Times Online
September 4, 2008
The draft deal would make Mr Tsvangirai little
more than a ceremonial prime
minister, with Mr Mugabe retaining the core of
the authority he has wielded
for 28 years
Jan Raath, in
Harare
President Mugabe has delivered an ultimatum to his rival, Morgan
Tsvangirai,
to sign up for a power-sharing agreement with his ruling Zanu
(PF) party or
face being frozen out of the new Cabinet to be announced
tomorrow.
"If after tomorrow [Thursday], Tsvangirai does not want to
sign, we will
certainly put together a Cabinet," Mr Mugabe told the
state-controlled
Herald newspaper.
The move would violate the
founding conditions of the talks and signal Mr
Mugabe's repudiation of the
process doggedly pursued by South Africa's
President Mbeki for 18
months.
It would mean the end of a few weeks of heady optimism for
change. It could
also plunge the country back into the turmoil witnessed
after bloody
elections in June. By virtue of a violent, fraudulent election,
Mr Mugabe
made clear that he was determined to tighten his grip on power
while the
economy crashed into accelerating catastrophe and mass human
misery.
The ultimatum was being ignored by Mr Tsvangirai's party, the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). "Mr Mugabe is trying to negotiate with
us with a
gun in his pocket," said its spokesman, Nelson Chamisa. "We are
not going to
be stampeded into any kind of deal."
The draft agreement has
been all but unanimously approved by both the MDC
and ZANU (PF), except for
roles to be played by Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe
in a new "inclusive"
government. Mr Tsvangirai has dismissed the proposal
that would make him
almost a ceremonial prime minister, with Mr Mugabe as
executive president
retaining the core of the authority he has wielded since
he came to power at
independence in 1980.
Mr Tsvangirai said when the talks last adjourned
three weeks ago that he
needed "time to reflect and consult". Since then he
has given details of the
proposals he refused to accept - chiefly, his
junior position in a Cabinet
chaired by Mr Mugabe, and his continued power
over the security forces. "He
refused to share power," Mr Tsvangirai said at
the weekend.
Last week the negotiating teams met Mr Mbeki in South Africa
separately, and
there has been no sign of any follow-up. Mr Mbeki is
reported to have met
the two antagonists yesterday at the funeral of
Zambia's President Mwanawasa
in Lusaka, but nothing appears to have come of
that either.
Mr Mugabe has shown little sign of willingness to
accommodate the MDC. While
the draft was still on the table, he appointed
ten provincial governors to
parliament, all of them from ZANU (PF), and five
of his most trusted aides -
who had lost their seats in the March elections
- to fill seats reserved for
appointment by him.
At the same time,
ZANU (PF) has been arresting MDC MPs and mobilising
violent militias for a
handful of parliamentary by-elections to wrest the
MDC's slender majority of
two
Yahoo News
1 hour, 16 minutes ago
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's stalled
power-sharing talks hit a new low Thursday
with the opposition warning that
President Robert Mugabe's threat to
singlehandedly form a new cabinet was
"political suicide".
"If Mugabe wants to commit political suicide by
unilaterally appointing a
cabinet, that's his choice. We will not stand in
his way," Nelson Chamisa, a
spokesman for the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), told AFP.
Mugabe was quoted in state media on
Thursday saying that he would move ahead
and form a government if MDC leader
Morgan Tvsangirai did not sign a
power-sharing deal on Thursday.
"If
after tomorrow (Thursday), Tsvangirai does not want to sign, we will
certainly put together a cabinet. We feel frozen at the moment", Mugabe told
the state daily, The Herald.
Talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai,
whose MDC holds a parliamentary
majority, were deadlocked in mid-August over
Mugabe's desire to retain
control of the country's security forces,
according to the opposition.
Last ditch attempts to revive the
negotiations by South African president
Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating in the
crisis, failed last week.
"Our position remains the same. We have not and
we are not getting into any
deal with Mugabe which does not help the people
of Zimbabwe," MDC spokesman
Chamisa explained.
"If Mugabe decides to
form a cabinet it will be ineffective since it will be
chosen from the same
men and women who authored the crisis. If he does that
Mugabe will have
chosen to drive a car without the engine," he added.
The 84-year-old
Mugabe however told The Herald daily that his government was
"empowered by
elections," adding: "We should form a cabinet. We would not
allow a
situation where we will not have a cabinet forever."
No new cabinet has
been formed since Mugabe handed himself the presidency in
a one-man,
presidential run-off on June 27.
Tsvangirai rejected a power-sharing deal
that would have seen security
ministries reporting to Mugabe and economic
and social ministries to
himself, the MDC leader told South African radio on
Wednesday.
Several media reported that Mbeki, who is mediating the
negotiations, was
expected in Zimbabwe on Thursday but his spokesman denied
the reports.
"The president is not going to Zimbabwe," Mukoni Ratshitanga
said, adding
however that the power-sharing talks were
continuing.
