Zim Online
Saturday 30 September
2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe faces another poor harvest
even if the country
received good rains in the 2006/07 season because of a
critical shortage of
fertilizer, according to the Famine Early Warning
Systems Network (Fewsnet).
The international famine monitoring
organisation said in its latest
report that cash-strapped Zimbabwe was in
desperate need of US$42 million to
import raw materials and machinery to
produce the required amount of
fertilizer.
But Fewsnet said
even if the money was made available it was no longer
possible for local
firms to import raw materials and manufacture enough
fertilizer in the
little time left before the onset of the rainy season in
about six weeks
time.
"In the time left, domestic fertilizer manufacturing capacity
is
inadequate to produce the required fertilizers even if all the required
foreign currency was to be secured," Fewsnet said. "Fertilizer imports will
have to be undertaken to augment locally available stocks," it
added.
Fewsnet said that domestic fertilizer production was
hampered by
critical foreign currency shortages, power cuts, inefficient
rail transport,
shortage of road transport and a major breakdown at the only
manufacturer of
ammonium nitrate in the country.
A transformer
blew up at Sable Chemicals, the main supplier of most
inorganic compound
fertilizers used in Zimbabwe, derailing fertilizer
production and in the
process scuttling government-led efforts to avoid a
repeat of last season
when the country received good rains but still failed
to produce enough food
due to shortages of both fertilizer and seeds.
The government
earlier this week said it was releasing US$6 million to
fertilizer making
firms to import raw materials and machinery to step up
production but the
cash injection falls far short of the amount required to
ensure enough
fertilizer for the country.
The warning by Fewsnet of possible poor
harvests comes as the World
Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has also
warned of increasing signs of El
Nino conditions that cause poor rains in
the region.
In an El Nino update issued on September 26, the WMO
warned that
climatic patterns across the equatorial Pacific have since July
developed a
notable tendency towards El Nino conditions.
The El
Nino effect has been associated with previous drought periods
that have hit
southern Africa in the past few seasons. The phenomenon causes
the sea
temperature to rise significantly and the air to become dry,
affecting the
rain-formation process.
Another poor farming season would have
devastating effects on Zimbabwe
which was hoping for better fortunes this
year after six years of poor
harvests, largely blamed on disruptions to
production on farms following the
violent take over of land from white
farmers.
Falling food production coupled with an unprecedented
economic
meltdown has left most Zimbabweans surviving on food handouts from
international relief agencies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 29 September
2006
NYANGA - Ruling ZANU PF legislator
Paul Kadzima was on Thursday
arrested by the police for allegedly defrauding
Nyanga rural district
council of about Z$8 000 (revalued).
Kadzima, who is the Member of Parliament for Nyanga, is alleged to
have
defrauded the council between 2004 and early 2005 after he wrote
cheques to
the council which were later disowned by the banks.
The ZANU PF
legislator, who was elected to Parliament last year, is a
former chairman of
the Nyanga rural district council. He was still in police
custody last
night.
"The MP is in police custody. We believe there is more to
this case,"
said a senior police officer who is investigating the
matter.
The arrest of Kadzima is the latest in a spate of arrests
of senior
ZANU PF leaders on charges of corruption. But most of the cases
have been
dropped allegedly for lack of evidence. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Saturday 30 September
2006
MASVINGO - The cash-strapped
Zimbabwean government has appealed to
local municipalities to assist with
pauper burials which are on the increase
in the country as people struggle
to bury their dead due to high cost of
graves.
In the past, the
burial of bodies which lay unclaimed in mortuaries
was the sole
responsibility of the government's Department of Social
Welfare.
But the cash-strapped government has asked municipal
authorities to
step in and assist in carrying out pauper
burials.
According to confidential minutes of a full council
meeting in
Masvingo town in southern Zimbabwe, the Department of Social
Welfare has
asked the council to perform the pauper burials after failing to
raise cash
to carry out the burials.
"The government has
appealed to local authorities for them to assist
in burying the dead since
it can no longer go it alone due to financial
(reasons).
"The
Masvingo city council will conduct these burials in the urban
area," read
part of the full council minutes made available to ZimOnline.
Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Nicholas Goche, could not be
immediately
reached for comment on the matter last night.
Pauper burials are on
the increase in Zimbabwe as people grapple with
an unprecedented economic
crisis most critics blame on President Robert
Mugabe's mismanagement of the
economy.
With the cost of burying a single body estimated at
between Z$30 000
and $40 000, some Zimbabweans have resorted to abandoning
their dead
relatives to lie in mortuaries for months on end.
