(AFP) - 2 hours
ago
CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe?s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
on
Sunday called for an African Union and regional peacekeeping force to
ensure
that general elections in the country will be peaceful.
"Let?s
bring foreign observers for the (next) elections", Tsvangirai told
party
supporters at a rally in Chitungwiza, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south
of the
capital.
"We want a peacekeeping force, so that we can have a free and
fair
environment for the election to keep our people free so that they can
vote.
"We can use AU and Southern African Development Community forces
for
peacekeeping during the election period," he added.
Tsvangirai
and longtime rival President Robert Mugabe entered into a power
sharing deal
in 2008, known as the Global Political Agreement. Under the
terms of the
agreement, the country must hold elections after 24 months.
"We agreed
that within the next 18-24 months we go for elections, so far we
have
finished one year," he said.
"We still have some months to complete the
GPA, we don?t want elections that
are full of violence, we want free and
fair elections."
Tsvangirai expressed concern about reports of persistent
violence he said he
was receiving from across the country.
He has
tasked two home affairs ministers to investigate.
He added that his party
wanted interparty talks to be wound up. "We are sick
and tired of endless
talks", he said.
"We shall take measures that there will be no more
dialogue for dialogue?s
sake. We are a country in a transition, so get ready
for elections."
Last week, Mugabe told reporters that he would be his
party?s candidate in
the elections for which no date has been set.
In
2008, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of presidential polls. He
later withdrew from the second round citing state-sponsored violence against
his supporters.
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare
(Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party said
Sunday it
was seeking the intervention of the Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) in its long-running power-sharing dispute with President
Robert
Mugabe’s ZANU PF party.
The spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) Nelson Chamisa
said his party was unhappy about what he called
ZANU PF’s delaying tactics
in the implementation of outstanding issues
agreed in a power-sharing pact
signed in September 2008.
“We will be
formally writing to SADC requesting their intervention in
getting movement
in implementation of the GPA (global political agreement),”
Chamisa
said.
The resolution to ask for SADC intervention was reached after a
meeting of
the MDC’s national executive last Friday and will be passed on to
the
national council – the party’s highest decision-making organ – which is
due
to meet in the capital Harare on March 12.
Wrangles over
appointments of key administration officials and continued
arrests of
members of the MDC have threatened to derail a fragile coalition
government
formed by ZANU PF and the MDC in February 2009.
ZANU PF has refused to
implement some of the agreed issues, demanding that
the MDC successfully
calls for the removal of Western travel bans and an
asset freeze imposed on
Mugabe and more than 160 of his supporters.
Tensions between the two
parties were heightened last month following
decisions by the European Union
and the United States to extend the targeted
sanctions by another
year.
JN/daj/APA
2010-03-07
http://www.ft.com/
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
Published: March 7
2010 15:32 | Last updated: March 7 2010 15:32
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's
president, has reassigned several sensitive
ministerial roles away from
ministers belonging to the party of Morgan
Tsvangirai, prime minister, to
ministers loyal to his own Zanu-PF party.
In a government gazette issued
on Friday, Nelson Chamisa, information
minister and information spokesman
for the Movement for Democratic Change,
learned that all his
responsibilities had been transferred to Nicholas
Goche, transport minister
in Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
Simultaneously, the interception of
communications act which allows the
secret police to listen in to, and
monitor the e-mail communications of
individuals was transferred to the
president's office, which houses the
country's central intelligence
organisation.
An angry Tendai Biti, finance minister in the coalition
government and MDC
secretary-general condemned the reassignment of cabinet
responsibilities
saying this was not "the unilateral right" of the president
but a joint
responsibility shared by the leaders of the two parties. "This
business of
castrating other ministries cannot happen. We will not accept
that," he
said.
Mr Chamisa said he was "really shocked". "I have been
stripped naked. I
cannot be a minister in name without any responsibilities.
We cannot have a
situation where Minister Goche administers 20 acts and I
have none. That is
unacceptable"
In a similarly provocative move, Mr
Mugabe transferred responsibility for
Zimbabwe's human rights act and
electoral commission act to the justice
ministry, controlled by one of his
top advisers, Patrick Chinamasa.
The new powers were gazetted on the very
day that Mr Mugabe assured Zimbabwe
newspaper editors that all was well in
the coalition between his Zanu-PF and
the two wings of the MDC. His
relations with Mr Tsvangirai were very good he
said, adding that "there are
no more doubts about each other's honesty. The
inclusive government has
built in us, within us, as we operate, that element
of virtue, of
trust."
"There are no cracks at all. There might be voices of discontent,
some
criticism, but that happens. It is expected".
Mr Mugabe also
claimed that the MDC supported his controversial
indigenisation policy,
requiring foreign businesses and those owned by
Zimbabwe's Asian and white
minorities to hand over 51 per cent of their
shares to indigenous
Zimbabweans.
"When we discuss issues we don't seem to disagree much; for
example on
indigenisation, the policy of empowerment. We enunciated it a
long time ago
in line with the principle of sovereignty...it is the
expression of our
sovereignty."
In their public statements MDC
leaders have rejected the indigenisation
proposals in their present form,
with Mr Tsvangirai's saying they are "null
and void and have no legal
effect".
It is not clear whether Mr Mugabe believes his rose-tinted
scenario or
whether the contradiction between his public statements and
actions is a
demonstration of the reality that he still calls the shots in
Zimbabwe.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using
our article
tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by
email or
post to the web.
http://news.radiovop.com
07/03/2010
06:18:00
Harare, March 08, 2010 - The Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) Ministers
were on Saturday furious about the recent move by President
Robert Mugabe to
reshuffle ministerial portfolios which left MDC ministers
with less powers.
"The issue of allocation of ministries is not
somebody's unilateral right.
Its an executive process whose matrix is shared
between the President an the
Prime Minister. So its not a Zanu PF thing. So
this business of castrating
other inistries cannot happen. we will not
accept that," party secretary
general Tendai Biti said Saturday.
