http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by
Patricia Mpofu Thursday 06 November 2008
HARARE -
Zimbabwe opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has embarked
on a tour of
key African capitals as he tries to mobilise continental
leaders to pressure
President Robert Mugabe to agree to an equitable
distribution of key posts
in a unity government.
Tsvangirai's diplomatic initiative comes as
the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) prepares to hold an
emergency summit next
Sunday to try to coax the opposition leader and Mugabe
to reach agreement on
the composition of a new unity government proposed
under September 15
power-sharing agreement.
MDC secretary
general Tendai Biti told Zimonline that Tsvangirai had
this week held talks
with the presidents of Botswana and South Africa, Ian
Khama and Kgalema
Motlanthe respectively on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Motlanthe holds
the SADC's rotating chair and will preside over Sunday's
summit while Khama
has emerged as the region's foremost critic of Mugabe's
controversial
rule.
Khama on Monday called for a fresh vote in Zimbabwe, saying
it was the
only way out of the deadlock over how to share ministerial posts
in the
proposed unity government, a call that drew an angry reaction from
Harare
which accused the Botswana President of interference in Zimbabwe's
internal
affairs.
Biti said Tsvangirai was due to meet African
Union chairman and
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on Wednesday while the
MDC secretary
general was on Thursday set to lead a team of party officials
to Senegal,
Nigeria and Ghana to meet leaders there.
MDC deputy
leader Thoko Khupe was travelling to Zambia while another
team of officials
had been dispatched to Mozambique where a key meeting of
regional ministers
is taking place.
Biti said: "It is a massive diplomatic offensive
and this time we hope
Africa sees Mugabe's true colours. We hope to achieve
finality in this
matter but its unfortunate some regional leaders don't see
that Mugabe wants
to take every one on a ride."
While
Tsvangirai has strong support from key Western countries in his
bid to end
Mugabe's rule, he enjoys divided support from African leaders.
Several African leaders have denounced Mugabe for ruining Zimbabwe but
the
veteran leader still has many allies across Africa where many people
still
respect him for his role in the anti-colonial struggle and also for
what
some see as his standing up to the world's big powers.
Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and another opposition leader Arthur Mutambara
agreed to form an
all-inclusive government under a September 15
power-sharing deal that
retains Mugabe as president while making Tsvangirai
prime minister and
Mutambara deputy prime minister.
Analysts see such a power-sharing
government as the first step to
ending decade-long food shortages and
economic crisis in Zimbabwe. But six
weeks after agreeing to share power
political leaders are yet to form a
unity government because they cannot
agree on should control the most
powerful ministries.
Political
analysts remain pessimistic that Sunday's regional summit
will be able to
break the power-sharing deadlock, saying SADC lacks the
collective will to
force Mugabe to compromise with Tsvangirai. - ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6842
November 5, 2008
HARARE - Both
Zanu-PF and the mainstream MDC have launched political forays
into the
southern African region ahead of Sunday's extra-ordinary summit of
the
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai left Harare on Tuesday to brief SADC leaders on
the current
stalemate over cabinet posts in preparation for the
extra-ordinary regional
summit scheduled to be held in Johannesburg , South
Africa , on
Sunday.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF has dispatched legal affairs secretary
Emmerson Mnangagwa
on a diplomatic offensive of its own in the region aimed
at countering the
MDC initiative and putting across the party's
position.
Zanu-PF dispatched Mnangagwa into the sub-region on Monday
following a visit
by former Namibian President Sam Nujoma last Friday, who
reportedly asked
President Robert Mugabe to cede control of some of the key
ministries to
make the deal work.
United Nations secretary-general
Ban Ki-moon has meanwhile also warned that
the international community was
losing patience with Mugabe.
Mnangagwa's diplomatic offensive has taken
him to Angola where he has held
meetings with President Eduardo dos Santos .
He has also held meetings with
Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete. He was
expected to proceed to the DRC to
meet embattled leader Joseph
Kabila.
Mnangagwa's trip to DRC comes amid reports the Zimbabwe army has
dispatched
a full battalion to the DRC to reinforce Kabila's defence lines,
under
threat from advancing rebels led by General Laurent Nkunda.
MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa declined to discuss details of Tsvangirai's
regional trip saying he could not divulge the party's strategy publicly. He
referred further questions to Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe, who
was not immediately available. He was said to be travelling with the MDC
leader.
Outgoing justice minister Patrick Chinamasa scoffed at
Tsvangirai's trip,
saying the campaign vindicated the Zanu-PF position that
the MDC leader
boycotted the SADC troika summit in Mbabane, Swaziland
because he was
playing to the international gallery.
He said it was
amazing that Tsvangirai was using an emergency travel
document he claimed
was invalid.
Chamisa told The Zimbabwe Times: "We have a compelling case
for equity and
equitable distribution of key ministries and authority within
government in
line with the spirit of a genuinely inclusive
government.
"It is our duty to articulate that compelling case within the
regional
context and the African perspective, hence our aggressive approach
to spread
the gospel for equity and responsibility with
authority."
Top level MDC sources said Tsvangirai had been to Botswana
where he met
President Ian Khama on Tuesday before proceeding to South
Africa where he
met newly appointed President Kgalema Motlanthe.
He
will travel to Swaziland for meetings with King Mswati III, then fly to
Zambia to congratulate newly-elected President, Rupiah Banda. His itinerary
also includes trips to Angola and to the DRC.
"He is visiting
countries as a way of raising awareness on the issue of the
deadlock in this
country," said our source. "Some of these visits are at the
invitation of
the SADC leaders who want to understand the situation
regarding the
implementation of the global political agreement.
