The Sunday Times, UK October 23, 2005
Christina Lamb, Harare
SOME call them the "dust people", others the "people with no
address".
President Robert Mugabe's government has a more graphic term:
"Sniff out the
rats who have sneaked back in" is the name of the latest
campaign by police
and soldiers against the city dwellers whose homes they
demolished earlier
this year but who have refused to flee.
Thousands of Zimbabweans
are now living like animals in the
midst of rubble, crawling in and out of
hovels less than 3ft high, fashioned
from cardboard boxes and broken
asbestos.
With no means of earning a living - and
with aid agencies banned
by the government from helping them - they are
forced to forage in rubbish
for rotten vegetables or prostitute themselves
for the equivalent of 10p to
feed their children. A doctor who managed to
get in said tuberculosis was
rife.
These are the victims
of Operation Murambatsvina (drive out the
filth), Mugabe's so-called urban
beautification campaign which, according to
a damning report by the United
Nations, left more than 700,000 homeless or
without an
income.
Yet last week the United Nations flew Zimbabwe's
president on an
all-expenses-paid trip to Rome to celebrate World Food Day
in defiance of
European Union travel sanctions. Flanked by bodyguards, he
proclaimed that
there was no hunger in his country and blamed its problems
on George W Bush
and Tony Blair, branding them international terrorists and
likening them to
Hitler and Mussolini.
Such hypocrisy
comes as no surprise to the people squatting amid
piles of debris in
southern Harare, who feel abandoned by the outside world.
There have been similar images of devastation from this year's
hurricanes
and earthquakes. But this is man-made destruction - the revenge
of a
president against the inhabitants of areas that dared to vote against
him in
one election after another.
"This is the most depressing
thing I have ever seen in years of
working in trouble spots," a UN official
said. "It's just all so
unnecessary."
The bulldozers and
axes that destroyed thousands of homes and
market stalls in June and July,
supposedly to clean up the cities, have left
a nation teeming with homeless
people.
The International Crisis Group estimates Zimbabwe has
between 4m
and 5m internal refugees - more than a third of the population.
They are the
victims of Operation Murambatsvina, and workers kicked off
commercial farms
seized in five years of violent land
grabs.
Yet Mugabe refuses to allow a $30m humanitarian appeal
by the UN
for blankets and food. He objects to the use of the word
"humanitarian".
A consignment of 6,000 blankets and 37 tons
of food raised by
the South African Council of Churches for the new homeless
was blocked at
the border by customs authorities. First they demanded
duties, then they
refused entry, claiming they needed proof the food was not
genetically
modified.
Many of those who lost their homes
were dumped in rural areas,
putting enormous strain on villages on the edge
of starvation. But others
had nowhere to go. These are the people who ended
up in the dust of places
such as Tsiga Grounds and Ground No 5 in the Mbare
district of the capital.
Among the hundreds crouching in
fly-ridden makeshift shelters is
Zvikomborera, a 33-year-old woman with
short cropped hair who is blind in
one eye. A single mother with two
daughters aged 5 and 13, she lost
everything when armed police with dogs and
bulldozers arrived at her small
cabin.
We met in secret
because Tsiga Grounds is patrolled by a
vigilante gang who beat the
inhabitants and try to destroy the makeshift
dwellings. Gang members
appeared both times I tried to enter.
"They tell us, 'Sons of
bitches, are you moles that live on the
ground? Crawl back to the hole that
you came from'," Zvikomborera said.
While Mugabe was enjoying Rome,
Zvikomborera explained how she is
forced to live. Her children scour the
rubbish dump of a supermarket for
rotten potatoes and tomatoes out of which
she cuts any good bits. The
previous day, the two girls had shared one cup
of rice. Zvikomborera had
nothing.
Until two weeks ago
they were getting food from a Buddhist
organisation. Then the Department of
Social Welfare summoned aid agencies,
such as World Vision and the UN World
Food Programme (WFP), and banned them
from distributing any
more.
"They told us there is no such thing as urban displaced
people in
Zimbabwe and there is no hunger in Harare," said one aid worker.
"They just
want these people to die."
Like most of her fellow
dust people, Zvikomborera is still astounded
by what happened to her.
"Before Murambatsvina we were poor but we were
managing. My children were
clean and went to school. I collected scrap wood
from carpenters and
industries and sold it for firewood.
"When the police and dogs
came, we lost everything. In one hour they
had smashed my home, bed,
wardrobe. We have nothing left but a few clothes
and pots and pans. I just
cried and cried.
"Now we live here on the dust. We have no water.
There is a tap at the
bus station but they make us buy the water at Z$50,000
(£1.10) for 20
litres. Where can I get money now they have stopped us
selling things? My
children cannot go to school as I have no address and
don't know where I
will be in two weeks. Everyone is sick and
starving."
Some of her neighbours have turned to prostitution and
she is
terrified she will soon have little option but to follow
them.
In most countries people would be fighting to leave such
appalling
conditions. But Zvikomborera organised a petition of 200 other
settlers and,
backed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, has gone to court
to fight for
the right to stay in the dirt. "This may not be human but I
have nowhere
else," she shrugged.
Among those living in the
filth is a tiny baby with eyes weeping
yellow pus, born right there on the
ground. The infant's father, Moses,
explains that when his wife went into
labour last month, he ran to try to
get an ambulance. But he was told: "We
can't help people who live on the
ground."
At another hidden
location in Harare I met a group of women, all
mothers of disabled children,
whose homes had been smashed in front of them.
One, Mercy,
explained: "When police came in the early morning and told
us to get out as
they would destroy our houses, I thought they would leave
us as my daughter
has cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair so I did not
take our possessions
outside.
"But then they came and said, 'We don't care about
disabled people,'
and destroyed everything. My husband is a carpenter and
after they smashed
the house they smashed his workshop and tools so we have
no means of making
a living."
The family were forced to squat
outside and one night her disabled
daughter, 14, was bitten by rats. "No one
will let us rent a place even if
we had money, as my daughter's condition
means she cries out all night,"
said Mercy.
She and her family
have been informed that they must clear up the
rubble of their demolished
house or be fined.
People like Mercy and Zvikomborera might have
had new homes. UN agencies
were enraged last month when a pilot project to
resettle homeless
slum-dwellers in rural areas was destroyed by one of
Mugabe's senior
ministers.
"It was supposed to be a bridge-building
exercise with the government," said
a UN official. "The idea was to choose a
place to set up a community, then
replicate it all over the country, which
we would fund."
After consultations with the government, 150
families were taken to
Headlands, 100 miles east of Harare, and given tents,
blankets and basic
sanitary facilities. A ceremony was held with government
ministers.
Two weeks later Unicef officials found that all the people had
disappeared
and the settlement had been destroyed by police and dogs on the
orders of
Didymus Mutasa, the minister for security. Local villagers say the
resettled
people were not from the right tribe.
Now, with rains due
this week, people all over the country are squatting on
ground that will
soon turn to mud. During 10 days of travelling across the
country - working
discreetly because the penalty for reporting without
permission is two
years' imprisonment - I met a family in Marondera, east of
Harare, living in
their neighbour's chicken coop next to the pile of rubble
where their house
once stood.
In Gwanda, in the southwest, 60 families were dumped outside
the mayor's
office two weeks ago. "People here are starving already," said
TZ Mnkandla,
the mayor. "What kind of government dumps its people around the
country
under the cover of night?" The government has announced a rebuilding
programme but critics say the numbers projected are vastly inadequate and
the new houses are going to supporters of the ruling party,
Zanu-PF.
Tose Wesley Sansole, mayor of the tourist resort of Victoria
Falls, said
that while 6,000 homes had been destroyed, the government has
promised to
build only 300. So far, just 20 have materialised. "I just feel
helpless,"
he said.
There is little doubt now that the real reason
for Operation Murambatsvina
was to avert any risk of an uprising in the
cities after rigged
parliamentary elections earlier this year.
This,
after all, is a country that until five years ago not only fed itself
but
exported food. Justice for Agriculture, a commercial farmers' lobby
group,
predicts that this year Zimbabwe will produce enough food for only
one month
- some 200,000 tons against a minimum requirement of 1.8m.
Only about 200
commercial farms are still operating, compared with 4,500
five years ago
when "war veterans" were starting to seize white-owned land.
Once-fertile
fields now lie scorched or weed-ridden.
If there was any doubt that
Mugabe is willing to see his people starve, The
Sunday Times has learnt from
a company hired to rid food stores of weevils
that there are WFP stocks all
over the country, a year's supply of grain and
1,000 tons of corn soya blend
to make fortified porridge.
Mugabe refuses to let this be distributed
because he wants to retain control
of the food supply. Some has been left to
rot and last month more than 300
tons of bran was destroyed in Bulawayo and
Harare because Mugabe believed it
was genetically modified. Asked in an
interview earlier this month about the
hunger, Mugabe replied in Marie
Antoinette vein: "Let them eat potatoes. We
have plenty of
potatoes."
But with the prices of basic foods spiralling out of control,
it is getting
harder to feed everyone. The cheapest loaf costs 62p, a
daunting sum in a
country where civil servants earn £15 a week. This is way
below the £45 a
week that the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average
family needs.
Experts are calling Zimbabwe the fastest-shrinking economy in
the world. The
latest report from the UN Development Programme says it has
seen the
sharpest drop in quality of life of any country not at war. The
quality of
life is worse than in Mongolia and Equatorial Guinea, it says.
