Zim Standard
ESC talks of violence-ridden election
9/28/02
Story by By Chengetai Zvauya
THE Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) has confirmed that the
run-up to the rural district and urban council elections which end today, was
marred by violence.
In a statement, an official of the ESC, Thomas Bvuma, said police had in
some cases confirmed the incidents, giving credence to opposition MDC claims
that violence has marred the contest.‘’Political campaigning officially started
soon after the nomination of candidates. The ESC received reports from monitors
of incidents of politically motivated violence.
Most of the cases involved mutual accusations by political parties. They
included skirmishes between MDC and Zanu PF. Some cases were corroborated by the
police, others were not,” said Bvuma.
In Hurungwe West, where there is a by-election taking place concurrently
with council elections, Nikoniari Chabvamudeve, a Movement for Democratic Change
member, was axed to death last Saturday in the Chivende communal area by
suspected Zanu PF supporters as the violence flared. Chabvemudeve was brutally
killed by youths suspected to have been deployed to the area by Zanu PF to drum
up support for its candidate.
The youths were moving around in three pick up vehicles. Police
spokesperson Chief Inspe-ctor Bothwell Mugariri confirmed the murder but said
Chabvemudeve had been one of those involved in political violence. “The deceased
was among those who tortured people at Guvhenga Township,’’ said Inspector
Mugariri.
Nine youths have since been arrested in connection with the murder. The
Hurungwe West by-election is being held following the death of Marko Madiro of
Zanu PF. Phone Madiro, brother of the late Madiro, is standing on a Zanu-PF
ticket while Justin Dandawa is representing MDC. The campaign period has,
however, been marked by violence.
Militant Zanu PF youths have unleashed a reign of terror in the area
forcing Dandawa to flee his rural home. Only last week, a teacher at a local
primary school was forced into hiding after MDC cards were found in his
possession.
The Electoral Supervisory Commission has also admitted that the campaign
process was fraught with violence. “The ESC received reports from monitors of
incidents of politically-motivated violence,” it said in a statement. Meanwhile,
elections got off to a slow start in many rural districts.
Zim Standard
Mumbengegwi just loves Brussels
9/28/02
Story by By our own
Staff
DESPITE being slapped with travel
sanctions by the European Union, new
minister for industry and international
trade, Samuel Mumbengegwi, just
loves being in Europe
And he can't
help bragging about it, especially when surrounded by Europeans
and being
treated to a lavish reception.
Contacted by The Standard on Friday to
comment on the delayed appointment of
a new substantive University of
Zimbabwe vice chancellor whilst he was the
minister of higher education,
Mumbengegwi took the opportunity to brag about
the good treatment he was
receiving in Brussels, Belgium. "Ndiri kuBrussles.
Mukati kati me Europe.
Unokuziva here kuBrussels? (I am in Brussels, right
in the heart of Europe.
Do you know anything about Brussels?) he asked. "It'
s a high delegation
meeting and they are rolling out red carpets for me all
over. Ndiri pakati
pavo varungu (I am right there among the whites)," said
an elated
Mumbengegwi.
He is one of the Mugabe ministers who have been slapped with
biting travel
sanctions by the EU but he has been allowed to travel to
Belgium to attend
the European Union/African Caribbean and Pacific nations
trade talks on the
basis of the Cotonou Agreement. Already a row has erupted
over his presence
in Brussels with members of the European parliament and
Zimbabwe's
opposition seeing no reason why members of the Mugabe regime who
have been
slapped with targeted EU sanctions should be allowed in any EU
country.
Zim Standard
Militia swarm Masvingo Teachers'
college
By Parker
Graham
MASVINGO-Graduates of the national
youth service training programme
have flooded Masvingo Teachers' College,
raising fears that there may not be
an intake for January
2003.
Authoritative sources at the
college, located a few kilometres outside
Masvingo, told The Standard on
Thursday that the recruitment exercise which
kicked off this month, was "too
excessive".
"There are over 700
newly recruited first year student teachers at
Masvingo Teachers College, the
majority of whom are graduates of the Border
Gezi training
institution.
In normal circumstances, the
college recruits around 350 students and
it has already come to light that
the college will not recruit next January
for the 2003 intake," said an
official who asked to remain anonymous.
The Border Gezi youths were drafted into the training programme at the
last
minute forcing the college authorities to reschedule their
timetables.
According to investigations by
this paper, apart from the recruits,
the majority of the students are related
to well known Zanu PF officials and
top civil
servants.
A visit to Masvingo Teachers
College on Thursday this week revealed a
dining hall overcrowded with first
year students who could not fit into
their normal lecture
rooms.
Efforts to obtain comment from the
principal, Ms Sharai Chakanyuka,
were fruitless as she was said to be away on
college business at the time of
The Standard's visit. But other first year
students who spoke on condition
of anonymity said the conditions at the
college were not conducive to
serious
studying.
"We are too congested here.
There is no fresh air in the lecture rooms
due to overcrowding. I don't know
whether those responsible for recruiting
were in their right senses, but
recruiting such a huge number of students at
one go deserves to be condemned
in the strongest terms," said one
male
student.
The Zanu PF government,
under pressure to secure employment for the
restless youths, has ordered
state institutions to give them priority when
they have
vacancies.
Zim Standard
Villagers regret giving Mugabe the
vote
By Parker
Graham
BOLI, Chiredzi-Only seven months
ago, they went in droves to Zanu PF
rallies to listen to a message dearest to
their hearts.