MDC
party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa's Information Communication Technology
ministry was stripped of all its responsibilities. Mugabe further grabbed
the administering of the Interception of Communications Act, which he
re-allocated to the spy Central Intelligence Organisation run by his
loyalists. The law allows the State to snoop into private communication of
individuals suspected of being engaged in treasonous
activities.
Commenting on his demotion, Chamisa said Saturday that the
move was
unacceptable. "I can't be a minister in name without any
responsibilities. I
think it flies in the face of the spirit and letter of
the GPA (Global
Political Agreement). It kills inclusitivity," he said. ""So
I hope that the
principals would look at this. We cant have a situation
whereby minister
Goche has 20 Acts that he is administering
and I have
none. That is unacceptable."
"I am really shocked because it's a
bombshell ...I have been stripped
naked."
Chamisa's ministry has been
the object of constant interference by President
Mugabe who has repeatedly
stripped it of key portfolios for re-allocation to
his
loyalists.
Within days of settling in his new office as Minister of
Information
Communication Technology in February Chamisa clashed with Media,
Information
and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu over control of the
Communications
Department.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
07/03/2010 00:00:00
MINING firm
African Consolidated Resources (ACR) has appealed to the
Kimberly Process
against government's continued exploitation of the disputed
Marange Diamonds
fields in violation of a recent judgment by Chief justice
Godfrey
Chidyausiku.
A letter dated February 26 signed by the company Chief
Executive Andrew
Cranswick said the company does not want Zimbabwe to be
suspended from the
KP, but wants the authorities to be guided towards
"transparent and legal
extraction and sale of its national
assets."
"This company has repeatedly, over the past several years,
attempted to
enter into a Joint Venture with the Zimbabwe Government on more
favourable
terms than those recently granted to two shaddy South African
operators who
took occupation (of the fields in) July 2009 and continue to
mine illegally.
We continue to be ignored by the Ministry of Mines," ACR
said.
The letter adds that: "as you may be aware, the High Court ruled in
September 2009 that ACR mineral rights are and have always been valid over
the Marange diamonds field, and that all diamonds ever mined there belong to
ACR. More specifically, the Court Order was stipulated to take effect
regardless of any appeals. The Court ruling was ignored by MMCZ, ZMDC, the
Ministry and the illegally operating companies."
ACR is at the centre
of the disputed ownership of the lucrative Marange
diamond fields in eastern
Zimbabwe with the London Alternative Investment
Market (AIM) listed firm
accusing the government of trying to muscle it out
of the
concession.
The company is fighting its case in the country's courts
although the
government has since licensed two other companies to operate in
the area in
joint ventures with the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation.
"The Supreme Court recently reviewed this 'execution pending
appeal' section
of the High Court Order after the Ministry appealed against
the ruling and
against instant execution.
"The Chief Justice presided
over the review case and earlier this year the
Supreme Court ordered that
all diamonds ever mined from Marange must be held
by a neutral party in
safe-keeping pending the hearing of appeal. He also
ordered that all mining
must cease pending the outcome of the main appeal.
Neither of these orders
have been obeyed," the company said in the letter.
Cranswick warned that
should the Kimberly Process certification scheme
approve the sale of any
gems extracted from Marange it would be complicit it
would be complicit in
two criminal activities which are- trading in stolen
goods and the continued
contempt of court.
Trade in diamonds extracted from the area is presently
suspended while the
country takes measures to comply with the Kimberly
Process certification
requirements.
A KP monitor who was in the
country last week was reported as saying that he
was satisfied with the
measures the country had put in place adding he would
return in the coming
weeks to certify the rough diamonds for export.
Meanwhile the government
has since indicated that it would cancel ACR
licence alleging the company
secured the mining rights improperly from
industry giant De
Beers.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu also accused De Beers of looting the
Marange
fields for over 15 years while pretending to government it was only
engaged
in exploration work.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
07/03/2010
00:00:00
ARCELORMITTAL's bid for Ziscosteel now hangs in the
balance after the world's
largest steelmaker expressed concern over the
country's indigenisation
policies.
The company, through its South
Africa subsidiary, is one of the two firms
shortlisted by the government to
take over a significant part of its
interest in the struggling
Redcliff-based steel company.
The Zimbabwe government has been working on
selling-off its majority
shareholding in Zisco in bid to help revive the
moribund company.
However, ArcelorMittal SA's chief executive Nonkululeko
Nyembezi Heita
recently said the country's empowerment policies were of
"great concern".
"This is of great concern to any investor. I don't
believe there is any
investor who would be interested in going into Zimbabwe
if there is a chance
of losing a stake in their business," Nyembezi Heita
said.
The Zimbabwe government recently moved to operationalise the
country's
empowerment legislation which requires all foreign-owned
businesses worth
more that US$500 000 to ensure that 51 percent of their
equity is owned by
indigenous Zimbabweans within five years.
The law,
which took effect at the beginning of the month, has largely been
slammed by
foreign investors with most warning that it risked undermining
the country's
economic recovery.
ArcelorMittal and India's Jindal Steel & Power are
two of the companies
which were said to be leading the bid to take-over
Ziscosteel with Arcelor
indicating that it had set aside SAR4 billion for
the project.
Ziscosteel, which has been a perennial drain on the fiscus
is said to
require US$1 billion to upgrade key plant and equipment, reduce a
massive
debt over-hang as well as meet its working capital needs.
http://www.africasia.com
HARARE,
March 7 (AFP)
Zimbabwe's fragile recovery could be undermined by a new local
ownership law
that economists say will frighten off desperately needed
foreign investment.
Under the law, which took effect Monday, foreign
companies valued at more
than 500,000 US dollars must divest 51 percent of
their shares to non-white
locals within five years.
They have 45 days
to report their efforts at complying with the rule.
The biggest targets
include local subsidiaries of British banks Barclays and
Standard Chartered,
as well as mining companies such as Impala Platinum,
AngloPlatinum, and Rio
Tinto.
