Inflation forecast to reach 522% Staff writer THE
IMF has forecast that inflation in Zimbabwe will reach 522,2% next
year, according to its latest World Economic Outlook. It is currently running
at 139,9%.
The economy is also expected to shrink by 10,6% this year
and by 2,8% next year following declines of 5,1% and 8,5% in 2000 and 2001
respectively.
The figures contrast sharply with Zimbabwe's
neighbours: Zambian GDP is forecast to grow by 3,7% this year and 4% in 2003,
while inflation is expected to drop to 9,8% from this year's
20%.
Mozambique, once the basket case of the region, should record
growth of 9% this year and 5,6% next year, according to the IMF. Inflation is
expected to fall to 6,8% from 16,7%.
Diamond-rich Botswana's
economy should grow by 3,7% in 2003 after growing 2,6% this year while
inflation will drop to 4,7% from 5,5% in the current year.
The IMF
reckons South Africa's economy will expand by 3% next year after growing 2,5%
this year.
Inflationary pressures are also expected to decline: the
IMF forecasts that consumer prices will rise by 5% next year compared to 5,5%
in 2002.
Looking further afield, inflation in Malawi is forecast to
drop to 5% next year from 9,4% this year and growth is expected to rise to
4,5% next year from 1,8% this year.
Tanzania should see its
economy expand by 6% from 5,8% this year. Inflation is expected to ease to
3,9% from 4,4%.
In Namibia, which has been echoing President Mugabe's
land reform calls, the economy should grow by 3,8% next year and inflation
should ease slightly to 7% from 10,2% in the current year. - Staff Writer
Fingaz takeover deal murky Dumisani Muleya MYSTERY
surrounds the new ownership of one of the country's leading
business weeklies, the Financial Gazette, after chief executive Elias
Rusike confirmed selling the paper to new owners.
Rusike, who bought
the newspaper from former Zimbabwe Independent directors Clive Wilson and
Clive Murphy in 1989, said he sold his 60% shareholding to a consortium led
by the newspaper's editor-in-chief Francis Mdlongwa.
The Mdlongwa
syndicate includes Harare-based medical doctors and businessmen, Sylvester
Saburi and Solomon Mtetwa.
Mtetwa took over as chairman of the
publication. Apart from buying Rusike's equity, the group also took stakes
formerly held by Eric Kahari and Fanuel Muhwati.
"I sold my shares
to a consortium comprising Mdlongwa, Dr Mtetwa and Dr Saburi," Rusike said
yesterday. "Mdlongwa led the negotiations and I signed an agreement with
them."
Responding to reports that Jewel Bank chief executive Gideon
Gono was in fact the major shareholder after he financed the take-over deal
through his bank, Rusike said if Gono was involved it was not through him but
the consortium.
"I sold to Mdlongwa and his consortium but if they
went to CBZ (Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe) and brought in Gono, it's none of
my business," he said.
"If Gono bought shares it means he bought them
from Mdlongwa, Saburi or Mtetwa and not me. I don't know where they got the
money from because it's none of my business." Efforts to get comment from
Gono were unsuccessful.
Rusike was recently quoted in the press as
saying he would not sell his paper to Gono because of the latter's links to
government.
In an intereview with the Daily News, Rusike said: "If
Gono takes over the Financial Gazette, that would signal the end of the
paper's editorial independence as government interference would obviously be
high.
"I am not surprised staff have expressed reservations about the
move. It would compromise their independence."
Rusike said he did
not know if it was true Mtetwa had recently resigned as chairman over the
Gono issue.
Mdlongwa refused to comment on the ownership issue
referring questions to Rusike. Asked whether he was planning to set up a
Sunday paper in alliance with Strive Masiyiwa's Independent Media Group, he
said he would not respond to "bar talk".
CIO blocks media tour Augustine Mukaro JOSEPH
Mwale, the notorious Manicaland-based Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
officer, has declared Chimanimani a no fly zone forcing Radar Holdings to
cancel a chartered flight over plantations of Border Timbers Ltd
(BTL).
Mwale has a track record of arson, torture and terror against
government opponents dating back to 2000 when he was reportedly involved in
the petrol bombing of MDC activists Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika in
Buhera.
More recently, he allegedly spearheaded thearrest and
eviction from his Charleswood Estate of MDC MP for Chimanimani, Roy
Bennett.
BTL, a subsidiary of Radar Holdings, had planned a tour of
the plantations which had been destroyed by fire. The tour was to have
included a flight over the plantations.
Radar invited journalists
to take part in the tour, a move which did not go down well with Mwale who
immediately declared Chimanimani a no fly zone, despite the trip having been
approved by the CIO head office in Harare and the Civil Aviation
Authority.
BTL managing director John Gadzikwa, confirmed to the
Zimbabwe Independent that the flight had been cancelled for security
reasons.
"Mwale denied permission for the flight on allegations that we
would bring in the private media who would report negatively on the
situation," Gadzikwa said.
"He warned us that if the tour went
ahead it would do so at the risk of the passengers aboard. We had no option
but to shelve the tour for sometime," he said.
Pine and gum tree
plantations worth $9 billion are estimated to have been destroyed as illegal
settlers set fire to more than 14 000 hectares of mature trees in their
preparation of land for the new agricultural season. Burnt plantations
include Westward-Ho, Fairfield Block, Lemon Korp and Thornton - all owned by
BTL.
The fire also destroyed Cashel Estate, Misty Hills, Brackenbury,
and Chisengu Estate owned by the Forestry Company of
Zimbabwe.
Other affected plantations include Erin in Nyanga, Muteyo
in Bvumba and Nyangui in Nyanga.
THE government's political language in the last month has
signalled the launching of a campaign against non-governmental organisations,
the latest targets of Zanu PF's attempt to silence dissent.
The
reasons are not hard to find.
