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Tue Jan 16,
9:58 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean authorities have threatened to raze
makeshift
shantytowns built after an urban demolitions blitz nearly two
years ago left
hundreds of thousands homeless.
"We might go back to
Operation Murambatsvina if people continue to squat
everywhere," the
state-run Herald newspaper quoted Harare metropolitan
governor David
Karimanzira as saying Tuesday.
"As a policy we don't want squatters, and all
people who are building shacks
must destroy them. We want well-planned
settlements and the government is
not going to sit and watch while people
build shacks everywhere," he said.
Zimbabwean authorities launched
Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Filth) in
May 2005, calling it an attempt
to rid the capital of crime and filth.
But a United Nations report
afterwards said the mid-winter drive left
700,000 people -- the country's
poorest -- homeless and destitute when
shacks, houses, market stalls and
shops were razed.
The operation, known locally as "the tsunami," also
deprived at least a
million people of their means of livelihood in an
economically-ravaged
country grappling with four-digit
inflation.
Despite a much-vaunted follow-up operation called
"Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle,"
or "Live Well", meant to help those whose homes or
shops were destroyed,
tens of thousands were still living in makeshift homes
at various locations
across the country.
A new squatter settlement
has sprouted in the populous Mbare township, one
of the areas worst affected
by the demolitions campaign.
Another slum taking shape adjacent to
Harare's posh Gunhill suburb is home
to people who either cannot afford high
rents or those who lost their homes
during Operation
Murambatsvina.
SPEECH BY THE HONOURABLE MRS. JUSTICE RITA MAKARAU
JUDGE PRESIDENT OF THE
HIGH COURT OF ZIMBABWE
ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE 2007 LEGAL
YEAR
HARARE HIGH COURT, 15 JANUARY 2007
I am humbled by this
opportunity afforded me by the Chief Justice to address
all of you on his
behalf and on behalf of the entire Judiciary on the
occasion of the opening
of the legal year for 2007. I acknowledge with
gratitude all present in this
courtroom. In particular, I wish to
acknowledge the presence of
The
Minister of Justice,
The Minister of Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies,
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal
& Parliamentary
Affairs,
The Resident Representative of the United
Nations; Dr. Zacharios
Representatives of the Commissioner of
Police;
Representatives of the Legal Fraternity of Prisons;
Members of the
Legal Fraternity and
Members of the media
6 July 2006 saw the
much-deserved elevation of Justice Garwe to the Supreme
Courts as Judge of
Appeal and my assuming the post he had vacated. I wish to
thank all of you
who have wished me well in my new post. It is a post that I
have assumed
with some trepidation as I take the reigns from along line of
eminent
jurists and administrators who have graced the High Court Bench.
Those of
who keep their history will recall that prior to independence in
1980, Sir
Vincent Quenet, Justice MacDonald and Justice Lewis were the Judge
President
in that order. Justice Lewis continued as Judge President until
1982 when he
was succeeded by Justice E A T Smith. Justice Smith served in
the post for
only one year to give way to Justice E. Dumbutschena in 1983.
After Justice
Dumbutschena came Justice Sandura in 1984. The Chief Justice
in 1998 and
Justice Garwe in 2001. I therefore am fully aware of the size of
the shoes
that I have to fill.
LOW LEVEL OF FUNDING TO THE JUSTICE DELIVERY
SYSTEM
2006 was a particularly difficult year for the whole country and
we in the
judiciary were not spared. While over the years the funds
allocated to the
judiciary have dwindled against an increase in the
workload, the funds
allocated for 2006 were significantly inadequate. For
the first time in
history, the High Court in Harare could not travel to
Masvingo on circuit in
the third term to hear the hundreds of criminal cases
that have been
awaiting trial in that province for the past two years. At
the last count in
August 2006, Masvingo had 104 murder trials awaiting
trial.
Courts ran out of basics and the constant response from the
Ministry of
Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs where the budgetary vote
for the
judiciary is housed was that it was not in funds.
Judging
from the paltry funds that are allocated to it, it is my view that
the place
and role of the judiciary in this country is under-appreciated.
Phrases that
it is the third pillar of state or that it is an integral part
of a
democratic state are often used as appropriated fora by politicians and
social scientists and have become clichés whose real meaning is not sought
after or given effect to.
I wonder how many of us here present have
really given thought to the
importance of an efficient and impartial justice
delivery system to us as
individuals generally and as Zimbabweans in
particular and on a practical as
opposed to a concept basis. As a people,
Zimbabweans have been described as
resilient and innovative. When shortages
of certain grocery items manifest
in the local supermarkets, we shop in
neighbouring countries. We have
managed to avoid what we perceive as
shortcomings in the local education
system by sending our children to
schools and universities in South Africa,
Australia, United States and the
United Kingdom. When we need complex
medical procedures and attention that
the local hospitals cannot now
provide, we fly mainly to South Africa but
sometimes to the United Kingdom
or the United States. Yet, when we have to
sue for wrongs done to us, we
cannot do so in Australia and South Africa and
have to contend with the
inadequately funded justice system in this
country.
When someone breaks into our houses and steals our hard earned
assets, we
cannot call the well resourced police force of a neighbouring
country to
come and investigate the offence. Worse still, when we are
suspected of
having committed an offence, either rightly or wrongly, we are
to be held at
local police station cells where due to under funding, some
conditions have
fallen to inhuman and degrading levels. If placed on remand,
we are to be
held in the local prison where he conditions are no better.
Innovative as we
are, we are yet to find a way to be held in a prison in
Pretoria or Cape
Town to avoid the conditions in the inadequately funded
cells at home.
For justice delivery, we cannot escape the local system no
matter how rich
or influential we are. We cannot substitute the justice
delivery system in
Zimbabwe. we cannot escape the inefficiencies created by
lack of adequate
funding. We can only work on it to rid it of the
inefficiencies by funding
it at appropriate levels so that it regains its
position as a torchbearer on
the subcontinent.
We are aware that the
Ministry of Justice Legal & Parliamentary Affairs has
over the years
been making representations on behalf of the judiciary and
prisons to
Treasury for funding of these institutions at appropriate levels.
We are
also aware that the Ministry's budgetary allocation over the years
has been
amongst the lowest yet it houses critical institutions in the
justice
delivery system.
It is not in the tradition of the judiciary to publicly
speak on any issue
including calling attention to needs. The unique feature
that sets the
judiciary apart from other State organs, that of carrying out
its mandate
without fear or favour, necessarily prevents the judiciary from
crying out
when it is in need lest help comes from undesirable sources. I am
breaking
that tradition briefly and for today only to agitate for better
funding to
the justice delivery system as a whole, generally and in
particular, to the
judiciary. It is wrong by any measure to make the
judiciary beg for its
sustenance. It is wrong to make the judiciary beg for
resources from any
other source. Yet, if I do not do so today, the judiciary
shall continue to
operate without computers, without adequate stationery and
shall continue to
use libraries that the Chief Magistrate has aptly
described as varying only
in their degrees of uselessness.
WITNESS
EXPENSES AND ACCESSORIES
When I agitate for better funding to the justice
delivery system, I am not
only agitating for better remuneration for judges
and support staff or
limiting myself to the provision of material resource
for use by judges. I
will give two examples of my other concerns.
In
his annual report to the Chief Justice for the year 2006, the Registrar
commented on the amount we pay per day to witnesses who testify in criminal
trials in the High Court. We pay them $5.00 for each day spent in court or
waiting to go to court!
We all understand the difficult times that
the country is undergoing and how
treasury cannot cope with the demands made
on it. However, for us to pay a
witness $5.00 per day brings the
administration of justice to disrepute. It
is also a downright insult to the
witnesses, most of whom are simple rural
folk from around Zimbabwe who will
be justified in thinking that their
testimony was worthless if they were
paid only $5.00 for it. It may be worth
the while for the policy makers to
debate whether the payment of witness
expenses should not be scrapped
altogether if it has become an expense that
treasury cannot bear.
Due
to the shortage of funds, at times witnesses have appeared before a
judge
hungry. This situation came to light when one witness, bravely
informed the
court that he could not testify as he was weak from hunger. The
trial had to
be stopped and at that stage it emerged that our registry did
not have
sufficient funds to pay for the meals of witnesses who come from
out of
Harare.
The same goes for the payments made to assessors for sitting in
criminal
trials. The amount paid them per day is a pittance that is not
commensurate
with their importance in the justice delivery system.
Invariably, they are
the most senior members of the court and come with a
wealth of experience
and represent the views of the community during the
trial. The reward they
get for so doing detracts from their
importance.
CORRUPTION
As I have said above, conditions of service
for judges and for support staff
are an ongoing cause for
concern.
Today, I wish to highlight the conditions of service of support
staff and
how this is negatively impacting on the administration of
justice.
Reports have reached my office and the office of the Chief
Justice that
support staff in the courts are engaging in corrupt practices.
Whilst these
reports are alarming, one can understand without excusing such
conduct.
Salaries for support staff are not commensurate with their place in
the
administration of justice system. Custodians of court records,
processors of
judgments and court orders can work great mischief to the
litigating public.
Access to judges is but through the support staff and may
be blocked or fast
tracked. Records may be tempered with or may go missing
for short or long
periods of time. Important court notices may not be
delivered on time or at
all.
Support staff play a vital role in the
administration of justice and while
they remain civil servants, they are
civil servant in a very vulnerable
organ of the State. In his speech to mark
the opening of the legal year in
2005, the Chief Justice reminded all
judicial officers that within the
judiciary, the level of tolerance for
corruption is zero. I would want to
remind all that the level of corruption
still stands at zero. Due to the
reports that we have received concerning
the practices of some of the
support staff, strategies have been put in
place to tighten our
administrative systems and to weed out members of staff
whose practices may
not be above board.
For the benefits of the
public and some misinformed legal practitioners, it
may be necessary to
dispel two misconceptions that may have been created by
our support
staff.
1. Judges are not influenced by their clerks or by registry staff
or by
anybody else for that matter in the content of their judgments or
orders.
