• Zimbabwe Court Orders License for Daily News
• Zambia ups its exports of white maize
• Zimbabwe land grab policy is 'a failure'
• Tables are turned on Mugabe 'war veterans'
• Finance minister says current budget had underestimated steep rise in inflation
• Govt/former farmers head for showdown
• Chihuri promises to probe assault
• African Commission to discuss Zimbabwe human rights report
• Policeman interrogated over leaked information
• Zanu PF youths invade Hippo Pools
• MDC hires Danish electoral expert
• Mudzuri denied documents for hearing
• Journalist arrested
• Chefs protest hunting ban in Gwayi
• Utete glosses over irregularities in land reform
• Justice not served by court system
• Land audit committee’s data proves govt’s failure
• Delusional Huni turns to myth-weaving
• The guys had a mission
• Number of people settled a betrayal
• What law?
• Zimbabwe's drums of war
• Zanu PF desperately needs a saviour
• Zimbabwe: betrayal of a people's revolution
• Zimbabwe police release 78 protestors
• Zimbabwe doctors strike
• White Zimbabwe farmers bring welcome cash to Zambia
• Give a man a fish...

      A court in Zimbabwe has ordered the government to grant an operating
license to the nation's only independent daily newspaper, shut down by
officials in September.
      Judge Michael Majuru, president of Zimbabwe's Administrative Court in
Harare, issued Friday's ruling, saying it was a "unanimous decision." Judge
Majuru said the court agreed with lawyers for The Daily News who argued
Zimbabwe's state-run media commission was biased and, in its words,
"improperly constituted."

      The judge gave the government until November 30 to set up a new
commission and issue the paper a license.

      The commission says it will appeal Friday's court ruling to Zimbabwe's
Supreme Court.

      The Daily News is a frequent and fierce critic of President Robert
Mugabe. The government has called the publication a mouthpiece for the
political opposition.

      Six weeks ago, the Zimbabwe government closed the offices of The Daily
News for operating illegally. Under stringent media laws, all publications
must register with the state-run commission and apply for a license.

      The Daily News initially refused to register to protest the law. At
the time of its closure, the paper was challenging the legal requirement in
court.

      After the government raided the newspaper's offices and shut it down,
the paper applied for a license, but it was denied. The Daily News then
appealed the denial in the administrative court.

      Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

      The money earned from maize exports would be put into a fund for
agriculture loans to small-scale farmers.

      "We are competing with Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa ... We do
not want to overprice our maize and end up with no market," he said.

      South African white maize gained R12.60 to R892.60 ($128) a ton in
morning trade yesterday, up from $122 a ton at the midday close last Friday.

      White maize gained despite weekend rains that have lifted prospects
for another good harvest in South Africa.

      Zambia produced 1.4 million tons of maize in 2002/03, more than double
the previous 600 000-ton crop

Zimbabwe land grab policy is 'a failure'

By Jan Raath in Harare

The Zimbabwe Government proclaimed President Mugabe’s "revolutionary land
reform programme" an outstanding success yesterday, but simultaneously
published statistics showing completely the opposite. A commission set up by
Mr Mugabe to review his regime’s four-year campaign to appropriate
white-owned farms showed that just over a third of the 350,000 officially
resettled families had actually moved on to the land allocated to them.
Instead of the 300,000 peasant families said to have been given new land for
small-scale farming, the commission found that only 123,000 had been
resettled. The commission’s statistics for the creation of new black
commercial farmers - in reality, nearly all ruling party officials, judges,
civil servants, police, soldiers and air force officers - indicate an even
greater failure. Mr Mugabe has claimed that 50,000 families in this category
were resettled, but the report says that only 4,800 have moved on to the
property allocated to them. That "implied a considerable amount of land
lying fallow or unused", said the report, in what white farm union officials
described as a "dramatic understatement".

Mr Mugabe presented the report to Kofi Annan, the United Nations
Secretary-General, recently in an apparent attempt to persuade the UN to
rescue Zimbabwe’s agriculture from catastrophe. The statistics
notwithstanding, the report insists that the programme is "an overwhelming
success". It blames any shortcomings on "a relentless foreign media campaign
of vilification and the imposition of sanctions by the UK and its European
partners, the white Commonwealth and the USA". In fact, the only Western
"sanctions" imposed on Zimbabwe are those that bar Mr Mugabe and members of
his ruling elite from visiting certain countries, and holding assets there.
The report follows a similiar investigation by a minister in Mr Mugabe’s
office whose details of rampant abuse by senior ruling party officials were
leaked to the press in February. That report listed 30 senior ruling party
and state officials who had occupied more than one farm in violation of Mr
Mugabe’s "one-man, one-farm" dictum, and noted that the list was "not
exhaustive". It also reported that, in two districts alone, Zanu PF thugs
had driven resettled peasants off 11 farms. The new commission said that
earlier reports would not be published, and that the abuses uncovered were
being dealt with "by a special government task force".

Statistics on the output of the 25 million acres (10.1 million hectares) of
appropriated land, once some of the most highly productive farmland in the
world, is scant. But commercial agriculture has collapsed since the land
seizures began. Tobacco production - in a country that was once the world’s
largest tobacco exporter - plummeted this year to 80,000 tonnes, from
237,000 tonnes in 2000. Wheat output has fallen from 283,000 tonnes in 2000
to 60,000 tonnes this year. The commercial farms’ cattle herd has fallen
from 1.2 million head then to 150,000 now. "Nobody can farm any more," said
Doug Taylor-Freeme, president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union. "Commercial
farmers can’t because they have no land, and new farmers can’t because they
have no inputs, no finance and no title deeds. "There is no production, no
confidence. Agriculture is becoming irrelevant in Zimbabwe. We are in
chaos."

Tables are turned on Mugabe 'war veterans'

From Jan Raath in Beatrice

Wretched people camping by the highway south of Harare make up one of the
lasting images of President Mugabe’s land grab, which has made about one
million farm workers and their families homeless. Tattered clothing and
blankets hang on barbed wire fences, runny-nosed children squat round a
small fire and men without shoes talk quietly around an anthill. But these
are not farm workers. They are war veterans, members of the rabble militia
which has terrorised thousands of white farming families and their workers
since February 2000 and the start of Mr Mugabe’s third chimurenga, or war of
liberation. Vodka Moyo, spokesman for the group, said the police came three
weeks ago. "They destroyed our houses," he said. "No letter, no warning." A
woman in a blue dress added: "They took our grain." They were kicked out of
nearby Eden farm to make way for Tichaona Jokonya, Zimbabwe’s former
Ambassador to the United Nations and now the head of the Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority, who already has at least two other farms, according to
Agriculture Ministry sources.

