October 30, 2008
File photo: A Policeman assaults a fleeing civilian
By Our Correspondent
HARARE - Hardliners in President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party are allegedly girding up for fresh hostilities with fresh violence erupting in Epworth, hardly two days after the collapse of talks to share Cabinet posts with the MDC.
A man has been critically injured after being hacked by a machete in a slum district and police fired tear gas to disperse MDC and Zanu-PF supporters fighting each other in Epworth, a shanty town in the outskirts of Harare.
At least 20 MDC supporters were wounded in the crowded slum as police battled fresh clashes between the MDC and Zanu-PF over accusations that both sides were playing hard ball at the talks.
Police fired tear gas canisters three times to disperse the slum residents, who responded by throwing stones and barricading roads to protest the Zanu-PF crackdown that ended in the middle of the night.
As former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki struggles to reach a deal between President Mugabe and opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, there are fears that fresh violence was fomenting.
The Zimbabwe Times heard that Zanu-PF supporters in Epworth, allegedly instigated by Harare province chairman Amos Midzi, swung into action moments after the SADC troika failed to break a deadlock over the sharing up of Cabinet posts, attacking and assaulting rival MDC activists in the Epworth slums.
Zanu-PF’s shock troops are alleged to have erected two torture bases in Epworth on Tuesday, a day after the collapse of Cabinet talks, rolling out their terror campaign starting Wednesday afternoon targeted at MDC supporters.
The Zimbabwe Times understands the bases are located in Ward 4 at Rueben Shopping Centre and at Maulani.
The Zanu-PF goon squad is reportedly led by youth chairman for Epworth, only named as Zimbwe, together with his lieutenants whose names were only given as Garakara, Chikandiwa and Makangira.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said among the casualties of Zanu-PF’s alleged violence was MDC ward 4 councillor, Didmus Bande. He said at least one MDC activists’ whereabouts remain unknown.
The regional body SADC, which has called a special full extraordinary summit to handle the stalemate, and other international bodies have pushed for conclusion of the Cabinet talks but Mugabe is insisting on retaining control of every important ministry.
Mbeki is leading the SADC-sponsored mediation efforts after MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai accused President Mugabe of claiming victory in a sham run off
election boycotted by the MDC leader.
More than 100 people have been killed
and 200,000 displaced in unrest prior to the bloody run off vote.
On Wednesday, war veterans of the 70s liberation struggle against minority rule, vowed fresh protests if the MDC continued making “unreasonable demands and holding the nation to ransom.”
Civic society leaders and other special interest groups are also getting edgy over the deadlock. Attempts by women and youths to protest on Monday against the hold up in the conclusion of talks ended in a vicious police crackdown, which drew howls of condemnation from the rights groups.
Dozens were rounded up and taken into custody as police used rubber truncheons and tear gas to break up the protests.
The MDC warned Thursday that hardliners from Zanu-PF were preparing fresh hostilities and urged robust action by SADC to head off further violence.
“The behaviour of these Zanu-PF thugs is a violation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which recognises the basic freedoms of people such as association, assembly, speech and movement,” Chamisa said.
“The latest violence and thuggery once again exposes Zanu-PF’s sincerity deficit in this political deal.”
The deadlock in the power-sharing deal has tapped into simmering resentment over mounting poverty and the continued dominance of Zanu-PF in Zimbabwean politics despite losing elections.
http://www.irishtimes.com
Friday,
October 31, 2008
BILL CORCORAN in Johannesburg
AT LEAST 180 people have been
murdered and more than 9,000 tortured in
Zimbabwe since the general election
last March by people loyal to the ruling
regime, according to a new Amnesty
International report.
Many of the people subjected to violence in the
months leading up to the
June 27th presidential election run-off between
opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and President Mugabe were taken to
torture camps by the army and
police to be brutalised by people they often
knew, the report reveals.
"The bulk of the victims reported being
attacked because they were accused
by security forces, war veterans [a
Mugabe militia] and Zanu-PF [ruling
party] supporters of having voted
'wrongly' in the March election.
"Although it was difficult to quantify
the number of internally displaced
people, an estimated 28,000 people fled
their homes as a result of the
violence. The majority fled to urban areas to
seek medical attention and
refuge," states the
report.
State-sponsored violence erupted in Zimbabwe following the March
election
once it became apparent the ruling regime had lost its
parliamentary
majority and Mr Mugabe was forced into an election run-off for
the
presidency.
As well as physical beatings, the report claims many
men and women accused
of supporting the opposition party were also subjected
to sexual violence,
including rape, and their property and possessions were
uniformly destroyed
or stolen.
Released today, the Amnesty report is
likely to cause further friction
between the rival parties in the new unity
government because it calls for
the perpetrators of the violence to be
brought to justice as a matter of
urgency.
