"The Zimbabwe Situation" news page

COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
 
FARM INVASIONS UPDATE
 
THURSDAY 31 AUGUST 2000
 
The CFU will be holding a formal consultative meeting with the IMF delegation lead by the Assistant Director for Africa, Paulo Neuhous on Monday 4 September 2000 at 2.30 p m.
 
REGIONAL REPORTS 
 
MASHONALAND CENTRAL 
Horseshoe - Two armed masked men locked the barman of Horseshoe Club in a storeroom and stole $60 000.00 and made off with the club keys.  War vets in retaliation to a confrontation with labour are setting fires on Rushpeak Farm.
Mazowe/Concession - War vets are pegging on Amatola Farm.
 
MASHONALAND EAST
Macheke - The forest on Sam Lewis Farm was set alight yesterday. So far 800-1000 hectares has been lost: an estimated $17.5 million.
No other reports today due to a Regional Meeting.
 
MASHONALAND WEST NORTH
Nothing to report.
 
MASHONALAND WEST SOUTH
Battlefields - A beast was killed on Umsweswi River Block 6 yesterday.
Kadoma - Police horse patrols on Milverton Estates found 5 missing cattle in the nearby resettlement area. When the manager went to collect the cattle there was only one to be found - the others had vanished. This one cow had been used by an individual in the resettlement to draw carts and work. The individual wants compensation from Milverton Estates for "looking after their mombe" for the last three years - Milverton was not aware that this cow had been missing for three years. Police have been notified and should the cow not be returned on Monday when the go and collect it, the individual will be charged with stocktheft.
 
MASVINGO
Gutu - Quiet although properties are still occupied and trees are being cut.
Chiredzi -  There were fires on Angus, Mkwasine, Humani and three other properties. One had 9 fires yesterday. Palm River and Bangala in the Triangle area also had fires started on them. The fire on Fairange Estates was brought under control last night. The ZRP reaction was very ineffective, and the Police were seen making jokes with war vets Sam Marodzi and Mutemachani. A lady war vet was taken in for questioning, and there has been no further action.
Mwenezi - No change
Masvingo East and Central - The situation remains the same. On Yettom and Marah Farms war vets are erecting structures everywhere, including right near the homestead security fence and on strategic points to monitor the farmer's movement. They are led by Muzenda.
Conservancy - The situation remains the same.
In the Chiredzi and Masvingo areas, farm workers are fed up with the situation and are ready to retaliate. A clash between farm workers and war vets is imminent. Farmers are restraining their labour. It is observed that some workers have told the Police to take action.
 
MANICALAND
Nothing to report.
 
MATABELELAND
Nothing to report.
 
MIDLANDS

Nothing to report.

MDC Manchester. 

 

There will be a public meeting on the 2nd of September 2000 at 1400hrs at Studio 21, Imex Business Centre, Longsight, Manchester.  The place is opposite Longsight Flea Market.  People from the the surrounding areas of Manchester are welcome to attend.  The theme will be the way forward after the elections.

DRC costs top $10bn - Star
Hinzvi alleges plot - FGaz
ZanuPF MP calls for resettlement of farmworkers - Star
Mugabe's gamble - Star
MP warns of army revolt - DNews
ZanuPF disowns vets - FGaz
CFU to talk direct to foreign donors - DNews
War fund probe abandoned - FGaz
No cash for state salaries - FGaz

Harare - Zimbabwe has spent Z$10-billion (about R1,38-billion) on its two-year military intervention in the war in the DRC, Finance Minister Simba Makoni said on Wednesday. Makoni was responding to questions from opposition MDC deputy Tafadzwa Musekiwa. Since joining the war in August 1998, Zimbabwe spent Z$260-million in its first five months, Z$3,9-billion in 1999, and six billion in the first six months of this year, Makoni said. "This brings a total so far this year of a little over Z$10- billion on this operation," Makoni said. The Zimbabwe government has previously said it spent an average three million US dollars a month in the DRC adventure, which would amount to just Z$72-million in two years.
Makoni admitted that the cash-strapped government could not sustain the expenditure. "Our economy cannot sustain the expenditure of this magnitude for an extended period. "This is why our government is committed to bringing home our forces at the earliest opportunity," he said. He incited protest from the opposition when he told parliamentarians that no written contract had been drawn up between Kinshasa and Harare with regards to reimbursement for Zimbabwe's intervention. "Commitments are made in forms other than contract. They are made on the basis of trust," he said. Laughter and shouts of "Ah, Kabila" erupted from the opposition benches at that comment.

