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Zimbabwe's archaic grid hampers regional power trade

Zim Online

Saturday 23 December 2006

      HARARE - Transmission congestion on Zimbabwe's ageing power grid is
hampering regional trade in electricity, the Southern African Power Pool
(SAPP) has said.

      The SAPP comprises countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa,
Botswana, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

      The countries that sell electricity to each other must boost
production to meet fast rising demand, which is expected to peak in 2007.

      The SAPP said in its annual report this week that various projects
were under to increase power output but bottlenecks on the Zimbabwe grid-
lying at the heart of the SAPP - were stalling transmission of electricity
from countries with excess power to those in deficit.

      SAPP planning sub-committee chairperson, Mbuso Gwafila, said in the
report that a special study group had been set up to determine the transfer
limits in the SAPP interconnected system.

      "Transmission Congestion has been noted on some points in the system
especially the transmission bottlenecks within the ZESA (Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority) system in Zimbabwe, which geographically lies
at the centre of SAPP. This bottleneck is hindering the electricity trade
between the northern and southern countries," Gwafila said.

      But Gwafila said work was underway to boost transmission lines
elsewhere in the region to circumvent congestion in Zimbabwe.

      Such works included the WESTCOR project to facilitate transfer of 3500
Megawatts (MW) from Inga Dam in the DRC to Botswana, Namibia and South
Africa; and the construction of a 330kv line from Luano to Solwezi in Zambia
thus increasing the transfer capability of the DRC-Zambia line.

      Like most major national infrastructure in Zimbabwe, ZESA's power
stations and transmission grid is crumbling due to under-funding and
downright neglect as the country grapples a severe economic meltdown
described by the World Bank as the worst in the world outside a war zone.

      Zimbabwean cities have to sometimes go for several days without
electricity because of breakdowns at ZESA archaic power stations or on the
transmission network, while failure by the state energy utility to pay for
coal has seen some of its thermal power stations having to operate below
capacity at times. - ZimOnline


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Army officers arrested for looting building materials

Zim Online

Saturday 23 December 2006

      MASVINGO - Zimbabwean police on Thursday arrested four army officers
and a retired major for allegedly looting building materials worth millions
of dollars in the southern town of Masvingo.

      Retired major Kudzai Mbudzi and the four officers whose identity could
not be immediately confirmed, are being accused of helping themselves to
tonnes of cement, asbestos sheets and concrete stone pipes meant for a
government housing construction project.

      The materials had been allocated under Operation Garikai housing
project, for building houses for thousands of Zimbabweans left homeless
following the demolition of their properties by President Robert Mugabe's
government in a clean-up exercise last year.

      But the Zimbabwean government was earlier this year forced to abandon
most of the building projects in Masvingo because of severe cash problems.

      Sources within the police said after the government abandoned the
projects, it became a free for all as highly connected politicians and army
officers stampeded to lay their hands on the building materials.

      Masvingo province Assistant Commissioner Charles Makono confirmed the
arrest of the five yesterday.

      "So far we have arrested five people and investigations are still in
progress. We have been tasked by the government to ensure that those
implicated are brought to book, " said Ass Comm Makono.

      The police spokesperson said they were also keen to interview a
senator and several ruling ZANU PF officials in connection with the
disappearance of the building materials.

      The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and human
rights groups have often accused senior ZANU PF officials of using their
positions to allocate houses built under the exercise to their cronies. -
ZimOnline


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Harare Government Marks Unity Day, Zimbabwe Opposition Shrugs

VOA

      By Blessing Zulu
      Washington
      22 December 2006

Many Zimbabweans on Friday commemorated the Unity Accord signed December 22,
1987, by President Robert Mugabe and the late Joshua Nkomo, establishing a
truce between Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Nkomo's rival PF-ZAPU parties,
setting the stage for Nkomo to serve as vice president until his death in
1999.

Government security forces loyal to ZANU-PF had fought PF-ZAPU-controlled
units in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in a crackdown in which an
estimated 20,000 people, mostly civilians, died between 1982 and the signing
of the accord. The pact effectively merged Nkomo's PF-ZAPU into the dominant
ZANU-PF party.

On Wednesday, State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa was quoted by the
state-controlled Herald newspaper as saying the historic accord unified the
nation. Mutasa said that "ever since 1987, the problem of animosity has
stopped, people are now united, working together except for a few misguided
elements" in the opposition.

Both factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change offered
differing interpretations of the event. Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the
Morgan Tsvangirai faction called unity a fallacy, saying ZANU-PF policies
have divided Zimbabwe.

Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, deputy secretary general of the MDC
faction led by Arthur Mutambara, said President Mugabe had failed to unite
the country because he has tended towards a dictatorial style of rule.

Political analyst and Harare critic John Makumbe told reporter Blessing Zulu
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Mugabe missed an opportunity to unite
the nation.


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Strike by Zimbabwe's Junior Doctors Enters a Second Day

VOA

      By Carole Gombakomba
      Washington
      22 December 2006

A strike by junior doctors' in Harare and Bulawayo entered its second day
today with no solution in sight, a spokesman for the residents said.

Senior residents at the hospitals, who went out on strike in July, have not
halted work, said Hospital Doctors Association President Kudakwashe
Nyamutukwa, but will meet Wednesday to discuss grievances and issues raised
by the junior residents.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the striking junior doctors, Simbarashe Ndhonda, said
Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has promised to meet with them
next week to discuss their grievances. These include salaries below the
official poverty line, inadequate accomodation and transport, and poor
hospital facilities.

Sources said the casualty departments at Parirenyatwa Hospital and Harare
Hospital in the capital, and Mpilo Hospital and Bulawayo United Hopsitals in
Bulawayo, the country's second-largest city, were operating with skeleton
staff or were closed.

Dr Henry Madzorere, health secretary in the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai, told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the junior doctors are
justified in going on strike because conditions continue to deteriorate in
government hospitals.


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Report: Zim to discuss $2bn loan from China

From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 22 December

Harare - Zimbabwe will soon open negotiations with China for a $2-billion
loan as part of efforts to stabilise its imploding economy, the official
Herald newspaper reported on Friday. "China's government is ready to
negotiate with the government for a $2-billion facility to fight inflation
and other aspects of the economy," Chris Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe's ambassador
to China, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. This would be the largest
foreign loan for President Robert Mugabe's government, which is presiding
over its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.
Mutsvangwa said the Chinese government has appointed a projects officer to
handle the issue and start talks with Zimbabwe's finance minister and
central bank governor. Last month Mutsvangwa said a Chinese company had
offered $3-billion for a 60% stake in the country's struggling state-owned
steelworks, Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company. His revelation was met with
scepticism in Zimbabwe and the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, the
company in question, denied making such a bid, although it said it had been
approached by Harare.

Mugabe's government has launched a "Look East" policy to attract investment
and loans from Asian and Muslim countries after a fall-out with the West
over policies such as the seizures of white-owned commercial farms for black
people. The central bank this year unveiled a $200-million loan from China
to help boost production in the key agriculture sector, whose demise critics
blame on the land seizures. Zimbabwe's economy has contracted by 40% in real
terms in the last six years, marking a recession dramatised by the highest
inflation in the world at 1 098,8%, shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel, rocketing unemployment and deepening poverty levels. "He [Mutsvangwa]
said China's assistance to Zimbabwe would help dispel the myth perpetuated
by the United States and Europe that the country's economy has collapsed
beyond redemption," the paper said. Mugabe denies critics charges that his
policies have wrecked a once-thriving economy and accuses Britain of leading
a Western campaign of sabotage to punish his government for the land
reforms. He says the economy has now turned a corner.


