Reuters
Thu 6 Sep 2007, 15:00
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government on Thursday devalued the
official
exchange rate of its Zimbabwe dollar to 30,000 against the U.S.
dollar and
removed a two-tier system for government and
exporters.
"The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will, therefore, adjust the
exchange rate
applicable to all purchases and sales of foreign exchange in
the market from
$250 per U.S. dollar to 30,000 per U.S. dollar with
immediate effect,"
Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said in
parliament.
Zimbabwe had applied an exchange rate of 250 to the dollar
for government
transactions and had allowed exporters and foreign currency
account holders
to exchange at a rate of 15,000 prior to the move -- far
short of a
widely-used black market rate of about 250,000 to the U.S.
dollar.
The new rate would apply to all transactions, Mumbengegwi
said.
Analysts had said the official rate of 250 was unrealistic in a
country
struggling with the world's highest inflation rate of more than
7,000
percent.
Zimbabwe is battling severe foreign currency shortages
amid an economic
crisis also marked by chronic shortages of food,
electricity, fuel and
rising unemployment.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: September 6,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was
questioned by
police for two hours Thursday and charged with disorderly
conduct linked to
his tour last month of empty stores and supermarkets, his
party said.
No official comment was immediately available from
police.
Tsvangirai returned from a trip to Australia on Monday to a
barrage of
criticism, including calls for his arrest, from ruling party
politicians and
the state media for allegedly campaigning for economic
sanctions against the
nation.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for
Tsvangirai's faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change, said the
opposition leader was summoned to the central
police station in connection
with alleged disturbances Aug. 1 in Harare when
he toured shops hit by a
government ordered price freeze that has led to
acute shortages of
goods.
During the tour, Jocelyn Chiwenga, a businesswoman and wife of the
army
commander Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, yelled insults at Tsvangirai and
jostled shoppers and journalists with Tsvangirai at one store.
Police
took Tsvangirai's fingerprints Thursday and charged him under
security
regulations. He was to appear in court at an unspecified later
date, Chamisa
said.
The charges carry the penalty of a fine.
"This is the usual
tactic of intimidation by the regime," Chamisa said.
The government
alleges Tsvangirai called on the Australian government to
tighten punitive
embargoes on Zimbabwe, which included the deportation
several children of
ruling party leaders studying at Australian
universities.
The
government insists Western sanctions have crippled the economy and led
to
food shortages.
Western countries have imposed visa restrictions on
Mugabe and more than 130
senior government and ruling party officials. The
sanctions go little
further, but foreign aid, investment and loans have
mostly dried up in seven
years of political turmoil since the often violent
seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial farms began in
2000.
Western countries have also lobbied their investors in Zimbabwe to
cut back
their operations.
On June 26, the government ordered prices
of all goods and services reduced
by about half in a bid to tame official
inflation of 7,634 percent, the
highest in the world.
Independent
estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent, fueled by
black
market trading in scarce goods.
Long and often unruly food lines at
stores have become a daily occurrence.
Two people died in a stampede for
sugar last month and two others died in
stampedes at the Harare agriculture
show on Saturday.
Gasoline shortages have paralyzed public transport and
delivery services.
Yahoo News
Thu Sep 6, 9:13 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's ruling party
seeks to make more changes to a
Constitutional Bill that is already before
parliament, the party said in a
statement released on
Thursday.
President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union -
Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF) said the politburo held a meeting on Wednesday in
the capital
Harare to hear a report from Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa
on the
proposed amendments to the bill.
"The politburo has further
deliberated on the Constitution of Zimbabwe and
approved the introduction
... of amendments to the bill," the party said in
the statement, but did not
disclose their nature.
"Details of the committee stage amendments
approved by the politburo will be
tabled in parliament by the minister... on
18 September during the
presentation of his second reading speech on the
constitution of Zimbabwe
amendment number 18."
Last June 8, Mugabe's
government had published a draft bill to amend the
country's constitution,
provide for harmonised presidential and
parliamentary polls and reduce the
presidential term from six to five years.
The draft document also
proposed to increase the number of elected lawmakers
to 210, ten of whom
will be appointed by the president.
Currently Zimbabwe's parliament has
150 MPs, with 120 elected while the rest
are appointees.
Mugabe, 83,
has served six terms since independence from Britain in 1980.
The
constitution has so far been amended at least 17 times.
A
government-sponsored draft constitution was rejected in a referendum in
2000, prompting the mass invasion of white-owned farms by pro-government
supporters.
Mugabe was endorsed last March by his ruling party as the
presidential
flagbearer in next year's poll.
The Australian
Jan Raath, Harare | September 07, 2007
THE OK
supermarket in Mbare township is so empty that your voice echoes off
the
high warehouse roof.
On row after row of white shelving, wiped clean each
day, sit a dozen
cabbages. The bakery has 10 plain scones. That is all the
food there is in
the largest supermarket serving tens of thousands of people
in the oldest,
and teeming, township in Harare.
One night last week,
Rosa, a church volunteer, scoured Mbare for supplies to
make the daily
ration of maizemeal, the national staple, and some green
vegetables, to be
cooked without vegetable oil and often without salt. She
found two loaves of
bread.