In September last year, Mr Mugabe announced to the UN General Assembly that
"Zimbabwe has concluded the fast-track land reform programme" that was to
"transfer land to the hitherto landless black majority". A year later
thousands of them are again landless, violently evicted by the new brigand
ruling class that includes some of Mr Mugabe’s closest aides and family
members. Mr Moyo’s original group of 78 families moved on to Eden farm, near
Beatrice, about 50km (33 miles) south of Harare, in 2000 after an earlier
group of war veterans hounded an Afrikaner cattle rancher off the property.
Over the next three years they cultivated the land with hoes, producing just
enough to feed themselves. On the other side of the main road is Greenlands
farm, where, three weeks ago, another 68 families of "new farmers" were
evicted by police. "They have gone back now," Mr Moyo said. "They are
resisting."

The makeshift camp is just out of sight of Mr Jokonya’s ostentatious new
home, which includes a squash court. It was built on a hill, the top of
which was levelled for him by a bulldozer belonging to the state District
Development Fund, which is meant to provide infrastructure for poor rural
areas. Building supplies were delivered by lorries marked "Ministry of
Public Construction". Over the past three months there has been a growing
stream of reports of evictions of ruling party peasants resettled by the
Government. Late in August, 5,000 people who occupied 11 prime irrigation
properties on the shores of Lake Manyame, west of Harare, were driven off by
police. Among those who took over the land was Mr Mugabe’s elder sister,
Sabina, who has two other farms, two of her sons and Winnie Mugabe, a widow
of one of the President’s nephews. John Worsley-Worswick, co-ordinator of
Justice for Agriculture, the commercial farmers’ lobby group, said: "It’s
happening all over the place. They used the war vets to clear the way, now
the cheffes (party chiefs) come in through the back door."

Black commercial farmers are equally at risk. In December last year Charles
Kuhuni, a major in the Zimbabwean army, arrived at Peter and Everjoyce
Gotora’s farm, Talana, also in Beatrice. He told them he would shoot them if
they did not leave. They fled. This year a messenger with a court order for
Major Kuhuni’s eviction was chased off by his hired mob of 66 ruling party
youth militia. Late last month after a ten-hour showdown with armed riot
police, he moved out. But he returned as soon as the police had left. Police
refuse to go back. Major Kuhuni already has a farm 70 miles east of Harare,
allocated to him by the Government. "I cannot possibly understand why a man
who has already been allocated a farm wants to dispossess us, as fellow
black people, of a farm we legally bought and which is not under acquisition
by the Government," Mrs Gotora said. The removal of the remaining estimated
1,000 white farmers clinging tenuously to their properties, has accelerated
dramatically. Since Mr Mugabe’s "happy announcement" to the UN last year,
1,873 farms have been listed for state seizure. Last Friday, Patrick
Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, and his wife, Monica, forced Richard and
Cally Yates out of their tobacco farm in Headlands, 60 miles east of Harare.

Finance minister says current budget had underestimated steep rise in
inflation

Bulawayo Correspondent

The Zimbabwe government has revised downwards its annual estimate for
economic decline from the initial 7% projected in the 2003 budget, to 14% by
year end, reflecting the reduced output from the production sector and the
poor performance of the agricultural sector. Over the same period, the
country's balance of payments position has worsened and the country's
foreign currency deficit now stands at Z$309m, mostly as a result of
government's skewed exchange policy and a sharp decline in exports, against
a gradual rise in non-productive imports such as luxury vehicles. In his
address to business leaders and legislators at a pre-budget seminar held
yesterday, the acting minister of finance and economic development, Patrick
Chinamasa revealed that the current budget had underestimated the steep rise
in inflation, which reached a record 455,6% last month. He said the balance
of payments deficit was about 23,5% of the country's Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), against initial estimates that it would be 1,5%.

"Our budget and policies were done with inaccurate assumptions and
predictions particularly those referring to the GDP, inflation, interest
rates, the budget deficit, money supply growth and the balance of payments.
For example, when we did the current budget, the exchange rate was fixed at
one US dollar to 55 Zimbabwe dollars, but we were forced to introduce a dual
exchange rate system in February so that government dealings would be done
at $1:Z$55, but the rest at $1:Z$824," said Chinamasa, who is also the
minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs. He admitted that the
much-lauded National Economic Revival Programme had failed to achieve its
objectives, particularly those linked to exports and foreign currency
generation. Chinamasa revealed that the Z$600bn supplementary budget
approved by Parliament in August had been necessitated by hyperinflation and
a public service job evaluation exercise that had cost the state Z$300bn.
Economists who participated in the formulation of the budget, said key areas
to tackle were inflation, policy inconsistencies, the lack of urgency in
addressing macro-economic imbalances and its misplaced priorities of
expenditure.

During the meeting, Chinamasa drew jeers of disapproval from MDC legislators
and business leaders when he suggested that the government, in future,
wished to review the budget half-yearly, instead of quarterly. "We would
like to see a half-yearly review of the budget instead of the current
quarterly system, because the finance minister does not have the capacity to
review and compile data on the implementation of the budget every quarter."
An economist who spoke during the same meeting said government's targets in
the 2003 budget had largely been driven by political rationale, instead of
economic facts. In announcing the 2003 budget, the finance minister, Herbert
Murerwa indicated that government intended to drive inflation downwards to
96%, from approximately 200% in January 2003.

However, Justice for Agriculture spokesperson Ben Freeth said the minister
was playing to the gallery.

"The minister is playing media politics," said Ben Freeth. "The ministry is
not following the laid down procedure. They are just coming up with figures.

This is done arbitrarily without consulting the farmer," he said.

Freeth said not a single member of his organisation had been consulted by
the government on the possible value of his property.

Commercial Farmers Union vice-president Stoff Hawgood said the money farmers
were being offered was a pittance.

"The farmers who went to the ministry said the figures they were offered
were not realistic," Hawgood said.

According to the CFU's information brochure, compensation had been paid out
in only 134 cases where farms have been ceded to government.

"No other compensation has been forthcoming. A provision of $4,5 billion has
been included in the 2003 government budget for compensation for acquired
properties. At the current property valuations, this amount is sufficient to
cover the purchase price of roughly 30 farms," the CFU said.

