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MAC
CRAWFORD
GAVIN CONOLLY
The Herald
Sugar prices go up three-fold, further hikes looming
By
Sifelani Tsiko
THE price of sugar has gone up three-fold in a latest wave of
price
increases of basic commodities.
One large shop, which had large
quantities of sugar in stock, was yesterday
selling a 2kg pack at a price of
up to $1 200, an increase of about $855
from the previous price of around
$345.
Shop staff said the country’s main sugar supplier — the Zimbabwe
Sugar
Refineries — had hiked its prices citing viability
problems.
Sources at the sugar supplying company said sugar had become
one of the
cheapest among a range of foodstuffs.
"Another price
increase is looming," he said.
"We were informed that sugar price will go
up any time this week, but I don’
t know exactly by what
percentage."
Zimbabwe Sugar Refineries group managing director Mr
Pattison Sithole was
said to be away on business when contacted for comment
at the weekend.
Sources said the price of 10kg sugar was set to rise to
around $11 000
retail from $2 100.
Although the prices of other sugar
in quantity packaging was not immediately
known, sources said 15kg sugar
would perhaps be sold at a price of around
$15 000 up from around a previous
retail price of around $4 000.
The new prices are almost similar to the
ones, which were being charged by
illegal dealers on the parallel
market.
According to prices gazetted in July this year, retailers must
sell a kg of
sugar for $175,59, 2kg $349,48, 10kg $1 740,52, 15kg $2 610,
25kg $4 350,24
and 50kg at a price of $8 636,88.
Sugar supplies on the
local market remain erratic owing to the persistent
shortages of coal and
poor raw sugar supplies from growers.
Sugar is one of the basic
commodities that have been in short supply since
last year.
Traders
are selling sugar at prices way above the gazetted ones.
Last week,
sources at ZSR said theHarare sugar plant was not operating at
full capacity
owing to lack of coal.
"There is no sugar now," said a source at the
plant.
"There is no coal. We will inform when the stocks become
available."
ZSR has in the past blamed the shortages on the failure by
the National
Railways of Zimbabwe to ferry coal from Wankie
Colliery.
The sugar supplier requires 100 tonnes of coal daily and
additional 100
tonnes to start up after shut down.
The sugar plant
also needs four days cover of up to 100 tonnes of coal.
Sugar price
increases are likely to send a ripple effect across various
sectors that
require the commodity as inputs, which will force them to
adjust their prices
upwards.
Zimbabwe has in the last few weeks experienced massive price
increases of
basic commodities putting them beyond the reach of the majority
of the poor.
ZSR has also in the past cited rising operational costs as
the reason for
sugar price increases.
In 1984, a kilogramme of white
sugar cost 42c, 2kg 85c and 12,5kg pocket
cost $5,24. A kilogramme of brown
sugar cost 37c, 2kg 73c, 5kg $1,80 and
12,5kg cost $4,49.
Rising
operational costs, inflation and inputs coupled with a shortage
foreign
currency and falling national output have forced many companies to
adjust
their prices as they seek to survive in a volatile economic
situation.
Daily News
Zimbabweans seek US shelter
THE United
States’ State Department is considering an application by
Zimbabweans living
in the US for Temporary Protection Status, which would
grant illegal
immigrants immunity from deportation until Zimbabwe’s
political and economic
crisis is resolved, the Daily News has established.
The
Association of Zimbabweans Based Abroad (AZBA), which was formed
last month,
wrote to the US State Department in August, indicating that it
had become
unsafe for Zimbabweans living abroad to return home.
US Senator
Raphael Feingold has also written to the US State
Department endorsing AZBA’s
request.
"The association is requesting the US government to
grant Temporary
Protection Status to Zimbabweans who are at risk of
experiencing severe
hardship if forcibly returned to their country," a
document sent to the
State Department reads in part.
"It is
no secret that the current political climate is unsafe for many
Zimbabweans
living abroad," the document adds.
In his letter to US
Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge,
Feingold said the political and
economic conditions in Zimbabwe made it
imperative for the US to grant the
temporary protection status.
The US senator said: "Presently,
extraordinary conditions exist that
prevent Zimbabweans from returning home
in safety as required by the
Temporary Protection Status
statute.
"In addition, Zimbabwe cannot feed its population.
Many of the
Zimbabweans that have resisted Mugabe’s tyranny now reside in the
United
States and we should consider providing protection status for
them."
Feingold successfully campaigned in 2000 for the
Zimbabwe Democracy
and Economic Recovery Act, under which President Robert
Mugabe and his
government were slapped with travel and economic
sanctions.
In response to AZBA’s appeal, Scott Busby, the
director of policy and
resource planning in the State Department, last month
assured AZBA that the
US government was considering the
petition.
"The Department of State continues to monitor the
conditions in
Zimbabwe to determine whether they meet the specific statutory
requirements
for Temporary Protection Status. I can assure you that we will
take your
concerns into consideration," he wrote in a letter addressed to
AZBA
president Dumaphi Mema.
Temporary Protection Status may
be granted if the US Attorney General
finds that a foreign state is in the
grip of ongoing armed conflict and that
due to such conflict, "the return of
aliens who are nationals of that state
to that state, or part of that state,
would pose a serious threat to their
personal safety".
