http://www1.voanews.com
Health Minister Henry Madzorera told VOA Studio 7 reporter
Sandra Nyaira his
ministry has been frustrated by the denial of access to
children for
vaccination by members of the Apostolic Faith Church and other
religious
sects
Sandra Nyaira | Washington 28 December
2009
At least 30 children have died in eastern Zimbabwe where members
of the
Johanne Marange Apostolic Faith church have refused to allow their
children
to be vaccinated against the deadly communicable
disease.
World Health Organization Country Representative Custodia
Mandhlate said it
is tragic that children are dying of a preventable
disease. The outbreak is
also affecting other provinces with 340 cases of
measles reported.
Health Minister Henry Madzorera told VOA Studio 7
reporter Sandra Nyaira his
ministry has been frustrated by the denial of
access to children for
vaccination by members of the Apostolic Faith Church
and other religious
sects.
Dr. Madzorera said health officials will
be moving into these areas to
persuade parents to allow their children to be
vaccinated to avoid more
deaths.
http://www1.voanews.com
Nestlé
spokeswoman Nina Backes said the company has not yet decided if it
will
reopen the plant despite assurances from the government as to the
safety of
its country managers and production staff
Patience Rusere | Washington 28
December 2009
Swiss-based foods multinational Nestlé said it is still
reviewing conditions
in Zimbabwe following its suspension of operations last
week after it came
under heavy pressure from ZANU-PF ministers to buy milk
from a dairy concern
controlled by the family of President Robert
Mugabe.
A Nestlé official at the company's headquarters in Geneva said
the
multinational has been in regular contact with Zimbabwean authorities
since
halting operations at its Harare plant over alleged official
harassment and
intimidation.
Industry Minister Welshman Ncube
announced late last week that a solution
had been reached under which milk
from Mushungo Holdings, controlled by
Grace Mugabe, wife of the president,
would be purchased by a cooperative
which would then supply raw milk to the
Zimbabwe Nestlé unit.
But Nestlé spokeswoman Nina Backes said the company
has not yet decided if
it will reopen the plant despite assurances from the
government as to the
safety of its country managers and production staff.
Backes declined to
spell out the company's conditions for resuming
operations in Zimbabwe.
Political analyst Tinoziva Bere, who is chairman
of the Zimbabwe Election
Support Network, said the Nestlé saga, which began
in October when the Swiss
company severed its business relationship with the
Mugabe-controlled firm,
would discourage foreign direct investment in
Zimbabwe.
http://www1.voanews.com
The
courts will work closely with the Anti-Corruption Commission in an
effort to
curb fraud, graft and other forms of corruption, according to an
economic
blueprint issued last week by Finance Minister Tendai Biti
Ntungamili
Nkomo | Washington 28 December 2009
The government of Zimbabwe says
it will set up economic crimes courts in
four provincial towns as well as
Harare, the capital, to crack down on
corruption.
The courts will
work closely with the Anti-Corruption Commission in an
effort to curb fraud,
graft and other forms of corruption, according to an
economic blueprint
issued last week by Finance Minister Tendai Biti.
"The support for the
anti-corruption drive will include introduction of
programs for witness
protection and the establishment of Economic Crimes
Courts," says the
macro-economic plan. The document also says schools will
introduce ethics
and anti-corruption lessons into the curriculum by 2012 to
boost
awareness.
Decentralized anti-corruption offices are envisioned in
Bulawayo, Gweru,
Mutare and Masvingo. President Robert Mugabe mooted
economic crimes courts
in 2003, but the proposal was never
implemented.
Transparency International ranked Zimbabwe the 11th most
corrupt nation in
its 2009 Global Corruption Index, and the second most
corrupt in the
Southern African sub-region after the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Bulawayo-based economist Eric Bloch told VOA Studio 7 reporter
Ntungamili
Nkomo that economic crimes courts are needed, but he warned of
the danger of
such powers being misused to achieve political objectives.
http://life.globaltimes.cn
* Source: Xinhua
*
[10:06 December 29 2009]
Anthrax is feared to be spreading in
Zimbabwe as veterinary officials said
on Monday they are testing a suspected
case of the deadly disease from a
rural growth point about 50 kilometers
East of Harare.
The suspected case followed an outbreak of the disease
in central parts of
the country last week, which killed one person and 25
cattle.
Veterinary Services Department deputy director Chenjerai Njagu
told Xinhua
on Monday that the results of the suspected case from Juru
Growth Point in
Goromonzi district would be out on Tuesday.
He said
the area is one of the few districts which were left out during
vaccination
done at the beginning of the year.
"We left out Goromonzi and Seke
districts because of shortage of vaccines,"
said Njagu.
"Now these
are the areas giving us problems because we had not vaccinated
them at the
beginning of the year."
The anthrax outbreak in Seke, some 40 km
South-East of Harare, killed 18
cattle while one person and seven cattle
succumbed to the disease which
broke out last week in Selous, 60 km
North-West of the capital.
Njagu said the disease was dangerous as one
case can kill several people
who consume meat from an infected
animal.
He said the department would soon move into the affected areas
to vaccinate
cattle.
The department vaccinated 1,100 cattle in Seke
over the Christmas holiday
but Njagu said the turn out was very
low.
"The turn out was low and we are going to repeat vaccination after
the
holiday," he said.
Anthrax is a soil-borne disease which is
endemic in Zimbabwe. It is
normally recorded during the rainy season when
sprouting grass brings out
the bacteria from soil.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=26223
December 29, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The newly elected Zimbabwe Union of Journalists
(ZUJ) executive has
finally given in to relentless pressure from journalists
to step down by
agreeing to its immediate dissolving in preparation for
fresh elections
which have been slated for February 27, 2010.
