Zim Online
Mon 17 October 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party
leader Morgan Tsvangirai today begins a
nationwide charm offensive to woo
ordinary MDC members to back him in a feud
with other senior party leaders
over whether to contest next month's Senate
election.
Tsvangirai, whose overruling of an MDC national council
decision for
the party to stand in the election has touched off bitter
wrangling
threatening to split the party, will tell party supporters to
boycott the
November 26 Senate poll.
The opposition leader will
also mobilise supporters to press for a new
and democratic constitution for
Zimbabwe as he tries to shift his divided
party from focusing on contesting
elections under flawed conditions to
demanding a democratic constitution
that underpins free and fair polls, his
spokesman William Bango
said.
He said: "This is a two pronged approach. We
are campaigning for a
people-driven democratic constitution and against the
senatorial election.
This is the same message we are taking to our people
during this countrywide
tour."
Bango would not give the exact
dates when Tsvangirai was going to
address MDC supporters on the Senate
election only saying rallies were lined
up this week in the following
provinces Manicaland, Midlands North and
South, Matabeleland South,
Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Gokwe.
ZimOnline however
understands that the opposition leader will begin
his rallies today in his
home province of Manicaland and will wind up his
programme in Matabeleland
North province.
The sharp differences over contesting the Senate
poll has brought to
the fore divisions in the MDC over what strategy to use
to unseat President
Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party.
A meeting of the national council called at the weekend failed to
resolve
the impasse with insiders saying council members are insisting the
party
should contest the poll.
Analysts have warned that the divisions
that have been simmering for
long could see the break up of the six-year old
party that has since its
formation in 1999 posed the greatest threat yet to
Mugabe and ZANU PF's
25-year hold on power.
Already, deputy
secretary general Gift Chimanikire has written to the
party's 12 provinces
instructing them to begin nominating candidates for the
election saying this
was the position taken by the national council.
The council is said
to have voted 33:31 in favour of participating in
the election. But
Tsvangirai insists the vote was deadlocked at 50:50 and
that he had to use
his casting vote in favour of a boycott.
Tsvangirai has also
written to party provincial councils ordering them
to ignore Chimanikire's
instructions to select candidates.
The opposition leader last
Friday wrote to the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission that runs elections
telling it the MDC was not standing and that
any of its members submitting
their names as candidates were doing so in
their individual
capacities.
Tsvangirai - a fiery trade unionist during his stint at
the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions - has vehemently opposed the Senate
election saying
it will be rigged by ZANU PF and that in any event it is of
no value in a
country that should be better directing meagre resources to
fighting
starvation threatening a quarter of its 12 million
people.
He is backed in his position by the party's key youth and
women's
wings. But several other top leaders of the MDC say the party should
not
surrender political space to Mugabe and ZANU PF by boycotting the Senate
poll. - ZimOnline
Reuters
16
Oct 2005 17:02:59 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Rachel
Sanderson
ROME, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Robert Mugabe's invite to attend the
60th
anniversary celebrations of the U.N. food agency has infuriated the
agency's
U.S. envoy, who said the Zimbabwean leader's policies were helping
to starve
his people.
Mugabe, who is exempt from a European Union
travel ban when on United
Nations business, arrived in Rome on Saturday,
having accepted an invitation
to attend the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organisation's (FAO) gathering on
Monday. The FAO's U.S. ambassador, Tony
Hall, said he was amazed that Mugabe
had been invited.
"I believe I
can speak for the U.S. government when it comes to Mugabe. They
feel he has
abused his country, he has abused his people," Hall told Reuters
in a
telephone interview.
"It is a mockery of the poor when a man like this
comes to an event like
this. He should not have been
invited."
Zimbabwe is grappling with its worst economic crisis since
independence in
1980, and aid groups have estimated 5 million of its 12
million people may
need food aid this year. Mugabe's critics say his
government policies have
exacerbated the hunger.
Mugabe blames
Zimbabwe's economic crisis on sanctions it says former
colonial power
Britain has organised in retribution for Harare's policy of
redistributing
land to poor black farmers.
Hall said he would be taking up with the FAO
its decision to invite Mugabe.
He said the United States had given $200
million in aid to Zimbabwe since
2002.
TRAVEL SANCTIONS
The
latest statistics from the World Food Programme, released on Friday to
coincide with the anniversary, said 6.2 million people worldwide had died
from hunger and related diseases so far this year.
WFP Executive
Director James Morris said the number of chronically hungry
was on the rise
again after decades of progress.
Mugabe's spokesman was not available to
comment on Hall's remarks.
The FAO's spokesman said Mugabe, like other
heads of state, would have the
opportunity to address FAO Director-General
Jacques Diouf and a news
conference on Monday.
The European Union
imposed travel sanctions on Zimbabwean government
officials after
accusations of vote rigging in parliamentary polls in 2000
and in Mugabe's
re-election two years later. He is still allowed to travel
to U.N.
events.
U.S. officials said last month that Washington was preparing to
slap tough
travel sanctions on Mugabe, members of his government, and their
extended
family.
Mugabe made headlines on his last visit to Rome,
when he shook the hand of
Britain's Prince Charles during the funeral
service for Pope John Paul II.
The handshake embarrassed Britain. The
royal household later said the prince
had been taken by surprise.
From The Sunday Argus (SA), 16 October
With the rate expected to be around 1 000% by
Christmas, consumers are
becoming adept at calculating the many
zeroes
The worst thing about inflation is counting the money. In
supermarket queues
it takes ages for check-out attendants to count the
money. A small plastic
bag of groceries: a litre of milk, two quart beers,
250g frozen local bream,
four lemons, and the cheapest bottle of local white
wine added up to Z$520
000 on Monday. A man was so angry when this total
showed up at the till, he
abandoned his bag and stomped out. The rate in
rands will have changed
between writing this sentence and e-mailing it, but
this pack of groceries
probably cost about R40 on the black market on
Monday. At the official rate
it would be about R130. The highest
denomination note, and it isn't actually
a note it's called a bearer cheque,
is Z$20 000, and they will run out
before Christmas unless President Robert
Mugabe allows the Reserve Bank's
red hot presses in Bulawayo to print Z$100
000 or Z$1 million notes. Or
Zimbabwe can do do what Turkey did last year by
lopping off three noughts.
Hyper-inflation has been around a while,
but it's different this time around
because of the scale of the increases.
Two years ago, when it hit 600% per
annum, a Z$500 bar of blue soap was bad
but not staggering. Now that bar of
soap costs Z$66 000. Rather than try to
equate prices to rands, it makes
more sense to compare them with salaries; a
teacher earns no more than Z$3m
a month, a member of parliament gets Z$12m
after tax. A single stop on a bus
is Z$25 000, the same as a loaf of bread
which costs eight times more than
it did in July. Cooking oil, when
available, is Z$70 000 for 175ml. The
cheapest meat is about Z$138 000/kg,
and mealie meal, when available, costs
about Z$80 000 for 10kg. United
Nations staffers are among the best paid
foreigners in Zimbabwe and earn
about R60 000 a month with allowances. They
spend up to Z$15m on an average
weekly shop which includes pool chemicals.
They rent the plushest houses
guarded around the clock at UN expense, buy
South African wine and
Liquifruit which has doubled in price in six weeks.
They dine on kingklip,
prawns, olive oil, South African cereals and Mooi
River butter, not marge.
They eat cheese, a rare treat for most.
