Zim Online
by Own Correspondent Friday 16 November
2007
JOHANNESBURG - Southern African governments
face a "very real
challenge" of regime change instigated by foreign powers,
South African
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday.
Lekota did not name countries that could have their governments
toppled or
the foreign powers eager to sponsor regime change in the region,
only saying
regime change was one of the "external threats" faced by
countries in the
region.
"We need to share information and intelligence on
activities in this
area (external threats). Working together our reach
stretches much further,"
said Lekota, who was addressing the South
Africa-Zimbabwe Joint Permanent
Commission on defence and security in
Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.
Lekota's remarks could however be
interpreted as endorsement of claims
by President Robert Mugabe that an
acute economic crisis gripping Zimbabwe
is because of sabotage by Britain
and its Western allies bent on
overthrowing his government as punishment for
seizing white farmland to give
to landless blacks.
Zimbabwe
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi immediately seized Lekota's
comments with
both hands, telling the commission Britain wanted regime
change in Zimbabwe
and that London could scuttle talks with the opposition
aimed at finding a
lasting solution to the southern African country's
crisis.
Sekeramayi said: "It would not come as a surprise if Britain, the
chief
architect of regime change in Zimbabwe, makes a last ditch attempt at
derailing the talks."
Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party and the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change have since April held talks under
South African mediation
aimed at finding a solution to Zimbabwe's long
running political and
economic crisis. A key objective of the talks is to
ensure free and fair
presidential and parliamentary elections next
year.
But political analysts say South African President Thabo
Mbeki should
urge Mugabe to end political violence and repeal tough security
and press
laws if next year's polls are to be free and fair.
Zimbabwe is suffering a debilitating economic crisis that is
highlighted by
the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 8 000 percent, a
rapidly
contracting GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to
the World
Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel.
Critics
blame the crisis on repression and wrong policies by Mugabe,
such as farm
seizures that decimated the agricultural sector, the mainstay
of the
economy.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from
Britain,
denies mismanaging the country. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Tsungai Murandu Friday 16 November 2007
HARARE - President
Robert Mugabe says the 2007/08 agriculture season is a
watershed period for
Zimbabwe's tottering economy, pledging to stay ahead of
Western sanctions
that he blames for the country's problems.
Speaking at the commissioning
of a US$6 million bio-diesel plant just
outside Harare, the veteran
Zimbabwean leader scoffed at Western sanctions
imposed on himself and his
ruling elite, vowing that Zimbabwe would never
collapse.
The bio-fuel
plant, with a capacity to produce 100 million litres of diesel
annually,
should mainly provide fuel to farmers resettled under the land
grabs.
It is expected that the plant will help Zimbabwe, which has
faced perennial
fuel shortages since 1999, to save up to US$80 million a
year in foreign
currency.
The RBZ also estimates that the bio-diesel
project will help reduce
inflation by up to 20 percent.
"As
government, we are also working tirelessly to ensure that this coming
agricultural season marks a lasting turning point in the country's economic
fortunes," Mugabe said.
It is estimated that the farming sector
requires almost 120 million litres
of diesel annually, while the country's
total diesel demand is estimated at
about 1 billion litres.
Mugabe
said the new fuel project demonstrated that "the ill-fated illegal
sanctions
against the innocent people of Zimbabwe can never subdue our
resilience and
inner propulsion to succeed and remain standing as a nation."
He said
Zimbabwe was ready to accept investors from friendly countries who
are
willing to forge purposeful developmental alliances.
"It is against this
background that as a country, we call upon potential
investors and
development partners across the globe to tap into lucrative
trade and
investment opportunities abundant in the country," Mugabe said.
The
bio-diesel processing plant is an attempt to find a lasting solution to
Zimbabwe's chronic fuel shortages.
The southern African country,
battling an unprecedented economic crisis
marked by the world's highest
inflation rate of nearly 8 000 percent,
requires US$300 million to import
fuel per month.
The plant is a joint venture between the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ),
through local company Transload, and Korean investors
represented by a firm
called Young Woo Investments.
Zimbabwe's
ambassador to Japan and the Republic of Korea, Stuart Comberbach
is said to
have been instrumental in brokering the deal.
The deal saw the RBZ
governor Gideon Gono visiting Korea in 2006 on an
business investment
promotion drive which gave birth to the idea of a
bio-diesel plant in Mount
Hampden, located a few kilometers northwest of
Harare.
Plans are
afoot to build a bio-diesel plant in each of the country's 10
provinces
before 2010.
"The vision is to see our farmers in every province earning
foreign currency
through 'exports' of their oil seeds produced in local
bio-diesel plants,"
Gono said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Wayne Mafaro Friday 16 November
2007
HARARE - Zimbabwe has not been able to issue
certificates to students for
nearly two years because it did not have
foreign currency to pay for
printing of the documents, as an acute economic
crisis fast erodes gains
made in education and social services during the
early years of
independence.
Public schools and hospitals that were
the envy of many in Africa and across
the developing world lie dilapidated
after years of under-funding by a
Harare government that is desperately
short on cash and resources as it
battles its worst ever economic
crisis.
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) public relations
manager
Ezekiel Pasipamire told ZimOnline that a British firm contracted to
print
certificates for school leavers stopped deliveries after the council
failed
to pay.
"We have not been giving out certificates because we
did not have the
foreign currency to pay (the foreign printer)," Pasipamire
said.
The ZIMSEC official, who did not say exactly how much was owed to
the
British printer, said the council had recently received foreign currency
to
pay for the certificates and was awaiting delivery from the United
Kingdom.
"Foreign currency has since been availed to us and we have paid
for the
certificates. We are awaiting delivery from the United Kingdom,"
said
Pasipamire.
However, the council's financial problems are far
from over, with Education
Minister Aeneas Chigwedere on Thursday telling a
special parliamentary
committee on education that funding remains the
council's Achilles Heel.