Tensions between the
Movement for Democratic Change and Zanu-PF are already
high because the
parties have been unable to agree on how key ministries
should be divided
since a power-sharing deal was signed nearly seven weeks
ago.
"In
extensive interviews in Zimbabwe, Amnesty International has found an
overwhelming desire on the part of the victims of human rights violations
that perpetrators should be brought to justice.
"Victims also want to
be able to access effective remedies including
reparations for the human
rights violations they have suffered," states the
report, Zimbabwe: Time for
Accountability.
Zimbabwe's recent power-sharing deal contains no clause
relating to amnesty
for the perpetrators of political violence, which means,
in theory, their
prosecution would be possible.
However, such a move
in the short term could further jeopardise the already
fragile power-
sharing arrangement as senior members of the military and
police loyal to Mr
Mugabe, who could have prominent positions in the new
government, are said
to have orchestrated the violence.
Despite this, Amnesty International
says the power-sharing deal has created
a rare moment of opportunity for the
Zimbabwean authorities to tackle the
long- standing legacy of impunity for
human rights violations and build a
culture of accountability.
The
NGO recommended the establishment of an independent commission of
inquiry to
look into all aspects of human rights violations that have
occurred since
2000.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by By Lizwe Sebatha
Friday 31 October 2008
BULAWAYO - One of the two biggest
public hospitals in Zimbabwe's second
largest city of Bulawayo has closed
its theatre unit after running out of
critical drugs necessary for all
life-saving operations.
Sources told ZimOnline on Thursday that the
United Bulawayo Hospitals
(UBH) - which is one of the two main public
referral hospitals in the south
of the country - suspended surgical
operations last week after running out
of anesthetics and other essential
tools, in yet another sign of collapse of
the public health
sector.
"We suspended all surgical operations last week after the last
stocks of
anesthetics and surgical thread ran out. The critical theatre
medical unit
has since been closed," a doctor at the institution speaking on
condition of
anonymity said.
ZimOnline reporters who visited the UBH
on Thursday found the theatre unit
at the hospital closed with staff saying
they were referring patients to
expensive private hospitals such as the
Catholic-run Mater Dei hospital for
surgery.
Another state-run
hospital in the city Mpilo General was not taking extra
patients from UBH
apparently because it was also running low on anesthetics.
"Mpilo also
faces shortages of anesthetic drugs. The situation is very
critical as it
means hospitals in Bulawayo, which are supposed to cater for
four provinces,
are not equipped to deal with disasters such as road
accidents," another
doctor added.
Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti blamed sanctions for
the suspension of
surgical operations at Bulawayo's state
hospitals.
"These are the effects of the illegal western sanctions
against Zimbabwe,"
said Muguti in a telephone interview on Thursday. "We
have a serious
challenge as far as the shortages of consumables and critical
drugs for
surgery are concerned. UBH has suspended surgical operations as a
result."
Last week the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights
(ZADHR)
blamed an outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe on broken down public
infrastructure, the result of years of an unprecedented economic decline and
political turmoil in the country.
Zimbabwe's recession marked by the
world's highest inflation of 231 million
percent, has hastened the
deterioration of key infrastructure needed for
economic activity and public
health such as adequate power and water
supplies.
The public health
sector - once one of the best in Africa - has been hardest
hit by the
economic crisis with the government short of cash to import
essential
medicines and equipment, while the country has suffered the worst
brain
drain of doctors, nurses and other professionals seeking better
opportunities abroad. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondent Friday 31 October 2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
said on Thursday that
President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party was in
denial about food
shortages in the country and was delaying formation of a
unity government to
tackle worsening hunger.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC's spokesman Nelson
Chamisa said ZANU PF was
burying its head in the sand instead of declaring a
national disaster to
pave way for more food aid to come into the
country.
"ZANU PF is burying its head in the sand rather than declaring
the situation
a national disaster and forming an inclusive government,"
Chamisa said in a
statement.
International food agencies - that have
only resumed operations in some
parts of Zimbabwe after Mugabe's government
lifted a ban on the relief
groups - say Zimbabweans are fast running out of
food with many families now
surviving on just one meal a day.
Several
families in some of the worst affected districts were surviving on
wild
roots and fruits because they have nothing else to eat, according to
aid
groups.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) about three weeks ago called on
international donors to make available US$140 million in emergency food
supplies in order to prevent Zimbabwe's food shortages from deteriorating
into a disaster.
The WFP expects hunger to worsen around January 2009
when an estimated 5.1
million Zimbabweans or about 45 percent of the
country's 12 million
population will require food aid to avoid
starvation.
However, the government rejects relief agencies' assessment
of hunger in
Zimbabwe as exaggerated in a bid to tarnish Mugabe and ZANU
PF.
