Zim Online
Wednesday 27 September
2006
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's government
will next week prosecute
two white farmers for defying orders to vacate
their farms while it has also
ordered another 50 white landowners across the
country to surrender their
properties, a top official of the white
Commercial Farmers Union said.
Only about 600 out of an estimated 4
000 large-scale producing white
commercial farmers remain in Zimbabwe after
Mugabe drove the majority off
the land and gave their farms to landless
blacks in a chaotic and often
violent campaign he said was meant to correct
racial imbalances in land
ownership.
CFU vice-president Trevor
Gifford declined to disclose the names of
the two farmers but said they will
next Tuesday appear in the magistrate's
court in the farming town of Karoi
in Mashonaland West province.
ZimOnline was unable to independently
establish the identity of the
farmers set to become the first to be tried
for defying government eviction
orders since the beginning of farm seizures
six years ago.
Gifford said: "Two farmers have been issued with
summons to appear in
court on Tuesday at 8am. They are being accused of
ignoring eviction notices
that were served on them.
"But the
tragedy is that the two are some of the best in tobacco and
cereals. One of
them had just delivered 1 000 tonnes of maize to the Grain
Marketing Board
(sole grain procurer owned by the State) and now he is going
to be
prosecuted for doing that."
State Security, Lands and Land Reform
Minister Didymus Mutasa
confirmed that the government would be bringing
charges against some white
farmers he accused of attempting to slow down
land reform by ignoring
eviction orders.
He said: "Yes the
process has started. Those who refuse to comply with
eviction orders are
slowing down our land reform programme and will face the
music. They will go
to court and face charges."
It however remains unclear exactly what
charges the state will bring
against the white farmers or what punishment
the court can impose.
The government is still in the process of
pushing legislation to make
it an offence - for which one could be jailed
for seven years among other
sanctions - for one to defy state orders to
vacate a piece of land.
Mugabe's government - which had announced
it had ended farm seizures
to focus on raising production on land already
acquired from whites - has in
the last three weeks renewed land grabs, with
scores of farmers, especially
in the provinces of Manicaland, Masvingo and
Mashonaland West, ordered to
leave and make way for blacks.
There have also been reports that government militias and veterans of
Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war have been sent out to pressure farmers to
give up their properties.
The war veterans and militias are
accused of human rights violations
including murder against white farmers
during the first phase of government
farm seizures.
The farm
seizures that began in 2000 and which Mugabe says were meant
to correct an
unjust land tenure system that reserved 75 percent of the best
arable land
for minority whites while the majority blacks were cramped on
poor soils
have been blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food
shortages.
The southern African country that was once a
regional breadbasket has
largely survived on food handouts from
international relief agencies for the
past six years and will this year
require more food aid for at least three
quarters of its 12 million people.
- ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 27 September
2006
HARARE - In Part 1 of my contribution
to the mystery of why
Zimbabweans do not rebel, I anchored my argument in
the proposition that
Zimbabweans do not rebel largely (but not solely)
because of a specific
existential reality: that the Zimbabwean masses are a
risk-averse people
ruled by a risk-taking political elite.
I
further advanced the idea that unless the Zimbabwean demos are
transformed,
through an arduous and sustained but long-yielding process of
mobilisation,
from a risk-evading orientation to one of risk-taking (or at
least
risk-neutrality), an organised mass action of the type envisaged by
the
ZCTU, the NCA, ZINASU and other civic movements, will continue to
attract
disappointing support.
In so arguing, I sought neither to praise
nor condemn but to describe
the reality as I see it. How this situation
arose is the subject of this
instalment.
Zimbabweans are not
congenitally risk-averse; they were made
risk-averse through a process of
conditioning over time. The risk-averseness
has made them politically
passive and inert.
Since Ian Smith captured power from the rather
risk-averse Winston
Field in 1964, Zimbabwe has been ruled by a risk-taking
elite. It was not
until a critical mass of a risk-taking Black Nationalist
elite emerged to
counter the White risk-taking elite and to mobilise the
masses that mass
action took place in the manner of the liberation struggle
in its variegated
forms.
The risk-evading masses became either
risk-takers or at the very
least, risk-neutrals. It is my contention though
that the liberation
struggle (specifically its most active phase from 1972
to 1979) was not
sufficiently long to transform the orientations of the
masses on a permanent
basis.
The process of transforming a
risk-averse people into risk-takers was
not completed. The 1979 Lancaster
House process culminating in the Lancaster
House Agreement short-circuited
the transformative process. Therefore, at
the psycho-political level, the
liberation struggle was an incomplete
revolution.
Those who
most actively and directly participated in the armed
struggle are invariably
and understandably the most risk-taking segment of
our society. These are of
course the war vets and the war collaborators who,
unsurprisingly, are the
ruling party's storm troopers.
But this is also a generation that
is on its way out, following the
laws of nature. Once this political
generation is out of the equation, ZANU
PF will never be the same again, in
character, composition and philosophical
outlook.
Perhaps
mindful of this inevitability, the ZANU PF leadership agonised
over the
reproduction of the risk-taking class of war vets, and, in my view,
the
controversial youth training programme is an instrument to this
end.
It is designed towards political regeneration.
After independence, Zimbabweans suffered what the learned people (the
lawyers) call recidivism. Zimbabweans recoiled into their shells like
tortoises and have by and large remained in this situation since then, only
occasionally and hesitatingly popping out their heads in a typical risk-shy
fashion.
In short, the risk-taking behaviour displayed by
Zimbabweans during
the liberation war was a transient phenomenon and this
transitory character
serves to prove the fundamental and underlying
political character of the
average Zimbabwean; his/her subject orientation
to authority, any authority.
This is amply and daily displayed in
virtually every organisational or
associational setting: in churches,
schools - including institutions of
higher learning, firms, homes, political
parties, etc. In short, this
authority-worshipping tendency is manifest in
all organisations, micro and
macro.
Moreover, this attitude is
deeply embedded in the Zimbabwean psyche
and it will take a painfully long
time to unwind. And it is a product of
more than a century of uninterrupted
authoritarianism.
One does not have to be a Marxist to agree with
Karl Marx's acute
observation that "the tradition of all the dead
generations weighs like a
nightmare on the brain of the
living."
The most critical agents in the transmission of this
risk-evading
behaviour among Zimbabweans and over decades have been the
churches, schools
and, for adults, the media.
The media has
been particularly effective to the point where one
recent study explained
the political subjecthood among Zimbabweans in terms
of the "power of
propaganda."
And the power of propaganda - in its various forms -
has given birth
to a peculiar mindset that my former colleague Professor
Jonathan Moyo
creatively and brilliantly referred to as "normalising the
abnormal."
Briefly stated, the notion of "normalising the abnormal"
starts from
the premise that there are some things or situations that are
manifestly
abnormal. For instance, that it is abnormal to queue for food
items as a
result of shortages of say, sugar, cooking oil, maize meal, bread
or for
other commodities like fuel, water and for other services like health
care.
And yet people have over time been led to believe that it is
in fact
normal to queue for such basic survival commodities and services.
They even
joke and heartily laugh about it. This creates and inculcate
fatalistic or
defeatist values in our society, presently and for future
generations.
The agency for transmitting such values is the public
media, which,
through its propaganda leads otherwise rational people to
begin to accept
bad things or situations as inherently good just because the
government or
the ruling party says so.
The notion of
"normalising the abnormal" provides a paradigm for
analysing our acceptance
of the dire conditions in which we find ourselves.
It is a framework not
only for rationalising our situation, but also for
immobilising
ourselves.
Before his foray into the turbulent world of politics,
Moyo had
correctly argued that ZANU PF was conditioning Zimbabweans to
expect the
abnormal as normal. He had proceeded to warn us against the
tendency of
accepting this aberration as normal, and that unless we resisted
accepting
the abnormal as normal, the abnormal would become part of our
culture.
In fact, the process did not start with ZANU PF; ZANU PF
simply
perfected this stratagem. And of course, Moyo later had the rare
opportunity
to test this thesis in the world of practical
politics.
Because we accept aberrations as normal, we see no need
to correct
them because we may even see them as intrinsically good.
Moreover, when and
where people accept the abnormal as normal, they have
developed creative
coping mechanisms rather than seeking to deal with the
source of the
abnormality.
Maggie Makanza's lamentation in her
"The Anatomy of the Zimbabwean
Problem" (see my last instalment) is
essentially another way of lamenting
the normalisation of the
abnormal.
She asks: "Why has there been no eruption in
Zimbabwe?"
The simple answer is that people what are supposed to
erupt see no
basis for such an eruption because they have been so
conditioned. Further,
"normalising the abnormal" reinforces the
risk-averseness among Zimbabweans.
This combination is completely
fatal to any strategy of organised mass
action for the simple reason that
action-oriented masses are not there. To
'mass act' there must be the masses
who are so inclined.
Another tendency, flowing from both the
risk-averseness of the masses
and their tendency to disengage from any
confrontation with the state is the
atomisation of public reactions to
grievances.
