The editor of Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper has been arrested over
a report of alleged police complicity in the looting of white-owned
farms.
Detectives detained editor Geoff Nyarota and drove him from his
home to the main Harare police station, said Associated Newspapers chief
executive Muchadeyi Masunda.
Lawyers who have sought access to Mr NyarIt
are unclear what the charge might be.
In a front page report on looting
of farms in northern Zimbabwe, The Daily News reported allegations that police
vehicles were used by ruling party militants in what it called "well
orchestrated acts of lawlessness" on the farms.
In a week of violence in
the Chinhoyi corn and tobacco district, at least 30 homesteads have been looted
and white families have been evacuated from about 100 farms.
The unrest
began after the arrest of 21 white farmers on allegations of violence and
assault against squatters and ruling party militants illegally occupying their
land.
In April, Mr Nyarota and two of his reporters were questioned and
charged with defaming President Robert Mugabe.
The newspaper last year
linked Mugabe and Parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa to awards of contracts
for a new international airport outside Harare that allegedly favoured
politicians, ruling party supporters and their business associates.
SADC leaders are worried about the turmoil in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been dealt a twin
blow at a summit of Southern African leaders in Malawi.
He has lost his cherished position as Chairman of the defence body of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) and his peers expressed "concern
at the effects of the Zimbabwean economic situation on the region".
Despite intense lobbying by Zimbabwe, there was no declaration of support for
Mr Mugabe in what he sees as his continuing fight against colonialism in the
form of his land reform programme.
President Mugabe wanted southern Africa to support his
"fight against
imperialism"
South Africa, among others, voiced concern that Mr Mugabe had abused his
position in 1998 by sending troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the
name of SADC without adequately consulting his neighbours.
Of the 14 SADC members, only Angola and Namibia agreed to intervene in DR
Congo, which recently joined the southern African body.
Declaring war
In March, SADC leaders decided that Mr Mugabe would no longer be permanent
head of the community's security organ and that it would now be a rotating
position.
Mozambique's President Joaqim Chissano has been named the new chair of the
security organ, which has now been expressly forbidden from declaring war
without the approval of a full summit of all member-countries' leaders.
Mugabe believes the MDC's success depends on white support,
so whites are attacked ... it is an obsession,
Morgan Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change
South Africa in particular has been badly hit by the overspill from Zimbabwe
in terms of lower investor confidence in the region and a flood of economic
refugees.
Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe told a Nigerian newspaper that he was confident that
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo could "save the situation" in Zimbabwe and
defuse tensions between Harare and London over land reform and violence against
white farmers, many of whom have UK origins.
Master
Mr Obasanjo was also Nigeria's leader in the 1970s, when Mr Mugabe was
fighting white minority rule in the then Rhodesia and he said: "I always remind
President Obasanjo that: 'You are the master. I learnt from you the act of
fighting the white man'."
Nigeria is due to chair Commonwealth talks on the Zimbabwe crisis in
September.
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for
Democratic Change, has voiced fears that the violence seen in the past week
around Chinhoyi will spread across the country as presidential elections set for
April 2002 draw near.
"I am very certain this is going to be replicated. Mugabe believes the MDC's
success depends on white support, so whites are attacked ... it is an
obsession," he said. "What is happening on the farms is going to engulf us all."
On Tuesday, Chinhoyi farmers said that, contrary to police claims to have
restored calm, they were still under attack from a gang of up to 250 self-styled
"war veterans".
They said that 100 farms in the area had now been trashed and pillaged.
Meanwhile, Germany has joined the list of countries condemning the latest
outbreak of violence in Zimbabwe.
A statement from the foreign ministry said: "The government calls expressly
on the government in Harare to do everything in its power to end the violence
quickly".
On Monday, the US expressed its concern at "the level of political violence
and intimidation in Zimbabwe".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMERCIAL
FARMERS' UNION Farm Invasions and Security Report Monday 13th August
2001
This report does not purport to cover all the incidents that are taking
place in the commercial farming areas. Communication problems and the fear of
reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that happens. Farmers names, and in
some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of
reprisals.
NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF: Over 40 farms in the
Mashonaland West North region have been looted between Thursday 9th to Wednesday
15th August, causing women and children to evacuate their homes. 21 farmers
from Chinhoyi remain in jail with bail being refused. An urgent appeal has been
filed in the High Court and is hoped the case will be heard on Thursday 16th
August 2001. A serious situation remains on Castledene Pines, in Macheke /
Virginia area and the owner and farm workers have had to vacate their homes for
safety reasons. Illegal occupiers continue to assault farm workers, with police
refusing to react. In Wedza, the manger on Collace, was forced to evacuate
his homestead when an aggressive group of illegal occupiers broke through the
security fence, and issued death threats. On 9 farms in the Wedza district,
farm workers have been forced to vacate their homes by illegal occupiers,
resulting in about 2200 families forced to take refuge in farm
barns. REGIONAL REPORTS:
Mashonaland Central General - The area
remained quiet and peaceful over the long weekend. Bindura - A DDF drilling
team moved onto Tarlington Farm and erected about 5 tents. An animal was
killed, and the meat taken. 20 illegal occupiers went to the owner's homestead
on Rushpeak and demanded to see the farm clerk. The farm clerk took refuge in
the owner's homestead after being assaulted by illegal occupiers. Police have
been notified. A complete work stoppage occurred on Camasa and illegal
occupiers are preventing the owner from preparing lands for next years
crops.
Mashonaland West North General - Over 40 farms have been
looted between Thursday 9th to Wednesday 15th August, causing women and children
to evacuate their homes. A farm homestead was burnt, seedbeds destroyed, tobacco
in sheds burnt, maize and beans stolen, workshop areas looted and vehicles
stolen. Doma was the hot spot, looting moved South into Umboe and then into the
Chinhoyi area. Karoi and Tengwe districts are stable. The Inspector of the
Police Traffic Section has confirmed that the Chinhoyi section of the Harare -
Chirundu Road is safe to travel on. A rumour is circulating that a war veteran
has died in this area, which is untrue. Tengwe - A tense situation arose on
Ramona Farm when the owner and other farmers were forced to chant political
slogans. The situation was defused. Doma - Farms were looted causing women
and children to evacuate the area. Umboe - Many farm owners' and their
families have had to evacuate the farms with police being slow to
respond. Chinhoyi - The 21 farmers who are in jail were denied bail on
Friday. It is hoped that an urgent appeal has been filed in the High Court and
is hoped the case will be heard on the 16th August 2001. The farmers in jail are
as well as can be expected.
Mashonaland West South General -
Illegal pegging teams made up of agritex, police and illegal occupiers continue
to demarcate farm land, with a constant stream of illegal occupiers onto these
properties, mostly from town. A large proportion of the area is unable to
continue land preparation for summer crops due to the lands being pegged.
Norton - The owner's house on Serui Source Farm was broken into and clothes
and electrical equipment stolen. Police reacted the next day.
Mashonaland East Beatrice - 20 illegal occupiers waited for a farm
owner and his spouse to return to the farm. The farm owner was allowed access
into his homestead, whilst the illegal occupiers camped in the homestead garden
that evening. The following day, illegal occupiers advanced onto the homestead
veranda. Police responded and the situation was defused. Bromley / Ruwa /
Enterprise - Work stoppages occurred on some farms in the district, but were
resolved. Featherstone - Farm workers from farm villages on Calais, Dover and
Kuruman ‘A’ were told to remove their belongings and leave because they failed
to attend a political meeting in Umtegeza Resettlement Area. The owners have
been told by illegal occupiers to pay farm workers ZW$3500 per month. Harare
South - Illegal occupiers on Walmer farm demanded that the owner unlock the
security gates and let them in. When the owner refused they said they would
return with reinforcements and force their way into the homestead. There was a
meeting on Auks Nest between farm workers and resident illegal occupiers,
resulting in farm workers being told that they needed to co - exist.
Marondera North - The area was quiet over the week end. Macheke /
Virginia - Passengers on a bus which drove into Highway Service Station, pushed
and verbally abused the owner who is an elderly woman. A serious situation
remains on Castledene Pines, where the owner and farm workers have had to vacate
their homes for safety reasons. Illegal occupiers continue to assault farm
workers and police refuse to react. Cattle theft took place on Highlands farm,
with only 1 beast being recovered so far. An aggressive group of illegal
occupiers on Rufaro farm demanded that the owner give them a cow for the
celebrations. The owner complied under duress. Farm workers were evicted from
their homes by illegal occupiers on Howgate and the owner given 3 days to vacate
the farm but the manager could remain on the farm to finish grading. Illegal
occupiers threatened to hold all night pungwes outside the owner's homestead
until he vacated. Farm workers were allowed to return to their homes, although
some feared returning. The DA has acknowledged and agreed to attend to the
serious situations occurring on Howgate and Castledene Pines. Wedza - The
manger on Collace, was forced to evacuate the homestead when an aggressive group
of illegal occupiers broke through the security fence, and issued death threats.
Serious pressure against farm workers is escalating. On 9 farms in the district,
farm workers have been forced to vacate their homes by illegal occupiers,
resulting in about 2200 families forced to take refuge in farm barns. Illegal
occupiers forced farm workers and their families to vacate their homes on Numwa,
displacing about 180 people. Farm workers who took refuge in farm barns on
Bolton and Markwe have since been forced off the farm completely by illegal
occupiers.
Manicaland Chipinge - The owner of Dzorora Farm gave his
farm workers a cow, resulting in illegal occupiers demanding one as well, which
they said the DA had agreed to. The DA denied this and with police response,
resolved the situation. The owner of Nyatutu Farm agreed to giving illegal
occupiers a goat for their celebrations. When illegal occupiers went to collect
their goat, they refused to take the one the owner had put aside for them and
instead, took the owner's prize goat. Old Mutare / Penhalonga - Following the
incident of Mr Philip Bezuidenhout, where he was accused of deliberately running
over and killing an illegal occupier on the 17th July, 11 farm homesteads in the
Old Mutare area were looted with the last homestead being looted on the 9th
August. The area has been quiet since.
Masvingo Mwenezi - 3 illegal
occupiers armed with knives and pangas went to see the owner of Kleinbegin. The
owner was away, and the illegal occupiers spent the night on the farm. When the
owner did not return, they left. The following day, the owner returned to the
farm and received a telephone call from Philemon Mbedzi who said he intended to
hunt Kudu on the owner's farm for the celebrations. The owner refused this and
reported the incident to police. Further boundary and veterinary fences have
been stolen. Illegal occupiers have moved about 50 head of cattle into the Bubi
River conservancy through a newly opened breach in the game fence, with further
openings in the fence being threatened. These cattle have no veterinary brands
and are now sharing space with buffalo. Illegal occupiers drove onto Lesanth in
a 7 tonne truck and told the owner that they had come to hunt kudu. The owner
said he could not stop them, but made it clear that he had not given them
permission to do so. Illegal occupiers left the farm, shooting at anything they
pleased and collected a further 45 resident illegal occupiers and proceeded to
the Bubi village. 2 illegal occupiers armed with firearms, remain on Bar G and
are looking after 106 head of cattle.
Midlands Shurugwi - Armed
war veterans arrived at a farm village and informed farm workers and illegal
occupiers that a meeting would be held to decide how to "sort out" the farm
owners. Farm workers were told to stop working but refused. Illegal occupiers
gathered for the meeting but the war veterans did not arrive. A message was
circulated that the meeting would be held the following day. Again a smaller
crowd of illegal occupiers gathered but no war veterans arrived. On another
farm, which had to be evacuated by the owners and family under threat, the
smaller homestead was stripped as there was nothing else left in the house to
steal. Kwe Kwe - Poaching continues to escalate. On Sebakwe Farms, 3 sable,
4 kudu, 4 zebra and 1 impala were found dead and rotting in snares. 53 snares
were recovered and 1 cow slaughtered. Harassment by war veterans and illegal
occupiers continue in a series of incidents to numerous to detail
separately.