"ZIMSEC (has been) in a financial dilemma for
the last four years because of
inflation and also that government subsidies
were taking long due to
bureaucracy," said Chigwedere.
Apart from
trouble getting certificates after completing years of study,
Zimbabwean
school leavers also face an impossible ordeal trying to find a
job in an
economy that has shrunk 40 percent over the last eight years and
where
unemployment is conservatively estimated at anything above 80
percent.
Some school leavers opt for the easier choice, skipping across
Zimbabwe's
borders to search for work in neighbouring countries, joining a
massive
brain drain that has seen thousands of doctors, nurses, engineers,
teachers
and other skilled personnel leaving the country because of
worsening
economic hardships.
There are no official figures of
Zimbabweans who have left the country. But
analysts say about three million
or a quarter of the country's 12 million
people have left, forced abroad by
an economic crisis, critics blame on
repression and wrong policies by
President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980
independence from Britain and seeking
another five-year term in polls next
year, denies ruining the economy and
instead blames his country's troubles
on sabotage by his Western enemies. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Thulani Munda Friday 16 November
2007
HARARE - John Kimunyu may have had a hand in Zimbabwe's
long-running
economic crisis but has no regrets for demanding what he
insists was
rightfully his.
Kimunyu was among the more than 50 000
veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of
liberation who held President Robert
Mugabe to ransom in September 1997,
demanding to be paid gratuities for
their role in the armed struggle that
brought the country's
independence.
The government buckled and paid the war veterans hefty $50
000 gratuities
each plus monthly pensions of $2 000 - a huge sum of money by
those days'
standards.
The payouts were not budgeted for and the
economy responded with a bang,
resulting in the infamous "Black Friday"
crash of 14 November 1997 when the
Zimbabwe dollar plunged on a single day
from $14 against the United States
greenback to $26 to the US
unit.
The secondary contagion effect was a sharp 40 percent crash of the
Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange.
The stock market lost 46 percent of the
value of shares as investors
scrambled out of the Zimbabwe
dollar.
But as Zimbabwe completes this week a decade of economic turmoil,
Kimunyu -
and probably most of his comrades-in-arms in the liberation war -
has no
regrets.
"We deserved that money and it's unfair to blame us
for the current
problems," he said yesterday.
But analysts insisted
the payouts to the war veterans were the genesis of
the country's economic
crisis.
Bulawayo-based economic commentator Eric Bloch said the
government lived
beyond its means by giving in to the war veterans'
demands.
"If payment to war veterans was staggered over a period of time
we would not
have been in the situation we are today," said Bloch.
He
noted that Zimbabwe continued to overspend as if it had inexhaustible
resources.
Daniel Ndlela of Zimconsult, an economic consultancy firm,
said doling out
money to war veterans was the beginning of money printing on
the part of
Zimbabwe.
"War veterans started demonstrations and the
government resorted to
pacifying its constituency by paying out gratuities,"
Ndlela said.
He said the economy had shown some signs of crumbling and
the currency
crisis was the spark.
"This proved to be the start of a
real crisis of management of the economy,
with the exchange rate only
showing the symptoms of the cancer," he said.
The Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU), which demonstrated against
payment of gratuities to war
veterans, said the gratuities payment and the
subsequent crash of the
currency aggravated the condition of workers.
"The condition of workers
is worse off than it was in 1997," said ZCTU
secretary general Wellington
Chibebe.
A stock market analyst who was there "when it happened" in 1997
said a
number of investors had their hands burnt following the free-fall in
share
prices.
"There was panic and investors started offloading their
shares in large
volumes?" said the analyst who could not be named for
professional reasons.
He added: "Local institutional investors grabbed
the opportunity and bought
shares at a cheap price with some of them still
holding onto the shares
today."
The analysts said it would take a
long time to erase memories of the "Black
Friday" crash as the root causes
remained unattended 10 years on.
"We are having Black Fridays every week
as our currency keeps on
depreciating against major currencies on the black
market," said an
economist with a local financial institution who refused to
be named.
The US greenback changed hands at $1.2 million on the parallel
market on
Thursday against a paltry $30 000 on the official
market.
Kimunyu says war veterans' showdown with the government had
helped him to
achieve his liberation war dreams of owning a house and a
farm.
"For me having land is what we fought for. A house and a farm
fulfill my
dream," he said.
Kimunyu is a proud house owner in
Harare's Crowborough North suburb. He
bought the house 10 years ago,
courtesy of proceeds from the gratuities. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Basildon Peta Friday 16 November
2007
JOHANNESBURG - Dr Daniel Shumba, a prominent Zimbabwean
businessman,
surprised many when he was appointed the ruling ZANU PF party
chairman for
Masvingo province four years ago.
His flirtation with
ZANU PF politics however came to an abrupt end when he
was suspended from
the party together with five other party chairmen for
allegedly plotting to
block the rise of Joice Mujuru to the vice-presidency.
The suspension
immediately plunged Shumba into political oblivion. In 2006,
Shumba
announced the formation of the United People's Party (UPP) to
challenge
President Robert Mugabe's grip on power.
But since the launch of the
party, not much has been heard of the political
formation.
Basildon
Peta caught up with Shumba in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week
and the
following are excerpts of his interview he held with the Zimbabwean
politician.
QUESTION: You launched the UPP in June 2006 but not much
has been heard from
you. Does this mean that your party is one of those
political formations in
Zimbabwe that spring during daytime and fall by the
wayside before anyone
has noticed?
ANSWER: Yes indeed we launched in
June 2006, and the party undertook an
exercise to build party structures and
explain to the people of Zimbabwe,
more especially in the rural areas, the
need for a new political
dispensation. The UPP contested the 2006 Local
Government Elections, as part
of its agenda to introduce the party and its
political programmes to the
people.
