The Battalion online
Zimbabwe a victim to racial reparations
Violent
seizure of land from white farmers is destroying nation's economy
Matthew
maddox
October 17, 2002
The international community stands by as
ethnic cleansing under the guise of
reparations takes place per the orders of
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.
You won't read this in an American
newspaper or hear it from the United
Nations. The world has turned a deaf ear
to the cries of suffering from
Southern Africa, both white and
black.
Mugabe came to power in 1981 as the first and only black
Zimbabwean
president after the end of white apartheid. Since that time, he
has molded
the once prosperous democracy into a communist dictatorship. His
most recent
abuses of power include using the military to intimidate
opponents at and
away from the polls, expatriating the media for his own use,
and forcing
members of the independent judicial branch to quit. Zimbabwe,
once the
breadbasket and tourist mecca of Southern Africa, now faces the
starvation
of more than 6 million of its people, according to Refugees
International.
As Zimbabwe's problems emanating from nepotism and
mismanagement have grown,
so has the Zimbawean people's disapproval of
Mugabe. In 2000, as his
popularity reached an all-time low, according to
iafrica.com, Mugabe turned
on the same scapegoats he had used his previous
two decades in power:
whites. In an attempt to deflect personal
responsibility for the country's
woes, Mugabe claimed white ownership of
commercial farms in Zimbabwe were to
blame. He called for reparations in the
form of farm seizures from whites to
be given to the country's poor, black
citizens.
Despite the defeat of a constitutional amendment to allow such
action,
Mugabe instituted the confiscations through brute force. Reuters
reports
that armed young militants, under the direction of Mugabe, have
repeatedly
stormed farm property.
The latest figures from the South
African newspaper, the Sunday Independent,
show only 400 white farmers remain
in Zimbabwe versus 4,500 just two years
ago. The effects of the attacks are
not limited to Zimbabwe. The violence
against farmers has been spreading to
nearby South Africa and Namibia.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum says
that Mugabe thugs have left hundreds
dead, thousands beaten and raped,
hundreds of thousands jobless and millions
on the brink of starvation. The
ugly proof can be viewed at
www.africancrisis.org/Photos.asp.
Ironically,
the named beneficiaries of the land program are hurt the most.
As commercial
farms are destroyed, thousands of local black laborers who
live and work
there lose their homes and livelihoods. In a continent already
stricken by
AIDS, Zimbabwe's lack of agricultural production has placed the
price of food
beyond the reach of most. Food aid given by international
organizations and
other countries to help the starving has been intercepted
by the Zimbabwe
government, according to the Associated Press. Similar to
Somalia in 1993,
food is being withheld as a weapon against political
opponents of
Mugabe.
Those who believe "the end justifies the means" should know even
those
causing the violence are unhappy. ZWNews.com says the majority
of
confiscated lands have gone to wealthy political allies of Mugabe. This
has
angered many of Mugabe's followers, who believed they had terrorized
for
their own benefit, according to allafrica.com.
Neck-deep in civil
rights violations, Mugabe has received international
acclaim rather than
criticism. Participants in the UN World Summit on
Sustainable Development
gave a deafening applause after President Mugabe
defended his "land reform"
program.
The African Descendants World Conference Against Racism this
month in
Barbados issued this statement: "'Be it resolved that we applaud and
support
the courage and foresight of President Mugabe for embarking upon the
land
reform program."
That is not surprising coming from a group that
on the same day expelled all
non-blacks from its conference hall. U.S. Nation
of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan, forbidden to enter Britain for inciting
racial hatred, counts
himself as a Mugabe enthusiast. The Zimbabwe
Independent also lists the
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in
America as supporters.
While it is not the job of the U.S. military to
"nation-build," if there
ever was a use for the United Nations, the situation
in Zimbabwe is it.
Mugabe is a despot in the tradition of Stalin, Pol Pot and
Pinochet. The
world and the media must wake up and recognize tyrants of all
stripes.
Communiqué by Jenni Williams
This statement represents my professional
and personal opinion.
Over the last 18 months, I have represented the
agricultural sector as they
faced the ZANU PF war of attrition, called the
Third Chimurenga. I
communicated the plight of the four thousand farmers, 300
000 employees and
their families - one and a half million people who reside
on commercial
farms. Many farmers are no longer able to farm and thousands of
their
employees are unemployed, homeless and destitute and over six
million
Zimbabweans face starvation.
I am neither a farmer nor a
politician. I am a concerned Zimbabwean
communicating about the crisis facing
Zimbabweans and I put principle above
politics and profit.
My
representation began with two briefs:
1. Assist in strengthening the
negotiating platform, which was the Zimbabwe
Joint Resettlement Initiative
known as ZJRI, a joint team of farmers and
Government representatives finding
common ground for a partnership on land
reform. One million hectares of land
was on offer without legal
contestation.
2. My company, PR Newsmakers
managed the news of the farmers' plight on the
farms and use that as a
barometer of change. If the stories we reported were
used we believed that
the battle would have been won and that international
pressure would ensure
that sanity prevailed. I eventually stepped forward
into media management and
became a spokesperson. This was due to the fact
that most Zimbabweans were
not prepared to say publicly what I believed had
to be
said.
Unfortunately the 6th Sept 2001 Abuja deal was broken 24 hours
later and
that betrayal remains the biggest confidence trick of all time. The
enormity
of which we have only just seen as President Mugabe refused to
attend the
Abuja review recently, terming the meeting 'a waste of time'.
The
negotiating platform, along with the rule of law was totally
compromised.
The ZJRI deal then appeared to die a slow and protracted death
only
resurfacing when needed as a political card.
I helped to dialogue
and lobby, from the townships to the White House, and
participated in
Government and President's Office meetings, speaking to any
Minister who
could intervene. Lip service was the order of the day and the
invasions and
human rights abuses continued unabated.
I have worked among you and know
that most farmers are committed to a
depoliticised agrarian reform programme
based on sound economic principles
and where commercial production is not
compromised. Many who have left would
not need more than one invitation to
return to rebuild an integrated farming
sector.
I make the following
appeal to Farmers:
1. It is not time to give in to this madness, retreat to
the urban centres
if you are under threat but keep your Title Deed intact for
the day of
reckoning.
2. Farmers must resist being divided. Added to the
'degrees in violence' are
'degrees in creating division'. If farmers and the
Union are to change their
dialogue strategy, they must democratically enact a
change by allowing a
special Farmers referendum and then abide by the result
and formulate a new
strategy forward.
3. Meanwhile, they must commit
themselves to focusing their energy on the
core issues enshrined in the
Zimbabwean Constitution. The constitutional
issues and human rights are a
solid basis to envelope the agricultural
plight and communicate through the
quagmire. If we are to resolve this
impasse, which plays itself out under the
guise of land or agrarian reforms,
we must couch our message in pressing for
a return to a democratic Zimbabwe
with all its characteristics: good
governance, the rule of law, the respect
for human and property rights
allowing dignity, and where the freedom of
expression is canonised.
4. We
must also add to our arsenal of sane arguments the teachings of our
African
Ubuntu, which encompasses group solidarity for collective good. If
this
spirit can once again take root, moral and ethical levels can
be
boosted.
5. They should take stock of their position and fully
recognise and draw
unlimited strength from the fact that it is their
God-given and democratic
right to own property and earn a living and their
right to call themselves
Zimbabweans or investors to Zimbabwe that has been
eroded. To do this
effectively they must take their place amongst civic
society and with other
Zimbabweans to defend their human rights. It is not a
crime to demand
justice, peace and freedom.
