VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
Southern Africa
11
September 2007
President Robert Mugabe's most outspoken and
enduring critic, Pius Ncube,
has quit his post as archbishop so that he can
stand trial on charges of
adultery as an individual and not as head of the
Catholic Church in
Zimbabwe. Peta Thornycroft for VOA has more.
The
Vatican announced Tuesday it had accepted the resignation of Archbishop
Pius
Ncube, head of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo.
In
July, a collection of grainy photographs apparently taken in the
archbishop's bedroom above the Catholic Cathedral in Bulawayo, were
published in the state media.
The pictures showed a naked man,
allegedly Archbishop Pius Ncube, with
Rosemary Sibanda, member of a
prominent Catholic Women's organization. Other
more explicit images were
screened on state television over several nights
showing the two in bed
together.
Bishop Ncube, as he will now be known, has been sued for
adultery by the
woman's estranged husband, Onesimus Sibanda, who is claiming
about $160,000
in damages.
The case will be heard in the Bulawayo
High Court.
In his statement, released to the media Tuesday, Bishop Ncube
said he
believed he should face trial as Pius Ncube, an individual and not
as the
leader of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe.
He said he wrote to
Pope Benedict days after what he says was a "state
driven, vicious attack
not just on myself, but by proxy on the Catholic
Church in Zimbabwe." He
said his resignation would spare fellow bishops and
the Catholic Church any
further attacks.
Two weeks before publication of the pictures, Mr. Mugabe
lashed out at
Catholic priests, telling cheering supporters that some
priests had sworn to
be celibate but were having sexual
relations.
The photographs were taken by Ernest Tekere, a private
investigator in
Bulawayo who is well known as a former member of the Central
Intelligence
Organization during state-sponsored massacres of Ndebele
speaking opposition
supporters in the 1980s.
A close friend of Bishop
Ncube's who asked not to be named tells VOA that
the church and wider
community will see that he has acted honorably. The
friend said that unlike
the government of Zimbabwe, Bishop Ncube has not
committed mass murder,
tortured people, nor thrown hundreds of thousands out
of their
homes.
Bishop Ncube said he will continue to criticize President Mugabe.
He said he
has not been silenced by what he called the crude machinations of
a wicked
regime. Bishop Ncube said his new mission will be to help the poor
and needy
and that he will continue to call for international food aid and
medical
help in Zimbabwe's ongoing national crisis.
Bishop Ncube was
not available to the media Tuesday. He was on week-long
retreat of "prayer
and reflection" with several Catholic clergymen from
Bulawayo.
SABC
September
11, 2007, 18:00
Diplomatic tension is rising over Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe's
attendance at the African Union/European Union (AU/EU)
summit later this
year. Some EU members threatened to boycott the summit if
Mugabe was allowed
to attend.
But as President Thabo Mbeki received
new foreign representatives into the
country today, he said it would best if
the summit went ahead. It was a
changing of the guard in the Cypriot and
German missions in South Africa.
The two EU members want to nurture the
relationship between Europe and
Africa.
With the long awaited AU/EU
summit due to take place in few months in
Portugal, tension is mounting with
Britain refusing to attend if Mugabe is
invited. But Germany is among the EU
countries that do not agree with this
position. It is an issue that may be
raised when German chancellor, Angela
Merkel, visits the country next
month.
Germany and South Africa share common views on global poverty,
trade and
climate change. They will undoubtedly adopt similar positions on
these
issues at the UN in two weeks.
Reuters
Tue 11 Sep
2007, 17:27 GMT
By Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK, Sept 11 (Reuters) -
Having had some success dispelling the myth
that the blood of virgins cures
AIDS, Zimbabwean Betty Makoni is now also
fighting what she calls a root
cause of the disease -- poverty.
"Many girls don't have anything to eat
or drink. Then a sugar daddy comes
and says, 'If you have sex with me I will
give you money,' and they are
likely to take the money and get infected with
HIV/AIDS," the founder of
non-profit anti-rape group the Girl Child Network
said in an interview in
New York.
Zimbabwe's AIDS rate and poverty
levels make Makoni's job no easy task. The
country has one of the weakest
economies in the world. Fewer than one in
four citizens have jobs, and the
inflation rate is the world's highest,
hitting 7,600 percent in
July.
One in five adults has AIDS, according to the United Nations, a
level that
has helped sink the country's average life expectancy into the
30s, from
nearly 60 in 1990. Girls and women are far more likely to have the
disease
than men.
Makoni, who herself was raped at an early age,
formed the GCN in 1998. A
former schoolteacher, she was moved when two
thirds of her girl pupils had
left class by the end of the year because they
got AIDS, were married away
to members of religious sects, or had to return
to work in their homes.
"Betty inspires these girls to do work I haven't
seen in any other country,"
said Paola Gianturco, author of a new book
titled "Women Who Light the
Dark," published this month by powerHouse books,
in which Makoni is
featured.
The GCN now operates in the majority of
Zimbabwe's rural districts with 450
clubs serving 30,000 girls and is
beginning to expand into nearby countries.
MYTHS AND WOUNDS
The
network fights rape by empowering girls and keeping them in school.
Thousands of girls have been given underwear by GCN on which parts of
national sexual violence laws have been written, so they know when their
rights have been violated.