State media quoted Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo on Thursday as
having
said that some relief groups were hoarding grain meant for food aid
in
warehouses so that they could portray a dire situation in
Zimbabwe.
But Chamisa said Gumbo's claims only helped to show how the
governing party
was out of touch with the unfolding humanitarian disaster in
the country.
"The statement made by Rugare Gumbo . . . shows that ZANU PF
is still in
denial that the food situation in the country has reached very
critical
levels," said Chamisa.
The MDC spokesman said a new
government would have to make the provision of
food its top
priority.
Analysts see a government of national unity proposed under last
month's
power-sharing agreement as the first step to ending decade-long food
shortages and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
However Mugabe and
Tsvangirai cannot agree on who should control the most
powerful ministries
in the unity government - a deadlock that is now
threatening to derail the
September 15 power-sharing accord.
The Southern African Development
Community (SADC) has said it would soon
call an emergency summit to try to
end Zimbabwe's power-sharing impasse
after the regional bloc's special
security organ failed to resolve the
matter during a marathon meeting with
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and another
opposition leader Arthur Mutambara in Harare
earlier this week. - ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6577
October 30, 2008
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO- Sharp differences among war veterans in Masvingo have
split the
provincial association with the former freedom fighters adopting
opposing
positions on the power-sharing deal between Zanu-PF and
MDC.
President Robert Mugabe and the two MDC formations this week failed
to come
up with a solution over the allocation of key ministries resulting
in the
case being referred to the SADC extra-ordinary meeting to be held
within two
weeks a thing which has riled some war veterans .
Two
distinct groups have emerged within the former liberation war fighters
in
Masvingo with one faction calling for Mugabe to give the MDC some of the
key ministries while the other wants him not to compromise.
Two
splinter provincial executives are scuffling to take control of the
affairs
of the war veterans leaving scores of the former freedom fighters in
a state
of confusion over which leadership to report to.
The old executive, led
by Isaiah Muzenda, wants Mugabe to maintain a
hardline while the other
faction, led by Tranos Huruva, wants the
84-year-old leader to hand over
some of the key ministries to the MDC
At a meeting held this week, the
Huruva faction denounced the old executive
led by Muzenda and established a
new one.
Sources within the association said the old executive has since
written a
letter to Mugabe for them to expel the "rebels".
"We want
those who formed a new executive to be expelled and we have since
written a
letter to President Mugabe who is our patron," said the source.
Muzenda
yesterday confirmed that there were sharp differences within the
association, saying he would deal with the rebels.
"The thing is we
want our party Zanu-PF and President Mugabe not to
compromise but it appears
there are sell-outs amongst us," said Muzenda.
"Those who say President
Mugabe must give the opposition key ministry as
part of the power -sharing
deal are members of the MDC and not genuine war
veterans, We are going to
take all the necessary measures to ensure that the
rebels are dealt with
once and for all."
However, a member of the Huruva faction, who requested
anonymity, yesterday
said they had taken control of the affairs of the war
veterans in Masvingo.
"What I want to tell members of the old executive
is that they are now
history", said the member. "Zimbabweans are tired and
what we want is proper
power-sharing deal.
"If Mugabe took the ministry
of defence then it will not make sense for him
to cling on the Home affairs
ministry".
The deadlock between the MDC formations and Zanu-PF has
sparked division
within Zanu-PF with some party supporters feeling that
Mugabe, who has been
power since 1980, must pave way for the formation of an
all-inclusive
government so that Zimbabweans focus on development.
http://www.businessday.co.za
31
October 2008
Marcus
Mushonga
CAJ
News
HARARE - More than 3500 disgruntled junior officers and police are
said to
have abandoned Zimbabwe's security forces over the past two months
in
protest at poor working conditions and low pay.
Junior
officers were unhappy with their low salaries and poor working and
living
conditions, as their superiors remained loyal to Zimbabwean President
Robert
Mugabe's government, said sources in the Zimbabwe National Army and
Zimbabwe
Republic Police, who preferred anonymity.
A police spokesman, Senior
Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena,
yesterday dismissed the claim as
baseless and unsubstantiated, and said law
enforcement agencies were
recruiting new blood to beef up the security
forces.
The
security chiefs have, since the formation of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) in 2000, maintained partisan support for Mugabe,
even declaring that they would not allow MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to
rule if he won the elections.
The home affairs ministry, under which
the police fall , is at the centre of
a power- sharing wrangle between
Mugabe and the MDC that has delayed the
formation of a unity
government.
Sources said junior soldiers and police, whose
basic monthly salaries of
about R30 were among the lowest paid in the public
service, continued to
trickle out of their respective organisations, unable
to support themselves
in Zimbabwe's gruelling economic climate. "The biggest
number came from the
army, where more than 1500 officers quit. From the
police, more than 1000
officers deserted, while the prisons service and the
CIO (Central
Intelligence Organisation) contributed the rest," said a senior
member of
the security forces who did not want to be named.