Chamisa earlier said he was not aware that anything was
planned for Thursday
in Harare and stressed that the MDC would not react to
Mugabe's apparent
ultimatum.
"(Mugabe's party) ZANU-PF are trying to
force us to swallow poison, we are
not going to sign anything that does not
put the people of Zimbabwe first,"
he told AFP.
"Mr Mugabe must be
prepared to give some of his powers to Mr Tsvangirai.
This is the last
chance for Mr Mugabe to see the light for the people of
Zimbabwe as he has
not shown any form of seriousness to give up some of his
powers," he
added.
Welshman Ncube, secretary general of a smaller MDC splinter group,
dismissed
allegations that the faction had signed a deal with
Mugabe.
"It's not true that we signed an agreement with ZANU-PF. The
global
agreement must be signed by the three parties and the facilitator and
this
has not been done by anyone."
Regarding Mugabe's threat to form
a cabinet, Ncube told AFP: "I don't think
anyone should be issuing
ultimatums. What ZANU-PF is doing is totally
unnecessary."
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai put aside their differences briefly on Wednesday when
they both
attended the funeral of Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa in
Lusaka.
Power-sharing talks to find agreement on an inclusive
government began after
both sides signed a memorandum of understanding on
July 21.
Reuters
Thu 4 Sep 2008,
13:29 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main
opposition party has lost faith in
power-sharing talks with President Robert
Mugabe and will leave him to form
a government alone rather than be forced
into a deal, a party official said
on Thursday.
The official, who
asked not to be named, said the Movement for Democratic
Change no longer had
confidence in the mediation of South African President
Thabo Mbeki and
wanted the United Nations and African Union to rescue the
process.
Talks are deadlocked over how to share executive power
between Mugabe and
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, putting off any
chance of rescuing
Zimbabwe from its economic collapse.
"We have lost
confidence in this process. They can go ahead and Mugabe can
form his
government, we will not be a part of that circus," the official
said.
"He (Mbeki) is trying to rush us into a deal. The unfortunate
thing is that
Mbeki is trying to help Mugabe achieve his ends, not to solve
the crisis."
State media said Mugabe had given Tsvangirai until Thursday
to sign a deal
or he would form a government himself. Mugabe, in power since
1980, was
quoted as saying Zimbabwe could not afford a situation where "we
will not
have a cabinet forever".
But Tsvangirai's party said any
attempts to force it into a deal would fail.
"Where on earth have you
seen dialogue held on the basis of threats and
ultimatum? They want to bully
us into an agreement, but that's completely
unacceptable," said MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
Despite the manoeuvring, analysts believe
neither side has much option but
to agree a deal eventually.
"There
are two possible outcomes, either Tsvangirai gives in or the deal
collapses," said Lovemore Madhuku, a law lecturer and chairman of political
lobby group National Constitutional Assembly.
"But I don't see Mugabe
conceding any more ground than he has already done,
and if Tsvangirai
continues to refuse what is on the table, the MDC will
have to decide on
where it goes from here," Madhuku added.
RECIPE FOR
INSTABILITY
The MDC official said the opposition party had other options:
"We are
looking toward the African Union and the United Nations to rescue
this
process and take it forward."
South African Nobel peace prize
winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said the
talks breakdown would almost
certainly lead to violence and if Mugabe
insisted on staying in power it
would be the "worst possible recipe for
instability" in southern
Africa.
"It's going to mean that it's almost certain that they are going
to have
violence and all of that erupting (in Zimbabwe) and so one is
praying, and I
hope everybody will pray desperately, that somehow they will
be able to pull
the iron out of the fire," Tutu told Reuters in
London.
Tsvangirai has rejected a proposal he says gives Mugabe control
of
Zimbabwe's powerful security forces.
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a
March 29 election but fell short of enough votes
to avoid a June run-off
vote, which was won by Mugabe unopposed after
Tsvangirai pulled out citing
violence and intimidation against his
supporters.
The election was
condemned around the world and drew toughened sanctions
from Western
countries whose support is vital for reviving Zimbabwe's ruined
economy.
Zimbabwe state radio said Mbeki was expected to arrive in
Zimbabwe on
Thursday to continue mediation efforts. Mbeki's spokesman said
there was no
truth to the reports.
Mbeki, criticised for not being
tough enough on Mugabe, was expected to meet
both Tsvangirai's group and the
MDC's breakaway faction led by Arthur
Mutambara, whom analysts say has
emerged as a kingmaker and has moved close
to Mugabe.
Mbeki was
expected to propose that that all of Mugabe's executive powers
should be
discussed and ways be found of dividing them equally with
Tsvangirai, said
the newspaper.
Zimbabweans are suffering from the world's highest
inflation rate of over 11
million percent, and chronic food, fuel and
foreign currency shortages that
have driven millions over borders and
strained regional economies.
(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka;
Writing by Marius Bosch and Michael
Georgy, editing by Mary Gabriel)
nasdaq
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Zimbabwe's main opposition
party, the Movement for
Democratic Change, hasn't walked away from
power-sharing talks with the
ruling ZANU-PF party, opposition spokesman
Nelson Chamisa said Thursday.
