Mugabe's policies scorch Zimbabwe's tobacco
crop January 18, 2005
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare - There is widespread disappointment that Zimbabwe's richest crop,
tobacco, which appeared set for a small recovery this year, will be the
smallest ever.
Until President Robert Mugabe began confiscating
thousands of white-owned farms in 2000, tobacco underwrote the economy,
supplying up to 40 percent of its foreign currency.
In the year
that Mugabe's loyalists started rampaging across millions of hectares of
some of Africa's most successful agricultural lands, Zimbabwe produced 238
million kilograms of tobacco.
This summer season, it will produce
less than a quarter of that, even less than last year's record low of 64
million kilograms when the crop only earned $120 million (R717.6 million)
and when prices on the auction floors were firm.
This further
slump is despite massive support from the government, which has bankrolled
thousands of "new" farmers this year on rich, well-watered land seized from
white farmers over the past five years.
"It's a damn disaster,"
said Rusty Markham, a 20-year veteran regional tobacco agronomist. "We will
be lucky to see a crop above 50 million kilograms."
Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono, who has underwritten up to 20 000 new small-scale
tobacco growers on land still legally owned by evicted white farmers,
predicted a crop of 165 million kilograms.
"It is unbelievable that
the government is still encouraging new farmers to plant in mid-January when
the crop should be ready for reaping," Markham said.
More than
80 percent of this year's crop and almost all the quality leaf will still be
produced by 250 to 300 white farmers who endure threats of violent
evictions.
Those who have survived the ethnic purge have
already surrendered up to two-thirds of their land to the government and
many provide expertise, financial assistance and loan equipment to their
new, black neighbours.
"Most 'new' farmers received fertiliser from
the government too late and get almost no technical support from the
department of agriculture," Markham said.
In areas where the
crop was planted timeously, there were curing log jams as facilities
previously used by one commercial farmer were now shared by a few dozen, he
said. "These poor guys have borrowed money and they won't be able to pay
back as their crop is rotting before it can be cured."
Zimbabwe
Indigenous Commercial Farmers' Union president Davison Mugabe was quoted in
the government-controlled Sunday Mail as saying that he knew of hundreds of
new tobacco farmers unable to cure their crop.
Doug Taylor-Freeme,
the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, said last week that this
year's tobacco crop would be smaller again than last season.
"Despite considerable effort to improve production, tobacco was planted late
and curing facilities are not designed for small-scale production.
Commercial [white] growers are still being disrupted by rowdy
elements."
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority invested
massively in new tobacco farmers this season. On January 1 it hiked tariffs
by over 120 percent.
Guardian given file of new
allegations of violence against opposition in run-up to parliamentary
elections
Paul Kelso and Andrew Meldrum Tuesday January 18,
2005 The Guardian
New evidence of alleged attacks on opposition
supporters in Zimbabwe has been passed to the Guardian by activists who say
they are being subjected to systematic violence, intimidation and sexual
abuse in the run-up to elections in March. In one case, a woman who
chaired a constituency group said she was covered in paraffin and set
alight. She is now in hiding, but has agreed to have her photograph
published to highlight the situation.
Supporters of the Movement for
Democratic Change, the main opposition party, say they have been targeted by
youth militia groups sympathetic to Robert Mugabe's ruling party,
Zanu-PF.
Photographs given to the Guardian, MDC officials say, show
evidence of intimidation and violence against local party activists,
including systematic arrests and beatings of women.
The Guardian has
passed the pictures to Amnesty International.
A Zimbabwe government
spokesman hung up the phone when asked to comment on allegations of torture
by youth militia, police and other state agents.
The government has
previously denied torturing its critics.
Lawyers, doctors and Zimbabwean
exiles involved in the asylum process in the UK also claim that the Home
Office is ignoring prima facie cases of torture and repatriating exiles who
will face further maltreatment on their return.
The evidence comes as a
high level delegation of diplomats from South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho
prepares to visit Zimbabwe, possibly this week.
They hope to establish
whether conditions laid down by the Southern African Development Community
for a free and fair election have been met.
The SADC benchmarks, set out
last year in Mauritius, state that political tolerance, freedom of
association and full participation of all citizens are
prerequisites. Evidence of violence and intimidation was passed to the
Guardian by an activist who has spent the last year documenting instances of
abuse by the police and Zanu-PF youth militia. The activist photographed
Tabeth Shoniwa, the MDC chair of Ward 5, in Epworth, south-east Harare, a
few days after she had been doused in paraffin and set alight.
Her
crime was to have attended the high court in Harare on October 15 2004, the
day the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangarai, was acquitted of treason. Ms Shoniwa
celebrated outside the court with other MDC supporters and in the evening
Zanu sympathisers visited her home.
"A group of Zanu-PF youth who
terrorise people followed her to her home," the activist told the Guardian.
"They called her out of her home and threw paraffin on her body and set her
alight. She jumped into a well to put out the flames.
"There were
other people there targeted and beaten. One man I saw had his face swollen
beyond recognition, and another had his eardrums damaged by the beating he
received."
The MDC claims the country's draconian laws on freedom of
association are being routinely used to intimidate the
opposition.
