• Whites braced for new attack from Mugabe
• Mugabe's Swiss jaunt costs billions
• Mbeki to visit Zimbabwe again
• On the trail of the Landlord from Hell turned Good Samaritan
• Africa's love affair with the mealie
• SAF Opposition Party, Democratic Alliance, Criticizes Mbeki Stand On
• Mugabe and the Commonwealth
• Mugabe cracks down on Internet
• Death, Exile Among Hazards for Dictators
• MDC may talk to Mugabe
• Shock at Mbeki's 'offensive' Zim comments
• Wasting our time up a diplomatic dead end
• Major War vets shake- up
• ZCU’s howler
• Mash East black-on-black land dispute resolved?
• Taking an elephant with a spear dream come true for McCann

Whites braced for new attack from Mugabe

MASSACRES ON ZIMBABWE'S FARMS

By RW Johnson, Harare
14/12/03
THE dwindling white population of Zimbabwe is anticipating a fresh onslaught from President Robert Mugabe amid warnings that he may seek revenge for his explosive exit from the Commonwealth last week.
Harare, the capital, was swept by reports of harassment last week.

Many whites feared that they would bear the brunt of Mugabe’s frustration at being barred from the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Nigeria, where calls to lift Zimbabwe’s suspension from the organisation were rejected.

“You have to remember that the last time Mugabe lost face like this in public was his defeat in the February 2000 constitutional referendum,” said Mike Davies of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which brings together a variety of groups demanding change. “He reacted to that by sending in the war veterans and inflicting massive violence on farmers, farm workers and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.”

Davies said Mugabe’s latest setback would have angered him even more because he had appeared on television with Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian president, and made it clear that he was looking forward to attending the summit.

Instead, Mugabe was told to stay away and other African leaders ignored his call for a boycott. The conclusion of the meeting prompted him to announce Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth in protest.

Mugabe spent much of last week in Geneva at a United Nations summit where he denounced global inequality while staying at La Reserve, a country club-style spa where rooms start at £380 a night.

Sources in Harare said the authorities that had incited the seizure of white-owned farms were increasingly targeting white businesses in cities.

Last week Bill Bedford and Mark Butcher, who organise hunting safaris, had their offices ransacked by police searching for evidence of illicit foreign exchange earnings.

“It’s all part of the revenge against whites,” said Don Heath, editor of the magazine African Hunter. “The same thing happens with any businessman or lawyer who might have foreign exchange. If they have any they can’t explain, they get charged with economic sabotage and treason — which carries a death penalty.”

Other whites complained of being stopped and searched for foreign currency at police road blocks: any pounds or dollars were confiscated. There were unconfirmed reports of more savage attacks on white farmers and their families, and of children being forced to watch their mother being gang-raped.

Such violence often appears politically driven. Many whites claim wealthy blacks are burgled far less often than they are. Several white community leaders have recently been the targets of violent burglaries.

One was Adrian de Bourbon, the high-profile liberal lawyer who has acted in many cases against the government. De Bourbon’s home was burgled and his wife Linda was tied up and threatened. The couple are now emigrating.

Many of the burglars display a military-style discipline, handling their firearms efficiently and taking orders from a leader. The victims say their attackers wear khaki and army or police boots.

“Quite often the burglars beat their victims to make them tell where valuables are hidden,” said Dave Morris, another Harare resident. “These are severe but carefully judged beatings in which nobody dies. It’s a professional hand at work.”

There is further anxiety among whites that what Mugabe calls Operation Clean Sweep will be applied not just to clear white farmers off the land but also to drive those who remain from the country.

Nobody knows exactly how many are left in Zimbabwe, but most estimates put the number at 40,000 or less, compared with a peak of nearly 300,000 out of a total population of 13m. Many are pensioners, trapped because their Zimbabwe dollar pensions are worth nothing outside the country, or business and professional people hoping to outlast Mugabe.

There is no doubt, however, that many white Zimbabweans want to stay. “Quite a few white women here work as home helps in England for a few months a year,” said Davies.

“With what they earn turned back into Zim dollars their families can live a year. It’s a post-colonial irony: they’re so keen to stay that the white madams have become maids to do so.” - The Sunday Times

      Mugabe's Swiss jaunt costs billions

      Money no object as president lashes 'imperialists' at Geneva summit
      Sunday Times Foreign Desk

      In a desperate bid to address an international audience after being
denied the opportunity at the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria, President
Robert Mugabe blew billions of Zimbabwean dollars this week - for yet
another attack on the "imperialists" and "racists" who he says want to
re-colonise his country.

      Mugabe's hastily arranged trip to the United Nations World Summit on
the Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland, has cost the beggared
Zimbabwean economy an estimated Z1-billion in accommodation and expenses for
the president and his entourage.

      His foray into the outside world - where he raged that Britain and the
US were using their superior information technologies to destabilise
Zimbabwe and other developing countries - has cost the ailing national
carrier, Air Zimbabwe, an estimated Z3-billion after Mugabe commandeered a
Boeing 767-200 for the trip.

      The aircraft, which carries about 200 passengers to London three times
a week at a cost of Z5-million a ticket, will be out of commission for nine
days. In addition to flying Mugabe's 20-member entourage to Geneva, it will
also be used to fly Mugabe's party to tomorrow's Sino-Africa summit in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.

      Official sources said Mugabe spent about US66 971, or Z402-million ,
in hotel accommodation in Switzerland for his 20-member entourage @attending
the three-day summit.

      He also spent almost Z600-million on expenses, including fuel for the
Boeing. The carrier stood to lose an estimated Z3-billion in tickets already
booked on scheduled flights which had to be cancelled.

      To replace the Boeing, Air Zimbabwe was forced to hire a plane from a
British carrier, My Travel Airways, for US1-million, or about Z600-million .

      Air Zimbabwe, which had 15 planes when Mugabe came to power 23 years
ago, now has only five, two of which are not airworthy .

      Once in Geneva, Mugabe and his cronies lived it up at the one of the
city's plushest hotels - La Réserve, a country club-style spa on the shores
of Lake Geneva. The hotel has 86 rooms and offers royal, presidential,
executive and deluxe suites.

      La Réserve re-opened in January this year after closing its doors for
a two-year facelift carried out under the direction of the renowned Parisian
decorator, Jacques Garcia.

      According to The Times of London, rooms at La Réserve start at £380 a
night, with the presidential suite costing £4 500.

      After @ their arrival at the hotel, Mugabe and his party did their
best to avoid waiting journalists who wanted to question him about his
sullen withdrawal from the Commonwealth last weekend.

