Protestors were arrested in the capital Harare
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Protestors were arrested in the capital Harare |
JOHANNESBURG, 24 Nov 2003 (IRIN) - The trade unionists and
pro-democracy leaders arrested last week for protesting against the government's
management of the economy have all been released, Zimbabwe police told IRIN on
Monday.
The arrests were condemned by rights groups and the UN Acting
High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Bertrand Ramcharan.
Police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told IRIN that all the arrested activists had
"appeared in court and some of them have deposited bail, whilst others were
released on summons, which means they will appear in court when we want
them".
He said "there were about 70" activists arrested and that all were
"charged with participating in illegal demonstrations".
High Commissioner
Ramcharan expressed his concern over the 18 November arrests of the trade
unionists and civil society activists who had gathered for a protest
demonstration in the capital, Harare.
The demonstration, declared illegal
by the police, was called to draw attention to the rising cost of living and
alleged rights abuses by the authorities.
Ramcharan appealed to the
Zimbabwean government to "take all necessary measures to guarantee the rights of
the detained persons and to secure their right to freedom of opinion and
expression, in accordance with the fundamental principles as set forth in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reiterated in the international human
rights norms and instruments".
Last month the Commission on Human
Rights' special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to
freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, the chairperson-rapporteur of
the commission's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Leila Zerrougui, and the
special representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, Hina
Jilani, also expressed concern regarding the arrest of more than forty trade
unionists during the demonstration.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions called for a stayaway last week to protest the arrests, which went
largely unheeded.
The ICFTU represents
158 million workers in 231 affiliated organisations in
150 countries and
territories. ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions:
http://www.global-unions.org
For
more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2
224
0206.
From Africa Confidential (UK), 21 November
Marching to Masvingo
President Mugabe's exit plans are prompting unrest ahead of
the Zanu PF
party congress
History is catching up with President
Robert Gabriel Mugabe ahead of the
ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front's congress in
Masvingo next month: he is expected to
make clear his exit plans and find
reliable candidates for two key posts: the
vice-presidency of Zanu PF to
replace Simon Vengesayi Muzenda, who died on 20
September, and a Commander
of the Zimbabwe Defence Force to replace
60-year-old General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, who retired this month. Who takes
these positions now will be
critical to the post-Mugabe transition. The
battle for the vice-presidency
and for the Mugabe succession is between the
big battalions:
The Zezuru group: former ZDF Commander Lieutenant
Gen. Tapfumanei Solomon
Mujuru ; his wife Joyce Mujuru; the Air Force
Commander, Air Marshal Perence
Shiri; Minister of Defence Sydney
Sekeramayi.
The Karanga groups: one led by ailing firebrand Eddison
Zvobgo and Air
Marshal Josiah Tungamirai and the other, bigger and richer,
led by
parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zvinavashe and Foreign
Minister
Stan Mudenge.
The strongest contenders are Sekeramayi and
Mnangagwa. Sekeramayi owes his
ascendancy to his friends and backers,
particularly Mujuru, as much as his
political skills. Mugabe still favours
Mnangagwa (reflected in his
sobriquet, 'Son of God'). Mugabe's enthusiasm is
tempered, though, by party
sentiment: Mnangagwa, despite intensive lobbying
and sponsorship of rising
provincial politicians, is feared rather than
loved.
IOL
Cholera picking off victims in
Zimbabwe
November 24 2003 at 10:24AM
Twenty-six people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe since October and
173 are
infected, a report released by United Nation's Children's Fund
(Unicef) over
the weekend has revealed.
The cause of the outbreak and subsequent
spread of the disease in
these rural communities is believed to be persistent
drawing of drinking
water from unprotected sources, such as
rivers.
The report indicated that the majority of the cases had
been reported
from the Binga region with the balance occurring in the Kariba
North
district.
A Unicef medical team would be dispatched to the
affected areas to
assist with disease control.
SAA-Netcare
Travel Clinics managing director Andrew Jamieson advised
all travellers to
Zimbabwe to protect themselves from cholera infection by
vaccination and to
avoid drinking untreated water while in the country.
"The threat of
cholera is ever-present in sub-tropical countries,
especially in the rainy
summer season.
"And, being primarily a water-borne disease,
unchecked cholera can
spread rampantly to other areas," Jamieson
said.
"Our advice is to rather take extra precautions than run the
risk of
contracting the disease. Avoid water-based drinks that are not
provided in
sealed containers from the manufacturer, only accept ice that has
been made
using pre-boiled water, and be sure to wash all fruit and
vegetables in
treated water before eating them."
The high
mortality rate was also cause for concern, he said.
"In South
Africa, when the cholera outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal was at
its peak, the
mortality rate was less than one percent.