Policy change
In one recent incident, 25 people,
including four women, were arrested for attending the funeral of an
opposition politician, the source said. The women were beaten across the
back and legs, and then taken to hospital where they were under police
guard, preventing the activist from documenting their
injuries.
Evidence of the abuse and torture of political opponents
has also surfaced in the UK, where lawyers and doctors working within the
asylum system claim the British government is repatriating torture victims
because of a culture of "disbelief".
In November, the Home Office
announced it was overturning its policy, adopted in 2002, of not
repatriating Zimbabweans whose asylum applications had failed. The earlier
policy was based on compelling evidence of state torture.
According
to one doctor working with asylum applicants, the Home Office has rejected
detailed medical evidence of torture in refusing asylum to many
Zimbabweans.
More than 10 Zimbabweans have already been returned to
Harare and scores face deportation in the coming weeks.
One victim
was allegedly told it had been "foolhardy" to support the MDC, and Home
Office adjudicators have in some cases advised victims to return to Zimbabwe
and "seek protection from the police" when in many cases police were the
perpetrators of the abuse.
The doctor, who declined to be named for fear
he will lose access to patients, said Zimbabweans were among the top three
nationalities presenting themselves to him with injuries consistent with
torture.
"I have done this for eight years and in the past four years
Zimbabwe has become one of the top three or four torture-producing
countries," he told the Guardian,
"In the past four years the cases
of Zimbabwean torture have risen exponentially, both in terms of numbers and
in severity. It appears that rape and sexual abuse has become systematic. I
do not see how, in good conscience, the Home Office can send these
traumatised people back to the hands of their torturers."
Margaret
Finch, a Birmingham lawyer with experience of Zimbabwe, said the asylum
system was ignoring evidence of torture and abuse. "The Home Office
officials often give subjective and questionable judgments. In several cases
accepted facts of physical and sexual assault by government agents were
deemed to be not of a political nature. It is inconceivable.
"I would
like to see a return to the policy of not repatriating Zimbabweans. Nothing
has improved in Zimbabwe, things have only got worse. What justification can
there possibly be for lifting the ban? Everybody is infected by a culture of
disbelief."
A Home Office spokeswoman said the change in policy was
prompted by an increase in unfounded asylum claims from Zimbabwe, but
genuine refugees, including opposition politicians, would be protected.
"This change in asylum policy is entirely about operating a firm and fair
asylum system. It does not reflect any change in the government's
categorical opposition to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
"We will
continue, bilaterally and with our international partners, to push the
government of Zimbabwe to end human rights abuses, and restore democracy so
all Zimbabweans can in time return safely to build a prosperous and stable
country."
ZANU PF CANCELS BID TO ACCESS STATE RESOURCES FOR PARTY
ELECTION Tue 18 January 2005 HARARE - The ruling ZANU PF party yesterday
said it had not asked for helicopters and support from the government to run
an internal election because all areas of the country unreachable over the
weekend because of heavy rains were now accessible.
ZANU PF
political commissar Elliot Manyika had earlier said that the party was going
to ask for army helicopters and logistical support from the government to
help it finish an election to pick candidates to represent the party in a
general election scheduled for March.
Manyika did not say on what
basis ZANU PF could access state resources to run a purely internal party
programme. Political parties in Zimbabwe that enjoy a required amount of
support receive a once-off financial grant from the state under the
Political Parties Act.
But it is illegal for politicians or their
parties to use state resources for party business outside the
Act.
"We have not asked for help as yet as roads have cleared in
areas that were inaccessible because of the rains," Manyika told ZimOnline
last night.
Meanwhile, ZANU PF yesterday announced more results
from the election with no major surprises by late last night. Nearly all
senior members of President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet had either won the party
ticket in their constituencies or were on course for victory.
Most notable was Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge, whom it had been
feared could lose to retired army major, Kudzai Mbudzi.
Party
women's league heavyweight Oppah Muchinguri also won in Mutasa South
constituency.
Mugabe has said he will drop from his government
ministers who fail to win election into Parliament.
Industry
Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi looks on his way out of the government after he
lost the vote in his constituency while Labour Minister Paul Mangwana was
locked in a tight battle for the party ticket in Kadoma East constituency.
The two ministers are seen as junior in both the party and the government. -
ZimOnline
Lecturers get hefty salary hike Tues 18 January 2005
HARARE - The government has hiked the salaries of lecturers by up to 600
percent in a desperate bid to stem an acute brain drain at the University of
Zimbabwe and other state institutions of higher learning.
The
lowest paid lecturer at government universities will now earn Z$20 million
up from $4 million per month. Senior lecturers will get $24 million while
professors will receive $30 million per month.
An average family
comprising four children and two parents requires about $1.7 million for
basic survival per month according to the country's main labour union the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
"We have not been able to retain
most of our talented and experienced lecturers due to poor remuneration so
we have decided to do something for them. But I do not have the figures off
hand. It is significant though," Higher Education Minister Herbert Murerwa
told ZimOnline this week.
Murerwa is also acting Finance Minister
in the absence of Chris Kuruneri who is in jail on charges of siphoning
foreign currency out of the country.
In addition to the hefty
salary hike, lecturers and senior non-academic staff will also benefit from
a $700 billion loan fund set aside by Murerwa to assist university staff buy
houses and cars.