Freeth said the supplementary budget announced on August 21 was silent on
the issue of compensation.

Commercial farmers also pointed out that the money set aside for agriculture
development and compensation demonstrated government's lack of commitment.
Commercial farmers lost close to $50 billion in movable assets and property
when they were forced off their farms during the fast track land reform
exercise.

Meanwhile commercial farmers' organisations have dismissed claims in the
Utete Land Audit Report that 1 323 white farmers were still on the land.

JAG said the situation on the ground indicated that between 500 to 600
farmers were still on their properties while less than 200 of them were
still involved in production.

"Though it is very difficult to ascertain the exact number of farmers on the
farms, an estimated 500 to 600 white commercial farmers are understood to be
either involved in production or still hanging on at the farms," JAG said.

JAG said evictions were still going on so that surveys to establish the
number and activities of the farmers were changing on a daily basis.

Mtetwa said Chihuri called her and gave her an assurance that he would
launch a full investigation to bring the culprit to book.

"The commissioner called me on Tuesday and gave me an assurance that he
would get to the bottom of both car-jacking incidents as well as thoroughly
investigate the police officer who assaulted me," said Mtetwa.

But Mtetwa said the police had not made any progress nor shown any interest
in either case so far.

"I have told them that I have photographs (of her injuries) as well as two
medical reports but they haven't shown any interest in them," said Mtetwa.

"Nobody has recorded any statement from me."

The legal fraternity both at home and abroad reacted furiously last week to
the assault on Mtetwa at Borrowdale police station by a police officer
identified as Mutumwa. The lawyer had just survived a second car-jacking
attempt in a fortnight when, instead of assisting in tracking down the
car-jackers, policemen who attended the scene arrested her before

Mutumwa allegedly assaulted her.

The delegation met with opposi-tion Movement for Democratic Cha-nge
officials, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Sternford Moyo, police
commissioner Augu-stine Chihuri and civic society heads.

It also met Vice-President Joseph Msika, Speaker of Parliament Em-merson
Mnangagwa, Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo and Information minister
Jonathan Moyo.

At the end of the visit, Johm said her team had accumulated 20kg of
documents from evidence given by many people regarding the human rights
situation in the country.

A draft agenda of the 34th session includes Zimbabwe under item 11 and
delegates will discuss the draft report and decide whether to adopt it.

Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa on Tuesday said government would send a
delegation to Banjul to present the country's case.

"I have already signed cabinet authority for a three-member delegation to
represent Zimbabwe and put across our case," said Chinamasa.

He said the permanent secretary in his ministry David Mangota would lead the
team.

Civic society organisations are also expected to send a team of human rights
lawyers to Banjul to defend the communication sent to the commissioners in
2001.

Reports on Zimbabwe's human rights record by Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch have been rejected by African states who accuse the two of
Western bias.

Analysts have said a negative report from the commission would be damaging
for Zimbabwe ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm)
in Abuja in December.

In August, the Zimbabwe Independent reported that the report should have
been released at the 33rd session of the commission in Niamey, Niger, in May
but the commissioners claimed there was not enough time to consider it.

There were fears among local civic society organisations that African
leaders wanted to suppress the report in order not to dent the image of
President Robert Mugabe ahead of the Chogm meeting.

Trouble for the police constable, Felilizwe Phakathi, started two weeks ago
when the Weekend Tribune carried a story alleging that senior police
officers in the province were buying expensive cars for themselves while
lower-ranking officers needed new uniforms.

The story is said to have incensed the officer commanding Bulawayo, Charles
Mfandaidza, who is alleged to have personally written to MAG Bulawayo editor
Miriam Madziwa complaining over the story.

Phakathi is a journalism student at Business Environment Services, a college
in the city, and was cleared by his superiors for internship with the
Weekend Tribune.

Police sources said a docket had been opened charging Phakathi under the
Police Act for leaking sensitive information to the press.

Things worsened for the policeman last week when the Weekend Tribune carried
a story stating that the Nkomo family wanted an inquest into the death of
Mama Mafuyane, wife of the late Vice- President Joshua Nkomo.

The story quoted police sources claiming that the case was to be taken to
the courts in the near future. The story further alleged that President
Mugabe was expected to testify in the case since he was one of the last
people to see Mama Mafuyane alive.

Phakathi was again suspected as the source and interrogated.

Contacted for comment on the matter, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said
if any serving policeman flouted the Police Code of

Conduct he was liable to be charged under the Police Act.

The matter has since been reported to National Parks headquarters in Harare.

According to a letter written to National Parks directors Vitalis Chadenga,
Brigadier Epmarcus Ka-nhanga and Shamva police, Zanu PF youths aggressively
took over the camp and forced an estimated 34 clients to leave immediately.

"Fourteen of the clients were children who were highly traumatised," the
letter says.

"All clients were told to immediately leave and one claims to have left
behind equipment worth over a million dollars. The invaders also helped
themselves to food and drinks valued at $500 000 bought for the clients.

They had also taken possession of two shotguns that were being used by night
guards."

The owner of the camp Ian Jarvis was forced to hand over the camp keys
before he was allowed to leave.

He confirmed that he had been forced out of the camp.

"The invasion has nothing to do with resettlement," Jarvis said.

"We do not own any land but operate on National Parks' land. We are however
happy that our call for assistance has received tremendous response from the
National Parks and we hope to get back to the camp," he said.

Jarvis said the invasion has disrupted Wilderness Africa Trust projects
being supported by the camp. The trust was involved in the translocation of
game species from invaded farms.

Umfurudzi Safari Area is a 74 000-hectare game park situated 150 kilometres
north of Harare in the Mazowe/Shamva area.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority has been engaged in an energetic campaign to
persuade international tourists that law and order has been restored in
Zimbabwe.

He also worked as one of five international members on the Independent
Electoral Commission in 1994. Last year President Thabo Mbeki appointed him
to the Electoral Task Team established by cabinet to evaluate the need to
reform the country's electoral system.

Elklit has written a detailed document assessing the conduct of Zimbabwe's
controversial presidential poll in March last year.

The document, drafted on October 2, is part of Tsvangirai's legal heads of
argument prepared by his team of lawyers that include veteran South African
lawyer, Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett, and local Advocates Adrian de Bourbon and
Happius Zhou. The lawyers filed the heads of argument with the High Court on
October 13.

