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As a result most of the
country's international e-mail communications came
to a standstill. The
consequences for businesses such as ours can be
imagined.
Part of
the problem is that Tel-One, formerly part of the now-disbanded PTC
of late
unlamented memory but now functioning as an independent state-owned
company,
has a monopoly of fixed-line communications in and out of the
country. That
includes e-mail lines to South Africa from where e-mails are
on-routed to
further destinations.
Last week work on the South African link led to
delays in the service to
South African addresses. I found some e-mails taking
over 48 hours to get
there.
We got a message on Monday saying that
problem had been cleared up. Then on
Tuesday evening the latest snarl-up
occurred. This time it was the so-called
international link between M-Web and
Tel-One which transmits data from the
M-Web server to the Tel-One satellite
link.
We have yet to discover whose problem this was - apart of
course from
several thousand subscribers who were immobilised.
I
recently had e-mail installed at home. It was far from a seamless
exercise
lasting several weeks due in part to confusion over the sort of
modem
needed. When I tried to contact M-Web's misnamed Customer Care Centre
over
the difficulties I was experiencing with M-Web's sub-contractor, I had
to
hold on for 30 minutes (their estimate, not mine) while the person I
needed
to speak to claimed she was on another call. I suspect she was
hiding.
Finally a manager agreed to assist me and after that things
were sorted out.
At the end of this ordeal, the first e-mail message I
got was from M-Web
saying they had put their charges up!
On
Wednesday their Customer Care lines were simply not functioning because,
I
presume, they were having difficulty fielding complaints about the
break-down
in the e-mail service.
Everybody I talk to says the same thing:
M-Web's Customer Care department
takes too long to answer their phones as
they entertain you with their
musical recordings. Getting a technician to
explain what is wrong is a
mission.
And getting somebody to call
you back is impossible. I know that from my own
experience. Only when I get
through to a manager do things happen.
M-Web needs to polish up its
act. Zimbabweans today depend on e-mail for
much of their daily tasks at
work. And many need it to keep in touch with
family and friends. It is
literally a lifeline.
M-Web is the largest ISP operating in this
country. It is a division of a
much larger company in South Africa. It needs
to train its staff to deal
with the occasional crisis, extend its Customer
Care Services department,
and above all get back to customers who want
answers to their problems.
Wednesday was a test case and M-Web failed
it. While I received a message on
my home computer telling me of their
difficulties with Tel-One, I heard
nothing from them where it really matters
- at my work place.
Then there is the other structural faultline the
size of the San Andreas.
Despite the reported award of a licence to
TeleAccess, Tel-One still has a
monopoly of the lines it had difficulty
fixing this week, thus making all
ISPs its hostage.
In an era of
rapid communications and information exchange the shortcomings
of an
old-style state monopoly were dramatically evident to all!
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch
Land reform an abysmal
failure
GOVERNMENT’S trumpet-blowers, its apologists, and virtually all
who compose
the hierarchy of government repeatedly contend that not only will
the land
reform programme eradicate the poverty suffered by the majority of
Zimbabwe’
s population, but also that it will be the propellant of great
economic
growth and well being.
Whilst it is not difficult to ascribe
extreme stupidity, naivety or
deliberate intent to misrepresent, falsify and
deceive to some of those in
government who endlessly hold forth on the
wonders of the land reform and
its great promise for a very distressed
population, it is difficult to
believe that that can be the case in respect
of all in government — they
cannot possibly all be so stupid and naïve, or so
unethical and so uncaring
for the Zimbabweans they are supposed to care for
and protect, as to lie
blatantly on a continuous basis as to the progress of
reform and as to the
future that it holds for Zimbabwe! Charity can only
suggest that even if the
facts do not dupe the populace, they have certainly
deceived most of the
country’s leaders.
The hard facts are that not
only has the accelerated implementation of land
acquisition, redistribution
and resettlement over the six years since the
president directed that the
programme be “fast-tracked” been a total failure
and of absolute, tragic
consequences for millions of Zimbabweans, but it
continues to be a hindrance
to the restoration of a viable economy and to
the uplifting of Zimbabweans
from the depths of poverty to which government’
s actions have cast
them.
Those facts speak for themselves. In a short three-year period,
production
of tobacco has fallen by approximately 65%, and in so doing there
has been a
massive shrinkage in critically-needed foreign exchange
generation. In that
same period the commercial production of maize has
decreased by almost 90%,
reducing most Zimbabweans to great poverty,
malnutrition and starvation. The
lifespan expectancy of many infected with
HIV/Aids is being severely
curtailed.
Nationally, the average life
expectancy was 59 years in 1990, and is now a
mere 36 years. And it is
unarguably the direct and indirect consequences of
a criminally mismanaged
land programme that has been the primary cause of
this disastrous
state.
As government conceived that programme, was the midwife at its
delivery, and
was responsible for its weaning, government must be held
responsible.
Effectively, government is guilty of mass murder, of genocide,
by its
ill-considered acts, by its even more ill-considered methods of those
acts,
and by its cavalier dismissal of all advice which was seen to be
counter to
its predetermined path for the land programme, irrespective of
whether that
advice emanated from those who have successfully farmed for
years, from
political opponents, from the international community, or from
others.
Government’s arrogance, its conviction of its own infallibility,
its
paranoiac conviction that anything in conflict with its actions
is
attributable to actions of its enemies, whether real or imaginary,
has
enabled it to blind itself to realities and, therefore, to its
perpetual
adherence to proven destructive policies and modalities. And, as a
result,
government has inevitably cast far and wide to attribute blame to
others and
to causes beyond its control. It has alleged that much of the
failure of its
land reform has been due to droughts. In doing so, it conceals
from itself
and others that Zimbabwe’s stored water resource is of sufficient
magnitude
as to counter very substantially the consequences of drought in
Zimbabwe’s
principal areas of food production.
Another target for
blame that government continuously avails itself of is
the former white
commercial farmers. It castigates them for not assisting
those newly settled
on the lands formerly farmed by them, for not imparting
to them the necessary
skills and knowledge, and not releasing to them
tractors, ploughs, other farm
machinery and irrigation equipment. First
government displaces them from
their homes of many decades, deprives them of
their livelihoods, and of most
for which they have worked vigorously for
most of their lives, enables others
to have a contemptuous disregard for law
and order and to drive the suddenly
near-impoverished, homeless and abused
farmers into the cities and towns, and
to more welcoming countries, and then
it seeks to blame them for the
situation wrought by government.
The Minister of Lands, Agriculture and
Land Resettlement, Joseph Made
unhesitatingly casts aspersions against the
former farmers for having had
the brazen effrontery to have sold their used
equipment in order to put the
machinery beyond the reach of the poorly funded
new farmers, sabotaging
efforts to resuscitate the economy. He obviously
considers it irrelevant
that those former farmers had to settle debts with
banks, finance houses and
suppliers, and had been forced by hastily enacted
legislation to pay
considerable retrenchment packages to their former workers
(whose
retrenchment was solely occasioned by government). Equally irrelevant
was
that he had deprived them of their livelihoods.
He, and many of
his cabinet colleagues, now also try to evade the realities
of the lack of
inputs that are desperately needed by those of the new
farmers who do, in
fact, wish to farm, instead of expecting others to do it
for them. For more
than two years government has strenuously endeavoured to
suggest that the
non-availability of inputs was solely due to the malevolent
unwillingness of
the financial sector to provide loan funding to the new
farmers. In the
perceptions of the minister, of his staff, and of almost all
in government,
banks should have hastened to make all necessary funding
available without
regard for good and sound banking practice, and in
disregard for the
inability of the new farmers to provide security for
borrowings or assurances
of any ability to service the loans. Similarly, all
suppliers of inputs
should have unhesitatingly provided the much-needed
imports on credit,
although they had nothing other than the farmers’
promises that payment would
ultimately be forthcoming.
Then, when the belaboured recriminations of
the former farmers, the bankers,
the financial institutions, and the
suppliers of inputs yielded almost no
results, the minister assured the
distressed new farmers that, in the next
season, government would provide all
necessary inputs. Tractors would be
plentiful, as would be irrigation
equipment, fuel, seeds, fertilisers,
chemicals and whatsoever else would be
required. The promises were
plentiful, but the deliveries were
not.
Some tractors were imported, and were mainly destined to those A2
farmers
well connected in the corridors of government, and in any case they
were
insignificant in number as compared with requirements. Some ploughing
was
done for A1 and A2 farmers by the DDF, but that too was minimal in
relation
to the required ploughing of the new farmers.
But government
unreservedly assured all that the 2003/2004 agricultural
season would be
different. Inputs would be plentiful. Behind-the-scenes
pressures, combined
with economic pressures and justifiable self-interest
motivated many in the
private sector to be forthcoming with pledges of
funding support for inputs.
Massive pledges were forthcoming from the cotton
ginneries, from Innscor,
National Foods, and others, aggregating to more
than $50 billion. Various
banking institutions close to government were also
forthcoming with promises
of special facilities to fund inputs. In all, more
than $80 billion was
pledged. Concurrently, government threatened — through
its Minister of Lands,
Agriculture and Rural Development, Joseph Made — to
steal the niggardly $8
billion held for grossly inadequate compensation for
the theft of
legitimately owned farms, also to be applied to the funding
of
inputs.
