The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Police in Zimbabwe again shut down the offices of the country's
only
independent daily newspaper last night in defiance of a court order
allowing
the paper to resume publishing.
The raid was made only hours
after the High Court ordered the government to
let the Daily News reopen. It
was closed last week on charges of "operating
illegally".
Abel
Mutsakani, its deputy editor, said police had promised to comply with
the
High Court order, but had returned to raid the offices while staff
were
preparing today's edition.
"They just came in and ordered
everybody to stop working. It's chaos here
and we don't know what to do," he
said.
Earlier, staff of the Daily News, who had packed the courtroom in
Harare,
cheered loudly as Judge Younis Omerjee granted a court order
requested by
the paper, allowing it to operate pending the outcome of an
application to
register with a government commission.
The judge also
ordered the police to return all computers and other
equipment seized from
the offices of the Daily News and its sister paper,
the Daily News on
Sunday.
Gugulethu Moyo, legal adviser for Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe (ANZ),
which owns the Daily News, said last night that the latest
raid was "a
travesty of justice".
The police originally moved in to
shut the title after the Supreme Court,
which is packed with government
supporters, ruled that ANZ had failed to
register with the government, under
new media laws introduced by President
Robert Mugabe.
When this ruling
was overturned yesterday, Sam Sipepa Nkomo, the ANZ chief
executive, said he
would try to return the newspaper to the streets today.
But Mr Mugabe's
government has a record of ignoring court orders it
dislikes, such as orders
blocking the seizure of white farms or the
deportation of
journalists.
Mr Nkomo said his company would sue the police for loss of
business and for
acting vindictively and unlawfully.
Even if the
newspaper can resume publishing, it could still be closed if the
media
commission, headed by a ruling party ideologue Tafataona Mahoso, turns
down
its application. Only one edition of the paper has appeared since it
was
ordered to shut.
The government's battle with the Daily News is being
waged amid evidence of
a wider attempt to silence the opposition. More than
100 pro-democracy
activists were arrested on Wednesday as they protested
against the
newspaper's closure. They were freed yesterday after paying
fines. Despite
concerns at the latest crackdown, Thabo Mbeki, the South
African
President,rebuked white Commonwealth countries pushing for Mr
Mugabe's
isolation yesterday.
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.
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Letter
1: Re Open Letters Forum No. 145 Letter 1
John Kinnaird's sentiments in
the Jag Open Letter Forum about the need for
unity amongst farmers must be
applauded but it goes much further than that
Imagine where we might be
today if:
1. All farmers had stood together when the madness started in
February
2000.
2. The Judiciary had stood together when Justice Gubbay was
forced to
resign.
3. All teachers had stood together when "war veterans"
fired some of their
members if they did not belong to the ruling party.
4.
All nurses and doctors had stood together when "green bombers" assaulted
some
of their members if they treated MDC supporters.
5 All farmers had raised
their voices in disgust when the CFU presented
ZJRI to the government and
said land invasions had been "sensationalized."
6. All companies had stood
together when "war veterans" raided businesses
and extorted billions of
dollars.
7. All policemen had stood together when "war veterans" were
recruited and
promoted above them.
8. All journalists and media companies
had stood together and refused to
register with the "Media Ethics
Commission".
Because we, all the people of Zimbabwe regardless of age,
colour, sex or
profession, have been unable to stand together, we now have no
farms, no
food, no fuel, no bank notes, no newspaper and politically skewed
judicial
and security systems. The only way for us to ever to get back
anything
resembling a normal way of life in Zimbabwe is to stand together.
There
comes a time in our lives when acting for the common good must come
before
looking after number one. United we stand, divided we
fall.
cathy buckle,
Marondera.
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Letter
2:
Dear Gavin
All men who take public office are very brave
men!
Regards
Jean
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Letter
3: Re JAG Open Letters Forum No. 145 dated 16 September
I refer to the
JAG open letters Forum No 145 dated 16/9/03 and John
Kinnaird letter 'Farming
Today'. Here I finally see someone who has cut
through the manure, sucked the
marrow from the bone and said what has to be
said. Lets hope for more
like-minded Zimbabweans as I am now seeing a few
with whom I
concur.
Frank
Urquhart.
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Letter
4: Re JAG Open Letters Forum No. 145 dated 16 September
Dear Mr
Kinnaird,
As a farmer myself, I should like to reply to your
letter.
I agree with many of the points you raised. Yes, the farming
community has
been torn apart by the current situation. However to say that
all farmers
still resident on the land are selfish, greedy, influential,
wealthy and
self-seeking is complete and utter rubbish.
Perhaps you
would care to visit our farm and see for yourself the situation
on the
ground. I have not stood by and watched while our neighbours have
been chased
off their farms, I have not ploughed for war vets on our farm
or on anybody
else's farm. I have tried my hardest to assist our friends
wherever we
can.
We purchased our farm in 1999, it was barren land. We developed what
we
could, building sheds, barns, stables, paddocks, brick staff housing.
We
installed electricity, sunk boreholes and planted a large vegetable
garden.
All this we did with oxen, homemade bricks and materials from the
farm. We
lived in a one-roomed house, with no phone, radio or cell phone.
This was
our choice as it had been our dream to have a thoroughbred stud farm
and
eventually a dairy. All our money was put into this development, none
was
left over for a house for ourselves.
We still have the farm,
although we have had our fair share of troubles. We
have squatters, war-vets,
huts, constant theft, intimidation and fires. Our
labour force have been
subjected to beatings, forced rallies, forced
payments for various
celebrations and continual harassment for working for
white
people.
Amidst all of this, we have still tried to help neighbours
whenever we can,
be it controlling fires, helping locate stolen property,
stolen cattle etc.
Our staff have willingly helped on all occasions.
Reprisals have come about
because of this, visits of over 50 thugs with guns,
knives and sticks is a
regular occurrence. Our oxen have been commandeered as
punishment, our
staff have been made to cut firewood for these war-veterans
for daring to
help neighbours, and yet we still try our best.
We no
longer have any immediate neighbours, but the very few farmers left
in the
area are always willing to help.
I wonder in town if you were being
burgled how many of your neighbours come
to your assistance, and if they do,
would they still continue to do so if
the very next day they had a band of
thugs turn up threatening them with
guns and knives?
I also would like
to know how many people in town have actively supported
the farming
community? (Many have, I am sure - but how many have also
profiteered from
other people's suffering?) House prices are all quoted in
US dollars, and the
feeling from agents I have spoken to is, let us lease
to a farmer as they
have no choice.....Do you still buy sugar, bread, milk,
cheese, vegetables,
maize,flour? Are you always aware of where these
products are coming
from?
Why not boycott? Why not show solidarity with the beleaguered
farming
community, instead of continually pointing fingers and saying
sell-out,
your judgement time will come?
Many people I speak to in
town, get a rather glazed look when I talk of
troubles on the farm - but
mention that you have heard they might start
listing houses soon and watch
the reaction...I have found it very
enlightening.
Yes, there are
farmers who have done deals. What deals are you doing for
fuel? Perhaps you
ride a bicycle or walk?
How do you get cash, do you queue everyday for
five thousand dollars?
Remember that most people have to cope the best
way they can, circumstances
dictating. I can assure you it is not always easy
to take the moral high
ground when you have a gun pointing at you, your
family and your staff.
Signed
Still on farm and conscience clear - is
yours?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
The Herald
State to recruit specialists to boost land reform
programme
Herald Reporter
The Government is recruiting 586 engineers,
technicians, agricultural
specialists, chief technicians and economists to
boost the land reform
programme.
The engineers and technicians would
be posted to branches, districts and
provinces throughout the country under
the Department of Agri-cultural
Engineering and Technical
Servi-ces.
Chief technicians, agricultural specialists and economists
would be posted
at a provincial level.
Officials in the Lands,
Agricultural and Rural Resettle-ment Ministry told
The Herald yesterday the
recruitment was necessitated by demand created by
the land reform
programme.
At least 300 000 families were resettled under the Model A1,
while more than
50 000 others successfully applied under the Model
A2.
This means the number of farmers that need to be advised by experts
has
increased throughout the country.
Technicians to be recruited
would be responsible for pegging of contour
ridges, waterways and storm
ridges and conducting field demonstrations on
tillage techniques.
They
would also do topographical surveys for dams, weirs and farm buildings,
train
farmers in maintenance of tractors and machinery, peg farm roads,
test
irrigation equipment and develop it and train farmers in all aspects
for
agricultural engineering for farm situations.
Engineers would be
responsible for soil and water conservation, irrigation
engineering, farm
power and machinery, farm structures and environmental
engineering and
agricultural produce handling.
Agricultural specialists would develop and
extend agricul-tural produce
handling facilities for commodities such as
tobacco, mushroom and livestock
and develop post harvest technologies of
grain and perishable crops.
Economists would carry out baseline studies
on major proposed engineering
projects, establish costs of operating
engineering equipment and undertake
cost-benefit analysis of engineering
technologies and projects.
The Herald
Forex shortages continue affecting fuel
procurement
Herald Reporter
OIL companies are failing to import a
substantial amount of fuel since the
deregulation of the industry last month
because of lack of foreign cur-
rency.
The Minister of Energy and
Power Development Cde Amos Midzi said yesterday
the Government would continue
discussions with the companies to find a
lasting solution to their
problems.
"We are meeting the oil industry and we will continue to meet
them to see
how we can go around the problems they are facing," Cde Midzi
said.
The oil companies on Wednesday advised motorists to be patient as
efforts
were underway to ensure they were supplied with the com-
modity.
Long queues that formed at some filling stations in Harare last
week have
since disappeared as hopes of fresh supplies vanish.
Some
oil companies briefly supplied fuel to the service stations following
the
announcement of deregulation by the Government.
But the fuel they were
selling had been stored at depots before deregulation
and it has since run
out.
Oil industry officials yesterday said they had failed to import fuel
because
of lack of foreign currency.
"Fuel supplies have been limited
in the past week and motorists are asked to
maintain the patience as a
lasting solution to fuel deliveries is sought by
stakeholders," the companies
said in their weekly update, Fuel Facts.
"The scarcity of forex continues
to have a detrimental effect on the
procurement of fuel, but the industry is
confident that once that is
resolved fuel deliveries can be implemented
speedily."
The companies said although efforts were being made to keep
the price of
fuel affordable, market-related prices would be adopted to
ensure the
viability of the industry and the sustainability of
supplies.
The Government increased the pump price of fuel for the oil
companies last
month as part of the deregulation of the industry to ensure
viabi- lity.
But some of the companies maintained the prices should be
increased further
if they were to import more fuel.
The new prices
would operate under a two-tier system to cushion the
travelling public and to
support farmers through making fuel available at
affordable
prices.
Under the new system that ended Noczim's monopoly in the
procurement of
fuel, oil companies undertook to sell petrol at $1 170 a litre
with diesel
going at $1 060 a litre.
Noczim would continue to supply
the Government, parastatals and pubic
transport operators at the old price of
$450 a litre for petrol and $200 a
litre for diesel.
The country
started experiencing fuel shortages at the end of 1999 because
of the
shortage of foreign currency.
Individuals and some companies were
importing fuel and taking advantage of
the situation to sell it at prices
charged on the black market.
Until the introduction of the dual pricing
system, petrol was being sold at
between $1 800 and $2 500 a litre while
diesel went for between $1 500 and
$2 000 a litre.
The deregulation of
the industry was expected to improve the fuel supply in
the country.
Sunday Times (SA)
Zimbabwe to appeal Daily News ruling
Friday
September 19, 2003 07:23 - (SA)
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government said
late yesterday it would appeal against
a High Court ruling overturning the
forced closure of the country's only
independent daily newspaper, state
television reported.
"We've been asked to appeal against this order,"
acting attorney-general,
Bharat Patel told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC).
Earlier the High Court ruled that the Daily News - an
outspoken paper
frequently accused by the government of President Robert
Mugabe of being
biased in favour of the opposition - could resume
publishing.
The paper was shut down by police last week after the Supreme
Court,
Zimbabwe's top court, ruled it was operating illegally because it had
not
registered with a government media commission.
Judge Yunis Omerjee
said yesterday the paper should be allowed to resume
publishing since it had
filed an application to register with the media
commission earlier this
week.
He also said equipment confiscated by the police should be
returned.
Patel said he hoped the appeal would be filed
yesterday.
"If we can't get that achieved tonight we'll be hoping to do
it first thing
Friday morning," Patel said.
AFP
The Star
Nigeria left with Mugabe hot potato
September 19,
2003
By John Battersby
President Thabo Mbeki has
passed the buck to his Nigerian counterpart
to decide whether Robert Mugabe
should attend the Commonwealth heads of
government summit in
Nigeria.
Mbeki said in parliament yesterday it was up to Nigerian
President
Olusegun Obasanjo, as the host of the summit, to decide whether
Zimbabwean
President Mugabe would be invited to the December
summit.
The Commonwealth secretariat in London says Zimbabwe should
not be
invited following its suspension from the Commonwealth last year,
while the
South African government and ruling ANC maintain there is no reason
why he
should not be invited.
The Commonwealth secretariat says
neither Pakistan nor Zimbabwe should
be invited, because both have been
suspended from the Commonwealth.
The Australian government has
said Nigeria had agreed not to invite
Zimbabwe. However, Nigeria has
indicated that while it had not sent out an
invitation to Zimbabwe, it was
keeping its options open.
In response to a question as to whether
he and United States President
George Bush had agreed on deadlines or target
dates for elections in
Zimbabwe, Mbeki said they had agreed on the urgency of
addressing the
political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe and that the
primary
responsibility lay with the people of Zimbabwe.
"We
continue to work with the US government (on Zimbabwe)," he said. -
Group
Political Editor
SOKWANELE
PROMOTING NON VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE
DEMOCRACY.
Information about illegal hunting
and poaching.
Information Contained in this
Document:
1. Zimbabwe hunting report
including support information
2. Relevant articles from
newspaper about the situation in
Zimbabwe.
the following information is currently being
collected and will be forwarded.
·
Report from Zimbabwe Wildlife Society
·
Report
from SPCA
·
Report
from the Lowveld – adjacent to Gonarezhou National Park (part of the beleaguered
Transfrontier National Park – a joint project between South Africa, Mozambique
and Zimbabwe.)
·
A
selection of zanu pf propaganda reports
·
Extensive
photographic evidence
The
information contained below has been verified to the best of our ability under
difficult and sometimes confusing circumstances.
we
welcome any queries.
ZIMBABWE Hunting
report
AUGUST 2003
Due to the present regime’s disastrous land reform programme, poaching and illegal hunting on farms, which were seized from their rightful owners, have become rife. Only a handful of the legal property owners remain. The rest have been evicted by ruling party henchmen. There is no law and order. Poaching and uncontrolled hunting is everywhere.
One such area that has been affected with dire consequence is the Gwaai Valley Conservancy, in the west of the country. This Conservancy was established 1995/6 and was strictly controlled by the regulatory body, the Intensive Conservation Authority (ICA). This watchdog body had the full support and was accredited by numerous international conservation organizations.
In the past, at the start of each hunting season, individual members of the Conservancy had to submit their requests for hunting quotas to the ICA, who then rationalized the information to ensure the Conservancy was not “over hunted”. The applications were then passed on to the National Parks and Wildlife Management (NPWM).
The Gwaai Valley Conservancy once stood as an outstanding example of sustainable development in a wildlife area, with prolific game and huge ecotourism potential. Today, not one of the Conservancy members remains in the Gwaai. Its game has been reduced to an estimated 20% of its previous glory and the people left there are all on the verge of starvation.