Just as the NGOs and civil society braved
the counter-insurgency terror of the early 1980s in defence of human rights,
they have remained resolute to this date in exposing official violence and
repression.
These organisations have been branded "megaphones for their
foreign masters" and "enemies of the state".
Already, two British
organisations - Oxfam and Save the Children - have been stopped from
distributing food to the hungry.
Commentators this week described the
ongoing campaign against the public interest groups as part of a wider plan
to sweep away all political liberties, emasculate civil society and entrench
the government's totalitarian hold on every facet of life.
While the
government's intolerance of NGOs is not new, the current hype against them
has shown renewed determination to eliminate dissent and destroy their
capacity to function. Like the press, the NGOs remain the vital medium for
self-expression and public awareness, hence the
official hostility.
Since the official announcement last month that
the NGOs should register under the Private Voluntary Organisations Act there
has been a concentrated effort to single out as "imperialist agents" specific
groups such as the Amani Trust, Transparency International, the Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace, Legal Resources Foundation and Crisis
Zimbabwe -all of whom have helped expose the government's appalling human
rights record and its involvement in dubious privatisation
deals.
Brian Kagoro, a lawyer and human rights activist, said the
government was determined to mount a sustained programme to emasculate civil
society and pull the rug from under the feet of the established
independent organisations and create its own groups.
Already, a
disturbing trend is evident with the emergence of state-sponsored groups who
pose as civil society while extolling President Mugabe's ideas.
"The
issue is not about the NGOs having done anything wrong but about control,"
Kagoro said.
"They are aiming at clearing the space for their own pliant
organisations who will praise the government in the name of nationalism. When
people say there is no associational life in Zimbabwe they will simply point
to the ones they have created," he said.
Commentators say these groups
are at times led by academics concocting eulogies for Mugabe under the
pretext of political analysis - imagining themselves as the liberated
scholars espousing the ideals of a misunderstood African
patriot.
Davira Mhere, a London-based group led by Chinondidyachii
Mararike, the Gaddafi Sisters Foundation, and the Zimbabwe Federation of
Trade Unions are a case in point. So is Africa Strategy led by David
Nyekorach-Matsanga, a wanted fugitive spokesperson for the Ugandan terrorist
group, Lord's Resistance Arm.
Feeding from the totalitarian mindset,
the plot also involves a heavy propaganda drumbeat and ultra-nationalist
rhetoric, deceit and patronage. Analysts said this was evident in
organisations such as Heritage-Zimbabwe whose garrulous leader, Jocelyn
Chiwenga, has repeatedly exhibited a paranoid disposition imagining white
foreigners as the enemies of the state. So has Zim-Alliances led by Bright
Matonga who has been sucked into the Mugabe regime's makeover kit.
It
is through such organisations that the government hopes to limit civic and
voter education and counter those which have shown inclination
towards exposing political brutality and lawlessness.
Generally, the
NGOs are an inconvenience to any totalitarian state as they mobilise a
plurality of views and make complex issues comprehensible to the general
public.
A piece of history may be in order. Malaysian authoritarian
ruler, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has trodden the same course. After
his 1986 re-election, Mahathir decided to mount an attack on the NGOs whom he
saw as "negative" and anti-government. These organisations had, before and
after the election, helped focus national attention on Mahathir's own misrule
and hence the crackdown and their labelling as the "enemies of the state"
and "tools of foreign powers".
Federal Territory minister Abu Hassan
Omar led the crackdown on organisations like the Consumers'Association of
Penang (CAP), the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia (EPSM), the
Selangor Graduates Society and the Malaysian Bar Council all of whom he
described as being the "thorns in the flesh" of the country.
These
organisations had mobilised attention on unjust laws such as the Official
Secrets Act and other fundamentally flawed measures designed to stifle
dissent and muzzle the free press. Mahathir's antipathy towards them also
stemmed from their earlier involvement in the public protests and
sharp criticisms of the government's nursing of graft. The judiciary also
came under sustained assault leading to the removal of the Chief
Justice.
Mahathir's soul mate, President Mugabe, has embraced the same
tactic. In addition to blocking Oxfam and Save the Children the government
has threatened measures to restrict the operations of civic groups perceived
as anti-government.
Analysts said by using colonial and fascist
tactics in controlling the NGOs the government was missing the opportunity to
create conditions for the growth of a fair and balanced civil
society.
The proliferation of new government-funded organisations - some
of which are single member entities - is seen as a disservice to the
democratic cause.
At a workshop organised by the University of Zimbabwe's
faculty of law in September 1992, then political science lecturer Jonathan
Moyo gave an insightful warning:
"It is true that there is a
noticeable proliferation of local and international non-governmental
organisations (NG0s) and other voluntary associations in Southern
Africa".
He added: "But this proliferation does not necessarily spell
good news for democracy and human rights. Far from it - most of the
mushrooming NGOs and voluntary associations are in fact a danger to the
prospects of democracy and human rights because they seek a type of
particularism, fundamentalism and ethno-nationalism which is based on
intolerance of other groups."
Ironically today, he is at the centre of
the campaign to dislodge the civil society and replace it with fundamentalist
and "ethno-nationalist" bodies.
The government today is evidently
involved in creating and sponsoring bogus organisations to extol Mugabe's
spurious values and mount a propaganda drive, locally and abroad, on behalf
of their master who is facing isolation and an ever-deepening legitimacy
crisis.
Financial Times
Aid agencies urged to seek supplies
locally By James Lamont in Johannesburg Published: October 25
2002 5:00 | Last Updated: October 25 2002 5:00
International aid
agencies were told yesterday that they should seek supplies to alleviate the
humanitarian crisis in southern Africa from the region itself.
During a two-day meeting in Johannesburg, the International Trade Centre
(ITC), an arm of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations trade
body Unctad, appealed to UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, such
as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Red Cross, to buy
more food and shelter materials from local suppliers.
