Reuters
Tue 11 Dec
2007, 19:04 GMT
By John Grobler
WINDHOEK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A
Zimbabwean farmer on Tuesday asked a regional
tribunal to help block
President Robert Mugabe's government from seizing his
family's farm in a
case that could draw Zimbabwe's neighbours into its
thorny land
redistribution debate.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC)
tribunal in the Namibian
capital Windhoek must rule that it has jurisdiction
over the matter if
farmer Mike Campbell is to have any hope of saving the
farm.
"If this application is successful, it will raise the matter to an
entirely
new level within SADC that will put the Zimbabwean government at
odds with
the other member countries," Adrian de Bourbon, Campbell's lawyer,
said.
SADC, a regional grouping of 14 African nations that includes
Zimbabwe, is
trying to mediate an end to a political and economic crisis in
the southern
African nation that threatens to destabilise the
region.
The bloc has asked South African President Thabo Mbeki to help
broker an
agreement between Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the main
opposition
party ahead of general elections scheduled for
2008.
Mugabe's government, often accused of human rights abuses, stifling
political dissent and running Zimbabwe's economy into the ground, has seized
thousands of white-owned farms and redistributed the land to blacks since
2000.
Less than 600 white farmers are still on their land, compared
to 4,500 seven
years ago. Zimbabwean officials, however, are continuing with
the seizures
and are opposing Campbell's bid to have his farm exempted from
confiscation.
Zimbabwe's government says Campbell has not exhausted legal
remedies
available to him in Zimbabwe, an argument rejected by his
lawyer.
If successful in getting the SADC tribunal to declare
jurisdiction, Campbell
intends to file an application for urgent interim
relief against the seizure
of his farm in the same court.
A decision
is expected later this week. (Editing by Bate Felix, Paul Simao
and Peter
Millership)
News24
11/12/2007 19:09 -
(SA)
Chris Muronzi
Harare - Zimbabweans are now sleeping in bank
queues as the country's cash
shortages persist, reports said.
A state
news agency, New Ziana, reported that increasingly more Zimbabweans
are now
spending the night in bank queues in a desperate bid to get cash.
Others
join the queues as early as dawn but sometimes go home empty handed
or with
a paltry withdrawal.
Banks have set withdrawal limits of up to Z$20m
(R120) for individuals and
Z$40m (R240) for companies.
The country's
central bank says it is planning a currency changeover in the
near future
but has not hinted when it would be done.
Central bank chief Gideon Gono
says he is deliberately starving the market
of cash to fight illegal foreign
currency dealers.
But foreign currency dealers have already found a way
around the cash
problem - they pay a better rate electronically and make out
an invoice to
avoid trouble with the banks.
The reports also said the
public had appealed to banks to extend banking
hours but analysts say
extending business hours will not help much as most
banks run out of cash by
mid-day.
Investigations by Fin24 last month revealed that since the cash
shortages
started, a number of individuals have been buying cash after banks
imposed
limits.
Say one needs Z$100m (R600) in cash, he/she would
have to transfer Z$120m or
more electronically, a 20% premium on cash
received.
It also emerged that the practice has been prevalent for some
time.
After the central bank imposed limits on cash withdrawals last
year,
individuals and firms have been courting cash-rich individuals and
firms for
instant cash at a premium.
Mostly fast foods operators and
mobile air-time dealers are the "cash
barons" smiling all the way to the
banks.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis charecterised by
high
inflation now believed to be above 15 000%. Critics blame President
Robert
Mugabe for the country's economic crisis.
- Fin24
By Tererai Karimakwenda
10 December, 2007
The talks
between ZANU-PF and the MDC, mediated by South African President
Thabo
Mbeki, are reported to have concluded on Monday. According to
journalist
Peta Thornycroft, who spoke to diplomats closely following the
progress of
the talks, they ended after ZANU-PF’s Patrick Chinamasa and
Nicholas Goche
were called back from Johannesburg to Harare to prepare for
the party’s
extra-ordinary Congress. She said negotiators left Johannesburg
on Monday
and the few bits that remain to be sorted will be concluded in
Harare.
Thornycroft said electoral amendments and a new Constitution
have been
agreed to, and all the legal work is done. What is left are the
details as
to the timing. The MDC want a period of 6 months after signing a
deal,
before elections are held. Thornycroft said she fears that Mugabe will
insist on elections in March, before the new constitution agreed on is put
in place.
In that case, it is believed the MDC will register a complaint
with Mbeki,
then withdraw from the elections, if Mbeki fails to convince
Mugabe.
Thornycroft explained that Mbeki lured the MDC into supporting
Amendment 18,
which harmonised the elections and gave Mugabe the power to
appoint a
successor, by guaranteeing that a new constitution would be in
place before
the elections. Voting for Amendment 18 alongside ZANU-PF in
parliament was a
confidence building measure undertaken by the opposition
factions, who are
said to be in full agreement over the talks. Now Mugabe is
expected to pay
up.
So far Zanu PF has ignored all the issues that
the MDC wanted addressed. The
Mugabe regime has not repealed repressive laws
and there is no independent
media. The opposition has dismissed the state
appointed Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission on the grounds that the staff are
mostly ruling party stooges.
The electoral commission has also started the
delimitation of
constituencies, despite objections by the opposition over
this process. Then
just last week Mugabe announced that only “friendly and
objective” nations
would be invited to observe the elections. Experts said
this means he will
invite only those nations that will approve the outcome
of the polls,
despite the clearly uneven playing field.
It is not
clear what has taken place at the talks in South Africa because
Mbeki has
insisted on keeping the process out of the public domain.
Zimbabweans await
the results, but the majority have little faith in the
sincerity of the
Mugabe regime. What is happening on the ground clearly show
he is not taking
the talks seriously.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Fred Attewill and
agencies
Tuesday December 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Germany
today told Zimbabwe that comments in state-run media referring to
Angela
Merkel as a "Nazi" were unacceptable.
Berlin said it had delivered a
high-level diplomatic protest following harsh
criticism of the chancellor,
who confronted human rights abuses in Zimbabwe
at a summit of EU and African
leaders on Saturday.
Yesterday the Herald newspaper, regarded as a
mouthpiece of Robert Mugabe's
government, referred to Merkel as a "Nazi
remnant" and quoted the
information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, accusing
her of "racism of the
first order".
Ndlovu was also quoted as
saying that Mugabe made "some of the European
heads of government and his
detractors, including Angela Merkel, look like
dwarfs".
Today Germany's
foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, summoned the
Zimbabwean charge
d'affaires to the foreign ministry in Berlin.
"It was made clear in
strong terms that remarks like the ones made about the
chancellor are in no
way tolerable," a government spokesman said.
During the summit in Lisbon,
which was boycotted by Gordon Brown because of
Mugabe's presence, Merkel
said that the world could not stand by while human
rights were "trampled
underfoot".
She added: "I appreciate that some African states have tried
to solve the
crisis in Zimbabwe, but time is running out. The situation of
Zimbabwe is
damaging the image of the new Africa."
But Mugabe
remained defiant after returning to Zimbabwe yesterday evening,
hitting out
at the UK. "We defeated the British, we were the victors over
the British.
What is Britain after all? They think the empire still runs,"
he was quoted
as saying by the Herald.
zimbabwejournalists.com
11th Dec 2007 18:20 GMT
By Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
HARARE - About
300 members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) - mostly
women - were
yesterday blocked from marching to Parliament by the police
after they took
to the streets condemning the deteriorating human rights
abuses in the
country.
With their leader Jenni Williams in front, the women waved
placards and
denounced the current political and economic crisis prevailing
in the
country.
The march started just after lunch hour at the United
Nations country
offices in Zimbabwe and was denied entry to Parliament by
armed riot police.