While
noting that no armed conflict exists in Zimbabwe, AZBA, however,
noted that
there exists a "prolonged state of open and hostile disharmony".
The group
said this "clash or conflict is characterised by the use of
brutal, violent
force by the government of Zimbabwe against the civilian
population and
opponents of the Mugabe regime".
The government has denied such charges in the past.
Temporary Protection Status can also be
granted to a country that has
experienced earthquakes, floods, drought,
epidemics or other environmental
disasters, resulting in the disruption of
living conditions.
AZBA notes that Zimbabwe has experienced
floods and drought in the
past five years and is in the grip of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
Countries that have been granted Temporary Protection
Status (TPS) in
the past include Angola, Mozambique, Kosovo, Serbia and
LIberia.
AZBA executive director Ralph Black told the Daily
News yesterday that
granting of the TPS would provide relief to many
Zimbabwean illegal
immigrants residing in the US. About 45 000 Zimbabweans
are estimated to be
living in the US.
He said: "Many
Zimbabweans here are desperate because if they are
caught by the State
Department, they will be deported. But if this status is
granted, then it
will take away the anxiety of being caught and they will
also be authorised
to work and complete their studies while fending for
their families back
home.
"We have also not been able to adequately lobby the US
government on
Zimbabwe because most people are afraid of coming out in the
open because
their papers are not in order."
Movement for
Democratic Change shadow minister for foreign affairs
Moses Mzila-Ndlovu said
the Zimbabweans’ appeal was justified. "These people
are directly
contributing to the economy because of the foreign currency
that they send
home. It would be unreasonable for the US government to
repatriate them back
home to face the kind of poverty we are facing right
now. It is imperative
that the US government grants Zimbabwe such status."
But ZANU PF secretary
for external affairs Didymus Mutasa said Zimbabweans
abroad were out to
spread lies about the conditions at home. He said: "They
are a crazy gang on
a mission to spread falsehoods about their mother
country. Everything is
normal in Zimbabwe, and anyone who thinks otherwise
should have his head
examined. They should not use silly excuses to stay in
the US." By Farai
Mutsaka Chief Reporter
Daily News
Mugabe poll challenge expected to dominate High Court
third term
THE third term of the High and Supreme Courts opens
today, with the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)’s challenge of President
Robert Mugabe’
s March 2002 re-election expected to take centre
stage.
The application is expected to be heard in November in
the High Court,
and the initial hearing will be for legal issues relating to
the election.
This will be followed by the main hearing to deal with other
issues,
including charges of electoral fraud and politically-motivated
violence that
allegedly marred the poll.
The treason trial
of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, expected to resume
on Tuesday next week,
will be among high-profile cases, as will the Supreme
Court hearing of an
application by High Court judge Benjamin Paradza.
Justice
Paradza is challenging the constitutionality of his arrest
earlier this year
on charges of obstructing the course of justice and
breaching sections of the
Prevention of Corruption Act.
Paradza, who was arrested in his
chambers as he prepared to preside
over a case in the High Court, is accused
of phoning Justice Maphios Cheda
in Bulawayo, requesting him to handle an
application to have his business
partner Russel Wayne Labuschagne’s passport
returned by the court registrar.
Among other high-profile cases
is the Cain Nkala murder trial, which
was postponed to 15
September.
Several MDC officials and activists are charged with
the abduction and
murder of war veterans’ leader Cain Nkala.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver the
long-outstanding
judgment on the Independent Journalists’ Association of
Zimbabwe (IJAZ)’s
challenge of the constitutionality of the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act.
IJAZ took Jonathan Moyo, the
Minister of Information and Publicity,
and the government-appointed Media and
Information Commission to court
challenging the constitutionality of the law,
which has been used against
the privately-owned media and foreign
correspondents.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku reserved judgment
in the matter in
November last year.
The court is also
expected to hand down judgment in an application by
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights and the Legal Resources Foundation for
an order to compel the
government to publish two reports on massacres that
occurred in the
Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the early
and
mid-1980s.
One of the reports, the Dumbutshena Report,
compiled by a commission
led by former Chief Justice Enock Dumbutshena,
contains details of clashes
between Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
and Zimbabwe People’s
Revolutionary Army troops in Bulawayo.
The Chihambakwe Report details massacres of civilians in the
Matabeleland and
Midlands provinces by a crack army unit deployed ostensibly
to crush
dissident activity in the provinces.
Court Reporter
Daily News
Freedoms still under siege, says report
FREEDOM of association, expression and movement remained under
threat in
Zimbabwe in July, with 59 cases reported during the month,
according to the
latest Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (ZHRF) report.
According
to the report, the 59 cases were reported between 1 and
31
July.
Between 1 January and 31 July this year, 384
reports of violations of
freedom of association, movement and expression were
made.
"Freedom of association remains strictly limited or
threatened in
Zimbabwe with individuals consistently reporting that they are
targeted on
the basis of their real or perceived political affiliation," the
Forum,
which groups non-governmental organisations working in the field of
human
rights, said in its report.
It added: "The Human
Rights Forum underscores the need for tolerance
amongst supporters of
different political parties and urges them to desist
from violent expression
of disparities in opinion.
"We reiterate the obligation upon
state agents to enforce law and
order in an objective and impartial manner
and in this light find
discouraging reports of use of torture by state agents
against victims on
the basis of their real or perceived political
affiliation."
