THE UTILIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES – ANOTHER CASUALTY OF ZIMBABWES’ LAND CRISIS … the salient points

 

Ø Consequences of Poaching

 

Ø It will contribute to a decline in tourism; tourists visit the country principally to see wildlife, and if it is not there, they will find a new wildlife destination.

 

Ø Negative impact on tourism due to bad publicity.

 

Ø Conservative estimates are that approximately 60% of wildlife has disappeared from former commercial farms due to rampant poaching.  This figure does not include the smaller species.

 

Ø Due to the natural habitat decreasing, territorial fighting has increased and resulted in some deaths.

 

Ø Wildlife Conservancies have not escaped unscathed, where poaching is prolific.

 

Ø Detrimental consequences for some marginal species; i.e. Black & White Rhinoceros, Tsessebe, Leopard, Cheetah etc

 

Ø Decreased revenue for the State from the sale of trophy animals.

 

Ø Decreased revenues for local communities where this takes place in CAMPFIRE Areas.

 

Ø Reduces the national reserve of wildlife species without a positive return for the nation.

 

Ø Will destroy the animal resource necessary for the successful marketing of photographic and hunting safaris for overseas clients, thus denying the country valuable foreign currency and employment.  The hunting used to bring US$45 million per annum revenue for the state.

 

 

 

Ø Reduced wildlife management within the National Parks system:  i.e. fences not being repaired, with Management being prevented from pumping water for the animals.  This is very serious since the game has become reliant on the artificial water points and we are experiencing a drought, so most natural water points have/or are drying up.

 

Ø No control of movement of animals and hence the spreading of disease, ie foot and mouth.

 

Ø There is reduced monitoring of endangered species.

 

Ø Uncontrolled export of rhino horn to the east, and an increase in elephant poaching.

 

Ø Uncontrolled export of animals to countries that do not have the correct habitat for the species.

 

Ø Where poaching is done by snaring

 

1. It does not discriminate on the species caught, and up to 70% of the snared animals are left to rot.
2. Cruelty to the animals caught due to the pain suffering.
3. If the animal is the not killed immediately by the snare, the process of dying from starvation & thirst is unacceptable.
4. A large number of animals poached are in calf, so we are loosing two in one hit and inhibiting the gene pool.

 

Currently tourists in the area of Hwange National Park and other areas’ can see the consequences of snaring; as numerous animals can be seen carrying wire snares around their necks or legs or bare the scars of this menace.  The majority of the casualties lie rotting in the bush unseen by visitors.  Even herd members of the Presidential herd of elephants are evidencing snares and their resultant wounds.

 

Some animals break free from the snares, but are so badly injured, that they either die a very long and slow death or if found have to be put down, due to the extent of the injury and infection.

 

Consequences of Tree Cutting & Habitat Destruction

 

Ø Increased soil erosion and land degradation.

 

Ø Habitat destruction which results negatively on vulnerable species that are habitat dependant. i.e. certain species of insects & birds.

 

Ø Contributes to the Greenhouse effect which results in global warming.

 

Ø Gold panning – deadly chemicals are getting into our water systems and serious erosion due to the huge holes erupting along the river banks.  These chemicals are also poisoning our wildlife.

 

Ø Bush fires which are deliberately started.

 

Ø Due to decreased habitat and vast areas being burnt/cleared, grazing/browsing is in short supply for both wildlife and domestic animals.

 

Culprits of Destruction & Poaching

 

Ø Members of civil society who are able to take advantage of the lack of the “Rule of Law” currently bedevilling the country.  This goes as high up as ministers and governors hunting indiscriminately and illegally.

 

Ø Members of government who treat wildlife as their own preserve, and often order local authorities or members of the Department of National Parks and Police to slaughter game for political rallies, and feeding the government’s youth brigades.

 

Ø Newly resettled farmers/war vets and squatters.

 

Ø Communities adjoining National Parks boundaries.

 

Ø Commercial bushmeat trade.

 

Ø Members of the armed forces.

 

Responsibility of Control

 

The Department of National Parks and The Zimbabwe Republic Police are mandated by the State to control poaching in all its forms.  This is rarely being enforced.