But most of these promises of funding for inputs are
meaningless, for the
inputs are not available, irrespective of whether or not
funding is
provided. Most of the inputs are dependent upon imports, be they
of
components of fertilisers, such as ammonia, or be they chemicals,
or
machinery and equipment. And such has been government’s
diabolically
dogmatic destruction of the economy, with complete disregard
for
well-intentioned, reasoned and soundly-based advice, that the economy
has
been wholly unable to generate the foreign exchange required to fund
the
essential imports to produce the required inputs.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
Mahoso’s Media Circus mum on
mandate
LAST week this paper published the names of those serving on the
Media and
Information Commission. They are former Sunday Mail editor Pascal
Mukondiwa,
former Chronicle assistant editor Jonathan Maphenduka, UZ media
studies head
Rino Zhuwarara, Mkoba Teachers College principal Sephath Mlambo,
and retired
civil servant Alpinos Makoni. Former Polytech lecturer Tafataona
Mahoso is
chair.
These are the individuals who have denied Zimbabweans
their right to receive
and impart information by rushing with indecent haste
to deny the Daily News
a licence.
Which three were nominated by media
bodies as required by law? Affidavits
submitted in court by a variety of
media organisations in connection with a
Misa challenge would suggest none.
But Mahoso insists media organisations
were consulted. So why is he so
reluctant to say which ones?
And which of the six commissioners enjoys
the confidence of the media — or
indeed anybody else apart from the minister
himself? Some worked at
semi-literate newspapers where professional standards
are unknown. One is a
former media lecturer who doesn’t know that when his
rambling column
continues “next week” there should be a short introduction to
say what point
he was making when he came to an abrupt halt the week before.
Another was
last seen running a village store in Mt Darwin.
These
people will now presume to regulate us and dictate professional
standards.
Purleez!
The Sunday Mail, which likes to lecture us on sovereignty and
independence,
on September 21 carried an interesting map of Africa on its
back page.
Accompanying an article on the draw for the 24th African Cup of
Nations in
Tunis, the map showed countries such as “German East Africa”, the
“Gold
Coast”, “French Equatorial Africa” and the “Belgian Congo”.
It
clearly pre-dated the First World War! Is Jona-than Moyo aware of this
heresy
being perpetrated by his mischievous subordinates? And how will the
Warriors
from “Southern Rhodesia” fare against German colony Kamerun,
British
protectorate Egypt and French colony Algeria?
The map showed a ribbon of
British colonies stretching from Cape Town to
Cairo. Cecil Rhodes’ attempt to
paint Africa red has finally succeeded, it
seems, in the offices of a Zanu PF
mouthpiece!
The ZRP is feeling sorry for itself. That’s if a supplement
headed “The
Commissioner’s Funfair”, carried in the Herald last Saturday was
anything to
go by. Wayne Bvudzijena led the self-pitying. Individuals and
groups had
emerged which believed their objectives should take precedence
over
ever-ything else including the laws of the country, Wayne
whined.
“New Euro-centric phrases have saturated the social environment,”
he
complained.
“ We have heard of democracy, rule of law, selective
enforcement and
politicisation of the police,” he said.
“Using
unverified reports and with dirty hands, some of the advocates of
these
principles have approached the local and international communities
trying to
convince them that indeed Zimbabwe does not observe
these
principles.”
So instead of talking about the duty of the police
to be impartial,
professional and non-partisan, Bvudzijena took it upon
himself to criticise
civil society for exercising its constitutional right to
freedom of
expression.
“Being vocal as they are,” he said, “such
groups hijack these freedoms and
drum them as an absolute standard that
should be observed by government and
its arms…”
Surely not? Insisting the
police do their duty? And there was more:
“Usurping the whole intentions of
democracy, vocal publications as well
shout abuses (sic) at the police to
make citizens think that the police are
corrupt, brutal, highly inefficient
and not to be trusted.”
Gosh. Next he will say the public believe police
spokesmen have their
speeches written for them by unelected ministers! Is
there no end to these
calumnies?
It’s not only the police who are
feeling unloved. The Herald carried an
editorial last Saturday headed “Zim’s
judiciary independent”. Judges
appointed over the past three years have been
“ridiculed and their
reputation as judicial officers maligned for accepting
appointments to
replace white judges”, the editorial said.
It is
important to remind the Herald’s editor that only some of the
newly-appointed
judges replaced white judges. Black judges were replaced as
well. Many judges
left the bench as a result of threats made against them by
ministers and war
veterans. Ministers said at the time the new judges were
appointed that they
would be expected to advance government’s legislative
agenda. Ministerial
patronage has included the award of land leases, a move
that is widely seen
as compromising judicial independence.
While the Herald may wish to
cultivate the view that the previous white
judges sided with commercial
farmers, it conveniently forgets that the
tradition of judicial independence
Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay upheld was
inherited from Chief Justice Enoch
Dumbutshena.
The finest judges in this country are those of any colour
that can think for
themselves. If the reputation of the judiciary has been
tarnished of late,
it could be because there is a growing perception that
some judges are
beholden to the executive; that they have refused to uphold
rights to which
applicants are constitutionally entitled; that they have
dragged their heels
in hearing cases where applicants should expect early
redress; and that they
have leant over backwards to accommodate the claims of
the state, even when
the state has difficulty making its case.
That
perception will not have been helped by the Herald’s intervention on
their
behalf!
Our reporter Dumisani Muleya appears to have struck a raw nerve
in his story
last week on the ructions Zanu PF’s succession committee has
been causing as
bigwigs battle for power. A furious Nathaniel Manheru used
his Herald column
on Saturday to heap Muleya with personal scorn before
dismissing his article
as “fictitious”.
“Muleya definitely lives in
his own utopia because these so-called battles
only exist in his own small
mind,” he spat.
The same day the Herald announced on its front page that
the succession
committee had been disband-ed “after it emerged that its
activitieswere
causing divisions in the party”.
We think in future the
Herald’s editor might tell Manheru what he is
carrying on the front page,
especially when it emanates from the party
chairman, so Manheru doesn’t look
quite such a fool when denying the same
story inside the paper!
We
have discovered, by the way, that any reporter who pushes the button
marked
“succession” is likely to see Manheru go ballistic. What is the
connection
here?
Manheru’s alter ego “Under the Surface”, who was so far under it
he
disappeared entirely last week, was busy attacking Muckraker on Sunday
for
showing insufficient respect to the late Simon Muzenda.
“This
Muckraker moron has got (sic) a bit too far this time around”, the
spooky
state spokesman said of our proposal that Muzenda’s collection of
cardigans
be put on display.
“Does anyone call that rubbish a joke?” Cde Under
pompously admonished.
“ Under the Surface, like many people out there,
doesn’t really care about
the hogwash Muckraker churns out weekly,” he
declared before devoting 12
paragraphs to hissing and spitting over our
column last week. He didn’t
mention reports of people in Mbare and Warren
Park being forced to attend
the funeral last Wednesday.
Despite his
impeccable credentials as the spokesman for a rotting party, Cde
Under, like
Manheru, often finds himself overtaken by events. On Sunday,
September 14 he
wrote in the Sunday Mail that Muckraker had been “misfiring”
by telling
readers there was a consensus in the Commonwealth that Zimbabwe’s
suspension
should not be lifted at present.
“Muckraker in his wild dreams thinks
that the views on Zimbabwe of Sadc,
Nigeria, and even the ACP countries do
not matter and only his stinking
opinions matter,” Cde Under fulminated.
“Who’s fooling who?”
He got his answer the next day when the Nigerian
government said President
Mugabe would not be invited to the Abuja
Chogm.
Which Sadc states came to Zimbabwe’s rescue? Apart from some
fighting talk
in Pretoria which soon evaporated as the Nigerian position
became clearer,
no Sadc, ACP or any other state spoke up for Zimbabwe. All we
were left with
were Stan Mudenge’s idiotic remarks about Australian racism
which, coming
from a government that advertises its racist credentials every
day, proved
less than convincing.
Stan may appreciate the following
remark overheard recently: “I don’t
approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too
many of them get elected.”
World Food Programme spokesman Richard Lee
appears confused about Zimbabwe.
Talking about the food deficit in this
country, he said if donors could be
made to cough up, then all would be well.
He spoke about the “distress
migration” of Zimbabweans to South
Africa.
“Obviously, if we get the funding we are asking for, there will
be no need
for migration,” he said.
Evidently he hadn’t thought that
you could have a full belly and still wish
to migrate to escape torture and
gang rape, find a job without joining the
militia, or just to exercise plain
freedom of speech.
Naturally, the well-paid WFP bureaucrats cannot look
beyond their noses.
Zim Independent
Adrift and abandoned, foreign policy fails
WHILE
diplomats are required to calm the fears of their host governments,
they must
be careful not to mislead them about just how far their leaders
are prepared
to go in providing support.
It was reported yesterday that acting
Nigerian High Commissioner Emmanuel
Engwuatu had assured Acting President
Joseph Msika that the Nigerian
position on Zimbabwe’s suspension from the
Commonwealth had not changed.
However, it was bound by the organisation’s
rules when inviting nations to
the heads of government meeting in Abuja in
December, he quickly added.
In the same week that Zimbabwe’s spin doctors
were taking what little
comfort there was in those remarks, President
Olusegun Obasanjo said
President Mugabe would not be invited to Abuja unless
there was a “sea
change” in Zimbabwe. Asked how he viewed the closure of the
Daily News,
Obasanjo said that was a sea change in the wrong direction. If
anything, it
was of the “negative” sort, he said.
This doesn’t sound
like an apologist for Zimbabwe’s rulers. It sounds more
like a leader coming
to terms with the reality that the regime in Harare can
no longer be
defended. It is beyond the pale.
As we pointed out last week, this
represents a watershed of sorts. Much has
been made of the fact that on the
troika set up in Coolum to address the
Zimbabwe crisis, two out of the three
leaders sought an end to Zimbabwe’s
suspension. But the fact is a large
majority of Commonwealth states agreed
that Harare had not met the conditions
laid down for lifting the suspension.
It was that majority that
mattered.
No country apart from South Africa has complained about the
decision.
Zimbabwean diplomacy is now adrift. Everything has been tried.
