The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
US$ Buy | = | 824,0000 |
US$ Sell | = | 847,9787 |
UK Buy | = | 1 346,6625 |
UK Sell | = | 1 385,8503 |
EURO Buy | = | 932,72618 |
EURO Sell | = | 959,86851 |
ZAR Buy | = | 108,49470 |
ZAR Sell | = | 111,65190 |
"We are here at the invitation of one of
our directors," Nkomo said. "A
number of interviews have been lined up for us
and we will meet various
groups," he said.
Media interviews have
been planned with the national press, television and
radio.
The
highlight of the visit was due to be a meeting chaired yesterday by
Kate
Hoey, a British MP who visited Zimbabwe in July and has become an
advocate
for democracy in Zimbabwe.
Representatives of
organisations that have been at the forefront of
supporting the ANZ will
attend the meeting. The orgnisations include the
Commonwealth Press Union,
the International Bar Association, Commonwealth
Magistrates and Judges
Association, the Newspaper Society, Amnesty
International, Commonwealth Trade
Unions, and a number of Zimbabwean exiles.
Meanwhile, police have
moved from the Daily News offices in Harare and are
now camped at the factory
where the printing press is housed.
Zim Independent
Tourism shrinks 10-fold/Munyeza
Staff
Writers
ZIMBABWE Council for Tourism (ZCT) president Shingi Munyeza says the
tourism
sector has shrunk ten-fold over the past four years.
Speaking
at the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) meeting on
Wednesday,
Munyeza who is also Zimsun Leisure Group's chief executive
officer, said in
1999 the tourism industry together with its downstream
activities generated
US$700 million compared to the US$70 million produced
last
year.
"The tourism industry generated about US$250 million but if we
take into
account the downstream activities it amounted to US$700 million.
Last year
the sector only produced US$70 million," said
Munyeza.
"The government should be addressing the impact of the land
reform programme
on the tourism industry," Munyeza said.
He said
it was high time the acquisition process of land was completed.
"There is
still listing and delisting continuing and this is causing
unnecessary
problems and complications," he said.
"No one at the moment can
confirm that land reform is complete. Let us get
on with the programme and
complete it."
The tourism sector has not been performing well since
the fast-track land
reform programme began.
The sector has been
harmed by negative publicity emanating from government's
handling of the
controversial issue, abuse of the judiciary as well as the
interference with
press freedom.
Munyeza called on government and tourism players to
adopt a realistic
marketing campaign for the sector.
He referred
to the recent launch in Johannesburg of a promotional video on
the Victoria
Falls and a CD-Rom on Zimbabwe.
"It is amazing to watch the CD-Rom
showing trains moving when in fact those
things are not working. The CD-Rom
is unrealistic. The only realistic part
is the Victoria Falls," said
Munyeza.
He emphasised the need for a truthful assessment of the
economy to come up
with a proper framework.
"Let's start telling
the truth. By not telling the truth we are digging our
own grave. If there is
no foreign currency then there is none," said
Munyeza.
Commenting on
the National Economic Revival Plan (Nerp) he said the bulk of
what was
achieved in February had not been implemented.
Nerp is the rehashed
version of the short-lived National Economic
Recovery
Programme.
The quarterly devaluation which government
promised has not been achieved.
Government has also failed to reduce
inflation to its target of 96% before
the end of the year.
Munyeza
said there was need for Zimbabwe to re-engage the
international
community.
"The international community remains
vital to our recovery," he said. "But
before we approach them we should build
confidence."
Zimbabwe has been shunned by the international community
because of its poor
economic and political climate. This has resulted in
escalating problems
such as high unemployment of 70% and poverty.
Zim Independent
Tourism figures disputed
Ngoni
Chanakira
CONFLICTING statistics about the country's tourism arrivals and
foreign
currency earnings are beginning to generate debate within the
business
sector.
While politicians maintain tourism is booming, the
situation on the ground
tells a different story, with hotel occupancies
nose-diving countrywide and
plush hotels now white elephants, according to
industry officials.
To try and salvage the collapsing tourism sector
the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) gave a dispensation to hotels and tourist
specialist services
to receive payment in foreign currency.
The
central bank said this measure had become necessary to improve
convenience
for the country's visitors, while at the same time encouraging
dwindling
foreign exchange inflows.
Government last week appointed a
nine-member taskforce, mandated to solve
the crippling foreign currency
situation.
However, tourism has been singled out as being one of the
sectors where
officials are not declaring their foreign currency to the
RBZ.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), whose role is to supply
information on
earnings and arrivals and departures, refused to make the
information
available to businessdigest.
Tichaona Jokonya,
Zimbabwe's longest-serving ambassador since Independence,
is ZTA's chief
executive officer.
When contacted about questions sent two weeks ago
to ZTA, a secretary said
Jokonya would not respond because "the independent
media is not in the
business of promoting the country but of highlighting
negative issues only -
especially when writing about tourism".
She
said while the questions had arrived on Jokonya's desk, she doubted
whether
there would be any responses.
"You only concentrate on negative
issues which tarnish the image of the
country," she said.
The same
set of questions were however sent to the Zimbabwe Council for
Tourism (ZCT)
which immediately responded.
Prominent hotelier and Zimsun Leisure
Group chief executive officer Shingi
Munyeza is ZCT president.
A
senior ZCT official, also an hotelier, Paul Matamisa, said the
statistics
given should not conflict because they came from the same
source.
"There should be no conflicts considering the source of the
data is one and
the same - the Central Statistical Office (CSO)," Matamisa
said. "However,
the information indicates that between last year and this
year, tourism has
grown by 40% judging by the arrival statistics given by the
CSO."
The CSO has been severely criticised for its inflation figures
dished out
monthly. Analysts question what methods are used to quantify the
basket of
goods used in its survey, most of which have disappeared from
supermarket
shelves and are only available on the parallel
market.
Matamisa, using CSO statistics, said arrivals from Africa
grew by 47%,
Europe 67%, the Americas 19%, Asia 80% and Oceania
63%.
He said this related to the first six months of this year
(January/June) in
comparison to last year. No actual figures were however
given.
Analyst Eric Bloch has pointed out that government is using
figures for
cross-boarder shoppers as part of its "arrivals"
statistics.
