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A nation of millionaires who can't afford to buy anything

The Times, UK May 08, 2006



Zimbabwe's smallest denomination bank note is Z$500. The Government refuses to print notes higher than Z$50,000 despite a 1,000 per cent inflation rate, claiming it would be 'inflationary' (HOWARD BURDITT / REUTERS)


Zimbabweans are speaking out with candour against the Government as the country descends further into economic chaos

WITH his torn shirt and tattered trousers held up by a piece of string, Barons Chikamba is an unlikely millionaire.

His life is a daily struggle despite the seemingly astronomical prices that he charges for even a short hop in the battered car that he uses to ferry visitors around Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

Even his lowest fare is more than a million Zimbabwean dollars. It may sound a lot, but in a country where even the official rate of inflation is nearly 1,000 per cent — by far the highest for a country not at war — it is really less than £6.

Visitors arriving at Harare’s smart, modernistic airport quickly become millionaires simply by changing $10 at the official rate of Z$101,000 (55p) to the US dollar. The black market rate is roughly double that. “Yes, I am a millionaire — a millionaire who can afford nothing at all,” Mr Chikamba says. “Zimbabweans are all millionaires today.

We are a country of millionaires, but it goes nowhere and no one has anything.”

Mr Chikamba chuckles at the thought, but for him and millions like him, Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation is no joke. Last week the basket of essential basics that an average lowincome family needs for survival rocketed to Z$41 million a month in a country where more than 60 per cent of the workforce is jobless and others earn as little as Z$4 million a month.

With the highest denomination banknote, Z$50,000, it can take almost as long as a taxi journey itself to pay the fare.

That is nothing, however, compared with eating out. A takeaway chicken and chips cost The Times Z$1.8 million last week. A curry with friends at a down-market Indian restaurant came to Z$13.6 million.

When restaurant bills arrive, people sit like Las Vegas high-rollers with great stacks of money in the middle of the table. “You have to add on another half hour to allow for the restaurant to count the money,” an Indian businessman said. “I went to pay some local taxes the other day and it took over an hour for them to count out the Z$41 million I owed. It’s crazy.”

That explains why some of the hottest commodities in Zimbabwe today are money-counting machines. State-run newspapers are full of advertisements for heavy-duty banknote counters made in Japan or Singapore. They range in price from Z$345 million to Z$1.2 billion. One businessman said that he had stopped using a calculator because it simply could not deal with the number of zeros, and had reverted to using an old slide rule.

Zimbabwe’s smallest denomination banknote is Z$500. That is a fraction of the price of a roll of lavatory paper at Z$150,000, leading to inevitable jokes about how to express one’s point of view of Robert Mugabe’s regime.

Supermarkets post new prices daily. Items such as bags of sugar or rice have layers of price tags stuck one on top of another. Peel them back and it is possible to trace the increases, which can be as high as

80 per cent in a week. People stand in shops with two bags, one full of money, one with a handful of food. At one of the favourite watering holes for the dwindling number of expats, a white man walked in and slammed a brick on the table. He had just bought 15 of them for some repair work at a cost of Z$300,000. “The bloody house only cost me Z$200,000 in 1990 — and it has a swimming pool and tennis court,” he shouted.

Zimbabwe’s crisis transcended racial divisions long ago, and his statement set off a round of comparisons from the mixed-race crowd. One man related how a new battery for his car now costs about Z$200,000, more than the car did when he bought it for Z$140,000 in the late 1990s.

Stroking his stubble, an Asian hotelier lamented that he could not afford razor blades at Z$15 million for a packet of three. “Bugger it, I won’t shave; who cares any more?” he shrugged.


As ever in Mr Mugabe’s impoverished fiefdom, it is the poorest people who pay the highest price. “People now have to shop on a daily basis because they cannot afford more than a few meagre items, and they get confused with all the money,” Otilia Rusere, 37, who scrapes a living as a street vendor, said.

By 5am the streets of Harare are full of people walking to work. “Many people cannot afford public transport, so everyone is footing it,” said Rudo Tsikira, whose rent for her one-room dwelling has soared to Z$2 million a month.

On Sunday mornings pensioners, black and white, can be seen buying one egg and two tomatoes, and a quarter loaf of bread for a rare treat — a cooked breakfast.

The grand colonial Harare Club started locking its library long ago because members were stealing books and newspapers and selling them to raise a little extra cash.

Fees tripled last month in state hospitals, with basic consultations increasing from Z$300,000 to more than Z$1 million. Private hospitals, doctors and clinics doubled their fees. Last week a couple expecting a baby in a private clinic had to pay for the delivery in advance. They turned up with a large suitcase stuffed with money. “People thought we were checking in,” joked the father-to-be.

The cost of dying is so high that the poor are reportedly burying their relatives in fields at night. Only condoms, which cost $Z300 because they are heavily subsidised by the international community, seem inflation-proof.

With the currency worth less each day, a bartering system is taking hold. Farm labourers prefer to be paid in produce, which will keep its price and can be easily swapped. In cities, people exchange personal items, such as CDs, for food.

The country’s descent into economic chaos came after violent land seizures led to a dramatic drop in production. Exports plummeted. Foreign investment dried up. The Government sought to hide its problems by taking out foreign loans that it could not service, and printing money. The inflation rate is still spiralling upwards, but Mr Mugabe appears oblivious.

He has a simple remedy to the problem — printing more money. To ensure that the army, police and civil servants are paid, the Central Bank has said that it will print another Z$60 trillion in Z$50,000 notes. The country does not have the capacity to print so many notes, but Mr Mugabe refuses to have larger ones because that would be “inflationary”.

Instead, Zimbabwe, once one of the wealthiest countries in Africa, will have to sub- contract some of the printing to neighbouring states, who will demand payment in precious hard currency, compounding the crisis.

“We are rapidly approaching the point of meltdown,” said John Robertson, an independent economist. “It simply cannot go on, and the Government will be forced to admit it has failed. Economics may end up doing what politics has failed to do.”

He said that until now the worst effects had been partially offset by remittances from the four million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the population, living outside the country.

There are signs that ordinary people are near to breaking point. Despite the ubiquitous security services, they speak their minds with a candour unimaginable even a few years ago. No one has a good word to say about the Government.

