IOL
November
07 2005 at 12:04PM
Harare - Members of Zimbabwe's main trade union
plan to hold marches
across the country Tuesday to protest growing economic
hardship, an official
said.
Mlamleli Sibanda, spokesman for the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) said demonstrations were scheduled
to take place in six towns and
cities, despite the fact that police have
refused them permission in most of
the cases.
"As far as we're
concerned, the police don't have the right to stop
us," Sibanda said in a
telephone interview on Monday.
Marches in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru,
Mutare, Chinhoyi and Masvingo are
intended "to remind government and
employers that workers are hungry, angry
and tired," a statement from the
labour body said.
"While Zimbabwe is celebrating 25
years of independence, life for the
worker has never been poorer," it
added.
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis since
independence
in 1980, with inflation close to 360 percent, and growing
levels of
unemployment, poverty and hunger.
Prices for most
goods and services are hiked regularly, and wage
earners are struggling to
make ends meet.
Union spokesman Sibanda said police had indicated
that they will not
allow the processions to go ahead in any of the six towns
and cities,
although they have said workers can gather but not march in the
southern
city of Masvingo. - Sapa-dpa
SABC
November 07,
2005, 11:15
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, has
issued an ultimatum
to party members opposing his boycott of pending senate
elections,
Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper reported today.
It
quoted him as saying: "I am giving all the MDC (Movement for Democratic
Change) members who chose to go against my will and contest the elections
seven days to withdraw or be fired from the party."
Tsvangirai said
the issue had caused his party to split into two groups. The
one faction was
led by Gibson Sibanda, the MDC vice-president, who wanted
the party to
contest the upcoming senate elections.
"The other one, which I lead, does
not want to contest," Tsvangirai told a
meeting at Victoria Falls yesterday.
"On the other hand, this has created an
opportunity for me to weed out
members who have gone against my will."
Tsvangirai said he had no
intention of giving in to the demands of what he
brushed off as "juniors" in
the MDC. "VP (Sibanda), secretary-general
(Welshman Ncube) and their
supporters should know that I hold the keys of
the party. As long as I am
still the leader, they have to do what I want
since they are my juniors." -
Sapa
Cape Argus
November 7, 2005
By Peta
Thornycroft
President Robert Mugabe's newspapers have accused the
American
ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell of being a sexual pervert
visiting
"unseemly" areas and threatened his diplomatic
immunity.
The unprecedented personal attack on Dell follows a
speech he made
last week to a US-funded university in Mutare, in eastern
Zimbabwe,
criticising Mugabe's "voodoo economics", corruption and gross
mismanagement,
which he says wrecked the economy.
In addition
to personal insults and threats to his physical safety,
the government's
Sunday Mail warned that Mugabe would summon Dell to his
office to protest at
his "undiplomatic" speech
The Sunday Mail, quoting unnamed sources from
the foreign ministry,
said Mugabe was angry at the American's 16-page
address, in which he
detailed how in only six years Zimbabweans had become
poorer than they were
in 1953.
"Zimbabwe is experiencing... the
largest peacetime economic decline in
history," Dell told academic staff and
students. He blamed the economic
collapse on agricultural chaos following
seizure of about 4 000 white-owned
commercial farms.
The first
retaliation against his speech, arguably the toughest of any
diplomat in the
last few years, came in the Herald on Saturday through
columnist Nathaniel
Manheru.
It referred to an incident last month when Dell was
held at gunpoint
for 90 minutes by trigger-happy members of Mugabe's
personal soldiers after
he was apprehended walking his dog in a poorly
marked security area in the
National Botanical Gardens.
Manheru's largely incomprehensible weekly column is often written by
Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba. "He (Dell) .. is in the habit of
wo(a)ndering in strange, unseemly places... We all know what happens by the
margins of the Botanical Garden as night falls. So many of our youthful
citizens have been deflowered there, lured by the greenback from generous
and flaunting foreigners not given (to) enjoying sex the conventional
way."
