Zim Online
Wed 19
October 2005
MUTARE - Police here had to intervene to break up
violent clashes on
Tuesday between rival factions of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party as sharp differences over contesting next
month's Senate election
threaten to tear apart the opposition
party.
The six-year opposition party has failed to agree on whether
to
contest the November 26 election with leader Morgan Tsvangirai insisting
the
MDC should boycott the election while the party's national council, many
of
whose members hope to win seats in the new Senate, says they should
contest
the poll.
Violence broke out in Mutare, Zimbabwe's
fourth largest city, when a
group of MDC supporters that backs Tsvangirai's
position stormed the party
provincial offices to voice their displeasure at
the provincial leadership
who are in favour of contesting the
poll.
But the provincial executive was quick to act, mobilising its
own
backers to counter protests by the pro-boycott faction with violence
ensuing
almost immediately as the two factions met each
other.
Police spokesman Joshua Tigere told
ZimOnline: "We managed to restore
order after MDC supporters clashed over
internal party issues."
Tigere could not say whether there were any
injuries or whether the
police had arrested any of the opposition
supporters.
MDC chairman in Manicaland province under which Mutare
lies, Prosper
Mutseyami declined to talk to the Press about the clashes
saying he would
only do so after the "dust settles".
He said:
"Our party is faced with major difficulties. I would rather
not talk to the
Press over that issue until the dust settles."
The sharp
differences over whether to contest the Senate poll have
brought to the fore
divisions in the MDC over what strategy to use to unseat
President Robert
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party.
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.
But commission head High
Court Judge George Chiweshe has indicated
that the commission would ignore
Tsvangirai's letter.
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
the proposed Senate would
be 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.
The other faction of the MDC
pushing for the opposition party to
contest the election is said to be led
by secretary general Welshman Ncube
and includes executives of at least six
of the party's 12 provinces. Both
Tsvangirai and Ncube however deny their
party is riven by factionalism. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 19 October 2005
JOHANNESBURG - South African church
leaders on Tuesday gave up clothes
they had sourced for victims of
Zimbabwe's slum clearing campaign to
immigrants from that country living in
South Africa because of fear of
red-tape involved in getting aid to
Harare.
South African Council of Churches (SACC) provincial
organising
secretary Reverend Gift Moerane told ZimOnline that the council
had decided
that given the bureaucratic hurdles encountered the last time
they sent aid
to Harare, it was better to donate the clothes to Zimbabwean
immigrants in
South Africa who were also in need.
"The
paperwork and all the procedures at the border were strenuous. In
a meeting
last week, we agreed that it was better to focus on Zimbabwean
refugees who
are based here because they are also living in dire straits,"
said Moerane,
as he handed over the clothes to the immigrants at Yeoville
Recreational
Centre in Johannesburg.
More than 300 immigrants were at the centre
to receive the clothes.
Six thousand blankets and 37 tonnes of food
raised by the SACC for the
slum clearing victims remained stuck at
Beitbridge for several weeks as
Harare customs authorities first demanded
duty for the goods, this despite
the fact that Zimbabwe does not charge duty
on aid.
When the government finally agreed to waive duty after
heavy lobbying
by Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations, it still would
not allow the
food into the country saying it first wanted proof that the
food was not
organic.
Zimbabwe and several other southern
African governments prohibit
genetically modified food over safety
concerns.
The food consignment was allowed into Zimbabwe several
weeks later and
only after the South African Department of Agriculture
issued a certificate
confirming the food was not organically
produced.
The SACC had in August said it would launch a massive
relief operation
dubbed "Operation Restore Hope for Zimbabwe" to help some
of the 700 000
people that the United Nations said were left without shelter
or means of
survival after President Robert Mugabe ordered police to
demolish shantytown
homes, city backyard cottages and informal business
kiosks.
The UN said another 2.4 million people were also affected
by the
operation that was widely condemned by the international community
but which
Mugabe defended as necessary to smash crime and restore the beauty
of
Zimbabwe's cities.
While Mugabe's government is stalling on
a request by the UN for the
world body to raise US$30 million worth of aid
for the victims of the urban
clean-up campaign, it appears hurdles it placed
in the way of the SACC in
August effectively knocked flat the zeal of the
council to assist internally
displaced Zimbabweans. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 19 October 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe's High
Court has ordered a traditional chief to pay
Z$25 million (about US$1 000)
in civil damages to an opposition official he
illegally detained for
addressing a rally in his area in the run-up to last
March's disputed
election.
In a ruling delivered on Wednesday this week, Justice
Samson Kudya
found Chief Saunyama of Nyanga district, about 290km north-east
of Harare,
guilty of unlawfully detaining Douglas Mwonzora, who
unsuccessfully stood
for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party in Nyanga
constituency in the parliamentary poll.