People react to a public problem not by organising
other citizens in a
similar situation to collectively protest an injustice
or agitate for
redress. Instead, people would rather deal with the problem
individually and
as best as they can and evading the source of the
problem.
I will give live examples we can all easily relate to.
ZESA daily
abuses us by "load shedding" us causing all sorts of miseries to
our lives
but what is our reaction? Nothing collective!
Those
with the means buy generators and quietly and individually deal
with this
nuisance. The less endowed quietly and individually buy firewood
for cooking
and candles for lighting.
The Harare City Council and ZINWA collude
to deny us our daily water
and what do Harare residents do? Those who are
privileged sink boreholes and
quietly and individually deal with the
problem. The povo go to fetch water
from unprotected wells and streams with
all the attendant health hazards.
And those who can not afford
transport fare to work simply walk to
work, even from Chitungwiza! These
actions are clearly abnormal but flow
from the normalisation of the
abnormal.
And risk-averseness keeps the aggrieved masses from
questioning the
perpetrators of these injustices. We are witnessing the
individualisation of
action and an aversion or at the very least,
indifference to collective
action.
Now, can one reasonably
expect Zimbabweans to rebel? I have my grave
reservations.
My
contention is that rebelliousness to authority (any authority!) is
not an
integral part of the political psyche of the Zimbabwean demos. This
is
despite the Second Chimurenga. There is really no deep-seated tradition
of
resistance to authority or speaking truth to power.
Our agents of
socialisation reinforce this. This is why Zimbabweans
can tolerate abuse
more than any other people in southern Africa. Those who
cannot tolerate the
abuse would rather take the exit option.
It is for this reason that
Zimbabweans are the people easiest to
govern - in politics and indeed in any
other social arena - than any other
group of citizens in the region, and
probably beyond.
In short, the road to organised mass action is
blocked because it has
few takers.
* Eldred V Masunungure is a
lecturer in the Department of Political &
Administrative Studies at the
University of Zimbabwe
NEWS RELEASE
INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION
the global
voice of the legal profession
[For Immediate Release: Tuesday, 26
September 2006]
The Human Rights Institute of
the International Bar Association (IBA) today
urged the United Nations and
African Union to take decisive and immediate
action to end impunity for
serious violations of international law in
Zimbabwe.
Responding to a report in Zimbabwe's Herald on 25
September 2006 that
President Robert Mugabe recently endorsed the unlawful
actions of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police against leaders of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade
Unions last week, the IBA's Executive Director Mark Ellis
said, 'Mugabe's
statements add to the weight of evidence that torture and
other serious
violations of international law are sanctioned at the highest
level in
Zimbabwe. This underscores the urgent need for international and
regional
action to hold the Zimbabwean Government to
account.'
He added that "the torture of the trade union activists
is not an isolated
incident, but part of a dangerous and illegal system of
repression which
constitutes crimes against humanity in international law.
Decisive action
is required by both the United Nations and the African Union
to end impunity
and violence in Zimbabwe.''
Fifteen
Zimbabwean trade union leaders sustained severe injuries after they
were
assaulted while in police custody on 13 September 2006. The trade
unionists
were arrested during peaceful protests. Credible reports from
several local
sources contend that the trade union leaders were brutally
tortured. In an
article published in the Herald article of 25 September
2006, Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe is reported to have said,'We cannot
have a revolt to
the system. Vamwe vaakuchema kuti takarohwa, ehe
unodashurwa [others are
crying that we were beaten up, yes you would be
beaten up]. When the police
say move, move. If you don't move, you invite
the police to use force.'
ENDS
For further information, please
contact:
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Press
Office
International Bar Association
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Street
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United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7691
6868
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Website:
www.ibanet.org
About
the International Bar Association
- the global voice of the legal
profession
In its role as a dual membership organisation, comprising
30,000 lawyer
members and over 195 bar associations and law societies, the
International
Bar Association (IBA) influences the development of
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Member Organisations
cover all continents and include the American Bar
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About the
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In 1995, the International Bar Association (IBA)
established the Human
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of Nelson Mandela. The
HRI is now a leading voice in the promotion of the
rule of law worldwide.
The HRI works across the IBA, helping to
promote, protect and enforce human
rights under a just rule of law, and to
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The HRI:
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By Lance
Guma
26 September 2006
A government attempt to fix the
price of bread has backfired miserably
with reports that the country's
bakers are now shunning the formal market
and selling to black market
vendors. Six directors from several leading
companies, including bread maker
Lobels, were arrested over what the
authorities called 'unsanctioned' price
increases. Lemmy Chikomo, Lobels
Operations Director, was arrested after the
company increased the price of
bread from Z$200 to Z$335 for a loaf. To
circumvent further crackdowns the
bakers are now supplying a few thousand
loafs to the formal chain, before
selling the majority of their bread to
vendors.
Simon Muchemwa in Harare reports that the bakers are
selling at
between Z$300 to Z$335 per loaf to the vendors who in turn sell
at over
Z$350 to the consumers. Supermarket shelves have no bread and the
little
that is being supplied is being snapped up by shop employees, leaving
desperate shoppers to resort to buying from the black market. Muchemwa says
instead of the consumers benefiting from governments clampdown they are now
at the mercy of the vendors who can charge whatever they want depending on
demand.
September has been a bad month for the country with a
decline in the
value of the Zimbabwe dollar coupled with inflation at over
1,200 percent,
forcing prices to shoot up. The state controlled newspapers
also reported an
increase in the price of anti-retroviral drugs by almost
100 percent over 3
months. From July to September the cost of imported ARV
's rose from Z$10
000 to Z$20 000 while the locally manufactured ones shot
up to Z$25 000. The
increases are set to affect a considerable portion of
the population who are
HIV positive and rely on the drugs. Cabinet ministers
and other senior Zanu
PF officials have often been accused of hijacking
donated ARV's for their
own use and leaving poor people
vulnerable.
NB: Exchange rates on the parallel markets as at
26/09/06
1 Rand= Z$150
1 Pula= Z$200
1USD=
Z$950-1200
1 Pound= Z$1950
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
IOL
September 26 2006 at 12:12AM
Berlin - An economic meltdown in
Zimbabwe would send shock waves
throughout southern Africa and jeopardise
regional peace, a parliamentarian
from the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change said on Monday.
"If Zimbabwe implodes, it will be
a threat to the stability of South
Africa and the region," MDC lawmaker
David Coltart told reporters in Berlin
during a European tour.
"The problem of Zimbabwe is linked with South Africa and there is a
growing
understanding that Zimbabwe could harm South Africa with a flood of
poor
people. Then it (would) be a threat to foreign direct investments. It
is a
vicious circle," he said.
Coltart urged the
international community to stay engaged in the
region, warning that Middle
East flare-ups had distracted the world's
attention.
"I'm here
to keep Europe focused on Zimbabwe because it has gone off
the radar
screen," he said.
The southern African country has been beset by
unemployment running at
80 percent, and the annual inflation rate hit a
world record level of more
than 1 200 percent last month. There are also
serious shortages of food and
fuel.
Zimbabwe's relations with
the West have been tense since President
Robert Mugabe's government launched
controversial land reforms six years
ago, seizing farms from around 4 000
white farmers for redistribution to
landless blacks, often with no
agricultural expertise or equipment.
Coltart acknowledged that
recent efforts by South African President
Thabo Mbeki to resolve the
political crisis "are not working", calling
Mugabe's government
"paranoid".
"Its back is up against the wall," he
said.
He said Zimbabwe needed the help of its neighbours and
international
backing to emerge from the current crisis, citing in
particular the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) as a potential
force for change.
"The SADC could lead to a new constitution, fresh
elections, the
legitimation of a new power and stabilisation of the
economy," he argued. -
Sapa-AFP
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 09/26/2006 10:19:39
THE Zimbabwe government on
Monday finally fingered the cause of the dramatic
collapse of the country's
agricultural sector -- a monkey.
While the world has been fixated with a
state-sanctioned land grab of
commercial farms by veterans of the country's
liberation war, the Zimbabwe
government has nailed what it believes to be
the main saboteur of the
country's agricultural production -- a velvet
monkey.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told parliament that damage
caused by a
monkey to a transformer at the country's largest fertiliser
supplier had
effectively crippled the country's production capacity,
creating a food
deficit.
Made said "investigations" revealed that a
monkey was responsible for the
extensive damage caused to one of the only
two transformers at fertiliser
manufacturer, Sables Chemicals. The company
is based in the Midlands.
Made told MPs: "Our investigations have shown
that a monkey caused damage to
a transformer thereby sabotaging our
preparations for the coming season. If
it was not for that monkey, the
situation was not going to be as bad.
"We now have to import a huge chunk
of our fertiliser requirements from
neighbouring South Africa. Repairs to
the transformer take about six
months."
Made told MPs that the
monkey "tampered" with the transformer and was
electrocuted in the
process.