We also contested the Chiredzi
South parliamentary by-election and finished
ahead of one of the MDC
factions in spite of ZANU PF's rigging. UPP was also
the only opposition
party to contest the Zaka East parliamentary
by-election.
You will
therefore note that, the UPP is working on the ground, but both the
state
and so-called independent media have been somewhat partisan in their
reporting. They have been promoting political parties of their choice and
accordingly shaping the popular perceptions.
QUESTION: You seem to
blame your party's lack of a public profile on the
media. But surely Dr
Shumba, you must also appreciate that the media often
does not make
politicians. Politicians have to invent themselves. If you
were doing
something significant on the ground like addressing huge rallies
and
building visible structures, I don't think the media could completely
ignore
you, particularly the private and international media remaining in
Zimbabwe.
ANSWER: It is not entirely true that the international
media has ignored us.
We have had coverage on the Voice of America, Voice of
The People and SABC
than we have had locally. The local coverage by the
independent media has
not been balanced or fair.
The UPP strategy
towards political mobilisation does not include huge
rallies (which mostly
include unregistered voters and is an easy target for
ZANU PF), but
door-to-door and localised direct campaigns.
This reduces the
victimisation of our members from our political opponents
especially ZANU
PF. The media must also identify with the rural population
and the
under-privileged to appreciate some of our strategies.
Q: You promised
before the launch of your party that you would attract
crowds of more than
200 000. But as it turned out there were barely a few
thousand people. You
also claimed in your speech that the government had
blocked your money to
the value of Z$19 billion and so you were unable to
hire buses. Was this not
a desperate attempt to explain your failure to get
the crowds you had
promised Dr Shumba?
A: Zimbabweans should not under-estimate ZANU PF's
use of state security
organisations in hindering and fighting opposition
political parties in
Zimbabwe. The Public Order and Security Act, the Access
to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act and the Political Parties
Finance Act are also
meant to make it difficult for the opposition parties
to function.
Bus operators were forced to cancel bookings at the last
minute. Train
bookings were withheld and members were told that the launch
was not cleared
by the police. We are still in legal disputes over our
money. These and
other factors contributed to the launch being attended by
over 6 000 members
from all provinces, which by Zimbabwean standards is
still large.
Q: Lets digress a bit and address the issue of your
doctorate. What is your
education profile and tell me more about this PhD
you now claim to have.
A: I have attached my full profile for your
information. Please feel free to
share it.
Q: Back to politics. Are
you going to contest the presidential and
parliamentary elections next
year?
A: I will give you a two-fold answer. First, Zimbabweans have been
short-changed by ZANU PF over the past 27 years. This has particularly been
so by the recent Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 18. Anybody conniving
with ZANU PF in this regard is furthering and extending the life of ZANU PF
to continue oppressing and marginalising the people of
Zimbabwe.
Therefore, in this regard there is no point in contesting any
elections,
under the current dispensation. The outcome has already been
pre-determined.
It's a fait accompli.
However, because we have a
greater responsibility to the people of Zimbabwe,
to give them hope and a
future, to this end we will continue to fight the
ZANU PF system and to push
for a people-driven constitution. Thus, the UPP
will contest the elections
in order so as to remain engaged in our national
affairs.
The UPP
believes that only through a new people-driven popular constitution
can
there be a semblance of fair and maybe free elections in Zimbabwe. Such
elections ZANU PF will lose, so we must be relevant and committed in order
to contribute to the re-shaping of our country's future.
Q: Who else
constitutes the leadership of your party? We have not heard
anything in that
regard.
A: The UPP is aware of the victimisation that ZANU PF
perpetuates on
opposition leaders and members at all levels of the political
structures.
The 10 administrative provinces are run by co-ordinating
committees headed
by a provincial chairperson who reports directly to the
interim president of
the UPP.
An administrative team, security team,
intelligence team, elections
directorate, finance team, governance
directorate, and a national
coordinator assist the president. The full UPP
structures and other details
can be accessed after vetting from the party's
co-ordinating offices at 108
West Road, Avondale West, Harare.
Q:
Those who question the credibility of your party say that your exclusion
from the current dialogue in South Africa is testimony of its irrelevance.
Surely President Mbeki could not have ignored a credible political player in
this dialogue and stuck to the MDC only if you were a serious political
player?
A: The media have misinterpreted the mandate given to
President Mbeki, which
obviously is meant to deal with the violence and
other related issues
between ZANU PF and the MDC. That is why those who were
not party to the
violence are not part of these talks.
ZANU PF and
MDC do not represent all key stakeholders in Zimbabwe. Other
opposition
political parties, civil society, churches, women's groups,
representatives
of those in the diaspora and other parties, are all not
party to President
Mbeki's efforts.
We need a determined and shared approach to the problems
facing Zimbabwe, a
collective and shared process leading to the ushering in
of a new
people-driven constitution. The current talks are just aimed at
extending
ZANU PF's hold on Zimbabwe's politics, while attempting to fool
the
international community and other stakeholders into believing that
suddenly
ZANU PF is playing fair. ZANU PF is impervious to
change.
The UPP will therefore not seek to be party to the current SADC
talks unless
they are expanded to bring all key stakeholders in Zimbabwe's
political and
social landscape. Whatever, the process of change, it must be
truly
inclusive.
Q: Many believe that at this juncture, there is no
room for a third party in
Zimbabwe. Despite his weaknesses, Morgan
Tsvangirai remains the face of the
opposition. He won more than two million
votes in the 2002 presidential
election and nearly beat Robert Mugabe.
Perhaps were it not for rigging,
many believe he could the President of
Zimbabwe.
A: Past glory cannot be expected to shape our future. The
future is going
to be determined by the correctness of a specific political
ideology,
quality of leader, and the ability to unify the people of Zimbabwe
for the
political and economic turn-around of our country.
It is
therefore not about personalities, but about the correctness of what
they
stand for and their qualities as leaders. We are not fighting ZANU PF
as a
political party (as many believe), but ZANU PF as a system. We
therefore
believe that the UPP is the best positioned for such a task.
