| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
| 24 Dec 2003 04:00 GMT WSJ(12/24) Once A Breadbasket, Zimbabwe Can't Feed Itself | |
| Copyright © 2003, Dow Jones Newswires | |
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) By Roger ThurowPUPU, Zimbabwe -- There will be no traditional Christmas goat roasting on a spit here this year, and no Christmas chickens, either. The prospect of Christmas beer dried up long ago, along with the supplies of sorghum used for brewing. The big holiday helpings of corn meal will be smaller than usual, for corn, the nation's staple food, is the scarcest commodity of all. "We don't have enough food to really celebrate this year," says Luka Philip Ngwenya. "Christmas will just come and go like any other day." For most people, that will mean a small ration of corn meal, supplemented with the roasted Mopani caterpillars and dried wild fruit that have helped keep villagers alive for the past couple of months. Mr. Ngwenya, a 63-year-old peasant farmer, stretched out under a dying Msasa tree in one of the hungriest places in one of the hungriest countries in the world. He waited patiently, along with hundreds of his neighbors, for the monthly distribution of food from the U.N.'s World Food Program and the aid organization, World Vision. On that day, 4,008 people were fed -- 70% of the local population. Throughout Zimbabwe, international humanitarian agencies are gearing up to feed more than six million people, which is more than half of the entire nation. That makes Zimbabwe, proportionally at least, the neediest recipient of food aid in the world. The feeding of such multitudes is a surprising sight in a country that several years ago was selling up to 500,000 metric tons of surplus food to the WFP for distribution to starving people elsewhere. Now, it receives 500,000 tons of food aid. Zimbabwe today is home to many of the same factors, natural and man-made, that are propelling an increase in the number of hungry people world-wide -- even though more food is being produced than ever before. A scorching drought has taken a toll here. But the situation has been exacerbated by politics. President Robert Mugabe, in the face of rising opposition, pushed a fast-track land reform that confiscated white-owned commercial farms and redistributed the property to loyal supporters of his Zanu-PF party. Many of the new owners were inexperienced in running large agribusinesses and food production has fallen dramatically. In Christmases past, as recently as four or five years ago, when Zimbabwe was a breadbasket of Africa, this was a time of communal feasting and Christian celebration. But now, most families don't have enough for themselves, let alone for sharing. Rampant food shortages and an inflation rate soaring toward 700% have made goats and chickens too expensive to eat. "Even if we have a chicken for a special meal, it is better to sell it for money to buy other food," says Lahlekile Mpofu, a skinny, elderly woman who opens up a ragged plastic bag to receive her ration of split peas. She and others came to this distribution last week hoping there might be a Christmas present of a bit more food than usual. Instead, organizers announced they would actually be getting less, as the standard ration of corn meal was cut in half to 11 pounds. The pipeline of international food aid into the country is growing thin, the hungry were told, so corn-meal rations were reduced this month to make supplies stretch until the next harvest in April or May. "What can we do? We have no choice," Mrs. Mpofu says with a shrug. "Half a loaf is better than none." The drought is into its third year in some rural places such as Pupu. HIV/AIDS has stricken one-third of Zimbabwe's adults and is devastating the ranks of productive farm workers. So many people are dying that one of the few thriving industries is funerals. The county's largest funeral company announced last week that it would be opening five new parlors around the country, prompting speculation that it might even seek a listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. Today only a couple of hundred of the 4,500 confiscated farms are still fully functioning. Harvests of food staples plummeted by as much as 90%, livestock herds dwindled and production of the main cash crop, tobacco, slumped badly. The resulting dearth of foreign currency has caused shortages of seed, fertilizer and fuel, which in turn have led to a drop in production on the peasant farms. Unemployment, which has soared to 70%, combines with the inflation rate to make whatever food is available too expensive for most of the population. A goat now costs as much as the equivalent of $200, which would nearly consume a teacher's monthly salary. Human-rights groups have charged that the ruling party has doled out food that is being produced locally in exchange for electoral support. In October, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch released a report documenting examples of residents being forced to display a Zanu-PF party membership card before being given some government grain. Those that didn't went hungry, the group says. "Zimbabwe stands alone as how one person can ruin a country," says Tony Hall, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the WFP. Mr. Mugabe, he says, "has committed crimes against humanity." Mr. Mugabe has dismissed such criticism, as well as the financial and travel sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe against him, as the actions of rich, white nations that don't want to see a black African country succeed. His government rarely issues visas to foreign correspondents, branding them agents of Western critics. Reporters who do slip into the country must report clandestinely and are unable to question government officials. In the past, Mr. Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, has blamed his troubles on former colonial master Britain for not supporting land reform earlier. Britain has said that Mr. Mugabe corrupted the process by rewarding the party faithful. Addressing a party conference earlier this month, Mr. Mugabe defended his government's seizure of commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans. "Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours," he told his followers, according to local press reports of the conference. "We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe." January to April are the toughest months in Zimbabwe as food stocks from the previous spring's harvest are exhausted. During that period earlier this year, the international community fed seven million of Zimbabwe's 12 million people. Now, the numbers are inching up to that mark again, as hunger also takes hold among unemployed urban residents and the resettled farmers. At the same time, the pipeline of food aid coming into the country is getting thinner. After two years of sending food to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Ethiopia and other African nations, donor fatigue seems to be setting in. Humanitarian-aid agencies are finding donations aren't keeping pace with all the competing demands. In Zimbabwe, the crisis has deteriorated rapidly. While neighboring countries such as Zambia and Malawi, which were also stricken by drought, have recovered as the weather has improved, Zimbabwe, with its political and economic turmoil, hasn't. In December, the WFP had enough cereals, mainly corn meal, to meet only 49% of estimated requirements, which is why it went to half-rations. By March, given current donor pledges and scheduled shipments, it estimates it will be able to meet only 25% of cereal requirements and 19% of staples such as beans and peas. It takes about two months for food donations to be shipped to Zimbabwe, and at the moment, there is little scheduled to arrive in April. The WFP is trying to generate more donations of food or money for Zimbabwe. If it doesn't, rations will continue to get smaller to stretch out the food that is in the pipeline. This puts the U.S. in the quandary of responding to a humanitarian crisis in a country led by a government it has stridently criticized, somewhat like the situation in North Korea. Even though the U.S. has pushed to isolate the Mugabe government, it has sent aid to the country. Since 2002, the U.S. has donated 437,000 metric tons of food to Zimbabwe. One group that hasn't received much international aid so far are farmers on the resettled lands in Zimbabwe. International aid agencies say some large donors have been reluctant to have their money and food go to these farmers because the donors don't want to support Mr. Mugabe's land program. The government, in turn, hasn't cooperated with aid agencies seeking to do a needs survey on those lands. The U.S. and the European Union, the two largest donors of food to Zimbabwe, say they are monitoring the situation there and will continue to respond to humanitarian need. Next year's harvest may not offer much relief. Even if the weather cooperates, the corn production in Zimbabwe isn't expected to exceed this year's harvest of about 800,000 tons. Already, the international aid community in the U.S. and Europe is penciling in a 1 million-ton deficit for 2004. In the western area of the country around Pupu, the outlook is bleak. The rains are late, seeds are scarce and many animals once used for plowing have died from a lack of food and water. The yield from last April's meager harvest began running out in August, forcing many people to survive on tea, wild fruit and the Mopani caterpillars, which in good times are eaten as a snack, not as sustenance. The WFP and World Vision, which fed this area during the lean months last year, returned again in November. "If they didn't come back, people would be dying," says Siphatisiwe Ncube while waiting in line for food. Field monitors of international aid agencies report scattered cases of desperate farmers eating their seeds rather than waiting for optimal planting conditions. Under the Msasa tree in Pupu, Mr. Ngwenya and a dozen other peasant farmers say they haven't resorted to that. But are they tempted? "Oh, yes," they shout in unison. (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires December 23, 2003 23:00 ET (04:00 GMT) | |
| 24 Dec 2003 04:00 GMT WSJ(12/24) Once A Breadbasket, Zimbabwe Can't Feed -2- | |
|
(END) Dow Jones Newswires | |
Misrepresentation of SA
government's dealings with MDC serves a political
agenda
Frank Chikane
Some in our country persist in communicating the fabrication
that our
government has not been in contact with Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). The blatant untruth has been told that
last week
President Thabo Mbeki met MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the
first time.
The president has met Tsvangirai a number of times. In addition,
our
government has been in regular contact with the MDC for almost three
years.
The last of these contacts in SA took place a few days before the
recent
Commonwealth meeting in Nigeria. As a result of this meeting, and as
has
happened on other occasions in the past, Mbeki agreed to take up
with
President Robert Mugabe, as a matter of urgency, various matters raised
by
the MDC delegation. Before Zimbabwe's presidential elections last
year,
Mbeki asked the secretary-general of the African National Congress
(ANC),
Kgalema Motlanthe, to meet the leaders of Zanu PF and the MDC, to
encourage
them to work together to ensure that the elections were free and
fair.
The ruling party, the ANC, has maintained more frequent contact
with the MDC
than with Zanu PF. Since Zimbabwe's presidential elections,
these have been
on an almost monthly basis. Our government and the ANC have
worked for some
time to encourage the leaders of these parties to enter into
serious
negotiations. This necessitates that we should be in contact with
both
political parties. The approach is supported by the MDC, the
Zimbabwean
Christian leaders and South African national religious leaders.
Last year's
negotiations came about precisely as a result of these contacts,
as did the
informal talks that Mbeki mentioned during President George Bush's
visit in
July, which were confirmed last week by both Mugabe and
Tsvangirai.
The pursuit of particular political agendas, and not
Zimbabwe's interests,
explains why some insist on communicating the
persistent and blatant
falsehood about the issue of contact between the MDC
and us. The same can be
said about the false charge that has been made that
we have not spoken out
about what has been described as the issue of human
rights in Zimbabwe. Our
president and government have spoken on this matter
many times, both
privately and publicly. In 2000 alone, the president
addressed these issues
at a press conference at Victoria Falls in the
presence of Mugabe; in his
May 4 address to the nation; in his speech at the
Zimbabwe Trade Fair the
next day; and when the president opened the Cape Town
Convention of the
South African Chamber of Commerce in October. Since then,
government has,
through the ministers and foreign affairs department, issued
a number of
statements on these matters.
