MSNBC
Zimbabwe police arrest over 100 protesters
HARARE, Sept. 17
— Zimbabwe riot police arrested more than 100 demonstrators
on Wednesday
during a protest against a constitution critics say has
entrenched President
Robert Mugabe's rule.
A spokesman for the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) -- a
coalition of political parties and student, church and
rights groups -- said
police arrested over 140 people who were also
protesting the closure last
week of Zimbabwe's sole privately-owned daily
newspaper.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
said 104 NCA
activists were in police custody. ''They are going to be charged
under the
Miscellaneous Offences Act for conduct likely to breach the
peace,'' he told
Reuters.
The NCA has led several protests in the
last three years against a
constitution that critics say Mugabe has
manipulated to tighten his 23-year
grip on power.
''Police have
arrested our members including NCA chairman Lovemore
Madhuku. The people
wanted to demonstrate at parliament about the
constitution issue, which we
are linking to the closure of the Daily News,''
NCA official Ernest Mudzengi
said.
Those arrested included three photojournalists working for
private
media who were covering the protest which involved about 500
people,
witnesses said. One of the newsmen told Reuters by telephone that the
three
were likely to be detained overnight.
Police shut down the
Daily News last week after Zimbabwe's Supreme
Court ruled that its publisher
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) was
operating illegally as it had not
registered under media laws introduced by
Mugabe's government.
On
Tuesday, police briefly detained two photojournalists working
for
international news agencies Reuters and Associated Press as they
waited
outside the offices of the Daily News, where police were seizing the
paper's
equipment.
The paper's closure prompted an outcry from
media groups, opposition
politicians and former colonial power, Britain,
which branded it an attempt
to stifle democratic voices in
Zimbabwe.
Critics say Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain
in 1980,
has mismanaged the economy, leading to acute shortages of food and
fuel, and
unemployment of over 70 percent. Inflation is running at 426.5
percent.
Mugabe argues that the economy has been sabotaged by his
local and
foreign opponents seeking to punish his government over its
controversial
seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless
blacks.
Mail and Guardian
Mugabe's bank has a new kind of money
Harare
17 September 2003 14:13President Robert Mugabe's
government broke new economic ground on Wednesday
by introducing a form of
money that financial experts said had been hitherto
unknown -- the bearer
cheque.
A spokesperson for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was quoted in the
daily
Herald newspaper as saying that next week it would introduce
"bearer
cheques" in an attempt to alleviate the desperate shortage of cash in
the
country.
The cheques were printed on banknote paper, looked like
banknotes and were
as "good as cash", the central bank said.
The
cheques, which would be dispensed through automated teller machines,
would
come in denominations of Z$5 000, Z$10 000 and Z$20 000.
Banking
executives said the only difference between a bearer cheque and a
banknote
was that the central bank would not call them banknotes, and that
they
expired on January 31 next year.
"This is being done for the convenience
of the public while long-term
measures are being put in place," Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo assured
readers.
It was not explained why they
were not called banknotes.
A senior Harare bank executive who asked not
to be named said: "It's an
invention ... I have never heard of it before. For
a central bank to issue
something called a bearer cheque is probably
unique.
"It can only be so they can tell Mugabe they haven't had to issue
a bigger
banknote. He seems to need to reassuring that Zimbabwe is not really
a
banana republic. I can't think of any other reason."
The Reserve
Bank warned since the beginning of the year that it was facing a
shortage of
cash and that the current highest banknote denomination of Z$500
was
insufficient in the country's current hyper-inflation
environment.
However, it had refused to print higher value
banknotes.
Thousands of Zimbabweans can be seen every weekday queuing at
banks in the
hope of drawing a small amount of cash, while cash itself has
joined the
long list of commodities available only on the illegal black
market,
attracting a premium of up to 50%.
Economists said the cause
was the central bank's failure to print enough
money. They pointed out in a
Third World society only a tiny minority of
people have chequebooks and
credit cards, and most people use cash.
"With inflation now at 427%, it
means that five times as much cash is needed
now than a year ago," said the
bank executive.
The government claimed the shortage was caused by
"hoarding" and last month
published regulations that made it a crime to carry
more than Z$5-million at
a time.
Zimbabwe has been classified by the
United Nations as having the fastest
shrinking economy in the world -- with
gross domestic product forecast to
tumble 12% this year. -- Sapa
Radio Netherlands
|
|
|
by our Internet desk, 17 September
2003 | |
|
|
"I must do my part as a priest. If that does cost me my
earthly life, than so be it."
- Father Barnabas
Nqindi
| In today's Zimbabwe, to speak the
truth is to risk beatings, imprisonment, torture or even death. Yet growing
numbers of churchmen and women are denouncing the human rights abuses being
committed by President Robert Mugabe's government. Because of the government's
severe restrictions on the media, a Radio Netherlands' reporter travelled
undercover to Zimbabwe and spoke to an archbishop, a priest and a
minister.
"We're living under a totalitarian regime," says Reverend Graham
Shaw, a Methodist minister in Zimbabwe's second biggest city, Bulawayo. "This is
a police state." Human rights organisations concur. The man who led Zimbabwe to
independence over two decades ago, Robert Mugabe, and his party, the ZANU-PF,
are determined to suppress the Movement for Democratic Change or MDC. In the
process, the government is violating the most basic rights of its own citizens.
Crisis
|
|
| The crisis began in 1999 with the
emergence of the MDC. It was the first serious political opposition to the
ruling party in recent years. The government's initial annoyance turned to
antipathy and later to anger. The authorities have made it clear that anyone who
does not support them is against them. Human rights groups have documented how
MDC supporters are being denied medical treatment and even food aid. Zimbabwe
used to be southern Africa's grain basket. Today, half the population of 11
million depends on foreign food aid.
|
"People tell me you'd better get some organisation to feed
us. Otherwise the next time you come, you might find us dead."
- Archbishop
Pius
| Repression
The criticism
of growing numbers of churchmen has not gone unnoticed by the government. "I had
one of them sitting here on my sofa, trying to convert me," says the Catholic
archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube. "I was offered a piece of land. I refused. I
said if this land is being acquired in this evil manner – where farmers have
been killed, where property is taken overnight, where the facilities that were
producing enough food for the country are being destroyed, all for the sake of
keeping power – then I reject it."
Pressure on religious leaders is
gradually increasing, even though 80% of Zimbabweans describe themselves as
Christian. It's all part of a careful calculation on the part of the government,
believes Reverend Shaw. "When they feel that they are threatened by the
outspoken views expressed by individual churchmen, they can and will act
decisively. It's relatively easy for them to pick off one or two
individuals."
|
"The church is the one small democratic space that is
left."