"What we are saying is that we are not
going to accept ultimate terms like
the one we have seen in (state
newspaper) the Herald today...indicating that
they are likely to form a
cabinet if the MDC does not sign," Chamisa told
BBC News 24. "We are not
going to be stampeded into signing a deal that does
not reflect the wishes
and aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans."
Earlier, BBC News 24
quoted the MDC as saying it had lost faith in power-
sharing talks and that
President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF could "go ahead
and form their own
government."
Chamisa said the MDC is still committed to the talks but
said ultimately
there is going to be a need for "flexibility and realization
on the part of
ZANU-PF on the need to conclude this negotiated
settlement."
"We will not be succumbing to ultimate terms, arm-twisting
tactics,
intimation and bullying that ZANU-PF has been adopting," he
added.
BBC News Web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk
-London bureau,
Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 78 42 9330;
generaldesklondon@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-04-080743ET
allAfrica.com
4 September
2008
Posted to the web 4 September 2008
The office of South
African President Thabo Mbeki denied media reports that
he was travelling to
Harare on Thursday to try to break a deadlock in
power-sharing talks between
Zimbabwe's parties.
"The presidency wishes to place it on record that
President Mbeki is not
travelling to Harare today," Mbeki's office said in a
statement.
The statement went on to attack the media over the report,
saying "these
'informed sources' [quoted by reporters] continually get it
wrong, including
on matters as basic as the President's itinerary."
SABC
September 04,
2008, 11:00
Thami Dickson
The Zimbabwe crisis returns to the United
Nations Security Council this
month with members seeking to explore other
avenues of pushing the power
sharing talks to conclusion.
A sanctions
resolution against Zimbabwe failed in the Council in July after
China and
Russia protested against the decision. The superpowers such as its
former
colonial masters and the united States, view Zimbabwe as a failed
state that
threatens not only the lives of Zimbabweans, but the security and
stability
of the southern Africa region.
The United Kingdom suggests the best way
of dealing with this situation in
Zimbabwe is to punish President Robert
Mugabe with sanctions. However, the
Africa bloc and its allies say, not when
the African leaders are still
handling the crisis in search of a negotiated
political settlement.
With the power sharing talks still showing little
progress, the Security
Council has now asked the UN Special Envoy to
Zimbabwe, Haile Menkerios to
present a detailed report on the status of
these Zimbabwe talks.
With the mediator now returning to Zimbabwe this
week, apparently to
re-energize the difficult power sharing negotiations,
some members of the
Security Council are understood to be seeking other ways
to pressure
Mugabe's government to end the violence in his country and to
engage in
serious negotiations.
IOL
September 04 2008 at 03:19PM
By Adrian Croft
London -
If President Robert Mugabe insists on staying in power in
Zimbabwe, it would
be the "worst possible recipe for instability" in
southern Africa, South
African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on
Thursday.
The
breakdown of power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe would almost
certainly lead to
violence while a government that excluded the opposition
would not be seen
as legitimate, the Nobel peace prize winner told reporters
during a visit to
London.
An official from Zimbabwe's main opposition party said
earlier that
the party had lost faith in power-sharing talks with Mugabe and
would leave
him to form a government alone rather than be forced into a
deal.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) no longer had confidence in the mediation of
South
African President Thabo Mbeki and wanted the United Nations and
African
Union to rescue the process.
"Anyone who cares about
the welfare of people will be very distressed
and I hope that somehow they
will find a way of salvaging (the talks)
because any arrangement that
excludes the MDC clearly is not going to be
regarded as legitimate," Tutu
said, when asked his reaction to the MDC's
decision.
"It just
means we are back at square one, basically," he said,
speaking before a
London ceremony to unveil a sculpture to mark the 19th
century abolition of
the slave trade.
"It's going to mean that it's almost certain that
they are going to
have violence and all of that erupting (in Zimbabwe) and
so one is praying,
and I hope everybody will pray desperately, that somehow
they will be able
to pull the iron out of the fire," Tutu said.
If Mugabe insisted on staying in power, it would be the "worst
possible
recipe for instability" in southern Africa, he said, noting that
Botswana
had refused to recognise Mugabe's victory in a presidential run-off
ballot
boycotted by the opposition.
Talks are deadlocked over how to share
executive power between Mugabe
and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
putting off any chance of rescuing
Zimbabwe from its economic
collapse.
Zimbabwe state media said Mugabe, in power since 1980,
had given
Tsvangirai until Thursday to sign a deal or he would form a
government
himself.
IOL
September 04 2008 at 07:50AM
Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks had
deadlocked over President Robert
Mugabe's desire to retain control of the
country's security forces,
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on
Wednesday.
"The talks deadlocked about a week ago after the (SADC)
summit on the
fundamental issue of executive authority," Movement for
Democratic Change
leader Tsvangirai told Talk Radio 702 in his first
in-depth interview on why
the talks had stalled.
