VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
04 November
2008
Southern Africa leaders plan to meet Sunday in South
Africa in an attempt to
break a stalemate over allocating Cabinet positions
in a planned government
of national unity in Zimbabwe. Peta Thornycroft
reports for VOA from
Johannesburg, that in the meantime government
repression against ordinary
Zimbabweans, including farmers and activists, is
continuing.
A full regional summit will try to prod Zimbabwe Prime
Minister-designate
Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe toward
agreement over the
allocation of Cabinet posts.
There is growing
concern in the region over the ever-deteriorating plight of
Zimbabweans and
what experts say is an unprecedented shortage of food and
increasing levels
of hunger. The World Food Program says it expects to be
feeding five million
Zimbabweans by early next year.
But VOA has learned that despite this
widespread suffering, police have
prevented one of Zimbabwe's most
productive farmers from planting his maize
crop. Doug Taylor-Freeme is the
only farmer in the large and fertile Makonde
district in northern Zimbabwe
to have already begun planting maize, which is
the staple crop in
Zimbabwe.
He said the Lands Department asked him to grow more maize this
year because
of the desperate shortage of food. He had planted nearly a
third of his
crop, which was expected to be the largest grown this season,
when police
moved in last Thursday and stopped him. Armed police were left
at his farm
to ensure he did not resume planting.
In order to obtain
maximum yields all planting should be completed by the
end of November,
after that yields will become progressively smaller.
In a similar
incident, the country's last remaining wheat-seed producer was
arrested last
weekend. Patrick Stooks, who farms about 80 kilometers north
of Harare, his
wife Susan, and 12 of their workers were arrested Saturday.
The
government says the Stooks remained on their farm in contravention of
land
laws and accused them of inciting violence. But the Commercial Farmers
Union
says the real reason is that a Zimbabwe diplomat normally based in
Japan
wants their farm.
The Stooks were arrested at gun point. Mrs. Stooks has
been held in a tiny
bathroom with a blocked toilet since Saturday. The room
is so small she is
unable to lie down.
The farmers union says no
farmer can be evicted without prior notification
and it says Mrs. Stooks is
being held in inhumane conditions.
Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, scores of
activists, including several members of the
group Women of Zimbabwe Arise,
have been arrested at peaceful protests in
recent weeks. All remain in jail
after being refused bail.
The Movement for Democratic Change says the
power sharing agreement signed
in September by Mr. Tsvangirai and Mr. Mugabe
has been seriously undermined
by the arrests. Under the agreement, Mr.
Mugabe committed himself to allow
farmers to get on with producing
food.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
04 November
2008
Leaders of the Southern African Development Community
will meet in summit on
Sunday in South Africa aiming to break the deadlock
in the troubled
Zimbabwean power-sharing process, but the SADC leaders could
find themselves
deeply divided as well.
Spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa of
the South African Department of Foreign Affairs
told VOA that the precise
venue in South Africa will be decided on
Wednesday.
Botswanan
President Ian Khama has already taken a strong position, saying
the SADC
leaders should consider an internationally supervised rerun of
Zimbabwe's
turbulent March presidential election as a way to break the
entrenched
deadlock.
Khama said it "should be unacceptable for ruling parties to
seek to
manipulate election outcomes to extend their stay in power, as this
is bad
for democracy on our continent."
African diplomatic
sources said President Robert Mugabe and prime
minister-designate Morgan
Tsvangirai have been working the phones seeking
support from regional
heads.
The diplomats said some SADC leaders want to read Mr. Mugabe the
riot act
and recommend the matter be taken to the United Nations Security
Council.
But these sources said Mr. Mugabe is likely to find support from
Mozambique,
Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia. Tsvangirai could have
Angola, South
Africa, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and Mauritius in his
corner, the
diplomats said.
British Minister for Africa Mark
Malloch-Brown told the House of Lords
Monday that while African leaders are
dismayed by Mr. Mugabe's conduct
though not saying it publicly.
He
said the leaders "as a whole are in no doubt, in private conversations,
about their dismay at the damage that President Mugabe is doing to his
country and the region; but, as has always been the case, they often find it
difficult to express that complaint publicly, for fear that it would merely
strengthen Mugabe's position at home."
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of
the Movement for Democratic Change formation led
by Tsvangirai told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that the party is hoping SADC
can resolve the crisis without resorting to a
presidential
re-run.
