• 'We are ready to help Zimbabwe bloom again'
• Zimbabwe High Court Begins Hearing Challenge to 2002 Presidential Election
• Chinese Firm Set to Start Clearing Land for Irrigation
• Zimbabwe Opposition Alleges Vote-Rigging
• Holding Mbeki to account
• Power Struggle Looms Within The Ruling Party
• Zimbabwe White Farmers Growing Cotton in Masindi
• Utete Land Report : the Details
• Mugabe's wife builds up the family palace
• Residents urged to consider cremation
• Transport blues still haunt farmers
• Long road to freedom for Daily News
• Equipment breakdown hampers planting

Cape Town - Britain will help the international community rebuild Zimbabwe
once it has a democratically accountable government, British Minister for
Africa Chris Mullin said in Cape Town on Monday.

Mullin, speaking at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, said Britain would
continue to do everything in its power to prevent famine and fight Aids in
the southern African country.

"Once there is a democratically-accountable government in Zimbabwe, working
for the interests of its own people, we are are ready to help lead the
international community's efforts to rebuild the country," he said.

"In the meantime, we will do all in our power to ensure that no Zimbabwean
starves, and to help tackle the HIV/Aids crisis."

Mullin, referring to President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme in
which farms were confiscated en masse from white farmers, said Britain
supported land reform in Zimbabwe if it was done in a manner that benefitted
the poor.

"We recognise and have said clearly that the colonial inheritance of land
was both unjust and unsustainable," he said.

"We fully support land reform, but only if it is done transparently,
sustainably and for the benefit of the poor."

He praised South African President Thabo Mbeki's hard work in helping to
facilitate negotiations between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.

But he added: "For these talks to succeed there has to be a serious
commitment to dialogue."

The closing down of the Daily News newspaper, which was critical of Mugabe's
government, and the locking up of union leaders, sent the wrong signal and
must be reversed, Mullin said. - Sapa-AFP

The Herald (Harare)

November 3, 2003
Posted to the web November 3, 2003

Harare

CHINA International Water and Electric Corporation (CIWEC), the company
contracted by the Government to clear 150 000 hectares of land for
irrigation at Nuanetsi Range in Masvingo, has moved in some of its equipment
to start clearing the land.

The Chinese company is now expected to start clearing the land any time soon
after the Government supplied it with fuel for the bulldozers.

This followed the company's appeal to the Government for diesel since it did
not have sufficient supplies.

Masvingo Governor Cde Josaya Hungwe confirmed that CIWEC was now expected to
start clearing the land after finally moving the equipment on to the site.

"They have brought their equipment to the site now and they can start
clearing the land any time from now.

"We delivered fuel to them through the Agricultural and Rural Development
Authority (ARDA) after they indicated that they had no diesel to start the
work," said Cde Hungwe.

"We are already putting preparations in place by looking for unemployed
youths to cut the huge trees that would be felled during the clearing
exercise."

Cde Hungwe said CIWEC would begin by clearing 28 000 hectares in the Mupapa
and Mukume areas.

The Central Mechanical and Equipment Department, he said, would clear 4 600
hectares in the next six months under phase one of the project.

ARDA, which was offered 20 tractors to do the ploughing once the land is
cleared, would be expected to plant dry land crops such as sorghum and
millet, while about 4 000 hectares would be put under irrigated maize with
water coming from Muzhwi and Bindamombe Dams.

The project is expected to continue with an average of 20 000 hectares being
cleared every six months depending on the availability of funds.

The Chinese company had promised to start work at Nuanetsi in September but
was unable to do so after it failed to move its equipment on time because of
lack of fuel.

But work is now expected to start after Government made available $5 billion
for the project in the supplementary budget.

Monday, November 03, 2003
Today, South African President Thabo Mbeki begins an official visit to
Canada. Mr. Mbeki is anxious to secure additional assistance for an
initiative known as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), to
which Canada has already committed $500-million. As for Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien and the other prominent Canadians Mr. Mbeki is scheduled to meet,
they are no doubt anxious to have their photos taken with black Africa's
most powerful politician.