"The president
(Tsvangirai) is going to articulate our position and make it
clear that the
main problem is that there is no commitment by Zanu-PF
towards implementing
the agreement."
Tsvangirai launched his regional diplomatic initiative
Tuesday after South
Africa 's Foreign Office announced that the full SADC
summit had been
scheduled for Johannesburg on Sunday.
Tsvangirai
reportedly told Khama and Motlanthe that Mugabe was not sincere
in
implementing the agreement as required under the SADC brokered
deal.
Khama has been critical of Mugabe's policies in the past and
recently said
Zimbabwe 's problems reflected "a crisis of
governance".
In his State of the Nation address on Monday, Khama called
for fresh
elections in Zimbabwe . Chinamasa says the call for fresh
elections by a
foreign leader constitutes "extreme provocation" under
international law.
Tsvangirai expected robust action at the summit and
was appraising the
leaders about the alleged catalogue of acts of bad faith
by Mugabe and
Zanu-PF since the signing of the agreement, and the 'red
herrings peddled by
Zanu-PF', said our source.
The alleged alteration
of contents of the deal, which the MDC has described
as mischievous, is
another contentious matter. The MDC leader also carried a
brief to tell SADC
leaders that Mugabe's government continues its political
repression and
human rights abuses.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the country's
1980 independence from
Britain , won a presidential run-off vote described
as flawed last June
after opposition leader Tsvangirai pulled out of the
race, citing violence
and restrictions on his campaigns.
Mugabe
claimed he had won 2 150 269 votes compared to 233 000 for
svangirai - an
apparently stunning reversal of the initial elections in
March where
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe with a five percent margin.
Official results said
Mugabe won all ten provinces with 85.5 per cent of the
vote.
Three
months after the widely-condemned victory, an unprecedented economic
implosion and biting international sanctions have forced Mugabe to agree to
a power- sharing agreement with Tsvangirai.
But implementation of the
agreement remains on hold because of the dispute
over sharing of key
ministerial posts.
http://voanews.com
By Peta Thornycroft
05 November
2008
This week, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and
Tuberculosis
reported
it would no longer fund projects in Zimbabwe
through the central bank
after
more than $7 million of its funds
disappeared from the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe. Peta Thornycroft reports for
VOA that the United States
says it
too will no longer fund
humanitarian agencies through Zimbabwe's central
bank.
United States
Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGhee tells VOA the United
States is pleased
that the Global Fund has decided not to channel future
funds through the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
"We do not want to see the people of Zimbabwe,
who need this money,
disadvantaged. What we do want to see however, is a
surefire system to
safeguard the money that is coming into Zimbabwe. So the
move that the
Global Fund has made is an excellent move," he
said.
Last month, the Global Fund technically approved $500 million
for
Zimbabwe
for its operations to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis. Final
approval of this allocation is still pending.
As
in many other countries, the government requires that all foreign
donations
to non-governmental organizations in Zimbabwe be sent
through
the
central bank.
But Ambassador McGhee says that the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe "diverted"
Global Fund money to what he describes as other purposes.
He says
that, for
the time being, donor funding should be held out
of Zimbabwe and that
non-governmental organizations be permitted to access it
directly.
"Through the U.N. and we have submitted a letter asking the
Reserve
Bank to
give all [non-governmental organizations] operating
here in Zimbabwe the
ability to access money from off shore accounts. We are
still waiting
for a
response. We need to know that our people will
have access to their
funds
when they need it so that they can go
ahead and help the needy people
here
in Zimbabwe," he
said.
The Global Fund said the Zimbabwe government has damaged its
efforts to
fight AIDS, TB and malaria by diverting money intended for that
work.
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has failed to honor a commitment
to repay
the $7
million it diverted.
Several humanitarian
organizations, and foreign currency earners in
commerce, industry and
agriculture told VOA that foreign currency
held in
their accounts
was looted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe ahead of
elections
held
in March.
The Global Fund will decide Friday whether it will release the
next $188
million to Zimbabwe. The Fund says the funding will be released
only
if it
is held off-shore.
Leading non-governmental
organizations also say they cannot do their
jobs
because the
central bank restricts the amount they are able to
withdraw
from
their bank accounts.
The central bank has also banned electronic
transfer of money from
non-governmental organizations to pay for goods and
services needed to
distribute emergency food to millions of hungry
Zimbabweans. McGhee says
this must change.
"The government of Zimbabwe
has to do a better job. This is a brutal,
repressive regime that has
instilled fear into nearly everyone -
[non-governmental organizations]
included. These are brave people,
they are
doing God's work trying
to help the people of Zimbabwe, and until the
government takes these
artificial restraints away from the system, it is
going to be very difficult
for [non-governmental organizations] to do
what
they are here in
Zimbabwe to do," he said.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono is a strong
supporter of President
Robert
Mugabe. He has said he prints money
to keep the economy going. In
July, the
official inflation rate in
Zimbabwe reached 231 million percent.
Ahead of elections in March, Gono
handed out expensive farming
equipment to
ZANU-PF supporters and he
has also given top civil servants generous
gifts
of imported
goods.
In 2007, the US provided $176m worth of food through
partner
organisations and an additional $8m for non-food
humanitarian
assistance. Much smaller amounts of programme
support costs are paid
via accounts regulated by the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, November 6 2008 -
Opposition Members of Parliament for Harare
have taken a tour of the
Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospitals and
Budiriro to get a clear
picture on the impact of the Cholera outbreak that
has hit the
city.
