ABC Australia

Posted: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 8:19 AEST

Thousands of Zimbabweans facing starvation: WFP

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is calling for urgent
international assistance to feed thousands of people it says are at risk of
starvation in Zimbabwe.

The WFP says it has received only one-third of the food supplies needed to
deal with the crisis.

It says it doe not have enough food to help those in need in the worst
affected areas of Zimbabwe.

The WFP estimates that more than 700,000 Zimbabweans are now facing hunger
but it says the international community has been slow to respond.

Severe drought and the redistribution of farming land have created
widespread food shortages.

The World Food Program says an extra 80,000 tonnes of maize and grain is
needed to prevent starvation.

Australia is one of a small group of nations which is already providing
assistance.

News24

El Nino may worsen food crisis

Johannesburg - Already facing widespread food shortages, Southern Africa may
still have to deal with the effects of a possible El Nino event.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which consists of UN aid
organisations and standing invitees such as the International Committee of
the Red Cross and the World Bank, warned in a press release that the region
could experience further humanitarian crises.

"The IASC stresses the importance of monitoring early warning information
related to a possible El Nino event. If another weather phenomenon were to
occur, erratic rainfall and other climatic shocks could further undermine
crop production and food security within Southern Africa," the committee
said.

It expressed concern that a number of countries within Southern Africa would
require a significant increase in humanitarian assistance in 2002.

Crisis compounded by Aids

The IASC said: "The present food security situation in the region is the
worst since 1992, when effective collaboration among governments, SADC
[Southern Africa Development Community], humanitarian partners and donors
averted famine in the face of a devastating drought. Today, 10 years later,
the factors contributing to the crisis are numerous and vary from country to
country.

"They include: drought, floods, disruptions to commercial farming, depletion
of strategic grain reserves, poor economic performance, foreign exchange
shortages and delays in the timely importation of maize."

Maize prices have increased dramatically because of the shortages, leaving
large segments of the population in the region unable to buy food.

"The crisis is compounded by the high prevalence of HIV/Aids. Inadequate
food availability and consumption places an even greater strain on those
affected by HIV/Aids and the family members struggling to care for them.
HIV/Aids increases household vulnerability to food insecurity by
disproportionately affecting working age people," the IASC said.

Situation could worsen

Consequently, the impact of HIV/Aids on the incomes and purchasing power of
households was severe. It also "adds to the disease burden (tuberculosis,
cholera and others) that the population faces along with the food
insecurity," the committee said.

While the April-June harvest season should provide short-term relief for
some of the 2.7 million people currently in need of food aid, the IASC
warned that "the food security situation in the second half of 2002 and into
early 2003 is expected to significantly worsen in Malawi, Zambia and
Zimbabwe".

Households in parts of Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland were also
experiencing serious food shortages. The IASC said some 125 000 refugees in
Malawi and Zambia depended on food aid for their survival.

Half-rations

IRIN has previously reported that the 117 000 refugees in Zambia have only
been receiving half-rations so far this year due to funding and logistical
problems.

The IASC said joint assessment missions would be conducted in Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe during April and May. The
aim would be to "qualify the dimensions of the humanitarian crisis".

"The IASC expresses its commitment to work with affected governments and
regional partners on multi-sectoral assessments of needs, the design of
appropriate response strategies and in ensuring effective co-ordination of
all interventions, including logistics related to the delivery of urgently
needed relief cargo," the committee said.

The international donor community was also urged to "help prevent the
current crisis from becoming a humanitarian disaster". - Integrated Regional
Information Networks (IRIN)

H E L P


We at the C.F.U. Bulawayo branch need your help.  We're not ashamed to ask
for it and hope you will respond.  Our futures are inextricably linked.

Our members are under severe threats in the farming areas of Matabeleland.
Many people living in Bulawayo simply do not realise what is going on.  Are
you aware, for instance, that whilst many people were travelling out to the
dams for a well deserved break over Easter, just a few hundred yards off the
main road one of our farmers was fighting for his very survival.

The end result of that little episode is that he was given just 72 hours to
pack  up and leave his farm, lock stock and barrel, and right now has
nowhere to live.  He has lost millions of dollars worth of investment.
Another farmer off the land.