But once the photo-ops are over, we hope Mr. Chrétien confronts Mr. Mbeki
with some tough questions. In two areas in particular -- AIDS and the
handling of neighboring Zimbabwe -- Mr. Mbeki's policies have been
disastrous.

About 4.7 million South Africans, 11% of the country's population, have
either AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS -- the highest caseload of
any country on Earth. So one would expect Mr. Mbeki, a Western-educated
economist, to lead the charge against the epidemic. But in the past, he has
actually abetted the spread of AIDS by promoting crackpot theorists who
insist HIV does not cause AIDS, casting suspicion on conventional therapies
and appointing ignorant figures to key health roles. Mr. Mugabe has toned
down his rhetoric in this area of late. But even now, his government
continues to drag its feet in increasing access to life-saving anti-AIDS
medications.

The result is an escalation of the unspeakable tragedy AIDS has wrought on
South Africa. Each day, for instance, several hundred South African infants
contract AIDS from their mothers during birthing labours. Last year,
responding to the angry demands of activists, Mr. Mbeki's Cabinet finally
promised to widely distribute Nevirapine, a drug for pregnant HIV-positive
mothers that significantly reduces the disease's mother-infant transmission
rate. But more than a year later, Mr. Mbeki has still done relatively little
to follow through. The delay in the distribution of this drug alone has
already cost the lives of tens of thousands of infants.

Neighboring Zimbabwe has to contend not only with its own serious AIDS
crisis, but also an economic collapse induced by the policies of its
autocratic leader, Robert Mugabe. The crisis began in 2000, when Mr. Mugabe
reacted to stiffening political opposition by directing bands of thugs to
seize the white-owned farms that generated most of his nation's food and
exports. Those farms are now overrun by weeds and Zimbabwe, once sub-Saharan
Africa's bread-basket, is threatened by mass starvation.

Militarily and economically, South Africa is the region's undisputed
superpower. Yet time and again, Mr. Mbeki has offered crucial diplomatic
support to Mr. Mugabe. The South African President has even suggested that
Mr. Mugabe's brutal methods must be understood within the context of
Zimbabwe's "hard-won liberation" from "white minority rule in our region."

When playing host to dignitaries from developing nations, Western
politicians all too often apply the "soft bigotry of low expectations,"
politely ignoring moral failings we would never tolerate in the case of
richer, whiter countries. Where Mr. Mbeki is concerned, the people who
suffer most thanks to this bigotry are poor blacks in South Africa and
Zimbabwe.

Mr. Mbeki's AIDS policies and his coddling of Mr. Mugabe are a disgrace. Our
Prime Minister must have the courage to say so to Mr. Mbeki's face, and to
insist that things must change before Canada gives more development
assistance to his country.

HARARE, Nov 3 (IPS) - The opposition call for President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe to hand over power has been echoed worldwide, but less anxiously
than the unpublished demand from within the ruling ZANU-PF.

A former army colonel, who refused to be named, said he foresaw a dramatic
change after the forthcoming annual congress of the party. Most senior army
officers also felt the need to replace the current party leadership "with
fresh and more serious individuals".

He said there is likely to be serious clashes among the big guns in ZANU-PF
over the corruption that has torn the party apart and caused the civil
service to rot to unprecedented levels ever; even the police are reportedly
soliciting for bribes in public.

The congress will take place in Zimbabwe's most populous south-eastern
province of Masvingo, a ZANU-PF stronghold and its most politically
discordant region, on Dec. 4-6.

Officials in the party said Mugabe, facing his stiffest opposition since
independence in 1980, has swallowed his pride and allowed the crumbling
party to recall abandoned nationalists and former guerrilla commanders. The
development is likely to spell doom for the new faces he introduced into the
party's politburo and central committee over the years.