Manheru threatened Dell's diplomatic immunity, which is
guaranteed by
the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to which
Zimbabwe is a
signatory, saying "... a pseudo-ambassador who insults the
host and tries to
incite (its) students to revolt does not deserve any
courtesies promised by
Vienna".
IOL
November 07 2005
at 02:20AM
By Edgar Hslbich
Bonn - South African
President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday praised his
German counterpart for
criticising rich countries for their double
standards.
But he
was himself criticised by a fellow African for not using the
power he had to
call Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to account.
Mbeki was in
Bonn for German Chancellor Gerhard Köhler's dialogue
initiative called
"Partnership with Africa" at the weekend.
Speaking at a panel
discussion on Sunday afternoon, Mbeki said Köhler
had shown great vision in
addressing the need for constructive talks between
Africa and
Europe.
"I like the fact that he has recently criticised the
industrial states
for the hypocrisy and double standards they sometimes make
themselves guilty
of," Mbeki said. But John Makumbe, a Zimbabwean human
rights activist,
criticised Mbeki for not doing enough in order to call
Mugabe to account.
"Mbeki has got the power,"
he said, "and he can use it in order to
stop Mugabe from ruining the
country. He could, for instance, put pressure
on the AU and SADC to expel
Mugabe from the organisations." - Independent
Foreign
Service
This article was originally published on page 4 of The
Mercury on
November 07, 2005
africasia.com
07/11/2005 19:26 UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
UN relief
coordinator Jan Egeland said here Monday he would postpone a
planned trip to
Zimbabwe from mid-November to early December to assess the
humanitarian
crisis besetting the southern African country.
"I plan to go at the
beginning of December," he told reporters here. "I will
look at the relief
effort not only (for) those who were victims of the
eviction campaign but
even more so (for) the millions that will have to be
fed" in view of a "very
severe food shortage".
Press reports from Harare linked the postponement
to forthcoming Senate
elections in Zimbabwe in late November.
The UN
World Food Program estimates that 4.3 million Zimbabweans are in need
of
food aid but the Harare government has said far fewer people -- 2.4
million
-- are hungry in a country of close to 13 million.
The World Food Program
is currently feeding one million people in Zimbabwe
and is making
preparations to feed 2.9 million people before the end of the
year.
Last August, Egeland said that following a 11.9-million-dollar
(10-million-euro) appeal launched by his Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in early July, the UN was undertaking a big
humanitarian program aimed at reaching between 100,000 and 200,000
people.
The United Nations had extended the aid offer in light of the
rains expected
to start falling within two weeks on the tens of thousands
still sleeping in
the open awaiting promised government housing.
But
Zimbabwe turned down an offer of UN help to build temporary structures
for
victims of the urban clean-up campaign carried out some five months ago,
saying it would rather have help to build permanent houses.
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan voiced dismay at Harare's rejection of the
aid
offer, expressing grave concern about the humanitarian situation in
Zimbabwe.
A UN report on the demolitions said the campaign had left
700,000 people
homeless or without sources of income, or both, in cities and
towns across
the country while a further 2.4 million were affected in
varying degrees.
The Herald (Harare)
November 5,
2005
Posted to the web November 7, 2005
Harare
THE Ministry of
Health and Child Welfare and the United States Agency for
International
Develo-pment (USAid) have entered into a US$35 million
contract to boost
condom availability and accessibility.
The partnership agreement was
signed between Health and Child Welfare
Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa and
USAid in Harare on Thursday.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the contract, which
would extend to a range of local
partners working in the areas of HIV and
Aids represented a new partnership
for all HIV and Aids prevention
activities in Zimbabwe.
While condom use was already high in the country,
it was important to
increase availability and accessibility of male and
female condoms in
priority areas especially small towns, growth points,
farming estates and
mines. These areas have always had higher national HIV
prevalence.
