A building housing an independent radio station in the
Zimbabwean capital, Harare, has been destroyed in an explosion.
The building's roof caved in after the blast, according to the BBC's Lewis
Machipisa in Harare.
Staff at the Voice of the People station told the BBC that they suspected
that the building had been bombed - there has been no confirmation of this from
the police.
The incident occurs against a background of government action to control the
independent media and criticisms by ministers that the media is conducting a
campaign against the government.
Journalists in Zimbabwe accuse the government of trying to muzzle the media.
Bomb?
The Reuters news agency reported that a bomb had caused the blast.
It says that two armed men confronted the security guard on duty at the
privately-run radio station shortly after midnight and told him to leave.
Mugabe passed the new media law days after his
re-election
|
The agency says Takura Zhangasha, an advocate with the Media Institute of
Southern Africa told them that the men " then hurled an explosive device into
the one-storey building".
The French agency, AFP, also reported that a bomb exploded early on Thursday
morning at the Voice of the People offices.
New media laws introduced in Zimbabwe in March restricted the activities of
private radio stations.
The Voice of the People recorded radio material which was sent to the
Netherlands from where it was broadcast on short-wave to avoid breaking the
media curbs.
Government hostility
Workers arrived for work at Voice of the People on Thursday morning to find
that the building was in ruins.
The BBC's Lewis Machipisa reports that the staff said that one of their
colleagues had not turned up for work but they did not know why.
In the past few years there have been physical attacks on the independent
media, with two bomb attacks against the Daily News newspaper.
More recently Zimbabwean and foreign journalists based there have been
arrested by the government. Several have been charged with offences under the
new media laws.
In July, the courts acquitted an Andrew Meldrum, an American journalist based
in Zimbabwe, of breaking new, strict media laws.
Daily News
56 farmers win reprieve
8/29/02 8:56:33 AM (GMT +2)
By Lloyd
Mudiwa Court Reporter
FIFTY-SIX commercial
farmers in Mashonaland West province yesterday
won a reprieve in the High
Court in Harare to continue farming in the face
of the ongoing forced
evictions from their properties.
But
their lawyer told the court he had received a telephone call
threatening to
kill him if he continued to represent the farmers. The High
Court set aside
the Section 8 the government issued for the compulsory
acquisition of their
farms by 10 August.
Judge Benjamin Paradza
gave the directives after the government
conceded the compulsory acquisition
orders it had issued were invalid and of
no
effect.
"I will grant the order as amended in
all these matters," said the
judge.
Paradza's colleague, Justice Charles Hungwe, last Wednesday postponed
the
granting of the orders, although the State had conceded that 38 of the
56
eviction orders were not served according to the procedures and were
thus
invalid.
The State had failed to
oppose the applications, setting aside the
evictions in the remaining cases,
within the prescribed time.
Nelson
Mutsonziwa of the Attorney-General's Office had asked for a
delay, saying if
the orders were granted last week, there would be serious
security problems
for the farmers, the new settlers and their properties.
Mutsonziwa yesterday
said the government abided by the responses it made
early this month to the
farmers, mostly from Hurungwe district, challenging
the validity of the
acquisition orders. The responses stated that the orders
were of no force and
effect. "The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement abides by
the responses filed of record and consents to the
orders being sought by the
applicants," Mutsonziwa said. He said the
government had consented to the
granting of the orders because it failed to
serve the Section 5 Preliminary
Notice on the real rights owners registered
against the properties before it
issued the Section 8 Eviction
Notice
orders.
Justice Charles Hungwe
early this month ruled that a mortgaged farm
could not be taken over for
resettlement by the State without first
informing the institution holding the
bond.
Jeremy Callow, who represented 46 of
the farmers, yesterday informed
Paradza that he had received a threatening
telephone call at his home on
Monday morning, in connection with the land
cases.
"At 6:25 am on Monday I received an
anonymous threatening phone call,"
he said.
"I was told that if I was seen again in Karoi I would be killed. "As
an
officer of the court I want it noted down. One is sadly reminded of
the
regrettable incident a few weeks ago involving magistrates in
Chipinge."
The Chipinge Magistrates' Courts
were closed for two days after
suspected Zanu PF supporters attacked the
resident magistrate accusing him
of giving judgments
favouring
Some of the farmers Callow was
representing yesterday are from the
Karoi
area.
Callow, who has already successfully
defended several other farmers in
Karoi as well as the Chinhoyi farmers who
were accused of attacking
resettled people, vowed to continue representing
his clients.
After Paradza's order, Jenni
Williams, the spokeswoman for Justice for
Agriculture (JAG), a militant
splinter of the Commercial Farmers Union,
said: "We are always happy when we
receive a legal victory as long as it
remains a legal victory on the
ground."
Honey and Blanckenberg
represented nine other farmers while Advocate
Harry Simpson appeared for
one.
Daily News
Zesa prejudiced $9 million in scam involving senior
employees
8/29/02 9:05:52 AM (GMT
+2)
By Pedzisai Ruhanya Chief
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (Zesa) could have been
prejudiced of millions of dollars in lost
revenue in an alleged scam
involving officials at Original Technology (OT)
and a senior employee of the
power utility, according to court
records.
Three weeks ago, Thandiwe Sithole
appeared in the Harare Magistrates'
Court for defrauding Zesa of $8 961 408.