Deepening
poverty and widespread HIV/Aids have reduced life expectancy to
36.9 years.
The worsening economic situation could have dangerous
ramifications. A third
of the 40,000-strong army has been sent home on
hunger leave. Augustine
Chihuri, the police commissioner, told a
parliamentary commission last week
that his force had 1,500 vehicles instead
of the 7,000 it needs and was
getting petrol only "in drips and drops".
Apart from the lack of fuel, which
is available only on the black market at
£2.20 a litre, Harare is beset by
water shortages and power cuts. To the
government's embarrassment, foreign
delegates attending a tourism conference
last weekend went without water for
two days at the Sheraton
hotel.
In the southern town of Masvingo, people said you could often
smell the
hospital from miles away because so many bodies are piled up and
nobody can
afford fuel to collect them from the mortuary. As if the country
were going
backwards in time, the government has recommissioned its steam
trains and in
some areas ambulances are being pulled by donkeys. The joke
visitors hear
is: "What did Zimbabwe have before candles? Electricity." Yet
while the
overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans say they have never been so
poor, the
elite are enjoying undreamt of wealth.
Only minutes from
Zvikomborera's hovel on Tsiga Grounds, I counted two
brand-new lime green
Volkswagen Beetle cabriolets and several shiny new
Mercedes-Benzes. Many of
Mugabe's cronies have launched lucrative schemes.
All Zimbabweans with
vehicles have been ordered to buy new numberplates by
the end of this year,
for instance. The only numberplate factory in the
country is owned by
Solomon Mujuru, the former army chief and husband of
Mugabe's
vice-president, Joyce Mujuru. Government officials are also reaping
dividends from access to US dollars at an official rate a quarter of the
market rate - and to fuel at a quarter of the black market price. One
official explained. "I get 100 litres of fuel at Z$23,000. I sell it on the
black market for Z$100,000 a litre.
I then use the money I made to
buy US dollars at the official rate of
Z$26,000. I sell those dollars on the
market for Z$105,000. What is it you
say? Quids in!" But the government is
running out of friends. Even China and
South Africa are tiring of bailing
Mugabe out. Traditional sources of
foreign exchange - tobacco and tourism -
have been destroyed and mining
products such as gold are increasingly being
smuggled out of the country,
leaving the regime to resort to theft. Seven
banks have been closed and
their assets seized. Fearing expulsion from the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the government made a surprise payment of
£68m last month, allegedly
after raiding the foreign currency accounts of a
number of big companies.
This left those companies unable to buy
imports and some have been forced to
close. So concerned is the IMF that it
is sending a mission to investigate
the source of the funds. It may all be
coming to an end. A leaked internal
police report warned last week that
worsening economic hardships were fast
eroding the patience of
long-suffering Zimbabweans. The report revealed that
the Joint Operations
Command (JOC), which comprises the police, the Central
Intelligence
Organisation and the army, has drawn up a list of 55 political
and civic
leaders it regards as the "most dangerous individuals", who must
be kept
under surveillance to ensure they do not organise an uprising.
Edmore
Veterai, the police representative on the JOC, wrote: "We must not
fool
ourselves by believing that the situation is normal on the ground
because we
risk being caught unawares. People have grown impatient with the
government,
which they accuse of causing their problems and doing nothing to
alleviate
them and they will do anything to remove it from power."
The Sunday Times, UK October 23, 2005
Robert Mugabe was on typically outrageous form
last week.
Invited by the United Nations on a jolly to attend the 60th
anniversary of
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, the
Zimbabwean president
laid into his old foes. George Bush and Tony Blair, he
said, were "the two
unholy men of our millennium", responsible for war,
pollution and, since the
event was to mark World Food Day, hunger. Quite
what the UN was doing
inviting this corrupt and vile man to attend the event
is beyond
comprehension. For him to use the occasion to blame others for
creating
hunger is beyond parody.
Posing as a tourist, our
reporter Christina Lamb has just
visited Zimbabwe and has seen the effects
of Mr Mugabe's policies on his own
people at first hand. Thousands and
thousands of Zimbabweans are living like
animals in the midst of rubble in
southern Harare, foraging among rubbish
for food or forced to prostitute
themselves. They are the victims of their
president's urban beautification
programme, which the UN itself estimates
has left 700,000 homeless or
destitute. Kofi Annan himself said that
Operation Murambatsvina - "drive out
the filth" - had done a "catastrophic
injustice" to many of Zimbabwe's
poorest citizens "through indiscriminate
actions, carried out with
disquieting indifference to human suffering". This
again begs the question
of why the UN keeps sucking up to this tyrant.
In her report
today Ms Lamb describes the misery of those forced
out of their homes by his
policies, doomed to existences that, to adapt
Hobbes, are "nasty, brutish
and short". Aids and hunger have reduced life
expectancy to less than 40.
The country's once-thriving commercial farms are
going to waste. Mr Mugabe
continues to inflict man-made disasters on his
people, while refusing to
accept humanitarian assistance from outside, or
allow emergency food
supplies in Zimbabwe to be distributed to the hungry. A
catastrophic
injustice is occurring. How long before somebody does something
about
it?
I have only been on one roller coaster in my
life - I thought it was an
exhilarating experience and was not at all
apprehensive when we sped through
the air - in parts upside down and over
hills and valleys. But I am not sure
that I would choose to live on one, just
too much of an experience and a
short term ride was enough.
Well here
in Zimbabwe life is very much like a roller coaster. One minute we
are up and
the next down, we are upside down and then can see the world from
the dizzy
heights of a crest - only to be plunged back down again by
something that
someone says or does.
Just when I thought I could not be surprised, this
past week Gideon Gono
came up with a stunning "monetary policy statement"
that said and does much
of what we know has to be said and done if we are to
turn this ship around.
The main thrust of what he said was that he was
scrapping the foreign
exchange regime that he introduced a couple of years
ago and which has done
so much damage. In its place he has reintroduced a
market driven system and
at the same time has allowed exporters to trade 70
per cent of their export
receipts at the new market driven rates. The balance
of 30 per cent will
have to go to the Reserve Bank at a controlled exchange
rate - currently 26
000 to 1 against the US dollar.
This is a big
shift in policy and will have an immediate and massive impact
on the private
sector. What a pity it had not been done earlier. What it
means is the
average exporter, hotel operator and any one else who generates
foreign
exchange in Zimbabwe will see their average local currency earnings
rise from
an approximate average of 39 000 Zimbabwe dollars for each US
dollar earned
to nearly 65 000 Zimbabwe dollars on Monday - a rise of 64 per
cent in
domestic earnings overnight.
On exports of US$1,4 billion a year, this
injects an additional 35 trillion
dollars into the trading accounts of
exporters each year. With the total
value of the stock market here worth
Z$114 trillion at present, this
represents a massive 64 per cent increase in
their revenues while costs
remain more or less constant. The value of this
injection in earnings is
equal to 30 per cent of their total capital
holdings. Wow - watch this space
next week!
But the statement does not
only deal with this key issue - it promises that
the official exchange rate
of 26 000 to 1 will be adjusted gradually over
time until the average
exchange rate of both markets is the same - the
so-called "convergence"
factor. He also promised the same with interest
rates, but with less clarity.
So a huge boost to earnings by exporters and
the promise of more to come as
the convergence policy kicks in. At that
stage average earnings in local
currency will have risen by over a 100 per
cent compared to what it was last
week - and all that at the stroke of a
pen.
Then Gono turned his
attention to the gold industry and he has at last
grasped the reality that
you have to pay a market related price for gold -
or it goes elsewhere. So
the new regulations now provide for gold producers
to receive full value for
their product - this should boost total foreign
exchange earnings through
official and banking circles very substantially.
The same impact will occur
in the tourism sector where foreign visitors will
now be able to pay for
their accommodation at much more reasonable rates
than before. Tourism
operators will also enjoy much higher local revenues
than
previously.
The statement takes on the other tough issues - security of
assets, the full
acceptance of the rights of investors. The need to stop the
farm invasions
and allow recovery in agriculture. The Reserve Bank Governor
goes so far as
to say that if we want the economy to recover, we have to
start playing by
the rules. He actually went so far as to say that those who
continue to
disrupt commercial agriculture were in fact criminals - he said
it, not a
commercial farmer!
But we know that these remarks are
unlikely to resonate where it matters.
The thugs and criminals who are
responsible for so much harm are in fact
politically sponsored and are immune
to rational argument and prosecution.
Until that changes it will be
impossible to start to turn agriculture
around.
The statement and the
data it contains reveals an honest appraisal of the
economic situation. It
has many weaknesses - the estimate of inflation in
the remaining two months
of the year is hopeless. We are headed for a very
tough Christmas - perhaps
worse than 2003 in that respect. It is also
completely unrealistic in terms
of this coming agricultural season and the
outturn of the winter crop. The
Bank claims that 61 000 ha of wheat was
planted. If that was true we should
be looking at 350 000 tonnes of wheat.
Instead the largest miller in the
country predicts that its intake will be a
paltry 20 000 tonnes.
Gono
calls on the country to ensure that we will not have to "contract out"
food
production in 2006. He needs to understand it is just too late for
that - we
will again import two thirds of our food needs in 2006, even if we
have a
perfect season. Tobacco plantings are already down 30 per cent and
half of
the new growers who came into the industry when the commercial
growers were
displaced, have shut their doors. Even as he spoke, tobacco
farms were being
invaded and destroyed across the country.