But counting out Z$15m
furrows the brows of even flush UN workers at check
outs. Tellers have a
common system. They count 20 brown Z$20 000 bearer
cheques into piles of 20
and then put five piles together to make Z$2m. They
count each pile at least
twice and round off change to the nearest Z$500,
which doesn't even buy
matches. If six people venture out to dinner at any
of the
none-too-salubrious restaurants in Harare's northern suburbs, someone
has to
volunteer to stay sober to do the bill which takes ages of counting
and
recounting. The portions get ever smaller but a meal will set the group
back
about Z$12m if they eat meat, have a beer or a cool drink and maybe a
bottle
of local wine. The going rate last week for youngsters guarding the
car
outside the restaurant was Z$10 000. When the Reserve Bank gives orders
from
time to time to try to contain the black market, banks are restricted
to Z$1
000 notes, then one needs a suitcase to carry enough cash to pay for
a
couple of burgers. Near-crumbling Chegutu, 100km south west of Harare, a
cup
of tea cost Z$65 000 at a grimy roadside inn owned by the Rainbow
Tourism
Group, more than double the cost in Harare even at tatty Wimpy's
which held
the record for the most expensive tea in the capital.
When inflation
- which went up by nearly 100% in September to 359% - hits 1
000% per annum,
as it probably will around Christmas, how will the tellers
cope without
money counters? One of the hardest aspects of living in
billions, besides
seeing gaunt young men able to afford only one slice of
polony, is
understanding value. When a house is advertised at Z$5 billion
what does it
mean? What does it mean when the government estimated in August
it would
spend Z$30bn on senate elections, which will be more like Z$200bn
when they
take place on November 26? Cellphone calculators say "out of
range" when you
try to work out how much an average UN worker earns in
Zimbabwe dollars. But
at least it's been a mathematical education. Until
this year few of us knew
that a billion has nine noughts, a trillion 12 and
it needs a scientific
calculator to work from hard currency to Zimbabwe
dollars and those sums
must be done twice to get both the official and
parallel
rate.
Imagine buying a full tank of black market fuel at Z$100 000 a
litre on the
side of the road and counting the money, note by note. A brick
of Z$5m worth
of notes is an ordinary amount to carry around. If one tries
to live more or
less legally - driven by extreme fear of a few nights in
Harare Central
Police Station's holding cells for illegally dealing in
foreign currency -
Zimbabwe is expensive. Some supermarkets take foreign
credit cards and the
debit shows at the official rate of exchange which
makes the cost of
groceries about twice what it would cost in South Africa.
Another reason
Zimbabwe looks increasingly drab is that it costs the
equivalent of a
teacher's monthly salary for five litres of lowest quality
PVA. Although
that was a week ago.
Angola Press
Maputo, Mozambique, 16/10 - Mozambican police in the
southern province of
Gaza this week seized over eight tons of contraband
sugar smuggled in from
Zimbabwe, national news agency, AIM, reported
Saturday.
It quoted Benedito Ndeve, spokesperson for the Gaza provincial
police
command, as saying 1.67 tons of the contraband was seized in the
Massangena
district, and seven tons in Chokwe.
Ndeve said the
seizures followed police operations along the border
Gaza-Zimbabwe
border.
Smuggled sugar is sold cheaply in Mozambique, thereby undermining
domestic
industry with local producers complaining against unfair
competition.
The drumming and singing could be
heard from Trafalgar Square and the
dancing was joyous. It was great to
have passers-by joining in - at least
one spent the whole afternoon with
us. We were pleased to have Francesca
and her family with us again. She is
an English schoolgirl who has taken
our cause to heart. After Kate Hoey's
encouragement she has organised
wristbands "Make Mugabe History" to be made
which will be available at the
Vigil soon.
We were buoyed by the
decision of the tribunal yesterday that it was unsafe
to send people back to
Zimbabwe but we realise this is not why we meet
outside Zimbabwe House every
Saturday. We think all the time of our
families and friends suffering under
Mugabe. The regime there is rapidly
collapsing - last week we saw Hushe,
the caretaker at Zimbabwe House,
skulking out of the building and dumping
quantities of their homelink
brochure in neighbouring dustbins.
Today
was a wonderfully sunny Autumn day with people from Leicester,
Manchester,
Leeds, Birmingham and other places helping to make a bumper
crowd to mark
our third anniversary - the biggest group ever to sing the
national anthem
at the end. Thanks to Addley, Bernita and Chipo who brought
delicious sadza
for the group in a shopping trolley still hot in their pots.
It was
extremely tasty.
The Chair of MDC Central London Branch, Ephraim Tapa,
exhorted us all to
work together for change in Zimbabwe. He accompanied us
to our post-Vigil
gathering at the nearby Theodore Bullfrog pub where 40 or
so discussed the
way forward. It was a useful meeting and we have many new
good ideas to
consider. The Vigil was thrilled that we managed to get so
much publicity
from our demonstration outside Downing Street on
Thursday.
FOR THE RECORD: about 80 supporters came today.
FOR YOUR
DIARY: Monday, 17th October, 7.30 pm, Zimbabwe Forum at the George,
Fleet
Street, London (opposite the Royal Courts of Justice). A WEEK OF
TRIUMPH -
This week two success stories: the presentation of the Vigil
petition to 10
Downing Street and the asylum and immigration test case.
Dedicated activists
from the Zimbabwe Vigil and the Zimbabwe Association
will report
back.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy,
429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to
protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Zim Standard
By Walter
Marwizi
DESPITE issuing a strong public protest to the American
Embassy in
Harare, the government has made an about turn and apologised to
the US
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, following his detention by
security agents on Monday.
Dell was apprehended by the
Presidential Guard on Monday after
trespassing into a security zone in the
National Botanical Gardens.
Staff at the entrance to the gardens
yesterday told The Standard that
Dell got into serious trouble with the
soldiers after getting into the
security zone which lies between the Natural
Miombo woodland and the
Alexandra Park Reservoir.
"He got into
the gardens alone and it was long before he came back.
When he did, he was
in an army truck surrounded by no-nonsense looking
soldiers," said one of
the guards at the entrance.
"They actually jumped out of the
vehicle like they were in a war zone
and commanded Dell to get into his
vehicle, guns pointed at him. Some
soldiers got into his vehicle and as he
was driving, a gun was clearly
visible even to us who were outside the
vehicle. He tasted the Presidential
guards' medicine," added the
guard.
A US embassy statement on Friday said that the diplomat
wondered into
a "poorly marked military area" located in the middle of the
park.
"Ambassador Dell was detained for over an hour by military
personnel
until the Ambassador's identity was established at which time he
was
released," the statement said.
However, that evening,the
statement said the chief of protocol
Ambassador G Gapare telephoned
Ambassador Dell to express his "profound
apology" for the incident,
explaining that soldiers on duty did not
understand their responsibilities
in dealing with an ambassador accredited
to the country.
"The
next day, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
Ambassador (Joey) Bimha contacted Ambassador Dell and conveyed a
similar
apology. Our embassy in Harare accepted these apologies," said the
official
who added Dell considered the case closed.
The US Ambassador has
not been taking calls since the incident.
Relations between
Zimbabwe and the US have hit rock-bottom since
Washington passed the
Zimbabwe Democracy Act and slapped travel sanctions on
President Robert
Mugabe and senior government and ruling party officials,
charging them with
rigging the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary and the 2002
presidential elections,
as well as for human rights abuses. But Harare
accuses the US and the UK of
hatching a plot to effect a regime change in
Zimbabwe.
Zim Standard
By Foster
Dongozi
MORGAN Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
took the decision to boycott the Senate elections after it
became clear that
there were members aspiring to become Senators, The
Standard has
established.
"Following a deadlock among provincial
representatives, the decision on the
Senate could not be decided by the
national council because some of them had
already indicated that they wanted
to be Senators," he said.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Tsvangirai said
certain provincial
representatives misled Wednesday's meeting by supporting
poll participation
when they had been told to call for a boycott.