"For foreign investors, this is a severe warning that this is not
the
country you can invest in at the moment," said Tony Hawkins, professor
at
the University of Zimbabwe's school of business.
"The so-called
unity government is deeply split over the regulations and
there is a lot of
uncertainty about what shape they are going to take," he
added.
Industry Minister Welshman Ncube said Wednesday that the
cabinet would
review the law, but that does not suspend the measures, which
have sharply
divided what is an already strained unity
government.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition
leader who became
premier one year ago, has declared the law "null and void"
because it was
passed by the previous parliament in 2007 but not enacted
until now.
His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accused President
Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party of trying to cash in on foreign
business.
"ZANU-PF simply wants to create a new arena for looting and
abuse," the MDC
said, saying the measure would only benefit "the
well-connected elite and
the ZANU-PF chefs."
The Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions, the main labour body, also voiced
fear that the law "could
lead to a creation of new minority blacks who will
just replace the minority
whites (who owned the business previously)."
Mugabe, in power since
independence in 1980, insists the law will end
colonial-era disparities in
the economy.
"Our indigenisation programme, like the land reform
programme, is designed
to correct historical imbalances in the ownership of
our resources," Mugabe
said last weekend.
Those remarks did little to
reassure investors. Since 2000, most white-owned
farms in Zimbabwe have been
forcibly resettled by Mugabe supporters in a
violent and politically charged
campaign.
Farm production, once the backbone of the economy, has plunged.
Mining,
which become Zimbabwe's main production sector, now appears to be in
the
firing line.
Since the law was published one month ago,
Zimbabwe's stock market has
tumbled about 10 percent, while mining shares
have plunged 20 percent.
Foreign companies already have headaches working
in Zimbabwe. Food giant
Nestle briefly suspended operations in December over
a dispute about buying
milk from Mugabe's family farm.
South African
retailer Shoprite backed out of a possible deal to buy
Zimbabwe's OK Bazaars
for reasons never made public.
After a decade of economic collapse,
marked by world-record hyperinflation
that ended only one year ago, most
Zimbabweans are struggling to survive.
But the head of the indigenisation
programme, David Chapfika, said the
government would provide financing to
buy shares -- while insisting that the
scheme was not
nationalisation.
"We are not going to be involved in politics. The idea
is to grow, grow,
grow and expand the economic cake for everybody," he told
AFP.
Zimbabwe struggles just to its pay civil servants but Chapfika said
government would raise money with a new tax on companies or by floating
international bonds -- even though the government cannot honour bonds
already issued.
"We need indigenisation but the way they are trying
to do it with these
regulations will only kill the economy completely,"
independent economist
Eric Bloch told AFP.
"This will frighten away
all foreign investors, local investors and all
lines of credit required to
recover the economy. As it stands, it's a total
disaster."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
White Zimbabwean farmers
whose land was grabbed by Robert Mugabe plan to
turn the tables by seizing
Zimbabwean-owned property in South Africa.
By Peta Thornycroft in
Harare and Sebastien Berger In Johannesburg
Published: 7:00AM GMT 07 Mar
2010
Lawyers for dispossessed farmers believe that on Monday they will be
able to
start using the law to seize houses in Cape Town which are owned by
the
Zimbabwean government. Their action, which follows a landmark legal
ruling,
promises to humiliate Mr Mugabe and embarrass South Africa's
president Jacob
Zuma, who was on a state visit to Britain last
week.
The battle for justice fought by one of the white farmers, Mike
Campbell,
aged 77, was featured in the documentary film Mugabe and the White
African.
It was shown in British cinemas this year to great
acclaim.
The film tells how he fought stubbornly to bring a legal case in
2008
against Mr Mugabe's government at the Southern African Development
Community
tribunal, based in the Namibian capital Windhoek.
Mr
Campbell won a victory when the court ruled that Mr Mugabe's farm
takeovers
were racist in nature and therefore illegal.
At the North Gauteng High
Court in the South African capital Pretoria last
month, the farmers
successfully applied for the Namibian judgement to be
enforced in South
Africa.
Lawyers acting for the Mr Campbell and a group of other farmers
believe
after that ruling they can seize Zimbabwean government-owned
property, to
recover legal costs from the South African case.
Mr
Campbell, who was severely beaten by land invaders in 2008, was too frail
to
comment yesterday. But his son-in-law Ben Freeth, 41, said: "This is not
about revenge. This is about the long arm of the law.
"We hope to
expand our actions further and investigate whether we can, in
time, sue
individuals who were responsible for what has been going on."
Late last
year Mr Freeth watched helplessly as thugs burned down his
farmhouse in
Zimbabwe.
Their representatives have identified at least 11 properties
which are owned
by the government of Zimbabwe, including houses in Cape Town
worth hundreds
of thousands of pounds. Unlike properties in Pretoria which
are connected to
the embassy, the Cape Town properties are thought not to be
protected by
diplomatic immunity.
The lawyers say it will be a
groundbreaking development, as they are not
aware of any precedent for
government-owned properties being seized in
pursuit of a civil
judgement.
The timing is awkward for Mr Zuma. This week the South African
president
called for Western sanctions to be lifted against Mr Mugabe and
his cronies,
during a state visit to Britain. The EU recently renewed
sanctions for
another year, although Western officials point out the
sanctions hit only
only specific regime members rather than the Zimbabwean
people as a whole.
The former opposition Movement for Democratic Change
went into a coalition
with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party just over a year ago,
but the agreement has
been beset by difficulties. At one point the MDC
boycotted cabinet meetings
for several weeks, blaming obstructionism by
Zanu-PF.
In the meantime seizures of white-owned farms have
continued.
The SADC tribunal has yet to set an amount to be paid in
compensation, but
the lawyers say they are already able to seek the seizures
to recover costs
in connection with the court hearing in South Africa,
estimated at about
£12,000.
Willie Spies, the lead South African
lawyer in the case, said it would be
almost impossible for the Zimbabwean
government to appeal against the
seizures as it had not contested the North
Gauteng court ruling.