"How do I feed the 14 people in my house with two loaves of
bread?" Rosa
asked. "Sometimes there is nothing and you go to bed with no
dinner. We are
living like orphans."
Her neighbour's breast milk for
her one-year-old daughter dried up recently,
she said. "She couldn't find
fresh milk or sterilised milk anywhere. So she
feeds the child on Mazoe" - a
brand of orange cordial.
It is 10 weeks since President Robert Mugabe
forced businesses to slash
prices of all goods and services in the belief
that he could crush
inflation, which he says is a plot by the Zimbabwean
private sector, in
collusion with Western governments, to overthrow
him.
Two things have happened: inflation has rocketed and, according to
the
Government, the country will run out of wheat in three days. Zimbabweans
appear set to face an almost total absence of food and ordinary household
goods. An eruption of public anger, to be met with violent suppression by Mr
Mugabe's security forces, is likely to follow, observers
say.
Initially, Mr Mugabe's June 25 price blitz sparked a gleeful
storming of
shops, where managers looked on aghast as their businesses were
stripped at
the Government's bidding.
Then household basics such as
meat, chicken, cooking oil, milk, maizemeal,
margarine, sugar and soap
vanished into the black market. In the past couple
of weeks it has become
almost impossible to find beer, cigarettes, tea or
baked beans in
shops.
Outside the OK, rows of women stand behind little stools, each
bearing a
long bar of carbolic soap, packets of cigarettes or bottles of
vegetable
oil.
"These are the policemen's wives," Rosa
said.
They gain their name from the latest phase of Zimbabwe's descent
into hunger
and chaos: thousands of vendors have been arrested and their
goods seized in
Mr Mugabe's attempt to smash the black market.
"The
policemen grab the goods, they give them to their wives and then they
come
and sell here," said Rosa (not her real name - nearly everyone is too
afraid
to be quoted).
The black market too is starting to dry up. "Now people
are buying (items)
because they don't know when they are going to see them
again," a
supermarket chain executive said. The two main supermarket chains
in
Zimbabwe are each due to lay off 1000 workers this month.
The
country's main bakery closed one of its largest outlets yesterday
because of
lack of wheat - a shipment of 36,000 tonnes is being held in a
Mozambique
port because the Government cannot pay for it.
"Manufacturers are going
to run out of stock to produce with," the executive
said. "There is a very
strong possibility that food will disappear
completely."
At a
commemoration last month of the 20th anniversary of the death of the
Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera, author of The House of Hunger, the
snacks comprised small squares of dry bread and glasses of
water.
Last week, another retail executive said, a cabinet minister
telephoned a
supermarket chain manager and asked for beef. He offered to pay
more than 10
times the official price that he was instrumental in
setting.
As schools reopened this week, parents of boarding pupils fear
their
children will not be fed. Reports this week said prison authorities
had
stopped feeding prisoners and were asking their relatives to bring
food.
The conspicuously wealthy ruling party elite feels none of this.
Vice-President Joice Mujuru has just seen her daughter married in
celebrations that included chartering an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737 for
$US10,000 ($12,144) to fly guests to a lavish ceremony at a five-star hotel
at Victoria Falls.
Annual inflation in July, a month after the
crackdown began, hit a record
7600 per cent. Last week, the value of the
Zimbabwean dollar on the black
market fell to a new low of 200,000 to
$1.
"We wonder on what planet President Mugabe lives," said Wellington
Chibebe,
secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions.
"He has never slept on an empty stomach, he has never walked from
State
House (his official residence) to his office, and he has never
experienced
water and electricity cuts."
The Times
Monsters and Critics
Sep 6, 2007, 13:28 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg -
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
warned Thursday that
Zimbabweans could not take any more battering and
accused President Robert
Mugabe of trying to drive the nation into
destitution.
In a speech
prepared before the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
was summoned
to police and charged with disorderly conduct, Tsvangirai said
the situation
in once-prosperous Zimbabwe was now totally unacceptable.
'We are at
risk, without food, without water, without electricity and
without basic
means of sustenance,' Tsvangirai said in an address to MDC
legislators, a
copy of which was seen by Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.
Zimbabwe is deep
in its worst-ever economic crisis, with inflation at more
than 7,600
percent. Shop shelves have been left bare of essentials like
milk, meat,
cooking oil and margarine following a state-ordered price slash
in
June.
The transport situation is worsening due to a critical shortage of
fuel
while thousands of children this week left for the start of term at
boarding
schools across Zimbabwe with little or no prospect of food during
their
studies.
Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of trying to weaken restless
Zimbabweans in the
country he has led since 1980 to make them easier to
control ahead of
presidential and parliamentary polls due next
year.
'Mugabe's intention is to push everybody into a hunter-gatherer
subsistence
mode of life and to scatter whole communities into the
countryside in search
of food,' he said.
'The time has come for us to
swear that we cannot take any more battering,'
said
Tsvangirai.
Earlier Thursday Tsvangirai was held for two hours at Harare
Central Police
Station and charged with disorderly conduct in connection
with a tour he
made of some empty supermarkets in Harare last
month.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Mail and Guardian
Felix Mponda | Harare, Zimbabwe
06
September 2007 01:24
Zimbabwe's failing economy and
collapsing services have provided
an environment ripe for graft, with the
impoverished country's woes
facilitating an ever-worsening slide towards
corruption.
