Associated Press
Oct 16, 1:40 PM EDT
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- President
Robert Mugabe may allow Zimbabwe's
opposition to control key Cabinet
positions in an effort to save faltering
talks aimed at striking a
power-sharing deal, a state-run newspaper reported
Thursday.
The
Herald newspaper quoted an unidentified official from Mugabe's ruling
party
as saying compromises could be made in the Cabinet lineup Mugabe
unilaterally announced last week.
A negotiator for a small opposition
faction said during a break in the talks
that negotiators had reached a
compromise on the finance and police
ministries. He offered no details but
said the deal could be completed
Thursday. The talks continued into the
evening without new announcements.
More than 40 women protesters gathered
outside the hotel where the leaders
were meeting and vowed not to let them
leave until they reach agreement.
"No deal. No exit," read one placard.
Another read: "Zimbabwe is hungry. We
want a Cabinet today."
Mugabe
had claimed the most powerful Cabinet posts for his own party,
including the
ministry in charge of police, seen as the enforcers of his
rule in a country
in the middle of an economic meltdown.
The opposition denounced the move
and threatened to abandon talks on forming
a unity government after disputed
elections.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating
the
discussions with Mugabe, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and
Arthur Mutumbara, leader of the smaller opposition faction whose negotiator,
Welshman Ncube, said a compromise was in the works.
Without a
political agreement, Zimbabwe has been rudderless as its economy
deteriorates. Inflation is 231 million percent. Food, medicine and most
other basic goods are scarce. The U.N. estimates 45 percent of Zimbabwe's
population, or 5.1 million people, will need food help by early
2009.
Organizers of a demonstration Thursday by a women's group urging
politicians
to resolve their differences and focus on Zimbabwe's suffering
people said
that police had arrested two of its leaders and dispersed the
other
protesters by beating them with sticks.
The national police
spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on the
incident in
Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo.
The demonstrators were carrying
a statement from the civil rights group
Women of Zimbabwe Arise, accusing
politicians of offering empty promises in
their Sept. 15
agreement.
"How many more Zimbabweans must die before you act?" the
statement said.
"This is a national disaster and we demand food for all
Zimbabweans now."
The group said that as about 200 of its members sat
outside local government
offices waiting for officials to come and hear
their demands, riot police
arrived and arrested leaders Jenni Williams and
Magodonga Mahlangu and
dispersed the other protesters by beating them. The
women's group said at
least one protester required medical
attention.
Police regularly crack down on protests by groups critical of
the
government. Williams and Mahlangu were jailed for five weeks this year
after
being arrested during a peaceful protest in the capital.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
October 17, 2008
HARARE: Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe was last night reportedly
considering a backdown on
his decision to award key ministries in a
power-sharing government to
members of his own party, which would have given
him a firm grip on the
military, the police and other security agencies.
Mr Mugabe and his main
rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, entered a third day of
talks to break an impasse
on disputed cabinet posts, with signs they were
inching toward a
deal.
South African media cited unnamed sources as saying Mr Tsvangirai
had been
awarded finance, a critical portfolio in a country grappling with
the
world's highest inflation rate, at 231 million per cent.
This
left in limbo the home affairs ministry, which oversees the country's
police
forces, who are accused by the opposition of being used by the ruling
party
to carry out human rights abuses.
Mr Tsvangirai had threatened to pull
out of the power-sharing agreement over
Mr Mugabe's announcement last
weekend that he would award key ministries to
his own party
members.
Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper reported yesterday that
there could be
alterations to Mr Mugabe's cabinet as announced at the
weekend in the state
gazette.
"There could be some changes to the
list gazetted last week as the parties
... make compromises for the sake of
progress," the newspaper quoted an
official from Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF as
saying.
Another ruling party official said a number of options were on
the table for
the finance ministry that "might also have a bearing on the
ministry of home
affairs" and a "few" other portfolios.
Former South
African leader Thabo Mbeki is presiding over discussions aimed
at pressing
Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai to settle their differences.
Mr Mugabe, who
earlier had confidently said the talks would wrap up
yesterday, declined to
say when they would end.
Mr Tsvangirai's lead negotiator, Tendai Biti,
who proclaimed late on
Wednesday that "history is being made", also sounded
more cautious.
"Where is that optimism coming from?" Mr Biti said. Mr
Mbeki brokered the
deal signed a month ago, when the rivals agreed to a
unity government with
84-year-old Mr Mugabe as president and Mr Tsvangirai
in the new post of
prime minister.
Once one of Africa's most
prosperous nations, Zimbabwe's stunning economic
collapse has caused
critical food shortages, with nearly half the population
needing UN aid and
about 80per cent of unemployed.
Before the talks began, Mr Tsvangirai
said his Movement for Democratic
Change insisted on dividing control of the
defence and home affairs
ministries. The MDC has argued that it needs
oversight of at least some
security agencies to reassure the party's
supporters, who were the targets
of brutal violence during election
campaigning earlier this year.
Mr Tsvangirai won a first round
presidential vote in March, but pulled out
of a June runoff, saying the
violence had left more than 100 of his
supporters dead.
Mr Mugabe's
victory in the uncontested runoff drew international
condemnation, and
Western nations have heaped pressure on his regime to make
good on the
power-sharing deal.
The European Union has threatened to impose new
sanctions on the regime if
the deal falls apart, while the US accused has Mr
Mugabe of violating the
agreement.
AFP
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5935
October 16, 2008
By Mxolisi
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - The current haggling over the sharing of cabinet
posts in
Zimbabwe might drag on for even longer, as President Mugabe is
under
increasing pressure to convince his Zanu-PF hardliners that the party
will
retain its stranglehold on the country even if it hands over some key
ministries to the Movement for Democratic Change.
While the parties
to the negotiations are somewhat upbeat about the prospect
of a positive
outcome, sources told The Zimbabwe Times that this will only
depend on
whether the MDC climbs down on some of its demands, or the Zanu-PF
Politburo
changes its current hard-line stance.
Meanwhile, University of Zimbabwe
political scientist and political analyst,
John Makumbe, has warned that if
Mugabe retains total control of government,
there will be no end to
Zimbabwe's problems, both politically and
economically.
It has been
revealed to The Zimbabwe Times that senior members of Zanu-PF
which has
ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain, in 1980, have once
again put
pressure on their 84-year-old leader not to hand over any of the
remaining
14 key ministries allocated to Zanu-PF by Mugabe last week to the
MDC,
during on-going talks.
On Wednesday, Mugabe is said to have agreed to
hand over the Ministry of
Finance to the mainstream MDC, which is led by
Prime Minister-designate,
Tsvangirai, but sources within Zanu-PF have
revealed that it is the powerful
Zanu-PF Politburo, which met early that day
that had given Mugabe the green
light to hand over the
ministry.
Sources revealed that before going to the negotiating table on
Wednesday
morning, Mugabe first held a stormy meeting with his politburo
which debated
at the party's headquarters how the power-sharing negotiations
should go.
"The President tried to convince the delegates, who included
the country's
security chiefs, that the power-sharing deal was the only way
that the
country's problems could be solved. However, the senior party
members
resolved that if the Ministry of Finance was to go to the MDC, it
should be
the only one out of the 15 already allocated to Zanu-PF which
should be
handed over. They argued that handing over any other key ministry
would
render Zanu-PF weak and unable to retain its stranglehold on power,"
said a
senior party source.
Politburo members are also said to have
repeated earlier threats to resign
if Mugabe disregarded them and went on to
hand over the key ministries that
"Tsvangirai wants to use to dislodge
Zanu-PF" from power.
In a powerful expression of dissent led by Vice
President Joice Mujuru,
Emmerson Mnangagwa and Didymus Mutasa, the party's
senior members are said
to have even suggested that if the MDC refused to
accept the new
arrangement, the deal would rather be called off than that
Zanu-PF should
climb down from its current position.
Mugabe, who,
according to sources, now looks very weary, as he faces
possible isolation
from his loyalists if he bows down to the opposition
demands, was forced to
delay his arrival at the negotiating table by two
hours, held back by the
heated politburo meeting.
On the other hand, the MDC is anxious to seize
control of the ministries of
Home Affairs and of Information in order to
strengthen its hand in the
day-to-day running of the unity
government.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is in charge of the police and
the
Registrar-general's office.
Zanu-PF is said to be fearful that if
the opposition gains control of that
ministry, it will change the disputed
voters' role, which has always been at
the centre of dispute during
elections. It is alleged that the list contains
the names of more than 100
000 dead or otherwise non-existent voters,
allegedly included at the
instigation of Zanu-PF as part of election rigging
strategy.
A
properly administered voters' roll will weaken Zanu-PF at the next
elections.
Mugabe has also been accused of turning the once
professional national
police into human rights abusers that selectively
applies the law in favour
of Zanu-PF
Police Commissioner General,
Augustine Chihuri, who spent the last few years
of the war of liberation as
a prisoner of Mugabe and ZANU in northern
Mozambique, vowed before the March
elections that he would never salute
Tsvangirai if he won Presidential
elections, accusing the MDC leader of
being a "British
puppet".
Zanu-PF also fears that the MDC, especially Tsvangirai, could
use the police
to purge and arrest his political opponents, especially those
that the MDC
has identified as being the perpetrators of ruthless political
violence on
behalf of Mugabe.