Political analyst and human rights lawyer Brian Kagoro said from
Nairobi
that Khama's proposition for a new round of presidential voting in
Zimbabwe
is viable.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
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a.. 05 November 2008
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe has, with immediate effect, increased daily
cash withdrawal limits
for individuals from $50 000 to $500 000 while
companies will now access $1
million, up from $10 000.
In a statement yesterday, the central bank said
the upward review of
withdrawal limits followed the introduction of $100
000, $500 000 and $1
million notes that are expected to be released
today.
"The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is pleased to announce the
introduction of
$100 000, $500 000 and $1 000 000 bank notes, which will
come into
circulation with effect from November 5, 2008," read the
statement.
The review comes at a time when various stakeholders were
calling for a
viable cash limit that would adequately cover daily
expenses.
The central bank last reviewed withdrawal limits on October 10 from
$20 000
to $50 000 when the $50 000 note came into
circulation.
Withdrawal limits for companies had stayed at $10 000 per
day as a way of
encouraging companies to use alternative non-cash means of
payment such as
cheques and various forms of plastic
money.
Economists however slammed the measures as unworkable and say in
the absence
of proper political and economic reforms the Central Bank was
simply fire
fighting.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
05 November
2008
By Never Kadungure
MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai is
reported to have travelled to Botswana en
route to a special SADC summit set
for Pretoria in South Africa on Sunday
this week. According to a state media
report he used an emergency travel
document after the government continued
with its refusal to renew his
expired passport.
Tsvangirai boycotted
the SADC Swaziland Troika meeting on October 20
demanding a passport with
MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti describing the
ETD as an insult to his
party. Pressure on Tsvangirai to ignore Zanu PF's
deliberate use of the
passport affair to frustrate him has led to Tsvangirai
deciding to ignore
the matter for now.
Tsvangirai is said to have drove to Botswana on
Monday with his family
through the Plumtree Border Post.
Botswana's
President Ian Khama meanwhile called for an internationally
supervised rerun
of the presidential election in Zimbabwe as "one viable way
forward" to get
that country out of its political impasse. In his State of
the Nation
address to his parliament on Monday, President Khama said:
"We strongly
believe that the one viable way forward in Zimbabwe is to have
a rerun of
the presidential election under full international sponsorship
and
supervision." A bitter Zanu PF responded by describing Khama's statement
as
"based on a heap of lies that they have been fed by Tsvangirai and his
MDC
formation".
Former Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, said the
statement, 'is an act of
extreme provocation to Zimbabwe. He has no right
under international law as
an individual or country to interfere in our
domestic affairs. Elections are
the prerogative of Zimbabweans and when they
are ready to be held is a
matter of our Constitution.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
05 November 2008
By Sesel
Zvidzai
The MDC is disturbed by the Zanu PF government's failure to react
swiftly to
the cholera outbreak that has led to the deaths of over 100
people in less
than a month.
Due to the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority (Zinwa) failure to supply clean
water, the MDC is surprised that
the illegimate government does not care
about the lives of the people of
Zimbabwe as more and more deaths are being
reported on a daily
basis.
Zinwa should urgently cede its supply of treated water to local
council
authorities in order to alleviate further deaths from cholera in the
country.
The MDC is alarmed that Zinwa continues to cling to the
supply of clean
water in urban council when it has failed. This has led to
the deaths of
over 100 people in less than a month.
For people with a
conscience and the people's needs at heart, one would have
expected the
whole of the Zinwa leadership to be looking for a quick
solution to the
water crisis.
As the MDC we maintain that Zinwa and the government should
give the sole
operations of running water supplies to the MDC led council as
we were given
the mandate by the people to provide them with basic social
services.
It is sad to note that the Zanu PF regime continues to fiddle
while the
country burns and innocent people are dying.
Zinwa is not
in a position to maintain water and sewer equipment since they
do not have
hands on engineers. All the engineers have deserted the water
authority
because of poor salaries on the other hand councils can make
special
provisions to retain such specialists.
Elected councillors who enjoy the
mandate of the people have the capacity to
consult residents and come up
with people-driven initiatives to solve the
challenges facing the
country.
Masvingo City remains one of the few cities that have not been
affected by
the cholera outbreak because the MDC led council is in control,
as Zinwa has
not taken over the operations of water supply in the
area.
The municipality approached the residents who took it upon
themselves to pay
for the broken down sewer system and this reduced to zero
the amount of
sewerage flowing into the water bodies itself a major
contributor of
cholera.
Corruption and bureaucracy in government is
also a major contributing factor
to cholera deaths where Zinwa is involved
in providing water supplies.