"No-one will starve, noone
will die of hunger," President Robert
Mugabe unequivocally stated to cheering
masses draped in Zanu PF t/shirts
which bore the unmistakable Hondo
Yeminda/The Third Chimurenga slogans.
But
hardly six months later, villagers in the drought-stricken
districts of
Mwenezi and Chiredzi are regretting having turned out in their
thousands on
9, 10 and 11 March, to give their vote to
Mugabe.
Hunger continues to knock on their
doors despite Mugabe's pledge that
no-one in Zimbabwe would starve, so long
as he was in charge. Now, while
Mugabe is safely ensconced in State House,
the villagers continue to wallow
in abject poverty with no reprieve in
sight.
"It's the same old story-Mugabe
promises us so much when elections are
close but forgets us for good when he
gets the vote he needs.
This time around,
it's more painful because we can die of starvation
anytime," says 70-year-old
Machingauta Karowa, of Boli village in Chiredzi
South, who has unsuccessfully
gone around the two districts looking
for
maize.
Mwenezi and Chiredzi are the
two districts of Masvingo province that
overwhelmingly voted for Mugabe in a
presidential election marred by
violence, intimidation and allegations of
poll rigging. But the districts,
dubbed the poorest of the poor in Zimbabwe
by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in 1986, have not
experienced a reversal of fortune, as
a
result.
Apart from lagging behind in
terms of development, they have in the
past experienced perennial drought,
hunger, disease and unemployment.
Villagers now believe that the only reason
why they are important to
government is to provide the votes needed to ward
off opposition parties
like the MDC. About three weeks ago, Masvingo governor
Josaya Hungwe paid a
visit to the area where he repeated the message that was
so dear to the
starving masses before hunger began to take its
toll.
Said Hungwe: "We were pleased by
your support of President Mugabe
during the March elections. I have come here
to thank you the people of
Chiredzi South, Mwenezi and Chikombedzi, for your
overwhelming vote.
"Mwenezi was the country's second best constituency after
Uzumba Maramba
Pfungwe with Chiredzi doing its level best," said an elated
Hungwe. He said
the government would make sure no-one in the area died of
hunger.
He then drove off leaving
starvation-ravaged villagers starring after
his ministerial vehicle. In this
remote part of the countryside, peasants go
for days without food. Shalati
Manyise of Gezani told The Standard last week
that she was concerned at Zanu
PF's shameless hypocrisy.
"Some of us are
surviving on the wild fruits of the Majimwini
mountains and yet someone can
still come here and make the same fake
promises we always hear towards
election time. We are tired of hearing them.
"We have been used, lied to,
taken advantage of and then discarded shortly
after crucial elections have
taken place. I don't know why people are not
learning from past experiences.
What worries me most is that we, the less
privileged, the neglected, the
poor, are the ones who always give Zanu PF
the vote," said a fuming
Manyise.
Gezani Mashophani, of
Chikombedzi, noted that it was usual for
districts such as Chiredzi,
Beitbridge and Mwenezi to be remembered towards
election time. "Does it mean
that Shangaan and Vendah speaking people exist
only to vote for Zanu PF? When
it comes to developmental issues such as
construction of hospitals, clinics
and roads, they are not remembered,"
said
Mashopani.
The districts' major
rivers such as Runde, Save and Mwenezi have
low-lying bridges which flood
during the rainy season. "I am now regretting
having voted for Zanu PF
instead of the opposition MDC. I think in future,
the people should
experiment with new governments so they can get rid of the
one that has
overstayed its welcome," said Mashopani.
Zim Standard
WFP asks farmers for
transport
By Loughty
Dube
BULAWAYO-The World Food Programme
(WFP) which is struggling to feed
over six million hungry Zimbabweans, has
made an urgent appeal to
dispossessed farmers through Justice for Agriculture
(JAG) to provide
transport to carry food aid to the starving rural
masses.
The WFP was repeating an appeal
made earlier this year.
The transport
details contained in the WFP appeal include lorries,
trailers, and
articulated vehicles such as tractors and
horse-drawn
trailers.
JAG spokesperson,
Jenni Williams, confirmed WFP's urgent appeal to
farmers and said the farmers
could have the transport the organisation
was
seeking.
"The appeal was made a
long time ago and it was renewed recently and I
hope the farmers have the big
trucks that the WFP is looking for. The
farmers will have to apply for their
trucks to be considered for use in the
food distribution exercise," said
Williams.
JAG has sent out a notice to the
farmers urging them to put to good
use some of their derelict equipment and
machinery.
Thousands of farmers have been
thrown off their land and more still
risk being driven out as government
intensifies its controversial land
reform
programme.
The WFP and its implementing
partners, World Vision, Care
International and Orap, has been facing
difficulties in transporting food
from depots to recipients in rural areas
throughout the country.
WFP spokesperson,
Makina Walker, confirmed that the organisation
needed transport but was not
able to give logistical details.
"We
advertised for transport but I can not give you details off-hand,"
said
Walker.
Zim Standard
Lobels up for grabs
By Tendai
Mutseyekwa
LOBELS Bread (Pvt) Ltd, one of
Zimbabwe's major bread and
confectionery manufacturers, is said to be up for
grabs after management
decided to dispose of it due to intense political
pressure. The baker, with
operations in Harare and Mutare, where it trades
under the Mitchels brand,
is arguably the second largest in the country after
Innscor.
Standard Business is reliably
informed that NMB's Corporate Finance
Department has been mandated by Lobels
to oversee the disposal oftheir
assets.
A manager in NMB's corporate finance services could not shed any
light,
citing client confidentiality. "This is all privileged information.