Despite setting up a local graft-busting body in
2004, Zimbabwe
appears to be losing the battle against corruption, with
President Robert
Mugabe's economic policies seen to promote corrupt
behaviour, according to a
leading watchdog.
In 2003
Transparency International (TI), an organisation
monitoring global
corruption, ranked Zimbabwe the 77th most corrupt out of
130 countries
evaluated. By 2005, Zimbabwe had slid to 130th of 163
countries.
"Zimbabwe is ranked 130th amongst 163
countries and it has
become very corrupt compared with others," Killron
Dembe, executive director
of TI in Zimbabwe, said.
The
most recent corruption index did not bode well for foreign
investment in the
crisis-ridden country, Dembe said.
He said the country's
"economic malaise" had increased levels of
corruption among a population
burdened by steep prices of essentials and
food
shortages.
"When you have people who have become billionaires
overnight and
are considered as role models, you have a challenge because
this becomes
part of the country's culture," he said.
Dembe said Mugabe's economic policies were exacerbating the
situation,
despite his anti-graft crusade yielding arrests of senior
government
officials.
"Zimbabwe needs proper policies to end corruption.
Distorted
policy regimes tend to promote corruption," Dembe
said.
"When you have different exchange rates and different
fuel
prices, that promotes corruption."
Nothing
tangible
Since August last year, the authorities have kept the
local unit
at 250 Zimbabwe dollars against the greenback, yet on the
parallel market it
has slid to 230 000.
Zimbabwe is
facing an economic meltdown with inflation of over 7
500% and unemployment
above 80%.
In a 2006 meeting of the ruling Zanu-PF, Mugabe
acknowledged
corruption had reached the party's upper echelons, saying he
wanted to
cleanse the central committee amid "many cases" of abuse of
authority.
However, the country's Anti-Corruption Commission,
set up with
the assistance of TI, has little to show from its fight against
corruption.
"They have done nothing tangible. There is
nothing visible,"
Dembe said of the commission, whose chairperson is
appointed by Mugabe.
"The commission is answerable to the
executive ... It's limited
in terms of independence and its major challenges
are resources and
capacity," Dembe said.
"The question is
what is happening on the ground ... there is no
visible action taking
place?"
One of the few to be convicted was Charles Nherera,
chief
executive of public bus company Zupco, who was jailed for accepting a
US$85
000 bribe from a Harare businessman whom he awarded with a contract
for 75
buses.
Former finance minister Chris Kuruneri was
acquitted in July
after being accused of smuggling money abroad to build a
house in South
Africa.
Johannes Tomana, deputy
chairperson of the commission, said the
public had reported 9 000 graft
cases since 2006.
Of these, the commission was probing 5 000
cases, out of which
only 27 had been tried in court "and we secured 22
convictions", state media
quoted Tomana as saying.
"Nobody is immune," he said, urging whistle-blowers to report
corruption as
the public was protected by law and would not be victimised by
those under
probe.
But the opposition remains sceptical, with Movement
for
Democratic Change spokesperson Nelson Chamisa saying the graft battle
was a
"big joke".
"Just look around, corruption is being
administered from various
centres of power. All state institutions are
oozing with corrupt
tendencies." he added.
Forced to shut
down
Meanwhile, a second major bakery in Zimbabwe has announced
it is
about to run out of flour, worsening already acute bread shortages,
reports
said on Thursday.
Innscor, which runs the Bakers
Inn chain of outlets, says it has
almost exhausted its reserve stocks of
flour and will have to send more than
800 workers countrywide on forced
leave, said the official government
mouthpiece Herald
newspaper.
"We only have three days' supply of flour left,
and if we do not
get any additional supplies then we will be forced to shut
down until we get
new supplies," Innscor's financial director, Owen Murumbi,
told the paper.
The announcement came a day after Lobels,
another major bakery,
said it only had just two days' supply of flour left.
It said it had sent
more than 1, 00 of its workers on forced leave and
closed its factory in the
second city of Bulawayo.
"We
are appealing to the relevant authorities to allocate more
wheat to enable
the company to remain in business and make sure we feed the
nation,"
Innscor's Murumbi said.
He said the company required 80 tons
of flour a day to produce
180 000 loaves of bread, which is a national
staple.
President Robert Mugabe's government says it is only
importing
small quantities of wheat because it cannot afford to pay for a
consignment
of 36 000 tons stuck at Beira port in
Mozambique.
Bread shortages have been worsened by the
government's price
controls imposed in June that saw prices of basic
commodities slashed by at
least 50%.
Bakers who say they
are now producing bread at a loss have
reduced production, resulting in long
winding queues outside stores and
bakeries.
There is
little relief in sight, as Zimbabwe's wheat harvest due
at the end of
October is expected to be the lowest in the seven years since
the government
launched a controversial programme to seize productive farms
from white
farmers for redistribution to black Zimbabweans. -- Sapa-AFP, dpa
SW
Radio Africa (London)
6 September 2007
Posted to the web 6 September
2007
Tererai Karimakwenda
With thousands of workers losing
their jobs as companies in Zimbabwe shut
down, police and soldiers are
reported to be targeting street vendors who
are trying to earn a living
selling scarce products on the black market.
