ZIMBABWE NATIONAL SOCIETY
FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
PVO 38/69
SPCA
Member Centres:
Bulawayo - Chegutu - Chinhoyi - Chiredzi -
Gweru - Harare - Hwange - Kadoma - Kwekwe - Marondera - Mashava - Masvingo -
Mutare - Zvishavane
08 OCTOBER 2002
We sadly must confirm that the euthanaisia of 650
former agricultural security dogs is underway. 76 animals had been euthanaised
by the end of last week, 55 on Sunday and 24 yesterday. This heartbreaking work
continues as the rescue teams round up the animals, many of which were abandoned
at their last post, tied to trees or chained to fences. There is a total of 650
dogs. It is anticipated that only about 50 will be saved. This is obviously
nightmarish work for Meryl, Addmore and Mark who have had to arrange mass
graves to accommodate all the bodies.
Meryl has ensured the release of the herd of cattle
which were stranded without food and water on a South African farmer's
property. There is no alternative but to send them to be
slaughtered.
When I contacted Meryl last week for the latest
statistics of animals rescued, she replied that it had now all become a blur as
both teams trek from one farm to the next whilst the reports keep rolling
in.
Several more horses have also been euthanaised as
heartbroken owners finally come to terms with the fact that this is the only
responsible course of action. Several horses have been moved from one farm to
the next in an attempt to save them but the net keeps closing in as more farms
are assimilated.
With the current mass exodus of Zimbabweans, I once
again commend all SPCA Inspectors, and those who remain behind to support them,
for not giving up on the thousands of animals imperiled by current events.
Their courage and fortitude when being confronted daily by so much suffering and
injustice, when most would have given up the fight, is truly remarkable.
On a lighter note, whilst the SPCA have been
working in the Chinhoyi area where 'settlers' have made it clear that they do
not want to see 'any white skin', the question was asked why the rescue team
were permitted to come and go unhindered, the reply came that 'they are
different'. It is gratifying that our apolitical, factual and non-sensational
stance have ensured that the rescue team and animals they serve to protect have
not been further endangered.
Some may have found it difficult to comprehend why
we have not had banner headlines regarding events in Zimbabwe, but every
decision is based solely on 'what is in the best interests of the animals?'. We
are indebted to all those who have taken our story around the globe without
politicising your reports and articles. You have all helped us to help
them.
The teams are concerned and disheartened about the
many animals they have not been able to save such as the poor cow who was found
having just given birth to twins. She had not had food or water for several
weeks. When the team found her, one calf had just died and despite all their
efforts, the other calf and mother died later in the day*.
In another tragic case a farmer who tried to stay
on his farm was severely beaten in the presence of his two GSD's.
Understandably, he has given up and is leaving the country. His two pets have
been PTS.
There have been no further incidents at Golden
Acres following the release of all the horses. Meryl continues to monitor the
situation*.
<
*Photos on request
JAG SITREP 09 October 2002
BEITBRIDGE
Sam Cawood (74), is in the
process of restocking and selling his pedigree
beef herd on the back of
forced eviction. In the past couple of days he
has been loading up cows to go
for slaughter, and has had no alternative
but to slaughter the calves in situ
on the farm, as the only humane
alternative to letting them starve. He was
not allowed back on the farm
to slaughter the calves himself, and therefore
had to instruct his
employees to kill the calves with an axe. This was a
traumatic process
for all involved, as any farmer or farm worker who has any
attachment to
their cattle can testify.
He was arrested today and held
in custody in Beitbridge, charged under
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Act (allegedly for stoning the
animals in question). In the light of the past
season's drought, numerous
fires around the country, many farmers are in the
same predicament, and
have no alternative but to send their cattle to be
slaughtered.
MVURWI
Forrester Estates, J Section.
Victor Heindrich
(the owner's son) was abducted at 16h45 on Monday after
an altercation with
war veterans about planting tobacco. This was the
third planting stoppage.
Heindrich was taken to the Zanu PF camp at
Zvimbo growth point in Chiweshe
communal area. He was released at 19h15.
Work is currently confined to the
barns area and harvesting the wheat
crop.
HARARE
Craig Werritt's
lawyer, JACOB JOGI from Stumbles and Rowe was arrested in
Harare on Monday
night. Jogi was involved in negotiations with the GMB to
move the maize off
Craig's farm in Tengwe, because Werritt has been
unable to return since he
was chased off three weeks ago.
CHIREDZI
Following the ultimatum
delivered two days ago, many farmers have
temporarily vacated their farms
with a minimum of possessions. Many are
relocating to Triangle/Chiredzi,
where they plan to be resident for the
short term. They are still determined
to harvest the cane crop from their
farms within the next 4-6
weeks.
THE JAG TEAM
Hotlines:
(091) 317 264 If you
are in trouble or need advice,
(011) 205 374 please don't hesitate
to contact us -
(011) 863 354 we're here to
help
____________________________________________________
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Agriculture mailing list
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FinGaz
Illegal settlers back on farm
Staff
Reporter
10/10/02 9:14:32 AM (GMT +2)
MORE than 100
families, most of them ruling ZANU PF party supporters,
have illegally
settled themselves on land bordering Harare Airport, a move
that is against
international regulations which prohibit settlements within
a four-km radius
of international airports.
The families were sold the land at
Arlington Estates near the airport
in 2000 by self-styled war veterans who
claimed they had seized it from its
owners to resettle landless
blacks.
But the government, which tacitly encouraged farm invasions
by the
so-called war veterans, declared the settlement illegal and ordered
Harare
city authorities to demolish the emerging squatter camp last
year.
The landless group, which at one time numbered more than a 1
000
families, was taken to another farm on the southern outskirts of
Harare
which the government had acquired for resettlement.
The
families this week told this newspaper that they had returned to
their
illegal settlement for good.
"I invested a lot of capital at this
place and I cannot raise the same
money again in my life to start building
new houses," said one man, who
lives with his family at the illegal Arlington
settlement.
He added: "This is where I had decided to start my new
life from being
a lodger for the past 10 years and I cannot let go this
once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to own my own place."
Harare city
council spokesman Cuthbert Rwazemba refused to comment on
the re-emerging
squatter camp, saying the area lay beyond municipal
boundaries.
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo and his permanent secretary
could
not be reached for comment.
FinGaz
Fears grow over 2003 farm output
By Nqobile
Nyathi Assistant Editor
10/10/02 9:20:40 AM (GMT +2)
DROUGHT-HIT Zimbabwe welcomed showers that wetted the country this
week as a
positive sign for the 2002/2003 agricultural season, but fears are
growing
that time is running out for thousands of new farmers to prepare for
the new
farming season.
At least 90 percent of 300 000 blacks who have been
given land by the
government under its controversial land reforms are still
without farm
inputs only weeks before the start of the new farming season,
which starts
next month.
Agricultural industry officials say
only a few farmers have begun
preparing for the 2002/2003 rainy
season.
Most of Zimbabwe's 4 500 white commercial farmers are not
preparing
their land because their properties have been seized by the
government which
says it is correcting a skewed colonial landownership scheme
which left 70
percent of the country's best land being run by
whites.
No current production
Commercial Farmers'
Union Matabeleland head Mac Crawford told the
Financial Gazette: "There is
absolutely nothing, there is no production
going on at the
moment.
"About 90 percent of commercial farmers have been evicted
or have been
given notice to vacate their farms so they are not doing
anything."
Industry officials said the black smallholder farmers
attempting to
prepare for the new season were being hampered by shortages of
inputs, while
farmers resettled under the government's land reforms still did
not have the
resources to buy inputs or prepare land.
According
to the latest Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
NET) report on
Zimbabwe, a recent food security assessment found that 94
percent of farmers
did not have seeds for the upcoming season's cereal crop.
Expectations
About 60 percent of the farmers said they expected the
government to
provide them with seed or did not know where they would secure
it from.
"Economic analysts estimate that $160 billion is required
to
adequately support the communal farmers and the newly resettled farmers
with
seeds, chemicals, fertilisers, tillage and extension advice," the FEWS
NET
report said.
"The government's supplementary budget
allocation (of $8.5 billion)
for the input support programme is a mere five
percent of the total
estimated required funding."
Zimbabwe
Farmers' Union (ZFU) director Sylvester Tsikisayi said last
month's increases
of up to 375 percent in the price of seeds had resulted in
the release of the
inputs by manufacturers but distribution was still slow.
"What I
can confirm at the moment is that seed and fertiliser
deliveries have started
since the announcement of the new prices. What we
are also seeing at the
moment is that some of the input suppliers are still
to meet orders," he said
in an interview.
"While they are trying to do that, there is now
pressure on cash
buyers who at times can't readily find products because they
are being
manufactured or prepared."
The ZFU, dominated by
blacks, has about 500 000 members but expects
numbers to rise as more people
are allocated land under the government's
resettlement plan.
Tillage hinderances
Tsikisayi added: "So far some of the farmers
are engaging tillage
service providers but these are not readily available.
Tillage has been a
problem for some time in this country and the situation
hasn't changed.
"The clouds are hanging over the sky and this is
giving a signal to
farmers that the season is around the corner. We are
running out of time and
we have to move fast in order to meet the
season."
Apart from the lack of tillage services, land preparation
was also
being hampered by the fact that smallholder and resettled farmers
did not
have money to buy capital equipment.
"That's out of
reach for most people," Tsikisayi said. "Capital
equipment acquisition is
posing some serious challenges to new farmers and
the areas they are in are
big and demand that they have capital equipment."
An agricultural
industry official who declined to be named added:
"There is a lack of even
simple ox-drawn ploughs because communal farmers
don't have the animals. A
lot of the oxen have been hit by foot-and-mouth
disease and can't be
used."
The problem is compounded by the fact that the government's
District
Development Fund, which is supposed to assist farmers with tillage,
has
inadequate resources. Only 50 percent of its tractor fleet is
operational.
Humanitarian warning
A bi-monthly report
by the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator
warned: "Concerted effort by
relevant stakeholders is urgently required to
improve the tillage programme;
times is fast running out for land
preparation, especially in the
agro-ecological regions one, two and three,
which have heavy red and black
soils that could be difficult to work in once
the rains have set
in."
Failure to adequately prepare in time for the new season, in
addition
to the fact that commercial farmers who normally produce more than
half
Zimbabwe's food in times of drought are not planting, could have
disastrous
consequences for Zimbabwe's food security.
Economic
consultant John Robertson said: "They (farmers) don't have
fertiliser or
seeds or the money to buy these things. Even if they did have
the money, to
physically get the stuff to the people scattered far and wide
across the
country is not in the government's scope.
"There is probably a
logistical bottleneck in terms of what can be
moved in time. There is
mounting evidence that we are in no position to
produce a crop for next year
and this is going to be a major disaster."
United Nations' agencies
already estimate that 4.5 million Zimbabweans
need food aid between September
and November and the number is expected to
increase to 6.7 million in the
period from December to March.
To illustrate the massive task
involved in feeding the affected
people, international aid agency CAFOD says
a truck loaded with food would
have to enter Zimbabwe every five minutes if
nearly seven million
Zimbabweans facing starvation - that's half the
population - are to be fed.
CAFOD head of emergencies Matthew
Carter said: "We are now battling
against time to save lives. The situation
in Zimbabwe has deteriorated
quicker than had been predicted. Many in
Zimbabwe are now in grave danger
and it is vital that the food pipeline is
not broken through lack of funds.
"Predictions for next April's
harvest are very low as many people have
not had enough seed to plant.
Millions within the region will continue to
need help for many months to
come."
Inadequate preparation
While local farming
industry officials hope for better rains this
coming season, most agree that
inadequate preparation will hit overall
agricultural output.
Tsikisayi said: "People always attribute the current food shortages to
the
resettlement programme, which we don't subscribe to as a union. The
shortages
are the result of dry conditions last year.