6. Dialogue has been
exhaustively conducted by many. It is however, not
being carried out on a
fair and democratic negotiating platform so it will
not yield the desired
results. No amount of dealing or signing of
sub-division forms will provide
honour where there is none, and just serves
to feed the appeasement
crocodile. We can only resolve the conflict if we
have a fair and equal
negotiating platform and equally important and
communicated views.
7.
Calls to acceptance of foreign compensation under these conditions will
be
selling out Zimbabweans right to a Democratic win-win solution.
I call on
farmers and their staff to support the organisations that give
their issues
voice, such as CFU and other farmers unions, GAPWUZ and other
such workers
unions. Pay your levies to keep your vote in place and your
voice
heard.
I also call on the business community to empower the groups
manning the
frontline; these are Justice For Agriculture (JAG) and
other
Non-Governmental Organisations and the Crisis in Zimbabwe
coalition.
I close on the old adage - United We Stand, Divided We
Fall.
Ends
Contact Jenni Williams on Mobile (+263) 91 300456 or 11213
885 Or on email
jennipr@mweb.co.zw
or Fax (+2639) 63978
or (+2634) 703829
Office email prnews@mweb.co.zw
A member of the
International Association of Business Communicators. Visit
the IABC website
www.iabc.com
Daily News
Leader Page
'Stand up for your rights' is not a
cliche
10/17/02 9:08:02 AM (GMT +2)
LAST week,
Masvingo gave Vice-President Simon Muzenda the Freedom of
the Town. According
to one report, attendance was low. Villagers from the
surrounding areas
reportedly made up most of the crowd, the report said.
The
people of Masvingo, who voted for an MDC mayor last year, showed
little
enthusiasm for what ought to have been a grand ceremonial occasion.
Most said
they had not been consulted.
It wasn't that they were not convinced
Muzenda deserved the accolade.
It was probably that the predominantly Zanu PF
council deliberately
sidelined them because, by and large, they are not Zanu
PF supporters.
To register their protest in the most graphic manner
possible, the
residents stayed away from the ceremony, at which Muzenda was
reported to
have made interesting remarks about the MDC.
The
Vice-President, like most Zanu PF leaders, from President Mugabe
down to the
party youth functionary, has previously spoken of the MDC with
withering
contempt. Mugabe has spoken most scathingly about Morgan
Tsvangirai,
personally, going way beyond the political rhetoric you would
expect
between rivals.
Masvingo residents stood up for their right not to
honour an occasion
during which people who have spoken of their party with
contempt were going
to honour each other at their expense.
There
is far too little of this assertiveness in Zimbabwe today.
People seem all
too willing to accept the status quo without first examining
the possible
consequences of their acquiesence.
Later this month, the Commercial
Farmers' Union (CFU) will hold a
crucial conference billed by many as a
make-or-break summit. Yesterday, we
reported rumblings of discontent against
the CFU leadership. On the same
day, it was reported elsewhere that David
Hasluck, the director of the CFU,
had blamed the land fiasco in Zimbabwe on
British Premier Tony Blair.
The conference being held later this
month will provide the commercial
farmers, the victims of the government's
bloody land reform programme, with
an opportunity to decide whether they are
men or mice, in a manner of
speaking.
Do they lie down and die as
the government's big shots grab their
farms and pay them a pittance in
compensation? Or do they gird their loins
for a fight to the finish -
standing up for their rights?
The tendency among most people to be
malleable in the face of the
official abuse of their rights has tended to
give the government the
impression that it can trample over those rights with
impunity. The teachers
' strike, which took the government by surprise and
over which Education
Minister Aeneas Chigwedere ought to resign if he has any
honour left, is a
fine example of people standing up for their
rights.
This is not to encourage anarchy, but with a government as
wedded to
intolerance of dissent as this one is, people must know that only
if they
are willing to stand up for their rights can they hope to have those
rights
recognised all the time.
In many ways, the people's
casual attitude towards their rights could
be responsible for an appalling
case of the violation of human rights
witnessed recently in
Harare.
Three defendants awaiting trial were reportedly so brutally
assaulted
by the police that on the day they appeared in court they had to
crawl from
their remand cells into the courtroom - so severely had they been
beaten.
A magistrate in Harare has ordered an investigation into
the beatings.
Until the investigations are completed, it would be unfair to
cast any
aspersions on the conduct of the police.
But this is
not the first time the police have been caught on the
wrong side of the law.
The force, as well as the army, has become so
politicised in the last few
years, it has virtually become part of the evil
apparatus of repression the
government has built up since 2000.
This is the result of ordinary
people not being fully aware of their
rights. Clearly, it is time they stood
up for their rights, whatever the
consequences.
News24
Mbeki: 'We must act on the Zimbabwe crisis'
Brendan
Boyle
Cape Town - South African President Thabo Mbeki promised on
Thursday to get
directly involved to help resolve Zimbabwe's
crisis.
"We must act on the Zimbabwe crisis to change it," Mbeki said
during
parliamentary question time.
"We will work with the government,
we will work with the opposition, we will
work with the Zimbabwe business
community, we will work with the commercial
farmers to assist in the
change."
Mbeki has previously shied away from any unilateral intervention
in Zimbabwe
and again rejected calls to punish President Robert Mugabe and
his ruling
Zanu-PF party.
"We are not going to act on the Zimbabwe
question with a view to punishment.
What we have got to do is to ensure that
the situation in Zimbabwe changes,"
he said.
"That's the policy and
the position we will take. It's the only position we
will
take.
Referring to Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's recent
visit to
Zimbabwe, he said: "We will continue to engage in Zimbabwe and push
as hard
as we can to produce results."
'Missed a good
opportunity'
His comments, however, fell short of expectations of a
change of tack on
Zimbabwe, leaving diplomats and political analysts in the
gallery
disappointed that he had not taken the opportunity to announce
other
initiatives trailed by his staff.
"I was expecting a lot more
than that. He has missed a good opportunity,"
said one Western
envoy.
Aides and officials said earlier on Thursday that Mbeki was
adopting a more
hands-on policy on Zimbabwe, which has become an economic
albatross around
southern Africa's neck.
They said he would revive a
stalled bilateral ministerial commission and
would visit Harare soon as part
of a Southern African Development Community
(SADC) fact-finding
mission.
'Mugabe realizes he needs help'
Sources in Mbeki's team
and one government official told reporters there had
been clear signals from
Mugabe over the past month that he realised he
needed help from his
neighbours.
One aide said Mugabe had told Dlamini-Zuma during a visit
last week that he
was ready to talk about "anything under the sun, including
media freedom,
the courts and the land issue".
Instability in Zimbabwe
damaged foreign investor confidence in the region
last year, contributing to
a dramatic fall in the value of the South African
rand.
Mbeki said,
however, that policy on Zimbabwe should not be dictated by the
fear of white
South Africans that they might suffer the same fate as white
farmers stripped
of their land.
In the toughest signal yet that Mugabe has lost regional
support, the
14-nation SADC decided at a summit two weeks ago to deny him the
deputy
chairmanship that would have lined him up for the leadership position
in a
year. - Sapa and Reuters
IOL
Hopes brighten for new strategy on Zimbabwe
October 16
2002 at 09:50PM
By John Battersby
President
Thabo Mbeki was expected to inject some new hope for a negotiated
settlement
to the Zimbabwean land seizure impasse on Thursday.
