http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
07
January 2009
Seven activists on Wednesday appeared in the Harare
Magistrates Court in
connection with a series of minor bomb blasts in the
capital last year. They
became the first group of the more than 40
abductees, to be formally charged
by the state.
The seven, including
the Tsvangirai MDC head of security Chris Dhlamini and
Tsvangirai's former
aide Gandhi Mudzingwa, all pleaded not guilty to the
charges of terrorism,
banditry and insurgency laid against them on
Wednesday. Defence lawyer
Andrew Makoni explained that the case was further
deferred to Thursday and
said a new application has been filed on behalf of
the seven, listing their
complaints about their treatment during their
unlawful detention. Makoni
argued that despite the charges, the defence is
still fighting for the
group's remand to be refused, saying there is "no
evident reason or knowable
suspicion for the group to be placed on remand."
In court lawyer Alec
Muchadehama said the group had been 'severely tortured'
by state security
agents after their abductions, and explained that not a
single member of the
group had been lawfully detained. He said: "No arrest
took place. Each one
of them is a victim of abduction and forced
disappearance by state agents.
None of them was arrested in terms of the
law."
The group could face
the death penalty if they are found guilty of being
involved in two minor
blasts at Harare police stations and a blast at a
railway line in Norton
last year. The questionable circumstances surrounding
the blasts, which at
the time were linked to a ZANU PF attempt to implicate
the MDC, and the
subsequent abductions and charging of the seven activists,
has raised
questions over whether the bombs were in fact set off to create
convenient
evidence in the current case.
Adding more fuel to the fire is speculation
this week that a so-called
'assassination attempt,' targeting Air Force
Commander Perrence Shiri last
year, was in fact an elaborate hoax by Robert
Mugabe's ZANU PF as part of it's
ongoing effort to build a case against the
MDC. Shiri was supposedly wounded
in the hand after being shot at while
driving from his farm in Shamva in
December. In the days that followed,
state-controlled media launched a
propaganda assault on the MDC, reporting
that the attack was a "build up of
terror attacks targeting high profile
persons, government officials,
government establishments and public
transportation systems".
The deliberate manipulation of events to build a
case against the MDC has
been clearly evident in the case launched against
abducted human rights
activist Jestina Mukoko and her eight co-accused. The
group is yet to be
formally charged after being accused of attempting to
recruit fighters to
train in neighboring Botswana to overthrow Mugabe. Their
case was postponed
for the second time this week on Tuesday, and the group
is set to remain in
custody until their next Magistrate's Court appearance
on the 14th January.
Lawyers are still pursuing applications in the High
Court for the abductees
to receive proper care outside of the Chikurubi
prison where they are being
held. But despite evidence of being tortured and
seriously injured during
their detention, a High Court judge over the
weekend refused to handle the
medical affidavits, citing a 'legal
irregularity'.
Such legal irregularities have been prominent since the
abductees' first
court appearances last year, as the state has continued to
play a legal game
with the defence and the abductees. Mukoko and the other
abductees that have
been accounted for meanwhile have been shuttled to and
from solitary
confinement; all while being denied medical treatment. This
includes the two
year old son of Violet Mupfuranhehwe who is held in
solitary confinement
with his mother, and who is also yet to receive proper
medical care after
being beaten in a very cruel effort to glean information
from his mother.
And while such a high stakes game is being played in
court, it would appear
that the safety and whereabouts of at least 10 other
abductees remains
either a closely guarded secret or a mystery. The MDC has
said that more
than 40 people were abducted last year, and despite
Tsvangirai issuing
Mugabe with what has proved to be a fruitless ultimatum
to produce the
abductees by the 1st January, only 30 people were eventually
produced.
http://news.yahoo.com
HARARE (AFP) - Seven
Zimbabwean opposition activists accused in a series of
bombings have been
"severely tortured" by state security agents, their
lawyer told a court
Wednesday, urging a probe into the alleged abuse.
The activists include
the director of security for the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC), as well as a former adviser to party leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
"From November 20, they were severely tortured while in
police custody and
and some of them were denied critical medication," lawyer
Alec Muchadehama
told a magistrate's court.
"No arrest took place.
Each one of them is a victim of abduction and forced
disappearance by state
agents. None of them was arrested in terms of the
law," he
said.
"What we are seeking is that the court must urge the state to
investigate
the allegations of torture and report on the next remand date.
If nothing
happens we reserve the right to approach international courts for
redress."
The accused were among 18 opposition and rights activists taken
from their
homes in separate incidents since October and detained at unknown
locations.
They only began appearing in court on December 24, and stand
accused of
bombing two police stations in Harare as well as two bridges
outside the
capital "for the purposes of causing insurrection in
Zimbabwe."