What you
can do is put everything in writing and address it to Mr
(Christopher)
Mutasa," said the manager.
Mutasa, the
bank's corporate finance manager said: "I have been
talking to people around
trying to establish the whole issue, but so far
there is nothing, so all I
can say is we can't comment at this moment,"
Mutasa told Standard Business on
Friday.
Les Leroux, Lobels' acting
managing director, was equally
unforthcoming when contacted on Friday. "I'm
sorry I can't comment on that,
the only person who can do that is Mr David
Long, our company consultant,
who is away at the moment," Leroux
said.
Industry sources told Standard
Business last week that they estimated
Lobels' value at between $600 million
and $650 million.
While no clear front
runner has emerged as yet, sources said blue chip
conglomerate, Innscor
Africa, was an obvious force to contend with as it was
already well
established in the industry and would naturally seek to
increase its market
dominance.
Said a source: "Innscor will
either eat into Lobels' market share with
their existing operations, or will
acquire the bakery. Either way it is good
news for Innscor because they stand
to improve their business as soon as
Lobels is out of the
way."
He, however, said it was possible
that government would want to
influence the process by lobbying for an
investor friendly to Zanu PF to
take over Lobels, as it felt bread was an
essential commodity which could
not be allowed to be dominated by private
investors. It could possibly do
this by financing a preferred person through
a pension fund such as NSSA.
While erratic
supplies of wheat and other raw materials were impacting
negatively on the
baking industry, the sources said political pressure was
the major force
behind management's move to dispose of Lobels, citing a raid
earlier this
year on the company's premises by Zanu PF politicians, Philip
Chiyangwa,
Saviour Kasukuwere and David Chapfika.
"Ever since that raid, they have been monitored closely on suspicion
of
economic sabotage," said an informed
source.
"It would not be honest to cite
current economic problems as the main
reason behind the disposal of Lobels
because things are not desperate for
the industry. For example, one Innscor
factory has a monthly turnover of
about $130 million, with a margin of aout
$8 million-Lobels should at the
very least be recording similar business,"
said the source.
The Zanu PF government
has all but blamed industrialists for the
current economic malaise which has
manifested itself in acute shortages of
basic commodities such as bread,
mealie meal, cooking oil, sugar, and salt,
among other essential
goods.
As has become the norm, government
last week implemented another
piecemeal measure when it announced that it had
suspended the 5% duty on
wheat imports, in a desperate bid to alleviate the
current flour shortage
which has seen families go without the traditional
bread at breakfast.
Zim Standard
IMF sounds Zimbabwe's economic death
knell
By Kumbirai
Mafunda
WITH news that the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has instituted
steps to suspend Zimbabwe's voting rights
to pave way for an outright
ejection from the international body, local
analysts say this could be the
proverbial straw that broke the camel's back
for the country's struggling
economy which has so far defied all odds by
staying afloat.
The analysts said a
decision to suspend Zimbabwe's voting rights alone
would lead to a downward
revision of the country's projected economic
performance for 2002, which is
currently expected to shrink by 12%.
Industrialists and economic commentators told Standard Business last
week
that the IMF's decision, announced a fortnight ago, had sounded the
death
knell for the country's struggling industry which has seen over
500
manufacturing companies close shop over the past two
years.
They said that the move could see a
wholesale departure by the
remaining few countries that were still extending
credit facilities to the
struggling southern African
economy.
Said John Robertson, a
Harare-based economic consultant: "These extra
measures will really be
annoying to government which wants to take part in
international affairs. We
should be a market player in international
affairs, but yet we are isolated
by the Commonwealth and moreover by the
IMF. This will further damage our
credit worthiness.
"We already have a bad
record and that will be made worse by our
isolation. Nobody will help us if
the IMF is not involved because it sets
the pace for every entry. We are
doing the wrong thing and failing to
attract the people we
need."
A fortnight ago the executive board
of the IMF decided to initiate the
procedure to suspend Zimbabwe's voting and
related rights in the body for
not co-operating adequately with the fund in
resolving its overdue financial
obligations. Zimbabwe's arrears to the fund
amount to 33% of its quota in
the fund.
Group chief executive of Surgimed Trading and chairman of
Trinidad
Industries, Danny Meyer, said the country was inclined to lose
its
established markets abroad as customers and clients will have to
contend
with thoughts of whether their supplier will be able to continue
providing
products.
"Our credit rating
is definitely going to plunge further down. It is
going to affect our
business directly in the sense that it is a pure
reflection of the way we are
managing our economy. The few remaining trading
partners are bound to
reexamine trading relations with businesses in the
country and may scout for
other markets," said Meyer.
However
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries acting chief executive,
Farai Zizhou,
felt the decision would not have a telling effect on the
economy as Zimbabwe
was already isolated by the international
community.
"The issue of credit is almost
a non issue. Even our colleagues in
South Africa are demanding cash upfront.
Although there are many people who
take a cue from the IMF, the picture is
already bad and any such move will
not make it really bad," said
Zizhou.
Zim Standard -
Feature
Africa's image
problem
By Chido
Makunike
A PERENNIAL African problem is
the bad press the continent gets,
particularly in the western world. More
often than not, the images of Africa
one sees projected from the west are of
war, hunger, economic collapse and
other symbols of
dysfunctionalism.
Among the reasons we
give for why negative news about Africa from the
west predominate are: racism
against the non-western world-particularly
towards blacks; ignorance about
the complexity of the continent;
socio-cultural-religious arrogance that
assumes the whole world must conform
to a western standard, and so
on.