Elklit concludes that Mugabe's re-election was clearly not free and fair. He
cites blatant manipulation of electoral laws, biased administration of the
polls, political violence and intimidation among a range of irregularities.

"The various irregularities and mistakes and the non-compliance with
fundamentals of the Electoral Act undoubtedly had serious material
consequences, which most certainly affected the result of the election," he
said.

"Since September 17, when the first hearing was scheduled to take place, the
committee had argued that they had no control over Town House, so we could
access the documents we required," she said.

"The committee later resolved that we should submit a list of documents that
we required to the Town Clerk. But when we received the documents, all the
critical ones were missing."

Mtetwa said the hearing hit a brick wall this week when the committee
decided to change the charges levelled against the mayor .

"The committee has set aside summons we have been working with for the past
six weeks, arguing that they were ambiguous and incorrectly drafted," Mtetwa
said.

"The second summons that the committee wants to interview Mudzuri on is
nothing but a copy of Minister Ignatius Chombo's letter suspending our
client," she said.

In a related development, the committee is understood to have recommended
that council terminate Mudzuri's fuel allocation and cellphone allowance.

Acting mayor Sekesai Makwavarara terminated the allowances at the beginning
of October despite a council resolution that Mudzuri should continue to
enjoy such benefits.

Contacted for comment, Mudzuri said the committee had proved beyond
reasonable doubt that it was not serious about the matter.

"The committee is not serious," Mudzuri said. "How could they all of a
sudden decide to change the summons we have been working with for the past
six weeks? That's a clear shifting of goal posts intended to delay my case."

Zulu said once he identified himself as a reporter from the Zimbabwe
Independent there was increased hostility.

"One of the officers beat me with a baton stick and said if I was pro-whites
I should go to Britain," he said.

"We slept in the corridors of police cells at Harare Central police station
without blankets and the toilets were blocked," he said.

Zulu was released without charge at 11.00am yesterday after the intervention
of the Independent's lawyer, Chris Mhike, of Atherstone & Cook.

Mhike condemned the arrest as shocking.

"Zulu's ordeal at the hands of the police is a bald and shocking
illustration of the harassment of journalists in this country," Mhike said.

NCA spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said police assaulted and dumped NCA
members on the outskirts of the city.

It comes amidst concerns from conservancy organisations over the rampant
plunder of wildlife that includes lions and over 300 elephants protected
under a Presidential decree of 1990.

The National Parks directive has met with stiff resistance from safari
owners in the area. The operators have already written a letter to the
Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema, complaining bitterly
about the ban.

"It is important to note that resettled farmers did not empower themselves
arbitrarily to carry out sport hunting, they were empowered by National
Parks under SI 26/1998," says the letter. "Similarities between what is
attributed to your office and negative stories doing the rounds on the

Internet are of a disturbing nature," it says.

"The sources of the negative stories are the former white landowners and
they seem to be getting collaboration from your office. Whose interests are
you serving?"

The ban on hunting leaves photographic safaris and game viewing as the only
activities permitted in the area.

The Gwayi Valley Conservancy borders the Hwange National Park and safari
ranches in the area have been allocated to new farmers under the
government's A2 model.

A list supplied to the Independent with names of A2 beneficiaries in the
area indicates that most of them have links toZanu PF. Theyinclude
theparty's cent-ral committee member AliceNkomo in Lot 3 Dete Valley, the
party's provincial chairman for Matabeleland North, Jacob Mudenda in Sekumi
Estates, Zimbabwe's high commissioner to Zambia Cain Matema in a sub-section
of Lot 3 Dete Valley, and ZBC reporter Prisca Utete who acquired part of
Sekumi Estates.

Dr Christopher Zishiri, chief ve-terinary officer in Matabeleland North, got
Karna Block East. Therest of the beneficiaries are traditional chiefs who
include Chief Mabikwa and Chief Joseph Dingani.

A company registered as Eternity Trading, whose director is listed as J
Moyo, runs Lot 2 Dete Valley.

The Zimbabwe Conservancy Trust has also named Matabeleland North governor
Obert Mpofu, in one of its reports, as one of the beneficiaries licensed to
conduct hunts in the area.

According to a small-scale safari operator in the area, the directive to
cease all hunting in the area has incensed the "new farmers", some of whom
are said to be operating with fake hunting quotas.

Hunting quotas are issued at the beginning of each hunting season and
outline the type and number of animals a safari operator can hunt in a
single season.

"There has been systematic hunting using fake quotas and in some instances,
some of the quotas signed by National Parks were blank while some of the
quotas had no client information and in some instances some quotas do not
state on what farm the hunt was taking place," said a conservationist
monitoring the region.

THE president and his "wives" and thugs maintain that the MDC, Whites, the
British, the US and NGOs are all at fault for the sinking economy. If that
is the case, what has the president done in the past 23 years? What
contribution has he and his ministers (who are by the way our servants)
made?

I know, first they went with their begging bowl overseas and then promptly
stole, raped and looted. The servants had no time for the people of
Zimbabwe, they were on a mission and even accomplished it by leaving the
country dry!

We the people of Zimbabwe jumped on their bandwagon and became as greedy as
the servants. You see, they didn't want to be alone in corruption. They made
sure that people also became corrupted so they wouldn't feel guilty.

If any one of you out there has a heart you would put an end to this madness
that has hit the country. But again, do you want to?

My friends, my father and mother have taught me well and I am proud of being
a common man trying to put food on my family table. I know through prayers
change will come and I hope the new government will bring the thugs to book.

God Bless Zimbabwe.

T Moyo,

Harare.

Yes, some of us gave them the benefit of the doubt that they would be able
to resettle 300 000 families, but here you are. Their own statistics,
gathered by their own team, have revealed that less than half of the
intended beneficiaries have benefited.

What have you to say for yourselves ministers? Well, in any major exercise
like this one, there are bound to be hiccups. But your case is not helped by
the fact that in the shadows there are special people who got more than one
farm. Who are they? We have not been told.

Why are they being kept a secret? Maybe the government is guarding against
the possibility of litigation against the government? Yes, it might sound
reasonable. So could we go a step further and wait until President Robert
Mugabe starts dealing with them? We would want to see what he will be doing.

President Mugabe could be trying to make the land reform look successful.

Yes, there are several quarters that were not happy with the land reform
programme and could have put spanners in the works, but was that not
anticipated? I would assume that in the planning process this could have
been anticipated and government could have lowered its figures.