This sort of story is being repeated several times every single week in
Matabeleland.  Your hinterland is crumbling.  It is all illegal, and
Governemnt is not even complying with its own laws.  The police stand around
and do nothing whilst farmers are assaulted in their own gardens, then
arrest the farmers for attempted murder.  The situation is beyond belief.
We co-exist in two very different worlds right now.

Many people in Bulawayo have no idea it is happening.

The situatiion is simple - without our farmers we are all finished.  We
cannot sit back and think that we are safe.  Only last week the war veterans
in one of their threateneing letters to farmers, warned that commerce and
industry would be next in line for their thuggery.

What can you do?

1.  Farmers who are threatened with demonstrations desperately need a few
people who are prepared to go out and stay with them for the weekend, just
to give moral support.  so please if you feel you are able to do this to
help secure our future, get in touch with us so that we can call you if the
need arises.

2.  We want to update our database with regards to available accommodation.
If you have any suitable accommodation available on a short/long term
arrangement for :- a/  farmers
                            b/ farm labourers and their family's
                            c/ domestic animals
                            d/ storage space for equipment/house hold
effects

We can be contacted on:-  email:- kupela2002@yahoo.co.uk
                                       Tel:     091-244705

This letter,  must represent the  heart soreness of a nation of farmers,
their wives and families and their  workers, and puts our plea for help in a
better perspective.

This afternoon the chairman of the Lands Committee addressed some 50 farmers
gathered at the Chiredzi Council Offices. My husband was among them. He
informed them that  as of tomorrow, we were restricted to our homesteads and
were not permitted  to  'interfere with settler placement'. The crop which
Govt (in the form of the  DA  and PA) has promised us for months we could
have (started harvest on Monday),  now belongs to the people. The DA and PA
were strangely unavailable since this  morning. The Section 8's which we
were all issued on 25th Feb are to be considered as eviction orders and we
are all to be off our farms by 25th  May.  He further informed them to
listen to Minister Made's statement on TV this evening,which we duly did. It
repeated basically what the Lands Committee said and further pointed out
that it is now a criminal offence to for a 'white commercial farmer' to in
any way interfere with the farming operations of  the new farm owners. On
top of that the ZFTU have called for a total sugar industry  strike  from 18
April onwards for increased wages. Not much point if we have to give  all
our workers notice tomorrow that as of 25 May they are jobless and
homeless. We  have recorded Made's statement on video and intend to show it
to our staff  tomorrow. In Trelawney the farm has also been walked on by A2
settlers who  intend to commandeer the pivot for wheat farming, with us
footing the ZESA  bill. I know that it is late (midnight!!), I cannot sleep
and my judgement is  clouded. The aircon is on flat out, it is hosing with
rain outside and I am  boiling hot. My husband has  passed out, worn out by
weeks of talks, my children are jumpy and I find  myself  wondering - where
to from here? Am I allowed to get mad and just yell at God  and ask him
exactly what his plan is? It is all very well hanging in there,  but the
skin of our teeth about to tear apart. Now what? Do we strip the farm of
everything we can manage (are permitted) to take, do we head for Harare or
further. Or do we continue to sit tight, put one foot in front of the other
and  carry on farming to the best of our increasingly limited abilities.
The Lord is my refuge and my strength, in him I DO trust. I do trust him
with  the most important thing in my life - my precious little family. I do
trust  him  to keep us in his care, but I would love to see a little light
on the next step  forward. I feel so directionless - like the night is just
crushing in on me. Excuse my ramblings - the outpourings of a sad heart. Sad
to see so much good go to ruin, sad to see such wanton destruction, sad to
see that which is built destroyed, sad to see so much suffering all around.
I know that there are many farmers in far, far worse pickles than the one in
which I find myself. And am ashamed of my selfishness. Tomorrow is another
day - and sufficient unto the  day are the worries thereof.

 G'night! F  (Farmer's wife - Chiredzi)

Daily News

Young girls see their mother’s head cut off

4/23/02 8:40:59 PM (GMT +2)


By Lloyd Mudiwa

TWO young girls aged 10 and 17 watched in horror as their mother was
brutally murdered by having her head chopped off at the neck. Brandina
Tadyanemhandu, 53, was butchered inside her hut by about 20 youths,
suspected to be Zanu PF supporters, in Magunje on Sunday.



