Zim Online
Wednesday 15 November
2006
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe will
next year draft hundreds of
graduates of the government's controversial
youth militia programme into the
civil service but to solely campaign for
his ruling ZANU PF party and
bolster its support among young Zimbabweans,
sources told ZimOnline.
The sources, who are senior officials in
the Ministry of Youth
Development and in ZANU PF, said the plan to hire the
youths on taxpayers'
expense to campaign for the ruling party was first
recommended by the party's
politburo last September and approved by Mugabe's
Cabinet the same month.
The youths - accused by churches and human
rights groups of beating,
torturing and murdering opposition supporters -
will be employed as
government youth development officers and stationed in
all provinces of the
country, according to sources.
"The
politburo recommended in September that national youth service
graduates be
given government jobs and be tasked with promoting the party.
The Cabinet
immediately endorsed the plan," said a senior official at ZANU
PF
headquarters in Harare, who spoke on condition he was not named.
He
added: "The youths will spearhead our (ZANU PF) campaigns but they
will be
officially recognised as government employees because that is the
only way
the party could afford to pay them . . . it is a very innovative
way to
re-energise the party if you consider that most war veterans are now
old and
tired."
Veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war have been the
mainstay
of ZANU PF's election machine, running violent campaigns especially
in rural
areas to ensure victory for the party that has ruled Zimbabwe since
independence from Britain 26 years ago.
But many of the former
fighters are now too old to be able to run
around villages mobilising votes
for ZANU PF in 2008 when the next major
poll is due.
Deputy
Youth Development Minister Saviour Kasukuwere confirmed the
planned youth
recruitment but dismissed as "downright nonsense" suggestions
that the
youths would be tasked to campaign for ZANU PF.
Kasukuwere said:
"When they go for national youth training we teach
them income generating
projects and we want them to pass on these skills to
other youths in various
wards.
"As far as we know, these youths have been very disciplined
so fears
that they will force people to support ZANU PF in their areas of
operation
are misplaced, in fact, it's downright nonsense. We are simply
creating jobs
for our youths."
But an alarmed Catholic
Archbishop Pius Ncube - a prominent Mugabe
critic - called the plan to place
youth militia in every province an attempt
by the government to create a
Janjaweed-type militia to terrorise its
political opponents.
The Janjaweed militia that is backed by the government of Sudan is
blamed of
causing mayhem in that country's Darfur region.
The clergyman said:
"It means we will have militias paid through our
taxes roaming our villages,
especially during election time, terrorising
people into supporting the
government. They are creating a Janjaweed of some
sort."
According to our sources, 200 graduates from the youth militia
programme
will be recruited into the civil service by the end of this year
and a
further 800 will be employed by the state early next year.
The
youths, who will require no other qualification except a
certificate showing
that they completed national youth service training,
will be ranked and paid
as Grade C3 employees, the same level as teachers
and nurses.
The youths will initially be working in rural areas but the plan is to
have
them also deployed in urban areas where the government hopes to
neutralize
opposition support.
The government's North Korean-style youth
militia programme that began
in 2000 is blamed for brainwashing youths into
zealots of Mugabe and his
government, who are only too eager to use force
and violence against critics
and opponents of the government.
The government, which insists the youth militia programme is meant to
inculcate patriotism into the minds of young Zimbabweans, denies that
graduates of the programme victimise opposition supporters. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 15 November
2006
HARARE - The South African government has not
given up on Zimbabwe and
is still engaging President Robert Mugabe's
government in a bid to find a
solution to its troubled northern neighbour's
deepening crisis, a senior
official in the country's department of foreign
affairs has said.
Ayanda Ntsabula, the director-general in the
South African department
of foreign affairs, said Pretoria remained
committed to helping solve
Zimbabwe's problems, despite accusations it had
adopted a hands-off approach
especially after President Thabo Mbeki tried
last June to get outgoing
United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan to
handle Zimbabwe's crisis.
Annan hit a brick wall after Mugabe told
him there was no need for his
involvement because former Tanzanian president
Benjamin Mkapa was already
mediating between Harare and London, which the
Zimbabwean leader claims is
behind the crisis bedevilling his
country.
It has since emerged that Mkapa is not mediating between
Zimbabwe and
Britain, which says troubles in its former colony are because
of misrule by
Mugabe. Britain also insists that there is no need for
mediation between the
two countries.
"I ... wish to inform you
that the government of South Africa is
constantly engaging the government of
Zimbabwe at the political, economic
and social levels," wrote Ntsabula in
response to accusations by Zimbabweans
exiled in South Africa that Pretoria
was abetting human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe because it had failed to
criticise Mugabe's excesses.
"The government of South Africa,
together with African Union (AU)
governments and the international community
will continue to assist the
government and the people of Zimbabwe to find a
lasting solution to the
major challenges that their country is facing,"
added Ntsabula in the letter
to the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, dated October
9.
The forum headed by prominent Zimbabwean human rights lawyer
Gabriel
Shumba had written to the Pretoria administration accusing it of
shielding
Mugabe's government from censure by the international community
for its
gross violation of human rights and repressive rule.
Zimbabwe has since 2000 grappled with its worst ever political and
economic
crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. Critics blame the
crisis on
repression and mismanagement by Mugabe, in power since
independence. He
denies the charge.
The crisis has spawned hyperinflation, shortages
of foreign currency,
food, fuel and other basic commodities to leave
political tensions on knife
edge in the southern African country. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 15 November
2006
HARARE - An expected shake-up at
national broadcaster ZBH Holdings
started yesterday with the suspension
pending dismissal of Newsnet
editor-in-chief Chris Chivinge for going on an
unsanctioned trip to China
while sidelined Tarzan Mandizvidza was
re-appointed head of the broadcaster's
news arm.