The South African government was not a party to the
proceedings, he added,
and while technically it could apply for judicial
review it would be in a
"moral predicament" if it tried to do so, as in a
separate case last year it
had formally agreed to "honour and uphold" the
SADC tribunal verdict.
"It's going to be a very interesting test for the
independence of our
sheriffs and for the South African government," he
said.
The ruling has not been enforceable in Zimbabwe.
Senior
Zanu-PF officials have sought to dismiss the significance of the
legal
proceedings. They have claimed that the SADC tribunal did not have
jurisdiction over Zimbabwe, even though the nation is a member of the
organisation and government lawyers appeared in court to defend
it.
At the time of the SADC tribunal ruling, the then minister of lands,
Didymus
Mutasa, said: "They are day-dreaming because we are not going to
reverse the
land reform exercise."
Patrick Chinamasa, Zimbabwe's
justice minister, could not be reached for
comment on the latest
developments.
http://www.zimguardian.com/?p=2318
Written by MIRIAM MARUFU National Mar
6, 2010
Zimbabwe - The deteriorating state of the education sector in
Zimbabwe
remains one of the stumbling blocks to development in the
country.
The prohibitive cost of higher education has heavily affected
students with
a record dropout rate of 39% since the introduction of the
dollarization of
education in March 2010.
ZINASU has been involved in
both lobbying and advocacy and protests in
trying to address the anomalies
in the education fraternity. The Union held
several meetings with the
Ministry of Higher and Tertiary education and some
of the challenges were
addressed.
There is still need to continue pressuring the Government to
inject funds in
resuscitating the higher education sector. Cases of
students' victimisations
have been on the increase with state apparatus
victimising student leaders
at National University of Science and Technology
on Monday 1 March 2010, a
move that is unlawful and uncalled
for.
There has been an improvement in the number of colleges holding SRC
elections and ZINASU would like to commend all the college authorities in
various institutions who gave students the opportunities to choose SRC
leaders of their choice.
This shows that the democratic space is
widening in some institutions of
higher learning. The onus is now on
colleges like the University of Zimbabwe
and Harare Polytechnic College who
are deliberately delaying the holding of
SRC elections.
HEXCO's
Suggestion Disastrous
Higher Education Examination Council (HEXCO) held a
consultative public
meeting with students from Gweru Polytechnic College on
1 March 2010 where
they announced that the Council is considering revisiting
the structure of
the HEXCO examinations.
The officials stated that
they wanted to reverse the current structure of
70% of results consisting of
examinations and 30% course work to 60%
constituting course work and 40% of
the marks coming from writing
examinations. This decision has been met with
serious criticism from the
students who decried the creation of room for
manipulation by lecturers.
Female students protested arguing that course
work cannot consist of the
huge part of the results as it makes it easier
for lecturers to fail the
students for example in the event that one turns
down a love/ sexual request
from the lecturer. Other students highlighted
that the process can lead to
students demanding bribes from lecturers in
order to pass and this will lead
to an increase in the number of corruption
cases.
The ZINASU Secretary General, Grant Tabvurei who also attended the
meeting
alluded to the fact that the structure will have a serious
compromise on the
quality of education produced in Polytechnic Colleges as
course works in
most cases are plagiarized by students hence not the best
measure for
academic work.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
March
7, 2010
Jonathan
Leake, Environment Editor
RHINOS, among the world’s most
endangered and iconic animals, are being
farmed on Chinese wildlife reserves
in order to harvest their horns, a
report by international conservation
monitors has suggested.
The monitors have found that China has imported
141 live white rhino from
South Africa since 2000, far more than is needed
for tourism purposes.
They have also gathered evidence that the aim of
the purchases is to set up
rhino farms.
“The suspicion is that these
rhinos are being aggregated into herds and
farmed for their horns, which are
valued for medicinal purposes,” said Tom
Milliken of Traffic, the wildlife
trade monitoring network.
The revelation about China’s surge in rhino
purchases is part of an official
report to be delivered to Cites (the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species). A meeting has been
organised in Qatar from next weekend
to discuss the burgeoning trade in
threatened animals and plants.
The report says: “Since 2000 Chinese data
suggest 141 rhinos were obtained
from South Africa. Reports of horn
harvesting of captive rhinos in China
have surfaced but need further
verification. Clarification on the purpose of
keeping large aggregations of
captive rhino in China would be welcomed.”
The discovery has alarmed
British and European Union officials, who plan to
ask the Chinese to explain
if they are allowing rhino farming.
Defra, the environment ministry,
said: “There are allegations around horn
harvesting of captive rhinos in
China and these need to be investigated.”
Rhinos have suffered a
catastrophic decline in numbers over the past 50
years. There are five rhino
species, of which three live in Asia.
One of these, the Javan rhino, is
close to extinction, with just 130
creatures estimated to be left, while the
closely related Sumatran rhino
numbers only about 300. Even the great
one-horned rhino, found mainly in
India, has only about 2,800
animals.
However, it is the fate of the more numerous African rhinos that
is causing
the most concern because of a surge in poaching, as well as
exports.
Of the two African species, black rhinos number only about 4,200
while there
are an estimated 17,500 white rhinos left. These days most are
kept in
reserves and wildlife parks, unlike a century ago when hundreds of
thousands
of animals roamed Africa.
The recent decline is, according
to Traffic, almost all because of surging
demand for rhino horn in Asian
traditional medicine. Despite being made
mainly of keratin, the same protein
found in fingernails and hair, the
ground-up horn is reputed to calm fevers
such as malaria. There is also a
renewed threat to rhinos from claims, said
to be emanating from Vietnam,
that the horn can cure cancer.
Rhino
horn is now so valuable that Vietnamese embassy officials have been
caught
trying to smuggle horns back home. Similarly, South Africa has seen a
surge
in applications from Vietnamese hunters for licences to shoot
captive-bred
animals in private wildlife reserves.