CHENJERAI Hunzvi, deposed as head of Zimbabwe's independence war veterans at the weekend, this week accused top officials of the ruling ZANU PF party of engineering his ouster but vowed to fight on. Hunzvi named Parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, ZANU PF’s administration secretary Didymus Mutasa and former Home Affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa as the leaders of a bid to sideline him because, he said, they felt he had become too powerful and too close to President Robert Mugabe. Dabengwa and Mutasa immediately rejected his accusation. Mnangagwa could not be reached for comment because he is out of Zimbabwe on business.
Hunzvi said his removal from the leadership of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWA) on Saturday was part of a campaign among ZANU PF chiefs to strategically position themselves to take over control of Zimbabwe from the ageing Mugabe. He charged that the party’s political heavyweights feared he could use what they perceived as his growing influence within ZANU PF and on Mugabe to block their ambitions and had thus engineered the no-confidence vote against him. They were also seeking to prevent him from being appointed a member of ZANU PF’s supreme Politburo organ, he claimed.
"They see me as a threat and they fear that if I continue as chairman of the war veterans I may get appointed to the Politburo at the forthcoming ZANU PF congress," Hunzvi told the Financial Gazette. Elevation to the Politburo would turn Hunzvi into one of the most powerful politicians in the land. The Polish-trained doctor, who is also the ruling party’s MP for Chikomba, is already credited with masterminding his party’s slim victory against the opposition MDC in the June general elections by spearheading nationwide invasions of farms and bludgeoning farm and rural voters to support ZANU PF. His relationship with Mugabe has reportedly been growing since then.
Dabengwa denied he was involved in any way in the leadership wrangles of the ZNLWA, saying he had last dealt with the group more than two years ago. "I have not had anything to do with the war veterans establishment since 1997 and I do not know anything about these problems they are having at the moment," he said. Mutasa also dismissed Hunzvi’s allegations. "It is totally untrue. It is unfair for anybody to say we are trying to interfere with the war veterans. Their problem is something between themselves and nobody else," he said. ZNLWA secretary-general Andy Mhlanga, who led eight out of the association’s 10 provinces in passing a vote of no confidence against Hunzvi, also dismissed Hunzvi’s charges that he was being used by ambitious ZANU PF politicians.
More than two ZNLWA provinces have so far come out in support of the embattled Hunzvi, saying that Mhlanga was working to split the association. But Mhlanga said Hunzvi’s removal as chairman of the association had been done in accordance with the ZNLWA’s constitution and in the interests of the ex-guerrillas. "What Hunzvi is saying are just unfounded allegations. What happened last weekend was purely a war veterans issue," he said, repeating that most ex-combatants could no longer tolerate Hunzvi’s alleged dictatorial tendencies.
Hunzvi insisted that top ZANU PF members who were eyeing the state presidency were alarmed that he might scuttle their plans to take control of the party at its extraordinary congress due in November. "They say I am becoming too close to the President while they are being sidelined and they want to dilute my influence before the next congress," he said. The congress is expected to select ZANU PF’s candidate for the 2002 presidential election, which is expected to be also contested by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. It is widely expected but not guaranteed that Mugabe will retain the leadership of the party and that another party candidate will be nominated for the state presidency.
Whatever happens, whoever is to become ZANU PF’s presidential candidate will certainly need the unqualified support of the powerful war veterans. The group has increasingly become the king-makers within ZANU PF since they led the nationwide seizures of white-owned farmland in February. Mugabe has increasingly leaned on them, especially Hunzvi, for support while distancing himself from his former lieutenants, most of whom he unceremoniously dumped in a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle in July.

Harare - Tens of thousands of black Zimbabwe farm workers facing eviction from white-owned farms after radical government land reforms should be resettled on the acquired farms, a ruling party deputy said on Tuesday. The Zimbabwe government plans to seize more than 3 000 of about 5 000 white-owned commercial farms for a rapid resettlement of landless blacks, before the summer rains commence in November. "When these farms are acquired for resettlement, the workers' future hangs in the balance," said Charles Ndlovu, a ruling Zanu-PF party parliamentarian. The deputy who represents a rural constituency moved a motion in parliament on Tuesday calling for the improvement of working conditions and renumerations for about 700 000 commercial farm labourers on Zimbabwe's farms.
Ndlovu's parliamentary address came a day after union officials representing the country's commercial farm workers complained that government was ignoring the plight of farm labourers. The unions revealed that at least 15 000 farm labourers and their families have lost their jobs and homes since the government started to resettle blacks on white land three weeks ago. "At least 15 000 people have been displaced by the fast track land redistribution programme in Mashonaland West and Central (provinces)," Phillip Munyanyi, secretary-general of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) said. "With an average of 20 families per farm, an estimated 240 000 farm workers are being affected by the land reform programme," noted Ndlovu. "For the land reform programme to avoid creating unnecessary loss of employment among farm workers, all affected employees should be accommodated when people are being resettled on acquired farms," he said. Farmers and workers unions said only a few labourers were resettled, and the number was insignificant and served as a token gesture.