Matabeleland General - Over the past long weekend, there
have been no reports of aggression or violence from the districts, or new
pegging and occupations. The expected weekend flow from the city to visit and
build on allocated plots occurred. Nyamandhlovu - A fire was started on a
farm in the district by illegal occupiers causing the burning out some 1 200
metres of game fence, 180 metres PVC piping and 500 hectares of grazing land. A
further fire was started by illegal occupiers 6 km away at the same time and
raged on all day. Inyathi - A fire was started on a farm in the district by
a war veteran who has since been arrested and charged. The fire continued for 2
days burning out over 3000 hectares of a prime wildlife and safari ranch. The
encouraging part, being that the illegal occupiers on the property assisted the
owners and district teams until the fire was extinguished. The medical doctor
at Inyathi hospital did a commendable job at caring for Dave Joubert after the
recent attack on him and members just north of Bulawayo past the airport are
having excellent service from their city based police station with regular
patrols being carried out.
Chris McGreal in Doma Wednesday
August 15, 2001 The Guardian
They see it as their
Kosovo. The last few dozen white farmers left in a sprawling patch of northern
Zimbabwe have fallen back on tactics learned from the Rhodesian bush war three
decades ago, but without the guns.
From before dawn until after midnight the white men of Doma
patrol the sprawling web of farm tracks in pairs, staying in touch by radio, in
an attempt to counter the organised plunder of their homes.
It is a largely futile attempt to protect property but the
broader intent is to establish that, while their wives and children may have
gone, Doma's farmers will not be driven out.
"This is an attempt at ethnic cleansing," said Vernon Nicolle,
a farmer who has come under attack in the past few days. "There's absolutely no
doubt that it's orchestrated and aimed at driving whites out of the area. It's
not the poor little farm workers like the government is saying. That bastard
Mugabe is behind it. In Europe, you call that ethnic cleansing."
There is little doubt that Zimbabwe's masters have shifted away
from enforcing partial land redistribution towards driving whites off the farms
altogether, and perhaps eventually out of the country.
President Robert Mugabe has said the liberation war against
whites continues. The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, chose to stop in troubled
Chinhoyi on a recent state visit, and called for all whites to be booted out of
Zimbabwe. The state media gave his comments great prominence.
On Saturday, Zimbabwe's vice president, Joseph Msika, took it a
step further, saying: "Whites are not human beings."
The attacks evidently orchestrated by Mugabe loyalists over the
past week cover an area of about 100 square miles north of the town of Chinhoyi.
Worst hit are farms around Doma where a third of white-owned houses have been
comprehensively looted, with even baths ripped out. So-called veterans of the
independence fight have warned whites never to return to the area.
Women and children have fled all 90 white-owned properties in
the area, mostly to Harare or South Africa. Among them is the family of Anthony
Manning, who mans the security radio control room from a Doma farm house.
"We moved every single person out of this area - women,
children, the elderly, the sick. We didn't know if the convoys would get out
because of the mayhem and roadblocks. Where we couldn't fly, we had to take all
sorts of back roads. We are the only ones left," he said.
So now 34 white men remain. In the Rhodesian war, it was white
farmers as part-time soldiers against black insurgents. The division is much the
same these days, but now it is the farmers who have the state against them.
"We're not going to capitulate, come hell or high water. They
can wreck our property but we won't be driven out," said Mr Manning. "There's a
lot of experience among us. There's a guy who was in the [Rhodesian] SAS. We
know how to organise these things. We would love to go in and deal with these
guys because we have the weapons. I can tell you last night it was touch and go
whether we did. But we know that would be counter-productive."
"Our strategy has been to try to monitor where they are next.
We are operating in three groups. If they go for the southern front and we move
there then they hit the northern or eastern front."
The patrols can do no more than report a house under attack or
a convoy of looters to the police. Farmers comment sarcastically on how swiftly
the police turned up to arrest the 21 farmers whose alleged attack on black
settlers sparked the crisis, according to the government. They say the same
force is nowhere to be seen when whites are attacked.
"The police pulled back to let places be looted," said Mr
Manning. "There was an attack on a farm five kilometres from the police station.
When we called, the police said they had no vehicles. When we offered to take
them, the police said they can't go in civilian vehicles."
Mr Manning's farm is among those targeted.
"About 250 people arrived in seven tractors and trailers. They
had axes and sticks. One of them broke my foreman's arm with an iron bar. If we
had stayed I am 99% sure we would be dead," he said.
About three dozen looters descended on another property, Dawn
Farm. One of the farm workers watched the scene. First went the curtains,
bedding, carpets and wall hangings. Attention turned to electronic goods then
beds, cupboards and even toilets.
With the house emptied, the looters went for fertiliser and
farm tools. It was all piled high on tractors and trailers and hauled away.
Tractors laden with plundered property can be seen quite openly making their way
on the main road out of Doma towards Chinhoyi.
But the destruction goes further than mere theft. On Stirling
Vale farm someone took to the electric stove with a vengeance, ripping off its
door and destroying the hot plates, not in an attempt to steal it but to ensure
it could not be used again. Almost every window in the house was smashed and the
bath ripped out but not taken away.
The farmers see such destruction as evidence of an attempt to
drive them out.
"Why would you destroy an oven or the freezer or rip out the
bath? They want to prevent us coming back. To be honest, I think that will work
in one or two cases. I know one woman who has told her husband she is never
coming back even if it means the end of their marriage. But that is not the case
with most of us. We will help each other rebuild and try to sit it out until
that bastard [Mr Mugabe] is gone," said a farmer on patrol at Stirling Vale.
The crisis flared a week ago with the arrest of 21 white
farmers near Chinhoyi for allegedly assaulting black settlers. The government's
version is that the farmers assaulted defenceless peasants in an attempt to
drive them from land given to them under the redistribution programme.
"The farmers have been attacking property and legally resettled
farmers ... it is the farmers who are unleashing this violence," said the home
affairs minister, John Nkomo.
The government claims that popular outrage at the farmers
provoked the looting.
The whites see it differently. They believe the arrested men
were led into a trap. They say the war veterans attacked a white-owned farm
knowing that neighbours would come to the aid of the trapped family. Then the
war veterans called the police and claimed they were the ones under attack. The
arrests were then used to justify the unleashing of war veterans and others
against farmers across the area.
The attacks appear to be well coordinated. The farmers say the
operation in Doma is run from a farm seized from an outspoken opposition
supporter.
Alan York - Zimbabwe's "Cattleman of the Year" - was in
Australia on business when the war vets moved on to his land a week ago. First
the house was trashed. What was not taken was tossed into the swimming pool.
Almost half his 5,000 cattle were driven away and roadblocks thrown up outside
the farm.
Among those visiting the farm over recent days has been the
local government and housing minister, Ignatius Chombo, who is at the forefront
of pushing land redistribution.
Caught in the midst of the violence are the black farm
labourers. About 9,000 workers and their families are hit by the upheaval in
Doma.
Because the government wants to portray the land seizures as
spontaneous and led by farm workers against abusive white owners, the labourers
are pushed to the forefront of land occupations.
Some are torn between genuine resentment at poor working
conditions and the fear of not having a job. Others stand up to the war
veterans.
"Our labour is in an incredibly difficult situation," said Mr
Manning. "Those bastards are going to twist this. They said our guys are
landless and they did it and it's not true. That is their home there. We have a
proper village - lights, water, a school. They are not the perpetrators. They
are caught in the middle."
It is probable that having stirred the cauldron, the government
will quell the violence and then claim to be moderating between land-hungry
peasants and unreconstructed Rhodesian white farmers.
The first signs came in yesterday's Herald newspaper which
trumpeted the arrest of 40 suspected looters in Doma as evidence that the police
were not standing idly by. But even that report had a spin. The Herald claimed
most of those arrested were farm labourers, implying that the white farmers' own
workers had turned on them.
The message to Mr Mugabe's supporters has been pressed home:
the constraints have been loosened a little more
The chaotic land grab in Zimbabwe that has seen the
occupation of hundreds of white-owned farms has reached new levels of violence
in the north of the country.
The violence has spread
through the Chinhoyi area in one of the nation's most productive corn and
tobacco districts, following the arrest last week of 21 white farmers who were
accused of assaulting black squatters.
Ena Da Silva's farm was attacked on Saturday morning by a gang
of old and young men, women and children.
"My daughter and myself and her friend, we hid in the bathroom
cupboard behind a washing machine," she told the BBC.
"Eventually I got up, they took me out and they demanded [all
my] keys," she said.
"When they discovered my daughter and her friend, they did
hold a knife to them and threatened them and demanded money and removed their
shoes."
Escape without possessions
Ms Da Silva and the two girls managed to escape when other
farmers came to their rescue.
They drove off in their
car without taking a single possession.
Ms Da Silva's daughter, 13-year-old Natalie, described the
frightening affair:
"I was very scared, I must admit... I kept thinking, what if
they've got guns, what if they've got knives, what if they threaten us?"
She told the BBC she wanted to leave Zimbabwe.
"I'm a bit edgy whenever we hear about what's happening on
other farms. I just want to go down south and start over again," she said.
Hoping to return
Ms Da Silva said she intended to take her daughter to
Johannesburg for a break from the stresses of the past few months.
But she said she hoped to
be able bring her back to finish her schooling in Zimbabwe.
Like other farmers, Ms Da Silva finds it hard to believe that
black Zimbabweans want white farmers to leave for good.
"I would like to know clearly, whether as a white person, we
are welcome here or whether they would rather we leave," she said.
She suggested that safe passage be given to those who want to
leave, and "safe residence" be promised to those who want to stay.
"There is going to be change. A lot of people realise that.
And those who are really willing to stay, are really willing to work along with
the change," she said.
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe Media Update # 2001/32 Monday 6 August
to Sunday 12 August 2001
Contents 1. Summary 2. Inflammatory
remarks 3. Land reform related violence 4. International
isolation
1. SUMMARY
· The private press tried to link the
death of a farmer in Kwekwe with the chaos in Chinhoyi. The state press
reported the death in the context of attacks on Financial Gazette Special
Projects Editor Basildon Peta and the Daily News by the Department of
Information & Publicity in the President’s office and held that the
Kwekwe farmer died following an attack by unknown assailants. The state
media, in coverage reminiscent of Odzi case, flouted all standard
court reporting procedures and charged the accused farmers
before investigations were complete. Perhaps what was noteworthy in the
overall coverage of the Chinhoyi events was the polarization that has
dominated the media scene. The state media portrayed settlers as victims of
white commercial farmers who are refusing to coexist with settlers” and
extensively sourced comment from the settlers. The voice of the farmers was
dominant in the private press.
· The international community’s effort
to bring back Zimbabwe in to the democratic fold continued to receive
analysis in all media. The coverage pointed towards government’s intention to
introduce martial law if sanctions were imposed. However, no media explained
why the government would introduce such a ruthless law for its citizens
to counter the foreign policy of another state.
· The week also saw
the launch of Chinx Chingaira and Marko Sibanda’s album ‘Hondo yeMinda’ which
was co-produced by Information & Publicity minister Jonathan Moyo. The
event was accorded 18 minutes on ZBCTV’s news bulletins on the 7th and
8th.
2. THE MEDIA & INFLAMMATORY REMARKS
Over the past
week – and hardly for the first time – MMPZ has monitored inflammatory
statements from politicians and others. On the 8th, ZBCTV (8pm) broadcast an
interview with Home Affairs minister John Nkomo. The newsreader asked leading
questions such as “…it seems of late that the farmers have been actually
attacking settlers or is it true…” In his response the minister said: “It
is true the farmers have been attacking properly and legally resettled
farmers…it is the farmers who are unleashing the violence” and vehemently
denied that the war veterans were also perpetrating violence on the farms.
His remarks call to question government’s commitment to maintaining law and
order on the farms: “We want to assure everybody that they are protected and
please don’t provoke any violence and cry foul,” he said. President Robert
Mugabe made similar comments in his Heroes Day speech. While we believe it
is the duty of the media to report such statements accurately, they equally
have a responsibility to give a voice to all points of view. This
responsibility is a fundamental aspect of both journalistic ethics and the
public service mandate of media. It is a responsibility that weighs
especially heavily at the moment because there is a serious and growing
threat of political and even racial violence in the country.
3.
LAND REFORM RELATED VIOLENCE
The escalation of government land reform
related violence dominated news reports during the week. The Daily News
(6/8) reported the attack of a Kwekwe farmer ahead of the Chinhoyi incident.
