas and have their own rights before the law. They are represented by
their directors and officials . . . To therefore accuse me of externalisation
when I am external, is a contradiction in terms," Mawere said.
Mawere
said the affidavit provided by the Zimbabwean authorities erroneously claimed
he was resident in Belvedere, Harare.
While the businessman claimed his
arrest was a result of police confusion over the application of the Exchange
Control Act, sources last night revealed that Mawere was being targeted by
some influential politicians with whom he had been very close in the
past.
He becomes by far the most significant victim of the
anti-corruption probe. While he conspicuously shied away from political
office, he is known to have been intricately networked with the nervous
system of political power in the country.
Finance minister, Chris
Kuruneri and Zanu PF central committee member and businessman, James Makamba
are the two other significant personalities - courtesy of the anti-graft
crusade - to have been arrested so far. But Mawere's peculiar political
relationships and business history mark him out as the biggest fish in the
net.
At one time the then Zanu PF secretary for finance and current
Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnanagagwa was said to be looking for a new
breed of local businessmen whom he could involve in the ruling party's
expansion into mining, manufacturing and banking. Mawere, a Harvard-trained
MBA graduate, was working in Johannesburg with the International Finance
Corporation, a World Bank offshoot as a senior advisor on African mining and
petroleum investments. Mnangagwa was instrumental in endeavours to lure
Mawere back to Zimbabwe and to assist him in his bid to purchase the nation's
largest asbestos mining group that consisted of Shabani and Mashava Mines
(i.e. the African Associated Mines).
Mawere was said to have bought
the two entities for a song as the government simply issued a guarantee for
the sale of the two mines to Africa Resources Limited (ARL) from a
multi-national company.
ARL was to simply pay for the transaction from
the proceeds of sales from asbestos.
Mawere has over the years been
the overseer of the growth of a vast empire that has encompassed companies
such as SMM Holdings, Africa Associated Mines (AAM), Zimre, Fidelity Life,
Nicoz Diamond, Firstel, Turnall, General Beltings, Tube and Pipe Industries,
Hastt Zimbabwe, FSI Agricom, CFI Holdings and First Bank.
The growth
of his empire was however subject to speculation that he was a front for some
senior and prominent politicians.
Observers have hinted that the first
sign of cracks emerging between Mawere and his relationship with the
party/government was when the Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe
(MMCZ) took over the marketing of asbestos from African Associated
Mines.
Questions were raised as to the rationale and prudence of allowing
MMCZ to market the mineral, especially given the negative and
ill-conceived perception of the bad effects of the use of the mineral on the
international market.
SMM Holdings, the parent company of AAM, was
given the exception to market its own asbestos in 1998 but in January this
year, the ministry of mines announced that the waiver would be removed with
effect from April 1 2004. There have been continuous media reports that
Mawere was once a protege of Mnangagwa, amid speculation that the two had
since fallen out.
Mawere has, however, always denied this saying that "I
am a businessman not a politician."
He always insisted that he was a
businessman who had the simple desire to invest in his country.
The
ruling party's Masvingo provincial executive in recent months offered Mawere
the economic affairs portfolio, which the businessman snubbed, saying he only
wanted to make his contribution to national development
through business.
Through his investment vehicle, UKI Investments,
Mawere until recently owned Media Africa Group (MAG), publishers of the
Business Tribune and the Weekend Tribune newspapers From Daily Mirror
Zimbabué closed it to them door, but Moçambique opened a
window to them of chances. They do not demand very: space to only cultivate
and some financial aids to recommence the life. In two years, the
zimbabuanos white agriculturists had tamed thousand of hectares of virgin
lands and had created one hundred companies almost and 4 a thousand new ranks
of work in the moçambicana province of Manica Ana Tomás Ribeiro, special
envoy/13 VISION nº 584 Mai. 2004 Are as the trees with that they live: badly
they are pulled out of the soil, create raízes noutro soon place with the
force that remains to them. It does not matter what they have to pass
until coming back to bear fruit. They are proud to exceed difficult times.
They are alive forces of the nature and without land they do not know to
live. The reveses of the life in Africa do not scare them. Where it wants
that they are, they will be African. They are thus the white agriculturists,
who the Zimbabué (the old British colónia of the Rodésia of the South)
banished and Moçambique received? in particular the province of Manica,
separate of the neighboring country for the Vumba mountain. There, dialecto
is said the same that of the other side of the mountain, the climate is equal
and the still more fertile lands, since little they are explored or exactly
virgin. The man power is more expensive, exactly not possessing formation.