Political commentators said possible victims were Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made, who have allegedly caused a lot of anxiety in ZANU-PF since
they joined the government in 2000.

Tapiwa Padera, a war veterans' leader in Chivhu district near Masvingo, said
the recalled cadres include Webster Gwauya, Joseph Chimurenga, Dzinashe
Machingura, a Doctor Mudzingwa, Mukudzei Midzi and Rugare Gumbo, who is
Deputy Interior Minister.

Some of these people, Padera said, rebelled against the party long before
the war against Ian Smith's white minority rule was over in 1980. Padera
expects the congress to rehabilitate them so that they can also enjoy the
fruits of the liberation struggle.

"We differed politically in the past. But they are still Zimbabweans, whom
we should win back so that they don't go to the enemy," he said, referring
to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Also expected to rejoin ZANU-PF is its former Secretary-General, Edgar
Tekere, one of the presidential aspirants and a one time close ally of
Mugabe. Tekere was fired from the party in the mid-1980s after disagreeing
with Mugabe.

Mugabe this weekend told the ZANU-PF Central Committee in the capital,
Harare, critical issues the congress would tackle include "economic
sabotage" and fuel shortages gripping the country. He avoided the issue of
succession and the prevailing political impasse with the opposition.

Job Sikhala, an outspoken MDC legislator, said he did not expect anything
new to emerge from the December gathering. "It has always been a yearly talk
shop since independence. I don't see what you and me can expect from it...,"
he said.

Sikhala said there was chance for better things if Mugabe handed over power,
because ZANU-PF "is not entirely made up of stooges. There are many
progressive people in that party who would like to see this country prosper.
Mugabe has been a stumbling bloc in the political dialogue, and there will
definitely be progress if he is out of the way."

Other commentators said the 79-year-old head of state should allow majority
decisions at the congress, where there has never been a candidate to
challenge him on the presidency.

"If that congress is to mean anything, Mugabe just has to step down and hand
over to someone else, like what (Nelson) Mandela did in South Africa,"
Charles Butao, a businessperson, told IPS in an interview in Harare.

He said the gathering comes when most basic needs are inaccessible to the
majority of Zimbabweans. Fuel is in short supply, even water tapes have run
dry in cities, food is 5,000 to 6,000 times more expensive, while prices
continue to spiral and transport is a nightmare.

Butao said Zimbabwe needed a transitional government under either a
religious leader or the Speaker of Parliament, if sanity was to return to
the country. Mugabe, he said, should also admit that his international ties
have waned at the expense of the nation.

ZANU-PF, concerned about the deteriorating economy, is also occupied with
court challenges against its legislators who joined parliament in 2000.
Mugabe himself has been accused by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of MDC, of
stealing the vote in 2002. Yet ZANU-PF is expected to engage the opposition
in dialogue.

Bishop Sebastian Bakare, head of a team of church leaders mediating in the
proposed ZANU-PF/MDC talks, said there was no reason to wait for the ZANU-PF
congress, as both parties had already submitted the topics they wanted
discussed. He refused to reveal the contents of the documents.

Welshman Ncube, the MDC Secretary-General, said the proposed dialogue did
not mean his group had given up its fight against results of both the
legislative polls and presidential vote. The dialogue, if it came to
fruition, would be mainly on the ballot disagreement, he said.

The ruling party also has more serious internal dissents to silence. The war
veterans have managed to grab Mugabe by the collar to meet their demands.
So-called ex-detainees and war collaborators are also calling for
recognition and compensation for their contributions in the liberation
struggle.

Yet another collection of young academics, business people, labour leaders
and ex-combatants has emerged in the political shadows, with claims that it
is a ZANU-PF creation aimed to weaken the main opposition. Such groups and
the ruling party are said to have people lined up to take over from
President Mugabe.