 

Poaching is rampant throughout the country; not even National Parks animals are spared from this scourge.  In fact, often poaching is done by National Parks staff members themselves, under the guise of shooting for staff rations.  These off takes are in most cases far in excess of the authorised allocations.

 

Methods of poaching

 

Ø Snares
Ø using packs of dogs
Ø commercial – using weapons – shotguns/automatics/handmade
Ø netting of animals and birds
Ø netting of our aquatic life
Ø poisoining aquatic life
Ø poisoning animals
Ø spears / bows and arrows / pangas
Ø disabling the animal, then clubbing it to death

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every
man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the
maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the
Sea, Europe is the lesse as well as if a
Premontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of
thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans
death diminishes me, because I am involved
In Mankinde; and therefore never send to
know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee
                           John Donne

 

JANE MARTIN

 

CENSURE

 

Concerted Effort

 

for the

 

National Survival and

 

Utilisation of Resources and

 

Environment

 

ZIMBABWE

 

 

 

 

 

THE WORLD EARTH SUMMIT
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
AUGUST 2002

 

INTRODUCTION

 

For once it is not the AK47, the legacy of one Mikhail Kalashnikov favoured by every militant and his dog from Cape to Cairo, Bagamoyo to Bengwela, and which has been one of the bells tolling, by way of its distinctive chattering fire pattern, for the wildlife of Africa… and particularly, in the context of this report, for the wildlife of Zimbabwe.  As with the bushmeat trade that has blossomed its sanguinary way across the length and breadth of Africa, decimating rain forest and bushveld species alike, it has not, by and large, been the curse of the Kalashnikov AK47 that has been the perpetrator of that particular mayhem.  Panga, spear, bow and arrow, ancient muzzle loader, hired or stolen sporting rifle, pits, the noose and the ubiquitous snare tend to be the tools of the trade for that line of business. 

 

The more silent killers, their insidious inroads into the resources of our country, our continent, our planet no less effective through their unobtrusiveness. 

 

In Zimbabwe the orchestrated destruction of wildlife and its habitat, the degradation of the rivers by the mushrooming illegal gold panning business, and the decimation of thousands of hectares of trees, a carefully planned exercise that forms part of a definite strategy of the history currently unravelling in this country is swiftly and steadily leading towards a moment that, should normality ever prevail again, the ecological damage caused will be irreparable.

 

It should be made clear from the outset of this report that the details contained herein pertain essentially to the wildlife and environment outside the boundaries of the National Parks under the jurisdiction of that relevant government body.  The areas of Zimbabwe to which this report refers are, in the main, the private conservation areas (Conservancies), and the once commercially viable farms on which wildlife occurred naturally or was re-introduced.  That is not to say that the wildlife and environment in the National Parks themselves are not under threat. 

 

Contrary to what the reader might be told by the relevant Ministers and other government mouthpieces at this Earth Summit, there is little to celebrate about within these regions, for whereas the National Parks of Zimbabwe were once safe and well managed redoubts for the dwindling wildlife of the region, as was the case with other areas of Africa, today, as never before, the lacklustre commitment by its managing body, the collusion of staff in poaching operations, and, that eternal bugbear, dearth  of funds – often exacerbated by mismanagement of funds and underscored more recently by disillusioned donors – has caused these once-upon-a-time sanctuaries to be raped and pillaged to a degree never before experienced.  A political campaign that has allowed many a genie out of its bottle to run amok, with accountability and recourse non-existent, has added its own dimension of battue to the foregoing. 

 

But, enough of the National Parks scenario.  There will be, as is customary, platitudes galore spilling forth from the custodians of that area of Zimbabwe’s resources

 

BACKGROUND

 

Over the course of several decades Zimbabwe has gained an international reputation for its progressive approach towards the management of its natural resources, both in its gazetted protected areas and in the commercial farming areas.  Without question one of the most successful programmes has been the establishment of large private conservancies… an amalgamation of units of land whose owners have taken the route of managing their wildlife resources jointly rather than individually.  This train of thought, and its implementation, was born of a vital need to enlarge areas of semi-arid savannas and scrub-woodland if wildlife populations were to have the space they needed to survive; to be able to move the distances required as they foraged in such poor resource conditions.  In some of the conservancies the original business of cattle ranching continued, where the natural environment allowed.  In others, where the hostility of the natural environment negated any of the plus factors associated with commercial farming, cattle or otherwise, large areas of land were given entirely over to what wildlife existed, with the introduction of further wild species that could survive, and indeed increase, despite the harshness of the environment. 