The relationship between a judge and support staff is generally not
one of
confidantes. Reports have reached my office of how some support staff
may
have been fooling members of the public that for a reward, they will
make
the judge grant or dismiss their prayers. Support staffs do not have
such
influence.
2. Judges are individually responsible for the delays in
handing down their
judgments. Support staff cannot tell or influence a judge
on which matter to
pass a judgment before the judge is ready to do so.
Reports have also
reached my office that some registry staff may have been
giving out to
litigants that for a fee, they can have a long delayed
judgment written.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
During the last half of 2006, we
began experimenting with a fast track
system of dealing with civil trials in
the Harare High Court. This saw the
disposal of 91 cases in the months of
September, October and November. Of
the 91 cases completed, 89 were
completed to judgment level leaving only two
judgments to be handed down
this year. We are quite pleased with the results
and have since made the
fast track civil court a permanent feature of the
court roll. I want to
thank legal practitioners and the litigating public
for making this
experiment the success that it was. I also wish to publicly
commend the
industry of the entire High Court Harare bench during the last
legal year.
This, despite the hellish conditions they had to operate under.
In
particular, I was humbled by the industry of the team of the three judges
who presided over the fast track civil court and would at times sit in court
will into the evening to complete cases. These are Justices Uchena and Kudya
with Justice Bhunu as the senior judge of the team.
Legal
practitioners and the litigating public must brace themselves for a
further
no-nonsense approach to litigation as another tem of 3 judges take
charge of
the fast track civil court for the first term of 2007 with Justice
Hungwe as
the senior judge and Justices Chitakunye and Chatukuta as his team
mates.
For greater efficiency in the disposal of cases that come
before us, we are
introducing other changes that will unfold during the
course of the year.
CRIMINAL CASES
We have managed to accumulate
embarrassing backlogs in our criminal
division. Delays of four or more years
are now fast becoming the norm rather
than the exception. Trials are set
down and fail to take off for a number of
reasons adding to the backlog. In
his report to the Chief Justice, the
Registrar expressed the need on the
part of the courts, prisons, the police
and the Attorney-General's office to
synchronise their operations. He
proposed the setting up of a joint Liaison
Committee that should meet
regularly and report on progress. I fully support
his suggestion as the only
possible way forward. Acting alone none of us
will make any headway in
reducing the backlog or in stamping out
crime.
In its comment, the Herald of Friday 12 January 2007 put it in
language that
I wish to borrow when it said "it is important to understand
that the police
arrest on suspicion and not on conclusive evidence, which is
why the
likelihood of wrongful arrest is also high".
The Criminal
Justice delivery system is neatly structured in such a way that
the police
will arrest on suspicion, the Attorney General will accuse on
prima facie
evidence, the legal fraternity will defend at all times and the
courts will
convict on proof beyond reasonable doubt. Each office has a role
to play and
when the system fails to play out in full, the suspect or
accused person is
entitled to his or her freedom.
CONCLUSION
While 2006 was a difficult
year for us in the judiciary, our spirits were
somewhat lifted by efforts
from well wishers who engaged us in various
discussion on enhancing the
capacity of the judiciary and in reiterating
what we have always believed
that the fortunes of Zimbabwe cannot be turned
without an impartial, vibrant
and efficient justice delivery system. To all
those who dialogued with us in
2006, I say thank you for your support.
Finally, I would like to command
the cordial relationships that exist
between the courts and the legal
profession, the police, prisons and the
office of the Attorney General.
Dialogue has already been opened between my
office and the other four
offices for the enhancement of justice delivery in
the High Court. Let
mutual respect continue to be the force that binds us.
Let the strengthening
of the justice delivery system be our rallying call
and let respect of the
rule of law and the rights of all Zimbabweans be the
principles that guide
us and let the best interests of the people of
Zimbabwe be our common vision
and justice our common goal.
With these few remarks, I pronounce the 2007
legal year open. The Court will
now stand while Reverend Eben Nhiwatiwa of
the United Methodist Church leads
us in prayer. After the prayer the court
will adjourn to the courtyard where
refreshments have been laid out for
us.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Zim Online
Wednesday 17 January 2007
HARARE
- A special parliamentary committee on Tuesday said it plans to begin
probing members of President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet suspected of
involvement in "shady diamond and gold deals" while the police confirmed
they were investigating several top officials they suspect of illegally
dealing in precious minerals.
Chairman of Parliament's portfolio
committee on mines, energy and the
environment, Joel Gabuza, said while
ordinary villagers were blamed for
panning for diamonds and gold for sale to
local and foreign black-market
dealers, the worst culprits were the "chefs"
(a colloquial reference to
powerful politicians).
"Villagers are just
a small component of those benefiting from the diamonds.
On a larger scale
we have the chefs, including some (Cabinet) ministers who
could be taking
advantage of the chaotic situation to engage in shady gold
and diamond
deals," said Gabuza by phone.
"We would first conduct the probe, call in
those we think have issues to
answer and then present a report to
Parliament, complete with names of
culprits," added Gabuza, who is a
legislator of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party.
He
did not say when exactly the committee planned to begin the
probe.
Speculation has always been rife that powerful ruling ZANU PF
party and
government politicians were behind the upsurge in illegal mining
of precious
minerals and smuggling them out of the country.
The World
Diamond Council (WDC) last month accused River Ranch Diamond
Mines - a
Zimbabwean firm owned by the husband of the country's
Vice-President Joice
Mujuru, ZANU PF politician Tirivanhu Mudariki and
others - of smuggling
diamonds mined in Zimbabwe and "blood diamonds" from
the Congo into South
Africa.
The smuggled diamonds are certified as clean under the Kimberly
Process
before being sold to unsuspecting international buyers, the WDC
said, a
charge River Ranch has vehemently denied.
But the European
Commission that is current chair of the Kimberley Process,
an international
vehicle to control trade in diamonds while preventing or
limiting trade in
diamonds produced from conflict zones, on Tuesday said it
was aware of
"concerns that diamonds from Zimbabwe may currently be traded
illicitly".
EC spokesman in Harare Josiah Kusena told the Press that
the Kimberley
Process was gathering information before it could decide on
further action,
if any, to take against Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile,
authoritative sources told ZimOnline that the police in
Manicaland province
were closing in on three senior members of the
government at the forefront
of illegal mining activities in the province.
The three, whose names we
are withholding for legal reasons, all hold senior
posts in ZANU PF and in
Mugabe's Cabinet.
One of the politicians is said to have organised
villagers into gangs that
routinely raid gold claims in Nyanga district and
belonging to South
African-owned Mettallon mining firm. The politician then
smuggles the gold
especially to South Africa for sale on the black
market.
Another of the politicians is said to have organised teachers and
villagers
in Marange district to mine diamonds at the Chiadzwa diamond field
that was
discovered last year. He also smuggles the diamonds to South
Africa.
"Each time the villagers are arrested for illegal mining, the
politicians
are ready with the money for fines so they are released," said a
source, who
is part of the police team investigating the
politicians.
Police spokesman, Oliver Mandipaka, confirmed the law
enforcement agency was
investigating senior officials for illegally dealing
in precious minerals
but he would not disclose further
details.
Mandipaka said: "Cases involving illegal mineral deals are on
the top of our
investigations and several top people are being investigated.
But I cannot
commit myself to any particular case. But the public will see
for themselves
how serious we are when arrests are made."
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono has publicly admitted that
revenue
from gold sales sharply dropped over the past few years because most
of the
precious mineral was being sold to illegal dealers instead of the
central
bank that is the only one permitted by law to buy gold.
While diamond
industry experts say Zimbabwe could have lost nearly US$300
million worth of
the mineral after villagers, illegal panners, dealers and
smugglers invaded
the Chiadzwa diamond fields last year. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 17 January
2007
HARARE - The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday
said it was monitoring
Zimbabwe's diamond industry following reports
diamonds were being smuggled
from the southern African nation for sale on
the international market in
violation of the Kimberly Process.
The EC
is current chair of the Kimberly Process, an international vehicle
that
monitors and controls the world diamond trade while seeking to prevent
or
limit trade in diamonds produced from conflict or war zones.
In a
statement to the media yesterday, the EC's spokesman in Harare, Josiah
Kusena, said the commission was working with the Zimbabwean authorities to
monitor the situation.
"The European Commission has been notified of
concerns that diamonds from
Zimbabwe may currently be being traded
illicitly, in violation of Kimberley
Process Rules," said Kusena.
"At
this stage, the Kimberley Process is gathering information and assessing
the
facts. It would not be appropriate to comment on the situation any
further
until it is established whether any further action is required,"
Kusena
added.
Two weeks ago, the World Diamond Council (WDC) accused River
Diamond Ranch
Mine, a firm partly owned by Zimbabwe's former army commander
Solomon
Mujuru, of smuggling diamonds into South Africa for sale on the
international market.
The council also accused the Zimbabwean firm of
mixing its own production
with "blood diamonds" from the Democratic Republic
of the Congo before they
are issued with Kimberly Process Certificate and
sold to unsuspecting
international buyers.
River Ranch strongly
rejected the allegations, saying the WDC of acting on
the basis of "false
rumour" and bias against the company. Zimbabwe Mines
Minister Amos Midzi
accused the council of being influenced by Western
governments that are
opposed to Harare and happy to see diamonds from
Zimbabwe banned from the
international market.
But Kusena said decisions in the Kimberly Process
were based on consensus of
all participating countries of which Zimbabwe was
one.
The Kimberly Process has 71 member countries that produce about 99
percent
of the world's diamonds.
Last year's discovery of rich
diamond fields in Marange district in eastern
Zimbabwe has triggered a
diamond rush in the country with reports suggesting
that diamonds from the
area were being sold to black market traders some
from as far afield as
Israel.
Harare has since last month arrested more than 22 000 people in
an ongoing
crackdown against illegal diamond and gold miners and traders. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 17 January 2007
KAROI - A Karoi
magistrate on Monday dismissed charges against two leading
opposition
officials and 28 other party supporters who were accused of
violating the
country's tough Public Order and Security Act (POSA) citing
lack of
evidence.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials, Blessing
Chebundo and
Kariba executive mayor John Houghton, were arrested in the
resort town of
Kariba while campaigning for the party's candidates ahead of
rural district
council elections last September.