In Glen View Wednesday
uniformed soldiers descended on unsuspecting
residents and vendors at
Tichagarika Shopping Centre. We got the details
from a local resident who
witnessed the attacks as he was about to enter
Gutsai shop just after noon.
He suddenly heard desperate screams and saw
people running in every
direction to find safety.
Our source said the soldiers appeared to be
targeting anyone who was outside
the shops, especially street vendors
selling basic goods. He saw a street
hairdresser being kicked in the face
with booted feet. There was also a
group of policemen attacking people on
the other side of the shopping
centre. Several victims were bundled into an
army truck that was parked
nearby. It is not clear whether they were
arrested or simply taken in for
questioning. There have been no serious
casualties reported so far.
The Glen View resident said vendors are very
wary and try to be careful who
they sell to these days, because plain
clothes police are also arresting
them and confiscating their goods. He
ranted against soldiers and police,
saying they are taking advantage of the
price control exercise introduced by
government about six weeks ago. He
explained that whenever there is a long
queue they pretend to be policing
shoppers, then work their way to the front
and buy scarce items that they
sell later at inflated prices on the black
market.
There have been
uniformed patrols in many urban areas as the government
continued monitoring
prices and arresting anyone suspected of failing to
comply. But the people
entrusted with this power are the ones being accused
of looting then
reselling the same items on the black market at inflated
prices. This makes
the whole price control exercise a joke because prices
are now skyrocketing
as shortages become worse.
SW
Radio Africa (London)
6 September 2007
Posted to the web 6 September
2007
Tichaona Sibanda
Students in primary and secondary
schools in some parts of Harare are being
asked to bring at least 2 litres
of water a day to school, since the
resumption of classes after the August
holiday.
The water is for personal use since most areas in the capital
have gone for
months with disrupted water supplies. Our Harare correspondent
Simon
Muchemwa told us Thursday that government has ordered headmasters to
keep
the schools open despite the threat of disease
outbreaks.
'Schools in Harare South are the ones mostly affected by
the serious
shortages of water. In places like Dzivarasekwa, Kuwadzana and
Mufakose most
schools are asking the students to bring water if they can,'
Muchemwa said.
Since Zinwa took over the running of water early this
year, it has struggled
to provide services in most urban areas due to bad
management and alleged
corruption in the supply of water treatment
chemicals.
There is also ageing infrastructure, including burst sewer
pipes plus
foreign currency shortages caused by bad governance.
In
Bulawayo there are fears some schools might have to close because of the
water crisis. The city has also been hard hit by water problems, resulting
in water cuts lasting several days while suburbs on high ground have gone
without water for months now.
Bulawayo has faced water problems
before but this is the first time it has
had to issue a health warning and
officials said the water shortage was
likely to get worse.
Two months
ago several people contracted cholera in two Harare suburbs after
drinking
contaminated water from shallow wells due to the continuous
breakdown in
municipal services. Ruwa, like Kadoma, has gone for four months
without
water and residents are resorting to drinking from unprotected water
sources.
SW Radio
Africa (London)
6 September 2007
Posted to the web 6 September
2007
Henry Makiwa
Two key science degree programmes have been
struck off the University of
Zimbabwe (UZ) faculties list following the mass
exodus of lecturers for
greener pastures.
The departments of
Geoinformatics and Survey and the Metallurgy programme
have become the
latest casualties of the crumbling of the UZ, where tutors
are deserting en
masse for better paying occupations within the southern
African region and
abroad. In another worrying development, faculties are
said to be reporting
less than 30% registration of new students for offered
places. Pressing
economic conditions in the country have deterred many from
proceeding with
their studies at tertiary institutions.
Sources at the university on
Thursday told us that fears are widespread that
the Medicine and Engineering
departments may be the next in line to
disappear.
"The stopping of
the department of Geoinformatics and Survey programme is
likely to be
received as shattering news by the government," said a lecturer
who refused
to be named for fear of victimisation.
"There are hardly any surveyors
left in public service. Most UZ
Geoinformatics and Survey graduates start
roving the sub region as
consultants even before completing their UZ
programme. We understand that
the current parliament session is expected to
amend the Surveyor General's
Act to enable undergraduate students to work as
surveyors and help in the
issuing of title deeds to A2 farmers. This means
that there wont be any
undergraduate students to talk about in three
years!"
Another worrying development is the news that the UZ has failed
to offer
residence for all first and last year students as per tradition,
owing to
the harsh economic environment.
Former student leader and
Zimbabwe Youth Movement activist, Collen Chibango
laid the blame on the
government.
He said: "It's well known that the government is in the
business of creating
destitutes. The ministry of health has declared the
university residences
uninhabitable hence the university can't take any
first or last year
students on the campus. The other suggestions are also
that the university
campus is less of a political hot pot without students,
ahead of next year's
elections as there are fears there would be a lot of
anti-government
protests."
Earth Times
Posted : Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:48:59
GMT
Author : DPA
Harare - A second major bakery in Zimbabwe has announced it is about
to run
out of flour worsening already acute bread shortages, reports said
Thursday.
Innscor, which runs the Bakers Inn chain of outlets, says it has
almost
exhausted its reserve stocks of flour and will have to send more than
800
workers countrywide on forced leave, said the official Herald
newspaper.