ZTA chairman and NMB Holdings Ltd deputy managing
director James Mushore
said last year Zimbabwe earned US$75 million from
tourism, which was
expected to contribute 2,5% to the gross domestic
product.
Matamisa said for Zimbabwe to revive its once lucrative
tourism sector it
should start off with extensive marketing.
He
said this included image-building and aggressive marketing through
the
tourism and trade attaches in all countries where the country
is
represented.
"This of course calls for huge financial resources,"
he said. "Concerted
consistent government support for tourism all round
should also see fuel
supplies and transport systems sorted out. Air Zimbabwe
requires a huge
capital injection to revive it. It is suffering from both
lack of human
resources as well as shortage of equipment to service local,
regional and
international routes to the satisfaction of the markets and
stakeholders."
Asked what was being done about the Victoria Falls which
is now being
marketed by neighbours South Africa and Zambia, Matamisa said if
Zimbabwe
fails to plug the hole, others were bound to jump in and take
advantage of
the situation.
"As it is, it is not only South Africa
but others around are seeing the
opportunities of marketing their
destinations and using Victoria Falls as
the draw-card," he
said.
"In any case Zimbabwe stands to gain whichever way the tourist
has come. Our
challenge is to let tourism spread
countrywide."
Matamisa said the ZCT would like to see a situation
where there was one
realistic exchange rate in Zimbabwe, which is managed
through the banks and
the permanent eradication of the parallel
market.
While the Zimbabwe dollar is officially pegged at $824
against the United
States greenback, it is going for as much as $6 000 on the
parallel market.
Asked what else was being done to market the country
other than the video
and song launched at a lavish ceremony in South Africa
by Information
minister Jonathan Moyo, Matamisa said various organisations
used various
tools.
"Others, and that is in the main today, use
the electronic media, brochures
and the Zimbabwe CD rom not forgetting the
trade shows round the world
including our own Travel Expo," he said. "We know
that ZTA have recently
dispatched four new attachés to Johannesburg, China,
France and Malaysia.
"Tourism is definitely on the mend, we only need to
influence the visitors
to visit the rest of the country besides Victoria
Falls and then the effects
can be felt everywhere."
Insiders
however say tourism has slipped from being a major foreign currency
earner as
tourist arrivals have shrunk drastically on the back of adverse
publicity
associated with the perceived breakdown in the rule of
law.
"Competition in this sector is extremely keen making it an
arduous task to
reclaim lost business," a banker said. "This sector's
recovery depends on
the stabilisation of the political and economic
climate."
Zim Independent
Cabs hikes mortgage bond rates
Ngoni Chanakira
THE
Central Africa Building Society (Cabs) is increasing its mortgage
bond
lending rates with effect from December 1, further dampening the hopes
of
cash-strapped home-seekers.
The move comes as commercial banks have
begun hiking their minimum lending
rates (MLR) to levels way above the 100%
mark.
A wave of increases in the MLR seems to be the order of day
with several
banks increasing theirs this week. Trust Bank Ltd published
their increase
which now sits at 163%, while First Bank has theirs at
169%.
Cabs managing director David Stephenson, said with effect from
December 1,
mortgage lending interest rates would be hiked.
He said all loans worth $100 million would shoot up by 20% from 65% to 85%.
The managing director said working capital for individual,
industrial and
commercial property loans would increase from 53% to
65%.
Schools, on the other hand, would have their interest rates
increased by 6%,
from 47% to 53%, while vacant land would attract an interest
of 65%, up from
the current 53%.
Stephensen said non-owner
occupied residential properties and sole
properties as well as non-trading
companies and trust residential properties
would attract an interest rate of
53% up from 45%.
He said owner-occupied low and high-density
properties worth $20 million
would now pay an interest rate of 50%, up from
the 43% currently charged.
The managing director said owner occupied
low and high density properties
worth $20 million as well as owner occupied
high density properties worth
more than $100 000 but less than $20 million
would attract an interest of
45%.
They were paying interest rates of 40%.
Analysts said other building societies would immediately
follow suit due to
Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary environment.
They
said it was however unfortunate because potential house owners would
be
forced to fork out more money at a time when everything else has begun
to
skyrocket.
Inflation has steadily risen from about 100% in
January this year to 455,6%
in September.
Meanwhile Cabs says it
advanced by way of new mortgage loans a total of $9,7
billion, an increase of
117,3% over the previous financial year.
The building society said this
is a new record in mortgage lending.
Cabs chairman Enos Chiura said
applications from 1 083 borrowers were
processed of which 234 were in respect
of loans on properties in high
density areas and 849 for purchase and
building both low density residential
and commercial
properties.
"The acute shortage of affordable housing continues to be
a problem and the
increased costs together with the shortage of building
materials further
reduced the delivery of new housing units, particularly in
high to medium
density areas where serviced stands with individual title are
a scarcity,"
Chiura said in his annual report for the period ended June
30.
Cabs increased mortgage rates on two occasions during the year in
an attempt
to offset the escalating costs of operation that it had
experienced.
"However, these rates are still extremely negative to
inflation and very
attractive to borrowers in the market in general," Chiura
said. "Funds
generated from investing activities continued to be utilised to
subsidise
mortgage lending rates in an attempt to keep these at affordable
levels."
The chairman said 957 loans were advanced for the
acquisition of existing
residential properties while 66 loans were advanced
for the erection of or
improvement to existing dwellings.
"A
further 60 loans were advanced for commercial and industrial purchases
and
development," Chiura said.
Overall, the Society's mortgage advances
grew at $14,7 billion or 45,9% of
the industry total of $32 billion as at
June 30.
Chiura said inflation continued to drive the value of
properties upwards
resulting in a significant decline in the loan to value
ratio of properties
mortgaged.
This, in turn, had a positive
effect on loan servicing by borrowers with
only 5,3% of loans being in
arrears at year-end.
"The Society still has only six repossessed
properties in possession with a
total capital balance of $7,5 million,"
Chiura said.
He said the lack of serviced stands with freehold title
continued to
restrict the delivery of new housing units and this, together
with an
unrealistically low income ceiling for those qualifying to borrow
funds
through the United States Agency for International
Development
Public/Private Sector Housing Programme, limited the number of
loans
granted.
Zim Independent
Mugabe's nationalism leaves empty stomachs
MOST
Zimbabweans have lost all hope on the best way to get ourselves out of
our
current predicament.