The
chief was also ordered to pay interest on the amount together with
costs of
the lawsuit.
The court was told that on January 29 2005, the chief
backed by hordes
of his bodyguards, stormed Nyatate business centre where
Mwonzora was
addressing an election campaign rally.
They
bundled Mwonzora and his supporters into their truck and forcibly
took them
to Nyanga police station.
The chief was said to have paraded his
hostages at major business
centres in Nyanga boasting that he had "arrested
sell-outs." The chief then
demanded that the police at Nyanga detain
Mwonzora for addressing an
"illegal" rally in his area.
But the
police refused to do so saying Mwonzora had complied with
tough state
security laws governing political activities in the country. The
police also
told Chief Saunyama to return his 'hostages' to Nyatate.
In an
affidavit submitted to court, Mwonzora said: "I thought it was
genuine
ignorance (on the chief's part) and had thought this was a once-off
incident.
"But when Chief Saunyama called a meeting of all the
14 village heads
under him, threatening punitive action if ever they allowed
me to hold
rallies in the area, it convinced me that the chief was acting as
a
political agent and decided to sue."
Mwonzora lost the Nyanga
seat to the ruling ZANU PF party's candidate
Paul Kadzima. He is however
challenging the result at the Zimbabwe Electoral
Court (ZEC) alleging
massive violence and intimidation ahead of the
election. Kudya is yet to
rule on Mwonzora's main application to have the
poll result
overturned.
But the ZEC, which was appointed by President Robert
Mugabe earlier
this year to deal with electoral disputes, has so far
dismissed three cases
brought by the MDC challenging ZANU PF candidates'
election victories.
The opposition party accuses the government of
using traditional
chiefs - who it pays hefty salaries as well as giving them
cars - to
intimidate their subjects to vote for the ruling party. Both ZANU
PF and the
Chiefs' Council deny the charge. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 19 October
2005
CHINHOYI - Prison officers in Chinhoyi town, about 120km
north-west of
Harare, have turned on food meant for inmates saying they can
no longer
afford to buy their own meals.
Zimbabwe is going
through a severe economic crisis which has seen
prices of basic foodstuffs
spiraling out of control with for example the
cheapest loaf of bread costing
Z$28 000 or slightly more than one American
dollar.
Prison
guards, among some of the worst paid civil servants, earn a net
salary of
about $3 million a month which is way below the $9 million that
the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe says an average family of two parents and
four children
requires for basic services and goods per month.
"I can't afford to
buy breakfast as well as lunch or supper when I am
on duty and all what I
have to do is eat what is there. It is unfortunate
that the food is meant
for prisoners," said a prison officer who refused to
be named for fear of
victimisation.
Prison officials in Chinhoyi refused to take
questions on the matter
while Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, whose
department oversees prisons,
could not be reached for comment.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights executive director Arnold Tsunga
said it
was not surprising that jail guards have resorted to eating rations
meant
for inmates saying the incident only highlighted the magnitude of the
hunger
gripping Zimbabwe's poor working class as the country grapples severe
economic recession.
"It's unfortunate that the officials are
doing this as it is unlawful
. . . but I am not surprised at all because
this shows the magnitude of
hunger that has hit the working class. We are
prepared to probe further and
highlight it to the authorities," said
Tsunga.
In addition to hunger, Zimbabweans must also grapple acute
shortages
of fuel, electricity, essential medical drugs and nearly every
other basic
commodity because there is no hard cash to pay foreign
suppliers.
Critics blame the six-year old economic crisis on
mismanagement and
repression by President Robert Mugabe in particular his
chaotic and often
violent seizure of productive land from white farmers
which destabilised the
mainstay agricultural sector causing a 60 percent
drop in food output.
But the Zimbabwean leader denies ruining the
country blaming its
problems on economic sabotage by Britain and its Western
allies out to fix
his government for seizing land from whites and giving it
over to landless
blacks. - ZimOnline
Washington Times
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
October
19, 2005
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's despot, has given new meaning
to the axiom
absolute power corrupts absolutely. He's tried all manner of
tricks to shed
blame on his turning southern Africa's breadbasket into an
agricultural
basketcase. He's even laid blame on Mother Nature, saying a
drought, not his
violent land confiscation a few years back, shriveled up
his country's
farmland. This week, Mr. Mugabe blamed the lesser forces of
man, or two men,
to be exact.
In a speech anticipated to commemorate
the 60th anniversary of the U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organization, Mr.
Mugabe departed from his scripted
message and instead plunged into a rant
against President Bush and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair. His rhetoric
traveled a circuitous tour around
the globe, claiming the two Western are
trying to unseat him and other heads
of state:
"Must we allow these
men, the two unholy men of our millennium, who, in
the same way as Hitler
and Mussolini formed [an] unholy alliance, formed an
alliance to attack an
innocent country? ... The voice of Mr. Bush and the
voice of Mr. Blair can't
decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule
in Africa, who shall rule
in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall
rule in Iraq."