"So if we have good
rains this season, we are likely to have
substantial output, although its
might not reach the target expected because
resources are not going to be
adequate."
Robertson was more pessimistic. "The depth of the crisis
is such that
it could be all that people need to decide that this government
has set out
to murder them because how else can you explain such stupid ideas
(the
government is implementing)?
Natal Witness
Contemplating Africa
Nigerian academic, writer and
actor Professor Kole Omotoso knows how to tell
a
story
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nigerian
academic, writer and actor Professor Kole Omotoso knows how to tell
a story.
He's done it in various forms already, with five novels, a
collection of
short stories, two plays and numerous analytical articles.
But ask him to
tell you what he believes is the story of Africa and he gives
a terse reply:
"The story of Africa is the story of one space and two
attitudes to the role
of that space."
Omotoso - who is best known to South Africans as the
affable "Yebo, Gogo"
man in the Vodacom television adverts - is passionate
about Africa and its
complexities.
His thought-provoking
autobiographical book, Season of Migration to the
South, tells the story of
his life in Nigeria and the circumstances that led
to his decision to leave -
while his provocative book, Just Before Dawn,
tells the story of Nigeria in a
riveting mix of fact and fiction.
During our interview at his Cape Town
home, it emerged that Omotoso - who is
currently working as professor of
Drama at Stellenbosch University - is on a
mission to buy the film rights to
Jonny Steinberg's acclaimed book,
Midlands.
"If you can make a film of
that book, you will tell the story of Africa," he
said.
Describing the
book as a "wonderful" piece of work, he said he believes it
sums up the
dynamic in post-colonial Africa.
"It describes those two attitudes I am
talking about - one space, but two
attitudes to the role of that
space.
"One space can be, for one person, the place where he makes his
farm, where
he makes his money, where he builds a life and a livelihood for
his
children. But, for somebody else, that same space can be the space of
his
ancestors.
"It is what we do with those two attitudes that will
determine how that
space is used and, ultimately, what happens to Africa. If
we cannot come to
an agreement that is secular and contains the wishes of
both sides, we will
never have a solution."
Omotoso went on: "At the
end of the book, Midlands, the murder is not solved
because there are two
different attitudes. So the crime becomes not a crime.
"But, if we do not
find a solution to that kind of duality, we are playing
dice with the future
of our children."
Having closely witnessed the turmoil of African history
- Omotoso has
travelled widely on the continent - the professor believes
strongly in the
power of balance in "everything to do with
life".
Omotoso was forced to leave Nigeria in 1988 because of government
resistance
to his book Just before Dawn. He initially moved to Britain with
the
possibility of going to the United States, but then found himself
pulled
back to Africa.
His main reason for returning to the continent
was the release, in 1990, of
Nelson Mandela.
But he also wanted to
test one of his theories on Africa. "I had identified
what I call a
post-independence stasis or what (fellow Nigerian writer) Wole
Soyinka called
a "season of anomy".
"Post-liberation stasis is a phenomenon very few
people have looked at. It
is not just a Nigerian or African thing. It extends
to Haiti, where, in the
early 19th century, after one of the most epic
struggles in human history, a
group of slaves rose up against France, freed
themselves and created a new
country they called Haiti.
"Very few
people have looked at Haiti, but it is surprising how much of
Haiti we are
repeating in Africa. Haiti became independent in 1804 after
having been the
most prosperous island-plantation of the French.
"The struggle for
independence had led to the destruction of the water
works, the plantations
and other infrastructure. But after the struggle,
many Haitians did not want
to have anything to do with rebuilding the
country and working the
land.
"The first constitution of Haiti in November 1805 specified that no
white
person could own land in Haiti. So they divided up the plantations and
every
Haitian got a piece of land - but it was too small for agriculture. Not
much
could be done with it. Dividing the land led to the destruction
of
prosperity of the island and nothing replaced it.
"In 1825, the
government wanted recognition from Britain and the United
States of America.
Both countries said the Haitian government must come to
terms with the
French. The French said the Haitians must pay for the
irrigation, houses and
plantations that were destroyed.
"But the Haitian people said, 'We do not
owe anybody for the land of our
country.' So the leadership went back to
France and France said, 'Don't
worry, we will lend you the
money.'
"That was the start of Haiti's foreign debt. It was that debt
that led to so
many other things, including the invasion of Haiti by the U.S.
in 1915.
Today Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the western
hemisphere."
Omotoso has a great fear that Haiti could represent a
"possible model" for
post-colonial Africa 200 years down the line.
"We
have already seen about 40 years of post-colonialism in Africa. Could it
be
that we are not coming to terms with our encounter with Europe, or with
our
history of slavery and our need for modernisation?"
It became obvious to
Omotoso that, in order to look at these issues, he must
live in Africa, hence
his "season of migration to the south".
"Many black intellectuals are
going to the West. I could also have gone. But
it doesn't matter how far you
go from Africa - whenever anybody looks at
you, because you are black, you
carry Africa with you."
Omotoso believes South Africa offers an inspiring
model for the rest of
Africa - and an example of how to prevent the Haitian
experience.
"Everyone who knows the history of the ANC knows that it came
into existence
to be part of a modern state and not to establish some ancient
kingdom.
"Both the English and the Afrikaners did everything to throw
them back, but
they fought to be part of a modern state, unlike so many
countries in
Africa."
Asked to specify what has caused the problems in
Africa, he replied: "Lack
of leadership, corruption and political
intolerance."
South Africa, in his view, has done well on all these
fronts:
"Nelson Mandela does one term and then says that's enough - that
has not
happened in many other countries in Africa."
On corruption:
"There is nowhere on the continent where you would find the
chief whip of the
ruling party being forced to resign, or the former wife of
a president, who
participated in her own right in the struggle, having to
face her peers in
terms of her behaviour. There is no other Scorpion system
on the continent
where property can be seized if seen to be
illegitimately
acquired.
"When we look at what the state is trying to
do, it's a different thing to
the rest of Africa. There is an attempt to
create a modern state."
Omotoso is a passionate advocate of building a
black middle class in African
nations.
"No modern state can survive
without a middle class - a class that is not
too poor that it is unable to
speak out about what is happening and not too
rich to do without what the
state can provide.
"What happened in Nigeria and the rest of Africa was
that the professional
and middle classes were destroyed. Society was left to
the rich - who don't
need the state, and who can fly anywhere for medical
services, schooling,
etc - and the poor, who don't understand the role of the
state and who
revert to traditional society and the extended family for the
services the
state would not provide them.
"If you want to create a
modern state, you have to have a professional class
and a middle
class."
Omotoso insists that South Africa is "different" from other
African states,
the key difference being the existence of a growing black
middle class and
the encouragement of a black professional class.
"It
is developing all the time and it is encouraged by the state. This
is
something some of the white economic power-holders don't seem to
understand.
They take it for granted, without realising that such a situation
doesn't
come about naturally, because they belong to a group coming out of
Europe,
where all of these things were spelt out 200 years ago.
"One
needs to recognise the nature of the party we are dealing with and
its
attempts to create a modern state. We also need to realise that the
survival
of the state will depend on the existence of a black professional
middle
class - and acknowledge the ANC's effort and back it.
Asked
whether Nigeria is a particularly corrupt country, Omotoso didn't
hesitate to
answer in the affirmative.
"There was a refrain from one of Soyinka's
plays - that basing things on
principle is good, but compromise is better.
All politics is about
compromise, but in Nigeria everything is compromise.
For instance, the
Abacha family agreed to return $2,6 billion to the Nigerian
state and they
can keep $100 million. Where in the world would you have the
thief
negotiating what they give up and what they don't give up?"
He
described how, in a climate of total corruption and the collapse
of
infrastructure in his homeland, coupled with his own treatment by
the
government, led him to conclude that it was "better for me to just get
out".
Omotoso believes the current chaos in Africa cannot be simplified
into the
"natural savagery" of Africa.
"What has been the downfall of
the continent is what I call the immediate
need for servicing greed. This
need has taken over in many post-colonial
African countries - and all
participants, whether internal or external (I
mean here western Europeans),
simply line up behind who is going to be the
head. See the DRC, Rwanda,
Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan. It has nothing
to do with savagery in
Africa. Look at the civil wars. Suddenly ordinary
civilians become targets of
armies instead of fellow armed fighters."
This ties in, he believes, with
the violence that is so rife in South Africa
at present. "It is all about the
logic of immediate issues. I trace it back
to the acceptability of violence
as an instrument of liberation. When things
change, what do you do with the
guns awash in the community? A soldier in
the liberation movement becomes a
bandit after the liberation."
Omotoso is watching the events playing out
in Zimbabwe with deep interest,
saying President Robert Mugabe is using a
"self-defeating methodology".
"You cannot let loose lawlessness when it
is convenient for you because it
will come back one day to haunt you when it
is not convenient for you. Once
you let it loose, it doesn't obey you like a
dog that is trained. It will
come back to you in ways you will not
like."
In between pondering the sometimes unfathomable issues of his
continent,
Omotoso enjoys daily life in his adopted land. He loves being
recognised,
wherever he goes, as the "Yebo, Gogo" man. "It happens every day.
It makes
me feel that some part of me has become part of other
people."
Publish Date: 10 October 2002
FinGaz
National Agenda
THE Lord asked Cain: "Where is your
brother Abel?" He answered, "I
don't know. Am I supposed to take care of my
brother?"
Yvonne Mahlunga
10/10/02 7:23:39 AM (GMT
+2)
Then the Lord said: "Why have you done this terrible thing?
Your
brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground, like a voice
calling
for revenge. You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the
soil.
It has soaked up your brother's blood as if it had opened its mouth
to
receive it when you killed him. If you try to grow crops, the soil will
not
produce anything; you will be a homeless wanderer on the
earth."
For sometime after Gukurahundi, a story circulated of a man
who had
been involved in the atrocities in Matabelelend as a member of the
infamous
red-bereted Fifth Brigade.
It is alleged that this man
took part in the torching of a homestead
in Matabeleland. The young soldier
was said to have hailed from an area in
the Masvingo province.
After Gukurahundi, he left the army for one reason or another and
returned to
his home area and became a small-scale farmer.
It is said that he
became afflicted by a strange ailment. The nature
of his illness was such
that he would feel as though his whole body was
literally on
fire.
However, he was always given a clean bill of health when
attended to
by medical practitioners.
It is said that his
strange illness became so bad that he hardly kept
a shirt on and his wife
always had to carry a bucket of water with her when
they were tending their
fields so that she could throw it over him when he
started 'burning' to
'cool' him down.
It is said that his family eventually consulted a
traditional healer.
They were Gukurahundi
Gukurahundi and the
growing number of people who have disappeared
without a trace.
South Africa handled this through a process of truth and
reconciliation, as
did Sierra Leone. Rwanda initiated a grassroots based
people's court the
'gacaca'. Other countries in Asia such Burma tried to
achieve a balance by
working out ways and means of granting immunity to the
perceived
perpetrators. Are any of these processes of national peace
building relevant
to Zimbabwe?
It is my intention to examine them in some detail in
the succeeding
articles and let Zimbabweans judge for themselves. The time
will come when
we will have to make an informed choice.
Many
Zimbabweans are saying that everything looks glum and gloomy now.
One only
has to read the letters section of the independent press to gauge
the level
of despondency within this nation. There are those who feel let
down,
betrayed by the MDC as they say that it has failed to deliver to them
the
change it promised.
There are those who appear to be adopting the
attitude that they might
as well get ready to sit out the next six years. The
MDC has always said
that it is committed to bringing about a democratic
process in this our
beloved country. It is my view that it has managed to do
so on some scale.
It has brought into office 57 now 56 members of parliament,
five executive
mayors and a large number of councilors.
