Zim Online
Sat
9 September 2006
HARARE - Armed police manned roadblocks on major
roads and patrolled
streets in key Zimbabwean cities, while sources said the
army was on standby
as President Robert Mugabe readies to crush worker and
student protests
against his rule planned for next week.
Government agents on the other hand maintained an eagle eye on leaders
of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the main organisers of next
Wednesday's protests.
Suspected agents of the state's dreaded
Central Intelligence
Organisation were on Thursday seen recording
registration numbers of
vehicles belonging to ZCTU officials who were
attending a meeting in Harare
to fine-tune strategy ahead of protests, in
what appeared an open attempt to
intimidate the union leaders.
The ZCTU on Friday said unidentified people were tailing vehicles
driven by
some of its officials, while in Harare armed police monitored the
streets,
dispersing people gathered in small groups and chased away people
who were
relaxing in the two parks near the capital's central business
district.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi
told ZimOnline by phone that
security forces would remain on "high alert"
until the situation in the
country was normalised.
He said: "We
are ready to deal with any threats to stability. We are
on alert, yes, and
we will continue until the situation normalises."
Zimbabwe has been
on knife-edge since the ZCTU and the Zimbabwe
National Students Union
announced last weekend and earlier this week plans
to stage nationwide mass
protests to force Mugabe's government to halt an
eight-year crippling
economic recession.
The country's largest coalition of civic
society organisations, the
National Constitutional Assembly, announced later
this week that it would be
taking part in the protests.
The
sources said Mugabe personally ordered security to be heightened
after main
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and top officials of his
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) caught the government by surprise,
marching to
Parliament, in what they said was a warning of more protests to
force the
veteran President to accept sweeping political reforms.
The MDC has
promised Ukraine-style protests to force Mugabe to give up
power to a
transitional government that should write a new democratic
constitution for
Zimbabwe and organise fresh elections under international
supervision.
The opposition party has however said while it
sympathises with
workers and students, it will not be part of next week's
protests.
But our sources say Mugabe and his security chiefs are
not convinced
the opposition party does not have a hand in the protests and
have put all
security organs on alert to ensure nothing is left to
chance.
A security official, who spoke on condition he was not
named, said:
"We cannot take the MDC on its word that it is not part of this
whole
thing ..indeed there is a genuine fear that the ZCTU could be used as
a
front, and then the MDC will hijack proceedings at some stage and catch us
unawares.
"This why we cannot take chances .. the army will be
on standby, ready
to move in once the police send a signal that the
situation (protests) on
the ground is getting out of hand."
Mugabe has promised to ruthlessly crush any mass action against his
government and last month boasted that the security forces would "pull the
trigger" against protesters.
Political tensions have been
rising in Zimbabwe as the country
grapples with an economic meltdown blamed
mainly on state mismanagement.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate at
just under 1 000 percent,
skyrocketing unemployment, shortages of foreign
currency, food, fuel and
power and increasing poverty levels.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from Britain,
denies
mismanaging the economy and instead accuses the West of slapping
sanctions
on Harare to punish his government for seizing land from whites
for
redistribution to landless blacks. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 9 September
2006
HARARE - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has
launched an
ambitious programme in Zimbabwe to train teachers to help
prevent and detect
cases of sexual abuse of children in primary
schools.
UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe, Dr Festo Kavishe, told
the media
that his organisation had enlisted the help of 1 200 teachers from
around
the country to help combat cases of child abuse.
"We
want to assist teachers to be more effective facilitators of life
skills
learning, promote children's ability to say 'no', prevent and detect
child
abuse, know how to seek action, and to counsel children in need of
care and
support," said Kavishe.
Kavishe said the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is
killing at least 3 000
people every week and the current economic crisis in
Zimbabwe had left many
children vulnerable to abuse.
Zimbabwe
government statistics indicate that there are over a million
children who
have been orphaned by AIDS in the country while a local child
rights group,
the Girl Child Network, says at least 6 000 girls were
sexually abused last
year alone.
Although Zimbabwe has a national curriculum on HIV/AIDS
in schools,
UNICEF said the programme was not being effectively carried
out.