Harare - President Robert Mugabe is pushing ahead with land redistribution to try to save the presidency for himself or his party at the expense of Zimbabwe's economy, independent analysts say. The analysts say the 76-year-old president's gamble could backfire because the presidential race, like the June parliamentary election his ruling Zanu-PF party narrowly won, is likely to be decided on the health of the economy. Blacks left landless after generations of white colonial rule form the constituency he hopes to woo.
I think Mugabe is continuing with his controversial (land) programme because, in his calculation, he is probably seeing it as a vote winner for the coming elections, either for himself or for his candidate if he decides to step down," said political analyst Brian Raftopoulos, a senior researcher at the University of Zimbabwe's Institute of Development Studies. Political analysts say Mugabe's primary goal now is to try to stop the opposition MDC from winning the presidency. The MDC, formed about a year ago, won 57 seats against Zanu-PF's 62 seats in the June parliamentary elections in the biggest electoral challenge to Mugabe's administration since it came to power at independence in 1980.
Zanu-PF dangled a promise to redistribute white-owned farms before the majority black voters ahead of the June poll, but critics say it would have lost had its militant supporters not waged a violent countrywide campaign against the opposition. Thirty-one people including white farmers and black opposition organisers were killed as Mugabe's supporters invaded close to a quarter of the country's 4 500 commercial farms and beat farms workers seen as likely opposition supporters.
Some political analysts expect Mugabe to abandon his militant approach after the elections and try to win back crucial donor support lost over the land policy and Zimbabwe's role in the civil war in the DRC. Donors say they will not renew aid until Zimbabwe quits the Congo war and restores order on the export-earning farms. Without their support, Mugabe has little chance of addressing a severe fuel and foreign currency crisis and taming runaway inflation, analysts say. Economic analysts say resettling thousands of poor peasants overnight on huge farming plots without the necessary financial, material and technical support will cut commercial production and increase poverty in a country where poverty has risen to 70 from 50 percent in the last 20 years.
"He (Mugabe) has probably swallowed his own election bait, the Zanu-PF slogan that 'land is the economy, economy is the land', without seeing that the way they are handling the whole programme is ruinous and will in no time alienate almost everyone," Raftopoulos told reporters. The government has promised greater assistance for its resettlement programme, and denies that the hoe and axe already issued to each new farmer is all the help they will get.
Mugabe's government plans to redistribute to blacks at least five million of 12 million hectares held by 4,500 white commercial farmers. It has already published a list of 1 542 farms targeted for seizure and 684 are expected to be identified on Friday, making a total of more than seven million hectares. Farmers have a legal right to appeal against the seizures, but Mugabe and his officials warn it would be futile. Political analysts say besides fighting public frustration from a bungled resettlement programme, Mugabe is facing growing tension in his ruling party over his continued support for Zanu-PF militants, led by liberation war veterans, who have invaded hundreds of farms in the past seven months. In his absence on a business trip to Mozambique last week, his cabinet ordered police to drive out veterans from farms close to Harare and demolish their illegal settlements, to cheering from hundreds of ordinary people.
But the drive was stopped on Mugabe's return and a government spokesman said the administration "regretted" it. "I think what happened...shows that Mugabe does not have the full support of his cabinet on the farm invasions, but he is clearly using his immense executive powers as president to pursue his own line," said Alfred Nhema, chairman of the political science department at the University of Zimbabwe. "He is looking at the war veterans as a campaign tool and the land issue as a campaign issue, but I doubt this will work in his favour if the economy deteriorates and the country becomes a real pariah on the international diplomatic stage," he said.