ZUJ
secretary general Foster Dongozi says controversial former ZUJ President
Matthew Takaona will step back to preside over the affairs of the troubled
union in preparation of fresh elections to be held in Bulawayo.
The
climb-down by the new executive followed a court application filed at
the
High Court in Harare in mid December by four Harare based freelance
journalists and ZUJ members Godwin Mangudya, Frank Chikowore, Conrad
Mwanawashe and Guthrie Munyuki.
The four were adamant the ZUJ
elections were not conducted according to the
union's constitution, saying
they were particularly irked that the elections
held at How Mine, a remote
place south of the city of Bulawayo.
Also until the day of the elections,
delegates, including those who were
vying for positions in the new executive
were not made aware of the venue of
the ZUJ congress.
In the
election, Dumisani Sibanda, news editor with the Bulawayo based
Chronicle
newspaper was elected ZUJ president. He is cited as the second
respondent in
court application.
Other members of his executive whose tenure is being
challenged are third
respondent Dongozi, co-vice presidents Mercy Pote
(fourth) and Michael
Padera Chideme (fifth), treasurer Evince Mugumbate
(sixth), Jennifer Dube
(seventh), Valentine Maponga (eighth), and Godfrey
Mutimba (ninth).
But Dongozi announced at a press conference in Harare
Tuesday his executive
would not challenge the court action.
"We are
not opposing the court application, cognizant that between 2000 and
2005,
some of the worst media atrocities against journalists, were carried
out
because of the absence of a viable and vibrant trade union for
journalists,"
said Dongozi.
"We are mindful of the fact that unnecessary court battles
might result in
the trade union going into a coma, which would further
compromise the
workers welfare, trade union rights and the struggle for
press freedom.
"I am sure that all of us, the journalists and owners of
the industry do not
want to see our union collapse.
"For that we are
not apposing the court application because we believe that
doing so would
only give ammunition to our detractors whose aim is to drag
the name of the
union through the mud and preside over its collapse."
This application
filed by the journalists also sought an order for the
holding of a new
election in terms of the ZUJ constitution and "at any rate
in compliance
with all civilised norms and notions of democracy".
In his submissions
Mangudya, the first applicant, said in his affidavit that
he had invested a
lot of time and resources in preparing for election as
president but was
denied the opportunity to stand for the election.
He said details of the
venue and the delegates were kept a secret by the
Takaona-led executive who
went on to create the controversial post of ZUJ
"consultant" for
Takaona.
Mangudya further said his aspirations of landing the post were
not helped by
an advertisement which was placed in the Herald newspaper of
October 29,
2009 which deliberately refrained from stating the venue of the
congress.
"As a protagonist in the battle for office," said Mangudya, "I
was neither
notified of the venue nor invited thereto.
"There could
be no election under such circumstances of disenfranchisement.
Any process
that is built on such disenfranchisement can only be doubly
invalid.
"Having suffered at the hands of some of these responsible
by virtue of
their disdain and wanton disregard for statutes when it suits
them I would
further pray for an order that incapacitates them from abusing
the appeal
process."
He said there was a deliberate plot to stifle
the dissemination of
information to people who were challenging candidates
who had allegedly been
imposed by the Takaona executive.
Mangudya and
the other three applicants want the result of the process
declared "void and
of no force or effect".
Reads the application, "1st respondent's retiring
officers shall within 30
days of the order notify 1st respondent's members
of the date and venue at
which the election of 1st respondent's congress
officials shall be held and
shall so hold the election inside the said 30
days."
Outside the court process, some journalists and media stakeholders
were
calling for a parallel court process to oust the new ZUJ
executive.
Former ZUJ secretary general Luke Tamborinyoka said the
Sibanda executive,
which comprised journalists from state media, will
further compromise the
affairs of the embattled union by failing to muster
enough courage to
confront the state which continues to have strong
influence in their media
houses. Tamborinyoka is the director for
information in the mainstream MDC.
Dumisani Muleya, secretary general of
the Zimbabwe Journalists for Human
Rights called for a more radical approach
to the emotive matter.
He said the current executive, if it fails to
relinquish its controversial
tenure and allow the reversal of the process
that ushered it into power,
should be crippled financially and rendered
ineffective.
"Journalists should strangle this executive financially or
otherwise.
Talking to them does not help. We have got to undercut them. We
have got to
outflank them in this fight to reclaim the union. Don't talk to
them if they
are not interested," said Muleya.
Muleya decried what he
said was the takeover of the journalists' trade union
by "reactionary
forces" which were being manipulated by the state to abandon
the affairs of
fellow journalists.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=26217
December 29, 2009
By
Our Correspondent
HARARE - Hell - that's how MDC employee Pascal Gwezere
sums up the torture,
hunger, fear and misery that he experienced during his
abduction and
detention incommunicado for two months in two remand
prisons.
Released on Christmas Eve, Gwezere, the transport manager of
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party, was arrested on accusation
that he underwent
military training in Uganda and stole 21 firearms from the
Pomona Army
Barracks in Harare. He denies the charges, saying they are
trumped up.
Gwezere ordeal started when he was abducted on October 21
from his Mufakose
home in Harare by military intelligence officers. Also in
attendance,
according to him, were Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
operatives,
detectives from the Law and Order Section of the police, the
Police Internal
Security Intelligence (PISI) and 15 police officers who were
in anti-riot.
