From The Times of India, 8 October

War veterans press for Tsvangirai's arrest

HARARE - Hundreds of war veterans and supporters of President Robert Mugabe on Friday staged a demonstration demanding the immediate arrest of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for calling for a violent ouster of Mugabe, state television reported. The protesters, led by Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, gathered outside President Mugabe's office where they delivered a petition to Defence Minister Moven Mahachi. The opposition leader said from neighbouring South Africa Friday that he was prepared to face possible prosecution for treason.

Tsvangirai, head of the year-old MDC, which won nearly half the seats in parliamentary elections in June, told supporters at a rally on September 30 that Mugabe should leave office, adding: "If you don't want to go peacefully we will remove you violently." But the protesters accused the MDC of "dividing black people" and reversing the gains of independence by trying to return White rule. "You must know that Tsvangirai is a puppet working with the Whites we removed during the liberation war," Mahachi told the protesters in Shona. He vowed that "if more blood should be shed, it will be shed to protect our country". Hunzvi said: "We will never allow Tsvangirai to remove the government by force". Tsvangirai said Friday: "I will go back to Zimbabwe and face whatever there is -- I have committed no crime. ... I'm a law-abiding citizen; if I've broken the law I will face the due process of the law. They are so determined to lay charges against me – they will of course lay charges, but I cannot predict the reaction of the people regarding this action."

From Pan African News Agency, 7 October

Police Return Radio Equipment, Seize It Again

Harare - Zimbabwe police at the weekend returned radio transmission equipment to a pirate station to comply with a court order, but immediately seized it again - this time complying with new regulations promulgated by the government to govern the country's newly liberalised airwaves. The law enforcement officers first seized the equipment from Capital Radio on Wednesday night, but the owners won an urgent court application against the police action. This was before President Robert Mugabe on Thursday invoked his vast presidential powers to set rules for new broadcasters.

The new rules, among other things, require that new players obtain a licence from the government to operate and allow the inspection of their equipment by the authorities. The Supreme Court ruled that state monopoly in broadcasting was illegal two weeks ago. Prospective broadcasters have since lodged several applications. However, the authorities have said only two licences will be issued

From News24 (SA), 7 October

Farmer beaten by own guards

Harare - A 42-year-old white farmer was still in hospital in the town of Marondera about 80km east of Harare on Saturday after his security guards allegedly beat him up and set fire to his house on Friday. Alan Don, 42, suffered "very severe" bruising all over his body and lacerations on his head after he was beaten with a butt of a shotgun and a truncheon, Dr Lizanne Place, who is treating Don, said on Saturday. His attackers also pulled out two of his fingernails and "bit him all over his hand," she said. His workshop and home were also set alight during the attack. Shortly after the attack six farm employees, including security guards, were arrested. The war veterans, who have invaded over 1 700 white owned farms around Zimbabwe were not involved in the attack.

The CFU said on Saturday that a farmer in the Tengwe area, about 120km north of Harare, was threatened by the veterans. A court messenger serving eviction notices to squatters on 47 farms in the Karoi area was threatened with death. The union said a farmer in Macheke area, 90km east of Harare, was faced with an unusual demand on Friday when veterans told him to remove his barns and his dam.

From The Scotsman (UK), 7 October

Mugabe could suffer same fate as Milosevic, de Klerk warns

THE former South African president, FW de Klerk, yesterday warned Robert Mugabe that he awaits the fate of the deposed Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic - unless Zimbabwe’s president reads the signs of the times. Mr de Klerk, visiting Edinburgh to give a speech on the management of political change, told The Scotsman: "Following the elections in Zimbabwe, the people there might lose patience and take to the streets in much the same way as the Yugoslav people. "It will all depend on what recognition the opposition will be given by Mugabe himself, and on Mugabe’s wisdom, or lack of wisdom, in reading the signs and doing something to find an accommodation with the real resistance that is building up." Mr de Klerk’s warning came as the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, called Mr Mugabe "the Milosevic of Africa"…

 

From The Sunday Times (SA), 8 October

A nation falls apart

Zimbabwe teeters on the edge of collapse as workers strike, cars run out of fuel and soldiers fight another country's war, writes Mondli Makhanya

The Zengeza clinic at Chitungwiza, just outside Harare, would normally be bustling on a Thursday afternoon as it is the main antenatal clinic in the poverty stricken town. This particular Thursday, there were no snaking queues - just a few youths lounging around the grounds informing frustrated women that they would have to come back another day. The clinic was closed.

The nursing staff had all abandoned their posts and were camping out at the council offices near Chitungwiza's city centre. Their main grievance was basic: better pay. Earlier this year, they had received salary increases of about 35%, about half the inflation rate. But the list of their other grievances read like a horror story. The nurses were not being provided with basics like gloves, forcing them to handle used spatulas and to treat patients with infectious diseases with their bare hands. They often went for days without the most elementary drugs. "How do you say you are providing health care if you do not have a healthy working environment? I have never had to work in such a situation in my entire life," said a nurse who has been in the profession for 18 years.

