New Zimbabwe
Mugabe should halt moral decadence among his
ministers
By Msekiwa Makwanya
Last updated: 08/31/2004 23:18:03
THE
political crisis in Zimbabwe today goes beyond the legitimacy of the
current
regime. Rather, the crisis is epitomised by the institutionalisation
of
political moral decadence and the clarion call to the sitting President
of
Zimbabwe is to halt political moral decadence.
The Zimbabwe Independent
last week reported that, Anti-Corruption minister
Didymus Mutasa's supporters
physically attacked aspiring Zanu PF candidate
for next year's general
election in Makoni North Manicaland, James Kaunye.
Mutasa once described as
deadwood in the1990s by the late Herbert
Ushewokunze, rose from the political
scrap heap to head the newly formed
Anti-corruption ministry and corruption
is increasing like never before.
A senior war veterans' leader has
accused senior Zanu PF officials and
Cabinet ministers of using criminal
methods to retain their parliamentary
seats ahead of next year's legislative
polls. Jabulani Sibanda, the national
chairman of the Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans Association
(ZNLWVA) said war veterans felt betrayed
and exposed in the face of
calculated terror campaigns against them by senior
Zanu PF politicians. His
comments come in the wake of an orgy of violence
perpetrated against war
veterans and Zanu PF supporters by a terror group led
by Mutasa and Shadreck
Chipanga, the Makoni East MP. Chipanga is a former
director general of the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and also the
Deputy Minister of Home
Affairs.
Didymus Mutasa had the temerity to
justify the barbaric act saying that, "He
(James Kaunye) was attacked by my
supporters. But if he was attacked by Zanu
Pf members and supporters, that
makes his membership questionable. Probably
it has to be asked whether he is
a true member of the party."
By his own admission Mutasa is clearly
suggesting that members of Zanu PF
are justified in attacking non-Zanu PF
members and he is a minister OF
CORRUPTION. If Mutasa dislikes fair
competition, he should stand down. In
any case he should consider his
position as a minister sponsoring violence.
But there is another problem
because Mutasa's boss has promised to treat the
NGOs in the same way his
party and government was treating the MDC.
At Eddison Zvobgo's burial
last Sunday, Mugabe said his government was now
going to treat NGOs the same
way it was treating the MDC party. He did not
elaborate. MDC spokesman Paul
Themba Nyathi said afterwards: "The question
to ask is: How is the MDC being
treated. The MDC is being brutalised,
harassed and tortured almost on a daily
basis and this is what NGOs can now
expect."
When Bishop Pius Ncube
came to the UK, President Mugabe accused him of lying
about the situation in
Zimbabwe including violence. The Bishop argues that
he is a shepherd and has
a duty to care for his flock.
How good and pleasant it would before God
and man to see the President
denouncing violence, and bringing to book those
senior members of Zanu PF
like Phillip Chiyangwa who runs a terror gang of
the so called, "TOP 6" in
his home town of Chinhoyi.
But the other
main problem is scapegoating or serious fundamental
attribution error by the
President himself. Social psychologists describe
the fundmental attribution
error as the tendency to attribute events to a
person's character rather than
to circumstances surrounding the events.
Propagandists exploit tendencies
toward the attribution error with a variety
of techniques, including smears,
ritual defamations and ad hominem attacks.
President Mugabe sees Tony
Blair and George Bush as the main threat to his
hold on power. A longtime
ally of Mugabe, the late Dr Zvobgo in recent years
started criticising his
autocratic rule. In September 2000, Zvobgo attacked
Mugabe's violent land
seizures and the culture of blaming the West for all
the country's
ills.
"We have tainted what was a glorious revolution, reducing it to
some
agrarian racist enterprise," Zvobgo thundered. "We have behaved as if
the
world owes us a living. It does not. We have blamed other people for
each
and every ill that befell us. As every peasant, worker, businessman or
woman
now stares at the precipice of doom, let us wake up and draw back. We
must
clear the slate, bury everything that has divided us, and begin
again."
It is a matter of sound judgement by the President himself to
choose not
only to reprimand but to fire from his cabinet the "immoral little
boys"
like Professor Jonathan Moyo and the useless Joseph Made and
Aeneas
Chigwedere for failing the nation at the greatest hour of need.
Jonathan
Moyo is sabotaging the economy by illegally acquiring prime state
farms
which earn the country foreign currency, only to blame it on the West.
Dr
Joseph Made is presiding over an underperforming agricultural
sector
misleading the nation on the food security situation and I see no
other
reason for his overstay in the ministry apart from his
academic
qualification. The minister of Education Chigwedere is failing our
schools,
majoring on minor issues like school names and uniforms while
neglecting
real issues affecting the system like the funding of
education.
The Nziramasanga Education Commission of 1999 had simplified
matters for
Chigwedere setting out for him what needed to be done but he
ignored it. In
such cases the boss President Mugabe is to blame for failing
to appraise his
ministers NOT Tony Blair or George Bush because the voters in
the UK and
America will judge their own leaders in their coming elections and
there
will be no violence visited on the electorate.
Zimbabwe is
clearly suffering from severe state of moral crisis. It is often
said that
politics is an amoral realm of power and interest in which moral
judgment is
irrelevant.
In his book "The Politics of Moral Capital", by contrast,
John Kane (2001)
argues that people's positive moral judgments of political
actors and
institutions provide leaders with an important resource, which he
christens
'moral capital'. Negative judgments cause a loss of moral capital
which
jeopardizes legitimacy and political survival. In the book's final
section,
Kane applies his arguments to the American presidency from Kennedy
to
Clinton. He argues that a moral crisis has afflicted the nation at
its
mythical heart and has been refracted through and enacted within its
central
institutions, eroding the moral capital of government and people
and
undermining the nation's morale.