Up to 200
employees are expected to lose their jobs in yet another
round of
restructuring following the appointment of veteran state journalist
Henry
Muradzikwa as overall head of the struggling broadcaster.
The state
broadcaster confirmed the shake-up in afternoon television
and radio
broadcasts yesterday, announcing Mandizvidza was now new head of
Newsnet.
Newsnet, which is now a department of Zimbabwe
Television Services in
the new look ZBH, has anchored President Robert
Mugabe's propaganda drive in
the face of what he calls hostile and negative
reporting from local private
and Western media.
"Chivinge has
paid the price for his reckless behaviour," a well
placed source at ZBH
said, adding that Chivinge was also yesterday handed
his suspension letter
pending his dismissal.
Chivinge had muscled out Mandizvidza as boss
of Newsnet after a
satellite television project planned in Namibia - a
brainchild of former
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo - failed to take
off.
But the former Herald reporter, who was fast-tracked to his
position
and who had seconded himself to cover Vice-President Joyce Mujuru
allegedly
for political protection, was undone by his China trip without
Muradzikwa's
knowledge.
Sources said Chivinge had used the
unsanctioned China-Africa trip to
conduct his personal business using ZBH
funds. He is alleged to have bought
farming equipment for a farming project
in the Shamva district during the
trip.
There are other
unsubstantiated allegations against Chvinge including
abusing company
property and having improper relationships with female
colleagues.
Muradzikwa could not be contacted for comment
yesterday as he was said
to be busy conducting interviews while Chvinge was
unavailable for
comment. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 15 November
2006
HARARE - The corruption trial of deputy
government minister Bright
Matonga and former boss of state-owned Zimbabwe
United Passenger Company
(ZUPCO) Charles Nherera was adjourned to next month
after defence lawyers
argued that Nherera could not be tried twice for the
same offence.
Matonga, who is deputy Minister of Information and
was former chief
executive officer of ZUPCO and Nherera were arrested last
May for allegedly
soliciting for bribes.
Nherera is already
serving a two-year jail term after he was last
August convicted of
soliticing for a US$85 000 bribe from Harare businessman
Jayesh Shah over
the supply of minibuses to ZUPCO.
Adjourning the trial yesterday,
Harare magistrate Sandra Nhau said she
needed time to go over the arguments
presented by Nherera's lawyer Joseph
Mandizha and Fortune Chimbaru from the
Attorney General's office.
"I need at least three weeks to go over
this voluminous record and
plenty of exhibits," said Nhau before she
adjourned the trial.
But Matonga's lawyer tried in vain to have the
trial resume next week
while the verdict on Nherera's application was being
considered.
Nherera's lawyers had indicated on Monday that they
wanted to make an
application to the Supreme Court arguing that their client
had already been
tried and convicted under the same
circumstances.
But state prosecutor, Chimbaru, opposed the
application resulting in
the matter being heard in the magistrates' court
yesterday.
Matonga was the ZUPCO chief executive while Nherera was
chairman of
the board.
The state alleged that sometime in
February 2002, Gift Investments
occupied a stand number 9 Hood Road in
Southerton, Harare on a one-year
lease.
In October of the same
year, Matonga in connivance with Nherera wrote
to Gift Investments advising
them of the termination of the lease agreement.
Sometime later,
Matonga phoned Shah asking for a $20 million bribe to
reinstate the
cancelled lease, the state alleges. The two later received
US$10 000 as
inducement to extend and reinstate the lease.
The duo is also
facing a second count of corruption over the purchase
of 250 buses from Gift
Investments without a formal order from ZUPCO.
Nherera and Matonga
are denying both charges. - ZimOnline
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: November 14, 2006
STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Leaders of
the Zimbabwe opposition movement said Tuesday
that a U.N. decision to scale
back food distribution to the country would
lead to "tragic" consequences
and strengthen the autocratic government's
ability to control the
population.
The World Food Program said Monday that the aid reduction was
a result of a
shortage in donor funds, even though the agency estimated 1.4
million
Zimbabweans were now in critical need of food aid - a number that
could rise
to nearly 2 million in coming weeks because of soaring inflation
and food
shortages on the local market.
"The decision is tragic, in
that it will affect the ordinary man and woman
in ... some of the most
inaccessible areas of Zimbabwe," Tendai Biti, a
secretary general for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told
The Associated
Press.
Biti and other MDC leaders were invited to Stockholm by the Olof
Palme
Center, but also met with Swedish Aid Minister Gunilla Carlsson to
discuss
the humanitarian situation in the African country.
Welshman
Ncube, another MDC secretary-general, said the U.N. decision would
allow
longtime President Robert Mugabe's government to use its own food
distribution schemes as a "political weapon ... and therefore in fact weaken
people's capacity to resist the dictatorship."
"That's the tragic
consequence of actually pulling back that sort of
support," Ncube said. "The
food deficits allow them to actually control and
manipulate the
population."
The WFP said the poor donor response followed repeated
assurances by the
government that Zimbabwe would be able to feed itself
without aid.
"That's what they always say," Ncube said. "But I think the
international
community should now be familiar with that
trick."
Carlsson said she was thankful for the opportunity to discuss the
opposition's role in Zimbabwe, although no pledges were made of increased
Swedish aid.
"We are suffering with the Zimbabwean people, but we
would also like to see
that we can foster democracy and rule of law,"
Carlsson said. "It's a really
sad situation and hard for us, because what
can we do? What we can do is to
support those people who are fighting for
the case of Zimbabwe."