Early in July 2003, all farmers in this area, which borders Hwange National Park, were evicted. The Conservancy has now fallen prey to unscrupulous hunting/safari operators from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana. Other areas affected are Bubiana Conservancy, Matetsi and West Nicholson. Few, if any, of these illegal hunters have been registered by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Environment and Tourism and do not hold accreditation with the Zimbabwe Association of Tourism and Safari Operators. In addition, these hunters are working against legislation that declares that in Zimbabwe operators should either own or hold a lease on a suitable concession of land with accompanying animal quota. Some animals also require a Conference for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) permit, such as crocodile, leopard and cheetah.
Rates charged by the settlers are far below the going rate and not one cent generated by these illegal hunts is coming back into Zimbabwe. Evidence for this theft is that illegal operators do not adhere to the legislation that requires the foreign currency generated be deposited with the Reserve Bank with the necessary documentation.
Not only is the country losing the precious foreign currency, but in the past the legal property owners in the conservancy would also put a percentage of the money generated from hunting back into improvements, building up stock and wildlife management. This is obviously not being done by the illegal occupants.
We must act now before
it is too late.
Name of Farm |
Illegitimate State Beneficiary (or A2
Settler) |
Lot 1 Dete Valley Farm |
Ruben Makanla (ex International Red Cross
Employee)
Jabulani Mpofu |
Lot 2 Dete Valley - Lanamie Ranch |
Eternity Trading (Pvt)Ltd Director – Jonathan Moyo
(Zanu PF Information
Minister) |
Lot 3 Dete
Valley (Lion Ranch) |
Mrs Alice Nkomo (Mzingili
Safaris) Cain Matema (Zimbabwe
Ambassador to Zambia) |
Sekumi
Estates |
Jacob Mudenda (Chairman of ZanuPF for
Matabeleland North) Clifford Sibanda Prisca Utete (ZBC
manager) |
Farm 31 –
Railway Farm (owner Delta Corp/Zim Sun)
|
Headman Sibanda (ex National Parks) |
Antoinette Ranch (owner Sikumi Pvt Ltd) |
Alexas Chiasa David Ntini Mhlanga |
Goodluck Ranch |
Mark Russell (Current
National Parks employee –Warden for Sinematela Camp) Headman Moyo Curtain up Enterprises |
Farm 35 – Railway Farm |
Masala Sibanda |
Chamankanu
Farm |
Chris Dube Joel Matema (owns beer/store in Lupane)
Bernard Lodlo (Lupani District Council
employee) |
Lugo Ranch |
|
Sotani Ranch |
Tshuma Ncube Chief Mubikwa (The current “gardener” at this farm is actually a National Parks employee.)
|
Skukunwa |
|
Hankano Ranch |
|
Umkombo Ranch |
|
Karna Block/Comwood Ranch |
|
Gwaai Ranch |
|
Karna Block West Registered as Tsankaruka Safaris |
Chief Joseph Dingani |
Karna Block East |
Dr Zhisiiri (Officer in Charge Matabeleland North – Veterinary Department) |
Farm 41 |
Obert Mpofu (Governor Matabeleland North) |
Kanando |
Obert Mpofu (Governor
Matabeleland North) |
Unauthorized Hunting/Safari
Operators,
operating in the Gwaai
Conservancy.
Owners: Dawie Groenwaldt
Janeman Groenwaldt
Glen Van Rensburg
Nick Van Rensburg
Zimbabwe connection/operator - E K Safaris (Ed Kadzombe)
- Jacob Mudenda
Professional Hunters: Albert Padarizi – ex National Parks Pilot
Dawie Van Der Westhuizen (from Karoi)
American Agent: Richard Putman from Seminole, Alabama
Website: www.seminolesafaris.com
Vehicle numbers: DDM850N
MWF519N
Reported to be
hunting on Goodluck Farm and Chimwara Farm.
Owners: Piet Uys
Hendrik Uys
Vehicle registration numbers: MWZ918GP – landcruiser p/u
FBD185N – white Toyota twincab
DPK173N – beige Landcruiser p/u
Reportedly hunting on: Goodluck
Railway Farm 37
Hankana Ranch
Gwaai Ranch
Between the 20-30 August Out of Africa and Northern
Weapons were seen hunting in the Gwaai area.
Zimbabwean farmers questioned illegal hunters on their farm. The name given to them of the South African hunters are:
Andre de Jaager Vehicle registration number: DMT498GP - Blue Landrover
R M Saunders – resides at Jacks Rand Heart – Alberton
Zimbabwe connection/operator – Elephant Eye Safaris
The above were seen in the company of three American
hunters. De Jaager shot and wounded a
buffalo on Sotani Ranch.
De Jaager is staying at the lodge on Chamankanu
farm. He has also been seen hunting on
Lugo and Skukungwa farms.
He has been arrested twice for hunting illegally on
Skukungwa farm.
Relevant hunter: Mark Sparrow – based in Pietersburg.
Sparrow has been hunting on Hankana Ranch and wants to
start a fishing safari business in Masuna island on the Zambezi. He has already made offers to property owners
from Masuna. This desire to purchase
land is not illegal, but is an indication of his presence in the
area.
Zim cell number: 011 211 080
Rsa cell number: 082 477 3620
Vehicle registration number 587 150F
He is involved with
the Uys brothers of Northern Weapons, Louis
Trichardt.
Zimbabwean Operators
Shaun Steyn
(Father Basil owns one of Southern Africa’s largest curio export companies, based in Bulawayo)
Partner:- Joshua Nkomo’s daughter
Hunted on Railway Farm 31 which is now owned by Delta
Corporation/Zim Suns and leased to hitherto unknown
entity.
Professional hunters - Jed Moyo
- Gary
Hopkins
- Ben Matawadzi - owner
Hunting on Antionette
Ivory Safaris
Pofessional Hunter – Bagman Chauke – hunting on farm LOT 1
Jerome Sefredi –
French national selling hunts to French
community.
Jerome’s vehicle registration number:- 797-669F
Professional Hunter: Headman Ncube
This company is using Chamankanu Farm’s operator’s license (number 0008) without the farm owner’s permission and on their prehunts have put the name Ugere/bo (Pvt) Ltd.
National Parks signed a blank prehunt form for their activities and on another quota application the company Dream Merchant Safaris, Box 56 Dete, was used, but gave no client information and it does not state what farm the hunt was to take place on.
They also have a prehunt form for a hippo.
Enio di Palma – owner (resident in Bulawayo)
Jacob Mudenda – consultant/associate (Chairman for ZanuPF Matabeleland North)
Been hunting on Goodluck
Operating in Matetsi and Kadoma
Company:- Curtain up
Enterprises
New beneficiaries of Goodluck.
They have a Dete postbox and have been hunting on Goodluck.
Evans Mukanza
In June 2003 he stated to reliable sources that he is
able to supply buffalo and elephant out of Sinamatella (This is within the
National Park).
Elias Marfu – warden at Main camp – Malinde farm
Mark Russell – senior ranger Sinamatella – Goodluck Ranch
Headman Sibanda – previously retired from National Parks -
Albert Paradzi – pilot – previous employee of National Parks
Bagman Chouke – previous employee of National Parks
Mark Russell was recently seen driving a National Parks
vehicle loaded with a full fuel drum and fuel containers from Sinamatella camp
(Hwange National Park) to Goodluck farm.
In August 2003 he was seen in Bulawayo in the company of
South African hunters.
Dr Zhisiiri – Officer in charge Mat North – A2 beneficiary of Karna Block East.
Hippo and reedbuck are on quota issued for this area this season.
There has never been a quota on this property for bushbuck.
This quota was issued to Game View Safaris. P O Box 400 – Bulawayo. The size of the property is incorrect on the quota form.
No lioness on quota for this property.
Bushbuck require a special permit – none were issued.
The conservancy does not allow the hunting of hippo.
3 Animals shot were not on the quota and 2 animals had already exceeded the season’s quota.
9 Buffalo, 3 Sable, 4 Impala, 1 Bushpig, 2 Zebra, 1 Leopard, 1 Elephant, 2 Kudu,
3 Bushbuck, 1 Hippo, 2 Waterbuck.
. Animals shot on Chimwara Farm – zebra, bushbuck, giraffe and impala.
Bindonvale\Carlisa (owned by a German
National)
Clifford Sibanda and Mark Russell ransacked the camp and took all the teak furniture for their operation. Removed all the window and door frames. Fencing has also been stolen.
Sikumi Estate – Crocodile farm. The crocodiles went without food for 10 days, as the property owner was not allowed on to the property. The crocodiles started eating each other.
1000 crocodiles have died as they were not fed since 21 June 03.(unconfirmed)
Lion Ranch – Two tame lions went without food for 10 days, as the property owner was not allowed on to the property.
Lot 2 Dete Valley Farm - A tracking collar off a lioness (Lion research collar), was found in the homestead.
Hwange Safari Lodge Hunters are reported to be staying at this hotel, major shareholders are ZanuPF. One of the companies is Out of Africa Safaris.
24 July – 3 South African Landcruisers were seen in the area. All vehicles had removed their number plates. An occupant of one vehicle were seen bribing the official at the veterinary road block. Another was seen driving onto Goodluck Farm.
Hunting blinds have been built at a number of water points.
2 September - four Americans were seen arriving in Victoria Falls. They were collected by a South African operator and were overheard saying they wanted to shoot as much as possible.
4 September - At approximately 11h00 – a white landrover
belonging to Out of Africa Safaris was seen dropping zebra meat at the PTC
offices in Vic Falls. Vehicle
registration FBT052N. Public vehicles
are not permitted into this area.
4 September - Many of the rightful Gwaai
property owners are now being threatened by the new
settlers.
Hunting at waterpoints is taking place. This is
unethical.
15 September 2003 – Three vehicles were seen
in Bulawayo – All from Out of Africa Safaris.
White Landrover defender’s – double cab’s. Two had American clients with them. Vehicle registration numbers FBG847N,
FBR649N.
September 2003 – Out of Africa have been
seen driving in Hwange National Park.
September 2003 – Mpandamatenga Border
Post. A South African Landcruiser was
seen coming through the border post into Zimbabwe. On checking the register it was noted that
the driver had entered the incorrect details of the vehicle. He stated he was driving a Mercedes
vehicle.
Vehicle
numbers
These vehicles were involved in the eviction of the farmers and their workers
765-949C – Zanu PF
777 475F – Zanu PF
779 269F – Zanu PF
781 098T – Zanu PF
779 064H – Zanu PF
Two shotguns and a rifle were stolen from Lions Den on the night of one farm eviction. The following day the police came and took all the weapons and ammunition from this property. No ZRP receipt was given. They also searched the offices.
An AK47 and two pistols were seen on War Veterans, the night of the evictions from Lions Den.
Staff
On Lions Den the staff were evicted from their homes on 21 June 2003 at 18h30 and made to stand out in the cold (our coldest and wet winter in 30 years) till 1am. They were then loaded on vehicles and dumped on the side of a road.. They were eventually found at 3am by the farmer and moved to safety and shelter.
Homesteads
Homesteads were ransacked and striped of fixtures and fittings. One homestead has not been touched and it is believed that Ruben Nklanga wants this home.
An example of how one of the farms in the
conservancy
managed their game prior to
eviction.
Buffalo
1200
Wildebeeste
60
Giraffe
3
Zebra
60
Hippo
6
Kudu
40
Impala
90 Reedbuck
6
Eland
1500
Tssessebe 8 –
protected
Sable
90
Warthogs
30
Hyena
20
Elephant
150
Lion
12 – nomadic Leopard
male 4 –
territorial
Wilddog
8 Leopard f/male 8
Baboons
120
Hunting quota for the year submitted to relevant
authorities.
Buffalo 9 |
Lion 1 |
Wildebeeste
4 |
Sable
2
|
Elephant
2 |
Hyena
1 |
Kudu 4 |
Impala
6 |
Baboon
5 |
Eland 2 |
Zebra
4 |
Duiker
4 |
Leopard 2 |
Jackal
2 |
Steenbok
4 |
They developed 10 waterpoints, 9 seasonal dams and 2
annual dams.
To date there is no water being pumped to the
waterpoints.
When the
proprietor of the above farm was recently evicted, approximately 20% of game was
left. Loss of game occurred through
illegal hunting and poaching. Now that
no water is being supplied this game will have moved.
On a
neighbouring property nine buffalo were shot in a two week period. This is a small portion of the hunting season
which lasts for approximately seven months.
Unauthorized Hunting/Safari Operators,
operating in Matetsi Hunting
area.
Botswana operator
Company:- Touch Africa
France Hobart – tel: 71656340
Amongst other
animals shot on various hunts, he killed the tame buffalo that was hand reared
on Musuma Ranch.
South African
operator
Company:- De Marillac Safaris
Vehicle registgration number:- FCJ797N
American agent:- Cabelas
Company:- Inyati
Safaris
Enio di Palma - owner
Jacob Mudenda – consultant/associate
This company has been seen hunting on Woodlands Estate ‘B’
They are also logging teak in the Fuller Forest.
They sub-let hunts to De Marillac Safaris.
They are based out of Jafuta Camp owned by Forestry Commission.
The animals are skinned at Mubiya Camp (Forestry) so that National Parks will not know where they are being killed.
Inyati Safaris have been caught poaching a kudu and a buffalo in Guzu Safaris area which is a photographic area. The kudu was shot at a waterhole from a vehicle.
(There is also a dispute ongoing about an elephant bull.)
Quota irregularities
France Hobart was reported as
hunting, again, on Masuma Ranch early in August.
He shot one of the young giraffe that was bought from Clem Coetsee four years ago. There are no wild giraffe in eastern Matetsi. 6 giraffe were purchased for photographic purposes only. This same Professional Hunter has shot the tame buffalo that were hand reared.
Animals shot
in this area since the evictions
2 Lion( one of which was wounded and only shot three days later and National Parks were not advised.)
Other activities in this area
A South African vehicle has been seen on Woodlands Estate. Vehicle registration number:- FBT052N.
A fair number of South African Hunting vehicles
have been seen in Victoria Falls and the areas they are hunting in are not known
at this stage.
The above
information has been verified to the best of our ability. Information is difficult to collate, but we
will do our best to answer any queries.
WE HAVE TO ACT NOW – HOW ELSE DO WE EXPLAIN TO OUR
CHILDREN WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ONE OF THE LAST REMAINING WILDLIFE REFUGES ON THE
PLANET?
A COUNTRY TURNED FROM BREAD BASKET TO
BEGGAR?
From The Mercury (SA), 1 September
Mugabe's man claims top reserve for
'hunting'
By Gustav
Thiel
Amid weekend reports
that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is building a R60-million retirement
mansion, it has emerged that one of his closest allies has claimed the
world-renowned Hwange Wildlife Estate to be used for hunting purposes. The
estate is home to the "presidential herd" of about 500 elephants, which were
given special presidential protection in a decree issued by Mugabe in 1991.
Johnny Rodrigues, chairperson of the Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force, said on
Sunday that the governor of Matabeleland, Obert Mpofu, "has just simply taken
the Hwange estate". "The land will now be a free-for-all for poachers and for
him (Mpofu) to allow hunters to kill the animals," he said. The Hwange Wildlife
Estate is state-owned and comprises 14 000ha of prime land. Rodrigues said he
"would not be surprised if he (Mpofu) next moves to claim land in the Hwange
National Park for his own purposes" because there were no fences separating the
estate from the park. Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe's biggest game reserve at
14 650km2. Rodrigues added that people like Mpofu "are putting a death sentence
on the future heritage of the country and the benefits that wildlife
conservation would have had for the people of the
country".
It has been
estimated that more than $400-million (about R2,9-billion) has been lost in
Zimbabwe's southern region because of rampant poaching. Bambo Kadzombe,
chairperson of the Zimbabwe Wildlife Advisory Council, said: "Three thousand
animals have been poached so far on commercial game farms and Zimbabwe's
conservancies, mainly at Save Valley, Mahenye, Bubiyana conservancy, Bubye
Valley and Chiredzi River conservancy." In 2002, more than 100 poachers had been
arrested and Kadzombe said that if the poaching continued species could become
extinct. Rodrigues said it was with that in mind that Mpofu should understand
the "folly of allowing hunting at Hwange". He said over the past five years more
than 300 of the remaining black rhino in Zimbabwe had been killed. A wildlife
researcher based in Zimbabwe said the taking of the land by Mpofu could
jeopardise the inclusion of Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park in the Limpopo
Transfrontier Park, combining three national parks in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and
South Africa.
