• Govt flouts own laws
• Don't legalise Made's failures, farmers appeal
• 'Mugabe had pledged not to arrest journos'
• Mpofu/Mandaza in war of words over land
• Opposition sees terror ahead of Gutu North poll
• Clergy lay groundwork for resumption of talks
• UN probe sought
• Zimbabwe sinks into state of anarchy
• Arda a proven failure
• One law for Mugabe, another for the press
• Pricing models will be another blunder
• Bambazonke Moyo gets religion
• Six banks kicked out of clearing house system
• No show from govt at US expo
• Zim least free in Africa
• Forex auction fails to tame parallel market
• Hear the Word abetting Zim crisis
• Deuschle joins 'league' and will be judged
• Shocked by church's insensitivity
• Dear Dr Mahoso
• Mahoso's letter
• Corruption tremors shake Zanu PF citadel
• I have a dream
• BookReview - Pitfalls of Western aid

However, analysts have said the Bill is set to cause more confusion on the
land in the form of fresh evictions and occupations.

Government last week gazetted a farm list signalling its intention to
acquire blocks of the Hippo Valley Estates and Nuanetsi Ranch in
south-eastern Zimbabwe. The list shows at least 20 farms used for ranching,
eco-tourism and sugar production will be compulsorily acquired. Some of the
targeted properties are protected by legislation, which is set to be
repealed by the amendment.

Hippo Valley Estates is protected by the Hippo Valley Act that was drawn up
in November 1964 between the Rhodesian government and Sir Raymond Stockil
representing the company. The government, through a Crown Charter, ceded 70
872 morgen of land to Hippo Valley to develop an irrigation scheme. A Dutch
morgen is about 0,85 hectares.

The government cannot under the current legal regime compulsorily acquire
land owned by the company. The repealing of the Hippo Valley Act will
empower the government to acquire the land including infrastructure and
equipment on the farms.

The government has also started to acquire tea plantations in the Eastern
Highlands and sophisticated horticultural concerns which are currently
protected by legislation.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Davison Mugabe attacked the
ongoing amendments of the Act saying it was delaying progress.

"We are spending more time on amending Acts after Acts and movements of
people instead of focusing on production," Mugabe said.

In his presentation to the committee yesterday, Commercial Farmers' Union
president Doug Taylor-Freeme said the amendments proposed had led to
inconsistencies in the application of the law over the past four years.

"Farmers have been forcibly evicted when their farms were not even listed
under Section 5," Taylor-Freeme said.

"Others have obtained High Court judgements nullifying Section 8s and yet
they have been evicted. Others have met with none of government's criteria
for acquisition but were acquired nevertheless," he said.

"This is not the first time the minister has introduced legislation to cover
his tracks, legalise his mistakes, or justify his actions," he said.

He warned that if the Bill was approved, it would erode investor confidence
which the central bank is seeking to build.

The Bill before the Parliamentary Legal Committee for consideration seeks to
remove bottlenecks in the acquisition process to assist the government's
process of grabbing land arbitrarily.

Bheki Khumalo, Mbeki's spokesman, yesterday confirmed Mugabe made the
undertaking to Mbeki.

"I know that there was an undertaking when President Mbeki met President
Mugabe in Harare that there would be amendments to the two pieces of
legislation as well as that there wouldn't be any arrests in the meantime."

He however declined to comment on the views of the South African president
regarding the latest arrests of journalists in Harare.

"I can't comment on issues of arrest. This one you will have to cross check
with the Foreign Affairs ministry. The President's office doesn't comment on
issues across our borders," he said.

The land in question comprises five farms in Bubi district that Mandaza
allegedly purchased from Charles Hammer-Nel. However, Hammer-Nel has
allegedly cancelled the agreement of sale and has instead opted to give up
the farms for resettlement.

War veterans and over 40 families allocated land under the land reform
programme have also claimed ownership of the farms.

Mandaza locked horns with Mpofu last year after he accused him of sending
war veterans to invade his property and further alleges that the governor
wants him off the land on tribal grounds.

However, Mpofu this week lashed out at Mandaza and accused him of using his
newspapers, the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, to scandalise him.

Mpofu's outbursts follow two lead stories published by Mandaza's papers last
week where it was alleged that Mpofu was being investigated by the
President's Office over the improper allocation of land in the Matabeleland
North safari area.

Mpofu said the land probe existed only in Mandaza's mind.

"He (Mandaza) has been trying to compromise the system all along and we
resisted," said Mpofu.

"I warned all my officers against his suspicious activities and the story
(in the Sunday Mirror) shows the kind of lunacy on an issue he knows very
well is unprocedural. All this shows what kind of a man he is. We will not
succumb to cheap greed which is affecting development in the province," said
Mpofu.

Mandaza says he is investing about $2,5 billion in an ambitious agricultural
project on the five farms in Bubi district to be known as the Induba
Agricultural Development Project.

In an interview this week, Mandaza said the governor was trying to cover up
the allegations raised against him in his two papers.

"He is trying to cover up by raising non-pertinent issues but we are clear
in that the land is ours. We have been disturbed by people sent onto our
properties for political purposes," said Mandaza.

He said he would not be deterred by regional-minded people and said he was
free to invest in any region be it in Bulawayo or Matabeleland North.

"Instead of skirting issues he (Mpofu) should respond to issues raised in
that news report otherwise what he is saying now is malicious," charged
Mandaza.

"Zanu PF has started attacking our supporters and anyone suspected to have
links with the opposition," Musoni said.

"We are not able to hold campaign rallies because all those who attend are
tracked down and picked up for torture. Zanu PF has established a command
centre at Gutu Rural Council which they have converted into a torture camp,"
he said.

"Our campaign has been restricted to home visits and distribution of flyers
but still the people we are visiting are victimised for merely having spoken
to an MDC candidate," Musoni explained.

Musoni said there was a lot of fear among the electorate.