Mr.
Mugabe is the epicenter. He starves his own people of food, water
and
medicine (the United States has given an estimated $110 million in food
aid
alone). Indeed, since the World Food Summit of 2002, the Mugabe regime
has:
destroyed the lives, homes and jobs of nearly 3 million people (or
one-fifth
of the population); forced 3.5 million to flee to South Africa,
Namibia and
other neighboring nations; pillaged its $700 million-a-year
agricultural
sector, which barely brings in $200 million now; created what
experts are
calling the "fastest-shrinking economy" in the world; created a
water and
energy crisis; put in motion a public-health crisis.
The U.N. Security
Council has the necessary tools to take quick and
decisive action. Do the
members have the requisite political wherewithal?
Christian and
humanitarian organizations have, in recent months, spoken
decisively about
the potential crises that lie in the very distant future if
the repressive
policies and violent henchmen are not stopped. "Leaders of
dictatorial
regimes out there can no longer hide behind so-called principle
of
non-interference in the affairs of another state in order to get away
with
murder with impunity," Namibia's National Society for Human Rights said
this
summer. The Methodist Church of Southern Africa called the unfolding
crises
in Zimbabwe a "recipe for genocide."
The case for vigorous U.N.
intervention has been made. The next step is
obvious. But we must not step
blindly into Zimbabwe: Mr. Mugabe's favorite
pastime is his largess -- and
that includes political patronage, as well as
maize and other
foodstuffs.
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What
lies before us and what lies behind us, are tiny matters compared to
what
lies within
us"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1:
Dear JAG,
I have received a barrage of letters incriminating me
of being "ignorant"
about Zimbabwean History simply because I disagree with a
shallow analysis
of the current socio-economic and political crisis in
Zimbabwe. I actually
think the problem facing Zimbabwe is bigger than
Mugabe.Even if Mugabe
leaves or dies tomorrow Zimbabwe will remain a complex
tumour to deal with.
To those who try to defend the colonial legacy, let
me remind them that the
Colonial administration in Zimbabwe was a
dictatorship more brutal than
what Mugabe is currently doing in Zimbabwe.
Anybody who was unfortunate to
be black during UDI will tell you why Smith's
regime was a bad example for
democracy. How can one justify the forced
removals of millions of
indigenous populations during the Land Apportionment
Act of 1931? This was
the most brutal human rights abuse in Zimbabwe just
like Operation
Murambatsvina!
While I totally agree with the fact that
Mugabe is a brutal dictator, He
was educated by missionaries and his politics
is purely Rhodesian!! Look at
all the laws that Mugabe rejuvenated including
civic unfreedoms; they are
nothing new but were used by Ian Smith's UDI
regime to suffocate millions
of black Zimbabweans who were not even allowed
into cities since these
cities were reserved for "Whites".
When some
respondents to my letter try to educate me on Zimbabwean history
they forget
that history has a notorious tendency of repeating itself,
especially where
injustices are concerned. We are all not campaigning for
the "forceful
removal of White farmers" We support White farmers and
anybody who is a
victim of Mugabe's brutality, but we also need to remind
farmers of their
past; when Smith's regime treated them like royal game.
Genuine land
reform remains crucial to all Zimbabweans in order to undo
historical
injustices. Whoever takes over or replaces Mugabe should
understand that no
meanderings are acceptable! One person tried to glorify
White farmer
paternalism (farm schools and clinics). But nobody is foolish
enough not
understand why White farmers provided schools and clinics. We
know that
farmers were not pro-social justice; they were like slave owners
who wanted
educated and healthy labour! The idea that White farmers were
generous is a
blatant misrepresentation of historical facts. So many people
died in farms
and were often shot or maltreated by farmers without recourse
to
justice.
We are in the struggle for justice but let's not forget
history.
GGGG
Scotland
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2:
Stuart Chappell
I suppose that publicly admitting to, and
apologising for murdering at
least 30,000 BLACK Matabeles in the early 1980's
(I think he commented that
his actions were "regrettable" by way of apology)
could make Mugabe a
'thoroughly honest and decent' man (your words {OLF No.
387}, certainly not
mine!).
Yes, your compatriot, Nicholas Van
Hoogenstraten has supported Mugabe to
the hilt, and he has managed to retain
his land. You must be so proud of
him!
If you are happy to sell your
soul to the Devil in order to own land in
Zimbabwe, then Good Luck to
you.
