April 15,
2006
By Andnetwork .com
THE GOVERNMENT has condemned
new illegal structures that are
mushrooming in Harare in the aftermath of
Operation Murambatsvina/Restore
Order and said owners of such structures
must immediately demolish them.
Harare
Metropolitan Governor and Resident Minister Cde David
Karimanzira yesterday
said the new structures that were fast mushrooming in
the capital city
defeated the whole purpose of the clean-up operation,
undertaken in urban
centres last year.
"We said Operation Murambatsvina was to rid our
towns and cities of
illegal structures. There is no reason why people should
go back and erect
illegal structures again," he said.
Illegal
structures such as home industries, roadside garages, barber
shops, hair
salons and tuck shops that were demolished during the clean-up
exercise were
resurfacing in most high density suburbs of Harare.
In some cases,
wooden cabins were also being erected in backyards to
rent out by homeowners
who wanted to supplement their meagre incomes. Cde
Karimanzira said people
who erected illegal structures must demolish them on
their own before the
law takes its course.
"Laws should be followed, these illegal
structures that are coming up
again should be condemned," he
said.
Recently, the Harare City Council also voiced concern at the
rate at
which illegal structures were resurfacing in the city. The local
authority
said it could embark on another clean-up campaign to rid the city
of illegal
buildings and illicit business activities that had resurfaced in
most
residential areas and the city centre.
City spokesperson
Mr Madenyika Magwenjere warned all residents who had
built new illegal
structures that another wave of demolitions would soon
begin. He said those
with illegal structures on their premises should pull
them down or have them
regularised before the net closed in on them.
Soon after the
clean-up exercise, the Government launched Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle
with a view to providing decent accommodation to
thousands of people that
were affected by the clean-up exercise in urban
areas.
Source :
Herald
IOL
April 15 2006
at 04:53PM
By Peter Borchert
Culling elephants has
been an accepted management practice in many
parts of Africa since the
60s.
Kruger Park's managers of the day believed that the elephant
population (which had grown steadily since the park's inception in 1926)
should be stabilised at around 7 000 individuals if severe habitat
alteration were to be avoided.
Thus began an annual cull which
resulted in about 17 219 elephants
being killed or removed from 1967 to
1996. In the eyes of many African and
international conservation agencies
and individuals, culling as a management
strategy had always been unpopular,
so when SANParks announced a moratorium
on killing, it was widely
applauded.
The decision was taken after a SANParks-initiated debate
on the ethics
and morality of killing elephants, but also influencing the
stance was the
fact that they were moving away from the "7 000 elephants is
the correct
number for Kruger" approach, to arguing for strategies aimed at
managing
num-bers at either low, moderate or high levels in different parts
of the
park.
They also wished to change these areas and numbers
through time,
pending the response of biological diversity to elephant
numbers. But what
is this obsession with the number 7 000 that has dominated
several decades
of Kruger Park's history?
The number represents
about "one elephant per square mile" (roughly
0,4 elephants per square
kilometre), a calculation based on personal
observation and a research paper
published in 1969, two years after culling
started.
Currently,
elephant numbers in Kruger are increasing at near maximal
rates, and are now
well above one elephant per square mile, showing that
resources are not
limiting their numbers. This may be due to management
actions such as
fencing that override natural limitations.
Others have argued that
7 000 is much too high as impact was already
apparent when elephants reached
this number. From population trends
elsewhere it is unlikely, without strong
human intervention, that Kruger's
population will stabilise before a density
of at least one elephant per
square kilometre (that's 2,6 per square mile)
is reached.
By then the population will have grown to about 20 000
and the park's
savannahs will look very different to the way they do now,
but they will be
savannahs nonetheless. SANParks conservation managers have
argued that to
allow such a scenario to play out - in effect, to let nature
take its
course - would be un-advisable. Accordingly, they proposed that
culling
again be available as a management option.
Not
surprisingly, the local and international media had a field day
with this
news and the voice of protest, especially from animal rights
campaigners,
raised itself in no uncertain terms, some actively branding
South Africa as
"a last outpost of wildlife tyranny" should elephant culling
occur.
The Humane Society of the United States has already
publicly stated
that if culling takes place, they will advise their
8,5-million members not
to visit South Africa.
Amongst the more
pragmatic of the conservation NGOs this
confrontational stance is decriedbut
the threat and the serious impact such
an action would have on the local
tourism industry cannot be taken lightly.
In the face of this
protest Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa's
Minister of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism, found himself between a rock
and a hard place: his
conservation colleagues at SANParks were urging the
need to consider culling
while his other portfolio, tourism, would be
threatened by such an
action.
Wisely, he put together an advisory board of experts and
has heard
their counsel over the intervening months. In February he
announced that
more scientific information was needed.
Some
argue that he is simply buying time, many think it a sensible
move. Elephant
impacts in Kruger are being monitored; if this process
continues over the
next three years, the results may suggest strategies less
traumatic than
culling.
One possible outcome is that with the advent of the
Greater Limpopo
Transfrontier Park (which embraces Kruger, a million-hectare
slice of land
in Mozambique and a section of Zimbabwe), elephants may begin
to exploit
these "new lands", resulting in a more dynamic ebb and flow of
elephant
numbers within a more "natural" migratory system (see The Big
Picture on
page 76).
The way in which events unfold could well
be a watershed in
conservation thinking and action, not only in South Africa
but in elephant
range states across the African
continent.
This article was originally published on page 2
of Saturday Star on
April 15, 2006
April 15,
2006,
By Andnetwork .com
The Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority hunting season which
begins next month is expected to
be a success, says the authority's public
relations office.
"We
are expecting to have a transparent hunting season this year as we
are going
to closely monitor the hunts by allocating rangers to accompany
the
hunters," said spokesman Retired Major Mbewe. "In the past year we have
experienced situations where people granted hunting concessions overhunted,
that is to say they killed more animals than they were
allocated.
"But this year, through our strict monitoring measures,
we will make
sure that these people will pay compensation for any extra
hunts," he added.
The authority also said that the hunters' registers will
be under
surveillance as the majority of their clients were foreigners from
the
United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa America and other
neighbouring countries.
He, however, said that the hunting
season usually contributes a
significant amount to Zimbabwe's total foreign
currency earnings. The Parks
and Wildlife Management Authority raised more
than $150 billion in its
Zambezi Valley hunting auction conducted ea rlier
this year. The auction
attracted hunters from the US and South Africa. The
authority said despite
the negative publicity, Zimbabwe's hunting
concessions continued to attract
foreigners from traditional source markets,
thanks to the high quality of
trophies on offer.
