COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm Invasions And Security Report
Thursday 20
December 2001
This report does not purport to cover all the
incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas. Communication
problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that
happens. Farmers’ names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise
the risk of reprisals.
This will be the final sitrep for 2001.
The
next official sitrep will be issued on Thursday 3 January 2002.
NATIONAL
REPORT IN BRIEF
· Section 8s have been handed out throughout the
country, irrespective of the stated Government criteria for acquisition. To
date there are 326 confirmed new Section 8 orders.
· General threats
in Wedza, Mashonaland East, to shut down farms and chase off labour after
Christmas, until after the elections.
· DDF tractor activity
throughout, ploughing without regard for boundaries and even, in one instance,
drag racing along a main road.
· Members of a stock theft syndicate
have been arrested in Nyazura, Manicaland.
· The manager on
Butleigh Farm, Mutepatepa, received a serious head wound caused by a panga, in
an unprovoked attack by government officials. The perpetrator has been
arrested.
· About 450 people arrived on Unadale, Harare South, to be
resettled. As the farm was not listed, they left peacefully, but said they
would return after consulting their superiors.
· The owner and
workers of Auks Nest, Harare South, have been warned to move off over the
Christmas period.
· The foremen of Shipton flowers,
Trelawney/Darwendale, received a blow to the head in an altercation with “war
vets” over tobacco planted in “their” lands.
· A Tredar guard was
assaulted by occupiers on Wannock Glen farm, Banket.
· A farmer and
his wife were humiliated and assaulted on Blagdon Farm, Kadoma.
REGIONAL NEWS
MANICALAND
Nyazura – a follow up on stock theft in
the Buhera area uncovered a stock theft syndicate. Nyazura police and a Private
Investigator have apprehended suspects. Approximately 100 head of cattle have
been stolen over six to eight weeks. The police have been co-operative. A
general increase in theft has been observed.
MASHONALAND
CENTRAL
Bindura – the Butleigh Farm manager (Duncan Cook) was seriously
injured in an unprovoked attack by Government Officials, receiving a blow to the
side of his head with a "panga". The wound required 18 stitches. On Duiker
Flats Farm (Brent Landing) three labourers have been beaten up by the occupiers
and approximately 15 others have been forcefully removed from their homes. One
labourer was held in Police cells overnight after the assault. A group of 50
youths have arrived on Avoca Farm and have been "rounding up" the youths who are
resident on the farm. Their intentions are not clear as yet.
MASHONALAND
EAST
Beatrice – on Argyle Ranch (D.Payne) an electrician doing some work was
told to not return. Some shots were heard at night and the next morning the
butchering of a buck was observed. The same night bags of maize were stolen
from a shed. The farmer collected police details who caught three men with a
scotch cart, who are now in jail. At New Retreat (T.Searson) the owner is not
allowed on the farm. His son is permitted to look after crops in the ground but
nothing further is to be planted. When a meeting between the owner and “war vet”
Zhau finally took place, the owner was told to compile a list of all movable
assets, to report to the police station at 8 am and collect a police detail for
protection until 4 pm daily. Zhau will collect the inventory on Friday to take
to his superior and the D.A. before returning to address the owner and his
labour. Section 8 Orders continue to be served. Ploughing and planting by
occupiers continues.
Enterprise/Ruwa/Bromley - Several Section 8s have been
given out, including Zimbabwe’s biggest tomato producer.
Featherstone – on
Ashton (Kelvin Whitfield) the occupiers informed the owner all cattle must be
moved off farm by Monday 17.12.01. These instructions ostensibly originate from
officials in Chivhu. The Versaille (M. Cook) owner offered Strijdpoort as an
alternative for a listed farm, but now both are listed. He is under pressure to
move off his cattle.
Harare South – Section 8s were received on five
properties. The owner on Kinfaun (J. Caine) was prevented from moving his
boiler, whilst there is planting by a DDF tractor and occupiers on Auks Nest
(E.Conolly). The resident occupier has told the owner to be off farm by
Christmas, and told the labour to be off farm by 20.12.01. He threatened
serious action and even to kill someone if there was no compliance. Planting
and cultivating is continuous in the whole area. There were two incidents of
stocktheft on Duiker and Dunine Farms over the weekend; both incidents were
reported to the police with unsatisfactory results. The Kefalos Cheese Factory
on Bhara Bhara farm reported a labour unrest/dispute over wages. Workers were
not allowing customers on to the premises to conduct business. NEC and ALB met
with labour and the situation was resolved. Braemar workers were prevented from
cutting down gum plantations and their chainsaws were confiscated by the
occupiers from Kimcote. Management negotiated the return of the chainsaws and a
return to work after it was established the gum plantation was on Braemar and
not on Kimcote as originally thought by the occupiers. Kimcote had a DDF
borehole-drilling rig attempting to drill. Occupiers’ activities continue
unabated but with little real interference to farmers and staff. Unadale
reported six busloads and two commuter omnibus loads (estimated 450 people)
arrived to be resettled. During discussion with the owner, they were informed
the farm was not listed and left peacefully. They said they would return on
20.12.01 after consulting their superiors.
Macheke/Virginia – on Murrayfield
(J.Meikle) a government land cruiser, registration GOG 622, with driver Abel
Mgawa who arrived to plant maize. Three occupiers took 94 head of cattle
several kilometres along the main Harare/Mutare road. Police reacted, returned
the cattle and made no arrests. Merrylands (J.Negri) labour were all evicted
but the situation resolved with the labour allowed to return. Fault Farm (I.
Hird.) was visited by Chief Inspector Dube who told the owner the portion of the
farm where the country club is situated now belongs to him but club activities
may continue.
Marondera North – Chinwiri Farm (M. Gibson) was pegged twice in
three weeks by two different pegging teams.
Marondera South – no report
received.
Wedza – People in the area have been informed by two groups that
all farms would be shut down after Christmas until after the elections. On
Numwa, occupiers arrived, told the lessee he had 90 days to get off the property
then helped themselves to seedlings. The remaining labour on Markwe (T.Swanson)
was chased away and the owner was told to remove the cattle. Police arrived and
the occupiers agreed two herders could remain but the cattle still had to be
moved off. On Msasa (J.Whaley) two bulling heifers were slaughtered. A suspect
caught poaching in the dam was taken away by the police.
Rural Council - At
the annual stakeholders meeting the rural council announced there would be four
new schools set on farms for resettled children and existing buildings would be
used. The farms are Bolton (M. Moran), Chard (C. White), Nelson (Mrs N.
Seager) and the club Leap Year (M.Hill). The labour were told to be off farm by
the end of the month. A vehicle arrived at 11:30 pm and shots were heard.
Agritex is busy pegging on several farms.
MASHONALAND WEST
(NORTH)
Trelawney/Darwendale – at Shipton Flowers (D Cunliffe) at about 1600
h, 9.12.01, a light blue Peugeot 404 with a canopy, registration number 18294J,
arrived containing seven “war vets”. The occupants searched through the
greenhouse complex and found the foreman, Joseph Phiri. They produced an
identification card but would not allow Mr Phiri to examine it. One, by the
name of Nkomo, asked Mr Phiri why the farmer was planting tobacco in lands
designated for the war veterans. Mr Phiri tried to explain that he had nothing
to do with the tobacco and received a blow to the head from Nkomo. The “war
vets” indicated a vacant house at Shipton, usually used by a senior foreman,
should be for their use. They told Mr Phiri that as the tobacco had been
planted in "their" lands, Mr Phiri and the manager would be forced to plant
maize in those same tobacco lands sometime this week. From the greenhouse
complex they proceeded to the owner’s house. The owner left and locked the
house behind him, walked up to the vehicle and spoke to the occupants. He
recognised one as Mpofu, who he had seen at Dulwich (Mr Odendaal). During
discussion they said they could not see the owner during the week as they all
had jobs in town and warned that if he wanted to be "OK" then he should change
his attitude. On Elveden Farm (C Bornman) a work stoppage was effected on
13.12.01 by 'war vet' Morfu who is demanding that the farmer continues to harrow
more lands, regardless of whether these lands will be planted or not. Lands
previously harrowed have not been planted and grass has re-grown. Morfu refuses
to speak to the farmer, but stirs up the labour. This has been reported to the
police who say they are looking for him to lay an assault charge against
him
Banket – on Wannock Glen Farm 16.12.01 occupiers beat up one Tredar guard
protecting the house and chased a further three Tredar guards off farm
protecting a potato crop under harvest. This was reported to Banket police and
the settlers were cautioned. On 18.12.01 the occupiers caused a work stoppage
and told the workers to take up land on farm or be beaten up. Banket police met
with the occupiers and workers and the situation was diffused. There have been
continuous demands for tractors and equipment and no crops have been were
planted on Wannock Glen this year.
MASHONALAND WEST (SOUTH)
Norton –
owing to pressure on Ruanda (I Mcghie), which is not listed, the owner has had
to give the keys to the Chief for safekeeping.
Selous - On Carskey Farm (M
Campbell) occupiers from the neighbouring farm came to tell the farm owner that
the "white man must leave" despite the farm being unlisted. They have been
poaching in the dam next to a safari lodge.
Chegutu/Suri-Suri - On De Rus
Farm (B Cremer) one calf has been axed and DDF have been cutting fences in order
to plough.
Kadoma/Chakari/Battlefields - On Blagdon Farm (G Barton) the
owners' wife was made to run down the road whilst illegal occupiers hit her on
the backside. In trying to rescue his wife, the owner received a beating which
included a cut to the head. On Blue Grass (J Melville) the owner’s house was
broken into by occupiers in his absence. Property was left intact but they left
graffiti stating: "the white man must leave". On Normandy North Farm (D Hahn)
in the owner’s absence, the house sitter was evicted from the house. He was
found walking to Kadoma, as they would not let him take any possessions with him
or a vehicle. On Mazarati (N Manchip) police have still not evicted occupiers
from the house and cottage, despite the D.A. and DISPOL admitting it was
illegal. On Pamene Farm (A Read) a large group of people with government
officials arrived to be issued plots in the owner’s standing crops.