But this obstacle is compensated by the motivation of the workers, eager of a
steady job and a form to support the families. Thing that the great majority
never had, exactly after the end of the civil war, has ten years more than.
The zimbabuanos that had thus thought had put in the cars the scarce ones
to have e, alone or with families and dogs, they had crossed the border.
To start of the zero the first ones they had arrived in 2001. David, 38
years, was one of them. Alone lode, got of the moçambicano Government
land concession, financial supports and recommenced the life. It waited
eight months for the ownership of the land. During one year, it slept in a
tent, to cook and to take bath to the outdoors. It was decided for
Moçambique has two years and way because "it was close to Africa South it, an
important market, and a country where it has part of the family". On the
other hand, "it had fast access to the port of the Side, and thus more
easiness in draining the products", explains, in the situated farm the
scarce quilómetros of the Chimoio, capital of the province of Manica. In
July of 2002, David started to dig the first land parcel. Then for it
invested 400 a thousand dollars here. It cultivated tobacco, maize and a
little of sunflower. One year later, with the plants already grown and a
water puncture in the farm, was to search the family: the Marty woman, of
28 small years, two children e the fathers-in-law, Peter and Anna. The
dogs had joined it the moçambicano rafeiro that, according to it, "adoptou
it" in its times of solitude. Still it tried "to pass tractores" in the
border with Africa of the South. "But we do not obtain", concludes. It was
in alpendre of the part of the house of family, constructed recently
and encircled with trees of satiated ramagens that we found Marty to read
a book, with the children, of 3 and 2 years, encircled of toys, and
the parents. David, although to be Saturday, is to work. The men trepam,
under its supervision, for the structures wooden, in front of the house, to
hang tobacco leves. He is a likeable man and of easy smile, that does not
hide a difficult past. When they had arrived, in the caravans, without
canalized water nor light, immediately had been attacked there by the
malaria. "All very primitive age. We suffer all with this very ", counts
Marty. But these difficulties do not hinder a certainty: "we do not want to
come back more toward the Zimbabué. Our future is here." E adds: "the
position of the biggest part of the families of zimbabuanos Is this." It is
certain that in the Zimbabué, it remembers David, "we had everything: house,
good hospitals, schools, roads, electricidade, canalized water, an
organized community of agriculturists and all the infrastructures
of commercialization, transformation and transport of products to
function. For there of a life of city for the end-of-week and until
porting infrastructures for the leisure times." Beyond a familiar history
with raízes in that country. The first members of the family of Marty
had arrived at the Zimbabué in 1890. But, now, "the problems that we would
have there do not have solution". The confidence is total: "In Moçambique
we can carry through us. The country is to grow and the conditions
go improving. Today already we notice differences, even in the
bureaucracy. The workers need being formed, but very they are interested in
working and they learn well." How much to the results of these first years
of agricultural exploration in Moçambique, David says: "I can consider that
it was a good start." Therefore, already they think to tame the remains 2
a thousand hectares of land, granted noutro place, to lead ahead for
one projecto of production of hortícolas for moçambicano market e, later,
for exportation. Now, they have an enthusiasm reason still more:
when excavating the land in return of the kitchen had discovered ruins of one
old house of the farm and is to reconstruct it. For already, the family
of David uses in Manica 154 permanent workers and 300 in some periods of
the year. The trend will be for giving work much more. The effect of
the zimbabuanos After de David, many other zimbabuanos had arrived at
the provincía of Manica. E others have-of coming. Exactly the ones that,
in the beginning of the crisis politics in the Zimbabué, had decided to
leave for so distant destinations as Australia, had discovered now that,
after all, its future was there to the house door. After the
presidential elections in Moçambique, marked for the next Autumn, still they
will have to arrive more much? the ones that, after the lived traumatizante
experience in the Zimbabué, wait expectant the electoral results, to know the
new rules of the game. For already, they attract them the results of that
they had started to lie down seeds in moçambicanas lands, has at least two
years. These already are responsible for the creation of more than one
hundred companies, of which 40 are in full activity, and more than 4 a
thousand ranks of work. Thousands of hectares of virgin lands had tamed.