The sad thing in Zimbabwe today
is that everyone knows what needs to happen
if the country is to survive but
no-one has the courage to do it. People who
have gone beyond their
sell-by-date need to step down and give way to young
blood with a better
vision for the country and a tougher anti-graft stance
adopted. The young and
the restless are living in fear because it is a
cardinal political sin in
Zimbabwe to openly declare leadership ambitions in
political circles
especially when it comes to the highest office as Morgan
Tsvangirai and the
late Dr Eddison Zvobgo came to realize. In the same vein,
people have come to
realize that it does not matter who is abusing their
rights, whether it is a
black or white, former oppressor or liberator, white
farmer or black
minister, people do not deserve injustice whatever
the
circumstances.
It is worse to be oppressed by your own brother or
sister and it the height
of hypocrisy for any African leader to deny
injustice only because the
former oppressor has pointed it out. In Zimbabwe
we need The Daily News back
on the streets, and the ZBC to give views from
all the political divides.
Zimbabweans are intelligent enough to decide who
should lead them but unless
and until the people with some semblance moral
authority take charge of the
political leadership Zimbabweans will continue
to suffer crisis of
confidence and people will continue to stream out of the
country.
It is not a secret that not every politician is a farmer yet
every
politician wants or owns a farm. It is not a secret that not every
current
MP is capable of leading his constituency yet every MP wants to
retain their
seat. Unless and until we put Zimbabwe first and not our selfish
interests
the country will continue to suffer. What is the point of rewarding
a little
immoral minister with a farm that earns the country the precious
foreign
currency only because he is black? The land belongs to Zimbabweans
and it
helps us better if it is being used appropriately, earning us the
necessary
foreign currency. Prof. Jonathan Moyo and other Zanu Pf bigwigs can
hang on
to their under utilized farms with their "sharp tongues" but the
country
will continue to suffer.
The British and Americans are not our
admirers, there is no doubt about that
and the MDC which has been castigated
by Mugabe of siding with the west is
too well aware of that. However the
American and the British public are not
suffering like Zimbabweans and when
their leaders point out our mistakes
there is no point in reducing every
issue to racism. There are moral
questions in Zimbabwe still have to be
addressed, that is, does the
leadership have people's confidence on the basis
of what they have to offer.
The President has to appraise his team and not
just dismiss criticism
because it is coming from the opposition, civil
society or the Western
world.
Zimbabwe desperately needs some sense of
accountability at the top, and our
scarce resources ought to be used
efficiently. When thugs drive a state car
to perpetrate violence on political
opponents it is not proper use of public
money. When a minister splashes
money in a constituency before elections we
demand to know where the money is
coming from. Senior government officials
with multiple farms defying calls to
surrender farms to the state so that
they can be put to better use are
destroying the economy.
When all is said and done our major concern is
whether the President is
still in charge of the country or the immoral little
boys have taken over.
If there is a chance for the President to do something
it is now or never.
It is certainly not Mugabe's interest for leave political
brigandage and
cancerous corruption as the fastest growing industry during
his last term of
office because whoever takes over will not be able to
guarantee his
security. Political unrest is inevitable if the situation
continues as it is
today in Zimbabwe.
Makwanya is a social scientist based
in London - makwanya@yahoo.com
New Zimbabwe
When propaganda fails, try scantily-clad women
By
Staff Reporter
Last updated: 08/31/2004 21:22:16
JOSEPH Goebbels once said
that if propaganda is repeated often enough, it
gains the legitimacy of
truth.
Not content with repeating propaganda, President Robert Mugabe's
spin doctor
Jonathan Moyo is taking a bus load of beauties to rural
Tsholotsho district
to blow off the minds of wary voters as he bids for a
parliamentary seat in
the area.
Moyo, a former university political
science lecturer has meticulously
followed Goebbels' style of information
management, but he is seeking to
outdo the man he is thought to privately
admire as he pulls all stops to
wrest the Tsholotsho seat from the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
In the pages of a vernacular
newspaper -- uMthunywa --which he reintroduced
after it had folded, comes an
advert for a "Miss Rural Matabeleland 2004" to
be held in Tsholotsho,
although the district has a run down infrastructure.
The beauties have
been carefully hand-picked by a Bulawayo-based
professional model agency,
with $1 million prize money promised to the
winner. They come from the two
rural Matabeleland provinces and will be
strutting their stuff in Tsholotsho
at the finals on 4 September.
"MANTOMBAZANA!!! MANTOMBAZANA!!! (Girls!!!
Girls!!!)," the advert screams,
"Sidinga amatshatshazi alejwabu
elibutshelezi, angela machatha, angela
manxeba, amade okungaphezu kwe 1.73m,
aleminyaka engaphansi kwe 24, avela
kuzozonke indawo zasemakhaya
eMatabeleland (We are looking for beautiful
girls with gentle skin, no spots,
no injury marks, height over 1.73m, below
24 years of age from all areas of
rural Matabeleland)."
It reads like an SOS in an emergency situation, and
for good measure, it
adds at the bottom: "Sithinte eStrides ngocingo,
Ungavilaphi. (Get in touch
with Strides Model Agency without
delay."
Sources close to the beauty contest's organisers say the winners
will go on
to take part in the main Miss Zimbabwe pageant.