"From what was discussed at the
Politburo meeting, I do not see any
breakthrough soon because Zanu-PF will
most likely not climb down from its
current stance. The MDC will have to
soften its stance if this thing has to
be finalised," said a Zanu-PF
source.
However, Makumbe, says that any more compromise by the MDC would
render it
useless and irrelevant in the running of government and the
parties would
fail to achieve the main goals behind the formation of the
unity government.
"The MDC has compromised a lot in this and now it is
time for it to
consolidate its relevance in the unity government, or risk
being compromised
forever," he said. "If Mugabe remains in total control,
there will be no end
to the country's problems, both politically and
economically.
"Violence is likely to continue and investors will not
come, as things will
still be run as they have always been in the
past."
Makumbe is a political science lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe.
In the presence of former South African President, Thabo Mbeki,
who is the
SADC-appointed mediator, Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara,
leaders of the splintered MDC, are still negotiating the sharing
of cabinet
posts, as part of ongoing efforts to complete the formation of a
national
unity government.
Such a government has been prescribed as
the only way to end the current
political and economic crisis, which has
bedevilled Zimbabwe for the past
eight years and left it on the brink of
collapse as a state.
The MDC has previously said that it will not accept
a deal that relegates it
to the status of a junior partner in the day-to-day
running of government.
By
Alex Bell
16 October 2008
The Southern African Development Community
(SADC) has for the first time
acknowledged that Robert Mugabe should not be
recognised as a legitimate
head of state - in response to a legal
application filed against the
regional body by the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum two
months ago.
The forum's Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer who was
severely tortured
by Mugabe's regime in 2003, led the urgent application to
the SADC Tribunal
in August, seeking to block Mugabe from attending a SADC
summit in South
Africa that month as head of state. SADC however failed to
respond and
Mugabe was welcomed as Zimbabwe's leader. The Exiles Forum also
demanded
that Mugabe and his government should not be invited or allowed to
attend
future SADC meetings as Zimbabwe's representatives.
SADC has
now acknowledged in a legal document that it felt concerns that
Mugabe
should not be recognised as Zimbabwe's head of state are "legitimate".
But
the regional body has at the same time rejected the demand that it
should
refuse to allow Mugabe and his government to participate in future
SADC
activities.
In its response, delivered to the SADC Tribunal only this
week, the SADC
Secretariat said the Exiles Forum's concern that Mugabe be
barred from the
summit "because he had not been elected into office through
a credible
process" was "legitimate". But SADC also responded that the
Forum's
application be rejected because former South African President Thabo
Mbeki,
the SADC appointed mediator, was able to facilitate a power sharing
deal to
end Zimbabwe's political crisis.
The Forum's Gabriel Shumba
told Newsreel on Thursday that the response in no
way "detracts from our
argument that Mugabe should not be in any way
recognised as Zimbabwe's
leader." He argued that the facilitation process
under Mbeki has not changed
the simple fact that the will of the people has
been thwarted, and agreed
that SADC was clearly "waiting and hoping that by
now there would be a deal
to legitimise Mugabe".
"We are praying now that the Tribunal, when it
hears our arguments, will
order the Secretariat in future not to allow
Mugabe to be invited as head of
state," Shumba said. "We are also hoping the
Mugabe will be shunned by other
SADC organs, so SADC proves it holds true to
its founding principles."
The SADC Tribunal had not yet set a date for
hearing the Exiles Forum's
plea.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
By Violet
Gonda
16 October 2008
Power sharing talks between rival political
parties are underway in Zimbabwe
but there is no respite for human rights
activists and journalists. Students
were arrested and assaulted by police
during demonstrations when parliament
opened on Tuesday. Also this week
state agents used repressive laws to
unceremoniously throw out two
journalists, Peta Thornycroft and Brian
Hungwe, from the hotel where the
political parties are meeting, saying they
are not accredited under the
draconian Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
On Thursday Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, the leaders
of the
pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), were arrested during a
demonstration protesting the deteriorating situation and hardships being
suffered, while the political impasse continues. Some people were allegedly
beaten when the riot police used force to disperse the peaceful
protesters.
Group spokesperson Annie Sibanda said several women went to
the police
station in Bulawayo to hand themselves in, in solidarity with
their leaders,
but were turned away.
She said seven people were
arrested before the demonstration started. The
seven had been waiting for
the others, near a group of foreign exchange
traders but were arrested and
taken to the police station where they were
beaten, together with the forex
traders.
As the day progressed the seven were released one by one, but
Williams and
Mahlangu remain in custody at Bulawayo Central police station.
Sibanda said:
"We don't have any details as to what charges they are facing
as their
lawyer has not been allowed access to them as yet."
Riot
police had descended on the protesters as they were holding a peaceful
sit-in at the Mhlahlandlela government complex in Bulawayo. The group were
demanding to be addressed by the Heads of service delivery, about what is
being done to address the humanitarian crisis that is affecting millions of
Zimbabweans.
The latest incident exposes the fact that there is no
fundamental change in
the attitude of the Mugabe regime, even during the
interparty talks being
mediated by ex-South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Ironically one of the
main cabinet posts that the politicians are haggling
over is the Home
Affairs ministry that controls the police force.
The
WOZA spokesperson said the deal is meaningless as there is no sign of
its
implementation on the ground. "The very reason that we were
demonstrating
today was because in the agreement they make reference to the
humanitarian
crisis, to the food crisis, to the welfare of Zimbabweans and
yet absolutely
nothing is being done to help people through this horrendous
situation they
find themselves in," Sibanda said.
She added: "People are dying, children
are dying, electricity and water cuts
are getting worse. People are getting
beaten in food queues and some are not
actually surprised that the police
continue to arrest and beat people
because we can see everyday that the deal
is meaningless in the lives of
ordinary Zimbabweans."
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
SABC
October 16, 2008,
16:15
SABC News has reliably learnt that Zimbabwe's opposition leader,
Morgan
Tsvangirai, could be inaugurated as prime minister tomorrow. This
comes as
parties are reportedly winding up discussions over the sharing of
cabinet
positions.
Sources say Zimbabwe's leaders are keen to have
former South African
President Thabo Mbeki stay on in the country for
another day to attend the
inauguration ceremony.
President Robert
Mugabe is reported to have made major concessions to the
Movement for
Democratic Change in cabinet sharing negotiations. Mbeki has
been
facilitating discussions between the parties to try to save from
collapse a
power-sharing deal he brokered last month over the cabinet
sharing
standoff.
By Lance Guma
16 October
2008
Two journalists covering the ongoing cabinet talks were forced to
leave the
Rainbow Towers hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite a power
sharing
accord signed in September guaranteeing media freedom, VOA
correspondent
Peta Thornycroft and freelance journalist Brian Hungwe were
ejected from the
hotel lobby by men claiming to be from the Ministry of
Information.
Thornycroft told Newsreel she was waiting for Morgan Tsvangirai
and Robert
Mugabe to leave the hotel, just like the other journalists, when
a ministry
official asked her if she had accreditation.
'I told them
I didn't need to under the amendment to AIPPA of January the
11th. I
explained who I was and showed them my ID,' she said. Twenty minutes
later
another man came over ordering her to leave the venue. She refused
telling
him the hotel was not state property and was a private residence
belonging
to the Rainbow Towers. Later on hotel security was summoned and
instructed
to ensure Thornycroft's eviction. 'The poor security man from
Rainbow Towers
had no idea why he was ordering me out,' she said.
The same happened to
Hungwe who was told, 'You are not allowed here,' by a
ministry of
information official. On Thursday Thornycroft was back at the
hotel
defiantly telling Newsreel, 'I will stand my ground.'
Media watchdog
MISA-Zimbabwe condemned what it called the blatant abuse of
office by the
government officials and said this was a serious violation of
media freedom
and freedom of movement, association and assembly. MISA said
this was
particularly worrying given a similar scenario where, 'journalists
were
barred from covering a press conference convened by MDC-T leader Morgan
Tsvangirai at his residence in Harare - because they were not accredited
under AIPPA.' The MDC later apologized for the incident saying there was a
misunderstanding in the security department.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
http://www.hararetribune.com
Thursday, 16 October 2008 17:04
On
the afternoon of October 15 I was reminded of how brutal the
Zimbabwean
police deals with public demonstrations when I witnessed the
violent
crushing of a demonstration held by the Zimbabwe National Students
Union
(Zinasu), a body that represents students from the country's
various
tertiary institutions.
The students had decided to take their
demo to the parliament buildings in
Harare's city centre, where parliament
had an afternoon sitting before they
where stopped in their tracks by a large
contingent of riot police that was
armed to the teeth.
The riot police
had disembarked from three police Lorries, armed with button
sticks and
teargas canisters.
The riot poilce charged into the crowd of students,
beating them, stomping
them, rather, showing no mercy for the unarmed
students.
Dispite POSA, the constituion of Zimbabwe guarantees the
freedom of
expression, something riot police don't know or just
ignore.
The singing students scattered in all directions, running
pell mell hoping
to escape the brutal police. Some of the students blended
into the crowd
that has assembelled to witness the police madness. Members
from the public
stared in disbelief and utter shock as some of the students,
who had been
identified by the police, were pulled from amongst them and
assaulted before
being ushered into waiting police trucks and taken into
custody.