Sources close to the
new manoeuvres suggested that South Africa's
relationship with Zimbabwe was
shifting from "quiet diplomacy" to
"constructive engagement".
The
shift in stance was anticipated in a reply the president was due to make
to
questions from Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
Leon has asked
Mbeki, in the light of the recent meeting of the Commonwealth
troika in
Abuja, Nigeria, whether the situation had improved and, if not,
why he did
not support tougher action against Zimbabwe.
If the situation in
Zimbabwe had improved, Leon wanted to know from Mbeki
what improvements had
led him to take no action against the
Zimbabwean
government.
Meanwhile, in the British House of Lords, Lord
Peter Carrington, who chaired
the Lancaster House conference in 1979 which
led to Zimbabwean independence,
has asked the British government to put its
money where its mouth is.
He demanded to know whether it would be
prepared to use money earmarked for
compensating Zimbabwean farmers who sold
their farms on a willing-buyer,
willing-seller basis to support those who had
been evicted without
compensation.
His question on Wednesday followed
growing public pressure in Britain for
the government to help compensate
farmers left destitute.
Prince Charles recently wrote to British Prime
Minister Tony Blair on the
issue, asking him to intervene.
Foreign
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has hinted that there was nothing
stopping
the British from paying compensation.
Britain's Minister for Africa,
Baroness Valerie Amos, responded to Lord
Carrington's question with a
carefully worded restatement of British policy,
which suggested that Britain
could be prepared to shift its position on
compensation if there was a
gesture from the Zimbabwean side.
Natal Witness
Mbeki slams SA whites over Zim
SA will continue to
engage with Zimbabwe and will not condemn
Mugabe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
President
Thabo Mbeki has reaffirmed South Africa's policy of constructive
engagement
towards Zimbabwe and again rejected calls to punish President
Robert Mugabe
and his ruling Zanu-PF party.
"We are not going to act on the Zimbabwe
question with a view to punishment
What we have got to do is to ensure that
the situation in Zimbabwe changes,"
he told MPs during parliamentary question
time on Thursday.
Mbeki repeated that South Africa will work with the
Zimbabwean government,
the opposition, the business community and the
Commercial Farmers Union to
assist in changing the crisis-ridden
country.
"That's the policy and the position we will take. It's the only
position we
will take."
Referring to Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma's recent visit to
Zimbabwe, he said: "We will continue to engage
in Zimbabwe and push as hard
as we can to produce results."
However,
it is perfectly clear that there are people within South Africa who
have a
different objective, Mbeki said.
"Other people think our task is to
punish, to defeat, to crush Robert Mugabe
and Zanu-PF."
Mbeki said the
way to ensure human rights and democracy is not to crush,
"but to ensure that
Zimbabwe gets on to a different path".
He noted that many of those
calling for the "crushing" are putting the
obligation on South Africa to do
so.
"If they want to crush, I don't know why they don't do so
themselves," Mbeki
said to the amusement of ANC MPs.
He repeated that
some opposition parties' attitudes towards Zimbabwe are
based on "the fear
that things happening to white people might happen here".
"That is the
centre of the concern and the result is that major challenges
happening on
our continent, those people in our country do not want to
address.
"It
doesn't matter how many Ivorians die. 'Let's talk about Zimbabwe'.
Doesn't
matter who many millions of Sudanese die. 'Let's talk about
Zimbabwe'," Mbeki
chided.
Pointing to the government benches, Mbeki said South Africa will
not proceed
to define Africa's agenda on the basis of whether "those people
who sit
there constitute a threat to white South Africa and to demonstrate
that we
are not such a threat then we have to do something about
Mugabe".
"What we have to do with Zimbabwe is to assist Zimbabwe to get
out of its
crisis the economic, political and social crisis."
He
repeated that there are many things that are wrong with Zimbabwe, and
with
which South Africa does not agree.
On the recent Commonwealth troika
meeting in Abuja, he said Zimbabwe's
Commercial Farmers' Union approached
South Africa's High Commission to
Harare ahead of the meeting and forwarded a
memorandum in which it said
sanctions are not the answer to the country's
ills.
Publish Date: 18 October 2002
Source: SAPA
Extract from a piece about Mbeki from Natal Witness
Of course, the most
glaring area of Mbeki's neglect is Zimbabwe. His answer
to the appeal to "do
something" is "do what?" He holds that the "land
question" is central to
Zimbabwe's dilemma. "A continuation of this colonial
legacy cannot be
allowed," he says, adding airily that the matter "must be
handled in the
context of the law and without any conflict." He has no
standpoint on the
fact that Mugabe has subverted the rule of law and that
tyranny and anarchy
prevail. Even worse is his failure to admit what the
whole world knows,
namely, that the so-called land question is contrived and
that the farm
seizures and evictions are criminal measures by Mugabe to
aggrandise his
power while demolishing the MDC opposition.
It is a well-known fact that
white farmers in Zimbabwe own less than 20% of
the available land while 3,8
million hectares of state land is available for
resettlement. Moreover, those
white-owned farms were legally registered and
recognised by Mugabe's
government. They were the legitimate properties of
Zimbabwean citizens. But
Mbeki ignores those realities in the same way he
ignores the mass starvation
that now grips Zimbabwe as a result of Mugabe's
policies. Instead, Mbeki the
universalist says that "it doesn't help to
pretend this is the most grievous
problem in the world" and that Zimbabwe
has not impacted on Nepad. Dream on,
Thabo. The plight of Zimbabwe with all
its implications is of immense
significance to South Africa, while condoning
Mugabe's tyranny and pretending
that Nepad is unaffected simply compounds
Mbeki's folly.
Mbeki's world
is all about agendas and the need to be wary lest South Africa
is "dragooned
to come and fulfil" other people's agendas. Jan Smuts' neglect
of South
Africa's "little problems" eventually cost him his constituency.
Detached and
preoccupied with his next foreign destination, Mbeki, it would
seem, is
courting Smuts' fate.
a.. Duncan du Bois is a DA Durban Metro
ward councillor. He writes in his
personal capacity.
White farmers giving up in Zimbabwe
Hundreds of white farmers in Zimbabwe
are giving up their efforts to farm.
Farmers' groups say they have been
forced to do so after 30 months of
harassment under Robert Mugabe's land
redistribution programme.
Almost 7 million Zimbabweans, more than half
the population, are facing
hunger because of a sharp drop in agricultural
production blamed on a
drought and the land policies.
In the corn and
tobacco region north of Harare, white farmers have conceded
defeat in their
efforts to continue farming.
A statement, believed to be issued on behalf
of several hundred farmers,
said: "We have tried to continue production for
the last 30 months under
near-impossible conditions - we now give notice we
cannot continue any
longer.
"The effective destruction of commercial
farming is causing far worse
starvation than previously estimated and has put
the economy in free fall."
The white farmers say much of the seized land
is lying fallow because the
government has not given poor blacks the
resources necessary to start
farming.
Jerry Grant, deputy director of
the Commercial Farmers Union, says only 600
whites are left on farms, "the
rest have been driven out".
Dairy farmers are warning of an imminent
shortage of milk as a result of
eviction notices served on more than half the
nation's dairy farmers.
There are already shortages of corn meal, bread,
cooking oil and sugar, as
well as long lines at filling stations for
petrol.