They denied the charges.
Doctors who examined them at
Chikurubi maximum security prison, where they
are detained, said they
suffered various injuries. One appeared to have
damaged kidneys and required
urgent medical treatment, the doctors said.
Another risked becoming deaf
without urgent treatment for a ruptured
membrane in one ear, while a third
was phychologically traumatised and had
developed a fear of water and open
spaces.
The arrest of the activists has heightened fears for a September
power-sharing deal signed by Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe, which
has stalled over disputes about dividing control of key cabinet
posts.
The hearing continues Thursday.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
7 January
2009
Will they or won't they? Only the top leadership of the MDC who are
meeting
in Johannesburg have the answer to this four month-long guessing
game that
has kept Zimbabweans on tenterhooks, since talks to form a new
government
stalled last year.
All eyes are now fixed on the 'no holds
barred' meeting between Morgan
Tsvangirai and his top strategists and
transition team, which is going on in
South Africa to decide whether the MDC
should join a unity government with
arch-enemy Robert Mugabe.
A
source told us the indaba would also discuss the humanitarian crisis and
human rights situation in the country, before taking a final
decision.
The meeting would try to hammer out a consensus on the strategy
to be
adopted, if they were to join an inclusive government. They are
expected to
draft a second strategy if they decide against joining. It's
believed that
whatever is decided would have to be approved by the MDC's
national
council - the party's top decision making body.
Another source
said the three day meeting has to take tough decisions on how
far it could
go in its opposition to joining the government, amid growing
apprehension
among party activists of Mugabe's threats to call for an early
election.
Mugabe uses the military to run his election campaigns and there
are fears
that another election with Mugabe still controlling this apparatus
will be
just as bloody as the last election.
By joining a unity government,
Tsvangirai as Prime Minister will be the
deputy chair in a newly constituted
National Security Council (NSC), taking
over from the Joint Operations
Command. Currently JOC comprises military
commanders with strong links to
Mugabe and ZANU PF. But the NSC would have
more civilians from all parties.
Some party leaders believe this would
dilute the power Mugabe has wielded in
the JOC.
'The meeting will review the chain of events on the controversial
agreement
since 15th September with ZANU PF and is expected to chart out its
strategy
to deal with the situation. These talks are timely and important.
Whatever
decision is going to come out of this meeting has a huge bearing on
the
political landscape in Zimbabwe,' our source said.
Meanwhile
reports say Tsvangirai has urged South African President Kgalema
Motlanthe
to arrange and mediate a confidential meeting between himself and
Mugabe, in
an effort to solve the long-stalled power-sharing agreement
signed in
September 2008.
Tsvangirai has said he wanted renewed talks on the
power-sharing deal but
underscored that such talks should be under the
chairmanship of Motlanthe,
amid reports that SADC leaders are urging
Tsvangirai to return to Harare for
such a meeting.
http://www.iol.co.za
Basildon Peta
January
07 2009 at 11:10AM
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
has urged President
Kgalema Motlanthe to arrange and mediate a confidential
meeting between
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and himself to try to
clinch the
long-stalled power-sharing agreement.
The request
from Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the
Movement for Democratic
Change, to Motlanthe apparently underscores his lack
of confidence in the
mediation of former president Thabo Mbeki.
Tsvangirai disclosed his
request to Motlanthe in a letter written to
Mugabe last week in which the
MDC leader declined Mugabe's request to return
home and be sworn in as prime
minister.
Tsvangirai is due to start a high-level meeting with
senior executives
of his party in Johannesburg
today.
Tsvangirai wrote that he wanted renewed
talks on the power-sharing
deal but underscored that such talks should be
under the chairmanship of
Motlanthe.
"I have written in the
same vein to President Motlanthe suggesting he
convenes a confidential
meeting in South Africa between you and me, under
his chairmanship, so that
we can iron out these matters to the satisfaction
of all
parties.
"I am sure you are anxious to proceed to the successful
implementation
of the Global Political Agreement, but the issues are so
profound that we
must act in a logical sequence," Tsvangirai
wrote.
Mugabe had written to Tsvangirai inviting him to take the
oath of
office even before a constitutional amendment giving effect to the
unity
deal had been finalised. Mugabe's letter, together with Tsvangirai's
long-withheld passport, were delivered to him on Christmas Day in
Botswana.
Tsvangirai responded: "You are aware that the MDC
justifiably rejected
the recommendation of SADC and that the position
regarding fundamental
issues of principle has not yet been
resolved.
"It is, therefore, presumptuous to conclude that the MDC
accepts the
allocation of ministers as per the schedule that you
unilaterally gazetted.