The paper quoted the farmer’s daughters who held ZANU PF responsible for the
attack. No comment was accessed from ZANU PF or Government. The Zimbabwe
Independent (10/8) followed up on the story and quoted the farmer’s relatives
who reiterated their blame on ZANU PF for the murder. Those who rely on
the state-controlled media learnt of the Kwekwe incident through the
Department of Information and Publicity’s (ZIMPAPERS dailies & ZBC 8/8
and 9/8) rebuttal of The Daily News (6/8) story and another story by Basildon
Peta, which appeared in the UK’s The Independent. The Department of
Information and Publicity accused Basildon Peta of linking the Kwekwe
farmer’s death with the violence that occurred in Chinhoyi and stated that
the farmer died ‘following an attack by unknown assailants’. Notably, on
ZBCTV (8/8, 8pm) the statement was buried in the Chinhoyi violence
story. The Daily News (11/8) follow up quoted an unnamed police officer
who confirmed that three men picked up for questioning by the police
were part of the illegal settlers who had occupied the deceased’s
farm, implying that the murder was related to farm
violence.
…CHARGED IN THE MEDIA
The Chinhoyi clashes received
extensive coverage in both the public media and the private press and
highlighted, once again, the effects of a polarized media environment on
basic facts. The state print media abandoned all standard “court
reporting” procedures and gave the accusations levelled against the
commercial farmers as fact. In previous reports, MMPZ has noted that the
purpose of these restrictions is founded upon the fundamental principle
that accused individuals are innocent until proven guilty in a court
of law. The conduct of the state media pre-empted the police and
court investigations and raises the question of whether the trial of
the white commercial farmers may have been compromised by
such unprofessional reporting. Zimpapers (8/8) used accusatory language to
describe the Chinhoyi incident, saying: Twenty-two white commercial
farmers armed with logs, sticks and batons ganged up on Monday and brutally
attacked defenceless resettled farmers at Liston Shield Farm in
Chinhoyi”. In the same story, a Mashonaland West police spokesperson was
quoted saying, “although the 22 farmers would appear in court
investigations would continue”. A resettled farmer, Mr. Darlington
Chasara, was extensively quoted giving an account of what transpired. Mr.
Chasara stated that the farm owner Mr Barkley, instead of calling the
District Administrator (DA), “called other commercial farmers from Chinhoyi,
Banket and Karoi who arrived and went straight to attack the hapless farmers”
when they requested to have a meeting with him. This version was similar to
that given by one of the settlers quoted on ZBCTV (8/8, 8pm).
The
violence that occurred at Mr Barkley’s farm culminated in the attack of white
people in the town of Chinhoyi. The government controlled print media
presented the perpetrators of violence in Chinhoyi town as “angry resettled
farmers and ordinary people” who were retaliating while the private print
media labelled the people behind the attacks as ZANU PF supporters. The
Daily News (8/8) stated that about ten white people were assaulted while The
Herald (8/8) stated that several were attacked. ZBC (Radio 8/8, 7am and
ZBCTV, 7/8, 8pm) underplayed casualties of violent racial attacks in Chinhoyi
by stating that three farmers were assaulted. The state-controlled media
linked the Chinhoyi clashes to the death of the Odzi settler to suggest a
trend in the actions of white commercial farmers. Furthermore, ZBC (8/8, 8pm)
linked the clashes to other three unreported similar incidents that have
occurred in the area since June. Whilst Zimpapers were quick to apportion
blame on white farmers; the private press reportage was heavily dominated by
the white commercial farmers’ version of the incident. The underlying
racialism in the government land reform, which has impacted negatively on the
media, was summarised in an opinion piece published in The Zimbabwe Mirror.
Part of the article read: The incident this week in which there was a violent
confrontation between white commercial farmers and resettled peasants in
the Chinhoyi area is but one indication of the volatility of the
current transition in Zimbabwe. While the content of the transition
is essentially around such economic and social factors as
land redistribution and/or belated decolonisation, the form and
expression of it is inevitably racial.
From the media reports, it was
unclear as to how and where the farmers were arrested. The state-controlled
newspapers (8/8) stated that the resettled farmers called the police who
arrested 19 farmers, giving an impression that the farmers were arrested on
the scene. On the other hand, The Daily News reported that 18 farmers
were detained when they went to have their statements
taken.
…MEDIA UNDER SIEGE There was no mention of the injured
settlers in The Daily News, probably a result of the reported hostility of
the settlers towards the non- state media journalists. Subsequent reports
in state-controlled newspapers and The Daily News focused on the court
proceedings. The state-controlled newspapers (9/8) prefaced brutal attack
with “alleged” but the damage had already been done. The attacks on foreign
journalists for alleged biased reporting were reported as a normal
development with no analysis.
Further, the state-newspapers reported
that “… the situation in the town remained tense with police insisting
that the white residents keep a low profile until tempers cooled off”. No
explanation of the deliberate attacks of whites was provided. The private
weeklies (The Financial Gazette and The Zimbabwe Independent) blamed the
government for the violence on farms and concluded that the government
sanctioned what was happening on farms. The Financial Gazette in its article
‘Force them off the farms: govt’ quoted an unnamed source who stated
that “…the govt wants war veterans to harass and scare farmers
into abandoning their land and then they get it for ploughing
before October. Issues of compensation and other become peripheral once
a farmer is no longer on the land”. The Zimbabwe Independent, while
blaming Gadaffi’s inflammatory remarks made in Chinhoyi during his visit,
stated that “none of this could have happened without the government’s
encouragement and direction…” in its editorial The private press reported
that the Chinhoyi incident sparked chaos in Mashonaland West forcing farmers
to flee the area in articles headlined, “Whites flee Chinhoyi” (The Zimbabwe
Independent (10/8), “160 farmers flee Makonde” (The Daily News 10/8) and
“Mayhem in Mash West” (The Standard 10/8). Both The Standard and The
Sunday Mail reported that police officers in Chinhoyi were suspended for
allowing farmers to have access to food, new uniforms, and blankets. It was
not clear as to whether this was prompted by one unnamed man quoted on ZBCTV
(9/8, 8pm) objecting to allegations that white farmers were given new
uniforms and new blankets. The Standard quoted the police spokesperson
Wayne Bvudzijena who stated that police officers were being investigated for
failing to follow laid down procedures relating to arrest and detentions.
The paper did not substantiate what the laid down procedures were.
The Sunday Mail quoted Bvudzijena and Zimbabwe Prisons Service
Chief Prison Officer Frankie Meki. The latter was non-committal about
the reason for the new uniforms.
4. INTERNATIONAL
ISOLATION
Zimbabwe’s international isolation continued to receive media
coverage during the week. While the private press reported that the
Zimbabwe Democracy & Economic Recovery Bill (ZDER) was just but one of
the international community’s efforts to find a solution to the
Zimbabwean crisis, the state media emphasised the negative implications of
the ZDER. The state media stated that the Bill would result in the
suffering of all Zimbabweans, the private press gave the impression that the
Bill would only affect President Mugabe and government officials. ZBC
(ZTV, 7/8, 8pm), in a Rueben Barwe report attacked the ZDER Bill and offered
the usual government and ZANU PF analysis, which mainly borders on the
premise that the Bill would affect every citizen of Zimbabwe. The reporter
did not seek any comments or analysis from political scientists or
economists. During the Heroes’ Day live broadcast on ZBCTV (11/8), war
veterans Amos Midzi, Andrew Ndlovu, Patrick Nyaruwata denounced the Bill
which they described as an imperialist document.
The Herald (7/8)
article headlined “US Democracy Bill draconian – In whose interest is the
legislation” argued that the Bill would not benefit ordinary Zimbabweans “…
already suffering from the harsh economic climate which has been exacerbated
by official and unofficial sanctions already imposed on Zimbabwe”. Further,
the article stated that the Bill was in opposition to President Mugabe’s
uncompromising stance on the land issue allegedly drafted at the behest of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and the commercial
farmers. Lovemore Madhuku and John Robertson were quoted as saying the
Bill would negatively affect Zimbabwe. The MDC and the commercial
farmers who were accused of conniving with the foreign powers to
demonise Mugabe were not accorded space to comment. The private press did
not give adequate analysis of what the Bill meant for the general population.
Only The Daily News (6/8) comment gave an insight of the implications of the
Bill noting “… Zimbabwe will be treated by the US government like the
economic leper that the illegal regime of Ian Smith was during the 15 years
of UDI”. The Financial Gazette (9/8) reported that the government
would introduce martial law if sanctions were imposed. The newspaper
quoted unnamed government officials hinting at this. One named
source Minister John Nkomo was quoted as saying: We hope the situation
won’t reach the sanctions level, but if we are under siege, we have to employ
strategies to survive. We cannot lie down and mourn All dailies (8/7 and
9/8) quoted ZANU PF parliamentarians who, while criticizing the Bill, called
on government to invoke the state of emergency. None of the media
elaborated on the content and form of the martial law; and implications for
ordinary Zimbabweans. The only hint at the effects of the martial law was in
The Sunday Mail (12/8) heavily opinionated Under “The Surface Column”. The
column suggested that the MDC was backtracking on the Bill for “…fear of
the imposition of a state of emergency which could mean no presidential polls
and goodbye to Morgan Tsvangirai’s dream of making it to State House”. An
unnamed source was quoted. Yet two key issues were not highlighted in all
media, i.e. 1. Why would the government consider imposing a ruthless martial
law on its citizens to counter the foreign policy of another country
and, 2. In the event that sanctions fail; what options are available to
the international community.
Meanwhile, The Zimbabwe Mirror (10/8)
carried an opinion piece, which suggested conspiracy against Zimbabwe by the
Anglo-Americans through the opposition and some sections of the private
press. In a related development, the state-controlled dailies (7/8)
quoted President Thabo Mbeki as saying “… sanctions against Zimbabwe
will hasten the collapse of the economy…” and that “… his efforts to
avoid political, social and economic collapse in Zimbabwe had
failed”. Jonathan Moyo, who was quoted at length in the same
article, underplayed Mbeki’s change of stance on Zimbabwe when he said,
“Anyone who has been listening to President Mbeki and following the
Zimbabwean issue will know that he is repeating what he and many other
people have said before…” ZBC (ZTV, 7/8, 8pm) emphasized that Mbeki was
calling for continued dialogue with Zimbabwe and underplayed Mbeki’s
admission that President Mugabe ‘was not listening’. The private press
described Mbeki’s statements as a significant intervention by the South
African’s president. The Zimbabwe Independent (10/8) in its ‘Muckraker’
column stated that Mbeki had made it clear that he did not support Mugabe’s
land policy as claimed in the public media. The Financial Gazette (9/8)
reported “the noose tightened further on President Robert Mugabe this week
following what political analysts say is a virtual nod by regional superpower
South Africa to punitive international sanctions against embattled
77-year-old president and his lieutenants”. ENDS
The MEDIA UPDATE
is produced and distributed by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 221
Fife Avenue, Harare, Tel/ fax: 263 4 734207, 733486, E-mail: monitors@mweb.co.zw Web- http://www.icon.co.zw/mmpz Address all
queries and comments to the Project Coordinator
rofessor Sam Moyo, Director of the Southern
African Regional Institute for Policy Studies, told Irin during an in-depth
interview in Harare last week that to resolve the country's land reform crisis,
the Zimbabwean government, white commercial farmers and the British government
would have to revisit an agreement they reached at a landmark conference in
1998.
Explaining the history of Zimbabwe's controversial compulsory land
acquisition programme, Moyo, who was pivotal in drafting an agreed policy on
land reform after the donor conference in 1998, said the government would have
to curb violence on commercial farm land, the British government would have to
resume funding the programme and the farmers would have to give up about five
million hectares of land they had earlier promised.
QUESTION: Outline the Zimbabwean government's attempts at land reform and
redistribution since independence in 1980.
ANSWER: The first phase was between 1980 and 1987/1988, which could be
referred to as a period of intensive market-based land reform, in which the
focus was on redistributing land held by white commercial farmers, purchasing
this land using both the government of Zimbabwe's resources and some British
funds, and redistributing it to peasants. During this early phase, almost 60 000
families were resettled.
The second phase was between 1988 and around 1996 - a period of slowdown in
and reform and contradictions in the formulation of policy. That is when the
government of Zimbabwe started to adopt policies that would minimise the cost of
land acquisition. It introduced the whole idea of compulsory acquisition in the
constitution in 1990, introduced a new act for compulsory acquisition in 1992
and amended this act later on. Basically, it began to talk about combining
compulsory land acquisition on the basis of prices that can be negotiated or set
administratively.