She counts the village of Rusape as one of
her successes. In 2000 there were
200 rapes reported there; now there are
none, she said. The myth that the
blood of virgins mixed with herbs kills
AIDS has been wiped out in Rusape,
she said.
But in other regions of
the country, particularly near the Mozambique
border, the myth remains
strong. Men either collect the blood after breaking
girls' hymens or after
cutting their breasts -- wounds that often end up
killing the victim -- and
use it themselves or sell it to men who have AIDS.
Time has taught Makoni
to fight AIDS from all sides. "At the beginning we
were not trying to fight
poverty; we thought there was a problem with
attitudes, beliefs and
practices, but poverty can worsen AIDS," she said.
She helps give girls
school basics because without education a girl is
nothing, she said. She
said empowerment from education can help girls resist
male attacks, early
marriage and religious sects that perform illegal
virginity testing. GCN
supplies girls with food, drink, a school uniform,
pens and paper. "You
can't empower yourself on an empty stomach," she said.
The network also
directs some donations into buying the girls sanitary
pads -- which are rare
in the country. Many Zimbabwean girls are not allowed
to go to school for up
to five days a month when they menstruate, and
difficulties from the lost
days can make them drop out. Makoni said sewing
machines can help them make
sanitary pads out of cloth and keep girls in
school.
The girls' clubs
also raise money for education by growing vegetables, which
they can also
eat, or holding dances.
SW Radio Africa
(London)
11 September 2007
Posted to the web 11 September
2007
Lance Guma
Over 80 percent of teachers under the 12 000
strong Progressive Teachers
Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) have heeded a call to
down tools this week to press
demands for a 500 percent salary
hike.
According to the union's Harare Province Chairperson Jacob Rukweza,
teachers
in Hatcliffe, Chitungwiza, Dzivarasekwa, Mabvuku, Epworth and all
the other
western suburbs like Warren Park, are clocking in at work but
refusing to
teach. But the PTUZ say state security agents under the Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) are moving around schools using government
vehicles and
trying to intimidate them.
The visits are being
disguised as assessment trips meant to gauge the impact
of the strike.
Rukweza however says by interviewing leaders from both the
PTUZ and the
bigger ZIMTA union, the agents are in fact trying to intimidate
their
officials. Asked how the strike was proceeding countrywide, Rukweza
says the
response has been huge. In Bulawayo the PTUZ coordinator Enock
Paradzai says
teachers in the city actually stopped teaching last week when
the others
were still on a go-slow. In the Midlands, coordinator Wilbert
Muringani also
reports a significant response. By late Tuesday he was said
to be headed to
Gokwe, where they have a large membership, to assess the
response to the
strike.
Other cities where the strike is ongoing include Mutare and
Masvingo. The
PTUZ called on its representatives to ignore the CIO's who are
moving around
interviewing them adding they were just as poor and struggling
to make ends
meet as the teachers. This week the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU)
added pressure on government by calling for a general strike
on the 19th and
20th September. They are protesting a wage freeze imposed by
Mugabe at the
end of August. The teacher's strike will run until the 17th of
the month 2
days before the ZCTU strike, officials said.
Zim Online
Tuesday 11 September 2007
By Regerai Marwezu
MASVINGO
- Zimbabwean teachers have threatened to embark on a sit-in
beginning today
and gave the government until 17 September to respond to
their demands for
better wages or face a full-scale strike.
The Progressive Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) yesterday announced the
nationwide sit-in and warned that
its members would "down tools" completely
if the government fails to
increase their salaries.
PTUZ president Takafireyi Zhou said teachers had
been on a "go-slow" since
the beginning of the school term last Tuesday and
that the industrial action
was now moving to the next stage of a
sit-in.
The teachers would continue reporting for work but would refuse
to conduct
lessons.
"If by September 17 we fail to get any positive
results from the employer,
we will stay away from work," Zhou told
ZimOnline.
The teachers and other civil servants petitioned the
government at the end
of July, demanding 400 percent salary increments to
cushion them from
mounting poverty and the biting cost of
living.
They threatened at the time to abandon classrooms if the
government did not
increase their salaries to $15 million a month with
effect from September
from about $2.9 million currently.
The teachers
also demanded a review of their housing allowance, introduction
of a $3
million retention allowance and exemption from paying school fees
for their
children.
"These demands have to be met with immediate effect because we
tabled them
before our employer long back," said Zhou.
The demands
were submitted to the Public Service Commission and the Ministry
of
Education, Sports and Culture through the APEX council that represents
all
civil servants.
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere yesterday said he
was not aware of the
strike.
"I am yet to be given that report from
the provinces. May be by the end of
the day I will have an answer,"
Chigwedere said when contacted for comment.
In the southern Masvingo
province, some teachers confirmed they had not
conducted lessons since
schools opened last week.
"We are just reporting for work and sit without
conducting lessons. This
time the strike will be successful because every
teacher is not happy with
his or her salary," said a teacher at Don Bosco
Primary School in Masvingo
who refused to be named fearing
victimisation.
He said about 50 percent of the teachers at the school had
so far not
reported for duty since schools opened on 4
September.