      When the Mugabe party finally emerged, the Times reported, the
zen-like calm that The Réserve strives to create for its guests was
shattered by the thuggish behaviour of his bodyguards, who manhandled
several waiting photographers.

      Mugabe pointedly ignored questions from the media.

      His Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told journalists "to go and ask
[British Prime Minister] Tony Blair" about Commonwealth issues.

      The European Union travel ban on Mugabe and his lieutenants does not
apply in Switzerland, which is not an EU member.

      Mugabe was in a typically belligerent mood at the conference, which
dealt with the need to bridge the digital divide between the West and Third
World, using the platform there to once more hector Britain and the US for
"undermining our sovereignty".

      This time, he accused "the rich imperialist northern countries" of
using information communication technologies, or ICTs, as tools of espionage
and propaganda.

      He claimed that, although ICTs were essential for development, they
were being used as weapons of propaganda and espionage by those who wanted
to destabilise Zimbabwe through "malicious propaganda".

      Commentators remarked that, even by his usual standards, Mugabe's
anti-British diatribes rose to new heights in Geneva.

      "Beneath the rhetoric of free press and transparency is the iniquity
of hegemony," he said, adding that IT was dominated "by a few countries in
the selfish interests of those countries which are in quest of global
dominance and hegemony".

      Mugabe reiterated that his government would control the means of
getting information to its citizens.

Sunday Times Foreign Desk

South African President Thabo Mbeki is set to visit Harare to hold talks
with his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, in the wake of Zimbabwe's
dramatic withdrawal from the Commonwealth this week, the Sunday Times has
learnt.

Mbeki's visit, expected before Christmas, is likely to coincide with a
similar trip to Zimbabwe by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo or his
envoy.

Mbeki, meanwhile, has lashed out at the failure of the Commonwealth to
address the land question in Zimbabwe, which he said was "at the core of the
crisis".

Writing his weekly column on the ANC website, Mbeki said that at the time of
Zimbabwe's first suspension in March last year, the Commonwealth had decided
that land was a key issue.

"At the Abuja meeting, the land question in Zimbabwe was not discussed," he
said.

"Indeed, the land question has disappeared from the global discourse about
Zimbabwe, except when it is mentioned to highlight the plight of the former
white landowners and to attribute food shortages in Zimbabwe to the land
distribution programme," Mbeki wrote.

He said solutions to the land issue, including promises of large sums of
money by Britain and the US, have never materialised.

Mugabe pulled out of the now 53-member club after the Commonwealth Heads of
Government meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, extended Zimbabwe's suspension.

Zimbabwe was initially suspended on March 19 last year after Mugabe's hotly
disputed re-election, which was marred by political violence and
vote-rigging.

Mbeki's meeting with Mugabe is aimed at finding ways of securing a
negotiated settlement to the Zimbabwe crisis.

Southern African leaders are also said to be planning an emergency summit on
Zimbabwe.

Mbeki and Obasanjo have been trying for three years to break the political
impasse and unscramble Zimbabwe's litany of problems.

The two presidents were last in Zimbabwe in May. They tried to arrange for
direct talks between Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but failed.

Mbeki's forthcoming meeting with Mugabe will follow talks he held in
Pretoria on Thursday with Zimbabwean church leaders battling to resolve the
crisis.

Bishops Sebastian Bakare of the Anglican Church, Patrick Mutume of the
Catholic Church and Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe met Mbeki to enlist his support in tackling the situation.

After meeting Mbeki, Zimbabwean church leaders briefed Tsvangirai on their
mission on Friday.

They are expected to brief Mugabe next week after his return from the
Sino-Africa summit in Ethiopia.

The bishops started their initiative to break the political impasse in July,
with separate meetings with Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Their initiative was designed to complement Mbeki's aim to get the derailed
informal talks between Zanu-PF and the MDC back on track.

However, Mugabe is likely to harden his stance against the MDC after the
Commonwealth fiasco.

Tsvangirai met with Zanu-PF chairman John Nkomo in September to pave the way
for a meeting between Mugabe and the MDC leader.

But the meeting aimed at breaking the ice failed at the last minute after
Mugabe decided to indefinitely postpone it.

"Is Mr van Hoogstraten available?" The hotel receptionist was afraid not.
"Can you confirm he is there?" She could not. "Would you take a message for
him?" Yes, she said, blowing the subterfuge: "I'll see that he gets it."

But what sort of message to leave for one of the most feared and loathed men
in Britain, the property developer a judge once described as "a
self-imagined emissary of Beelzebub"? Perhaps an appeal to his new,
charitable side. Unlikely as it seems, Mr van Hoogstraten trained as a
Samaritan while in HMP Belmarsh and has a certificate to prove it, signed by
the director of the charity and the prison governor. Not that the ruthless
tycoon is likely to do a shift at the local Samaritans. "Many people," he
said on Friday, "already know where I am."

They used to. Until last week he was behind high-security bars, serving 10
years for ordering the death of Mohammed Raja, a fellow landlord in
Brighton. His conviction for manslaughter was quashed in July and a retrial
ordered, but he was released instead. After threatening to sue "just about
everybody" connected with his prosecution, Mr van Hoogstraten said he was
"not the sort of person who would disappear quietly". Then he was driven
from the Old Bailey and back to Hove, where more than a few people must have
been eager to test his new listening skills.

The lawyers will have wanted to discuss possible lawsuits against the
police, the Crown Prosecution Service, his own former legal team and the
Home Office for what a very cross Mr van Hoogstraten perceives as a
miscarriage of justice. Then there is the fight to get back assets worth
£92m frozen by the courts and others worth £32m seized by sequestrators.
These do not include Hamilton Palace, the copper-domed mansion near Uckfield
 that he once estimated would be worth £60m. Bigger than Buckingham Palace,
it was to have Louis XV furniture, a Holbein painting in a 600ft art gallery
and a mausoleum for his sole use. It must have been a blow to his ego, then,
when the courts valued his palace at closer to £600,000. The roof is
rumoured to be unfinished and leaky and the sequestrators decided it was too
expensive to guard and maintain. Billy BJ Smart, heir to the circus fortune,
expressed an interest in buying the place earlier this year but nothing was
agreed. The property is said to be in the name of Caroline Williams, a
former lover and mother of two of Mr van Hoogstraten's five children. Now Mr
van Hoogstraten is free again, his scaffolded palace will become the jewel
in the legal battle.

