• Zimbabwe Riot Police Shut Down Newspaper's Printing Works
• Zimbabwean Judge Rules Independent Daily Must be Allowed to Publish
• Harare ‘inciting hatred’
• What's the Truth About Zimbabwe?
• Mugabe arrest warrant sought in UK
• S. Africa-Zimbabwe Relations Remain Close but Complex
• MDC ready to discuss dialogue with Mugabe
• Praise and criticism for Mbeki on Zimbabwe
• Mbeki calls for urgent Zanu PF/MDC talks
• Gono gets thumbs up
• Land reform seen as vote-buying gimmick
• Brain drain reaches alarming levels
• 'Mbeki's appeasement policy won't work'
• Mudzuri taking his job back from Chombo
• Mugabe's Geneva jaunt gobbles over $2b
• Mapfumo on democracy crusade
• Law Society slams proposed bill
• Decree on farm equipment illegal
• Zim has fastest shrinking economy
• Editor responds to threats
• Mbeki muddled
• Mbeki accused of compounding Zim’s crisis
• Chinese cornucopia unlikely to be forthcoming
• Zimbabwe faces very bleak prospects in 2004
• Choice channels for the First Family
• Forex auctions begin
• Colin Powell blasts Zimbabwe again
• Mutasa warns America
• Be afraid, be very afraid
• Politics and religion make strange bedfellows
• Nothing to celebrate about 2003

      Copyright © 2003, Dow Jones Newswires

      HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--The Zimbabwe government defied a court order
Friday to allow the country's only independent daily newspaper to resume
publishing, when riot police shut down its printing works.

      Editor of the Daily News, Nqobile Nyathi said that after a court
ruling earlier Friday permitting the paper to reopen, the staff were
preparing an eight-page edition to be printed.

      Armed riot police sealed off entrances to the printing works in
western Harare and ordered all staff to go home, Nyathi said.

      "We are trying to sort it out but it doesn't look as if there's much
hope," she said.

      Scores of staff were cleared from the factory. There were no arrests.

      Police and government spokesmen weren't immediately available for
comment.

      Earlier Friday a judge ordered Zimbabwe authorities to allow the
country's only independent daily newspaper, banned in September, to resume
publishing, the newspaper's lawyers said.

      Judge Selo Nare, presiding over an appeal against the closure of The
Daily News, upheld an Oct. 24 ruling by the Administrative Court that the
newspaper be allowed to reopen.

      That ruling wasn't enforced while the state lodged its appeal.

      Nare said Friday the Oct. 24 ruling stood, even if state attorneys
launched a fresh challenge.

      During a series of legal battles, the paper launched an Internet
edition in neighboring South Africa.

      Police shut down The Daily News and seized its equipment in September
after it was banned under strict media laws imposed by the government last
year.

      No comment on Nare's ruling was immediately available from the
government. Authorities have ignored at least three court orders against
them this year.

      Since its launch in 1999, the Daily News has been a platform for
criticism of President Robert Mugabe's 23-year rule. The state controls the
country's two other dailies, and the only television and radio stations.

      In January 2001, The Daily News presses were destroyed in a bomb
attack hours after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo described the paper as
"a threat to national security which had to be silenced."

      Earlier Friday, Nare said he was seeking police protection in his
court room in the second city of Bulawayo after receiving a threatening
letter Thursday.

      (END) Dow Jones Newswires

      December 19, 2003 11:31 ET (16:31 GMT)

      In Zimbabwe a judge has ruled that Zimbabwe's only independent daily
newspaper, The Daily News, must be allowed to publish, regardless of a
Supreme Court appeal by a government appointed media commission to keep it
off the streets.
      Administrative court president Sello Nare ruled in favor of The Daily
News, which sought the court's authority to publish.

      The Daily News has been kept off the streets by a series of legal
moves, most recently an appeal filed by the government's Media and
Information Commission.

      Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, which publishes The Daily News had
staff members hard at work Friday afternoon, preparing a newspaper for
Saturday. The paper has made such preparations before, but editor Nqobile
Nyathi feels that things are different this time around.

      "What we had done is to ask the court to allow us to publish while the
case before the Supreme Court was pending and the courts have very clearly
given us that right and even gone further as to say that even if the
commission is to appeal the decision that order will be upheld so we are
keeping our fingers crossed that all the parties concerned will abide by the
law," she said.

      It is not yet clear what the government will do. But the
state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Information Minister Jonathan Moyo
as warning against any backdoor attempt by the courts to allow the paper to
publish.

      The Daily News was shut down in September after the Supreme Court
refused to hear its complaint that sections of the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act are unconstitutional. Among other things, the Ace
requires newspapers and journalists to register with the media commission.

      The newspaper's executives have been in and out of court since then.
On October 24 another administrative court judge ruled that the commission
was improperly constituted and that if a new commission did not license the
paper by November 30 it would be considered licensed.

      The Daily News published the next day, but its directors were arrested
for disobeying a court order, and the newspaper stopped publishing again.
The executives are free on bail. Friday's ruling upholds the initial
administrative court ruling, allowing the newspaper to publish.

Harare ‘inciting hatred’

From Jan Raath in Harare

Zimbabwe's state-run media are whipping up hatred and violence in a way that
echoes Rwanda radio in the genocide there, according to a report. The
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and the Herald daily had been accomplices
in "the theft of a nation’s democratic rights" and "accomplices to murder"
over the past three years, the report said. As in Rwanda in 1994, when Libre
des Milles Collines radio - known as "Radio Machete" - beamed anti-Tutsi
propaganda, journalists in the state media had "abandoned the most
elementary standards of truthfulness" to create stories that "seemed
calculated to incite a violent response to the Government’s opponents",
according to the report by the local Media Monitoring Project. "No longer is
it adequate to say they are politically biased," it added. The 203-page
report is the first to dissect the controlled campaign of incitement to
violence that has successfully instilled a climate of "fear and panic" to
buttress President Mugabe’s dictatorship. At least every half hour, state
radio broadcasts a jingle urging Zimbabweans to adopt "liberation" values
and repeats the word "war" five times.

The state media had made no attempt to report reality. Their aim was to
"fire up" a hard core of ruling party militants against the opposition, as
Radio Machete mobilised a relatively small group of Hutus to genocide, the
report said. This month the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, sitting
in Arusha, Tanzania, passed life sentences on two of the station’s
journalists and a 35-year sentence on another. It was the first time since
the Nuremberg trials that journalists had been convicted of crimes against
humanity. "The Zimbabwean echo is so uncanny, it would hardly be surprising
to find a copy of the (Radio Machete) manual on Jonathan Moyo’s (the
Information Minister) bookshelf," the report said. "When, one day, the
perpetrators of violence are held to account, those who incited them with
‘hate speech’ should not be forgotten." The media issued a barrage of
reports and commentaries that hammer out the myth of a British conspiracy to
overthrow Mr Mugabe and return the country to white rule.

Daily Champion (Lagos)

OPINION
December 19, 2003
Posted to the web December 19, 2003

Tony Okerafor
Lagos

AT last year's Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting, CHOGM, which was
held in early March, Zimbabwe was the dominant subject-albeit for the wrong
reasons. Again, the just-concluded CHOGM summit, at our Federal Capital
Territory, did focus almost exclusively on Robert Mugabe and the plight of
the 12 million people he has ruled since April, 1980, and I dare say, much
to the displeasure of this writer.

It's most hurtful, if not annoying, that the high-powered delegations from
fifty-two nations of the Commonwealth allowed themselves to be bogged down
by an issue that was fairly straight and clear. On March 9, 10 and 11, last
year, Zimbabwe held its fiercely-contested presidential election since
independence some twenty-three years ago. Six weeks before the polls, the
Commonwealth Action Group, which was a meeting of eight Commonwealth foreign
ministers, agreed that pre-election Zimbabwe had reached pressure-cooker
proportions. What else? They recommended that the country be suspended from
the fifty-four-nation organization if President Mugabe and his Zimbabwe
African National Union, ZANU PF, didn't remove those oppressive policies and
legislations that were sure to undermine the fairness and the credibility of
the presidential election.