"The
officers who quit either go to neighbouring SA and Botswana, where they
do
menial jobs, or just join the informal sector locally."
Another
source, from King George army barracks in Harare, told a similar
story: "The
junior officers are not happy that they continue to earn peanuts
from the
government, yet they are the ones that do all the dirty work. Right
now,
they can hardly afford to provide basics for their families, yet the
bosses
drive around in expensive motor vehicles and earn various perks."
A
senior policeman based at the police general headquarters in Harare said
2000 junior officers had left since August.
"We are set to lose
even more noncommissioned officers before the end of the
year, as more than
1000 more have submitted their resignation letters, to be
effected on
December 31."
He said a recruitment drive had failed to net the 50000
officers targeted
for 2010. Most of those leaving were young men and women
aged under 30. He
said that besides low salaries, the junior officers were
struggling to find
accommodation in police camps.
"The young
officers are now being forced to live out of camps, which means
an extra
cost in rentals, now charged in foreign currency, while transport
also
becomes another expense. Those living in camps are crammed in small
rooms
where you find seven officers sharing a single room meant for one
person,"
he said.
http://www.radiovop.com
MASVINGO, October 31 2008 - Chaos and confusion
marred the Grade Seven
exams which ended Thursday - under the invigilation
of the police.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ) said some students
failed to sit for the exams, while other schools
failed to get the exam
papers.
At some schools like
Mvundusi, Mazorodze and Dombo primary school in
Chivi district, there was a
low student turnout for the exams, while the
police outnumbered the
teachers, Chauke said.
"It is a disaster, more than 20 students
did not turn up for exams at
Mvundisi primary school, while at Mwenezi
district's Chingano primary
school, the Shona paper two was delayed as they
had not received the exams,"
said Chauke.
He added that the
exams were only written later as they had to get the
paper from another
school where students had already sat for the exams.
"They had
to borrow the exam from another satellite school, Mateke,
after the pupils
there had already written the exams. The explanation given
was that the
exams had not been collected from ZIMSEC, which only delivered
the exams a
day before the commencement of the exams last Sunday
Meanwhile,
teachers who spoke to Radio VOP said they had not gone back
to work to
conduct the exams despite the pledge by Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono to
give them allowances amounting to $1 million a day for
invigilating. Another
amount was also promised to be deposited in the
teachers' accounts at pay
day.
"Gono is trying to treat the symptoms, instead of the
cause of the
disease. The teachers are disgruntled, their salaries fall
below the poverty
datum line, and to promise us the allowances without an
assurance would be a
lie. We have been fooled before," said a teacher
RadioVOP caught up with at
a bank queue in the city.
No
comment could be obtained from ZIMSEC, or the Minister of
Education, Sports
and Culture, by the time of going to print.
http://news.hararetribune.com
Friday, 31 October 2008 02:00 Trymore
Magomana
The death toll from an outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe's
capital Harare has
increased to four, up by one from yesterday. The latest
three victims were a
husband and wife and an unrelated child in
Budiriro.
The deaths brings to 124 the number to have died of
the disease this year
across the country, according to the Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for
Human Rights (ZADHR)'s figures.
Harare
city healthy officials have traced the recent outbreak of cholera in
Budiriro to a contaminated well where some of the residents of Budiriro had
been fetching their domestic water supplies.
All across the city of
Harare, residents are being forced to fetch water
from vulnerable sources
owing to the non-supply of clean water by the
ZANU-PF government's appointed
ZINWA. Since ZINWA took over the distribution
of water supplies from the
city, residents have endured constant water cuts,
some lasting as long as as
three months.
"We are worried by the way is spreading around the country,
but we are
putting in measures to eradicate it," Health minister Dr David
Parirenyatwa,
who led ZANU-PF units out in Murehwa during the ZANU-PF
campaign of violence
prior to the June 27 election, said.
In addition
to the fatal cases, another 40 people have been infected by the
malady and
26 of those are being treated at nearby Beatrice Infectious
Diseases
Hospital.
The latest cholera outbreak in Budiriro comes after ZINWA
failed to supply
the township with clean water for the past two
months.
Long has the ZANU-PF government been told to take the
distribution of water
seriously, but the government, instead of supplying
ZINWA with foreign
currency so it could improve the water reticulation,
chose to buy cars and
gifts for judges and other civil
servants.
Medical sources say the problem of the cholera is far more
widespread than
Robert Mugabe's authorities admit.
Since September,
16 people have died in the dormitory township of
Chitungwiza on Harare's
southern outskirts.
ZADHR said the repeated outbreaks of the disease
"indicates the absence of
capacity and ability of the government to manage
public health."