 

In agricultural terms such environmental regions are referred to as Grade Five areas… that is, areas where economical and sustainable commercial farming has no chance of succeeding.  A prime example of such a conservancy is the Save Valley Conservancy in the south-eastern Lowveld of Zimbabwe.  This conservancy, with a total area of 340,000 hectares (including two state owned properties) converted completely from cattle production to wildlife production in 1992 and incorporated the world’s first large-scale translocation of elephants (almost 600 animals) in complete family groups.  Along with predators and buffalo, the elephant populations of the region had been eradicated when the cattle ranching era had evolved.  Largely in vain, it would prove.  Whilst other species re-established themselves on their own, such as the endangered wild-dog which, in that conservancy, has grown to become one of Zimbabwe’s largest wild dog populations, in tandem with the various packs in and around Hwange National Park environs – many other species were also re-introduced.

 

It is the well-managed development and far-sighted vision of the conservancy-type project that became the cornerstone of the survival of Zimbabwe’s black rhino population.  With the decimation by poaching gangs in the late 1980’s, these originating mainly from neighbouring countries, of the black rhino populations in the northern-most national parks of Zimbabwe, a number of those rhinos still hanging on were translocated to private land.  It should be made clear that these rhinos remained the property of the government.  What was different was that, with this move, the protection of the rhinos became the responsibility of the relevant ranch owners, whose employment of game guards, and the implementation of anti-poaching operations was undertaken privately, out of their own pockets.  Whilst having such an endangered species on their property was, in some cases, an attraction in terms of ecotourism, the undertaking by the ranchers was essentially to assist the national rhino conservation effort.  Approximately 190 black rhinos were moved to different areas of private land within Zimbabwe.  Under meaningful protection again, that private land population has doubled over the last decade.  On the other side of the coin, the endeavours of the National Parks in their areas of management were insufficient to protect the remaining black rhino populations. 

 

The vast tracts of land, coupled with some of the reasons already mentioned, resulted in the Department of National Parks and Wild Life Management concentrating its efforts and resources on four restricted Intensive Protection Zones (IPZ’s), where approximately 150 black rhinos are being protected, with the assistance of significant donor support.  Of concern, it has to be recorded, is the effectiveness of the Intensive Protection Zones in the current circumstances prevailing in Zimbabwe.  Particularly so when poachers can, as they did on 28 March 2002, enter such a zone and go about their business successfully.  This occurred at the National Parks IPZ at Matusadona on Lake Kariba when poachers used pesticide to poison two semi-tame rhinos in pens.  They succeeded in killing one, removing its horn, managed to steal fuel, and took their leave.  Undetected.

 

Almost 75% of Zimbabwe’s black rhinos are on commercial farms and conservancies, whilst almost half of the national total of approximately 200 white rhinos are also on private land.  In these sectors there have also been poaching fatalities as a result of the land invasions, and we will come to that.

 

Because it is not enough that projects such as conservancies be sustainable in ecological and economic terms… that they also have to be sustainable in social and political terms, several of the conservancies have introduced their own outreach programmes.  Usually formalised via the relevant Rural District Councils through the formation of a community trust and a formal memorandum of understanding, such programmes include mechanisms that help to resolve the conflict between wildlife and humans whilst also garnering benefits for the humans living on the fringe of the ranching and conservancy areas by way of funds from hunting and ecotourism being channelled their way.

 

The founding of CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources), unique at the time of its inception in Zimbabwe, and now a programme adopted by other African countries, was a cornerstone and blueprint for such outreach programmes that promoted the use of sustainable resources.