According to Made, the damage to the transformer could be a
blessing in
disguise for other Zimbabweans as Sables Chemicals is officially
the
country's largest consumer of electricity, followed by mining giant,
Zimplants which is
situated in Mashonaland West.
As a result, the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) has reduced
blackouts and load
shedding across the country.
The problems at Sables have forced the price
of fertiliser to shoot through
the roof by over 100 percent. A 50kg bag of
ammonium nitrate doubled in
price to $4 400, and on the parallel market is
going for more than $5 000.
The Zimbabwe government has been warned that
the country faces a severe food
deficit, largely due to lack of productivity
on the country's farms
following an often violent government-sanctioned
take-over of commercial
farms from white land owners.
Faced with the
crisis, President Robert Mugabe's government has deployed
soldiers, police
and intelligence officials to take over the food security
to shore up
falling production.
Critics say the black farmers have been hamstrung by
shortages of inputs
such as fuel, seed and fertiliser while the majority
lack the skills to
produce on a commercial scale.
In the past year,
the army has been involved in low-key production of the
staple maize and
wheat but Made said on Monday the police and air force had
also joined in
and would plant 300,000 hectares of grain crops this season,
which starts in
six weeks.
Writing on New Zimbabnwe.com in June, opposition MDC
agriculture secretary
Renson Gasela warned that the country faced a serious
food deficit with only
30 percent seed of the national requirement available
to farmers.
Gasela fears there is a deliberate policy by the government
to sabotage food
production and then turn around and use food aid in
political campaigns.
He said: "No-one can convince me the government is
willing but unable to
plan properly and get the country out of the food
deficit. Visit Grain
Marketing Board depots and see how rural district
councillors are daily
coming to get either mealie meal, seed or fertilisers,
which products are
sold to Zanu PF councillors only.
"It is therefore
the permanent interest of the government to be in control
of the
people."
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made has in the past been slated for
claiming
the country has enough food reserves, only to turn around in time
of crisis
and say the country needs food aid.
The United Nations
estimates that close to half the country's population may
need food aid by
the end of the year, although the government still insists
that it will not
beg for food.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Female trade union leader severely beaten in recent anti-government
protest
recounts ordeal.
By Dzikamai Chidyausike in Harare
The
first vice president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, has
spoken to IWPR about the appalling injuries she said she received at the
hands of the police after an attempt to lead an anti-government protest
earlier this month.
Lucia Matibenga said she was among 15 ZCTU
leaders who were arrested and
tortured by police when they tried to attend a
rally against low wages and
the authorities' inaction on the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, at a time when some 500
Zimbabweans are dying daily from
AIDS-related infections.
Matibenga, the only woman in the group, suffered
a fractured arm, perforated
eardrum and bruised kidneys. Matibenga, who has
received treatment at
Johannesburg's Milpark Hopsital, spoke by cell phone
to IWPR's Dzikamai
Chidyausike in Harare.
IWPR: Mrs Matibenga you
were one of fifteen ZCTU leaders arrested during
nationwide demonstrations
against the policies of the ZANU PF government on
September 13. Press
reports said you were severely beaten by the police. Can
you take us through
the events leading to your arrest?
MATIBENGA: We had barely marched 100
metres from our offices in Harare as
planned when police stopped us. They
told us to sit on the tarmac - which we
did - then they crammed the fifteen
of us into a police vehicle and took us
to Matapi police station. There they
took our cell phones and handcuffed us
in pairs.
Each pair would be
force-marched into an empty room at the station, and then
six police
officers would use truncheons to beat them. Sometimes they used
clenched
fists and their police boots.
IWPR: What were the police saying during
these beatings?
MATIBENGA: They accused us of trying to take back the
country to the British
(Zimbabwe's former colonial power). They told me that
they were going to put
me in my right place as a woman. They said they were
beating me so I could
learn to concentrate on raising my family instead of
demonstrating. One of
the police officers even boasted that he had been
trained to kill traitors
like us.
IWPR: You said they were beating
you with batons and clenched fists. Can you
tell us where specifically they
hit you?
MATIBENGA: They beat me all over the body but they particularly
targeted my
back and buttocks. During the torture I hit my head against the
wall three
times and I was bleeding but the officers told me to stand up
because they
had not yet finished with me.
IWPR: Are you still in
pain?
MATIBENGA: As I speak right now, my face is swollen. I can't hear
anything
with my right ear; the doctor told me that my eardrum is perforated
because
of the impact of the claps from two of the officers.
IWPR:
What other injuries did you sustain?
MATIBENGA: My left hand is swollen;
I have an arm in a sling. One of the
police officers hit me just under the
breast and I have difficulties
breathing.
IWPR: What did the police
do after assaulting you?
MATIBENGA: They locked my fourteen colleagues,
all men, in a private office.
I was made to sit at the reception area
because I was the only woman there
and they did not have a cell for me. I
could hear my colleagues whining in
pain. Most of them had broken arms and
limbs and they were bleeding. I was
later told that three of them fainted.
They were forced to sit under a table
for hours.
IWPR: Did they take
you to the hospital?
MATIBENGA: Not until the next day. Our lawyers were
not allowed to see us.
For hours our lawyer was told that we were not at
that station. It was only
after a struggle that they allowed him to speak to
us. He is the one who
negotiated with the police to take us to the hospital.
They only took us to
[Harare's] Parirenyatwa Hospital [from where Matibenga
was later flown to
Johannesburg for advanced care] around 10 pm about 25
hours after the
beating but not before they had transferred us to the
Central police station
to charge us under the Public Order and Security Act
[a draconian catch-all
law which bans gatherings of more than two people
without police permission,
and which outlaws the making of statements
"prejudicial to the State" or
which "insult the President"]. During that
time none of us was allowed to
take a bath.
Up to now, I am shocked
by the level of aggression displayed by the police.
I can imagine how many
people go through these things everyday, especially
women.
IWPR: Will
you go back into the streets to protest after the torture.
MATIBENGA:
This government is dangerous. I am afraid they will come back for
me, but
there is no going back. We will continue with the demonstrations
because we
have realised that is the only language that the [President
Robert] Mugabe
government can only understand.
IWPR: Do you consider the demonstration
to have been successful?
MATIBENGA: The fact that they had to resort to
arresting and torturing us is
a clear sign that the government is aware of
the concerns of the workers.
This government is scared. So, yes, they can
arrest us but they have got the
message. It's loud and
clear.
Dzikamai Chidyausike is the pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in
Zimbabwe.
chron.com
Sept. 26, 2006, 2:36AM
CRISIS IN
ZIMBABWE
Archbishop Pius Ncube is a powerful critic of a ruler who he says
has brought his nation to the brink of collapse
By TONY FREEMANTLE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
It is
Archbishop Pius Ncube's fervently held belief that the precipitous decline of
his native Zimbabwe from one of sub-Sahara Africa's most prosperous countries to
a basket case can be traced to one man's stubborn, suicidal desire to stay in
power.
There was, therefore, little reason for optimism Monday when Ncube
learned that the man, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's 82-year-old president, planned
to extend his rule another four years before holding elections.
But it did
not surprise him. Nor did it surprise him that Mugabe's police were reportedly
beating trade union protesters Monday. Violence, brutal oppression, economic
hardship and Mugabe's refusal to share authority are part of daily life in
Zimbabwe, he said.
Ncube, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, who is
arguably Mugabe's most powerful and vocal critic, was in Houston to deliver a
speech at the University of St. Thomas.
In a wide-ranging interview Monday,
Ncube accused Mugabe's government and his ruling ZANU-PF party of destroying
Zimbabwe's once thriving economy and driving the nation of 12.2 million to the
brink of collapse.
"When it comes to African dictators like Mugabe, they will
break every law, they will smash up everything, everything can go to pieces as
long as they remain supreme," Ncube said.
In 1980, when Mugabe led the
country to independence from British colonial rule, there was hope that Zimbabwe
would set an example to other emerging African democracies. By the 1990s it
appeared those hopes were well founded, Ncube said.
But faced with growing
opposition, Mugabe embarked on a series of disastrous campaigns — seizing land
from white farmers and uprooting about 700,000 poor city dwellers and
demolishing their houses — that have all but destroyed the economy.
The rate
of inflation is about 1,000 percent, 80 percent of the workforce is unemployed,
and the urban poverty rate has trebled.
"Hunger, illness and desperation
stalk our land," Ncube wrote in the text of his speech.
Ncube is a slight,
unimposing man with wire-rimmed glasses who wears the simple black clothes of a
parish priest without a trace of pretense. But he is widely viewed as the Tutu
of Zimbabwe, a comparison to South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in combating apartheid. It's a
flattering comparison, but not one Ncube sees as cause for celebration.
"It's
difficult to rejoice in anything of the sort because we are still in an absolute
mess," he said. "At least in South Africa, they are over the hump. In Zimbabwe,
it is an absolute mess."