"In part this is due to the intergenerational communication
barriers
on sex and sex-related issues between teachers and their
pupils.
"This is also because the school curriculum is over-loaded
and
teachers lack the necessary resource materials, motivation and
supervision
to deliver," said Kavishe. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 9 September 2006
HARARE - A Zimbabwean magistrate
on Friday postponed ruling in the
case in which one of the country's richest
businessman, John Arnold
Bredenkamp, is accused of holding a South African
passport in breach of the
Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act, his lawyer
said.
"The passing of judgment has been postponed to Thursday next
week,"
Bredenkamp's lawyer, Advocate Eric Matinenga said. "The magistrate
said he
needed more time until Thursday next week."
Bredenkamp,
who is said to have close ties to President Robert Mugabe
and his ZANU PF
party, was arrested last month for allegedly obtaining a
passport from
Pretoria without permission from Home Affairs Minister Kembo
Mohadi.
The Citizenship Act requires Zimbabweans to obtain
special permission
from the government to hold the passport of another
country.
The business tycoon is regarded in Zimbabwe's political
circles as
being closer to former parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa
who is
involved in a mortal fight with a rival ZANU PF faction to succeed
Mugabe.
Mnangagwa was for many years regarded as heir apparent to
Mugabe but
was last year sidelined at the eleventh hour when the veteran
leader
handpicked Joice Mujuru to the posts of second vice-president of ZANU
PF and
the government.
The two posts place Mujuru, wife of
powerful retired army general
Solomon Mujuru, a step ahead to succeed Mugabe
when he and first
Vice-President Joseph Msika step down as expected in
2008.
Some analysts believe the targeting of Bredenkamp, who the
authorities
have always known to hold two passports, could be part of the
power
struggles between the Mnangagwa and Mujuru factions. -
ZimOnline
Amnesty International
Date: 08 Sep 2006
Between May and July
2005 some 700,000 people in Zimbabwe lost their homes,
their livelihoods or
both as a direct consequence of the government's
Operation Murambatsvina 1,
a programme of mass forced evictions and
demolitions of homes and informal
businesses. In some areas entire
settlements were razed to the ground. While
the demolitions took place right
across the country, the majority of the
destruction occurred in high density
urban areas in Harare, Chitungwiza,
Bulawayo, Mutare, Kariba and Victoria
Falls. In these areas tens of
thousands of poor families lived in what are
known as backyard cottages or
extensions - these were small, often brick,
structures built on residential
plots around the main house,
sometimesattached to the main house, and
sometimes a little way separate
from it. They varied in size from one to
several rooms. In urban areas these
backyard structures were the only source
of accommodation for poor people,
who could not afford to buy a plot of land
and build their own home. The
government and local authorities in Zimbabwe
provide almost no cheap rental
accommodation.
Operation Murambatsvina
occurred countrywide. This report contains "before"
and "after" satellite
images of four sites affected by Operation
Murambatsvina: Porta Farm
settlement and portions of both Hatcliffe and
Chitungwiza, all located
around the capital, Harare, and Killarney, an
informal settlement on the
outskirts of Bulawayo in the south of Zimbabwe.2
These images, which
represent only a fraction of the demolitions, provide
compelling visual
evidence of the scale of the destruction and human rights
violations which
took place in Zimbabwe during 2005. Using satellite
technology it has also
been possible to count the number of structures
destroyed at these sites,
providing quantitative evidence of the
demolitions. In just the four areas
covered by the satellite images more
than 5,000 structures were
destroyed.
The government of Zimbabwe maintains that all of the homes
demolished were
"illegal" structures. However, the homes and settlements
destroyed included
informal settlements of long standing where the
government itself had placed
people, homes on sites where people held
government leases, and areas where
court orders existed prohibiting the
evictions.3
Despite the claims of the government of Zimbabwe, forced
evictions and
demolitions without due process, even of structures deemed to
be "illegal",
are not permitted under international law. The United Nations
(UN)
Commission on Human Rights considers that "the practice of forced
evictions
constitutes a gross violation of human rights, in particular the
right to
adequate housing",4 while the UN Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural
Rights, which monitors compliance with the International Covenant
on
Economic Social and Cultural Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a state party,
has
stated that "instances of forced eviction are prima facie incompatible
with
the requirements of the Covenant and can only be justified in the most
exceptional circumstances, and in accordance with the relevant principles of
international law."5 The mass evictions of Operation Murambatsvina were
carried out without adequate notice, court orders, due process, legal
protection, redress or appropriate relocation measures. They resulted in
hundreds of thousands of people being made homeless in winter.