Mark Jones, programme director for
Care for the Wild International, a
conservation charity involved with the
Cites agreement, said all rhino
species were fully protected under the
treaty — so the aim of the Qatar
conference should be to improve
enforcement.
He added: “We would like to know what China is doing with
all the live
rhinos it is importing from South Africa but the increased
reports of rhino
poaching, particularly in South Africa and Zimbabwe, are
very worrying too.”
Rhinos are just one of several species whose chances
of survival could be
determined by the talks. Others include African
elephants, polar bears,
bluefin tuna and hammerhead sharks.
One of
the thorniest issues under discussion is the growing number of tiger
farms
in China, where about 6,000 of the big cats are held in captivity —
compared
with the 50 or so which are left in the wild.
http://www.africasia.com
HARARE,
March 7 (AFP)
Since
testing positive for HIV six years ago, Cecilia Chinhamo has endured a
torrent of verbal abuse from her husband.
"My husband shouts at me
and calls me a walking corpse," said the
30-year-old Zimbabwean vegetable
vendor. "I can only cry when he says that.
What else can I do?"
Like
many Zimbabwean women with HIV, Chinhamo battles to convince her
husband to
get tested himself or to use a condom, raising fears for the
future of their
four-year-old daughter.
"My husband's problem is he thinks he is fit,"
she said. "He refuses to get
tested, insisting he is negative. At times he
agrees to use condoms, but
it's not easy every time."
She struggles
to make ends meet by selling vegetables in Chitungwiza, a
working-class
suburb outside Harare, and depends on remittances from her
sister who works
as a bank teller in neighbouring South Africa.
Of the 1.6 million
Zimbabweans with HIV, 55 percent of are women, according
to government
statistics.
Women often suffer doubly, not only from the disease, but
from abuse from
their spouses and isolation by their communities, said Carol
Mubira, of the
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC)
research team.
Mubira's group studied the living conditions for women
with HIV in
Argentina, Cambodia, Moldova, Morocco, Uganda and
Zimbabwe.
Their findings, released at a recent conference here, revealed
that even
efforts to prevent the spread of HIV can pose problems for women,
who are
often reluctant to tell anyone that they have the
disease.
"In some cases a woman, who because of her HIV status will not
breastfeed,
is labeled a witch by her in-laws because they do not understand
the
problems of mother-to-child transmission," Mubaira said.
"In term
of our customs, a woman who does not breastfeed is deemed to be a
witch. So
that woman is shunned by her relatives and community. HIV positive
women are
still being stigmatized."
More often than not, according Mubaira the
women are "effectively shunned by
their communities, isolated and become
lonely."
Zimbabwe's national AIDS plan for 2010 says women and girls are
particularly
vulnerable to the disease.
"They may be compromised in
their ability to ward off unwanted sexual
attention or negotiate safe sex,"
it said.
"Increasing levels of poverty lead some women into casual or
commercial sex
work, while male norms allow for multiple and concurrent
partnership,
including casual and commercial sex."
The shortage of
anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to treat the disease gives
people little
incentive to reveal their HIV status.
Zimbabwe imposes an AIDS levy on
workers' salaries, money intended to help
fight the disease.
But with
unemployment estimated at 85 to 90 percent, the money raised is not
enough
to meet the programme's needs.
Government uses a portion of its Value
Added Tax to import medications,
which cost 18 to 80 US dollars for a
month's supply for one patient. But
civil servants earn only about 150
dollars a month.
Currently 180,000 people are receiving medication from
the government's
programme, although experts say 600,000 people need
treatment.
"By the end of the year, we hope to have 300,000 people on the
ARV roll out
programme," Health Minister Henry Madzorera said. "We are
discussing with
some organisations, but to overcome the ARV shortages, this
may take some
time."
(AFP) - 14 hours
ago
BEIJING - China rejected foreign concerns over its growing energy
links with
Africa on Sunday, saying it benefits African nations by bringing
badly
needed trade and infrastructure development.
"I have noticed
that in the international community there are some who do
not want to see
the development of Sino-African relations and always make an
issue of
China-Africa energy cooperation," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi
said.
"The fact is that China's oil imports from Africa account for
only 13
percent of Africa's total exports, while Europe and the United
States
account for more than 30 percent," he told reporters.
Speaking
at a press briefing on the sidelines of China's annual parliament
session,
Yang added Chinese investment in the African petroleum industry was
just
one-sixteenth of the world total, behind US and European investment.
"We
support other countries cooperating with Africa on the basis of equality
and
mutual benefit in the energy sector. There is no reason for them to
oppose
our equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with Africa," he
said.
China has steadily built up trade and economic ties with Africa in
recent
years, prompting critics in the West to accuse it of taking a
"neo-colonialist" attitude toward the continent.
Beijing also has
been criticised for befriending pariah regimes such as
those in Sudan and
Zimbabwe in a cynical bid to lock up supplies of
resources needed to fuel
expansion of its economy, the world's third
largest.
In November, at
a meeting of China-Africa leaders in Egypt, Beijing pledged
10 billion
dollars in concessional loans to African countries.
Yang, who travelled
to Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Algeria and Morocco in
January is what has
become an annual New Year trip, said the freedom of
African countries to
choose their friends should not be interfered with.
"In our cooperation
with the people of African countries, we jointly build
railways, roads,
bridges, and improve their infrastructure for the benefit
of the people," he
said.
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare
(Zimbabwe) A Zimbabwean civil society group has lined up a series
of musical
and other social events this week as part of a programme to
commemorate the
International Women’s Day, APA learns here Sunday.
Pamberi Trust said it
was organising a series of events to mark
International Women’s Day, which
is celebrated worldwide on March 8 each
year.
On the programme will
be a special jazz session featuring Zimbabwean and
Norwegian female
musicians, a Spanish film screening showcasing the
struggles of women in
society as well as discussions on Zimbabwean
marriages.
The film
’Agua Con Sal’ (Water with salt) depicts the story of two women
fighting to
survive in a society of great opportunities.
Olga is a young Cuban woman
who arrived in Spain with a scholarship,
expecting the beginning of a better
life.