The
MDC's problems come a year after Zanu PF went through a similar crisis
after
six out of 10 provincial chairpersons defied President Mugabe by
rooting for
Emmerson Mnangagwa, ahead of Joice Mujuru.
Sources said angry MDC members
telephoned and faxed letters of protest
saying their instructions to boycott
the elections had not been followed by
their representatives.
Angry
members from Mashonaland Central and East provinces stormed the
party's
offices on Friday saying their opinions had been disregarded.
Provinces
that voted for participation in the Senate elections were
Manicaland, the
Midlands South, Midlands North, Bulawayo, Matabeleland North
and
South.
Masvingo, Harare, Chitungwiza, Mashonaland West, Central and East
voted for
non-participation.
After the stalemate, members of the
national council agitated for a vote and
those pushing for participation won
33 to 31 while two ballots were spoilt.
On the leadership of the MDC and
his future, Tsvangirai said: "I am firmly
in charge. My position as MDC
president is not vulnerable and the decision
that I took not to participate
in the Senate elections resonates with the
people of Zimbabwe."
He
reiterated his earlier call that the billions of dollars to fund the
elections should be given to poorly paid civil servants like teachers,
soldiers and policemen because participating in the Senate elections will
not solve the problems of lack of jobs, poverty and hunger.
Two major
wings of the party, the youth and the women's assemblies had
opposed
participation.
The MDC congress, due to be held, shortly would prove that
the people
supported boycotting the elections, he said.
"We may have
differed on the Senate issue but suggestions that the party is
splitting are
based on the wishful thinking of Zanu PF. I am in discussions
with my
colleagues who were skeptical about boycotting Senate elections to
explain
why it is best not to participate.
"We are embarking on an exercise to
galvanise the people into a democratic
resistance against the dictatorship.
We must therefore mobilise ourselves
into a people-power force that will,
through democratic expression on the
streets and everywhere, demand the
resolution of the country's many
problems."
He warned party leaders
against indiscipline.
The warning comes after deputy secretary general,
Gift Chimanikire,
dispatched a letter to provinces instructing them to
prepare for the Senate
elections.
Chimanikire wrote the letter
although his boss, Professor Welshman Ncube was
around.
Zim Standard
By Kumbirai
Mafunda
ZIMBABWEANS were last week condemned to perpetual hardships after
stubborn
inflation peaked at levels of 360 %, never seen in the Gideon Gono
- era of
concerted inflation targetting.
As the economy slid deeper
into calamity, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate
vaulted to 359.8% in
September, representing a jump of more than 94% on
August's figure of
265.1%.
Although the government-run Central Statistics Office (CSO) cited
rising
prices of scotch carts and mobile phone airtime - as among the major
causes - critics blamed high government spending and high rates of money
growth.
They point out at last week's payout of gratuities to former
political
prisoners and ex-detainees as a move that was highly
inflationary.
Last week government agreed to dispense more than $36
billion in unbudgeted
funds to collaborators of the liberation struggle era
- a critical
constituency as the governing Zanu PF party begins to dole out
sweeteners
ahead of next month's Senate elections.
"These unbudgeted
expenditures have a pumping effect on money supply," said
Tapiwa Mashakada,
the opposition MDC's spokesperson on economic affairs.
While Gono, the
Reserve Bank Governor, once again vowed that inflation would
reverse its
upward trend, few Zimbabweans were impressed by his exuberance.
The
inflation rise, which has put paid to the Governor's end of year target
of
80%, has dimmed hopes of Zimbabwe taming the inflation devil.
Last
month's rise in inflation, the sixth straight rise, resulted in
economic
analysts warning that the figures would remain on an upward trend
and
torpedoing prospects for economic recovery.
Already the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has ridiculed Gono's inflation
target insisting
inflation will spiral to 400% by the end of the year while
some independent
economists told Standardbusiness that it would infact
surpass the 600% mark
by December.
Though President Robert Mugabe's administration has singled
out inflation as
the biggest scourge -- and while Gono has earned himself
some disciples for
shooting down inflation from 622.8% in January 2004 to a
record low of
123.7% early this year - critics say his attempts have largely
been targeted
at the symptoms rather than the causes.
Analysts
caution that Gono's last week claims of having enough ammunition to
deal
with the out-of-control inflation by next month could be
far-fetched.
"Inflation has become deep seated as a structural phenomenon
which can only
be tackled by a serious economic reform programme," remarked
Mashakada.
Industrialists say from September to December, the country
would have
received the last chunk of foreign currency receipts from cotton
lint
exports and even in normal years Zimbabwe runs dry of hard currency
during
the festive period.
And with the liberalisation of imports
from external funds, imported
inflation is expected to rise especially as
the festive season approaches,
consequently pushing prices
further.
The loss of export earnings has also created a foreign currency
shortage
that is driving the parallel market.
That has sent the
Zimbabwe dollar on a free fall. Hard currency, which is
not available on the
official market, is trading on the thriving parallel
market at close to $100
000 Zimbabwe dollars to 1$US.
Another problem for Zimbabwe is that annual
tobacco auctions - usually a key
period on the country's economic calendar -
closed down last week on a bleak
note as growers produced yet another tiny
crop that amounted to a paltry 74
million kgs - a slight increase from 69
million kgs in the 2003/ 04 season.
Labour unions say high inflation
means that Zimbabweans are getting less for
their money.
Because of
the rising inflation, many workers are struggling to keep pace
with daily
price hikes.
Although the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe recently noted
that a family of
six now needs $9.6 million to see through a month, very few
of Zimbabwe's
workers earn anywhere near $5 million.
"Life has become
unbearable for workers such that they are finding it
difficult to have even
a single decent meal a day," remarked Wellington
Chibebe, the union leader
of the militant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
Though local
economists and the IMF cannot agree whether inflation will
close the year at
600% or 400%, either way it won't be near any of Gono's
projections of
80%.
Zim Standard
By Foster
Dongozi
FOUR weeks ago, President Robert Mugabe
raised hopes
of an improvement "soon" in fuel supplies while addressing war
collaborators
(mujibhas and zvimbwidos) but shortages of the vital commodity
continue to
cripple the economy.
"Fuel supply
is expected to increase in the next few
days and will gradually improve in
the next few weeks," Mugabe told hordes
of war
collaborators.
However, despite Mugabe's assurances,
urban
commuters continue to spend hours queuing for transport while others
have
resorted to walking.
Exorbitant fares of
between $15 000 and $25 000 a
single trip have forced some urban dwellers to
walk to and from work.
As the mystery of the
promised fuel continues to
mount, speculation has been rife on how the deal
for the fuel trickling into
the country was struck, how it was financed and
the quantities involved.
The French oil company,
Total, is the only local
distributor that has been selling fuel since
Mugabe's announcement.
However, Presidential
spokesperson, George Charamba,
played down fears that only minute quantities
of fuel are trickling into the
country.
He
said: "The fuel has been flowing in. Have you not
seen it? - Essential areas
like public transporters and farmers are
receiving first priority so that
they take care of your stomach. After that
we will move to joy
riders."
Fuel for farmers was being distributed
through the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, Charamba
said.
He would not comment on why Total is the
only
company receiving fuel and what deal enabled it to have exclusive
access to
the scarce commodity saying : "That is a contractual domain, there
is
nothing like friendship in business."
France has been indulgent towards Zimbabwe whose
relations with, much of
Europe have been on ice since the chaotic land
reform exercise, which began
in 2000.
Charamba only disclosed that the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe (IBZ) had funded the acquisition of the
fuel.
On suggestions that the fuel had been
sourced to
calm the nerves of restive voters ahead of the Senate elections
next month,
Charamba said: "The aim is to ensure that everything operates
normally so
there is no politics in that. Why would people be suspicious of
any
government intervention? In any case, the bulk of people who vote for
Zanu
PF use their feet to move around."