This was
all achieved under extremely harsh conditions. It has managed
to raise the
political awareness of Zimbabweans to such an extent that the
crème de la
crème of the CIO have failed to crush the spirit of freedom of
speech and the
loud and clear voice of the opposition.
What is important for
Zimbabweans to keep in mind is that opportunity
comes when you least expect
it, as the Yugoslavians or even the East Germans
for that matter. What may
appear to be a set back may actually be used to
one's advantage. We must
remain keeping watch.
Returning to the issue of a transitional
justice mechanism, the MDC
has always said that it is committed to a process
of healing the nation. We
must continue to keep watch in our communities,
silently keeping a track of
our assailants. I for one have my
list.
Our time will come as the great African-American civil
liberties song
says, "We shall overcome, we shall overcome, some day
somehow". Indeed as
Christians would put it - if God is for us who can be
against us?!!
FinGaz
What Mugabe does, Nujoma can do better
By
Tangeni Amupadhi
10/10/02 9:19:56 AM (GMT +2)
In the space
of a month, Sam Nujoma launched an extraordinary attack
on the West, stymied
the plans of potential successors by sacking his prime
minister of 12 years
and threatened "arrogant white farmers" with strigent
land reform
proposals.
The Namibian president last week, banned foreign soaps,
films and
series from state television that "have a bad influence on Namibian
youth".
In doing so, his critics suggest, Nujoma is setting out to
prove that
he is no Mugabe clone - a reference to the determination with
which he
echoes his Zimbabwean counterpart in thought, word and deed - but
very much
an authoritarian in his own right.
Veteran Nujoma
observers point out that not everything the president
says should be taken at
face value.
But they also warn that the grizzled SWAPO leader may
be planning to
extend his rule beyond a constitution-bound expiry in
2005.
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, Nujoma
courted world media attention with his spectacular
attack on British Prime
Minister Tony Blair directly before Robert Mugabe's
tirade against
"imperialists".
Describing Mugabe and
Nujoma's performances in Johannesburg, former
Namibian politician and
political pundit Paul Helmuth put it this way: "If
you followed the language
that came from Mugabe, there was a coordination.
"The two comrades
have been together for long. I don't think you can
separate them when it
comes to anti-imperialism and colonialism."
Indeed, the two have
been inseparable on more than just harking back
to the issues of slavery and
colonialism.
Some two years ago, Mugabe spent his December
holiday at Nujoma's
favourite vacation retreat at Terrace Bay on the Namibian
coast. When the
farm invasions were just starting in Zimbabwe, Nujoma invited
Mugabe to
address a rally in SWAPO'S stronghold in northern
Namibia.
Nujoma has consistently defended Mugabe at every turn,
including when
some Commonwealth members planned to suspend Zimbabwe from the
body.
In fact, Mugabe is arguably the one head of state whom Nujoma
is
closest to. The Namibian leader's rhetoric on land, colonialism
and
homosexuals seems to mimic Mugabe's - fuelling fears that Namibia is set
to
follow Zimbabwe's descent into economic ruin and political
chaos.
Jan de Wet, the president of the largely white Namibia
Agricultural
Union (NAU), says the organisation's members have been concerned
with the
strong language from workers' unions and politicians.
Last Thursday, for example, Reuters reported Foreign Minister
Hidipo
Hamutenya as saying that white-owned farms could be expropriated if
their
owners continued to resist land reform, adding that his government
was
frustrated at the slow pace of transfers under the
willing-seller,
willing-buyer programme.
But De Wet puts
that down to "political pressure". He says the NAU has
assurances from the
government that Namibia will not follow the route
Zimbabwe took.
Farmers have also decided to help train newly settled black farmers to
ensure
that the "land reform is sustainable".
The union has already voiced
its support for a government decision to
expropriate 192 farms owned by white
non-Namibians, known as absentee
landowners - provided these farms do not
belong to Namibians and are only
used for "leisure and
pleasure".
"There is nothing wrong with expropriating farms with
compensation,"
says De Wet.
But, while it agrees that land
reform was slow, the Windhoek-based
Institute for Public Policy Research
(IPPR) says: "We find it hard to
understand why it has taken 12 years to
carry out this resolution if land
really is such a pressing
issue."
A dearth of clear statistics exist about what the
balance of farmland
owned by whites and blacks is. However, it is believed
that whites, who make
up less than five percent of the population, own more
than 80 percent of the
36-million hectares of farmland.
The IPPR
calculates that at the present pace of land distribution -
7.4 percent has
been transferred to previously indigenous people since
1990 - it will take
"another 60 years to bring 50 percent of commercial
farmland into the hands
of disadvantaged Namibians".
The government has not set any targets
but has rather included all
exiles, including Nujoma, among people who "need"
resettlement.
The slow pace of land reform in Namibia, says De
Wet, has more to do
with problems in government rather than
farmers.
SWAPO has directed the government to increase the annual
budget for
land resettlement from R20 million to R100 million to speed up the
process,
though it's unclear from where the money would come.
Even so, it has been suggested that land was not the only issue
at
stake.
Wolfgang Werner, a researcher of land issues with the
Namibia Economic
Policy Research Unit, says: "All this rhetoric (from Nujoma)
is only in aid
of something else and not simply the land."
Before the World Summit, and prior to meetings to nominate candidates
for
SWAPO vice-president, secretary-general and deputy secretary-general
ahead of
the party's five-yearly congress, Nujoma accused unidentified SWAPO
leaders
of "forming factions based on aggrandisement and
political
ambition".
In the process he fired his pro-reform
prime minister, Hage Geingob,
seen as an obvious presidential candidate. He
then hand-picked loyal
supporters for the three posts - effectively quashing
a challenge to
himself.
Although Nujoma has said he was not
seeking a fourth five-year term in
office, there are signs to the
contrary.
His opponents question the motives of a man about to
step down hiring
North Koreans to design and build a presidential palace,
estimated at
costing more than R200 million. They also point to his silence
on the
insistence by traditional leaders from Owambo, SWAPO's stronghold,
that he
remain in office.
Nujoma may be one of the world's least
educated heads of state - he
was taught by missionaries and only has a grade
school education - but his
grasp of power management is masterful, and his
decision to head the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is viewed in
some circles as aimed
at helping his campaign.
His decision to
ban foreign programmes on television has also been
seen as an indication of
his anti-imperialism and continued support for
Mugabe, something that has
given already-nervous investors in southern
Africa cause for further
concern.
Like Mugabe, Nujoma's anti-homosexual tirades verge on
open hysteria.
Recently, according to Associated Press, he attacked
one senior
staffer at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), a white
woman who
moved to Namibia almost 30 years ago, accusing her of having a
British
colonial mentality and suggesting she was withholding "good things"
from
television and instead, "showing us lesbianism".
First
programmes to fall foul of Nujoma, now acting as information
minister, were
sci-fi series Dune and the soap The Bold and the Beautiful.
Their
withdrawals were so sudden that NBC staffers, at a loss with
what to replace
them, pulled old tapes off the shelf almost at random to
fill airtime. Dune
was replaced with a programme on the recent SWAPO
congress.
Nujoma has already banned government departments from advertising in
the
privately owned Namibian newspaper, accusing it of issuing
unwarranted
criticisms of his administration's policies.
Last
month, NBC director-general Ben Mulongeni was fired, apparently
because his
"alleged lack of control" over his subordinates had angered
Nujoma, the
Namibian reported.
- Sunday Times
FinGaz
Comment
Stamp out the rot
10/10/02
7:44:38 AM (GMT +2)
ZIMBABWEANS must be alarmed to learn that a
government facing its
worst economic crisis is spending recklessly and
dishing out money as if
there was no tomorrow.
The report
released last week by Auditor and Comptroller-General Eric
Harid provides
damning evidence of an arrogant lack of accountability that
extends even to
the highest office in the land.
Zimbabwe's Treasury is owed a
staggering $575 million by civil
servants, more than $380 million of that
owed by the President's Office, in
outstanding travel allowances and other
advances dating as far back as 1991.
As has become legendary for
this government, the state auditor's
report highlights gross negligence in
the administration of the fiscus, with
ministries casually ignoring Treasury
instructions and exceeding their
budgetary allocations as if the government's
coffers were a bottomless pit.
As if that was not bad enough, the
same report shows criminal abuse of
taxpayers' funds under fine-sounding but
perverted schemes that have gone
the way of similar facilities in the past -
most probably to line up the
pockets of government officials and their
hangers-on.
Millions of dollars have gone down the drain under a
grain loan scheme
introduced to assist struggling farmers but whose
beneficiaries are cloaked
in mystery because there are no records of
beneficiaries and of how much was
disbursed.
Just when more than
two million Zimbabweans are living with HIV/AIDS,
about $96 million has been
dished out from the AIDS levy funded by
hard-pressed private sector workers,
again under unclear circumstances and
to dubious beneficiaries.
It's time the government became serious, but then we know only too
well that
our pleas will fall on deaf ears which care little about a rot
that has been
nurtured over two decades.
The government cannot be allowed to
continue treating Zimbabwe like
its own little fiefdom in which it can do
whatever it wants and get away
with it.
The reckless abandon
with which the government has handled public
funds in the past - there is no
evidence to suggest that things have changed
even remotely - has contributed
significantly to the sorry mess that the
country finds itself in
today.
Just when most Zimbabweans are facing starvation, again
partly because
of the government's bungling and arrogance, many in the
country are rightly
asking when the authorities will put the people first -
to quote its empty
slogan.
Unchecked state spending will
continue to fuel inflation, already at
an unprecedented high of 135.1 percent
and expected to reach 200 percent
next year, forcing up already unaffordable
prices of most basic goods.
Accountability and transparency are of
paramount importance as the
flow of revenues into the state's coffers becomes
a trickle, again because
of the government's skewed policies, and when
keeping body and soul together
for heavily taxed Zimbabweans has increasingly
become a matter of life and
death.
Treasury must put its foot
down to stamp out the state's rot and
profligacy.
Instead of
maintaining its usual deafening silence amid revelations of
abuse of public
funds, the government must vigorously investigate the latest
reports of
looting of public funds and bring the culprits to book,
demonstrating to
everyone that it will not tolerate such crimes.
Long-suffering
Zimbabweans have already paid too dearly for the
recklessness of a regime
that refuses to see reason and seems determined to
make life as unbearable as
possible for everyone else but itself and its
cronies.
FinGaz
Drought threatens Zim's cattle herd
Staff
Reporter
10/10/02 9:22:14 AM (GMT +2)
BULAWAYO - At least
180 head of cattle have died because of drought in
Matabeleland South and
more could face the same fate nationwide unless
grazing pastures improve
soon, a top farming official said this week.
Stuart Hagreaves,
director of the government-run Department of
Veterinary Services, said the
condition of livestock throughout Zimbabwe was
alarming, noting that the
death of the 180 cattle in Beitbridge and Gwanda
in the past few months was a
warning that the drought was threatening the
national herd.
Prohibitive costs of buying supplementary nutrition for the cattle had
also
dealt a heavy blow to Zimbabwe's cattle industry.
"The general
condition of the livestock throughout the country is
alarming," Hagreaves
told the Financial Gazette.
"The cattle are in very poor state
because of the drought situation.
The situation is very grim in Matabeleland
South where 180 cattle have died
as a result of the drought. These deaths are
due to poor nutrition. The
residue from crops has been non-existent as people
have failed to plough
anything.
"There is general lack of
pasture in most parts of the country and
Matabeleland South is the hardest
hit. There is no grass for the cattle to
eat and this is affecting our
foot-and-mouth disease control measures.
Animals are being forced to move
away from their grazing land, breaking
fences in search of
pastures."
Hagreaves warned of more deaths if rains fail again this
year after a
severe drought last season. "We need the rains now to improve
the pastures.
If they delay or don't come, we are certainly going to see huge
losses of
cattle."
Matabeleland South is Zimbabwe's biggest
cattle-ranching area.