General -
some police stations report they have no R.R.B books or other stationery and
they cannot take down reports of a criminal nature. Section 8 orders continue
to come in. It is clear there is no pattern, and most of the farms receiving
Section 8s do not fall into any of the Government stated criteria for
acquisition.
MASVINGO
Masvingo East and Central - 52 head of cattle
have gone missing on Lochinvar Ranch (Dave Coventry). It is presumed they were
stolen last weekend. The owner has reported to Police, but no arrests have been
made. There are continued problems all over with poaching, snaring, tree
clearing, ploughing and pegging.
Mwenezi – cattle on Lumbergia Ranch (T.Van
de Venne) still remain forcibly kraaled. Police have been unsuccessful in
resolving this problem. The tenant on Kalahari ranch has been forced to abandon
the farm, including work in progress and materials on a building site. The
owners’ wife was detained at the site, against her will, by about 20 occupiers.
DDF Tractors are now ploughing up the airstrip and the staff workers’ football
field as well as in and around the brickfield area on Swanscoe Ranch (Mr.
Cawood). Thousands of bricks have been stolen and Police will not react,
informing owner it is a political issue. DDF Tractors were observed between the
Bubi Bridge and Lion and Elephant Motel drag racing!!
Section 8’s have been
delivered to a further seven properties.
Poaching, snaring, cutting of trees,
pegging, planting, ploughing and theft continues daily.
Chiredzi – on Alstar
Haven (Rob Alderton) the war vet Mutemachani is harassing the owner about three
seasonal workers he dismissed, stating the owner owes them back pay of $230 000.
The owner has worked out that he only owes them $10 000.00
Save Valley
Conservancy - Poaching and snaring continue daily.
Gutu / Chatsworth -
Continued harassment over cattle eating occupiers’ maize, with demands for
compensation. Poaching, snaring and tree clearing continue
daily.
MIDLANDS
Kwekwe – settlers are planting in the Sherwood area.
Two farmers have finally been allowed to plant. Settlers planted on Game Farm;
the crops have germinated, eland are destroying them and settlers are demanding
the farmer remove the animals. On Groeneke and Mooirivier, daily demands are
made for use of equipment for which they claim they will pay. The farmer is
resisting and is accused of not co-existing. Large areas have been opened up to
produce chickens and eggs. It has been heard that a South African company has
joined the settlers in the project.
Shurugwi - Ploughing with DDF tractors is
ongoing. Gold panners are proving a menace as they leave gates open, allowing
cattle to stray with the result some deaths reported of cattle falling down mine
shafts.
Somabhula - On Sunday night a farmer and his wife, returning home,
found two gates barricaded. The following Saturday two youths from the local
War Vets Committee, aged about 22, ordered them off the farm on one day’s
notice. They had heard a rumour the farmer had approached the Governor to
request all settlers be cleared off the farm. The farmer tried to explain this
was not true, but refused to discuss the matter further when the youths became
threatening and aggressive. These youths had been kicked off the War Vets
Committee during some trouble in March but seem to have been reinstated. Later
seven committee members accompanied by 20 youths, felled trees outside the front
and back security gates, blocking the exits. Police were contacted, two details
arrived 2 hours later and were directed to the homes of two committee members.
They left saying they would phone on Monday to report if the Land Committee
would address the settlers. Nothing further has been heard on the matter. On
Monday the exit gates were cleared and the trees dragged inside the security
fence. On Tuesday one of the youths arrived to ask what had become of his
firewood. And threatened to block the access road to the homestead as his hut is
next to it and “the farmer and his family make too much noise when passing in
the evenings.” He also hinted at threats to their future personal
security.
MATABELELAND
No report
received.
aisd1@cfu.co.zw
Visit the CFU Website www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
Dear Family and Friends,
On Tuesday a 24 year old farm manager, Duncan Cook,
was attacked in the fields of the farm where he works. He was slashed across the
right side of his forehead with a machete by a government official.The
photograph of this man, barely out of school, deathly pale, lying in blood
saturated bedding with a massive line of stitches from his right ear to his
eyebrow has left me in deep, deep shock. Please visit my website to see this for
yourselves, to see that violence on farms in Zimbabwe has not stopped and that
every day the farmers of our country are literally risking their lives to keep
putting food on our tables. Their desperate attempts, against overwhelming
obstacles are not enough though. Too many farmers have now been chased off their
farms, too many have been told they may not grow food and people are already
starving. On Tuesday this week the Daily News reported that two children died of
starvation in Hwange on a farm where people have been resettled. A relative of
the deceased children said: "There is no maize meal in the shops. More people
will die, especially children, because we are going for days without food." Shop
owners in the area confirmed that they have stopped selling maize meal because
they are making serious losses due to the price controls on the staple
food.
While people are now literally starving to death,
our President and 7618 delegates held their annual Zanu PF congress in the
Victoria Falls. The Zimbabwe Independent estimates the cost of the transport and
accommodation alone to have been Z$440 million. The gap between the rich and the
poor is now an enormous chasm. This week it was officially announced that
Zimbabwe's inflation rate hit 103,8%. This is the first time in the history of
our country that inflation has gone into three digits and it has become almost
impossible for most of us to survive. Newly re settled farmers this week told
the Financial Gazette that they were having to sell the fertilizer and seed
maize they had been given by the government under the fast track land
re-distribution scheme. One settler said: "What will I be living on until next
year...? If I manage to sell some of the fertilizer to make a living and send my
three children to school then I do not see anything wrong with
that..." Zimbabwe's new farmers simply do not have the resources to grow
the food needed to support 13 million people. I shudder to think what we will be
facing by this time next year.
So why do I stay here? Why are so many farmers, now
holding 90 day eviction notices, still staying in the country? Why are farmers
who have not been allowed to farm for more than 6 months still here ? Why are
men and women, black and white, who have been tortured, beaten and raped, still
here? So many people ask me why I bother, why I don't just leave Zimbabwe. Let
me speak only for myself. I was born and went to school and university here. I
have lived here all my life and my son was born and is being educated here. My
neighbourhood is a mixture of black and white people. My friends are a mixture
of black and white people. My son goes to a multi racial school and as I write
he is playing with his best friend Brian who has a different skin colour to him.
I stay here because it is my home and it is my right. I stay here because 85
people have died to give me a free and democratic government. I stay here
because I believe in my country and her people. I stay here because I know that
99% of Zimbabweans want me to be here. I speak out because so many hundreds of
thousands are unable to do so and we all know this will not last. As the laws
close in on us, every word becomes harder and more dangerous to write or
speak. Throwing a stone at a government building will soon attract a 10 years
prison term. Giving food to a starving person without government permission may
also land me in gaol. Writing letters like these
will soon be a punishable offence but I will continue to speak out as long as I
am able. This week a new radio station began broadcasting to and for Zimbabwe.
SW Radio Africa at 6145 khz on the 49 metre band is telling us the truth every
night from 6 - 9pm. The tears ran down my face as I listened to their first
broadcast and the closing message, sung by and for Zimbabweans was: "Hold on,
just a little bit longer." I must close by thanking all the hundreds of people
who continue to give me moral and emotional support. Without you I would have
given up. I wish you all a peaceful Christmas with family and friends and hope
we may all see an end to the terror that has become the way of life in 2002. To
all my Zimbabwean friends and family - Hold on just a little bit longer. With
love, cathy.
In the looting five months ago, two dogs were abducted on Maysma
Farm.
Subsequent attempts by the farmer and his workers to rescue the animals
were
met with aggression and statements the animals now belonged to the
settlers.
The farmer contacted the Zimbabwe National SPCA about a week ago
appealing
for help. Meryl Harrison and her team met with Dispol, Chinhoyi,
who were
very helpful and sent out the message that the settlers would be
charged
with theft if the animals were not returned.
Army personnel
stationed at the farm were hostile, but the NSPCA finally
managed to recover
the two animals from the settlers. Although in an
appalling condition, the
two animals are being treated and reunited with
their rightful owners.
Mrs
Harrison is emphatic farmers should not give up on their animals and to
call
in the Zimbabwe National SPCA to save animals. Their success rate
in
recovering animals is excellent.
Contact details: Meryl
Harrison cell: 011630403 office/fax:
09 888292 home: 09
286243
Box AC 405, Ascot,
Bulawayo
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DISCLAIMER
"The
Opinions in this message do not necessarily reflect those of the CFU
which
does not accept any legal responsibility for them."
Dear Members
During this festive season, I send best wishes on behalf of
the elected
members and staff of the CFU.
I wish for you all a safe
and happy Christmas. Mostly I hope for courage,
and an end in sight, for the
New Year.
Best regards
William Hughes
CFU Acting president
Daily News
Army unleashes reign of terror in Zaka
12/21/01 9:20:32
PM (GMT +2)
From Energy Bara in Masvingo
AT least 20 MDC
supporters, mainly youths, have fled Zaka district following
a wave of
political violence perpetrated by soldiers and Zanu PF youth
brigade members
ahead of the presidential poll scheduled for March
next
year.
Armed soldiers and Zanu PF youths were deployed in
the district two weeks
ago after an MDC rally addressed by the party’s Vice
President, Gibson
Sibanda.
The soldiers and Zanu PF youths have embarked
on a combined operation in the
district harassing innocent civilians
especially members of the opposition.
Some of the victims have sought refuge
in urban areas. Arnold Chirwa, one of
the victims, said the soldiers in the
company of militarily trained Zanu PF
youths are beating up innocent people
accusing them of supporting the
opposition. “They move in groups and members
of the army usually supervise
the beatings”.
Truckloads full of
soldiers and youths patrol the area looking for MDC
sympathisers. I was
assaulted heavily and I have fled the area for my own
safety”, Chirwa
said.
MDC Masvingo vice chairman, Shacky Matake yesterday said scores of
MDC
supporters have been displaced in the district due to political
violence.