Q: But do
you appreciate that Tsvangirai is more visible, more respected
and more
politically attractive than you.
A: The turn-around of Zimbabwe is not
about Tsvangirai or Shumba. It is
about the people of Zimbabwe. The UPP and
its current leadership should be
judged on the basis of its political
ideology, policies and ability, than
short-term or irrelevant
variables.
Q: So you will agree with Trevor Ncube that there is room for
a third way
in Zimbabwe?
A: Otherwise we would not have launched the
UPP. We are the future. We are
uniting. We are peace loving. We are
determined and we are understood by the
people. Most importantly, we have
God on our side.
Q: If you contested next year's elections, how would you
rate your chances
against Mugabe, Mutambara, and Tsvangirai?
A: It's
not about rating myself against anyone, but about giving the people
of
Zimbabwe the right to choose their leader democratically. On the basis of
UPP's ideals and my own qualities, I expect to be the people's
choice.
(Interjection) Q: But surely elections are about winning
political power and
every serious politician ought to rate his
chances
A: UPP is going to contest elections to win credibly.?
Q:
If your disagreement with ZANU PF is based on principles, why did you
join
the party in the first place? Many would say your formation of the UPP
was
because of sulking over your expulsion from ZANU PF.
A: First to correct
you, I was never expelled from ZANU PF. I was suspended
for five years from
ZANU PF and then I resigned. I was the chairman of ZANU
PF's largest
political province and also a member of ZANU PF's leading
organ, the Central
Committee.
I therefore, had adequate influence and believed that together
with many
others, who later developed cold feet, we could change ZANU PF
from within.
I, and several others, have since concluded that ZANU PF is
impervious to
change. Thus my suspension only sped up a process that was
long underway.
I understand the current ZANU PF political system better
than most of the
current opposition leaders. I am not only best able to undo
and correct most
of the ZANU PF evil, but also able to give hope and
leadership to
Zimbabweans, both as a politician and businessman.
Q:
You were well known because of your connection to TeleAccess. You seem
to
have failed to launch the network after repeated attempts. Some would say
how could we entrust Zimbabwe into the hands of a man who failed to exploit
an excellent business opportunity like this in this age of the
telecommunications boom? In fact one of your former employees wrote a letter
in the Zimbabwe Independent questioning your credibility as a businessman
describing you as a failure.
A: Any positive process will always
meet a good measure of negative
sceptics. The TeleAccess telecommunications
business issue is currently
before the courts in Zimbabwe. I therefore,
cannot comment much, save to say
the business was not allocated any foreign
currency to import the required
equipment to commence operations. I will not
respond to a former employee's
opinion, it is his democratic right to
communicate his feelings.
Q: We can now safely say you have gained
political experience. How would you
describe the situation on the ground as
it pertains to new parties trying to
establish structures.
A: I did
not gain political experience by launching a political party. I
have always
been politically astute. I come from a family of political
leaders and
nationalists. The rest is detailed in my profile.
Q: What is the way
forward for Zimbabwe to ensure that next year's elections
are free and
fair.
A: Without a new people-driven constitution, there will not be free
and fair
elections. ZANU PF does not want free and fair elections because
they know
they will lose. What they want is a process that satisfies their
thirst for
absolute power. That is why they continue to manipulate the
people of
Zimbabwe by now attempting to draft a constitution. Unfortunately,
the MDC
has been conniving with ZANU PF in short-changing the nation in this
respect.
Being in parliament cannot be used as a right or means to
further one's
political goals at the expense of the people. Let the people
choose the
shape and nature of a popular national constitution.
Q: Is
the UPP contemplating joining forces with other opposition candidates
to
ensure a single opposition candidate to take on Mugabe and avoid
splitting
votes.
A: It seems some of you guys are obsessed with these forced
marriages of
convenience that most often lead to painful divorces. Any
coalition not
premised on a shared ideology will fail. The media should let
the
ideological framework and policies of political parties dictate any such
moves.
Thank you Mr Shumba for your prompt answers. We wish you the
best.
A: Again I am not Mr Shumba, I am Dr Shumba. -
ZimOnline
SW Radio Africa (London)
15 November
2007
Posted to the web 15 November 2007
Henry Makiwa
War
veterans and Zanu PF militia on Wednesday severely assaulted a
59-year-old
woman for wearing an MDC t-shirt and carrying an opposition
party umbrella,
at Watsomba business centre in Manicaland.
Juliet Dangare Mandiringa, a
well-known opposition activist and grandmother
of three, was passing by a
long queue for sugar supplies which was manned by
Zanu PF supporters when
she was confronted. According to witnesses, the
youths and war veterans
accused her of being a sell-out and a saboteur of
the economy. They then
beat her up with sticks, clenched fists and booted
feet before leaving her
for dead. Some opposition activists took her for
treatment in
Mutare.
On Thursday, Mandiringa was still recovering from welts
across the chest,
cuts on the back and severe leg and head
injuries.
Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesman for Manicaland, accused
Zanu PF of
fomenting political violence in the region.
Muchauraya
said: "We note with sadness the escalating levels of violence in
Manicaland.
It shows how much the Zanu PF seeds of violence, sown in 2000
have grown
roots too deep to unroot. The assault of Mandiringa by youths
young enough
to be her grand children is quite regrettable. It means that
efforts to end
violence need to be intensified, with orders from Mugabe
himself."
Meanwhile the six MDC activists arrested under the Law and
Order Act for
allegedly holding illegal political meetings have been
remanded out of
custody to 24 January next year.
The six were part of
a group of 15 activists who were abducted from a house
belonging to an MDC
member in Chipinge South on Monday. The group was
force-marched from the
house by militias loyal to the Zanu-PF MP for the
area, Enock Porusingazi.
Nine of the activists were released on Tuesday.
