From BBC News, 26 April
Forward's
story
Forward, 23, spoke to the BBC by the roadside a few kilometres
from South
Africa's border with Zimbabwe, where he was waiting for a lift
southwards to
Pretoria. Travelling with only the clothes he was wearing, he
hopes to get a
welding job at a factory that employed him during a previous
stint in South
Africa. He has also worked on a cattle ranch near the town of
Thabazimbi.
This is my third time in South Africa. I was here in
2003 and 2005. The
standard of living is higher in South Africa, and here I
can do something
for myself. If I work here, I get more money. I have never
been arrested in
South Africa - maybe I'm lucky - and I've never bribed
anyone. One day in
Thabazimbi the white boss called the police, wanting the
other Zimbabweans
to be arrested because they were on strike. Because I was
good at looking
after cattle, I was allowed to stay. There I earned 575 rand
a month,
working every day of the week. I am saving some money but it's
difficult.
After several months I had saved only 800 rand, because I was
also drinking
liquor, which I bought from a shop on the farm. On the farm we
lived in a
compound. Conditions were bad. For water we had to go to the
farmhouse 200
metres away. There were no beds, so we had to buy mats to
sleep on. Normally
when you arrive for a new job you are not told what pay
you will get. You
just have to wait and see.
Johnson and
Jokoma
Johnson works as a security guard on a large fruit farm, where
more than 400
Zimbabweans are employed, mostly as fruit pickers. He entered
South Africa
illegally, but now has a work permit.
The farmer applied
for a permit, and I now have a permit to work legally -
but that only
happened last year. Zimbabweans work hard - we know how to
struggle for our
stomachs. The South Africans don't want to work in the
fields - only in the
sheds or driving tractors. The security guards get 36
rand a day, paid
monthly. The fruit pickers are paid 37 cents for filling a
bag. So they get
37 rand a day if they fill 100 bags. And 130 rand is
deducted for housing
each month. I don't particularly want to stay here, but
this is where I have
a job. Sometimes funeral societies invite us to join
up, and offer to
transport bodies back to Zimbabwe when people die. But
about 10 Zimbabweans
are buried here on the farm.
Jokoma, 54, has a legal temporary permit to
do seasonal work as a fruit
picker in South Africa. Legislation in South
Africa and Zimbabwe allows
South African farmers get a licence to recruit
workers on either side of the
border.
I am here for a seasonal
contract then will go back home to Masvingo. The
boss of the farm comes to
Zimbabwe to fetch us. I've done this every year
since 2003. I used to be a
cashier at a mine, until it was closed. After
that I didn't have a job, so I
discussed getting a job in South Africa.
Justice's
story
Justice, 23, passed A levels in Zimbabwe. His mother, who
trades between the
two countries, paid for him to make the journey to South
Africa. After three
weeks of work pruning fruit trees on a farm near the
border, he has still
received no wages, and does not know how much he will
get at the end of the
month.
We travelled by bus from
Masvingo, and I found people who helped us cross
the river [Limpopo]. We
paid 20 rand to the ones who helped us cross. It was
difficult, the water
was up to here [waist high]. Selling didn't give me
much money - it's much
better to have a job, that way I can do something
with my life. Friends told
me you can work here without a permit. But I'm
not so happy - the way we are
treated is harsh. The owner can't appreciate
when you are doing your job,
and he is always saying we are lazy. Wages are
not announced - we are
working in the dark. Even if they give us peanuts
we'd appreciate that. I
live with a relative in a compound on another farm.
For food we have to
borrow from the farm shop, and then get the amount
deducted from our wages.
Not all South Africans are good, but not all are
bad. With some of them, if
you say, "Hi, what's up?", they don't see you
like a human being. Most of
the South Africans don't speak English, so if
you can't speak Venda [a local
South African language] you can't
communicate. The police could send us back
at any moment, but it's a do or
die situation. If you are sent back to
Zimbabwe, you just come back to South
Africa again. My mother wanted me to
come here, because my younger brother
is doing O levels, and if he passes A
levels he can do something with his
life.