Exactly one week to the election, CHOGM took place, and a majority of the
heads of government present decided that there was no point in assenting to
the British argument to have Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth when,
in actual fact, the election had yet to be held, and Mugabe and ZANU PF
couldn't rightly be accused of fixing the outcome. What did they do instead?
They selected a committee (an Action Group) of three or four presidents and
prime ministers, and "delegated" to it the authority to suspend Zimbabwe if
it thought that the polls had neither been free nor fair... The polls came
and went. Mr. Mugabe was re-elected to serve a fifth successive term.

Of course, the committee did meet after the elections. What did they agree
on? That the polls had been fraudulently organized, and as such, the outcome
was far from credible. Resultantly, the Mugabe-led ZANU PF government, which
the same committee accused of not living up to the Harare Declaration of
1990 on human rights and good governance was ripe for suspension from the
Commonwealth of Nations.

It's perhaps crucial to point out here that the president of the Republic of
South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, is about one of the most outspoken opponents
of the Commonwealth taking a hardline on Zimbabwe. But, interestingly, he,
alongside another less aggressive advocate colleague of his, Nigeria's
Olusegun Obasanjo, was in the same committee that had agreed, last year,
that the Zimbabwe election in March had been everything but free and fair.

Again, but more crucially, it's relevant to remind ourselves of a
pre-condition which a more recent Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group had
set for Zimbabwe's re-admission into the association. The government of
Zimbabwe, it said, must first begin meaningful and fruitful negotiations
with the opposition. So, the all-important question is: has President Mugabe
taken the slightest steps towards compliance? The answer, to my mind, is
unmistakeable; it's "no." Then, what is the basis of the argument of those
who came to the CHOGM summit in Abuja to agitate for Zimbabwe's immediate
re-admission? What justice might be behind their cause? If one may ask: Is
it one that goes beyond the often-wielded argument that a former colony,
namely Zimbabwe, and a powerful ex-colonizer, in this case, the United
Kingdom, are engaging in an uneven political contest? Or is it being seen as
one dimension to the racial struggle between blacks and whites - Mugabe
representing the blacks, and Tony Blair standing for the white cause?

Whatever it was and still is, it's the honest view of this writer that those
African heads of state who came to Abuja to ask for Zimbabwe's
"unconditional" re-admission have done the oppressed citizens of that
long-suffering southern African country a great disservice. Besides, their
positions on how the dispute over Zimbabwe can best be handled by the
Commonwealth appears to be ridiculing the principles of democracy and the
fundamentals of the rule of law, such as our governments and leaders are
still professing. Let's start with the race issue. Perhaps, race was an
issue in Zimbabwe before the Lancaster House Constitution which ushered in
the country's independence in 1980. But, even Mugabe, on becoming Zimbabwe's
first black leader, did say it himself that racial discrimination in this
country was now dead and buried. In any case, the war of independence, in
which Mugabe emerged as a hero, was said to have been fought over land, not
race. Since 1980, Zimbabwe's 400,000-strong white community have lived in
relative harmony with the dark-skinned majority. It was not until Mr. Mugabe
introduced his controversial method of land re-distribution that a section
of the international community, led by the British, took offence. Also, it
was not until the ZANU PF began to face its biggest political challenge,
following the birth of the MDC back in 2000, that Mr. Mugabe realized that
his monopoly of power was no longer a foregone conclusion. Then, he
introduced the racial card and played it - with much success, I dare say.

Why was Mugabe so successful with playing the race card since the year 2000?
Simple: the newly-formed party, the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC,
enjoys the support of Mugabe's trade unions, as well as the wealthy white
minority. Even though its leadership is mostly made up of black Zimbabweans,
President Mugabe calls the MDC a party of white racists and puppets of
Britain whose only goal is to seize power and re-establish white minority
rule in the country.

If you ask me, I'll say ZANU PF has in the question of land re-distribution
a much more potent weapon than that of race. But, even that requires a lot
of clarification, especially in the eyes of an uneducated assessor. Everyone
is agreed that the British, many generations back, ruthlessly took away the
lands of many indigenous people in what is today Zimbabwe, as they also did
across the rest of southern Africa. In fact, it's an injustice before any
sane and humane mind that just under 80,000 white farmers, those whom
President Mugabe has derisively called "Britain's children," should be in
possession of ninety per cent of the country's entire arable farmlands.

But, where many right-thinking people have differed from Mugabe is how he
has chosen to go about it. See! it's possible that the British, and
particularly the Blair government in London, have "more personal scores of
their own to settle with Mugabe"; but, whatever it is, they are backing
their arguments with logic. The "seizures," as President Mugabe calls them,
must be done in an orderly, organized and compensated manner. Look! What has
happened, has happened. Logic, commonsense and good political sense do not
support that you "compensate" one act of injustice with another. The land
seizures have long started, with the government relying on the intimidation
and the violent tactics of the police, the army and the ZANU youth militia
to threaten and to force out the occupants of those farms.

TO BE CONTINUED

South African President Thabo Mbeki has visited Zimbabwean political leaders
in the wake of that country's exit from the Commonwealth and harsh criticism
of Mr. Mbeki at home and abroad for his handling of the Zimbabwe crises.
When he came to office in 1999 President Thabo Mbeki adopted an approach of
quiet diplomacy - or what his officials now call "constructive engagement" -
toward African problems, particularly Zimbabwe.

There are several reasons for this, not least the humiliating rebuffs handed
to former President Nelson Mandela when he adopted tough go-it-alone
approach to African issues in the past.

When he criticized Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, he was castigated by
regional leaders and Mr. Mugabe refused thereafter to speak to him on any
issue of substance. When Mr. Mandela urged the international community to
impose sanctions against Nigeria in 1995 following the execution of
opposition leader Ken SaroWiwa and eight others - the international
community ignored his plea.

In addition, President Mbeki has made it clear that South Africa's destiny
is, first and foremost, inextricably bound to that of southern Africa.

John Stremlau of the University of the Witwatersrand says President Mbeki
has two primary concerns in dealing with Mr. Mugabe - the interests of South
Africa and winning the support of the leaders of the Southern Africa
Development Community, or SADC.

"Mbeki has had to walk a very difficult line domestically where the land
issue is a very sensitive one and he has not allowed Zimbabwe to divide
South Africans which is his most vital concern, first of all," he said.
"Secondly he doesn't want to be seen by smaller neighbors - and South Africa
really is the giant in the sub-region - as throwing his weight around too
much; he's been trying to build a consensus within the sub-region to try to
isolate and ultimately promote a transition of power in Zimbabwe."

Other analysts and senior South African government sources say that this
year, President Mbeki won general support within SADC for an exit strategy
for Mr. Mugabe and that part of the strategy entailed the Commonwealth
readmitting Zimbabwe at its November summit in Nigeria.

Professor Stremlau says the purpose of that would have been to allow Mr.
Mugabe to leave the scene with at least the façade of dignity.

"And clearly [president] Mbeki has been pushing for this quietly and
strenuously for many, many months and promised that publicly [to] audiences
earlier this year that we would see Mugabe's dignified departure," said Mr.
Stremlau. "That has not yet happened and, I think, one of the reasons
[president] Mbeki is frustrated is that he thinks that the decibel level
raised at the Commonwealth and elsewhere has caused Mugabe to dig in his
heels."

Professor Stremlau says that President Mbeki's critics misread his policy on
Zimbabwe and that, rather than defending Mr. Mugabe, the South African
leader's real concern is defending African prerogatives in dealing with
African problems.

And Moeletsi Mbeki, the Deputy Chairman of the South African Institute of
International Affairs, says it is a myth that the ties between the
governments of South African and Zimbabwe are warm.

He says there are numerous reasons for Zimbabweans to resent their southern
neighbors - from the invasion of Zimbabwe by a splinter Zulu group in the
mid-nineteenth century to the support of the white minority government in
Zimbabwe by South Africa's apartheid government. Most recently, says analyst
Mbeki, is the rejection in the 1960s by the African National Congress of Mr.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF as a legitimate liberation movement.