The police tried to intimidate the women with button
sticks but they did not
budge in. Instead they kept on singing.
For
more than five minutes Williams argued with about five policemen corner
Second Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue, while Woza members continued
chanting songs and distributing fliers and Woza literature.
After the
police blocked their way to Parliament, the women started to march
along
Nelson Mandela westwards and dispersed on their own as they approached
the
Harare Main Post Office.
Just after the women had dispersed two trucks of
armed riot police arrived
and picked up Gladys Hlatswayo and Maria Mache,
officials from the Crisis
Coalition and another lady who was with her. The
three -who were not part of
the demonstration - were taken to the Harare
Central Police Station.
Andrew Phiri, the police spokesperson refused to
comment on the arrests of
the three women.
"I don’t think we have to
give prominence to that (Woza and the arrests). I
would rather not comment
about it," said Phiri.
But Williams was happy with the way the march had
progressed, despite
failing to get to Parliament.
"Any form of
intimidation will not deter us. The good part (of yesterday’s
march) is that
some of our team members had delivered the People’s Charter
to the UN
country office," said Williams.
"The charter has our demands such as the
de-politicisation of the police
force, the repealing of repressive laws like
POSA and AIPPA."
One of the placards that the women had read: "Beaten,
jailed but determined
to be free."
IOL
December 11
2007 at 12:10PM
By Tawanda Mashingaidze
In a desperate
move to halt the brain drain from Zimbabwe, the
government plans to withhold
degree certificates and teaching diplomas from
newly graduated
teachers.
All new graduates will be required to serve at least
three years in
Zimbabwe before they receive their
qualifications.
Across the country, there is a shortage of teaching
staff the
University of Zimbabwe, for example, has more than 600 vacant
posts.
It is widely expected that the problem will worsen as more
teachers
and lecturers simply fail to return after the holidays. Many will
leave the
country.
Most departing teachers are driven by
poverty. The profession now
ranks among the lowest paid among civil
servants.
Those who remain face political
persecution and salaries that start at
Z$15-million (R100) a month and
seldom reach levels higher than Z$30-million
which is the official though
constantly rising poverty level. The inflation
rate is now estimated at 14
000 percent.
But there are still qualified teachers who remain and
they are now
threatening to go on strike if their salaries are not increased
to
$318-million (R3 180) a month, when schools open in January.
Officials defended the move to make new graduates work for three years
before receiving their qualifications by saying graduates should be
patriotic and "give back to society knowledge acquired".
These
comments enraged trainee teachers, a group of whom issued this
statement:
"We do not eat solidarity and patriotism. We want to build our
future and
have families so we cannot die for peanuts."
The government's plan
has been described by trade unions and human
rights groups as a form of
slavery. - africanewsfeatures.com
This article was originally
published on page 11 of Cape Argus on
December 11, 2007
Yahoo News
Tue
Dec 11, 10:45 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
will meet members of his
highest decision-making body, the politburo, on
Tuesday ahead of an
extraordinary congress expected to endorse him for
another term in office.
According to the conference programme, the normal
business of the congress
will start on Thursday, when Mugabe was expected to
officially open the
meeting.
Besides endorsing Mugabe as its sole
presidential flagbearer in next year's
election, the four-day congress is
also expected to draw up a roadmap for
Zimbabwe's political and economical
policies for the next five years, said
John Nkomo, the ruling ZANU-PF
national chairman.
"I can confirm that preparations for the extraordinary
congress are at an
advanced stage with the organising committee satisfied
with the
arrangements," Nkomo told state media.
"We will have the
Central Committee meeting on Wednesday while normal
business of the
extraordinary meeting starts on Thursday. Our greatest
challenge is
providing accommodation for the delegates, but we hope that by
the
commencement of the event we would have secured accommodation for
everyone."
Party delegates from the ruling ZANU-PF began arriving on
Tuesday for the
extraordinary congress which will be held in the capital,
Harare.
Nkomo said about 10,000 delegates are expected to attend,
including members
of the ruling party, political parties from the region and
other solidarity
groups.
The ruling party last held its congress in
December 2004, where Mugabe was
mandated to lead the party until 2009 when
the normal congress is due to be
held.
IPSnews
By Tonderai
Kwidini
HARARE, Dec 11 (IPS) - With an economy tottering on the brink of
collapse
and an unenviable political situation, civil society organisations
in
Zimbabwe have every reason to worry about the implications of the interim
agreement on trade in goods that their country has just signed as part of
the economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union
(EU).
Many argue that the Zimbabwean government should not agree to the
EPA. While
an agreement on trade in goods has been reached with the Eastern
and
Southern African (ESA) group of countries, the negotiations on the rest
of
the EPA will be continued next year. Zimbabwe forms part of the ESA
group.
‘‘The negotiations have not been exhaustive on some of the agreed
issues. To
make matters worse, African countries are not negotiating as a
bloc because
Europe has managed to fragment them,’’ says Andrew Mushita,
director of the
Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT), a
non-governmental
organisation with interests in trade and technology
issues.
‘‘They will only come out of these EPAs worse
off.’’
Mushita says that Zimbabwe ‘‘cannot compete with the EU on an
equal footing
because of our economic situation’’.
He is also worried
about the rearrangement of regional configurations as
that weakened the
position of African countries further.
Other organisations have also
added their voices, saying that the EU will
emerge as the biggest winner. It
will be folly for countries like Zimbabwe
with an economy in tatters to hope
for any ‘‘heavenly manna’’ to arrive via
the EPAs.
‘‘Zimbabwe is just
like any other country in the Southern African
Development Community or in
East and Southern Africa grouping. It is not
ready to sign an EPA. Opening
up our markets in the present state will only
lead to the further
exploitation of our raw materials,’’ Joy Mabenge,
executive director of the
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, told
IPS.
EPAs are a
scheme to create a free trade area (FTA) between the EU and
African,
Caribbean and Pacific countries. They are a response to continuing
criticism
that the non-reciprocal and discriminating preferential trade
agreements
offered by the EU to its former colonies under the Cotonou
Agreement are
incompatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
The EPAs have
faced opposition from civil society organisations and some
governments in
Africa who see them as a way of liberalising the service and
investment
sectors of ACP countries.
‘‘African economies will not be strengthened by
signing the EPAs. It’s a
shock that many African countries are rushing into
signing the EPAs when
they don’t really understand what they mean. It’s
bringing in old issues
through the back door," Mabenge told
IPS.
Mabenge says Zimbabwe needs more time to resolve its economic
problems
before it can make commitments like the EPAs. The EU is only
interested in
African raw materials, which it will return to Africa in the
form of
processed products at exorbitant prices. Africa still has to
strengthen its
economies and industrial bases.
‘‘Let’s get our
economies to function. Then we will be able to compete on an
equal footing
with Europe. This issue is being looked at from a simplistic
point of
view,’’ Mabenge argues.
Several Zimbabwean analysts say the current
economic problems will further
hinder Zimbabweans from benefiting from the
EPA. Several Zimbabwean
companies face demise due to government’s populist
policies, which have led
to shortages in foreign currency to procure
essential industrial components.
Zimbabwe’s inflation rate is 7,800
percent.
These problems, analysts say, make it impossible for Zimbabwean
companies to
compete in the EU market. A sector such as agriculture, which
has witnessed
a rapid dip in fortunes since 2000 after the introduction of
the government’s
‘‘land reform’’ programme, will be forced to compete with
subsidised produce
from Europe.
Similarly, the beleaguered
manufacturing sector will have to take on an
influx of European
commodities.
The Zimbabwean parliament was recently told at a caucus
meeting that the
EPAs will take away some of the country’s guaranteed
markets.
One organisation has adopted a different position on the EPAs.