So now the optics do not look good. Supposing that indeed the forces that
were derailing the land reform were effective, it becomes difficult for us
now to believe the government because they should have known and likewise
lowered people's expectations. Of course, there were those who would have
pointed fingers and criticised the land reform for being able to serve only
134 000 families. But the government would have created credibility for
itself by sticking to more realistic figures.

The initial pressure that would have been exerted on them to justify the
allocation for only 134 000 families could have been absorbed and taken just
like any other pressure that was present on their 300 000 figure.

So, should we think that the other 150 000 beneficiaries were a smokescreen
for the extra farms that would be needed by the government's special
persons?

President Mugabe should not try to distract people's attention but should
immediately unravel the mystery of persons with multiple farms. Also, he
should deal with the corruption that was perpetrated by senior government
officials who were supposed to be exemplary.

Kuthula Matshazi,

London, England.

"The authorities in Harare need to know that there is widespread outrage in
South Africa about the detention of trade unionists, the closure of
newspapers, and the brutal harassment of civilians, including very worrying
reports about the systematic rape of women and girls by rampaging youth
militias.

"The priority task within Zimbabwe is the fostering of a climate of
tolerance and respect for the law, a climate that will support rapid
progress in the bilateral talks between Zanu PF and the MDC. This is a
challenge thatconfronts all Zimbabweans, but it is a particular
responsibility of those in authority."

At the same time the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions had
this to say on the situation in Zimbabwe:

"The ICFTU has lodged a protest with the International Labour Organisation
over the wave of anti-union arrests and violent assaults being carried out
in Zimbabwe by the country's government…The government's action is the
latest in a string of attacks on the trade union movement, and takes place
as the ZCTU and its affiliates were about to undertake a series of peaceful
protests against spiralling transport and fuel costs, tax hikes, a drastic
shortage of cash and ongoing violations of trade union and human rights by
the regime.

"Zimbabwe is a country in deepcrisis, and the actions of President Mugabe's
government are those of a desperate regime. Only when human and trade union
rights are fully respected, and the people of Zimbabwe can live in
conditions of full respect for democracy, can the enormous task ofrebuilding
the country's economy really begin", said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder.
The ICFTU represents 158 million workers in 231 affiliated organisations
in150 countries.

Also attracting international attention this week - and deservedly so - was
the brutal assault by a police officer on prominent lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.

The New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has called for a full
independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the alleged
beating which Mtetewa says occurred at Borrowdale police station.

"All persons responsible for serious human rights abuses must be held
accountable, including members of the security forces," said Neil Hicks,
Director of the Lawyers Committee's Human Rights Defenders Project. "A
prompt, thorough and independent investigation into the alleged assault on
Beatrice Mtetwa must be carried out, and those responsible should be
criminally prosecuted.

"Mtetwa, who is an outspoken advocate for greater respect for basic rights
and has represented many individuals targeted by the government, filed a
sworn statement on October 15, saying that a police officer beat her
severely -at times in plain sight of other officers who did nothing to stop
the blows. She reports that she summoned the police after an attempted
car-jacking on October 12. But rather than pursue the thieves, the police
allegedly detained her, claiming that she was driving while intoxicated.

Mtetwa demanded the administration of a breathalyser and blood test, but no
tests were carried out. Instead, she alleges, a police officer beat her in
the back of a police vehicle and the beating continued, in plain sight of
other officers, when they arrived at the Borrowdale police station. She
subsequently received medical treatment for the injuries sustained to her
head, face, arms, back and thighs. She later identified the police officer
who beat her and filed a complaint against him with the commanding officer
at Borrowdale police station.

'This latest attack is part of apattern," Hicks said, "where-by lawyers in
Zimbabwe who pro-vide legal representation to government critics, members of
the political opposition, or other individuals who are unpopular with the
authorities are targeted for abuse.

"Earlier this year," Hicks noted, "Ms Mtetwa represented Andrew Meldrum, the
Guardian journalist who was illegally deported from Zimbabwe despite a court
order. In March of this year, Gugulethu Moyo, attorney for the now-banned
Daily News, Zimbabwe's last independent daily newspaper, was also physically
assaulted at a police station. In addition to these serious physical
attacks, lawyers in Zimbabwe are routinely threatened and verbally insulted,
as well as being denied access to their clients or otherwise obstructed.

"These are serious allegations of police brutality and they ought to be
investigated seriously," said Hicks. "We are concerned that this action was
meant not just to intimidate Mtetwa, but to send a message to all
Zimbabweans who might be inclined to stand up for their rights."

He continued: "Attacking such a high profile figure - and getting away with
it - suggests that no one is safe from these sorts of brutal acts."

That is the conclusion now being drawn by everybody. Ministers have been
vocal recently in claiming that Zimbabwe is a country in which the rule of
law is observed. At least, that has been their pretext for closing down
newspapers. But it is repeatedly said that people seeking the protection of
the police quickly become their victims. That is a recipe for a complete
collapse of confidence in the force, something we would assume the police
wish to avoid.

Mtetwa's case has thus become emblematic. It is obvious the rule of law is
upheld only when it suits those in power. Ordinary people don't enjoy its
protection. And defenders of civic rights can expect to become its targets.

What sort of law is that?

Never had to be scolded simply for being black. Never been hurled in the
courts for belonging to a political party whose members think in a way that
threatens law and order which only exists as defined and lived by a few
elitist group of numbskulls who believe themselves to be next to God and
second Emmanuels with their father's given right to tyranise the guiltless
in the name of civilisation.

Never had 230 volts of electricity greeting your genitals for being caught
boarding a bus with a brand new pair of jeans since it becomes obvious they
are destined for the terrorists as uniform. Never had to ululate and cheer
as your aunt is bludgeoned to a texture-less pulp of bloodied flesh and
bones for being a witch. Never had to be called back to the home you cannot
return to as your father loses his mind after "they" burnt down the village
and forced him to walk through the whole village naked because he did not
have any beasts for the comrades to slaughter. Never, never, never

But wait comrade; you forget I have seen and have experienced. I have seen
my neighbours having their property tossed out of their own home after being
labelled "madzakustaku" in the early eighties. And I, all of three years old
being "Kadzakustaku" and being threatened with horrible punishments if I did
not divulge my neighbours' hideout.