Some thought the MDC-driven "final push" would
deliver the punch while
others thought it would be the talks between
President Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai that would extricate us from the
morass.
Slowly, hope in any of the above seems to be fizzling out. An
atmosphere of
dejection and despair seems to have engulfed most of us.
Questions are
ringing in everyone's mind: how should we tell Mugabe that we
are really
suffering? How should we remind him that lying to the whole nation
that
everything is rosy in this country does not fill our empty
stomachs?
Those very pessimistic and vulnerable to the vice of fear
have already
resigned themselves to fate. To them there is no one who will be
able to
convince the old man that people, in as much as they revered Mugabe
so much
during the liberation struggle, have come to a stage where they now
hate him
in equal proportions. Tsvangirai has demystified Mugabe's aura
of
omnipotence, but has not done enough practically to be crowned messiah
of
the troubled souls of our country.
Zimbabwe is now a country
with no hope. Although Mahatma Gandhi once
proclaimed that even tyrants who
at one time appear invincible will one day
face an ignominious fate, the
people of our country are stuck.
We have unofficially renounced our
ability to determine the destiny of our
country. Can we say we have all been
cowed into a corner and no one can
manoeuvre, unless you parrot the ruling
party's gibberish?
Mugabe is an accomplished author of people's
problems and sadness. He did it
as early as the 1980s during the infamous
Gukurahundi massacres to protect
his throne and he is repeating the same
tactics. People are subject to their
history and right now everyone remembers
vividly how deadly Mugabe can be,
especially if it involves challenging his
leadership.
We have enclosed ourselves in a protective shell of
cowardice. The dear
leader looks at us and, behold, he feels contented as a
leader of a mass of
cowards.
Mugabe has grown so arrogant knowing
that no one can challenge him. He has
mismanaged the country's economy with
no one raising a finger.
We now live in a country of shortages, from fuel
to bank notes, and
incompetent leaders.
The old man remains
resolute in riding a dead horse. He has enjoyed it, but
fails to realise that
a dead horse takes you nowhere. He has taken refuge in
listening to lies that
are ingeniously manufactured by the maverick
Information minister Jonathan
Moyo.
I would like to believe that after composing "Go Warriors Go",
Moyo shall
soon come up with a song called "Go Dictators Go" which Mugabe
should take
heed of, followed by Olusegun Obasanjo and later by the rather
confused
Thabo Mbeki.
Mugabe may want to portray George Bush as an
agent of the evil one, but I
doubt our people agree with that warped logic.
As long as Mugabe presides
over the sinking ship called Zimbabwe no one in
his right senses will
hearken to calls that Bush's agenda in Africa is to
entrench the ugly hand
of imperialism. Mugabe should know that the people of
this country are so
enlightened as to know what is good or bad. Perhaps Bush
commands more
respect in Zimbabwe than Mugabe is enjoying.
The
reasons are there for everyone who is not having a decent meal each day
to
see. It is unanimously agreed that Mugabe is the undesirable element in
our
midst.
Life in Zimbabwe has become a nightmare for many of us. The
aspect of
nationalism that is preached by Mugabe is moribund in our epoch.
What
nationalism, what patriotism if my tummy is only full of water? To hell
with
it.
Jack Zaba,
Mt Pleasant.
Zim Independent
Zimbabweans turned into regional scavengers
By
Tafirenyika Wekwa Makunike
ONE weekend in September a Zimbabwean-born
Johannesburg-based pastor
received a distress call from a Rustenburg police
cell. A fifty-plus old
woman from the western suburbs of Bulawayo had been
picked up for the first
time in the 20 years she had been selling her wares
in South Africa. I
agreed to accompany the brother to the platinum province
to try and get the
distressed lady out of jail. When we picked up her
passport from the house
where she had mistakenly left it we realised that she
in fact had a valid
visa. So both of us, not being particularly legally
astute, thought it would
be a piece of cake.
It was easy to understand
her distress, for the woman was incarcerated with
howling and hallucinating
young drug addicts detained to cool off during the
weekend. The desk officer
took us to her after explaining the predicament
but he would not release her
unless… Not satisfied, we asked to see the
officer-in-charge of the station
who fortunately was available that weekend.
But he also explained that his
"hands were tied" because releasing illegal
immigrants was dealt with by Home
Affairs, an office operating only during
the week unless… Being law abiding
people we did not pursue the "unless" and
left the poor woman in the cell for
the whole weekend.
It seems we have been converted from an
industrialising nation into a nation
of street vendors. Some politicians in
Harare seem to think that is
empowerment. I am not sure whether Sithembiso
Nyoni is still a full time
"minister of street vendors". What she needs to do
is occasionally drive
through the streets of South Africa in a vehicle with
Zimbabwean registered
plates.
Nearly every off-ramp and
intersection has a Zimbabwean selling there and
for the last two years I have
had an opportunity to interface with them.
Their stories are not beautiful.
They are in Pretoria, Midrand, Randburg,
Rosebank, Sandton, Edenvale,
Eastgate, Southgate, Benoni, Vereeniging,
Springs, Roodepoort and I used to
think that it was just a Gauteng issue.
Then I bumped into more
Zimbabwean vendors along the coast in Durban, Port
Elizabeth and even Cape
Town. At one time I was surprised when I met
Zimbabwean vendors on the
streets of Windhoek.
Their story is the same: "Mudhara ndimwi
munopinda kumaoffice titsvagirewo
basa, kumusha zvakapressor hapana zvekuita
(Man you are the one with access
to offices, help us find some formal
employment, things are tough back home
and we have no option)". One man I had
a long chat with in a traffic jam in
Sandton nearly drove me to tears. He had
his certificates, including a
four-year post high school training and he
cannot find a job. Earlier this
year a prominent Zimbabwean banker was on
television cooing importantly that
it was very good that our people were
scattered all over the world as this
would bring the much needed foreign
currency.
As one of the smart alecs of our nation who probably has
arranged siphoning
mechanisms at source for this foreign currency into
overseas accounts, which
is then sold to the productive sector at exorbitant
rates, I could
appreciate his excitement. Yet here was this young man on whom
the taxpayer
has spent scarce resources educating and should ideally be
earning more than
R10 000 a month. He barely garners R500. Personally I would
be grieved if
our young people at the prime of their lives are earning less
than 5% of
their potential.