"The electorate is shying away from us for fear of victimisation," he said.

One of the torture victims kidnapped from Serima area last Saturday and
later dumped at Gutu-Mpandawana growth point - 35 km away from his home -
said he was lucky to be alive.

Ngoni Mudzamiri, who was on Monday admitted at Gutu Mission Hospital, said
he was kidnapped at Matizha Shopping Centre by a gang of Zanu PF supporters
driving a white Nissan Hardbody truck.

"It was around 9 pm when a vehicle full of people approached me. They easily
identified me because I was putting on an MDC T-shirt," Mudzamiri said.

"They hauled me onto the truck and quickly drove away. I was being beaten
all over my body along the way. I was driven around the constituency before
being taken to Mpandawana where I was tortured until I fell unconscious. I
was later dumped along the Harare/Chiredzi road," Mudzamiri said.

Mudzamiri reported his ordeal to Musoni who took him to hospital.

Zanu PF has since 2000 resorted to violence, torture and victimisation of
the electorate to cower the opposition.

"We met Dr Shamuyarira and the MDC leader on Wednesday. We met them to
continue our initiative towards dialogue," said Manhanga.

"These were preparatory meetings but at this stage we can't give details. We
will be issuing a statement soon."

The other members of the troika are Bishop Sebastian Bakare and Bishop
Patrick Mutume.

Sources privy to the meetings said they succeeded in producing undertakings
from both sides and looked set to lay the platform for talks to begin. MDC
secretary-general Welshman Ncube yesterday confirmed Tsvangirai had met the
church leaders but said he was yet to be briefed about the discussions.

"The churches met Zanu PF and Tsvangirai yesterday (Wednesday) but we are
yet to be briefed about the outcome of the meetings," said Ncube.

Ncube however denied media reports suggesting the opposition was engaged in
behind-the-scenes negotiations with Zanu PF to address the issues of
draconian laws, the militias and the ban on the Daily News before talks can
begin. He said the MDC was still of the position that talks should commence
without preconditions.

"Our position has not changed, and it is that Zanu PF should come to the
negotiating table unconditionally. We have said that we don't want any
conditions because we would be bogged down by Zanu PF, which would play
around issues such as that of withdrawing our election petition," Ncube
said.

"All issues of concern to both sides should be discussed through the talks'
agenda. In other words, instead of setting any conditions, we prefer having
those issues as subjects on the talks' agenda," said Ncube.

Although Ncube wouldn't give the current position of the talks saying the
Zanu PF delegation leader Patrick Chinamasa has been away on leave and would
be back next week, sources said there was general agreement by both parties
for talks to begin.

Following its meeting in Botswana in August, the group last month issued a
statement condemning human rights abuses and the humanitarian crisis in
Zimbabwe and called for UN intervention.

"We also request once again that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
and other UN human rights bodies take measures to investigate and publicly
denounce all human rights violations that are being committed in Zimbabwe,"
the group said.

It said Zimbabwean civil society and human rights activists were under
constant attack by government.

"Lawyers, judges, trade union leaders, journalists, churchmen and members of
non-governmental organisations have been threatened, arrested, beaten,
tortured and harassed throughout the year, and with no sign of respite,"
said the group.

It expressed concern about the on-going violations of human rights in
Zimbabwe and the attitude of several governments in the region to the
crisis. The group called for concerted efforts at regional and international
levels to ensure an end to all human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Similarly, Information minister Jonathan Moyo was furious about the banking
crisis: his anger was not directed at the banks, however, but at the
correspondents who reported the established facts to British and South
African newspapers. "These are the hallucinations of a wishful thinker who
has gone crazy," declared Moyo. For more than 11 days the six banks were
excluded from the daily inter-bank clearance of cheques.

Lack of liquid cash left them unable to pay the difference between cheques
in favour of their customers coming from other banks, and cheques passed by
their customers to remit money into accounts with other banks.Professor Tony
Hawkins, a leading consultant, said this crisis threatened to create a
gridlock of frozen funds and unpaid inter-bank debts, which could obstruct
circulation of money within the already troubled domestic economy. Stores
gave cashiers black lists of banks whose cheques were not acceptable.
Economist John Robertson said it was a crisis that had long been brewing as
inflation soared beyond 600% (on conservative official figures) while the
regime kept interest rates down to a fifth of that, to help it pay off local
debt of $600 billion. Mugabe has defaulted on external debts of US$3,5
billion, saying, "The IMF can go to hell."

But sources in Harare believe Governor Gono, until recently himself a
prominent banker, has Mugabe's support in policies aimed at finding a
rapprochement with these bodies Mugabe so recently dismissed.

A sudden blitz on cross border traders who come to Zimbabwe to buy
relatively cheap goods and on black market foreign currency dealers led to a
temporary fall in the parallel rate to $4 500 for US$1. Police began
stopping travellers and seizing their foreign currency, quite illegally.
Private sector interest rates were temporarily allowed to shoot up.
Investment houses that had used borrowed money to buy property, consumer
goods, cars, and foreign currency suddenly found themselves unable to
service their debts or market these "hedge" assets. There was, as Hawkins
put it, a "flight to quality".

Overnight, one recently launched bank lost 30% of its deposits. Standard
Bank, not one of the banks with liquidity problems, reported a 70% increase
in balances as nervous depositors rushed to its doors.

The IMF last year instituted moves for Zimbabwe's formal expulsion in view
of the duration and magnitude of its default on debt servicing.
International donors withdrew budget support in 1999 when they discovered
Mugabe was secretly spending as-yet untold billions on a military adventure
in the Congo. Now Mugabe's plan - supported by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki -
is to get debt restructuring in place, as if the four-year nightmare of farm
seizures, the invasion of urban businesses, the collapse of commercial
agriculture, of tourism, mining and manufacturing were all a bad dream.
Robertson said the first thing the IMF would want was restoration of the
rule of law, property rights, a judiciary free of political interference by
the ruling party, and an end to terror by state-funded youth militia.