I have seen and I have experienced being woken up at 4am at 10 years old to
join the already two-kilometre long bread queue. I have experienced the
five-hour wait to be served only to be told that without four eggs for every
loaf no bread purchases were possible. I have indeed seen the young pregnant
school teacher hammered to death with a shovel for voting no.

I have seen the guiltless rural nurse raped by a gang of deranged warriors
of the Third Chimurenga who believe everyone who does not support the party
in power is a white puppet, a condom of the white man and a justified target
of any act of pure unadulterated evil. I have seen the moral decadence of
the state soldier who forces the drunkard to rape the prostitute without a
condom in the public beer hall with hundreds of revelers forced to cheer on.

More alarmingly I have seen countless friends and neighbours being brutally
attacked for coming home after seven, wearing anything red or for walking in
pairs. I have seen army tanks being brought into the townships and heavily
armed men going from door-to-door beating everyone senseless because of a
simple demonstration in the neighbourhood. I have seen whole families bashed
for belonging to an unfashionable party.

How dare one fawn upon and call life after 1980 smooth sailing? War did not
end in 1980 unless you have a very shallow perception of war and have the
same screwed up brain cell that causes some people to believe that they own
a struggle; that the very notion of struggle should be construed to mean
what went on in the 1970s. Without doubt we all have a profound respect for
the real warrior of the liberation. The nameless faceless individual lying
in some shallow grave in Mozambique or Zambia. The guy who dropped out of
school to fight for his beliefs without ever hoping to occupy a seat in
parliament or to be driven in a state Mercedes.

The very same principles of discrimination that treated the average man like
an animal which made most people take up arms are being reintroduced into
our society by the same people who purport to have fought to dislodge these
principles of discrimination. To make it worse my opinion of evil and
instruments of oppression are now being rebranded and being given
nice-sounding accolades like protection of sovereignty, Posa, etc.

The founding murders of the Zimbabwe's future have been lavished with all
imaginable luxury from the ailing coffers of a bankrupt economy while the
raped taxpayer continues unable to afford a loaf of bread, let alone butter.
What difference is there between someone who sells you out to an enemy bent
on killing you for what seems to be nothing more than sport and someone who
mismanages the economy of close to 15 million innocent victims of arrogance?

Can anyone really distinguish between the hunger suffered by a group of
villagers in 1976 when they were prevented from farming for sustenance by a
raging war and the hunger of someone who owns 10 hectares of land and is
still unable to afford to put a single meal on the table for days on end?

Indeed the war is still being fought but on a different battlefield and with
a rather ambiguous enemy. Who really are we to fight to get food? Tony
Blair? George Bush? The Queen? Robert Mugabe? Zanu PF or MDC? Frankly I do
not particularly care. What I am concerned with most is providing for my
family, kith and kin and whoever stops me from doing that is my enemy and
the war is that of survival. It matters not who hinders my life, be it
Blair, Bush, His Excellency or Her Majesty I will battle tooth and nail to
secure the dignity of my peers and their right to eat.

If your struggle is to make me and mine suffer, then I accept that as an
open declaration of hostilities and you can feel free to label me an enemy
of your struggle. What struggle is it that is fought to inflict pain and
suffering on your own people? My concern begins and ends with the man devoid
of power and wealth. Someone who just wants to see his children grow up
educated and able to fend for themselves and their own families. A person
not particularly concerned about who occupies what seat in which state
house.

You may be wondering who or what I am and whom I am affiliated with. Ladies
and gentlemen I am simply that spirit in every individual that refuses to
accept or support slogans. It makes no difference to me what promises and
lies you whisper ever so softly to my ear. All I am concerned with at the
end of the day is results.

Delight Magora is a Harare-based writer.

That new leader might be able to win a presidential election against even a
strong Movement for Democratic Change candidate, despite the significant
recent electoral gains of the main opposition party. The widespread
antipathy to Zanu PF is concentrated in the person of Robert Mugabe and the
destruction he has left in his wake, more than it is to the party itself.

Despite years of corruption, national decline and increasing repression,
there remains residual goodwill towards it as a movement that could be
harnessed to win over a large part of the electorate were Mugabe no longer
on the scene.

If, as is entirely possible, Mugabe's successor as ruling party leader is
someone as tired, discredited and washed up as he, that successor could
still work himself to be president of the country. An unpopular Zanu PF
leader could still end up ruling us whether we like it or not, as some
cynics would argue is happening now. So we all have a stake in who takes
over from Mugabe as Zanu PF leader.

It is interesting that within Zanu PF talk of Mugabe's exit is only from the
viewpoint of when he will be ready to step down. Known pretenders to the
throne cowardly scamper and deny any interest in the position when they are
asked about it. Mugabe so dominates his party and is so feared that there is
virtually no thought of pushing him out as party leader on the grounds of
the disrepute he has brought it into from its previous lofty heights in
public affection.

Zanu PF is at a juncture of crisis in its leadership now, but who is
brave/reckless enough to possibly save the party by challenging the
tottering king? No one that I can see! The ruling party has been brought so
low in public opinion and is so inextricably linked with Mugabe's failures
that it could disintegrate into open factions on the fall of Mugabe,
particularly if that coincides with an election in which the opposition is
well prepared, and also if Mugabe's successor as party leader is poorly
chosen. One would have thought the founders of the once mighty Zanu PF would
have the interests of the successful continuity of their creation at heart
more than the fear of Mugabe, but that does not appear to be the case. So a
whole political party will continue to watch its fortunes and prospects
decline out of the fear and idolisation of one man!

I simply cannot imagine a scenario where any players in the party would rise
to the occasion of saving their party from eventual political obliteration
by scheming to oust an incumbent who seems to put his own ego and personal
interests above those of his party and nation. Mugabe will therefore likely
go if and when he is good and ready, rather than when it is best for Zanu PF
and for Zimbabwe, which would be immediately. Part of the reason that Mugabe
is allowed to get away with being virtual monarch rather than mere party
leader, in addition to control by inducement of fear, is that Zanu PF no
longer has any defining ideology.

The formal plan of succession based on party seniority cannot be ignored,
but neither can it be taken as immutable. Scheming could easily take
precedence over procedure, as has been the case in many other cases in the
party's history before and after Independence.