- Reverend Shaw
| Secret police
The Central
Intelligence Organisation or CIO – Zimbabwe's secret police – regularly monitors
church services. Reverend Shaw knows that the CIO even receives reports from
some of his own parishioners. "The state operates in a sinister way, not with
any open or direct threats, but it certainly gives those who are proclaiming
truth and justice cause to pause. We have to think before we make any statements
because we know that the state, at the appropriate point, will take further
action."
That doesn't stop him or Barnabus Nqindi, a Catholic priest,
from speaking. "If Mr. Mugabe doesn't like it, then tough luck," says Father
Nqindi. "I'm first a priest and I am answerable to God. I can be found on the
wrong side of Mr. Mugabe. That's no problem. But not on the wrong side of
God."
Slow response
Like much of
the rest of Zimbabwean society, Christian leaders have been slow to respond to
President Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule. "For too long," says
Reverend Shaw, "the churches have tried to close their eyes to the gross human
rights abuses and injustices." It has been difficult for Christians to come up
with a common position. "Unfortunately," says Archbishop Pius, "there are some
clergy, even in the Catholic Church, who are siding with the government".
Does God exist?
The desperation has become so great that many
Zimbabweans wonder whether even God has abandoned them. They themselves are
partly to blame, says Archbishop Pius. "They put Mugabe on a pedestal and
spoiled him." Reverend Shaw believes it's up to the church to make Zimbabweans
aware that "the real cause of their hunger, homelessness and suffering is a
small clique of power-hungry politicians. They are sacrificing the lives of
their people for their own political ambitions. We need to give people the
assurance that the god of justice and truth will
prevail."
| |
News24
Zim cops clean out paper
17/09/2003 16:56 -
(SA)
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe seized more equipment on Wednesday
from the
country's only independent daily paper, the Daily News, which was
shut down
last week for operating illegally.
Meanwhile, Daily News
lawyer Mordecai Mahlangu said the High Court would
hear an urgent application
to reopen the paper on Thursday. The application
had been filed on
Tuesday.
"The hearing has been set down for tomorrow," said
Mahlangu.
At the hearing, the Daily News will also seek to obtain the
return of the
equipment confiscated by police form its central Harare
offices.
On Friday, the authorities shut down the four-year-old paper,
which is
highly critical of President Robert Mugabe's government, accusing it
of
operating illegally because it has not registered with a
state-appointed
media commission.
Under Zimbabwe's tough media laws
all news organisations, newspapers and
journalists have to be registered with
the commission. But the Daily News
had refused to do so, saying mandatory
registration with the state-appointed
commission was
unconstitutional.
After raiding the Daily News's premises on Tuesday and
taking away some
equipment, police were Wednesday seizing more of the paper's
equipment from
its city centre offices, and were threatening to break into
offices that
were locked, a company official said.
Gugulethu Moyo,
director and legal advisor for the paper said police had on
Tuesday managed
only to strip computers from the newsroom and other
open-plan
offices.
"The police are still down there and they're still collecting
our property,"
said Moyo in an interview.
"And now they are saying
they are going to break down the enclosed offices,"
she said.
"Why
can't they wait until tomorrow for a court ruling?" she asked.
Samuel
Sipepa Nkomo, the chief executive of the paper's parent company,
Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), and Moyo said Tuesday police had
produced no
warrant or court order authorising them to seize the property.
The police
have said they required no court order to remove the equipment
which they
said would be used as exhibits in a court case against Nkomo,
accused of
illegally operating a newspaper.
Chief executive Nkomo said he did not
understand the rationale of the police
taking away all the paper's equipment
if it was just for use as evidence.
"I really find it strange. They could
have taken a copy of the Daily news to
say 'this is what they produced',"
Nkomo said.
The Daily News was forcibly closed last week after the
Supreme Court ruled
the paper was operating illegally because it had failed
to register with the
state-appointed media commission.
The paper has
since applied to register with the commission, but is still
awaiting a
response.
Mugabe's government accuses the Daily News of being a
mouthpiece of the main
opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
The paper has been the target of two bomb attacks and several of
its
journalists, including the former editor-in-chief Geoffrey Nyarota,
have
been arrested repeatedly since the paper was launched in 1999.
If
the Daily News is permanently closed, 340 full-time workers plus
900
newspaper vendors will be out of work in a country where unemployment
tops
70 percent, and around 80 percent of the population live in poverty.
ABC Australia
Last Update: Wednesday, September 17, 2003. 11:45am
(AEST)
Howard rejects racist accusation from Zimbabwe
Criticism from the
Zimbabwean Government over Australia's opposition to it
returning to the
Commonwealth has been rejected by the Prime Minister John
Howard.
A
Zimbabwean Government spokesman has described Australia's attitude to
African
nations as racist and condescending.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the
Commonwealth last year after international
observers reported violence and
rorting during national elections.
Mr Howard says Zimbabwe can only
return to the Commonwealth after President
Robert Mugabe has left
power.
"Zimbabwe is a disaster, a human disaster," he said.
"A 425
per cent inflation rate, five or six million people depending on food
aid, it
is quite unacceptable that Zimbabwe continue to participate, or be
allowed to
resume participation in Commonwealth affairs until there's a
complete change
of approach, and that can only happen with the disappearance
of the Mugabe
Government."
Mugabe throws cloud over summit
Commonwealth threatened with racial split
over Zimbabwe ban
Rory Carroll in Johannesburg
Wednesday September 17,
2003
The Guardian
South Africa and Australia clashed yesterday over
barring Zimbabwe's
president, Robert Mugabe, from a Commonwealth summit. The
row threatens to
split the group along racial lines.
Australia's prime
minister, John Howard, angered Pretoria by announcing that
Mr Mugabe would
not be invited to the Commonwealth heads of government
meeting in Nigeria in
December because Zimbabwe's record on human rights had
not improved.
In a
thinly veiled appeal for solidarity among African members, South
Africa
accused Mr Howard of megaphone diplomacy and called on the
Commonwealth to
reverse the ban.
The row flared as Zimbabwe intensified a
crackdown on the Daily News, the
country's only independent daily newspaper
and one of the regime's strongest
critics. Police raided the newspaper's
office in Harare and seized
equipment, despite apparently having no warrant
to do so.
Gugulethu Moyo, the newspaper's legal adviser, said: "This is just
brute
force. The whole thing is horrendous, it's purely illegal."
Zimbabwe
was suspended from the Commonwealth's decision-making councils
after the
government rigged the presidential election in March last year
which Mr
Mugabe won.
South Africa wants the 18-month-old suspension lifted in time for
December's
summit in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, arguing that the isolation has
failed to
solve Zimbabwe's economic and political problems.
Mr Howard
seemed to surprise the South African government when he said that
Don
McKinnon, the Commonwealth's secretary general, and Nigeria's
president,
Olusegun Obasanjo, had assured him that Mr Mugabe would be
barred.
He described the lack of progress in Zimbabwe as a "veritable
tragedy", and
said: "Its people are starving. Their choice of government has
been denied
to them. Their economy is in ruins. In these circumstances it
would be a
travesty if Zimbabwe were to be represented at the Abuja meeting.