"In the 1960s ZANU-PF, which is Mugabe's party, split off from a party led
by Joshua Nkomo, which was a close friend of the ANC," said Moeletsi Mbeki.
"So the ANC saw ZANU-PF as dissident, factionalist, which the ANC rejected.
So throughout the liberation in Zimbabwe war from the 60s to 1980 when
Zimbabwe became independent - the ANC never recognized Mugabe's party
because we were aligned to Joshua Nkomo's PF-ZAPU party."

Even so, there are many South Africans who think South Africa, given its own
history of overcoming an oppressive system, has a moral obligation to loudly
denounce abuses elsewhere. Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said
what has happened in Zimbabwe is unacceptable and reprehensible. He added
that, if South Africa is seemingly indifferent to human rights violations in
a neighboring country, there is no guarantee it will one day tolerate such
things at home.

Analyst Mbeki agrees and adds that there is a cost to democracy. "So in that
respect I think Tutu is right," he said. "Now - is it a difficult thing to
do - I don't think so, I don't think its difficult. President Mandela, for
example, in Nigeria took a very strong stand against the Sani Abacha
military regime which hanged a number of people in the river states in
Nigeria - so I think a stand can be taken. Of course it carries a cost to
build a democracy."

Perhaps the South African leader has taken these criticisms to heart. Senior
government officials say that when he visited Zimbabwe this week, President
Mbeki's unequivocal message to Mr. Mugabe was to get serious about
negotiating solutions with his opposition.

High-level sources said there was a new initiative under way to resolve the
Zimbabwe crisis. They said this was what Mbeki had been referring to of late
in his upbeat expectations of a political settlement.

The sources said in his first meeting with Mugabe, Mbeki got a briefing on
the political and economic situation. He also got an account of informal
talks between Zanu PF and the MDC.

Mugabe is said to have told Mbeki that there had been talks with the MDC by
his party negotiators and that some progress had been made. Mugabe is said
to have accepted the need for urgent formal talks with the MDC to break the
current political impasse and end Zimbabwe's economic crisis.

Mbeki is understood to have briefed Mugabe on the recent Commonwealth
meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, where Zimbabwe's suspension was extended, leading
to Harare's angry withdrawal from the 54-member club.

It is thought that Mugabe and Mbeki agreed that there had to be a solution
in Zimbabwe by June next year. Mbeki has previously insisted there will be
"leadership renewal" in Harare by that time.

Mbeki, accompanied by his Foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,
director-general in the presidency, Reverend Frank Chikane, legal advisor
Mojanku Gumbi, and South African ambassador to Zimbabwe, Jeremiah Ndou, met
Tsvangirai and Ncube yesterday afternoon.

Sources said Tsvangirai briefed Mbeki's delegation about the situation in
the country and talks with Zanu PF. Tsvangirai indicated that the situation
was getting worse, while there has been no progress on dialogue.

Mbeki is said to have told the MDC to keep in touch with him through his
office.

In an interview, Ncube could not disclose details but said the meeting with
Mbeki dwelt on the need for Zimbabweans to seriously address their own
crisis.

"We met President Mbeki and he told us about South Africa's concern over the
need for an urgent solution to the crisis," Ncube said. "We told him that we
are committed to dialogue and are ready now. We said we are ready to meet
Zanu PF unconditionally anytime, anywhere."

-Meanwhile, in a remarkable demonstration of just how far he is prepared to
go to win over Mugabe, Mbeki tried at the recent Commonwealth summit to
persuade Club leaders to overturn the findings of the observer mission sent
to monitor Zimbabwe's presidential poll last year.

But diplomatic sources say he failed to get leaders of the grouping to
revise the report.

"Mbeki fought hard for Mugabe's cause in Abuja. Apart from trying to get
Zimbabwe's suspension lifted, he wanted leaders to amend the election report
in line with his own observer team's report," a source said.

"This means the Commonwealth report would have been changed to say although
the election was not free and fair, it was legitimate, which is what the
South African report concluded. But this was rejected outright as it would
have set a bad precedent."

Mandiwanza's comments come after his organisation's recommendation of an
auction floor system to address foreign currency problems was adopted.

Sween Mushonga, director of Highveld Discount House, said although what Gono
presented appeared to be good on paper, he would need time to implement his
policies.

"What remains to be seen is whether he will get the political support he
desperately needs to make his policies work," Mushonga said.

Former RBZ governor Leonard Tsumba said the policy was a step in the right
direction.

Gono promised that whistle blowers would be rewarded for informing the
authorities on illegal operations in foreign currency and siphoning of
precious metals.

Funded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the survey shows that although
awareness of the land reform was very high, this was not matched by access
to land itself.

Respondents acknowledged the debilitating effects of the reform process on
the country's socio-economic fabric.

More than 96% of those interviewed said they were aware of the land reform
programme, but only 14% had access to land which was monopolised by Zanu PF
followers.

"Awareness of the programme is nationwide (96,2%) but is not matched by
access to land (14%)," the report says.

The report attributed the low percentage of access to land by the general
populace, especially in congested communal areas, to politicisation of the
programme.

"Considering that one of the objectives of land reform was to decongest the
rural areas, it is important to note that the people who benefited from the
land allocations are the elite or people with political connections to the
ruling party," said the report.

The majority of Zimbabweans have understood the intention of government to
use the land reform programme as a vote-buying gimmick, the survey
established.

"The land reform programme as conducted by government is viewed by
significant percentages as a vote-buying exercise that is likely to fail.
People feel that the exercise was hurried and unplanned."

The survey also established that there were fears of worsening food
shortages due to the instability and uncertainty brought about by the land
programme. It emerged through the survey that less than 65% of households
allocated land had occupied it, with even fewer engaged in any meaningful
production.

"One of the strongest criticism of the land reform process is its negative
effect on production. Respondents point to the lack of equipment and inputs
as stumbling blocks," the report said.

Those interviewed also lambasted government for subverting the rule of law
in the implementation of the land reform for political gain.

The controversy about the number of people resettled also came out strongly
during the survey.

"There is considerable controversy on the number of people who have been
allocated land. The government claims that over 300 000 people were
allocated land yet reports from governors submitted to the portfolio
committee dealing with land recorded about 129 000 people and the Utete
Committee recorded a figure of 127 000. The discrepancies over the actual
figures of people allocated farms point to the irregularities surrounding
the allocation of farms."

The majority of the beneficiaries are aged over 31 years and more between 41
and 50 years. The youth appear to have been sidelined and yet they are the
future of this country, the report noted.

President Mugabe unleashed his supporters onto white-owned farms in

February 2000 after the rejection of the government-backed draft
constitution. An orgy of violence ensued and Mugabe converted the chaotic
occupations into a process aimed at redressing historical land imbalances,
characterised by subversion of the rule of law.

Coupled with drought conditions in the region, the chaotic land reform has
resulted in massive food shortages.

"The study confirms the widely held view that the level and trend of the
brain drain in Zimbabwe has reached unacceptable and unsustainable heights,"
the study said.

The study examined the trend, rate and level of brain drain, together with
push factors in Zimbabwe and pull factors abroad.

"Each year Zimbabwe loses thousands of talented professionals crucial to its
development needs. Most of these are young professionals who abandon their
professions in Zimbabwe, often for menial jobs that advance the
socio-economic interests of their host countries," the report said.

The professionals mostly involved include doctors, nurses, engineers,
teachers, financial experts, and other skilled people.

The study was prepared by the Scientific and Industrial Research and
Development Centre under contract to the National Economic and Consultative
Forum, funded by the United Nations Development Programme.

Most of those leaving go to Britain, the United States, Australia, South
Africa and Botswana.

"The large numbers constituting Zimbabwe's loss of skilled and highly
educated manpower are a phenomenon that policymakers cannot ignore," the
study said.

It said in the past four years this brain drain had escalated in magnitude
to levels that had serious implications for the country's capacity to
deliver on the sustainable development front.

There are about 20 000 scientists and engineers in Zimbabwe and more are
needed.