Zinwa is buying chemicals for water
treatment from third parties instead of
buying chemicals directly from the
suppliers, which makes the process prone
to abuse by senior
officials.
The MDC calls upon Zinwa to take the lives of the people of
Zimbabwe
seriously and give back water and sewer control to town
councils.
Sesel Zvidzai, MDC Secretary of Local Government
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6821
November 5, 2008
By Mafira Kureva
WHEN
I read the story of victims of police brutality at the Chiadzwa diamond
mines I was moved. This is because I have first-hand information of police
brutality in the extremely criminalised diamond mining operations of
Chiadzwa.
As a researcher, I neither write things from hearsay nor
sensationalise them
as a journalist. Mine is usually participant
observation, subjected to
academic analysis, interpretation and prognosis of
social effects and
trends. I never received any training in this; I am a
born researcher.
I went to Chiadzwa last year to research on the conflict
between the state
and the local peasant population in natural resources
management. I drove
from Harare to Marange. I started researching on the
diamond diggers from
about a 50 kilometers radius of Chiadzwa. I wanted to
investigate the local
understanding of diamond mining, their perceptions
about state intervention,
their local beliefs, the history, the organisation
of diamond mining and
many other issues pertinent to the anthropological
research of this nature.
I talked to people of various backgrounds. They
included buyers (white and
black and locals as well as foreigners), peasants
(regular diamond miners
and non-miners; old and young, women, men, local
professionals and elites
like teachers and shop keepers). I also went to
visit the local Johanne
Masowe religious sect and the n'angas who are
consulted by some miners
before going to Chiadzwa mines.
I attended a
schools sports competition and talked to many more people
there. In short, I
carried out what qualifies as serious research. I would
not reveal the
details of how they organise their mining operations.
Then came the
trip.
I walked with them to Chiadzwa for about 12 hours till we got to
within the
vicinity of the area of the bases. These are established in the
radius of
the area about five to ten kilometres around the diamond mines.
There are
many different people who are there and according to my
observation then
there were no criminal activities that I came across such
as assaulting each
other or the likes although I am not ruling out
this.
These are the places from where people launch mining
expeditions.
Usually they go in groups. From as early as 19.00 hrs until
the cock crow
groups will be moving in and out. Information about what is
happening there
is given by those returning. They also indicate the nature
of police patrols
and whether they have dogs, horses or are conducting foot
patrols. They also
exchange information about "hot spots", that is where the
best stones are
coming out.
Chiadzwa itself is located in a semi arid
area with typical vegetation of
the low veldt and has hilly outcrops. At the
mines there is a two-metre high
security fence, which one has to go through
first. Then there is another
fence which is immediately followed by remains
of a wide gravel road
apparently used during the war by the Rhodesian
security forces to patrol
and observe guerrilla movements in the
area.
Then one enters the mines.
There are areas such as Mbada One
and Mbada Two, then kuMuuyu which are hot
spots and have lots of diamonds.
These hot spots are highly contested
between state forces and peasant
miners.
I went through all these places and many more. From Mbada or
kuMuuyu you can
then go to the heart of Chiadzwa. This is preceded by
another road with a
perimeter fence running along it. This is where you find
the authorised
miners whose identity was difficult to establish. However
what is
interesting is that the local people identify the various spots
according to
their knowledge of who owns the heaps of the diamond
ore.
Mutaka or a heap is a commonly used word. The pile of ore nearest to
Mbada
or Muuyu is Mutaka waMai Mujuru (Vice President Joice Mujuru's heap).
Then
there is Mutaka waGrace (First Lady Grace Mugabe's heap) and others. I
wanted to visit these very important sounding mitaka, but was advised this
was tricky.
I had seen people who were nursing wounds after being
mauled by German
Shepherd dogs led by police handlers but I will come to
that later. I used
my skills of guerrilla warfare. I made a camouflage ring,
and advanced to
the area employing individual tactics (kitten crawling,
snake crawling, side
crawling, bouncing) using terrain and terrain features,
to dodge the
patrolling police.
I got to the fence with one daring
youth. However I failed to get to the
point to verify these heaps because it
became too risky to do in day light.
We returned but I was eager to verify
allegations made about the police. The
question is how could I do that
without getting into the police post?
It so happened that when they
started to chase the "illegal" miners I did
not run and two policewomen and
one policeman got me to the camp where I had
the opportunity of witnessing
everything that goes on there. I had managed
to show the police who arrested
me my war vet card and my university card
and told him that I was actually
not an illegal miner but a researcher.
