Reuters
Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:49 PM GMT
By MacDonald
Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - A handful of army doctors struggled to cope
with
emergencies at Zimbabwe's largest public hospital on Monday as regular
doctors pressed on with a five week strike that has all but paralysed public
medical care.
Officials said there were about seven army medical
personnel at Harare's
Parirenyatwa Hospital doing a job normally carried out
by more than 120
doctors.
"We are very stretched at the moment," an
official in the hospital's
administration department said. "But we keep
hoping that a resolution to
this problem will be found soon for the good of
the patients."
The government called the army in earlier this month after
doctors walked
off the job to protest earnings which they say have been
eroded by galloping
inflation blamed on President Robert Mugabe's
policies.
Junior doctors at state hospitals, who now make just Z$239,000
per month
(worth about $950 at the official exchange rate but less than $50
at black
market rates), stopped work on December 21 to demand salary hikes
of more
than 8,000 percent -- leaving hospital waiting rooms jammed with
desperate
patients needing treatment.
They have since been joined by
senior doctors and some nurses, all but
crippling public medical care in the
crisis-hit southern African country.
"The position is that the strike is
ongoing, it will go on until our
concerns are addressed," Kudakwashe
Nyamutukwa, head of the Hospital Doctors
Association, told
Reuters.
Few patients are able to afford more expensive private
hospitals, leaving
most crowding cheaper but underfunded local municipal
clinics -- which must
refer major cases to the paralysed state hospitals
anyway.
Acting Health Minister Sydney Sekeramayi was unavailable for
comment.
The doctors' action has further strained a struggling public
health system
which is also battling shortages of critical drugs and a huge
patient load
attributed to HIV/AIDS.
Official media says more than 70
percent of all hospital admissions in
Zimbabwe are HIV/AIDS-related, often
involving conditions which require
complicated parallel
treatments.
Trade unions have warned of more job boycotts as earnings
continue to be
eroded by inflation -- which at over 1,200 percent is the
world's highest --
while analysts say strikes for higher wages could
trigger wider work
boycotts and spontaneous street protests, escalating
political tensions.
Nyamutukwa said the government had withheld January
salaries for some 50
doctors at Parirenyatwa, a move he said was meant to
divide the workers but
would only prolong the strike.
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 29 Jan
2007 (IRIN/PLUSNEWS) - The Zimbabwe Electricity Authority
(ZESA) has
admitted to a nation already suffering sweeping and extended
power cuts that
it is broke, and things will get worse.
Prof Christopher Chetsanga,
ZESA's chairman, recently told local media that
the country's energy
provider was in debt to the tune of Z$105 billion
(US$420 million at the
official exchange rate), and would immediately lay
off 600 of its
staff.
The country's inability to produce sufficient electricity has
forced it to
import 35 percent of the national requirement, or 650MW, from
neighbouring
countries, mainly South Africa, but also the Democratic
Republic of Congo
and Mozambique.
South Africa has also experienced
rolling blackouts recently because its
power utility, Eskom, had
miscalculated the extent of a rising demand for
electricity by forecasting
an increase of 3 percent, when in reality it has
surged to 4.5 percent.
Eskom has a total capacity of 36,400MW, of which
about 8 percent is spare
capacity, against the international norm of 15
percent.
In some parts
of Zimbabwe people have been without electricity for three
months. The power
utility's inability to keep users supplied is being caused
by the
unavailability of foreign currency to replace and repair outdated
equipment;
ZESA said it required US$30 million to repair equipment that had
become
inoperative.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in freefall in recent years,
with the formal
economy shrinking by 65 percent, agricultural production
down by 50 percent,
unemployment touching 80 percent and inflation running
at 1,281 percent, the
highest in the world, causing a slew of shortages,
including food, fuel,
medicines and foreign currency.
"We are
charging sub-economic tariffs," Chetsanga said. "For 2006 we
generated $26
billion (US$104 million) and had an expenditure of $66 billion
(US$264
million), leading to a deficit of $34 billion (US$136 million),
which has
already ballooned to $105 billion due to high interest rates."
He said
ZESA imported electricity at US2c per kilowatt and then sold it on
to the
consumer for US0.2 cents per kilowatt.
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF
government, through its finance ministry
and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,
had offered to help bail out the power
utility company, Chetsanga said,
because ZESA's precarious financial
position meant it was not meeting its
operational requirements.
Only two of the six thermal generators at
Hwange Colliery Company, in
Matabeleland North Province, were functional.
"To service all the four
[non-operational] units, we will require at least
US$30 million and we don't
have that money. Major generation constraints are
being experienced at
Hwange Power Station, whose full capacity should be
780MW but it is
currently operating at 350MW on average as a result of
inadequate resources,
mostly foreign currency for plant
overhauls."
Kariba South Hydro Station, on the Zambian border, was only
generating 350MW
of a potential 750MW.
However, despite the inability
to raise foreign currency and the Southern
Africa's looming power shortages,
the power utility was confident that a
solution would be
found.
Chetsanga said there were plans to raise US$2.5 billion for the
construction
of the Batoka hydropower plant near Kariba in the northwest of
the country,
the Gokwe North thermal power plant, in Midlands Province, and
the
exploitation of methane gas in Lupane, Matabeleland North Province. He
did
not elaborate on the plans for raising the money.
Many consumers
have had to get used to living without a consistent
electricity supply, and
ZESA has been running regular newspaper adverts
providing tips for consumers
on how to save electricity when they have it.
With power no longer
guaranteed, urban Zimbabweans are now using firewood as
their main source of
energy for cooking or heating, stripping the
surrounding countryside and
farms of their trees.
Tinashe Moyo, an unemployed university graduate,
told IRIN that after
failing to find work he joined his father on a farm
close to the capital,
Harare - one of the farms redistributed to landless
blacks as part of
Mugabe's fast-track land reform programme in 2000 - which
previously used to
grow roses for export but now does a brisk business in
timber.
"We have a lot of virgin land and because of the regular power
cuts; a lot
of people are now buying firewood from our farm because it is
very close to
the capital." Moyo has also opened a depot in the city to make
the wood more
accessible to his customers.
His enterprise is not
unique: in the growing absence of electricity, vendors
are selling firewood
along all the highways leading to Harare to supply the
spiralling demand. "I
need to feed myself and my wife is expecting our first
child, and although I
am certainly cognisant of the environmental
degradation we are causing, this
is the only way I can make money."
Mail and Guardian
Johannesburg, South Africa
29 January
2007 06:04
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
offered to
step down if his party feels he has failed to deliver, Harare's
Herald
newspaper reported on Monday.
It quoted the leader
of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
as saying some members of his
national executive are accusing him of being a
stumbling
block.
"Some people said I have failed and I told them to
look for
another leader," Tsvangirai told a political rally in Harare on
Sunday.
"If Tsvangirai is a stumbling block [then] let him
go. This
should apply to all leaders, even at provincial
level."
Tsvangirai said he will this year resort to
"dictatorship" in
weeding out non-performers from his
party.
"If I ask you to jump, you do not just jump, but you
should ask
'how high?'," he said.
He said he had the
power to fire those who were calling for his
resignation while stressing
that he could only be ejected by the party's
congress.
"I
can fire you right now. But as for myself, I can only be
fired at the next
congress," he said. -- Sapa
IOL
January 29
2007 at 04:01PM
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe on Monday questioned a
leading rights
activist for two hours over allegations he failed to seek
police clearance
before leading demonstrations, the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA)
said.
NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku had been
told to report to a police
station in the capital Harare early on Monday
morning, said spokesperson
Madock Chivasa in a statement.
Madhuku, a trained lawyer, was questioned by six police officers who
indicated their worry over the NCA's stance of not seeking clearance from
the police before demonstrating, Chivasa said.
The NCA, an
umbrella grouping representing churches, rights and
student groups in
crisis-hit Zimbabwe, regularly organizes demonstrations
against President
Robert Mugabe's government.
The latest protest was
last Wednesday, when NCA members tried to
demonstrate in Harare against
plans by some in the ruling party to extend
Mugabe's term by two years to
2010.
One protester was tortured at the hands of the police during
the
protest and is still recovering in hospital, the NCA
alleges.
The NCA spokesperson reiterated his group's refusal to
seek police
clearance for marches, as required under Zimbabwe's tough Public
Order and
Security Act (POSA).
"We don't recognize laws that
undermine our basic freedoms of
association and expression," said
Chivasa.
"For as long as the police behave like government puppets
they will
not get the respect that they are crying out for from the NCA," he
added,
promising more demonstrations to come.
Madhuku was
released after two hours of questioning. - Sapa-dpa
By Violet Gonda
29 January
2007
The Zimbabwe Christian Alliance leadership were finally released on
Monday
afternoon, having been arrested during a church meeting in Kadoma
last
Friday. One of the arrested Pastor Berejina sent a text message
confirming
their release. The message read: "We are out in Jesus' name." But
we were
not able to get through to anyone in Kadoma to get the details of
their
release.
The church leaders who were detained are Pastors; Ray
Motsi, Ancelom Magaya
(visually impaired), Gerald Mubaira, Zvizai Chiponda,
Watson Mugabe,
Lawrence Berejina, Mr Jonah Gokova (Director of Ecumenical
Support Service)
and Mr Pius Wakatama (journalist for the ZCA
journal).