The recent statement of
the Johannesburg religious leaders criticising our
government is therefore
most puzzling. These leaders are aware that Mbeki
made a detailed
presentation on Zimbabwe to the National Religious Leaders
Forum, which the
president meets at least twice a year. Johannesburg's
religious leaders
accuse our home affairs department of slowing down
applications of Zimbabwean
refugees and mishandling Zimbabweans, allegedly
because of corruption. They
go on to say that "senior government
authorities" have been appraised of the
alleged misdeeds at home affairs.
For their part, regrettably, they have not
bothered to provide these senior
government authorities with the information
they claim to have. Nor have
they used the channels of communication that
have been established between
national religious leaders and government.
Neither is the local United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office
aware of this information.
Since 1994, 148134 people have sought
asylum in our country. Of these, more
than 24000 came from the Democratic
Republic of Congo. More than 12000 each
came from Pakistan and Nigeria. There
were more than 11000 Somalis; more
than 4000 Senegalese and Tanzanians each;
more than 2000 Ugandans; and
almost as many from Rwanda. Zimbabwean asylum
seekers amounted to slightly
more than 1500. The majority have been in SA for
more than three years. They
have Zimbabwean passports, which they use to go
home often. The overwhelming
majority of applicants say they want to stay
here because of better economic
conditions. Only 15 appeals for asylum have
been received during the current
financial year, of which 10 are still being
processed. Currently there are
more than 1000 Zimbabweans at the Lindela
Detention Centre, used to hold
illegal immigrants. As happens regularly at
this time of the year, the
majority came to the centre on their own,
requesting that our government
transport them free of charge back to
Zimbabwe.
It is not surprising that those with a political mission
should resort to
fabrications to achieve their goals. It is most distressing
that
Johannesburg's religious leaders opted to attack the South
African
government on the basis of information that has not been
tested.
Unfortunately, elements of untruth in their statements tend to club
them
together with these political self-seekers.
Chikane is
director-general in the presidency
From Business Day (SA), 24 December
Presidency hits back at critics on Zimbabwe
Chikane hits at stinging criticism of quiet diplomacy from church leaders
Stung by criticism of its policy on Zimbabwe from
leading clergymen at the
weekend, the presidency went on the offensive
yesterday, defending President
Thabo Mbeki's record and questioning the
clergymen's motives. The defence of
Mbeki's much-criticised policy of "quiet
diplomacy" by his director-general,
Frank Chikane, comes amid attempts by
Mbeki to get talks going between
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF and the main
opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). Mbeki is under
pressure to show dividends from his
approach, and while there is no deadline
for a settlement, the US and other
Group of Eight countries have signalled
that SA has until about the middle
of next year to prove that its policy
works. If it fails, SA could suffer a
severe loss of international
goodwill.
Chikane's comments, in an article in Business Day today,
also show that the
presidency is keen to show its credentials as an honest
broker by
underscoring the contacts it has had with the MDC. Dismissing
claims that
Mbeki had met MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the first time
last week,
Chikane said the South African government had been in regular
contact with
the MDC for almost three years. He said the African National
Congress
maintained more frequent contact with the MDC than with Zanu PF
since last
year's Zimbabwean presidential election, meeting almost monthly.
But the
spokesman for the group of church leaders, Methodist Bishop Paul
Verryn,
pointed out yesterday that the leaders had made no reference to
contact, or
the lack thereof, between the South African government and the
MDC. The
church leaders' criticism had dealt mainly with "disgraceful
bureaucratic
ineptitude" in the home affairs department, where officials
sought bribes
from asylum seekers, and the issue of human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe.
Chikane, who is a churchman himself, said the weekend
statement by
Johannesburg church leaders was "most puzzling". He criticised
"the false
charge that has been made that we have not spoken out about what
has been
described as the issue of human rights in Zimbabwe". He accused the
church
leaders of spreading "blatant untruths" and of having "particular
political
agendas" that were not in the interests of Zimbabwe. "It is most
distressing
that the Johannesburg religious leaders chose to attack the South
African
government on the basis of information that has not been
tested.
Unfortunately, elements of untruth in their statements tend to club
them
together with political self-seekers," Chikane said. He said that
despite
having claimed to have appraised "senior government officials" of
misdeeds
in the home affairs department, "they have not bothered to provide
the
authorities with the information they claim to have". The statement
by
Johannesburg church leaders followed a broadside by Anglican
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, which is understood to have irked the presidency.
Tutu said
SA's stance raised the question of what would stop SA from lapsing
into
undemocratic practices if it was indifferent to what was happening north
of
its border.
Business Day
Fool's
paradise
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Reading
about South African church leaders' reaction to President Thabo
Mbeki's
continued support for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, I think of
the inept
former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who visited
Adolf Hitler
and came back to Britain proclaiming "peace in our time" when
in reality the
start of the Second World War was imminent.
Chamberlain was living in a
fool's paradise, and the fear must be that our
president is on a similar
path.
Sadly, both Chamberlain and Mbeki regarded themselves as
intellectuals with
both being fooled by cunning despotism.
Philip
Bacchioni
Zimbabwe: Rise in Drop Out Rate Feared Over School Fees Hike
UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks
December 24, 2003
Posted to
the web December 24, 2003
Harare
When Zimbabwe's new school year
begins next month, some parents are going to
be forced to choose which of
their children to educate as a result of a hike
in school fees of between 200
to 2,000 percent.
Inevitably girls are likely to be pulled out of class
first, threatening
Zimbabwe's impressive strides towards gender parity in
school enrolment.
Livingstone Sinyoro has four children currently in
secondary school in the
capital, Harare. With the fees' hike he cannot afford
to educate all of
them, and two will have to drop out.
"The two girls
will not be going to school next year since they can read and
write. They can
be married, so I better try to send the boys," Sinyoro
told
IRIN.
"It's the girls who are often the first ones to drop out,
either because
they are forced into earlier marriages because it's the best
economic option
for a family, or they become involved in high-risk behaviour
to seek money
on the streets," UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Information
Officer Shantha
Bloemen explained.
The government pays only a portion
of the running costs of public schools.
The shortfall is covered by funds or
levies that are raised by school
governing councils.
Parents serving
on these bodies, at the more than 6,000 government schools
across the
country, have been meeting this week to discuss next year's fees.
The school
authorities say that, with an inflation rate of over 600 percent,
there is no
alternative but to ask parents to pay more.
One secondary school in
Mbare, a high-density suburb of Harare, is set to
increase its fees from Zim
$5,000 (US $6) to Zim $15,000 (US $18) in
January. The school serves a
largely working class community, with as many
as 80 percent of parents
currently unemployed.
At Oriel Boys High School, which caters for
children from middle-income
families, fees are to rise from Zim $200,000 (US
$242) to Zim $1 million (US
$1,213).
"I have three children, one at
Oriel Boys High School and two at St Dominic,
which means I need $20,000 (US
$24) a day for transport and other
allowances, plus fees. This is bad news,"
said frustrated parent, Tedious
Ndoro, a civil servant. He told IRIN it would
be difficult for him to send
all three children to school.
Education
Minister Aenias Chigwedere has blamed "unscrupulous" schools
rather than the
economy for the rise in fees. He told the official Herald
newspaper that his
department did not have the funds to increase its
subsidies to the schools to
help offset the hike.
A UNICEF report this month said that the school
drop out rate, currently at
10 percent, was likely to rise in January with
the new school year.
Until three years ago, when the economic and
humanitarian crisis began to
bite, Zimbabwe had enviable education record and
a literacy of between 80
and 90 percent.
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE
COMMUNIQUÉS - December 23, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
JAG Christmas Communiqué
2. Security Communiqué
3.
Compensation/Restitution
Communiqué
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
JAG Christmas Communiqué
2003 has not been an easy year for anybody.
Farmers and their workers have
continued to be evicted from their homes and
their businesses by the regime
through unjust and often violent means and
commercial agriculture is now
only a flickering shadow of what it was. The
economy as a result continues
to collapse and hunger continues to stalk
through our lands.
New legislation has allowed the state sponsored
looting to be legalised by
presidential decree with the possibility of taking
over our tractors and
equipment, fertilisers and chemicals, irrigation pipes
and bulk curers all
waiting in the wings to be used to kick-start the economy
and feed our
Nation once more.
Ground Zero is coming very close. We
are surely now in our darkest hour.
For many, the situation has been
described simply as "hopeless". At JAG
however we believe that there is no
such thing as a hopeless situation -
there are only people who are without
hope, hopeless people tend to spread
their hopelessness like a cancer and we
urge you not to fall into this trap
that our oppressors have set for
us.
We need to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
(Hebrews 12
vs 1). We need to "run in such a way as to get the prize*not run
like a
man running aimlessly*or fight like a man beating the air." (1
Corinthians
9 vs 26).
At JAG we believe in God's promises and will
continue to stand by them
through this Christmas time and during the
hardships of the New Year. "For
I know the plans I have for you, declares
the Lord, plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope
and the future then you will
call upon me and come and pray to me and I will
listen to you. You will
seek me and find me when you seek me with all your
heart."
We wish you a happy Christmas and ask you to remember those that
are
struggling more than yourselves at this time. We will be closing
the
office until New Year but will be reachable by cell phone.
John
Worsley-Worswick 011 612 595
Ben Freeth 011 207
860
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
Security Communiqué
Please warn your children that two weeks ago there
were two incidents of
drink spiking which occurred at Origins nightclub in
Borrowdale. I
personally know one of the young women. The observations from
her friend
were "she had a glazed look on her face, was disoriented, became
agitated
when we tried to take her outside, and after a few hours when her
behaviour
normalized, she was unable to recollect the preceding hours".
This
sounds like Rohypnol, which is commonly known as the "date rape drug".
It
can be put into a drink, and the victim then exhibits behaviour similar
to
the aforementioned. It blocks out memory while it is effective in
the
body, hence girls who are "date raped" cannot recall whom, what or
when.
So long as all our youth are aware of this, they will know what to do
if
any of their friends appear to have been affected. Get them home or into
a
safe environment.
The Management of Origins has been advised but it
is obviously not
something that they can prevent or be held responsible for.
The
responsibility is in the youth being aware and taking appropriate
action.
Kerry
Kay.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Compensation/Restitution Communiqué
COMPENSATION/ RESTITUTION
With
the latest proposed Amendments to the Land Acquisition Act (due to be
debated
in Parliament sometime after 20 January 2004 and already facing a
very
adverse Parliamentary Legal Committee report) it has become more
important
for farmers to complete their JAG Loss Claim Documents as a
matter of
urgency.