 

However, all such schemes have been disrupted by the land crisis, and in tandem with such disruption has come a poaching crisis and a destruction of resource crisis of hitherto unparalleled proportions.

 

THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS

 

In Zimbabwe at the time of this report and the scheduling of the Earth Summit in South Africa it would not be unrealistic to use the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as an analogy for what is happening.  War, Famine, Pestilence and Death are riding high and wild, and it is not only the humans, black or white, that are succumbing to the plague.  The plight of the white commercial farmers and their respective workforces, who are in a state of well defined and declared war, and death… the plight of the majority of the black population who are in a state of famine, pestilence, death and war… all of this orchestrated mayhem has been chronicled by the world media.  To some degree.  What is only just flocculating to the surface are that the same Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are visiting themselves upon the wildlife and commercial stock of the country.  And in their wake the sustainable resources of the country have been torn asunder.

 

Since the land invasions began in earnest, essentially commencing in the Masvingo area in February 2000 – though there had been sporadic invasions over the previous two months – the wildlife and environment on the farms and conservancies came under threat also.  By the middle of June 2000 1634 farms had been occupied, and once the results from the election held on 24 and 25 June were known, the purgatory in which the country of Zimbabwe was engulfed ratcheted up ever higher.  Wildlife, agricultural livestock and the environment entered a new concerted phase of destruction.  No longer were the snare lines and sporadic shots in the night merely another indication that things were getting increasingly out of hand.  It was an obvious campaign by the government of the day to turn the heat up, in its determined bid to remain in power.  For the people whose support was paramount to it remaining in power, the grassroots population of the rural areas, it was a free meal ticket to help themselves to the massive supermarket around them.  After all, they were told it belonged to them anyway.

 

And the slaughter and destruction began in earnest.

 

The conservancies and game ranches in the provinces of Midlands, Matabeleland South and Masvingo have felt the brunt of the destruction, though no game or domestic stock area has been spared the attentions of the rampant genies making the most of their time out of the bottles. 

What has made the situation even more untenable is that the “every man for himself” syndrome reigns supreme as cabinet ministers, senior army and police officers, provincial governors, local authorities and the different factions of so-called war veterans’ leadership all struggle for their place at the trough, issuing orders and counter-orders in bewildering profusion.  International agreements signed by the government have proved to be as worthless as the local currency being printed at an ever increasing rate, whilst rulings and decisions made by individual “lightweight” ministers are summarily discarded, court rulings are routinely overturned and presidential decrees that deny access to courts for people at the sharp end of the land invasions are the order of the day.

 

As the wanton destruction of wildlife continues – with the meat of the animals very often not utilized, or, if so, a leg hacked off here, a haunch there; as the trees come falling down, more often than not in areas where not one seed of grain will be planted in the pillaged barren areas created, or if they are, will not germinate in the hostile environment invaded; as the fires sweep across the country, destroying wildlife and habitat alike… the world continues to turn.  Apart from isolated individual reaction – bravely taken at considerable risk to themselves and their careers – by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management, the supinity of these two government departments has ensured that the destruction of the wildlife and environment will continue unabated.  The sustainable resource credo is out the window.  When measured against the wildlife poached, the rivers and dams poisoned, the fires raging uncontrolled, the amount of poachers arrested and charged is abysmal.  And more often than not the sentence handed down, should a poacher be charged, is a joke… three days community service for a man arrested by game scouts who has a butchered kudu and warthog in his possession, along with two kilometres of snare lines taking their toll, unattended… the animals dying a lingering death and left to rot – it’s a waste of time arresting the person.

 

There is some communication, of course, between the people trying to keep that last of the wildlife from going down the plughole and the various ministers and levels of governmental hierarchy.  There is much verbiage.  Many platitudes are mouthed.  Many free lunches are enjoyed.  The right words are trotted out at the right moments. 