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Govt Gazettes New Bread, Flour Prices



The Herald (Harare)

December 22, 2006
Posted to the web December 22, 2006

Harare

GOVERNMENT yesterday gazetted the prices of bread and flour, bringing to an
end the free-for-all in the sector that saw the two commodities' prices
going up without official approval and virtually disappearing from the
shelves.

According to the Control of Goods (Price Control) (Amendment) Order, 2006
(No.8), the wholesale price of a 700 grammes white or brown loaf is now $752
and $376 for 350g.

The retail price of a 700g white or brown loaf goes up to $825, from $295 a
loaf while a 350g now retails at $412,50.

According to a notice published in yesterday's Government Gazette
Extraordinary, the maximum wholesale price of white flour is $610 358 per
tonne, $567 765 per tonne for brown flour and $702 075 per tonne for cake
flour.

On the other hand, the producer price for a kilogramme of self-raising flour
is $916. The wholesale and retail prices are $962 and $1 058 respectively.

The gazetted prices for 2kg of self-raising flour are $1 813 (producer), $1
904 (wholesale) and $2 094 (retail).

The producer price for a 5kg bag is now $4 487, while the wholesale and
retail prices go up to $4 712 at $5 183 respectively.

A 10kg bag will from now cost $8 974 (producer), $9 423 (wholesale) and $10
365 (retail).

The price of bread shot up last week with most shops selling the commodity
at between $500 and $700 a loaf, which the Government condemned as illegal.

The illegal price increases culminated in the arrest and subsequent jailing
of two bakery executives, who have since been released on bail pending
appeal.

Bread has been in short supply since the beginning of the month with
bakeries insisting $295 a loaf was not viable, citing increases in the cost
of inputs, labour, fuel and electricity.


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Zim bread prices skyrocket

From News24 (SA), 22 December

Harare - The price of bread in Zimbabwe has nearly tripled after the
government caved in to pressure from bakers, who were demanding a more
realistic selling price, say reports. It was reported that in a government
notice, industry minister Obert Mpofu said the new price for a loaf would be
Z$825, up from Z$295. According to reports: "The minister of industry and
international trade has set Z$825 as the new retail price of bread while the
producer price of bread has been set at Z$725." Bread had almost disappeared
from shop shelves after bakers said they could not afford to sell it at a
loss. They said they would need at least Z$700 a loaf to break even. The
government accused bakers of withholding bread to force a price hike. Two
bakery executives were recently sentenced to short jail terms for hiking the
bread price without permission. Bread, flour and milk were some of the
commodities whose prices were controlled by the government. The price hike
was expected to further dampen yearend holidays in Zimbabwe. Most of the
country's 11.6 million people were already reeling under inflation of close
to 1 100% and near-daily price increases in the shops. Bread was an
important part of the diet for most Zimbabwean families, who ate it with tea
for breakfast.


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Activist moved into safe house as he fears for his life

Zimbabwejournalists.com

      By a Correspondent

      MIDDLESBOROUGH - NOBLE Sibanda, a Zimbabwean activist based in
Middlesborough, has been moved into a safe house following a violent
incident Sunday night that could have cost him his life.

      Police had to be called in to deal with an incident in which a
roommate he now strongly suspects to have been working for the Zimbabwe
government threatened his life in the company of three drugged Jamaicans.
Police arrested the Zimbabwean guy and kept him in the cells over night. A
docket was opened under reference number N247446 and investigations in the
matter are ongoing.

      Sibanda of the United Network for Detained Zimbabweans told
zimbabwejournalists.com that for some time now he had started suspecting his
roommate was planning something against him.

      "We have been living together for the past few months and actually
worked together on the formation of some structures here to oppose Zanu PF,"
said Sibanda. "Trouble started when he was not elected into a committee that
I now think would have given him vantage point into gaining information. So
he started quarrelling with me over nothing really all the time and telling
me that we were wasting our time in the MDC, the next president of Zimbabwe
would come from Chikomba though he claims to belong to the Morgan Tsvangirai
MDC."

      On this particular day, Sibanda, who is with the Arthur Mutambara MDC,
says he left the house to go and attend a church service with his friend,
who had to persuade him to go since he had not planned to do so.

      "We went and had a blessed day at church and then I did not go
straight home after that. We went to my friend's place and I only left very
late. Upon arriving home, I found the door's inside latch had not been
removed so I could gain access. So he had to come and open the door for me
but insisted that I do not switch on the lights. I did not listen but then I
realised he had removed some of the globes. One light did came on and I saw
three drunk Jamaicans all shouting that I should switch off the lights and
my fellow countryman was threatening to deal with me, he followed me into
the kitchen and the situation was really tense and as things were getting
out of hand I managed to call the police."

      Sibanda says the police reacted swiftly and were at the house in a
very short space of time but the Jamaicans managed to get away. Police
discovered sharp illegal knives under a newspaper on the coffee table in the
lounge and the sofa. With Sibanda claiming his life was in danger because he
now realised his roommate could have been working against him, the police
took the other guy into custody but released him early Monday morning.

      He promised not to attack Sibanda or use any abusive language but it
all started all over again as soon as the police left.

      "He threatened to destroy me, he told me I did not know where he came
from. I have strong suspicions now from what he used to say that he was all
along working against the MDC and the struggle we have at hand," he said.
"He has generally been very disruptive and abusive at party meetings but we
just did not realise it early. He told me that he had a list of names of
people he intended to deal with so I got scared and went for the window to
get out of the house as it was getting nasty. On the Sunday I have strong
reason to believe they wanted to kill me because the knives were
strategically placed and he was very abusive even when the police came. Also
I think they were waiting for me in the dark and I thank God I went to
church that day otherwise it could be a different story."

      The Housing Association in Middlesborough was forced to move Sibanda
into a safe house as police looked into his allegations that his roommate
was probably working with the CIO. The Home Office has been informed of the
case and is now looking into the guy's background. He is a failed asylum
seeker in the process of appealing his case.

      It is not yet clear whether Sibanda's claims can be substantiated but
police have so far found the Zimbabwean roommate has in the past been
arrested and fined for violent behaviour against his girlfriend. The docket
number on this case is EN91ZN. Efforts to talk to him were fruitless.

      There have been a number of reported incidents in which suspected CIO
members have either infiltrated opposition structures or go to their
meetings to disrupt them here in the UK.


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Probe into looted tractors

From The Daily Mirror, 22 December

Paidamoyo Muzulu

The Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) has appointed
internal auditors to investigate alleged abuse and disappearance of some of
the 400 tractors imported from Iran two years ago. In an interview yesterday
with The Daily Mirror, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the auditors
would look at the inventory of the consignment of assets at the authority
after which a report would be released by ARDA's chief executive Joseph
Matowanyika. "An internal audit team to check on the authority's stock
inventory (tractors) has been set up and Joseph Matowanyika, ARDA's chief
executive officer, can give you details on the progress done so far," Made
said. But Matowanyika refused to shed more light on the latest developments
when this reporter contacted him for comment yesterday. "I only report to my
principals. Besides your paper has made an opinion about ARDA and that will
not change anything. After all, the President has spoken on the issue and
thus I cannot give a response," Matowanyika said. He also refused to
identify the internal auditors or even respond to questions earlier sent to
him. "Your paper will not get the responses to the questions earlier
e-mailed to my office. Neither can I reveal the identity of the audit team,"
Matowanyika added.