A
power-sharing deal put forward under mediator President Thabo Mbeki
proposed
that Tsvangirai become prime minister and that Mugabe retain the
presidency
in an inclusive government.
"But in this case," said Tsvangirai,
"there was an attempt to fragment
the cabinet, with some ministers reporting
to the president and some
ministers reporting to the prime
minister."
The deal would have seen economic and social ministries
reporting to
the prime minister and security ministries answering to the
president,
including the army and police which, Tsvangirai said, Mugabe had
used to
"brutalise" people.
"The maintenance of that status quo
does not illustrate a desire to
dilute his power to the extent these
institutions are state institutions and
not the party's," he
added.
Tsvangirai said his reservations had resonated with the
expectations
of the country, and an adequate deal would have made the March
29 elections,
when the MDC won the majority vote, futile.
The
opposition leader added that Mbeki had said there were "sufficient
grounds"
for the proposal to be signed but that "he (Mbeki) is not the one
who is
going to sign".
"I am going to be held accountable to the people,"
said Tsvangirai.
"We are very conscious of our responsibility, of the burden
of history, and
we are not going to endorse something that does not resonate
with the
people."
Mugabe, 84, in power since independence in
1980, was reelected in June
in a one-man presidential run-off after
Tsvangirai, victor in the first
round, had bowed out amid widespread
electoral violence.
Tsvangirai said the MDC would have liked more
pressure from the
African Union and the SADC to solve the
problem.
"There was a time when African leaders thought they can
manage the
problem, because they were protecting Robert Mugabe. Now we have
reached a
stage where Mugabe now is part of the problem." -
Sapa-AFP
This article was originally published on page 2 of The
Mercury on
September 04, 2008
Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
Date: 04 Sep 2000
Harare_(dpa) _ Two people have died and 23 are in
hospital following an
outbreak of cholera, the highly contagious diarrhoeal
disease, in one of
Harare's crowded townships, health officials said
Thursday.
The outbreak occurred on Monday in Chitungwiza, a dormitory
township of
about a million people on Harare's southern outskirts where
sewerage
routinely flows through the streets and people's
yards.
Chitungwiza hospital chief executive Obadiah Moyo said the
institution had
dealt with a total of 34 people with the disease, but said
that "we have
enough medication for all the cholera
victims."
"Residents of this area have been getting their water from
unprotected wells
because there is no proper water supply system," said
Chitungwiza town clerk
Godfrey Tanyanyiwa. "We suspect these wells could
have been contaminated by
burst sewer pipes."
Residential areas
nearly all over the Zimbabwean capital often suffer broken
sewerage pipes
and open streams of raw sewerage are visible in all poor
townships.
Zimbabwe has suffered several cholera outbreaks in recent
years following
the collapse of infrastructure due to the country's
political and economic
crisis.
"I can't believe we don't have a
full-scale epidemic," said a doctor who
asked not to be named. "The sanitary
conditions in the cities are appalling.
It's a health timebomb." dpa jr
pmc
By Alex
Bell
04 September 2008
The Combined Harare Residents Association has
called for the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority to hand over control of
water supply and sewer
reticulation management to the Harare city
council.
It comes after one person died and almost 30 more people have
been
hospitalised this week following an outbreak of cholera in the crowded
Harare township, Chitungwiza. It's understood the outbreak occurred on
Monday after weeks that saw an increasing number of chronic diarrhoea
reports, as a result of a failing clean water system and numerous sewage
spills that have contaminated the city's water reservoirs.
The
country's ongoing political and economic crisis has seen the almost
total
collapse of infrastructure in the once thriving Zimbabwean cities. The
deteriorating water and sewerage systems have led to a number of cholera
outbreaks in recent years. Zimbabwe Water Authority officials have said the
situation is constrained by costs, poor funding and frequent power cuts,
which mean that water cannot be properly purified, if at all.
The
latest cholera outbreak in Harare has now prompted the Combined
Residents
Association to lash out at the Water Authority and demand that the
city
council takes charge. In a statement released on Thursday, the
Association
said that the council must reclaim total control of the water
and waste
management in the city because the Water Authority had 'failed' to
address
the crisis.
The association's Simbarashe Moyo told Newsreel on Thursday
that the water
situation is desperate and more people will die if it
continues. He
questioned why the Water Authority is 'continuing to run in
the city when
they are failing,' and said the Association has been in
contact with the
government's Deputy Minister of Water affairs about the
Harare City Council
taking over water and waste management. Moyo added that
the city's residents
hold the Government responsible for the water crisis
and therefore holds the
same Government accountable for the deaths as a
result of the city's dirty
water.
.
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald (Harare) Published
by the government of Zimbabwe
4 September 2008
Posted to the web 4
September 2008
Beitbridge
Residents of Beitbridge town yesterday
expressed concern over the continuous
flow of raw sewage into their houses
in Dulibadzimu suburb following the
bursting of pipes amid fears of an
outbreak of diseases.