In other words, an end to anarchy.

Meanwhile the regime issued a furious denial that agriculture minister
Joseph Made had been embroiled in attempts to seize once more a confiscated
commercial farm at Odzi, near Mutare, whose new black owner Made said was in
partnership with the white former owner, producing export crops.

"The government will not be duped by Uncle Toms that make themselves willing
tools of former Rhodies who are hopelessly trying to hold on to the land,"
Made's office said in a statement. The farm is owned by a company, and Made
is trying to repossess it via the parastatal Agricultural and Rural
Development Authority. The black employees on the farm, fearful for their
well-paid jobs, are violently resisting the Arda newcomers.

Police on Friday spurned the fourth consecutive court order to stop
obstructing the publication of Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper,
The Daily News, illegally kept off the streets since September 12. The
following day police detained Iden Wetherell, editor of the weekly Zimbabwe
Independent, and two of his staff, for reporting that Mugabe had
commandeered an Air Zimbabwe wide-bodied jet to go on holiday to South East
Asia. In this and much else, such apparatus of the state as survives is
being used by Mugabe and his ruling elite simply as an instrument for
suppressing any challenge.

      GCR managing director Dave King said the concerned banks include
Trust, Agribank, Time, Barbican, Century and Metropolitan Bank.

      The RBZ had not responded to questions sent to it on the issue on
Tuesday but banks contacted said the issue was sensitive.

      Late last year, GCR placed all its Zimbabwean bank ratings on "rating
watch" as a result of an envisaged severe systemic liquidity crunch.
Following this, GCR immediately requested all rated banks to provide it with
up-to-date financial data, with specific emphasis on their very latest
liquidity positions, so as to better analyse the impacts which the liquidity
squeeze is having on individual participants within the banking industry.

      According to King, analysis of the data clearly indicates that there
has been a major "flight to quality" among depositors, with all five
commercial/merchant banks which GCR had previously accorded long-term local
currency domestic ratings of A (single A) and higher experiencing
significant deposit inflows. These include Standard Chartered, Barclays,
Kingdom, Merchant Bank of Central Africa, and CBZ ("Jewel Bank").

      "Most of these banks are now actively discouraging further deposits
(either by openly turning-away or by quoting extremely low deposit rates),
due to a lack of suitable alternatives for them to place surplus funds,"
King said.

      "These institutions typically currently reflect cash and liquid assets
to total deposit ratios of not less than 75%, indicative of strong liquidity
positions. All of these banks, bar MBCA, also currently reflect capital
bases which are well in excess of the new minimum capital requirement of $10
billion which will come into effect on September 30".

      King notes that while MBCA's capital base is currently much smaller
than other banks in this rating category, this is reflective of the nature
of their business and the soundly structured nature of its balance sheet is
evidenced by cash and liquid assets to total deposits ratio in the region of
300%.

      At the other end of the scale, King pointed out that as at January 9
there were a total of six banks that had been suspended from the clearing
house system due to failure to meet their obligations, namely Trust Bank,
Agribank, Time Bank, Barbican Bank, Century Bank and Metropolitan Bank.

      King said of these banks, Trust represented by far the biggest threat
to the stability of the entire banking system, due to the fact that its
asset base had mushroomed to such a significant amount over 2003.

      "To place this in context, Trust Bank's total asset base was $85
billion as at December 31 2002, but by the end of December 2003 it is
reported that the group's total assets were in the region of $800 billion
(which would make it the largest balance sheet of all the Zimbabwean bank
groups)," King said.

      "In this context, it is an extremely important development that on
January 9 the Reserve Bank issued a statement confirming that it was
satisfied with the serious manner in which the Trust Board was dealing with
the crisis and the measures that had been taken".

      The statement reads in part: "The Reserve Bank fully supports these
measures and assures the public that it stands ready to augment their
efforts by providing the necessary liquidity support in order to strengthen
confidence in the institution. The public are therefore advised to conduct
their banking business in a calm manner as the situation at the bank is
under control."

      King said a further material development was that over the weekend the
RBZ advised that it was setting up a "Troubled Banks Fund" in order to
ring-fence these banks, and to stop the contagion effect.

      Conditions which will be applied to banks accessing this fund include
the provision to the RBZ of a comprehensive short-term programme to correct
the liquidity challenge, as well as the plans to repay monies received from
the Troubled Bank's Fund. According to GCR, a key positive feature with
regards to the longer term future of the industry is the fact that Gono's
policy statement is clearly designed to address some of the "root causes" of
the problems affecting the financial sector as a whole. Some significant
steps have already been taken (particularly with regards to tightening up
regulation and monitoring of the sector, increasing capitalisation and
reserving and eliminating the opportunities for "speculative activities").

      "While there is no doubt that it will be an extremely challenging task
for the central bank to achieve its stated objectives (including reducing
inflation to below 200% by the end of this year and below 100% by the end of
2005), it is recognised that the new governor is a highly-experienced and
respected banker," King said.

      Notwithstanding, the Monetary Policy Statement recognises that there
must be short-term pain to achieve results.

Officials at the Zimba-bwe Professional Hun-ters and Guides Association
confirmed that the companies that had gone to the expo were only marketing
themselves.

The hunting expo is a "must participate" for tourism players interested in
big game hunting.

In Zimbabwe big game hunting has taken a major dip following the issuing of
various travel warnings by mostly European Union countries and the US
government. The latter constituted the bulk of "big game hunters".

The three firms that have managed to "represent Zimbabwe" are Senuko Lodge,
Shangaan Hunters Africa and Zimbabwe Wildlife Safaris.

Environment and Tou-rism minister Francis Nhema was not available for
comment this week to clarify why government could not send any
representatives to the expo.

      The shocking revelation comes as President Robert Mugabe and
government officials continue to blame Western nations, especially Britain,
New Zealand, Australia and the United States of demonising Zimbabwe because
of its fastrack land resettlement programme.