Emerson Mnangagwa would appear to be Mugabe's preferred successor. They go a
 long way back together. He is unlikely to do a "Mwanawasa" on Mugabe like
the current Zambian president, handpicked by his predecessor Frederick
Chiluba has done on his benefactor. Mugabe's secrets and any sins committed
by him are likely to be quite safe with Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa is intimately familiar with Mugabe's methods of keeping dissenters
and independent thinkers in the party in line, so continuity in this regard
would likely be assured. Mnangagwa, like Mugabe, is more feared than he is
respected and so in this regard party members may hardly notice any change
from a handover from the latter to the former. Some have said Mnangagwa is
about as charismatic as a wet blanket. In Zimbabwean and African politics
lack of charm is not much of a hindrance to attaining power, as there are
more innovative and effective ways of getting it than appealing to the
people's hearts and minds!

Naive sentimentalists often invoke Simba Makoni's name as a possible party
successor to Mugabe. I think this can be ruled out for many reasons. He has
not shown any signs of the ruthlessness that would be required of a Zanu PF
boss.

My point is that Makoni seems too soft and gentle to keep an unwieldy gang
such as Zanu PF together. Nice guys have no hope of getting very far in Zanu
PF. His reputation for being relatively clean in most respects may have
endeared him to many Zimbabweans who are tired of the crookedness we have
become accustomed to from Zanu PF politicians, but this is precisely what
would make him suspect among many of the party's top guns.

The ruthlessly corrupt top barons of the party might settle for him as a
temporary last resort if they were convinced there was no way to avoid an
internationally monitored presidential election in which it would be
difficult to employ the traditional tactics of "winning". Makoni has the
good name and image locally and internationally that few others in Zanu PF
who are talked about as possible future presidents still have.

But even this is a very long-shot scenario that gives Zanu PF more credit
for self-preserving good sense than they may have or deserve.

It would be fascinating to see if Zanu PF has grown beyond being a preserver
of the Shona elite's interests to having a former member of bitter foe Zapu
and an Ndebele being its leader. The official party dogma is that all these
issues were resolved with the unity accord of 1987, but this remains to be
really tested. Certainly among a bunch of bad apples forming the party's top
leadership John Nkomo is not as bad as some of those pretending to the
throne. Being from a party that was swallowed whole by the ruling party and
being from outside the Shona hegemonic groups, he would have to play his
cards unusually well to land the top post and keep control over many of the
party's barons.

For the time being under Mugabe the ruling party continues reeling from
events out of its control that threaten to send it into political oblivion
on the same trip that sends Mugabe into an inglorious exit.

Chido Makunike is a Harare-based writer.

In examining such issues, contributors to a just published volume probed
beyond the myths and legends which have long surrounded southern Africa's
liberation movements to take on board the fact that while these
organisations were waging war on systems of institutionalised injustice,
they did not always display a sensitivity to human rights issues and
democratic values. Nor did it prevent them from falling prey to
authoritarian patterns of rule and undemocratic practices towards real or
imagined dissidents within their ranks.

An argument is that the political change which has occurred in those
southern African societies shaped by settler colonialism can be
characterised as a transition from controlled change to changed control. A
ruling new political elite has ascended the commanding heights and employed
selective narratives and memories relating to their liberation wars.

They have constructed a new set of traditions to establish an exclusive
post-colonial legitimacy under the sole authority of one particular agency
of social forces. Mystification of the liberators has played an essential
role in this fabrication. They have also developed militant notions of
inclusion or exclusion as key factors in shaping their post-colonial
national identities.

Early post-independence notions of national reconciliation and slogans like
"unity in diversity" have given way to a politically-correct identity form
defined by those in power along narrow "we-they" or "with-us-against-us"
lines. Simultaneously, the boundaries between party and government have been
blurred and replaced by a growing equation of party and government.

Opposition or dissent has come increasingly to be considered as hostile and
the dissenter sometimes branded as an "enemy of the people".

In a University of Amsterdam doctoral thesis of 2001, KP Yap argued on
Zimbabwe that power relations had changed, but "perceptions of power had not
changed. The layers of understanding regarding power relations, framed by
socialisation and memory, continued to operate …the way in which the new
actors executed power in relation to opposition had not (changed), as their
mental framework remained in the colonial setting."

Coinciding with this tendency towards autocratic rule and the subordination
of the state to the party, a reward system of social and material favours in
return for loyalty has emerged.

The term "national interest" has been appropriated and now means solely what
the post-colonial ruling elite decides it means. It is used to justify all
kinds of authoritarian practices while the term "anti-national" or
"unpatriotic" is applied to any group that resists the power of the ruling
elite of the day.

Simultaneous to the above, outside of the inner sanctum of the political
arena and within civil society critical voices have emerged, including even
those of some who played roles as active supporters of the liberation
struggle, and others who followed it with great sympathy. A new and sharper
debate has emerged, one which deals increasingly with the post-colonial
content of liberation, questions the validity of the concept of solidarity
based on a shared past, and calls for the end of the cultivation of "heroic
narratives". The much-celebrated attainment of formal independence is no
longer unreservedly equated with liberation, neither with the creation of
lasting democracy. Now, closer scrutiny is paid to both the inherited and
self-developed structural legacies which have imposed limits to the
realising of real social and economic alternatives in the post-colonial era.

One of these involves a growing recognition that armed liberation struggles
operating along military lines in conditions of clandestinity were not
suitable breeding grounds for establishing democratic systems of governance
after independence. Thus it should come as no surprise that aspects of the
colonial system have reproduced themselves in the struggle for its abolition
and subsequently, in the concepts of governance applied in post-colonial
conditions.

There is a parallel here to Alexis de Toqueville's celebrated retrospective
on the shortcomings of the French Revolution. It reflected the frustration
provoked by the restoration of old power structures under Louis Napoleon
after his coup d'état in 1851 and provides relevant insights to our southern
African cases. De Toqueville argued that the French revolutionaries in the
process of implementing the structures of the new system retained the
mentalities, habits, even the ideas, of the old state while seeking to
destroy it. And they built on the rubble of the old state to establish the
foundation of the new society.

To understand the revolution and its achievement, he concluded, one has to
forget about the current society and instead interrogate the buried one.

His conclusion was that the early freedom of the revolution had been
replaced by another form of repression. Revolutionaries in the process of
securing, establishing and consolidating their power bases, had sacrificed
the declared ideals and substantive issues they were fighting for in the
name of revolution.

Dr Henning Melber is research director of the Nordic Africa Institute in
Uppsala, Sweden.