Last week more than 100 women protesting against massive increases in school fees were arrested in Bulawayo. In Harare about 50 students who could not afford the final term’s fees were also arrested and detained over the weekend.

Zimbabwe’s schools reopen tomorrow and huge absenteeism is expected after many doubled fees that now range between Z$20 million and Z$100 million a term.

“There is no sector of society unaffected by this crisis,” said Barnabus Mangodla, of the Combined Harare Residents’ Association, a lobby group.

“We are living on a time bomb, and there comes a point when people have nothing left, that they no longer care about repression.”




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Zimbabwe says only nine percent of population is unemployed

Zim Online

Tue 9 May 2006

      HARARE - Zimbabwe state bureaucrats on Monday said unemployment in the
country stood at a comfortable nine percent as late as 2004, totally
rejecting independent estimates that joblessness surpassed the 50 percent
mark several years ago and is presently anything above 70 percent.

      In its 2004 Labour Force Survey (LFS) report released in Harare, the
Central Statistical Office (CSO) said 87 percent of the employable age group
of 15 years and above was economically active leaving only nine percent
without a job during the period under review.

      The government data agency said: "Population age 15 years and above,
considered to be the working age population, accounted for 60 percent of the
population.

      "Out of the population age 15 years and above, 87 percent was
economically active. Using the broad definition of unemployment, nine
percent was unemployed."

      The nine percent that were economically inactive or unemployed
represented 529 000 people, most of them youths according to the CSO.

      The CSO said unemployment was highest among youths with a high school
education and residing in urban areas.

      The total population for the 2004 labour survey was estimated at 10.8
million compared to the 11.6 million people counted in the 2002 population
census, which suggests the CSO may have factored in the hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans who leave the country every year in search of jobs
in neighbouring countries or overseas.

      While many professionals left their jobs to seek better paying posts
abroad, many ordinary Zimbabweans left simply because they could not find
formal employment in an economy that in the last seven years has experienced
the world's worst recession outside a war zone.

      At least three million Zimbabweans are said to be living and working
outside the country and will certainly be among multitudes of people
including many economic experts who will find the CSO's unemployment figures
hard to buy.

      The CSO said of the 5.1 million people that were employed in 2004, 196
000 were in time related underemployment.

      Time related under-employment in the survey was defined as all those
employed persons aged 15 years and above, involuntarily working less than 40
hours a week who were seeking or available for additional work during the
one week reference period.

      CSO said that 193 000 persons were at least once retrenched from a
previous job in the period 1995 to May 2004.

      Information from the survey will be used to formulate policies on
employment, human resources development strategies, macroeconomic
monitoring, incomes support and social programmes.

      Once one of Africa's best prospects of economic success, Zimbabwe has
grappled a severe economic and food crisis since 2000, critics blame on
repression and wrong policies by President Robert Mugabe such as his farm
seizure programme that destabilised the mainstay agricultural sector.

      Zimbabwe's crisis has manifested itself through acute shortages of
foreign currency, fuel and food, while the rate of inflation is above 900
percent with economic analysts predicting the key rate to shoot beyond 1 000
when figures for April are announced tomorrow. - ZimOnline


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Mugabe's clean-up houses find no takers in city

Zim Online

Tue 9 May 2006

      MASVINGO - Scores of victims of the government's controversial home
demolition campaign last year are refusing to occupy replacement houses
built by the state in the southern Masvingo city saying they are substandard
and not suitable for human habitation.

      The government hurriedly launched the home-building exercise last year
to try to ward off criticism by the United Nations, Western governments and
local human rights groups for destroying shanty towns and informal
businesses in a campaign that left at least 700 000 people homeless and
indirectly affected another 2.4 million people.

      But economic experts pointed out that the government - battling for
cash to import fuel, electricity and food among many other key commodities
in critical short supply in the country - did not have the resources to
build houses for all the people it had made homeless.

      "The houses are so badly built that we are afraid they may collapse on
us," said one of the intended beneficiaries of the houses, who did not want
to be named for fear of victimisation.

      The man said in addition to shoddy handiwork by the contractor, the
houses also did not have safe drinking water or sanitary facilities with
recipients being asked to dig up wells for drinking water and pit latrines.

       "We have already made our concerns known to the authorities and they
are aware of the situation," the man said.

      Masvingo provincial governor Willard Chiwewe would not accept
complaints that the houses are substandard, warning that the government
might have to find other people who wanted the houses if intended
beneficiaries were not happy with them.

      "If the intended beneficiaries are saying the houses are substandard
then it means we will have to look for new people," said Chiwewe.

      The government had initially said it would build houses for everyone
whose home was demolished but has since abandoned the idea for lack of
resources and in some cases displaced people were given incomplete houses
and asked to finish building them themselves.

      UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who toured Zimbabwe for two weeks to probe
the demolitions, criticised the government for rushing to destroy
shantytowns before providing alternative and acceptable accommodation for
inhabitants.

      The UN envoy said the home demolition campaign violated victims' human
rights and could also have breached international law.

      The government, which says the demolition campaign was necessary to
smash crime and restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's cities, rejected the UN
report saying Tibaijuka was pressured by Western governments to write a
negative report they could use to demonise Harare. - ZimOnline


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Women arrested over fees protest freed in Zimbabwe

Reuters

Mon 8 May 2006 1:42 PM ET
HARARE, May 8 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police on Monday freed more than 100
women arrested five days ago for taking part in an illegal march in protest
against sharp rises in school fees, a member of the group said.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA), said she and 104 fellow activists were released from custody in the
southern city of Bulawayo after prosecutors declined to pursue the matter in
court.

"...It is very clear there is no case they can bring against us," Williams
told Reuters by telephone. Police could not be reached immediately for
comment.

Many had complained of chest problems after being drenched by rain while
they were held in a cage in the open on the first night and sleeping on damp
floors, Williams said.

Police have arrested scores of WOZA activists in the past three years for
holding demonstrations against economic hardship, in defiance of strict
security laws banning public gatherings without police permission.

WOZA says women have borne the brunt of an eight-year recession and rampant
inflation widely blamed on mismanagement of the economy by President Robert
Mugabe's government.

Mugabe has vowed to crush the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) if it goes ahead with protests it has threatened to hold against his
26-year-old rule.