Zimbabwe needs about 1.8 million tons of corn a
year, but in the last
harvest produced less half that amount, according to
independent surveys.
The country is suffering its worst economic crisis
since independence in
1980, with more than 1,000 percent inflation, the
highest in the world, and
acute shortages of hard currency and gasoline. The
crisis has been largely
blamed on the chaotic and often violent seizures of
thousands of white-owned
commercial farms since 2000 in Zimbabwe, a former
regional breadbasket.
From The Independent (UK), 14 November
By Steve Bloomfield, Africa
correspondent
The Victoria Falls, one of Africa's most popular
tourist destinations and
most precious ecological sites, are under threat
from plans to build a giant
holiday complex nearby, environmentalists have
warned. Zambia's wildlife
authorities have given permission to a consortium
of Zambian and foreign
investors to build two hotels, a golf course and
hundreds of holiday chalets
in a park next to the waterfalls. But
environmental groups in the southern
African country said yesterday that the
development risked destroying the
park and putting the status of the falls
as a world heritage site at risk.
An official from the World Heritage
Centre, the UN body responsible for
choosing the sites, said that a team
would visit the falls later this month
to examine reports of "uncontrolled
and unplanned urban developments"
affecting the site. Lazare Eloundou
Assomo, the Africa specialist at the
World Heritage Centre, said depending
on the seriousness of the mission's
findings, the UN organisation could
place the Victoria Falls on the world
heritage endangered sites list. "There
are reports that the issue of
uncontrolled and unplanned urban development
is affecting the integrity of
the world heritage property. The site may be
threatened," he said.The falls,
which are known in Zambia as Mosi-oa-Tunya,
the "smoke that thunders", are
about a mile wide and 420 feet high, making
them the largest falls in the
world - far bigger than the Niagara falls in
North America. Victoria Falls
is along the Zambia/Zimbabwe border on the
Zambezi river, one of Africa's
longest.
As the economy in
neighbouring Zimbabwe has collapsed, Zambia has attempted
to capitalise by
marketing itself as the true home of the Victoria Falls.
The government
hopes to bring in one million tourists every year by 2010,
generating more
than $500m - quite a large sum for a country where 68 per
cent of the
population live on less than $1 a day. The latest development,
by a firm
called Legacy Holdings, would see the construction of two luxury
hotels, a
golf course and 450 chalets on the edge of the Zambezi river,
close to
Victoria Falls. The company claims that the project would create a
total of
2,000 new jobs, attract 150,000 additional tourists to the area and
provide
Zambia with $170m more per year in foreign exchange. But such
development,
environmentalists warn, could put the ecology of the park
beside the Falls,
which includes rare black rhinos, at risk. Peter Sinkamba,
a local
environmental campaigner, accused the Zambian government of failing
to carry
out a proper study into the potential for ecological damage. He
claimed that
Zambian law had not been followed. "The whole project has been
done in
reverse," he said. Environmental groups have threatened to ask the
courts to
block the project if the government allows it to proceed. Mr
Assomo added:
"World heritage sites have a value that must be protected. If
the values are
threatened by urban development it could be placed on the
endangered list."
A spokesman for the Zambian government was unavailable for
comment
yesterday.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Ian Nhuka
BULAWAYO -
since he was born in Chiredzana, a village in Zaka
district, some 600
kilometres south of Harare, sixty-six year-old Madzudzo
Bere's staple food
has always been sadza.
A subsistence farmer, Bere, grows maize on
his 10-acre field and
harvests enough for his consumption together with
his wife Ndakaitei
(60) and their three grandchildren. Like the majority of
Zimbabweans, sadza
is almost part of their every meal.
But
faced food recurrent deficits spawned by droughts and the
controversial
land redistribution scheme launched in 2000, which has
slashed agricultural
production by about 50 percent, President Robert Mugabe
now seeks to
introduce an almost unknown food on the Zimbabwean menu -
cassava. But the
people do not like it.
"It tastes very badly," chuckled Bere,
referring to the tough tropical
crop with edible roots and
leaves.
"The last time I ate it, after it was prepared by a Mozambican
friend
during the liberation war in the 1970s, I knew I did not like
it. It
was
during a war situation and I was very hungry, but I did
not like it,"
reflected Bere, a war veteran.
Cassava, known as
mujumbuya in Shona is a shrubby, drought-tolerant
crop, commonly eaten by
humans in West Africa and parts of Malawi, Angola
and Mozambique in Southern
Africa but processed into animal fodder in Latin
America and Asia. It is
also an industrial crop, which can be processed into
glue, glucose, and
ethanol among other products.
But in Zimbabwe it grows wild in
certain areas and is not for human
consumption. Some of its varieties
are classified as "sour" because
they contain a high percentage of cyanide,
which makes them highly poisonous
if eaten.
"The sour varieties are
very toxic," warns Dananai Mutero, Bere's
neighbour. "You die
immediately after eating it. But the problem is
that not many people know
which is a sweet or sour variety. So they play it
safe by avoiding
it."
In areas where it is grown for human consumption, the root of
crop is
harvested, dried in the sun, ground into a powder and cooked in
boiling
water to form a thick porridge. Its tender leaves can be used as a
relish.
But desperate to alleviate the recurrent food shortages, the
government this
year established a Cassava Promotion Taskforce in the
Ministry of Women's
Affairs, Gender and Community Development to spearhead a
national scheme to
encourage people to grow and eat it.