He
insisted the fuel had been sourced through the
RBZ, which had also raised
money for fertilizer and food.
Total Company's
public affairs director, Stanley
Hatendi, referred all questions to the
RBZ.
"I think if I comment I would be talking out
of
line. Talk to the RBZ people. I told them about the questions that you
are
asking and they said you should talk to
them."
However, the RBZ did not respond to
questions
submitted by The Standard.
Sources
at Total said the company initially wanted
to sell the diesel at $45 000 but
had been arm-twisted by the government to
sell it at $23 000 a
litre.
NOCZIM public relations manager,
Zvikomborero
Sibanda, said fuel was being sent to farmers and public
transporters.
"NOCZIM has in the past months been
prioritizing
allocation of fuel to farmers for the 2005-2006 summer cropping
season. The
amounts being allocated have, however, been below required
amounts. The
company has also been prioritizing public transport, Zupco and
the National
Railways of Zimbabwe."
Sibanda
said other priority areas were essential
services such as ambulances, grain
transporters, funeral parlours,
government departments and quasi-government
institutions and local
authorities.
Zimbabwe
Commercial Farmers' Union President,
Davison Mugabe, said a facility to
supply farmers with fuel was in place.
"This time
of the year is a peak period in terms of
demand for fuel as farmers are
preparing their fields. However, we have not
received fuel for some time,"
Mugabe said.
Zim Standard
By Valentine
Maponga
CIVIL engineering students at Masvingo Polytechnic have been
commandeered
into the construction of houses under "Operation Garikai" as
the government
trails its self-imposed targets, The Standard has
learnt.
Students last week said they were instructed to go and help in
the
construction of houses under the ambitious project as part of their
"practicals".
"We are being forced to go and help build the houses at the
farm and we have
been told not tell anyone from the media or we will face
expulsion. Our
lecturers told us that this was part of our practical
learning," said one
student who declined to be named for fear of
victimisation.
He said the affected students missed their August holidays
because they were
building the houses under "Operation Garikai".
The
houses in Masvingo are being constructed at Victoria Ranch near
Runyararo
West high-density suburb on stands that are yet to be serviced.
College
Principal, Barnabas Taderera, on Friday confirmed that the students
were
involved in the construction of the houses under "Garikai" but denied
that
they were being forced.
"It's part of their practical learning and we
just want them to get involved
with the real things on the ground. No one
has been forced. Instead of them
building fake structures and then
destroying them, we thought they should go
and help," Taderera
said.
He said the students were learning much faster because they are
getting
hands-on-experience. "Some students are going there on attachment
and those
who are still in college go for the electrification, planning and
building.
It's all meant for them to get the real feel of their chosen
professions,"
he said.
The government is struggling to meet its
target of building 4 000 houses
under "Garikai" in Masvingo due to a
critical shortage of building materials
and lack of funds.
Zim Standard
By
Godfrey Mutimba and Valentine Maponga
IN a bid to supplement their meagre
salaries, two soldiers based at 4.3
Infantry Battalion in Rutenga went on an
armed robbery spree along the
Masvingo-Beitbridge road, The Standard has
learnt.
Stephen Mbengeni (25) and Sibangiliswe Moyo (24), both soldiers,
and Misheck
Chakanyuka (54) of the NRZ appeared before Masvingo magistrate
Daisy
Makamure facing five charges of armed robbery.
State prosecutor Dan
Ndebele told the court that on five different
occasions, the two junior
officers connived with the NRZ security officer
and launched a spate of
raids on illegal fuel dealers.
The state alleged that the two who were
clad in their military uniforms
smuggled an assault rifle from their work
place and used an NRZ Toyota Hilux
registration number 549-462Q to rob fuel
worth $22 million, and cash from
black market dealers.
The court also
heard that on 24 September this year, the three patrolled the
Masvingo-Beitbrigde road and at the 133-km peg, assaulted Wonder Mushavira
and then stole 400 litres of diesel from him at gunpoint.
On the same
day, it is alleged that the three encountered Shylock Meshayi
and again
stole 280 litres of diesel before robbing Lisias Nyanga of $500
000.
The court was also told that on 6 October, they returned to the
same road
and robbed Jaston Chiwire of $1.5m before looting another 200
litres of
diesel from Johnson Nyanga.
The court alleges that the trio
sold the diesel to a fuel dealer identified
as Isaac Tawanda.
The
matter was reported to the police on 10 October, leading to their arrest
the
following day. They were remanded to tomorrow.
Meanwhile, reacting to
reports indicating that a number of soldiers were
detained at Chikurubi last
month, Lieutenant Colonel Aggrey Wushe said:
"That rumour started some weeks
ago but nothing like that has happened. I
actually went on to investigate
the matter with the military intelligence
and I have found out that that
story is a clear fabrication."
Wushe also denied allegations that
soldiers were not being allowed to retire
as authorities feared they could
not control them after leaving the army.
"People are retiring everyday. In
fact, the majority of the army personnel
have reached their retirement ages
and they are going. It is impossible to
deny someone who wants to retire the
opportunity to do so."
Sources had earlier in the week told The Standard
that the soldiers from
army barracks around Harare were arrested last month
and detained at
Chikurubi after making it clear that they could not survive
on the meagre
salaries they were getting.
"In the past, the soldiers
used to rely heavily on food rations from the
barracks but now they are
being forced to stay at home meaning that they
have to dig deeper into the
meagre salaries," said a source.
General duty soldiers earn less than $4
million a month.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - An enterprising Hwange farmer has been given two weeks
to vacate
Leefontien Railway 55 Farm in Lubongwe, Hwange, to make way for a
traditional leader.
Chief Shana, Zondani Jonah Melusi, who sits in
parliament, is alleged to
have recently shown interest in the farm currently
occupied by Gifton Dumani
after the Hwange businessman had introduced
irrigation facilities and
refurbished the property.
The farm had been
vandalised after the previous owner left it during the
invasions of
commercial farms.
The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement has already
served Dumani with a
letter, dated 27 September 2005, instructing him to
vacate the farm and pave
way for the chief.
Dumani has been occupying
the farm since 21 June 2004 after he acquired it
through the Ministry of
Lands.
Misheck Marandu, an Agricultural Research and Extension Services
(AREX)
official in Hwange confirmed that the chief would soon occupy the
farmhouse.
Marandu said Dumani had been living at the farm temporarily,
adding that he
had since been served with an eviction order.
"The
chief will occupy the farmhouse. They (Dumani and his family) were
staying
at the place on a temporary basis. We know that his family has been
staying
there for the past two years. However, he has to make way for the
chief who
was given permission by the government to occupy the farmhouse,"
Marandu
said.
He referred The Standard to the District Administrator, Moses
Mbewe, who was
not immediately available for comment.
Efforts to get
a comment from Chief Shana were fruitless at the time of
going to press but
Dumani told The Standard he had been taken by surprise
and did not know what
action to take.
He said what pained him most was that he had poured
millions of dollars in
renovating the farmhouse, installing electricity and
kick-starting the
irrigation project, in the hope that he had been
permanently allocated the
farm.
"I was told to leave the place after
I was given two weeks, starting from 1
October and I do not know what to do
next and where to take my belongings,
farming equipment and
livestock.
"It is not true that I was supposed to occupy the house on a
temporary basis
because I applied to the Ministry of Lands to occupy it
after the previous
farmer had left. The place was vandalised and I poured
millions of dollars
in refurbishing it," he said.
He added: "I find
it very saddening that a chief will want to take away
things that I have
invested a lot in."