It was such a coincidence because
this particular policeman had just arrived
that same day and was quite
understanding. He is the one who tipped me that
I should not say anything
about the research because the seniors might take
even tougher measures
against me. He offered to take me straight to a point
where I would simply
pay a fine without first being assaulted or harassed.
At the police post
I saw many people who were under arrest. They were being
subjected to all
sorts of harassment, being forced to crawl or sing. They
were flogged all
over the body and particularly under the feet. These
prisoners were also
responsible for cooking, laundry and all sorts of manual
work for the police
officers. Indeed, with the nature of beating I witnessed
one can break a
limp because not only is it random but it is also heavy.
I witnessed a
lot as I paid my fine and went away. However, as I returned to
the bases, I
collected stories about police brutality. I saw one who had
been mauled by
police dogs and he told me of his ordeal. When he was caught
the police
released their dogs on him. He said he had screamed. His whole
arm had deep
cuts where the dogs bit him - deep gushes which oozed water and
blood mixed
with puss.
I was told that two girls who were caught a few days before my
arrival had
been ordered to sit down and the dogs were released on them and
they started
to maul their bare breasts. It looks like the girls had been
forced to
expose the top part of their bodies for this purpose. I also heard
of many
other people who were mauled by police dogs deliberately set on
them. These
stories were confirmed by traditional leaders whom I
interviewed. Of course
I would not identify them. In fact a story such as
this is difficult to
write because of the need to protect
sources.
Anyway, I was keen, as I said, to find out the feelings, the
thoughts and
understanding of the local population about what was going on.
This is when
now it became apparent to me that the Chiadzwa story was a
complex ethnic
issue in the opinion of the locals of Marange and beyond. But
how does it
become an ethnic issue if the state is preventing illegal
mining, a process
done everywhere in the country - Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera.
My first visit to Chiadzwa to study the so-called illegal mining
there, was
prompted by a somewhat very unrelated issue that arose in
Mashonaland
Central Province. In a previous article I wrote about the fact
that Zanu-PF's
treatment of war veterans is actually an ethnic issue and I
illustrated my
point. It is common cause that whenever one talks of the war
veterans of the
1970s anti-colonial war one is talking of at least eight out
of 10 people
from Manicaland of that group.
This was the ratio when
war vets embarked on the land occupation campaign in
2000. In general the
whole operation ended up having a numerical bias in
favour of Manicaland
participants.
Actually Manicaland itself could not accommodate its own
war veterans on the
farms of the province simply because of their
overwhelming numbers. Now
imagine war veterans who led the land movement and
took over farms in
Mashonaland Central, West and East. With the high level
of tribalism in
those provinces war veterans were now being dispossessed of
the land they
had taken from the white settlers.
They were told
plainly that they would not be accommodated because they were
from
Manicaland. This was even captured by the Utete Report itself. One of
the
war veterans was dispossessed of his new land by a lecturer at the
University of Zimbabwe.
The lecturer was in Europe during the land
occupations and I know he
actually opposed them.
So what happened?
Some of the war vets decided to go to their own province,
Manicaland, to
engage in the mineral resource exploitation of diamonds. This
then became
interesting for me to see how ethnic conflicts in resource
distribution of
Zimbabwe are unfolding in the countryside and how they are
affecting war
veterans, since I am one of them. This is also the reason why
it was
interesting to me to see the Mutaka waMai Mujuru and Mutaka waGrace.
The
owners came from the very provinces where Manicaland war veterans were
being
dispossessed of farm land on tribal and ethnic grounds.
It is true that
the diamonds of Marange, at Chiadzwa are not benefiting the
local community
or the province. It is true that other provinces do not want
people from
outside their provinces, particularly Mashonaland provinces, to
utilise
resources as Zimbabwe's endowment. But this is not just being
emotional and
ethnic biased towards the Manicaland province because I come
from there.
There are few more illustrations to substantiate this point.
Gold panning
is the most widespread and perhaps the oldest form of
contemporary illegal
mining in the country. It flourished in 1992 because of
the double
coincidence of the worst drought in living memory and effects of
ESAP
(Economic Structural Adjustment Programme). I so happened to go round
the
country studying gold panning.
In the 1990s I worked in Masvingo and
studied gold panning along the Runde
River and many other areas there. I
also visited Shamva, Chinhoyi,
Mutorashanga, Mazowe, Madziwa, Shurugwi and
many other places. I have
first-hand information of all these places, as a
participant observer, not
hearsay. During the 1980s I was familiar with the
emerald mining in
Mberengwa although I did not study it in depth. I am also
familiar with the
mining of chrome and semi-precious stones like aquamarine
in Mashonaland
West and other places.