Some were being held at Rimuka while others were at Kadoma
Central.
The Alliance had gone to Kadoma to launch a chapter of the
organisation as
part of a countrywide drive to establish Christian leaders'
networks. It's
reported the turnout was high with many people having to
stand while others
were outside the church. On Friday just before his arrest
Pastor Berejina
told SW Radio Africa that between 700 and thousand people
had gathered for
the meeting.
The group said the aim of establishing
these networks is to create local
chapters of the alliance as platforms to
equip Christian leaders with church
based advocacy and peace
building.
It's reported the church leaders spent their time mingling with
other
inmates at Rimuka and Kadoma Central Police Stations, leading praise
and
worship in detention. One of the Pastors jokingly asked to be moved to
another holding cell because he had preached to everyone in his cell and all
had become Christians.
.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
29 January
2007
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe announced
Monday that its members
starting Wednesday would embark on a nationwide
go-slow action preparatory
to the launch on Monday, Feb. 5, of a
full-fledged strike over pay and
conditions. The schedule for the labor
actions was set Sunday by the PTUZ
executive body.
The union gave the
government a two-week notice of its intent to strike,
which expired on
Monday. Union officials said that the government so far has
not
responded.
Harare at the start of the year increased salaries for all
public workers by
300%, and the lowest-paid teacher now receives $84,000
dollars (US$20) a
month.
But the union, which initially demanded a
base salary of Z$3 million, is now
asking for a minimum basic salary of
Z$400,000 a month for the first quarter
of this year. It is also seeking a
Z$100,000 transport allowance and
Z$150,000 housing
allowance.
Teachers also want their own children to attend school without
fee - a
benefit that the country's liberation war veterans already
enjoy.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe General Secretary Raymond
Majongwe
told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
his
organization hopes that other unions representing teachers will throw
their
weight behind the strike.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington, DC
29 January 2007
A strike by junior and senior hospital
residents and nurses in Zimbabwe has
had ripple effects on treatment of
those living with HIV/AIDS, those
fighting the disease say.
The
strike by residents and some nurses has not directly affected HIV-AIDS
clinics. A source at the clinic attached to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare,
where residents have been on strike for nearly six weeks, said doctors at
the AIDS clinic are still working.
But Lynde Francis, executive
director of The Center, an HIV-AIDS treatment
and care facility in the
capital, said some clinics have been affected with
the result that her own
organization has seen a sharp increase in patients
seeking alternative
care.
Francis told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 For
Zimbabwe
that she sympathized with the plight of the striking health
workers, but
warned that the labor dispute is now having a severe impact on
many of those
needing treatment.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
29 January
2007
With economic conditions sharply deteriorating and labor
unrest and protests
on the rise, Zimbabwean security officials sought an
agreement Monday with
the chairman of a leading civic activist group not to
call protests without
first informing them.
National Constitutional
Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku said later that
he refused to enter into
such an agreement because the NCA has as a matter
of principle not given
Zimbabwean authorities prior notice of their
protests. The NCA has been at
the cutting edge of increasingly strident
protests against President Robert
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party,
fueled by widespread economic
deprivation.
Madhuku said he was summoned Monday to Harare Central Police
Station, where
he has spent many an hour under detention or arrest for his
activities.
Instead of putting him in a cell, though, police served him a
soft drink and
opened talks with him.
Negotiating for the state was
Senior Assistant Inspector Bothwell Mugariri,
the highest-ranking police
official in Harare province, flanked by the
officer in command of law and
order maintenance and the head of the police
internal security intelligence
unit.
Madhuku was accompanied by his lawyer, Alec
Muchadehama.
Intelligence sources said authorities worried that the
rising political
temperature in the country could allow opposition forces to
organize a
Ukraine-style uprising.
Hospital doctors and nurses in the
capital and in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second city, remain on strike, and the
Progressive Teachers Union of
Zimbabwe has just told the government that its
members may go on strike on
Monday, Feb. 5.
Madhuku told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
there is no backing off
from protests.
Zim Online
Tuesday
30 January 2007
GWANDA - The trial of two
opposition officials who are accused of inciting
the army to revolt against
President Robert Mugabe was on Monday adjourned
to an unspecified date to
allow the Attorney General's office to decide
whether to go ahead with the
case.
Paul Themba Nyathi and Sithatshisiwe Moyo, were arrested late last
year for
allegedly distributing subversive material to soldiers to inspire
them to
revolt against Mugabe.
Nyathi and Moyo are being accused of
contravening Section 30 of the Criminal
Law and Codification Act that makes
it an offence to publish statements that
likely to promote and incite public
disorder.
The two, who are senior officials of a faction of Zimbabwe's
biggest
opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party,
deny the
charge.
Under the Act, the two face a 20-year jail term if
they are convicted.
"The case has been adjourned to an unspecified date
because the prosecutor
handling the case did not get a go ahead from the
Attorney General's office
to proceed with the matter," said Thompson
Mabhikwa, a lawyer representing
the two.
Several MDC officials have
been arrested over the past seven for allegedly
flouting the country's tough
security laws with none however ever having
been convicted in a court of
law.
Zimbabwe has some of the toughest security laws in the world with
for
example, the Public Order and Security Act banning individuals from
meeting
in groups of more than three without first seeking approval from the
government. - ZimOnline
Kubatana
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/hr/990401ccjplrf.asp?sector=CACT
Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) & Legal Resources
Foundation
(LRF)
April 1999
Click here for the report
This report is a
short version of a much longer book, which was published
and released for
sale in Zimbabwe in 1997. This first book was researched
and written by the
Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) and the Catholic
Commission for Justice and
Peace. (CCJP ) 2000 copies of this longer book
have been published, and most
have been sold.
A copy was sent to His Excellency the President, and
other Cabinet Ministers
in Zimbabwe have also read the report. There has
been no official comment
about the report from the President or
Government.
Why was the first book written?
People who live in
Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands know only too well
what happened to
them during the 1980s. Their lives were affected in serious
ways by both
government troops and also by dissidents and youth brigades at
this
time.
However, most people from other parts of Zimbabwe still have no
idea what it
was like for those who were suffering. They have no idea how
people still
suffer as a result of the violence that took place. People who
were affected
also do not have ways of talking to people in other parts of
the country
about what happened. Ordinary people all over Zimbabwe need to
know what
happened during those years in their own country.
Why has
this summary been written?
The first book was very long, and had to include
many details in order to
make sure that the claims of the book were well
supported. This made the
book expensive to produce and expensive to
sell.
The writing of a short version was therefore seen as a good idea.
It
includes only the most important parts of the first book. It has been
produced more cheaply so that it can be available in communities that want
to know what the report says. This shorter version has also been translated
into Ndebele and Shona. In this way, people in affected regions can read how
their history has been told, and people in unaffected regions can learn
about it for the first time.
How is the book structured?
Part One
of the report tells the history of the 1980s in Zimbabwe, written
as a
general story. Many types of information were used to put this history
together, including human rights reports, histories by others, Government
sources, and The Chronicle newspaper. This section tells what government
ministers and dissidents and army troops were saying and doing at the time,
and shows how events happened in Zimbabwe during these years.
Part
Two includes two case studies, which are covered in more detail. These
are
Tsholotsho and Matobo, one district from each province of Matabeleland.
These short histories tell what actually happened day by day and week by
week, exactly as ordinary people who live in these districts told it to
us.
We know that the stories told here are only a handful of the stories
still
to be told, but it is a beginning. Because of limited finance, it was
not
possible to include every district in one book, or to speak to every
person
in Tsholotsho and Matobo. But it was hoped that by including two
areas in
some detail, other people reading the report could start to get an
idea of
what life was like for those affected by the violence.
Part
Three of the report looks at some of the problems people still face
because
of the disturbances. It tries to begin assessing what the real
material and
emotional cost has been to the region. It also looks at the
problem of mass
graves and shallow graves in some detail, and has some
recommendations about
these.
Part Four of the report has some important recommendations about
how damage
to the region can be repaired, and how steps can be taken to
ensure this
never happens again. The recommendations are summarised at the
end of this
document.
Preface
Zimbabwe is currently enjoying a
period of stability which did not exist
twelve years ago. There are now no
emergency powers in force, and people
have more freedom of movement and
speech than ever before. Before
Independence, ninety years of colonial rule
caused great injustices and
suffering. In particular, the 1970s War of
Liberation cost the lives of
possibly 30 000 people. There were other costs
to this war. Thousands lost
property, livestock and suffered permanent
injuries. Thousands more gave up
their opportunity to get an education, or
were forced to live for years in
protected villages. For all these people,
the suffering continues in many
ways.
The events of the 1970s have
been well documented. CCJP is among the many
organisations that stood up for
human rights during these years, and who
have published books and videos
making sure that there is a permanent record
of these things. The Man in the
Middle (1975), and The Civil War in Rhodesia
(1976) are two such
publications, among others. The LRF was not established
until
1984.
While much has been written about the liberation struggle, there
has been
little written about what happened in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. This
report
acknowledges the historical context within which events of the 1980s
took
place and does not seek to blame anyone. This report now seeks to break
the
silence surrounding what happened in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. Over one
thousand people came forward to tell their stories in recent years. The
report seeks to give these people a chance to be heard. It is hoped that
truth will lead to reconciliation. To help this happen, there are practical
recommendations at the end of the report on how to help the people
affected.