The assult of the students, reminded me of the old days, you
know, the
Brakwacha Police beating people and what not during the 60's. I
would in
present day Zimbabwe, the police have vast powers that surpass those
of the
old.
It was the assault of a certain young woman from the
student body that
particularly caught the attention and sympathy of the
helpless onlookers.
As the police truck departed after the assaults
and arrests, the riot police
broke into song, whose lyrics implied that "if
you play around we will beat
you up". I couldn't help but conclude that there
were rogue police officers
going beyond protecting Mugabe.
The
song irked the public and was clear testimony of the disregard of the
police
and their paymasters to human rights, rights that have been violated
since
the government took over in 1980 to date.
Police spokesperson Wayne
Bvudzijena later told the Herald that the students
got what they deserved.
In my view, the ZRP should be disbanded, and
replaced with a new police that
respects the rights of Zimbabwean citizens.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Thursday, 16 October
2008 09:11
15 October 2008
Police deny detained
students access to lawyers
ZIMBABWEAN police have denied the
detained Zimbabwe National Students
Union (ZINASU) leaders access to their
lawyers.
The police at the Law and Order section at the Harare
Central Police
Station where the three student leaders including ZINASU
President Clever
Bere and Courage Ngwarai, the students union's legal
secretary were detained
have told lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR) that
they don't have the students leaders in their cells
and yet the human rights
defenders are detained at the notorious police
station.
In the meantime ZLHR is drafting an urgent court
application citing
the Officer in Charge of Law and Order and the
Commissioner-General of the
police to release the students.
The
three student leaders were arrested on Tuesday 14 October when
police
violently suppressed a demonstration organized by the students body
to
protest the collapsing education standards in the country and to pressure
Members of Parliament to prioritise the education crisis in the country in
their deliberations, which began on 14 October 2008.
But
heavily armed police descended on the defenceless human rights
defenders'
march and arrested ZINASU President Clever Bere and Courage
Ngwarai, the
students union's legal secretary. The police who are supposed
to be law
enforcement agents injured and arrested several ZINASU members.
ZLHR is enraged by the police's unpardonable actions as they infringe
on the
exercise of citizens' constitutionally guaranteed and recognized
fundamental
rights and freedoms, namely of expression and assembly.
The
crackdown and the arrests of the ZINASU members undermines the
right to
peaceful association and assembly in Zimbabwe as provided for in
the
constitution.
ZLHR outrightly condemns the flagrant disregard of
fundamental rights,
and the police brutality
We are extremely
concerned at the actions of the police and the
unlawful obstruction by
officers at the Law and Order section to legal
representation.
ZLHR condemns this conduct by the police and reminds them that their
role is
the protection not the oppression of the people of Zimbabwe. Police
should
uphold the following internationally acceptable standards of
treatment of
untried prisoners as prescribed in the Standard Minimum Rules
for the
Treatment of Prisoners, adopted Aug. 30, 1955 by the First United
Nations
Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders:
(a) For the purposes of his defence, an untried prisoner shall be
Allowed to receive visits from his legal adviser with a view to
his
defence and to prepare and hand to him confidential
instructions.
(b) Every prisoner shall be provided by the
administration at the
usual
hours with food of nutritional value
adequate for health and
strength, of wholesome quality and well
prepared and served.
(c) An untried prisoner shall be allowed to be
visited and treated by
his own doctor or dentist if there is reasonable
ground for his
application and he is able to pay any expenses
incurred.
For more enquiries and comments please
contact
Kumbirai Mafunda
Communications Officer
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
6th Floor Beverley
Court
100 Nelson Mandela Av
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel: 04 251468
Mobile: 011 582 793
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, October 16 2008 - Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
have won the prestigious Rights and
Democracy's 2008 John Humphrey Freedom
Award for their courageous efforts and
commitment to the strengthening and
promotion of human rights and democratic
development in Zimbabwe.
ZLHR, which was nominated for
the award by the Canadian Embassy in
Harare, was selected from an impressive
field of 97 nominees.
The International Centre for Human Rights
and Democratic Development,
commonly known as Rights & Democracy, heaped
praise on ZLHR for playing a
leading role in the promotion and protection of
human rights across Zimbabwe
since its founding twelve years
ago.
"Guided by a professional commitment to the rule of law
and Zimbabwe's
international human rights obligations, ZLHR provides
essential services
ranging from legal support for victims of state-endorsed
persecution to
public education and human rights training for activists and
civil society
organizations working at the community level," Rights and
Democracy said in
a statement.
"Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights provides a vital democratic
lifeline for those who would otherwise
have no recourse against
state-sponsored abuse and persecution. Its
determined, non-violent struggle
against impunity and repression reminds us
that, in the end, tyranny is no
match for human dignity and the rule of law,"
said Janice Stein, the
Chairperson of Rights & Democracy's Board of
Directors.
ZLHR executive director Irene Petras paid tribute to
the heroic
tenacity of the project's lawyers and underscored that charges
brought
against most human rights defenders have been dropped in most
cases.
rights defenders have been dropped in most
cases.
"Prosecution is used as a tool of persecution," said
Petras.
For over ten years ZLHR has worked tirelessly and
fearlessly to
advance democratic principles, and has taken on the dangerous
task of
providing legal representation to persecuted human rights and
democracy
defenders.
The annual award established in 1992 by
Rights & Democracy to honour
an organization or individual for
exceptional commitment to the promotion of
international human rights and
democratic development, is named in honour of
John Peters Humphrey, the
McGill University law professor who prepared the
first draft of The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. It includes a $30
000 grant and a speaking tour
of Canadian cities to help increase awareness
of the recipient's human rights
work.
Although specific dates and venues are yet to be
confirmed, the tour
usually takes place during the last weeks of November and
the first week of
December. The awards ceremony is held every year on
December 10th, to
coincide with the anniversary date of the adoption of the
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
http://www.christiantoday.com
Posted: Thursday,
October 16, 2008, 15:59 (BST)
Ninety-eight per cent of households in
Zimbabwe's drought prone Matabeleland
South province will spend World Food
Day hungry, according to international
relief and development agency World
Vision.
The agency, which is providing food and nutritional support to
more than
720,000 people during the peak of the hungry season between now and
January,
said Zimbabwe is facing a countrywide food crisis that is affecting
both
rural and urban households.
World Vision is also working with
children under five who are severely
malnourished providing nutritional care
which enables them to stay in their
homes and receive nutritional supplements
within their own community. The
agency is training community members to
identify early signs of malnutrition
and training local health workers in
nutritional care.
World Vision Zimbabwe's Humanitarian Emergency Affairs
Director, Daniel
Muchena said: "We have scaled up relief efforts to curb
hunger due to
increased vulnerability in households in food insecure
districts.
Communities have exhausted their coping mechanisms and have
resorted to
barter trading their livestock for grain. In some areas, the most
vulnerable
households are relying on wild fruits for
survival."
Forty-five-year-old Tsidi Mokoena, a mother of seven, is
awaiting
registration with a feeding programme in Gwanda District,
Matabeleland.
"Due to the chronic food shortages we are experiencing
because of very poor
harvests, we have resorted to eating one meal a day,"
she said.
"This is not good for the children, but I have no choice as a
mother but to
ration the little I have to ensure that there is something for
the younger
children to eat.
"To survive until now, I have been
exchanging one goat for a 20kg bucket of
maize grain from traders from Gwanda
town. In July I had seven goats, but
now I am left with only three. I am
afraid of what my children will eat when
I trade off the last
goat.
"Despite the fact my livelihood depends on a vegetable garden, I
can neither
grow enough food for my family or raise the exorbitant R300 (£17)
that 50kg
maize meal is sold for by local wealthy shop owners who import it
from South
Africa."
Tsidi's 11-year-old daughter Tapelo, who is in
Grade Six at a local school
in Gungwe village, said: "I only get to eat to my
fill at school where there
is a schools-based feeding programme. This makes
me eager to go to school
every day and I dread the weekends because it is a
time when I feel faint
because of hunger. Hunger feels like a big hole in my
stomach that only gets
filled when I get to eat food at
school."
Around 2.1 million Zimbabweans are currently in need of food .
This figure
will rise to 5.1 million in early January. World Vision, through
the
USAID-funded consortium for Southern Africa Food Emergency (C-SAFE),
the
World Food Program (WFP) and the European Union, is implementing a
diverse
food relief programme targeting vulnerable groups through Schools
Based
Feeding, Food Support for the Chronically ill, Institutional Feeding,
Safety
Net Feeding and Food For Assets interventions.
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk
The European Union has promised to
award emergency food aid worth €15
million (£11.7 million) to feed hungry and
starving Zimbabweans facing one
of the worst humanitarian crises of the last
decade.
In a statement to mark World Food Day, the European Commission
said it "had
adopted a new emergency funding decision for food assistance in
Africa aimed
at saving lives and relieving suffering in one the worst
vulnerable
regions".
Zimbabwe is set to receive €15 million (£11.7
million), making it one of the
five largest recipients of Commission food
assistance which include Sudan
(€86 million), the Palestinian Territories
(€40.36 million), Ethiopia (€32.5
million) and Somalia (€27
million).