A coterie
of Moyo's associates and businessmen trying to curry favour with
the powerful
minister are expected to accompany him to Tsholotsho. The rich
and the
powerful shouldn't worry about damage to their luxury cars as they
drive to
Tsholotsho -- Moyo recently had the road tarred.
Besides worrying about
the opposition, sources indicate that Moyo could be
headed for a mighty clash
with Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema, who is a
former Tsholotsho MP himself.
Zanu PF national chairman and Lands Minister
John Nkomo is also said to be
privately contemplating standing in the
contituency, about 60km west of
Bulawayo.
Moyo, a non-elected appointee in President Mugabe's government
is said to be
desperate to avoid Zanu PF primaries which could prevent him
from
representing Zanu PF.
Moyo is leaving nothing to chance and has
displayed a curious streak of
generosity towards the villagers, at one stage
dishing out $100 million
inside seven days.
He also donated over 700
blankets worth $90 million to several health
institutions and followed that a
day later with a donation of two computers
and a printer worth $22,1 million
to Tsholotsho hospital.
A few days later the minister followed with
another donation of a computer
and printer all worth $13 million to
Tsholotsho police.
Apart from donations made in July, this year alone,
Moyo donated medical
equipment worth $28 million before donating 1000 bags of
cement worth $40
million to various schools in the constituency.
He
donated a further $2 million to cover funeral costs for a chief who died
in
Tsholotsho two months ago. The minister has also established what he
termed
multi-million dollar scholarship programme for disadvantaged children
in the
constituency. He also launched a football tournament in Tsholotsho
sponsored
to the tune of $15 million using 'personal funds.'
New Zimbabwe
Matonga's graft trial collapses
By Paidamoyo
Chipunza
Last updated: 08/31/2004 22:22:23
BRIGHT Matonga, the chief
executive of the Zimbabwe United Passengers
Company (ZUPCO) was a relieved
man Monday after Harare magistrate Virginia
Sithole dropped the corruption
charges involving about $1.5 billion against
him.
Matonga could not
comment on the latest twist to the saga, and instead
referred all questions
to his lawyer James Muzangaza of Harare firm,
Muzangaza, Mandaza and
Tomana.
Muzangaza said his client was acquitted because the State failed
to produce
evidence incriminating enough to convict Matonga.
The
prosecution, he added, would proceed by way of summons if they managed
to
build a credible case against the bus boss.
"The charges were withdrawn
before plea because there were no basis of truth
in the allegations. However,
the State will further proceed by way of
summons if they still feel that
Matonga has a case to answer," Muzangaza
said.
Charges against Matonga
arose early this year following ZUPCO's purchase of
48 Scania buses worth
$1.5 billion from Hinley Enterprises of South Africa.
The transaction was
said to have been carried out without the authority of
the ZUPCO
board.
Initially, the deal was meant to have covered the purchase of 70
buses, but
only 48 were bought.
It was alleged that Metropolitan Bank,
which financed the deal, paid out
$4.6 billion after Matonga sanctioned the
transaction.
Matonga then reportedly instructed that Pioneer Motor
Company be paid $100
million while Hinley Enterprises was paid $ 1.5billion
without the knowledge
of the ZUPCO board.
The purchase of the buses
was done without inviting tenders, raising
suspicion on the legality of the
deal between ZUPCO and Scania of South
Africa
Daily Mirror
From The Daily News Online Edition, 31 August
Zimbabwean illegal
immigrants denied treatment in SA
Johannesburg - Sick Zimbabwean
illegal immigrants and expectant mothers are
being denied access to medical
care, a non-government organisation reported
this week. The deprivation has
led diseases such as HIV/Aids and
tuberculosis spreading among thousands of
the estimated 2.5 million
Zimbabweans residing here. According to the
regional non-governmental
organisation helping some of the immigrants to get
medical care, the
situation was "terrible" as Zimbabweans were not going to
hospitals and
clinics for fear of being arrested and deported. The director
of the
Southern African Women's Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA),
Joyce
Dube told Daily News Online that HIV/Aids was spreading unabated among
the
immigrants as most of them were ignorant of the disease. She said they
could
not get treatment for sexually transmitted infections and other
diseases as
they had no proper immigration documents. Immigrants must produce
identity
cards or passports with visas or permits before they can obtain
medical care
at public health institutions in South Africa.
"Most
of the illegal immigrants are ignorant about HIV/Aids and they can't
go to
clinics and workshops because they are afraid of being arrested. As a
result
most suffer in silence and we would like to assist them with
medication,"
said Dube. She said it was also disturbing that even expectant
mothers were
not being looked after. She said sometimes her organisation has
had to take
them to private doctors. "We are grateful to a Zimbabwean doctor
who is
assisting these immigrants. We don't have money, otherwise we would
want all
of them to have proper medical care," she said. Dube said a group
of doctors
based in Zimbabwe would soon be coming to South Africa to treat
the
immigrants. Thousands of illegal immigrants stay in crowded shacks
around
South Africa where they risk contracting diseases. Some live in
the
crime-infested suburb of Hillbrow in Johannesburg
31 August 2004
PRESIDENT TSVANGIRAI'S TUESDAY MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF
ZIMBABWE
As we approach the endgame in our march towards freedom, I am
confident that
despite all the obstacles and dangers Zimbabweans are poised
for a decisive
victory.
The traditional arrogance of the regime
towards any proposals which seek an
open society, freedom for all and an
inclusive political culture appears to
be withering fast, paving the way for
the will of the people to prevail.