"There are now more Zimbabwean-born scientists and engineers working in the
diaspora than there are in Zimbabwe. One reason for there being fewer
scientists left in Zimbabwe is that government and private-sector spending
on research and development (R&D) is only about 0,2% of the gross national
product. This is one of the lowest percentages of funding for R&D support in
the world," the report said.

The health care sector is the most seriously affected. Many are leaving
because health care and education spending cuts have denied them reasonable
salary levels.

The United States, for instance, is using special visas (HB-1 visa) and
higher salaries to attract African professionals with technical expertise.
As a result it is estimated that the United States economy gains about
US$100 000 a year from each HB-1 visa immigrant.

Zimbabweans in the diaspora expressed disappointment that government did not
have a policy framework to involve professional Zimbabweans in national
development. Most of them are viewed by government as disloyal and were
denied their voting rights in the March 2002 presidential election.

"The resistance was made worse by an article that claimed that the
government of Zimbabwe was working on a scheme to tax Zimbabweans in the
diaspora," the report said.

The study said the reason certain professionals were leaving Zimbabwe was
that working at home was synonymous with supporting the current government
and not the people. It said nothing could force them to work in Zimbabwe but
their desire to serve their country.

"Many professionals leave Zimbabwe for the brighter opportunities offered
abroad, complaining that Zimbabwe is too corrupt and needs more politicians
of high moral standards," said the study.

The economic crisis has forced professionals left in the country into
moonlighting.

"The deteriorating economy in Zimbabwe has forced some professors,
lecturers, medical doctors and scientists to operate minibuses, taxi cabs or
operate beer parlors. It is a form of internal brain drain to have many
architects, accountants and pharmacists underemployed," the study said.

The majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora since 1990 are in the UK
(36,8%), while 3,4% are in Canada. Botswana leads the region with 34,5%.

Although data from South Africa shows a smaller proportion there (4,6%), it
is believed this is a gross underestimate because the majority of them are
illegal immigrants.

"Mbeki seems to be thinking that he can urge Mugabe's regime to reform
through a policy of appeasement, whereas everybody else is saying tougher
measures are necessary to bring Zanu PF to the negotiating table," Ncube
said.

"Nobody has ever disagreed that we need dialogue to resolve this crisis but
certainly we can't achieve anything through misrepresenting issues in order
to appease one of the parties involved. It's surprising that Mbeki believes
justifying dictatorship will help resolve this crisis."

Western countries, Mbeki claimed, were only interested in protecting their
"kith and kin" in Zimbabwe. He said there were people trying to use the
issue of human rights to overthrow Mugabe's regime. The incumbent regime, he
suggested, was legitimate and brought democracy to Zimbabwe.

He attributed Zimbabwe's crisis to Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of
Independence.

"Mbeki's arguments are as astonishing as they are bizarre," Ncube said.
"From an intellectual point of view, his article exposed serious scholastic
bankruptcy. It was full of vague arguments based on distortions and a
blurred intellect."

Ncube said Mbeki's column was clearly designed to appease Mugabe.

"It's clear reading through the article that it is not only an attempt to
justify Mugabe's dictatorship but it also substantially seeks to appease his
regime and even, more importantly, legitimise the stolen presidential
election and violation of universal democratic norms and human rights," he
said.

Ncube said it was irrational to attribute Zimbabwe's current economic free
fall, hyperinflation, which is now 620%, shortages of foreign currency,
cash, power, unemployment, poverty and political impasse to UDI.

"Notwithstanding his dictatorship and minority rule, Smith managed a stable
economy which, despite distortions and structural problems, performed
relatively well," he said.

"Our currency was one of the strongest in the world, inflation was at a
single digit, foreign currency was there and food self-sufficiency was
guaranteed.

"We had modern infrastructure and one of the most industrialised economies
in Africa, which is why (the late Tanzanian president Julius) Nyerere told
Mugabe at independence that he had inherited the jewel of Africa.

"But now what do we have, a banana economy in which everything operates in
the underworld and Mbeki wants to blame that on UDI."

Ncube said the land issue was being used to camouflage repression and human
rights abuses by Mugabe's regime and "no amount of whitewash" from Harare
spin-doctors and allies could cover-up that.

Meanwhile Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu this week expressed his
sadness that South Africa declared Zimbabwe's presidential poll legitimate,
if not free and fair, saying that was a distressing semantic game.

"Had we had something similar in 1994 here at home with the NNP (New
National Party) being declared a winner despite the elections not having
been free but legitimate we could have quite rightly shouted foul," he said.

Tutu said South Africa should reject Zimbabwe's pleas of sovereignty and
non-interference in domestic affairs to hide repression.

"Had the international community invoked the rubric of non-interference then
we would have been in dire straits in our anti-apartheid struggle. We
appealed for the world to intervene and interfere in South Africa's internal
affairs. We could not have defeated apartheid on our own. What is sauce for
the goose must be sauce for the gander too," Tutu said.

"Human rights are human rights and they are of universal validity or they
are nothing. There are no peculiarly African human rights. What has been
widely reported as happening in Zimbabwe is totally unacceptable and
reprehensible and we ought to say so regretting that it should have been
necessary to condemn erstwhile comrades," he said.

"The credibility of our democracy demands this."

In a letter to Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo this week, Mudzuri
sought to be reinstated saying Chombo had not substantiated reasons for his
suspension.

Justice Chinhengo ruled last month that a committee set up in terms of
Section 311 of the Urban Councils Act could not investigate a specific
individual but only council affairs in general.

"The inquiry by a Section 311 committee is general in nature," Chinhengo
said. "It is necessary to appreciate that a Section 311 committee would have
no mandate to inquire into misconduct allegations levelled against a
specific individual including a mayor. Its target or object of inquiry is
not an individual but the general state of affairs of a local authority."

Mudzuri said the committee appointed by Chombo was clearly irrelevant and of
no effect as far as the resolution of his suspension was concerned.

"In plain and simple language, you have failed in the past eight months to
initiate the necessary process and procedures to substantiate your
allegations against me," he told Chombo.

"It is therefore my intention to resume my duties and to fulfil the mandate
democratically given to me by the people of Harare," Mudzuri said.

Official sources said the Air Zimbabwe 60-tonne Boeing 767-200 aircraft
which he commandeered for his hastily arranged jaunt to attend the United
Nations World summit on Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland, last
week used 150 000 litres of Jet A1 fuel.

"The aircraft was filled up with 50 000 litres in Harare before it left last
week. However, it stopped in Cairo, Egypt, for refuelling," a source said.

"On the way back from Geneva it stopped again in Cairo to fill up with 50
000 litres en route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Mugabe attended the
Sino-Africa summit."

Sources said $150 million was spent in filling up the aircraft in Harare
before its departure on Monday last week. Jet A1 costs $3 000 a litre on the
black market from where the fuel was accessed. In Cairo the plane's further
50 000 litres at US$0,50 a litre cost US$25 000.

On the way back from Geneva, the plane refuelled in Cairo at the same cost.
In total it is estimated Mugabe's trip cost $450 million on fuel alone.

The sum of allowances received by each member of Mugabe's entourage during
the tour was about US$3 600, bringing total allowances to the delegation to
US$82 800 ($496,8 million).

While in Geneva, Mugabe and his delegation stayed at 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. Rates start at £380 a night, with the presidential suite
reportedly costing £4 500.

Mugabe and his wife Grace would have spent $135 million on their
accommodation during their three-day stay in Geneva, while the other 21
members of the entourage spent $239,4 million, bringing the total
accommodation expenses to $374 million.

Overall, Mugabe's delegation got through about $2 billion, including
expenses during their five-day stay in Ethiopia. Air Zimbabwe had to lease
an aircraft from a British airline, My Travel Airways, for US$1 million
during Mugabe's trip. The plane was used to ply the Harare-London route in
the absence of Air Zimbabwe's Boeing 767-200.

He is expected to fire broadsides at President Mugabe and his regime through
songs that were banned from the airwaves by Information minister Jonathan
Moyo. Mapfumo is now based in the United States.

Mapfumo left the country for the US in 2001 after alleged harassment by
state agents. Mapfumo is tipped to win the Zima Lifetime Achievement award
for his consistent fight for democracy, justice and human rights since the
days of the liberation struggle.