But what the report does show
is that this is a resilient country. Despite
all that we have been through,
we are still functioning. Give us a market
driven environment and security
over our person and assets and this economy
could fly. What Gono did this
week was to lift the curtain on what that
might just mean if we had the right
leadership. And while this was all going
on, the MDC continued to tear itself
apart, Zanu PF continued its willful
destruction of what is left of the
economy and our social infrastructure and
the economy continued to shrink. No
one, it would seem wants to take the
time to consider just what would happen
if we all said, enough is enough. We
need new, democratic institutions and
new leadership.
Gono's statement was silent on the issue of the continued
collapse of the
country - but his figures showed the stark reality compared
to the other
countries in the region that are all doing well. But as one
businessman said
to me - it is a start.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 22
October 2005
October 2005.
Judith Todd. (no copy right)
To
renew the visa required to stay in South Africa I first had to return to
my
place of origin for a minimum of ten days by Friday October 7 which I
did,
returning safely to Cape Town on Thursday, October 20, 2005.
Our
South African Air Link flight from Johannesburg landed near Bulawayo's
flight
control tower now being enfolded into the vast new Joshua Mqabuko
Nkomo
International Airport and we were bussed to "temporary" transit
facilities in
a hot, airless hangar. Fortunately work hasn't started on
the proposed five
star adjacent hotel as there is no sign that the new
terminal itself will
ever be completed.
An article in The Standard of 16 October under the
heading Government
strangles Bulawayo council well summed up what I
found.
Essential city council services in Bulawayo are
collapsing
because the local authorities' hands are tied and nothing can be
done to
address the deteriorating situation, says the Bulawayo executive
mayor
Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube. 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 opposition
Movement for Democratic Change - 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
Kagurabdza, 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 which has forced the council to
suspend refuse removal services and
the distribution of water bowsers to
clinics, schools and suburbs worst
affected by the water crisis.
At the onset of the water crisis in August, the local authority
requested the
government to declare it a water shortage area . but
government has been
dragging its feet. Declaring the city a water shortage
area would enable
the council to suspend or amend any water permits, and
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 Gordon Moyo said the government
was watching with keen interest the
collapse of the city for political
expediency.. "They are looking at the
crisis with a political eye and not a
humanitarian one."
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
interministerial committee.
I called on Ndabeni-Ncube. He, the MDC
Member of Parliament David
Coltart and the lawyer Washington Sansole were
amongst the few people I met
who didn't appear traumatised by the present
regime. I learned that after
Government had objected to statistics from the
city revealing the mounting
scale of deaths from "malnutrition" a delegation
from Police and
Intelligence had called to find out where the statistics
originated and were
astonished to learn they were government statistics
routinely collected by
council each month over many decades. Since that day
the council has been
deprived of access to these statistics.
I
walked through the city and found some vending has restarted
after
Government's destruction of the informal business sector. Flower
sellers
shelter inside the railings surrounding the city hall. People
carry
vegetables in bags or on "scanias", pushcarts, so they can run if
"police",
often Zanu (PF) youth militia in police uniforms, descend. Some
old women
sit where former stalls used to be with little piles of tomatoes,
or a
solitary cabbage. Verging on the residential areas there are people
next to
trees or bushes with small stacks of goods to sell. You would have
to sell
fifteen oranges at $5000 each to be able to make the $30000 profit
necessary
to buy one loaf of bread, if it is available.
People in
general seem clueless about the fate of their fellow citizens
who were
abducted at night from church shelters, loaded on to lorries and
dumped in
rural areas. Some talk vaguely of people from formerly smart
houses under
tile destroyed by the State in suburbs like Bulawayo's Cowdray
Park finding
life fading in their "rural homes" like Tsholotsho where they
were abandoned
by the authorities with no food or water. No one wanted to
talk about this
although someone did say that UN agencies are willing to
help with shelter,
food and water but apparently are being obstructed at
every turn by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Simbarashe Mumbengegwi.
The churches
bravely do what they can. One pastor told me that although
an unknown number
of the dispossessed had been "lost" there are records of
about 1500 others
still subsisting in Bulawayo and 4000 at Victoria Falls.
The churches helped
about 2000 from the Falls to go to villages despite a
dire situation there
regarding food and water. Two children at the Falls
were savagely wounded by
police dogs. One known human has been eaten by
lion and all those not yet
resettled exist in the bush with wild animals.
These displaced Zimbabweans
are in hiding and only emerge, apparently from
thin air and desperate for
help, if they are sure that those approaching are
friends. I met two such
people. One, a toothless man so old that the
irises of his eyes were white,
was no longer able to fend for himself. The
other, also old, had been
granted a patch of land by a fellow-human and now
needed material to build a
hut. The churches are trying to provide such
internal refugees with food for
a further three months but what then? As
the Financial Gazette, reputedly
now an organ of the Central Intelligence
Organisation, reported on October 19
even the government is becoming alarmed
that "the majority of the country's
population of about 12.5 million would
not be able to feed itself ... until
the next harvest" - whenever another
harvest will be. It is said that today
US$1 = Z$100,000.00. This means
nothing to most people but during the 13
days I was in Bulawayo the price of
mealie-meal soared from $75,000 for 10 kg
to $99,000.00.
I have three memories I cannot dislodge from my mind. One
is of an old
white woman leaning, arms folded, on her shopping trolley like
a
self-propelling crutch and reaching the till with only one item, a packet
of
pronutro serial. Another is of a thin young couple, a baby strapped to
its
mother's back, standing wide-eyed, silent and apparently transfixed by
the
realization that there was absolutely nothing in the entire
supermarket
which could be purchased with the little sheaf of useless notes
the man was
holding. Finally, going to the airport last Thursday we passed
through the
dusty suburb of Paddonhurst. Something carrying maize must have
passed
earlier and there were a few kernels scattered on the tarmac. A
black
skeleton in rags was swaying here and there, collecting them. The kind
of
rags indicated that this once may have been a woman.
News24
23/10/2005 10:05 -
(SA)
Harare - A senior official in Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) says the party will participate in next
month's
controversial senate elections and anyone who thinks otherwise
should "just
shut up", the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported.
In
what appeared to be a clear attack on party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who
Saturday claimed the MDC would boycott the November 26 poll, deputy
secretary general Gift Chimanikire said lists of party candidates for the
senate were being compiled.
"We are going ahead with the national
executive council's resolution (to
participate in the polls) and those who
don't want to participate should
stay out of it and just shut up,"
Chimanikire told the paper.
"Why do they have to campaign for
non-participation? Is it that they are
looking defeat in the face?" he
asked.
Wrangling within the six-year old MDC over participation in the
elections is
turning increasingly ugly.
Tsvangirai is adamant the
party should stay out of the polls because
Zimbabwe's current electoral
system "breeds illegitimate outcomes".
But senior MDC officials back
participation because they do not want to cede
President Robert Mugabe's
ruling party too much ground.
State-run newspapers have been following
with keen interest the recent
infighting within the MDC. Many analysts
predict the party will tear itself
apart. Mugabe has said the chaos proves
it is an "irrelevant" party.
The Telegraph
By Stephen Bevan in Ventersdorp, North West Province
(Filed:
23/10/2005)
He does not look like the leader of a resistance movement.
Yet, as one of
the first half-dozen white farmers in South Africa to be
forced to sell up
under its land reform programme, Pieter Jacobs is at the
forefront of a
battle likely to be as bitterly fought as that in
neighbouring Zimbabwe.
For eight years Mr Jacobs, 53, and six
neighbouring landowners in the
Ventersdorp district of North West Province,
have been disputing the claims
on their farms by the Bakwena tribe, who say
that the land was taken from
them under apartheid laws. Now Mr Jacobs has
been told that the farm where
he has lived for 30 years must be returned to
the Bakwena, a ruling that has
profound implications for other white
farmers.
He will be paid £940,000 for the 5,700-acre farm, but claims
that it is
worth three times that. His 32 workers and their families will
lose their
homes and their livelihoods but receive nothing.
"I'm not
against land reform but it must be done in a proper way," Mr Jacobs
said.
"Why force a productive farmer off his land?
"We are being seen as the
bad people in South Africa, but if I leave this
farm, where are my workers
going to live and work? The new owners will have
nothing. The government
gives them no assistance.
"It's the same as Zimbabwe, only less brutal.
At the end of the day the
result is the same. They are taking taxpayers'
money and buying productive
farms to give to people who won't be able to
produce on them because they
have no training or equipment."
The
sudden haste on the part of South Africa's Commission on Restitution of
Land
Rights is because, more than a decade after the end of the country's
apartheid regime, whites still own more than 80 per cent of commercial
agricultural land. As part of their attempt to tackle the legacy of
apartheid, black South Africans were encouraged to lodge claims for land
that they were forced to sell or that was designated as whites-only under
the old racial zoning laws.
Of the 9,000 land claims lodged by blacks
in rural areas, fewer than 500
have been resolved, prompting the Government
to extend the deadline for
settling all claims by a further two years to
2007 - to the embarrassment of
President Thabo Mbeki, who wants more rapid
results.
The slow pace of land reform arouses strong passions among the
black
majority and has come to symbolise the government's failure to deliver
in
other areas, such as housing and basic services.
At first it
proceeded only where landowners were willing to sell for an
agreed price,
and expropriation was seen as a last resort - if nothing else,
for fear of
scaring off foreign investors.