The spirit of the people for change is
still high, despite five years of
intense battering. The people are still
driving the political agenda, hence
the panicky reaction from the enemies of
democracy. The people shall drive
the economic agenda.
In 1995 the
ZCTU - through its policy document Beyond ESAP -- called for
land reform as
an empowerment tool. This call was ignored until pressure
began to mount in
1998, forcing Zanu PF to react in a disorganised manner,
leading to the
present-day fiasco. An opportunity to deal with a national
grievance was lost
but the people refused to be cowed into submission.
Our national debates
led to the rise of the Constitutional movement in 1997.
Initially, Zanu PF
dismissed the calls for constitutional change. When the
heat was on, the
regime reacted negatively, taking the people's initiative
and distorting the
people's objectives. The country lost another opportunity
to tackle the
growing crisis of governance. The people continued to march
on.
When a
resolution to form a political movement came out of the National
Working
People's Convention, again the Zanu PF poured scorn at our efforts
to put
together a credible political alternative. It was only their defeat
in the
February 2000 referendum, which gave them a rude wake up call. In
response to
that defeat, the regime reacted violently and declared war on
the people.
Yet, another opportunity to listen to the people's concerns was
lost. But,
the people could not be silenced.
Our presence in Parliament has kept
Zanu PF on its toes, often negatively
too. They pushed Zimbabwe into a
permanent election campaign period for five
years. The result has been hate
speech, senseless propaganda, no
development, no meaningful interaction among
politicians and political
parties, lack of respect for the people and all the
destruction we are
witnessing today. Despite the setbacks, we remain
determined to rid our
society of intolerance.
When we took over 12
towns and cities last year, we inherited a huge debt
and collapsed
infrastructure. We put in mechanisms to repair the damage.
Zanu PF reacted in
a typical fashion, openly disrupting the people's mandate
and interfering
with the people's elected representatives. Whatever it
takes, our presence is
still being felt.
We took the lead and published our economic plan,
RESTART. Zanu PF reacted
with all kinds of poor experiments - including the
so-called Homelink
project -- all designed to skirt around our national
crisis. These efforts
have, once again, collapsed. When we called for
electoral reform and
published our RESTORE document, Zanu PF reacted with
some cosmetic proposals
to counter our plan. Again, this arrangement took
them nowhere as it was
overtaken by the SADC Principles and Guidelines on
Democratic Elections,
which exposed the totalitarian nature of the present
election management
machinery.
Last week, our National Executive
decided to suspend participation in all
forms of elections until an election
management system that captures the
spirit of the SADC principles is firmly
on place, on the ground. The
response, as usual, has been hysterical. The
regime could, for fear of
losing power and thwarting the people's long
cherished wish for a free and
fair election, inflict untold damage to the
spirit of Mauritius.
The political crisis of governance and its infection
of the economy were
always at the centre of the Zimbabwean dispute. Over the
years, we were
trying to intervene and save whatever still existed, in the
face of mounting
evidence pointing to a serious economic meltdown. Today,
there is nothing
left. No other country, except for those at war, has had an
experience
similar to ours. There are no jobs. There is no food.
A
nation's economy thrives in a stable political environment. Examples
abound
of several African countries with abundant natural resources
including
minerals, oil, year-round rainfall patterns and fertile
agricultural soils
which have failed to take off simply because of wrong
politics. An economy
needs the insurance and support of the rule of law, a
nation's freedoms and a
solid rights culture to take off. The MDC recognises
the significance of
these fundamental enclosures.
In our plan, we place special emphasis on
stability as a foundation for
economic prosperity. Zimbabwe shall undergo a
major transformation and focus
attention away from empty political slogans,
blame-games and outdated
nationalistic concepts to a new start.
We
desire a new beginning. We are setting the pillars for a new Zimbabwe.
Gone
shall be the days when an election set families against their
neighbours,
brother against sister, and mother against son. Gone shall be
the days when
espousing a different political view attracted state-sponsored
punishment.
Nor can anyone selfishly change the rules to suit his party's
needs. There
shall be no bullies in any election in a new Zimbabwe. The MDC
shall resist
attempts to sacrifice your freedoms for political expediency.
Any
election conducted without a new Zimbabwe in mind shall yield a flawed
result
and perpetuate our misery for a long time to come. It is far better
to delay
such an election until our national poll management structures are
ready to
take on such watershed assignment.
We are better off without
participating in an election than to endorse a
senseless orgy of violence and
murder. You deserve an election during which
nobody fears or even thinks of
thugs loitering around your homes with an
intention to rape, to beat you up,
to loot your personal possessions and to
force you to attend a political
rally.
The SADC protocol on principles and guidelines governing
democratic
elections, agreed to in Mauritius, offers us a golden opportunity
to deal
decisively with the past and to start afresh. The protocol was a
victory for
the MDC for it answered our call for the restoration of essential
benchmarks
for measuring a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.
We
started our campaign with a call for the consideration of 15 points for
a
free and fair election. We then consolidated these points in February
into
five thematic standards. We then published our RESTORE document,
expressing
our reservations about the status quo, and set out what Zimbabwe
needs
before a free and fair election.
We took the challenge to the
people, addressing 12 provincial assemblies and
nine district conventions in
rural constituencies. At the same time, we were
on the ground with our
natural allies in civil society through the broad
alliance and in the SADC
region. These efforts took us to Mauritius. We are
happy our campaigns have
succeeded.
The only sticky point relates to the placement of the
guidelines on the
ground. It is clear we shall, once again, get everything we
envisage before
the next Parliamentary election. We are very clear about the
success of the
route we have chosen to restore legitimacy to
Zimbabwe.