From The Age (Australia), 29 April
By Rochelle Mutton
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe has
been described as an economic cannibal, feeding
off its own as it exhausts
capital and resources. "It's like eating your
left leg, knowing your next
meal will have to be your right leg," says
independent economist John
Robertson, based in the capital Harare. "It
doesn't leave much hope for
recovery." Now, it appears, President Robert
Mugabe is trying to get his
"economic legs" back. White farmers, driven from
their lands, are being
invited back. Since the Zimbabwe Government began its
often violent seizures
of more than 4000 white-owned farms in 2000,
supposedly to right colonial
wrongs, the once prosperous agricultural-based
economy is in freefall.
Inflation is believed to have broken past 1000 per
cent. (One Australian
dollar is now worth $75,000 Zimbabwean). The health
system demise and AIDS
pandemic have helped drive life expectancy down to
the worst in the world -
37 years for men, 34 for women. The former
breadbasket of southern Africa
now requires food aid for up to 4 million
people. Most of the
once-bountiful, farmlands lie fallow as the new
occupiers - poor back
squatters, subsistence villagers and the Government's
rewarded cronies -
lack the resources and expertise to produce the crops
that used to earn
export dollars.
This year the Mugabe regime has introduced a
blueprint it boasts will bring
about 9 per cent growth in agriculture
providing enough food for everyone
within six months. To do that, the
Zimbabwe Government is calling for white
farmers to apply for permission to
make Zimbabwe an agricultural powerhouse
once again. Zimbabwe's mostly-white
Commercial Farmers Union has confirmed
it has been liaising with the
Government following a request from Didymus
Mutasa, Minister for Security
and Land, for white farmers to apply for
99-year leases. Rumours of the
proposal were doing the rounds last year, but
quashed. Both Mr Mutasa and Mr
Mugabe reiterated their view of white farmers
as "filth", "irrelevant" and
"murderous thieves". Suddenly, the white farmer
has been recast from pariah
to an economic panacea. And it comes without any
government regrets on the
policy of farm seizures that violently expelled
farmers from their land and
helped destroy the economy. Farmers remain
denied both compensation and
their looted equipment and they have no
security of tenure (the lease can be
confiscated with 30 days' notice).
However, they are expected to accept the
lease conditions gratefully,
despite the implication they had brought the
land trouble upon themselves by
supporting opposition
politics.
Mr Mutasa told South Africa's Sunday Independent: "When
white farmers go
back to their land, I hope they will say they were allowed
to go home by
President Mugabe. He let this happen," Mr Mutasa said. "And we
hope these
white farmers will refrain from doing agriculture in a political
way, they
must just be farmers and resist from politics on farms." Farm
union
president Doug Taylor-Freeme confirmed this week that there were 600
farmers
still active in Zimbabwe and 200 who were forcibly inactive. He had
passed
on the Government's offer to his membership and about 200 had
applied. None
have been finalised. While he says some displaced farmers now
living in
Australia were among those who inquired about leases, most of the
land
applications were from those still in Zimbabwe hoping to resume
production.
Mr Taylor-Freeme said he was very cautious about the leases,
concerned that
leases could be granted to a new farmer when another still
had the title
deeds. Vernon Nicolle lost his large-scale farming enterprise
to a Zimbabwe
High Court judge and has started again from scratch with a
farm in Western
Australia's Margaret River region. He said farmers would be
"stupid and
naive in the extreme" to try to do a deal with the Mugabe
regime. "They are
only prolonging their fate and all they're doing is
keeping Mugabe alive for
a little while longer because he'll use that to get
international support,"
Mr Nicolle said.
Despite the lease
offers, dramatic farm seizures continue. The Oosthuizen
family was forcibly
removed from Kwekwe this month. Mr Nicolle says
co-operation with the
Government and vital large-scale food production did
not save either the
Oosthuizens now, or his own farm back in 2003. "Sorry to
be boring, but we
as the Nicolle family produced 24 per cent of the national
wheat crop," he
said. "We fed the nation. We thought we were OK because we
weren't political
animals, we were just farmers. And when it suited them
(the regime), they
chucked us off." Mr Robertson said the Government had
destroyed Zimbabwe's
wealth through its race-driven rationale to nationalise
farms. Land had been
made worthless and impossible to invest in or borrow
against. He believed
the Government was more nervous about potential social
unrest, than its
"crazy" blueprint to get capitalist wealth from a communist
system. "It's a
wish-list, it reads like a letter to Father Christmas," he
said. "None of
this is going to happen because the means to make it happen
doesn't exist.
