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Archbishop of
York says time has come to remove Mugabe
http://news.yahoo.com/
2 hrs 18 mins ago
LONDON
(AFP) - The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, called on the
international
community Saturday to admit that power-sharing efforts in
Zimbabwe had
failed and to remove Robert Mugabe from power.
In a newspaper article,
the second-highest figure in the Anglican Church
compared the situation in
Zimbabwe to that he faced as a dissident in Uganda
under Idi Amin, and
called on African leaders to step in.
"The time has come for Mugabe to
answer for his crimes against humanity,
against his countrymen and women and
for justice to be done," Sentamu wrote
in the article, to appear in Sunday's
edition of The Observer.
His call came after British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown said that world
powers must join together to tell Mugabe that
"enough is enough", amid a
cholera epidemic which has killed nearly 600
people.
Sentamu wrote: "The winds of change that once brought hope to
Zimbabwe and
its neighbours have become a hurricane of destruction with the
outbreak of
cholera, destitution, starvation and systemic abuse of power by
the state.
"As a country cries out for justice, we can no longer be
inactive to their
call. Mugabe and his henchmen must now take their rightful
place in The
Hague (war crimes court) and answer for their
actions.
"The time to remove them from power has come."
He asked
where was the African leadership in the crisis, noting the role
played by
Tanzania's Julius Nyerere in ousting Amin in Uganda.
"In Uganda, we were
beaten, tortured, abused and hundreds were murdered, but
never did we starve
to death or see the level of suffering which is to be
found in today's
Zimbabwe," he said.
Sentamu added: "The people of Zimbabwe look to the
international community,
especially the SADC (regional southern African
bloc), to heed the cries of
their suffering and the voices of our own
conscience."
The archbishop is a long-time critic of Mugabe. In December
2007 he cut up
his dog collar -- the vestment marking him out as a clergyman
-- on national
television, vowing not to wear it again until Mugabe was
gone.
But Sunday's article contains some of the strongest remarks he has
made yet.
Sentamu said the time had come for world powers to recognise
that a
power-sharing deal between Mugabe and main rival Morgan Tsvangirai
"is
dead".
"The time for any negotiated settlement which leaves
Mugabe and his regime
in power is over," he wrote.
"Mugabe has had
the opportunity to share power and to restore the land that
he brought to
ruin. Instead, that path of ruination has become a slope
falling away into a
humanitarian disaster."
British
opposition leader demands action on Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Vigil Diary
– 6th December
2008
The leader of the UK
Liberal Democrat Party, Nick Clegg MP, visited the Vigil and called for
international action to oust Mugabe. Addressing Vigil supporters, Mr Clegg
condemned the brutality of the Mugabe regime. He said it was a stain on the
conscience of the world. The UN, he said, must take any measures necessary to
remove Mugabe.
Mr Clegg criticized the
‘softly softly’ approach of former President Mbeki and called on
South Africa and
China to stop
supporting the regime. He was referring to their opposition to any action
against Mugabe by the Security Council.
The Lib Dem leader paid
tribute to the persistence of the Vigil and declared ‘you will prevail in the
end’.
Many prominent people have
visited the Vigil over the past 6 years but Mr Clegg was the first party leader
to address supporters. He was filmed by Channel 4 and we all gathered in our
local pub, the Theodore Bullfrog, after the Vigil to see the broadcast report.
It carried horrendous pictures of the cholera epidemic as well.
Despite Mr Clegg’s hopes of
a change of attitude by South Africa, the Vigil
remains skeptical. Fungayi Mabhunu, of the Vigil Management Team, attended a
function at South Africa House on Friday and spoke to the High Commissioner
Ms Lindiwe Mabuza. Despite
the world attention on the Zimbabwean ‘non-crisis’, Ms Mabuza said it was an
African problem and the West should not stick its nose in (presumably so they
couldn’t sniff something being swept under the carpet). The Vigil expects that,
if it follows her line, the forthcoming fact-finding visit to
Zimbabwe by a South African delegation
will conclude that everything in Zimbabwe is ok. After all South
Africa has endorsed all the rigged
and violent elections in Zimbabwe for the past decade.
Our partners,
the Zimbabwe Association, are to join us next week to sing Christmas Carols. It
will be a great occasion. The Vigil’s own carol day will be on 20th
December. There will be more details of this next week and we promise a big
surprise.
Some news
points:
·
Vigil supporter Simon Mambonga
is speaking for a second time to the Caribbean Labour Solidarity Group on
Sunday, 7th December. We await his report.
·
David
Dinnell, a Zimbabwean who has written
a play about Zimbabwe ‘How to cook a Country’ came
and talked about his play. He is planning to bring the whole cast next
week.
·
Another visitor was Margaret Milort-Holland,
a Zimbabwean living (surprisingly) in Holland. She thinks there
should be protests outside the Hague (where we want
Mugabe to stand trial) and will be sending us her ideas about
this.
It was a welcome change to
have bright sunshine in place of the rain we have been having.
For latest Vigil pictures
check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE
RECORD: 104 signed the register.
FOR YOUR
DIARY:
·
Central
London
Zimbabwe Forum.
There is no Forum on 1st December
as the usual venue is not available because of Christmas bookings. The Forum has
managed to find an alternative venue for the next two weeks (Mondays,
8th and 15th December) – The Cole Room,
Fabian Society, 11 Dartmouth St,
London
SW1H 9BN (020 7227 4900).
Nearest station: St. James’ Park.
·
Next
Glasgow
Vigil. Saturday,
20th December 2008, 2 – 6 pm. Venue: Argyle
Street Precinct. For more information contact:
Patrick Dzimba, 07990 724 137,
Tafadzwa Musemwa 07954 344 123 and Roggers Fatiya 07769 632
687
·
Zimbabwe Association’s Women’s
Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays 10.30 am – 4 pm. Venue: The
Fire Station Community and ICT Centre,
84 Mayton Street,
London N7 6QT, Tel: 020
7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury
Park. For more
information contact the Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355 (open Tuesdays and
Thursdays).
Vigil
co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand,
London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human
rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.
Zimbabwe
on high alert
http://www.thetimes.co.za/
Sunday Times Foreign Desk Published:Dec 07,
2008
Zimbabwe's
panicking government is cracking down on its army and has placed
the country
on high alert following a riot by soldiers this week and
increasing calls
for President Robert Mugabe to be forcibly
removed.
Unconfirmed reports yesterday claimed that 20
soldiers - fingered as the
instigators of Monday's rampage - had been
summarily executed as Mugabe
desperately tries to control the
discontent.
His priority is the internal unrest. Military officers
told the Sunday Times
on Friday that an inquiry into the soldiers' protests
had been launched.
About 20 troops are believed to be facing court
martial - however,
speculation is that they have already been executed by
firing squad. The
Sunday Times could not independently confirm
this.
Mugabe is said to most fear assassination by soldiers who have lost
confidence in the ageing autocrat.
In the most serious sign of army
fragmentation, dozens of unarmed soldiers
marauded through central Harare on
Monday, breaking windows, looting stores
and robbing money
changers.
Armed police dispersed them with tear gas.
Observers say
while the army's rank and file have lost faith in Mugabe, he
still has the
support of the top brass, which means a coup is unlikely.
Mugabe is also
said to enjoy the confidence of all ranks in the police.
The army is
about 30000 strong, compared with about 40000 police personnel.
Many
military and riot police have also been deployed in Harare as the
government
fears that Zimbabweans will take their cue from the mutinous
soldiers,
according to government insiders.
The government is said to have taken
such fright at the soldiers' actions
that Mugabe cut short a visit to Dubai
and the Zanu-PF politburo held an
extraordinary meeting on Thursday to
discuss the matter.
Meanwhile, the clamour for Mugabe to be forcibly
removed is growing.
On Friday the UK and the US added their voices to
that of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, who earlier in the week said Mugabe was
"destroying a wonderful
country" and should be removed by force if
necessary.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said it was "time for
decisive action to
push (Mugabe) out of power".
Government
officials said all state security agents had been placed on high
alert after
the mutiny.
Zanu-PF insiders confirmed that the party had
been shaken by the riots.
Army spokesman Solomon Tsatsa said the
behaviour of the soldiers would not
be condoned and those found responsible
would face the consequences.
"Whatever is happening it is not the
position of the army," Tsatsa said.
"We don't subscribe to that. It is
probably just a few small numbers of
soldiers who are doing
this.
"All efforts are being put in place that there is order. All our
military
and police are on the ground to ensure law and order," he
added.
Speculation was also rife in the media that the government
could declare a
state of emergency if the situation deteriorated
further.
Meanwhile, state security agents have unleashed a renewed
crackdown on the
opposition.
The latest high-profile casualty is
human rights monitor Justina Mukoko, who
has been missing since she was
abducted by four people on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe: a descent into hell
http://www.sundayherald.com
December
6, 2008
As Robert Mugabe finally accepts
international help, is it one crisis too
far for his brutal
regime?
By Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg
AS ROBERT Mugabe's Zimbabwe
government swallowed its pride and asked for
international help to contain a
cholera epidemic it had insisted a few days
earlier was under control, body
bags were among the items it requested.
Zimbabweans are dying in their
hundreds from a disease which, in the 21st
century, should not be a mass
killer.
Some are dying as they reach Zimbabwe's major hospitals, only to
find them
closed because they have no drugs, running water or working
equipment. It is
in these institutions that the United Nations and the World
Health
Organisation (WHO) count the dead, arriving at an official death toll
of
575.
advertisement
But the real number of dead is many times
greater. The UN and WHO are unable
to count those who die in their own homes
in the urban townships or in the
huts and fields of the rural
areas.
WHO says that the normal fatality rate in a modern cholera
outbreak, where
clean water and medication are available, is below 1%. But
the death rate
among infected Zimbabweans is at least 4.5% and as high as
30% in remote
areas, WHO said.
The disaster is so massive that
Mugabe, who declared a state of emergency,
has also asked for international
food aid. His citizens are starving as a
result of the collapse of
agriculture following the expulsion of commercial
farmers from 2000 onwards.
Habitually, Mugabe has previously denied any need
for outside help, once
saying: "We are not hungry. Why foist this food on
us? We don't want to be
choked. We have enough."
But South Africa's African National Congress
government, widely criticised
for its softly-softly approach towards the
deepening crisis within its
northern neighbour, last week said the situation
there had reached crisis
proportions. "People are dying of starvation," said
South African government
spokesman Themba Maseko. "It is time for urgent
action. We cannot sit with
our arms folded."
South Africa has been
alarmed by raw sewage pouring into the Limpopo, the
river that Rudyard
Kipling once described as "great, green, greasy and all
set about with fever
trees", which forms the 200-mile frontier between
Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The Limpopo, whose waters South Africans drink,
bathe in and water their
crops with, is now infected with cholera bacteria.
People on the South
African side of the border are now dying from the
disease.
The
cholera, with the toll of dead and infected increasing daily, is not a
random mishap. It is a product of state failure, a direct consequence of
decaying municipal infrastructure and a health system that can no longer
offer basic services.
Last week, Save The Children said starvation in
the Zambezi Valley was
forcing people to eat meat infected with anthrax. At
least three people had
been killed by the lethal bacterium. "Many families
are so hungry that they
are taking meat from carcasses of their dead
animals, even if they know it's
diseased, and are feeding it to their
children," said Save The Children.
As the state of emergency got under
way, international organisations such as
the International Red Cross and
Care International began building field
latrines and distributing medicines
and oral rehydration kits. They took
over responsibility from the state-run
Zimbabwe National Water Authority for
delivering disease-free water and
repairing collapsed sewerage pipes.
Zimbabwe's cities and towns have gone
without fresh tap water for months.
Many urban households are unable to use
their toilets, which are blocked by
backed-up sewage. Parliament and the
high court in the capital Harare closed
down last month because of a lack of
clean water.
Many people in Harare are walking more than three miles out
of the city to
bring back water in plastic containers from community
boreholes. When water
does flow from taps, people are frightened to use it.
"It comes with a heavy
smell. Sometimes it's greenish in colour, other times
brown," said Tadiwa
Chireya, a gardener in Harare's Greendale
suburb.
"Funerals of people dying of cholera are a common feature of our
daily
lives," said Tapiwa Hove, who lives in the working-class Harare
township of
Budiro. "But it seems no-one cares. Sewage is flowing all over.
It's like
living in hell.
"People are dying at an alarming rate. The
government denies this, but the
reality is there for all to see. And we are
thirsty in this land of plenty.
Dry taps have become a way of
life."
In response to the emergency, the WHO in Geneva has sent six
cholera experts
to Zimbabwe with supplies of rehydration salts and other
medicines. "We are
in front of a disaster," said WHO's global cholera
co-ordinator, Claire-Lise
Chaignat. "We won't be able to stop the outbreak
like that. It is escalating
We know there are pockets where the case
fatality rate is up to 50% in rural
areas."