Now, however, the gloves are off. Blessing
Mphela, the regional land
commissioner for Gauteng and North West Province,
announced the country's
first expropriation in Lichtenburg three weeks ago,
and said that he was
preparing to serve notices on another five farms - Mr
Jacobs's among them.
Part of Mr Jacobs's opposition no doubt stems from
his desire to get the
best possible price. He claims that the commission
will not pay a fair price
for the "improvements" he has made to the land,
including two farmhouses and
an abattoir that he said would cost £2.2
million to replace. Mr Jacobs lives
on the farm with his wife, Mariette, and
27-year-old son, also called
Pieter, who would one day have taken over the
business.
"Please be fair to me," Mr Jacobs said. "It took me 20 years to
build this
business, but for the last 10 I've been able to do nothing with
it because
of the land claim. Now I must start all over again."
There
is no disguising the sense of bitterness among these farmers about
what they
regard as a politically motivated attack upon them. Mr Jacobs and
his
neighbours say that they have never had a chance to contest the Bakwena
claim - and now they never will, because the government has changed the law
to enable it to expropriate land without first going to the land claims
court.
Like many such claims, the roots of the dispute are murky.
According to
official records, the land was bought from an Afrikaner farmer
in 1880 by
the Wesleyan Missionary Society, which leased the land to the
Bakwena. When
the Church later sold up, it paid the Bakwena compensation for
terminating
their leases and helped them to buy another farm.
The
Bakwena say that they gave money to the Church to buy the land for them
and
it had to be registered in the Church's name because black people were
not
allowed to own property in that area.
There are no records of this, they
say, precisely because it was designed to
circumvent the law.
Mr
Mphela says that the farmers had not previously challenged the validity
of
the Bakwena claim, and accuses them of trying to drag out the
negotiations
even more.
"They want to refer it to a court because they know that court
processes are
intractable," he said. "This is an attempt to buy time. But it
won't help
any of us because the dispossessed communities then think the
only option is
land invasions."
Hendrik Viviers and his son, Sarel,
who farm about 1,400 acres and are also
facing expropriation, believe that
they know why the commission won't go to
court.
"They knew their case
wouldn't stand up so they waited until they changed
the law," Sarel said.
"Now all we can do is go to court to challenge the
price."
Hendrik
said: "This was one of the first land claims in South Africa and
they want
to make an example of us. It's a political issue. Mugabe chased
the farmers
in Zimbabwe off their land and now Mbeki is doing it too."
Mr Jacobs said
that there are other farmers who would be happy to sell. With
the price of
maize half what it was two years ago, farming is a tough
business.
He
said that he will not stay in South Africa. "If they take my farm from me
I
won't buy another here," he said. "What is to say that in another five
years
they won't take that away from me as well?"
Zim Standard
By our staff
THE Movement for
Democratic Change is at the crossroads. Tomorrow it will
know how many of
its members have rebelled against its President Morgan
Tsvangirai and will
be participating in Senate elections, set for 26
November.
A meeting
called for yesterday failed to produce an anticipated united
front, and
going into nominations tomorrow, three provinces in the western
region
remained defiant yesterday, confirming their participation - itself a
slap
in the face for MDC the leader.
The widening cracks in the opposition come as
a new party calling itself the
Zimbabwe Democratic Party was launched last
week. It claims that it will act
as catalyst for real change.
The
ghost of the early '60s which led to the split of Zapu, resulting in the
formation of Zanu could also visit the MDC if it fails to come up with a
last minute truce.
Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC spokesman on Thursday
night told The Standard
that there was no point in participating in the
elections.
"In view of the damage and public fall out that has taken
place because of
the split, it is my personal feeling that there is no point
in going into
the Senate elections. However, this should not be misconstrued
as handing
victory to those who break the constitution and resort to
violence."
But David Coltart, the MDC legal secretary and MP for Bulawayo
South said
the resolution of the national council was binding until and
unless it was
reversed. "The council voted for participation and it is
binding until it is
reversed by the same council," Coltart said.
It
emerged yesterday that Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South provinces
have
decided to field candidates in all constituencies.
By yesterday
afternoon, the Bulawayo province was still hunting for
candidates while
Matabeleland North and South had completed the exercise
with all 10 seats
having candidates for the poll.
The Standard has it on good authority
that Matabeleland South has also come
up with the list of candidates which
will be submitted to the Nomination
Court that will sit on
Monday.
However, sources revealed that one of the candidates was former
MDC Member
of Parliament for Pelandaba Jefret Khumalo. Some of the
candidates in
Matabeleland South have been identified as Siyabonga Ncube of
Insiza and
Readers Tlou, an MDC provincial council member from Gwanda.
Andrew Tapela is
expected to represent the MDC in Bulilima
constituency.
Nkayi MP, Abednico Bhebhe, confirmed that he had the final
list of
candidates.
On the other hand, provinces such as the
Midlands, Masvingo and Manicaland
are no longer going to field
candidates.
Tsvangirai appeared to have prevailed over the problems
yesterday when he
held a national executive meeting at Harvest
House.
MDC national chairman, Isaac Matongo, one of the group dubbed
"Senate
brigade" attended the meeting.
However, the others in the
group Gift Chimanikire, Welshman Ncube, Fletcher
Dulini-Ncube and Gibson
Sibanda did not attend yesterday's meeting
indicating that the divisions are
far from over.
Asked why he did not attend the meeting, Welshman Ncube
said: "The last time
I checked, a meeting of the national executive was
supposed to be called by
the secretary-general or the deputy
secretary-general and we have not called
for such a meeting."
Ncube
would also not discuss what transpired in South Africa where he met
South
African President, Thabo Mbeki on Friday, saying: "I am not
authorised, by
the party, to comment on that."
Sources close to the MDC President said
Mbeki telephoned him last week about
the delegation of MDC officials in the
country. Tsvangirai reportedly told
Mbeki that the crisis in MDC was an
internal matter which could only be
solved through dialogue by colleagues in
the party.
In an apparent admission that the opposition had failed to
whip its members
into line, Tsvangirai's spokesperson, William Bango, said
yesterday all MDC
members who would take part in the elections would be
doing so as
independents.
Zim Standard
By Kumbirai
Mafunda
RESERVE bank Governor Gideon Gono on Thursday appeared to be
turning on the
heat on the government, imploring it to desist from farm
invasions and make
significant reforms if the war against inflation is to be
won.
Gono rounded on land invaders labellng them "criminals, economic
saboteurs"
and "unruly agents keen on reaping where they did not sow". He
was
presenting his Monetary Policy statement for the Third
Quarter.
His irritation appears to have been brought about by the fresh
wave of
invasions initiated by people loyal to the governing Zanu PF
party.
Commercial farmers in Nyazura and Chipinge are fighting off a wave
of
invaders after their properties.
Farming sources told The
Standard, Gerald Balance, a commercial farmer was
last month removed from
his Ripplemid Farm and has since left Nyazura.
Other remaining commercial
farmers are facing similar disruptions to their
activities.
Commercial Farmers' Union vice president, Trevor Gifford,
said reports of
farmers being evicted were coming from all corners of the
country almost on
a daily basis.
"It seems like they just want to get
rid of all white farmers and they are
not even worried about production,"
Gifford said.
A clearly irritated Gono said the disruptions will rob the
country of the
much-needed foreign currency and will scare investors from
committing their
resources in the country.
He said some farmers had
invested in irrigation schemes using foreign
exchange to import
infrastructure, among many other improvements using
Reserve Bank money,
which must be repaid.
Gono added: "Our hearts at the Central Bank bleed
with each story of such
levels of economic disregard, such irrationality and
such economic sabotage.
What we require at the present moment is a
moratorium of such invasions or
distances. We need to concentrate, face
down, on ploughing and planting."
He vowed that Zimbabwe should never
import grain next year, as doing so
would gobble the resources needed to
import fuel and medical drugs.
".from where we stand, anyone invading
farms now is not working for the
interest of this country; is a criminal and
ought to be locked away until
after the harvest," Gono said.
Gono's
comments come a few weeks after the 17th Amendment to the
constitution,
which nationalized all agricultural land, thereby rendered
courts powerless
in matters regarding land disputes.
"Where no respect is given for the
sanctity of private property, investors
become apprehensive and instead
plough their resources in other more secure
destinations. It is for this
reason that we implore the relevant authorities
to institute stringent laws
that protect private property." He also called
on State Security, Lands,
land Reform and Resettlement minister Didymus
Mutasa to finalise the land
audit exercise.
Yesterday Mutasa, who announced what he termed Faster
Track, a programme
meant to get land from the remaining commercial farmers
two months ago,
refused to comment.
"I can't talk about land matters
with you. Munonyanya kutituka (Your paper
always insults us)," Mutasa
said.
John Nkomo, Zanu PF national chairman yesterday said:
"That
is up to government to deal with those issues. But obviously there is
need
for orderliness in farms to enhance productivity. I don't know the
context
in which the statements were made."
Farming sources told The Standard
Gerald Balance, a commercial farmer, was
last month removed from his
Ripplemid Farm and has since left Nyazura.
Other remaining commercial
farmers are facing similar disruptions to their
activities.
Commercial Farmers' Union vice president, Trevor Gifford,
said reports of
farmers being evicted were coming from all corners of the
country almost on
a daily basis.
"It seems like they just want to get
rid of all white farmers and they are
not even worried about production,"
Gifford said.
A clearly irritated Gono said the disruptions will rob the
country of the
much-needed foreign currency and will scare investors from
committing their
resources in the country.