I want to delve into some of the ways
in which we as Africans also
contribute greatly to the world's image of
Africa as a sort of basket case
continent that can't seem to get too many
things right.
Africa has miserably failed
to live up to its independence promise to
itself, of a new era of
post-colonial freedom and prosperity for its
people.
Just like yesterday's racist
colonial governments, African governments
today find all sorts of reasons to
justify why Africans are not quite
entitled to the degree of political and
other freedoms that many people in
the world increasingly take for
granted.
Despotic governme-nts are
certainly not confined to Africa, but they
are the norm rather than the
exception here.
Independence has simply
not brought with it an improvement of the
freedoms of Africans nor the
security over the colonial era that one would
have hoped for, and that the
world would have expected. Mugabe's apparatus
of control is not that
different to Smith's.
The beggar mentality
has become so entrenched that Africa expects to
be a perpetual recipient of
assistance. When Mugabe is rejected by the west
whose approval and largess he
sought and valued so much, he does not take
that as an opportunity to explore
greater self-sufficiency, he looks for
new
benefactors.
The result is that
even our 'friends' see us as always asking for one
favour or another and
never quite being able to relate to the non-African
world as
equals.
Even in the quite justifiable
assertion that Britain and other
European countries cannot just walk away
from the after-effects of their
colonial pasts as easily as they would like,
there is an undignified whining
tone. It is a childish, petulant cry along
the lines of "if you don't live
up to your post-colonial responsibilities, we
will try to cause you great
embarrassment and discomfort, even if it means
saying and doing things which
will further impoverish
us!"
I am not one to pretend Africa hasn't
benefited in countless ways from
its interactions with the west, like many of
our thoroughly westernised
politicians hypocritica-lly do. Yet the benefits
of that interaction were
mostly merely incidental to the exploitation of
Africa.
The great benefit of literacy, for
instance, was imparted to the
natives not so much for their development but
to make them more useful to
the
colonisers.
Africa's greater reluctance
than other previously colonised peoples to
come to terms with the many things
it has gained from interaction with the
western world, has had deep effects
on how we are perceived and how we
interact with the west and the rest of the
world.
One of them is that we simply look
ridiculous pretending to be haters
of the west and all things western. We
find it very difficult to say "we don
't like the white westerners for the
way they mistreated and dispossessed
us, but this or that idea they
introduced was a very good one that we
embrace
wholeheartedly."
The effects of this? We
think we are being terribly clever in seeking
investment and technology from
the east, without being aware that most of it
really originates from the
currently dominant west!
A country like
Vietnam, for example, almost carpet bombed into
oblivion by the US a few
decades ago, has arguably even more reason to
resent that country than
Zimbabwe has to be suspicious of Britain. Yet one
of the ways that Vietnam is
moving forward economically is by attracting
American tourism and influencing
a lot of American information technology
companies to assemble their products
there.
Malaysia's Mahathir Mahommed may
spout the same anti-western rhetoric
as our Mugabe, but he has also over the
decades made sure his country has
developed strong economic and technological
ties with the west. As a result
of a the wariness of the West, tempered with
a smart pragmatism, a country
that was developmentally on a par with us a few
decades ago, has forged
ahead, leaving us way behind, choking in the dust of
Mugabe's empty
rhetoric.
Now, Mugabe
sends delegations to Malaysia and other Asian countries to
beg for this or
for that, when if he had been a more enlightened leader
these last 22 years,
we might have had some of those countries coming to
learn from us for a
change.
At any given time, there are all
sorts of armed conflicts in Africa,
the world's poorest continent, between
and within countries. I think it is
entirely reasonable for someone sitting
in New York or Kualar Lumpar to ask
why if a country like Zimbabwe finds it
so easy to participate in foreign
wars to the tune of billions of dollars in
the form of planes, tanks, fuel
and the other paraphernalia of conflict, they
can't raise a fraction of that
cost to ward off starvation in the middle of
drought, or to help other
African countries in non-military
ways.
How often do you hear of an African
country sending substantial
numbers of troops or aid workers to help another
African country with flood
relief or other humanitarian assistance? We don't
mind going to Western
countries to buy the latest military hardware with the
little hard cash we
have in order to oppress or kill ourselves, but let there
be a little
drought or flood, and we expect, as a matter of course, the
westerners to
come and bail us out! They usually do, but at the cost of a
loss of
self-respect for our warped sense of priorities and reluctance to
construct
and help ourselves.
Those of
us who are fortunate to be part of the minuscule number of
Africans with
above average education and some measure of economic security,
are as much a
disgrace to Africa as our corrupt, violent, dull geriatric
politicians.
Instead of using our relative privilege to be risk takers in
terms of
challenging the corrupt, oppressive ruling elites; or to create and
innovate,
we capitulate to that tenuous security.
After all, we are able to meet our monthly mortgage, car and credit
card
payments, and if we are good boys and girls we might be promoted at
work next
year. "And look, we have satellite TV and the latest Nokia
cellphones! Our
lives aren't so different from those of the whites," we say
defensively. So
Africa can't be in such a bad state,can it? Why create waves
which would get
us into trouble when we are so much better off and safer
than 99% of our
countrymen?
And so we justify why we don't
have any role to play in arresting the
decline and continued disgrace of our
continent by the likes of Robert
Mugabe and others like him. Yet for all our
fear and convenience-filled
justification, for looking the other way while
Africa becomes more
dysfunctional and helpless, the badge of being the
leading citizens of a
continent that just doesn't quite work follows us where
ever we go, whether
it be London to work, Stuttgart to order the latest
Mercedes, or New York to
study.