Brutally frank in criticism
In a country where
dissent is brutally suppressed, Ncube is as brutally frank. He calls Mugabe
evil. He says he is a liar and a cheat, that the word dictator is too good for
him, that he is a murderer.
The archbishop has received death threats, but
so far Mugabe's response to his nemesis has been mostly verbal, calling Ncube an
"unholy man" and describing him as satanic.
Ncube said he is not sure why he
gets away with it. Being a man of the cloth, wearing the white collar of a
priest could have something to do with it.
"I don't know," he said. "But I'm
not speaking because of the collar. I'm speaking because Mugabe is driving the
whole nation to ruin and causing so much suffering.
"Even if I was not a
priest, I would still speak up, and perhaps by now they would have got rid of
me."
Ncube said Mugabe has succeeded so well in stifling opposition to his
rule that the only real challenge to it, which emerged in 2000 in the form of
the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, is in disarray — split along ethnic
lines and without good leadership.
Mugabe's tolerance of the MDC, Ncube said,
dissolved when it began acquiring more power. The white farmers began
participating more avidly, and the party was receiving more and more support
from the poor in the cities — reasons, he said, Mugabe eventually cracked down
on them.
A case of life and death
Paradoxically, the people of Zimbabwe
would have been been better off if Mugabe had simply banned any form of
opposition.
"Economically, he would have been much cleverer if he had banned
the MDC," Ncube said. "The people would be better off economically right now.
But he wanted to appear as if he was a democrat in the eyes of the world.
Banning the MDC would have done less harm economically than what he has
foolishly done up to now."
For now, Ncube said, the situation for ordinary
Zimbabweans is so dire, it is literally a case, for many of them, of life and
death.
"Things must change in Zimbabwe, because as things are, we face
death," he said. "There is no way you are going to manage if a loaf of bread
right now costs 400,000 Zimbabwe dollars, in two weeks' time it costs 800,000,
in three weeks' time it is 1.6 million.
"There is no way we can survive if it
continues this way."
tony.freemantle@chron.com
People's Daily
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwean governor Gideon Gono
on Monday urged
the country's telephone providers to increase the terminal
rates for
international calls.
He told the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee on Transport and
Communications that the central bank
had once again come to the rescue of
fixed telephone provider, TelOne, by
availing the 710, 000 U.S. dollars it
required to pay Intelsat for Internet
and voice link for the period April to
June this year.
On
August 29, 2006, Intelsat disconnected TelOne for non- payment of
the debt,
resulting in a near collapse of Internet services in the country.
Gono said TelOne had failed to pay the debt because it charged low
rates for
international telephone traffic that terminated in Zimbabwe.
The
company charged 3 U.S. cents per minute for every international
call
terminating in the country, compared to an average 20 U.S. cents other
countries in the region charge.
With more than three million
Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora, Gono
said, the country could be earning
large amounts of foreign currency if the
phone company were to charge the
correct terminal rates.
Zimbabwe is the second country after South
Africa with the largest
inward volume of telephone in the region, he said.
The international
community is interested in knowing latest political
developments in the
country while Zimbabweans in the Diaspora want to know
the situation back
home.
Gono said he had advised the Ministry
of Transport and Communications
to increase the terminal rates as far back
as 2003 when he first came into
office, but to date nothing had been
done.
He noted that four months ago the Postal and
Telecommunication
Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) had started
moving to address the
situation although the figures it was proposing were
still too low.
The POTRAZ had suggested increasing the rates to 15
U.S. cents for
mobile phones and 7 U.S. cents for fixed
telephones.
Source: Xinhua
September 26, 2006
By
Mabutho Michael Ngcobo
Johannesburg (AND) The price of
anti-retroviral drugs in Zimbabwe has
gone up by between 50 and 65 percent
in the last three and half months, the
Herald newspaper
reported.
The price of a monthly course of imported ARVs at
pharmacies went up
from Z$10 000 to Z$12 000in July while in August they
rose to Z$16 000.
On Friday the price went up to between Z$18 000
and Z$20 000, the
Herald reported. With the economic situation deteriorating
in the southern
African state, further price increases are likely in the
near future.
They are more than half million people in Zimbabwe who
are believe to
be in serious need of antiretroviral drugs, which is in sharp
contrast with
42 000 people who are on the government ARV
programme.
The figure only represented 30 percent of the HIV
positive population,
leaving the rest dependent on ARVs from the pharmacies,
the Herald reported.
The country's head of the National Aids
Council, Amon Mpofu, was
quoted by the Herald as saying that his
organisation has come up with a new
strategic framework to focus on the need
to increase supply of ARVs, but he
did not elaborate on how they are going
to make with the current economic
crisis in Zimbabwe.
Johannesburg bureau, AND
People's Daily
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday urged
U.S. and Britain to
stay out of Zimbabwe's politics and to allow its people
to exercise their
democratic right to choose their own
government.
Mugabe said this while addressing hundreds of the
ruling party Zanu PF
supporters and government officials who thronged the
Harare International
Airport to welcome him from his trip to Cuba, United
States and Egypt where
he attended various summits and
meetings.
"Leave our politics to the people of Zimbabwe. Bush and
Blair should
keep out of Zimbabwe. The right to choose the government is the
right of the
people of Zimbabwe," he said.
He castigated
Britain and United States' interference in domestic
affairs of other
countries, saying this was in violation of the Charter of
the United
Nations.
He also took a swipe at the main opposition party, the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) for trying to use unorthodox means to
enter into
power.
"The road to power is to go to the people,"
he said, adding that MDC
should outline its policies to the people and be
voted for through the
ballot.
The people were reminded of how
they got their independence after a
bitter struggle and that as blacks they
should always know where they stand,
their dignity and totem regardless of
the current economic hardships.
Source: Xinhua
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Assaults on Zimbabwe's trade union leaders are undermining the
political
opposition's plans for mass demonstrations.
By Albert
Kwangware in Harare
Press images of Wellington Chibebe, secretary-general
of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, in a hospital bed with a fractured
arm, two broken
fingers and a bandaged head are chilling testimony to the
ruthlessness of
Robert Mugabe's security forces and the Zimbabwe president's
resolve to
suppress any dissent against his rule.
In the wake of the
September assaults on Chibebe and other top leaders of
the trade union
organisation, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
MDC, now faces
an uphill task to bring about its own promised mass protests
against the
Mugabe government. People are more afraid than ever to
participate in public
demonstrations, having witnessed the extent of the
injuries inflicted on the
trade unionists.
Chibebe, 42, was so badly injured at the notorious
Matapi police station in
the Harare suburb of Mbare that he was unable to
appear in court to answer
charges of inciting protesters. A hearing was
instead held at the state
Parirenyatwa Hospital where Chibebe's extensive
injuries are being treated.
The trade union chief was bailed to appear in
court some time in October.
Matapi police station is well known among
Zimbabweans as one of the Mugabe
administration's main torture centres. Its
cells have been condemned by the
country's Supreme Court as "unfit for human
habitation".
The ZCTU leaders were detained and savagely beaten when they
tried on
September 13 to lead lunchtime protests by workers against
worsening
economic hardships and harsh political conditions.
Their
protest ended before it began when militiamen and riot police moved in
to
crush the demonstration amid government threats to act mercilessly
against
any workers who joined in.
The failed protest was just the latest of many
fruitless efforts by the ZCTU
and the MDC to rally ordinary people against
the increasing totalitarianism
of Mugabe and his ZANU PF government.
Although Zimbabwe's economy has
collapsed, with the International Monetary
Fund predicting inflation will
average 4,300 per cent next year and
unemployment running at 80 per cent,
there has been no significant public
protest for more than three years.
Although MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
endorsed the ZCTU's planned
demonstration, he did not join it, reinforcing
popular perceptions that
opposition politicians want "to lead from the back"
and reap the potential
political rewards of ordinary people's broken
heads.
The ZCTU demonstration was meant to conclude with the delivery of
a petition
to the government demanding salary increases indexed to increases
in minimum
income levels deemed necessary for family survival; free drugs
for the
millions of people living with HIV/AIDS; the restoration of
democratic
freedoms; and an end to crackdowns on informal street traders,
most of them
people rendered jobless in a country with the world's fastest
declining
economy.
Riot police sealed off all routes into Harare,
Zimbabwe's capital, quickly
arrested more than 180 people and dispersed
tentative crowds by wading into
them with heavy wooden batons while firing
teargas.
The 82-year-old Mugabe, who has indicated he intends extending
his reign to
2010, which will mean he has been in office for thirty years,
has declared
war, saying he will clamp down on opposition and attempted
uprisings by
civil society.
He had warned that the trade union
demonstration would be "at the ZCTU's
peril", denouncing Chibebe's
ultimately crushed protest as an attempt "to
create public disorder to
achieve regime change". Mugabe - in an echo of his
notoriously proud
declaration "We have degrees in violence" - added, "We
have armed men who
can pull the trigger."