"We only have three days' supply of flour left, and if
we do not get
any additional supplies then we will be forcEd to shut down
until we get new
supplies," Innscor's financial director Owen Murumbi told
the paper.
The announcement came a day after Lobels, another major
bakery, said
it only had just two days supply of flour left. It said it had
sent more
than 1,500 of its workers on forced leave and closed its factory
in the
second city of Bulawayo.
"We are appealing to the
relevant authorities to allocate more wheat
to enable the company to remain
in business and make sure we feed the
nation," Innscor's Murumbi
said.
He said the company required 80 tons of flour a day to
produce 180,000
loaves of bread, which is a national staple.
President Robert Mugabe's government says it is only importing small
quantities of wheat because it cannot afford to pay for a consignment of
36,000 tons stuck at Beira port in Mozambique.
Bread shortages
have been worsened by the governments price controls
imposed in June that
saw prices of basic commodities slashed by at least 50
per
cent.
Bakers who say they are now producing bread at a loss have
reduced
production, resulting in long winding queues outside stores and
bakeries.
There is little relief in sight, as Zimbabwe's wheat
harvest due at
the end of October is expected to be the lowest in the seven
years since the
government launched a controversial programme to seize
productive farms from
white farmers for redistribution to
blacks.
More than four million Zimbabweans, or around a third of
the
population, will be in need of food aid between now and March, according
to
the UN's World Food Programme, which is coordinating the distribution of
aid.
UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks
6 September 2007
Posted to the web 6 September
2007
Harare
The acute shortages being experienced in Zimbabwe
could lead to the closure
of the ZANU-PF government's youth militia training
camps, established in
2001 to instil the values of national identity, unity,
patriotism and
self-reliance.
The Youth, Gender and Women's Affairs
parliamentary portfolio committee has
recommended that National Youth
Service Centres be closed until economic
conditions improve because their
ablution and accommodation facilities were
near collapse and trainees were
not being provided with adequate supplies of
food, while their trainers were
not receiving regular remuneration.
The youth militia was designed to
create disciplined training for school
leavers and includes marching drills,
which has led the opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), to claim that recruits, many from
poor, disadvantaged rural
backgrounds, were being brainwashed ahead of
elections to intimidate
opposition supporters.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest official
inflation rate, now more than
7,000 percent, and unemployment of 80 percent.
Shortages of foreign
exchange, fuel and electricity are commonplace and 4.1
million people, more
than a third of the country's population, are expected
to face severe food
shortages in the lead-up to presidential and
parliamentary elections
scheduled for March 2008.
During the 2002
presidential elections and the 2005 legislative elections
the uniformed
graduates of the youth service were accused of assaulting
opposition party
members and supporters, earning them the nickname of "green
bombers".
The national youth programme is essentially an extension of
the ruling party
Washington Katema, national coordinator of the
300,000-strong Zimbabwe
National Students Union (ZINASU), told IRIN, "the
national youth programme
is essentially an extension of the ruling party,
and we expect that when
next year's budget is announced, before the end of
this year [2007], they
will receive substantial funding, so that many
recruits will be able to be
trained before being unleashed on the population
just before the elections."
Fambai Ngirande, spokesperson for the
National Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), told IRIN:
"Quite naturally, we are
also worried about reports that the programme is
quasi-military, and may not
prepare the recruits for a civilian
life."
The parliamentary portfolio committee report, compiled in
conjunction with
representatives from ZANU-PF and the MDC, also expressed
concern about the
military emphasis of the training camps and said "the
centres should
consider temporarily closing down until the economic
environment permitted
the running of national service
programmes."
Parliamentarians visited youth centres earlier this year and
found that the
majority of trainers were retired army personnel, war
veterans and members
of Zimbabwe's police force.
Financial
constraints and poor diet
The hardships being suffered in the youth
centres were apparent during the
committee's visits, which said it was
"distressed" by the diets of the
recruits.
"The trainees are given a
cup of porridge with no sugar in the morning.
Lunch is always sadza
[maizemeal porridge, the national staple] and beans or
vegetables without
cooking oil," the committee report said.
The trainees also informed the
committee that the shortage of food was a
great challenge as the youth were
involved in a lot of physical activities
like drills and running
"The
trainees also informed the committee that the shortage of food was a
great
challenge as the youth were involved in a lot of physical activities
like
drills and running while the food provided did not provide enough
energy as
required by the vigorous exercises."
The report did not say whether the
youths were given an evening meal, but
the trainers at the centres told the
committee that the poor diet was a
reflection of the wider food shortages
being experienced in the country.
Trainees complained to committee members
that they often went hungry.
Conditions in the camps appear to have had
an impact on enrolments. A youth
centre in Midlands Province, with a
capacity of 1,000 trainees, had only 218
recruits, while the Guyu centre in
Matabeleland South Province, with a
capacity of 3,000, had only 220
trainees.
Poor living conditions
The committee said it found no
evidence of sexual abuse of female trainees
by their male counterparts or
instructors. "The girls' barracks were fenced
off and have a gate that is
locked at 1800 hours every day. A matron lives
in the barracks with the
girls and sees to their welfare," the report said.