Gwezere said he was forced into an Isuzu KB 250 twin cab
truck and driven to
Marimba Police Station before being taken to various
places where he was
interrogated and viciously assaulted while being
interrogated about MDC
leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
strategy in disengaging from
Cabinet and Council of Ministers' meetings last
October. He was transferred
to Rhodesville Police Station and Harare Central
Police Station, where he
says he was severely tortured and denied food and
legal representation. He
was held incommunicado.
He says he secretly
appeared before Harare Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi on
Saturday a week
later, with no legal representation whatsoever. He was
initially remanded in
custody at Harare Remand Prison. Gwezere told The
Zimbabwe Times that his
first glimpse of the other inmates and their
surroundings was
shocking.
"What did I see behind the door? Almost naked prisoners in a
room with a
repulsive odour caused by smoke, unprocessed tobacco, urine,
faeces and
people who haven't washed for a very long time," Gwezere said.
"It is just
like hell."
He says he was detained in small room, 7 by 3
metres, packed with dozens of
other prisoners. He recalls that as night
fell, the conditions deteriorated
further when a can filled with urine
overflowed, soaking those who slept
nearby.
"There was no air," said
Gwezere. "To breathe, you have to be close to the
bars but to get there you
have to fight.
And the next morning brought little relief. It became
clear there was no
food, water, medicine or access to healthcare despite the
fact that his leg
was getting septic from the injuries sustained during
torture. He described
horrific remand prison conditions and said the lucky
few prisoners were
those whose families live close enough to visit
regularly. He said most of
the inmates received no visitors, and therefore
lacked food. He said among
the prisoners in the female section he saw women
with babies.
He said inmates were allowed to visit the toilet only once a
day.
Gwezere says he was fortunate to be held in civilian facilities
where he
mixed with ordinary prisoners although he was facing military
related
offences.
These appalling conditions are replicated
throughout Zimbabwe's prison
system, prompting detainees to attempt to
escape to avoid misery and
possible death. Gwezere said when he was moved to
Chikurubi Maximum Security
Prison, he found the conditions equally
appalling.
He was transferred to Chikurubi on the outskirts of Harare
after two weeks.
"When I saw the prison wall, more than three metres
high, I understood that
from then on, I was really a prisoner," he
said.
Gwezere says he first saw members of his family and members of the
government watchdog, the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee, who
had taken up his case for investigation.
At that time, he had gone
for days without receiving medical attention. Many
Zimbabwean prisoners are
denied medical attention.
The Red Cross is working with Zimbabwe's
inclusive government and prison
authorities in an effort to improve
conditions for the inmates.
Observers say there has been some improvement
in the condition of Zimbabwe's
prisons. The Justice Minister, Patrick
Chinamasa, has pledged more money to
improve facilities in prisons. The
prison system falls under his ministry.
After two months incarceration
Gwezere is now in the Avenues Clinic. He was
released after a Supreme Court
judge, Justice Wilson Sandura ordered the
State to release him last
week.
Gwezere was initially granted bail by High Court judge Charles
Hungwe but
the State resorted to the now familiar tactic of invoking Section
121 of the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act which bars the effect of the
ruling for
seven days pending an appeal to a higher court by the State.
After the lapse
of the seven days, the State sought and was granted leave to
appeal in the
Supreme Court against the bail order.
But Supreme Court
Judge Justice Wilson Sandura dismissed the appeal by the
State to oppose the
bail granted to Gwezere by the High Court, and duly
ordered his
release.
Gwezere says he is happy to be a free man once more and to
reunite with his
family. He faces charges he insists are trumped up. He is
expected to stand
trial in January.
http://www.businessday.co.za
JEAN JACQUES CORNISH and HOPEWELL
RADEBE
Published: 2009/12/29 06:30:22 AM
THE success of the Chirundu
one- stop border post being commissioned between
Zambia and Zimbabwe, near
Kariba, is putting pressure on the Southern
African Development Community
(Sadc) to speed up the establishment of a
similar operation at
Beitbridge.
Zimbabwean authorities at the weekend blamed inadequate
parking as a reason
for congestion at the Beitbridge border post on the
South African side. This
forced travellers and long-distance truck drivers
to queue for hours to be
cleared before crossing the
border.
Beitbridge is among the busiest border posts in the Sadc economic
region,
with volumes rising to more than 12000 travellers and 3500 vehicles
a day in
the festive season.
The Common Market of East and Southern
Africa (Comesa) says traffic is
moving faster at the Chirundu border
post.
The Chirundu system is subSaharan Africa's first. Funded by
Britain's
department for international development and the Japanese
International
Co-operation Agency, it is part of the North-South Corridor
project to move
traffic quickly and efficiently from central and east Africa
to southern
ports.
During the official commissioning ceremony at
Chirundu this month , Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe expressed concern
that traffic moving quickly
through the Zambia-Zimbabwe border would hit a
bottleneck at Beitbridge.
Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salamao replied
that Beitbridge would be the
next one-stop border
operation.
According to Comesa secretary- general Sindiso Ngwenya, that
will happen in
the next 12 to 18 months. "Chirundu is a Comesa project, and
Sadc will be
taking the lead on Beitbridge. We will give it all possible
support. With
the necessary political will, there is nothing to stop
this.
"We have also identified border posts in Malawi, and on the
frontiers of
Tanzania and Rwanda and Uganda with Kenya, to become one-stop
operations. SA
will do the same thing on its border with Mozambique,"
Ngwenya said.
Home affairs spokeswoman Siobhan McCarthy said that in the
past two years SA
had piloted the one- stop border concept in peak periods
on the Mozambican
border, which until recently had more traffic than
Beitbridge. "We're
piloting it at Lebombo with the hope that during 2010
we'd extend it to
other border posts, including Beitbridge."