As an immigrant she suffered the ups and downs of marginalisation,
but was
unable to return home.
Mari Jo was born into a family full of
problems, who worked illegally in a
furniture factory earning two Euros per
hour.
FLAME is a project established in Zimbabwe to empower women artists
with
information, knowledge and skills for survival and success.
The
project has held 24 workshops and has worked with well over 100 women
artists since it started in 2006.
JN/daj/APA
2010-03-07
http://www.iol.co.za/
March 07 2010 at 11:46AM
By Eleanor
Momberg
The reign of terror of a troop of baboons at the busy Beit Bridge
border
post in Limpopo may soon be a thing of the past - that is if customs
officials and the Public Servants Association (PSA) have their
way.
The baboons, which live on the walkway underneath the bridge over
the
Limpopo River that marks the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe,
have
become expert thieves, terrorising not only customs officials but also
pedestrians, motorists and truckers.
"The walkway, which is like a
tunnel, is used by bridge inspectors and the
anti-smuggling unit. There are
about 200 baboons living on the walkway,
probably because it is safe from
predators," said Pieter Koen, PSA Limpopo
provincial manager.
Koen
said the baboons had not been a problem initially, but had, in recent
months, become increasingly bold and dangerous.
He said the troop no
longer went out into the veld to search for berries and
other food. They now
opted for the easy pickings from humans.
The baboons had learnt to open
latches on trailers to get at cooler boxes,
and had also taken to targeting
pedestrians whose luggage they could easily
grab and escape
with.
"They grab whatever possessions pedestrians have, run away, rip
them open
and steal the food.
"They cause damage to cars by jumping
and playing on them, breaking wiper
blades, aerials and side mirrors, and
they are pestering the South African
Revenue Services employees when they
inspect trucks," he said.
The baboons had also started terrorising SARS
officials who lived in the
staff village nearby.
"Once dawn breaks
the baboons start running on their house roofs making it
impossible to
sleep."
The situation had got so bad that the PSA had, on behalf of the
customs and
anti-smuggling unit members and other union members working and
living at
Beit Bridge, approached the Limpopo department of economic
development,
environment and tourism, as well as SARS for help.
Koen
said the provincial conservation authorities had tried several times to
capture and remove the baboons without success.
"They said the troop
was so big they couldn't catch them all.They will not
leave willingly given
that they have easy access to food."
A busy week for the Vigil combating pro-Mugabe propaganda but with
the ironic outcome of being apparently on the same side as Mugabe as far as the
timing of elections is concerned. Mugabe now seems to agree with us that
This was the message the Vigil put to President Zuma on Friday when
we confronted him on his arrival at South Africa House at the end of his
disastrous state visit to the
Our stunts captured public attention, particularly Vigil management
team member Fungayi Mabhunu in our Mugabe mask displaying various placards for
the cameras: ‘Thank you Zuma’, ‘Bring me my machine gun’ and ‘Have another wife
on me’ – in gratitude for Zuma’s support. We adorned our Mugabe with a row of
shiny horse brasses for lack of suitable medals.
But the real message to Zuma was in the spontaneous booing from more
than 100 Zimbabweans and the chant of ‘Shame on you’ when he arrived. We were
joined by some South Africans who shouted something like ‘Ag Ag Zuma is Kak’,
whatever that means.
Zuma could not go up the red carpet without acknowledging our protest
and the High Commission undertook to pass on to him our petition which was
delivered by Luka Phiri and Gugu Tutani of the Vigil management team: ‘Petition to President Zuma of South
Africa: After a
year of the Zimbabwean interim government it is clear that it is going nowhere
so we call on President Zuma, as mediator for the Southern African Development
Community, to arrange free and fair
elections in Zimbabwe as soon as possible’.
It was
accompanied by the following letter: ‘We
appeal to you to arrange early elections in
Communicating
with the South African High Commission this week was a struggle. When we finally spoke to someone they tried
to dissuade us from holding our protest saying they were on our side and we
shouldn’t embarrass President Zuma . . .
Our demonstration was widely covered in the media.
· Vigil co-ordinator Dumi Tutani was interviewed in English and Shona
by Studio 7, Voice of America.
· Luka gave interviews to the same broadcaster in Ndebele and
English.
· Fungayi was interviewed by SABC (who came late and missed everything
so we had to restage our protest for them).
· Vigil Co-ordinator Rose Benton spoke on
· We were also on various other media including the BBC – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8552084.stm.
· For
the most comprehensive coverage be sure to see ZimVigil TV (link on our website)
produced by ZBN News. Our regular supporter Godfrey Madzunga has done an
excellent job as front man for the programme.
While
we are talking about the media we urge you to listen to a short debate on BBC
Radio 4’s World Tonight programme broadcast on 4th March on this
link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtl3. Blessing
Miles-Tendi, described as a Zimbabwean research fellow at
Other
activities of the Vigil during this week were:
· Attending
a meeting at the Royal Commonwealth Society on ‘The Role
of the Media in Zimbabwe's Transition’ on 4th March at which the BBC
journalist Sue Lloyd-Roberts spoke about her recent damning report ‘The
polarised lives of Zimbabwe’s rich and poor’. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8509149.stm.
·
Vigil
regular Josephine Zhuga gave a passionate account of the life of women in
Other
points
· Despite the promise of spring during our Zuma protest on Friday, the
Vigil on Saturday was four hours of an icy wind. Brrrr . . . when will winter
end!
· A lady who came by told us her cat was so aggressive she had named
him Mugabe.
·
Several passers-by had been deeply moved by seeing the BBC TV
programme this week ‘
·
We
were told that we were joined by actor Jeremy Irons during the singing of Ishe
Komberera / Nkosi Sikeleli. Judge for yourself – picture 2128. Many
famous actors have dropped by in the past including Tim Robbins, Emma Thompson
and Simon Callow. We are grateful for their support.