One rancher there said: "It is not the cost
of the stock feed but its
availability that is affecting the cattle. There is
a shortage of stock feed
because people failed to farm because of the drought
and politics."
Six southern African states, including Zimbabwe,
face severe food
shortages because of the drought. The crisis in Zimbabwe has
been compounded
by the government's seizure of commercial farms under the
banner of land
reforms, which have either disrupted or halted farming
altogether.
The government is seizing most white-owned farms to
give to landless
blacks. But critics say most of those benefiting from the
scheme begun two
years ago are its cronies and not poor families who really
need the land.
Hagreaves said: "Although the death of the 180
cattle might seem a
small loss, it is a knock to the national herd and a huge
financial loss to
the individual farmers. I am afraid we are going to lose
more cattle. If no
rains come between now and December, we will be reporting
cattle deaths on
daily basis."
Mac Crawford, the Commercial
Farmers' Union president for
Matabeleland, confirmed the perilous state of
the national cattle herd,
which is estimated at around five
million.
"Matabeleland South has indeed reported cattle deaths and
this does
not augur well for the cattle industry," he said.
FinGaz
90% of Mat farmers kicked off land
Staff
Reporter
10/10/02 9:10:42 AM (GMT +2)
BULAWAYO - White
farmers in the southern Matabeleland region yesterday
said the government had
intensified a crackdown against them, sending in
armed police and soldiers to
forcibly remove farmers off their properties.
They said 90 percent
of the farmers had been evicted by midday
yesterday.
Both the
main farmers' representative body, the Commercial Farmers'
Union (CFU), and
the smaller Justice for Agriculture (JAG) group said
government officials
aided by armed units of police and soldiers maintained
pressure on the
farmers throughout the week.
Zimbabwe army spokesman Mbonisi
Gatsheni denied that the army was
engaged in any operation to drive farmers
off their farms.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the police
were merely
enforcing Section 8 eviction orders issued by the government to
nearly 3 000
farmers across the country to quit their properties by
mid-August.
But CFU regional president for Matabeleland Mac
Crawford told the
Financial Gazette: "There are virtually no farmers left on
farms in
Matabeleland. The farmers have been forcibly evicted.
"This has been happening since last week. The armed forces were very
busy
over the week and I tell you about 90 percent of the farmers have
moved
out."
JAG spokeswoman Jenni Williams said government
officials were
targeting farmers who had High Court orders that they remain
on their farms.
The government officials were telling farmers that they were
acting on
orders from a higher authority than the court, she
said.
Williams said the crackdown was being extended to the sugar
cane
producing south eastern Lowveld, where she said about 60 farmers had
been
ordered by government officials and armed police and soldiers to
start
vacating their land this week.
The government is seizing
land from white farmers under its chaotic
and often violent fast-track land
reform programme which it says is aimed at
giving land to millions of
landless black peasant families.
But critics say most of the land
has ended up in the hands of
supporters of the ruling ZANU PF supporters and
President Robert Mugabe's
top officials.
Some of the white
farmers whose land was targeted for acquisition by
the government obeyed a
government deadline to vacate their farms by August
10, but several hundreds
more ignored it.
Others are challenging the eviction notices in the
country's courts.
Bvudzijena said: "The police are only following
up on Section 8
notices served on certain farmers.
"Those
farmers on the farms with notices that have expired are
breaking the law.
There are farmers on the farms violating the law, hence
the police presence.
I don't think the police are there to evict anyone who
has a right to be on
the farms."
Distancing the army from the latest drive against
farmers, Gatsheni
said: "This is not a military authorised operation. We
(army) don't have
soldiers on the farms.
"It's probably the
police alone but remember the (police) have
uniforms like those of the army.
The police are in a better position to
know."
The European
Union, the United States, Canada, Switzerland and New
Zealand have imposed
targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his top officials
over the land
seizures and the government's bloated human rights record
FinGaz
Harare, Munich ties threatened
10/10/02
9:13:18 AM (GMT +2)
THE German city of Munich, Harare's twin city,
is closely monitoring
developments at the Town House in Harare and could
again cut ties with the
Zimbabwean capital if the government continues to
interfere in the affairs
of the opposition-run council.
Harare
council officials said the Germans, who helped in the campaign
for the return
of an elected council in Harare, were closely following
developments in
Zimbabwe and could suspend their ties with Harare.
"They are
closely following what is happening in Harare, and if what
is happening
continues, they are likely to suspend the relationship with
Harare again,"
one official said, preferring not to be named.
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change mayor Elias Mudzuri has
had a troubled
relationship with Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo,
a top member of
the ruling ZANU PF party, since Mudzuri swept to power in
elections in
March.
The latest clash came at the start of this month, when
Chombo imposed
a five-member committee on the elected council saying the city
fathers had
failed to perform. Mudzuri and his council have refused to
recognise the
committee, leading to a standoff.
Munich cut off
ties with Harare after the government dismissed then
mayor Solomon Tawengwa
and his council in 1999 and imposed a state panel to
run the city. The ties
were renewed only after Mudzuri's election.
A 10-member Combined
Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) delegation
is leaving today for Munich
as part of exchanges between the two cities.
CHRA acting chairman
Mike Davies said the team would take the
opportunity to mobilise support for
Mudzuri, who has already been warned by
Chombo that he could be removed from
office if he fails to comply with
ministerial directives.
"We
are going to brief the mayor of Munich on the situation in
Harare," Davies
said.
The association has been updating Munich on what is happening
and CHRA
members expect the German city to issue a statement of solidarity
with
Mudzuri.
Last week CHRA condemned Chombo's interference in
the running of
Harare, threatening to take legal action against his actions.
- Staff
Reporter
FinGaz
Winning MDC candidates forced to flee their
homes
Staff Reporter
10/10/02 9:19:08 AM (GMT
+2)
BULAWAYO - The Matabeleland branch of the opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) this week accused ruling ZANU PF supporters
of
launching a violent campaign of retribution against its members who
won
seats in the just-ended rural district council elections.
A
senior ZANU PF official quickly denied the claim.
Although police
said they had not received any reports of
post-election violence in the
province, MDC officials said their winning
candidates in Binga, Gwanda and
Plumtree had been forced to flee their
homes.
Others had been
assaulted by self-styled war veterans, militant
supporters of President
Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF who are too young to have
fought in Zimbabwe's 1970s
independence war.
The MDC won 16 of the 22 contested wards in
Binga, three out of 10
seats in Gwanda and four out of 25 seats at stake in
Plumtree.
Jonathan Siba-nda, the MDC's organising secretary for
Matabeleland
South, said Nkanyiso Nkala, one of the party's winning
candidates in Gwanda,
was on the run after war veterans demanded that he
defects to the ruling
party.
"He is under pressure from the war
veterans and is on the run now
because they are harassing him and other known
MDC supporters," he said.
"They want him to cross the floor to the
ruling party."
Nkala himself could not be contacted for comment.
His whereabouts were
unknown this week when this newspaper phoned the MDC
offices in Gwanda, the
provincial capital of Matabeleland South.
Two other winning candidates are reportedly in hiding after being
visited at
their respective homes by ZANU PF supporters.
According to MDC
officials in Gwanda, the war veterans have chased
away about 10 teachers from
five schools there and three nurses from
Umzimumi Clinic for ostensibly
supporting the MDC.
"The teachers and nurses are being harassed.
They are being accused of
aiding the MDC to win here in Ward Three in Gwanda
North," Sibanda said.
Chief Masuku, the traditional leader of
Gwanda North, where the MDC
won the Ward Three, is said to have also come
under pressure from ZANU PF
for "allowing the enemy to win". The chief was
not available for comment.
Said Sibanda: "Chief Masuku is also
being pressured. These people are
not happy that they lost and are taking it
upon the people in the ward."
In the remote and poor district of
Binga in Matabeleland North, where
the MDC won 16 of the 22 contested wards,
opposition officials said their
councillors were also being intimidated and
threatened with denials of food
in the drought-hit area.
Veni
Muleya, the MDC winning candidate in Binga's Mutsheso Ward, was
at the
weekend severely assaulted. Sophie Ngwenya, the MDC losing candidate
in Tinde
Ward, was also assaulted for standing for the MDC in the elections.
In Insiza, where a parliamentary by-election is due at end of this
month, the
MDC's winning candidates in the rural polls were reported to have
fled to
Bulawayo because of the violence.
But Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the ruling
party's deputy political commissar,
scoffed at the reports of the alleged
retribution.
"ZANU PF won overwhelmingly. In fact, we were leading
before any votes
were cast. This talk of retribution against the few MDC
councillors is
silly," he said.
"A loser always complains, but
if this is really what is happening,
then the police are there to do their
job."
FinGaz
Divisions in MDC over Tsvangirai vying for MP
Staff Reporter
10/10/02 9:15:46 AM (GMT +2)
SHARP
divisions emerged this week in the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) on whether party leader Morgan Tsvangirai should
stand as a candidate
in a parliamentary by-election for Harare Central, a
seat which has become
vacant after the resignation of MDC lawmaker Mike
Auret.
Auret,
a target of frequent verbal threats by President Robert Mugabe,
is ill. He is
receiving medical treatment in Cape Town, from where he told
the MDC's
leadership four weeks ago he had resigned his parliamentary seat.
It could not be ascertained yesterday whether Auret, 65, had
also
communicated his resignation to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker
of
Parliament.
Auret, one of four white MDC legislators, has not
attended any
parliamentary sitting this year. He won the Harare Central seat
in the 2000
parliamentary vote by beating Winston Dzawo of the ruling ZANU
PF.
According to MDC insiders, two groups have emerged within the
party.
One is lobbying for Tsvangirai to contest the vacant seat and
enter
Parliament while the other argues that Parliament is hamstrung by
the
executive and irrelevant.
The decision on whether Tsvangirai
will contest the seat will be taken
by the party's national
executive.
It is however understood that Tsvangirai is not keen to
become a
lawmaker, preferring that senior party members not in Parliament can
stand
for the seat.
Sources within the MDC said one group felt
that it was better for
Tsvangirai to keep consolidating the party outside
Parliament rather than
get bogged down in a House which they feel has been
turned into a
rubber-stamp for the executive.
One MDC executive
member said it was important for the party to debate
whether meaningful
political and economic change in Zimbabwe would be better
achieved with
Tsvangirai in or outside Parliament.
This group says it is
demeaning for Tsvangirai to be exposed to
possible abuse in the House, where
the MDC feels it has not been able to
push through any meaningful legislative
change because of ZANU PF's majority
in the House.
The opposing
group believes that Tsvangirai, who lost the Buhera North
parliamentary seat
to ZANU PF's Kenneth Manyonda, will enhance his
leadership and standing by
entering Parliament and making his views known.
Manyonda's victory
has been nullified by the High Court, but ZANU PF
has appealed against that
ruling to the Supreme Court.
The High Court ordered a re-run after
it found that the Buhera North
vote was marred by massive violence.
Tsvangirai's personal aides Talent
Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya were burnt to
death by ZANU PF supporters
during the poll campaign.
Some of
the cases in which the MDC is challenging the 2000
parliamentary vote in 37
constituencies are still to be heard and finalised
in court two years after
the poll. The life of the present parliament ends
in 2005.
Tsvangirai, due to go on trial in November on charges of plotting to
kill
President Robert Mugabe, is challenging the outcome of the
presidential
election in court.
FinGaz
Hunger, shortages fuel anti-Mugabe tide
By Abel
Mutsakani News Editor
10/10/02 9:21:27 AM (GMT +2)
AFTER a
six-month moratorium, tensions re-emerged this week between
the Zimbabwe
government and the powerful labour movement as the country's
economic
hardships worsened, queues for scarce fuel re-appeared and a
widening bread
shortage underscored a deepening food crisis.