A western diplomat who witnessed the crushing of
the ZCTU demonstration told
The Times of London, "It was carried out as a
deliberate, premeditated
warning, from the highest level, to anyone else who
tries mass protest that
this is what will happen to them."
Mugabe has
warned Tsvangirai that if he follows the ZCTU's example he will
be "dicing
with death". The president, in Clint Eastwood style, added, "If
you want an
excuse for being killed, be my guest. Go into the streets and
demonstrate."
Dr Reginald Matchaba-Hove, of Zimbabwe Doctors for
Human Rights, who
attended to the injured trade unionists, said of the
attacks, "As a case of
police brutality on a group, it is the worst I've
ever seen. It was really
terrible and really brutal."
According to
informal poverty indexes, a family of five in Zimbabwe now
needs more than
100,000 Zimbabwe dollars (400 US dollars) a month to buy
basic commodities
but few earn anything near that figure. Most get less than
a fifth of
that.
Despite their dire poverty, the majority of people are too afraid
to
protest. Violence and intimidation by Mugabe and the security forces has
worked, as demonstrated by the thin support for the ZCTU
protesters.
Edward Chakanyuka, a Harare worker, told IWPR that he decided
he would never
again participate in an anti-government demonstration after
he was beaten up
by soldiers seven years ago in Mabvuku, a Harare working
class suburb. "I
can never erase memories of the way those soldiers hammered
me," he said. "I
still have nightmares. So I keep away from things like mass
demonstrations,
mass action and boycotts.
"On the day of the ZCTU
demonstrations, I tried to take a day off work. I
didn't want to be anywhere
near the city centre. I can tell you that the
element of fear is not
exaggerated. We are afraid. With what happened to the
ZCTU guys, I can
guarantee you that the MDC will not be able to pull the
huge crowds for its
demonstration."
With the southern hemisphere winter now over, the MDC,
which promised a
series of major demonstrations through a "winter of
discontent", has yet to
announce when Tsvangirai and other top brass will
lead people on to the
streets to defy Mugabe. The party publicity secretary
Nelson Chamisa said
mass protests are still scheduled, but he declined to
say when.
With critics accusing the MDC of mass dithering, Chamisa said,
"We are not
so naïve and parochial as to fix a time and a rigid timetable
for the
people's struggle.
"We didn't say that the protests would
be held in winter. The winter being
referred to is what people would go
through. It was a metaphorical
statement. The struggle has a timetable and
we will be able to do it at that
time."
The MDC's
secetary-general Tendai Bitai said, "Mass protests are coming at
our own
pace. People who criticise have never demonstrated, been tortured,
harassed
or slept in a cell. These are armchair people who will say anything
and just
criticise."
But a top MDC official, requesting anonymity, told IWPR that
some of her
colleagues had developed cold feet following the beatings of the
ZCTU
protesters. They fear that the assaults would be even worse on the
leaders
of the MDC, the only party since independence to have posed a
serious threat
to ZANU PF hegemony.
"People are now very scared," she
said. "Mugabe has instilled fear not only
in ordinary Zimbabweans but also
in the MDC leadership. Some have second
thoughts, and are already divided
on, mass protests. Those MDC activists
arguing the need for sustained
protest are seriously worried they will not
be able to mobilise the
essential large crowds.
"There are whole issues of fear and of heavy
handedness of the state. With
the future of the country so precarious,
people tend to protect their little
spaces and are becoming extra cautious
about their safety and security."
The official said that because Zimbabwe
is now a de facto "politico-military
junta" a popular uprising like the
Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or
Kyrgystan's Tulip Revolution or the Rose
Revolution of Georgia simply cannot
be replicated.
"The numbers game
will not work here,"said the official. "Rather, a more
qualitative
assessment of the effort against the odds should be the right
approach.
"Government must realise that there is going to be an eye
of the storm, so
action will be incremental. Dynamite comes in small
packages. People, inside
and outside the country, must not confuse caution
with fear."
Albert Kwangware is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in
Zimbabwe.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
25 September
2006
Members of Zimbabwe's National Constitutional Assembly,
outmaneuvered by
police last week when the civic group tried to stage a
demonstration in
Harare, organized a protest march today in Harare with some
300 members
taking to the streets.
NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku said
police beat many demonstrators and
seriously injured 27 of them. However,
police did not arrest any of the NCA
demonstrators.
Madhuku said
protesters marched through the capital from Chinhoyi Street to
Sam Nujoma
Street, where police ordered them to disperse. When they did not
obey the
order to disperse, police commenced to beat them but arrested no
one, he
said.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena declined to confirm or comment on
the
reported NCA protest.
Madhuku told reporter Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe he
believes the decision not to arrest
demonstrators reflects a shift in police
strategy.
Elsewhere, about
30 officials of the Movement for Democratic Change remained
under arrested
in the northern city of Kariba pending transfer to Karoi for
arraignment.
They included Kwekwe member of parliament Blessing Chebundo and
Kariba
Executive Mayor John Houghton, who is the only white mayor in the
country.
The MDC officials, members of the opposition faction led by
Morgan
TsvangiraI, were arrested on charges of meeting without
authorization. Their
lawyer says they were to be moved to Karoi because
there is at present no
resident magistrate in Kariba.
ekklesia.co.uk
Churches in Zimbabwe want a national debate to secure the
future of the
southern African nation, which is blighted by its worst
economic and
political crisis since it gained independence from Britain 26
years ago -
writes a correspondent for Ecumenical News
International.
"Our nation is desperately in need of a physician, and
that physician is
none other than us the people of Zimbabwe," Roman
Catholic, Protestant and
Evangelical leaders stated in a recent document
that examines the crisis and
offers proposals on the way
forward.
Prepared jointly by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference,
the Zimbabwe
Council of Churches and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe,
the document
is entitled 'The Zimbabwe We Want: Towards A National Vision
For Zimbabwe'.
The church leaders have acknowledged their own failure to
speak up on behalf
of the people during the crisis, which they say has been
worsening for the
last 11 years. The period has seen a forced land reform
campaign that has
undermined the state of the economy and led to hunger in
the country.
"As churches, we confess we have failed the nation because
we have not been
able to speak with one voice. We have often not been the
salt and the light
that the Gospel calls us to be. We, therefore, confess
our failure and ask
for God's forgiveness," they state.
The group
said: "We will therefore never tire or give up until our goal is
achieved.
We are not interested in forming a political party as some are
suggesting."
Zimbabwe faces a battery of political and economic
crises including high
inflation peaking at 1000 per cent in August, massive
joblessness,
increasing poverty, tensions between the main political
parties, and
suppression of those reporting what happens in the country.
Thousands have
left the country for neighbouring Botswana and South Africa
as well as the
United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand
in search for
jobs.
With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News
International is jointly
sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the
Lutheran World Federation,
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the
Conference of European
Churches.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Catastrophic decline of country's economy fuels changing
sexual habits.
By Hativagone Mushonga in Harare
Deep poverty,
fuelled in part by runaway inflation, has pushed great numbers
of vulnerable
Zimbabwean women living in the country's towns and cities to
enter
commercial sex work or "transactional" sexual relationships. The
exchange of
gifts or money for sex is now common among women aged between 15
and 45
years.
It is less gifts like perfumes, dresses, haute cuisine dining and
jewellery - as in richer and more sophisticated societies - than cash for
basics like groceries, rent and school fees for the children of single
mothers. Some have dared to demand cars in exchange for sex.
The
phenomenon, in a culture where all social indicators indicate
catastrophic
decline, reflects something that Uganda's minister of youth and
children's
affairs Jimmy Kinobe has said about transactional sex - affection
and warmth
between the sexes has become "something for something love" and a
threat to
Uganda's battle with HIV/Aids.
The desire to obtain luxury items, such as
designer clothing, jewellery,
fashionable hairstyles, accessories and
make-up, has always motivated many
women in Africa to engage in
transactional sex. But in Zimbabwe, because of
the dramatic economic decline
since 1999/2000, which has caused extensive
extreme poverty, some parents
have pressurised their own children to engage
in transactional sex to
finance their education and the family's household
necessities.
Innumerable families are being sustained by groceries
and money provided by
their children's "sugar daddies".
A prominent
Harare lawyer told IWPR, "How do you think women are surviving
in the high
density areas like Mbare, Mabvuku and Epworth [poverty-stricken
working
class suburbs of Harare]. It is guys who sell foodstuffs, the combi
taxi
drivers and touts, the guys who get stuff, who are getting the sex in
exchange for food. The situation has worsened and life is just unaffordable
even for professional people like me."
Poverty and HIV/AIDS infection
are deeply intertwined. With the burden of
caring for the sick, the dying
and the orphaned forcing thousands of
Zimbabwean women deeper into poverty
and draining their energy and
self-esteem, so it increases the pressure to
resort to high risk
transactional sex, with older sugar daddies offering the
daydream of
material security.
One single mother of a 16-year old
girl told IWPR that she expects her
sixth-form daughter to supplement her
parent's income. "What do you want me
to do?" said the mother sorrowfully.