I mention all these areas and
"illegal" mining activities because the
treatment of miners in Manicaland is
nowhere near what all these places have
ever experienced. In all these areas
the police indeed do their duty to
raid. But I want anyone to come forward
to tell me that there is at any one
time in any other area outside
Manicaland where there were deliberate cases
of the police killing illegal
miners. I am not saying there are no
skirmishes here and there which at
times result in loss of life. But the
situation in Chiadzwa is different -
totally. This is a clear state
organisation aimed at brutal deprivation of
access to natural resources and
particularly directed against
Manicaland.
Chiadzwa is not only an isolated case; it is a unique case
because of the
existence of a rare mineral - diamonds. Even with gold, when
it is found in
Manicaland, the state behaves differently. A case in point is
the famous
gold rich area of Chimanimani. When an Eldorado was discovered in
Chimanimani a few years ago, you know what happened? It was not ZRP that was
sent there, it was the army and similar killings occurred as in
Chiadzwa.
The gold in Chamanimani is no different from gold anywhere
else. The
preciousness of diamonds is no different from the Mberengwa
emeralds, for
example. However, the treatment meted out on the Manicaland
people is so
different. They are shot on sight and the area is now fenced
(as I
understand and guarded by armed soldiers). But don't you ever imagine
that
nothing is going on there. Mining is going on but only by outsiders
like the
Joice Mujurus and the Grace Mugabes and other tycoons who hate not
only
Manicaland peasants but also war veterans because of their
origins.
This is saddening.
This is why when people ask why war
veterans do not do this or that, it is
because we are well aware how the
state will react upon our people. The
state is itching to find an excuse to
punish the people of Manicaland. Why?
It is a puzzle. Of course, the
majority of war veterans are from Manicaland
and they remain a big threat to
Zanu-PF. They remain a threat because they
fought the war and would want
people to realise the objectives they fought
for, not these cases of tribal
and ethnic privilege.
When we were fighting we were not doing so for
individuals. We were not
doing so for a minority tribe but for the poor
people of Zimbabwe who
suffered under colonial dispossession. Why should the
state target us and
our people as if we rebelled against it? Do you not
think if we were not
competent and disciplined and if we did not consider
the interests of the
Zimbabwean masses first, we would have taken the route
that other liberation
movements have fallen into?
Take Mozambique,
Angola and the DRC for example. We did not take this route
although the
state drove us to that edge through sheer neglect and
inequitable
distribution of resources to a minority clique. And if it had
been a war
what would have become of our country?
We realise all this that is why we
try to resolve these things without
bloodshed. But then why should trained
policeman or soldiers hunt innocent
and poor people down with helicopters,
firearms, dogs and horses. When
scenes such as this are described is there
any ex-combatant (one who really
went to the battlefront to fight) who knows
of a situation worse than this
even during the war itself?
Is it
necessary?
This is why the state would want to parade people like
Chinotimba and
Jabulani Sibanda to masquerade as war veterans. They are
being used to hide
the faces of the real war veterans. They are being used,
just like Enos
Nkala was used by Robert Mugabe against his own Matebeleland
people in the
1980s to advance the interests of a minority and tribalistic
clique. This
calls for all peasants and war veterans to unite and expose
this.
War veterans who really understand the struggle, wherever they are
should
stand up against this and explain to the people why such things are
being
done.
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabweans
do not expect a major shift in the United
States' policy towards Zimbabwe
even if African-American candidate Barrack
Obama wins the polls, APA learnt
here Wednesday.
Obama was on the verge of winning the November 4 historic
poll after scoring
a series of victories in key battleground
states.
The US elections triggered a lot of interest in the southern
African country
but there was no illusion among ordinary Zimbabweans that
the ascendancy to
the White House would thaw frosty ties between the two
countries.
"We are naturally excited about the prospects of having a
black man in the
White House but we must not lose sight of the fact that
having a black face
in the highest US office does not necessarily mean a
change in Washington's
foreign policy, including the relations between the
US and Zimbabwe," said a
University of Zimbabwe political
analyst.
Ties between Harare and Washington have been strained since 2000
when
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe expropriated land from white farmers
under a programme blamed by the West and the local opposition for plunging
the southern African country into economic turmoil.
The outgoing
George W. Bush administration responded by imposing "targeted"
sanctions
which barred Mugabe and more than 100 of his officials from
travelling to
the US or owning assets in that country.