"In Zimbabwe this appears
to be much higher - sometimes approaching 20
percent. This is a reflection of
the problems experienced in the heath
environment - stories of emergency
vehicles standing unused due to lack of
fuel are commonplace," he said. -
Sapa
Daily News
Severe bread shortages loom
Date:24-Nov,
2003
ZIMBABWE might have to import more than 200 000 tonnes of
wheat to
avert severe bread shortages next year, according to farming
industry
officials.
The officials said the country would have to
import the wheat from
South Africa and Argentina because of an expected 47
percent decline in
production this year.
Wheat is Zimbabwe's
second major staple food crop after maize and in
the past has largely been
produced by large-scale commercial farmers.
However, the seizure of
commercial land since February 2000 has led to
a drop in wheat
output.
Farmers said this year's wheat crop was the lowest in 23
years,
following a trend set by tobacco, whose output this year is the worst
in 50
years.
A commodity executive officer with the Commercial
Farmers' Union
(CFU), said wheat output would tumble to only 80 000 tonnes
from 150 000
tonnes last year.
This year's crop will be a third
of Zimbabwe’s national requirements
and is 71 percent lower than that
produced in 2001.
"We know what the major reason (for the decline
in production) is,"
the CFU official said.
"The land reform
programme has had an adverse impact on production and
we are going to run out
of wheat in six months."
The official added: "Although we are still
harvesting, my educated
guess is that we will only have 80 000 tonnes going
by the hectarage that
has been grown."
He said large-scale
commercial farmers, who have produced more than 90
percent of the crop in the
past, would only produce 25 000 tonnes of wheat
this season, and the
remainder would be grown by small-scale growers.
Harvesting of the
crop, which started at the end of September, will
end next
month.
Industry officials said wheat, a winter crop, was not
suitable for
small-scale farmers because it required a high degree of
mechanisation on
farms.
Most small-scale farmers, including
those resettled on land seized by
the government, do not have the resources
to purchase or lease equipment,
and have also been hard hit by shortages of
inputs.
Production costs, which have risen by between 67 and 200
percent in
the past year have discouraged small-scale farmers from growing
wheat.
Some small-scale farmers who managed to plant wheat have
failed to
harvest the crop because of the unavailability of combine
harvesters.
Indigenous Commercial Farmers' Union president Davison
Mugabe said the
new wheat price of $700 000 a tonne announced by the
government two weeks
ago would help wheat growers break-even.
But he said growers had hoped the price would be increased to
$1
million.
"The danger is that we won’t be able to put another
crop next year
with that money. It’s just a question of the environment we
are operating
under," Mugabe told state media last week.
"The
new prices are important for planning purposes, but they cannot
be of much
significance because we don’t know the cost of production for the
crop next
year."
Mugabe said wheat producers were likely to switch to barley
production
because the crop fetches a higher price than wheat.
Daily News
Bar Mugabe from mingling with democrats in
Abuja
Date:24-Nov, 2003
ABUSED. Overworked.
Starved. Unemployed. Betrayed. Underpaid.
Overburdened. Blind with despair
and abandonment.
That's we, Zimbabweans. So, thank you, Robert
Mugabe. And, thank you
Africa and the Caribbean!
With a
senseless mixture of blind solidarity and noxious pride,
African and
Caribbean leaders have always connived to influence the
international
community to ignore the horrors of governments in Africa.
We in
Zimbabwe are currently preoccupied with removing stings driven
into us by
African solidarity.
As a result, the international community
continues to pay the price
for the failure to deal decisively with Robert
Mugabe soon after he took the
nation and its citizens hostage after his
party's dismal showing in
parliamentary elections and his own pathetic
showing in the subsequent
presidential elections.
He has become
a rogue president in the sense that he is causing a lot
of discomfort to the
people both local and foreign.
African leaders, meanwhile, will
neither praise nor criticise him in
public settling, instead, for muffled
communiqués in his support. What
cowards and what a shame!
They
support him as a block not as individuals except for Namibia's
Sam Nujoma and
that is why I have always sent my political condolences to
the
Namibians.
Thabo Mbeki, eager to invent doctrines to set himself
apart from rogue
African leaders, came up with the slumbering African
Renaissance and the
discredited quiet diplomacy. He was kicked in the teeth
and is now
whimpering and cowering in a corner in despair and has abdicated
the duty to
Obasanjo.
Both men should know that Mugabe is
stubborn and has no use for
diplomacy.
Meanwhile, because of the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting,
the spotlight is on
Nigeria.
And Obasanjo, a former army general, is foolishly being
pressurised
and is being tossed around in a pitiful and unnecessary effort to
placate
the whims of one man.
Obasanjo wants to be seen as a
consensus builder and he is shuttling
around in an effort to please Mugabe at
the expense of the suffering
Zimbabweans.