"I am an unemployed, single mother and
my two children need to go to school.
How do you expect me to raise the
money for school fees, groceries,
uniforms, clothes and other basics? My
only income comes from renting out
the main part of my house.
"So my daughter has been helping me. I don't
ask where she gets the money
from, as long as she brings something
home."
But, the mother then admitted, she knows her daughter's income
comes from
selling sex.
The woman's husband died from an AIDS-related
illness and she also tested
HIV-positive. She knows that her daughter is
exposed to HIV infection from
her chosen method of raising money for the
family.
The mother allows men to pick up her daughter from her home at
night and has
also been pushing her to have a sexual relationship with a
pastor at her
church. "I don't ask where she goes and what she does," she
said. "I am just
happy that she is able to bring something to the table. How
did you think I
could afford expensive clothes for her and her brother and
the mountain bike
my son has?"
Rentals now range between 30,000 and
250,000 Zimbabwe dollars [121 to 995 US
dollars] a month for a bed-sitter or
two-bedroom flat, while three-bedroom
houses range from 100,000 to 300,000
Zimbabwe dollars in middle-class
suburbs. Rents and other prices increase
almost daily, with the
International Monetary Fund predicting that
Zimbabwe's current inflation
rate of 1,200 per cent will top 4,000 per cent
next year.
The increasing demands by women for material rewards in
exchange for sex is
beginning to have another social impact. Married men
interviewed by IWPR
said it was becoming prohibitively expensive to engage
in extra-marital
affairs. "Women, especially those we refer to as the 'youth
policy', are
unmanageable, even for the so-called rich," said one financial
executive.
"The other day a 17-year-old girl whom I had just started dating
asked me
for 200,000 Zimbabwe dollars to buy her grandmother
drugs.
"I automatically dumped her and told her that I was not there to
look after
her grandmother. I know this was just a way to ask me for money
for other
things."
A top civil servant said women expected a lot from
him because of his post
in government. He said the highest amount a woman
paramour had asked him for
was 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars - on top of three
trolley-loads of groceries.
"Women have gone mad," he said. "They take
you to a supermarket and ask you
to pay. A friend of mine was shocked when
his girlfriend asked him for 100
000 Zimbabwe dollars to pay rent and
deposit for a one-bedroom flat, and
when I showed him the demands I received
from a woman I had just dated he
almost fainted.
"Before the
introduction of the new currency, a lot of men had to move
around with
travel bags full of money just to meet their girlfriends'
demands. Our
biggest problem is what we call 'youth policy'. These young
girls want money
- it's understandable because hairstyles, clothes and
everything else are
now expensive."
In a cosmetic exercise which did nothing to slow
inflation, but reduced the
weight of banknotes Zimbabweans carry with them
in bags and boxes, Central
Bank Governor Gideon Gono knocked three zeros off
the currency last month
and issued new notes.
One struggling married
businessman who keeps a mistress said, "When a text
message appears saying
'I need a huge favour', you just know the issue is
about money. These women
are draining us and those days of having
girlfriends are over because you
will just work for them and be stressed for
life."
One man asked to
buy groceries for his youth policy said that when he
brought two small
carrier bags containing single items of basics, the woman
threw them out of
her flat window, saying that when she asked for
"groceries" she expected to
be given things she cannot normally afford.
A young secretary for an
insurance company told IWPR that her days of having
sexual relationships for
nothing with men, especially married men, were
over. Looks do not matter,
she said, as long as he has a nice car and a fat
bank account. "You want me
to have sex with a man for nothing?" she said.
"The man has to show me what
he can do in terms of providing for me, and my
children, before I can even
consider sleeping with him. Age is not a
factor - it's how fat his pockets
are."
This fast developing social trend also flows in the opposite sexual
direction. Young men are having transactional sexual relationships with rich
married women, some of whom refer to their young lovers as
"painkillers".
One young man clashed with his parents and decided to move
in to his
friend's up-market flat, unaware that the rent was being paid by a
"sugar
mommy". He was shocked when
his friend told him to leave because
the "big mama" did not want visitors
sleeping there who might disturb her
visits when she sneaks out of her
matrimonial home.
"Some of these
guys you see driving fancy cars and staying in flats are
being looked after
by older women," said the young man. "The older women who
feel deprived by
their husbands but also believe in a youth policy of their
own are now very
aggressive and will do everything to get a younger man."
The consequences
of transactional sex, bolstered by a culture in which male
infidelity has
often been explicitly or implicitly sanctioned, are
catastrophic. Zimbabwean
women now have the shortest lifespan in the world,
according to the World
Health Organisation. Largely as a result of HIV/AIDS,
Zimbabwean women now
have a life expectancy of 34 years and men of 37, said
WHO in its annual
report for 2006. According to the United Nations
Children's Fund, three
babies in Zimbabwe become infected with HIV every
hour.
"But Zimbabwe
needs support more than outrage," commented UNICEF spokesman
James Elder.
"It is constantly inspiring the way Zimbabweans continue to
support each
other amid desperate economic times, and 90 per cent of the
country's 1.5
million [AIDS] orphans are still cared for by extended family.
But the
stress that a Zimbabwe family is under is becoming
unbearable."
Hativagone Mushonga is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist
in Zimbabwe.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
26 September 2006
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions secretary-general Wellington
Chibhebhe is now recuperating
at home after being released from hospital
over the weekend.
Chibhebhe was in a Harare hospital recovering from multiple injuries
suffered when he and 12 other ZCTU officials were tortured while in police
detention in the capital. Two other ZCTU officials, Moses Ngondo and James
Gumbi, were also released from hospital over the weekend.
The
ZCTU secretary-general had his initial bail hearing held at his
hospital
bedside. He is out of custody on police bail and is expected to
appear in
court on October 3rd to answer charges of organising an illegal
gathering.
Chibhebhe and the two other officials were part of a
group that was
arrested two weeks ago after staging a peaceful protest in
Harare calling
for decent wages, action on the country's 1,200 percent
inflation rate and
better access to life-saving anti-viral drugs for AIDS
sufferers.
Acting secretary-general of the ZCTU Japhet Moyo said
all the ZCTU
members out on bail are still having to report to the police
every Friday of
each week as part of their bail conditions.
Moyo also described as 'pure madness' government's refusal to allow a
delegation from the American labour union entry into Zimbabwe last week
Friday. The ZCTU has been informed that the group, from the American Centre
for International Solidarity in the AFL-CIO union federation, is back in the
United States following their deportation last week.
'It was an
unfortunate situation. Its pure madness on the part of
government to tarnish
it's image in that manner. If the government wasn't
hiding anything, why
would they refuse people to come and visit other
workers,' asked
Moyo.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Playfuls.com, Romania
September 26th 2006
Zimbabwe is importing nearly 400,000 tonnes of
desperately-needed fertilizer
from its eastern ally China in a bid to boost
falling agricultural yields,
it was reported Tuesday.
Zimbabwe's new
black farmers who were given land under President Robert
Mugabe's
controversial land reform scheme often blame lack of fertilizer and
other
vital imports for their failure to produce substantial crops.
"We are
certainly going to see an improvement this season in terms of
availability
of fertilizer, especially ammonium nitrate," a senior
government official
told the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
The official, who was
unnamed, said at least 387,000 tonnes of fertilizer
had been ordered and was
already on its way to Zimbabwe.
There are local fertilizer-manufacturing
companies, but they are struggling
to produce the commodity because of a
lack of vital foreign currency needed
to import raw materials.
Two
officials from fertilizer companies Windmill and Zimbabwe Fertiliser
Company
(ZFC) were arrested last week for hiking their prices without
government
consent, putting further strain on local production of the
commodity.
The fertilizer deal is part of a 200 million US dollars
agricultural loan
facility recently brokered between China and Zimbabwe,
said the Herald.
Mugabe is desperate to see agricultural production
increase to prove wrong
critics of his land reforms. Production is down by
at least 40 per cent
since 2000, when large-scale white farm seizures were
officially launched.
China and cheap Chinese products are becoming
increasingly prominent in
Zimbabwean life. Mugabe has urged businesses to
turn away from traditional
Western markets and look East for business and
now Chinese cars, clothes and
other products are becoming a permanent
fixture.
Even the state-controlled Herald appears to prefer to run news
copy on
international affairs from Chinese news agency Xinhua, rather than
traditional Western news agencies.
© 2006 DPA
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Dennis Rekayi
MUTARE - Police here have released from
custody about 170 members of
the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) who
were arrested after they
marched through the main street of this eastern
border city protesting
against the ill-treatment of labour leaders by
security agents last week.
Trust Maanda, a human rights lawyer, who
represented the NCA members,
said they were released after paying admission
of guilty fines.
Maanda said the NCA members were charged under the
Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act section 4.
"The
police said their conduct was likely to cause breach of peace,"
Maanda said.
"They were made to pay $250 00 and released."