Government officials have been on their toes trying to
contain the spread of
the disease. In addition to quarantining people in
Budiriro, the government
is now supplying the residents of the township with
clean water and has
launched a campaign to shutdown contaminated
wells.
Water supplies to the crowded townships that house most of the
capital's
poor like Mabvuku, Tafara, Glenview, and Zengeza have dried up,
resulting in
burst pipes and drains that send rivers of raw effluent running
through the
streets, filtering into the unprotected wells that people are
forced to dig
to for water.
Without an urgent operation to restore
water supplies, the onset of the
rainy season "could result in cholera
becoming endemic," ZADHR said.
Medical officials said that the latest
cholera outbreak will likely claim
more lives before it can be brought under
control. The conditions for the
epidemic to spread are still in place and it
was unlikely that it would
stop, they warned the ZANU-PF
government.
Zimbabwe's health care system, once one of the best in
Africa, has all but
collapsed.
The continued march of the cholera
epidemic across the city, unchecked, is
but one exhibit of how far the
health system has collapsed.
http://www.afriquenligne.fr
Harare, Zimbabwe - A group
of South African government officials have
arrived in Zimbabwe for talks on
a 300-million Rand agricultural financing
aid package which Pretoria has
pledged for its troubled northern neighbour.
South Africa, concerned about
the likely negative impact Zimbabwe's economic
crisis could have on food
production in the next farming season starting
next month, last week
unveiled a R300 million agricultural input financing
package for the
country.
It is meant to finance procurement of inputs such as
fertilizers, chemicals,
seeds and fuel which are critically in short
supply.
Zimbabwean officials said the South African team was in the
country to work
out modalities for the delivery of the aid package, likely
to be in the form
of inputs and not cash.
They said the team was due
to meet officials from several government
departments and agencies,
following that of another delegation from the
Department of
Agriculture.
"The officials came to discuss the modalities of
implementing the pledge,"
Christian Katsande, permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Industry and
International Trade, said.
There are
widespread fears Zimbabwe, already facing food shortages, could be
plunged
into a deeper crisis next year due to lack of farming inputs.
The country
is currently importing food from neighbouring countries,
including South
Africa.
Harare - 30/10/2008
Pana
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
30 October
2008
The spreading dollarization of the Zimbabwean economy
with more and more
stores demanding hard currency for even the most basic
goods and services
has enormously complicated the struggle for survival for
many people.
Ten kilograms of maize meal, a Zimbabwean staple food,
went for US$7 while a
bottle of cooking oil fetched US$5 this week - if
shoppers could produce
greenbacks.
Even if stores would accept
Zimbabwe dollars, those prices when converted
into the local currency at
prevailing rates amount to hundreds of thousands
of dollars, this at a time
when even those with incomes can only withdraw
Z$50,000 a day from the
bank.
Economists say dollarization has taken hold because retailers and
other
businesses want to preserve the value of their receipts in the face of
hyperinflation that was last measured by Zimbabwean authorities at some 231
million percent.
The Reserve Bank has licensed about 1,000 stores
to price their goods in
U.S. dollars, South African rand or other hard
currencies, but the central
bank was only legalizing a practice that was
widespread. Rents are also
widely set in hard currency.
Economist
Nyasha Muchichwa of the Labor and Economic Development Research
Institute of
Zimbabwe told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that
the dollarization trend is aggravating the food security
crisis gripping the
nation.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
30 October
2008
Zimbabwe's mounting food crisis became intertwined with
the country's
troubled power-sharing process Thursday as President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF
traded barbs with the Movement for Democratic Change of
prime
minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai.
Responding to MDC charges
that the stalemate in power-sharing over the
allocation of cabinet posts is
proving fatal to malnourished Zimbabweans,
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo
alleged in an interview with the state-run
Herald newspaper that the
culprits were non-governmental organizations which
he said were hoarding
food.
The Mugabe government in June imposed a ban on NGO food
distribution,
accusing such organizations of supporting the MDC, and only
lifted the ban
completely in August.
Government officials have
accused Tsvangirai of stubbornly holding out for
concessions in the
power-sharing talks and delaying the expansion of
humanitarian assistance.
The MDC for its part has accused ZANU-PF of
neglecting the needs of the
people.
United Nations food agencies have estimated that 5.1 million
Zimbabweans
will face hunger and need food assistance by early next year.
Meanwhile
agricultural experts are writing off the 2008-2009 crop season for
lack of
seed and fertilizer.
Gumbo told the Herald that
Zimbabweans have resorted to eating wild fruits,
but said this is not
unusual as rural dwellers have always augmented their
diet this
way.
But the MDC issued a statement accusing Gumbo of hit playing games
when
people are suffering, saying, "The self-styled minister denies that
Zimbabweans are eating wild fruits, adding that the people have been doing
this since 'time immemorial.'"