Ngwenya
said that with vehicle theft in the region, the problem now was to
find a
faster way to get Interpol clearance when taking a car across the
border.
radebeh@bdfm.co.za
http://www1.voanews.com
A
Finance Ministry report said maize output rose in the 2008-2009 season
after
years of decline, noting production of 1.2 million tonnes of maize in
the
latest season vs. less than 600,00 metric tonnes in 2007-2008
Brenda Moyo
| Washington DC 28 December 2009
Zimbabwe has made notable progress
toward recovering its self-sufficiency in
the production of the national
staple of maize, according to a
macro-economic report and recovery plan
issued last week by the Ministry of
Finance.
The report said maize
output expanded in the 2008-2009 season after years of
decline with
estimated production of 1.2 million tonnes of maize in the most
recent
season, compared with fewer than 600,00 metric tonnes in 2007-2008
and less
than 1 million tonnes in the 2006-2007 cropping season.
The
macro-economic plan targets "double-digit growth" in agricultural output
in
the 2010-2012 period through, among other measures, guaranteeing security
of
tenure on farmland to producers "to overcome uncertainty, facilitate
access
to credit, and improve investment," improved financing, market
pricing that
"rewards production," mechanization and irrigation.
Zimbabwean
agricultural expert Mandla Nkomo told VOA Studio 7 reporter
Brenda Moyo in
an interview from Johannesburg that a great deal of planning
must be done to
ensure the country regains food self-sufficiency.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=26228
December 29, 2009
By
Our Correspondent
MUTARE - The High Court has dismissed a court
application filed as urgent by
the Chiadzwa Community Development Trust
seeking to stop government from
evicting villagers from the diamond rich
area.The government wants about
1800 families evicted from Chiadzwa and
resettled in the Odzi basin to pave
the way for full scale
mining.
But the villagers are resisting eviction, arguing that they
should be
properly compensated first for their properties.
They filed
an urgent application last week on Monday which was dismissed
this week by
High Court Judge, Justice Joseph Musakwa.
According to court officials
Justice Musakwa ruled that the application was
not urgent and that the legal
team representing the Chiadzwa Community
Development Trust should file a
normal court application. Their lawyer,
George Gapu was not immediately
available for comment.
The Chiadzwa Community Development Trust, is
argues that the issue of
compensation has to be negotiated and agreed to
before any relocation is
takes place.
The villagers, who are led by
the trust's chairman Newman Chiadzwa, are
arguing that the whole relocation
process is not being conducted in a
transparent manner and that the
companies granted licenses to mine the
diamonds in Chiadzwa have not
conducted an environmental impact assessment.
Mbada Mining Private
Limited and Canadile Miners Private Limited, companies
controversially
awarded licenses to mine diamonds in Chiadzwa are cited as
first and second
respondents respectively. Other respondents are the
Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation, Obert Mpofu, the Minister of Mines
and Mining
Development and Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local
Government, Urban
and Rural Development.
The government has announced it wants to relocate
up to 1800 families from
Chiadzwa to pave way for full scale diamond mining
operations.
"This is an urgent chamber application for the interdict
stopping the
respondents from evicting and relocating any individuals from
the Chiadzwa
Communal area until compensation payable to the affected
individuals has
been agreed and paid.
"Furthermore, the affected
individuals should not be evicted until the 1st,
2nd and 3rd respondents
have conducted Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
in terms of Section 97
of the Environmental Management Act (Chapter 20:27).
In the same vein the
1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents should not conduct mining
operations until they
have been granted EIA licenses by the competent
authority."
The
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation is the third respondent.
The
Trust says it was clear the respondents have "jumped the gun by rushing
to
arrange transportation of the affected families from Chiadzwa". It is
argued
that information about the impending evictions has been haphazardly
disseminated, with villagers knowing it only through the, military and
police details guarding the diamond fields.
"As the eviction of the
affected families looms, there is no information
about compensation they
will receive, how it will be calculated and whether
houses and other
amenities will be provided for them at their destinations.
These are matters
that should be agreed before any relocation is
contemplated or effected,"
say the villagers.
They argue that the affected families should not be
derived of their
property and the interest they have in their communal land,
which they have
used for subsistence purposes over many years, without
agreements on issues
of compensation and compliance with the
law.
"The applicants and affected families stand to suffer irreparable
harm if
the interdict is not granted because they will lose their property
in
Chiadzwa which they will be forced to abandon," said the
Trust.
Gapu said all the respondents had not filed any opposing papers by
the end
of the day on Thursday.
They also want the High Court to
declare that Mbada Mining, Canadile Miners
and the Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation are, in fact, operating
illegally since an
environmental impact assessment has not been done
according to the
Environmental Management Act (Chapter 20:27).
The villagers also want the
court to rule that the respondents or their
representatives shall "not evict
or cause the eviction of any person from
Chiadzwa diamond fields and
adjacent communal areas" unless the respondents
and the affected persons
have a written agreement relating to the
compensation payable to the
affected persons.
The government last month said it had finished work on
260 of the 900 plots
in Odzi where the Chiadzwa villagers are supposed to be
relocated.
The government says it has also successfully sunk 10 out of
the 18 boreholes
while work on renovating schools and some clinics in the
area was still in
progress.
The government has also promised to carry
out a proper evaluation of the
properties owned by the affected villagers
for them to be fully compensated.
The villagers have also been assured that
they will get first preference in
securing jobs created by the discovery of
the diamonds.
But these offers have not fully satisfied the expectations
of the Chiadzwa
villagers who have vowed not to move.