 

Such as these words of the Hon. Francis Nhema, MP, Minister of Environment and Tourism, spoken at the Thirteenth Cresta Wildlife Oscar presentation in Harare, December 2001.  More than at any other time in our past history, we need the support of organizations, not only those within the tourism sector, to promote this sustainable development, management and utilization of our wildlife and other natural resources for the benefit of all Zimbabweans.  My ministry is totally dedicated to working with all players in the tourism sector and with organizations such as the Wildlife Producers’ Association and the Zimbabwe Hunters’ Association, to promote sustainable development of the wildlife industry for the benefit of visitors to Zimbabwe and also the people of Zimbabwe.  We have built up a reputation for being a nation which utilizes its natural resources wisely and in an environmentally-conscious manner, and we want to maintain that reputation.

 

As eloquently as such words are manufactured, they nevertheless have little meaning at the coalface, where the management of sustainable resources actually takes place.  Neither do they have any restorative effect on the tourism sector of Zimbabwe.  The crisis within the country has impacted on the whole of southern Africa, and its fallout has been felt over the length and breadth of the continent.  Not only has tourism in the neighbouring countries of Botswana, South Africa and Zambia been affected, foreign tourists have cancelled trips to Kenya and even Egypt.

 

Back to the situation on the ground.

 

In the June 2002 edition of Outpost, the magazine of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, it was conceded that poaching had reached alarming proportions in northern Zimbabwe.  On the other side of the country it was reported by the Zimbabwe Independent of 9 November 2001 that settlers establishing themselves in the Gona re Zhou National Park were demanding that government grant them “appropriate authority” to exploit and sell the Park’s natural resources … naturally including its abundant wildlife.  And so it goes.

 

The three conservancies that appear to have been targeted for the most severe pressure on their resources are the Save Valley Conservancy (the largest in Zimbabwe), the Chiredzi River Conservancy and the Bubiana Conservancy. 

 

Each of the conservancies has maintained, in varying degrees of detail, records of the destruction inflicted since the land invasions first began.  However, even the most diligently maintained statistics represent but a fraction of the story, and generally err on the side of conservatism.

 

When one considers that, as one example, the Buffalo Range ranches (part of the Chiredzi River conservancy) have been operating a successful cattle and wildlife production system for the past 40 years in Natural Regions categorised as Three, Four and Five, where land is marginal for conventional agriculture, including livestock production : whose records, ever open for inspection over those 40 years are testimony to the professional management of their resources, whose estimations of game destroyed (quite apart from 60,000 acres of land), from leopard to waterbuck to cheetah to zebra is conservatively estimated to be 12,694 animals … wither resource management now?

 

Large tracts of land in all three conservancies have been declared “no-go” areas by the recently arrived settlers, a situation they enforce vigorously, assisted by the “war veterans” purportedly supporting their cause in re-acquiring the land that current history and the politicians decree belongs to them.  It is this lack of access on the ground that makes it impossible for wildlife custodians and veterinary personnel to get a clear picture of the damage done to wildlife and habitat alike – and where facts are few, rumour and speculation prosper.  Because of the “no-go” areas in the conservancies there is a question mark hanging over the status of the wildlife known, once upon a time, to be resident there.  This applies to both big and small game, and in particular to endangered species such as black rhino, wild dog and their ilk.  Some press statements have suggested that as many as 50 rhinos, black and white, have been poached during the land invasions.  As at this time of writing there is nothing to substantiate such guesswork.  What is known is that 15 black rhino have been snared, resulting in six being killed… two in one conservancy, four in another.  No white rhino have been recorded as poached.  Yet.

 

Over the course of 18 months, on 76 ranches in Matabeleland South, records show that 30367 animals have been killed and 39662 snares collected.  It is but a tip of the iceberg. 

Ranch scouts have been disarmed, intimidated and severely assaulted as they tried to perform their duties, and so are unable to determine the full impact of the snaring in their relevant areas of responsibility.  The wholesale removal of hundreds of kilometres fencing has resulted in livestock and wildlife mingling, with the resulting threat of endemic diseases spreading from the wildlife to the livestock.  Foot and mouth disease is a particular concern in this regard.

 

For one example of wildlife destroyed, and the threat imposed by the “silent death” … snaring, in a report originating from the Save Valley Conservancy for 25 July 2002, please refer to Annexure One enclosed.