Story filed: 14:26 Thursday 17th October 2002
Focus On Rising Dissent As Cost of Living Soars
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks
October 17, 2002
Posted to the web
October 17, 2002
This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations
Rising discontent over soaring inflation and a
rapidly shrinking economy
could lead to serious confrontation between the
government and disgruntled
Zimbabwean workers, analysts warned on
Thursday.
In response to declining living standards, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) has called for widespread tax cuts, saying
the deepening
economic crisis had eroded the purchasing power of
workers.
Zimbabwe is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since
independence
from Britain in 1980, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
warning
that the inflation rate will rise to 155 percent by the end of the
year -
twice the government's estimate of 70 percent.
Lovemore
Matombo, the president of the ZCTU, said the umbrella labour
movement had
appealed to the government to exempt all workers earning below
Zim $23,000
(US $418 at the official rate) from paying tax.
"The level of poverty has
dramatically increased. Workers are no longer paid
for overtime work, the
cost of living is very high. It has become near
impossible for families to
afford basic food items as well as access to
social services," Matombo told
IRIN.
The federation also wanted the government to scrap tax on
retrenchment
payouts for workers who were laid off by liquidated
companies.
"The government would do well to heed the frustrations of the
workers.
Whether or not they concede to our request, it is important that the
people
are aware of the labour movement's position on spiralling
inflation,"
Matombo added.
As the pace of Zimbabwe's economic decline
accelerated in the mid 1990s, the
unions emerged as the main political
challenge to President Robert Mugabe.
However, the once powerful ZCTU may
be losing its clout as the formal sector
of the economy continues to shrink
at an alarming rate, robbing the movement
of members.
Earlier this
year a three-day industrial action received a lukewarm response
from workers.
Analysts suggested that fear of the government's response -
after a violent
presidential election campaign - and draconian labour laws
were responsible
for the poor showing.
A new security law also gives the president the
power to declare any strike
illegal. All public demonstrations - including
protests by striking
workers - now require prior police approval.
The
ZCTU was central to the creation of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) in 1999, and is regarded as synonymous with the
party by the
government. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai led the ZCTU during
the 1990s, at a
crucial period when the movement marked its independence
from the ruling
ZANU-PF.
This week, the government demonstrated how it could deal with
recalcitrant
workers by firing 627 striking members of the Progressive
Teachers Union of
Zimbabwe ahead of crucial end of year exams.
The
teachers demanded a 100 percent salary increment backdated to January
this
year and another 100 percent cost of living adjustment backdated
to
June.
Also this week health care professionals at Harare and
Parirenyatwa
hospitals downed tools again. Doctors and nurses went on strike
in August
pressing for more pay but had resumed their duties following a
government
undertaking to review their salaries.
Analysts told IRIN
that the recent flurry of strikes was a sign that
Zimbabwe's labour force was
becoming restless over the government's failure
to address spiralling
inflation.
John Makumbe, a political analyst at the University of
Zimbabwe said:
"Already there is talk that the hospital technicians may go on
strike. It is
also likely that the electricity workers may join them. There
is mounting
resistance to how the government is running the
country."
Whether or not workers would take to the streets in protest,
resulting in an
inevitable confrontation with the security forces, depended
on the
government's response to their frustrations, Makumbe
said.
"Workers are acutely aware of the government's capacity to use
its
instruments of repression. Nobody really wants to lose their lives in
the
process. The firing of so many teachers has elicited a lot of anger
among
parents. It is this anger that may filter onto the streets of
Harare,"
Makumbe added.
But, he said, the anti-trade unionism laws and
extra-legal constraints would
make it difficult for the ZCTU to mobilise
support on the same level as it
did 1998.
The ZCTU successfully flexed
its muscles in 1998 when it forced the
government to scrap a 2.5 percent
sales tax, a 5 percent tax on personal
incomes, a 15 percent tax on
pension-fund profits and a range of other
levies.
"The government is
unlikely to heed ZCTU's demands for tax cuts. In fact,
ZANU-PF has become a
lot more strident in recent months. A confrontation
between the government
and workers could lead to a bloodbath and everyone
concerned is very aware of
this. [But] we are likely to see further
stayaways and sit-ins," Richard
Cornwell, a senior researcher at the
Institute for Security Studies in South
Africa said.
However, Makumbe did not rule out the possibility of mass
action, as a
"simple incident could transform an ostensibly calm situation
into an
all-out confrontation between the police and
workers".
Meanwhile, since the MDC's defeat in local council elections
last month -
marred by intimidation and the inability of the MDC to contest
in half of
the wards - the party had "lost direction", one analyst
said.
Tsvangirai was reluctant to call for mass action fearing the
government may
use the opportunity to violently clamp down on opposition
supporters, said
the analyst who asked not to be named.
"The MDC has
yet to recover from what they perceive was a 'stolen
presidency'. There have
been rumours of internal squabbles and the bruising
they received from losing
the last local elections has left them without
direction. All they do now is
hope for a managed transition from Mugabe to
somebody else in ZANU-PF,"
Cornwell said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's currency this week sank to its
lowest level in the
country's history. At the present parallel rate of
exchange, it now costs
nearly 1,000 Zimbabwe dollars for one US dollar.
Economists say the latest
plunge was sparked by the cost of imported
fuel.
Three weeks of fuel shortages ended on Monday after the
government
reportedly used all its available foreign currency to pay Libya
for fuel.
The fuel was stored in tanks controlled by the Libyans on the
outskirts of
Harare, and they only released it after receiving payment in
foreign
currency.
Daily News
Expats nothing but a drain on meagre resources -
MPs
10/17/02 9:23:41 AM (GMT +2)
By Columbus
Mavhunga
MEMBERS of Parliament have said the government's hire of
expatriate
health personnel is causing more harm than good to the nation and
its
economy.
The MPs spoke on Tuesday during debate after
the presentation of the
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child
Welfare on Health
Sector Reforms - Decentralisation.
They said
the government should provide incentives for local personnel
instead of
hiring foreigners who did not understand the system in
the
country.
Their statements followed reports of Cubans doctors
conducting
hysterectomies (surgical removals of the uterus) at Bulawayo's
Mpilo Central
hospital without the patients' knowledge and
consent.
"Sometimes their practices are very, very different from
what we do
here," said Trudy Stevenson (Harare North).
"We need
to be careful when hiring from abroad. There have been a host
of adverts for
our nurses and doctors being wanted in Australia, the United
States and
Britain. That is a pity.
"We don't need to train our nurses and
doctors so that they can be
employed abroad. We need to pay our health
personnel well. In this regard we
must call for a higher vote for the health
ministry so that we can have a
decent health delivery system. Let's have a
more realistic allocation of
funds for the health sector," said
Stevenson.
Over the past 10 years, Zimbabwe's health delivery
system has
deteriorated as budget allocations for the Ministry of Health and
Child
Welfare were reduced in favour of the Ministry of Defence.
That has resulted in the country being hit by a massive exodus of
nurses and
doctors as they sought greener pastures in the region and abroad
where they
are paid handsomely.
The Parliamentary Report said the brain drain
was due to salary
discrepancies, general economic hardships, the current
grading system and
the staff being overworked.
"The brain drain
of nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists has
reached alarming levels,"
said Blessing Chebundo, the chairman of the
Portfolio committee and the MDC
shadow minister of Health and Child Welfare.
"The alternative has been
to employ expatriates who are expensive.
Their emoluments are about $2
million a month at the parallel exchange rate.