The MPs from the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, said they
were deeply disturbed by the 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.
Head of the Harare
MPs and Kambuzuma MP Willas Madzimure said: "I
think many people have to be
educated to become health educators and move
around suburbs teaching people
about the disease. We have had so many people
die in a short space of time
because of a disease that can be prevented let
alone can be
cured."
Hospital authorities also revealed that a lot of
Non-Governmental
Organisations and international health organisations had
moved in to try and
contain the situation.
An official for
the hospital revealed to the MPs, that among the
organisations that were
providing assistance were, Medicine San Frontiers
(Doctors Without Borders)
and the Red Cross Society.
The official also said beside
Budiriro, they had also received
patients from Dzivarasekwa, Glen View,
GlenNorah and Mbare.
The MDC also toured Budiriro where they
were told by residents that
the suburb had been without running water for
more than six months and
feared more people would get the
disease.
Susan Kahari of Budiriro 5 told the MPs that she was
now buying water
from Highfield, a suburb which is 10 kilometres away from
her house, for
survival.
"Sometimes we queue for several
hours at the provided water tanks but
only get a 5litre container of water,
it's painful. I pray something is done
before we all die of Cholera," said
Kahari adding that she has six-month-old
baby who constantly requires water
for the nappies.
Hospital officials however declined to give
statistics on the number
of deaths from cholera but maintained it was not
high as reported in the
public media.
The official
death toll from cholera is now at 14.
But secretary for Local
Government in the MDC Cecil Zvidzai said over
100 people had died so far
adding that the Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(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," said Zvidzai.
He said Zinwa was
not in a position to maintain water and sewer
equipment since they did 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," added
Zvidzai.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, November 6 2008 - CFX
Bank Limited on Wednesday shocked
customers when it started demanding US$5
for a cheque book, Radio VOP can
reveal.
CFX is listed
on the lucrative Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE).
The money can
also be paid in local currency at Zd 50 billion for a
bank cheque and the
figure is expected to go up to Zd 150 billion by
Friday.
This comes just only a week after RBZ Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, warned
all
commercial banks to stop over charging customers. Gono questioned why
customers should pay a lot of money when the cheque book paper was sourced
locally.
Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe Limited was asking customers
to pay Zd 11,4
million for a cheque book.
CFX said its
supplier of cheque books was also asking for payment in
foreign
currency.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Cuthbert Nzou Thursday 06 November
2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe's biggest labour union has
called for an indefinite
strike by workers beginning next Tuesday to press
for the establishment of
transitional authority to draw up a new
constitution for the country that
will lead to free and fair
elections.
The Zimbabwe Congress Trade Unions (ZCTU) is backed in
its call for a
transitional authority by the country's biggest political
pressure group,
the National Constitution Assembly (NCA), which is a
coalition of churches,
civic and human rights groups, women's organisations,
the student movement
and other groups.
The ZCTU and the NCA
that met on Monday this week to plot their push
for transitional government
in Zimbabwe say only such an authority would be
best equipped to break
Zimbabwe's long-running political crisis.
The two groups are
opposed to a planned power-sharing government
between the ruling ZANU PF and
opposition MDC parties and say both President
Robert Mugabe and main MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be excluded from
the transitional
authority.
NCA national director Ernest Mudzengi on Wednesday told
ZimOnline that
the transitional authority or government would serve for two
years and would
be tasked to revive the economy, oversee the writing of a
new constitution
and conduct democratic elections that will be monitored by
the international
community.
Mudzengi said: "We agreed that a
government of national unity deal
signed on September 15 will not extricate
the country from the current
crisis because of mistrust between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai.
"Already the two leaders have failed to agree on
Cabinet positions,
what will happen when they move to policy
formulation?"
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and the leader of a break away
faction of the MDC -
Arthur Mutambara - agreed to form an all-inclusive
government under a
power-sharing deal that retains Mugabe as president while
making Tsvangirai
prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime
minister.
Analysts see such a power-sharing government as the first
step to
ending Zimbabwe's unprecedented economic recession that in addition
to the
world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent is also seen in
shortages of food and basic commodities, rising unemployment and deepening
poverty.
But six weeks after agreeing to share power,
Zimbabwe's squabbling
political leaders are yet to form a unity government
because they cannot
agree on should control the most powerful
ministries.
Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of trying to retain key
ministries and
render the MDC junior partners in the
government.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will
hold an
emergency summit on Sunday in South Africa to try to resolve the
deadlock
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
The 15-nation SADC and
African Union are the guarantors of the pact.
Mudzengi said the
leader of the proposed transitional authority should
be a neutral person
drawn from the clergy or civil society.
The NCA official was upbeat
that workers would heed the call to
boycott work.
Previous
attempts by the ZCTU to call job strikes or public
demonstrations have
faltered in recent years either because workers feared
reprisal by Mugabe's
security forces or were simply too afraid to risk
losing their jobs in a
country where 80 percent of labour is unemployed.
But ZCTU
president Lovemore Matombo urged workers to heed the call to
strike in order
to demonstrate to the world that the unity deal between
Mugabe and the two
MDC leaders will not work.
Matombo said, "The suffering Zimbabweans
have a right to demand a
transitional government because Tsvangirai and
Mugabe have let them down. We
told the world when the agreement was signed
that the deal was bad."
He said although previous work boycotts
organised by the ZCTU were not
successful, this time round workers would
heed their call because of the
economic hardships they were
facing.
However government deputy information minister Bright
Matonga scoffed
at the proposed strike.