Farmers will have five options open to them in early
2004.
1. The Paper printed version for the farmers that do not have
access to a
computer. That is step one for you. Step two will be to take your
paper
version to a facilitator or to the JAG office, to have your
information
entered onto the database and your final document printed and
bound.
2. The second option would be to take your documents and
information to a
facilitator and have one of them do the complete document
for you. This
will take a couple of visits and a little longer and cost a
little more but
the work is done for you and you get a professionally
compiled and
completed document.
3. The third option is for farmers
who are computer literate and have the
time to collect the electronic version
from the office and complete the
document in your own time. This will take a
lot more of your own time and
input but will be less expensive and will
result in a feeling of
satisfaction in having completed an important chapter.
This version still
needs to be screened onto the database and you still need
to have the
document printed and bound.
4. The fourth option will be a
six-day course for farmers lasting three
hours per day. At the end of those
eighteen hours you will have the
completed document entered onto the database
and printed and bound. For
this farmers will need to register early next
year. Eleven farmers at a
time will do the course each will have a computer
and will do all the work
under the guidance of an instructor. Please contact
the office with your
contact details as soon as possible to help coordinate
the course.
5. The final version will only be available in March when
farmers, any
where, will be able to fill in their loss docs from the
website. This will
be in a very user-friendly format and will ensure that
you are on the
central database and will ensure that you can print and bind
your document
at your own convenience as and when necessary.
The whole
process will still be controlled and verified by the JAG office.
We will also
increase the staff at the office to assist farmers when they
come in. We will
also have a scanner running full time to assist people who
do not have access
to one.
The JAG Los Claim document is a tool that the farmer must use to
protect
his assets and legal rights.
Justice Accountability and
Compensation/Restitution are part of a process.
Without your participation
there will be no Justice or Accountability
or
Compensation/Restitution.
To all farmers The Jag Team wish you a
peaceful Christmas and New Year full
of change and hope.
VOA
Economists Disappointed With Zimbabwe Economic Reforms
Barry
Wood
Washington
24 Dec 2003, 00:47 UTC
International economists
are expressing disappointment with the financial
reform measures announced
December 18 by Zimbabwe's new central bank chief,
Gideon
Gono.
Multilateral economic organizations were hoping that Mr. Gono's
monetary
policy statement would contain tangible measures to halt
Zimbabwe's
accelerating economic decline. Instead, say policy experts, Mr.
Gono
resisted bold measures that might have included a currency devaluation.
He
chose to maintain the current, trade distorting system of having
two
exchange rates one set by the government, the other by the free
market.
Exporters, said Mr. Gono, will be allowed to keep half of the
their foreign
exchange earnings but must surrender 25 percent at the official
exchange
rate of 824 Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S. dollar. The free market
rate is
6,000 Zimbabwe dollars to one. Mr. Gono pledged to restrain money
supply
growth and bring the current 500 percent inflation rate down to 200
percent
by the end of 2004.
The economic message contained no measures
that would halt the precipitous
decline in food production that is associated
with a socially disruptive
land redistribution program.
Tajudeen
Abdulraheem, a London commentator who heads the Pan African
Movement, blames
President Robert Mugabe for a land reform that he says has
impoverished the
people it was intended to help.
"More black people have been killed or
continue to be harassed or have been
victimized [in the confiscation of white
farms] than white people," he said.
"What kind of land reform is this that
targets the black people that it
claims it (the government) wants to return
the land to? For me, the issue in
Zimbabwe is a governance issue, in terms of
an intolerant administration and
an intolerant political elite that has been
exhausted and is exhausting the
country."
Mr. Abdulraheem, a Ugandan,
believes the crisis in Zimbabwe has deteriorated
to the point where the issue
is how Zimbabweans can rid themselves of a
leader he compares to Uganda's
former president Idi Amin.
"We've been down this road before," he said.
"The same thing [as with Amin
when he got rid of the Asian traders]. Mugabe
is very popular among many
Africans simply because we are still stuck in the
anti-imperialism,
anti-colonialism mold. Many Africans are still stuck at
fighting Ian Smith
[the former Rhodesian leader who still lives in Zimbabwe],
whereas the
burden for the majority of Zimbabweans today is not Ian Smith. It
is Robert
Mugabe and the Zanu-PF regime."
Economists anticipate
further distress in Zimbabwe amid predictions that
inflation could soon reach
800 percent and unemployment 70 percent. Food
production continues to decline
and half of Zimbabwe's population is now
dependent on food
assistance.
jang.com
England’s Zimbabwe tour decision in February
LONDON:
England’s cricketers should find out whether their Tour of Zimbabwe
scheduled
for late next year will go ahead when the England Cricket Board
meet in
February. England refused to play a World Cup match in Harare
earlier this
year amid intense pressure over human rights issues in Robert
Mugabe’s
strife-torn state. And the ECB, who took the decision not to play
that World
Cup match, are adamant that again a final ruling on the October
Tour’s fate
rests with them. ECB chief executive Tim Lamb told BBC Radio on
Tuesday: "As
things stand we are scheduled to go to Zimbabwe in October
2004. "We will
make a decision at the right time, for the right reasons and
with the right
people making that decision." He added: "We are well aware of
the pressure
that we will come under. It’s going to be a question of
balancing the
political and moral argument with our obligations to the
international
fraternity." Reflecting back on the World Cup Lamb said: "It
was the ECB that
decided in the end not to go to Harare to play that World
Cup match. "We
didn’t receive necessary assurances over safety and
security."
SABC
SA set to pass land expropriation measure
December 24, 2003,
05:37 AM
The South African state will be able to speed up the
expropriation of
white-owned land under legislation President Thabo Mbeki is
expected to sign
this week, Tozi Gwanya, the Chief Land Claims Commissioner,
said yesterday.
The measure will give the agriculture minister the
authority to seize and
redistribute land deemed to have been stolen from
blacks during the
apartheid era even if the white owner refuses to sell it,
cutting short the
present slow claims procedure.
Gwanya said the
amendment to the 1994 Restitution Act, passed by parliament
earlier this
year, would speed up land reform where arbitration had come to
a dead
end.
The law has alarmed many white farmers who fear it may trigger a
crisis like
that in neighbouring Zimbabwe, and are angry at what they see as
a lack of
action against those who have murdered hundreds of white farmers in
the past
decade.
'Willing buyer, willing seller'
"The 'willing
buyer, willing seller' principle is a farce when a landowner
is compelled to
negotiate for his property, while a threat of expropriation
is suspended over
his head," said a statement from the hard-line TAU SA
white farmers
union.
Political analysts say the violent land seizures in crisis-hit
Zimbabwe
demonstrate the urgency of resolving the land issue in South Africa,
where
much of the most fertile farmland remains in white hands almost a
decade
after the end of apartheid.
"The current legislation is not
adequate... at present the minister can only
expropriate if it is awarded by
the land claims court, and that process has
been taking too long," Gwanya
said. Two contested cases that went to
arbitration took six years to resolve,
he added.
In contrast to farm seizures in neighbouring Zimbabwe, South
Africa's
existing law operates on a 'willing buyer, willing seller' basis,
or
expropriation with compensation after a lengthy court
process.
Under the new rule, the government can simply expropriate land
if there is a
claim on it, and the farmer's right to appeal is limited to the
amount of
compensation, Gwanya said.
Last week South African police
warned black activists not to invade
white-owned farms.
"This is not a
land grab. We are negotiating and trying to get a fair
price," said Gwanya,
the civil servant charged with weighing various land
claims and making
proposals to the agriculture ministry. There is a violent
occupation of farms
in Zimbabwe. Here none of the claimants are allowed to
go and occupy other
people's land," he added.
Thousands of blacks were evicted from their
land during the apartheid era,
under the 1913 Native Land Act and the harsher
1936 law, which cleared
so-called "black spots".
Gwanya predicted that
expropriation powers would be needed in only five to
10% of outstanding
cases. Some 45 000 of the 70 000 claims made by a 1998
deadline have already
been settled. - Reuters
news.com.au
DFAT seeks Zimbabwe death facts
24dec03
THE Federal
Government is seeking clarification of mixed reports about how
many people
have been arrested over the murder of a Perth man in Zimbabwe.
Chris
Gallus, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
said
yesterday Zimbabwe police had arrested two men over the murder of
51-year-old
Philip Laing.
Ms Gallus also said the identities of two other alleged
offenders were
known.
But reports from Zimbabwe today said only one
man had been captured.
Zimbabwe Police spokesman Andrew Phiri told Agence
France-Presse one suspect
from the low-income Harare suburb of Buduriro had
been arrested in
connection with the murder.
The
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would seek an update on
the
Zimbabwe investigation as soon as possible, taking into account the
time
difference.
"What Ms Gallus said yesterday was what we were told
by the local
authorities," a DFAT spokeswoman said.
"We're continuing
to follow up with the local authorities, and are
encouraging an early
resolution to this matter."
Mr Laing was killed last Thursday in the
Honde Valley, in Manicaland
Province, after employees were abducted from the
offices of the Eastern
Highlands Tea Estate during an armed
robbery.
Mr Laing, finance director for the British-owned company, was
handcuffed to
a tree and left to die after being forced to drink acid that
was then poured
over his head.
Today, his brother-in-law John Kirkman
said he was not surprised by the
conflicting reports.
"It's not very
surprising to me at all," Mr Kirkman said.
"I'm still a little sceptical
of their investigation, I lived there and I
know they're not the most
effective, or committed to finding these people."
Mr Kirkman said he
believed Zimbabwean authorities were only putting out
reports on the murder
investigation to avoid pressure from Australia.
New Zimbabwe
Mugabe bids to withdraw Econet's licence
By Mduduzi
Mathuthu
Editor
24/12/03
THE Zimbabwe government has begun moves to
shut down Zimbabwe’s biggest and
first mobile phone operator Econet Wireless
in an apparent bid to punish
Strive Masiyiwa, the company’s chief executive
officer, for sponsoring the
banned independent Daily News paper.
The
embattled government said Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has been
under
investigation for 12 months and the outcome of that investigation
showed the
company was being used to finance “subversive activities” to
“undermine”
President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
The government will
claim that Econet has been making business through
international calls but
the foreign currency from it’s external businesses
was not being remitted
back to Zimbabwe as per strict government
regulations.