These
measures come as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
estimates
that more than one million people are in need of food aid after
widespread
shortages of inputs marred the 2005 farming season. The WFP,
which a few
months ago launched a global appeal for food aid for Zimbabwe
has failed to
get enough donor funding to feed the hungry in the country.
It
estimates that some 1, 4 million people in Zimbabwe are in dire
need of food
aid now, warning that the number will rise to up to two million
in coming
weeks because of soaring inflation and shortages of food on the
local
market. Independent analysts put last season's maize harvest at
between 800
000 -1 000 000 tonnes of maize.
In the absence of significant donor
support, this leaves the foreign
currency-starved country needing to
import another one million tonnes
of maize to bring the food reserves to
about 1,8 million tonnes needed to
cover annual national
requirements.
Arnold Mashingaidze, an agro-economist recently said
while there have
been attempts to encourage people to eat cassava,
traditional dietary
preferences among the population have been the stumbling
block.
"There is a history of official attempts to have it eaten as
an
alternative to sadza. But people just do not like it," he
said.
"It does not taste like sadza which they know. It has its own
taste.
People have not acquired the taste for cassava yet. Hence
the
resistance. It is just a desperate measure by
authorities."
He however said with the recurrent droughts and lack
of agricultural
inputs, the crop could be ideal for poor farmers since
it grows well
in dry environments and is cheap to produce. Although it is
high in starch,
cassava has a very low protein content, which means that if
it were to be
eaten, one would need a protein supplement.
Undeterred, government has identified drought prone areas in Masvingo,
Manicaland, Mashonaland Central and Matabeleland regions as potential
cassava-growing zones. While it is foreign on Zimbabwean dining tables, the
Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that cassava is a staple food
for about 500 million people worldwide especially in Asia, Latin America and
Africa.
In Africa, it is mainly eaten in many West African
countries such as
Cameroon, Benin and Nigeria and Malawi, Mozambique
and Angola.
But Zimbabweans do not have a history of eating
cassava.
"We could be facing food shortages, but cassava does not make
a good
meal for me. That possibly may apply to most Zimbabweans."
While traditional tastes remain unchanged towards cassava, some
experts say,
it can go a long way in alleviating hunger in the country.
Tungamirai
Rukuni, the head of the Development Technology Centre (DTC)
at the
University of Zimbabwe said despite its potential as a delicacy and
being a
high yielding cash crop, it is still grown as a "backyard" crop.
He
however noted the country could benefit more from it if it is
produced
as an industrial not as a food crop. "Although it takes long
for a new food
to be a widely accepted, the crop has proved to be very good
in terms of
food security in other areas outside
Zimbabwe," said
Rukuni.
He said a study conducted in the 1990s along the Zambezi
Valley by a
traditional beer manufacturing firm established that, if it
uses
cassava, the company could save on maize use in its brewery by
about
20 percent without changing the taste of the drink.
"It can
reduce the volume of wheat we use to make flour for bread and
maize used to
brew beer by up to 20 percent without changing the taste of
the bread or
beer," he said.
This, he added would free up more maize that would
them be used for
human consumption by the likes of Bere. Despite widespread
resistance to
cassava consumption, Oppah Muchinguri, the Minister of Women's
Affairs,
Gender and Community Development, remains undeterred. Acknowledging
recently
that the crop is generally not eaten in Zimbabwe and that dietary
preferences do not change in the short term, she said it could be processed
into bread or sadza in the wake of the ever-soaring prices of bread and
maize meal.
But, despite President Mugabe's desperate attempt
to encourage the
people to eat cassava, it may take ages before the
much-maligned crop
becomes part of their diet.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished:
November 14, 2006
HARARE, Zimbabwe: At least 15 young elephants
were captured in a Zimbabwe
national park and were to be trained take
tourists on rides by private
safari operators, according to animal
protection activists who say the
transfer was cruel and
exploitative.
Five of the calves were taken from the Hwange National Park
in western
Zimbabwe to pens near the resort town of Victoria Falls, the
independent
Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals said last
week.
John Chikomo, an inspector for the society
investigating the capture at the
scene, said the animals were darted from
the air and separated from family
groups in the wild, causing severe trauma
to both the adult elephants and
the young.
Cow elephants are known
for fiercely protecting their young. Only young
elephants can be tamed
enough for tourism projects including elephant riding
adventure safaris.
Under international conservation practice, orphaned
elephants are normally
used.
No immediate comment was available from the state national parks
headquarters in Harare.
Chikomo said he inspected permits for the capture
issued at the
headquarters, making it legal.
But Hwange rangers
acknowledged it was a breach of official conservation
policy to break up
family groups and said they were ordered not to intervene
by ranking state
officials.
Ian Du Preez, head of elephant operations of Shearwater
Adventures, one of
Zimbabwe's best known adventure tourism safari companies,
participated in
the capture.
"I am not in a position to discuss it,"
he said by telephone from Victoria
Falls.
The head of Shearwater,
Allan Roberts, was not immediately available for
comment.
On its Web
site, Shearwater promotes African adventure holidays said to be
"environmentally friendly and ecologically sound."
The International
Fund for Animal Welfare said the captured juvenile
elephants, aged between
seven and 10 years old, were "condemned to lives of
captive suffering as
safari entertainment for tourists."
"It is disgraceful and a shame that
Zimbabwe is prepared to sanction the
abuses inherent in capturing wild
elephants and subjecting them to lives in
captivity. The fact that the
animals are being taken from herds in Hwange,
which is one of the worlds
most renowned game reserves, beggars belief,"
said IFAW Southern Africa
Director, Jason Bell-Leask.