Political analysts
warned that unless Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
quickly unlocked the oil
taps to Harare, his ally Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe could wake up to
find the unthinkable happening: popular
worker-led mass protests that could
ignite the downfall of the 78-year-old
leader.
Mugabe and his
administration, facing a financial crisis triggered by
the meltdown of the
economy, have kept Zimbabwe running only because Gaddafi
has allowed fuel
supplies to flow to Harare on credit. But of late, the
maverick Libyan has
stalled on supplies.
Urgent supplies of the staple wheat and maize,
which the government
has no money to buy, are also needed to feed seven
million people - or half
the population - to keep the lead on swelling anger
among Zimbabweans who
hold Mugabe directly responsible for their plight, the
analysts said.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
secretary-general Wellington
Chibhebhe fired a warning salvo this week,
telling the government that the
patience of workers was reaching breaking
point because of the country's
unresolved problems.
"Things are
getting to the limit. Time is fast coming when situation
will just snap up,"
Chibhebhe told the Financial Gazette.
Brian Raftopoulos, an
associate professor at the Institute of
Development Studies, an affiliate
college of the University of Zimbabwe
(UZ), said the ZCTU, civic rights
groups such as the National Constitutional
Assembly, the opposition and civic
society in general were re-mobilising on
the back of rising public
discontent.
"After an onslaught by the government soon after the
March
presidential election, these groups are beginning to find their feet
again,"
he said.
He noted that economic hardships were set to
worsen - and so would the
food and fuel shortages, thus giving more impetus
to the rising anti-Mugabe
tide.
Mugabe's option was to negotiate
a compromise with the opposition and
its allied groups over their demands for
a new and democratic national
constitution and to re-run a presidential vote
they say he stole in March
this year, the UZ analyst said.
Such
a course of action could see the international community
immediately
unlocking aid vital to any attempts to reverse the economic
slide and to end
the food shortages.
The 15-nation European Union, the United
States, Canada, Switzerland
and New Zealand have imposed targeted sanctions
against Mugabe and his top
officials over the disputed March poll and human
rights abuses.
But Raftopoulos was quick to point out that Mugabe,
well known for his
knack to swim against the current, was unlikely to opt for
a compromise or a
negotiated solution.
"Mugabe looks more likely
to continue on his present path of trying to
beat back the crisis and the
rising disenchantment against his rule," he
said.
"But I do not
see Mugabe politically outliving the crisis. I do not
see him seeing his
sixth year in office."
Signalling a hardening of positions, the
ZCTU's Chibhebhe warned that
strict anti-protest laws enacted by Mugabe
earlier this year would not hold
back the workers' anger.
Under
the govern-ment's repressive Public Order and Security Act,
anyone can be
jailed or fined for organising protests or any gathering
deemed to be of
political nature without getting police approval.
The police have
forcefully banned all such gatherings staged by civic
society and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, only allowing
those organised by
ruling ZANU PF party and government supporters.
Chibhebhe said:
"Hunger will force people to stand up against these
laws that are meant to
suppress dissent."
The trade unionist spoke as more fuel stations
across the southern
African country ran out of petrol and diesel, the latest
round of fuel
shortages triggered by a foreign currency squeeze.
The government maintained however that Zimbabwe had enough oil
supplies,
blaming the shortages on hoarding and what it termed unethical
conduct by oil
distributors.
But reports carried by the international media said
Gaddafi, who last
month assured Mugabe of continued supplies under a renewed
US$360 million
oil credit facility, had switched off supplies because Harare
had not paid a
US$63 million outstanding debt for fuel already supplied under
the old deal.
Bread shortages, which started earlier this year,
worsened across the
country this week despite claims by the government that
it had imported
wheat to beef up limited supplies.
While this
happened, the response of international donors to an appeal
by the World Food
Programme (WFP) for food aid on behalf of Harare
remained
lukewarm.
Only US$85 million worth of food aid had been
given or pledged so far
since the WFP appealed two months ago for US$285
million worth of food for
the troubled nation.
The education
sector, where services and standards have deteriorated
markedly because of
declining state funding, also faced disruptions caused
by a strike by
teachers who want higher pay.
UZ mathematics professor and
political commentator Heneri Dzino-tyiwei
said public pressure would mount
against the government to act against the
gathering storm.
He
warned that any decision to hike the price of fuel to try to raise
cash to
meet payments for the Libyan oil could trigger unrest.
FinGaz
Demands for land title deeds illegal: lawyer
Staff Reporter
10/10/02 9:18:02 AM (GMT +2)
THE government
has no legal right to demand title deeds from farmers,
as it is currently
doing, but can only do so after paying full compensation
to the farmers, the
chief legal adviser to the Justice for Agriculture (JAG)
group, Ray
Passaportis, said this week.
Passaportis said even if the
government accepted a Land Acquisition
(LA) 3 form, which details how much
land a farmer is prepared to offer the
state for resettlement of landless
blacks, the farmer should always retain
the original title
deeds.
"The provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, Chapter 20:10,
do not
require a farmer to hand over title deeds at any time while the
acquisition
process is in progress," he said in a statement to the Financial
Gazette.
"Even if a farmer has submitted an LA3 form for the
subdivision of a
property and this is accepted by government, original title
deeds should not
be released. In many cases, farm owners have subdivided
pieces of land or
offered land in substitution for another."
Many farmers are being pressured by the government to relinquish the
title
deeds for their farms, which the government is seizing, as proof that
they
are committed to the government's land reform plan. But the farmers
have
steadfastly refused to do so, saying the title deeds are lodged with
banks as
collateral for their debts.
JAG broke away from the mainstream
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU)
earlier this year to challenge the
government's eviction of farmers. The CFU
had preferred to negotiate with the
government.
It is estimated that white commercial farmers owe banks
more than $12
billion in loans and overdrafts.
A meeting between
the CFU's leadership and Vice President Joseph Msika
at the end of August
failed to yield any results after the government
demanded that farmers
surrender their title deeds to their land.
Passaportis said where
farmers offered land to the government or
subdivided their land, Section 10
(1) of the Land Acquisition Act obliged
the state to notify the Registrar of
Deeds, but the government has not done
so.
The government is
then supposed to lodge its acceptance of the land in
question with the
Registrar of Deeds by presenting a copy of the LA3 form
and a map of the farm
signed by a land surveyor as a record.
Passaportis also said the
ongoing evictions of farmers by the police
could be successfully challenged
in court under the principle of vicarious
liability. This is a legal
principle in which an employer may be held liable
for the action of his or
her employees.
In this regard, Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri could be held
liable for illegal acts committed by police officers in
instances where
farmers had been arbitrarily arrested when the courts had
invalidated
government eviction notices.
Meanwhile a JAG
spokeswoman this week said more than 60 farmers in the
Lowveld were given
until Tuesday this week to vacate their land by the
police. This is despite
the fact that the farmers had successfully
challenged the government's
eviction notices.
This latest crackdown comes on the back of
physical evictions of more
than 40 farmers last week in Matabeleland province
by a government task
force.
"Reports received from the Lowveld
indicate that over 60 cane farmers
are packing to leave on instructions
issued today by government, police and
army officials who, upon issuing the
instruction to leave, said that their
order supercedes any existing High
Court rulings," the spokeswoman said.
FinGaz
Teachers' strike leaders nabbed
Staff
Reporters
10/10/02 9:02:04 AM (GMT +2)
THE government
yesterday arrested Raymond Majongwe and Takavafira
Zhou, the
secretary-general and president respectively of the Progressive
Teachers'
Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), for spearheading a strike by the
country's lowly
paid teachers this week.
The organisation's treasurer, MacDonald
Mangauzani, told the Financial
Gazette that although Majongwe was still in
police custody late yesterday,
Zhou had been released without any charges
being preferred against him.
He said police had on Tuesday arrested
PTUZ's secretary, Charity
Chipuriro, confiscated some files and office keys.
Chipuriro had also been
released on the same day but ordered to close down
the office.
"In the early hours of Wednesday morning, riot police
descended on
Majongwe's residence in the low-density suburb of Cranborne and
beat up
Majongwe's wife and maid and also harassed his children aged three
and five.
They threw around blankets and mattresses looking for Majongwe," he
said.
"This barbaric act is indicative of the absence of the rule
of law and
of state-sponsored lawlessness. Over and above this abuse, the
police also
later in the day arrested Majongwe under some obscure section of
the
infamous Public Order and Security Act (POSA)."
Harare
police last night confirmed that they were charging Majongwe
under Section 17
of POSA, which relates to an individual who interferes with
the rights of
others. The police said they were also looking for other union
leaders behind
the strike.
The indefinite strike by Zimbabwean teachers, called to
coincide with
the writing of national examinations by students, entered its
second day
yesterday amid confusion and accusations of selling out among
members.
The teachers were still split on whether or not to strike,
with some
heeding the call while others rejected it.
According
to PTUZ, more teachers had joined the strike countrywide
yesterday despite
the fact that school heads had been assigned by the
government to police the
teachers and report those on strike.
Some members of the mainstream
Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (ZIMTA)
this week accused their leader,
Leonard Nkala, of sabotaging the strike
because of his close ties with the
governing ZANU PF party.
They said Nkala, a ZANU PF councillor in
Bulawayo's Ward Nine, feared
angering the ruling party by endorsing the
strike engineered by Majongwe's
union.
The government, stamping
down on rising dissent triggered by an
economic collapse and widely-held
perceptions of an unfair presidential
election that returned President Robert
Mugabe to power in March, has
threatened to dismiss all
strikers.
The government has refused to sanction any protest since
that disputed
vote, clamping down hard on any
would-be-protesters.
In some primary schools visited by the
Financial Gazette in Harare and
Bulawayo yesterday, teachers seemed to be
working normally, although pupils
said the teachers were on a
go-slow.
Some high school pupils from both Harare's high-density
and
low-density areas said their teachers had turned up for work but had
either
asked them to write notes or set them tests for the whole
day.
Most high school teachers are members of the PTUZ, who are
striking
for improved working conditions and remuneration. Some of the 55
000-strong
ZIMTA members are said to be thinking of joining Majongwe's
union.
Teachers said in interviews yesterday that they supported
the strike
but could not stay away from work for fear of victimisation, hence
their
decision to engage in a sit-in.
The government has
promised that teachers will be awarded pay
increases next January. Other
sectors of the government were awarded salary
rises earlier this year, with
nurses getting a 155 percent hike and soldiers
a 165 percent increase
effective January 2002.
The teachers said they could not trust the
government to keep its
promises, which they noted had been broken in the
past.
"Why should we believe the government now when it has failed
to live
up to its promises in the past?" one irate teacher in Harare's Mbare
asked,
echoing the views of most teachers.
But Nkala, who has
distanced his union from the strike action, said
yesterday: "I am confident
that the government will be gentleman enough to
honour its promise. The
government has promised us and I'm sure it will
deliver when the time
comes."
Most teachers with between five and 15 years service earn a
gross
salary of $41 000 while those with less than five years service get
gross
monthly pay of $27 000.
In comparison, a nurse who has
only served one year earns a gross
salary of $60 000, which is $19 000 more
than a teacher who has been working
for 15 years.
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change yesterday expressed
solidarity with the
striking teachers and urged leaders of the various
factions of the teachers'
unions to appreciate the plight of their members.
FinGaz
Apartheid now has an African face: Brutus
10/10/02 7:51:21 AM (GMT +2)
DENNIS Brutus has been described as a
poet, freedom fighter, activist
and academic. Political campaigns in the
1960s led to his banning from all
political and social activity. He was
sentenced to 18 months of hard labour
at Robben Island in 1963. He left South
Africa in 1966 and was involved in
various campaigns for the isolation of the
apartheid regime.
A published poet, Brutus is Professor Emeritus at
University of
Pittsburgh, USA. He is currently involved in global campaigns
against the
policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund.
He recently spoke with the Financial Gazette's correspondent
Chris
Kabwato.