The opposition
officials and their supporters were accused of holding an
illegal political
meeting without first seeking approval from the police, an
offence under
POSA.
They were detained for three days before being released on Z$10 000
bail.
But on Monday, magistrate Elisha Singano threw out the case against
the MDC
officials and activists saying there was no prima facie case against
the
accused.
"The magistrate threw out the case because of lack of
evidence," Chebundo
told ZimOnline yesterday.
Mucheneripi and
Associates, the lawyers who represented Chebundo and the MDC
supporters also
confirmed the dismissal of the case.
Several officials from the
splintered MDC party have been arrested over the
past seven years on charges
of violating the country's security laws but
only to be freed by the
courts.
The MDC accuses President Robert Mugabe's government of using the
law to
harass and stifle the opposition party's activities to maintain its
stranglehold on power. The government denies the charge. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
16 January
2007
Students at the Bulawayo Polytechnic and United College
of Education
boycotted classes Tuesday to protest just-announced tuition
increases of
2,000%.
Zimbabwe National Students Union President
Promise Mkwananzi said protests
as well as class boycotts were in store for
campuses across the country.
Higher Education Minister Stan Mudenge was
to meet with students Thursday
over the large and controversial increase in
university fees.
Mkwananzi told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio
7 for Zimbabwe that
efforts to address the cost of higher education needed
to be pursued in the
context of the larger movement to bringing about a
change in the national
government.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
16 January
2007
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe has given the
government 14 days
notice that its members will go out on strike if the
government fails to
raise teachers' pay to a minimum of Z$3 million a month,
or about US$850.
Harare has just raised civil service salaries 300%,
taking the minimum
teacher salary to a monthly $84,000, or some US$24 at the
parallel currency
exchange rate. But teachers say this is a paltry level of
compensation given
the cost of living.
Zimbabwe consumer inflation
reached 1,181% in December, and the cost of some
essential commodities has
been doubling month by month.
The teachers also want to be excused from
paying school fees for their
dependents, demanding the same benefit that war
veterans already receive.
PTUZ General Secretary Raymond Majongwe told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his union
working in unison with other
teachers unions.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By RBZ
THE Board of directors of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe wishes to advise
members of the public that the recent newspaper
article carried in The
Standard of Sunday the 7th of January, 2007, alleging
that the governor of
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe bought a US$365 000 Brabus
Mercedes Benz, is
entirely and totally false.
The Board of Directors
wishes to place on record that since 1 December 2003,
the Governor was using
his own personal vehicles, in particular, his old
Mercedes Benzes, S500 and
S320, both of which were brought with him from his
previous
employers.
Consistent with his contract of employment, in September,
2005, the Board
approved the purchase of a vehicle, an S500, Mercedes Benz,
at a price of
US$138 000, for use by the Governor.
Instead of the
Bank paying for the said vehicle for him, the governor
requested that the
purchase price as approved by the board be a loan to
enable him to top-up
and purchase a vehicle of his own choice.
This vehicle was delivered by
ZIMOCO nine months later in May, 2006. This
car Dr Gono later upgraded to an
S600 through a swap and top-up arrangement
at a local garage, which car he
is driving to date. The top-up was paid in
local currency.
The
allegations about the Mercedes Benz Brabus are, therefore, wholly and
totally untrue and entirely a creation of the media house and the journalist
who wrote the story!
As a corporate body, the Reserve Bank, its
Staff, Management and Board have
equally stood grossly victimised and
humiliated by this false article.
Given the anxiety this falsehood must
have caused to the Governor, our
Principals in Government, the Corporate
Sector, Labour, Civic Society and
all other Stakeholders here at home,
within the region and internationally,
the Board of Directors has resolved
that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe should
take immediate steps to bring legal
action on the media houses concerned,
The Standard and The Zimbabwean, as
corporate entities, and against Mr
Caiphas Chimhete in his individual
capacity as the instigator of the
damaging falsehood.
The Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe Board of Directors wishes to assure members of
the public
that all expenditures by the Bank are ad by the Board and in this
regard,
the Board will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the integrity of
the
Central Bank is preserved.
The Board also wishes to take this opportunity
to assure all stakeholders
that as always, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will
continue to jealously
guard the use of the scarce foreign exchange resources
of the country and
allocate the same to National pressing priority
areas.
Thank you.
BY ORDER OF THE BOARD
L.P.
CHIHOTA
CHAIRMAN
HUMAN RESOURCES BOARD COMMITTEE
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
BULAWAYO, 16 Jan
2007 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's former minister of information and
publicity,
Jonathan Moyo, intends to move a bill seeking to provide justice
for the
massacre of more than 20,000 members of the minority Ndebele ethnic
group by
Zimbabwean security forces nearly 20 years ago.
Government officials have
been dismissive of the proposed bill, citing the
fact that it came from a
former ally of President Robert Mugabe who was
sacked in 2005 for his role
in organising resistance to Mugabe's succession
plans. They have also said
the bill threatened to undo a peace accord signed
in 1987 to end a five-year
reign of terror in the southern provinces of
Midlands and Matabeleland by
Zimbabwean soldiers of Five Brigade, who were
trained by North
Korea.
Gukurahundi, meaning 'the first rains of the season which wash
away all the
chaff' in the Shona language, was the name given to the
operation that began
two years after Zimbabwe gained independence from
Britain in 1980, following
the liberation war against the white minority
government of Ian Smith.
The main opposition groups fighting the war
against Smith's government were
the late Joshua Nkomo's PF-ZAPU, which drew
most of its support from the
Ndebele people in southwestern Zimbabwe, and
Mugabe's ZANU, whose cadres
were mainly drawn from the majority Shona people
in the north.
Operation Gukurahundi, condemned internationally for the
violence it
unleashed for five years on mainly rural Ndebele between 1982
and 1987,
ended when the Unity Accord was signed and the two political
parties merged
under the banner of ZANU-PF.
Called the Gukurahundi
Memorial Bill, the proposed legislation intends to
criminalise denial of the
campaign. It will also advocate for a memorial to
those killed, and the
establishment of a fund to compensate those affected
by the
operation.
Moyo, an abrasive defender of the Mugabe regime before 2005,
told IRIN that
contrary to government accusations that he was seeking to
polarise the
country along ethnic lines, he wanted to record an accurate
account of the
country's history and open avenues of redress for those who
had been
affected.
"We should not be ashamed of recording the past,
because it is our history
whether we like to hear about it or not. The
episode affected our people in
many ways, and they remain victims up to this
day because they have not been
helped out of the stagnation of development
that came as a result of that
war."
Moyo, who is also the MP for
Tsholotsho, a district that bore the brunt of
Gukurahundi operations in
Matabeleland North, said, "The perpetrators may
not need it, but the
victims, including thousands in my constituency, still
want an apology, if
not justice."
Government spokespersons and former PF-ZAPU leaders in
Matabeleland have
pleaded with people to ignore the bill, dismissing it as
motivated by Moyo's
desire to revive his waning political fortunes rather
than a pursuit of
justice.
ZANU-PF national chairman John Nkomo, a
former PF-ZAPU leader who is also
the Speaker of Parliament, told IRIN that
no one has ever denied the
existence of Gukurahundi, but said Moyo's bill
would reopen "old wounds"
healed by the Unity Accord.
"Even President
Mugabe has acknowledged Gukurahundi as a time of madness,
which must never
be repeated, so that means government is in a position to
redress what
happened then without having to be bound by any bills," Nkomo
said.
"We must be careful when handling such issues because they
affect the
national unity symbolised by the unification of ZANU-PF and
PF-ZAPU into the
united ZANU-PF we have today. Gukurahundi has always been
steeped in tribal
overtones pitting the Ndebele against the Shona, and no
one wants to revisit
such a divisive era."
Although he admitted that
underdevelopment in the Midlands and Matabeleland
regions could be linked to
the post-independence state of emergency that was
only lifted in 1990, Nkomo
said there was no deliberate government ploy to
marginalise the provinces.
"Government is doing all it can to develop
Matabeleland - many programmes
are lagging behind because of a nationwide
lack of funding. I am sure a way
will be found to address those problems."
Dumiso Dabengwa, a former
PF-ZAPU leader who held various ministerial
portfolios in the post-unity
government, told IRIN that although Gukurahundi
was an undeniable reality,
the Unity Accord had provided an amnesty and
national reconciliation without
prosecution for both sides.
"Those who were supposed to have been taken
to court were not taken to
court. The Unity Accord was signed so that we
should move forward, but Moyo
seeks to take us back to that era and that is
divisive," Dabengwa said.
However, government's views have been
overshadowed by a surge of public
support for Moyo's bill in the
Matabeleland regions, where most of the
victims live.
Opinion-makers
from the region have applauded Moyo's initiative as a
necessary contribution
to a subject long considered taboo; many have said
the bill was necessary to
remove the veil of silence on the massacres, while
others reasoned that it
would expose the perpetrators and ensure that
justice for the victims was
not sacrificed for the sake of national unity.
"If one looks at the
record of government on Gukurahundi, there has been no
formal apology or
clear acknowledgment of this sad chapter," said Progress
Ngwenya, a
political and human rights activist with the Post Independence
Survivors
Trust, a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) advocating for justice
for the
victims of the Gukurahundi operation based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second
largest city, in Matabeleland North.
"We continue to hear many reckless
statements from senior government
officials celebrating this dirty episode
as a justified military exercise.
With the bill like the one Moyo is
proposing, these people can be called
account."
Jethro Mpofu, a
political commentator and government critic, said Moyo's
bill did not pose a
threat to unity but to the "unrepentant" perpetrators.
"The perpetrators
have not apologised or shown any remorse. Gukurahundi will
not be forgotten
because the victims are still suffering the many effects of
mass human
slaughter. Many who lost their parents do not have birth or
national
identity cards, so they cannot go to school. The correction of the
development imbalances which resulted from the era remains
pending."