The Trade and
Development Studies Centre based in the Zimbabwean capital
Harare does
policy research and analysis, focusing particularly on the
relationship
between trade and development, aid and development, poverty
alleviation and
welfare.
‘‘These EPAs are not coming from nowhere.
They are the result of a gradual
build-up through several conventions. There
is nothing wrong with the EPA.
The problem is its implementation. It can be
developmental or have the
opposite effect,’’ Masiiwa Rusare, the director of
the Trade and Development
Studies Centre, told IPS.
‘‘We should keep
an eye on what happens. What is needed is to encourage the
government to
diversify its trade partners and create more options.’’ But
Rusare concedes
that, regarding market accessibility and agriculture,
ensuring that the EPA
deal works fairly will be a Herculean task.
‘‘It’s like taking a
non-boxer into the ring with (boxing champion) Mike
Tyson. The results are
obvious,’’ Masiiwa says. (END/2007)
Ethical Corporation
11 December 2007
Vulture investors are ready to swoop on Zimbabwe’s cheap
assets, but they
are playing a risky game
Zimbabwe has been in economic
freefall since 2000 when the country’s ruler,
Robert Mugabe, began his
chaotic land reform. The policy was a disaster,
largely obliterating the
farming sector of a nation once dubbed the “bread
basket of southern
Africa”.
The country’s decline under Mugabe is plain to see. Unemployment
is at 80
per cent and inflation at an estimated 7,000 per cent. A third of
the
country’s 13 million population has fled (three million of them to South
Africa), while nearly as many of the remainder survive on international food
aid.
But some outside speculators see commercial opportunities amid
the poverty.
Dubbed “vulture investors” they are ready to snap up Zimbabwe’s
farms,
industrial property and mining leases at considerable discounts using
foreign currency. The vultures plan to buy now, sit tight, and await the end
of Mugabe’s rule.
Vultures hovering
A typical vulture fund is
London-based Lonrho. In October it launched
LonZim, a “Zimbabwe investment
fund to meet strong demand from around the
world”. Australian-born chairman
David Lenigas says most of his fund’s
initial investments will be in
property. “Commercial property is cheap as
chips,” he observes. “The
infrastructure in Harare is fantastic, but it’s
fire-sale prices.” He sees
other potential wins in resorts and game parks,
hoping that once Zimbabwe’s
economy recovers, the tourists will return.
One of Lonrho’s first
purchases in late September was technology firm
Celsys, for $5.45 million.
Celsys owns Zimbabwe’s only Nokia repair facility
and is the largest printer
of security documents, cheques and air time
cards. Although the company is
now valued at half the purchase price, LonZim
is interested in its “strong
future growth potential”.
The Zimbabwe Financial Gazette said it was
“particularly audacious” for a
company with such a controversial colonial
history to return to the country
at this time. (Former UK prime minister
Edward Heath once called Lonrho’s
former chairman, Tiny Rowland, “the
unacceptable face of capitalism” for the
way he bought political influence
with several post-colonial African
governments despite his company’s South
Africa and Rhodesian roots.) Lenigas
says he wants to return the firm to its
former status as Zimbabwe’s biggest
employer.
Lonrho has had no
shortage of interest from risk-hungry investors. Lenigas
says even his
broker was surprised at the responses and although he could
raise more funds
he would struggle to deploy them.
Another fund investing in Zimbabwe is
Imara, an investment banking and asset
management group represented in the
UK and South Africa. In October the firm
used its newly launched
Botswana-based Zimbabwe Fund to invest $13.5 million
in about 17 of the 82
companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. Imara’s
chief executive,
Mark Tunmer, says Imara decided to launch the Zimbabwe Fund
after its high
net worth investors showed an appetite for Zimbabwe in the
company’s Imara
Africa Fund, launched back in July 2005. That fund, aimed at
African
investors seeking to diversify out of South Africa and Egypt, seeks
to have
10 per cent of its investments in Zimbabwe.
South African funds eyeing
Zimbabwe include Sanlam Investment Management,
the investment arm of Sanlam,
South Africa’s biggest life assurance company,
Rand Merchant Bank and BoE
Private Clients of South Africa.
To a large extent, these funds hoping to
capitalise on the country’s
brighter, post-Mugabe prospects, are merely
copying the strategy adopted by
local Zimbabwean investors. In a market
where exchange controls restrict
domestic insurance and pension fund
companies from investing outside the
country, the market is kept liquid
through hedging against inflation by
buying property and shares.
One
of the country’s longest-standing investors is Old Mutual Asset
Managers,
Africa’s biggest money manager. Chief executive Thabo Dloti warns:
“If you
have a short-term perspective, you should be extremely worried. We
have a
long-term view and we have restructured our portfolios to reflect
that.” Old
Mutual has been in Zimbabwe for 110 years. It began switching
into stocks
and property in 2000, when Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farms
gained
momentum. Dloti declined to comment on what Zimbabwe assets the firm
now
owns.
Propping up the regime
But investors must understand the
risks. Investing in Zimbabwe increases the
flow of foreign currency the
regime can lay its hands on, thereby prolonging
the survival of Mugabe’s
dictatorship. Zimbabwe’s laws force investment
funds to buy various forms of
government bonds. There is truth in the claim
that the Zimbabwean
subsidiaries of Old Mutual, Barclays and Standard
Chartered have created
what the London-based newsletter Africa Confidential
calls a “$400 million
financial lifeline to Robert Mugabe’s government over
the past two
years”.
In late October the South African-based Zimbabwe Solidarity Trust
urged
South African businesses to speak out against the regime’s human
rights
abuses. Acknowledging the constraints under which businessmen in
Zimbabwe
operated, the trust’s Brian Raftopolous argued that they could and
should do
more to avoid complicity. Privately business leaders in South
Africa bristle
at this because across the world political leaders from
countries other than
Britain, Australia, the US and Botswana have done
little to end the crisis
in Zimbabwe.
More worrying for investors in
global firms operating in Zimbabwe is the
fact that security of tenure
cannot be taken for granted in the country. In
October the Zimbabwean
parliament passed the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act, which
requires all “foreign-owned business” to be 51 per
cent owned by black
Zimbabweans.
Already the government has cancelled the operating licence
of Telcel
Zimbabwe – the mobile phone operator that is majority-owned by
Egyptian
Orascom Telecom – because Zimbabweans “only” owned 40 per cent of
the
business.
The law’s supporters point to China, where the
government’s approach of
taking controlling stakes in foreign firms is said
to have kept wealth
within the country. But the crux of Mugabe’s law is that
Zimbabweans wanting
to buy the 51 per cent stake in an international
business will still have to
borrow the money, something they may find
difficult to do at current levels
of inflation.
By halving any
potential returns, the Indigenisation Act has called into
question the
rationale of opportunistic investment in Zimbabwe. Even if
Mugabe’s regime
does respect changes of ownership, funds must consider that
there may well
be post-Mugabe claims against the beneficiaries of these
enforced sales as
the only ones with money to invest now are likely to have
close links with
or will at least have benefited from Mugabe’s regime.
Will he stay or
go?
In November observers were encouraged by reports of a breakthrough in
talks
between Mugabe’s government and opposition leaders at Lake Kariba.
Both
sides have finally began making concessions: the opposition MDC,
because
Mugabe’s security forces have nearly destroyed it as an
organisation; Mugabe’s
allies, because they know they will outlive their
83-year-old leader who
once again has selected himself as his party’s sole
candidate for the March
2008 presidential election.
Optimists see an
outline of a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe emerging from the Kariba
talks, but such
hopes are not new. Over the past four years the South
African government has
repeatedly promised imminent deals and breakthroughs
in the crisis in order
to prop up its “quiet diplomacy” approach to the
Zimbabwe crisis, which
critics charge has kept the pressure off Mugabe.