President Robert Mugabe recently attacked ARDA as rotten and in urgent need
of a complete overhaul to get back on track. Responding to a question by
Mount Darwin North House of Assembly representative Saviour Kasukuwere at a
rally in Musana Communal Lands near Bindura, the President said a lot of
work needed to be done if ARDA were to break even. Kasukuwere had asked if
ARDA had the capacity to oversee the administration of tractors recently
acquired through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from South Africa in view of
what had happened to the tractors from Iran. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe yesterday
received the first consignment of 22 000 tonnes of compound D fertiliser
imported from China under a US$200 million line of credit. Vice-President
Joice Mujuru hailed the delivery of the fertiliser saying it symbolised the
growing relations between China and Zimbabwe. "This facility bears testimony
to the strong multifaceted bilateral relations that exists between China and
Zimbabwe. "The bilateral relations between the two sister countries date
back to the days of the liberation struggle and are now bearing fruits in
many areas of economic cooperation," Mujuru said in a speech read on her
behalf by Minister of Finance Herbert Murerwa. "Another consignment of 35
070 metric tonnes of urea that was shipped via the Port of Maputo is being
railed into the country and deliveries are expected soon," Mujuru said.

The US$200 million line of credit provided by EXIM Bank of China would allow
Zimbabwe to import fertiliser (Compound D and Urea), chemical pesticides,
veterinary medicine, agricultural machinery equipment and irrigation
equipment. Zimbabwe's Ambassador to China Christopher Mutsvangwa said the
import facility was the first since the government embarked on land reform
six years ago. "This consignment of fertiliser marks the first external aid
that the country has received since embarking on the agrarian reforms. "The
Chinese are the only government that has supported the agricultural
turnaround programme in Zimbabwe since 2000," Mutsvangwa said. He added that
the Chinese have expressed interest in providing Zimbabwe further loans to
help it fight inflation that is distorting the country's economy. "The
Chinese have further committed US$2 billion to support Zimbabwe in its
economic turnaround programme. They have since appointed an officer to
handle negotiations with the Zimbabwean officials. China stands ready to
help the country climb from the bottom in Africa and is giving us an option
to climb out," Mutsvangwa added. Zimbabwe adopted the Look East policy after
the European Union and other western governments stopped providing financial
assistance to the country mainly because of the land reform programme.


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Police launch massive manhunt for national student leader

From SW Radio Africa, 21 December

By Lance Guma

Police have launched a massive manhunt for the President of the Zimbabwe
National Students Union (ZINASU), Promise Mkwananzi. In copies of a police
memorandum made available to Newsreel, The Officer in Charge of the Criminal
Investigation Department (Law and Order section) alerted all stations,
patrols, roadblocks and deployments to be on the lookout for Mkwananzi. The
memo says the ZINASU leader is wanted 'in connection with a case of
participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence,
breaches of peace or bigotry (sic).' It further states that Mkwananzi is
moving around colleges in the country meeting students. The registration
number of the vehicle in use was also listed. 'If arrested, detain and
advise loc (location) the memo ends. A defiant Mkwananzi told Newsreel he
had been advised by his lawyers not to hand himself in until the police had
laid out the charges. Police officers in Harare told lawyers that the police
inspector dealing with the case is away on holiday and will only deal with
the matter when he comes back.

Surprisingly the police memo is dated 17 November 2006 and up until now
Mkwananzi has evaded the police attention. He says the police are trying to
criminalise all forms of activism in Zimbabwe as a way of blocking political
reform. Several other student leaders have been expelled or suspended with
others like Mkwananzi and his Vice President Gideon Chitanga being barred
from writing exams. The ZINASU president told Newsreel that as students they
could not 'confine themselves to the ivory tower of academic freedoms,'
since bread and butter issues also affected their welfare. He conceded that
his mother and father were clearly worried about his welfare and safety but
in his own words, 'we are a contemporary generation, fighting beyond the
Zanu PF era, beyond the vision which they have and they now understand the
need for leadership renewal.' The police meanwhile betrayed their
determination to catch Mkwananzi in the memo posted to all police stations
around the country. A note added to the memo and written in red ink close to
the date stamp read out, 'all members, take note and arrest this suspect
please.'


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Internet hackers attack Zimbabwean government websites

From SW Radio Africa, 21 December

By Violet Gonda

Robert Mugabe has waged a relentless war on independent media over the past
five years. Newspapers, radios, television stations have all fallen to
draconian new laws, jamming the air waves and bombing print works. The
government has gone to great lengths to gain total control over the
information consumed in the country. But now it seems the realm of cyber
space has resisted the iron grip of the information ministry. It appears a
group of international internet hackers have taken over sections of the
government's own web site. A visit to the page for the Ministry of Public
Service, Labour & Social Welfare on the Zimbabwean government's website -
http://www.gta.gov.zw/, shows that it has been attacked by a group calling
itself, White Hat Security Institution (a mafia hacking team from Iran). It
is not clear who the hackers are or why they chose to target this particular
government department. The White Hat Security Institution website was
created on the 3rd of September. Experts say this is a group that
specialises in hacking government websites. Their aim may not have been to
target Mugabe or the ruling party specifically, but they have disrupted an
important site and brought attention to the issue of freedom of expression.

On the other hand, some activists have imitated the Zanu PF publicity
website - http://www.zanupfpub.co.zw/ with their own
http://www.zanupfpub.com/ and posted political content which shows in
graphic detail certain brutalities perpetrated by Mugabe's security forces.
One headline on the site says; " Mugabe's cowardly police attack and
brutalise peaceful WOZA women and their babies..." A video clip showing
police officers beating a group of peaceful protestors lying down is also
posted on the site. There are also several pictures of the aftermath of
Operation Murambatsvina, the government's so called clean up exercise that
displaced thousands of people. It appears the Zimbabwe Parliament website
has also been hacked by the same activists. This time the attack is on the
Zanu PF link on the website -
http://www.parlzim.gov.zw/Resources/resources.html . Clicking on the link
for POLITICAL PARTIES and then on the link to Zanu PF, the page shows the
same stories of the WOZA beatings, the police video and the Murambatsvina
pictures. The Mugabe regime has deliberately cut out the media space and
this is the first time that the tables have been turned. This comes in a
year in which we have seen disgruntled Zimbabweans increasingly turning to
alternative methods of peaceful resistance. The Combined Harare Residents
Association have been boycotting paying rates because of poor service
delivery. Harare residents, tired of living with raw sewage flowing through
their streets, embarked on a campaign of dumping buckets of sewage at their
local council offices.