After a short flirtation with Zanu PF soon after Independence Mapfumo turned
his whip on the Mugabe regime for betraying the ideals of the liberation
struggle.

In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday, the veteran
musician said the struggle for liberty was reaching a climax for Zimbabweans
and he would play his role as an artist.

"I am still a musician who sings a message reflecting the lives of people,"
he said. "We must not be misled into believing that things are better or
will miraculously change," said Mapfumo.

"We have reached a terrible level of deterioration in the history of this
country in terms of the economy as well as political and social status."

He said it was in light of this that he had returned home to preach the
gospel of democracy, human rights and working together for national revival.

"People are struggling. I will call for unity in solving the problems, not
violence used to suppress the masses. Kunodiwa kuti vanhu vese vapihwe
mukana wokureva zvavanoda nokuvaka nyika kwete kuti munhu mumwe chete
angoramba achiti ndini ndega (All people should be given the opportunity to
express their desires and participate in nation building instead of having
one person selfishly dictating the pace)," he said.

He said a leader must rise above party politics and handle national affairs
in a mature and balanced manner.

"If one is a leader of the country, he must cater for the welfare of all
citizens. He must ensure a fair distribution of all national resources. That
shows maturity."

Mapfumo said souring relations between Zimbabwe and the international
community would not help the country solve its problems.

"It will not help us to continue to alienate ourselves from the rest of the
world. Not at all! We have to create friends not enemies because we don't
exist in a vacuum. Already the effects of isolation are there for all to
see."

But LSZ president Sternford Moyo, in a letter to acting Attorney-General
Bharat Patel, said the effect of non-bailable offences will be that a person
charged with an offence specified as non-bailable would languish in prison
until his case was heard and a verdict pronounced.

"Quite clearly such legislation would be contrary to the presumption of
innocence, a cornerstone of our criminal justice and a right guaranteed by
our constitution. Consequently, such legislation, if promulgated, would be
manifestly unconstitutional," Moyo said.

Moyo said Zimbabwe was a signatory to many international conventions in
which the presumption of innocence was guaranteed. These include the African
Charter on Human and People's rights.

Moyo said the government of Botswana attempted to amend the penal code to
impose a total prohibition on the granting of bail to persons charged with
rape. The amendment was struck down by the courts as unconstitutional and
inconsistent with the presumption of innocence. He said the African Charter
on Human and People's rights was also invoked in Swaziland. Moyo said such
an instrument would usurp the powers of the court.

Justice for Agriculture (JAG) vice-president John Worsley-Worswick described
the decree as unlawful.

"Needless to say this is totally unconstitutional on a number of grounds not
least of which is the infringement on the individual citizens' rights to own
property in Zimbabwe," Worsely-Worswick said.

In a press statement, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said they were
consulting their lawyers. The union said the decree was another blow for
commercial farmers.

CFU president Doug Taylor-Freeme said farmers would be hard hit by this
development.

"This latest move is yet another way for government to dispossess farmers
under the guise of providing farm equipment to new farmers," Taylor-Freeme
said.

"That the Statutory Instrument carries clauses saying equipment will be
valued by members of the public service who the ministry feels are qualified
to do so, and that owners will be compensated for their equipment over five
years, is meaningless. Farmers are still waiting for realistic compensation
to be paid for the fixed assets on their farms and now the same is likely to
happen to their moveable assets and inputs," he said.

The two bodies said the SI had the net effect of destroying the farmers'
only source of income.

"That this minority group is surviving economically, to a large extent and
sometimes solely by virtue of the ability to trade these moveable assets, is
further indisputable evidence of the illegal, unconstitutional, inhumane and
draconian nature of this regime," said Worsley-Worswick.

The EIU said Mugabe had so entrenched himself in power using security forces
and party militias that any "political manoeuvring to oust him may take
years to reach a conclusion".

The EIU forecasting guide covers almost 200 countries, each with a concise
assessment of the political and economic prospects for the year ahead,
together with key economic indicators and a summary of forecast numbers.

Zimbabwe tops the list of the world's poorest performing economies. The EIU
said Zimbabwe's gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated to be minus 8,8%
in 2004. Zimbabwe's GDP has been on a slide for the past six years. Last
year GDP plunged to minus 12,1% courtesy of Mugabe's intensified attack on
farmers, white-owned companies, the opposition, human rights and civic
groups and the media.

Zimbabwe's fortunes are in stark contrast to other countries in the region.
Angola and the DRC which until recently had been war-ravaged are poised for
significant growth next year. According to the EIU, Mozambique expects GDP
growth of 8%.

Makombe told reporter Blessing Zulu: "I will come to that paper and shoot
everyone. I will make sure that the paper is closed."

Makombe denied that he was a Zanu PF official. He then called news editor
Vincent Kahiya who referred him to reporter Shakeman Mugari who had
co-authored the story with Zulu.

After a few minutes Mugari handed the phone back to Kahiya saying Makombe
was threatening him.

Makombe told Kahiya that he had never spoken to Mugari on Wednesday,
December 3, a day before the story was compiled. He said he was in Masvingo
at the time preparing for the Zanu PF conference. Mugari has a record of
their conversation on December 3.

Makombe asked Kahiya where Mugari lived and how old he was. He said he had
liberated this country and had spent years in the bush "dodging bullets".

"I liberated this country," said Makombe. "You are lucky that I am in
Kwekwe. If I was in Harare I was going to come there and shoot everybody.
How old is that young man? Does he know that I can destroy him completely? I
can inflict violence on him," he said.

Kahiya reminded Makombe that he was making threats on the phone, which was
an offence, to which Makombe replied the story in the paper was a bigger
offence.

He said that MDC Kwekwe MP Blessing Chebundo had passed on the information
to the Independent because his party had lost the Kwekwe mayoral election in
October.

"You have to ask yourself why Chebundo lives in Kadoma when he is the MP for
Kwekwe," said Makombe. "I chased him out of Kwekwe. You can ask him. He
knows all about me and the terror I can cause," he said.

In the Independent's report of December 5, Mines minister Edward
Chindori-Chininga said the three men named had not been authorised to issue
gold licences. "Those three officials are illegal and their syndicates are
also illegal," he told this paper. Mnangagwa denied any involvement.

      THANK goodness for Desmond Tutu. His thinking is crystal clear and
when President Thabo Mbeki descends into the depths of self-serving
obfuscation, Archbishop Tutu (now retired but retaining the title of
Archbishop Emeritus) shines a bright light through the murky darkness of
presidential double-speak (See Page 9).

      The Commonwealth followed well-established procedures in extending the
suspension of Zimbabwe, he pointed out on Monday in reply to Mbeki's ANC
Today contribution. Tutu expressed his sadness that South Africa had
declared last year's presidential poll legitimate, if not free and fair,
asking what the reaction of South Africans would have been if their 1994
election had been stolen by the incumbent National Party.

      Mbeki is understandably piqued that South Africa was isolated in its
policy of constructive engagement towards Zimbabwe at the recent
Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. While other
regional states also opposed the club's continued suspension of Zimbabwe, it
was South Africa that held out on the committee of six appointed at Abuja to
resolve the matter. Mbeki insisted on Zimbabwe's readmission even though it
was clear to all that Harare had not made any attempt to meet the concerns
set out in the Marlborough House Statement of March last year following
President Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election.

      But Mbeki's palpable irritation should not allow him to get away with
downright distortions of the record.

      In his ANC Today foray published last Friday, Mbeki makes a number of
claims that are at variance with the facts. He appears to think John Howard
of Australia, chair of the troika of government heads appointed at the
previous Chogm in Coolum, Australia, to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, had no
mandate to call an "unscheduled" meeting to impose new sanctions on Zimbabwe
half way through its one-year suspension. He also says secretary-general Don
McKinnon never explained what he meant by the "broadly held view" of member
states when extending the suspension in March this year and claims the
Zimbabwe government was not given a chance to respond to the report of the
Commonwealth election observer team.

      Mbeki said he had studied and taken seriously the points raised by
South Africa's own observer mission relating to "political violence,
legislation and state institutions relevant to the elections (and) the role
of the media".