……………………………………………
Final countdown
for wild dogs?
Sep 03 2003 07:52:52:840PM
African wild dogs - also known as painted hunting dogs - are facing extinction again - because of poachers.
Bulawayo - They hunt in family groups over great distances, chasing mostly impala, kudu and duiker until the prey tire and can be caught.
They have earned a well-deserved reputation for being efficient, indefatigable hunters, able to disembowel their prey in a matter of minutes, before lions or hyenas get a chance to move in.
Yet, less known about them is the fact that the sick and wounded, together with the young members of the pack, are looked after, fed on regurgitated food and nursed back to health.
Painted hunting dogs - also known as Cape hunting dogs or African wild dogs - so named for their individual and elaborate skin markings, were some of the most maligned of Africa's predators.
What is known about them now is that they are very social animals living in large packs numbering up to 40. There is usually one breeding female in each pack, and she gives birth to a litter of up to 10 pups at a time that the whole pack takes turns in looking after.
The dogs used to be a common part of the African wilderness. But with the advent of the European colonisation, they were branded vermin and mercilessly persecuted, to the extent of being eradicated from national parks. Their numbers were reduced from some 500 000 to 3 000.
Now they are an endangered species.
Between 1956 and 1961 about 2 700 were killed in Zimbabwe alone for a bounty paid by the government to protect livestock. And those were just the recorded deaths.
This kind of slaughter went on throughout the continent where previously the dogs had been sighted even on the snows of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and often wondered into the Sahara Desert.
The Zimbabwe population fell to a low of 150 in the early 1980s. The total for Africa now stands at about 3 000.
The Zimbabwe dog population, spread through three locations: Hwange and Gonarezhou national parks and the Zambezi Valley, was the largest in the world.
Translocation
But that was before poachers moved in.
They have reduced the dogs' population from about 850 to 600. Tanzania has about 800 dogs, Botswana 500 and South Africa 200.
At the forefront of the species' survival in Zimbabwe is zoologist Greg Rasmussen whose Painted Dog Research Project has existed since 1989.
Operating from the south western part of the country, in and around the 14 000ha Hwange National Park, Rasmussen and his team have been quite successful in allaying ranchers' concerns about the dogs and also bringing about a high level of awareness within the population.
Monitoring with the help of radio collars and translocation has brought the dogs into areas where they had not been seen in decades.
The project has three main focus areas: identifying through research the problems facing painted hunting dogs in Zimbabwe, disseminating information regarding the problems facing this species and actively reducing known causes of mortality and preventing those that are looming.
A considerable percentage of fatalities are caused by motor vehicles as the dogs - moving in packs - frequently fall victim to road accidents, especially when they move in and out of game reserves.
Glow-in-the dark collar
Thus, apart from erecting road signs warning motorists of the dogs' crossing points along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway, Rasmussen has developed a special collar for the dogs with reflective strips and a stainless steel plate. It makes it easier for motorists to see them in the dark, and also protects the dogs' windpipe should they get caught in snares.
The results of extensive tests on improved survival of dogs wearing the collars have shown that the protectively collared dogs had significantly higher survival chances than the rest.
However, given that each pack needs about 750 square kilometres in order to thrive, the dogs' future is far from secured since this exceeds what most game reserves can provide.
Some environmentalists say the only long-term solution to the problem is the creation of trans-frontier parks that will give wild dogs enough room to roam. Not only would this minimise habitat loss to humans, it would also prevent inbreeding, a phenomenon that bodes ill for the survival of the species.
The proposed Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou Transfrontier Park, a wildlife reserve spanning South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been thrown in doubt due to the reported occupation of Gonarezhou game reserve by land-hungry Zimbabwean peasants.
White farmers
For Rasmussen's study packs, however, the problem has been less academic.
Poaching, fuelled by Zimbabwe's chaotic land-reform programme, has led to the demise of three out of five study packs, or over 30 dogs, in the last 18 months.
Since February 2000, thousands of Zimbabwe's white farmers have been pushed off their land as the government sought to redress colonial land imbalances in an unplanned populist programme driven more by the ruling party's fear of losing power than a desire for genuine reform.
In many instances, government-supported war veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle have moved in, sharing the land among themselves.
Other farms have been partitioned for new black farmers many of whom are content being absentee landlords or are still trying to find their feet.
We need an indication of who should live here and who should not, Rasmussen said of the Gwaai Conservancy, part of his study area consisting of several ranches within which game could roam, but now without careful policing.
A lot of people have moved in merely to collect wildlife.
Poaching
Apparently, the wild dogs are not the only wild animals falling victims to poaching.
The Zimbabwe Wildlife Producers Association estimates that half the country's wildlife has been killed in the last two years, when the country's land programme gained steam.
Rasmussen notes that 16 members of his project's anti-poaching unit are removing 1 000 snares a month and fear that in six months they will have no jobs since the game might have been wiped out.
Now everyone has left the ranches, the poachers are having a free lunch, he says.
Most of the poaching is for selling meat and nothing else. There is absolutely no control.
He said Zimbabwe's reputation of having the best wild dog programme has suffered a major setback.
The worst poachers are South African hunters whose hellish reputation is well-known, Rasmussen said.
The South Africans destroyed their own wildlife and had to restock with animals bought in Zimbabwe. Now there is this window of opportunity in Zimbabwe.
Yet, to stem the tide, Ben Kaschula of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents mainly white landowners, said the rule of law has to return to the farms.
If poaching were to cease, the game would recover given time. For the endangered painted wild dogs, there might be no third chance. - Sapa-IPS
…………………………………….
NATIONAL PARKS ORDERS
PROSECUTION OF CORRUPT COPS
The Department of National
Parks and Wildlife Management in Chimanimani has written to Chimanimani ZRP,
calling for the prosecution of police officers involved in the illegal poaching
of an Eland on Charleswood estate, the farm of MDC MP Roy Bennett.
The Investigation Branch of
the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management based in Mutare on the
2nd of June this year wrote to Assistant Inspector Chogugudza of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police calling for the prosecution of Assistant Inspector
Mupfuriranwa and other police officers from Chimanimani Police Station.
The National Parks made
this call after a National Parks officer witnessed a police officer with nine
others being caught poaching at Charleswood Estate by security guards on the
29th of January 2003, and then Chimanimani police corruptly released
the culprits and disposed the carcass of the Eland bull
.
The ten people who were
caught poaching by some farm workers who effected a citizen’s arrest including a
police officer Assistant Inspector Chivandika, Luke Zvidzayi, Mathew, Joseph
Mazuva, Luke Mutsigo, Misheck Mazango, Luke Zvinaye, Fadzayi Jiri, Elias
Mushonga and Peter Fox. The farm security informed the National Parks officer
Mr. Frank Ashala. When Mr. Ashala attended the scene he interviewed the
culprits. The police did not attend the scene immediately due to transport
problems it is reported. However when they finally arrived Assistant Inspector
Chivandika had fled the scene.
When the police eventually
arrived they were in the company and under the leadership of Joseph Mwale who is
the Officer- in – Charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation Chimanimani.
They ordered the poachers as well as the farm workers to disperse, without
arresting anyone. There after four police officers, Sergeants Nasho, Hove,
Assistant Inspector Mupfuriranwa and Constable Tawonezvi loaded the carcass of
the Eland bull into Joseph Mwale’s vehicle and they went away. This is in
contradiction of a High Court order which prohibits Mwale from entering
Charleswood, an order he has repeatedly flouted.
The Eland bull, which was
killed by these poachers, is worth about US$ 1500 on a commercial hunting market
but the meat was never seen again. The poachers and the police officers that
corruptly released the culprits are seen on Charleswood Estate on a daily basis
but they are not getting arrested. Mr. Roy Bennett, The MP for Chimanimani has
been on the receiving end at his farm for close to three years now, with
Chimanimani police officers beating and arresting him and his farm workers willy
nilly. Inspector Chogugudza once promised that he was not going to render any
police assistance to Roy Bennett for as long as he owns the farm. The failure by
Chimanimani Police to effect legal arrests and prosecutions of the police
involved in the poaching story is seen as way of punishing Mr. Bennett because
of his involvement in opposition politics.
The incidence of police
abuse and corruption is just one of many that has occurred on Charleswood Estate
since the Parliamentary elections of 2000. What is unusual in this case is the
courage and determination of the National Parks to stand up to this corruption
when it affects their area of responsibility, in marked contrast to the police
and other government officials who have at best turned a blind eye to the
corruption and abuses of power that occur in Chimanimani. It also corresponds
with an increased militancy by the people of the Chimanimani region, who have
lost all patience with an overtly politicized police force supported a regime
that is destroying their livelihoods and well being.
One of the most significant
indications of this political determination has been the voluntary picking by
Chimanimani residents of Roy Bennett’s coffee. The daily disturbances on
Charleswood Estate have severely affected the production level of the farm, and not prepared to see their MP stand
unassisted, for the first time every, the poverty stricken residents of
Chimanimani have been voluntarily picking coffee on Charleswood estate. This has
been their contribution to support their MP in his struggle with the government
and police and CIO.
…………………………………..
WWF Harare, Zimbabwe - WWF in collaboration
with the Zimbabwean Parks and
25, Aug 2003
New commercial poaching
pressures Zimbabwe's rhinos
Wildlife Management Authority and other
conservation agencies, is assisting
in emergency responses to increasing
rhino poaching pressures.
Since March 2002, at least sixteen black rhinos
and several elephants have
been slaughtered in the Matusadona and Hwange
National Parks in northern and
western Zimbabwe. The Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority has responded
through enhanced patrol efforts, despite
crippling shortages of manpower,
fuel and equipment. Four poachers have been
killed in recent firefights, and
several have been
arrested.
WWF-funded operations enabled the relocation of 22 black rhinos
from areas
of high snaring risk to safer areas during 2002. Future operations
are
likely to be approved by the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
Other
supporting NGOs, in particular the Marwell Zimbabwe Trust, the
Zambezi
Society and the SAVE Foundation of Australia, have helped to deal
with the
new crisis of commercial rhino poaching in National
Parks.
Over the past three years, at least fifteen black rhinos have died
in these
ranching areas as a consequence of indiscriminate snaring, adding to
the
ongoing problems of rhino snaring by subsistence poachers in
conservancies.
Further problems for Zimbabwe's rhinos arose in June when
South African
"sport" hunters were involved in the illegal slaughter of a
black rhino in
southern Zimbabwe.
"Prompt action is required by the
South African and Zimbabwean authorities
to deal with this recent case and to
clamp down on the cross-border hunting
forays by readily identifiable hunting
parties," said Dr. Harrison Kojwang,
Regional Representative for WWF in
Southern Africa.
WWF's rhino specialist, Raoul du Toit, adds, "Whereas
impoverished
Zimbabweans may claim that they are driven to poaching in order
to feed
themselves, relatively wealthy sport hunters from South Africa have
no such
excuse - their unethical behaviour is driven by financial interests
and by
thrill-seeking."
During the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Zimbabwe's black rhino population
fell from about 2000 to 370, due to
commercial poaching perpetrated mainly
by gangs from across the northern
border. Effective conservation measures
then rebuilt the population to about
500.
Recently, Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy and land disputes have
stimulated
poaching for "bushmeat", and rhinos are being caught in the wire
snares.
Unemployment and inflating costs of living are driving more and
more
Zimbabweans into informal occupations, including destructive activities
such
as uncontrolled gold panning and poaching. The consequent harvesting
of
wildlife and other natural resources is proving difficult for
state
conservation agencies to regulate. While it is impossible to quantify
the
overall loss of wildlife, estimates of 50 to 80 per cent of wildlife
being
lost from some former commercial farms, are widely
reported.
"The resolution of internal poaching by rural communities is a
long-term
issue requiring the evolution of equitable and durable land
reform
arrangements within various sectors of Zimbabwe's complicated
wildlife
industry," warned Dr. Kojwang. "WWF stands ready to assist with
technical
support in developing these arrangements, which will take a great
deal of
effort and a willingness by all stakeholders to negotiate workable
and
sensible solutions on an area-by-area basis."
For further
information:
WWF - Southern Africa Regional Programme Office
Tel. +263
(0)4 252533
E-mail:
NOTE TO
EDITORS:
Investigations into the shooting of a young female rhino in a
conservancy in
southern Zimbabwe in June 2003 led to the identification of
South African
participants in this incident. Some South African hunters are
taking
advantage of the unsettled situation in Zimbabwe's rural areas to
run
illegal safari hunting operations. Members of this network pay small
"trophy
fees" to the occupiers of wildlife properties. They then shoot
whatever
animals they can (including elephants) for meat, hides and trophies,
which
they market illegally.
………………………………………
From: CFU - Matabeleland Branch
Bulawayo – July 2003
A party of twelve South African hunters
belonging to a Christian organisation were arrested in Zimbabwe on Friday last
week for illegal hunting on listed properties in West Nicholson, Matabeleland
South. The eight adult men and four
teenagers were stopped at a police roadblock outside Beit Bridge town on their
way to the close by South African border.
They had in their possession a quantity of meat allegedly meant for
exportation from Zimbabwe, a country that is currently riddled with one of the
worst foot and mouth disease outbreaks in its history.
The teenagers were released, but seven
of the eight men spent a night in police holding cells in West Nicholson, and
the eighth was kept for two nights while police investigated his connection to
the slaughter of a black rhino and two elephants four weeks earlier in the same
area. He was released on Sunday after a
lawyer was brought in from South Africa.
Pressure to release the men and drop charges was laid on the
investigating police officers by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr
Abednigo Ncube, a politician from Gwanda, and himself a beneficiary of a farm in
the district. The South African High
Commissioner in Harare was informed of the situation.
Police were alerted to the activities of
the hunters on Chipizi Farm by a neighbouring farmer who, after hearing shots
from a heavy-calibre weapon in the area, found the carcass of a freshly killed
eland with only its hind legs removed.
Subsequent police investigations revealed that the South Africans had
been hunting on Chipizi Farm, whose owner has been evicted. The hunt took place with authority from the
local Rural District Council, under the auspices of the resident settlers and
so-called professional hunter, Ronnie Sparrow.
Officials from the Hunting Licence
Section of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in Harare
confirmed that Mr Sparrow is not licensed with them as a professional hunter in
this country. Nor is he a member of the
Zimbabwe Association of Tour and Safari Operators (ZATSO), an organisation to
which most Zimbabwean professional hunters belong.
Investigating officers in West Nicholson
said that South African professional hunter Dwayne van Zyl was authorised by Mr
Sparrow (as the “licensed hunter” in charge) to conduct the hunt on his behalf,
against National Parks regulations. Mr
van Zyl is wanted for questioning by the Zimbabwean police regarding the
slaughter of a black rhino and two elephants in the Bubiyana Conservancy last
month, as he is thought to have been in the area at the time of the
killings.
Chipizi Farm, like its neighbour, is
listed for compulsory acquisition as part of Zimbabwe’s controversial and
notorious Land Acquisition exercise. The
Zimbabwean government has taken over hundreds of farms illegally by
fast-tracking the process, evicting bona fide owners and ordering thousands of
communal people to settle on properties listed for acquisition without due
regard to the law.
The Land Acquisition Act provides that
owners may object to the acquisition of their properties in the Administrative
Court, and the court must confirm the acquisition of the property before it is
handed over for resettlement. Until such
confirmation is made, the appropriate authority over the wildlife rests with the
title deed holder of the land on which the animals reside.