In interviews yesterday, residents urged the
Zimbabwe National Water
Authority to address the problem, saying a health
crisis was looming.
"As residents, we are calling on Zinwa to attend
to the problem of sewer
pipe bursts as raw sewage continues to flow into our
houses.
"In essence, we are now sitting on a time bomb ready to explode
anytime from
now hence this (problem) must be addressed as a matter of
urgency," said Mr
Norman Mbedzi, of Dulibadzimu.
Another resident
noted that the burst sewer has not been attended to for the
past six
months.
"This is the sixth month since the sewer pipes burst and nothing
has been
done to address the problem.
"As residents, we now fear that
if nothing is done there is certainly going
to be an outbreak of cholera,"
said Ms Mpumelelo Ndlovu.
When The Herald visited some sections of
Dulibadzimu, raw sewage could be
seen gushing out of a burst pipe and
flowing into nearby houses while
children were plunging into pools of the
dirty water oblivious of the
dangers of contracting diseases.
At
Dulibadzimu bus terminus, travellers and fruit vendors had a torrid time
as
they struggled to negotiate their way through the flowing body of sewage
streaming across the entire area.
Beitbridge Rural District Council
chief executive officer Mr Albert Mbedzi
attributed the problem to the
outdated sewer system whose capacity could not
match the border town's
population.
"When this town was designed, I guess those who planned it
did not
anticipate that one day it would grow up to what it is today, hence
the
sewer system is now under severe pressure because of a bigger population
and
that is why we now have constant sewer pipe bursts all over town," he
said.
The local authority handed over the town's water and sewer
reticulations
system to Zinwa following a Government directive.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, September 4 2008 - The number of food aid
organisations that
might resume operations could fall amid revelations that
chiefs will further
screen the organisations before they can distribute
aid.
The government last week lifted the ban
imposed on aid organisations
prior to the June 27 runoff
vote.
Requirements for registration have been further
tightened following a
demand that Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
should first seek chiefs'
clearance before resuming
operations.
Fortune Charumbira, the president of the
chiefs' council said NGOs
would be screened by chiefs before resuming
operations, despite being
registered.
Charumbira argued
that it was disrespectful for an organisation to
just resume operations in
an area without seeking the chief's consent.
However,
Fambai Ngirande, the spokesperson of the National Association
for Non
Governmental Organisations (NANGO), said the move would only result
in the
sidelining of reregistered NGOs suspected to have links with the
opposition
Movement for Democratic change (MDC).
Ngirande said the
most affected would be organisations funded by
American and British donors,
countries president Robert Mugabe accuses of
pushing for regime
change.
He said this would also result in food
politicisation at a time when
millions of Zimbabweans are in dire need of
food aid.
Financial Gazette
(Harare)
ANALYSIS
31 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 September
2008
Shame Makoshori
Harare
THE country's gold output could
plunge by about 45 percent this year to 4,5
tonnes as prolonged power cuts,
erratic payments and the shortages of spares
pile up pressure on one of the
key sectors of the economy, The Financial
Gazette heard last
week.
THE country's gold output could plunge by about 45 percent this
year to 4,5
tonnes as prolonged power cuts, erratic payments and the
shortages of spares
pile up pressure on one of the key sectors of the
economy, The Financial
Gazette heard last week.
Metallon Gold
Zimbabwe chief executive officer Collen Gura told a meeting of
the captains
of industry in Harare on Friday that all was not well in the
sector, warning
major policy reforms were paramount to save gold mining,
which last year
produced seven tonnes of the bullion.
A further decline in output will
plunge into uncertainty the future of
thousands of workers in the mining
industry while casting a dark shadow on
the prospects of an economic
upturn.
Gold is one of Zimbabwe's key foreign currency generating
minerals but of
late output has been on the wane due to the shortages of
foreign currency
needed to buy spares and to replace ageing equipment, power
cuts and
inflation-induced high costs of production.
The decline in
output has heightened fears in the mining industry that the
country might
lose its exclusive right to sell gold directly to the
lucrative
international markets. It is only countries producing the
benchmark 10
tonnes of gold per annum that are allowed to join the
influential London
Bullion Market Association.
"If this year we do 4,5 tonnes (of gold) we
are lucky," Gura told his
colleagues at the meeting, which reviewed various
issues affecting mining in
Zimbabwe.
"What RioZim produced in six
months can be produced by one of the five major
mines in one month if the
situation was normal. But we are working for only
four hours per day
(because of power outages). We are curtailing underground
mining, which is
expensive when we should not because we must survive," the
Metallon chief
said.
Gold mines had since 2006 warned that the devastating power cuts,
poor
support prices and erratic payments from Fidelity Printers, the
government
agency mandated to purchase the bullion, would have serious
repercussions on
the economy.
Fidelity Printers -- a subsidiary of
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) --
has been unable to pay miners owing
to chronic foreign currency shortages
plaguing the recession-hit
country.