      Over 21 months later, political violence remains a feature of
Zimbabwean elections as opposition candidates are attacked by ruling-party
gangs and prevented from registering; there is no independent electoral
commission; army officers continue to supervise polling; and voters are
deprived of the right to make an informed choice by the closure of the
country's only independent daily newspaper.

      The troika was mandated at Coolum in February last year to adopt
measures on Zimbabwe based on the report of the Commonwealth observer group.
It was entirely within the remit of Howard as both Commonwealth and troika
chair to propose fresh measures if it was felt Zimbabwe was refusing to
comply with the Marlborough House terms.

      Howard was perfectly entitled to schedule meetings if necessary. And
McKinnon spent most of February meeting and discussing Zimbabwe's suspension
with Commonwealth heads of government. The "broadly held view" he arrived at
was for Zimbabwe's suspension to be continued until the Abuja Chogm earlier
this month.

      That decision was validated by the recommendation of the committee of
six, which included Mugabe allies such as prime minister Percival Patterson
of Jamaica, to maintain Zimbabwe's suspension. The resolution was adopted by
Chogm as a whole in its final communiqué. In other words the "broadly held
view" remained the broadly held view.

      As Tutu asks, why should Mbeki question a democratic majority? And as
Obasanjo has pointed out, Mbeki should understand that not everybody in a
club of 54 can have their way.

      Contrary to Mbeki's claim, the Zimbabwe government was given every
opportunity to respond to the report of the Commonwealth observer group and
to engage with McKinnon on areas of concern but, as Mbeki conspicuously
omits to mention, McKinnon and his envoys were refused visas to visit
Harare.

      But it is on the vexed subject of land reform that Mbeki's account
shifts from the merely disingenuous to the flatly dishonest. The large sums
of money promised by the British and US governments at Lancaster House never
materialised, Mbeki claims.

      In fact Britain provided over £47 million in the period 1980-85 for
land reform. But few of the farms acquired found their way to the deserving
poor. Most ended up in the hands of Mugabe's cronies. And when the United
Nations Development Programme decided after the 1998 donors conference that
land reform was not following approved procedures, donors felt they could no
longer justify funding a programme that lacked transparency, failed to
address poverty alleviation, and undermined self-sufficiency in food
production.

      When Mbeki visited London in 2000 he was told Britain had set aside a
further £36 million for land reform if the UNDP was prepared to approve a
workable land reform plan.

      He left that bit out of his account as well. And he claimed it was the
SABC's fault that the world was not informed of his opposition to forcible
land seizures.

      He complains that "those who fought for a democratic Zimbabwe" had
been turned into "repugnant enemies of democracy". But he nowhere
acknowledges that is perhaps because they have become repugnant enemies of
democracy! It is not the minority of British descent that are currently
under siege but trade unionists, women's groups, lawyers, and students. But
Mbeki, while lamenting Zanu PF's fate, has no words of compassion for the
victims of Mugabe's violence.

      What is most revealing in Mbeki's commentary is his resentment of
foreign policy that is driven by concern for human rights. He appears
shocked that the US should want to "foster the infrastructure of democracy,
the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities and
allow people to choose their own way…"

      Mbeki is clearly resentful that the Commonwealth should have declined
to buy Mugabe's land mantras and instead turned to issues of human rights.
But that is why Abuja is seen as a watershed. The stale liberation rhetoric
peddled by Mugabe as a smokescreen for perpetuating his misrule has passed
its sell-by date. Nobody was buying it except Mbeki.

      Nowhere in his article does Mbeki say what happened to South Africa's
human rights-based foreign policy unveiled with much fanfare only seven
years ago. Perhaps he could tell us in his next edition where he has hidden
it!

Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi could at least have the courage of his
convictions when threatening productive minorities. His menacing speech to
senior police officers last week, redolent in the discredited mantras of
Mugabe’s spin-doctors, had to be read by the Secretary for Home Affairs
because Mohadi couldn’t make it to the function.

It was all about dismantling “the economic hegemony of the white settler
colonial minority” in order to deliver “total emancipation”.

In fact it is the entire economy that the government is busy dismantling.
The “total emancipation” Mohadireferred to has been the emancipation from
food self-sufficiency, emancipation from the rule of law and emancipation
from good governance.

But it was useful to have his remarks on record so as to assess his
culpability in Zanu PF’s misrule when the day comes.

Exactly who is it, Cde Mohadi, who has “distorted the political and economic
domains”? Who has “led us up the garden path” so per capita GDP is today
lower than it was in 1980 and unemployment over 70%?

Mohadi has been obliged to parrot the Moyo line that economic difficulties
are “Western-contrived”. In other words Mugabe’s well-documented misrule is
not to blame!

But he was right about the need for a new paradigm, one in which public
funds are spent wisely and don’t disappear into the pockets of a parasitic
political class, one in which the public can trust the state security forces
to enforce the law professionally and impartially, not selectively, and one
in which justice and decency prevail instead of state terror, brutality and
torture. What has Mohadi got to say about lawyers being assaulted in police
stations on the orders of generals’ wives?

Perhaps we should be a little more indulgent towards Mohadi. In declining to
read the address himself, he might have been distancing himself from the
worst excesses of Zanu PF’s destructive rule!

Under the heading “Tambaoga: Zimbabwe’s bad boy”, the Sunday Mail carried a
puff piece on the controversial singer last weekend. When the Sunday Mail
visited, Last Chiyangwa (his real name) was watching the Zanu PF conference
in Masvingo on TV. Which may explain why, in the accompanying picture, he
was unable to keep his head upright.

He complained that he should have been invited given the fact they were
using such Tambaoga phrases as “the Bhureya that I know is a toireti”.

In case you may conclude from this that Tambaoga is several bricks short of
a barrrow-load, he produced this philosophical gem to show us why he is so
highly regarded in ruling-party circles.

“Have you noticed that when you go to work in the morning the sun blinds
your eyes and when you return it will be setting and still it will be
blinding your eyes? It’s because the colonialists wanted to blind us — kuti
tipuse tisanyanye kuonesesa.”

“The man’s philosophy is just amazing,” the Sunday Mail’s writer enthused!
Indeed, deep. In fact as deep as a pit toireti!

He said the fixed exchange rate had been considered "inappropriate for the
short, medium to long-term good of the country".

The system has been in place for the past six years.

"Under this system foreign exchange will be auctioned through a currency
exchange - an independent body that will operate under the supervision of
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe," Gono said.

"Exporters will discharge CD1 forms on the basis of gross export proceeds
and 50% of their foreign exchange earnings can be retained in foreign
currency accounts. Of the remaining 50%, 25% would immediately be sold to
the auction market at the ruling auction rate."

The governor said the remaining 25% would be surrendered to the RBZ at the
current exchange rate of $800 to the United States dollar for critical
imports and other government requirements.

"External loan repayments will thus be met from the exporter's 50% share and
other purchases from the auction," he said.

The proposal came from the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), which
said this would help improve Zimbabwe's crippling foreign currency shortage.

The controlled auction approach involves the setting up of an auction market
where buyers and sellers of foreign currency are matched.

According to "CZI Recommendations to the Foreign Currency Management
Committee" made on November 16, buyers of foreign currency will submit
sealed bids to buy the hard currency.

The CZI had also recommended that the RBZ increase the foreign currency
retained by exporters from the current 50% to 80% if government and the
central bank do not adopt a controlled auction system.

"We recommend that foreign currency is auctioned through a central currency
exchange," the CZI said. "These auctions would be overseen by the Reserve
Bank. We recommend that if we adopt the currency exchange system, the 50%
retention for the Reserve Bank is abolished and that the Reserve Bank
sources currency from the currency exchange. This is to eliminate
distortions on parallel market activities.

"We envisage that a Zimbabwe Currency Exchange is set up as an independent
body under the RBZ. All foreign currency would be channeled through this
currency exchange. Importers would bid for foreign currency using a
controlled auction system."

Since 1999, Zimbabwe has been facing a serious foreign currency shortage
that has largely been caused by poor export performance and fiscal planning.