Today they have tobacco fields and maize to lose of sight, where the plants
surpass the height of the men. But also roses for exportation cultivate,
create cattle and keep until units of piscicultura. They are in practically
all the agricultural sectors. The farms of that moçambicana province are
called now with more reason of that never "farmas" (of the English farm,
that means?quinta), used term no longer time of the colonialismo for
influence of the Rodésia and proper Africa of the South. Satisfied with the
results, the "farmeiros" are questioned: "As he is that the
Portuguese agriculturists had not discovered the agricultural potentialities
of Moçambique" Behind the agriculturists, they had come other investors, on
to the commerce of products for agriculture: salesmen of tractores,
alfaias, fertilizers, seeds, products of veterinary medicine and everything
more than necessary either... Work and a hut Of the road that binds Chimoio
to the village of Manica, the way of the border between Moçambique and
the Zimbabué, has an interview several of these companies. But of Ian
Smith (the same name of the last governor of the segregacionista Rodésia...)
and Pretty one ascends for the dimension of the old hangar of airplanes,
bought in the Zimbabué for Ian and its partner of the Agriterra and that
one practically meets mounted. That structure contrasts with the small
wooden house where the couple sleeps, with the son of 12 years, and with the
green tent that serves to them of room and kitchen. "It is simple", explains
Ian. "First I have to create the conditions to work and alone later it is
that I can construct the house." Ian already vende tractores in Moçambique
has two years. But the hangar will serve of workshop of assistance for
its customers and to mount tractores. It is there that it is the complement
of the business. Therefore, the family will have to wait plus some time
for better conditions of life. What it does not lack is joy and good
disposal. Ian, 49 years, compliments us as if already in it knew them has
much time. Pretty, 33, are inside of the tent, with the son, the dogs and the
cat. But it feels our presence and it appears with a wide smile, inviting us
to enter it. The television is on and Storm is vidrada in ecrã as any small
one of 11 years, to a Saturday of morning, to see livened up drawings. Its
name wants to say storm, but the smile that leaves that sardento face
discloses the enormous tranquilidade of its life. To the days of week,
frequenta Storm 6ª classroom of the lessons leccionadas in English in the
school of the Chimoio. But also it learns there Portuguese. With it they
are more 17 zimbabuanas children. Storm continues to prefer to communicate
in English, but already it is disentangled in our language. "Taste much more
of living in Moçambique of that in the Zimbabué", it counts to us. "Here I
have more friends and is all the calmest one." Pretty it explains that in
the Zimbabué, lately, Storm studied only in house, what it limited it
socially. In one placard of platex, to the deep one of the tent, a set of
photographs portraies the some phases of the conquest of conditions of life
of the Smiths in Moçambique. Since the shower of bucket set in motion for a
sheave with that incialmente they took bath, until the mounted sanita a in
the way of one about sugar canes. Now, it only lacks the house to them to
be completely happy, accents Pretty. "Here", salient Ian, "we live in
a democracy: it has peace, more security and it was easy to get the land
"? the four hectares where many live and others that already had
been concessionados to it to develop one "farma", where Ian and the
partner intends to cultivate already in the next station tobacco, cereals and
some páprica. Moreover, the business of the tractores has a great potential
of growth. In few words, Ian explains the difference between the Zimbabué
and Moçambique: "There we do not vendemos an only tractor. Here we
vendemos 14." Ian confesses that still it arrived to think about the
Zâmbia alternative. But the moçambicana economy is to grow more and more
is stabilized. In the next year, the Smiths already will have workshop
and "farma" in full activity. In this height, the Agriterra already will use
at least 120 people. Support politician But if the zimbabuanos are
satisfied with the business in Moçambique also are truth that the results of
its investments in Manica have a significant impact in the moçambicana
economy. E will have still more from this year. In agreement, with a report
of the provincial Government, the one that the VISION had access, in the 2004
end the number of new ranks of work created in the agrarian sector will have
to be raised for 10 a thousand. In 2001 the sector was responsible only
for about 1 500 jobs. Between 2001 and 2004, the number of involved families
in some cultures (cereals, tobacco, cotton, oleaginosas, hortícolas
and malagueta) also grew of 20 for 130 a thousand. As it could not leave
of being, the per capita income of the inhabitants of Manica increased of
125 dollars, in 2000, for 347,50, in 2003. The value of the
agricultural exportations, of 1,5 million dollar in 2000, will have in the
end of this year to be raised for 16 million. Summarizing: "In 2003, the
provincía of Manica had one weight of 4,8% in the Gross domestic product of
Moçambique. E its per capita GIP, of 125 dollars, was 4º bigger of the
country. Without never wounding the good relations that continue to keep
with the Zimbabué and its President, Robert Mugabe, Joaquin Chissano and its
Government they have known to very manage well the shelter to the white
agriculturists, removing economic benefits of the crisis politics in the
neighboring country, that if had translated before damages for the
moçambicana economy. Chissano knows that its country lacks of infrastructures
and jobs. Moreover, it has few available supports to help national or foreign
that want to invest in moçambicanas lands. Therefore, it plays with the
weapons of that it makes use to hold these made use men to subject it any
conditions of life to be able to continue to work the land. The moçambicano
president sees in them sources of job and economic growth for the country.