The government has not responded to a weekend report by a human rights group
that state security agents had increased the use of torture against
government opponents.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum -- a coalition of 17 rights groups -- said
19 cases of torture, 32 of general assault and 46 cases of "unlawful arrest"
had been recorded in March against the police, the army and agents of the
Central Intelligence Organisation.

The government has in the past dismissed such allegations as political
propaganda.

Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, says the MDC is a puppet of
former colonial ruler Britain which he says has led a campaign to destroy
Zimbabwe's economy as payback for his drive to seize white-owned farms to
give to landless blacks.


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WOZA protests break out in Harare as Bulawayo detainees released



      By Lance Guma
      08 May 2006

      There seems to be no stopping the defiant Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA). A few hours after the majority of their members were released from
police custody in Bulawayo, hundreds more of their members including school
children began another demonstration in Harare. At least 104 protesters
spent the weekend in Bulawayo jails after 185 of them were arrested Thursday
last week. WOZA is currently leading demonstrations against 1000 percent
school fee increases.

      At the time of broadcast there had been no arrests during the Harare
protest. The women marched to the offices of the Minister of Education Aneas
Chigwedere at about lunchtime and put forward their demand for a reversal of
the new fee structures. According to the new Education Amendment Bill school
fees will be pegged according to the consumer-pricing index as set by the
Central Statistical Office. With inflation running rampant the situation for
most parents is set to get worse.

      Jenni Williams the WOZA coordinator told Newsreel upon her release
from custody in Bulawayo that the fee increases affected many people in
Zimbabwe and not just women. Children could not go to school and this is why
they are taking part in the protests she explained. She says government
raised fees without consulting anyone. 'How can they just give kids invoices
demanding Z$5 million when previously they were paying Z$500 000,' she said.
The decision to raise fees does not make sense to WOZA especially in the
light of an unemployment rate of over 80 percent. Williams says the
government could have at least consulted the various School Development
Associations (SDA's) before raising the fees.

      The WOZA leader also disclosed that she has received three death
threats from a senior police officer who according to his fellow staff
members is known for being mentally unstable. She is taking the threats
seriously but says this will not deter her and the group from fighting for
social justice in the country.

      NB: Don't miss Behind the Headlines this week as Lance Guma speaks to
Jenni Williams about the school fee protests and her experiences in police
custody.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news


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Zimbabwean authorities embark on witch-hunt for Bennett supporters in
Manicaland



      By Violet Gonda
      08 May 2006

      It seems the Zimbabwean authorities will not rest where Roy Bennett is
concerned. After releasing him from jail last year he was this year
implicated in a plot to assassinate Robert Mugabe. Fearing for his life and
after spending 6 years under constant harassment and intimidation by the
government and state sponsored thugs the former commercial farmer and Member
of Parliament for Chimanimani finally fled the country to seek asylum in
South Africa, last month.

      Undeterred and despite widespread coverage in and around Zimbabwe that
Bennett is in South Africa, Zimbabwean authorities are reported to have
embarked on a witch-hunt for people perceived to be linked to Bennett in
Manicaland province.

      Pishai Muchauraya the provincial spokesman for the Tsvangirai MDC in
Manicaland said armed police officers with sniffer dogs raided the home of
provincial chairman Godfrey Mubatso in Zimunya township, just outside
Mutare, on Saturday. The police officers led by an Inspector Mavhenyengu
from Mutare Rural Police are reported to have also dug trenches in the
opposition official's garden looking for arms of war, but found none. They
had no search warrant.

      Inspector Mavhenyengu denied these allegations when we called him for
comment. Instead he said the police had gone to Mubatso's home to
investigate alleged stolen property.

      However, Muchauraya said Mubatso is being victimised for being linked
to the former opposition MP. He said, "Mubatso was Roy Bennett's deputy
before Roy was elected treasurer general of our party. And when these people
(police) went to his place they started asking questions; Do you know Roy
Bennett? Has he ever visited this place and how many times? - and a lot of
such silly questions pertaining to Roy Bennett."

      Several people in Chimanimani are said to have also been interrogated
recently. Muchauraya said Vhaisai Munjoma and Fabion Musukutwa, the brothers
of Chief Mutambara, were visited by state agents who wanted to know the
whereabouts of Bennett. The two had last month received a beast on behalf of
Roy Bennett when he was honoured by the MDC provincial leadership at a rally
in Mutare on April 22 nd.

      The information officer reported that Chief Mutambara himself was,
last Tuesday, forced to address a press conference in the presence of
soldiers, CIO and the District Administrator for Chimanimani Smart
Chindawande, denouncing the MDC.

      Muchauraya said the stage-managed event received front page coverage
in the province's weekly Manica Post newspaper. The Chief is reported to
have openly declared his support for the opposition party in the past.
According to Muchauraya the Chief was threatened by state agents including
the Governor of Manicaland Tinayi Chigudu after they accused him of
supporting the MDC and Roy Bennett.

      The victimisation has also seen Bennett's farm workers at the
receiving end of state brutality. Scores were left without a job after his
farm in Chimanimani was illegally occupied by war veterans, the army and
government officials. Several people were murdered at his farm and a number
of women were also raped allegedly by Zanu PF sponsored thugs.

      The state mouth piece The Herald reported that eight of Bennett's
ex-workers fled to South Africa where they have been denied asylum. The
Herald says that this was after the Refugee Status Determination Office in
Pretoria said their fears of persecution in Zimbabwe were "not well
founded."

      We have not been able to get confirmation of this but observers say if
this is true then this is yet another example that shows the lack of
seriousness with which the South African government takes the Zimbabwe
crisis.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news


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ZITF a sad affair



      May 8, 2006

      By Andnetwork .com

      Johannesburg (AND) The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) ended
yesterday with foreign investors calling for a complete re-orientation of
the country's economic recovery programme and fresh strategies to bring down
inflation and promote the import and export trade sectors.

      In separate interviews with local media before the end of the fair,
foreign exhibitors in the import and export sectors noted the negative
trading environment posed by the steady deterioration of the Zimbabwean
economy in the past five years.

      An Iranian investor with Great City Investment said they would wish to
be part of Zimbabwe's economic turnaround but said the government needed to
bring down the inflation rate and reduce the over-taxation of the import and
export sectors.

      A representative of the Botswana Export Development Authority (BEDIA)
was quoted as calling on government to come up with policies that promoted
as opposed to restricting the export sectors.