Appeals to
regional and racial solidarity, claims of a conspiracy led by
Britain and
the United States, and a torrent of explanations of how the rule
of law had
been restored, 300 000 people resettled on the land and human
rights
violations investigated — all to no avail.
The African,
Caribbean, and Pacific states are not coming to Zimbabwe’s
rescue. The
response to Mugabe’s opportunistic speech at the UN General
Assembly was
muted. It was greeted with polite applause.
President Chirac had made all
the salient points that needed to be made in
his reference to unilateralism a
few days earlier. Mugabe tried to do the
same thing, situating himself as the
voice of developing countries but they
don’t seem to have been inclined to
fall in behind him. His speech went
largely unnoticed except in Zimbabwe’s
state media. All that could be
extracted from this hugely expensive visit was
some remarks on diminishing
rates of HIV/Aids infection by Kofi Annan and an
exchange with the shadowy
December 12 Movement, a group regarded with
derision by most African
Americans.
That a once-respected academic
like Stan Mudenge has been reduced to hurling
childish abuse at John Howard
tells us all we need to know about the status
of Zimbabwean foreign policy.
And attempts to prevent the truth about Mugabe
’s misrule getting out have
been equally unsuccessful.
Deportation of foreign correspondents, in the
latest case in contempt of a
court order, and denial of work permits have
simply compounded the
impression of a regime unable to cope with the
truth.
The same is true of militia gangs burning independent newspapers
or
preventing their distribution, the arrest and harassment of journalists,
and
now the closure of the Daily News and its stablemate.
None of this
is the behaviour of a government comfortably ensconced in the
affections of
its people.
And it must be asked, what does the government think it has
achieved? Is
President Mugabe regarded with any more respect at home or
abroad than he
was three years ago? Is it the view of the international
community that
Zimbabwe deserves to be rehabilitated under its current
leadership? Is there
a groundswell of support in the African
diaspora?
Have all those travel writers brought into the country at
considerable cost
managed to persuade potential visitors that Zimbabwe is
really a law-abiding
country where the police do their duty professionally
and impartially and
where there is no racial incitement by the
government?
Have investors been persuaded that Zimbabwe offers a climate
conducive to
growth?
However you look at it, Zanu PF’s propagandists
have failed — and failed
miserably. The country has never been so isolated.
Obasanjo said it all: It
will take a sea change in official thinking to get
Zimbabwe accepted back
into organisations like the Commonwealth.
That
is an epitaph we should write for Zanu PF. There can be no more
pretence.
They have lost this particular struggle. When their own media
writes that
Zimbabwe should not bother attending Chogm because “it’s not
worth attending
anymore” — after months of strenuous diplomacy to have the
ban lifted — you
know this is a regime in headlong retreat.
Instead of posturing at the
UN, Mugabe should be considering ways he can
help his prostrate country —
like getting out of the way of recovery. In the
meantime, please, no more
lies from his courtiers as to how successful they
have been.
Zim Independent
Zimbabwe makes IMF history
Ngoni
Chanakira
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund(IMF) boss Horst Kohler has awarded
Zimbabwe his
association's wooden spoon for arrears for the year
2003.
The Bretton Woods institution, in a survey for the period ending
September
8, said while the arrears of other countries, with the exception of
Sudan,
continued to rise, the most notable of these was
Zimbabwe.
It said this was the first new case of significant arrears
to the Fund's
General Resources Account since 1993 and the first case of
"protracted"
arrears to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)
Trust.
The PRGF is the IMF and World Bank's low interest lending
facility for its
"poorest members".
Zimbabwe's quota with the IMF
currently stands at SDR353, 4 million from a
world total of SDR212 794
million as of August 31. The country has however
been in continuous arrears
to the Washington-based organisation since
February 2001.
As of
the end of May this year, Zimbabwe's arrears to the IMF amounted to
SDR164,9
million (US$233 million), or about 47% of the country's quota in
the
Fund.
On June 6 the IMF suspended Zimbabwe's voting and related
rights, after
having determined that the country had not sufficiently
strengthened its
cooperation with it in areas of policy implementation and
payments.
As a result of the decision, Zimbabwe can no longer appoint
a governor or
alternate governor to the IMF, participate in the election of
an executive
director for its board, or cast its vote in decisions on IMF
policy or
country matters.
Kohler said protracted arrears to the
IMF decreased in financial year 2003
to SDR2,01 billion, from SDR2,36 billion
a year earlier.
He said this reflected mainly the clearance of
arrears by the Democratic
Republic of the Congo in June 2002 and the Islamic
State of Afghanistan in
February this year.
"However, the arrears
of other countries, with the exception of Sudan,
continued to rise," the IMF
boss said.
"The most notable of these is Zimbabwe, which is the first
new case of
significant arrears to the IMF's General Resources Account since
1993 and
the first case of protracted arrears to the PRGF Trust. The two
countries
with the largest protracted arrears to the IMF - Sudan and Liberia
- account
for more than 78% of the total overdue financial obligations to the
IMF -
with Somalia and Zimbabwe accounting for most of the
remainder."
If a member does not actively cooperate with the IMF in
seeking a solution
to its arrears problems, a timetable of remedial measures
of increasing
intensity is applied.
Remedial measures begin with
suspending a member's access to the use of IMF
resources in the PRGF or
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.
If the country fails to
take appropriate measures, the executive board then
issues a declaration of
non-cooperation in the case of arrears to the
PRGF
Trust.
Ultimately, in the case of overdue financial
obligations to the General
Resources Account, the member's withdrawal from
the IMF is compulsory.
Most recently, further remedial measures were
applied to Liberia and
Zimbabwe, when their voting and related rights in the
IMF were suspended in
March and June this year, respectively.
Zim Independent
Govt debt to Byo reaches $1b
Loughty Dube
THE
cash-strapped government's debt to the city of Bulawayo has reached the
$1
billion mark as the council intensifies efforts to recover the money it
is
owed by various departments.
According to a council report released early
this week the government total
debt is an accumulation of service charges
that arise from unpaid health
grants, water sampling charges, rates for
leasing property, sewerage and
refuse collection charges by government
departments in the city.
The Ministry of Rural Resources and Water
Development is the biggest debtor,
owing council over $144 million closely
followed by the Ministry of Home
Affairs which owes $84 million while the
Ministry of Education and Culture
owes a further $45 million.
The
Bulawayo city treasurer Middleton Nyoni said council would resort to
the
traditional methods of sending constant reminders and if those failed
then
council would disconnect water supplies and terminate other services
in
government departments.
"After the increase of tariffs this
year the government debt to council rose
as a result of the new tariffs and
other unpaid bills but we are making
frantic efforts to persuade the
government to pay up," Nyoni said.
The latest figure of $1 billion is
an increase of the government debt to
council from $893 million that it owed
council at the beginning of May this
year.
However, the Bulawayo
council is owed a further $3 billion by residents and
local rate-payers in
unpaid bills, but this is a reduction of the $4 billion
residents owed
council in May this year.
The council late last year disconnected
water supplies to government
departments in a bid to recover the money it is
owed by government.
The Bulawayo city council has had to resort to
going into the money market
to seek over $2,5 billion it needs to finance its
capital projects that have
been stalled as a result of lack of
funds.
Four financial institutions - Century Advisory Services,
Intermarket
Building Society, Scotfin Ltd and Kingdom Financial Holdings Ltd
- in August
won the tender to raise the $2,5 billion for the council's
capital projects.
Council capital projects that have been shelved as
a result of cash
shortages include the sewer repairs project, water
reticulation, repair of
public infrastructure and the council's Millennium
Housing Project.
Zim Independent
Sorry, still no cash!
Ngoni Chanakira
DESPITE
frantic efforts by the discredited Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to
solve
the worst cash crisis in the country's history by offloading bearer
and
traveler's cheques and new $1 000 notes to disgruntled customers,
kilometres
of queues still exist countrywide.
Scenes of jostling and impatient
customers in Harare's central business
district this week resembled those of
spectators awaiting entry into a
football stadium.
The cash
fiasco, which has affected everyone in one way or another, resulted
in the
introduction of bearer's cheques in denominations of $1 000, $5 000,
$10 000
and $50 000 onto the market in tandem with new $500 notes
last
Friday.
On Wednesday a new $1 000 note, the highest since
Independence, was also
dished out by the RBZ to a worried public that has
been forced to wait in
queues from as early as 5:00 am daily for sums as
little as $5 000 - enough
for four loaves of bread.
Economists
maintain that government needs to plug spiraling inflation, now
standing at
426,6% for August, for the cash situation to normalise. They
have already
predicted inflation will continue increasing to surpass the 1
000% mark by
year-end.
Trust Holdings Ltd chief executive officer William Nyemba
told analysts at a
briefing on his institution's results that what was needed
in Zimbabwe were
higher denominations "full stop". He said hyperinflation was
"killing the
economy".
While presenting his $672 billion
Supplementary Budget to parliament last
month the Minister of Finance and
Economic Development Herbert Murerwa
admitted that the difficult
macroeconomic environment characterised by
"persistent high inflation", had
necessitated the need for government to go
cap in hand to the 150-member
august House.
Murerwa said as inflation escalates and economic
performance worsened, a
growing proportion of the country's population was
now living below the
poverty datum line - further deteriorating standards of
living.
"Mr Speaker, I believe that it is important that our policies
must fight
inflation," Murerwa said. "Continued failure to do so threatens to
destroy
the very social fabric of the nation."
In its analysis of
the hyperinflationary environment and high money supply
growth NMB Holdings
Ltd (NMB) said the hyperinflationary trend was driven
mainly by the partial
relaxation of price controls, excessive credit
expansion, shortage of foreign
currency and consequent effect and widespread
indexation in the
economy.