This was confirmed by education officials here who said the
teachers are
using the excuse that they could not afford bus fare to get to
work.
"The situation has reached critical levels and we hope by next week
we will
have a clear picture," said a senior Ministry of Education official
who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
Teachers in Zimbabwean public
schools have during the past seven years
clashed with their employer over
poor remuneration in a country grappling
with world record inflation of over
7 600 percent.
The government has responded by deploying state security
agents to schools
to intimidate the teachers but Zhou said that tactic would
not work this
time.
"We are aware that the government will deploy its
state agents to intimidate
those who will join the industrial action but we
will soldier on despite
these threats," he said.
A recent survey by
PTUZ revealed that 7 200 teachers had left the country
since January this
year in frustration over low pay and working conditions.
This is 44
percent more than the 5 000 teachers who left the country in the
whole of
last year.
The bulk of the teachers left to seek employment in Botswana,
South Africa,
Namibia and Swaziland.
The worst affected would be
peri-urban and rural schools because teachers
would not afford high
transport costs.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a severe brain drain as
professionals continue
leaving the country to regional and overseas
destinations in search of
better paying jobs.
It is estimated that
there are 10 000 Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa,
some of them doing
menial jobs.
The South African government recently said it wanted to
recruit foreign
teachers to teach science and mathematics and that it
preferred the
"well-trained" teachers from its troubled northern neighbour.
- ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 11 September
2007
By Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
HARARE - Zimbabwe's government on Monday angrily reacted to calls by
labour
leaders for fresh protests by workers, threatening to deal with union
officials it accused of seeking to plunge the country into
chaos.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said he and other
security
officials would most likely discuss today a Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade
Unions (ZCTU)-led work stoppage planned for September 19 and
20.
The government, which has in the past arrested ZCTU leaders and
sent
armed police and soldiers onto the streets to crush worker protests,
said it
was not going to "sit and watch" the union cripple Zimbabwe with job
strikes, according to Mohadi.
"We are likely to discuss the
issue tomorrow with the security
ministry," said Mohadi, who is in charge of
the police.
"The government will deal with the ZCTU leaders if they
want to cause
chaos to this country. We cannot sit and watch them while they
do what they
want," he said.
Zimbabwe's labour movement at the
weekend said it was calling the job
stayaway to pressure the government to
lift a ban on salary increases
announced by President Robert Mugabe last
week that union officials have
described as "satanic' and meant to reduce
workers to paupers.
Mugabe used powers granted him under the
Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures) Act to order a freeze price and
salary increases, which
he said was necessary to halt galloping
inflation.
Inflation, labelled Zimbabwe's number one enemy by
Mugabe, is more
than 7 600 percent and the highest in the
world.
The ZCTU, which before the salary and price freeze had
called on the
government and business to link salaries to inflation, says
the freeze is
illegal because it violates the rights of worker's to
negotiate and bargain
for better remuneration.
ZCTU president
Lovemore Matombo was not immediately available to
respond to threats by the
government to thwart protests by workers.
Inflation is the most
visible sign of Zimbabwe's deep recession that
has left more than 80 percent
of workers without jobs while those lucky to
still hold a formal job are
unable to feed their families because of
ever-rising prices.
The Harare administration last June ordered business to reduce prices
of all
goods by 50 percent, in a desperate attempt to halt inflation that
has
however had damaging consequences with most basic goods no longer
available
in shops because factories cannot produce at a loss. - ZimOnline
SW
Radio Africa (London)
11 September 2007
Posted to the web 11 September
2007
Henry Makiwa
Residents in Zimbabwe's two biggest cities,
Harare and Bulawayo, discussed
or took action Tuesday against water and
electricity service providers,
following the long-running crises, affecting
both services.
In the capital, residents from Mbare and Sunningdale
high-density suburbs
stormed the offices of Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) and
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) demanding an
audience with the
bosses. The residents delivered a petition calling for the
two authorities
to explain the current power and water cuts. Their efforts
however proved
futile as ZESA and ZINWA leaders snubbed meeting the
residents.
Sunningdale and Mbare residents, led by Combined Harare
Residents
Association (CHRA) chairpersons and coordinators representing five
wards,
threatened to "protest soon" against ZINWA and ZESA.
CHRA
advocacy officer Jabulani Shumba said the residents were particularly
bitter
about the cold response they received from the two authorities.
Shumba
said: "The people were unhappy with the way they were snubbed by the
ZINWA
and ZESA bosses especially given that they pay their taxes and
charges,
hence are justified to seek an audience. Because ZINWA and ZESA
wouldn't
respond, the residents feel forced to resort to one form of
protest: a
demonstration. The government has been told over and over again
about the
need to increase the capacity of both ZINWA and ZESA but has not
done
anything."
Shumba added that there was no improvement in the provision of
water despite
the recent allocation of some funds to ZINWA in government's
supplementary
budget last week.
In Bulawayo, city elders and
representatives of the residents' association
were locked in an all-day
meeting to map out action to force government into
resolving the
crisis.
Bulawayo residents have also called on the government and the
donor
community to drill more boreholes across the country's second largest
city
and avert a looming catastrophe.