These expatriates are also
impeded by the language barrier to effectively
diagnose and treat patients as
most of them are from non-English speaking
countries.
"A
disturbing issue is that in the case of Cuban doctors, after one
year, they
are entitled to go back to their country on holiday at the
expense of the
government. This draws quite a substantial percentage from
the Ministry's
budget, taking into consideration that most airlines quote
their fares in
foreign currency, a scarce resource at the moment in
this
country."
Chebundo was supported by Willias Madzimure
(Kambuzuma} who said
Zimbabwean doctors were by far better than
expatriates
Daily News
War veterans accused of arson attack in
Sanyati
10/17/02 9:14:31 AM (GMT +2)
From
Zerubabel Mudzingwa in Gweru
PROPERTY worth thousands of dollars
was destroyed in a fire started by
so-called war veterans at Sanyati growth
point last week as the Zanu PF
terror campaign against suspected MDC
supporters continued in Mashonaland
West province.
The
attacks came barely a week after Zanu PF candidates won almost all
the
contested wards in the violence-torn rural district council polls held
last
month.
A war veterans' leader, Collen Gwandibva and a Zanu PF
activist
identified as Steven Gotohori, allegedly led the attack in which
they burnt
down market stalls and looted goods belonging to MDC
supporters.
Zvikomborero Dhliwayo, the losing MDC candidate for
Ward 29 in Kadoma
West, said no suspects were arrested in connection with the
incident
although the matter was reported to a Constable Muwoti at Sanyati
police
station.
"In fact, two days before the election, about
200 Zanu PF youths
besieged my house with buckets full of human excreta which
they poured
around the house, threatening to set it on fire," said
Dhliwayo.
"Soon after the elections they torched the market stalls,
destroying
thousands of dollars worth of wares owned by our members and
ordered them to
leave the growth point," he said.
Farai Mutekwa,
an MDC supporter alleged he lost goods worth over $14
000 in the
attack.
The police confirmed both incidents.
"No one
has been arrested yet in connection with the attack at
Dhliwayo's home and
the market stalls, but we are still investigating," said
the
officer-in-charge at Sanyati police station, who identified himself only
as
Matuku.
Dhliwayo said rank marshals and bus touts suspected to be
MDC
supporters were ordered to seek permission from the war veterans before
they
could operate at the bus terminus.
"They confiscated our
carts and asked us to apply in person at the war
veterans' base near the
council offices so that we are vetted and given
permission to operate," said
a vendor, who declined to be named for fear of
reprisals.
Meanwhile, the winning Zanu PF candidate for Ward 29 in Kadoma West,
Wilson
Mutubuki, is reportedly under siege from his party supporters who
have
accused him of being sympathetic to the MDC.
Documents shown to The
Daily News on Tuesday indicate that Mutubuki
joined the MDC on 14 August
2002, just a few weeks before the council polls.
His MDC card number is
718579.
But Mutubuki later defected to Zanu PF where he contested
the election
and garnered 215 votes, against Dhliwayo's 147.
Mutubuki could not be reached for comment over his alleged affiliation
to the
MDC party.
Daily News
MDC resolves to reject election results for Bubi-Umguza
area
10/17/02 9:12:14 AM (GMT +2)
From Chris Gande
in Bulawayo
THE MDC has resolved not to recognise the outcome of
the rural
district council elections in the Bubi-Umguza
constituency.
At a review of the elections on Monday, the
constituency's losing
candidates and their agents said there were gross
irregularities during the
elections.
As in the rest of the
country, several MDC candidates in the
constituency were barred from
contesting for several reasons, giving Zanu PF
candidates leeway to win
unopposed.
Some irregularities cited by the party included
violence, distribution
of maize at polling stations and disenfranchising of
voters.
The MP for the area, Jacob Thabane, who attended the
meeting, said the
results should be nullified.
"We don't
recognise the outcome of the elections for a number reasons.
We feel the
results should be nullified," he said.
Moses Moyo, who lost in
Umguza Ward Four, said the polling stations
were situated only near
resettlement areas where there was a heavy Zanu PF
presence.
"People from the ward had to walk long distances to the polling
stations," he
said.
Macloud Dube, an MDC election agent at Mbembesi, said he was
told
election agents were not allowed at polling stations during
voting.
"If the ballot papers for Ward Four are recounted it can be
proven
that Zanu PF lost," he said.
The losing candidate for
Ward 16, Captain Mlotshwa, said officials
from the Registrar General's Office
reduced voting to only one day.
He said villagers who were known
MDC supporters were struck off the
drought relief and food-for-work
programmes.
Leonard Mhlanga, an election agent for Ward Two, said
all grinding
mills in the ward were closed and only Zanu PF was allowed to
distribute
food to its supporters.
Mhlanga, the former chairman
of the Umguza Rural District Council and
a war veteran, was barred from
contesting the elections because his father
was born in Zambia.
"Soldiers who do not live in the wards but were from a nearby barracks
were
allowed to vote," he claimed.
John Gama, an MDC candidate for Ward
Three in Mbembeswana, is still
nursing injuries he sustained when he was
assaulted by suspected Zanu PF
supporters in the run-up to the elections held
on 28 and 28 September.
Daily News
Victim of Zanu PF shooting arrested
10/17/02 9:31:18 AM (GMT +2)
From Chris Gande in
Bulawayo
DARLINGTON Kadengu, an MDC member, was yesterday arrested
by the
police after he had been shot and seriously wounded, allegedly by
Andrew
Langa, the Zanu PF candidate for the Insiza parliamentary
by-election.
Professor Welshman Ncube, the MDC
secretary-general, said the police
in Filabusi arrested Kadengu together with
12 other MDC members after the
shooting.
Ncube said he was
concerned that Kadengu was being detained and yet he
had a bullet lodged in
his back, near the spinal cord.
The 13 MDC members were still in
police custody by late yesterday
afternoon and were expected to appear in
court today.
Kadengu was briefly taken to Filabusi Hospital where
he was treated
and sent back to the police cells.
Superintendent
Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, as is his habit
concerning The Daily
News, refused to comment when contacted yesterday.
Langa, who was not
arrested, could not be reached for comment
yesterday. He was attending a Zanu
PF rally at which the Minister of State
for Information and Publicity,
Professor Jonathan Moyo, and Elliot Manyika,
the Minister of Youth, Gender
and Employment Creation, were key speakers.
The shooting is
reported to have occurred after the MDC members were
ambushed by a group of
armed men, who robbed them of more than $5 million in
election campaign
funds, 1 000 party T-shirts and other campaign material.
Maxwell
Zimuto, the MDC national information officer, who was in the
travelling
group, said they left Bulawayo on Tuesday at around 9pm.
"As we
were approaching Filabusi, the driver of our car told us he had
noticed a
vehicle following us. We told him to accelerate, but the car
behind us did
the same," Zimuto said.
When their car eventually stopped, the
truck trailing them also
stopped and four men jumped out, threatening to
shoot them.
The assailants then allegedly took out all the campaign
material,
including the money, from the MDC car and loaded it into their own
vehicle.
They then sped off.Zimuto said the MDC team proceeded to Filabusi
and went
to Langas home to find out whether he could assist them recover
their
property.
Langa allegedly fired a gun at the group and they
fled to the police
station. As they were making a report to the
officer-in-charge, an Inspector
Shoko, Langa turned up brandishing a
revolver.
He allegedly fired at the group, hitting Kadengu below
the armpit.