As evidence that the Mugabe regime remained unrepentant about
Gukurahundi,
commentators have cited a recent comment by ZANU-PF spokesman
Nathan
Shamuyarira, who said government did not regret the killings because
they
happened during a legitimate state security operation.
However,
President Robert Mugabe acknowledged in 1999 that soldiers sent to
fight a
PF-ZAPU dissident insurgency "went beyond limits" by killing
innocent
civilians. "We had differences and engaged in a reckless,
unprincipled fight
within ourselves. It was an act of madness; we killed
each other; we
destroyed each other's property," Mugabe said at a memorial
service for
former vice-president and PF-ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo.
The government has
consistently refused to publicise the findings of the
1983 Chihambakwe
Commission, appointed by Mugabe to investigate allegations
of civilian
massacres. The commission was headed by Justice Chihambakwe,
then a High
Court judge. The findings of another probe, led the following
year by
retired judge Enock Dumbutshena, were also not released.
According to a
report compiled in 1997 by the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace, a
faith-based NGO, more that 20,000 civilians, mainly
PF-ZAPU supporters, were
killed by security forces during the operation. The
report, 'Breaking the
Silence, Building True Peace', recorded official
statements that had
allegedly fanned the killings, and provided evidence of
mass graves and the
location of mine shafts where bodies had been thrown.
The report
recommended a national reconciliation process, a proper burial
for the
victims and compensation packages for those affected, with
accelerated
development for the affected regions of the southwest.
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
BULAWAYO, 16 Jan
2007 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's public health delivery system has
ground to a halt
as nurses and doctors in rural areas join their urban
counterparts in a
stayaway over low salaries and poor working conditions.
Health personnel,
on average, earn less than US$240 (at the official
exchange rate) a month
and are demanding a salary hike of 8,000 percent,
with hefty allowances to
cushion themselves against an inflation rate of
over 1,200 percent annually,
and high transport and food costs.
A compromise reached between the
health minister and striking personnel has
collapsed, with the strikers
declaring they will not resume work until their
monthly salaries are raised
to about US$20,000.
Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, spokesperson for the Hospital
Doctors Association,
told IRIN, "The job action continues and until our
demands are met ...
doctors and nurses in the countryside, some of whom have
been reporting for
duty, have also started boycotting. This is only fair for
them, because they
are also affected by the low salaries and poor working
conditions that we
are protesting."
Nolwazi Sibanda, 27, a striking
nurse in a government-run clinic in
Madlambuzi, a poverty-ravaged hamlet in
southern Zimbabwe, said, "First and
foremost I need a sustainable salary,
like any other professional. The
houses that we live in are dilapidated and
we are saying we need decent
accommodation, and a car allowance so that we
can buy our own cars.
"Besides, government should also equip its clinics
and hospitals with
appropriate medical requirements to ensure smooth service
delivery. As we
speak, there are no medicines in our clinic," she
said.
"We had a meeting with the health minister last week and he said
that
government could only afford us a 300 percent salary increment, but we
refused to take that offer because it fell far short of the Z$5 million
(about US$20,000 at the official rate) that we are demanding, " said
Nyamutukwa.
"Things are hard and living conditions for those who
administer public
healthcare have plummeted: you surely cannot have a doctor
earning Z$60,000
(US$240) ... enough to purchase just 3kg of beef. It's
unacceptable.
Government should act quickly to avert a looming disaster -
already patients
are suffering; some have died needlessly because of the
strike," he
commented.
The job action in the past three weeks has
left dozens of patients desperate
for medical care stranded in rural as well
as urban areas. A few well-heeled
Zimbabweans have resorted to private
health institutions, which charge
tariffs unaffordable to a general public
grappling with an unemployment
level above 80 percent and inflation that has
reached 1,281 percent, the
highest in the world.
According to the
Central Statistics Office, the cost of living has continued
to surge, with a
family of six needing US$1,406 to subsist in January 2007,
compared to the
US$982 a monthly it required in December last year.
Analysts have warned
that Zimbabwe may experience more work boycotts and
street protests as
hardship escalates, sparking political violence against a
government accused
by many of ruining the once vibrant economy of a country
that used to be
known as the breadbasket of southern Africa.
Deputy health minister Edwin
Muguti told IRIN the government had revised a
car loan scheme for health
public workers from about US$2,798 to about
US$16,000, and added that
further salary adjustments were on the cards.
"We acknowledge that the
strike has crippled the health sector, and many
people have been forced to
seek treatment at private institutions, which are
often expensive to
consult. Now ... car loan scheme adjustments [are done],
and we have started
looking into salary adjustments. But one thing for sure
is that government
will not afford the Z$5 million these people are
demanding - it's just too
much for us," said Muguti.
Patients and the general public, stung by the
crippling industrial action,
have no kind words for the
authorities.
"Our government is so callous; it seems they cannot see that
we are
suffering," said Thembisiwe Mpofu, a patient at a government-run
clinic. "I
have nagging internal pains, for which I had to end up borrowing
money from
family members to visit a private doctor, all because government
does not
want to increase these people's salaries. It's unfair - people will
surely
die."
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Most used to work on white commercial farms, becoming destitute
following
the land reform programme.
By Benedict Unendoro in
Harare (AR No. 89, 16-Jan-07)
Jim Rose, who was struck and killed a few
weeks ago by a motorist while
riding on his bicycle to Harare from his home
in Chitungwiza 30 kilometres
away, was considered rather odd by the
standards of modern Zimbabwe.
A white man who said he was born in New
York, he was a retired civil
engineer who fifteen years ago married Mavis, a
black woman. Their family
home is in a working-class residential area called
Unit L in Chitungwiza.
His frail looks belied an inner strength that
enabled him to cycle an
average 60 kilometres daily from Chitungwiza to
Harare, and back, and also
to get used to living in a poor neighbourhood
often characterised by flowing
raw sewage. The people of Chitungwiza grew to
embrace him as their own and
nicknamed him "Murewa", an affectionate moniker
given without prejudice to
white people who are comfortable living among
blacks.
"Rhodies" - as whites who long for the old pre-Zimbabwe days of
white-ruled
Rhodesia are known - called such white people "niggerboeties"
[nigger
lovers] and despised them.
Jim was seen putting on the same
colour of clothing every day. His widow
Mavis told IWPR her husband's
wardrobe had more than ten sets of identical
clothes. "He just felt that
those were the type of clothes suited to him and
his community," she
said.
Jim was part of a new group of people in President Robert Mugabe's
Zimbabwe
informally classified as "poor whites".
A University of
Zimbabwe sociologist, who preferred not to be named, told
IWPR, "In Rhodesia
whites generally were a privileged class. It was
impossible to see a poor
white person because of a philosophy of 'esprit de
corps'. If one white man
hit hard times the others would come to the rescue.
They had an elaborate
set of homes for all sorts of people where the poor
ones were either hidden
or rehabilitated.
"Since independence this system has broken down,
firstly because the new
order saw it as discriminatory but, secondly,
because the rich whites became
fewer and fewer as they either emigrated or
saw their fortunes wane as the
Zimbabwean economy began to falter in the
1990s."
The number of poor whites began to increase at the turn of the
millennium,
mainly with the advent of Mugabe's land reform programme, in
which vast
swathes of commercial agricultural land were confiscated from
white farmers.
"Most of the poor whites we are seeing on the streets of
Harare used to live
on farms where they were employed, [largely] to
supervise black labour,"
said the sociologist. "Most of them are of limited
education and therefore
cannot stand on their own. So when the white
commercial farmers who
supported them were chucked off the farms these white
guys found themselves
destitute."
Indications are that there are more
poor whites than are generally evident
on the streets. "Most of them are
fiercely proud and would rather remain
destitute in their homes than be seen
on the streets," continued the
sociologist. But at a shopping centre in
Eastlea, just outside Harare's
central business district, the evidence is
stark. Five destitute white men,
aged between thirty and sixty, have thrown
pride and caution to the wind and
beg openly. They marshal cars into parking
bays and offer to clean and guard
them while the owners do their shopping.
The shoppers are mostly well-to-do
black people and the poor whites do not
seem to mind begging from blacks.
One shopper told IWPR how an elderly
white woman approached him asking for
money. "She said her husband, a
pensioner, had a serious back pain which
needed urgent medication but they
could not afford it on his pension,"
according to the shopper, who said he
was unable to guess whether this was a
genuine case of need or whether the
woman was trying to con him. He however
gave her some money and she moved on
to another customer to beg more money.
"She looked like somebody with an
alcohol problem and I feared the money I
gave was not for her husband's
medication," said the man.
Zimbabwean pensioners of all races are the
hardest hit by the
seven-year-long economic recession. Their lives' work has
been eaten away by
the country's astronomical inflation, which in the early
days of 2007
reached a record level of 1,281 per cent, by far the highest in
the world.
Most pensioners live on less than 10,000 Zimbabwe dollars a month
[4 US
dollars at the almost universally-used black market rate, which
reflects
realistically the true value of Zimbabwe's currency] - enough to
buy only
ten loaves of bread. For all intents and purposes, pensioners are
living at
the extreme ranges of penury.
But do poor whites form a
special class that needs special attention?
"It's a question that demands
a lot of sober thought," said a veteran black
journalist in Harare, who
asked not to be named. "I think the answer is 'yes',
but then there are a
lot of other poor people who need attention. In
Arcadia, for example, the
Coloured (mixed race) community is falling apart
because of grinding
poverty. You should see how the whole community is being
destroyed by cheap
alcohol which has become their only refuge from poverty."
Arcadia is a
district in southern Harare that was designated the district
for Coloured
people to live during the era of white rule. It has remained a
traditional
Coloured suburb. The community was considered a buffer between
supremacist
whites and the black majority, to the extent that they enjoyed
more
privileges than their black mothers, cousins, aunts and uncles - but
fewer
opportunities than their white forebears.
"Every civilised country should
have a sort of safety net for its poor,
regardless of who they are," the
Harare journalist told IWPR. "But Robert
Mugabe has created a strong
anti-white sentiment that is loudly-hailed
everyday in the public media to
the point where, in the end, it seems the
only poor people are
black."