Veronica Scott
Zimbabwean-born White owning property (for now)
and living in
Zimbabwe
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3:
Dear Jag,
Unfortunately for us, Britain's politically correct
world is today full of
lowlife know-alls like Stuart Chappell; I beg to
differ with those who
label him naive. He knows full well what he is about in
supporting anarchy.
He might even gain a few temporary windfalls in doing so,
although he and
his ilk get most of their satisfaction in the recognition
they receive
through the outrage they cause and the responses they provoke.
Chappell is
a p***k. My advice is, treat him like one. Ignore
him.
Brian
Ruff.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
4:
To that British ignoramus who wants to buy farmland in
Zimbabwe.
Yes please come and set up your farming venture in Zimbabwe.
Once all is up
and running, including the clinic, the school and the houses
for the
workers and their extended families, I'm quite sure that you will be
able
to sit back and feel good about yourself on the verandah of one of
the
originally stolen farms. I'm sure you will relish all your do-good
thoughts
and acts and ponder on about the mistakes those white farmers
made.
Just let me know when all is done 'cause it will then be my turn to
take
your farm and violently evict you.
Rest assured, I wait in
anticipation.
Canaan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
5:
Dear Stuart Chappell,
Let me start by saying, read, listen and
learn all you want, you British
people with your benefits schemes and free
housing will never know what
hardship was.
Let me ask you if you
worked with your heart and soul and built a product
to feed the nation and
bring an honest wage to many as well as a hard
earned income to your family
then Tony Blair walks in with the whole of
cabinet and armed to the hilt and
says get of your land now and take
nothing but the clothes on your back.
obviously you would stand up to him
as it is yours, you paid your taxes and
bought it. he then takes you, ties
you up, and your children and rapes your
wife. He then beats you and
leaves you for dead. This happened to black and
white alike.
Martin Old's who's wife is disabled and still on the run
with her children.
How dare you question Zimbabweans and think you know
better. You probably
have never stepped out of your safe little country into
any land where what
you earn is what you live on.
You think we treated
our workers with such contempt. Where in this country
can you get a job
where you get free housing, schooling, medical. No
where, you can get all of
the above if you don't work but the working class
citizens are paying for the
people who don't work. If a young lady back in
Zimbabwe falls pregnant, she
doesn't get house from Mugabe, more likely if
she is black she gets stoned or
has to find a living on the streets.
You want to buy a property there, go
ahead. have your heart broken, your
family destroyed and don't go to sleep
at night because the last thing they
want is a British person living
there!
You say we betrayed the black people stealing the land well
actually its
your forefathers that did that and now all the generations later
can't come
back here because your government doesn't want them. You are the
ones that
have betrayed us.
Get a life, get a grip and do something
useful and sweep the problems on
your own doorstep with the homeless and
racial issues here before you come
and preach to us. You should be ashamed
of yourself stirring the damage
and trauma to all Zimbabweans! Do what you
want and learn the hard way.
I give you 3 months. lets see what you feel
then
Jacque
Gillwald.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
6:
Dear Jag
I read the open letter forum out of interest, and am
occasionally
stimulated by some of the content, but not enough to write a
response until
the drivel from a so-called Stuart Chappell. The content of
his last letter
reveals that he may be using a pseudonym, and his positive
assertion that
Mugabe will return land to whites on 99 year leases betrays
his cause. He
may have stimulated many people to refute his logic, but the
facts are
historical, be they right or wrong, and serve little or no purpose
to what
has happened or will transpire over the years ahead. As for the
hang-up
over real estate agents, the man has a small axe to grind based
apparently
on the availability of web-sites!
Fact - Mugabe has
dispossessed white and black Zimbabweans of their
lawfully acquired
agricultural land and in many cases allowed the theft of
personal possessions
in the form of agricultural equipment and household
property, without
adequate protection from the constitutional and
legislative laws of the
country, and without compensation in a fair manner.
Mugabe has flouted the
same laws that he has used to perpetrate this crime
against citizens and
ruthlessly destroyed the homes of already poor
citizens.
No past
wrongs can justify present wrongs. What has happened is past. Where
is the
future? We can only change the future. Knowledge of the past can
help to
avoid mistakes in the future, but cannot change what has happened!
The rules
of the game change, or may not exist, but they are certainly not
confined to
the legislation of the day.
I mourn the self-inflicted damage to the
social, economic and physical
structure of a country that has so much
potential and was forging ahead on
most fronts except that of the political
popularity of the Mugabe regime 8
years ago. Perhaps the saddest part is that
one man has been allowed to
inflict such pain on a nation just to cling to
his pre-independence vows to
give the land and the houses of the farmers to
the black people. He has
achieved his personal ambitions at the expense of
the nation. He is not a
great leader, but instead an egotistical despot, and
that is why he has
earned himself a chapter in a book on tyrants. He will
pass on his power
leaving a country worse off than when he was entrusted with
that power. He
has forced a nation of generally law-abiding citizens into one
of beggars,
thieves and dishonest citizens who have become lawless as they
follow the
example of those in power (the Darwinian concept of adapt or die).