“This is
contrary to a government directive that there should be one gateway
for
international calls in the country to safeguard national security and in
the
economic interest of the State,” the official Herald
newspaper
announced.
Masiyiwa who is the majority shareholder at
Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe, publishers of The Daily News, is no
stranger to legal battles. He
fought a six-year-long legal marathon to get
Econet an operating licence as
the government repeatedly attempted to thwart
him.
Easily Zimbabwe’s most powerful and successful businessman, Masiyiwa
has
since been involved in similar fights in Nigeria and Kenya where
larger
international telecoms companies have been trying to elbow Econet
out.
President Mugabe’s regime appears to have been miffed by Masiyiwa’s
defiance
after The Daily News was twice bombed by suspected government agents
and
three times invaded by the police despite court directives for the paper
to
re-open yet it continues to bounce back.
In fact Masiyiwa has
pledged to fight with “all I have” to get the paper
back on the streets. He
has further pledged to pay the newspaper’s estimated
500 staff their salaries
for TWO years, regardless of whether a paper is
published or not.
The
Herald seemed to betray the government’s anger at Masiyiwa’s
persistence,
pointing out that the publication of a special edition of The
Daily News at
the Commonwealth Heads of State summit in Nigeria three weeks
ago was
probably the smoking gun they needed before pouncing.
"The government
knows very well that the Daily News is literally broke and
cannot afford to
raise the required foreign currency to publish a newspaper
in another
country,” the paper quoted a shadowy source most likely to be a
government
minister.
The unnamed official added: "It becomes clear that the
publisher is using
his mobile phone company to fund the production of
subversive material meant
to cause the most damage to Zimbabwe.”
The
paper further claimed that the Postal and Telecommunications
Regulatory
Authority which was supposed to enforce the government regulations
had not
done so. The paper claims this has “raised eyebrows”, before going
further
to allege that the Attorney General’s Office was also “dragging its
feet” on
the matter.
These latest moves are now all too familiar to
Zimbabweans. The Daily News
was the country’s biggest selling newspaper with
a Daily readership of
almost one million people, but the government shut it
down with little
regard for the majority of the population who found interest
in the paper.
Despite repeated court judgements for the authorities to
allow the paper –
closed in September – to resume publishing, the government
has been quick to
send in the police. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo
claims the judgements
are “academic”.
According to the Herald, the
majority of outgoing international calls from
Zimbabwe are made through the
government-owned NetOne gateway whereas the
majority of incoming calls go
through the Econet and the Telecel gateways
with the bulk going through
Econet.
“This means NetOne has to pay for the outgoing calls in foreign
currency
while it does not receive foreign currency. As a result, NetOne has
not been
able to develop its network capacity and has had to cut roaming
services
owing to foreign currency shortages,” the paper said.
"The
three cellular phone service providers are supposed to use one gateway
in
which they can be shareholders in terms of international practice rather
than
multiple gateways.”
Zimbabwe faces crippling foreign currency shortages.
New Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono reportedly made reference to “foreign
currency leakages
in the telecommunications sector” resulting from the use of
multiple
gateways.
Masiyiwa, once voted among the top three most
influential businessmen in the
world by a CNN, Time Magazine poll now lives
in self-imposed exile in South
Africa. He has led a break-away group of young
businessmen who have refused
to support President Mugabe’s regime.
The
government blames Econet Wireless for spearheading the rejection of
a
government constitutional referendum in 2000. It is claimed Econet
phones
were used to send messages urging the people to reject the government
draft.
Only two weeks ago, President Mugabe was in Switzerland accusing
developed
western countries of using new technology to “foment chaos” and
“undermine”
elected governments in poor and developing countries.
The
Herald also appeared to blame Masiyiwa for Zimbabwe’s isolation from
the
Commonwealth and other international sanctions slapped on the regime
for
human rights abuses and allegations that elections were
rigged.
”Sanctions instigated by the British government have brought
untold
suffering among ordinary Zimbabweans as the cost of most goods and
services
have shot beyond the reach of many owing to foreign currency
shortages,” The
Herald noted, adding mournfully: “The sanctions have meant
that Zimbabwe
cannot borrow from international finance institutions while
bilateral aid
and grants have also dried up.”
The Herald
Phones make criminals sophisticated: Chihuri
By Freeman
Razemba
WIDESPREAD use of cellphones and other means of communication are
providing
criminals the opportunity to commit crime, Police Commissioner
Augustine
Chihuri has said.
He said improved communication systems had
brought about a conducive
environment for criminal
activities.
"Communication systems have been fully embraced across the
nation in
particular and the international community in general," he said in
an
interview recently.
"While the benefits to Zimbabwe and the entire
global economy can be easily
acknowledged, the trend has brought about a
conducive environment for
criminal activity."
Comm Chihuri said crime
was one of the oldest forms of deviance and
criminals were viewed as central
in destabilising societal norms, values and
customs.
He said the
traditional crimes continued to pose a menace to the safety of
property,
lives and the preservation of the social fabric.
Society looked up to the
police for protection, the Police Commissioner
said.
He appealed for
co-operation in the fight against crime.
"In Zimbabwe, people want peace
and stability that emanate from the security
measures taken by the police
force as a national law enforcement agent.
"Under the ideal situation,
people must sleep peacefully even without
locking doors, walk half dressed
without being raped, molested or violated,"
said Comm Chihuri.
An
initial analysis of national crime statistics indicates that crimes
of
concern have gone down by six percent this year compared to last
year.
From January to October, the country registered 186 735 crimes
compared to
199 005 in 2002.
Common assault and assault with intent to
cause grievous bodily harm have
gone down by 22 percent and 13 percent
respectively while drug related cases
also went down by 24
percent.
Culpable homicide went down by 13 percent, rape of juveniles 14
percent and
vehicle theft has gone down by 12 percent.
Armed robberies
went up by 438 percent and house breaking and thefts rose by
8
percent.
Comm Chihuri said the ZRP continued to operate under a depleting
resource
base.
"This has been adversely affected by the economic
difficulties the country
is going through.
"It (ZRP) is operating with
1 631 vehicles instead of 7 000," he said.
He said fuel shortages had
seriously eroded and affected efficiency of
police operations.
(This item refers to the article There'll be no 'loud diplomacy' published yesterday.
SA's Aziz Pahad's blindness vs the truth of the situation in
Zimbabwe
Aziz Pahad writing in The Star of the 23rd December takes
Alister
Sparks to task for his article printed somewhere - perhaps also in
The Star. I have not read Alister Sparks article and I have little
knowledge of Aziz Pahad other than that he is the Deputy Minister of
Foreign Affairs in South Africa.
Pahad writes defending South
Africa's policy of 'quiet diplomacy' and
makes mention of the need for an
'all-inclusive satisfactory
solution' to the 'Zimbabwean problem'. He
suggests that because
others other than South Africa felt that Zimbabwe
should have been
invited to CHOGM in Abuja, that South Africa is right to
think so too.
As much as Pahad is astonished by the writings of Sparks, I
am
equally astonished at Pahad's perception of the 'Zimbabwe Problem'
for he, so close to the situation, should be much better informed.
But
perhaps it is because he is too close to the situation that he
cannot see
the wood for the trees?
In June this year one of my staff, a black
Zimbabwean who is also an
MDC Councillor was awoken at midnight by a dozen
or so men. Four or
five of them were dressed in police uniform. Two or
three of them
were dressed in Zimbabwe Army camouflage. The remainder were
in
civilian attire. My colleague and his wife were hauled from their
bed, beaten and robbed of their food and their money by these men.
They
were thrown into the back of a police vehicle and taken to the
Southerton
police station together with their food which had been
appropriated. At the
police station they were taken into the Charge
Office and sat on the floor.
In the meantime the food was removed
from the police truck and
re-distributed into other police Land
rovers. They were then taken out on
the road, beaten again for good
measure and left at the side of the road in
a state of shock and
despair. They never saw their money or their food
again. That it
was stolen by the police and the army personnel is
irrefutable.
When I learned that my colleague was missing, I suggested to
his
manager, also a black Zimbabwean, that we report the fact to the
police. His manager was afraid to do so for fear that he would
himself
become a target.
A week later our missing colleague turned up for work
and I was able
to hear the story from him first hand, as well as see the
bruises
that were still visible on his arms and legs.
My colleague
was but one of thousands of black Zimbabweans who have
been treated in this
manner in recent months. Some have been beaten
because they are
politicians, some have been beaten because they are
journalists, some have
been beaten because they are lawyers
representing, or trying to represent
people who have been stripped of
their rights by a brutal and unforgiving
regime. These actions have
had the full support of the police authorities
and indeed, the
government.
Then there is the other matter of the
freedom of the press, or in the
case of Zimbabwe the complete lack of
freedom of the press and the
daily lies to which the Zimbabwean public are
exposed through the
government print and electronic media.
Are these
the kinds of activity that lend themselves to being an
invited member of the
Commonwealth? If this is how Commonwealth
governments are allowed to
behave, then God help the Commonwealth and
indeed the world as a
whole.
When are the South African political authorities going to
recognise
that the government of Zimbabwe have no intention of stepping
aside
willingly? They have too much illegal wealth to lose, and many
recognise that in the aftermath of their going the reaction of the
public to their excesses may be less than tolerant, such that they
may
not only lose their wealth, but their very lives.
The longer the
'Zimbabwe Problem' is allowed to drag on, the worse
the excesses will get.
The solution, we keep being told, is in the
hands of the Zimbabwean people,
but the people have their hands
firmly tied behind their backs. And any
attempts to create change
are responded to by a tightening of the ropes.
South Africa has the
opportunity and the strength to change everything.
Pity that they
haven't got the will, as so eloquently demonstrated by
Pahad's words
of the 23rd December.
And I cannot sign my name, for to
do so puts myself and my family at
risk of our livelihood if not our lives
as well as the lives of my
colleagues. Does that in itself not tell Pahad
and his political
comrades something?
Zkwasha
Harare
24th
December
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 December
Mugabe is blamed as UN slashes food aid
Harare - The World Food Programme has slashed by
half food handouts to
Zimbabwe's starving millions because President Robert
Mugabe's government
failed to alert donors to the scale of the disaster. The
WFP, a United
Nations agency, said it had cut rations since the beginning of
the month to
ensure it could feed more than five million people, about half
the
population, until the harvest in May. The agency said it had not
raised
enough money to buy the necessary supplies. The WFP's appeal went out
six
weeks late in the middle of the year because the Zimbabwe government had
not
quantified its needs until it was too late to get the long "food
chain"
moving, according to donors in Harare yesterday. Foreign food
suppliers were
also showing fatigue at what most see as a "man made crisis".