In January, representatives of government, the business
community and labour
signed a Prices and Income Stabilisation
Protocol.
"The protocol's objective was to manage prices of basic
commodities,
salaries and wages, through a tripartite price monitoring and
surveillance
sub-committee, which would negotiate with producers on viable
prices for all
basic commodities," NMB said.
"The spiraling
inflation is evidence of the protocol's failure to arrest the
pace of price
increases in the economy."
It said unless monetary policy was
tightened during the second half of this
year, money supply growth was
expected to accelerate.
Bearer cheques have been more acceptable to
retailers unlike the traveler's
cheques, which have been occasionally
rejected.
Both the bearer and traveler's cheques are, however, deemed
"illegal tender"
on commuter omnibuses operating in the
capital.
Analysts said while the idea to introduce more money onto
the market was
noble, government did not educate the public on time and
sufficiently about
the new mode of money, especially individuals in the rural
areas where the
majority of the nation's population
resides.
Thousands of the nation's farmers - both new and old - who
produce cash
crops such as cotton, tobacco, maize, and groundnuts which are
delivered
daily into town and payment given on delivery reside in the rural
areas.
Analysts said it was these individuals who needed to be
educated about the
new money and not only those living in major cities and
towns who have
access to plastic money such as credit cards and Automated
Teller Machine
cards.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union president Silas
Hungwe this week encouraged
small-scale farmers to accept bearer and
traveler's cheques as payment
because they are "instruments of the government
and are legal tender".
The sentiments were expressed after several
farmers were uneasy about
payments being made using cheques. Cotton farmers
are notorious for blowing
their "hard earned cash" immwdiately after
receiving it.
The cash crisis has driven the country's economy
further down the drain.
The complications have encouraged a thriving
dealer's market with
individuals now buying and selling money as a form of
employment.
The informal sector seems to be the hardest hit at the
moment as traders are
hesitant to accept payment in cheques. They prefer cash
which they use to
order more goods.
Flea markets have also
suffered. Traders at flea markets prefer cash which
they also use to order
their goods from Botswana, South Africa and Malawi.
Zim Independent
Closing down Daily won't solve our problems
SO the
Daily News has been shut down! And - according to Jonathan Moyo and
his
newspapers at Silundika Avenue - may never be licensed.
Good political
gambit by Zanu PF in its fight against the independent media
and the
opposition.
On the surface it seems to be the best piece of news for
them this year. But
is it good news for anyone else that the Daily News has
been closed?
Obviously not.
It is not deniable that the paper
helped shape the political map of Zimbabwe
against the ruling party.
Introduced just on time as Zimbabweans found their
voice through the MDC, the
paper went on to become the voice of the
voiceless in their quest for a truly
democratic Zimbabwe.
Now, almost everybody who is in the pluralism
camp is asking what exactly is
going to happen to the country, assuming that
the paper will not be hitting
the streets again - at least not in the short
run? Here are the scenarios
that I believe will rule supreme from now until
the paper comes back or the
ruling party burns itself out of existence like
Daniel arap Moi's Kanu and
Kenneth Kaunda's Unip did in Kenya and Zambia
respectively:
Most likely, journalists like Bill Saidi, Fanuel Jongwe
and others will look
for work at other independent papers or overseas papers
- and find it,
because they are good journalists. Some fence-sitters and
those with no
clear ideology will most likely go grovelling to Moyo looking
for work and
be asked to apologise for attacking him or associating with his
enemies.
They will likely find work if they promise to pummel their former
colleagues
in the independent media.
Of course this will be a
classic case of "if God pays me I will fight the
devil but if the devil pays
me I will fight God".
Those who fail to find work somewhere because
of inconsistency of quality of
their work will have to wait for the return of
the paper - which cannot be
ruled out.
Meanwhile the ruling party
will now lower the fence thinking that the coast
is clear and they can do
what they want with the country because there is
nobody to report on their
sins. They will also decide to increase attacks on
opposition supporters
while the paper is still in a swoon.
Alternatively, the ruling party
could decide that the MDC is as good as dead
because, as they said in the
past, the MDC's public relations chief is in
hospital.
The MDC
will most likely be grieving for some time to come - until the paper
returns
or another truly independent paper is launched, say from Trevor
Ncube's
Zimbabwe Independent stable, which is the only paper that is not in
the
clutches of the ruling party.
The MDC will be without a daily
platform from which they can communicate
with their members. The only silver
lining in that cloud is that the MDC
will now move from their laurels and
start campaigning seriously, finally
getting in touch with their supporters
who don't know where their MPs are
now.
Meanwhile, at the Herald
and Sunday Mail it's party time as the papers try
to reclaim their lost
market share. In real terms that is easier said than
done.
The country
is currently heavily politically polarised and there are people
like myself
who will not buy the Herald until the Daily News returns. Some
advertisers
may also decide to keep their adverts on their desks in protest.
The
bottom line is: the situation at Zimpapers hardly improves.
Those who are
afraid of Moyo can discard their decency and resort to the
political
pornography that we are now used to from Zimpapers. While the
Daily News is
in Moyo's electric chair, self-respecting independent media
should rise from
their knees and shine more than ever before.
They at least can save
the country from the tragedy that started with the
appointment of Moyo to the
cabinet. While the government can assume that
their political fortunes will
now turn around because of the closure of the
Daily News, it is clear that
this will not stop shortages of basic
commodities. It will not stop the
economic tailspin that we are in.
The Daily News was not there when
the government decided to bribe war
veterans with unbudgeted gratuities in
1997. It was also not there when the
government decided to join the DRC war
in 1998, thereby starting that
economic haemorrhage that we still find
ourselves in, six years after.
Josiphat Gwezhira,
Mt
Pleasant.
Zim Independent
Land saga epitomises all that is rotten
I AM
surprised at the outrage being expressed at heavyweight members of
Zanu-PF
who have been caught ejecting the current occupiers and helping
themselves to
hundreds of farms.
To me, the whole land saga epitomises all that is
rotten in Zimbabwe.
When the land grab started after Mugabe's defeat in
the 2000 referendum, I
was a member of the Mazowe Rural District
Council.
At the last meeting I attended, councillors were being
encouraged to shout
out the names of farms in their wards to be
"seized".
I was disgusted at what amounted to a feeding frenzy as
councillors fell
over themselves to shout out the names of farms. Only one
councillor, a
black colleague with strong principles from the rural areas,
declined to be
involved. I walked out of this meeting in rage and disgust,
and subsequently
resigned. I felt deeply ashamed at the behaviour of my
fellow councillors.
What was so disappointing at the time was that no
one, not even the MDC
said: "This is wrong. This is theft. These people, like
it or not, bought
and paid for their farms. They did not steal the land from
anyone."
Actually, not even the CFU had the guts to say this, to call
a spade a
spade. Why was there this reluctance to speak the truth? Was it
because all
black Zimbabweans harboured a deep hatred for their white
compatriots? Or
was it because Zanu PF had psychologically out-manoeuvred
everyone and made
it politically incorrect to challenge the lie? But that no
one did challenge
the lie will forever be a shameful chapter in Zimbabwe's
history.
Anyone with half a brain knew at the time that this was
nothing more than a
ploy by Mugabe and Zanu PF, and that the CIO and army
were involved in the
organisation of the invasions.
Anyone with
half a brain also knew that most resettlement areas were a
disaster and knew
as well that there was plenty of unused land for any
genuine agrarian reform.
Yet no one shouted loud and clear that the emperor
had no
clothes.
For this lack of moral courage at the time, Zimbabwe has
suffered dearly,
and will continue to suffer until moral courage surfaces. To
condone a lie
is almost as bad as telling the lie oneself, and that is what
the people of
Zimbabwe willingly did.
So why should it be a
surprise, why should there be outrage when the chefs
who set the whole dirty
business in motion throw their pawns off the land?
Everyone stood by
when the land was taken from its rightful owners. What
moral high ground can
the majority of Zimbabweans claim when they raised no
voices of protest at
the time?
Charles Frizell,
UK.
Zim Independent
Tame them - kick up a fuss!
PLEASE allow me space
to tell readers of an incident concerning newly-issued
bearer's cheques and
the sort of reception that my $5000 cheque received at
Bakers Inn, one of the
divisions of mighty Innscor, a corporation with a sad
reputation for raising
prices seemingly at the drop of a daily hat.
At a Bakers Inn outlet in
town, I purchased a small cake for $650 and handed
over the bearer's cheque
for $5000 which is legal tender, and I believe the
lowest denomination,
expecting my change.
The counterhand at first refused to give me
change until I pointed out that
not to do so was illegal. He called the
manager and I explained the
situation to him. This individual told me that he
would only give me my
change if I purchased goods to the value of half the
cheque ($2500). I told
him that was conditional selling which is also
illegal.
I told him I was going to go to Innscor head office to
obtain satisfaction
whereupon he did the right thing and gave me my change in
full.
So readers, if you are tired of being "ripped" off by
conglomerates kick up
a fuss in public and be heard, it's one small way to
stop them and if we
don't do it, it'll simply carry on.
My
question to Innscor and Bakers Inn is: "Has it become
corporate/company
policy to treat bearer's cheques of any value differently
from cash, under
the guise of conditional selling and thus devaluing
them.
Or is it simply profiteering at our expense?"
I invite
Innscor and Bakers Inn to reply with a simple, cogent, believeable
answer.
After all, if bearer's cheques are to be potentially devalued in the
above
manner - then perhaps all suppliers will jump on the bandwagon.
ANG
(ry),
Harare.
Zim Independent
Why the Daily News was denied registration
By
Macdonald Chimbizi
"DAILY News denied registration," screamed the headline in
the state- owned
Herald. In a way, it was a euphemism designed to celebrate
the demise of the
stinging tabloid that had become a thorn in the side of the
ruling Zanu PF.