      Neighbouring South Africa, on the other hand, has been named in the
survey as "the third most liberal economy in sub-Saharan Africa and one of
the most unrestricted economies in the world".

      Overall, however, the study shows that economic freedom continues to
improve in other sub-Saharan African countries.

      Elsewhere, it says Hong Kong, with its few regulations and low taxes,
still has the world's freest economy.

      The study measures how well 155 countries worldwide score on a list of
10 broad factors of economic freedom.

      The factors are trade policy, fiscal burden of government, government
intervention in the economy, monetary policy, capital flows and foreign
investment, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights,
regulation, and informal market activity.

      Low scores are desirable in this survey - the higher the score on a
factor, the greater the level of government interference in the economy, and
hence the less economic freedom a country enjoys.

      Zimbabwe, which at 4,54 ranks at 153 in the world because of the 80%
unemployment rate and an inflation rate above 200%, continues to be the
least free country in sub-Saharan Africa.

      The study says the region needs trade liberalisation.

      It says although the trade policy factor improved in five countries,
10 others closed their markets further last year.

      South Africa has been ranked 53rd out of 155 nations.

      South Africa's score going into 2004 was 2,79, up from 2,58 last year.

      That is why the country ranks third in the region, behind Botswana and
Uganda, which reported 2,55 and 2,70 respectively.

      Botswana (39th in the world) remains the least restricted economy in
the region, in spite of reporting worse performance in trade policy and
fiscal burden of government.

      It is followed by Uganda (48th in the world), which has privatised 74
businesses in the past decade and is targeting 85 more.

      Five countries - Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Senegal and
Mauritania - are among the 10 most improved nations globally. By contrast
Namibia, Madagascar, Lesotho and Gabon reported showings that placed them in
the category of the 10 countries whose scores worsened by the widest margins
globally in terms of the survey.

      Outside the Asia-Pacific, Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe and Libya were the
"most repressed economies," the report said.

On Wednesday the United States dollar was trading at US$1: $3 800 compared
to a high of US$1:$7 000 in November last year. The rand slipped to R1:$400.
The greenback sold at $4 196 at the foreign currency auction, which opened
on Monday. Traders said they were watching the auction market rate with
interest. They said they would use the auction rate to determine their own
parallel market rate.

"We are not going to use the so-called auctions, it's for the banks I
presume," said one foreign currency trader.

"For us business continues. If I get a rate of US$1:$3 800 that is fine with
me. We would rather get a lower rate on the streets than go to the auctions.
What if (police) they arrest us," said one of the traders.

The parallel market continues to flourish courtesy of crossborder traders
and occasional visitors who are still sceptical about the auction system,
which entered its second day yesterday.

RBZ governor Gideon Gono confessed ignorance at the continued parallel
market practices.

"Where are they trading?" he asked. "For a start that is illegal and we will
take appropriate action. The law will take its course. Just tell us where
they are trading and we will move in."

According to a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe statement, the first day of auction
raised US$20,6 million from exporters.

At Road Port foreign currency buyers could be seen milling around the gates
waiting for traders arriving from regional countries.

But the antics of Pastor Tom Deuschle of Hear the Word Ministries has given
me the answer to why this crisis will persist for a long time yet. The
church is clearly in confusion and is divided. How else do you explain the
difference between the principled and firm condemnation of human rights
abuses perpetrated by the Mugabe regime by the vocal Catholic Archbishop of
Bulawayo Pius Ncube and the rewarding of Mugabe for these same deeds by
Pastor Deuschle on the other hand? I had great respect for the Pentecostal
movement and its umbrella body, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe
(EFZ). But after Pastor Deuschle's exploits, all that respect is gone now.

There is no scripture in the Bible that says we should honour our leaders
let alone by way of money. The Bible only encourages us to "pray for our
leaders and all those in authority". Honour is bestowed upon those deserving
it and not just anybody. To say that you are honouring the "Office of the
President" is also stupid. What Pastor Deuschle is trying to do is to
justify his love for Mugabe and his policies. In fact, you, Pastor Deuschle,
do not even deserve the title of Pastor. Mr Deuschle will suffice. A pastor
takes care of the flock and does not set a trap for them by colluding with
the wolf.

Were there no worthy causes to collect an offering for? Is the current food
crisis threatening to kill millions of starving Zimbabweans not enough to
move you? How about the families that are struggling to afford basic health
care for their HIV/Aids-afflicted relatives? Or the children that have to go
bed on empty stomachs because their parents find it next to impossible to
eke out a living in this hyperinflationary economic environment? How about
the thousands of victims of Zanu PF brutality for supporting opposition
political parties?

Could that money not have been raised to assist the Ndebele people who lost
more than 20 000 of their kith and kin to the Mugabe-sanctioned, North
Korean trained Fifth Brigade in the 1980s. Are you aware Mr Deuschle, that
the skeletons of Mugabe's "Gukurahundi" adventure still lie in disused mines
and shallow graves even up to today? And yet you choose to "bless" Mugabe
with $30m when none of the victims has received a single cent as
compensation for his deeds! Were you trying to seek some cheap publicity or
something?

Even Satan would be surprised at your feat. Mr Deuschle, you have certainly
outdone the Devil. The recent political violence that has claimed the lives
of two opposition supporters at the hands of Zanu PF hoodlums is a result of
you, Tom Deuschle. Your money has gone towards the payment of those youths
who have inflicted untold suffering on innocent people. Their blood is on
your hands just as it is on those Zanu PF officials responsible for the
training of the "Green Bombers" in the art of killing.

I applaud all of those members of Hear the Word Ministries that refused to
contribute to this crazy, satanic and sadistic offering. All that is left
for them is to leave that church and find a truly God-fearing one. Mr
Deuschle, you have sold out Henry Olonga, a faithful member of your church
who stood up to be counted as he "mournrd the death of democracy" in
Zimbabwe and had to flee into exile when Mugabe's CIO hounded him.

You, Mr Deuschle, will go down in history as a lily-livered Zanu PF
apologist in the same class as one Reverend Obadiah Msindo and rivalled
closely by Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver.
You, Mr Deuschle, have betrayed the people of Zimbabwe by giving the man
responsible for our suffering, Mugabe, $30m. May God have mercy on you.

Peter Ngwenya,

Bulawayo.

Pastor Deuschle tries to justify this gift through scripture but I wonder if
he can quote chapter and verse (without his interpretation of course) that
says we as Christians should donate gifts to the powers-that-be.

The Bible, in Romans 13:1-8 and Hebrews 13:17, talks about Christians being
subject to authorities and to pay their taxes as we all do but certainly not
to prop up odious regimes.

Christians are exhorted to stand up for the oppressed and the church should
have a prophetic voice that speaks up against all its forms. One would
expect a pastor of Tom Deuschle's stature to speak out against the evil that
is perpetrated by the Mugabe regime. There have been countless accounts of
murder, torture, rape, corruption, theft not to mention the Matabeleland
genocide that Mugabe has not repented of.

In my view, Deuschle's action puts him in the same category as "Rev"
Musindo, "Bishop" Kunonga, "Apostle" Wutaunashe and Madzibaba Nzira - open
supporters of the oppressive regime and they will be judged for it.

I pray and hope that Hear the Word will see the folly of this action and
recant it.

Tjiliwa waLugondo,

Plumtree.

I have been active in the MDC for four years - my family and I have had
death threats, been to jail, been accused of all sorts of things, been in
court dozens of times on all sorts of charges brought by the State. I have
had friends murdered, raped and their homes burned. I worked for Mugabe for
eight years in the 80's. I know personally that he ordered the campaign in
Matabeleland where at least 20 000 people died. That is more people that
were killed in the eight years of civil war in the 70's.

We have two million internally-displaced refugees inside Zimbabwe, at least
three million external economic refugees in other countries, six million
people subsisting on 12 ounces of food a day right now and 3000 people a
week dying of Aids-related causes - many because of the chaos caused by
Mugabe.

And you give him a "gift" for Christmas? God forgive you, because I
certainly cannot.

Eddie Cross,

Harare.

Firstly we do not live in Zambia which has its own laws and legal
procedures. I note the editor of The Post Fred M'membe has endorsed the
satirical piece by Roy Clarke which his newspaper carried. And now a Zambian
court has confirmed Clarke's right of residence in Zambia, an intervention
you appear to have failed to anticipate.

From what I can see, Clarke expressed no "hatred and contempt", as you
falsely claim. He merely subjected Zambia's leaders to the sort of satirical
comment that is fundamental to a healthy democracy anywhere. While you as a
presidential apologist may indeed find this "unconscionable", it is standard
practice in any society that holds its politicians accountable.

British, US and South African newspapers have no hesitation in subjecting
their leaders to robust mockery and nobody claims this is racist or
inadmissible on grounds of rank. George Orwell would never have been able to
write Animal Farm if your strictures had been applied.

The letter you cite is one of many that we and other newspapers have
published expressing the view that Zimbabweans are a "docile lot" in
allowing such a vicious tyranny to emerge in their midst. While most of this
criticism is specific to Zimbabwe, it also extends to other African states
and is part and parcel of the current public discourse about why Africans
allow their rulers to misgovern and impoverish them.

Our contributor compared us to a herd of wildebeest that stands by and
watches tearfully as one of its members is picked off and eaten by a lion.

"Do you call that tolerance or stupidity?" he asks. It was stupid, he felt.

The writer, who signed himself Tonderayi Mudonhi, was replying to an opinion
piece by Ruzvidzo Mupfudza who had spoken about the innate tolerance of
Zimbabweans.

You proceed from that point to fatuously claim that the writer "dismisses
the Zimbabwean nation and the continent of Africa, except for non-Africans,
as an unthinking herd of wild animals".

In fact the writer made no distinction, as you do, between Africans and
non-Africans on the continent, and specifically praised what he calls his
"local brother Pius Wakatama" and Chinua Achebe.

You refer at length to the South African Human Rights Commission's report
into racism in the media and conclude that our letter repeats assertions
made in the report.

Whatever the views of the Human Rights Commission, it is clear you have
extrapolated its conclusions to fit your indictment of the letter. You
appear unaware of the criticisms made of the commission's conclusions, in
particular the scepticism surrounding some of the evidence produced by a
researcher.

You object to our cartoon of November 14 portraying the people of Zimbabwe
as mushrooms - ie raised in the dark and fed on manure. You cite two other
letters from our readers as equally objectionable. Most of our readers would
regard the mushroom analogy as fair comment!

It is significant that apart from your self-serving objections, we have not
had a single letter from any of our readers complaining about the letter to
which you take such exception.

You lecture us on the importance of having "a strong sense of context and
history".

"A good newspaper's coverage of its own community is thorough, sensitive and
respectful," you point out.

We couldn't agree more. The community in which we work here in Harare has
rejected President Robert Mugabe's pretensions in successive electoral
contests since 2000. We respect their verdict and the verdicts of
Zimbabweans in other centres across the country.

We have a strong sense of context and history. The context is clearly that
of freedom of the press. No democracy can function adequately without an
informed electorate - one that has access to a variety of views. The history
is that of a revolution betrayed by greed, corruption and repression.

Liberation movements that abuse power in order to retain it are the true
enemies of the people, not newspapers that expose their double standards and
hypocrisy. Those who apologise for them and presume to police the media can
have no claim to be acting in the interests of journalism. True journalism
is about public scrutiny and accountability.

The letters column of any newspaper worth its salt is an area of controversy
and contention. We don't have to like the views expressed. Some will be
offensive to us. But to censor opinions in the way you suggest is even more
offensive.