Giles Mutseyekwa (Mutare North), the MDC shadow minister for defence, yesterday warned the government from pushing the army into a revolt against the Zanu PF leadership. The warning comes in the wake of accusations that government was using the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to beat up and intimidate people to cow them into voting for President Mugabe in the 2002 presidential elections. Mutseyekwa told Parliament that in Romania in 1989 dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed by once loyal soldiers. "I must warn that it is dangerous to test soldiers’ degree of loyalty to the extreme. Lessons must be learnt from Romania where Ceausescu and his wife were captured when the soldiers turned against them, executed them and threw their bodies into the sea," Mutseyekwa said.
He also said the MDC had strong and reliable information that morale had sunk to its lowest ebb in the army and that the armed forces were fed up with the continued military intervention in the DRC. He said the DRC military campaign, was being prolonged for the financial benefit of certain leaders in the government. In his maiden speech when the House resumed sitting after a two-week recess, Mutseyekwa, a retired army major, said: "It is sad and certainly difficult to comprehend why the Zanu PF government has used our forces to beat up people, torture and intimidate our brothers and sisters in the high density areas. MPs on the MDC benches loudly hailed Mutseyekwa’s reference to Ceausescu’s demise and two or more voices loudly interjected in Shona: "That is what is going to happen to Mugabe!"
Apparently stung by the mention of the President’s name, the Leader of the House, Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, immediately objected on a point of order, saying the remark was unparliamentary. Taking exception to the interjection from the MDC benches and mentioning by name the MP for St Mary’s, Job Sikhala, Deputy Speaker Edna Madzongwe, in the chair in the absence of the Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa said: "Don’t say things which are unparliamentary. I have to remind you that in this honourable House we use honourable language, we use parliamentary language."
Continuing with his speech, Mutseyekwa said soldiers should not be used to "terrorise" their parents. He said the military should not be involved in the redistribution of land for resettlement. "The military has no business whatsoever in the land redistribution exercise. There have been reports that army personnel were seen with the farm invaders," said Mutseyekwa. "It is an attempt to use the army to cow voters not to vote for the MDC in the presidential elections."
Mutseyekwa said the troops were no longer happy about being deployed in the DRC to help Laurent Kabila fight rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. He said: "We in the MDC have information to suggest that the morale of our troops is very low. The back-up system is very erratic and the casualty evacuation is not guaranteed because there is no money. The soldiers must be withdrawn." He said only top politicians in Zimbabwe stood to benefit from the DRC which was costing the taxpayers $1,5 billion a month as they had private mining concessions racking in around US$500 million (about Z$26,5 billion). Mutseyekwa said the presence of more than 11 000 Zimbabwean troops in the DRC was contributing to the continued suffering of the Congolese people. He said that for as long as Zimbabwean soldiers remained in the DRC, Kabila would not move towards a peaceful settlement of the political crisis in his war-torn country.

Senior ZANU PF party members are distancing themselves from the pre-election violence by former independence war veterans in desperate attempts to fend off challenges of the June general election results in their constituencies by the opposition MDC, it was established this week. In affidavits filed with the High Court to oppose the MDC challenges, senior ZANU PF politicians, including Politburo members Sydney Sekeramayi and Moven Mahachi, have disowned and distanced themselves from the pre-election activities of ZNLWA led by Chenjerai Hunzvi. The MDC has petitioned the High Court to nullify the results of 38 constituencies won by ZANU PF because of the violence and intimidation by the veterans and party supporters during the run-up to the election. The opposition party also cites gross irregularities during the casting and counting of votes as some of the reasons the results in the contested constituencies should not stand.
In response to a petition by MDC’s Leonard Mapuranga, who lost Goromonzi to ZANU PF stalwart and Higher Education and Technology Minister Herbert Murerwa, the minister emphatically dissociates himself from the ZNLWA and its members. "I must clearly point out that from the outset all the alleged corrupt and illegal practices are alleged to have been committed by members of the ZNLWA," says Murerwa in his response. "As much as I have participated in the liberation struggle, I am not a member of this association. This association is an autonomous body with its own chain of command which I am not part of and which is accountable in its own capacity for the actions of its members," he says.
ZANU PF Politburo members Sekeramayi and Mahachi also deny any link with the ZNLWA or sanctioning acts of violence by the veterans and party supporters. "I did not sanction acts of atrocities in Zimbabwe or Marondera East constituency, whether in my personal capacity or in my capacity as a member of the ZANU PF Politburo or as Minister of State Security," submits Sekeramayi, State Security Minister before the elections and now the Minister of Mines and Energy. "I cannot therefore be held accountable as an accomplice or having abetted the political violence in Marondera East constituency," said Sekeramayi, who narrowly beat the MDC’s Didimus Dzinemunhenzva in the election.
Dzinemunhenzva has petitioned the court to nullify the results in Marondera East because he says Sekeramayi used his position as State Security Minister to intimidate the electorate into supporting him. In one case, Dzinemunhenzva alleges that Sekeramayi publicly threatened white farmers and their workers at a ZANU PF election rally held in the constituency. The former state security boss is said to have threatened that he would deal with those pretending to support him but intending to vote for the opposition.
The MDC almost ended ZANU PF’s 20-year political dominance of Zimbabwe when it won 57 out of the contested 120 seats in the June poll. The labour-backed party says it would have beaten the ruling ZANU PF in another 38 constituencies had the veterans and ZANU PF supporters not denied its candidates access to voters in rural and farming constituencies. There have been several recounts to establish the MDC’s claims of irregularities during the counting of votes. In all the recounts completed so far, winning ZANU PF candidates have not only maintained their positions but have increased their winning margins, a development which most observers say indicates that vote-counting was not thorough or fool-proof.