One vendor once explained that their
greatest loss could be attributed to
the police who occasionally pitch up
threatening them with deportation just
for the sake of collecting bribes from
them. Some times they give them all
they have to avoid detention
centres.
It is that time of the year again when we have that annual
circus that
others prefer to dignify with the title national budget. Do our
members of
parliament remember our Finance minister promising that inflation
would be
96% by this time? Have they queried his calculations and
extrapolations or
perhaps they have been too busy to notice?
What
is unique about the Zimbabwean dollar that its rate can only be
determined by
a geriatric politburo as opposed to the market? In Mozambique
and even Zambia
the currency has been left to the market to stabilise and
anyone can walk
into a bank and buy foreign currency across the counter.
The kwacha
has been in the 4 000 to 5 000 range to the US dollar for the
last two years
yet the parallel rate of the zimdollar is leaping past that.
Apart from the
few rich dealers and the politically-connected class with
access to foreign
currency at the official rate, I am not convinced that the
country as a whole
has benefited from the current exchange regime. It would
be interesting to
know which Zanu politician is not hypocritical and has a
paper trail showing
them changing their foreign currency at the official
rate.
The result
of political controls is that someone from South Africa can walk
in and pick
our prime gold mines worth US$80 million for only US$15 million
while we sing
"land is the economy, the economy is land". Our own smart
alecs have to fight
for the 30% crumbs and still pay a premium of $9 million
instead of the
proportional $5 million that the foreigner paid?
Talking of the
platinum province, the Bafokeng people who sit on most of the
platinum
deposits in South Africa this year received $598 million in
royalties from
Impala and their king has been talking about getting a 20%
stake in the
company for his people. For the incessant excitement our own
Minister of
Mines has been generating with regard to the increasing platinum
extraction,
how much has been accruing to the people of Mhondoro or Ngezi or
Shurugwi who
sit on the deposits?
One pastor was trying to draw an analogy between
the Zimbabwean situation
and what happened in the early church in the book of
Acts in the Bible. He
said the church spread rapidly to other places after
persecution in
Jerusalem and his point was that Zimbabweans have spread to
other places
because of the difficulties at home.
There is no
doubt that many Zimbabweans who have left the country have been
very
successful in their various pursuits. I have met many highly mobile
lawyers,
engineers, scientists and accountants but in applauding people like
Peter
Moyo, deputy MD of Old Mutual South Africa or Isaac Takawira, we often
forget
the majority languishing at the other end of the
spectrum.
Tafirenyika Wekwa Makunike is a business consultant based
in Johannesburg.
Zim Independent
Zim rejects Zanu PF's racial propaganda
By Obert
Madondo
OFTEN a repressed population abandons hope and loses sense of all
civilised
values. For us Zimbabweans, Mugabe's repression has triggered an
insatiable
quest for racial tolerance.
Few of us attached significance
to the farming community of Chimanimani
electing a white MP in 2000. If we
saw a milestone in urban constituencies
dominated by blacks accepting white
MDC candidates, instead of rejecting
them on the grounds of race, we didn't
mention it.
Damned be the narrow-minded argument: "People would've
voted a cat to shame
Zanu PF, anywhere." Zimbabweans rejected Mugabe's racial
propaganda at its
most vicious. Mugabe is determined to leave Zimbabwe in as
chaotic and
ungovernable a state as present-day Iraq. For a self-styled hero
whose
"disciples" have irrevocably ganged up and secured him an estate in
eternal
damnation, it makes sense, doesn't it?
Forget the
reconciliation posturing; Mugabe's rule has always thrived on a
subservient
black population and an intimidated white population, chained
together by
racial friction.
Since the current struggle began, Zanu PF's campaign
message has
relentlessly opened the old wound of land iniquity, with
reminders of
colonialism's evils. For a nation at a crossroads, and just two
decades from
that unfortunate past, we could easily have succumbed to this
destructive
prescription.
But we dodged the snare. Our memo to
Mugabe is clear: Zimbabwe's future
hinges on racial harmony. Racial tolerance
is the cornerstone for Zimbabwe's
emergence from current obscurity. We wedded
the current struggle for
political change with the search for racial harmony
and made them both
urgent priorities.
Even Canadians should envy
us. Ontario, Canada's most racially diverse
province, recently concluded
elections. Of the victorious Liberal Party's
22-member cabinet, only two are
visible minorities. Toronto, one of the most
racially diverse cities in the
world, is holding mayoral elections on
November 10. All the five
front-runners are white.
Elsewhere in established democracies,
minority candidates usually win only
in minority dominated areas. In the
United States, deficiencies in political
representation are compensated for
by the appointment of minorities to
influential positions.
Is
Colin Powell's position as US Secretary of State indicative of the
American
public's readiness to elect an African American president? My
gossiping
circle doubts it. This sceptical bunch alleges the existence of a
"system" in
every country that elevates one ethnic group while suppressing
the
rest.
In Zimbabwe, until recently, the system operated this way:
areas dominated
by minorities were discretely married to adjacent
majority-dominated
neighbourhoods, effectively neutralising the minority
vote. Aren't
Borrowdale and Epworth such an odd couple? Minorities acquired
political
office out of Zanu PF's charity and owed their soul to that
party.
Meanwhile, the white community shuddered every time Mugabe
mentioned
colonial atrocities, as if they were guilty on the grounds of
skin
pigmentation. The official voice consistently labelled whites
unrepentant
racists. A white man who strayed too close to the engine room of
the
struggle for common good was a pseudo-liberal and pretender. His
sole
intention was to safeguard his economic interests.
We sealed
this explicit divisive tactic and nationalisation of racial hatred
with
silence. Once, a friend challenged me to look into his eyes and confirm
that
he was an irretrievable born-racist. I merely shrugged. For fear of
being
labelled white apologists, we rarely lauded Mike Auret for his
sterling work
with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in the 90s.
It
didn't occur to us then that politics is all about the interests of
the
represented. In the democratic Zimbabwe just ahead, it'd be suicidal
for
David Coltart to substitute his constituency's interests with his own.
The
moment a politician seeks political office, he automatically puts his
life
and that of his family on the line. Whites representing blacks have
to
deliver; their failure would automatically justify Zanu PF's
misplaced
assertions.