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Foreigners Arrested in Marange Diamond Rush



The Herald (Harare)

December 22, 2006
Posted to the web December 22, 2006

Mutare Bureau
Harare

DIAMOND smuggling and mining in Chiadzwa, Marange, continues unabated amid
reports that several foreigners, some masquerading as tourists, have been
arrested for illegally dealing in the blue gem.

At least five panners are arrested daily, while 13 villagers were picked up
on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, 24 illegal miners were nabbed after alert police officers
cordoned off the shafts they were plundering.

Though their names were not available yesterday, the majority of the
suspects were elderly women and youths.

Despite daily arrests and the possibility of lengthy detentions this festive
season, the illegal miners have vowed to carry on, arguing that the diamonds
were a gift from their ancestors.

Although some foreigners were reported to be slipping through police
roadblocks, a Mozambican national, Stelio Matavel (24) of 1027 1st
Quarteriol Celula "E" Maputo, was not so lucky. He was found in possession
of 22 pieces of rough diamonds, and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

Also nabbed was a Korean, Sung Hyun Kim (29), who was found in possession of
diamonds worth $53 million and a South African passport.

Ibrahim Elquraishi (39), of Vlaagstraaf 110-2060, Antuerpen in Belgium, was
arrested at a roadblock in Marange after the police stopped the car he was
travelling in with his Zimbabwean counterparts and 272 carats of diamonds
were recovered. He was remanded in custody pending sentence.

The foreigners appeared before Mutare provincial magistrate Mr Billard
Musakwa and magistrate Mr Fabian Feshete, respectively for contravening the
Precious Stones Trade Act.

In the case involving the Korean, acting Manicaland area prosecutor Mr
Levison Chikafu said on December 17, police received information that Kim
and his Zimbabwean accomplice, Tobias Marowa, were dealing in precious
stones.

Marowa resides in Chikanga 3 and works at Blue Star Service Station.

Having picked up the information, police went to Blue Star where they
intercepted Kim's Mazda Familia Sedan registration AAA 1246 and searched it.

Eighty-eight pieces of rough diamonds were found concealed in a travelling
bag and wrapped in a plastic bag with sweets.

The diamonds are worth $53 million.

They also recovered a diamond tester, diamond cutter, magnifying glass,
US$185 and R2 100.

Meanwhile, the area's traditional leadership is up in arms against some
corrupt law enforcement agents who are allegedly allowing people to continue
mining the precious stones right under their noses.

According to reports Headman Chiadzwa and four village heads, namely
Tineingana, Farikayi, Kuudzehwe and Mwaora, confronted police officers
manning the area and expressed

disquiet at what was happening at the rich minefield during a
no-holds-barred meeting last weekend.

The meeting came in the wake of reports that some law enforcement agents
were allowing people to mine under the cover of darkness and that some of
them had joined in the illegal diamond rush.

The illegal miners from the surrounding areas were reportedly using
scotchcarts to ferry ore for processing at their homes.

Acting Police Officer Commanding Manicaland Province Assistant Commissioner
Obert Benge said he was aware of the conflict between the locals and police
officers, who were trying to keep them at bay.

Some locals were now using catapults to intimidate the police from carrying
out their legitimate duties, he said

"We have beefed up security and deployed the Dog Section because the
situation has become hostile," said Asst Comm Benge.

He said counter-intelligence information indicated that the local leadership
was being incited to rebel against the law enforcement agents after being
promised good roads, schools and clinics by a company that wanted to tap the
mineral in the area although its application had been turned down by the
Government.

On the question of corrupt police officers, he said: "We have a
constitutional duty to guard the area not to make personal fortune. We are
tougher on police who indulge in such illegal activities than the locals
because we will charge them under the Police Act, then hand them over to the
court for prosecution. But the public should not lose confidence in us
because it is not all the officers who are corrupt," Asst Comm Benge said.


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Zim youth deliver makeshift coffin & petition to SADC embassies in UK



      By Tererai Karimakwenda
      22 December 2006

      Depicting the death of democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe a group
of activists from Free Zim Youth delivered makeshift coffins and petitions
to the embassies of a few SADC member countries in the U.K. on Friday.
Coordinator Alois Mbawara said about 80 people turned out for the event
which launched their campaign to pressure the SADC region into taking action
to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. The petition they handed in at several
embassies was titled "Africa liberate Zimbabwe". Protestors from several
other African countries joined the march in solidarity.

      As they marched from the South African embassy towards the Botswana
embassy, a protester from the Congo said he was supporting Free Zim because
he feels Africans have been betrayed by leaders like Robert Mugabe. He
believes that dictators are hijacking the African continent while the
majority of the people are hungry.

      Another protester told us he represented the Africa Liberation Support
Campaign Nertwork. Asked which country he was from, he said he was born in
Ghana but he believes all of Africa should be one country. He explained: "I
walk in the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah and I stand for a united Africa. The
majority of the people in Zimbabwe are living in misery and it would be
inhuman not to be upset by that."

      The group sang Zimbabwean songs as they marched from one embassy to
another delivering their "Africa liberate Zimbabwe" petition and the
makeshift coffins. Alois said the coffins symbolise the death of human
rights and democratic practices under the Mugabe regime.

      Free Zim plan to use the "Africa liberate Zimbabwe" platform to bring
together different groups from Africa so they can exert pressure on errant
states with a greater voice. Alois said the turnout was good considering it
is a Friday during work hours.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news


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Mugabe's planned term extension unites democratic forces in Zimbabwe



      By Violet Gonda
      22 December 2006

      Robert Mugabe's insistence on extending his term beyond his mandate
from 2008 to 2010 is motivating the democratic forces in Zimbabwe to unite.
Civic society, Churches and the opposition have been holding meetings under
the Save Zimbabwe Campaign to formulate ways of resisting this proposal.
They hold Mugabe responsible for destroying the country and the latest
attempts to keep him in power for two more years have given progressive
forces more fire to resist him.

      Jacob Mafume the National Coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition said; "The civic society has stated that this is a denial of a
fundamental right of the people of Zimbabwe.who should be given a chance to
pursue elections at a regular basis."
      The Save Zimbabwe Campaign plans to organise demonstrations against
this proposal despite threats by Mugabe himself. During his State of the
Nation Address Mugabe warned; "While the country respects and affords
everyone the right of assembly and association, the use of such platforms as
tools to advance the British-inspired regime change agenda cannot be
tolerated."
      Mafume said Mugabe's comments exposed the level of paranoia in
government. He said; "People feel encouraged by the fact that the government
has reacted to the slightest degree of irritation in the manner that it has.
It shows that it is a government which has something to hide. It shows that
it is a government which is afraid of the people no matter how small the
numbers are."
      But, despite the repression in the country, the pro-democracy movement
have been criticised of being ineffective in finding ways of bringing about
positive change in Zimbabwe. Mafume responded by saying people may be
hungry, poor and increasingly despondent but they know the cause of their
problems and know that the problems can be resolved by the democratic forces
bringing about sufficient pressure on the present government.
      He said the struggle of this nature, where people have taken peaceful
methods of resistance, takes longer. "The fact that people of Zimbabwe have
resolved to sacrifice themselves should not be seen as a weakness but should
be seen as a strength and a measure of characteristics that lead Zimbabwe
civic society."
      It is believed there are people within the ruling party who are also
not happy with the new proposal to extend Mugabe's term and that the party
is seriously divided over many other issues including policy issues and
corruption activities.