Source: The
Herald
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a
Correspondent
ZIMBABWEANS living in the United Kingdom took to
the streets of London
today to demonstrate against the continued suffering
of the populace, 26
after independence. Organised by the Zimbabwe Vigil,
Zimbabweans living in
the diaspora came in their numbers to speak against
the ills afflicting the
country and to discuss the need for change. Also
taking part in the
demonstration, which ended up at Zimbabwe House, were
members and supporters
of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), human rights
campaigners and ordinary Zimbabweans.
MDC
chairman Washington Ali said there was need for the international
community
to be reminded of the situation obtaining in Zimbabwe.
"We have been
independent for 26 years now but we have very little to
show for it," said
Ali. "We have actually lost all the gains we had made
after gaining
political independence from the British. Look at our roads,
the traffic
lights, our economy, the education system - everything is in a
sorry state
and something has to be done about it."
Ali said the demonstration also
gave people in the UK an opportunity
to meet and hear of events taking shape
on the ground. "We need to tell
people here not to panick. We need to
continue supporting all voices
fighting for change back home and mainly
Morgan Tsvangirai and the real MDC.
Things are happening fast and we want
Zimbabweans to unite and speak with
one voice so we can remove the one
impediment that has stopped us from
enjoying the fruits of independence for
so long."
The demonstration was characterized by song and dance
with placards
denouncing the Zanu PF government and those who support them
being
displayed.
Meanwhile, in his independence message, MDC
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
says it is sad that Zimbabwe, a potential
powerhouse in the region, has done
down the abyss so fast over the past few
years.
"We anxiously positioned ourselves ready to rebuild the
country and to
contribute to wealth creation and to explore the abundant
opportunities
brought about by the promise of freedom," said
Tsvangirai.
nationmalawi.com
by Gedion Munthali, 15 April 2006 - 04:53:32
Western
diplomats and political analysts have described as suicidal
Malawi
Government's hosting of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe next month,
when
the Zimbabwe leader is expected to open an EU-funded road which will be
named after him.
And if words of our two diplomatic sources are
anything to go by, the
Midima road opening ceremony will be boycotted by a
number of Western
representatives.
Two diplomatic sources working
for two foreign missions in Malawi
indicated that a clear position will be
known once full details of Mugabe's
visit are known.
"Our policy is
not to interfere in internal affairs of any country but
there are certain
things that sovereign countries must always consider. I
mean, there will
always be diplomatic sensitivities. The EU has problems
with Mugabe, the
same bloc funded the road in question, now what do you
think the reaction in
Brussels will be?" questioned one diplomat.
"The answer is that there
will be resentment, this is the reaction
that will filter to its
membership," he added.
Said the other diplomat: "Obviously there will
be unhappiness in the
EU membership, you might see some boycotts or low key
representation at the
ceremony."
The diplomats were reacting to
Foreign Affairs Minister Davis Katsonga's
confirmation that Mugabe will
visit Malawi next month, and will among other
things open the Midima road
which connects Blantyre and Mulanje.
Information Minister Patricia
Kaliati on Friday said government will
proceed to host Mugabe and name the
road after him because Malawi is a
sovereign state and some civil society
organisations are being used by some
members of the donor
community.
"If some countries have problems with Zimbabwe, that should
not
concern us. Malawi is a sovereign state, fully entitled to choose its
friends," said Kaliati without mentioning the countries.
"Zimbabwe
has been a friend of Malawi for a long time, and it is
playing host to over
5 million Malawians. If we quarrel with Mugabe, where
will these Malawians
go? Will some of these Western countries host them?"
she
questioned.
Kaliati said government does not share the position of
civil society
organisations.
"They are free to express their
opinions and they can hold their
demonstrations. Malawi is a democratic
state. But government has a different
view. We believe Zimbabwe is more than
a friend, and by naming the road
after Mugabe we are underlining this fact,"
said Kaliati. "When the EU
funded the project, the condition was not that
Mugabe should not open it.
That is no where in the agreement."
Rafiq Hajat, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy
Interaction
(IPI), a Blantyre-based think tank, said on Thursday Mugabe's
visit was
"highly irresponsible and counterproductive on the part of the
Malawi
Government and President Bingu wa Mutharika."
"This is highly
counterproductive. Inviting Mugabe to Malawi to
perform the functions that
have been lined up for him, is tantamount to
acknowledging his successes and
applauding the hardships that have visited
the people of Zimbabwe at his
hands," said Hajat. "We are setting a very bad
example."
Hajat said
by honouring Mugabe to open the Midima road, "which was
funded by the
European Union", and naming it after "a dictator", Malawi was
slapping the
Union in the face.
"What message are we sending?" asked Hajat, and
answered the question
himself: "We are slapping the EU in the face. If we
are so obsessed with
Zimbabwe, why can't we name the road after one unsung
hero Attati Mpakati
who was hand-bombed on the streets of Harare?"
Mugabe, who is renowned for using public platforms to lash out at the
West,
notably Britain-Malawi's largest bilateral donor-and United States, is
under
some EU sanctions, including selected travel restrictions.
"If he
lashes out at Britain and the United States we will be
committing suicide,"
warned Hajat. "We are just recovering from donor
fatigue, we do not have the
luxury of being self-sufficient to be doing
this."
Human Rights
Consultative Committee (HRCC)-an umbrella body of over 50
human rights
organisation in Malawi-will stage demonstrations during Mugabe's
visit, to
protest against the poor human rights record of his
administration.
HRCC chair Rodgers Newa said on Thursday keeping quiet during Mugabe's
visit
would be a "regrettable endorsement of the atrocities that are taking
place
against the great of people of Zimbabwe and all those who have
encountered
the wrath of the prevalent brutality."
"Definitely, we will stage
sustained demonstrations from the first to
the last day of the visit," said
Newa. "We cannot keep quiet. We cannot stop
him from coming to Malawi
although we would rather he did not come," said
Newa.
He said his
organisation has been preparing for Mugabe once it was
learnt he was coming
to Malawi.
Meanwhile, Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
and Zimbabwe
Africa National Union-Patrotic Front (ZANU-PF) will sign a
cooperation
agreement during the visit, DPP and government officials
disclosed on
Thursday.
A member of the DPP national governing
council disclosed Thursday that
the agreement will cement an informal
relationship that has existed between
the two parties since President
Mutharika formed his party last year.
"One of the things that will
happen during the visit is to formalise a
working relationship between the
two parties," said governing council
member. "This means the two parties
will be working like sisters or
brothers."