THE CFU has set up a team to look into the possibility of negotiating directly with foreign donors on compensation for their farms acquired by the government under the land reform programme. The head of the team, Paul Hanly, said yesterday they were seeking the farmers’ views on the resolutions following a proposal for direct negotiations by the CFU’s Mashonaland West region. "We are trying to establish the views of farmers on the resolutions after which we will chart the way forward," he said. He could not say which donors the farmers would approach if the resolution was adopted. Another member of the team, Ben Freeth, said all the views gathered would be reported to the full council of the CFU. They would then decide whether to adopt the resolutions or call for a referendum among commercial farmers.
The Mashonaland West farmers resolved, among other things, that Hanly’s team should investigate the possibility of active negotiations with donors and the government so that compensation for acquired properties is paid directly to the farmers. One of the proposals is for commercial farmers to give up ownership of agricultural land to the government, provided compensation by foreign donors is guaranteed. Hanly’s team is already soliciting responses from commercial farmers countrywide on the proposals. Part of Hanly’s message to the farmers reads: "We as farmers must be in a position to make our own reasonable and unprejudiced decisions. I therefore urge you to very seriously consider the resolutions and urgently accommodate us with your opinions. With the political motivation behind the current fast-track approach to land reform, the present government will remain unable to negotiate a well-planned and organised transference of land ownership," says the document. "An opportunity has arisen, uniquely created by the present government and the current situation, for an independent negotiating team to talk directly with foreign donors on matters regarding compensation." The farmers say they want the government to depoliticise the land issue and focus on a policy that includes all stakeholders.

THE government has abandoned the official probe into the looting of at least $2 billion from the state-run War Victims’ Compensation Fund by top members of the ruling ZANU PF party and independence war veterans, it was learnt yesterday. Official sources said the government had also cancelled plans to set up a new panel to investigate the looting of the fund after the initial task force appointed two years ago failed to follow recommendations of a judicial inquiry to punish culprits. Instead, the sources said, the government was winding up a handful of cases whose dockets were already with the police. Prominent politicians, including Cabinet ministers, members of the CIO and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and war veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hunzvi, were among those named by a judicial inquiry as having raided the fund whose disbursement had to be halted in 1997 because of the looting.
The sources said some cases involving Cabinet ministers had not even been investigated while others were partially probed and then closed for purported lack of evidence. "It is just as good as over. There is no probe going on, save
for the few cases which had already been investigated which are being concluded," a government official involved in the probe told the Financial Gazette this week. "There has not been any movement," said another government official close to the probe. An independent investigation led by retired policeman Abel Manjeya was dissolved last year before it even started work because the veterans complained to President Robert Mugabe that the panel was composed of former Rhodesian security officials bent on victimising them. Mugabe promised to appoint a new team after consulting the war veterans’ leaders at the time but has done nothing since then.
"The issue of a new probe team is no longer applicable. We simply have to rely on past police investigations," another government official said. Former Attorney General and now Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa refused to comment and referred questions to his successor, Andrew Chigovera, who could not be reached. The Attorney General’s criminal prosecution department has only partially dealt with the cases involving Reward Marufu, the brother-in-law to Mugabe who is said to have been paid nearly $1 million - the highest claim made to the fund. The Marufu probe was this week also understood to have been stopped, with police investigations still incomplete. Another case involving Joana Nkomo, the widow of Zimbabwe’s late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, collapsed because of lack of evidence while that involving Water and Rural Development Minister Joyce Mujuru has been dropped.
According to the sources, a host of cases involving some senior government officials had been abandoned before investigations were completed. A High Court judge presiding over the case of civil servant Eurra Maumbe involved in acts of misconduct in connection with the fund recently questioned why Mugabe had bothered to set up the Judge Chidyausiku-led commission. Three years have passed since the Chidyausiku Commission recommended that the politicians and the veterans who benefited illegally be punished. Justice George Smith noted that public money had been stolen from real war victims and nothing was being done to recover those funds. "Many of the looters are known as are those officials who aided and abetted the looters, yet they are left to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. Why?" he questioned. He added: "Since millions of dollars of public money were lost and many of the offenders are known, one wonders why such little effort is being made to recover the moneys and bring the offenders to book. Why is it that those responsible for recovering the moneys stolen from the state and punishing the offenders have done little, if anything, about it." It was not possible to get comment from Mugabe’s office.