Zimbabwe was
once southern Africa's "bread basket" with huge and efficient
farms
producing surpluses for sale abroad. But since Mr Mugabe began
seizing
white-owned farms in 2000, production has tumbled, leaving millions
without
food.
Even the United Nations, reluctant to criticise
President Robert Mugabe's
administration, has admitted that the government's
confiscation of 90 per
cent of productive land from white farmers had been a
major cause of the
crisis. "When the government finally got its act together,
and said how much
it needed, we also discovered we would have to fund all
food imports without
any contribution from the Zimbabwe government," said an
executive of a major
donor agency yesterday. The government also tried to
interfere with the
donor community's long established rules by insisting that
its own officials
oversee the distribution of donated food. The government
finally backed
down, although donors say they are still worried that as
parliamentary
elections draw close, probably later next year, the government
may try to
launch another bid to hijack food distribution. Kevin Farrell,
country
director of WFP, said: "The worst months will be January [to] April,
before
the harvest. Our food stocks are very, very fragile and even if more
donor
money arrives, it takes time to get the food here." He said the WFP
was
worried about people in the dry south of Zimbabwe, in the
Matabeleland
province, and in the far north, where few crops grow, even in
the best of
times.
Zimbabwe used to grow more than 1.8 million
tons of grain to feed its people
and their livestock. This summer, the fourth
since President Mugabe
confiscated most white-owned farms, the harvest is
predicted to be down to a
third of normal production, the lowest in more than
50 years. The US,
Britain and the European Union provide more than 90 per
cent of funds used
to feed Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe police have arrested two men
in connection
with the murder of an Australian accountant, Philip Laing, 51,
who died last
Friday after being forced to drink acid. Two of Mr Laing's
clerks who were
similarly attacked on a British owned tea estates are still
gravely ill in
hospital, with internal and external acid burns.
FinGaz
Tractor scandal exposed
Zhean Gwaze
12/24/2003 7:41:38 AM (GMT +2)
IN what could be yet another source
of discord with newly resettled
farmers, leading politicians and government
officials have, once again,
emerged as the biggest beneficiaries of public
resources — acquiring
tractors under a US$6 million ($36 billion on the
parallel market) Tobacco
Growers’ Trust (TGT) tractor scheme, ahead of A1 and
A2 model farmers.
The tractors were purchased from Asia in August
this year under TGT’s
20 percent foreign currency retention
facility.
Documents in possession of The Financial Gazette show
that up to 45
high-ranking ZANU PF officials and prominent business people
got most of the
tractors ahead of ordinary indigenous farmers who have no
access to finance
in the face of surging input costs which are putting a
squeeze on their
operations.
Government ministers who benefited
from the scheme include the
Minister of State for Science and Technology in
the President’s office,
Olivia Muchena, Youth Development Minister Elliot
Manyika and his deputy
Shuvai Mahofa, Justice Minister Patrick Anthony
Chinamasa, Masvingo resident
Minister and governor Josaya Hungwe, Manicaland
governor Michael Nyambuya
and Industry and Commerce Minister Kenneth
Manyonda.
Judge President Paddington Garwe, senior clerk of
Parliament Austin
Zvoma, Agriculture permanent secretary Ngoni Masoka,
Chegutu District
Administrator Christopher Shumba, Mashonaland East
Provincial Administrator
David Munyoro and Mashonaland Central Provincial
Administrator J. Jaji are
also among the beneficiaries.
TGT
chairman Wilfanos Mashingaidze defended the allocation of tractors
to
government officials, saying the scheme was meant for tobacco
growers
regardless of their political inclinations.
"I know
Paddington Garwe as a tobacco grower and not a judge
president," Mashingaidze
said. "If they are tobacco growers, why should they
be segregated. We gave
people tractors who are viable tobacco growers. You
do not generate foreign
currency by giving tractors to farmers who have got
six hectares or
less."
Army officials who benefited from the scheme are former
defence
commander Vitalis Zvinavashe and Air Force of Zimbabwe commander Air
Marshal
Perence Shiri.
Also included on the list are Mavis
Chidzonga (former legislator),
Masvingo South legislator Eddison Zvobgo,
former Finance Minister Simba
Makoni and Nobbie Dzinzi of Guruve
constituency.
Business leaders who benefited include Stanbic Bank
of Zimbabwe
managing director Pindie Nyandoro, OK Zimbabwe managing director
Willard
Zireva, and Indigenous Business Development Centre president Ben
Mucheche.
Individuals from farmers’ organisations who acquired the
tractors
include Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union (ICFU) chief executive
John
Mautsa and ICFU director Davidson Mugabe, Tobacco Industry and
Marketing
Board (TIMB) chairman Njodzi Machirori, the organ-isation’s chief
executive
Stanley Mutepfa and Zimbabwe Farmers Union president Silas
Hungwe.
Mugabe and Muchena confirmed that they had received one
tractor each
from the scheme.
Manyika was, however, evasive on
the issue, saying that while he
applied for the tractor, he was yet to
receive it.
"I submitted my application form as a successful
tobacco grower and I
do not know if my application was successful. I have
bought my own tractors
and if this one is coming, I will be waiting for it.
Anyway, how many people
are being given tractors? Unobvunza zvakadaro nekuti
haudi zveivhu, uri
musalala," he said.
The mostly
under-capitalised A1 and A2 farmers were resettled under
the fast-track land
reform programme meant to redistribute land to the
country’s landless
peasants.
In an effort to restore integrity to the widely condemned
land reform
programme, the government is trying to clean up the process after
it emerged
that leading politicians and their cronies own more than one farm
in
contravention of the government’s publicly stated policy of
one-man,
one-farm.
Land allocated to ordinary A1 and A2 farmers
is currently lying idle
because there are no affordable tillage facilities
amid lingering concerns
that the country, now reduced from a regional
breadbasket to a basket case,
could once again see another poor agricultural
season.
The situation is compounded by a crippling credit crunch
with banks
having now adopted conservative credit policies for fear of
burning their
fingers by extending credit to the newly resettled farmers who
do not have
collateral.
FinGaz
Bid to cushion pensioners from negative rates
Zhean Gwaze
12/24/2003 7:45:41 AM (GMT +2)
THE Zimbabwe
Association of Pension Funds (ZAPF) is lobbying the
government to reduce the
prescribed asset ratio from 45 percent in a bid to
cushion pensioners from
negative interest rates under a hyperinflationary
environment.
Pension funds are required by law to have 45 percent of their
investments in
prescribed assets despite government’s deliberate maintenance
of a low
interest rate on money market.
ZAPF chairman Richard Muirimi told
The Financial Gazette that
discussions have been going on with the Registrar
of Pensions over the need
to have the investment percentage
reduced.
"We had a meeting with the Registrar of Pensions last
Thursday and I
can say we are making a lot of progress on the issue," he
said, indicating
that the association’s members hoped to break some ice with
the registrar on
the issue next year.
"We are likely to conclude
the negotiations early next year. We have
made a lot of progress on the issue
but I can not tell you what percentage
we have lobbied for,"
Muirimi.
The pension industry holds more than 65 percent of
government and
quasi-government instruments, and owns more than 85 percent of
prime
buildings in the country.
Zimbabwe’s poor socio-economic
environment, which has triggered an
economic fall-out, had prompted massive
retrenchments, resulting in a marked
decline in membership to pension funds
and loss of accumulated member
reserves on fund accounts.
Inflation, which topped 619.5 percent year-on-year for November, has
impacted
negatively on pension returns.
Analysts say the impact is very
adverse despite government increasing
the allowable tax-free pension with
effect from next year.
The contribution was increased from $90 000
to $720 000 while the
tax-free portion on a commutation of a pension was
increased to one million
or one third of the lump sum.
Pension
industry players say the move by government will not help
pensioners because
the buying power of the Zimbabwe dollar invested in
pension funds in January
2002 with a 25 percent interest in January 2004
would have been reduced to
49.5 percent of its original value during the
two-year period.
"The highly inflationary environment has impacted negatively on people
with
fixed incomes. Companies handling pensions should come up with
major
incentives or risk losing clientele," said one analyst.
Growth on the equity and property markets have managed to beat
inflation but
the high returns have been diluted by low interests rates on
the money
market, particularly investments on prescribed assets.
The ZAPF
also wants government to allow pensioners to invest offshore
and exclude the
National Social Security Authority as a separate
allowable
contribution.
FinGaz
Workers fear salary chop
Staff
Reporter
12/24/2003 7:48:52 AM (GMT +2)
WORKERS at the
closed Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) are
worried they may soon
start going without any salaries after management
indicated that they were
being paid from borrowed money.
Workers at the company — which
publishes of The Daily News and The
Daily News On Sunday — said ANZ chief
executive officer Sam Sipepa-Nkomo
told them last week that Strive Masiyiwa,
the majority shareholder in the
company, was borrowing money to pay their
salaries and could lose his
Johannesburg house, which he was using as
collateral when borrowing the
money.
Sipepa-Nkomo reportedly
said this when justifying the decision by the
company not to pay workers any
bonus this year.
"From the look of things, it may not be long
before we start going
without salaries…especially now that we are being told
that the money we are
being paid is being borrowed," one workers
said.
The ANZ was closed in September this year for allegedly
operating
without a licence.
The company is still waging a court
battle to get permission to
operate again.
Sipepa-Nkomo
confirmed that the workers were not getting any bonus
this year, but refused
to discuss anything about the company.
"They did not get any bonus
last year so why where they expecting any
this year," heasked?
"It is ridiculous for anyone to expect to get a bonus when the company
is
closed.."
FinGaz
War veterans press for hefty increases
Brian
Mangwende
12/24/2003 7:48:08 AM (GMT +2)
FIGHTERS of
Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle have made fresh demands —
this time pressing
for hefty increases in benefits to keep pace with the
rising cost of
living.
The boisterous former fighters, who bolster the ruling ZANU
PF’s
election campaigns, have also called on their patron, President
Robert
Mugabe, to weed out red tape in government, which they claimed has
worsened
their welfare.