However, throughout the country settlers
and local District Councils have claimed the wildlife resources on listed
properties for themselves, and are selling it off to the first unscrupulous
buyer that comes along. Numerous South
African hunters have been fingered in the past few months for taking advantage
of the confusion over land and wildlife ownership and contributing to the
uncontrolled depletion of the wildlife resources on listed properties in
Zimbabwe.
Some of the carcasses of the animals
shot on Chipizi Farm - an eland, two kudu, a wildebeest and fourteen impala -
were taken to a butchery in the nearby town of West Nicholson for
processing. The butcher, who wishes to
remain anonymous, says the hunters provided their own biltong spices, and took
away over 400kg of wet biltong and raw meat in two plastic crates and ten large
waste-disposal bags.
Police in Beit Bridge recovered two
crates of meat, but the bags were missing when the men were arrested. It is not known what actually happened to the
remainder of the meat that was taken from the butchery, but it is suspected that
it was taken to South Africa by Mr van Zyl who left before the weekend. South African authorities are
investigating.
In a radio interview about the incident,
one of the South African hunters, Mr Brummer, claimed that most of the meat from
the trophy hunt was given to farm workers “and the farm owner”, while the
balance was to be used in exchange for curios before leaving for the
border. Asked why it was processed into
biltong first, he replied that they had not realised that the meat had to be
brittle-dry before it could be imported into South Africa. Signs on both sides of the South African
border clearly indicate that the South African Veterinary Services have put a
moratorium on the importation of animal products from Zimbabwe because of the
severity and extent of the FMD outbreak in that country.
Besides antelope, the South Africans also
killed a hippo and a crocodile in the Chipizi dam but did not “have time” to
retrieve them. War Veterans on the farm, who are believed to have been paid R7
500 for the hunt (well below National Park values), have offered Z$1 million to
anyone who will retrieve the carcass of the hippo from the dam for them.
Zimbabwe is recognised worldwide as
having one of the most professional and highly-regulated hunting industries in
the world, and property owners and safari operators must complete a battery of
National Parks approved hunting quotas, pre-hunt and post-hunt forms before
hunts can be conducted for gain and trophies exported from the country. A CITES
permit is required to hunt crocodile in Zimbabwe.
Proof of payment in foreign exchange is
also required, and moneys paid to operators must be deposited in a Zimbabwean
bank, in forex, within 14 days of the cessation of the hunt. Foreign client hunts may only be conducted in
the presence of a Zimbabwean-licensed professional hunter who is responsible for
ensuring that all regulations are complied with and that animals are killed in
an ethical and humane manner.
Furthermore, 2% levies on daily rates are payable to the Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority in forex.
It has been ascertained that the South
African group complied with none of the relevant statutory instruments though
they claim that their permits were in order.
Police are still investigating.
ENDS
…………………………………………….
From The Daily
Telegraph (UK), 6 September
Lions facing starvation
as Mugabe men seize famous wildlife park
Harare -
Five-week-old lion cubs have become the latest victims of President Robert
Mugabe's lawless land grab in Zimbabwe. Their rescuers, Brendon and Lana Snook,
had only minutes to load the cubs into their car, along with their son, three
dogs and a few possessions, when the president's supporters invaded a wildlife
sanctuary outside Harare. The family, along with the animals, found refuge with
relatives in the capital, but the fate of the cub's parents, another 34 lions
and hundreds of other animals remains in the balance after the seizure of the
Lion and Cheetah Park. Although not a farm and with no government notices issued
for its acquisition, the 1,100-acre property was taken by a retired colonel, K
Makavanga, accompanied by a group of Zanu PF militia. The Lion and Cheetah Park,
established in 1968 by the Bristow family as a wildlife sanctuary for orphaned
animals, is one of Zimbabwe's oldest privately owned sanctuaries. Until its
seizure it was home to 46 lions, three cheetahs, small herds of elephants and
giraffes, hundreds of impalas and other antelopes as well as jackals, crocodiles
and numerous smaller animals. The animals are known internationally for
appearing in major films and documentaries filmed in Zimbabwe, South Africa and
Kenya. Their credits include Mountains of the Moon, the story of Burton and
Speke's search for the source of the Nile, King Solomon's Mines, with Richard
Chamberlain and Sharon Stone, and A Far Off Place, starring Reese Witherspoon.
The park also encourages a wider understanding of conservation by subsidising
the visits of over 3,000 schoolchildren a month.
Col Makavanga
had approached the park's management with the idea of expanding its operations
into surrounding farms. He claims that instead of responding to the proposal, Mr
Snook, the park manager, incited the workers to attack a passing "war veteran"
and other militants then came to his aid. Mr Snook denies this version of
events, saying the proposal submitted by Col Makavanga was unworkable and this
prompted the colonel and his supporters to invade the park. Mr Snook's version
was backed up by staff members who spoke to The Telegraph. Although Col
Makavanga has expressed an interest in continuing the operations of the wildlife
park, its owner, Viv Bristow, 58, fears for the welfare of the animals. "Running
a park of this nature is a complex and costly operation," he said from South
Africa, where 10 of his lions are being filmed. You need to understand the
physiological needs of a wide range of animals, you must be licensed to use
dangerous drugs, and know how to prepare food and care for the animals."
Thousands of wild animals on private land have been killed, poached or died of
neglect since the land redistribution programme began in 2000. Mr Snook, 40,
said a request to move the animals off the land had been denied by Col
Makavanga. "If we cannot get them off or get food to them soon, they will begin
to die," he said. "More worryingly, once the lions get hungry they will easily
find a way out of their enclosures and there is a lot of human settlement
adjoining the park." The animals are at present being cared for by the staff of
the park despite threats of beatings and having their houses burnt down. "If
these war veterans take this place, the animals will be killed or will die and
we will lose our jobs," said one of the workers. "All around us are derelict
farms that have been destroyed by these people and this park is more difficult
to run than a farm."
Tsvangirai's co-accused, the MDC's
secretary-general Welshman Ncube and
agriculture spokesperson Renson Gasela,
were in August acquitted by Judge
President Paddington Garwe in a case that
has attracted international
attention.
The Zimbabwe Independent
heard this week the state wanted to change the
indictment to supplement the
video and audio evidence supplied by Canadian
lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe which
has been described as grainy and inaudible.
Efforts to get
confirmation of the intended amendment from the
Attorney-General's office
were unsuccessful yesterday. However, Tsvangirai's
lawyer Innocent Chagonda
on Wednesday confirmed the state's filing of an
application to bring
supplementary evidence.
"We are aware that the state filed a notice
in court to amend the indictment
but I cannot say much at the moment," said
Chagonda.
The case should have restarted on Monday with Tsvangirai
being put to his
defence but was postponed to October 27.
Legal
sources said the manoeuvre by the state was potentially embarrassing
as it
exposed the possible failure of the first indictment to secure
conviction in
the treason trial using the taped evidence. The state closed
its case on June
26.
While Chagonda could not provide details of the amendment,
sources at the
Attorney-General's office yesterday said the state wanted to
move the goal
posts and allege that Tsvangirai attended a meeting where the
issue of a
transitional government was discussed. The state would use this to
bolster
its argument that Tsvangirai's attendance at the meeting was
tantamount to
wanting to eliminate Mugabe.
"Since the state has
already closed its case, in the event of the court
allowing the amendment to
the indictment, it means the state would have to
retrace much of its
footsteps," a legal source said. "This might also entail
re-calling
Ben-Menashe and other witnesses."
A senior lawyer in Harare yesterday
said the state's action would amount to
applying double
jeopardy.
"This is baffling. A case should either fall or stand on
the basis of
evidence presented when the state says it has closed its
argument," the
lawyer said.
Tsvangirai, Ncube and Gasela denied the
charge when the trial opened in the
High Court in February. The three MDC
leaders applied for a discharge when
the state closed its case in June saying
the prosecution had failed to prove
a prima facie case against
them.
The court acquitted Ncube and Gasela but ruled that Tsvangirai
had a case to
answer. The state case revolved around the secret recording by
Ben-Menashe
of meetings held with the MDC leaders in Montreal and London.
The
evidence-in-chief was the tape made on December 4 2001, three months
ahead
of a disputed presidential election that pitted Tsvangirai against
Mugabe,
and which Mugabe won.
It was made using hidden
surveillance cameras in the offices of Ben-Menashe
whom the MDC say they
approached to do promotional work for them in North
America.
On
the tape, which Ben-Menashe gave to the Zimbabwe authorities, Tsvangirai
is
alleged to have requested the consultant's help in "eliminating" Mugabe
and
organising a coup d'etat to oust his government.
Zim Independent
MDC mayors ready for Chombo
Itai Dzamara
A CLASH is
looming between Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo and
newly-elected
mayors of towns and cities dominated by the opposition.
Sources in
Chombo's ministry revealed that the minister would be holding
meetings with
the mayors to give them guidelines on how he expects them to
manage municipal
affairs.
"The minister plans to hold meetings with all the
newly-elected mayors,
probably starting this weekend," said a source. "The
intention is to provide
them with guidelines on how he expects councils to be
run."
MDC Local Government spokesman Gabriel Chaibva said this week
that the
mayors were ready to resist Chombo's attempts to interfere in
council
affairs as he had done in Harare and Chegutu.
"We are
equipping our mayors on how to handle Chombo," said Chaibva. "They
(the
mayors) will attend the meetings called by Chombo, but will resist
his
attempts to incapacitate their council elections. It would be unfortunate
if
Chombo wants to meet the mayors outside the premises of the Urban
Councils
Act, and we would not accept that."
Harare mayor Elias
Mudzuri was in April suspended by Chombo on allegations
of insubordination.
Chombo's interference in the running of Harare has
hampered the turnaround
strategy launched by Mudzuri and the predominantly
MDC Harare City
Council.
Chaibva also blames Chombo for the chaos that prevails in
the Chegutu
council, where an MDC mayor, Francis Dhlakama, has escaped
several attempts
on his life by the ruling party.
"The Chegutu
case is a clear sign of what Zanu PF intends to do in towns and
cities in
order to prevent its collapse," said Chaibva.
"The MDC mayor in
Chegutu has been harassed, and actually survived attempts
on his life in
order to scare him into capitulating to Zanu PF's intentions.
In last month's
elections, Zanu PF prevented our candidates from reaching
the nomination
courts so that the Chegutu council is controlled by
their
councillors."
Chaibva said the MDC would file an appeal to
the Supreme Court next week
against the ruling made by High Court judge Ben
Hlatshwayo on the Chegutu
nomination process.
Hlatshwayo dismissed
an application by 11 members of the MDC challenging the
nomination process in
Chegutu where they were barred by a Zanu PF mob. Zanu
PF subsequently won the
11 wards in Chegutu unopposed.
Zim Independent
Paradza sues for $500m
Vincent
Kahiya
IN what could be the biggest civil suit in the country's
history, High
Court Judge Benjamin Paradza is suing Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa and
government for $500 million in damages suffered when he was
unlawfully
arrested on corruption charges in February.
Paradza
challenged the constitutionality of his arrest in the Supreme
Court, which
this week ruled that the arrest was unlawful and unnecessary.
His lawyer Jonathan Samkange yesterday confirmed his client was suing
for
damages. Summons should be delivered to the respondents next week,
he
said.
"Yes, I can confirm that I am issuing summons
against all the
respondents in the constitutional case for damages because
the court said
the arrest was unlawful," he said.
In his
Supreme Court application, Paradza said his arrest was
unprocedural. He
accused Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku and High Court
Judge President
Paddington Garwe of allowing his arrest thereby compromising
the independence
of the judiciary.
He said the two senior judges had allowed
this to happen because they
did not want to cross paths with the
executive.
Samkange could not provide details on how much his
client was
demanding in the lawsuit but the Zimbabwe Independent has it on
good
authority that the amount is around $500 million.
The
respondents are Chinama-sa, Police Commissioner Augu-stine
Chihuri, former
Attorney-General Andrew Chigovera, ma-gistrate Mishrod
Guvamombe, and senior
police officer Chief Superintendent Nyathi who was the
arresting
officer.
Samkange said Nyathi was being sued in his personal
capacity for
effecting the unlawful arrest.
"Supt Nyathi is
being sued in his personal capacity because he obeyed
an unlawful
instruction," said Samkange.
Paradza was arrested in his
chambers on charges of attempting to
defeat the course of justice and
appeared before Guvamombe who remanded him
out of custody on $20 000
bail.
He faced an alternative charge of trying to persuade
Justices Maphios
Cheda and George Chiweshe to breach a section of the
Prevention of
Corruption Act.
Zim Independent
Daily News Focus - What they said
Staff Writer
"The
practical effect of this judgement is that had we been challenging the
death
penalty and not media laws, we would have had to hang first and
challenge the
penalty from hell." - ANZ lawyer Gugulethu Moyo responding to
the Supreme
Court's ruling that "citizens are obliged to obey the law and
argue
afterward".
"These actions are unwarranted infringements on press
freedom and they are
the latest incidents in a pattern of intimidation and
violence directed
against the local media." - Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman
for the US State
Department.
"The outside world will see it for
what it is - an attempt to stifle
independent scrutiny and silence democratic
voices in Zimbabwe. We will
continue to support all those in Zimbabwe working
for a return to a
democratically-elected and accountable government which
respects human
rights and the rule of law." - British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw.
"The forced closure of the Daily News is yet another clumsy
assault by the
government on free media in Zimbabwe. Clearly what bombs
failed to achieve
in 2000 the state has achieved by its closure of the Daily
News." -
Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe.
"It is
regrettable that the ambitious thrust by the Minister of Information
and
Publicity to enact, by any means, unconstitutional legislation designed
to
arrest expression, has now been given judicial approval by a court
entrusted
with the protection of fundamental freedoms and universally
recognised human
rights to ensure justice and freedom in Zimbabwe.
Repression may
therefore have sadly found itself an ally against human
rights defenders, in
the form of the judiciary." - Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human
Rights.
"This is a crude attempt to silence an inconvenient voice. No
amount of
heavy-handed repression by a desperately insecure government will
disguise
the trail of criminal misrule which the Daily News, together with
other
independent papers, has done so much to expose." - Zimbabwe National
Editors
Forum.
"The closure (of the Daily News) robs the country
of one of the few
alternative voices in an increasingly restricted space
where Zimbabweans can
freely express themselves." - Misa.
"It is a
major attack on the freedom of the press." -
Commonwealth
spokesman.
"There is freedom of the press here, but
there is no freedom to act as an
outlaw. We registered almost all the other
private newspapers which applied,
but these people chose to play to the
gallery, and now want to cry foul
because the law has caught up with them." -
Media and Information Commission
boss Tafataona Mahoso.
"The
Crisis Coalition is stunned by the irregularity with which this case
has been
handled, and the perverted sense of justice demonstrated by the
Supreme Court
in this instance." - Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
Zim Independent
Former PF-Zapu properties to be reassigned
Loughty
Dube
GOVERNMENT has agreed to return properties confiscated from PF-Zapu
during
the 1980s after intensive pressure from former Zipra cadres, the
Zimbabwe
Independent has established.
The government in 2001 released
the properties into the custody of
politicians who have been leasing them for
token amounts. The new move means
that ex-Zipra cadres would have a say in
the control of the properties.
Party insiders said the properties,
owned by Zapu-affiliated Nitram
Holdings, would be handed over at a
closed-door meeting in Bulawayo this
weekend to a committee made up of
members of the Zipra High Command during
the liberation
war.
Nitram director Dumiso Dabengwa this week confirmed that all the
Zapu
properties were returned by the government and said Nitram was looking
at
ways of how the properties could be managed by
members.
Dabengwa could not confirm however whether chefs renting the
Zapu farms had
vacated them.
"The properties were returned by
government a long time ago," said Dabengwa.