Amnesty International's
secretary-general, Irene Khan, bemoaned the cholera
epidemic for adding to a
long list of suffering. "It is the latest in a
whole series of abuses and
violations of the people," she said, citing
massive evictions of the urban
poor from their homes by Mugabe's police and
murderous attacks by Zanu PF
militias on dissidents and opposition party
activists.
Khan asked:
"So how much more are these people going to suffer from the
Mugabe
government?"
"Quite a lot more," is the answer, despite a growing chorus
from African and
international statesmen for Mugabe to be toppled and
perhaps be put on trial
for crimes against humanity.
Mugabe has yet
to admit political responsibility for turning Zimbabwe,
during the near-30
years he has ruled, from one of Africa's most prosperous
countries into a
failed state. Zimbabwe, which was once a food exporter, is
completely laid
low. A lethal mix of disease, hunger, unimaginable inflation
running
officially at more than 231,000,000% (though in reality is many
times
higher), decayed infrastructure and flight abroad of qualified people
has
crippled the country. Cholera and anthrax have come on top of an
HIV/Aids
epidemic that has left Zimbabweans with the lowest life
expectancies in the
world - 34 years for women and 37 for men.
Mugabe continues to blame all
of Zimbabwe's crises on Western sanctions,
which he says are aimed at
"regime change". However, the limited sanctions
imposed in the wake of
electoral fraud and state violence are targeted
purely at the president and
his close associates and consist of travel bans
and a freeze on their
foreign assets.
"We've gone from some of the best healthcare in Africa to
people dying
because they are living in their own sewage," said a doctor
from Harare's
Parirenyatwa Hospital, once one of the finest in Africa, but
now closed with
burst pipes leaking into its darkened operating theatres.
"And the people
who run this country act as if it has nothing to do with
them or what
they've done to this country."
The sheer ruthlessness of
Mugabe and his "securocrat" elite is constantly
underestimated. It has
almost been forgotten that nine months ago Mugabe and
Zanu PF actually lost
the presidential and parliamentary elections. Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
won the presidential
poll, but not with the 50% plus one vote majority
necessary to avoid a
run-off election in June.
The run-off never took place because police,
soldiers and Mugabe's Zanu PF
militias launched a crackdown in which
hundreds of government opponents were
killed. Tsvangirai, rather than see
more people killed and maimed, withdrew
and Mugabe declared himself
re-elected president unopposed.
But this time Zimbabwe had collapsed so
absolutely that Mugabe and the top
military and police officers who
effectively run the country could not
reverse the decline. Analysts said
Zimbabwe was no longer going downhill but
had finally plunged over the
cliff. John Robertson, Zimbabwe's leading
economist, who has carefully
monitored the decline, last week said that
since Mugabe declared himself
re-elected, the real inflation rate had
climbed until in November it reached
1.6 sextillion percent - that's 21
zeros - a number Robertson says has lost
any meaning. It is impossible to
work with it and where possible Zimbabweans
now use US dollars.
In September, South Africa's then president Thabo
Mbeki brokered an
equivocal power-sharing deal under which Mugabe, despite
his March defeat,
would remain president and Tsvangirai would become prime
minister with
ministries shared between Zanu PF and the MDC. Power-sharing
looks
permanently stalled because Mugabe has refused to cede control of the
Police
Ministry to the MDC.
This was proven essential last week when
15 police gunmen kidnapped
prominent civic leader Jestina Mukoko, director
of the Zimbabwe Peace
Project (ZPP), from her home in a pre-dawn raid. The
ZPP documents human
rights abuses.
Mukoko, a former television
personality, was taken away still wearing her
nightdress. She was not
allowed to collect her shoes and spectacles.
Zimbabwe's top human rights
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa and Zimbabwe Lawyers For
Human Rights have been
searching police stations around Harare, but have
been unable to find the
ZPP leader.
Mtetwa said the high court refused to consider an urgent
application
concerning Mukoko's disappearance. "This is the second case I
have had to
deal with recently in which the judiciary played games," said
the lawyer.
"The other case was when MDC activist Tonderai Ndira known as
"Zimbabwe's
Steve Biko" was abducted after the March election." Ndira's body
was later
found decomposing in Parirenyatwa Hospital. His eyes had been
gouged and his
tongue cut out. There were bullets in his chest.
"If
any proof is required to demonstrate that the rule of law has completely
broken down in Zimbabwe, this Mukoko's is the case," said
Mtetwa.
Following Mukoko's kidnap, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South
Africa's Nobel
Peace Prize laureate, said Mugabe must either resign or be
removed by force.
"The world must say, You have been responsible with your
cohorts for gross
violations and you are going to face indictment in The
Hague unless you step
down,'" said the archbishop, renowned for his
outspoken criticism of the
apartheid government in South Africa. "Mugabe has
destroyed a wonderful
country. A country that used to be a bread basket has
now become a basket
case."
Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, brother
of Thabo Mbeki, said it would be
simple for South Africa's military, despite
its current weakened state, to
invade Zimbabwe and overthrow
Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe's army, like all modern armies, runs on armoured
vehicles and all
the oil that goes into Zimbabwe comes through South
Africa," he said. "The
reality is that if South Africa wanted a conflict, it
would force the
Zimbabweans military out of their military vehicles just by
cutting off the
diesel."
However, there is no evidence that South
Africa has the will to topple the
Mugabe government. And the deep fear being
whispered by nearly everyone
involved in the international effort to control
the cholera epidemic is that
once their task is complete Mugabe will claim
credit and reinforce his steel
grip on Zimbabwe.
Battle for Zimbabwe’s blood diamonds
The Sunday Times
December 7, 2008
The bodies of illegal
panners pile up as Mugabe desperately tries to find money to pay the troops who
keep him in power
Miners hope to get rich quick from the diamond
fields; but so do Mugabe's henchmen
AS A military helicopter hovered over the diamond fields of Chiadzwa in
eastern Zimbabwe, police on horseback moved in with attack dogs to remove
thousands of illegal diggers who had poured in, hoping to get rich.
The diggers resisted, attacking the dogs with iron bars. The police opened
fire from the helicopter, routing them. By the time it was all over, dozens lay
dead.
Last week the fields where the slaughter took place were silent and largely
empty, sealed off by soldiers to stop anyone returning. In nearby towns and
villages, however, the ruthless crackdown that began last month carried on.
The military threw up road-blocks and searched vehicles. Anyone found in
possession of foreign currency was arrested on suspicion of being an illegal
digger or diamond dealer, taken back to the fields, beaten and made to fill in
the holes they had dug with their bare hands, without food and water.
“They are taking people without regard to whether they are dealing with
diamonds or not,” said Trust Mannda, the regional co-ordinator of Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights. “We condemn it in the strongest terms.”
Nobody knows for sure the numbers the police killed. Local sources said more
than 50 people had probably been shot and hundreds injured in the onslaught,
called Operation No Return by the military. Yesterday 20 unclaimed bodies were
still piled up at the nearby Mutare provincial hospital, awaiting
identification. Other bodies lay unclaimed in the surrounding forests. Yet more
were buried in collapsed tunnels inside the diamond fields.
While human rights groups condemned the crackdown, diplomats concluded that
it was another sign of President Robert Mugabe’s desperation to find new sources
of money to pay the security forces whose support he needs to stay in power.
That need was sharply brought into focus last week when soldiers rampaged
through Harare looting, breaking shop windows and seizing cash from street
dealers after being unable to withdraw their wages from banks.
The rioting soldiers chanted slogans against Gideon Gono, the deeply
unpopular Reserve Bank governor, on the day that Mugabe defiantly reappointed
him for a further five years.
It was the first time since independence in 1980 that soldiers had broken
ranks and publicly protested against Mugabe’s regime but riot police quickly
crushed them and several soldiers were arrested. For Mugabe the timing could
hardly have been worse.
His ruling Zanu-PF party holds its end-of-year conference this week. The
84-year-old leader will be seeking a show of unity. But all indications point to
a party demoralised and in disarray and Mugabe has been forced by a cholera
outbreak that has killed nearly 600 people since August to declare a national
health emergency and appeal for international aid.
There was even talk yesterday of postponing the conference for fear that the
cholera, caused by the collapse of the country’s water and sewerage system,
would create havoc among the 4,000 delegates expected.
Yesterday Gordon Brown joined international figures in condemning Mugabe. He
said that “enough is enough” and the government was “broken” and unable or
unwilling to protect its people.
Brown’s remarks followed a statement by Condoleezza Rice, the American
secretary of state, that it was “well past time” for Mugabe to leave office.
Mugabe is also coming under pressure from some African states.
With the economy broken, the currency worthless, hunger stalking the land and
a growing humanitarian and health crisis, the Chiadzwa diamond fields could be
one of the regime’s last sources of foreign currency and one way of keeping the
military happy.
The fields used to be managed by De Beers, the South African mining giant.
After independence, De Beers sold its franchise to African Consolidated
Resources (ACR), a British company. Two years ago the government confiscated the
fields and handed them to the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation, which never got round to doing any extraction of diamonds.
Instead, thousands of Zimbabweans and other Africans swarmed over the
170-acre site in one of the greatest diamond rushes the continent has seen in
modern times.
It is believed that hundreds died as the fields fell into lawlessness and
violence. Diggers began arming themselves with handguns. Sometimes there were as
many as 4,000 hand-panners searching for diamonds. Among them were army and
police officers who had deserted but were still in uniform. Local children
stopped attending school and many schools failed to open because teachers and
pupils were digging in the fields.
While the government was not formally involved in extracting the diamonds,
members of its corrupt elite were enriching themselves. Using their own diggers
and traders, to whom they paid paltry sums, they sold the diamonds outside the
country, collectively touching 10% of the fields’ total turnover. It was enough
to put tens of thousands of dollars a month into their pockets, according to one
conservative estimate.
The majority of the diamonds from Chiadzwa were sold directly to foreign
buyers, however, and ended up in the Middle East, easily distinguishable by
their colour and frostiness, whatever the paperwork gave as their origin.
Zimbabwe is a participant in the Kimberley Process, which was established in
2003 to combat the illicit traffic in diamonds from conflict zones. It could
easily be argued that its association with so many deaths and the enrichment of
one of Africa’s nastiest regimes has put the country’s gems in much the same
category as the notorious “blood diamonds” that once fuelled conflicts in Congo
and Sierra Leone.
In October, Gono publicly declared that if Chiadzwa was properly managed, as
much as $1.2 billion a month could be realised by the state from diamond sales -
enough, he said, to turn round the collapsing economy. It is estimated that the
government has been losing about $400m a month in revenue from smuggling.
A few weeks ago Gono went looking for cash in Russia, which in July vetoed a
United Nations security council resolution to impose sanctions on Mugabe and his
inner circle.
Authoritative sources said Gono was courting Alrosa, Russia’s state-owned
diamond mining and marketing corporation. He was hoping to sell the conglomerate
- which controls as much as 18% of the world diamond market - a big stake in the
fields.
Gono received a sympathetic hearing. At the end of November a top Alrosa
executive visited Harare at Gono’s invitation to explore a deal. But the word
this weekend was that the Russians had got cold feet. Gono’s hopes of pulling
off a deal to ensure that, at the very least, the military would be paid were
scuppered.
“It is tragic that people are dying of cholera and violence when there is
this wealth of assets available to the country,” said Andrew Cranswick, chief
executive of ACR.
“All it requires is respect for law and order and a legal joint-venture
mining programme by the government of Zimbabwe and international mining
companies and there would be plenty of money available to solve these critical
economic and humanitarian problems.”
Zimbabwe has been without a legal government since the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change won control of parliament in March. The political
deadlock, nightmare of cholera, water and power shortages, endless queues,
worthless money and empty shops still do not seem to have an impact on Mugabe,
who remains impervious to pressure.
He did have a 30-minute meeting with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general,
in Qatar a week ago, however.
Perhaps it was the “last opportunity” for a peaceful resolution of the
crisis, said the Tanzanian ambassador who helped to set up the meeting, echoing
fears of a violent upheaval as the country nears breaking point.
A COUNTRY IN TATTERS
Cholera 575 dead; 12,700 suspected cases
HIV/Aids 1.3m living with Aids; 1m orphans created by the disease;
140,000 deaths
Malnutrition now afflicting 45% of population
Life expectancy lowest in world - 34 for women and 37 for men
Inflation 231m%: 200m Zimbabwe dollar banknote to be issued
Unemployment 80%
Zimbabwe 'set for cholera jump'
Saturday, 6 December 2008
Unicef says its emergency response will focus on basic
services |
The UN Children's Fund in Zimbabwe says it is preparing to
deal with a possible 60,000 cholera cases in coming weeks, four times current
official estimates.