A report compiled by the Zimbabwe
National Liberation War Veterans
Association (ZNLWA) soon after the war
veterans’ congress held recenty,
outlined specific issues that could cause
another strain on the public
purse.
The liberation war heroes
are requesting loans to nurture their
projects, education and health benefits
and the revival of the war victims
compensation fund and the Zimbabwe
Ex-Combatants Foundation Fund (Zexcom)
among other things.
Several top politicians were linked to the looting of the war
victims
compensation fund but none were prosecuted.
"The NEC
(National Employment Council) has recommended to the
government that the
facility for the Premier Medical Aid Society be put in
place. Several
meetings were held with the managing director of PSMAS in
connection with
that facility, but the issue is still outstanding," the
report
said.
"The process is very slow on the war veteran victims’
compensation
fund to an extent that some have already died before getting
their funds.
Most members’ health is deteriorating . . . Most war veterans
have died
before their review is done."
The report said the NEC
made efforts to help the ex-freedom fighters
access loans from the Land Bank,
formerly Agribank, to purchase agricultural
inputs and also recommended to
government that school fees should be
increased in line with inflation, but
all was in vain.
On the vetting of war veterans, the report said:
"We have been
communicating with the department of war veterans in the
Ministry of Defence
about the issue. The vetting process has been taking
place, but at a very
slow pace. At one time, we had a meeting with the
Commander of the Defence
Forces General Vitalis Zvinavashe about the issue
together with the
PermanentSecretary of Defence, Maphosa."
The
ZNLWA report hailed war veterans for being pro-active during the
rejected
referendum, which sought to change the constitution and campaigning
for ZANU
PF during the 2000 parliamentary elections and 2002 presidential
election
controversially won by President Mugabe.
It also praised the
ex-freedom fighters for crushing demonstrations by
dissenting voices
including the failed "final push" by the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change.
At the Mutare congress, acting ZNLWA chairman Patrick
Nyaruwata and
his caretaker executive were booted out. Bulawayo-based
Jabulani Sibanda and
self-styled "commander-in-chief of farm invasions"
Joseph Chinotimba bounced
back into the executive as chairman and
vice-chairman respectively.
The last congress was held in August
1998 at Umzingwane in
Matabeleland South where a national executive led by
the late Charles
Hungwe, was chosen.
But the following year,
Chenjerai Hunzvi, also late, was elected as
chairman at an extra-ordinary
meeting with Nyaruwata and current member of
ZANU PF’s central committee as
his vice.[sic!]
FinGaz
MDC hints at future poll boycotts
Brian
Mangwende
12/24/2003 7:50:24 AM (GMT +2)
THE curtain came
down on the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
conference at the weekend
with the opposition party hinting it may not
participate in future elections
if the ruling ZANU PF continues disregarding
the principles of democracy and
basic human rights.
The veiled threat could be the latest tool the
MDC would wield in
future to press the government, which has its back against
the wall, to
level the electoral playing field that tilts heavily in favour
of ZANU PF.
Zimbabwe has already withdrawn its membership from the
Commonwealth
after the 53-member grouping extended the country’s suspension,
arguing
there has been little notable change to its human rights and
democracy
record.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai told journalists
on Saturday that unless
the ground was even, his party would debate whether
or not to participate in
the parliamentary and subsequent presidential
polls.
Parliamentary elections will be held in 2005, while the
presidential
poll is due in 2008 when President Mugabe’s sixth term of office
expires.
Tsvangirai’s statement was in contrast to the pledge he
made in the
MDC information handbook issued to delegates
earlier.
"Elections in Zimbabwe are being held under extremely
difficult
conditions. So far, the campaigns to fill any vacant positions do
not
resemble anything that can be called free and fair. We have, however,
made a
pledge to participate in all elections and we remain true to that
pledge,"
read part of the handbook.
"To do otherwise would be to
abandon the people of Zimbabwe and to
betray the patriotic Zimbabweans who
have lost their lives in pursuit of
democracy and peaceful change in this
country."
President Mugabe’s re-election sparked an outcry among
regional and
international communities who reported that the poll was marred
by massive
violence including gross human rights abuses and the muzzling of
the media.
"If the playing field is not even, we will discuss
(whether to
participate or not) it at our national congress on the way
forward,"
Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare.
At the
conference, the MDC leadership vowed to agitate for more mass
protests to
force ZANU PF back to the negotiating table despite the
heavy-handed manner
in which President Mugabe’s government has quashed
dissent.
President Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, claimed recently
that
the feuding political parties were engaged in informal talks, but the
MDC
leadership has dismissed the utterances.
Analysts were sceptical on
whether mass protests would arm-twist ZANU
PF back to the negotiating
table.
Political commentator Heneri Dzinotyiwei said: "As an
opposition
party, part of their strategy would be to weaken the government to
a point
where it will be easy to push them out of power, not necessarily by
force.
But I don’t think the strategy at this particular point in time will
yield
the desired results.
"But their approach to dialogue is
wise although they have to be
explicitly clear on what they want discussed.
It would be beneficiary to the
nation if they went into dialogue with a view
to find a common standing on
how to arrest inflation, interest rates,
unemployment, international
relations and so on instead of giving precedence
to changing the
government."
Constitutional law expert and
chairman of the National Constitutional
Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku, said his
organisation supported mass protests,
but was wary of whether the MDC has the
capacity to stage them or not.
"Really, it depends on whether they
have the capacity to embark on
mass protests or not judging from previous
experiences," said Madhuku, who
is advocating for constitutional
change.
"The government is not really interested in talking to any
opposition,
but mass protests work if they are well organised. It’s not a bad
idea and
we support it."
Over 150 MDC supporters, including
commercial farmers, died during the
run-up and after the June 2000
parliamentary election and the March 2002
presidential poll.
Hundreds of people were reportedly raped and maimed.
Tsvangirai
said the MDC conference resolved to intensify the struggle
for a transitional
constitution that guarantees an electoral change
characterised by
transparency, fair and a just climate for the people to
elect a government of
their choice.
The conference also resolved to continue fighting for
freedom of
association, assembly, movement, expression, end of politically
motivated
violence and reverse and repeal repressive laws such as the Public
Order and
Security Act and the draconian Access to Information and Protection
of
Privacy Act.
It was also felt that the government should put
an end to the use of
food aid to manipulate votes and disband the national
youth service.
On land redistribution, Tsvangirai, who is currently
on trial for
allegedly plotting to assassinate President Mugabe, said: "The
MDC is
committed to the land reform. Land is an economic asset. We must learn
to
restrain our emotions over the land question.
"We will not go
back to the pre-2000 land distribution and ownership
position nor endorse and
maintain the status quo and the current crisis. We
shall bring Zimbabwe’s
land crisis to an end through a democratic and
participatory process. Our
corrective approach will be based on need not
greed."
FinGaz
‘Watch out world: SA to rule’
Dumisani
Ndlela
12/24/2003 7:52:13 AM (GMT +2)
INTERNATIONAL
passengers aboard South African Airways are served with
a pamphlet of "South
African Flavour" — a taste of every day South African
speech alongside their
flight meals.
One of them declares without mincing words: "One day
South Africans
will rule the world."
In case one might ask,
why?
"Well, we don’t just think about things, we skeem (scheme),"
the
statement reads. "For example, ‘I skeem I’ll have a little nap until
the
plane touches down’. Oh watch out world! Millions of South Africans
are
skeeming every day. We’re a crafty bunch, come to think of
it."
Indeed South Africa, after decades of a purgatory apartheid
system
that closed it from the rest of the world, has embarked on a grand
campaign
to take over a domineering position on the continent and the world
as a key
global player.
Its growing hegemony — mainly on the
African continent where its
corporate predators are sprawling for assets in
investment-starved
economies — is finding favour in many countries but
meeting resistance in
others that view its expansionary moves with
suspicion.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the world’s 18th
largest
exchange with a market capitalisation of US$208.5 billion as at
August 31,
2003, is planning a Pan African Board that will bring together
stock
exchanges in the southern African region.
Although the
project has been widely supported by other regional stock
exchange
executives, the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) said the JSE was
trying to
force smaller exchanges into a regional exchange "which will allow
the JSE to
siphon off order flow from the smaller exchanges in an effort to
boost their
own trading volumes and revenue".
The Pan African bourse would
reduce the number of issuers and
investors on the smaller regional stock
exchanges, diminish trading volumes
and lead to capital flight towards
Johannesburg, the BSE charged.
"The BSE is not prepared to trade
its decade-long exceptional
performance and ability to operate markets that
are fair and equitable for a
subservient role in a JSE-dominated market," it
said in a widely circulated
statement two months ago.
But JSE
deputy chief executive officer, Nicky Newton-King, disputed
the BSE charges.
Trade by member bourses would remain in their respective
countries, she told
The Financial Gazette in South Africa.
"It facilitates the creation
of a centralised point for the inflow of
foreign currency capital into the
continent, encouraging the growth of
African markets through the provision of
a single access point to capital
and liquidity across multiple markets," she
said.
The Pan African Board would ensure that "the autonomy of the
various
exchanges is retained," Newton-King said.
The resistance
by the BSE to the JSE proposals highlighted the
reception South Africa’s
investments often get on the continent, strapped of
meaningful direct foreign
investments because of its tainted image of war,
hunger and widespread
poverty.
South Africa’s trade with the rest of Africa has been
booming ever
since a 1994 democratic election closed the curtain on an
apartheid era,
with its food products, detergents, toiletries and cosmetics
now forming a
prominent feature of many supermarket shelves on the
continent.
From countries just across its borders like Zambia,
Namibia, Lesotho,
Botswana and Swaziland to those further up the continent
like Tanzania,
South Africa’s major retail groups such as Shoprite, Checkers,
Pep Stores
and Metro Cash and Carry have taken over key markets, selling
mainly South
African-produced goods.
With them they are also
carrying South African construction companies
to build state-of-the-art
shopping malls for their operations.
South African exports to
Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation —
have surged by nearly 80 percent in
four years, replacing traditional
sources of imports for Nigeria with South
African goods, mainly manufactured
products.
SA’s exports to
Angola have shot up by over 35 percent, while exports
to Mozambique, buoyed
by the requirements of the Mozal aluminium smelter
project, swelled by 25
percent.
Zambia, whose market for manufactured products is almost
predominantly
South African, experienced a 29.5 percent boom in exports,
helped in part by
Zimbabwe’s economic problems. Zimbabwe had been one of the
key exporters to
Zambia.