Lecturers and other specialised staff at the
government's six universities have for the last 12 months spent most of
their time striking for better pay and working conditions. And many more of
Zimbabwe's top university teachers have left the country for better paying
jobs in the region and beyond. - ZimOnline
Mugabe's party riven with dissent as his power
ebbs
JANE FIELDS IN MUTARE
ACCUSATIONS of violence and
voter intimidation yesterday dogged internal polls held by Zimbabwe's ruling
party to select candidates for the general election in March.
One
cabinet minister and at least ten serving politicians were disqualified from
the forthcoming elections.
The poll was held amid increasing signs of
dangerous divisions that have been rocking President Robert Mugabe's
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party for the
past three weeks.
Police were called on Saturday to stop clashes between
rival ruling party supporters in the western Harare district of
Dzivaresekwa, while state radio said that results of voting in the southern
district of Zhaka were being withheld yesterday because of
irregularities.
Earlier this month, in a rare challenge to the party's
leadership, angry war veterans stormed a ZANU-PF meeting in a Mutare hotel
to complain that candidates for this year's parliamentary elections were
being imposed on them, according to the weekly Manica Post. "There was
chaos," Shadreck Chipanga, who heads ZANU-PF's co-ordinating committee in
Manicaland province, told the newspaper.
The anti-corruption
minister, Didymus Mutasa, had to be summoned from a relative's funeral to
defuse the stand-off.
Mutare is not the only place where cracks have
appeared in Mr Mugabe's normally impenetrable party.
In the capital,
Harare, recently, scores of disgruntled members briefly held hostage Elliot
Manyika, the chairman of ZANU-PF's national elections directorate, at the
party's Rotten Row headquarters. They, too, were complaining that party
candidates approved by the directorate for the March polls were not the ones
they had chosen.
Zimbabweans have been mesmerised by the sudden blow-up
of dissension within ZANU-PF, a former guerrilla movement that has been in
power since independence in 1980.
Several well-known party officials
and Zimbabwe's ambassador to Mozambique are being held - some reports say
tortured - on allegations of spying for foreign powers. Two cabinet
ministers have been dropped from Mr Mugabe's Soviet-style politburo and six
out of ZANU-PF's ten provincial chairmen have been suspended for five years
for failing to back the election of Joyce Mujuru as
vice-president.
"ZANU-PF has never been more divided in the last 25
years," the University of Zimbabwe political sciences professor, Eliphas
Mukonweshuro, told The Scotsman.
Whether Mr Mugabe can whip his party
into line in time for the elections remains to be seen. "It is going to be
extremely difficult for Mr Mugabe to get his party to agree on an election
strategy," Prof Mukonweshuro predicted. "For the first time he has unleashed
certain forces he may not be able to control."
President Robert Mugabe's stranglehold over Zanu-PF has
tightened after at least one cabinet minister and 10 sitting members of
parliament lost in the ruling party's internal elections of candidates for
the March parliamentary poll.
The elections, marred by reports
of violence and vote rigging, saw many Mugabe loyalists beat sitting MPs who
have, at times, expressed dissent.
Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa, a key Mugabe loyalist who lost his seat in a 2000 primary but
was then was appointed a non-constituency MP, won this year in Murehwa over
incumbent Victor Chitongo, a former journalist.
Chitongo once
publicly challenged Mugabe's deployment of troops in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, saying the move was not benefiting Zimbabwe.
Many of
the 10 sitting MPs who lost in the primaries were in the camp of Speaker of
parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, who sponsored a powerful faction that tried
to oppose Mugabe's choice of Joyce Mujuru as vice-president in favour of
himself.
Dozens of senior party officials, including three other
cabinet ministers who opposed Mugabe's choice of Mujuru, were disallowed
from standing in the primaries.
Zanu-PF had also set up tough
new criteria for candidates. These included service in party structures for
five years, disqualifying many Young Turks. - Independent Foreign
Service
Business Reporter THE
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe says the formation of the Zimbabwe Allied Banking
Group, the giant bank which was supposed to have opened its doors at the
beginning of the year, is on course.
The formal launch of ZABG has been
stalled by unforeseen legal and administrative challenges, fuelling
speculation as to what exactly is taking place.
In a statement, RBZ
governor Dr Gideon Gono said the establishment of the banking group was
subject to the "strict observance of the necessary and enabling legal
instruments and legislation governing such establishment".
This is a
clear reference to the legal challenges which have been instituted by some
of the proposed ZABG candidates, namely Time Bank, Intermarket and Royal
Bank.
RBZ initiated the formation of ZABG and the plans were announced at
the presentation of the third quarter monetary policy review statement and
was subsequently supported by Government in the 2005 National
Budget.
"Subsequent to that, various legal and technical processes have
been in motion with some aspects taking longer than originally
envisaged.
"This, regrettably, is the nature of all pioneering or
ground-breaking initiatives upon which human development and economic
progress is founded the world over," said Dr Gono.
ZABG is a unique
bank in that it would be an amalgamation of formerly troubled banking
institutions, the most notable candidates being Barbican Bank, Trust Bank,
Royal Bank, Intermarket and Trust Bank.
In spite of the delays, it is now
expected the amalgamated bank will open its doors to the public next month,
after the announcement of 2005 monetary policy statement.