The reason for Tadyanemhandu’s grisly murder was the accusation by the
youths that the deceased was a supporter of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). Tadyanemhandu will be buried today at Magororo
village in Magunje, Hurungwe East.

She was the mother of MDC youth activist Tichaona Tadyanemhandu, 20, who
went missing in Hurungwe in June 2000. His body was found six months later
in the mortuary at Harare Central Hospital. Brandina Tadyanemhandu’s
attackers, who were allegedly led by a war veteran known as Cde Chifamba,
also burnt the family’s main house, destroying property worth thousands of
dollars.

Tadyanemhandu’s husband, Enos, 63, yesterday said: “They killed my only son
in a family of eight children and now they have killed my wife. Why are they
fighting us after they won the election? I will not be silenced. I will
speak out against this evil.”

A distraught Tadyanemhandu said it seemed like a normal day when he drove
his herd of cattle to the dip tank at Magororo township at about 6am on the
fateful day. On his way back, at about 10am, he said he was surprised when
his 17-year-old daughter, Chipo, weeping, approached him.

“She was crying,” he said. “My first thought was that she had been assaulted
by a friend. She struggled to tell me that her mother’s head had been cut
off by Zanu PF supporters.” Tadyanemhandu said Chipo told him that her
mother’s alleged killers had called at the house looking for him, saying
they wanted to rid the area of MDC supporters.

He said his wife had apparently asked them why they were still bothering
people when they had won the presidential election. This question, it seems,
incensed the youths who declared Tadyanemhandu would meet her husband in
heaven before they attacked her and chopped her head off.

He said his other daughter, Tendai, aged 10, also witnessed the gruesome
murder. “When I saw my wife’s remains, the head and the body were cleanly
separated,” Tadyanemhandu said yesterday. “I had to push them back
 together.” He said a postmortem report had confirmed his wife was
decapitated with a sharp object.

He said when he reported the murder at Magunje police station, the officers
asked him if the assailants were known to him. “When my daughters told them
that they were supporters of the ruling party the officers asked us to bring
the suspects to the police station,” Tadyanemhandu said.
“I don’t know how they expect us to follow the youths back to their base,
when they are hunting for me so that they can harm me as well.”
Tadyanemhandu said there were about 500 Zanu PF supporters camped near
Sanyati Bridge who were terrorising villagers in Magunje.

The youths, who are reportedly receiving food provisions from the Magunje
Rural District Council, are allegedly waiting to receive payment in return
for campaigning for President Mugabe in last month’s election. Efforts to
confirm this with council officials were not successful yesterday.

Daily News

Harare residents fail to agree over mayoral mansion, Benz

4/23/02 8:02:11 PM (GMT +2)


Municipal Reporter

TEMPERS flared during a public meeting at Harare’s Town House yesterday as a
meeting of residents failed to reach consensus over the decision by the
Executive Mayor, Elias Mudzuri, to move into the controversial mayoral
mansion and to take delivery of a $22 million Mercedes Benz vehicle.

The mansion and the limousine took centre stage at the meeting, with
residents questioning why the mayor had taken such decisions.

The meeting, attended by about 150 people, was called by the mayor to
consult residents on the way forward.

While most of the ward representatives suggested the mayor should occupy the
guest wing of the mansion for security reasons, they said the council must
quickly take a decision to find cheaper accommodation for him.

The residents, most of them representatives of high-density residential
areas, took a swipe at Mike Davies, the acting chairman of the Combined
Harare Residents’ Association, for issuing statements to the Press without
consulting them.

They accused the association of speaking on behalf of residents from the
low-density suburbs.

“You must fully consult before you make statements,” one resident said, “We
appreciate that the house is a monster, but we understand the mayor’s
position that he moved into the guest wing for his security.”

Diamond Karanda, a resident of Glen Norah, said Davies should not issue
statements before consultation.

Mudzuri said some of the statements issued by the Combined Harare Residents’
Association amounted to personal attacks.

He proceeded to read certain sections of the statement, which he said were
insulting.

“I bought my house in Milton Park, but these people seem to suggest that I
got the house in unclear circumstances,” said Mudzuri.

Earlier, Nomutsa Chideya, the Harare town clerk, had said Mudzuri should
have instead moved into the main mansion.