"Let us wait and see
what will happen on Monday, but I am 100 percent
sure that our Zimbabwean
workers will report for duty," Matonga said. "Who
are the NCA and the ZCTU
to tell us how a government should be constituted?
To hell with them." -
ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6838
November 5, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - A British journalist facing charges of practising
journalism
without accreditation in Zimbabwe has skipped bail and sneaked
out of the
country, according to his defence lawyers.
As a result,
the trial of Phillip Warrington Taylor, who faced a two-year
jail term if
found guilty for practising journalism illegally, failed to
take off at the
Harare Magistrates' Court yesterday.
Taylor did not show up at the court
throughout the day.
Under the Access to Information and Privacy Act
(AIPPA) passed in 2000, it
is a criminal offence for local and foreign
journalists to practice
journalism without accreditation from the
state-controlled Media and
Information Commission (MIC).
Defence
lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, told a magistrate yesterday that the
prosecution of
Taylor could not proceed as he had received reports that his
client sneaked
out of the country.
"I have gathered that Taylor skipped bail and sneaked
out of the country
over the weekend and so his trial could not go ahead,"
Nkomo said in court.
Taylor, who is out of custody on bail, was arrested
last Thursday by state
security agents while aboard a UK-bound plane at the
Harare International
Airport.
The journalist, who was ordered to
surrender his passport when he initially
appeared in court last week, denies
the charges against him. Taylor, who
spent 30 days in Zimbabwe, says he was
a tourist.
The government has pledged to uphold press freedom and stop
its clampdown on
the media following the signing of power-sharing deal with
the opposition.
Zimbabwe has the toughest media laws in the world, which
have been invoked
on numerous occasions to expel foreign correspondents and
close about four
private newspapers.
CNN and BBC are banned in
Zimbabwe .
Journalists face up to 20 years in jail on charges of
publishing false
information or statements that are prejudicial to the state
or are likely to
cause, promote, or incite public disorder, or adversely
affect the security
or economic interests of the country.
Zimbabwean
authorities barred foreign media from covering the March 29
elections and
warned that it would deal severely with journalists who
sneaked into the
country to report illegally.
Scores of foreign journalists have, however,
managed to slip into the
country without detection over the years. However,
a few have been caught
and charged as the condemned government of President
Robert Mugabe tries to
shield internal events from the international
community
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondent Thursday 06 November 2008
JOHANNESBURG -
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebels say Angola and
Zimbabwe are
mobilising troops to fight in the mineral-rich country in a
repeat of a
1998-2002 war that drew in armies from eight African nations,
media reports
said on Wednesday.
The groundwork "is being laid for a generalised war in
the region . . .
foreign troops (are) preparing to make war against us,"
Bertrand Bisimwa
spokesperson of the Laurent Nkunda-led rebels told
reporters without
offering any proof of the allegation.
The rebels
claimed that Angolan troops were in Bukavu, south of Goma, with
550 Angolan
commandos in Goma itself and others in the central city of
Kisangani.
Zimbabwe strongly denied any military involvement while
two Angolan foreign
ministry officials also denied Angolan troops were in
the DRC, although
Congo's government appealed last week for help from
longtime ally Angola.
Fears of a regional conflict added impetus to UN
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's attempts to bring Kabila and Rwandan
President Paul Kagame
together for talks with the UN chief said to be
leaving for an African Union
summit on Thursday on the crisis in Kenya, to
be attended by Kagame and DRC's
President Joseph Kabila.
Kagame is
believed to wield strong influence over the Tutsi-led rebels and
reports by
UN peacekeepers say Rwanda is helping the insurgents.
Head of a Uruguayan
contingent of UN peacekeepers in the DRC General Jorge
Rosales said
intelligence reports indicated Rwandan troops were already
"integrated in
the rebel forces".
The fighting - a relic of ethnic hatreds left over
from the 1994 Rwandan
genocide that killed a half-million Tutsis - has sent
tens of thousands of
refugees fleeing through the countryside.
Rwanda
invaded the DRC twice in the 1990s to hunt down Hutu militiamen who
fled
there after taking part in the mass slaughter.
The war ripped the DRC
into rival fiefdoms, with rebels backed by Uganda and
Rwanda controlling
vast swaths of territory rich in coffee, gold and tin.
Angola and Zimbabwe
fought for Congo in exchange for access to copper and
diamond concessions. -
ZimOnline
The Herald (Harare) Published by
the government of Zimbabwe
4 November 2008
Posted to the web 5
November 2008
Masvingo
A RABIES outbreak has hit areas around
Mupandawana Growth Point in Gutu amid
reports that at least 20 people,
bitten by dogs have contracted the deadly
disease over the past two
weeks.
Though no fatalities have been reported, there were fears that
some of the
infected people might be in danger because of a shortage of
anti-rabies
vaccines at nearby health centres and hospitals.
The
outbreak has hit areas such as Gona, Mushayavanhu and Makuvaza on the
outskirts of Mupandawana.
Jackals prowling villages in search of food
are believed to have infected
dogs in the area.
There were reports
that the district's health referral centre, Gutu Mission
Hospital, and other
health centres did not have anti-rabies vaccines in
their
stocks.
However, Masvingo provincial medical director Dr Robert
Mudyiradima
yesterday said health institutions were free to buy anti-rabies
vaccines
from Natpharm, where Government medical stocks are kept.
"If
there is an outbreak of rabies, health institutions in the affected
areas
should order anti-rabies vaccines from Natpharm because there are
sufficient
stocks of the drugs.