1
Operation Murambatsvina means 'drive out rubbish' in Shona.
2 Amnesty
International researchers visited Porta Farm, Chitungwiza and
Hatcliffe in
August 2005 and witnessed the visible evidence of demolitions
and evictions
at all these sites. Interviews were conducted with residents
of Porta Farm,
Chitungwiza, Hatcliffe and Killarney, also in 2005. The
residents of Porta
Farm and Killarney, both of which were destroyed, were
interviewed in
various locations to which they had moved in the aftermath of
Operation
Murambatsvina, including churches and a holding camp set up by the
government. Amnesty International researchers subsequently visited Porta
Farm, Hatcliffe and Killarney in April and May 2006, and interviewed people
who had returned to Killarney and Hatcliffe. Porta Farm was deserted and
access was restricted by wildlife officers who claimed they were there to
prevent poaching of fish from the nearby lake.
3 Report of the
Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe to assess the Scope and
Impact of Operation
Murambatsvina by the UN Special Envoy on Human
Settlement Issues in
Zimbabwe, 22 July 2005. See also: Amnesty
International, "Zimbabwe:
shattered lives - the case of Porta Farm", AI
Index AFR 46/004/2006, 31
March 2006.
4 UN Commission on Human Rights, Resolution 1993/77, para
1.
5 CESCR General Comment No. 4 on right to adequate housing (1991),
para. 18.
See the full report, with images
Mail and Guardian
Lisa Johnston
08 September 2006 10:59
"Don't fool yourself. Speed kills," a Power FM radio announcer
tells
listeners. It is hard to take his statement seriously. It's a Friday
afternoon in central Harare, and traffic dithers along at 40kph even though
the speed limit is 60kph. Motorists drive slowly to conserve petrol, I am
told, keeping an eye on the fuel gauge as the precious liquid diminishes
into puffs of carbon dioxide.
Despite reports in the
local media trumpeting the "tumble" of
annual inflation from 1 184,6% to
993,6%, and the success of the recent
currency-reform programme, there is
little evidence of improvement in the
daily lives of
locals.
In the 10 days that I was in the country, the price
of a bus
ticket from Chitungwiza to Harare rose from Z$200 to Z$250, and
then to
Z$300 -- a hefty penalty if you consider that a security guard in
Chitungwiza has to spend Z$12 000 of his Z$20 000 monthly salary travelling
about 22km to work in Harare.
One trader, selling fruits
and vegetables, says she earns about
Z$5 000 on a good day, and about Z$3
000 on a bad day. Even state-employed
teachers, who earn about Z$30 000,
live below the Z$68 000-a-month
breadline.
As one of the
few people with a full tank of petrol, I felt
compelled to pick up
hitchhikers on my visit and was offered insight into
what ordinary
Zimbabweans think about the economic and political climate.
"This country is bleeding; this country is finished," says
Constantine, a
housewife and mother of six, who catches a ride for the final
20km stretch
of road to Bulawayo.
After we are searched at one of numerous
roadblocks set up ahead
of the August 21 currency-exchange deadline, she
mutters: "It is complete
harassment. The policemen and politicians are just
getting fatter. You can't
pass anywhere without handing something to police.
We are stuck here because
we are born here. It is only because of this that
we stay."
When I meet Theresa, an elderly woman, near
Amakhosi Theatre in
Bulawayo, she is on her way home from the hospital.
"They didn't have pills
so they gave me a paper [script] for what is wrong
with me, but I can't
afford to buy the medicine at the pharmacy so I went
back this week, but
there are still no pills," she says with
resignation.
Joyce, a cross-border trader I pick up on the
road outside of
Kwekwe, says: "To live in Zimbabwe is to be very angry."