The problem has been worsened by lack of political will to implement
meaningful economic proposals.

In October government formed a task force to investigate foreign currency
leakages.

But like many other government task forces it is still to announce what it
has achieved.

The controlled auction approach is used where foreign currency exchange is
in short supply.

The system has been used in Nigeria and Zambia.

Powell has also threatened that Zimbabwe would definitely miss the boat as
far as President George Bush's Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) - the new
international consensus on how best to approach development aid for Africa.

In his remarks on the effectiveness of the African Growth and Opportunity
Act (Agoa) at a meeting in Washington on Wednesday last week, Powell said
with the exception of Zimbabwe, African countries had already taken many
steps towards political and economic freedoms and "we urge you to work
through African regional and sub regional organisations to support greater
democracy throughout the continent".

Last year Powell stirred a hornet's nest in Johannesburg, South Africa when
he spoke out strongly against President Robert Mugabe and his government,
accusing them of being dictators at the World Summit for Sustainable
Development.

Addressing the Third Annual US-sub-Saharan African Trade and Economic
Cooperation Forum in Washington Powell told world leaders that the
deplorable situation in Zimbabwe required concerted regional and global
attention to ensure that the country's citizens had a voice to bring about
effective change.

"African countries already have taken many steps toward political and
economic freedoms, and we urge you to work through African regional and sub
regional organisations to support greater democracy throughout the
continent," Powell said in his maiden address to the meeting.

"Use of peer review mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's
Development can help ensure that the principles of accountability and good
governance are adopted and applied as universal standards across Africa. The
deplorable situation in Zimbabwe requires concerted regional and global
attention to ensure that the people of the once-productive and now
economically crippled country have a voice in their government to bring
about new and positive change."

While South Africa and Nigeria have agreed to peer reviews of their nations
Zimbabwe has refused such a policy questioning why "foreigners should
scrutinise the affairs of a sovereign state".

Commenting on Bush's MCA initiative Powell said: "MCA assistance, as you all
know, will only be available to developing nations that demonstrate a strong
commitment to the principles of just government, nations that invest in the
education and health of their citizens and nations which have adopted wise
trade, economic and environmental policies."

He said MCA could be a powerful tool for spurring reform and bringing real
improvements to the daily lives of people, people who want to believe in
democracy but have yet to reap its benefits.

Powell said all the hard won progress toward democracy and development in
African countries was challenged by the HIV/Aids pandemic, by unresolved
conflict and by terrorism.

"The spread of HIV/Aids has spawned a colossal development crisis across the
continent," Powell said.

In Zimbabwe the Aids scourge is wiping out at least 3 000 citizens weekly,
the third largest in southern Africa after Botswana and South Africa.

During US President George Bush's trip to Africa in July, he referred to
Africa as the "last great emerging market of the world".

"And Africa's economic emergence will not only be good for Africans, but
good for people all around the world, across the international community,
whose future well-being depends on global growth," Powell said. "As Uganda's
President Yoweri Museveni so rightly noted in the Wall Street Journal, aid
alone is 'a recipe for permanent poverty. The only way (Africa) can break
out of this vicious cycle is through trade and thorough export-led growth'."

Economists point out that in the three short years since Agoa went into
effect it is estimated that Agoa-related trade and investment has created
more than 190 000 jobs worth over US$340 million in new investment.

They say Zimbabwe is losing out of this because of its cold war with the US.

Powell said in Ghana, for example, two American companies had invested in
plants to export socks to the US.

"These first-time investors in Africa are employing 400 Ghanaians," he said.

In Tanzania, business for a small handicraft company has boomed as a result
of Agoa.

"Before Agoa, the company employed 25 people and exported US$20 000 a year
in arts and crafts to the United States," Powell said. "Since Agoa, the
company has hired 100 new employees, mostly women, and its exports to the US
have increased 10-fold."

He said however not all Agoa-related successes involved export to the US.

"For example Namibian plants produce parts that are included in South
African cars which are then exported to the US," he said. "Zambian cotton
exports to South Africa more than doubled in 2002 thanks to increased demand
generated by Agoa. We have also seen increased intra-African investment."

The secretary of state said Agoa was only "one of the ways the US was
working with the nations of Africa to build a better future for Africans and
Americans alike".

Answering questions on the collapsing economy and how Zanu PF felt about the
downfall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Mutasa said Zimbabwe would "take
the US on if it tries to do anything of that sort (topple Mugabe) to
Zimbabwe".

The US-led forces captured Saddam Hussein on Saturday night after the
dictator went into hiding having been overthrown by US-British forces.

"Yes our country is going through a very trying period and we are all aware
that we are under siege," Mutasa said. "However, what happened in Iraq
cannot happen in Zimbabwe because we are very well prepared for any such
happening. We won the liberation struggle using sticks and stones, but now
the situation is very different."

He said the economy would gradually pick up since the leadership had dumped
the West to engage "better friends with Zimbabwe's interests at heart".

Newspapers across the world, including in Africa, expressed relief at the
capture of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, saying it was a suitable end for the Iraqi
leader who had tormented his citizens and abused his powers.

At Abuja he vigorously defended the indefensible conduct of his ally, who
had broken almost every tenet of civilised behaviour, let alone those of the
Commonwealth as rather ironically expressed in the Harare Declaration. He
mobilised others in an attempt to readmit Zimbabwe even though to do so
would be to instantly destroy any moral credibility the organisation may
hold.

Additionally, he was a willing tool in the move to unseat Don McKinnon as
secretary-general of the Commonwealth.

Now, in his latest frothings in his weekly ANC newsletter he is parroting
Mugabe, and claiming that "land is the core of the problem" even when this
holds no credibility with Zimbabwe itself. If you close your eyes its now
impossible to tell the difference between Mbeki and Mugabe or Jonathan Moyo.
The Australians are vilified, as are the Americans and the British. He seems
to have memorised all the tired old Zanu PF lies that have been propagated
over the years, and now disgorges them at every opportunity.

How on earth does Mbeki think that Nepad or his African Renaissance will eve
r materialise if he castigates all those most able to assist in his dreams?

How sad too that a man of such world-renowned stature as Nelson Mandela
should be succeeded by this self-serving little squirt? I truly fear not
only for South Africa, but also for the whole region while he remains in
power. Those South Africans who rather arrogantly told us, "It can never
happen here" should now think deeply.

We said that too in our hubris, but nemesis followed very quickly. The time
span between majority rule and total collapse in Africa is between 20 and 30
years. Look at your history, and think about it. Only then, once the
destruction has taken place, can sanity return and the process of rebuilding
a devastated country start.

The long list of African idiots now has a new and distinguished member,
Thabo Mbeki, the future destroyer of South Africa. He joins other luminaries
of this august body such as Idi Amin, Mugabe, Kenneth Kaunda, Emperor
Bokassa and a host of lesser-known African villains. Hooray for Mbeki,
African liberator!

Charles Frizell,

UK.

-The Fiction award of the year goes to the Sunday Mail, followed by close
runners-up and stable mates the Bulawayo Chronicle and the Herald for
featuring crudely concocted plots, commentary, opinion and demagoguery as
front page "news". However, these newspapers are useful for their crossword
puzzles and classified adverts!

-Most hypocritical religionist of the year: Many qualified, strong
contenders as usual, but the winner is Norbert Kunonga, a high priest of the
Zimbabwean branch of the Church of England. He has been accused of
shockingly unchristian behaviour by many of his fellow Anglicans, bringing
shame and disrepute upon the church. Some religious leaders pray for those
they lead, Kunonga is accused of preying on his flock by justifying
political violence, sowing discord and even plotting the elimination of
rebellious fellow religionists. A frightening current example of the
terrible misery that religion when twisted and in the wrong, cynical hands
has caused humankind throughout the ages. Believers and heathens alike were
shocked and appalled by blatant examples of sickness and corruption in the
religious establishment. When there is little difference between politicians
and religious leaders, you know a country is in deep trouble.