Speaker of Parliament Emerson Mnangagwa, former Interior Minister Dumiso
Dabengwa, former Justice Minister Edison Zvobgo, former Information Minister
Nathan Shamuyarira and Vice-President Joseph Msika have indicated interest
in the top post if it fell vacant.

Most businesspeople and intellectuals prefer former Finance Minister Simba
Makoni, who they say displayed a more sober frame of mind while with the
United Nations and with the government, from which he was fired after
calling for the devaluation of the local currency.

Endy Mhlanga, Secretary General of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans' Association, said ex-combatants should now field their own
candidate, because politicians and former detainees have enjoyed since 1980.
"It is now our turn to rule the land we fought for," he said, without giving
any possible names.

ZANU-PF, led by Mugabe, has ruled Zimbabwe for the past 23 years. Three
years ago it fell out with the country's former colonial power, Britain,
sparking the worst economic chaos in the country's history, after seizing
white-owned farms for black resettlement. Its forthcoming congress has
sparked wild speculations. (END/2003)

New Vision (Kampala)

November 3, 2003
Posted to the web November 3, 2003

Kampala

TWO white farmers who were allegedly expelled from Zimbabwe last year have
grown 500 acres of cotton in Kigumba sub-county, Masindi district, reports
Kyetume Kasanga.

The resident district commissioner, Betty Adima, said the farmers had
employed 400 residents.

"They came here last November to assess our cotton yields and early this
year they came in full swing to open up farms. They now have 500 acres,"
Adima said in an interview at her office on Friday.

She said the Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) had leased land for the
farmers from the National Agricultural Research Organisation for five years.

The CDO Midwestern regional field officer, Apuuli Binagaijo could not be
reached for comment.

The Herald (Harare)

DOCUMENT
November 3, 2003
Posted to the web November 3, 2003

Harare

This is the eighth part in a series of articles on the details of the Land
Report presented to President Mugabe by the Presidential Land Review
Committee chaired by Dr Charles Utete.

19. Programme implementation had also to grapple with conceptual issues in
the interpretation of policy. For example, given that policy sought to
"decongest" communal lands whose carrying capacity for both human and
livestock requirements had been exceeded, complaints were received by the
Committee from people who felt, sometimes insisting vehemently, that the
Land Reform Programme should be for the benefit of the rural population to
the exclusion of those in wage employment in industry.

20. This interpretation of policy seemed sound and unexceptionable having
regard to the need for land redistribution and for a development thrust that
aims to transform the lives of the rural population who, broadly, constitute
the bulk of the poorest people in the country and whose role in the national
liberation struggle moreover was so critical to its victory.

21. However, in a country where the bulk of wage workers maintain a firm
foothold in the rural areas as a form of insurance against the hazards of
unemployment, relatively low cash incomes, and the general insecurity of
wage employment and beyond, it may be inescapable that in the short to
medium term these workers will continue to "play it both ways".

22. In any event, the issue of wage workers' entitlement to land - if such
it is - begs the question as to:

(a) How long land, a finite resource, can be regarded as available to all,
even if only as a principle of policy; and, related to this,

(b) Whether the attainment of a truly transformed rural economy is possible
where men in wage employment in industry intermittently return "home"
(kumusha/ekhaya) to lend a hand to their wives who struggle against heavy
odds to raise family incomes on the land.

It seems safe in general to conclude that these issues must increasingly
assume prominence as a factor of major importance in the context of policy
makers' quest for a more balanced national economic developmental paradigm.

23. The effort to decongest some of the communal lands had also to confront
certain practical problems such as the phenomenon whereby some households,
having been allocated new cropping or grazing land close to their original
settlements, did not surrender their entitlement to the latter but instead
"annexed" their new plots to the old and then settled down to a routine of,
in effect, commuting between the two sites.

24. In addition, the Committee was informed of some instances where even
though surrendered, the vacated sites were being allocated to new settlers
by some traditional authorities with little regard to the imperatives of
official policy and procedures. It would thus seem that land redistribution,
or the refinement thereof, must in future be undertaken simultaneously with
communal land re-planning and reorganisation.