The Government of this country doesn't want anyone to come up
with good
ideas. Prosperous people tend to be much less likely to put up
with bad
governance, bad city councils and bad treatment from the police."
Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition co-ordinator Reverend Nicholas Mkaronda, based
in
Johannesburg, said the lease invitation was a trap. "The money won't be
used
for the agricultural evolution in Zimbabwe but only for the continued
protection of the elite and what we call the war against the people."
IOL
April 29 2006
at 05:01PM
Harare - White commercial farmers who want to continue
farming in
Zimbabwe must apply for leases on their land, a government
minister was
quoted as saying on Saturday.
Minister of State
for Special Affairs Responsible for Land, Land
Reform and Resettlement Flora
Buka said white farmers had to apply for
"offer letters" - official
permission from the government to farm - "as any
other people are required
to do so".
Buka said 500 white farmers had applied for permission
so far.
There's been confusion in recent weeks about unconfirmed
reports
Zimbabwe had invited white farmers chased from their farms back to
the land.
Government ministers have denied this is a dramatic
U-turn in
Zimbabwe's land reform programme, which has seen up to 4 000
commercial
farmers lose their farms in the past six years.
Buka
said "remaining farmers" had to apply for leases to farm, after
changes were
made to Zimbabwe's constitution that makes all agricultural
land required
for resettlement state land.
"The need to apply for land is open to
every Zimbabwean, including
white commercial farmers," she told the
state-controlled Herald newspaper.
"About 500 of the remaining 927
white commercial farmers have applied
and their applications are being
considered," she said. The Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) last week put the
figure at only around 200.
"The reminder for the white commercial
farmers to apply for
resettlement is an indication by government that the
land reform programme
is open to all citizens of Zimbabwe, irrespective of
race. Black or white
farmers are all requested to apply," Buka
said.
President Robert Mugabe launched the land reform programme in
early
2000 in what he said was a bid to correct colonial-era imbalances in
land
ownership. But the programme has been mired in controversy after
allegations
that ruling party officials had seized most of the best farms,
while
agricultural production has plummeted.
Meanwhile, in
central Midlands province, at least six white farmers
have been told to
leave their farms in the past two weeks, an official from
farming pressure
group Justice for Agriculture (JAG) said. - Sapa-dpa
Dear Family and Friends,
Zimbabwe apparently now has the highest inflation
and the fastest
shrinking economy in the world. While those may be headline
grabbing
words, the reality of living it are making these the hardest of
times for
us all. Everywhere you go, everyone is talking about the
dramatic
increases in the prices of food, medicines and services and
undoubtedly
this winter 2006 will be the worst any of us can ever remember.
Going
shopping has become a nightmare and budgeting an impossibility as
the
prices keep changing to both match and fuel the 913% inflation rate.
A
dozen eggs marked on the shelf at 260 thousand dollars this week,
was
actually 290 thousand dollars at the till. "It's up" the woman at
the
checkout announced when I asked why there was a thirty thousand
dollar
difference in the three metres from shelf to till. Every week more
and
more things get crossed off the shopping list as they become
unaffordable.
Cheese, fruit, eggs and cereals, all have become luxuries now,
bought
rarely and used sparingly - for a treat. They join goods crossed off
the
list a year ago when they also became too expensive; things like
yoghurt,
sausages, bacon, coffee, nuts, fruit juice and fish. These in turn
join
the things we gave up three or four years ago, things that were bad for
us
anyway like fizzy drinks, chocolates, cigarettes and alcohol.