"However, what we need to do is
to find mechanisms on how to manage the
properties now that they are in our
hands."
The government seized the properties after arms caches were
allegedly
discovered at Ascot and Hampton farms in 1982. The government
seized other
Zapu properties on the pretext that they were hideouts for
dissident
plotters against the government.
The other properties
include Nest Egg poultry farm in Hope Fountain and
Woodglen Farm along the
Victoria Falls road. Also confiscated were removals
company Black Cat, Kudu
Motors and Castle Arms Hotel in Richmond.
Party sources said Zanu PF
chairman John Nkomo and Dabengwa were
instrumental in securing the release of
the properties that include farms,
buildings, a service station, a hotel and
several business units.
War veterans national acting chairman Patrick
Nyaruwata will join Dabengwa
and Nkomo at the Bulawayo indaba.
The
farms and properties fell under Nitram Holdings, a company formed by
PF-Zapu
using money raised from contributions from ex-Zapu cadres
and
ex-detainees.
Highly placed sources in the party said the
local politburo and central
committee leadership was worried by divisions
among war veterans that
culminated in the ousting of provincial chairman
Jabulani Sibanda from both
the party and the war veterans association and
hence their move to have the
properties returned as a way of uniting the war
veterans.
The leadership in the province is backing Nkomo for
president and the move
to have the farms and property returned is aimed at
pacifying former Zipra
fighters who are divided over who to back as Mugabe's
successor, sources
said.
Sibanda is backing the candidacy of party
secretary for administration
Emmerson Mnangagwa
War veterans and
Zanu PF provinces are going to play an instrumental role in
the succession
issue, hence the need by those jostling for the post to win
the loyalty of
the two groups.
Zim Independent
Donors want to see progress on talks
Itai
Dzamara
ZIMBABWE'S request for humanitarian assistance through the United
Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) faces resistance from the predominantly
Western
donor community due to lack of tangible political progress, the
Zimbabwe
Independent has established.
A donors' conference will be
held in New York at the end of this month at
which the UNDP's Harare office
faces the daunting task of convincing the
donor community of political
progress in Zimbabwe.
Diplomatic sources said Zimbabwe was still
viewed in the donor community as
a rogue state and was seen to be dragging
its heels on political dialogue.
"Efforts towards reviving dialogue
between Zanu PF and the MDC have not
yielded anything tangible so far,
despite the so-called talks about talks,"
said a diplomatic
source.
Victor Angelo, the UNDP resident representative in Zimbabwe,
has been
arranging meetings between the government and donors'
representatives with
the aim of making both sides understand the other's
needs as well as
expectations.
"The resident representative has in
the past weeks convened several meetings
between the government and donors'
representatives to consider the appeal
for humanitarian assistance as well as
assess the situation," said Annika
Rosing, a UNDP official in
Harare.
The meetings are understood to have culminated in the
reversal by government
of an earlier policy to have food aid only channelled
through government
structures.
Zimbabwe, with the world's fastest
shrinking economy, appealed for
humanitarian assistance at the end of July.
Harare has requested 600 000
tonnes of food aid, a large variety of
medicines, as well as $885 billion
for revival of the agricultural
sector.
It is understood the local UNDP office has urged government
to address the
land reform issue and was given an assurance by President
Mugabe that he
would implement the recommendations of the Presidential Land
Review
Committee. The first step, as Mugabe has already indicated, would
be
recovering farms from government and Zanu PF officials who are
multiple
owners.
Another diplomatic source added that food and
medical assistance could
eventually be secured from donors who are keen not
to punish the most
vulnerable groups for their government's "sins". But it
may not be on the
scale needed.
Zim Independent
Doubts mount over govt's new bank notes
Shakeman
Mugari
GOVERNMENT efforts to ease the biting cash crisis have hit a snag
with
revelations that, despite a vigorous advertising campaign, it is not
yet
ready to inject fresh bank notes into the financial system.
This
comes as depositors show every sign of holding on to their cash,
anticipating
a government reprieve on plans to withdraw $500 notes from
September
26.
Government had expected companies and the public to offload
excess cash into
the system. But they appear to be hanging on to the little
they have. Cash
remittances to the central bank have plunged despite
announcements that the
$500 note would soon cease to be legal
tender.
It is reliably understood that government might extend the
grace period for
individuals holding the notes to deposit
them.
The cash crisis this week remained critical as depositors
declined to
surrender their cash, preferring to spend it on day-to-day needs
as
inflation officially reached 426,6% but in reality nudged
600%.
An official at Intermarket Building Society's Newlands branch
said the
situation had worsened during the last two weeks with deposits
shrinking
even further.
"Deposits are at their lowest since the
cash crisis started. There is also
very little coming in from the central
bank," the official said.
Banks are receiving as little as $1 million
a day from the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ).
Government
announced this week that it would introduce "bearer cheques" for
use as cash
to ease bank-note shortages.
But analysts said it remained unclear to
business and the general public how
the new purchasing system
works.
"The government has remained silent on what will happen to the
old notes
that are in circulation," the analysts said. "There is no proper
framework
for the transition from the $500 notes to the rebranded ones. It is
also not
clear what will happen to retail shops who receive the old notes a
day
before the deadline."
Analysts said government's campaign to
encourage individuals and businesses
to surrender their cash was flawed. They
said the advertisements flighted in
the media only notified the public of the
introduction of new notes without
saying clearly what the fate of the old
ones, which are still in
circulation, would be.
Zim Independent
Daily News Focus - Supreme Court ruling slammed
Staff
Writer
THE ruling last week declaring Daily News operations illegal has come
under
attack from local civic groups who have accused the Supreme Court
of
endorsing repression in Zimbabwe. The High Court yesterday ordered that
the
paper be allowed to reopen after it was closed by police on
Friday.
The full bench of the Supreme Court last Thursday said "citizens
are obliged
to obey the law and argue afterward" when it dismissed an
application by
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) challenging
registration.
The Daily News and Daily News on Sunday had refused to
register with the
Media and Information Commission on a point of principle.
The papers in the
ANZ stable said clauses in the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act (Aippa) requiring journalists to register were
unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court said the Daily News had approached
the court with "dirty
hands" as it should have first complied with the
law.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition
this week strongly criticised the Supreme Court ruling and the
subsequent
action of the police in closing the papers.
"ZLHR notes
with grave concern that the Supreme Court ruling effectively
resulted in the
biggest assault on the right of freedom of expression in the
history of our
Independence," ZLHR said.
"Repression may therefore have sadly found
itself an ally against human
rights defenders, in the form of the judiciary,"
the lawyers said.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said it had been
stunned by the court's ruling.
"The Crisis Coalition is stunned by the
irregularity with which this case
has been handled, and the perverted sense
of justice demonstrated by the
Supreme Court in this instance," it said. "In
a democracy, citizens should
be allowed to challenge the constitutionality of
a law before having to
comply with it, without being accused of subverting
the legal process."
The Coalition said it was unprocedural for the
police to enter a building,
detain several officials for questioning and
close down a business without
producing a court order or explaining the legal
foundation for their
actions.
Following the Supreme Court ruling on
Thursday, police on Friday moved in to
close the ANZ offices, effectively
halting publication of the two papers.
On Tuesday police seized
computers and photographic equipment from the two
publications allegedly to
use as exhibits in court.
"ZLHR notes with alarm that despite being
served with an urgent court
application to prevent the removal of equipment,
the police have recklessly
continued with their conduct, unconcerned as to
the outcome of the court
proceedings," ZLHR said.
"In view of the
intransigence of the police, ZLHR is concerned that the case
for the
interdict has not been dealt with as urgently as the circumstances
dictate,"
the legal grouping said on Wednesday.
"It is regrettable that this
seems to have become the modus operandi of the
courts when dealing with
matters involving universally recognised human
rights and fundamental
freedoms," it said.
Zim Independent
Funding headaches for Zim’s new farmers
Augustine
Mukaro
AGRICULTURAL production is forecast to hit a record low in the
2003/4 season
as less than 40% of land normally put under crop has been
prepared for
planting.
Farming experts who carried out a survey
recently said less than 200 000
hectares of land had been prepared for
planting in the commercial farming
sector while an estimated 220 000 hectares
was prepared by communal and
newly resettled farmers.
Under normal
circumstances, crop production should take up 1,3
million
hectares.
This week the government appointed a committee to
transform Agribank into a
fully-fledged land bank by October 1. The new bank
will be tasked with
disbursing $60 billion to farmers for this
season.
This, observers said, offered no relief to agriculture, as
farmers would not
be able to access loans in time for planting.
“As
has become the norm with government’s input schemes, the financing will
not
improve production because it is coming way too late,” said
an
agro-industrialist. “Worse still, the money is coming into the system
when
there is a serious shortage of fertiliser, seed and fuel.”
The
survey by agricultural experts said the fall in production would
be
exacerbated by the high degree of uncertainty prevailing in the
agricultural
sector.
It said continued evictions of farmers has
resulted in a substantial decline
in the planting of major crops such as
maize and tobacco over the past three
years.
Production in the
commercial farming sector has been in decline since the
government embarked
on the arbitrary land reform programme in 2000. About
400 commercial farmers
remain on the land out of some 4 500 before the land
seizures
began.
“Reductions in commercial plantings since the beginning of the
land reform
programme in 2000 are: flue cured tobacco by 72%; maize 72%,
cotton 95%, and
soyabeans 70% including hectarage planted by A2 farmers,”
said one
agriculturalist.
“The total area of crops grown has dropped
from normal levels of around 530
000 hectares to approximately 220 000 by
last season. A further considerable
plunge in cropping activities is
inevitable this year,” he said.
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said
the 2003/4 season could be the worst
year in Zimbabwe’s agricultural history
as all factors are unfavourable to
production.
With less than a month
to go before the first rains are expected, the
availability of fertiliser and
seed is shrouded in uncertainty. Local
manufacturers have for the past three
seasons failed to meet demand due to
foreign currency shortage hampering
imports of vital chemicals. Production
levels of the vital inputs have also
been hampered by government’s price
controls.
Inputs expected in the
market are likely to be inadequate for even half the
traditional hectarage
normally put under crop.
All inputs starting from seeds, fertilisers,
chemicals and draught power are
projected to be in short supply in the coming
season. The government’s
District Development Fund, which normally offers
tillage in communal areas,
recently said it would only be able to till about
100 000 hectares due to
lack of spare parts for most of its
tractors.
The CFU said the two big fertiliser companies — Zimbabwe
Fertiliser Company
and Windmill — had by August reported zero stocks as
products were sold out
soon after manufacture.
In a report to the
Land, Agriculture, Water Development, Rural Resources and
Resettlement
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee last week, major seed and
fertiliser
companies admitted they would not be able to meet demand for this
year’s
farming season. The report said the companies were operating at
below
capacity.
Officials at the fertiliser companies confirmed that
they were failing to
meet demand. Back order lists are lengthy. Meagre
supplies of ammonium
nitrate from Sable Chemicals, which can only supply 11
000 tonnes per month,
are being delivered. The supply constitutes only 50% of
the maximum
potential of 22 000 tonnes per month to fertiliser distributing
companies.
The CFU said the problem had been worsened by lack of forex to
import
anhydrous ammonia from South Africa.
“(There are) inadequate
supplies of super phosphates from Zimphos because
the company is experiencing
severe problems moving raw materials from Dorowa
mine to the factory in
Msasa,” the CFU said.
“Fertiliser companies are suffering severe external
and internal transport
constraints due to National Railways of Zimbabwe being
unable to operate at
full capacity.”
Like the rest of the economy, the
parastatal’s operations are affected by
fuel shortages. Signal equipment is
being stolen or vandalised. It now takes
up to three months — instead of two
weeks previously — to land raw materials
from Richards Bay in South
Africa.
The CFU said even supplies of fertiliser for the winter cereal
crops were
inadequate because of these factors.
“Government ordered 57
000 tonnes of compound fertilisers and 40 000 tonnes
of ammonium nitrate for
its winter crop inputs supply programme. The
industry only supplied 18 000
tonnes in total,” the CFU said.
Another critical shortage would be that
of maize seed. Production of maize
seed has been slashed by over 70% over the
past three years. The quality of
the seed could also have been compromised as
new players struggle to meet
stringent standards of maize seed
production.
“Under normal circumstances around 700 hectares would be put
under maize
seed each season,” experts said.
“Last season an estimated
200 hectares of maize seed was planted and between
10 000 and 15 000 tonnes
of seed are expected to be delivered to the seed
houses.”
Zimbabwe
requires between 35 000 and 45 000 tonnes of maize seed each year.
The demand
is likely to increase in the coming season as government has
urged resettled
farmers to plant the staple crop. Two weeks ago government
announced a new
producer price for maize from $130 000 per tonne to $300
000.
The CFU
said maize production by commercial farmers has fallen from 810 000
tonnes in
2000 to an estimated 80 000 in 2003. The fall of production this
season has
seriously affected maize seed production and a shortage of seed
will limit
production next year.
“Wheat production has fallen from 280 000 tonnes in
2001 to 115 000 tonnes
in 2002. Production in 2003 will be limited by
shortage of water in dams and
river systems, and lack of infrastructure such
as irrigation equipment.
Marketing of wheat, which is controlled, will also
not encourage the few
farmers who have irrigation facilities to grow wheat,”
the CFU said.
The Agricultural Chemicals Industry Association said the
industry estimates
that the country should import a further 100 tonnes of
Methyl Bromide which
is the primary ingredient in the manufacture of most
pesticides.
Tractors and machinery sections have also fallen victim to
the shortage of
forex as spares are very difficult to
procure.
Production is also expected to fall as a result of serious
reduction of land
under irrigation.
“About 90% of current irrigation
business is being conducted with A2 farmers
but because of shortage of
skilled personnel, the capacity of the irrigation
companies to undertake
large development projects is very limited,” said the
CFU.
“New
farmers are not achieving expected production levels due to lack
of
knowledge, skills, inputs and finance, implying that they cannot
match
production levels that previous commercial farmers were at,” the CFU
said.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) spokesman Phil Chingwaru said his
organisation
was happy with preparations for the coming
season.
“Small-scale and communal farmers who contribute 75% of the grain
consumed
in the country have actually increased their areas for planting,”
Chingwaru
said.
But he admitted that the shortage of inputs would
seriously hamper
production in these sectors.
“The major worry is not
preparation but unavailability of inputs. Seeds are
unavailable and
fertiliser prices are too high. Such factors might force
farmers to resort to
planting untreated seeds and that might affect output.”
Zim Independent
Comment
No going back on press freedom
NO
one should be in any doubt that the assault by the state on the
country’s
only independent daily paper this week is a political move designed
to
suppress freedom of expression in Zimbabwe.
There have been some
misleading claims by officials that the police acted in
terms of the law.
Let’s be clear about this. The police acted in terms of a
political agenda
set by the Office of the President. The law in this case is
a poorly drafted
Act which is not only in conflict with Section 20 of the
constitution but
violates a number of international conventions to which
Zimbabwe is a
party.
The legal umbrella group, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
points out that
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa) is “a
repressive piece of legislation that was enacted primarily to
undermine the
right to freedom of expression and stifle the exchange of ideas
and
information by the people of Zimbabwe”.
Aippa, together with the
Public Order and Security Act, the Broadcasting
Services Act, the
Miscellaneous Offences Act, and the Labour Relations Act,
form what the legal
group calls “an axis of repression”.
The Supreme Court is tasked with the
protection of freedoms laid down in the
constitution’s Bill of Rights. Since
threats from war veterans and ministers
forced a number of judges to resign
or retire in recent years, it is open to
question whether the present bench
is fulfilling that mandate.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights notes that
the Supreme Court ruling
against Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe,
publishers of the Daily News and
the Daily News on Sunday, effectively
resulted in “the biggest assault on
the right of freedom of expression in the
history of our Independence”. It
describes as regrettable the conclusion that
unconstitutional legislation
designed to deny free expression has now been
given judicial approval by a
court entrusted with the protection of
fundamental freedoms and universally
recognised human
rights.