He said no laws were in force to govern
methods of training elephants. He
said tour companies claimed they were
saving young elephants from sure death
during culling to reduce
overpopulation of elephants destroying their
habitat.
"IFAW disagrees
- they are often taking young elephants from the wild to be
subjected to
confinement and training that is wrong, cruel and exploitative.
The training
pays no attention to the physical, behavioral, psychological
and social
needs of these highly intelligent creatures," said Bell-Leask.
Zimbabwe
has not culled its prolific elephant herds for several years.
Bell-Leask
said his organization urged "all tourists to appreciate watching
elephants
in the wild, where they belong, and avoid cruel activities."
Zimbabwe's
tourist industry is struggling to make up for revenue losses
after six years
of political and economic turmoil in the troubled southern
African nation
suffering its worst economic crisis - with acute shortages of
hard currency,
food, gasoline and essentials imports - since independence in
1980.
In a report last month, the independent Zimbabwe Conservation
Task Force
said the economic conditions were affecting wildlife management.
The task
force said Zimbabwe's nature reserves, with revenues hit by a sharp
decline
in foreign tourism, were staffed by under-equipped and poorly
trained and
paid rangers. The report revived criticism that some state
wildlife
authority rangers were profiteering on meat and illegal ivory.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Cynthia Manjoro
HARARE - The
combination numbers are now being set to unlock the doors
for the launch of
the envisaged independent, self-regulatory media council
before the end of
this year following overwhelming endorsement of the
project by publishers,
journalists, civic society organisations, political
parties, church groups
and the business community.
This comes in the wake of extensive
nationwide consultative meetings
that were led by the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) and MISA-Zimbabwe
under the auspices of the Media Alliance
of Zimbabwe.
MAZ comprises ZUJ, MISA-Zimbabwe and the Media
Monitoring Project of
Zimbabwe (MMPZ).
Strategic planning and
report-back meetings were also held with key
stakeholders, namely the
Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (Zinef), Zimbabwe
Association of Editors
(ZAE), Federation of African Media Women in Zimbabwe
(FAMWZ) and MMPZ as
part of the consultative process which kicked off with
the first meeting in
Bulawayo on 21 January 2006.
Close to 400 signatories among them
journalists, editors, publishers,
civic society organisations,
representatives of political parties and
Members of Parliament from across
the political divide endorsed the
principle of media self-regulation through
the establishment of an
independent regulatory body as long
overdue.
The consensus among those consulted including the Ministry
of
Information and Publicity and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Transport and Communications during a series of meetings held in Harare,
Bulawayo, Gwanda, Bindura, Mutare, Kwekwe, Chinhoyi, Marondera, Masvingo and
Gweru, was that MAZ should proceed accordingly and put the structure in
place before the end of this year.
Messages of support and
encouragement also poured in from within the
region with the Media Councils
of Eastern and Southern Africa whose member
countries such as Tanzania ,
South Africa , Kenya and Botswana which have
successfully set up or are in
the process of establishing independent
regulatory councils, leading the
crescendo of calls for the establishment of
the envisaged independent body.
The World Association of Press Councils has
also sent in its message of
support for this historic event.
The advanced state of preparedness
for the launch of the independent
body is exemplified by the identification
of candidates who will be elected
into the Media Council and the ethics
committee. Notification letters have
already been sent to the candidates who
are prominent Zimbabwean citizens of
high integrity.
Responses
accepting the nominations have already been received from
some of the
identified candidates who will be elected into office at an
all-stakeholders
convention to be held in December 2006.
Inputs from the
consultative meetings have already been incorporated
into the proposed
nationally-binding code of conduct and constitution of the
media council.
The two documents will be presented for further endorsement
and adoption at
the convention.
This stage of advancement followed a strategic
planning meeting held
in Kadoma in October where representatives of MAZ,
Zinef and ZAE agreed to
proceed as mandated during the consultative meetings
and in line with the
regional and international declarations signed by
Zimbabwe .
The 1991 Windhoek Declaration, for instance, stresses
the need for
Southern African countries to promote, free, independent,
diverse and
pluralistic media while the Banjul Declaration on the Principles
of Freedom
of Expression in Africa unequivocally states that self-regulation
is the
best system of promoting high standards in the media.
Failure to proceed as envisaged would be retrogressive, as Zimbabwe
would
continue to lag behind other southern African countries, namely
Tanzania ,
Zambia , South Africa , Mozambique and Botswana which have
introduced codes
of conduct and media self-regulatory bodies in compliance
with the two
Declarations.
However, with the successful convening of the
strategic planning
meeting on the back of the consultative meetings which
overwhelmingly
endorsed the principle of media self-regulation, the clock is
fast ticking
towards the launch of the envisaged independent media
council.
Cynthia Manjoro is a third year student with the National
University
of Science and Technology's Journalism and Media Studies
Department on
attachment with MISA-Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
HARARE - No talks are
currently underway to bring together two rival
factions of Zimbabwe's
embattled Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), one
of the groups said
Monday.
It has been a year since the opposition MDC, once seen as
the biggest
hope for Zimbabweans disenchanted with President Robert Mugabe,
split in
two, and recent media reports have speculated that a rapprochement
between
the camps was likely.
But there have been no such
talks, said a spokesman for a smaller
faction led by Arthur Mutambara, a
robotics professor who was a relative
unknown on Zimbabwe's political scene
before the end of last year.
In a statement, spokesman Gabriel
Chaibva accused the rival faction,
led by MDC founding leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, of being insincere, dishonest
and of practising double
standards.
Chaibva said the Tsvangirai-led camp had abandoned a
process launched
some time ago that he said was meant to establish mutual
respect and
recognition between the two groups.