"It is imperative that the drugs be ordered because
rabies is a deadly
disease," Dr Mudyiradima said.
He said they would
investigate the origins of the disease and start working
closely with the
Department of Veterinary Services to put down all infected
dogs.
The Herald (Harare) Published by the
government of Zimbabwe
5 November 2008
Posted to the web 5 November
2008
Masvingo
THE city of Masvingo has been without tap water for
the past three days
following a technical fault at the pumping station on
the shores of Lake
Mutirikwi.
Residents fear that if the fault is not
attended to soon, there might be an
outbreak of cholera as some residents
have begun drawing water from unclean
sources.
However, repair
work was reported to be underway at the pumping station.
Yesterday,
council was busy looking for water bowsers from Zinwa and the
nearby Nemamwa
Growth Point to supply residents and strategic institutions
such as
hospitals with water.
Masvingo mayor Alderman Femias Chakabuda was
hopeful supplies would be
restored soon.
"We are trying by all means
possible to repair the broken-down water pump
but in the interim we are
mobilising water bowsers from Zinwa and Nemamwa
Growth Point to make sure
that we supply residents with clean water as they
have not had supplies for
the past two days," he said.
Masvingo, with a population of nearly 100
000 people, draws its water from
Lake Mutirikwi, the country's largest
inland dam.
However, supplies have of late been erratic due to rising
demand and a
critical shortage of water purification chemicals, which are
imported from
South Africa.
The Herald (Harare) Published
by the government of Zimbabwe
EDITORIAL
5 November 2008
Posted to
the web 5 November 2008
HARARE and Chitungwiza both have areas very
short of water.
Cholera outbreaks have occurred in both municipalities as
a result of people
drawing water from contaminated
wells.
Something needs to be done, and done now.
All Harare
City Council and its mayor can say is that they would do it
better and that
water should be given back to the city.
The Government, in remarks by the
Minister of Local Government, Public Works
and Urban Development, Cde
Ignatius Chombo, has its doubts since the city
seems totally unable to cope
with the far simpler task of rubbish removal.
We would tend to agree that
simply transferring back the Greater Harare
water supplies to the city
council would be unlikely to achieve anything;
the city failed before and
shows no sign that it can even replace a bulb in
a traffic light, let alone
collect rubbish.
If the city was so capable, it would not have lost the
control over water
treatment in the first place.
But arguing about
who should control water while people die is neither right
nor
useful.
The objective -- of the Government, Zinwa and the city council --
should
surely be to ensure that everyone gets enough water to maintain their
health, that such water is available frequently and is available
regularly.
There are major problems at the water treatment works and at
some of the
pump stations that deliver water to Harare, Chitungwiza, Ruwa,
Epworth and
Norton.
Whoever runs the water supplies cannot wave a
magic wand and get all
equipment fixed and adequate chemicals delivered
instantly.
What Harare, Chitungwiza and their satellite centres need is
some effective
crisis management, and a willingness for all involved to pull
together and
stop people dying.
Bulawayo has been through far worse
crises over water in the last decade,
seeing dams dry up.
Yet that
city has yet to lose people to cholera.
There, a proper crisis committee
was formed that laid down policies and
ensured that the responsible
authorities implemented these.
The starting point for Harare is to
remember that water is treated and
pumped from Morton Jaffray Waterworks
every day.
It is not enough for everyone to use to
water gardens,
wash cars and waste. But it would be enough to give every
resident a
reasonable supply of safe water for all domestic needs.
Over half the
population of Harare and Chitungwiza do, in fact, get a
continuous supply of
water.
A few more get water reasonably regularly, at least for a few
hours a day or
every other day.
And more than a quarter of the
population gets nothing; they seem to have
been written off.
No one
cares.
The immediate problem is to ensure an equitable division of
available water,
so that everyone has some, and preferably has some every
day.
By turning valves and using pumps, it should be possible to rotate
water
cuts, in the same way that Zesa rotates its power cuts.
The
total reluctance of Zinwa to even consider such a plan is what makes so
many
wish for the return of water to the city council, in the vague and
unsubstantiated hope that the city could do better.
The second plank
of a proper emergency water policy would be to cut waste.
The ban on
hosepipes is seen as a joke, and is continually ignored.
Pipe breaks are
not repaired, and thousands of cubic metres of treated water
run into the
drains every day.
The third plank of a proper water policy would be to
have bowsers, boreholes
and tanks in those relatively few places that a
proper water-rationing
scheme could not reach.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, November 6 2008 - The ruling Zanu PF party is
expected to
slaughter 1 000 cattle, about 500 goats, 500 sheep and more than
5 000
chickens when it holds its annual congress in December, RadioVOP can
reveal.
Zanu PF's Ephraim Masawi confirmed that the
party is planning to
slaughter the said number of animals at its congress to
RadioVOP, adding
"more is still coming".
The cattle, goats
and chickens are believed to have been taken from
commercial farmers, mainly
party goons who benefitted from the controversial
land resettlement
programme. The programme resulted in Zimbabwe being
isolated by the
international community.
Masawi said party officials would
donate handsomely to the party
congress at a time when the ruling party is
in talks with the Movement for
Democratic Change formations of Arthur
Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai.
He warned people against
withholding donations as they would be dealt
with by the party bosses in
Harare.
He said the cattle, goats, sheep and chickens had
nothing to do with
the collapsing economy as these were being sourced from
Zanu PF cadres only.
http://voanews.com
By Jonga
Kandemiiri
Washington
05 November 2008
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Wednesday raised the daily cash withdrawal
limit
for individuals to Z$500,000 from Z$50,000, at the same time
officially
releasing new bank notes in denominations of Z$100,000,
Z$500,000, and Z$1
million dollars.