He said that non-governmental organisations also tended to pander
to the
myth, continuing, "They think food aid should only be for blacks in
rural
areas or underprivileged black communities in working class suburbs.
But we
have a huge crisis in predominantly Coloured areas and areas formerly
preserves of the white population."
He argued that in Zimbabwe's
current dire situation black people were
generally less vulnerable and were
marginally better off than their white
and Coloured fellow countrymen.
"First," he said, "most blacks have two
homes, one in the urban areas and
the other in the rural areas. The two
supplement each other. Hence when hard
times hit they can send some family
members back home to the countryside,
and if hard times hit the rural areas
those in the cities will always chip
in with various forms of help."
He said the African extended family
system remained invaluable for the black
population, even in Zimbabwe's
unusually disastrous context - unlike the
situation in the more
individualistic white and Coloured communities. Jim
Rose, the white
American, must have found the extended family a comfort and
solace
throughout the years he lived in the black community of Chitungwiza.
The
journalist added, "I think non-government organisations should begin
focusing on the poor whites and Coloureds. Otherwise if we allow these two
groups to perish from hunger and poverty, what would be the difference
between that and ethnic cleansing?"
Benedict Unendoro is the
pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in Zimbabwe.
New Zimbabwe
By
Dr Alex T. Magaisa
Last updated: 01/16/2007 12:12:47
ONE of the benefits
of public writing is that the writer profits from
interaction with people
from all parts of the globe when they respond with
comments and suggestions
on the subjects covered in the writings.
After reading my recent article
on the dynamics of change in Zanu PF and
Zimbabwean politics generally, a
good friend and generous reader reminded me
of a famous quote by
Machiavelli, the famed Italian politician and thinker
of the Renaissance
period, whose works on political thought have become
major planks of
political philosophy.
It is not the purpose of this article to assess
Machiavelli's political
philosophy (which is a monumental task that is best
left to more
knowledgeable men and women of philosophy) but I will
shamelessly prise and
use that famous quote on change because it can help us
explore and
understand the challenges faced by those willing to pursue
change in
Zimbabwean politics, whether in Zanu PF, the MDC or Zimbabwe
generally. In
his most famous political treatise on the dynamics of gaining
and
maintaining power, The Prince, Machiavelli stated that,
"It must
be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out,
nor more
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate
a new
order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit
by the
old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit
by the
new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their
adversaries,
who have the laws in their favour; and partly from the
incredulity of
mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they
have had actual
experience of it. Thus it arises that on every opportunity
for attacking the
reformer, his opponents do so with the zeal of partisans,
the others only
defend him half-heartedly, so that between them he runs
great
danger."
In this brief quotation, Machiavelli captures an explanation of
why it is
difficult for those who wish to pursue change within a particular
context.
It is such a beautiful quote because it can be applied not just in
relation
to political power but indeed to all forms of power or units, be it
the
family, the corporate organisation, or any other unit in which people
are
involved. Whenever change is an issue there are at least three players:
the
change agents; that is, people that seek to lead change, then there are
those that resist change and finally the ordinary members that are
pro-change.
As we saw in the last article, there is evidence in Zanu
PF of those that
have an appetite to change the leadership structure. The
significance of
what is now called the Tsholotsho Declaration is that it
demonstrated the
presence of change agents within Zanu PF. However the
aftermath of that
event consisting of the suspension and dismissals from key
posts of persons
suspected of having been involved also demonstrates the
perils faced by
change agents. More recently, the apparent lack of consensus
on key issues
at the recent Zanu PF Congress at Goromonzi has shown that the
presence and
appetite of change agents has not diminished. Nevertheless,
there is also a
core component of anti-change agents; those that favour the
status quo and
therefore have show a reluctance to
change.
Machiavelli's words indicate that initiating a new order is not
only
difficult to handle but it can also be a dangerous exercise. The
biggest
impediment is represented by those that profit from the existing
order. They
enjoy the benefits of the status quo and depend for their
survival both
literally and politically on the existing order. They owe
their status to
the patronage of the leadership and therefore have the most
to lose from any
change of leadership. This might explain the dogged
resistance to change by
a seemingly large section of Zanu PF, when it is
clear that change is not
only necessary but inevitable.
Life might be
extremely tough for the majority, but there is a section that
is thriving,
perhaps better than they have ever done before. They are even
prepared to
postpone change in order to continue enjoying the benefits of
the current
order. How can you, when you hold a senior government position
where you set
the rules, with its generous official and unofficial perks,
and you are also
a new farmer with interests in the lucrative tobacco and
flower industry,
and you have unlimited access to financial lines meant to
empower the
formerly oppressed, all of which enable you to purchase with
your own cash
the most luxurious automobile there is in the world and build
the most
luxurious property and perhaps even enable you to marry another
wife?
The same could be said on the national scale, where those
Zimbabweans that
believe that they are doing well in the current economic
conditions are not
very keen on change. It is not surprising that those that
have benefited
from exploiting the current economic landscape have no desire
or concern for
change because making things right would immediately wipe out
their cash
cows. Similarly, in the MDC, resistance to change in leadership
could be
explained by the fact that those that are attached to the old order
have
interests to safeguard, which would be vulnerable if change were to
take
place.
The change agents might be bolder if they were confident
of receiving the
support of those that are pro-change. Arguably, there are
ordinary members
of Zanu PF who are amenable to change both at the party
level. Like every
other citizen, they suffer due to the deterioration of the
national economy
and they have not benefited from the cronyism and
corruption that has
sustained the wealth of those leaders who are against
change. The problem
however, as Machiavelli pointed out, is that their
support for those leading
change is only lukewarm. That support is lukewarm
and lacks the necessary
boldness that would otherwise drive change because
firstly, they fear that
the leaders that resist change have power at their
disposal which they can
use against them, whether through legal or non-legal
means.
The same argument is probably more pronounced at the national
level, where
the opposition supporters have had a lukewarm approach because
Zanu PF has
both the legal and non-legal machinery, which they deploy to
thwart any
attempts at effecting change. The raft of laws and the deployment
of the
security forces in recent years is clear evidence of this. Perhaps in
the
same way, those within Zanu PF that are prepared to seek change are
apprehensive because the opponents of change appear to have the legal and
security machinery within their control. However, in the event that the
change agents within Zanu PF have control of these power institutions, then
their fear of pursuing change may be easier to overcome.
The other
reason in Machiavelli's quote for the lukewarm support among
change agents
is that by nature people like to experience something new
before they can
believe in it. There is a certain inertia whereby people are
more
comfortable with an existing order for no reason other than that they
are
used to it. We examined this behaviour in the previous article, and
pointed
out that people are generally reluctant to change the order of
things and
even if they know that it might benefit them, they are not sure
they want to
disturb the status quo. This lukewarm support does not
encourage the change
agents, who find themselves vulnerable.
The purge of change-agents that
followed the Tsholotsho Declaration in
2004-5 and the lack of visible
support for those people by Zanu PF members
who may have been pro-change is
probably a good example of the lukewarm
approach often given to change
agents. Similarly, events in the near future
may be indicative of how those
who did not appear to support proposals to
effectively maintain the status
quo at the recent Goromonzi Congress will be
treated. However, much will
depend on the power that is held by the change
agents, because if they are
in control of key structures of power, such as
the security and economic
structures, they may not be as easy to
marginalise. In fact, there may be a
balance of power between the pro-change
and anti-change agents, which will
tip one way or the other depending on the
circumstances.
Finally, the
quote at the core of this article is capable of being applied
not only in
assessing the dynamics of change within Zanu PF but also as I
have indicated
in parts, it can be applied within the context of the MDC and
indeed more
generally on the dynamics of change in Zimbabwe as a whole.
There is really
nothing new in all this, but Machiavelli's quote
crystallises the issues in
a more beautiful way that I thought it would make
an appropriate sequel to
the earlier article in which I questioned the
apparent reluctance of Zanu PF
as a party to make reforms especially at a
time when it appears beneficial
not only to its fortunes but also to the
country's future, seeing as it is
that Zanu PF remains a major player on the
political landscape.
The
fact is, there will always be a significant sector that resists change
because they are beneficiaries of the existing order and the reformists have
to be more pragmatic in dealing with the challenges. There will be a lot of
people who support change but are reluctant to show it because they fear
that those benefiting from the status quo have control of the power
structures, which they can use against them. The key, I suppose, is if
change agents have some measure of control of these power structures which
power they can demonstrate in order to gain the confidence and therefore
bolder support of those ordinary members that are pro-change. The same
applies in Zanu PF as it does within the MDC and on the broader national
political landscape.
Dr Magaisa can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Unless Mugabe addresses the country's multiple problems, he may be
hit by
dangerous public unrest before the year is out.
By
David Gorimbo in Harare (AR No. 89, 16-Jan-07)
As the sun rises
on the New Year in Africa, there seems to be no solution
ahead to a
disastrous political and economic situation in Zimbabwe that only
deteriorates faster by the day.
The shameful state of the nation
heaps dishonour on both the ruling ZANU PF
party and the fractured
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC,
analysts argue.
With
no respite in sight to the problems that have bedevilled the country
for the
past seven years, Zimbabweans were greeted in the early days of 2007
with
the news that the official inflation rate had reached a new record high
of
1,218 per cent.
That is far ahead of the world's second highest inflation
rate - about 60
per cent in Myanmar/Burma. However, economists believe
officials are
understating a true inflation rate of near 2,000 per cent,
with the
International Monetary Fund predicting that Zimbabwe's inflation
will exceed
4,500 per cent before the end of the year.
Such runaway
figures make it difficult for Zimbabweans to calculate their
plight
mathematically. But more than 80 per cent of the workforce are only
too
aware that they are without jobs, as businesses lay off staff at an
accelerating pace or simply close. Meanwhile, the minority who are still in
work have seen the real value of their incomes slashed by inflation as they
watch prices of essential goods rise daily and as they grapple with rising
transport costs, house rents, and medical and school fees.
They watch
the public infrastructure crumbling as they suffer under constant
electricity and water cuts and the flooding of their streets and back yards
from broken sewer pipes that no longer get repaired.