ZANU PF-which has been
in power since 1980 when Zimbabwe gained its
independence from the British
colonial masters-stands accused of presiding
over an administration tainted
by human rights violations and economic
decline, with current inflation
hovering at around 900 percent.
A senior government official involved
in the preparations for Mugabe's
visit said the agreement is expected to be
signed at the New State House on
May 3, 2005 in presence of members of the
DPP national governing council and
the ZANU-PF politburo.
"It is
true arrangements are being made for the function you are
talking about,"
said the official. "This will be a climax of the discussion
the two leaders
have had for some time now."
Ntaba said on Thursday he would make a
comment on behalf of the party
once "we have been supplied with details of
President Mugabe's visit."
"I cannot comment now, until we get details
from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. At the moment we have not been given
any details. Once we
get the details, I give you a comment," said
Ntaba.
He declined to comment on whether or not DPP is informally
working
with ZANU-PF.
Foreign Affairs Minister Katsonga said
details of the visit will not
be released until on the eve of Mugabe's
arrival, citing security
considerations.
"It will be too early to
release a full programme of President Mugabe's
visit, but it will be made
public at the appropriate time," said Katsonga on
Thursday.
When
Muluzi was in power he tried to mediate between Mugabe and
Opposition. He
also tried, together with other SADC leaders, to persuade
Mugabe to slow
down on his fast-track land expropriation programme which has
impoverished
the once bread basket for the region. There were fears that
Malawi would be
affected by the spill-over effect on economic collapse in
our second biggest
regional trading partner.
nationmalawi.com
Editorial
by Editor, 15 April 2006 -
05:41:13
It is not surprising that the news that Midima Road will be named
after
Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, has incensed the civil society
and
donor representatives alike.
What is indeed surprising is why the
Malawi government thinks Mugabe,
whose policies have created pot-holes on
the once great roads and the
economy of Zimbabwe, should open our
newly-tarmacked road? Why not name the
road after African leaders like
former South African President Nelson
Mandela, former Mozambican President
Joacchim Chissano or former President
of Botswana Ketumile Matsire who have
nurtured democracy, civil rights and
followed policies that have built-and
not destroyed-economies of the
countries they were privileged to
lead?
By impoverishing Zimbabwe, Mugabe has also messed us up. Zimbabwe
was
the bread basket for the region and Malawi's second largest trading
partner
in Sadc. A strong economy there meant a big market for our products
and a
nearer source of our imports. Why should we pretend we support what
government is doing in Zimbabwe?
There is no denying that as an
independent sovereign state we are at
liberty to name a road built with
European Union funds after anyone we
choose. Information Minister Patricia
Kaliati is 100 percent correct to
argue that it wasn't part of the
conditionalities that the road should not
be named after Mugabe. But this is
the reality seen through a classroom
window.
In the real world,
there is sensitivity. The former Muluzi
administration, which Kaliati also
loyally served, reacted to donor concerns
by saying "we would rather be poor
looking up than down". The donors simply
respected that wish and closed the
aid taps. This resulted in economic
stagnation and untold miseries for the
innocent Malawians whose only dream
is to grow into a middle income,
God-fearing nation by the year 2020.
A country like Malawi that depends
on donor aid for almost its entire
development budget should be careful not
to bite the finger that feeds it.
EU does not see eye to eye with Mugabe.
This may not be our concern but are
we naive enough to think EU-and indeed
our other major donors-will be
indifferent to the honour our government is
according Mugabe by letting him
officially open Midima Road which they
funded then name the road after him?
Malawi has so many other roads and
other developmental projects
requiring help from EU, let the government act
in the best interest of all
Malawians.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
The silencing of the country's last independent radio
station.
By a staff member of Voice of the People radio (AR No. 60,
14-Apr-06)
On December 15 last year, police raided Voice of the People,
VOP, radio
offices in Harare.
I was out of town on private business
but the news was relayed to me on my
mobile. When I saw that message, I
smelt big trouble.
Relatives and friends advised me to go into hiding
immediately for they knew
the kind of story that was inevitably about to
unfold - detention and
torture at the hands of the police. I would be
detained together with other
board members and station managers, even though
the charges would be
pathetically insufficient to warrant
it.
Zimbabwean police are known to torture detainees with beatings and
through
the sheer humiliation of being locked up in the country's prisons,
which are
among the filthiest in the world. Cells are notorious for being
overcrowded
and lice-infested. The food, if available, is barely fit for
human
consumption.
It was a few days to the Christmas and New Year
holidays, so the possibility
was high that I would be thrown into prison
throughout the festive period
and held with common criminals. Zimbabwean
police like to make a prisoner's
humiliation total.
Court officials
are unavailable during holidays, so detainees cannot be
brought to trial in
the 48 hours stipulated by our increasingly fragile and
often ignored
laws.
The "crime" for which I was sought was being a leading journalist
and board
member in one of Zimbabwe's last independent news outlets,
VOP.
In fact, independent broadcasting had become so impossible in our
own
country that we had been reduced to beaming our taped reports, made
inside
the country, via a Radio Netherlands shortwave transmitter on the
Indian
Ocean island of Madagascar back into Zimbabwe.
The ruling ZANU
PF government was upset that villagers could pick up our
signals more
clearly than those of state radio and television, which
broadcast a steady
stream of ruling party propaganda.
I heeded my friends' and relatives'
advice and went into hiding immediately.
I threw a few clothes and personal
belongings into my bags and rushed to a
friend's house. I left my kids with
my spouse and asked relatives to check
on them the following day. But later
on, during the night, I worried about
my children and went back for them and
sent them off to my parents' rural
home.
I became a wandering refugee
in my own country. I went back to my friend's
house. He was the only person
I could think of, because I suddenly realised
that when you're in that kind
of trouble, you are virtually on your own.
Very few people want to have
anything to do with you.
The enormity of living in a country that does
not value human rights hit me
like a tonne of bricks.
My life changed
dramatically. Not only did I I have to abandon my house, but
my car too, in
case they spotted me driving around town. I sneaked into town
now and again,
but I felt very insecure and I had to rely on the country's
increasingly
decrepit and inefficient public transport. It was the rainy
season and I
caught a heavy cold which kept me bed-ridden for days.
Come Christmas, my
friend had to travel with his family. What was I to do? I
did not feel
comfortable being left alone in someone else's house.
Fortunately, an uncle
took me in and for two weeks I did not set foot
outdoors. I slept, ate,
watched TV and slept again. I was afraid to answer
calls on my mobile in
case it was the police.
After the festive period, the kids came back from
my parents' home so they
could go to school. It was another headache,
because my spouse was also now
on the run. A long-time friend took the kids
in. It was traumatic for them
because they did not know what had happened to
their mum and dad.