I welcome
the decision that has been taken by Nigeria not to extend an
invitation to
President Mugabe."
The Zimbabwean president has blamed
soaring inflation, food shortages and
opposition to his 23-year rule on
attempts by Britain, the former colonial
power, to sabotage his policy of
seizing land from white farmers and giving
it to landless black
citizens.
South Africa favours engaging Harare through quiet diplomacy,
rather than
punishing it through sanctions.
Bheki Khumalo, a spokesman for
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, told
Australian radio that Pretoria
was "very disappointed" with Mr Howard's
statements.
"We don't think that
using megaphone diplomacy will work and we hope that
the Australians, in
particular the Australian government, will understand
this," he
said.
Later he told reporters in South Africa: "If President Mugabe does
not
attend the meeting, it will be because he has not been invited by
the
Nigerian president, not because of the actions of John
Howard."
Undeterred, the Australian prime minister repeated his statements to
the
parliament in Canberra. Australia has become more critical of Zimbabwe
as
Britain has cooled its rhetoric against Mr Mugabe to stop him from
playing
the colonial card.
Nigeria shares South Africa's distaste for
punishing another African
government and there was no public confirmation
from Abuja to match Mr
Howard's announcement.
With two Commonwealth
heavyweights pulling in opposite directions, Nigeria,
which has the final say
over who to invite, faces a dilemma. One diplomat
predicted that it was
likely to bar Mr Mugabe. "It's not an easy decision
for them but they know
that, according to the rule, he should not be
invited," he
said.
Yesterday's raid on the Daily News was not unexpected, but staff
were
shocked when riot police in two lorries sealed off the road in front
of
their office and seized equipment. Two freelance photographers outside
the
office were detained for questioning.
The paper was forcibly shut last
week on the grounds of operating illegally
because it has not registered with
a state-appointed media commission.
Under a strict new media law, which
critics say is unconstitutional, all
news organisations must register with
the commission, something the Daily
News had refused to do until this week.
But the information minister,
Jonathan Moyo, said its application was
incomplete.
The Star
Mugabe scores own goal by closing Zim paper
September 17, 2003
By Peter Fabricius and Basildon
Peta
The South African government has backed off from earlier
attempts to
seek Zimbabwe's participation in the Commonwealth heads of
government summit
in Nigeria.
This followed further severe
action yesterday by President Robert
Mugabe's government against the
country's main independent newspaper, the
Daily News.
Police
stopped publication of the paper on Friday and yesterday raided
it again,
seizing equipment, and briefly detaining two
freelance
photographers.
According to some official sources,
Nigeria was expected to announce
soon that Mugabe would not be invited to the
December meeting. But the
Nigerian government said yesterday that no decision
had been taken. If its
wavering indicated that it might still seek a back
door for Mugabe to enter,
Mugabe himself helped to dash such hopes by
effectively banning the Daily
News.
Some Commonwealth countries
indicated yesterday their leaders would
not attend the summit if Mugabe was
there. This would have caused a serious
split along racial lines in the
organisation.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, current
Commonwealth
chairperson, said Mugabe would not be invited to the summit
because Zimbabwe
remained under suspension from Commonwealth
activities.
He told parliament he understood Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo
had agreed not to invite Mugabe, and welcomed the
decision.
But President Mbeki's spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, told
SABC radio
news and the Agence France Presse news agency yesterday that the
SA
government saw no reason why Mugabe should not be invited and it would
ask
Obasanjo to invite him.
"No doubt we will engage with the
Nigerian government and President
Obasanjo so that an invitation is extended
to Zimbabwe," he told the SABC.
The statement appeared to be a
direct challenge to Howard and to
Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon
who had also insisted through
his spokesperson Joel Kibazo that Mugabe could
not attend the summit.
However, later yesterday, Khumalo
backtracked, denying the SA
government had said it would ask Nigeria to
invite Mugabe.
Khumalo told Sapa in Pretoria the presidency would
engage with Nigeria
to seek common ground on the matter, but accepted the
host country had the
final say.
The Daily News has lodged an
urgent application in the Harare High
Court to be allowed to reopen. -
Independent Foreign Service
Impact of Economic Crisis On Agriculture Threatens Recovery
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks
September 17, 2003
Posted to the web
September 17, 2003
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe's major fertiliser companies
say they may not be able to supply the
country with desperately needed
agricultural inputs, unless government
addresses problems such as the
shortage of foreign currency.
Production in Zimbabwe's agricultural
sector hit an all-time low this year
and the slump in output of Southern
Africa's former bread-basket - which has
been blamed on the government's
fast-track land resettlement programme,
erratic weather and the impact of
HIV/AIDS - could worsen, fertiliser
producers of have
warned.
The major national seed supplier, Seedco, had a more
positive outlook,
saying it had 1.9 million mt of seed, 91 percent of the
country's annual
seed needs of 2,1 million mt. But the company warned that
the critical
shortage of fertiliser may scuttle attempts at an agricultural
revival, in a
country where 80 percent of farming activities depend on
availability of the
inputs required for various types of soil
conditions.
The Zimbabwe Farmers Union had previously warned that
inflationary pressures
were having an extremely negative impact on the
ability of farmers to access
agricultural inputs.
The fertiliser
companies, Zimbabwe Phosphate Industries (Zimphos), Zimbabwe
Fertiliser
Company and Windmill (Pvt) Limited, said the industry has been
operating at
low capacity for the last eight months, managing to supply only
240,000 mt of
fertiliser to the agricultural sector - compared with a normal
capacity of
370,000 mt over the same period.
The companies made the statement in a
joint report, "Fertiliser Industry
Situation Report: September 2003",
submitted last week to the parliamentary
portfolio committee on Lands,
Agriculture, Water Development, Rural
Resources and Resettlement.
They
said the fertiliser industry would require at least US $2.45 million a
month
for the next four months, beginning in September, to reach maximum
production
capacity and satisfy the country's fertiliser needs for the
farming season
that has just begun.
Their report also called for increased speed in the
transportation of raw
materials by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) in
order to reduce
crippling road haulage costs.
"NRZ should move a total
of 27,000 mt of raw materials per month if the
industry is to avoid excessive
road haulage costs. The industry's capacity
... will depend entirely on the
extent to which these requirements are
fulfilled," the report
said.
Problems at the financially strapped NRZ have affected the
industry, as the
parastatal was able to transport only 58 percent of the raw
material needs
for the entire fertiliser industry between January and August
this year.
The NRZ is facing a critical shortage of goods wagons, with
many in a state
of disrepair. It has also lost four of its diesel locomotives
in head-on
accidents, blamed on the lack of signal and communications
equipment along
the major lines.