The challenge facing the nation is to prepare for the daunting
task of
building a new society, a new Zimbabwe with sufficient jobs and
abundant
food. Let us look ahead and turn our country into a haven of peace,
a place
where our diversity becomes our strength. A new Zimbabwe shall
respect your
rights, your divergent opinions, your freedoms and your
creative
initiatives.
As you know, we consulted widely on the future.
There is unanimous view that
Zimbabwe needs a new beginning. There can never
be short cuts to a lasting
solution, given where we are today. The people are
tired of failed
experiments. They now have an answer, buoyed by the spirit of
Mauritius and
latest protocol.
Together with the African Union's
'Declaration on the Principles Governing
Democratic Elections in Africa', the
new SADC position shall take us to a
new stage of political development,
devoid of dictatorships and
post-colonial tyranny.
Our turnaround plan
for Zimbabwe remains intact. We know of attempts to
confuse the people, push
them further into despair and spawn a despondent
and hopeless
electorate.
We are finalising the selection of our candidates,
consolidating our
campaign teams and the engaging various community leaders
in their
constituencies.
In the spirit of Mauritius, you shall soon be
hearing our voices on radio,
on television and other public media. We shall
share ideas openly at our
workplaces and in our villages.
The
political electric fence that denied you access to the watermelon has
rusted
away. A new Zimbabwe is within sight. Together, we have managed to
overcome a
main barrier -- a vital part of our struggle for freedom
and
choice.
Morgan Tsvangirai
President.
Peace building NGO could face closure
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 31 Aug
2004 (IRIN) - In Zimbabwe's current political climate, peace
building and
conflict management would seem to be two fruitful areas of
work, but most
NGOs have shied away from the subject.
Few are publicly linked to
activities that recognise the problems associated
with political violence
between the ruling ZANU-PF and its opposition, the
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
One exception is the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust
(ZIMCET), which has been
working towards the consolidation of peace since
January 2000 by
establishing non-partisan local peace committees that
spearhead peace
education and conflict management at community
level.
Now ZIMCET is uncertain about its future. Impending legislation
that seeks
to deny registration to NGOs receiving foreign funding for
"promotion and
protection of human rights and political governance issues",
could force it
to shut down.
According to the government, the proposed
legislation would ensure that NGOs
were governed and administered properly,
and used donor and public funds for
the purpose for which they were
established, but critics allege the bill
will result in a clampdown on civil
society.
ZIMCET director David Chimhini told IRIN that "there is a
general sentiment
that ZIMCET's offices might possibly have to close" in the
near future, as
their work is financed largely by organisations based
overseas.
ZIMCET advisor Terrance Ncube (not his real name) said that
although the
government was "generally supportive", it closely monitored the
NGO's
operations.
"The communities clearly indicated to us that their
main problem was
state-sponsored political violence," said Chimhini, who also
insisted that
conflict "never comes from one side only."
Initially,
ZIMCET was active in the fields of election monitoring and voter
education,
but the focus of its work changed after Zimbabwe's parliamentary
elections
were won by ZANU-PF in June 2000, when the NGO recognised a need
for
peacekeeping and conflict management.
"With the land reform came the
deterioration of the economic situation and,
with that, a polarisation in the
society between ZANU-PF and MDC," explained
Ncube. He felt the country's
economic problems and the prevalence of
violence were interrelated: "People
without jobs are easier to mobilise and
influence politically," he
said.
To re-establish a culture of tolerance, transparency and
participation,
ZIMCET started forming local peace committees composed of a
number of
stakeholders, such as representatives from ZANU-PF, MDC, police,
women's
organisations, and traditional, church and youth
leaders.
Peace committees are trained in conflict management and go
through a
team-building process to foster cooperation among themselves. While
ZIMCET
facilitators initially play a crucial role in setting up and guiding
a
committee, they eventually retreat to a solely supervisory position.
The
committee ultimately "owns" the programme and runs it independently
of
ZIMCET.
The committee usually takes preventive as well as
corrective measures in
areas of conflict and discusses problems until
consensus is reached between
all stakeholders. "It is a long, long process,"
admitted Ncube.
A ZIMCET-led peace committee intervened successfully in
Masvingo, where
political violence broke out in February and March 2004,
ahead of the
provincial elections. The committee called on candidates of both
ZANU-PF and
MDC to publicly denounce violence, said Chimhini. As a result,
pre-election
violence decreased drastically.
In another instance,
police tried to shut down peace committee meetings in
Bulawayo, arguing that
its members "talked politics". Chimhini said in the
past such an event would
have easily led to violence and counter-violence,
but three representatives
of the committee - one from ZANU-PF, one from MDC
and a war veteran - met
with the head of the local police station to explain
the non-partisan nature
of the peace committee and since then, peace
committees in Bulawayo have been
allowed to meet without restriction.
The NGO is careful not to force its
programme on people. "It is for the
community to decide if they are
interested in a peace programme. If they
deny that there is a problem, you
cannot force them - you cannot be more
concerned than they are themselves,"
Ncube explained.
In some communities Ncube preferred not to name, ZIMCET
had failed to set up
peace committees - facilitators have had to discontinue
their work, although
they still monitored violence and made a fresh approach
to the leaders every
few months.
ZIMCET has 44 fully operational peace
committees, four regional branches in
Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Midlands
region and Manicaland, with its
administrative headquarters in Harare.
Chimhini hopes that if ZIMCET's
operations are shut down, the peace
committees will be empowered enough to
continue their work.