Tensions
between the two groups have been simmering for months, coming
to a brutal
head in June when Trudy Stevenson, a prominent white member of
parliament
from the Mutambara-led faction, was attacked and beaten by youths
supposedly
loyal to Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai condemned the violence, and a
Harare member of parliament
rumoured to have had a hand in the attack has
been suspended.
But levels of suspicion and rivalry between the two
camps remain high,
frustrating many once-keen opposition supporters, reports
say.
Four members of the Mutambara camp are currently embroiled in
a
defamation case against Tsvangirai following comments he made to Western
diplomats several months ago alleging his former colleagues were out to
eliminate him.
Unconfirmed reports on Monday said the four were
close to winning
their case.
dpa
By Violet
Gonda
14 November 2006
The Women in Politics Support Unit
(WIPSU) has said it will march in
Harare on Thursday to launch the 50-50
campaign, an action that demands 50%
women representation at all levels of
political leadership and
decision-making. WIPSU Director Rutendo Hadebe said
the idea is to introduce
both quantitative and qualitative women in
leadership who can influence the
legislation to also suit those at voter
level.
Zimbabwe's population constitutes 52% women but they only
constitute
22% in political representation. Hadebe said; "This has really
come out now
when we had the Domestic Violence Bill, where we can see that
we can fight
all we want but if we want legislation that will suit women, we
need to have
women's voices in their numbers. Not two or
three."
Hadebe said it's also time to put pressure on legislators
as the
quality of discussion in parliament has become unacceptable. She said
there
is an urgency to understand the role of parliament and also the role
of the
voter. "When you go into parliament there is a lot of egotism. There
is a
lot of jockeying and often you get the feeling that people are speaking
from
their personal views and very little of the constituencies are
represented."
The group urged interested parties to participate in
the solidarity
march that will start at Africa Unity Square in Harare. They
said; "Women
participating in this march and all over Zimbabwe are
encouraged to wear
black and white on this day to represent our demands for
Zebra Listing (one
man: one woman ratio) in all aspects of political and
decision-making
positions."
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
IOL
November 14
2006 at 12:38AM
Harare - A Zimbabwe deputy minister on Monday
denied graft charges
which arose during his tenure at a state bus
company.
Bright Matonga is the second highest ranking official to
face graft
charges after former finance minister Chris Kuruneri went on
trial for
breaching foreign exchange regulations.
The charges
against Matonga, President Robert Mugabe's deputy minister
of information
and publicity, arose amid a government crackdown on
corruption.
They relate to his time as chief executive of Zimbabwe United
Passenger
Company (ZUPCO).
Matonga and jailed former ZUPCO chairperson
Charles Nherera are each
accused of soliciting $10 000 in bribes in order to
award a tender to a
private bus supplying firm in
2002.
On Monday their lawyers denied the charges
and asked the court to
investigate the owner of the private bus supplier,
who is also the key state
witness.
Nherera's lawyer, Joseph
Mandizha said he would make an application on
Tuesday to the presiding
magistrate to be allowed to take the case to the
Supreme Court, alleging
that his client's rights were being violated.
"There is an apparent
plot by the state to prosecute him (Nherera)
piecemeal and in instalments
which seems to give the attorney general
sadistic pleasure," Mandizha told
the court.
This was in reference to Nherera's two-year jail term in
August on a
separate corruption case, where he was found guilty of demanding
$85 000
from the same bus supplier.
Earlier this year, the
country's central bank governor launched an
attack on graft, saying that
corruption, especially among influential
officials, threatened to derail
economic recovery efforts.
The Herald
(Harare)
November 14, 2006
Posted to the web November 14,
2006
Harare
LOCAL Government, Public Works and Urban Development
Minister Cde Ignatius
Chombo yesterday castigated suspended Harare town
clerk Mr Nomutsa Chideya
for alleged gross incompetence, which he said led
to poor service delivery
in the capital.
The minister told the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government
that Mr Chideya's
administrative shortcomings contributed to the failure by
the city
authorities to provide essential services.
Cde Chombo was responding to
questions by MPs during a briefing on local
government issues.
Acting
chairperson of the committee, Highfield-Glen Norah-Glen View Senator
Cde
Charles Tawengwa (Zanu-PF), had said the MPs were concerned by council's
poor service delivery and wanted to know what Government was doing to deal
with the situation.
Cde Chombo said the city was failing to provide
services due to the growing
urban population coupled with poor
management.
"We are also looking at the governance of the city, the best
way to run such
a metropolitan city. We also have a civil service in the
city which did not
measure up," he said.
The minister said Mr Chideya
was so incompetent to the extent that he was
dismissed as Marondera town
clerk before joining the Industrial Development
Corporation (IDC) as a chief
executive where he was again fired on the same
grounds.
Mr Chideya,
Cde Chombo said, was later to be sacked again as Harare town
clerk by former
executive mayors the late Cde Solomon Tawengwa and Engineer
Elias Mudzuri,
all because of incompetence.
"Now under (Harare commission chairperson Ms
Sekesayi) Makwavarara, he was
dismissed. The civil service was also not up
to scratch. We need someone
with the capacity to deliver," he
said.
The commission running Harare City Council has resolved to fire Mr
Chideya
on the grounds of misconduct and the Local Government Board has
approved its
application to dismiss him.
Mr Chideya is challenging
the dismissal.
He was accused of failing to resolve outstanding labour
disputes between the
council and suspended directors, allocating council
houses to undeserving
people, abusing fire tenders and failing to properly
handle the council
collective bargaining process.
Cde Chombo said
Harare City Council was trying its best to improve service
delivery although
the city's sewage and water reticulation system was not
coping because of
the growing population.