The copper domes shone through bony trees on the edge of his estate on
Friday, and scaffolding was visible on the flat roof. It was easier than
ever to get closer by following Framfield 9, the footpath cleared after yet
another legal battle, this time between the landlord and the Ramblers
Association - or "riff-raff" and "perverts" as he called them. He lost that
one, and the shed, barbed wire and fridges with which the way was once
blocked have been removed. "Keep out" said red warning signs, but it is hard
to know who would prosecute.

Mr van Hoogstraten was obviously not there, and neither was anyone else. The
gates to the site access road were closed and no vehicles could be seen. The
building work was put on hold at the time of the trial and may not resume
for a long while. Asked to comment on the possible return of a squire whose
demeanour once "scared the life out of" local council officials, a man
living in the hamlet of Palehouse Common said, "You must be joking". Asked
why not, he said, "Use your brain," and hurried off.

Meanwhile Mr van Hoogstraten was a 45-minute drive away in Hove, the heart
of his former empire where he was once said to own more than 400 properties.
The seaside town is also where he made his name as a landlord to rival
Rachman, acquiring run-down flats and using every possible method - from
horse manure in the gardens to power cuts and sending in the heavies - to
force out the sitting tenants he called "scum". When five people burned to
death in one of his alleged properties he denied having anything to do with
it but branded the victims "low-life, drug dealers, drug takers and queers".

Twenty years ago a bill for £5.3m in unpaid tax forced him to restructure
the business. Three years ago The Independent on Sunday discovered he was
hiding his wealth behind at least a dozen aliases, including Nicholas Adolf
von Hessen. Confronted with this serial flouting of the Companies Act he
admitted everything, as well as using bribery to gain property in Cuba and
other countries across the world, very little of which could be traced back
to him. His friends in Zimbabwe, where he has given a lot of money to the
ruling Zanu PF party, have already been in touch: President Mugabe was one
of the first to offer congratulations on his release.

These days Mr van Hoogstraten is less flamboyant about his property. The
general manager of the Hotel Langfords in Hove said she was "not at liberty
to say" whether he owned the place. Asked if the Imperial Hotel was still
part of the Hoogstraten empire, a member of staff was "not at liberty to
say". Which is also what they said at the Courtlands. Perhaps it is the
company motto, given how recently he was not at liberty himself.

Others in Hove were less reticent about their most notorious neighbour.
Colonel EA Harvey-Sinnock, 88, was the county rent officer in the 1970s,
responsible for setting fair rents at the same time as "that rat of a man"
Mr van Hoogstraten was building his empire. "His idea of legality wasn't
everyone else's. The last time I saw him he said if I didn't do a certain
job he'd have me topped. He had got a case and I had refused to accept it
because it wasn't legal and then he threatened me."

But Mr van Hoogstraten has never attempted to carry out his threat. "Just as
well," said the colonel. "I held the Army boxing championships, a man like
Hoogstraten is not going to worry me. Just as soon kill him as a German."

Ivor Caplin, the local Labour MP, took a more diplomatic line. "We crossed
swords over Paulingsgate, which was a disgraceful piece of housing," said
the man who once called Mr van Hoogstraten the sad Citizen Kane of Sussex.
"The way that those people who lived in Paulingsgate were treated was
absolutely outrageous."

It's a view backed up by Tony Greenstein, secretary of the Brighton and Hove
Unemployed Workers' Centre. "He's the most notorious landlord you can find.
He was involved in the most thuggish behaviour against vulnerable people."

Many people in Hove, Brighton and Uckfield thought the reign of Nicholas van
Hoogstraten was over when he was jailed. They were wrong. Old Nick has told
the local paper he will spend Christmas at the Courtlands with his family
before renewing the fight with the law next year, so anyone in need of
counselling should head there. The hotel is taking bookings for Christmas
dinner in its restaurant, Nick's Place. Which, of course, has nothing to do
with him.

BBC

 

Africa's love affair with the mealie

By Hamilton Wende BBC correspondent in Africa The first sign of the mealie women is a long, sonorous chant Just as Britons mark the first cuckoo of spring or the first swallows, so many Africans wait eagerly and hopefully for the arrival each year of the mealie women. You can always tell whether this year will be a good crop or not, depending on how early the mealie women appear on the streets. If the rains have been good they appear well before Christmas. If the rains don't come then they might only have a few mealies to sell in January. It is a season of both hope and fear. These are the pivotal months that can bring rain and good crops, but if the rains fail, drought and hunger will follow. In Africa, rain is the best Christmas gift that anyone's gods may bring. This year, the rains have not been good, so there are fewer mealie women selling on the streets than usual. I finally bought my first ears of the season just the other day. "It's bad," the woman said to me. "There's no rain. I come to Johannesburg every day to sell, but the mealies are small." The harvest determines the future of millions of people all across the continent For now, all anyone can do is hope that January will be better. Mealies or "umbila" as they are called in the townships, are not as soft and sweet as European or American corn. The grainy, somewhat chewy, but nutritious kernels are not always palatable to sensitive European tongues. But everywhere on the continent Africans love them. In the streets of Lagos or at truck stops along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway you will see them roasted whole on charcoal fires, and sold as a delicious snack. Most often the kernels are dried out and ground into maize meal, which, when cooked in a pot with water, is known as "sadza" in Zimbabwe, "ugali" in Kenya and "pap" or "phuthu" in South Africa. The mealie women usually arrive on the streets in the late afternoon, just after the hottest part of the day has passed. Many have spent the morning haggling with farmers or with the middlemen at the produce market over the best prices for a bag of fresh ears of corn. Some travel for hours in the back of huge trucks just to come to the city to sell mealies. The first sign of the mealie women is a long, sonorous chant that echoes down the streets. I don't know whether it is possible correctly to imitate the chant, but it goes something like this: "Green mealies, mealieeeeees. Green mealieeeees." Then you see the women coming slowly, even majestically, down the street carrying these enormous, heavy bags of mealies on their head. And then, children usually, enjoying the excitement of it all, run out with a few coins to buy half a dozen fresh mealies to be boiled or grilled for dinner. I saw a few fields that had escaped the ravages of the soldiers and the fighting In the cities of South Africa, the mealie sellers have become a summer ritual. But it is also an important way for the women who sell them, drawn mostly from the country's rural poor, to add to their meagre incomes. Elsewhere in Africa, maize is even more crucial. A single sack can often mean the difference between life and death for an entire family. Maize meal is the staple food here. The harvest determines the future of millions of people all across the continent, and everything depends on how abundant the rainy season is. When I was in Bunia, deep in the war-torn forests of the Congo, thousands of hungry refugees were living near the airport. The United Nations was providing sacks of American-grown corn for them to eat. The fighting had destroyed most of the crops. All across the green hills outside town you could see women carrying sacks of UN grain home to their villages. A poor mealie crop increases the reliance on Western aid I'll never forget an aid worker saying: "It's amazing what people carry on their heads here. We drove 20 minutes out into the countryside, and we saw women carrying huge sacks of maize all that way from town - they must have such incredible strength." The next day we flew out of Bunia, over the green rolling hills and the villages nestled in their gentle valleys. I saw a few fields that had escaped the ravages of the soldiers and the fighting. Growing in the dark red soil outside the villages was traditional African maize - fresh green mealies. Far below, people were tilling the fields as they have done throughout the cycles of Africa's long history, waiting for the rains, preparing the harvest even in a time of war, hoping always, waiting for a new season to come.