      Asked if there is a temptation for the pro democracy movement to work
with disgruntled elements within the ruling party, Mafume said if people are
committed to principles of democracy they have no problems working with
like-minded people. He added; "And if any of the people in ZANU PF are
willing to ascribe to those principles then I don't see any hindrance with
working together with pro-democracy forces. But they must be aware that time
is not on their side and people will make them accountable for the harm they
are causing the country and they need to come out sooner rather than later."

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news


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Calls for Mengistu Extradition

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Prominent Zimbabweans feel Mugabe was wrong to reject Ethiopia's request for
its former leader to be sent home to face justice.

By Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg (AR No. 88, 22-Dec-06)

Opposition representatives, top human rights lawyers and church leaders in
Zimbabwe have called for the extradition of the former the Ethiopian
president Mariam Mengistu who was last week convicted in absentia for crimes
of genocide by a court in Addis Ababa.

A day after the conviction on December 12, Zimbabwe's president Robert
Mugabe rejected an appeal by the government of Ethiopia to extradite
Mengistu, found guilty of causing the deaths of between half a million and
1.5 million of his fellow countrymen, to face justice at home.

Mengistu, dubbed "The Butcher of Addis", fled ten days before rebel forces
entered the city in May 1991 and was given asylum and permanent residence in
Zimbabwe by Mugabe.

Justifying protecting a leader responsible for more deaths than any other
African dictator, Mugabe said through his spokesman, "As a comrade of our
struggle [against white rule in former Rhodesia], Comrade Mengistu and his
government played a key and commendable role during our struggle for
independence and no one can dispute that."

The Ethiopian court found Mengistu guilty of genocide for atrocities
committed under his Marxist regime. "Members of the Dergue [government] who
are present in court today and those who are being tried in absentia have
conspired to destroy a political group and kill people with impunity," said
the presiding judge, Medhen Kiros. The trial lasted twelve years and
sentence, when passed at the end of December, seems certain to be death. The
Soviet-backed revolution that brought Mengistu and a group of other young
army officers to power in 1974 ended the feudal rule of Emperor Haile
Selassie, treated as a deity by millions of dirt-poor people in Africa's
second most-populous country. The court was told how the ageing emperor was
suffocated to death with a pillow and his body buried under a lavatory in
the royal palace, where he was under house arrest.

Mengistu provided arms to Mugabe's ZANU, Zimbabwe African National Union,
guerrilla movement and trained Zimbabwe's air force pilots after
independence. But Mugabe has come under a barrage of criticism from human
rights and opposition groups in Zimbabwe for protecting Mengistu. Various
international organisations such as the London-based International Bar
Association have called for the president himself to be tried by the new
International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.

"Verdicts such as this [in Addis Ababa] build up pressure and send the
message that leaders who are bloodstained must not be allowed to retire in
comfort," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa head of Human Rights Watch. He
said Mengistu would find it impossible to travel to neighbouring countries,
even for medical treatment, without facing the danger of arrest. "This man
and his followers committed monstrous crimes against humanity, and
international justice demands he be brought to face justice. The cycle of
impunity must and will be stopped."

Mugabe has appointed Mengistu as one of his own security advisers. In that
role, said Nelson Chamisa, national spokesman of the Movement for Democratic
Change, MDC, Zimbabwe's main opposition party, Mengistu helped plot last
year's devastating Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Clean Out the Trash),
in which police and Mugabe's personal militiamen bulldozed, sledgehammered
and burned down the homes of some 700,000 to a million town dwellers, most
of them MDC supporters.

Chamisa said most Zimbabweans regard Mengistu as an undesirable guest who
has long outstayed his welcome. He added that Mugabe's refusal to hand over
the former Ethiopian dictator to face justice betrayed his own inner fear of
international law, saying, "The days in which dictators would consort in a
boys' club and luxuriously look after themselves are over. Mr Mengistu may
be safe in Harare for now, but for how long?"

Leading Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Otto Saki, of Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights, said his organisation demanded that Mengistu be conveyed to
Ethiopia to accept responsibility for his crimes. "We expect the government
to fulfil this commitment," he said. "We expect government to draw a
precedent from the Taylor case."

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was extradited this year from
Nigeria, where he had been given political asylum, to face charges of war
crimes and crimes against humanity at the United Nations-backed Special
Court for Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbour where Taylor gave weapons to
rebel forces. Taylor is presently imprisoned in The Hague awaiting trial.

For 17 years in Ethiopia, Mengistu ran The Dergue, perhaps the most
terrifying regime modern Africa has known. Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch both estimate that at least half a million, and possibly as
many as 1.5 million, people died in assassinations and executions, warfare
and politically induced famine during Mengistu's "Red Terror" campaign
against opponents.

It is difficult to exaggerate the scale of Mengistu's crimes. At the start
of the darkest days of his rule in 1976, Mengistu stood before a huge crowd
in the central plaza of Addis Ababa and smashed a series of jars filled with
pigs' blood. They represented, he said, the blood of the
"counter-revolutionaries" that would flow as his regime set out to eliminate
rivals of the ruling junta.

"The revolution needs to be fed by the blood of traitors," he said. Human
rights groups reported that at the height of the terror campaign, organised
by Soviet advisers and Mengistu's East German-controlled Department of State
Security, government hit squads were summarily executing 100 to 150
"anarchists, feudalists, exploiters of the people and
counter-revolutionaries" each day on the streets of Addis Ababa, other
centres and in the notorious state prison on the edge of the capital.

It became commonplace to see students, suspected government critics and
rebel sympathisers hanging from lamp posts each morning. Families had to pay
a tax known as "the wasted bullet" to obtain the bodies of their executed
loved ones. At the height of his power, Mengistu himself frequently
garrotted or shot dead opponents, saying that he was leading by example, and
may have personally killed Haile Selassie.

During his 1974-1991 reign, Mengistu's mass herding of Ethiopia's peasant
farmers into giant collective farms spawned a famine that took hundreds of
thousands of lives.

Mengistu, also known as the Black Lenin, was alleged to have fled Ethiopia
with many millions of US dollars, including a chunk of the 300 million
dollars that Israel paid for the right to evacuate 15,000 Falasha Jews from
Ethiopia. In the months before he left, Mengistu nationalised Nestlé's
Ethiopian Livestock Development Company without compensation. He sold the
cattle stock for 10 million dollars and took the money with him to Zimbabwe.
The Ethiopian people did not get a cent.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe gave Mengistu a luxury villa in the upmarket Gun Hill
suburb, where Zimbabwean reporters have observed up to six luxury cars,
including a Mercedes and a BMW, parked in the drive. The house is heavily
protected by soldiers from Mugabe's elite Presidential Guard battalion, and
anyone who attempts to take photographs is arrested. On the rare occasions
when Mengistu is spotted shopping, he wears military boots and carries a
pistol.

Mengistu, 69, has also been given a large farm 45 kilometres outside Harare
and a property in the far north on the shores of Lake Kariba, to which he is
believed to have moved in July for security reasons.

Kenya's main daily newspaper, The Nation, commented, "Why does it not come
as a surprise that President Mugabe is not willing to hand over Mengistu to
the Ethiopian government? It is no wonder that he [Mengistu] long ago found
a soul-mate in Mugabe and was given sanctuary; the two are birds of a
feather when it comes to atrocities against their people."