Their cars' tyres were deflated and the vehicles were still at
the police
station yesterday.
Mkandla, the MDC district chairman,
said the police had initially told
him that they were keeping the group in
custody for their own safety.
"The police later changed and said
they had been given instructions to
keep them in custody and to charge them,"
he said.
Gibson Sibanda, the MDC vice-president, who was at
Filabusi yesterday,
said: "This is a desperate effort by Zanu PF and clearly
shows how a
dictator is using every trick, including violence, to cling onto
power."
Siyabonga Ncube, the MDC candidate, described the incident
as an act
of evil. He said it was shocking that the police could arrest the
victims of
the shooting and leave the perpetrator free.
The
by-election is set for 26 and 27 October.
Daily News
US delegates cost taxpayers $11m
10/17/02
9:29:34 AM (GMT +2)
By Luke Tamborinyoka Political
Editor
THE visiting nine-member delegation from the United States
has cost
the starving Zimbabwean taxpayers in excess of $11 million in
travel,
ccommodation and general upkeep after their three-day
long,
all-expenses-paid trip.
Zimbabwe consumes 5 000 tonnes
of maize a day. The maize costs US$240
(Z$13 200) a tonne.
The team, which was scheduled to leave for New York last night, was
in
Zimbabwe on a "fact-finding" mission and was hosted by the
government.
The delegation was led by councillor Charles Barron from
New York, who
has declared his support for President Mugabe.
They arrived on Sunday and were booked at the plush five-star Sheraton
Hotel
in Harare, courtesy of the Zimbabwean taxpayer.
The delegation met
its own travel expenses from New York to London
while the government footed
their travel from London to Harare, apart from
the other expenses incurred
during their three-day junket.
The return airfares from London to
Harare for nine people average
around Z$10 million (or US$585 on Air
Zimbabwe), while the cheapest dinner
at the Sheraton costs $3 000 a
person.
Accommodation is Z$17 000 a night and the cost for three
days is Z$459
000 for nine guests.
Barron yesterday confirmed
that they were sponsored by the government,
but said that would not affect
their report.
He said they did not simply support the government
because they had
gone to meet other organisations and people who did not
necessarily support
the government.
The team met several
organisations during their stay in the country.
On Tuesday, he met
the Harare and Chitungwiza Executive Mayors, Elias
Mudzuri and Misheck Shoko
respectively, at the MDC headquarters at Harvest
House.
On the
same day, the delegation met officials from human rights group,
Amani Trust
and the United States Ambassador, Joseph Sullivan.
The delegation
confirmed to the mayors during the two-and-half-hour
meeting that they were
indeed funded by the government.
The two, in turn, impressed upon
the delegation that the crisis in
Zimbabwe was one of governance, which had
led to the current starvation
countrywide.
They told the delegation
that the answer to the crisis lay in holding
internationally-supervised
elections following President Mugabe's disputed
victory in the March
presidential poll.
The government was expected to have taken them
to some of the farms
which it acquired.
The delegation was
scheduled to meet officials at the
Registrar-General's Office
yesterday.
The delegation leader, Barron, was only one of 50
councillors who
accepted President Mugabe's offer of the free luxury trip.
Only one other
councillor, James Davis, of Brooklyn agreed to
come.
While in the United States, Barron admitted he had already
made up his
mind that Mugabe was a hero for grabbing thousands of commercial
farms for
distribution to veterans of the liberation war.
The
vast majority of council members wanted nothing to do with Mugabe
and his
propaganda charade, especially when millions were facing starvation
in
Zimbabwe.
Some of the handful of councilmen who cheered Mugabe when
he went to
New York City Hall last month later developed cold feet, according
to
reports from New York.
They backed out of the trip after they
did some homework about the
extent of opposition to his rule.
Daily News
Shortage of milk looming
10/17/02 9:36:49
AM (GMT +2)
By Takaitei Bote Farming Editor
A
SERIOUS milk shortage is looming in the country.
Commercial
dairy producers are stopping production because of the
uncertainties created
by the land reform programme and interference by newly
resettled
villagers.
About 90 percent of the milk in the country is produced
by large-scale
commercial farmers, most of whom have been issued with
eviction notices.
A visit to Beatrice commercial farming area on
Tuesday showed that
some large-scale milk producers had packed their bags
after they were given
eviction orders by the government.
Others,
facing operational problems because of shortages of stockfeed
or the high
cost of procuring the stockfeed, have destocked and stopped
dairying
altogether.
Some farmers, whose properties have been earmarked for
compulsory
acquisition and have remained on the farms, have no grazing area
for their
animals because the settlers have even occupied
pastures.
If dairy cattle reduce feeding, their output of milk
drops.
About 169 farmers, out of a total of 310 large-scale
commercial dairy
producers in the country, have been issued with eviction
notices.
Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited (DZL), the largest marketer of
milk in the
country, said about five commercial producers had left dairy
farming between
January and September.
DZL said most of the
farmers who were destocking were doing so because
of difficulties in
procuring stockfeed.
Anthony Mandiwanza, the DZL managing director,
responding to questions
from The Daily News, said : "It is estimated that in
1995we had 105 000
dairy cattle and in 2001, there were 70 000."
Mandiwanza said DZL was currently receiving about 300 000 litres a
day
compared to 365 000 litres a day during the same period last
year.
"Currently the demand for milk is estimated at 13 million
litres per
month against a supply of 10 million," he said.
One
large-scale farmer in Beatrice, who cannot be identified because
he fears
victimisation, has about 950 dairy cattle on his farm. The pastures
on the
farm have been occupied by so-called war veterans and
landless
people.
A worker at another Beatrice farm said: "The
settlers on the farm do
not allow us to graze the cattle on the pastures.We
are having to move the
cattle to limited pastures and that means output is
reduced. The war
veterans on the farm have warmed us not to talk to the
press, especially The
Daily News."
The farm, which used to
produce between 9 000 and 10 000 litres of
milk a day, is now down to 7 500
litres a day because of restrictions on
grazing.
The farmer, who
used to produce yellow maize for stockfeed, has
allegedly been ordered by
so-called war veterans on the farm to stop farming
operations. He cannot,
however, buy enough stockfeed because of shortages of
maize in the
country.
He has not produced tobacco, the country's largest foreign
currency
earner, in the past three seasons because the farm is under
siege.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Stoff Hawgood, the chairman
of the
National Association of Dairy Farmers (NADF), confirmed milk
production had
dwindled. He attributed the decline to a viability
crisis.
Hawgood said: "While it is true some farmers are not able
to access
grazing, the biggest issue is viability as farmers are buying
stockfeed at
high cost because most of the raw materials are
imported.
"Stockfeed producers are also importing maize because of
shortages of
maize in the county."
Hawgood denied that farmers
had left dairy farming because of the land
issue.
Dairy farmers, who
in recent months have been negotiating with the
government to have their
farms delisted, do not want to be confrontational
because they fear it would
jeopardise the chances of their farms being
removed off the compulsory
acquisition list.
While Hawgood said the land reform programme had
not affected milk
production, the shortages in stockfeed had been caused by a
reduction in
maize production in the past two years because of farm
invasions, and
drought.
Hawgood said: " In 1992-1994 period, we
produced about 240 million
litres of milk.Two years ago production was 180
million litres, while last
year farmers produced about 168 million litres.
This year milk output is
expected to go down to 140 million litres because of
feeding problems."