A leading South African opposition party is sharply criticizing President
Thabo Mbeki’s position on Zimbabwe, calling it a “disgusting defense of a
disgraceful tyrant.”
Mr. Mbeki said Zimbabwe’s critics are using “human rights as a tool to
overthrow a legitimately elected government.” Graham Mcintosh is a spokesman
for the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s second largest party. From Cape
Town, he spoke to English to Africa reporter Joe De Capua about why his
party is opposed to the Mbeki policy on Zimbabwe.

Mr. Mcintosh says, “The attempt by President Mbeki to suggest that an
agenda, which is for human rights and democracy, is, as he put it, a tool of
US foreign policy, is a disgrace. It is a universal and beloved commitment
by democrats in all societies throughout the world.”

Regarding the land issue in Zimbabwe, Mr. McIntosh says the “real issue is
commercial farming.” He says President Mugabe has destroyed the commercial
mining industry, something that would be comparable to destroying a country’
s mining industry.

Mr. McIntosh says, “Any informed individual who has visited Zimbabwe and
seen the reality of the Mugabe regime’s disastrous policies and programs
will agree that the sentiments expressed by President Mbeki is utter
nonsense.”

Mugabe and the Commonwealth

President Robert Mugabe's decision to withdraw Zimbabwe from the
Commonwealth, and the conflicting opinions on this move, has raised the
question as to whether there is more likelihood of effecting change through
inclusion or ostracism. While several southern African governments have
taken the view that Mugabe should be 'in' rather than 'out' so that 'soft
diplomacy' could be given the chance to work on getting the Zimbabwean
President to change; whereas the Western world has opted instead for
exclusion to force Mugabe to effect change in that beleaguered African
nation. Mugabe's move to pull out of the Commonwealth was sparked by a
decision to prolong Zimbabwe's suspension from that organisation, a move put
into place in March last year. It is of course a difficult question for
anyone to answer. Whether in fact Mugabe would be more responsive to 'quiet
diplomacy', opted for by leaders such as South African President Thabo
Mbeki, than the decision to exclude the southern African nation from the
Commonwealth, is a matter for conjecture.

Little however, appears to have been achieved through the suspension.
Mugabe's stance has remained as intransigent as ever and the situation
continues to go from bad to worse. Neither, however, does the 'soft
diplomacy' of fellow African nations appear to have made any difference. It
is equally unlikely that Mugabe, having now left the Commonwealth, will
change of his own volition. The Zimbabwe issue has to a great extent
polarised Western and African worlds, although the divide is not exclusively
along these lines. There is some African opinion, and this was mirrored by
Namibian opposition reaction to the continued suspension of Zimbabwe, that
believes only tough tactics are likely to have any effect on President
Mugabe. They argue that the 'softly, softly' approach will simply have the
effect of propping up Mugabe's rule rather than bring about change.

Whatever the case may be, it is self-evident, since Africans want to make
their decisions without undue pressure from the West, that the organisations
at their own disposal should do something about a deteriorating situation
that is impacting not only on Zimbabweans themselves, but neighbouring
countries and the rest of the region too. So while one has sympathy for the
viewpoint that Africans feel Western pressure has brought about the further
suspension of Zimbabwe and the resultant decision by Mugabe to withdraw,
equally one must ask why they have failed to date, to get the Zimbabwean
President to make concessions for the sake of his country, its people and
their future. Africans should decide their own future, but they should then
act, and act timeously, if they wish to prevent countries from the so-called
First World from taking the initiative because none has been taken so far.
Most of us on the continent would be extremely proud to know that our own
regional and continental organisations, such as the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU) could act without fear
or favour in dealing with leaders such as Mugabe, instead of shielding them
from criticism from within and without. As things stand, it appears most
unlikely that Mugabe will change, unless he is forced to do so, and if
African nations themselves joined hands to make the continent a better
place, this would be the best solution of all.

      By Basildon Peta

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's embattled regime is planning drastic
new measures to control all broadcast and internet-based information,
reports say. The move comes barely a day after Mugabe accused Britain of
using the internet as its new tool in trying to recolonise the Third World.

Media organisations in Zimbabwe now fear that the government could soon move
to regulate their internet websites, which would deal another heavy blow to
freedom of expression in the country. The Mugabe government has already shut
down the only independent daily newspaper in the country, the Daily News.

The Mirror, a Zimbabwean newspaper owned by a businessman with close links
to the ruling party, reported last week that the department of information
in Mugabe's office was planning to spend billions of Zimbabwe dollars to
acquire sophisticated software that would enable it to hack into people's
computer systems. A 24-hour monitoring team would be set up and overseen by
intelligence officials, the paper said.

The Mirror said that this move, if successfully completed, meant that the
government would be able to monitor individual information, messages and
letters, leading to the arrest of all those involved in circulating
information that the government held undermined the sovereignty of the
country.

Fourteen people were arrested recently under harsh new state security laws
for exchanging e-mail messages critical of Mugabe. State prosecutors claimed
they were spreading "falsehoods" and organising illegal strikes.

Under Zimbabwe's draconian Public Order and Security Act, it is a crime to
say things considered uncomplimentary to the head of state and even to
gesture at his motorcade.

Speaking at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva on
Tuesday, Mugabe said Britain and the United States were using their
superiority in information technologies to destabilise Zimbabwe and other
small states.

"I say this because my country Zimbabwe continues to be a victim of such
aggression, with both the United Kingdom and the US using their information
technologies superiority to challenge our sovereignty through hostile and
malicious broadcasts calculated to foment instability and destroy the state
through divisions. Beneath the rhetoric of free press is the iniquity of
hegemony. The quest for an information society should not be at the expense
of building a sovereign national society."