The practice of girls
being forced to wear skimpy outfits, reported during a
tour of youth centres
by the committee in 2003, had been discontinued. "The
length of the shorts
that they wore made the girls uncomfortable in front of
male trainees and
instructors," the authors noted.
"The committee made a recommendation
that the issue be looked into and we
are pleased to find that the
recommendation has been taken up and the female
students now wear longer
shorts that they are happy with." However, due to
shortages, female trainees
were no longer supplied with sanitary towels.
Staff at the centres told
legislators they had worked without long-term
contracts for the past five
years, and did not enjoy any of the fringe
benefits afforded to other public
servants, such as study leave and medical
aid.
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
SW Radio Africa (London)
6 September
2007
Posted to the web 6 September 2007
Tererai
Karimakwenda
It appears the end of business in Zimbabwe that was
predicted by economic
analysts when government introduced price controls, is
at hand. Thousands
have already lost their jobs and many more will follow
soon as company
closures and takeovers continue.
There are reports
that the army has been mobilised as government makes moves
to offset any
planned mass action. The government is aware that civil groups
and private
businesses are discussing ways to respond to the current crisis.
The
price control exercise got a six-month extension last week when Robert
Mugabe invoked the Presidential Powers Act. This means there can be no
increases in the prices of goods, services, salaries, charges, wages or
school fees during the next six months. More companies are bound to close
and more people will lose their jobs.
The Financial Gazette reported
this week that the bakers industry is to
retrench about 10 000 workers due
to the serious shortages of wheat and the
impact of the government's price
controls. This is about half their
workforce. The National Bakers
Association (NBA) told Newsreel Wednesday
that they had made representations
to government about the challenges they
face, but no solution had been
offered. Many workers were sent home on
unpaid leave, and many more are
expected to follow.
Just a day after the state media reported that the
country's largest baker
Lobels had closed its plant in Bulawayo, another
major company is reported
to have sold its remaining share of stock to a
local firm. The ABSA Group
Limited, a South African bank, sold its 24,1%
shareholding in CBZ for an
undisclosed sum through what was described as a
share buy-back scheme. The
news comes less than a week after the H.J. Heinz
company that makes Olivine
oil was taken over by the state owned
Cottco.
The Financial Gazette reported that a crippling civil service and
private
sector strike is being discussed as one possible response to the
price
freezes. The report said Labour unions have been holding crisis
meetings in
Harare this week. Included in the discussions is the Public
Service
Association, which represents the country's civil servants, and the
umbrella
Zimbabwe Congress of trade Unions (ZCTU).
The Herald (Harare) Published by
the government of Zimbabwe
6 September 2007
Posted to the web 6
September 2007
Harare
Kuwadzana 5 residents are unhappy over the
failure of the Zimbabwe National
Water Authority to repair sewer lines,
which they fear might lead to an
outbreak of waterborne diseases such as
cholera.
Raw sewage is flowing in most parts of the suburb, exposing
households to
diseases. Residents interviewed expressed disappointment at
Zinwa for not
treating the matter as urgent. "We are surprised that Zinwa
has taken almost
three months to respond to our crisis. Our children are
playing in raw
sewerage, exposing them to waterborne diseases. Zinwa should
do something
before something nasty happens," Mr Pirukai Takavambana, one of
the
residents, said. Another resident, Mr Mathew Matengarwodzi, said life
had
now become miserable as they had resorted to using a nearby bush for
relief.
"We can no longer use our toilets and bathrooms as sewage
overflows once we
try to do so. The situation has become bad and no one
seems to care about
it," he said.
He added that most families had to
prepare meals in the open as most yards
were covered with sewage. An
official at the Zinwa workshop in Kuwadzana 2
said they had received reports
but had no transport as well as equipment to
repair the sewer
system.
"Yes, it's true we have received reports and we know that about 1
000
families are affected but there is nothing we can do. We don't have
sewer
rods to repair the system. "We also have only one truck that is broken
down
so there is no way we can work," the official, who declined to be
named,
said.
The official also blamed the residents for contributing
to the sewage
overflow. "The sewage problem has also been worsened by the
residents
themselves. They are the main culprits. "They throw stones,
spoons, bricks,
sand, cloths and various other objects, resulting in
blockages," he said.
However, residents dismissed this, saying that although
blockages were a
factor, the truth of the matter was that the system was
affected by the
water shortages as most residents had turned to the bucket
system to flush
toilets.
"Because of water shortages we have resorted
to the bucket system and when
water supplies are restored the sewage would
have accumulated and this is
one of the major problems," another resident,
who chose not to be
identified, said. When The Herald visited the most
affected area along 103
and 104 streets, raw sewerage was overflowing from
manholes into the road,
gardens and verandas.
Residents have since
dug up trenches so that the sewage flows out of their
yards.
Fin24
Sep 06 2007 07:59
PM
Finweek's Chris Muronzi
Harare - Zimbabwe's tourism and mining
sectors are on a recovery path and
will grow this year, if you believe the
country's Finance Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi. He said the troubled
country's tourism sector, which is
facing image problems and facing many
challenges, is expected to grow.