That morning, nurses in Harare had taken their cue from their Chitungwiza counterparts and gone on strike to demand better allowances and the basic tools of their trade. The nurses' grievances epitomised the dysfunction that is Zimbabwe today: the rapid disintegration of social services, a trend most acutely felt in the health sector. They also reflect a growing anger among ordinary people, who have been unable to keep up with the rocketing prices of basic goods.

In recent weeks, workers across Zimbabwe have been downing tools and demanding salaries in line with the inflation rate. More often than not, the strikes have not had the support of unions, which are trying hard to contain the surge in militancy. And with Zimbabweans facing their worst economic year since independence in 1980, the anger is proving difficult for the government, unions and opposition parties to control. This year, the inflation rate has averaged 70%, and predictions are that the annual rate will be slightly higher . A loaf of bread, which cost Z$7.80 at the beginning of last year, now costs Z$21.50. Wage settlements, on the other hand, have averaged a mere 45% as trade unions have been acutely aware that they would bankrupt companies if they demanded anything higher.

According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, the average six-member Zimbabwean family now needs Z$10 600 a month to survive, much more than the Z$8 400 minimum wage, which most Zimbabweans do not even earn. In almost every industry, companies are laying off workers by the thousands. The fuel crisis has not let up, and the public transport system comes to a standstill on a weekly basis. Residents of Harare and smaller towns have become used to weekly power cuts as Zimbabwe battles to raise foreign currency to pay SA and Mozambican electricity suppliers. Non-governmental organisations report a dramatic increase in the number of street children this year, a phenomenon they attribute to the inability of parents to fend for their families and to an increase in child abuse.

Over the past 10 months, Zimbabweans have watched their country fall apart. There was a time, shortly after the June elections, when Zimbabweans were confident the worst was over. The most violent election campaign in the country's history had ended with a near-perfect result: President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF had held onto enough seats to avert a backlash from supporters who believed power was their party's God-given right, and the opposition had won enough seats to be able to hold the government accountable. Mugabe then roped into his Cabinet several respected technocrats to help turn the economy around. But that optimism has fast dissipated as the impotence of the new ministers has became apparent.

The new Minister of Finance, Simba Makoni, who has since been given token party positions, was forced to push through parliament a supplementary budget of Z$35 billion - a third of the annual budget. The biggest chunk of the money, Z$6 billion, went to defence, while the crumbling social services suffered. The move cost Makoni the respect of many who believed he would pull Zimbabwe back from the abyss. James Jowa, an economic researcher with the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, said Makoni would have to restore his reputation when he presented his first full budget in six weeks' time. "What he says will affect the image Zimbabwe will carry in the markets."

The MDC is equally despondent, having seen its ambitious attempts at playing a classic parliamentary opposition role being stumped by Zanu-PF. Learnmore Jongwe, an MDC parliamentarian, said parliament had been a "big disappointment" for his party. "We were hoping that our presence would have an impact on the style of governance. But the ruling party has been very hostile to us and there has been no change in the style of operation. They have not accepted the reality that there is now a strong opposition party in Zimbabwe."

Government officials privately concede that the country could be heading for a major train smash and express frustration that, while the decline can be arrested, the solution is out of their hands. With everyone recognising that Southern Africa's second most powerful country needs rescuing urgently, there is now growing pressure on the government, labour and business to resume discussions on "a social contract". Talks aimed at reaching an accord on restraining wage demands and curbing government spending broke down two years ago when the government grew suspicious of the increasingly politicised unions.

But unions have already put out feelers about resuming such talks. According to Isidore Sidonga, the general secretary of the ZCTU, unions would be prepared to restrain their wage demands if the other parties kept their side of the bargain. "If we want to turn this economy around then we need a collective approach and all the parties must be serious about doing this. We will be demanding that government reduce its expenditure in areas other than social services. We will want to engage in a review of the effect of prices on people's lives every six months," said Sidonga.

But the danger already exists for such an accord to come unstuck with Zimbabwe's costly continued presence in the DRC and the early campaigning for the 2002 presidential elections. The war effort is costing Zimbabwe Z$1 million a day, and any attempt to curb spending will be frustrated by the need to keep channelling money into it. And without progress in the United Nations-sponsored peace accord, the Zimbabwean government will not voluntarily pull out its troops.

Meanwhile, foreign donors have told the Zimbabwean government that it will not be able to afford the loans and grants it needs to stabilise the economy until it stops squandering public funds on a wasteful war. Mugabe's government has already fired the opening shots in the 2002 presidential election campaign by proceeding with the seizure of white-owned farms for resettlement by black peasants. Farm invasions and the uncertainty surrounding the future of commercial farms have already crippled the agricultural sector. Whether Mugabe is listening to the warnings that his country is falling apart remains unclear. As one Zanu-PF insider says: "Mugabe drives around in a tinted car, and his drivers avoid all the potholes on the road. He does not know what is happening in the country."