“Repression may therefore have sadly found itself an ally against
human
rights defenders in the form of the judiciary,” ZLHR says.
That
remains to be seen. The Supreme Court has left the door open for ANZ
to
approach the court again once it has registered. But in the meantime,
how
does it cope without its equipment and with staff barred from entering
their
offices? Indeed, as a legal columnist asks in this issue, how can what
is
known as a “clean hands” application succeed when the means to make
that
application is removed?
Must citizens first comply with a law,
even if that law violates their
fundamental rights guaranteed by the
constitution, before challenging it in
court? An unpopular regime that
obtained its mandate by coercion is thereby
able to circumvent constitutional
freedoms by wielding its parliamentary
majority in disregard of laid-down
rights in cases where the judiciary is
painfully slow to rule and, in any
case, is in awe of the executive.
That makes both a mockery of the law
and the constitution. Aippa was
introduced into parliament with no public
mandate. There was no public
demand for a media commission or for licensing
of the press. The only
pressure for that came from the president and his
minions who were
embarrassed by exposure of their misrule and double
standards.
The media commission has all-too-predictably proved itself
partisan,
focusing its attentions solely upon the private media while
ignoring
blatantly unethical behaviour by the state media. It is widely seen
as an
instrument of a minister who has a score to settle with the
independent
press following his humiliation in the referendum campaign and
subsequent
electoral tests.
Whatever the constitutional implications,
the assault on the Daily News is
part of a wider assault on the freedoms of
Zimbabweans who are proving
resistant to the warnings and threats of a regime
in terminal decline. It
now hopes to proceed on the basis of public
ignorance. It seriously believes
that by denying people access to news and
feeding them a diet of deceit
through its own media, it can recover their
electoral support.
It’s not going to happen. Zanu PF has lost public
confidence because of its
failure to govern wisely, not because of a plot by
its “enemies”. It cannot
command respect or loyalty. It certainly cannot hide
the news. News has a
habit of finding its own way out.
The free flow
of information is fundamental both to democratic choice and
good governance.
Where bomb attacks have failed to silence an outspoken
critic, the government
no doubt calculates this clumsy move will succeed. We
doubt it. Zimbabweans
have tasted press freedom. There can be no going back.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch
Parallel market must survive or
economy will not
GOVERNMENT continues to rail against the parallel
market in foreign
exchange. It contends that it is the existence of that
market that causes
Zimbabwe’s insufficiency of critically needed foreign
currencies, and that
the rates of exchange prevailing in that market are the
main stimulus of
inflation. Because it is so opposed to the parallel market,
the pressures
upon the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) have steadily
intensified, demanding
that it ensure that the parallel market cease to
exist. The result has been
a witchhunt by the Reserve Bank, targeted directly
at the banking sector and
resulting in the imposition of fines of hundreds of
million dollars upon
numerous banks, and the suspension of the foreign
exchange trading licence
of one bank.
If RBZ succeeds in its
endeavours to destroy the parallel market,
concurrently with government
continuing its dogmatic stance against
realistic devaluation of the official
rate of the Zimbabwe dollar, the
result will be economically catastrophic.
Because of the govern-ment’s
foolhardy, steadfast resistance to the overdue
and critically necessary
devaluation, the destruction of the parallel market
can only sound the
death-knell for most exporters, be they in the mining
industry (other than
gold mining which depends upon an RBZ support price,
also inadequate), in
horticulture, manufacturing, tourism, the services
sector, or otherwise.
Since Zimbabwe last devalued its currency on
February 27 to an
insufficient extent, being to a mid-rate of $824:US$1,
exporters have
experienced — in common with all other sectors of the economy
— a huge
increase in operating costs. During the period from that devaluation
to the
end of July, the consumer price index (CPI) rose from 4 182,3 to 9
560,9,
which represents a rise in the rate of inflation of 128,6%. Allowing
for
further inflation in August, 2003, total inflation since the
last
devaluation must exceed 150%, and it is continuing to rise.
All that has maintained is a degree of viability for exporters,
however
limited, has been the existence of the parallel market for, after
mandatorily
surrendering one-half of all foreign currency earnings to the
Reserve Bank at
an official buy rate of $800:US$1, the exporter has been
able to dispose of
any of the remaining foreign currency earnings not
required by him to fund
imports and other foreign currency commitments, by
sale in the parallel
market, recently at a rate of around $5 500:US$1 (as
distinct from the banks’
resale rate of about $6 300: US$1). Thus, the
exporter attained a blend rate
of approximately $3 150: US$1, which enabled
him to continue operations
notwithstanding the rampant inflation impacting
upon his
enterprise.
The destruction of the parallel market will also bring
to the edge of
liquidation almost all businesses that rely upon imports, be
they raw
materials, plant and machinery spares or otherwise. If all foreign
exchange
earned by Zimbabwe flows into the hands of RBZ, then — as
recurrently
evidenced in the past — government will direct prioritisation
usage to
purposes such as importation of food, energy, petroleum products,
needs of
parastatals and of government itself, with the private sector being
accorded
the lowest priority and therefore not only receiving an
insufficiency of the
foreign exchange which is its life-blood, but that
insufficiency invariably
being belatedly forthcoming.
This
disastrous state of affairs must exacerbate the scarcity of
foreign exchange,
for as exporter enterprises progressively sustain
increasing losses, their
operations will contract and will ultimately fail,
with the result that the
extent of foreign exchange inflows will become ever
less. A narrow path of
self-perpetuating destruction of foreign exchange
generation, and of the
economy as a whole, will be that travelled by
Zimbabwe. Government spokesmen
repeatedly suggest that those who foreshadow
the dismal decrease in foreign
exchange availability are misguided or do so
for evil
self-intents.
They claim that if the parallel market did not exist,
Zimbabwe would
have more than enough foreign currency. That is spurious in
the extreme, for
it has long been an accepted, fundamental rule that “the sum
of the parts
can only be equal to the whole”. Thus, if the total foreign
currency within
the official market and within the parallel marked does not
suffice to meet
Zimbabwe’s needs, then the consolidation of the foreign
exchange within the
official market by the amalgamation of the parallel
market into the official
market cannot increase the total sum
available.
Moreover, because shortages always stimulate black
markets, be those
shortages of fuel, of foodstuffs, of other commodities or
of money, the
endeavours of the authorities to bring about an end to the
parallel market
will inevitably increase activity within the black market.
There is always
someone who will flout the law and offer foreign exchange
within the black
market, driven by the attraction of profits or by the need
to sell in such
market in order to survive. Similarly, there will always be
some who, in
disregard for law, will purchase foreign exchange within the
black market,
be they driven by desperate need, fulfilment of which is a
prerequisite for
survival, or driven by such a loss of confidence in Zimbabwe
that they wish
to externalise assets, albeit unlawfully.
That
black market exists, and continues to operate notwithstanding
vigorous recent
attempts on the part of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to
contain it. As the
availability of foreign exchange increasingly becomes
more and more limited,
so the prices for foreign exchange within the black
market (and presently
still within the parallel market) continue to rise,
and thereby Zimbabwean
inflation continues to soar, although admittedly
there are also other causes
of that inflation, including fiscal profligacy,
mismanagement and abuse,
corruption, declining productivity, and competition
for commodities in short
supply.
Thus, the RBZ onslaught upon the banking sector, including
the
placement of investigators from the National Economic Conduct
Inspectorate
(NECI) and from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in
most banks,
the recurrent imposition of draconian fines, withdrawal of
licences, and the
like, is not resolving Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange problems
but is worsening
them, whilst concurrently they must cause even greater
shrinkage in foreign
exchange inflows, and markedly higher inflation,
business failures and
overall economic demise.
The parallel
market can be brought to an end without all these dire
consequences if
government and the Reserve Bank would realise that increased
regulation and
control are not the answer. For the parallel market to cease
to exist and
that cessation not have grievously negative repercussions, the
first
necessary step is to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar realistically, and to
do so
as frequently as is necessary to maintain purchasing power parity
with
Zimbabwe’s principal trading partners. It is fruitless to do as
heretofore,
of an inadequate devaluation as occurred on February 27, together
with
undertakings (which will not be fulfilled) that regular further
devaluation
will be pursued. On the basis of the last such assurance,
Zimbabwe should
have again devalued its currency at end of May, and yet again
at the end of
August. Neither of those devaluations have occurred, proving
the shallowness
of assurances, undertakings and commitments of the
government.
Concurrently with that first step, Zimbabwe needs to
facilitate and
motivate increased export performance and foreign exchange
earnings. Export
incentives should be meaningful and not only tax-based, for
the present
incentives have a minimal real benefit for most potential
exporters. An
incentive which is grossly inadequate ceases to be an
incentive! Similarly,
the long talked-about and considered, but not
implemented, relaxation of
requirements for registration as an Export
Processing Zone licensed investor
must be energetically pursued by
government.
It must recognise the very considerable economic
benefit which would
be forthcoming if existing enterprises, not currently
engaged in substantial
export of production, could be motivated to export by
gaining such licence
and the attendant benefits and incentives. In like
manner, the export
threshold for EPZ operations should be lowered from 80% of
production to,
say, 50%, with a staggered scale of incentives and benefits
founded upon
actual exports achieved.
And government needs to
repair its relations with the international
community, and restore an
internationally acceptable political and economic
environment so as to regain
the support of that community and motivate
foreign direct investment.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
Huni finally lands in the real
Zim
Muckraker was intrigued by an opinion piece carried in the Herald
last
Friday purporting to be written by Charles Rukuni. It was all
about
President Mugabe being “vindicated” in his land reform programme
because
Britain had failed to honour its post-Independence
undertakings.
The evidence for this assertion was a letter written by
former International
Development minister Clare Short to Zimbabwe’s
Agriculture minister Kumbirai
Kangai in 1997 and “made public by the British
newspaper the Guardian two
weeks ago”. In it she said Britain would only
support an open and
transparent land reform programme. She did not accept
that Britain had any
special responsibility to meet the cost of land purchase
in Zimbabwe.
Why does Rukuni think this letter “reveals” anything we
didn’t already know?
It has been widely published including in the Herald.
President Mugabe and
his ministers have been complaining about it at every
opportunity for six
years. The most recent example was when SABC reporter
Phil Molefe
interviewed Mugabe and, having been handed a copy of the letter,
helpfully
offered the president an opportunity to once again denounce its
contents.
Rukuni then went on to quote British academic and regular
Guardian writer
George Monbiot at length in his surprisingly unoriginal
attempt to justify
Mugabe’s depredations. For instance, this is Rukuni’s take
on the 1998
Donors’ Conference on Land Reform.
“Despite the British
government’s abdication, President Mugabe was prepared
to go along with the
British plan to wait for an International Land Reform
Donors’ Conference
scheduled for September 1998. But the British government
trivialised the
conference by refusing to send its senior officials…The
conference was a
total flop.”
And why was it a “total flop”? Because it only raised US$2
million and not
the US$2 billion hoped for. There was no mention of the £44
million provided
by the British government for land reform prior to 1998 or
who benefited.
Anyway, we are agreed with Rukuni in his
conclusion.
“President Mugabe then decided to go ahead with the land
reform without
international donors and the West and this has led to the
country’s economic
collapse…”
We should get Rukuni and other Herald
contributors to comment on what they
think about billions of dollars being
spent on Mugabe’s Borrowdale Brooke
mansion when there is no infrastructure
in place to support resettled
farmers.
Neighbours of the Mugabes, by
the way, have been complaining about cuts in
their water supplies. It must be
galling to have no water for weeks at a
time when the First Couple’s dams are
filling up. Any attempt to suggest a
connection would of course be entirely
mischievous!
If you were wondering why there has been a low turnout at
some agricultural
shows across the country, the Herald’s Moses Magadza has
supplied an
explanation. It is because the police band was not
present.
“It is a measure of how popular the ZRP band has become with the
people of
Zimbabwe,” he told us last Saturday, “that agricultural shows for
instance
record very low turnouts if word goes round that these elegantly
dressed,
highly trained and extremely competent musicians are not on
the
entertainment menu.”
When the band passes, Magadza tells us,
conversations in offices are
abruptly terminated as people shoot off their
chairs “as though propelled by
explosives”.
Heads are thrust out of
windows “to savour the band’s irresistible music
with unconcealed
admiration”.
How do we explain Cde Magadza’s unconcealed admiration?
Here’s a clue.
“The band provided accompaniment on the popular (sic)
Hondo yeMinda songs.”
Just in case you still don’t understand what this
unalloyed puff piece is
all about, it soon becomes clear.
“Due to
immense public demand,” the band, “with the assistance of the
Department of
Information and Publicity”, is set to release a 28-track
double compact disk
called Tsemuramakomo.
In addition to songs such as Mbuya Nehanda,
Magamba, and Jongwe, Professor
Jonathan Moyo’s composition Go Warriors also
features.
“There are plans to make it available to the public,” Magadza
breathlessly
assures the professor’s many fans. We can imagine the queues
forming already
outside Munhumutapa Building!
Having rubbished the
BSAP band as amateurs by comparison, Magadza proceeds
to tell us that last
year the ZRP band “won the hearts of many” when at
short notice they played
the Ethiopian national anthem in front of President
Mugabe, the Ethiopian
premier Meles Zenawi and members of his entourage at
State House.
In
case you remain unimpressed by all this guff or think, like many, that
the
band sounds tinny and out of tune, you can blame the London-based
Royal
School of Music to which the ZRP’s own School of Music is
affiliated.
Opponents of arbitrary arrest, torture, and politicisation of the
force may
also want to do to this link what Interpol recently did to
Augustine
Chihuri!
Nathaniel Manheru has been waxing indignant about
the recently published
report on the depredations of government’s National
Youth Service militia.
“It is a hellfire depiction and vision of
Zimbabwe,” he says, “unless of
course you live in this country…”
In
which case, you would have first-hand evidence that it’s all true. Did
the
Green Bombers not set up roadblocks and illegally harass motorists? Did
they
not act with impunity in unleashing violence against political
opponents? Is
Manheru in all seriousness denying what everybody in this
country knows to be
true?
He is particularly indignant that the report “misquotes” the
president,
Munyaradzi Huni and Lovemore Mataire.
Now there’s an
interesting trio! Should this presidential writer give things
away quite so
freely?
“Manheru gives you the nexus of evil lies,” he
confides.
It would seem he just did!
The South African media, he
complains, all wrote the same story about the
youth militia — “the slant, the
detail, the style, the words, the
prominence, the length, were not similar
but the same”.
How do we explain this, Manheru asks? “Did these hacks
come from the same
womb … were they brewed from the same pot, trained in the
same school?”
No, they all just read the same report. And it tells us how
Zimbabwe is now
universally perceived as a rogue state.
Manheru and
other apologists for Mugabe’s misrule are responsible for that.
His remarks
that “ANZ is an unlawful outfit ha ha ha” will be widely quoted
as the
triumphant boasting of the spokesman for a criminal regime.
What for
instance has happened to the individuals who blew up the Daily News
’
printing press in 2001? Where are they now and how, in this virtual
police
state, have they been able to roam free for so long? Answers please
Cde
Man — ha ha ha — heru.
Meanwhile, Manheru’s acolyte
Munyaradzi — ha ha ha — Huni (not to be
confused with Ma — ha ha ha — hoso)
has been making some rather revealing
remarks.
“Life has become
unbearable,” he admits. “There is no cash in the banks, no
fuel at the
filling stations. Prices of commodities are going up on a daily
basis…It’s so
frustrating.”
Welcome to the real world Cde Huni. But of course it’s not
the government’s
fault.
“When things are so tough, the tendency is to
put all the blame on the
government and at times one’s anger can make him or
her believe that ‘it’s
this government that’s causing it all’.”