So we were made to believe that the Daily News was an
"outlaw" organisation
operating illegally, hence it needed to cease
operation.
Why the Daily News chose not to register is debatable but
I shall dwell on
the reasons why it was denied registration and why it will
never re-open
again under the brutal Mugabe regime.
To unravel the
whole saga, you need to understand the top Don of the Media
and Information
Commission (MIC), Dr Tafataona Mahoso. I was one of the
privileged few to
have spent two years with the bespectacled doctor at the
Polytech's Division
of Mass Communication. I can therefore safely comment on
his hatred for the
Daily News and a free press in general.
For starters, Mahoso is a man
of many masks. Apart from being a fashion
disaster, he was until recently
head of Mass Communication at the Polytech.
He is a Sunday Mail
columnist, a historian, a pan-Africanist, MIC chairman,
a political and
social commentator, and a Zanu PF consultant and government
spin doctor,
third in rank after Jonathan Moyo and George Charamba.
Given the
above conflict of interest, it becomes obvious that the Daily News
was denied
a licence before it bothered to apply. It was a classic example
of "premature
closure", Mahoso's favourite concept whereby something is
already judged
before it is even heard.
That the ANZ chose to challenge the legality
of the infamous Aippa and the
legitimacy of the Mahoso commission ignited an
already smouldering fire.
Pressure was slowly brewing in the pressure
cooker and an explosion was
expected any time.
One of the reasons
cited why the Daily News was denied registration was that
it had employed an
"unemployable" journalist with a criminal record who
happened to be Chengetai
Zvauya.
Zvauya "committed" the offence during his stint with the
Standard when he
wrote a story alleging that the ill-fated Constitutional
Commission had
printed its report before its findings were
tabled.
All of a sudden Zvauya was to become a good example of a bad
journalist.
For the latter part of the two years I spent studying
journalism at the
Polytechnic the name Zvauya was mentioned with an intensity
often reserved
for hard-core criminals in the mould of Richard Gwesela,
Stephen Chidhumo
and Masendeke.
That Zvauya went to work for the
Daily News with that chequered past
prompted Mahoso and his colleagues to
cobble up a clause that was meant to
be an epitaph on poor Zvauya's
journalism career.
Put it this way, in the period I have known the
well-researched doctor, he
despises anything that is anti-Zanu PF, part of
the endless list that
includes infidels such as the MDC, CFU, Misa-Zimbabwe,
MMPZ, NCA, Daily
News, the Standard, the Zimbabwe Independent, Lovemore
Madhuku, Morgan
Tsvangirai, David Coltart, Iden Wetherell, Chengetai Zvauya,
Muckraker,
Father Oskar Wermter, Basildon Peta, etc. The list is
inexhaustible.
For one to pass Mahoso's Media and Ethics course, if
you did not mention the
above, that was a sure repeat, thereby denting one's
career aspirations.
In fact, to be on the safe side, one wrote any dirt
one could think of about
the aforementioned organisations and
people.
Closing down the county's top- selling newspaper which
employed over 300
people shows how ruthless Mahoso is. How can he shut down a
source of
employment for his students under the guise of
MIC?
People have always chided us for calling him a dinosaur. To me
the man makes
a good international lecturer or historian who should have
nothing to do
with the noble profession of journalism.
How does
the MIC chief balance his objectivity and impartiality when he
bashes the
opposition and the independent press in the government-owned
Sunday Mail week
in week out?
Elsewhere the MIC whose formation was meant to establish
checks and balances
for the press has become a weapon for Moyo and Mahoso to
weed out their
enemies. It is a Machiavellian plot to smoke out independent
voices in the
wake of the diminishing popularity of their paymaster,
Mugabe.
Is Mahoso the same man who stood before me a few years ago in
class scoffing
at the idea of having two media organisations representing
journalists in
the country? Journalists are dividing themselves, instead they
should speak
with one voice, we were told. How do they expect the government
to cooperate
when they are divided, he questioned referring to ZUJ and
Ijaz.
Journalism students are always taught repeatedly that
information is power,
as such Mahoso and his colleagues are determined to
close all outlets and
make sure the society is suffocated with the Hondo
YeMinda and Rambai
Makashinga spin.
So the Daily News wants to do
it the Econet-way by challenging the MIC
decision in court? Well, do ordinary
Zimbabweans and independent observers
expect the tabloid to challenge the
ruling successfully in our highly
partisan courts?
Ask any member
of the MDC how many countless trips they have made to the
highest courts in
the land. A quick glance at the history books will show
how ruthlessly the
regime has dealt with troublesome media houses.
The Capital Radio
saga and the closure of Mugabe's own friend James
Makamba's Joy TV are still
fresh in our minds.
Either way the Daily News is faced with a
double-edged sword whose arch is
slowly forming and a pool of blood will soon
emerge. Expecting the paper to
open any time soon would be just as good as
speculating on Mugabe's
retirement date.
Time will tell.
Macdonald Chimbizi is a Zimbabwean journalist now based in the
UK.
Zim Independent
Beating the drums and blowing the trumpet
By John
Makumbe
THE predicted demise of the Daily News has finally become a reality
as the
Mugabe dictatorship has effectively banned that paragon of the freedom
of
the media from our streets.
For most of us, the (temporary)
banishment of the Daily News was more
profound, more depressing and more
devastating than the passing of an
81-year-old man who was part of the
leadership of the repressive regime.
The only consolation we have is
that whereas the man has passed from "dust
to dust", the Daily News shall
rise again, even if it will take regime
change to accomplish its
return.
In the meantime though, we just have to figure out how best
to communicate
information to the deprived people of this once great country.
We suggest
that a number of measures and activities can be embarked upon in
this
regard.
We have to find alternative sources of reliable
information, such as through
the use of modern technology. The Internet,
Short Wave (SW) Radio, Voice of
the People (VOP), and Voice of America (VOA)
are all providing reliable news
about developments in Zimbabwe on a daily
basis.
Sadly, very few of our people own radio receivers that have
the short wave
band on them. VOA can however also be received on medium wave
on some
radios.
We need to encourage the people of Zimbabwe to
tune into these alternative
sources of reliasble information rather than
waste time listening to the
sickening Rambai Makashinga
rubbish.
We also need to devise ways and means of providing the
people with suitable
radio sets, especially the solar or spring-powered ones
since batteries are
now prohibitively expensive in Zimbabwe.
We
must not forget that we still have our weekly papers that are doing
a
sterling job to inform us and enable us to communicate.
The
weeklies will onviously have to double their efforts to inform us and
include
more news items from the political and socio-economic fronts of our
national
struggles.
If we save money by avoiding buying the senseless
state-controlled dailies
we will have enough money by the end of the week to
buy our weeklies.
Individuals and organisations can also start
printing selected e-mails and
web pages and distributing these to those who
do not have easy access to
computers and other relevant
gadgetry.
Such printed materials can be passed around in streets, in
combis and even
within neighbourhoods. We obviously have to be cautious about
how we
distribute such material as the evil regime will try to prevent us
from
informing others through this means.
Both pieces of draconian
legislation, Posa and Aippa can be invoked to
punish those of us who will
seek to inform others through these alternative
methods.
We could
also play the Aippa game as organisations or groups of determined
citizens.
For example we could set up a single publication but with multiple
names and
"boards".
The boards would apply for registration with the Mahoso
Intensive Care (MIC)
outfit while publishing for the permitted 60 days. The
MIC will obviously
try to prevent this by making very quick decisions on each
application. The
next board can then apply and continue the publication, and
so on.
We have to find ways of beating the demons at their own game.
Although the
name of the organisation and that of the publication will have
to change
each time, the people will at least be assured of quality and
reliable news
and information for a sustainable period.
Efforts
could also be made to change the registration specifications of
such
monthlies as Parade and The Worker to make them dailies.
The
Daily News staff and equipment could be harnessed to produce a daily
paper of
good quality to inform the people. Further, existing
organisational
publications, periodicals and even newsletters could begin to
include
informative articles and news items and distribute their publications
as
widely as possible.
To facilitate the generation of reliable
news, currently unemployed
journalists could be hired as freelance writers
for these organisations.
Perhaps we should seriously consider setting up
a Media Rescue Fund for
precisely this purpose.
Pamphlets could
also play a major role in informing people of the latest
developments in our
country and further afield. These could be printed once
or twice a week
depending on the availability of resources. They should be
printed on both
sides, and distributed overnight in major urban and
rural
centres.
In fact, they can just be dropped right along the
streets and at Musika and
other bus termini for the people to pick up and
read. State agents will have
sleepless nights trying to pick them up before
the people wake up each
morning, but they will not be able to pick all of
them up in time.
Finally, I am still a sucker for graffiti myself. I
think we should get back
to the painting of roads, buildings, etc with the
messages that we wish to
pass on to others.
This will infuriate
the regime no end but drastic action is now called for
if we are to keep the
news and information flowing. This regime has now
effectively reduced us to
the beating of traditional drums and the blowing
of trumpets as the means of
communication with each other.
First they reduced us to Stone Age
scavengers, then to hunter-gatherers, and
now to trumpeters and drum-beaters.
When the going gets tough, the tough get
busy. Rambai
makashinga!
John Makumbe is a lecturer in politics at the University
of Zimbabwe and
head of Transparency International.
Zim Independent
Zimbabweans should look beyond Mugabe
By Tafirenyika
Wekwa Makunike
FIXING our attention on the persona of Robert Mugabe seems to
have induced
paralysis in the people of Zimbabwe that has stopped us from
strategically
positioning ourselves as a nation in the global
village.