The Unicef chief in Harare, Roeland Monasch, said such a jump could bring the
number of deaths to around 3,000.
Official figures say nearly 600 have already died from the disease but aid
agencies fear the toll could be higher.
UK PM Gordon Brown says it is an international crisis and the world must tell
Robert Mugabe "enough is enough".
Mr Monasch told the BBC that they were doing all they could to bring
mortality rates down.
But he warned that if as many as 60,000 people became infected in the next
few weeks, then the cholera epidemic could kill another 2,700.
He says the actual number of people who have already died is probably far
higher than official figures as many clinics and hospitals are closed and people
in rural areas frequently just bury their dead.
 |
 Children in Zimbabwe are on the brink, and everyone's focus must
now be on their survival 
|
Unicef's Zimbabwe Communication Officer Tsitsi Singizi said local authorities
did not have the capacity to provide safe water and rubbish collection. Cholera
is often linked to contaminated supplies of drinking water.
Tsitsi Singizi said health services had also collapsed, making it impossible
to treat the high number of infections.
"The outbreak is really outpacing our response. It's becoming endemic. Nine
out of 10 provinces have reported a cholera case."
Unicef has launched an emergency response programme to focus on providing
basic services - increasing health outreach services, providing nutritional
supplements, boosting school attendance, and increasing access to safe water in
the short term.
"Children in Zimbabwe are on the brink, and everyone's focus must now be on
their survival," said Mr Monasch.
The disease has spread to neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and
Botswana.
Condemnation
The situation has forced President Mugabe's government to declare a national
emergency and appeal for international assistance.
But it has also drawn increasing international condemnation of Mr Mugabe,
including calls from key African figures for military force to oust him.
Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to share power in
September to tackle the country's economic meltdown but they have been unable to
agree on the allocation of cabinet posts.
The deadlocked agreement followed disputed elections, which both men claimed
to have won.
In the UK, the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu joined in criticism of
Zimbabwe's government and called for Mr Mugabe and his allies to be overthrown
so they can stand trial in The Hague. |
Life
goes on amid deprivation
| Published:Dec 07, 2008 |
|
|
Harare’s suburbanites manage to
maintain a semblance of normality in their chaotic city, writes Rowan Philp
Our car guard bursts into the
restaurant and announces: “You must leave now. The army is moving up the road,
beating everyone they find.”
The seven people at our table —
businesspeople and NGO types, black and white — scramble in an orderly fashion
while the bills for our peri-peri chicken and chips appear instantly. The total
for two of us is listed as Z87-million, but everyone knows to look at the figure
in the top right-hand corner, which reads “29 units” in tiny handwriting. This
means 29 which, legally, cannot be charged.
At many Harare restaurants you have
to leave your dollar tips hidden under place mats to protect the waiter, but we
just drop the money and move.
The money all comes from stashes of
cash in cupboards and private safes: most at my table have not had a Zimbabwean
bank account for years. Which is just as well, since it would have required 174
days of queueing to draw enough Zimbabwe dollars to pay our
bill.
Outside, we can see a mob moving up
the street. Later, we discover off-duty soldiers had clashed with money changers
and gone on a looting spree.
The Zimbabweans around me are
remarkably calm and are already talking about the next move : whether to meet at
the Keg for more drinks, how to ensure one heavily drunk friend makes it home
safely through the cavernous potholes, whether anyone in the group is better
than “one in three” at their homes.
This is part of the new terminology in
chaos-torn Harare, where a common response to the question “How are you?” is:
“Oh, one in three, mate”, or “Two in three, not too bad; no Zesa.”
“Three out of three” — a “full
house, man!” — means you’ve got working electricity, telephone and water. Except
electricity is always “Zesa” (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) and water
is “Zinwa” (Zimbabwe National Water Authority).
By contrast, township residents are now
invariably “nought in six”: in addition to having no Zinwa, telephone or Zesa,
there is no meat, “real” cash or medicines.
With municipal water and electricity
now unavailable to both rich and poor, it’s the little bundles of rands and US
dollars in sock drawers that mark the real difference between the townships and
the suburbs.
Rands cross the border stuffed in
cubby-holes. US dollars come through NGO channels or under the table as
salaries. Groceries are bought online from Johannesburg shops and paid for from
South African bank accounts.
Had one of our group had both Zinwa
and Zesa, we may all have gone to their house to shower. But none had had it for
two days — some had not had water for a year — so everyone drives off to make
the next plan.
Ours is to stop at a friend’s office at
10pm, knowing he has a swimming pool out back. From the car boot, my host,
“Andy”, and I take a bucket and soap and walk to the pool, which is about 15cm
below full. Stripping naked, we dive in, fill the bucket, jump out again and
lather up with soap. We use the bucket to rinse off the soap, then dive in
again.
By day, the office pool area turns from
bathroom into classroom, because the friend pays for a teacher to come in daily
and teach three young township kids. Almost all schools in Zimbabwe are closed
indefinitely, partly because most teachers’ salaries are now less than the cost
of getting to school.
Chris Shepherd, a former tobacco farmer
who was kicked off his land by war veterans, has a typical suburban water
strategy.
He pays 800 (about R7500) a month to buy
water for his family of six from a man with a borehole, who, he says, “must be
making an absolute killing”.
“The cost of water is killing me,”
he says. “And that’s being careful with it. We all share the same bath water,
then we use that water for washing clothes, then we use that water again to
flush the toilets, or maybe water a flower bed.”
Like all three suburban families I
visited this week, the Shepherds live on bulk grocery deliveries from Makro in
Woodmead, Johannesburg. His latest delivery cost him
R5000.
Back at Andy’s house — one of
Harare’s massive colonial homes, with pillared verandas and lawns — I’m woken
the next morning with a call: “We’re two out of three, mate, you want some
coffee?”
I’m scolded for flushing the toilet
after “a number one”, using precious gallons of water ferried from the washing
machine. In Harare’s suburbs it’s considered rude to not whizz in the garden.
Andy’s cursing gets much worse as he
realises he’s misplaced 1000 in cash — one of the hazards of being your own
bank.
He lives alone, but still has a
full-time domestic worker and gardener. They keep chickens and grow vegetables
on the Avondale property. Harare’s suburbs are turning into
farms.
Andy’s first chore of the day is to
drive to his parents’ house in Mount Pleasant to pick up his share of an R8000
grocery delivery from Makro, where he finds his younger brother doing the same.
Andy remarks: “One thing about this
crisis — it’s bringing families closer together. We see each other at least
three times as much as we used to, going round to each other’s houses to collect
and deliver stuff the whole time.”
The two sons also load up containers
of water from their parents’ borehole.
His mother, Sheila Grant, 65, says:
“We got that borehole some years ago just for the garden, now it’s our lifeline
— we would surely have left a while ago without it. We haven’t had municipal
water since April 2007.”
Grant also supports a township school.
Today she is driving to an outdoor school in Epworth, north of Harare, to
deliver two tents she’s scrounged for classrooms and some donated US dollars to
pay the teachers.
She pipes water directly to both her
immediate neighbours — one black, one white — and offers it freely to a tide of
people who arrive, sometimes daily, at her gate with five-litre containers.
Last week, her youngest son lost patience
with Zesa after five days without power, and went to check the municipal
transformer box in their neighbourhood himself.
A friend then sourced and paid for
the missing parts and paid a Zesa employee to install them. Slowly but surely,
Zimbabweans are taking over government service delivery
themselves.
On the way back to Avondale, we
drive through an orange traffic light and are pulled over. The policeman tells
Andy: “I am going to charge you and you must go straight to court.” The timing
is cruel : Andy has just changed the 20 on him for Z32-million from an illegal
currency trader, and most police require their bribes in US currency. Showing
the cop his wad of local currency, Andy says: “Can I not rather pay a fine right
now? This is worth 20 USA (US dollars)”. The cop grumbles about the rate of
exchange, but takes the cash and stuffs it in his pocket. “Okay, go,” he says.
On the pavements, a stream of women
carry buckets of water on their heads and illegal money changers flash thick
wads of Zimbabwean dollars at motorists. There is not much traffic, but it backs
up anyway, because many Zimbabweans now drive at 30km/h to save
fuel.
After dropping off the groceries and
water, it’s off to the sports club for a game of squash with friends. There is,
of course, no Zesa, so we choose court one, where a thin stream of sunlight
gives some illumination to the back of the court. Laughter, yelps of pain and
short points follow as the ball zips back out of the gloom.
The club pool is empty and the only
way to shower is to bring your own bucket of water, so, afterwards, everyone
just drinks at the bar.
One guy says: “How much lower and
crazier must this standard of living get before I say ‘enough’ and pack it in?”
It’s an unpopular idea and is met
with silence.
Instead, a poker night is proposed,
and Andy remarks: “At least poker chips will be no problem — we can just use old
50000 notes. There won’t be any cholera germs on the old
ones.”
A hellish 24 hours has passed in Harare’s
suburbs. — philpr@sundaytimes.co.za |
It really is time to end Zimbabwe's
misery
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
The
Sunday Times
December 7, 2008
Even by the standards of demented dictators, the international
condemnation
for Robert Mugabe in recent days has been pleasingly deserved.
Desmond Tutu,
the former Archishop of Cape Town, says he should be out on
trial at the
Hague for the "gross violations" he has committed. Condoleezza
Rice, the US
secretary of state, said it was "well past time" for him to
leave office.
Gordon Brown said yesterday that the world had to tell the
Zimbabwean
president that "enough is enough".
The latest round of
condemnation has come amid further evidence that
Zimbabwe is falling apart.
The cholera outbreak that has officially claimed
the lives of 600 people,
and probably many more, is evidence of years of
neglect of the most basic
infrastructure by a corrupt government.
Zimbabweans are suffering and their
problems are spilling over into
neighbouring states.
The trouble with
international condemnation is that, particularly in the
case of Mr Mugabe,
it falls on deaf ears. When you have been called a pariah
so often it loses
effect and he is adept at turning such attacks,
particularly from Britain,
to his own political advantage. Calling him names
really will not hurt
him.
From this year's heavily disputed election, which he stole from
Morgan
Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change, up to this month's
summit
in South Africa, when the Zimbabwean president managed to
outmanoeuvre both
Mr Tsvangirai and his hosts, he has shown a tenacity in
clinging to power
that suggests he will leave office only in a
box.
What can be done to force him out sooner? Phandu Skelemani, the
foreign
minister of Botswana, said yesterday that starving Zimbabwe's armed
forces
of fuel by the Southern African Development Community would have him
out in
two weeks.
Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, has gone
further. "It's time for
African governments to take decisive action to push
him out of power," he
said last week. That, of course, has been the problem.
Too many African
leaders remain starry-eyed about Mr Mugabe and his past
achievements.
The West may have to grasp the nettle. Nick Clegg, the
Liberal Democrat
leader, called on the United Nations to take decisive
action. "The world has
sat idly by while Robert Mugabe has brutalised his
own people for too long,"
he said. "The UN must urgently declare that Mugabe
will be indicted in the
International Criminal Court. The new doctrine of
'responsibility to protect'
should be activated to justify outside force
where that is possible. Further
international inaction would be
inexcusable."
He is right. In the case of Zimbabwe, enough really is
enough.
Action is need when words fail us
http://www.sundayherald.com
December
06, 2008
SUNDAY HERALD
EDITORIAL
AS PART of the global Jubilee 2000 campaign, Gordon Brown spoke in
Trafalgar
Square in London, alongside Bob Geldof, and acknowledged the
horror stories
emerging from Zimbabwe. Three years later, at the start of
the Iraq war, the
Foreign Office circulated reports throughout the
government that Robert
Mugabe was destroying and systematically starving his
country.
Last year the prime minister's attention was again on Zimbabwe
and he
promised "we will not shirk our responsibilities". In June this year,
the
international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said he believed
there "is a duty for the strong to help the weak". Mugabe, said Alexander,
was gearing up, yet again, to steal an election. And he did. In September it
was Brown's turn again to admit Zimbabwe was "a tragedy that requires the
whole of the world to speak up and also to act". Yesterday, with the World
Health Organisation forecasting there will be 10,000 more cholera deaths
within three months and a further 60,000 infections, the prime minister had
more words. This time he urged the world to tell Mugabe: "Enough is
enough."
The catastrophic reality of Zimbabwe is that words have failed
it. The
so-called international community has been a passive spectator,
either
ignoring the problem because it has had pressing international issues
of its
own, or leaving the search for a solution to failed statesmen like
Thabo
Mbeki, who were never going to criticise a senior figure of a colonial
struggle. The result? Mugabe occupies his own country a tyrant, almost
spitting in the face of international empty-gesture
criticism.
"Enough is enough" was a point reached many years ago when
Mugabe, under
unified, international and Africa-centred pressure, should
have been removed
from power. Now it seems it will take scenes reminiscent
of Auschwitz, or
another hell on earth, before the suffering of Zimbabwe is
ended.