913%
inflation is so frightening that most people literally do not know
how they
will make it from one month to the next. Food prices are just the
tip of the
iceberg as hyperinflation rages into bills and services, swamps
medical and
dental costs and makes clothes and shoes a complete
impossibility. School
fees are now due for the winter term and they have
so many digits that they
look like long distance international telephone
numbers. Talking about
telephones, at the top of this month's phone bill
is a statement which reads:
"Tariffs were increased from $1400 to $8609
per unit with effect from 3 Feb
2006." The statement doesn't mention that
this is an increase of over 500%,
it doesn't offer a reason, excuse or
apology - its just a case of pay or be
disconnected.
But, for as long as we can, we cling on to the routines of
life, trying to
be "normal", trying to hold our homes and families together,
trying to
keep our children reasonably fed, clothed and in school. Until next
week,
love cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 29 April 2006.
http://africantears.netfirms.com
April 29, 2006
By Andnetwork .com
UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador, Angelique Kidjo,
today met with some of
Zimbabwe's 115,000 children (0-14years) infected with
HIV and listened to
the problems faced by children living with
AIDS.
Every week in Zimbabwe 550 children die of an AIDS-related
illness and
a further 565 become infected with HIV. And yet nationwide less
than 5000
Zimbabwean children are receiving ARV treatment. Zimbabwe -
currently facing
1000% inflation and one of the world's highest HIV rates -
also suffers the
worst rises in child mortality globally.
A day
before she headlines the Harare International Festival of the
Arts (HIFA),
Ms Kidjo visited the Harare Children's Hospital to spend her
afternoon with
some of Zimbabwe's most vulnerable children. There she spoke
with the
children and their families and paid particular attention to those
infected
with HIV.
"The stories of these children are both heartbreaking and
inspiring,"
said Ms Kidjo. "They are living in pain, they are often
orphaned, and the
world seems more interested in their country's politics
than these children's
plight.
"And yet they retain hope and
determination. I don't know if they are
Zimbabwe's next musicians or not,
but certainly with the drugs their peers
in the developing world have access
to, they can be the country's next
teachers and doctors."
Advocating for their treatment and supporting orphans and vulnerable
children is at the heart of UNICEF's work in Zimbabwe. As part of the
country's National Plan of Action (NPA) for orphans and vulnerable children,
UNICEF is embarking on a massive programme with the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare to improve the health, education, protection and nutrition of
the country's orphans and vulnerable children. However, life-saving drugs
remain in desperately short supply.
"The vast majority of
Zimbabwe's 115,000 children who are HIV-positive
could have been spared this
immense burden. They contracted the virus
through
mother-to-child-transmission," said UNICEF's Representative in
Zimbabwe, Dr
Festo Kavishe. "The world has the drugs that prevent this and
yet less than
7% of Zimbabwe's HIV-positive pregnant women receive them."
Ms
Kidjo - who has been nominated for three Grammys - was an instant
hit at the
children's ward and took time to sing for the children.
"For me
these children are much more than a reminder of how fortunate
we are. Their
tears and their strength should remind us of our obligation to
support
them."
Source : Relief Web
IPP media
2006-04-29
10:01:29
By Guardian Reporter
Tanzania lent its support to
Zimbabwe and other African countries yesterday
defending their freedom in
running the affairs of their countries without
interference or any form of
influence from foreign powers.
In a clear indication that the country's
leadership change had not affected
the historic relations with southern
African countries, President Jakaya
Kikwete supported President Robert
Mugabe's land reform policy.
Addressing top government officials and
high-ranking government officials at
a dinner hosted by President Mugabe at
the Bulawayo State House on Thursday
night, President Kikwete said Tanzania
supported African countries that are
struggling to rebuild their
economies.
''We will continue to propagate the philosophy that political
freedom
becomes meaningful only if we can make decisions freely without
being pushed
or interfered with by foreign countries,'' he
stressed.
He also praised President Mugabe for his firm
anti-neo-colonialism stand,
saying the freedom that Zimbabweans fought for
would otherwise be
meaningless.
''As we speak today, Mr President, we
can say those who sacrificed their
lives for the sake of the betterment of
other people during Chimurenga and
independence struggle did not do so for
nothing.''