Despite what Stan Mudenge or Jonathan Moyo say, at nearly 80
Mugabe cannot
be our future. He belongs to our history and if he intends to
cling on to
power until beyond 2005 then there is a possibility that his role
will be
critically rewritten in our nation's history.
We have
already lost two vice-presidents to natural causes and we can not
leave the
creation of vacancies in the national hierarchy to fate. It is
important that
the team that is going to take over from Mugabe should hit
the ground running
for we have already lost years twiddling our
political
thumbs.
Political will to turn the nation back to
prosperity is totally absent and
the government is ruling by reacting to
problems as they cascade. There is
no monetary policy, no plan to extricate
the economy and generally it is
what Tony Hawkins would call voodoo
economics.
Last week I received four unrelated telephone calls from
Zimbabweans wanting
me to organise packets of maize seed from South Africa. I
used to drive past
ART farm along Alpes Road towards Hatcliffe Extension,
witnessing the seed
maize fields for the various Zimbabwean
companies.
Zimbabwe was clearly one of the best seed producers in the
region supplying
many other countries. For a regime that prides itself on
having brought land
to the people, the minimum they can do is make sure that
seed, chemicals,
fertilisers and extension services are available across the
farming areas.
Have those "highly successful" trips to Malaysia
yielded any basic
understanding of the tenets of strategic planning? Of
course the current
climate is conducive to a few smart alecks to make money
from the crisis
while the nation groans.
Should the Lord open the
sky and the rains come, what would be our excuse
for failing again? Surely it
will not be the fault of British-sponsored NGOs
who did not distribute seed
to our people in time.
Even for tobacco, preparation has been slow.
People involved in this sector
start preparing the seedlings as early as
July. Making funds available to
new farmers in October almost appears like a
secret desire to fail.
By inserting spiteful characters in the murky
echelons of the politburo,
Mugabe is ensuring that the life expectancy of
Zanu PF as a coherent
political force would last only a few weeks after he is
eased out of the
seat of power.
This leaves the MDC as the only
viable political alternative although I am
not impressed by their readiness
to hit the ground running. What politicians
need to be aware of is that no
other person will ever be given enough rope
like Mugabe was given. A new
dispensation would be on a very tight leash
from the electorate and patience
would be a rare commodity.
One of the exciting surprises of a new
leader is the ability to assemble a
competent leadership team to take the
country forward without inhibition.
As it stands Morgan Tsvangirai
already has too many 'shadow ministers' to be
able to manoeuvre. I can
understand Welshman Ncube being a shadow minister
for Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs or Renson Gasela as an
Agricultural shadow minister as
the two gentlemen fully understand their
sectors and can get their jobs
running on day one.
One of Mugabe's legacies is the lingering
patronage concept of jobs for the
boys (now I understand it has been extended
to degrees for the boys).
There was a period when if your CV contained a
Gonakudzingwa trip you were
assured of a government post. Even now Mugabe has
never used appropriate
skill or even performance as a measure to appoint
anyone to a job.
How do we explain someone with skills in school
curriculum development
heading trade and commerce or a history major being
asked to run a finance
ministry?
They stumble from one blunder to
another while the nation bleeds. Was it not
a breath of fresh air to have
someone like Bernard Chidzero with a grasp of
the job and an idea of how much
we could afford to spend?
Take for example my erstwhile
comrade-in-arms in ZUM, Gabriel Chaibva.
Granted, the man is a political
animal but he has been involved in science
and education yet he is given the
local government portifolio. Then we have
the confusion of Tendai Biti being
referred to as the shadow minister of
finance.
For goodness sake
the man is a lawyer and he would probably be asking for
the meaning of per
capita GDP and the abbreviation NAV as used in finance
lingo.
Some
may ask what experience Tsvangirai himself has, but as a leader he does
not
need any. All he needs is common sense, good advisors and being
decisive. We
cannot have his advisors also being advised; it creates the
abnormal
condition of governance by committees almost akin to the National
Economic
Consultative Forum circus being perpetrated by Zanu PF on us.
It is
an abdication of duty by those who are supposed to govern.
The problem
with a nation, unlike a commercial entity, is that we only have
one country
and we cannot allow it to be liquidated. The future interests us
all because
this is where we are most likely to spend the rest of our lives
as well as
those of our children.
The MDC should learn from the mistakes of
Zanu, that is a network of
patronage enriches a few people while pushing the
majority into poverty and
is a recipe for a disastrous
government.
What we need now are coherent strategies to take Zimbabwe
out of this abyss
Zanu PF pushed us into. These strategies must be discussed
openly and widely
as part of a post-Mugabe preparation. Where Tsvangirai has
no appropriate
skills in his party he should look to commerce and industry
for
augmentation.
I suggest he totally steer clear of the armchair
critics at the university.
Many have so much theory that they do not fit into
the long-term plan of
practical solutions required by the
nation.
Tafirenyika Wekwa Makunike is a business consultant based in
Johannesburg.
He is contactable on makunike@mweb.co.zw
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE LEGAL COMMUNIQUE - October 3, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRELIMINARY
NOTICE TO COMPULSORILY ACQUIRE LAND
Lot 114 (66 farms) and (87 farms)
respectively was repeated in the Herald
of 03 October with the 87 farms
repeated under a new Lot number 116.
The Herald of Friday 03 October 2003
contains new listings (Lot 116 - 15
farms and Lot 117 - 66 farms).
The
Ministry of Agriculture seems to be dropping balls in terms of Lot
numbers.
Whether this is by default or design is debatable but it is
certainly
resulting in confusion. Farmers are advised to object to
all
listings.
Lots 116 and 117 are listed below:
Lot 116:
BINDURA 1220/75 RICHARD MARK CHANCE SYDENHAM ESTATE
574.2088
CHIPINGA 1485/95 TANGANDA TEA CO LTD R/E OF HELVETIA
778.3579
CHIPINGA 5103/80 SOUTHDOWN HOLDINGS LTD R/E OF DAVORA OF
NEWCASTLE 357.4036
GATOOMA 7646/97 MARIA D HOFFMAN, ANNA MAGDALENA
MAATENS, MATHIAM JOHANNES
CORNELIUS HOFFMAN, DANIEL GODFRIED PIETER HOFFMAN,
CATHERINA JOHANNA VAN
RENSBURG, ALETA ESTELLE BEUKES, MARIE DOROTHEA
STANFIELD REMAINDER OF
RAILWAY FARM 7 1469.6049
GATOOMA 4616/93 SHILOH
HUNDING P/L LOT 1 OF RAILWAY FARM 5 224.8543
GATOOMA 5686/94 P A P
MANCHIP, J C FERRIS, S J RUSHFORTH, N C MANCHIP, S A
RUGG REMAINDER OF
ESTANCIA COREA 303.4632
HARTLEY 915/96 LEPRICORN ESTATES P/L SHAMROCK
646.5369
INYANGA 35/92 JAIME INVESTMENTS P/L R/E OF CHARLES HANMER PARK
OF LOT Z OF
INYANGA BLOCK 116.7955
NYAMANDHLOVU 1628/49 THE
ADMINISTRATORS OF THE ESTATE OF THE LATE ALFRED
JEFFREY OLDS S/D A OF BONGOLO
KNOWN AS RATHLYN 1266.0000 MORGEN 266 SQUARE
RODS
QUE QUE 1111/85
ROBERT DEREK SWIFT & JENNIFER STUART SWIFT BEMTREE ESTATE
A
7461.9612
SALISBURY 475/94 GIBSON ENTERPRISES P/L ECHO OF BORROWDALE
ESTATE 591.7292
SHAMVA 4383/77 MIKE BUTLER INVESTMENTS P/L MARSALA
947.4733
UMTALI 8065/71 JAMES FREDERICK FRANKLIN R/E OF TYRCONNELL
199.7876
UMTALI 5527/70 KEPPEL ESTATE P/L R/E OF ORKNEY OF HOWTH
158.2462
UMTALI 7342/95 FRANCIS GEORGE RADFORD & ROSEMARIE ELSIE
SCARBOROUGH S/D D
OF ORKNEY OF HOWTH 101.1728
Lot 117:
BINDURA
659/96 FRINTON HOLDINGS P/L FRINTON OF BUTLEIGH 887.9858
BUBI 2917/84
ALEX PETER GOOSEN FETTYKIL ESTATE 969.2938
BUBI 1456/85 ALEX PETER GOOSEN
DEESIDE 862.1354
GATOOMA 1894/80 VRYSTAAT ESTATES P/L FARM 10 A UMSWESWE
RIVER BLOCK
3886.8418
GATOOMA 6615/90 W R EDWARDS P/L VUMBA
1408.5192
GATOOMA 8434/88 A C LUBBE INVESTMENTS P/L SAXONDALE
739.1751
GATOOMA 6615/90 W R EDWARDS P/L R/E OF RODINI
652.6668
GATOOMA 3994/76 BEATTIE'S INVESTMENTS P/L R/E OF CHERRY BANK
100.2680
GATOOMA 3648/81 LEWIS RANCHING P/L ROCK BAR RANCH
6467.5854
GATOOMA 3695/82 DANIEL GODFRIED PEITER R/E OF THE FARM HILLSIDE
1279.0837
GATOOMA 6760/72 ALFRED JOHN READ PAMENE
1253.9424
GATOOMA 4452/2000 INSPAN INVESTMENTS P/L CORYTON
1294.4500
GATOOMA 6940/88 A C LUBBE INVESTMENTS P/L EBOR
637.0671
GATOOMA 8436/88 A C LUBBE INVESTMENTS P/L ELGIYO
680.0753
GATOOMA 4085/76 MOLINA RANCH P/L MOLINA 6965.0194
HARTLEY
4319/74 JOHN MCCLEARY BEATTIE VARKPAN 760.1755
HARTLEY 4960/82 CLOUDE
EDWARDS & SONS P/L WESTON 218.7276
HARTLEY 8436/88 A C LUBBE
INVESTMENTS P/L WESTWOOD 719.4752
HARTLEY 6637/80 HUNYANI FARM P/L
HUNYANI ESTATE 3B 2809.7374
HARTLEY 4392/85 PHILLIP ARTHUR PETER MANCHIP
PRIXY COMBE 563.5426
HARTLEY 11104/98 MILANWOOD ENTERPRISES P/L MILANWOOD
798.8823
HARTLEY 3127/91 FALCON GOLD ZIMBABWE LTD CHADSHUNT FARM
1316.1442
HARTLEY 4862/74 JOHN WILLIAM MELLS EAST MEDINA
508.7931
HARTLEY 3123/48 GILSTON ESTATES P/L R/E OF THE FARM CHISANDTSA
880.0000
MORGEN
HARTLEY 1307/99 MAPANI PARK OF DEWERAS EXTENSION
MAPANI PARK OF DEWERAS
EXTENSION 1274.7580
HARTLEY 3680/74 THOMAS
ARNOLDUS NIEHAUS RONDORA 1699.4598
HARTLEY 7451/86 C M MALLETT & SONS
P/L REMAINDER OF KNOCKHOLT 943.0982
HARTLEY 7373/96 VULCAN MINING CO P/L
R/E OF BLAGDON EXTENSION 842.8660
HARTLEY 2973/92 GALLOWAY AGRICULTURAL
ENTERPRISES P/L REMAINDER OF GALLOWAY
784.9684
HARTLEY 2880/95
ASSINGTON INV. CACTUS HILL CACTUS HILL FARM 769.1532
HARTLEY 7657/88
SYMINGTON ESTATE AC LUBBE INVESTMENTS 369.1593
HARTLEY 2139/87 M.E.