Wait a minute! If I'm pampering anyone, it's
purely by coincidence.
Zimbabwean minorities were committing the ultimate
crime of let-down to
their communities and to Zimbabwe. They weren't
participating. Their apathy
then seemed an index of
contentment.
Had they continued to live in the periphery of politics,
we'd in future have
been forced to introduce some form of affirmative action
to bring them on
board. No country can attain real progress when one or more
of its visible
minorities are alienated. Whites finally claimed their
rightful slot in
politics An ailing nation made the last call to all its
citizens; minorities
are offering their political candidacy and the majority
is embracing them.
Yet the acquisition of power by a fraction of the
minority isn't really the
equivalent of true political power for that group.
In my concept of a
peaceful, stable Zimbabwe, the calling to minorities to
participate has yet
to begin. In a country struggling to stamp its democratic
foot on the
ground, political action is the ultimate calling, a compulsory
religion.
We're a people re-inventing itself, insisting on thinking
and acting for
itself at last. We're designing our political traditions,
values and mass
democratic institutions. Once established, they'd be hard to
alter. The
United States is a good example. I'd be naive to suggest that
we've already
attained that level of racial tolerance that's the hallmark of
a civilised
society.
Those trapped in multi-racial relationships
still have to contend with the
cold comfort of only their homes, their most
trusted friends and the
secluded restaurants of the northern suburbs. A white
man venturing into
Mbare, if he summons the courage to do so in the first
place, is a tourist
first and foremost.
We can be forgiven for the
slow progress. The world is too busy to censor
hate-peddlers and tighten the
nuts and bolts of racial tolerance.
Obert Ronald Madondo is a
Zimbabwean living in Toronto, Canada. This is an
expanded version of a letter
he wrote to the paper last week.
A CALL TO
WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO JOIN ZIMBABWEAN WOMEN IN SOLIDARITY
on
Saturday 15 November 2003 for a
STREET PRAYER & ALL NIGHT PRAYER
VIGIL
(6 pm Saturday to 6 am Sunday)
Ahead of the Zimbabwe Council of
Churches called
16 November - NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
For peace, justice
and prosperity.
Isaiah 1: 21-26
The City that was once faithful is
behaving like a whore! At one time it was
filled with righteous men, but now
only murderers remain. Jerusalem, you
were once like silver, but now you are
worthless; you were like good wine;
but now you are only water. Your leaders
are rebels and friends of thieves;
they are always accepting gifts and
bribes. They never defend orphans in
court or listen when widows present
their case. So now, listen to what the
Lord Almighty, Israel’s powerful God
is saying: “I will take revenge on you,
my enemies, and you will cause me no
more trouble. I will take action
against you. I will purify you just as metal
is refined, and will remove all
impurity. I will give you rulers and advisers
like those you had long ago.
Then Jerusalem will be called the righteous,
faithful city.”
Women of Zimbabwe, come forward and meet together in the
centre of town on
15th November at 6pm. Please be prepared to pray and fast
until 6 am, Sunday
16 November. After a two-hour street prayer, we will walk
to a church
closeby and spend the night in prayer and song. Please bring your
bibles and
a candle to share.
We call on women around the country and
in the SADC region to join us in
this activity. We would love to receive
solidarity messages to read out
during the night.
Zimbabwe Council of
Churches Statement
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches invites member churches
and all Christians
for a Day of National Prayers. We wish to pray for the
nation in the
following areas: Talks / Reconciliation / the two political
parties / Good
rainy season / Peace and Justice / Farmers and a Non-violent
society
We are happy to inform those who want to participate that fellow
Christians
and churches in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia and
Mozambique are
also praying for Zimbabwe to enjoy peace, justice and
prosperity once more.
We therefore call upon all to do what you can earnestly
pray to God to
intervene in our situation and crisis.
WOMEN OF
ZIMBABWE ARISE - WOZA is a Zulu word meaning ‘Come forward’. WOZA
was formed
as a women’s civic movement to:
Y Provide women, from all walks of life with
a united voice to
speak out on issues affecting their day-to-day lives.
Y
Empower female leadership that will lead community
involvement in finding
solutions to the current crisis.
Y Encourage women to stand up for their
rights and freedoms.
Y Lobbying and advocacy on those issues affecting
women.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter. Dr
Martin Luther King Jr
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1: Compensation
Dear Mr. Worswick,
I gather that a compensation
expert has stated that "the compensation train
is leaving" and that they have
rung the bell three times.
I am reliably informed that a certain
institution that has not shown any of
courage, or common sense in making a
stand for its members, has now found
big new words like TRANSPARENCY &
MANDATE & COMPENSATION (in the broadest
sense apparently) This is most
encouraging but based on their track record
(reputation?) I believe that all
farmers must remain vigilant about anyone
bandying such BIG words around
after they have been in the 'Wilderness of
Dialogue for Forty
Months.'
Is this the "Cape to Cairo Compensation Express" or is it just a
good old
"African Sadza and Gravy Train" trying to cover its tracks? They
have
openly supported the liquidation of their "broad mandate" (to keep
their
seat safe on the Gravy Train?) and are now hoping to finish their
mandate
off with an ever so juicy but poisoned carrot.
I suggest that
these born again "Sadza Train Spotters" take a walk down
memory lane to
Dearborn, Michigan - and listen to Henry Ford - "You cannot
build a
reputation on what you are going to do."
I wonder what he would say about
the performance of the leaders in
agriculture over the last forty months -
"mass destruction" would be a new
dimension for the man who pioneered "mass
production" with the Model T
Ford, nearly a hundred years ago. Would he offer
them a job?
Not
Derailed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2: Post Mugabe Agriculture
It does appear that not too many people are
concerned about what happens to
agriculture in the post Mugabe era. Or what
the new governments ideas are
regarding Agriculture .I do not feel that we
will get anywhere by taking a
hard ass line. We must face reality and realise
that our old way of life is
over, and look to the future.
Do they not
know whether they will want to go back to their land or not,
because that is
all it will be, and who do they feel is going to move the
settlers?
In
letter 2 I would like us to have a look at the mainly tobacco producing
soils
in Zim and try to visualise what will happen to them in future if the
new
government is not very, careful.