I got word that the police were now searching
vigorously for me and other
VOP Radio executives. Ten policemen were
permanently stationed outside the
house of one of my colleagues. At another
board member's place, they
harassed and arrested a gardener and a driver,
and broke a picture frame
containing my colleague's photograph, which they
took away with them.
Finally, our lawyer intervened and took me and other
senior colleagues to
the police station, where six of us were charged with
broadcasting without a
license under the country's draconian media laws,
which heavily constrain
press freedom. Strictly speaking, we were not
actively broadcasting, but
merely sending taped reports to the Netherlands
for subsequent transmission
from Madagascar.
We were fingerprinted
and photographed before appearing in court, where we
were remanded on bail,
each with orders to report regularly to Harare
Central Police
Station.
It was a relief to return to my own home after two months on the
run. The
grass was overgrown and water and electricity had been cut off
because of
unpaid bills. We had little money because our income dried up
with the
collapse of VOP.
We have been reduced to near-destitution
because in the police state that
Zimbabwe has become other organisations are
afraid to employ us. We remain
on remand to this day, and are waiting
anxiously to see what happens next.
The VOP was established through a
Communications Trust registered by the
Government of Zimbabwe in the run-up
to the 2000 parliamentary elections as
an alternative voice to the only
other registered broadcaster, the
government-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation.
We applied for a broadcast license, but were refused one -
which was absurd
because the mandate of the broadcasting authority, on paper
at least, was to
ensure plurality on the airwaves.
Police found no
broadcasting equipment, only computers, during the most
recent raid on our
offices, although we are charged among other things with
transmitting
broadcasts illegally. Our counsel, the distinguished human
rights lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa, brought an expert witness, Amon Matambo, an
engineer, who -
in his testimony - defined broadcasting as the transmission
of an audio or
television signal via a transmitter.
Matambo told Harare magistrate
Rebecca Takawadi that mere possession of
computers, recorders and
microphones could not be construed as constituting
the act of "transmitting"
broadcasts.
We, the accused, did not possess the necessary equipment and
gadgets to
transmit programmes. Matambo further argued that broadcasting via
the
Netherlands and Madagascar did not constitute broadcasting "in"
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean radio listeners were merely recipients of products
transmitted
from Madagascar.
Our case has been adjourned and we
return to court on April 27. We do not
know what will happen. Long ago we
applied for a broadcasting license, but
all applicants other than state
radio have had their applications turned
down.
The government
obviously considers us dangerous.
In August 2002, government agents
planted a bomb and blew up our offices in
Harare, destroying our computers,
recording equipment and files. Then last
October the Chinese brought in
equipment which was used to jam our signal
from Madagascar.
Defending
freedom of thought and speech in Africa, and particularly in
Zimbabwe, is
not for the faint-hearted. But we take comfort from the fact
that someone
like former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been arrested
and will be
put on trial for crimes against humanity.
Our struggle is tough and often
dangerous. We want a mature democracy, and
we know that tyrants do fall and
freedom will one day prevail.
worldpress.org
Ambrose
Musiyiwa
Leicester, Britain
April 14, 2006
Zimbabwean asylum
seekers in Britain face an uncertain future after a High
Court hearing on
April 12 effectively gave the Home Office the power to send
them
home.
The government was challenging a ruling from October in which the
Asylum and
Immigration Tribunal judged that it was unsafe to deport asylum
seekers to
Zimbabwe, and that refugee status should currently be given to
anyone from
that country.
Three judges allowed the appeal, but the
cases of the individual asylum
seekers involved - known as A.A. and L.K. -
will be referred back to the
tribunal to be heard again.
Article
Continues
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Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council,
says although the
Home Office maintains it does not intend to begin forcibly
returning asylum
seekers to Zimbabwe, the decision leaves a question mark
over their future.
"We are very much back into a game of legal ping-pong,
but it's not a game
for the thousands of people who are waiting to find out
if they will be sent
back to face Mugabe's regime. We should not
underestimate the dangers they
face - people fleeing to the U.K. are seen as
traitors, and a conviction for
treason in Zimbabwe can carry the death
penalty."
Maeve Sherlock says the original decision was a common sense
reaction to
what is currently an extremely volatile situation in Zimbabwe
under the
regime of President Robert G. Mugabe:
"It did not result in
masses of Zimbabweans coming to our shores. It merely
meant that people
could get some temporary respite from the dangers they
faced. Unfortunately
they will now face uncertainty once again.
"We would ask the government
to show compassion by ending this legal limbo
and restore the moratorium on
returning people to Zimbabwe, so that
Zimbabweans who have come here looking
for safety can actually go to bed at
night without worrying they will be
returned home the next day," she said.
Since the ruling in October, most
Zimbabwean asylum seekers have effectively
been left destitute, as they get
no state support. They are not entitled to
housing and are not allowed to
work.
"The government has described the situation in Zimbabwe as a
'nightmare
regime' and has pledged to support those who can restore good
governance
there. We should be supporting those who have sought sanctuary
here until
they feel it is safe to return, and equipping them to rebuild
Zimbabwe and
restore democracy," Maeve Sherlock added.
John O, a
campaigner for the rights of refugees and immigrants with the
National
Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns described the decision by
the High
Court to uphold the government's appeal against the Asylum and
Immigration
Tribunal (A.I.T.) as "devastating."
"In short, the courts ruled that
A.I.T. erred in ruling that Zimbabwean
asylum seekers should be
automatically recognized as refugees. That each
case had to be decided on an
individual basis rather than introducing an
overall ban on removing failed
Zimbabwean asylum seekers from the U.K.
"More worrying was the court's
observation that if there was no danger to
those who had returned to
Zimbabwe voluntary then it would follow that those
who did fear persecution
as a result of forced removal could not be
refugees," he said.
The
tribunal will now have to hold a new hearing and reconsider all the
issues
afresh.
"They will also have to look again at whether returning failed
asylum
seekers to Zimbabwe voluntarily or involuntarily would put them at
risk.
There is no indication yet as to when the A.I.T. will hold the
hearing.
"Though there is no immediate danger of a resumption of removals
to
Zimbabwe, failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe are once again living in
uncertainty as to whether they will once again face deportation," John O
said.
One Zimbabwean asylum seeker, a journalist in her own country,
said that if
she returned at present she would face "interrogation, torture
or worse."
"People don't realize quite how bad the situation is there. It
really
saddens me," she said. "I'm going to fight until the end of the world
to
ensure my children and I are not sent back there to suffer."