Africa's image will not change for the better because westerners and
others
decide to do us a favour by having a change of heart about how they
perceive
us. It will do so when the world sees Africans working for their
own
interests more seriously than we are doing
now.
Zim Standard -
Comment
Abuja 'victory': Zanu PF
fools' gold
THE spotlight is
once again on the relevance and the credibility of
the Commonwealth following
the inconclusive outcome of the three-nation
Commonwealth meeting in Nigeria
last week to discuss the human tragedy that
has been unfolding in Zimbabwe
during the past two-and-half-years.
There
are commentators who have been making the point that for
Presidents Thabo
Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo to fawn over one man, President
Mugabe, at the
expense of 13 million Zimbabweans is nothing short of
criminal. There are yet
others, represented by none other than the
Secretary-General of the
commonwealth, Don McKinnon, who have noted that the
Commonwealth is about the
only international institution which has not
walked away from the Zimbabwean
crisis.
"We are about the only one left
engaging, trying to influence, trying
to encourage, trying to get ahead of
Zimbabwe's problems. If everyone else
was there, we might see quite a
different picture, so don't taint us for
being the only institution trying to
do something," he said.
Don Mckinnon added
that divisions within the Commonwealth over
Zimbabwe along colour lines-white
commonwealth versus black Commonwealth-
were being over emphasised and bear
no resemblance to reality on the ground.
The Australian Prime Minister, John
Howard, expressed more or less the same
sentiments in answer to a question
whether the Commonwealth wasn't really 'a
toothless
bulldog':
"I think the Commonwealth has
gone through difficulties like this in
the past and survived and I think it
will in the future."
We share these
notions and we think it is important to put on record
once again that the
Commonwealth 'troika' meeting in Abuja cannot be
described as anything but a
mid-term review of Zimbabwe which was a specific
mandate of the Commonwealth.
We should not, of course, lose sight of the
stipulation of the 12
month-period within which Zimbabwe was supposed to
mend its ways. It has not
yet done so and it is unlikely to reverse its
destructive
policies.
There is therefore no cause to
celebrate the so-called black versus
white Commonwealth 'victory'. The review
was no more than just that-a
mid-term review. Zimbabwe is still not out of
the woods, albeit that Nigeria
and South Africa adopted the approach in
keeping with simple logic: six
months is still to
run.
Yes, the Australian Prime Minister
John Howard did not hide his
disappointment at the group's decision to
overrule his declared desire to
impose sanctions on President Mugabe. But
that did not mean that there was
no modicum of consensus among the three
leaders. If anything, there was
general consensus that the country from
whence the Commonwealth's Harare
Declaration was born had violated each and
every principle contained in that
Commonwealth 'mission
statement'.
The principles included such
key issues as democracy, human rights,
the rule of law, the independence of
the judiciary, freedom of expression
and association, the right of citizens
to choose freely the men and women
who would govern them and an undertaking
to pursue sustainable economic
development, among many other issues. Clearly,
there was some agreement that
Zimbabwe had not mended her wayward
ways.
For had there been any progress on
the part of Zimbabwe, we might have
found the 'troika' expressing some praise
and perhaps encouraging and
extolling Zimbabwe to continue on that path. John
Howard, on his part, did
not mince his words. His was more of a preventative
approach like a good
doctor would undertake preventive care before a disease
becomes completely
unmanageable. Hence his call for the immediate full
expulsion of Zimbabwe
from the
Commonwealth.
For their part, Presidents
Mbeki and Obasanjo, while acknowledging
that Zimbabwe had not performed to
expectation in the last six months, chose
to give Zimbabwe the last chance in
the ensuing six months. Theirs was
perhaps a simple and inarguable stand
because six months are still to go not
withstanding the human misery of
enormous proportions that is taking place
in the country. The six months
still to run were central to Mbeki and
Obasanjo's thinking. This is the
bottom line.
What emerges from all this,
and it would be folly to think otherwise -
even with Mugabe buying more time
to continue with his wayward path- is that
the 'troika' did accept clearly
Zimbabwe's dismal failure to address those
issues that led to its
half-expulsion from the Commonwealth in March 2002.
All three leaders were of
the same mind despite differences of emphasis that
little Zimbabwe had not
addressed the problems it was facing and that the
Commonwealth will have to
review the country again in
March 2003-the
12-month anniversary of Zimbabwe's partial suspension
from the grouping.
There was therefore no need for the song and dance on the
part of Jonathan
Moyo and the media he personally controls. There was
absolutely no need for
him to celebrate the rot that is going on in this
country and the untold
misery and suffering visited upon the people of
this
land.
Instead of concentrating
their minds on how to come up with lasting
solutions to shortages of
essential goods, long queues forming daily outside
shops and service stations
and prices that keep on rising every day,
Jonathan Moyo and Stan Mudenge
simply chose John Howard and Don McKinnon as
new smokescreens to hide old but
growing problems.
It is a false picture
the two ministers are presenting. The fact of
the matter is that the plight
of the poor to afford the most basic foods and
other commodities and the
failure of the health care delivery system in the
face of chronic illnesses
associated with malnutrition such as HIV/Aids, is
being exacerbated by an
economy tittering on collapse.
But worse
of all is the absence of any meaningful protection of basic
human rights
because the rule of law is no more.
It has
been jettisoned by the sheer whim and caprice of those deluded
to believe
that they have the divine right to govern this country. Indeed,
the
anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist rhetoric by President Mugabe and
his
courtiers continues to be increasingly strident, hollow and
completely
irrelevant to the pressing need to cure Zimbabwe of its political
and
economic malaise.