But
that’s not fair, Huni declares. “The government is doing all it can to
revive
the economy, but it is being let down by the opposition MDC that is
not
playing its part in calling for the lifting of sanctions…”
So it’s all
the MDC’s fault you see. If only President Mugabe and Grace were
given access
to Harrods the nation’s problems would be a thing of the past.
Others
responsible for the government’s plight are civil servants who are
sabotaging
the economy by failing to implement government policies, and “of
course
government is being let down by some corrupt officials in its midst”.
Of
course!
What makes all this more painful, a clearly pained Huni whines
on, is that
“some” business people who are sabotaging the economy are “those
who have
benefited a lot from the government’s indigenisation
policy”.
Surely not! But don’t worry. Every cloud has a silver lining.
The government
is “slowly getting it right in the fuel sector”, 300 000
people have been
resettled (that figure again!) on the farms, and “once
agriculture works,
there will be a lot of products to sell in the shops and
once this happens
the prices of basic commodities will go
down”.
That’s not the end of the good news. “Once agriculture works the
foreign
currency crisis will be solved because there will be a lot of
products to
export.”
So there you have it. No need for the MDC to dig
government out of this hole
is there? “Once” agriculture comes right, then
all these problems will be
solved — just in time for the 2005
election.
Next week: Munyaradzi Huni on flying pigs.
Mourners at
the funeral of the late Robert Marere at Heroes Acre last Friday
were shocked
by what his brother had to say in his graveside eulogy. In
front of the
president, ministers and armed service chiefs the younger
Marere blurted out
the following: “Today we mourn one of the country’s
national heroes that we
are laying to rest here at Heroes Acre, Robert
Gabriel Mugabe.”
Was
this a slip of the tongue? We don’t know. But everybody laughed
including the
president. We’re glad he saw the funny side of it. But Marere
Jnr might
consider it wise to lie low for a while.
Zim Independent
Duty to be paid in foreign currency
Ngoni
Chanakira
RILED by dwindling foreign currency inflows, the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) will now force importers of luxury goods to pay duty in hard
currency.
RBZ officials who requested anonymity said the move was aimed
at increasing
foreign currency in its empty coffers as well as discouraging
Zimbabweans
from importing items considered "luxuries", some of which can be
sourced
locally.
By yesterday the RBZ had not responded to
questions sent to it two weeks ago
on the issue but insiders said the move
could be implemented as soon as next
month.
"A meeting was held by
senior RBZ officials at which this was discussed and
generally agreed upon as
a good and effective way of improving our foreign
currency levels," an
official said. "Besides, it was generally agreed that
individuals importing
luxury items would not cry foul because they have
access to foreign currency
stashed in their offshore accounts."
The official said luxury items
to be taxed in foreign currency included
motor vehicles, home appliances,
spare parts and clothing.
Chairman of the parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Finance and Mutoko
North MP David Chapfika has come out strongly
on the foreign currency issue
and its abuse, saying there are "too many
Mercedes Benz vehicles" in
Zimbabwe yet there is no foreign currency for
essential commodities in
banks.
Imported Mercedes Benz, BMW, and
Lexus models including their 4X4 versions
can be seen racing down Samora
Machel Avenue - the street housing the RBZ
headquarters. Imported wide-screen
television sets have also become a must
in the lounges of designer
mansions.
Despite this flashy lifestyle by the well-off, Zimbabwe
continues to
experience difficulties with its balance of
payments.
The current account deficit for this year is forecast to be
US$1 billion,
while a capital account deficit of about US$300 million is
predicted, up
from about US$200 million last year. As a result of the weak
balance of
payments position, gross foreign exchange reserves are expected to
average
about one month of imports while usable reserves are expected to
cover only
a few days of imports.
The country's total external
payment arrears are estimated at US$1,6 billion
as at June 30 from a position
of US$1,3 billion at December 31 2002.
Government arrears account for 67%
(US$1,07 billion), while parastatals and
private sector arrears represent 31%
(US$0,5 billion) and 2% (US$0,03
billion) respectively.
Zim Independent
New monetary policy expected soon
Shakeman
Mugari
GOVERNMENT is expected to announce a new monetary policy any time now,
which
analysts say is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the
economy.
The monetary policy is expected to deal with the much-awaited
devaluation of
the Zimbabwe dollar and a slashing of interest
rates.
Economists say the monetary policy is unlikely to have a
resounding impact
on Zimbabwe's ailing economy. Sources in the Ministry of
Finance and
Economic Development said the new policy would see the
announcement of the
much-awaited devaluation.
"Indications are
that we are likely to have devaluation. However, the
devaluation will not be
in the same mould as the one that happened in
February under the National
Economic Recovery Programme (Nerp)," said a
ministry official. "We might
actually see a devaluation of between 100% and
200%."
The official
said although slashing interest rates was anticipated it was
likely that
government would remain silent on the issue.
Analysts said the policy
should deal with the galloping inflation, the
official exchange rate that is
lagging far behind the parallel market rate,
as well as the interest
rates.
"The new policy, if there is any, should make it clear to the
responsible
authorities that we need balance of payment support to stabilise
our foreign
exchange rate," said a Zimbabwe Economics Society
official.
"It needs to be clear that in a country where exports are
declining and low
investor confidence there is need for the Bretton Woods
Institutions. The
go-it-alone attitude will not get us anywhere. There is
also need to address
the investor confidence which is at its
lowest."
Under Nerp, cobbled together in February, government
promised to review the
exchange rate quarterly.
Analyst now say
the programme has been overtaken by events due to
government's bureaucratic
decision-making.
Some analysts are however, sceptical that the new
policy will spur the
economy on.
"There is probably nothing new
that Herbert Murerwa will tell us," an
analyst from a stock broking firm
said.
"It might be more rhetoric yielding no results. We even doubt
whether the
policy will be tabled."
Zim Independent
Made wants more land
Ngoni Chanakira
MYSTERY
surrounds latest moves by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and
Rural
Resettlement Joseph Made to continue compulsorily acquiring land
despite a
Land Audit Committee having presented its report to President
Robert Mugabe
marking the completion of the programme.
The committee, headed by former
Secretary to cabinet and President Mugabe,
Charles Utete, last week handed in
its findings which are being kept under
lock and key.
Made on
Wednesday published a list of 71 farms to be compulsorily acquired
in terms
of Subsection (1) of Section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act
(Chapter
20:101).
This section allows President Mugabe to acquire
compulsorily any piece of
land he desires for government's resettlement
programme.
In an advertisement for the acquisitions flighted in the
Herald Made said
any owner or occupier or any other person who had an
interest and right in
the said land and who wished to object to the
compulsory acquisition could
lodge his objections with his ministry in
writing before October 17.
Analysts said this made a mockery of the
whole land deal and its
transparency because individuals who did not appear
on the Utete list could
now snap up land that was being advertised by
Made.
The minister was said to be in constant meetings when a comment
was sought
from him on the issue.
Several prominent individuals
and high profile companies are to have their
land taken up by government in
the latest move, largely seen as the last
phase of the controversial fast
track land resettlement programme.
Farms to be snapped up by Made in
the latest swoop include those belonging
to the Oppenheimer Ranches (Pvt)
Ltd, a cash rich family with diversified
investments in South Africa, the
United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.
Made also intends to take away land
belonging to Leibigs Zimbabwe Ltd, a
Matabeleland-based company that supplies
beef to the financially beleaguered
Cold Storage Company, Willdale Ltd in
respect of land situated in Harare, as
well as the Trustees for Time Being of
Banket Sports Club for its lucrative
piece of land in
Lomagundi.
Another high profile piece of land to be taken over is
Lilfordia Estates
(Pvt) Ltd for its Sunnyside Farm.
Meanwhile,
government says the agriculture sector has continued to be
adversely affected
by the recurrence of drought, fuel problems, high input
costs, shortages of
foreign currency and agricultural inputs.
It said this had resulted
in a marked decline in most of the major sub
sectors.
"Agriculture
is expected to recover by 2,3% this year, largely due to some
improvement in
the maize crop," government said in a document.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
An own goal
Iden Wetherell
IT
must be clear to everyone now that the government has lost the battle
for
hearts and minds. The latest attack on the Daily News is proof of
that.
This is a regime so insecure that it feels the urgent need to
silence
alternative voices; to prevent the public from getting the news they
are
entitled to.
The closure of the Daily News last weekend and
the subsequent seizure of its
equipment by police follows electoral setbacks
suffered by Zanu PF two weeks
earlier. Those local government elections
showed that despite mounting
repression the Zimbabwean populace will not be
cowed. Zanu PF lost in nearly
all major centres.
Some background
here may be instructive. In mid-2000, in a bid to counter
the swing against
Zanu PF that the defeat of its constitutional proposals
represented,
Information minister Chen Chimutengwende was replaced by
Professor Jonathan
Moyo who had been the chief spokesman of the failed
constitutional
commission. The chairman of that commission is now
chief
justice.
Moyo's brief was to reverse the growing sentiment
in the country that Zanu
PF was an exhausted volcano. It may have succeeded
20 years earlier, as the
party of liberation, in capturing the popular
imagination but it was clear
to all, including Moyo if his newspaper articles
were anything to go by,
that it had betrayed its mandate and failed the
nation. A post-liberation
aristocracy had translated political power into
national ownership.
Corruption had become endemic, the economy was
ineptly managed, and the
ruling party itself was unable to offer anything but
fossilised mantras.
The 2000 referendum defeat was a wake-up call to
the country's sclerotic
elite. The near-defeat of the ruling party in the
subsequent general
election simply intensified their alarm.
The
reaction was two-fold. Mugabe appointed what his friends in the media
liked
to call "technocrats", individuals with management experience who
would
project a dynamic government profile. At the same time the regime
was
planning a brutal assault on the commercial farming community as
a
punishment for having supported the new opposition MDC in its "No"
campaign
and the general election. This was not dissimilar to the campaign it
had
conducted against "dissidents" in Matabeleland in the
1980s.
Indeed, some of the same people were involved.
Against
a background of state-sponsored violence and lawlessness the
"technocrats"
made little progress. First Nkosana Moyo and then Simba Makoni
found it
impossible to produce results so long as President Mugabe regarded
economic
reform as part of the global plot against him. Apart from the
rather
insignificant July Moyo, that left Jonathan Moyo and Joseph Made, the
latter
increasingly sounding like an empty echo of the former, and certainly
no
technocrat if competence was the criterion!
Moyo in turn echoed
Mugabe's bitter denunciations of Zanu PF's critics. And
by crafting the
misnamed Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
he fulfilled his
sponsor's long-standing desire to crack down on the
independent media while
imposing conformity on the so-called public media.
But despite a
number of arrests, the independent press refused to be
muzzled. It continued
to expose the regime's trail of criminal misrule,
laying bare the hypocrisy
of a president and party that had pauperised the
country while claiming to be
empowering its people.
Despite what could be seen as a more compliant
judiciary, the state failed
at every turn to silence the free media. Until
last weekend that is. The
Supreme Court ruling that ANZ's refusal to register
with the Media and
Information Commission, which represents nobody but the
minister himself,
had placed it on the wrong side of the law led to the
events of this week
where the police seized the company's
equipment.
This vindictive move is a short-term triumph for the
reactionary gang around
Mugabe. But, like all their other repressive
measures, it will simply
complicate life for them. For they cannot close down
what people think.
Did ministers really believe the public would be
prepared to go back to
relying on the dissembling Herald and Sunday Mail for
their news? Once
people have experienced a free press they will never want to
be hoodwinked
again by papers attempting to cover the government's dirty
footprints.
The Daily News, together with other independent papers
such as ours, has
done much to expand the frontiers of freedom in Zimbabwe
over recent years.
If the government thinks it can take us back to an era of
managed news by
self-interested politicians, then it is even more delusional
than we
thought.
Moyo has conspicuously failed in his bid to crush
dissent or to create
public approval for government's self-serving notions of
sovereignty and
independence. The assault on the Daily News will embarrass
Zanu PF's friends
in the region and oblige them to step up pressure for
Aippa's repeal. It is
in every sense an own goal. As Nigeria's decision to
bar Mugabe from the
Commonwealth summit in December shows, the regime has
never been so
discredited nor so isolated.
Meanwhile, there will
be more challenges to Aippa quite apart from the ANZ
case. The Independent
Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (Ijaz) and the
Foreign Correspondents
Association are currently awaiting rulings in cases
they have brought against
the poorly drafted Act. A section of it has
already been struck down. The
Zimbabwe Independent and Standard are awaiting
the outcome of the current
challenges before launching their own
applications.
All of us here
at the Zimbabwe Independent express our solidarity with ANZ
staff in this
time of trial. Nqobile Nyathi has proved an immensely brave
editor. She and
her staff at the Daily News and those at the Daily News on
Sunday have our
full support. I have no doubt they - like the people of this
country - will
emerge victorious in the end in this struggle with tyranny.
In the long run
of history, the censor has always lost.
Zim Independent
Travellers' cheques not recognised as
cash
ALTHOUGH the Reserve Bank says that Zimbabwe travellers' cheques are
as good
as cash, they are not recognised as such by commercial banks and
building
societies.
For example, I want to move a sum of money from my
current account at
Barclays to a savings account at Cabs so that I can
immediately use the Cabs
purchase-point machines in supermarkets to buy my
groceries, having neither
cash nor sufficient cheques to do
this.
I thought that the simplest and quickest way to move "cash"
into the Cabs
account would be to draw travellers' cheques from my current
account and pay
them straight into the Cabs account. That way, since they are
"as good as
cash", I would have immediate access to that
money.
Not so. Cabs regard travellers' cheques as cheques, not as
cash, and want
three weeks to clear them. And Barclays also tell me that if I
were to pay a
travellers' cheque into my current account, they too require
a
cheque-clearance period. What are they clearing?
I cannot buy a
travellers' cheque from my commercial bank unless I have
cleared funds
available. Payment against a travellers' cheque is not subject
to there being
funds in my account at the time that it is "cleared". The
travellers' cheque
has already been paid for.
All that is necessary for a travellers'
cheque to be cleared is for it to be
verified that the two signatures on it
are from the same (any) person (not
that it is the signature of an
account-holder whose sample signature is kept
on file at the bank) and that
the cheque itself is not forged.
These should be able to be done by
the teller in the same way that tellers
are able to verify the legitimacy of
any bank notes that they accept for
deposit.
By wishing to "clear"
the travellers' cheques, Cabs and other commercial
banks are implying that
they could subsequently choose to decline them.
So what could happen is
that, after a couple of weeks, Cabs could return my
travellers' cheques to me
having declined them.
I would then presumably have to pay them back
into my account at Barclays,
who would again require their clearance period,
and who could, presumably,
also decline them. Where would that leave me and
my "cash"? And if Cabs and
Barclays think that this scenario is impossible,
why do they need the
clearance period?
So what is happening to the
money paid for travellers' cheques while they
are waiting for "clearance"?
Cabs and commercial banks are evidently able to
use my cash for their own
purposes for several weeks while they do not allow
me to use
it.
They are the only ones benefiting from the use of Zimbabwe
travellers'
cheques. It certainly isn't their customers.
And where is
the Reserve Bank while this farce is being enacted?
Roger
Stringer,
Mount Pleasant.
Zim Independent
'We didn't know. We had no idea'
IT is said that
following the liberation of Nazi Germany at the end of the
Second World War,
when ordinary German citizens were confronted with the
evidence of the
atrocities committed in the concentration camps, many simply
refused to
believe that their former leaders were capable of such appalling
acts of
inhumanity.
Many again claimed that they knew nothing of these
things, implying that if
they had they might have done something to challenge
or confront the
perpetrators.
The same happened in South Africa
when finally the grotesque system of
apartheid was dismantled and the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission started
to unearth some of the appalling human
rights abuses of that era. The
response of many who had not suffered
personally - indeed who had prospered
under apartheid - was a rather
disingenuous: "We didn't know.