She was granted $50 000 bail. She
is a principal technician at
Zesa.
According to the court record,
sometime between 28 August 2001 and 11
July 2002, Sithole connived with
officials from OT and another company,
Saskoale Enterprises, to defraud her
employer.
The State alleged that Sithole
facilitated orders for the two
companies where she ordered a total of 750
single phase energy meters.
The two
companies only delivered 156 meters at Zesa premises
in
Belvedere.
Chris Msipa is a director
at OT. He said three weeks ago, Ezekiel
Madzikanda, OT's managing director
was arrested by the police but released
after the Attorney General Office
said there was no case against him.
Madzikanda is a former employee of Zesa.
Msipa is the son of the Midlands provincial governor, Cephas
Msipa.
Daily News
State drops charges against MDC
members
8/29/02 9:06:28 AM (GMT
+2)
From Chris Gande in
Bulawayo
FOUR MDC members accused of
receiving military training at the party's
provincial offices in Bulawayo had
their charges withdrawn by the Attorney
General (AG)'s Office because of lack
of evidence.
Initially, Ronnie Zulu, 32,
Sithabiso Mangala, 29, Ferdinand Dropper,
31, and Alexander Khanye, 37, were
accused of involvement in the murder of
war veteran Cain Nkala last
year.
The State alleged that between 1 and
11 November last year, the men
held meetings during which they were trained
by Sonny Nicholas Masera in how
to assassinate Zanu PF
supporters.
They were allegedly taught how
to handcuff the victims and strangle
them with
twine.
The four were on $5 000 bail each and
had been reporting to their
nearest police station once every
week.
The police had argued that if they
were granted bail they "were likely
to commit further offences of
terrorism".
Nicholas Mathonsi of Webb,
Lowe and Barry, who represented the four,
had lodged a chamber application
for variation of bail conditions when the
AG's Office said the charges had
been dropped.
The State had alleged that
the accused had been implicated by
witnesses and had refused to disclose the
identity of the witnesses "for
security
reasons".
Daily News
Mugabe accepts blame for
famine
8/29/02 9:08:13 AM (GMT
+2)
From Our Correspondent in
Masvingo
President Mugabe on Tuesday
accepted blame for the current food
shortages, but in the same breath ordered
white farmers resisting forced
evictions from their properties to leave the
country.
Mugabe told his supporters at
Triangle in Chiredzi, Masvingo province,
the country had not prepared for the
food disaster and regretted the
shortages of basic
commodities.
Mugabe said: "We were caught
unaware and next time we should not be
found wanting if a similar drought
occurs.
"We had not realised that we could
have a winter crop here, but the
drought has taught
us
a lesson. No one had any idea whether the
crop would be good or not,
but we just
tried."
After addressing the rally in
Chiredzi, Mugabe went to Gibbon Stadium
where he said white commercial
farmers resisting eviction must leave
the
country.
He said there would be no
negotiations on the land issue.
Mugabe
said: "If white commercial farmers want to stay in this country
they should
leave the whole issue to us, so that we can give them portions
of
land.
"Those who are not willing to do so
should leave the country.
"Whether they
want to leave by road, by bicycles, or on foot or by air
we will show them
the way."
Mugabe described white farmers as
"totemless" people who should not
dictate to
the
indigenous
people.
His remarks are against the
background of scores of white farmers
being ordered to move off their
properties. Some have pending cases in the
courts for allegedly contravening
Section 8 of the Land Acquisition Act
which gave effect to the
evictions.
Mugabe launched his customary
attack on British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, describing him as
gay.
He said the opposition MDC was a
party of lesbians and gays.
Mugabe said
all factories shut by their owners would be investigated
thoroughly, claiming
some of them stopped production to force him out
of
power.
"We want to know if they
closed down due to viability problems or
because they wanted people to be out
of employment so that they would revolt
against
me.
"We are going to take over some of
these factories and give them to
the workers," he
said.
Earlier, Mugabe toured the Lowveld
where a winter maize crop is being
grown on
over
1 800 hectares of
land.
The land was seized from Triangle,
Hippo Valley and Mkwatsine estates.
The
winter maize project is the brainchild of Masvingo Provincial
Governor Josaya
Hungwe.
Some shops in the agricultural
town of Triangle were ordered to close
to allow people to attend Mugabe's
rally.
Daily News - Leader
Page
Public must know what the
government is up to
8/29/02
8:52:30 AM (GMT +2)
THE right of
the public to know what the government is up to is almost
sacrosanct. They
pay the taxes which keep the wheels of the public service
running. The
Minister of Finance and Economic Development's annual budget
speech may go
some way to provide an indication of this, but it's the
government's unsigned
contract with the people that it must be open with
them, especially where
their money is concerned.
Last
Monday's swearing-in ceremony of President Mugabe's not-so-new
Cabinet was
closed to the independent media. Their readers were denied the
chance to read
what went on at that ceremony, funded entirely with their tax
money.
Unofficially, the independent media were told they had no invitations
to this
public function, held at State House, which is not owned by Zanu PF
and is
funded entirely by the taxpayer. The privately-owned Press, which
operates
legally in Zimbabwe and whose companies pay Company Tax like any
other
company, and whose journalists pay income tax like any other worker,
was
barred from covering this ceremony.
There
may have been ideological reasons, but they cannot possibly
justify a ban on
the coverage of a function funded by the taxpayers' money.
If this an example
of the government's mounting paranoia, then it is time to
ask Parliament to
intervene.
The arrogance of the Department
of Information and Publicity, which
presumably issued the "invitations", is
incredible. Mugabe may have been
re-elected in controversial circumstances,
but his presidency is funded by
the taxpayers' money. Readers of the
independent newspapers pay taxes as
faithfully and regularly as do readers of
the State-owned newspapers and
listeners and viewers of the radio and
television networks - or else they
would be in jail for tax
evasion.
They are entitled to know what
the government is doing with their
money, whether it is to stage a lavish
Cabinet swearing-in ceremony at State
House or for the President to fly down
to Chiredzi to inspect an irrigation
scheme. Once he was sworn in as
President after the controversial election
in March, Mugabe became President
of Zimbabwe, not just of Zanu PF. Even
those voters who voted against him are
entitled to his respect and
consideration in everything he does on their
behalf. It is their money which
keeps his presidency running: he owes them
that much, at the very least.
There are
some in Zanu PF and in the government who may feel that
because the
independent media was generally negative about Mugabe's
re-election they
ought to be punished, such as being excluded from all
government functions
and ceremonies.
Such an attitude is as
juvenile and petulant as that of the official
police spokesman who refuses to
speak officially to the independent media,
citing a vague conflict whose
origins seem so esoteric they are difficult to
tabulate
here.
The police spokesman is paid from
taxpayers' money. How he can openly
refuse to perform a public duty for which
he is paid from public funds is
again the height of arrogance. Again, this is
a matter which Parliament
ought to take up.
As some people have said, there ought to be a law against this sort
of
practice - public officials refusing to perform their public duties on
some
petty, personal pretext.
The
bigger picture revolves around the government's overall attitude
towards the
privately-owned Press. If this is the democracy that people died
for in 15
years of struggle, then it is unconscionable for anyone in Zanu PF
and the
government to believe that any group of people or institutions who
disagree
with the policies of the ruling party are necessarily unpatriotic
and
plotting with foreigners to bring down the
government.
This sort of persecution mania
is unworthy of the government and even
Zanu PF, whose membership must include
a number of level-headed citizens.
What they need to do is to neutralise the
lunatic fringe in their midst, and
let the public get its money's
worth.
Daily
News
Workers allege corruption
at CSC
8/29/02 8:45:08 AM (GMT
+2)
By Sandra Mujokoro in
Bulawayo
THE alleged corruption plaguing
the Cold Storage Company (CSC) assumed
a higher level with workers making
fresh claims against the financially
troubled
company.
It has emerged that the CSC did not
make the statutory income tax and
medical aid payments to the relevant
institutions after deducting the two
items from workers' July
salaries.
In addition to this, assets
of considerable value, including a
refrigerator and tills, were attached by
an unnamed financial institution
from one of CSC's Meat Pride branches in
Harare over the non-payment of
debts, months after the government reportedly
inherited CSC's debts.
Leonard
Kuzondishaya, the Assistant General-Secretary of the Food and
Allied Workers
Union under which CSC workers fall, said assets and equipment
seized by the
messenger of court earlier this year over huge, unserviced
debts, had still
not been returned.
He said the situation
was so bad that workers were being advised by
the union to check if
management had made Aids levy payments to the National
Social Security
Authority after making the deductions on their
salaries.
Kuzondishaya confirmed the
workers' suspicions that corruption was
rife saying a number of managers who
were put on suspension two years ago
not only received their full salaries
but also retained company cars and
houses in addition to using CSC fuel
before being reinstated this year.
"What then was the use of the suspension?
It was a waste of money and it is
just one instance of the corruption at the
CSC," he said.
Workers at the CSC's
Bulawayo branch said the company made medical aid
deductions on their June
salaries but CIMAS, their medical aid provider,
said it was no longer doing
business with the company. A worker who refused
to be named, said: "Apart
from robbing us of our hard earned money, it poses
a huge problem when our
children fall sick and our medical aid cards are
suddenly and arbitrarily
declared useless."
Apparently, the problem
of non-payment of salaries was not restricted
to Harare alone but extended to
Bulawayo where workers said they only got
their July salaries on the weekend
but had not received their August dues.
Bulawayo workers said they could not continue working under such
conditions
and were demanding exit packages so they could seek employment
elsewhere.
Another worker who refused to be named said the company had
transferred him
and several others from Marondera and Harare with the
promise of
accommodation but to date he had to foot his own rental
bills.
Kuzondishaya said the CSC's
problems were cause for concern for the
entire nation as the company was a
national asset which deserved more
attention than it was getting from the
government.
The CSC has reportedly failed
to fulfil its export quota to the
Democratic Republic of Congo as well as to
the European Union and South
Africa.
Six CSC branches have been closed nationwide including strategic ones
like
Gweru and Mutare which before its closure in 1999 made a profit of
$1,8
million a month.
Workers are also
questioning the significance of having a top-heavy
structure which has 43
managers for 1 255 workers reflecting a ratio of
1:29. They also came out
against the sale of machinery which management
claimed was obsolete and the
closure of the company's transport department
which resulted in an increase
in expenses.