Among the voices raised against Mengistu's presence in Zimbabwe is that of
Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Mugabe's most
fearless and outspoken critic who repeatedly says the best service the
Zimbabwean head of state can do for his countrymen is to die. "Mugabe is
using the taxpayers' money to keep a dictator who killed a million people,"
said the archbishop. "You can see what kind of friends Mugabe keeps. You
need one dictator to prop up another."

Fred Bridgland is the Johannesburg-based editor of IWPR's Africa Report.


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Mugabe Faces Growing ZANU PF Resistance

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

ZANU PF sources say there was intense behind-the-scenes manoeuvring to stop
Mugabe's extended power bid at the recent party conference.

By Benedict Unendoro in Harare (AR No. 88, 22-Dec-06)

President Robert Mugabe's attempt to extend his hold on power until 2010 has
sent shock waves through Zimbabwean industry and commerce and, more
significantly, galvanising opponents within his party.

At Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party conference on December 16-17, held at
Goromonzi, 40 kilometres east of the capital, Harare, the president tried to
arm-twist his party into endorsing a motion that would have seen him renege
on his promise to step down from power at the end of his current tenure in
2008.

In recent interviews with both local and international media, Mugabe
explained that he wished to continue as the country's head of state and
government because it would be imprudent of him to step down while his party
was in what he described as a "shambles".

Although the majority of delegates at Goromonzi supported his move to remain
at the helm for at least another three year, meaning he would have been in
power for thirty years, he did not get the overwhelming endorsement he
sought. Only six out of ten provinces supported the extension of his rule.

Instead of Mugabe being crowned state president at the conference until
2010, the motion was referred back to the provinces for a final decision at
a later date.

Ruling party sources told IWPR there was intense behind-the-scenes
manoeuvring to stop Mugabe's extended power bid, with panic evident among
captains of industry and commerce as the drama unfolded at Goromonzi.

The country representative of a multinational audit firm said many companies
had decided to scale down on their operations as a consequence of Mugabe's
declared ambitions. "It doesn't matter that no resolution was made at the
conference to extend Mugabe's term," he said. "The mere attempt itself was
shocking."

He added that no multinational company would be happy to keep pouring human
and financial energy into an economy that is now poised to suffer more
battering than ever before as a result of the uncertainty wrought by Mugabe's
probable extended stay in power. "We are scaling down our operations here
and so will many companies," he said. "The idea is just to keep a token
presence in anticipation of better days."

He said many companies were approaching his organisation for due diligence
audits to facilitate their partial exits from the country.

The giant London-based Anglo American mining consortium, once the owner of
forty per cent of Zimbabwe's private sector, has almost totally liquidated
its holdings. The Mobil and BP oil companies are removing their signs from
petrol stations throughout the country in what looks like preparation for
their planned exits.

"We're dead," said Juliet Masiya, a Harare travel consultant. "He's old and
has nothing new to offer except continued disintegration."

Many industries in Zimbabwe are working at only thirty per cent capacity
while thousands of others have shut down completely. "We're going to see
huge disinvestments from Zimbabwe," said the audit company representative.
"Maybe only the mining sector will survive, but even then only the big
companies that have poured in huge amounts of money into infrastructure and
other developments. Otherwise the small miners are also going to pack up."

But it is at the political level that the drama is most riveting. "Mugabe's
promise that he would not leave office because ZANU PF is in a shambles is
shocking to say the least," one senior party official, a Mugabe-appointed
provincial governor, told IWPR. "It means Mugabe values the party ahead of
the country. Everyone, including in ZANU PF, knows that Mugabe is at the
epicentre of the political crisis."

The main opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
MDC, is in disarray and has yet to make a powerful response to events at
Goromonzi. But it is within ZANU PF itself that the crisis is playing itself
out.

Powerful ZANU PF poltiburo member and former commander of the army Solomon
Mujuru is spearheading the fight against Mugabe's continued stay in power
beyond 2008. Mujuru's tentacles spread like an octopus across industry and
commerce in one of the biggest business empires ever built in Zimbabwe. To
protect the empire Mujuru - leader of Mugabe's pre-independence exiled
liberation army under the war name Rex Nhongo - wants his wife, Vice
President Joice Mujuru, to succeed to the most powerful post in the land.

But the possibility of this happening would be diminished if Mugabe does not
step down in 2008.

In a rare show of a common stance, the other faction in ZANU PF, led by the
wily former head of intelligence Emmerson Mnangagwa, has also come out
strongly, though somewhat more subtly, against Mugabe.

Sources say the factions are clandestinely going for rapprochement. They are
agreed on the steps that have to be taken first before taking Mugabe head
on.

The first step, the sources say, would be to remove George Charamba, the
powerful civil service secretary for information and Mugabe's spokesman.
Charamba controls single-handedly the state press. It is he, say the Mujuru
and Mnangagwa factions, who has to be disabled because he is entirely
responsible for whatever the dominant state-owned newspapers, radio and
television say about the political crisis.

The factions also want to see the exit of the head of the much-feared
Central Intelligence Organisation chief, Happyton Bonyongwe. Not only does
the CIO control a newspaper group, Mirror Newspapers, but Mugabe has also
militarised the spy agency so that he as commander-in-chief of the national
army has immense control over Bonyongwe, a former military officer.

The third step would be to remove the ambitious Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono who has emerged as Mugabe's most important lieutenant
in the fight to remain in power. Gono takes instruction straight from Mugabe
and has been ordered to print inflationary money to finance his master's
extended power project.

Mugabe's plan is to harmonise the next 2008 presidential election and the
next 2010 parliamentary election into one single poll in 2010, arguing that
this would save money and simplify the electoral organisation. Few disagree
with the superficial logic. But key ZANU PF politicians argue that Mugabe is
trying to become president-for-life "via the back door" of a term extension,
finally leaving office only on a hearse.

Diplomats assert that the events at Goromonzi open an even darker chapter
for the people of Zimbabwe, who have already suffered enormously since the
country began its precipitous decline at the end of the last decade of the
twentieth century. They say that soon the diplomatic community and the few
states that still cooperate with Zimbabwe will have no choice but to abandon
the country. "I think the time has come when the world has to say, 'Let's
leave this to the Zimbabweans themselves'," one western diplomat told IWPR.
He castigated the opposition for not immediately responding powerfully to
82-year-old Mugabe's manoeuvrings. "It's a sign of this complex Zimbabwean
mentality that we in the West can never understand," he said. "In the West
we would call this docility. Zimbabweans should know that ultimately their
life in their own hands."

Veteran foreign newspaper and broadcasting correspondent Peta Thornycroft
said, "It seems impossible that Zimbabwe can even go on to 2008 with Mugabe
in power. The situation is truly unravelling with the inflation. Believe me,
the official inflation rate of 1100
per cent is not true. The real inflation rate is nearer to 2000 per cent."

Zimbabwe has very few remaining friends, most of them in the Far East.
Besides China, North Korea and Iran, the Mugabe regime is short of allies
elsewhere, even on the African continent. Zimbabwe's neighbours in southern
Africa have a lukewarm relationship with it. They are likely to withdraw
what little sympathy remains because they now see Mugabe as the region's
Achilles heel.