ZABG is now
almost a reality after the signing of the Troubled Financial Institutions
(Resolution) Act by the President.
"The critical element to note,
however, is that there is no going back on the turnaround path we have
chosen in order to stabilise and raise the bar of corporate excellence in
the development and running of the financial sector and its institutions in
this, our great country.
"It is critical that we ensure that correct
infrastructure, personnel, operating system and procedures of the new bank
are set to the highest standards that allow the bank to assume a leadership
role in everything that it does from the day of opening," added RBZ
governor.
He reiterated that only those troubled financial institutions
with the capacity or restoration value would be candidates for the
amalgamated bank.
"Those critically ill or whose shareholders and or
management impaired the institution beyond recovery will be left to the
liquidation route with shareholders, depositors, staff and their creditors
settling themselves from any residual value obtained from the liquidation
process.
"That is why the Reserve Bank has been placing reliance on the
curators who themselves are professionals from various audit and accounting
firms," added Dr Gono.
RBZ clearly spelt out, when it announced the
idea of the amalgamated banking group, that under the prompt corrective
action standards, lender of the last resort facility would be available to
those institutions requiring temporary liquidity assistance.
This was
likely to be ascertained from the reports that have been prepared by the
curators managing the affairs of the troubled financial
institutions.
Banking institutions requiring relief for more than 30 days
are going to be accommodated through the Troubled Banking Fund for a maximum
period of 90 days.
ZABG will be owned by the Government and other
local institutional and individual investors, thus promoting indigenisation
which had been the biggest casualty of the shake-up in the financial
sector.
This banking group would initially be managed by a management
board of turnaround and integration experts supported by a competent
management board of directors.
HARARE (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammed
Khatami arrived in Zimbabwe Monday to a red carpet welcome from his
counterpart Robert Mugabe with whom he is due to hold talks over two
days.
Khatami, on a seven-nation tour of Africa, was warmly
greeted at Harare's international airport by Mugabe and his two
vice-presidents and received a 21-gun salute, an AFP correspondent
reported.
There was tight security at the airport and the route to
the city with armed soldiers dotting the road.
He was due to hold
one-to-one talks with Mugabe later Monday and follow up discussions on
Tuesday. The Iranian leader will also visit the Victoria Falls before flying
out on Wednesday.
The two leaders are expected to sign a memorandum
of understanding, the details of which were not immediately
available.
Iran is one of the countries Mugabe has been warming up to
following his "Look East" policy, partly forced by Zimbabwe's isolation from
the West over controversial land reforms and allegedly fraud-marred
elections in 2000 and 2002.
By
Staff Reporter Last updated: 01/18/2005 13:00:05 ZIMBABWEAN opposition
parties and civic groups have warned that unless the voters' roll is
reviewed by an independent body, the credibility of the March general
elections could be called into question.
The voters' roll was opened for
inspection on Monday until 30 January. Zimbabwe has 5,658,637 eligible
voters, according to the registrar-general's office.
In an interview
with IRIN, Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the pro-democracy NGO, National
Constitutional Assembly, contended that the roll would be no different from
the one used in the 2002 presidential elections, which were condemned as
flawed by most western observers.
"The roll is in shambles: over the
years the registrar-general's office has added more names but not totally
reformed the roll ... We have had cases of deceased people appearing on the
roll; people being registered in the wrong constituencies; or others simply
failing to find their names," said Madhuku.
Registrar-General Tobaiwa
Mudede announced that his department would prepare the roll according to the
new constituency boundaries drawn up by the Delimitation
Commission.
However, Madhuku alleged that it was impossible for the
authorities to compile an accurate roll in time because of the lack of
resources and in the absence of an independent electoral body, the
authorities could manipulate the voting process.
"We could have hoped
for a credible roll if the proposed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had
been appointed ... Even if the ZEC were to be appointed, I don't think there
would be any changes, since its head will be a presidential, and therefore
partial, appointee," said Madhuku.
The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) has threatened to boycott the elections unless
government agrees to reform of the electoral process in accordance with the
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) guidelines, which include the
appointment of an independent electoral commission.
The MDC is also
demanding the repeal of a raft of laws affecting the media, NGOs and public
security, which it views as an infringement of Zimbabweans' democratic
rights.
Mudede has defended his department, saying: "Those questioning
the accuracy of the roll are free to go and inspect it, with the rest of the
country, during the inspection period."
He added that, "The
[registrar-general's] office has a mandate to conduct elections, and will do
so until such a time that the new electoral commission is appointed. I
cannot comment on statements alleging irregularities, because we have not
gone through the inspection process as yet."
South Africa's ruling
party, the African National Congress (ANC), has weighed into the debate on
the fairness of upcoming poll.
"We have been concerned about several
things [in Zimbabwe]," ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe told a media
briefing after the annual meeting of the ANC's National Executive Committee
at the weekend.
"The fact that the opposition MDC is a properly
registered political party, but it still requires police permission to hold
its meetings ... impairs its ability to interact with its constituency -
it's an anomaly," Motlanthe was quoted as saying. "Indeed, the playing field
should be levelled, and the police should act in an impartial manner," he
said. IRIN
Moyo: 'Tsholotsho people will hold Nkomo to
account'
By Staff Reporter Last updated: 01/18/2005
06:57:53 ZIMBABWE'S Information Minister Jonathan Moyo escalated his public
mudslinging match with Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo on Monday as
their war of words entered a second week.
