The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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Counterparts: Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, left, and Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa, right, were at a ceremony honouring former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda in Lusaka. Kaunda urged Mugabe to forget his land reform campaign and focus on development in Africa. Photo: AP
Kaunda tells Mugabe what to do

January 15 2003 at 06:02AM
Mercury new

By Anthony Mukwita & Basildon Peta

Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda told Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe - with him on a Zambian stage - that he had to forget the past and rather focus on fighting Aids and fostering development.

Mugabe responded by saying Zimbabwe's problems were British prime minister Tony Blair's fault. Later he told reporters it would be "foolhardy" and "counter-revolutionary" for him to quit power, rejecting reports that he planned to make way for a new leadership.

Mugabe was in Lusaka to attend a ceremony in honour of Kaunda by current Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa. Kaunda said it was time to leave the hardships of colonialism behind and tackle the new problems of Africa.

"Yesterday it was the fight against colonialism," Kaunda said "Today it is HIV/Aids, not white or black." Mwanawasa, with Namibian president Sam Nujoma also looking on, bestowed the Order of the Eagle of Zambia: First Division and Grand Commander of the Eagle of Zambia on Kaunda.

Mwanawasa described Kaunda as "a true Pan Africanist who believed that Zambia could not enjoy true emancipation if the rest of the region remained under the yoke of colonialism".

Kaunda shed tears as he accepted the honour and said he would dedicate his life to fighting Aids.

He told Mugabe to bury the hatchet and get on with economic development instead of fighting "colonialist ghosts", quoting a passage from the Bible saying: "Vengeance is for the Lord."
Kaunda views Mugabe as a huge liability to Africa and has been lobbying regional leaders to exert pressure on him to quit.

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The Times

            Mugabe's downfall imminent, say rivals
            From Jan Raath in Harare



            THE leader of Zimbabwe's opposition party predicted the imminent
collapse of Robert Mugabe's regime yesterday in a lengthy public statement
affirming that two top officials from the ruling Zanu (PF) party had offered
him the President's resignation.
            Morgan Tsvangirai said that Mr Mugabe's lieutenants had "all
virtually abandoned him and maintain an appearance of loyalty out of fear.
The machinery around Mugabe is now collapsing fast and leaking heavily."

            He claimed to have received reports from people close to Mr
Mugabe that the 78-year-old leader had told his family to "get ready for
life after his 23-year-old dictatorship".

            Zimbabwe was "grinding to a halt", Mr Tsvangirai said. Its
commercial agriculture was in ruins. The country's fuel supply would dry up
at the end of the month and there was no money to buy more.

            "Mugabe does not know where the next litre of diesel or petrol
is coming from," he said.

            Mr Mugabe's "greatest nemesis" was the economy, which "refuses
to bend to all his dictatorial formulae. He cannot use on the economy the
same weapons he is using to subvert democracy and crush human rights. He
cannot rig it, he cannot shoot it, he cannot intimidate it and, although he
raped it, the economy continues to land fatal blows that Mugabe cannot
block."

            Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), issued the statement to rebut a stream of denials from Mr Mugabe and
Zanu (PF) that two of the regime's senior members had secretly offered him a
deal to save Zimbabwe from its deepening emergency.

            A barrage of party statements blamed the British Government for
reports in The Times and other media outlets, calling them "wicked,
malicious and mischievous" and "the work of the enemy bent on destroying
Zimbabwe".

            However, Mr Tsvangirai announced that "for the record,
Zimbabweans and the international community need to know" that in December,
Colonel Lionel Dyck, a respected former Zimbabwe Army officer, took a
message to him from Emmerson Mnangagwa, who ranks third in the Zanu (PF)
Politburo, and General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces.

            He said that they "wanted to hear my views on the way forward
now that Robert Mugabe had, in Dyck's words, long indicated that he wanted
to retire, was being restrained by Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe and could only
be allowed to do so at such a time deemed appropriate by the two men and
many others in Zanu (PF)."

            Colonel Dyck had made clear that the initiative stemmed from
"the realisation that he (Mugabe) has lost all capacity to govern".

            Mr Tsvangirai said that he had told Colonel Dyck that the MDC
was "prepared to assist in the necessary transitional arrangements to enable
Zimbabwe to move forward", but made "categorically clear that this does not
mean participating in the formation of a government of national unity or
some underhand pact with Zanu (PF) . . . We will never be party to any
political arrangement that seeks to sanitise Mugabe's violent illegitimacy.

            "If we are to avoid bloodshed, and achieve the change we have
been trying to secure over the past three years, there is no other way other
than through constructive dialogue," Mr Tsvangirai said.

            Brian Raftopoulos, a member of the Crisis in Zimbabwe think
tank, said that Mr Tsvangirai's statement would inflame the long-suppressed
debate inside Zanu (PF) about Mr Mugabe's future.

            "Tsvangirai has very cleverly challenged them to deal with the
situation," he said. "He is putting pressure on them to deal with it, and
for people inside the party to come out in the open.

            "There are increasing indications that these discussions on
succession are taking place. There will be more leaks and more pressure.
There is a real sense now that he is battling. Zanu (PF) has never been so
vulnerable. It gives the public a sense of hope again."

            On Tuesday Mr Mugabe said that he would "never, never, never" go
into exile. But the state press reported his speech under the ambiguous
headline: "I am not retiring yet."
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MSNBC

Zimbabwe police arrest opposition MP over burnt bus



HARARE, Jan. 15 - Zimbabwe police arrested an opposition member of
parliament on Wednesday after he was allegedly found with documents linked
to the burning earlier this week of a bus owned by a state-owned transport
company.
       ''Job Sikhala has been arrested in connection with being found in
possession of subversive documents,'' state broadcaster the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation said.
       ''Police are investigating a possible link between documents found
with Sikhala and the burning of a ZUPCO bus,'' it added.
       The television report said police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
confirmed the arrest of Sikhala, a legislator for the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, and that he was likely to appear in court
soon.
       Bvudzijena was not immediately available for comment.
       Police on Tuesday accused the MDC of planning to cause civil unrest
ahead of World Cup Cricket matches scheduled to be played in Zimbabwe next
month in order to force a change of venue.
       But the opposition dismissed the charge, saying President Robert
Mugabe's government was looking for another excuse to clamp down on
opposition leaders and activists.
       The England and Wales Cricket Board said on Tuesday the England team
would play its February 13 match against Zimbabwe, rejecting government
pressure to boycott the match in protest at Mugabe's policies and Zimbabwe's
human rights record.
       On Monday, Zimbabwe's High Court ordered the release of Harare's MDC
mayor Elias Mudzuri following his weekend arrest for holding a meeting
without police approval, as required by tough new laws that the opposition
says are designed to stifle democracy.
       Earlier on Wednesday, the MDC accused police of assaulting another
opposition legislator, Paul Madzore, arrested at the weekend for allegedly
organising riots in his Harare constituency. The party said Madzore appeared
in court on charges of contravening the Public Order and Security Act.
       Police were not available for comment on the assault allegations.
       The MDC currently holds 53 of the 120 seats in parliament that were
contested in elections in 2000.
       Mugabe, in power since leading Zimbabwe to independence in 1980,
dismisses the MDC as a puppet of the West -- led by former colonial ruler
Britain -- which he says is out to oust him for seizing white-owned farms
for redistribution to landless blacks.
       Britain has led international criticism of Mugabe, and along with
Australia has called for a boycott of cricket World Cup matches due to be
played in Zimbabwe next month.
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The Scotsman

      Time to end the double talk and spin bowling on Zimbabwe

      DAVID MELLOR


      EVEN in an era of aggressive professionalism, cricket still depends
for much of its appeal on a traditional gentlemanly ethos. Notwithstanding
all the cheating and the sledging, the game, with its hallowed rituals and
leisurely timetable, speaks to us of a quieter, gentler age. No surprise,
then, that the incongruity of playing such a game at such a time in such a
place as Zimbabwe has proved too much for even the chairman of the England
selectors to stomach.