To give virgin lands to them, scarce financial supports and to acarinhar
them? directamente or through the provincial governments? politics has been
its. Therefore one dislocated in the month passed in official visit the
province where the biggest number of zimbabuanos agriculturists is
concentrated. E had the concern of offering one supper to them (where all
had been served of the same pan) during which they had been able colloquy
informally. A gesture very received well by the new investors. "In the
Zimbabué never we saw our President to less than ten quilómetros of
distance", says one of them. In the occasion, Chissano transmitted the
message desired. Of the tranquilidade, guaranteeing to them that whichever
the winner of the next presidential elections in Moçambique, the politics so
far followed relatively the external investors will go to continue. Either
Daklama, the leader of the Renamo, the winner, or Guebuza, the new leader of
the Frelimo, both has as objectivo to make to grow the economy of the
country. E this only can happen with the aid of the foreign investment. The
message was underlined by the "farmeiros" in the meeting of the following day
in "farma" of the Stacom Tobaccos (to see box). In that visit, the
moçambicano President still announced a set of investment, nominated roads
and bridges, to carry through in the next years. E that they will be able to
benefit the draining of the production of Manica, as well as the way life of
the agriculturists. But plus a gesture politician, to add to whom they
have come to be taken by the governor To sound Nhaca (to see p 98), that
already he conquered the affection of the zimbabuanos although, to the
principle, to have faced the doubts of the politicians of Maputo how much to
the fenómeno of the new "farmeiros" in Manica. Everything is possible One
day, counts Nhaca, left in periodicals the notice the creation fish in
Manica. "In the Parliament of the Maputo, the opposition asked for
explanations. is possible in a province of the interior, of where nor if it
sees the sea, to be to produce fish, they asked. I decided the question
inviting them for capsize to see as if fish without sea created ",
concludes. Projecto in question results of a composed society for two
Portuguese who had always lived in the Zimbabué and two zimbabuanos. It is
placed in the place of rare beauty, to the side river, that the partners of
projecto had chosen to live. Already they had constructed its houses there
but still they keep roullotes where they slept initially, as well as the
first house, smaller. "Now it is destined to receive the friends who are for
coming of the Zimbabué without nothing of its; thus, they do not need to
pass for that some of us had passed ", explains us Jose Luis Rasp, 39 years,
one of the partners. To the 2 of the afternoon we were to find it to work it
next to the employees, in the construction of that have-of being the future
plant of rations for fish. The first fish produced in the tanks had started
to leave for the market in the end of the month of April. "Now we produce
only 16 tons for month, therefore it is everything for the national market;
but when to arrive at the 21 monthly tons we will start to export, and
already we have companies interested in mattering of the Zimbabué, of Africa
of the South and England." The ration feeds the fish, but also "it supports"
the many families who live in redor of the Fish Farm. "They produce
beans, maize and wheat, us we buy for them, we join the fish bran to it and
make the ration", tells Jose Luis. To the front of the future plant, turned
for the river, the tanks of the fish are prolongated. Together, the
four partners already had invested 7 biliões of meticais there. But
its objectivo is to construct one hundred tanks and to place 32 nets in
the river, where the fish lives in semifreedom in the last phase of growth.