UN agencies
have traditionally sourced emergency relief supplies from close to their
international headquarters.
The supply of tents for UN operations
is dominated by Pakistan, while heavy-duty tarpaulins are manufactured in
Europe. Emergency maize supplies are being imported into southern Africa from
the US and Latin America.
"Demand is very high," said Catherine
Taupiac, the ITC's regional trade adviser. "Supply from local sources [in
southern Africa] could double. South African companies, in particular, have
strong global potential with food items."
This week's meeting
has promoted the local supply of cereals, beans, vegetable oil and
nutritional foods needed as emergency food relief to drought-stricken
southern Africa.
Aid agencies have also sought to secure locally
made tents, blankets, mattresses, mosquito nets and cardboard
coffins.
About 14m people in the region face severe food shortages
as a result of a regionwide drought and economic mismanagement. The worst
affected countries are Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and
Lesotho.
HIV/Aids has worsened the effects of the drought. The
Geneva-based World Health Organisation estimates that about 200,000 people
will have died from a lethal combination of disease and hunger in the six
months to February.
The ITC expects South African companies to
soak up 90 per cent of the regional emergency relief supply
business.
South African companies supplied $29m £18.9m) worth of
emergency supplies to the UN last year. The UN's total annual procurement
budget is $850m so there is plenty of room for African companies to
expand.
The ITC believes contracts struck in support of this
humanitarian effort may serve for disaster management elsewhere in the world.
But emergency relief is notoriously a difficult market to satisfy.
Passports now take 10 months Mthulisi Mathuthu AS
the passport queues continue to grow at the Registrar-General's office, it
has emerged that the waiting period for the processing of a new passport has
increased from three to 10 months.
Sources at the RG's office this week
confirmed that the processing of a new passport was now taking longer than
before because of the shortage of the special paper needed for the passport
pages.
"Actually, we will be facing even more problems in future
because there is no paper and above all the paper is expensive," said a
source at the RG's office.
The demand for the passports has
increased countrywide as Zimbabweans flee economic hardships and misrule to
settle in neighbouring countries and the United Kingdom.
This
development comes after Mudede's office announced a more than 100% increase
in passport fees as part of a plan to ease congestion at Makombe Building and
to cushion the RG's office from the costs of producing a passport.
Ari Ben-Menashe link scuttles casino project Vincent
Kahiya THE collapse of the Hyatt International Casino project along the
airport road has been linked to the refusal by the promoters of the
project, businessmen Chemist Siziba and Cephas Msipa (Jnr), to testify
against Ari Ben-Menashe in the treason trial involving Movement for
Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior MDC officials,
Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela.
The Zimbabwe Independent heard this
week that part of the reason why the project collapsed was that Ben-Menashe,
who had promised funding, did not live up to his pledge.
This, the
MDC believed, was important evidence that would portray Ben-Menashe as
unreliable.
This week construction workers were busy pulling down the
structure close to Harare International Airport on Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Road,
signalling the demise of the project which has been shrouded in controversy
for over two years.
On Wednesday, Siziba and Msipa confirmed they
had been in touch with Ben-Menashe who had shown an interest in the casino
business.
When the treason charges against the MDC leaders were laid
last year, the businessmen said the party wanted them to testify in the case.
When they refused, Msipa said, the MDC-dominated Harare City Council
frustrated their efforts.
The three MDC leaders are facing treason
charges arising from video evidence Ben-Menashe provided suggesting they
wanted to hire his company, Dickens & Madson, to assassinate President
Mugabe.
Ben-Menashe is considered a key witness in the trial which
opens in the High Court next month. But he has sent mixed signals as to
whether he will appear for the state.
Msipa on Wednesday said the
council had taken a political decision in stopping the project. He said the
Chanakira Commission had given them the green light to go ahead but the
MDC-controlled council rescinded this.
"The current council decided to
rescind or overlook the commission's decision," said Msipa.
"We
then took a business decision not to proceed with the project. There was no
need for us to fight the current council which adopted a
political agenda.
"They tried to link us to some treason trial .
they believed we had interaction with Ari Ben-Menashe and they wanted us to
testify in the case. We declined to do so," said Msipa.
But
Siziba, in a separate interview, said the refusal by council to sanction the
project was not linked to their association with Ben-Menashe,
claiming instead that their building plan failed on a
technicality.
"It killed my momentum," he said.
He,
however, confirmed the meeting between the businessmen and
Ben-Menashe.
"I met Ben-Menashe a long time ago," said
Siziba.
"He had heard about a casino project going up and he wanted
to invest. We discussed with him and he said that he was going to write. He
just made an inquiry and that was the first and last time I heard of
him.
"When the treason allegation against Tsvangirai came up, I just
told Renson Gasela, who is my cousin, that I had met this guy," Siziba
said.
"He (Gasela) later asked me if I could be a character reference
for Ben-Menashe in the trial and I told him that I did not know this guy
because I had just met him for an hour, that's all," he
said.
Contacted yesterday, Gasela refused to comment saying the issue
of his treason trial was sub-judice.
Harare executive mayor Elias
Mudzuri said he could not comment on the issue as he was on business in
China.
But Siziba, in a separate interview, said the refusal by
council to sanction the project was not linked to their association with
Ben-Menashe, claiming instead that their building plan failed on a
technicality.
"It killed my momentum," he said.
He,
however, confirmed the meeting between the businessmen and
Ben-Menashe.
"I met Ben-Menashe a long time ago," said
Siziba.
"He had heard about a casino project going up and he wanted
to invest.
We discussed with him and he said that he was going to write.
He just made an inquiry and that was the first and last time I heard of
him.
"When the treason allegation against Tsvangirai came up, I just
told Renson Gasela, who is my cousin, that I had met this guy," Siziba
said.