After a weekend which saw
Nkomo fire his own salvo in the direction of the information tzar, Moyo
snapped back on Monday, using the Chronicle newspaper, which he controls, to
barrage Nkomo with accusations of stifling development in Matabeleland and
lying over his visit to Tsholotsho in the company of Dumiso Dabengwa last
week.
Reacting to Moyo's accusations last week that he was a "primitive
liar", Nkomo said his trip to Tsholotsho "had nothing to do with determining
the outcome of the nomination process in the constituency."
"That's a
naked lie," Moyo snapped back Monday. "It assumes members of the public are
stupid and will believe anything that he says when the truth speaks for
itself."
Nkomo called Moyo "unbalanced", adding: "I will not let you or
others who are similarly inclined destroy the party on our watch." He said
Moyo was free to leave Zanu PF.
But Moyo hit back: "Nkomo makes claim
that 'Tsholotsho was the scene of crime and therefore cannot escape (his)
attention as the custodian of discipline in the party'. What crime is Cde
Nkomo talking about? If there was any crime in Tsholotsho, why are the
police not involved? How did Cde Nkomo suspend six provincial chairmen on
December 21, 2004 for a crime he alleged was committed in Tsholotsho before
going there until January 12, 2005?
"If Cde Nkomo imagines that he
will stigmatise Tsholotsho by conveniently labelling it the "scene of
crime'' for personal political purposes and get away with it, then he has
some serious thinking to do because he is going to be held accountable not
just in the courts but also by the public, particularly the people of
Tsholotsho who have suffered from the tragedy of political stigmatisation
before."
On Monday, Nkomo and the Zanu PF elections director Elliot
Manyika were expected to go to Tsholotsho in a bid to calm the situation but
were expected to meet hostilities from Moyo's followers.
Moyo enjoys
popular support in Tsholotsho after orchestrating a stunning development
drive -- getting the roads tarred, computerising schools and hospitals,
getting street lighting installed and luring banks to the
district.
He said of Nkomo: "Thanks to Cde Nkomo, the Zanu PF
manifesto has become "discipline, discipline and discipline" and if you take
a closer look at what is meant by this commandist mantra, you see that it is
all about using, actually abusing, senior positions to settle personal
scores to the detriment of the party and public good some 25 years since
independence during which a new generation of Zimbabweans has emerged with
more dynamic and more values that need to be recognised and
respected.
"As a result of Cde Nkomo's selfserving approach to
discipline, we are witnessing attempts to block committed and hard working
people like Cdes Andrew Langa in Insiza and Abednico Ncube in Gwanda from
contesting primary elections or from running for elections on Zanu PF
tickets. What is going on? This is only happening in Matabeleland and not in
other provinces across the country where senior leaders in the party have
been more accommodating and understanding despite the existence of obvious
political differences," he said.
"Cde Abednico Ncube is one of only
two comrades in Zanu PF who won a parliamentary seat in 2000 in Matabeleland
when all the others, including many who now see themselves as heroes, were
tumbling down. Cde Andrew Langa had the guts and leadership to win back
Insiza from MDC and has since then shown what can be done to bring
development in Matabeleland as a Member of Parliament.
"Cde Nkomo
says, 'History has taught us that some amongst us belong to Zanu PF as long
as it furthers their personal ambitions and interests only'. Well, this can
only refer to him since he apparently knows first hand what he is talking
about. As far as I'm concerned, since 1999 when I worked for the
Constitutional Commission, I have specifically and selflessly done my bit in
the national interest and in defense of my country's sovereignty without
fear or favour and I have not gained anything personally from this.
"It
is notable that Cde Nkomo did not deny in his statement published today that
he said he would rather have Tsholotsho lost to MDC than have me as a Zanu
PF candidate. Well, he knows who the MDC candidate might be and it's
certainly not me!"
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Herald
Reporters THE Registrar-General's Office has invited people made "stateless"
by the Citizenship Amendment Act number 12 of 2003 to come forward and
regularise their citizenship status.
Failure by the affected people
to regularise their citizenship would result in them failing to vote in the
on-coming elections.
Affected people include those born in the country or
any other country in the Sadc region whose parents were
Zimbabwean.
"Persons falling within this category are those born in
Zimbabwe and one of their parents was born in a Sadc country and entered the
country on or before 18th April 1980," said the Regi- strar General, Mr
Tobaiwa Mudede, in a state- ment.
He said those whose parents entered
the country as migrant workers and remained in the country until the
affected person's birth were citizens by birth.
Some of these people
had lost their citizenship after failing to certify the origins of their
pare nts.
People born in Zimbabwe and continuously remained resident in
the country since birth except for any temporary absence from this country
and had not at any time after their birth acquired any foreign citizenship
or foreign passport, whether voluntary or otherwise, or enjoyed the
protection of any foreign country were legible for Zimbabwean citizenship,
Mr Mudede said.
He said also eligible were those born in a Sadc country
with one of his or her parents having been born in Zimbabwe but left the
country on or before April 18, 1980 for a Sadc country as a migrant
worker.