Most of the
villagers had built houses which the government now wants
demolished. One
example is Newman Chiadzwa, who puts the value of his house
in Chiadzwa at
US$700 000. He says he expects full compensation before he
can move out of
the diamond fields.
He believes the villagers should be allowed to derive
full benefits from the
mineral resource instead of being pushed out of the
place.
The government is expected to start relocating the families before
the end
of the year when investors mining in Chiadzwa disburse the $10
million they
pledged for the exercise.
http://www.radiovop.com
Buhera, December 29, 2009 - The remains of a Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC-T) party activist suspected to have been murdered by
Zanu PF militia in
2007 have been found in a mountain, police confirmed on
Tuesday.
Manicaland provincial police spokesperson, Inspector
Makomeke said the bones
of Paul Zimunda, who died at the age of 33, were
discovered on Monday by a
hunter in Unze Mountain, in Zipeya Village, under
Chief Nyashanu.
Zimunda had his metal identification card on
him.
His whereabouts remained a mystery after he was abducted by
a gang of the
notorious militia who were violently drumming up support for
ageing
President Robert Mugabe while stifling any voices of
dissent.
A neighbour said Zimunda, an ardent MDC supporter, was
last seen at the
village head’s place where he had gone to seek refuge from
the marauding
terror gang. But they suspect he was abducted there as the
village head is
also a ZANU PF loyalist.
“After the ZANU PF
supporters kept on nagging him, Paul went to the village
head’s place to
seek refuge. That was the last we heard of him. But other
villagers told us
that his assailants were also seen at the village head’s
place,” said the
neighbour, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of
victimisation.
Pauls’ parents are also late. He has no other
known relatives.
MDC-T Manicaland provincial chairman, Patrick
Chitaka, told Radio VOP that
the Zanu PF youths also turned Zimunda’s house
into a torture base after
they executed him.
“After the
disappearance of Paul, his parents’ house was turned into a
torture base for
suspected MDC-T supporters in the run up to last’s year’s
bloody June 27
elections. His parents are late, and nobody was left to look
after his
house,” Chitaka said.
Chitaka said they expect to give Zimunda a
decent burial Tuesday.
http://www.anglicanjournal.com/
Ecumenical News
International
Dec 28, 2009
Harare Anglicans in Zimbabwe say that
clerics loyal to President Robert
Mugabe have marshalled the national police
to disrupt services again in the
country's capital city
here.
Police went to the parishioners of St Michael's Mbare church on
6 December
and told them to vacate their church ahead of the Sunday
service, but the
parishioner refused to move and demanded to see written
court documents, the
Association of Zimbabwe Journalists reported.
A
report by the journalists' group said that an inspector who led the police
action stated they were acting on "orders and instructions from above" but
that he failed to produce written evidence of the instructions.
The
Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Harare of the Church of the Province
of
Central Africa, Chad Gandiya, who had been at St. Michael's to confirm
100
people, said rogue police officers were abusing their office instead of
maintaining law and order.
"As Anglicans it seems we have no legal
recourse in this country," he said.
"The police are interfering in our
church services without restraint, and
continue to defy existing court
orders. The police are supposed to be
protecting us but they are the ones
harassing us."
Gandiya succeeded the Rev. Sebastian Bakare, a retired
cleric who served as
the diocese's interim bishop from December 2007 when
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga
was deposed for installing himself as archbishop of
Zimbabwe. Kunonga has
said a number of times he believed the church that
excommunicated him was
too cosy with homosexuals.
As an avowed
supporter of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF
party, many
Anglicans say Kunonga has supported the intimidation and
persecution of
Anglicans in Zimbabwe.
Gandiya became Harare bishop despite a bid by
Kunonga to block the
consecration, claiming he is still the legitimate head
of the Anglican
church in Zimbabwe.
Bishop Gandiya said after the
police action earlier in December that the
co-ministers of Home Affairs
Giles Mutseyekwa and Kembo Mohadi in Zimbabwe's
government of national unity
had both acknowledged a judicial ruling that
instructed police not to
interfere in the Anglican church dispute involving
Kunonga.
Bishop
Gandiya said about eight parishes in Harare were prevented from
holding
services in their own buildings by the police.
"The police had no court
orders to prevent people from using their
buildings. All they could tell us
when we asked them was that they were
following orders from above."
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=11561
By
Stanley-Dlodlo
Published: December 29, 2009
Harare :
Swiss-based foods multinational Nestlé has denied a Zimbabwe
government
announcement last week that it has now decided to open its
factory. Speaking
to reporters, a spokesperson said that the company is
still reviewing
conditions in Zimbabwe following its suspension of
operations last week
after it came under heavy pressure from ZANU-PF
ministers to buy milk from a
dairy concern owned by President Robert Mugabe's
wife.
Contrary to
what Zimbabwe's Industry Minister said last week, a Nestlé
official at the
company's Geneva headquarters said that the multinational
has only been in
regular contact with Zimbabwean authorities since halting
operations at its
Harare plant over official harassment and intimidation
from two government
ministers.
Industry Minister Welshman Ncube announced late last week that
a solution
had been reached under which milk from Gushungo Holdings, owned
by Grace
Mugabe, would now be indirectly purchased by Nestlé through a
local
cooperative from Mugabe.
But quoted by VOA, Nestlé spokeswoman
Nina Backes said the company has not
yet decided if it will reopen the plant
despite assurances from the
government as to the safety of its country
managers and production staff.
Backes declined to spell out the company's
conditions for resuming
operations in Zimbabwe
http://www.desmoinesregister.com
By LYNN HICKS .
lhicks@dmreg.com . December 29,
2009
Brian Patrick Donaghy sees a high-tech diamond in the rough in
Zimbabwe.