Turning to issue of water supply, he said in the
case of Harare, the
Government deemed it expedient that the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority
takes over the water provision responsibility from
the source, treatment
works and distribution to households.
"However,
as of now Zinwa is only in charge of conveyance of water up to the
reservoir
stage. It is critical that the transfer process be managed with
dexterity,"
Cde Chombo said.
He said a taskforce had been put in place to look into
the envisaged
transfer of water provision from councils to Zinwa.
The
minister said it was important to note that total Zinwa takeover implied
revisiting the Zinwa Act, Urban Councils Act, Rural District Councils Act
and Water Act.
"The changeover must also be managed in such a way
that it does not
prejudice councils in terms of revenue raised by the water
account and the
cost of water as it impacts on the tariff thresholds," he
said.
Cde Chombo said proposed increases in water tariffs by Zinwa for
Harare had
been put on hold.
"In the past, the residents of Harare
enjoyed low cost water because they
owned 85 percent of the dams and
infrastructure for water provision.
"It becomes unfair for Harare
residents to be charged the same with
Chitungwiza residents who do not own
water infrastructure," he said.
The minister assured the committee that
the taskforce would look into
recommendations by the committee that urban
councils should retain water
provision and let Zinwa concentrate on rural
areas and farming communities.
On the Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle
housing programme, Cde Chombo said
his ministry had made bids for $50
billion in the budget for next year.
Under phase one, 5 742 houses had
been allocated of which 2 579 had been
occupied out of a target of 7 478
houses.
At least 1 736 houses were at various stages of
construction.
Government this year allocated a total of $1,3 billion to
the project with
the Public Sector Investment Programme chipping in with a
similar amount
largely for infrastructural development.
Cde Chombo
said the State had acquired 65 farms around Harare for housing
developments
and would strive to provide low-cost housing to urban dwellers.
He said
the housing delivery programme had enjoyed appreciable support from
pension
funds and the private sector but not to the extent expected.
The Herald
(Harare)
November 14, 2006
Posted to the web November 14,
2006
Harare
Zupco will soon be acquiring 100 more buses from China
to service the
country's rural routes, a Cabinet minister said
yesterday.
Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Minister
Cde Ignatius
Chombo told the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government
that Government
was committed to resuscitating Zupco as a lasting solution
to transport
problems.
The minister was briefing the committee on
local government issues.
"We will soon be travelling to China to conclude
a deal of 100 buses," he
said.
Cde Chombo said Zupco's turnaround
programme had been a success as the bus
company recently repaid $31 billion
it owed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
having repaid another $41 billion to
Government.
The company had also paid the second quarter dividend and was
ready to pay
the third quarter one.
Cde Chombo said Zupco had
purchased 15 new engines as its refurbishment
programme gathers
momentum.
"So we should be able to see a Zupco bus in each of the 58
districts," he
said.
The five luxury coaches that were recently
bought were deployed with two
servicing the Bulawayo-Johannesburg route and
the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls
route.
The other three will ply the
Harare-Johannesburg, Harare-Victoria Falls and
Harare-Bulawayo
routes.
The company was refurbishing more than 100 buses to service rural
routes and
ease transport problems.
Zupco's fleet of broken-down
buses has been growing over the years as a
result of lack of maintenance and
repair.
Most of the buses, which were parked at Zupco depots for years,
had been
reduced to shells as parts were cannibalised for the running
fleet.
November 14, 2006
By
Savious Kwinika (CAJ)
Zimbabwe economy on tailspin
By
Jimmy PhelansCAJ News ReporterJohannesburg Bureau JOHANNESBURG:THE
latest
International Monetary Fund (IMF) report has painted a bleak picture
on the
economic outlook of the Sub-Saharan region. The forecast predicted a
marginal decline of the economy from 5.6% to around 4.8% this year. This
development comes on the background of higher petroleum prices burdening oil
importing countries, and this has subsequently intensified pressure on their
production frontiers. However, the regional inflation rate is expected to
drop from 8.2% to 6.9%, attributable
to prudent macro-economic
policies from selected countries, with the
exception of Zimbabwe which is
reeling under a four-digit inflation of over
1 500% Inflation in Botswana,
Malawi and Zambia has been falling since July
to September 2006, whilst that
of other countries has been mixed. Zimbabwe
is the only "black goat" case
in the Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC) region and there seems
to be no immediate solution to the Zimbabwe
economic crises as the Mugabe
government stubbornly and tenaciously clings
to power, despite the
tailspinning economic meltdown and growing
unpopularity of the Mugabe
regime. Analysts have said that Zimbabwe's
economy remains
problematical,and could have adverse effects on the SADC
region and there
has been a call to step up all the efforts that can bring
down the inflation
level to manageable levels, if Zimbawe's problems are not
to spill into the
region.-CAJ News.
People's Daily
China sent 22,000 tons of
fertilizer to Zimbabwe on Tuesday, the first
aid shipment to Africa
following a landmark gathering between their leaders
in Beijing early this
month.
According to a framework agreement reached at the Beijing
Summit of
the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on Nov. 4-5, China will
provide
200,000 tons of fertilizer to Zimbabwe, an inland country which uses
fertilizer to grow tobacco and farm produce.
The first shipment
is aboard the vessel "Aristeam" that departed from
north China's Tianjin
port Tuesday morning.
Tianjin port authorities said the journey
will take weeks. "It's hard
to tell how long it will take exactly," said a
spokesman. "The product will
transit via Beira port in
Mozambique."