      "We came here to market ourselves and analyse the business conditions.
We note that there is a strong need for government to support the import and
export trade sectors. The country also needs to bring down inflation in
order to enable business to have a stable and viable pricing regime for
goods," the representative was quoted as saying.

      The Board of External Trade of Tanzania (BETT) also called for a
normalisation of the exchange rate, which remains at US$1.00 to Z$99 000,
and more government support for the import and export sectors.

      While foreign traders counted the losses after a largely uneventful
exhibition, it was the local efforts that took more battering as the
government ministers, some of whom have been appointed to lead sector
efforts to resuscitate the economy, snubbed the International Business
Conference (IBC), the premier business conference meant to support the
exhibition.

      The ministers, who irked the country's business delegates by attending
a ruling ZANU PF party politburo meeting to give the conference a miss,
included industry and international trade minister Obert Mpofu and several
others who have been appointed to lead several taskforces on economic
revival.

      The industrialists accused the government of running the country's
economy down with the reckless adoption of populist policies against
economic counsel. They also described the country's 'Look-East Policy', a
strategy of finding Asian partners and tourists to replace the traditional
Western trade partners and tourist sources.

      The greatest failure of the showcase was the re-introduction of A'Sambeni
Africa tourism expo which recorded only 10 visitors and no business deals at
all during the seven days of the fair.

      Commenting on the glaring failure of the tourism expo, ZITF chairman
Nhlanhla Masuku said: "A'sambeni needs to be reconfigured and its basic
concepts revised."

      Despite a Z$5m injection into the promotion of its tourist
destinations and the three year old 'Look East Policy,' tourism slumped by
49.9% last year. The death of local tourism, blamed on prohibitively high
parks entry fees charged at foreign currency rates, has also worsened the
plight of the sector at a tome when lucrative hunting farms have been
pillaged out of business by the new owners and poachers resettled on
wildlife ranches.

      Early this year, the country's business and tourism sectors reported
that the Look East Policy had not brought as much of investors and tourists
as initially forecast.

      Oscar Nkala, AND Johannesburg


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Police intervention prevents ugly farm clash



      May 8, 2006

      By Oscar Nkala www.andnetwork.com

      Johannesburg (AND) The timely intervention of the police in Zimbabwe's
prime agricultural zone of Chegutu in the north-east has prevented a deadly
confrontation over land between a white farmer and his newly resettled
counterparts.

      According to the state-owned Sunday Mail, operations at Dearlove Farm
in Chegutu came to a standstill last Tuesday when hordes of newly resettled
farmers threatened to unleash violence on the farmer unless they were
addressed by representatives from the ministry's of Lands, Agriculture, Land
Reform and Resettlement.

      The conflict was centred around a plantation which was abandoned by
the previous farm owner. The resettled people want the piece of land and
have since accused the farmer, identified only as Mr Swart, of illegally
occupying the land without an allocation notice from the authorities.

      In a meeting between the farmer, the resettled people, the police and
officials from the agriculture ministry, the farmer is said to have accused
the resettled people of land greed and chronicled a history of tense
relations over the past two years.

      The resettled people also accused the farmer of agri-economic
sabotage, citing instances in which the farmer repeatedly cut off water
supplies to their plots. They added that the cuts had also compromised all
operations and affected the recently ended tobacco growing and grading
processes.

      "We have gone through hell for the past two years because of the
actions of this man. His behaviour and attitude are not changing. We have
been failing to grade our tobacco because of lack of water.

      "We ask him for water, he says it is not his problem because he is not
growing tobacco. At the moment he is busy ferrying his oranges to the
market," said newly resettled farmer Daniel Mbofana.

      However, the meeting is reported to have ended with recommendations
for co-existence and internal conflict management and resolution mechanisms,
which governmnet hopes will stabilise the situation and allow production to
go ahead.

      Oscar Nkala

      Johannesburg Bureau


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Government remains silent as food situation worsens



      By Tichaona Sibanda
      08 May 2006

      The country's food situation is now dire following weekend reports
that relief agencies are running out of food. Non-Governmental Organisations
cannot appeal for more aid until the government allows them to do so.Jonah
Mudehwe, executive director of the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations Nango, told ZimOnline over the weekend that hundreds of
thousands of people could starve as a result.

      Those as risk include widows, orphans, school children and AIDS
patients in the country. The government, keen to avoid blame for damaging
the country's food security through its chaotic and often violent land
reforms that destabilised agriculture, has in the past been reluctant to
accept food aid from the international community.

      Political commentator Bekithemba Mhlanga castigated government's
stance on food aid, describing the standoff with NGO's as arrogance.

      'The government is full of unreasonable people who put their self
interests first before the nation's population. They simply do not want to
turn around and accept there is a crisis in the country because they still
want to manage their image of hardman of Africa,' Mhlanga said.

      Mudehwe said the problem extends to people who had poor harvests. He
admitted that those who failed to harvest will be without food assistance
and they will starve until the government changes its heart.

      ZimOnline reports that Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche is the
one who gives the official go-ahead to NGOs to mobilise more food for
vulnerable groups in the country. At one time in 2004 Robert Mugabe told
donor groups to take their help elsewhere saying black peasants given farms
seized from whites under government land reforms had produced enough food
for the country. It later turned out that Zimbabwe required massive aid that
year because it had not harvested enough.

      Once a regional breadbasket the country is in the grip of a severe
food and economic crisis that critics say is because of repression and wrong
policies by Mugabe such as his land redistribution programme that has seen
food production tumbling by an alarming 60 percent. At least three million
people in the country are said to require food aid.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news


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Zim's new black farmers to get leases

Mail and Guardian

      Harare, Zimbabwe

      08 May 2006 01:07

            The authorities in Zimbabwe, who are battling to restore lost
production on farms, are scheduled this week to visit new black farmers in
the west of the country to see if they qualify for 99-year land leases,
local reports said on Monday.

            Members of the National Land Board are to visit farmers in
Matabeland North and South, Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa told the
state-controlled The Herald newspaper.

            Leases will only be issued "if the board is satisfied that a
farmer is fully utilising the farm he was allocated" under President Robert
Mugabe's controversial programme of white-land seizures, launched six years
ago, Mutasa said.