IOL
Zim's 'white hero'
electroshocked by cops
September 28 2002 at 04:08PM
Harare - Lawyers in Zimbabwe were on
Saturday trying to persuade police to
allow a doctor attend to a prominent
young white opposition activist and
four of his colleagues, who were being
held in police cells after being
tortured by police.
Tom Spicer, 18,
and the other four were arrested on Thursday night on
allegations of "public
violence" during an incident where police were stoned
by a crowd in a Harare
township on Wednesday.
"He got lots of electroshock, was beaten on the
soles of the feet, in the
kidneys", his father, Newton Spicer, said after
seeing him on Saturday
morning for the first time since he was
arrested.
"The electroshock means he's bitten his tongue badly. His face
is all
swollen."
As a result, he was unable to eat. The other Movement
for Democratic Change
supporters arrested with him were also assaulted, "but
they singled Tom out
for special treatment," Spicer said.
"Tom is
okay. It's horrible, but his spirit is good. He refuses to leave the
other
guys he was with in prison," his father added.
Spicer has celebrity
status as the only young white person actively serving
in the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.
In the last year, he has been arrested 11
times. All nine cases brought to
court have been dismissed by magistrates. He
has yet to appear in court on
the latest charge. On Saturday police allowed
the five prisoners to see a
lawyer.
Over the last three days, they
have been moved to three different police
stations.
Lawyer Romualdo
Mavedzenge said police were obstructing the access of a
doctor to the five
being held in the squalid cells of Matapi police station
in the Harare
township of Mbare.
"They are playing a game. We have to fill in a lot of
forms seeking
permission. Things move very slowly here when they have someone
they want to
nail.
"They don't intend letting a doctor see him because
it will blow up in their
faces. The earliest will probably after the weekend.
They will be in much
better shape by then," said Mavedzenge.
Spicer is
an office bearer of the MDC youth wing, who regularly delivers
speeches in
fluent Shona, winning huge popularity among ordinary
Zimbabweans. -
Sapa-DPA
Warrant of Arrest for
Cross
The Herald (Harare)
September 28,
2002
Posted to the web September 28, 2002
Harare
CONVICTED MDC
economic adviser Eddie Cross, was yesterday issued with a
warrant of arrest
after he failed to turn up for his sentence.
Cross, who is also the
opposition party's shadow minister of Finance and
Economic Development, was
in January this year convicted for breaching the
Insolvency Act by a Harare
magistrates' court.
The presiding magistrate Mr Stanley Ncube had
postponed the sentencing to
yesterday to allow the court to verify sections
of the Insolvency Act that
had been used to convict Cross.
Cross and
his lawyer Mr Nobert Maredza of Honey and Blanckenburg did not
turn up for
the sentencing.
Provincial magistrate Mr Owen Murozvi was left with no
option but to issue
him with a warrant of arrest.
Cross's sentence has
been postponed five times since he was convicted.
His trial started last
year and he was supposed to have been sentenced on
January 18, but the court
postponed the sentence to January 21.
The case was again postponed to
February 5, March 25 and to June 21 after
Cross defaulted.
It was
again postponed to July 26 and to September 27
(yesterday).
SA battles UK over Zimbabwe
Screaming from the rooftops has not helped, says Pahad
Ranjeni Munusamy
South Africa and other African countries will not bow to pressure to
"declare war" on Zimbabwe, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said this week. In
the South African government's strongest defence of its approach to the crisis
in Zimbabwe and a rare broadside against a Western power, Pahad said British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw should come up with "concrete proposals" on how to
resolve the situation.
"We don't believe that their megaphone diplomacy and screaming from the
rooftops has helped anyway . . . If it is not diplomacy we pursue in dealing
with Zimbabwe, then it is war. We will not go to war with Zimbabwe," Pahad said.
"We do not need to be lectured to about democracy, respect for the rule of
law and human rights.
"Southern African states are conscious of our responsibility and of the
economic and political impact of the situation in Zimbabwe. But we cannot be
like people far away who keep shouting about Zimbabwe."
Pahad's comments were in response to Straw's disappointment at the outcome of
a meeting on Monday of the Commonwealth troika, made up of President Thabo
Mbeki, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard,
which failed to reach consensus on further punitive action against Zimbabwe.
The two African leaders opposed Howard's attempts to impose full Commonwealth
suspension and sanctions on Zimbabwe, in addition to the year-long suspension
already in place. Full suspension would entail Commonwealth member states
ceasing trade with Zimbabwe, breaking all sporting links and isolating the
country diplomatically.
Straw said in London this week that he shared Howard's "acute disappointment"
about the failure of the troika to agree on tougher measures against Zimbabwe.
"We would wish to see particularly the Southern African governments exerting
greater pressure on the Mugabe regime," Straw said.
Pahad said Straw's criticism of the outcome of the meeting was a "hint at our
heads of state that they have a lack of commitment to deal with the issue".
"What are they proposing we should be doing? Jack Straw and others must tell
us what they expect the Southern African Development Community to do."
The leader of Zimbabwe's Opposition Movement for Democracy, Morgan
Tsvangirai, also slammed the outcome of the troika meeting as a "great
disappointment". He said the troika was supposed to "pursue the issue of
Mugabe's illegitimacy".
"Instead they have sought to divert from that critical issue and follow an
agenda that expresses solidarity with and protects Mugabe. They have totally
abdicated their responsibility to discharge their functions as mandated by the
Commonwealth," Tsvangirai said.