We had no idea."
For those who
would prefer not to acknowledge the terrible reality of life
under the
present Zanu PF regime, a professed ignorance is often the first
line of
defence. And this escapist response is facilitated by the regime's
own
propaganda machine which deliberately sows confusion along
with
disinformation.
It is for precisely this reason that the
Zimbabwe Independent's report on
the National Youth Service Training
programme on September 5 is so timely.
The report is to be welcomed and its
authors congratulated on exposing a
pernicious evil that masquerades behind a
mask of respectability.
Though there have been other reports from
human rights groups and
journalists touching on the youth militias, this is
the first detailed,
factual and independent report of their training and
activities. And now
that this report is in the public domain, there can be no
possible
justification for the lame excuse "I didn't know" - whether coming
from a
Zimbabwean or the international community.
The propaganda
arm of Zanu PF has done its utmost to project the National
Youth Service
Training programme as a respectable scheme that imparts useful
skills and
healthy community values to the youth of the nation. The report
makes clear
that this is far removed from the truth.
In reality, it is a
paramilitary training scheme intended to provide those
in power with a useful
pool of brain-washed hooligans, brutalised by
violence, and ready to do
whatever dastardly acts their masters require of
them - the final objective
of course being to keep their masters in power
for ever.
Hence the
politically-motivated torture, rape and murder by the militias
which is
carefully documented in the report.
In a passionate appeal which
accompanies the report some of the region's
leading clerics and church groups
make the point that the youth militia
programme has introduced into the body
politic of this country a virulent
cancer which leaves only death and
destruction in its wake.
"The moral, spiritual and physical
well-being of a whole generation of
Zimbabweans is being sacrificed for the
short-term political advantage of
those in power, with incalculable long-term
effects upon the very fabric of
the nation," they say. Then they ask
pertinently: "How … will it ever be
possible to reintegrate these young
people into the communities they have
terrorised?"
I agree
entirely with the authors of the appeal that the terrible danger
posed by
this potent evil must be faced with the utmost urgency. Moreover,
because it
is such a blatant evil surely we can expect the church to act as
one in this
instance, condemning the programme in its entirety and demanding
its
immediate cessation.
Over the past four years of continuing crisis
there have been some issues on
which Christians have not agreed entirely.
There has been room for
legitimate differences of opinion and for different
strategies to counter
the growing evil. But surely on this issue all must be
in agreement, indeed
all men and women of goodwill who have a care for the
nation's youth and the
country's future.
The words of an old hymn come to mind:
"Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For
the good or evil side …"
The hymn continues:
"Then it is
the brave man chooses,
While the coward stands aside,
Till the
multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied."
It is
surely the responsibility of every Christian to read the report on
the
militias, and the duty of every church leader to facilitate that process.
It
should be a matter of urgent debate in church councils across the
land.
And then I suggest, again as a matter of extreme urgency, a
national
petition in support of the church leaders' appeal.
The
petition would call for an immediate halt to this Satanic programme, and
for
urgent steps to be taken to rid ourselves of the cancer and bring
healing to
the nation. It could be organised through the churches but should
be open to
Christian and non-Christian alike to show their support.
Rev Graham
Shaw,
Bulawayo.
Zim Independent
Economic illusionists and delusional leaders
LAST
week I attended a meeting organised by Zimcodd (Zimbabwe Coalition on
Debt
and Development). The topic for discussion was "The Economy in
Transition:
Which Way For Zimbabwe?"
According to the organisers' advertisement, the
issues to be tackled were:
the cash crisis, recent fuel hikes and
liberalisation of the fuel sector,
the national debt burden, the crippled
economy and prospects for recovery,
and the land and the
economy.
The speakers were David Chapfika, Tendai Biti, Shakespeare
Maya and Samuel
Udenge.
If I had any illusions that a serious
analysis and relevant solutions would
be forthcoming, I was soon confronted
with reality. The first speaker was
David Chapfika, the Zanu PF MP who is
apparently the chairman of some
parliamentary finance committee.
I
can remember little of his contribution other than his mentioning
something
he saw on CNN that morning, and that the banks were to blame for
the cash
crisis - something about them all dealing on the black market for
foreign
currency and there being many thieves operating in the
Zimbabwean
economy.
Needless to say his admission that he watched
CNN and that he knew who the
thieves were brought the house down in howls of
laughter. Nothing the
honourable MP said suggested that any solution to
Zimbabwe's economic crisis
would come from Zanu PF or the parliamentary
finance committee of which he
is chairman.
Next came Tendai Biti,
MDC's shadow Minister of Finance. He, correctly, drew
attention to the
fundamental political nature of all the various Zimbabwean
economic
crises.
We were then subjected to the irrelevant Shakespeare Maya -
another example
of that well-known Zimbabwean phenomenon: the
publicity-seeking leader of a
political party that exists only in his own
head. At least such meetings
give him an audience far larger than he would
otherwise be able to attract
as leader of NAGG.
Finally we were
entertained by the ubiquitous Stan Udenge, economic
consultant
extraordinaire. He waffled on about how many organisations he
does
consultancy work for, and also found time to restate his opposition
to
devaluation - suggesting that we need to "throw away the text
books".
Surely even Udenge must be aware that the reality in Zimbabwe
is that there
has been a de facto devaluation. Does he know anyone who can
source foreign
currency at the official rate other than the chefs and their
buddies?
One wonders if Udenge and other delusional "economic
consultants" so beloved
of ZTV have ever read the text books that he urges us
to "throw away".
Apart from a few trite and superficial remarks about
the cash crisis,
nothing of the subject matters supposedly under discussion
was dealt with.
On the basis of this meeting there is little cause for
optimism that any
member of government or any of the self-proclaimed economic
consultants or
delusional leaders of minuscule political parties can offer
anything
positive towards resolving our ever deepening financial and economic
crises.
RES Cook,
Harare.
Zim Independent
Constitution shredded
By Alex Tawanda Magaisa
AS
Americans commemorated the tragic events of September 11, Zimbabwe
silently
witnessed a major assault on human rights. On the same day the
Supreme Court
dismissed ANZ's (publishers of the Daily News) application
challenging the
constitutionality of certain sections of the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa).
The application was dismissed on the
basis of the "Clean Hands" doctrine in
that the company had failed to comply
with the Act that requires all
newspaper companies to be registered by the
Media and Information Commission
(MIC).
That decision is
remarkable because it represents a major setback to the
protection and
enjoyment of human rights in Zimbabwe.
With all due respect to the
Supreme Court, it may have erred in its reliance
on the controversial "Clean
Hands" doctrine in a matter involving
fundamental constitutional rights. We
must question the suitability of
applying this equity-based doctrine and
advance the argument that the
doctrine is inapplicable as a bar to
constitutional remedies.
According to Black's Law Dictionary (2000) a
party cannot seek equitable
relief or assert an equitable defence if that
party has violated an
equitable principle such as good faith. It bars relief
to persons who are
guilty of misconduct in the matter for which they seek
relief. It is a
positive defence that is available where the complaint by the
claimant is
equitable.
Equity refers to a select set of remedies
and associated proce-dures and
normally these equitable doctrines and
procedures are distinguished from
"legal" ones. Equitable relief is generally
available when a legal remedy is
insufficient or inadequate. The distinction
between law and equity arose in
England where there were separate courts of
law and of equity. These rights
and procedures were created to provide
fairness, unhampered by the narrow
confines of the old common law or
technical requirements of the law.
However, in modern days separate
courts of equity have largely been
abolished and the same courts that may
award a legal remedy have the power
to prescribe an equitable one. It is
notable also that it is quite a
controversial doctrine, particularly in the
sphere of public law where the
formulation is that the responsibility of the
state is not engaged when the
complainant has acted in breach of the law of
the state. As an equitable
rule extended to the domain of law, it is
necessary to be cautious when
applying it, particularly in cases where
fundamental legal rights are
involved.
The matter before the Supreme
Court was not a matter of equity but one where
fundamental constitutional
rights were involved and the court ought to have
taken caution in applying
this doctrine. Quite surprisingly, it was a
unanimous decision, meaning that
no single member of the bench saw anything
amiss in the blanket application
of this doctrine and its implications in
relation to the enjoyment of
constitutional rights.
The decision has the implication of
undermining the supremacy of the
constitution by relegating constitutional
rights below the dictates of
parliamentary legislation. It makes a mockery of
the constitution and
subjects citizens to the whims of the ruling party with
a parliamentary
majority. The constitution is the fundamental law of the
country with which
all legislation must comply. If legislation contravenes
the constitution
citizens are entitled to approach the Supreme Court to
strike out the
offensive sections. This is what ANZ did but the court
accepted the state's
argument that, since the ANZ had not complied with the
registration
requirements of the law they were challenging, they had "dirty
hands" and
the court could not assist them.
The implication is
that citizens must first comply with a law even if that
law violates their
fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution before
challenging it in
court. The ruling party can, at any time, exercise its
parliamentary majority
to infringe people's rights knowing full well that
they will be forced to
comply as they cannot approach the court unless they
have done so lest they
be tainted with dirt for refusing to obey the law. It
raises the question of
whether it is the constitution or an oppressive piece
of legislation that
they ought to obey. It makes a mockery of constitutional
guarantees of
protection and enjoyment of human rights to expect citizens to
comply with
infringing laws first before challenging them.
There may indeed be
situations where giving away the rights in compliance
with legislation will
effectively close the door to the challenges against
the law. For example,
where a piece of legislation deprives one of his
entire property, if that
person so complies, he will be left with no
resources to make a
constitutional challenge. It does not make sense that
when faced with laws
that violate their freedoms citizens should sit back
and accept the violation
and then complain afterwards.
The constitution specifically gives
citizens the right to approach the court
to challenge the legislation and
without the help of the court the citizens
will be left at the mercy of the
party with a parliamentary majority. In a
situation where the ruling party
does not have the necessary majority to
change the constitution, it can
always draw up parliamentary legislation
that deprives people of their
rights, thus circumventing the constitutional
amendment process. They can do
so especially where they seek to effect
certain measures that can have
lasting effects knowing full well that by the
time the people challenge the
constitutionality of the law they will have
complied in order to satisfy the
"Clean Hands" doctrine to get access to the
court. By then, the state will
have achieved, through parliamentary
legislation, what it may not do through
the constitutional amendment
procedure. The rule that forces compliance
before approaching the court
primarily serves the interests of the state and
not the rights of
applicants.
Further and in any event, persons
who challenge the constitutionality of
legislation normally do so when they
have been arrested for violating that
law. For example, a person may be
arrested under the Public Order and
Security Act for positive action that is
deemed to violate the law. If that
person were to challenge the
constitutionality of the section of Posa in the
Supreme Court, will the court
seek to determine whether he has "clean hands"
before allowing him audience?
For indeed, in terms of its reasoning in the
ANZ case, a party that has
failed to comply with the law lacks clean hands.
It may be argued
that in the ANZ case, the violation was clear and accepted,
so the analogy
does not apply. However, using their line of reasoning,
assuming that the
constitutional challenge is made after accused has been
found guilty by a
trial court, does it mean that the Supreme Court will not
give him audience
simply because by reason of his guilt he has "unclean
hands"? Even an accused
who has confessed to committing an offence is still
entitled to
constitutional protection by the courts when he alleges that
his
constitutional rights have been violated.
Prisoners who have
committed offences against the state are still entitled
to that protection
despite having so-called "unclean hands" for disobeying
the laws of the
state. Clearly the constitution allows challenges against
legislation at any
point and to use the "Clean Hands" doctrine to bar
constitutional challenges
would seem to close the door to legitimate
complaints that citizens may have
against oppressive legislation.
The decision of the Supreme Court
seems to be "lose your rights first and
then complain later". Ideally the
court must ensure that rights of citizens
are adequately protected by
promoting their uninterrupted enjoyment. If a
party has an opportunity to ask
the court's assistance to maintain the
enjoyment of rights before a piece of
legislation is used to violate them,
the court must take positive steps to
ensure adequate guarantees are in
place. If there is a chance to stop the
erosion of rights, the court must
actively curtail such erosion. The
constitution becomes a worthless piece of
paper if the rights that it
guarantees can only be enjoyed subject to
parliamentary
legislation.
The ANZ was perfectly entitled to challenge a law that
had the effect of
interrupting its enjoyment of constitutionally guaranteed
rights. With
respect, it does not make sense to force a party to comply with
legislation
that deprives it of the very rights that it seeks to protect.
Quite
reasonably, the ANZ took pre-emptive action to safeguard the enjoyment
of
its rights and it disclosed this to the court. Its conduct was
neither
dishonest nor improper.
Prior to the legislation, the ANZ was
operating within the laws of the
country and when Aippa was enacted it
changed the legal landscape by
interrupting ANZ's rights. Surely ANZ was
entitled to challenge this
interruption of its rights.
At the time
of challenging the law it was operating legally and as its
application was in
terms of the constitutional requirements, its lack of
registration did not
necessarily make it illegal. Assuming that on the
merits the sections of
Aippa were found to be unconstitutional, what would
be the positive result
for ANZ, other than for future purposes, when by
complying with the
legislation it will have already lost rights for which it
sought
protection?
Furthermore, although the court stated that the door is
not yet closed to
ANZ's challenge, when its reasoning is taken to its logical
conclusion ANZ
already has "unclean hands" because it has already violated
the law. There
is no guarantee that MIC will grant ANZ the licence to
operate.
Indeed, it may say that ANZ has unclean hands although if it
does so, it
would be misapplying the doctrine of "Clean
Hands".
But even if they are deemed clean, they would have lost the
rights for which
they sought protection. "Clean Hands", it would appear, is a
judicial
mechanism to force citizens to comply with laws even if they doubt
their
constitutionality. Instead of protecting citizens against infringement
of
their rights, the court appears to be actively participating in
the
enforcement of oppressive legislation. Assuming that ANZ's application
at
the MIC fails, will their attempt to register cleanse their dirty hands?
It
is difficult to see how the Supreme Court will allow the ANZ to submit
its
application unless it reconsiders the usefulness of its "Clean
Hands"
doctrine.
This case is not about the arrogance of the Daily
News and its publishers
but about protecting the rights of citizens to
approach the Supreme Court
for constitutional protection regardless of the
state of their hands.
Indeed, the guilty also deserve constitutional
protection. The "Clean Hands"
doctrine is a useful principle in equity
and some aspects of the common law
but its extension to the realm of
constitutional law is worrying and
controversial. The area of fundamental
rights is one that the courts must
safeguard to ensure that people enjoy
their freedoms. In applying the
doctrine, the Supreme Court has taken a
conservative approach to human
rights jurisprudence. Instead of actively
safeguarding rights and the
constitution, the court is paying allegiance to
parliamentary legislation no
matter how much it infringes on citizens'
rights.
When a party takes pre-emptive action to safeguard its
freedoms, the court
must actively facilitate that enjoyment. Its foremost
duty is to uphold the
constitution. The court's decision has had the effect
of not only denying
the ANZ its rights by forcing it to submit to the law
that it is
challenging, but with the closure of the Daily News, it has
deprived the
majority of the population their freedom to access information
and choice.
Widely interpreted, the "Clean Hands" doctrine will have
far-reaching
consequences on the protection and enjoyment of fundamental
constitutional
rights in Zimbabwe. Its effect is that before approaching the
courts,
citizens will be required to lose their rights by compliance to
oppressive
laws rendering the enjoyment of rights a nullity. The court ought
to have
been more careful before applying a traditional doctrine of equity in
a
matter that involves fundamental constitutional liberties. Not only for
ANZ
but also for those that purport to champion the rights of citizens,
this
decision should be a major cause for concern.
Alex Tawanda
Magaisa is lecturer in law at the University of Nottingham, UK.