"He (Gasela) later asked me if I could be a character reference
for Ben-Menashe in the trial and I told him that I did not know this guy
because I had just met him for an hour, that's all," he
said.
Contacted yesterday, Gasela refused to comment saying the issue
of his treason trial was sub-judice.
Harare executive mayor Elias
Mudzuri said he could not comment on the issue as he was on business in
China.
Trial of Men Accused in White Zimbabwean Farmer's Murder
Begins Peta Thornycroft Harare 25 Oct 2002, 19:13 UTC
Four
men accused of killing a white farmer went on trial this week in Zimbabwe.
This is a trial many thought would never take place.
David Stevens was
the first white farmer killed in connection with Zimbabwe's land reform
program. He was killed in April of 2000, shortly after the program
began.
The men accused of Mr. Stevens' murder were arrested a short while
later, but released from prison after several months, when their case did not
come to court. One of those accused, the man who allegedly fired the shot
that killed Mr. Stevens, has since disappeared.
Mr. Stevens was
attacked on his farm 100 kilometers southeast of Harare. The prosecution says
his attackers abducted him and dragged him into the bush, where he was
tortured and then shot.
This week, two-and-a-half years after Mr.
Stevens' death, the trial began. On Wednesday, the first witness for the
prosecution, who the state says may not be named for fear of reprisals, told
the court that, after killing Mr. Stevens, the accused men prepared a
cocktail made of his blood and alcohol and shared it among
themselves.
Political analysts say Mr. Stevens was an obvious target
because he publicly supported the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Andrew Ngongo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Crisis Committee,
which monitors political developments in the country, said the trial could
have been held shortly after Mr. Stevens' death.
But, he said, it was
likely the trial has finally started because the Zimbabwe government is
trying to improve its image following pressure from South Africa.
The
Amani Trust, a group that monitors political violence in Zimbabwe, says that,
in the last two years, more than 150 opposition supporters, white farmers and
their workers have been killed in violence related to Zimbabwe's land reform
program. White farmers and their workers have been accused by the government
of supporting the opposition.
Under the land reform program, thousands of
white farmers and hundreds-of-thousands of their workers have been forcibly
evicted from their farms.
The four men on trial are Richard Svisviro,
Muyengwa Munyuki, Charles Matanda and Douglas Chitekuteku. They are accused
of being part of the gang of about 15 who allegedly abducted Mr. Stevens.
The nation switches off 'gang of three' IT
will come as no surprise to readers to learn that ZTV's turgid National Ethos
programme has been declared one big yawn by viewers who rush for the "Off"
switch whenever it screens. This is according to ZBC's own
monthly survey.
Tafataona Mahoso, Vimbai Chivaura, and Claude Mararike
- the programme's Gang of Three - use the platform provided to propagate a
primitive and exclusivist nationalism that clearly fails to seize the popular
imagination.
This is hardly surprising: it is a televised version of
Mahoso's Sunday Mail articles. Volumes of esoteric material are hauled into
the studio and piled on a table. The eccentric trio hold up pages, and
particularly pictures, for their viewers to admire and absorb. That viewers
resent being treated like impressionable first-year students has obviously
not occurred to these partisan lecturers who turned the programme into a
party-political broadcast during the March election.
Last Sunday
Mahoso was lecturing his audience on the need for Zimbabwean journalists to
"stand up" to CNN and to Andy Meldrum and tell them that Zimbabweans had a
different point of view from the Western media.
Andy Meldrum is likely to
have a different view from CNN which was last weekend attempting to confuse
the issues with a little help from South African commentators. But the only
journalists likely to follow Mahoso's advice were those having to follow
Jonathan Moyo around Insiza and then write about the campaign as a triumphal
progress. Journalists thinking for themselves may have wondered why Zanu PF
cannot get by without seizing international food aid? Why it is incapable of
winning hearts and minds without beating opposition supporters into
submission? Why it won't allow the establishment of an independent electoral
commission?
Those are the sort of questions real Zimbabwean journalists -
like their colleagues in the international media - will be asking. Not
endorsing the fossilised nationalism that the Gang of Three are
hawking.
By the way, perhaps Dr Chivaura can clarify a report Muckraker
has received that he was known as "European" Chivaura at Fletcher High School
by his contemporaries. What was the significance of this
name?
Jonathan Moyo has been throwing dust in our eyes by suggesting
British High Commissioner Brian Donnelly was "interfering" in food aid
distribution. While appreciating the work of the World Food Programme, Moyo
said last weekend, the UN body should assure Zimbabwe it was not being
directed by the British High Commissioner.
"While we appreciate
assistance from well-meaning quarters, whether from the WFP or anybody else,
we are not going to allow it to compromise our sovereignty," he
declared.
So are we to assume that Zimbabwe's ruling party has the
sovereign right to steal food aid from the UN and hand it out to its own
followers? Because that's what Moyo's response sounds like. Does
"sovereignty" justify looting?
WFP representative in Zimbabwe, Kevin
Farrell, was unambiguous in his statement. Ruling party supporters seized
three metric tones of food aid and distributed it in an unauthorised manner.
Why was the central issue of theft of food aid not addressed? Instead we were
misled by stories about British involvement in getting the WFP to suspend
distribution.
Here again there were claims of spurious sovereignty.
Because the Zanu PF government has completely sabotaged agricultural
production we are dependent upon the generosity of other countries for food
supplies. The governments of those donor states have to explain to their
publics how food aid is distributed, even where the aid is channelled through
the WFP. There is very real concern in Europe for instance that Zanu PF is
abusing the assistance Zimbabwe receives.
EU diplomats would therefore
be delinquent in their duty if they did not monitor the distribution of food
supplied by their governments. They have to account for that. Where that aid
is abused or misused they have an obligation to blow the whistle.