She
added that she felt "in limbo" while she was here, not being able to
work.
"It's so frustrating it hurts your mind to know you are capable
of so much
but you are not allowed. Since I've been here I've volunteered
here, there
and everywhere but it's very hard to support my family. I feel
trapped, and
I just wish they would allow us to contribute by
working."
The judgment was made at the Royal Courts of Justice, by Lord
Justice
Brooke, Lord Justice Laws and Sir Christopher Staughton.
The
Home Office was appealing the decision in October on the Country
Guidance
case A.S.A., which found that it was not safe to remove Zimbabwean
asylum
seekers forcibly from the U.K. back to Zimbabwe.
The Conservative's
shadow home secretary, David Davis, called on the British
government to put
in place a rigorous method of monitoring the continuing
safety of those
returned to Zimbabwe.
"The reason for this whole court case is the abject
failure of the
government's policy on Zimbabwe, with its dreadful
consequences for the
citizens of Zimbabwe and their opposition to the Mugabe
regime.
"Last year we called for the government to put in place a
rigorous method of
monitoring the continuing safety of those returned to
Zimbabwe. The
government must now show they have done this and not simply
wasted the past
few months. Otherwise, we will not know the fate of the
people sent back and
what the Mugabe regime does to them," Davis said.
i on global trends
The Herald, reports that DZL Holdings has imported 50 milking cows
from
South Africa under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) program with
the
aim of enhancing local milk production.
The funds were made
available through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Agricultural Sector
Productivity Enhancement Facility (ASPEF). Under the BOT
scheme, DZL assists
under-resourced A2 farmers with dairy infrastructure,
technical expertise
and professional management training.
The 50 cows comprise the first
batch of a targeted 500 dairy cows required
to rebuild the country's ailing
dairy industry.
Gulf News
04/15/2006
by
Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporter
Dubai: Images of human
suffering from Africa are etched on the minds
of millions of people around
the world.
Who can forget pictures of starving children, their
bellies swollen
but their limbs matchstick thin, gazing sad-eyed at the
television cameras?
In Dubai last week, the focus was on measures
to help combat this type
of poverty and suffering at the three-day Dubai
International Humanitarian
Aid and Development Conference and
Exhibition.
Efforts to improve things for Africa raise the question
of whether
enough is being done to help the poorest nations out of their
misery.
A poll by Gulf News last week found that just eight per
cent of people
thought the world was doing as much as it should to end human
suffering in
Africa. A total of 87 per cent of people thought too little was
being done
and five per cent were unsure.
City Talk spoke to
some Dubai residents to find out if they too felt
that developed countries
focus more on helping out Africa.
Swiss investment specialist
Marcel Kaufmann spoke for many when he
described it as "a difficult
question".
"I think the developed world is doing the wrong things.
We are doing
too much of just buying raw materials and giving
food.
"We need to help Africa but we need to in a way that helps
the people
to help themselves. We have to help them establish a local
business
community and help local farmers to grow their own food," he
said.
Jordanian commercial manager Yazeed Siam said the world was
not
"giving much attention" to Africa. "Certainly not enough is being done.
We
have a lot of resources to help but we're not using them properly or in
the
right place. The world spends money on weapons when the money should be
invested in improving people's lives," he said.
Siam said "you
cannot deny" that Africa was partly responsible for its
own misfortune
through poor standards of governance.
But he added: "Even if they
are responsible, we should be helping them
to come out of
this."
Egyptian project manager Yasser Ahmad was unequivocal in his
views
about aid to Africa.
"Definitely the developed world is
not doing enough. They spend a lot
of money for wars but they don't pay for
Africa.
"When they give aid, they have to control the money and
make sure it's
spent correctly and it's spent on what it is supposed to be
spent," he said.
Filipino sales worker Aldrin Ray took a similar
view, saying the
contribution of rich countries to alleviating African
poverty was "not
enough".
"Powerful countries invest in guns
and weapons but they don't invest
in the welfare of the world's people. If
they can create new weapons, they
should also have ways and means to help
people in poor countries. The
European Union countries, the United States,
Canada and Australia should do
more," he said.
Indian
commercial manager Kinjal Zaveri recently visited Kenya on
business, and
said what he saw during his visit suggested Africa needed more
assistance.
"I was there a couple of weeks back and that
country needs some real
help to kick-start normal living. Of course there
are concerns about
corruption but there are competent bodies that could
monitor aid programmes
to make sure money is not wasted," he
said.
Indian Engineer Muneer Sayed said "Africa definitely deserves
aid"
from the developed world.
"Enough money should be given
for their needs in health and education.
These are the things that are most
important in Africa.
"Countries like the United States and United
Kingdom are supporting in
some ways, but I am not sure about Gulf countries.
Perhaps they could do
more," he said.
This view was echoed by
Lal Motwani an Indian who works for an
advertisement agency, who said
nations in the Middle East should do more for
Africa. "The Middle East is
rich enough to help Africa and in due course
they would get back what they
put in," he said.
Omar Salim, a marketing manager from Jordan, said
aid for Africa was
needed but he warned the continent must not become
dependent on external
support.
"I think there should be a
balance between external support and self
sufficiency. If a lot of aid is
given, then there will be complete
dependency and problems will keep on
happening that's the situation now.
"Today the situation is so bad
in most African nations Zimbabwe has
got worse, South Africa has got worse
that we must help in some way," he
said.
Business development
manager Welma Williams from India, said it was
not enough to focus solely on
improving people's living standards their
mental welfare should also be a
concern.
"They are in need of emotional help as well as financial
help.
People's needs are about more than just money. We need to provide
doctors,
psychologists and help for orphaned children and people devastated
by Aids,"
she said.
Not everyone thought that the developed
world should be spending more
to help out Africa.
Tammy
Dadosky, a teacher's helper from the United States, said Africa
was not keen
on receiving aid.
"I think it exists as a world on its own. What
they have created is
what they have created. They haven't had much aid nor
do I think they want
it. I think the developed world has tried to help
Africa but they've just
not accepted any help. I wish they would but it's
not their culture," she
said.
Staci Knowles said there was
little point in pouring millions of
dollars in aid money into
Africa.
"I think their problems are their own doing. It doesn't
matter how
much money we put in, they need to sort out their political
issues."
Independent, UK
The temptation is to
write her off as the chavish princess to go with
Harry's youthful
indiscretions
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 15 April 2006
The young blonde
woman on board flight BA55 from Cape Town had gone
unnoticed by her fellow
passengers until the aircraft drew up to Heathrow's
Terminal 4 shortly
before 7am on Tuesday. But when four armed police
officers greeted her at
the gangway, jet-lagged indifference rapidly turned
to curiosity.
Who
was this stony-faced girl in skin-tight jeans being whisked through the
arrivals lounge pursued by a dozen paparazzi? A film star? An off-duty
supermodel? Or, as one Labour MP speculated, an unlikely terrorism suspect?
None of the above. The subject of such extraordinary security measures was
Chelsy Davy, a 20-year-old undergraduate at Cape Town University and alumna
of Cheltenham Ladies' College.
Then there is the small matter of her
being the Zimbabwe-born girlfriend for
the past two years of Henry Charles
Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor.
Otherwise known as "Sir" to his new
subordinates in the Household Cavalry,
the "Playboy Prince" to red-top
newspaper editors and Prince Harry to the
rest of the
population.
Fearing a public relations own goal in its plea for the
prince's privacy,
Clarence House rapidly made clear the welcoming committee
for Ms Davy had
not been requested by her boyfriend. But the interest
generated by a young
woman stepping off an aeroplane dressed in slouch suede
boots, a blue
sleeveless T-shirt and a string of amber beads is testament to
the rising
status of Chelsy as an unlikely part of the British royal
roadshow.
It is an alliance which places the House of Windsor in
discomfiting
proximity to the strange worlds of Robert Mugabe's ruinous rule
of Zimbabwe,
the hunting of the big game of the savannah, the post-colonial
tribulations
of whites in Africa and what one former royal adviser described
as "Happy
Valley money meets Hollyoaks chic". The adviser said: "Chelsy is
not
something that the Royal Family has had to deal with before. She's more
[Wayne Rooney's girlfriend] Coleen McLoughlin than Princess Grace. But
nonetheless she is being accepted, to a greater or lesser extent, into the
royal circle."
If so, it is a process of assimilation that is not yet
complete. While the
populist press has made approving noises about Kate
Middleton, the strictly
off-limits girlfriend of Prince William, Chelsy has
not quite attracted
universal approval. After being escorted from Heathrow,
Ms Davy was not
driven to the parade ground of Sandhurst Military Academy
for her
boyfriend's passing out ceremony as Second Lieutenant Wales.
Instead, she
was taken to an undisclosed location to don an emerald dress
for her sole
public appearance of the proceedings at an evening ball before
flying off
next week for a tropical island break.
For seasoned royal
watchers, it was an arrangement that follows an
established pattern: Chelsy
is an accepted part of Harry's private life, but
it will be some time before
she makes it to the photocalls on the balcony at
Buckingham Palace. Indeed,
coverage of the relationship between Harry and
Chelsy has been dominated by
tales of drink-fuelled partying, exotic
holidays and the inter-mingling of
two privileged upbringings.
The pair first met while Chelsy was attending
Cheltenham Ladies' College and
later the Buckinghamshire public school,
Stowe. She was one of a group of
exuberant teenagers invited to Club H - the
basement at Highgrove converted
for Harry and Prince William to entertain
friends. But the romance did not
flourish until early in 2004 when Harry
travelled to Lesotho to work with
Aids orphans and met up with Chelsy on a
visit to Cape Town.
Certainly the pair's public outings to exclusive
nightspots such as Cape
Town's Rhodes House and assorted London drinking
clubs have helped to define
them as part of a riotous set of latter-day
Happy Valley bacchanalians. They
are surrounded by the likes of Guy Pelly,
the outspoken 22-year-old son of a
Kent landowner, and Harry Meade, 22, the
son of an Olympic equestrian
ejected from the Labour Party conference in
2004 for heckling Tony Blair
over the hunting ban.
The easy
temptation is thus to write off Chelsy as the chav-ish princess to
go with
Harry's youthful indiscretions, from wearing a Nazi uniform to a
friend's
fancy dress party shortly before the Holocaust memorial day to his
more
recent visit to a lap-dancing club in Slough. The reality, as ever,
lies
somewhere in between Chelsy's popular image and her private life as a
business student with a penchant for cocktails.
Although even Harry's
most ardent supporters do not sing his academic
praises after he emerged
from Eton and with B and D grades in A-level art
and geography, Chelsy will
this year enter the final year of her economics
and commerce degree, which
includes courses on applied ethics, logic and
developing world politics.
Descriptions from friends and enemies range from
a bright, good-natured
young woman who wears her celebrity with discomfort
to an arriviste
socialite (said to have once exclaimed "I really, really
want to be famous")
who set out to bag a prince and, now she has got one,
has no intention of
relinquishing him.
Michelle Schultz, a family friend whose daughters went
to the same exclusive
school in Bulawayo as Chelsy, told one reporter: "My
girls didn't like
Chelsy. She's a typical spoilt rich kid who runs with a
fast crowd. At
school, she thought herself better than anyone else because
of who her
father is. One of my twins told me Chelsy said she was determined
to do even
better than her father and marry up."
If nothing else, the
relationship has endured despite such opprobrium, the
ever-present paparazzi
and the 6,000-mile distance between the pair. In the
words of his elder
brother, Harry is "just a young lad who is madly in
love". And conducting a
first love affair in front of a telescopic has not
been easy, it
seems.
During interviews last year to mark his 21st birthday, Harry said:
"I get to
see how upset she gets and I know the real her. Unfortunately, I
can't turn
round to the press, I can't turn to people and say, 'Listen,
she's not like
that, she's like this.' I would love to tell everyone how
amazing she is.
But you know, that is my private life and once I start
talking about that,
then I've left my own self open." He added: "My
girlfriend is somebody who's
very special to me and, yes, she's gone through
some very hard times. No,
I'm not going to talk about it."
Those who
have seen Chelsy scooting around Cape Town's exclusive Newlands
suburb in a
two-seater silver Mercedes sports car in between trips from the
£1m house
she shares with her brother to shopping malls would point out that
she
appears to have survived these undisclosed troubles well.
But regardless
of personal matters, it is the private background of Ms Davy,
once pictured
in Country Life sitting on a swing at the start of short-lived
modelling
career, that has made her introduction to public life particularly
bumpy.
Chelsy was brought up in luxurious surroundings of the family home in
the
Lemco Safari Area, a wilderness of rough bush in southern Zimbabwe where
big
cats roam at night and elephant and giraffe graze by day.
It is this
teeming wildlife that has propelled her father, Charles Davy, a
South
African-born businessman, to a multimillion-pound fortune as the
co-owner of
HHK Safaris, the most successful big-game hunting operation in
Zimbabwe, and
proprietor of a string of properties across South Africa and
Zimbabwe.