Matake said the situation is tense in the district following the
deployment
of soldiers and Zanu PF militias.
“It is a way of trying to
displace our supporters so that they would not be
able to vote during the
presidential election. We have managed to penetrate
the rural areas and that
is why our supporters have become targets. “We want
to warn the perpetrators
that despite all the intimidation we would make
sure that those displaced
would get a chance to vote in their
constituencies”.
Heavily armed
soldiers and Zanu PF militias were deployed in Zaka District
two weeks ago
and villagers have expressed concern over the presence of
the
army.
Officials from the Zimbabwe National Army said the soldiers were
in the area
on a long-range exercise where they are testing new
equipment.
Daily News
12/21/01 9:30:01 PM (GMT +2)
We also know
what an absolute spectacle Vice-President Simon Muzenda can
turn himself
into when that seemingly irresistible urge to display
incredible ignorance
gets hold of him - which it does with disturbing
frequency. Many of us also
know how recklessly tactless he can be when he is
in the mood to be arrogant,
the most common vice among Zanu PF leaders.
Muzenda was in
exactly that mood when he visited Manicaland last week. It is
common
knowledge that most of the good things senior people in the Zanu
PF
government do for various communities whenever an election is
approaching
are to a very great extent a form of bribe to dupe people into
voting for
Zanu PF. Typical examples were the millions of dollars which the
late Border
Gezi, Shuvai Mahofa and Jonathan Moyo splashed abound shortly
before the
by-election in Bikita West and the mayoral elections in Masvingo
and
Bulawayo.
But, although some of them are not known to be
particularly endowed with
great intelligence, none of the three was so
foolish as to openly tell the
people that what they euphemistically termed
money for “maprojects” was in
reality bribe money meant to buy votes.
Not
Mudhara Mzee. His visit to Chipinge South, where he and other Zanu
PF
officials hijacked the launch of a $7 million rural electrification
scheme,
as a way to woo voters in that well-know anti-Zanu PF corner of
Zimbabwe,
turned into something of a stunner for his audience. Tactless as
ever, Mzee
threatened the Chipinge folk and told them the electrification
programme in
the area would not be completed if they do not vote for the
ruling party in
next year’s crucial presidential election. “If we go out of
power,” Muzenda
threatened, “if the government changes, all this electricity
will go too.”
Really? It is doubtful that even Joseph Chinotimba could
have employed a
more crude campaign tactic.
Many unflattering things have
been said about Mzee. Things such as, for
instance, that he is not among the
most brilliant people in government and
that his assessment of some complex
issues can be so simplistic to the point
of being naive. The Mole has no
intention to dispute that. But I shudder to
think that he might actually
believe all the people he has the privilege to
harangue are of similarly
simple minds or, worse, that they possess even
lower intelligence than his.
For that is precisely what he must have taken
the Chipinge people to be if he
seriously thought that they would, even for
one minute, believe his childish
threat. If anything, the Chipinge people
know all too well that, with Zanu PF
out of government, all kinds of
development projects, not just
electrification, would take off at a brisker
pace. And the violence will end
too. Which is why they are probably more
determined than ever to vote Zanu PF
out of power. As Clive Malunga
idiomatically puts it in his new hit Zizi
NaNhengure, little Nhengure has
now exploded the myth that Zizi has horns. So
Owl can’t frighten anybody
anymore because we now all know that what looked
like horns are actually
mere feathers.
*Pouring scorn on the
electorate and insulting the intelligence of the
people whose votes they are
desperate to court seems to be a
self-destructive trait running wild through
the entire Zanu PF “family”. In
fact, I have got strong suspicions that among
the manuals in the party’s
library, prescribed as compulsory reading, must be
a handbook with a title
which goes something like How to Make Enemies and
Alienate People. At his
rural electrification scheme launch in Chipinge
referred to above, Muzenda
is reported to have told the area’s residents:
“Some of you are trying to
sell the country . . . I am told people in
Chipinge are educated, but I don’
t know how you choose your MPs.” The
implication, of course, which was a
most insulting condescension to put it
mildly, was that because they elected
to Parliament a person who is not a
Zanu PF member, the people of Chipinge
were uneducated. Hardly the best
things to say in a strange land with whose
inhabitants you are anxious to
make friends. For it is a truth, a bitter one
maybe, that while Zanu PF has
only recently started to be hated in the rest
of the country, in Chipinge it
has always been a stranger. But, if the
wiseacre Muzenda’s efforts at
alienating voters in Chipinge were remarkable,
they came nowhere near his
boss’ most unfortunate remarks at the party’s
much-ado-about-nothing
gathering in Victoria Falls. By the way, The Mole
thinks it really was a
misnomer to call that convocation a “conference”
because the people did not
confer at all.
All that happened there was that the “delegates” were
being talked down to
by the party leader and his lieutenants - no
discussions, no feedback from
the provinces, no questions from the floor,
nothing at all, in fact, except
the regular moronic applause which is
standard Zanu PF followers’
conditioned response to every single one of the
President’s speeches.
Mugabe, who has in the past incurred the wrath of many
other groups of
people with his undignified scornful barbs such as calling
Tony Blair’s
government “gay gangsters”, derogatorily referring to the people
of Mbare as
“totemless thugs” and describing homosexuals as “worse than pigs
and dogs”,
found a brand new target for his acid tongue: urban
people.
Showing how out of touch he is with the mood of the people, he
wondered
aloud why urban people “behaved” differently from rural people. “Are
the
people living in towns and cities Zimbabweans?” Mugabe asked
scornfully.
“Why do they behave contrary to their parents in communal areas?”
he roared.
He was, of course, referring to the voting patterns in last
year’s
parliamentary election when his party, which won most of the rural
seats,
was totally rejected in all urban constituencies in the country where
it was
thoroughly walloped by the infant MDC.
While The Mole accepts that
Mugabe could indeed be out of touch with the
political mood in this country,
it is still frightening to think he is so
out of touch as not to know that
the only reason why Zanu PF won most of the
seats in rural areas was because
Border Gezi and Zanu PF’s murderous gangs
of hired youths masquerading as war
veterans literally beat rural voters
into submission.
It is even more
alarming to imagine that Mugabe does not know that there is
no love lost
anymore between townsfolk on the one hand, and him and his
party on the
other. They hold him solely responsible for pursuing political
and
socio-economic policies which have reduced a once vibrant economy to
a
complete ruin and, in the process, turning a once prosperous working
class
into a whole legion of paupers. Urban people voted with their wallets
and
stomachs, both of which were completely empty. They knew who was
responsible
for that emptiness and were determined to punish him for that.
Talking about
empty stomachs, did you see the big picture on the front page
of The Herald
of Friday 14 December, the day of the official opening of Zanu
PF’s
conference in Victoria Falls?
For the benefit of those who might not
have seen it, the picture showed a
beaming Mugabe making heavy weather of
stirring sadza with an outsized
mugoti in a huge aluminium drum besides which
was a similar drum steaming
hot with beef stew.
To me, that picture summed
up the real reason why those people went to
Victoria Falls: to eat and drink
until they could eat and drink no more!
Daily News
Zimbabweans face Christmas without sugar, cooking
oil
12/21/01 8:16:06 PM (GMT +2)
By Columbus
Mavhunga
EVER dreamt of a Christmas without sugar and cooking
oil?
Judging from the look of shelves in most supermarkets in Harare,
Zimbabweans
have to brace themselves to celebrate this year's Christmas
without these
commodities which have been virtually out of stock for about
three weeks
now.
Erratic supplies of essential commodities started
being felt when the
Ministry of Industry and International Trade introduced
price controls on
them in October.
That has resulted in the steady
growth of a black market trading in these
goods. Some established outlets are
even selling the commodities at higher
prices than gazetted.
There
appears to be no solution in sight to avert the shortage of
basic
commodities.
The Zimbabwe Sugar Association (Zisa) said the
shortages are a result of
smugglers taking sugar into Zambia, Mozambique and
Malawi compounded by the
price controls.
"Generally, the festive
season is our maximum selling time," said David
Rockliffe, the Zisa
secretary.
"Traditionally, in the run-up to that period we build up our
stocks, but
this year we have failed. The moment we we feed the market the
product is
smuggled into the region.
"The pegged prices have meant our
sugar remains cheaper than that from
neighbouring countries, hence it is
flooded there. We will continue to have
these shortages until our sugar is
rightly priced and the smuggling is
stamped out."
He said the sugar
industry had increased its production for the local market
by 10 percent but
that had not helped.
"We will never get on top of the situation as long
as the situation on the
ground does not improve," said Rockliffe. "The
informal export market has
become a source of foreign currency for some
people because the price of
sugar is higher in other countries. Other
countries' sugar representatives
are complaining that we are destabilising
their industry."
Cooking oil manufacturing companies refused to comment,
referring all
questions to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry
(CZI).
Malvern Rusike, the CZI chief executive, said: "The companies
should be in a
better position to comment.
"But anyway, what is
happening now (the shortages) is the reality we talked
about when the price
controls were introduced. We said we cannot have prices
pegged arbitrary. The
price must be affordable to the consumer and at the
same time it must make
business viable."
The government has refused to heed economic advice that
price controls deter
investment.
Daily News
Chombo blasted for refusing to preside over official
installation of MDC
mayors
12/21/01 9:17:26 PM (GMT
+2)
Staff Reporter
THE MDC and several residents of Chegutu
have strongly criticised the
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and
National Housing, Ignatius
Chombo, for being partisan by refusing to preside
over the swearing-in
ceremonies of MDC mayors.
Although the
Constitution categorically stipulates that the minister
responsible for local
government is duty-bound to install the mayors, Chombo
has refused to
officiate at the mayoral investiture ceremonies in Masvingo,
Bulawayo and
recently in Chegutu.
In Masvingo and Bulawayo, the town clerks performed the
swearing-in.
Hundreds of Chegutu residents, who signed a petition to Chombo,
said his
actions were “abominable” and should be condemned in the strongest
possible
terms.