"Inadequate deliveries of phosphate
rock, pyrites, sulphur and coal by rail
remain a serious problem. Road
haulage is having to be used, although it is
15 times the cost of moving the
same commodities by rail. For the past three
months, 50 percent of the
phosphate rock and sulphur had to be moved by road
and this is likely to
worsen with more tonnage moved by road," the industry
pointed
out.
Foreign currency shortages over the past eight months had affected
the
industry's ability to import essential raw materials such as
sulphur,
ammonia, potash and industrial chemicals, as well as plant
maintenance
spares and accessories.
Failure by creditors, including
the Tobacco Growers Trust (TGT), to service
their debts had also worsened the
position of the industry since January.
"In the first eight months, the
industry managed to get only 32 percent of
its monthly operational
requirement of US $2.45 million in foreign currency.
The industry is owed US
$4 million by the Tobacco Growers Trust.
Preferential fertiliser prices were
given in 2002, on the understanding that
TGT will provide this forex.
However, failure by the TGT to do this has
prejudiced the industry of huge
cash reserves and reduced its capacity to
fund forex purchases from the
market," the companies said in their report.
Load-shedding by the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA),
introduced throughout Zimbabwe
early this year when the country experienced
a power crisis, still continues
to affect both domestic and industrial
consumers.
Government-imposed
price controls were also identified as contributing to
the viability problems
facing the industry.
Seedco also submitted a 10-point seed crop growers
stimulation plan, calling
on government to promote, among others: "twinning"
arrangements between new
and established growers to enable an exchange of
ideas at farmer level;
intensive training for seed growers; and the setting
of competitive producer
prices to sustain grower viability.
"There is
a need to maximise farmer productivity to raise the average
national yield
from 0.7 mt per hectare to 1 mt per hectare. There is also a
need for an
extensive extension/agronomy drive at farmer level to promote
the use of
drought avoidance measures like irrigation and water
conservation. Government
should also provide farmers with price incentives
to encourage them to grow a
surplus," read part of the Seedco submission.
Agro-input industries have
not been spared the various shortages that make
up the country's economic and
social crisis. The report showed that Zimbabwe
could face a deepening food
security crisis due to a lack of inputs.
Efforts to obtain comment from
McKenzie Ncube, chairman of the parliamentary
portfolio committee on lands,
were unsuccessful. Lands, agriculture and
rural resettlement minister Dr
Joseph Made was also not available.
Fuel Still Scarce Despite Deregulation of Industry
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
September 17, 2003
Posted to the web September
17, 2003
The recent deregulation of the fuel industry was supposed to
ease acute fuel
shortages in Zimbabwe but there has been little discernable
benefit arising
from the new policy, say industry officials.
For years
the procurement of fuel has been the sole preserve of the state,
through the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) utility.
However, the
government's failure to access sufficient foreign currency to
pay
international suppliers has led to the cancellation of deals, resulting
in
the country experiencing serious fuel shortages over the past
three
years.
On 27 August 2003 Energy and Power Development Minister
Amos Midzi
deregulated the procurement of petroleum products.
In
effect, registered oil companies would be expected to source their
own
foreign currency, import oil and sell directly to members of the
public
through approved outlets. Under the new arrangement a two-tier
pricing
system came into being.
Noczim is now expected to distribute
fuel to government departments,
quasi-government institutions, public
transport operators and the
agricultural sector at the gazetted price of Zim
$450 a litre for petrol and
Zim $200 for diesel. The national oil utility is
also required to build up
national reserves of petroleum.
While
private companies should sell diesel at Zim $1,170 and petrol at Zim
$1,060,
in reality, most companies are selling both diesel and petrol at
Zim
$1,700.
Despite these measures, the fuel crisis continues and most
service station
pumps remain dry. John Mauto, a service station manager, said
since
deregulation they were receiving fuel twice a week, at
best.
"The situation has remained largely the same. We are hardly getting
any fuel
for sale and I don't think things will improve in a long time.
Recently, my
company had to cancel accounts that individual motorists had
with us because
we are failing to perform according to their expectations,"
said Mauto.
He said the management of his company had indicated that it
was proving
uneconomical to source fuel from outside the country and then
sell it at the
new prices stipulated by the government.
Fanuel
Kangondo, public relations manager at a local oil company, Comoil,
echoed
Mauto's sentiments. "It is economically unwise for fuel companies to
stick to
the prices stipulated by the government. What our policy-makers
forgot is
that we source the foreign currency that we use to import fuel on
the black
market at exorbitant prices, and the prices they marked for us are
way below
what we should charge if we have to remain in business," he said.
"It is
contradictory that the government says it has liberalised the oil
industry,
yet still wants to have a say in pricing. It is indeed difficult
to have a
uniform pricing structure for private importers, because we source
the forex
in different ways," Kangondo added.
He said a substantial number of fuel
companies had managed to source fuel,
which they were holding onto because
they feared making losses if they sold
at the current prices. Companies
selling fuel outside the stipulated prices
risked prosecution and the
cancellation of their licences.
Several private companies have struck
deals with Independent Petroleum Group
(IPG) of Kuwait, while others are
seeking to source their oil from South
Africa.
Local companies
recently joined ranks in rejecting the new prices announced
by the
government, arguing that it cost them US $0.39 to land a litre of
fuel in the
country which, at the average unofficial exchange rate of Zim
$5,000 to US
$1, meant the companies paid a landing price of Zim $1,950 -
more than the
stipulated retail price for petrol and diesel. The official
exchange rate is
Zim $824 to US $1.
Economist John Robertson said the government had not
liberalised the fuel
industry, it had merely managed to "liberate itself from
the futility of
trying to source fuel for the country".
"The oil
industry is, in fact, still controlled. All the government did was
to free
itself from the procurement of fuel - a task in which it has proven
to be a
dismal failure. Because of this simplistic approach, the fuel
situation will
remain in a mess," he told IRIN.
Robertson argued that it could be
considered illegal for the government to
limit the operations of Noczim to
supplying government departments only, as
the oil utility was set up and is
sustained by money contributed by
taxpayers.
He expressed the fear
that private procurers and distributors of fuel might
have no choice but to
sell their products on the black market in order to
remain economically
viable.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which in the past
organised a
series of mass protests over massive fuel price hikes, says the
government
"should have widely consulted with other stakeholders such as oil
companies,
labour, and commuter operators" before instituting its new fuel
policy.
"That way, you create a win-win situation ... [but] there is no
blueprint
for the energy sector and everything is being done on an ad hoc
basis," said
Godfrey Kanyenze, chief economist with the ZCTU.
As a way
of resolving the foreign currency crisis Kanyenze suggested that
the ban on
bureaux de change, which came into effect late last year, should
be lifted.
The government outlawed bureaux de change, saying they were
fuelling the
foreign currency black market. However, since their closure,
the scarcity of
foreign currency has worsened.