Moyo
should stop huffing and puffing about sovereignty. Nobody has the right to
steal from donors for partisan advantage. The WFP has been woefully slow to
reach this point. In August its representatives were telling the press there
was no evidence of political abuse of aid. Now they know. Let's hope they
keep their eyes open in future.
Congratulations to the UNDP, another
less-than-robust organisation in the past, for telling it like it is. Its
latest human development report describes Zimbabwe as a
pseudo-democracy.
The Herald reported Chipo Zindoga, Zimbabwe's High
Commissioner to Tanzania, as telling a UNDP symposium on the report in Dar es
Salaam that Zimbabwe had once been regarded as a model African democracy. But
land reform changed all that she complained, demanding a correction to the
report.
She just doesn't get it, does she? A government that seizes land
regardless of its own laws, changes the judiciary when it doesn't like their
rulings, and then attacks civil society including the press, branding them
enemies of the people, is not one likely to be regarded as democratic by
anybody.
A colleague of Muckraker's who attended the Dar es Salaam
symposium said Zindoga proved excitable and unskilled in presenting her
arguments. As a result a potentially sympathetic audience ended up
unsympathetic. We particularly liked the UNDP representative's response to
the indignant criticism from Zindoga and Tanzanian officials on the rating
their countries had been given. Read the report and correct things that are
not working well, he said. What would seem obvious to most people will no
doubt have been lost on the Zimbabwean High Commissioner.
What is the
link between Tafataona Mahoso and Ibbo Mandaza? They were featured together
in the Herald this week claiming the decision by the EU and Sadc to relocate
a ministerial dialogue meeting to Maputo was a great victory for Zimbabwean
diplomacy. On October 11 the Zimbabwe Independent carried a story reporting
that the meeting would be moved to Maputo from Copenhagen because of
opposition by EU member states to having Zimbabwean ministers attending such
a meeting in Europe. There was no objection to Zimbabwe attending if the
meeting was held in Africa, hence the shift to Maputo.
How Mandaza and
Mahoso managed to extract a victory from all this is difficult to fathom.
Mandaza is reported to have taken a swipe at EU states saying none were
really democratic. Zimbabwe is, we suppose?
Throughout the article by
Lovemore Mataire it is rather difficult to differentiate Mandaza's or
Mahoso's remarks from the writer's. Who for instance said: "Following the
successful completion of land reform with President Mugabe explicitly giving
an unedited version of the Zimbabwean story at the World Summit in South
Africa, the majority of African and European countries have realised that the
demonisation of the government and President Mugabe was
unwarranted."
Despite Mandaza's sunny disposition, we have difficulty
believing he said that. And who said: "On the domestic scene the opposition
MDC and its allies are surely disappointed that their campaign to have
Zimbabwe maligned in the international arena has flopped. Their hate
propaganda has yielded nothing as many outsiders are beginning to see the
clearer picture of the Zimbabwean story."
That presumably includes all
two New York City councillors who agreed to act as public relations officers
for Zanu PF? Nobody else from the council would come!
The problem with
being interviewed by somebody like Mataire is that you will have words put
into your mouth and be made to look stupid. Whatever we may think of Mahoso's
poor editing skills ("To be continued next week"), we doubt that he would
describe the British as "over-aggressive", as distinct from aggressive, or
provide as an example of the divisions in the EU the fact that they all
agreed with Britain's position on Zimbabwe!
Mataire was given "free reign
(sic)" in the Herald on Monday to attack journalists writing for the
independent press. Those opposed to Aippa were dismissed as "gullible,
rapaciously ignorant and impressionable
novice journalists".
Justifying the establishment of the media
commission, he claimed one of its functions was to set qualifications for
local journalists. Evidently he is ignorant of the fact that this was one of
the clauses struck down as unconstitutional by the Parliamentary Legal
Committee and therefore dropped from the Bill. Which is just as well because
the commission's chair may have had difficulty satisfying the
requirements!
What a "nincompoop" - or "stupid little person" as Mataire
so thoughtfully explained to us in his piece deriding private-sector
journalists. Having seen him swallow every single ministerial claim made to
him - and a few more that weren't even made - we feel Mataire would best fit
the other definition of nincompoop provided by the dictionary: a
simpleton!
He feels strongly that certain journalists should be barred
from the profession.
"If it is proven that my conduct is no longer
that of a journalist but of a British intelligence spy or an MDC activist,
then surely there should be a law to ensure that I am banished from
practising as a journalist," he says.
But Lovemore, if we were to banish
every spy and political activist at Herald House you would be left without
any colleagues!
On the subject of spies we read with interest reports
that one of the regime 's foremost dinosaurs, Dr Tichaona Jokonya, is being
considered for the top job in the CIO following the former incumbent's
removal to Nairobi.
Jokonya would be the perfect choice. He was quoted in
the Herald on Tuesday as claiming that the UN report on the plundering of the
DRC was part of an international conspiracy against Zimbabwe.
"It has
come to the attention of the government of Zimbabwe," he wrote to the
president of the Security Council, "that the international conspiracy and
alignment of forces against Zimbabwe continues unabated as exemplified by the
grotesque fabrication of false evidence being presented to the (UN) panel by
our detractors through the Western media."
In other words: "We were set
up", the cry everywhere of those apprehended by the law. But who is going to
believe that? If this was an isolated case the government might get a more
sympathetic hearing. But theft in the region is difficult to disclaim when
systematic theft at home - of properties and businesses built up over a
lifetime of hard work - has become commonplace, indeed
institutionalised!
An intelligence service committed not to the discovery
of crime but to its justification - the Congolese Information minister was
quoted as saying they could do what they liked with the Congo's resources -
is one that will seamlessly place the interest of the ruling elite before
that of the nation.
Meanwhile, the Herald's chorus of denials is becoming
more shrill as the evidence of the regime's wrongdoing piles up. "We didn't
loot DRC" was the best so far.