"World Food Day is a chance to remember that the current food
crisis has
even more dramatic consequences, putting the very lives of
millions at
risk," Louis Michel, European commissioner for development and
humanitarian
Aid said.
"In some parts of the world, a major
catastrophe is brewing because growing
numbers of people don't have enough
food to survive.
"The commission has responded to these urgent needs by
dramatically
increasing its food assistance to the most
vulnerable."
Zimbabwe is in its eighth year of gripping food shortages,
with
international food monitoring agencies saying over three million people
face
starvation because of food shortages in the country.
Food
shortages in Zimbabwe set in 2000 following the chaotic land reform
programme
that saw landless black citizens take over prime farming land from
white
commercial farmers, resulting in agricultural plummeting to low levels
since
they had no farming expertise.
Since then, the nation has survived on
food imports and food handouts from
food aid agencies that president Robert
Mugabe blames for using food as bait
against starving Zimbabweans to rebel
against him.
Mr Mugabe has defended the land reform programme saying it
was necessary to
right the wrongs of the colonial past. He blames food
shortages on droughts
while experts cite poor planning on the part of
government ahead of each and
every farming season.
© Adfero Ltd
16
October 2008 17:55 GMT
Oct 16th 2008
From The Economist print
edition
South Africa's new leaders must step into the
ring
MORE than a month after Robert Mugabe agreed to share power with
Morgan
Tsvangirai, the pair have yet to start governing together to rescue
Zimbabwe
from its rapidly deepening misery. As The Economist went to press,
there
were hopes once more of a breakthrough in the negotiations. But Thabo
Mbeki,
who oversaw the original agreement, is no longer South Africa's
president
and has lost the heft he needs to persuade Mr Mugabe to implement
it. In any
event Mr Mbeki should step down as mediator and give way to Jacob
Zuma,
South Africa's probable next president. And if Mr Zuma is unable or
unwilling to take on the job, the UN's former secretary-general, Kofi Annan,
a proven negotiator, should be asked in to break the stalemate.
Mr
Mugabe has been stalling, perhaps in the hope of wriggling out of the
deal
altogether. Within days of signing it, he flew off with a vast
entourage to
rant against "imperialists" at the UN in New York, without the
slightest
indication that anything had changed back home. Since then, he has
breached
a plain understanding that the two men (and a small third party)
would share
out the main ministries in an equitable manner. Most recently,
he has
unilaterally handed his own party virtually all the portfolios with
real
clout, including those that run the army, the police, the courts,
foreign
affairs, the mines, the state-owned media, local government and land
resettlement. His spokesman has hinted, presumably as a prelude to offering
a concession, that the finance ministry-a poisoned chalice if ever there was
one, since inflation is running officially at 231m% and unofficially in the
billions-may be open to discussion. The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change is rightly refusing to be tricked into playing second
fiddle.
You thought it couldn't get worse
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is
dying. It is hard to imagine the misery worsening,
yet it is. The currency
is worthless. Swathes of public-sector workers are
no longer getting paid
enough even to buy a few loaves of bread a month;
many are not getting paid
at all. More than 80% of the people are thought to
have no job, beyond
subsistence and barter. Some 3m in a population of
around 12m have fled
abroad. Harrowing reports are filtering out that people
are starting to die
of starvation. More than 1.4m are suffering from
HIV/AIDS. The UN's World
Food Programme is trying to keep 2m people alive
with food handouts but says
that another 3m may need feeding by early next
year if mass starvation is to
be averted. Mr Mugabe's thugs are still
beating and sometimes killing
supposed backers of Mr Tsvangirai. The handful
of white farmers left on the
land is still being harassed. Some of Mr
Tsvangirai's closest colleagues
still face bogus charges, including treason;
the state media peddle packs of
lies; foreign reporters cannot visit freely;
many foreign charities are
unable to operate.
One of the manifold defects of the power-sharing
agreement orchestrated by
Mr Mbeki last month is that it lacks both a strong
arbitrating mechanism and
a strong mediator to implement the deal and knock
the parties' heads
together when things get stuck. The Southern African
Development Community
(SADC), the 14-country club that has tried to break
Zimbabwe's impasse,
reappointed Mr Mbeki as chief "facilitator" after the
deal was struck,
though his stature has shrivelled since he lost the
presidency of his own
country last month.
Find a new
head-banger
That is why it is time for Mr Zuma, head of South Africa's ruling
African
National Congress (ANC), to displace Mr Mbeki as mediator. Apart
from being
the coming man in South Africa, he is by nature a more forceful
figure. He
did a fine job making peace between the ANC and his fellow Zulus
after
apartheid ended. He would be a lot readier than Mr Mbeki ever was to
twist
Mr Mugabe's arm. True, the SADC recently renewed Mr Mbeki's mandate,
but
there is no fixed-term contract; it should quietly press him to step
down
with good grace.
Mr Zuma may plead that he is too busy trying to
heal divisions in the ANC
after its own recent internecine battles. In that
case the SADC, backed by
the African Union, should call on Mr Annan, the
experienced Ghanaian who,
after running the UN for ten years, managed to
cajole Kenya's warring
parties into a power-sharing compromise early this
year. He has several of
the qualities that Mr Mbeki so manifestly lacks, in
particular an
unwillingness to be pushed around by a clever 84-year-old who
refuses to
accept that his time is up.
Mr Mugabe, of course, may well
seek to reject the good offices of either Mr
Zuma or Mr Annan. But as his
country descends even deeper into chaos, his
ability to pick and choose his
mediators is shrinking fast. And Zimbabweans
now desperately need a stronger
one than Mr Mbeki.
http://ipsnews.net
By Stanley Kwenda
HARARE, Oct 16
(IPS) - The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is
mobilising
economic aid for its troubled member state Zimbabwe. The economic
aid
package is part of efforts by the region to help bolster the faltering
political deal, widely regarded as the initial phase towards the recovery of
Zimbabwe's wretched economy.
Southern African leaders, who came to
Harare last month to witness the
signing of the power sharing agreement,
have tasked the SADC Secretariat
with the crafting of an economic package
for Zimbabwe.
SADC Executive Secretary General, Tomáz Augusto Salomão,
who was also in
Harare for the signing ceremony and has been involved in
efforts to
resuscitate the country's economy, told IPS that his office has
been working
on an economic blue print for Zimbabwe since 2005.
''We
are working on a package to help finance the recovery of the Zimbabwean
economy. The signing of the political settlement augurs well for this
programme. We hope the political conditions in the country will improve and
help the quick implementation of this programme,'' Salomão
expounded.
His office has conducted studies of the Zimbabwean economy and
will now be
adding new elements of the political agreement into the final
blueprint.
''There is no doubt that the signing of the deal will provide
that
much-needed momentum for us to kick-start the economy of
Zimbabwe.
''We have put in place a fund to help finance the recovery of
the Zimbabwean
economy. We have looked at its policies, the central bank,
agricultural
sector, monetary policy and exchange rate determinants,'' said
Salomão.
Asked about the amount of money and the conditions that might
come with the
package, he said, ''that's an issue for the SADC leaders to
determine''.
He did not give any timeline for the implementation of the
financial
package, only saying that it will depend on the political
deal.
Article three of the Zimbabwe power sharing agreement addresses
economic
issues. It talks about issues to do with the restoration of
economic
stability and growth. Since 2000, when the Zimbabwean government
embarked on
farm invasions, the country's economy started plummeting, the
currency lost
value and the country became one of the worst countries to do
business in.
The negotiating parties agreed to give priority to the
restoration of
economic stability and growth in Zimbabwe; to work on an
agricultural
recovery plan; to establish a national economic council which
will be made
up of representatives of all sectors of the country; and to
endorse the SADC
resolution on the country's economy which flows from the
SADC Secretariat's
studies.
Several SADC leaders have spoken of the
urgent need to put together
resources for Zimbabwe. South Africa has been
leading the efforts, with its
former president Thabo Mbeki having already
put into motion an agricultural
plan for the 2008 to 2009 farming
season.
That country's treasury, agriculture and foreign affairs
departments have
been working on acquiring farming inputs and implements for
Zimbabwe before
the start of the agricultural season.
Although
Zimbabwean farmers have already started receiving seed maize and
fertilizer
as a result of this intervention it is not yet clear if the new
South
African administration under president Kgalema Motlanthe, which has
been
critical of President Robert Mugabe, will take over from where Mbeki's
administration left.
Meanwhile other international funding
institutions such as the Bretton Woods
institutions have expressed interest
in engaging the new government of
Zimbabwe as long as it shows commitment to
economic reforms.
The European Union, a key funder of many humanitarian
projects in Zimbabwe,
has announced that it will provide 10 million euros in
humanitarian aid to
the country.
Brussels said the funds, following
the signing of the power-sharing deal
between Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, will be used mainly
to assist in the provision of clean
water, health and sanitation
requirements for the most vulnerable population
groups.
European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid Louis
Michel
said: ''The EU's humanitarian assistance is neutral and impartial and
not an
instrument of politics. I expect all restrictions on humanitarian
operations
to be totally lifted as a result of the recent political
settlement.''
The aid is on top of 15 million Euros in food aid already
made available to
the country this year.