- Bully of the year: Jocelyn Chiwenga, who has earned a permanent place in
the Zimbabwean hall of hate and infamy for inexplicable bitterness coupled
with political impunity to act out her pet hates. Trying to hypocritically
put as much distance between her being once married to a white man as
possible, she has tried to pose as more African than the rest of us in the
most negative ways. Then there was the shocking incident of her physically
abusing a Daily News lawyer at a police station of all places, reportedly
crudely sneering, "you stupid Ndebele girl!"

In threatening the white owners of a farm she had her eye on, she reportedly
boasted of being untouchable and "filthy rich". I guess no matter how rich
one gets, one cannot buy the "African values" she used to tout together with
Jonathan Moyo under the so-called Heritage Trust. It is not known how her
expressed prejudice against Ndebeles has affected her friendship with Moyo
and whether the trust still exists.

-So near and yet so far award. To Emmerson Mnangagwa for starting the year
with a bang by a well-orchestrated campaign by certain ruling party factions
and some media houses to sell him as the logical successor to Mugabe. The
efforts then stumbled amidst foreign newspaper reports of dirty hands that
refuse to go away. He must be presumed to be an outstanding citizen until
proven otherwise, but even if he isn't, he could still get to rule Zanu PF
and Zimbabwe. After all, right up to the top the ruling party is full of
characters with questionable human rights and honesty credentials that have
not harmed their careers in any way.

-The ideas bankruptcy award goes to Mugabe's regime for being so desperate
for forex and ideas on how to make Zimbabwe export-productive again. A few
weeks ago they cooked up the ridiculous idea to put up police roadblocks and
then body and wallet-search citizens to confiscate any foreign currency they
may have been carrying. This predictably only drove the parallel market
further underground, worsening the problem and making the regime look even
more brutal and unimaginative to the whole world.

-Worst propagandist award. A tie between Jonathan Moyo, Zimpapers and ZBC.
Despite their valiant efforts to whitewash Mugabe's cruel, ruinous and
hypocritical government, more of Zimbabwe and the world is turned off by his
regime than at any time during his long reign of literal bloody disaster,
fear and decline.

-Doormat award goes to Zanu PF for being in such terror and awe of one man
that no single party member had the guts to challenge Mugabe, telling him
off for ruining Zimbabwe and selling out the revolution. I decided that
calling them "Mugabe's wives" like someone once did in the past would be
harsh, crude and sexist. I chose "doormat" because they allow him to wipe
his feet all over them whenever he likes while they cheer and ululate,
crying "more, more!"

-Foot in mouth award. Perennial winner Mugabe propagandist Jonathan Moyo was
this year beaten to this award by Mugabe himself, who hurt his own interests
and stature virtually every time he opened his mouth by saying all the wrong
things. Moyo was the runner-up, followed by Foreign minister Stan Mudenge.
Together these three have achieved much to make Zimbabwe more diplomatically
isolated and ridiculed than ever before.

-Empty title award. To David Parirenyatwa, the Minister of Health who works
so hard to put up a front of everything being normal when health
professionals are leaving the country in droves and nurses and doctors have
been on strike for a living wage for a good part of the year. He looked so
ridiculous to me when I recently saw him regally step out of his spanking
new ministerial car at a local hotel, smartly dressed in a natty suit. In
typical banana republic style, all the ministers and other top officials put
on an impressive show to cover up how institutions under their portfolios
are dying, causing untold suffering of the ordinary people. Some say
statistics showing lower HIV infection rates were cooked for political ends.

-Sovereign hunger and dependency award. Joint winners are Mugabe and
Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made. One reason Zimbabwe has become such a
world laughing stock is for destroying its agriculture, boasting about
"sovereignty" incessantly, whining about being mistreated by the white world
for reclaiming land from white farmers but then being more dependent on
those countries every month for food handouts!

-Empty tough talk award was won by Chemical Ali, the deposed Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein's Jonathan "Comical" Moyo equivalent. Chemical's macho
bluster went up in smoke as the Iraqis cheered the brutal dictator's fall,
which proved that no matter how repressive, seemingly powerful and
invincible, an unpopular regime is ultimately only a paper tiger.

Space does not allow me to mention all of this year's most notorious
characters, but I am confident readers will have no problem carrying on from
where I have left off. May all of this year's sorry winners try to be better
people, causing less misery in 2004 than they did this year.

Chido Makunike is a regular columnist based in Harare.

Garbage in the streets, which can rightly be blamed on Local Government
minister Ignatius Chombo's interference in local governance, especially in
Harare, has become people's daily bread. Harare is no longer a sunshine
city.

The crisis in the country continues to deepen with Zanu PF doing nothing
about it. The MDC candidate in the recent Kadoma by-election may claim the
poll was free and fair but I am convinced it was as flawed as the June 2000
parliamentary and 2002 presidential elections.

Fairness and freeness of an election should not be analysed only at the
level of the ballot or the prevailing circumstances at the polling station.
A free and fair election is one that is conducted in an open manner and with
all participating candidates given unfettered opportunity to meet with their
supporters. I get confused when Mupandawana says the election was free and
fair and yet the MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai, was detained in Kadoma
while campaigning for him. How about MDC youths who scurried for their lives
with marauding Zanu PF vigilantes baying for their blood?

Despite the talk about talks between Zanu PF and the MDC, the situation for
Zimbabweans in the year 2003 has continued to deteriorate. Zanu PF is not
willing to engage in dialogue with the opposition to find a solution to the
economic malaise. Instead some overzealous elements in the ruling party who
are intoxicated with power and fear losing all they have auquired if a new
government comes in, are determined to thwart efforts to get to the
negotiating table. This is true of people such as Patrick Chinamasa and
Jonathan Moyo, who think they know it all in Zanu PF.

There is nothing for Zimbabweans to celebrate about the advent of 2004. The
year 2003 saw the entrenchment of Mugabe's dictatorship through muzzling of
the independent media, political interference in the judiciary, thwarting of
fundamental rights of association, expression and assembly, the mobilisation
of Green Bombers to beat up opposition activists, and the use of the army
and the police to narrow the democratic space.

The Daily News was closed down and there are no signs of it coming back any
time soon. Judge Michael Majuru who was presiding over the Daily News case
has been frustrated out and the Tafataona Mahoso-led Media and Information
Commission is determined to ensure that the Daily News does not publish
again.

On the other hand, people continue to be bombarded by Information minister
Jonathan Moyo's propaganda of the so-called Third Chimurenga. This has seen
three jingles being composed in the year, starting with Rambai Makashinga,
then came Bearers Cheques and now Sendekera (two versions). These are
exchanged from time to time with pictures glorifying Robert Mugabe for his
role in the liberation struggle. These are juxtaposed with pictures of
Tsvangirai clapping hands and receiving money from white MDC supporters.

But Zimbabweans ought to ask who has been Mugabe's friends from 1980 to the
early 1990s? What is the difference between the money that the MDC may be
getting now with the money that Zanu PF got a decade back from the same
people? Why would the public be hoodwinked by the gibberish that suggests
the MDC is white-sponsored and white-dominated? Are Zanu PF's friends in
Asia black?

Mugabe must realise that people want bread and butter issues addressed. The
food security situation in the country poses a greater threat to Zanu PF
than the MDC per se. Gone are the days of independence euphoria when Zanu PF
could get away with political sloganeering without addressing the
socio-economic issues that are at the heart of people's lives.

The political impasse between Zanu PF and the MDC is because Zanu PF is
unwilling to resolve the country's political and economic woes. The MDC has
shown that it is not interested in taking up arms against a despotic black
government but committed to the democratic option.

The MDC leadership wants to go to the talks with Zanu PF despite the
disapproval of the majority of its followers. It has proved to the African
Union and Sadc that it is Zanu PF that is not willing to talk. If threats by
Tsvangirai that 2004 will bring with it more mass action, then the new year
spells more trouble for the regime.

The situation in Zimbabwe needs all the stakeholders to come together in
seeking a solution to the political quagmire and economic malaise that we
find ourselves in. This means that the polarisation between the MDC and Zanu
PF and civil society needs to be resolved urgently and the church can play a
pivotal role in this regard.

-Phillip Pasirayi is a Harare-based writer and a human rights activist
currently with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.