The report said another freedom that remained
heavily restricted was
freedom of expression, which was being limited by the
"gratuitous
application of the Public Order and Security Act
(POSA)".
It noted that 48 women were arrested and detained in
July in Bulawayo,
where they were holding an anti-POSA demonstration outside
the Magistrates’
Court at Tredgold Building.
"The women
allege that access to food was limited during the period of
detention," the
report said. "All 48 were charged under POSA for
participating in an ‘illegal
gathering’, with Jenni Williams, the leader of
Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA), having a second charge laid against her for
organising the march.
Williams denies the charges as she maintains that the
march was not
illegal."
According to statistics in the ZHRF report, two
abductions or
kidnappings were reported during July, while three death
threats, one
disappearance and 12 cases of political discrimination were
recorded.
Between January and July, there were 30 abductions,
238 assaults, 18
death threats and 322 cases of political
discrimination.
Eleven cases of torture, three unlawful arrests
and two unlawful
detentions were also recorded during the period under
review, compared to
390 reports of torture, 473 unlawful and 144 unlawful
detentions between
January and July.
There were no reports
of murder, rape or school closures last month,
compared to eight murders, six
rapes and one school closure reported between
January and
July.
Six displacements due to political violence were reported
in July,
compared to a cumulative figure of 104 between January and
July.
The ZHRF expressed concern at reports that several
opposition party
candidates were prevented from presenting their papers to
the nomination
courts ahead of urban council elections held two weeks
ago.
There were also reports that some of the opposition and
independent
candidates were assaulted by suspected supporters of the ruling
ZANU PF.
The Forum also noted: "Farm evictions have been
reported, with some of
the victims claiming that they are being forced to
move from the farms upon
which they were resettled."
Reports
have been received of resettled people being evicted to make
way for
government and ruling party officials.
Staff
Reporter
Daily News
ZANU PF seeks to nullify Masvingo poll
MASVINGO –- The ruling ZANU PF party has written to the Registrar
General’s
Office threatening to take legal action to seek the nullification
of the
results of urban council elections in Masvingo, because of alleged
electoral
irregularities.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) won eight of the
10 contested wards in Masvingo in urban council polls
held two weeks ago.
In a letter to the Masvingo provincial
Registrar General’s Office,
ZANU PF alleged that the urban council elections
in Masvingo were not free
and fair and were marred by
irregularities.
In the letter, Absolom Mudavanhu, the ZANU PF
district co-ordinator,
claimed that some MDC youths were allowed to vote more
than once because
they had registered on the voters’ roll using different
names.
Said Mudavanhu: "We have since written a letter to the
Registrar
General’s Office complaining about the voters’ roll. We even raised
the
issue before the polling days. The election was meant for the residents
only
and not everyone."
Masvingo provincial registrar
Ignatius Mushangwe confirmed receiving
the letter from ZANU
PF.
He, however, dismissed the allegations, arguing that the
elections
were free and fair.
Mushangwe said before the
elections, his office invited all interested
parties to inspect the voters’
roll and the parties had all agreed that
everything was in
order.
"We invited them before the polling days and taught them
how to
inspect the roll and they agreed that everything was in order," he
told the
Daily News.
However, Mudavanhu said his party would
take its case to court once
the ZANU PF provincial executive had deliberated
on the matter.
Meanwhile, the MDC says it will also challenge
in court the election
results for Masvingo’s ward seven, where Naison Tsere
of ZANU PF beat Berias
Marlie by 12 votes.
Shaky Matake, the
MDC provincial vice-chairman, said after
consultations with the opposition
party’s election directorate, the matter
would be taken to court to seek the
nullification of Tsere’s victory.
Tsere polled 508 votes against Marlie’s 496.
Own Correspondent
Daily News
Registrar-General’s Office hikes passport
fees
THE Registrar-General (RG)’s Office has increased passport
fees by
more than 200 percent with effect from today.
According to a notice issued by the RG’s Office, adults applying for
ordinary
passports will be required to pay $5 000, up from $1 500. An
ordinary
passport for a child under 12 years now costs $2 500, up from
$700.
An adult’s executive passport – processed within 24 hours
– now costs
$110 000, and a child’s 24-hour passport will incur a cost of $40
000.
The fee for an urgent passport processed in three working
days has
been pegged at $80 000 for an adult and $30 000 for a child under
12. The
new fee for an urgent passport processed in seven days is $60 000 for
an
adult and $20 000 for a child under 12.
The new fee for
an adult’s urgent passport processed in two weeks is
$40 000, while a similar
passport for a child under 12 now costs $10 000.
The hike in
passport fees comes at a time Zimbabwe’s passport office
is battling a huge
backlog because of an increase in the number of people
applying for passports
so that they can leave the country.
A large number of
Zimbabweans have already left the country for South
Africa, the United
Kingdom and other destinations, fleeing a worsening
economic crisis and
political uncertainty.
But commentators yesterday said the new
fees were unlikely to
discourage people from applying for passports. They
said most Zimbabweans
were now so desperate to leave the country that they
were willing to raise
whatever money was needed to pay passport and visa
fees.
A British High Commission spokesperson last week said the
high
commission had received 17 078 visa applications since the beginning of
the
year.
This is despite an increase in visa fees and the
stringent visa
requirements set by the British government.