SW Radio Africa (London)
15 November
2007
Posted to the web 15 November 2007
Henry Makiwa
Media
analysts have described the omission of Tafataona Mahoso from the
government
committee looking into the Daily News case, as a non-event.
This follows
a public statement by Sikhanyiso Ndlovu on Wednesday, in which
the
Information minister announced that Media and Information Commission
(MIC)
chairman Mahoso and fellow board member,
Pascal Mukondiwa will not be
part of the new-look committee on the case.
Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe (ANZ) executives, who published the banned
Daily News and Daily
News on Sunday newspapers, had raised concern about the
impartiality of the
two Zanu PF zealots.
Ndlovu's announcement has been viewed as a toning
down of the government's
hard-line stance towards the freeing of media
space. It is understood that
the Mugabe regime has been under pressure from
brokers of the mediated talks
between the ruling party and the MDC, to allow
the Daily News to begin
publishing again.
Critics have fingered
Mahoso as the chief conspirator in the banning of the
two ANZ papers and the
closure of others.
At a press conference in Harare Ndlovu said
Chinondidyachii Mararike has
been appointed interim chairman to deal with
the ANZ application and would
replace Mahoso.
Observers have
dismissed the changes to the committee, given that Mararike
is a known Zanu
PF sympathiser. He is a former head of a London-based
"anti-imperialism"
organisation called Davirai Mhere and is a lawyer and
columnist in the
state-run media, commenting on fighting "western
propaganda".
Former
Daily News editor, Bill Saidi, said that the government should stop
"throwing red herrings" and reconstitute the Daily News forthwith.
He
said: "They can fool some people sometimes but they can't fool all the
people all the time. The whole case needs to be treated as a matter of
urgency now because the government will be more than happy to still go ahead
and hold the crucial elections in March under current conditions. We need a
free press before then and in good time too, to make sure that the
electorate is well informed long before the polls. It will not make much of
a difference if they award the ANZ a license in February because then there
will be not enough time for the media to play its role to inform and educate
society. I wouldn't entertain any hopes as yet, these people (Zanu PF) are
cunning, and they can be ruthless."
The two ANZ papers were banned by
the government on 11 September 2003 under
the draconian Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The
Supreme Court ruled then that
the company was publishing its two titles
outside the law because it refused
to register them under tough media laws
introduced following Mugabe's
controversial re-election in 2002.
However, in May this year a High Court
judge ordered the MIC to consider a
fresh application for the newspapers,
resulting in these new members being
named to the board to handle the
application.
A free media is extremely important to ensure free and fair
elections. It is
interesting that freeing the airwaves for radio, which
reaches by far the
largest audience in Zimbabwe, is not being discussed.
SW
Radio Africa (London)
15 November 2007
Posted to the web 15 November
2007
Lance Guma
The man accused of plotting a coup to topple
Robert Mugabe has turned out to
be a small time crook who left the United
Kingdom after a BBC investigation
exposed how he assisted fraudulent asylum
claims.
In 2004 undercover reporters working for BBC Radio 5 Live exposed
how Albert
Matapo's Zimbabwean Community UK charity group sold fake Home
Office
letters, granting asylum and national insurance numbers which are
important
for securing employment. Now back in Zimbabwe Matapo and 6 other
men were
arrested in May this year and charged with treason for attempting
to
overthrow Mugabe. The state alleged that Matapo wanted to be prime
minister,
while Rural Housing Minister Emerson Mnangagwa was "invited" to
become
president.
But as Matapo's past catches up with him doubts
are beginning to emerge
about how someone who made a living engaging in
petty crimes and fraud could
have planned a military coup in Zimbabwe. His
'Zimbabwean Community UK' was
created in 2003 with an initial £5,000 grant
of lottery funding. It is
claimed Matapo spent the money on a luxury BMW
vehicle and other personal
items. Defending the coup plot allegations this
week he dragged in Zimbabwe
Association (UK) official Patson Muzuva accusing
him of framing him over the
fraud allegations, with the help of the BBC. A
furious Muzuva told Newsreel
that Matapo should focus on the coup plot
allegations and leave his name out
of the trial.
Muzuva said his only
interaction with Matapo was when the Zimbabwe Community
UK facilitated a
trip by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, to promote the
Home Link scheme.
Muzuva said he campaigned aggressively against that trip
and this might be
the reason why Matapo is picking on him now. He said
Matapo had a fall-out
with his own colleagues about the way they spent the
lottery funding and
they ended up reporting each other to the authorities in
the UK. But
Matapo's Zanu PF links, which he previously denied, came out in
court when
he claimed Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi knew
he was in
the UK 'for the purpose of promoting national interests.'
It's not yet
clear whether Matapo was deported from the UK, but several
people who lost
money to his organization are eager to recover it. Observers
suggest that he
has now become a convenient scapegoat in the succession
power play within
Zanu PF.
SW
Radio Africa (London)
15 November 2007
Posted to the web 15 November
2007
Tererai Karimakwenda
Student organizations have said they
believe university officials are under
government instruction to target
influential student leaders and remove them
from campuses around the
country, ahead of the elections scheduled for next
year.
They
referred to the escalating assaults, arrests and evictions of student
leaders at major universities as evidence of this campaign.
There
have been six expulsions at the National University of Science and
Technology so far this year. Half the student leadership at the University
of Zimbabwe campus in Harare is due to face disciplinary hearings,
and
student leaders were dragged from exam rooms and thrown off campus at
Great
Zimbabwe University last week, without the benefit of disciplinary
hearings.
McDonald Lewanika, a coordinator with the Student Solidarity
Trust, said he
believes what is happening now is a result of a government
directive that
dates back to 2002, just before the presidential elections.
He explained
that a statement was released at the time by the Ministry of
Education, to
the effect that they would no longer close institutions of
higher learning
whenever students protested. Instead, they would weed out
students regarded
as "bad influences" on the student unions.