The MDC knows it can
count most of the business community, bar Mugabe’s
cronies, among its
supporters because every business leader wants a return
to a normal,
non-hyperinflation economy. But the pressure to speak out is
mounting on
business.
Vic van Vuuren, chief operations officer of Business Unity
South Africa,
sees a rationale for big business already in Zimbabwe to stay.
He says:
“They may take losses, but I think everyone has got the hope that
there is
going to be some light at the end of the tunnel, and that the
corner is
going to turn soon. And someone is going to then benefit from the
long-term
investment.”
Ordinary Zimbabweans living in exile in the UK
have called for sanctions,
especially from South Africa, to bring down the
regime, pointing out that
things can hardly get worse for ordinary
people.
The real challenge for businesses in the country is corruption,
says Mike
Flax, executive director of Johannesburg-listed Madison Property
Fund
Managers, and one of those promoting investment in property in Africa.
He
says: “It is quite important to avoid the cycle of corruption at all
costs.
Once you are in, you are sucked into a vortex you can’t get out
of.”
Vulture investors should beware that Mugabe has outlived many
predictions of
his demise before, warns Flax. If he survives long enough,
foreign funds may
find the moral costs of their investments rising as
financial returns
continue to lag.
Reuters
Tue 11
Dec 2007, 14:51 GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, Dec 11 (Reuters
Life!) - A trillion dollar house, billion dollar bed
and a million dollar
beer. That and a severe cash squeeze are the latest
sign of runaway
inflation that has vexed consumers in President Robert
Mugabe's
Zimbabwe.
A newspaper advertisement shows a four-bedroom house with a
pool and tennis
court in Harare's leafy Glen Lorne suburb selling for just
under ZW$1
trillion, a whopping $33 million at the official bank rate but
only $667,000
on a widely used black market.
An identical property
cost half the price a month ago.
Prices of household furniture, groceries
and food and rentals have more than
doubled in the past month as businesses
seek to eke out a profit and remain
afloat, but at a cost to consumers
ravaged by the world's fastest rising
prices.
Shops which were
emptied of basic goods after Mugabe announced a blanket
price freeze to tame
inflation in June, have started restocking but prices
have
skyrocketed.
"Prices are increasing but my salary is not and that is a
very big problem
because it's now difficult to settle my bills," Humphrey
Chitovhoro, a
trainee with a Harare accounting firm said, a line now
recounted many times
by Zimbabweans.
Salaries are failing to keep
pace with galloping inflation -- the world's
highest at nearly 8,000 percent
-- which has inflamed tensions in a country
with rising unemployment and
enduring foreign currency, fuel and food
shortages.
Mugabe's
government has so far failed to rein in an economic slide, which
critics say
has been badly hit by the veteran leader's policies, including
the seizure
of white-owned farms to resettle blacks that has knocked
agriculture
output.
CASH CRUNCH
On Tuesday Zimbabweans jammed banking halls,
desperately seeking cash, in
short supply, the latest sign of the southern
African country's economic
free-fall.
Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono said last month the launch of a new
currency was imminent. This has not
happened, instead cash shortages have
worsened, with banks running out of
notes.
Gono accuses foreign currency black market dealers of stashing
more than
half the total money in circulation and says the bank will not
intervene in
the cash crisis.
"I came here at five (0300 GMT) and
just got ZW$5 million. What can I do
with that money," an angry mother of
two who identified herself only as
Auxilia said as she left a bank where a
long queue stretched for a couple of
blocks.
The amount is equivalent
to three days of bus fare.
Most Zimbabweans use cash for their
transactions since most basic goods like
cooking oil, sugar and maize meal
are purchased on the black market.
In a small vote of confidence for
Gono, the Zimbabwe dollar has strengthened
against the U.S. dollar on the
black market, rising to Z$1.5 million per
dollar on Tuesday from a low of
ZW$2.4 million.
But businesses are feeling the cash squeeze as sales have
dropped, while
workers spend more time in bank queues.
"We need to
have more money in circulation but we cannot expect the central
bank to
continue pumping in more money if that which is in circulation can
not be
accounted for. We are caught up in a vicious cycle," Joseph Malaba, a
local
industrialist told the official Herald newspaper.
The Spectator
How
to ruin a country
Martin Meredith
Public Affairs/ The Perseus Books Group,
272pp, £8.99, ISBN 97891586485580
Tuesday, 11th December 2007
Robert
Salisbury
As Zimbabwe celebrated its independence in April 1980 President
Nyerere of
Tanzania had a piece of advice for Robert Mugabe: ‘You have
inherited a
jewel. Keep it that way.’ At first, it seemed that Mugabe would
take his
fellow socialist’s advice. His address to the nation on the eve
of
independence gave all Zimbabweans hope that, white and black, they
could
together rebuild the country after the miseries of the guerrilla
war.
Guguletho Moyo and Mark Ashurst quote the speech in full at the
beginning of
their useful compendium, and Martin Meredith reminds us that,
after an
initial interview, Ian Smith himself reported that he had found
Mugabe not
‘the apostle of Satan’ but ‘sober and responsible’.
These
two books are timely and can be read together. Meredith chronicles
Mugabe’s
progress from guerrilla leader to power-obsessed paranoiac. Moyo
and Ashurst
look to the future by canvassing a broad range of opinion as to
how to
rebuild a country utterly destroyed by a man using yesterday’s
rhetoric in an
Africa that is changing rapidly.
Nyerere’s remark is interesting.
Meredith chronicles very fairly the white
man’s land grab in Rhodesia from
Lobengula to the 1960s and how effective
the land question was as a
recruiting sergeant for Mugabe, Sithole and
Nkomo. Equally, there are
numerous references in both books to the emergency
laws the Rhodesian Front
introduced after UDI and the often brutal treatment
of the ‘terrs’ and those
who harboured them by the Rhodesian security
forces. However, what shines
through in Meredith’s account is how deeply
implanted certain basic beliefs
were in Rhodesian minds and how courageously
Zimbabweans both black and white
have resisted ZANU-PF thuggery in defence
of their beliefs.
Take the
case of Margaret Dongo. Appalled by the scale and the blatancy of
the
corruption of the ZANU-PF elite, this former ZANU fighter and founder
member
of the War Veterans’ Association broke with her former associates and
stood
for Parliament in the 1995 election in the Harare South Constituency.
The
Registrar-General, the official responsible for the fairness of
elections,
the caricature figure Tchaiwa Mudede, had, as so often he had
elsewhere,
rigged the election. An independent inquiry showed that of 33,251
voters’
names on the electoral role, 41 per cent were not genuine. Margaret
Dongo
took her case to the High Court and in the subsequent by-election, in
spite
of a concerted campaign of thuggery and vilification, she won.
Hers is
only one example of many of the courage, not only of individuals,
but of the
Zimbabwean electorate, in resisting the government’s brutality.
It also shows
that there still existed, at least until recently, a
functioning judiciary
willing to stand up for the rule of law as well as an
ingrained faith in the
power of fair elections as a force for peaceful
change.
These were
things which, along with a powerful economy and a tradition of
honest and
competent administration, were the legacy of Rhodesia to
Zimbabwe. They are
things that became rare in Africa after the end of the
colonial era. No
wonder Nyerere told Mugabe he had inherited a jewel: but
squander it he
did.
Meredith’s account is all the more devastating for the unemotional
tone he
employs. Particularly gut-wrenching is the account of the massacres
in
Matabeleland, planned by Mugabe and carried out by the North
Korean-trained
and specially formed 5th Brigade from 1983-85 and known as
‘Gukurahundi’ or
the rain that blows away the chaff. However, almost as
chilling as the
accounts of brutality by the regime and the thieving by the
kleptocracy that
ZANU-PF became as soon as it achieved office, is Mugabe’s
single-mindedness.