The real possibility of this health emergency spreading into South
Africa
may force the coming regime of Jacob Zuma to ditch past allegiances,
and end
Mugabe's dictorship. But throwing money at Zimbabwe, will, sadly,
not solve
the immediate crisis. Mugabe has found ways of ensuring aid goes
straight to
his own pockets, so he can pay a corrupt military to ensure his
survival.
It is for this reason that our Christmas appeal this year is
instead
targeted at a country where even small amounts of money can make a
huge
difference today - the Democratic Republic of Congo. Zimbabwe
undoubtedly
needs our help, so do the billion people around the world who
will suffer
from hunger over what we still call the "festive
season".
The global economic crisis has cut the likelihood of
international financial
aid and debt-reduction agreements to the Third World
being honoured as
promised. Charity fatigue is probably with us, as we
struggle through our
own economic problems. Yet in the DRC, where a civil
war has caused the
death of 5.4 million people, the worst conflict since the
second world war,
any assistance we give will provide relief for a place
that has endured
horrific suffering.
"Enough is enough" doesn't just
apply to the people of Zimbabwe. Such a
comment usually arrives too late.
"Enough is enough" means the time for
words has long passed and only if
there is urgent action will lives be
saved.
We urge our readers to
give as generously as their circumstances allow to
our Christmas appeal.
Manyika
in intensive care after accident
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8415
December 6, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
BULAWAYO - Zanu-PF political commissar, Elliot Manyika was
admitted to the
intensive care unit of the Catholic-run Mater Dei Hospital
in Bulawayo after
he was involved in an accident on his way from the capital
to the country's
second biggest city.
The accident happened about 140
kilometres before Bulawayo. Manyika was on
his way to Bulawayo, en route to
Gwanda where he was due to preside on
Sunday over the election of a
substantive Matabeleland South provincial
executive.
Both provincial
elections were immediately postponed.
Manyika was also set to preside
over elections to choose a Zanu-PF Bulawayo
provincial executive on the same
day. Officials at Mater Dei said Manyika's
condition was
critical.
"Manyika was admitted to the institution's intensive care unit
Saturday
afternoon in a critical condition," a doctor at the hospital said.
He
refused to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the
press.
The Zimbabwe Times learnt that Manyika could not be taken to
either of the
state-run hospitals in the city, Mpilo or the United Bulawayo
Hospital (UBH)
since they both lack basic medical requirements.
The
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said a
fortnight
ago Zimbabwe's health delivery system had virtually collapsed to
the extent
of violating the health rights of Zimbabweans.
"The country's public
health system is in a state of collapse and in need of
urgent action to
rescue it. It has been paralysed by drug shortages,
insufficient medical
supplies, dilapidated infrastructure, equipment
breakdowns and a
brain-drain," the association said in a statement.
The associations said
Harare Central Hospital and Parirenyatwa Hospital in
Harare, Mpilo Hospital
and United Bulawayo Hospitals in Bulawayo as well as
Chitungwiza Hospital
had virtually been closed.
The hospitals closed as a cholera epidemic
ravaged Zimbabwe.
Zanu-PF is currently holding elections to choose
provincial executives ahead
of its December conference. The conference is
scheduled to be held in
Bindura, the capital of Mashonaland Central,
Manyika's province.
Manyika's predecessor as Zanu-PF political commissar
was Border Gezi, who
represented Bindura in Parliament from 2000. Gezi who
served as Minister of
Gender, Youth and Employment, died in a road traffic
accident in 2001 as he
drove from Harare to Masvingo.
Elliot
Manyika Dies
http://www.zimdaily.com/news/manyika27.6654.html
By STAFF REPORTER
Saturday 06 December
2008
ZIMBABWE- BULAWAYO - The Minister Without Portfolio Eliot
Manyika and Zanu
PF National Political Commissar died on Saturday in a road
accident on his
way to Bulawayo to monitor Zanu PF provincial elections to
restructure the
party ahead of the party's annual congress which opens
Wednesday in Bindura.
Early reports on Saturday said the minister,
who was also Bindura Member of
Parliament, had earlier been admitted to the
private Mater Dei Hospital in
Bulawayo where he later died.
Relatives Mount Vigil For Missing Rights Activist
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December
2008 19:36
POLICE have reportedly been holding a Harare man at a secret
location
for more than three weeks in connection with the bombings at the
Police
General Headquarters.
Officially, police maintain
that no one has been arrested in
connection with the two bombings that
rocked police headquarters in
September and November.
But
relatives and lawyers say Tafadzwa Gondo, whose age could not be
immediately
ascertained, was arrested soon after a bomb blast at offices
used by the
Criminal Investigations Department and Interpol at Morris Depot
on November
18.
His lawyers say they fear he was being tortured to confess
to
committing the crime as he had been denied access to his family and legal
representatives.
In an urgent chamber application filed at
the High Court last week
seeking his immediate release, lawyers Mbidzo,
Muchadehama & Makoni said
Gondo, a civilian, was arrested a day after
the bombings.
They said they were informed that he is detained
at Highlands police
station but had been denied a chance to see
him.
"I have reason to believe what I have been informed that
the police
are holding the applicant incommunicado," one of the lawyers,
Jeremiah Bamu,
wrote in the founding affidavit.
The
lawyers said they feared that the police could be assaulting the
detainee
while forcing him to sign statements against his will. They fear he
could be
taken to court without his legal practitioners.
"I submit that
it is improper for respondents to arrest the applicant
and hide him from his
relatives and lawyers," Bamu wrote. "This can only be
for improper
motives."
The Minister of Home Affairs, Commissioner General
of Police, Officer
in Charge Highlands Police Station and Officer in Charge
CID Law and Order
are cited as respondents in the application, which seeks
an order declaring
Gondo's continued detention unlawful.
On Friday police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
maintained that no arrests had been made in connection with the
bombings.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
Man held Over Police Bombings
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December 2008 19:32
POLICE have reportedly been holding a Harare man at a secret location
for
more than three weeks in connection with the bombings at the Police
General
Headquarters.
Officially, police maintain that no one has been
arrested in
connection with the two bombings that rocked police headquarters
in
September and November.
But relatives and lawyers say
Tafadzwa Gondo, whose age could not be
immediately ascertained, was arrested
soon after a bomb blast at offices
used by the Criminal Investigations
Department and Interpol at Morris Depot
on November 18.
His lawyers say they fear he was being tortured to confess to
committing the
crime as he had been denied access to his family and legal
representatives.
In an urgent chamber application filed at
the High Court last week
seeking his immediate release, lawyers Mbidzo,
Muchadehama & Makoni said
Gondo, a civilian, was arrested a day after
the bombings.
They said they were informed that he is detained
at Highlands police
station but had been denied a chance to see
him.
"I have reason to believe what I have been informed that
the police
are holding the applicant incommunicado," one of the lawyers,
Jeremiah Bamu,
wrote in the founding affidavit.
The
lawyers said they feared that the police could be assaulting the
detainee
while forcing him to sign statements against his will. They fear he
could be
taken to court without his legal practitioners.
"I submit that
it is improper for respondents to arrest the applicant
and hide him from his
relatives and lawyers," Bamu wrote. "This can only be
for improper
motives."
The Minister of Home Affairs, Commissioner General
of Police, Officer
in Charge Highlands Police Station and Officer in Charge
CID Law and Order
are cited as respondents in the application, which seeks
an order declaring
Gondo's continued detention unlawful.
On
Friday police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
maintained
that no arrests had been made in connection with the bombings.
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
Call For Urgent Media Law Reform Heading Here
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December
2008 19:14
JOURNALISTS have called on the proposed unity government to
prioritise
media law reforms to allow for self-regulation and the creation
of space for
more players in the media industry.
The
resolution was made at a two-day workshop last week that was held
under the
banner of the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ).
MAZ brings
together the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of
Southern Africa
(MISA), the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ),
Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ), Federation of African Media Women in
Zimbabwe (FAMWZ),
and the Zimbabwe National Editors' Forum (Zinef).
Held under
the theme, The Media We Want. . .Free, Fair and Open, the
workshop resolved
that a vibrant media was crucial to the implementation of
the global
political agreement signed on September 15.
Resolutions of the
workshop were reached after presentations from
various speakers, including
representatives of Zanu PF and the two MDCs, as
well as civil society
activists.
MAZ co-ordinator, Abigail Gamanya said the
conference adopted
resolutions calling for the creation of a better media
environment.
"We made 12 resolutions, which included the need
for self-regulation
in the media," Gamanya said.
"We also resolved
that Zimbabwe needs to resort to a three-tier
broadcasting system comprising
public, community and commercial
broadcasters.
"We also
resolved that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation needs to
be turned into
a truly public broadcaster."
The workshop also resolved that
there was need to repeal repressive
media laws such as the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act,
the Broadcasting Services Act,
and the Public Order and Security Act.
BY OUR STAFF
World Famous Wildlife Sanctuary Faces Closure
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December
2008 19:09
BULAWAYO - One of Africa's biggest wildlife rehabilitation
centres,
Chipangali, faces closure due to acute food shortages that threaten
to wipe
out the entire population of wild creatures that draw thousands of
tourists
every year.
The wildife orphanage, which has been
featured in several
documentaries promoting tourism in Zimbabwe, lies a few
kilometres from
Bulawayo.
It relies on donations to provide
sanctuary to the 300 animals from
different species that have been orphaned,
abandoned, injured, born in
captivity or brought up unsuccessfully as
pets.
But Nicky Wilson who runs the orphanage expressed concern
the
donations were drying up. She said they might be forced to close down if
the
situation does not improve soon.
"We are facing serious
problems," Wilson said. "Wild animals face
starvation at the centre due to
food shortages.
"The institution urgently requires donations to
stop hunger from
wiping out all the animals kept here."
She warned
the closure of Chipangali would have a negative impact on
the country's
already ailing tourism sector.
"We urgently need meat, maize,
vegetables and fruit to feed the hungry
animals," she said. "The hunger
situation is a threat to tourism."
Chipangali is home to
lions, leopards, baboons, snakes, owls, and
crocodiles, among other animal
species.
The centre is also struggling to provide drinking water to the
creatures due to constant power cuts.
"We also experience
power outages and this results in us failing to
pump water for the thirsty
animals since our boreholes are powered by
electricity. The animals might
die of thirst."
Founded in 1973 by ex-game ranger Vivian Wilson
and his wife Paddy,
the sanctuary has also become a useful resource centre
to educate the
Zimbabwean public especially young children with the aid of
live viewing of
many species not easily seen in the wild.
The tourism industry has been severely affected by the rampant killing
of
wild animals as some species are now on the verge of extinction.
BY
OUR STAFF
Hunger Drives Scores To Highway Begging
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December 2008
19:02
MASVINGO - A frail looking Freddy Nguwo (59) frantically flags
down a
fast approaching car at the 450km peg along the Harare-Beitbridge
road.
He throws his hands up in frustration as the motorist
speeds past him.
It is midday and the old man from Chivi
District says he has been at
the spot since morning and only a few motorists
have bothered to stop for
him.
But still full of patience
and determination, Nguwo continues with his
mission targeting vehicles with
foreign number plates.
Suddenly a Range Rover with South
African plates screeches to a halt.
The driver winds down his window asking
Nguwo his destination.
The motorist listens Nguwo's story: The
father of eight's family has
gone for several days without a decent meal due
to worsening food shortages
in the drought-prone Masvingo
province.
Touched by Nguwo's plight, the driver gives him some
foreign currency
and relief is evident as the old man kneels down in the
dust to thank
profusely the Good Samaritan.
Nguwo is not
alone in this degrading but necessary undertaking: this
has become a way of
life for several villagers living along the busy highway
linking Harare and
South Africa especially in the Chivi and Mwenezi
districts.
The Harare-Beitbridge road now reminds many motorists of the problem
of
street kids who are found on Harare's roads.
But the situation
on this road is different in that elderly men, women
and children of varying
ages jostle for the attention of motorists at bus
stops.
Jessica Dondo of Chengeta Village in Chivi whose homestead lies a few
metres
from the highway says she spends the whole day on the road with her
family.
On a good day the family can take home between R200
and R300 rand and
a few groceries given by travellers from South
Africa.
"We have found new means of survival in this area,"
Dondo said.
"People here have resorted to begging because of starvation
since we are not
receiving food relief from government as we used
to."
Dondo said most starving villagers had resorted to eating
roots and
wild fruits, which at times turned out to be poisonous. Others
said the
situation had been worsened by the long absence of food aid
agencies from
the area.
In May the government banned aid
agencies from carrying out
humanitarian work in the run-up to the June 27
presidential run-off
elections. Although the ban has since been lifted many
of the
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have not been able re-establish
themselves in a number of areas owing to some restrictions imposed by the
government.