How sad,
but life moves on and it will be either for better or
worse.
Anyone interested in the future of the country should be looking
forward,
not behind. How can you see where you are going if you are forever
looking
behind?
I wish the best for Zimbabwe, and its people, flora
and fauna but cannot
see much hope with the present system of
rule.
Responsible
Rights
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1:
Dear JAG
While I have mostly admired the thinking of the white
man (who hides out in
South Africa) writing under the pseudonym of "Canaan",
I feel he is utterly
wrong to use the first name of a disgraced black
politician as his
pseudonym when writing to anyone. I suggest that he sticks
to his "normal"
pseudonym which is common knowledge to many activists in
Zimbabwe.
Out of consideration to his dreadful paranoia, I will not
mention even that
name in this email in case not only the Zimbabwe
authorities get him but
also the South African authorities!
Myke
Ashley-Cooper
in South
Africa
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2:
ref : Mr Chappell's letter.
Dear young man,
At your age,
in 1970, I travelled through Africa, very quickly, so as not
to be
contaminated by those terrible white people in South Africa and
Rhodesia. I
had heard ALL about them in the British Press and the Student
debates, well
really - they were as bad as the Russians trying to destroy
the good life
that God had promised everybody.
I settled in Zambia but after a short
time, being continually stolen from,
no matter how good and considerate I
was, I began to look into the mindsets
of the Black African living there and
I left and came to Rhodesia. Zambia
is still the same as it was when I left
30yrs ago, buildings unpainted,
dirt roads etc. etc.
Whatever you have
learnt in England bears no relationship to living in
Africa.
In
Zimbabwe because of a population which strive for more, it is still a
most
beautiful place to be, even with corruption, inflation, lack of
work,
spasmodic electricity, little water. The black hierarchy here
seem
determined to cause genocide - something which never happened before.
We,
the white people born here to the first, second, third generation
or
immigrants who have lived here since before you were born will manage,
many
black people are and will die.
Before you write again please
contact some of our people who have been
forced to live in England, I have
two children there, nearly every family
here, both black and white have
people there. In every town and City there
are Zimbabweans some working to
send money to their relatives put their
children through school. Young people
who can't work here, professionals
who have no future under the present
regime. In Zimbabwe, we have teachers
especially trained to look after the
many children traumatized by missing
parents.
With regrets for the
disillusionment you must suffer, yours sincerely,
A mother and
housewife
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3:
Dear Jag,
Hitler's spin doctor, Goebles, said himself that if
you repeat a lie often
enough, people will start to believe it. That is
exactly what Mugabe and
the Zanu PF propaganda machine have done for 25
years. Here is a list of
some of the lies:
- We used child
labour.
- We paid appalling wages
- Our workers lived in abject
conditions
- We owned 70% of all fertile land
- The West is to blame
-
Colonization prejudiced the black people of Africa etc. etc.
Well look at
the conditions today of those very people we are supposed to
have abused.
Children can't go to school, they have to work for the new
"owner" for a bag
of maize a month (donated to the "owner" by an aid
organization). Wage
negotiations are at a stalemate because the new
"farmers" don't want to pay
decent wages. The workers have been thrown out
of the "hovels" they lived in
on the farms, by soldiers now squatting on
the land. 70% of the fertile land
in Zimbabwe today is my vegetable garden.
Who feeds the African peoples
today? George Bush and Tony Blair's
governments among others. And lastly if
it hadn't been for the colonizers
of Europe, Africa would still be in the
stone age today.
There is no independent nor objective press coverage on
Zimbabwe today and
the truth has also been
politicised.
Anon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
4:
Dear JAG,
I recently came across Chris Jan Coetzee from USA who
is trying to contact
an old friend of his - Gert Willemse, who used to be on
Enhoed Estates in
Chipinge. If anyone knows his whereabouts, please contact
Chris Jan as
wildwoolyandwonderful@gmail.com
or Kathy Hull at hullo@zol.co.zw
Thanks
very much for your help.
Kathy
Hull
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
5:
Dear Jag,
Stuart Chappell sounds like any other British devious
opportunist. He is
ignorant as he suggests, and if he does have a private
line to Mugabe to
discuss land issues, he is even more untrustworthy than he
sounds and is
disliked by both white and black Zimbabweans alike. I suggest
he stays at
home in England. Life in Zimbabwe would be difficult for him and
he would
waste his money.
Zimbabwean
Citizen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
6:
Dear Sir,
Please allow me to take issue with a part of Mr.