Mr Mudede said those who qualify for regularisation should be
individuals who have not at anytime after the date of their first entry into
Zimbabwe acquired any foreign citizenship or other foreign passport, whether
voluntarily or otherwise, or enjoyed the protection of any foreign
country.
"Those who fail to regularise their citizenship by January 30,
2005 may find that they do not qualify to vote in the March Parliamentary
Elections," Mr Mudede said.
He said those intending to regularise
their status should visit the nearest Registrar-General offices with their
birth certificates, national identity card and passport if they have
any.
Meanwhile, the Registrar-General has published names of individuals
who have either supplied incomplete or incorrect residential addresses when
they registered as voters in their constituencies to report with their
national identity cards to the nearest registry office.
In a notice
yesterday, the Registrar-General, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, said the voters risked
being struck off the voters' roll if they did not approach their respective
district registry offices within a period of two weeks.
"Please be
advised that failure to report as requested and directed within 14 days from
this date (of notice) will result in the constituency registrars removing
the voter's name from the roll in accordance with section 25 of the
Electoral Act chapter 2;01," he said.
The Registrar-General's department
is in the process of updating the voters' roll in preparation of the
forthcoming General Elections scheduled for March this year.
From Bulawayo
Bureau THE Zanu-PF Bulawayo Province and the Tsholotsho District
Co-ordinating Committee were yesterday dissolved and interim structures were
put in place to prepare the party for the March elections, the party's
political commissar, Cde Elliot Manyika announced yesterday.
Cde
Manyika made the announcement after holding separate meetings with the party
leadership in both Tsholotsho and Bulawayo concerning the state of the party
in the two areas.
He said Bulawayo province had been suspended for what
he termed incompetence and lack of direction while the Tsholotsho DCC, led
by Cde Believe Gaule, was suspended for its role in the so-called Tsholotsho
Declaration.
All members of the previous DCC were, however, co-opted into
the new DCC with the exception of Cde Gaule.
"The Bulawayo provincial
executive was dissolved for incompetence and lack of direction. As the
political commissar, I regularly assess party structures and it was apparent
that the members of the Bulawayo province failed to perform," Cde Manyika
said.
"We have put an interim executive in place of Bulawayo province led
by Cde Norman Mabhena."
The other members of the interim executive
are Cdes Zenzo Nsimbi (deputy chairperson), Amos Ngwenya (secretary), Grace
Lupepe (treasurer), Raphael Baleni (commissar), Stanely Donga (secretary for
security), Alice Tshabalala (women's league chairperson) and Zephaniah Nkomo
(youth chairman).
Cde Themba Ncube, who was last year suspended alongside
six other party chairpersons for their alleged role in the Tsholotsho
Declaration, was the ruling party's chairman for Bulawayo
province.
Cde Manyika said Cde Velaphi Dube, who was Cde Gaule's deputy
in the previous Tsholotsho DCC, has become the new chairman.
Cde
Manyika, who is also the chairman of the Zanu-PF National Elections
Directorate said the new structures set up in Bulawayo and in Tsholotsho had
been mandated, among other things, to prepare for primary elections, which
were postponed to Thursday.
"The interim Bulawayo provincial
executive has been mandated to make sure that the district co-ordinating
committees conform to the election campaign strategies that we want to set
soon after we finish these primaries," he said.
"Both interim
structures in Bulawayo and Tsholotsho have been directed to help prepare for
the primary elections that have been rescheduled for Thursday. They will be
assisted by staff from the party headquarters."
He said in Tsholotsho,
the National Election Directorate would consider the names of five
additional aspiring women candidates who had submitted their curriculum
vitaes for vetting. Meanwhile, the female candidates who are battling to
represent Zanu-PF in Tsholotsho started campaigning straight after the
meeting with Cde Manyika.
Cde Manyika said primary elections in the seven
constituencies in Bulawayo as well as Tsholotsho, Binga, Insiza and Gwanda
will be held on Thursday.
THE Minister of Public Service
Labour and Social Welfare, Paul Mangwana and the Minister of State for State
Enterprises and Parastatals Rugare Gumbo last night became the latest
high-profile casualties in the Zanu PF primary elections.
They bring
to four the number of ministers who lost the elections to choose the party's
candidates for this year's parliamentary elections. The other two are the
Minister of Industry and International Trade Samuel Mumbengegwi, who lost
Chivi North to Enita Muzariri, and his deputy Kenneth Manyonda, who lost to
businessman William Mutomba in Buhera North. Mangwana lost in Kadoma East to
former Zupco boss Bright Matonga in the primary elections, which started on
Saturday and were still going on in other constituencies. Acting
Mashonaland West provincial chairman John Mafa yesterday confirmed that
Mangwana had lost the election to Matonga. In the Midlands, acting provincial
chairman, Jason Machaya confirmed that Gumbo had lost the primary election
to Godwill Zishiri. He said counting of ballots was still in progress last
night for Gokwe Central and Gokwe West. "The counting of ballots is still
in progress. The figures have not been tallying so the counting had to be
done all over again," Machaya said. At the time of going to press last night,
13 legislators - including Mangwana, Mumbengegwi and Manyonda - had lost the
right to represent Zanu PF to new entrants. Meanwhile, in Mashonaland
West, the province has defied the party's directive to reserve some
constituencies for female candidates. The province was supposed to set aside
four constituencies for women, but only Zvimba South - in which incumbent
MP, Sabina Mugabe was unopposed - is the only seat the ruling party will
field a female candidate. Mafa said on Thursday that former Zifa boss Leo
Mugabe would battle it out with Douglas Mombeshora for the ticket to
represent Makonde, while in Kariba incumbent legislator, Isaac Mackenzie
would be challenged by former MP Shumbayaonda Chandengenda, and one
Jonasi. In Mutasa South, women's league national secretary Oppah Muchinguri
beat former Hatfield MP, Irene Zindi by 4 126 to 3 203. Manicaland
acting provincial chairman Shadreck Chipanga told The Daily Mirror last
night that he was yet to get results from Mutare Central, where there were
reportedly some disturbances during polling. In Chimanimani the primary
elections were postponed due to logistical problems. Chipanga said the
election would now be held at a date to be determined by the party's
national elections directorate.
MDC
deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire on Sunday won the right to stand
for Mbare constituency on the opposition party's ticket after defeating
Mbare East legislator Tichaona Munyanyi in primary elections held at Harvest
House. The Delimitation Commission merged Mbare East and West constituencies
into a single constituency -Mbare. Harare City commission member, Tendai
Savanhu has been nominated as Zanu PF's candidate for the same
constituency. Another MDC Member of Parliament (MP), Dunmore Makuwaza of
Mbare West, was barred from contesting the primary elections after being
declared ineligible following his loss to the opposition party's deputy
secretary-general last year in a confirmation exercise. In an interview,
Munyanyi said the primary polls were not free and fair. "I have lost to
Chimanikire by four votes, but I would want to state that there was a lot of
vote-buying in this election. "The MDC is no longer different from Zanu PF.
Some people were given money to influence the outcome, and the party
leadership was also biased in favour of the deputy secretary-general, who is
a member of the party's national executive," said Munyanyi. The Mbare
West MP said he would mobilise the opposition party's supporters against
Chimanikire. Makuwaza also added his voice against the outcome of yesterday's
opposition primary poll. "Some members of the national executive have
manipulated the outcome in Chimanikire's favour, and as a result I urge all
our supporters not to vote for him in the coming polls. Chimanikire has come
all the way from Guruve to cause confusion in Mbare. I am not going to give
in, I declare myself the candidate," he said. Makuwaza also said the
decision to bar him from participating in yesterday's primary election was
undemocratic, charging that despite his earlier loss in Mbare West, Mbare
was a new constituency since other suburbs like Waterfalls, which had
participated, no longer belonged to the constituency. Efforts to get a
comment from either Chimanikire or Paul Themba Nyathi, the opposition
party's spokesperson, were fruitless.
FORMER chairman of SMM Holdings,
Abner Botsh has blasted the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for allegedly halting
graft investigations into the company, in order to protect certain
individuals.
The accusations come in the wake of innuendos that senior
Zanu PF officials are said to be in a quandary as their plot to help
themselves to businessman Mutumwa Mawere's empire has run into a spot of
bother. Most of them are said to have been part of the now infamous
Tsholotsho debacle. Sources have revealed that the clique (names
supplied), were now clutching at straws as evidenced by the revocation of
the specification of CFI Holdings where the Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa saw it fit to remove the
specification of the agro-based company after finding nothing to write home
about. However the battle seems to be far from over as SMM administrator,
Arafas Gwaradzimba has written to former chairman Botsh, demanding that he
should call at his offices. In a letter dated December 5 2004 and
addressed to Botsh's lawyers, Costa and Mudzonga, Gwaradzimba says: "I make
reference to your letter dated 30 November 2004 in which I summoned your
client, in my capacity as administrator of SMM Holdings (Private) Limited to
appear before the administrator in terms of section 10 (1) of statutory
instrument 187 of 2004, to answer questions put forward to him in terms of
the said statutory instrument. Without good cause, excuse or reasonable
grounds whatsoever, your client failed and/or refused/neglected to appear
before the administrator as stated in the administrator's letter referred to
above and in accordance with the provisions of section 9 (2) of SI 187 of
2004. Accordingly, your client is liable to prosecution in terms of sections
9 (3) and 14 (1) of SI 187 of 2004." Gwaradzimba's letter says a person
summoned by the administrator of a company under reconstruction shall be
examined on oath and shall answer all questions that are put to him or
her. The administrator adds that a person so summoned may not purport to
respond to questions put to him or her by the administrator, "in writing as
you have proposed". Gwaradzimba further adds that he was proceeding to
hand the matter over to the police for prosecution. However, Botsh did
not take the matter lying down, saying: "I had been the chairman of SMM for
two months but the fraud and corruption that I unearthed was shocking. The
top executives were buying top-of-the range cars. There was a loan for $90
million, which had accumulated to $600 million. Mind you these loans were in
their names. You had a funny situation where the offices at Batanai Gardens
were refurbished for $250 million, which had ballooned to over $500 million
over a period of one year." He added that there were so many phantom
companies that the executives used to their advantage with claims that were
dubious. "I discovered that there was one claim where Turnall Zambia was said
to be owed US$70 000 and R100 000 for spurious reasons. I refused to
authorise that payment." Botsh's allegations seem to be buttressed by
recent media reports that SMM lost billions of dollars to a ghost company -
New Base Construction Company - that renovated the company's stadium,
Maglas. Botsh said just when he was about to gird his loins and crack the
whip, SMM was specified. "Specification is now the order of the day. When
they know that you have a case against them and they run out of ideas, they
specify you. Look at Time Bank. It is an open secret that the commercial
bank has a case against the central bank, but to quell any murmurings, the
bank was specified," Botsh said. He added that what was surprising was
that some of the executives were rewarded with plum jobs for their
chicanery. This newspaper has documents that reveal that former SMM chief
executive officer, Hilary Munyati had a foreign currency account with Citi
Bank in Florida, USA whose account number was 31067 70396 and there was one
transaction where US$7 500 which was made good to him. This was on July 3
2002
Law Society challenges sections of Money
Laundering Act
Clemence Manyukwe issue date :2005-Jan-18
THE
Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) is challenging the constitutionality of some
sections of the Bank Use Promotion and Suppression of Money Laundering Act
in the Supreme Court, that compels lawyers to record and pass their clients'
confidential information to the government.