Zim Standard
By our
staff
BULAWAYO - Essential city council services in Bulawayo are
collapsing
because the local authority's hands are tied and nothing can be
done to
address the deteriorating situation, says Bulawayo executive mayor
Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube.
Speaking during a recent breakfast meeting,
Ndabeni-Ncube told clerics that
the local authority "is under the grip of
the government and cannot do
anything to try and provide solutions to the
city's problems".
The ruling Zanu-PF government has always been against
MDC-led councils,
accusing them of failing to provide essential services.
The accusations led
to the former MDC Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri and his
Mutare counterpart,
Misheck Kagurabadza, being ejected from
office.
Bulawayo City Council is facing a host of problems - a crippling
water
crisis, lack of vehicles for refuse removal and serious shortages of
fuel.
The shortage of fuel has forced the council to suspend refuse
removal
services and the distribution of water using bowsers to clinics,
schools and
suburbs worst affected by the water crisis.
All the 20
trucks providing water are idle because of the fuel crisis. To
make matters
worse, the council cannot afford to buy fuel on the parallel
market.
At the onset of the water crisis in August, the local
authority requested
the government to declare it a water shortage area to
help it mobilise
resources aimed at solving the problem but the government
has been dragging
its feet over the issue.
Declaring the city a water
shortage area would, among other things, enable
the council to suspend or
amend any water permits, make orders in relation
to the abstraction,
appropriation, control and diversion or the use of
water.
"To be
honest, we are facing a crisis and we don't know what to do,"
Ndabeni-Ncube
said.
Bulawayo Agenda executive director, Gorden Moyo, said the
government was
watching with keen interest the collapse of the city for
political
expediency.
Moyo said the water problems were a result of
the water politics that have
been in the Matabeleland region since
independence.
"There are two dimensions to the crisis . there is water
politics and the
government being against the MDC-led and run councils and
as a result they
don't want to help.
"In Matabeleland there is a long
history of water problems and people have
called on the government to
intervene but up to now nothing has been done. I
wonder what has happened to
the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project?
"The government is also not
willing to help the MDC-run local authorities
simply because they are saying
if they chip in they will be helping the
opposition. They are looking at the
crisis with a political eye and not a
humanitarian one. In Bulawayo they are
waiting for a disaster to strike
before they can lift their hands and help,"
Moyo said.
Ndabeni-Ncube, like any other mayor in Zimbabwe, has been
stripped of the
powers to make decisions that relate to the running of the
city.
Almost all services, which need local authority approval, have to
pass
through an inter-ministerial committee.
Zim Standard
By our staff
BULAWAYO -
The Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) has
failed to pay
more than 200 workers in Matabeleland region during the past
three months
resulting in "untold suffering" among the affected employees.
The
parastatal, a major player in Zimbabwe's land reforms, last paid its
workers
at the various estates it operates in June this year.
According to some of
the affected workers, life has become unbearable as
they are living from
hand to mouth although the organisation is generating
billions of dollars a
month through various agricultural activities such as
horticulture, beef and
dairy farming, summer and winter crop cultivation and
tea
production.
"We are failing to make ends meet. We have been reduced to
beggars because
ARDA has failed to pay us during the past three months. We
have not been
given genuine reasons why the parastatal is failing to pay our
salaries,"
said one of the affected workers who declined to be identified
for fear of
contravening sections of the Official Secrets Act.
He
said: "The situation is really bad in all the estates in Matabeleland
region
and most of the affected workers are failing to fend for their
families. To
make matters worse, we cannot afford to buy basic necessities
and our
children have stopped going to school because we haven't paid their
fees.
Other affected workers echoed his sentiments saying morale was
low at
Antelope, Segdwick, Jotsholo and Balu ARDA estates.
Arda chief
executive officer Dr Joseph Matowanyika was said to be visiting
various
estates and therefore could not be reached for comment.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
BREAD manufacturing concern, Lobels (Pvt) Limited, has embarked on
a
retrenchment drive that will see more than half of its workforce redundant
by the first quarter of next year, The Standard has learnt.
Apart
from the retrenchment, the company has also drastically reduced the
quantity
and quality of bread it bakes citing the increasing cost of diesel
and the
shortage of wheat.
Only last month, about 100 of the remaining 900 workers
countrywide were
laid off while those with 18 leave days were asked to take
some days off.
The exercise is being carried out in phases and more are
still to be laid
off, officials in the company said.
Of the 100
workers that were retrenched, 37 faced charges of stealing from
the company
but when the management failed to prove the allegations, it
dropped them,
and opted instead to retrench the workers involved.
"We spent two nights
in cells at Mbare Police Station but because there was
no case we were
released. This is when the company said it was retrenching
us," said one of
the workers, who requested anonymity for fear of
jeopardizing his
retrenchment package.
But Lobels' chief executive officer, Burombo
Mudumo, said in a statement:
"As to the reports on employees retrenched,
those are negotiated agreements
to part ways with a group of employees on
realizing that there was loss of
trust between the parties (employer and
employees).
"This was based on a case where the police, investigating a
suspected theft
racket, picked the 37 employees. The details of who was
involved and how
they were stealing bread were obtained through the
company's suggestion box
system. Instead of going to court, we agreed to
negotiate with the employees
through their lawyers to amicably part ways on
the basis of substantial loss
of trust. They were paid fully according to
the laws of Zimbabwe."
On bread, he said the government controlled the
price of bread and a
standard loaf of breadwas still gazetted at $7 500.
Negotiations were in
progress in order to seek a review of the
price.
The government, however, does not control the prices of fancy and
premium
loaves of bread and this is one reason why bread is available on the
market
at prices of $25 000 and above a loaf.
Mudumo, the winner 2004
businessman of the year award, said: "The cause of
the high prices is purely
because bakers are buying diesel at $90 000 a
litre and flour is averaging
$8 million a tonne. Over and above that, all
other input costs have gone up
and bakeries are just trying to survive and
stay afloat in this very
difficult environment."
Zim Standard
WATCHING the conflagration called "Operation Murambatsvina"
and the
subsequent fire-fighting and anachronistically named "Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle" all amid a din of galas and more recently biras, I
cannot help recalling the tragic-comic story of the clearly unhinged Emperor
Nero - in the first century. Like a man possessed, with the help of
overzealous and ingratiating city planners, and to the accompaniment of
music - is said to have, by commission or omission, allowed Rome to burn to
the ground in order to pave way for a palatial residence and leisure
park.
One lesson that can be extrapolated from this sordid historical
footnote
which gave currency to the saying fiddle while Rome burns, is that
politicians, as if living in cloud cuckoo-land, have this unfathomable or
shadow boxing habit of imperiously preoccupying themselves with symptoms
instead of addressing causes of crises.
Any C grade (average) secondary
school student will tell you that squatting
(or so-called illegal
structures) is symptomatic of rural-urban migration, a
situation which in
our country's case was exacerbated by a non-performing
economy, in which
populist policies and programmes, have all but killed the
goose that once
laid the golden egg.
Globally, it has been seen that it is not
sustainable, even in the former
welfare states, for governments to even
contemplate, let alone attempt to
build and dish out houses like confetti,
without recovering the attendant
costs.
Governments, unless they are
determined to punish the financially anaemic
taxpayers, should only play a
facilitatory role to ensure a stable
macro-economic environment obtains
that, among other things, allows workers
(where they exist) to be gainfully
employed and, more importantly, be able
to borrow non-extortionist loans or
mortgages to finance their housing
needs.
Looking at government's
track record in relation to among others, education,
health and now housing,
I am reminded of my school days when naïve sprinters
who were used to
running short distances would, despite lacking the
necessary conditions and
stamina, decide to take part in a gruelling
marathon, only to collapse and
end up prostate mid-race.