The crisis,
almost universally blamed on mismanagement by President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU
PF government, is fuelling unprecedented political tensions in
a country
that for two decades after independence in 1980 was regarded as
one of the
most stable and prosperous in Africa.
Public resentment is so great that
most analysts now believe that unless
Mugabe and his colleagues can address
the country's multiple problems they
will face dangerous public unrest
before the year is out.
Among a raft of grievances, there is massive
anger over Mugabe's plan to
postpone a presidential election scheduled for
next year until 2010, by when
Mugabe will be 86-years-old and will have been
in power for thirty years.
The crisis has been made worse by a serious
split in the MDC, which until
three years ago was seen as a real contender
for power to lift Zimbabwe from
the catastrophe that has engulfed it. The
failure of the two shards of the
splintered MDC to close ranks and come up
with a united plan to alleviate
the suffering of the majority of Zimbabweans
has caused widespread
disillusion.
"The whole economic decline will
reach rock bottom this year and the social
upheaval that will result from it
can bring down the present government if
it is not contained," John
Robertson, the country's leading independent
economic consultant, told
IWPR.
Robertson spoke as the latest fuel shortage to grip Zimbabwe
threatened to
bring the entire southern African nation to a halt, with only
a handful of
garages in Harare and other centres still selling petrol and
diesel to
commercial transport companies and motorists.
Queues for
food have also lengthened in recent weeks as more retailers have
run out of
basic commodities whose prices have been frozen by the government
in what it
says is an attempt to protect consumers from the soaring cost of
living. But
manufacturers, hurt by the freeze on prices which they say are
now below the
cost of production, have scaled down production of controlled
products,
worsening the shortages that already characterised Zimbabwe's
economic
crisis following mismanaged agrarian reforms.
The price controls have
further stoked a black market in almost all
products. The cost of goods has
risen by more than 1,000 per cent in the
past year, making even basic
foodstuffs unaffordable for most people,
According to recent statistics,
about 3.3 million Zimbabweans, more than a
quarter of the population, need
emergency food aid because of the land
reform disaster and drought. That
figure is expected to shoot up because the
few farmers still attempting to
grow foodstuffs have received inadequate
supplies of seed, fertiliser and
machine spares as a consequence of the
collapse in foreign exchange earnings
by manufacturers, miners and farmers.
Political scientist Rangarirai
Shereni predicted that the pressures building
on the government because of
the economic crisis would this year force it to
re-engage with the
international community and its opponents at home in
order to avert a revolt
by a population stretched to the limit. "The
economic situation has reached
depressing levels and all the symptoms of a
total collapse are now evident,"
said Shereni. "This situation is
unsustainable in the new year because it
will cause a social explosion that
can undermine the government."
But
some analysts said Zimbabweans should not underestimate ZANU PF's trump
card
- its iron control of the defence force and powerful legislation that
it can
wield to crush dissent. Laws such as the Criminal Law (Codification
and
Reform) Act, the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to
Information
and Protection of Privacy Act give the government
near-dictatorial draconian
powers that hamper free expression, freedom of
the press and the right of
assembly. The web of oppressive laws, some of
them retained from the days of
white minority rule, have been used to haul
government critics before the
courts. The government is also putting new
"terrorism" and spying laws on
the statute books.
The country's economic collapse is causing huge
problems inside the ruling
party. But the MDC is probably in even worse
condition than the beleaguered
ZANU PF. While many Zimbabweans have been
willing to give the main
opposition party the benefit of their doubts in the
past year because of
deep disillusion with ZANU PF, they are now frustrated
and incensed with the
MDC factions for their failure to patch up their
differences and reunite in
the greater interest of challenging the ruling
party's despotic and
incompetent rule.
The MDC will now either sink
or swim on its ability to convince the nation
that its ideas for resolving
the country's political and economic problems
are achievable. In recent
months, the splintered MDC and other civil society
groups have been accused
of running out of ideas to solve Zimbabwe's
multiple crises.
"In the
past year, both MDC factions have managed to survive under
repression, but
the challenge they face now is how can they bring in a new
dispensation to
stem the economic crisis. It is high time they came
together," said
Robertson.
He said the proposal by the MDC faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai of a
transitional government that would pave the way for
internationally
supervised elections was a realistic compromise and could be
the starting
point for re-establishing some kind of stability from which to
launch a more
general recovery. He said the proposal might be welcomed by
ZANU PF
moderates, who know Mugabe has to go sooner or later.
"The
international community is not going to deal with Zimbabwe while Mugabe
is
still on board. Anyone else will do instead. The situation is desperate
and
every effort has to be made to avert a social upheaval this year," said
Robertson.
The first sign of that upheaval is a countrywide strike by
doctors demanding
salary increases of 8,000 per cent to compensate for
earnings eroded by
hyperinflation. The strike has worsened the situation at
public hospitals,
whose administrators were already grappling with shortages
of critical
drugs, wholesale breakdowns of equipment because of lack of
funds to buy
spares, and the flight of doctors to countries such of the
United Kingdom,
Australia and South Africa for better pay and
conditions.
At Parirenyatwa, Zimbabwe's biggest hospital in Harare, Rita
Kamungeremu
pointed to her 23-year-old daughter, an AIDS patient lying
motionless on the
pavement near the hospital entrance, and said, "She can't
talk, eat or do
anything, but there is no one attending to her." It could
almost have been
an epitaph for Zimbabwe itself as 2007 begins.
David
Gorimbo is the pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in Zimbabwe.
The Herald (Harare)
January
16, 2007
Posted to the web January 16, 2007
Bulawayo
Bureau
Harare
BULAWAYO residents started experiencing water cuts over
the weekend as
council moved in to conserve water in its supply dams, which
has been
dwindling in recent weeks.
The most affected suburbs are
high lying areas such as Pumula East, Old
Pumula, Nkulumane and
Magwegwe.
Mr Alvin Chikwena of Pumula East said yesterday that water
supplies were cut
on Sunday morning.
He said supplies had not resumed
by last night and residents were struggling
to get water since the nearby
Old Pumula suburb was also facing the same
problem.
"We haven't had
water since yesterday (Sunday) and we are finding it
difficult to use the
toilet. As for bathing, some people skipped yesterday
and there was not even
enough water for cooking. We hope that the supplies
will be resumed," said
Mr Chikwena.
He said residents were travelling to as far as Magwegwe and
Pelandaba to
fetch water from boreholes that were dotted around such
suburbs.
Mr Chikwena said council should hold meetings with residents and
inform
ratepayers if there would be water cuts.
Mrs Nomsa Mpofu of
Old Pumula said they were fetching water from a damaged
pipe near Khami
Dam.
"We are walking between five and seven kilometres to fetch water
from Khami
Dam. It's nearer than going to Magwegwe where there are
boreholes," she
said.
Mrs Mpofu said council cut water supplies on
Sunday morning.
Another resident, Ms Sandra Moyo, of Nkulumane said they
depended on council
boreholes since water supplies were disrupted on
Saturday afternoon.
IOL
Basildon
Peta
January 16 2007 at 10:29AM
Harare - An increasing
number of Zimbabweans are being arrested and
jailed for insulting President
Robert Mugabe by among other things, wishing
that he one day suffers Saddam
Hussein's fate, reports say.
Zimbabwe's tough media and security
laws ban Zimbabweans from making
statements deemed to be disrespectful or
undermining the president.
Selestin Jengeta, a teacher, spent three
days in lice-infested police
cells after he was arrested over his remarks
wishing Mugabe dead, according
to the Standard. The newspaper has compiled a
list of the victims of the
tough laws protecting Mugabe's
reputation.
Gibson Murinye and Collen Mwachikopa were arrested for
singing a song
in which they alleged Mugabe was
impotent.
The song is often sung by opposition
party supporters, who allege that
Mugabe's three children, sired with his
private secretary while his first
wife Sally had a kidney ailment, are not
Mugabe's but those of late
businessman Peter Pamire.
Pamire was
suspected of having an affair with Mugabe's young wife,
Grace. He died in
1997 in a car crash. - Independent Foreign Service
This article
was originally published on page 4 of Daily News on
January 16, 2007
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Congregants claimed church used as refugee camp in
which alcoholism,
prostitution and violence flourished.
By Ntando
Ncube in Johannesburg (AR No. 89, 16-Jan-07)
As Zimbabwean refugees
poured daily across the border into South Africa from
the political and
economic crises crippling their country, the Central
Methodist Church in
Johannesburg became a major place of refuge.
Paul Verryn, the Methodist
Bishop of Johannesburg, opened the doors of his
church to give shelter to
more than 800 homeless Zimbabweans, arguing,
"These people are our brothers
and sisters. We can't leave them on the
streets. They are also human and we
will help them.
"[As Christians], we pray for the poor. Therefore we
should not chase them
away when they need our help ... It's an opportunity
for us to open our
hearts and knuckle down and be what we say we
are."
But many congregants at the church, in the centre of Johannesburg's
business
district, have complained that Verryn has taken Christian charity
too far.
Their complaints about the use of the church as a refugee camp in
which
alcoholism, prostitution and violence flourished led to the eviction
just
before Christmas of the Zimbabweans, most of whom are now living on the
streets of the inner city.
"The church could not continue taking care
of people who spoil the holy
place of God," said one of the church elders
whose committee overruled the
bishop's arguments that they as Christians had
a duty to provide shelter to
the needy.
In the days before the
evictions took place, I spent a night in the church
and observed that it was
overcrowded and that serious problems were arising.
The toilet in the
bathroom had become blocked and the premises smelt foul.
This caused
problems for Verryn's South African congregants, who arrived
early in the
morning to leave their children at a church pre-school nursery
and to find
conditions steadily deteriorating.
Verryn, a white Afrikaner who in the
apartheid era opened his Soweto manse
to political activists fleeing the
police, has not had the complete support
of his junior pastors either. One
told IWPR that he was offended to find the
refugees singing anti-Zimbabwean
government anthems in the church and living
in squalor.