Reports said among the new measures to counter bad publicity a propaganda
radio station would be broadcasting 24 hours a day to worldwide audiences.

More than 100 journalists have been arrested in Zimbabwe over allegations of
publishing "falsehoods" under the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act.

Mugabe's regime has expelled four foreign correspondents including one from
the BBC and another from the Guardian newspaper. - Independent Foreign
Service

Some ended up in prison, others were butchered at the hands of their own
people. A lucky few lived out their days in comfortable exile or in
positions of privilege in the lands they ruled.

India's independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi said that dictators "for a
time ... can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall."

That hasn't always proven true. Among others, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin,
North Korea's Kim Il-Sung, China's Mao Zedong, Francisco Franco of Spain and
Syria's Hafez Assad all died in power. Fidel Castro is still going strong in
Cuba.

Albania's Enver Hoxha and Augusto Pinochet of Chile arranged comfortable
retirements before handing over power.

The global record of bringing tyrants to justice has been mixed. Only one --
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- has stood before an
international tribunal to answer for his regime.

Milosevic's trial is still under way at an international war crimes tribunal
in The Hague, Netherlands. Liberia's Charles Taylor has been indicted for
war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone but has not been arrested.

Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega is serving a 40-year term in a federal
prison in Miami for racketeering, drug trafficking and money-laundering
after U.S. troops entered his country and arrested him in 1989.

But history's master tyrant, Adolf Hitler, escaped retribution by committing
suicide in Berlin before Soviet troops could capture him in 1945. Pol Pot,
whose Khmer Rouge regime was responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million
Cambodians, died in the jungle in 1998 as remnants of his vanquished
movement were preparing to hand him over to an international court.

For dictators, great power entails great risk. The price for years spent
firmly in the saddle can be high.

For nearly 25 years, Nicolae Ceausescu wielded vast powers as the Communist
boss of Romania, even defying the Kremlin which tolerated him because of his
firm hold over his people. Ceausescu and his wife Elena were shot by a
firing squad on Christmas Day 1989 after revolutionaries toppled his regime.

That seemed a merciful end compared with that of Samuel Doe, the shy,
soft-spoken master sergeant who overthrew Liberian President William Tobert
in 1980.

Power and corruption soon got the best of him and after 10 years of
dictatorial rule, Doe was himself overthrown -- tortured, mutilated and
brutally slain.

More fortunate are those who can call on a foreign leader for a safe haven
once their regime is on the rocks.

Idi Amin, who as president of Uganda ordered the massacre of thousands of
his countrymen and impoverished his people, managed to get away to Libya
after neighboring Tanzania overthrew his regime in 1979. Amin later settled
in Saudi Arabia, where he died Aug. 16, 2003.

Ethiopia's Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam escaped to Zimbabwe in 1991 as rebels
led by ethnic minority Tigreans closed in on his capital Addis Ababa, ending
a 17-year dictatorship notorious for its bloody purges.

Mengistu was given a luxury villa, bodyguards and a pension -- payback for
having provided Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe with arms, money and
training facilities during the 1972-80 war to end white rule in former
Rhodesia.

Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier of Haiti used his family's longtime ties to
France to escape retribution when the Haitian military ousted his regime in
1986.

"Baby Doc" was named president for life at age 19 after the death in 1971 of
his father, Francois, or "Papa Doc," who ruled with the help of the
notorious paramilitary Tonton Macoutes.

Despite promises to liberalize, the younger Duvalier muzzled the press,
wrecked the economy and ordered the torture and killing of hundreds of
political prisoners. That triggered anti-government demonstrations and
provoked a military coup.

Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic wasn't so lucky. One of
Africa's most ruthless dictators, Bokassa was ousted in a French-backed coup
in 1979 after a bizarre 13-year rule that included proclaiming himself
Emperor Bokassa I.

Bokassa was accused of killing and eating those who dared criticize him. His
purported crimes included the 1979 massacre of 100 children who complained
about school uniforms they were required to buy from his factory.

After seven years in luxurious exile in Ivory Coast and France, Bokassa
returned to Central African Republic in 1987 expecting to be welcomed.
Instead, he became the first deposed African head of state to be publicly
tried on charges of murder, torture and cannibalism.

He was acquitted of cannibalism charges, but convicted of murder and
sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison, and he
was freed in September 1993.

Bokassa died three years later and was honored with a state funeral.

Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party will discuss, among other issues,
dialogue with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF when it holds its annual
conference.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said
Secretary General Welshman Ncube, who heads a team tasked with negotiating
with Zanu-PF, was expected to present a report on the contentious issue of
inter-party dialogue.

"The party will make resolutions based on the report by Ncube," Nyathi said.
The conference is due to take place from December 20.

Talks brokered by Nigeria and South Africa between the two political sides
fell apart last year after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai mounted a court
challenge against Mugabe's disputed victory in 2002 presidential polls.

Although there have been reports of low-level talks between the two parties,
Mugabe has ruled out talking to the MDC unless it recognises him as
president. But the opposition says it will not drop its challenge.

Out of Commonwealth

The opposition party's conference will take place two weeks after a similar
one by Zanu-PF mandated Mugabe to pull the country out of the 54-nation
Commonwealth grouping of mainly former British colonies.

Mugabe took the decision last week over what he said was an unfair decision
by the Commonwealth to prolong Zimbabwe's 20-month long suspension from the
group over charges the Zimbabwean leader used vote-rigging and violence to
win the presidential election.

Zimbabwe is currently in the grip of severe economic problems, with
inflation at 526%, 70% unemployment and chronic shortages of hard cash to
import food, medicine and fuel.

Nyathi said the opposition party wanted to use its conference, which is to
be held in the capital Harare, to come up with strategies "to address the
country's decline".

      December 14 2003 at 12:11PM

By Peter Fabricius and Toye Olori

President Thabo Mbeki has shocked foreign diplomats and some local observers
by justifying Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's forcible seizure of white
farmland as "perhaps inevitable".

They have also reacted with dismay to what they called Mbeki's "deeply
offensive" remarks written in his weekly electronic letter in his party's
website journal, ANC Today.

These include the charge that Britain opposed Zimbabwe's readmission to the
Commonwealth this week merely to protect its "white, settler, colonial kith
and kin". And that western powers are using the demand for Mugabe to respect
human rights merely as a tool for "regime change" in Zimbabwe.

      Mbeki used his weekly letter to mount a major broadside assault
Mbeki used his weekly letter to mount a major broadside assault on those,
especially Britain, who opposed Zimbabwe's readmission. Zimbabwe has since
quit the Commonwealth over its extended suspension.

The Democratic Alliance called Mbeki's letter " a disgusting defence of a
disgraceful tyrant". And on Saturday, Nigeria dismissed South African
criticism that the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria this week had
steamrollered a decision to keep Zimbabwe suspended from the organisation.

Mbeki complained in his newsletter that the land issue, which was central to
the Zimbabwe crisis, had not been discussed at the Abuja summit.

He concluded that Mugabe's forcible seizure of white farmland in 2000 had
become "perhaps inevitable" because Britain and other western countries had
broken promises, dating from 1979, to fund peaceful land redistribution.

Britain has in the past firmly rejected such charges, insisting that it did
donate money for land redistribution until it became apparent that the land
was going to Mugabe's cronies and not to needy peasants.

      Britain has in the past firmly rejected such charges
Mugabe charged that Britain and other western powers had reneged on their
promises to fund land redistribution.

Britain and the United States promised this at the Lancaster House
negotiations on Zimbabwe's independence in 1979.

"The large sums of money promised by both the British and US governments to
enable the new government to buy land for African settlement never
materialised," Mbeki said.

South Africa and others had called an international land conference in
Zimbabwe in 1998, at which Britain, the United Nations, the European Union
and others agreed to help finance the programme of land redistribution.
"Nothing came of these commitments," Mbeki said.

Later South Africa again "intervened to help solve the Zimbabwe land
question. We managed to get pledges from various countries, other than the
UK, to provide this P9 million (R100 million).

"Having handed this matter over to the UN, it collapsed in the intricacies
of the UN bureaucracy. Though there were willing sellers and willing buyers,
and the necessary funds, the 118 farms were not bought.

"With everything having failed to restore the land to its original owners in
a peaceful manner, a forcible process of land redistribution perhaps became
inevitable," Mbeki concluded.

British government sources said Mbeki's newsletter was being "digested" in
London, which would decide whether and how to respond. However, Britain has
in the past denied criticism that it broke its promises to fund land
redistribution. On Britain's foreign office website it says "between 1980
and 1985, the UK provided P47 million for land reform".

The British foreign office website said that Britain took part in a 1998
land conference, and agreed to give more funds provided the Zimbabwe
government observed the principles it agreed to there.

"Those principles included the need for transparency, respect for the rule
of law, poverty reduction, affordability and consistency with Zimbabwe's
wider economic interests."

Britain said its preparations to fund the programme were "interrupted by the
illegal farm occupations and the subsequent violence in the run-up to the
2000 parliamentary elections".

In his letter Mbeki insists that Britain's real motive in Zimbabwe is still
to protect its own people and suggests that Zanu-PF are the real democrats:
" Those who fought for a democratic Zimbabwe, with thousands paying the
supreme price during the struggle, and forgave their oppressors and
torturers in a spirit of national reconciliation, have been turned into
repugnant enemies of democracy."

Mbeki adds that those campaigning for human rights in Zimbabwe are really
just using human rights "as a tool for overthrowing the government of
Zimbabwe and rebuilding Zimbabwe as they wish".

Graham McIntosh, the Democratic Alliance's spokesperson on Africa, said
Mbeki's letter "offers a fascinating but frightening insight into the
president's disturbed logic and devotion to lost causes". As with the Aids
issue, Mbeki had revealed a "dissident" view on Zimbabwe, he said.

"Any informed individual who has visited Zimbabwe and seen the reality of
the Mugabe regime's disastrous policies and programmes will agree that the
sentiment expressed by President Mbeki is utter nonsense. The president's
letter is a disgusting defence of a disgraceful tyrant.

"He should be ashamed of the way he has used race and smear tactics against
the other members of the Commonwealth and its secretary-general and the
astonishing trashing of the world's commitment to human rights as 'a tool of
US foreign policy'," said McIntosh.

The Commonwealth is a fatuous and vainglorious institution that Australia
would be well out of.

The important diplomatic question of the month is not whether Zimbabwe will
come back into the Commonwealth, but why on earth Australia does not get
out.

Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, accompanied by a substantial
entourage, has just spent nearly a week in Abuja - that's Abuja, Nigeria -
for the biennial meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government. This meeting,
known by the unattractive acronym CHOGM, is at the heart of what is, by any
measure, the most useless international institution to which any senior
Australian political leader must commit time and energy.

And what was the outcome of those long days on the road? Little more than a
bitter debate which left the group deeply divided about its own membership
criteria and whether Zimbabwe should be there.

You probably didn't read the communique issued at the end of the Abuja
meeting. I'm not surprised. Seventy-two turgid paragraphs of motherhood
statements - "Heads of government appreciated the need for constructive
dialogue and co-operation to achieve sustainable development" - and
meaningless diplomatic compromise - "Heads of government of those member
countries that have ratified the Rome Statute establishing the International
Criminal Court urged other states, which have not yet done so, to accede." I
know it's unfair to quote Commonwealth communiques as though they were
actually intended to mean something. But hours of diplomatic time were
expended to produce these words, even those that were simply cut and pasted
from the last effort. The heads of government also got together and produced
something called the Aso Rock Declaration, which sounds much more
interesting than it turns out to be. This lengthy statement on "Development
and Democracy: Partnership for Peace and Prosperity" rated not a mention I
can find in any Australian newspaper. (The Aso Rock Declaration draws on the
work of the "landmark declarations in Singapore, Harare and Fancourt", if
that helps you.)

The New Zealand secretary-general of this hapless organisation, Don
McKinnon, made a valiant attempt to claim that the meeting would have "a key
role in the area of trade". But not even he sounded convinced.

Asked how the outcome squared with his pre-meeting hope that the gathering
would contribute to resolution of global trade problems, Howard was able to
declare only that it was "broadly consistent with the things I have been
saying".

So what was Australia doing there? Given its vigorous criticisms of most
multilateral organisations, the Howard Government has been remarkably gentle
with the Commonwealth, an organisation of legendary lethargy and waste. One
reason, no doubt, is the historical links to Britain and its institutions.
But then I noticed that one of the most vehement critics of Howard's strong
line on Zimbabwe was President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. If, like me,
you can't remember the time Mozambique had any constitutional connection to
Britain or its empire, your memory does not fail you. (It was admitted in
1995 because many of its neighbours were members.)