Building houses is definitely not going to be a
stroll in the park. Signs of
fatigue in the housing marathon are already
evident, with the government
calling for smart partnerships with the private
sector. But then, if one may
ask, whose "smart" idea was it to demolish the
so-called illegal structures
in the first place?
The biggest
post-independence tragedy is that the government has shown this
suicidal
proclivity of engaging in self congratulatory revelry, pretty much
like a
career arsonist who celebrates extinguishing infernos that he starts.
It
is now belatedly sinking in that by simply expecting, instead of actually
demanding a government that is accountable to the electorate (and not one
that regards itself as a deity) we, as a nation have over the years turned
the other cheek and in the process created a monster of Frankenstein
proportions.
David
Mupfurutsa
Marlborough
Harare
Zim Standard
TO fellow Zimbabweans, wherever we are, it's time for us to
work out
practical ways of ending the suffering we are being subjected
to.
How long are we going to pretend that we can sustain this way of life
where
prices are going up daily, unavailability of essential goods, services
and
inputs is the order of the day, while laws which force everyone into
operating as criminals continue to be formulated.
As Zimbabweans, do we
not realise that we are being forced to direct our
frustrations towards each
other instead of confronting the uncaring
government responsible for all our
suffering.
Workers turn against employers, demanding ridiculously high
salaries beyond
the cost of living or the Poverty Datum Line, but forgetting
that the
employers themselves, due to the prevailing economic situation
can't meet
these demands as their revenue hasn't increased 30-fold in real
terms since
the beginning of the year.
Parents' Associations and
School Development Associations/Councils are at
each other's throats due to
the need to increase fees. Councils and rate
payers don't see eye to eye as
service delivery continues to deteriorate
against a background of higher
rates. Fuel dealers continue charging
exorbitant unstable prices, crippling
both individuals and businesses with
no solution in sight to the
crisis.
Can we shift the way we think and ask ourselves whether this is
not our
problem and how we should solve it so that we stop moaning day in
and day
out. Suggestions can be sent to progressive newspapers or whatever
effective
mode of communication employed.
Our dignity and social
fabric are being torn to shreds while we watch. If
the United Nations had
not intervened, Sam Levy's Village would by now be in
ruins, and I ask: For
what reasons?
No sacrifice No gain
Mount
Pleasant
Harare
Zim Standard
I AM a civil servant
and suffering just like most Zimbabweans resident in
the country. I would
like to contribute to debate on the controversial
Senate
elections.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC President, is right that it serves
no purpose to
participate in the Senate elections. I am convinced I am
representing the
majority of MDC supporters and the general populace when I
say it is against
the wish of the people for the party to preoccupy itself
with representation
in the Senate, which will account for a large proportion
of taxpayers'
money, when the masses are starving.
Let us get serious
with the struggle. Mind you, we are at a ripe age for the
final phase of the
revolution. All the signs are there for you to see. There
is no reason to
steer the ship off-course at the last minute. You had rather
not legitimise
this regime by dancing to their tune. There is no democracy
when the results
of an election are pre-determined.
You know exactly what percentage of
seats is deliberately reserved for you
to give the government an appearance
of being very democratic. We, the
people, feel the so-called intellectuals
are greedy and that is the reason
why they want senate positions at the
expense of our wishes. Please, do not
take us for granted. This party enjoys
the limelight thanks to the support
it receives from us. Take heed. We shall
not follow you blindly!
Why did you not consult the people like you did,
together with the National
Constitutional Assembly in 2000? Thereafter,
announce your collective
decision after a meeting of the national council,
rather than the discordant
clashes.
Any action taken must be done,
not as MDC but as MDC, the civil society, NCA
and the people. We are ready
for action. Some of us are already on go-slow
in preparation for real
action.
A Civil Servant
Harare
Zim Standard
By our
staff
PROPERTY baron Nicholas van Hoogstraten has pounced into the
tourism sector
after acquiring key equity in the Rainbow Tourism Group
(RTG).
Standardbusiness heard last week that the business mogul, reputed
to be an
ally of President Robert Mugabe, had swooped on Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange-listed RTG following the unwillingness by other shareholders to
follow their rights. Last month RTG made a renounceable rights' offer to
shareholders in a bid to raise $80 billion.
The offer opened on 19
September and closed on 30 September.
According to RTG's new share
register Van Hoogstraten's Messina Investments
has 2.17 % with 35 727 640
shares.
Foreign investors - notably Accor Afrique and Libyan Arab African
Investments Company (LAAICO) - have reduced their stake in the hospitality
concern to 9.08% and 3.65% respectively. Initially Accor Afrique and LAAICO
had 34.20% and 13.84% shareholding respectively.
Initially, Accor
Afrique had 34,2% but now has 9,01%, whilst LAAICO had
13,83% but now only
has 3,65%.
Existing shareholders took up 42% of the rights offers shares,
rights offer
shares taken up by underwriters and subsequently placed with
institutional
investors accounted for 52% while underwriters took up 6% of
the rights
offer shares. The new RTG shares issued in terms of the rights
offer listed
on ZSE on Monday.
Rights offer proceeds will be used for
refurbishment of the group's
facilities, which will gobble $45.6
billion.
RTG has indicated that Touch the Wild lodges require investments
in both
furnishings and entertainment facilities " in order to make them
suitable
for the newly identified local corporate and leisure
market".
Working capital financing will chalk up $13.6 billion of the
proceeds,
regional investments and IT upgrade will account for $8 billion
apiece with
expenses of the rights offer taking up $4.8
billion.
While there are new shareholders into the hospitality group such
as chairman
Ibbo Mandaza (0.35%) and optician Solomon Guramatunhu (0.23),
Van
Hoogstraten's acquisition has consolidated his grip on ZSE stocks. The
business magnate has over 30% shareholding in Hwange Colliery Company, about
7% in CFI Holdings and is the single largest shareholder in NMB.
Van
Hoogstraten - who has relocated to Zimbabwe from the UK - has courted
controversy internationally by describing President Mugabe as "100% decent
and incorruptible".
He is also alleged to have boasted "the only
purpose of creating great
wealth like mine is to separate oneself from the
rif-raff."
Zim Standard
sundayfocus By
Chikwambo Chatunga
A chikwambo is a spirit of the dead under the
malevolent control of the
living. The only purpose for which a goblin is
useful is the destruction of
the livelihoods of targeted living persons, for
whatever reason its
psychopathic controller deems fit. A chikwambo is
destructive and
particularly unreasonable. One can purchase it from any
reputable
n'anga/sangoma/witchdoctor.
Looking at the track record of
President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, I cannot
help suspecting that Zimbabwe is
being run along similar lines and has gone
out of control. Once upon a time
he could pass for a liberator. We applauded
him, not knowing that we were
stroking a demon and approving a signature we
will live to regret - mayhem
and a predilection for vacuous populist mania;
except that soon enough the
populism became divorced from its intended
beneficiaries and the chaos
engulfed a whole nation.
Bereft of legitimate enemies the demon has long
turned on its children, for
that is what we are. We have become nails for
the carpenter whose only tool
is a hammer.
Seriously, it never was
only about vanquishing the evil Ian Smith regime,
nor was it ever about
liberating the children of the soil, it now seems. It
is certainly not now
about economic transformation and turnaround. To the
demolition man, purpose
is fulfilled in seeking out, and often creating,
enemies and destroying
them; be they white or black, rich or poor, visible
or invisible. He is
intoxicated with the arrogance of power. Solutions
deprive him of purpose.
They make him appear weak - to himself, of course.
The enduring ruler and
his coterie of hangers-on must prevail as the only
measure of
potency.