Much was made in the official press of
statements by South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during
her recent visit to Zimbabwe. She was quoted as saying it was
"un-revolutionary" to criticise the expropriation of land in
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean state-run television reported that Dlamini-Zuma said
that people are entitled to hold opinions over how land reform should be
done, "but the real issue is the redistribution of land to the Zimbabwean
people and that cannot be wrong".
"It would be un-revolutionary to say
it is wrong to give out land," she was reported as saying.
Ronnie
Mamoepa, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, denied last week
that the minister made these statements. She apparently spoke to a few
journalists after meeting Mugabe, but it was "nonsense" to say she made the
alleged statements, he said.
We liked President Thabo Mbeki's description
of himself as Coloured. Speaking in Bekkersdal on the West Rand last Sunday
to a crowd which included unruly PAC supporters, he echoed sentiments
expressed in his famous "I am an African" speech.
"I have Shangaan,
Xhosa, Sotho, Venda and some white blood in me," he said. "Therefore I will
not tolerate any of the prejudice that people experience here because they
are of a certain tribal group."
He had heard a litany of complaints about
xenophobia and ill-treatment because people were Shangaan, Tswana, or Xhosa,
the Sunday Times reported.
Isn't it refreshing to find a national leader
who wants to embrace all dimensions of his people rather than exclude some on
the basis of ethnicity or totems?
------------------------------------------------------------------ Zimbabwean
arrested in 419 scam October 25, 2002,
09:00
A Zimbabwean national has been arrested in
connection with a suspected letter scam, which has been using the names of
President Thabo Mbeki and his wife to solicit funds from corporate
businesses.
The suspect is expected to appear in the Pretoria
North magistrate's court on charges of fraud. He was arrested after
allegedly failing to pay his hotel bill.
Another
Zimbabwean, who is suspected to be the mastermind behind the scam, is
believed to have fled the country, leaving his friend behind with the hotel
bill.
GREAT LAKES: Kinshasa allies announce final pull-out of forces
KINSHASA,
25 October (IRIN) - Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which have supported the
Kinshasa government during the past four years of war against rebel forces
backed by neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda, said on Thursday the final withdrawal
of their armed forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) would take
place by 31 October.
The announcement came at the end of a one-day summit
hosted by DRC President Joseph Kabila and attended by Angolan President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos, Namibian President Sam Nujoma, and Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe.
In a joint statement, the four allied nations also called
for the strengthening of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the DRC,
known as MONUC, and the verification of the withdrawal of Rwandan armed forces.
They also voiced their support for the holding of an international conference on
peace and development in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
The allied
leaders urged Kabila to persevere in his efforts to reach national
reconciliation through the resumption of negotiations leading to the formation
of an all-inclusive, power-sharing transitional government and the eventual
holding of national democratic elections.
"We are convinced that
President Kabila will continue to make every effort to move the inter-Congolese
dialogue forward towards achieving a durable peace, which is key to stability,"
dos Santos said at the end of the summit.
The inter-Congolese dialogue,
which ended in April 2002 in Sun City, South Africa, with agreement reached
among a majority of participants, was due to resume on Friday in Pretoria, South
Africa. Representatives were expected from all Congolese parties to the
conflict: the Kinshasa government, the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais
pour la democratie, the Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo, unarmed
political opposition groups and civil society organisations.
Angola,
Namibia and Zimbabwe sent an estimated 26,000 troops into the DRC in 1998 to
counter an offensive launched on Kinshasa by rebel forces backed by Rwanda and
Uganda.
On 30 July, the governments of the DRC and Rwanda reached a peace
agreement in Pretoria to restore the sovereignty of the DRC and the security of
Rwanda; DRC and Uganda likewise reached a similar accord in the Angolan capital,
Luanda, on 6 September.
Rwanda has since announced the withdrawal of all
its forces from the DRC, and this was verified by the Third Party Verification
Mechanism set up by MONUC and South Africa, signatories to the Pretoria accord.
[see http://www.dfa.gov.za/new/index.html]
Uganda,
which has withdrawn most of its forces, still has a limited military presence in
northeastern DRC at the request of the UN, in an effort to maintain stability in
a region torn by ethnic conflict and rebel faction rivalries fuelled by economic
interests.
Angola and Zimbabwe are in the process of withdrawing their
remaining forces in the DRC, while Namibia has already completed its
pullout.
The four leaders also pledged to improve their economic
cooperation, which is based largely on the mining and petroleum
sectors.
[ENDS]
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Will the troops shoot to kill eight months after? (Part
1)
Masipula Sithole 10/24/02 8:14:59 AM (GMT
+2)
LAST week I promised that this time round I would look at the
troops eight months after the March 2002 controversial presidential election.
This is the first of a two-part contribution focusing on the
issue.
But first, a disclaimer:
I am not a military
person. But this you all know. Neither do I flirt with the military. This you
probably know also.
I tend to shy away from men and women in
uniform and those in dark glasses because they make me uncomfortable. Yet
they should not. They are just fellow citizens who happen to be in uniform
and dark glasses.
So, on what basis do I discuss men and women in
uniform and in dark classes, you might ask?
Frankly, on the
basis of common sense. Beyond the uniform and dark glasses, we are the same.
They are just fellow citizens who have a sense of right and wrong just like
you and me.
It is from this very basic and elementary point that I
discuss the military. Human beings are the same, fanana; uniforms and dark
glasses camouflage this fundamental point known to rulers as they mystify
the difference between us.
Besides, a lot of these things (as we
mentioned in this column in past contributions) are nothing but mystification
of common sense. Usually labels like "classified" or "secret" or "top secret"
are used to mystify ordinary information like the number of casualties in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo conflict.
Or even the amount in
bribes a certain minister got in transaction X, or which chef is sleeping
with what sex worker in which flat in the Avenues, et cetera, including which
opposition politician is supposed to be on the payroll of the
state!