He said some farmers had
invested in irrigation schemes using foreign
exchange to import
infrastructure, among many other improvements using
Reserve Bank money,
which must be repaid.
Gono added: "Our hearts at the Central Bank bleed
with each story of such
levels of economic disregard, such irrationality and
such economic sabotage.
What we require at the present moment is a
moratorium of such invasions or
disturbances. We need to concentrate, face
down, on ploughing and planting."
He said that Zimbabwe should never
import grain next year, as doing so would
gobble the resources needed to
import fuel and medical drugs.
".from where we stand, anyone invading
farms now is not working for the
interest of this country; is a criminal and
ought to be locked away until
after the harvest," Gono said.
Gono's
comments come a few weeks after the 17th Amendment to the
constitution,
which nationalised all agricultural land, thereby rendered
courts powerless
in matters regarding land disputes.
"Where no respect is given for the
sanctity of private property, investors
become apprehensive and instead
plough their resources in other more secure
destinations. It is for this
reason that we implore the relevant authorities
to institute stringent laws
that protect private property." He also called
on State Security, Lands,
land Reform and Resettlement Minister Didymus
Mutasa to finalise the land
audit exercise.
Yesterday Mutasa, who announced what he termed Faster
Track, a programme
meant to get land from the remaining commercial farmers
two months ago,
refused to comment.
"I can't talk about land matters
with you. Munonyanya kutituka (Your paper
always insults us)," Mutasa
said.
John Nkomo, Zanu PF national chairman, yesterday said:
"That
is up to government to deal with those issues. But obviously there is
need
for orderliness in farms to enhance productivity. I don't know the
context
in which the statements were made."
Zim Standard
By our
staff
AS food shortages continue to haunt urban dwellers, hundreds of
Chitungwiza
residents consumed beans suspected to be contaminated that were
dumped on
the outskirts of the town last week, The Standard has
established.
Scores of residents - mainly women and children - trooped to
a dumpsite near
Unit L graveyard on Sunday last week to collect tonnes of
beans that had
been dumped there and either ate or sold them to unsuspecting
customers.
When The Standard visited the dumpsite, the poverty-stricken urban
dwellers
had already taken home all the beans, with some reselling them at
different
locations in the town.
"We have consumed some of them and
nothing has happened to us. We are
selling some because we managed to fill
two big bags," said a woman who
identified herself as Mai Murehwa of Unit
L.
She did not know who dumped the beans or why they had been thrown
away,
especially at a time when Zimbabwe is experiencing a severe food
crisis.
More than one million people are in need of food aid in the country
and the
number is expected to increase.
Some residents said although
people who consumed the beans might not show
any signs of illness now, the
effects might be felt in future.
"Why would one dump food if it is not
contaminated? People might feel safe
now, but they will suffer from the
effects in a few months or years to
come," said Douglas Gwenya of
Chitungwiza.
The Standard had not established the source of the beans by
the time of
going to print yesterday. However, some residents claimed that a
lorry
marked National Foods had dumped the beans, while others said it was
the
Catholic Development Commission.
However, officials from both
organisations denied any knowledge of the
dumped beans.
Father
Makusha of St Theresa's Church in Chitungwiza, which at times
distributes
relief food, said he was not aware of any dumped food in the
area.
National Foods chief executive officer, Mike Manga could not be
reached for
comment but an official at the company's depot in Chitungwiza
professed
ignorance about the dumped consignment.
A police officer,
at Makoni Police Station, confirmed that several tonnes of
beans had been
dumped in Chitungwiza but could not say whether they were
contaminated or
not.
Chitungwiza mayor Misheck Shoko also confirmed that tonnes of beans
were
dumped in the town but was also in the dark as to who or why they were
abandoned.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - The government has shut down a Gwanda gold claim
belonging to the
Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social
Welfare, Abedinigo
Ncube after mining inspectors discovered its operations
did not meet basic
safety requirements.
Ncube acquired the gold
claim, Caesar East Two, on 30 September after he
allegedly evicted gold
panners with the assistance of the police following
reports that they had
struck a rich vein of gold.
The minister is alleged to have applied and
acquired a mining licence in
Harare on the day in question and used it to
claim ownership of the gold
claim.
However, the mine was shut down
following a visit on 11 October by
inspectors from the Ministry of Mines and
Engineering Department who found
that its operations did not comply with
safety requirements.
The regional mining engineer, Julius Moyo, confirmed
that the gold claim had
been shut down.
A report compiled by two
inspectors of the Mines and Explosives Department
Tobias Nyoni and Lawrence
Rwodzi outlining the reasons for its closure noted
various irregularities
taking place at Caesar East Two, which contravened
Zimbabwe's mining rules
and regulations.
It reads in part: "Following the inspection by
inspectors of mines and
explosives, our observations are that the mining
method is unsafe and very
dangerous to the people, (and there is) an illegal
use of explosives in
breach of the Explosives Regulations of
1989.
"There is an uncontrollable number of people at the mine including
some who
don't appear in the workers register as required in terms of
Section 296 of
the Mining (Management and Safety) Regulations
1990.
"There are also several unprotected shafts no sanitary facilities
as
stipulated in Section 9 of the Mining (Health and Sanitation) Regulations
of
1995."
Parts of the recommendations in the report were to employ
appropriate mining
methods, the use of explosives in accordance with the
Explosives Regulations
Section 172 of 1989, and above all to correct most of
the anomalies for the
safety of the general public.
Zim Standard
LAST week's
60th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations Food and
Agriculture
Organisation, was a God-sent opportunity for resource-strapped
Zimbabwe to
appeal to the world community for assistance with food aid
needed for an
estimated 4 million Zimbabweans during the next six months.
Zimbabwe
sidestepped appealing for food aid, preferring to unleash a
blistering
attack on British Premier Tony Blair and US President George W
Bush by
laying the blame for world hunger on their doorsteps.
President Hugo Chavez
of oil-rich Venezuela applauded, congratulated and
embraced President Robert
Mugabe for his courage and revolutionary spirit in
standing up to the big
"bullies". Chavez was careful not to berate the
"bullies"
himself.
Last year during one of the troughs in the worsening fuel
crisis, President
Mugabe visited Venezuela, ostensibly to negotiate for
fuel. No oil was
forthcoming. In its place Chavez offers embraces and
exhortations for
theatrics that do not improve Zimbabwe's worsening
condition.
President Mugabe's regional counterpart, Bingu wa Mutharika of
Malawi did
not travel to Rome for the anniversary celebrations, choosing to
be with 5
million of his countrymen smarting from a food crisis similar to
Zimbabwe's.
Wa Mutharika used the occasion of the FAO anniversary to declare
a national
disaster in a bid to get more international donor assistance, and
appeal for
food aid. Such appeals help to strengthen mobilisation of
international aid
efforts. Zimbabwe should have launched such an appeal. It
has, however, been
coy, hamstringing UN efforts to activate an international
appeal on behalf
of Zimbabweans.
President Mugabe has consistently
denied that the country faces food
shortages and consequently has refused to
appeal formally, to the
international community for help. Yet Zimbabwe is
using scarce resources it
can not afford to import insignificant quantities
of grain - five days to
two weeks' consumption - merely maintaining a
semblance of a response to the
internal food crisis. But it has neither
resources nor capacity to deal
effectively with its man-made humanitarian
crisis. There is little doubt the
country is witnessing a tragedy of
unprecedented proportions. One has to be
a blind or be so far removed from
reality not to see the suffering around
us.
But even at this hour of
this largely man-made crisis, Zimbabwe's
pre-occupation is not with
addressing the multitude of internal problems or
failure to provide and
maintain basic services. It is with committing an
estimated $60 billion to
the creation of an upper house - the Senate - for
which nominations take
place tomorrow. The question demanding a response is:
What will it achieve,
for Zimbabweans who have been subjected to such mass
impoverishment and
deprivation?
Understanding the rationale and impetus behind this move,
merits a study of
the ruling party's 2005 Parliamentary elections manifesto,
which proclaimed
that, "Zanu PF government, always with the people of
Zimbabwe at heart".
Among many other pledges, Zanu PF promised an end to
sanctions; an end to
factory closures; no disruption to fuel supplies;
faster economic turnaround
and more foreign currency inflows. The results
are self-evident. Seven
months after those promises, Zimbabwe is worse off
than it was in March
2005. But apparently to the Zanu PF leadership, there
is no crisis and
Zimbabweans are among the most contented on the
continent!
In the area of health, it proclaimed "health for all", but it
is common
cause that Zimbabwe lacks the resources to staff health
institutions, it is
unable to retain its health professionals and has to
rely on expatriate
staff, while hospitals have inadequate or no drugs to
treat patients. The
recently rolled out Anti-Retroviral Treatment programme
is hopelessly
under-funded while domestic production of ARV drugs is
threatened so soon
after the roll out programme's introductory
phase.
So whose interests does Zanu PF have at heart when it pushes ahead
with a
programme, which it abolished in 1987 and at a time when the country
is
faced with challenges that are more pressing than re-introduction of the
Senate? Right from the beginning Zanu PF was set up to serve the political
interests and agenda of its leadership. It employs pyrotechnics in order to
hoodwink or beat up Zimbabweans into believing that its agendas are for the
good of the majority.