Ngube
estimated it would take another two or three years before all the
committees
could work completely independently, but maintained that "the
fact that we managed to establish these committees alone is a
success."
BBC
Zimbabwe tobacco crop falls
again
|
The tobacco crop is in steady
decline | Zimbabwe's tobacco crop, one of its main sources of hard
currency, has fallen for the fourth year in a row.
Official figures show Zimbabwe had sold just over 64
million kilograms of the plant by Monday, the penultimate day of the 2004
tobacco selling season.
The crop, down sharply from 80 million kgs last year,
generated revenues of about $130m (£71.5m; 104m euros).
The latest tobacco harvest continues a pattern of
steady decline that began four years ago.
Production disrupted
The slump partly reflects disruptions caused by the
government's policy of redistributing white-owned land.
The latest tobacco crop compares with a harvest of 237 million
kgs in 2000, the year land redistribution began.
New black farmers are reported to have had
difficulties raising money to invest in machinery and agricultural inputs such
as fertiliser.
The agriculture industry has also suffered from
rampant inflation and high borrowing costs.
Zimbabwe's dwindling tobacco crop leaves the country
with less hard currency to buy vital imported commodities such as fuel and
medicine.
The final tally of the 2004 tobacco crop could be
slighly higher once 'mop-up' sales, due to take place in September, are taken
into account.
The bulk of Zimbabwe's tobacco is exported to Asia
and the European Union. |
IOL
It's not like it was in the past, old chaps
August 31
2004 at 11:41AM
By Raymond Whitaker and Paul Lashmar
'Things have changed in Africa," said a friend of Simon Mann, the old
Etonian
now awaiting sentence in Zimbabwe for attempting to buy arms
illegally. "The
days are gone when you could recruit a bunch of moustaches,
load up some
ammunition and take over a country - especially if you are a
white
man."
Mann says the weapons were for a mine security operation in
the
Democratic Republic of Congo; the Zimbabweans and others say they were
for a
coup in the oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea. But his friend's words
ring
true as the 51-year-old former SAS officer sits in Chikurubi prison
near
Harare, facing a heavy sentence at his next hearing on 10
September.
In Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Nick du
Toit, Mann's
associate, is on trial for his life. And under house arrest
behind heavy
iron gates in Constantia, Sir Mark Thatcher, also 51, is
contemplating his
future.
There is nothing his mother, Baroness
Thatcher, can do to extricate
him from charges under South Africa's Foreign
Military Assistance Act. He
faces up to 15 years in jail. Although he is
unlikely to be extradited to
Equatorial Guinea, legal officers from there may
be allowed to question him
in Cape Town.
According to legal
statements by Mann and Du Toit, a force of
mercenaries recruited in South
Africa were to fly to Zimbabwe, pick up arms
and ammunition and fly on to
Equatorial Guinea.
In return for £1 million and lucrative
contracts, they would help to
depose President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and
replace him with Severo Moto, an
exiled opposition politician based in
Madrid. If he was not killed, Obiang
was to have been flown to
Spain.
But how could the politics of a small African state have
entangled
such a varied cast of characters? These include not only Lady
Thatcher's son
but some of her closest former aides, such as Lord Archer,
whose friend, the
Lebanese-born British-based oil trader Ely Calil, is named
by Mann as the
chief sponsor of the coup. (Both Archer and Calil have denied
any prior
knowledge or involvement.)
Add in ex-special forces
operatives from Britain and South Africa, not
to mention two African
dictators - President Obiang and Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe - and the story
begins to resemble a Frederick Forsyth thriller, a
post-modernist Dogs of War
in which the "natives" actually win.
And that is exactly the point.
Not only does the affair resurrect the
era when white mercenaries attempted
to overturn regimes across Africa, it
brings back half-forgotten figures from
the 1980s in Britain, when a class
of deal-makers and influence-peddlers
operated in the shadow of the Iron
Lady, seeking to turn her grip on the
British electorate to profit.
When his mother took power, Mark
Thatcher was 26, with an
undistinguished career at school and in business.
There was little reason to
expect that 25 years later he would be worth an
estimated £60m, with
mansions in South Africa and Texas and a network of
business contacts around
the world.
Like others, Sir Mark (who
inherited a baronetcy when his father, Sir
Denis, died last year) did well
out of his mother's name. But the questions
and controversies arising from
his use of the Thatcher name drove him first
to the US and then to South
Africa. There he made friends with Mann, who
owns a luxury home in Hout Bay,
Du Toit and other former military men using
their expertise to cash in on
Africa's instability.
Mann appears to be the only person who really
knows where all the
pieces of this jigsaw fit, who was really behind the coup
plot and who is on
the mythical "wonga list" of investors. But the whole
affair would never
have acquired such international notoriety if it were not
for the letter he
smuggled out of prison.
"Please!" read the
intercepted note to his advisers. "It is essential
that we get properly
organised."
It urges them to make maximum efforts to contact
"Smelly" - taken to
refer to Calil - and "Scratcher", a nickname for Sir
Mark. It also names
David Hart, the businessman who is presumed to have
helped Lady Thatcher
break the 1984-85 miners' strike.
Mann
writes: "What will get us out is MAJOR CLOUT... once we get into
a real trial
scenario we are f....d." On a page torn from a magazine, he
tells his team to
chase up expected "project funds" from investors including
"Scratcher" who
has the figure "200" in brackets.
This has been interpreted as
meaning that Sir Mark had promised a sum
of $200 000, but gives no indication
that it was intended for any illegal
activity and indeed implies that no
money was ever actually handed over.