"We had no option other than coming to the
highway to beg motorists,
especially tourists, for assistance," said
Takawira Zhanje from Ngundu.
"This is because the government is
not doing enough to cater for us.
Along the road we get food donations and
our families survive at the end of
the day.
"We don't care
what other people think about us."
Masvingo provincial governor
Titus Maluleke claimed that government
efforts to bring more maize to
Masvingo were hampered by lack of transport.
"Government is
making efforts to procure grain for the people but
there are some transport
constraints hindering the process," he said.
"We have some
reasonable tonnage for the province at Rutenga sourced
from Bulawayo and
Beitbridge and will soon be distributed to various wards
in the
province."
But villagers said they were tired of empty promises
from government.
"The politicians have been promising that we will get grain
since the
beginning of the year but we have received nothing so far," said
Tambudzai
Hungoidza from Mwenezi.
"As we speak villagers
are lining the roads begging for food and the
government is doing nothing
about the situation. "
The United Nations says about 5,1
million Zimbabweans will face
starvation by the beginning of next year due
to a series of failed farming
seasons and government's inability to raise
foreign currency to import food.
The most affected are the rural poor
who have resorted to eating
potentially poisonous fruits.
BY
GODFREY MUTIMBA
Students Fail To Graduate After Exams Fiasco
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December 2008
18:58
BULAWAYO - Hundreds of National University of Science and
Technology
(Nust) students failed to graduate recently after striking
lecturers refused
to mark supplementary examinations.
The
embarrassing episode marked the end of a chaotic academic year for
state
universities where there was hardly any teaching because of
intermittent
strikes by both academic and non-academic staff.
NUST students
from different faculties who failed to graduate were
only informed that
their results were yet to be released a day before the
event.
Some had even bought academic gear with scarce
foreign currency for
the graduation ceremony presided over by President
Robert Mugabe on November
22.
Lecturers at the country's
second largest university downed tools in
September demanding salaries in
foreign currency. This was in addition to
demands for car and housing
loans.
Supplementary examinations that were postponed several
times since
July were written the same month the lecturers went on
strike.
The Department of Journalism and Media Studies was said
to be the most
affected with 15 students from a group of about 30 failing to
graduate.
Angry students laid the blame on the government
saying if it had
addressed the lecturers' demands they could have
graduated.
"All the blame should go to Mugabe's government for
mismanaging the
education sector and failing to pay lecturers to mark our
supplementary
examination papers," said a student who requested
anonymity.
Ironically, at the graduation ceremony the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) gave luxury vehicles to senior staff. They included a
Mercedes Benz
E230 for the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lindela Ndlovu, and
Isuzu KB double
cabs.
NUST spokesperson Felix Moyo said the
affected students had failed
their examinations.
But the
chairman of the NUST Educators Association (Nusteda), Samuel
Chabikwa,
disputed Moyo's claims.
saying the students were "causalities of
the struggle".
"The examination scripts were not marked because we
had said we were
incapacitated to go to work because of the poor
remuneration," Chabikwa
said. "Although we were expected to mark the scripts
at home, we could not
do so on empty stomachs.
"The unfortunate
thing is that the lives of these students who were
supposed to graduate are
now at a standstill. But in any struggle there are
causalities and innocent
people end up being affected."
He said the government had still not
responded to their demands and
the strike action was
continuing.
Speaking at the graduation, Ndlovu said the government
had promised to
review lecturers' salaries.
"We are waiting for
the government to communicate that to us
officially or at least make its
proposed package public," Chabikwa said.
In July, the Zimbabwe
State Universities Union of Academics (Zisuua)
and the Zimbabwe State
Universities Allied Workers' Union (Zisuawu) warned
Mugabe that thousands of
final year students at state universities will fail
to graduate this year
because of the persistent strikes.
The unions wrote to Mugabe, who
is the Chancellor of all the eight
state universities, saying the Ministry
of Higher and Tertiary Education had
refused to address their
grievances.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
SA Believes Zim Deal Will Be Inked 'within days'
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Thursday, 04 December
2008 13:14
South Africa expects Zimbabwe's rival political parties to
ink a deal
on a constitutional amendment within days, paving the way for a
unity
government, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on
Thursday.
"We expect the amendment should be signed within a matter
of days,"
Maseko told reporters at a post-Cabinet meeting
briefing.
"We will put pressure on the political principals to sign
as soon as
possible," he added.
The proposed amendment will
create the post of prime minister for
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but his MDC
insists that other issues still need
to be resolved before it will rule with
Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF.
Power-sharing talks were suspended in November after
Tsvangirai
accused former president Thabo Mbeki, the mediator in Zimbabwe's
political
crisis talks, of failing to grasp the situation in the
country.
But Maseko said the South African government continued to
support
Mbeki's efforts.
"The government and the Southern
African Development Community has
expressed full confidence in former
president Mbeki's mediation work. The
government still stands by
this."
Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed to a power-sharing deal in
September
after disputed elections earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has declared a cholera outbreak that has claimed
565
lives a national emergency, and appealed for international aid to tackle
the
epidemic, the state-run Herald said on Thursday.
"The government
yesterday [Wednesday] declared the cholera outbreak
... and the
malfunctioning of central hospitals as national emergencies and
appealed to
the donor community for assistance to alleviate the situation,"
it
said.
"The emergency appeal will help us reduce the morbidity and
mortality
associated with the current socio-economic environment," Health
Minister
David Parirenyatwa told a meeting of aid groups, the newspaper
reported.
"Our central hospitals are literally not functioning. Our
staff is
demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start
coming to
work and our health system is revived," he added.
Water was mostly restored in Harare on Wednesday after a crippling
48-hour
water cut, Water Resources Deputy Minister Walter Mzembi said.
Taps
in Harare ran dry on Saturday after the state-run water company
ran short of
aluminium sulphate, a chemical used to purify water, forcing
people to dig
shallow wells and sparking trade in water selling.
Charities have
warned that the cholera outbreak had already spread to
neighbouring South
Africa.
Health authorities in South Africa said the Limpopo River,
a major
waterway and border with Zimbabwe, had tested positive for cholera
this
week.
Cholera is the latest challenge to hit
poverty-racked Zimbabwe, which
is already struggling with political
instability and rampant
hyperinflation -- the world's highest. -Sapa,
AFP
'Zim Lacks Sound Minerals Policy'
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December 2008
17:55
THE absence of a tight legal and policy framework for the local
mining
sector has seen the country losing potential revenue as influential
people
continue to take advantage of loopholes to smuggle precious stones, a
leading MDC official said last week.
Pearson Mungofa, the
deputy secretary for Mines for MDC-T said
although Zimbabwe had one of the
world's best mineral resources, the country
was failing to realise
meaningful revenue because there were no sound
policies on their
exploitation.
As a result, foreign companies, working in
cahoots with some
influential people, were amassing wealth by illegally
exploiting diamonds
and other precious stones for export.
"The problem we have is that it has taken so long for Zimbabwe to
formulate
legislation on mines and minerals," Mungofa said in an interview.
"This
country is losing a lot."
"One such example is the mining of
diamonds in Chiadzwa. The
production there is big enough to turn around this
country, but the
challenge is that there is no control over
them.
'The government does not have the expertise and technical
means to
control the processes there."
The government has
come under attack for its ongoing clampdown on
illegal diamond miners in the
Chiadzwa area in Manicaland. The panners
invaded the diamond fields after
the government elbowed out British
investors, setting the stage for a free
for all.
Dealers from as far as Sierra Leone and Vietnam were
buying diamonds
and some locals had found a source for instant riches until
a crack team of
soldiers and the police launched the Operation Hakudzokwi
(you don't
return).
Mungofa said the only way the country
could benefit from its mineral
resources was to have a framework where the
government and private companies
collaborated in exploiting
minerals.
"At the moment, precious stones are owned by foreign
companies,"
Mungofa said. "It is these companies that declare their own
figures to the
government."
Instead of coming up with a
framework for collaborating with
established miners, the government was
pushing for a compulsory requisition
of foreign owned
mines.
The chairman of the newly established Youth in Mining
and Environment
Trust, Hamilton Pazvakavambwa said there was need for the
government "to
embark on the mechanization of the mining sector with
state-of-the-art
machinery, and assist on the accountable and transparent
monitoring and
auditing of mineral activities".
"The case
at Chiadzwa paints a terrible and horrific picture of the
state of our
natural, social, political and economic environments," said
Pazvakavambwa at
the launch of the trust recently.
But Mungofa said
mechanization without training staff could result in
massive looting. He
said there was need to first develop human resources to
be involved at all
stages.
BY OUR STAFF
Gono: Will A Second Term At RBZ make any difference?
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06
December 2008 17:48
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono
last week started
his term in office haunted by memories of a first term
where he promised so
much and delivered nothing.
In his
maiden monetary policy statement in December 2003, Gono said
his vision was
to ensure currency stability and to reduce inflation to
single digit
figures.
"The period between our medium and long term vision
should see our
inflation levels reducing to within a single digit band of
between 5-9%,"
Gono said then. "That's our ultimate goal during my life of
my
governorship."
While Gono earned praises a few months
after he took over when
inflation slipped to 123% from 623% in January 2005,
he quickly lost the
battle to stop the surge in inflation which he described
as enemy number
one.
The last official figures released by
the Central Statistical office
in July show that inflation had reached 231
million percent.
But independent experts say the rate of
inflation had reached 89.7
sextillion percent as at November 14.
Gono envisaged a Zimbabwe that addresses brain drain and the voluntary
return of most of skilled people from the Diaspora. He also predicted a
return to the economic vibrancy of the early 1980's.
"In
other words, we envisaged the attainment of a stable, prosperous
and
welcoming Zimbabwe, a Jewel of Africa, with a central bank that will
guarantee," he said, "and maintain foreign reserves above 6 months import
cover, at any one point in time, thus being a major source of comfort for
the viability of our primary, secondary and public sectors of the
economy."
But despite doling out cheap funds to industry in a
bid to boost
production, the results were not forthcoming for Gono. Price
controls and
foreign currency shortages have become the twin evils
suffocating companies.
The central bank's quasi-fiscal
operations have been blamed for
increasing money supply growth, which fuels
inflation.
Accepting his re-appointment last month, Gono said
the central bank
would abandon the quasi-fiscal operations that has gobbled
$1.1 sextillion
in the past five years.
He said with effect
from January next year the RBZ will return to its
core
business.
But analysts were not convinced the central bank
chief would live up
to his promises.
Analysts say Gono's
blue-print was a victim of political meddling and
will not achieve the
intended results.
"He has not been allowed to change the policies that
do the damage,"
said John Robertson, an independent
economist.
Robertson believes Gono has joined the bandwagon
blaming sanctions as
the cause of the country's economic
ills.
"If you continually, deliberately and inaccurately ignore
the cause
you will fail to fix the problem," he said.
But is it
fair to blame Gono for the country's problems?
In his maiden
monetary policy installment, Gono said he took full
responsibility for any
weaknesses in his proposed road map, "but take no
credit for whatever
positive impact these monetary policies may have on the
well being of our
economy".
Robertson said while it was unfair to blame all the
country's problems
on Gono, the central bank chief should take the flak for
having allowed
himself to be tossed around.
"If he has the
integrity he claims to have, he should have resigned,
the same applies to
every minister," he said.
A buoyant Gono said his second term
will focus on a tight monetary
policy stance to control inflation and
financial sector stability. Analysts
are however not
convinced.
"What Gono is doing is like an army major assuring
his troops that
although everyone who has gone before them has been killed,
they must fight
on and they will undoubtedly take the hilltop before
sunset," said another
economist.
BY NDAMU SANDU
Alex Magaisa: Why Did The Soldier Cross The Road?
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December
2008 18:51
WHEN I was in my late teens I was very much enamoured with
the idea of
serving in the military. There is something about the military
person that
is admirable. Not the guns, no. Not even the work they
do.
It is something that defies ordinary nomenclature but
for lack of a
better term I will settle for 'discipline'.
As a soldier, so I am told, you are taught to observe the highest
standards
of discipline. It is this that impels you to obey orders, however
much you
personally disagree. It is what cements the spirit of teamwork,
because
little can be achieved without it.
Not all military men fit the
beautiful picture of the calm, collected
and orderly soldier but it is
generally accepted that discipline is of
essence.
Against
this background, most Zimbabweans have this week watched with
horror
pictures of soldiers rampaging through the streets of Harare and
looting
from shops in the central business district.
Unarmed though they
were, pictures show men literally running amok;
scenes that one would
normally expect to see in the war-ravaged Eastern DRC
or broken states like
Somalia. What happened to the discipline, macomrades?