He desires only one thing: power. He bends every sinew
to acquire it and
then to keep it. His Catholic/Marxist upbringing and his
intelligence have
prepared him well and he cares not a fig for the misery
that he has
inflicted on his people. And the horror is very far from
over.
Getting rid of him will, for a start, not be easy. As an old Africa
hand
once said to me with some asperity, ‘Southern Africans don’t do
military
coups.’ In any case military coups, as Martin Rupaya points out in
Moyo and
Ashhurst, usually solve very little. There are some indications that
many in
ZANU-PF want Mugabe to go, but he has so far proved equal to
internal
dissidence. As for external pressure, Thabo Mbeki and his successors
are
clearly reluctant to push him out, except on his own terms. In any case,
as
Mark Ellis makes clear in an interview Moyo and Ashurst reprint, it
is
increasingly difficult to grant immunity to departing tyrants if they
are
sued under international law. Mugabe, sensibly from his point of view,
would
find immunity comforting.
The tragedy of Zimbabwe is not only
what has happened, but that what has
happened will make it difficult to build
a country that can fulfil its
potential. It possesses vast resources,
mineral, agricultural and aesthetic.
Above all, it has a courageous and able
population, both black and white,
who could make it the economic and
political motor of Central Africa.
Instead, the chances are that it will
remain another African basket case,
suggesting that Ian Smith was right about
majority rule. What a triumph it
would be if the people of Zimbabwe were to
prove the late Ian Douglas wrong.
From The Indepoendent (UK), 11 December
Thousands of children are fleeing the misery of Zimbabwe in
search of new
lives in South Africa. Even for those who make it, it is a
perilous
business. Basildon Peta reports on the charity trying to
help.
Laina Moyo's dream was to become a doctor. It was not a wild
ambition. She
was the star pupil in maths and science at her school – until,
that is, she
was forced to leave because her mother could no longer afford
the tuition
fee increases in Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary environment. But
it was when
her mother began to be unable to afford not just fees, but also
food, that
13-year-old Laina took the boldest decision of her life. Without
consulting
anyone she left home and decided to join the "great trek" of
Zimbabwean
children streaming across the border into South Africa in search
of a better
life. It was a 350-mile walk. Laina is just one of the thousands
of
children – no one seems sure of the exact figure – who have undertaken
the
lonely and hazardous journey to join the quarter of Zimbabwe's 16
million
people who are estimated to have fled to South Africa to escape the
economic
and political turmoil in their own country. Like tens of thousands
of
children of her age, Laina's life aspirations have been
ruined.
Even as a hero's welcome was being prepared in Zimbabwe
yesterday for
President Robert Mugabe, as he returned from what the local
press portrayed
as a propaganda triumph at the EU-Africa summit in Portugal
over the
weekend, the exodus of ordinary Zimbabweans continued apace.
Officials at
the local police station confirm an upsurge in the numbers of
children
arrested while illegally crossing the border. The horrors of the
unaccompanied journey undertaken by children, some of them as young as
eight, is itself a testament to how awful life has become inside Zimbabwe,
from which many foreign news reporters are banned. The average life
expectancy for women in Zimbabwe is now just 34 years. The cause of this is
an agriculture-based economy that has been in free fall since the violent
seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms from 2000 onwards. The
nation which was once southern Africa's bread basket is now experiencing
acute shortages of food, most basic goods, hard currency, petrol and
medicines. Economic mismanagement has brought it the world's highest
inflation rate.
It was to escape this turmoil that Laina left
home. "We went for several
days without meals," she said. "We could not even
scavenge for food in
dustbins because none in the neighbourhood had any
leftovers to dump." She
knew things could only get worse. Though Zimbabwe's
state-run Central
Statistical Office (CSO) has declared that inflation was
officially "pegged"
at 14,800 per cent in October, many economists now say
it is running at
100,000 per cent. In practice that means it has become
incalculable due to
the rapidity of daily price increases. The situation
could only get worse
for impoverished families such as Laina's. She decided
enough was enough and
set out for South Africa with the intention of finding
a job and sending
back money to her mother and three younger siblings. When
the cash began to
arrive, she hoped, they would forgive her for abandoning
home so abruptly.
It was a perilous journey. She had to contend with
the hippo and
crocodile-infested Limpompo river to reach the border. She was
also prey to
organised criminals, who pretend to assist illegal cross-border
jumping, but
more often rob or rape those they purport to help. They
sometimes even
murder their clients. Laina was lucky. But when she arrived
at the main
Beitbridge/ Musina border crossing into South Africa she
encountered others
with even more desperate stories. When I met her she had
teamed up with
Talent Makuyane, who had travelled more than 1,300 miles from
eastern
Zimbabwe. The two were thrown together once they became stuck,
without any
official papers, in Musina town on the South African side of the
border.
Their stories echoed one another uncannily. Talent, also 13, had
been forced
to drop out of secondary school because her parents could no
longer afford
her fees. At her home there was no food either. She could not
remember when
she last ate a slice of bread.
She reached the
border by boarding buses and trains even though she had no
money for the
fare. By the time she was discovered and thrown off, she would
at least have
covered some distance. When she was unable to board some form
of public
transport, she would simply walk. "All I wanted was to cross the
border, get
any job and earn money to at least have a taste of bread and
milk," she
said. But the life they were seeking proved elusive. Many of
those who have
fled, Laina and Talent included, have fallen victim to sexual
predators and
abusive employers. "The abuses we are now living with here [in
South Africa]
are far worse than the hunger we faced at home," said Laina.
Their story is
borne out by local people. "Instead of pitying and helping
these children,
the people here see them as objects for all manner of
abuse," said Khotso
Motswaane, a 45 year old Musina resident. One of his
neighbours, he
confided, gave refuge to three Zimbabwean girls, all below
15, because they
had nowhere to stay. They are now sex slaves. He said the
things that
happened to children in the town were "despicable".
Save the Children
– one of the three charities being supported in this
year's Independent
Christmas Appeal – is one of the few organisations
working to help the
children. Lilian Rambuda, one of the charity's outreach
officers in Musina,
confirmed that the story told by Mr Motswaane was by no
means exaggerated.
"It is not uncommon for a man here to have three
Zimbabwean girl children
under his custody, abusing them sexually," she
said. The complications are
far-reaching. Some the girls have contracted
Aids and died. One girl Ms
Rambuda is attempting to help is pregnant by a
man old enough to be her
great-grandfather. When he found out he abandoned
her. The girl is now too
traumatised to talk to strangers and she now spends
her time locked up in
his shack.
"Old men here are literally preying on these girls," said
Miss Rambuda.
While the randomness of illegal cross border migration makes
it difficult to
compile statistics, she says there is no doubt that very
large numbers of
girls and boys are streaming across the border into South
Africa at regular
intervals. "You see them sleeping under bridges, picking
food from dump
sites, then you easily know they are from Zimbabwe," she
said. At the border
post, one police officer confirmed that sexual
intercourse with a girl under
16 is statutory rape under South African law.
But the children won't report
cases of abuse because they fear being
arrested when they contact the
police. "It is not easy to deal with this
problem. My opinion is that the
government of Zimbabwe must end the
suffering of its people by addressing
the problems making them flee their
homeland in the first place," said the
officer.
But the most
common form of abuse is not sexual. Zimbabwean children are
being used as
slave labour. They are offered menial jobs but their employers
do not then
pay them. When the children complain the employers threaten to
report them
to the police as illegal immigrants. Laina and Talent have both
encountered
this. Each has worked as a housemaid doing everything from
washing, ironing,
cooking and gardening to looking after the children of
their "employers".