The Des Moines venture capitalist has invested in two
technology companies
in the southern African country, where runaway
inflation, high debt and
political instability have left the economy in
ruins despite mineral wealth
that includes diamonds.
Donaghy sees an
educated, English-speaking work force with few opportunities
for employment
at a time when Africa is expanding its fiber-optic networks
and other
technology infrastructure.
"In five to 10 years, Harare (the capital)
will be the next Bangalore,"
predicted Donaghy, who has worked in India and
watched technology raise
living standards there.
Donaghy's Broadhorn
Capital is a venture development firm specializing in
early- and seed- stage
technology companies. A hedge fund manager introduced
him to people doing
business in Zimbabwe, and he has made three trips there
this
year.
His projects include Acmeis, a software hosting company. Donaghy
hopes to
have 150 programmers working in Harare at the end of next
year.
He also has a stake in BigAfrica.com, which Donaghy calls the
"LinkedIn" for
the continent.
Donaghy, who has a passion for social
philanthropy, argues that creating
jobs is better than providing
aid.
Zimbabwean officials agree, he said, and they welcome public-private
partnerships in information technology.
After meeting Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe, who has been blamed for
destroying the economy and
violating human rights, Donaghy said: "It's like
meeting Saddam Hussein," or
another dictator. "He's a really smart guy. He's
not someone you want to
underestimate."
Mugabe agreed to share power with an opposition party in
February. The
nation's dollar was replaced, and the economy is forecast to
grow 7 percent
in 2010, according to press reports.
Donaghy sees
evidence of recovery, including a restocking of once-empty
stores and
movement in banking, real estate and outside investment.
"Africa is the
last huge emerging market," he said.
From The Star (SA), 28 December
Beauregard Tromp
Patrick didn't think he could fall
asleep in this strange place. But the
blanket and soft mattress were
alluring, slowly drawing him into their
restful embrace. Suddenly the blows
rained down from all around, kicks and
punches finding their painful mark.
His assailants pinned him down, muffling
his mouth to smother his cries. And
then, just as suddenly as it had
started, the vicious attack was over. He
slowly pulled back the blanket that
had covered his face. "There were many.
I couldn't see a face," says the
16-year-old Patrick. He'd come to the
United Reform Church (URC) shelter to
seek refuge but after one night there
he decided to return to the streets of
Musina, which he regarded as safer.
"Some of the new boys get attacked,"
says Georgina Matsaung, who started the
shelter a year ago for unaccompanied
minors crossing the border from
Zimbabwe. "We try to find out what happened
but they always say they don't
know. The rules on the street follow them
here."
Of even greater
concern to Matsaung are rumours that some older boys rape
the younger ones.
For her and other care workers, the disappearance of girls
crossing the
border is of grave concern. "Many girls are turned into wives
or do piece
jobs." Some girls who cross the border illegally fall prey to
the notorious
'gomma-gommas', gangs of Zimbabweans and South Africans near
the border, she
says. "They strip a woman naked and search in their private
parts for money.
If you're fortunate they'll end up searching you indecently
without raping
you." The shelter, the church's 2008 Women's Day initiative,
began with a
couple of boys sleeping in Matsaung's garage, and is now is
responsible for
helping hundreds of children on the streets of Musina. When
the church hall
could not accommodate the growing numbers of children,
Médicins Sans
Fronti232res (MSF) donated tents and more double bunk-beds.
Matsaung,
the principal of a local school, makes sure all the children
attend school,
unless they have arrived too late in the year. Meanwhile, on
a farm outside
of town, boys are planting tomato seedlings, backs arched in
the warm sun. A
"drip system" of irrigation - allowing for between five and
seven minutes
before it starts flooding the next freshly planted row - helps
to ensure the
boys work at a quick, steady pace. Occasionally, one of the
young workers
straightens and stretches, firing off a one-liner, bringing
smiles to his
workmates. When the baobabs become silhouettes along the
fading Limpopo
skyline, the work stops and the boys return to their home in
Campbell
Location, where a letter awaits them. Staff from the department of
social
welfare have visited again and the boys were not there. Again. The
four must
report to the URC shelter or the adults assisting them will be in
trouble.
"If they come for us, we will run away," says 16-year-old
John.
Following a dusty road from Beitbridge border crossing, each of
the boys has
their own story of how they arrived at the farm. 17-year-old
Tafadzwa did
piece jobs for two weeks before boarding a bus that took him
away from
Gweru, near the centre of Zimbabwe. "In Gweru, if you want money
you have to
mine for gold. But you can die," he says. Peter, 16, from
Masingo, paid R20
for the journey to the border before using "double-up"
(walking) to reach
the farm. "We heard stories from other guys who said
things are nice here,
that you can live here. I heard stories of people
being attacked and women
getting raped. That you can get killed. But we
thought we'd be lucky," he
says. Beside Peter, Samson turns away shyly when
he catches me looking at
the vacant hole where his left eye once was. He
lost it while playing with
wire seven years ago.
Things were so
much better when Samson's father was alive, he says. But it
all changed two
years ago when his father died suddenly, leaving the family
to survive off
only his pension. Often there wasn't enough money for school
fees. Or even
food for Samson and his four sisters. The children were all
forced to drop
out of school. "I just want to work and maybe buy them some
clothes." He and
Peter decided to come to South Africa "where things are
good". The boys from
Campbell are territorial and the four are careful about
trying to make
friends here. "Why wouldn't they be accepted? We are all
foreigners here.
Banda, Phiri... from Malawi, Zambia. All over," says farmer
Godfrey Banda.