McCormack's letter on your
open letter forum. He says "Unfortunately we
joined the fray....the white
community , and especially the farmers , should
have kept out of politics
or even supported Mugabe to the hilt. We should
have sold our souls to the
devil and continued with the good life
......"
Mr. McCormack surely did not write these words seriously. What
is Mr.
McCormack's definition of politics? If it is standing against tyranny
and
murder then nobody with any semblance of knowledge of the
difference
between right and wrong can agree with him. Does he really
believe that if
we had failed to try to stand against tyranny and murder we
would have been
left alone ? Did Hitler vilify the Jews because they were
involved in
standing against him? No, he vilified the Jews because he was
playing to
the gallery of anti Semitism that was based on jealousy. The Jews
were the
scapegoat. Every dictator has to have a scapegoat for the mess he
leaves
in his wake.
Mr. McCormack appears to have missed the political
boat entirely. The
reason that the white farmer was the scapegoat was not
because he owned 18
percent of the land ; but because he employed 25 percent
of Zimbabwe's
population on that land. It is difficult to beat a population
into poverty
and food dependence while such a situation exists. Bring a
population into
food dependency and you can control it at will. Stalin did.
Mao did .
They were his teachers.
I am afraid Mr. McCormack that "the
good life" was a dream.
Yours sincerely
Ben
Freeth
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
The Herald
Last Updated: Wednesday, 19 October 2005
From Bulawayo
Bureau
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has bust a smuggling syndicate
involving fuel tankers and recovered contraband worth more than $8 billion
at the Plumtree Border Post as Operation Integrity spreads to the private
sector.
Zimra intercepted three fuel tankers stuffed with
cigarettes worth
more than $8 billion destined for Botswana at the Plumtree
Border Post on
Monday.
The revenue authority confirmed the
incident saying this appeared to
have been going on for quite some
time.
"We received some information and tracked the fuel tankers
all the way
from Harare to Plumtree.
"These tankers would be
cleared at the border posts under the pretext
that they were going to import
fuel.
"In the case of the three tankers, they had already been
cleared and
were about to leave the Zimbabwe border when they were
intercepted by our
investigations team," said Zimra assistant corporate
communications officer
Mr Nickson Kanyemba.
It is believed that
a lot of machinery could have been smuggled out of
the country in the same
manner.
When reporters visited the border post on Monday, Zimra
officials had
cut open the three fuel tankers and were removing hundreds of
cartons of
cigarettes that were stashed inside.
One of the
drivers said they were not aware of what they were carrying
and were merely
driving the trucks to Botswana.
"I am just given a vehicle to drive
and I was driving this vehicle to
Botswana and I did not know about the
vehicle having anything. I just
assumed that they were empty," he
said.
Mr Kanyemba said it appeared that the owner of the truck
would open
the tankers and stash the contraband inside and close them again
and
smoothen the opened part before repainting the tanker to avoid
detection. On
arrival at the destination, the tankers would be opened again,
the cargo
removed and closed again and then return to Zimbabwe full of
fuel.
Operation Integrity was launched by Zimra early this year to
weed out
corrupt individuals within the organisation.
"Operation Integrity was notably targeted at our own in-house clean-up
to
rid the organisation of corrupt officials and practices but it does not
necessarily mean that was its only scope.
"We spread it to
include the private sector and also to weed out
corrupt tendencies at our
border involving our suppliers and customers and
it has proved to be a
success so far," said Mr Kanyemba.
He refused to name the
businessman who owns the tankers saying he was
expected to appear in court
this week.
A band of smugglers has been targeting Plumtree Border
Post because it
does not have sophisticated scanning equipment to detect
hidden goods.
Beitbridge Border Post had such equipment installed
early this year.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Shame Makoshori
issue date :2005-Oct-19
The Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is expected to present the Third Quarter
Monetary
Policy review tomorrow.
However, several negative developments affecting the
economic turnaround
drive have occurred since the last review in
July.
For instance, year-on-year inflation shot up from 265 percentage
points in
August to 359.8 percentage points last month as RBZ governor
Gideon Gono
prepared for tomorrow's review.
The new development in
inflation movements inflicted huge setbacks on the
central bank's turnaround
strategies, coming as it did in the backdrop of
the worsening fuel and
foreign currency availability.
Central bank governor, Gideon Gono has since
his arrival at the central bank
in 2003, hinted that inflation was the major
variable militating against the
realignment of the country's economy, whose
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has
plummeted by 30 percent in the past five
years.
Recent events have indicated that the central bank has been waging a
lone
war and could be headed for the doldrums.
Key stakeholders are not
playing their part. For instance, billions of
dollars in foreign currency
remain locked up in foreign accounts of
exporting companies.
There are
loopholes in the management of imports at the country's boarder
posts with
reports that the shipping industry has been employing a lot of
tactics to
evade duty payments.