No government worth its salt would fast-track
the re-establishment of a
Senate, which requires enormous resources, at a
time when the country is
overwhelmed by so many challenges. The Senate is a
Zanu PF project for
exclusive benefit of Zanu PF. This is what the
nomination process tomorrow
is all about and this is what the 26 November
Senate elections will be all
about.
If the ruling party wanted to
extend its patronage and largesse to the
political deadwood among its ranks,
it should have encouraged both external
and internal investment and then
introduced an empowerment clause, which
would be used to warehouse those of
its members and supporters it now wishes
to reward with Senate seats.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
BULAWAYO - Several businesses have been forced to shut in the
Beitbridge
border town due to serious water shortages caused by a burst
water pipe and
low water levels in the town's reservoirs.
According
to chairman of the Beitbridge Business Association (BBA), Salatiel
Roy
Muleya, other firms scaled down operations and were likely to shut soon
if
the situation was not brought under control.
Thousands of workers, including
civil servants, may also be affected if the
water crisis persists. "The
situation is really bad as we are facing serious
water shortages in
Beitbridge. Several businesses have stopped operating and
others are likely
to follow suit within the next few days if it is not
rectified," said
Muleya, also secretary of Beitbridge Residents' Association
(BRA).
"Businesses and residents that are not seriously affected have
water
reservoirs or boreholes. These are very few compared to the large
number of
those affected. As I speak, patients are being screened at the
local
hospital which is now admitting only critically ill people. The rest
are
told to go home," he said.
He said ZINWA was told about the burst
water pipe under the town's main
bridge linking Zimbabwe with South Africa
but nothing was done.
"The burst pipe is not the only reason why we do
not have water as
Beitbridge's Upper and Lower dams are dry. We have over
the years tried to
influence ZINWA to build several water reservoirs here,
but nothing has been
done."The current water crisis is the worst ever in the
history of
Beitbridge. Some people have gone five days without bathing or
having water
for domestic use. Building work at the "Operation Hlalani
Kuhle" site has
stopped. Life is now unbearable here," he said.
One
of the border hotels has stopped taking bookings while three others with
boreholes and water reservoirs are operating without adequate water
supplies. Beitbridge Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer, Alfred
Mbedzi, said the dams were dry and the purification plant was operating
below capacity.
However, he would not comment on the extent to which
businesses and
residents were affected by the crisis.
He said ZINWA
was aware of the burst water pipe and perennial water woes
faced by the town
but had not repaired the pipe and upgraded the water
purification
plant.
"To make matters worse, the Limpopo River, our primary source of
water is
dry, and it is difficult to pump water from the river bed. It will
be
disastrous if we don't receive early rains," he said noting that Zhove
Dam
could be harnessed to bring the situation under
control.
Matabeleland South Provincial Water Engineer, Tommy Rosen, was
not available
for comment.
Zim Standard
By Kumbirai
Mafunda
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's administration continues to create
classic pieces
of tragic business theatre. And the preferred rostrum appears
to be
parliament building.
Using its superior numbers in parliament,
the governing Zanu PF party
recently rail- roaded the passage of the
Constitutional Amendment Bill No
17, which bestowed President Mugabe's
administration with sweeping powers to
grab land and bar owners from
contesting in court the seizure of their land
by the state.
Now
properties and estates in which foreigners have interests are up for
grabs
in a new wave of invasions. According to Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary
Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa all land which appeared in
section 5
Notices gazetted from June 2000 to September 2005 is now State
property and
available for distribution to landless Zimbabweans.
The amendment, which
opposition groups disparage as piecemeal, saw around 4
000 farms converting
overnight to State property. Not content with the
amassed land, a mop up
exercise is underway with those properties, which
escaped the net being
accounted for, and gazetted for acquisition.
Among the casualties are two
listed companies South African-owned Hippo
Valley Estates and
German-controlled Border Timbers whose properties are
protected under
Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements (BIPA) signed
between their
respective governments and Harare.
Despite contesting the forced
acquisition two of Hippo's estates in the
Lowveld are up for grabs. Hippo is
listed under a Section 5 Notice while
Mkwasine is listed under Schedule 7 of
the constitution of Zimbabwe
Amendment Bill No 17, which vests land in the
State without compensation
other than for improvements. Border has its
timber plantations in the
Eastern highlands listed and scores of landless
peasants are moving onto its
properties.
However, Chinamasa vows that
properties listed under BIPA won't be spared,
in brazen disregard of
bilateral agreements with other governments
protecting their nationals'
investments in Zimbabwe.
"What we are now doing is targeted
nationalization," said Chinamasa. BIPA
will not prevent acquisition.
Properties that enjoy BIPA status will be
acquired but full compensation
will be provided."
Though the move is upsetting international investors
it is most likely to
anger regional powerhouse South Africa, which
repeatedly assured its
nationals owning land in Zimbabwe that their property
was protected under
BIPA with Harare.
Through its subsidiary Anglo
American Corporation Zimbabwe (Amzim), Anglo
American Corporation of South
Africa is one of the largest private investors
in Zimbabwe. Its investments
include mining, agriculture and properties
among others. Many of these
activities were pioneering developments in
Zimbabwe, which now provides a
strong economic foundation for the country's
industrial base.
But
Chinamasa appears to have crossed swords with Zimbabwe's economic
supremo
and RBZ Governor Gideon Gono over seizures of properties protected
under
BIPA. In July, Gono implored the government to remedy BIPAs, which
were
inadvertently infringed upon during the emotive years of the land grab
exercise.
"It is deeply pleasing that our Leadership share this
progressive vision, as
reflected by the commitment by the President during
his address to the
Nation on the occasion of the opening of the Sixth
Parliament of Zimbabwe,
towards rectification of all residual BIPA
infringements," Gono said. "As
Monetary Authorities, we call upon and urge
all arms of government to ensure
that the leadership's vision for mutual
cohesion with our investor community
is nurtured and turned into
reality."
However, it is these incongruous statements that are alienating
would be
investors as the government is turning its back on judicious
economic
reform.
"That undermines the rule of law which is a
principal ingredient to
investment protection," says Tapiwa Mashakada, the
MDC spokesperson on
economic affairs.
And now after "successfully"
convincing the IMF to defer Zimbabwe's
expulsion Gono has to fight another
war, a more onerous one this time as
international investors whom he has
repeatedly tried assuage are knocking at
the central bank's doors
questioning the security of their investments. And
in their hands they are
clutching page 23 of Gono's July monetary policy
statement in which he
guarantees protection of investments.
Apart from battling the property
seizures Hippo is also grieving over its
US$2.68 million seized by the
central bank. The RBZ, which is desperate to
raise hard currency for
critical imports, alleges the sugar growing company
violated the Exchange
Control Act by failing to declare the foreign earnings
within the prescribed
period. Under Zimbabwe's archaic foreign currency
regulations, exporters
should liquidate their hard currency earnings within
30 days of receipt.
Hippo says the seizure of the much-needed funds would
adversely impact the
company's ability to import critical inputs and thus
seriously undermine
production.
Both Anglo and Border say they are not in possession of the
facts of
compensation.
"All we know is the constitutional amendment
and I haven't been informed
about compensation," Godfrey Gomwe, Anglo's
chief operating officer and
Amzim's chairman told Standardbusiness from
South Africa. And Border
insists: "As far as we are concerned they have no
intention to acquire
Border Timbers. We enjoy BIPA status."
Hippo,
the Lowveld based sugarcane grower warns of disastrous consequences
because
Mkwasine Estate accounts for 13% of the company's cane requirements.
Already
the country is crippled by a critical shortage of sugar on the
domestic
market which when it is available on the vibrant black market the
selling
price is prohibitive. In spite of the entire hubbub, Border
considers the
issuing of new listings on its estates flawed.
"The company has assumed
that this is an error on the part of the
authorities," Border says. Because
of the increasing number of illegal
occupants on its properties the timber
producer reports that incidents of
arson fires are on the
increase.
Critics caution that the blatant contempt of property rights
will accelerate
the wreckage of Zimbabwe's economy owing to the dearth of
foreign direct
investment. They warn that the flagrant seizures are damaging
international
investor perceptions of Zimbabwe as foreigners interrogate the
wisdom of
committing their capital in Harare which would be tantamount to
throwing
their money down the drain
But whether the government is
justified in appropriating the vast tracts of
land for redistributing to
landless citizens or not, it is ago
Zim Standard
THE leadership crisis within the MDC that has been
precipitated by the
divide over participation in the coming Senatorial
elections was long
overdue.
The party leadership has been in the
doldrums for the last three years,
during which time the "doves" (those that
work through the Zanu PF
parliament and its partisan judicial system) have
held sway over the "hawks"
(those who mobilize the people and international
support to force President
Robert Mugabe out of power).
The next logical
step from boycotting the Senatorial elections should be
calls for MDC
parliamentarians to withdraw from the Parliament of 2005, and
for the party
to try to regain the initiative lost after 2002 (with the
attendant risks of
facing the wrath of the regime) - and therein appears to
be the crux of the
matter for those in opposition to the Morgan Tsvangirai
camp.
After
the "trenches" of 2000, Parliament has for some become a comfortable
and
much valued perch from which to react to local developments and driven
(US/Thabo Mbeki/AU...) initiatives.
One would predict that MDC
participation in the Senatorial elections would
find re-enforcement of the
MDC split by way of the final results published
by the government. One
possible scenario thereafter would see Zanu PF
manoeuvres to draw some of
the resulting group of opposition
parliamentarians/senators into a Zanu PF
unity "solution", be it directly,
in conjugation with Jonathan Moyo/
UMP/Third Way or as independents.