In a move that commentators say could
worsen the foreign currency shortage,
state security agencies have launched a
crackdown on commercial banks buying
and selling money at unofficial rates.
The National Merchant Bank of
Zimbabwe has already lost its licence for
dealing in foreign currency.
Labour economist Kanyenze noted, however,
that should the pricing wrangle be
resolved, private fuel companies still
lack adequate fuel storage
facilities. He suggested that there was an urgent
need for them to negotiate
with the government for use of the existing Noczim
oil storage facilities.
Zimbabwe Economic Crisis Worries EU
The Post (Lusaka)
September
17, 2003
Posted to the web September 17, 2003
Larry
Moonze
Lusaka
THE European Union (EU) is deeply concerned with the
economic and
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, Italian Ambassador to Zambia
and Zimbabwe
Dr. Tullio Guma said yesterday.
Ambassador Guma said the
EU was not imposing economic or trade sanctions
against Zimbabwe but merely
shared the opinion expressed by a number of
international organisations that
the serious social and economic crisis
Zimbabwe faced was due to
inappropriate economic policies, execution of land
reforms, the drought and
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
"The measures adopted by the EU as a
result of the break down of the rule of
law and human rights abuses are the
freezing of personal assets of senior
members of government and other high
ranking officials, the prevention of
the same to travel to EU member states
and the embargo on the sale of arms,"
he said.
Ambassador Guma said
none of these measures could affect or cause any
hardship to the Zimbabwean
population let alone accelerate the economic
crisis and bring about suffering
for the population.
"The suspension or re-orientation of certain
financial and development
co-operation programmes with the government of
Zimbabwe is mainly due to the
fact that it has not complied with provisions
of the pertinent bilateral
agreements and to the political and economic
environment which is not
conducive to development co-operation with
government structures," he said.
"The EU and its member states are deeply
concerned with the economic and
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
Consequently, the humanitarian assistance
given to the people of Zimbabwe by
the EU and its member states has
continued and has in the last two years
amounted to Euro 300 million."
Ambassador Guma said the EU and member
states funded programmes in direct
support of the people of Zimbabwe in
poverty alleviation, education, health,
infrastructure, human rights and
democratisation.
He said the EU remained committed to engaging the
Zimbabwean government in a
comprehensive dialogue on the present difficulties
being experienced in the
country with the aim of restoring political, social
and economic stability.
But Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Zambia Cain
Mathema said the EU
statement was nonsensical and a lie based on
fiction.
He said the American and British led sanctions on Zimbabwe which
the EU had
adopted were not merely targeted at ZANU-PF leaders or government
but the
whole economy.
"The suffering of people of Zimbabwe is due to
sanctions imposed by the EU
and its allies - the US and the British
governments," he said.
High Commissioner Mathema said the US Secretary of
State Collin Powell and
his British counterpart were on record as having
instructed the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop
assistance to Zimbabwe.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe court says judge's arrest unconstitutional
HARARE,
Sept. 17 — Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has decided the arrest and
detention of a
High Court judge earlier this year was unconstitutional and
has overruled
corruption charges against him.
In a judgment made on Tuesday and made
available on Wednesday, the
country's highest court said government lawyers
had conceded that police
acted unlawfully by detaining Benjamin Paradza
instead of taking him to
court to answer the charges.
Paradza is
suing President Robert Mugabe's government for wrongful
arrest over a
''humiliating'' night spent in a lice-infested jail, which he
said was an
assault on judicial independence.
Paradza was detained overnight in
February over allegations he
interfered in the case of a business partner,
which was being handled by
another judge. Paradza was later freed on
bail.
Half of Zimbabwe's High Court judges condemned Paradza's
detention
and said the state failed to follow procedures laid down in the
constitution
to handle allegations of misconduct against a judge, including
the
appointment of a tribunal to investigate.
Paradza stands
accused of trying to influence a fellow judge to
release the passport of
French national Russel Wayne Labuschagne, his
partner in a safari hunting
business venture.
Labuschagne was sentenced to 15 years in prison in
April on charges
of murdering a fisherman he had allegedly caught poaching
fish in a river in
northern Zimbabwe in November 2000.
Paradza's
lawyers say the charges were designed to punish him for
embarrassing Mugabe's
government the previous month when he freed Harare's
mayor, a member of the
main opposition party, who was arrested for holding
an illegal political
meeting.
The police deny the corruption charges against Paradza
were
politically motivated.
From The Times (UK), 17 September
War of words over Mugabe summit
ban
By Michael Dynes in Johannesburg and Richard Beeston, Diplomatic
Editor
The Commonwealth was divided yesterday by a blistering row
over Zimbabwe
after South Africa bluntly told Australia to stop trying to
prevent
President Mugabe attending its December 5 summit meeting in Nigeria.
South
Africa accused John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, of
using
"mega-phone diplomacy" after he announced that he had received
assurances
from Nigeria that Mr Mugabe would not be invited to the biannual
meeting of
54 mostly former British colonies. Australia has been in the
forefront of
attempts to block South Africa and other African countries from
lifting
Zimbabwe’s 18-month-old suspension from the Commonwealth, which was
imposed
after its flawed 2002 presidential elections. However, Bheki
Khumalo,
President Mbeki’s spokesman, insisted that there was nothing to be
gained
from barring Mr Mugabe from the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting
(Chogm) in Abuja. "We want to appeal to the Australians to understand
that
megaphone diplomacy will not produce results," Mr Khumalo said.
"Sanctions
have been imposed against Zimbabwe now for a number of months with
no result
at all, and we don’t think that using megaphone diplomacy will
work."
Commonwealth officials are adamant that Zimbabwe’s leader will
not be
invited to the meeting. Under the Commonwealth’s rules,
Zimbabwe’s
suspension can be lifted at the very earliest by the other heads
of
government when they meet in Abuja. Nevertheless, President Obasanjo
of
Nigeria has told Mr Mugabe that he could still be invited if he formed
a
national unity government with the Opposition - a move that seems
highly
unlikely, given that the crackdown against dissent is continuing in
Zimbabwe
and Morgan Tsvangirai, the main opposition leader, is being tried
for
treason. It has been made clear to Mr Obasanjo that Britain, Australia
and
several other key Commonwealth members would boycott Abuja if Mr Mugabe
were
present. There are real fears that the organisation is being split
along
racial lines by the row over Zimbabwe, with African governments
supporting
Harare and Western nations strongly opposed. A taste of that
acrimony was
evident yesterday when Mr Howard dismissed South Africa’s
criticisms and
insisted that most Commonwealth leaders supported extending
the Zimbabwe’s
suspension. "Everything Australia has said about Zimbabwe in
the time I’ve
been Prime Minister, far from being megaphone diplomacy, has
been a plain
statement of truth," Mr Howard told Parliament.