He said the relationship between the two countries should not
be only
confined to the independence struggle but also economy, commerce and
security.
''I emphasise this because it is very important that apart
from the good
political relations that exist between us, we need to go
further in
establishing economic and trade ties especially in this era of
globalisation,'' he said.
President Mugabe said Tanzania was the only
country that has continued
supporting Zimbabwe's decision to distribute land
to black Africans.
''You have continued supporting us in this move, you
have continued backing
us even when big nations posed economic sanctions on
us for our decision, we
thank you very much for the support,'' said
President Mugabe.
He said it was his hope that after completing the
exercise of land
distribution, the two countries would cooperate and work
together in the
exchange of different experts including agricultural experts
to enhance
economic development of the two nations.
The two
presidents proposed the establishment of a joint commission to work
out
strategies for common economic co-operation.
President Mugabe also said
the recent heavy rainfall in various parts of the
country was a good omen
that the country would have a good harvest to offset
the current food
shortages.
President Mugabe also congratulated President Kikwete for his
victory in
last year's general election.
Mugabe also praised efforts
being undertaken by Tanzania to restore peace
and political stability in the
Great Lakes Region, saying he was confident
the efforts would be extended to
the Democratic Republic of Congo, which
goes to the polls for the first time
this year since independence, more than
four decades ago.
President
Mugabe has urged the African Union to make deliberate and
concerted efforts
to resolve the emerging conflict between Sudan and Chad
''The situation in
Chad is worsening.
Our collective efforts should be taken to ensure war
is averted,'' said
Mugabe.
.. SOURCE: Guardian
Islamic Repuiblic News Agency
Pretoria, April 29, IRNA
Iranian companies
participating in the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in
Bulawayo, which
opened Friday, have showcased an array of Iranian products.
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe and the visiting Tanzanian President
Jakaya Kikwete
as well as foreign diplomats and proprietors of various
companies attended
the fair's opening ceremony yesterday.
The fair is being held in
Zimbabwe's Bulawayo, an annual hub of trade and
industry fairs and the
country's second biggest city.
Participant Iranian companies in the fair
are leading names in the
production of textile materials, motorcycles and
detergents.
During the opening ceremony, the Islamic Republic of Iran won
the `best
foreign pavilion' prize and a gold medal for best
design.
Meanwhile, Mugabe and Kikwete visited the Iranian pavilion on the
sidelines
of the fair and lauded the wide range of Iranian
products.
President Mugabe expressed great happiness over the Iranian
companies'
presence in the fair.
The Zimbabwean and Tanzanian
presidents were presented several gifts and
souvenirs by representatives of
the Iranian companies participating in the
fair.
afrol News / The Chronicle, 27 April -
The Electricity Supply Commission of
Malawi (ESCOM) says the
Malawi-Mozambique power interconnection is a
profitable business venture as
Malawi will be able to sell her power to the
rest of the SADC region
(Southern Africa). The Malawi-Mozambique power
interconnection, which will
tap power from River Zambezi, is in the process
of making.
Escom
acting Chief Executive Officer, Kandi Padambo said in an interview
recently
once the deal is finalised, Malawi will be in a position to sell
her power
to all the countries in the SADC region because Mozambique is
interconnected
with Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.
"I want to assure you that Malawi
is the biggest beneficiary of this
project. This is a very profitable
business venture as we will be able to
sell our power to the rest of the
SADC region because Mozambique has power
links with them," said Mr
Padambo.
Mr Padambo said currently electricity costs three cents per
kilowatt and
Escom would be able to sell the same at five cents per kilowatt
to other
countries and therefore enhance its revenue generation
capacity.
However, Mr Padambo said the country would take three years to
witness
economic potential of the project, as the first two years will be
used to
repay loan to the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank
(ADB).
He added that the power sharing agreement would enable Escom to
close some
of its power stations for rehabilitation. "With this arrangement,
we will be
able to close some of our power stations for rehabilitation
without any
power interruption. For instance, Nkula A which has a capacity
of 24
megawatts has never been rehabilitated since its commissioning in
1966," he
said.