“The council will take the appropriate decision regarding the mayor’s house,
but some of us are of the view that the mayor should have moved into the
main house instead. It is council property which is lying idle,” said
Chideya.

He said the previous vehicle for the mayor was expensive to maintain.

“Before the new Benz arrived the council was spending about $4 million to $5
million in repairs per year,” he said. “The new vehicle is cheaper and the
decision to buy a new vehicle had already been taken.”

The residents said the council must take urgent steps to collect refuse,
repair street lights, patch up potholes and repair the hostels in Mbare’s
Matapi section.

The residents said Mbare Musika must also be renovated to prevent a major
disease outbreak in the city.

The residents applauded the decision by the new council to engage them
directly in decision-making.

Daily News

Madhuku arrested ahead of planned demo

4/23/02 8:02:54 PM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

LOVEMORE Madhuku, the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA), was arrested by the police in Harare yesterday in connection with a
demonstration his organisation has planned for today..

NCA officials said Madhuku was picked up during a meeting at the
organisation’s offices, where the strategy for the peaceful demonstration
was being discussed.

The NCA announced yesterday that it would go ahead with the protest, with or
without permission of the police.

The police also arrested Maxwell Saungweme, the NCA information officer, and
Edna Zinyemba, the organisation’s acting co-ordinator, while in Highfield
they arrested the constituency chairperson, identified only as Gurudza.

Two men in a white Mazda truck, registration number 751-964B, visited
Gurudza at his home in the Lusaka section of Highfield and demanded to
search his house. After ransacking the house, they picked him up.

The NCA has been advocating for a new constitution and the planned
demonstration today, the second within a month, is part of the strategy to
register its concerns.

On 6 April, about 400 NCA protesters, including Madhuku, were arrested for
taking part in demonstrations in Harare.

They were arrested under a section of the draconian Public Order and
Security Act (POSA), which the police say compels protesters to obtain
police permission before staging a demonstration.

But Madhuku, a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Zimbabwe,
insists that POSA requires that the police only be informed.

Madhuku says the NCA believes in the primacy of a new constitution and has
vowed to stage demonstrations until the government accepts a new
constitution

Daily News

Price of bread now $60

4/23/02 8:03:51 PM (GMT +2)


By Takaitei Bote Farming Editor

The retail and producer price of bread goes up from $48,50 to $60,44 a loaf
with effect from today.

While President Mugabe promised voters during the campaign for the
presidential election in March that government would not increase prices of
basic commodities if he was re-elected, the Ministry of Industry and
Commerce announced in an extraordinary gazette published yesterday that the
retail price of a standard loaf of bread, white or brown, had been increased
by 24,89 percent.

Retailers will now be allowed to sell half of a standard loaf of bread for
$27,48.

The wholesale price of a standard loaf of bread has been increased from $44
to $54,95.

The increase announced yesterday is the first in the price of bread since
government introduced statutory controls on the prices of basic commodities
last October.

The government reduced the retail price of bread from about $64 to $48,50
and gazetted it following complaints from consumers that they could no
longer afford to buy a loaf.

Prior to the introduction of the controls, bread price increases were
effected on a monthly basis, as producers of flour claimed the cost of
production was increasing regularly because they were importing flour using
high foreign currency exchange rates.

The shortages of foreign currency in Zimbabwe forced flour producers to
procure foreign currency on the parallel market.

The latest bread price increase is also the first time that the government
has effected a major price increase on a basic commodity since President
Mugabe was re-elected last month.

In one advertisement published in The Herald during the campaign period Zanu
PF said: “Vote for price controls. Your Zanu PF government under the
leadership of our President Cde R G Mugabe says ‘No’ to high prices of basic
commodities.”

While the move to increase the price of bread may be welcomed by producers
who said they were producing at a loss, consumers will find it even more
difficult to buy bread every day.

Bread, a basic staple in the diet of the majority of the urban population
and an important component in rural diets, was considered unaffordable last
August at $38.

Most bakers in the country had reduced bread production and retrenched
staff, citing operational losses as a result of price controls.

National Bakers’ Association executive committee member, Les le Roux said:
“We welcome the price increases although we had applied for a wholesale
price of $63 for a standard loaf of bread. These price increases will not
safeguard the viability of the industry.”

Le Roux said government had been informed input prices in the baking
industry had been increased over the past five months.