To illustrate this; first it was the evil Smith regime that got
demolished;
then through a series of typically devious and brutal moves
(proprietary
"politics", he calls it), Zapu and its supporters were
frog-marched into
"Unity".
The war against Renamo and the DRC war
against Rwandan and
Ugandan-controlled rebels drew from the same visceral
motivation, although
couched, again typically, in high-minded principles
that few of us could
object to.
Small fry Ndabaningi Sithole (who for
some reason haunted Zanu PF until he
was interred ignominiously), Edgar
Tekere, Eddison Zvobgo (who held a party
card), Dzikamai Mavhaire, Jonathan
Moyo, Henry Hamadziripi and a long list
of others which continues to grow
even now, were quickly neutralised under a
barrage of invective and
harassment.
Had they not been the erstwhile liberation hammer, the war
veterans would
have faced the same demise in short shrift, although by now
they are none
the wiser for it. After the gratuity, their call for land
restitution
reminded the intoxicated destroyer that the evil Smith regime
had only gone
underground in the countryside after all.
What followed
is breaking news: a precipitous economic collapse (Even Mum's
street-corner
vegetable stall, which paid for our school fees, is gone)
owing much less to
imperialists than to dogged, supernatural incompetence.
How else can the
most educated government ever superintend the worst
performing economy in
history, where every miserable contrivance to fix
things only makes them
worse! How come these learned gentlemen fail to see
that political
sovereignty cannot exist outside of economic stability; that
there is a
strong case for humble pie in an interdependent, shrinking world?
Why, even
muscular George W Bush reluctantly subsists on swill every now and
then!
My point is that Mugabe is only at his best destroying things.
He does not
build anything of his own volition, nor has he ever. He only
reacts to
fast-moving threats. The outcome is always fatal. He lacks the
soft touch,
the diplomatic tact, the human respect and humility, or the
selfless
detachment required to build enduring socio-economic
structures.
The only structure that endures is him. It's all about him.
While he may at
times have given Africa at large a sense of dignity (New
African's "No. 3
Greatest African of All Time"), he invariably unwinds his
position at home.
He cannot be Father of the Nation by any stretch. His
cold, hateful,
vengeful personality hangs like a pall of smoke across this
land.
On a dark night you can almost make out his ominous visage across
the
Zimbabwean firmament. He is a severe, humourless man. As the
Machiavellian
chaacter that he is, he would rather be feared than liked.
Someone did him
unforgivable wrong in his misty past and he cannot remember
who. But he is
in charge. He owns this place and all its
minions.
Cowardly smart alecks may pontificate endlessly about desirable
monetary,
fiscal, structural, macro-economic and other high-minded scholarly
policies,
ad nauseum, that could reverse Zimbabwe's socio-economic decay,
but the
Demolition Man must please go first.
Development matters are
not demolition jobs. Revolutionaries are not the
best custodians of the
revolution. Visionaries are seldom effective
strategists. Let him weave his
Senatorial parachute and depart.
Zim Standard
By Reyhana
Masters
BEFORE I am labelled in the usual manner that Zimbabweans are an
opposition
activist, a Zanu PF sympathizer or some such other thing, let me
explain why
I write this.
I listened to story after story after story
of incredible violence against
very ordinary people who were unable to find
justice anywhere. There has not
been any retribution and it is very unlikely
that there will be retribution
against those who committed these crimes of
violence. It was difficult to
listen to these accounts of brutality and this
was more so difficult because
I could offer nothing in return.
But maybe
I can give voice to these people and so I write this because I am
outraged
and I am articulating the deep frustration felt by the people who
have
suffered and continue to suffer.
Five years ago incredible violence swept
through this country. It came in
many forms and the attacks seemed random
but it soon became apparent that
the violence was strategic, well planned
and deliberately carried out.
Farm workers had their homes destroyed,
their possessions burnt and they
ended up displaced and destitute. Some of
them have never recovered.
Teachers were brutally beaten up and discarded.
Students were terrorized.
Property was burnt or destroyed. People were left
homeless. All that
violence was numbing.
As I travelled around the
countryside I would hear the hair-raising stories
of people having narrow
escapes. Most often there was no escape. For many of
the villagers the
attackers would come in the night. There was a knock on
the door, followed
by banging. Family members who answered - usually a child
or wife were
harassed, humiliated and most often beaten up. These villagers,
many of whom
had spent years sacrificing much and building their lives
suddenly lost
everything - their crops, their food, their livestock and
their
livelihoods.
Women were raped - often brutally and in the presence of
family members.
Many of them ended up HIV positive. Many pregnant women
repeatedly told
their stories of how they were beaten up and had miscarried
as a result.
Women and children lost their fathers and brothers. Men and
children lost
their wives and mothers respectively. There are those who had
their ears cut
off or parts of their bodies mutilated. There are those who
just
disappeared. There are those who died. The stories go on and
on.
All of this was done in the name of politics. Opposition politics to
be
precise. For the first time there was a formidable opposition. And it was
the people of Zimbabwe who paid the price.
But they did so with
courage and with conviction. Despite the threat of
danger at every corner
there were those who braved the environment.
As we all have witnessed,
the violence intensified and the repression
continued. What always struck me
when people narrated stories of the
violence inflicted upon them was the
fact that they did so in a very
matter-of-fact way. What always came through
was how brave determined they
were to continue supporting the MDC. As I
often sat listening to the
harrowing tales of violence I sometimes felt that
their faith was misguided
but how could I offer my cynicism to the wave of
hope that people felt.
Five years later I am outraged on behalf of
Zimbabweans who have suffered
and the Zimbabweans who have lived through
extreme difficulties. As I write
we all may try to bury our heads in the
sand and pretend otherwise but there
is great suffering, extreme poverty,
hunger, ill health and uncertainty
facing this country.
So how
devastating for all those who risked life and limb, to now be faced
with an
opposition that is so conspicuously divided. The decision by the MDC
to
contest/not contest the senate polls leaves the general public confused,
uncertain and without hope. Morgan Tsvangirai quite accurately says:
"Democracy in Zimbabwe is still a farce." But the manner in which the MDC
has made its decision and the way in which they imparted that information is
farcical and absolutely ludicrous.
The fumbling and inept manner in
which critical decisions such as this are
made is devastatingly
disappointing. Do people who have put up with so much
deserve to be rewarded
with an opposition that dithers and dawdles over
major decisions with no
clear vision of what and why they are doing
something.
I am probably
naïve and idealistic, but I am sure that all the people who
have suffered
over the years including MDC MPs themselves would have wanted
different. You
want to know that you have suffered for a reason.
Zimbabweans know that
decisions in our particular environment are not easy.
Often we are caught
between a rock and a hard place.
This country is in desperate need of
clear and strategic thinkers. It needs
people who make decisions with
absolute conviction. The country needs people
who know what they are doing
and know why they are doing it.
The MDC has to make it clear to the
general populace throughout the country,
why a certain decision has been
made and what the implications of that
decision are. When a final decision
is made have the courage to stand
together and confirm this decision with
all the conviction you can muster.
People need a party that knows what it
wants and is clear that the stakes
are high and the risks are even
higher.
If MDC continues bumbling along as they have when critical
decisions have to
be made, there is no doubt that they too will have
committed the crime of
exploitation and they too will have done so in the
name of that which is
righteous and just.
Zimbabweans have had enough
of that!
Zim Standard
sundayopinion By Sure
Mataramvura
I remember an incident that took place when I was walking
along Rezende
Street in Harare eight years ago. There was a small group of
people making
enough noise to attract any passer by. I could hear shouts of
"Ndahwina!" (I
have won!) from a distance.
I investigated and sure
enough, there was a group of boys and two women with
children on their backs
and one smartly dressed lady with a purse. The
smartly dressed lady started
to gamble and she "won".