ZIMBABWE’S civil servants could go without pay in the next few months as the government battles to raise salaries for its 140 000-plus employees, it was learnt this week. Treasury sources said funds for the civil servants’ salaries ran out in June and money to pay July and August salaries was only drawn from expenditure cuts by ministries. Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Treasury Secretary Charles Kuwaza were both not available for comment this week but the sources said the government had instructed its ministries to cut further their expenditures to raise funds to pay salaries for the past two months. The sources said there was now uncertainty over the civil servants’ salaries for September and October, raising fears that the government might be forced to increase its borrowings from the domestic banking sector and add more pressure on interest rates.

Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Media Update # 2000/32
Monday 21st August To Sunday 28th August 2000

SUMMARY

·   Zimbabweans could be forgiven for wondering where government stood over its policy to crack down on lawlessness in the week under review. While the highlight of the week was government's double U-turn over squatters on peri-urban farmland, different voices of authority in the media appeared to deepen public confusion. ZBC's Radios 1/3 did not report the police demolition of illegal structures on farms bordering Harare.

·   Most of the media missed the gazetting of another 509 farms, and none of them explored what properties they were. None of the media followed up the comments of Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made, aired on ZTV, alluding to the conditions limiting the pace of resettlement.

·   The fuel crisis continued to receive media attention, but there were few stories
     detailing how it is affecting Zimbabwe's productive capacity.


LAND - EVICTION ROW
Because ZBC appears to be incapable of interpreting official action, it was left to the
press - including The Herald - to tell readers of government's double U-turn on the
illegal occupation of farmland. For months government has tolerated - and even
encouraged - war vets and others to occupy commercial farms. So it was
surprising to see reports in all the media on August 22 of police evicting squatters and
destroying their shacks in what was evidently a government turn-around on its
previously tolerant policy. This story was best covered by The Herald, which reinforced its
story with an interview with Minister of Home Affairs, John Nkomo, stating that he had
instructed the police to crack down on lawlessness:
     Given that the land redistribution is now under implementation by the
relevant national committee on land reform, no new demonstrations on farms are
going to be tolerated. There should be no interference with normal farming activities.
     Any incitement to violence or confrontation will not be tolerated.
Lawlessness on the farms, or indeed, anywhere else, will not be tolerated.

Radio 1/3 (22/8 8am) echoed The Herald's interview but did not report the squatters'
evictions. Radios 2/4 and television did report the police action, but their heavily biased
reports were strongly sympathetic of the "homeless", a new term ZBC has adopted to
describe the squatters and war vets (TV 8pm 22/8). All sources quoted by ZBC appeared to blame anybody but the government, including elements of the opposition within the police force and white farmers. Some were quoted as saying they would get their revenge by destroying white owned properties (22/8 radio 2/4 8pm and television 6pm and 8pm). ZBC's reports completely ignored the fact that the police were acting on Nkomo's orders to restore law and order on the farms.
None of the media quoted the police regarding the evictions, although The Daily News
(22/8) said it was unable to get comment from either Nkomo or the police commissioner. However, it reported that the evictions followed a warning from Nkomo the previous week, saying that government would soon start to evict those illegally occupying some commercial farms. Strangely, The Daily News only followed up the continuing police action the next day in pictures, while The Herald (23/8), saying that the police refused to talk about the evictions, had a field day describing the ruthless manner in which the police destroyed the illegal structures, including an illegal war veterans' housing scheme in Kambuzuma.
In its editorial, The Herald welcomed the crackdown, describing it as "a new chapter in
Zimbabwe".
Part of the comment read:
     "Law broke down on the occupied farms and no-one seemed ready to take
     responsibility and restore order. Things seemed to be really getting out of
     hand. War veterans threatened to occupy factories."
This was a sentiment endorsed by The Financial Gazette the next day (24/8)
which applauded Nkomo's efforts to stamp out disorder under the heading,
Counting the cost of the new thinking.
While ZBC television was slow to report the evictions; it didn't report the Monday
evictions at Stone Ridge Farm until 6pm on Tuesday, it was swift to report government's second U-turn in a matter of days, although it merely presented this as an apology. The 8pm bulletins of all stations on August 23 reported Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo's statement without comment or analysis. The white copy presentation on television stated in part:
     "The government says it regrets and takes full responsibility for the manner in which the Zimbabwe Republic Police have, since Monday, sought to evict homeless families who had erected housing structures at Stone Ridge, Hopley Farm Estate, Dutch Poultry Farm, Arbor Acres Farm in Epworth and in Karoi.While the police have a duty to keep peace and to enforce and restore order where necessary, it must be done in accordance with government
policies and plans and as well as the usual standards and expectations on human dignity and common decency."

The Herald led with the apology the next morning (24/8), referring briefly
to a demonstration by "hundreds of evicted war veterans and homeless people"
protesting the police action, a story which The Daily News led with under the
heading, War vets attack Minister Nkomo. But The Herald's story never corroborated what its headline,
State seeks to help evicted war vets, was about. That could only be found in The Daily
News story where Moyo was quoted as saying:
     "Regrettably, the police.demolished and burned down costly structures
and materials worth more than $5 million. Government is exploring various
ways of assisting the affected families."