Among the four people to whom
the note was addressed are Nigel Morgan,
like Mann a former Guards officer,
and James Kershaw, a 24-year-old who has
worked for both men. Kershaw, who is
said to have handled money transfers
for Mann's company, Logo, is expected to
testify against Sir Mark, according
to the Scorpions.
His
evidence may be crucial: despite voluminous paperwork connected
with the coup
attempt, there have been no reports of any document that
carries Sir Mark's
name.
But whatever their past friendship, "Scratcher" must be ruing
the day
he ever met Mann. The former secret soldier is a throwback to the
days of
empire, a British public schoolboy adventurer prepared to interfere
in Third
World countries.
"He is very English, a romantic,
tremendously good company," said the
film director Paul Greengrass. In his
first and only role as a professional
actor, Mann played the part of Colonel
Derek Wilford, commander of the
paratroopers in Londonderry in Greengrass's
gritty television reconstruction
of Bloody Sunday.
After Eton
and Sandhurst, the 19-year-old Mann joined the Scots Guards
in 1972, but his
daredevil instincts soon drew him to the SAS. A troop
commander in 22 SAS,
specialising in intelligence and counter-terrorism, he
served in Cyprus,
Germany, Norway, Canada, central America and Northern
Ireland before leaving
the Army in 1985.
Although he began by selling supposedly
hack-proof computer software,
like many SAS veterans he also operated in the
security business, reportedly
providing bodyguards to wealthy Arabs. He
remained part of 23 SAS, the
Territorial Army section, and briefly returned
to the colours on the staff
of General Sir Peter de la Billiere during the
first Gulf War in 1991.
Security consulting in the Gulf followed,
but his connection with
Africa predominated. He was hired by Eben Barlow, a
South African, to help
run Executive Outcomes, the first of the many private
military companies now
operating around the globe.
Both men
rapidly became rich, most notably from a series of security
deals in Angola,
where Executive Outcomes not only protected oil and diamond
fields, but
trained Angolan troops and fought Unita rebels. The company also
helped the
Sierra Leone government quash rebels in the '90s.
All this gained
Mann not only a mansion in Cape Town but Inchmery, a 8
hectare riverside
estate in Hampshire that once belonged to the
Roths-childs.
Mann, now a dual citizen of Britain and South Africa, bought the
estate
through a company registered in the offshore tax haven of Guernsey.
But why should a man past 50, who had earned enough to live in style
without
ever working again, have become involved in such a hair-raising
caper as the
Equatorial Guinea plot?
According to his friends, it was the drug
of adventure. One said he
had been warned by the British as well as the South
African authorities that
he should "hang up his boots", but the ex-SAS man
seems to have ignored the
advice.
What is perhaps most
surprising about the attempted coup is its
incompetence. A planeload of
obvious mercenaries leaves South Africa, no
longer a country which encourages
such activity, then lands in Zimbabwe. If
the receiving officials were
supposed to have been bribed, it had not been
done effectively, but in any
case the Zimbabweans appeared to have been
warned in advance.
It
took little time after that to arrest the alleged advance guard in
Equatorial
Guinea, where Du Toit is on trial with seven other South
Africans, six
Armenians and four local citizens.
But the greatest folly was the
lack of security. Mann's 66 fellow
defendants in Zimbabwe, including the 64
men who were travelling on South
African passports when their plane was
seized, were acquitted on the arms
charge, with the magistrate accepting
their plea that they did not know
where they were going. But it seemed that
half of South Africa did. Rumours
of the coup attempt were circulating in
Cape Town, Johannesburg and London
well in advance.
The paper
trail linked to the plot was so extensive that some
observers at first
believed that they had been faked to make a case.
But Mann, it
seems, wanted contracts signed for every part of this
dubious
scheme.
Du Toit was even required to sign a company-to-company
contract to
perform his part of the coup. Why the former SAS officer might
have wanted
such a document is a mystery: it could hardly have been produced
in court in
the event of a dispute.
That the plot fell apart so
damagingly is hardly surprising, given how
wide knowledge of it went in
Britain as well as South Africa.
"What Simon Mann appears not to
have realised is that there is much
greater co-ordination among African
countries, including intelligence
co-operation, to put a stop to coups," said
one source. "Nigeria, the
regional power, stepped in recently to reverse a
coup in Sao Tome, and was
ready to do the same in Equatorial Guinea. The fact
that the operation was
penetrated by South African intelligence prevented a
lot of bloodshed."
Britain and South Africa have changed, but Mann
and his friends seemed
oblivious to that. Gone are the days when operators
such as Sir James
Goldsmith and John Aspinall, both now dead, sought to
convince a
Conservative government that Britain's interests as well as their
own would
be served by backing such Africans as Angola's Jonas Savimbi, now
dead, and
South Africa's Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The two
African leaders were promoted as the Christian, anti-Communist
alternative to
the likes of Nelson Mandela, whom Lady Thatcher once
described as a
terrorist. But the Conservatives are no longer in power, and
Mandela has been
welcomed in Britain on a state visit as president of a
free, democratic South
Africa.
The hapless Du Toit, a former South African special officer
and member
of Executive Outcomes, stands to come off worst. He confessed to
his role
within a day of arrest in Malabo, and has continued to help identify
other
plotters since.
Despite President Obiang's claim that he
is not seeking the death
penalty, the prosecutor in the Malabo court has
called for the execution of
those found guilty. The verdicts are expected by
the end of this week.