But there followed a series of losses for the lady
gambler. In short, she
lost all her money. Midway into the game she
discovered that she had been
conned of all her money and started crying. She
decided to abandon the
gambling forthwith. She started crying and telling
everyone who cared to
listen that she had been conned, but there was no one
to help her. All the
boys and women with children had dispersed in different
directions.
I raised my head and realized that they were some shabby
looking guys with
blood-shot eyes watching and telling me that I would die
if I dared
volunteer to be a witness. I quickly left. This is the game they
call
"feja-feja". In probability theory it is called a biased game. The
outcome
is known and favourable to the designers of the game. But
surprisingly the
game looks very genuine.
I have recounted this
personal experience with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change MDC
in mind. Right from the formation of the MDC, the
party was very confident
that it would win elections especially given the
situation on the ground
where everything seemed not to be working for Zanu
PF.
The economy
was not doing well. But the MDC forgot one thing; that it was
the Zanu PF
government which was running the elections. Unfortunately, it
was too early
to doubt that the elections in Zimbabwe were like "feja-feja".
This is where
the MDC missed their cue.The outcomes of all previous
elections are no
different from the little story that I recounted at the
beginning of this
contribution.
The optimal thing for the MDC was to fight for a level
playing field before
the 2000 parliamentary elections and to threaten to
boycott them at that
stage. Once they participated, they were in the shoes
of the smartly dressed
lady in my "feja-feja" story. They "won" 57 seats as
a motivation to
continue playing. Now they are on the losing trek. At this
stage Morgan
Tsvangirai is asking his multitude of supporters whether it is
sensible to
continue gambling. The outcome is known, he tells everyone. He
is very
right. The outcome was known even before and it will continue to be
known.
Now he has to decide as chief executive of the party on what is
optimal to
either protect the small "loot" (41 seats) left for him half-way
in the
game, or continue participating in the elections hoping to gain more
but
risking to lose even more credibility as a major opposition party. That
is a
catch-22 situation and to be honest "feja-feja" games have no theories
and
no one can best advise the MDC on what to do on the Senatorial
elections:
that is, whether to participate or not because both outcomes
bring
undesirable results.
He can decide to sulk but in Shona they
say "waramwira gudo munda". The
assumption is normally that sulking will
cause the other side to give in.
Zanu PF does not care. They would rather
watch human bodies rotting in
mortuaries while channelling money to Senate
elections.
They destroyed people's homes in an operation they named
"Murambatsvina".
They removed the MDC mayors of Harare and Mutare accusing
them of
incompetence and replaced them with their supporters who are many
times more
corrupt and incompetent. University lecturers are earning less
than $4m a
month in real terms. Driving is now a luxury in Zimbabwe but its
business as
usual for Zanu PF and their apologists. So would they lose sleep
becuse the
MDC is boycotting the elections? Definitely not. They do not care
about
Zimbabwe. They care about themselves. There are some people who write
articles to newspapers telling us that the MDC is confused and is failing to
gain ground on the political scene. They forget that there is no ground to
be gained in the first place. Zimbabwe is not a democracy. Period. There is
no point pretending that one day any political party will win under the
current situation. It was the same with Ian Smith's Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
elections in 1979. If Zanu PF had participated in those elections, Bishop
Abel Muzorewa's party was going to "win".
That is why Zanu PF went on
a serious campaign to discredit those elections
until proper ones were
conducted in 1980 under international observation.
This is what the MDC
failed to do - to campaign vigorously before the 2000
elections that the
playing field was not even and that the UN be involved in
conducting the
elections.
Zanu PF then, was ill-prepared to bar organizations from
monitoring
elections because they wanted to appear genuine. The following is
my opinion
on why the MDC lacks such foresight and strategies.President
Robert Mugabe's
government tells everyone who wants to listen that it has
successfully run
many democratic elections in the country. They argue that
they do not need
anyone to lecture them on how to run elections. They are
fair elections,
they argue. They however forget to tell the same people that
they are lying
because if they were not, then why would they ban discussion
of politics in
the country through POSA.
In fact with the current
situation where they won technically more than two
thirds, which would imply
statistically that there is no more threat to
their governance, why would
they plan not to give visas to all Zimbabweans
who want to travel outside
and why would they arrest people who are walking
to work? The reason is that
in "feja-feja" there are the red-eyed boys who
have to watch those who want
to blow the whistle. That is why I was almost
in trouble in Rezende Street
for trying to stand a witness to what the
conned lady went through.Finally,
let me give my opinion on why the MDC
leadership is remaining behind in
strategies as opposed to Zanu PF. Forget
about the infiltration by Zanu PF,
which of course is a contributing factor.
One of the major reasons is that
the MDC leadership is a union and not an
intersection. By definition, a
union is a collection of sets with or without
common elements in them,
whereas an intersection is a collection of common
elements in different
sets.
This should explain why Munyaradzi Gwisai was quickly shown the
exit door
because after forming the union, they now wanted to find a common
intersection. That has proved too complicated for the party leaders. Zanu PF
also has had its share in this. Many leaders have fallen by the wayside
after differing with the Great Leader, Uncle Bob. The only difference is
that Zanu PF has the State media to do public relations for it even at its
lowest ebb, whereas the MDC can easily be portrayed as a divided party each
time they expose their differences.
At present, the reality is that
Zanu PF is more divided than the MDC but the
perception created by the media
is the opposite. That is how powerful the
media is and that's why the CIO is
interested in owning more.Secondly, the
MDC leadership lacks forward
planners. Picture this; the MDC knew about the
Senate elections since Mugabe
hinted on it ages ago, even during the time
when it was a plan by Patrick
Chinamasa. It was at that time they should
also have planned in advance,
looking at all possible scenarios. They should
have come up with resolutions
and said that if Zanu PF pushed its idea of a
Senate, they would take
action. Such a plan must have been there to avoid
bickering at the last
minute.
At present there is plan to extend the president's term to 2010
through some
constitutional manoeuvres. The MDC should sit down and plan
ahead for that.
As a result such lack of foresight puts the MDC in the same
category as Zanu
PF's lack of planning when it comes to economic issues. The
country has been
left in the doldrums economically only for them to try and
find a solution
when the problem is already out of hand. Once some idea
comes out, ministers
then rush to the State media to tell people that this
problem will be a
"thing of the past". In most cases it ends as an idea. As
a result, the MDC
needed such people like the late Learnmore Jongwe ,former
Highfield MP Gwisa
and current St Mary's MP Job Sikhala to mention but a few
, in as much as
Zanu PF needed such people like Eddison Zvobgo and Edgar
Tekere during and
immediately after the war.
These individuals are
generally radicals in party language but because of
their radicalism, they
often get into trouble with those in power and they
quickly think of a way
out. They are thus the party strategists and forward
planners. They are good
at "jambanja" when called for. At present the MDC
leadership is composed of
smart guys who put on ties and jackets. These guys
are only good in peace
time. Every revolutionary movement must have in equal
proportions the
radicals and the gentlemen. The danger though, is that after
winning the
battle, the radicals must be safely accommodated far away from
power because
they can easily become leaders and dictators. The ANC bought
most of them
out by giving them money to start projects through Black
Empowerment. They
are very quiet. So the MDC needs to go back and
re-strategize.Lastly,
political opportunists are already preying on the
desperate Zimbabweans. I
almost laughed when I heard that Professor Jonathan
Moyo wanted to form or
was linked to a new party but I realized that
Zimbabwe is in trouble. Under
normal circumstances, he should be humiliated
for what he did to the
Zimbabwean media. He should be feeling the rejection
of the people but lo
and behold, he is safely negotiating his way to
becoming the new hero.