Let us have a close look at the so
called fertile areas that the white man
is accused of having taken away from
the original Bushman owners and left
all the infertile areas to the black
man.
Can anybody give me an instance where the white tobacco grower has
opened
new land without first having to clear the natural virgin forests and
it
was this timber that was used to cure the first tobacco and paid for
the
opening up of the land for productive agriculture? This land was not
used
by the previous inhabitants as it was correctly considered too infertile
to
grow their crops. The inhabitants, not owners, because they did not buy
the
land and nobody gave it to them, or did the Bushmen sign a treaty
of
surrender, of the time were cultivating the more fertile stream banks, on
a
slash and burn basis and when it became too infertile they just moved to
a
new site.
Most Zimbabwean soils cannot withstand monoculture and
need periods of rest
or the introduction of leguminous crops in rotation, and
this practise is
far more critical in the high rainfall sand veldt areas of
Zimbabwe.
A further point that must be remembered is that the high
rainfall areas are
not suitable for beef production and have a very low
carrying capacity and
has a covering of very sparse sour grass
species.
In the pre Second World War era it was home to only a small
proportion of
the national breeding herd and it was only after the
introduction of
eelworm resistant pasture grass in rotation with tobacco that
the high
rainfall areas became home to more than 50% of the national breeding
herd.
In rotation with tobacco and pasture it became possible to grow
profitable
maize, but without this rotation it becomes quite impossible to
grow a
profitable maize crop, as the amount of fertilizer it would require
would
make it quite uneconomic, and that is without even considering other
very
necessary cultural practices.
With the introduction of irrigation
for a double crop of tobacco it became
quite economical to incorporate such
crops as wheat, barley and soya's into
the rotation and on the longer term it
became economic to incorporate such
crops as Citrus, Coffee, Avocadoes and
Granadillas.
With the result that the white farmer after many years of
hard work and
millions of dollars, and much expertise has managed to convert
useless bush
land into highly productive and sophisticated farms.
If
this land had to revert to peasant type agriculture in a few years time
we
will have another Sahara desert in the middle of southern Africa.
After
considering the above points and probably many more I ask you to
think of the
best method of saving this land with out moving the genuine
settlers. In fact
we must think of increasing them, and making them
more
productive.
Good night. Sleep well.
Ben
Norton
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3:
Dear Cherad
So many of our people have lost hope. So many are
still in limbo, not
knowing what to do, where to go or why it all
happened.
All I ask is that we get up, dust ourselves off and find a
mountain to
climb again.
Many people are accountable for what has
happened...and they will be made
to face that.....once we are able to look to
the future again.
With best regards
Jean
Simon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
4:
Dear Sir,
I find myself in whole hearted agreement with the
sentiments expressed by
Sophia Janssen in your latest forum (No:177 03 Nov
2003) And for all the
dust that has been kicked up in this forum, these ideas
and opinions have
been voiced by many other writers from many different
perspectives. I
think it would be difficult to disagree in any significant
way with the 11
points put forward by Sophia but I think the telling point is
found in the
few sentences before point number one and simply put it is this:
"....
Mugabe still squats on ... the throne."
We can draw up any
number of manifestos, we can - and should - fill out all
the loss claim forms
in as much detail as possible and as valuable as this
all is - particularly
with a view to the coming "dawn" , it will not in and
of itself, unseat the
monster. Mugabe at this stage, wields the big stick.
He is not going to hand
it over willingly to anyone and until some one with
a bigger stick comes
along and removes him from the throne we are stuck
with him. Maybe our
efforts should be focused more toward lobbying the
"bigger sticks" and at the
same time making sure our ducks are all in a row
so that we are ready for the
day that Mugabe is knocked off the perch.
I hope we can all put aside our
differences and with the wealth of
experience and expertise out there, I am
confident we can be ready to meet
the dawn.
Regards,
Bob
Duncan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
5: Sophia Janssen's letter
Wow! Sophia Janssen's letter on the open
letter forum was excellent.
She provided a clear synopsis of the facts
regarding many topics
surrounding the monstrous commercial farming dilemma.
And, she provided a
plan for a better future -- a New Dawn -- based on the
acceptance of those
truths.
Her composition should be the platform on
which to build, for she has
established a foundation based on fact/truth, and
there is no better one --
and she has done it with courage and obvious
intelligence. Farmers, please
use her brain and other detectable ...(reading
between the lines, so to
speak, as I do not know her)...
qualities.
Keith Duguid (not a farmer, just a
geologist)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
NATIONAL DAY OF
PRAYER
SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER
2003
The City that was once faithful
is behaving like a whore! At one time it was filled with righteous men, but now
only murderers remain. Jerusalem, you were once like silver, but now you are
worthless; you were like good wine; but now you are only water. Your leaders are
rebels and friends of thieves; they are
always accepting gifts and bribes. They never defend orphans in court or listen
when widows present their case. |
So now, listen to what the Lord Almighty, Israel’s powerful God is
saying: “I will take revenge on you, my enemies, and you will cause me no more
trouble. I will take action against you. I will purify you just as metal is
refined, and will remove all impurity. I will give you rulers and advisers like
those you had long ago. Then Jerusalem will be called the righteous, faithful
city.” |
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches invites member churches and all Christians for a Day of National Prayers. We wish to pray for the nation in the following areas:
v Talks v Reconciliation v The two political parties v Non-violent society |
v Good rainy season v Farmers v Peace and Justice |
We encourage churches to organise services in their churches around these areas on Sunday 16 November 2003.
Our nation has been going through a crisis for a long time now. For us Christians there is no way such a crisis can be solved without prayer. It is therefore for this reason that we are inviting all churches and Christians to pray for this nation.
We are happy to inform those who want to participate that fellow Christians and churches in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique are also praying for Zimbabwe to enjoy peace, justice and prosperity once more.
We therefore call upon all to do what you can and earnestly pray to God to intervene in our situation and crisis.
MDC bewildered by Mbeki's view on talks
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe's main opposition is
"pleasantly surprised" by President Thabo
Mbeki's latest allegation that
talks to produce a coalition government are
under way. Reports from Canada
quoted Mbeki as saying, at a joint news
conference with Prime Minister Jean
Chretien, that President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu PF and the Movement for
Democratic Change were talking and could reach
agreement soon. But MDC
secretary-general Welshman Ncube said: "We know
nothing about these talks. We
can only assume that maybe Mr Mbeki is talking
to Zanu PF and Zanu PF is
talking to him. If Mr Mbeki and Zanu PF decide to
approach us, we will gladly
wait to hear from them." Ncube said unofficial
talks had taken place between
the MDC and Zanu PF more than three months
ago, but had not yielded anything.