Churches in Zimbabwe's second
largest city, are launching emergency
distributions of water and warning of
'disastrous' water shortages that
could lead to diseases like cholera. The
churches report that three of the
five dams supplying the city's population
of 700,000 have run out of water,
with the fourth due to run dry later this
month.
Bulawayo town councillor Charles Mpofu said stopgap measures to
the water
crisis were needed as a "matter of urgency".
Mpofu said:
"Of the 77 boreholes we had drilled across the city earlier this
year, only
8 remain functional now. To make matters worse, the government is
not doing
anything to repair them, let alone provide an alternative option
to the
crisis. This situation calls for a sensitive and credible government,
not
the one we have. We are instead focusing our priorities and attention on
donor organisations requesting aid. As it is the people are very bitter and
the situation may spark an implosion if it persists."
Already, the
British aid agency Tearfund which works through local churches,
is preparing
to supply twenty 5000-litre water tanks to be placed in
communities where
the need is greatest in Bulawayo.
Churches say the catastrophic decline
in water supplies is due to
unregulated farm resettlements putting pressure
on supplies, plus a dispute
between national and local government over the
city's water supply,
vandalism and drought.
IOL
September 11
2007 at 08:40PM
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party Tuesday
accused President
Robert Mugabe's government of bribing traditional chiefs
by giving them
brand new vehicles ahead of elections due next
year.
Thirty-eight chiefs were given the open-backed vans on Monday
at a
ceremony in the capital.
The handouts are part of a
programme to equip the country's 266 chiefs
with vehicles before year-end,
the official Herald newspaper reported. The
programme began four years ago,
the paper said.
But the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
described the gesture as
bribery meant to coerce the traditional leaders
into doing the ruling
ZANU-PF's bidding ahead of joint presidential and
parliamentary elections
due in March.
It is by
no coincidence that the vehicles are being handed over now,
the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC party said in a statement.
Chiefs hold massive
sway over the rural electorate, and are seen as
key ruling party allies in
its political strongholds in the countryside.
Earlier this year the
chiefs reportedly endorsed Mugabe, who will be
seeking his fourth term in
office at the age of 84, as their candidate of
choice in the 2008
polls.
But the MDC Tuesday accused Mugabes party of abusing a
respected
institution.
No government should abuse civic
institutions and our respected elders
for selfish political ends that are
inimical to their traditional roles, the
party said.
According
to the report in the Herald some of the chiefs were
delighted with their new
vehicles.
My people are footsore. There are no buses in my area.
This vehicle
would be the ambulance and public transporter, Chief Sogwala
from central
Zimbabwe was quoted as saying. - Sapa-DPA
Reuters
Tue Sep 11,
2007 10:30AM BST
HARARE, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Mozambique has doubled daily
electricity
supplies to Zimbabwe, helping to ease an acute power shortage in
the
southern African country amid a severe economic crisis, state media
reported
on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe has suffered chronic electricity shortages
that have hit industries
and mines, adding to an economic crisis and rising
political tension over
President Robert Mugabe's 27-year
rule.
Mozambique will now meet almost half of Zimbabwe demand of 650
megawatts a
day, Zimbabwe's power utility said.
State-owned ZESA
chief executive Ben Rafemoyo told the official Herald
newspaper that
Mozambique's Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) had, since
last week,
increased supplies to Zimbabwe from 150 megawatts to 300
megawatts a
day.
Zimbabwe also receives electricity from South Africa, Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, but foreign currency shortages have made
payments erratic, angering suppliers.
HCB had cut power exports to
its neighbour during the southern hemisphere
2007 winter after Zimbabwe
failed to pay, but Rafemoyo said the Mozambican
utility had agreed to
increase supplies despite arrears amounting to $20
million.
"We
negotiated with them...and they understood our plight. So, they really
responded positively and decided to add 150 megawatts from what we have been
getting," Rafemoyo said.
"We have very huge foreign obligations to
HCB. We are yet to pay our bills
for July and August and in total we have
outstanding obligations of four
months' supply, which is around $20 million,
but they have maintained
supplies to us."
Apart from erratic power
supplies, Zimbabweans have to cope with persistent
food, fuel and foreign
currency shortages.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's economic crisis --
highlighted by the highest
inflation rate in the world above 7,600 percent
-- on Mugabe's controversial
policies, such as the seizure of white-owned
commercial farms to resettle
blacks.
Mugabe, however, denies
mismanaging the economy and blames Western
sanctions.
The Herald (Harare) Published by
the government of Zimbabwe
11 September 2007
Posted to the web 11
September 2007
Harare
GOVERNMENT will spend up to $32,9 billion on
monitoring and stabilising
prices until year-end, while $36 billion has been
earmarked for use by the
National Incomes and Pricing
Commission.
Finance Minister Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi said last Thursday
$17,5 billion will
be utilised on capital expenditure by the National
Incomes and Pricing
Commission.
The commission will spend an
additional $18,5 billion on recurrent
expenditure.
These are the
first grants from Treasury targeted at ensuring pricing sanity
in a market
rendered volatile by rampant distortions caused by speculation.
Mr Elliot
Manyika, chairman of the Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring and
Stabilisation, was not immediately available to comment. His office said he
was in meetings the whole day.
The commission is, however, expected
to assume a leading role in coming up
with strategies that stabilise prices
and incomes.