      David Graveney has been man enough to give the kind of lead both his
colleagues and our government have consistently funked. It was left to Clare
Short, the international development minister, to denounce the whole notion
as "shocking and deplorable". Ms Short may be something of an unguided
missile, but on this occasion she hit the target dead centre, and with
devastating effect.

      She is a woman of genuine moral authority, and the Downing Street spin
machine, having started off by insisting she spoke without clearance, and
sneering behind its hands, the way it does, about her bidding to become "the
conscience of the Left", was soon compelled by the weight of other opinion
to echo her views.

      Thus Tessa Jowell, the Cabinet member responsible, having declared
before Christmas that the World Cup was entirely a matter for the England
Cricket Board, met them last Thursday in a vain attempt to try to persuade
them not to go. And the ever-slippery Peter Hain has finally broken a, for
him, most improbable vow of silence to add his own words of condemnation.
Only on Monday did Tony Blair make an unequivocal statement, having tried
for all the world to be the Tar Baby and say nuffink.

      What a sorry mess Number 10 has made of all this. It has known for
months that the World Cup is happening, and that the situation in Zimbabwe
is going from bad to worse. Ministers have been challenged in Parliament for
almost a year to make a stand, but failed to do so until an unprompted aside
from a colleague with some claims to be a person of principle drove them
into declaring their hand.

      How typical. And how depressing. Most of us have given up hoping New
Labour knows how to solve the myriad problems of the NHS or our transport
system. But here at least was something obvious, an issue that could be
dispatched in the crisp, principled way Tony Blair had promised would be the
norm for his administration.

      Instead, Whitehall has ignored the whole thing until it could do so no
longer. It's a sorry situation the leaders of English cricket have hardly
helped. They, too, must have known millions of us would find it
incomprehensible that they can contemplate playing in front of a
hand-picked, apparently contented, crowd, while outside hundreds of
thousands of people face starvation, and others are robbed of their land and
possessions for no better reason than that they are white.

      The ECB could have made common cause with like-minded countries,
notably Australia and New Zealand, to insist firmly, but quietly behind the
scenes, that the entire tournament should be staged in South Africa.
Instead, it did nothing, and now wants us to believe that the team has to go
or the entire sport will be engulfed by a financial catastrophe that could
destroy English cricket.

      We know if Mugabe had been white there's no way Zimbabwe would be
allowed to compete in this or any other tournament. They would have been
banished to the sidelines, and deservedly so, as apartheid South Africa was.
Now it's time to end the double talk. Time, too, for English cricketers and
their leaders to realise, in the wise words of Mike Atherton, that they are
human beings first and sportsmen second.

      Men such as the ECB's Tim Lamb do have one good point, though. If
Zimbabwe isn't fit to host a cricket World Cup, it wasn't fit to compete in
the Commonwealth Games last summer. Nor is it a fit place for the
international community to continue to do normal business with.

      A predecessor of Tony Blair, Lord Home, used to speak fondly of a
cricket-loving uncle "who could never walk through the nave of an English
cathedral without wondering if it would take spin". This World Cup has taken
too much spin for too long.

      David Mellor is a broadcaster, international business consultant and
former Secretary of State for National Heritage.
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FinGaz

      Wage freeze plan agreed

      By Godfrey Marawanyika Senior Reporter
      1/16/03 10:32:28 AM (GMT +2)

      THE government, labour and business have drafted a protocol that, if
approved, will fix prices and wages for six months in a bid to curb
inflation, the Financial Gazette has established.

      Sources within the government-business-labour tripartite negotiating
forum (TNF) said the document, titled the Prices and Incomes Stabilisation
Protocol, was drafted last weekend at a meeting of the three partners.

      The meeting involved the Ministry of Finance, the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries and the Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe, as well as
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

      There was no immediate comment from Treasury, while business and
labour representatives said they had made an undertaking not to discuss the
proposed plan with the Press.

      Sources close to the negotiations said "key economic ministries" would
meet today to consider the draft protocol. The ministries will include
finance, agriculture, mining, labour and information.

      It was not clear yesterday why the Ministry of Information would be
involved in the discussions.

      From the ministries, the document will be passed to Cabinet, the
sources said.

      The draft Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol, a copy of which
was made available to the Financial Gazette, shows that the three partners
have agreed in principle to "restraint" on prices for all goods and services
produced wholly or substantially in Zimbabwe.

      Some of the products and services cited in the document include
mealie-meal, cooking oil, milk, sugar, bread, flour, beef, paraffin,
rentals, rates, water charges and transport fares.

      "The Tripartite Price Monitoring and Surveillance Sub-Committee will
negotiate with producers the viable prices for all basic commodities, taking
into consideration the issue of affordability," part of the document reads.

      "All such prices will then be frozen at the agreed price levels. A
general restraint on wages and salaries will be applied in both the public
and private sectors on all incomes. The restraint shall apply to all types
of employment, including full-time, part-time, contract and casual work,
allowances, payments in kind, fringe benefits and lump-sum payments."

      The three parties agreed in principle that the price freeze would be
effective for six months from the date of publication of statutory
instrument S:I 302 of 2002, which came into effect in November last year.

      The statutory instrument imposed a blanket price freeze on several
goods.

      "The duration of wage restraint shall be six months from the date of
conclusion of the collective bargaining agreements, January to June 2003,"
the document said.

      However, exemptions to the price freeze would be granted if a company
could prove that a price increase was crucial to maintaining its viability,
the draft protocol said.


      It added: "Any legitimate adjustments will therefore require the
approval of the Minister of Industry and International Trade, on
recommendation of the Tripartite Price Monitoring and Surveillance Sub
Committee of the TNF."

      According to the draft protocol, the government has to commit itself
to reducing the budget deficit to 11 percent of gross domestic product by
the end of this year from 14.1 percent and slashing inflation from the
current 175.5 percent to 96 percent by end of 2003.

      The government has also been tasked with ensuring that all foreign
currency is channelled to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, while implementing
measures that will ensure exporters' viability.

      Business should, among other things, come up with a "position charter"
to monitor and ensure price management and adopt innovative methods to
increase productivity, including unspecified "best practices".

      Labour has been tasked with drafting a programme supporting a
sustainable agrarian reform and ensuring that the interests of farm workers
are adequately protected.

      Labour is also expected to promote industrial peace and harmony,
ruling out the mass stayaways that have been used by the ZCTU as a form of
protest.

      Sources close to the negotiations said labour and business, which have
both publicly opposed a freeze on salaries and wages, had agreed in
principle to the draft protocol on condition that the government
demonstrated political will to address the economic crisis.

      "We might meet for many months at the expense of taxpayers' money but
at the end of the day, this will depend on the political implementation of
the whole programme," a source said.

      "The ministers might even come and veto this draft agreement."