The largest sea port in north China sends ships to
more than 400 ports
in at least 180 countries and regions. Its cargo
throughput is expected to
total 250 million tons this year.
At
the Beijing Summit in early November, Chinese President Hu Jintao
announced
a package of major assistance, investment, trade and other key
cooperation
projects with Africa in an effort to forge a new type of
strategic
partnership.
Hu said China will double its assistance to Africa by
2009, providing
3 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans and 2 billion
dollars of
preferential buyer's credits, establishing a special fund of 5
billion
dollars to encourage Chinese investment in Africa and canceling
debts owed
by certain heavily-indebted or least developed African countries
that have
diplomatic ties with China.
China and Zimbabwe
established diplomatic relations on the day
Zimbabwe declared independence
on April 18, 1980.
Source: Xinhua
Iranian Students News Agency
11-14-2006
TEHRAN,
Nov. 14 (ISNA)-Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
proposed in a letter to
Iran's parliament speaker, an agreement bill of
mutual encouragement and
support in investments between Iran and Zimbabwe.
The
referred bill, suggested by the ministry of economic and
finance was
proposed to Gholam Ali Haddad Adel by Ahmadinejad to endure its
official and
legal procedure in the parliament.
End Item
Nov 14, 4:36 PM EST
By
MATTIAS KAREN
Associated Press Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) --
Leaders of Zimbabwe's beleaguered opposition said
Tuesday a U.N. decision to
scale back food distribution to their country
would lead to "tragic"
consequences while strengthening autocratic President
Robert Mugabe's
control over the population.
The World Food Program said Monday that the
aid reduction was a result of a
shortage in donor funds following repeated
assurances by Zimbabwe that it
would be able to feed itself ahead of the
next harvests in March.
The agency estimated 1.4 million Zimbabweans are
in critical need of food
aid now and predicts the number will rise to nearly
2 million in coming
weeks because of soaring inflation and shortages of food
on the local
market.
Leaders of Zimbabwe's opposition said the aid
cut would hurt the population,
while strengthening Mugabe, whose policies
have helped exacerbate Zimbabwe's
deep economic crisis.
"The decision
is tragic, in that it will affect the ordinary man and woman
in ... some of
the most inaccessible areas of Zimbabwe," Tendai Biti, a
secretary general
for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told
The Associated
Press.
Biti and other MDC leaders were invited to Stockholm by the Olof
Palme
Center, a human rights and peace group named for the murdered Swedish
prime
minister, but also met with Swedish Aid Minister Gunilla Carlsson to
discuss
the humanitarian situation in the African country.
Welshman
Ncube, another MDC secretary-general, said the U.N. decision would
allow
Mugabe's government to use its own food distribution schemes as a
"political
weapon ... and therefore in fact weaken people's capacity to
resist the
dictatorship."
"That's the tragic consequence of actually pulling back
that sort of
support," Ncube said. "The food deficits allow them to actually
control and
manipulate the population."
The WFP said the poor donor
response followed repeated assurances by the
government that Zimbabwe would
be able to feed itself without aid.
"That's what they always say," Ncube
said. "But I think the international
community should now be familiar with
that trick."
Zimbabwe needs about 1.8 million tons of corn a year, but in
the last
harvest produced less half that amount, according to independent
surveys.
The country is suffering its worst economic crisis since
independence in
1980, with more than 1,000 percent inflation, the highest in
the world, and
acute shortages of hard currency and gasoline.
The
crisis has been largely blamed on the chaotic and often violent seizures
of
thousands of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 in Zimbabwe, a
former
regional breadbasket.
Mugabe blames drought, sanctions and his
government's isolation by Western
nations, donors and investors for the
economic crisis.
The Movement for Democratic Change, founded in 1999 as
the first significant
challenge to Mugabe's rule, narrowly lost
parliamentary and presidential
elections in 2000 and 2002 in polling
independent observers said was marred
by violence, intimidation and
rigging.
VOA
By
Blessing Zulu
Washington
14 November 2006
A
team from the International Monetary Fund will make a long-delayed visit
to
Harare in early December to conduct so-called Article IV consultations on
the economy and government economic policies, IMF and government sources
said Tuesday.
IMF Senior External Relations Officer Gita Bhatt
confirmed that the team
would arrive early next month, while sources in the
Ministry of Finance said
the mission would run from December 4 through
December 16.
The purpose of such Article IV visits is to are monitor the
compliance of
IMF members with previously expressed commitments to adopt
recommended
economic policies that will foster economic growth while
maintaining the
stability of prices. The consultation visit to Zimbabwe was
initially set
for July but was repeatedly pushed off by
Harare.
Finance Ministry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the
delays arose from a widening rift between the government and the
Fund, which
has criticized the government's economic policies, refused to
reinstate the
country's voting rights and declined to extend further credit
despite
payments made on Zimbabwean arrears.
Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa charged last month that the IMF was being
used as a tool of Western
nations seeking "regime change." The accusations
echoed president Robert
Mugabe's remarks before the United Nations General
Assembly in
September.
The IMF says Harare must put sound economic policies in place
to reverse the
steep decline of the economy. Zimbabwe is in its seventh year
of recession
and inflation at last measurement in October was running at
1,070%. IMF
officials have warned that unless Harare takes urgent action,
inflation
could hit an average 4,000% in 2007.
Sources said the
timing of consultations was an issue. Harare wanted
consultations to take
place only after the IMF Executive Board had taken up
Zimbabwe's status. But
IMF officials were adamant that the Article IV
assessment must come
first.
Harare economic analyst James Jowa told reporter Blessing Zulu of
VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that putting off the Article IV mission has not
helped
Harare.