According to Mumbengegwi, tourism arrivals
will grow by 34% this year buoyed
by intensified marketing initiatives in
the Far East regions to sell the
country's sector as a safe tourists'
destination. He said, contrary to
popular belief, the government has
managed to sell Zimbabwe as a safe
tourists' destination. "The tourism
sector is expected to grow by 34%
this year because tourist arrivals have
grown to 1,4 million people this
year from 1,1 million last year,"
Mumbengegwi said projecting growth in
platinum and nickel output. No walk
in the park But analysts say the
recovery of the tourism sectors will not
be a walk in the park given that
the country's image is battered globally
adding that output mining is quite
ambitious after President Robert Mugabe's
plans to nationalise mines by year
end. Aquarius Platinum's Mimosa
Platinum Mines' shelved an expansion
programme at its mines owing to
uncertainty relating to mine ownership after
nationalisation reports.
Mining executives say output in mines is also
falling due to power outages
and foreign currency shortages. The
country's chamber of mines, a
grouping of mine owners, says there is a need
to embark on mining
development programmes such as expansions of existing
mines and
exploration. Mumbengegwi was speaking in a televised
supplementary budget
presentation in parliament. Additional budget The
Z$37,1trillion
additional fiscal budget was prompted by high salaries paid
out to civil
servants in the first half of the year to cushion them from an
economic
meltdown characterised by high inflation, the government official
said.
He added that the supplementary budget had taken the need to
maintain macro
economic stability of the troubled country's economy into
consideration in
coming up with the government's various needs until the
annual fiscal budget
is presented in November. But analysts say lack of
financial discipline
on the part of Mugabe's government had raised the need
for the additional
budget maintaining that if various government departments
had lived "within
their means", the additional budget could have been
avoided. On the
inflation front, Mumbengegwi says he is hopeful that the
price monitoring
and control policy will achieve stability, he said to a
contemptuous gallery
of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
Members of Parliament.
Already basic goods have vanished from the shops
because of the price
control after Mugabe ordered prices of goods be halved
in June. Recently
the aged leader ordered a ban on wage and price
increases after invoking the
Presidential Powers Act. The Finance
Minister also exempted
low-income-earners from tax. Workers earning Z$40m
and below are now
exempted from tax while those earning the highest taxed
worker will now be
contributing over 47% of his or her earnings to taxes.
Experts also doubt
the capability of the government to raise this gigantic
figure in revenues
from a stressed business community and underpaid workers
warning Mugabe's
central bank might have to do what it does best - print
money. Zimbabwe
has the highest inflation rate in the world, currently
believed to be 7
600%. - Fin24
The Herald (Harare) Published by the
government of Zimbabwe
6 September 2007
Posted to the web 6 September
2007
Harare
The Agricultural and Rural Development Authority has
invited private equity
funds to help revitalise ailing operations at the
State enterprise.
Agriculture Minister Mr Rugare Gumbo revealed yesterday
that Arda was
under-capitalised, hence the need for private investors.
Priority would be
given to investors interested in growing crops targeted at
achieving food
security such as maize and small grains, said Mr Gumbo. "It
is all about
unlocking value. We are encouraging private investors to enter
into joint
ventures with Arda," Minister Gumbo said in an
interview.
"We are not going to have major policy shifts but we will
make sure that
Arda will remain with an upper hand in all joint ventures
that are going to
materialise."
Already, horticultural firm TZI
Limited has signed an agreement with Arda in
which a new company would be
formed. Arda would have a 51 percent stake
while the remainder would be in
the hands of TZI. Arda's poor performance
has been largely attributed to
poor management, culminating in the dismissal
of former CEO Dr Joseph
Matowanyika.
Recently Mr Gumbo appointed a new board whose prime
objective is to
revitalise the agriculture body that has been bedeviled by a
host of
problems, which resulted in some estates becoming
derelict.
Minister Gumbo said interviews for the CEO post have been
completed and
submissions have been made to the ministry for
consideration.Arda was formed
in May 1978, when it was decided to bring the
country's three leading
planning and development authorities under a single
authority. The three
authorities involved were the previously autonomous
bodies of the Tribal
Trust Land Development Corporation (Tilcor), the
Agricultural Development
Authority (ADA) and the Sabi-Limpopo Authority
(SLA).
It was tasked to enhance food security and to impart prudent
agricultural
practices to rural communities bordering its estates. Arda is a
strategic
arm of Government whose object is to assist in meeting the
nation's food
security.
6 September 2007
Honourable Members of
Parliament,
On the 9th of July 2007, the MDC alerted the nation to the
dangers of the
state-sponsored siege on our struggling business community
following a
decision by the Robert Mugabe dictatorship to slash commodity
prices and
promote a run on all businesses. Mugabe and Zanu PF have
sabotaged the
economy through policy inconsistencies and reckless
populism.
Today, the situation has become totally unacceptable. We are at
risk,
without food, without water, without electricity and without basic
means of
sustenance. Our schools opened for the third term this week.
Headmasters and
school administrators countrywide are so desperate for
basics to keep these
already squeezed institutions open. Possibilities exist
for some of the
schools to close before the end of the year. Our hospitals
can no longer
feed patients. Our hotels and food outlets are failing to
access essentials
to ensure the viability of the hospitality industry. Even
our prisons have
reduced their rations to life-threatening
levels.