      The sources said the draft Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol
would replace the social contract, which the three TNF partners have been
battling to put in place for several years.

      They said the term "social contract" was dropped because labour and
business had realised that the government was not living up to its side of
the bargain by creating a conducive economic environment.

      But analysts questioned whether the government would be able to meet
its commitments if the new draft protocol was implemented.

      Harare based economist Howard Sithole said the draft seemed to be
toned down compared to the originally proposed social contract.

      The proposed social contract, which was never signed, emphasised
respect for human and property rights.

      Sithole said: "The current document ignores the political situation in
the country and this has a serious impact on business confidence. This
contract seems to be watered down. What government has to address is how to
improve the political climate."
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FinGaz

      Police quiz Fingaz editor

      Staff Reporter
      1/16/03 10:33:29 AM (GMT +2)

      THE police yesterday quizzed Financial Gazette Editor-in-Chief Nqobile
Nyathi over two adverts published by the newspaper last year which they say
contravene sections of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

      Nyathi was summoned to Harare central police station's law and order
section where she and the Financial Gazette's lawyers, Linda Cook and Rose
Zigomo of Atherstone and Cook, were informed that the newspaper had breached
Sections 15 (1) (a) and 16 (2) (b) of POSA by publishing the adverts.

      The adverts, which were published at the end of last October, make
allegations against President Robert Mugabe in his capacity as head of
state.

      The police said the adverts contained false allegations of acts that
never happened and were therefore in contravention of the two sections of
POSA.

      Section 15 (1) (a) prohibits the publication in print or electronic
media of false information with the intention of inciting, promoting public
disorder or public violence or endangering public safety.

      Any person found guilty of the offence is liable to a fine not
exceeding $100 000 or five years in jail or both.

      Section 16 (2) (b) outlaws the publication of abusive, indecent,
obscene or false statements about the President in his personal capacity or
his office.

      The police did not indicate how they would proceed with the matter.

      Local journalists' associations yesterday condemned the police action
against the Financial Gazette, questioning their delay in expressing concern
over the October adverts.

      Zimbabwe Union of Journalists secretary-general Luke Tamborinyoka
said: "We are surprised that we are getting this kind of a new year's gift
from the government.

      "Apart from the puzzling fact that the police are only deciding to act
after four months and the fact that the freedom to receive and impart
information is enshrined in the Constitution, the police's action against
Nyathi serves to show that in Zimbabwe, Press freedom is in the cemetery."

      Independent Journalists' Association of Zimbabwe vice president
Vincent Kahiya added: "It's nothing but a shameless attempt to intimidate
journalists from doing their work and how dull of our police force not to
see that things posing a real danger to public order and safety in this
country are the hunger and disease afflicting our people and not harmless
adverts flighted four months ago."

      POSA was enacted last year amid massive opposition from civil society
and the media because of fears it would be used to silence criticism of the
government.

      The legislation has been used to haul several journalists, opposition
party members and civil society leaders before the courts.
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FinGaz

      'Green bombers' run amok in towns

      By Farai Mutsaka Senior Reporter
      1/16/03 10:35:16 AM (GMT +2)

      HARARE tuckshop owner John Muzondo recalls watching helplessly as a
group of about 20 baton-wielding young men razed to the ground what had
become the only source of livelihood for his family.

      Retrenched by a Harare confectionery manufacturer last year, the neat,
wooden tuckshop he funded with his meagre retrenchment package was the only
ray of hope for a family hard hit by Zimbabwe's economic instability and
worsening poverty.

      That is until a group of young men descended on his premises, accusing
Muzondo of flouting price controls imposed by the government on bread in
October 2001, in what it said was a bid to protect consumers from escalating
commodity prices.

      The tuckshop owner was selling bread, in short supply because of
severe wheat shortages and set at $60, at a much higher price in an attempt
to recoup his costs.

      He told the Financial Gazette: "I tried to explain to them that I had
bought the bread for $110 and there was no way I could sell it at $60. But
they wouldn't listen."

      The youths, clad in the infamous green uniform of the graduates of
Zimbabwe's national youth service programme, proceeded to confiscate his
goods before destroying Muzondo's tuckshop.

      "They wouldn't even tell me where they were taking my goods," he
recalled. "Now these boys have destroyed my only means of survival and have
taken my goods. Is this what they are trained to do? To destroy our lives?"

      Muzondo's is only one of many accusations that have been leveled
against the national service youths, derisively referred to as the "green
bombers" or "Border Gezi youths" after one of their training centres.

      The centre is named after the late ruling ZANU PF political commissar
and Minister for Gender, Youth Development and Employment Creation, Border
Gezi, the original proponent of the national service programme.

      According to the government, the initiative is supposed to
economically empower unemployed youths by training them in marketable
skills, as well as foster patriotism, discipline and appreciation of
Zimbabwean culture.

      Entrepreneurial skills such as carpentry, metal fabrication and
building are supposed to be part of the national service scheme.

      However, a youth who went through the programme and is now studying at
Seke Teachers' College in Chitungwiza this week told the Financial Gazette
that military training, denouncement of the opposition and ruling party
slogan chanting took up most of the training time.

      The trainee teacher, who cannot be named for fear of retribution,
said: "We were trained in weapon handling and went through military drills
so that we could be ready to defend the country.

      "Most of the time we were being taught politics, denouncing the MDC
(the opposition Movement for Democratic Change) and extolling the virtues of
ZANU PF.

      "We were also told clearly that when we graduated, part of our job
would be to discipline the urban folks who supported the MDC. Most of the
youth come out of the training heavily indoctrinated."

      Opposition party officials and human rights non-governmental
organisations say the politicisation of the youth training programme has
resulted in graduates of the scheme being implicated in political violence.

      They are said to have played a major role in campaigning for the
ruling ZANU PF in the run up to last March's presidential election and are
accused of intimidating members and perceived supporters of the MDC.

      Tamuka Dhebe, a 65-year-old Mabvuku resident, is one of the many
innocent victims of the national service youths. He told the Financial
Gazette that he was recently accosted and assaulted by the youths on his way
home from a funeral.

      "They accused me of coming from an MDC meeting and they started
punching and kicking me, accusing me of all sorts of things," he recalled.

      "After the beating, they then accompanied me to my home saying they
wanted to see whether I really lived there. You should run if you see them
at night. They move in groups and they have become more dangerous than the
criminals who prowl our streets at night."

      Lately, the youths have been accused of looting from retailers and
tuckshop owners under the guise of enforcing government fixed prices, which
the police say they have no authority to do.

      Early this month, the youth militia clashed with police officers
manning a food queue in Chitungwiza because they wanted to take over crowd
control.

      Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena this week denied
that his organisation had given the youth militia police powers.

      He said: "As an organisation, we derive our powers from the
constitution and it does not indicate that we give power to anyone expect
members of the police constabulary. So we have not given powers to anyone.

      "Sometimes, it is the shop owners who invite these people to help them
maintain law and order and we don't have any problems with that."

      But most retailers who have come up against the youth militia say
their activities have little to do with law and order and are more concerned
with profiting from Zimbabwe's food and basic commodity shortages.

      In Mutare, where border jumping is rife, the youths have allegedly
found a ready market for looted basic commodities in Mozambique.

      "They have become a nuisance," said Member of Parliament for Mutare
North Giles Mutsekwa.