The withdrawal limit for companies was raised to Z$1
million a day from
Z$10,000. In previously setting the limit at an
insignificant Z$10,000 the
central bank was trying to encourage companies to
use alternative means of
making payments, like checks. But checks can take
weeks to clear, by which
time hyperinflation last officially measured at 231
million percent has
taken a massive bite out of the value of the
payment.
The bank had earlier shut down a system for electronic payments
as a radical
measure to prevent currency speculators from transferring large
sums of
money.
Many banks ran out of cash quickly Wednesday as
customers took full
advantage of the higher withdrawal limit, in addition to
which the new notes
were slow to be delivered by the Reserve Bank, financial
sources said. In
Bulawayo, the country's second-largest city, some banks
limited withdrawals
to $200,000, local sources said.
The latest
Reserve Bank policy changes immediately came under attack by the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, which said withdrawal limits should be
abolished
completely so that workers like other Zimbabweans could have the
full use of
their money.
ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his union might
reconsider its October
decision to shelve plans for a labor action in
protest of continuing cash
shortages.
http://sundaystandard.info
by Tananoka Joseph
Whande
05.11.2008 9:50:15 P
A few weeks ago, SADC assembled its
so-called Troika in Swaziland to sit
down with Zimbabwean protagonists
Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai and
see to it that the two sides agreed
on terms to form a government of
"national unity."
SADC Executive
Secretary facilitated the mini summit and was there in
Mbabane with Robert
Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara of the breakaway faction of
the Movement for
Democratic change.
Mswati of Swaziland hosted the summit with Mozambique,
Angola and South
Africa represented at the highest level.
But the man
central to this meeting was absent. Morgan Tsvangirai was
marooned in
Zimbabwe. He could not travel to Swaziland for this important
meeting
because he had no passport.
The Registrar General in Zimbabwe told the
media that Tsvangirai's passport
was issued a long time ago but was being
withheld by orders from Mugabe.
So SADC organized a summit to help Mugabe
and Tsvangirai to reach an
agreement but did not care that Mugabe would not
give Tsvangirai a passport.
And instead of turning to Mugabe and demanding
that his Registrar General
issue the passport to Tsvangirai back in Harare,
Mswati sent his private jet
to collect Tsvangirai.so that he could travel
illegally across international
borders.
Chillingly, he was to travel
alone on that plane and Tsvangirai, of course,
refused to get on that plane
without a passport.
SADC did not bring the issue up with Mugabe and chose
instead to schedule
the summit for Harare. How cowardly!
"The troika
summit did not meet to deal with the issues related with how you
deal with
travel documents to the principals," said SADC executive secretary
Tomaz
Salomao. "I think that it's not the role of the troika to deal with
that."
Why then did SADC converge in Swaziland if they cannot facilitate
such minor
issues?
SADC, it appears to me, is only good at organizing tea
parties and nothing
else.
But SADC is an organization that never
ceases to amaze me. And nowhere has
it shown its ineptitude than in the case
of Zimbabwe where it has
shamelessly failed the ordinary starving people
amid severe humanitarian
turmoil.
So the leaders packed their bags
and headed for Harare. The Presidents of
South Africa and Mozambique were
there along with Thabo Mbeki, Angola and
Swaziland.
The SADC Troika, once
again, failed to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis and has
now summoned all SADC
Heads of State to assemble in Johannesburg next week
to discuss the
Zimbabwean fiasco.
But is it true that leaders of Angola, Mozambique and
South Africa "failed"
to resolve the crisis? Did they try at
all?
Meanwhile, people are suffering while politicians are bickering and SADC
itself must be held responsible for Robert Mugabe's intransigence because
without SADC leaders' support, Mugabe would never behave in this
manner.
Indeed, during the failed talks last week, South Africa,
Mozambique and even
Swaziland believed that Mugabe was being unreasonable in
his demands but
Angola and, of course, deposed former South African
president Thabo Mbeki,
sided with Mugabe and refused any pressure to be
applied on him.
This indicates that SADC has no policy on how to deal with
its own errant
member states.
And, on Thursday, as the world started
hearing about the resumption of
violence in Zimbabwe and as other citizens
of that troubled nation started
killing and eating their dogs to fight off
starvation, SADC Executive
secretary Salomao finally confessed that, indeed,
the power sharing deal
signed by Mugabe and Tsvangirai on the 15th September
was fraudulently
altered before the signing ceremony and was different from
the one agreed to
by the parties on the 11th September.
As far back
as early October, Tsvangirai's MDC told SWRadioAfrica in the UK
that ZANU PF
had doctored the agreement to alter certain clauses in the
document that was
to be signed a few days later. "Despite Monday's Troika
meeting
acknowledging this fraud, the communiqué released by Salomao after
the
meeting said nothing about the issue," said the radio station.
Tsvangirai's
MDC accused Mugabe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, and
Secretary
General of the MDC Mutambara group, Welshman Ncube, and Thabo
Mbeki's
representative at the talks, Mujanku Gumbi, of making the changes to
the
document without Tsvangirai's knowledge.
And with all this bumbling at
SADC, why should we Zimbabweans have any hope
for a breakthrough at the SADC
meeting in Johannesburg this coming week?
Needless to say, our hopes
currently lie in Botswana's hands. I do hope
that, this time around,
President Ian Khama does attend the SADC summit.