Joyce buys batiks
in Harare and sells them in Botswana. ""There are many
[border] jumpers now;
everyone is jumping."
Back in
Harare, The Village, an upmarket complex in Borrowdale,
is buzzing as people
go about their Saturday-morning shopping. Initially it
appears that the
country's economic crisis has had little effect here --
until one takes a
closer look. Supermarket trolleys contain only the bare
minimum and products
at the local Clicks are arranged in single rows in an
attempt to make the
shelves look fuller.
"Life here is unbearable," says
Chengetai, a bookkeeper who
lives in Chitungwiza. At 4pm, she hands around
plates of stiff samp mixed
with peanut butter, and laughs. "We can no longer
afford a decent meal. We
have to eat supper in the afternoon if you don't
[have] tough luck -- the
electricity can go off at any
time."
She points outside to the keloid scars of rubble that
still
litter the suburb a year after the controversial slum clearance that
was
Operation Murambatsvina. "We used to be a building here [a phone shop].
That
was a good enterprise, but in a few minutes it was gone. Bulldozed. You
spend your whole life working and at the end of the day you have nothing
tangible to show for it."
On the drive back into the
city, I pick up two passengers. As
the sun dips the mood is high and the two
friends laugh and joke. "When that
man [Mugabe] dies," one woman roars. "I
am going to drink so much my husband
is going to have to put out an ad to
find me. When he dies I am going there
to the state funeral to see for
myself and I am going to pour concrete in
the grave."
Her
friend pipes in: "Concrete and cement. That way we can make
sure he can't
come out."
afrol News, 8 September -
The European Union (EU) parliament has urged the
UN Security Council to
"report on the human rights and political situation
in Zimbabwe as a matter
of urgency," normally a first step in UN actions
against a state. Pressure
groups assume possible "crimes against humanity"
are being committed in
Zimbabwe, which could call for UN sanctions or even
intervention.
The
EU parliament yesterday endorsed a strongly worded resolution,
condemning
the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, criticising
especially
South Africa's failed approach towards the Zimbabwe crisis and
calling for
stronger actions against the regime. It calls on EU member
states, African
governments, China and the UN to intervene.
The resolution condemns the
"appalling humanitarian, political, and economic
situation in Zimbabwe,"
which was continuing to deteriorate, "with the
so-called Operation
Murambatsvina (drive out rubbish) leaving 700,000 people
destitute, with
over 4 million Zimbabweans at risk of starvation and
surviving on food aid,
and political repression continuing apace."
The member of the European
parliament (MEPs) held the "Mugabe dictatorship"
stood behind "relentless
oppression of the Zimbabwean people." Zimbabweans
were now suffering from an
unemployment rate of over 70 percent and the
highest inflation rate in the
world due to this repression, they added.
Another concern among MEPs was
at government efforts to take control of
Zimbabwe's Red Society by forcibly
recommending the employment of regime
members and supporters. Member states,
who also are the Red Cross' largest
donors, were fearful that this move
would "herald the use of Red Cross food
support as a political weapon," the
resolution said.
The African Union (AU), the Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
"and, in particular, South Africa" had "failed to take a
strong enough stand
against the reprehensible Mugabe regime," the resolution
said. The MEPs
therefore expressed their "profound disappointment" of these
regional
actors' "refusal" to take a more robust stance against the regime's
abuses.
Also China is strongly criticised in the resolution, as the
country has
become Zimbabwe's main non-African trade partner and its
principal arms
supplier. The MEPs deplored that while the UN is appealing
for US$ 257
million in humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe, the Mugabe regime had
completed a
US$ 240 million purchase of twelve K-8 military aircraft from
China.
Further, the army was to purchase 127 vehicles for senior officers,
with
another 194 to be bought later on.
The resolution concludes in a
list of demands and recommendations to the
Harare government, the EU and
other international institutions. Harare was
urged to provide housing for
the victims of Operation Murambatsvina, to take
urgent action against the
ever-increasing HIV-AIDS pandemic and demands the
withdrawal of several
repressive bills.