The lawyers are arguing that
the legislation turns them into state agents. The application was lodged with
the Supreme Court on January 10 2005 under file number (SC 3/2005). Under
the Act, lawyers are compelled to report on their client's "suspicious
information", especially on large cash transactions, collect information
from them and other sources and pass it onto the government even without
their knowledge or approval. In its Supreme Court application the LSZ is
the sole applicant, while the Minister of Finance, Herbert Murerwa, the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and as well as the Attorney General of
Zimbabwe, Sobuza Gula-Ndebele are the first, second and third respondents
respectively. The legal practitioners said some provisions of the Act were in
violation of the common law rule on attorney and client privilege. The
application is seeking that the Supreme Court declare that: "Sections 24,
25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 of the Bank Use, Promotion and Suppression of Money
Laundering Act Chapter 24:24 are inconsistent with the declaration of rights
and unconstitutional insofar as they seek to impose on legal practitioners,
recording, disclosure and reporting obligations as contained in
them. "Such obligations are null and void insofar as they relate to legal
practitioners." The application also wants the respondents to be directed
to do everything in their power to ensure the removal of paragraph three of
the First Schedule of the act and Murerwa to pay the cost of the
suit. In his supporting affidavit, the society's president, Joseph James
said where the information is incriminating, the disclosure creates a
situation whereby a client effectively incriminates himself through his
agent, the lawyer. He added that if legal practitioners complied with the
requirements, that would be in violation of the code of conduct of
lawyers. "The recording, reporting and disclosure requirements conscript
legal practitioners to act as state agents, contrary to their client's
interests. They do so by requiring lawyers to collect information that may
not be required for the representation of the client.it is not necessary to
turn lawyers into whistle blowers," reads part of the affidavit. The law
society's lawyers, Scanlen and Holderness, said no opposing papers had een
filed yet.
From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo issue date
:2005-Jan-18
THE Bulawayo City Council has contracted out its debt
collection services in a bid to collect, trace and investigate outstanding
debtors in a move set to improve the local authority's precarious financial
position. Its debtors, among them, the government, owe the council billions
in unpaid services. The city's town clerk Moffat Ndlovu said the
non-payment of rates and tariffs by some of Bulawayo's residents had
seriously affected the implementation of council's development programmes
and the effective provision of services in the city. "To improve its
finances, council has invited public tenders to collect debts on behalf of
council. "The fact that the debtor situation will now be approached from a
professional angle should be viewed with hope and if well executed should
result in a win-win situation for both council and the residents," said
Ndlovu. The town clerk stressed that not all debts will be handed over to
private companies, but contractors will strictly handle problematic
debts. He said industrial and commercial properties as well as tracing and
investigating of debtors would be the responsibility of the debt
collectors. The town clerk added that aspiring debt collectors should be
registered in terms of the relevant statute, have fixed assets and latest
balance sheet should be produced to show their current financial.
MASHONALAND Central Province is
bracing for farm evictions as a team headed by Deputy Police Commissioner
Godwin Matanga, tasked with enforcing the government's one-man-one-farm
policy has finally descended on the area. Ephraim Masawi, the Mashonaland
Central Governor, yesterday told The Daily Mirror that the committee had
already carried out a probe into land ownership in an attempt to flush out
multiple farm owners. The team has moved in barely a fortnight after Matanga
dismissed as fake another team that had earlier moved into the area. So
far, the eviction committee has been to Mashonaland West, Masvingo and some
parts of Matabeleland, where a number of high-ranking government and Zanu PF
officials have been barred from some properties on the grounds that they
have more than the stipulated one farm. In an interview, Masawi said: " First
of all, they found problematic areas, and they are now working on their
findings. It's not my committee, it's independent and I cannot comment on
its work. However, it is answerable to (Deputy Police Commissioner) Matanga
and only him can comment on its work" Asked to comment on the reportedly fake
team, Masawi preferred to remain mum on the issue. No further information
on the work of the team could be obtained, as Matanga refused to comment by
the time of going to print.