In this height of projecto "already we count to have a mounted system
of refrigeration, to be able to prepare filetes of fish here and other
products finished for segments of market with greater to be able of
purchase." Daqui per two years, waits to start to have profit. To all, they
give to permanent work the 22 people more and eventual the 15. All the
partners of the Fish Farm have the children there. But the children do not
meet of moment in the farm? they are in Africa of the South. "They have
lessons for the InterNet, and of two in two months they are seven days there
to take off doubts or to make tests." The son oldest of one of the
zimbabuanos partners, of 18 years, preferred to change the fish for the
roses. It is responsible of accounting of the Vilmar the Investments, one of
the colored projectos more of zimbabuanos in Manica. The company produces
roses since 2002, to export, saw Zimbabué, for Holland and England. In 181
hectares of land she constructed to some greenhouses, giving already work the
250 people. The partners of the Vilmar, Derik Hinde and David England,
continue to live in the Zimbabué. Mixture of cultures "After that she
happened to them in the Zimbabué, some people are still not made use to
invest to everything or noutro here country; they need to gain confidence;
therefore she is that some still do not live here ", you go saying us a
zimbabuano entrepreneur, throughout a trip that starts in the Chimoio and
finishes close to Catandica. The road extends among fields and forest. Part
is of tar and another beaten land part. In front, the sights extend until
the a mountain range of Manica. To far cattle has an interview itself here
and to graze there. It has people for the berm of the road, the foot and
of bicycle. Houses are not seen. When the car enters in the road, smells
it the land joins the one of the tar that is to be used in the recovery of
the old way left for the Portuguese. Signals of development. The first
village that we sight, to the end of about two hours of way, calls Pungué?
the same name of the river that bathes it. From there onward the dust clouds
are accumulated. It has that to soften the speed. In the time of the civil
war in Moçambique, the zone was dominated for the troops of the Renamo,
today the greater broken of the opposition to the Government of the Frelimo.
More stocking-hour of way and arrives it a trail, that if hides under
the ramagens of the trees. For it does not lack water there. For all the
sides if see streams. Suddenly, to far, a great field of maize is the
first signal of that we are you give to arrive at the Catandica Farm. One
"farma" where if it produces cattle for abates, maize, tobacco, páprica and
rations of maize. A fertile land. It seems incredible that noutros times
that place has served of palco to one of the bloodiest episodes of the
history of the regional wars. She was that they had been died 7 a thousand
men of the movement of release of the Zimbabué, for the troops of Ian Smith
there. Boit Chantloir, the manager of the farm, is in the plantation, with
the workers. High, lean, with a hat of cowboy, shimstocks, shirt of rolled
up sleeves, leather boots, the man is estereótipo of one any North
American rancher. Likeable and well-made use figure, does not want to speak
of the past. It was without job to the 49 years, in the Zimbabué, where
always he was manager of "farmas", and left with two loaded cars of things
and without family for Moçambique, in 2002, to construct a new farm of
zimbabuanos. "a door Is closed, but a window confides soon." It is thus
that it summarizes what was transferred. It is perceivable that alone it
wants to speak of the future or a more recent past, of that much is proud,
that he is of the origin of that one "farma". "In the first months I slept
in a tent and I constructed to that one palhota (of sugar canes and colmo) to
cook", counts Boit Chantloir. The desbravamento of the 200 hectares of clean
land that today has started in February of 2003. Now already it sleeps in a
house of red brick, cover of colmo, with soil of cement and house of bath.
Already it has also constructed the kitchen, the office and the room.
Between the house and the opened bar, of sugar canes and colmo, that it
erected to receive the friends, the garden whom the central patio fulls of
color, protected of the heat for the leafy treetops is extended. Boit eats
almost everything of that the land gives to it. The firewood heats the water
in a boiler of brick defendant. The water is removed of a done puncture
there exactly to the side. A generator with capacity to produce 6 a
thousand megawatts of energy gives to it autonomy to it that it needs
relatively to the moçambicana electric net, that arrives never more there.