      "What they do is harass everybody queuing for commodities so that they
get first preference and when they get these goods, they don't put them in
their homes because these people don't stay in homes at all. The scarce
commodity finds its way into Mozambique or the black market."

      Reports that graduates of the national service initiative are being
given preferential access to tertiary education institutions and civil
service jobs have raised fears that the problems associated with the
programme will worsen in future.

      Analysts said the lack of employment in Zimbabwe, where the rate of
joblessness is estimated at over 70 percent, would force large numbers of
school leavers to join the programme hoping to be guaranteed work on
graduation.

      Zimbabwe National Students' Union spokesman Phillip Pasirayi said the
move to flood colleges with militias would ultimately destroy student
activism.

      "Most of these militias swarming our colleges are intellectually
bankrupt," he said. "However it is also possible that soon a number of
school leavers will be forced by circumstances to attend this programme so
that they can get places at colleges.

      "They (ZANU PF) want to create a whole generation that thinks in the
same way as (President Robert) Mugabe. But that would be disastrous."

      Mutsekwa, who is also the MDC shadow defense minister, added: "This is
sheer waste of money, particularly when the country is starving.

      "These youths are tarnishing the image of the defense forces because
at times they are allowed to wear police or army regalia. What any sensible
government would do is disband the whole programme and let our children live
normal lives."
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FinGaz

      Doctors threaten fresh strike as govt reneges on promise

      Staff Reporter
      1/16/03 10:34:15 AM (GMT +2)

      ZIMBABWE'S doctors yesterday warned they would down tools next week to
press the government to honour huge salary hikes it promised them and other
health professionals last year.

      Laboratory technicians, radiographers, physiotherapist, nurses and
other health professionals are expected to join the industrial action to
force the government to pay a promised 80 percent salary hike on a new and
higher salary scale.

      The health workers said the government had last year specifically
pledged to pay the salary increases at the new salary scale, to which all
hospital workers were upgraded to following industrial action in 2002.

      Hospital Doctors' Association (HAD) head Leo Katsadzira said: ""If
they don't rectify the problem, then we will go on strike.

      "We won't negotiate because we cannot negotiate with people who would
have cheated us. They didn't even have the courtesy of telling us that's
what they were doing."

      Katsadzira said the government had promised to combine a doctor's
normal basic pay of $88 000 with an on-call allowance of $108 000 so that
the 80 percent salary hike would be paid on a new and higher basic pay of
$196 000.

      Katsadzira alleged the government had backtracked on the promise and
now wanted to pay the increase on the normal $88 000 basic salary in order
to save money.

      He said his association had twice written to the government requesting
for negotiations to clear the issue but had not been replied to leaving,
doctors with no option but to resort to industrial action.

      The association groups junior doctors, who virtually run Zimbabwe's
crumbling hospitals.

      Although senior doctors do work at the public hospitals, they are said
to spend most of their time at their private clinics and surgeries. As a
result, strikes called by the HDA have in the past crippled the public
health delivery system, the only source of health care for most Zimbabweans.

      Representatives of other health workers could not be reached for
comment on the matter yesterday.

      Nurses and health technicians interviewed by this newspaper however
confirmed they were planning to down tools because the government had walked
out of deal to award the 80 percent salary increase on a revised and higher
salary scale.

      A physiotherapist with Zimbabwe's biggest referral health center,
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, said: "Parirenyatwa promised to upgrade us
but we understand they have not done that.

      "So they will calculate the 80 percent based on our old salary without
upgrading us. We are basically waiting for our pay slips and then we will
definitely take action."

      Health Minister David Parirenyatwa denied that requests from the HDA
for a meeting with him or his officials had been ignored, saying he
regularly met with the association's leaders.

      But Parirenyatwa, himself a medical doctor, confirmed there was a
standoff with health personnel over the new salary structure.

      He said: "There is a slight misunderstanding but it will be solved
amicably. We are not dealing with doctors alone but the whole health
sector."

      Strikes for better working conditions and salaries have become routine
in the country's health sector, which is on the brink of collapse due to
years of mismanagement and under funding.

      Besides a demoralised workforce, patients also have to contend with
acute shortages of essential drugs at most state hospitals. Severe food
shortages threatening eight million Zimbabweans have also affected
hospitals.

      Cash-strapped and battling to contain worsening food and fuel
shortages, the government has said it wants salaries of all Zimbabwe's
workers to be frozen for six months, which analysts say would suit the
government but which labour has hinted it is opposed to.
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FinGaz

      New rules see forex inflows plunge 70%

      By Godfrey Marawanyika Senior Reporter
      1/16/03 10:36:48 AM (GMT +2)

      WEEKLY foreign currency inflows into Zimbabwe's banking sector have
dropped at least 70 percent from US$6 million since the announcement of
tough exchange control measures aimed at curbing hard cash leakages,
according to statistics from the central bank.

      Figures obtained this week from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's
economic research division show that in the week ending November 8 2002, the
week before the announcement by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa of new
foreign exchange restrictions, hard currency inflows of US$6 million were
recorded by the banking sector.

      The inflows had declined from US$10.3 million at the beginning of last
November.

      After Murerwa announced that exporters would now be required to remit
50 percent of their foreign earnings to the central bank and the remainder
would also be held by the Reserve Bank on their behalf, inflows fell to
US$2.3 million in the week to December 6.

      Before the new policy, exporters had to remit 40 percent of forex
earnings to the Reserve Bank and could trade the remainder on the parallel
market for hard cash, where most of Zimbabwe's foreign currency transactions
are conducted.

      To curb the parallel market, the government also announced in November
that bureaux de change would shut down at the end of the month.

      However, central bank statistics show that despite the closure of the
bureaus and the surrender of all export earnings to the Reserve Bank,
official inflows steadily declined to US$1.3 million on December 13 and to
US$0.5 million on December 27, which was insufficient to cover any imports.

      "Figures capture official inflows only," the central bank's economic
research department said in an internal report made available to the
Financial Gazette.

      "Prior to centralisation of foreign exchange transactions at the
central bank in November 2002, estimates were that around 80 percent of
foreign exchange transactions were taking place on the parallel market."

      But analysts this week said it was clear from the Reserve Bank's own
statistics that the new regulations had failed to stamp out the parallel
market. Recent figures show that the improvement in inflows has been slight
since the end of December, with US$1.6 million realised in the seven days to
January 7.

      The analysts said parallel market exchange rates were more than 20
times the government-fixed $55 to US$1, which could account for the
reluctance by forex holders to trade on the official market.

      The rate for the American greenback reached $2 000 against the
Zimbabwe dollar in its heyday last year and is now trading at around $1 500.

      Banking sources estimate that before the new exchange control measures
came into effect, foreign currency account (FCA) holders cleaned out close
to US$30 million from their banks because they did not want to lose out
through the fixed exchange rate.

      "Private businesses cleaned out their FCAs before new measures were
implemented, denying the state about US$30 million in foreign exchange
inflows," a foreign exchange dealer told the Financial Gazette.

      The private sector has submitted to the government proposals for the
devaluation to $800 to US$1 of the exchange rate that is applied to the 50
percent of exporters' earnings that is held on their behalf by the central
bank.

      This half of the exporters' proceeds is supposed to be used by
companies within 60 says to meet their import and other needs.

      However, commentators said devaluing the Zimbabwe dollar on its own
would not resolve the country's foreign currency crisis.