Part of the petition reads: “Minister Chombo should
resign if he wants to
serve only supporters of Zanu PF. He is doing a great
disservice to the
people of Zimbabwe who have a right to vote for leaders of
their choice. His
behaviour is, to say the least, disgusting and appalling
and not befitting a
national leader worth his salt.”
Addressing
journalists in Harare yesterday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC
leader, said
Chombo had clearly failed to rise above party politics.
Tsvangirai said: “In
our view, a responsible government minister should rise
above party politics
and execute his duties along non-partisan lines. Chombo
has failed to live up
to that standard because of his partisan way of doing
things. He is a
minister of the whole nation, not just Zanu PF.” In a
statement, the MDC
spokesperson, Learnmore Jongwe, said the people of
Zimbabwe and the
international community could not afford another minute of
silence while Zanu
PF militias caused havoc in Chegutu.
Jongwe said: “Zanu PF contested and
lost the mayoral seat in Chegutu. In
accordance with the rights given to them
by law, and despite the fact they
had frivolous grounds for doing so, they
appealed against the outcome.” He
said the legal position was that the mere
fact that Zanu PF noted a
frivolous appeal against the outcome of the poll
did not and could not
nullify the result. He said Francis Dhlakama remains
the duly elected mayor
of Chegutu and he should be sworn in until a court
decides otherwise.
In an appeal for regional and international
intervention, Jongwe said: “The
regional and international community,
particularly rational and objective
voices in the Southern African
Development Community should clearly be
worried by the signals coming out of
the Zanu PF camp’s refusal, through
extra-legal means, to accept and give
effect to the democratic will of the
people which was expressed under
extremely difficult conditions in Chegutu,
owing to Zanu PF
terror.”
Daily News
CIO exposed
12/21/01 9:34:52 PM (GMT +2)
By
Conrad Nyamutata Chief Reporter
A MEMBER of the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO), Jabulani
Machingura, was allegedly the brains behind the
grenade explosion at the
offices of the MDC along Fife Avenue in Harare on 11
September last year.
The Daily News has established through impeccable
sources that the grenade
was allegedly supplied by
him.
Despite allegations by John Nkomo, the Minister of Home
Affairs, that the
attack was an inside job by the MDC, information gathered
by The Daily News
paints a totally different picture and points at both the
CIO and the police
as being involved.
In fact, the police arrested a
policeman, Zacharia Nkomo, soon after the
explosion. But he was quickly
labelled as an MDC member and was described as
such on prosecution. Readers
of government-controlled newspapers were
treated to such headlines as “MDC
security man gives himself up” and “MDC
member in court over bombing of party
office”. Nkomo was immediately
dismissed from the police force on allegations
that he leaked intelligence
information to the MDC.
Machingura, who is
believed to be on suspension from the CIO over another
case, has, however,
gone scot-free.
On Wednesday the police bungled an opportunity to arrest the
CIO man in Old
Highfield after The Daily News set Machingura up for them. The
police
arrived at the venue more than five hours late. They promptly leaked
to The
Herald what was supposed to be an exclusive Daily News story. While
The
Herald tried to trivialise the story yesterday and published veiled
threats
by the police to the young woman who says she knows of
Machingura’s
involvement in the plot, the police vowed to hunt him down in
light of
“fresh” leads.
Machingura’s name had not been mentioned until
revelations by the young
Harare woman, Ms X, during investigations by The
Daily News into the grenade
attack and the bombing of the newspaper’s office
in April 2000 and its
printing press in January.
Machingura rented a room
inside the house of Ms X’s uncle in Warren Park
last year. Ms X, who is 21
years old, says on the night of 11 September,
Machingura, accompanied by
Zacharia Nkomo, brought home two boxes. He placed
the boxes under a table in
the living room. She says Machingura and Nkomo
then joined the family for
supper. Soon after the meal, Machingura opened
the boxes and took out two
grenades, she says.
He then held up one of the grenades and demonstrated
how it was used. “He
told us that, if he pulled a certain pin, we would all
perish within three
seconds,” she said.
Ms X says her uncle, her aunt and
their young child were present at the time
when Machingura displayed the
explosives. She says everybody was terrified
and that Machingura later put
the grenades back in the box.
Ms X said Nkomo then left, and Machingura
retired to his room. Ms X says she
remained in the lounge where she was to
spend the night. “I was really
frightened because it appeared I was going to
sleep in a room where there
were grenades,” she said. “I watched television
to while up time because I
couldn’t sleep.”
The telephone then rang,
she says. The caller wanted to speak to Machingura.
She says she called him
to the phone and she heard Machingura tell the
caller to ring him on his
mobile phone before he went back to his room. She
says the mobile phone then
rang, but she could not hear the conversation.
Later there was a knock on the
door and she opened it. Nkomo was standing
outside. She says Machingura
picked up one of the boxes from under the table
and handed it over to Nkomo
who had remained outside. Ms X says the two men
then departed. Machingura
only returned home at about 6am the following
morning. She says he was drunk
and repeatedly shouted:
“Mission accomplished.”
Ms X says neither she nor
her uncle or aunt understood what he meant.
Machingura then had a bath and a
change of clothes before departing for
work. He allegedly took the other box
of grenades with him. Ms X’s uncle
also left for work. She says the uncle
later phoned from the office to ask
if they had read the newspaper.
“I
went to buy the paper and there was the story about the attack at the
MDC
offices,” says Ms X. “We became very suspicious. We knew that Machingura
and
Nkomo had removed two grenades from the house and taken them somewhere.”
Ms
X says the whole family was now terribly frightened. “Machingura must
have
noticed that we were now keeping our distance from him. Then one
day,
without being asked, he said: ‘I know you people suspect I had something
to
do with that bombing. I had nothing to do with it’.” The subsequent
arrest
of Nkomo, when it was reported in the Press, made the family even
more
convinced that Machingura was involved. But they decided it was prudent
to
keep their secret.
Approached by The Daily News, acting on a
tip-off this week, Ms X said she
could not keep the secret to herself any
longer. To prove her case, Ms X
accompanied a Daily News crew, who posed as
her relatives, to Machingura who
now lives in Old Highfield with his mother.
In the presence of the
journalists Ms X told Machingura about how she was
being pestered for
information by persons unknown to her over the issue of
the grenades which
he had brought home to Warren Park last year. Machingura
did not dispute
that he brought the grenades. Instead, he urged Ms X not to
worry, but he
wanted to find out who was visiting her and quizzing her about
the
explosives.
“Who is trying to instil fear like this?” asked
Machingura. Suddenly
Machingura said he knew who had “spilled the beans. It
must be your uncle”.
At this point Ms X, fearing for their safety, said they
were leaving. An
arrangement was made for another meeting at Machingura’s
house at 12 noon.
Ms X later called her uncle in the presence of the
journalists to warn him
about her encounter with Machingura.
The uncle was
heard on a speakerphone as he confirmed the story about the
grenades. He
advised his niece not to say anything about the grenades,
should anyone ask
about them.
“Why should people ask about them now, a year later?” he
asked,
consternation straining his voice. Fearing for the safety of Ms X and
his
staff, the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News, Geoff Nyarota, invited
the
police to his office and briefed them on investigations undertaken by
his
paper.
He told them about the 12 noon appointment. The police said
they would rush
to Highfield to arrest Machingura. Instead they spent the
whole afternoon
interrogating Ms X at Harare Central police station. By the
time they
arrived in Highfield - more than five hours after the appointed
time - there
was no sign of him anywhere.
Yesterday Nyarota protested
at the manner in which the police “deliberately
bungled the case”. “I could
see they were scared from the word go. Why did
they leak the story to The
Herald? To give them another opportunity to
attempt to cover up and to
tarnish my name once more? And why did they
threaten the very brave young
woman who risked her life to reveal Machingura
’s alleged complicity? The
Herald story was a pack of lies from beginning to
end. “I never saw or spoke
to police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, on
Wednesday, as alleged in The
Herald. I haven’t seen or spoken to him for
months on end. And what’s Bernard
Masara got to do with Machingura’s case?
The people at The Herald and those
who control them are such pathological
liars, it’s shameful. Lying is a sin
and God will punish them.” Officers at
the Law and Order Section said they
had raided Machingura’s home again at
about 1am and 6am yesterday.
There
was no sign of him on both occasions.
Zim Independent
Features
News Analysis
Dumisani
Muleya
“POLITICAL image is like mixing cement,” said United States Democratic
Party
politician Walter Mondale. “When it’s wet, you can move it around and
shape
it, but at some point it hardens and there’s almost nothing you can do
to
reshape it.”
This statement rings true of Zanu PF.
Analysts
say the ruling party approached its trumpeted fifth annual national
people’s
conference in Victoria Falls with hackles up aiming to revamp its
arthritic
structures to confront next year’s watershed presidential
election, but
emerged from the gaseous gathering wholly unreconstructed and
even more
case-hardened.
Party officials had suggested Zanu PF wanted to repackage
itself to cut a
new and winning impression during the crucial poll, which
could consign the
ruling aristocracy to political oblivion.
President
Robert Mugabe urged his supporters to leave the conference a
“transformed
people” in order to effectively campaign for him to retain the
reins of
power.
Mugabe, who as expected got an endorsement as Zanu PF’s candidate
at the
conference, faces opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai in the election slated for March.
A bloody
electoral combat is looming. Violence and intimidation still hold
sway across
vast swathes of the political landscape. State agencies are
currently
stepping up the heat on Tsvangirai as the political temperature
rises ahead
of the poll. Last week the MDC leader was arrested twice for
possessing a
two-way radio system without a licence. His home in Strathaven
in Harare was
ransacked by a gang of armed police detectives and the
riot
squad.
Analysts note the Zanu PF conference was organised to
provide Zimbabwe’s
vociferous politicians and their cacophonous followers a
stage to advertise
their liberation struggle credentials and growing
proclivity for
intimidation — without offering any solutions to the national
crisis other
than land and price controls.