Hawgood said the NADF was negotiating with the
government to delist
dairy farms earmarked for compulsory
acquisition.
"As far as we are concerned, no dairy farmer has been
driven off their
farms. Those who have left, have made an economic decision
to stop dairy
farming. We are negotiating with relevant government officials
to have those
farms issued with eviction notices to be delisted. The issue is
being
addressed."
Edinburghnews.com
Students bid to break Mugabe's university
link
By FIONA MacGREGOR
ZIMBABWEAN president
Robert Mugabe could lose his honorary degree from
Edinburgh University after
students there began proceedings to have the
award revoked.
Students from the university's Labour Club have petitioned the
institute's
authorities to retract the degree which was awarded to Mr Mugabe
in 1984 in
recognition of the groundbreaking educational programmes he
instigated in
Zimbabwe.
But since then his record on human rights has led him to
be censured
by the Commonwealth and now students claim the honorary degree is
an
embarrassment to them and the institution.
Neil Cardwell,
campaign officer in charge of the petition, said there
had been discontent
among the student population over Mr Mugabe's degree for
some
time.
He added that the institution was giving "tacit approval" to
Mr Mugabe
's human rights abuses by not withdrawing the degree.
Mr Cardwell said: "It has been building up for a while, but when
[former UN
high commissioner for human rights] Mary Robinson was given a
honorary degree
for her human rights work in June that highlighted
the
discrepancy."
Campaigners will present their petition at the
next general meeting of
the student association, due to be held next
month.
Other university clubs, including its branch of Amnesty
International
and its Conservative and Unionist Association, have also backed
the Labour
Club's campaign. If the student association agrees to take up the
matter it
will be put before the university court, the institute's highest
body, for
consideration.
The court is chaired by the student
rector, currently Green MSP Robin
Harper, who is also a member of the
parliament's cross-party group on human
rights.
Mr Harper said
he had "every sympathy" with the move but said it would
be up to the student
court as a whole to make a decision on the matter.
However a
spokeswoman for the university said: "The degree was awarded
in 1984 on the
merits of the case at the time. We have a concern that the
withdrawal of such
a degree might rebound on any in the country associated
with the university -
our graduates in Zimbabwe and also the Edinburgh
graduates of many
nationalities who work all over the world."
She also confirmed that
the institute had never revoked a degree
before, and there were no procedures
in place for doing so.
Mr Mugabe came to power in 1980. However the
country has been in
social and growing economic crisis since pro-government
militants, led by
veterans of the 1970s liberation war, began invading
white-owned farms in
early 2000 and using violence or even murder to evict
the owners.
Zimbabwean courts have consistently ruled the veterans
should not be
prosecuted.
Daily News
Thousands left homeless as Beitbridge cleans up town for
solar eclipse
tourists
10/17/02 9:27:43 AM (GMT
+2)
From Oscar Nkala in Bulawayo
THE lure of the
bonanza in revenue that Beitbridge expects to reap
from the solar eclipse in
December has left about 3 000 residents of
high-density Dulibadzimu township
homeless.
The shacks they call their homes were destroyed as
council spruced up
the town's image for the tourists, expected in the town to
view the
extraordinary natural phenomenon on 4 December.
Dulibadzimu residents said the council had deployed demolition
teams,
accompanied by armed riot police, to evict them together with
their
property, before destroying the mud and pole structures, home to almost
half
the town's population.
"The operation started last month
and is still continuing," said a
resident, Edith Muleya.
"So
far, I can safely say more than three-quarters of the slums have
been
levelled. There is only one section, which forms the original
Dulibadzimu,
which has been spared.
"We were thrown out into the open. No
alternative arrangements for our
accommodation have been made and we are now
squatting at the rural bus
rank."
She said the council had told
them to move out into the nearby rural
areas, such as Lutumba, but the
villagers in those areas had made it clear
they did not want
them.
Muleya said: "We are in a fix. The villagers do not want
anyone from
the township. We believe the council should have found somewhere
else for us
to live temporarily instead of throwing us into hostile
villages."
Almost all the people who went to the villages returned
to squat at
the rank.
Only those with relatives were allowed to
stay.
Muleya said some of the people were staying in the open at
shopping
centres in the town and had nowhere else to go.
"In
fact, the tourists are going to find squatters everywhere they go.
To us,
this is unfair since we are being made to suffer to fool tourists
into
believing that Beitbridge is a paradise and yet thousands are sleeping
in the
open and getting choked by uncollected garbage because of the
inefficiency of
the council. We will be there for the tourists to see us,"
Muleya
said.
Dulibadzimu township has over the years degenerated into a
slum where
the original owners of two-roomed mud structures have extended
them by as
many as eight rooms.
The monthly rent for each room
can be as high as $800 or more,
depending on its size.
Due to
the acute shortage of accommodation in the town, most
home-owners have
extended their houses to accommodate whole families in
single rooms.
A Beitbridge Rural District Council official said the council would
consider
finding alternative accommodation for the people whose structures
had been
spared because those were the original township dwellers.
"Those
who are complaining are squatters who just settled themselves
in illegal
structures. We have no plans for them, and the council has told
them so,"
said the official, who refused to be named.
Beitbridge will
experience a total solar eclipse on 4 December.
Tourism companies and
organisations are competing vigorously with South
Africa, which is offering
better sites, and luring tourists to view the
solar eclipse from their side
of the Limpopo River.
News24
Mugabe tells farmers: Fight UK
Harare - President
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has called on the country's
white farmers to join
the government in its "fight against Britain" over
land reform, a state-owned
newspaper reported on Thursday.
"Let them join us in the fight against
Britain. They can join us to fight
... to get (Prime Minister Tony) Blair to
get a reawakening, to be born
again," The Herald quoted Mugabe as
saying.
Mugabe accuses former colonial power Britain of reneging on a
promise it
made to fund land reform in the country. Britain rejects the
accusation,
saying it will only support land reform that is fair and
transparent and
alleviates poverty in the southern African
country.
"We are not neglecting the principle of compensation. We are
willing to pay
upon an adequate commitment being made by Britain," Mugabe
added. "We are
not able to carry the burden ourselves, but Britain should
carry the
burden."
Mugabe's comments were made a day after the
director of the white-dominated
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) accused
Britain of ignoring the historical
background to land reform that required
Britain to help pay compensation.
Recently there have been deep splits
among the country's white farmers, and
the new stance by the CFU is unlikely
to be supported by all of the
country's 4 500 white farmers.
"It's
surprising that the CFU which has not pressured Britain to help the
land
reform programme now wants to join us in the fight against Britain,"
Mugabe
said.
So far 9 154 white-owned farms accounting for 17.4 million hectares
of land
have been forcibly acquired by the government, according to
official
statistics.
The government says it has so far resettled 300
000 landless blacks on the
acquired land. - Sapa-AFP
Daily News - Letter
Anglican Church in Harare now an object of
ridicule
10/17/02 8:56:09 AM (GMT +2)
WE ARE
in a state of extreme disillusionment with our fellow Anglicans
due to the
manner in which the affairs in the Diocese of Harare have been
conducted by
those of who have a responsibility to preserve the very
foundation of the
Anglican Church.
Despite reports that have made the rounds
either through direct
petitions, the media or hearsay, no one appears to have
attempted to verify
in any way, with the person involved, the veracity of the
objections.
In fact, very few people, right up to the Archbishops,
have had the
courtesy to acknowledge receipt of any of the petitions. We
question their
commitment to their calling, assuming it exists, and the ease
with which,
the clergy in particular, can proclaim to profess the word of God
and be in
communion with all Christians.