He said the price of yeast had increased by 202 percent since February, with
the price of baking fats and oils going up by 26 percent last month while
wages were increased by 21 percent last October.

The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe senior manager, Victor Chisi, said he could
not comment as he was not aware of the price increases.

Daily News

Production of wheat crop shrouded in uncertainty

4/23/02 7:45:12 PM (GMT +2)


By Takaitei Bote Farming Editor

UNCERTAINTY surrounds the production of the large-scale commercial wheat
crop this year following alleged harassment of farmers making preparations
to plant.

Wheat is the country’s second staple after maize.

In a statement, Colin Cloete, the Commercial Farmers’ Union president said:
“There are major constraints facing farmers and these have to be addressed
if a sizeable crop is to be established this winter. Most commercial farmers
are now subject to Preliminary Notice of Compulsory Acquisition or Section 8
orders, which are being served on a daily basis.

“Farmers who have been served with a Section 8 order can no longer, by law,
plant a crop on their properties. Many others who may not have received
Section 8 orders have been shut down by war veterans and farm invaders and
are physically unable to continue their operations.”

He said winter wheat growing season was almost upon Zimbabwe but farmers
were still awaiting policy and guidance from from government as to what was
required from the large-scale irrigation sector.

Cloete said if no encouragement was to be given by the government in
alleviating the constraints facing the large-scale commercial wheat sector,
production of a wheat crop this winter was unlikely to be more than 20 000
hectares of the 60 000 hectares traditionally planted by the large-scale
sector. Massive food shortages would be therefore be inevitable.

Planting of wheat should be completed by 15 May for one to achieve optimum
yields and harvest.

Traditionally, the large-scale commercial sector grows 95 per cent of the
wheat crop and last season, it grew 330 000 tonnes.

The Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Dr Joseph Made
has stressed the need to boost small-scale wheat production but has remained
silent on the disturbances besieging the large-scale commercial wheat
sector.

Made has categorically stated he does not want to speak to this reporter
after several phone calls made to him this year.

Zimbabwe’s wheat stocks are expected to be depleted by July this year and
already, the country would need to import prior to the local crop harvest in
October and November.

Cloete said: “There is wide agreement that a wheat crop is required and that
it can be grown much cheaper than importing the product. It is also more
efficient to use local resources of land, capital and labour than to import
food requiring scarce foreign currency. Furthermore, large-scale farmers
have the capacity, technical ability and the resources to grow the crop.”

He said if a full crop was not grown, the wheat import programme required in
2003 may exceed 500 000 tonnes.

Zimbabwe needs US$300 million ($16,5 billion) which has not been budgeted
for the import programme this year alone.

Meanwhile, the government is reported to have set aside $1 billion for
provision of free tillage and loans to small-scale farmers embarking on
production of winter crops this year.

Daily News

No need to destroy in order to build agricultural sector

4/23/02 8:49:30 PM (GMT +2)



IF Zimbabwe can strike lucrative deals at this critical juncture, that is
well and good. It is imperative that we do not appear to live in a
fairyland.

Otherwise the only lesson we learn from our experiences over the past two
disastrous years is that we never learn.

In 2000, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement announced
that it had secured export orders worth $35 billion of agricultural produce
from Malaysia, in foreign currency.

But the idea came to naught primarily because there were never any prior
consultations with producers and neither was there an inventory of the
capacity of the country to produce the vast quantities required to fulfil
export orders of the magnitude the ministry claimed.

Anyone well versed with the capacity of the agricultural sector in this
country, laughed off the idea because it was impracticable and also because
it belonged to the realm of fantasy.

The idea was being raised at a time when the agricultural sector was being
targeted by supporters of the government and the ruling party for invasions,
with farm owners being prohibited from undertaking farm activities. Since
2000, the situation has not improved.

In fact, it has deteriorated, with farmers being evicted summarily from
their properties. This, in part, explains why Zimbabwe is facing a food
crisis. The drought has also been a contributory factor.

At the weekend, the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA)
announced it had secured a US$2,5 billion (Z$137,5 billion) agreement with a
Malaysian firm that is set to benefit some 35 000 old and newly resettled
farmers.

This must be welcome news for those who make up 70 percent of the country’s
unemployment rate because it suggests more job-creating opportunities in
agro-based industries.