Recognising that the EU's targeted sanctions against
Zimbabwe "have failed
to have the desired impact," the EU parliament urged
member states to
"rigorously apply existing restrictive measures, including
the arms embargo
and the travel ban." China is urged to stop "supplying
weaponry and other
support to the Mugabe regime," while SADC is urged to
close its regional
peacekeeping training centre in Harare.
The most
important demand in the resolution, however, was directed to the UN
Security
Council, which was asked to "report on the human rights and
political
situation in Zimbabwe as a matter of urgency." The resolution has
been sent
to Security Council members and may be picked up by one of the
EU's four
current Council members; Denmark, France, Greece or the UK.
Ordering such
a report will be seen as the first step towards possible UN
actions against
Zimbabwe. If the report concludes on "crimes against
humanity" or an
inability or unwillingness "to protect its own people"
against systematic
violations of human rights, actions could be sever.
Actions usually start
with a Security Council demand, followed up with
economic and military
sanctions and could end in physical intervention.
The EU demand of a
Security Council human rights report today was met with
applause by the
Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association
(IBA). "We hope
that the Security Council will follow the EU's
recommendation. Our long-held
view is that crimes against humanity are being
committed in Zimbabwe and a
Security Council investigation is a crucial
first step to ensuring that
those responsible are brought to justice," the
IBA's Mark Ellis said in a
statement.
"The protection of human rights requires all in the
international community
to engage in unremitting efforts to end gross
violations of international
human rights law wherever they occur, and the
EU's persistence in calls for
high-level UN action on Zimbabwe should be
supported," he added.
Fortunately for the Mugabe regime, however, the EU
parliament - the only
democratically elected institution in the Union -
remains a forum with
little powers and very restricted influence. Its
decisions barely reach the
media and population in Europe and are mostly
ignored by other EU
institutions and member states.
By staff
writers
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA)
Date: 31 Aug 2006
HIGHLIGHTS
Consolidated Appeal (CAP) for
Zimbabwe 2006 is now 47% funded, which
accounts for approximately US$122
million (see tables on page 6)
2007 Consolidated Appeals Process off to a
good start (see section IV)
HIV prevalence rate goes down again in 2
years (see section III under
HIV&AIDS and map on p7)
I. ESSENTIAL
STATISTICS/DATA
11,750 million country population in 10 provinces, with
61 districts (CSO)
2.4 million people affected in varying degrees and
700,000 people lost
shelter, livelihoods due to Operation Restore
Order/Murambatsvina of May .
July 2005 (UNSG Special Envoy's Report on
Zimbabwe, 18/07/05 . figures
disputed in the GoZ response.)
18.1% HIV
prevalence rate, down from 20.1%; (Zimbabwe Demographic Health
Survey
2005/6)
- 1.6 million people of all ages are HIV infected (MoHCW,
National Estimates
2005).
- 1.3 million children orphaned by 2003,
about 1 million due to AIDS
(UNICEF)
993,6 % inflation rate down from
1,184% in June for the second successive
month (CSO)
70-80%
unemployment rate
Z$96,000 (US$384) Poverty Datum Line (PDL)
(CSO)
II. FUNDING
The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator
allocated US$1 million to
Zimbabwe from the Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF) as part of the
second round of funding for "under-funded
emergencies".
On 23 August, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
Country Team
discussed the new CERF allocation and agreed on the following
sectoral
priorities: health, water/sanitation, shelter and food. In this
context, the
IASC Country Team recommended grants of US$250,000 for each of
the following
CAP projects:
WHO: "Procurement of vital drugs and
medical supplies" (ZIM-06/H17) or
"Procurement of ARVs and laboratory
reagents" (CAP project no. ZIM-06/H12)
UNICEF: "Provision of emergency
safe water supply, sanitation and hygiene
education to targeted vulnerable
populations in urban and rural areas".
(ZIM-06/WS07) (This project will be
adjusted also to include the provision
of water to refugees in Tongogara
Camp)
IOM: "Emergency Provision of Temporary Shelter and Related
Humanitarian
Assistance to Destitute Households Affected by Operation
Murambatsvina/Restore Order" (ZIM-06/S/NF01)
WFP: "Targeted food
support for vulnerable groups" (ZIM-06/F01)
On 10 August, the Japanese
Government donated US$89,200 to World Vision
Zimbabwe in support of the
organization¡¯s CAP 2006 project for Emergency
Water Supply and Sanitation.