But when they asked for the R400 a month (£28) they were
promised the money
did not materialise. "When I asked for my pay after two
months without
receiving a single penny, I was chased away," said Talent.
There is a clear
pattern of this, with employers sending away the children
unpaid and
recruiting new arrivals from Zimbabwe ito replace them.
If it were
not for Save the Children, which has assisted her with food and
clothes,
Laina says she would have died a long time ago. Many other
Zimbabwean
children she has met since arriving in Musina are in the same
situation. And
like her they have got in this small dusty town because they
cannot afford
the fares to travel further to cities such as Johannesburg and
Cape Town.
Many of the girls resort to prostitution for survival. Save the
Children is
in the process of setting up care centres where the Zimbabwean
children can
be given clothes, fed and taught the necessary life skills of
their choice
to be able to get better jobs. These safe houses will be for
all vulnerable
children, but cause resentment among the locals, who see them
as only
helping foreigners. From there the children will be referred to
relevant
government and other services including health care and
psycho-social
support. Outreach workers, using the centres as bases, will
tour the dusty
town in search of vulnerable children. The sadness is that,
as the great
exodus from Zimbabwe continues, they will not have to look very
hard before
they stumble upon young children who desperately need their
help.
CHRA has received an increasing
number of reports on diarrhea and cholera
cases from Mabvuku and Tafara in
the last two weeks. Residents complain that
while in some parts of Mabvuku
and Tafara there has been a steady supply of
water, it is almost always
dirty and has a suspicious smell. On Monday
(10/12/07) a CHRA team visited
Mabvuku and Tafara and interviewed medical
personnel in private and public
clinics. It has emerged that hundreds of
people are suffering from stomach
problems which medical personnel liken to
cholera and dysentery.
A
survey made by CHRA through its structures also revealed that most people
cannot afford medical attention and resort to traditional means. The survey
also revealed that a lot of people have been hit by the stomach ailments.
The problems of disease outbreaks come after residents in Mabvuku and Tafara
have been hit by serious water shortages resulting in most households
fetching water from streams. As for the few who have water from their taps,
the water is dirty and has visible algae.
The Zimbabwe National Water
Authority (ZINWA) took over the administration
of sewer and water services
from the City of Harare. The takeover led to a
downward trend in the quality
of services offered by the City of Harare.
Sadly, ZINWA has failed to
provide adequate water supplies for business and
household use in Harare.
The City of Harare has over 60% of water in its
water bodies but ZINWA has
no capacity to treat adequate supplies for
residential and industrial
use.
CHRA has alerted the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Water
Resources
and Infrastructure Development about the disease outbreaks in
Mabvuku and
Tafara. CHRA will also send a petition to the Parliament of
Zimbabwe and the
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Water Resources and
Infrastructure
Development about the health time bomb that is beginning to
explode in
Mabvuku and Tafara.
Farai Barnabas Mangodza
Chief
Executive Officer
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
145 Robert
Mugabe Way
Exploration House, Third Floor
Harare
ceo@chra.co.zw
www.chra.co.zw
Landline: 00263- 4-
705114
Contacts: Mobile: 0912638401, 011443578, 011862012 or email info@chra.co.zw,
programs@chra.co.zw and admin@chra.co.zw
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 11 December 2007 13:03
As
the rest of the world celebrates the commemoration of the World Human
Rights
Day, Zimbabweans find themselves in an invidious position whereby
they would
like to be part of the global village in celebrating this
landmark occasion
but on a daily basis their rights are trampled upon by a
cruel and uncaring
regime whose obsession to retain power at all costs has
reached alarming
proportions.
The people have been resilient as they have endured
torture, violence,
intimidation, hunger, poverty and a myriad of other
problems all brought
about by a regime whose insatiable appetite for power,
greed, and corruption
have brought the country down to its knees and reduced
Zimbabweans from all
walks of life to destitutes. Currently, people cannot
even access their own
money from banks and they have to queue for days on
end only to get paltry
sums like $5 000 000-00 which is not enough to buy a
bottle of cooking oil.
Instead of the government acknowledging its
mistakes and accepting where it
has gone wrong, it feeds the people on a
daily diet of propaganda and blames
everyone else ranging from the
opposition, civil society, the western
countries and imaginary sanctions as
the cause of the problems facing
Zimbabwe instead of its own mismanagement,
maladministration and inability
to govern properly.
The time has come
for this regime to put a stop to its madness and treat the
people of
Zimbabwe as human beings who are entitled enjoy all the basic
human rights
set out in the various United Nations Declarations and African
statutes. It
is no use to pay lip service to these lofty ideals and make all
the right
pronouncements on paper but in practice do the opposite of what
they
preach.
To start with, the government must accept that we need a people
driven
democratic constitution which contains a comprehensive bill of rights
which
encompasses not only civil and political rights but also covers
economic,
social and cultural rights. This can only come about through a
process where
the people of Zimbabwe themselves are given an opportunity to
participate
freely in the constitution making process which ensures that
their
aspirations are freely captured and reflected in the final
document.
We also need a new culture whereby those in authority are fully
accountable
to the people and this can only happen when we have a government
that is
elected through free and fair elections. It is also important that
those in
positions of authority recognize that political power is attained
through
the will of the people and that no one has a god given right to rule
forever
simply because they participated in the liberation
struggle.
It is necessary that the culture of impunity where violators of
human rights
have gone scot free should come to an end if we are to fully
enjoy our
universal rights. As we speak the perpetrators of gross rights
violations
during the Gukurahundi era have not been brought to book and the
Chihambakwe
Commission which was appointed by the government produced a
report which has
not been published up to this day. The late Mark
Chavhunduka and Roy Choto
were savagely tortured and assaulted by army
personnel and the then Minister
of Defence, the Late Movern Mahachi, had the
temerity to say that they had
scratched themselves and up to this day, no
investigations have been carried
out to identify and bring the perpetrators
to account.
On the 11th March 2007, the president of the Movement for
Democratic Change
Morgan Tsvangirai and several others were arrested and
beaten up by Police
Officers in a Police Station, denied access to their
Legal Practitioners,
denied food and medical attention in violation of their
rights and in
defiance of High Court orders and again, nothing has been done
about it.
Further, Movement for Democratic Change activists arrested on
trumped up
charges went through hell at the hands of the Police and still
the regime
has no shame in protecting these gross violators of human
rights.
The list is endless and on a regular basis various state agencies
and party
militias have all gone on a spree and orgy of violence and mayhem
in the
full knowledge that nothing will happen to them as the government is
clearly
behind them.
The irony of it all is that it is happening at a
time when ZANU (PF) and the
Movement for Democratic Change are engaged in
dialogue which is meant to
usher in a new era where the political
environment returns to normal but by
its actions it is clear that the ZANU
(PF) government is not sincere. One
would have expected to see some tangible
evidence on the ground to show that
the regime is truly committed to change
its ways but sadly all that it is
interested in is to maintain and tighten
its grip on power.
We therefore challenge the government to stop this
blame game where all the
country's ills are said to be the result of non
existent "illegal" sanctions
and it should instead fully commit itself to a
recognition and respect of
human rights. The establishment of a Human Rights
Commission on its own does
not have any meaning unless it is accompanied by
a genuine commitment on the
part of the ZANU (PF) regime to mend its ways so
that Zimbabwe can once
again proudly take its place in the community of
civilized nations.
Hon Innocent Gonese, MP
Secretary for
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
zimbabwejournalists.com
11th Dec 2007 18:28 GMT
By Zinasu
ZINASU joins
Zimbabwe and the rest of the world in commemorating the
International Human
Rights Day. While other nation states take this day as a
time to celebrate
the protection and promotion of Human Rights in their
countries that were
born out of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
proclaimed by the
United Nations on December 10, 1948, ZINASU mourns in
shame the deliberate
disregard of Human Rights by the Zimbabwean regime.
2007 will go down in
record as the historical episode of serious and
unprecedented human rights
abuses in Zimbabwe. Many human Rights activists
where either tortured,
capriciously arrested or unjustifiably detained.
The flash
moments/highlights of these abuses were the arrests and beatings
of
opposition and civil society leaders on March 11 2007, the illegal
detention
of a student leader at Masvingo Remand prison for 27 days in
November 2007.
Student leaders have also been subjects of persistent
persecution; facing
suspensions, summaries of dismissal, detentions and
expulsions.
December 10 becomes a day when we sadly reflect on the
painful and grotesque
human rights crisis in our country. Zimbabwe is a
signatory to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights which, in article 1,
proclaims that
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
Rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards
one another in a
spirit of brotherhood," .Yet there continues to be serious
disregard of
human rights and fundamental freedoms in Zimbabwe.
In
the face of such growing political mayhem and state sponsored terror
campaigns, ZINASU also takes this opportunity to congratulate Human Rights
Defenders who continue to resiliently fight for the realisation of a just
and democratic Zimbabwe.
Many have sacrificed their comfort and lives
to push forward a shared vision
of a Zimbabwe where Human Rights and
fundamental freedoms are embraced. It
is our prayer that the efforts of all,
no matter humble and small, to the
great and noble struggle will translate
into positive and value adding
realities.
ZINASU also takes this
opportunity to reiterate its position as fighters for
justice. We will
continue to speak out against arbitrary arrests and
torture, we will
continue to speak out against state-sponsored violence
aimed at innocent
civilians, we will continue to demand the repeal of unjust
and repressive
laws such as the Public Order and Security Act, we will
continue to demand
an efficient justice delivery system, we will continue to
speak out against
the deliberate impoverishment of the masses by a
gluttonous handful of
looters and power-hungry men and women who constitute
the current regime .
We will continue to demand affordable and good quality
education and skills
development for all.
via
MZ and Ve'ahavta
In Kind Donations for the Howard Hospital
Dear
friends,
Warm Greetings! It is indeed the season of abundant giving and
sharing
with those less fortunate than us.
Please find attached an appeal
for donations in kind from Ve'ahavta for
the Howard Hospital in Zimbabwe. As
you may recall, Howard Hospital is
where Tinashe and Tinotenda, the
Zimbabwean co-joined twins were first
discovered by Dr. Paul Thistle, a
Canadian who highlighted their
situation and they subsequently ended up
coming to Canada for the
delicate surgery to separate them. A huge amount of
work and selfless
dedication from various quarters like medical personnel at
The Hospital
for Sick Children in Toronto, Ve'ahavta, ordinary
individuals,
institutions and well-wishers went into this project. We as a
Zimbabwean
Community in Canada and many friends of Zimbabwe contributed
towards
their surgery by hosting the "Any Child is My Child" dinner/dance
in
honor of Tinashe and Tinotenda in Toronto in May 2005. Thank you
for
all your support.
I am confident that we can do it again by making
donations in kind to
Howard Hospital and thus contribute towards the
well-being of our
countrymen and women who continue to endure untold
suffering. It is our
responsibility to lead and seize this rare opportunity
to assist and do
good. The attached list gives the items being solicited.
Your
contributions will be most welcome. This is not any appeal for cash
but
medical supplies. Every little bit counts.
Please do your part by
spreading the word. I will send more details on
the logistics soon so stay
connected.
Thank you in advance for your generosity and kindness. May you all
have
a joyful and peaceful holiday season. Please pray and continue to
hope
for a better
Zimbabwe.
Sincerely,
_______________________________________________________
Hello,
I
hope you are doing well. As you may know, Ve'ahavta has been
focusing
on
facilitating large scale shipments of medical supplies to
the
Howard
Hospital. Over the past 18 months, we have financed and shipped
a
twenty foot container of supplies, as well as several large shipments
of
donations from Beckson Dickenson and Health Partners International of
Canada.
We have also shipped numerous skids of supplies in a 20 foot
container
shipped through Trillium Hospital in Mississauga, and have
been asked to
contribute supplies to an upcoming container scheduled
to be shipped in
February.
Zimbabwe has been in a downspiral, and the Howard Hospital is
in
crisis mode, looking for donations of basic supplies to keep the
hospital
functioning through the forseeable future. We would like to
approach
Ve'ahavta's volunteers and partners in our long-time work with
the
Howard (a partnership that has been in place since 1998)
for
assistance in gathering supplies for this upcoming shipment. We have
officially
been asked to provide 4 skids (1/4 of the container), but
likely will
be able to squeeze in even more. We hope to continue shipping
supplies
to the Howard on an ongoing basis, so any surplus supplies that
are
collected through this appeal will be reserved for the next
shipment.
Attached is a wishlist from the Howard. Please let us know if you
can
be of assistance by indicating whether you would be able to provide
or
solicit any of the items on this list.
With best
wishes,
Sarah
Sarah Zelcer
Director of International Programs &
Education
Ve'ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian & Relief
Committee
2221 Yonge Street, Suite LL12
Toronto, ON
M4S 2B4
416 964
7698 x 15
Fax 416 964 6582
sarah@veahavta.org
The Salvation
Army
ZIMBABWE TERRITORY
Territorial Commander:
Commissioner
Stanslous C. Mutewera
Chief Secretary: Lieut-Colonel Peter
Dali
William Booth – Founder
HOWARD HOSPITAL
P.O.
BOX 190
Glendale, ZIMBABWE
Telephone
(0)758-2433
Pharmaceutical, Surgical and Laboratory Needs, Howard
Hospital
October 2007
HOWARD HOSPITAL DEPARTMENTAL
REQUIREMENTS
MEDICAL SUPPLIES: ANNUAL Requirements
¢ Bandages
large quantities
¢ Gauze large quantities
¢ Adhesive Tape 2400
rolls
¢ Tensor Bandages 2400
¢ Latex Gloves 3600 boxes
¢
Surgical Gloves 4800 pair
¢ Skin Traction Kits for Leg Fractures
75
¢ Urinary/ Foley Catheters and bags 1200
¢ Glucose testing
strips (eg,"Bayer GlucoElite") 2500 tests
¢ 10 ml Syringes with needle
6000
¢ IV Cannula #18/20/22/24 and Giving Sets 6000
¢ Drainage
tubes 500
¢ Ultrasound Gel/ Lubricant 60 liter
BASIC
PHARMACEUTICALS:
¢ NSAIDS ( eg, Ibuprofen, Indocid, Naprosyn) 600,000
tabs
¢ Tylenol 1,200,000 tabs
¢ Antihistamine (eg, Gravol,
Benadryl) 300,000 tabs
¢ Antibiotics, broad spectrum, IV and PO 200,000
tabs/ 5,000 vials
¢ Intravenous fluids 5,000 liters
¢ Antibiotic
cream for burns 100 liters
¢ Antihypertensives 500,000 tabs
¢
Diabetes treatment 500,000 tabs
¢ Antiscabies medicine, eg, Lindane 100
liters
¢ Aqueous cream / Zinc oxide 25 liter
¢ Steroid cream 15
liter
¢ Antifungal cream 15 liter
¢ Anifungal tablets 100,000
tabs
¢ Multiivitamins 1,000,000 tabs
¢ Iron 500,000 tabs
¢
Folic acid 250,000 tabs
PHARMACY:
¢ Refrigerator
¢ Counting
trays
¢ Measuring jugs
¢ Kettles
¢ Scissors
¢ Big
Buckets
¢ Wheel trolleys
¢ Large dishes for soaking.