Tough visa requirements introduced by South Africa have also not
deterred
Zimbabweans anxious to try their luck in that country.
Meanwhile, according to the directive from the RG’s Office the penalty
for a
lost passport is now $5 000, while a defaced or soiled passport now
attracts
a $10 000 penalty.
Adding a child’s name to an old passport now
costs $2 500, according
to the new fee structure, while the new fee for
extending the validity of a
passport is also $2 500.
The new fee for an emergency travel document is now $2 000 from $500.
Staff Reporter
Daily News
Is ZANU PF finally seeing the writing on the
wall?
"WE should have seen it coming. The writing was on the wall
but
somehow we didn’t read it."
These were the words of
Junior Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo
after results of the mayoral and
urban council elections were announced.
Results which showed
that the ruling ZANU PF has lost even more
popularity and power throughout
the country.
The writing has indeed been on the wall for
three-and-a-half years;
the words are getting bigger and being painted in
brighter colours every
day, but ZANU PF continues to be unable to see them as
it sinks ever deeper
into the mire of short-term thinking.
Short-term thinking has been the downfall of our government.
For
three-and-a-half years we have watched the ruling party stagger from
one
crisis to the next.
In a Cabinet stuffed with men who
have doctorates, masters and
bachelor degrees, it has been shocking to watch
such apparently highly
educated people being completely unable to exercise
even one iota of common
sense and foresee the catastrophes that their
policies would cause.
When ZANU PF let their supporters loose
on commercial farms, they
apparently could not see that this would cause
immediate short, medium and
long-term food shortages.
When
they then allowed politicians, accountants, soldiers and
policemen to take
over these farms, they apparently could not see that
successful farming needs
training, expertise, capital and minute-by-minute
attention, not cellphone
instructions from a city office a hundred
kilometres away.
To this day, ZANU PF is unable to see that it is not the colour of a
man’s
skin that makes him a farmer, but his training, experience
and
expertise.
When ZANU PF dumped peasants on highly
specialised farms, they
apparently could not see that these people would
barely be able to support
themselves, let alone grow food for nearly 12
million people.
They could not see that they were not enriching
the A1 settlers but
reducing them to little more than beggars dependant on
the state for their
every need.
ZANU PF used its jingles and
propaganda to lure self-sufficient
families out of brick houses into grass
shacks and could not see that this
would cause discontent.
When ZANU PF stopped people from producing the goods that earn
foreign
currency, such as paprika and tobacco, it apparently could not
foresee that
no foreign currency would mean no fuel.
When
our economy plummeted and inflation grew from 60 percent at the
end of 2000
to 400 percent by mid-2003, ZANU PF could not see that we would
need a
similar percentage of bank notes in circulation.
In the run-up
to the council and mayoral polls last weekend, ZANU PF
again demonstrated its
short-term thinking.
It did not bombard the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation with
advertising. It did not erect posters urging
people to go and vote.
It did not engage in any voter education
as to which wards people live
in and where the polling stations would
be.
In its usual arrogant manner, ZANU PF just assumed that it
would win.
It assumed that its intimidation, youth militia and of course "The
Land"
would win it the votes.
It apparently could not see
that while we all continue to have no
food, fuel or money, we would
eventually stop voting for the party.
It could not see that it
is not just the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party
supporters who are suffering now, but ZANU PF
members too.
After
three-and-a-half years of beating the people of Zimbabwe into
submission,
ZANU PF is still unable to see the writing on the wall. A change
in
Zimbabwe’s governance is as inevitable now for ZANU PF as it was in 1980
for
the Rhodesian Front. It took people of vision and determination to go
and
vote last weekend. It will take people of vision to resuscitate
Zimbabwe. It
is up to each and every one of us to decide how much longer we
want to go on
without food, fuel and money. If we are prepared to go and
stand in a line
for our own money, then why aren’t we prepared to stand in a
much shorter
line to vote? Both ZANU PF and the MDC complained about voter
apathy, but
what they should have complained about is short-term thinking
because while
change is inevitable, the timing of it is up to us. Are
Zimbabweans now so
beaten and broken that they have sunk into the same
short-term thinking as
ZANU PF? There is a litany of chaos out there, but
the ruling party, with its
degrees and education, has been completely unable
to foresee any of it. Not
only can we see the writing on the wall, we wrote
it there in the first
place. There are none so blind as those that will not
see and none so foolish
as those who will not vote.
By Cathy Buckle
Cathy
Buckle writes on social and political issues
Daily News
Set up national service commission of
inquiry
ALLEGATIONS that recruits and graduates of Zimbabwe’s
national youth
service programme are involved in horrendous human rights
abuses have become
too numerous and too loud for the nation to
ignore.
It is increasingly clear that Zimbabweans can no longer
continue to
turn a blind eye to reports that all is not quite right with a
programme
that was ostensibly introduced to instill a sense of patriotism in
the
nation’s young people and to equip them with skills so that they could
make
their own way in the world.
Young people who say they
were trained under the national service
programme testified in South Africa
last week that they were trained to
torture, rape and kill suspected
opponents of the ruling ZANU PF.
This is not the first time
such disturbing testimonies have been made.
Earlier this year, Catholic
Archbishop Pius Ncube – who travelled with
several youths to South Africa
last week – organised a church service in
Bulawayo where horrifying stories
were told about what Zimbabwe’s youths are
allegedly taught at the
government’s national service training camps.