Why are they doing
this? What hold does Mugabe have on these other
despots? Is it that they all
fancy his type of brutality and dictatorship?
A day after Obasanjo
left Zimbabwe, hundreds were beaten up and
arrested for demonstrating for
their rights and I do not recall any
admonishment from Obasanjo.
For now, it would be a good idea to isolate Mugabe if the
international
community is serious about resolving the problems in Zimbabwe.
Why
would the international community want to give Mugabe freedom of
expression
when he himself denies us the same? If Mugabe is given such a
platform, we
Zimbabwean citizens, also demand the use of the same platform
and the
opportunity to
air our views because we are denied that opportunity
by Mugabe right
here at home.
Mugabe is our president by force
and his presidency is in dispute. Is
it sardonic or is it an appalling
indictment on so-called African leaders
that non-African leaders like
Australia's Howard champion the freedom of
Africans while the African leaders
themselves look the other way? Why are
African leaders incapable of placing
justice above politics?
Both Mugabe and Obasanjo are accused of
stealing elections in their
respective countries yet the two are working
tirelessly to hoodwink the
international community into believing all is well
in Zimbabwe.
The reasons for our suspension from the Commonwealth
are still to
change. Nothing has changed in Zimbabwe so we have no business
attending the
Commonwealth meeting.
It is interesting in itself
that the leaders of these former colonies
want to use the Commonwealth to
continue to oppress their own people.
The irony is that the former
colonisers are saying "don't oppress"
while our African leaders say "why
not." They want to be given the same
opportunity and approval by the
Commonwealth to oppress their own people.
Besides, what is it that
Mugabe can tell the world that the world has
not seen for itself? Why does
the international community desert a suffering
people like us?
They should ask Mugabe to stay home and suffer with us, after all he
caused
the mess in the country.
And it appears to me that insensitivity,
cruelty, hostility and
arrogance seem to be such permanent parts of him. But
the world, mesmerised
by diplomacy, ignores our cries for help.
We are being abused both politically and economically. Our whole
population
is overburdened and overworked for the informal sector is
sustaining this
country.
We have no food because farms are lying fallow after being
allocated
to people who can't tell the difference between the sky and the
ground. We
have no viable industry but runaway inflation and
unemployment.
Mugabe is running this country with money collected
from only about 40
percent of the population.
(Our unemployment
figure stands between 70 and 80 percent). The few
who work are terribly
underpaid. Our doctors, teachers, nurses and other
professionals are being
abused.
We are starved. The African leaders have betrayed us. The
world
community has abandoned us. But the resilience of the Zimbabwean
people
still persists.
We have long been schooled in patience
and persistence by necessity as
all previous rulers of this country will
attest.
We continue to greet each new hardship imposed on us with
a
determination to survive. We are comforted in the knowledge that Mugabe
and
his inhumane government will come to pass.
We are aware that
deliverance and good times are around the corner.
And we will be so busy
praising our Lord and our friends that it will be
impossible to elevate
Mugabe even to a footnote of our history.
How many times have we
heard that it is darkest before dawn?
But at no time in my life did
I ever think that I would one day
associate Robert Mugabe with the darkness
in our country before or after
independence.
By Tanonoka Joseph
Whande.
Chicago Tribune
Zimbabwe in fiscal crisis
Government calls 700%
inflation its `No. 1 enemy'
By Laurie Goering
Tribune foreign
correspondent
Published November 24, 2003
JOHANNESBURG -- Zimbabwe,
once one of Southern Africa's richest nations, now
admits that runaway
inflation will reach 700 percent next year and that the
nation's economy,
which has shrunk 13 percent this year, is likely to
contract about 9 percent
more in 2004.
Inflation is the ailing country's "No. 1 enemy," Finance
Minister Herbert
Murerwa said in unveiling the 2004 budget last week. But he
offered no plan
for slowing price increases, stemming the collapse of the
country's currency
or managing the nation's myriad other economic crises,
from a desperate lack
of currency to shortages of staples such as gasoline
and bread.
Zimbabwe has seen its economy head toward collapse since
longtime and
increasingly unpopular President Robert Mugabe rigged 2001
presidential
elections to remain in office and then seized much of the
country's
white-owned farmland, which was distributed to political allies and
landless
peasants.
Since then, economic output has plunged as farms
largely sit idle--farm
output fell 20 percent last year--and factories have
closed their doors,
forced out of business by draconian government laws that
forced them to sell
below the cost of production.
Residents of the
capital city Harare now predict that 2004 will be the
"toughest year outside
a war situation." Many buses charge fees beyond what
users can pay, forcing
thousands each day to walk to work.