The statement added: "Gumbo should
tell the nation when he last had his
supper of wild fruits and where ZANU-PF
members are enjoying their wild
fruit meals."
Spokesman Nelson
Chamisa of the MDC formation headed by Tsvangirai said the
leader met
Thursday with civic groups to brief them on the talks, and
rebutted the
statement from Gumbo, saying ZANU-PF intransigence is delaying
humanitarian
assistance.
Despite the growing humanitarian emergency there was
little evidence of
urgency on the part of the Southern African Development
Community, whose
committee on politics, security and defense unsuccessfully
tried to break
the Harare deadlock this week.
South African Foreign
Affairs Director General Ayanda Ntsaluba told
reporters in Pretoria Thursday
that no firm date has been set for a SADC
summit to consider the deadlock
and propose a solution. Ntsaluba said SADC
foreign ministers would meet in
Maputo, Mozambique, next week to determine
the summit's date and
venue.
From Harare, Director Forbes Matonga of Christian Care, one of the
United
Nations World Food Program's main implementing partners in the
country,
rejected Gumbo's accusation that NGOs are hoarding food, saying
that the
process of establishing equitable mechanisms for the distribution
of food is
a complex process.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of
State said it "regrets that six-weeks
impasse over the implementation of the
September 15 power-sharing agreement
for Zimbabwe was not resolved" in the
SADC mini-summit held in Harare on
Monday.
The statement said the
American government "condemned the Mugabe regime's
refusal to implement a
genuine and equitable power-sharing agreement and its
continued use of
violence against peaceful demonstrators." Police fired tear
gas and
dispersed students and women who demonstrated in Harare on Monday to
demand
that the parties to the power-sharing come to an agreement and form a
national unity government.
Washington said it shares the concern
of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
about "the negative effect the impasse
is having on the people of Zimbabwe,
who continue to suffer terribly." Ban
issued a statement on Wednesday urging
Southern African leaders to take more
"decisive" action and for Mr. Mugabe
to meet international expectations.
http://www.voanews.com
By Tendai
Maphosa
Harare
30 October 2008
Zimbabwe's
political and economic crisis has forced many to leave the
country to seek
refuge or better opportunities elsewhere. But, as Tendai
Maphosa reports,
there are also those who could leave but choose to stay in
Zimbabwe.
Unsubstantiated estimates put the number of Zimbabweans in
neighboring South
Africa at three million. More are scattered across the
Southern African
region.
Britain has also attracted thousands while
Australia, New Zealand and the
United States are other popular overseas
destinations.
For the unskilled, the options are limited. Most of those
in South Africa
are there illegally. They end up working as laborers or
doing other menial
work for very little pay. They run the risk of being
arrested and deported
to Zimbabwe.
For the highly-skilled, especially
in areas such as medicine and information
technology, opportunities are
available in many countries.
But some choose to stay in Zimbabwe and deal
with the hardships. Dr. Douglas
Gwatidzo falls into this
category.
VOA asked him why he has not considered taking his practice
someplace where
life would be easier. He says he has actually considered
leaving, but has
decided his services are of more value here at
home.
"Despite all these problems, the little contribution that I am
making goes a
long way towards alleviating somebody's suffering so whatever
little that I
am achieving for the few people, I think I am doing my bit,"
said Gwatidzo.
In addition to the serious challenges facing medical
professionals in
Zimbabwe, Dr. Gwatidzo is also the chairman of the
Zimbabwean Association of
doctors for Human Rights. This means he deals with
and exposes cases of
torture and physical abuse by government officials, not
a very safe job
considering the current situation in Zimbabwe.
Walter
Wanyanya has also decided his future lies here. At 29 he is a
computer
technician who has worked for one of the world's biggest computer
companies.
He could easily get employment outside Zimbabwe, but he has also
decided to
stick it out here.
"I believe in Zimbabwe and what Zimbabwe has got to
offer and there is so
much that we can still do. I think our infrastructure
is still very much
intact as much as everything else around us is negative,"
said Wanyanya. "If
I am going to leave, I am going to leave to get more
education and come back
and build Zimbabwe because at the end of the day
this is home."
While Wanyanya and Dr. Gwatidzo are examples of those who
have decided to
stay, there are those who leave and return to
Zimbabwe.
Kudzai and Trevor Davis fall into this category.
Trevor
has lived in Zimbabwe since 1984 and considers himself a Zimbabwean.
In
2005, the couple decided to go to Davis's native Wales to further their
education and look around for opportunities. But once they were done with
their studies and worked a bit, Trevor says, they felt an overwhelming
desire to come home.
Kudzai says she found Wales and the Welsh people
very nice, but it still was
not home.