I note that you have done nothing to address the absence of professional
standards in the state-owned media: the intrusion of political views in news
stories, unattributed remarks, downright falsehoods, and the hate-mongering
that has become its stock in trade.

I also note that your letter to me, received on January 8, was published in
the Herald on Tuesday. Perhaps you could explain why a letter to the editor
of the Zimbabwe Independent was published in a newspaper that is not a party
to the complaint. I also note that you have added a paragraph in the version
you sent to the Herald that does not appear in the original. This hardly
constitutes professional behaviour or journalistic ethics!

The Zimbabwe Independent rejects your pretensions as an editor. Your own
work would indicate this is obviously not an area in which you have any
particular expertise. But we have no objection to you writing again if you
have any particular concerns. We do not reject letters for publication on
the grounds that the writer expresses views that other readers may consider
offensive, muddled, partisan or just plain foolish.

The letter you published on 2 January 2004 is typical of the worst
expressions of racism from the former slave territories of the United
States, from Apartheid South Africa and from the days of UDI in Rhodesia.

The fact that this is supposed to be only an individual's letter expressing
individual opinion does not in anyway exonerate the editor or the publisher.
You have an editorial policy and an editor precisely to keep the gate
between freedom of opinion/expression and freedom to publish. You cannot
tell us that your paper is there to publish any and all opinions and
expressions that reach your door or your mail box. Indeed, in the days of
slavery, apartheid and UDI, the white racist was always able to find enough
Africans to justify these systems, but that did not stop the world from
condemning and even destroying those systems.

If you look at the Interim Report of the Inquiry into Racism in the Media by
the South African Human Rights Commission and go to the section called "The
News in Black and White", you will find a typology of white racist thinking
outlined there, with 10 sub-categories. The Commission finds the following
paragraphs from your published letter to fit those categories.

We quote: "My analysis is that Zimbabweans are a stupid lot. I will for this
purpose compare them to a herd of wild beasts.

"I am sure you have seen wild life films where one wild beast is induced by
a small pride of lions to leave the security of its herd, killed and eaten
whilst the rest of the herd, often numbering over 50, stands by and watch
(sic). Mupfudza made excuses (for Africans) based on culture and values. My
foot! I beg to differ. You cannot have values that have real value if you
cannot think in the first place. The fundamental truth, hurtful as it does
(sic), is that Africans are very hard of productive thinking (sic). They can
neither fathom nor remain focused.

"This very limited thinking capacity is not only confined to Zimbabweans. It
cuts across the entire continent. It is a natural phenomenon."

It is clear from this excerpt that by "Zimbabweans" your writer means
Africans. If you take "Africans" and "Zimbabweans" in the letter to refer to
the same people as "Blacks" in the South African Human Rights Commission's
report, you will notice that the letter in your paper repeats the same
assertions listed in that South African report, including the following:

1. All Africans are congenitally stupid. Whites are superior to Africans

-hites are by nature more talented and more intelligent than Africans

2. Africans are congenitally irrational and always driven by instinct

-Africans need the guidance of non-Africans to help them think

-The purpose of white colonialism and imperialism is to save Africans from
their unthinking ways and direct them toward a more rational life.

3. African Society and the African nation remain naturally primitive and
backward

-Africans are driven by instinct rather than thoughtful analysis and
foresight

-Africans are naturally and universally lazy

-Whites are rich and well-off because they are civilised, intelligent and
hardworking

-Whites deserve all the advantages and material gains from Jim Crow,
apartheid and UDI

-Africans need white power and racist control in order to advance

-Africa does not and cannot contribute to world civilisation and
development.

4. African lives are worthless

-White lives are precious and deserve protection unlike the herds of African
wild beasts

-Africans are used to being massacred, injured and tormented by aggressive
and clever minorities

-Africans lack courage, commitment or patriotism

-Africans do not (should not) fight to defend African lives.

These claims are also reflected in other items which have appeared in your
paper; for example:

-A cartoon portraying the people of Zimbabwe as "mushrooms" on 14 November
2003

-A letter to the editor by Postnubila Phoebus on 4 April 2003

-Another letter to the editor by Nikoli Sanyika on 23 May 2003

While there is no single definition of a good newspaper, it might help to
make clear the Commission's intentions and role if we cite one example, from
a North American called Frank McCullock, who wrote in his contribution to
the Nieman Reports a few years ago that:

"A good newspaper is fair. It is accurate. It is responsive to its readers
and its society... It has a strong sense of context and history. A good
newspaper's coverage of its own community is thorough, sensitive and
respectful."

In conclusion, the Media and Information Commission is at a loss to find any
honourable value to redeem such a "letter" as the one you printed on 2
January 2004 and justify its publication ahead of so many other possible
items which could occupy the same space. We await your reply.

Tafataona Mahoso,

Executive chairman, MIC.

The implication was that if he could engage in such subversive, dastardly
deeds, he might just sell out the great anti-white revolution and needed to
have his wings clipped. Msika bitterly attacked what he called "these
mafikizolos", leaving a lot of people wondering who these Johnnies come
lately could be. Last week Msika as acting president in Mugabe's absence,
and apparently still in the sour mood of the December conference, strongly
attacked party officials who threatened police officers going about the job
of pursuing big time corruption among the ruling elite. Again many wondered
who Msika was referring to. I also couldn't help wondering about a police
force that only makes a big show of going after highly placed corruption
after being given the political go ahead, rather than doing it as a matter
of course.

But then again this is not a country fairly ruled by law, this is Zimbabwe!
In any case, the day after Msika's most recent tirade the unthinkable
happened. Philip Chiyangwa, a relative newcomer to the top echelons of the
ruling party, MP, provincial chairman, master dealer in virtually anything,
and man about town, was put in jail for threatening a police officer in
court while testifying about his links to collapsed financial firm ENG
Capital Asset management. He had been regarded by many as so close and
endeared to the seat of power that he was untouchable. Was he one of the
mafikizolos that so enraged Msika in December, moving him to threaten
ominously in January: "I will show you that I have more political muscle
than you"?