Unless Zimbabwe goes back on its decision not
to extradite him to
Equatorial Guinea, Mann will fare better, even if he
receives the maximum
sentence of 10 years. He could well be extradited back
to South Africa to
face further charges, but some believe that with his rich
and influential
friends, he could receive a discreet pardon in a year or two,
once the dust
has settled.
As for Mark Thatcher, his circle is
claiming that much disinformation
has been spread to implicate him and
distract attention from the real
culprits. But his past is troubled, and the
proceedings against him will be
protracted and messy.
Clearing
his name could require every ounce of his much-touted
influence. - The London
Independent
Rochdale Observer (UK)
Anguish goes on for gun tragedy family
FOUR
weeks after the death of a wealthy Rochdale woman in Zimbabwe, her
family is
still anxiously awaiting for a post mortem examination to be
carried
out.
Ivy Sutcliffe, who was 61, was found with gunshot wounds to the head
at her
luxury home on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. Neighbours raised
the
alarm after hearing shooting.
Her husband, former Littleborough
taxi driver Michael Bamford, aged 47, was
arrested within hours and charged
with her murder later that day.
He made a second court appearance last
Wednesday and was further remanded in
custody.
One of Mrs Sutcliffe's
three daughters, Rebecca Nash, who lives in
Todmorden, said Mr Bamford's
defence lawyers had the first post mortem
halted and now the authorities have
not been able to find a pathologist to
carry out a second.
She said:
"We have been assured there will be an autopsy, but they are not
quite sure
when. The police and authorities are doing their best over there,
but there
aren't sufficient professionals to carry out post mortems. It
could be weeks
before it is carried out.
"We want our mother's body released as quickly
as possible so we can then
make arrangements for her funeral. It is very
frustrating."
Three-times married Mrs Sutcliffe had homes in this
country, Zimbabwe and
Spain and was a former member of both Tunshill and
Rochdale Golf Clubs.
Her first marriage was to accountant Liam Taylor,
with whom she had three
daughters. She then married Brian Sutcliffe, the
owner of a Littleborough
haulage company and when he died she met Mr
Bamford.
His parents, from Littleborough, briefly lived in Zimbabwe,
where Mr Bamford
was born. They returned to the Rochdale area when their son
was young and
became licensees of a local pub.
Mrs Sutcliffe had known
Michael Bamford for 10 years and they moved to
Zimbabwe five years ago. They
married in Harare in May this year.
Farmers Assured of Enough Coal Supplies
The Herald
(Harare)
August 31, 2004
Posted to the web August 31,
2004
Harare
THE Coal Merchants of Zimbabwe has assured the farming
community that there
will be adequate coal supplies for the coming
agricultural season.
President of the association Mr Lovemore Kurotwi
said all their reserves
were full and they were now waiting to deliver the
coal to various
customers.
"Those who have made the necessary bookings
are guaranteed of supplies in
the near future as our buffer stocks for
agriculture are full to capacity,"
he added.
Farmers mostly require
coal for curing tobacco, which is the country's
largest foreign currency
source.
Mr Kurotwi said since they patched up their differences with
Wankie Colliery
and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) they have not
encountered
problems in supplying to the local industry.
The
agriculture and industrial sectors had blamed the two parties for
failing to
effectively play their part in the delivery of the coal.
Companies had
resorted to importing the commodity from neighbouring
countries due to
erratic supplies, a situation that milked the country of
its hard-earned
foreign currency.
The coal procurement and distribution network recently
commissioned a
multi-billion dollar mobile crusher, which is expected to
increase coal
supplies for industrial and agricultural use.
The
crusher has a capacity to process about three tonnes of coal per day.
Prepare for Harvesting of Wheat, Farmers Urged
The Herald
(Harare)
August 31, 2004
Posted to the web August 31,
2004
Harare
THE Department of Agricultural Research Extension
yesterday urged farmers to
be prepared for the harvesting of the winter wheat
crop which is expected to
begin in the next two weeks.
Arex director
Dr Shadreck Mlambo told The Herald that farmers should not be
caught unawares
and must start approaching the District Development Fund,
Arda and other
commercial farmers for combine harvesters.
"We are expecting it to begin
in the next two weeks, but these will be few
cases, but it will gain momentum
as we progress," Dr Mlambo said.
The Arex chief said 71 000 hectares of
land had been put under the winter
wheat crop and around 355 000 tonnes were
expected from this year's winter
crop.
Zimbabwe needs between 380 000
and 400 000 tonnes of wheat a year to meet
its flour requirements.
The
figure is a significant improvement from last year's 150 000 tonnes
which
were delivered to the Grain Marketing Board at the end of the
marketing
period.
He said they were expecting an average of five tonnes per
hectare.
Dr Mlambo said the farmers must make sure that the wheat is
taken off the
fields before the onset of the rainy season as the rains would
damage the
crop.
Last year the rains spoiled a significant amount of
wheat across the country
after the farmers failed to access combine
harvesters whose costs were
prohibitive.
The farmers then resorted to
the use of manual labour, which is very slow,
and they lost millions of
dollars in the process.
"We urge the farmers to be ready and to make sure
that wheat is taken from
the fields before the onset of the rainy season. If
this is not done, the
wheat will lose its quality and grade hence the
reduction of the returns to
the farmer," he said.
"If the rains start
when the wheat is still in the fields, it will also
start to develop various
diseases through moulds, and millers will offer low
prices," Dr Mlambo
said.
The land reform programme has seen an increase in the number of new
players
in wheat production as most of the newly resettled farmers are now
growing
the cereal.
However, lack of equipment and funds have
threatened the viability of wheat
production among the small-scale
farmers.