The foreign currency crisis is blamed on poor exports and
investments and
donor fatigues that followed the International Monetary
Fund's withdrawal of
crucial balance of payments support in the late
1990s.
Mining sources said the biggest letdown has been power outages
wreaking
havoc in southern African mining industries.
Although no
local figures are available, in the first quarter of this year,
the South
African mining industry lost 22,1 percent output due to power
shortages
alone.
And in 2007, that country's mining industry was estimated to have
lost 50
billion rands as a result of the power crisis.
The crisis in
Zimbabwe's gold mining sector has been worsened by the
inefficiencies
resulting from antiquated machinery, some of it as old as 40
years.
This is in sharp contrast to new platinum operations, for
instance that
apply modern and more efficient excavation
technologies.
And unlike the gold mining sector, the rest of the minerals
in Zimbabwe are
marketed directly by the producers to the international
market.
But the gold mining industry has to sell to Fidelity Printers,
which decides
on what and when to pay the producers.
An executive who
attended last week's meeting said his company was owed
US$20 million by
Fidelity Printers, making it impossible to borrow, or give
any guarantees
when borrowing because it was unclear when the payments would
be
effected.
The tragedy is that while Zimbabwe's gold mining sector is
going through its
worst period ever, international gold prices have been
bullish in the past
12 months, spurned by rising oil prices.
The
local gold mining sector is losing on an opportunity to make more money
for
future expansion purposes according to analysts.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
By Rumbidzayi Bvunzawabaya
Posted to the
web: 04/09/2008 14:41:17
YEARS of campaigning appear to be paying off for
Zimbabwean asylum seekers
in the United Kingdom.
Information arrives
this week that the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA)
is trying out a
scheme to give Zimbabwean asylum seekers permission to work.
We have made
checks with the BIA who have stated that the Home Office are
considering
applications for permission to work from any Zimbabwe nationals
with an
outstanding asylum claim.
The person has to fax the Central Event Booking
Unit (CEBU), BIA on 0151 237
6391 with the following information: Name;
Address; HO Ref Number;
Applicant's signature and the following statement:
"I would like to know if
I can have permission to work."
If the case
is straightforward, the CEBU team will deal with it and if it's
more
complicated, then it will be passed onto a Legacy Team.
It appears
that the BIA have changed their stance on granting Zimbabwean
asylum seekers
permission to work.
Refugee Support groups have been campaigning for
permission to work and this
campaign culminated in a rally that was held on
July 11, 2008, in London.
The Strangers into Citizens rally was organised by
London Citizens, the
capital's largest alliance of civic
organisations.
Recently, the Independent Asylum Commission which has been
conducting a
two-year citizens' nationwide review of Britain's asylum system
as far as it
relates to rejected asylum seekers unable to return to their
countries
recommended that they be allowed to work.
Despite
statements condemning the situation in Zimbabwe, the British
government
continues to force Zimbabwean asylum seekers into destitution,
and to tell
them to return home.
There has been no official statement from the UK
Borders Agency confirming
that Zimbabwean asylum seekers are being given
permission to work. However,
asylum seekers have nothing to lose by faxing
their details to the number
given above. The response can only be one of
two: either a Yes, or a No.
The employment concession was introduced in
1986. Asylum seekers were
allowed to apply for permission to work if, after
six months, they had not
received an initial decision on their claim. Only
principal asylum
applicants were permitted to work; dependants of main
applicants who were 16
and over were denied permission to work.
But
on July 23, 2002, the Home Office announced its decision to withdraw the
employment concession (also known as the "permission to work" or "work
concession") with immediate effect.
The immigration rules now allow
asylum seekers to apply for permission to
work if they have not received an
initial decision in their asylum case for
a period of 12 months. This
provision is contained in paragraph 360 of
HC385.
The relevant
paragraph reads:
360: An asylum applicant may apply to the Secretary of
State for permission
to take up employment which shall not include
permission to become self
employed or to engage in a business or
professional activity if a decision
at first instance has not been taken on
the applicant's asylum application
within one year of the date on which it
was recorded. The Secretary of State
shall only consider such an application
if, in his opinion, any delay in
reaching a decision at first instance
cannot be attributed to the applicant.
360A: If an asylum applicant is
granted permission to take up employment
under rule 360, this shall only be
until such time as his asylum application
has been finally
determined.
With the introduction of NAM, it is now not often the case
that an asylum
claim can go for one year without an initial decision being
made and
therefore very few people qualified for the employment
concession.
It appears that the UK Borders Agency may have heeded calls
to allow
Zimbabwean asylum seekers permission to work as they cannot be
returned due
to the political crisis back home.
Granting asylum
seekers permission to work will benefit not only the asylum
seekers but the
government as this will reduce the number of families
claiming support under
the NASS Scheme and will reduce government
expenditure in this
regard.
Disclaimer: This article only provides general information and
guidance on
immigration law.. The specific facts that apply to your matter
may make the
outcome different than would be anticipated by you. The writer
will not
accept any liability for any claims or inconvenience as a result of
the use
of this information.