At the end of the three-day
get-together — which was chock-full of sound and
fury as well as the
customary hostile rhetoric — President Robert Mugabe,
true to form, scaled
new heights of war-like rhetoric.
“What we are now headed for is real
war, a total war,” Mugabe said as he put
his presidential campaign into
overdrive.
“This is war, this is not a game. This is the third
Chimurenga. You are
soldiers of Zanu PF for the people.
“When we come
to your province, we must see you ready as the commanders.
When the time
comes to fire the bullet, the ballot, the trajectory of the
gun must be
true,” he said.
MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said Mugabe’s
pronouncements were
shocking.
“Mugabe was basically inciting
violence,” he said. “Statements like these
can only come from dictators or
fascist leaders, not democrats.”
Ncube said the words Mugabe chose to
rally his supporters were calculated to
set them on a violent
path.
“He was actually saying go out and use brute force because our
victory can
only be achieved through means other than peaceful ones,” Ncube
said.
“Of course, he tried to refer to the ballot box for
damage-limitation
purposes but his message was aimed at inciting violence
against the MDC,
which he wants his supporters to treat as mortal
enemies.”
Mugabe had also warned the presidential election would be a
different ball
game.
“This is a strong and new game. Last year we
never spoke of the command
centre, but now we are talking about it and that
shows the battle ahead of
us. We should move like a military machine,” he
insisted.
Ncube said this was dangerous nonsense.
“It’s really
tragic that we have a president whose responsibility is to
uphold the
national constitution and protect all peaceful Zimbabweans,
speaking in
military terms as if we are in a war situation.”
Mugabe’s statements came
as the army intensified its crackdown across the
country claiming it was
trying to curb terrorism. Ncube said the “heavy
military presence” was aimed
at instilling fear among the voters.
“The youth brigades trained under
the national service programme have been
deployed in different areas and they
are not doing community work as they
claim but beating up civilians,” he
said.
However, Professor Mwesiga Baregu of the Southern African Political
and
Economic Series (Sapes) defended Mugabe’s military oratory.
“My
own interpretation is that his speech basically used metaphors,” he
said. “It
was a figure of speech in which he was calling for everybody to
be
disciplined and brace themselves for a struggle and not to
be
lackadaisical.”
Baregu said the belligerent vocalisations should
not be interpreted
literally.
“Some people might be tempted to think
it was a declaration of real war, a
hot war. He was just calling for
discipline and a no retreat strategy.”
But Ncube maintained Mugabe made it
clear it was a “real war”.
Furthermore, throughout the meeting Mugabe and
his officials propagated
bellicose anti-MDC denunciations and hawked racist
messages. Critics said
the usual hate speeches were at play.
Cadre
after cadre thundered “pasi neMDC” and branded opposition followers
as
“sell-outs” as if they were all programmed by Mugabe. The president
asked:
“Are those in cities Zimbabweans? If they are, why did they behave in
a
manner contrary to their parents in rural areas?”
This sort of
language was familiar during the liberation war. Not to be
outdone,
newly-appointed Zanu PF political commissar, Elliot Manyika, in
military
gear, beat the drums of belligerence.
“Our machinery is now sharp and we
are saying to the MDC, here we come, we
are going to crush you. We are raring
to go,” he said. “We are standing
under the flag of war.”
Zanu PF
chair John Nkomo also featured among the top list of political
performers
when he described Zanu PF as a Concorde which had reached its
altitude with
Mugabe as the captain.
“There are no emergency brakes on this Concorde to
change the captain.
Captain Mugabe is in command and our destination is
nigh,” he said.
Observers said Zanu PF delegates to the conference were
buried for three
days under the sludge of populist rhetoric on land, the
state of the
economy, sanctions, intra-party affairs and the MDC. Ringing
resolutions
were passed on a wide range of issues.
It seems a flurry
of hysterical insults against the British and other
officially-specified
adversaries stole the show as Mugabe stepped up his
vitriol and paraded
presidential outrage.
Like a fanatic, whom Winston Churchill described as
someone who won’t change
the subject or his mind, Mugabe persisted with
attacks on British Prime
Minister Tony Blair this time calling him a “crook,
scoundrel and liar”.
But as prominent US political analyst, George Will
once observed: “A
politician’s words reveal less about what he thinks about
his subject than
what he thinks about his audience.”
Zim Independent
Muckraker
President Mugabe appears to live in
a cloud-cuckooland of his own. In his
State of the Nation address on
Wednesday he tried to instil in the nation
his personal paranoia about
enemies waiting to attack Zimbabwe.
“I address you today against definite
threats to ... sovereignty, threats
that the nation must take seriously and
gear itself to withstand and repulse
in every possible way,” he
said.
This is very alarmist and reprehensible, especially coming from a
head of
state. Who is threatening this sovereignty if not Mugabe himself with
his
nationalist jingoism.
As it soon became clear, the so-called
threat came from the US because its
Congress had passed the Zimbabwe
Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill.
“Where do the actions of the
American Senate and Congress ... leave the
people of Zimbabwe and their
cherished right to govern themselves for
themselves?” he asked the MPs
poetically.
Thankfully, nobody answered him. For surely if we are
prepared to go it
alone against the whole world why should our MPs be worried
about what goes
on in the US Congress? Did America say it was going to
deliver the Act, once
signed, to our parliament for enactment? And why didn’t
he tell the nation
that America had introduced the Bill specifically to deal
with African
dictators “with bloody hands and who had committed genocides,
assassinations
and other forms of horrendous torture” against their own
people, to use his
own words?
This, of course, explains why there is
so much anger against him, not
against the United States or Britain. Far from
it, people are leaving this
country in droves everyday to escape his wrath at
being challenged in a
democratic election as leader of Zimbabwe. And most of
them are heading for
what he has designated “enemy” states!
And why
will it now be an offence to “denigrate” the president when he is at
liberty
to call other people crooks, scoundrels and liars? Is that not
an
unacceptable double standard?
Congratulations to the MDC’s Nelson
Chamisa who was quoted in the Mail &
Guardian two weeks ago as neatly
encapsulating what everybody under 40 in
Zimbabwe thinks about the president
who last weekend was spewing xenophobic
venom, showing us what a bitter and
twisted old man he has become.
Commenting on proposals for youth
training, Chamisa said: “Mugabe is our
generational enemy. He knows he has
nothing for us.”
Which raises the question: Who does he have anything
for? Surely not the
paid audience at Victoria Falls which despite claims of
“rapturous applause”
by the state media, were shown by ZTV slumped in their
seats looking
absolutely bored as Mugabe droned on about
terrorists.
The only memorable sentence to come out of the whole
conference was John
Nkomo’s remark that “We are unstoppable. Like a Concorde,
we have no reverse
gear, no emergency brakes...Capt Mugabe is in
command.”
As we know, Capt Mugabe likes taking command of flights,
especially when it
involves dumping the passengers. But do we really want him
taking control of
Concorde when he doesn’t even have a driving
licence?
The last vehicle he steered around the grounds of State House
was a
three-wheel taxi, the only product so far of his investment drive to
the Far
East this year!
There was an interesting picture in the
business supplement to the Sunday
Mail this week. It showed bags of
fertiliser and other materials lying
scattered on the ground and was
captioned “Local companies can provide seed
which can be bought by UN
agencies for relief aid”.
But in fact it was a picture taken at Two Trees
Farm near Chinhoyi after
Zanu PF supporters had looted it. Let’s hope the UN
is able to make the
connection between looted farms and requests from the
Zimbabwe authorities
for food aid!
And we were amused by an account
the previous week from Munyaradzi Huni of a
freebie he and other reviewers
had accepted from theatre promoter Daves
Guzha. They had a nice trip on Lake
Kariba courtesy of Guzha but only
remembered to ask him if it was a bribe on
their way back to Harare.
Can we expect some glowing reviews?
Many
Zimbabweans are having difficulty getting foreign governments to supply
them
with the necessary documents for renunciation of citizenship demanded
by the
Registrar-General’s office. One reader called us after a frustrating
exchange
with the Lesotho Director of Immigration.
“I spoke to the Director of
Immigration of Lesotho and she told me that she
was fed up with the Zimbabwe
government dumping their problem on everyone
else,” our reader
said.
“She said she did not have time to deal with this on a one-to-one
basis and
who could she write to to deal with the problem once and for
all?
“She also mentioned the fact that they were very displeased that they
had
not been contacted by the Zimbabwe government and informed on the
whole
issue.
“I suggested that they should contact the Herald and
place a notice in there
stating that they were not prepared to deal with
people on a one-to-one
basis so that we had some comeback as I could not
persuade her to let me
have some notification that I could not obtain
citizenship from Lesotho even
should I require it.”
We would welcome
hearing from other readers as to which governments have
declined to cooperate
with this unjust legislation which requires people to
renounce a citizenship
they don’t have. The law refers only to those who
actually have dual
citizenship, not those deemed by the Registrar-
General’s office to be
entitled to it.
So Spot FM has begun its life with a lie. It was
originally called Sport
Radio and was due to provide a 24-hour diet of sports
programming. Slowing
waking up to the unrealistic demands of such a
commitment, ZBC decided to
call it the way most of their announcers were
pronouncing it.
But instead of gracefully conceding a change of focus
they foolishly tried
to pretend that it had always been called Spot and only
their detractors
could think otherwise.
So not content with a
transparent lie, they insulted their listeners’
intelligence as well. Not a
good start to Spot, or Measles Radio as it is
now known.
Meanwhile,
following our recent comments about ZTV’s “live” coverage from
Gweru at night
which seemed to be suffused by daylight, Obriel Mpofu has
kindly offered to
demonstrate ZBC’s amazing new capacity for night
broadcasting by interviewing
Muckraker live whenever we like. Stay tuned.
Could there be anything more
repulsive than the sight of church leaders
saying they are praying for
President Mugabe and his programme of violent
land seizures?
“You have
given us what is ours,” Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare, who led
an
11-member Zimbabwe Council of Churches delegation to see Mugabe on
Monday,
said. He was shown alongside Mugabe’s ally, Bishop Norbert Kunonga
who has
reportedly been purging his diocese of church officials who might
have
supported his rival in the recent bitter leadership contest.