      They said a comprehensive economic recovery programme that would
address macroeconomic instability, declining exports and the withdrawal of
balance of payments support by international organisations was necessary.

      Zimbabwean exporters, like other local companies, have been hard hit
by escalating inflation, which rose to an all time high of 175.5 percent in
November and is expected to shoot up to 500 percent before the end of the
year.

      The country's harsh operating environment has pushed up their
operating costs, making their products less competitive on international
markets.

      This has contributed to declining forex inflows to the banking sector,
which were already falling even before the announcement of the new exchange
control measures.

      According to figures from the Reserve Bank, the inflows did not even
rise significantly during the tobacco marketing season, which normally
boosts Zimbabwe's hard cash earnings.

      The figures show that the highest inflows in a week during the tobacco
season were US$18.5 million in the week ending September 27, only US$3
million more than the US$15 million received in the week to June 28.

      The inflows began declining in the week ending October 25, the week
before the tobacco auction floors closed, when only US$9.2 million was
realised, before picking up briefly at the beginning of November, when
US$10.3 million was received.

      "The country's overall export performance remains weak, with exports
estimated to have contracted by 10.8 percent in 2002," Reserve Bank governor
Leonard Tsumba said in response to question from the Financial Gazette.

      "Exporting sectors have been adversely affected by rising production
costs, cash flow difficulties, high inflation and unavailability of raw
materials," he added.

      The central bank governor said the difficulties faced by exporters had
been coupled with the lack of international donor support, which had
adversely affected Zimbabwe's balance of payments position.

      Multilateral institutions have withdrawn balance of payments support
in the past three years because of the government's fiscal policies and its
controversial land reform programme.

      "Against this background, foreign exchange reserves have declined to
unsustainably low levels," Tsumba said. "This has adversely affected the
country's capacity to procure critical imports such as drugs, fuel,
electricity and raw materials."

      He said because of declining inflows, Zimbabwe had enough forex "for a
limited number of months of continuous importation," although analysts said
this might be an overestimation.

      Foreign exchange dealers warned that if inflows continued to dwindle,
it would become even more difficult to stamp out the parallel market, where
they said rates were overvalued because of severe shortages on the official
market.

      They said continued depreciation on the parallel market could force
out of business a large number of companies that rely on the market for hard
cash and which are already struggling because of Zimbabwe's worst economic
crisis in 22 years.

      A forex dealer said: "The direct opposite of what (the government)
sought to achieve is happening. It's only a matter of time before the
government admits that they have failed in their policies."
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FinGaz

      Govt eyes 45 new farms in fresh wave of designations

      Staff Reporter
      1/16/03 10:38:29 AM (GMT +2)

      ABOUT 45 new commercial farms have been given notice to cease
operating in the past 10 days despite assurances by the government that the
designation stage of its fast-track land reform programme was complete, the
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said this week.

      CFU president Colin Cloete said of the 45 farms served with eviction
notices under Section 8 of the Land Acquisition Act, only up to four were
properties that had previously been listed for compulsory acquisition and
the rest were new additions.

      Section 8 notices give farmers whose land is being taken over for
resettlement 90 days to cease production and vacate their properties.

      Cloete told the Financial Gazette: "Another 45 farms, especially in
the Rutengwe area, have been gazetted for acquisition in the last 10 days.
The situation is terrible."

      Agriculture Minister Joseph Made last week said his ministry, which
has designated at least 90 percent of Zimbabwe's commercial farms for
compulsory acquisition, was now concentrating on demarcating land already
gazetted and ensuring productivity on farms appropriated for resettlement.

      However, farmers' organisations this week said there was little
farming activity on the land allocated to resettled farmers, many of who do
not have the resources to plant, while a large number of the few remaining
commercial producers had scaled down operations.

      The land resettlement programme last year combined with drought to
slash food production in Zimbabwe by 60 percent.

      Resettled farmers' lack of resources, shortages of farming inputs and
another anticipated drought are expected to worsen the country's food
security situation this year and push up the number of Zimbabweans in need
of emergency food aid.

      United Nations' agencies in 2002 estimated that close to seven million
people were facing starvation in Zimbabwe, but recent government statistics
have put the number at eight million.

      David Connell, an official with another farmers' group, Justice for
Agriculture, said: "Farm business is almost a non-starter because there is
hardly anyone doing anything on their properties. You can't talk about it.
Agriculture is not business anymore.

      "We have sort of lost that sector from a business point of view.
People are no longer selling farms and they are not farming because of the
uncertainty. It's actually a hassle going through that thing. We are no
longer following the situation on the ground although I have heard some
reports of incidents taking place on farms."

      He said many people allocated farms under the A2 or commercial farming
phase of the land reform programme had not taken up the land.

      "The A1 model is doing better," he said. 'For A2, I think 95 percent
of those allocated land are absentee. In a way, you can't blame them. The
areas are remote and, discounting the fuel problems, they have no cars.

      "Don't even talk about the drought because under A2, there was no crop
at all so drought doesn't come in."
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FinGaz

      Fresh security threats to cricket World Cup

      Staff Reporter
      1/16/03 10:40:15 AM (GMT +2)

      THE National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) yesterday said it planned
to hold mass protests next month to coincide with the cricket World Cup
matches scheduled for Zimbabwe.

      NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku said the protests would press for a new
constitution and government action on human rights abuses.

      Madhuku, whose organisation is comprised of several civil society
groups, however said the mass action was not aimed at protesting the holding
of cricket World Cup matches in Zimbabwe.

      He told the Financial Gazette: "We have our own protest programme
against (President Robert) Mugabe and the crisis in the country. Our
protests will go ahead before, during and after cricket. Waiting for cricket
is to assume that we have no crisis in the country at the moment.

      "We are not taking account of the cricket games but some of our
protests will definitely coincide with cricket and we are not going to
shelve our programme because there is cricket. We have been holding these
demonstrations for some time now. Our programme was in place before cricket
so it would be wrong to say we are targeting cricket."

      Zimbabwe is co-hosting the cricket World Cup tournament with
neighbours South Africa and Kenya and six of the 54 games are supposed to be
played in Harare and Bulawayo.

      Britain and Australia, which dispute Mugabe's March 2002 presidential
election victory, have put pressure on their teams to boycott the
tournament, while international human rights groups have expressed concern
at the country's security situation.

      Although a technical team that visited the country last year reported
that there was no serious security threat to the matches scheduled for
Zimbabwe, the International Cricket Council continues to monitor the
situation.

      The police have already indicated that they have beefed up security to
ensure the safety of players and officials.

      Police spokesman Andrew Phiri yesterday said the security forces were
ready to deal with any "illegal demonstrations".

      "Anybody intending to hold a demonstration should apply to the police
and if they are successful, they will be given full protection," he said.
"However, those who hold illegal demonstrations will be dealt with
thoroughly. We are there to ensure law and order exists."

      Meanwhile, a group calling itself "Zvakwana" (Enough) briefly staged a
demonstration in central Harare yesterday but quickly abandoned the protest
when its members encountered armed police.

      In an anonymous statement to the Press, the group said the lunch hour
demonstration was part of its campaign to mobilise residents of Harare's
high-density suburbs to undertake noisy protests in the city.

      The group however did not indicate what it was protesting against.

      Phiri said he was not aware of the group and its intentions but police
would investigate it.



      lCricket World Cup organisers said yesterday they were ready to handle
any protests against matches in Zimbabwe, but the country's main opposition
party denied reports it was plotting to disrupt them, Reuters reports.

      Patrick Ronan, head of security for the tournament, said International
Cricket Council officials were monitoring on a daily basis the security
situation in Zimbabwe and in Kenya, where matches are also due to take
place.

      England's cricket chiefs said on Tuesday their team would travel to
Zimbabwe in defiance of British government pressure to boycott the match in
protest at the policies of President Mugabe.

      Mugabe's government has accused the opposition of planning protests to
disrupt matches.

      "There have been threatened demonstrations ... We don't know what form
the protests would take (but) there are procedures in place in case of that
eventuality," Ronan said in South Africa, which is hosting Africa's first
cricket World Cup.

      "From a safety and security perspective - politics apart - Zimbabwe
has the capacity to secure the players and officials. The Cricket World Cup
monitors it on a daily basis. We do have contingency plans," he said, adding
that matches would be played in South Africa if either Zimbabwe or Kenya
posed problems.

      Zimbabwe is to host six of the tournament's 54 matches. Two are due to
take place in Kenya, which is still awaiting a decision after a two-day
security inspection this week.

      "The games are still being hosted there currently, unless there is a
sudden deterioration there, or we receive some intelligence (of a threat),"
Ronan said.

      Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
rejected government allegations it planned to disrupt the matches, but
suggested there may be demonstrations.

      "I am not aware of the MDC as a party having ideas to disrupt ...
those matches," MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi told South African
television.

      "But I am aware of a number of very angry Zimbabweans in Harare and
Bulawayo wanting to send a very clear message to the cricketers that they
can not call it sporting business as usual with a regime that is into
violating the rights of its people."

      He called English cricket chiefs' decision to go ahead with the match
in Zimbabwe "regrettable".

      "It is the kind of decision that is going to be abused by Mugabe. It
is the kind of decision that I'm afraid will see more oppression being
directed at ordinary Zimbabweans."

      Ronan said Zimbabwean police were working well with the ICC to ensure
security during matches, and that the same stringent security regulations
that will be applied at South African stadiums should be enforced in
Zimbabwe and Kenya.

      South African stadiums have been equipped with computerised security
centres and digital closed circuit television to react rapidly to any
trouble. Alcohol sales will be limited and halted for a while after meal
breaks to reduce drunkenness.

      He said special barriers would prevent pitch invasions during matches,
and plain clothes "spotters" would sit among the crowd to nip any trouble in
the bud - especially in high risk matches such as India-Pakistan, which has
in the past been problematic due to political tensions between the Asian
nations.

      "It's going to be people-friendly but secure. We want people to enjoy
themselves within the law," he said.
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FinGaz

      Two more ZANU PF MPs lose their seats

      Staff Reporter
      1/16/03 10:40:52 AM (GMT +2)

      THE High Court has nullified the election of ZANU PF's Eleck Mkandla
and Jaison Machaya as members of parliament for Gokwe North and Gokwe South
respectively, after ruling that the 2000 parliamentary polls held in the two
areas were not fair.

      Justice Rita Makarau, who heard the two election petitions from
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) losing candidates, said
there was overwhelming evidence that the two ZANU PF members of parliament
depended heavily on corrupt acts to win the polls.

      The petitioner in the Gokwe North case was Sibangani Mlandu while
Lameck Mulambi opposed the outcome of the Gokwe South poll.

      Justice Makarau said according to evidence presented to the court,
widespread violence in the two parts of Gokwe made a fair election
impossible.

      "Uncontroverted and reliable evidence has been led from not less than
10 villagers in the constituency that they were subjected to intimidation
and violence on account of their membership of the MDC during the run up to
the election," she said in her ruling in the Gokwe North case.

      "Properties were destroyed and burnt as part of the intimidation. In
my view, the evidence before me can only lead to the conclusion that free
franchise was affected in the constituency and therefore corrupt practices
were committed in the election of the respondent," she added.

      According to witnesses who testified in the two cases, ZANU PF
candidates and their supporters terrorised villagers suspected of
sympathising with the MDC, leading to several opposition party polling
agents not undertaking their duties because they were intimidated.

      The MDC is challenging the election results of over 30 constituencies
won by ZANU PF in 2000, while the ruling party is challenging the results of
about six constituencies won by the MDC.

      The nullification of the Gokwe election results brings to seven the
total number of ZANU PF members of parliament who have lost their seats
because of the petitions.

      All the results were nullified mainly because of pre-election violence
allegedly perpetrated by ZANU PF supporters.

      Advocate Happias Zhou instructed by Lewis Uriri of Honey &
Blanckenberg represented the two MDC petitioners.
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FinGaz

Comment

      Zimbabwe's options


      1/16/03 9:21:11 AM (GMT +2)

      REPORTS of a ZANU PF-Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
power-sharing plan have resurfaced at a time Zimbabwe is gearing up for a
deepening crisis with no easy solution in sight.

      Both parties have distanced themselves from the deal, news of which
this newspaper first carried last October and which is said to involve the
creation of a transitional government that will prepare for fresh elections.

      Allegedly spearheaded by South Africa and Britain, which have both
denied knowledge of it, the plan is supposed to stem Zimbabwe's political
and economic haemorrhaging.

      Whatever lies behind reports of this so-called secret deal, the truth
is that a compromise solution that has the seal of approval of the country's
two main political parties and the backing of the international community is
one of the few options left to Zimbabwe to avert economic meltdown.

      As adamant as ZANU PF is that Zimbabwe can ride out its isolation from
the rest of the civilised world, it has become patently clear that the
nation is paying a heavy price for the international community's refusal to
recognise President Robert Mugabe's government.

      Zimbabwe has become a pariah nation that few will lend money to or
invest in, with disastrous consequences for the country's balance of
payments position and already battered economy.

      Foreign currency inflows have plummeted to as low as US$1.6 million a
week, making it almost impossible for Zimbabwe to import fuel or the
emergency food aid required by close to eight million people.

      Inflation has reached 175.5 percent and could shoot up to 500 percent
before the end of the year, threatening more businesses and thousands of
jobs.

      While there is certainly a case to be made for homegrown solutions,
the painful reality is that Zimbabwe does not have the resources to pull
itself out of the mess it finds itself in and cannot afford to entrench
itself further while vainly trying to prove to the rest of the world that it
can muddle through on its own.

      If there is a possibility that ZANU PF and the MDC can put aside their
bitter differences for the good of the nation, and we believe there is such
a possibility, then this option should be explored fully, whatever form it
takes.

      Hopefully, once Zimbabwe demonstrates that it is willing to put its
house in order, global assistance to help the nation back on its feet will
not be far behind.

      The consequences of opting for the country's other choices, a violent
transition or the slow but inevitable descent into the abyss that will
result from pursuing the same disastrous policies responsible for the
present crisis, are unpalatable for most Zimbabweans.

      With millions of people left with very little to lose because of the
heart-rending poverty worsened by the economic crisis, a violent resolution
cannot be ruled out and cannot be far off.

      The longer Zimbabwe is allowed to bleed, the more profound will be the
inevitable fallout for the country itself and its neighbours in the region.
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FinGaz

Letters

      Zim's time for reality check


      1/16/03 9:12:44 AM (GMT +2)

      EDITOR - While our aged President Robert Mugabe has been quick to
rubbish the talk of his "exit plan", now could be the time for a reality
check for the long-suffering Zimbabwean populace.

      It is as clear as the fact that we queue for every basic commodity
that Mugabe is not considering making his long-overdue exit from the highest
office in the land. Shall we all wait until God intervenes?

      But the Almighty only helps those who help themselves. Our docility
has thus been our greatest undoing.

      We have nothing to lose anymore except further losses of innocent
lives. What's there to fear except fear itself?

      Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, our President has bluntly
told us that he won't quit and knowing the man, he really means it. And to
only think that next month he will be 79! Wait for another six years?

      It's just too bad the Old Man had to cut short his holiday in the Far
East probably fearing the ghost that haunted his nephew Leo out of the
Zimbabwe Football Association leadership would turn on him. How I wish we
had the likes of Vincent Pamire in ZANU PF!

      You don't have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to notice that
there are no more straws to clutch at that may save us from sinking in this
economic debris. You only don't see it for looking that things are
irreversibly getting worse by the day.

      If you think what's happening in our Zimbabwe is a dream - or rather a
nightmare - give yourself a good smack on the face and open your eyes. Open
those eyes, no matter how hungry you are, and see.

      Even a five-year-old kid can see Tony Blair has nothing to do with our
suffering. We know who the man is, don't we?

      Let us let the Old Man know that we are not happy with the way we are
surviving.

      After all, doesn't Mugabe envy former Zambian president Kenneth
Kaunda, who received an honour for statesmanship from - of all people - a
leader of the opposition party?

      Now is the time, comrades. Open your eyes!


      Kwese Kufa,

      Harare.
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FinGaz

      And now to the notebook . . . .A tuk-tuk for every Zimbabwean


      1/16/03 9:18:32 AM (GMT +2)

      Readers will recall President Robert Mugabe telling delegates to his
ZANU PF party's people's conference last December that he was going to
personally intervene to resolve Zimbabwe's fuel crisis.

      Mukanya cannot vouch for this information, but an informant tells him
Uncle Bob was actually not holidaying in Thailand but travelled there on
business to try and end the country's fuel crisis.

      To be more specific, the well-placed source says Uncle Bob was in
Bangkok to place an order for five million of those noisy three-wheeled
taxis, known to the Thais as tuk-tuks.

      The tuk-tuk, which many Thais use to travel to work, is said to
consume less fuel and therefore would be very useful to a country like
Zimbabwe, which is slowly grinding to a halt because it has no fuel.

      By the way, Uncle Bob is said to own a tuk-tuk already, which was
given to him when he visited Thailand two years ago. We have yet to see Bob
cruising around Harare in the three-wheeled vehicle.


      Dr Made does it again

      Mukanya has nothing against Comrade Doctor Joseph Made, but the man's
alleged buffoonery at the Ministry of Agriculture is just too difficult to
ignore.

      It emerges that despite spending many years at university reading
agriculture, the man still cannot tell the difference between rotten maize
and grain that is fit for human consumption.

      Readers will recall television images of a jovial Made clapping hands
for 3 000 tonnes of maize donated to Zimbabwe by Tanzania.

      Unfortunately, it turns out the gift was a dud, as the Americans would
say.

      Grain Marketing Board (GMB) officials in Bulawayo have refused to
distribute the grain because it is not fit for human consumption.

      But couldn't Made himself see the maize was rotten? Surely even a
six-year-old could have noticed this.

      And to make matters worse, we hear the maize could spread the feared
larger grain borer, a deadly pest that feeds on dried maize and which
experts say can cause up to a 40 percent loss of crops between three and six
months.

      One wonders why the GMB officials were not invited to inspect the
maize in the first place to ensure that it was up to scratch.

      Readers might remember a good Samaritan responding to Mukanya's query
about which university awarded Made his doctorate. It turned out that he was
awarded a BSc (1980), MSc (1981) and a PhD (1982) from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in the United States of America.

      Well, here is what another reader had to say: "It's either Made is
extremely intelligent or there is something wrong with the dates he acquired
his degrees: 1980 (BSc), 1981 (MSc) and 1982 (PhD).

      "The agricultural policy being advocated by Made does not indicate in
any sane way that he passed through an agricultural learning programme. With
our agricultural policies defined by people like Made, who needs droughts?"

      Mukanya is afraid the Comrade Doctor is not doing much to dissuade us
from agreeing with these sentiments.


      Old Mzee is not the man

      What exactly is wrong with Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries'
president Anthony Mandiwanza and the entire leadership of Zimbabwe's
business community?

      They meet acting President Simon Muzenda and give him their proposals
on how to make Zimbo work again and they come away happily telling us they
have presented their proposals to the government.

      For God's sake, don't Mandiwanza and company know that they could meet
the two vice presidents and the entire Cabinet, but if Uncle Bob is not
among them, they still wouldn't have met the government of Zimbabwe?
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      The Star - opinion

      Time to nudge Mugabe towards the precipice
      January 16, 2003

        By Max du Preez

      Robert Mugabe may not exactly be on his way out in the next few
months. But the tide is definitely turning against him: in his own party,
among his own people, among his neighbours and among his former apologists
in South Africa. This brings about the trickiest and most testing time for
South Africa's Zimbabwe policy. Constructive engagement or not, very few
people remain who think that Mugabe is good for his country or the region.
How can South Africa help to gently push Mugabe closer to the precipice?

      A friend of mine quite close to the ANC government called to say my
criticism of South Africa's Zimbabwe policy in last week's column was
"uninformed and superficial". It is all about Nepad, he said. President
Mbeki is completely focussed on Nepad as the only hope for the continent's
revival, he said.

      My critical friend's analysis goes something like this: the South
African president and his advisers know that the only way that Nepad was
going to work, was to get the Western democracies as Africa's main partner.
We're talking about white countries, most with an odious colonialist past.
Several African regimes are looking for excuses to criticise or even
undermine Nepad, and the most obvious target would be to restate the popular
notion that the West is the enemy of Africa; that all white people are
racists. This has been Mugabe and Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi's favourite
statement the last few years.

      So, my friend's argument goes, Mbeki could not afford to offend
Mugabe, a superb strategist because that would have given him the opening to
brand Mbeki as "soft on whites" and a "stooge of the West", which would have
been the kiss of death for Nepad, especially because countries such as
Namibia, Tanzania and Malawi would probably have bought into Mugabe's
argument. (Zimbabwean information minister Jonathan Moyo has already warned
Africans that South Africa isn't fit to lead the African renaissance.)

      Mbeki's strategy, my friend tells me, was to rather get all African
states bound into Nepad first, and only then crack the whip on rogue states.

      Well, not an argument that one can summarily shoot down. I would argue
that Nepad's biggest problem was to boost the West's enthusiasm so it would
reach deeper into its pockets for African development projects. Southern
Africa's, especially Mbeki's, praise-by-faint-condemnation policy towards
Mugabe has led to a rather lukewarm response to Nepad.

      If Zimbabwe, and even two or three other states, distanced themselves
from Nepad because of criticism of their regimes, Britain, Germany, France,
the United States and Canada would have whipped out the fat chequebooks for
Nepad much faster in appreciation. A smaller Nepad membership with real
development is preferable to a big one where little is happening.

      But my main concern with my friend's kind of thinking is that it is
too dangerously Machiavellian. Not even a noble dream such as Nepad is worth
compromising our nation's sense of morality or South Africa's prestige as a
decent and democratic society. And, of course, it would be a serious
gamble - there is absolutely no guarantee that even a fully developed Nepad
structure could have succeeded in roping in Mugabe. In the time leading up
to that point Mugabe would have been left unhindered to destroy his nation's
future even further.

      My gut feeling is that a man of Mugabe's inclinations could eventually
be persuaded to take all his millions and settle in luxury somewhere. He
would not be the first African dictator to do that. And he must know that it
would be very dangerous for him to try and live in Zimbabwe once he is not
in power any more.

      Last year I wrote that the best strategy was for SADC leaders to
approach Mugabe and his top generals and cabinet members with an offer of
resettlement elsewhere.

      South Africa should promote this process by a carrot and stick
approach. An exit package should be in place and he should be made aware of
it. Even if our Zimbabwe policy could be regarded as a sound one, it should
now be changed.
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Business Day

SA urged to foot the bill for cattle vaccination

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Agriculture Correspondent

GOVERNMENT has been asked to pay millions of rands for vaccines to rid
Zimbabwe of footand-mouth disease, which is putting the entire region's
cattle industry at risk.

The SA Meat Industry Company (Samic) has urged government to provide the
vaccines, at an estimated cost of between R14m and R25m, to Zimbabwe, which
does not have the foreign exchange to pay for the vaccines.

The call comes after a new outbreak of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth
disease in northeastern Botswana, which has led to a ban on all exports of
meat, dairy products and hides from that country. Foot and mouth is believed
to have spread to Botswana by infected Zimbabwean cattle.

Stuart Hargreaves, the principal director of livestock and veterinary
services in Zimbabwe's agricultural ministry, said he had approached the
Southern African Development Community twice last year, asking it to pay for
2,3million doses of the vaccine.

"If we do not sort out the primary problem in Zimbabwe then we will continue
to be a threat to the region," he warned.

He said there was no foreign exchange with which to buy the vaccines, and
fuel shortages were hampering his department's work in controlling the
scourge.

SA became free of foot-andmouth disease again only in June last year after
an outbreak in 2000 resulted in the slaughter of 7000 animals and the
vaccination of 250000 more. A ban on meat exports from SA lost the country
R1bn in export revenue, according to Samic.

Samic CEO Manie Booysen said the only way to protect the SA meat industry
from another devastating outbreak was "to go into Zimbabwe and do the
vaccinations there".

"It cost the government millions of rands to have its diseasefree status
reinstated last year. Putting more people on the borders to clean and
inspect livestock is very costly."
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The Star

      Tsvangirai insists he discussed Mugabe exit
      January 16, 2003

      By Brian Latham

      Harare - Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has confirmed that he had discussed President Robert Mugabe's
departure with a go-between sent by the Zanu-PF.

      Tsvangirai said yesterday he had information that Mugabe had announced
to his family that they had to get ready for life after his rule.

      The opposition leader contradicted denials made by Zanu-PF leaders,
who claimed Mugabe's resignation was a British hoax aimed at installing an
MDC government in the troubled country.

      Tsvangirai said: "Early last month Colonel Lionel Dyck came to see me,
purporting to be carrying a message from (Zanu-PF strongman) Emmerson
Mnangagwa and (defence commander) General Vitalis Zvinavashe.

      "He stated that he was a messenger of the two senior Zanu-PF politburo
members. The two wanted to hear my views on the way forward now that Robert
Mugabe had, in Dyck's words, long indicated that he wanted to retire."

      Dyck, a retired Zimbabwe army colonel, owns Minetech, a landmine
lifting company working mainly for the United Nations in Macedonia, Lebanon,
Bosnia and Cambodia.

      Tsvangirai slated Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party, saying the collapse of
the regime would be dictated by the economy.
      In a move that seemingly indicates pressure from within the MDC,
Tsvangirai recanted statements about guarantees for the Zimbabwean
president.

      "We will not be party to any political arrangement that seeks to
sanitise Mugabe's violent illegitimacy, and that includes Mugabe's
retirement plans and the so-called government of national unity," he said.

      While diplomatic insiders say the plan sent to Tsvangirai had the full
support of Britain and South Africa, other Western powers had advised the
MDC to let economics dictate the outcome. - Independent Foreign Service
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ABC Radio Australia

This is a transcript of AM broadcast at 08:00 AEST on local radio.

Zimbabwe opposition condemns cricketers

AM - Thursday, January  16, 2003 8:09

LINDA MOTTRAM: There is new pressure on Australia's cricketers this morning
over the World Cup, and it's coming from within Zimbabwe. Opposition
activists in the country are warning that they will demonstrate by the
thousand if the Australians go ahead with the games.

The youth league of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change says that
cricketers are betraying the people of Zimbabwe by agreeing to take part in
the matches there.

And the Mayor of the capital, Harare, says the safety of visiting teams
cannot be guaranteed.

Africa correspondent Sally Sara reports.

SALLY SARA: It's less than a month to go before the captains will walk out
into the middle, and the World Cup cricket matches will begin in Zimbabwe,
but if some demonstrators have their way that will never happen.

Some Zimbabwean activists are getting ready to use the cricket World Cup as
a chance to voice their anger against the government of President Robert
Mugabe.

The Mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri who was arrested a week ago for
addressing a residents' meeting says police are using heavy-handed
approaches to maintain order. Mr. Mudzuri says the safety of players and
officials can't be guaranteed.

ELIAS MUDZURI: People are hungry. Anything can happen, and I don't want to
guarantee anything. The people are agitated, the people are not happy. There
are too many wrong things, and I am saying there is too much force. People
are being arrested illegally. It can happen to anybody. I'm trying to talk
loud that there are serious problems. The rule of law is being applied
selectively, brute force.

SALLY SARA: The United Nations World Food Program estimates that more than
50% of the population is at risk of starvation. The political volatility
that goes with the hunger is particularly strong in Harare.

The Australian cricket side is scheduled to play in the southern city of
Bulawayo, rather than the capital. But opposition activists say they will
still rally at the game to protest against President Mugabe.

Nelson Chamisa, youth leader of the Opposition Movement for Democratic
Change says the demonstrations won't be violent, but he says thousands of
young people want to use the opportunity to voice their frustrations. He
says Zimbabweans feel betrayed by the fact that international cricket teams
have agreed to play their matches in Zimbabwe.

NELSON CHAMISA: We are going to go where the game is going to be held, in
the cities, we're going to be demonstrating in the cities in our thousands.
What you must know at this juncture is that we are going to make
demonstrations, and the mood out there is that we're [Inaudible] the
international community what they have done - we are going to demonstrate.

SALLY SARA: The World Cup officials are confident that the situation won't
get out of hand. The England and Wales cricket Board has announced that it
will go ahead with its match against Zimbabwe in Harare. Executive Director
of the World Cup, Dr. Ali Bacher says it's time to get on with preparations
for the competition.

ALI BACHER: It's been a cricketing decision. I mean, Zimbabwe cricket is a
full member of the International Cricket Council, and all the member
countries are committed to spreading the game as far and wide as possible,
and certainly from a South African point of view, we've always been of the
opinion that by hosting World Cup cricket in Zimbabwe and Kenya, we will
help to spread the game into Africa which is very important from our point
of view.

SALLY SARA: Sport and politics are already simmering together. Like it or
not, the cricket World Cup is already spilling into controversy.

This is Sally Sara in Johannesburg for AM.
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