 

Annexure Two.  The Utilization and Management of Sustainable Resources – Another Casualty of Zimbabwe’s Land Crisis … the salient points.

 

 

 

THE FUTURE

 

Like all thinking Zimbabweans, the farmers, ranchers and conservancy custodians need no persuading that the acquisition of land on which to settle land-hungry subsistence farmers is an inescapable imperative.  The massive question mark that hangs over the current free-for-all scenario, causing as much bewilderment as it does disillusionment to people who have maintained an efficient sustainable resource environment to the mutual benefit of themselves and their country over many years is the method of it’s application.

 

For the stakeholders, the ranchers, conservationists and visionaries who initiated the conservancy projects in the regions entirely unsuitable for sustainable systems of agriculture, with the soils poor and the rainfall low (Grade Five areas), the current on-going destruction of the environment makes the least sense of all. 

 

Perhaps the geographical position of conservancies such as Malilangwe and the Save Valley allows them some hope that sanity might prevail by way of the tremendous potential of the Trans Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA) initiative, long on the drawing board and now well set on its path towards combining countries, ecosystems and joint effort into multi-beneficial, profitable, sustainable wilderness and wildlife industries – and which will (or should) incorporate those particular conservancies.  Whether that hope is justified remains to be seen.

 

For the rest …. Their resilience will continue to be tested to the extremist of limits.  Because this scenario is not about land.  It is about power, at any price.

 

What price tag does the sustainable natural resources of a country have ?

 

This is a question we ask you, the reader of this document.  The other question we ask you is this.

 

Where are the voices and action of the many wildlife and environmental organisations that claim to care ?

 

On the grave stone of one of the world’s greatest hands-on conservationists, Bernhard Grzimek, up on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, where he lies buried beside his son, are these words :

 

IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS

 

The people of Zimbabwe who continue to keep their candles alight in their ongoing struggle to save what is left of a sustainable environment need a few more candles lit.

 

 

 

 

 

DIARY OF POACHING ACTIVITIES ON A RANCH IN ZIMBABWE
 
05/08/2002    Juvenile poacher caught with warthog and taken to Police
09/08/2002    5 Eland and 1 young giraffe killed and 1 eland wounded during the night, dogs and spears were used.  Meat of 2 eland removed in donkey cart.  Rest left for vultures and jackals.
12/08/02        1 giraffe killed at KB dip during night 10/08/02.  Taken away by vehicle from Joco (no telephones to make report).  Government heavy vehicle in about 2pm and left again at about 3pm loaded with mopani poles
12/08/2002    2 Eland found killed
13/08/2002    1.10 reported to Sgt Ndhlovu poachers with spears and dogs near homestead.  Police arrived at about 02.30 am fired 2 warning shots in air and returned.  In the morning 2 eland were found and the meat had been taken in a donkey cart
16/08/2002    3 Big steers were missing. As suspected they had been killed.  Found 2 eland and 4 kudu that have been killed
16/08/2002    28 pipes, rods, pump, mono pump head, electric motor, starter stolen, smashed the cement block.  Value $3500000.00
16/08/2002    1 kudu killed at Chipata, only the backleg taken, the rest has been left.
TOTAL IN 7 DAYS IS 12 ELAND, 5 KUDU, 2 GIRAFFE & 3 STEERS
NO HELP FROM POLICE OR NATIONAL PARKS, ALL MEAT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE FARM MOSTLY IN DONKEY CARTS
 
 

Zim Std

  
Yes, we have no prisoners  
overthetop By Brian Latham

 

POLICE in a troubled central African country have discovered a new method of avoiding troublesome paperwork-as well as difficult questions from lawyers, human rights activists and lawyers.

 

The simple process, described as "brilliant" by the chief of police, involves arresting lots of annoying people and then denying that anyone has been arrested.

 

It is believed the system was perfected in North Korea where the deranged leader of that country, a close friend of the most equal of all comrades, has managed to use the tactic on hundreds of thousands of people-who of course no longer exist.

 

Still, it is only in recent months that the tactic has been employed in the troubled central African country. And while it has been used only to a limited extent on journalists, human rights activists, judges, union leaders and professional students, it is understood the police are pleased with their progress.