The chief executive, however, attributed the delays
in the project to its
failure to finalise the power supply agreement with
Hydro Cabora Bassa of
Mozambique, which has also delayed the acquisition of
funds from World Bank.
"Initially we entered into a US$ 3 per kilowatt
power supply agreement with
Hydro Caborabassa in 2003 but they surprised us
last year when they raised
it to US$ 21.75 per kilowatt, which we could not
afford and we were looking
for another partner instead," said Mr Padambo.
However, Mr Padambo said they
would proceed finalising the deal with them
because they have agreed to
revert to the old amount of US$ 3 per kilowatt
through serious discussions
that have been going on between
them.
Malawi and Mozambique signed a power-sharing memorandum of
understanding in
1998 that will see the country importing between 50 and 100
megawatts from
River Zambezi in Mozambique. Currently ESCOM has four power
generation
plants in Malawi, namely Kapichira with a power generation
capacity of 64.8
megawatts, Wovwe with 4.5 megawatts, Nkula A and B with 124
megawatts and
Tedzani 1 2 and 3 with 106.7 megawatts.
By
Charles Chisi
© afrol News / The Chronicle
April 29,
2006
By Andnetwork .com
THE Mutare City Council is at
loggerheads with the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU) over the
labour body's intention to use Sakubva
Stadium to commemorate the Workers
Day.
The ZCTU had successfully booked the stadium last
December for use on
Monday, but the municipality cancelled the booking this
month without giving
notice.
ZCTU lawyers on Thursday wrote a
letter to the municipality's director
of housing threatening legal
action.
"We are instructed that on December 21 2005, and at Mutare,
our client
booked in advance to hold their May 1 Day celebrations for 2006
at Sakubva
Stadium, you accepted the booking, having verified that as of
December 21
2005, no one had booked the venue, apart from our client. Our
client paid
for the booking and was issued with a receipt by the City of
Mutare Treasury
(Sakubva)," read a letter from ZCTU lawyer Alec
Muchadehama.
He argued at the time of the booking, the municipality
did not demand
that the union produce a clearance letter from the
police.
"Our clients were shocked to receive a letter from
yourselves on April
25 2006, in which you purported to cancel our client's
booking, allegedly
due to lack of police clearance," Muchadehama said. He
argued the
municipality's action was illegal as "a legally binding contract"
had
already been entered into.
He said ZCTU was not in breach
of the agreement, adding the
municipality did not give notice to the ZCTU of
its intention to cancel the
contract.
"We have advised our
client to reject your refund as they are holding
you to the contract.
Billions of dollars have been invested by our clients
to ensure the
successful commemoration of the historic May Day celebrations
countrywide,"
the lawyers claimed.
He urged the Mutare City Council to respect
the contractual
relationship by ensuring the celebrations proceed without
hindrance.
"In the event that you remain in breach of contract, it
is our
client's intention to sue yourself personally and also the Mutare
City
Council for damages for breach of contract running into billions of
dollars
in addition to any remedies at our clients disposal," added the
lawyer.
He further argued that in terms of the Schedule to section
24 and 41
of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA-chapter 11:17), "public
gatherings of trade union organisations for bona fide trade union purposes
were exempt from notifying the police of the intended
activities.
Reads a letter from the Mutare City Council dated April
24 2006: "I
regret to inform you that the booking of Sakubva Stadium on May
1 2006 has
been cancelled due to lack of Zimbabwe Republic Police
clearance.
Council cannot indefinitely reserve the Stadium as you
have had ample
time to produce the required police clearance." The letter
written by
director of housing and community service, one S Mapurisa added:
"the money
you had paid in advance is now being refunded."
Meanwhile, the ZCTU intends to distribute 19 tonnes of the
controversial
sanitary pads it acquired abroad following the arrival of the
consignment in
the country last Saturday.
Addressing a press conference in Harare
yesterday, ZCTU president
Lovemore Matombo said the labour body paid $1,7
billion in duty for the
consignment to enter Zimbabwe.
Source :
The Daily Mirror