The EU has welcomed
Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal but has said it wants to
see how Mugabe and
Tsvangirai implement the deal on the ground before it can
commit itself to
providing more significant aid for the rebuilding of the
southern African
country's collapsed economy.
Brussels said targeted visa and financial
sanctions imposed on Mugabe and
his government officials six years ago will
remain in place for now until
they show genuine commitment to building a
stable and democratic country.
Although some of the financial aid seems
to be coming with strings attached,
it seems to be trickling down. The
Zimbabwean government has already
announced that it has secured 80 million
dollars for maize and fuel imports
from African Export Import Bank
(Afreximbank).
Afreximbank is a multilateral financial institution whose
main objective is
to facilitate, promote and expand intra and extra African
trade.
Some analysts however believe that it will take more than just
donations for
the economy to start ticking again.
''Optimists believe
that when the politics normalise, Zimbabwe will revert
seamlessly to the
mostly unsuccessful growth path of the 1990s. That is
wrong,'' Harare-based
economist Tony Hawkins, a professor at the Graduate
School of Management at
the University of Zimbabwe, said at a meeting in
Pretoria, South Africa last
month.
He also stressed that international donors would not support a new
government in which Mugabe or the ruling ZANU PF still had a big say in
policy. Mugabe's government is accused of having destroyed Zimbabwe
economically in its bid to hold onto power.
According to Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe figures, the country's external debt
was estimated to be at 4.8
billion dollars in 2007, while domestic debt has
also been rising.
(END/2008)
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Thursday, 16 October 2008
12:19
War Veterans Block Donation
HARARE, October
16 2008 - War Veterans and police last week prevented
the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) from distributing food
to starving orphans in
Nyanga in Manicaland province, saying the assistance
was not sanctioned by
government.
MDC Manicaland provincial social welfare officer,
Llyod Mahute, said
the MDC was distributing food to vulnerable households at
Ruwangwe Business
Centre in Nyanga when armed police officers and war
veterans, wearing Zanu
PF T-shirts, ordered the hungry villagers to disperse
or risk being
arrested.
"They came in a truck and were very
vicious. They said we had not been
given permission to distribute aid to the
starving villagers. The villagers
tried to resist but the officers were
adamant and they had to disperse on
empty stomachs," said
Mahute.
He said the party had sourced the food from charitable
organizations
for distribution to about 500 vulnerable households in Nyanga,
mostly child
headed families. The party had sourced over 10 tonnes of
assorted food which
included maize meal, cooking oil, salt, sugar beans and
kapenta fish.
Mahute said the MDC had started assisting vulnerable
families in the
province after noticing that most of them, particularly child
headed
families were going for days without proper meals.
"To be
honest, people here are surviving on wild fruits. They are
surviving on
matamba, matonhwe, hacha and masekesa. Zanu PF is playing with
lives of
people," said Mahute.
Efforts by the opposition party to assist
starving Zimbabweans come
soon after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai toured the
countryside assessing
food requirements in the country.
It was
widely hoped that the signing of the power sharing deal on
September
15 by Zanu PF and MDC would improve the operations of NGOs.
However, most NGOs have not started operating, as the government
has
tightened its grip on their operations despite lifting a ban on aid
agencies
in the country.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP)
recently urged donors to make
available USd 140 million in emergency food aid
for Zimbabwe where nearly
half of the country's 12 million people face hunger
in the coming months.
According to a recent UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation/WFP crop
and food supply assessment mission, more than two
million people were
already in need of assistance and this number would rise
to 5.1 million by
early next year.
Humanitarian organisations
have implored the government to declare the
current situation in the country
- particularly in the two Matabeleland
regions - a national disaster to speed
up the allocation of food to needy
communities. War Veterans Block
Donation
HARARE, October 16 2008 - War Veterans and police last week
prevented
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from
distributing food
to starving orphans in Nyanga in Manicaland province,
saying the assistance
was not sanctioned by government.
MDC
Manicaland provincial social welfare officer, Llyod Mahute, said
the MDC was
distributing food to vulnerable households at Ruwangwe Business
Centre in
Nyanga when armed police officers and war veterans, wearing Zanu
PF T-shirts,
ordered the hungry villagers to disperse or risk being
arrested.
"They came in a truck and were very vicious. They said we had not been
given
permission to distribute aid to the starving villagers. The villagers
tried
to resist but the officers were adamant and they had to disperse on
empty
stomachs," said Mahute.
He said the party had sourced the food from
charitable organizations
for distribution to about 500 vulnerable households
in Nyanga, mostly child
headed families. The party had sourced over 10 tonnes
of assorted food which
included maize meal, cooking oil, salt, sugar beans
and kapenta fish.
Mahute said the MDC had started assisting
vulnerable families in the
province after noticing that most of them,
particularly child headed
families were going for days without proper
meals.
"To be honest, people here are surviving on wild fruits.
They are
surviving on matamba, matonhwe, hacha and masekesa. Zanu PF is
playing with
lives of people," said Mahute.
Efforts by the
opposition party to assist starving Zimbabweans come
soon after MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai toured the countryside assessing
food requirements in the
country.
It was widely hoped that the signing of the power sharing
deal on
September
15 by Zanu PF and MDC would improve the operations
of NGOs.
However, most NGOs have not started operating, as the
government has
tightened its grip on their operations despite lifting a ban
on aid agencies
in the country.
The UN World Food Programme
(WFP) recently urged donors to make
available USd 140 million in emergency
food aid for Zimbabwe where nearly
half of the country's 12 million people
face hunger in the coming months.
According to a recent UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation/WFP crop
and food supply assessment mission, more
than two million people were
already in need of assistance and this number
would rise to 5.1 million by
early next year.
Humanitarian
organisations have implored the government to declare the
current situation
in the country - particularly in the two Matabeleland
regions - a national
disaster to speed up the allocation of food to needy
communities.
HARARE, 16 October 2008 (IRIN) - The bus route
between South Africa, the continent's largest economy, and Zimbabwe, the world's
fastest shrinking economy outside of a war zone, is a crucial lifeline for
people faced with increasing food insecurity.
Photo:
Antony Kaminju/IRIN
Empty
shelves
The UN estimates that in
the first quarter of 2009 more than five million
people, or nearly half Zimbabwe's population, will require food assistance,
and shortages of basic foods are forcing people to buy in neighbouring
countries.
Thousands of buses and private vehicles depart daily from
various centres in Zimbabwe on shopping trips to South Africa, Botswana,
Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi to buy basic
commodities for consumption or resale.
An IRIN correspondent travelled
from the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, to South Africa's economic hub,
Johannesburg, and boarded a battered bus in time to hear the conductor asking a
passenger to offer prayers for a safe journey and an end to Zimbabwe's political
crisis.
"We pray that our political leaders do not become selfish during
the ongoing power-sharing talks, and that they should put the welfare of
ordinary people first," said the passenger leading the prayers.
On 15
September rival Zimbabwean political parties signed a power-sharing deal, but
the talks soon deadlocked over
the allocation of cabinet posts.
The point of departure in Harare, known
as Roadport, is frequented by illegal currency dealers and criminals waiting for
passengers returning from their cross-border shopping trips.
The
outward-bound passengers on the nearly 2,500km round trip to Johannesburg carry
an array of empty bags that will be bulging with goods unavailable in Zimbabwe
on the return journey.
The shortages are reflected in the passengers' food for the trip;
a few people nibble on snacks and at a stop in Masvingo, 300km south of Harare,
no one buys refreshments, even though the bus crew are given a free lunch if
they bring in customers.
Cold reception
At
Beitbridge, the border crossing between Zimbabwe and South Africa, the
passengers are goaded and taunted by South African immigration officials.
"Go back to your [President Robert] Mugabe and tell him to retire from
power. He has been in power for too long and is a disgrace to Southern Africa.
Now you are coming to South Africa to loot all our food because you cannot deal
with your dictator," one immigration official said.
After a few hours spent clearing
immigration, the bus stops at the South African border town of Musina and the
passengers stampede to the nearest supermarkets.
Go back to your [President
Robert] Mugabe and tell him to retire from power. He has been in power too long
and is a disgrace to Southern Africa. Now you are coming to South Africa to loot
all our food
Thick wads of South African
rands are brandished, the proceeds from informal trade or remittances to
family and friends from the more than three million Zimbabweans thought to have
left the country - where the unemployment rate has topped 80 percent in recent
years - in search of work.
Meat pies, bread, sweets, biscuits and juices
fly off the shelves as the parched and hungry travellers rush to buy rare items
unavailable at home.
Shopping begins in earnest at Johannesburg's Park
Station, and the once-empty bags are bulging when the passengers return to the
terminus. When the bus trailer is full, bags, boxes and assorted other
containers are squeezed into every available space on the bus and along the
corridor.
According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, cross-border
shoppers and traders are spending nearly US1 billion annually on groceries and
household necessities in neighbouring countries.
The returning bus looks
like a mobile supermarket carrying everything from medicines, eggs, vegetables,
meat, butter, sweets, rice and maize-meal - the staple food - to blankets,
fridges, stoves, motor spare parts and stationery.
Panic buying
At the final stop before re-entering Zimbabwe there is one last
buying spree, as the passengers realise they are returning to a country that is
now characterised by empty shop shelves and a sense of panic sets in.