A
burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic claiming an average 3 000 Zimbabweans
every
week has only helped worsen the crisis with mortuaries at most major
hospitals filled up to the brim with dead bodies. - ZimOnline
[This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 29 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - The United Nations
Development Programme
(UNDP) in Zimbabwe has denied accusations that it was
"in bed" with
President Robert Mugabe's government.
A nongovernmental
organisation (NGO), the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, made
the claim ahead
of a consultative meeting between civil society and the
government, hosted
by the UN last week, on setting up a National Human
Rights Commission. Nixon
Nyikadzino, a media officer with the coalition,
said the Mugabe regime was
"pulling wool over the eyes of the UNDP".
"The accusation that we are in
bed with the government of Zimbabwe is
unfounded and in bad faith," the UNDP
resident representative in Zimbabwe,
Agostinho Zacarias, told IRIN.
"Containment and isolation of the government
is not our strategy. We are not
selectively consulting NGOs - everyone and
anyone can participate. We
believe in a policy of engaging the government
and the civil
society."
Six nongovernmental organisations attended the consultative
meeting: the
National Association for NGOs (NANGO), an umbrella organisation
with a
membership of around 1,000 organisations; the Southern Africa Human
Rights
Trust; the Women's Coalition, a grouping of 22 women's rights
organisations;
the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a coalition of 16 rights
groups; the
National Association of Societies for the Care of the
Handicapped; and the
Zimbabwe Coalition for Debt and Development.
The
Zimbabwean government has an international obligation to set up the
human
rights commission. Under a set of principles endorsed by the UN
General
Assembly in 1993, countries are obliged to create national human
rights
commissions. The UN defines a national human rights institution as a
government body established under the constitution or by law, whose
functions are specifically designed to promote and protect human
rights.
Rights activists have regularly slammed legislation like the
Public Order
and Security Act (POSA), which prohibits public gatherings
without police
clearance, and the tough Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act
(AIPPA), which regulates the media, as laws that impede
constitutional
rights to association and free speech.
Nyikadzino said
his organisation, Crisis in Zimbabwe, chose not to
participate because "we
do not have an atmosphere conducive to setting up of
a human rights
institution - we have oppressive legislation which prevents
demonstrations.
Only recently leaders of the ZCTU [Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions] were
beaten up while protesting the country's
fast-deteriorating social and
economic conditions. We feel some conditions
should have been met by the
government before holding talks".
According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights
NGO Forum, the president,
vice-president and secretary-general of the ZCTU
were all violently arrested
at protests almost two weeks ago, and subjected
to "serious torture". All
three sustained severe injuries while in police
custody.
Rights NGOs were further outraged by Mugabe's comments earlier
this week
that "the police were right in dealing sternly with the ZCTU
leaders".
On Thursday the UN country team in Zimbabwe expressed a
"profound sense of
dismay" over statements made by "Zimbabwean authorities",
which might appear
to be "condoning the use of force and torture to deal
with peaceful
demonstrations by its citizens", and called on the government
to create an
atmosphere in which Zimbabweans could freely exercise their
constitutionally
enshrined freedoms.
The Crisis Coalition's
Nyikadzino welcomed the statement and said the UN had
a "good track record
in Zimbabwe as far as providing development assistance
was concerned", but
had fallen short in tackling issues of "good governance
and rule of
law".
"We have tried to follow up on several issues, like whether the UN
had taken
the government to task over Operation Murambastvina or not, but we
have had
no response," he said. The operation, launched last May, was the
government's sudden campaign to purge informal settlements, which left more
than 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood in the winter of
2005.
The alleged torture and detention of the trade unionists was also
raised at
the consultative meeting, where NGOs described it as a paradox by
the
Zimbabwean government, who now wished to create a human rights
commission.
"We must acknowledge this as a very small first step toward
building
dialogue," Zacarias commented. There was consensus on going ahead
with
process of setting up the rights body, but it was felt that
confidence-building measures between the Zimbabwean government and the NGOs
needed to be put in place, which might eventually result in an
institutionalised forum for dialogue.
A follow-up meeting is to take
place next month.
September 29,
2006
By ANDnetwork .com
Lusaka (AND) FEAR has gripped
the Zambian's white commercial farmers
following an early lead by opposition
and threatening leader, Michael Sata.
The Zambian opposition
leader, who on Thursday praised Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe's
controversial land reform policies threatened that
he would institute
similar reforms if elected for the presidency.
"I left Zimbabwe
three years ago to come and settle in Kafue and the
latest statements by
Sata leaves us without anywhere to go if he wins the
elections.
"We are therfore calling for the international community to inteverne
in the
event that Sata wins the election," one white commercial farmer in
Kafue.