"It is that much harder. You
have got so little space, the child care
demands are so much more, my
children were very small at that time and it
just felt really quite
overwhelming and at the same time it is not a cheap
place to live," said
Kudzai. "The United Kingdom is actually very expensive
and whatever little
money you make or whatever much money you make, there is
lots of demand on
you to spend it quickly."
Trevor added that despite things such as
schooling for their children and
health care being more certain in Britain
they are prepared to give it their
best shot here.
"One of the
biggest worries now is education for our eldest daughter," he
added. "I
think it says something that there is immense competition for
first grade
places for school kids. It just shows you that there are a lot
of people
still here who never went away and a lot of people coming back now
and
trying to look to the future with their families. Wherever you go, I
believe
there's problems."
All those who VOA spoke to do not blame those who
leave. They all expressed
the hope that those who have left will bring
much-needed skills and
experience back home when political change enables
them to return.
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com
Local News
October 31, 2008 | By Simba
Dzvairo
Embattled Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono says he
will step
down at the end of his next month term and will not seek to be
re-appointed.
"I know one thing for certain, this governor shall not
serve one day longer
than he is allowed by his principals,"Gono told
delegates to the just-ended
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)
congress.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti who is highly tipped to take
over as
Minister of Finance in the new all inclusive government early this
year
blamed Gono for Zimbabwe's economic woes.
"Gono is the number
one enemy of this country, not inflation,"
Biti,MDC-Harare East said. "He
has been stoking the fires of inflation
through quasi-fiscal
activities.
Banker and senior MDC official Elton Mangoma who could be
appointed Minister
of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion is a vocal
critic of the
central bank chief and called Gono's recent monetary policy
statement,
inconsequential "tinkering" with the symptoms of the
problem.
Sources speculated that Gono will likely be replaced by deputy
governor,
Edward Mashiringwani as acting governor until a suitable
replacement is
found.
The theme for this year's CZI congress was
"Economic Policy,
Industrialisation, Agriculture, Economic Policies and
Infrastructure
Development".
"CZI believes in the free enterprise
system and with strong, well focused
policies, as the only way of restoring
viability and the return to the
economic growth path, hence the objective is
to use this congress to come up
with strategies and concrete policy
proposals on industrialisation,
agriculture, economic policies and
infrastructure development," the CZI said
in a statement announcing the
congress dates last week.
http://www.nytimes.com
Editorial
Published: October 31, 2008
President Robert Mugabe is
responsible for much of Zimbabwe's terrible
suffering. But so long as
Africa's leaders allow Mr. Mugabe and his henchmen
to bully them into
silence - with phony claims of anti-colonialism and
national sovereignty -
they are fully complicit.
Earlier this week, leaders from South Africa,
Angola, Mozambique and
Swaziland said they had failed to find a way to
implement a power-sharing
agreement between Mr. Mugabe and the opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
They handed the problem over to a summit of the
15-member Southern African
Development Community. The group must come
together quickly and be ready to
bring whatever pressure is necessary to
force Mr. Mugabe to finally cede
real power.
While Mr. Mugabe wrangles
and delays, most of his countrymen are going
without adequate food, medicine
or fuel. Inflation is running at an
incomprehensible annual rate of 231
million percent.
Mr. Tsvangirai won the first round of Zimbabwe's
presidential election but
was forced to withdraw from the runoff by Mr.
Mugabe's army-backed thugs.
After considerable international pressure, Mr.
Mugabe grudgingly agreed to
accept a power-sharing deal. Then he announced
that his loyalists would run
the major ministries, including those that
control the army and the police.
Mr. Tsvangirai is insisting that Mr.
Mugabe cannot keep control of the Home
Affairs Ministry, which runs the
police. Mr. Tsvangirai painfully knows why
that is so important: He has been
repeatedly arrested and harassed by the
police and was beaten and tortured
to within an inch of his life in March
2007.
In a statement earlier
this week, the participating southern African leaders
"noted with concern
disagreements in the allocation" of the Home Affairs
Ministry and spoke of
the need "to further review the current political
situation in Zimbabwe as a
matter of urgency."
We hope that behind the diplomatic patter there is a
true sense of urgency
and disgust that will finally galvanize all of
southern Africa's leaders to
quick and effective action. Until then, the
rest of the world must keep up
the pressure: denying visas to Mr. Mugabe's
cronies; freezing their bank
accounts and other assets; and looking for
other ways to make clear that the
looting and terrorizing of Zimbabwe will
no longer be tolerated.
30th October 08
The darkness that is
at the heart of this desperate situation, centered in
one man, the man
Mugabe, is about a choice, between choosing corruption,
greed and self
interest over choosing compassion for the dying sons and
daughters of
Zimbabwe. It takes more than just one man to bring this
darkness, and those
who are amongst their number today have this choice.
They can continue to
take the money, turn a blind eye, and ignore the
suffering of the people, or
they can say no, enough is enough, while there
is still
time.