Our understanding of
the Gospels and of Canonical law is limited and
we, together with numerous
other Anglicans, continually look for guidance
and assistance in our
spiritual growth.
Not being of a particular diocese is no excuse.
The task of a shepherd
is to guard his flock and ensure that it is safe from
harm at all times, as
well as from those whose objective is to mislead
it.
The shepherd is not expected to deliver the flock to the wolves
and
neither is he expected to sit back and observe while the flock is being
torn
apart.
Undoubtedly church politics and machinations are
playing a part in
this situation, and it is increasingly apparent that the
hierarchy of the
Anglican Church is determined not to lift a finger against a
fellow member
of the cloth, regardless of the prevailing
circumstances.
"The one who is not circumcised physically and yet
obeys the law will
condemn you, even though you have the written code and
circumcision, but are
a law breaker". (Romans 2:23). Are your positions in
the Church more
important in the eyes of God than the individuals who
constitute it? St Paul
rightly warns us (Romans 2:6-10): "God will give to
each person according to
what he has done. To those who by persistence in
doing good seek glory,
honour and immortality, He will give eternal
life.
"But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth
and
follow evil, there will be wrath and anger, for God does not
show
favouritism."
We find this situation deplorable. The
hierarchy of the Anglican
Church are, in our eyes, as guilty as our
tormentors. We cannot understand
the level of disinterest they are showing in
a situation that is patently
destructive to the Anglican Church and is
causing severe spiritual distress
to those affected.
The scandal
within our church is also causing disharmony among us.
In view of
this, and unless the Church hierarchy is in agreement with
the events that
have transpired in our diocese, one would have expected
them, at the very
least, to have come forward and sought to foster a spirit
of confession and
repentance in the transgressors - whoever they might be -
ultimately leading
to forgiveness.
Like the Pharisee and the Levi, they have crossed
the road after a
cursory glance. Their deafening silence has permitted the
situation to
fester and become public. By preferring to remain ignorant while
passing
judgment, are they serving the interests of Christ in any
way?
Are the Anglican Church's best interests being served by
their
reticence? The more important question begs: Are they afraid of
God?
The Anglican Church in Harare is an object of ridicule and
pity
throughout Zimbabwe. We appeal to you as congregants, to investigate
the
issues that are presently occurring in the Diocese of
Harare.
If the parishioners are found to be erring, educate them
and assist
the Bishop in rectifying the matter. If the Bishop is found to be
at fault,
take appropriate measures.
We ask: "In which other
Christian organisation does a member of the
clergy bypass the Church's legal
and disciplinary structure and appeal
directly to a secular court, in order
to obtain a ruling against the Church'
s communicants?
In which
other Christian body does a member of the clergy seek to ban
communicants
from worshipping within the diocese and persistently refuse to
meet with his
flock? The members have been placed under an injunction
promising their
immediate arrest and imprisonment should they violate
his
desires?
In which other Christian body do communicants
receive death threats
from clergy sympathisers, aimed at prevent them from
doing God's work?
We, as Anglicans are being publicly chastised and
ridiculed by
non-Anglicans, with good reason. Sadly while all this is
happening, the
Cathedral Chapter, Standing Committee, Clergy, Bishops and
Archbishops are
not appealing for transparency, nor are they providing a
forum for the
resolution of the dispute.
Are lay Anglicans of no
consequence except at Harvest or for tithing?
On what principles is the
worldwide communion of Anglicans based? Why are
you not standing up to build
our Church?
If Anglicans cannot uphold their own principles and
laws within the
church, what hope have we of upholding Christian principles
and performing
God's work universally? We appeal to you all to examine your
consciences and
practice what you all profess to believe.
Concerned
Harare
Daily News
MDC MPs urge police to arrest Herald staff for
fabricating story of
split
10/17/02 9:25:41 AM (GMT
+2)
By Luke Tamborinyoka Political Editor
THE MDC
has called on the police to arrest The Herald editor and his
reporters
responsible for what they called a "false story" alleging a split
in the
opposition party.
In a letter to the officer-in-charge at
Harare Central Police Station,
four MDC Members of Parliament - Job Sikhala
(St Mary's), Ben Tumbare Mutasa
(Seke), Tafadzwa Musekiwa (Zengeza) and Hilda
Mafudze (Mhondoro) - said the
newspaper's staff should be charged with
publishing falsehoods, under the
Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act.
"We request that the paper's editor and the reporters
who compiled the
story be arrested immediately for publishing falsehoods in
terms of the
provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, and
that they be brought before the courts in accordance with
the laws of the
country," the MPs said.
The MPs' comments came
after a story appeared in The Herald yesterday,
alleging that Western donors
of the MDC had foiled an attempt by a
disgruntled group of MPs to form a
breakaway party.
The newspaper said the MPs held a secret meeting
at Skyline Motel on
the outskirts of Harare. It alleged that Highfield MP
Munyaradzi Gwisai was
pushing for a split because his position in the party
was under threat.
The MPs in their letter to the police yesterday
said the story was
intended to cause confusion among the MDC members and to
tarnish their
image.
Welshman Ncube, the MDC's secretary-general,
yesterday said there was
no crisis or divisions in the
party.
He said the meeting at the Skyline Motel was a forum for MDC
MPs in
Chitungwiza province to find ways of co-ordinating
development
programmes in their constituencies. He said the meeting was an
occasion to
launch the Chitungwiza Development Association.
"The
MDC reiterates that donors of whatever nature have no influence
on MDC
policies and activities," Ncube said. "The story is yet another
example of
the endless lies about the party peddled by the State media at
the
instigation of the Central Intelligence Organisation."
He urged the
police to arrest the journalists for publishing
falsehoods.
"But
then we know there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe, and that in
reality there
will be neither arrests nor prosecution for the blatant
falsehoods."
The story alleging the split was also aired by the State-controlled
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation, which claimed that Harare East MP Tendai
Biti was
one of the instigators of the splinter party.
Yesterday, Biti said:
"This is the height of delusion. They have
called us puppets and terrorists,
but they have failed. They will fail
again."
He said the story
was part of the propaganda by the ruling party to
create "artificial
fissures" ahead of the parliamentary by-election in
Insiza.
From The Mail & Guardian (SA),
17 October
British envoy told to 'stop
meddling' in Zimbabwe
Harare - British High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Brian Donnelly
was warned on Wednesday not to "interfere" in the internal affairs of the
southern African country, according to the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo accused Donnelly of funding
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as the Amani Trust, which were
involved in violence in Zimbabwe, according to the ZBC. Amani Trust helps
victims of torture and has made allegations of widespread torture by the ruling
party against members of the opposition. A state-owned weekly, The Sunday Mail,
accused the British High Commission of granting 3,6-million Zimbabwe dollars to
the NGO. President Robert Mugabe on Friday warned NGOs not to get involved in
politics. Moyo was quoted by the state radio as saying that Donnelly was posted
to Zimbabwe to destabilise the country as he did in Yugoslavia where he played
an active role, according to the information minister, in the overthrow of the
"democratically elected" government of Slobodan Milosevic. The arrival of
Donnelly in Zimbabwe in 2001 saw a worsening of the already tense relations
between London and Harare with the Zimbabwean government repeatedly accusing the
high commissioner of having been sent to Zimbabwe to "do a Yugoslavia."
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