Another one, who reqquested anonymit told African news
Dimension this
afternoon that moral is at its lowest ebb in Zambia following
the
announcement to grab land from
the whites to the blacks in the
country.
"This is going to create some more food shortages for
Zambia and the
entire SADC region if the nation does not revolt to such
threats by Sata.
"The controversial land reform programme by Mugabe
in Zimbabwe was
chaotic and cause for concern the world over, and why Zambia
again. Mugabe
has cursed Africa,"
fumed one white
female.
When addressing journalists in Lusaka yesterday shortly
after casting
his vote, Sata supported Mugabe arguing that he had not done
anything wrong
in Zimbabwe.
"What Robert Mugabe has done is
sensible. He hasn't roasted any white
persons. He has just taken back what
belongs to them (Zimbabweans)," he
said.
"Mugabe hasn't done
anything wrong. It is the imperialists, the
capitalist roaders who say he is
a villain," Sata said. "The people of
Zimbabwe are not suffering. They are
much happier."
Mugabe is today regarded as darling in many African
countries, and is
believed to be being admired by South African President,
Thabo Mbeki.
In an interview in Johannesburg, South African
activists spoke
different views on Sata's threats of grabbing the land from
whites to the
blacks.
"Of course the land belongs to the
Africans but there are better ways
of doing it. We don't have to create
chaos in taking back the land.
"I can't talk much about Mugabe
because I am here in South Africa, and
I only know what the media say," said
Zweli Twalo, a renowned South African
poet.
Khazamula Mukuku
insisted that Mugabe was right and needed to be given
a world statesman
status when he dies.
"Mugabe stood alone a fearless African heroe
against might powerful
nations from the west such as the USA, United
Kingdom, Australia and all the
imperialistic nations, who partitioned
Africa," said Mukuku in Braamfontein,
Johannesburg.
From John
Kaunda in LUSAKA & AND Johannesburg
The Herald
(Harare)
September 29, 2006
Posted to the web September 29,
2006
Harare
THERE was a heated debate yesterday in the House of
Assembly over a motion
on the action taken by the police who moved in to
quell an abortive
demonstration by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) with Zanu-PF
lawmakers supporting the action by the force while MDC
legislators opposed
it.
There were fireworks in the House as the
debate lasted for more than three
hours.
The motion that was moved by
MDC Chief Whip and Mutare Central Member of the
House of Assembly Mr
Innocent Gonese was calling upon the Government to
institute investigations
into the beatings of the ZCTU leadership and bring
the perpetrators to
book.
Contributing to the debate, Makonde lawmaker Cde Leo Mugabe
(Zanu-PF) said
the ZCTU leadership had instigated the demonstration in order
to divert
public attention from its corrupt activities.
He said a
probe by a Government appointed investigator had revealed that the
ZCTU was
involved in corrupt activities that included the violation of the
Exchange
Control Act.
"The ZCTU leadership is corrupt, they are not representing
workers but
meddling in dirty politics. In carrying out the demonstration
they wanted to
justify for the money, which they had received from donors,"
he said.
Cde Mugabe said the motion by the opposition should be thrown
out.
MDC Leader in the House and Nkulumane legislator Mr Gibson Sibanda
hinted
that the action by the police had violated International Labour
Organisation
(ILO) conventions and this would result in more sanctions being
imposed on
Harare by the West.
"The Zimbabwean Government is playing
into the international community by
its own actions. The Government must
investigate and bring to book those
involved in the assault," he
said.
However, Non-Constituency lawmaker Cde Canisa Satiya said
parliamentarians
should desist from calling for sanctions as such punitive
measures would
affect everyone irrespective of political
affiliation.
Deputy Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises Development
Cde Kenetth
Mutiwekuziva said it was ironic that when Harare North
legislator Mr Trudy
Stevenson (MDC) was attacked the United States and
Britain did not voice
their concerns as they were doing over the ZCTU
demonstration.
He said the police had dealt with the labour body leaders
because they had
failed to take heed of the warning not to embark on the
demonstration hence
their defiance was tantamount to violence.
His
sentiments were echoed by Deputy Minister of Local Government, Public
Works
and Urban Development Cde Morris Sakabuya who said no sensible
Government
would stand by and allow people to engage in illegal regime
change.
Chitungwiza legislator Mr Fidelis Mhashu (MDC) said there
might be a
backlash against the police over their action.
The debate
on the motion was adjourned to next Tuesday
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
28 September
2006
Officials of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change say 24
members of the MDC faction led by party founding president
Morgan Tsvangirai
have been arrested in recent days in what looks like an
official pressure
campaign.
MDC sources said the latest arrest came
Thursday morning when plainclothes
police picked up Mutare North MDC Vice
Secretary Monica Mukwanda at her home
on charges that she had organized
illegal demonstrations.
MDC Manicaland spokesman Pishayi Muchavuraya said
Mukwanda's arrest came
after police surveillance since Monday of homes of
members of the provincial
party's executive committed. Police and agents of
the feared Central
Intelligence Organization had been watching the party's
provincial offices
in Mutare, MDC sources said.
Seventeen MDC
officials including Kariba Executive Mayor John Houghton and
Kwekwe member
of parliament Blessing Chebundo were arrested September 23 in
the northern
city of Kariba, where they were holding a meeting on AIDS, MDC
sources said.
Houghton, Chebundo and four others face charges under the
Public and Order
Security Act for allegedly organizing an illegal meeting.
Eleven others were
freed.
On Sunday, September 24, another five MDC members were arrested in
Siakobvu,
a rural area outside Kariba. MDC sources said the the five were
charged with
holding an illegal meeting when in fact they were preparing for
an upcoming
rural council ballot.
Opposition sources added that the
home of a Buhera member of the Tsvangirai
MDC faction burned under
suspicious circumstances this week.
Reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe asked MDC spokesman
Nelson Chamisa in Harare why he
thought Harare was stepping up pressure.
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-29
20:07:51
BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's top
legislator Wu Bangguo
said on Friday that China will expand cooperation with
Zimbabwe in areas
including mineral, infrastructure and telecommunications
in an efforts for
common and mutually-beneficial
development.
"China and Zimbabwe enjoy potentials for further
cooperation as
the two countries have respective advantages in fields such
as resources,
technique and market," said Wu, chairman of the Standing
Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC).
Wu made
the remarks while meeting with Speaker of Zimbabwe's House
of Assembly John
Nkomo, who is heading a parliamentary delegation on a China
tour from Sept.
23 to 30.
Wu also suggested the increasing parliamentary
exchanges between
the two countries make contribution to China-Zimbabwe
relations.
China's top advisor Jia Qinglin also met with Nkomo
on Friday,
hailing the deepening friendship and cooperation between the two
countries.
"China sees Zimbabwe as a reliable friend and an
important
cooperative partner, and will make joint efforts with Zimbabwe to
enhance
pragmatic cooperation in various levels and fields," said Jia,
chairman of
the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative
Conference, China's advisory body.
Nkomo
appreciated China's policy on friendly cooperation with
Africa, saying
Zimbabwe will never change its stance on one-China policy.
China released its first African policy paper early this year,
putting
forward its proposals for all-round cooperation with Africa in
various
fields in the coming years.
People's Daily
Various evidences and figures have shown that Russia
has returned to
Africa, The Herald, the biggest state media of Zimbabwe,
reported on Friday.
The report said in the early 1990s, Russia's
own economic problems
forced it to leave Africa. As Russia's economy
recovered and businesses
developed, its interest in Africa began to
return.
The article said Russia President Vladimir Putin's recent
visit to
African countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, gives hope that
previous
trend has finally been reversed. Putin's promise that Russian
businesses
will invest billions of dollars in African economies proves that
Russia has
serious plans about the continent.
At a meeting with
ambassadors last June, Putin said that the end of
the Cold War had
eliminated the previous division of Africa and opened up
the entire
continent to the cooperation with Moscow.
The report quoted
Vladimir Lopatov of the Institute of African Studies
at the Russian Academy
of Sciences as saying that there is a stable trend of
Russian exports
prevailing over African imports. This testifies to African
consumers'
interest in Russian products.
Source: Xinhua
The Herald
(Harare)
September 29, 2006
Posted to the web September 29,
2006
Victoria Muringayi And Martin Kadzere
Harare
CABINET has
approved the establishment of an Interim Administrative Price
Stabilisation
Mechanism Committee in a development expected to end prevalent
price
distortions on the market.
The committee will carry out functions similar
to those of the National
Prices and Incomes Commission.
Industry and
International Trade Minister Cde Obert Mpofu yesterday said the
establishment of the committee follows the realisation that the commission
was taking long to come into effect against the backdrop of irregular price
increases.
About $487 million is required to set up the
committee.
"The National Prices and Incomes Commission has been presented
before
Cabinet and there is now a Bill, but it is still waiting to be
presented
before Parliament," Cde Mpofu said.
"It is for this reason
that we have decided to set up this new mechanism
while we are waiting for
the approval of the Bill by Parliament."
The committee, to be chaired by
the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade, will include the Economic
Development, Finance and Home Affairs
ministries.
The Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe and the Attorney-General's Office will also be
in the
committee.
Other institutions to sit in the committee are the Consumer
Council of
Zimbabwe, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the
Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce.
Among its major functions, the
committee will consider price adjustment
submissions from manufacturers and
make decisions on monitored products.
For controlled products such as
maize, wheat, flour and bread,
recommendations would be submitted to the
responsible ministry for
consideration by the Ministerial Economic
Co-ordination Committee which, in
turn, would make submissions to Cabinet
for approval.
Extensive research on pricing, capacity utilisation and
challenges being
faced by industry would be undertaken while corrective
measures would be
effected accordingly.
It is also expected to
minimise violations of price regulations through
strengthening supervisory
and enforcement activities.
The committee would also undertake research
and maintain a comprehensive
nationwide statistical database to be used in
analysing pricing and
production across all sectors of the economy and
developing periodic pricing
policy models, frameworks and
strategies.
In addition, it will also monitor price trends of goods and
services through
comprehensive surveys and inspection, producing periodic
price monitoring
reports and initiating corrective measures in case of
unscrupulous business
practices in the pricing system.
Furthermore,
the committee will be responsible for determining major cost
drivers in
various industrial sectors and industry mark-ups and trade
margins.
"The committee will submit reports on its activities every
fortnight to the
Ministry of Industry and International Trade," Cde Mpofu
said.
He said the committee would be supported by a secretariat made up
of
economists drawn from his ministry and would be responsible for
researching
and analysing pricing submissions and preparing papers for
tabling before
the committee while developing price formulae for various
products with
trigger mechanisms.
Cde Mpofu noted that it was
critical for the Government and the private
sector to work together if the
economy was to recover.
"The culture of dialogue that is being fostered
by the National Economic
Development Priority Programme has created trust
between Government and the
private sector.
"This has, to some extent,
been dented by the recent arrests and detention
of company executives. This
was due to lack of co-ordination of efforts
amongst agencies," the minister
said.
IOL
September 29 2006 at
08:47AM
Johannesburg - An attempt to smuggle 33 litres of wine from
South
Africa into Zimbabwe has landed the culprit with a ZIM$500 000 (about
R15
000) fine, Harare's Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
Its website said Paterson Alasdir Robertis bootleg was also forfeited
to the
state. The assortment of wines were valued at $745 000.
Beitbridge
provincial magistrate Mercy Siti-Rukoni sentenced Robert to
18 months'
imprisonment with an option of a $500 000 fine.
He pleaded guilty
to contravening a section of the Criminal Law and
Codification
Act.
Robert arrived at the Beitbridge border post from South Africa
last
Sunday, driving a Toyota Hilux. He was carrying an assortment of
wines.
He undervalued the goods upon declaring them
to Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority officers, who then seized the wine and handed
him over to the
police.
Had Robert not been caught, the state
would have lost $744 775 in
revenue. - Sapa
Zimbabwe Independent
(Harare)
September 29, 2006
Posted to the web September 29,
2006
Itai Mushekwe
ZIMBABWEAN visual artist, David Chinyama
(28) has released a painting
depicting the current political and economic
meltdown.
Chinyama said the painting entitled Sunken Ship, is his
interpretation of
how he sees Zimbabwe's crisis.
The artist's
painting was among an assortment of works presented last week
at the Arts
for Hope festival in Harare, which was organised by the American
Embassy to
benefit the less-privileged by donating 40% of the sale proceeds
made during
the visual arts showcase.
The artist this week told Independent Xtra that
he felt the need to capture
the Zimbabwe story in his works because the once
prosperous nation has
become "a shadow of its past glory".
"Zimbabwe
used to be the envy of many African nations," said Chinyama.
"Today we
are a shadow of ourselves as a result of gross mismanagement by
our leaders.
Talk of the economy, political situation, education, health and
all that you
can think of is that it is now just like a sunken ship. We used
to take
pride in our country and everybody wanted to be associated with us.
Today
it's a different story."
In the non-figurative painting, an unidentified
ship is about to touch the
seabed after succumbing to a mysterious
fault.
Chinyama, who prefers maintaining a low profile, has become the
latest
visual artist to speak out against Zimbabwe's meltdown, after
students from
the Zimbabwe Institute of Visual Arts last year produced
damning works
criticising government's ill-conceived Operation
Murambatsvina.
The visual artist, whose works are rooted in contemporary
commentary,
addressing the evils and positives of society, has attended
exhibitions in
the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and Kenya.
To
date, he has held seven solo exhibitions and is also coordinator of the
Arts
for Hope festival. In 2004 Chinyama received the National Arts Merit
Award
for outstanding visual artist.