Many see his recent conference shenanigans as the much awaited "tipping
point". More than eighty per cent of the people of Zimbabwe are living in
deep poverty and life expectancy for women has plummeted from a high in 1990
of more than 60 to just 34 years.

For men life expectancy is not much higher at 37. The country which used to
be the region's breadbasket is now a net importer of food. This current
planting season is headed for disaster. Poor rains, the perennial excuse,
will the trotted out once again by officials, but the main reason is
bungling by the ministries responsible for agriculture.

Recently, it was discovered that vital fertiliser imported from South Africa
was substandard. Also during the ill-advised "land reform" programme,
beginning in 2000, Mugabe allowed his supporters to loot equipment from
commercial farms confiscated from whites. Much of the equipment was vital
for irrigation. It has simply disappeared in a country that experiences a
drought every three seasons, meaning that irrigation is the only way to
ensure food security.

"People have become desperately helpless. Yes, Zimbabweans are notoriously
docile but I have this hunch feeling that the time has come when even the
docile mule will begin to kick," said one Harare resident.

Indeed, some pockets of resistance have began to emerge with people
demonstrating peacefully at set times against the regime. These
demonstrations include lunchtime marches, blowing of car horns and beating
of metal objects for five minutes at a time to make a loud protest noise.

One group has been consistent in these demos: Women of Zimbabwe Arise, WOZA,
has been involved in these kinds of protests for the past half decade and
people are beginning to feel the WOZA presence.

Soon others may feel compelled to join in.

Many commentators fear Mugabe may be faced with a violent exit and the
country subsequently with enormous turmoil.

They say this based on disgruntlement in the uniformed forces. Lower ranks
in the army and the police are among the poorest Zimbabweans. Many have left
the employ of the state but many, especially those who live not in camps but
among civilians, have begun to openly voice their
disillusionment.

The long-awaited trigger may just be the levels of unashamed corruption
among Mugabe's lieutenants. Uncertain themselves about their future,
government and parastatal officials have upped their corrupt activities.
Recently, there has been a upsurge in farm evictions in which senior
government officials are taking over the holdings of "new farmers" - black
peasants for whom once white-owned land was earmarked.

Benedict Unendoro is the pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in Zimbabwe.


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Life After Farming



Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)

December 22, 2006
Posted to the web December 22, 2006

Dusty Miller

A STUNNING new highly-gifted local wildlife and landscape painter burst upon
the Harare art scene last Thursday with a one-man exhibition of
oil-on-canvas studies at Richard Rennie Galleries, Belgravia.

Barry Thomas (32) took up painting seriously after being thrown off
Tsandzwa, the Doma tobacco, maize, cotton and cattle farm his family had
owned for two generations.

He studied under international best-selling wildlife artist Craig Bone at
the studio Bone opened in Chinhoyi, after losing his Makonde farm to the
land resettlement programme.

Among many pictures exhibited was a brooding study of a herd of buffalo on
the banks of the Zambezi River. A dramatic effect is underscored by the herd
creating their own mini-dust storm, with the green of trees in the river
line giving bold contrast. The dominant alpha-bull, still with flakes of
dried mud from a previous riverine wallow, stares at the artist from an
eroded river bank and a snowy-white cattle egret ("tick-bird") taking flight
gives the picture required movement.

Thomas says he is slowly moving away from wildlife studies, which he
considers "overdone" and will concentrate on "realistic landscapes".
"Realism" personifies his work and he has an enviable talent for capturing
the various moods of the ever changing African sky.

If you've never seen Chipinda Pools, in Gonarezhou National Park of the
Lowveld, you can certainly imagine it, almost smell it, through a painting
of an almost dry Runde River trickling through sere, arid, bleak
countryside, featuring stunted vegetation and almost dwarf mopani scrub. A
bataleur eagle hunting in the middle sky steals the scene for me.

Most of Thomas' work was painted in Mana Pools, with some in the Lowveld and
the World's View area of Nyanga is also popular. He admits to using a
certain amount of artistic licence. Having found no game at the hauntingly
beautiful Kasawe Springs at Mana near the Chewore River he has added a brace
of elephant, a pair of zebra and a family of francolin to the semi-desert
landscape. A "non-specific but typical" watering hole at Mana, with Acacia
albida trees creating their trademark blue haze, shows baboon, waterbuck,
impala and zebra, presumably having drunk their fill, grazing albida pods
which are a rich food source for many animals. He has been painting,
professionally, for three and a half years and samples of his work can be
seen at Richard Rennie Galleries and Willowmead Junction Coffee Shop in
Harare.


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Rhodes Scholars Nominated



Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)

December 22, 2006
Posted to the web December 22, 2006

SUBJECT to confirmation by the Rhodes Trustees, the Rhodes Scholarship
Selection Committee for Zimbabwe has nominated Bryony Green and Benjamin
Robinson as the Rhodes Scholars for Zimbabwe for 2006.

Bryony was educated at the Dominican Convent High School where she obtained
6 "A"s at "O" level, captained the quiz team and won various dance and
debating awards, before proceeding to Chisipite where she was a school
prefect and chief sub-editor of the school magazine. She then proceeded to
Rhodes University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with
distinctions in English, Psychology and Philosophy in 2005, completed an
honours degree in Philosophy in 2006 and has currently embarked on her
Masters degree as one of the 20 Mandela Rhodes Scholars for 2007, which she
expects to complete by the end of August 2007.

She wishes to read for an M Phil in management studies at Oxford and become
involved in tertiary education in Zimbabwe.

Robinson was educated at St George's College, where he obtained 11 A's at
"O" level, before attending the United World College in Norway passing
International Baccalaureate examinations with excellent results.

He proceeded to Harvard University to take a degree in social studies and
German language and literature and is awaiting his final semester results,
all the previous 22 results being "A" grade passes. Whilst studying at
Harvard he did volunteer teaching in Boston public schools and spent two
months teaching literature to refugees in Northern India, two summers
studying in Germany and a semester studying at Cambridge University in
England. He is the recipient of various scholarships and awards and wishes
to read for a Bachelor of Philosophy degree at Oxford, to examine the values
on which society is organised and explore ways of improving such
organisation. -- Own Correspondent.


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'There's no Christmas' in Zimbabwe

Mail and Guardian

      Godfrey Marawanyika | Harare, Zimbabwe

      22 December 2006 12:29

            George Sachirarwe would love to share Christmas with his family
in rural Zimbabwe, but he is so strapped for cash he will stay put in Harare
instead.

            "I would have loved to go home but what would I buy for my
parents? I can't even afford to buy them the most basic goods," says
Sachirarwe, who works as a machine operator at a plastics factory in the
capital.

            "I'll just send my parents some money, but it won't be much just
in case the company doesn't open again in January," he said.

            Like so many other Zimbabweans, Sachirarwe's Christmas cheer has
been snuffed out by the dire state of the economy and fear that things are
only going to get worse in the beleaguered Southern African country.

            With unemployment at around 80 % and household staples such as
oil and bread often running out, few can afford to quaff on festive food and
drink.

            Fuel shortages have also made it near to impossible for others
to leave cities such as Harare and Bulawayo to travel back to their families
in the countryside over the holiday period.