There were other problems. For example, the government had sort of abandoned
its socialist orientation of the early 1980s and adopted a neo-liberal, market
orientated or macro-economic framework and economic policies. The broader
framework was to promote more black indigenous commercial farmers, as well as
white commercial farmers - to promote not only the disadvantaged and landless -
but also to promote the small farmer who were more capable, actually the more
skilled smallholders or the better-trained. So, they (the government) were
shifting the policy towards selecting the "fittest" in market terms.
Q: What was the turning point? What eventually broke the land reform
momentum?
A: The turning points came in the years of 1991, 1992 and 1993. The
Zimbabwean government felt the deal they were getting after (the) Lancaster
House (agreement), through which the British were financing the purchase of land
- although it had been successful in delivering a lot of land - had delivered
the land at a price, in an area and in a process they did not particularly like.
They were saying 'we want to deliver land in a “different way”. The terms of the
delivery or the financing from the British, was not satisfactory as far as
Zimbabwean government officials were concerned and therefore, by introducing
compulsory acquisition, they had a major difference with the British. In 1990
they introduced it into the constitution and in 1992 they actually introduced
the act after protracted arguments and confrontations.
There was also a major difference which emerged politically between the white
commercial farmers and the government from 1989 when the debate of compulsory
land acquisition and changing the laws was taking place, so you had a shift in
the political environment. The British government and the Zimbabwean government
never signed a new agreement to finance land reform when the first phase expired
because they had all these differences.
Q:
What were the terms of the first agreement between the two governments?
A: There was the Lancaster House agreement which was a constitutional and
principled agreement, but then the British government and the Zimbabwean
government signed an aid agreement through which the British would provide the
money. They were providing the money on a dollar-for-dollar basis… for every
dollar the British gives the Zimbabwean government must match it with a dollar
to buy the land ... a number of Zimbabweans felt that as far as they are
concerned, paying for land is not really a Zimbabwean responsibility. This has
always been a contention ... Donors or British funders may want to give
conditions to be sure that the land is redistributed to people who need it and
everything, but you don't, by asking those questions, determine what the land
policy should be. So the differences began to emerge. The major differences were
the conditionality of the land, the money and how it was to be used, who is
going to benefit from it In some ways, I think that the point was overstretched.
By 1996 there was an agreement with the (then British Prime Minister John) Major
government, but they were kicked out of parliament in 1997 by the Labour
government which proposed a totally new discussion and that introduced a major
political confrontation with the Zimbabwean government.
Meanwhile the Zimbabwean government and ruling (Zanu-PF) party was facing its
own internal political contradictions ... the extremists were saying 'we don't
like the market-based policy of yours, it is not delivering land on time, and at
any rate, for the last eight years you've slacked off on land redistribution and
you've left us out as the war veterans'.
Q: What was the Labour Party proposing?
A: They proposed renegotiating the whole framework into a more explicitly
poverty-oriented framework, introducing the whole debate around poverty
reduction. The Zimbabwean government's argument has been that it has to not only
reform the economy but also change the political complexion because some people
argue that even if you redistribute and leave some land to commercial farmers,
you should have a racial mix of who they are. You should not leave just white
commercial farmers. You should have both black and white. So the argument that
(government) 'cronies' got some land - (but) there are only 400 or 500 of them
out of a total of 4 500 commercial farmers. This whole debate the British and
others introduced about cronyism generated a lot of anger among the black
elites. They were saying the Rhodesians who got land used to work for
government, that they used to be in the ruling party and used to be former
British soldiers, war veterans as well, who were rewarded with land for fighting
the first and second world wars; settlers came and they were given grants, etc.
So they were asking 'what is the standard'?
So this drew a whole political confrontation. I think initially the Labour
Party officials missed the point; they had the wrong analysis of the political
meltdown that was happening in Zimbabwe - because the economy was also not
working, the adjustment was not delivering as many jobs, the ruling party was
now going to face more competition from the opposition and the ruling party
which had argued to redistribute land (which had been part of the liberation
war) had not delivered because they had now compromised on the neo-liberal
policies and they were being told to now go for another neo-liberal development
aid concept called 'poverty reduction'
Q: To move along, how did the situation deteriorate to the point when the
last phase of commercial farm invasions began?
A: The first invasions in the last phase began in 1998. In 1997 there was a
confrontation between the war veterans' leadership and the ruling party elite,
in which they (war veterans) demanded that the government pay them huge
pensions. This was more or less at gunpoint. Everybody missed that point, but
this was a critical point. At that same point, at which they (the Zimbabwean
government) were ... abrogating their macroeconomic policy, saying 'forget about
this market business of buying land, just get land' the government in 1997
listed 1 471 farms and started a mass-based compulsory acquisition. So you had
for the first time that political change.
That was much more significant than any land occupation that ever happened or
was to happen - that listing of so many farms - because it hit the economy and
divided society politically. Following that, there was a movement in 1998
towards the donors conference on land reform and redistribution that took place
in September, which led to a government proposal on what it would do in five
years and its compromise of a more gradual 10-year programme.
Now leading to this, there was a lot of doubt in 1998 among war veterans and
different communities that the government would follow through with land
redistribution, so there were about 30 high-profile land invasions that took
place involving war veterans and chiefs and others who were basically saying we
don't believe the deal you are going for is going to work and if you try to
bluff us we are still going to get our land anyway.
That was not led in any formal sense by Zanu-PF, even war veterans were not
fully behind it - there were different elements in different communities, who
were individually challenging the whole programme. So in 1998 the government
evicted all these land occupiers after this conference, saying 'we have agreed
now and we are going to get money'. Come 1999 there was a whole year when donors
wouldn't move (to provide funding) In addition in 1997 there was a difference
between the Zimbabwean government and the British and the Americans over the
invasion in the DRC. In my view, another false move by the British and the
international community - to say that because you (Zimbabwe) are in the DRC and
it is affecting your macroeconomic policy, therefore the land problem you have
had is not our problem because you should pay the money you are paying in the
war. This is when the Zimbabwe government saw in 1999 that they were not getting
any money and they felt they were being isolated - which they were by the
international community. This is where the idea of going it alone begins to
emerge towards the end of 1999. This is where the hard line about introducing it
into the constitution that was being drafted came. When this hard line is
rejected (in a referendum in February 2000) the war veterans and everybody who
were part and parcel of this, started saying 'where has the donors' conference
and negotiations taken you' ... and there was mass mobilisation across the
country.
Q: Why is land and land reform so important to Zimbabwe and to its
economy?
A: Zimbabwe's economy is diversified in the sense that about one-third of the
gross domestic product is from mining and another third was - and still is - a
bit from manufacturing. Then you split the rest of the economy into 20% from
agriculture and the rest is split into services and other things. So although
there is this diversification a big chunk of the economy is based on
agricultural throughput. So the economy is diversified but integrated into an
agriculturally based economy.
One of the growing sectors, tourism - about 10% of the economy - is also
another land-consuming area because of wildlife, so the majority of the people
still depend on land for their basic survival. There are not so many industrial
jobs coming out of the economy.
Q: Where do you see room for compromise
A: The compromise, basically, is that the idea of these (land redistribution)
plans was to get half the land the commercial farmers have to be redistributed,
to accept this as the modest figure was the compromise, that is, five million
hectares which would have been given. Now, since there is no compromise, the
extremists on the Zanu-PF side are saying let's take eight million or nine
million hectares. In my view the compromise which we have been trying to
facilitate dialogue on, is for the farmers to assist in identifying which five
million of the 11,5-million hectares should be acquired as agreed. So that is
the first basis, and that is partially being done by this so-called offer by the
Zimbabwean Joint Resettlement Initiative of one million hectares (by white
commercial farmers). But one million hectares is not enough because that is seen
as trying to underestimate and delay the whole programme. So there is a
compromise if the farmers can get their act together - and of course for the
British and others to come in and finance it, especially the British.
Q: What compromises should the Zimbabwean government be making?
A: To the extent that the Zimbabwean government has the capacity to contain
certain violence, not necessarily that they are responsible for it, to the
extent they can contain, limit, control or stop them, they should be seen to be
doing more of that. Now they argue, ‘this is a volatile situation’, that there
is a movement which may be in some ways, more or less, not within the control of
the government, that could create further conflict and that the way to reduce
that violence is to redistribute land. So I think if you get a process where
some land is delivered then the violence can also be controlled by
redistributing some land and then by convincing the extremists not to push the
violence too hard. - IRIN
AN explosion is imminent
in South Africa. It will not be of the same type as ZANU PF’s so-called Third
Chimurenga which exists only in the imagination of the minister for propaganda.
If what I am hearing from my
circle of friends and other people on the street is anything to go by, then
black people here are just fed up and are likely to take matters into their own
hands within a year or two.
It is not the kind of news President Thabo
Mbeki wants to hear given his thrust to spruce up South Africa’s image as the
fore-most foreign investment destination among the so-called "emerging
mar-kets".
The gripe that black people have with the new South Africa
centres around:
• Job creation
• Land redistribution
•
Housing
• Education
Significantly very few black people talk
about crime as one of the biggest challenges they face though it does affect
them like anybody else. The feeling is that the African National Congress
leadership is selling out.
Movers and shakers
They point to the
lack of consultations with grass-roots at cell and branch levels where these
still exist (in most cases they have simply withered away). They deride a black
empower-ment drive that is not empowerment at all but more a scheme for a
political elite which serves apprenticeship in the public sector enterprises and
is then certified as ready to lead empowerment.
This elite enjoys such a
high profile and are looked at as movers and shakers but the reality is that
there is no real creation of wealth. This elite simply uses its political and
business connections to raise capital to buy shares. They have not created
anything new but only seek to buy into existing entities (mostly privatised
state assets).
On the other hand are the ever whingeing whites who
complain about crime and, quite revealingly, state that affirmative action is
reverse racism and that they wish to emigrate.
Significantly the
Afrika-ners, who are even more like any one of the ethnic groups, are going
about their business expanding into the region and beyond while their
counterparts of British stock make all sorts of noises about going to Australia.
The black response is as long as no one is pushing you anyone can ship
out. Of course the media here playing this whingeing game like white people have
so much choice out there. They would be hard pressed to enjoy the same levels of
lifestyles anywhere else in the world.
Poor devils
So the mass
of black people caught in between are asking themselves: "How can people who
suffered so much to liberate this land become so callous and loot even funds
meant for the development of their own people?"
Of course they are aware
that the dominant media plays up as if the problem is with just this black elite
whereas corruption is rife especially among the multinationals who buy these
poor devils who have never seen so much money in their lives.
Although
President Mbeki is well respected and no one, except the Mail & Guardian and
Newsweek, believes he is corrupt they do think his problem is that he has
surrounded himself with yes-men. With his intellectual prowess and
unquestionable commit-ment to both South Africa and Africa he needs people who
do not just take his ideas at face value but interrogate them and thus add value
to his vision. If he does not come out in the next few months and hit hard at
his corrupt African National Congress colle-agues (ANC) he will lose quite a lot
in terms of political capital. Some people are already looking forward to the
break-up of the tripartite alliance of the ANC, South African Communist Party
(SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). People want the
alliance to fail for different reasons. Others now see the SACP as the best hope
for South Africa. Blade Nzimande, SACP secretary general, seems to have struck a
chord with both the media and urban dwellers. For others the break-up would be
an opportunity to strengthen the Democratic Alliance but that is a forlorn hope
that only Tony Leon himself, Afrikaners, the white journalists and one or two
blacks hope for. It is not going to happen. Period. The alliance might hold
because it is suspected that leaders in Cosatu and SACP partners are always
eyeing cabinet posts and will get them if there is any push to dissolve the
alliance.
But on the whole black people are not so sure as how to
respond. The hatred of white people here is so palpable but at the same time
having been betrayed by their own government there is desperation to hang on to
something that gives hope. While President Mbeki is being congra-tulated by the
inter-national community and white people on upholding the rule of law there is
anger among black people. If Mbeki’s sense of justice is to ask people to be
patient with the courts that seem to take forever to redress land distribution
imbalances then he has a battle on his hands. A look at how black people looked
at the so-called land invasions and how the media sought to portray them is
quite revealing. Hypocrisy in the media is incarnated here in the Mail &
Guardian and in The Star. Giving us sensational head-lines on how "squatters"
were suffering in the bitter cold and how the government sought to remove them
none dared to show how unwilling and ungrateful white farmers here are. Yet the
very previous week there had been this Afrikaner who had dragged the government
to court as he turned down an offer of R800 000 which had been recommended by
two valuation committees. Eventually he accepted R130 000 but then said
something to the effect of "I only accepted this compe-nsation because of my
mou-nting legal bills. I am going to appeal to the USA and United Kingdom". In
this he had the support of his local branch of the farmers uni-on. Some people
never learn.