Such wealth has brought persistent questions about its
origins. While the
number of white farmers in Zimbabwe has dwindled in the
past decade from
4,500 to about 350 due to requisitions of Robert Mugabe's
government, Mr
Davy has stayed in business. This, according to opposition
politicians, is
because of Mr Davy's business connections with the
Zimbabwean president's
pernicious regime, in particular his business partner
of six years, Webster
Shamu, now a senior minister in Mr Mugabe's cabinet.
In 2000, Mr Davy bought
a joint 50 per cent share of Famba Safari Company,
of which Mr Shamu, who
appears on the blacklist of Zimbabweans banned from
travelling to the
European Union, is a director.
Critics, who have
called for Mr Davy to be added to the same travel ban list
as Mr Shamu,
argue that it is no coincidence therefore that HHK has managed
to thrive
while many white-led companies have floundered. In return, HHK
charges its
clients, mostly Americans, up to £17,000 for a 24-day hunting
expedition at
its 15 camps covering 1,300 square miles - twice the size of
Surrey.
Publicly, Mr Davy, 53, has been bullish about his
relationship with Mr
Shamu, the minister for policy implementation in Robert
Mugabe's personal
office, and his continuing presence in
Zimbabwe.
The businessman, who footed the £20,000 bill to send his
daughter and her
boyfriend on a holiday to Mozambique's Bazaruto Island last
year, points out
that he has not survived the seizure of white-owned farms
unscathed and
handed over four farms, covering 140,000 acres, to maintain
his 5 per cent
stake in Lemco. Of his links with Mr Shamu, he said: "I am in
partnership
with a person who I personally like and get along with. I am not
involved in
politics in any way but I reserve my right of association as any
person
should."
Behind the scenes, Mr Davy has been distancing
himself from HHK. In January
he transferred his shares in the business to
its co-owner. But it is unclear
whether such measures would earn Chelsy
acceptance in the House of Windsor.
Shortly after the relationship with
Harry was made public, her uncle, Paul
Davy, said: " What do you think her
chances of getting into that Royal
Family? She's Zimbabwean." Predictably,
royal insiders bridle at either
suggestion of imminent marriage or
discrimination on the grounds of
nationality. But, in many ways, Chelsy's
trajectory has been away from her
childhood in the veld back towards
Zimbabwe's old colonial power. It is
rumoured she will come to live in
Britain once her studies are complete.
As one member of the British royal
media pack put it: "One way or another, I
think Chelsy is here to stay. It
may be as Duchess Harry or it may be as
royal ex-girlfriend. But I don't
think she's had her last police escort off
a plane."
A Life in
Brief
BORN January 1986.
FAMILY Father is Charles, a businessman,
mother Beverley, former Miss
Rhodesia.
EDUCATION Girls' College,
Bulawayo; Cheltenham Ladies' College; Stowe
School, Buckinghamshire; Cape
Town University.
SHE SAYS "I just don't want to be the cause of more
trouble for him (Prince
Harry)."
THEY SAY "The Davy family's
offspring have been given a life of luxury off
the back of political
patronage in a country where many suffer" - Eddie
Cross, Zimbabwe opposition
councillor
"She's fun, generous, kind and has a body to die for." - Ben
Snell, former
boyfriend
The young blonde woman on board flight BA55
from Cape Town had gone
unnoticed by her fellow passengers until the
aircraft drew up to Heathrow's
Terminal 4 shortly before 7am on Tuesday. But
when four armed police
officers greeted her at the gangway, jet-lagged
indifference rapidly turned
to curiosity.
Who was this stony-faced
girl in skin-tight jeans being whisked through the
arrivals lounge pursued
by a dozen paparazzi? A film star? An off-duty
supermodel? Or, as one Labour
MP speculated, an unlikely terrorism suspect?
None of the above. The subject
of such extraordinary security measures was
Chelsy Davy, a 20-year-old
undergraduate at Cape Town University and alumna
of Cheltenham Ladies'
College.
Then there is the small matter of her being the Zimbabwe-born
girlfriend for
the past two years of Henry Charles Albert David
Mountbatten-Windsor.
Otherwise known as "Sir" to his new subordinates in the
Household Cavalry,
the "Playboy Prince" to red-top newspaper editors and
Prince Harry to the
rest of the population.
Fearing a public
relations own goal in its plea for the prince's privacy,
Clarence House
rapidly made clear the welcoming committee for Ms Davy had
not been
requested by her boyfriend. But the interest generated by a young
woman
stepping off an aeroplane dressed in slouch suede boots, a blue
sleeveless
T-shirt and a string of amber beads is testament to the rising
status of
Chelsy as an unlikely part of the British royal roadshow.
It is an
alliance which places the House of Windsor in discomfiting
proximity to the
strange worlds of Robert Mugabe's ruinous rule of Zimbabwe,
the hunting of
the big game of the savannah, the post-colonial tribulations
of whites in
Africa and what one former royal adviser described as "Happy
Valley money
meets Hollyoaks chic". The adviser said: "Chelsy is not
something that the
Royal Family has had to deal with before. She's more
[Wayne Rooney's
girlfriend] Coleen McLoughlin than Princess Grace. But
nonetheless she is
being accepted, to a greater or lesser extent, into the
royal
circle."
If so, it is a process of assimilation that is not yet complete.
While the
populist press has made approving noises about Kate Middleton, the
strictly
off-limits girlfriend of Prince William, Chelsy has not quite
attracted
universal approval. After being escorted from Heathrow, Ms Davy
was not
driven to the parade ground of Sandhurst Military Academy for her
boyfriend's passing out ceremony as Second Lieutenant Wales. Instead, she
was taken to an undisclosed location to don an emerald dress for her sole
public appearance of the proceedings at an evening ball before flying off
next week for a tropical island break.
For seasoned royal watchers,
it was an arrangement that follows an
established pattern: Chelsy is an
accepted part of Harry's private life, but
it will be some time before she
makes it to the photocalls on the balcony at
Buckingham Palace. Indeed,
coverage of the relationship between Harry and
Chelsy has been dominated by
tales of drink-fuelled partying, exotic
holidays and the inter-mingling of
two privileged upbringings.
The pair first met while Chelsy was attending
Cheltenham Ladies' College and
later the Buckinghamshire public school,
Stowe. She was one of a group of
exuberant teenagers invited to Club H - the
basement at Highgrove converted
for Harry and Prince William to entertain
friends. But the romance did not
flourish until early in 2004 when Harry
travelled to Lesotho to work with
Aids orphans and met up with Chelsy on a
visit to Cape Town.