When the mine closed down in 1992, Godfrey's father returned
to Malawi. "If
he stayed, he may still be alive," he says.
Four years ago, with land
granted to the community by the local
municipality, Banda and 24 others
formed a co-op. In the first year of
operation, planting only tomatoes, the
farm turned a profit of R300 000. The
next year there were only two
remaining co-op members on the land.
"Everybody else chowed their money. Me,
I decided I want to be a farmer."
For now, the co-op is barely making enough
money to keep producing the
seedlings which will ensure another year of
farming. Banda has promised the
boys a share of the profit once the cheque
comes from the market in Joburg
where all the okra, tomatoes and pumpkins
they produce ends up. In the
meantime, the boys are satisfied with a roof
over their heads and food in
exchange for their labour. Here days run into
weeks and the boys spend most
of their time in and around the farm.
Saturdays are, however, a treat. For
an hour or more the boys will sit in
front of a television set, transfixed
by the indestructible muscle-bound men
jumping off ropes, pummelling each
other with chairs and enduring an
impossible amount of punishment. "John
Cena's my favourite," says Peter.
"Yes, Cena but also Undertaker," Samson
says. There's a quick debate about
who's the best and the decision is
unanimous: Cena.
Elsewhere,
Jerome's tyre has a flat. Even with the tyre wrapped in rubber,
Jerome will
not go very far. For the half-dozen boys sheltering at the taxi
rank, the
tyre is a huge problem. Temporarily taking a break from sucking at
the
glue-filled juice bottle, Bheka explains that without Jerome in his
wheelchair, the group's income from begging has dwindled considerably. A
two-litre tin with rice suspended over a fire will have to do for the group
today. "Maybe we can get some money at the mall," says Bheka. The boys
grudgingly concede they will also try to buy shopping slips. Armed with
these the boys will go to the border with a valid passport holder and claim
the VAT back. A month-end till slip can yield as much as R200. The group are
adamant that living on the streets is better than the shelter. "I'll go to
Joburg and go home with money," 16-year-old Chris says.
Stealing
glances at the fire, the street children assembled here are a
collection of
broken bodies. There's the girl with a missing eye and scars
on her nose, a
boy who smiles brightly before scratching his name on his
forearm and the
two girls resting on bedding, nursing a toddler. Back at the
UCR shelter,
Save the Children are leading the boys in a debate: the streets
versus the
shelter. One of the older boys moderates as the debate
occasionally descends
into jokes, with orators either cheered or jeered.
It's better at the
shelter because you go to school and are assured of a
place to sleep and
three meals a day, argues the one side. No, the streets
are better because
you learn to fend for yourself and don't have to be
dependant on anyone, is
the response. A decision is made and the boys, some
grudgingly, accept the
result. The social worker steps in and changes the
result. "You have changed
the result because you want us to stay here," says
one boy. "But we all know
the streets have won."
http://www.afriquejet.com/
After a
decade of intense, man-bites-dog tussle for power between President
Robert
Mugabe and the opposition, political stability returned to Zimbabwe
in
2009.
This followed an agreement by the two sides in February to share
power,
after intense pressure from the 14-nation Southern African
Development
Community (SADC) regional bloc, and the African Union
(AU).
Political instability, characterised by inter-party fighting by
supporters
of the two sides, intensified in 2008 and early this year, after
an
inconclusive general election.
In the election in March 2008,
Mugabe was for the first time in 28 years
defeated in a presidential poll,
but opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai -
now Prime Minister - also failed
to cross the 50 percent vote thres hold to
win outright.
In the first
round, Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from
Brita in in
1980, won 43 percent of the vote to Tsvangirai's 47 percent.
Under the
constitution, the two had to square off in a run-off, but
Tsvangirai pulled
out, citing violence against supporters of his Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC) party in the run-up to the poll.
Mugabe went ahead with the
election uncontested, and won, but the outcome
was widely condemned and
regarded a nullity.
Both sides subsequently laid competing claims to
power on the strength of
their electoral victories in the two polls -
Tsvangirai for winning the
first round which was internationally recognised,
and Mugabe for his victory
in the unrecognised second vote, putting the
southern African nation of 11
million people on the edge of civil war and
prompting the AU and SADC to
inte rvene.
The two regional groups
appointed former South African President Thabo Mbeki
as mediator in the
crisis, and after months of intense power-brokering, he
got the bitter
rivals to agree to share power - leading to the formation of
a coalition
government that was sworn in in February.
Under the coalition government,
Mugabe retained the presidency and
Tsvangirai be came prime minister, a
development that immediately eased
inflammed election-related political
passions on both sides of the divide
and drew the cou ntry back from the
brink of civil war.
Summing up the year, Mugabe said last week the
coalition government had
managed to restore both political and economic
stability, and expressed
optimism its partners would be able to bridge
lingering differences.
"It was a very eventful year, eventful in several
ways. It was a year we
launched the partnership that you see. It was about
our trying to work
together, ignore the political differences of the
parties, submerge those
differ ences and elevate the areas we agree on," he
said.
"We belong to Zimbabwe all of us and we have a common destiny. We
can't
ignore that people support all of us here because the elections of
2008
shows that. Yes, we had a responsibility which you can call onerous in
a se
nse, quite a responsibility because only yesterday we were boxing each
other
and calling each other names," he added.
Tsvangirai, in his own
review of the year, similarly expressed optimism the
nation will consolidate
unity, and heal the wounds of the past, as it forges
ahead.
"The year
2010 is upon us, the expectation is that we must build on the
momentum of
transformation, we must expedite the constitution-making
process, national
healing and move from economic stabilisation to recovery
and growth," he
said.