"The new USAid project will focus on improving overall condom
accessibility
in these areas," he said. Dr Parirenyatwa expressed concern
over the
increase of "cross-generational sex" and multiple partnerships as
major
factors driving new HIV infections in the country.
Mail and Guardian
07 November 2005 09:13
The
long-standing relationship between Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
president Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, is
one of the
casualties of the party feud over participation in the Senate
elections.
Their close and more than professional rapport for almost two
decades of
activism in the labour movement and the MDC has been irrevocably
put on
ice.
The Mail & Guardian has reliably learnt that Sibanda
was
astounded by the blistering attack on him by his leader during
telephonic
discussions with President Thabo Mbeki two weeks ago. A furious
Tsvangirai,
who snubbed Mbeki's offer to mediate between MDC factions, is
said to have
branded Sibanda "a liar and dishonest man". His anger was
triggered by
Sibanda's reaction to his defiance of an MDC national council
decision on
the controversial polls, set for November 26.
In her biography on Tsvangirai, Sarah Huddleston wrote of the
"extremely
productive working relationship that was to see them unite
Zimbabwean
workers". Others who have known the two since the early 1990s
describe them
as "close buddies, soul mates" and say that "their personal
relationship was
a unifying one in that one was Shona and the other Ndebele".
They were
instrumental in the formation of the National Constitutional
Assembly,
which, in the constitutional referendum, inflicted President
Robert Mugabe's
only defeat at the ballot box. They are regarded as the
founding fathers of
the MDC.
"For most people Sibanda was level-headed and acted
as a bridge
between the Welshman Ncube camp and the Tsvangirai camp. But in
the last
days he has been perceived as leaning to the Ncube camp," said Dr
Eldred
Masungunure of the University of Zimbabwe. "The thinking within the
Ncube
camp is that Tsvangirai is in breach of the party constitution.
Sibanda has
been won over by that argument."
The Herald
(Harare)
November 7, 2005
Posted to the web November 7,
2005
Harare
COMMERCIAL banks are unlikely to adjust their current
interest rate regimes
in response to increases in the accommodation rate
announced by the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe last month as that was, basically,
a policy guideline,
financial analysts have said.
In his Third
Quarter Monetary Policy Review Statement last month, central
bank governor
Dr Gideon Gono hiked the accommodation rate to 415 percent for
secured
lending and 430 percent for unsecured lending.
As a result, there was
widespread speculation in the market that commercial
banks would respond by
increasing their own lending and investment rates.
But nearly three weeks
later, no single bank has shown an inclination to
make adjustments in the
present interest rate regime. This has prompted
financial experts to
conclude commercial banks were apparently not shaken by
the central bank's
action.
"I think that was just policy guidance. There is no logic in
banks adjusting
their rates in response to the hike in the bank rate (by the
Reserve Bank).
"If banks have problems recovering their advances after
lending out at 300
percent per annum what more at over 400 percent?"
wondered Mr Morciad
Chaparira, a financial expert with a Harare
bank.
"When you lend out at over 400 percent you would surely be creating
a bad
debt and over time the accumulated debt could eat into your capital
until
you are insolvent and forced to close down," he said.
In
addition, other financial analysts said, the hike in the bank rate to
over
400 percent was a punitive measure meant to discourage banks from
mismanaging cash resources in the hope of a lifeline from the central
bank.
Financial experts maintain that as a lender of the last resort, the
Reserve
Bank has the power to use punitive interest rates to instill
discipline in
the banking sector.
In other words, banks that run
short of cash to sustain their operations
must seek relief from the
interbank market and only proceed to the central
bank when that window did
not bring the desired results.
It made economic sense for banks to fall
back on the interbank market in the
event of a cash squeeze, as its rates
were much lower than those charged by
the central bank.
As such, the
analysts said, changes in the accommodation rate did not
warrant adjustments
in bank lending rates.