The Herald missed the last sentence of this vital quote, and ZTV only added it to its
story in the 11pm bulletin, repeated at 7am on 24/8.

The first Zimbabweans heard that "assistance" was being interpreted as "compensation" appeared in the press on Friday (25/8). In The Daily News lead story about 400 angry war veterans briefly detaining President Mugabe and Nkomo during a demonstration at ZANU PF's Harare headquarters the previous day, the paper quoted the "self-styled leader of farm invasions", war veteran Joseph Chinotimba:
     "We want to be compensated and the police should rebuild our houses, otherwise we will declare war on them."

The Herald ignored the demo in that day's edition, focusing instead, on covering more
reaction to the evictions, including a comment from ZANU PF's Harare provincial chairman urging government to compensate those affected by the evictions.
Condemning the police action, he said:
     "No one is condoning illegal actions, but the law must be applied equally, irrespective of one's colour or status."
And he noted that "no hammer or bulldozer has ever landed" on the "massive illegal structures" in Borrowdale and elsewhere. This was an observation made
earlier in the week by war veteran Andy Mhlanga who, describing the police action as
barbaric on ZTV (22/8 6pm and 8pm), asked: "Why didn't they destroy Sam Levy's
structure?"
In a story on August 24, The Daily News reported a farm owner and a couple of
Kambuzuma residents welcoming the police action. But The Herald carried more
extensive comment, from the Commercial Farmers' Union, the Urban Councils' Association of Zimbabwe, and a variety of opinion from members of the public who phoned the newspaper's offices. However, it buried them in a story about Karoi farm workers attacking war veterans occupying their farms.
It wasn't until The Herald's low circulation Saturday edition that Zimbabweans finally
heard Nkomo for the first time since the crackdown. In a long and convoluted "clarification", Nkomo conceded the police may have committed "excesses",
but insisted that the ZRP would arrest "criminal elements" on the farms. The paper quoted
him as saying the police would not stand by "while children were molested and desperate home-seekers (were) conned out of their meagre savings".
Under the headline, Nkomo squirms as Mugabe shifts the blame for evictions, The
Zimbabwe Independent (25/8) noted that while the Cabinet had initially approved them,
it had been intimidated by the protests of the war veterans who had helped ZANU PF
win the election, and this had prompted the government's U-turn. It quoted presidential
spokesman, George Charamba as saying there had never been a government policy
decision to destroy the illegal properties. The police, he said, "had not acted within the
rule of law", a statement not challenged by the reporter and one that clearly suggests
the police were the law-breakers.

LAND: MORE FARMS GAZETTED
The Herald (26/8) only carried a story about the gazetting of 509 more properties
(mostly commercial farms) the day after it had published a five-page government notice
listing them. None of the weekend media examined the list, which, according to MMPZ
sources, contains properties belonging to black commercial farmers, churches, a co-
operative, and a wildlife trust.
The story simply quoted Lands and Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made as saying:
     "Technically, the gazetted farms are as good as acquired, although.a legal process has to be followed and acquisition orders served."
Noting that 1 542 farms had now been gazetted, the paper blithely said the fast-track
resettlement exercise under which the farms were being acquired, was designed to
place people on the land before the rainy season. It made no attempt to assess the
feasibility of this objective. Some indication of the difficulty of achieving this could be
gleaned from The Chronicle's story (26/8) which reported CFU director David Hasluck
as saying his organisation was still awaiting a response from government over 593
objections to the 804 farms the government initially gazetted. Will the farmland be
parcelled out before the objections are heard in court? Readers weren't told.
This question also went begging earlier in the week when ZTV (23/8 6pm and 8pm)
carried an interview with Made who told us to expect the new farm designations.
Most importantly however, he seemed to admit that there were difficulties in ensuring
that the farms identified for acquisition were not the same as the original 804 farms
listed. This, he implied, was limiting the speed of the resettlement process:
     "I think the problem that we have been having is that.we need the provincial
     level not to re-identify farms that have already been gazetted. So we need to
     improve on that particular communication so that land when it is identified for
     purposes of going beyond the 804 farms.those farms are not re-listed again
     at the provincial level.
     "The war veterans are only relating themselves to the properties that have
     been acquired. That is where they are going to be systematically moved on to.
     So if we are slow with the pace of actually identifying these farms at provincial
     level, it means we will continue having the issue."
He was not asked to clarify what "the issue" was exactly. Nor was he asked to explain
clearly, how the identification problems he was referring to would affect fast-track
resettlement. Made was again quoted on television (27/8 6pm and 8pm) delivering another
confusing statement for which ZBC sought no clarification:
     "Using a legal instrument is a very slow process.  This is why I am emphasizing on this particular point that anything that is legal in relationship to land reform has got to take its course from that point of view."
Was he preparing Zimbabweans for news that the fast track could not be achieved
unless government resorted to illegal measures? Again, we weren't told