"We never got to a stage of resuming
dialogue and we have not heard anything
from Zanu PF in three months. We are
therefore surprised by the news from
Canada," Ncube said. Mbeki said in
Canada that both sides realised they
needed to resolve Zimbabwe's political
problems before tackling a crippling
economic crisis. "They're talking to
each other now," Mbeki was quoted as
saying. "My sense is that it won't take
that long. "I think the ruling party
and the opposition understand ... the
depth of the economic crisis and the
impact on the lives of the people,"
Mbeki said. "Nobody is dragging their
feet. They will move with some speed."
Chretien confirmed he had been
informed of progress in the alleged Zimbabwe
talks by Mbeki and that a deal
would be struck soon. Meanwhile Mugabe's
government has asked for a
$20-million (R140-million) line of credit from
Iran for the importation of
badly needed seeds and other agricultural needs
to assist black farmers who
were allocated land seized from white farmers.
VOA
Mugabe Launches Promised Changes to Zimbabwe Government
Tendai
Maphosa
Harare
07 Nov 2003, 16:15 UTC
Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe has begun instituting a series of changes
he promised a week
ago, aimed at resolving the country's economic and
political problems. Some
of the most significant changes may still be ahead.
President Mugabe promised
the changes at a meeting of his ruling ZANU-PF
party central committee
meeting last Friday. He said the changes would start
with a restructuring of
the central bank to enable the country to deal with
issues, such as the
chronic shortage of foreign currency, high inflation and
high interest rates.
He said changes to other key national institutions and
the Cabinet would
follow.
Mr. Mugabe made good on his first promise by appointing banker
Gideon Gono
to the governorship of the central bank on Tuesday. Mr. Gono is
the
successful head of a commercial bank, and is viewed as a ruling
party
sympathizer.
The president also appointed four new provincial
governors. One of the new
appointees went straight from the army to his new
post.
More significant, however, was the announcement that the commander
of the
Zimbabwe Defense Forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, will retire next
month.
General Zvinavashe, a veteran of Zimbabwe's liberation war, made news
ahead
of last year's presidential election, when he announced that the
armed
forces were not prepared to salute a president who did not have
liberation
war credentials. Mr. Mugabe was a key leader of that effort. His
main
opponent, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was not
involved.
Analysts see the general's retirement as a prelude to his
appointment as the
country's second vice president, a position left vacant by
the death of Vice
President Simon Muzenda in September. Mr. Muzenda's
replacement has been the
subject of intense speculation. If President Mugabe
dies or retires, his
party must choose one of the vice presidents to succeed
him and prepare for
elections.
Political analyst John Makumbe of the
citizens' group, Crisis in Zimbabwe,
thinks General Zvinavashe is likely to
get the nod, because his loyalty to
the president is not in question, while
other front-runners are more
independent-minded.
"They have not been
pushovers for Mugabe, they have not jumped when he says
jump, they have
sometimes questioned his decision making, and if you like
his wisdom and so
they are not really trusted," he said. "Some of these
people have not been
loyal, or they have been loyal in a way, which makes
Mugabe very
nervous."
The changes come ahead of the ruling party's national
conference early next
month. Many observers expect Mr. Mugabe, who is 79
years old and has been in
power for 23 years, to announce a timeframe for his
retirement at the
conference.
stuff.co New Zealand
Diplomatic spat with Zimbabwe based on
misunderstanding - Mfat
08 November 2003
Accusations that New
Zealand's new high commissioner to Zimbabwe had
"seriously breached"
diplomatic protocol were sparked by a misunderstanding,
the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) says.
Despite threats to reject his
appointment, High Commissioner Warren Searell
was allowed to present his
credentials to President Robert Mugabe on
Thursday.
Foreign Minister
Stan Mudenge had earlier complained Mr Searell breached
protocol by making
appointments to meet opposition and civic leaders before
Thursday's
ceremony.
Western diplomats privately expressed alarm at what they saw as
evidence of
spying on their activities, the Associated Press
reported.
However, Mfat spokesman Brad Tattersfield said the incident
arose from a
misunderstanding.
The New Zealanders had submitted a
draft programme for Mr Searell's visit to
the Zimbabwean government for their
comment ahead of time.
The Zimbabwean regime – which has been heavily
criticised for human rights
abuses by the New Zealand Government and other
Commonwealth nations – took
exception to what they chose to interpret as "a
serious breach of diplomatic
protocol".
Foreign ambassadors to New
Zealand routinely visit others before formally
presenting their credentials
to the governor-general.
Zimbabwe was suspended from all decision-making
councils of the 54-nation
Commonwealth group of Britain and its former
colonies after Mugabe's
government was accused of intimidation and
vote-rigging in March 2002
presidential elections.
BBC
Deal ends Namibian land invasions
A group
of black farmers in Namibia has reached an agreement with a
white farmers'
group and has called off its plans to invade 15 farms next
week.
A
BBC reporter in Windhoek says the black farmers came under intense
pressure
from the government.
The farmers wanted the government to speed up
its policy of resettling
blacks on white-owned land.
About
4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of
Namibia's arable
land.
A government spokesman had said it would not tolerate any
land
invasions and urged landless people to be patient.
At talks
on Friday, Namibia Farmworkers Union secretary general Alfred
Angula and
Namibia Agriculture Union President Jan de Wet agreed on new
working
conditions for farmworkers.
Agriculture, mostly beef exports, is
Namibia's second-highest export
earner after mining.
First
refusal
Namibia's President Sam Nujoma is a close ally of
Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe and last year Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab said
he would increase
the pressure on white farmers to sell their
land.
Namibia's Government is committed to the principle of
"willing buyer-
willing seller" - which means no-one is forced to sell up,
but if they do
the state gets first refusal.
Zimbabwe also
followed this principle for 17 years after independence
in 1980.
A senior official in the ministry of lands, resettlement and
rehabilitation,
Frans Tsheehama, said the government would not allow any
illegal land
occupations.