Lewanika
added: "What is happening cannot be viewed outside the context of
elections
that will be taking place in this country next year, a couple of
months from
now. What we have is a process whereby different university
authorities are
weeding out people who they think are critical of the
government of Zimbabwe
within the students' movement and throwing them off
campus so that they will
not be able to influence anything where students
are concerned, during that
critical period."
In some cases the accused are being charged with
leading students in violent
incidents that occurred on campuses earlier this
year. In other cases the
students are being prosecuted for criticizing the
government's neglect of
education. Just pointing out mere facts in Zimbabwe
has become a crime, as
opposed to the constitutional right that it actually
is.
The students effectively have no way of expressing their frustrations
at a
system that is making it impossible to get a decent education. A strong
statement released by the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) said in
part: "The government of the day seems to be at unease because the students,
as the general populace, are fast losing their patience and cannot wait for
a change in governance."
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
15
November 2007
Having exhausted their legal options in
Zimbabwe, former white commercial
farmers who lost property to land
redistribution are seeking recourse at a
regional level.
A tribunal
of the Southern African Development Community is set to hear one
such case
next Tuesday in Windhoek, the Namibian capital. The 10-judge
regional court
was created in 2000 to resolve conflicts arising from
treaties.
Many
white Zimbabwean farmers have challenged the constitutionality of the
seizure of their land beginning in 2000, but with little success. Eleven
farmers recently went on trial for failing to vacate farms by a date set by
Harare, and the supreme court ruled recently that the government could take
over equipment owned by the farmers.
Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett,
representing white farmer William Michael
Campbell in the tribunal, told
reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio
7 for Zimbabwe that his client
will ask the SADC court to order a halt to
state action, pending a fair
trial.
Cape Town-based political analyst Glenn Mpani said the case raises
a thorny
issue for the tribunal as land reform concerns a number of
countries in the
region, adding that while the farmers are right to turn to
the SADC court,
their chances are slim.
Despite the pessimism on the
SADC tribunal outcome, some Dutch farmers who
lost properties to Zimbabwean
land reform recently prevailed in a French
court that found the government
had violated their rights. Zimbabwean
Minister Didymus Mutasa, in charge of
land reform, said the government will
compensate them when it can.
VOA
By Irwin Chifera and Carole Gombakomba
Harare
& Washington
15 November 2007
A senior
official of the Zimbabwe's opposition faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai and a
prospective candidate for parliament said Thursday that
they were beaten
severely by soldiers at defense headquarters in Harare for
parking a party
vehicle nearby.
Chief Executive Officer Toindepi Shonhe of the Movement
for Democratic
Change faction said he parked the vehicle outside Defense
House in downtown
Harare and entered the Ambassador Hotel to meet Julius
Mangagoma, a
prospective candidate for the lower house in the Buhera North
constituency
of Mashonaland East.
Shonhe said hotel staff told him
soldiers were looking for the driver of the
vehicle, and when he returned to
his parking place he was set upon by eight
soldiers and dragged into a
basement where they began to beat him. When
Mangagoma went looking for
Shonhe, he too was forced into the basement and
beaten, the two men
said.
Harare correspondent Irwin Chifera of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
reported.
Meanwhile, faction leader and MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai
called an
emergency meeting on Sunday of all the formation's provincial
leaders in 120
districts, but party officials said they could not provide
information on
the agenda for the meeting.
The Tsvangirai faction
last month launched an outreach program to explain to
its civic allies and
other supporters why it had voted with the ruling
ZANU-PF party to pass the
18th amendment to the constitution over the
objections of many party
members. The amendment significantly modified the
country's electoral
framework, among other provisions expanding the lower
house of parliament to
210 seats from 150.
Sources say Tsvangirai may be intending consult with
or solicit input from
the faction's provincial leaders about the ongoing
South African-mediated
crisis resolution talks that yielded what some
considered a historic
compromise on the amendment - but which have made some
MDC backers uneasy
due to the secrecy surrounding them.
The
Tsvangirai faction has also been troubled since last month by divisions
over
the leadership's dissolution of the executive committee of its women's
wing.
The faction's organizing secretary, former Harare mayor Elias
Mudzuri, told
reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
while the
controversy over the women's assembly shuffle may not be on
Sunday's agenda,
Tsvangirai clearly intends to engage his provincial
officers at a crucial
moment for the formation.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu & Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
15 November 2007
Food shortages in
Zimbabwe are expected to intensify amid indications the
National Incomes and
Pricing Commission set in place by President Robert
Mugabe several months
ago is fixing to launch another crackdown on
businesses in the
country.
Commission Chairman Godwills Masimirembwa told VOA he has given
firms which
sell imported products until next Thursday, Nov. 22, to clear
imported stock
from their shelves, after which date his commission will
impose tightened
price controls.
Masimirembwa said his commission
will prohibit businesses from turning to
the parallel market for hard
currency to import goods and then to to price
them accordingly.
A
showdown is looming between Masimirembwa and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon
Gono, said to be printing trillions of dollars in an effort to resuscitate
manufacturing through its so-called Basic Commodities Supply Side
Intervention Facility.
Gono has said he is trying to reverse the
effects of price cuts imposed by
the state in late June which quickly led to
widespread shortages of
essential goods.
Masimirembwa told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
he has been meeting with
manufacturers and retailers to explain the new
pricing
policy.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce President Marah Hativagone
said the
new policies are likely to further restrict the movement of goods
into the
marketplace.
Meanwhile, bank notes are in short supply along
with just about everything
else, with long queues outside banks which are
cutting back on what they
will allow customers to withdraw and at times
waiting for cash deposits
before they can pay out notes.
Automated
teller machines in many locations are empty, forcing customers to
stand in
line to obtain cash. Individuals previously had been allowed to
withdraw
Z$20 million (US$20) a day , companies Z$40 million, but banks have
reduced
these limits.