CK: Who is Dennis Brutus?
DB: I was
born in Harare in 1924. My parents were South African and I
left the then
Rhodesia at the age of six months. I have been back to
Zimbabwe since
especially to attend the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.
You may know a few
years ago at ZIBF we entered into the Guinness Book of
Records for the
publishing of a book in record time...
You may not know this but I
was responsible for the expulsion of
Rhodesia from the Munich Olympic games
in 1972. This was quite important in
the struggle for Zimbabwe. When I was
shot in 1966 in Johannesburg I was
carrying a Rhodesian passport. Roy
Welensky, then prime minister of
Rhodesia, denied the existence of any
records of Dennis Brutus yet I had
been baptised in the Anglican
Church.
CK: Whilst we are on Zimbabwe. Your take on the current
situation in
the country?
DB: I understand Robert Mugabe claims
to have played tennis with me at
Fort Hare. I will not dispute that but it's
just that I do not recall that
happening. The situation in Zimbabwe is
extremely complex. There are
elements that are not always fully examined by
the media. Many problems
emanated from the Lancaster Agreement. The question
of the clauses of that
agreement is important. The land issue can be viewed
in two ways. African
people have legitimate claims to land. The complication
lies in the legal
process.
In my view there is greater concern
about the legal rights of whites
and, significantly, not of Africans. When
Africans were dispossessed there
was no recourse to law. This contradiction
needs to be resolved. I am not an
expert on Zimbabwe but the issues are far
more complex.
CK: So what is the way forward?
DB: The
current legal processes which biased toward Western legal
processes may be
inappropriate in an African context. There is need for a
re-visitation of
these processes and build processes which take into account
colonialism and
apartheid.
A more appropriate solution would be create a forum
representing the
various interests of Sub-Saharan African to examine our
history.
It is a desirable project but the government of South
Africa would not
support that. Yet the opportunity exists with NEPAD because
NEPAD aspires to
be continental instrument to resolve our economic problems.
But generally I
am suspicious of NEPAD. NEPAD is a destruction of African
values and
economy.
CK: You have been a freedom fighter against
apartheid and now you're
an activist in the post-apartheid era. What are the
issues now?
DB: I have been an activist in sport and cultural
fields and an
academic. I was involved in the expulsion of South Africa from
international sports. I contributed to the
end of apartheid and the creation of a
democratic South Africa.
You are right. I am in a curious situation of my activism being
directed at post-apartheid
South Africa. We have inherited structures which
instead of removing them
there is collaboration. Economic power is still in
the hands of the same
corporates.
The new twist is that now they
are extracting wealth and relocating it
offshore. Anglo-American has
goldmines in Australia, SAB has breweries in
Tanzania...It is now apartheid
with an African face - you put in a few black
people on the boards of the
corporates. Real wealth remains with a minority.
Conditions have
become worse in housing, health, education, value of
the Rand. In a way it is
ironic to have to fight a new form of apartheid.CK:
You are involved in
Jubilee South Africa. What does this organisation
represent?
DB:
Jubilee SA focuses on two issues: cancellation of debt and
reparations. Its
other useful function is to act as a coordinating body for
other
organisations that are involved in issues such as HIV/AIDS, housing
etc.CK:
Do you see the emergence of a strong leftwing social movement in
South
Africa?
DB: That is a difficult question. On the surface there are
two
obstacles. Firstly - the ANC commands a strong and loyal support
base.
Sentimental loyalty prevents its supporters from criticising it.
Secondly
there is no serious alternative opposition party. So can a radical
critical
movement emerge in the face of such obstacles? The prospects are not
good
but that's half the answer.
There are three things in our
favour. One - increasing disillusionment
with the ANC. They serve
corporations not people. Secondly the ANC is set in
a policy and a direction
which will only worsen the hardship of the people
and increase profits for
corporates. Thirdly - the resistance developing in
South Africa is part of
the resistance globally i.e. the resistance to the
global corporate agenda.
Ultimately there will be a strong movement but not
yet.CK: You don't think
COSATU could split from ANC and lead that movement?
DB: The SACP
(South African Communist Party) has been compromised. It
has become an ally
of the fat cats in parliament. Look at Jeff Radebe who is
both an SACP MP and
a Minister in charge of privatisation. COSATU may split
in time but the role
of the SACP is to prevent such a split. It is there to
placate
COSATU.
a.. Chris Kabwato is a social and political
commentator. He is based
in Johannesburg.
FinGaz
How Zim forfeits its competitive advantages
Chido Makunike
10/10/02 7:15:57 AM (GMT +2)
All of us wish
for Zimbabwe to somehow get over its myriad problems or
for some semblance of
normality to be restored.
Recently there have been a lot of calls
for Zimbabweans "to work
together", to put aside their differences and focus
on the common cause of
arresting the decline we are
experiencing.
This is the kind of sweet platitude that is very
difficult to disagree
with, but not so easy to implement, given all the water
that has gone under
the bridge in the last several years.
As
much as we all want to get over the political nightmare in Zimbabwe
today,
how do we pretend that violence against the citizens, not only aided
and
abetted by the state, but many times orchestrated by it, is not a fact
of
life?
One may realistically recognise the hold of ruling
politicians over
the entire apparatus of power. But if you believe, as many
in Zimbabwe do
today, that they wield their power through crookedness,
violence and
intimidation, how then does one suspend that belief, so much as
to sit down
with them and talk about an economic strategy or political
unity?
Some say we should now forget about any differences we may
have over
the way land redistribution has been done and concentrate on
ploughing.
"What is done is done, no revolution is worth its name
without a lot
of rape, blood and economic disruption."
I'm
always fascinated how virtually all the people who take this tack
of
defending Robert Mugabe's methods are politicians, business
people,
academics, journalists and other remote "revolutionaries" who do not
have to
deal with the worst, long term aspects of the "revolution" they
cheer.
To them, change that was part of an actual strategy, that
had the real
promise of benefiting the marginalised and the country, would
have been too
dull.
All the upheavals we have experienced, and
the objectively measurable,
continuing decline in every facet of the economy,
are necessary to certify
what is happening as a "revolution."
Every index of decline can be simply, glibly rationalised. The
sad,
dehumanising queues one witnesses for bread - of all things - every
day
because of the "revolution"-caused wheat shortage?
Ah well,
our people who have been brainwashed to believe this
colonialist commodity is
essential to their lives, let them eat cake
instead.
Armchair
"revolutionaries", often able to squeeze tens of millions of
dollars from
their broke government ministries and parastatals for the most
fashionable
luxury cars, blithely believe the chain of economic problems
that have
resulted in just as dehumanising queues for public transport, will
sort
themselves out somehow.
When the diabolical foreign powers who do
not want us to enjoy our
land and roaring lions, realise the error of their
ways, they will apologise
to us and then flood the economy with billions of
dollars in investments and
donations to compensate for having been so rude to
us!
Despite the evidence of history, all the policies and methods
that
have proved to be disastrous everywhere they have been tried, are
somehow
thought to be likely to work here.
No tractors to plough
the fields? No problem, we will use our hoes,
"chave chimurenga!" No
operating capital for all the associated inputs of
commercial farming, days
before the rains start in earnest? It's alright, at
least the soil is now in
our hands, we can still enjoy the beautiful sounds
of our roaring lions. No
revolution would be complete without some
starvation and a lot of
hardship.
Starvation builds character and fortifies us against the
machinations
of the imperialists, you see, who do not really enjoy being so
much better
fed than us because it is our stolen wealth that has made them so
rich!
When so many parts of a whole are ailing, as is the case in
Zimbabwe
today, you can not just isolate one part for treatment with any hope
of
restoring health to the unit.
The violence of the state
against the citizens impinges on the
economy, the collapsing economy hurts
the family. The family break ups and
tension affect our confidence and well
being. And so on and so forth, ad
infinitum.
So while some
individuals and sectors are doing well or even
prospering, taken as a whole,
the country has never been in worse shape.
I want to give some
examples of how Zimbabwe, with so many advantages
over its neighbours and
countries further afield, is willy-nilly giving them
up in ways that make
getting back to normal very difficult.
It is much more complicated
than simply saying "we accept the reality
of Mugabe having control over the
means to intimidate, jail us or worse,
let's throw our hands up in surrender
and just work with him."
An African-American group and Cuba have
recently been touted as the
solutions to the brain drain in our health
system, with both promising to
send medical personnel to replace the
Zimbabweans leaving for other
countries in droves to try to earn a
respectable living.
The absurdity of training thousands of highly
skilled professionals
over many years at high cost, only to donate their
skills to the rest of the
world, has been pointed out by many
people.
Now we must contend with the professional rejects of other
countries.
Our "principled", costly and deeply unpopular military
intervention in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) did not only
worsen an economy
that was already tottering but none of the promised
economic benefits have
come to pass.
But wait, isn't this only
because Zimbabwean businesspeople are not
gung-ho adventurers who seize
opportunity, even when it is presented to them
on a silver
platter?
How do you wage a campaign of foreign investment when your
domestic
industrial base is being eaten away by political threats, hyper
inflation
and the lack of foreign currency to import inputs at a price that
makes your
goods competitive in a foreign market?
When your
company's reserves and debts, and your country's
macroeconomics, are such
that you just run it from day to day, how can you
afford to sell goods to a
country where you may not get paid for months?
These are just a few
problems that many Zimbabwean companies who tried
to explore whether the DRC
was the great new economic frontier for us to
have grappled
with.
None of these problems are reasons for Zimbabwean companies
not to
keep seeking opportunities in the DRC or anywhere else.
My point is that a basic analysis of the state of our economy at the
time of
Mugabe's "principled" DRC adventure, would have
shown that it was
almost inevitable that the South Africans would go
in and clean up
economically after we had shown how militarily macho we
were.
DRC-Zimbabwean political sentimentality aside, the harsh reality is
that
South Africa is a far more sophisticated industrial economy than us,
and was
much better poised to flood the DRC with goods and services.
While
many South African companies are well oiled, financially covered
and
established enough to absorb the high risk involved in the DRC,
Zimbabwean
companies, many of which are surviving by the skin of their
teeth, are in a
weaker position than ever the unusually high risks of doing
business in the
DRC, despite the promise of great reward for those who can
successfully
navigate the jungle.
Some generals and politicians may have emerged
filthy rich from the
DRC, but Zimbabwe is worse off for it.
Today's banks are being attacked for their reluctance to support a
poorly
conceived and implemented agrarian reform.
Yet we have the evidence
of the lack of coordination between military
strategy and economic reality in
the DRC to show how we have to strategise
to accentuate our strengths while
minimising our weaknesses for national
initiatives to work.
Thinking about avoiding getting in to a mess is far more useful than
just
jumping in and then trying to make the best of the situation once you
are in
it.
But then again, that would remove all the theatre and fun of
showing
that you are tough and in charge, wouldn't it?
I had
forgotten that in Zimbabwe "kutonga", to rule, does not
necessarily mean
using power to facilitate, to heal, to build.
To some of us it
simply means to show you are there, to flex one's
muscles, even if the
results are negative.
Last week Mugabe was in Mozambique to be
praised for another military
involvement several years ago, this one not as
controversial as the DRC one.
In an uncharacteristic gesture, he actually
hugged the former Mozambican
rebel leader Zimbabwe helped fight
against.
He poetically talked about that country's reconstruction,
and how it
is getting along so well with Portugal, the former colonial
power.
The results of Mozambique's political-economic pragmatism
are clear
for all to see now. Foreign investors take the country
seriously.
The quiet, moderate President Chissano is respected the
world
over, the country has a revolutionary history that would impress
any
romantic, and it has a healthy annual growth rate.
Yet while
Mugabe was hugging Alfonso Dhlakama and praising
Mozambique's growing
socio-economic strides, at home his rhetoric is harsh
and
divisive.