The US also initiated the
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of
2001 which ostensibly sought
to punish the Zimbabwean government for its
role in the Democratic Republic
of Congo civil war of 1998-2002 but was seen
by Harare as punishment for its
land policy.
"Hostilities between the two countries will not change as
long as the status
quo remains in Zimbabwe. If anything, we may see a
deterioration in
relations as the Zimbabwean authorities refuse to take
orders from one of
their own," commented Harare resident Paul Mahachi as
patrons watched
proceedings on Tuesday night at a bar in the
capital.
Zimbabwe has accused the US and other Western powers of pursuing
a
regime-change agenda where they want to topple Mugabe from power and
install
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change endorsed Obama's candidature at
the
weekend.
Democratic candidate Obama, who would become the first black
president of
the US, led Republican John McCain by 207 electoral votes to
135.
To win the race to the White House, a presidential candidate
requires to
amass at least 270 electoral votes.
JN/tjm/APA
2008-11-05
http://news.scotsman.com
Published Date: 05 November
2008
I NEVER thought I'd hear my own child plead for bread. "When can we
have
bread?" he asked last week. "I'm longing for bread." I haven't been
able to
buy bread for a month.
Cash shortages mean I'd have had to
spend days in a bank queue to withdraw
the Z$50,000 (£69 at official rates)
needed to buy a loaf. So we went
without, relying instead on maize-meal
porridge and what Zimbabweans call
"relish" - a mush of spinach and whatever
other vegetables I could find.
With food in the pantry, my child is one
of the lucky ones.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of its worst food crisis since
Robert Mugabe
launched his takeover of white farms in 2000. But with the
world focusing on
the global financial meltdown, it's going virtually
unnoticed.
Five million Zimbabweans - nearly half the population - will
soon need food
aid, and the country is short of 789,000 tonnes of cereal
this year due to
another poor harvest. In a country where prices can
quadruple in 24 hours,
few can afford the little alternative food on sale. I
hear stories of quiet
desperation every day.
A white part-time
pre-school assistant from the eastern city of Mutare
admits she goes without
food "for two or three days sometimes". She lives
alone with her pensioner
father - but Zimbabwe's 231 million per cent
inflation rate has wiped out
any pension he might have had.
An elderly ethnically Ndebele friend falls
into my arms when I take her five
eggs sourced after repeated calls to a
"contact".
"We haven't tasted eggs for six months," she
says.
Reports from the rural areas are even worse. My cleaner gets a
phone call
from her father in the mountainous Nyanga district. He hasn't
eaten for
three days. "He went to the village to buy apples, but they were
too
expensive," she says.
Some communities survive by trapping
beetles or harvesting wild berries. In
western Hwange, food outlets have
closed because they have nothing to sell,
says the local rights group
Bulawayo Agenda. In drought-prone Matabeleland
South province, 98 per cent
of households have no food, state ZBC radio
says.
Aid agencies are
doing what they can. But their work was hampered by Mr
Mugabe's three-month
ban on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) before the
presidential run-off
in June. And it's five months until the next harvest.
And it's not just
humans who are hungry. Farmers had been relying on waste
products from the
milling of grain from NGOs to feed their livestock.
http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=466&cat=1
Herald Reporters
THE Civil
Protection Unit has come up with an intensive programme to combat
the
cholera outbreak that claimed nine lives in Harare's Budiriro suburb
last
week, which includes immediate banning of food vending in the area.
It is
hoped that the move will help prevent the disease from spreading to
other
suburbs.
Some of the strategies to combat the water-borne disease include
intensifying educational campaigns, enhancing waste management, de-clogging
sewer lines and increasing water supplies.
These strategies will be
implemented with the help of local authorities,
including Harare,
Chitungwiza and Norton, as well as United Nations
humanitarian agencies such
as Unicef and the World Health Organisation.
In an interview yesterday, CPU
director Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira said the
strategies did not just entail
provision of clean water and medicines for
the residents but were also meant
to curb future disease outbreaks in area.
"We have adopted zero tolerance to
illegal food vending. The Zimbabwe
Republic Police has already moved into
the suburb to enforce the strategy.
Those caught outside the law will be
prosecuted.
"More water tanks have been directed to the area and this will
see water
supplies increasing to 80 000 litres by the end of day.
"Zinwa
will also chip in with an additional 30 000 litres of treated water
to
augment available clean water supplies," he said.
Mr Pawadyira said
additional vehicles had been pledged to intensify
awareness programmes
targeting churches, shopping centres and schools.