Tsvangirai has been wise and shown
characteristic courage by finally causing
this crisis before his party
disappears altogether. The next logical step
for the MDC would appear to be
a convention to resolve the whole of issue of
leadership, guiding principles
and strategies.
After all, the "split" of 1963 rejuvenated opposition to
Ian Smith's regime
and gave us a new political movement and
party.
That the threat of dividing Zimbabweans is rearing its ugly head
yet again
is unfortunate, given the potential that the MDC initially took
good
advantage of for bridging the racial and regional divides of
yesteryear.
B Mhlanga
Borrowdale
Harare
Zim Standard
MONTHLY
contributions by teachers towards the HIV and AIDS fund have been
imposed on
every teacher in the country without consultation. Teachers
meekly accepted
the arrangement when neither they nor their relatives
actually benefit from
their contributions.
It is on record that teachers more than personnel
from any other professions
are suffering from HIV and AIDS. Many more of
their relatives have been
victims of this dreadful disease.
Many teachers
and their relatives are dying every day because they cannot
afford the
life-prolonging drugs. The burning questions right now are: Where
are their
monthly contributions going? Why are teachers not given control of
and
access to their contributions?
The government is being grossly unfair to
civil servants and teachers in
particular by not caring for them when they
fall sick. The government
concerns itself with trivial matters such as their
self-imposed tsunami,
Chimurenga this and Chimurenga that. With all these
useless activities by
the government, our education system is collapsing.
Rome is really burning
while the emperor fiddles.
It is a great shame
for government ministers to waste their time issuing
threatening letters to
teachers who are contemplating strike action. Instead
of issuing these
letters to the threatened profession, the government
ministers should be
busy finding out ways of solving the crisis facing
Zimbabwe. By the way,
what percentage are government ministers, including
the President himself,
contributing towards the AIDS levy?
As a parting shot, I implore the MDC
to stay away from the useless Senate
elections. The time is also now for the
MDC to abandon the Parliament and
plan other strategies. Zimbabwe is ruining
itself without any effort from
MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai. Just remember that
the MDC is the biggest mass
organisation which is dreaded by President
Robert Mugabe. We should not
allow the MDC to end up like the many other
bogus parties we had before its
launch.
Retired
Teacher
Masvingo
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by
Takura Zhangazha
SYMPTOMS are rather easy to see, whether they are in an
illness, or in the
prediction of whether or not there is going to be a
bumper harvest in a
forthcoming rainy season.
The only problem that
arises from a symptom of anything is that it can have
varied sources, and
can mean a whole host of things or issues. The same can
be said of the
current impasse within the MDC over and about participating
in the Senate
elections or alternatively the somewhat technical discourse
around whether
the democratic movement can be assumed to be democratic after
the president
ignores the majority will of what is called its National
Council. Critically
spoken, for, anyone with a serious disposition towards
Zimbabwean politics
would therefore ask themselves whether or not the
divisions within the
leadership over what should be a cut and dry case are
symptoms of other
issues within the party or else are exactly what they are,
divisions over
whether or not they should participate.
When the 2005 parliamentary elections
came around, even prior to the new
monster being created by Zanu PF called
Senate , there were perhaps sound
arguments for not participating in order
to prove the illegitimacy of Zanu
PF to the international community, as well
as to bring it to the negotiating
table were very public knowledge.
Eventually the idea of participating in
the parliamentary plebiscite took
credence, against the wishes of civil
society organizations and the
scepticism of some of its members. The reasons
for participating were given
as wide consultation with the public in the
form of rallies and the decision
of the National Council.
With the senate elections, the debate on
participation, like that of the
2005 parliamentary elections was, presumably
arrived at through rallies and
finally the National Council which went
against the position of the party
president in deciding to participate. This
situation is now commonly
adjudged by the media and those that consider
themselves politically savvy,
to be seriously threatening to split the
party.
And in order for an explanation on the senate election decision of
the MDC,
I hazard to go back to the issue of symptoms. Does the indecision
of the MDC
over the last two elections show a coherently indecisive party or
is it
indicative of deeper problems about leadership, let alone ideological
focus
of the movement? Or is it supposedly healthy for there to be the
occasional
serious disagreement at leadership level within a political party
that is
large and dynamic? These questions, and indicative of their
importance,
point to a two critical issues; first that there is need to
re-visit the
reasons why the MDC was formed, second that there is need to
explain the
symptoms within the context of elitist opposition politics and
decision
making.
To address the first; that of the reason why the MDC
was formed, one needs
to take into account the fact that the party was
premised largely on the
back of the labour movement and therefore its
essence was unionist in
outlook. In other words, it was premised on the
concept of a fluid movement
of workers that, either in socialist or other
closely related terms felt
that the time was now ripe to form a labour based
party to acquire and
entrench a social welfare State.
In the same
vein, the party was to be predicated upon the building of a less
bureaucratic system of politics; one that is not commandist in its structure
and its policy outlook. This approach was garnered from the experience of
the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) where major decisions were not
meant to be undertaken without wider consultation with members or the
general public and also in the ambit of the slogan, "A people driven
constitution, Now!"
Having said that; the party in its formation had
no singular intention to
become just another ordinary opposition political
party, comfortable with
pursuing power within the political set up as
defined by Zanu PF. It sought
to revolutionarize Zimbabwean politics, both
within the confines of a
democratic electoral system as well as where the
situation became untenable,
with non-violent mass action.
But equally
and related to the first issue outlined above, the second factor
around he
senate elections that this article seeks to address is the issue
of elitist
opposition politics. For example, when the MDC leadership claimed
to be
consulting the 'people' through rallies, it is a wonder that the
results of
such consultations are never made public. Instead what are
accorded
prominence are the decisions of the clique called the National
Council, an
organ which has not really been tried and tested in terms of its
legitimacy
with the ordinary membership for over five years. And I do not
consider the
conducting of primary elections as legitimizing the party's
internal
leadership, because the latter are fraught with patron client
relations that
are temporary and at best have been divisive at grassroots
levels of the
party. In short, whether the president of the MDC lost a
national council
election or not, the issue is that the elitist
decision-making within the
party is clearly undemocratic and does not
adequately take into
consideration the political fallout that may result
from such "un-consulted"
decisions.
Elitism has the tendency to emerge in a period where a party
or an
organization becomes too comfortable with itsself, and negates the
principles upon which it was founded. Tsvangirai gravely erred in allowing
this sort of elitism to creep in, where a system of patronage about who
participates in parliament or not becomes the order of the day. Or
alternatively, where the "top six" begin to behave as though they were a
Zanu PF presidium and in the process battle for control of as elite an organ
such as the National Council as if that is what the party was formed
for.
What is to be done, one might ask. Is the MDC misplaced in
participating in
the Senate elections or in not participating? The answer to
the matter lies
in revisiting the party revolutionary potential and calling
a spade a spade
when it comes to elections as a means of effecting
democratic change in the
country. It is no longer a feasible route and
Morgan Tsvangirai, for all his
previous mistakes, is right on this one. The
party must begin to think
around elections and seek other means of effecting
democratic change.
This also means that the party must re-link itself
with the masses it claims
to represent, re-organize its structures and
outline an organic
understanding of its role in the future of Zimbabwe.
There is no room for
central committee members in the MDC, of for people
that falsely claim to be
coming form the grassroots when in fact their
mandates are clearly in need
of refurbishment
The president of the
MDC must now begin to think and act like the
revolutionary the history of
Zimbabwean asks him to be. That is a person who
has the people's ear, the
people's support and their interests at heart. And
in making the bold
decision to fight those that want to reduce the MDC into
a typical
opposition political party run on elitist lines, then he is
finally on the
right path to bringing freedom to the doorstep of every
Zimbabwean.
Zim Standard
sundayfocus by Ralph
S Paratema
THE past week has been dominated by headlines of bickering
within the
opposition MDC which now seems to be split into two distinct
camps.
One camp led by the party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been
advocating for
a boycott of the election while the other allegedly led by
its Secretary
General Professor Welshman Ncube is insisting that the party
will contest
the election.
While Tsvangirai has been arguing that the
result of the election has been
pre-determined by President Robert Mugabe
the other camp has argued that
failure to participate in the elections will
be equivalent to donating its
urban dominance to the ruling Zanu
PF.
The two major elections that have been held in the country since the
formation of the MDC have clearly shown that the election management bodies
responsible for the organising and running the elections are so blatantly
partisan that they can not be relied upon to run elections that have a
semblance freeness and fairness.
Presently the elections are supposed
to be run by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission which was recently
constituted as a constitutional body. Needless
to say its reputation is in
tatters following the amateurish manner in which
it handled the 31 March
parliamentary elections. The chairperson Justice
George Chiweshe is himself
an appointee of Mugabe who himself is an
interested party in the outcome of
the electoral process. It is clear that
for any reasonably free and fair
elections to take place in Zimbabwe it is
imperative that a truly
independent electoral commission be set up. Such a
commission should not
have its chairperson appointed by Mugabe but should be
answerable to
Parliament.
The Senate elections have not been preceded by a reasonable
constituency
demarcation exercise. Instead the delimitation exercise was
conducted by
whoever drafted the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.
17). Harare, a
traditional MDC stronghold, for instance, was allocated the
same number of
Senatorial seats as Mashonaland Central in spite of the fact
that the number
of registered voters in the former are almost twice as those
in the latter.