On the other hand, law enforcement agents have struggled
to deal with the
fledgling black market of basic commodities, foreign
currency and illegal
trade in mineral resources.
While the slogan has
been restraint on inflation movements, increments of
prices of goods and
services have in the past five months shot up by more
than 500
percent.
The price of a 2 kg of white sugar has surged to $40 000 from around
$17
000, a bar of washing soap now costs $80 000 up from $25 000 while a 10
kg
packet of mealie meal has shot up to $120 000, up from $18 000.
Urban
councils have also increased their rates by margins ranging between
500 and
1 000 percent.
Companies argue that the increments are necessitated by the
shooting costs
of production.
The RBZ unleashed more that $2 trillion in
Productive Sector Facility (PSF)
funds to boost industrial production, which
last year took an 8.6 percent
nosedive.
Apart from failing to repay the
funds, industry has failed to return to
levels that would trigger
sustainability the supply side of the economic
system.
Instead of
channelling the funds into production, several companies are
alleged to be
diverting the PSF into non-core activities.
This has led to product shortages
on the market amid high upward
adjustments.
Key ministries such as the
Industry and International Trade and Finance and
Economic Development have
virtually folded their hands and critical Foreign
Direct Investment (FID)
inflows have drastically dwindled.
At the foreign currency auction floors,
demand has been outstripping supply
as companies are demanding up to US$150
million against less than US$20
million availed at every auction.
The
manufacturing sector says its capacity to produce has been severely
crippled
by the non-availability of the hard currency to procure imported
raw
materials,
RBZ devaluation of the local currency from $9 000 to the US$ to
$17 500,
which was expected to stimulate foreign currency inflows has
struggled to
bring in the hard currency.
This is despite call by
industrial bodies prior to the devaluation for an
adjustment of up to $15
000 to the US$.
Through the carrot and stick measures implemented last year,
foreign
currency inflows shot up to US$1.7 billion in 2004 from US$301
million in
2003, but the inflows have been sucked up by high demand for fuel
imports,
food procurement and other key requirements such as
electricity.
The mining sector was expected to be the cornerstone of
increased foreign
currency inflows but it has in recent months produced
below-market results,
especially in the half year to June 2005.
"The
other hurdle that the governor faces is the recent expansion of
ministries
because the ministers and their deputies all need perks
commensurate with
their positions and significant amounts of foreign
currency would be needed
to acquire such things as vehicles," said a
University of Zimbabwe
lecturer.
He pointed out that at least seven million people face starvation
due to the
drought that has just hit the country, meaning significant
amounts of the
hard currency has to be channelled toward food
purchases.
Government recently released billions for the procurement of
inputs for
wheat production, but the bulk of the farmers have failed to
access the
funds, as a result production has remained below demand.
"This
has to be supplemented by imports, while inter parastatal debts have
been
ballooning and weighing heavily on the state companies' ability to
deliver,"
the analysts said.
Members of the public interviewed by this newspaper
yesterday said the
pinned their hopes on the latest review, saying they
expected the RBZ to
deal with the rising costs of living.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Simba
Rushwaya
issue date :2005-Oct-19
Zimbabwe star Heath Streak has quit
international cricket effectively ending
his career with the national team.
The Zimbabwe vice-captain has signed a
two-year contract to be the new
Warwickshire captain for 2006 and 2007.
Reports from England yesterday said
the former Matabeleland all-rounder,
has chosen to retire from
international cricket to take up the position.
Streak, 31, the BBC wrote,
takes over from Nick Knight, who has stepped
down after a seven-year tenure
at the helm.
He said: "I'm looking forward to working with the players, staff
and
supporters to bring more silverware."
He went on: "I've enjoyed
playing for Zimbabwe immensely but I have decided
to retire from
international cricket in order to fulfil my contractual
commitments with
Warwickshire.
"I hope that one day I can assist Zimbabwe cricket again in its
efforts to
develop." Knight, a formidable former England batsman, will
continue as a
player. Warwickshire's director of coaching Mark Greatbatch,
himself a new
appointment, said: "Heath has had an outstanding international
career and we
are fortunate to secure his services. "He has all the
qualities that are
vital in a club captain. All the players and management
staff are looking
forward to having him back next season."
Streak played
for the club in each of the last two seasons, helping them
win the County
Championship in 2004 with some excellent displays with both
bat and ball.
Streak first played Test cricket in 1993 against Pakistan in
Karachi. Since
then he has proven to be the pillar of the team and was, at
one point, the
captain of the side until a rebellion last April.Streak and
other 14 white
players quit the game in huff after he differed with Zimbabwe
Cricket (ZC)
over selection criteria.