"We (the nation as a whole) are in the driving seat and we want to
make sure
that this process is irreversible," he noted.
Although
Mugabe and Tsvangirai are still squabbling over implementation of
the
power-sharing deal, tensions over this are restricted to the inner
circles
of the ruling elite, and are not spilling over to the rank and file
as in
the past.
The premier accuses Mugabe of violating some provisions of the
agreement,
for example, refusing to share some government posts.
But
by and large, Zimbabweans enjoyed a normal and quiet life this year for
the
first time in a decade.
Harare - Pana 29/12/2009
By Albert
Charwadza, PANA Correspondent
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=26209
December 29, 2009
John
Robertson
ZIMBABWE now has an updated recovery policy framework from
which to obtain
guidance on what to do next. The just-issued STERP II
document is a 382-page
revision of the 127-page version of the Short-Term
Emergency Recovery
Programme that was issued in March 2009.
At the
launch of the programme, the Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe,
left
her audience in do doubt: international assistance will be needed to
close
the wide financing gap between domestic revenues and the expenditures
that
will be needed to make the programme work. But missing from her
presentation
and from the document itself is any attempt to argue that
Zimbabwe is now
deserving of the needed assistance.
Bringing about the recovery would be
challenging enough even if the country
had actually suffered from the
claimed effects of sanctions, but Zimbabwe
began to suffer from
self-inflicted damage long before anyone reached for
the almost entirely
invalid sanctions excuse.
If this enlarged and revised document included
any evidence that the
recovery proposals included efforts to repair the
damage deliberately done,
assistance would almost certainly be offered much
more readily and much more
generously. But no such lines appear in the text,
or to address the fact
that the country's problems are as serious as they
are because decisions
were taken to close down Zimbabwe's biggest business
sector and to
dispossess the investors who had built this
capacity.
What does appear in the statement is that, "The Framework
strategies to
transform Zimbabwe's agriculture will involve a greater
reliance on
efficient inputs delivery and farm output marketing systems and
a smooth
integration of agriculture with the domestic, regional and
international
markets."
Regrettably, the phrases suggest we will all
be putting our trust in
bureaucratic procedures in the apparent belief that
they can make business
acumen and talent unnecessary.
The importance
of the people who had already transformed Zimbabwean
agriculture and who
used to be relied upon to deliver all of the
efficiencies required is not
acknowledged, not recognised and not admitted.
Consider the paragraphs
under the heading Dairy Development:
602. Challenges experienced with
overall livestock production have also
undermined dairy farming.
603.
As a result, raw milk supply, which was 256 million litres per annum in
1990, has since fallen to current levels of 23 million litres. This is
against national demand of 96 million litres, and an installed capacity of
350 million litres.
604. The general decrease in dairy production is
also a result of viability
challenges, unavailability of stock feeds on the
market in previous seasons,
as well as crippling labour
shortages.
605. The Framework targets increasing dairy production to
around 25 million
litres in 2010. Supportive measures during 2010 to 2012
include support for
growth in the dairy herd, which had been depleted to
around 140 000, against
an all-time high of about 1.4 million.
While
a few facts can be identified in those lines, the relevant facts are
missing
and some of the claims are simply dishonest. Dairy farming was not
undermined by livestock production challenges. It was undermined by the
eviction of the owners of nearly all the dairy farms in an acquisition
process that destroyed a large percentage of the dairy herds. True enough,
"livestock production challenges" did follow, but for reasons carefully
avoided in the STERP II document.
The relevant facts are that highly
skilled dairy farmers used to produce
more than ten times the current volume
of milk, and because this was well in
excess of national requirements, a
wide variety of diary products could be
exported. Now that production is
about a quarter of the country's
requirements, substantial imports are
needed.
The confiscation of dairy farms, complete with the massive
investments in
equipment and breeding stock, was as expensive to the country
as it was
unjust to the investors who had created the businesses. The claims
now
implied in the STERP II programme that the industry can be revived as if
all
this never happened and as if people who acquire such farms for nothing
can
run them as well as those who spent sometimes a lifetime building them
is as
dishonest as it is stupid.
Choosing to redefine farming as a
social or even political activity instead
of a business activity does not
release the population from its need of food
or paid employment, any more
that it releases food processing factories of
their need of agricultural
inputs. Equally, any attempt to claim that
farming skills are inborn,
natural, inherent, intuitive or instinctive
simply denies the existence of
the vast range of technical, scientific,
engineering, financial and
marketing experience that farmers need in order
to survive.
In urging
the international community to assist the Government in its
economic
recovery and growth endeavours, the Deputy Prime Minister was
perhaps
unaware of facts that are glaringly obvious to nearly everyone else:
Zimbabwe used to stand out as one of the Third World's most successful
developing countries, but it chose to impose policies that have damaged or
destroyed most of its productive capacity.
It is now asking for
assistance, not to put things right by fixing what was
broken, but to meet
import bills, recovery expenses and lost tax revenues
with money that
taxpayers in other countries have to earn and donate to the
people of
Zimbabwe. All this is necessary so that Zimbabwe's government can
pretend
that it has done nothing wrong and has no need to admit making
mistakes.
As is the case with almost all aid, transfers of money to
meet these
requests will do Zimbabwe no favours. Unless the country places
its future
into the hands of competent investors and business operators who
can again
base business decisions on the rule of law, on property rights and
on
security of tenure over freehold property, the country will remain
dependent
on aid.
Zimbabwe certainly needs aid. But it should come
with the pre-condition that
steps be taken to re-engage the Zimbabweans who
have the skills needed to
place the recovery onto a self-sustaining path.