“We have
been praying for this and we will continue to pray for you,”
Bakare
fawned.
Has he also been praying for the farmers killed during
what he evidently
regards as legitimate “repossessions”? Has he prayed for
the tens of
thousands of farm workers who have been dispossessed? Or for
those abducted,
tortured and “re-educated” by Zanu PF gangs? If so he didn’t
mention it.
ZCC general secretary Densen Mafinyane, who sits on the board
of Jonathan
Moyo’s Transmedia Corporation, was quoted as urging Mugabe to
expedite the
Model A2 resettlement scheme. The Reverend Murombedzi Kuchera
and Bishop
Kunonga were said to have queried why the government was not
pushing for the
wholesale nationalisation of land.
Again, nothing
seems to have been said about plummeting grain stocks and
looming starvation
arising from a poorly planned land policy that amounts to
wholesale
dispossession of productive farmers, many of whom have
certificates of no
interest from government.
There was no suggestion that land reform should
be carried out with due
regard to agricultural self-sufficiency or human
justice for all concerned.
Simply mindless support for a policy that has left
in its wake a trail of
death and destruction.
And Mafinyane wants the
A2 scheme, under which senior government officials
and other Zanu PF allies
have benefited, to be stepped up.
Meanwhile, Kuchera and Kunonga should
ask Kenneth Kaunda what happens to
societies which nationalise agricultural
land.
What interests us is the way these 11 church leaders assembled at
State
House to offer their prayers for Mugabe at just the time he is
mobilising
every source of support he can muster. Let it be recorded that at
this time
of national crisis the Anglican church and ZCC rallied behind a
cruel and
ruthless tyrant who was prepared to destroy the country in order to
rule it.
They will be judged for that.Zimbabwe it seems is to get a visit
next month
from President Mugabe’s latest best friend, President Daniel arap
Moi of
Kenya. His country is of course another African bread basket that
soon
became a basket case because of corrupt and absolutist
rule.
“President Moi wants to come and tell the whites in this country
what they
did to the whites in Kenya,” Mugabe said at Victoria
Falls.
This was probably a reference to Mau Mau. Moi has much to share.
His press
Bill is even more draconian than our own. His ministers have been
implicated
in breathtaking corruption cases and even murder. The country’s
cities have
collapsed because of maladministration and poor
planning.
Electricity supplies are few and far between. The opposition
have been kept
divided by infiltration and bribes.
It is very simply
an absolute mess. And it has all happened in the 23 years
of Moi’s
presidency. We are quite sure the two leaders will have much in
common and
much to talk about!
Following the gazetting of the Public Order and
Security Bill, Information
minister Jonathan Moyo has been trying to convince
Zimbabweans that the
draconian measure, which is in essence a cosmetic
reworking of the Law and
Order (Maintenance) Act, is no worse than similar
laws proposed recently by
the governments of Britain and the United
States.
He referred to Britain’s Anti-Terrorism Bill and President Bush’s
proposed
tribunal for dealing with suspected terrorists.
The British
were employing double standards, he charged. While claiming to
be victims of
terrorism, “The real possibility and danger that the British,
their
government and their political parties can pause (sic) serious
terrorism by
founding and funding terrorist groups is lost on them.”
What on earth is
he talking about? Both the UK and US measures are aimed at
suspected
terrorist aliens, not citizens. Zimbabwe’s law is aimed at its own
people.
Moyo forgot to mention that.
Neither the British nor American measures
contain penalties for denigrating
their heads of state, nor do they
criminalise “spreading alarm and
despondency”. But they have attracted vocal
opposition from civic groups.
As for Moyo’s charge that Britain is
funding terrrorism, what evidence has
he ever produced? Surely not the
Westminster Foundation? If that is the only
“evidence” he has, how does it
compare with Tiny Rowland’s funding of Zanu
PF? The difference is of course
that the Westminster Foundation’s accounts
are open for public
inspection.
In a message headed “Seeking for Christmas donations”,
Acting
Officer-in-Charge, Avondale, Assistant Inspector R Dondo, appealed
for
donations “in cash or kind” for the Avondale police station’s
Christmas
party. ZRP staff were prepared to “guarantee maximum security
during the
festive season”, Dondo promised.
Our response would be to
ask the people of Avondale how effective their
force had been over the past
year. Did it uphold the law without fear or
favour?
Finally, this
delightful vignette from the Herald’s Phillip Magwaza.
“Zanu PF wanted
the mesmeric waters of the Victoria Falls to invigorate and
inspire the
delegates for the presidential battle. Just like any retreat, it
reenergises
and puts back the lost toxins for the coming battle.”
A toxic affair by
any account!
Zim Independent
Opinion
Learnmore Ndlovu
THE government is
successfully appealing to the basic human instincts of
greed for those
wanting anything that is being given away for free. Those
with very little in
material wealth and nothing to lose see a golden
opportunity. But those with
better education and who have achieved some
wealth through their own
legitimate efforts, know better that nothing that
is worth having is for
free. Yet they have joined the frenzy to grab land
“for free” despite having
much to lose from the effects of a destroyed
economy.
A friend who
owns property and businesses came to me with his dilemma. He
has received a
letter allocating him a sizeable area of land on a productive
commercial farm
with irrigation. Effectively all the present arable and used
farmland has
been reallocated to “resettled” farmers and the existing
commercial farmer is
left with nothing other than his house.
My friend is fully aware that
replacing this farmer with numerous “resettled
farmers” is going to be a
disaster in terms of agricultural production. He
admits that it is very
unlikely that he will have either the resources or
the ability to
immediately, if ever, achieve the same output as the
experienced and
successful dispossessed farmer.
There is another problem.
The
letter allocating him the land states that the final terms and
conditions for
him being able to stay on this land are still to be advised.
But it is well
after the date that he was expected to start investing with
inputs and
infrastructure in order to take up the offer.
It could well turn out that
having invested inputs and infrastructure the
eventual terms and conditions
will not be acceptable, feasible or viable, in
which case his investment will
be lost.
So his dilemma is this: Does he accept the land and hope that
his investment
will be secure or reject the offer? Does he knowingly replace
a farmer who
is far more knowledgeable and productive than he knows he will
be, at least
in the short-term? Does he accept just because others are
accepting and
because if he does not accept the land someone else will? Does
he accept
regardless of whether or not removing a productive commercial
farmer and
replacing him with a number of less productive “farmers” is in the
best
interests of the
nation in so far as food production and the economy
are concerned?
Does he grab the land regardless of the consequences to
the best national
interest? His overriding view is that he should accept the
land because it
is free, and if he does not, someone else will, and he will
then have lost
the opportunity. All his knowledge and logic that haphazard
land
redistribution will create food shortages and damage the economy come a
very
poor second to the basic human desire to take advantage of
anything
being given away for free.
The land has become a very emotive issue where
emotions and greed rather
than logic and good sense are winning the day.
Destroying wealth and
commercial agriculture will not make hundreds of
thousands of “resettled
farmers” wealthy or feed the nation, let alone
sustain the economy. The one
thing that is clear from my friend’s case is
that a great many of the
“resettled farmers” are not the poor landless povo.
They are people with
businesses, wealth and connections, but not a background
of agricultural
experience.
Over the years, many people who have
imagined that they have the ability to
farm have tried farming as an
occupation and have failed. Owning land and
knowing that you must plant seed
does not make you a farmer. Having been to
university and earned a degree,
having been very senior in many very large
companies, and having run your own
businesses successfully, does not
guarantee success as a farmer. Even having
grown up on a farm or in the
rural areas does not guarantee success as a
farmer.
The concept promoted by government that we have 12 million
potential farmers
and that all they need is land to prove this is a
fallacy.
The Herald recently carried an article which was intended to
condemn Britain
and the path that took her from being a rural economy to an
industrial
economy. Instead, it actually promoted the path we should follow.
In the
article it was stated that today less than 2% of the work force works
on
farms in agriculture, whilst the rest of the population was involved
in
commerce and industry. The reason for the very small number of
people
involved in farming was the intensive mechanisation of
farming.
I would imagine that the same scenario applies to most of the
successful
economies of the world. The article also stated that unemployment
in Britain
was extremely low. Surely employment and a healthy economy are
what we
should be trying to achieve. So why are we doing the opposite? Why
are we
trying to destroy commerce and industry and to send everyone back to
the
land? Would it not be far better that my friend got on with what he
has
proved he is successful at, which is running businesses and
employing
people? Would it not be far better that we concentrated on
creating
employment in commerce and industry, which could be built into
major
economic forces capable of reducing unemployment?
However many
people we resettle on the land, we will not create employment
or reduce
unemployment. The best possible is that a lot of people will grow
their own
inadequate food supply. There is no example of mass resettlement
of people
being a success story in terms of food production.
There are numerous
examples of where it has failed, and many of our
neighbours who gained
independence before us have proved this for us. So why
do we follow their
examples?
Learnmore Ndlovu is a freelance writer based in Harare.
Zim Independent
Features
Independent
Comment
ZIMBABWEANS should not set too much store by the visit this
week of a team
from the African National Congress of South Africa and on
Monday by Nigeria’
s President Olusegun Obasanjo. We have learnt from the
recent visit of a
Sadc team of ministers and the subsequent meeting in Luanda
this week that
once ensnared by their Zimbabwean counterparts, appeals to
Pan-Africanism
and revolutionary solidarity tend to vitiate any attempt to
get to grips
with the core of Zimbabwe’s problem — governance.
When
President Thabo Mbeki and other regional leaders met President Mugabe
at the
Victoria Falls in April last year as the farm invasions intensified
they had
every opportunity to underscore those values that Sadc had already
committed
itself to on governance and democracy. Instead the leaders chose
to ignore
the electoral landslide that had nearly engulfed Zanu PF and the
subsequent
vengeance that farm invasions represented and instead held forth
on colonial
anomalies in land distribution.