TRACEY STRATHSPEY ESTATE 1026.0084
HARTLEY 6109/97 RORKE FARMING P/L
TEMBEVALE 988.5275
HARTLEY 4585/81 J.MCALASTAIR BALDWIN REMAINDER OF
MARATONGA 857.0166
HARTLEY 4585/81 JEAN MCALASTAIR BALDWIN CLEVEDON
705.3369
HARTLEY 279/82 JUST RIGHT ESTATE P/L JUST RIGHT ESTATE
2060.4990
HARTLEY 2693/88 JUST RIGHT ESTATE P/L BEXHILL
1240.2381
MAZOE 5436/84 GILLIAN B. MCCALLUM REMAINDER OF MYROSS
253.0836
NYAMANDHLOVU 3208/95 DAVID GERALD HUNT NASEBY NORTH
1265.0129
NYAMANDHLOVU 3208/95 DAVID GERALD HUNT NASEBY SOUTH
1278.4974
NYAMANDHLOVU 136/83 ESTATE A.G. OLDS YONDER OF COMPENSATION
101.5686
SHAMVA 9100/96 CARRIERS REST P/L REMAINDER OF CARRIER'S REST
494.4517
SHAMVA 3247/93 DEVELOPMENT AID FROM PEOPLE TO PEOPLE IN
ZIMBABWE
GLENDALOUGH A 920.5936
SHAMVA 8297/99 LINCOSHIRE INVESTMENTS
P/L LOT 1 OF CERES 555.9427
SHAMVA 4383/77 PAT BUTLER MUMURGWI
762.7298
SHAMVA 4383/77 MIKE BUTLER INVESTMENTS P/L HEREFORD ESTATE
1421.4533
SHAMVA 4383/77 PAT BUTLER INVESTMENTS P/L WOODLANDS ESTATE
1073.7597
SHAMVA 4383/77 PAT BUTLER INVESTMENTS P/L THE POORT
1047.2275
SHAMVA 1208/70 MATANUSKA P/L MOLLYVALE ESTATE
206.0116
SHAMVA 5436/84 GILLIAN BENJIE MCCALLUM ANNANDALE A
273.2293
SHAMVA 9805/89 NEW RIVERBEND P/L RIVERBEND
1281.9363
SHAMVA 683/79 IRIS ANNE LOGAN GOLDEN STAR
530.2198
SHAMVA 6848/81 CORYTON FARMS P/L CORYTON 234.4632
SHAMVA
1990/85 PETER EINAR RORBYE ILTON A 954.2515
SHAMVA 560/88 MAXTON FARM P/L
TRIO OF BURNLEIGH 315.1986
SHAMVA 1990/85 PETER EINAR RORBYE OAKSEY
485.5172
SHAMVA 2507/97 FERGUSLIE P/L REMAINDER OF NYAMADOMBA
1823.9964
SHAMVA 1884/2000 DEVELOPMENT AID FROM PEOPLE TO PEOPLE IN
ZIMBABWE
REMAINDER OF LOT 1 OF FREUGH OF UMFURUDSI RANCH
747.4696
SHAMVA 1884/2000 DEVELOPMENT AID FROM PEOPLE TO PEOPLE IN
ZIMBABWE
REMAINDER OF FARM 10 OF UMFURUDSI RANCH 431.0946
SHAMVA
1884/2000 DEVELOPMENT AID FROM PEOPLE TO PEOPLE IN ZIMBABWE FARM 11
OF
UMFURUDSI RANCH 460.8067
SHAMVA 682/79 AUBREY HAMISH LOGAN THE RANGE
1377.5424
SHAMVA 97/87 R E MORKEL PROPERTIES P/L CERES A
659.4656
SHAMVA 5866/73 CHIPOLI P/L CHIPOLI ESTATE
4801.8649
SHAMVA 6709/98 FOREMONT INVESTMENTS P/L SUNRAY
864.7044
WANKIE 1004/95 DORCKET ENTERPRISES P/L BINDONVALE
1128.0986
WANKIE 1004/95 DORCKET ENTERPRISES P/L CARL LISA
858.1603
News24
Zim govt denies closing paper
03/10/2003 20:06 -
(SA)
Harare - The Zimbabwe government said on Friday it played no
part in the
controversial shutting down of the country's only independent
daily paper, a
fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, and vowed not to
meddle in the
embattled paper's fate.
"No, the government of Zimbabwe
did not shut down the Daily News. We have no
time to waste with things like
this. We have no interest," Information and
Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo
said at a function to inaugurate a revamped
state news agency, the New
Ziana.
The Daily News was forcibly shut down by police on September 12, a
day after
the Supreme Court ruled that it was operating illegally because it
was not
licenced by a government media commission under the country's
18-month-old
media laws.
The paper had gone to the Supreme Court to
challenge the constitutional
validity of the media laws compelling all media
houses and journalists to
register, but the court said it would not entertain
its case until it was
registered.
"The Daily News is a victim of the
rule of law about which it has been
preaching since 1999," Moyo
said.
Application rejected
Since the closure and seizure of its
equipment, the paper tried to register
but its application was rejected by
the media commission.
It has since been shuttling between the country's
courts to have the
commission's decision reviewed, and a hearing has now been
set for October
16.
Moyo accused the paper of trying to be a law unto
itself, of viewing itself
"superior" and said it had not submit its
application to register when
others did last year.
Had the government
wanted to shut down the Daily News, it would have done so
long ago, Moyo
said.
"They had 8 months and 12 days to register, (but) they decided to
hell with
the law.
"We did not do anything... we would have shut them
down during that time
they were violating the rules, but we did not," he
said.
'No political interference'
"The fate of the Daily News is
in the law," said Moyo. "There will be no
political interference, we will not
entertain any pressure from anybody
because we respect the law.
"Let
the law decide," Moyo said.
He said 51 media organisations and
individuals, some of whom he described as
"imperialist dogs" that publish
"trash" about the country, had registered -
but not the Daily
News.
"All of these running dogs of imperialism in Zimbabwe that have
been around
got registered. They were registered because they applied to be
registered,
all of them, and we know that most of them publish trash. In fact
all of
them publish trash," he said.
The type of "trash" published by
the organisations and individuals
registered in Zimbabwe would not be
published anywhere overseas, he said.
Moyo said private and foreign media
in Zimbabwe habitually insult Mugabe,
calling the long-time president, among
other slurs, a thief.
"Why don't they say (US president) George Bush is a
thief, and (British
Prime Minister) Tony Blair is a thief?" he
queried.
"If we were serious people, who do not want to apologise for who
we are...
really we would shut these papers down because they are trash, they
injure
our national interest," he said.
He called the "lies" about
Zimbabwe carried by the American and British
international media dangerous
"weapons of mass deception".
Business Day
Bush 'not satisfied' with Zimbabwe
situation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
WASHINGTON
- US President George W. Bush declared himself "not satisfied"
with efforts
so far to promote human rights and political reforms in
Zimbabwe and urged
its neighbors to keep up pressure for change.
"The only time that this
government and I, personally, will be satisfied is
when there is an honest
government, reformed government in Zimbabwe," he
told African
reporters.
"That hasn't happened yet; therefore, we're not
satisfied."
Prodded, Bush said he was not pleased "with the process" and
"certainly not"
with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, whose country lies in
the grips of a
festering political and social crisis, with the economy in
chaos and more
than five million people in need of donated food.
He
also indicated he hoped President Thabo Mbeki - with whom he met during
a
July trip to Africa - would continue to lead regional efforts to
put
pressure on Mugabe.
"Our government has not changed our opinion
about the need for the region
to deal with Zimbabwe and the leadership
there," said Bush, who added that
he had sent the same message to
Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano when
they met last month on the
sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
"When President Mbeki
says they are working on it, to achieve this goal, I
take him for his word.
And I am going to remind all parties that the goal is
a reformed and fair
government. And that hasn't been achieved yet. And we'll
continue to press
the issue, both privately and publicly," said Bush.