However, ARDA’s role in recent years has not been one of a pioneer. It has
lost some of its shine.

Whether this is as a result of its involvement in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, is unclear.

But if all parastatal organisations were to complement the efforts of the
private sector in the manner proposed by ARDA, Zimbabwe would not be hard up
for foreign currency. Zimbabwe would be in a different position, without
having to worry about how to finance the importation of fuel products.

A Zimbabwe-Malaysia Trade and Payments Agreement, which became operational
in 2002, was suspended last year because the accord, far from conserving
foreign currency had in fact, resulted in a haemorrhage of hard currency.

It is hoped the new arrangement with ARDA is not a case of history repeating
itself.

There are also other as yet unfulfilled agreements between this country and
Malaysia. These relate to the construction of houses in Bulawayo for the
police. The other is on dam construction on the Gwayi-Shangani River.
Perhaps the ARDA project will be more fortunate and successful where others
have not.

While Zimbabwe, no doubt, has the potential to become a major exporter of
agricultural products, it is failing to tap into the available resources.

If a portion of the country’s agrarian revolution was devoted to empowering
graduates from Zimbabwe’s agricultural institutions, the impact and
productivity would be phenomenal. Zimbabwe would be an agricultural
powerhouse.

Unfortunately, the government has been long on rhetoric but short on
delivery when it comes to prioritising placement of agricultural graduates
under its land reform programme, even though the Farmers’ Development Trust
provides a compelling argument for supporting agricultural graduates.

But Zimbabwe does not need to uproot existing commercial farmers in order to
give space to new players.

Instead, it should strengthen the capacity of new players so that they can
play an equally meaningful role within the agricultural sector.

Greater productivity should not be targeting a single market. Zimbabwe must
reclaim its role as the region’s major food producer.

It has the land, the expertise and people to fulfil this regional mandate.

What it needs is to harness all the resources at its disposal, instead of
destroying in order to build the sector.

Daily News

Zimbabwe may soon have a second Independence Day

4/23/02 8:56:11 PM (GMT +2)



FOR the past 22 years, Zimbabweans made significant changes to their
personal lives. They moved homes in urban areas, changed or lost jobs,
developed new careers and some either died or simply retired.

Lodgers became house owners; people moved from the high-density areas into
the low density areas; former students are now chief executives; reporters
became editors and small-time vendors acquired huge businesses.

Those who took part in the first independence celebrations and joined the
rapid internal movements that followed immediately afterwards would be first
to testify that their world has equally changed with them.

If they rose to new heights, they are likely to talk about the difficulties
and problems of life, far from what they originally thought were the “noisy”
townships or the dry rural areas.

Some became instant employers, just by moving around. Their language changed
too. They shared little talk about their gardeners and nannies, about
fishing, golf, cars, even cats and dogs.

At no point was there any discussion about food and fuel queues, subjects
that dominate meetings today.

Government officials ran their voices hoarse, defending Zimbabwe. Those
still in exile left influential jobs, some abandoned their studies to be
part of the home crowd.

That is as it should be.

A nation can only prosper when its citizens move within its geographical
area and beyond. Progress comes with movement. Without some form of positive
displacement and growth, there can never be any movement.

While everybody was moving, or seemed to, one man remained stuck at the same
place.

President Robert Mugabe, in power for that length of time, has remained at
State House and his Munhumutapa office, doing the same job.

The disadvantages of his continued stay in one home and office, probably
with the same furniture, same bookshelves, same books and the same saucer
and teacup, far outweigh any spin-offs from such a caged environment.

Sitting in the same building, Mugabe has watched his colonial heritage
crumble before him.

Corruption immediately sank in. Despite piecemeal controls and muffled
condemnations, his team ignored him.

In 1984, at his party’s first congress in a free Zimbabwe, Mugabe introduced
a leadership code, primarily to deal with abuse of office and avarice. That,
too, failed.

In 1989, when the economy began to show real signs of stress because of an
unchecked and growing budget deficit, nearly three-quarters of his top team
had become second-hand car dealers. That led to the Sandura
Commission of Inquiry into the Willowvale car scandal which claimed the life
and careers of his most trusted lieutenants: Maurice Nyagumbo, Enos Nkala,
Dzingai Mutumbuka, Frederick Shava, Callistus Ndlovu, among others.