It took Mbeki 18 months to realise that
Zanu PF was impervious to reason and
wasn’t interested in lawful solutions
that would preserve the fabric of
Zimbabwe’s economy or that of the region.
His visits to London and
Washington revealed that Britain and the United
States would be only too
happy to fund a transparent and productive land
reform programme. But in the
meantime, a meeting in Johannesburg between Zanu
PF and the ANC had produced
another ringing endorsement from ANC
secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe
which, like its Victoria Falls
forerunner, was taken in Harare to be a carte
blanche for brutality and
lawlessness.
Eventually, however, Mbeki realised the need to adopt a less
deferential and
more robust line in his dealings with Zimbabwe’s delinquent
ruler. In
private talks in Harare last December Mbeki and Obasanjo emphasised
the need
for lawful solutions to the land question.
Last month Mbeki
made his strongest remarks yet on the need for democratic
outcomes in
Zimbabwe’s forthcoming presidential poll.
“If you have elections which
are not seen as legitimate by the people, you
will have a situation that will
be worse than the present one,” he told the
Foreign Correspondents
Association in Pretoria.
He admitted Sadc had not “produced the results
that we wanted”.
No sooner had he set out his views than his Labour
minister, Membethisi
Mdladlana, was telling ZTV in Harare that the
president’s statement had been
taken out of context.
And this has been
the pattern throughout: one step forwards and two
backwards.
The South
Africans are vulnerable to their own internal politics, most
notably the
PAC’s cynical opportunism on land. But that doesn’t stop the ANC
setting out
in unambiguous terms what it believes the right policies should
be for
democratic conduct in the region.
Laws before parliament this week will
prevent robust criticism of Mugabe who
is a candidate in the presidential
poll. They will muzzle the media in a
number of other ways, most notably by
licensing only compliant journalists.
And they will give the police sweeping
powers of arrest and detention —
including the right to arrest people who are
critical of the police
themselves.
Where you have a partisan police
commissioner, as Zimbabwe does, and a
policy of harassment of opposition
politicians and journalists, these
measures are a clear obstacle to the press
performing its role as a public
watchdog. Meanwhile, amendments to electoral
laws will prevent NGOs from
providing voter education — which they are
constitutionally entitled to do —
while thousands of Zimbabweans have been
deprived of their right to register
as voters because they can’t produce
documentary proof of residence in a
constituency.
Amnesty
International reported in stark terms this week that violence
and
intimidation persist as central features of the ruling party’s
election
campaign. The Abuja agreement is self-evidently a dead letter as the
press
Bill and dispossessions on farms demonstrate.
If this is all
okay with the ANC, then it must stop any pretence that it
occupies the moral
high ground. It is clear policies of repression are
damaging the region and
will continue to do so as long as South Africa turns
a blind eye to events in
Zimbabwe — as it has so studiously been trying to
do on the specious grounds
that the country has a legitimate government.
We don’t want South Africa,
or anybody else for that matter, to solve our
problems for us. But we do
expect expressions of solidarity to be directed
at the struggling and
oppressed people of Zimbabwe rather than their
oppressors.
One of the
supreme ironies of our relationship with South Africa since 1994
has been
that while Zimbabweans supported in so many ways the struggle of
South
Africans for freedom, the new dispensation in Pretoria has tended to
ignore
apartheid-style repression north of the Limpopo because it
believes
Zimbabwe’s rulers have the sovereign right to do what they like.
That
muddled thinking must stop.
Zim Independent
Features
Editor's Memo
Iden Wetherell
I
WAS interested to read President Mugabe’s comment to a Zimbabwe Council
of
Churches delegation this week that journalists should not enjoy more
rights
than other citizens. The media, he complained, had been assaulting
the
integrity of private citizens and public officials which, he said, was
worse
than any physical assault. The press had also attributed stories
to
“reliable sources” which were not always revealed.
“If these
sources are reliable, let them be reliable enough to come and
rescue you when
you are arrested,” he told the church heads. He repeated his
complaint about
media reports that he had properties abroad, including a
castle in
Scotland.
As usual, his remarks were exceptionally disingenuous and seem
to have gone
unchallenged by his visitors. Firstly, the story about a castle
in Scotland
was not the product of the local media. Those of us asked by our
overseas
colleagues about the credibility of such reports told them exactly
what we
thought. Yet Mugabe is now using it as a justification for his
draconian
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill which, despite
some
chronically amateur drafting and manifest violation of constitutional
rights
to freedom of expression, will be forced through parliament.
I
met the parliamentary portfolio committee responsible for examining
the
legislation last week and told them, as did Misa and others, that this
was a
profoundly flawed measure. It will be interesting to see whether the
Bill
which is presented to the House will be the same sloppy,
gender-insensitive,
catch-all document we have seen.
One point we were
able to make to the Sadc ministerial team which visited
Harare last week was
the complete refusal of the government to take up the
recommendation of Sadc
heads of state in September to consult with the
opposition and stakeholders
in the drawing up of legislation so Zimbabwe
ends up with national laws
instead of partisan proclamations.
The Sadc team was assured by Stan
Mudenge that provisions for consultation
existed in terms of the
parliamentary portfolio committee system. This Bill
will be a good test of
just how effective that is.
But to get back to Mugabe’s views, who in the
first place ever asked that
journalists should have more rights than others?
It is a claim the president
has invented. We want the rights we are
guaranteed in the constitution — no
more, no less. And we expect the courts
to defend those rights. Neither the
president nor his ministers are entitled
to arbitrarily abridge those rights
because they believe they have been the
victims of press “assaults”.
It is the duty of the press to act as a
public watchdog. Where
self-important politicans have misallocated public
resources, mismanaged the
economy, and become rich while the nation has been
pauperised, then it is
the duty of the press to make that known.
It is
not up to self-interested parties such as the president and his
ministers to
define other people’s rights. Where Mugabe and his friends
believe they have
been “assaulted”, they have the same recourse to the law
that we do.
Zimbabwe’s judicial system is replete with defamation laws
including criminal
defamation which the regime has not hesitated to use.
Which brings me to
a related issue. Under our constitution all Zimbabweans
have the right to
seek the protection of the courts from arbitrary arrest.
Mugabe appears
not to recognise this. Citizens picked up and detained on the
basis of flimsy
charges which more often than not are dismissed in court or
even, as was the
case recently, dropped before plea, have the right to sue
the Minister of
Home Affairs for wrongful arrest. Where the arrest has
been
politically-inspired or clearly represents a pattern of harassment,
the
victim would have a good case.
Mugabe should stop bemoaning his
predicament. He gets the press he deserves.
His latest move to muzzle the
media will not stop exposure of his singularly
despotic and economically
disastrous record of misrule.
Technology now affords many people access
to information that cannot be
regulated by presidents and ministers to
protect them from legitimate public
scrutiny. The truth always has an awkward
habit of getting out!
On another related matter, regular readers will
know that when we make a
mistake in our reports we like to carry a correction
the following week.
This has been a policy of the newspaper since its
inception in 1996.
There has been much emphasis in the new media Bill on
professionalism and
ethics. I was therefore surprised to see reports in the
government press
about exchanges Trevor Ncube and I allegedly had with the
visiting Sadc
ministerial team that had not in fact taken place. In some
cases, our
remarks were fabricated. In others, replies from ministers were
either taken
out of their original context or, again, in some cases, simply
made up.
For instance, the Sunday Mail last weekend attributed to Prof
Welshman Ncube
remarks about Cain Nkala which the Herald had only days
earlier attributed
to myself and Trevor Ncube.
None of the reporters
in question were at the session where the media met
the ministers. But they
were briefed afterwards by officials from the
Department of Information and
other state agents. In other words, stories
placed under reporters’ bylines
in the state media were written on the basis
of input from unattributed
government sources. But no mention was made of
these spin doctors in the
reports. Instead the half-baked information
gleaned was attributed to a
“diplomat” and “analyst”.
Next time President Mugabe complains about the
press attributing doubtful
stories to “reliable sources” he should be
reminded of this episode.
‘It is the season of goodwill,” I am reliably
informed. But never in its
history has the nation felt so downcast. With the
economy a wreck and “total
war” the official policy, people have every reason
to feel miserable. How
can a nation’s rulers unleash such suffering on
law-abiding citizens who
have worked all their lives to build a better future
for themselves and
their families?
But that should not prevent acts of
civility and kindness towards those we
know — and some we don’t. We can show
charity and goodwill towards the
infirm, the elderly, the dispossessed. Try
and make a difference to those in
real need, those on their own, those
without family and friends this year.
Small acts of goodwill are a measure of
a nation’s heart. Let’s hope we
haven’t lost ours.
Zim Independent
Commercial farmers abandon dam
Augustine
Mukaro
THE $450 million Biri Dam, with a storage capacity of 174 000
megalitres of
irrigation water, lies idle in Mashonaland West following land
invasions and
fast-track resettlement schemes which have brought business at
commercial
farms to a standstill.
The water would have been used for
irrigation by 68 commercial farms in the
Banket, Chinhoyi, and Rafingora
areas. Commercial farmers financed the
construction of the dam through a
consortium, the Biri Combined Irrigation
Scheme. Crops produced in the area
range from cereals to citrus.
Speaking to the Independent this week, Fred
Wallis, the managing director of
the scheme, said it was unfortunate that the
farmers were no longer going to
benefit from their long-term
investment.
Wallis said under normal circumstances the dam would irrigate
14 000
hectares of land under wheat crop, which would produce an
average
six-and-a-half tonnes per hectare.
Last year the area
contributed half of the 40 996 tonnes of wheat currently
in the country’s
stocks.
Of the 68 farms that are shareholders in the Biri Dam
construction, 41 are
listed for acquisition and farmers are receiving
notifications to vacate
their farms within the next three months. Half of the
farms have completely
ceased production while the others are operating at
below 20%.
Neiv Hoy, the owner of Hunyani Farm and one of the major
shareholders in the
scheme, said farmers were finding it very difficult to
survive and had no
means of paying back loans.