Trade between the rest of Africa and
South Africa has always been
skewed in favour of South Africa, creating
tension in East Africa where the
business community is clamouring for a hike
in tariffs to protect them
against a progression of South Africa’s
exports.
But some governments see South African investment as a
silver lining
on the dark cloud cast over the image of many African states
over the years.
"It’s unrealistic to expect that this government
can put in place a
mechanism to filter out South African investors,"
Tanzanian President,
Benjamin Mkapa, told delegates at a dinner hosted last
month to celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the government’s joint venture
with South Africa
Breweries (SAB) in Tanzania Breweries Limited.
"It is not only impractical; it is utterly unconscionable," President
Mkapa
said, describing South Africa as the "best source of foreign
direct
investment" in his country.
Indeed many African countries
are experiencing phenomenal growth,
helped by investments from South
Africa.
According to the Southern African Development Community
(SADC)
executive secretary, Dr Prega Ramsamy, Angola led the way in terms
of
economic growth at 13.8 percent, followed by Mozambique with an 8
percent
growth rate and the United Republic of Tanzania with a 6.2 percent
growth.
Last year, South Africa’s trade with the rest of the
continent —
except Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland which form the
Southern
African Customs Union together with South Africa — amounted to a
massive
US$3.7 billion in exports, with a paltry US$856 million in
imports,
according to SA’s trade and industry department.
This
indicates a yawning trade imbalance between the country and its
trade
partners on the continent.
Yet South Africa’s exports into the
continent are expected to grow
even further with peace prospects in Angola
and the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) which will open up massive
opportunities for South African
investments.
"The (trade) gap
can only increase since South African business views
Angola as a huge
construction site strewn with lucrative contracts to be
signed.
The paradox, of course, is that much of this destruction was inflicted
by the
apartheid regime, yet it will be South Africans who will make huge
profits
from rebuilding what they destroyed — a perverse manifestation of
the
expression ‘reaping what one sows’," noted John Danie, Verusha Naidoo
and
Sanusha Naidu, writing in State of the Nation: South Africa
2003/2004
published by HSRC Press.
Already, South African oil
companies are looking at next year’s Oil
Africa 2004 conference as a platform
to network with other international
players with a view to winning a greater
share of US$10 billion to be spent
annually by West Africa’s oil and gas
industry.
About US$5 billion of that amount will be spent annually
on Angola
alone.
But the biggest paradox is that while pushing
for the entry of its
goods into foreign markets, South Africa is closing the
door to imports from
its partners.
Last week, the country rolled
out the "buy local" initiative, with a
simultaneous launch of the campaign by
the National Economic Development
Labour Councils (Nedlac) principals, Menlyn
Shopping Centre in Pretoria and
Cavendish Square in Cape Town.
The "buy local" campaign ties up with the Proudly South African
initiative by
Nedlac, supported by the government, organised business and
labour as well as
the South African community.
The campaign encourages South African
consumers to buy local products,
identified by a Proudly South African
logo.
Two large retailers —Truworths and LA Group, last week joined
other
retailers in signing up a declaration committing them to the "buy
local"
campaign, under which retailers should have 75 percent of their
products
sourced from local manufacturers. Other retailers that have signed
up to the
campaign include Foschini Group, Pick ‘n Pay, Woolworths,
Shoprite,
Checkers, Edcon and Pepkor.
"We commend South Africa
because it has been aggressive in its
marketing unlike many other countries
on the continent," said Erastus
Mwencha, secretary general of the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA).
"But we
encourage South Africans to encourage local sourcing in
markets they
penetrate because they risk alienating themselves from the
local
people."
Mwencha said many of COMESA’s members were complaining
that they had
products that could be competitive on the South African market
but were
finding it difficult to export because of South Africa’s sanitary
and
phytosanitary (SPS) requirements.
A trade ratio of 4:1 in
favour of South Africa against the rest of the
continent was not a sign of a
healthy trade relationship with continental
partners, Mwencha
said.
"South Africa should develop trade arrangements with the rest
of its
partners.
"The SPS requirements means the country is not
allowing others to
bring products into the country," said
Mwencha.
SA’s cellular networks – MTN and Vodacom – are running
leading
cellphone services in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and
Cameroon.
Last year, South Africa’s Eskom Enterprises, the national
power
utility’s investment vehicle into Africa, won a contract to run two
Ugandan
hydroelectric dams, adding to five the number of hydro facilities
the
company is managing in Africa.
Eskom now has operational
control in West Africa, where it won the
Manantali Project, and the Ugandan
contract gives it control of two key
hydro facilities in North-east Africa
and a firm strategic foothold in the
region.
Eskom is also
eyeing a stake in Zimbabwe’s key generation plant,
Hwange Power Station,
which it managed under a turn-around programme over a
year ago. It has
contracts to produce electricity in Libya, Malawi, Mali,
Zambia and
Lesotho.
In Cameroon, a South African company is running the
railway system,
while virtually every sector of Mozambique’s economy is
becoming a dormitory
of South Africa’s economy which is building its roads
and infrastructure and
managing and owning stakes in power generation plants
like the Mozambique
Transmission Company.
South Africa’s banks
are also taking an active part in the
expansionary crusade by South Africa’s
industries —from neighbour Zimbabwe
right up to Tanzania and Uganda and
further north where South Africa’s
economic expansion is creating a new
context to policy disagreements with
countries like Uganda and Tanzania over
the direction of strategy in
Burundi.
South African companies
with huge interests on the continent include
SA Breweries, which operates in
11 African countries, M Cell, owner of MTN,
a cellular phone operator with
subsidiaries in Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon,
Swaziland and aggressively pursuing
expansion in other parts of Africa, Old
Mutual, southern Africa’s largest
financial services group generating three
quarters of its profit from the
continent, Anglo American Platinum
(Angloplats), the world’s largest producer
of platinum and palladium, Anglo
American, one of the world’s largest mining
groups which also controls
Anglopats and De Beers Consolidated, the world’s
largest producer of gem and
industrial diamonds founded by the Oppenheimer
family.
FinGaz
MDC must perform or perish
12/24/2003
9:24:58 AM (GMT +2)
IT is elementary that once formed, citizen
organisations, be they
political parties or civic groups, must be accountable
to a whole lot of
stakeholders and in particular to the people who are being
served or the
constituency in whose name the rationale for existence is
achieved.
There is a powerful accountability measure built into the
public life
of citizen organisations. It is what is referred to as the
"perform or
perish" principle. When the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
held its
overdue annual conference at the weekend, it was a time for the
party
fathers to be brutally honest with themselves and their constituency
on
where they have gone wrong since the party's formation.
The best way to carry out a post-mortem of the party's successes and
fai
lures is to go back to the resolutions and stated objectives of the
All
Working People's Convention that mandated the formation of the party
in
1999, and see what has been achieved and what has not.
Reasons for failure or otherwise must be identified and addressed and
a clear
modus operandi worked out for future struggles.
Recently I attended a
public meeting organised by the Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition at a local hotel
under the theme: ZANU PF, MDC talks is
this the way forward or a mere waste
of time? Due to other pressing
commitments I got there rather late and after
the guest speakers had already
made their presentations but the discussion
was still open to the floor.
If the contributions that came from
the floor can be taken to
represent the general views of the country's
intelligentsia and the urban
electorate, then the MDC is in trouble. One
gentleman who spoke as soon as I
entered made a very emotional and lengthy
contribution and the guy wouldn't
be stopped until he made his
point. He confessed that he voted for the MDC in previous general
elections
but the sum total of his contribution was that he now needs
"strong
persuasion" to vote for the party in 2005.
He did not say which
party he would vote for or whether he will vote
at all but you can make a
guess. I agreed with the gentleman when he said
that the starting point in
prescribing a strategy to deal with the current
regime is to "accept that
(President) Mugabe is intelligent and cunning" and
has been making one
political score after another against the opposition.
This
man's sentiments were expressed by other participants in varying
terms and
intensity and now and then participants had to be reminded that
the MDC was
not represented at the meeting.
That's how it is in politics when hope
is quashed, feelings of anger
and resentment are directed against those that
had raised the hope in the
first place!
Another gentleman from
the MDC stood up (he must have been irked by
comments from the floor but he
never claimed to be speaking for the party)
and said: "What we must
understand is that we are in a boxing ring and the
other is chained, so who
wins?
" There are no talks going on between ZANU PF and the MDC
because
there is nothing compelling Mugabe to come to the negotiating table.
The
Lancaster House Conference was convened because the war was going on
and
presently there is no political pressure to force Mugabe to come to
the
table."
The gentleman did not explain what "chains" he
was talking about but I
took it that he was referring to a defective
Constitution, repressive
legislation like POSA and AIPPA and an uneven
electoral law regime. Nor did
the gentleman explain why his party was not
exerting the necessary political
pressure. I suppose it's because his party
is chained. So if that's the
case, it is not commonsensical that we must
remove the chains first. It is
important to note that it is not only the MDC
that is chained, but all
opposition political parties and civic organisations
as well. As such we
must apply all our collective, concerned and
collaborative effort in
breaking the chains.
Small
opposition political parties and civil society are already
sceptical that if
a miracle happens and the MDC wins the political match,
notwithstanding the
chains, it will also use the same devices to chain other
organised interests
opposed to their own. There should be a place for
everyone in the "new
Zimbabwe" that we envision. Meanwhile, the MDC must
just forget about the
talks because the other party is not bona fide but
simply wants to use the
idea of talks as a political safety valve to ease
pressure and buy time.
Focus should now be on the levelling of the political
playing field ahead of
the next general elections.
We must always remember that the
conception of the whole idea of
dialogue was a culmination of the struggle
and if the talks have failed then
the struggle continues unabated. But the
trajectory of our democratic
political struggles must always be to bring the
ruling party and government
to the negotiating table. To do what?
That is the question and this is where we call for greater clarity on
the
part of the MDC.
If the MDC says it is embarking on mass action
to "unseat" President
Mugabe, it risks alienating a whole lot of people who
do not necessarily
believe in regime change but who passionately want
Zimbabweans's political
system to be democratised.
Such an
approach also risks treason charges which can be very
psychologically
exhaustive and stressing and therefore a deterrent to
action. If the party
says it is embarking on mass action to call for the
repeal of repressive laws
like POSA and AIPPA and to have a new democratic
constitutional dispensation,
they get on board the whole pro-democracy
movement, including progressive
liberals within ZANU PF itself. In politics
strength lies in
numbers.