25. Apart from the above, Government has also enunciated a policy of One
Person One Farm. The definition of "person", however, remained vague. It was
not clear whether for example it covered both natural and juristic persons
and if so what regulatory mechanisms would need to be employed to assure
compliance.

26. The matter is advanced some way, though not conclusively in a Report of
a Parliamentary Committee which called on Government to enact into law "the
one-household-one farm policy and (to apply) it across the board to obviate
concentrating ownership of land in a few blacks with resources." (See
Parliament of Zimbabwe, Second Report of the Portfolio Committee on Lands
Agriculture Water Development Rural Resources and Resettlement. Third
Session-Fifth Parliament, 11 June 2003, pp 2 and 20).

27. The choice of the household as the unit of reckoning of the one person
one farm concept is probably a good working formulation even though it too
is riddled with some definitional difficulties of its own, including the
question as to what is encompassed by "household" in a society where
polygamy is fairly widely practised, or where single adults (unmarried,
divorced, etc) also constitute "households" for policy purposes. The
definition is also silent on corporate entities. Yet it is a useful point of
departure, as regards natural persons, and is an improvement on the
conceptual vagueness referred to above.

28. The issue could be further refined in the context of a new agency
established for purposes of monitoring and overseeing land policy
implementation and administration (see paragraph 16 above).

29. Set procedures were at times not followed in the implementation of the
Fast Track resulting in confusion among operatives at the local level as to
the direction of policy. An example of this is a written directive issued in
early 2002 by a junior official of one ministry ordering the Provincial
officers of the same Ministry to list all plantations, conservancies and
other properties for gazetting. The order had apparently not been cleared
with the body tasked to run the Programme, namely the Cabinet Committee on
Resettlement and Rural Development. At times the process of gazetting
properties appeared needlessly costly to the fiscus. The extensive gazetting
of properties that were excludable by Government's own policy criteria falls
in this category. Many of these would, not infrequently, then be "delisted"
via the same Government Gazette and the same newspapers in which they had
been "listed" in the first place. Perhaps more egregiously, properties owned
by the Government itself were sometimes listed for acquisition and later,
upon review, delisted, all this due perhaps to the fact that the local land
identification committees did not realise that the properties concerned
belonged to the State.

30. Then too, Government's issuance to willing sellers of farms of
certificate of no present interest to indicate its lack of interest in
acquiring the parcels of land in question in terms of the pertinent
provisions of the applicable statute should perhaps have been held in
abeyance during the Fast Track Programme's implementation as, in some
instances, such certificates were issued after settler placement on
precisely some of such land. The settlers so affected naturally resented the
fact of having in consequence to be moved to new sites to start all over,
assuming alternative and acceptable land was found for them. Nor did they
relish having to run the gauntlet of court-mandated eviction orders as
squatters upon successful application for such orders in the courts by the
land purchaser concerned.

31. Finally, in the course of its work the Committee drew Government's
attention to a number of problem areas that the Committee felt required
early resolution, including:

l the issue of leases or other forms of legal title for beneficiaries of the
A2 model, taking into account, among other things , the fact that, on the
one hand, such title is vital for assured productive use of the land and, on
the other hand, the variability in plot sizes and the state of prior
improvements on them (including such assets as houses and other
infrastructure, etc) should presumably be properly assessed for purposes of
determining the quantum of individual lease rentals;

l the speedy processing of allocation of land to outstanding applications
under the A2 model given the clamour for this among some of those affected;

l the resettlement of households on waiting lists for plots, especially in
the Provinces of Manicaland and the Midlands. Plot allocations could be
effected on, inter alia, some of the land originally meant for the A2 model
but much of which is lying fallow as a result of the relatively low take up
rate under that model (40-45%);

l the establishment of formal machinery of governance in all resettled areas
especially those under the A1 model given the weak, makeshift, authority
structures in existence and the social problems being encountered in some of
them as a result;

l the final processing of LA3 forms or the adoption of other mechanisms to
accommodate those commercial farmers who, having satisfied Government's
applicable criteria, either sought to retain one farm or completed the said
forms to indicate acceptance of a subdivision of their original farm;

l the creation as a matter of urgency of a unit to safeguard the
infrastructure and other valuable assets on acquired properties especially
in the new A1 areas.