The US president was
speaking at a roundtable with African media to set the
stage for Kenyan
President Mwai Kibaki's October 6 state visit to the
United
States.
AFP
Business Day
UN warns of deepening Zimbabwe food
crisis
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
HARARE
- The food crisis in Zimbabwe is worsening, with a majority of the
country's
districts having exhausted their food stocks, according to a UN
report
received.
"According to reports from 58 districts in August 2003, food is
becoming
scarce, harvest stocks have been exhausted in a majority of
districts and
over half report a deteriorating food situation," the report
said.
The report comes a week after the UN's food agency warned that only
a
quarter of its appeal for funds to feed millions of starving people
in
southern Africa, most of them in Zimbabwe, had been met.
An
estimated 5.5 million Zimbabweans will require emergency food aid by
early
next year, out of a regional total of 6.5 million.
According to the UN
humanitarian situation report families in several
districts of Zimbabwe have
taken to selling household goods to make ends
meet, while others have
resorted to eating wild fruit usually given to
livestock.
There are
also reports of critical water shortages in the drought-ravaged
southern
Matabeland province.
It said that in the Matabeland district of Gwanda
"80 percent of the
families visited have lost their livestock through deaths
related to lack of
pastures, water scarcity or foot and mouth
disease."
According to the report the state-run Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) does not
have enough food to feed people in the country's most populous
province of
Manicaland, in eastern Zimbabwe.
"The province requires
about 27,000 metric tonnes per month, but GMB is
expecting to receive about
10,500 metric tonnes for the entire year."
The famine in Zimbabwe has
been blamed on a combination of drought and what
critics say is a poorly
managed land reform programme launched by President
Robert Mugabe, which has
seen former white-owned commercial farms seized and
handed over to new black
farmers.
AFP
VOA
Zimbabwean Judge Puts Daily News' Case on Fast Track
Tendai
Maphosa
Harare
03 Oct 2003, 19:34 UTC
Lawyers for publishers of
Zimbabwe's most popular newspaper, The Daily News,
won a small, but
significant legal victory, when a judge ordered their case
against the
government expedited. The newspaper, which was shut down by the
government
last month, has been battling in the courts to get back on
the
newsstands.
President of the administrative court Michael Major has
put the case on his
urgent docket and set a hearing for October 16. He also
ordered Zimbabwe's
Media and Information Commission, which refused to
register Zimbabwe's only
independent daily, to answer to him for its
decision.
The lawyer for the publisher, Gugulethu Majuru, was upbeat
about the court's
decision, and said, "It's one very important step towards
the final victory,
we believe that our case has merits and the sooner it is
heard, the sooner
victory will come."
The Daily News was shut down,
after it defied Zimbabwe's draconian Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, which requires that publishers
and journalists obtain a
government license in order to operate.
Police swooped down on the
newspaper's offices on September 12, and
confiscated all its office
equipment. The publisher has battled the
government in the courts ever
since.
The Daily News was founded in 1999 and was Zimbabwe's most widely
read
newspaper. Its frequent criticism of President Robert Mugabe, his
government
and party is widely seen as the reason why the government shut the
paper
down.
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1: Re Open Letters Forum No. 155 dated 01 October
Dear Sir
My
original letter in this debate was trying to explain that everyone one
of us
in this universe is FREE to make a CHOICE (on any part of life).
Having made
the choice the person concerned is then RESPONSIBLE for all, or
any of the
subsequent CONSEQUENCES. The formula is CHOICES = CONSEQUENCES.
It is NOT
part of the bargain, that you get to choose what part of the
consequences you
want!! You do not get to whinge and whine how unfair life
is etc etc. This
applies to EVERYONE. It has nothing to do with whether you
are a farmer or a
townie.
This debate has shown that the blanket generalisations of who's
to blame -
whether it is the townies or the farmers - has opened many cans of
worms.
That's great because let's get all the mush on the carpet. The secret
is
not to now stand and watch the worms crawl around!! STOP the
Zimbabwean
attitude of IT'S NOT ME - I AM NOT THE ONE. Instead ACCEPT that
there is a
mess on the floor and EVERYONE is responsible for cleaning it
up.
Get out of VICTIM MODE. Let go of yesterday. Live for the NOW and
act
accordingly.
As "petra" says "Let us not point any more fingers at
each other."
To the Kiwi Supporter (who hopefully has a sense of humour).
I would say -
diplomacy has its place, but maybe (??) it is time for a
mutiny!! At least
that would be ACTION and CHANGE. Apathy does not get better
by massaging
it! As we all know, you should only watch TV after you have done
your
homework, and from the reading groups, your mother will tell you that
-
knowledge is power!!
Sincerely
Lady
Killen
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2: Re Open Letters Forum No. 155 dated 01 October
I am what you call a
"Townie". I often contemplate what I would do if I
were a Rancher/Farmer
being confronted by 20 - 30 (sometimes more) rabid
thugs, trying to take what
is mine and or harm those dear to me. Shoot,
Run, call a neighbour and put
them into the same predicament, call on the
entire Ranching/Farming community
in the area for help? Would this not give
the despot the excuse for wholesale
slaughter?
I have read John Kinnaird's views on "what if the
Farmers/Ranchers had"
there's those 2 letters again IF.
I had a very
dear friend, a tough farmer friend, he had to leave his Farm
and everything
on it. A man of his calibre and his friends around him
couldn't save it. What
could John suggest he should have done?
I have known John Kinnaird for
some time now and know he is a man with
great integrity and has a passion for
what is right and I value his views
and opinions greatly, But should we not
now help the Farmers and Ranchers
who have lost everything instead of
criticising them with the proverbial
"What if".
Regards
Dave
Davis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3: Reply to Open Letters Forum No. 154 dated 30 September
I AM NOT
NORMALLY PROMPTED TO REPLY TO THINGS WRITTEN AND READ PUBLICLY.I
MUST SAY
THOUGH, THAT I ADMIRE JOHN KINNAIRD'S STRENGTH PASSION AND FERVOR,
EVEN
THOUGH I MIGHT NOT AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY.
I MYSELF AM THE DEAD OR DYING
BREED. A FARMER STILL FARMING AND FROM
PIONEERING STOCK. I ADMIRE AND SALUTE
ALL THE FARMERS THAT HAVE BEEN
EVICTED AND SUFFERED.I DO NOT THINK IT IS OUR
POSITION TO JUDGE ANYONE, OR
DICTATE ANY ACTIONS THAT SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT BE
TAKEN.THE CIRCUMSTANCES
ARE TOO DIFFERENT AND THE GENERAL SITUATION TO
UNSTABLE.UNTIL WE HAVE
WALKED A MILE IN THE OTHER MANS SHOES!!
AS FOR
FIGHTING AS HAVE DONE OUR FOREFATHERS, I ALREADY FEEL AS IF I AM RE-
LIVING
THE LIFE OF "SALLY IN RHODESIA" WITH STAFF NOT QUALIFIED, OR KNOWING
HOW
"MODERN CONVENIENCES "WORK. COMPARING HER LIFE AND TIMES TO HER
OVERSEAS KITH
AND KIN AND DOING THE SAME IN OUR "MODERN DAY AND AGE ", I DO
NOT THINK WE
HAVE MADE AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF PROGRESS, AND JUST SEEM TO
BE IN A HAMSTER
WHEEL THAT TURNS ROUND AND ROUND AND PASSES TIME. I FOR
ONE DO NOT THINK I
HAVE THE STRENGTH OR WILL TO FIGHT ANYMORE, AS DID THE
PIONEERS, FOR ANYTHING
HERE.JUST "DOING A DAY, TRYING TO KEEP THINGS GOING"
TAKES TOO MUCH
ENERGY.
THERE IS TOO MUCH BICKERING AND CRITICISM AMONGST THE VERY PEOPLE
THAT
AUGHT TO BE STANDING TOGETHER LOVING AND ASSISTING ONE ANOTHER.ON
THIS
FORUM ALONE, I HAVE SEEN ENOUGH BACK BITING TO LAST ME A LIFE TIME, AND
WE
DARE CRITICIZE THE "POWERS THAT BE!! THEY HAVE DONE A VERY GOOD JOB
OF
DIVIDE AND RULE!! I WILL JUST CONTINUE TO TRY AND DO A DAYS WORK,
ASSIST
THOSE IN NEED AND TRY AND BE SUPPORTIVE TO THOSE THAT HAVE SUFFERED,
BUT
LEAVE THE JUDGMENT AND INSTRUCTION TO SOMEONE QUALIFIED.
IT WOULD
BE GOOD TO WAKE UP IN THE MORNING, TURN THE COMPUTER ON, AND READ
THE JAG
OPEN LETTER AND SEE THINGS THAT ARE UPLIFTING AND MAKE YOU FEEL
ENTHUSIASTIC
ABOUT YOUR DAY, INSTEAD OF ANGRY FRUSTRATED AND DISAPPOINTED
IN YOUR FELLOW
FARMERS FOR THE BICKERING. COULD WE NOT SEND IN "HAPPY
STORIES" THEY ARE OUT
THERE YOU JUST HAVE TO LOOK FOR THEM! I WAS DONATED
SOME MONEY TO KEEP 2 OLD
GRANNIES GOING FOR ANOTHER 2 MONTHS, BY SOME
LOVING AND CARING PERSON. THAT
MAKES MY DAY AND INSPIRES ME TO KEEP
TRYING!!
THAT NEAR EXTINCT
CREATURE
A WORKING FARMER'S
WIFE
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Letter
4:
I am trying to get in touch with Ulla and Jean Sundi who used to farm
out
in Macheke. If anyone knows of their whereabouts, please let John
Worswick
know at the JAG offices who can pass the details on to
me.
Many thanks,
James
Maberly
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