·
Thanks
to
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
For the latest ZimVigil TV programme check the link at the top of the home page
of our website. For earlier ZimVigil TV
programmes check: http://www.zbnnews.com/home/firingline
FOR THE
RECORD: 168 signed the register.
EVENTS AND NOTICES:
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
· Southwark Cathedral’s hymn singing
in solidarity with worshippers in
·
·
Zimbabwe Association’s Women’s
Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays 10.30 am – 4 pm. Venue:
The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre,
·
Strategic Internship for Zimbabweans
organised by
Citizens for Sanctuary which is trying to secure work placements for qualified
Zimbabweans with refugee status or asylum seekers. For information: http://www.citizensforsanctuary.org.uk/pages/Strategic.html
or contact: zimbabweinternship@cof.org.uk.
·
For Motherland ENT’s
videos of the Vigil
on
Vigil
Co-ordinators
The
Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429
http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=6298
By MUTUMWA
MAWERE
Published: March 7, 2010
What time is it in Zimbabwe? Is it
indigenization time? If black economic
empowerment is good for South Africa,
why should indigenization be bad for
Zimbabwe?
If the three principal
political parties agreed that at this defining hour
in Zimbabwe’s history,
the country’s cabinet needed a portfolio a portfolio
to deal with
indigenization and economic empowerment, who has the place and
standing to
be a critical of the implementation of laws that are already on
Zimbabwe’s
statutes?
At the core of the indigenization/economic empowerment debate
is the
unresolved issue of the impact of colonialism on Zimbabwe’s political
economy.
An argument has been made and will continue to be made that
blacks are poor
because colonialism put God given resources out of reach to
them and the
process of resource diversion was non-market driven hence the
need for the
state to intervene to correct such historically determined
distortions and
inequity.
Some will look at the current
indigenization laws are a poison pill while
others will regard them as a
vitamin for social and economic change.
The Zimbabwe we see today is a
consequence of its past. After 30 years of
independence, there can be no
better time to ask what is good for Zimbabwe.
The last 30 years has seen
some fundamental political, economic and social
changes.
It cannot be
denied that a number of Zimbabweans for whom independence would
have meant
more have elected to vote with their feet and in doing so
excluded
themselves from any empowerment project that may be prosecuted in
their
name. What has been described as a “brain drain” is real in the
context of
Zimbabwe.
With the land reform program having played itself out, we have
not witnessed
a reversal of the brain drain suggesting that the priorities
of black
Zimbabweans may not be the same at the political level.
The
majority of Zimbabweans is more economically vulnerability and lack the
resources required to underpin a transparent and commercially driven asset
transfer process. The frontiers of poverty have not been reduced and are
unlikely to be reduced by policies that are not forward looking.
The
indigenization law seeks to change the parentage of corporate entities
fully
knowing that changes at shareholding level have nothing to do with the
performance of the company in question. History and experience has
demonstrated that it is conceivable to have 100% of nothing and it may very
well be desirable to have 0% of something that produces the kind of value
that advances the national cause.
The need to transform the
Zimbabwean economy in terms of the faces of the
key drivers of economic
change cannot be understated, as is the need to
create an environment that
can engender confidence and inspire citizens to
believe in the
future.
Some can argue that although the message of indigenization is
understandable
and merits support but cynics would not be unjustified to
question the
integrity of the messenger and the appearance of partisanship
in the
execution. Indigenization can be used as a political weapon
especially given
the transitional nature of the inclusive government. There
is nothing to
prevent the implementation being selective and targeted at
perceived
political enemies.
Will the country benefit in terms of
efficiency and growth? Since
independence, the state has invested in various
projects and programs as a
principal and regrettably the experience has not
been rewarding to suggest
that any state administered system of patronage
has its own inherent dangers
of failure.
The credibility of the
gatekeepers has to be one of the issues that have to
be considered. Equally
the policy seeks to empower people who were as at
197; considered to be
previously disadvantaged by colonialism forgetting
that many 30-year old
Zimbabweans have transformed themselves without the
assistance of any
empowerment legislation. It is not clear what will happen
to shareholders
who are white but under the age of 30 who have through hard
work and
initiative made money in the targeted sectors.
As we look at the
motivation of the indigenization law, we cannot help but
reflect on what
Zimbabwe needs at this juncture in its development history.
It needs
investment in the knowledge that any such injection will be value
adding and
without it the prospect for renewal and growth is doomed.
The minerals
will remain in the ground so will the land acquired remain
underutilized
unless a dynamic approach to development is taken. It is never
too late to
ask what kind of Zimbabwe do we want to see.
To what extent will the
empowerment agenda militate against the progress of
the country? It should
be a Zimbabwe that can attract capital and respect
the rights of persons and
property. It should be a Zimbabwe that looks
forward in the knowledge that
any investment into the country lifts the
country up.
When I go to a
back, for instance, all I would be looking for is service and
the moment I
worry about where the shares reside I must know that the end is
near.
Progressive and successful countries are more concerned about jobs and
economic prosperity than parentage of companies because in the final
analysis the Zimbabwean Companies Act makes no distinction between a foreign
and domestic owned company. They are all treated as corporate citizens that
have to pay their taxes from whi9ch the state can derive income to support
the kind of programs necessary for poverty alleviation.
BILL WATCH
8/2010
[6th March
2010]
Unilateral Assignment
of Ministerial Functions
The President,
without any consultation with the Prime Minister, has gazetted the long-awaited
legal instruments stating which Minister is responsible for the administration
of which Acts of Parliament. There are 33 statutory instruments in a Gazette
Extraordinary late on 4th March. In terms of the Constitution
[section 31D] it is the President who
assigns functions to Ministers, including the administration of Acts of
Parliament [this involves responsibility for the implementation and
enforcement of an Act, the making of regulations under the Act, and the
initiation and preparation of any Bill to amend or replace the Act.] There
are of course other functions to be carried out by
Ministers [see note at end].