Thus, it can guarantee the functioning of a maize flour plant and of a
slaughter house with six great refrigerating chambers, that finished to be
constructed. E as is that the workers arrive there every day? Some live in
the farm, others in next villages. The ones that they come of more far use
the bicycles bought for the masters. After all, it thus seems not to be
so difficult to live in the way it weeds, to be autonomous and to remain
itself in contact with the world, exactly that the telemóveis do not
function. But it is not so simple as it can seem. To see the month family
the month, Boit works of sun the sun, without end-of-week. Such as the other
"farmeiros", it is made use to live with limitations so that the production
advances. Since that he does not lack the information to it of the world. E
if the Government do not give what they need to them to work, they make.
Its behavior and way of life translate a mixture of education forms
and cultures. The ones that had absorbed of the small farm where had been
born? Africa? e the one that was transmitted to them by the European
ascendants. They are African agriculturists, these whites that are to help
Moçambique to grow
Herald
Reporter THE Minister of State for Information and Publicity Professor
Jonathan Moyo yesterday said he has never spoken to anyone or Sky News about
the succession issue.
Commenting on claims by Sky News correspondent
Stuart Ramsay during his interview with President Mugabe last week that he
had said something about succession, the minister said he had neither spoken
to anyone nor Sky News before or after its interview with the President about
succession.
"I never spoke to Sky News or anyone before and after their
interview about succession or anything of the sort in the
question.
"It is a total fabrication typical of British intelligence
operatives who masquerade as journalists.
"It is a stupid fabrication
that was not making any sense when you hear about it or read it.
"It
looks like they were trying to drag me into their charade or someone
had planted the stupid question about things I never said in the hope of
getting the President to react to a false issue but all that did not work,"
said Prof Moyo.
Ramsay asked the President: "I am asking if you think
it is right to stand down. Jonathan Moyo was saying that the discussion about
whether the succession issue has caused problems in even elections because
those in Zanu-PF were considering who would be next . . . "
On the
interview Sky News had with the President, Prof Moyo said "it was very
disappointing that the questions were either very crude or
very stupid."
"Whatever the reason for that they failed to achieve
their purpose. The questions were needlessly crude, downright stupid and many
fair-minded people were left wondering why."
Sky News has since said
it never intended to do a positive report on Zimbabwe but just wanted to get
the interview with the President.
"Senior editorial staff at Sky News
were clear that we were not in the business of giving the Zimbabwean
Government favourable reports just to secure the interview. In fact the view
was quite the opposite," Ramsay said on the Sky News website.
Prof
Moyo said Ramsay's statement raises eyebrows.
"It was all premeditated.
You cannot help but conclude that it was premeditated malice which did not
get anywhere," he said.
Asked on the best way to communicate to the
outside world, Prof Moyo said he did not believe there was anything to be
gained from communicating through colonial, neo-colonial, imperialist or
oppositional mouthpieces.
"It is important and far better to always
communicate through national media. In any case George Bush or Tony Blair
always use their national media to communicate to the world.
"You
don't expect them to use Al Jezeera, for example. In the new world of the
information superhighway, it is very easy for a national story communicated
through the national media to reach global audiences in a matter of
seconds."
Prof Moyo gave the example of the interview Newsnet had with
President Mugabe on his birthday in February saying the interview travelled
instantly without being subjected to the stupidity typified by the kind of
questions Sky News had.
"The fact that the President receives
overwhelming positive responses from all audiences across the spectrum
whether in elite circles such as United Nations meetings or popular circles
such as stadiums in South Africa or Malawi is because his message has been
getting across through the Zimbabwean national media.
"The likes of
Sky News, BBC, CNN and the apartheid Press which have been demonising the
President, Zanu-PF and Government have failed in turning their own audiences
against the President's message.
"In essence, the national media platform
has been more consistent and successful. The BBC, CNN, Sky News and their
allied colonial and oppositional mouthpieces should not expect to be rewarded
for their demonisation job by getting priority over national media," Prof
Moyo said.
"It's outdated and no longer relevant to think that the only
way of speaking to the world is via Sky News, BBC and other colonial
mouthpieces.
"The experience of Al Jeezera in the Middle East and the
Gulf especially over the Iraq story must give all of us some food for thought
about the new realities of the media.
"If there was no Al Jezeera -
Sky News, BBC and CNN would have distorted the Iraq story to unacceptable
levels of ignorance and prejudice."
Prof Moyo said the fact that Sky News
did not intend to produce a positive report about Zimbabwe was cemented by a
"survey" the news channel supposedly conducted to establish whether people
were convinced by the President's views or not.