            Following sweeping changes to the Constitution last year, which
have made all agricultural land state land, farmers can no longer own land
in Zimbabwe,

            "Once you get the lease, it means that you would use the farm
for 99 years. So we should be careful in the exercise because we do not want
to give a lease to anyone who would not use the land productively for 99
years," Mutasa said.

            Before 2000, much of Zimbabwe's prime agricultural land belonged
to about 4 000 white commercial farmers; now it is mostly in the hands of
new black farmers. But some senior government officials are exasperated at
the plummeting production levels and there have been threats to take back
farms.

            Mugabe is keen to restore Zimbabwe's image as the grain basket
of Southern Africa. Since the start of the land-reform programme, the
country has had to import hundreds of thousands of tonnes of the staple
maize to make up for poor harvests.

            Meanwhile, the government has been issuing mixed signals on the
future of white farmers who may want to lease land from the government.

            Flora Buka, Minister of State for Special Affairs Responsible
for Land Reform, says 500 white farmers who have applied for leases are
having their applications considered.

            But in an interview with the private Zimbabwe Independent
newspaper last Friday, Mutasa said "no white farmer is being invited back.
And why should we offer them such long leases?" -- Sapa-dpa


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Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 6th May 2006



London was transfixed by a crazy elephant – not Mugabe but a mechanical 40 foot high giant created by a French theatre group.  It was lovely to see so many children being taken to Trafalgar Square to see the “Sultan’s Elephant” on its tour of London.  Being here every Saturday for nearly 4 years we are part of the local pageant.  Our banners: “No to Mugabe, No to Starvation”, “Stop Murder, Rape and Torture in Zimbabwe” and “Wake up World! Zimbabwe is Dying!” confront visitors to all these Trafalgar Square events.  People are immediately sympathetic and readily sign our petition calling for UN intervention in Zimbabwe.  But there are a variety of other interactions – for example today: a pan-Africanist Congolese who was very much pro-Mugabe, an angry white man who seemed to think that Zimbabwe should be left to fend for itself, an Afghan student who interviewed us all for her final piece of work to complete her degree, and a Russian who was also pro-Mugabe because he is supposedly socialist. 

We were very grateful to have Mr Pizza Man who, as always, brought us pizza and coffee even though he is not Zimbabwean and has never visited the country.  When Zimbabwe is free we must reciprocate and give him a good time in Zimbabwe.

Although we had wonderful sunny weather most of the week, we had rain for the whole of the Vigil, including a dramatic moment when one corner of the tarpaulin broke loose and flooded the Vigil table, soaking the petitions and flyers. Passers-by were fascinated by a new feature of the Vigil – a board with Zim $42,000 fanned out showing how much half a loaf of bread cost.

Glad to hear from the Bristol Vigil that they had a good day last week at a new venue at the Hippodrome at the city centre.  They have printed flyers to hand out to the public and posted us the signed petitions.  They are keeping a visitors’ list and are planning a visitors’ diary of people’s stories about living in Zimbabwe.  They made a collection which they are sending to ACTSA for the Dignity Period campaign.  The Bristol Vigil advises us that the Perian Centre in Bristol will be hosting Refugee Week events commencing 19th June. The Centre will be devoting 22nd June to Zimbabwe and the Bristol Vigil will be manning a stand on that day. 

For this week’s Vigil photos, check:

http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw

 

.  Due to lack of space we have had to delete last week’s photos – we are looking into ways to keep the photos available longer.

FOR THE RECORD: 41 signed the register – lower numbers this week because some supporters were attending an MDC meeting in Leicester.

FOR YOUR DIARY: Zimbabwe Forum, Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John Adam Street, turn right and you will see the pub).  Monday, 8th May, 7.30 pm – There will be two speakers: (1) Michael Mubaiwa, an expert in labour law, industrial relations and trade unions in Zimbabwe, who has worked in Zimbabwe as a lecturer and human resources consultant. He will be talking about the challenges currently being faced by Zimbabwean trade unions. (2) Bruce MacKay from South Africa who is an international officer for Unison, one of the largest unions in the UK. He will be giving us some ideas about how we can gain support for Zimbabwe with UK trade unions.  Monday, 15th May, 7.30 pm – another regular action planning forum: discussion and decisions on campaigns and demos.

Vigil co-ordinator

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk


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Students charged for removing Mugabe picture

IOL

          May 08 2006 at 12:43AM

      Harare - Ten students in Zimbabwe have been charged with malicious
damage to property after they allegedly took down a portrait of President
Robert Mugabe at a students' conference, their lawyer said on Sunday.

      Lawyer Alec Muchadehama said the 10 were part of a group of 48
students arrested on Friday at the close of a three-day conference held by
the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) at Harare's Management
Training Bureau.

      He said the 10 face a second charge of stealing towels, water jugs,
glasses and other items from their rooms at the centre. All of those
detained have since been released.

      "Ten of them were charged with theft and malicious damage to
property," the lawyer said.

      The portrait of Zimbabwe's 82-year-old leader, who has ruled this
country for 26 years, is found in most hotels, schools and government
buildings. It was hanging in a room where the students were holding their
congress.

      But the students removed Mugabe's portrait as they did not recognise
him as Zimbabwe's legitimate leader, local reports said on Sunday. The
privately-owned Standard said some students went on to remove the portrait
from its frame.

      "Congress delegates resolved to remove Mugabe's portrait because they
were convinced that he lost the 2002 presidential election and holding the
meeting in the presence of his portrait would have been a form of
legitimising his loss," student leader Promise Mkwananzi told the newspaper.

      Lawyer Muchadehama described the case against his clients as "weak"
and said they were unlikely to be brought before a court. The portrait of
the president that was allegedly defaced has since been found intact.

      The lawyer said the theft charges would be hard to prove as those
arrested were not found with the stolen items in their possession. "Anyone
could have taken those items," he said. - Sapa-dpa


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Under Siege: Zimbabwe's Human Rights Activists

WorldPress.org

Paul Themba Nyathi
Ambrose Musiyiwa
Leicester, Britain
May 7, 2006

In December 2005, Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.) spokesman Paul
Themba Nyathi was returning from a two-day visit in South Africa when
security agents seized his passport. They gave him no reason for the
seizure. A day earlier they had confiscated the passport of Trevor Ncube who
publishes South Africa's Mail & Guardian, Zimbabwe's Independent and the
Zimbabwe Standard.