Membership of the Commonwealth, it is sometimes claimed, is a price we pay
for good relations with a wide variety of different countries and regions
with whom we would not naturally come into contact. It is assumed that this
might come in handy when Australia is standing for appointment to important
international posts. But, in fact, Commonwealth membership has led - this
time at any rate - to little more than a deepening rift between Australia
and the southern African members. Does that matter? Not much probably, but
neither is it much of a return on membership dues.

Perhaps spending a few days a year in a remote corner of the world is a
small enough sacrifice for any Australian prime minister to pay for those
garlands of gold, silver and bronze medals weighing down our athletes at the
Commonwealth Games. But that argument is wearing thin. Even the most
one-eyed Australian sporting fans recognise cheap success when they see it.

The main reason we are still a member, of course, is that the Commonwealth
doesn't matter. No one cares enough. It's hard to get fussed about it. It
would require more effort to walk away than to let things run on.

The Commonwealth is a fine example of one of the immutable rules of
international organisations, which is that it is a good deal easier to start
them up than to finish them off. They hardly ever go away. The Warsaw Pact,
admittedly, has bitten the dust, but its principal adversary, NATO, has
simply redefined its objectives and marched off with sprightly steps in a
new direction.

In a polite and tentative sort of way, successive Australian prime ministers
have gone into Commonwealth meetings urging change and reform. But the
problem is not format, it is function. It is the impossibility of finding
anything much, short of platitudes, on which such a diverse group can agree,
or any matters of real substance on which they need to work.

There is a serious issue in all this. Australian prime ministers have
limited time and energy and the country's bureaucratic resources are finite.
The objectives of encouraging a broad spread of Australian diplomacy around
the world and helping to strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of
law are excellent. But they can be met in other, more effective, ways.

It is time we abandoned the profitless project of trying to reform the
Commonwealth from within. Otherwise, CHOGMs in Malta and Uganda lurk in the
future for Australian prime ministers. At least we know what will be in the
communiques.

Allan Gyngell is executive director of the Lowy Institute for International
Policy and a veteran of three CHOGMs.

Major War vets shake- up
Stan Karombo-Senior Reporter

Surprises marked the much-postponed Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) congress yesterday with ex-combatant “rebels’
Joseph Chinotimba and Jabulani Sibanda claiming the top positions in the
elections that were held at the summit in Mutare.

The two were suspended by the caretaker executive that was led by Patrick
Nyaruwata and had been ruled out as top contenders. Their election is seen
by analysts as a manifestation of political manoeuvres by powerful party
figures who have their own ambitions.

Sibanda was elected the new chairman of ZNLWVA with Chinotimba coming in as
his deputy, with over 1000 members of the association being invited to cast
their votes at the congress.

The Nyaruwata team had sought to have them barred from attending the
congress on the allegation that they had disrespected the war veterans body’
s protocol. The elections have left the former acting chairman Nyaruwata,
who had thrown his hat into the ring with the hope of being re-instated,
with egg on his face, putting into consideration the fact that he had for
long been bubbling with confidence of being elected the substantive
chairman.

Aleck Mudavanhu of Masvingo province was elected Secretary General and Alma
Baloyi landed the post of Treasury General.

The national war veterans association elect chairman told the Sunday Mirror
that he was profoundly humbled and challenged to be at the helm of the
politically influential association.

Disgruntled provincial leaders passed a vote of no confidence in Nyaruwata
during a meeting on the sidelines of the just ended Zanu PF conference in
Masvingo. The war veterans accused Nyaruwata of running the war veterans as
his personal business. They also charged that Nyaruwata was guilty of gross
maladministration, saying he failed to adequately represent them.

Nyaruwata vehemently denied the allegations of mismanagement, saying he was
“the best chairman ever to emerge in the association after the late founding
chairman of the association, Chenjerai Hunzvi”.

Hunzvi died in May 2001 and since then, the war veterans’ body has been run
on a caretaker basis. Elections were postponed on several occasions for
several reasons. In the past, for instance, they were called off because the
ruling Zanu PF felt that the potentially divisive plebiscite would split the
party ahead of the 2002 presidential elections.

The long awaited congress was supposed to be held ahead of the Zanu PF
people’s annual congress that was held last weekend in Masvingo, but sources
say the party’s national secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa
directed that they be held only after the summit. The party claimed that
there were insufficient funds to guarantee the successful hosting of the
ex-combatants’ meet. Chinotimba and Sibanda are reportedly Mnangagwa’s
henchmen, while Nyaruwata is said to have invited the ire of the speaker of
parliament for throwing his weight behind former cabinet minister, Simba
Makoni, in the much talked about race to wrest the baton from President
Robert Mugabe when he eventually decides to call it quits. Media reports
indicate that Mnangagwa leads one camp that is positioning itself to take
over the presidency of the ruling party and possibly that of the country
when Mugabe exits.

Mnangagwa has allegedly used his position in the party to plant his own
loyals in key positions in Zanu PF’s political provinces. Provincial
chairmen, among them Masvingo’s Daniel Shumba, Manicaland’s Mark Madiro,
Mashonaland’s Phillip Chiyangwa and Mashonaland East’s Ray Kaukonde
reportedly all belong to Mnangagwa’s camp.

According to a much vaunted political road map, Mugabe will quit in 2005 to
make way for synchronised presidential and general elections, even though
his current term expires in 2008 up to 2008. He has however repeatedly
insisted that he will go when his constitutional tenure expires.

Nyaruwata, who sounded heart-broken in an interview with the Sunday Mirror,
tried to keep a brave front. He conceded defeat and described the elections
as free and fair. He also promised to assist the new executive whenever the
need arose. When asked how he lost the election, Nyaruwata said: “ It was
the wish of the war veterans, but as one of the founder members of the
organisation I will assist the new executive with my experience.” The Sunday
Mirror has it on good record that the results of the election were
predictable considering the fact that all executive members were called for
an emergency meeting by the commander of the defence forces, General,
Constantine Chiwenga before the starting of the congress. Impeccable sources
close to yesterday’s meeting told The Sunday Mirror that the army general
wanted to make sure that the war veterans voted for someone who is
politically correct”. Said one observer: “It is curious why Chiwenga called
the meeting, and why the caretaker executive was dissolved before the war
veterans’ congress. The general impression was that the congress was
supposed to address the issue of a new leadership in all senses.” “When you
look at their profiles, Chinotimba and Sibanda, though charismatic, hardly
have the character of national leaders. Either they were elected on emotive
grounds or a lot of jockeying occurred,” said the observer.

Mnangagwa or party chairman, John Nkomo could not be reached for comment.