"They held a false
survey in which they said 70 percent of people said the President was not
convincing. How do we know that it was accurate. It was consistent with their
idea not to do a favourable report.
"I have no reason or basis to believe
that arsonists like Sky News who have been burning our country through fires
of falsehoods are now ready to extinguish the fires by becoming our leading
fire brigade.
"For the same reason they did not support the Second
Chimurenga, don't expect them to support the Third Chimurenga. Unlike in the
60s and 70s now we have plenty alternatives," said Prof Moyo.
Harare - A white Zimbabwean farmer has been arrested and
charged with murder after he shot dead a settler on his farm in the east of
the country, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. However his lawyer has
claimed the fatal shooting was an act of self defence following an attack by
a group of hostile settlers. Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri said Spiro
Landos had been arrested and was under police guard at a clinic in eastern
Zimbabwe, after settlers on his Riverside Farm "meted out instant justice"
against the farmer after he shot one settler and wounded another. "Mr Landos
has been arrested" said Phiri. "He is facing two charges - one of murder and
another of attempted murder." However, the farmer's lawyer said that Landos
had fired only one shot, and that he did it in self defence after he
was attacked by a mob of axe and stick-wielding settlers on his farm. "It
seems a clear case of self-defence against an attack on him by people who
were armed" said the lawyer, who asked not to be named. He said his client
had suffered serious injuries as a result of the attack, including two
fractured forearms, a stab wound in the back and deep gashes all over his
body. The incident comes at a time of rising racial tensions in the country
following last week's high-profile brawl between prominent white opposition
lawmaker, Roy Bennett, and two cabinet members during a heated parliamentary
debate. In 2000, black settlers in Zimbabwe began forcibly occupying
white-owned land in a move supported by the government, which then embarked
on a controversial reform programme to acquire millions of hectares of land
from whites and redistribute it to blacks. A small group of about 4 500
white farmers owned 30% of prime farmland before the government launched
the programme but now fewer than 400 white farmers remain in Zimbabwe and
own just three percent of the country's land.
By
Barnaby Phillips, BBC Southern Africa correspondent
After three years
of hunger, the government has announced there will be a bumper harvest. To be
precise, it says that this year Zimbabwe will grow 2.4 million tons of maize
- which, according to UN statistics, would be the fifth highest harvest since
independence in 1980. State-controlled television says this shows the success
of the land reform programme, and "proves wrong the prophecies of doom". And
President Robert Mugabe has told a United Nations crop assessment mission to
leave the country. He said the UN should take their aid elsewhere. "We are
not hungry," said the president. "Why foist this food upon us?" If Mr Mugabe
is right, Zimbabwe has experienced an extraordinary turn-around. Millions of
Zimbabweans have been surviving on foreign food aid for years now. Privately
UN officials say they believe the country is heading for another small
harvest, and that another relief operation will be necessary by the end of
this year.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is even more
dismissive, and is not afraid to rubbish the government's predictions. MDC
agriculture spokesman Renson Gasela told the BBC: "There is no way the
government's figures can be accurate in anyway whatsoever". He says there was
a chronic shortage of seeds and fertiliser during the last planting season,
and much of Zimbabwe's best land is simply lying fallow. His own prediction
is that Zimbabwe will grow a mere 850,000 tons of maize. Is the
Zimbabwean government deliberately misleading the world, and its own people?
Mr Mugabe, in his emphatic way, says no. He says the land reforms have
successfully rid Zimbabwe of "ill-educated" white farmers, and that the new
system is much more "enlightened". Mr Mugabe has staked his political
reputation on land reform, and he now needs to convince Zimbabweans that the
seizure of white-owned farms was worth it.
State-controlled media
in Zimbabwe does its best, pumping out with monotonous regularity a jingle
which celebrates the taking back of the land. It shows happy people dancing
across bountiful fields of maize, and driving tractors. But the president's
opponents believe land reform has been a disastrous failure, and that the
government is now desperately trying to cover its tracks. "They want to show
the success of their reform," said Renson Gasela. "And they told the UN team
to leave because they knew they would not concur with their figures." Asking
the UN to leave might be one way of obscuring the whole picture. But there
may be other ways - like secretly buying grain abroad, and then pretending it
was produced at home. Press reports in Britain have linked the Zimbabwean
government with a US company, and a secret grain-for-tobacco deal. The
American company told the BBC that it is doing business in Zimbabwe, although
it denies directly dealing with the government. And Mr Mugabe says he has no
intention of buying grain abroad. But his opponents do not take him at his
word. They worry that if Mr Mugabe does buy food, he will then determine how
it is distributed to hungry Zimbabweans, without the involvement of
meddlesome foreign donors. And with parliamentary elections on the horizon,
this would help him tighten his grip on power.