Decontamination of wells,
he said, would be intensified to lessen pressure
on water brought to the
suburb in bowsers.
"To help manage the situation, the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare has
seconded 30 environmental health technicians to the area
while some NGOs
have undertaken to start de-clogging sewer lines.
"The
unit would also supervise removal of waste dumped in the suburb. These
strategies would be expanded and extrapolated to other areas in the city,"
Mr Pawadyira said.
The situation was still critical in Budiriro yesterday
with scores of people
visiting Budiriro Polyclinic to seek
treatment.
Harare Health Services Director Dr Stanley Mungofa said no cholera
deaths
had been reported at the clinic yesterday although more people were
turning
up for treatment.
"I can safely say we have been admitting a
number of people suffering from
the disease but no deaths. Some might have
died in their homes, but we are
not aware,'' he said.
Chisipite Senator
Obert Gutu yesterday called for the establishment of a
commission of inquiry
to probe the current water shortages in Harare.
Addressing the Senate, Sen
Gutu took a swipe at Zinwa for "not being
proactive".
He, however, said
the authority required assistance. "Zinwa needs urgent
help to ensure
sustainable water provision. They (Zinwa) are reactive
instead of being
proactive. I call for the establishment of a commission of
enquiry to
establish why there is shortage of water," he said.
Sen Gutu asked what Zinwa
was doing to alleviate the water shortages in most
suburbs in Harare like
Budiriro and urged the Upper House to play its role
to ensure the authority
acts decisively.
http://www.zimdaily.com/news/zanu27.6526.html
By NOZIPHO MASEKO
Published: Wednesday 05
November 2008
ZIMBABWE - HARARE - The rapprochement in behind-the-scenes
talks between
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai over
power-sharing
have created the ideal conditions for southern African
leaders meeting in
Pretoria on Sunday to hammer out the "fine print" in
sharing of cabinet
posts, according to top officials.
The agreement
announced on Sept in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, binds the
Zimbabwean
government to stopping violence and restoring the rule of law,
sharing power
with the opposition and to reconstruct Zimbabwe's shattered
economy.
A full SADC summit will be chaired by chairman Kgalema
Motlante in Pretoria
Sunday specifically called to discuss the deadlock over
sharing over Cabinet
posts in Zimbabwe.
The meeting is
expected to cajole Mugabe to join forces and equitably share
cabinet posts,
subsequently reconstructing the country vandalized by decades
misrule by his
Zanu-PF party.
The fourteen regional leaders will also press the
parties to work with the
international community to pursue "effective and
sustainable diplomatic
relations" instead of Zanu-PF's isolationist
policies.
ZimDaily heard that there was a flurry of activity behind
the scenes, with
high powered talks between the parties taking place
secretly. The MDC has
been warned against negotiating through the
media.
Zanu-PF had reportedly expressed a willingness to cluster
ministries into
security, services and social then equitably share the
posts. The party has
conceded that the economic hardships were mounting and
that they could not
go it alone any longer. Zanu-Pf was also terrified by
the prospect of
further sanctions.
The MDC says Zanu-PF is
negotiating in bad faith, but recent events have
shown a change in
direction, a top source said.
There was mixed reaction to the
agreement brokered by former South Africa
President Thabo Mbeki and signed
before several SADC leaders in Sept. Some
senior diplomats were cautiously
optimistic, saying it remained to be seen
whether President Robert Mugabe
would abide by the deal because he had
reneged on agreements in the
past.
However a top MDC source assured ZimDaily that the latest
overtures by
Zanu-PF in behind the scenes talks had created a favourable
environment for
Southern African leaders meeting in Pretoria Sunday to
consolidate the
agreement and to set time frames for action for the new
government.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told reporters two
weeks ago that the
stage of the power-sharing deal was like the stage of
courtship.
"We are not receiving any flowers from Zanu-PF," Biti
said. "Instead of
courting us, they are throwing bricks at us."
A
source, with hindsight of Biti's remarks, told ZimDaily: "It looks like
they
are now sending roses."
The full complement of SADC leaders gathering
in Pretoria on Sunday were
directed by the SADC troika emergency summit in
Harare last week that met
principals of the main political parties but
failed to break the deadlock
over sharing of cabinet
posts.
ZimDaily heard that senior officials from the SADC troika
governments were
in Pretoria this week paving the way for the
meeting.
"The SADC meeting on Zimbabwe will have to be a practical
one. It will have
to be about cementing the agreement and emerging with a
government
satisfactory to all of us" the MDC official
said.