Zim Online
Tuesday 30 January 2007
MUTARE
- A former top ally of President Robert Mugabe says the Zimbabwean
leader
alone oversaw a 1980s military crackdown in the south-west of the
country
that killed more than 20 000 innocent civilians from the minority
Ndebele
tribe.
Edgar Tekere, a former secretary general of the ruling ZANU PF
party, said
Solomon Mujuru, then commander of the army, was also not aware
of the
crackdown carried out by the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade, an
outfit of
Mugabe-loyalists said to have operated outside the formal army
command
structure.
"Rex Nhongo (Mujuru's nome de guerre) who was in
charge of the army at that
time was not aware of the (Gukurahundi)
operation. He was sidelined," Tekere
told journalists in the eastern Mutare
city at the weekend.
Tekere - once a friend of Mugabe who helped him
seize control of ZANU PF at
a time during the struggle years - held senior
positions in the government
before he was expelled in 1988 from both the
government and the ruling party
after opposing plans by Mugabe to declare
Zimbabwe a one-party state.
He was readmitted into ZANU PF at the party's
conference last year but was
barred from taking up any senior position in
the party reportedly at the
orders of Mugabe.
The 5th Brigade was
deployed in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces -
home of the Ndebele -
ostensibly to crush an armed insurrection against
Mugabe's rule but ended up
wantonly massacring innocent civilians they
accused of backing the
rebels.
The military crackdown only ended after late nationalist and
vice-president
Joshua Nkomo and his ZAPU opposition party agreed to be
merged into Mugabe's
ZANU PF party under a unity accord signed in
1987.
Mugabe had accused Nkomo - the father of Zimbabwean nationalism -
of
sponsoring rebels in a bid to seize power.
Several mass graves of
victims of the 5th Brigade crackdown, also known as
Gukurahundi, have been
discovered in Matabeleland and the Midlands.
Mugabe has refused to accept
responsibility or apologise in full for
Gukurahundi although he has called
the campaign "an act of madness."
Tekere, who was addressing the Mutare
Press club, said Mugabe did not want
to step down because he feared he could
end up like former Liberian dictator
Charles Taylor who was arrested after
agreeing to leave power.
"Mugabe is afraid of his crimes," said Tekere.
He added: "If he leaves
offices we will have another Charles Taylor
incident. So when Mugabe sits
down and thinks of Gukuruhundi, he never
(wants to) step down."
Taylor agreed to give up power under a deal backed
by Nigeria and which saw
the former strongman leaving Monrovia to settle in
Nigeria. But the
Nigerians later withdrew protection and gave up Taylor to
face trial for
crimes against humanity at The Hague.
Mugabe last year
told Canadian television he was not afraid of being
arrested after leaving
office but political analysts have always speculated
that one reason the
82-year old leader will not leave office was that he
could not trust whoever
succeeds him among his ZANU PF colleagues to protect
him from
arrest.
Tekere, who has in the past weeks also absolved Mugabe of
assassinating a
prominent rival, Josiah Tongogara, during the last months of
the
independence struggle, called for those who were behind Gukurahundi to
face
trial.
"Certain atrocities should not be swept under the carpet.
Those involved
must stand up against their crimes," Tekere
said.
ZimOnline was unable to get immediate comment on the matter from
Mugabe's
spokesman George Charamba.
But state-owned media have been
on a campaign to dismiss Tekere as unhinged
and not to be
trusted.
Tekere, who has published a book in which he claims Mugabe was a
late comer
into the struggle for independence, is seen by some as both
maverick and
eccentric. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 30 January
2007
BULAWAYO - Equipment worth about US$500
000 is lying idle in Zimbabwe after
the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority (ZPWMA) banned a local
conservation group from making
any donations to the authority.
The ZPWMA accuses the white-dominated
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
(ZCTF) of falsifying the wildlife situation
in the country and has since
stopped the group from donating anything to the
authority.
The ZPWMA has rejected borehole water pumps, spare parts and a
consignment
of 400 blankets sourced from international donors and meant for
the
anti-poaching unit in Hwange National Park.
"Due to continuous
negative and false reports emanating from your
organisation about
conservation in Zimbabwe, the authority can no longer
afford to associate
with you, as this association is now a liability to the
nation.
"With
immediate effect the authority will no longer accept any donations
that will
come through your organisation," said ZPWMA director-general,
Morris
Mutsambiwa in a letter addressed to the task force.
The leader of the
taskforce, Johnny Rodrigues said reports they have
compiled in national
parks were an accurate reflection of the situation in
the country because of
rampant poaching by government officials.
"The problem is that there is a
lot of corruption and underhand dealings
within the Department of Parks and
when we insist on accounting for
everything as per donors' directive, the
people at the Department of Parks
do not like that.
"The animals in
Zimbabwe do not belong to the Department of Parks alone they
belong to
Zimbabweans and we will not allow anyone to bar ZCFT to intervene
and save
the animals," said Rodrigues.
Poaching has been rife in Zimbabwe since
landless black villagers began
invading - with tacit approval from the
government - white-owned farms and
game conservancies over the past six
years.
There have also been reports of illegal and uncontrolled trophy
hunting on
former white-owned conservancies now controlled by powerful
government and
ruling ZANU PF party politicians.
The government
however denies politicians are illegally hunting game and
insists it still
has poaching under control. - ZimOnline
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
29 January 2007
For two years now the African Union has
ignored a report by its own African
Commission on Human and People's Rights
which said heads of state should
deal with human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe travelled to
Ethiopia Sunday to attend the 8th AU summit which
started Monday and the AU
leaders gathered there will discuss solutions to
conflict areas like
Somalia, Darfur and Guinea. This time they might just
put Zimbabwe on the
agenda.
Tapera Kapuya of The National Constitutional
Assembly said there is now a
shift of opinion, especially in SADC states
feeling the negative effects of
the Zimbabwe crisis. Kapuya said: "There's
actually been a lot of shift in
terms of opinion on Zimbabwe and I think the
crisis there is now generally
understood. I'm not quite sure about Central
and Northern Africa though."
Kapuya explained that the Zimbabwe situation
had become problematic for
South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and
some other SADC states which
are experiencing the spillage into their
territories.
Kapuya added: "Thorough investigations were done by the A.U.
itself and its
credibility will be judged on the basis of whether they are
going to take it
seriously and follow-up on the recommendations of their own
commission."
Kapuya and the NCA are among several Zimbabwean civic groups
which are also
in Ethiopia to push for a resolution on the continuing crisis
back home. He
said: "We are working through civic society networks from
other countries
which have access to their own governments." Kapuya added
that the NCA is
not even trying to get these groups to present information
from local
Zimbabwean interests, but to simply pay attention to what their
own
commissioners witnessed when they went to Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile several
groups have announced they plan to demonstrate outside
French embassies
across Europe in order to block any members of the Mugabe
regime from
attending an international summit due in France next month.
Among them are
Union members, Zimbabwean exiles and human rights activists
who say they
want the French government to enforce the European Union's
"targeted
sanctions" which ban government officials and Mugabe's family from
travelling outside the country. The groups also want the French government
to agree to turn away any member of the Zimbabwean government who arrives at
the conference.
Amicus' General Secretary Derek Simpson, is quoted
saying: "We need to send
a clear and consistent message to the leaders of
the Zimbabwe's brutal
regime: you are not welcome." The travel ban on Mugabe
and his cronies was
introduced by the EU in 2002.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
With Professor Stanford Mukasa
29 January
2007
A number of recent internal and external events appear to be giving
a
glimmer of hope for a new momentum on the struggle for democracy in
Zimbabwe
.
The new secretary general of the United Nations, Ban
Ki-moon has placed
Africa high on his agenda. His first ever international
visit in his
capacity as UN secretary general has been to the Democratic
Republic of
Congo. Here, the UN maintains a force of 17,000 peace keeping
troops. Next,
Ban Ki-moon was scheduled to visit several African countries
including Sudan
and the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia
.
Also significant was Ban Ki-moon's appointment of former foreign
minister of
Tanzania , Asha Rose Migiro, as assistant secretary general of
the United
Nations. Thus, while Kofi Annan is now gone Africa will continue
to have a
very high representation in the administrative structure of the
United
Nations. While Migiro can be expected to help keep African issues
high on
the UN agenda her role in resolving the Zimbabwean issue is
uncertain -
considering the fact that Tanzania has traditionally supported
Mugabe and
ZANUPF. There is no record or evidence that, in her capacity as
foreign
minister, Migiro, ever condemned the repression or atrocities
perpetrated by
Mugabe.
All in all, the embattled Zimbabweans could
potentially benefit from the
fact that, even though Ban Ki-mon will not
initially focus directly on
Zimbabwe , the secretary general has Africa
under his spotlight.
The United Nations is increasingly being recognized
around the world,
especially by the Western countries, as a very important
instrument for
international diplomacy and resolution of problems. The
Security Council has
been regularly engaged in addressing crises around the
world.
Ban Ki-moon's placing Africa high on his agenda means that Mugabe
and ZANUPF
will regularly be in the crosshairs of international condemnation
and
criticism.
The decision by the European Union to maintain
targeted sanctions against
Mugabe and his cronies is an ongoing assurance
that the international
community is not likely to go soft on Mugabe any time
soon.
However, the position taken by the international community on
Mugabe and
ZANUPF so far has not been strong enough to bring Mugabe to
accept democracy
and basic human rights in Zimbabwe .
This brings
into focus the internal dynamics of the opposition movement,
notably,
Movement for Democratic Change.
For several years now the opposition
movement in Zimbabwe has not launched
an effective campaign against Mugabe.
Members of the opposition and civic
society have been denied their
constitutional right to free and fair
elections, free press, freedom of
expression, and the right to campaign
freely without harassment during the
periods leading to elections. MDC has
subsequently failed to win power
democratically through elections. Mugabe is
goading the opposition movement
into the politics of confrontation. But
unable to launch effective mass
protests, or other more assertive acts of
civil disobedience, the opposition
movement appears doomed to repeating the
same strategies that have gotten
them nowhere in the first place.
Faced with this pessimistic scenario in
the opposition movement it is
refreshing to note that new opposition voices
are emerging with a potential
to jumpstart civil society into more rigorous
forms of protest.
However, to sustain this momentum Zimbabweans and their
friends need to
launch two bold initiatives.
First, civil society
must significantly increase its regional and
international diplomatic
campaigns to lobby for a redoubled effort to bring
pressure to bear on
Mugabe. Such a diplomatic lobbying cannot be done once
in a blue moon
through occasional visits to the international community. The
opposition
movement must establish a permanent presence in selected
countries around
the world. Such presence will ensure that the lobbying
efforts are conducted
almost continuously.
The opposition movement needs information offices
that will act as clearing
houses for lobbying other governments. To minimize
the costs of maintaining
information offices, civil society should work
through volunteers and other
civil society groups in different countries.
The reason why the anti
apartheid movement was so effective was its use of
volunteers. There is no
way the ANC and PAC political parties could have
financially sustained such
a network of offices throughout the world. This
is what the opposition
movement in Zimbabwe should do. It should approach
volunteer agencies and
NGO in several countries and work out an arrangement
where these agencies
and volunteers will help the opposition movement to
keep the international
community more dynamically engaged in pressuring
Mugabe.
While 2006 ended on a largely pessimistic note about prospects
for the
return to the rule of law and democracy, the year 2007 has so far
had a few
surprises. A number of strikes, most of them apparently
spontaneous, have
hit Zimbabwe . It seems Zimbabwean workers, in particular,
have suddenly
discovered a motivation, strength and determination to take
the Mugabe bull
by its horns. People are suddenly realizing not only the
extent of their
misery but also that they have an obligation and power to
bring about
changes in the country.
Zimbabweans are now slowly
internalizing the late Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole's
clarion call that
Zimbabweans are their own liberators.
One of Karl Marx' political
philosophies were that the more repressive a
capitalistic regime is the more
the oppressed people are provoked into a
national uprising against their
oppressor. In the Cold War Communist
rhetoric, this philosophy was
transformed into a powerful and compelling
call to the workers to take
action: Workers of the world unite. You have
nothing to lose but your
chains! With their increasing impoverishment
Zimbabweans are probably
realizing that they have nothing to lose by
confronting Mugabe for the
simple reason that Zimbabweans have nothing and
everything to
gain.
Until last year two noteworthy organizations that have been at the
forefront
of the demonstrations in Zimbabwe are Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA) and the
National Constituent Assembly (NCA). But now it seems new
forces have
emerged to strengthen the cause for mass protests.
A
number of strikes from doctors, teachers, nurses, and others have taken
their places on the road to confrontation with Mugabe.
Some
unconfirmed reports also say some members of the elite presidential
guard
have tried to demonstrate against Mugabe.
Another emerging force are
disgruntled ZANUPF officials like Edgar Tekere
who recently wrote a very
revealing book about Mugabe. Enos Nkala has
promised a book that he says
will also expose ZANUF and Mugabe.
Tekere's book has debunked the myth
about Mugabe's accomplishments during
the liberation war. If Tekere is to be
believed Mugabe's role in the
liberation struggle has been mischievously
exaggerated.
There is a folklore in Zimbabwe about how an owl generated
fear among
animals by pretending that it had horns that it could use to
attack or
defend itself. But one clever animal was able to prove that the
owl had no
horns, only tufts of hair on its head that looked liked
horns.
Through Tekere's book, Mugabe has become the owl whose inflated
ego has been
exposed. In his book Tekere says Mugabe was dragged kicking and
screaming
into the liberation struggle in which his role and participation
was
marginal.
This new dimension in the politics of confrontation
with its ever widening
circle of opposition to Mugabe signifies a growing
resentment from within
ZANUPF about perpetuating lies about Mugabe's
prowess.
The action by Tekere in writing such a revealing book about
Mugabe is
evidence of the observation by many analysts that ZANUPF contains
seeds of
its own destruction. When criticism of Mugabe comes from the
opposition
movement Mugabe can easily unleash the army, militia thugs and
police to
silence any such opposition. But Mugabe has not used such force on
his top
officials who oppose him publicly. When former minister of state for
information and publicity, Jonathan Moyo, was fired or resigned he
campaigned freely in Tsholotsho without the harassment that dogged members
of the opposition movement.
In today's Letter from America , Dr. Stan
Mukasa analyzes the implications
of the increasing opposition to Mugabe and
ZANUPF.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 28th January
2007
Zimbabwe is a complex mosaic of thousands of small events each
day. Together
they make up the whole. What the whole looks like is different
to each of us
and trying, like this, in a weekly letter to describe events
and the whole
for others, is not easy.
Take for example the arrest of
7 pastors and others in Kadoma - a small town
in central Zimbabwe. They were
holding a meeting of the Christian Alliance
attended by about 1000 people
with the intention of forming a local branch
of the Alliance. They had
notified the Police as required under the Public
Order and Security Act and
several policemen were actually sitting in the
hall.
At lunchtime a
group of armed riot police arrived and the leaders of the
meeting were taken
into custody. The Christian Alliance comprises some 1500
churches so this
was by no means an insignificant event. In fact it marks
the first admission
by the State that it is concerned about the activities
of this grouping. It
is the opening shot in what is going to be a drawn out
struggle between the
Church and the State over the way we are being
governed.
One incident
stands out for me. Pius Wakatama, a good friend for many years
and one of
Zimbabwe's foremost thinkers and intellectuals as well as a
writer, is one
of the Christian leaders arrested. He was separated from the
majority and
taken to the central police station where he found himself
locked up with 30
others in a cell designed for four. Standing room only. My
wife was locked
up under similar circumstances last year - she was with 23
others in a cell
and said they could not all lie down at night at one time.
Pius led the
entire cell population in prayers and in singing well-known
hymns and after
24 hours in the cell, he asked to be moved to another cell.
"Why?" The police
asked, "All those in my present cell have become
Christians and now support
the Alliance. I need a new congregation to work
with!" Pius responded. This
time the Mugabe regime better sit up and take
note, they are now dealing
with a new type of dissident!
This past week we also remembered the two
MDC staff workers who were burnt
to death in the 2000 parliamentary
campaign. I remember both young people
well - Tichaona Chiminya and Talent
Mabika. They were driving down a road in
the Buhera district when they came
to a roadblock. While stationary, their
vehicle was set on fire using petrol
and both young people were killed, the
girl surviving long enough to
identify her assailants at a nearby mission
hospital where she was taken
after the attack. She died soon after.
The Central Intelligence Officer
who led that attack was a man called Mwale
and he has not only been
protected for the past 7 years by the Mugabe
regime - he was actually
promoted and has been used in several other
incidents. The High Court has
examined the evidence on this case and called
for the matter to be
prosecuted - without effect or influence.
Both these incidents reflect
two things - the willingness of this regime to
use whatever force is
required to protect its hold on power and its
willingness to violate all the
accepted norms of judicial standards and
ethics. It also reflects the
courage of ordinary people here - willing to
give up their freedom and
security and even their lives to defend democracy
and good
governance.
I met with a group of young activists who are leading the
struggle against
the regime recently. All well educated - some with
university degrees,
living on a pittance and working long and dangerous
hours with the
ever-present threat of a knock on the door followed by
detention and perhaps
a beating.
"Why do you do it?" I asked, they
responded, "We are doing community
service."
These are the building
blocks of a new Zimbabwe. Principled, dedicated
service for the country and
its people above self. Pius could so easily have
become a beneficiary of the
Zanu PF patronage system. All he had to do was
bow to the Zanu leadership
and cow tow or remain silent and neutral - like
so many have done. I can
think of several of my old colleagues and friends
who have done just that -
sold their souls and the country down the Zanu PF
toilet.
He is
retired, has no money, large family responsibilities and a wonderful,
long
suffering wife, Winnie. He has suffered loss in the family and
struggles to
meet his own and his families needs. But he has never
contemplated even
once, conceding space to the regime here. He has retained
his integrity and
his commitment to principle. He was a thorn in the side of
the old Smith
regime, now he fights on against the very leadership he once
supported
because he feels they have abandoned their principles and failed
their
people.
I sat in a small house in one of the townships the other night.
We were
discussing the way forward with local leadership. An outstanding
woman led
the meeting - I looked around that room at the 50 or so people
crowded into
the area. All poor, no "fat cats" here. Some had walked 10
kilometers to get
here and would have to walk home at the end - and then
face a 6-kilometer
walk to work in the morning because they could not afford
bus fare.
We opened in prayer, closed in prayer and sang some hymns as
well as some
songs about the regime and its leaders. Always much laughter
and many jokes.
Where would I rather be? This is where real life is found,
not in the
security and luxury of some developed country where these battles
were
fought a century ago and where people now live bored and corpulent,
using up
the spiritual capital that was created by earlier
generations.
I now know what a well known Russian dissident was saying
when he stated at
a conference attended by thousands in Switzerland that he
sometimes longed
to be back in his prison cell in the Gulag where God was
very real to him
and he was forced, every day, to confront the fundamental
realities of life
itself.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 28th January
2007
The Herald
(Harare)
January 29, 2007
Posted to the web January 29,
2007
Fortius Nhambura
Harare
THE prices that are being charged
by Hwange Colliery Company Limited do not
only thwart development but are
also detrimental to the existence of the
mining company, which is integral
in the development of the country.
The company -- which is one of the
largest employers in the country and
supports other industries such as brick
manufacturing, steel manufacturing,
power utility Zesa Holdings, National
Railways of Zimbabwe and the tobacco
industry, among others -- is charging
$2 000 per tonne of coal whereas the
cost of producing a tonne is $8
000.
This means HCCL is losing $6 000 for each tonne and is actually
heavily
subsidising its major customers Zisco and Zesa.
HCCL public
relations manager Mr Clifford Nkomo said the undervaluing of its
coal was
plunging the firm into viability problems.
"We produce a tonne of the
commodity at $8 000, but at the end of the day we
are selling it at $2 000.
So there is need to review the prices in line with
production costs," said
Mr Nkomo.
The revelations come amid reports that production at HCCL has
slumped to 37
percent and that the company is failing to meet increases in
demand for coal
from different sectors of the economy such as the Tobacco
Industry and
Marketing Board and Zesa.
While it is important that
parastatals operate in such a way that they help
stabilise prices of
services, this should be done in a manner that does not
jeopardise the
existence of the enterprise.
The current price has had negative effects
on the coal industry such as
perennial shortages with Hwange producing only
180 000 tonnes of the 412 000
tonnes per month required for local
consumption. Efforts to increase
production have been curtailed by cashflow
constraints, a direct result of
the low prices being charged for
coal.
Despite the country possessing vast coalfields at Hwange, HCCL has
failed to
supply its clients such as Zesa with enough coal for thermal power
stations,
resulting in them now operating at less than 60 percent
capacity.
Consequently, Zesa's low generating capacity has forced
Zimbabwe into
importing 35 percent of its power requirements at huge
expense.
This has, in turn, adversely affected the economy. Without a
proper pricing
policy, it is going to be difficult for HCCL to attract a
suitable foreign
investor who can inject capital, management expertise and
technology, which
are crucial in the operations of the company. Huge capital
injection is
needed to rehabilitate the ageing equipment and
infrastructure.
Hwange is in need of capital to buy and replace equipment
and this can only
be done through reasonable returns from its operations.
Although production
improved slightly following the commissioning of the new
equipment last
year, the company has failed to reach its set
targets.
Economic analysts say it's high time parastatals were made to
account for
public money that they get through the national fiscus and
misuse it under
the guise of social responsibility.
They said given
the importance of coal in the provision of energy in
Zimbabwe, efforts by
Government and other players to revive the mining giant
should be
complemented by a reasonable pricing system that allows the
company to
remain afloat while permitting end users to buy the commodity.
"For any
business to perform, there is need for proper pricing of the
services that
its provides.
"A good pricing regime means a business can provide its
clients with goods
and services while it can continue to produce as well as
invest in its
development," said one analyst.
Under the National
Economic Development Priority Programme, parastatals have
been identified as
integral components of the country's economic revival and
it is imperative
that Hwange and other public enterprises are allowed to
charge fair and
profitable prices for their goods and services.
The Zimbabwe United
Passenger Company has managed to contain costs by
charging reasonable fares
and has started realising profits. The road
transport utility is now
repaying loans advanced to it by Government.
Authorities tasked to
examine the pricing of Government services should
quickly look into
presentations by parastatals and Government departments so
as to promote
viability.
While Government is moving to improve operations at Hwange,
regular
adjustment of prices of coal is needed to reflect production
expenses in the
industry.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington, DC
29
January 2007
Founding president Morgan Tsvangirai of the
opposition Movement For
Democratic Change told supporters of his faction
that he will launch a
presidential campaign for 2008 despite proposals by
Zimbabwe's ruling party
to postpone it until 2010.
Speaking before an
estimated 10,000 supporters in the Harare district of
Glen View on Sunday,
Tsvangirai said the 2007-2008 period offers the best
opportunity to remove
President Robert Mugabe and end 27 years of rule by
his ZANU-PF
party.
Host Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke
with reporter
Irwin Chifera in Harare, who attended the weekend
rally.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Andrew M Manyevere
WHEN one is not a democrat,
the thinking can only be of tyrannical nature
since ideas flow from their
inspirational zone: Force of violence to
control. Should there be any debate
of whether President Mugabe is a leader
by default in the country? No, not
at all, except we accept that we are
limited in our vision just as he is in
his concentration on force and
violence for solution, than through peaceful
reasoning, elections and
succession plans.
There is high speculation
that President Mugabe has to bring about a cabinet
reshuffle in February
2007. One has to ask, from whom, among the citizens
and for whom? While
Tekere in his recently published book is full of
vagueness, his book is the
only attempt so far done by a living Zimbabwean,
to tell the truth on a man
in whom truth has never dwelt, possibly from the
day he was
born.
People have faults. But when you look at it from the moral angel
of
Mugabe/Tekere perspectives, it tells that there are areas of life Mugabe,
like many of us too, has had tremendous weakness in resolving. One of which
is his inability to retire and be succeeded.
President Robert
Mugabe's passion for power is just equivalent to his
original passion for
leisure and life generally, if one takes Tekere account
as substantive
truth. Tekere and Mugabe were friends who are now in sour
grapes. Tekere has
never dreamt of destroying Mugabe, if anything one would
suspect this
treatise he has written may be a giving up admission on the
part of Tekere.
If anything there is credence of Tekere being an honesty man
in his book,
who never understood Mugabe's deception under the cover of
diplomacy, which
diplomacy today plays havoc on international forum and
leaves thousands of
Zimbabweans stuck abroad in exile.
What truth could be in the problem of
President Robert Mugabe as a leader of
Zanu PF for the last twenty six
years, going to twenty seven? Does he have
the will power to admit defeat
and the wisdom to build with admiration
someone to take our torn down nation
to a next stage? Can it not be said
with certainty that President Robert
Mugabe believes in himself and his own
mission in self political
aggrandizement under the pretext of a liberation
hero?
The account of
both Tekere and Nkala, high ranking men at one time in
Zanu-pf, testify that
Mugabe is self made man indeed who leads without
cooperation from people,
but grooms stooges around him in the belief that
money power buys temporary
loyally, which is what he lives and count on.
With evidence of
Murambasvina, Gukurahundi, which sparks mixed feelings, a
multifarious
legislation on oppression and strengthening of it: Does it need
a class any
longer to learn the bad side of a poor leader? When I see the
United Nations
helping set up electoral processes elsewhere in Africa, I
honestly doubt if
their silence on Zimbabwe is not from some self protection
of the
incompetence of the institution to tell leadership that they are
wrong and
poor managers.
With this picture of dilemma and disaster on Zimbabwe
politics ongoing, we
should proceed to take a look at six issues that I
consider preferential in
describing President Mugabe's political action on
attempting to make cabinet
changes of personalities, not ideological and not
structural, which ends up
a change in goal posts only.
The fact
remains fundamentally that Mugabe cannot comprehend intrinsic
values in
honesty change for honesty building of a country. He started wrong
and shall
end this way, the wrong end of economic collapse. I lament at the
reality in
these six points below on President Mugabe deficiencies,
incapacity and
incapacitated thinking, dressed in politics of survival with
a crude and raw
savage treatment of other human beings.
SIX ISSUES MUGABE IS INCOMPETENT
TO ADDRESS POLITICALLY ON RESHUFFLES:
1. CANNOT TAKE THINKERS WITH A
DEVELOPMENTAL MIND: President Mugabe cannot
stomach intelligence and the
process of normal progression from point one to
two, if it leaves him out.
He cannot take on thinkers at cabinet level and
therefore does no reshuffle,
but cosmetic changes for those who show defense
for and loyalty to him, than
to the spirit of the national flag and country
values. The question is, do
we know them any longer, national values? It's
highly questionable given
this distortion that has and is going on.
2. CANNOT TAKE ON PEOPLE OF
HONESTY AND INTEGRITY: It is unfortunate and not
of my making that every
write up on this president has moral overtones that
smell of immorality.
Unfortunately for his level even the HISTORICAL life
of his MATRIMONY, among
other issues, is projecting A FULL ACCOUNT OF
DECEPTION. Subsequently
President Mugabe cannot stand honesty people, but
would work hard until
dishonesty prevails in any one who supports truthful
open speaking into a
boot licker. How else is Mavhaire, one time a staunch
enemy, now a darling
of Zanu-Pf leader? Blowing hot air on Mugabe must go in
the 1990s, Mavhaire
made a short lasting glory in Zanu-Pf, but he is back
today (2007) in Senate
and Politburo and talks a different language. The
account is just too
impressive on how Mugabe changes people's outlook to
life through a
combination of money inducement and threats.
3. WORSHIPS BOOTLICKERS IN
TURN AND REWARDS THEM HUNDSOMELY: The first black
Mayor of Harare, favorite
to be called Comrade Tony Gara, made a famous
position when he equated
Mugabe to another son of God. Webster Shamu, still
a minister in Mugabe's
cabinet, became famous when he proposed the 21st
Movement and that day as a
national holiday. It's just like circus when one
considers that what happens
in the nation of Zimbabwe politically can
honestly be very pathetic, sad and
revealing. There are ministers who have
been recycled and encircled and now
they are out of ideas, including what to
do when Mugabe retires, if he does
except for going by natural cause.
4. NO CAPACITY TO THINK ECONOMICALLY:
This president has been repeatedly
ascribed to be someone who cannot think
chronologically in economic terms.
Talking one time to a friend of mine, who
once passed through the desk of
economic ministry under Mugabe regime, I was
staggered when he told me that
Mugabe does not believe the country can be
bankrupt. That instead he would
rather order for more paper currency to be
printed even if unrelated to the
country fiscus power. Inevitably the
economic chaos currently prevailing is
proof of the fact that this president
is overdue for change, which even
Zanu-pf itself disputes were it not for
the sycophants who sacrifice the
nation for personal gains by having Mugabe
stay on despite his mental
failures visible.
5. BANKCRUPCY OF
NATIONAL INTEREST PHILOSOPHY: This president admits to
cruel behaviour which
subjects his character to a level of a thug, which
honestly, despite that
the courts are there to make equal the guilty to
punishment, he prefers a
situation when his direct interference should be
seen as his personal
control of affairs. The spirit of vengeance coming from
a president is not
only Machiavellian but outright diabolic and should be
condemned even by our
grandchildren if we teach them properly. Mugabe has
openly admitted being
violent and schooled in violence when it comes to
matters of succession from
power even from his favoured within Zanu PF. It
should be questioned if he
can tell the difference between personal and
national matters, which makes
him a hazard he has been. Can therefore
logical issues like cabinet
reshuffle make sense beyond personal survival?
Would his cohorts give him
room to think normal given that they share so
well in the spoil for
corruption, they would rather there is a status quo
than change?
6.
NO INTEGRITY IN DEALING WITH PEOPLE MANDATE: In 2000 referendum people
asked
specifics of this president to follow when changing a constitution. If
he
cannot follow simple instructions how can he appoint people who have
people
at heart and love people mandate? The appointment of people to
different
positions of high office in Zanu-Pf has not been on what you know
and can
deliver, but on how you tell well of Mugabe's political mood and the
speed
with which you strive to please him, even at the expense of people
mandate.
If the above guidance were implemented then we would be sure
that today we
would not be talking of Robert Mugabe as President, but of
another leader
out of the nation. May be some of the people who serve the
government could
be useful only under a different leader, but I find their
duplicity wanting
of integrity and therefore in many respects unsuited for
high office. While
we have ministers and top officials in western countries
resign from acute
disagreement with leadership, we have instead those who
visit African
Presidents nicodymously at night to seek favour by undermining
others and
indeed national interest as a concept and a practice.
If
the above guidance were implemented then we would be sure that today we
would not be talking of Robert Mugabe as President, but of another leader
out of the nation. May be some of the people who serve the government could
be useful only under a different leader, but I find their duplicity wanting
of integrity and therefore in many respects unsuited for high office. While
we have ministers and top officials in western countries resign from acute
disagreement with leadership, we have instead those who visit African
Presidents nicodymously at night to seek favour by undermining others and
indeed national interest as a concept and a practice.
The plethora of
legislation on condemning those who condemn Mugabe in
Zimbabwe has filled
many pages of our statutes book and constituted a heavy
budget on needed
foreign currency to buy ink and be printed. Needless to say
law is
inoperative except a judge decides to be in defiance which in many
cases
costs them their jobs. Recently Justice Makarau as justice president
decried
the iniquity in our law practice which renders justice substandard
and
therefore renders the system corrupt. She is still in office, pointing
us to
the fact that may be what is needed is courage to throw away the
"Stockholm
fear syndrome" from many of our people in Zimbabwe inclusive of
ministers
who are reshuffled and accept meaningless and menial task of
belittling the
nation to a status of a village with chief Mugabe from no
royal family but
as self anointed.
Is cabinet reshuffling a political spectacular any
longer or a past time for
Zanu-pf in their charade for power mongering and
false international
diplomacy? Having the form of government is different
from being a
legitimate government; Zanu PF is not a legitimate government
but a self
imposed dictatorship.
I move official for the Diaspora to
pass a vote of no confidence in Mugabe,
his cabinet and party in the way
they have handled our country and to seek
establishment of a legitimate
government endorsed through a free and fair
electoral process with impartial
electoral institutions. Talking of cabinet
reshuffle under the circumstances
is endorsing the amusement of an Animal
Farm Kingdom maturing under the
watch of the world of supposedly mature
democracies.
The OAU should
stand together on this in 2007, and the UN should work our
modalities for
redemption of countries whose people are protesting civilly
and in a
democratic manner.
President Mugabe does not change or reshuffle cabinet
but recycles and
smokes in the young and ambitious to riches of plunder and
corruption. It is
these smoked under duress of bribery of finances that have
become the
biggest hurdle of convincing their friends in western countries
to ignore
the call for autocracy removal in Zimbabwe.
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
GUEST COLUMN
January 29, 2007
Posted to the web
January 29, 2007
Dianna Games
Johannesburg
ZIMBABWE'S second
city, Bulawayo, has never fared well under President
Robert Mugabe's regime.
Removed from the country's power base -- politically
and geographically --
and now an opposition stronghold, it has always been a
thorn in his
side.
Early in the new year, I had occasion to pass through the city.
Granted, it
was just after the holidays, but the place had a defeated look.
The wide
streets were quiet and empty, shops were sparsely stocked and a few
limp
Christmas streamers lingered in windows.
Structurally, the
city has barely changed in the 26 years of Zimbabwe's
independence, while
Harare has prospered. There is no sign of the gleaming
luxury cars that are
commonplace on the capital's streets; the chefs (as the
ruling party elite
and their beneficiaries are known) and briefcase
businessmen that do so well
off the current economic crisis do not ply their
trade in the poor cousin
this place has become.
But, heading to the suburbs, I discovered the
restaurant in a popular hotel
chain was full of Zimbabweans. I asked the
manager if this was unusual,
given how quiet the rest of the city was. He
said many of the patrons that
day were SA-based Zimbabweans home for the
holidays.
Remittances from Zimbabweans in SA -- and elsewhere -- are
literally keeping
the Zimbabwe economy afloat, particularly outside Harare.
In Bulawayo, for
example, retailers do not benefit from the lavish spending
of the political
elite, diplomats and foreign nongovernmental
organisations.
But everywhere in the country the concerns of ordinary
people have been
scaled down to just caring about basic
necessities.
The price of bread tripled last month (to about R24 for a
white loaf) after
the government, which had been arresting bakers for
charging above the
government price without permission, gave in after it
became scarce.
With official inflation running at more than 1200%, the
many Zimbabweans who
trekked to their families over Christmas must have been
pleased to head back
to SA.
Zimbabweans were already facing a bleak
2007 when the next presidential
elections were only a year away and change
was possible. Now they face a
bleaker prospect: three more years of steady
decline until 2010, Mugabe's
new milepost for leaving power.
The year
did not begin on an auspicious note. Thousands of doctors and
nurses,
lecturers and power sector workers have been on strike. The medical
staff
have rejected government's 300% pay rise, demanding an
inflation-related
increase.
The macroeconomic picture is worse than ever. The formal
economy has shrunk
by a cumulative 65% over the past few years, capacity
utilisation of
industry is around 20% and agriculture is down by more than
50% for many
crops.
The finance minister recently admitted that
quasi-fiscal spending, mostly by
parastatals, had pushed the budget deficit
to 43% of gross domestic product,
while money supply growth during 2005-06
was more than 1000%.
Even Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, a Mugabe
loyalist in denial about the
dire situation in his sector, has admitted to a
food shortage. Soldiers put
on to farms to produce maize and wheat have
failed dismally. Being a farmer
has not proved to be as easy as the
politicians imagined.
The local currency is trading at about Z$3000 to
the US dollar, against an
official rate of Z$250. Another revaluation of the
local currency is
expected before mid-2007. When three zeroes were shaved
off the currency
last year, economists predicted it would prove to be a
useless gesture
without support in the shape of reform to the economy -- and
it looks like
they were right.
Holding the line -- and even
prospering -- under the most adverse of
circumstances is what Zimbabweans
have become good at. But the question
keeps arising: how long can it go on
for?
Mugabe's 2010 plan has been met with horror by business in Zimbabwe.
Many
companies will struggle to ride out the extra two years and there are
already reports of the remaining multinationals winding down to a token
presence or leaving altogether.
As usual, the rest of Africa, and
most of the planet, has shrugged off the
news. "Zimbabwe fatigue" runs deep
among critics, while supporters seem to
believe Mugabe's liberation
credentials have conferred on him the right to
stay as long as he
likes.
A current television advertisement, commenting on the slaughter in
Rwanda
and several other crises in Africa, criticises "the world" for
"looking
away" while they were happening, implying complicity in the
tragedies.
One day, when its tragedy has fully unfolded, Zimbabwe will
qualify for this
list.
Games is director of Africa @ Work, an African
consulting company.
Mail and Guardian
Godwin
Gandu
29 January 2007 11:59
President Robert Mugabe is likely to be made life president of
the ruling
Zanu-PF party, allowing him a dignified exit as the country's
leader.
Word has it that Mugabe wants to run the
government from the
helm of his party should Zanu-PF decide to appoint a
prime minister after
the country's 2008 parliamentary elections. A source
within the party's
supreme organ, the Politburo, told the Mail &
Guardian that Mugabe would
assume the role of ceremonial president, leaving
the Zanu-PF appointed prime
minister to be the head of government and to
rule until the harmonisation of
parliamentary and presidential elections in
2010.
The amendment to make such changes is only likely to be
proposed
in 2008 and "is likely to be that the party with the majority
members in
Parliament chooses a prime minister", the insider said. "What
then follows
is that Zanu-PF will decide their candidate behind closed
doors, and a name
[will be] dropped during a crucial Politburo meeting on
the morning before
Parliament meets in the afternoon to
vote.
"The tricky part is that there won't be much debate or
consultation," he said. "Provincial chairmen will be summoned one by one and
whipped into line. But that could be tricky, should they all defy. Mugabe
will be left with no option but to leave the succession [to be] decided
openly."
After failing to get approval to stay on as
president until
2010, Mugabe realises the dangers of insisting on remaining
in power. For
now it remains unclear how the idea of conferring the title of
life
president on Mugabe was raised, and by whom. "It's not clear who
proposed
the life presidency recommendation, why it found its way into some
of the
recommendations that were suggested but not adopted by the party,"
said an
insider within the party's information department who was privy to
the
developments.
Insiders suspect that the secretary for
administration, Didymus
Mutasa, may have sneaked it in because none of the
representatives who
attended the annual meeting raised the
issue.
"What we know is that Mutasa indicated he wanted
Mugabe to die
in office," said the insider, and their suspicion is that "he
could have
planted it ... Above all we don't know how and why it found its
way there,"
he said.
Political analysts believe Mugabe
has become a national
liability, both at government and at party level, and
that he should call it
quits.
"It's out of date, it's
anachronistic. Its does not rhyme with
the rhythm of global politics," said
Professor Eldred Masunungure of the
University of Zimbabwe's political
science department. "It think wise
counsel will prevail or he will face
serious internal resistance to his
continued stay," he
said.
Pressure from within and outside of his party is
forcing Mugabe
to groom a successor. "Mugabe has never wanted a successor,"
said Jonathan
Moyo, Mugabe's former spin doctor. "All life presidents have
the same
characteristics, they don't groom a successor. [Kenneth] Kaunda,
[Kamuzu]
Banda, [Jomo] Kenyatta never groomed one," said Moyo. "Mugabe wants
to
become the life president, but he can't find one successor. It's in the
11th
hour and a successor is not chosen overnight," he said.
Mail and Guardian
Julius
Dawu
29 January 2007 11:59
Former
Zanu-PF strongman and co-founder, Enos Nkala, is on a
"Mugabe Must Go"
campaign, saying the Zimbabwean leader has become a
political "Frankenstein"
resistant to democratic change.
"'Mugabe must go' means there
will be a new political order in
Zimbabwe," Nkala told the Mail &
Guardian from his Bulawayo home. "[Edgar]
Tekere, others and I have agreed
to tear down Zanu-PF if he refuses to go.
We are the creators of Zanu-PF and
as creators we can tear it down."
Nkala (74) served in a
number of positions in Mugabe's Cabinet,
holding the finance, national
supplies, home affairs and defence portfolios.
He was number four in power
until 1989 when he resigned from government and
Zanu-PF after admitting to
lying in a scandal involving the sale of scarce
new cars. Now a full-time
rancher and a born-again Christian, Nkala admits
that there are no
constitutional mechanisms to remove Mugabe except the
ballot. He says past
meetings with Mugabe over national issues have yielded
nothing. In 2006 he
met Mugabe twice and criticised him over land invasions
and about insulting
United States President George W Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony
Blair.
"Apparently he is impervious to reason. I have had
many meetings
with him. I think he is politically sick. I would not want to
use the word
mentally sick. There are no constitutional mechanisms to remove
him and that
is our problem. You do not counsel a man who is impervious to
analysis and
to admitting mistakes, so why should I spend my time engaging
in an
unproductive exercise?"
But Nkala also believes
that the disintegration of the ruling
party could hasten Mugabe's
demise.
"Once Zanu-PF is torn into pieces and you have a
massive
election, Zanu-PF will suffer a massive defeat, for Mugabe has
turned
Zanu-PF into a vehicle for his own greed, political preservation and
foolish
things that take place at congresses".
Nkala and
Tekere are the two surviving members of a trio that
formed Zanu-PF in
Nkala's Highfield home in Harare 44 years ago. Tekere
recently published a
book, A Lifetime of Struggle, detailing his role in the
country's politics
and blaming the country's economic woes on Mugabe, a hero
of the liberation
struggle who has lost his political way. Subsequently
there have been
recommendations within Zanu-PF circles that Tekere be
expelled from the
party for criticising Mugabe.
In the era of the Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security
Act a number of Zimbabweans
have been arrested and charged with insulting
the president. Is Nkala not
pushing the limits of his political
expression?
"I have never been a coward, cowards die many
times before their
deaths," he declared. "If Mugabe wants to arrest me I am
prepared and at
that point I will spill the beans, I will really massacre
him. I am not
afraid of Mugabe".
"You know it angers me
when you ask me such a question. I am not
afraid of his ministers either and
have called them running dogs. In fact I
am being provocative for him to
come out and I will produce more."
On his yet untitled book,
Nkala said he was writing
"devastatingly about Robert Mugabe". After earlier
suggestions that the book
be published after his death, Nkala has agreed to
have certain innocent
portions serialised in newspapers.
"But certain areas where I say so-and-so killed so-and-so;
so-and-so was an
informer, I would rather it comes out when I am gone.
"You
know I was a friend of Mugabe and I do not like
mudslinging in our
lifetime," said Nkala, adding "Tekere and I are the two
of three who
authored, sponsored and were present at the formation of Zanu
at my house,
Mugabe was not there. Mugabe was in Tanzania. We nominated him
in absentia.
We could have left him out, but I have said that he goes around
pretending
that he and he alone delivered independence of this country. I
called it one
of the greatest lies."
Rumours of Nkala's involvement in the
Matabeleland mass killings
of the early 1980s are probably his bête noire.
In a statement made
available to the M&G, Nkala says it was Mugabe who
created the Fifth
Brigade - also known as Gukurahundi - which was dispatched
to Matabeleland
in 1983 to contain dissident activities. Under the
leadership of Perrence
Shiri, now air marshall and commander of the Air
Force of Zimbabwe, more
than 20 000 civilians were killed in the
operation.
"It has been alleged by certain mischievous people
and
newspapers that I created, equipped and trained the Fifth Brigade and
that I
was responsible for the atrocities committed by the Fifth Brigade,"
Nkala
said, adding, "Mugabe and his associates were responsible . I
therefore call
upon my old friend and president, Robert Mugabe, to appoint
either an
internal commission or an international one to investigate and
make
recommendations as to what the truth was and is now. I am prepared to
give
evidence to this commission in respect of the creation, training,
equipping
and dispatch of the Fifth Brigade."
The M&G
was unable to get a comment from the government
spokesman, George Charamba,
on Nkala's claims.
New Zimbabwe
By Courage
Shumba
Last updated: 01/30/2007 07:00:25
ROBERT Mugabe's impending Cabinet
reshuffle presents a periodic melancholy
for the abused and dispirited
people of Zimbabwe.
Together with the ceremony and fanfare that accompany
this pointless and
expensive celebration of power the new appointments
create a sense of
anguish and anger among oppressed Zimbabweans
worldwide.
Mugabe has never absorbed it in the frame of his skull: there
is no cure to
the country's economic and political crisis in new
names.
The question in Zimbabwe today is about the legitimacy of the head
of state
himself.
Anything Mugabe does except, arranging an orderly
early exit, lacks the
support, confidence and ownership by the people of
Zimbabwe. The fact here
is no one sees the point of even worrying about who
gets appointed where, or
what skills that appointee has unless there is a
climate in which those
skills and experience can be used without the
careless interruption and
discord from a cosa nostra political establishment
that has just its
selected few at heart.
Mugabe has demonstrated
beyond any doubt that he is simply unfit and
improper for the functions of a
post-war leader. Zimbabwe might have needed
him and his views during the war
but his leadership in post-war Zimbabwe has
been a nightmare for everyone
except perhaps himself. Mugabe has become a
post-colonial irritation that
discolours the meaning of political freedom.
His appointment of a
new cabinet will not benefit anyone or change the
policies of this strange,
barbaric movement. This dictator is accustomed to
praise and deceptive
ceremonies accorded deceptively to his living hero
status.
This
government has no policies or programmes for the alleviation of
hardship
from our midst. Why should it matter to us who gets recognized if
we know as
we do all recognition is based on absolute loyalty to Mugabe
outside any
consideration of merit?
Mugabe's appointment of more dead wood to Cabinet
is of no significance.