Streak and the rest of the rebel players only came
back after the
intervention of the Sports Commission and had since featured
in Zimbabwe's
Test matches against South Africa, New Zealand and India.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Oct-19
SCHOOLS will close early
this term to enable the smooth running of
Senatorial elections scheduled for
November 26.
Secretary for Education, Sport and Culture, Stephen Mahere
yesterday said
schools would close two days before the elections. "The
Ministry of
Education, Sport and Culture would like to inform all its
clients and
stakeholders that schools will close early for the year on
November 24
instead of 1 December 2005.
The move has been necessitated by
the need to facilitate the forthcoming
senatorial elections," he said in a
statement. The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission uses most schools as polling
stations during elections while
teachers form the bulk of staff employed to
conduct elections. The Senate
elections will also be held the same day as
the Gutu North by-election.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Oct-19
POLICE Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri yesterday said the country's uniformed
forces were
increasingly becoming disgruntled over poor salaries, working
conditions and
shortage of manpower.
He said the organisation was "dangerously under funded"
adding that despite
financial dire straits, the authorities had indicated
they would allocate a
paltry $1,7 trillion instead of $27 trillion required
by the force.
The police chief said this before a Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on
Defence and Home Affairs, where he appeared as part of a
high-powered
delegation that included senior police officers, the Registrar
General,
Tobaiwa Mudede, the chief immigration officer, Elasto Magwadi and
permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Melusi Matshiya.
"We
are running down the organisation because of under funding. We have run
down
the organisation and we are busy running down the organisation. It is
entirely (up) to us as Zimbabweans whether (or not) we want to improve the
organisation," Chihuri said.
He added that members of the police force
were not happy with the current
scenario.
Chihuri who did not mince his
words said this had resulted in the police
losing credibility both locally
and internationally.
He said one of the reasons for loss of credibility was
the failure by the
force to pay companies and individuals contracted by the
police for services
rendered.
"Now we have ordinance stores where we
should be keeping materials, but they
are empty, as empty as nothing. Over
the years we have been saying the same
things over and over again that we
are dangerously underfunding the
organisation and this has not been taken
seriously. At the end of the day we
reap what we sow and people should not
blame us or start finger pointing,"
Chihuri added.
The salary reviews,
despite them being meagre, took up to a year to be
effected. Chihuri said
the current economic situation in the country calls
for monthly salary
reviews.
On corruption in the police force, Chihuri said it involved bribes
of small
amounts ranging between $20 000 and $50 000. He said cops intending
"to buy
cabbages for the family" accepted the bribes
Chihuri accused the
Ministry of Finance of being biased against members of
the police force,
arguing that security guards at the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) and
Zimbabwe Revenue Authorities (ZIMRA) were paid better
than his
staff.
Chairman of the committee, retired colonel Claudius Makova - who is
also
Zanu PF legislator for Bikita West - said the Parliamentary committee
would
soon convene a meeting with the finance ministry to iron out some of
the
problems faced by the police force.
Chihuri also said his force was
facing transport problems, adding the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) had
only 1 500 vehicles instead of 7 000. He
said the current fuel crisis in the
country did not spare ZRP since it was
getting petroleum products "in drips
and drops.""We are currently being
given 20 000 litres of fuel. It is equal
to one (police) station. How do I
distribute 20 000 litres to Zimbabwe when
we need 260 000 litres (per month)
I am not trying to be funny, but this is
the situation that is currently
obtaining," Chihuri added.
Chihuri also
told the committee that ZRP does not have adequate uniforms, a
scenario
which did not spare him.
He said the lack of uniforms appeared as if he "was
sending people to do
work naked."
Chihuri decried that there were people
who expect the police force to
deliver, but gave little attention to their
requirements.
He said work at the Sadc Interpol regional offices in Harare
was near
completion, but needed more funds to finish building the
structure.
Chihuri added a report on that had been sent to the regional Sadc
offices, a
situation he said was not good for the country's
image.
Chihuri said he was surprised that the Central Investigations
Department
(CID) offices expected to be complete within three or four months
were now
going to take up to five years due to financial constrains.
The
home affairs permanent secretary and Mudede also chipped in on behalf of
Chihuri saying things needed to be improved in the police force.
Machaya
said when he was coming to the meeting he had met some police
officers who
had urged him to raise the issue of salaries, while Mudede
weighed in saying
the Parliament of Zimbabwe must come up with solutions to
problems facing
the police force.
Machaya said the police had lawsuits to the tune of
US$3million, but had so
far managed to secure US$2 million from the central
bank, but was finding it
difficult to source the remainder.
He did not
state who was suing the police and the cases involved.
The Parliamentary
portfolio committee member and MDC Kambuzuma legislator,
Willias Madzimure,
said the situation has gone so bad in ZRP that on
Saturday when some people
went to a police station to lodge a report they
could not do so because the
police officer there did not have a pen.