Farmer abducted in
Mwenezi
On Wednesday 2nd April
2003, Ken Fraser (65) of Solomondale Farm, Mwenezi, was abducted from his
workshop area by a militant group of known settlers. Four of his farm labourers
were also taken.
They were forced into the bush and Mr
Fraser was repeatedly beaten and thrown to the ground in front of the mob
numbering approximately 200. The workers were left alone when Mr Fraser said the
attackers should beat him rather than them.
Mrs Val Fraser followed the mob in a
vehicle and at one point fired shots into the air, but this served to incense
the mob further. She was not attacked.
Mr Fraser was forced under duress to
sign a document agreeing to leave the farm within seven days, and was then
released.
Police were informed of the attack
and a neighbour collected two constables from Mwenezi Police Station and
proceeded to the farm, arriving when things had calmed down. Mr and Mrs Fraser
were taken to Triangle Hospital where Mr Fraser was treated for foot injuries
and torn ligaments in his shoulder and neck. No bones were broken.
Mr Fraser was today (Thursday)
planning to lay a charge of attempted murder against the
attackers.
_________________________________
Commercial Farmers' Union of
Zimbabwe
P O Box WGT 390
Westgate
Harare
Tel: 04-309800
Fax:
04-309873
_________________________________
Bringing down Mugabe
The
Economist Saturday, April 5, 2003
London It is always a bad
idea to compare an adversary to Adolf Hitler. The
comparison never rings
true, and you end up sounding silly. But what do you
do when the object of
your disapproval compares himself to Hitler, as Robert
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's
president, did last week? In fact, he went further than
that, describing
himself as "Hitler tenfold." Mugabe's critics, who probably
include most of
the people of Zimbabwe, may feel that he has stolen their
thunder.
.
To
be clear about this, despite what he says, and despite the two men's
similar
racist rhetoric and moustaches, Mugabe is no Führer. He may rig
elections,
goad his militia to torture dissidents and deny food aid to
people suspected
of supporting the opposition, but he has not yet tried
systematically to
exterminate everyone he hates.
.
Mugabe does not resemble the Nazi leader
in the way he would like to think
he does, either. He compared himself to
Hitler because he sees himself as a
nationalist strongman standing up to
British imperialism. He argues that all
Zimbabwe's problems stem from
Britain's attempts to crush his regime. But
the truth is that neither Britain
nor any other Western power has made more
than token efforts to curb Mugabe,
because he poses no threat to their vital
interests. If the people of
Zimbabwe desire a change of regime (and it is
obvious that they do), they can
expect little outside help.
.
The main Zimbabwean opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change, or
MDC, is at last waking up to this reality.
A general strike last month
brought cities to a standstill, and rattled the
regime enough to prompt it
to arrest more people than usual. The opposition's
leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, gave Mugabe an ultimatum. If, by March 31, he did
not make
certain concessions, such as stopping the harassment of
opposition
supporters and the politicization of food aid, he would face "mass
action."
Predictably, Mugabe ignored the deadline. What
next?
.
Tsvangirai is pursuing a dangerous strategy. If Tsvangirai summons
up big,
angry crowds, Mugabe's men may simply shoot them. But if he does
nothing,
the regime will stay in place, the country will continue to grow
poorer, and
legions of Zimbabweans will continue to weaken from hunger and
succumb to
the diseases of poverty.
The
Telegraph
Task force acts on Zimbabwe
By Peta
Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed: 05/04/2003)
A southern African task
force will go to Zimbabwe next week to investigate
political violence
following an alarming wave of arrests and beatings of
opposition
activists.
The Southern African Development Community, SADC, usually
supportive of
President Mugabe, finally reacted to mounting violence with an
announcement
that it was sending a "task force" to Harare "to evaluate the
situation".
More than 500 people have been arrested, 300 taken to
hospital with injuries
and scores beaten and tortured while in police custody
following a general
strike called by the opposition Movement for Democratic
change two weeks
ago.
SADC, southern Africa's equivalent of the EU,
has frequently been criticised
for not putting enough pressure on Robert
Mugabe's government to end
political violence.
Part of SADC's mission
will be to look into the detention of Gibson Sibanda,
the MDC's
vice-president.
A United Nations delegation in Harare said it would be
making its concerns
"known to Mr Mugabe". An official said: "Something is
going to be done. We
know what is going on."
New York
Times
The World's Other Tyrants, Still at Work
By
ARYEH NEIER
With international attention focused on Iraq, despots are
seizing the
opportunity to get rid of their opposition - real or imagined. In
Zimbabwe,
Cuba and Belarus, independent journalists, opposition leaders and
human
rights advocates have been thrown in prison. Absent scrutiny, the
leaders of
these rogue regimes have been emboldened, aware that their actions
are
causing little more than a ripple of protest beyond their
countries.
The outside world has ignored Zimbabwe, which is holding
critical
parliamentary elections whose outcome could help determine whether
President
Robert Mugabe will be able to amend the Constitution and handpick
his
successor. Since the start of the war in Iraq, Mr. Mugabe has intensified
a
campaign of intimidation, arresting more than 500 democracy advocates
and
opposition leaders, including Gibson Sibanda, vice president of the
main
opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
The
campaign of state-sponsored violence is not limited to the opposition
leaders
in Zimbabwe. A worker on the farm of an opposition parliamentary
deputy died
of injuries after being beaten by Mr. Mugabe's security agents
for
participating in a two-day general strike. Other farm workers have also
been
beaten by men in army uniforms who claimed that the farms were being
used as
staging grounds for opposition activities. Hundreds of people
accused of
taking part in the strike were treated for broken bones in
private clinics,
fearing more reprisals if they sought care at public
hospitals. Meanwhile,
Zimbabwe, once a breadbasket for southern Africa,
falls ever further into
poverty and famine.
In Cuba, the war is giving Fidel Castro cover for an
unprecedented assault.
Over the past two weeks his state security agents have
arrested about 80
dissidents. Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for 12
of those detained
and 10- to 30-year prison terms for the rest. They include
the economist
Marta Beatriz Roque, the poet and journalist Raúl Rivero and
the opposition
labor activist Pedro Pablo Álvarez.
The list of arrests
reads like a Who's Who of Cuban civil society - with the
obvious exception of
those who were already in jail when the roundup
started. They are the unsung
heroes of a movement to liberate the minds of
Cuba. But the names do not mean
much to a world public now concentrated on
becoming more and more expert on
the latest in military equipment and on the
geography of Iraq.
In
Minsk, the capital of Belarus, the authorities last week detained
50
opposition protesters who had gathered for the 85th anniversary of
the
declaration of the short-lived Belarusian Democratic Republic. On
Thursday,
demonstrators supporting the Iraq war - which President Aleksandr
Lukashenko
opposes - were arrested. It seems clear that Mr. Lukashenko,
Europe's sole
remaining dictator, is intent on tightening his grip on
Belarus.
Sadly, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Belarus are not alone. Other countries
have used
the Iraq war to step up human rights abuses. Vietnam's most
renowned
dissident, Nguyen Dan Que, a 60-year-old writer who is a physician
by
training, was arrested late last month. Hardly anyone protested. In
Egypt,
hundreds of war protesters were detained, with dozens beaten and
tortured.
In Thailand, the government has justified what appear to be
summary
executions in the name of a war on drugs. At least 1,900 people have
been
killed, including innocent bystanders. These crackdowns, too, all
passed
with little notice or comment.
That dictators move in times of
world crisis comes as no surprise. The
Soviets crushed the Hungarian
revolution in 1956 during the Suez crisis. In
1968, when the Johnson
administration was preoccupied with Vietnam, and
Germany and France as well
as the United States were convulsed in antiwar
demonstrations, the Soviets
moved into Czechoslovakia.
In January 1991, just as today, the
international community was focused on a
war in Iraq. As the Persian Gulf war
was starting, the Soviet Army took
advantage of the international community's
inattention to crack down on an
independence movement in Lithuania. More than
200 people were wounded and 15
killed as Moscow seized control of the
television broadcast center in
Vilnius.
If we let tyrants escape the
international condemnation that is often the
only way to protect their
critics against abuses, the brutal campaigns in
Zimbabwe, the clean sweep of
dissidents in Cuba, and the arrests of
demonstrators in Belarus may have to
be added to the list of unintended
consequences of the war in
Iraq.
Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute, is author
of "Taking
Liberties: Four Decades in the Struggle for
Rights.''
Sunday
Times (SA)
Zim fact-finding mission
welcomed
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change cautiously welcomed an
initiative by regional governments to send a
fact-finding mission to examine
the crisis in the country.
Said MDC
spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi: "When Paul saw his light on the way
to
Damascus, it didn't matter how late it was, what mattered was that
he
eventually saw the light.
"It looks like there is finally some
realisation that they cannot continue
the soft pedalling."
Mozambican
foreign minister Leonardo Simao announced after a meeting of the
security
committee of the Southern African Development Community that a
"task force"
would visit Harare next week to hear the views of "all
stakeholders" in the
country.
Observers said it was an indication that the regional body was
shifting from
its position of general support of President Robert Mugabe's
government.
The SADC move came in the wake of the Commonwealth's decision
last month to
extend Zimbabwe's suspension from the body until the end of the
year because
of the regime's failure to restore the rule of law and end
state-directed
violence against Mugabe's opponents.
It also followed
the state's vicious crackdown against the MDC after the
pro-democracy party
demonstrated its massive support by shutting down the
country for two days
last month with a national stayaway.
Despite international outrage
against the violence, mostly by uniformed
soldiers armed with whips and
clubs, attacks on MDC members and officials
have continued.
Nyathi
confirmed a gang of 15 men in military uniform descended on the home,
in the
sprawling southern township of Seke, of MDC MP Fidelis Mhashu and
assaulted
his wife, Monica, and three relatives staying there.
Mhashu is away, on
study leave in the United States.
"They said they were looking for Mhashu
because they wanted to kill him,"
Monica Mhashu said.
"They beat us
with batons, whipped us and stole money and food."
They also took away
the MP's pistol.
The independent Daily News reported yesterday that a
ruling ZANU(PF) party
supporter appeared in court in the western city of
Bulawayo, charged with
raping a woman inside the local ZANU(PF) party
offices.
State prosecutor said Richard Munthuli grabbed the woman,
carried her on his
shoulders into the offices and raped her twice, because he
was angry over
the MDC's victory in two by-elections against ZANU(PF) in
Harare.
The country is faced with a famine affecting seven million, the
economy is
in a state of accelerating collapse and business and industry are
being
ground down by critical fuel and power shortages.
Diplomats say
that Mugabe's failure to arrest the crisis in the country has
finally begun
to turn even staunch supporters like South African president
Thabo Mbeki
against him.
Sapa
Dear Family and Friends,
A few days ago a large and menacing Gymnogene
repeatedly circled lazily over my garden. This big grey bird of prey came
to rest on a branch of a dead tree on my front lawn and immediately
started trying to get the chicks of a pair of crested barbets out of their nest.
It was an amazing sight watching the huge raptor using first it's curved
claws and then it's bright yellow and very sharp beak trying to spear
the helpless babies. The barbet parents were going mad, screeching alarm calls
and hurling themselves at the raptor trying to stop it from destroying their
babies. They mobbed him, flying closer and closer to the huge bird, hitting him
with their own bodies in desperation. I ran outside to try and scare the
Gymnogene away. The barbets are residents in my garden and having watched
them over the weeks as they built the nest and then incubated and hatched the
eggs, the barbets had become a part of my life. It wasn't easy persuading
the raptor to leave. Shouting didn't do it, waving my arms was pointless and it
finally took a stone hitting the trunk inches from the bird's feet that
made him leave. The Raptor didn't go far, he sat in a tree across the
garden and whenever the coast was clear he tried again. All afternoon it was
only the screaming of the adult barbets that told me he was back and I would run
outside again to chase him away.
For the last three years ordinary
Zimbabwean have been very much like the crested barbets in my garden. We've been
screaming out for help, we've been shouting out alarms and have been desperate
for someone to hear our calls. In the last month our calls have got more frantic
but now no one is hearing them. The Iraq war has totally overshadowed the
horrors in Zimbabwe. Day after day, hour after hour, the BBC, CNN and SKY
television tell of the moment by moment developments in Iraq. We scream of
murder, torture, beating, abductions and gang rape of school girls as
young as 12 but no one is listening. Night after night Short Wave
Radio Africa interviews ordinary men and women in Zimbabwe who tell of horrors
so barbaric that they belong in 16th century history books. Our government are
using the incessant international media coverage of the Iraq war as a smoke
screen and behind it they are crushing all dissent in Zimbabwe.
Opposition supporters, activists and even
MP's are being arrested and held for days without bail, charged with
being involved in last month's two day stay aways. This week there were
more reports of how men, wearing army uniforms and carrying rifles, force their
way into people's private homes, accuse them of supporting the opposition and
then ransack and steal, beat and humiliate, rape and violate. One man told
of a 12 year old girl being gang raped in Chitungwiza this week and
how friends and neighbours were beaten and then forced to watch. The wife of the
MDC MP for Chitungwiza had her home invaded in the middle of the night
by 14 armed men who arrived in an army vehicle and a private car. The men said
they were looking for the MP as they wanted to kill him. The violence has
escalated over the last week as ruling party supporters have
rampaged in angry retribution after the opposition won the two by elections
in Harare.
A visiting delegation of Southern African Foreign
Ministers were in Zimbabwe this week. At the close of their 9 hour meeting in
Harare, a spokesman for the South African Foreign Ministry said: "Our position
is that the people of Zimbabwe must be the masters of their own destiny." That's
a bit like saying that two tiny, naked, helpless and flightless chicks should
get rid of a massive bird of prey without assistance. This month it is
our 23rd anniversary of Independence and already the intimidation has
started. In villages, suburbs, towns and cities the government supporters
are banging on our gates and doors demanding that each household give them
500 dollars for Independence celebrations. If you refuse to pay they take your
name off the lists for food distribution and say you may not even line up
to buy maize when it is available. There are no receipts but no one stops
these freelance revenue collectors and if you were hungry what would you
do? As I have said for 3 years, the terrible tragedy that has engulfed Zimbabwe
for the last 37 months is not about land or race but about political power
- the proof is there for anyone who cares to see it. This week I wear my yellow
ribbon in support of the brave men and women who languish alone, cold and
hungry in our prisons because they dared to differ with our politicians. If
anyone receiving this letter has copies of any of the letters I sent out in
2000, I would be so grateful if you could contact me. Until next week, with
love, cathy. Copyright cathy buckle, 5th April 2003.
JAG OPEN LETTER
FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw;
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter
Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open
Letter Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1: Ann Hein
A word to the unwary that there are easier ways of skinning a
cat than
catching him. You do not need to go to the lengths of
invading, and the
rigmarole to get rid of a farmer.
If you know he is
going fishing, just loosen the bolts on one of his
wheels. This
happened to my husband last week, A new car, so you cannot
say the wheel came
off from wear. The bolts were deliberately loosened,
and only luck, it
seems, saved them.
Check your vehicles on a regular
basis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ANDY FLOWER AND HENRY OLONGA - A
TRIBUTE
In its early days cricket comprised Gentlemen and
Players; Andy Flower, you were both a
gentleman and a player. Feared, respected by the opposition for the
mayhem you created against them with the bat, and for so long a power behind the
stumps and in your captaincy; looked up to by your team, idolised by the
Zimbabwe public. In sport you made us proud to be
Zimbabweans. With you still there Zimbabwe always had a chance of
victory; with you dismissed, so often the team just fell apart - as in
your last match for Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka.
And what a sad way to be dismissed in that match,
given out leg before wicket to a ball that clearly struck your bat first before
the pad. You walked - you had to - unfairly dismissed then as you
and Henry Olonga have been by your country's cricket authorities.
Interesting that that bad decision quite probably put Sri Lanka into the World
Cup semi-finals instead of New Zealand; while you were there with brother
Grant Zimbabwe could battle on with a more than fighting chance.
That died with your departure from the crease.
As I suspect Zimbabwe cricket will die with you
gone; with an administration that kowtows
to the "ruling party" does it deserve any
better? (I believe that the patron has blighted the sport in just
the same way he has destroyed the country. Anything he
touches...).
I was disappointed and a little surprised that your
team mates did not join you and Henry
in your stand for justice and good
governance; no doubt they each individually had their
reasons.
Well done, Henry, you too will be remembered for
your armband and your statement (as well, especially, as for your three wickets
in the final over against India so, seemingly, long ago).
Devastatingly sad to read that you will not even be returning to this country
from South Africa. "Might be dangerous for him to return to Zimbabwe
in the current political climate"
- so much for the peace and tranquillity that the
"ruling party" tried to trumpet to the world.
Go well, Andy and Henry; we shall never
forget you. You are held proudly in our memories. And
when things come right here again you will be so welcome, if you can bear to
return, even just for a visit. May all the gods go with you and your
families wherever you settle.
P.N.R. Silversides
Daily
News
US tightens
screws
4/5/2003 12:20:54 PM (GMT
+2)
By Brian Mangwende Chief
Reporter
THE United States Agency for
International Development (USAid) has
withdrawn its funding - channelled
through the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) - from 76
government and ruling Zanu PF
officials.
This was disclosed by
Stan Mudenge, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs,
yesterday.
The funding enabled
Zimbabwean ministers to attend Sadc
meetings.
Mudenge said the aid agency had
threatened similar action on Sadc
member states if they continued to invite
Zimbabwe to regional conferences
on politics, security and
defence.
A US official in Zimbabwe, who
declined to be named, confirmed the
move
yesterday.
This latest development comes
at a time when several southern African
countries, including Mozambique, have
broken their silence on the
Zimbabwe
crisis.
On Thursday, Sadc
foreign ministers grilled Mudenge over reports of
gross human rights abuses,
muzzling of the Press through draconian laws like
the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order
and Security Act, general
lawlessness and the collapse of the
economy.
At a Press conference at his
Munhumutapa Building offices, Mudenge
said: "As you may know, USAid funds
Sadc conferences. They have taken a
position that their money must not be
used by Zimbabwe at Sadc conferences.
But the Sadc countries said they will
not accept any funding if Zimbabwe is
excluded from Sadc
conferences.
"The Sadc Troika should
engage the European Union to remove 'smart'
sanctions against Zimbabwe. Sadc
countries have made it clear that there
would be no EU-Africa meeting without
Zimbabwe."
The Sadc Troika is made up of
Angola, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
But because
the spotlight was on Zimbabwe, the country would not
participate in
the
initiative. The troika is chaired by
Angola.
Mudenge said all Sadc countries
had opposed Zimbabwe's continued
suspension from the Commonwealth councils
and "besides, we don't recognise
the
suspension".
Last month, the US government
and the EU renewed targeted sanctions
against President Mugabe and his inner
circle, while the Commonwealth
extended the country's exclusion to
December.
Zimbabwe was initially suspended
from the 54-member group of mainly
former British colonies for 12 months last
year. The suspension, which ended
on 19 March, was extended for another nine
months.
As pressure mounts against
Mugabe's dictatorial regime, the umbrella
Congress of South African Trade
Unions (Cosatu) added its weight behind
dissenting voices against the
Zimbabwean government amid growing concern by
the international community and
other African leaders over renewed
State-sponsored
violence.
Hundreds of people labelled
"enemies of the State", a term used by
government supporters to justify
persecution of opposition supporters, have
been assaulted allegedly by the
army, police and Central Intelligence
Organisation
operatives.
These, in conjunction with the
ruling Zanu PF's storm troopers, the
Green Bombers, have allegedly unleashed
an orgy of violence and intimidation
against suspected opponents of the
government.
Over the weekend, armed men
claiming to be members of the army were
reportedly forcing residences to sing
Tongai Moyo's hit song, Samanyemba,
in
English.
Sadc foreign ministers who
met in Harare on Thursday said they would
send a task force to the country
possibly by next week to assess the
Zimbabwe
situation.
However, Mudenge said yesterday
it was not their initiative, but his
alone to counter "adverse media
reports".
Mudenge said: "I invited the
Task Force to Zimbabwe so they can see
for themselves. It was my initiative
and my strategy so that my colleagues
in Sadc come and get a better view on
the situation in Zimbabwe. I took that
decision while I was in Luanda,
Angola, so it was not a decision arrived at
when we met on
Thursday."
According to the South African
Broadcasting Corporation, Patrick
Craven, the Cosatu spokesperson, said:
"Cosatu condemns the continued brutal
repression of activists, through
arrests, beatings and torture, by the
government of Zimbabwe, following the
two-day general strike on 18 and 19
March, organised by the opposition
MDC."
On Monday, Gibson Sibanda, the MDC
vice-president, leader of the
opposition in Parliament was arrested in
Bulawayo for allegedly organising
the stayaway. His bail application ruling
is set for Monday.
Craven said: "Cosatu
demands the immediate release of MDC
vice-president Gibson Sibanda and all
other activists who have been
arrested, including a number of trade
unionists, several of whom
were
tortured."
He said Cosatu believed
those who participated in last month's mass
action were exercising their
right to protest in support of democracy. They
were demanding their
socio-economic rights, and were not subverting the
Zimbabwean government, he
said.
Daily
News
Police refuse to evict Zanu
PF militants
4/5/2003 12:31:39 PM
(GMT +2)
Municipal
Reporter
The police have refused to help
the Harare Municipality eject Zanu PF
militia groups camped in council
properties in Kuwadzana, confirming fears
that their violent actions are
sanctioned by the State.
The
police last month refused to help the Harare Municipality to evict
Zanu PF
youths from a council library and hall in Kuwadzana, according to a
letter
leaked to The Daily News yesterday.
They,
instead, advised the council's municipal police against evicting
the
youths.
The ruling party's supporters
occupied the properties in the run-up to
the parliamentary by-election in
Kuwadzana on 29 and 30 March. They
subsequently turned the properties into
bases from which they launched raids
on suspected MDC supporters in the
constituency.
The opposition has in the
past accused the police of applying the
law
selectively.
The police declined to
comment on the issue yesterday.
Superintendent H Dhlakama, the Crime Prevention Officer for Harare
Province,
wrote the letter in response to a request by Tavanani Gomo, the
council's
chief security officer. The police had been asked to help council
remove the
illegal occupants.
Part of the letter,
dated 17 March 2003, reads: "We received your
letter dated 11 March 2003 in
which you requested us to assist you in the
removal of youths illegally
occupying Kuwadzana Library and Kuwadzana Hall,
your
properties.
"We are advising you that we
only carry out evictions in such type of
cases
through
a court
order.
"You may choose to go it alone
without a court order, but we are
kindly
advising
you not to take the
risk."
Gomo appealed to the police for
assistance following a council
resolution on 27 February ordering him to
eject the illegal occupants from
Kuwadzana
Hall.
The squatters had since left the
library, leaving behind a trail of
damaged property in their
wake.
Vusimusi Sithole, Harare's acting
director of works, has been tasked
with assessing the extent of the
damage.
Gomo made the request for police
assistance, saying the municipal
police were not peace officers since they
did not have arresting powers.
In the
absence of the police, the safety of the municipal guards was
not guaranteed,
he said.
The chief security officer told
the councillors that a report on the
illegal occupation had already been made
to the police, but no action had
been taken thus
far.
Daily
News
Shortage of pathologists hits
hospitals
4/5/2003 12:32:14 PM
(GMT +2)
By Lawrence
Paganga
A SERIOUS shortage of pathologists
has hit Harare Central and
Parirenyatwa hospitals, the country's major
referral hospitals, resulting in
the two institutions suspending post-mortems
when the only government
pathologist was on leave since last
month.
Dr Salvator Alex Mapunda,
the pathologist, is believed to be in
Tanzania on holiday and is only
expected back later this month. The
situation had caused delays in burials as
a number of bereaved families
needed post-mortem results before
interment.
Investigations this week
revealed that 15 bodies were lying at Harare
Hospital mortuary since last
month, due to Mapunda's absence. The bodies
would only be buried following
post-mortems when Mapunda returns.
The
situation is believed to be the same at Parirenyatwa Hospital
although
officials at the hospital were not forthcoming with
details.
Dr Chris Tapfumaneyi, the Harare
Hospital medical superintendent, said
there was a marked increase in the
number of bodies waiting for post-mortems
at the
hospital.
Said Tapfumaneyi: "The hospital
cannot do much about the piling bodies
as it is a matter that is handled by
the police since they are responsible
for bringing in the bodies," he
said.
A post-mortem has to be conducted
before burial in all cases involving
murder. Dr David Parirenyatwa, the
Minister of Health and Child Welfare,
said he would investigate the shortage
of pathologists and issue a
statement.
An official with the Hospital Doctors' Association, said Zimbabwe
needed at
least six government pathologists at hospitals in Harare alone.
The HDA
official said a number of pathologists had left the country for
greener
pastures.
A Chitungwiza family this week
claimed that they had not been able to
bury their relative since 14 March
because a post-mortem was still to
be
conducted.
The Magaya family suspect
that their relative died under unclear
circumstances in
Highfield.
Another family said they had to
bury their relative, Brighton Manasa,
in Rusape without autopsy results as
they could not afford to wait any
longer. Manasa is suspected to have been
murdered by unknown assailants last
month in Warren
Park.
"We could not afford to keep his
body at Harare Hospital mortuary for
too long because of the funeral
expenses," said Austin Gwaure, his uncle. As
a result, we had to bury him
without post-mortem results."
Daily
News
Settlers defy moves to evict
them from farm
4/5/2003 12:33:26
PM (GMT +2)
By Sam
Munyavi
Illegal settlers at the Jesuits'
Manresa Farm near Tafara in Harare
insist they will not vacate the property
until they are compensated
and
resettled.
A fortnight ago,
a group of between 40 and 50 so-called war veterans
and Zanu PF youths,
reportedly attacked nine workers from a construction
company, the
Surveyor-General's Office and the Manresa Development Board who
were working
on the site.
Part of the farm falls under
the Harare municipality's jurisdiction
and the council approved it for
development into 890 low-density housing
stands last
October.
The council said it was
unsuitable for high or medium-density
housing.
Brother Dominic Shonhiwa, who
heads the Manresa Development Board,
said on Tuesday: "The development has
been on the cards for a long time. The
idea is to develop it into a decent
suburb."
On Wednesday, a Zanu PF youth who
claimed he did not participate in
the attack, said the assailants went after
Chris Tapfumaneyi, a member of
the Manresa Development
Board.
The youth, who refused to give his
name, fearing reprisals, said:
"They accused Tapfumaneyi of initiating the
evictions."
An illegal settler, Anna
Mareke, 30, said: "We came here in 1998. Now
we have been told to leave or
buy a stand if we want to stay. They cost at
least $5 million each and we
don't have that kind of money. My husband is a
self-employed
painter."
Tapfumaneyi said 141 families
were officially settled on a section of
the farm by the Jesuits around
1982.
He said these particular families
would be compensated while the
Jesuits would assist them to be resettled
elsewhere on humanitarian grounds.
The rest, numbering more than 800, were
illegal settlers, he said.
Most of them,
led by Zanu PF supporters, have vowed not to move until
they have been
compensated and resettled.
The illegal
settlers have been invited to a meeting with the
developers and the police
today to discuss the issue.
Daily
News
SA churches condemn violence
in Zimbabwe
4/5/2003 12:33:51 PM
(GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
THE South African Council of
Churches (SACC) has deplored the
deteriorating human rights situation in
Zimbabwe and says it will support
fellow churches in the country fighting
against government repression.
Molefe Tsele, the SACC general secretary, in a solidarity message to
the
Zimbabwe National Pastors' Conference, said:"The situation in Zimbabwe
has
been going on unabated for a period exceeding a year by now with reports
of
human rights violations.
"We are pained by
the fact that this occurs simultaneously with the
famine that has engulfed
the region, therefore, inflicting pain and poverty
to many who are weak and
vulnerable."
The South African clergy's
message came after riot police arrested and
detained 23 pastors outside the
Police General Headquarters in Harare on 28
February as they demonstrated
against police harassment and brutality.
Among those arrested was a blind Harare
pastor.
The demonstration followed a
government crackdown on perceived
dissenters which saw the arrests of Bishop
Trevor Manhanga, the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe president, and four
civic society leaders at a church
meeting in Borrowdale,
Harare.
Tsele said: "The churches in
Zimbabwe, more than ever before, are
called upon to take the moral high
ground to search for solutions for those
who would, otherwise, not be able to
stand on their feet because of the
pangs of hunger and poverty, looking
forward to social institutions to come
to their
rescue.
"As you search for solutions to
the crises that Zimbabwe and her
people are facing, please, take note that
the South African churches and the
people of South Africa share your agonies
and stand by your side
prayerfully.
"Go
on, therefore, with full knowledge that your sisters and brothers
remain in
prayer as you search for lasting peace and justice, seeking to
bring to a
halt all kinds of violations of human rights from
whatever
source."
Daily
News
Leader Page
PAZ one
more State boob
4/5/2003 12:22:17
PM (GMT +2)
It seems the Privatisation
Agency of Zimbabwe (PAZ), which was
established in September 1999, is a
facade.
At its formation, PAZ was
charged with the responsibility of
spearheading, advising on and managing the
country's privatisation programme
in a transparent manner. The idea was
noble, but it looks as if the
parastatal which was set up to stop parastatals
like Air Zimbabwe and the
National Railways of Zimbabwe from bleeding State
coffers dry, has itself
become a
liability.
The organisation has been hit
by a spate of resignations involving
senior executives, grousing about not
doing what they were employed to do in
the first
place.
The three senior executives
complain of being paid executive salaries
and perks, and driving posh cars -
for doing nothing.
The government seems
reluctant to go bull blast into
privatisation.
It is spending millions of
taxpayers' hard-earned money while doing
nothing to achieve its
objectives.
The executives resigned
because they believe the organisation had lost
direction. This will
definitely put the brakes on an otherwise sluggish
privatisation
programme.
The executives also complain of
under-staffing and the government's
reluctance to speed up
privatisation.
Last year the privatisation
arm failed to meet its $40 billion target,
managing to raise only $10
billion.
PAZ executives then blamed Simba
Makoni, the former Minister of
Finance and Economic Development, for setting
unachievable targets.
Funds raised from
the proceeds of privatisation, like the $7 billion
raised in 2001, were
supposed to have been used to retire domestic and
foreign debts, and for
strategic national capital development
projects.
The target for 2001 was $20
billion, but only a paltry $7 billion was
raised. However, up to now nobody
knows how much was used for those noble
objectives. There is no transparency
and accountability.
The major problem in
all parastatals - lack of accountability,
mismanagement, corruption and
general graft - seems to have hit the PAZ; no
wonder it was taken to court
over the Astra Corporation issue, which
it
lost.
The government turns around
and pumps more money into these
loss-making
entities.
Why, like everything else, it
does not want to let go is
anybody's
guess.
At one stage the PAZ
called for the sale of the parastatals in foreign
currency. The companies
targeted then were Olivine Industries, Astra
Corporation, Chemplex
Corporation and Agribank. These four entities would
have raised billions in
much needed foreign currency. The move was a direct
result of dwindling
foreign receipts due to the poor performance by the
export
sector.
If that had been done, Zimbabwe
would not be going through its present
crises, such as the perennial fuel
shortages.
The wisdom of putting PAZ
directly under the President's Office was
questioned by players in industry
and commerce.
It is not surprising, given
the fact that President Mugabe is
responsible for the mess that this country
finds itself in. He suffers from
ineptitude. There is no seriousness on his
part to drive this country back
to a sound economic footing. His main
preoccupation is remaining in power at
whatever cost, by any means
necessary.
The programme was supposed to
transfer ownership of national assets
from the State to the people. But given
Zanu PF's track record, it would not
be surprising if some party top brass
were sticking their fingers into
several pies in order to benefit from the
exercise. Otherwise how else can
the sluggishness in carrying out the
exercise be explained?
It looks as if the
government hastily put PAZ together, and drew up
noble aims and objectives to
secure donor funding to launch the parastatal
which has since, like all other
government-driven entities, become a white elephant.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Mbeki,
Obasanjo mere pawns in Mugabe's
shenanigans
4/5/2003 12:22:55 PM
(GMT +2)
By Swithern
Chirowodza
It is strange to note that
Nigerian and South African leaders,
Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki
respectively, have taken so long to
realise that President Mugabe's tenure of
office and confrontational land
reform programme are exposing Zimbabweans to
untold suffering.
The tide of
anti-Mugabe consensus has risen significantly among
members of the
international community, and seems unlikely to subside until
the people of
Zimbabwe are liberated. It is clear to Obasanjo and Mbeki that
they cannot
continue propping Mugabe, when in 2003 alone, and in peacetime,
more
civilians have been arrested at a faster rate than at the height
of
Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.
Obasanjo and Mbeki's misconception that Mugabe is amenable to advice
has been
brought to bear. Mugabe has clinched the repressive jaws of the
Public Order
and Security Act (POSA), gagged the Press with the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and sustained organised
violence on
citizens and remaining members of the farming
community.
The result: a spit in the face
of quiet diplomacy. Pharisaic Obasanjo
and Mbeki's pleas for Mugabe to order
peaceful land reform and retire
respectively should, therefore, be discarded
with utmost contempt.
To Obasanjo and
Mbeki's knowledge, the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
enunciated since 1999 that land reform should be
lawful and non-violent. But
fearing diminished political mileage, Zanu PF
refused to involve independent
expert stakeholders in the so-called Chave
Chimurenga land reform exercise.
Two military organs of government, the
Zimbabwe National Army and Central
Intelligence Organisation, were entrusted
with expediting land resettlement.
The ZNA and CIO also resisted advice of
agriculturalists and land experts to
develop infrastructure on expropriated
land for the purpose of farming and
human habitation.
Instead, organised
violence epitomised land resettlement. All opposed
to violence were branded
"enemies of the State". White farmers David
Stevens, Martin and Gloria Olds
were shot and killed in cold blood. War
veterans barred farmers from planting
and/or harvesting ready crops and
vandalised farm equipment leading to
unprecedented hunger.
In 2000, at a public
meeting at Harare's Monomotapa Crown Plaza Hotel,
Tendai Biti, then MDC
shadow Minister for Agriculture, warned that
fast-tracking land reform would
embed corruption. That warning has been
vindicated by Zanu PF founder member
Eddison Zvobgo's revelation in
Parliament that some Zanu PF chefs had
corruptly seized as much as five
farms each, and amassed obscene wealth, in
circumstances not commensurate to
what they legally
earned.
Furthermore, when representations
were made to Mugabe by concerned
members of the international community
urging him to stop the flagrant abuse
of human rights, Obasanjo and Mbeki,
acting on behalf of the Commonwealth
Troika, misinformed the world about
Zimbabwe's human rights record. Mbeki
labelled Zimbabwe's stolen election
legitimate, and added salt to injury by
ballooning the lie that Zimbabwe's
crisis was the work of
"imperialist"
Britain.
At the start of
March 2003, Obasanjo and Mbeki gave Australian Prime
Minister John Howard
reason to believe that Mugabe had amended the notorious
POSA and AIPPA, when
- with all due respect - no such amendments had
been
made.
If anything, civil society
leaders in Zimbabwe petitioned Patrick
Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, on 12
March 2003, demanding the repeal of
POSA. This petition was copied to the
Minister of Home Affairs, Commissioner
of Police, Members of Parliament, the
Southern African Development Community
high commissioners and Commonwealth
high
commissioners.
When exposed, Obasanjo
recoiled and, in an effort to retain an ounce
of honour, he publicly urged
Mugabe to retire. Perhaps it was this petition
that Mbeki referred to as
amended.
Be that as it may, there have
been respectively two recent events
attributed to Obasanjo and Mbeki's
condemnation of Mugabe's perpetual tenure
of office and violent land reform
programme. First, United States President
George W Bush issued an Executive
Order freezing the assets of Mugabe and
his inner circle, an act which
trivialised Obasanjo and Mbeki's deceitful
appraisals of Mugabe. Such
Executive Order should encourage the European
Union to act against Mugabe
until Zimbabwe's human rights record
improves.
Second, South African Home
Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi's
statement at a Press conference in
South Africa, attended by Kembo Mohadi,
Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister,
that his country was plagued by an influx
of Zimbabwean refugees, has
awakened Mbeki to the hard fact that problems in
Zimbabwe also affect his
country. Mbeki is also aware that his pro-Mugabe
stance will only buttress
Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party.
Conclusively and on Nigeria, it is not coincidental that devious Zanu
PF
tactics are being imitated by Nigeria's ruling party. Election campaigns
have
witnessed the callous shooting and murder by "criminals" of one
opposition
leader. In November 1984, State media reported that Njini Ntuta,
then a Zapu
MP, was murdered by "dissidents". Strange because factually
dissidents did
not target Zapu leaders. In the 1990 general election,
Patrick Kombayi, the
then Zimbabwe Unity Movement national organising
secretary, was shot and
wounded by two CIO operatives, Elias Kanengoni and
Kizito Muchemwa. In
Zambia, Major-General Wezi Kaunda was shot and killed by
"criminals" outside
his house. Seems too much of a coincidence, but
discerning minds will not be
fooled.
One can never be certain about
Obasanjo and Mbeki's utterances. In one
breath, they offer solace to Mugabe;
in another, they castigate him. They
seem to me to be no more than pawns in
Mugabe's foreign policy, and have a
double character which playwright,
William Shakespeare, referred in one of
his plays when he said: ". . . and be
these juggling fiends no more believed
that palter us in a double sense, that
keep the word of promise to our ear
and break it to our
hope".
Daily
News
Price of vegetables spirals
as fuel shortages hit
4/5/2003
12:14:08 PM (GMT +2)
Business
Reporter
RETAIL prices of vegetables have
risen by an average 600 percent in
the past two weeks, owing to increased
demand.
Fuel shortages and
escalating transport costs are hampering the smooth
delivery of agricultural
produce to the market, effectively pushing
up
prices.
Vegetables are rotting by
the roadside before reaching the market
because of the transport
crisis.
The price for a head of cabbage
has jumped from a $50 to over $300
inside two
weeks.
Retailers are trying to adhere to
controlled prices in the wake of
intensified monitoring by the
police.
Manufacturers are continuing to
circumvent price controls by coming up
with new packages and
brands.
Meanwhile, government has ordered
Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited (DZL) to
revert to the 500ml milk sachets after it
introduced 300ml packets to
circumvent the price control regime on 18
March.
In a move that surprised many
consumers, the price of the reduced
quantities of milk was way above the
500ml and 1 litre sachets.
A 300ml sachet
of fresh milk has been selling for between $210 and
$220 while Lacto was
selling for between $245 and $260.
The
prices are far above the gazetted prices of 500ml and 1
litre
sachets.
The gazetted price of
500ml is $110 while that of 1 litre of Lacto
is
$220.
Some retail outlets had been
charging more than $800 for a litre of
sour
milk.
Samuel Mumbengegwi, Industry and
International Trade Minister, said
government would not tolerate companies
that repackaged their products or
raised prices without following laid-down
procedures.
He was speaking to The
Chronicle shortly after meeting management at
the company's Kelvin West
premises in Bulawayo on Thursday.
Mumbengegwi said: "With immediate effect, Dairibord will revert to the
500ml
sachets of milk which it has been producing all along. They started
producing
the 300ml sachets without government approval and violated
sections of the
Trade Merchants Act in the process.
DZL
had repackaged three brands of milk, fresh, sour and Chimombe from
500ml to
300 ml sachets in contravention of the Control of
Goods
regulations.
Mumbengegwi
described DZL's price increases as "totally
insensitive".
"The country is going
through economic hardships largely caused by the
drought. At this time the
government, industry, labour and Zimbabweans at
large should be united so
that we cross this difficult river
together.
"We should hold hands and cross
together instead of having individuals
stepping on each other's heads so that
they can cross while everyone else
drowns, like Dairibord has been trying to
do," he said.
Citing DZL as an example,
Mumbengegwi said the law would be applied to
companies, which demonstrated
that they did not care about Zimbabweans by
violating price
controls.
On Wednesday the senior Western
Division regional magistrate, James
Mutsauki, fined the Bulawayo branch of
DZL a total of $1,5 million for
repackaging its brands of
milk.
The arrest and subsequent conviction
of DZL came against a background
of an increasing number of unscrupulous
manufacturers and retailers that
continue to defy price controls on basic
commodities by constantly
increasing prices, rebranding their products or
coming up with products
whose mass or volume does not fall within the
gazetted limits.
Asked to comment on the
re-packaging and increased prices last month,
Anthony Mandiwanza, DZL's chief
executive, declined to comment when
approached by The Business
Daily.
Before the repackaging and
subsequent price increases, milk was in
short
supply.
There has been an outcry from
consumers over the milk price increases.
It seems government delayed in
responding amidst claims that it had
developed cold feet because DZL was a
former parastatal. The company has
been touted as one of privatisation's most
successful stories.
There has, however,
been an upsurge in milk supplies following the
repackaging and increased
prices countrywide.
Below is a table
showing some of the scarce basic commodities still
available in leading
retail outlets in and around Harare.
Daily
News
Feature
Chigwedere
preoccupies himself with trivia
4/5/2003 12:28:01 PM (GMT +2)
By Cyprian
Muketiwa Ndawana
PERCHED at the helm of
the Education, Sports and Culture Ministry is a
man who never ceases to
infuriate the populace.
Ever since his
elevation to the apex of the important ministry over
two years ago, the
snuff-sniffing Aeneas Chigwedere has been firing one
dummy after
another.
With the debacle at the Zimbabwe
Schools' Examination Council
(Zimsec), Chigwedere demonstrated that he is an
unrepentant social irritant.
His imprudent
bid to disassociate himself from the bungling left none
in doubt at the
paucity of his intellectual capacity. His failure to
recognise the weight of
the social responsibility that goes with the public
office he occupies drags
the entire government into disrepute.
The
government commendably made a massive investment into the
education system at
independence in 1980. It embarked on a plan to build
more schools, especially
in the previously disadvantaged rural areas,
thereby reducing the distances
children had to travel while at the same time
availing the right to education
to all regardless of social status.
All
children, be it from peasant, farm labourer or whatever family
background,
benefited from the government's concerted effort to
avail
education.
In addition to that,
the government trained more teachers to
complement the expansion in the
education system.
This plan saw the
opening of more teacher training colleges and the
encouragement of teachers
to upgrade their education. The Zimbabwe Open
University bears ample
testimony to this noble strategy as most of its
students are diploma and
certificate holding teachers who are upgrading
their qualifications to degree
level.
A host of other initiatives, among
them the teacher-in-service
training programmes and the review and updating
of the curriculum, were
implemented in a bid to ensure quality education was
delivered.
It is against the backdrop of
this conspicuous success factor why many
children from neighbouring countries
are sent here for education.
Earning the
admiration, confidence and respect of those from other
countries did not come
as easy as manna from heaven - it was garnered the
hard
way.
Sadly, Chigwedere has not capitalised
on these achievements, nor has
he added value to the system ever since he was
appointed minister.
Instead of riding high
on the wave of success that was flowing, he is
busy throwing not only the
spanners into the works, but the jack and its
handle as
well.
Most probably he already has also
thrown the overalls and gloves,
thereby risking the system to crush to a
screeching halt.
Chigwedere's attention
and focus have not been on the nuts and bolts
of his
ministry.
At no point did he ever concern
himself with such issues as the
welfare of teachers and the reduction of the
teacher-student ratio.
These issues, which
are the nucleus of his ministry, play second
fiddle as he froths in the mouth
advocating for renaming of schools with
indigenous names and the blanketing
of all schools with the same uniform. He
has preoccupied himself with trivia
at the expense of the fundamentals.
Chigwedere's latest gaffe is unpalatable. He tampered with every
parent's
nerve centre - the child. A failure to administer examinations is a
grave
misdemeanour that no society can ever forgive without censure, more so
when
the wrongdoer shows no signs of remorse. It is a dereliction of duty
that
cannot go unpunished. It warrants a severe reprimand, a summary
dismissal to
be precise.
The hasty and the
straight-faced manner with which he tried to
exonerate himself from the
Zimsec shambles shows that the basis of the
principle of accountability and
responsibility is alien to him, a trait that
is undesirable for one entrusted
with the stewardship of the country's vital
cog, the education
system.
If he does not appreciate and
realise the gravity of shoddily handling
examinations, then the investment
both the government and parents make in
children's education will never mean
a thing to him. It will forever remain
a
mystery.
When the examinations ignominy
surfaced, Chigwedere should have owned
up and apologised to the nation. He
should, to borrow from the Bible, have
worn sackcloth, because the fiasco has
far-reaching repercussions. It lowers
the esteem and reputation that the
education standard had scaled to.
It is an
uncalled-for sad development that the Zimsec certificates now
run the risk of
being accepted with suspicion, leaving a legacy that must
haunt Chigwedere,
if at all he has a conscience, to the tomb. The impeccable
evidence of
examinations bungling coming from schools, coupled with his
own
acknowledgement of the prevalence of rampant corruption at Zimsec,
aggravate
his blameworthiness. It does not exonerate him at
all.
And his vain bid to blame the media
for publishing incorrect
statistics plunges both the minister and the
examinations body deeper in the
mire. They both do not have any escape route
from the rot that has set root
at Zimsec as they are directly
responsible.
There are, however, two role
models for the beleaguered Chigwedere to
emulate. The late Edmund Garwe and
Enos Chikowore stepped down from the
Cabinet amid examination leakages and
hyper-corruption at the government
fuel procurement company, the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe,
respectively. The door is ajar for him to follow the
former ministers'
visible footprints.
Daily
News
Feature
Jocelyn
Chiwenga hogs limelight for the wrong
reasons
4/5/2003 12:19:57 PM (GMT
+2)
By Foster Dongozi Features
Writer
JOCELYN Chiwenga, the wife of
Zimbabwe National Army commander,
Constantine, must be leaving her husband
petrified with fear every time she
hogs the media limelight for the wrong
reasons.
Despite his prominent
position as the army commander, Constantine
Chiwenga has avoided the
limelight to the point that few people would
recognise him if he took a
stroll in downtown Harare in "civvies".
His wife, fast becoming a latter-day Lady Macbeth, has of late found
herself
in very embarrassing situations.
In 2002,
when Zimbabwe embarked on a mission to seize land from white
commercial
farmers and was wooing Libya and some Asian countries as trade
partners ahead
of the Western countries, Jocelyn was reported to have gone,
on bended knees,
grovelling for a visa to travel to the United
States.
The general's wife indicated that
she wanted to visit Las Vegas, the
gambling capital of the United States, for
a business convention.
Las Vegas, a
lasting symbol of capitalist affluence, was hosting the
Safari Club
International Convention and Jocelyn, who was reported to have
interests in
the safari industry, needed the visa to attend the
convention.
When it became obvious to her
that she would not be given a visa by
the US authorities because her husband
was on a list of Zanu PF and
government officials who had been slapped with
travel sanctions, she became
desperate.
"I was at the US Embassy today and they refused to confirm whether I
was on
the list of targeted people or not. In any case, I should not pay the
price
for being the wife of General Chiwenga. I am just an ordinary
businesswoman
doing business that will bring foreign currency to
the
country.
"I am worried because I
don't want to be embarrassed at the airport as
they are doing to other
Zimbabweans. They might try to embarrass me and get
glory out of
it."
In June last year, when St Mary's
Member of Parliament Job Sikhala
made startling revelations in court that
former Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC) chief executive, Alum Mpofu,
was allegedly involved in a
homosexual affair with junior minister, Professor
Jonathan Moyo, Jocelyn
committed what can only rank as the howler of the
century.
Moyo and Mpofu, a member of the
Gays' and Lesbians' Association of
Zimbabwe,
were reported to have met in South Africa when they were
both working
there.
When Moyo was appointed minister,
he lured Mpofu to head the ZBC.
But in a
move that must have left Constantine Chiwenga and his
relatives with
permanently raised eyebrows, their infamous wife and
daughter-in-law sprang
to the defence of Moyo's manhood.
Using
the cover of a shadowy organisation known as Heritage Zimbabwe,
a frothing
Jocelyn, who seemed well-versed in Moyo's sexual preferences,
stood by him,
swearing he could not possibly be
homosexual.
"Everybody now knows that The
Daily News has in the past published
falsehoods aimed at tarnishing the image
and good standing of Professor Moyo
'in the public eye' (whatever that was
supposed to mean.)
"The preposterous claim
(that Moyo and Mpofu had a homosexual
affair)," wailed Mrs Chiwenga,
"based on the sick imagination of the MDC's
Job Sikhala is so reckless and
irresponsible that it can only be published
by an equally sick, irresponsible
and reckless newspaper."
As a Daily News
columnist, The Mole wrote, only someone very close to
Moyo could have come up
with such an emotional and authoritative statement
in defence of his sex
life.
The Mole went as far as to proclaim
that Jocelyn owed everybody,
especially her husband, an
explanation.
The women at Heritage
Zimbabwe, whose main achievements include
defending Moyo's sexuality, have in
the past used his offices to fax Press
statements to news
organisations.
This naturally raises
questions about the link between the shady
organisation and Moyo's offices
and how they could authoritatively defend
his
sexuality.
Towards the end of last year,
Constantine Chiwenga must have nearly
fainted with shock after court
documents suggested that his wife had
allegedly insulted Vice-President
Joseph Msika.
According to documents filed
in the High Court, she was reported to
have said Msika did not have "the
balls" to remove her from a farm which she
had
invaded.
What must have made the issue
very uncomfortable for the general was
that Msika, who regularly deputises
for President Mugabe in his absence,
also becomes acting Commander-In-Chief
of the national defence forces.
Even more
intriguing about Jocelyn was her vulgar choice of words when
referring to an
elderly person like Msika, something which is frowned upon
in African
culture.
The statement, according to some
former PF-Zapu members, caused
consternation in their camp as they felt
Jocelyn was expressing an opinion
prevalent in the ruling party about their
Zapu colleagues.
She caused an
international storm when she was reported to have told
Roger Staunton, the
owner of Chakoma Estates, which she had occupied, that
she had not tasted
white blood since 1980 and missed the experience and that
she needed just a
slight excuse to kill somebody.
Jocelyn
was once married to a white man and temporarily became Jocelyn
Mauchaza
Jacobsen.
The two started a safety
clothing factory although Jacobsen was
deported, leaving the company
running.
The next time Jocelyn hit the
news headlines was when she confirmed to
the Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe's Corporate Affairs Director,
Gugulethu Moyo, that there was no rule
of law in Zimbabwe.
The general's wife
used the opportunity to celebrate the
government-sanctioned genocide in which
tens of thousands of unarmed Ndebele
people from Matabeleland and the
Midlands were butchered by soldiers of the
5th Brigade in the early
1980s.
During the stayaway, The Daily
News' photographer, Philimon Bulawayo,
was detained by the police at Glen
View.
Moyo, the company's legal advisor,
was trying to secure Bulawayo's
release when she came across Jocelyn at the
police station.
On learning that Moyo
worked for The Daily News, Chiwenga
went
ballistic.
With the assistance of
her flunkey and constant companion, Kelvin
Chadenyika, Jocelyn proceeded to
savagely assault Moyo.
"My name is Jocelyn
Chiwenga, wife of the army commander. I am going
to show you that there is no
rule of law in Zimbabwe," she said, confirming
what the Zimbabwean government
has long denied.
She then started gloating
about how Zimbabwean soldiers committed
ethnic cleansing in the southern
parts of Zimbabwe in the early 1980s.
"You
stupid Ndebele girl, what are you doing here? What happened in
Matabeleland
in the 1980s is going to happen to you today, now," shrilled
the general's
wife.
Given that her husband has been a
soldier since independence, Jocelyn'
s statements on the genocide must have
caused the general untold anguish
and
embarrassment.
That Jocelyn could
celebrate ethnic cleansing carried out by soldiers
made very disturbing
reading as she may have been mirroring prevailing
sentiment in government
circles.
It made disturbing reading to
know that during the stayaway, she
usurped the powers of the police, telling
them how to deal with cases of
civil
disobedience.
She even boasted that as the
general's wife who was filthy rich and
armed, she could even order the speedy
deployment of helicopters.
For a woman who
started off as a waitress in what is now a second-rate
nightclub in the city
centre, her meteoric rise to infamy finds no
contemporaries to match
it.
The sordid episodes above indicate
that if nobody can control this
loose canon, then she needs counselling -
very urgently.
Forex Controls Now Cover Hunting Sector
The Daily
News (Harare)
April 5, 2003
Posted to the web April 5,
2003
Business Reporter
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is
extending foreign currency controls to
the hunting business - a sector once
considered insignificant.
The bank announced yesterday that companies in
the hunting business would be
required to complete the Tourism Return Form
(TR2) during the second half of
the year to make it easy for the RBZ to check
foreign currency inflows.
Analysts said the move indicated that the
central bank was desperate for
foreign currency. Recently, the RBZ revamped
the Customs Declaration 1 forms
and introduced TR2 forms to the tourism
industry.
Zimbabwe is struggling to generate foreign currency because of
poor export
performance and donor support withdrawal due to the chaotic
fast-track land
reform programme.
This has resulted in a serious
shortage of foreign currency required to
import fuel, electricity and raw
materials.
It was unlikely that the latest move would help the RBZ to
generate
sufficient foreign currency to normalise the situation.
The
RBZ said the TR2 forms would be used to tap into foreign exchange
resources
generated by hunters.
Among the targeted groups are tour and safari
operators, hunters,
taxidermists and bankers.
Money Market Rates Continue to Firm
The Daily
News (Harare)
April 5, 2003
Posted to the web April 5,
2003
Business Reporter
Rates on the money market have continued to
firm owing to reduced money
supply.
The firming of rates means that
borrowers pay more on accessing credit,
putting pressure on general lending
rates.
Analysts said rates firmed after the government came onto the
market last
week with two-year Treasury Bills (TB) offered at a discount rate
of 32,40
percent.
This pushed rates to an all-time high of 90 percent.
TBs are commercial
papers issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe when the
government wants to
borrow from the money market.
This usually creates
an appetite for money, which raises rates if it is not
matched by
supply.
On average, overnight TBs are fetching between 40 and 75 percent,
while 30
to 90-day TBs are attracting 65 percent.
Witness Chinyama, an
economist with Kingdom Holdings Limited, said rates
were unlikely to go
beyond the 100 percent mark. "Certainly there is
consensus on the market that
interest rates have to go up, but the point of
departure is at what level
should they settle on?"
Chinyama said the government, as the biggest
borrower, would not accept
interest rates going up because its indebtedness
would also increase.
By February, inflation hit a new level of about 210
percent and is set to
end the year at between 450 and 500
percent.
Commercial banks are currently under pressure from depositors to
increase
lending rates to encourage savings and punish consumptive
borrowings.
Chinyama said companies could collapse if rates were allowed
to rise in line
with inflation.
An analyst with ABC Holdings said
rates would continue to firm as long as
the market was in short
supply.
"For the past weeks, the money market was in deficit, a condition
that
pushed rates upwards," said the analyst.
SA company acquires prime mining assets in
Zimbabwe
April 05, 2003,
17:00
A South African mining company has snapped up one of the prime
mining assets
in Zimbabwe. Metallon Corporation Limited has just been
celebrating its entry
into the Zimbabwean gold mining
platform.
Shamva gold mine, about 68km North West of the capital Harare is
one the
largest gold mines in the country and belongs to the Independence
Gold Mining
Group alongside four other gold mines. Responsible for 45% of
the country's
gold production and 25% of Zimbabwe's foreign earnings,
Independence Gold
Mining is a prime asset for Zimbabwe. It is now in the
hands of a South
African mining company, Metallon
Gold.
The man behind Metallon is Mzi Khumalo, one of the leading
lights in black
empowerment in South Africa. At the launch of his company in
Harare Thursday
night, he said the acquisition of Independence Gold Mining
represented a
serious commitment to Africa by his
group.
Metallon reportedly spent just over $15 million to buy these
mines from
previous owners, Lonrho. Now 30% of the entire shareholding has
been offered
to local Zimbabweans, an empowerment gesture from a group whose
own
development has benefited from empowerment initiatives in South
Africa.
Zimbabwean mining authorities are confident Metallon's arrival
in Zimbabwe
will herald the beginning of more investment in Zimbabwe by
black South
African investors. Edward Chindori Chininga, the Mines Minister,
warns
however, Khumalo will have to perform to make it easier for those that
will
follow.
Khumalo's company is not the only South African investor in the
mining
industry in Zimbabwe. In recent months Impala Platinum and the Absa
group
have invested several million US dollars in platinum mining. The
difference
is Metallon has control in its new investment and with that
control, a lot of
responsibility.
Tengenenge Museum Opens in Guruve
The Herald
(Harare)
April 5, 2003
Posted to the web April 5, 2003
Celia
Winter Irving
Harare
THE history of Tengenenge is a cultural history
of how various aspects of
creative expression have shaped, determined,
identified and developed what
has become a famed community of sculptors and
painters.
All these aspects of creative expression came together at the
ceremonial
opening of the Tom Blomefield Tengenenge Museum at Tengenenge on
March 26
this year.
There was Guruve district administrator Mr
Rupiya, the Nyau dancers, the
knock-kneed Makanga's entrance through the
trees a droll piece of African
theatre and the local Kokekore frantically
thumbing their mbiras.
Tom Blomefield founder director of Tengenenge
twirled his twinkle toes and
within the Museum early Tengenenge sculptures,
effigies in stone, stared
with sightless eyes.
The museum, designed by
Dutch Architect Mrs Geja Stassen, is sympathetic to
the natural environment
of Tengenenge, the roof thatched in the manner of a
pole and dagga houses. At
Tengenenge, the cement walls plastered locally,
gaps in the walls filled with
early Tengenenge sculptures, strange
undetermined creatures, mysterious in
stone.
At the opening, those living sculptors who constitute the history
of
Tengenenge stood in noble alignment, Fanizani Akuda, Amali Mailolo,
Tom
Blomefield himself, Enos Gunja, Biro Fernando, Edward Chiwawa and
"Violet"
among them.
There was a network of Tengenenge families, great
ages ranges of
Muchembereres, Chiwawas, Chakawas and Manzis, the firmament of
Tengenenge.
The Master of Ceremonies was Chairos Muchemberere, Managing
Director of
Tengenenge, welcoming the guests, and monitoring a bun rush of
sculptors to
see the interior of the Museum.
Mr Rupiya stressed that
Tengenenge was part of the communal life of the
Guruve district, that many
sculptors at Tengenenge had roots, and family and
spiritual ties with the
Guruve district.
He commended Tom Blomefield for what he has done to make
Guruve a creative
centre for Zimbabwe, his words accompanied by a ground
swell of mbira
playing, drumming and dancing.
In his speech, the
Ambassador for The Netherlands, Royal Netherlands
Embassy, Dr Hans Heinsbrock
said the works at the Museum and at Tengenenge
exemplified the success of the
stone sculpture as a profession.
He cited the sculptures an example to
their local community of a happy and
culturally harmonious way of
life.
Mrs Geja Stassen said that the Museum spoke of the overall aim
of
Tengenenge, the preservation of African culture through creativity, and
that
the work on the museum, the construction and building aided by
many
Tengenenge sculptors and their family members was a means of creating
the
essential common goal.
Presiding over the whole occasion was the
Museum itself, sited on the right
hand side of the road as Tengenenge is
reached.
Visitors entering the Museum were aware of a hallowed space, a
sense of the
sacred and of history, a reconfiguration of time, putting the
past to the
forefront of the present.
Silence a feature of all good
museums was present, stillness as well. In the
room, which is most effective,
are the early Tengenenge sculptures, eerily
lit, moments in stone to time
long past.
Designer stands do not detract from the feeling of antiquity,
of the ancient
times of Tengenenge.
The other room contains sculptures
of today, prized from their natural bush
setting.
There are Wilfred
Tembo's "Cats" with twirling moustaches and cream bowl
licking lips, stylish
forms in stone by Josia Manzi and his son Moveti, and
sculptures which
glorify the flamboyant colours of new stones.
The creative use of space
and special dynamics are a challenge to all who
build and work in museums
today, as is the adaptation of space to changing
exhibits, and new ways of
exhibiting objects.
Perhaps in the future some of the space could be
adapted to form a room for
the sculptures of the late Bernard Matemera,
master sculptor of Tengenenge,
and a Documentation Centre with books,
journals and videos of Tengenenge.