Zimbabweans want a fresh gorvenment that will not
fail to understand that in
an agro-based economy, if you destroy the farming
sector your schools,
hospitals, social services, industry and commerce will
also be destroyed.
The economy is suffering because we failed to plan
land distribution
strategically and lawfully over a period of
time.
The task that should occupy our attention is that of getting deeper
to the
people of Zimbabwe and to gather intelligence on how best to liberate
them
from the propaganda of the ruling regime and to strategise on how we
can
gradually conscript them into the struggle.
Our challenge is to
find treatment for the disease and its scars so that our
people are able to
understand the need for collective action to remove the
government of Zanu
PF.
People like Mutumwa Mawere do not make this task any easier. They
would like
to turn us into academics, to be locked in an endless debate
bordering on
semantics and triviality. We are not academics. We are fighters
for
democracy. We are here to look for answers not questions.
Mawere
is a beneficiary of the dishonesty and corrupt practices within Zanu
PF. He
lives somewhere plush in South Africa and probably drives an
expensive car.
We don't have all those luxuries. It's not that we don't want
them. Those
street kids and street fathers in Harare do no want to be in the
street if
they had options.
Mutumwa will probably have wine after his meal and will
write his next
article, from his laptop, from the comfort of his home. That
is what
explains his crooked, wayward, simplistic, opportunistic and stale
arguments
for people like Mugabe against the background of the grueling
suffering
their incompetence, intolerance, ignorance and indifference
causes.
Our challenge today is not about what Jonathan Moyo thinks or did
but about
what we must do.
This blame game is also apparent within
the main opposition movement. A lot
of time is being lost with people who
want to score small points against one
another. Like Mawere, you can see
through their arguments that behind the
words, there are people seething
with anger and looking for revenge.
The main challenge in Zimbabwe lies
in building a proper functional
opposition that has the numbers and
operational means to unseat Mugabe. We
need to begin to build strong
alliances regionally with political parties,
unions, and civic society. We
need to begin to develop alliances with the
Far East and mainland Asia. We
need to speak with one voice.
Our job is to put the matters of Zimbabwe
first. If we do not do this soon
enough, people will lose confidence in the
opposition and will gradually
lose confidence in politics.
We don't
want that.
Courage Shumba is a political activist
Email: jag@mango.zw : justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
JAG
Hotlines: +263 (011) 610 073, +263 (04) 799 410. If you are in trouble
or
need advice, please don't hesitate to contact us - we're here to
help!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1 - Jo-An Partridge
Dear JAG
JAG PR Communique 22 Jan
I
have just received the above today and again I am appalled at the
destruction
of your wonderful country and the unnecessary loss of life that
has
occurred.
I visited Zimbabwe many years ago on business and I am finding
hard to
believe that the country is in such a parlous state. I loved the
country and
the people and I have friends who still live and work under
difficult
conditions.
You latest communiqué has once again prompted me
to write to my local
Federal MPs calling for some positive action within the
United Nations. The
time is opportune with a new Secretary-General who needs
to gain credence
within the international community.
I wish I could do
more, but sometimes the pen or rather the computer is
mightier than the
sword, let's hope so in this instance. I am working on the
theory that
knowledge is power.
Keep your wonderful work,
Cheers
Jo-An.
Jo-An M Partridge
P O Box 1053
MOUNTAIN GATE VIC
3156
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 61 (03) 9752 3496
E-mail: xissevod@bigpond.net.au
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2 - Meryl Harrison
Dear JAG
Just wanted to let you and all the
farmers know that I am thinking of them
as Feb 3rd approaches - one feels so
helpless sitting over here wondering
which way things are going to
go.
Last night received a very sad email from Theresa Warth in the
Lowveld.
They received their eviction notice last week & she is worried
sick about
the future of the herd of elephants on their ranch. I could send
her email
to several of the British newspapers over here - but don't want to
do
anything that would make matters worse, given that there could be a
slim
chance that they might be able to stay. However, if the writing really
is
on the wall, then they have nothing to loose.
I trust that ZNSPCA
has a contingency plan to help the farmers with their
animals after the 3rd?
- but am not holding my breath!!
My thoughts are with you
all.
Meryl
Harrison
UK
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3 - Phyllis Wheeler
Dear JAG
In response to Stu Taylor's rather
sarcastic letter to Cathy Buckle - may I
take the opportunity of reminding
Mr. Taylor that Cathy Buckle does not
speak for the small number of extremely
wealthy Zimbabwean's, but speaks for
the millions of poverty stricken
Zimbabweans.
As an ex Zimbabwean now living in the United Kingdom, I can
honestly say
that I and many others, live for Cathy's weekly
newsletter.
Yours faithfully
Phyllis Wheeler
Hertfordshire
UK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
4 - Jo Schermuly
Dear JAG
Re: Letter from Stu Taylor,
25/1/07
Here's one for you, Stu Taylor - be lucky that the forum is
democratic
enough to print your insensitive comments about Cathy Buckle - a
very
un-Zimbabwean quality. Why criticise someone who is doing a sterling job
of
getting the word out and helping people in need? And what are YOU
doing?
Jo
Schermuly
UK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
5 - Cathy Buckle
Dear JAG
Blinded by the Light
A large
black snake showed up in my garden this week. I believe it was an
Egyptian
Cobra and it seemed to come from nowhere and without any warning.
It's that
time of year when animal encounters increase. It is wet, hot and
humid and
there is thick, tall bush everywhere you look - including on
un-mown
roadsides and uncleared drains in the residential suburbs of the
towns. I
watched in horror as the snake approached my chickens. It raised
its head,
began to spread a hood and I could not believe that the chickens
just stood
there, completely still, seemingly paralyzed. The hens did not
move a muscle
or make a sound as death literally stared them in the face. I
didn't wait any
longer and soon the missiles began to fly. At last, perhaps
buoyed by the
noisy support, the hens woke up from their stupor. Feathers
were ruffled,
necks craned and a great clucking and alarmed babbling
started up, and
carried on for a considerable time. Many missiles later the
snake retreated
down a hole in the corner of the garden and now I know it's
there but can't
do anything except wait for the next encounter. The garden
is tended, the
grass is short and on the surface everything looks serene
and peaceful, but I
know its just an illusion and that at any time all hell
will break loose
again.
We have become a country full of illusions and this rainy season
the
tricks,mirrors and juggling acts are very battered indeed. In many
small
towns we seem to be moving perilously close to a ticking time
bomb.This
week on state sponsored TV came a headline report of Kwekwe town
being "on
the edge of collapse" as miners are digging right under the railway
lines.
>From Bindura came news that the municipal department responsible
for
housing has been closed until further notice. It seems that the
receipts
for money being paid to the department differed hugely between the
top and
duplicate copies and a huge fraud has been playing out to the
detriment of
the town.
In Marondera when the dustbins had not been
collected for three weeks
recently, the local Health Inspector was contacted.
He was sympathetic to
the obvious effects of uncollected garbage at this time
of year - the
smell, flies, mosquitoes rats and health hazard but said there
was nothing
he could do. The fuel intended for the refuse removal trucks had
been
reallocated to the army for land tillage. The large government
hospital,
and in fact most of Marondera town, continues to have major
water
shortages. Public toilets at the hospital outpatients unit are closed
but
desperate patients continue to use them as they wait for five or more
hours
just to see a nurse as the doctors are still on strike. The toilet
floors
are apparently thick with maggots and horrors you would expect in a
sewer,
not a major provincial government hospital.
And so the
appearance of things being under control in Zimbabwe is just a
shaky
illusion. Someone told me this week that there is bright light at the
end of
the tunnel. Its from an express train coming straight at us and we
are
standing right in its path, blinded by the light, unable to move. Until
next
week, thanks for reading, love cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 27 January
2007. http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from@
orders@africabookcentre.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Email: jag@mango.zw : justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
JAG
Hotlines: +263 (011) 610 073, +263 (04) 799 410. If you are in trouble
or
need advice, please don't hesitate to contact us - we're here to
help!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
late 2006, two one-day Stress & Burn Out Seminars were held,
specifically
at farmers. These two days were both fully subscribed and it
became
apparent that there is a great need to continue this support for
our
community. In 2007 we will conduct similar one-day sessions leading
towards
group therapy and support-group sessions.
We have asked the
Christian Counselling Centre to gear two introductory days
on 3rd and 23rd
February towards this end. Thereafter, we will be looking
for a number of
facilitators to take the process further. Please contact
the JAG offices to
enrol for either of these two introductory days. Or,
alternatively, contact
the Christian Counselling Centre directly on
hcc@mweb.co.zw or telephone 744212.
As a
community, we need to help one another heal.
Best wishes
Ben
Gilpin
MANAGING STRESS
Led by: Ian Wilsher
A one-day,
practical workshop for anyone wanting to manage the pressure of
modern day
life in Zimbabwe. This workshop puts theory into practice.
Topics
include:
+ Identifying symptoms and stresses
+ Time
management
+ Dealing with the unchangeable
+ Managing
anger and more
Come and find out how you can harness stress to bring
positive change to
your life.
Date: Saturday, 3rd
February
Time: 9.00 am - 4.30 pm
Cost: Z$50 000 (includes lunch,
manual and teas).
Venue: Christian Counselling Centre, 8 Coltman Road, Mount
Pleasant,
Harare. Tel. 744212.