            The galloping inflation rate, which currently stands at a world
record 1 098 %, has also helped push the price of public transport beyond
the reach of most people.

            The bus fare from Harare to the second city of Bulawayo is Z$11
500 ($46), up from Z$7 000 in early November. In December last year, the
same trip cost Z$3 000.

            "Since I started working in 2003 this is the first time I am not
going home because it is too expensive for me to travel," says Sachirarwe,
whose family come from the Mutare region, about 260km east of Harare.

            While civil servant Tsitsi Shava can at least spend Christmas
with her two children, she admits that they won't be getting any presents.

            "I cannot think of Christmas and New Year's celebrations when we
are struggling to get most basic commodities like sugar or bread from the
shops," says the 33-year-old.

            Instead of buying presents, Shava will now put the money aside
to pay for her children's school fees next month.

            The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says the escalating price
of basic goods meant few would have a chance to splash out this Christmas.

            "Christmas is usually the time when many people are expected to
afford many things and celebrate with friends and relatives," says CCZ
chairperson Phillip Bvumbe.

            "But with the rate at which prices have been going up of late,
many families would rather keep their earnings from salaries and bonuses for
their children's school fees come January.

            "I would say we do not have a Christmas for many families this
year."

            The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which has been
leading the campaign against the rule of veteran President Robert Mugabe,
says most workers will use the holiday to rest but there will not be any
celebrations.

            "There is no Christmas to talk about," ZCTU secretary general
Wellington Chibebe said.

            "Those who had their Christmas celebrations had them in
Goromonzi, where 80 cattle were slaughtered out of the 140 beasts they had.
That's what we call Christmas celebrations, when the whole nation is
suffering," he adds, in reference to the annual conference of Mugabe's
ruling party held last weekend.

            The streets of Harare are almost devoid of festive decorations
while few shops are bothering with Christmas displays in their windows.

            According to Marah Hatavagone, president of the Zimbabwe
National Chamber of Commerce, 2006 was a year most businesses would prefer
to forget.

            "Most small business organisations have actually folded this
year," she says.

            "I doubt if most of these companies managed to pay bonuses and I
doubt if many organisations will hold any Christmas celebrations for their
members of staff this year because of the gravity of the situation." -- 
Sapa-AFP


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Sinking, swimming or simply paddling

Radio Netherlands

Failed states - an introduction

by Eric Beauchemin

04-12-2006

The term "failed state" first emerged in the early 1990s. Today it is being
used more and more often by diplomats, policymakers, charities and the media
when they refer to countries such as Somalia, Haiti and the Democratic
Republic of Congo. According to the US National Security Council, "America
is threatened less by conquering states than by failing ones". But what is a
failed state?
There are a variety of definitions for failed or weak states. The narrow
definition is a nation that is unable to control its territory and to
provide fundamental security to its citizens. A broader definition, which is
used by many experts, is of a state that is also unable to deliver basic
services to its people such as water, electricity, education and public
health care.

Weak vs. Failed
There are considerable discussions in the academic world about the term
failed or weak state because the broad definition applies to many, if not a
majority of countries in the world. Even in wealthy nations such as the
United States, millions of people don't have access to health care and
education.

For Professor Martin Doornbos of the Institute of Social Studies in the
Hague, the concept is so vague that it is not actually useful. "In the end,
one can only say, I suppose, that a failed state is what somebody has in
mind of what a failed state might be or looks like."
Mark Schneider, the senior vice president of the International Crisis Group
in Washington, D.C., disagrees. He thinks we need to think of the term as a
continuum:

"What you are attempting to do is identify those states that are moving in
the wrong direction towards increased fragility and help them avoid
continuing down that slope to becoming a failed state."

Sick states
The Dutch Foreign Ministry, for its part, prefers the term weak state for
political and diplomatic reasons. After all, says Wepke Kingma, the head of
the Ministry's Africa Division, "it's not very polite to go to a president
and say 'hello, president of a failed state or a fragile state. We've come
to help you'."
Dr Stephen Ellis of the University of Leiden believes that failed states are
so different in nature that it isn't useful to put them all in one basket.
He compares the term to a mechanical metaphor:

".as if a state were like a car and it stops working. You get an auto
mechanic, fix it and then drive it again. But I think states are much more
like people. It's probably better to think of them in terms of health.
States fall ill and like people, they get unwell in different ways. When you
want to make them better, you bring in a doctor. He has to treat each
patient separately, according to their history and their symptoms."

Causes
There are a variety of factors that lead to state failure. Among them is
civil conflict, but Professor Doornbos says that it is not a precondition.

Some countries that have experienced armed internal conflict do eventually
collapse. But, he says, "some civil wars simply lead to separation. It might
even be better for that to happen than to try and keep a country together at
all costs."

There are other factors too that lead to state collapse. They include weak
leadership, corruption, large-scale criminal organisations, and the
political exclusion of ethnic, religious or minority groups. But there is no
standard recipe for state failure.

External players
Some experts argue that it has been the policy of international financial
institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to
weaken the economies of poor and fragile nations. David Sogge cites a study
carried out by two IMF economists:

"There's been a World Bank and IMF policy to shift the tax burden from
external flows - duties and export taxes - to internal sources: citizens and
their economic transactions. Now, states have complied with that, and the
results have been - according to these two IMF economists - catastrophic.
Instead of finding that their tax base has been strengthened by these
measures - which is what the IMF had told them would happen - the states
have actually become poorer."

Professor Doornbos shares the same view. He says that many states today in
the developing world are more fragile than ever. They do not have the
capacity to keep their nations together. Increasingly, he says, donors are
developing policies for poor countries, without taking into account their
wishes and priorities.

Are states needed?
Since the end of the Second World War, our international order has been
based on sovereign states, but many of today's countries, particularly in
Africa, only came about as a result of colonisation.

"One of Africa's contributions to human history," says Dr Ellis, "is to show
how it's possible for people to live together not in states and still to get
on together and to do all the things that human populations do when they
have some sort of peace and harmony."

A more recent example of how countries can function without national
structures is Somalia. Fifteen years ago, Somalia collapsed, after years of
political, economic and social upheaval. According to Dr Doornbos, who has
visited the country on a number of occasions, it's surprising to see all the
things that are possible without the benefit of a state.

"Somalis remember the frightening years of [the dictator] Siad Barre who
terrorised his own people till 1991 [when he was deposed]. One can
understand that some Somalis might be just as happy without a state as with
one."

Solutions
But today's world depends on states, and considerable efforts are being
deployed to get nations out of state failure. They can involve sending in UN
forces to help end an armed conflict, such as in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, the former Yugoslavia or Haiti. It is a process which can take years,
and even afterwards, there continues to be a need for international
engagement.

While there is no single recipe for state failure, there's also no unique
recipe to get countries out of the abyss. Perhaps, says Dr Doornbos, we
should simply accept the fact that state failure is part of the normal state
of affairs.

"It can be that we are witnessing a formative tendency that takes a very
prolonged time. There can be setbacks that lead to partial or even complete
collapse. But there will always be new forms of political organisation
emerging."

The consequences for the citizens of weak or failed states are, of course,
another matter. Deprived of security and basic services, they are left to
fend for themselves in a nation where money, power and luck are the only
guarantees of life and a better future.

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