These
events have, naturally, brought all kinds of speculation. And
with
speculation comes all manner of theories, trying as we often do, to
find a
rationale explanation for what is happening. Vakatumwa here? (Have
they been
sent?) Inzara here? (Are they hungry?) Vaakupenga here? (Have they
lost
their marbles?) Ikupu here? (Is this the start of a military
uprising?).
With all these questions in mind, I am reminded
of that classic
riddle, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" It is one
question that
elicits numerous and diverse responses, depending subjectively
on the
perspective of the respondent. So to adapt that riddle, "Why did the
soldier
cross the road?"; Why, indeed, did the soldiers go on a
rampage?
No one knows for sure why things happened the way they
did.
One commonly held theory is that the 'soldier crossed the
road'
because he had been sent as part of a grand plan by Zanu PF to create
conditions necessary to declare a State of Emergency. Mugabe, as the
President has the constitutional power to declare the state of emergency
when certain conditions exist.
Conditions of chaos, especially
created by mutinous soldiers would
seem to fit the bill for such
declaration. The declaration would render the
'toks' between Zanu PF and the
MDCs worthless, temporarily at least.
And, then, the theory goes,
Zanu PF can continue to rule without the
MDC. And what more, such mutinous
conditions would mean that SADC leaders
would likely condone the
declaration.
Beautiful theory it appears but is it really the
case? Perhaps. But
let us pause for a moment. Why is Mugabe not able to rule
ari one ari ega
(on his own)? Did he not 'win' the election on June
27?
Did he not 'win' before in 2002, under controversial
circumstances and
still continued to rule regardless of the protests? Why
has he not been
defiant this time around and tell the MDC to stick it in the
proverbial?
Why has he waited for Tsvangirai and the MDC for so
long, even when,
quite plainly, the waiting has been extremely frustrating
and humiliating?
Can he really (and Zanu PF) want to rule Zimbabwe without
the MDC and hope
to achieve anything of substance? I am not so
sure.
It seems that, contrary to certain belief, Mugabe and
Zanu PF are
petrified of ruling Zimbabwe on their own. It is not in their
interests to
do so because, as they know deep down in the type of hearts
they bear, they
are unlikely to achieve anything.
They have
ruled under a de facto state of emergency and the dismal
results are there
for all to see. To be sure, they need the MDC as much as
they need power.
The MDC is to Zanu PF what a 'juice card' is to the holder
of a
Pay-As-You-Go mobile phone. They need the 'juice card' to 'top up' some
credit and a State of Emergency will not avail this top-up
facility.
There is also a flaw in that theory, which is the
presumption that
SADC will likely condone the declaration of a State of
Emergency. SADC knows
very well, as do most Zimbabweans that conditions are
so dire in the country
that the basis for such a declaration likely exists
already.
In any 'normal' country, Zimbabwe would have been under a
state of
emergency a long time ago, especially during the period between
March to
June 2008 when scores were unlawfully killed or injured in mindless
violence.
It has not been declared because it is not in
anybody's interests, not
even Zanu PF's and they sure know it. SADC is
likely to frown upon such a
declaration at this stage, especially when it
appears to be stage-managed if
the theory's premise is to be
believed.
To be sure, the theory is attractive and I have more than
once thought
there is some calculation in the craziness.
Nevertheless, my scepticism is a circumstance of previous
observations of
Zanu PF's conduct. I have learnt over the years that
sometimes we run the
risk of giving the old party credit for 'planning' and
'strategising' when
in fact it deserves none at all.
We often look at things with the
benefit of hindsight and say, 'Right,
this is what Zanu PF was trying to do;
this was their plan all along!", when
in fact they had no plan at all.
Zvinenge zvangoitikawo! (Things may just
have followed a natural
course!).
What we may not realise is that maybe vanotovhundukawo
(Perhaps they
are also shocked at the turn of events). But because we are
keen to find a
rationale basis for certain events we ascribe some grand
strategising on
Zanu PF's part.
Indeed, following that
logic it can hardly be surprising if someone
surmised that the cholera
epidemic is down to Zanu PF because it has
carefully planned to exterminate
MDC supporters in certain regions by
releasing the vibrio cholerae
bacteria.
This, the theory might go, establishes conditions for a
state of
emergency and will also enable more humanitarian aid in order to
cover the
nation's food shortfalls.
Absurd, yes, but that is
what happens when we try against the natural
course of things, to find some
grand plans for situations when things go
helter-skelter!
Could it not be that vakomana vemauto vaita nzara (the boys in the
forces
are hungry) and are as frustrated as the rest of the ordinary
people?
Why is it hard for us to believe that these may well be
symptoms of
disintegration in the once formidable and professional security
structure?
The discipline I referred to at the start of this
article is also
dependent on a satisfied stomach. It's not just about them
receiving their
salaries at the barracks.
The vibrio cholerae
bacteria does not discriminate between a soldier
and civilian, let alone
between a soldier's son and his neighbour's
daughter. When electricity or
water are unavailable it affects the soldier
as much as it affects his
civilian neighbour.
And with their worthless Zimdollars received
at the barracks, they
still have to contend with salivating whilst
window-shopping as they cannot
afford the products whose prices are pegged
in US dollars.
So, there really is little point in ignoring the
obvious point that
machinda aita nzara and they are as anxious as most of us
to see a political
solution to the problem. Ndiwo maitikiro ezvinhu --
hapana plan apa (that's
they way things are, there is no
plan).
And so in attempting to find an answer to the old
riddle, 'why did the
chicken cross the road?' there are so many answers, so
many theories, a lot
of possibilities, notwithstanding that the simple
answer may be that the
chicken crossed the road simply because it wanted to.
Just as the soldiers
this last week crossed the road and looted in
Harare.
Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law School, the University
of Kent and
can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk or a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
Discipline Falters In Mugabe's Barracks
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06 December 2008
18:40
AN extremely revealing picture of soldiers looting in Harare
prompted
me to do what I have not done for a long time: read the whole front
page of
The Herald last week.
The picture, taken on Monday and
only conveniently used on Wednesday
by the Herald after Minister of Defence
Sydney Sekeramayi had prepared a
response to the mayhem, showed four
soldiers seizing clothes along Jason
Moyo.
And that was the
bad news that the Zanu PF government, battling to
contain a cholera
epidemic, food crisis, water shortages, among a vast array
of challenges,
would never have wanted the world to hear.
When the soldiers
left their barracks and started grabbing women's
handbags, cash, cellphones
and looting clothes and food from shops, these
were signs that the
discipline that has been the hallmark of Zimbabwe's
defence forces was
faltering.
While suggestions that Zimbabwe may be ripe for a
full-scale mutiny
are exaggerated, the thuggish behaviour of the soldiers
shows that
indiscipline has started creeping into the
force.
In the past few years Mugabe has counted on disciplined
soldiers to
suppress protests by the MDC, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) and
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). But when the soldiers
themselves
start the mayhem these days, can they be trusted to quell any
mass action
that may be called in future?
I raise that
question because some of the so-called rogue soldiers who
looted shops last
week actually encouraged people to start demonstrating
against the
government.
Some reportedly told their victims to join the
ZCTU-organised
demonstration.
At Market Square bus terminus
soldiers beat up commuters for "coming
to work". "Munouyirei kubasa musina
mari yacho, garai kumba zvinhu
zvigadziriswe" (Why do you come to work when
you don't have money. Stay at
home so the problems can be fixed)" one of the
soldiers was heard saying.
Without the support of the army
Mugabe's rule could collapse like a
deck of cards.
Mugabe knows
full well this reality and that is the reason why he has,
at every
opportunity, taken extraordinary steps, sometimes at the risk of
alienating
other sections of the public service, to please the army with
huge bonuses,
and other perks over the past few years.
With inflation
threatening to breach the quintillion mark, it has
increasingly become
difficult for the octogenarian dictator to please the
generality of men and
women in uniform. This has left him with no other
option but to focus on the
army chefs who have been given top of the range
vehicles, farms, cheap loans
and fuel as incentives for them to keep the
troops in
check.
But the foot soldiers, who have to be deployed in the
streets to
defend Mugabe whenever there is trouble, have been left wallowing
in
poverty. At the barracks, soldiers are served with sadza without
relish.
Those who stay outside the barracks live miserable lives.
They can't
pay rent - which is usually charged in foreign currency - they
can't afford
their transport and they wear miserably threadbare
uniforms.
Many have been coerced to regard as enemies close
relatives and
friends just because they belong to the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change for which Mugabe makes no secret of his dislike. Yet
they still have
to live among the same friends and relatives in the
townships and meet
frequently at funerals and other family
gatherings.
Three weeks ago I witnessed a young soldier bolt
out of Food World
supermarket with a stolen pie in his hand. The soldier was
saved from a
thorough beating because those who apprehended him felt sorry
when they saw
his cracked lips and pathetic demeanour. When a trained man is
reduced to
stealing a pie to fend off hunger, looting can become an
option!
SUNDAY VIEW WITH WALTER MARWIZI
Comment: Crises Demystify Myth Of Zanu PF Invincibility
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 06
December 2008 18:34
ZANU PF likes to think it is knowledgeable about
everything, capable
of finding solutions and therefore in total control. The
cholera crisis,
food and cash shortages and a collapsing health sector have
shattered that
notion.
Images of soldiers in camouflage
uniform rampaging through the central
business areas, pillaging and
plundering, scuttled Zanu PF's claims to being
in control.
The announcement last week by the US, Britain and South Africa of food
aid
demonstrates the tragedy of a government that has lost control of one of
its
core functions and responsibility to its citizens - providing basic food
and
health care. It is the ultimate in embarrassment for a government to
have to
be bailed out by foreigners in this manner, especially after
engineering a
man-made disaster.
Only Burma, North Korea and Sudan share
uncontested claim to this
odious record.
The run on the
banks suggests government/Zanu PF's failure to put more
money in
circulation, hence the attempts to ration withdrawals.
The
banking crisis also demonstrates how vulnerable Zanu PF and the
government
have become. When four Zimbabweans instituted legal action
against the
Reserve Bank, it panicked and raised the maximum withdrawal
limits.
When the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions threatened
to bring out
people on the streets - and this time all the ingredients of an
historic
mass action were present - the RBZ speedily announced increased
limits.
Zanu PF and the government's bungling have lit the fuse
of resentment
and helped to mobilise the people. For the first time in many
years, people
are beginning to realise and claim the right to exercise their
power.
And under increasing pressure from incensed citizens,
the regime is
showing signs of cracking.
The former East
Germany was run by a brutal regime, anchored in the
all-feared Stazi - its
secret service.
So was Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania. But when the
people decided they
had had enough and dared to challenge their
invincibility, Erich Honecker's
regime fell in October 1989. Ceausescu's
iron-fisted rule collapsed
spectacularly two months later after soldiers -
like those who took to the
streets during the past two weeks - decided to
side with the protesters
against the dictator.
The people
of East Germany and Romania discovered that there was
nothing but a flimsy
façade of invincibility that kept them oppressed.
Zanu PF had
an opportunity to rescue itself in the September 15 Global
Political
Agreement, but its greed for power and determination to remain in
total
control have only served to demonstrate further how they have lost
public
trust; they have also shown a dearth of new ideas on turning around
the
fortunes of the country.
If it had agreed to implement the
power-sharing agreement, ordinary
people would have started seeing the
benefits and Zanu PF could be claiming
some of the credit. Instead, what
they have is total authorship and
responsibility for the unprecedented
collapse of the state.
In barring the Group of Elders from
visiting Zimbabwe a fortnight ago,
the government claimed it needed to focus
on the cholera crisis, the
negotiations with the MDC formations and
preparations for the farming
season.
These challenges
remain. The Zanu PF Bindura conference will be an
unwelcome interference by
political demagogues who have neither the
competence nor the inclination to
dig the country out of the hole they have
made for it.
Zim Standard Letters
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
'Operation Hakudzokwi'Equal To State Terrorism
Saturday, 06
December 2008 17:30
THE brutality described in Nathaniel Manheru's
piece on Operation
Hakudzokwi made some chilling reading for the ordinary.
All I could say
after reading it was: "Help us God."
Being in the human rights abuse radar, I thought Zimbabwe or her
functionaries would be endeavouring to mend her tattered human rights record
instead of gruesomely amplifying it even more.
The
brutality so vividly and graphically described by Manheru in his
contribution and his gleeful approval of the brute force leaves a lot to be
desired.
The whole affair is a classic glorification of
extra-judicial killings
and obviously reeks of the hallmarks of
desperation.
Manheru, besides wanting to out-do Jonathan Moyo
in defending
President Mugabe's excesses, seems to be happy to out-shine the
likes of
Goebbels and Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (comical Ali of Iraq) in the
blind and
senseless defence of the indefensible.
Sadly, Manheru
comes across as someone who derives pleasure from
inflicting pain, or
watching pain being inflicted on others. This is how
ruthlessly evil men
like Idi Amin of Uganda and Pol Pot of the "Khmer Rouge"
infamy in Kampuchea
were made.