Mugabe, however, remained firm.

Today, as we tumble in freezing waters, battered and without any breath,
Mugabe says let’s push on. He has suddenly discovered a new formula for
changing our fortunes: Everybody must be empowered overnight. You can be a
millionaire by the year 2008 from our land. A million jobs are up for grabs!

You will live in utter comfort, so we are told.

Mugabe’s ardent supporters believe he is breaking new ground in African
politics.

That is untrue. Politicising poverty is a worn-out game on the continent.

Its results, though varied, only delayed the emancipation of the poor as the
intended beneficiaries.

Africans recall, with shattered fondness, the Arusha Declaration of 1967
when the late Julius Nyerere introduced an empowerment drive dubbed ujamaa
in Tanzania. The idea was to bring wealth to the people, through
co-operatives and indigenisation with the help from the East.

The West was regarded as a natural enemy because of its links to colonialism
and international capital. Today, ujamaa needs no further debate. Tanzania
has moved to the other end of the political pendulum. Ujamaa vanished long
before Nyerere retired and died.

In 1975, the late Samora Machel nationalised literally every activity and
enterprise in Mozambique. The Portuguese were hounded out like “cats and
dogs”. Like Nyerere, he relied on the East.

The West ganged up against Machel in the full glare of the same East,
created a rebel movement and forced him to enter into the unsavoury Nkomati
Accord with the apartheid South African white rulers. Two years later, it
can be argued, the Boers killed him.

Mozambique has since abandoned Machel’s economic policies and, to a large
extent, his nationalistic zeal. President Joaquim Chissano listens to all,
including Zimbabwe’s beleaguered white farmers.

He even welcomed his former gadfly, the Afrikaner hard-liners, to introduce
organised agriculture to Mozambique.

Former President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia invented a political credo which
he termed “humanism”. This was an attempt at wholesale empowerment of the
blacks.

There is no need for any debate on this theory any further. Kaunda was
thrown out office in an election, the first real contest in Zambia.

Up north, Idi Amin identified what he thought was the prime source of the
countrymen’s problem: citizens of Indian ancestry. He pushed them out, often
with nothing. Their property and assets were seized as part of a grand
strategy to remove the enemy “in our midst” and empower poor Ugandans. The
rest, as they say, is now history.

Mugabe’s government will never move an inch towards meaningful progress with
the so-called exclusive goodwill from the East. Agriculture is a demanding
industry that needs support from all over the world; it requires a
combination of expertise and money. Zimbabwe does not have either. Our
agriculture extension service has been on its knees for the past five years.

Workers are without transport and support.

Further, droughts and other natural disasters must be hedged by industry and
commerce. Our senior black captains in the manufacturing sector are known
for acquiring businesses and running them down, not creating wealth. War
veterans may be good foot-soldiers necessary in political and nationalistic
campaigns, but not as telescopic thinkers and economic strategists.

Tourism is supposed to complement agriculture in Mugabe’s new revolution.

Maybe. Should our hotels brace for new arrivals from Libya, mainland China
and the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Our world-class holiday resorts are certainly unprepared for an influx of
visitors from Mupandawana, Dotito, Sanyati or even Harare and Bulawayo. Any
potential domestic tourist spends half the time bunking work to queue for
basic items, under the watchful eye of the police riot squad.

The experiments tackled by Nyerere and others failed because, without faith
and goodwill, mass empowerment becomes too complicated a political concept
for one generation to suck.

We eagerly await the outcome of Mugabe’s version.

Otherwise, Zimbabwe will eventually have a second Independence Day,
different from 18 April

BBC

 

Tuesday, 23 April, 2002, 10:20 GMT 11:20 UK

Mugabe is wary of street protests

The Age

Jailed pro-democracy leader denied bail in Zimbabwe

HARARE, April 23 AFP|Published: Wednesday April 24, 5:04 AM

A Zimbabwean court denied bail today to jailed pro-democracy leader Lovemore
Madhuku, who was arrested yesterday for organising anti-government protests,
state television reported.

Five other activists from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) were
granted bail of 8,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($A270), but a magistrate's court
denied bail to Madhuku, the report said.

The report did not name the other five activists. All six are due to appear
again in court on Wednesday, it said.

The six face charges under Zimbabwe's three-month-old Public Order and
Security Act, which bans all political demonstrations.