But the senior officials in the ministry of agriculture are
very clear on what has to be done. They are saying make the issue of land
re-distribution an admini-strative issue and this would help in expediting land
re-distribution. The question is why is the dominant media not taking up this
issue and make it the cornerstone of their debate on equitable land
distribution.
As a colleague put it to me, "Rainbow nation? No. It’s a
rainbow notion. ANC has to deliver to its constituency."
•Chris
Kabwato is a Zimbabwean based in South Africa
Suspected war veterans and Zanu PF supporters yesterday drove cattle out
of the pens and onto the fields at Richfontein Farm in Mhangura where they
feasted on a fine crop of wheat. Picture by Urginia Mauluka
MP says Mugabe, Smith the same
8/15/01 8:58:55 AM (GMT
+2)
By Sandra Nyaira
Political Editor
AN opposition Member of
Parliament has likened the behaviour of the government of President Mugabe to
that of Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front regime.
Mike Auret (Harare Central)
said this in Parliament yesterday while contributing to debate on the
Presidential speech. MDC MPs attacked the government for the current state
of lawlessness in the country, especially on commercial farms in Chinhoyi.
Auret said in trying to maintain its grip on power the government was
behaving exactly as Smith’s illegal regime did before independence in 1980.
Dismissing the President’s opening speech to Parliament, Auret said: “It was
much ado about nothing.” He said it failed to address some of the major
problems facing the majority of the population. The least Mugabe could have done
was to send a condolence message to the thousands of people suffering from the
HIV/Aids scourge, Auret said. Mugabe should also have had a special message for
those supporting people living with the virus that causes Aids and to those
suffering from the effects of the “land grab” or the general economic malaise.
He spoke passionately about the pain felt by farmers driven off their farms
by war veterans and Zanu PF supporters in Chinhoyi and some sectors of Hwedza.
“It is a shame that the police arrested the victims of violence in Chinhoyi,
leaving the perpetrators to go scot-free,” Auret said. Mugabe had run down the
economy to the extent that it was almost beyond recovery, the MP said. Most MDC
MPs, notably Job Sikhala (St Mary’s) and Giles Mutsekwa (Mutare North), attacked
the government and those Zanu PF MPs calling for a state of emergency if the
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill was signed by the President of the
United States. They said the government must move with speed to restore the
rule of law, embark on a lawful, just and equitable land reform programme and
produce a new Constitution. Said Mutsekwa: “The government must know that peace
is not outward but inward stability. There shall never be peace unless there is
inward stability.” Mutsekwa said Zanu PF must realise that the country’s youth
had never experienced a war situation before, and any attempt to go to war would
be greeted with enthusiasm by some of them. He said the army, the police and
the Central Intelligence Organisation must remain apolitical. The MDC MPs
castigated Zanu PF’s Didymus Mutasa, Shadreck Chipanga, both of Makoni, and
Vice-President Joseph Msika for using hate speech against the MDC. Zanu PF
MPs, notably Joram Gumbo (Mberengwa West), supported the land reform programme.
Meanwhile, Sam Munyavi reports from Mhangura that suspected war veterans and
Zanu PF supporters yesterday drove cattle into at least two wheat fields on
farms in the area, while two farmhouses were looted in the early hours.
Reacting to ongoing attacks in the rich farming area, senior police officers
arrived in Mhangura yesterday afternoon aboard an Air Force of Zimbabwe
helicopter. The police refused to say who was in the contingent or how many
they were, but said they had immediately gone into a meeting. Police
reinforcements were brought in from Kadoma, Hurungwe and Norton. At least 40
people were being held at the police station for looting. Motor vehicles,
tractors, lawn-mowers and large quantities of stolen fertiliser, household
goods, cement and other items were under police guard. Meanwhile, Colin
Cloete, the president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), has condemned
the ongoing violence on the farms. In a statement on Saturday, he said: “I
call upon all Zimbabweans to refrain from taking the law into heir own hands and
totally condemn violence in all its forms and cannot accept that our law
enforcement agencies cannot bring the situation under immediate control in a
fair and just manner.” He said it was apparent that the state of lawlessness
had reached a height that could only be controlled at the highest level.
Cloete said: “I make a heartfelt plea to the ministers and police chiefs,
who took an oath of allegiance to protect all citizens of Zimbabwe, to swiftly
and decisively avoid further destruction and loss of property. As I speak, more
of the farms in Doma are being pillaged and looted openly and blatantly by
lawless elements in marauding bands of up to 300. Little action has been taken
to recover stolen property.” At one farm, a mob of about 60 people killed
two cattle and carried away everything. The owner requested anonymity. At
Solvang Farm some kilometres away, looters ransacked the farmhouse from about
3am yesterday to just before dawn. Pat Laugesen, the owner, said they killed
an ox and commandeered a tractor. A worker at the farm said the looters had
forced the workforce to accept meat from the slaughtered beast. Laugesen
said she lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of household goods to the
looters. They stole clothing, bedding, cooking utensils, computers, television
sets and video cassette recorders, among other items. Laugesen said: “They
took anything electrical. Anything they couldn’t take they destroyed.” Four
hunting rifles were disarmed, Alan Laugesen, Pat’s son, said. Only the large
collection of books was virtually untouched. The Laugesens left the farm on
Friday after they received warnings that they might be attacked. They returned
yesterday to find their home in shambles. Pat Laugesen said: “Houses on
farms are now sitting ducks.”
Tsvangirai says Mugabe should be barred from Brisbane
summit
8/15/01 9:21:45 AM (GMT
+2)
By Collin Chiwanza
MORGAN Tsvangirai, the
MDC president, said yesterday President Mugabe should be barred from attending
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Brisbane, Australia, in
October because of the current State-sponsored anarchy and gross violation of
human rights in the country.
Speaking to journalists in
Harare, he accused Mugabe of flouting the principles of the Harare Declaration
of October 1991 in which the Commonwealth leaders agreed to uphold the rights of
all citizens, regardless of their gender, race, colour, creed or political
belief. “The Commonwealth should not allow Mugabe to participate until he
conforms to the tenets of the Harare Declaration which he is flouting on a daily
basis,” said Tsvangirai. “The unfortunate thing is that these international and
regional bodies do not insist on the upholding of their own ideals. To watch
things deteriorate in Zimbabwe is to endorse lawlessness.” Mugabe, who is
attending the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) meeting in Blantyre,
Malawi, has been accused of condoning acts of lawlessness and violence to
tighten his slipping grip on power. Tsvangirai said the Sadc leaders should
condemn the lawlessness in Zimbabwe before it spills into neighbouring countries
with disastrous consequences for the entire region. “For a very long time, Sadc
has been supporting Mugabe’s anarchy which he has been justifying on the basis
of the land reform programme,” Tsvangirai said, “but we think there is need to
create an environment which will enhance the credibility of the region as an
investment destination.” Tsvangirai said his party unreservedly condemned the
violence in Mashonaland West which has displaced thousands of farm workers and
cost farmers property worth over $200 million. “Zanu PF believes that looting,
violence and murder are land reform, but we beg to differ. President Mugabe and
his party are so desperate to cling to power that they continue to fund terror
gangs to beat up people who do not support Zanu PF,” Tsvangirai said. Suspected
war veterans and Zanu PF supporters razed at least 10 houses and looted property
worth millions of dollars from 40 farms in the Doma, Lions Den and Mhangura
areas over the weekend. Meanwhile, Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general,
yesterday said Zanu PF’s repeated claim that his party received foreign funds in
the run-up to last year’s parliamentary election, was a desperate attempt to
divert the attention of the international community from the country’s real
political and economic crises.
The former British
colony has been plunged into economic and political crisis since February last
year when self-styled war veterans, encouraged by the state, seized hundreds of
white-owned farms across the country.
On Tuesday, farming
officials said the situation on white farms surrounding Chinhoyi, 120 km (75
miles) northwest of Harare, was tense although police had finally moved against
militants who had ransacked and looted dozens of properties. Southern African
leaders acknowledged publicly for the first time on Tuesday that a crisis in
Zimbabwe was causing concern and appointed a committee of presidents to help
resolve Zimbabwe's problems. The leaders of the 14-nation Southern African
Development Community (SADC) said at an annual summit in Malawi that they were
worried that the spillover effect from the Zimbabwe crisis would affect their
countries. President Robert Mugabe's delegation had sought public support for
its land re-distribution programme, but found SADC leaders less sympathetic. The
leaders instead welcomed an initiative by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo
to try to end the stalemate. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, told a news conference on Tuesday that government vehicles had been
used to loot farming and household goods from white-owned properties after the
owners fled from rampaging militants. The Daily News has in the last couple of
years published wide-ranging allegations of corruption and mismanagement against
Mugabe's 21-year-old government. In January, a bomb destroyed the paper's
printing press in what the Daily News said was a politically motivated attack.
No one was injured. Last August Nyarota alleged that a plot by the state Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to kill him had failed when the hired assassin
lost his nerve and revealed the details to his intended victim.
Zimbabwe: New moves to airlift 25,000
Britons By Basildon Peta in Harare and Stephen Castle in Brussels 16
August 2001
As President Robert Mugabe's campaign of terror against white
farmers continued yesterday, British and European diplomats in Harare were
holding secret talks for possible evacuation of up to 25,000 UK
nationals.
Amid growing lawlessness and a crackdown on independent
journalists, the talks were held to update a contingency plan to help UK
nationals and other foreigners escape should their lives be
endangered.
"Yes, it is true that we have a plan in place to help our
citizens in Zimbabwe, but I cannot disclose the details," Richard Lindsay, a
diplomat at the British High Commission in Harare, told The
Independent.
Mr Lindsay dismissed the rumour sweeping Harare that British
troops are being deployed in neighbouring southern Africa countries to aid
an evacuation. "We have no troops massed around the borders of Zimbabwe
at all," he said.
The EU's contingency plans for a large-scale
evacuation provides for an armoured convoy to protect refugees travelling
east into Mozambique and south through the border town of Beitbridge into
South Africa. The plans will only be activated if conditions rapidly
deteriorate and the lives of British and other European citizens are
endangered.
The most likely assembly points are Harare, Bulawayo, and
Mutare in the eastern highlands, all of which are linked by road with
Mozambique's main port, Beira.
Such a massive operation is likely to
be attempted only as a last resort. If violence continues to spread,
diplomats are initially expected to help inform and advise their nationals of
the safest course of action.
Belgium, which took over the rotating
presidency of the EU last month, said yesterday that its diplomats have held
at least one meeting to review the situation on the ground and update
contingency planning.
A Belgian foreign ministry spokesman described the
evacuation plan as 'operational', although he added that the large number of
EU nationals made it impossible to envisage the imminent departure of the
European population. However, he said, it was "normal when a situation
worsens in a specific country that the EU embassies would give particular
attention to that issue".
In London a foreign office spokesman said:
"We really don't think we've reached the stage where large-scale evacuations
are in order."
Some 25,000 British nationals are registered with the High
Commission, although there may be as many as 40,000 in the country. Other
embassies considering evacuation include Canada, which has 500 citizens,
and Australia, which has 400. Belgium says only 230 of its nationals are in
the country.
As the situation worsened, pressure mounted on the
British Government to lead efforts to stop President Robert Mugabe from
attending the Commonwealth summit in Brisbane, Australia, in
October.
Zimbabwe has made headlines in the international media in the
past week over the arrest of 22 white farmers in Chinhoyi after their clashes
with illegal settlers on their farms.
The arrests were followed by an
orgy of looting by rowdy ruling Zanu-PF party supporters. The Commercial
Farmers' Union says nearly $200m worth of property was either looted or
destroyed around the Chinhoyi area in Mashonaland, West Province. Police
claim that most of the looters were farm workers, but farmers deny
this.
Mugabe is also threatened with the possible loss of aid and even
sanctions by the EU, which gave him 60 days from June to restore law and
order and guarantee that next year's elections would be fair.
David
Masunda DeputyEditor-in-Chief 8/16/01 9:11:05 PM (GMT +2)
MWENEZI,
Masvingo —Cattle rancher Thabani Nkomo says every week he is losing five
beasts, trapped by snares set up by land invaders since the beginning of this
year.
So far, says Nkomo, his herd of 1 200 cattle has been depleted
because he has been forced to slaughter 200 cows he found trapped and
severely injured by the wire snares.
Commercial farmers and wild life
ranchers in Mwenezi say thousands of animals, including cattle, have been
killed by snares mounted by landless peasants who have invaded the area since
the government’s fast-track land reform programme gained momentum last
year.
"They just don’t care whether the snare traps a kudu or a prized
bull," said Nkomo, the manager of the 33 000-hectare Mtilikwe Section of the
vast Nuanetsi Ranch.
He says it is not easy to arrest the settlers
responsible for the snares because many of them are locals who migrated to
and from their rural homes at will.
"Only last week I saw this man
with a spear and something protruding from the tip of the spear," said Lemon
Ndlovu, the security officer at Nuanetsi Ranch.
"When I called on him
to stop, he dropped the spear and disappeared into the bush. On closer
inspection, I saw that the spear was being used to hold a warthog that had
just been killed in our ranch."
Ndlovu said the settlers, who have
invaded almost all sections of the Development Trust of Zimbabwe-owned
Nuanetsi Ranch, could even be quite violent.
He said his guards were
once called for a meeting with the settlers during which they were persuaded
to lock their firearms in a room before the talks could begin.
"The
moment they locked up the three rifles, one of the villagers snatched the
keys to the room and it was a free for all, every villager began beating the
guards," said Ndlovu.
The situation was only saved by the timely arrival
of the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s Support Unit which arrested some of the
villagers.
Since the beginning of the year, says Ndlovu, more than 200
settlers have been arrested for illegally mounting snares or trapping game in
the ranches and some of them have since appeared in court.
Mwenezi
district in Zimbabwe’s hot Lowveld is an area best known for the sugar cane
fields and sprawling game ranches that have in the past attracted some of the
world’s best hunters.
It is a dry area with an average rainfall of
between 400 mm to 500 mm per season. Last season though, there was a freak
storm called Cyclone Eline that swept through the region, destroying
everything in its wake.
This time, another hurricane is sweeping through
Mwenezi as thousands of war veterans and supporters of the governing ZANU PF
party take over cattle and game ranches, felling trees at random and clearing
huge tracts of land to grow maize, the Zimbabwean staple food which, unknown
or ignored by the settlers, will never thrive in such a dry area.
At
the appropriately named Gumunyu Babaalas Centre next to Neshuro
District Hospital, which the locals boast is the only hospital in the region
with expatriate doctors, the "comrades" and district officials are mingling
and buying each other drinks to celebrate Heroes’ Day.
There was a big
party about a kilometre away a few hours before where the villagers, the
newly resettled peasants, rural district officials and the war veterans met
to celebrate the national holiday.
One young man, who had travelled all
the way from Harare for the big occasion, said unlike Chinhoyi and other
violent areas, the white farmers in Mwenezi were "quite
reasonable".
He said the farmers allowed the veterans and party
supporters to build their ramshackle houses on their properties and sometimes
on their doorsteps.
In certain instances, said the young man who would
not say whether he also got a piece of land, the farmers even paid for the
private pegging of their properties.
What the young man, who refused
to be named, did not say was that the farmers clearly had no
choice.
Faced with the real danger of being attacked on isolated ranches
far from the police station at Mwenezi growth point, many of the farmers
chose to ride the storm hoping that by allowing the invaders to build their
houses and share the land peacefully, the long arm of the law would one day
descend on Mwenezi and evict the invaders.
Many of the farmers blame
Masvingo provincial governor Josiah Hungwe for the mess in this once
lucrative game-hunting region.
Where Hungwe is concerned, both the
farmers and the settlers share the same sentiments though for different
reasons.
To the war veterans and ZANU PF supporters, Hungwe is the hero
who allowed them to invade even the Save Conservancy and the numerous game
and cattle ranches in the area.
To the farmers, he is a meddlesome
bureaucrat who is fomenting problems in the region for political
gain.
Nkomo, a war veteran and former freedom fighter, says what is
saddening about the whole new land reform exercise is that the settlers are
trapping animals for food with snares that cannot discriminate between a
prized bull and a rabbit.
One farm official said they had been forced
to kill a trapped pedigree bull and sell its meat for $20 000 instead of
about $50 000 they usually got for such a beast.
Charles Madonko, the
managing director of the massive Nuanetsi Ranch which at 311 000 hectares is
one-tenth the size of Zimbabwe, said it was difficult to explain to the
settlers who usually attended meetings drunk that companies such as the DTZ
were Zimbabwean possessions.
But as one drives from Nuanetsi, only 10 kms
from the Beitbridge border post, to Masvingo, what is even more saddening is
the wanton and indiscriminate cutting down of trees that is evident in broad
daylight as the invaders swamp the former thriving game ranches.
Once
again, one is reminded that given this type of destruction of
natural resources for unplanned new human settlements, President Robert
Mugabe’s fast-track land redistribution is a fast track to doom.
Zimbabwe clamps down on press as newspaper claims police
aided mob By Basildon Peta in Harare 16 August 2001
Zimbabwean
police arrested four journalists yesterday from Zimbabwe's only privately
owned daily newspaper, The Daily News, over a report that which alleged that
police vehicles had been used during a wave of looting of white farms in
north-eastern Zimbabwe.
The editor-in-chief, Geoff Nyarota, assistant
editor Bill Saidi, news editor John Gambanga and reporter Sam Munyavi are
expected to appear in court today on charges of "publishing false
news".
Mr Nyarota was taken from his home by police at about 1am
yesterday morning. The three others were picked up yesterday
afternoon.
A police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, said Mr Nyarota would be
charged under the Law and Order Maintenance Act. The draconian law, some of
whose sections Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional
and undemocratic, makes it an imprisonable offence to publish information
that the state may deem "likely to cause public alarm and
despondency".
However, the journalists' lawyer said last night that it
appeared the police would not be able to use the controversial law, as it had
been struck down by the Supreme Court last year as unconstitutional. The
police were said to be looking at the possibility of a criminal defamation
charge.
On Tuesday The Daily News alleged that police vehicles had been
used by pro-government mobs to move loot from white-owned farms in the
Mhangura and Chinhoyi districts, about 120km north-west of Harare.
The
paper said the police action was part of the "well- orchestrated acts
of lawlessness" on the farms. Gangs of government supporters last
week unleashed a fresh wave of violence against white farmers in Mhangura
and Chinhoyi, ostensibly in retaliation to the alleged assault of land
occupiers by 23 farmers, who are still in police custody.
The looters
made off with cattle, expensive farm equipment and household property worth
millions of dollars and forced more than 90 white families to flee their
farms.
Farmers and many other Zimbabweans criticised the police for
their lacklustre response to the lawlessness in Chinhoyi. A Commercial
Farmers Union spokeswoman, Jane Williams, said the police failed to act on
all warnings of violence. "They only responded long after the looting had
taken place. They never acted on reports of looting that they were
given beforehand," she said.
But Mr Bvudzijena said the Daily News
story had falsely implied that the police had participated in the looting and
the report was designed to bring the force into disrepute.
Farmers
said yesterday that the looting spree appeared to have stopped.
Paul Hopcroft, a farmer in the Banket area near Chinhoyi, said: "It is a
lot quieter today. There does not seem to be any more looting going on. But
the families that fled their farms won't go back until all the looters have
been locked up," he added.
Journalists' unions yesterday criticised
the police action, saying it was high-handed and designed to intimidate the
press. Abel Mutsakani, the president of the Independent Journalist
Association, said: "The very basis of the police action against Nyarota, [the
Law and Order Maintenance Act], is a discredited and oppressive law that
should have no place in any democracy.
"And what really is the purpose
of the police pouncing on a defenceless journalist like Nyarota in the middle
of the night if this is not meant to intimidate and strike fear into all who
dare question the government's actions."
A spokesman for the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists said the arrests exemplified the government's desperate
attempts to silence the independent media.
The Daily News has suffered
for its criticism of the Mugabe government. In January, its printing presses
were bombed after the government called the paper an opposition mouthpiece.
The newspaper has continued to publish smaller daily editions with a reduced
print run by using private printers.
The Zimbabwean government has also
expelled two foreign journalists and banned the BBC from reporting inside the
country
The criminal acts of a power-hungry
president 16 August 2001
Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe,
whose irrational behaviour in the past 18 months has reduced what was once a
promising country into a basket case on the verge of total collapse, is not a
man driven by hatred for whites. Nor is he concerned about land
inequity.
After all, not only did he ask whites to remain in the country
after independence, but until recently he has lived peacefully with them and
even appointed some into his Cabinet. And, during the first 19 years of
his reign, a long enough period to have dealt with the land problem legally
and responsibly, he has not raised the issue. He is driven by a fear
of multiparty democracy. He could not stand the late Joshua Nkomo when
they were both in opposition, and he unleashed terrible violence upon
Nkomo supporters, with many deaths. Peace was restored only when Mr Nkomo
was absorbed into government.
Now whites are being punished for
supporting the fledgling opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC);
they are also being used by a desperate Mr Mugabe to send a message to his
supporters that he is concerned about their plight. But it is not just
whites: his primary target is the black-led MDC, which might have won last
year's general election had there not been widespread intimidation and whose
leader may yet beat Mr Mugabe in next year's presidential election. And we
now see the arrest of Geoff Nyarota, the editor of the Daily News, the only
independent daily paper in Zimbabwe, after he published a report alleging the
use of police vehicles in the looting of white farms.
Harare's
twin-track strategy is to harass opposition supporters, both black and white,
in order to deter them from voting for the MDC, and to create the impression
that the government would have improved the living conditions of blacks but
for the selfishness of whites. A mass departure of whites will inevitably
reduce the MDC vote, but it will hurt the economy even more.
The
international community should not allow Mr Mugabe to get away with
such criminal behaviour. Comprehensive sanctions should be imposed, and
the Commonwealth should take the lead and ban him from its next meeting.
And there should be no question about calling off this autumn's tour of
Zimbabwe by the England cricket team.
SADC snubs Mugabe - BBC Farm attacks spread - DTel Zim left out in
the cold - BDay Police vehicles used in looting - DNews The ZDERA -
ZWNEWS From BBC News, 15 August
Southern African leaders snub Mugabe
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been dealt a twin blow at a
summit of Southern African leaders in Malawi. He has lost his cherished position
as Chairman of the defence body of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) and his peers expressed "concern at the effects of the Zimbabwean
economic situation on the region". Despite intense lobbying by Zimbabwe, there
was no declaration of support for Mr Mugabe in what he sees as his continuing
fight against colonialism in the form of his land reform programme.
South Africa, among others, voiced concern that Mr Mugabe had abused
his position in 1998 by sending troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo in
the name of SADC without adequately consulting his neighbours. Of the 14 SADC
members, only Angola and Namibia agreed to intervene in DR Congo, which recently
joined the southern African body. In March, SADC leaders decided that Mr Mugabe
would no longer be permanent head of the community's security organ and that it
would now be a rotating position. Mozambique's President Joaqim Chissano has
been named the new chair of the security organ, which has now been expressly
forbidden from declaring war without the approval of a full summit of all
member-countries' leaders. South Africa in particular has been badly hit by the
overspill from Zimbabwe in terms of lower investor confidence in the region and
a flood of economic refugees.
Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe told a Nigerian newspaper that he was confident
that Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo could "save the situation" in
Zimbabwe and defuse tensions between Harare and London over land reform and
violence against white farmers, many of whom have UK origins. Mr Obasanjo was
also Nigeria's leader in the 1970s, when Mr Mugabe was fighting white minority
rule in the then Rhodesia and he said: "I always remind President Obasanjo that:
'You are the master. I learnt from you the act of fighting the white man'."
Nigeria is due to chair Commonwealth talks on the Zimbabwe crisis in
September.
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement
for Democratic Change, has voiced fears that the violence seen in the past week
around Chinhoyi will spread across the country as presidential elections set for
April 2002 draw near. "I am very certain this is going to be replicated. Mugabe
believes the MDC's success depends on white support, so whites are attacked
...it is an obsession," he said. "What is happening on the farms is going to
engulf us all." On Tuesday, Chinhoyi farmers said that, contrary to police
claims to have restored calm, they were still under attack from a gang of up to
250 self-styled "war veterans". They said that 100 farms in the area had now
been trashed and pillaged. Meanwhile, Germany has joined the list of countries
condemning the latest outbreak of violence in Zimbabwe. A statement from the
foreign ministry said: "The government calls expressly on the government in
Harare to do everything in its power to end the violence quickly". On Monday,
the US expressed its concern at "the level of political violence and
intimidation in Zimbabwe".
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 15 August
Zimbabwe mobs widen attacks on white farmers
Harare - Mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe looted 10 more
properties yesterday as the onslaught against Zimbabwe's white farmers spread to
a new area. The Makonde area was targeted for a looting spree that brought the
number of farms ransacked to 50. More than 300 women and children have now been
evacuated from about 100 properties. After a brief respite on Monday, during
which pressure eased on Doma-Mhangura area, 100 miles north-west of Harare, the
mobs moved south to Makonde. The latest turmoil was sparked by a clash between
farmers and squatters on Alaska farm, near Chinhoyi, early last week. About 15
landowners were arrested and charged with assault. Another six were later
arrested when they visited Chinhoyi police station to deliver blankets to the
captives - two are in their 70s - as protection against the winter cold. The 21
are still being held. A magistrate has denied them bail. The high court has yet
to hear an appeal against the ruling.
In the Commercial Farmers' Union office in Chinhoyi yesterday, reports
of attacks jammed the radio. "There's been a lot of action," said David
Rockingham-Gill, a CFU representative. "Looting is continuing." Women and
children have fled the affected areas. Most of the men have stayed and are
sleeping in "safe houses". They conduct observation patrols, cataloguing the
trail of destruction. The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, lashed out at Mr
Mugabe's government yesterday, accusing the mobs - controlled by the ruling Zanu
PF party – of creating a "refugee crisis" by forcing farmers and their workers
out of their homes. "We now have anarchy in Zimbabwe," he added. His words were
echoed by Tony Leon, the opposition leader in neighbouring South Africa, who
said "full-scale ethnic cleansing" was now under way in Zimbabwe.
Yesterday's edition of the Herald, Zimbabwe's official daily, said the
police were curbing the looting and that 40 arrests had been made. Yet most of
those picked up have been farm workers. Landowners say the real looters have
been ignored and labourers scapegoated. In the Wedza area, 60 miles south-east
of Harare, at least 400 workers and their families have been evicted from farms.
Gangs are taking over their homes, with no police intervention. In the areas
targeted by mobs, many workers have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect
their employers' property. Some have hidden valuables in the bush.
One farmer said: "Some of these workers have been heroic. Most are
terrified and have done their best to stop the vandalism." Scores of farm
workers have been assaulted. About 28 have been murdered since Mr Mugabe's
campaign of land invasions began early last year. South Africa said yesterday
that it intended to outlaw land seizures in an effort to prevent Zimbabwe-style
invasions. The move follows a highly politicised occupation of a dusty patch of
land by thousands of squatters near Johannesburg last month.
From Business Day (SA), 15 August
Zimbabwe left out in the cold on Mbeki's plan
Zimbabwe’s pride as a regional super power was badly dented yesterday
when Harare was left out of a key pan-African leadership committee to drive the
continent's economic rebirth. At the conclusion of the summit meeting of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC), Botswana's Festus Mogae and
Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano were nominated to join SA's President Thabo Mbeki
on the 15-nation committee of heads of state to direct the Millennium
Partnership for African Recovery (Map). Map is Mbeki's brainchild to forge a
partnership with the west to help shore up Africa's economic revival.
In Map, African leaders pledge to respect human rights and adhere to
good political and economic governance in exchange for a call for debt relief,
better market access and aid from developed nations. In a departure from
previous summits, Mugabe failed to get the clear backing of SADC leaders, who
yesterday instead expressed "concern (about) the effects of the Zimbabwe
economic situation on the region" and signalling their readiness to "engage in
dialogue" with Zimbabwean authorities and partners to resolve the situation.
They also set up a task team including SA, Botswana and Mozambique to help
Zimbabwe tackle the crisis.
The last summit asked Mbeki and Bakili Muluzi of Malawi now the SADC
chairman to help lobby the UK government to support Zimbabwe land reform. This
year's outcome contrasts sharply with last year's, which saw President Robert
Mugabe winning crucial backing, including from his erstwhile ally, Nelson
Mandela. Then, the SADC leadership threw its weight behind Zimbabwe, which faced
the threat of economic sanctions from the US. A bill has been tabled by the new
administration in the US to pressure Zimbabwe into restoring the rule of
law.
As expected, Mugabe gave up the chairmanship of the SADC's Organ for
Politics, Defence and Security, which he has chaired since its inception, to
Chissano, making the Mozambican leader one of the region's heavy hitters. But
Mugabe will stay as part of a troika of leaders, including Tanzania's Benjamin
Mkapa, running the highly contested organ. In terms of new procedures, Mugabe
will stay part of the triumvirate responsible for troubleshooting until August
next year. He has played a significant role in the liberation of other SADC
countries, including SA, as a leader of the "frontline states" the organ's
predecessor.
Thanks to controversy and personality clashes, the organ, a potentially
powerful instrument to deal with conflict in the region, has remained
inoperative for most of its life, reducing Mugabe, as its chairman, to a
figure-head. An official from Botswana, which was earlier tipped to take over
from Zimbabwe, said last night that capacity constraints might have militated
against this. Botswana also heads the Commonwealth ministerial action group, a
key troubleshooter. Crucially, the SADC leaders noted that another great
challenge was the issue of land reform and "noted the urgent need to share
strategies and experiences with a view to adopting common approaches and
strategies". This came amid a fresh round of invasions in Zimbabwe and recent
isolated invasions in SA.
From The Daily News, 14 August
Police vehicles used in farm looting spree
In well-orchestrated acts of lawlessness, in which police vehicles were
allegedly used, suspected Zanu PF supporters and war veterans burned at least 10
houses and looted property worth millions of dollars from 40 farms in the Doma,
Lions Den and Mhangura areas between Saturday and yesterday. A Daily News team
witnessed the looting of Mhungwe Farm in Mhangura yesterday afternoon. At Palm
Tree Farm, eight people tried to stab Ronnie Strathers, 71, before other farmers
came to his rescue. Another farmer who refused to be named said Kelvin Nel, of
Temperly Farm in the same area, yesterday spotted a group of about 60 looters
loading stolen bags of fertiliser onto a truck belonging to the farm. They fled
when they realised they had been caught red-handed. The looters got away with $3
million worth of agricultural chemicals and 5 000 litres of diesel from the
farm.
One farmer said the main house at Kalami Farm in the Doma area was
torched on Saturday and most of the farmers were forced to evacuate their wives
and children to safety as the farm violence escalated. At least 60 families were
evacuated from the Makonde District. The police spokesman, Assistant
Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, yesterday confirmed the lawlessness on the farms
and said 12 people have been arrested in connection with the looting. Speaking
on ZBC-TV, Bvudzijena said the police had increased the number of mobile support
units in the area and he appealed "to the nation" to desist from looting. A
spokesman for the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) on Saturday said: "There was
an evacuation of women and children. Some flew out, others drove out. They were
all accounted for." The CFU said by Saturday, $167 million worth of buildings
and property had been destroyed on nine farms by the rampaging mobs. On ZBC-TV
on Sunday, John Nkomo, the Zanu PF national chairman and Minister of Home
Affairs, said there was a criminal element among the war veterans and Zanu PF
supporters spearheading the violence and looting on the farms.
Yesterday, a farmer in the Mhangura area, who refused to be identified,
said: "They are stealing maize and carrying away fertiliser. We hear that there
are busloads that have been brought in. The situation is terrible. Some of them
are driving around in police vehicles. They are taking furniture, television
sets and video cassette recorders and throwing them into swimming pools." On
Saturday, a mob besieged Jeremy Brown in his house at Piringani Farm for about
six hours, threatening to shoot him. He was rescued by colleagues after the
police failed to respond to calls for help. At Chifundi Farm, the invaders broke
into the house of the farm owner’s mother, a widow in her 70s. and looted nearly
all the household property, before they were disturbed by other farmers. The
current wave of attacks started last week as 21 farmers appeared in the Chinhoyi
magistrates’ court charged with public violence after a clash with illegal
settlers at Listonshields Farm in the Chinhoyi area. The farmers were remanded
in custody to 24 August by senior magistrate Godfrey Gwaka last Friday. Lawyers
representing the farmers failed to file an urgent bail application with the High
Court because there was no one to receive their papers at the Attorney-General’s
Office on Saturday.
From ZWNEWS - We understand that Geoff Nyarota, the editor of the Daily
News was last night arrested and charged with "mailicious intent" for suggesting
in the above report that police vehicles were used in the looting.
From ZWNEWS, 15 August
The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA)
A brief explanation
If you have read the state-owned newspapers over recent weeks, listened
to ZBC, or watched ZTV, you would think that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Recovery Act (ZDERA) – recently passed by the US Senate, and currently under
consideration by the House of Representatives – is concerned with imposing
sanctions on Zimbabwe, like those that were imposed on the pre-1980 Rhodesian
government. You would be mistaken. It suits the government to foster this false
impression, to garner sympathy for itself, to present Zimbabwe as the underdog
being bullied by the United States. The ZDERA, however, is short and to the
point. It makes an offer to the Zimbabwe government. Whether this offer is put
into operation - or not - depends on a test.
The offer
To undertake a review of the sovereign debt owed by Zimbabwe to the United
States and any of its agencies with a view to restructuring, rescheduling, or
eliminating that debt. To instruct the US representative at multilateral
development banks and financial institutions (such as the World Bank and the
IMF) to propose that they also consider restructuring, rescheduling or
eliminating Zimbabwe’s foreign debt, and provide financial support for the
stabilisation of the Zimbabwe dollar and the recovery of Zimbabwe’s economy. To
establish a Southern Africa Finance Centre, located in Zimbabwe, to facilitate
commercial projects in Zimbabwe and the region. To financially support
equitable, legal, and transparent land reform in line with the 1998
International Donors’ Conference.
The test
In order for the offer to be put into operation, the US President must
justify to the US Senate and House of Representatives that :
1. The rule of law has been restored to Zimbabwe, including respect for
property rights, freedom of speech and association, and an end to lawlessness,
violence and intimidation sponsored by the government, the ruling party, and
their supporters.
2. a. Either a presidential election has been held that is widely accepted
as having been free and fair by independent international monitors, and the
president-elect is free to assume his office; or,
b. If this certification is made before the presidential election takes
place, that the pre-election period is consistent with international standards
to allow free campaigning by the candidates for presidential office.
3. The Zimbabwe government has committed itself to an equitable, legal and
transparent land reform programme consistent with the agreements reached at the
International Donors’ Conference of 1998.
4. The Zimbabwe government has shown good faith in trying to implement the
terms of the Lusaka Accord to end the war in the Congo.
5. The armed services and the police are responsible to, and serve, the
elected civilian government.
If the US President can justify that this test has been met, then the
offer will be put into operation.
It's as simple as that. What the ZDERA says to President Mugabe is this
– restore the rule of law, hold a free and fair election (including a free and
fair pre-election campaign period), accept that land reform has to be legal,
non-violent and transparent in line with previous agreements, do as much as you
can to withdraw Zimbabwean troops form the Congo, and stop misusing the police
and the army for Zanu PF’s own ends, and there are benefits.
However, until the test has been met, no part of the offer will be put
into effect, and the US representatives at the IMF, World Bank, etc will be
instructed to oppose any of the financial benefits set out in the offer. But
this is not a sanction, since the Zimbabwe government has already, by its own
actions, alienated itself from these institutions. Zimbabwe is already in
financial default, and IMF and World Bank funding will not resume until
political and economic stability is restored - whether the ZDERA is passed or
not. Humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe will not be affected, and the ZDERA also
authorises the US President to support an independent free press and electronic
media, and democracy and good governance programmes, in Zimbabwe.
The only sanctions in the ZDERA are specific and targeted. The final
section of the legislation reads as follows:
It is the sense of Congress that the President should begin immediate
consultation with the governments of European Union member states, Canada, and
other appropriate foreign countries on ways in which to:
(1) identify and share information regarding individuals responsible for
the deliberate breakdown of the rule of law, politically motivated violence, and
intimidation in Zimbabwe;
(2) identify assets of those individuals held outside Zimbabwe;
(3) implement travel and economic sanctions against those individuals and
their associates and families; and
(4) provide for the eventual removal or amendment of those sanctions.
This last section is what the ruling elite really fears. This will hurt
them personally, and that is why they are threatening a state of emergency if
the ZDERA is approved by the US House of Representatives and signed into law by
the US President.
ZDERA United States Senate Date posted:Wed 15-Aug-2001 Date
published:Wed 15-Aug-2001
The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act
S 494 RS Calendar No. 90 107th CONGRESS 1st Session S.
494
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 8, 2001 Mr. FRIST (for
himself, Mr. FEINGOLD, Mr. HELMS, Mrs. CLINTON, and Mr. BIDEN) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign
Relations July 16, 2001 Reported by Mr. BIDEN, with an amendment
A BILL To provide for a transition to democracy and to promote economic
recovery in Zimbabwe.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act
of 2001'.
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States to support the people of Zimbabwe in
their struggle to effect peaceful, democratic change, achieve broad-based and
equitable economic growth, and restore the rule of law.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS- The term `international financial
institutions' means the multilateral development banks and the International
Monetary Fund.
(2) MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS- The term `multilateral development
banks' means the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the
International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation,
the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the
Inter-American Investment Corporation, the African Development Bank, the African
Development Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the
Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.
SEC. 4. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
(a) FINDINGS- Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Through economic mismanagement, undemocratic practices, and the costly
deployment of troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Government of
Zimbabwe has rendered itself ineligible to participate in International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development and International Monetary Fund programs, which
would otherwise be providing substantial resources to assist in the recovery and
modernization of Zimbabwe's economy. The people of Zimbabwe have thus been
denied the economic and democratic benefits envisioned by the donors to such
programs, including the United States.
(2) In September 1999 the IMF suspended its support under a `Stand By
Arrangement', approved the previous month, for economic adjustment and reform in
Zimbabwe.
(3) In October 1999, the International Development Association (in this
section referred to as the `IDA') suspended all structural adjustment loans,
credits, and guarantees to the Government of Zimbabwe.
(4) In May 2000, the IDA suspended all other new lending to the Government
of Zimbabwe.
(5) In September 2000, the IDA suspended disbursement of funds for ongoing
projects under previously-approved loans, credits, and guarantees to the
Government of Zimbabwe.
(b) SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY- Upon receipt
by the appropriate congressional committees of a certification described in
subsection (d), the following shall apply:
(1) DEBT RELIEF AND OTHER FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE-
The Secretary of the Treasury shall--
(A) undertake a review of the feasibility of restructuring, rescheduling,
or eliminating the sovereign debt of Zimbabwe held by any agency of the United
States Government;
(B) direct the United States executive director of each multilateral
development bank to propose that the bank should undertake a review of the
feasibility of restructuring, rescheduling, or eliminating the sovereign debt of
Zimbabwe held by that bank; and
(C) direct the United States executive director of each international
financial institution to which the United States is a member to propose to
undertake financial and technical support for Zimbabwe, especially support that
is intended to promote Zimbabwe's economic recovery and development, the
stabilization of the Zimbabwean dollar, and the viability of Zimbabwe's
democratic institutions.
(2) ESTABLISHMENT OF A SOUTHERN AFRICA FINANCE CENTER- The President should
direct the establishment of a Southern Africa Finance Center located in Zimbabwe
that will include regional offices of the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and the Trade and
Development Agency for the purpose of facilitating the development of commercial
projects in Zimbabwe and the southern Africa region.
(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- Until the President makes the
certification described in subsection (d), and except as may be required to meet
basic human needs or for good governance, the Secretary of the Treasury shall
instruct the United States executive director to each international financial
institution to oppose and vote against--
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or
guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of
Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
(d) PRESIDENTIAL CERTIFICATION THAT CERTAIN CONDITIONS ARE SATISFIED- A
certification under this subsection is a certification transmitted to the
appropriate congressional committees of a determination made by the President
that the following conditions are satisfied:
(1) RESTORATION OF THE RULE OF LAW- The rule of law has been restored in
Zimbabwe, including respect for ownership and title to property, freedom of
speech and association, and an end to the lawlessness, violence, and
intimidation sponsored, condoned, or tolerated by the Government of Zimbabwe,
the ruling party, and their supporters or entities.
(2) ELECTION OR PRE-ELECTION CONDITIONS- Either of the following two
conditions is satisfied:
(A) PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION- Zimbabwe has held a presidential election that
is widely accepted as free and fair by independent international monitors, and
the president-elect is free to assume the duties of the office.
(B) PRE-ELECTION CONDITIONS- In the event the certification is made before
the presidential election takes place, the Government of Zimbabwe has
sufficiently improved the pre-election environment to a degree consistent with
accepted international standards for security and freedom of movement and
association.
(3) COMMITMENT TO EQUITABLE, LEGAL, AND TRANSPARENT LAND REFORM- The
Government of Zimbabwe has demonstrated a commitment to an equitable, legal, and
transparent land reform program consistent with agreements reached at the
International Donors' Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe
held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1998.
(4) FULFILLMENT OF AGREEMENT ENDING WAR IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO-
The Government of Zimbabwe is making a good faith effort to fulfill the terms of
the Lusaka, Zambia, agreement on ending the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
(5) MILITARY AND NATIONAL POLICE SUBORDINATE TO CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT- The
Zimbabwean Armed Forces, the National Police of Zimbabwe, and other state
security forces are responsible to and serve the elected civilian
government.
(e) WAIVER- The President may waive the provisions of subsection (b) or
subsection (c), if the President determines that it is in the national interest
of the United States to do so.
SEC. 5. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS, THE FREE PRESS AND INDEPENDENT
MEDIA, AND THE RULE OF LAW.
(a) IN GENERAL- The President is authorized to provide assistance under
part I and chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to--
(1) support an independent and free press and electronic media in
Zimbabwe;
(2) support equitable, legal, and transparent mechanisms of land reform in
Zimbabwe, including the payment of costs related to the acquisition of land and
the resettlement of individuals, consistent with the International Donors'
Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held in Harare, Zimbabwe,
in September 1998, or any subsequent agreement relating thereto; and
(3) for democracy and governance programs in Zimbabwe.
(b) FUNDING- Of the funds authorized to be appropriated to carry out part I
and chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for fiscal year
2002--
(1) $20,000,000 is authorized to be available to provide the assistance
described in subsection (a) (2); and
(2) $6,000,000 is authorized to be available to provide the assistance
described in subsection (a) (3).
(c) SUPERSEDES OTHER LAWS- The authority in this section supersedes any
other provision of law.
SEC. 6. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN AGAINST INDIVIDUALS
RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE AND THE BREAKDOWN OF THE RULE OF LAW IN ZIMBABWE.
It is the sense of Congress that the President should begin immediate
consultation with the governments of European Union member states, Canada, and
other appropriate foreign countries on ways in which to--
(1) identify and share information regarding individuals responsible for
the deliberate breakdown of the rule of law, politically motivated violence, and
intimidation in Zimbabwe;
(2) identify assets of those individuals held outside Zimbabwe;
(3) implement travel and economic sanctions against those individuals and
their associates and families; and
(4) provide for the eventual removal or amendment of those sanctions.
BULAWAYO
— The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has accused state security agents of
complicity in the brutal assault last week of Matabeleland North rancher
David Joubert, who is now facing charges of attempted murder.
CFU
president Colin Cloete said Joubert was attacked by a mob of between 45 and
60 people, who he said included the officer in-charge of Inyathi
police station, officers of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and
war veterans.
"Dave Joubert called for support from the police only to
be assaulted by them," Cloete said in a statement.
"I make a heartfelt
plea to the ministers and the police chiefs who took an oath of allegiance to
protect all citizens of Zimbabwe to swiftly and decisively avoid further
destruction of property." He estimated damage on the farm, including that to
workers’ compounds, which were burned to the ground, at $300
000.
Joubert, speaking from his hospital bed at Inyathi where he was
taken after the assault, said: "It is clear to see the hand of the CIO and
other state security agents in this. I was clobbered with a hammer in front
of the police and they just stood and watched the thugs pummel
me.
"They are now charging me with attempted murder when I was not even
on the farm when the war veterans clashed with farm guards. I understand the
police have got orders to deal with me. They want us to flee our farms so
that they grab the land."
Police officials yesterday said they could
not comment on the matter because it was now before the
courts.
Joubert, who suffered a concussion, loss of sight and high blood
pressure after the assault, has been remanded out of custody to September 10
and ordered to surrender his travel documents.
ZIMBABWE’S health delivery system has been ranked the
worst in the world by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the situation
is expected to deteriorate further as junior doctors and nurses this week dug
in their positions on demands for better working conditions and salaries that
have led to a long-drawn strike.
According to the August 11 issue
of the British Medical Journal, Zimbabwe was ranked last out of 191 countries
surveyed by the WHO and even performed worse than fellow southern African
countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lesotho,
Malawi, Swaziland and Zambia.
The WHO report attributed the poor health
records in Zimbabwe, Zambia and the DRC to the effects of HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, as well as civil unrest in the former Zaire.
Zimbabwe has
one of the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS cases in the world, with at
least one in four adults said to be carrying the disease.
Health experts
put the number of AIDS-related deaths at more than 2 000
a week.
Zimbabwe’s public health delivery system, once regarded as a
shining example to the continent, is bleeding from years of neglect and
inadequate funding by the government.
Government critics say most of
the funds for health and other social sectors have been diverted to finance
Zimbabwe’s costly military intervention in the DRC war, where Harare has been
fighting alongside Namibia and Angola to repel rebels that want to topple the
Congolese administration of President Joseph Kabila.
The cash-strapped
Zimbabwe government says it has spent more than $10 billion in the former
Zaire since the war broke out in August 1998, but most economic analysts and
international aid agencies say the actual cost is probably 10 times
more.
The WHO report cited government spending as an important factor in
the quality of a country’s health delivery system but added that other
issues like the diet also played a part in the population’s
health.
The WHO report was released as efforts this week to break the
deadlock between the government and Zimbabwe’s junior doctors and nurses over
a three-week-old strike came to nought.
The strike has virtually
paralysed the country’s public health delivery system, with the country’s
main referral hospitals only handling serious illnesses and referring other
patients to council-run clinics.
Efforts to get comment from the
authorities at Harare Central and Parirenyatwa hospitals were fruitless
yesterday but hospital sources say up to 100 patients have died countrywide
due to neglect as the health professionals and the government bicker over
salaries and better working conditions.
The situation yesterday
remained desperate at the health institutions as most nurses and junior
doctors ignored pleas by the government to return to work.
Patients
could be seen trooping back home without receiving attention at the two
Harare hospitals while those lucky enough to be attended to had to endure
long waiting periods before getting treatment.
"We have been told to go
back because they say they don’t have adequate staff," one patient, Derek
Mandizha, told the Financial Gazette as he left the casualty department at
Harare Hospital.
The Hospital Doctors Association, an umbrella body for
doctors working in government-run institutions, said it was not going to call
off the industrial action unless the state-run Public Service Commission
(PSC) which employs all state workers acceded to its demands for better
working conditions and salaries.
"We have been having meetings with
the Ministry of Health but it’s the PSC that we would like to meet because
they are our employer," Mandega said.
He accused the PSC of avoiding the
junior doctors and trying to buy time while the country’s health system
bleeds.
No comment was available from the PSC but Deputy Health Minister
David Parirenyatwa told the Financial Gazette that the government was
prepared to review the strikers’ grievances but only if the health
professionals returned to work.
He said his ministry would soon
organise an all-stakeholders’ meeting that would address the grievances of
all players in the health sector but said that would depend on whether the
striking doctors agree to resume work.
"Eventually we would want to have
a commission separate from the PSC so that all health professionals would
operate outside the public service," Parirenyatwa said.
The Zimbabwe
Nurses Association (ZINA) this week rejected Parirenya-twa’s suggestion that
they return to work before the matter is resolved. Parirenyatwa met the
nurses in Harare on Tuesday.
"The members felt that the ministry and PSC
must first address our grievances before we return to work," ZINA president
Stella Zengwa said yesterday.