Police in Zimbabwe have released 78 civil rights protestors arrested earlier
this week for demonstrating for a new Constitution, a rights group official
said on Friday.

Douglas Mwonzora, the vice chairperson of the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) said 77 protestors were released on Thursday after paying
fines, but NCA chairperson Lovemore Madhuku was only released on Friday.

"He has been charged with conduct likely to lead to riots," said Mwonzora.
He said the NCA chairperson appeared at a court on Friday and was freed
after paying 10 000 Zimbabwe dollars ($12) bail.

On Wednesday at least 100 NCA demonstrators were arrested as they tried to
hold a demonstration in a central Harare park. Some of them claim to have
been beaten while in police custody.

The NCA has since 1999 been campaigning for a new constitution. In 2000 it
successfully lobbied Zimbabweans to reject a proposed constitution drafted
by a state-appointed commission.

The group continues to hold regular demonstrations against the government.
Demonstrations without police permission are illegal under the country's
strict Public Order and Security Act (POSA). – Sapa-AFP

Friday October 24, 2003 17:45 - (SA)

HARARE - Doctors at Zimbabwe's government hospitals have gone on an
indefinite strike demanding an 8,000 percent pay increase, their union
leader said today.

"The strike started around midday yesterday," Phibion Manyanga, president of
the Hospital Doctors Association, said.

The doctors, who earn a gross monthly salary of 378,000 Zimbabwean dollars
(473 US dollars), are demanding that their new basic salaries be pegged at
30 million dollars (37,500 US dollars), he said.

The strike has affected hospitals in the capital Harare, the cities of
Bulawayo and Masvingo, and the town of Chitungwiza, south of the capital.

Only foreign consultant doctors hired by government from Cuba and the
Democratic Republic of Congo are at work at the affected hospitals.

Manyanga said his association had written to the government on several
occasions asking for a review of their wages, but there had been no positive
response.

"We were patient, we were trying to reach a compromise, but they
(government) closed the door on us and we were left with no option but to go
on strike.

"We feel for us our patients...but a disgruntled doctor is more dangerous at
work. So it's better to stay at home," he said.

Pay-related national strikes by Zimbabwe's government hospital doctors have
become an almost annual tradition.

In some years, the strikes last for as long as several months.

AFP

LUSAKA, Oct. 24 — Growing numbers of white farmers have settled in Zambia
after fleeing Zimbabwe's land seizures, bringing more than $100 million in
investments with them, a Zambia Investments Centre official said on Friday.
       Zambia is emerging from a severe food shortage that affected more
than 14 million people at its peak earlier this year. The impoverished
country has put agriculture at the top of its agenda, seeking to boost
output and farming skills.
       ''Zimbabwe investors in farming have collectively invested a total of
$107.6 million from 1993, of which $46.3 million has been invested from the
year 2002 to September 2003,'' said Richard Chavula, the acting Director of
Operations of Zambia's official investment promotion agency.
       Many white commercial farmers have left Zimbabwe since the government
began a programme of seizing land for redistribution to landless blacks,
often accompanied by violent farm occupations.
       Government officials say some Zimbabwean farmers have bought Zambian
farms for as much as $1 million.
       Chivula said Zimbabwean farmers would bring in much-needed expertise
and help boost production, especially in tobacco. He estimated Zimbabwean
investment would raise tobacco production from the current 4 million kg per
year to 20 million kg within five years.
       Chavula said no virgin land had been allocated to the farmers, who
are buying or leasing farms from Zambian farmers.
       But farmers were free to apply for state land, he said, adding 70
percent of Zambia's arable land was not being used and was available for
acquisition by local or foreign investors.
       Chavula said 10 farmers settled in Zambia between 1993 and 2002,
while 31 farmers moved in between 2002 and September this year after their
Zimbabwean farms were seized.
       In March, the ZIC said it had received 125 applications from Zimbabwe
farmers seeking to settle in Zambia. The white farmers have also fled to
other nearby countries, notably Mozambique, and helped shore up their rural
economies.

Chiredzi/Zaka, Zimbabwe - A huddle of children line up to wave to a convoy
of aid vehicles bumping along a dusty track. In one corner of Zaka, a poor
remote part of southeastern Zimbabwe, 32 000 people survive without the
barest necessities of life.

There's no public transport - apart from donkey-drawn carts - no piped
water, and the nearest light bulb used to be 6km away.

Crop-raising is fraught with risk: hippopotamuses from a nearby dam are
hungry too. And there's no money to build fences to protect precious yields.

But aid organisations and donor support have brought a glimmer of hope to
this impoverished area. A fishing co-operative in Zaka communal lands feeds
hundreds with a valuable source of protein and provides employment for a
dozen people.

Villagers living near the Tavatose Fishing Cooperative, built on Manjirenji
Dam have seen their lives revolutionised.

"Today we are lucky. We have electricity in our warehouses and lights in our
cottages," said Timothy Mangwayana, a member of the co-operative. "Now we
are able to keep fish in good quality and sell it at a good price."

The co-operative - a hot six-hour drive from Zimbabwe's capital Harare - was
begun 17 years ago. Workers then raised the fish and sold it dry: there was
no means of preserving it.

But support from the French government has enabled the co-operative to
install solar panels to run deep freezes to preserve their catches.

The success of the feeding scheme and the fish project here are only too
evident - there are no signs of starvation, no obviously hungry children.

Ester Shayamano, an agricultural official who has come to visit the project,
said she too used to supplement her income by reselling fish she bought at
the dam.

She said the supplementary feeding programme, as well as fish from the dam,
mean that people here look surprisingly healthy, despite the shortages of
food currently ravaging the country.

Encouraged, the French government is to pump another €600 000 (about R5m) to
projects like these in the region, said French Ambassador Didier Ferrand.

"You have the expertise, we have the resources. We can work together," he
said at a commissioning ceremony.

Three hours' drive away, the French tricolor flag painted on a sign
announces that country's support for the Chieha Sustainable Water
Development Project.

It is the only splash of colour in the dry, barren and dusty Sangwe communal
lands of Chiredzi district, near Zimbabwe's border with Mozambique.

At a site 100m from the Save River, Gladman Chibememe kneels down to open a
red tap set in the ground. It releases water stored in a reservoir and water
gushes out.

"These are the holy waters," he says, smacking his lips.

With water from the borehole - drilled within the last year with aid from
donors - the members of the project plan to start growing vegetables and to
start an orchard.