Literally, every ordinary person, state and private institutions
and the
business community have been forced to source food and other scarce
necessities on the black market because of a systematic destruction of the
formal sector. An informal market ravages the poor in any society as
speculators and beneficiaries of a government patronage system thrive on the
scarcity of goods and services. The poor cannot afford the goods sold on the
parallel market.
Businesses are closing down. Thousands of jobs have
been lost and more are
on the firing line. That our shops and market shelves
are already empty is
common cause. Our families are exposed. Mugabe and Zanu
PF continue to
bicker and to sacrifice the people's livelihoods for
political expediency.
The plan is to drive the entire nation into
destitution for easier control
and punishment for rejecting Zanu PF rule. To
those in urban areas, the
onslaught began with operation Murambatsvina in
2005. Mugabe's intention is
to push everybody into a hunter-gatherer
subsistence mode of life and to
scatter whole communities into the
countryside in search of food. The plan
is to weaken and liquidate organised
constituencies and organised life in
Zimbabwe.
I salute you,
Zimbabweans for remaining focussed on the goal; for rejecting
the selfish
and poor Zanu PF election gimmicks. Our experience shows once a
key economic
sector is targeted by this regime, the poor and vulnerable
often bear the
brunt of such recklessness. I salute you, brave mothers and
fathers, the
workers, commuters, students, businesspeople, the unemployed
and all our
children for the discipline you have maintained in the face of
such naked
provocation from Mugabe and his regime.
We have a scheduled election in
March 2008. In stable societies, a free and
fair election opens up a host of
opportunities for citizens. In our case,
the conditions are so flawed that
our voices are often muzzled. We must get
the right conditions to pull
through an election process that works as a
catalyst for a holistic
transformation of our society.
For 27 years, Mugabe and Zanu PF have
proved beyond reasonable doubt that
they are unable to lead us to the
desired national destiny. Under this
regime, Zimbabwe shall never realise
the ideals of the liberation struggle.
Mugabe and Zanu PF simply enjoy the
blame game.
For nearly three decades, they have targeted the opposition
and people of
Matabeleland and the Midlands to defend their power-base.
Mugabe has smashed
the media; he has attacked white Zimbabweans, white
farmers and the West; he
has gone for the church and church leaders; now he
has turned his axe onto
ordinary people by smashing the conventional
business environment.
We can reverse the decay. We have the power to
restore our dignity. We can
turn around our fortunes, our economy and enjoy
our self-esteem. We can
reclaim our sovereignty and our freedom. We pledge
to lay before you a new
breed of leaders, a new generation of committed
patriots, ready to tackle
the complicated task of putting permanent
structures for a new Zimbabwe.
The choice is simple: either take the
country into a new era or maintain a
decaying status quo. A free and fair
election can assist in lifting us from
this scrap-heap, restore our respect
among nations and rest our restless
population in its own natural home. A
free and fair election, given the
right political will, is
possible.
With a worthless currency, a huge budget deficit, a shocking
external debt,
nearly 100 percent unemployment and a devastating HIV/Aids
pandemic, fellow
Zimbabweans, the time has come for us to swear that we
cannot take in any
more battering.
Mugabe and Zanu PF have lost
interest in turning around the damage they have
caused. They are hopelessly
weak and tired. The regime no longer has the
capacity nor the national
interest to clean up the mess. The time has come
for us to start afresh. The
answer lies in the manner in which we organise
ourselves for an orderly
regime change.
Organise yourselves in every village, at growth points, in
your streets and
at meeting places to raise the nation out of this deepening
crisis. Talk to
your neighbours, engage each other in your churches and at
gatherings. Talk
about the future. Talk about Zimbabwe. We are ready to
provide the
leadership. Resist Mugabe's attempts to scatter the nation into
various
tribes and clans. Maintain the thread that links us to a single
nation and a
single identity. Fight the fragmentation, endure the temporary
setbacks and
overcome fear. Keep hope alive.
My vision rests on a
flourishing , tolerant society that respects our
diversity as a source of
strength. We have already put together a
post-Mugabe reconstruction and
reconciliation plan in line with our national
healing focus.
We need
a spirit of togetherness and must come to terms with our disruptive
past in
order to iron out any traces of covert discrimination based on a
person's
ancestry and geographical station in Zimbabwe. A new Zimbabwe shall
respect
the people's right to decency.
Zimbabweans require a minimum state
involvement in the economy. Zimbabweans
require a cafeteria environment to
explore their dreams and to realise their
full potential as a
people.
Given the pressures on our young people - a generation that has
borne the
brunt of this dictatorship most - we shall put in place a
Marshall-plan type
of programme to rescue the jobless millions through
viable placements in all
sectors of the economy in order to offer them a
belated head start in life.
Zimbabweans stranded in neighbouring
countries and beyond, searching for
food security and economic
opportunities, shall rejoin their families at
home. We pledge to make this
possible within a short space of time. We have
a committed leadership, a
leadership for change, a leadership ready for a
new Zimbabwe.
Prepare
yourselves and your communities for a new Zimbabwe. Let us stand
ready for a
society awash with food and jobs for our people. The temporary
setbacks we
are all facing shall vanish as soon as we mobilise and claim our
space. The
time for a new Zimbabwe is now with us.
Morgan
Tsvangirai,
President.