At Zimfest 2008 here in the UK, I witnessed the mixture of
sadness and joy
of Zimbabweans, both black and white, coming together, so
sad to be away
from their country, but so joyful, for a short time, to be
together. Maybe
through the pain of these seemingly wasted years, the new
free Zimbabwe that
IS coming will own the words of Martin Luther, when he
dreamed that men one
day would be judged "not by the colour of their skin,
but by the content of
their character"
I am nobody in
particular, but God did show me the pain he feels for
Zimbabwe, and since
that day (a few weeks before the June Elections this
year) my burden and
passion has been to pray, and support in any way I can
the hope of a better
Zimbabwe; he also showed me a vision of me meeting a
great man of Zimbabwe
in a free Zimbabwe under an amazingly blue sky. This
is no dream though. IT
WILL HAPPEN, ZIMBABWE WLL BE FREE! You are not
alone, God is with you, and
people all over the world are praying for you.
However, I repeat
my simple message for those whom Mugabe buys in the army,
the police, in the
civil service etc - REPENT! The money you are paid is
soaked in the blood of
children, women and young men of your wonderful
country; can you continue to
turn a blind eye and be made rich while your
children die? Men of the
Police, how can you beat up old women, the mothers
of your nation, and your
courageous young men just because they dare to say
enough is enough? Turn
around and stand with the people! Do not believe you
will escape the
judgment of God if you don't for the evil you are doing; the
whole World
knows the truth, your names, how much more the God of all the
Earth!
To those who regard themselves as the liberators of
Zimbabwe, did you
liberate your people so mothers have to feed their
children cow dung?
Sanctions responsible? No, you know that's a lie which
only Magube believes,
no, its totally Greed & corruption. Today's heroes
of Zimbabwe are women
like Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, and men
like Osborne Kachuru
from Mbare & Ignatius Mushangwe, the ZEC director,
these and others are the
Zimbabweans who today deserve to be
honoured!
Praise you Father, that you are a God of Love,
Rightness & Power and you
hear the cry of your people, you hear the cry
of Zimbabwe.
Adrian
Prayer for Zimbabwe
adriansmale@sky.com
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
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1.
R Robertson
Dear JAG,
To Andrew Field,
Please carry on
writing. What you had to say was very interesting, and
extremely well
written.
Don't be put off by a few people. As we all know, "Minority
groups always
shout the loudest".
May your God also go with
you.
R.
Robertson.
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2.
Deeply Hurt
Dear JAG,
Here is my view of the current events in
Zimbabwe in the last few weeks.
It was a big surprise for me to hear that
Mugabe has agreed on one thing
with Tsvangirai considering Mugabe's deep
rooted hatred for Tsvangirai. Well
it was good they agreed. It turns out now
that Mugabe was never for sharing
power. The debate about who has control of
Finance Ministry was a ploy by
Zanu to take attention away from Home Affairs
which they wanted so much.
They never wanted Finance, its very clear that
they want to dump the
responsibility to revamp the economy on Tsvangirai's
desk just because they
say he is the one who campaigned for sanctions to be
imposed on the country.
After having a mock battle with the MDC over the
Finance Ministry, when the
real battle over Home Affairs came Zanu would then
say 'but we disagreed
over Finance and we conceded to you". Tsvangirai be
wise and stamp your foot
over Home Affairs lest no independence will be
realised for the Zimbabwean
people. How many people were attacked by the
militia since 2000? How many
people were jailed for these attacks? If Zanu
can answer these questions
without flickering then they might get Home
affairs. The proportions of
attacks to arrests relating to politically
motivated violence with Zanu in
the lead are alarming and we can't entrust
Zanu with the responsibility of
safeguarding the defenceless masses. Aluta
continua contra forma
deeply
hurt
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3.
Mawira K Solomon Stabinage
Dear Zimbabweans
My message to you all
is that you should pray and not only praying but in
God's own way. First of
all find the way. A lot of people are praying in the
wrong way and their
prayers are just like dust. It does not have the
required weight. The second
thing is that to have the power of God you
should be righteous and blameless.
If you are committing a lot of sins then
you will never ever have the power
of God. Your prayers are just like noise
to the Almighty God. You are just
wasting time and a lot of people are just
wasting their precious time praying
yet they are committing sins.
I think I will end here but for those who
want to know the way I am talking
about please go and read the following
verses: 1 Enock 77: 1,2 , 1 Enock 90:
28-37 , Pslams 18: 9-11 , Revelations
22::9Daniel 7:13 ,
These readings they will show you the way. Then if do
not understand why I
gave you these readings you are free to contact me on my
e-mail address:
kmawira@zpc.hps.co.zw
Regards
Mawira
K.Solomon
Stabinage
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All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
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