It was set up against a background of speculative pricing
and shrinking
incomes.
Inflation, which climbed to 7 364 percent
year-on-year in July, presents one
of the most difficult obstacles for the
commission.
Keeping tabs on the rate at which prices and incomes rise
would go a long
way in stifling inflation growth, say
analysts.
Already, Government has tried to stop inflation-indexed pay
rises, as a way
of controlling the scourge.
On June 25, Government
imposed a blanket freeze on all prices at the June 18
levels, but has been
gradually reviewing the prices over the last month.
The controls were
meant to restore sanity to the market place, which had
seen most basic
commodities rising beyond the reach of the average worker.
Other factors
such as reducing money supply growth and cutting of the budget
deficit
remain critical to bringing down inflation, once described by
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe governor Dr Gideon Gono as the country's number one
enemy.
The Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
11 September 2007
Posted to
the web 11 September 2007
Harare
HARARE City Council has launched
a four-month blitz to rid the central
business district of illegal vendors,
vagrants, street children and touts,
officials said
yesterday.
Chamber secretary Mrs Josephine Ncube said municipal police
would be
deployed from 6am to 10pm in the CBD and the Avenues area until
yearend to
remove such elements from the streets.
"The project
runs until the end of December. We hope to have spruced the
image of the
city centre by then."
So far, Mrs Ncube said, 879 people had been
arrested while 1,1 tonnes of
perishables had been confiscated.
Peace
and order prevailed in Harare yesterday following the launch of the
blitz.
Vendors could be seen milling around their selling points with
no wares on
display, as they played hide-and-seek with the municipal
police.
Operations to rid the city of illegal traders have yielded little
success in
the past as the street people often resurface at the end of the
blitz.
Mrs Ncube said street children and vagrants presented challenges
to the city
because there was no permanent place to put them.
"We are
waiting for the Government to identify a place where we can take
these
people. This would be very soon," she said.
She said those arrested were
being taken to the Zimbabwe Republic Police's
licensing unit where they
would be released after paying admission of guilt
fines and have their goods
confiscated.
From NewZimbabwe, 11 September
By Staff Reporter
Five of eight
Zimbabwean asylum seekers held at a British immigration
removal centre for
women went on hunger strike on Monday, pressing for their
release. The eight
- detained at Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre in
Bedford - have been
told they face deportation to Malawi and South Africa
after UK authorities
refused to accept they were Zimbabweans who travelled
on foreign passports
to beat a new visa regime introduced in Harare. Britain
has stopped
deportations to Zimbabwe pending the outcome of a country
guidance case
known as HS Zimbabwe. Judgment in the case was reserved after
a week-long
hearing last month. Human rights groups say Zimbabweans face an
automatic
risk of torture if deported back to the southern African country
where
President Robert Mugabe is accused of human rights abuses. Maud
Kadango
Lennard, a spokesperson for the striking detainees, told New
Zimbabwe.com
that they would not call off the hunger strike until they were
released. "We
are determined to resist deportation to countries whose
geography and
systems are alien to us," said the 36-year-old who came to
England in
January 2004 on a Malawian passport. "The Home Office, against
all the
evidence, has refused to accept that we are Zimbabwean and we are
saying
that is wrong. It's convenient for them, but potentially hazardous
for us."
Hundreds of Zimbabweans who bought travel documents in neighbouring
countries in order to avoid visa restrictions imposed on the country have
been told they will not be considered for UK asylum.
Lawyers and
human rights groups say the UK is endangering Zimbabwean asylum
seekers who
are detained and interrogated on arrival in Malawi and South
Africa, and
face criminal prosecution for using fake travel documents. The
deportees are
then handed to Zimbabwean authorities, with no system in place
to check
their wellbeing. Lennard said she was detained after overstaying in
the UK,
while other Zimbabwean detainees were arrested after being found
working.
She has been told she will be deported to Malawi on September 19. A
letter
from the Home Office, seen by New Zimbabwe.com, states that she left
Zimbabwe on a valid Malawian passport on January 27, 2004, and transited via
Egypt, arriving in the UK a day later. She was refused leave to enter the UK
on arrival, but granted a temporary admission on condition that she would
catch a flight back to Zimbabwe on January 30, 2004, but she absconded. She
was detained after turning up at Heathrow Terminal 3 to claim asylum on
August 8 last month. The Home Office wrote to her: "You disputed the fact
that you would be returned to Malawi as you claim to be from Zimbabwe.
However, you hold a valid Malawian (sic) and are therefore removable to
Malawi." Lennard's appeal was dismissed on August 30 - a judge ruling that
she was not in danger of being persecuted if deported to Malawi, "and
accepted the fact that she was entitled to a Malawian
passport".
Campaigners said there were many similar cases of the Home
Office deporting
Zimbabweans to foreign countries after refusing to accept
several forms of
identification disproving their assumed identities on the
false travel
documents. Sarah Harland of the campaigning Zimbabwe
Association said they
had tried to make representations to the Home Office
to no avail. And New
Zimbabwe.com's legal columnist, Lloyd Msipa, said: "The
tragedy of this
situation is that once these Zimbabweans are deported, they
are forgotten.