 

"This is not Stalinist Russia," said a police spokesman, "It is not our intention to arrest millions of people and then deny their existence, mainly because we do not have any Siberian labour camps in which to hide them."

 

Still, it is believed the police are doing a sterling job by filling the limited space in various cells, holding centres and remand prisons to an extent never intended by the colonial architects who designed them. A non-existent prisoner told OTT that he was in contact with at least two other non-existent prisoners whom the police had vehemently denied were in detention.

 

Meanwhile lawyers complain that it can take up to a week to trace non-existent prisoners. "Very often when we find them they are in need of medical attention, which is also worrying," said one lawyer. He explained that the treatment meted out to non-existent prisoners was usually worse than the treatment meted out to existing "official" prisoners.

 

A troubled police spokesman denied the accusation of torture of non-existent prisoners. "There is no ill-treatment of non-existent prisoners because non-existent prisoners do not exist and therefore cannot be ill-treated," said the

 

policeman. "Besides, our cells are full of criminals and other enemies of the state, and as everybody knows, some of these people are very rough and violent, so who knows what happens in there?"

 

The tactic was raised to new levels this week when a newspaper editor was charged for publishing a story about a non-existent prisoner who subsequently became existent, but was not tortured. Instead he accidentally wired himself to the national grid, which just happened to be switched on at the time, itself an increasingly unusual event in the troubled central African nation.

 

A convincing police spokesman praised the ingenuity of innovative prisoners who managed to attach themselves to the electrical mains, despite the complete absence of any electricity in most cells. "They have obviously been taking lessons from their South African criminal colleagues who are experts at slipping on bars of soap, falling out of 20th floor windows and other such amazing tricks," said the spokesman.

 

He retracted the statement when it was pointed out to him that such things no longer officially happen in the troubled central African country's confused southern neighbour, where, of course, all prisoners are treated humanely unless they are being attacked by dogs or beaten with truncheons.

 

As for torture, the spokesman assured citizens of the troubled central African nation that it never happened. "While sometimes its kind to be cruel, we would never consider beating the soles of peoples' feet, attaching electrical wires to their bodies or putting their heads in buckets of water." Such methods of obtaining information from non-existent enemies of the state, he said, were old fashioned,outmoded and frankly implausible-except when absolutely necessary.

Zim Standard

 

  
'No chance of recovery with Mugabe'  
By Kumbirai Mafunda

 

AS recycled finance and economic development minister, Herbert Murerwa, puts final touches to his budget proposals for 2003, an overwhelming sense of pessimism pervades the country, with few expecting the minister to deliver anything special come 14 November.

 

A survey by Standard Business revealed that people are so demoralised that they expect no miracles from Murerwa, or the Zanu PF government which is largely blamed for the economic quagmire the country has sunk into.

 

Rashid Mudala, an investment analyst with First Mutual Life, says Murerwa was likely to stick to the status quo.

 

"There is no solution coming from Murerwa because a budget is used to fine tune the economy. So when things are running badly, as they are now, you can not fine tune them. So it is going to be a very difficult task. There hasn't been any change in economic fundamentals, which will be very difficult to achieve, hence we are going to remain with the fixed exchange rate, managed interest rates and spiralling inflation," Mudala says.

 

He says inflation ,which continues on its upward trend, needs to be addressed urgently.

 

"There is need to look at how to tackle inflation which recently hit 139,9% and one way is to put fiscal discipline. Our interest rate regime is also not healthy because it has encouraged speculation."

 

For the past five years Zimbabwe has lost its export competitiveness as a result of government's reluctance to implement sound economic policies and its refusal to devalue the local currency. On the other hand, expenditure has been on an upward trend as evidenced by ousted finance and economic development minister, Simba Makoni's request for a $52 billion supplementary budget in July.

 

University of Zimbabwe lecturer at the Graduate School of Management, Professor Tony Hawkins, is more brutal in his perception of Murerwa and government.

 

"As long as Mugabe is president there is no chance of recovery. It is going to be more of the same, compounding the existing crisis. The economy has been boxed in by politics. There is no way you are going to escape with this current government. So the only way is to get rid of this government," says Hawkins.

 

The professor adds workers should brace themselves for a major hike in taxes as government has to spend heavily on its much-vaunted land reform.

 

Munyaradzi Shumba of Harare concurs with Hawkins. "Nothing can be sorted out unless there is a change in government. We have been giving them advice which they have been ignoring for long. They have closed all doors to our international partners, so let a new government come in."

 

Although Mugabe has entrusted Murerwa with drawing up the budget for 13 million Zimbabweans, he was in charge of the same ministry during one of Zimbabwe's darkest hours in economic history when, in 1997, he awarded an unbudgeted $4 billion in the form of gratuities to 50 000 war veterans who were threatening to abandon Zanu PF. This single act led to the local unit crashing against major currencies on what has come to be infamously known as 'Black Friday'.

 

Said a Chitungwiza man who refused to be identified: "Murerwa has nothing to offer. He was a failure in 1997 as he yielded to political pressure at the expense of the economy."

 

Lovemore Muziwisi of Rusape says: "Government must increase food availability and work towards resuscitating the health and the education sector."

 

Dennis Mhlanga, a building contractor, wants Murerwa to address the needs of his sector which has experienced a slump in activity this year.

 

"Building materials are being sold at black market rates, which is impacting on builders and those undertaking construction projects, so government must reduce the prices of cement and building materials. They could start by subsidising producers of cement and bricks."

 

Munyaradzi Madzimure, a wood machinist student at Harare Polytech, says Murerwa should pay special attention to the welfare of tertiary college students.

 

"Government must increase our payouts because the cost of living has gone up and our loans from banks must also be reviewed," says Madzimure.

 

Zanu PF's quasi command economic policies have drastically affected the country's productive capacity, with traditional foreign currency earners like mining output shrinking by 4,1%, manufacturing production declining by 11,9% and agriculture, formerly the mainstay of the economy, contracting by 24,6% during the first half of 2002.
 

Zambia: Zimbabwe Farmers in Jeopardy
Zambia Accuses Zimbabwe of Blocking White Farmers From Moving Equipment Across Border

 

The Associated Press

 

 
LUSAKA, Zambia Oct. 28 — Zimbabwe has prevented 125 evicted white farmers from moving their equipment across the border to Zambia where they have been given new land, a Zambian official said Monday.

 

The white farmers from Zimbabwe lost their land under a controversial government program that redistributes most white-owned farmland to poor blacks.

 

The land reform program, frequently accompanied by violence, has brought commercial farming in the southern African country to a standstill.

 

Some white farmers hoped to relocate to neighboring Zambia and Mozambique.

 

But Zimbabwean authorities have jeopardized moves to Zambia by refusing to allow farmers to take equipment with them, such as tractors and irrigation systems, said Zambian Vice President Enoch Kavindele.

 

No immediate comment was available from the Zimbabwean authorities.

 

Many Zimbabwean farmers have applied for permission to relocate to Zambia, Kavindele said, and the Zambian government hopes to help resolve the equipment dispute.

 

 

Zambia accuses Zimbabwe of blocking white farmers wishing to emigrate 
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
LUSAKA, Zambia, Oct. 28 — Zimbabwe has prevented 125 evicted white farmers from moving their equipment across the border to Zambia where they have been given new land, a Zambian official said Monday.
       The white farmers from Zimbabwe lost their land under a controversial government program that redistributes most white-owned farmland to poor blacks. 
The land reform program, frequently accompanied by violence, has brought commercial farming in the southern African country to a standstill.
       Some white farmers hoped to relocate to neighboring Zambia and Mozambique.
       But Zimbabwean authorities have jeopardized moves to Zambia by refusing to allow farmers to take equipment with them, such as tractors and irrigation systems, said Zambian Vice President Enoch Kavindele.
       No immediate comment was available from the Zimbabwean authorities.
       Many Zimbabwean farmers have applied for permission to relocate to Zambia, Kavindele said, and the Zambian government hopes to help resolve the equipment dispute.
 
 
 © 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.