These accounts
elicited no response from the nation. Not even from the
parents whose
children, if the government has its way, will all be required
to undergo a
training process about which some national service recruits and
graduates
have painted such a grim picture.
The government has
predictably denied all allegations levelled against
the youth training
programme.
Indeed, Youth Development Minister Elliot Manyika,
under whose
jurisdiction the national service scheme falls, was quoted in the
Herald on
Saturday questioning why Ncube was harbouring "self-confessed
criminals".
"Why did Pius Ncube have to take them (alleged
national service
trainees) to South Africa if he has a genuine case?" the
minister said,
adding that Ncube should have taken the youths to the police
and had them
arrested and prosecuted.
But Manyika should not
be allowed to get away with this cynical and
clearly self-servicing
garbage.
He knows as well as most observers why Ncube has
resorted to taking
these youths on the road, so to speak. Repeated attempts
to highlight that
there could be something wrong with the national service
programme have been
largely ignored by both the government and the people of
Zimbabwe.
This could be why our dirty linen is now being aired
elsewhere, to
ensure that these allegations receive as much exposure as
possible in the
hope that some action will finally be taken.
It is unfortunate that Manyika and his colleagues in government are
choosing
to be so myopic over this matter. Clearly, the nation’s aim should
not be to
punish the individuals who, at extreme personal risk, have been
brave enough
to alert Zimbabweans to the alleged atrocities being
perpetrated at national
service training camps.
What is clearly required is a
penetrating examination of the entire
programme.
It is not
this newspaper’s place to make a ruling on the truth or
otherwise of the
allegations that have been made by people who claim to have
been trained
under the national service scheme.
But we believe Zimbabweans
must insist on a national inquiry into the
programme to get to the bottom of
these reports. It is not enough for the
police to claim that their
investigations have determined that incidents
alleged by national service
youths never took place.
The police, because of their close
relationship with the ruling party,
are not in a position to undertake an
investigation whose results would be
accepted by the entire nation as
balanced and conclusive.
The nation, therefore, needs an
independent inquiry that will lay our
fears to rest once and for all, or
result in those ultimately responsible
for abusing the national service
programme being held to account.
This is something Manyika and
his ministry should pursue vigorously.
Otherwise, if these allegations are
proved to be true, Zimbabweans will have
no choice but to conclude that they
orchestrated or knowingly turned a blind
eye to heinous crimes.
Daily News
Barclays stops issuing bank cheques of less than $1
m
SOME commercial banks are refusing to issue bank cheques with
a
value of less than $1 million, in what financial sector executives said
was
a move aimed at encouraging customers to use local currency
traveller’s
cheques.
Traveller’s cheques (TCS) were
introduced by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe last month in a bid to ease severe
shortages of cash. However, many
clients are reluctant to accept them because
they are being rejected by most
retailers.
Many bank
customers have resorted to requesting bank cheques so that
they can make
their daily transactions.
But some financial institutions are
now trying to limit the use of the
bank cheques.
In a notice
seen at its banking halls on Friday, Barclays Bank tells
its customers:
"Please be advised that we no longer issue bank cheques of
below $1 000 000
and we have increased the service charges for bank cheques
to $10
000."
A bank official said the move was aimed at encouraging
clients to use
local currency TCs.
"We need to thwart the
resistance to TCs (and) increasing the minimum
amount of a bank cheque that
can be signed will force account holders to
make use of TCs," said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, when
the Business Daily visited a Trust Bank banking hall
at the end of last week,
tellers indicated that they were not issuing bank
cheques of less than $1
million.
But Naison Sebastian, Trust Bank senior manager for
banking
operations, denied the reports, saying the bank had told its staff
to
encourage clients requesting bank cheques of less than $2 million to
accept
TCs.
But he said clients were being given bank
cheques of whatever amount
they wanted.
Sebastian told the
Business Daily: "We have actually instructed our
staff to encourage all
clients who request bank cheques of less than $2
million to accept
traveller’s cheques instead of bank cheques."
He added that the
bank gave the instruction to its staff because of
shortages of bank cheque
paper.
Suppliers of cheque paper have been affected by foreign
currency
shortages, which in the past few months have resulted in delays in
the
issuing of personal cheque books.
Several bank clients
who spoke to this newspaper said they were
shocked on being told that they
would no longer be issued with bank cheques
of less than $1 million when they
went to the banks to do some transactions.
Some clients said
they were now unable to transact their business
because of this new
move.
Business Reporter
Daily News
Municipal poll results: a triumph for
democracy?
THE results of the August urban council elections did
not come as a
surprise to many fair-minded Zimbabweans and other observers,
but obviously
came as a rude shocker to the ruling party.
And, as the government’s chief propagandist Jonathan Moyo put it, "we
should
have seen it coming".
Too bad they didn’t, and yet one has to
imagine what they would have
done had they seen it coming.
That the Kariba mayoral seat went to a white opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) candidate, despite ZANU PF’s acerbic rhetoric in
the
past about whites having no place in Zimbabwe’s political arena,
is
something that should have struck fear into the hearts of ruling
party
hawks.
They surely couldn’t have seen it coming! A
white mayor in Robert
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe? No way!