Comment from The Star (SA), 17 September
SA must heed Mugabe
logic
By the Editor
Those pinning their hopes on Pretoria
playing an active role in resolving
the political crisis in Zimbabwe will be
disappointed by the statement -
released by Bheki Khumalo, President Thabo
Mbeki's spokesperson - opposing
further punishment of Harare. According to
Khumalo, the South African
government is against the continued sanctions and
further suspension of
Zimbabwe. Khumalo was quoted as saying that "sanctions
have been imposed
against Zimbabwe now for a number of months with no result
at all". This
assessment is correct, but the fact that they have not worked
is hardly a
reason for ceasing to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe to
end the
political and economic crises in his country. In fact, logic should
dictate
that since the suspension by the Commonwealth and the targeted
sanctions
have failed to produce the desired results, tougher measures should
be
imposed on the Zanu PF regime to effect change.
The assault on
democracy is continuing and the closure of the Daily News
newspaper is just
the latest example in the litany of intimidation and
harassment tactics on
those seeking political change in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has
shown that he cares
little about his people. Recently, there were reports
that he had
commissioned the construction of a R72-million mansion amid the
deepening
poverty and hunger faced by millions of his people. He has become
a liability
to his country and there is no sign that the economic
catastrophe will end
soon. The so-called secret talks between Zanu PF and
the main opposition, the
Movement for Democratic Change, has so far come to
naught. There are constant
reports of harassment and the use of food as a
weapon to weaken the
opposition. Given all these problems, it is difficult
to understand the
approach of our government on Zimbabwe. Mugabe has not
honoured a range of
agreements, even the ones he pledged to Mbeki. Pretoria
must accept that
quiet diplomacy is applicable to honourable leaders. Mugabe
has lost his
honour and needs to be engaged differently.
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE
COMPENSATION COMMUNIQUE - September 16,
2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw;
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPENSATION
/LOSS DOCUMENT.
As a result of the well-intended e-mail sent out by Gerry
Davidson and the
reaction by farmers to that message it has become apparent
that there is a
lot of confusion on this subject.
According to Dave
Drury a senior lawyer involved in land cases:
- Compensation is part of a
legal process.
- Damages generally arise out of illegal action.
The
conflict exists where at present the state is claiming that the whole
Land
Redistribution Exercise is legal, transparent and irreversible, and
that the
proper procedures have been followed.
The State further claims that the
farmer will only be compensated for the
improvements.
We agree that
under present circumstances not only do we have very few
rights, but we also
have very little chance of those few rights being
upheld.
However we
also believe that as farmers we do have a future in this country
and that we
are part of the solution and not the cause of the problem.
The legal
actions at present being pursued in our courts by farmers and
Justice for
Agriculture, intend to address the following issues related
to
compensation:
The constitutional rights of the property owner
specifically dealing with
ownership of, and responsibility for compensation
for:
The Land
Improvements.
Other Losses.
The legal aspect is
receiving attention and should resolve the issues
relating to the procedures
for claiming Compensation and Damages.
The Loss Claim Document is a tool
that will be utilized once the procedures
have been finalized.
The
Loss Claim Document should contain a full description valuation
and
verification of all losses incurred by the farmer.
While we concur
that a lawyer on behalf of the farmer must handle the legal
component of the
process, we wish to point out that there are other
professional bodies
equally involved in the process.
Farmers must understand that it is their
responsibility to ensure that his
or her Loss Claim Document is indeed a
Comprehensive Valid and Verified
Claim, that is in an acceptable format and
that it is the contention of the
professional bodies involved that will
probably be the most important
document a farmer will ever
compile.
The format must be of such a standard that the farmer will be
proud of the
document in whatever legal or negotiation forum it might serve
to represent
him/her.
The JAG Loss Claim Document has been compiled
after full consultation and
participation by:
- Lawyers
-
Valuators
- Loss Assessors
- Chartered Accountants
- And
Farmers.
This process has ensured that the document contains all the
relevant
information to resolve the issues that form part of the
compensation
process.
Justice for Agriculture has compiled a document
using a standardized format
and containing accepted formulae. The document is
available to all farmers
in a printed format or an electronic
format.
The final document will contain a:
- Copy of the Title
deeds;
- Copy of a Valuation certificate from the valuators that will contain
a
valuation of the land and improvements only;
- List of all moveable
Assets;
- List of all consequential losses;
- List of all consequential
costs;
- Diary of events;
To assist farmers in the compilation of
their documents we have trained 25
facilitators from around the country. For
a list of the facilitators please
contact the JAG office.
If a farmer
has got access to a computer and is confident of his/her
computer skills
he/she may contact JAG directly for the relevant software.
With the
cooperation of various businesses we were also able to compile an
Asset
Values list that one can use as a guideline to determine the values
of your
moveable assets.
By becoming part of the exercise you will have a
professionally compiled
comprehensive loss claim document that will be your
own private property,
and have your information stored on a central database
that can be used in
any negotiation process or legal initiative to bring
about fair
compensation.
In an effort to conserve fuel we are willing
to address farmers meetings on
any aspect of the compensation process or
could facilitate training for
individuals. For further details you may
contact the JAG office at 04
799410.
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1:
- Farming Today???
I have been reading with some interest the
various viewpoints being
expressed by many farmers. There is a wide diversity
of opinions being
expressed on the whole CFU vs JAG Question.
I am not
a farmer but I feel that the great pity is that the farming
community has
been torn apart by the whole messy business. It undoubtedly
has been the
intention of ZANU-PF all along to break the close knit farming
community
apart.
- Why was this done?
The thousands of close knit commercial
farms with their gainfully employed,
well regulated, fed, educated and housed
communities were difficult for the
cadres of ZANU-PF bully boys to penetrate.
To all intents they were closed
to communist / socialist style intimidation
that the communal residents are
vulnerable to.
One must never forget
that every one of the hundreds of thousands adults
resident on the commercial
farms is a voter. The commercial farmer had to
be removed from the equation
in order for the political commissars and
party activists to gain access to
the farm workers. Many of our commercial
farmers have thought that it was
about land, it never has been!
It was vital that there was not a free and
fair vote on the commercial
farms. The farmers had to be stopped from
influencing the way that their
employees voted. If this did not happen,
ZANU-PF would have taken a severe
beating in both the 2000 general elections
and the 2002 Presidential
elections.
- How did ZANU-PF achieve
his?
There had to be a deliberate breakdown of Law & Order created. The
most
obvious manifestation of this was the barbaric, deliberate and
sanctioned
murder of David Stevens, Martin Olds, Alan Dunn and the many
others. These
fine people were killed as a test to see whether the farmers
would react as
one voice and take decisive and unanimous action. They did
not!
Once ZANU-PF saw that selfishness would prevail, the remaining
farmers
were, and are being picked off one at a time and their possessions
and land
deliberately stolen by the Chefs.
- Why have some farmers
been untouched?