The funding will be used for the rehabilitation
of boreholes and purchase of
32 bush pumps in high-density areas of
Bulawayo; the training of 32 water
point monitors and six water point Users
Committees and hygiene promotion
activities.
The drop in the inflation rate is generally seen by the
humanitarian
community as a positive development though it remains high.
Perched at 993%,
the index is under pressure from ever-increasing prices of
fuel and basic
commodities and the general weakening of the local currency.
The floating of
official exchange rate that is decided by the central bank
currently
standing at Z$250 to US$1 is causing distortions on budgeting
processes and
operational costs are becoming too high for the humanitarian
community to
adequately provide the interventions needed by vulnerable
people.
(* Hansard is now being printed by another company, and we have started receiving Hansard the day after sittings, once again - long may it last! TS)
Hansard
Oral Answers to
Questions
…….
Mrs
Stevenson: My question is directed
to the Minister of Agriculture. It is
very difficult to find mealie meal in the shops, particularly in
The Minister of Agriculture (Dr
Made):
Mr Speaker, I really want to thank the hon. member for raising that question, because it gives me an opportunity to let the House and the public know. Indeed, we have been having a problem of grain to the millers. You are aware that we have been importing as well as collecting maize from our farmers for this year’s harvest. – (An Hon. Member..inaudible interjections). I wish you could give me an opportunity to respond.
I want to emphasize that in our programme, we have been balancing the distribution between what we have already collected and what we have imported. We have now given authority to the GMB to make sure that our stocks now meet the shortfall on importation on a weekly basis. As early as today, the instruction including last week, you saw some marginal movements in the supply of the grain but it has not been enough. This morning, we met to examine the real problem of the grain movement from the GMB silos.
The issue has been that when we tell the millers to collect, let us say
from Aspindale, everybody will be going there because it will be much cheaper
than going to Concession in terms of transportation costs. So, instruction has been given that whatever
depot we choose to say, this is where the millers are going to collect, they
will be given enough grain to make sure that we cover the backlog that seems to
exist, particularly in
Te second point, I also want to indicate that the millers should mill and deliver mealie meal as soon as they receive the grain. I do not want to blame them now but we all know that at times, millers will tend to hold on to some mealie meal. There have been issues that there will be price movements and so on but I would want to say that three is nothing like that at the moment.
So Hon. Member and through you Mr Speaker, I expect that the measures that we have taken will be useful. I also want to advise Members of Parliament that whenever you have problems within your constituencies, you can call me, my line is always available – (some Hon. Members: What is your number?) – You know my number very well, it is 011 402 285.
…….
By Violet Gonda
8
September 2006
Armed riot police descended on a workshop organized
by the Zimbabwe
National Students Union and arrested 8 student leaders in
Harare today. The
student leaders were having a strategic workshop ahead of
mass protests
scheduled by the ZCTU and ZINASU for Wednesday and Thursday
respectively.
It is reported that the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) Rapid
Reaction Unit lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe was denied access
to his clients all
day. The ZLHR said the police threatened the lawyer
saying they were going
to throw him out of the police station and warned
that further unspecified
action would follow.
The human rights
body said upon the attendance of a further lawyer
from their Public Interest
Litigation Unit, Mr. Lawrence Chibwe, and
insistence by the two lawyers that
their clients' rights were being
violated, a police officer from the Police
District Intelligence Office told
the lawyers: "We have been violating your
clients' rights since this
morning, and we will continue doing so. We are
also violating your rights to
see your clients."
The lawyers
are currently preparing an urgent application to obtain
access to the
detained students and secure their release.
The students were
working on a petition demanding accessible education
for all in Zimbabwe.
The arrested include the ZINASU Vice President Gideon
Chitanga, Secretary
General Beloved Chiweshe, President of the Bulawayo
Polytechnic Milward
Makwenjere, George Makoni, Fungai Mageza, Lawrence
Mashungu, Clayton Njova
and Terrence Chimhavi.