Fashioning his statement in the manner Mugabe and
Enos Nkala vowed to
crash the rebellion in Matabeleland in the early
eighties, Manheru spoke of
a "shock therapy" by government in its legitimate
quest to "reassert its
authority in this wild, wild east".
Manheru made no effort to conceal his callous nature when he referred
to
Marange as the wild, wild east. This implies the area deserved the worst
form of treatment that could possibly befall an area. Reference to the
method used as "shock therapy" goes to show the heartlessness of the regime
and its spokesmen.
Medically, shock therapy is employed in
the treatment of certain
psychotic cases by the administration of electric
shocks that are followed
by convulsions. Doctors jolt the unconscious
patient's brain with an
electrical charge, which triggers a grand mal
seizure. I do not think it is
an everyday treatment method.
Also in economics, shock therapy refers to the sudden release of
price and
currency controls, withdrawal of state subsidies, and immediate
trade
liberalisation within a country and may also include large scale
privatisation of previously public owned assets. Shock therapy is by no
means a game.
Manheru is quite happy with the outcome of
the "shock treatment" as he
brags: "I do not think diamond hunters will
descend on Chiadzwa ever again".
Manheru is not concerned by
the accusations of mass murder labelled
against the government by human
rights groups. His vitriol goes to
explicitly define Manheru and the
recklessness of the regime he works for.
According to Manheru,
the innocence and virginity of the area of
Chiadzwa were breached on the
occasion "when someone stumbled on some
refulgent stone that turned out to
be lined and precious resulting in the
world descending on the once tranquil
Chiadzwa".
While Manheru correctly decried the wanton
destruction of the area due
to excavations motivated by greed, government's
heavy-handed response is
suspicious as more areas have suffered worse
degradation than Chiadzwa.
During my career with the then PTC I
travelled the length and breadth
of the country from the Limpopo River in
the south to the Zambezi in the
north. I went as far as the Tuli River and
Manzamnyama in the west and the
Sabi in the east. I saw wanton degradation
of the soil structures through
gold panning.
I saw illegal gold
dealers (both black and white) buying alluvial
gold. I saw vice and crime.
The government turned a blind eye.
When the diamond craze hit
Chiadzwa area, the interest of the bigwigs
had to be protected. Those who
visited Chiadzwa for diamonds have been
visited upon by brute force and
inhumanity!
I would not be writing this article if Manheru had
not blatantly
justified the use of inhumane methods to arrest the
situation.
I am not an American. My interest in the Chiadzwa
debacle is based on
the knowledge that the state has behaved like a
terrorist in dealing with a
problem they allowed to go out of control in the
first place. Think like a
human being; not like the jongwe
(chicken).
Masola wa Dabudabu
Hopewell
Diaspora
--------------
Why Zanu PF Cannot Be Trusted Over
Deal
Saturday, 06 December 2008 17:25
IN the real world,
Zanu PF will retain power at all costs and if they
have to withdraw some
minor aspects of control temporarily to survive, then
they will do just
that.
Everything they are doing right now indicates this. Their
intention is
to have a Prime Minister with no real power and although I am
not at the
talks, I certainly see the outward signs of their intentions very
clearly.
No matter what transpires on paper, these people will continue
doing what
they are doing now.
Here are the signs: They
manipulate the document which should never
ever have been signed without
checking that it was the real thing. Altering
documents is a trick Zanu PF
borrowed from the British. It's an old ploy and
we should have been wide
awake to it.
They will go ahead and unilaterally appoint
ministers to key posts of
their choice, leaving the dregs to the MDC. Here
are some obvious pointers:
The appointment of Gideon Gono for
another five years while the MDC
are supposedly going to get
finance.
Unilaterally writing Amendment No. 19 and passing it
directly to
their man, Thabo Mbeki without any
consultation.
Continually refusing to give Morgan Tsvangirai a
passport to cause
him maximum inconvenience.
Continuing to
hold charges of treason over Tendai Biti on dodgy
grounds.
Relentlessly bashing and arresting Zimbabweans (Tsvangirai's head of
security and 15 MDC members).
A persistent campaign of hate
articles in all their papers, every day.
There is plenty more
so, if anyone thinks their behaviour is
impossible to continue, think again.
Zanu PF are steaming ahead to keep MDC
in a position where they have to
compromise. Thank God, Biti is awake to
this.
However, Zanu
PF will not go into any agreement where they do not have
total control. Even
if they sign into an agreement which says the Prime
Minister will have all
Ministers reporting to him and the PM's office will
have a powerful
communications office, so will the President's office.
We all know
what the President's office is capable of - we would be
stupid to think that
things are going to change there.
This whole farce is nothing
but a Trojan horse. If it wasn't, it would
have been settled a long time
ago. In my view, a settlement on paper will
never constitute an agreement in
reality and we would be plain crazy to
think otherwise. We should all know
the capabilities of Zanu PF by now but
for some strange reason, their
predictability which is so blatantly obvious,
seems to elude
us.
Be Afraid
Harare
--------------
Sometimes, Pessimism Is The Only Option One Has Left
Saturday, 06
December 2008 17:23
PERHAPS I belong to that species some prefer to
call rather
unflatteringly "Afro-pessimists." But for me, I figure that I
elect to
embrace that gloomy outlook with good reason.
For
years we have listened to what I call the "Pan-types" who, despite
all
evidence, have internalised and radicalised their belief in that all
criticism of an African politician - and as common sense will have it, any
black person - is a manifestation of toadying to the racist white man who
has failed to see anything positive emerging from the black man's
universe.
These types are those who will invoke juvenile
history lessons to
state their case, and become conveniently amnesiac where
it involves
atrocities and other evils committed by men and women of
colour.
I raise this after a colleague said to me after the signing of
the
Government of National Unity agreement that I was an inveterate
pessimist
after I confessed that I could not see anything fruitful emerging
from the
"historic" signing, be it in the short or long
term.
We had been told that the nation would know about cabinet
appointments
and allotments before the week of the signing was over. I did
not hold my
breath. And here we are rushing toward year-end and we have not
a clue about
where we are at as a nation.
My pessimism
about all things Zimbabwean is informed by that this
country has had many
false starts; each time the people imagine they are
about to pass this
man-made hell, the "veterans of the struggle" cock a
snook and show us their
butts.
Just analyse all elections held since 1980. They have always
been
about "See, we hold regular elections, so why accuse us of being
enemies of
multi-party democracy?"
But the setting up and
subsequent flourishing of democracy-based
checks and balances and other
democratic institutions do not form part of
the multi-party agenda, so you
know where that leaves us.
But I digress. The hubris that emerged
after the signing where you had
whole neighbourhoods blowing trumpets,
beating chests, and as Patrick
Chinamasa alleged then, beating up people as
they celebrated the coming into
government of their point man, Morgan
Tsvangirai was another pointer of the
naivety - or desperation - of a
crisis-weary people yearning for better
days.
Keeping a
permanent gloomy outlook about all things Zimbabwean has
helped me not raise
my expectations about the future only to expose myself
to a possible cardiac
attack after having cursed friends and foes alike
basking in my
ignorance.
Marko Phiri
Bulawayo
---------
Mugabe's One Sided Vision
Saturday, 06 December 2008 17:20
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe complained in
Doha, Quatar that the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund were not
lending money to Zimbabwe even
after the country had made good its
arrears.
If anyone had any doubts about how seriously deluded this
man is,
there is your proof.
Surely, after his rantings
telling these institutions "to go hang" or
keep their "filthy lucre" and
insulting western leaders who have greater
influence in these organisations,
he still expects them to be keen to help
Zimbabwe.
And
anyone who lends money to a country where there is no security of
property
rights and where government flouts bilateral agreements willy-nilly
has to
be crazy.
DK
Harare
---------------
THE STANDARD SMS
Saturday, 06 December 2008 17:34
Cholera
threat
SADC must act quickly on the Zimbabwean crisis so that
the cholera
crisis is dealt with decisively. Otherwise, I fear that the
world soccer
governing body, Fifa might not want a cholera infested region
to host the
2010 World Cup Soccer showpiece. --Fan, Chinhoyi.
Bosses to blame
SO in Harare it is now the army versus the cops,
but where are the
bosses while we fight and injure each other, don't you
think we should come
together and speak with one voice? After all it's the
same bosses, who send
our hard-earned cash onto the black market while we
wallow in poverty. To my
fellow police officers, I say please, let's leave
the bosses to clean up
their own mess. We are being used, yet things are
getting tighter on our
side. Long live the army. Aluta continua. - Cop,
Harare.
******
CONTRARY to Dr Sydney Sekeramayi's
cheap television performance on
Tuesday soldiers went on the rampage in
Chinhoyi, taking money, cellphones
and goods from ordinary people. -
Witness, Chinhoyi.
Lesson on leaders
THE lesson that
Zimbabweans ought to learn is that leaders have to be
changed regularly no
matter how good they may appear to be. People must
guard jealously their
power to choose their rulers. -Tineyi, Harare.
*******
IMAGINE Didymus Mutasa saying: "We are not governed and directed by a
Sadc
Tribunal. It has absolutely no jurisdiction; we are not going to
observe
that ruling." Surely, is this not the same Sadc that his party, Zanu
PF
wanted the MDC to respect during the negotiations? - Double
standards.
Time to refocus
ZIMBABWE should face
the reality that the world order has changed, if
they want to solve the
country's political and economic crisis. Just as in
soccer where they say
there are no longer any soccer giants or weak teams,
the same applies to the
geopolitical and economic sphere. Zimbabwe's major
problem is that we are
unable to find common ground and therefore spend too
much time fighting over
petty issues and not looking at the bigger picture.
Zimbabwe is a sleeping
economic giant. Zanu PF leaders are using politics
to further their own
personal interests. It is easier to destroy Zimbabwe
than to build it.
Zimbabwe still has a developed infrastructure and very
intelligent people.
This can be proved by the fact that despite the various
crises the country
has suffered, it continues to trudge along. What is
needed is to channel our
efforts into positive and productive activities,
shun deals and
get-rich-quick schemes, and then Zimbabwe can become great
again. We must
also think of the legacy that we wish to leave for future
generations. Let's
think and plan for the future. Things can only get
better. - Reality,
Harare.
******
IT seems both political parties haven't
got any solutions to
turnaround the economy as they seem to be focusing on
petty issues to fight
over while the economy collapses with each passing
day. What Zimbabweans
really want to hear is what the political parties have
to offer in terms of
economic policies so that the general public can see
the merits and debate
and finally buy into the economic policy so that we
help build confidence in
the economic policy. Something is needed for it to
succeed as people need to
have a shared vision of where we are headed for. I
would buy into a plan
where a person suggests that they are better without
giving me the benefit
of doubt over how they will do things better. -
Oracle, Harare.
Truth about Mugabe
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe should always remember for the rest of his
life and term of
office that no matter what he does, it will be doubly hard
for all the
people to accept him, because he wasn't their choice to lead
this country,
according to the outcome of the March 29 polls. Even if he
goes ahead and
appoints people to Cabinet, our loyalty will be with the MDC
and Morgan
Tsvangirai. In our eyes, Tsvangirai should be leading this
nation. - I N I
Shoko.
Charamba's over-kill
WAS George
Charamba not vindicating the Elders' visit when he
announced that people
should not convert the maize seed he was giving out to
food? If people had
food, why would they want to eat seed? This clearly
demonstrates that there
is no food in the country and that's why the Elders
wanted to come and
assess the situation in order to help the people.
Otherwise the government
doesn't have to show on television that they are
doing something because if
something is being done, it will show this on its
own without the aid of the
media. Usually things that get an overkill on
television are the opposite on
the ground. The 2008/9 harvest will tell the
truth at the end of the day. -
Oracle.
******
Why is it that banks are facing a
critical shortage of the local
currency and yet the parallel market is awash
with crisp new Zimbabwean
dollars? Could it be that the central bank is now
an active player on the
black market? Surely that is not one of its
functions? Could Dr Gideon Gono
please explain this anomaly to the banking
public, who are often made to
wait for hours to access the paltry Z$500 000
a day? - Baffled.
******
DR Gideon Gono, how does it
make you feel when the whole country
heaves a sigh of utter despair,
despondency and hopelessness upon receiving
news of your re-appointment? -
Economic Observer.
Gono's cash ruse
BY announcing to the
public the maximum withdrawal limits five days
before, the Reserve Bank
wants the public to blame banks when it fails to
provide adequate cash. -
Nkulumani, Mutare.
******
HEADS must roll at the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority. Imagine an
average of 15 deaths a day
because of heartless, corrupt people. My view is
that this institution
should be dissolved and the water management returned
to local authorities.
- Cholera survivor, Harare.