Zim Independent
Chisipite project sparks controversy
Forward
Maisokwadzo
CONTROVERSY has rocked the proposed National Railways of Zimbabwe
Pension
Fund’s $2,8 billion redevelopment of the Chisipite shopping centre,
as
anchor tenants and the public accuse the developers of over-riding
their
concerns, it has been learnt.
The project, which commenced with
the construction of the re-aligned
Hindhead Avenue in May, is expected to
take-off in February.
Tenants have raised concern that the developers
were building a structure
larger than that proposed in the original plan and
no parking details were
given.
“There is no public information
available and the development is likely to
create two separate areas at
Chisipite,” said one tenant.
A property consultant agreed.
“We have
one of the most expensive developments ever proposed in Harare
where the city
has facilitated the realignment of roads, where a major
pension fund and an
international property consultancy is involved, but the
public and the
traders of Chisipite are completely left in the dark,”
he
said.
“Everything is being done secretly which raises many
questions on whether
the developers have anchor tenants and informal traders’
interests at
heart.”
CB Richard Ellis, a leading international
property consultancy company, is
acting on behalf of the NRZ Pension Fund in
redeveloping a large part of the
existing shopping centre.
NRZ’s
intention is to develop a shopping centre where shopping and
entertainment
are to be fused.
The bone of contention emanates from the fact that the
parade of shops on
the eastern side of the Chisipite Shopping Centre do not
belong to the NRZ
Pension Fund but the design team has been tasked to design
a shopping centre
which will ensure that these shops are seen as part of the
redeveloped
complex.
Although tenants accuse the developers of
ignoring their concerns, CB
Richard Ellis is understood to have indicated
that it will incorporate the
Enterprise Road, the diverted Hindhead Avenue
and Silwood commuter omnibus
drop-off and pick-up points.
“The
practicality of having their termini within the development is still to
be
seen but we do not think it will be ideal,” wrote Abraham Sadomba of
CB
Richard Ellis to one tenant.
On the issue of informal traders,
Sadomba said: “No vendors will be allowed
to trade from any other part of the
property owned by the NRZ Pension Fund,
except where designated.”
The
letter said the vendors currently operating at Chisipite Shopping Centre
were
organised and their names were held by the Chisipite Tenants and
Owners
Association.
“Some of the vendors are going to be allowed to
trade from the shopping
centre through leasing of kiosks on trolleys. The
kiosks shall be stationed
in the malls enabling the vendors and the
established retailers to trade
fairly,” the letter said. Commax Construction,
a Chinese company, is tipped
to win the tender.
Zim Independent
Zanu PF chefs given best farms
Dumisani
Muleya/Augustine Mukaro
LANDS, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement minister
Joseph Made has allocated
prime farms to top government and Zanu PF officials
under the murky A2
commercial settlement scheme.
Official sources said
the privileged beneficiaries included ministers, the
police commissioner,
high-ranking police and army officers, members of
parliament, senior civil
servants, war veterans leaders and ruling party
officials.
The A2
model, which covers small, medium and large-scale commercial
resettlement, is
implemented in terms of the Agricultural Land Settlement
Act administered by
Made. It is based on a 99-year lease with an option
to
purchase.
According to government, the beneficiaries need to show
proof of experience
and resource availability as well as entrepreneurship.
But government
sources said this week these criteria were currently being
widely ignored.
It is understood Youth Development, Gender and Employment
Creation minister
Elliot Manyika has been allocated Duiker Flats Farm just
outside Bindura.
The farm covers 998,7 hectares and is almost 90%
arable.
Bindura mayor Webster Bepura and senior Central Intelligence
Organisation
officer Manard Muzariri were allocated Avanduur Farm in
Glendale, government
sources told the Independent this week. They recently
visited the farm to
assess whether or not it was suitable for commercial
agriculture.
Avanduur owner Roy Guthrie confirmed the presence of the two
at the
property, which is 820 hectares in size with 240 hectares arable. The
market
value of the farm is between $80 and $100 million. “They are not
living on
the farm but they have started working on it,” he said.
War
Veterans Harare province political commissar Joseph Chinotimba and
Pfura
Rural District Council chairman Dick Mafiosi were both allocated farms
in
Bindura, it is understood.
Sources said the pattern of
redistribution under Model A1 has not been much
different when it comes to
influential beneficiaries.
“Take Exwick Farm in Chegutu, for instance,” a
source said. “The property
was delisted in July because the owners are
Italian but there is a long list
of influential people who got plots there
claiming to be landless peasants.”
Zim Independent
Banana urges media to expose ‘the apostles of
violence'
Busani Bafana
ZIMBABWE’S media should expose enemies of
democracy ahead of next March’s
presidential election, former head of state
Canaan Banana has said,
lamenting the dearth of free debate on national
issues.
“The media has a duty to expose the apostles of violence — those
of violent
speech and violent deeds, those who have cast a dark cloud over
the future
of this once glorious country,” Banana told a recent national
seminar on the
role of media in national development in Bulawayo.
“The
media can never condemn strongly enough the waves of political killings
and
other mayhem now stalking our land.”
Banana (65) was Zimbabwe’s first
president at Independence. He is clawing
his way back into public life after
a prison sentence for sexual assault.
Remarking that he has no ambitions
to run for public office again, Banana
said the March election promised to be
the most fiercely contested since
Independence. He said regrettably violence
had become the hallmark of
Zimbabwe’s political landscape.
“Men and
women of violence, those who stoke the flames of death and
destruction must
be exposed for what they are: the real enemies of the
people, small men
thoroughly frightened of allowing the free democratic
choices of the people
to prevail, fearful that if people are left on their
own to make their free
choice, they might choose differently,” said Banana.
Describing
journalism as a disciplined calling, Banana said the media should
champion
people’s rights and avoid peddling its own preconceived ideas.
“A free
press promotes a free society, a press under bondage invariably
creates a
hostage society of blind loyalists,” he said.
“Quite often these days
when one plies through the pages of newspapers, one
is suffocated by cheap
political propaganda. A parochial approach to
politics impoverishes a
people’s political culture while a diversity of
views enriches it,” he
said.
Banana however waned that the media was not a sacred cow and should
expect
to receive as many brick-bats as it throws.
Zim Independent
Row erupts over Zim/Libya shady deals
Dumisani
Muleya
A POTENTIALLY damaging rift has developed between Zimbabwe and Libya
over
recent fuel and investment arrangements which the North Africans
are
describing as a raw deal.
Government sources said the row had
erupted between government officials and
the Libyans over the shady
agreements which critics charge will mortgage
Zimbabwe to
Libya.
President Robert Mugabe and a high-level government delegation are
in Libya
to sort out the issues in dispute. The delegation left on
Tuesday.
The Libyans are reportedly complaining that although Zimbabwe
was already
receiving fuel supplies, its authorities were now reluctant to
fulfil their
side of the bargain.
The deal, brokered when Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi visited Zimbabwe in
July, involved a US$360 million
fuel facility and investments by Libyans in
agriculture, tourism,
construction and mining.
The Libyans were expected to grab stakes in the
Rainbow Tourism Group,
Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) and the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe.
It was also agreed the Libyans would invest in fuel
infrastructure and
distribution. But sources said the Libyans were now
exasperated by docking
problems for their ships at the port of Beira in
Mozambique.
Mugabe confirmed the problems over the weekend during the
Zanu PF conference
at Victoria Falls.
Zimbabwe is not paying Libya in
foreign currency but local money channelled
through CBZ where part of it will
be converted to equity.
Sources said the Libyans were given prime farms at
Chakari and Banket in
Mashonaland West province as part of the deal. They
also expected to go into
beef exports.
Zim Independent
Govt steps up violence
Blessing Zulu
AMNESTY
International (AI), the world’s leading human rights watchdog, has
produced a
damning report on escalating incidents of human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe and
called on the Commonwealth to adopt a strong line against the
country’s
rulers.
It details cases of abductions, torture and beatings by
government agents.
The report revealed that the situation was far from
normal, contrary to
recent observations by the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc)
mini- sterial delegation which painted a rosy picture of
peace and normality
in Zimbabwe.
Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group
ministers met in London yesterday as
the report was released. It dovetails
with another damning account that has
been produced by the Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum which paints a stark
picture of Zanu PF’s bloody electoral
trail.
An AI delegation was in the country recently and met victims of
torture and
beatings, human rights activists, and farmers and farm workers.
It also met
members of the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change and the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The report dismissed
claims by the
government that violence was caused by enemies of the land
redistribution
exercise.
“This is not about land reform but about
rampant torture by the state and
its proxies to bludgeon dissent,” the report
said.
“Zimbabwe is using informal but state-sponsored militia comprising
land
occupiers, so-called war veterans and supporters of Zanu PF as proxy
forces
to brutalise and displace farm workers and to assault real or
perceived
members of the opposition.”
The killings in Zimbabwe are
also continuing unabated, it said. Augustus
Chacha, an MDC youth activist
scheduled to meet the AI delegation, was found
dead in a reservoir in Gonye
village near Mberengwa.
“No one has been charged in relation to the
killing which his family
believes was politically-motivated,” the report
said.
In another incident, an MDC activist and a friend were severely
assaulted in
an operation allegedly coordinated by the Central Intelligence
Organisation.
“They beat him and a friend into unconsciousness with
whips, fists and
electrical cords, then urinated in their victims faces and
threw sand in
their eyes while questioning them about their activities in the
MDC,” the
report said.
When the victims regained consciousness, their
torturers placed them on the
road, under the tyres of a Landrover truck and
threatened to run them over
if they did not swear allegiance to Zanu PF,” it
said.
AI also said it was concerned at the level of arbitrary arrests
that have
become the order of the day in Zimbabwe.
The selective
suppression of the right of assembly was also roundly
condemned as the report
cited the banning of demonstrations save for Zanu
PF-sanctioned
ones.
The report also took a swipe at the government’s attempts to muzzle
the free
press using draconian laws such as the Public Order and Security
Bill and
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill.