From The Star (SA), 15 January
High turnout for tense Zimbabwean
by-election
Harare - A leading Zimbabwean academic was
briefly detained while interviewing voters during a crucial by-election in
Bikita, local reports said on Sunday as voting entered its second and final day.
Masipula Sithole, professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe, said he
was released after police warned him to "abandon his survey". He was not given
any reason for his arrest. Supporters of the opposition MDC said the incident
highlighted the climate of fear built up during weeks of campaigning, when many
fled to the hills to avoid pro-government "war veterans" and one ruling Zanu-PF
supporter was fatally stabbed in a brawl.
Jonathan Moyo, President Robert Mugabe's
information minister, claimed the terror was the work of the MDC, which captured
the seat in Bikita, 480km south of the capital Harare, by a narrow 300-vote
margin during parliamentary elections in June. The MDC candidate died of cancer
just three months after taking office and a by-election was called. "The
slashing of several hectares of maize crops by hooligans shows beyond doubt the
MDC is as mean-spirited as its former Rhodesian sponsors," said Moyo, reviving
claims that the opposition aims to block a controversial government plan to
redistribute white owned farms to landless peasants.
State media issued astonishingly high
voting figures for the first day of polling on Saturday. A broadcast said half
of the 40 000 registered voters cast their ballots, compared to 13 800 during
both days of voting in June. The broadcast said 4 000 would-be voters were
turned away for undisclosed reasons. The seat was one of 58 won by the
opposition in June, compared to 62 for Zanu-PF, in an election marred by
violence and intimidation. There have been no reports of serious violence during
the by-election itself. The result is expected to be announced late on
Monday.
Zimbabwe's vice-president, Simon Muzenda,
acting head of state during Mugabe's protracted holiday with his family in
Malaysia, says the by-election will be crucial to Mugabe's bid to seek a further
six-year term from 2002-2008. Mugabe has been in power since independence in
1980. The MDC has launched a bid in Parliament to have Mugabe impeached over the
killing of up to 40 opponents by alleged hit squads.
From The Boston Globe,15
January
An exile's story defines Zimbabwe
woes
Educated citizens flee Mugabe's rule
for South Africa
Johannesburg - As Zimbabwe unravels at the hands of President
Robert Mugabe, the story of Joseph Sibanda is one of the more poignant and
troubling. Young and well-educated, a former member of his country's national
basketball and volleyball teams, Sibanda had a decent job as a doorman in a busy
hotel in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. It paid relatively well, and his easy
charm brought ample tips.
But Sibanda has been caught up in the toll from months of
state-sponsored violence, launched by Mugabe to fend off challenges to his
leadership. As inflation, interest rates, and unemployment rose above 50
percent, tourism - Sibanda's lifeblood - dwindled to a trickle. By last summer,
Sibanda found he could no longer feed and clothe his family, and a few weeks ago
he quit the hotel and left them behind to seek better prospects in South Africa.
''These are tough times,'' he said. ''We've had to scrounge around for money, so
I rather came to this side. I really want to invest in Zimbabwe, but everyone is
running away, which is making the situation worse. I won't desert my kids, but I
have to be able to get their necessities.''
For Sibanda, the decision was especially ironic, for his
journey reversed the trek his parents made in 1974 when they fled north to
escape the stifling racism of South Africa's former apartheid regime. Today,
Sibanda, who uses a different name on official documents for fear of arrest, is
part of a rapidly growing exodus of educated and skilled citizens from Zimbabwe.
Their flight, economists say, are a result of Mugabe's destructive policies and
the failure of regional diplomacy to curb them. Two decades ago, Mugabe, a
former teacher, put schooling above all and created one of the most educated
societies on the continent. Now, faced with few prospects at home, the
well-schooled are taking their talents elsewhere. ''Blacks are going,'' said
John Robertson, an economist based in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. ''Those with
skills. This is the issue most of our neighbors should be worried about. Those
emigrating could reach up to many millions.''
When Sibanda's parents left South Africa in 1974, they settled
in Bulawayo, and Sibanda was born a year later. He reached school age in 1980,
the year Zimbabwe gained independence, and joined the first generation of black
children to benefit from Mugabe's emphasis on education. But the clutches of
poverty were strong. His father, a toolmaker, ran off. His mother, desperate to
feed her family, took one man after another - anyone who promised to provide.
She bore six more children by three more men, and still ended up alone. But
Sibanda continued in school and ultimately earned a degree in hotel management.
Eventually, it fell to him to earn the family's daily bread, so he took a series
of jobs before ending up at the hotel.
Along the way he met a girl. She got pregnant and bore twins.
Not just more mouths to feed, but a heavy dowry to pay as well. The hotel paid
Sibanda $300 a month. The government took $80 in taxes. When he started the job
not quite two years ago, the remainder - augmented with tips - was enough to
cover costs: medical care for his mother; school fees for his siblings;
electricity and water; food. In March his mother died, leaving Sibanda the sole
provider for eight. That is also when Mugabe turned his supporters loose to
attack white farmers and his political foes.
Mugabe's attempts to seize white-owned farms has thrown the
economy into free fall. International lending agencies have pulled out. Foreign
currency is so scarce the government cannot buy enough fuel or electricity. With
the local dollar fixed higher than its value, imports and exports have dried up.
Economic output per person, Robertson said, has shrunk by half. The price of
basic foodstuffs has soared more than tenfold in the past year, and many parents
are pulling children from school to save the fees. The disruption on the farms
cut recent wheat harvest by a third. The corn and tobacco crops, now in the
field, are also down. And with the country running out of packaging supplies,
dairies may have no way to get milk to markets. "It's pretty traumatic,''
Robertson said. ''The majority may soon be dependent on what they can grow
themselves. The urban population is very much at risk, especially those who
don't have a connection with the rural areas'' where people can cultivate
subsistence crops.
By the time Sibanda left Zimbabwe last month, he could barely
stretch his wages to cover the bills. Meals grew meagre. He walked to work to
save the nickel for the ride. In South Africa, real estate agents have noticed a
marked rise in the number of Zimbabweans buying houses. ''The increase is enough
to notice without tracking statistically,'' said Ronald Ennick, of the Pam
Golding real estate firm. South African President Thabo Mbeki has been hesitant
to confront Mugabe over the violence in Zimbabwe for fear that it would
destabilize the regime further and trigger a massive influx of people into South
Africa. His fears are being realized all the same. Despite an increase in
deportations of illegal arrivals from Zimbabwe over last year, South African
officials say they have no plans to tighten immigration controls on its
neighbor.
Sibanda's first hours in Johannesburg were harrowing. When he
arrived at Park Station on Dec. 1, he was mugged. He lost all his belongings,
including a cell phone and about $1,200 in hard cash - his life savings. He had
planned to send clothes back to his wife to sell in the flea markets of
Bulawayo, and live as cheaply as possible until he secured the job a South
African hotelier had promised. With no money to hold him over through the
lengthy naturalization process, he called an uncle for help after his father,
still a South African citizen, turned him away. His uncle knew a woman in a
local immigration office who, earlier this month, helped Sibanda obtain a false
medical history and found a woman with the same last name to vouch that he was
her son. In one afternoon, for about $75, he secured temporary residence,
enabling him to work. In a few more weeks, he will have a valid South African
passport. By Robertson's estimates, a few hundred thousand emigrants from
Zimbabwe will quickly turn into millions. Sibanda shows why. ''I will have to
bring my family down here if possible,'' he said. ''We have to start over and
have a new life here.''
Zim economy 'to sink even further in
2001'
January 11 2001 at
08:05PM
Harare - Zimbabwe's economy, hit by an
unprecedented slump last year, faces even worse dislocation in 2001, according
to a forecast by Standard Chartered, the country's leading bank.
The bank's business trends analysis issued on
Thursday warned of another "challenging year", with gross domestic product
predicted to drop by at least another 5,5 percent, inflation set to rise to 70
percent and the currency set to plummet nearly 50 percent from Z$55 to Z$90 to
the US dollar. There would also be "intense pressure for substantial exchange
rate adjustment" this year.
The bank's prediction made clear that the sharp
fall in agriculture, after a year-long government-backed campaign of often
violent invasions of white-owned commercial farms and continuing disruptions of
farming operations, was the major contributor to economic decline.
It said the crisis would be worsened by the likely
slowdown in the global economy, weakening of commodity prices and a predicted
four percent rise in world fuel prices.
Most agricultural harvests would be lower in 2001
"Between them, reduced agricultural, mining and manufacturing output, faster
inflation, a deepening domestic debt trap and severe foreign currency and
savings constraints point to at least as large a fall in real GDP in Zimbabwe
during 2001 as in 2000," said the bulletin.
Earnings from tobacco, the country's top hard
currency earner, will drop this year to US350-million, 12 percent down on 2000.
The crop size has been forecast to fall to 180 000
tons, 24 percent down on last year's crop, when an all-time high was recorded.
Most agricultural harvests would be lower in 2001,
said the bank, with "a marked reduction" in plantings of maize, the national
staple. Value added in agriculture would fall at least 10 percent, eroding GDP
by about 1,75 percent.
Mining output, which dropped seven percent in the
first half of 2000, would go on falling by at least another five percent. Gold,
the second biggest export commodity, had little chance of recovery against the
flat world price, and scant new investment was in sight.
It said the balance of payments situation was
'bleak'
Manufacturing's accelerating slump was forecast to worsen, pushed by
the absence of new investment and construction activity, the drop in farming and
severe foreign currency shortages.
Earnings from tourism collapsed by 60 percent in
2000, and the industry was "bracing itself for another trying year", said the
bank. Fifty-six tourist enterprises shut down last year, and another 100 would
follow by the second quarter this year.
The prediction came with confirmation on Thursday
that Meikles, the country's internationally renowned five-star hotel, had closed
a 150-room wing after a persistent occupancy rate of 20 percent in its 322
rooms.
Employment slid four percent with the loss of 55
000 jobs last year, and another 100 000 jobs would be lost this year.
Inflation reached 60 percent last year, and the
bank estimated that at best inflation could average 70 percent in 2001. However,
the bulletin warned that the government's hopes to cut inflation by cutting
spending faced almost impossible pressure from currency devaluation, foreign
currency-driven shortages, wage awards and rapid monetary growth.
The same factors would drive interest rates above
70 percent, and a renewed surge in inflation and bank rates could be expected
from the expected loosening of interest rates ahead of presidential elections
due in 2002.
It said the balance of payments situation was
"bleak", with exports expected to decline further after a 10 percent fall in the
first half of 2000.
Imports dropped 12,5 percent in the same period
last year, but probably would flatten out as they reached their "irreducible
minimum". - Sapa
MDC slams Zanu-PF triumph of 'evil over
good'
|
January 15 2001 at 09:07PM
|
By Stella Mapenzauswa
Harare - The ruling party of President Robert
Mugabe on Monday won a parliamentary by-election seen as a key test of its
support in rural Zimbabwe before next year's presidential ballot.
The
state news agency quoted the registrar-general, Tobaiwa Mudede, as saying the
Zanu-PF party's candidate had polled 12 993 votes against 7 001 for the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the rural constituency of
Bikita West, 330km south-east of Harare.
"This is a victory of evil over
that which is good," the MDC's Learnmore Jongwe said following the announcement
of the election outcome.
| Voting at the weekend had been mostly
peaceful |
He could not say whether his party would accept the result,
but added that the MDC planned to issue a detailed statement on Tuesday.
The MDC won the seat, in one of Zanu-PF's traditional strongholds, in
the June 2000 general election but it fell vacant in November when its member of
parliament died.
Analysts had said an MDC victory could be a sign that
the opposition was making inroads into rural areas after making a near clean
sweep of urban seats in June.
Officials said voting at the weekend had
been mostly peaceful, apart from the arrest on Saturday of three MDC supporters
for allegedly stoning the vehicle of Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of the self-styled
liberation war veterans who invaded white-owned farms in the run-up to the June
poll.
The Bikita result reduces to 56 the number of seats the MDC holds
in parliament.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF, which has ruled since the former
Rhodesia won independence from Britain in 1980, has boosted to 63 the number of
seats it holds out of a total of 120.
It enjoys a larger majority
through 30 additional deputies appointed by Mugabe.
Clashes between the
two parties in the run-up to the Bikita West by-election killed one Zanu-PF
supporter and left several other people injured.
At least 31 people,
mostly MDC supporters, were killed in the run-up to the June election in
violence linked to the farm invasions.
The opposition, which poses the
greatest challenge to Mugabe's 20-year hold on power, is contesting the validity
of 39 of the seats Zanu-PF won in the June poll.
This week the Supreme
Court is scheduled to hear a challenge by the MDC against an amendment to the
electoral act Mugabe's administration passed in December, which says courts
cannot nullify the results of electoral results "even if corrupt or illegal
practices were committed". - Reuters
Hain slams SADC leaders for 'ignoring
Mugabe'
|
January 06 2001 at 05:55PM
|
By John Matisonn
Southern African leaders' policies of "constructive
engagement" towards President Robert Mugabe had failed and Zimbabwe threatened
to drag South Africa and the rest of the region down with it.
The blunt
assessment was given this week by Peter Hain, the British foreign office
minister for Africa, in an interview with The Sunday Independent at his Cape
holiday home.
He said: "I sometimes wonder whether the leadership of
southern Africa understands the gravity of the situation. Constructive
engagement seems to have failed.
| 'What you have is a crisis for a
subcontinent' |
"Mugabe has created a police state climate comparable to the
one that imprisoned him. How a freedom struggle can be so badly prostituted is a
question for Zanu and Mugabe's conscience."
A consistently outspoken
opponent of Mugabe's land grabs, Hain went even further in his criticism this
week. He suggested that an "African solution", which was put forward by
President Thabo Mbeki last year instead of outright Western condemnation of
Mugabe, had not materialised.
"I see absolutely no sign of it. It's not
an easy task for SADC leaders. I'm not sure Mugabe listens to Mbeki or
[Mozambique President Joaquim] Chissano or anyone, any more than to [British
Prime Minister Tony] Blair or [British foreign secretary Robyn] Cook or Hain.
"What you have is a crisis for a subcontinent, not just one country."
He said he was concerned that the situation was not being treated by
southern African leaders with as much urgency as it warranted.
| Hain conceded land grabs had been part of a
strategy |
Hain said he wondered if the sub-continent's leaders fathomed
what their responsibilities were "because the truth is, no matter how frustrated
I am that no differentiation is being made between South Africa and Zimbabwe, in
boardrooms where they make the decisions they don't distinguish".
While
he told investors that South Africa had taken the tough decisions to prepare
itself to be an investor-friendly environment as a global economic partner,
investors said: "Yes, yes, but if they grab other people's land in Zimbabwe,
will they grab my company across the border? Why should I invest in Africa
instead of Asia, when there are such problems?"
Hain said at the start
of his 18 months in office "the African renaissance was very exciting to
support.
"We also had to contend with Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, the
drought in Ethiopia, then the war with Eritrea, and the conflict dragging on in
Congo.
"Of all those, the one that hammered confidence the most is
Zimbabwe, because it is a potential powerhouse, with good infrastructure, a good
skills base and a potentially dynamic economy. It should be boosting growth and
energy in its neighbours, not dragging them down."
Hain expressed not
only frustration but serious concern about his inability to persuade the British
press or European investors to back South Africa.
"I spend frustrating
hours with investors, not just because it's my job but because I genuinely think
South Africa is great place to invest in. I would if I were an investor."
Hain was effusive in his praise for South Africa's progress in 10 years,
and critical of whites who have "amnesia" about the past.
"Most of the
whites don't know how lucky they are. They were rescued just in time."
But he made it clear that a new urgency had to be injected into the
present situation.
"South Africa has presented sceptics with gift horses
in one year which are quite damaging - Aids and Zimbabwe - and the government
knows it. When Mbeki came to London he was very impressive, but he's up against
it in terms of South Africa's credibility."
Hain is disappointed by the
decline of Zimbabwe, the first cause he took up in Britain when he campaigned
against Ian Smith, the Rhodesian prime minister.
Hain said he viewed
white skills as important.
Referring to a campaign to put pressure on
whites to leave their farms, he said the irony was that two presidents of
neighbouring countries had told Mugabe that if he heard of any farmers wanting
to leave Zimbabwe, he should tell them the African presidents would like to have
them.
He said Zimbabwe remained a country Britain would like to support
in numerous ways, including land reform and anti-poverty programmes.
"What Mugabe has done is turn his back on probably £100-million (about
R1,1-billion) of donor assistance. It's still there."
Hain conceded land
grabs had been part of a strategy to keep Mugabe in power in the short term, but
"long term it's doomed to failure".
"I'd like to see Mugabe join others
in being remembered for his role in the freedom struggle, rather than for the
devastation of his country. But that's his choice."
15 January 2001
Judging the judges
THE one thing you could always
say about Zimbabwe was that the judiciary was impartial. The much lamented Enoch
Dumbutshena, who died last year, built on a legacy left by judges who'd dealt
with a previous and equally irascible regime that had scant regard for legal
niceties. Zimbabwean judges have stood firm, interpreting the laws made by
parliament with equanimity and complete impartiality. They've never shown fear
of either parliament or the executive.
But all that might change. For
the first time in recent history, Zimbabwe's judges have come perilously close
to squabbling. Judge President Chidyausiku has been carping about the Supreme
Court's approach to the land crisis, while Justice Gubbay has, quite rightly
most would say, been sniping at government, albeit it with the sort of legal
delicacy his position demands.
It's not a good thing to have the
members of the judiciary at each other's throats, but it was perhaps inevitable.
The Judge President, say his critics, long ago hoist his colours to the ruling
party mast. The Supreme Court judges never did, insisting on judicial
impartiality.
But just as ZANU-PF fears unity
among commercial farmers, and particularly the embodiment of that unity in the
form of the CFU, so too does it fear the judiciary. No one ever expected the
judiciary to be completely united, because that would defeat its purpose, but
Zimbabwe cannot afford a judiciary that engages in unseemly, public
dispute.
That's already happened, largely
due to the machinations of ZANU-PF. The party wants the judges to fight, because
that way it can quote judges who support the ruling party and condemn others as
reactionaries. In short, it can divide the judiciary right down the middle, just
as it's attempting to do with the Commercial Farmers' Union.
These tactics should surprise no
one. The ruling party may boast about its "degrees in violence", but it is also
adept at the age old philosophy of divide and rule - and in too many cases,
divide and subjugate.
Which is all very well when the
ramifications aren't too disastrous, but tampering with the judiciary is playing
with fire and will cost Zimbabwe dearly. There's very little Zimbabweans can
have faith in these days. The police are irrevocably tarnished with corruption
and partisanship and are worthy of little more than base contempt. The civil
service is uncivil, corrupt and inefficient. Rural District Councils have been
co-opted and corrupted by the ruling party. The military is either tarnished
with the same brush as the police or busy making money at the country's expense
- and doing so in a foreign, unwinnable war that has no purpose other than to
enrich the ruling elite.
That leaves the judiciary as the
single independent body untainted by ZANU-PF's sordid interference. Judges
aren't making money in the Congo, they're not assisting illegal invasions of
private property, they 're not taking bribes or condoning violence. And, until
Chidyausiku made that most crass of remarks by claiming that politics and
history might be above the law, they weren't wearing their political
partisanship on their be-robed sleeves either.
But now they are, or at least
Justice Chidyausiku is.
Conforming to the stereotype his
critics accuse him of, he has come out in favour of a blatantly manipulated
"opinion" put out by the ruling party - and against the wishes of the majority
of Zimbabweans. In essence, he has suggested that politics, or political
problems, are above the law.
This has to be a strange line for
a senior representative of the nation's judiciary to take. It's even more
peculiar when one considers the blatant manipulation of this so-called political
problem. The land issue needs to be addressed, it's true, but the people
invading farms today are doing so under orders, with the assistance - often
brutal - of the police, the army and the Central Intelligence Organisation. This
is hardly a political problem reflecting historical injustice, but it most
certainly is the most cynical form of State terrorism Zimbabwe has seen in a
long time.
Perhaps,