Power outages have become a regular
occurrence in the capital, and parts of
some poorer districts are entirely
dark at night. Recently, water to the
Kuwadzana slum district was cut off
after the city ran out of hard currency
to buy imported water-treatment
chemicals.
Such hardships led to one of the country's most striking
protest marches so
far, organized by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions on
Tuesday. Marchers
in Harare and in Bulawayo, the country's second-largest
city, were quickly
arrested by truncheon-wielding police. But the list of 88
detainees for the
first time read like a Who's Who of Zimbabwean opposition
politics and
included nearly all the union leadership and top civic
organizers, who
previously had been reluctant to risk being
jailed.
Most were released on bail Thursday, but only after being charged
with
organizing an illegal political demonstration. Under Zimbabwe's
security
laws, protests must first be approved by Mugabe's
government.
Meanwhile, 14 other opposition figures were arrested Friday
on charges they
circulated what the government called "a subversive e-mail
inciting the
public to oust President Mugabe from office." The e-mail
apparently called
for street demonstrations this week.
The protests
came after a state visit by Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo, whose
country will hold a summit of former British Commonwealth
nations next month.
Mugabe, not included because of Commonwealth sanctions
against Zimbabwe, has
been pressing for an invitation.
That has put Obasanjo in a tight
political spot between nations such as
South Africa, who want Mugabe to
attend, and countries such as Australia and
New Zealand, who have promised to
boycott the meeting if Mugabe is invited.
South Africa's government also
is coming under pressure for its policy of
"quiet diplomacy" toward Zimbabwe,
which has failed to produce any visible
political change even as thousands of
hungry illegal Zimbabwean immigrants
pour over the border.
This Day, a
new Nigerian-owned newspaper in South Africa, recently published
a special
edition on Zimbabwe, with a front-page editorial arguing that it
was
"outraged by Africa's lethargy and silence." Such silence from South
Africa,
"a beneficiary of the voices of the world who spoke up and
instituted
hard-hitting sanctions against the apartheid government," was a
particular
offense, it noted.
Zimbabwe, meanwhile, slips deeper into economic chaos.
Earlier this month,
police and intelligence officials desperate for foreign
currency set up
roadblocks around Bulawayo, seizing any foreign cash found on
passing
tourists and locals. Most were told they would later be reimbursed in
local
currency at the official government exchange rate of 840 Zimbabwe
dollars to
the U.S. dollar, well below the common street exchange rate of
about 6,000
to 1.
The seizures came despite Zimbabwe regulations
making it legal to carry up
to $250 in U.S. currency.
SABC
Patients suffer as Zimbabwean doctors continue strike
November
24, 2003, 07:50 PM
Government hospitals have almost come to a standstill
as senior doctors -
and other specialists have joined junior doctors and
nurses' job action in
their quest for a salary increase. Nurses- who joined
last Friday - are
demanding an 800% salary hike - while doctors who earn R350
a month - need
at least R10 000 to survive.
Savid Parirenyatwa, the
Minister of Health, says though doctors and nurses
deserve better
remuneration but they should not go on strike. Patients were
being turned
away today at Harare's Parirenyatwa and Gomo hospitals.
Nurses - doctors and
specialists are now all on strike. The country's
healthy delivery system has
been paralysed.
Specialists are now only attending to critical cases.
They too say they have
joined in sympathy with the doctors. The ultimatum
they gave the government
last Friday to review the junior doctors salaries
had not been taken
seriously.
It is not clear when the nurses' and
doctors' grievances will be addressed.
However, nurses and doctors are now
leaving the country in droves at an
unprecedented rate.
Sunday Times (SA)
Daily News hearing postponed by one
day
Monday November 24, 2003 15:10 - (SA)
HARARE - A judge in
Zimbabwe has delayed by one day a case in which the
embattled Daily News is
trying to get an order allowing it to publish, the
paper's legal adviser
said.
The postponement to Tuesday was made at the request of government
lawyers
who needed time to respond to supplementary papers filed by the Daily
News
lawyers, said Gugulethu Moyo, the paper's legal adviser.
The
Daily News — the country's most popular newspaper, and the only
alternative
to state-run dailies The Herald and The Chronicle — was closed
down in
September by armed police after the Supreme Court ruled it was
operating
illegally because it was not registered with the state-appointed
media
commission. Last month the administrative court ruled that the
newspaper,
which is a staunch critic of President Robert Mugabe, should be
given a
licence by the media commission before November 30.
The outspoken paper
wants that ruling — set aside when the commission lodged
an appeal with the
Supreme Court — to be enforced.
When the paper tried to register, the
media commission turned down its
application. The October ruling ordering
that it be accredited with the
commission was seen as a victory for the Daily
News, which published a
comeback edition a day later.
But police again
shut down the paper again on October 25, saying the paper
was not yet
registered. It has not been published since.
AFP