This idea of the MDC trying to "fast track" themselves
into power and
sidelining the concerns of other groups that made their
formation and
subsequent survival possible will not work at all. It is one of
the
fundamental tenets of civil disobedience that there must be totality
of
involvement and no distraction from the mainstream of events should
be
allowed. We must always strive to broaden our base operation. One can
not
doubt that there is a lethal shortage of strategists in the
MDC.
The major shortcoming of ZANU PF at the present moment is
that it does
not have the support of the country's intelligentsia and the
urban
electorate while the MDC presumably does. But judging by the emerging
trends
in recent by-elections, this support for
the MDC is slowly
withering away. In terms of ideology and policies
the party is just too
sketchy on detail and the Zimbabwean electorate is a
very discerning one. So
the party must realise that we cannot just continue
supporting them simply
because we disagree with the incumbent regime, while
on their part they offer
nothing in terms of alternative policies.
If this inertia
continues, a time will come when we will conclude that
the MDC is part of the
problem and not part of the solution and that time is
fast approaching. Wise
counsel should have prevailed at the MDC Conference
and if any heads have to
roll then they must roll. The MDC must now start
preparing for the next
general elections in 2005 and forget about those
election petitions because
they have failed to serve any meaningful purpose
since it's only about a year
to the next general election. The MDC must
fight for a synchronised
parliamentary and presidential plebiscite under a
new constitutional and
electoral law regime.
There are indications that this might
also be acceptable to ZANU PF.
Isaya Muriwo Sithole is a legal
practitioner and civil rights activist
FinGaz
CFU seeks advice on new regulations
Zhean
Gwaze
12/24/2003 9:29:31 AM (GMT +2)
THE Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) is seeking legal advice on newly
gazetted
regulations allowing the government to compulsorily acquire
idle
farm equipment.
CFU vice-president Stoff Hawgood told The Financial
Gazette that the
union,
which represents white commercial farmers,
had plans to adopt advice
from
its lawyers.
The union has
mounted a series of legal challenges to try and reverse
government
decisions made under the controversial land reform.
Analysts said the
court challenges have only served to worsen
relations
between
President Robert Mugabe's government and the white commercial
farmers.
Hawgood said: "We are seeking legal advice and we will adopt
the
strategy
that will bring us results. We are looking at the
impact on our
members and
what it means in terms of destitution and
what options are available."
Analysts said the new regulation could
further erode capital savings
the
white farmers were hoping to gain
from their equipment.
Delays in compensating the farmers could also
leave them destitute in
view
of the hyper-inflationary
environment.
The new regulation gave the government authority to
identify, value
and
compulsorily acquire any farm equipment or
material not currently
being
used for agricultural purposes on any
agricultural land.
"An acquisition order will be accompanied by a
notice in writing,
inviting
the owner or holder to indicate within
14 days whether he or she is
contesting the order.
When an
acquisition order is served, ownership of the equipment or
material
passes to the acquiring authority, who then has the power to
take
immediate
possession of the equipment or material," the new
regulation states,
adding:
"payment or compensation for the
equipment will be at least 25 percent
within 30 days with the balance
paid over five years (for equipment)
and
one year (for
materials)".
FinGaz
Going hungry as elite swim in riches
12/24/2003 9:42:52 AM (GMT +2)
THE prevailing economic crisis has
forced me to break a cherished
life-long habit.
For the
first time in many years, I did not send out any Christmas
cards. Among the
deterrents preventing me from doing what I have done almost
as a reflex for
decades at this time of the year, is the considerable cost
of the cards
themselves followed by the enormous amounts I would have had to
pay for
postage.
Although I had been scaling down my Christmas card list
for some time,
until this year, I still managed to send messages of goodwill
to a core of
friends and relatives.
However, this time, in
addition to financial constraints, I strongly
felt it would be a hollow
gesture to wish anyone "a Merry Christmas and a
Prosperous New Year" amid the
palpable mass misery pervading the whole
country.
I know it is
deemed politically incorrect to acknowledge this painful
reality, but the
signs of untold human suffering are everywhere and only
those who choose to
wear blinkers can miss them.
The festive season is normally a time
of family togetherness when the
great urban-to-rural stampede takes place.
This is when thousands of
urbanites trek to their rural homes armed with much
needed cash and goodies
for parents or families living apart from
breadwinners.
It is supposed to be a carefree period of family
gatherings, often
bringing many generations together in one place for a
memorable feast.
The family patriarch or matriarch often avails a
beast to be
slaughtered to cater for the large gathering of offspring and
their spouses,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
But few
Zimbabweans living in cities and towns will be able to make
this important
trip this year due to the prohibitive travel expenses.
Those who
own their own cars may still make it if they are lucky
enough to source
affordable fuel. The majority of urban workers, who use
public transport,
will however, find the bus fares out of this world.
I, for example,
would need about $100 000 to travel to and from rural
home. I would have to
spend another $200 000 to buy my folks the bare
necessities to brighten their
Christmas.
Where does one get this kind of money when one’s own
life is a
constant struggle to make ends meet as a result of the
stratospheric prices
of everything.
In fact, in a reversal of
both fortunes and roles that is symptomatic
of much that is wrong in this
country, some urban dwellers now rely on
handouts of food from their elderly
parents to tidy them over difficult
periods.
One friend of mine
has confessed that on the few occasions she has
been able to travel to her
parents’ home, she has been reduced to pleading
for a share of her widowed
mother’s donor food aid rations to take back to
town. This has sometimes made
the difference between having a meal and going
without, she
says.
This will be a particularly bleak "festive" season for the
majority of
urban workers.
In the past, even the most lowly paid
breadwinners could afford to put
something aside throughout the year so as to
splash on new clothes and
special meals for their families at
Christmas.
This time around, the challenges for most householders
will be to put
any kind of food at all on the table.
The plight
of tens of thousands of urban workers for whom the
situation has become dire
is exemplified by a young man I know who has to
literally work 24 hours a day
to keep body and soul together.
After knocking off from his 8am to
5pm job, he embarks on a 6pm to 3am
shift at a nightclub. He then rushes home
for an hour’s nap before getting
up again to prepare to leave for his
full-time job.
But, even with this punishing schedule, what the
young man earns is
not enough to cover his expenses and he has to borrow
money every month to
make ends meet.
The depressing congruity in
the whole situation is that while the
majority goes hungry, those with the
right political connections are
swimming in riches and will be living it up
this Christmas.
This makes it a case of experiencing famine at the
banquet for most of
us ordinary Zimbabweans. We can only hope for crumbs of
the national cake
from the groaning tables of a select few.
Under normal circumstances, Zimbabweans embrace the spirit of
Christmas with
cheerful exuberance. But while walking in town over the past
few days, all I
have encountered are dejected and weary looks.
Most people know
they must soon cough up millions to pay school fees
for their children.
Private doctors are to increase consultation fees. The
prices of everything
else will continue to skyrocket every day. There is
nothing to cheer about
this "festive" season. All most people can do is to
hope against hope that
they will survive to see better days.
FinGaz
Is there any political dialogue between the Movement for
Democratic
Change and the ruling Zanu PF?
12/24/2003 9:28:18
AM (GMT +2)
Is there any political dialogue between the Movement
for Democratic
Change and the ruling Zanu PF? Could there be a public
position and a secret
one on the talks? Zimbabweans, who politicians in this
country, in a belief
which now belongs to history’s septic tanks, continue to
treat like
children, do not know what to believe anymore.
This
is not helped by the fact that the two biggest political egos in
the country
— Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC and President Robert Mugabe of
Zanu PF — have
been giving conflicting statements on the issue. In what
could have provoked
hope — the rarest of emotions in Zimbabwe today —
President Mugabe told
journalists last week the MDC and Zanu PF had
organised teams to informally
discuss the possibility of re-engaging in
talks that were put on ice sometime
this year. Tsvangirai, whose party has,
to its credit, since said it is more
than willing to resume the aborted
talks, immediately poured cold water on
President Mugabe’s statement. There
were no such discussions, he
said.
The question uppermost in the minds of Zimbabweans and indeed
the
international community that has been sitting on the fence for quite
some
time now is: what is really going on here?
Even South
African President Thabo Mbeki, who is at the centre of this
delicate
arbitrage, does not seem to know the exact position as regards the
stalled
talks. Zimbabweans, who justifiably feel they are being taken for
granted by
the politicians who continue playing their seemingly finite
political games
while the country is burning, would be right if they
demanded to
know.
It is they who bear the brunt of the obsolete socio,
political and
economic structures, the acute shortages of food and other
basic
commodities, the disastrous conditions of the health delivery system
and
public transport services, among others.
Skilled personnel,
in the midst of an industry laden with gloom have,
to escape joblessness,
voted with their feet as the deep-seated crisis runs
into a wall of negative
investors’ sentiment. Yet these investors, now
frozen in the wait-and-see
mode, used to fall over each other to pitch for a
slice of the country before
the economic bubble burst.
There has been precious little for the
dwindling band of optimists to
cling to. Already there is a whiff of panic as
it becomes more likely that,
come 2004, hunger stalks Zimbabwe, once the
break-basket of the region. It
is the Zimbabweans who would be found at the
scene of the socio-economic
accident that is about to happen in the
country.
The resilient Zimbabweans have played their role to ensure
that they
have a Zimbabwe they want. Before and after independence, they have
pushed
the stone uphill. Sadly though, there is the likelihood that it may
now slip
from their grasp and start rolling down crushing everything they
have built
over the years — simply because of decisions taken for political
expediency!
Do these politicians understand the catastrophe that
could befall our
nation or the depth of the abyss from which we would have to
find our way
out? Only ordinary Zimbabweans, who have had to endure winding
queues in
search of hard-to-come-by commodities, know better because it is
them who
wear the shoe and, therefore, know where it pinches
most.
It is, therefore, because of this crisis that continues to
weigh down
the economy that the long-suffering Zimbabweans had hoped would
spur the
politicians to clear impediments to dialogue and refloat the
crisis-hit
economy. And, if the politicians feel that a deeper rapproachment
between
the two political parties could help the country tread out of
its
difficulties, why then not revert to the negotiating table? This
is
something that needs urgent attention. The politicians should not
continue
dithering. As Charles Sheldon once said — good resolutions are like
babies
crying out in church; they should be carried out immediately.