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Lions facing
starvation as Mugabe men seize famous wildlife
park
By Andrew Chadwick in
Harare
(Filed: 06/09/2003)
Five-week-old lion cubs have become the latest victims of President Robert Mugabe's lawless land grab in Zimbabwe.
Their rescuers, Brendon and Lana Snook, had only minutes to load the cubs into their car, along with their son, three dogs and a few possessions, when the president's supporters invaded a wildlife sanctuary outside Harare.
The family, along with the animals, found refuge with relatives in the capital, but the fate of the cub's parents, another 34 lions and hundreds of other animals remains in the balance after the seizure of the Lion and Cheetah Park.
Although not a farm and with no government notices issued for its acquisition, the 1,100-acre property was taken by a retired colonel, K Makavanga, accompanied by a group of Zanu-PF militia.
The Lion and Cheetah Park, established in 1968 by the Bristow family as a wildlife sanctuary for orphaned animals, is one of Zimbabwe's oldest privately owned sanctuaries.
Until its seizure it was home to 46 lions, three cheetahs, small herds of elephants and giraffes, hundreds of impalas and other antelopes as well as jackals, crocodiles and numerous smaller animals.
The animals are known internationally for appearing in major films and documentaries filmed in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya.
Their credits include Mountains of the Moon, the story of Burton and Speke's search for the source of the Nile, King Solomon's Mines, with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone, and A Far Off Place, starring Reese Witherspoon.
The park also encourages a wider understanding of conservation by subsidising the visits of over 3,000 schoolchildren a month.
Col Makavanga had approached the park's management with the idea of expanding its operations into surrounding farms. He claims that instead of responding to the proposal, Mr Snook, the park manager, incited the workers to attack a passing "war veteran" and other militants then came to his aid.
Mr Snook denies this version of events, saying the proposal submitted by Col Makavanga was unworkable and this prompted the colonel and his supporters to invade the park. Mr Snook's version was backed up by staff members who spoke to The Telegraph.
Although Col Makavanga has expressed an interest in continuing the operations of the wildlife park, its owner, Viv Bristow, 58, fears for the welfare of the animals. "Running a park of this nature is a complex and costly operation," he said from South Africa, where 10 of his lions are being filmed.
"You need to understand the physiological needs of a wide range of animals, you must be licensed to use dangerous drugs, and know how to prepare food and care for the animals."
Thousands of wild animals on private land have been killed, poached or died of neglect since the land redistribution programme began in 2000.
Mr Snook, 40, said a request to move the animals off the land had been denied by Col Makavanga. "If we cannot get them off or get food to them soon, they will begin to die," he said.
"More worryingly, once the lions get hungry they will easily find a way out of their enclosures and there is a lot of human settlement adjoining the park."
The animals are at present being cared for by the staff of the park despite threats of beatings and having their houses burnt down.
"If these war veterans take this place, the animals will be killed or will die and we will lose our jobs," said one of the workers. "All around us are derelict farms that have been destroyed by these people and this park is more difficult to run than a farm."
By
Philippe Bernes-Lasserre
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
JOHANNESBURG
— Young Zimbabweans who fled recently to South Africa
yesterday recounted,
shamefaced, the savage crimes they committed as members
of pro-government
youth militias.
Speaking in the presence of Zimbabwean and South African
bishops who
denounced the atrocities committed by the National Youth Service,
they
talked in low voices, their gaze fixed on the floor, of how they
killed,
burned and raped.
Invariably, after a few moments, the stream
of words faltered as they
started to sob.
Opposition parties in
Zimbabwe have long accused the militia of large
numbers of attacks on critics
of President Robert Mugabe, who won a disputed
re-election in 2000.
The bishops, releasing the results of a no-holds-barred probe into
the
Zimbabwean program, said that the 30,000 to 50,000 youngsters in
the
service — some as young as 11 — are themselves maltreated.
"The
youth militias so created are used as instruments of the ruling
party, to
maintain their hold on power by whatever means necessary,
including torture,
rape, murder and arson," the report said.
Debbie, 22, one of the former
members of the militia, held her year-old
daughter Nothula ("Peace" in
Sindebele) on her lap at the press conference.
"I was raped by so many
different men, I don't know whose baby it is,"
she said.
Debbie, who
gave only one name, said the female members used to share a
room with boys at
the training camp at Ntabanzinduna, near the western
Zimbabwean city of
Bulawayo, "and at night they would rape us."
She said she has tested
positive for HIV, the AIDS virus.
Thabo, 21, said he learned to make
gasoline bombs at the training
program.
In the camp where he spent 10
months, he said he had raped several of
the girls who slept in the same
dormitory.
Thabo, who also gave only one name, said in January last year
he joined
some 50 militiamen in invading the home of an opposition
politician.
"We twisted his head, we beat him with sjamboks [long leather
whips],
iron bars, crowbars, in front of his wife and seven children — they
were
crying. ... Then we left his body by the river."
Thabo said the
militia leader used to give the youth beer and marijuana
before they went out
on an operation. "When we got back to the camp we would
have a party."
Wesley, 19, said: "There are many things we did ... some of them, if I
think
of them, make me feel like crying."
When he joined, he said, he was
promised money, comfort, land for his
family — but was left
empty-handed.
The three youths, who are seeking political asylum in South
Africa, are
among hundreds who have fled the youth service. Isolated and
penniless in
Johannesburg, they dream about returning one day to their
homeland.
"If my country is going to be OK, I'm going back," Thabo
said.
The bishops, whose report criticized Mr. Mugabe's party for using
its
youth service to carry out brutal crimes aimed at "inculcating
blatantly
antidemocratic, racist and xenophobic attitudes," predicted that
returning
would be difficult.
"Our youths have been turned into
vandals and have become a lost
generation in the process," they said.
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE
CONSERVATION COMMUNIQUE - September 5,
2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw;
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZIMBABWE
CONSERVATION TASK FORCE
HALGLEN ANIMAL CONSERVANCY
Contrary to the
Government's statement that the land seizures are now over,
the very few
white farmers and game ranchers who have so far managed to
hold on to their
properties are now under pressure to give up their land.
Justice for
Agriculture has issued a warning to those farmers who were not
previously
gazetted for land resettlement, that operation "clean sweep" is
about to take
place whereby high-ranking government officials want the
remaining farmers
and their workers off their land.
40 kilometres north-east of Bulawayo
are two game farms adjoining each
other are known as the "Halglen Animal
Conservancy". This 4 500 hectare
conservancy, which is completely unsuitable
for agriculture, is one of the
very few places in Zimbabwe which still has
wildlife and the owners have
gone to enormous expense to protect the 3 200
animals there. The properties
are properly fenced and adequate watering
points have been positioned
throughout. In addition to this, 12 trained
scouts patrol and protect these
animals 24 hours a day from
poachers.
The owners of Halglen are now under pressure to give up the
conservancy and
sacrifice 3 200 wild animals to untrained and undisciplined
people. The
records show that on most of the other game ranches and
conservancies that
have been resettled, the wildlife has been wiped out in a
very short space
of time. On many game farms where the wildlife was
previously abundant,
there is literally nothing left. The game has been
indiscriminately poached
and slaughtered by the settlers and in addition to
this, they have been
selling hunts to unscrupulous hunters from South Africa
and Botswana who
are capitalizing of the chaotic situation here in flagrant
defiance of the
laws laid down by National Parks, Zatso and the Zimbabwe
Tourist Authority.
Because of this the country has lost millions of dollars
in foreign
currency.
Unless we have a change of government, it seems
we are powerless to stop
this tragedy which is unfolding daily. There is very
little wildlife left
here now and we need to save these 3 200 animals from
being slaughtered by
a handful of greedy, misguided individuals who will, no
doubt, hunt them
for personal gain as they have already done countrywide. WE
NEED HELP!
Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force
Phone 09 2634 336479
Fax 09 2634 335114
Mobile 09 263 11
603213
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1: Ben Freeth
WHITE COATS AND STETHOSCOPES
It appears to me that
there must be something intrinsically wrong with our
education system. Why
is it that so many people appear unable to think,
unable to draw lines in the
sand; unable to stand up for what they know
deep down in their heart is
right?
I heard recently of an experiment that was conducted soon after
the 2nd
World War. Volunteers were asked to come to assist with the
experiment.
They were faced with a man sitting in an electric chair and
another man in
a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck. The
volunteer was asked
to turn the dial so that the man with the white coat and
the stethoscope
could examine the effects of the electricity going through
the man on the
electric chair. The affects were scientifically recorded
before the
volunteer was asked to turn the dial higher. With each new
setting on the
dial the convulsions became alarmingly worse. If any
hesitancy was shown
the volunteer was told reassuringly by the man in the
white coat with a
stethoscope that it was essential for science that the
experiment
continued. The volunteer is 85 cases out of 100 continued to turn
the
dial.
What the volunteer didn't know was that the man in the white
coat with a
stethoscope was just an actor and that the man in the electric
chair was
not being studied at all. He was an actor too. It was the
volunteer that
was the subject of the study.
The experiment in essence
concluded that take a man out of his own
environment into an environment
seeped in the recognised "system" and he
will go along with it even to the
point of inflicting serious suffering to
a fellow human being. Only 15 of
every 100 people had the ability to
question what was going on and act upon
what their thoughts told them by
refusing to obey the man in the white coat
with the stethoscope.
The experiment results had a profound effect on
me. They explain a lot of
why evil men as part of "the system" through
history have got away with
what they've got away with for so long. "They
can't be bad", the people
say "they're part of the system". It explains
further why organisations do
not often stand against bad men in the system
because they themselves are
part of the same system of white coats and
stethoscopes. Who are they to
question? Who are they to go against what is
surely set in stone?
It is not of course "the system" that is necessarily
bad. It is men who
manipulate the system to meet their own agendas to the
detriment of what is
right that are the bad ones; and it is those within the
system that see the
white coats and stethoscopes and don't think, don't
question, don't rock
the boat, that allow the evil to bear
fruit.
Maybe it's the education system; maybe it's the culture and belief
systems;
maybe it's something intrinsically wrong with man, but time and time
again
evil men are passed the ball and run with it, smiling as they go
leaving a
minefield of destruction in their wakes. And the supposed
opposition - the
custodians of justice, of morality, of everything that is
intrinsically
right, just watch him go like a flock of gormless sheep. We
don't question;
we don't blow the whistle; we don't say "Hey!". The man just
runs on and
nobody wants to tackle him because he's wearing a white coat and
has got a
stethoscope hanging around his neck.
How did the NAZI regime
get away with methodically, systematically and
scientifically over a period
of years with murdering 6 million Jews and
other non-Aryans? The system
allowed it because so few within the system
dared to question its validity.
They carried on "turning the dial" because
there was a man in a white coat
with a stethoscope around his neck
reassuring them that it was
okay.
How did the current regime in Zimbabwe get away with
systematically
murdering up to 20,000 Matabeles during Gukuruhundi without
anyone really
even batting an eyelid?
How did the CFU hierarchy get
away with allowing the majority of farmers to
find themselves on the wrong
side of the law this time last year? It was
because of us. We didn't
exercise our minds and question. We trusted
implicitly in the system and the
institutions to sort out our problems. We
didn't get out there as
individuals. We were not fierce. We did not have
passion in our eyes and
drums in our hearts.
Situations like these require men who dream dreams
and see visions,
independent men who get out there amongst the blood and the
sweat and the
grime of the battlefield and don't count, like impeccable
Victorian
accountants, the potential dollars and cents that might be lost.
It needs
men with big hearts and hard feet - dangerous men who tackle hard
and fight
and don't give up; men who dare. It is only then that we fulfill
our God
given destinies.
Daily News
ZANU PF losers withhold food-for-work
payments
CHITUNGWIZA residents who participated in a public works
programme
initiated by outgoing ZANU PF councillors are still to receive
payment a
week after completing the exercise, the Daily News has
established.
Chitungwiza Executive Mayor Misheck Shoko confirmed the non-payment.
He said the council received a
directive from Public Service Minister
July Moyo, ordering them to disburse
$150 million to beneficiaries of the
public works programme, which is
supposed to benefit disadvantaged members
of the community who undertake
public service for remuneration.
He said most of the
beneficiaries were yet to be paid, alleging that
the exercise was a scheme to
gain votes for ruling party candidates during
last weekend’s urban council
elections.
Shoko said: "The food-for-work programme was only a
cover. The whole
thing was just simple vote-buying. How possibly can one
distribute $150
million within just six days? It was just a case of
vote-buying, which
unfortunately did not do any favours to ZANU
PF."
Before the elections, ZANU PF had 24 councillors in
Chitungwiza, but
the MDC won 18 of the 24 wards in the weekend
elections.
Shoko alleged that the money was supposed to be
disbursed by the
outgoing councillors to their respective wards, but the
councillors had
withheld the money pending announcement of the
results.
He added that the new council would undertake an audit
of the funds
disbursed to the losing councillors and then decide on its next
course of
action.
But Public Service Ministry permanent
secretary Lancaster Museka said
it was the responsibility of town clerks to
distribute money allocated under
the food-for-work
programme.
He told the Daily News: "Money is deposited into
council accounts and
it is the duty of clerks to distribute the money on
behalf of the
councillors. Councillors do not handle money and if they did
so, it was due
to shortcomings on the part of the council.
"If that was the case, the outgoing councillors should simply hand
over the
ward registers to the new councillors and the people should be
given their
money."
However, Shoko said he had been told by the Chitungwiza
town clerk
that the government had made available $150 million on 20 August,
which was
to be disbursed in 10 days.
"I was told that the
government said the councillors should be
responsible for the programme and
the disbursement of the money, while the
clerks would simply do clerical
work," he said.
Chitungwiza town clerk Simbarashe Mudunge could
not be reached for
comment yesterday.
Residents of
Chitungwiza who participated in the public works
programme told the Daily
News this week that they were promised $5 000 each
for four days of work in
the run-up to the urban council elections.
Some of the intended
beneficiaries of the scheme are spending their
afternoons at Chitungwiza
Community Hall waiting for their money, only to be
told to "come back
tomorrow".
A Chitungwiza woman said: "We were told that we
would be given the
money after the council election
results."
The results were announced on Monday.
Shoko said some of the Chitungwiza residents were given
only $2 500
each for their labour and told the remainder would be disbursed
after the
election results were announced.
By Blessing
Chigwaza Own Correspondent
Daily News
MDC woos SADC
MALAWI this week pledged to
help Zimbabwe’s main opposition party
win regional backing for its drive to
restart talks with President Robert
Mugabe, as it emerged that the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) would
embark on a regional initiative to engage
southern African leaders on the
need for dialogue.
MDC
secretary-general Welshman Ncube was quoted by Reuters news agency
yesterday
as saying that Malawian President Bakili Muluzi had assured the
opposition
party that he would engage his peers in the 14-state Southern
Africa
Development Community (SADC) to facilitate dialogue in
Zimbabwe.
Talks between the MDC and the ruling ZANU PF stalled
last year when
the opposition party filed a legal challenge of Mugabe’s March
2002
re-election.
Ncube was quoted as saying: "We assured
him (Muluzi) that the MDC
remains firmly committed to seeing a negotiated
settlement in Zimbabwe."
Party officials said the MDC
secretary-general and the party’s
national chairman, Isaac Matongo, were
expected back from Malawi last night.
The MDC deputy
secretary-general, Gift Chimanikire, and Sekai Holland,
the party’s secretary
for international affairs, were yesterday said to be
in Kenya on a mission to
lobby President Mwai Kibaki to nudge Mugabe and the
ruling ZANU PF towards
dialogue.
Authoritative sources in the MDC said in Harare
yesterday that the
party’s leaders would engage in a diplomatic initiative in
the region to
inform SADC leaders of the situation in Zimbabwe and the need
to kick-start
the stalled talks.
Analysts say a negotiated
settlement to end the political stalemate in
the country is one of the main
options for resolving the Zimbabwean crisis.
But the ruling
party has indicated that it is not in a hurry to resume
talks with the
opposition and has been accused of dragging its feet on a
church-led
initiative to broker talks between Zimbabwe’s main
political
parties.
Although church leaders held a meeting
with Mugabe, who was said to
have expressed interest in their initiative, the
ruling party has failed to
submit its agenda for the proposed
talks.
The MDC, however, made its submissions before the
deadline set by the
churches.
But diplomatic sources said
there was regional support for the
proposed talks.
They said
Botswana and Mozambique, while publicly supporting the
Zimbabwean government,
wanted a political compromise between the Zimbabwean
parties, arguing that
the crisis in Zimbabwe was affecting their economies.
The
sources said while Mugabe received public support from his
colleagues at the
recent SADC summit in Tanzania, most of his colleagues in
the region were
keen for the talks to resume.
They added that Mozambican
President Joaquim Chissano and his Botswana
counterpart, Festus Mogae, had in
private SADC meetings indicated that the
Zimbabwean government should
acknowledge the existence of the opposition and
urged the formation of a
coalition government.
South Africa favours a government of
national unity in Zimbabwe, in
which ZANU PF is in charge, the sources
said.
But Mugabe dismisses the MDC as a puppet of former
colonial power
Britain, and last month said the opposition must "repent"
before there could
be dialogue.
Meanwhile, Reuters yesterday
reported that Malawian Foreign Minister
Lilian Patel said Muluzi had urged
the MDC not to focus only on political
dialogue but also on serious economic
dialogue.
She also warned that support from Zimbabwe’s
neighbours could only go
so far to sort out the country’s
crisis.
"Much as other countries may try to help resolve issues
in Zimbabwe,
solutions to those problems remain with Zimbabweans themselves,"
Patel said.
– Reuters/Staff Reporter
Daily News
National youth service churning out killers:
Chamisa
ZIMBABWE’S controversial national service programme has
failed to
empower the country’s youth, Kuwadzana legislator Nelson Chamisa
told
Parliament this week, calling on the government to abandon the
scheme.
In his maiden speech before the House, Chamisa, who is
the Movement
for Democratic Change’s national youth chairman, said resources
allocated to
the programme should be used to promote employment creation and
economic
recovery.
He added that the national service
programme had been used to turn
Zimbabwe’s youth into "lethal killers". The
government is accused of using
the programme to create a pro-ruling party
militia that is accused of
violence and acts of terror.
"It
is a tragedy that the young people of this country are being
turned into
swords of a repressive political system," said Chamisa.
"Through the National Youth Training Service, the young people of
this
country are being militarised to ensure that the very system that
is
responsible for their poverty and hopelessness remains in place. The
youth
of this country will have to be delivered from the clutches of this
criminal
programme."
More than 14 000 young people have
trained under the programme since
it was introduced in 2000 with the aim of
"instilling discipline and
patriotism" among the country’s school
leavers.
Despite complaints from the public and human rights
organisations that
the programme has been used to create a ruthless loyalist
militia for the
ruling party, President Robert Mugabe has promised to
increase the number of
national service training
institutions.
Amid heckling from ZANU PF legislators, Chamisa
said: "There is
nothing national about the programme except that it is a
desperate attempt
to turn the youth into instruments of rape, torture and
violence. What comes
out of this violent programme are not young patriots,
but robots programmed
to maim and kill for the cause of
autocracy."
The government has denied the involvement of
national service recruits
in acts of violence.
But Chamisa
said a programme should be put in place to rehabilitate
graduates of the
programme. He said: "The programme is an induction into
social and political
banditry.
"The predicament is that most of our young people who
have already
been victims of the National Youth Training Service have to be
taken to
schools so that at least they are re-oriented into society. This
shall be
one of the earliest programmes of an MDC
government."
Staff Reporter
Daily News
Archbishop Ncube attacks African leaders over
Mugabe
JOHANNESBURG – A top Zimbabwean bishop accused African
leaders
yesterday of ignoring state-backed violence in his country, saying
young
people were being turned into violent instruments of President Robert
Mugabe
’s rule.
Last month African leaders backed Mugabe at
a meeting of the Southern
African Development Community, asking the West to
lift sanctions against the
economically crippled country.
Pius Ncube, the Catholic archbishop of Zimbabwe’s second city of
Bulawayo,
said Mugabe’s government had brainwashed young Zimbabweans in
training camps
run by his ruling ZANU PF party, teaching as many as 50 000
youths to
practise violence.
Ncube, long an outspoken critic of Mugabe’s
government, said African
leaders had refused to speak out in the misguided
belief they must unite
against "neo-colonial" pressure from former ruler
Britain and other Western
nations. "It is mob psychology by African leaders.
They have become totally
blinded to the abuse of human rights," Ncube told a
Johannesburg news
conference.
"Pressure should be brought
upon Mugabe to stop this abuse . . . which
is killing off the souls of young
people."
Reports of increasing violence by youth militias come
as Zimbabwe
sinks deeper into its worst political and economic crisis since
independence
in 1980.
With inflation riding at close to 400
percent and critical shortages
of food and fuel, Zimbabwe’s downward spiral
has been exacerbated by
political tensions which critics attribute to
Mugabe’s increasingly
authoritarian rule.
– Reuter
Daily News
ZCTU protests over barring of paying workers in
cash
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) yesterday wrote
to the
government expressing concern about a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ)
directive barring local companies from paying their workers in cash
because
of severe bank note shortages.
Some firms have
resorted to paying workers in cash instead of
depositing salaries with banks,
so that employees do not spend most of their
time queueing for cash at
banks.
Financial institutions are rationing money because of
cash shortages,
forcing workers to visit their banks every day in search of
cash.
"It is unclear what the motive of the RBZ is, but this
move would
definitely cause consternation (sic) among workers against their
employers
as some might not be able to get their salaries from the bank at
the end of
the day," ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe said in a
letter to
Labour Minister July Moyo.
Moyo could not be
reached for comment yesterday, but an official in
the ministry confirmed
receiving the letter.
The RBZ has not responded to questions
sent by the Daily News last
month on the matter.
Meanwhile,
the ZCTU general council will today hold a special meeting
in Harare to
discuss ways of forcing the government to address the shortage
of cash, which
has affected the country since late April.
"The decision on
what sort of action to take and the date (of the
action) will be decided by
the ZCTU general council at a meeting tomorrow,"
Chibhebhe said
yesterday.
Staff Reporter
Daily News
Disillusioned invaders trek back home
ZIMBABWE’s fast-track land reform programme is meant to benefit
landless
people forced to live in congested communal areas, but many of the
supposed
beneficiaries are turning their backs on their new land.
The
Dorset resettlement area, 40 km south of the Midlands capital of
Gweru, is an
example of the shortcomings of President Robert Mugabe’s
accelerated land
redistribution programme which was meant to reverse the
legacy of a century
of colonial land policy.
When the fast-track land reform
programme commenced in 2000,
self-styled war veterans led hundreds of
land-hungry Zimbabweans into the
Dorset area.
The landscape,
on the borders of Gweru and the ghost mining town of
Shurugwi, is arid and
dotted with acacia thorn trees, and had mostly been
used for cattle-ranching
by white commercial farmers.
New settlers, who numbered about 6
000 at the peak of the land
invasions, generally refer to the area as
kujambanja – slang for "a place of
violence" in the local Shona language.
Most of the new farmers came from the
Midlands province, while the rest
trekked from Matabeleland South.
When IRIN visited the area, at
least half the families that had
invaded the ranches were now wanting to go
back to their original homes,
with a significant number uncertain about their
future in Dorset.
In the settlements, hastily constructed pole
and mud huts were falling
apart, with hardly any signs of tending the land as
the rainy season
approached. A few goats and cattle roamed between small
patches of fields
cultivated in the last three years.
Machinda Furusa, from Chachacha, 17 km south of Shurugwi town, said he
has
opted to go back to his original home out of disillusionment.
"I went to Dorset in 2001, during the height of farm invasions. At
first I
was sceptical about Kujambanja, but when I saw a significant number
of my
neighbours leaving, I decided to join the trek," Furusa told
IRIN.
During the early days of the fast-track programme there
had been a
sense of euphoria "about farm invasions, and I genuinely believed
that, at
last, I would be a proud owner of my own piece of
land.
"(But) I discovered that the area we had been made to
move into did
not have good soils, having been reserved for cattle ranching.
In addition
to last year’s insufficient rains, there is no way in which the
new farmers
there could get good harvests owing to the poor soils, which are
just as bad
as where I come from," added Furusa.
Since he
had only two head of cattle for draught power, he said,
preparing his plot
was proving too difficult – a situation that left him
with no option but to
return to his father’s home, where he could pool
resources with his extended
family.
The father of three charged that by moving thousands of
people to
unsuitable land, veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war and the
government
were only interested in getting their votes in the parliamentary
and
presidential elections (in 2000 and 2002, respectively).
Like the other settlers turning their backs on Dorset, Furusa
complained that
schools were very remote and it would be difficult for his
two school-going
children to travel the distance.
The Dorset resettlement area
also lacks proper health facilities, and
transport is mostly by ox-drawn
cart.
Furusa said a significant number of the land occupiers
who had moved
to Dorset and nearby farms were resorting to gold panning in
the Mutevekwi
River, which runs close to the small town of Shurugwi, to
survive.
A Midlands provincial lands committee member, speaking
on condition of
anonymity, admitted that soils in the Dorset area were
poor.
"In fact, the problem of poor soils is not peculiar to
farms in the
Dorset area alone. Since the beginning of the fast-track land
redistribution
exercise, acquiring sufficiently fertile land in our province
has been a
headache for us," he told IRIN.
The land
committee member said he hoped the government would use some
of the land
currently being listed for seizure from commercial farmers to
resettle the
disgruntled new settlers.
However, the black farmers should not
solely blame the government for
their current situation. "No one was forced
to go to Dorset, or any other
poor area in the province. It is thus unfair to
say the ruling party wanted
to attract votes by giving a semblance of land
redistribution.
"After all, that was the kind of land available,
and we did our best
in identifying the areas (where we could place)
land-hungry people," he
explained. Observers and traditional leaders said the
return of settlers
would result in added pressure to the exhausted communal
lands. Headman
Samero Mashuku, also from Chachacha, said there was hardly any
evidence that
the land resettlement programme had eased congestion in his
area. "The
situation here, and in neighbouring villages, remains largely the
same. We
were relieved to some extent when some of our sons decided to go to
the
resettlement areas, but now that they are returning we will have
another
headache of finding space to stay," he said. A Human Rights Watch
report
last year decried "the lack of structured support for new settlers",
while
the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) told IRIN recently that the lack
of
subsidised agricultural inputs, and the sky0rocketing prices of inputs
on
the market, were serious obstacles to the success of new farmers.
Tafireyi
Chamboko, the chief economist of the ZFU, told IRIN that "there’s a
shortage
of some of the inputs. In terms of maize seed, we’ll probably get
about 50
percent of the requirement from local (seed) production". Although
the
government had been trying to supply inputs to new farmers through an
inputs
credit scheme, "there are not enough inputs to meet the requirements",
he
complained. Recently there have also been reports of the forced eviction
of
thousands of resettled people to make way for government officials
and
ruling party stalwarts. At Windcrest Farm near Masvingo city, about 1
000
resettled farmers’ homes were torched when they were removed to make way
for
an official in the foreign affairs ministry, the privately owned the
Daily
News reported. Masvingo provincial administrator Alphonse Chikurira
defended
the eviction, saying it was "illegal to occupy or invade a farm
owned by a
black man". The settlers, who had occupied the farm in 2000, were
angered by
the torching of their houses, belongings and crops. They also
expressed
dismay that no arrangements were made for them to move their
livestock. The
Windcrest incident is the latest in a wave of similar
evictions. In
mid-August, the government reportedly ordered 1 000 settlers to
vacate
Little England Farm in Mugabe’s rural home area, to make way for
Winnie
Mugabe, the widow of the President’s late nephew. The settlers are
currently
involved in running battles with the widow – news reports on
Thursday said
the disgruntled settlers had assaulted her, and her two sons,
Jongwe and
Hugh. There have also been reports of forced evictions of new
settlers in
Mashonaland Central, Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces.
Minister of
State for the Land Reform programme in the President’s Office
Flora Buka
last year headed a land audit team, whose investigations revealed
gross
violations of the "one-man, one-farm" principle, with prominent
politicians
allegedly having grabbed several farms for themselves. The
results of her
report were never made public by the government, but the
document was leaked
to the local and international media. Mugabe recently
called on his
lieutenants to surrender the excess farms they had grabbed.
However, only
one provincial governor was reported to have surrendered any
property. A
land review committee, formed at the behest of Mugabe to carry
out a
follow-up land audit, is understood to have finished its work. However,
this
committee, led by Charles Utete, the former secretary to the President
and
Cabinet, has yet to release its findings. – Irin
Daily News
Disband NOCZIM
THE reported police probe
of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM) is a clear case of too
little too late.
Reports in the local Press yesterday indicated
that President Robert
Mugabe has ordered an investigation into Zimbabwe’s
state fuel procurer
after persistent complaints that "the small supplies of
(fuel) trickling
into the country were not being adequately accounted
for".
The police are reported to be investigating senior
officials of the
parastatal for leaking fuel to the illegal but thriving
parallel market, and
selling petrol and diesel above prices set by the
government.
Zimbabweans would be forgiven for cynically
dismissing such a probe
with the contempt it clearly
deserves.
The nation has been treated to probe after probe at
NOCZIM, yet no one
has been held accountable for the rampant mismanagement
and corruption that
has dogged the company.
Indeed, none of
these probes has resulted in any change for the better
at NOCZIM, described
once by one former Energy Minister as one of the most
corrupt parastatals in
Zimbabwe.
There is a good chance that this latest probe, even
if sanctioned by
the President himself, will have a predictable outcome and
one which will
not bode well for Zimbabwean taxpayers, who are forced to
subsidise the
debt-ridden state firm.
Zimbabwe’s public
sector has a history of fine-sounding
investigations, during which all sorts
of dire consequences will be
threatened for those found guilty of whatever
acts of corruption are going
round at the time.
Inevitably,
the results of the probe will not be made public, even
though the people of
Zimbabwe have the most right to know who is abusing
their funds and
how.
Ultimately, nothing will change at the company being
investigated,
which will continue to be a drain on long-suffering
taxpayers.
In another favourite scenario, at the end of the
investigation, the
minister responsible will sack a few board members – even
the entire board
in some cases. But life will go on, with the very same
mismanagement and
corruption supposedly under probe carrying on as
usual.
It is more than likely that this very same nonsense will
come to pass
even with this latest reported probe.
Yet it
must be clear to most people that the problems at NOCZIM have
gone beyond
needing a mere investigation. Axing a few board members or even
management
officers is unlikely to end the endemic rot that has been allowed
to settle
and fester at the parastatal.
There are indications that just
too many people are involved in the
NOCZIM gravy train.
There is even speculation that some of them are government or ruling
ZANU PF
officials, or people close to the government and the ruling
party.
Clearly, if this is true, replacing one board or
management team with
another will not solve anything. The rot that seems to
have entrenched
itself at NOCZIM will continue to flourish until Zimbabwe
rids itself of the
burden that the company has become.
The
government’s very belated efforts to liberalise the fuel
procurement sector
are commendable. But this liberalisation should not be a
halfway
measure.
The government, which has shown very little competence
in most of its
tasks, should leave fuel procurement to the private fuel
companies and allow
private firms to compete to provide the most efficient
service.
As can be seen from the fact that most motorists and
companies have
been buying expensive fuel on the black market for the past
few months, all
Zimbabweans want is fuel, not rhetoric.
Populist nonsense about how the government must continue to ensure
that
commodities are affordable to the nation fools no one.
It benefits
no one if Zimbabwe’s fuel continues to be dirt cheap but
there is not diesel
or petrol on the market. The government must not wait
too long to do what is
right.
Daily News
High power tariffs hinder mining
operations
BULAWAYO – Output at mining operations in Matabeleland
could have
declined by at least 10 percent in the past nine months, according
to
estimates from mining industry officials, who said mines had been hard
hit
by huge increases in Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
tariffs.
The tariffs have shot up by more than 500 percent in
the last nine
months, adversely affecting mining operations.
Mining industry officials this week told the Business Daily that
frequent
reviews of power tariffs had slashed mineral production in the
region because
of increasing operational overheads.
Casmyn Mine managing
director and Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines senior
vice-president Ian Saunders
said the cost of power for mines had risen from
around $7 million in January
to approximately $91 million last month.
This has affected the companies’ cash flow positions.
Saunders said Casmyn had cut
back on research and exploration
activities, which in turn would impact on
the success of future mining
developments.
Casmyn Mine is
one of the Matabeleland region’s largest mining
concerns and is mostly
involved in gold exploration along the Inyati-Insiza
gold
belt.
The mining company’s managing director said: "Since
February this
year, power has been charged on a tier system that appears
market-based.
"It would appear that if you pay for your power
in the local currency,
ZESA penalises you with a higher bill in order to
encourage miners and
exporters to pay their bills in foreign
currency.
"This type of system has resulted in mines incurring
very high power
bills because there is no one who can have adequate amounts
of foreign
currency at any given time."
The hard cash paid
to ZESA by exporters is supposed to enable it to
import electricity and pay
arrears on its debts.
The power utility has been struggling to
pay off multi-billion dollar
arrears owed to regional suppliers Hydro Cahora
Bassa of Mozambique and
Eskom of South Africa.
The mining
sector earlier this year resisted moves to make them pay
their power tariffs
in foreign currency, resulting in ZESA switching off
power to several mines
in Matabeleland, affecting mineral production in the
region.
Mining companies are also battling to recover some of the foreign
currency
they are required to lodge with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which
has
affected their operations.
Saunders said: "We are not saying
the power bills have rendered our
operations unviable, but they do have the
effect of raising the costs of
production by about 10
percent.
"Most of the other mines are in the same situation,
and there are
fewer new projects being done or embarked upon because the
cashflow
situation has been negatively affected by the tariff
increases."
ZESA western area manager Simbiso Chimbima was not
immediately
available for comment because he was said to be away on
business.
There was no response to questions sent to the ZESA offices.
Own Correspondent
Daily News
Church should change strategy on talks
ON
my way from Gutu during the Heroes’ holiday, I met a group of
Christians who
were debating with the passengers in a bus. The subject of
the debate was the
use of violence and mass actions to remove Robert Mugabe.
Now,
as one Christian in Zimbabwe, I have decided to write this to air
my views on
the use of violence.
Christians are always worried about the
violence done with machine
guns and machetes, but there is another kind of
violence that you must be
aware of too.
To watch your
children, friends and relatives die of hunger and
sickness while you can do
nothing is violence of the spirit.
Zimbabwe is a country rich
in natural resources and a vibrant
hard-working labour force, but the vast
majority of our people are trapped
in abject poverty and
squalor.
Millions of people are suffering, not only from
poverty, but also from
ZANU PF oppression. People in power are prepared to
keep their power at all
costs.
All around Zimbabwe, there is
a situation of injustice that must be
recognised as instrumentalised
violence, because the existing government
structures grossly violate people’s
basic rights, a situation which calls
for far-reaching, daring and urgent
action.
In our national zeal to get rid of this system of
violence, all
Christians must now unleash a whirlwind which must develop its
own horrific
momentum to supplement other existing forces to push Mugabe
out.
We must now team up with intellectuals, trade unionists,
teachers,
students, journalists and all other workers who are being rounded
up and
tortured by militia in youth camps, such as that of Chipangano in
Mbare.
All church leaders should, therefore, recognise the
attempt to resort
to violence and mass action to change the system. They
should also recognise
that in some cases, such action is justifiable even in
the Bible.
Revolution now is necessary to free the hungry, give
drink to the
thirsty, clothe the naked and procure a life of well-being for
the needy
majority.
I believe that the revolutionary
struggle is appropriate for the
Christian.
It is only by
revolution, by changing the concrete conditions of the
country, that we can
demonstrate love for each other. In the past, the
church in Zimbabwe had
devoted its attention to formulating truths and
meanwhile did almost nothing
to better the world.
This must now cease. We now need to
practically implement the speech
of Jesus in Luke 6:24-25: "Woe to you that
are full now, for you shall
hunger."
The Christian who is
not a revolutionary at this juncture is living in
mortal
sin.
When you give food to the poor as Christian Care does,
Mugabe calls
you a saint, but not when you ask why the poor have no food like
Pius Ncube.
This should not draw us back. We must all be
inspired by the likes of
Martin Luther King Jnr, who took a firm stand
against injustice in the
United States of America.
If
Christians in Zimbabwe are united, we can repeat the heroic example
of
Nicaragua, where the church inspired and supported the people of that
small
Central American country to overthrow the corrupt and unjust
government of
Anastasio Somoza.
Like the Nicaraguan Christians, we have also
seen the most humiliated,
the most miserable and the most oppressed in our
country.
We have tried to respond in a Christian way,
peacefully promoting
social and human development, but we must now realise
that this will not
materialise into anything.
We are now
discouraged to see that all the work meant nothing. Our own
people are still
miserably poor with no promising signs of hope. Christians
must now join the
violent radical movement knowing that nothing peaceful is
possible. Any other
way will be dishonest to our fellow countrymen and to
ourselves. The
repression here is incredible, but we will move on. It is a
time when a true
man of God can’t turn his back on a political struggle in
Zimbabwe. Mugabe
should be told to put up his sword for all those who take
the sword will die
by the sword. Let us tell him that we are now moving from
the force of logic
to the logic of force. We are now faced with the fact
that tomorrow is today.
We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.
Over the bleached bones of
numerous civilisations are written the pathetic
words "too late". We still
have a choice today: non-violent co-existence or
violent co-annihilation.
This may well be our last chance between chaos and
community, as Martin
Luther King Jnr once said. To conclude, let me
encourage you all Christians
to follow the principles of Nicolo Machiavelli:
the end justifies the means.
Mugabe should go by all means necessary! With
Liberty Mutema
Daily News
Sometimes tough love is the only love there
is
I must disagree with Denford Magora about
the
pressure/isolation/sanctions that are being applied on
Zimbabwe.
He states: "These sanctions have nothing to do with
Mugabe or ZANU
PF." Are you serious?
As a taxpayer in the
United States of America, I have contacted my
government and raised my voice
to say that I object to any aid money being
sent to Zimbabwe while the ZANU
PF government is using it as a carrot for
supporters and a stick to beat the
opposition.
The same is true for debt relief. Who is
responsible for Zimbabwe’s
external debt if not ZANU PF and President Robert
Mugabe?
When ZANU PF came to power 22 years ago, Zimbabwe was
widely regarded
as being "under-indebted".
At that time, the
international community was happy to extend to
Zimbabwe greater debt
privileges, an offer which Mugabe was eager to take
them up
on.
He spent much of it unwisely, especially among his cronies.
So, Mugabe
cannot even blame the Rhodesian Front and Ian Smith or the
colonising powers
for his debt situation.
I am truly sorry
that without aid and debt relief everyone in Zimbabwe
suffers. I do not know
what other option the international community has to
effect change in
Zimbabwe.
Throwing good money after bad does not seem like an
answer. Unilateral
action by one country, as in Iraq, does not strike me as a
good idea either.
I do agree that the world community needs a
way to deal with failed
states that deals directly with the source of the
problem, rather than
making the innocent suffer more.
For
example, I live in a house in a community where you can pretty
much do what
you want within reason on your own property. But if one
property owner starts
acting irrationally, discharging firearms, setting
huge bonfires, beating his
children and maltreating his pets, we have the
right, the obligation and the
legal authority to deal with him so that he is
no longer a threat to those
around him. We do not expect his battered
children to rise up and throw him
out.
We certainly do not try to starve his children to increase
their
motivation to do so, and in that I am in agreement with
Magora.
However, if we give food to his children, and money to
the abusing
parent, the children will grow up thinking that irrational and
abusive
behaviour is a good thing to do.
Sometimes tough
love is the only love there is.In this case, you are
truly damned if you do,
and doubly damned if you don’t.
Gordon Hardman
Colorado, USA
From Radio Netherlands, 5 September
On the rampage
Church
leaders in southern Africa have accused the Zimbabwean government
of
sacrificing an entire generation of young people to maintain its grip
on
power. In a chilling report, the Solidarity Peace Trust documents
how
children as young as 10 are being drafted for military training. A
Radio
Netherlands' reporter has just returned from Zimbabwe. He travelled
there
undercover - due to the severe restrictions the authorities place on
foreign
journalists - and spoke to former youth militia members and their
victims.
Two years ago, Zimbabwe's Zanu PF government established the
so-called
National Youth Service Training. The programme was designed to
provide job
skills to young people and instil in them a sense of national
pride and
history. Instead, the young people are being brainwashed to
intimidate the
opposition MDC or Movement for Democratic Change, says John, a
25-year-old
youth militia defector. "We were taught that the MDC is bad. I
think we were
being prepared for war against the MDC. We were told not to
think. Our
leaders would think for us. We were Zanu PF's armed-wing. We were
free to do
whatever we wanted and nobody questioned us." Before being
deployed, the
youth militia, both male and female, spend six months in
training camps with
up to 25-hundred recruits. Sexual abuse and rape are rife
in the camps.
Girls and young women speak of being raped repeatedly, often
daily, for
months on end.
Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Solidarity
Peace Trust is incensed that the
government is knowingly allowing this to
continue, particularly since
Zimbabwe has one of the world's highest HIV
rates. "These ministers are
absolute hypocrites, Mugabe included, because
none of their daughters are
put in these camps. It's deliberately being done.
It just shows how evil
Mugabe's regime is, how they are destroying the lives
of these young people,
for their own interests, just to remain in power."
Often drugged or
intoxicated, the youth militia operate in groups attacking
anyone they
suspect of being an MDC supporter. Since they were first deployed
in January
2002, the youth militia have been responsible for a significant
portion of
the human rights abuses being committed in Zimbabwe, including
murder,
torture, rape and the destruction of property. The victims speak of
random
persecution. Ignatious Chaitezvi, for instance, was attacked by five
youth
militia. "They started assaulting me, accusing me of selling them out
to the
MDC. They beat me. And then they hit me with an axe. They were aiming
for
the back of my skull, but I turned, so they hit my eye. I lost my eye,
but I
think it's God who did that for me. It's better to lose an eye than
your
life."
The government of President Robert Mugabe has decreed
that all Zimbabweans
between 10 and 30 years of age must take part in the
National Youth Service
Training. Young people who do not will be barred from
tertiary institutions,
such as universities, colleges, nurse training and
teacher training schools.
It has been reported that in future youth militia
members will be posted in
classrooms in all institutions of higher education,
presumably to ensure
that professors and students toe the ruling Zanu PF
party line. The youth
service includes military training. Two months ago, the
Ministry of Defence
announced plans to use the children and young people as a
reserve force to
defend the nation. Since many of the recruits are under 18
years of age,
this in effect amounts to State training of child soldiers. So
far, 50,000
children and young people have gone through the National Youth
Service
Training. Archbishop Pius of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second biggest
city, is
extremely concerned about the impact on his nation's youth. "The
government
is politicising young people," he says, "brainwashing them into
Mugabe's
party ideology so that these young people become like robots. Even
if the
Zanu PF government were to be replaced today, say human rights groups,
the
youth militia will leave a lasting scar on Zimbabwean society. "The
social
fabric is going to be in ruins at the end of this," says an anonymous
human
rights worker. "Unfortunately the youth militia have often tortured in
the
very communities in which they were raised. How do we re-integrate
them?"
News24
Zim youth 'used' by Zanu-PF
05/09/2003 15:42 -
(SA)
Johannesburg - The youth of Zimbabwe were being sacrificed to
keep the
country's ruling party, Zanu-PF, in power, according to a report by
the
Solidarity Peace Trust released on Friday.
The trust is an
organisation of South African and Zimbabwean bishops and
compiled the report
based on state-controlled and independent media reports,
training material
from youth militia camps, interviews with those tortured
by the militia and
the youth militia themselves.
The national youth service training
programme, introduced two years ago and
now referred to by the Zimbabwean
government as compulsory, "masquerades as
a youth training scheme that
imparts useful skills and patriotic values",
said the report.
"The
reality is a paramilitary training programme for Zimbabwe's youth with
the
clear aim of inculcating blatantly anti-democratic, racist and
xenophobic
attitudes."
According to the report, "The youth militia have... become
one of the most
commonly reported violators of human rights, with accusations
against them
including murder, torture, rape and destruction of
property."
"They have been blatantly used by Zanu-PF as a campaign tool,
being given
impunity and implicit powers to mount roadblocks, disrupt MDC
(Movement for
Democratic Change) rallies, and intimidate
voters."
Rape
Anglican Archbishop of Matabeleland and member of
the Solidarity Peace
Trust, Pius Ncube, told reporters on Friday: "Up to 50
000 people have gone
through such training".
The report maintained:
"Having been thoroughly brain-washed, the youth
militias are deployed to
carry out whatever instructions they receive from
their political commissars,
on the understanding that they will never be
called to account by this regime
for any of their deeds.
"...many of them have become victims of human
rights' abuses themselves in
the course of training. The most conspicuous
example of this abuse is the
rape and multiple rape of young girls by the
boys undergoing training with
them, and by their military
instructors.
"The resulting pregnancies and infections with
sexually-transmitted
diseases, including HIV, not only devastate the lives of
the youth concerned
but are creating a terrible legacy for the nation," the
report stated.
Three former youth militia members spoke to reporters on
Friday, on
condition of anonymity as they were allegedly sought by Zimbabwe's
Central
Intelligence Organisation for escaping from the
country.
Thabo, 22, said he was involved in the killing of Halaza
Sibindi, the
chairman of the MDC in Tsholotsho, 150km north of
Matabeleland.
Beaten to death
In January 2002 they beat Sibindi to
death with crowbars, iron bars and
sjamboks, in front of his sons and
daughters.
He said he had come to South Africa because the things he was
promised when
he joined the militia - land, money, a better future - never
happened.
But the situation in South Africa is not easy for refugees.
Thabo has no
relatives, no money and no job and lives on the streets. He is
also severely
traumatised by what he has been through, but is unlikely to
receive
counselling.
"If my country is going to be ok, I'm going
back," he said.
Eighteen-year-old Wesley was taken from school to join
the militia when he
was 15-years-old. He escaped to South Africa some months
ago.
He told reporters he had raped and petrol-bombed white
farmers.
Wesley described being involved in an incident when 100 youth
militia
surrounded "Jaco's Farm" in Beit Bridge. Twenty-five of the youth
entered
the premises. They tortured the farmer, raped his wife and two
daughters,
aged four and 12, then burnt them all to death.
"We were
told the farmer was from the MDC. I feel very terrible for the
things that I
was doing," he said.
Debbie, 19, said she was forced to join the militia,
otherwise her aunt's
house where she was staying would be burnt
down.
She was taken to a training centre, about 40km from Bulawayo, where
she was
woken at 03:00, and made to run 20km. If they fainted or stopped,
they were
thoroughly beaten, she said.
They trainees would then do
physical exercises and sing revolutionary songs.
SA turns a blind
eye
"We shared a room with the boys and at night they would rape us the
whole
night," she said.
If anyone reported the rape, their leader ...
would bring out his gun and
tell them he was going to shoot them, because
anyone complaining of rape
belonged to the MDC, she said.
Debbie fell
pregnant, and has a one-year-old baby. She was HIV-positive. She
did not know
who the father of her baby was or the HIV-status of her child.
Ncube said
"In the end does politics matter? All that matters is food,
shelter, a future
for your children and peace at night when you sleep".
Bishop Kevin
Dowling of Rustenburg, also a member of the Solidarity Peace
Movement. told
reporters "I find it absolutely shameful that our South
African government
leaders will in the name of quiet diplomacy turn a blind
eye to this affront
against human dignity.
"If our African leadership is truly concerned
about the ideals of Nepad...
Zimbabwe is the test case," he said.