IMMEDIATELY
after President Thabo Mbeki's optimistic state of the nation address , the
cameras of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) switched to
opposition leaders for comments.
Presenters Kim Cloete, Clay- son Monyele
and Vuyo Mvoko presented a carefully choreographed lineup, giving ample time
to each party leader to express his or her views, except for the leader of
the official Democratic Alliance (DA) opposition.
Tony Leon was
positioned neatly next to Kgalema Mothlanthe, the African National Congress
(ANC) secretary-general, giving the impression that Leon was elevated to his
rightful place.
However, the agenda behind this juxtaposition with
Mothlanthe soon became clear: Mvoko was going to manage Leon's comments to
his liking. Surely, Mothlanthe did not need to be there to reinforce what
Mbeki had just said for an hour? It was important to hear Leon's views
without the intervention of three SABC announcers, junior soccer players, and
so on. Was this intended to restrict Leon's time and minimise what he had to
say?
Why do the media fear someone whom they repeatedly dismiss as a
political lightweight? Leon must surely be a force to be reckoned with how
else do we explain the SABC's partial treatment of him? Why don't they allow
the public to hear Leon's views uninterrupted?
Need I remind the SABC
that the ANC won a two-thirds majority vote with its help. The state
broadcaster can now relax and be more even-handed with Leon. Or was Mvoko's
final question to Leon: "And what about consensus politics?" a euphemism for,
"Will you shut up in future?"
Disappointingly, Patricia de Lille, leader
of the Independent Democrats, sings the same tired song . From someone whose
claim to fame is to stir shit, this refrain is hardly convincing. Support for
constructive, as opposed to destructive, criticism seems to be her new
slogan, implying the DA is a proponent of the latter.
De Lille should
know by now that one person's destructive criticism is music to another's
ears. And who, for that matter, determines what is destructive or
constructive? While a general consensus might mean all parties agree,
it should be remembered that agreement is not necessarily the same as
the truth.
Consensus politics has its place, and has had its place in
our history. The constitution is the result of consensus battered out at the
Convention for Democracy in SA. With the basics in place, SA should allow and
manage its pluralism in all its diversity, in line with constitutional
principles.
It is the task of Parliament, of the opposition, of the
media, of business and civil society to hold government accountable,
especially with its firmly entrenched majority. Since the ANC has the support
of the entire media and controls most state institutions, consensus politics
is hardly the only way to go.
Can we imagine a state where we all
agree with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's handling of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic? Where we all support the president on his views that HIV
does not cause AIDS?
Where we all agree that R60bn should be spent on
arms? Where we all agree Jean-Bertrand Aristide should live on our taxes?
Where we all agree we should provide Zimbabwe with electricity regardless of
how President Robert Mugabe spends money? Where we all agree with Black
Economic Enrichment?
History is replete with political leaders and
parties who silenced dissent and ruthlessly crushed opposition under the
guise of consensus politics. Hilda Bernstein realised late in life that
Stalinism was wrong. In her book, A life of One's Own, she admits with great
difficulty that where Soviet leader Josef Stalin's followers failed, was to
notice tendencies early on in his rule that would later lead to their demise,
during his purges. "Stalin's strength lay in his rigid management of the
party machine that controlled appointments to key posts he gathered round
himself a body of faithful henchmen whose political fortunes were linked with
his and who owed him unquestioning personal allegiance."
His vanity
demanded "absolute obedience and recognition of infallibility. He would
permit no covert criticism, and no expression of dissent was allowed to
appear in the party press or journals," she wrote.
I would sooner live in
a robust, vibrant democracy than in a polity based on consensus where the
ruling party reigns and remains supreme. Those who fear criticism should be
feared.
Kadalie is a human rights activist based in Cape Town.