However,
the apathy that hit the elections can only be understood in
the vein of the
hardships people are presently going through.
It was very
different from the apathy that formed a permanent feature
of elections held
here in the 1980s and 1990s, when the people felt they
were relatively better
off and ZANU PF got off lightly despite its many
failures, which have been
accumulating ever since.
But as the opposition gradually takes
over the country, not in the
fashion of rebel groups across Africa, observers
and commentators should be
on their guard that this does not become an early
celebration of a total
take-over.
It could be argued that
the ruling party still thinks as long as it is
the party forming the
government of Zimbabwe, local elections are nothing
but small fry. The party
can still invoke the Urban Councils Act to
frustrate all local governments
under the MDC. It has done so in the past,
and there is no way these people
can be trusted to accept defeat, no matter
with whatever modesty the recent
urban elections were greeted.
A case in point would be the
acrimony with the City of Harare, where
the ruling party has sought to put
its fat finger in every pie and has gone
a step further by suspending the
mayor.
One has to imagine then how the Kariba mayor would go
about his
business seeing that besides him belonging to the MDC, he is also
white. Can
the ruling party be trusted to let him work without the
interference that
now forms the brief of Ignatius Chombo, under whose
portfolio local
government falls?
We have to recall the many
times that this government has graciously
accepted defeat and how it later
made turns and showed no signs of shame or
remorse.
From the
time of the referendum in February 2000, when many were taken
aback by the
President’s humble acceptance speech about people having to
live with the
bitter fact that in every contest there are winners and
losers, to even the
legislative elections only a few months after the
referendum, it would be
difficult to imagine how these victories by the MDC
will be dealt with in the
long run by the government. Not that this is an
exercise in pessimism, but
the ruling party has made it extremely difficult
for anybody to trust that it
will do the right or noble thing here.
The country can only
take a collective sigh of relief after the
opposition takes over the
Presidency, where it matters most.
Of course, municipal
elections are the starting point of community
development, but in the past
what has been seen is a government that has
refused to give due respect to
the people who have elected a party of their
own choice –own choice because
the ruling party has had the weird proclivity
of making choices for
Zimbabweans!
The report about a defeated ZANU PF candidate in
Mutare storming out
of the centre where votes were being counted and
threatening to deal with
the people she had fed, but who instead decided to
vote for a candidate of
their own choice, should provide ample evidence that
though the opposition
triumphed, its candidates might not be able to
effectively work to improve
the lives of their constituencies when people
like the bitter loser prowl
the streets.
If people are
punished for voting for their preferred candidate, what
then about the
triumphant opposition candidate? Can that candidate operate
freely seeing it
is ultimately that candidate who ended the political life
of that
loser?
However, as the MDC gives the ruling party something to
think about,
ZANU PF cannot go on dismissing the party as irrelevant to
Zimbabwe’s
political scene and, therefore, Zimbabwe’s future. All signs are
there that
the country’s future would be much, much better with ZANU PF
appearing only
as a footnote of Zimbabwe’s history.
The
local council elections, however, while having confirmed yet again
that the
ruling party no longer has any place in the urban areas, could in
fact see
the party digging deeper into its bag of tricks and making sure
that this
does not happen again.
The very idea that ZANU PF took all the
council seats in Chegutu for
example, not because of its mass popularity, but
because the MDC failed to
field candidates thanks to vigilantes who made it
impossible for the
opposition candidates to submit their nomination papers,
ought to tell the
world that there are areas ZANU PF still thinks it must
hold sway till
eternity.
What about the next presidential
election, be it called tomorrow as we
would want or as scheduled in 2008? We
could be moving fast towards the
establishment of a democratic dispensation
as Morgan Tsvangirai, the
president of the MDC, put it, but the real triumph
for democracy will be
when a fresh poll for the disputed presidency is
called. Still, the recent
victories should be celebrated with due caution, or
we may later kick
ourselves for having celebrated too soon. With Marko
Phiri
Daily News
latest rates hike death blow for
pensioners
Well, we knew the Harare City Council was planning
some fairly hefty
increases in rates and water charges, but the latest
statement recently
received left me utterly gob-smacked.
Rates themselves, in my case, increased from $7 237 to $43 392 for one
month,
a 500 percent smack in the solar plexus – and they had been going up
with
monotonous regularity for ages before.
This is a lunatic
approach which bodes very badly for the management
of council
affairs.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC)-led council has
obviously decided that if they cannot beat the ruling
ZANU PF in general
terms, they will go all out to exceed their worst
excesses.
Why did we vote this lot in, if the best they can do for us is this?
And what benefit are we likely as ratepayers to
get from these
monstrous increases?
All that happens at
present is that services decline, disappear,
erode. Witness the refuse
removal situation, the lack of water supply in
certain areas (Greendale is a
prime example), the unreadable traffic lights
(when they are working), the
caverns in some areas’ roads (Highlands is an
appaling example), the missing
street lights.
You may be short of foreign currency for
imported items, but you’ve
got all those workmen sitting twiddling their
thumbs instead of getting on
with some useful work.
Yes,
this is Zimbabwe 2003, but your staff doesn’t have to just sit
around and do
nothing. Get them out to Dzivaresekwa and sort out the
horrendous sewer
problems – you are worse than Chitungwiza ever used to be
(and that is no
compliment). Get some pride back into your staff’s thinking.