Knowing his stance on the
Zimbabwean issue, his presence there would be
quite comforting to some of us
even if he were to say nothing for in this
short space of time since
becoming president, he has said much more than all
African leaders combined
have said over the years.
We hope Raila Odinga will be watching too; we need
all the help we can get
because, ironically, it appears to me that
politicians are not the right
people to entrust people's lives
with.
But above all else, it is my hope that sometime soon SADC will find
its feet
and turn itself into a truly useful organization. They should
justify their
existence. Even if they failed in Zimbabwe, SADC must succeed
elsewhere not
to exist for endless summits while SADC citizens
suffer.
SADC must exist to serve its citizens, not to organize junkets
and tea
parties for its members.
They should leave the business of
catering to citizens of SADC who can do a
better job.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6857
November 5, 2008
By Blessing
Chimbwanda
WATCHING the American election returns and the euphoria that
filled the
entire country I knew I was witnessing history in the
making.
I was amazed by how President-elect, Barack Obama who might not
have been
allowed to legitimately vote in certain parts of the country only
43 years
ago was going to be elected as the next President of the United
States. I
could not comprehend Zimbabwe electing a white Zimbabwean as
President of
the country in 2023, regardless of that person's ability. I
blame this on
the hate language, and deeds that most of our African leaders
have fed our
population from the likes of Idi Amin to Robert Mugabe and all
others in
between.
As a black man in the United States, this was a
bitter-sweet victory because
of the past history of the country. The
celebrations from sea to sea and
north to south, as much as they were for
President-elect Obama, were also
for the end of George W. Bush's presidency.
I could not help but imagine
with high hopes that Zimbabweans will soon be
pouring onto the streets to
celebrate a new error in Zimbabwean
politics.
Obama told tens of thousands of his jubilant supporters, "If
there is anyone
out there who still doubts that America is a place where all
things are
possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive
in our
time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your
answer." In our Zimbabwe that answer was erased by our founders; we know all
things are not possible, and there is no democracy, for that reason we have
placed our hopes in the hands of our new founders.
Obama's crowds;
white, black, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, old, young,
blue-collar,
white-collar, men and women were all jubilant in celebrating
the reassurance
that America is the land of opportunity and anyone can make
the most of
themselves in this wonderful country.
Unfortunately, we can not say the
same about our homeland, for that reason
people have left in droves for
better lands. It is a well known fact that
Barack Obama's father was Kenyan,
and in Mugabe's Zimbabwe just this fact
would render him a non-citizen, and
illegible to run for the presidency or
to vote even if he was born in the
country. The surprising thing is that
countless people have established that
Mugabe himself would then be an
illegitimate president since his father was
of Malawian decedent.
Obama's win was not just for black America, but it
was for all of America,
and as an African this is what we should aim to
achieve. It saddens me to
hear and read from some of my African brothers and
sisters' claim that
Africa for Africans. What I always asked them is what
makes one an African?
And sadly, none, absolutely none has given me a
convincing answer to date.
My response to most of them has truthfully been,
"I have come across many
white Africans who are more African than you can
ever dream of."
This is in line with our Zimbabwean political leaders who
claim that
Zimbabwean solutions can only be resolved in an African manner.
This makes
me ponder, "What is an African solution? What is a distinct
African problem?
What makes African problems different from problems facing
countries on
other continents? We need to progress as a people, as a
country, as a
continent, and we need a new group leadership if we are to
develop and
thrive and stop depending on the west like
babies.
African politics can not only be left to Africans because that
approach has
been continuously tried and failed. We live in a global
community, and what
the SADC does impacts the AU, EU and the UN. Although
there are some
positive signs of democracy in parts of Africa, as a
continent our leaders
have failed us dismally. What a democratic country the
United States is, and
what a goal we should set for ourselves as Zimbabweans
and Africans.
Some people have said electing Bush for four years and
eight years was a
mistake, but the fortunate part of American politics is
that they always get
a legitimate do over, as opposed to what we see in many
African countries
were we get stuck with the same old people and policies
for 28 years or
more. How can an 84 year old President and 85 year old
Vice-President claim
to be agents of change after they have failed to govern
for 28 years in
office?
What makes Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans different
from other countries on the
continent and in the world? As Zimbabweans we
all want to be treated with
respect and dignity that the United States
incoming leadership has shown to
its electorate, as Obama proclaimed in his
victory speech, "this victory
belongs to the people".
To whom does
Mugabe's supposed victory belong? If he can genuinely answer
this question
then he knows he should step down.
During Obama's election and victory
speech he offered a vision to the United
States, the same vision that has
been offered by Morgan Tsvangirai for
several years now. Mugabe is more
unpopular is his country and abroad than
George Bush. The United States
economy, although it is not in great shape,
is a far cry from the shambles
that Zimbabwe's economy currently lies in.
Since the biggest factor in
Obama's win was the economy, this single
greatest factor affecting
Zimbabweans in a legitimate election should have
seen Mugabe and Zanu-PF
swept out of power.
I have hope and faith that Obama will succeed with
the mandate that has been
accorded on him by the American population. How
does Mugabe intend to govern
with no mandate and who is he going to govern?
Botswana's outspoken
President, Seretse Ian Khama, has called for
internationally supervised
re-run elections in Zimbabwe as "one viable way
forward" to get the nation
out of its current political crisis.
This
is not possible in the current Zimbabwean atmosphere, but change is
coming,
and a better day for Zimbabwe is not far away.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6861
November 5, 2008
Tanonoka
Whande
AMERICANS have voted for a new president and the transition from
one
president to the new has already started.
Lucky people!