Nyathi - like Ncube, trade unionist Raymond Majongwe and 64 others - had
been placed on a list of people who were to be barred from entering into or
traveling out of Zimbabwe. In August, the ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government had used its parliamentary
majority to push through a set of constitutional amendments, among them a
provision allowing the government to impose travel bans on "traitors" and
those deemed to be harming the national interest.

The new legislation, like many others after it and many more before it, is
part of an ongoing effort to entrench President Robert G. Mugabe's hold on
power.

Although Nyathi got his passport back, he is convinced the Mugabe regime is
set in its ways and will use everything at its disposal to silence all forms
of dissent and close down the democratic space in Zimbabwe.

"I am sure there was a legal loophole and that is why our passports were
returned," he says. "But knowing this government as I do, I am sure they
will find a way to close the loophole and take our passports away again."

Nyathi is a veteran in Zimbabwe's struggle for freedom.

Before the country's independence from Britain in 1980, he was a teacher.
Disaffection with how the white minority Rhodesia Front government was
ruling the country led him to join the Zimbabwe African People's Union
(ZAPU), which was led by Joshua Nkomo.

As a ZAPU provincial executive member, one of Nyathi's main duties was to
recruit people to train as freedom fighters, an offence which, under
Rhodesian law, was punishable with death by hanging.

When Rhodesian security agents got wind of his activities, he was arrested,
interrogated and placed under indefinite detention at Wha Wha, a prison for
political prisoners in Gweru. Nyathi was released in 1979 after it had
become clear to the Rhodesian government that they had lost the struggle to
keep Zimbabwe under white rule.

In "Three Years at Wha Wha," a personal narrative that appears in
"Conscience Be My Guide: An Anthology of Prison Writing" published by Zed
Books and Weaver Press (2005), Nyathi gives an account of his experiences as
a detainee in Rhodesia and, later on, in Zimbabwe under Mugabe.

"On my first arrest, in 1974, I was interrogated in relation to recruitment
of guerrillas for the ZAPU army, ZIPRA [the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary
Army]. The white officer was well informed about our activities, but when he
couldn't get anything from me, he handed me to two black officers who
assaulted me . and eventually simply let me go," he says.

The prisoners he remembers received two meals a day, the cells were
relatively clean and the toilets flushed every hour.

In 1976, Nyathi was arrested for the second time and interrogated for two
weeks before being transferred to Wha Wha.

When he came out of prison in 1979, Nyathi was appointed to ZAPU's central
committee, a position that he held until 1987 when ZAPU merged with ZANU to
form ZANU-PF. The merger was part of an effort to stop the mass killings of
civilians by Mugabe's Fifth Brigade in the Ndebele provinces of Matabeleland
and the Midlands during the early to late 80's. As a result of the actions
of the Fifth Brigade, an estimated 20,000 civilians, mostly Ndebele were
killed or disappeared and are still unaccounted for to this date.

In 1999, Nyathi became one of the founding members of the national executive
of the M.D.C., the main opposition party to the Mugabe-led ZANU-PF party.

On his experiences as a prisoner in Rhodesia, Nyathi says, "One thing that
was noteworthy was that the state recognized that we were political
opponents. There was no attempt to criminalize us. Furthermore, they
conceded that detainees were entitled to certain basic rights and were
respected as human beings."

He contrasts this with what he found when he was arrested in 2003 under the
draconian provisions of Zimbabwe's Public Order and Security Act and charged
with trying to overthrow a constitutionally elected government.

"I was arrested and detained for four days at Bulawayo Central Police
Station, where I had been in 1974. I saw an amazing disregard for basic
human dignity. The cells were unbelievably filthy, a rag which was once a
blanket was caked with human vomit and excrement, the stench from the
overflowing toilet was overwhelming, and there seemed to be a sadistic
appreciation of the role played by hoards of mosquitoes . In four days I was
never given food by the police - I had to be fed by colleagues from
outside," he says.

He finds it disturbing that under an independent African government there
should be brutality, callousness and deliberate degradation of other human
beings.

"There is no acceptance of legitimate political opposition," he says, "but
rather a determination to criminalize it. Beyond this, there is a total
indifference to a malfunctioning system. No one bothers to repair what does
not work, or correct any wrongs. There has developed a culture of neglect."


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South Africa under pressure over Mugabe

greatreporter.com

      Written by Richard Powell
      Monday, 08 May 2006
      South Africa's national labour body is heaping pressure on its
government to request the resignation of neighbouring Zimbabwe leader Robert
Mugabe...

      The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is positioning
itself to aggressively push SA President Thabo Mbeki to force Zimbabwe's
Mugabe to call for an interim government as a precursor for the ushering in
of a new political dispensation.

      The move by Cosatu, a key ally of the Mbeki's ruling African National
Congress (ANC), was unanimously agreed at a meeting convened in Johannesburg
to actively support calls by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and other
stakeholders: "... for an interim government in Zimbabwe and the drafting of
a new constitution on the basis of which fresh elections should be
conducted".

      Cosatu is already mobilising its Northern Province affiliates to
organise mass demonstrations around the Beitbridge area to highlight the
plight of the Zimbabwean people.

      The northern province lies just after the Limpopo River which borders
Zimbabwe and South Africa, its biggest trading partner.

      One Cosatu official said the dates for the demonstrations there are
yet to be fixed as "we are waiting for some issues to be addressed".

      The demonstrations are set to spill-over into Zimbabwe.

      Sources said Cosatu's leadership resolved to dispatch an undercover
fact-finding mission into Zimbabwe soon, comprising all its affiliates,
before pushing Mbeki to deal with Zimbabwe's crisis and force a re-run of
Zimbabwe's 2002 presidential election which was controversially won by
Mugabe.

      Cosatu officials were deported twice from Zimbabwe last year.

      The South African labour union's new initiative, sources said, is
aimed at put pressure on both Mugabe and Mbeki to resolve the political and
economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

      Efforts to break the impasse failed to bear fruit when  Zimbabwe's
ruling Zanu PF party rejected talks with the Movement for Democratic Change
when Mugabe demanded that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai drops his
court challenge of the 2002 polls.