It's like putting people on a conveyer belt to nowhere.
Nobody wants to
touch these cases with a long stick because legal aid is no
longer available
to most of them, and the cases are notoriously difficult to
win. I have seen
people who have produced birth and death certificates of
their parents,
letters from headmen and many other forms of identification
to invalidate
their false passports, but they all suffer the same fate."
Rights groups
have been pushing the UK government to follow-up on people who
have been
deported to guarantee their safety - one of the key elements of
the argument
in the HS Zimbabwe case. Although Air Zimbabwe and British
Airways have both
refused to fly deportees, some airlines like Kenyan
Airways and Air Malawi
continue to accept deportees. They have previously
been targeted by
campaigners. Flight captains are handed the passports of
any deportees on
their planes, which they hand over to immigration officers
on arrival at
their destination - a process which rights groups say
invariably leads to
lengthy questioning for the asylum seekers and
harassment. Hunger strikes
have been tried by asylum seekers in the past,
including other
nationalities, with very little success. No comment was
immediately
available from the Home Office last night.
BuaNews (Tshwane)
11
September 2007
Posted to the web 11 September 2007
Thabisile
Khoza
Polokwane
Police arrested over 1200 people in Limpopo over the
weekend for helping to
smuggle illegal Zimbabwean immigrants into the
country and Zimbabwean
cigarettes.
A total of 92 police stations in
the province worked together as part of
Operation Vulindela (meaning make
way), which kicked off on Friday and ended
Tuesday.
Cigarettes
worth over R200 000 were seized and 1 212 people were arrested by
Monday
morning on charges related to smuggling illegal foreigners into the
country,
murder, attempted murder, robbery, assault, possession of
unlicensed
firearms, dagga and stolen property.
Provincial police spokesperson
Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba said on
Tuesday: "There was also zero
tolerance approach to people who urinated and
drank in public, drove
recklessly and carried dangerous weapons."
He said 120 people had already
paid admission of guilt fines.
Operation Vulindela will continue through
out the week as police set up
roadblocks and conduct raids and patrols, said
Ramatseba.
He warned people not to drink in public, or to sell liquor
without a license
or to allow minors to buy alcohol.
"We will also
make sure that the person who sent the child to a liquor
outlet gets
prosecuted," he said.
In April the Limpopo provincial police task team in
Limpopo had a major
success when they managed to arrest a suspected robber
while the alleged
suspect posed as a victim of crime and tried to open a
case at the Polokwane
police station.
The suspect claimed that his VW
Kombi - which was used in an attempted
cash-in-transit heist earlier Monday
- was hijacked from him.
The kombi was found abandoned at Ga-Maja village
after a failed attempted
robbery following quick intervention by members of
the police's crime
intelligence gathering unit from the head
office.
It is alleged that the armed robbers attacked a cash-in-transit
vehicle and
fired several shots at the security guards but the driver
managed to drive
away towards Sebediela until the robbers
returned.
After realising that the cash-in-transit vehicle managed to
flee the scene,
the robbers then returned towards Polokwane.
A Toyota
Camry and a VW Kombi, which were used in the attempted robbery,
were later
found abandoned in different places.
The owner of the VW Kombi, who is
alleged to have been part of the robbers,
went to the police, claiming that
his vehicle had been hijacked and was
arrested upon further interrogation by
the police.
Another suspect was arrested in the Polokwane taxi rank while
in possession
of an AK-47 rifle.
He was shot on the thigh while
trying to open fire at the police.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
10 September
2007
South African President Thabo Mbeki's influence in Zimbabwean
politics faces
a test this week as the politiburo and central committee of
the country's
ruling party meet to discuss proposals emerging from the
crisis resolution
talks he is mediating.
Sources in the ZANU-PF
ruling party and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change said a
consensus has been reached by the two parties to
the talks as to the shape
of a constitutional amendment awaiting action by
the parliament. The
amendment would make sweeping changes in the electoral
dispensation.
It remains to be seen if ZANU-PF hard-liners will
accept the compromise
deal. Sources said negotiators agreed the lower house
would expand from 150
to 210 seats, none of which would be presidentially
appointed. On the senate
side the president will name 35 out of 93 senators
- the upper chamber
currently has 66 seats.
The negotiators who met
in Pretoria recently also agreed to hold local
elections as well as
presidential, general and senate elections at the same
time in March of next
year - as matter stand, the local elections were to be
held in
January.
The Pretoria compromise tightens the rules for redistricting
from what the
ruling party had proposed in its draft amendment, allowing
only a 20%
variance in the population of redrawn districts, as opposed to
the 25%
variance ZANU-PF had proposed.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, lead negotiator for ZANU-PF, was
expected to table the amendment
legislation in parliament on Tuesday, Sept.
18.
Some found
encouragement in the compromises in Pretoria - but Senior
Researcher Chris
Maroleng of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria
told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that piecemeal
changes to the
constitution cannot ensure that next year's Zimbabwe
elections will be free
and fair.
Cape Town-based political analyst Glen Mpani agreed, saying
Harare needs to
scrap draconian laws including in particular Public Order
and Security Act
and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act, which
respectively have been used by Harare to stifle political dissent
and press
freedom.