Daily
News
Iran, Zambia only countries
exhibiting at Harare Show
8/29/02
8:46:21 AM (GMT +2)
By Mabasa
Sasa
THIS year's Harare Agricultural Show,
which started on Monday, has
only two international exhibitors and a
drastically reduced number of
commercial agriculture displays as compared to
all the previous years.
Iran and
Zambia are the only countries with stands at this
year's
show.
Oliver Gawe, the information
officer for the Zimbabwe Agricultural
Show Society, (ZAS), said the
significant drop in the number of
international exhibitors was not surprising
as most of them usually
preferred attending the Zimbabwe International Trade
Fair, (ZITF), which
starts later in the
year.
Gawe further indicated that it was
not the job of ZAS officials to
invite foreign exhibitors. He said this was
the responsibility of foreign
embassies in the
country.
"It is really a big problem,"
Gawe said. "The prospects are good and
contrary to reports going around,
business has not been severely damaged."
Entries in the maize section totalled 136, which is 22 less than last
year's
total of 158 while entries in the cotton growers category increased
to 139
from last year's 125.
This was largely
attributed to the increased number of small-scale
entrants in this year's
edition after the Commercial Farmers Union, (CFU),
boycotted the show because
of the harassment they have been subjected to by
the government since war
veterans started invading white-owned farms in
2000
.
Tobacco entrants were more than
halved from 76 last year to only 32
this year while the only livestock on
display was being exhibited by various
primary
schools.
The number of exhibitors
displaying market garden produce increased
significantly from 272 last year
to this year's 315 while the number of
honey producers at the show shot up
from last year's eight to 103 due to the
increased participation of local
small-scale producers in the field.
Gawe
said first day figures for ticket sales were encouraging as 576
more people
walked in through the gates this year in comparison to last
year, making this
year's first day total a relatively modest 2 924. "Numbers
increase later on
during the week, so we can't complain," Gawe
said.
Daily
News
Feature
Political
violence is against freedom
8/29/02 8:49:11 AM (GMT +2)
REPORTS of political violence appear in Zimbabwe's print media
daily.
Such reports are broadcast by the
State-controlled electronic media
only if the victims are ruling Zanu PF
party members, or if the alleged
perpetrator is an opposition party member or
perceived to be one.
A few weeks ago, a
magistrate in Chipinge was reported to have been
dragged out of a courtroom
and assaulted by a mob suspected to be Zanu PF
members. A lawyer in Mutare
was threatened and had to hide for several
days.
Earlier, many teachers in various
parts of Zimbabwe were reported to
have been assaulted and some schools were,
in fact, temporarily closed down
because of such violence caused by Zanu PF
members and some war veterans, or
people claiming to be war
veterans.
It is well known that whenever
violence has occurred against Zanu PF,
the government-controlled media
hysterically highlights it, condemning it in
the strongest possible terms, at
times in emotive words that should not be
uttered by any responsible national
leader.
But when the culprits are Zanu PF,
and the victims are members of the
MDC (and most of the time that is the
case), the government and its media
are so quiet that, to any normal human
being, it is deeply embarrassing.
But we
should, of course, always remember that the Zanu PF leader,
Robert Mugabe,
once publicly boasted that Zanu PF leaders, including
himself, had "many
degrees in violence".
In addition to that
frightening declaration, listeners and viewers of
Zimbabwe's electronic media
always hear one of Zanu PF's top leaders, Elliot
Manyika, sing a song titled
Zvinoda Kushinga in which he repeatedly says
"Zanu ndeyeropa" (Zanu PF is for
blood).
It is unfortunate that political
violence should still be a part of
the social life of Zimbabwe, 22 years
after independence. It is also tragic
that the violence is perpetrated in the
vast number of cases by the party
that claims to have brought about that
nationhood.
When the people of Zimbabwe
joined the liberation struggle,
sacrificing their very lives, time and
material resources, their objective
was to achieve freedom for every
individual as well as for the entire
population of Zimbabwe in
general.
It was the belief of everyone in
the liberation movement that in an
independent Zimbabwe, we would all be free
to express our political,
cultural, economic and social aspirations, not only
verbally, but
graphically and by deed through a truly free franchise
system.
It was also every Zimbabwean's
honest hope that we would create a
nation where equality before the law would
be established and defended by
every mentally normal person, particularly
those who spearheaded the
liberation
struggle.
It never occurred to normal
minds that we would one day in an
independent Zimbabwe experience a physical
attack on a member of the
judiciary, and that the government of an
independent Zimbabwe would take
such an occurrence lightly, its police force
standing idly by while those
responsible for meting out justice through the
country's legal system, and
distributors of enlightenment are physically
brutalised with impunity by
hordes of obvious social
misfits.
And yet that is what we see
happening today in an
independent
Zimbabwe.
It is important
to point out to those who delight in violence that
violence is against
freedom for which this nation sacrificed most dearly.
The liberation struggle
was all about creating a socio-economic environment
characterised by the
enjoyment of our rights as enshrined in the
country's
Constitution.
The
independence of the judiciary is one of the things for which we
took up arms
to establish, and so was the right for everyone to pursue their
professions,
trades, vocations and hobbies, unhindered.
It is not understandable how a state whose head is a former
professional
schoolteacher, and many of whose ministries and departments are
headed by
former schoolteachers,
can allow thugs to
brutalise its schoolteachers, never mind for
whatever
reason.
It is also a piece of tragic irony
that an administration whose
spokesman has repeatedly claimed that it (the
administration) respects the
rule of law can allow, no, in effect abet,
political thugs to terrorise
its
judiciary.
Schoolteachers are
professionals whose very first responsibility to
society is to be role
models. Even auxiliary school personnel deserve
respect, and must also
reciprocate by behaving respectably in their
everyday
life.
Thugs cannot argue that
teachers are accountable to the communities
served by their respective
schools, and that as part of the communities,
they (the thugs) have a right
to assault them for not supporting the same
political party as
theirs.
That argument is absolutely
nonsensical because teachers, like the
thugs themselves, have a
constitutional right to support a political party
of their own choice without
let or hindrance from whatever quarter or by
whomever, war veteran or former
Selous Scout of the Smith regime.
What
right has anyone got to force someone else to support a
political
organisation they do not
like?
None whatsoever, and that is what
freedom is all about.
The political
preference of each individual is that individual's
sacrosanct right, as
sacrosanct as that individual's right to choose his or
her own spouse, or his
or her own religion. That right is a part of that
individual's personal
freedom. It is blatantly
criminal to violate
that right by inflicting violence against
anyone.
The law enforcement personnel of
Zimbabwe have an inescapable duty to
protect this right by dealing firmly
with those who violate it. That is what
the rule of law
demands.
It is shocking that in this day and
age we still have political
leaders in Zimbabwe who depend on physical
violence to stay in power.
Why does it not
painfully prick their conscience that their political
party's violence is
causing pain, misery, death, destruction and destitution
among the people it
claims to have liberated?
We have widows,
widowers, orphans, cripples and destitutes in
Zimbabwe
Herald
'Zim Ready to Defend
Plan'
The Herald (Harare)
August 29,
2002
Posted to the web August 29, 2002
THE Government yesterday
described plans by the Commonwealth troika on
Zimbabwe to discuss Harare on
the sidelines of the United Nations Earth
Summit in South Africa as "risky"
and bound to destroy the 54-nation
grouping.
The Minister of State for
Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo
said if the prime ministers
of the racist white Commonwealth thought they
could intimidate African
leaders or beat Zimbabwe into another racist
submission "then they ain't seen
nothing yet".
Prof Moyo said Zimbabwe was ready to defend its programme
to redress the
vestiges of colonialism by equitably redistributing land to
the previously
marginalised blacks.
"If (Jean) Chretien (the Canadian
Prime Minister) wants to come to
Johannesburg to discuss Zimbabwe on the
sidelines of the summit, he is most
welcome if his intention is to help rid
Southern Africa of the vestiges of
colonialism because sustainable
development will not happen in the region
unless the legacies of colonialism
and apartheid are buried in real terms,"
he said from Johannesburg where he
is attending the Earth Summit.
He was responding to Mr Chretien's
comments that he wants to hold
discussions with international partners about
the perceived deteriorating
situation in Zimbabwe on the sidelines of the
Earth Summit in South Africa.
"But if Chretien thinks he can intimidate
African leaders or beat Zimbabwe
into another racist submission then he ain't
seen nothing yet.
"We are having a UN meeting in Johannesburg and not a
British Commonwealth
picnic. Therefore, all the talk about the so-called
troika on Zimbabwe
having meetings on the sidelines of the summit to discuss
ways of punishing
Zimbabwe is risky business.
"They can only succeed
in destroying the Commonwealth. So if there is anyone
who wants to destroy
the Commonwealth that is their own indaba. They should
leave us alone to
complete our historical struggle for social justice," Prof
Moyo
said.
He said the time had come for Africans and indeed the rest of the
world to
tell the Prime Ministers of the white Commonwealth that colonial
crimes
against humanity in Zimbabwe or anywhere else for that matter would
neither
be forgotten or rewarded.
"They must be redressed in very
fundamental ways. The Chretiens of this
world are going too far to the point
of not only wanting to hold the welfare
of millions of black Zimbabweans
hostage to the racist interests of less
than 4 000 white farmers who are
direct beneficiaries of untold crimes
against humanity perpetrated against
Zimbabweans by murderous, thieving and
looting British
colonialists."
Prof Moyo added: "The world would be a much better place
for everyone if the
racist prime ministers of the white Commonwealth could be
as hysterical and
single-minded in their support for sustainable development
for billions of
people in the Third World as they are for a handful of white
farmers in
Zimbabwe who are willy-nilly defying and breaking the law just
because they
are white and carry British, Australian, Canadian and New
Zealand
passports."
The minister said the prime ministers wanted to
abuse a meeting intended to
discuss sustainable development to take care of
the interests of less 4 000
white farmers in Zimbabwe.
"That is
obscene and insulting to the whole of mankind. So it would be
foolish for the
prime ministers of the Commonwealth like Chretien to come to
Africa with a
colonial attitude and racist arrogance of instructing African
leaders on
Zimbabwe.
"If they do that they will get a rude awakening because
everyone is now sick
and tired of the racist Commonwealth against Zimbabwe,"
Prof Moyo said.
Following Government's resolute stance to complete the
agrarian reforms and
empower the majority of the indigenous people in the
country, the West led
by Britain and the United States, has intensified its
demonisation campaign
against Zimbabwe in support of the white
farmers.
The US announced last week that it was plotting to topple
President Mugabe
with the help of Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, the
local private
media and opposition elements in the country.
The
British-created and funded Amani Trust has also heightened its spread
of
falsehoods on Zimbabwe in a futile bid to influence the Earth Summit
to
punish Zimbabwe.
But the Government remains unwavering in
implementing the land reform
programme which it is carrying out in terms of
the laws and constitution of
the country.
"We are not evicting anyone
from their land but from State land in terms of
the laws and democratic
constitution of Zimbabwe.
"We are not looting like what the colonialists
did. There is no barbaric
looting as we saw during colonialism," Prof Moyo
said.
Herald
Bread Shortages
Persist
The Herald (Harare)
August 29,
2002
Posted to the web August 29, 2002
BREAD shortages continue to
affect most parts of Harare with long queues now
common at most retail
outlets selling the commodity.
A survey conducted by The Herald yesterday
established that most retail
shops had very little if any bread stocks at
all.
Black market traders are cashing in on the crisis, with some selling
the
commodity for as much as $100 instead of the recommended $60.
The
shortage of bread has been blamed on dwindling wheat stocks.
Some bakery
owners yesterday said the supply of flour was now erratic and at
times they
received nothing.
"I last received my little flour supply from National
Foods on Monday which
has since run out.
"At present we are not baking
anything and the supplies are not certain. We
don't actually know when we
will receive our next consignment," said the
managing director of retail
outlet Food Fair, Mr Innocent Chisvo.
However, Bakers Inn was still
operating at full capacity yesterday because
of its strategic flour
reserves.
"We are operating at full capacity, producing 320 000 loaves a
day but all
the same the flour supplies are not stable.
"We are only
getting 20 percent of our requirements from National Foods.
"The Grain
Marketing Board is also giving us 6 000 tonnes of flour instead
of 9 000 and
our strategic reserves are about to get finished," said the
managing director
of Bakers Inn Zimbabwe, Mr Mudumo Burombo.
However, no comment could be
obtained from the suppliers.
The chairman of the Master Bakers
Association, Mr Armitage Chikwavira, said
the bread shortage was being caused
by the shortage of flour, which was now
being sourced from Middle Sabi where
there were very little stocks.
The executive director of the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe, Ms Elizabeth
Nerwande, said bread was not a luxury but a
basic commodity which required
maximum attention.
"For most urban
consumers bread is a staple food, its unavailability will
directly impact on
consumers' welfare," she said.
Reuters
Zimbabwe Radio Station Bombed, Activist
Arrested
August 29, 2002 02:20 PM ET
By
Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Gunmen
threw a bomb which exploded in a private
radio station widely regarded as
anti-government in Zimbabwe's capital on
Thursday, but nobody was hurt in the
blast, witnesses said.
Separately, police
arrested a human rights activist, drawing
accusations that Zimbabwe's
pro-government forces were continuing to muzzle
opposition
voices.
"This attack on independent
broadcasting sends another clear signal
that freedom of speech has no place
in (President Robert) Mugabe's
Zimbabwe," British European Parliament member
Glenys Kinnock said in a
statement.
She
urged African leaders at the Earth Summit in neighboring South
Africa to
condemn Mugabe loudly when he addresses the world leaders there
on
Monday.
Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change condemned the
attack, saying it proved that
"sinister elements" in Zimbabwe were
determined to silence all
opposition.
Shortly after midnight, two
armed men confronted a guard on duty at
the "Voice of the People" radio
station in Harare and told him to leave,
before hurling an explosive device
into the single-story building.
"They
threw a bomb through a window of the building. It was
extensively damaged but
no-one was hurt," said Takura Zhangasha of the Media
Institute of Southern
Africa.
Nobody claimed responsibility for
the attack.
Station head Faith Ndebele
refused to speculate on who could have
bombed the building, but said the
culprit was clearly an enemy of
free
speech.
Zimbabwe is plunging
deeper into political and economic crisis as
Mugabe presses ahead with plans
to force 2,900 of the country's white
commercial farmers to quit their land
without compensation.
In a separate
development, police arrested Frances Lovemore of the
Amani Trust human rights
group under a new law that prohibits the
publication of false
information.
Assistant Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena told Reuters police were
looking for Tony Reeler, the head of the
group, on similar charges.
"We are
questioning (Lovemore) over articles in newspapers suggesting
that there are
torture camps in this country, where people are being
sexually abused and
having their genitals burned.
"We don't
know about these camps and we want her to help us locate
them," he
said.
At least a dozen local and foreign
journalists have been arrested
under the new Access to Information law, but
Lovemore is the first media
source to be detained in terms of the tough media
crackdown.
"ATTACK ON FREE
SPEECH"
At the scene of the bombing, a
Reuters reporter said the roof of the
building in a Harare suburb had caved
in and equipment and furniture were
badly
charred.
An army and police probe team
sealed the offices off from reporters
and were sifting through the
rubble.
Ndebele said it was a recording
studio which broadcast from abroad in
three languages. It was run by a
non-government organization called "Voice
of the People," funded by local and
foreign donations.
"For us this is an
attack on free speech, and very sad for those who
relied on our broadcasts
for alternative views and opinions," Ndebele
told
reporters.
Zimbabwe has one
state-owned national broadcasting corporation and
critics say Mugabe's
government is moving slowly in opening up the
airwaves.
Two years ago, the government
raided and seized equipment of a private
company that had set up a radio
station in a Harare hotel, calling it an
illegal pirate operation meant to
advance the interests of a
British-backed
opposition.
In the past
two years, the offices and the printing press of
Zimbabwe's only
privately-owned daily newspaper -- The Daily News -- have
also been wrecked
in bomb attacks.
Nobody was arrested in
connection with those incidents.
SPECTATOR
31 August
2002
COVER STORY
Labour's betrayal of
Zimbabwe
Peter Oborne reveals the scandalous
consequences of the government's timid
approach to Robert Mugabe, a tyrant
who is now creating a famine among his
own people
This autumn
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, is on the verge of
man-made
famine. Soon refugees will be pouring out over the borders, above
all into
neighbouring South Africa. According to the United Nations six
million
people -half the population - are in peril of undernourishment or
starvation.
Most famines are to some extent man-made. But very rarely
are they created
deliberately, as an act of government policy. Stalin
engineered a rural
famine to exterminate the kulaks in the 1930s. So it is
with Robert Mugabe,
the Zimbabwean President. He has already set about
eradicating his
opponents. Aid agencies have noted that food is being
diverted to Mugabe's
political clients. Hundreds of thousands of black
farmworkers are being
lifted off the land, and dumped.
The white
farmers left in Zimbabwe are, in statistical terms, not much more
than an
irrelevance. But they enable Mugabe to propagate the notion that he
is the
victim of a racist, colonial conspiracy. This elaborately constructed
fantasy cuts less and less ice in Zimbabwe itself. But it seems to work in
neighbouring countries, and above all in the regional superpower, South
Africa, which has sat by as Mugabe has embarked on murder, torture,
expropriation and ethnic cleansing. Mugabe's fantasy has carried great
weight, above all, with the British government. The Zimbabwean President's
constant emphasis on Britain's colonial past has had an astonishing effect.
It has almost completely emasculated Tony Blair and his ministers. Again and
again, in their quest for an excuse for inaction, government ministers have
reverentially prayed in aid the anticolonialist sentiments of the Zimbabwean
President.
The consequence has been a feeble and useless foreign
policy. As the storm
clouds have gathered, ministers have been timid and
inert, and at times have
shown a bewildering readiness to believe
protestations and assurances from
Mugabe himself. They have displayed some
of the naivety of the idealistic,
well-meaning and reasonably minded prewar
British statesmen who
preposterously believed that there was a deal to be
done with the Axis
dictators.
The determining moment in British
policy came two years ago, as the first
farm seizures occurred and Mugabe
began to resort to open violence and
intimidation as a means of keeping
power. At this stage there were two
schools of thought within the Foreign
Office about how the impending
calamity should be handled. Peter Hain, the
minister of state, powerfully
argued that Britain should engage directly
with Zimbabwe and its neighbours.
Hain, who as a young activist in the 1970s
masterminded the exclusion of
South Africa from world sport, knew the
country far better than most, and
had impeccable civil-rights credentials.
He made a number of interventions,
criticising not merely Mugabe for the
murder of opposition opponents, but
also implicitly the inert posture of the
South African government. The
outspoken Hain approach caused consternation
among officials, and in due
course he was stamped on. According to one
well-placed Foreign Office
source, Hain received a direct rebuke from Robin
Cook (though the Foreign
Office has officially denied this). Today Tony
Leon, leader of South
Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic
Alliance, says that 'Hain is
the best we've seen from the British
government'.
Cook's own approach fitted in better with the languid
Foreign Office
preference for avoiding confrontation. As the first farm
expropriations went
on, Cook opted for a policy of 'quiet diplomacy'. At the
Africa-Europe
summit in April 2000 in Cairo, relations between Britain and
Zimbabwe were
restored to what the Independent called a 'frozen kind of
friendliness'. Its
report of 6 April 2000 recorded that Zimbabwe's President
had agreed to halt
his attacks on British leaders, while Britain had agreed
to 'lower the
temperature of its commentary'.
The Cairo summit set
the tone for the torrid summer of 2000. In July, amid
well-authenticated
reports of violence, ballot-rigging and intimidation,
Mugabe claimed his
victory in the parliamentary elections. Robin Cook,
flanked by a
sick-looking Peter Hain, called an impromptu press conference
to put the
débâcle in the best possible light. He hailed 'a triumph of the
democratic
spirit over the attempt to suppress it'. For good measure Cook
vaingloriously added, 'I have urged President Mugabe to respond positively
to the opposition offer to work together and accept the mood for change.'
Shortly afterwards Peter Hain, to the surprise of many and the relief of
some, was moved abruptly out of the Foreign Office into the obscurity of the
Department of Trade.
The policy of constructive engagement gained
strength. The successive
pronouncements of Clare Short, Secretary of State
for International Affairs,
chart its progress. As early as December 1997,
Short described the situation
in Zimbabwe as 'very worrying'. In December
1998 she said it was 'deeply
worrying'. The following March she disclosed
that developments in Zimbabwe
made her 'very worried'. In June 2000 she
still found it all 'very
worrying'. And by December 2001 she revealed that
she found the situation
'very worrying'. In January this year, she told
listeners to the Today
programme that 'in different parts of the world we
see countries turn to bad
leadership and bad politics, and we've seen that
coming in Zimbabwe for some
years and it's a tragedy'. This is the scale of
the charge against New
Labour: ministers had seen it coming, but they did
little or nothing to stop
it.
The 2001 general election, and the
replacement of Robin Cook by Jack Straw,
changed little, except that
constructive engagement faded slowly into
well-meaning inertia. During the
election campaign the Prime Minister was
filled by a sudden conviction that
he had a destiny to save Africa. In a
speech on 25 May 2001 he pronounced,
'I will make Africa a major personal
priority and a priority for the Labour
government.' But Downing Street moved
rapidly to make it clear that
Zimbabwe, as far as Tony Blair was concerned,
did not form part of the
African continent.
This is what Brian Groom, the well-informed political
editor of the
Financial Times, wrote after extensive briefing shortly
afterwards: 'Tony
Blair's colleagues are trying to squash the idea that
Zimbabwe should be
seen as a test for the Prime Minister's assertion that
Britain can play a
"pivotal role" in world affairs.' Just to make things
clearer still, Groom
continued: 'It is argued that the test for Mr Blair is
what he delivers
elsewhere in Africa.' The Prime Minister and his senior
ministers have
carefully circumvented the country in their trips to the
continent. The
government has not called a debate in Parliament as the
crisis escalated: in
certain respects it was almost as if poor Zimbabwe, its
brutal dictator and
its suffering people did not exist. Tony Blair told the
Labour party
conference that there would be 'no tolerance' of 'Mr Mugabe's
henchmen in
Zimbabwe'. This remark was so empty of meaning as to amount to
deceit.
There is now a minister for Africa: Baroness Amos. Amos has none
of the
presence of Peter Hain, her powerful predecessor. Her official
biographical
note records a background in 'equal opportunities, training and
management
services'. She was for two years chief executive of the Equal
Opportunities
Commission, and received her peerage in 1997. She is an
under-secretary of
state, lowest of the low in ministerial terms, and made
less effectual still
by operating out of the Lords. One senior South African
politician calls her
'to all intents and purposes invisible'. But it is
Amos's job to deal with
Zimbabwe, and she is the only British minister to
visit the country since
the last election.
Amos was part of the visit
by Commonwealth foreign ministers last October.
This is how one of the
farmers who met the delegation and made a
presentation describes the event:
'Baroness Amos was there, and she was
quiet throughout my presentation, that
of Jim Sinclair, and the current CFU
[Commercial Farmers' Union] president
Colin Cloete. She asked no questions
and made no effort to make contact with
any of us personally for any form of
clarification on anything we said. The
Canadian and Australian foreign
ministers were by contrast very interested,
asked many and probing
questions, and found us immediately afterwards, gave
us their cards and
invited us to stay in touch.' I have confirmed this
account of events with
another person who was present at the
meeting.
Amos, to be fair, has made it clear that she condemns Mugabe.
But she gives
little impression that she regards Zimbabwe as an urgent
issue. Last
September, as Mugabe's thugs raped, murdered, burned and looted
their way
through the interior, the Baroness addressed a 'World Conference
on Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance' in
Durban. There
was much in her speech about the battle against racism, and a
fair amount of
self-laceration about British failures on this front -
Oldham, Bradford and
Burnley, as well as the Stephen Lawrence affair. Not
once did she allude to
the tragedy on South Africa's doorstep. Here is Amos,
explaining Britain's
policy on Zimbabwe to the foreign affairs committee
last May: 'It is
important that the committee recognises that the government
of Zimbabwe
seeks to show any kind of direct criticism which is made by the
British
government as a form of the ex-colonial power somehow interfering in
the
internal workings of Zimbabwe.' That is why, Amos went on, 'we have
worked
so hard to ensure that our views are represented in international
fora'.
Yet action through the Commonwealth and the European Union has
always come
far too late. The International Crisis Group, the respected
conflict-resolution organisation, concluded three months ago that the EU's
approach to Zimbabwe has 'led to an unconvincing, lowest-common-denominator
approach that in the end botched EU election observation while weakening the
impact of targeted sanctions'. The ICG director and former state department
adviser, John Prendergast, told the Times in June, 'Britain and the EU talk
tough and do nothing. It's a joke.' The sanctions regime is still
fragmentary, and Britain did not even protest this month when Mugabe's chief
of police, Augustine Chihuri, flouted the travel ban on named Mugabe
henchmen to travel to France under cover of an Interpol meeting in
Lyons.
It is fair to report that certain small advances have been made.
In March
Zimbabwe was finally suspended from the Commonwealth. (Commonwealth
politicians say that this was thanks in part to private pressure brought to
bear on the reluctant South African President Thabo Mbeki by Peter Mandelson
acting on behalf of the British government.)
One observer on last
year's foreign ministers' trip to Zimbabwe was the
Canadian MP Keith Martin,
a qualified doctor. After the meeting where
Baroness Amos remained so
silent, he asked for a tour of local farms where
he met young black
farmworkers. Today he describes how he heard their
personal tales of terror;
of young thugs hired by Mugabe, who descended on
their farms, beat them with
razor wire, raped their women and destroyed
their crops, all in an effort to
drive them off their land. 'This was in
full view of the police and military
who would sit idly by. I will never
forget one of the black farmworkers who,
with a weary face, looked me in the
eye and said: "You are our last hope. I
beg you to help us, for if you
don't, we will surely die."
'