Sometimes colours are used on or instead of such labels with
blue, yellow and red progressively representing the magnitude of the scandal
or mystification intended. "Red" often stands for the highest scandal
or mystification.
The dark glasses are meant to produce a spooky
effect. There is nothing special about those glasses; you can see the enemies
of the state equally well, if not better, in ordinary glasses!
Enough of mystification and demystification. What is the likely behaviour of
men and women in uniform and dark glasses eight months from the March 2002
controversial presidential election?
Last week we suggested that by
dismissing or interfering with the popularly elected Harare mayor and city
council, the Minister of Local Government risks unleashing the popular
resistance or revolt deferred in the aftermath of the March
election.
We made the observation that the people and the
opposition deliberately did not resist or revolt, thereby denying the ZANU PF
regime the opportunity it was looking for, namely to settle scores with
the opposition once and for all.
Is the situation qualitatively
changed now from what it was in March? I argue that it has.
Will
the men and women in uniform and in dark glasses act differently this time
than they would have done eight months ago? I argue that
they would.
The situation has deteriorated dramatically from day
one of the controversial election victory in March. Zvinhu zvisina kuti twasa
zvinoda kuti zvibudirire chimbi-chimbi. Crooked operations must have
instant success. This has been denied the regime since the controversial
March presidential election.
lInflation has risen from 113.3
percent in March to 139.9 percent in September, and there is literally no end
in sight.
lUnemployment has risen from around 60 percent in March
to about 70 percent at the moment, and again there is literally no end in
sight.
lIn March we were assured that no one in the country would
starve, but now seven million people face starvation, and again there is
literally no end in sight. Even if the rains come, it takes at least three
years to produce a farmer, even vemombe mbiri nemadhongi
mashanu!
lIn March, VaMugabe could go to fend for us almost
anywhere in the world; now he can't, and there is literally no end in sight
to this isolation either.
lIn March, our country had some
commodities that it could sell in the international markets to earn the
needed foreign exchange; now it either does not have the commodities or the
markets, and again there is no end in sight to this either.
lEt
cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And when I say "there is literally no
end in sight", I literally mean it. What is dreadful is that there is
literally no plan to get us out of this mess we put ourselves in. If there
is, where is this plan?
The only plan there is is more oppressive
legislation. Ndizvo zvinongofungwa chete-chete. That is all the myopic clique
is thinking about day and night.
What about passing positive
legislation that reduces inflation, unemployment, starvation, et cetera for a
change?
Instead, the clique is busy, very busy coming up with this
primitive Rhodesia legislation (POSA, AIPPA, et cetera). And now this
medieval Bill meant to chase away the little bit of foreign currency the
country still gets from the donor community.
Murikuzvifambisa
sei nhai imi vatongi? What do you think you are doing? Kunge musina kurwisa
Ian Smith, kana kufunda. As if you never fought Ian Smith or never went to
school.
How could anybody who fought against the Rhodesian regime
or who is half-educated come up with POSA, AIPPA, and now this self-defeating
medieval legislation against non-governmental organisations and the donor
community? Reactionary to the core!
Our ancestors who led us
through the first and second Chimurenga (I have my doubts about their
involvement in the third) have given us the eight months since the March 2002
controversial presidential election to reflect and take an audit on our
rulers. Our rulers havachina zano; they no longer have a plan. Their only
plan is to oppress the people in the manner (literally) of the Rhodesian
regime.
Our luck is that things have been allowed to mature to the
point where it is now crystal clear where we are and why we are where we are.
Kuti ndiBlair, zvaramba! Kuti ndiBush, zvaramba! Kuti ndiTsvangirai,
zvaramba! Kuti ndiMasipula, zvaramba!
I am arguing that the
country is fast reaching a consensus about the source of its misery. The men
and women in uniform and in dark glasses are part of that
consensus.
Let us pick up this story next week.
a.. Professor Masipula Sithole is a lecturer of political science at the
University of Zimbabwe and director of the Harare-based Mass Public Opinion
Institute. While he is currently on sabbatical leave in the United States of
America, Sithole can be contacted at e-mail address msithole@usip.org and telephone number (202)
429 3819
AS the debate over
non-existent or crooked election processes continues all over Africa, it is
true that the issue of governance goes far beyond just how we choose our
leaders. How we relate to leaders even when they are chosen in clean,
transparent elections determines the quality of our politics to a great
extent.
Whether the leaders are self-appointed or elected, we on
the whole show a reverence for them, rather than respect, that encourages
them to think of themselves as being somehow ordained to rule
us.
This encourages the kind of arrogance and impunity that is so
common amongst politicians all over this continent. This will not
change unless the populace continuously makes it clear to them that we
recognise that they are mere mortals like the rest of us, and that we will
show no mercy in pointing out their foibles.
The rest of us
recognise that we will have to pay for our mistakes or failures in whatever
field, but African politicians consider it their right to destroy whole
countries and get off scot free, and generally we make that very
easy.
Another interesting phenomenon that transcends politics in
holding Africa back is our attitude towards prestige. Among the African
professional class, in and outside politics, there is an astonishingly
widespread sense of entitlement to perks, completely divorced from
achievement.
A young fellow will find himself appointed to head
some broke, floundering, loss making parastatal for instance. The first thing
that comes to his mind is not a turnaround strategy, but the purchase of a
luxury car befitting his new social status.
If Africa is ever
going to get anywhere, we need more professionals who get a sense of worth
and social prestige from what they are able to accomplish in their companies,
NGOs or government departments, than merely what they are able to get out of
them.
We need more Africans who realise there is no prestige in
living in the biggest house on the hill, and driving the most expensive car
in town, when your company is known to be on the brink of collapse. We need
more executives who are driven more by the desire to prove they can take
their companies from the verge of collapse to great heights, and that this
sense of achievement is far more prestigious than impressing one's golf
or drinking buddies.