There was however little hope among Zimbabweans that the
leaders would leave
Pretoria "with a concrete plan" to form a new
government, said a South
African representative.
Political
commentator Ronald Shumba said: "There is going to be pressure for
SADC
leaders to get something more tangible basing on what was agreed in
Harare
in Sept.
Now their challenge is to come up with an agreement on
Cabinet posts because
there is an acknowledgment that this is no longer just
a SADC problem. If
they (SADC) drag their feet now, they have lost the
battle."
After almost eight weeks of inaction, the SADC summit in
Pretoria is
expected to make it clear that the walls were closing in on
Mugabe.
With the European Union and US considering action against
Zimbabwe that
could further affect the region's economy, the bloc decided to
take action.
Now with the Pretoria meeting looming, the question is whether
SADC can rise
to the challenge of calling Zimbabwe's stubborn and longtime
ruler to order.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Cuthbert Nzou
Wednesday 05 November 2008
HARARE - Divisions have rocked
former finance minister Simba Makoni's
movement with its 10 provincial
executives accusing the ex-ruling ZANU PF
party politburo member of
retarding its transformation into a full-fledged
political
party.
Impeccable sources in Makoni's Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn movement said
the
executives led by the three Matabeleland provinces nearly revolted
against
the former finance minister during a meeting of the national
coordinating
committee in Harare on October 27.
"The executives
accused Makoni of slowing progress in transforming the
movement," a senior
founding member of the movement said yesterday.
"They accused him of
being too academic in launching the party. The meeting
was tense with
provinces telling Makoni point blank that they were prepared
to walk away
from the movement and form a party independent from him."
The sources
said the party - to be known as the National Alliance for
Democracy - was
supposed to have been launched in August, but Makoni
allegedly continued to
postpone its inception arguing that there was need to
come up with a sound
constitution and policies.
Apart from accusing Makoni of delaying the
launch of the party, the
provinces reportedly accused him of refusing to
distribute 20 vehicles
donated to the movement before the March 29
presidential elections to
provincial staff.
Makoni, a respected
businessman and former diplomat, was expelled from ZANU
PF party for daring
to challenge Mugabe in the March 29 presidential
election in which he came a
distant third.
Makoni who stood as an independent garnered 207 470 votes
or 8.3 percent of
total ballots cast against 1 195 562 votes or 47.9 percent
of total valid
votes cast for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and 1 079 730
ballots or 43.2
percent of total votes cast for President Robert
Mugabe.
Mugabe went on to win a June 27 second round runoff vote
uncontested after
Tsvangirai withdrew from the poll because of political
violence against his
supporters.
Makoni, the sources said, was of the
opinion that the near revolt against
him was being orchestrated by the
movement's convener Ibbo Mandaza and
national mobilisation coordinator
Kudzai Mbudzi.
Makoni, the sources said, accused Mandaza and Mbudzi,
during the meeting of
allegedly influencing the provinces to turn against
him.
Yesterday, Makoni's spokesperson Denford Magora declined to comment
on the
alleged rift in the movement.
Mbudzi confirmed there were
problems in the movement but refused to give
details.
"We had a
problem in our last meeting, but we hope to resolve it," said
Mbudzi.
Mandaza was not immediately available for comment on the
matter.
Before the latest upheavals, the three Matabeleland provinces had
threatened
to pull out of Makoni's movement. Bulawayo, and Matabeleland
North and South
provinces wrote to Makoni threatening to quit over the way
the movement was
being run.
In a recent letter to Makoni, the
inter-provincial steering committee said
it was dismayed by the manner in
which the Harare office had handled its
contributions to the formation of
the party.
"We would like to remind you that we are equal human beings
and that we were
ill-treated for a long time under similar circumstances,
and cannot live to
repeat this," the letter said.
"We have seen the
superiority complex displayed by individuals at 'the head
office' which is
run like a family outfit and are very unhappy to be part of
this, and
particularly detest the arrogance, lack of foresight and
leadership that has
so far been displayed."
Furthermore, the letter warned that failure by
the Mavambo head office to
deal with issues of concern raised by the
steering committee could lead to
the severing of ties.
"We request
audience with you (Makoni) before the national consultative
conference to
discuss the issues (stated in the letter). If this is not
possible, we shall
have no option but to announce (an) immediate suspension
of the relationship
between ourselves and the head office and we shall
proceed with the
development of the party in the direction and pace that we
feel shall be
beneficial to our supporters," added the letter. - ZimOnline.