One of the passengers,
Immaculate Gushu, told IRIN she had spent more than a month in the Lesotho
capital of Maseru, where she sold an assortment of Zimbabwean goods, such as
crotchet ware and wood carvings, and had used the profits to buy groceries for
her family. "I am a single parent and economic hardships have forced me to
engage in this kind of work," she said.
I am single parent and economic
hardships have forced me to engage in this kind of work
Memory Shumba, a 70-year-old
grandmother, said she was forced to engage in cross-border trade because all her
children had died from AIDS-related
illnesses. "I sell commodities in South Africa, and sometimes I have
problems getting my money from some of the clients who refuse to pay. I look
after 14 orphans, as my children and their spouses have died of 'today's
disease' [HIV/AIDS].
If I don't work hard, they will all starve to death."
Those who have
been trading in South Africa for longer periods are curious to know about
developments in their home country. "Is it true that there is yet another
currency [denomination] in circulation? Have the political
parties agreed on a way forward? Have shops started
selling seed and fertiliser?"
On arrival at the Harare bus depot,
the passengers are met with unconcealed joy by friends and relatives eager to
know if their favourite foods have been bought.
http://www.afrol.com/
afrol News, 16 October - Once thriving and
continetal best, Zimbabwean
education is said to be drowing faster than
country's economy.
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has today
called for urgent action
to address Zimbabwe's education system, which is
said to be suffering due to
a combination of low salaries, poor attendance by
both teachers and
students, and transport and food problems.
UNICEF
reports that routine monitoring visits in recent weeks found that
with
national exams looming, some 40 per cent of country's teachers were
attending
lessons, a third of pupils were reporting for classes and that
district
education officers were ill equipped to run national exams.
"The current
education crisis has crippled schools across the country
leaving most school
operating way below capacity and the sector in an
apparent state of
emergency," agency said in a news release.
UNICEF Representative Roeland
Monasch noted that between a two-month
teachers strike, limited learning
materials, political violence and
displacement, Zimbabwe's children have lost
a whole year of schooling.
"The depletion of teachers in schools,
transport and food problems faced by
the remaining teachers and lack of
resources have left the sector tottering
on the brink of collapse," he
stated.
UNICEF observed that southern African nation's education system
had once
been the best on continent, but a decrease in public funding,
coupled with
soaring school fees, lack of teachers and low morale owing to
inadequate
salaries have created tremendous challenges.
"Education
remains the engine to drive Zimbabwe's long-term prospects. It is
critical
that the sector is not left to collapse, enduring solutions on
salaries, food
and working conditions should be reached soon, the monitoring
visits should
be beefed up, the situation in schools require urgent action,"
said Mr
Monasch.
"Zimbabwe's children are already suffering on multiple fronts,
denying them
an education to better their prospects is unacceptable," he
added.
UNICEF, which already provides support to Zimbabwe's ministry of
education,
sport and culture, has commited it's readyness to assisting
government in
improving current situation, but owing to stabilisation in
country's
politics as well as putting back in place sound
policies.
Over last two years, agency has invested an estimated $12
million in the
education sector, including through construction and
furnishing of
classrooms, provision of text books to primary schools, teacher
training and
setting up of sanitation facilities in rural schools. It also
pays school
fees for 150,000 orphaned and vulnerable children.
By
staff writer
© afrol News
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5926
October 16, 2008
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO - Former ZANU-PF Gutu South legislator Shuvai Mahofa is
wanted by
the police in connection with fraud and corruption after she
allegedly used
her influence to obtain several tonnes of maize from the Grain
Marketing
Board GMB.
She allegedly sold the maize on the black market,
thus denying thousands of
starving villagers access to their staple
food.
Mahofa who lost the election in March to Eliphas Mukonoweshuro of
the
Movement for Democratic Change has allegedly been evading the police
since
last week, leaving the law enforcement agents with no option but to
place
her name on the police wanted list.
Police in Masvingo yesterday
confirmed that they were on the hunt for the
former deputy minister,
following a report which was made by villagers from
Gutu South.
The
officer commanding Masvingo Assistant Commissioner Mekia Tanyanyiwa said
they
wanted Mahofa for questioning in connection with fraud and corruption
which
she allegedly committed at Gutu-Mpandawana GMB depot.
"We want to
question the former MP on allegations of fraud and corruption
involving
several tonnes of maize which she fraudulently obtained from the
GMB on the
pretext that it was meant for starving villagers",
said
Tanyanyiwa.
"Our investigations have revealed that she instead
converted the whole
consignment to her own use, selling it on the black
market".
Other sources in the police told The Zimbabwe Times Thursday
that Mahofa
allegedly horded about 100 tonnes of the scarce commodity from
the GMB which
she later sold on the black market.
Mahofa first rose to
prominence back in the 1980's when The Chronicle
serialised fascinating
details of her controversy-ridden love-life at
Gutu-Mupandawana. In total
defiance of such adverse publicity, Mahofa rose
to become Deputy Minister for
Youth Development, Gender and Employment.
Amid the current severe
shortage of food in the country some senior
government officials have used
their influence to obtain the scarce
commodity which they sell on the black
market, disadvantaging thousands of
starving villagers in the
countryside.
In Masvingo Province alone about 10 people, including a GMB
depot manager in
Chivi and a captain in the army attached to the government's
food task force
have so far been arrested in connection with the maize
scandal.
This is not the first time that the scandal-prone former Gutu
South
legislator has gone the laws of the country.
In 2003 Mahofa
appeared in court charged with corruption involving maize
which she again
allegedly fraudulently obtained from the GMB.
The charges were dropped
following the death of key witnesses.
In the same year Mahofa's name was
linked to the murder of a war veteran
from Lothian farm following a land
dispute.
The body of the late war veteran was dumped at Mahofa's house at
Mpandawana
growth point as relatives of deceased refused to bury the body
unless
compensation was paid.
Mahofa's son, Ben, and three Zanu PF
supporters were convicted and sentenced
to prison terms for the murder of
Amos Maseva in a dispute over a farm-house
at the height of the land
invasions.
The dispute had pitted the late Maseva against Shuvai Mahofa's
daughter,
Peritta Masendeke.
The case made headlines when relatives of
the deceased refused to bury him
and dumped demanding compensation of $2
million and 40 head of cattle from
Shuvai Mahofa.
They only buried
Maseva after heeding calls from the late Vice President
Simon Muzenda, who
promised to negotiate the compensation claim. Mahofa,
however, never paid the
compensation. Muzenda was the political patron of
Mahofa.
The former
deputy minister was never charged with murder after it emerged
that she was
not present when the offence was committed although it was
established that
she had, indeed, hired people to assault the deceased.
http://www.ipsnews.net
By Ignatius Banda
PLUMTREE, Oct 16 (IPS) - When
water experts warned at the turn of the
millennium that soon wars will be
fought not over oil anymore but over
water, little did Zimbabweans know that
they would be some of the first
people affected by this dire
prediction.
There is increasing competition for water due to a
combination of numerous
environmental and political factors, including
climate change, poor local
planning and lack of adequate financial and
material resources to bring
running water to poor communities.
In
rural Zimbabwe, lack of clean water has become a reality for
many
communities, in addition to other hardships, such as food
shortages,
insufficient health services and lack of sanitation.
Poor
rains and government's failure to provide adequate resources to reduce
water
scarcity -- including skilled water experts, fuel for field
technicians to
reach remote areas, drilling machines to make boreholes and
water
purification chemicals -- have worsened water woes.
After president
Robert Mugabe embarked on a violent land reform programme,
expropriating
white-owned commercial farms in 2000, new farm owners have
done little to
maintain the infrastructure and facilities they inherited
when taking over
farms, including water systems and irrigation dams.
According to Justice
for Agriculture (JAG), a unit set up by the Commercial
Farmers of Zimbabwe
(CFZ), an organisation that represents the legal
interests of dispossessed
farmers, wells have dried up throughout the
country and no efforts have been
made to drill more boreholes to provide
water to both humans and
livestock.
This is particularly significant since such infrastructure
used to provide
water for the surrounding communities as well as the
farms.
Plumtree
For one rural community, buried deep in the
tropical forests between two
southern African countries, Zimbabwe and
Botswana, the water plight has been
particularly harsh when their main water
source, a river running between the
two countries, almost dried up.
In
Plumtree, a poor, drought-prone rural community located about 160
kilometres
southwest of Zimbabwe,s second largest city, Bulawayo, a hostile
fight has
broken out between neighbouring communities around access to the
few
remaining water sources.
The Ramakgoebana River has become a major source
of conflict for villagers
from both sides of the border, Thabiso Mkwena, a
36-year-old man who lives
in Tshitshi, near Plumtree, told IPS. "This is a
dry area and we have to
walk for many kilometres to the fast-drying river.
This has led to disputes
with villagers from the other side of the river who
are accusing us of
finishing the water," said Mkwena.
He said
residents from the Botswana side of the river have claimed parts of
the river
as their own, threatening those from the Zimbabwean side with
assault if they
come to fetch water.
What has heightened tensions even further, Mkwena
explained, is that out of
desperation, villagers have started to bring their
livestock to drink from
the river too, as there is no alternative water
source for animals.