Rumbidzai Bvunzawabaya is a Solicitor at
RBM Solicitors. A firm based in
Coventry and can be contacted at info@rbmsolicitors.co.uk. Telephone:
02476243685
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe)
The Belgium-based International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) has
concluded a four-day fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe
during which it
expressed concern at the hostile media environment in the
country, APA
learnt here Thursday.
IFJ secretary general Adrian White decried the
polarisation of the Zimbabwe
media, which he said was worsening political
tensions in the southern
African country.
"The political polarisation
of the country's media is making it very
difficult for journalists to live
out of the profession," he told reporters
at the end of the mission in the
capital, Harare, on Thursday.
Zimbabwean media houses have taken
positions for or against the government
since the country plunged into a
political crisis in 2000.
The polarisation has seen the Zimbabwean media,
discarding its watchdog role
and becoming partisan in the
process.
White said there was need to repel the repressive media laws
that have seen
several journalists being prosecuted on flimsy
charges.
Zimbabwe has some of the toughest media and security laws which
criminalise
the practising of journalism without a licence from the Media
and
Information Commission.
"It\'s time for a serious and alternative
strategy to the crisis conditions
that now overwhelm journalism in
Zimbabwe,\" the IFJ secretary general.
During his visit to Zimbabwe,
White met Information Minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu, editors and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change officials.
JN/nm/APA
2008-09-04
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3411
September 4, 2008
HARARE (MISA) -
Zimbabwean journalists last night quizzed the International
Federation of
Journalists (IFJ), Secretary General (SG), Aidan White on the
non-consultative nature of his findings on the media environment in
Zimbabwe.
White is in Zimbabwe on a mission to investigate the
Zimbabwean media
environment en route to the annual Highway Africa
conference in Grahamstown,
South Africa at the invitation of the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists (ZUJ).
Speaking at the Harare Press Club, White
emphasized the lack of
professionalism in the Zimbabwean journalism
fraternity and criticized media
lobby groups such as the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA), Media
Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ), Media Monitoring
Project (MMPZ) among others,
arguing that they should pull out from the
space they are occupying in order
for ZUJ to be the sole organization
dealing with issues of media freedom in
Zimbabwe.
White added that it
was important for journalists to undertake advocacy and
lobbying on issues
related to media law and remuneration as well as to try
as far as possible
to reflect accurately the truth about Zimbabwe .
During the question and
answer segment of the debate, White was quizzed on
why his consultations
were limited to only a single organization when he had
the time to consult
the majority of media lobbying organizations to
appreciate the media
environment better.
In his response White said he spoke only to
organizations that spoke on
behalf of journalists;
"I speak on behalf
of journalists, so when I came here I wanted to get
in-depth information
from the organizations who speak on behalf of the
journalists not the rest
of the media because I get that information on a
daily basis. I did not
speak to organizations such as MISA and the MMPZ for
that
reason."
When asked whether he had the opportunity to meet with freelance
journalists
who are victims of the closure of a number of privately owned
newspapers by
the Zimbabwean government, White admitted to not having done
so
acknowledging that it was an oversight.
White accused the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other
international media for
sensationalizing the Zimbabwean crisis, noting that
they chose to broadcast
from the South African border, maintaining that they
were banned from
reporting within the country and yet they have
correspondents within the
country that could have produced more accurate
stories.
The IFJ is
the world's largest media trade union movement which represents
journalist
unions in 130 countries.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
4
September, 2008
TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
The heart of the matter is that
Mugabe has caged in every Zimbabwean,
including himself.
Zimbabwe does
not have a single free person, not even Mugabe himself.
First, there is
mail from SWRadioAfrica listeners.
One of the letters caught my
attention.
In the preceding week, I had said that I will not forgive Mugabe
and his
lieutenants, yet, as a Christian, I am compelled to forgive. I went
on to
say that if refusing to forgive Mugabe would send me to hell, then I
was
prepared so as to fight with Mugabe on equal terms while our behinds are
on
fire.
The writer said that I should not casually toss away the gift of
good life
that the Lord gave and prepared for me, here and in the hereafter,
just to
even scores with a fellow sinner. He implied that I was not
thankful.
I agree.
I have always hoped that just because I have never
murdered a soul, let
alone thousands, my sins were less harmful than
Mugabe's sins.
But I concede that a sin is a sin.
I wrote back to this
particular gentleman and told him that I try to live a
life that, hopefully,
will peacefully reunite me with my Maker in the
hereafter because, I said, I
have absolutely no intention to follow Robert
Mugabe into hell.
I
apologise to fellow Christians if I seemed to belittle my personal gift
from
God; it was not my intention.
However, please note that there is anger
involved and there is fear that the
good Lord might have abandoned us.
I
cannot understand how evil can always triumph and how it can always smile
when the good are defeated.
My country and my people have suffered so
much for so long and they cry out
to the Lord.