"Our church
has become a slum, a pigsty," said the pastor. "This is a
disgrace and we
are very angry. People are having sex in the church and
women are falling
pregnant and delivering their babies in the church. What
kind of a church is
that? How can we worship God in such a dirty place?"
The Central
Methodist Church saga has been headline news in South Africa for
more than a
year, underlining, on the one hand, the predicament of people
fleeing from
the authoritarianism of the country's northern neighbour, and,
on the other,
the growing intolerance and xenophobia among ordinary South
Africans towards
the flood of humanity from across the border.
Verryn declined to move out
of Soweto, where he was parish minister, when he
was promoted to bishop in
1997. Verryn, who lives humbly and preaches the
need for Christians to be
judged by their deeds, came to worldwide notice in
1988 when he gave shelter
to the child political activist Stompie Moeketsi.
When Verryn began
accommodating the Zimbabweans, women and children slept in
the church
sanctuary while men slept head-to-toe under blankets in meeting
rooms above.
Verryn recalled a mother, father and child who had fled
Zimbabwe after
attending a rally organised by the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change, MDC, leaving behind a seven-year-old son who had been
beaten up by
supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. "I won't tell
you the rest
of her [the mother's] story because it is too horrendous for
words," said
Verryn. "But they certainly left Zimbabwe in great fear for
their
lives."
The bishop said some of the people he had sheltered in the church
were
accountants, teachers and nurses, even one doctor.
Opposition to
Verryn's open door policy towards the refugees began last
March when members
of the congregation approached The Sowetan, a mass
circulation daily
newspaper, and accused the refugees of vandalising the
church. They also
said there had been two murders there.
Verryn had a torrid time at a
meeting at which congregants demanded that the
church cease to be a refugee
retreat. While Verryn argued that it would be a
negation of Christianity to
expel the refugees on to the streets, his
opponents said the church had
become a haven for criminals and that regular
worshippers were afraid to
attend services. "I was nearly raped in the lift
by these people and they
are molesting small girls in the church," said one
woman.
It was
agreed to form a committee to resolve the issue, but in the meantime
newspaper coverage of the dispute grew more lurid.
"Murder in the
cathedral has taken on a new meaning for the once fashionable
Central
Methodist Church in Johannesburg," said Johannesburg's main daily
newspaper,
The Star, which obtained an account of the killings that had
taken place in
the church. In one case, Andrew Khumalo protested when fellow
refugees
grabbed some second-hand donated clothes from him. In the
subsequent fight,
he was stabbed several times and left to bleed to death on
the floor of the
church. Another man also died in the fight.
Verryn said that tension in
the wake of the murders was "awful". He said the
police who came to
investigate were drunk, slow and incompetent. Admitting
that the church was
becoming increasingly squalid, he said, "I've spent more
time talking about
toilets than talking about poverty of the refugees."
Still the bishop
argued that the majority of Zimbabweans who came knocking
on the church door
were deserving of Christian goodwill. He said his
motivation stemmed from
his faith and belief in humanity. He spoke of a
woman in her sixties who had
fled from Harare, the Zimbabwe capital. "All of
her children have died and
she has to take care of her grandchildren," he
said. "So she has come to
South Africa from Harare to sell her crochet and
knitting and asked if we
could give her a place. That is a huge privilege to
house a saint like
her."
But in my one night's experience sleeping on the floor of the
church, I
realised there was little gratitude amongst most refugees. They
complained
that they had to leave the church during daylight hours and that
the bishop
gave them "only" 15 rand [2 US dollars] a day to spend. Some
accused him of
raising money at their expense and others complained that
newspaper
journalists photographed them without their permission. Yet others
complained about the high incidence of tuberculosis amongst their fellow
refugees.
Verryn finally lost the struggle with his church committee
members just
before Christmas. When a pair of women's panties and a used
condom were
found near the pulpit, the elders insisted that the refugees,
including
women with young babies, must leave. "We were given a week to pack
our
belongings and go," complained Peter Muzanenhamo, a former MDC political
activist. "Some church elders were driven by xenophobia and
hate."
The Central Methodist Church refugees have joined some two million
fellow
Zimbabweans struggling to survive on South African city streets or in
poorly
paid jobs. "You try to live as invisibly as possible," said Mkululi
Dube, an
illegal Zimbabwe immigrant who was once a journalist but now works
as a
waiter in Johannesburg. "You learn Zulu words and get a local ID, and
when
the police stop you, you pretend you're from a South African
village."
In total, official figures issued in Harare suggest that about
3.5 million
people - more than a quarter of the population - have fled
abroad in the
last seven years, most of them to South Africa.
Ntando
Ncube is an exiled Zimbabwean journalist living in Johannesburg.
New Zimbabwe
By Mary Revesai
Last
updated: 01/16/2007 12:12:48
DECADES ago, the then chairman of America's
Federal Communications
Commission, Newton Minow, wrote: "The commission is a
vast and sometimes
dark forest where we seven FCC hunters are often required
to spend weeks of
our time shooting down mosquitoes with elephant guns. In
the interest of our
governmental processes and of American communications,
the forest must be
thinned out and wider, better marked roads have to be cut
through the
jungles of red tape."
Following the steep increases in
the fees being demanded by the anachronism
that is the Media and Information
Commission, it is clear that the same
drastic action is needed in Zimbabwe.
The MIC has recently increased the
fees it levies from operators of media
services and for the accreditation of
journalists so steeply that questions
are bound to be asked whether the
commission is not engaging in a purely
fund-raising campaign.
The MIC, headed by media persecutor Tafataona
Mahoso has imposed new
exorbitant fees for the registration of media
organisations and
accreditation of individual journalists. A mass media
service operator or
publisher will now be required to pay $600 000 while
journalists working for
local media houses are expected to fork out a total
of $25 000 broken down
into a $10 000 application fee and $15 000 for
accreditation.
The government-appointed commission even expects to make
richer pickings
this year from foreign owned media organisations and the
temporary
accreditation of foreign journalists. The MIC demands US$ 100
temporarily to
register a foreign journalist and US$ 500 for full
accreditation. Operating
a foreign mass media service or news agency will
cost a total of US$12 000
(US$2000 as an application fee and US$10 000 for
permission to go ahead).
Zimbabwean journalists working for foreign media
organisations will be
required to fork out US$1200 in application and
accreditation fees.
It is no surprise that these exorbitant charges
have sparked an outcry
because they are unjustified. Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) president,
Matthew Takaona has predicted that most
community newspapers operating on a
shoestring budget would be forced to
close because they could not afford the
new charges. Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA) research and
information officer, Nyasha Nyakunu
pointed out that these exorbitant
charges were one more ramification of the
oppressive Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
"It is in that context that the fees are now having to be
increased; it's
all designed to make life difficult for newspapers", he
said.
What he omitted to mention is that these excessive charges are
mainly
designed to make life a bed of roses for Mahoso and the rest of the
government-appointed commissioners. Why else would an organisation that is
supposed to act as a facilitator rather than a hindrance to the affected
stakeholders stoop to the level of charging penalties for late registration
when it knows that journalist can be required to travel on assignment at a
moment's notice? This means that for some scribes, the MIC's deadline could
expire while they were away on legitimate professional business but they
must still be punished financially.
Nyakunu's observation that
publishers and journalists are being required to
pay for their own
subjugation may cause Mahoso's blood to boil but even he
would be hard
pressed to justify the increases in the context the relevance
of the MIC and
the benefits the stakeholders who are being squeezed so hard
financially
derive from its existence.
It is reasonable to conclude that these
charges are being levied to ensure a
comfortable salary for the MIC boss and
his outfit. It will be remembered
that before Jonathan Moyo arrived on the
media scene with his aggressive and
outmoded brand of propaganda, the
registration and accreditation of
journalists was efficiently handled by the
Ministry of Information.
Once a year, a mobile unit would visit different
centres in the country to
conduct the exercise free of charge. Moreover, to
reduce costs and to create
a more stable and secure working environment for
journalists, accreditation
was for a number of years. Media practitioners
knew that as along as they
did not get on the wrong side of the law, they
did not have to bother about
their accreditation until it was due for
renewal.
It is perhaps not surprising that the MIC requires journalists
to go through
the rigmarole of accreditation to raise funds to keep people
employed. A
former member of the MIC who resigned because he did not see eye
to eye with
Mahoso has alleged that the main reason the former journalism
lecturer never
fails to defend the indefensible is to protect his
sinecure.
Mahoso has never responded on the numerous occasions when this
allegation
has been made against him. Like the rest of the passengers on the
over-loaded Zanu PF gravy train, he is impervious to the concerns of the
stakeholders he is supposed to be serving. However that will not make the
questions that need to be asked go away.
Recent revelations by a
portfolio committee that Mahoso has never submitted
audited accounts since
he was appointed MIC chairman show that journalists
are not the only ones
questioning how he is conducting the affairs of the
commission.
For
example, after the registration of journalists once per year, what does
Mahoso and a full complement of staff do the rest of the year? True, a few
occasions arise when foreign and local journalists may need to be accredited
for specific events, but this can be done by one person as used to be the
case in the past. If the MIC really cared about the stakeholders it claims
to be serving, it would seek ways to downsize instead of raising fees to
illogical levels.
Mary Revesai is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist and
writes from Harare. Her
column will appear here every Tuesday
zimbabwejournalists.com
16th Jan 2007 01:22 GMT
By a
Correspondent
LONDON - As part of their Africa Liberate Zimbabwe
programme, the militant
youth pressure was at it again yesterday, this time
cornering Tanzanian
President Jakata Kikwete to make a statement on the
political crisis in
Zimbabwe.
Kikwete, one of the youngest African
leaders, is in London for a two-day
official visit during which he was set
to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair,
Tanzanians living in the UK and
investors, among other people.
Free-ZimYouth, which in the past has
embarrassed visiting African leaders on
their quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe,
posed as Tanzanian students to gain
access into Chatam House where Kikwete
addressed diplomats and possible
investors on development in Africa -
transforming the public service.
Kikwete, who is the current chair of the
SADC Organ on Politics, committed
himself to pushing for a speedy resolution
to the Zimbabwean crisis.