l The need to address speedily the issue pertaining to informal settlers on
designated or non-designated farms who are not protected by the Rural Land
Occupiers (Protection) Act.

32. As its review of the Programme progressed the Committee on several
occasion found reasons to draw the attention of Government to certain
problems including those listed above affecting, or resulting from,
Programme implementation that called for clarification of policy, resolution
of contradictions or the taking of necessary action. Many of these issues
have been referred to in preceding chapters and are also alluded to
variously in this report.

Government responded to the Committee's inquiries both in writing and by way
of actions to resolve irregularities or to address contraventions of the law
or of policy and procedures. A final comprehensive report from Government
was given as the Committee was concluding its review and is inserted in the
next chapter.

7. CLARIFICATION AND REAFFIRMATION OF GOVERNMENT POLICY ON LAND REFORM AND
RESETTLEMENT

1. Policy Issues

1.1 The following are policy guidelines that were put in place to guide the
implementation of Land Reform and Resettlement Programme.

(a) Land Identification

The identification of land for resettlement has been guided by the following
five principles: derelict land; under utilized land; land under multiple
ownership; foreign owned land; and land near communal areas. The principles
were essentially administrative guidelines meant to assist Land
Identification committees in carrying out their work. They were neither a
legal requirement nor conclusive criteria for land identification.

However, there was a general presumption (but not necessarily an exception)
against the acquisition of properties in the following categories: single
owned land; properties with the bilateral Investment Protection Agreements;
properties with Zimbabwe Investment Centre permits, church owned properties,
agro-industrial properties, plantations and approved conservancies. In some
instances, properties falling under these categories were identified for
acquisition for resettlement and any other purposes, moreso if they violated
the maximum farms size regulations and were contiguous to the communal
areas. Owners of such land were expected to be assisted by Government to
access other land if they intended to continue farming.

(b) The Policy of Maximum Farm Size

As far as the A2 model scheme was concerned Government prescribed the
amounts of land that could be allocated to beneficiaries under the following
categories: large scale commercial farming scheme; the medium scale
commercial farming scheme; the small scale commercial farming scheme; and
the peri-urban scheme, with prescribed farm sizes depending on
agro-ecological regions. Maximum farm size regulations notwithstanding,
there is current rethinking in Government that there may be need for
flexibility, especially on the basis of enhancing viability and
productivity.

(c) One Person One Farm Policy

While this has been the concept, the understanding in reality has been the
pursuit and implementation of the policy of one household one farm.

Indigenous farmers who bought multiple farms prior to the Land Reform
Programme were, however, not affected by this policy. At this stage, they
are, also not targeted for compulsory acquisition. Any beneficiary of the
land resettlement programme whether on A1 or A2 models with more than one
piece of land is expected to surrender excess land. Already quite a number
of such beneficiaries are complying with this policy, and extra land
accruing from this process, will be made available for resettlement,
particularly to A1 settlers. So far, a total of 24 562 hectares have been
recovered from this exercise, which is still ongoing. Once the exercise is
complete the full hectarage recovered from multiple beneficiaries will be
made public by an appropriate government authority. Difficulties are,
however, being encountered in instances of polygamous marriages and spouses
who are both ex-combatants. In these instances, female spouses would like to
retain the ownership of land in their own right. Government has still to
firmly pronounce itself on this matter.