      Tsvangirai however refused to bow to Mugabe's demands arguing that the
negotiated political settlement process should have forged ahead without any
pre-conditions.

      Almost two years after the talks stalled, Zimbabwe's crisis continues
to worsen with inflation hovering around 1,000 per cent.

      Meanwhile, Tsvangirai has scoffed at reports suggesting United Nations
Secretary General, Koffi Annan, is making frantic efforts for Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to form a coalition government comprising of Zanu PF and MDC
officials.

      Annan is reportedly making this initiative as his 'last hoorah' before
he retires at the end of this year.

      Tsvangirai says what Zimbabwe needs today is a totally new
administration tasked with taking the troubled country out of its current
quagmire.


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Police guarding Mugabe plaque

The Nation, Malawi

      by Emmanuel Muwamba, 08 May 2006 - 07:49:39
      Police in Blantyre are guarding the plaque Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe unveiled when he opened the new Midima Road which has been named
after him as Robert Mugabe Highway.
      Police have been seen sitting at the foot of the plaque or hiding in a
shrub behind it since Thursday when the road was officially opened.
      Minister of Transport and Public Works Henry Mussa said he was not
aware that police were still guarding the plaque suggesting "that may be
they are waiting for transport to take away their tents".
      But when he was told that there were no tents around since Thursday,
Mussa said: "Why don't you ask them why they are there."
      Mussa said he was travelling to India and had no knowledge of what was
going on.
      Southern Region Police Headquarters spokesperson Rhoda Manjolo said
police presence in most roads was normal.
      "These are normal patrols, it is part of our daily job," she said.
      But she could not say why Police were specifically seen at the plaque
which was unveiled last week.
      President Bingu wa Mutharika renamed the Midima Road after Mugabe
describing him as a true son of Africa and hero who deserves honour "because
of his relentless war against colonial domination not only in Zimbabwe but
also throughout Africa and the entire world".
      The renaming of the road came amid resistance from the civil society
who threatened to stage demonstrations in protest against Mugabe's visit
because of his bad human rights record.
      However there was no single placard against Mugabe during his entire
four-day stay in the country.
      He left the country on Saturday.


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18 students arrested and brutally assaulted at Bindura University



      By Violet Gonda
      08 May 2006

      18 students from Bindura University were arrested as the impasse over
harsh school fee hikes continues between the university students and the
government.

      The government announced unaffordable increases in tuition and
accommodation fees in all state owned tertiary institutions in February and
have chosen to arrest and beat desperate students who have protested against
the hikes.

      A statement issued late Monday by the Zimbabwe National Students'
Union said police officers, "Armed to the teeth, arrested 18 students who
were peacefully demonstrating against the ill-advised and anti-students new
fee structure."

      ZINASU leader Washington Katema said the arrested students were
brutally assaulted before taken to Bindura Central Police station, where
they are currently unlawfully detained.

      After a meeting early Monday, the Bindura University Student
Representative Council (SRC) had resolved to meet their Vice Chancellor who
reportedly refused to meet them and responded by calling the police..

      Katema said, "When the police officers arrived at the campus they
started  beating students indiscriminately and one female student sustained
a broken jaw and was rushed to a private clinic in Bindura. The whereabouts
of Chiweshe are still unknown."

      Just four days ago, 48 student leaders were arrested in Harare after a
portrait of Robert Mugabe was vandalised at the venue of ZINASU congress.

      Katema said, "This is a clear indication that Zimbabwe has evolved
into a pariah state." He said the students resolved to continue to reject
the new fee structure.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news


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Trapped in a web of his own making

Mail and Guardian

      Jonathan Moyo: COMMENT

      08 May 2006 02:59

            With less than 21 months to go before the expiry of his disputed
presidential tenure, President Robert Mugabe last month got his beleaguered
Zanu-PF government to launch yet another economic recovery plan called
"National Economic Development Priority Programme" (NEDPP) in a bid to
revive Zimbabwe's collapsed economy. This new programme is ill-fated not
only because it is too similar to its failed predecessors, but also because
it does not address the core of Zimbabwe's deepening crisis: Zanu-PF's
triple trap and its consequences, which have left Mugabe like a spider
trapped in its own web.

            The triple trap is defined by the combined crippling effect of
Mugabe's failure to make way for a successor, Zimbabwe's growing
international isolation and its collapsed economy.

            The Zanu-PF government says the NEDPP seeks to redress Zimbabwe's
economic malaise, particularly the critical shortage of forex and galloping
inflation. It wants to raise US$2,5-billion mainly from the sale of failing
state enterprises, reducing inflation and stimulating between 1% and 2%
economic growth over the next six to eight months in an economy that has
consistently registered negative economic growth over the past six years,
during which it has shrunk by more than 35%. The Zanu-PF architects of the
NEDPP are in denial, as shown by their failure to see that the prevailing
hyperinflation and forex shortages are symptoms of a much more serious
problem.

            Today nothing meaningful in Zimbabwe is traded or done through
the formal economy. This is one of the reasons why, in May last year, the
Zanu-PF government, led by the Central Intelligence Organisation, destroyed
the livelihood or homes of 18% of the population in a futile attempt to
force them back into the collapsed formal economy.

            The roots of the collapse of the formal economy in Zimbabwe go
back to 1997 when the Zimbabwean dollar crashed after the government printed
money to appease war veterans. But the real damage was done between 2000 and
2003 with farm invasions by some of the same veterans. The result was the
institutionalisation of lawlessness, which not only broke down formal or
legal structures in the economy but also destroyed property relations and
rights and gave rise to the informal economy as a more predictable, secure
and fairer trading market.

            The NEDPP is ill fated because it is a formal fiction that does
not address the informal reality. There cannot be any economic recovery
without a comprehensive economic structural reform programme that
specifically redresses the structural dislocations that happened in 1997 and
went wild between 2000 and 2003.

            The fact that the implementation of the NEDPP is overseen by the
recently created National Security Council chaired by Mugabe and composed of
his security yes-men guarantees that the programme will fail.

            The disjuncture between the formal and informal economies in
Zimbabwe has rendered the state bureaucracy impotent and this, in turn, has
led to the policy paralysis in the government.

            This is bad for the Zanu-PF government, but what is worse is
that the collapse of the formal economy has happened at a time when the
country is going through growing international isolation. One does not need
to be a malcontent to see that exuberant portrayals of Mugabe as a hero
committed to uplifting the downtrodden are becoming a hard sell, not just in
Zimbabwe but internationally.