There has been a tense atmosphere and
tightened security ever since
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
announced it is organising
countrywide protests which have been backed by
most progressive democratic
forces in the country.
The arrests
come on the heels of massive threats by the Mugabe regime
who have warned of
fierce reprisals to crush any protests. The students are
being charged with
planning to carry out an unlawful protest.
Undeterred, the
students' union said in a statement the demonstrations
are going ahead next
week. The statement reads: "We would like to reiterate
our commitment to
embark on peaceful and lawful protests as planned. We
remain resolute,
steadfast and undeterred and our actions on the said date
are going on as
planned and unabated."
The group added; "We wish to inform ZANU PF
that this is the same
Union with the propensity to fight at a relentless
capacity and that our
students are in fact motivated by and geared for the
arrests as a way to
prove to the world that the regime has lost the last
iota of adherence to
the rule of law."
In a strongly worded
statement ZINASU President Promise Mkwananzi
said; "We would like to warn
Government to start to be responsive to the
sensibilities of the people
before they are swept away by the Democratic
storm. Our protests are not a
secret and will not hide."
Irene Petras, acting Executive Director
of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights, criticised the police behaviour
saying it was un-procedural
and lawless. She also stressed that detainees
have a constitutional right to
access their lawyers and be represented at
all times.
We were not able to get a comment from the
police.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
08 September 2006
Several protests against
the government and its policies that have
destroyed the country have been
organised for the coming week as the
situation on the ground in Zimbabwe
continues to become more and more
difficult to manage. Organisations
planning to demonstrate say their members
have been forced to take some form
of action however risky to improve their
lives in the face of poverty,
hunger, oppression and corruption.
Although each group is
protesting a specific set of issues that are
affecting its members, they all
agree it is the ruling party that is
responsible and have vowed to support
each other's efforts on the streets.
Never before have so many groups come
together in Zimbabwe to demand
immediate change leading to free and fair
elections for a new government.
And instead of addressing the issues and
creating an atmosphere of peace,
Robert Mugabe and his government have
responded with their usual rhetoric of
threats and violence. However
Zimbabweans say they will be out in full force
peacefully as it is their
constitutional right.
The most widely publicised has been The Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) with protest marches scheduled for next
Wednesday September
13th. ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and
secretary-general Wellington
Chibebe are expected to lead the protests,
which have been dubbed "Operation
Tatambura" (we have suffered). The
demonstrations are being held in Harare,
Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Chinhoyi,
Masvingo and many other towns around the
country.
The umbrella
labour group has received confirmation from leaders of
many other
organisations that they too will be on the streets on Wednesday
supporting
the workers. Among those who will participate are the Zimbabwe
National
Students' Union (ZINASU), and the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA).
In the U.K. members of The Zimbabwe Vigil have joined forces
with the
MDC-UK to organise a demonstration in solidarity with the ZCTU
action in
Zimbabwe. The U.K. demo will take place Wednesday as well from
12.00 - 15.00
hours outside Zimbabwe House.
The ZimOnline news
site reported that the government has placed top
leaders in the opposition,
labour and student movements under 24-hour
surveillance in anticipation of
the protests. The report cited several
sources including members of the
state's Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), who said the government had
panicked after top executives of the MDC
held a surprise march across Harare
last week. Among those alleged to be
under surveillance are MDC officials
including president Morgan Tsvangirai,
deputy president Thokozani Khupe,
organising secretary Elias Mudzuri,
spokesman Nelson Chamisa and
secretary-general Tendai Biti.
Also under close watch are ZCTU
president Lovemore Matombo,
secretary-general Wellington Chibebe, Zimbabwe
National Students' Union
(ZINASU) president Promise Mkwananzi and the
University of Zimbabwe
students' leader Washington Katema.
It
is a peaceful protest march that will culminate in the leadership
in Harare
presenting petitions to the Ministers of Labour Nicholas Goche,
Finance
Herbert Murerwa and the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe,"
Sibanda
said.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald
(Harare)
OPINION
September 8, 2006
Posted to the web September 8,
2006
Harare
THE parastatals' story is a very sad one. We can talk
and write about them
till the cows come home. It seems, like the leopard,
parastatals cannot
change their spots.