Certainly the pair's public outings to exclusive
nightspots such as Cape
Town's Rhodes House and assorted London drinking
clubs have helped to define
them as part of a riotous set of latter-day
Happy Valley bacchanalians. They
are surrounded by the likes of Guy Pelly,
the outspoken 22-year-old son of a
Kent landowner, and Harry Meade, 22, the
son of an Olympic equestrian
ejected from the Labour Party conference in
2004 for heckling Tony Blair
over the hunting ban.
The easy
temptation is thus to write off Chelsy as the chav-ish princess to
go with
Harry's youthful indiscretions, from wearing a Nazi uniform to a
friend's
fancy dress party shortly before the Holocaust memorial day to his
more
recent visit to a lap-dancing club in Slough. The reality, as ever,
lies
somewhere in between Chelsy's popular image and her private life as a
business student with a penchant for cocktails.
Although even Harry's
most ardent supporters do not sing his academic
praises after he emerged
from Eton and with B and D grades in A-level art
and geography, Chelsy will
this year enter the final year of her economics
and commerce degree, which
includes courses on applied ethics, logic and
developing world politics.
Descriptions from friends and enemies range from
a bright, good-natured
young woman who wears her celebrity with discomfort
to an arriviste
socialite (said to have once exclaimed "I really, really
want to be famous")
who set out to bag a prince and, now she has got one,
has no intention of
relinquishing him.
Michelle Schultz, a family friend whose daughters went
to the same exclusive
school in Bulawayo as Chelsy, told one reporter: "My
girls didn't like
Chelsy. She's a typical spoilt rich kid who runs with a
fast crowd. At
school, she thought herself better than anyone else because
of who her
father is. One of my twins told me Chelsy said she was determined
to do even
better than her father and marry up."
If nothing else, the
relationship has endured despite such opprobrium, the
ever-present paparazzi
and the 6,000-mile distance between the pair. In the
words of his elder
brother, Harry is "just a young lad who is madly in
love". And conducting a
first love affair in front of a telescopic has not
been easy, it
seems.
During interviews last year to mark his 21st birthday, Harry said:
"I get to
see how upset she gets and I know the real her. Unfortunately, I
can't turn
round to the press, I can't turn to people and say, 'Listen,
she's not like
that, she's like this.' I would love to tell everyone how
amazing she is.
But you know, that is my private life and once I start
talking about that,
then I've left my own self open." He added: "My
girlfriend is somebody who's
very special to me and, yes, she's gone through
some very hard times. No,
I'm not going to talk about it."
Those who
have seen Chelsy scooting around Cape Town's exclusive Newlands
suburb in a
two-seater silver Mercedes sports car in between trips from the
£1m house
she shares with her brother to shopping malls would point out that
she
appears to have survived these undisclosed troubles well.
But regardless
of personal matters, it is the private background of Ms Davy,
once pictured
in Country Life sitting on a swing at the start of short-lived
modelling
career, that has made her introduction to public life particularly
bumpy.
Chelsy was brought up in luxurious surroundings of the family home in
the
Lemco Safari Area, a wilderness of rough bush in southern Zimbabwe where
big
cats roam at night and elephant and giraffe graze by day.
It is this
teeming wildlife that has propelled her father, Charles Davy, a
South
African-born businessman, to a multimillion-pound fortune as the
co-owner of
HHK Safaris, the most successful big-game hunting operation in
Zimbabwe, and
proprietor of a string of properties across South Africa and
Zimbabwe.
Such wealth has brought persistent questions about its
origins. While the
number of white farmers in Zimbabwe has dwindled in the
past decade from
4,500 to about 350 due to requisitions of Robert Mugabe's
government, Mr
Davy has stayed in business. This, according to opposition
politicians, is
because of Mr Davy's business connections with the
Zimbabwean president's
pernicious regime, in particular his business partner
of six years, Webster
Shamu, now a senior minister in Mr Mugabe's cabinet.
In 2000, Mr Davy bought
a joint 50 per cent share of Famba Safari Company,
of which Mr Shamu, who
appears on the blacklist of Zimbabweans banned from
travelling to the
European Union, is a director.
Critics, who have
called for Mr Davy to be added to the same travel ban list
as Mr Shamu,
argue that it is no coincidence therefore that HHK has managed
to thrive
while many white-led companies have floundered. In return, HHK
charges its
clients, mostly Americans, up to £17,000 for a 24-day hunting
expedition at
its 15 camps covering 1,300 square miles - twice the size of
Surrey.
Publicly, Mr Davy, 53, has been bullish about his
relationship with Mr
Shamu, the minister for policy implementation in Robert
Mugabe's personal
office, and his continuing presence in
Zimbabwe.
The businessman, who footed the £20,000 bill to send his
daughter and her
boyfriend on a holiday to Mozambique's Bazaruto Island last
year, points out
that he has not survived the seizure of white-owned farms
unscathed and
handed over four farms, covering 140,000 acres, to maintain
his 5 per cent
stake in Lemco. Of his links with Mr Shamu, he said: "I am in
partnership
with a person who I personally like and get along with. I am not
involved in
politics in any way but I reserve my right of association as any
person
should."
Behind the scenes, Mr Davy has been distancing
himself from HHK. In January
he transferred his shares in the business to
its co-owner. But it is unclear
whether such measures would earn Chelsy
acceptance in the House of Windsor.
Shortly after the relationship with
Harry was made public, her uncle, Paul
Davy, said: " What do you think her
chances of getting into that Royal
Family? She's Zimbabwean." Predictably,
royal insiders bridle at either
suggestion of imminent marriage or
discrimination on the grounds of
nationality. But, in many ways, Chelsy's
trajectory has been away from her
childhood in the veld back towards
Zimbabwe's old colonial power. It is
rumoured she will come to live in
Britain once her studies are complete.
As one member of the British royal
media pack put it: "One way or another, I
think Chelsy is here to stay. It
may be as Duchess Harry or it may be as
royal ex-girlfriend. But I don't
think she's had her last police escort off
a plane."
A Life in
Brief
BORN January 1986.
FAMILY Father is Charles, a businessman,
mother Beverley, former Miss
Rhodesia.
EDUCATION Girls' College,
Bulawayo; Cheltenham Ladies' College; Stowe
School, Buckinghamshire; Cape
Town University.
SHE SAYS "I just don't want to be the cause of more
trouble for him (Prince
Harry)."
THEY SAY "The Davy family's
offspring have been given a life of luxury off
the back of political
patronage in a country where many suffer" - Eddie
Cross, Zimbabwe opposition
councillor
"She's fun, generous, kind and has a body to die for." - Ben
Snell, former
boyfriend