In other parliamentary business, sources said the
government will amend its
so-called indigenization legislation to provide
that companies obliged to
cede a 51% controlling stake in their enterprise
will also be obliged to
fund such indigenous investments.
The
government would impose a levy on publicly traded or privately held
firms to
fund what it describes as an economic empowerment fund. Harare had
proposed
to fund the takeovers itself, but finance ministry sources say this
would be
too expensive.
They noted that projected public revenues will only fund
about Z$37 trillion
of the Z$255 trillion supplementary budget presented to
parliament last
week.
Harare economist John Robertson called the
latest proposal "a wicked act."
Dennis Mandudzo, a U.S.-based doctoral
candidate in finance, said the
proposed modification to the indigenization
legislation will further spur
investor flight.
Zim Online
Tuesday 11 September 2007
Your
Excellency President Silva
RE: Revocation of President Robert Mugabe's
invitation to the African,
Caribbean, and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU)
Summit
We have learned with profound regret your intentions to invite
Robert
Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, to attend the ACP-EU
summit
to be held in Lisbon, Portugal in December, 2007.
As
Zimbabweans, we humbly prevail upon you to reconsider and rescind this
invitation as a protest against the flagrant human rights violations and
unrestrained vile abuses blatantly committed by Mugabe and his associates
upon Zimbabwe's civil society.
Zimbabwe is now an oligarchy with the
highest inflation rate in the world
due to mismanagement, racist agrarian
reform policies, corruption, looting
of state coffers and the gross
incompetence of its government.
This has precipitated the collapse of
industry, commerce, health delivery
system, education and all essential
services.
State sanctioned violence through torture, arbitrary arrests
and detention,
coupled with extra judicial killings are now the preferred
governance tools
of the Mugabe dictatorship.
Purveyor of tyranny,
Robert Mugabe has no place on the high table of world
democracies.
It
is psychological torture for ordinary Zimbabweans, victims of his brutal
repression, to watch him wine and dine with respected democratic leaders at
such an esteemed meeting while we wallow in abject poverty and perpetual
misery.
Mugabe no longer has the trust, mandate, or authority over
the people of
Zimbabwe except for his militias and sycophantic party
functionaries.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Cotonou Agreement which is
unambiguous in its
principles and ethics on fundamental issues of good
governance, human rights
and corruption.
Part 3.1 of the ACP-EU
Cotonou Agreement reads: Respect for human rights,
democratic principles and
the rule of law are essential elements of the
partnership.
Mugabe is
a divisive dictator who has egotistically become the torchbearer
for
kleptocracy and his invitation to the ACP-Summit is converse to
democratic
principles and international humanitarian law.
We anticipate and
collectively hope and pray that your timely, humble,
steadfast posture shall
be consistent with European Union charters, values
and norms, thus rendering
a mortal blow to tyranny and usher a new era for
peace, democracy, freedom
and justice to Zimbabwe in particular and Africa
in
general.
Zimbabweans eagerly await your intrepid actions and anxiously
look forward
to your historic rejoinder.
Kind regards
Phil
Matibe
Zim Online
Tuesday 11 September 2007
By
Nigel Hangarume
HARARE - Tourism Minister Francis Nhema is confident a
FIFA delegation
expected in Zimbabwe tomorrow will give the country a
thumbs-up to host
visitors to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The
four-day visit had initially been scheduled to start on Monday, but
Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority chief executive Karikoga Kaseke said the
itinerary would
now start tomorrow.
He did not give reasons for the
postponement.
The FIFA officials want to assess accommodation and other
facilities in
Zimbabwe, which is taking advantage of its proximity to South
Africa to reap
benefits from the football tournament.
Nhema admitted
Zimbabwe had challenges but has confidence in the country's
facilities.
"We have some of the best hotels and tourist attractions
like the Victoria
Falls which I believe every tourist coming to southern
Africa would want to
visit," he said.
The FIFA inspectors visit at a
time Zimbabwe is failing to reverse an
economic recession dramatised by the
world's highest inflation of over 7 500
percent as well as serious shortages
of food, fuel and electricity.
Despite the challenges, which also include
crumbling infrastructure, Nhema
still thinks Zimbabwe will be an ideal
tourist destination.
"The problems we have in the case of food and
shortages of basic goods is
just about pricing systems and I believe it's
something that will be sorted
out soon as government and business continue
to negotiate," Nhema said.
"Otherwise we have all that a tourist might
want - above all peace and
tranquility - and I don't see the FIFA officials
giving us a thumbs-down."
Nhema said renovations of hotels and other
tourist facilities had already
started.
Zimbabwe is also renovating
the National Sports Stadium and Rufaro Stadium
in Harare, where FIFA is
funding the installation of an artificial turf.
It could not be
established yesterday who will make up the FIFA
delegation. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 11 September 2007
Own
Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe has used up the bulk of a South
African Reserve Bank
loan facility amid revelations Harare was behind on
payments of medical
expenses for military veterans now resident in South
Africa.
Although details of the loan facility remained sketchy last
night, South
Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told the country's
parliament
yesterday that the 75 million rand facility to President Robert
Mugabe's
government was secured against South African Land Bank bills worth
more than
81 million rands.