Asked by the youths how transparent and
accountable the organ was in
addressing oppression, repression and
challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa,
especially Zimbabwe, the Tanzanian
President said:
"That's a hard question, the situation is a serious one
and really needs a
solution. really need to do something to help the
suffering of the people of
Zimbabwe, but we don't deal like what the West do
in dealing with issues on
the media but SADC will do something to save
suffering Zimbabweans."
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has got an
edge over his political
opponents in the opposition Movement For Democratic
Change (MDC) in as far
as their image is concerned on the African continent.
Mugabe has
successfully portrayed the crisis in Zimbabwe as being fuelled by
former
colonial master, Britain, resulting in African countries failing to
come out
with one voice against alleged human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe.
Kikwete said Africa preferred to talk to Zimbabwe outside the
media as
opposed to the West.
Alois Mbawara of Free-ZimYouth said: "
It is not silly at all as some people
might see it - what we are doing -
confronting SADC leaders and saying to
them solidarity with the majority
black Zimbabweans is crucial. They have
said they will act on Zimbabwe, we
will manage the initiative till we see
something practical."
The UK
Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn also
addressed
the same meeting.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
16 January
2007
Extended talks until late Monday between Zimbabwe's
minister of health and
senior hospital consultants who are representing
striking residents failed
to produce a break in the labor dispute, leaving
government hospitals in
Harare and Bulawayo in crisis.
Sources close
to the talks said they involved Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa and the
four consultants and that the government put no offer
on the table in answer
to demands by junior and senior residents.The
doctors, currently earning
between Z$56,000 and Z$76,000, are demanding
salaries of Z$5 million a
month.
Twelve-month consumer inflation in Zimbabwe reached 1,181% in
December, and
the prices of essential goods and services, including school
fees, continue
to soar.
Elsewhere, a strike by nurses disrupted
operations at Harare Hospital in the
capital, and in the second city of
Bulawayo at Mpilo HJospital and United
Bulawayo Hospitals.
Secretary
General Vanzai Majada of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association declined
to comment
on the work action, but other sources said the nurses want a
monthly salary
of Z$3 million dollars - about US$850 at the parallel market
exchange rate.
Following a recent 300% pay increase, the nurses now make
Z$144,000 a month,
some US$40 at the informal exchange rate and well under
the official poverty
line.
Blessing Chebundo, parliamentarian for Kwekwe and a member of the
health and
child welfare committee, told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's
Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that the government needs to take the strike by
hospital
personnel more seriously.
The Herald (Harare)
January
15, 2007
Posted to the web January 16, 2007
Sifelani
Tsiko
Harare
THE latest episode of massive fish deaths in Lake Chivero
due to
deoxygenation compounded by excessive pollution indicates the gravity
of the
ecological disaster on Harare's principal water supply
dam.
There have been several incidents of fish deaths in Lake Chivero and
its
feeder tributaries -- Nyatsime, Marimba and Manyame in the past and no
consistent and meaningful, practical measures were taken to improve the
ecological conditions that are responsible for the fish
deaths.
Zimbabwean scientists have since 1952; when Lake Chivero was
created, made
several studies on the lake's ecology. They also made
important
recommendations to Government and the City of Harare on how to
improve the
quality of water, reduce pollution levels and enhance the
ecological
conditions on Lake Chivero, the source of drinking water for more
than 3
million people now.
The last major work on the ecology of Lake
Chivero was in 1996/7 by Prof.
Ngonidzashe Moyo, formerly with the
University of Zimbabwe's Department of
Biological Sciences and other
scientists drawn from the field of chemistry,
freshwater biology, engineers,
urban planners and environmental studies.
In the compilation titled:
"Lake Chivero: A Polluted Lake" Zimbabwean
scientists gave invaluable
information on the status of pollution in Lake
Chivero and its catchment
area, the causes and impact of pollution and
possible solutions to enhance
the ecological conditions of the lake were
suggested.
This project
came after more than a million fish died over a four-week
period in Lake
Chivero in 1996 as a result of deoxygenation worsened by
ammonia
toxins.
In the wake of the disaster, Government banned commercial fishing
and
recreational activity for a period of 10 weeks, stepped up pressure on
Harare City Council to upgrade sewage treatment plants, tightened pollution
laws and embarked on a campaign to raise awareness on the need to reduce
pollution in rivers. However, over the years, a combination of factors have
led to an increase in the discharge of sub-standard sewage effluent into
rivers that feed Lake Chivero.
Industrial effluent discharges are
rising leading to an increased level of
various heavy metals in the lake.
Rapid urbanisation both within the Greater
Harare area, dormitory towns and
outlying communal areas has worsened the
pollution of the lake.
"The
pollution levels in Lake Chivero are increasing and it's
uncharacteristic
for fish to die now. It's unusual," said Prof. Moyo, a
freshwater biologist
now working at the University of Limpopo in South
Africa.
He said
fish deaths normally occurred when it was cold or when there is an
overturn
around April/May.
Fish deaths, he said, could be triggered by seasonal
turnover/inversion that
mixes the lake's water layers. When the surface
temperature drops sharply,
the upper layer, that is less toxic becomes
colder and denser than the
bottom layer, which then rises to replace the
denser layer. More often than
not, the bottom layer will have more toxins
that kill fish upon inversion.
Prof. Moyo suggests that episodes of
oxygen deficiency have become
increasingly severe due to excessive pollution
of the lake.
"The fact that we are having these fish deaths is indicative
of the
excessive pollution levels. There may be other factors that are
causing the
fish deaths and there is need to do more investigations. The
issue is much
more complicated even though we may point to high Ammonia
levels," he said.
Ammonia is toxic to fish gills and Prof. Moyo said the
preliminary
investigations he conducted in the past demonstrate that: "If
the mouth (of
the fish) is wide open and has a bulging head, this indicates
that there are
high ammonia levels and little oxygen."
The discharge
of sludge, the product of water clarification with aluminium
sulphate at the
Morton Jaffray water works, which contains high
concentrations of aluminium
has led to the accumulation of deep layers of
anoxic sludge in the Manyame
River bed which are often deposited in the lake
when rains
come.
Prof. Moyo concurs with the findings made by Prof. Christopher
Magadza, a
fish biologist, in 1996 that the flushing of this sludge deposit
into Lake
Chivero may have been responsible for the fish deaths reported
recently.
Biologists say changes in the water chemistry of the lake have led
to the
deterioration of water quality.
The main indicators
include:
.High concentrations of heavy metals and other
pollutants.
.The massive water hyacinth infestation that removed
nutrients from the
water and locked it up as plant biomass.
.High
levels of compounds like ammonia and others.
.Eutrophication of the lake
-- nutrient pollution which may promote
excessive plant growth and decay,
weedy species reducing the quality of
water.
.The density of the
blue-green algae which produce toxins that have caused
the seasonal
outbreaks of gastronomic diseases in the city.
Experts have, in the
past, also identified the major problems that have
contributed to the
ecological crisis in Lake Chivero, which they say
include:
.The City
of Harare lies within its own catchment area and most of the
pollution
problems being experienced now are a result of this poor original
planning.
This means that all the city's waste, which passes through the
heavily
industrialised and densely populated areas, flows into the lake.
This has
compromised the quality of the city's water and contributed to the
accumulation ammonia compounds that are causing fish deaths every
year.
.Lack of resources to upgrade sewage treatment works in Harare,
Chitungwiza
and Ruwa, which have become overloaded owing to rising urban
population.
.Lack of funding for water quality monitoring activities and
for research
purposes into the lake's ecology.
.Legislation that does
not force the polluters to bear the cost of their
activities, penalties are
too low to act as deterrents.
.Overcrowding and the housing crisis have
led to the development of informal
settlements along the city's main rivers
that feed Lake Chivero.
.Bureaucracy -- there are no clear guidelines on
how various stakeholders
can participate in the management of the lake's
ecology.
.In the Lake Chivero catchment stream, self-purification has
been lost
through environmental degradation.
.Poor management of
wetlands of the Manyame and Nyatsime rivers. These
wetlands and sponges
regulate the hydrology of the streams and control the
quality of water
flowing into the lake.
"In ecological terms, we have identified this lake
as a hot spot of
pollution. Lake Chivero and the Kafue River in Zambia are
the most polluted
rivers in southern Africa.
Sources in the
water-engineering sector say it is now becoming increasingly
difficult for
the city's water to reach World Health Organisation standards.
This is a
sensitive and controversial issue for politicians who often keep
the lid
tight.
Prof. Moyo said the ecological disaster in Lake Chivero had led to
increased
water treatment costs, rising costs of maintaining water treatment
works,
water shortages, lack of funds to procure chemicals for water
treatment and
loss of biodiversity.
The flight of skilled engineers,
freshwater biologists, fish pathologists,
ecologists and other environmental
experts and urban planners to other
countries has worsened Zimbabwe's
capacity to respond to ecological
disasters. Experts say solutions to the
ecological crisis in Lake Chivero
include:
.Prioritising the
construction of Kunzvi Dam -- this will reduce water
treatment costs as the
water will be free from industrial pollution and
sewage
effluent.
.Upgrading sewage treatment works in Harare, Chitungwiza and
Ruwa.
.Putting special considerations in research and management of
wetlands and
streambed structure to improve water quality
management.
.Enhancing the capacity of the Environmental Management
Agency to monitor
and investigate industries and other polluting
sectors.
.Increasing funding for monitoring activities, equipment and the
training of
manpower involved in managing the environment.
.Involving
the private sector in environmental programmes.
.Strengthening
environmental awareness programmes.
Conducting environmental
impact assessment, developing and applying water
quality systems, the
polluter-pays principle, self-regulation, providing
economic incentives,
public participation and tightening regulation and
enforcement can enhance
water quality management and pollution control.
"Water is a basic right,
we are all entitled to clean water. Its sad if no
special attention is given
to Lake Chivero because this is what millions of
people survive on," said
Prof. Moyo.
"Politicians react when the crisis is dramatic and affects
many people. And
when its not dramatic there is little attention on the
unfolding ecological
disaster."