Enquiring minds want to know. And some people thought the party would break
into open factional fighting only after Mugabe was no longer on the scene!

Being corrupt in itself will not necessarily get you in trouble as a high
ranking ruling party or government official. There are many examples of
people who have been caught in all sorts of crooked deals over the years to
whom nothing happened. Particularly if you are a loyal party cadre who
respects his elders, you can almost get away with murder. But when one goes
beyond being just ordinarily crooked to also noisily trying to impeach one's
political seniors, then you are playing with fire. Comrades in the corrupt
revolution, let us do our crooked deals quietly, there is no need to be so
boastful, pompous and flamboyant about them. You force a reluctant party to
make a scapegoat out of you to appease the public, leaving unscathed many
possibly even more crooked but more humble, quieter colleagues of yours.

Part of the deal involved a young mafikizilo being allowed all sorts of
crooked means of acquiring a business empire and jumping over many more
senior party officials to assume a top post is that you must gratefully play
the game by the laid down rules, crooked as they may be. The same party that
made you what you are because you served its interests at one time can just
as easily unmake you when you become too big for your colourful boots! When
you are in favour concessionary bank loans are flung your way, elections are
fixed for you, you can have as many wives, farms and luxury cars as your
heart desires.

But when you miscalculate and fall out of favour, these same perks that you
were granted and that made you so feared and "popular" will be used to
arrange your downfall. And none of the many so-called friends you thought
you had will speak up for you or come to your aid because the word would
have gone out from on high that you are expendable and have been cut loose
from the paradise of patronage. It's nothing personal you understand, it's
merely the jungle law by which politics in Zimbabwe operates. It has claimed
many before you when it was necessary to try to trick the public that
corruption was being checked, and it will claim many more mafikizolos and
others who currently think the good times will last forever.

An interesting thing about the so-called corruption clean up is that those
well connected who are about to be ceremoniously sacrificed are given plenty
of warning so that they have enough time to salt away their loot. It's not
the party's fault if some dimwitted latecomers fail to take advantage of the
grace period to pretend to clean up their act.

Does anyone know who is more senior, new Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
or Finance minister Herbert Murerwa? It is not at all clear to me, although
the central bank ostensibly remains a department of the ministry. Watch out
for turf fireworks!

Gono may have upset a lot of top bankers with his sweeping banking reforms,
but he is also sure to have stepped on the egos of a lot of senior party and
government officials. Not only do many of them have their various lucrative
speculation-based activities threatened, but to many of them Gono is another
kind of mafikizolo come to make them look bad in comparison to them. And he
appears to wield more power than any minister currently does. It will be
fascinating to watch how Gono manoeuvres in a political environment governed
by vicious jungle law. One thing is for sure, he will have to watch his back
every second.

While he has eclipsed almost all of Mugabe's lieutenants for the moment, if
his reforms somehow succeed in bringing down inflation appreciably for
instance, does he not also run the very dangerous risk of eclipsing Mugabe
himself? Mugabe has not had any ideas on how to tackle inflation over the
years as it has been going through the roof and impoverishing Zimbabweans.
If Gono makes headway in this respect some people will begin to make
insinuations about the usefulness of the presidential incumbent! While
success for Gono may open up the doors to the political kingdom for him,
that same success could also threaten a highly placed ego, putting him in
more danger from that quarter than from disgruntled bankers and ministers!
As they say, it's a thin line between love and hate!

New defence forces chief Constan-tine Chiwenga apparently openly declared
that court judgements would only be adhered to if they were favourable to
the authorities. In one fell swoop he made utter nonsense of the bleating
about "the rule of law" one often hears from some mafikizolo ministers. One
part of the regime says one thing, another part of it contradicts the first
quite brazenly!

Foreign minister Stan Mudenge made a confession about the regime's mindset
that stunned me because of its honesty. He declared that there was nothing
to be gained from the Commonwealth which Mugabe quit (but after being booted
out anyway!). It was merely an opportunity to have tea with the Queen, said
Mudenge dimissively. It was just as I always suspected: the millions of
dollars that have been used up in proudly hosting a Commonwealth summit in
1991 and in the president and many ministers eagerly attending many more
were merely to appease the pitiful lingering colonial mentality of the
regime - wanting to be pictured drinking tea with and being smiled on by the
English queen! What a disgusting, pathetically damning confession by Mudenge
of self imposed neo-colonial behaviour by so-called anti-imperialist
revolutionaries! I always suspected they were a bunch of fakes!

It is fascinating and hilarious to watch the ruling regime unwittingly shoot
itself in the foot in so many ways.

-Chido Makunike is a regular contributor based in Harare.

I dream that Information minister Jonathan Moyo will see the need to open
the airwaves to independent players to ensure the free flow of information
in Zimbabwe. That our hungry masses will finally get a chance of feeding on
a different diet from Hondo yeMinda, Rambai Makashinga and Sendekera.

I dream that Zimbabwe's favourite tabloid, the Daily News, will return to
the streets and continue to tell it like it is.

I hope our politicians will learn to campaign and not use maize to buy votes
and, for a change, tell us how they are going to fix the economy.

I dream that Joseph Made will admit on national television that he misled
the nation into believing that Zimbabwe had silos bursting with wheat and
maize and that though he has failed as Minister of Agriculture, he has a
brilliant career ahead in a comedy starring alongside Gringo in "Zimbabwe,
the Destruction Part 3."

I dream that Zimbabweans in the diaspora like Strive Masiyiwa, Basildon
Peta, Thomas Mapfumo, Geoffrey Nyarota, Elias Pfebve and millions scattered
around the globe will finally return to a land of peace and help bring
Zimbabwe to its feet in a post-Mugabe era.

It's my dream that passengers of an Air Zimbabwe Boeing will not have their
plane commandeered to drop off or pick up the First Family on one of their
jaunts.