Consumer Tongai Mupfudza of Warren Park, Harare, said he
tried to withdraw
Z$10 million from Stanbic Bank but could only get Z$5
million. Corporate
withdrawals are limited to Z$10 million at many banks,
Harare financial
sources said.
Economist Nhlanhla Nyathi told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that cash shortages
probably reflect the surging prices of
basic goods on the parallel market
where most Zimbabweans find them these
days.
VOA
By Ntungamili Nkomo
Washington DC
15
November 2007
A top official of the African Commission on
Human and People's Rights on
Thursday described the unfolding situation in
Zimbabwe as alarming and urged
the African Union to exercise its authority
and take steps to address the
crisis, sources said.
AU Commission
Vice Chairman Yassir El-Hassan cited alleged human rights
abuses which
Zimbabwean nongovernmental organizations report to be on the
rise. The AU
rights body is meeting for a week in Brazzaville, Republic of
the
Congo.
Sources in Brazzaville said El-Hassan, who indicated he was very
concerned,
might use his influence to push the crisis in Zimbabwe to the AU
for serious
deliberation.
The Harare government sent attorneys to the
session but no high level
officials, unlike previous meetings where it has
been represented by its
minister of justice. A complaint against Harare
lodged by human rights
lawyer Gabriel Shumba was put off until May, 2008,
because the Zimbabwean
government had not filed a response.
Rights
lawyer Anah Moyo, present at Thursday's session, told reporter
Ntungamili
Nkomo of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that rights activists who
met earlier
this week under the Africa NGOs Forum presented resolutions on
Zimbabwe in
the session.
Business in Africa
Published: 15-NOV-07
By Hany Besada
Outside observers
were both surprised and dismayed by the loud applause
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe received at the start of the 27th Summit
of Heads of State and
Government of the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) last month in
Zambia's capital, Lusaka. By the end of the
two day conference on Friday,
President Mugabe emerged triumphant, having
avoided criticism from his
Southern African compatriots for his mishandling
of the national economy and
his gross human rights violations against
opposition groups and civil
society organizations, accusations shared by the
international community.
Inevitably, this underscores the failure of the
much-hailed New Partnership
for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative to
rein on one of Africa's last
`Big Men' whose ruling party Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF) reflects a phenomenon which has
been tragically taking place on
the continent for decades, principally, a
lack of adherence by African
leaders to good governance and political
unaccountability to the
electorate.
Following its inception in 2001, NEPAD has been envisaged by
its founding
members as an ambitious and comprehensive initiative, designed
to address
the negative direction of underdevelopment and poverty, as well
as to end
the continued and deepening marginalization of Africa in an
interdependent
international system. It can be distinguished from other
failed past
initiatives in that it has been initiated and driven by African
leaders to
help promote peace, security and economic development at a
grassroots level,
while consolidating democracy, good governance and sound
economic
management. For the first time, African leaders have personally
committed
themselves to holding each other accountable for its
implementation.
However, six years on, questions have started to surface
about the
effectiveness and viability of the entire NEPAD process. The main
question
of the day reflects both the fear and optimism surrounding the
future of
this initiative. Whether or not NEPAD will succeed in achieving
its goals
ultimately depends on three factors: the support of the developed
states in
investing in the continent; the continual commitment of African
leaders to
the process itself; and the continued implementation and
guaranteed
integrity of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
As
the most important innovative component of NEPAD, the APRM represents the
commitment of African states to submit themselves to a peer review process
to demonstrate their adherence to good corporate governance and
socioeconomic development, to democracy and good governance, as well as to
good economic governance and management. It presents itself as the only
opportunity for African governments and institutions to address the
challenges of deepening poverty, political turmoil, unemployment and
underdevelopment.
However, the APRM faces a daunting task to live up
to its expectations,
given some of the limitations that exist within the
process, as well as
other environmental constraints surrounding it. As an
instrument voluntarily
acceded to by member states of the African Union (AU)
to facilitate an
African self-monitoring mechanism, it lacks the authority
to impose
sanctions on noncompliant governments. The effectiveness of the
peer review
process largely depends on the level of persuasion that other
African
governments may exert on the states that are being
reviewed.
A continuous reliance on institutional capacity rather than on
political
will is threatening to undermine the process even further. APRM
has yet to
bring an end to the solidarity existing among African leaders who
have long
supported each other to remain in office by rigging elections and
undermining the election process. This deficiency was apparent at the SADC
Head of State and Government Summit where member states displayed yet
another show of solidarity with the octogenarian Zimbabwean dictator, whose
people are facing acute food shortages in the midst of an economic
`meltdown.'
To much of the dismay of the Zimbabwe weary population
and frustrated
opposition groups, principally the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
SADC leaders reiterated their call for a drop of targeted
sanctions against
Mugabe by the US and the EU while calling on both the MDC
and ZANU-PF to
"expedite the process of negotiations as soon as possible
ahead of the all
contentious national elections scheduled for June next
year.
Given the unwillingness by SADC Heads of States to put pressure on
Mugabe
for political reform and Zimbabwe's hesitancy to submit to the
voluntary
peer review process, Zimbabwe has become the Achilles heel of the
entire
NEPAD and APRM process. It has made a mockery of any pretence that
African
statesmen are moving ahead in tackling good governance concerns on
the
continent. Ultimately, the extent of NEPAD's success will ultimately
depend
on the resolve of all African governments and civil society to submit
themselves to scrutiny, while holding Zimbabwe and other incompliant states
accountable to their populations. The challenge facing Africans now is to
sustain the optimism and hope that surrounded the process by taking
ownership not only of Africa's problems, but also of the continent's future
as a whole.
Hany Besada is the senior researcher working on fragile
states at the Centre
for International Governance Innovation in
Waterloo,Canada.