Urban constituencies have been merged with rural ones in
order to dilute the
opposition's influence thereby reducing its already
remote chances of
winning the election. In view of the foregoing, a
completely new
delimitation exercise should have been conducted in order to
draw up
constituencies with the same number of registered voters.
It
is shocking how those who are saying that the MDC should take part in
these
elections seem to suffer from selective amnesia. Both the MDC and
several
other civic organisations have been calling for the scrapping of
Mugabe's
powers to appoint non-constituency Members of Parliament yet these
same
people seem interested in perpetuating this fraud by agreeing to
participate
in an election in which Mugabe will appoint six senators. The
other eight
seats will be reserved for chiefs in line with Mugabe's policy
of politics
of patronage. These traditional leaders view themselves as an
appendage of
Zanu PF and have traditionally voted with the party even when
making
decisions that are detrimental to the welfare of their subjects.
There
are still other impediments to a free and fair election in the form of
a
hopelessly partisan media which seems uninterested in covering MDC
activities unless it is doing so to show that the party is on the verge of
disintegration. A case in point is the ZTV's coverage of the ongoing crisis
in the MDC on last Tuesday.
The political analysts who were invited
to comment were the shameless
Tafataona Mahoso and the former Geography
teacher Caesar Zvayi. Both men are
well known Zanu PF apologists. The sole
national broadcaster also sought to
give the impression that only white
people are opposed to the MDC's
participation in the elections. It is my
view that to call for participation
in the Senate elections is in itself a
betrayal of those who have been
fighting for a free Press.
There is
still a plethora of repressive legislation that obtains in
Zimbabwe. The
Public Order and Security Act immediately comes to mind. It
was used by the
police on Sunday when trying to break up a meeting that the
opposition
leader tried to address in Chitungwiza. The lack of voter
education has been
glaring with most people interviewed on ZTV openly saying
they do not
understand what the duties of the Senate are.
There was also a massive
displacement of urban voters during the diabolic
"Operation Murambatsvina"
and a majority are still unregistered. It is
obvious that it is not possible
to hold reasonably free and fair elections
unless a completely new voters'
roll has been compiled.
My questions to those who want to participate
are: What lessons have you
learnt from the March election? Why do you want
to pursue selfish personal
interests at the expense of the national
interests? Have you ever wondered
why Mugabe gleefully welcomed the
participation of the MDC in this election?
Do you think that Morgan
Tsvangirai's proposal that the money Mugabe wants
to waste on the elections
should be given to suffering civil servants does
not make sense? What
difference will your presence in the Senate bring to us
considering that you
are already outnumbered in Parliament where the Bills
emanate from in the
first place? If you opposed the Bill in Parliament why
should you welcome it
now?
In my view the Senate is Mugabe's last supper whereby he has decided
to
resurrect his politically deceased cronies. This is Mugabe's way of
thanking
these people for keeping quiet while he reduced this country to the
basket
case that it has become. Those who intend to participate in the
elections
must remember that they will be remembered in history as sell outs
who
betrayed all Zimbabweans, dead and living, who have fought for the
holding
of free and fair elections, removal of repressive legislation, a new
people
driven constitution and a democratic and legitimate government chosen
by the
people through a transparent process.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by
Tamuka C Chirimambowa
THE Senate soap operas in the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), the
first one starring Welshman Ncube, co-starring
Paul Themba Nyathi, and Gift
Chimanikire, and directed by Robert Mugabe has
been an exciting and at the
same time a sad fiasco.
The second one
starring Morgan Tsvangirai, co-starring Nelson Chamisa, Lucia
Matibenga with
guest actor Grace Kwinjeh, and directed by the oppressed
people of Zimbabwe.
My interest is embedded in the first soap, although at
certain times I would
make references to the second one.
Foremost, it should be understood that the
Senate is a baby of the bogus cut
and paste child of Zanu PF's incest with
the constitution of Zimbabwe.
Secondly, it should be noted that the MDC
from, the onset, never supported
Constitutional Amendment No.17 that has
brought the Senate. Third, it should
also be observed that even the
pro-senate star actor Welshman Ncube never
voted for that amendment. Fourth
and last is who is fooling who?
Before Enactment of Constitutional
Amendment No.17, here is what they said:
Paul Themba Nyathi
(Newzimbabwe.com "A dark day for Zimbabwe Democracy" 31
August
2005)
"The passing of the Constitutional Amendment Bill (NO.17) by the
Zanu PF
majority in parliament represents a flagrant disregard for
democratic
rights, standards and processes. A constitution should be a
symbol of
national consensus. This consensus can only be established if a
constitution
is formulated in full consultation with the people. Zanu PF was
presented
with an opportunity to work with the people and formulating such a
constitution. It rejected this opportunity and instead doggedly pursued a
piecemeal approach to constitutional reform; an approach which essentially
aimed to ensure that the constitution is shamelessly corrupted to support
the political objectives of the ruling elite at the expense of the interests
of the people.
"The creation of a Senate is in no way a move to
improve legislative
oversight. It has simply been created as an extension of
presidential
patronage, aimed at soothing bruised egos within the ruling
party. The new
constitutional provisions represent a serious assault on
citizens' basic
rights and freedoms. The government will now be able to
seize the passports
of its critics. It will also have the power to acquire,
without
compensation, any land which it defines as 'agricultural land'.
These
arbitrary powers are an assault on property rights. Land in peri-urban
and
urban areas could now be subject to compulsory purchase. Under the
amendment, victims will have no right of appeal."
Welshman Ncube (www.ijr.org.za) "Zimbabwe's Constitutional
Reforms: A Missed
Opportunity and a Recipe for Disaster" 11 September
2005)
"The adoption of the Constitution Amendment Bill (No 17) by the
Zimbabwe
Parliament on Wednesday 2 September was a systematic retrogressive
move for
the country. It will exacerbate the crisis of governance which has,
within
five years, driven Zimbabwe to the precipice of being a failed state.
By
amending the constitution for the seventeenth time since independence
twenty
five years ago the Zanu PF government has sent out an unequivocal
message to
the people that it has no respect for the constitution.
Conversely, it
cannot expect the people to take the constitution seriously;
a factor that
will serve to intensify the perceived lack of legitimacy
within Zimbabwe's
body politic in the eyes of the people. This dichotomy
goes to the very
heart of Zimbabwe's ills as it symbolises the absence of
national consensus
on core governance issues and the total lack of public
trust in the current
Government.
"A constitution should be a symbol
of national unity. It should represent a
contract between those in power and
those who are subjected to this power.
It should define the rights and
duties of citizens and the institutional
arrangements that keep those in
power in check. To ensure its legitimacy, a
constitution must be formulated
in strict accordance with the principle of
inclusiveness. There must be
broad public participation and ownership of the
final product. The passing
of the Constitution Amendment Bill (No 17) is a
recipe for disaster. Neither
the ruling party nor Parliament had the
constitutional mandate to introduce
such a Bill. Attempts to engage the
public, and canvass their views on the
proposed amendments, were
perfunctory. The whole process was totally lacking
in legitimacy. The net
result is that the Government has made the crisis
worse. To help tackle the
crisis we need to come together as Zimbabweans and
formulate a constitution
in a transparent and all-inclusive
manner.
"We all need to have ownership of the constitution and use this
document as
the basis for healing the divisions bedevilling our society and
retarding
our development as a nation.
Welshman Ncube
(Newzimbabwe.com, 29 September 2005)
"There are fundamental differences
between the March Parliamentary elections
and the position we are in right
now. It is very clear that the national
council lifted the suspension on
election participation and that position
has not changed. The operative
resolution of the council is that we are in
the elections."
This is
what they said and wrote verbatim. So exciting, fascinating,
depressing and
full of hypocrisy is the soap opera. What chameleonic antics
by the staring
and co-starring actors? That is food for thought. So clearly
these men
articulate that the whole Senate issue and the constitutional
amendment that
ushers it is a political fiasco and mafia on the electorate
and the question
that makes one wonder is what has Saul met on the way to
Damascus? Co-actor
Nyathi sums it vividly up,
".an approach which essentially aimed to
ensure that the constitution is
shamelessly corrupted to support the
political objectives of the ruling
elite at the expense of the interests of
the people."
Who would blame the people if they also conclude: "The quest
to act in the
Senate by the MDC council, who from the onset vehemently
opposed the script
as anti -people and egocentric drama is driven non-other
than the desire to
seek a second bite of the cherry for those who missed in
the March
elections." Imagine being a Senator driving a 4x4, going around
sourcing
Money in the name of the people, getting hefty allowances from
government,
access to resources due to political office and all the
goody-goodies
associated with political elitism.
Gibson Sibanda-MDC
vice president. Interview on SWRadioafrica.com 18 October
2005:
"The
MDC was founded on principles which include democracy, freedom,
transparency
and justice and that the party is determined to uphold these
principles and
values. And will not allow one person or a group of persons
to destroy
them."
Does this man ever know what a principle is? What principle is it
Sibanda to
go about saying Mugabe is a dictator and at the same time
legitimising his
actions? Look at Prof. Welshman Ncube's comments that
neither Zanu PF nor
Parliament had the legitimacy to amend the constitution,
then what boggles
the mind is where did then the legitimacy come from? This
is the sad end to
the first episode of the Senate soap opera. But do soaps
end? No, definitely
in my next piece I will deal with the second part; the
one starring Morgan
Tsvangirai.