The only white commercial farmers who have been left alone
are those
influential members who may have had the personality, wealth and
influence
to cause the other farmers to act as one. Many of them have stood
by whilst
their friends and neighbors were forced off their farms and their
property
robbed. Had all farmers acted in a concerted and selfless manner, we
as a
country would today be in a very different situation.
- What are
some of those farmers who are still farming thinking?
§ Perhaps they think
that by saying "I am not the one" they will be ignored
§ If they turn a blind
eye to the plight of their friends maybe they will
be left alone.
§ Maybe
they feel that if they do not rock the boat they will be one of the
favored
ones.
§ Do they think that if they allow themselves to be blackmailed, bribe
the
D.A's and ply the greedy chefs with food and money, they will be allowed
to
stay on their farms
§ If they send their tractors to plow the land and
sow the fields that
they know has been stolen from their neighbors, by a
Judge, Bank manager or
Foreign Office diplomat they can continue
farming?
§ If they give maize and slaughter a cow for the party at heroes
day, they
will become invisible.
They will not! Just ask any of the
displaced farmers who have spent
millions in desperation trying to feed the
bloodsuckers and were still
kicked off their farms.
- Where do we go
from here?
Robert Mugabe has stated that he intends to drive every white
farmer off
the land and I see nothing to indicate that he has diverted from
his path
in any way. He has to do this because if he were to allow the
farmers to
return, he will lose face and influence. In addition, the farm
workers will
once again be removed from his influence. There will be no
return to the
farms as long as ZANU-PF is in power in Zimbabwe.
- It
has nothing to do with the land.
It has everything to do with sowing terror
into the hearts and minds of the
rural population. One has only to look at
the unwillingness of the
government to allow the World Food Program to feed
the rural people without
ensuring that only the loyal party members are being
fed.
- The Liberation War leaders cannot admit failure.
These people
are battling for their own survival, they have to apportion
blame to someone
else for the starvation that is ravaging the Zimbabwe
people. The survival of
ZANU-PF depends on them having to constantly remind
the populace that they
liberated the country. There is a constant barrage
of propaganda emanating
from ZBC. "Rambayi Makashinga" has been played
every 30 minutes for the last
6 months over the radio to persuade the
people that the land is the basis of
their liberation.
- The Ruling party have not achieved anything else in
the 22 years that
they have been in power.
They may claim that ZANU-PF has
educated two generations of students to
grade 7 or better.
What they have
not done is to give this partially educated mass of people
anything else to
look forward to for the rest of their lives. There are no
jobs and the price
of higher education is so high that only the politically
connected or the
children of the war veterans are able to afford it.
They have to convince
every Man, Woman & Child in this country that they
must go and work the
land.
- Nearly two generations of people from the communal lands have
been trying
to get off the land.
All they want is to give themselves and
their children a brighter future
than that offered by subsistence
agriculture. ZANU-PF are now trying to
convince the whole populace that it is
their duty to pick up their Badzas,
Yoke up their Oxen and till the nearest
piece of arable land. It is
expected of the peasant that he be able to feed
the nation with no inputs,
no money and no agricultural experience. The rural
resettled A2 farmer has
seen complete crop failure in the last two seasons
and his heart is sore
and almost broken and his family is slowly starving to
death. If Mugabe is
unable to convince these subsistence farmers to stay on
the land, it means
that he would have to admit the failure of his whole party
policy.
- Mugabe in his heart knows that he has failed his people.
No
civilized person is able to comprehend that leaders can be so desperate
to
hold on to power that they will allow innocent people to starve to
death
rather than admit the failure of the communist ideology.
ZANU-PF
and the Coterie of people around Mugabe will not allow him to admit
failure
because to do so would be to sign their own death warrant. They do
not have a
clue what to do about the disaster that now faces this country.
- What do
the White commercial Farmers now do?
I urge the couple of hundred still
farming to look at their conscience. If
your conscience is clear and you know
that you have not aided and abetted
the suffering of your friends then fine!
If your conscience is not clear
then beware, you will be judged at some
future time, whether in this world
or the next.
- What about the
hundreds of farmers staying in town?
§ Fill in your loss claim documents,
make a plan to survive this madness,
your skills will be desperately needed
in the future.
§ If you want to stay and your children want to continue
farming, keep
your Title Deeds secure.
§ Mugabe is breaking his own Laws.
He has not convinced any of the
international community that he is morally or
legally correct to do what he
is doing. Zimbabwe is desperate for
recognition, he needs the west more
than the west needs him. Nobody except
dictators in their own countries
have yet to come out in support. We can wait
it out!
§ Mugabe, Muzenda and Msipa are sick old men, and the next generation
of
ZANU-PF leaders are unable to get elected in any urban constituency.
§
The Zimbabwe people have had enough and will one way or another get rid
of
this Leech.
John
Kinnaird
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2: Farmer Power.
Food producing communities have a more settled existence
(Zimbabwe excluded
at present) than hunter-gatherers which permits them to
store food. Since
storage would be pointless if one did not remain nearby to
guard it, the
niche for specialists developed - and food is essential for
feeding these
non-food-producing specialists. Apart from your basic guarding
niche -like
Fawcetts Security- there are two types of specialists -
-
Kings
- Bureaucrats
Once food can be stockpiled, a political elite can
gain control of food
produced by others, assert the right of taxation, escape
the need to feed
itself, and engage in full-time political activities.
A
stored food surplus built up by taxation can support other full
time
specialists - - Professional soldiers.
*Are there enough food
producers to build up a surplus to feed these
specialists - the professional
soldiers, the political elite and the
bureaucrats?
*Failing that, are
the professional soldiers (now new farmers) going to
create that
surplus?
*Failing that, will the political elite gain control of the
imported
(donated?) surplus, if their equation does not work out as
planned?
Powerless
Farmer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE
PR COMMUNIQUE - September 16, 2003
Email:
justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU
PRESS FREEDOM ALERT: ZIMBABWE
15 September 2003
The CPU is "deeply
concerned" about The Daily News in Zimbabwe
The Commonwealth Press Union
is deeply concerned over the recent closure of
The Daily News - Zimbabwe's
only independent daily newspaper.
According to recent reports,
journalists remain barred from entering the
offices of the top-selling
national paper since the Supreme Court of
Zimbabwe ruled that it was
"operating illegally" and ordered it to close on
Friday 12
September.
Regional reports say 20 riot police armed with AK-47 rifles
entered the
newspaper offices that evening, ordering staff to leave the
premises and
halting production, reports ZimNews (a Zimbabwe online
watchdog).
Authorities were acting on the Supreme Court order stating
that the
newspaper must now register with state Media and Information
Commission
(MIC) as required under the controversial media law called the
"Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act" (AIPPA).
Only
executive staff members have been allowed back into the office in
order to
retrieve the necessary documentation to register to the MIC. The
ANZ
submitted its registration today, Monday 15 September.