"The Batswana say we must not bring our livestock
here, but we cannot let
our cattle die in this heat," Mkwena
said.
Letting livestock drink from the same water source as humans has
exposed
locals to a number of water-borne diseases. Earlier this year,
medical staff
at the public hospital in Plumtree reported an outbreak of
diarrhoea caused
by contaminated drinking water.
In Plumtree, not only
the river has dried up. Water provision inside the
village is scarce as well.
As a result, residents are increasingly reluctant
to share the little water
they have.
"Even here within the village, where people rely on small
springs for their
water (supply), some have claimed these as their
territories, forcing others
to walk long distances in search for water," said
Themba Gampu, a
33-year-old villager.
Missing water
MDG
Zimbabwe committed itself to meeting the United Nations
Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), one of which seeks to provide safe
drinking water
and sanitation to at least two thirds of its population by
2015, but it is
unlikely that government will reach this
target.
Although worst in rural areas, water shortages affect the entire
country.
According to residents associations Combined Harare Residents
Association
(CHRA) and Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BUPRA),
urban
residents have to live with irregular supply of clean drinking
water.
In Bulawayo, for example, residents say they go for up to two days
without
running water, and when the taps are turned back on, the water is not
safe
to drink because it has not been purified.
To improve this
situation, government officials signed an agreement with the
United Nations
Educational and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO), the
Worldwide Fund for
Nature (WWF) and the Institute of Water and Sanitation
Development in May to
mobilise funds to supply clean water and sanitation in
a country faced by
drastic economic recession.
Judith Kateera, permanent secretary for
Economic Development in the national
Ministry of Environment and Tourism,
said the agreement is part of
government efforts to "resuscitate water and
sanitation institutions
countrywide". But five months later, the agreement is
yet to be implemented.
James Fuyane, chief water technician at the
Plumtree Rural District Council,
told IPS that poor water management was
mainly caused by lack of financial
resources and management.
"We are a
council in transition after the elections (of March 2008), and it
has become
difficult to know who is in charge of what," he says. "We have
stopped the
maintenance of the few boreholes and water treatment plants in
remote areas
as we await budget approval."
With government officials like Fuyane
unable to help, villagers do not know
who to turn to for assistance and have
resigned themselves to placing their
hopes on the weather.
"We have
learnt to live like this," Mkwena said. "We look forward to the
coming of the
rain and pray that animals also have enough water to drink."
http://ipsnews.net
By Ephraim Nsingo
HARARE, Oct 16 (IPS) - "In
my nine years as a nurse, I have never been so
devastated. You know how
discouraging it is to see people dying before your
eyes. And you know very
well there is nothing you can do to help them."
These were the words of
Caroline Chabuda*, a nurse at Seke North Clinic in
Chitungwiza, a satellite
town about 30 km south of Harare. The clinic was
recently set aside to attend
only to cholera cases following a local
outbreak of the disease a few months
ago. But because of a shortage of key
medication, many patients admitted at
the clinic have died.
Figures released by the Ministry of Health indicate
that 16 people died of
cholera countrywide in September. Chitungwiza
residents, medical experts and
human rights activists believe the figure is
much higher than that. They
also accuse the Ministry of Health and the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(ZINWA) of ignoring the plight of
residents.
"The government and ZINWA are responsible for all this," said
Tapiwa Muronzi
of St Mary's suburb in Chitungwiza, whose younger brother
Carlos died of
cholera three weeks ago. Muronzi believes the government has
done too
little, too late.
"They are only acting now when people are
already dying," said a sobbing
Muronzi. "We all know that cholera, although
it is a very dangerous disease,
can be prevented. The authorities neglected
us when we needed them most. Why
wait until there are buried corpses? These
people (government) do not care
about our plight. We have been without water
for four months now, but ZINWA
continue to charge us exorbitant
rates."
Muronzi's mother, Ambuya Clara Muronzi, 58, had no kind words for
staff at
the clinic. "He could have survived, if they had given him care.
They
neglected him but now they are demanding lots of money for doing
nothing,"
she said.
But Chabuda believes there is nothing they could
have done to avert the
situation.
"We have a great challenge of a
shortage of experienced staff, people who
really know how to handle such
cases. Cholera is not like any other
disease," said Chabuda.
"Cholera
is a very sensitive and contagious disease. It needs to be handled
by
highly-qualified medical personnel. Most of the nurses we have at the
clinic
are still young and inexperienced. The youngsters are so ignorant. We
cannot
risk patients' lives by letting them attend to (cholera victims)."
said
Chabuda.
While Chabuda was talking to this reporter, patients, mostly
children, could
be seen writhing in agony on the floors. The few nurses who
were present
appeared to be struggling to attend to them. Among other things,
the nurses
gave them dehydration salts and aqua tablets, for use in drinking
water.
"We do not have some key medicines, this is what we can do under
the
circumstances," said another nurse, who identified herself only as
Caroline.
Cholera linked to wider problems
With Chitungwiza
hosting this year's national commemorations of the Stand Up
and Speak Out
Against Poverty Campaign, the wider failures that have led to
the outbreak
will be brought to the fore.
The Combined Harare Residents Association
(CHRA), which also covers
Chitungwiza, says some areas of the city have been
without a reliable water
supply for years.
In a statement, CHRA said:
"The water and sewer management problems have
seen some residential areas
going for years, months and weeks without water
and unattended sewer bursts
respectively. The shortage of water dictates
that residents fetch water from
unprotected sources thus diseases like
cholera breed easily. CHRA has so far
received countless cases of cholera
and diarrhea."
The organisation
says the authorities should "stop burying their heads in
the sand and attend
to the governance stalemate as a matter of urgency".
Human rights
activists have lambasted the government for neglecting
residents, which they
said is "criminal".
"The government should treat the health sector like
they are doing
agriculture," said Itai Rusike, the director of the Community
Working Group
on Health (CWGH) - a Harare based non-governmental organization
that
pressures government on health issues. The government has for the past
two
years been providing agricultural inputs free of charge under the
farm
mechanisation programme.
He added that the government's official
figures for cholera deaths were
"very
under-represented".
Acknowledging that ZINWA has not maintained regular
supplies of potable
water to Chitungwiza, spokesperson Tsungirirai Shoriwa,
said the company was
not responsible for the outbreak of cholera in
Chitungwiza, saying the
state-owned utility was doing the best it can despite
a shortage of
necessary materials.
"We do not give people untreated
water, it would be a crime for us to do so.
If we do not have the chemicals
to treat water, we do not supply the water.
ZINWA has never advised people to
boil wate,r because according to us it is
clean," said Shoriwa.
He
insisted ZINWA was not supplying dirty water that had contributed to
the
outbreak of cholera.
"It would be unfair for people to blame ZINWA
for the people who are dying
of cholera in Chitungwiza. As far as we are
concerned, our water is clean.
You should be aware there are many factors
that have contributed to the
spread of cholera such as the eating dirty
food."
ZINWA took over water management in the urban centres from most
local
authorities last year. This resulted in a chorus of complaints from
human
rights activists and some politicians, who believe the
government-run
company does not have the capacity to manage urban
water.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the Zimbabwe
Doctors for
Human Rights have described the cholera outbreak as an indication
of "an
unacceptable failure of leadership".
"These wanton deaths (from
cholera) are intolerable and shameful, and the
state's failure is merely a
replication of other high level failures, where
the citizenry has now been
disenfranchised of almost all their basic human
rights. If more than a dozen
people have died from cholera in just less than
a month, we can only imagine
how many more are currently affected by, or at
risk of contracting, this
avoidable disease," ZLHR said.
Thousands of residents, and many others
from surrounding areas will converge
on the town for the Stand Up and Take
Action Against Poverty on Oct. 18.
Issues of sanitation and water supply in
Chitungwiza and other urban areas
are set to take centre stage.
*Not
her real name
http://www.radiovop.com
BULAWAYO, October 16 2008 - A senior Zanu
PF official has dismissed
Zapu die hards as tribalists who have no place in
the current Zimbabwe.
"The late nationalist Joshua Nkomo
was accepted throughout the country
because he was a nationalist. He did not
care whether one was Shona or
Ndebele and you guys are now saying Zapu is
for Ndebeles," said Ambrose
Mutinhiri.
"That is not true
because I was one of the commanders of Zapu and I am
not Ndebele, but Nkomo
brought us together with the likes of the late JZ
Moyo and Lookout Masuku.
Dabengwa was also there, but he knows that Zapu was
never a tribal party,"
he said.
Mutinhiri, who has served in the Zanu PF government
after the unity
accord signed by the PF Zapu and Zanu PF in 1987, criticised
Zapu supremo
Dumiso Dabengwa in Harare recently in a meeting which was
called by people
who said they wanted to revive Zapu.
Mutinhiri told the gathering that the new Zapu should be called
Ndebele
Zapu, because it did not have the blessings of all former Zapu
members, most
of whom were in the present Zanu leadership like vice
president Joseph
Msika, John Nkomo, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Joe Biggy Matiza,
Cephas Msipha and
July Moyo, among
others.
There have been efforts
to revive the party by mostly Zanu PF members
in the Matabeleland region,
who are unhappy with the power sharing deal
between Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations.