            In diplomatic circles, especially at the United Nations, the
African Union and the Southern African Development Community, Zimbabwe has
moved from a divisive talking point to an object of pity. The international
question now is when the economic meltdown will cause a political meltdown.
Even in countries that the government has identified as friendly, such as
Malaysia, India, China, Iran and Indonesia, there are indications that many
have lost the enthusiasm either to do business or to help Mugabe because
they have come to Harare and found a collapsed economy. Politicians are now
seen as people who promise big things they cannot deliver because they are
not in control of the situation.

            The international consensus is that the country desperately
needs political and economic change to a new constitutional dispensation
with a comprehensive economic reform programme, supported by the
international community.

            The fact that the government has squandered many opportunities
to deal with reform means that the international community has given up hope
that Zanu-PF has the willingness and capacity to change. This also explains
why Mugabe's misplaced talk about "building bridges" has had no diplomatic
takers. This has become a second trap for the ruling elite. The fact that
the NEDPP is silent on this international dimension demonstrates the
irrelevance of the programme.

            The biggest challenge facing the government, which is ignored by
the NEDPP, is that Mugabe's stay in power is no longer welcome. Over the
years Mugabe has used revolutionary propaganda to manipulate Zanu-PF's
constitution, rules and procedures and to turn the party into his personal
system for ruling unchallenged without identifying or making way for a
successor. This is why Zanu-PF is now beyond reform.

            In the past Mugabe has manipulated Zanu-PF systems to remain at
the helm of the party and the government. He now wants to manipulate the
Constitution again and has directed the drafting of a Constitutional
Amendment Bill to enable him to extend his rule by at least two years.

            Under this Bill Mugabe wants to use the confusion over his
succession in Zanu-PF to secure an additional two years as president without
having to face an election when his current term expires in March 2008.
Mugabe wants to achieve this by directing that he should be elected by the
House of Assembly and the Senate sitting together as an electoral college in
March 2008.

            Because he fears that he can no longer win a popular election
given the effects of the collapsed economy and Zimbabwe's international
isolation he, encouraged by the 1987 experience, would like be elected by
Parliament, where his party has a technical two-thirds in the House of
Assembly and a numerical two-thirds in the Senate. Therefore there would be
no election because the outcome would be predetermined through the
instruments of patronage and coercion.

            When this proposal was first made last year by the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, it was
presented as necessary in order to harmonise presidential and parliamentary
elections to cut costs. The presumption then was that the intended
beneficiary of the constitutional amendment would be Vice-President Joyce
Mujuru. What was overlooked then is that Mugabe is ever-scheming and that
the point of manipulating the party's constitution and procedures to get
Mujuru undemocratically elevated over Emmerson Mnangagwa was that Mugabe
wanted a weaker person. This person would not rise to the challenges of the
presidency in terms of stature and capacity and he could elbow out under the
pretext of managing divisions within Zanu-PF.

            This leaves the party in a third trap, unable to deal with
Mugabe's succession. Yet Mugabe has clearly outlived his usefulness. The
fact that he does not want to be succeeded until 2010 shows that he does not
have a clue about what's going on in the country from the standpoint of the
triple trap that now bedevils Zanu-PF. Yet the writing is on the wall. When
a spider is trapped in its own web, it dies.


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Army embarks on de-mining exercise



      May 8, 2006

      By Oscar Nkala www.andnetwork.com

      Johannesburg (AND) The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) has says it has
embarked on a fresh exercise to clear landmines from parts of the country's
eastern border with Mozambique.

       According to ZNA public relations officer Colonel Ben Ncube, the
de-mining exercise will cover a 50km stretch between the Sango Border Post
and Cross Corner Minefields in the south-eastern corner of the country.

      Col Ncube said the clearance would free up previously inaccessible
parts to border community villages and facilitate the free movement of
people between Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

      The ZNA, which began the de-mining exercise in the late 1980s with
help from the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA)
said it was going to carry out the exercise using its own resources. It has
already accomplished other tasks despite the cutting of US-EU aid in the
diplomatic rows of 2000-2003.

      "We are doing this project using our won personnel and resources. The
Zimbabwe Defence Forces Engineers have just finished work on de-mining the
Victoria-Falls -Mlibizi (Binga) area and the liberated land has been handed
back to the people.

      The Sango Border Post de-mining exercise is also meant to facilitate
the development of new Limpopo Trans-Frontier Park, an extensive project
aimed at enhancing conservation and facilitating tourism between Zimbabwe,
Mozambique and South Africa.

      Besides those strewn along the border with Mozambique, Zimbabwe still
has extensive minefields spanning sections of the northern border towards
Kariba. A lot of minefields, containing anti-personnel landmines and
ploughshares, still occupy a lot of land along the northern Zambezi Valley.

      The mines in the two zones were planted by the Rhodesian security
forces in the late 1970s to stop liberation war guerrilla incursions into
the country from bases in Zambia and Mozambique.


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Mutambara to meet Zimbabweans in London

New Zimbabwe

By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 05/08/2006 09:54:26
ARTHUR Mutambara, the leader of Zimbabwe's fractious opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) will address a public meeting in London on Tuesday
evening, the party said.

Mutambara has spent the last week visiting several European countries
meeting "strategic partners", secretary general Welshman Ncube said.

The London event is the second such meeting in the UK, with the first held
in Manchester on Sunday last week.

Talking to New Zimbabwe.com, Mutambara said: "I want to meet all
Zimbabweans. The crisis in Zimbabwe demands that all views are embraced and
distillated."

Mutambara leads a faction of the feuding MDC, with the other led by Morgan
Tsvangirai, the party's first president.

The two groups, say officials, are unlikely to reconcile over policy
differences following a split last November.

Details released by the MDC said Mutambara would address a public meeting at
the Dominican Centre, The Broadway, in Wood Green (N22 6DS).

The venue is two minutes from Wood Green Tube Station. Registration begins
at 1730, with the actual meeting starting at 1800hrs, the organisers said.

Mutambara is accompanied on his European sojourn by Ncube and the party's
parliamentary spokesperson, Priscilla Misihairabwi, also MP for Glen Norah.

For directions call 02088290080

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