"They have abandoned Zimbabweans at their greatest hour of need. It is
increasingly futile for the troika to continue to profess concern and sympathy
for the plight of the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have been left to face
their own fate."
The statements by Pahad and Tsvangirai come ahead of the annual summit of the
SADC in Angola this week, where the region's heads of state will be under
international pressure to rebuke Mugabe over the disputed election and the
seizure of white-owned land in Zimbabwe.
Pahad said while the Zimbabwe issue was not on the summit's formal agenda, it
was likely to come up in the secretary-general's report on the state of the
region and could even be raised by the Zimbabwean government.
The troika is only to consider the Zimbabwean issue again at the end of the
suspension period in March. However, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon
has been asked to resume efforts to engage with the Mugabe government on the
developments in the country, Commonwealth spokesman Joel Kibazo said.
"The secretary-general was mandated by heads of government and the troika to
talk to the Zimbabwean government and seek clarification on a number of issues.
It is important that dialogue starts. So far there has been little or no
response from the Zimbabwean government towards achieving that dialogue," Kibazo
said.
Vultures circle the ruin of Zimbabwe
for spoils
© The Economist
IF THE best time to invest is when blood is on the streets, Zimbabwe offers a
promising opportunity.
The country is in the throes of political upheaval, with 6 million hungry
people, an inflation rate of 135% and a shrinking economy. The rule of law is
collapsing. Judges are routinely intimidated. The government sends thugs to grab
commercial farms. And fears are growing of much worse civil strife to come.
Enter the bargain hunters - call them aasvoëls, Afrikaans for
vultures.Zimbabwe boasts vast quantities of valuable minerals, including one of
the world's largest deposits of platinum.
South Africa's Impala Platinum recently upped its shareholding to take
effective control of Zimbabwe Platinum Mines. It has also increased its stake in
a smaller platinum company, Mimosa.
Zimbabwe's fuel and energy shortages are also tempting outsiders. President
Robert Mugabe's Libyan allies have just renewed an annual $360-million deal to
cover most of the costs of importing oil. The Libyan government will get assets
once owned by the Zimbabwean state, including 14% of Jewel Bank and14% in
Rainbow, a tourism group, and maybe some land. Talks are said to be under way to
give Libya control of fuel tanks in Harare and the oil pipeline linking Zimbabwe
to a port in Mozambique.
Eskom, South Africa's energy utility, the world's fifth biggest, is eyeing
Zimbabwe's energy giant, Zesa, which is slated to be privatised. Zesa is fars
hort of the 200-million or so in hard currency it needs each year to pay for
equipment and to service debts accrued to Eskom, which supplies electricity to
Zimbabwe's grid. The South African supplier may hope eventually to swap debts
for a share in the Zimbabwean company, and is building a close partnership. Zesa
is increasingly reliant on the support of its South African big brother.
Most South African companies are understandably wary of doing business
inZimbabwe - until recently South Africa's biggest African trading partner but
now down to third place. Anglo American is reducing its investment in its citrus
and timber estates there, though it plans to retain its more lucrative mining
interests.
Other large trading firms still see opportunities. Last year Barloworld
bought a Zimbabwean cement and lime producer. SA Breweries is keeping its 25%
stake in Delta, a beverage company.
"There is huge consumer spending power in this market for trading
companies.Often people here have money for goods, but nothing to buy," says John
Robertson, an independent economist in Harare.
The World Food Programme expects to spend one-fifth of its 500-million food
budget on transporting grain within the region, about half of it in Zimbabwe.
Private-sector haulage firms, many of them South African, charge up to $90 for
every ton shifted. Other private traders are finding original ways to get goods
to Zimbabwean consumers. Two online firms, Sadza.com and Emoneytransport.com,
let well-wishers overseas send money and food to relatives in Zimbabwe via local
supermarkets.
The situation is desperate for most, but a few firms may have reason to
smile.
VOA
Jailed Zimbabwe Opposition
Members Are Reportedly Tortured
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
29 Sep
2002 15:41 UTC
Reports of increasing incidents of torture against
members of Zimbabwe's
political opposition are circulating as rural elections
came to an end
Sunday. An opposition member of parliament was also arrested
Sunday.
An eyewitness in the eastern border town of Chimanimani said
Sunday she
heard the screams of a Movement for Democratic Change supporter
shortly
after he was taken into custody by the government's Central
Intelligence
Organization.
Mike Magwaza is the bodyguard for Member of
Parliament Roy Bennett, the only
white farmer left in the district. He was
arrested and accused by police of
defying a government order to leave his
home and business last month.
A third person, believed to be a South
African citizen, was arrested as
well.
Another eight members of the
Movement for Democratic Change are in the same
cells behind the police
station. A second eyewitness said some of them had
open wounds and have not
eaten for four days.
Police and members of the Central Intelligence
Organization in Chimanimani
declined to answer questions Sunday.
In
Harare, five opposition supporters, including a prominent youth
leader,
remain in detention and are, according to their lawyer, in need of
urgent
medical treatment.
The lawyer said the police have denied the
five access to a doctor. In an
affidavit he said he intended to present to
the court, the lawyer also said
all five showed signs of having been
assaulted.
One of the five, 18-year-old Tom Spicer, was separated from
his four friends
and told his lawyers he had been subjected to electric shock
treatment. The
lawyers said Saturday he was unable to focus his eyes and had
difficulty
walking.
One lawyer for the five said he had spent 24 hours
looking for officials
from the Department of Justice to facilitate an urgent
application to the
High Court to demand the detainees receive medical
treatment.