He admires Portugal and Mozambique for overcoming a long
period of
suspicion and bitterness to work together, but listen to his
vitriol against
Britain, which hurts Zimbabwe far more than it affects
Britain.
As he enjoyed being applauded for those few minutes in
Mozambique, the
citizens of that country are busy crossing the border to take
advantage of
our weak economy and currency, to buy up petrol, bread, cooking
oil and many
other goods increasingly out of reach of Zimbabweans, for
profitable resale
back home. The unheard of has already happened, and
Mozambique now does more
trade with South Africa than Zimbabwe
does.
They do not mind cheering our visiting president for his
eloquent
rhetoric, but behind our backs they sneer and laugh at our
economic
foolishness.
Before our very eyes, a country we used to
look down on not too long
ago is steadily, quietly succeeding as we wallow
in
failure; hostage to our powerful, scary, but failed
politicians.
These are just a few of the ways in which we are
throwing away a lot
of the competitive advantages that should have made
Zimbabwe's star continue
to gloriously shine, instead of fading out like it
is doing.
a.. Chido Makunike is a social and political
commentator based in
Harare
Economic Policies Under Fire
The Daily News
(Harare)
October 9, 2002
Posted to the web October 9,
2002
Colleen Gwari, Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S business
leaders have attacked government policies on economic
development. They
expressed their concerns during the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries'
annual congress which started in Harare on Monday.
A majority business
leaders were concerned about the government's foreign
currency exchange,
price control, inflation and interest rate management
policies.
The
businessmen challenged President Mugabe's government to come up with
much
clearer, all-inclusive and consistent policies to help resuscitate the
ailing
economy.
During a question and answer session with Dr Herbert Murerwa,
the Minister
of Finance and Economic Development, the government was
challenged not to
play down economic problems bedevilling the nation and
articulate issues for
the benefit of the country.
Antony Mandiwanza,
the chief executive officer of Dairibord Zimbabwe
Limited, said the corporate
sector was in a dilemma as the international
business community had closed
all lines of credit.
"I think we need to restore investor confidence and
get on board the
international community so as to open up lines of credit for
the business
community," Mandiwanza said.
He said the country's
corporate sector could not access any credit from
institutions and colleagues
on the international arena.
The situation, he said, was threatening most
companies as operations were no
longer viable.
David Govere, the
former chairman of the Mashonaland Chamber of Industries,
urged business to
have confidence in the country and send what he termed the
right signal to
the international community.
"As much as we need the international
community and donors to help us, I do
not think it is prudent for a country's
economy to solely rely on aid,"
Govere said.
A participant at the
congress left the audience in stitches when he asked
Murerwa whether price
controls had helped make life easier for the poor
considering most scarce
commodities were being sold on the parallel market
at exorbitant
prices.
In response, Murerwa conceded there were loopholes and said the
government
was working out a new plan.
Stewart Comberbach, the
permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry and
International Trade,
warned the business community of more price controls,
which are expected to
sink the economy into deeper crisis.
My dear Cloete,
This is an open letter to farmers, of which you are one. I
felt that
the meeting in Bulawayo, expressed the honesty of farmers,
certainly in
this province, but also around the country. I accept that we
are all in
a very difficult position, and I do not envy you at all. However
I have
done my best to try to understand the situation which is somewhat
complex, on the ground, and I must be very careful not to over simplify
the issue. I find it easier to solve problems once they have been
analyzed, and broken down into simple components, and then a holistic
approach taken to the best combination of solutions for the
components.
Firstly, we have to see what sort of game we have been drawn
into;
If it is a simple tossing of the coin, it is either heads or tails.
This is a nice simple game. The results are deemed to be MUTUALLY
EXCLUSIVE. Put simply, you cannot call, heads and tails - only heads,
or
tails.
If we then take another game, with a coin and dice, we can call
heads
and sixes. This game has two calls which are INDEPENDENT of one
another.
I have already mentioned that there is a brilliant adversary. I
worry
that we think we are playing a game where we still think that we can
call for dice numbers, and heads or tails, when in fact the real game
was only heads or tails. I will attempt to explain.
If heads are
deemed to be for Christianity, and tails for Marxism, we
would be playing a
simple game, where the options are mutually
exclusive, and offer a simple
option between two choices.
I am concerned that the coin was tossed over
two years ago (perhaps a
coin with tails on both sides?) and it was tails,
but the CFU has
chosen to carry on with the call of the dice. The emphasis
has been on
how well we can throw the dice, for how many farmers to carry
on, with
how much land, and so on. Who actually agreed to play the game in
the
first place, with these rules ? For me it seems that the Union can only
play dice for extinction, and that Our Leadership are still enjoying
the
game of "Throw Your Dice to Survive".
Unfortunately, some two thousand ex
farmers, some dicers of note
amongst them, have played this game. Many of
them have warned the still
twelve hundred (or less?) players, and the
Democratically Elected
Council, that still have immunity, that it is only
limited immunity.
Two thousand farmers have already had their own "Final
Episode" and it
ends "The crocodile now eats you, the Tribe has
spoken".
Have you heard the joke about Van taking a bet about a film in
which a
fisherman was swimming in Kariba, and had an arm and a leg bitten
off
by a crocodile. Whilst they were watching, Van's English friend took a
bet with him, for fifty Rand, that the fisherman would have and arm and
a leg bitten off. Van bet that the fisherman would not lose an arm and
a leg. After the movie, in which the fisherman did lose an arm and a
leg, Van produced the fifty Rand, but his honest friend declined the
money. He confessed that he had already seen the movie before. "Ja
jong,
I did too, but I didn't think that the silly bugger would make
the same
mistake twice, man", said Van. Makes you wonder.
I have never studied the
works of Karl Marx in depth, but the quote
that I have mentioned before
deems that he "does not believe in God,
but believes deeply in himself. His
heart is filled not with love but
with rancour. He has very little
benevolence to men." Further, "he
becomes furious and spiteful when anyone
dares question the omniscience
of the divinity whom he adores, that is to
say, Mr. Marx himself."
If we go to Robert Ardrey's "Territorial
Imperitive" we find that he
refers to groups of animals, defending their
territory, and I quote:
"The amity, in other words, which an animal
expresses for others of its
kind will be equal to the sum of the forces of
enmity and hazard which
are arrayed against it. By enmity I refer to those
forces of antagonism
and hostility originating in members of one's own
species."
*amity - friendship, friendly relations.
*enmity - hatred, state
of hostility.
Mr. Cloete, I see the situation simply, because I am
simple.
1.To choose Karl Marx as your mentor, it seems that you must
believe in
yourself, and not God, and have no benevolence towards men, be
full of
rancour and not love, and be furious and spiteful if your divinity
is
questioned.
2.To choose Robert Ardrey as a mentor, you must
believe that you will
need to "rally your troop of primates, both
agricultural and pastoral,
and get the troop together again, with amity, to
face the enmity that
some two thousand of your divided troop have been
subjected to, over
the last two years". Or, alternatively "down size your
troop, and be
sure of the amity of the new troop, and accept that a troop
may grow or
shrink over time". Also bear in mind what Ardrey said about
leadership.
"Dominance challenged, however, will almost never be toppled in
a state
of nature. The possessor of high dominant rank wields mysterious
powers
just as does the territorial proprietor." I have not come across the
equivalent post as "Soothsayer Director", in any of Ardrey's work yet.
He never did a study of hierarchy, or behaviour patterns within Our
Union, as far as I am aware.
3. To choose Christianity as your
mentor, is the third option. In this
case you, Mr. Cloete, accepted
responsibility for a Parish, some
fourteen months ago, and it is your
decision as to whether you want a
big Parish or a little Parish. The
alternative would be to call
yourself a shepherd, and choose how many sheep
you want in your flock.
Western civilization is based on Christianity,
although freedom of
worship, association, speech, expression, movement and
other liberties
are Constitutional Rights in most Western Civilizations.
These are the
very liberties that the Crisis Coalition have stood up
for.
I am no expert on these matters. However, I think that Marxism and
Christianity are probably Mutually Exclusive - heads or tails -
according to Mikhail Bukunin, in 1872, anyway. The mere fact that the
Union felt that it had to suspend young Benjamin Freeth, exhibits the
compromising predicament the Union may well be in, in terms of dancing
to a tune described by Bukanin, a cool one hundred and thirty years
ago.
Whereas young Freeth has chosen to dance to the tune of his
farmers, in step
with perhaps their Christian orientated background;
young Martin Tracey
springs to mind, and I will always wonder what
Basil Smith would now have to
say.
A Territorial Imperative appears to be the very problem we face
today.
It now remains to be seen, if this country will survive best if the
problem is solved, in a Marxist manner, an Animal Behaviour Manner, or
a
Christian Manner. Time will tell.
Now that I have got a few things
straight in my mind, I must naturally
question the probability of nurturing
a Capitalist and Commercial
Union, of Professional, Christian orientated
farmers by blending into
a Marxist orientated environment, without the rule
of law, and with a
large percentage of the world, seemingly, not wanting to
have a lot to
do with us. I can only say that you have a challenge on your
hands. A
challenge that I cannot take up with you because there has been a
compromise of the Faith of the very meaning of the word Union - defined
as: - Uniting, joining, being united, coalition, a whole resulting from
parts or members, and now it says Trade Union: - two or more parishes,
consolidated for administration of poor laws!
I honestly wish you the
very best of luck, because I do believe that
you will need plenty of
it.
Yours sincerely,
J. L. Robinson.
Dear
All
Following our first fun-day held at Bulawayo Agriculture Cricket
Ground
on Friday 4th October, we would like to share our spirit and fun,
now
that we are BIG OKES not a splinter!
Regards Willie
Robinson
[ Application/MSWORD 50KB
]
The
Hut,
Wednesday, 2md October, 2002.
Dear Farmers,
I have
received a most thought provoking reply from B. Taylor. I shall
quote:
"I
fail to see the connection between the Churchill situation and our
own when
his circumstances involved a law abiding society and ours is
completely
different. While standing by correct morals and the "right"
principles is
admirable it will not get us anywhere under present
conditions, and it is
the present that matters at the moment - we need
to get back on the land and
farming."
I will attempt to comment sensibly:
"He who understands his
adversary, better than he understands himself,
will never lose a battle."
Sadly, I do not know who first uttered these
words. They really are very
harsh words, because for success, you have
to understand yourself (which can
be difficult) and on top of that,
your adversary. I shall try my very
best.
1. Let us assume a Brilliant Adversary; this is essential to
qualify to
play the game.
2. This adversary has preached dialogue
until Our Leadership actually
believes it to be the only way
forward.
3. The ex Legal Consultant, I believe, believed that again,
Dialogue is
the only way forward.
4. The Brilliant Adversary, then
SIMULTANEOUSLY, used Laws, created by
The Adversary's Legal Advisor, in many
forms, to detain members, and
evict members from their farms, in August and
now in September, as I
type.
5. So brilliant is the Adversary, that
whilst, B. Taylor admits to
"admiring correct morals and the right
principles," he has also been
talked into believing that "without dialogue
we will not get back on
the land." This he does knowing full well, that he
will be OUTSIDE THE
LAW, and is prepared to COMPROMISE MORALS &
PRINCIPLES simultaneously,
to get farming. As a displaced farmer I
personally, fully understand
that your emotional urge to farm, has perhaps,
superceded your rational
desire for Justice and the Rule of Law. "The pride
of a good farmer is
often his worst sin" - Louis Bromfield.
6.
Justice for Agriculture, was addressed by some fourteen lawyers in
Harare,
including Mr. Passaportis, quite a few of which were "old,
grey, and well
smoked," I noticed. We were told by all of them to
proceed with litigation.