That there have not been significant changes in
the lending and investment
rates after the governor's October monetary
policy speaks volumes of banks'
commitment to stay in business at all
costs.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
07 November 2005
The powerful Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions has blasted the country's
political elite for
turning their backs on the suffering masses of Zimbabwe.
Secretary-General of the labour body, Wellington Chibhebhe said they
are not
happy with the current situation prevailing in the country where
most of the
workers have been reduced to beggars.
According to Chibhebhe this is
the reason why the ZCTU is calling for
a nationwide protest on Tuesday to
highlight the plight of workers in the
country.
There are
reports that heavily armed security forces are being
deployed countrywide to
try and suppress the protests. But the ZCTU
secretary-general is not
concerned about the security build-up.
'We are not overly worried about
the police movements. They are a
discredited force. These are genuine
complaints we have, so they will be
suppressing genuine grievances, genuine
complaints.' The ZCTU is also taking
to streets because dialogue with the
government has failed.
Protests are planned for the five biggest
cities of Harare, Bulawayo,
Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare.
Police on
Saturday used teargas to break up protests in the five major
cities by
members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) civic
alliance, which
campaigns for a new and democratic constitution for
Zimbabwe.
The NCA, which brings together the ZCTU, churches, students,
opposition
political parties, women's organisations, human and civil rights
groups,
also opposes elections set for November 26 to create a new senate,
saying
the government should instead first allow a people-driven
constitutional
reform process to take place before it can establish the
senate.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Cricinfo staff
November 7,
2005
Charlie Robertson, the firebrand chairman of the Mashonaland Country
Districts Cricket Association, and leader of the provincial chairmen's group
currently in an administration wrangle with the Zimbabwe Cricket board, has
vowed to fight the abolishment of his association which has been the victim
of a concerted media campaign by supporters of the board.
A
pro-ZC action has been spearheading the formation, and eventual
affiliation,
of smaller associations and abolishment of the two country
districts in
Mashonaland and Matabeleland. "They can't do that," Robertson
said. "They
have to follow proper procedure. We have been in existence for
60 years and
the ZC constitution clearly stipulates our boundaries."
The formation
of new provinces looks on the surface to be an overdue idea as
the game of
cricket in Zimbabwe is in dire need of numbers. But the timing
and political
motive behind the move has raised eyebrows and discontent in
Zimbabwe. The
two existing country districts have been branded as being
dominated by
racialists by the pro board faction.
"This is not a race issue,"
Robertson shrugged. "People should stop playing
the race card and using it
as a smokescreen. Why is it that when people
start asking pertinent
questions it is turned into a race issue? This issue
has gone beyond that.
It's a case of transparency and accountability.
"If anyone says I am a
racist, they are lying. I have been financing black
cricketers in Kadoma for
10 years. If you go there, they will tell you about
the good work we have
been doing there. No one takes time to find out."
Robertson was one
of the three new appointees to the ZC board a few weeks
back, but he said he
knew nothing about it beforehand. "I have heard about
it from Alwyin
Pichanick and through the press. But I will not sit on that
board unless
everything is squeaky clean. Under the laws of this country,
people can go
to jail on the allegations that are being leveled. I do not
want to be part
of that system.
"Poor administration is what is affecting our cricket.
The people running
cricket have no cricket background. Our team was being
hammered in India,
and the Under23s can't even compete against B sides in
South Africa. The
players can't perform when their minds are on the
politics. We have to do
something dramatic now, otherwise we will be dead
and buried."
The media campaign against those looking to challenge the
board continued
over the weekend. An article in the Sunday Mail, which
repeated claims the
issue was predominantly about race and slammed key
opponents of the board,
quoted an ICC official as saying that the issue had
to be dealt with
internally. But enquiries to the ICC have revealed that it
has not received
the dossier from the chairmen, nor has any ICC
representative spoken to
anyone about it.
© Cricinfo