These arrests and allegations of torture are just the tip of
the iceberg,
according to opposition supporters in various parts of Zimbabwe.
The reports
circulated against the background of countrywide rural elections
that ended
Sunday.
The government-appointed Electoral Supervisory
Commission said Saturday the
run-up to the elections had been marred by
violence in parts of the country.
Eyewitnesses in the rural areas in
southern Zimbabwe said that by midday it
appeared that less than 10 percent
of the electorate had turned out to vote.
More than half the opposition
candidates withdrew from the elections, citing
intimidation and fear of
attacks, or were refused permission to
register.
Reuters
Zimbabwe arrests white opposition
leader amid polls
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, Sept 29
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition said on Sunday police
had arrested a
prominent white politician and beaten other opponents as
President Robert
Mugabe's supporters stepped up violence and intimidation at
local government
polls.
The Movement for Democratic Change said Roy Bennett, an
opposition
legislator, and eight others including his bodyguard were in
custody. It was
not clear what the charges were.
Police officials
contacted by Reuters declined to comment.
"Roy is in the cells along with
eight others. He is not hurt but the rest
have been badly beaten," said Doug
Vanderuit, a friend of Bennett and MDC
member. An MDC official who declined
to be named for fear of arrest
confirmed the report.
The two-day polls
ending Sunday are seen as a test of Mugabe's traditional
rural power base and
come amid a deepening economic and food crisis in the
southern African
country.
Zimbabwe has been in turmoil since pro-government militants
began invading
white-owned farms in early 2000.
Bennett, a soldier in
the former Rhodesia, has often been a target of
Mugabe's anti-white rhetoric.
Just weeks ago, he was warned by the
government for making a public statement
urging former colonial power
Britain to invade Zimbabwe to resolve the
political crisis in the country.
ALLEGATIONS OF
INTIMIDATION
The MDC says 700 of its candidates have been barred from
registering or
intimidated from running in the polls.
On Sunday it
said it had received reports from various parts of the country
showing the
ruling ZANU-PF had stepped up violence to prevent Zimbabweans
from voting
freely.
"Several MDC candidates and their agents have been blocked from
entering the
polling stations while some have been assaulted and a few have
been reported
missing," the MDC said.
Police and electoral officials
said they had not received any reports of
intimidation and Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party dismissed the charges as "a pack of
the usual lies".
"The truth
is that the MDC is frustrated at its failure to win the support
of a majority
of the people of this country," a ZANU-PF spokesman said.
The allegations
were also dismissed by Thomas Bvuma, a spokesman for the
Electoral
Supervisory Commission, who told Zimbabwe state radio the
elections were
going smoothly and the authorities had not received
any
complaints.
The MDC, which accuses Mugabe of stealing victory in a
presidential election
in March, says Mugabe has resorted to political
violence in the council
elections because he knows he would lose any free and
fair poll.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, says
his land
drive is aimed at correcting colonial injustice, which left 70
percent of
the country's best land in the hands of white farmers.
The
opposition says the land policies have contributed to a severe food
shortage
which is affecting nearly seven million people, or half the
population. The
government insists the shortages are solely the result
of
drought.
Election results are expected from late
Monday.
Associated
Press, 28 September
Zimbabwe votes despite
protests
Harare - Zimbabweans in rural areas voted Saturday
in elections for local
councils, and the main opposition party said hundreds
of its candidates were
barred from running for office. Ruling party
militants, backed by police,
blocked about 700 opposition candidates from
registering, officials from the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
said. About 20 opposition
candidates were assaulted during campaigning and at
least another 70 were
arrested on false charges, opposition officials said.
The government has
denied involvement in any violence or intimidation of
opposition candidates.
An appeal by the Movement for Democratic Change to
have the election
postponed was thrown out by the High Court Friday, after
the presiding judge
ruled the case was politically motivated. The court's
refusal to hear the
appeal, "confirms our worst fears about the judiciary,"
said Movement for
Democratic Change Secretary General Welshman
Ncube.
Critics of the government say embattled President Robert
Mugabe has co-opted
the nation's courts by packing the bench with his
supporters and
intimidating independent-minded judges in a bid to retain
power. However,
the opposition turned to the courts Saturday, seeking an
order to let
doctors examine Thomas Spicer, an 18-year-old white opposition
activist, who
they say was tortured in police detention Friday. The police
had no comment
on the case. Also Saturday, British diplomats said they had
been banned from
travelling outside Harare without Zimbabwean government
permission in
apparent retribution for outspoken criticism of Mugabe by the
British
government. Despite the controversy, polling ran smoothly Saturday.
Voting
would continue Sunday and results were not expected until
Monday.
Vice President Joseph Msika said the ruling Zanu-PF party
expected a massive
victory in what party officials said would be a show of
support for the
government's land reform program to seize white-owned farms
for
redistribution to poor blacks. Many of those farms, however, have been
given
instead to Mugabe's confidantes. Zimbabwe has been seized by more than
two
years of political and economic turmoil, widely blamed on
Mugabe's
increasingly unpopular ruling party. More than half Zimbabwe's 12.5
million
people face severe food shortages, blamed on drought and the
government's
land reform program which has ground commercial farming to a
standstill.
Mugabe's ruling party narrowly won parliament elections in 2000,
surviving
the biggest threat to its hold on power since independence in 1980.
Mugabe
won a disputed presidential election in March that independent
observers
said was swayed by violence, intimation and vote
rigging.
VIRTUALLY SA newsletter
Date: September 18, 2002 ~ Issue
#1
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