I have a dream that one day Zimbabwe's premier education establishment, the
University of Zimbabwe, will reclaim its status as the number one learning
institution in the whole of Africa. That for once, the residents of Mt
Pleasant will eat their dinner without having to choke on the pungent smell
of teargas.

I have a dream that one day every Dynamos and Highlanders fan will see their
favourite team perform without the worry of being squashed, mangled and
punched in the crowd.

I have a dream that one day the young and upcoming musicians will learn the
meaning of the word "originality" by adopting a Zimbabwean beat and not
recycling American beats. I dream that every untalented entertainer
(Agrimende Chiyangwa) will step down and let the real talent (Alick Macheso,
Oliver Mtukudzi, Mapfumo et al) rise.

I have a dream that for once men and women will sleep in their beds and not
outside in long winding queues for bread, meat, water, fuel and maize.

I have a dream that all holders of public office and public-funded
institutions will remember their place and treat the public with courtesy
and manners, not act as if we all need to bow down to them in worship.

I have a dream that men and women of our troubled nation will regain their
trust in the police and armed forces who have perennially terrorised them
more than the thugs they are supposed to be protecting them from.

I have a dream that one day in our capital Harare (where my family dwells)
the heaps of uncollected garbage and flooded mortuaries at Parirenyatwa
Hospital are finally cleared and the capital reclaims its status as the
"Sunshine City".

Let the Herald, ZBC, and the Sunday Mail report that the shortages are
mainly because of Mugabe's mismanagement, not sabotage by ex-Rhodies
together with Tony Blair and the MDC.

Let someone convince the balding professor to ditch the nauseating Hondo
yeMinda jingle and allow the return of Mukanya's sizzling beats on radio.

Let Reuben Barwe quit the journalism profession and go into fulltime farming
or someone allocate him an office at Rotten Row Zanu PF HQ.

Should all this come to pass, we will be shouting: "Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, free at last."

-Macdonald Chimbizi is a Zimbabwean journalist now based in the United
Kingdom.

Hollaway suggests that the mission itself is not what it pretends to be. The
aid business is not trying to make the poor countries rich. It has evolved a
more limited objective of alleviating poverty and no more.

This is because developed countries have decided that if the vastly bigger
populations of poor people start to consume the Earth's resources at the
same rate that the rich do, they will use up all the oil, chop down all the
rain forests, destroy our essential bio-diversity, accelerate global warming
and smother the planet in garbage.

These make up the core of the claims that Hollaway sets out to prove to be a
great deal of nonsense.

Some of the angles from which the claims are challenged go to the heart of
the public debate. Hollaway argues that the greenhouse gases that humans
generate are tiny compared to those produced by mother Nature. Also, the
rising use of scarce materials drives up their prices and causes the
adoption of alternatives, but the recovery of useful materials through
recycling are also bringing about welcome changes.

If advances in the developed world are now keeping pace with, or even
overcoming the damage done to the environment, surely rich countries could
be much more imaginative about the forms of assistance they offer the third
world? The truth of this must be all the more powerful now that the means of
creating wealth are now so well understood.

But more particularly, as these methods are not patented or protected by
copyright laws, the third world could choose to be more determined to adopt
them. Their adoption should not depend on aid, especially as aid can be
shown not to have merely failed, but to have made things worse.

When patches of Africa can be shown to be as richly endowed as any in the
prosperous world, but the African populations remain poor, something has to
be missing. What is it? Rich resources in Africa have proved to be a curse
rather than a blessing in very nearly every case. Why? In offering his
suggestions and prescriptions in answer to these questions, Hollaway reaches
into a broader sweep of history, geography, religion, ecology, economics,
politics, psychology, farming, mining, sociology and pathology than any
reader could hope to encounter in dozens of selected books.

How people behave, why they behave that way, how their value systems
evolved, how and why their societies have preserved beliefs that might have
been their salvation in past times, but are now holding them back, are
examined and explained. In most cases, friction is caused by the clash of
traditional values with the explosion of possibilities opened up by modern
technology and market-based institutions.

As one of many very pertinent examples, the author guides the reader through
a description of how Islam came to be in such conflict with the more
materialistically successful West. It is the West's capacity to profit from
and adapt to technological changes that has left Islam far behind and
Islamic fundamentalists resentful. Their uncompromising beliefs prohibit
their adoption of many western ideas, but their population growth now denies
them the option to pursue their religious beliefs as their forefathers did.

Population growth has also cancelled the option that African communities
once had to practice shifting agriculture over what used to be thinly
populated vast tracts of land. They then ascribed value only to moveable
assets, which included large families. Trying to stick to such traditions
now is badly affecting their chances of progress.

Quite simply, the great challenges of modern times are not being addressed
at all by the world's leading nations. If poverty is to be overcome, not
merely lessened, and if envy is to be converted into productive energy that
narrows the gaps between rich and poor, cultural changes have to be
accommodated. It is on the adoption of these needed changes that the efforts
should be concentrated.

The most basic of the essential concepts is so standard in western minds
that it is taken for granted. It is the idea of individual property rights.
When properly recorded and respected, these rights permit individuals to use
property as collateral for bank loans, to plan and develop. This is the
foundation of the wealth of individuals in every prosperous country. Why is
it denied to individuals everywhere else?

It is the social structures that can be built on the individual property
rights foundation that set the prosperous countries apart. These lead to
slower population growth, more manageable use of resources, more efficient
means of food production through completely sustainable land use, more
investment and the needed job creation to sustain larger urban populations.

From these the developed countries are now achieving more effective land
management to preserve natural forests as well as animal and plant species,
lower greenhouse gas emissions and far fewer risks to the environment. These
are the possibilities that make the limited objectives of the aid donors
wholly inappropriate!

This extensively referenced book should be required reading for rich country
taxpayers as much as poor country peasants, but politicians and development
economists would do well to be first in line.

-John Robertson is a Zimbabwean business consultant.