Take Air Zimbabwe, for
instance. The airline has received a cumulative US$50
million from the
Reserve Bank since last year. But up to now for reasons
unknown, it has
failed to pay back.
Maybe the airline's management is so overwhelmed by
the challenges facing it
they have gone into hibernation. For how can one
explain a situation whereby
at one time management or whomsoever is
responsible for assigning flights
decided to let go a long-haul plane to
Dubai only to return to Harare with
one passenger?
Not only that,
thousands of travellers have had their flights delayed,
rescheduled or
cancelled altogether -- at considerable cost in lost revenue,
never mind its
battered image.
One friend of mine, a frequent flyer, has vowed "never to
fly Air Zimbabwe
again". I will spare the readers what exactly he went
through. But all I can
say is he is not alone in this respect.
With a
virtual monopoly on the local skies, Air Zimbabwe should be making a
tidy
profit. Instead it continues to rely on loans from the central bank
and, of
course, handouts from the Treasury.
So what is the problem at Air
Zimbabwe? Nobody knows for sure. But one thing
for sure is that the chief
executive's seat has proved to be one of the
hottest in the country. No less
than six MDs or CEOs -- including at least
one expatriate -- have come and
gone in the last 25 years. Maybe lack of
continuity lies at the core of Air
Zimbabwe's problems.
And let's not forget that each of them has been
given a golden handshake at
the end of their tenure -- severance packages
running into millions,
executive cars, and everything that goes with such
top posts.
While the deposed or suspended CEOs were laughing all the way
to the bank,
the shopfloor workers -- engineers, air hostesses, flight
attendants -- were
sulking, on a go-slow or fully-fledged strike.
My
sympathies go to acting CEO Captain Oscar Madombwe, who has the uneviable
task of keeping a restive workforce under check. I understand he must also
occasionally step out his office into the cockpit.
Admittedly, the
company has had its fair share of problems just like any
other parastatal.
But AirZim has sunk rock bottom; so deep, that even
attempts by the central
bank to redeem it appear to be an exercise in
futility.
I find it
difficult to believe that the national airline has been reduced to
a travel
agency for its rivals, who might even fall short of thanking the
once big
firm for its committed intermediary role.
Perhaps, some business sense
needs to be knocked hard into the minds of
those who call the shots at
AirZim.
The same applies to the Grain Marketing Board where good
governance has
become a veritable stranger. Needless to say, the shuffling
of CEOs, the
lack of substantive executives, has been a huge drain on
service delivery.
For how long should these and many other parastatals
continue to operate
like backyard tuckshops? They have been a drag on
economic recovery
initiatives and responsible ministries should take the
flak for failing to
whip the institutions into line.
And then there
is Harare City Council. The council has failed to deliver
despite
astronomical rate hikes.
For instance, in the high-density areas, sewer
effluent has continued to
flow freely, as the council takes a back seat. The
situation is like this:
If you cannot afford to extend a gift of evil, then
you are sure to be left
in the rot. Raw sewage will continue merry-making at
your doorstep, and one
may have to learn the hard way to accept these
dedicated streams of effluent
as part of everyday life.
The situation
is so dire in some areas innocent children have drowned in
ponds of sewage
while disease lurks in the background. The council is run
down, as much as
an expanding population has incapacitated its sewer
systems.
Most
high-density areas have turned into an eyesore with mountains of
uncollected
garbage building up at every corner. Yet the council still asks
the
long-suffering ratepayer to pay up or risk having your water cut off.
And
yet, at Town House, the authorities are busy "fighting for power but
they
know not the hour". They manifest their wicked influence through
endless
court hearings or selling themselves council property for a song.
But the
masses continue to suffer, the ratepayers suffer; and if power was
vested
within, then these hearings would make more sense and may become more
reasonable.
Council just has to start delivering and liberate all
from this ruthless and
carefree behaviour. The council exists because of the
people, not the other
way round. It is council's duty to treat the people
right and expect a
similar treatment from the masses. But I guess that's
just the way it is.