In
fact, as the editor of the Daily News comments in a very telling
leader of 30
August, get it right or "it will be difficult, if not
impossible, for anyone
to distinguish between them (MDC) and ZANU PF, which
they seek to replace in
national government".
As a post-script, I would add that this
absolutely iniquitous increase
will be the death blow to every pensioner who
has tried, by all means they
can, to hold to a minimum acceptable standard of
living.
I have read for some time of pensioners who, receiving
one time too
often their miserable unlivable pensions fixed 15-20 years ago,
have done
away with themselves.
OK, they are mainly whiteys
on their own, and utterly dispensable
(aren’t we?), but it still must be a
black mark against Zimbabwe – and the
Harare City Council (I hope the mayor
of the Munich City Council, with whom
we are twinned, reads
this).
Nil desperandum? To the Harare City Council I say, tea
kidoli ( and if
that’s Swahili, I will let someone else translate
it).
P N R Silversides
Mount Pleasant
Harare
Daily News
People have simply lost confidence in banking
system
There are many factors that can explain better the current
cash
shortage in the country and one of them is that the people have
lost
confidence in banks.
It is, however, this confidence
that needs to be restored for the the
crisis to end or lessen. We can print
as many notes as we can, but once this
confidence is absent, then we are
fighting a losing battle .
I really don’t see any reason why
people should not hoard the newly
printed money.
People have
just lost confidence in banks. What is the reason for
banking a million today
and tomorrow if, when I need the money, I am given
$5 000?
With this kind of a scenario people prefer to keep their money
under
mattresses.
It is also a known fact that there is no
longer any incentive for
people to bank money.
Nowadays,
there are a lot of these exorbitant bank charges. These are
actually driving
off potential money depositors.
In fact, many banks now charge
you for depositing your money,
notwithstanding the fact that they make a lot
of money by giving out your
money as loans which they charge at up to 100
percent interest.
Confidence in banking needs to be restored.
Why should people put
their money in banks when it’s losing value at 499.5
percent and they are
paid a paltry 25 percent interest?
Offering attractive interest rates to depositors could go a long way
go a
long way in solving the current cash crisis we are facing.
Washington Mazorodze
University of zimbabwe
Harare
Daily News
Ratepayers, let’s reclaim Harare from meddlesome,
politicking Chombo
The City of Harare is again about to enter the
Solomon Tawengwa era
where stagnant growth was the salient
feature.
Central government is busy politicking on municipal
issues. Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has dismally failed to come
up with
sustainable solutions despite his interference with the
municipality.
Residents and ratepayers of this city yearn and
expect to see
developmental changes – changes that could make businesses
expand and create
employment to many suffering individuals.
The swiftness with which he suspended Executive Mayor Elias Mudzuri
should
have been reciprocated by the appointed commission telling us the
residents,
who voted the "corrupt" mayor, of his maladministration.
The
minister seems unmoved by not telling us, who employ the mayor
and
councillors, about the fate of our number one resident. I demand from
the
minister that in as much as he wants transparency and accountability at
Town
House, equally he should be the same to Harare
residents.
- We need clean water/air
- We need
passable roads
- We need social amenities, which are now in a
deplorable state.
- We need business investment.
- We
need a properly administered council by elected representatives
not the
present scenario where the council is under the ministerial barrage
of
directives.
Residents and ratepayers of Harare, let us claim
our development
space!
Please, note that this letter is
written in my personal capacity as a
Harare resident for Harare is on
fire.
Israel T. Mabhoo.
Vice-Chairperson
Combined Harare Residents’ Association
Daily News
What sanctions when trade with the West is
flourishing?
The letter by Denford Magora cannot go unchallenged
(Daily News 4
September 2003).
Magora sounds like a learned
fellow to me and it disappoints me to see
that he really thinks the mess
Zimbabwe is in right now is purely George W
Bush and Tony Blair’s
fault.
If my memory serves me correct, the sanctions in
question, referred to
as smart sanctions, were merely targeted at ZANU PF
bigwigs and apologists
at the height of the bloody parliamentary and
presidential elections. The
basis behind these smart sanctions are purely
human rights abuse and
subversion of law in Zimbabwe.
These
sanctions mainly focused on:
- banning travel to various Western
countries by Zimbabwean ministers,
senior officials and Zanu PF
apologists;
- freezing of their overseas assets;
-
prohibition of defence sales and suspension of all defence
links;
and
- suspension of bilateral ministerial
contact.
These measures were designed to influence the ZANU PF
government to
return to good governance and the rule of law, while avoiding
harm to the
people of Zimbabwe. This, therefore, meant that humanitarian
assistance to
Zimbabwe continued.
President Robert Mugabe
has on several occasions lashed out at various
donor organisations that had
been for years pouring in millions of dollars
of aid to
Zimbabwe.
We all remember Mugabe’s utterances against the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, in particular, during
Independence Day
celebrations in 1999.
His exact words were:
"Let that monstrous creature get out of our way
(IMF). Why should we continue
to plead? Let us look elsewhere for resources.
After all, the money is not to
be given free of charge."
At the time, Zimbabwe was desperately
waiting for some US$53 million
(Z$2.915 billion) in balance-of-payments
support. The rest is history.