Status symbols that are not backed up by
the actual status of having accomplished something merely make one a laughing
stock because they expose the shallowness of one's values.
All
over Africa, dealing with government departments is one of the most
demoralising and stressful experiences. Many civil servants get their sense
of power not from solving problems for members of the public, but by the
degree to which they can refuse to facilitate the solving of a
citizen's problems.
A minister will often feel more satisfaction
at having prevented the establishment of some great new enterprise, than
having been the one to cut the red tape and bring it into being
sooner.
Passport officials will often feel more satisfied and
powerful at the long line of hot, frustrated, uncomfortable citizens outside
their offices virtually pleading for their services, than at cutting the
backlog and serving them efficiently.
As long as this sort
of mindset exists, it will not make much difference whether those leading our
countries are the disastrous Mugabes, or more switched on
leaders.
Those of us who consider ourselves very
western-sophisticated can be as much of the problem as we can help to solve
Africa's unending problems. We go out of our way to show how we relate to God
in the American or British way, the Western diploma is prominently displayed
on the wall, the car is waxed to a high lustre every morning to make a good
impression at the golf club.
As much as we admire the trappings
of the sophisticated Western life, we often don't quite have the
stamina to do the long term, dirty work of trying to create the overall
prosperity of our societies,which is the quality we perhaps admire more about
the West than any other.
We don't have the stomach to deal with the
problems of starting and nurturing new institutions or enterprises 'because
if I don't have a Mercedes by the age of 25 everybody will consider me a
failure and my wife might leave me.'
We understand the problems
of our weak countries very well, but are often so caught up in 'being
sophisticated' that it doesn't trouble us very much if we contribute to them
more than to solving them.
A smart economist, businessman or banker
will eloquently tell us how much of our problem is that we don't generate
enough foreign currency, and what little we do goes to non-productive
imports. He will then promptly go out to buy the most expensive imported new
car on the market, or the most luxurious Italian fittings for his new twenty
bedroomed house.
Until we find a more sustainable middle ground
between our craving to be "Western-sophisticated" and our economic reality,
we will continue to sink, even as we imitate the citizens of economies far
more robust than ours. We intellectually know the importance of linking
consumption with productivity, as individuals and national economic entities,
but we have not really internalised it.
We are averse to risk,
only taking it when we are pushed and feel we have no option; we like to keep
our heads down and avoid all controversy.
We curse the corrupt,
incompetent politicians with vigour in private, but in public kiss them and
are very careful that we are not in any way associated with those the rulers
may consider to be trouble makers.
Ironically for a
post-independence Africa that never tires of boasting about sovereignty and
independence, we give whites an amazing degree of power over our thought
processes.
Hear a bourgeois, luxury loving African president or
government minister moan about the helplessness of his government to deal
with present day problems "because of what the colonialists did to us 20 or a
100 years ago", and you would be excused for thinking that the colonialists
still rule. In a way they do, because in our minds we have decided
that they do. And so government policy, strategy and pronouncements are often
more defensive, designed to cock a snook at the Westerners, than they
are pro-active and for the benefit of the Africans.
We will make
little headway as long as we are always in reaction mode to
Westerners. For Africa to have any hope of making headway, it will
require much more than getting rid of the venal, violent politicians who
plague the continent. It will also require you and me to be prepared to do a
lot of things differently in our spheres of work and
influence.
a.. Chido Makunike is a Harare-based political
commentator.
Johannesburg - A
South African farmers' group said last week a dry spell was battering wheat
plants and could affect the upcoming planting of maize critical to help feed
southern Africa.
The 2002/03 wheat harvest - estimated at 2.3
million tonnes - is also being hammered by the dry weather brought by what
the weather bureau is calling a "moderate" El Nino.
"We need
rain desperately in the next two to three weeks," said Fanie Brink, deputy
general manager of growers association Grain South Africa.
"We have
a dry spell all over the summer rainfall area and I am sure that it is going
to affect planting . . . and the wheat is really taking a battering," he
said.
The country's largest cooperative maize grower Senwes, said
in September unusually high winter rainfall had boosted ground moisture
levels ahead of planting, but dry summer weather would cut into the
crop.
Many southern African states are expected to rely heavily on
the maize produced by South Africa's farmers as a food crisis unfolds in the
region, threatening more than 14 million people, according to United
Nations figures.
South African farmers are expected to favour
white maize production this season to take advantage of high prices sparked
by surging demand for the human staple from the region.
The
South African Weather Service said below-average rains were expected in
coming months because of the El Nino weather phenomenon. South Africa
receives most of its rain in the spring and summer months.
"There
is no reason to believe that we should get a favourable rainfall season,"
forecaster Willem Landman said.
"We have to favour the high
probability of below average rainfall."
"It seems as if it is going
to proceed as a moderate El Nino," he said, adding that the dry spell did not
appear to be as bad as droughts in 1982 and the early 1990s.
El
Nino, which means "boy child" in Spanish, results from abnormally warm sea
surface temperatures in the eastern and central tropical Pacific, bringing
drought to some parts of the globe.
Adverse weather and political
mismanagement have slashed food production in southern Africa and aid
agencies are pouring food into the region to sustain millions of people in
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho ahead of grain
harvests early next year.
Brink said the eastern part of the
breadbasket Free State province, which produces about half of South Africa's
wheat, was particularly affected by the dry spell.
October
rainfall is critical for South African wheat planted around April and
May.
Farmers in the east of the country started to plant maize in
late September for the 2003/4 marketing year. Farmers in the west are
expected to start sowing in coming weeks.
South Africa produced
2.5 million tonnes of maize last season. Maize output for the 2002/3 season
was 8.78 million tonnes from 7.2 million tonnes before.