The number of those
arrested rose from 150 to 170 after police
launched a blitz on all known NCA
members in Mutare.
Last Wednesday, the demonstrators, numbering
over 300 marched from
down town and were intercepted by riot police in the
city centre, along
Herbert Chitepo Street.
The police, armed
with baton sticks, severely beat up the
demonstrators who included elderly
women before taking them to Mutare
Central police station where they are
detained.
A zimbabwejournalists.com correspondent witnessed the
beatings and the
subsequent arrests of the NCA members.
The NCA
demonstration was in solidarity with the leaders of the
Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) who were arrested and severely
assaulted by riot police
as they protested workers' poor working conditions,
wages and related
issues.
Some of the unionists were hospitalised due to the serious
injuries
they incurred at the hands of the police.
Zim Online
Wednesday 27 September 2006
KARIBA -A
magistrate's court yesterday freed jailed opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party legislator for Kwekwe
constituency Blessing Chebundo,
Kariba Executive Mayor John Houghton and
about 28 other party officials on
Z$10 000 bail each.
The 30 activists, who all belong to the main
faction of the MDC led by
Morgan Tsvangirai, were arrested last weekend for
allegedly holding meetings
with supporters in Kariba without permission from
the police.
Their lawyers said they were all facing charges under
the government's
draconian Public Order and Security Act, which bars
Zimbabweans from meeting
in public in groups of three or more to discuss
politics without permission
from the police.
The MDC accuses
the police of using the law selectively to prevent the
opposition party from
meeting Zimbabweans to market its programmes and
policies.
The
police, who have used the security Act to ban several MDC rallies
but have
never banned meetings by President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF
party,
deny using the law to cripple the opposition. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 27 September
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition
party on Tuesday said President
Robert Mugabe should be held personally
liable for human rights violations
and torture of civilians by state
security forces after he publicly
applauded the police for torturing union
leaders two weeks ago.
Mugabe earlier this week told journalists in
Harare that Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders severely
tortured by the police
following their arrest while attempting to stage
demonstrations against
declining economic conditions in the country deserved
their treatment.
Fifteen of the more than 100 ZCTU officials
rounded up by the police
on September 13 suffered serious injuries including
broken ribs, arms and
legs after being assaulted by the police, who also
barred doctors from
seeing the injured unionists for several
hours.
In a statement, the main wing of the splintered opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party that is led by Morgan Tsvangirai
said
Mugabe's backing of the police action was confirmation that torture of
the
ZCTU leaders was "sanctioned from State House (Mugabe's presidential
palace)".
"The MDC holds Mugabe personally responsible for the
broken limbs and
the fractured skulls inflicted on innocent Zimbabweans
peacefully exercising
their democratic right to assemble and express
themselves," said the MDC,
which itself has promised mass protests to force
Mugabe to accept sweeping
political reforms.
The MDC said
Mugabe's government was "drenched in the blood of
innocent of people" but
the statement signed by party spokesman Nelson
Chamisa did not say what
punishment should be meted on the Zimbabwean leader
for the crimes it
accuses him of committing.
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba was
not immediately available for
comment on the matter.
Addressing
the media on his arrival at Harare International from
Egypt, Mugabe said the
police were right in the heavy-handed way they
stifled the ZCTU-led
protests, which he said had nothing to do with worker
grievances but were
part of a Western-backed plot to topple his government.
Mugabe,
accused by the ZCTU and the MDC of ruining Zimbabwe's once
brilliant economy
through repression and wrong policies, routinely accuses
the West of pushing
for his overthrow.
The Zimbabwean leader vowed more punishment for
anyone engaging in
anti-government demonstrations in future and specifically
warned Tsvangirai
that protests by the MDC would bring trouble for him as
that party's leader.
Zimbabwe is grappling with its worst ever
economic crisis marked by
the world's highest inflation rate at 1 204.6
percent, shortages of food,
fuel, electricity, essential medicines, hard
cash and just about every basic
survival commodity. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 27 September
2006
HARARE - A faction of Zimbabwe's
splintered opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party on Tuesday
accused the ruling ZANU PF party of
stepping up political violence ahead of
rural district council elections
scheduled for next month.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman of the MDC faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai
told ZimOnline that there has been an escalation in cases of
political
violence around the country over the past few weeks.
Chamisa said
the worst cases of political violence had been recorded
in Wedza in
Mashonaland East province as well as in Buhera district in
Manicaland
province.
"In Marondera, our candidates who were filing nomination
papers for
rural district council elections were harassed and assaulted.
This
government is trying to use force to cow the nation into submission,"
said
Chamisa.
The MDC spokesman also said ZANU PF supporters in
Buhera South last
weekend set on fire a house belonging to the party's
women's assembly
chairperson in the district, Veronica
Bingwiza.
Property worth millions of dollars was lost in the
blaze.
ZANU PF spokesman, Nathan Shamuyarira could not be reached
for comment
on the matter last night.
But the ruling party has
in the past rejected charges of violence by
the MDC and human rights groups
saying such charges are only meant to
tarnish its image and that of its
leader, President Robert Mugabe. -
ZimOnline
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 26
Sep 2006 (IRIN) - Distribution of government aid is being
politicised by the
ruling party in Zimbabwe's eastern province of
Manicaland, according to a
faith-based rights organisation.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), in a
new research report, said most of the
victims were members of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
but did record instances of ruling
ZANU-PF supporters being sidelined.
Lists of beneficiaries for government
assistance, like subsidised
fertiliser, antiretroviral AIDS drugs, aid to
orphans and some food support,
are drawn up by local authorities, most of
whom back ZANU-PF.
"The victims were ... asked to produce a ZANU-PF card
in order to benefit
from food and agricultural inputs. In some instances
they were simply denied
registration for aid and were blatantly told that
the food belonged to
members of the ruling party," ZPP said in its report,
'Politicisation of
Food and Other Forms of Aid'.
Christine Kwangwari,
ZPP's acting national director, told IRIN the survey in
August was part of a
pilot project to monitor allegations of abuse of aid
for political
influence. "We had heard of claims of politicisation of aid in
many
provinces; we decided to study Manicaland as a test case."
The group has
documented 83 cases of abuse of aid based on political
affiliation, which
included not only denying food but also antiretrovirals,
and exclusion from
the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), a national
plan to help
orphans get better healthcare and schooling.
"Children are sometimes
arbitrarily withdrawn from the BEAM project on the
basis that their parents
are supporters of the opposition ... The main
perpetrators of this type of
violence are school heads who sympathise with
the ruling party," claimed the
report. "The complete disregard for
children's rights, particularly those of
orphans, is major drawback to the
attainment of justice in
Zimbabwe".
According to ZPP, the internationally recognised principles of
aid
distribution, such as neutrality, impartiality, independence and
universality, "are rarely respected because the beneficiation from food aid
is highly politicised".
They, however, did not record cases of the
diversion of international food
relief, which is distributed by respected
nongovernmental organisations
(NGOs).
"We did not find instances of
politicisation of aid at the hands of NGOs
like World Vision, GOAL and
Christian Care, who also disburse food aid in
the province," Kwangwari said.
The food-aid NGOs follow strict international
guidelines, which stipulate
the registration of beneficiaries in public
meetings.
Political
analyst John Makumbe said beneficiaries of state-sponsored
food-aid and
agricultural inputs were listed by traditional leaders, and
"the chiefs
prefer to include people who have ZANU-PF [membership] cards in
their lists
over MDC card-holders, and this is common place across the
country."
Food has tremendous influence in Zimbabwe. Independent
estimates suggest
only 800,000 mt of maize was produced this year, or about
two-thirds of the
country's annual requirement; the government has insisted
the harvest was
around 1.8 million mt.
Zimbabwe has one of the
world's highest rates of HIV infection. ZPP recorded
instances of people
being denied treatment on the basis of their political
affiliation, and
pointed out that food is also a critical element in
ameliorating the effects
of HIV/AIDS.
Zimbabwean Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made slammed the
ZPP report as
"ridiculous" and "nonsensical". "I control the GMB [Grain
Marketing Board] -
I should know. The Zimbabwean government has made a
commitment to ensure
that no Zimbabwean will starve, so this cannot be true.
Even in the urban
areas, which we do not control, we have moved a large
amount of maize to
ensure that everyone has food."
He questioned the
claim that ZANU-PF needed to use food to win over
Zimbabweans, pointing out
that it was the ruling party and enjoyed
widespread support, winning every
election since independence in 1980.
Mail and Guardian
Johannesburg, South Africa
26 September
2006 05:10
The Congress of South African Trade Unions
(Cosatu) expressed
its outrage on Tuesday at violence against Zimbabwe trade
unions.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said a statement
by
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe -- reported on Monday -- condoned the
use
of violence by police against Zimbabwean trade
unions.
Craven said Mugabe was happy with police dealing
sternly with
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders during their
September 13
protests.