Under the AIPPA,
Section 8(2)(a), the newspaper should legally be allowed
to continue to
publish while its registration is being processed:
"An applicant shall,
during the consideration of his application, be
permitted to continue to
carry on the activities of the mass media service
until his application is
determined," states the AIPPA clause 8(2)(a).
The implications
In
May The Daily News filed a legal challenge to the Supreme Court
criticising
the AIPPA - passed by the Mugabe government this year - as
being
"unconstitutional" and, at the time, the newspaper defied the act by
refusing
to register. The Supreme Court quashed the challenge, ordering
the newspaper
to now comply.
Editor Mr Francis Mdlongwa says registering means the
paper will be subject
to various parts of the Act that the newspaper
previously fought against.
Mr Mdlongwa and the newspaper's lawyer told
BBC News that the law would
require reporters to submit their home addresses
and would make them
criminally libel for reporting inaccurate
information.
"They require our profit and loss balance sheet and cash
flow projections
for the next five years," Gugulethu Moyo, a lawyer at
Associated Newspapers
of Zimbabwe told local reporters.
"In addition,
we must submit the curriculum vitas of all ANZ managers and
disclose the
political affiliations of ANZ directors," she adds.
The CPU urges the
Zimbabwe authorities to allow The Daily News to resume
publication under
section 8(2)(a) of AIPPA, and supports local independent
journalists in their
continued struggle for freedom of expression in
Zimbabwe.
Commonwealth
Press Union
17 FLEET STREET, LONDON, EC4Y 1AA
WWW.CPU.ORG.UK
tel: +44 (0)20 7583
7733
fax: +44 (0)20 7583 6868
e: kim@cpu.org.uk
The Australian
Editorial: Mugabe ban must remain
September 18,
2003
Zimbabwe's dictatorial President Robert Mugabe has called John Howard
a
racist over the Prime Minister's role in enforcing Zimbabwe's
suspension
from the Commonwealth. He hasn't used his favourite term of abuse
–
"homosexual" – against Mr Howard yet, but he may be saving that until
the
coming Commonwealth summit in Nigeria draws nearer.
Against
considerable pressure from African members, Canberra is holding the
line
against Mr Mugabe's attendance at the summit. This is the right stance.
But
the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth has become more than
an
exercise in isolating an imperious dictator who stole his country's
election
last year. It has also become a test of the depth of the commitment
among
all the Commonwealth's members to the principles of democracy and
human
rights that run deep in the organisation's traditions.
The
return of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth before the Mugabe Government is
ousted
would make a mockery of those principles. Mr Mugabe calls Mr Howard
and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair racists, while he decides who owns
land in
his country explicitly on the basis of race. He talks about
countries like
Britain as exploiters, while he steals UN food aid, intended
for his
country's 5 million starving, and uses it to pay off his
hired
thugs.
Thanks to Australia's hard line, Mr Mugabe has not been
able to use the
Commonwealth to prop up his legitimacy in the way he has
managed to use the
Non-Aligned Movement, which recently passed a resolution
banning all talk of
repressive regimes as "psychological terrorism". If
anybody knows about
psychological terrorism it is the citizens of Zimbabwe,
where any open
support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is
likely to lead
to torture. Only by such means can Mr Mugabe – whose Marxist
economic
policies have led to 400 per cent inflation, a shortage of banknotes
and
basic commodities and the collapse of the agricultural sector – cling
to
power.
There is no doubt Zimbabwe's neighbours are in a much more
difficult
situation than Australia. South African President Thabo Mbeki wants
the
Commonwealth's symbolic sanctions against Mr Mugabe lifted in the hope
that
talking can bring change. Complete chaos in Zimbabwe would be a disaster
for
South Africa, which continues to supply much of Zimbabwe's
electricity
despite an unpaid bill to the amount of $191 million.
Unfortunately,
however, it is no longer talk that is called for, but the
change of
government that Zimbabweans themselves voted for last year.
VOA
Zimbabwe Judge Prepares to Sue Government
Tendai
Maphosa
Harare
17 Sep 2003, 16:21 UTC
A Zimbabwe High Court
judge whose arrest and detention was found
unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court says he will sue the government.
The judge, Benjamin Paradza, was
dragged by police from his chambers last
February and hauled to jail on
charges of obstructing justice and
corruption. He had fought his arrest,
detention, and remand in the Supreme
Court, and on Tuesday the state conceded
he was treated unlawfully. The
Supreme Court ruled accordingly.
Mr.
Paradza is the first sitting judge in Zimbabwe's history to be arrested
and
charged with corruption.
The state had alleged Judge Paradza intervened
with a colleague at another
court to help a business partner recover his
passport that had been
confiscated pending his prosecution on murder charges.
Judge Paradza spent
the night in a cell with more than a dozen common
criminals before he was
released on bail.
The month before his arrest,
Judge Paradza angered the government and its
supporters by ordering the
release of the opposition mayor of Harare, Elias
Mudzuri, who had been
arrested for holding a political meeting without
police
permission.
Several Zimbabwean High Court judges took the unprecedented
step of signing
a petition condemning Mr. Paradza's treatment. They said the
procedures for
dealing with a judge suspected of having committed a crime is
clearly
spelled out in the constitution, and it was violated in Mr. Paradza's
case.
International legal bodies also criticized the treatment of the
judge.
Mr. Paradza's lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, told VOA that the judge
intends to
sue the police, chief prosecutor, and the Minister of Justice for
wrongful
arrest and detention.
Zimbabwe Alert Update
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek)
PRESS RELEASE
September 17, 2003
Posted to the web
September 17, 2003
* The following are updates of MISA Alerts issued
on September 15, 16 and
17, 2003. Some of the information may be dated. We
will however continue to
post relevant information for documentation
purposes. See www.misa.org for
more
information.
On Tuesday, September 16 2003, police confiscated computers
and other
equipment from the offices of the privately owned Daily News
newspaper,
saying that the equipment would be used as exhibits in
court.
Police spokesperson Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
said that
the police have taken the equipment to use as exhibits. The Daily
News is
being charged under the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act
(AIPPA) for allegedly operating a mass media service without a
license.
Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, Chief Executive Officer of the Daily News,
told the
media that the confiscation of equipment by the police was illegal
as no
court order had been granted allowing the seizure. The police however
said
they did not need a court order to seize exhibits. Nkomo said that
the
police could have taken copies of the paper and not computers.
The
Daily News has applied to the High court to have the seizure of its
equipment
stopped. The matter is set to be heard today, September 17,
2003.
BACKGROUND
The Zimbabwean Government closed the country's
leading and most popular
newspaper, the privately owned Daily News, on
Friday, September 12, 2003,
for failing to register with the country's Media
and Information Commission
(MIC) under the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).
Section 66 of AIPPA says that all media
houses must register with the MIC.
The ban follows a Supreme Court ruling
on Thursday, September 11, 2003, that
the paper was operating illegally.