The ruling ZANU PF party has
openly rebuked, and continues to rebuke,
donor organisations, and to expect
the same organisations to continue
supporting Zimbabwe is craziness of the
highest order.
Donor agencies and organisations that have been
doing a splendid job
providing humanitarian support to the suffering
Zimbabweans for years have
had to endure meddling and bashing from ZANU
PF.
The dire consequences for those that could not stand the
heat are
evident.
Most recently, the government ordered the
United Nations and other
relief agencies to surrender their emergency food
aid to ruling party
officials, who would then be responsible for
distribution. This was plainly
a move designed to ensure the food aid
deliveries would be used as a
political weapon to gain
mileage.
Expecting such organisations to continue supporting
the government
under such conditions is simply insanity of the highest
order.
Nobody in their right mind would ever be charitable to a
neighbour who
spits in your face.
It is very unfortunate
that gullible Zimbabweans have fallen prey to
ZANU PF’s propaganda, blaming
non-existent sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic
decline.
Zimbabwe continues to trade with numerous Western countries – had
there been
economic sanctions, we would not be witnessing this.
For
example in 2002, Zimbabwe’s exports to the United Kingdom amounted
to £86
million, and imports amounted to £52 million.
With regards to the
United Sates, so far in 2003, exports amount to
US$17.6 million and imports
have so far amounted to US$33.4 million. Now,
are these indicators of a
country under economic sanctions? This is contrary
to the concept of economic
sanctions adopted by the UN in 1945 in its
charter, as a means of maintaining
global order. The bottom line is that the
economic rot current prevailing is
a result of land seizures and dubious
economics. A country which was once
southern Africa’s breadbasket is now
widely seen as a basket case by the
whole world. Tapson Nkaniyabo
Mkhankaseli Harare
IOL
'Botswana is trying to create a Gaza Strip'
September 08
2003 at 03:20AM
While the electric fence goes up between Zimbabwe
and Botswana, Zimbabwe's
opposition is sending delegations to several African
countries to brief them
on its efforts to end the political and economic
deadlock in the country.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
secretary-general Welshman Ncube said
the party had "invitations from African
Union countries to brief them on our
situation".
All countries in the
14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)
are to be visited, as
well as Nigeria, Senegal and Benin. SADC includes
Angola, Botswana, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
"The African leaders now understand the situation as they are
hearing it
from us, not from Zanu-PF."
But relations between Zimbabwe and
its neighbours seem to be increasingly
strained and Botswana has accused
Zimbabwean refugees of robbing houses and
harassing its children.
The
government is building an electric fence 500km long. It is purportedly
to
prevent foot-and-mouth infested cattle from crossing the border but it
is
2,4m high.
The combative Zimbabwean high commissioner to Gaborone,
Phelekeza Mphoko,
said last week that "Botswana is trying to create a Gaza
Strip" by putting
up the fence.
Botswanan President Festus Mogae is
one of the few African leaders to have
spoken out against the policies of his
Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert
Mugabe.
Botswana is repatriating 2 500
Zimbabweans every month, he said, but the
total number of Zimbabweans living
in Botswana illegally is estimated at 60
000 to 100 000.
Zimbabwe is
culling thousands of buffalo to "contain" foot-and-mouth disease
in a move
that has sparked protests.
Conservationists said it would kill off what
was left of Zimbabwe's tourism
sector, which has shrunk to 15 percent of its
former level since political
disturbances began in 2000.
Salmon
Joubert, a retired executive director of the Kruger National Park,
said the
decision "ranks as one of the most futile and bizarre moves".
Many other
cloven-hoofed animals, such as impala and kudu, are carriers
of
foot-and-mouth disease, so Zimbabwe would have to exterminate all of
them,
he said.
Officials from the department of national parks and
wildlife management
descended on private game parks last week telling owners
that the government
of Mugabe had decided to destroy all buffalo on private
land in order to
eliminate the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
The national
parks officials indicated that, alternatively, the buffalo in
the private
game parks could be seized and taken to the government's
national parks to
control their movements. However, fences at most national
game parks were
destroyed at the height of farm invasions last year, leaving
the buffalo
there free to mix with cattle in villages. - Sapa-AP
News24
Zim game park land grab victim
08/09/2003 21:38 -
(SA)
Aubrey Ntobon, Media24 Africa
Harare - A popular game
park outside Harare will probably have to close
after "war veterans" lay
siege to the park last week.
Police arrested several employees of the
Lion and Cheetah Park when they
tried to stop the land invaders. The war
veterans said the park forms part
of the land they were awarded under the
land reform programme.
Johnny Rodrigues, chairperson of the Zimbabwe
Conservation Task Force
(ZCTF), said all 19 employees were released a day
later because none of the
plaintiffs arrived for the court
case.
Rodrigues said a senior defence force officer led the "veterans"
during the
invasion.
"We are very concerned over the welfare of the
animals because previous
experiences have shown that the animals are soon
slaughtered when they are
in the hands of the war veterans. We are
investigating the possibility of
taking the animals to a safer
place."
The Lion and Cheetah Park has elephants, lions, hyenas, sable
antelope and
impala.
Rodrigues said the owners of the Halglen animal
reserve northeast of
Bulawayo are also under pressure to give up the reserve
and its 3 200
animals. He said the reserve was not suitable for
agriculture.
The minister of land affairs, agriculture and land
relocation was not
available for comment.