Biographies of sculptors whose work is
exhibited at the Museum, together
with a short "give away" history of
Tengenenge.
But meanwhile let the people of Guruve see the Museum as an
achievement for
their District. Let the local school children leave their
satchels by the
door, and enter another time zone, that of their cultural
past, and find a
new way of learning about their history and cultural
background, through
stone sculpture.
Let the local school children
learn the story of Tengenenge and of Tom
Blomefield who made it possible from
what they see at the Museum.
And let them learn that if they simply put
their hands, minds and
imaginations upon a stone, they too can become
sculptors of note someday
soon.
Independent (UK)
UN brings food aid to
cities as Zimbabwe's plight worsens
06 April 2003
By Basildon Peta, Southern
Africa Correspondent
The United Nations has started two pilot projects to
distribute relief food
in urban areas in Zimbabwe as shortages continue to
worsen. Even people in
cities and towns who have the money to pay for food
cannot find supplies.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has been
distributing food for some time
in rural areas, which have suffered worst
from drought and economic collapse
under President Robert Mugabe's regime,
but its decision to start giving aid
in the urban areas is
unprecedented.
The humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is continuing to
deteriorate, said
Judith Lewis, the WFP's regional director for southern
Africa and regional
co-ordinator for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
special envoy on
humanitarian crises. Some people were even approaching UN
storage centres
and offering money or possessions in exchange for relief
food.
Asked why the UN had to spread its operations to cities and towns,
where
many people still have jobs, she said: "The issue is access to food.
What we
are seeing now is less and less food available, even to people who
still
have resources. That is a sign of vulnerability. If people are starting
to
suffer because they don't have access to food, we must look to that. We
want
to help people who need assistance, not because they have a label one
way or
the other."
The government has been accused of using food as a
political weapon in the
rural areas, where aid has been denied to people
unable to produce a
membership card of the ruling Zanu-PF party. Whole
districts known to
support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) have been
deprived of food. Ms Lewis said the UN had adopted a "zero
tolerance policy"
and had stopped food distribution in 12 places where there
had been
interference by government agents.
But Urban Johnson,
Unicef's regional director for southern and eastern
Africa, said malnutrition
among young children was accelerating fastest in
Harare and Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe's two largest cities.
The plight of those like Tim Chikwate, a
security guard who earns £12 a
month, illustrates why the WFP is moving into
the urban areas. "From my
salary I can only buy a 10kg bag of maize meal - if
I ever find it on the
black market," he said. "That leaves me with nothing to
buy any other food,
and I walk more than 18 miles to and from work every day.
It's unbearable."
Emmanuel Muchagonei works in a financial institution.
He holds a degree in
economics but wants to leave Zimbabwe to work in another
country. "I have
given up dreaming of a decent flat in town or owning even a
battered car. My
salary can't buy anything," said Mr Muchagonei, who lives in
the slum
township of Highfield. Inflation in Zimbabwe has soared to 230 per
cent and
the supermarket shelves continue to empty.
Ms Lewis said the
government "needs to have a plan", especially for the
black farmers settled
on land seized from whites, many of whom now have to
be fed by the UN. But
instead of focusing on the food crisis, say Mr
Mugabe's critics, the
President has launched a crackdown against opponents
while the world's
attention is focused on Iraq.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested
since the MDC organised a protest
against his rule two weeks ago. Last week
the President ordered his police
to "shoot and kill" anyone who entered his
official residence, amid threats
that protesters would march to his house to
demand his resignation.
The MDC's deputy head, Gibson Sibanda, has spent
a week in jail and will
remain there this weekend on charges of treason for
helping organise the
anti-Mugabe protest.
CNN
African Famine To Last For
Decades
CHIBOMBO, Zambia, April 5, 2003
Some 38
million Africans are threatened by starvation this year from a food
crisis
that relief workers predict could last for generations because
of
AIDS.
Relief workers say the devastation from AIDS is combining
with the effects
of poverty, war, bad governance, corruption and erratic
weather to cripple
the ability of societies in sub-Saharan Africa to recover
from famine.
"The stark message is this crisis is not going to go away.
We will have a
perpetual crisis," said Brenda Barton, the World Food Program
spokeswoman in
Nairobi, Kenya.
"We are seeing a redefinition of
famine, of humanitarian crises as we know
them," she said.
Within the
United Nations that new definition is known as "new variant
famine." It means
that despite the best efforts of aid groups and donors,
population losses to
AIDS are wrecking agriculture, economies and health
systems.
Some 29
million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, about 70
percent
of the world's total. Overall, 9 percent of adults in the region of
633
million people are infected, but the rate ranges up to nearly 40 percent
in
some places. In those countries life expectancy has already fallen into
the
30s because of the growing pandemic.
In less than 20 years, the United
Nations says, AIDS has killed more than 8
million farmworkers in Africa. It
has killed the breadwinner in millions of
families, devastated poor rural
villages, orphaned 4.2 million children.
"It is driving another stake
into the heart of the poor. How do you recover
when no one is alive to plant
the food?" said Barton.
"What you are seeing is the humbling of society,"
she added. "We have not
seen the peak of the HIV statistics. We have not seen
the worst of it."
In fertile fields around Chimbombo, 90 kilometers (55
miles) north of
Lusaka, Zambia's capital, a U.S.-government sponsored aid
group, the
Cooperative League of the U.S.A., teaches subsistence farmers
techniques for
dealing with drought and increasing crop yields.
Behind
one ramshackle house a small boy hacks at the reluctant earth with
a
long-handled hoe. His mother, Freda Sichalwe, walks through tall,
uneven
rows of healthy corn. She says the new methods have increased the
yield from
her small plot fivefold. After the harvest, she will no longer
need food aid
for her family of six and will also have some corn to
sell.
Kinston Munkonze, of the Cooperative League, said 500 of the
farmers he
works with around Chimbombo have shown similar gains. The other
300 have at
least doubled their crops, he said.
All over Africa,
humanitarian groups work tirelessly to use food aid to pay
for agricultural
improvements and maintain farm families while they learn
new techniques. They
also try to introduce new drought-resistent crops in
some places, lower trade
barriers and improve market conditions.
Despite limited successes, relief
efforts are like spitting in the wind,
said Renny Nancholas, the Southern
Africa food security coordinator for the
International Federation of the Red
Cross and Red Crescent societies.
"No one organization is ever going to
dent such a huge crisis," Nancholas
said. "It is really getting out of
control."
Brenda Cupper, the program director for the aid group CARE in
Zambia,
agreed. "We need a unified strategy and we don't have one," she
said.
Donor response to the current food crisis has been adequate so far,
but aid
workers worry that the war in Iraq and humanitarian needs elsewhere
may cut
into the help coming to Africa.
"We have prevented a
catastrophe, but the crisis is far from over," said
Barton.
With this
crisis, aid groups find they must feed increasing numbers of
people in major
urban centers who simply can't afford to buy food.
The United Nations
says 300 million people in Africa - 51 percent of the
sub-Saharan population
- struggle to live on less than a dollar a day. The
World Bank estimates the
number could rise to 345 million by 2015.
Africa is the poorest
continent, the only one to have declined since 1960.
Bad governance and
widespread corruption have contributed to the fall and to
the lasting hunger
crisis.
In Zimbabwe, for example, aid workers say the government has
devastated
agriculture by seizing commercial farms in a hasty and violent
land reform
program. Fertile land now lies fallow, and a country that was a
regional
breadbasket now has 7 million people in danger of
starvation.
Aid workers and Western diplomats say about 200,000 metric
tons of
government food aid to Zimbabwe is unaccounted for, an amount roughly
equal
to what the World Food Program delivered to feed 4 million people
in
February.
The missing food probably was diverted to the black
market, they say. There,
a sack of corn meal, the staple food, sells for 10
times the official price.
Diplomats and aid workers also say a third of
government-produced fertilizer
has been sold illegally in neighboring
countries.
In Malawi, the government sold off its food reserves in 2001,
at a time when
the United Nations said food shortages were becoming apparent.
The
International Monetary Fund says official corruption cost Angola more
than
the value of its international aid requests.
But the single
biggest factor in the persistent hunger is the AIDS pandemic,
said Richard
Ragan, the World Food Program's country director in Zambia.
"It permeates
everything you do in this part of the world," he said.
Ragan said AIDS
lowers production, increases poverty and inhibits the
ability of agencies to
react to crises.
As an example, he noted the World Food Program had
trained 40 African road
engineers to look at roads and help plan the
distribution of food aid. "Only
four of them are still alive," he
said.
To conquer hunger, the United Nations and African governments must
wage an
all-out, coordinated campaign against AIDS, Ragan said.
"If
they don't, it is going to decimate the entire continent," he said.
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