"This is nothing less than a
justification of brutality and
torture against workers who were peacefully
exercising their right to
demonstrate," said Craven.
Members of the ZCTU were protesting against high unemployment
rates and
poverty.
Organisers of the ZCTU protests were beaten and
arrested while
gathering for a march in the streets of
Harare.
ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe's arm was
broken while
other labour leaders were assaulted in police
custody.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported
that Mugabe
has made no apologies to the ZCTU leadership.
An investigation into police conduct is expected later this
week. --
Sapa
BBC
Zimbabwe's internet
services have been fully restored after a $700,000
debt was paid to restore
the satellite link.
Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank bailed out telephone
operator TelOne, which
owed the sum to Intelsat.
The
disconnection earlier this month cut surfing and e-mail activities
by 90%,
Zimbabwe's ISP association said.
But TelOne is warning that they
remain saddled with other debts and
face severe shortages of foreign
currency so problems could reoccur.
The firm wants diplomatic
missions and internet service providers to
pay their monthly subscriptions
in foreign currency.
Zimbabwe is in the midst of an
economic crisis, with 1,200% inflation,
70% unemployment rates and shortages
of basic goods like fuel and maize.
Earlier this year, Zimbabwe
knocked three zeros off the denomination
of its banknotes in an effort to
contain inflation.
The opposition says President Robert Mugabe has
destroyed one of
Africa's most developed economies through his
policies.
He blames the problems on a western plot to remove him
from power.
The Herald
(Harare)
September 26, 2006
Posted to the web September 26,
2006
Harare
THE United States and the European Union can make
noise about the beating-up
of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
leaders by police but the
Government is not bothered and has no apologies to
make, President Mugabe
said yesterday.
The President also blasted the
US-based Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
(CBTU), saying they were agents
of imperialism.
He said the CBTU members were rightly deported after
trying to enter
Zimbabwe in solidarity with the ZCTU leaders.
US
Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Christopher Dell last week criticised the
deportation of the six-member CBTU delegation.
Washington also
lamented the beatings of the ZCTU leaders.
In a statement from its
headquarters in Brussels last week, the EU said the
Government should "stop
intimidation and assaults and to respect human
rights and fundamental
freedoms of its citizens".
Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Sten
Rylander, in a statement endorsed by
his EU counterparts in Harare, said the
assaults were an abuse of human
rights.
But addressing Zanu-PF
supporters from Harare Province gathered at the
Harare International Airport
to welcome him and his entourage, Cde Mugabe
said if the labour leaders
break the law and disregard police orders, they
would be beaten
up.
Zimbabwe is unmoved by the criticisms by the US and the EU because as
an
independent country it brooks no interference in its internal affairs, he
said.
"There are some who think that we are not independent, who
think that they
can organise demonstrations and look for pot-bellied people
like (ZCTU
secretary general Wellington) Chibebe to demonstrate. The police
must do
their work. Anyone who resists (police orders) is actually inviting
police
to use force. Anorova mapurisa," President Mugabe said.
The
police will do their work and should not be bothered that the
demonstrators
would have invited journalists and non-governmental
organisations to get the
attention of the US, Britain and the EU, he said.
"Kana zvasvika ikoko,
mogodiiko? What will you do? Nothing! AnaUnited States
vanoshaudha kuti
vanoroverwei asi ivo vachiuraya vanhu zuva-nezuva kuIraq
nevamwe vavakauraya
kuAfghanistan neLebanon. Keep your noses out of
Zimbabwe. Leave our politics
to the people of Zimbabwe.
"You Mr Bush, you Mr Blair should keep out of
Zimbabwe. Vanorohwaka (those
who want to effect regime change through
illegal means), saka there is no
apology for that," Cde Mugabe said, warning
MDC faction leader Mr Morgan
Tsvangirai against organising illegal
protests.
The abortive ZCTU demonstration had the support of the
Tsvangirai-led MDC
faction.
The President said the deported black
Americans were a misguided lot who
were serving imperialists.
"Those
poor black Americans, they forget that Zimbabwe, like all African
countries,
went through colonisation, suppression of human rights and
democratic rights
and had to fight for independence.
"They also forget that we here are the
source of what they are. They must
support us fight against imperialism and
neo-colonialism. So if they come in
the name of imperialism we say
no."
Cde Mugabe urged the Zanu-PF supporters to remain behind the party
and not
to be intimidated by the ZCTU and the
opposition.
"Musatyisidzirwe nanaChibebe vane mazitumbu; rizere mweya
hamuna zvirimo."
President Mugabe briefed the gathering about the G15 and
Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) summits he attended in Cuba and the 61st session
of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Addressing the
same gathering, Vice President Joice Mujuru said the ZCTU
demonstrations and
the attempts by some manufacturers to wantonly increase
prices of their
products were meant to portray a state of crisis in Zimbabwe
and embarrass
the President while he attended the G15, NAM and UN General
Assembly
summits.
Cde Mugabe said unjustified price increases fuelled inflation,
urging
businesses, including bakers, to be ethical and desist from corrupt
practices and profiteering.
He said manufacturers should not create
artificial shortages of basic food.
Cde Mugabe said if bakers run out of
wheat they should approach the
Government, which would make it
available.
Cde Mujuru, Cabinet ministers, senior Government officials,
service chiefs
and diplomats welcomed President Mugabe and his delegation
who arrived just
before midday from Cairo, Egypt, where they had made a
stop-over from New
York to connect an Air Zimbabwe flight to
Harare.
Accompanying the President was the First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe
and several
senior Government officials.
The Herald (Harare)
September 26,
2006
Posted to the web September 26, 2006
Harare
GROSS
interference by some permanent secretaries heading various ministries
is
scuttling efforts by parastatals to meaningfully contribute to economic
turnaround, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono said
yesterday.
"There is no role clarity between parastatals and the line
ministries. In
some cases, permanent secretaries are acting as chief
executives of
parastatals and the boards are sidelined.
"When boards
are appointed they should be given room to deliver and if they
don't, fire
them. This business of doing it half-heartedly is a recipe for
disaster," he
said.
Dr Gono was giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Transport and Communications on the interventionist policies of
the central bank in relation to public utilities.
Line ministries, Dr
Gono said, should shoulder much of the blame for the rot
in most
parastatals.
He said parastatals were critical, hence their poor
performance had a direct
bearing to the efforts to turn around the
economy.
Dr Gono suggested that since the issue of public utilities cut
across all
sectors of the economy, it was prudent to have a meeting with all
parliamentary committees, senior ministry officials and board members of
parastatals on the way forward.
"It should be a no-holds-barred
meeting and I am even prepared to have such
a meeting tomorrow," he
said.
Dr Gono pointed out that problems affecting parastatals should be
dealt with
in their totality and not through piecemeal approaches.
He
said the game of blaming each other over the economic challenges was over
as
what was needed were solutions.
Chairperson of the committee and Makonde
lawmaker Cde Leo Mugabe (Zanu-PF)
said he would liaise with other portfolio
committee chairpersons on the
suggestion by Dr Gono to hold an all-inclusive
meeting on challenges facing
parastatals.
He said the meeting could
be held under the auspices of the Liaison and
Coordinating Committee that
comprises committee chairpersons.
Parliament, Dr Gono said, should make
ministries accountable for their
actions, pointing out that they were in the
habit of ignoring sound advice
from the central bank.
"Ninety-five
percent of the policy advice that has been given has either not
been
implemented or considered; and 80 percent of the advice does not need
any
money but commitment. We are wondering whether this is just a culture of
not
wanting to implement advice," Dr Gono said.
The central bank boss said he
had advised the Ministry of Transport and
Communications in 2003 to ensure
that the TelOne landing termination rates
for international calls to
Zimbabwe be reviewed as they were the lowest in
the world but nothing had
been done to date.
He said currently, the termination rates were pegged
at US$0,3 per minute
against a world average rate of about
US$0,20.
Dr Gono said with break-even termination rates, TelOne would be
in a sound
financial position as this would guarantee significant inflows of
the
much-needed foreign currency.
The RBZ recently intervened after
the fixed telephone provider had been
disconnected from Intelsat link owing
to non-payment of US$710 000 in
arrears.
The disconnection affected
Internet service providers in the country as
service to the customers was
slowed down.
Dr Gono wondered why proposals by the Post and
Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) for an increase
of the termination rates for
TelOne to US$0,15 and US$0,20 for other
providers were not implemented.
He said there was need to put in place
statutory regulations enforcing the
review of such rates.
The central
bank chief said while he could understand the rationale of not
increasing
prices of basic commodities, he was at a loss as to why the
termination
rates were not being reviewed as they would generate foreign
currency.
Dr Gono then tabled before the committee the matrix of the
recommendations
that had been made to various line ministries and
parastatals in which no
decision was made.
Cde Mugabe said the
committee would do everything possible to ensure that
sound advice in regard
to parastatals given by the RBZ was implemented.
"We also realise that we
are also to blame for the bad performance of the
economy by not taking line
ministries to task," he said.