(d) Lease Agreement

The issue of the lease agreement is being vigorously pursued and a draft
lease agreement which has provision for the concept of lease to buy for A2
farmers is complete. It is anticipated to be finalized before the start of
the next agricultural season. For A1 farmers, the issue of tenure is still
under consideration, although indications are that the tenure system is
likely to be similar to the one obtaining for communal areas.

(e) Farm Workers

Those former farm workers who chose to pursue farming were resettled
alongside communal farmers from congested areas. Some chose to be employed
by the newly resettled farmers while the majority of immigrant elderly
workers opted to be repatriated to their original homes. A small number of
the farm workers resettled in adjacent communal areas. Regrettably, a
sizeable number of farm workers remained on the resettled farms, pursuing
other ways of economic survival, notably gold planning and poaching. For
this category of workers, the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social
Welfare is organising them for redeployment into areas where there is a
shortage of labour. It has to be underlined that Government enacted a
special Statutory Instrument that ensured that all affected former farm
workers were given their terminal benefits by the former white commercial
farmers.

(f) Country to Country Agreements

While in principle, all farms covered by country-to-country bilateral
investment agreements were exempt, Government is currently reviewing this
policy, especially as it emerged that some of these agreements were still to
be ratified by Parliament. An ad hoc Cabinet committee has been set up to
thoroughly examine the whole issue, paying particular attention to possible
criteria for delisting such as the level of investment following the signing
of the agreement, whether the properties concerned are under EPZ/ZIC status
or are agro-industrial in nature; and the proximity of the properties to
communal areas. The ad hoc Cabinet Committee is expected to conclude its
work in the very near future.

(g) Policy on Continuous Gazetting of Farms

Following the conclusion of the Fast Track Land Resettlement Programme, the
policy of wholesale gazetting is being discontinued. However, to cater for
some farms that may become available from the Presidential Land Review
exercise and to correct errors of delisting as well as to address the need
for more land for resettlement from time to time, a policy of targeted
gazetting is being pursued.

Mugabe's wife builds up the family palace

Alex Todorovic and Tom Walker

The master bedroom is the size of a Victorian semi and her ladyship's
quarters could easily accommodate a badminton court. A lavish palace built
by Zimbabwe's first family is developing on a scale beyond the dreams of
most of the country's impoverished population. As the African nation sinks
into bankruptcy, President Robert Mugabe's free-spending young wife Grace is
taking an increasingly megalomaniacal hold of their new home on the
outskirts of the capital, Harare, overseeing everything from taps to
chandeliers. Last month the former secretary flew to Belgrade to harangue
Energoprojekt, the Serbian architects, and change the specifications,
pushing the cost of the building past £10m. Energoprojekt, the
Belgrade-based builder of the palace, is said to be growing frustrated by
the constant meddling. Grace Mugabe, 38 - whose spending habits rival those
of Imelda Marcos, the former Philippine first lady - had altered the sizes
of the bedrooms. Satisfied with the details of her husband's 1,200 sq ft and
her own 1,000 sq ft room, she has turned her attention to the fittings for
the 440 sq ft bathroom, lined in Italian tiles and with sunken baths and
Jacuzzis. She has also supervised the decorating of the three bedrooms for
their children, a large breakfast room with expansive windows, a study and a
generous family room.

The alterations are leading to frantic activity in the Zimbabwean capital's
leafy eastern suburb of Borrowdale. "There are lots of workmen," said one
Harare businessman. "They're finishing rather than building now. It's down
to how many chandeliers she wants in the lounge and things like that." On
the ground floor she is fitting a gym, sauna, library, bar and billiard
room, as well as a reception hall, and a 1,000sq ft kitchen with pantry.
Mugabe, 79 - who promised yesterday to introduce "sweeping reforms" to
tackle the economic crisis - chose Energoprojekt, then a state Yugoslav
concern, for the palace project in 1997. He had fond memories of Tito's
Yugoslavia and earlier in his presidency had commissioned the company to
build the Sheraton hotel in Harare, used to host the 1986 summit of
non-aligned leaders. Energoprojekt also erected the concrete skyscraper
headquarters of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. The ailing president's only
real input, however, has been an insistence on three Chinese pagoda-style
roofs, layered with burgundy tiles, that cover the main semi-circular body
of the house and its two wings. Everything else is the work of Grace, his
second wife.