International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC)
Date: 16 Oct 2008
Matthew Cochrane, Communications manager
This is the
fifth in a series of six profiles, looking at the people
affected by
Zimbabwe's food crisis.
For the past eight years, 60-year-old Red Cross
volunteer Esther Mhike has
arrived at the Red Cross office in Masvingo every
morning at eight o'clock.
Over the next four hours, Esther and her
colleagues will head out into the
surrounding area to visit Red Cross clients
- people living with HIV and
AIDS. She will sit with her clients - friends
really - and listen to them
talk about their problems and frustrations.
Gently, she will remind them of
the importance of continuing their
anti-retroviral treatment (ART).
Lately, though, Esther's quiet advocacy
for continued adherence is proving
more and more challenging. You see,
there's no food in Masvingo at the
moment.
"When my clients are taking
ART, they need to have food," Esther explains.
"They need to eat sadza (the
thick, porridge-like Zimbabwean staple)
otherwise the drugs make them feel
very sick."
"If we don't take the food, how can we take the pills?" her
clients ask her.
Esther can't answer, except to explain that they will
deteriorate quickly if
they stop their treatment. There simply isn't much
food anymore.
According to the UN, there are currently millions of people
without access
to food in Zimbabwe. Masvingo Province - which lies about 300
km south of
the capital Harare - is one of the worst hit areas. A violent
combination of
drought, floods, a lack of agricultural inputs and
hyper-inflation has left
Zimbabwe's fields barren and its store-shelves bare.
And the situation will
only get worse.
We asked Esther what she would
say to someone thinking about donating to the
Red Cross appeal. She
smiled.
"I would try to explain the severity of the situation, and how
their support
could go a long way to alleviating the suffering of my
clients."
The IFRC Zimbabwe food security appeal aims to provide
assistance to about
260,100 people over the coming nine months. The programme
will focus on
supporting people like Esther's clients - a group particularly
and acutely
vulnerable to food shortages
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject line.
To subscribe/unsubscribe to the JAG mailing list, please
email: jag@mango.zw
with subject line
"subscribe" or
"unsubscribe".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Rob Gass - The Real Situation
Dear JAG,
I would urge all readers to
study the article by Tendai Dumbutshena in The
Zimbabwe Situation October 15
2008.
Mr Dumbutshena makes it frighteningly clear why the ' Political
Agreement'
between Zanu & MDC is inevitably doomed to fail. Granted, the
central theme
has been argued many times before - the fact that Mugabe and
his cohort do
not negotiate in good faith and that their word is
worthless.
What I found striking about the article was the detailed
description and
analysis of Mugabe's past record and past history and his
actions. In other
words from his record, Mugabe's response to a particular
situation is
entirely predictable. Mugabe can never be trusted, and Mugabe
will always
renege on important commitments where these commitments might in
any way
lead to the diminishing of his power base.
Mr Dumbutshena sets
before us a stark reality. No amount of wishful thinking
can alter these
unpalatable facts. Mr Dumbutshena is in no doubt that anyone
who tries to
persuade themselves that Mugabe might be interested in genuine
power sharing
and reform is seriously deluded and incredibly naive.
His conclusion re
what the MDC should do will not be welcome news to
suffering Zimbabweans but
we had better take note of this warning!
I would say this to all of your
readers, study Mr Dumbutshena's article, do
it today, think about its
implications.
Rob
Gass
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
Just Andrew
Dear JAG,
I wonder if you would publish the following
text under the pseudonym 'Just
Andrew' in response to Ben Freeth's
letter.
"This trust in God is all very well, in fact commendable, but
what I fail to
understand is how this 'turning to and trusting in' is likely
to impact on
the current situation in Zimbabwe, as Ben Freeth assures us it
might, if we
drop to our knees and seek forgiveness, so to speak. One can
make the
comparison with Ben Freeth's letter, if you like, to the
encouragement given
by, say, a fundamentalist Muslim recruiter of suicide
bombers to would be
heroes of the Jihad. Just 'sacrifice yourself for and
trust in Allah's rich
rewards', is their slightly different message, in their
war against the
infidel. Paradise will bring how many maidens of vestal
modesty? Does this
unquestionable sacrifice and trust mean that the
terrorist is right,
perpetrating his cowardly and heinous crimes in the name
of God? Definitely
not, but that does not make every Muslim a terrorist
either.
I just feel saddened that Ben Freeth, of all people, is bringing
God into
national politics, much as a fundamentalist would use God to wage
ugly war.
Religion should not be a factor of politics, but rather a
theological
platform for the entire nation to enjoy and worship God, across
petty
political boundaries. Indeed, on just whose side is God on here,
since
Mugabe certainly seems to have the upper hand? Hopefully, not for
long.
Mugabe is said to be a God fearing man of Catholic persuasion, who
had
turned to God and presumably still trusts in him, so they say, although
you
would not think so! What makes him a lesser candidate for God's
blessing
than, say, Tsvangirai, who hasn't yet, shown the nation his God
fearing
mettle, or for that matter that of his party? Or vice
versa!
Yes, I would encourage you to turn to Him and trust Him, but I am
sorry, do
not expect Him to provide any magical solutions to an impasse which
shall
get a lot worse before it gets better. One wonders, in fact, if this
mortal
world has ever been influenced by God's hand (never mind which God,
since
there are so many of them these days). The history of conflict has
been
touched more by God's earthly messengers squabbling across the globe
than
even the filthy politicians can be debited with. I really take issue
with
Ben Freeth's message that his God has actually taken sides and joined
the
MDC. If you believe in this myth, then think ahead five or ten years,
when
that crowd starts pillaging too, and ask yourself where God's
alignment
might then swing.
May your God go with you.
Just
Andrew"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Liam Forde
Dear JAG,
I am absolutely amazed at how the people of
Zimbabwe, which I prefer; at the
moment to call, 'Mugabestan', have been
conned by RGM et al., 'the kings of
brinkmanship'; have been allowed to
legitimise their illegal positions, by
way of bogus talks: producing spin,
division and all the attendant misery
associated with the modern Zimbabwean
condition. I call on the Opposition
leaders to pierce the veil that is
ZANU-PF. Do not talk, do not listen. Take
your mandate, given by the people,
in the most extreme of conditions, back
from these scoundrels, who use
patriotism as their last refuge. Shake them
out into the light. Zimbabwe is
heading for civil war, if the true
and elected leaders, do not stand
up.
Democracy is best out in the open. There is no currency to be had
on
the inside with people, who after 28 years; have gone past penury and
doubt
and taken the people and trees to hell. They are not needed nor wanted,
save
as persons of interest, if law and order is ever again present.
yours
etc.,
Liam A
Forde.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.radiovop.com
BULAWAYO, October 16 2008 - There was confusion at a
Bulawayo hotel as
to who would pay the lunch bill for hordes of Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Corporation staff that helped themselves to food, claiming the
Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority (ZTA) would settle the bill.
A hotel manager revealed that 42 people who said they belonged to the
state
owned broadcaster, based in Harare and Bulawayo respectively, had
lunch on
Wednesday indicating that they were guests of the ZTA who are
running the
Sanganai/Hlanganai World Travel and Tourism Fair that is
underway in the
city.
All hell broke loose when ZTA officials were notified of
the bill,
running into billions of dollars and they vehemently refused to
pay. Even
ZTA chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke, told the hotel
management that
ZTA was not ZBC.
"This is lot of money and
we dont know who will settle the bill now.
When these people came in, they
said they were guests of ZTA and actually
some of them are staying here in
rooms booked by ZTA so we believed them
when they said their lunch will be
paid by organisers of the Fair. But these
people are refusing and are not
sure whether ZBC is in a position to pay
this money," said a manager who
prefered not to be named for professional
reasons.
To whom it may concern
I would like to appeal
to your organization to investigate and cover the
University of Zimbabwe
operations and admnistration. The University has for
the past 2 years not
been opening and closing semesters traditionally and
have always
supplemented to extend the semesters and exam time tables at the
expense of
students.
Mr Nyagura, the vice chancellor of the university has totally
failed to
manage the institution to its adequate capacity. His lack of
proffessional
conduct and political aspiration and dogma has drastically
destroyed the
reputation of the once highest institution of learning in
southern africa.
Funding has been one of the critical matters at the centre
of problems the
university is facing, nevertheless it has been close crutiby
of those
concerned to discover that the vice chancellor and his deputies and
other
admin are procuring vihecles using funds whose primary source they
cannot
justify.
The Halls of residence have been allocated since the
last administration
before black management (Nyagura) as NC1, NC4, Manfred,
Bhagdad (common uba
and usa terms of reference) but the admin of nyagura had
to change that so
he cannot take residential halls for boys and give them
to girls so as to
accomodate his prostitutes.
The ministry of
education under the GoZ has also neglected their
responsibility to pay
teaching staff and provide adequate budgets for the
smooth running of the
institution. As at this point, the university has not
oppened since august
and we are now in october, results have not been
published, there is not
staff because the salaries have not been payed, no
water, no power, no food
for res. students. Quite surprizingly the
university has a farm which i want
to believe should be used to produce food
for its students, this goes back
to the issue of mis management, gross mis-
management.
I would
greatly appreciate a constant cover on the status and on-goings of
issues
sorrounding the late opening of the university and its general
administration