ZCU’s howler
Union accused of sacrificing development clubs
Farirayi Kahwemba

THE Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) allegedly diverted more than $50 million
meant for its own development clubs to finance a trip for some of its
executives who accompanied the national team on their recent month-long tour
of Australia.

In a development which has incensed prospective beneficiaries, the ZCU is
said to have allowed some of its executives to bring their spouses along for
an unforgettable “holiday” Down Under. One coach with the Mashonaland
Cricket Association (MCA) – an affiliate of the cricket mother body – told
the Sunday Mirror development clubs never got the money that had been
promised to them before the Australian tour.

The coach said the money was supposed to be used to purchase balls, pads and
stumps to assist the struggling clubs. The development coach, who declined
to be named, said it was sad that after pursuing such an ambitious
development programme for the past 11 years, the ZCU would go on to sponsor
a holiday for its officials using money from the wrong coffers. He said: “It
is very sad because they had promised us that money. The money the ZCU used
to finance the trip to Australia for executive members was meant for the
development of the game and this is wrong. “We were promised the money but
it did not come. It later emerged that the money was used to finance a
holiday for some ZCU executives who joined the national team that toured
Australia. “I am not saying that they should not have gone but how could
they use money that was meant for the development of the game? This is not
correct,” said the development coach. He said the cricket mother-body had
remained quiet on the issue, which only came to light after investigations
by some of the coaches. “If they did not want to give us the money, they
should have told us in the first place,” said the disgruntled coach. When
asked to shed light on these claims, however, ZCU chairman Peter Chingoka
dismissed them as being “far fetched”. Chingoka said the cricketing body has
a separate budget for tours and development programmes and ruled out the
possibility of diverting ZCU funds. He said: “It is far fetched. The two
issues are not even related in the first place. The budgets for tours and
development programmes are totally divorced from each other. “It is also
wrong to talk about a holiday because it is very normal for some of the
board members to accompany the team whenever they go on tour. There is
nothing unusual here.” Since 1992 when Zimbabwe attained Test-playing
status, the ZCU has pursued a vigorous policy of grassroots development
aimed at bringing the game to the majority of the black people.

The ambitious programme – which focuses on the high-density areas – has seen
the emergence of talented players such as Tatenda Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza
and Stuart Matsikenyeri among others, who have managed to hold their own on
the international stage. Once considered a ‘minority’ and ‘elitist’ sport,
cricket continues to attract the interest of many children across the
country – something that certainly shows that the ZCU policies are bearing
fruit. But it is these latest allegations that might dent the ZCU’s
otherwise immaculate record.

Mash East black-on-black land dispute resolved?
Artwell Manyemba

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s intervention in the land dispute over the
ownership of a farm along Mutoko Road, in Mashonaland East province, has
witnessed a speedy resolution of the matter, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

The black-on-black land ownership wrangle, pitting businessman Peter
Chingwena and former radio disc jockey, businessman and politician, James
Makamba, seemed to have been resolved last week. However, Makamba who claims
to have title to the property, seemed to have conceded that Chingwena could
move on to the farm. Makamba’s workers, led by his general manager,
allegedly went on a vandalism and looting spree on Thursday morning, after
news of Chingwena having obtained his offer letter from the ministry of
lands, agriculture and rural resettlement, filtered to them.

Chingwena was given the letter by the acting provincial lands committee
chief officer at the governor’s offices in Marondera on Tuesday. His workers
went to the farm on Thursday morning, only to find Makamba’s men allegedly
vandalising property and removing some equipment from the farm.

Assistant Commissioner Machakaire, responsible for crime in Mashonaland East
province confirmed the incident saying: “There was vandalism of property and
removal of equipment from the farm when our officers arrived.

“One of Mr Makamba’s managers led the actions and he claimed they were
removing their property. He was questioned and released but he is being
charged with malicious injury to property. The suspect will appear in court,
once police complete the investigations.” The Sunday Mirror, during a visit
to the farm, witnessed the chaos that reigned at the property. Toilet
chambers were uprooted and people apparently on Makamba’s side tried to
remove doorframes. They reportedly vandalised electricity connections,
removing the borehole pump as well as some wooden cabin sheets. However, the
police moved in to quell the unrest.

Makamba could not be contacted. However, his manager on Thursday afternoon
said they were relocating some of their property and equipment to Blue Ridge
Farm, just across the Mutoko Highway. He said Chingwena’s workers had
brought a photocopy of an offer letter “purporting to be from the Ministry
of Lands.” “We told them we needed to see the original (offer) letter as
well as to verify it. There was no vandalism. We will be taking appropriate
action in due course,” he said.

The farm, commonly known as Mutoko Poultry and previously owned by a white
couple, the Battershills, was gazetted on November 9, 2000 for compulsory
acquisition by government. Eviction orders were served and the Battershills
had to leave the farm by August 10, last year.

Mashonaland East provincial lands committee confirmed that the property was
never delisted. The committee said instead the farm was earmarked for the
commercial farming resettlement A2 model under the land reform programme. No
certificate of No Present Interest was issued either, the committee told
Sunday Mirror.

Chingwena, whose roots are in Mudzi district in the province said he applied
for land under the A2 land resettlement model in the year 2000. In September
this year, he claimed, he was verbally informed that he had been allocated
the piece of land, prompting him to prepare and move onto the farm to
commence agricultural activities.

However, Makamba also claimed that he bought the farm, which was registered
as a company, from the previous owners through a share transfer transaction
on February 28, 2002. Makamba’s general manager showed the Sunday Mirror the
agreement of sale but did not reveal the share transfer certificate as well
as the title deeds of the farm.

Governor David Karimanzira, when initially approached by the Sunday Mirror
professed ignorance about Chingwena’s claim of having been offered the piece
of land by the ministry. “I never saw the offer letter allocating the land
to Chingwena,” Karimanzira said last month.

Last Wednesday, the governor made a U-turn and said: “Chingwena now has his
offer letter. Should anyone contest his moving on to the land, then that
becomes a legal issue to be settled in the courts.” Sources claim that
Chingwena held a meeting with Mugabe, after the publication of the dispute
as a headline article in the Sunday Mirror (issue of November 23.)
Karimanzira was allegedly called to the same meeting, although he did not
confirm the meeting he said the President had brought the issue to his
attention. Reports of similar disputes and other complications are stalling
the successful completion of the land reform programme countrywide. Mugabe
is on record acknowledging the disputes, having addressed the issue, at the
just ended Masvingo Zanu PF annual national people’s conference:.