Walrus Magazine
ZIMBABWE-I met
Max Mkhandla in the sitting room of Radio Dialogue's ninth
floor offices in
the southern city of Bulawayu. He wore an olive green
jumpsuit and looked
mildly contemptuous of all the soft couches. His fierce
eyes squinted from
between a shaved crown and a compact beard that jutted
horizontally out from
his chin and served to emphasize the thrust of his
words. Max was to be my
guide for a tour of the arid countryside surrounding
Bulawayu. Here, in the
province of Matebeleland, the effects of what Mugabe
refers to as Zimbabwe's
"third chimurenga" - independence struggle - were
said to be the most acute
in the country. Max knew the region well, having
covered it on foot as a
teenage guerrilla during the second chimurenga of
the 1970's, when people
still fought with guns. Then, the battle lines had
been clear: black rebels
versus the white soldiers of apartheid Rhodesia, as
Zimbabwe was then known.
Things are murkier now. Not only have dollar bills
replaced bullets, but
skin color is no longer a reliable determinant of
friend and foe.
We
planned the following day's expedition as though plotting a military
campaign. Max stroked his beard and brooded while I explained my desire to
visit the rural communities of Matebeleland. To paraphrase myself, I wanted
to see poverty at its worst.
He muttered into space for a few
moments, then sat up abruptly, snapping his
fingers and clapping his palm.
He pointed forward. "Forty liters of fuel -
that's all we need," he
exclaimed. In a country where gasoline is solely
available on the black
market, and rarely in quantities greater than five
liters, this was no small
necessity. But Max assured me that if I had the
money, he had the
connections. "We leave early - early! Four am. We get
there by dawn, you can
take your footage, and" - snap, clap, point - "we're
back before the police
even wake up."
So eager was he to avoid road blocks that Max arrived
twenty minutes ahead
of schedule; I awoke to the sound of his weathered
Mazda pick-up honking in
the night. A light mist was falling from the sky,
and by the time we were
outside of Bulawayu it was raining hard enough to
dim the headlights. "This
is good weather!" Max said. The drought had
broken.
Max had changed into a grey linen suit and, hunched over the
creaking wheel,
looked oddly dignified. He told me about the Zimbabwe Peace
Initiative, a
movement comprised of 2,000 disillusioned freedom fighters who
didn't like
what the Zimbabwe they'd fought for had become. Max was their
leader. "We
are non-partisan," he assured me. "We demand free and fair
elections; and
also, free distribution of Zimbabwe's wealth."
The
president, Max felt, was guilty of hoarding.
I asked him if he wasn't
afraid of the government sending him to jail for
subversion.
"They
would not dare. I am very respected here. Very feared."
In fact, he said,
it was his own ZPI which acted as the local enforcement
agency to ensure
that none of the local politicians incited violence ahead
of next year's
election.
"If anyone causes any trouble," he told me, "we go to their
house, and we
beat them."
His aspiration was to become Zimbabwe's
Minister of Defence.
In the meantime, he took great satisfaction in
passing an unmanned
roadblock. He clapped and pointed at the green military
tent beside the
road.
"Still sleeping!"
Even with his hands on
the wheel Max had a tendency to veer unnecessarily.
The asphalt narrowed to
a single lane whose edges crumbled into gravel, and
every so often Max would
hammer a pothole at speed, shouting "bastard" each
time. By now it was
getting light, revealing a scrub-covered savannah dotted
with conical huts
and eucalyptus trees. The rain had subsided. People began
to appear on the
road, walking singly or, sometimes, piled into a donkey
cart, moving off the
pavement as we passed and left them inching towards
their
destinations.
It was three hours from Bulawayu by the time we pulled in
to Nkayi. The
highway had given way to a labyrinth of brown sandy paths
winding through
the bush, when suddenly an abandoned-looking town appeared.
The few
remaining inhabitants stood under tree canopies and the awnings of a
derelict general store, sheltering from the rain that had come up again,
more lightly than before.
Max took me to a fenced-off collection of
small blue huts, which might have
been the inspiration for the creators of
The Smurfs. It was an orphanage.
Some thirty children now lived here, bereft
of their parents by AIDS. Max
was their sole source of income.
"We used
to take care of some disabled children as well," Max said, "but the
police
kicked them out." Apparently the government felt it was too close a
reminder
that it couldn't take care of its own. Later we would drive another
thirty
kilometres to where a nine-year-old hunchback, a teenaged dwarf and a
middle-aged victim of polio lived in total isolation, with three more
orphans and a beautiful young nurse.
But first, I was told that one
of the disabled children had come back to
Nkayi. He had fallen sick, and
needed what little help was available here. I
was urged to visit him, and
furthermore to take pictures, the impression
being that I was here to
solicit donor funding with the images my camera
would bring to the
world.
As we approached the small brick shack where the child
convalesced, I heard
a strangled moan, similar to a baby choking. And
inside, there lay the most
wretched human; a coarse blanket separated his
stunted, emaciated body from
the cement floor; another blanket covered him,
which was pulled off to
reveal the twisted bones of something resembling
advanced cerebral palsy -
no doctor had ever diagnosed him. He lay curled in
the foetal postion on the
hard, damp floor, his eyes rolled back, moaning
piteously; his skin was
peeling in wide swathes from his knees and
arms.
It was the very picture of misery - and my camera refused to take
it.
Moments before, I had snapped photos of the town as we entered; inside
this
excruciating shack, the internal mechanisms only whirred and clicked
incongruously. The camera simply wouldn't function. I turned it on and off,
inspecting the settings while I pretended to snap photos for Max's benefit;
we spent an endless five minutes in that shack, and not once would the
shutter open to capture the image before me.
We left the room, though
its stench clung to my nostrils for a while longer,
then said our goodbyes
and drove away. I pulled my camera out. Relieved of
the circumstances, it
worked just fine.
By Arno Kopecky
This entry was posted on Thursday,
November 15th, 2007 at 5:12 pm