I love my Lord and I
believe that what is happening to us is another example
God sets for the
world to see. We are the chosen ones but for our greatness
to be
appreciated, Mugabe has to be made to appear invincible.
Now, let me redirect
my anger, like I was advised to do.
The late Marshal Munhumumwe was an
unpretentious lyricist and musician.
His song, Shungu Hadziuraye, remains one
of my farvourites.
He asks a question that we all want answered.
What kind
of dream is this that we are living that teases us with life when
we are
dead?
But we are not dead yet, I say; we are just suffering in a hell of
Robert
Mugabe's making, but a hell nevertheless.
But then, it is
disturbingly quite clear that, to find and acquire our
hopes, we have to be
dead first.
True to Munhumumwe's word, if our wishes could kill, none of
us would be
alive today, including Robert Mugabe himself.
In my
Zimbabwe today, I am afraid to stay awake because I see that all the
pain
and humiliation is real.
In my Zimbabwe today, I am afraid to go to sleep
because I dream of the
things that my country and I should have been, only
to wake up and find
thousands have been chased or deserted our country
because of home-grown
cruelty.
I pinch myself and, yes, it is real. I am
not even welcome back in my
tattered country.
And then, with my eyes wide
open, I dream of being free in my Zimbabwe
today.
Today, even our
wishes, our mere wishes, are full of pain because they seem
so distant yet
we have them between our earlobe and the pillow.
Why do I, an unfree person,
dream of being free?
Because I am a Zimbabwean, for goodness sake and I
should not be talking
about the desire for freedom!
We, not Mugabe, freed
Zimbabwe from the bondages of colonialism, a word I
now feel sorry for
because it is blamed for so much which it did not cause.
While we are at it,
why did we fight at all since the same things we did not
want are here again
under another flag?
I dream of freedom only to wake up to find that I am
under the care and
protection of a foreign government, protecting me from my
own government and
president who, in some circles, is considered a hero
although he long ago
squandered that heroism.
My own government should be
ashamed of themselves.
How many of its children are elsewhere just because
they have been and
continue to be persecuted by their own government?
I
dream I am alive when I am dead. A man without freedom is dead. He can't
influence his immediacy or take care of his intentions.
What kind of
dream is this that teases me with life?
I dream that I am dead and hopeless
yet I am alive.
But I have a consolation. Dead people don't dream.
If
I am dreaming, it means that I am alive. And if I am alive, Zimbabwe
expects
something from me.
Mugabe, like me and everyone else, is a product of
Zimbabwe and he is not
the first citizen; the people are.
People talk
about Mugabe destroying Zimbabwe but none of us talk about
Mugabe destroying
generations of young minds, the custodians of our
tomorrow.
My
compatriots, these are not rumblings of a dead person but of one who
would
prefer to be dead but who will fight to death to remain alive.
Dreaming
means I am alive.
In my Zimbabwe today, I am afraid to stay awake because I
see that all the
pain and humiliation is real.
In my Zimbabwe today, I am
afraid to go to sleep because I dream of the
things that I should have been
but then, when I do go to sleep, I wake up
only to find myself a refugee in
someone else's country.
I have done no one any wrong yet they play with my
name in vain.
I am said to have sold out but is it not true that Mugabe sold
me out?
How can I sell something that neither belongs to me nor would ever be
mine?
I am not Robert Mugabe who sells national assets as if they were
his.
Even the war we fought, which is unlike any other on the continent
of Africa
and which Mugabe did not lead, is a paradigm of excellence in the
execution
of a war of liberation. Mugabe is jealous because he is not a
founding
father of ZANU, later christened ZANU-PF, nor did he establish the
war
effort. Selling a country is something that can only be done by people
like
Mugabe.
Zimbabwe disappeared and ceased to be ours on the day of
Independence. Am I
wrong to say that the only free people in Zimbabwe are
Robert and Grace
Mugabe?
Not even his children are free; there are many
things that they dare not
say. Jonathan Moyo is not free; he has to appear
to be what he'd rather not
be. Mnangagwa is not free; he is frustrated
because he wants the presidency
but there are things he'd rather not
say.
No one is free and caged mammals are dangerous.
The only thing
more disgusting than a wild animal in a cage is a Zimbabwean
under
Mugabe.
Let both go.
If you cage the wild animal, it is no longer an
animal; you have stripped it
of its identity.
If you oppress a
Zimbabwean.well, there is always the devil to pay and
Mugabe is doing just
that. All that Mugabe has to do is to look at what is
happening to him,
never mind the country.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my compatriots,
is the way it is
today, Thursday September 4, 2008.
38 minutes ago
NEW YORK
(AP) - Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Leander Paes of India won their
first U.S.
Open mixed doubles title by beating Liezel Huber of the United
States and
Jamie Murray of Britain 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the final Thursday.
Paes has won
four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, and Black has won three -
but this was
the first for each at Flushing Meadows and the first for them
as a
team.
They were seeded fifth at the U.S. Open. Huber and Murray were
unseeded.