X-RAY
DEPARTMENT:
¢ Wall Faces
¢ Chairs
¢ Computer &
Printer
¢ Trolley
¢ Refrigerator
LABORATORY
DEPARTMENT:
¢ CD4 Machine (Cytometer)
Facscalibur (
E5301)
Software: Multiset V1.1.2 + Reagents
¢ Microscope
Bulbs
¢ Microscope Slides
¢ Microscope Glasses
¢ EDTA and
Plain Tubes
¢ Centrifuge Tubes (conical 15ml) glasses
¢ Countdown
Timer
¢ Water Bath
¢ Micropipettes 100-1000, 50-200,
0-50ml
¢ RPR Reagents
¢ Diamond Markers (Glass Writing)
¢
Pregnancy Test Kits
¢ Micropipette Tips (Yellow and Blue)
¢
Microscope Immersion Oil 100ml
¢ Indian Ink 10ml
¢ Vacutainer
Needles 21 G1
¢ Blood Grouping Reagents: Anti-A, Anti-B, Anti-AB,
Anti-D
¢ Compatibility reagents: Anti-Human Globulin & Liss or
Liga
¢ Laboratory Coats
THEATRE DEPARTMENT:
¢ Surgical
Blades, sizes 20, 21 & 22
¢ Surgical instruments, all kinds,
especially scissors, and large crushing
clamps
¢ O/1 Vicryl and Dexon
on large curved needles
¢ Sensitive Tape
HOSPITAL
KITCHEN:
¢ Digital scale which weighs up to 100kg (Platform)
¢ 20
liters Aluminum pots
¢ Large Kettles
¢ Double door Industrial
Oven
¢ Large Tea pots
¢ Dough mixer or liquidizer
¢ Bread
Slicer
¢ Griller
¢ Double Deep fat frying pan
¢ China/Steel
Ware plates
¢ Wheeled buckets with gargets or mop squeezers
¢ Soft
brooms or broom heads
¢ 2 Liters Jugs
¢ Large buckets
¢
Vegetable knives
¢ Large stainless steel dishes
¢ Large frying
pans
¢ Large colanders
¢ Medium size scone cutters
¢
Electrical potato peeler
¢ Trolleys
BUSINESS OFFICE:
¢
Heavy Duty Photocopier
¢ Computers and Printers
¢ Cartridges
(13619 HC, C8727A, c8728a, 414836 ooHC)
¢ Bond Papers and
Envelopes
¢ Pens, Pencils and Markers
¢ Fluorescent
lights
¢ Calculator
¢ Fax Machine
¢ Telephone Answering
Machine
REHABILITATION:
¢ Treadmill
¢ Infra Red
Lamps
¢ Cycling Exercise Bike
¢ Static Electric Bike
¢ Home
Gym
¢ Tilt Table
¢ Physio Balls (different types)
¢
Digi-Flexors (different types)
¢ Pulley System
¢ Wrist
Incisors
¢ Message Machine
¢ Nerve stimulator, Tens
machines
GENERAL:
¢ Linen
¢ Mattresses and Pillows
500
¢ Bicycles 50
¢ Computers 25
¢ Handheld Computers
10
¢ Sewing Machines (220 V or manual) 10
¢ Electrical Irons
4
¢ Soap large quantity
¢ Bleach large quantity
¢ Tissue
Paper 3,000 rolls
¢ Toothpaste and Brushes 5,000
¢ AAA Batteries
5,000
¢ Soccer Outfits and Soccer Balls 2 teams
¢ Soccer Shoes 25
pair
¢ Food Supplements
5 or 10 Tonne Lorry
Thank you for
your consideration of this list.
Yours sincerely,
Paul
Paul
Thistle BSc (Hon), MD, FRCSC (Ob/Gyn)
Chief Medical Officer
The
Salvation Army Howard Hospital
PO Box 190
Glendale,
Zimbabwe
e-mail PThistle@healthnet.zw
075-8-2433/
023-317826
WELCOME
TO
HOWARD HOSPITAL
Founded in
1923, Howard Hospital is a Salvation Army institution situated in
the
Chiweshe communal land of rural Zimbabwe. Eighty kilometers north of the
capital of Harare, the hospital is the referral centre for the Mazowe
district of Mashonaland Central Province and has a catchment of greater than
270,000 people.
A variety of medical and social services are provided
for all ages, from the
newborn to the elderly and terminally ill. There are
in-patient and
out-patient departments seeing 115,000 patients a year, an
operating
theatre, pharmacy, laboratory, and facilities for Xray, ultrasound
and
rehabilitation. The nurses' training school offers a certificate for
primary
care nurses and complete training in the practice of
midwifery.
Family Child Health
In the department of obstetrics,
known as Family Child Health (FCH), there
are 2500 deliveries each year.
Pediatric and obstetric care, immunizations,
family planning, cervical
cancer screening are combined under one roof as
‘one stop shopping’. On the
hospital grounds an ante-natal shelter offers
accommodation to expectant
mothers, to prevent problems arising from delays
in transportation from
remote villages of the district.
Maternal mortality is high in Zimbabwe,
600/100,000 live births. One in
sixteen mothers have a lifetime risk of
dying from a pregnancy-related
cause. Cervical cancer is the number one
cancer in women, its increased
incidence attributed to the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS remains the single largest challenge
to health care delivery at
Howard. In Zimbabwe, 1.3 million are living with
HIV. The life expectancy
for a woman is 34 years, the lowest in the world.
The good news is that we
know what works to mitigate the pandemic. Progress
has been made in
preventing the transmission of HIV from a mother to her
infant, commonly
referred to as Maternal to Child Transmission (MTCT). Since
1999, Howard
Hospital has witnessed the introduction of short courses of
antiretrovirals
such as zidovudine and nevirapine to decrease the risk of
the infant
contracting HIV. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is
now offered
to all expectant mothers.
Our fight against AIDS is not
limited to mothers and infants. In our
district we estimate that 25,000
people of all ages are HIV positive and
5,000 are in urgent need of
treatment and support. In response, our HIV/TB
treatment centre, Tariro
(Hope) Clinic was launched, now a place of
counseling, treatment and care
for 900 adults and children on HAART and over
5,000 on co-trimoxazole
prophylaxis, that reduces the risk of HIV related
infections. It is our goal
that all persons living with HIV will access
these services, be restored to
full health and return to become productive
members of our
community.
The Community
We’ve commenced a mobile HIV treatment
clinic at 16 sites across our
district to provide ongoing care to people
living well with HIV, but who can
no longer afford the escalating
transportation costs of follow-up at Howard
Hospital. In addition, support
groups of people living with HIV have sprung
up in the villages. A
supplemental feeding program provides for children
with malnutrition and
there is child sponsorship for orphans who could
otherwise not afford to go
to school. In the Home Based Care program, there
are over 5,000 patients
living with AIDS or other chronic disease enrolled
in this palliative care
service, being visited by a network of 400
volunteers, nurses and
chaplains.
The expectant mother, the sick, the dying and their relatives
and friends
are exposed to the benefits of AIDS awareness and health
education at Howard
Hospital. Our education team, called ‘Gypsy Joe’,
reaches the schools,
churches, farms and mines with the message of AIDS
prevention using song,
art and puppetry. Peer education through youth clubs
have been established
in the schools. It is our goal that individuals will
take note, and adopt
healthy, life-preserving behavior - one by
one.
Prevention, treatment and care, and a message of hope ... this is
the
message that we deliver to our patients, their families and to the
community
at large.
MISSION STATEMENT
The Salvation Army, as
an international movement, is an evangelical branch
of the Christian
church.
Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by
love of God
and a practical concern for the needs of humanity. Its mission
is to preach
the Gospel of Jesus Christ and supply basic human needs without
discrimination.
Howard Hospital ascribes to this mission statement.
We are committed to
meeting human needs in a compassionate manner to all
those seeking medical
care.