Many of the palace's expensive fittings are imported from Italy, like those
in the homes of Belgrade's former elite. Energoprojekt, now privatised, has
been reluctant to talk about the project but a large Yugoslav expatriate
community and their relatives in Belgrade have leaked details. Mugabe is
said to pay Energoprojekt's local director only when he has spare cash,
accounting for the building's stuttering progress. The few outsiders who
have seen the building, which is closely guarded and surrounded by razor
wire, say it resembles a Malibu beach home with large sheet windows and
oriental touches. Square columns and an arcade ring its periphery. The
couple in the meantime continue to live in State House in central Harare,
where the passing road is sealed off by the military from 6pm to 8am. Grace
has also acquired several former white-owned farms, and invested heavily in
another mansion, dubbed Gracelands, also in Borrowdale. Its sale, allegedly
to Libya's Colonel Gadaffi, generated profits that funded another villa, 100
miles south of Harare at Chivhu. However, work stopped after a storm of
negative publicity.

Monday November 03, 2003 07:45 - (SA)

HARARE - Zimbabwe's popular Daily News, a harsh  critic of President Robert
Mugabe, faces a long legal ordeal before it can hope to return to newsstands
in the southern African country,  the paper's legal adviser has said.

Gugulethu Moyo made the comment after the state-run Sunday Mail  reported
that the Media and Information Commission (MIC) would  challenge last week's
ruling by a court that the paper had to be  licensed by November 30.

With the MIC appeal to the Supreme Court, the order in favour of
registering the paper, and ultimately seeing it back on newsstands,  is
suspended.

"It wasn't altogether unexpected. It was within their rights to  appeal,"
Moyo told AFP. "We will spend a lot of time in court, but what has it done
for  the human rights situation in Zimbabwe or for the right to freedom  of
expression?" she asked.

"The bottom line is that Zimbabwe's only independent newspaper  has been
shut down."

The challenge by the MIC to the country's top court is the  latest twist in
a battle between the Daily News and the MIC that  began on September 11,
when the same court ruled the paper was  operating illegally by not being
registered.

Under the country's tough Access to Information and Protection  of Privacy
Act (AIPPA), all journalists and newspapers must be  registered.

The Daily News had challenged the constitutionality of the law,  which was
introduced by Mugabe's government soon after his disputed  re-election last
year.

Armed police forcibly closed the paper a day after the Supreme  Court
ruling, and when the Daily News tried to register with the MIC  its
application was turned down. Last week's court order that the paper be given
an operating  licence was greeted as a victory for the embattled daily
newspaper,  whose proprietors took it as a green light to carry on
publishing.

The euphoria was shortlived. Within hours of publishing a comeback edition,
snatched up by an  enthusiastic public, police again shut down the paper's
offices and  arrested more than a dozen staff members. They said they took
the action because the newspaper still did  not have a licence to publish.

It was unclear yesterday how long the latest round of legal  wrangling would
take. Commentators have regularly accused the Supreme Court of denying
justice through long delays.

But one legal expert who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity  said the
matter could be set down "fairly soon".

The Daily News, founded four years ago, has quickly become the  country's
most popular daily, offering an alternative voice to the  two
state-controlled dailies - The Chronicle and The Herald. It has a history of
clashes with the government, which accuses  it of being a front for Western
interests.

Since its founding,  several of its reporters and photographers have been
arrested,  including prominent former editor and founder Geoff Nyarota.

The paper has also suffered two unexplained explosions - one at  the paper's
offices and one at its printing presses.

The Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday employ around 300  full-time
staff, and around 1,000 vendors sell the paper.

AFP