I, personally, approached a lawyer friend who
has been in practice for some
sixty five years, (with ever sharpening
brain I may add) - six of which were
spent giving "Winston and the
Boys" a hand to bring about the Rule of Law in
Europe and the World,
because a young man by the name of Adolf had a very
different
interpretation of the word LAW. My octogenarian lawyer told me
"You
have to contest it."
7. Mr. Taylor, my concern is as above, plus
I worry that Mr. Cloete has
not fully understood the fact that Mr. Churchill
was a great leader. He
took Brooke's advice, because Brooke was a master in
his trade,
military strategy. I worry that Mr. Cloete has been tempted to
act like
Mr. Hitler, who was a dictator, who failed to take advice from some
brilliant men that he had, like Rommel. In the end Hitler lost, and I
personally would like to stay here and farm, eventually.
8. Further,
Mr. Taylor, I honestly believe that we must learn from the
past. I will now
turn back one hundred years exactly. Mr. Cloete's
ancestors, were, very
sadly, forced to sign a Peace Treaty, after a
terrible war, in my opinion.
Deneys Reitz, son of Francis William
Reitz, describes his Boer Leaders
"Every leader of note was there.
General de la Rey, Christian de Wet,
President Steyn, Beyers, Kemp, and
many others, the best of the Boer
fighting men." F. W. Reitz, was
President of the Republic of the Orange
Free State in 1887. He was a
leader, I believe. I would ask you and Our
Leadership to note what he
did, which is of great significance, in the
definition of a True
Leader. D. Reitz, his son, who covered the whole of
South Africa on
horse back, as a boer guerilla, starting at the age of about
seventeen,
said in "Commando" - "When my father's turn came, he handed over
his
rifle to the officer in charge, but refused to sign. He said that
although he was one of the signatories to the Peace Treaty, he had told
Lord Milner at the time that he was setting his hand to the document in
his official capacity as State Secretary of the Transvaal and not as a
private individual, and Lord Milner had accepted his signature on that
basis." For this FW Reitz, had to leave the country, he refused to
surrender, and accept the conditions to stay on, in the land of his
birth. But he did sign the Peace Treaty, which his Members had voted
and
agreed to sign.
9. My dear Cloete, I truly hope you fully accept that
some people are
indeed concerned, that you may have had a lapse of
concentration on
29.08.02. when you printed "It is my PERSONAL POLICY to
build bridges
wherever I can, and keep doors open for communication, for
without
being able to DIALOGUE with Government, I can be of little to my
members." Please give some thought to "setting your hand in an official
capacity," not a personal capacity.
10. Lastly, I will have to
reiterate the extreme brilliance of our
adversary. Our Leadership have been
so WELL INDOCTRINATED that they now
believe that they can solve Criminal
Court Cases, in dialogue, outside
Court, there by actively undermining our
Judiciary. And then to put
salt in the wound, disregard the majority of The
Best Legal Advice, and
come back to us the members and ask for more money,
to carry on
Dialoging OUTSIDE THE LEGAL SYSTEM. If it were not such a
tragedy, I
would want to laugh, at the brilliance of the story teller, and
the
unprecedented gullibility of Our Leaders who have believed the story
that they have been fed!!!
11. Justice for Agriculture, has sought
the best legal advice it could
afford. Strangely enough, Our Union, now has
the same Lawyer, but in
Adolf fashion, Our Leadership, has decided to take
its own road,
because it arrogantly perceives itself, as "Knowing Best." So
far we
have lost over half our membership, probably three quarters, at what
point will Our Leadership accept that there a few Legal Ramifications,
that will have to be sorted out, in a Competent Court, in terms of the
Law, to act as Foundations? In Mashonaland East I am told that there
are
some 6% of farmers active. If Our Leadership disregards Mr.
Passaportis,
please could they tell us who they do turn to, and more
importantly, please
tell me what HE SMOKES, because I will surely
believe that I live in the
best of all worlds when I take a puff of
that stuff. I just cannot wait, and
have the shakes already.
12. Dictator: (Oxford 1962)
i) Absolute
ruler, usually temporary or irregular, of a State.
ii) Person with absolute
authority in any sphere.
I feel that I have done my best to answer you
Mr. Taylor, I too agree
with dialogue, but only AFTER a Court Case has been
filed, to protect
Our Members, and will just finish off with my friend
Voltaire (1694 to
1778)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will
defend to the death your
right to say it." - to compromise our integrity in
terms of the law, in
this case.
"Faith consists in believing when it
is beyond the power to reason to
believe. It is not enough that a thing be
possible for it to believed."
It is up to Us Collectively to Decide, I
believe, not one or two, or
even twenty Chosen Ones, any
more.
Yours
sincerely,
J.L.
Robinson
The Pole and Dagga
Hut,
1st October, 2002.
Dear
Farmers,
Our Union Constitution.
Section 3 : OBJECTS:
(d) To
sponsor, oppose or support, any legislation the introduction of
which is
likely to affect beneficially or otherwise as the case may be,
the interests
of its MEMBERS or the agricultural industry generally.
Section 17:
REFERENDA:
Council may at any time hold a Referendum of MEMBERS of the Union
on
such matter and in such manner as it may determine.
Now let us
consider Section 18:
ELIGIBILITY FOR OFFICE AND REMOVAL:
18.2 The
President, either Vice President and any Trustee may on GOOD
CAUSE SHOWN be
REMOVED or SUSPENDED from office.
18.3 Provided that no such removal or
suspension shall take place
except by a majority of three fourths of the
members of Council present
and voting at a meeting of Council specially
summoned for that purpose
and of which meeting at least twenty one days
notice has been given to
such person, intimating that such removal will be
proposed.
Farmers, the disturbing fact for me was when David Conolly
invited Our
President to come to discuss the problems facing Our Farmers and
Our
Union, in early June. Our President very kindly asked the then Union's
appointed Legal Adviser, to come and speak on his behalf. We were
entertained with a very interesting point of view from the other
perspective, that being Dialogue, instead of Litigation. However, at
the
end of the presentation, Mr. Conolly asked the Legal Practitioner
what he
felt the Union had achieved through dialogue, and if my hearing
and memory
serve me correctly, the reply was something like, "nothing
really."
Farmers, I really feel that we must now think very
carefully. Is Our
Leadership, in its entirety, acting on behalf of its
MEMBERS, for the
betterment of the Union as a whole, and the interests of
the MEMBERS as
whole, or not?
Personally, I am at pains to accept a
few fundamental issues.
1. Leadership in entirety has ignored Our Legal
Advisor, I believe,
since Congress.
2. Leadership has declined to
attempt to afford protection to its
Members, against the Section 8
legislation. The amount of time and
money spent by the members individually,
will far exceed the amount of
money we need to "keep the Union strong" - CC
29.8.02.
3. As a result of (2) above, the Union has failed to act as it
should
in terms of Section 3 (d), for which the entire blame must lie on The
Leadership.
4. Based on the above, Our President has failed to take
cognizance of
the financial implications of every member having to seek
legal
protection. At an approximate humble $ 75 000 per licenced farmer, I
believe that Our Leadership has removed $ 240 million from an industry
that has an obligation to feed Zimbabwe, which is now starving.
5.
For that same leadership to now come back to us, the farmers, and
print
"please pay your licence fee, keep your organization strong" - is
incomprehensible.
6. The illusion of exemption, second only to Marie
Antoinette, in the
French Revolution.
7. And that one young Benjamin
Freeth, be suspended, "for, how dare he
disobey The King" - when perhaps
Benjamin's benevolence, and commitment
to his humble peasant farmers, is the
very example we need to be set in
the Union at the very, very
Top.
Fortunately, I am not a leader or a dictator, as far as I am aware.
So
the time has come to go back to my fellow farmers, and say "What do you
think?"
Yours
sincerely,
J.L.
Robinson.
The Pole and Dagga Hut,
Hillside.
1st October,
2002.
Dear Farmers,
I will attempt to be open and transparent. I
have drawn a bit of flak
from some of my missives going out.
The first
fills me with some sadness, and some pride. It came from a
retired Colonel,
who is now what I would term a "Ludicrous
Lincolnshire
Layabout." The very good man farmed in our district,
and left a
year ago, after his farm was given to an active Colonel. To
draw fire from
Lincolshire gives me pride. To think that the fire came
from a man who was
the cartoonist for that extinct magazine, closed by
Our Union, known as
"The Farmer" makes me very sad. What he
said, will make
you sadder, because, from six thousand miles away, he
said, "God
bless, and keep up the good work." I cannot draw
like him. I can
only draw fire, by referring to Our Leadership as
Proverbial, Prevaricating,
PARLEYING, Petrified, Pernicious Puffing
Little Pollies.
The second
bit of flak, came from The Midlands, where Our Union has told
me that,
farming is going well. I am not sure whether they asked this of
Meyer,
Rutledge or Watson, but Mrs. Ann Hein, I thank you for your flak.
I shall
quote it in the interests of transparency.
"I believe that we have
been very badly let down by the CFU, their
attitude has been secretive, and
dishonest. I do not believe that it was
a time to keep farmers, districts,
and regions separate. We have been
badly informed, our options have been
invisible, as have the Leadership.
So I agree with you, let me know what
happens next, thanks Ann
Hein."
I must just touch on
something called CRISIS COALITION. They have put out
a document
termed
FREEDOM CHARTER, to affirm these basic freedoms :-
Freedom
of Association;
Freedom of assembly;
Freedom of
expression;
Freedom of movement;
Freedom of choice;
Freedom
of belief and worship;
Freedom of conscience;
Freedom from
discrimination and oppression of any kind;
Right to food
security;
Freedom of press and other Media;
Equality of all
citizens before the law, regardless of their gender,
class, race, nationality
or political opinion;
Right to Administrative Justice;
Right to
socio-economic and cultural rights requisite for a humane and
dignified
livelihood.
The Principles of accountable governance:
1. The
Rule of Law.
2. Transparency.
3. Accountability.
4.
Efficiency.
5. Tolerance for diversity of opinions.
6. Human
Rights.
7. Participatory decision making.
Justice for Agriculture
embraces all that I have copied and more, because
it subscribes to the Ethos
of Crisis Coalition, naturally.
Amani Trust have told me that, in the
past, Our Union have refused to
stand up with this group, because it would
mean taking a Court Action
against the State. Our President says that
"It is my personal
policy to build bridges where ever I can, and
keep doors open for
communication." 29.8.02.
Thus
if Our Union cannot stand up for the above Principles, we must
accept that
the only part of our title that counts is COMMERCIAL, money
at any cost, even
at the cost of OUR INTEGRITY & PRINCIPLES.
I am a very simple man,
but perhaps I have a third option to put forward,
whilst we let our
leadership take a sabbatical on Honesty and Integrity.
If we can take stick,
in the form of a few hundred farmers in Jail,
including Young Sadza Bennett,
right now, on the pretext of Your Dialogue
Policy. What difference will it
make to Our Good President Cloete, if we
the farmers, give him full powers
to, "Dialogue Till The Pollies
Come Home To Roost,"
after, (NB After) a Representative, or Class,
or Union Action has been filed,
in the High Court. This would be just the
same as, "Very Good
Dialoguers that Our Leadership is Well
Acquainted With" passing
Land Acquisition Amendments, with gay
abandon, and then PREACHING DIALOGUE.
Even, "Wicked Old
Willy," could preach Dialogue having
seen Ray Passaportis file,
what I call a "parachute
case."
How about Our President going back to Selous and have a
bit of Jukskei,
(a four Juk better Juk) and a bit of Peach Brandy, with the
likes of Oom
Kobus and Jong Kerel JJ, and even go to nagmaal, to give some
serious
thought to what these "Blerry Souties"
say.
I feel quite proud to have found a third option, to Referendum
and
Resignation, and which ever is chosen the Peach Brandy, and Jukskei
need
not be cancelled, and most of all we will all be committed to
DIALOGUE
-of course!!
Yours sincerely,
J.L.
Robinson.
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