According to Manuel, the Harare
authorities had by the end of July used 73.2
million rand of the facility
expected to expire on 31 December 2007.
"The facility is secured by a
pledge of South African Land Bank bills to the
value of 81.8 million rand,"
Manuel said.
He did not say when the facility was agreed or what the loan
was for.
News of the loan facility comes exactly two years after the
internationally
isolated Mugabe approached South Africa for a US$500 million
loan to help
stop the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.
The loan
talks collapsed when Mugabe refused to accept the terms attached to
the
loan, which included economic and political reforms.
Manuel also
announced yesterday that the Zimbabwean government had reneged
on payments
to the South African government for the medical expenses of
Zimbabwe
military veterans staying in South Africa.
"Since 2000, the Zimbabwean
government has not refunded these payments as
specified in the agreement. As
at 31 July 2007, the amount overdue was 2.2
million rand," Manuel said. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 11 September 2007
By Tafirei Shumba
HARARE -
President Robert Mugabe has gone pop featuring in a fresh
propaganda piece
of music that is receiving massive airplay on
state-controlled Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) radio.
Mugabe was never known to have a
knack for pop music until this week when
the new release titled Beitbridge
hit the airwaves.
ZimOnline could not immediately establish the producers
of the song but
understands Mugabe's information ministry was
responsible.
The president's gravelly voice booms in his trademark
raucous style in the
piece done by songbird Nonsi, a popular supporter of
government propaganda.
Nonsi comes in with the lead vocals beckoning
listeners: "Come to Zimbabwe
and see the city of Beitbridge . . . our
beautiful city . . . a symbol of a
lovely country . . . the future of our
children lies in our hands..."
Mugabe does not waste time corroborating
Nonsi's lyrics with a chorus heavy
with his unmistakable intonation:
"Pamberi neBeitbridge (forward with
Beitbridge) . . . nekuvaka Beitbridge
(forward with developing Beitbridge) .
. . kudya kuBeitbridge (food to the
people of Beitbridge)... Dhorobha redu
iri hatidi kuti murambe muri shure
richisekwa, aiwa. Takazvipira kuti
Beitbridge tiisimudzire isvike pamusoro
(we don't want Beitbridge to lag in
development. We are committed to the
development of Beitbridge)."
Mugabe did not necessarily have to go to the
studio for the recording.
What the producers did was to lift sections of
a speech by Mugabe sometime
ago while on a visit to Beitbridge, on the
border with South Africa,
blending parts of the speech into Nonsi's vocals,
interchangeably, to
produce the song, desperate propaganda in a futile bid
to endear the
unpopular ruler with Zimbabwe's opposition southern
regions.
The song, arranged in Zimbabwean pop style, borders on the
traditional jiti
fusion and is played with nauseating frequency on all
stations.
An announcer at ZBC, who cannot be named, told ZimOnline
yesterday: "That
one (Beitbridge) is being treated by bosses here (ZBC) as
second only to the
national anthem. They are so crazy about the recording
and we play it at
least twice in every hour.
"And that's an order by
the way, it's not by choice because no sane
presenter would play that kind
of stuff that talks about giving food to the
people of Beitbridge when
everyone knows there is no food to give. It's
being spiteful, it's sick,
immoral, insensitive and ill-timed."
The song is a bad reminder of the
days of former information minister
Jonathan Moyo whose office bombarded
listeners with disgusting praise songs
and jingles some of which Moyo
himself wrote and were recorded by PaxAfro, a
young outfit of cheerleaders
that vanished with Moyo's sacking from
government.
Zimbabwe's
information ministry operates a strong budget for propaganda
purposes and
runs numerous musical galas countrywide hosting a staggering 20
bands or
more in a single show.
Broadcast live on television for 12 straight hours
- 6pm to 6am - the galas
are a record, in their own right, for the longest
uninterrupted live
televised musical shows that are merely a ZANU PF
propaganda tool where
ministers and party heavies get together to drink and
dance the night away
with the crowds.
One such gala is on in
Beitbridge next week to commemorate the late Simon
Muzenda who together with
Joshua Nkomo, also late, were Mugabe's deputies at
the formation of the
government of national unity when the warring ZANU PF
and PF ZAPU merged in
1987.
The broadcaster is not paid for the transmission of the galas and
is
expected to offer free service in the name of national
service.
But financial technocrats at the station's Pockets Hill
headquarters say
government was taking ZBC for a ride hoodwinking the docile
broadcaster to
prop up support for the ruling party.
With the release
of Mugabe's Beitbridge, ZANU PF and cabinet can now boast
of "pop"
celebrities in their ranks.
Elliot Manyika, the party's national
commissar, recorded the "smash hit"
revolutionary Nora. Chen Chimutengwende
former information minister and now
recycled back into government is known
for his kwasa-kwasa artistry while
Mugabe's late deputy Simon Muzenda was
popular for his traditional
ngororombe dance which he always performed in
public in between writing and
reciting poetry.
As of now it would
probably be too early to say if Mugabe would feature in a
video version of
Beitbridge should the producers decide to shoot one.
If that happens
viewers might just be lucky to enjoy the rare opportunity of
seeing, in
motion picture, how good or bad at waltzing their 83-year-old
leader is. -
ZimOnline.