Now that there is an
inclusive government and a Prime Minister, it would have been expected that
there would have been consultation and agreement on the allocation of
Ministerial functions. It was one of the issues which delayed the formation of
the inclusive government after the three parties signed the GPA. It was with
the aid of the South African facilitators that the issues were resolved, with
South Africa and SADC as the guarantors.
The allocation of Ministers was to be reviewed after 6 months by the
Parties with the assistance of the guarantors, SADC, AU and the Facilitator.
This was not in fact done. It would not be surprising if the MDC-T were to
take the issues raised by these SIs back to South Africa as Facilitator and to
SADC.
A first
reaction from an MDC spokesman was that “the Prime Minister was shocked”, “that
is like the renegotiation of the GPA” by one party, and that in some Ministries
“the MDC have been left with the shell of a Ministry with vital functions taken
away”.
Below are brief
notes [not a full analysis] on the gazetted Ministerial functions. [All 33 SIs available on request – 68kb zipped, 600kb
unzipped]: There are a few typos and
anomalies [e.g. the Cooperative Societies Act has been given to three different
Ministries] so there may be some revisions to these
SIs.
Acts
Governing Media
Minister
of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development, Nicholas Goche
[ZANU-PF], has the Posts and Telecommunications Act.
Minister
of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu [ZANU-PF], has the
Broadcasting Act; Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act [AIPPA];
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act; and
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Debt Assumption) Act.
The
“Office of the President and Cabinet”, in a “surprising” move, has been given
the Interception of Communications Act [see note
below]
[Minister
of Information Communication Technology, Nelson Chamisa [MDC-T], has not been
assigned any Acts.]
Acts Governing Law
and Order
Co-Ministers of Home
Affairs, Kembo Mohadi [ZANU-PF] and Giles Mutsekwa [MDC-T], have the Public
Order and Security Act [POSA]; Police Act; Unlawful Organisations Act; Protected
Places and Areas Act; Official Secrets Act; and Preservation of Constitutional
Government Act. These were all under the Ministry of Home Affairs previously.
One significant change is that Home Affairs now has the Prevention of
Corruption Act and Anti-Corruption Commission Act [previously assigned to the
Ministry of State Enterprises, Anti-Monopolies and Anti-Corruption, which no
longer exists].
The
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission
This is
listed under the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs. There is in fact no Act
on the statute books governing this about-to-be-formed Constitutional
Commission. Listing it under Justice and Legal Affairs indicates that it is the
intention that when a Human Rights Commission Act is eventually enacted it will
be the responsibility of the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, although
there is a stronger argument for putting it under the Ministry of Constitutional
and Parliamentary Affairs.
Acts
Governing Elections
Minister
of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Eric Matinenga [MDC-T], has not
been given the Electoral Act nor the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act as would
be expected. [He has been given the Referendums Act.]
Minister
of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa [ZANU-PF], has been given the
Electoral Act and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act, which doesn’t make
sense – it is harking back to the time when his Ministry was the Ministry of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
[Note:
under section 100J of the Constitution the supervision of the registration of
voters and the compilation of voters rolls is the responsibility of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission [ZEC], and the Electoral Act accordingly states that the
Registrar-General of Voters is subject to the direction and control of ZEC. The
Registrar-General’s Office is part of the Ministry of Home
Affairs.]
Acts
governing Parliamentary Affairs
ZANU-PF
Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa [ZANU-PF], has been
given the Political Parties (Finance) Act, the Private Bill Procedure Act and
the Public Bodies Private Bill Procedure Act. [It would have been more
logical for these to come under the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs.] The only Act to do with Parliament allocated to the Minister of
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs is the Privileges, Immunities and
Powers of Parliament Act.
The
Constitution
Minister
of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Eric Matinenga [MDC-T], is now
formally assigned the Constitution, except Chapter XI on Finance [which, as
previously, goes to the Minister of Finance].
Private
Voluntary Organisations Act
This
remains with the Minister of Labour and Social Services [MDC-T] as do the Labour
Act and all the other Acts previously administered by this Ministry, except Acts
dealing with the Public Service and some State pensions which are now under the
Minister of Public Service [MDC-T].
Acts Assigned to the
Office of the President and Cabinet
Note: It is
surprising to assign that several Acts have been assigned to the “Office of the
President and Cabinet” instead of to a Minister, as there is no constitutional
provision for Acts to be administered by the Office of the President and
Cabinet. These assignments are legally questionable. The Acts are: Emergency
Powers Act [previously with Home Affairs]; Zimbabwe National Security
Council Act [a new Act not previously assigned]; Interception of
Communications Act [previously with Transport and Communications];
Presidential Powers Act [previously with a Vice-President]; Procurement
Act; Commissions of Inquiry Act; Honours and Awards Act; Research Act
[previously with a Vice-President].
No
Differences of Any Great Significance
There
are no differences of any significance in the assignments of Acts governing Law
and Order; Defence; Finance; Local Government; Mines and Mining Development;
Energy and Power Development; Industry and Commerce [except investment Acts,
which go to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion],
Education; Higher and Tertiary Education; Health and Child Welfare.
Ministers
without Acts to Administer
Four
Ministers have no Acts to administer: Information Communication Technology
[MDC-T]; Regional Integration and International Cooperation [MDC-M]; State
Enterprises and Parastatals [MDC-T]; Science and Technology Development [MDC-T].
Other
Ministerial Functions
A
Minister’s responsibilities, of course, go beyond the administration of Acts of
Parliament. Ministers have other functions within the fields covered by their
portfolios – the Constitution states that a Minister exercises general direction
and control over the Ministry he or she heads. A Minister is also answerable to
Parliament for what his or her Ministry does or fails to do. So having
responsibility for only one or two Acts of Parliament, or even none, does not
mean that a Minister has nothing to do. For example, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs administers only one Act – but is responsible for the conduct of the
country’s foreign relations. In the past it has not been customary for the
Government to publish details of the broader responsibilities attaching to each
Ministerial portfolio. In the interests of transparency and accountability
it is to be hoped that the Government will soon publish a document specifying
those responsibilities.
Veritas makes every
effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for
information supplied