President Robert Mugabe pushed the law through parliament ahead of the March
9-11 presidential elections. Independent observers said the law was used to
break up campaign rallies by the opposition.

At least 38 people were arrested around Zimbabwe today, as the NCA staged
protests in four main towns and cities calling for a new constitution that
would create a more democratic election process.

Police brutally broke up most of the protests, beating people with batons to
chase them away.

MSNBC

White Zimbabwean farmers begin trial on violence


HARARE, April 23 — A group of white Zimbabwean commercial farmers pleaded
not guilty on Tuesday to charges of inciting public violence after clashes
last year with militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe.
        Twenty-four farmers were charged after clashing with Mugabe
supporters occupying a white-owned farm in the Chinhoyi area of northwestern
Zimbabwe in August last year.
       Charges against six other farmers were dropped on Tuesday, said Jenni
Williams, spokeswoman for the mainly-white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU).
       ''The remaining farmers all pleaded not guilty to charges of inciting
public violence,'' Williams told Reuters as the trial got underway in
Harare.
       In the week that followed the farmers' arrests last year, mobs of
militants retaliated by burning and looting properties in the Chinhoyi area,
forcing dozens of farm families to flee.
       At the time, Mugabe accused former colonial ruler Britain of
conspiring with the farmers to stage-manage some looting, a charge both
Britain and the CFU denied.
       ''They will not be treated like special creatures. Why should they be
treated as if they are next to God?,'''' Mugabe said after the farmers were
released on bail in August last year.
       Mugabe was re-elected for another six-year term last month in
elections denounced as fraudulent by the opposition and many Western
countries.
       Zimbabwe has been in crisis since February 2000 when militants
invaded hundreds of white-owned farms in support of Mugabe's campaign to
seize farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
       Ten white farmers have been killed in the violence that has
accompanied the invasion of farms by self-styled veterans of the country's
1970s liberation war.

CNN


Police break up Zimbabwe protest

April 23, 2002 Posted: 9:16 AM EDT (1316 GMT)


HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwean police armed with batons charged
into a crowd of activists in Harare on Tuesday at the start of nationwide
protests against a constitution opponents say entrenches President Robert
Mugabe's rule.

About 1,000 pro-democracy activists ran through the streets of the capital,
singing and chanting "Down with Mugabe" as they were chased by heavily-armed
riot police on foot and in trucks.

In a bid to avoid detection before the protest, activists joined food queues
before breaking away to storm through the city. Witnesses said one man had
been beaten by police, but there were no official reports of injuries or
arrests.

The demonstration soon broke up and protesters melted into the lunchtime
crowd, but organisers said they might regroup later in the day to launch
another demonstration despite the strong police presence.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) had vowed to press ahead with the
protest despite a police ban on political demonstrations since Mugabe's
controversial re-election last month.

The NCA, a broad coalition of student and church groups, political parties
and human rights groups, is demanding a new constitution to replace laws it
says entrench the rule of Mugabe, who was re-elected in disputed March 9-11
elections.

Mugabe has amended the constitution 16 times since leading the country to
independence from Britain in 1980 in what are seen as attempts to tighten
his grip on power.

Three NCA officials, including chairman Lovemore Madhuku, were due to appear
in a Harare court on Tuesday, charged with organising an illegal
demonstration, a police spokesman said.

NCA spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said protests were also taking place in the
southern city of Masvingo, but there was no independent confirmation.

Earlier this month, more than 60 NCA activists were arrested in the first
major demonstrations against Mugabe since he was re-elected in a
presidential poll condemned as fraudulent by opposition activists and
Western governments.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party says the election was free and fair and it
rejects demands by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for a
fresh poll.

The MDC, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai has called Mugabe's election victory
"daylight robbery," condemned the government's heavy-handed approach to
demonstrations while allowing ZANU-PF militants to continue a reign of
terror in the countryside.

"It is disturbing that this government deploys its riot police to deal with
peaceful protesters when violent and armed ZANU-PF gangs are allowed to
cause mayhem with police assistance," the MDC said in a statement.

"How can a demonstrator armed only with a petition pose a threat to national
security?," it added.

Zimbabwe introduced tough new security laws this year banning public
protests and gatherings without police approval. Penalties range from fines
to a year in prison.