Mutezo, Mzembi must
go
ENGINEERS Munacho Mutezo and Walter Mzembi should be fired,
while the
role of Zinwa is dissolved and re-incorporated into the local
authorities
because it is clear the parastatal was created primarily to
raise funds for
Zanu PF and create jobs for top Zanu PF officials and not
for the welfare of
the people. -Tayaura.
NetOne is sending out
atrocious bills that range from Z$100 million to
Z$250 million for contract
line owners and are refusing cheque payments. I
suspect they are doing this
guess work in order to raise enough money to pay
their workers Christmas
bonuses. In a totally lawless country such as ours,
who cares? Let Net One
collapse. - Maneto, Harare.
Zimbabwe: The Manheru Column
Saturday, 06 December 2008 17:16 Collen
Madziva
In shona the saying goes
like this, “muzivi wenzira yeparuware ndiye mufambi wayo” I had some time to
read the Herald and just wanted to see what the so called Manheru has to say
about the spread of cholera and the meltdown. Well I got more than
what I was expecting. Manheru knows a lot that I don’t know and I give him
credit for that. The man is talented; there is no doubt about that. I was
puzzled about his article in more ways than
one.
First, the man has been reading and again I give him credit
for acquiring more knowledge. He seems to understand what oppression really
means and who the oppressor is. Surprisingly not the one he works for, excuse me
disregard that last line. Here is some of what he had to say, “For a small
nation fighting a very big bully with means, even peace missions become some
form of aggression.” Can somebody help me, which big bully is he talking about?
Does he mean ZANU-PF? Does he mean Robert Mugabe? It looks like one and the
same thing to me. Wait a minute, he is talking about Britain, America and their
allies. You know what made me to think he was talking about either ZANU-pf or
Mugabe? Tsvangirai, Madhuku, Chamisa, Kwinjeh, Mrs Holland to name a few are
still licking fresh wounds from brutality. There are hundreds who paid the
ultimate price for fighting for their rights. Was the big bully America or
Britain?
He goes on to say, “When to be born is a crime”. Really? I
sure thought being born in Zimbabwe was a crime because what would you think if
you have people like Didmus Mutasa who at one point said Zimbabwe would be
better off with about six million people, that leaves me to wonder where he
plans to put the seven million according to Manheru’s statistics. Sorry he is
not talking about born in Zimbabwe instead he is talking about Zimbabwe’s
independence. This is what he is saying,
Zimbabwe, on the one hand, is an incredibly small country of
about 13 million inhabitants. It wants to be born, to be born a country, a
nation. That appears to be its main aspiration, which has turned out to be its
comparably heinous crime against powerful, oppressor nations of the
West
I am confused now. Why do we celebrate April 18 again? I
thought we have been a free country for the past 28 years. On a second thought,
I think he is right we were never free. How can we claim to be free while we
are using American dollars, British pounds and Euros to pay for our food? Am I
missing something or there is something terribly wrong with those lines? Please
go back to what Manheru is saying, if you can. Did you get it? I think I got
it, he forgot to delete oppressor nations and West. Can you do him a favor,
delete those words and replace them with Robert Mugabe and ZANU-pf. Wouldn’t
that make more sense? Zimbabwe sure wants to be born a country but who is
denying that birth? Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t think I have to beat
a dead horse by bringing up March 29, 2008. Who denied millions their right to
choose? Was it Britain and America? Then there was this campaign theme, the
100% Empowerment? I think Zimbabweans are now empowered that they don’t even
need to waste their time going to Banks. What does a daily withdrawal buy? If
something is 100% I think it means its pure right? I guess we are purely
empowered.
Don’t go away yet there are things about Manheru’s dementia
that I want you to see before you go. Lets visit his article again. Manheru
finishes his paragraph this way,
Britain, on the other hand, is an incredibly powerful nation
whose might and right is rooted in the malpractices and mores (read vices) of
Victorian colonialism. Britain does not sanction that birth, which it treats as
filial rebellion of the worst type. Therein lies the fight: one pitting spasms
for rebirth, on the one hand, against ever tightening, clamping rigor mortis of
a dying colonialism. And because the colonial epoch had many "mother countries",
Britain has been able to enlist the support of Europe and America, both
disconcerted by what this refractory behaviour by an ex-colony likely portents
for rest of hitherto pliant and governable post-colonials.
Let me openly say this. I had given up hope on Zimbabwe’s
birth however I would like to thank Mr Manheru for inspiring me. Zimbabwe’s
birth is inevitable regardless of how powerful the oppressor might be? That is
what he is saying right? The oppressor does not sanction Zimbabwe’s birth? How
wonderful is that? Does Manheru realize what he is saying? Maybe I am reading
his article wrong. Does he mean to say even enlisting supporters will not change
a thing about Zimbabwe’s birth? So the equally powerful friend of ours Thabo
Mbeki and the regional group SADC’s support will not affect the birth of
Zimbabwe right? Nice!
Manheru is good I have to admit. Look at what he
says,
Each day that passes breeds a new and endless generation of
interpreters radiating infectious smiles, fawning profound love for us the
occupied, the sanctioned, the dying. Such deep, compelling love as does not
hesitate to blame we, the victims of the crime of aggression, while rewarding
Britain, the perpetrator of the whole question. So, so far into the conflict,
so, so deep into the fight, why does the basic grievance appear less and less
evident, less and less central, more and more tedious to state and proclaim, too
much to defend within Africa’s leading classes? How have we been so wearied out
of so central a struggle at whose heart rests a fundamental grievance that
social justice and sovereignty is?
Occupied? When did that happen Manheru? What occupation is
Manheru talking about? I have heard this slogan several times, “ZIMBABWE WILL
NEVER BE A COLONY AGAIN”, have you? Maybe I need the Webster dictionary for
these two words occupation and colony. How can one say “never” when he already
is? Does that make any sense? Is Manheru really serious or he is letting the
cat out of the bag? Who is so deep into a conflict to the point of trivializing
real issues facing the country? As far as I understand I might be dying but
surely not sanctioned. I agree that we are oppressed, by who, you tell me. I
guess oppression might be the reason why we are limited on our daily withdrawals
from the bank. I would say Britain is oppressive if they limited me from
accessing my bank account. On this one its not them
but-------.
Now this is funny. I don’t think Dr. Mutuzu would freak out
if I borrow his phrase. Manheru is shull of fit. Here is what he says,
Brown’s ratings continue to plummet, seemingly defiant of the
little recovery he had secured from appearing to lead the Western world out of
the deep recession it slid into almost a year ago.
Give me a break! In America I heard they would call that a
“cheap shot” or “kitchen sink strategy”. Does Manheru know what percent means?
If he were to go to a Grade O kid maybe that’s where he would struggle to find
the right answer, hopefully he would be smarter by asking somebody above that
grade. For the sake of clarity the follow up question would be, what does
231million percent means? Brown’s ratings continue plummet, who cares? He is
over there in Britain can we talk about Zimbabwe? Since he brought that up, can
he then tell us what his boss’s approval ratings today? Hopefully there is no
approval rating in the negatives, if there was such any animal his boss’s
ratings would have been minus millionth percent.
Manheru might be suffering from some mental loss but he sure
can remember to point out a lot of things for the world to see. The reason that
he provides for the way some people think is very interesting. He says Ian
Khama and Archbishop Tutu’s gay thoughts are pushing for Mugabe to be replaced.
So Khama and Tutu are gay? How does he know? According to him gay and
murderous thoughts of Raila Odinga are pushing for an invasion of Zimbabwe.
Remember he said earlier that we were [….the occupied, the sanctioned, the
dying….] so gay thoughts wants invasion on top of occupation? That’s double
trouble right? They are really bad guys we don’t want to hear even the mention
of their names. Well, fortunately we have the liberator in the name of Cde
Robert Mugabe who is ready to die for Zimbabwe and her people. The man who some
people like Mutasa believe is the true son of god.
The man who sends Zimbabwe’s men and women to fight in the
Congo for his personal gain, the man who killed thousands in the name of
Gukurahundi, the one who declared Murambatsvina on defenseless families.
Manheru might want look at his article again because what he claims to be
perpetrated by foreign powers is actually what ZANU-pf and Mugabe is doing to
the small man and woman in Zimbabwe. Just replace Britain, America and their
allies with ZANU-pf and their sympathizers and see how the article reads. By the
way “muzivi wenzira yeparuware ndiye mufambi wayo”.
Stockbrokers On the Brink of
Collapse
Financial Gazette (Harare)
6 December 2008
Harare - STOCKBROKING firms are busy
counting their losses running into
several sextillions as it emerged this
week that a number of them might go
under if no quick solution is found to
the hiatus conditions on the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange (ZSE).
The
Financial Gazette can reveal that most stockbroking outfits have been
unable
to settle their positions for the past three weeks because they were
either
victims of the fraudulently-drawn bank cheques or were simply
affected by
the contagion cascading through to banks.
The bullish conditions on the
equities market came to a screeching halt late
last month after the central
bank came up with a cocktail of measures to
root out rampant speculative
activities that were driving share prices
through the roof.
Gideon
Gono, whose second term at the helm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ)
started this week pricked the ZSE bubble when he directed that all
trades on
the local bourse are to be supported by actual credit balances
confirmed by
the buyer's bank in writing, signed by that bank's chief
executive officer
to rein in lower level staff who were issuing fake cheques
in cahoots with
stockbrokers.
According to Gono, any counterparty who fails to settle ZSE
obligations due
to lack of funding will be automatically blacklisted in the
country's entire
banking system, with all accounts being frozen and
closed.
Immediately after the new measures were introduced, the ZSE which
had defied
all odds since the beginning of the year lost more than half its
value after
stock prices came down with a thud.
There has been hardly
any trading since the RBZ took the punitive measures
thereby depriving
stockbrokers of revenue.
ZSE insiders said the fall in stock prices
affected a number of clients who
had placed huge orders without first
funding their accounts thinking the
bull-run was unstoppable. Most of these
clients, according to ZSE insiders,
are now struggling to fund their orders
purchased by their stockbrokers at
princely prices but whose market value
plunged after bearish conditions set
onto the market late last
month.
The Financial Gazette can reveal that Old Mutual might become the
first
institution to sue stockbrokers who are failing to pay it $40
sextillion
realised from the sale of Pretoria Portland Cement
shares.
While details of the lawsuit were still sketchy at the time of
going to
print, this newspaper has it on good authority that Old Mutual is
mulling a
lawsuit against two stockbroking outfits.
"There is a siege
mood engulfing the stockbroking community and transfer
secretaries. Losses
have been mounting in the wake of the Reserve Bank's new
measures that have
created bearish conditions on the local bourse while
causing serious
settlement problems for stockbrokers.
"Following the RBZ's intervention a
number of brokers and clients who had
placed orders are going back to the
drawing boards after the market plunged
by more than half before they could
settle their positions," said one
stockbroker.
A number of
stockbrokers see themselves unable to pay rentals charged in
United States
dollars and salaries for their staff should the situation
continue beyond
the festive season.
"Half the stockbroking firms might fail to open next
year. The situation is
quite bad that not even half the transfer secretaries
might come back as
well," said a source.
One stockbroker suggested
that in order to survive some firms might be
forced to merge while transfer
secretaries might also amalgamate.
Sources said the Securities Commission
was also likely to tighten stock
market regulations to deter speculative
practices which will leave most
players in the lurch.
There are
currently 18 stockbroking firms operating on the ZSE.
Registered
stockbrokers with the ZSE are Intermarket Stockbrokers, FBC
Securities, EFE
Securities, Sagit Stockbrokers, Imara Edwards Securities,
ReNaissance
Securities, Fidelity Securities, M. Lynton Edwards Stockbrokers,
Remo
Investments Brokers, Interfin Securities, Kingdom Stockbrokers, Mast
Stockbrokers, ABC Stockbrokers, New Africa Securities, D. Vrettos
Stockbrokers, MMC Capital and Southern Trust Securities.
The ZSE has
rarely encountered a threatening situation like the one it is
currently
going through.
The only time the exchange went into serious trouble was
last year when the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority ordered stockbrokers to pay
Value Added Tax some
of it backdated to January 2004.
Before that the
only stockbroking firm to collapse, Continental Securities
Trading, had
lurched into liquidation following months of inactivity after
suspension of
its membership on allegations of improper trading practices.
A bid by
Jiao Ming, a Chinese investor, to acquire the stockbroking firm was
aborted
after the ZSE raised concern over the planned transaction.
Although some
believe that the ZSE bubble has finally been burst, there are
others who
strongly feel that this is just but a temporary squeeze.
"This is because we
do not see any changes to the underlying causes of the
bubble -
hyperinflation - which has caused loss of confidence in the local
currency.
We are still faced with the same other economic problems -
negative real
interest rates, foreign currency shortages, low exports, low
capacity
utilisation," said Kingdom Stockbrokers in its weekly commentary.