"Let us be patient and follow the adopted policy of
land reform. I do
not see us, as a country, winning via any other route," he
said.
Some 6% of the Namibian population are white, with about
one-third of
them descended from German settlers.
Statement By Zimbabwean Civil Society And Media
Organisations
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek)
November 7, 2003
Posted to the web November 7,
2003
'Let the People Speak'
Effective Civil Society Lobbying
for Zimbabwe Workshop
Harare October 30-31, 2003
At a landmark
solidarity meeting in Harare on 30-31 October, Zimbabwean,
African and
international human rights organizations pledged to alert Africa
and the SADC
region to the full extent of the Zimbabwe Government's
continued gross human
rights abuses and its relentless persecution of the
media.
The group
agreed to launch a vigorous and coordinated campaign to petition
fellow
Africans and the international community about the oppression of
the
Zimbabwean people.
The meeting agreed the time had come for
African governments to recognise
the reality of tyranny in Zimbabwe and to
move away from the diplomatic
paralysis over the worsening human rights
crisis in the country.
The immediate focus of this campaign will be the
upcoming meeting of the
African Commission in The Gambia and the Commonwealth
Heads of Government
Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
Among those joining the
Zimbabwean media and human rights groups were
representatives from
organizations such as Journalistes en Danger (JED),
Media Rights Agenda, West
African Media Foundation, COSATU, Amnesty
International, Article XIX, the
International Bar Association, Zimbabwe
Watch and the International Media
Support group.
Issued by:
Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe
15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare,
Tel: 00 (263 4)
703702
E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw
Website: http://www.mmpz.org.zw/
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 7 November
Excuses, excuses
Harare - Zimbabwe's information minister on Thursday accused
some western
powers of sabotaging the southern African country's economy in a
bid to
unseat President Robert Mugabe's government. Jonathan Moyo told a high
level
meeting on the country's economic crisis that the countries wanted
Mugabe to
leave power over his controversial land reforms, during which a
minority
group of whites lost land to thousands of landless blacks.
"Britain,
America, Australia... and New Zealand are truly and seriously
committed to
regime change, they seek a regime change in Zimbabwe," he said.
"They are
pursuing it through acts of economic sabotage and they use weapons
of mass
deception, (under the cover of) instruments of democracy, human
rights rule
of law, good governance, to sound reasonable," Moyo said. "They
steal our
foreign currency earnings, they attack even our own currency to the
point of
saying it's scarce, to blame the government, to seek regime change,
and they
drive the parallel market," he told top government, economic and
civic
officials seeking solutions to the economic
malaise.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a record economic problems
characterised by
hyperinflation at 455% and shortages of most basics, among
them grains and
fuel. The economic problems have been widely blamed on
Mugabe's government.
Said Moyo: "This country is under de facto economic
sanctions." Mugabe and
his closest associates have been placed under
targetted sanctions which
include travel bans to the European Union and the
United States on
allegations of right abuses. Zimbabwe has repeatedly accused
Britain, the
former colonial power of bankrolling the leading opposition, the
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC). Moyo accused government workers of
failing to
implement government policies because of bureaucracy and
ideological
differences. "Right now there is in our country a frenzy against
government
authority, against policy. The state machinery has been weakened,"
he said.
"That is why we have a flourishing parallel (black) market, that is
why we
have hyperinflation .. the instruments for intervention are not
there," he
admitted. The two day conference convened by government and
business heard
on Wednesday that Zimbabwe's economy was being undermined by
contradictory
and ineffectual government policies, corruption, greed and the
country's
negative image abroad.
Food Security Remains Critical in Urban Areas
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks
November 7, 2003
Posted to the web
November 7, 2003
Johannesburg
Food security remains critical in
Zimbabwe's urban areas and most households
are unable to afford basic food
commodities because of escalating prices,
the latest Zimbabwe Humanitarian
Situation Report has warned.
The value of the low-income urban household
basket for September was more
than six times the government-stipulated
minimum wage for industrial
workers, the report said. Teachers and other
public service professionals
were now taking home significantly less than the
total monthly value of the
basket, the report said.
The Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe said the value of the low-income urban
household monthly
expenditure basket for September 2003 stood at Zim
$321,950 (US $390 at the
official rate, US $53 at the parallel market rate),
which is 18 percentage
points higher than the August value. The non-food
component of the basket had
the highest increase, about 35 percent, while
the food component went up by
11 percent.
Inflation is currently 470 percent, and food items including
cooking oil,
salt, sugar and maize are mostly only regularly available on the
parallel
market, which is far more expensive.
The government has fixed
the price of basic commodities since October 2001.
Droughts and the
economic crisis have left household budgets and food
supplies depleted. NGOs
and the World Food Programme (WFP) have had to step
in, and in October WFP
distributed food to 1.8 million vulnerable people.
Although WFP and the
United Kingdom have signed an agreement for a further
US $8.2 million
contribution, a weak food aid pipeline is expected
from
January.
Figures from Bulawayo's Mpilo Hospital over the last few
months show a
steady increase in the numbers of severely malnourished
children being
admitted, the report noted. In September 110 children were
admitted,
compared with 59 children in August and 72 in July. The average
mortality
rate was a shocking 30 percent.
"Although hospitals have
traditionally treated malnutrition, the high levels
of malnutrition mean they
are in urgent need of support," the report stated.
Health spending in
hospitals had already declined dramatically. This was
coupled with a shortage
of foreign exchange to buy drugs, and an ongoing
brain drain of doctors and
nurses leaving for better-paid positions in other
countries.
This week
Zimbabwe's Labour Court ruled that a strike by doctors seeking
better pay was
illegal and ordered them to return to work. It was unclear
whether the
doctors agreed to abide by the decision.
Funding for the WFP pipeline is
secure only until December. The UN
Children's Fund, which is coordinating the
Nutrition Working Group, is
concerned about how it will continue to fund
programmes that provide
enriched therapeutic milk, medications and other
support to the
malnourished.
The report noted that although deliveries
by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB)
improved slightly in September, monitoring
sites in 33 districts (62
percent) reported no GMB deliveries in the period,
attributing this to the
absence of maize stocks and fuel problems.
The
GMB has also introduced a new system charging different prices in
different
areas, in the hope of ensuring access to grain by poor
communities.