I
watched the great spectacle of Americans choosing a president and rather
than enjoy this free entertainment that has so many lessons, I found myself
thinking of our own President Robert Mugabe.
While other people serve
their nations better by standing aside for better
or new ideas, we have this
old political rogue who has caused so much
suffering to the very people he
is supposed to be protecting.
The election of an American president is
outrageously expensive but the most
important thing I envy about it is that
every president has to renew their
mandate with the people every four years
and can only do so once.
Four years, let alone 28, is long enough a time
for anyone to build or
destroy a nation and I have enjoyed watching American
presidents winning or
getting booted out after four years in
power.
And in Zimbabwe, we have Mugabe still blaming the colonialists
whom we
dislodged thirty years ago. We still have Mugabe presiding over the
killings
and disappearances of fellow citizens; we still have Mugabe
deliberately
withholding food from innocent starving compatriots because he
suspects them
of supporting a party other than his own; and we still have a
president who
regards the Ministry of Finance as a private pantry where he
stashes his
personal money.
While I appreciate that Zimbabwe is one
of the countries whose HIV/AIDS
infection rate is going down, it is by no
means something to gloat about
because such trends are not permanent and
might, in fact, work against us in
the sense that it will make us believe
that we can manage this seriously
deadly disease.
The fact that
Mugabe and his ministers and party add to the suffering of the
citizens has
never been clearer than it is today.
When Jonathan Moyo turned against
the nation and became Mugabe's rabid
mouthpiece, he, with Mugabe's
knowledge, raided the coffers of the National
AIDS Council and used the
money to stage a useless beauty pageant at
Victoria Falls. Moyo argued that
the pageant was being staged to market
Zimbabwe. But how much more
insensitive could one get than taking money
meant for ARV drugs for our
afflicted compatriots and, ironically, using
that money to stage a worthless
beauty pageant with half-naked lasses
prancing around on a stage while
Mugabe's cabinet ministers drooled at the
young women?
Now Mugabe is
at it again, this time with Gideon Gono's assistance.
With Mugabe and my
homeboy Emmerson Mnangagwa leading, Zanu-PF stalwarts are
reportedly buying
up land in the billions with money that was clearly not
earned.
Mugabe and his cronies want land to grow sugar for starving
Zimbabweans. How
considerate!
But now we also hear of millions and
millions of donor money earmarked to
buy anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for
people living with HIV in Zimbabwe that
just gone mysteriously
missing.
And it has been reported that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis
and Malaria has demanded that government reimburse them the
US$7, 3 million
"stolen from the US$12, 3 million it gave to the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe
last year to buy medicine for sick people in
Zimbabwe".
With the situation as it is and with countries all over the
world under
attack from HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other deadly
diseases, a
group of men can just take donated money, share it among
themselves and
leave people to die.
Even if it were their own money,
they, as leaders, would still be under the
obligation to put citizens
first.
But it was not their money; someone somewhere wanted to save the
lives of
Zimbabweans and our own leaders take that money to buy hats, shoes
and
sunglasses for their wives.
At independence, people laughed when
the late Ian Smith called Mugabe and
Zanu-PF gangsters, saying that those
were words of a defeated racist who was
jealous of a new black
government.
Now we agree; and we are no longer laughing any
more.
Now people can understand why the MDC is adamant on having the
Finance
ministry; who in their right minds can give Mugabe, or any of his
proxies,
cash meant for the sick and disadvantaged?
It appears the
honorary doctorate degree Mugabe tossed at Gono is costing
the nation money,
lives and its well-being.
It is not an exaggeration that the agreement
signed by Zanu-PF and the MDC,
with all its faults, gave people genuine hope
of resolving the impasse in
our country. People are hungry, tired and eager
to rebuild their lives;
eager to see their children back in school; eager to
access medical
attention and drugs, clean water, food and a decent
life.
Then we have someone like Welshman Ncube admitting that a member of
his
group of negotiators participated in the alteration of a document that
was
supposed to set the stage for the easing of hardships for our people.
The
fact that Ncube denies personal involvement does not exonerate him. He
is a
lawyer and his team knew of the alteration of a document that was going
to
be the basis of national revival and he said nothing until it was found
out.
He is as guilty of this as Mugabe, Mutambara and Chinamasa are because
they
are the ones who stood to benefit.
What is wrong with our
politicians? Why are they so mediocre and imbued with
such greed? How come
they do not value the lives of our children and our
elderly? Our women and
our citizens?
The world continues to be tied up with Zimbabwe. Nations
are trying to help
us out of the hole into which we pushed ourselves and yet
it is those who
led this nation astray who stop such help from coming in and
from reaching
the people.
A few dishonest people are holding the
nation to ransom. It now appears as
if our ambition to resuscitate our
nation is not going to be realised any
time soon.
I don't know why
people don't realise that stealing from other people may
yield short term
gains but, in the end, the purse that is stolen becomes
empty and there is
no means of refilling it except to steal again and again.
And we have
been watching this looting take place since independence.
I am so sad to
see a nation that I once knew was dignified, gracious,
peaceful and moral
descending to this level. Now because of these people, my
country has become
aggressive, fearful and racist, I am afraid to note.
This is a legacy
which will not soon be overcome. Our children and
grandchildren will hold
us responsible for letting a few irresponsible
politicians destroy this once
great nation while we stand by and watch.
And for those in the Diaspora
like me, I fear that what we may return to
will be very different country
from what we left behind. After all, we even
failed to maintain, just to
maintain what we inherited from Ian Smith.
It is all so sad.