 

3. FUEL CRISIS
There was wide coverage of the fuel situation in all the media in the week under review.
The Daily News carried a story every day, starting with one that quoted the oil
companies spokesman as saying the fuel supply situation remained "very desperate"
(21/8), and ending the week with a report that Harare International Airport had run out
of jet fuel, disrupting international flights. It said it was the first time the airport had ever
run out of fuel. The Herald, on the other hand, also carried stories every day, but,
except for its story about the fuel shortage affecting commuter transport (25/8), most
of them were tritely optimistic: Fuel situation eases as company chips in.(Monday),
Fuel supplies improve in some areas (Tuesday), and, Petrol supplies improve slightly,
diesel still critical (Thursday). MMPZ knew about the diesel situation; it had a truck in
a garage queue for the entire week. But television news (22/8 8pm) reported that the
fuel situation was expected to improve. The report cited the availability of 10 million
litres of petrol, while six million litres of diesel was reported to have been discharged at
Beira following a payment to Noczim's suppliers, IPG. The report gave details of the
fuel expected but did not explain how many days of fuel this represented - a drop in
the bucket.  The Herald carried the story the following day, citing even more figures.
But it too, failed to relate them to demand rendering the statistics meaningless. The
Financial Gazette (24/8) was the first to give us the reason for the present crisis: IPG
was demanding guarantees from the Reserve Bank that it would be paid. And
The Zimbabwe Independent (25/8) gave readers what appeared to be the full story under
the headline, Fuel prices set to go up again: The Belgian bank which had underwritten
the fuel deal with IPG had pulled out. Other contributory factors that were likely to
push up the price of fuel.were cited in the story However, none of the media seemed interested in reporting just how badly Zimbabwe's productive sector had been affected by the fuel crisis.


4. OTHER
HUNZVI'S DISMISSAL
The Standard and The Sunday Mail both reported that an extraordinary meeting of the
war veterans' association had passed a vote of "no confidence" in its chairman,
Chenjerai Hunzvi. Both papers said eight provinces were represented at the meeting
which had decided to boot him out because of his "dictatorial" behaviour.
However, there was confusion over exactly who attended the meeting and who
was dismissed. The Sunday Mail said provincial chairmen had attended and the
meeting had resolved to fire Hunzvi and his executive, which, it said, was absent,
while The Standard said the meeting had been attended by the national executive, but
only talked about the removal of Hunzvi. The other question arising from the
reports was that if the entire Hunzvi executive had been fired, did it mean that the
man who called the meeting, Andy Mhlanga, the association's secretary-general for
projects, had also been fired? This was never explained.
In its Saturday edition, The Herald carried a story quoting Hunzvi as denouncing the
war veterans who had called the meeting. But in its follow-up on Sunday evening, it
quoted Hunzvi saying he had read the story about the alleged meeting in The Herald
(sic) and that the move [to boot out the entire executive] was unconstitutional and
unusual (27/8 all stations 8pm).

MEDIA WATCH
ZBC television aired the inaugural programme of Media Watch in the week
under review. Presenter Supa Mandiwanzira said the aim of the programme was to
"take a very close look at the media". Although this is a welcome development the
objective of the programme is inherently problematic, as he will need to critique his
own stories and the policies of his employers.
The first indication of bias came in the way that the issue of media ethics was
discussed. Despite mentioning that media ethics were sometimes compromised
by owners/publishers, big-business interests and political figures, the interviewer
conveniently steered the conversation away from the discussion on the influences of
the political-powers-that-be on publicly owned media and instead spoke about big
business and ownership issues. He also attempted to compare two stories, one from
The Daily News and the other in The Herald, relating to Morgan Tsvangirai's attack on
the CFU. Supa claimed they were the same story but treated differently by the two
papers. In fact, The Daily News reported the attack, while the story in The Herald - the
next day - covered the CFU's response.

CORRECTION
In last week's report (Media Update # 2000/31) MMPZ referred inaccurately
to the resignation of the Mass Media Trust Board. It should, of course, have been
the Zimpapers board. The error is sincerely regretted.

Ends

For more information about the Project, previous issues of the MMPZ
reports and alerts, please visit our website at http://www.icon.co.zw/mmpz or contact
the Project Coordinator, MMPZ, 221 Fife Avenue, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 733486, 734207,
E-mail: monitors@icon.co.zw