"When the Constitutional Amendment No 19 Bill has
been passed into law, the
roles of President and Prime Minister will stand
properly defined in law.
"Otherwise there is no basis for
appointments. In the absence of these
processes, I find your proposal to
appoint me Prime Minister irregular."
Tsvangirai wants Mugabe's
appointment of 10 provincial governors
nullified and discussions and
agreement on "equitable allocation of
ministries", as well as the
composition of a new National Security Council,
due to replace the Joint
Operations Command (JOC ), before he takes up his
post in a unity
government.
Motlanthe had hoped that persuading Mugabe to release
Tsvangirai
passport would sway the latter to join a unity government before
the
resolution of all outstanding issues such as allocation of
posts.
Meanwhile, a Zimbabwean court yesterday ruled that a leading
human
rights advocate and eight other activists should remain in
custody.
The State has charged Jestina Mukoko, who leads a local
rights group,
and the other activists with recruiting or trying to recruit
people for
military training to topple Mugabe's government.
The
arrests have raised tensions in Zimbabwe.
Defence lawyers had
argued that the activists had been abducted, not
legally arrested, and that
Zimbabwe's High Court had already ordered that
they be freed.
"All the accused should remain in custody pending determination of the
matters in the superior courts," said magistrate Olivia Mariga in her
ruling.
Mariga postponed proceedings to next
Tuesday.
"The court is of the view that remand proceedings should
be postponed,
as the defence is pursuing applications in superior courts,"
Mariga said.
The activists' lawyers have lodged applications in the
high court,
seeking to set aside a magistrate's earlier ruling that their
clients be
placed on remand.
They are also seeking permission
for their clients to get medical
treatment from doctors of their own
choice.
This article was originally published on page 2 of
Pretoria News on
January 07, 2009
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
7 January 2009
Robert
Mugabe has appointed eight cabinet ministers, to replace those who
lost
their seats during last year's harmonized elections.
The state-controlled
Herald reported Wednesday that the appointments were
temporary and added
that Mugabe was expected to form an 'inclusive
government' at the end of
February.
The ZANU PF leader agreed in September last year to share power
with the two
formations of the MDC, but the agreement has stalled over a
dispute over the
allocation of cabinet posts.
Mugabe last week
formally dismissed ministers who lost their parliamentary
seats in the March
vote. Analysts speculated the move was part of
preparations for unilaterally
naming a new government.
The MDC MP for Makoni Central John Nyamande, the
legislator who defeated
Patrick Chinamasa in the elections, was very
critical of Mugabe's
appointments saying; 'He just can't manage to reshape
his government without
courting disaster.'
Nyamande said it was
infuriating that many under-performing ministers like
Aeneas Chigwedere,
Chinamasa and Joseph Made, remain in place despite grave
doubts about their
abilities.
'If you study Mugabe's reshuffles in the last eight years,
they've all been
disasters. People in his party say he is a man of political
talents, but his
reshuffles suggest otherwise,' Nyamande said.
A
source told us many ZANU MPs have an axe to grind with Mugabe as a result
of
his botched reshuffles, as he religiously reappoints losing MPs back to
cabinet. The source added this may encourage the predators circling around
Mugabe to strike sooner rather than later.
Mugabe uses his executive
powers to appoint his 'blue eyed boys' who've lost
parliamentary elections
to become a non-constituency MP or senator. Anyone
outside parliament cannot
be appointed a minister in Zimbabwe, so Mugabe
uses his patronage system to
reappoint those losing candidates back to
cabinet, by first reappointing
them as non-constituency MPs.
According to the Herald the Minister for
Indigenisation and Empowerment
Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, has just been
appointed the Acting Minister of
Information and Publicity, taking over from
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu.
Ndlovu failed to secure a House of Assembly seat in
Pelandaba-Mpopoma where
he represented ZANU PF in the March 2008 harmonised
elections. He was
without doubt, one of the most under-performing ministers
in this past
under-performing government
Mangwana is the Chivi
Central MP and once acted as Minister of Information
and Publicity following
the death of Tichaona Jokonya in 2006.
The other appointments are:
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi as the
acting Minister of Mines and
Mining Development, taking over from Amos
Midzi, who lost the Epworth seat
to Eliah Jembere of the MDC-T.
Minister of Economic Development Sylvester
Nguni is the acting Minister of
Agriculture, following the departure of
Rugare Gumbo. Gumbo lost in Zanu-PF
primaries to former ZBC journalist
Makhosini Hlongwane in Mberengwa East
constituency.
The Minister of
Small to Medium Enterprises Development, Sithembiso Nyoni,
becomes the
acting Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community
Development, taking
over from Oppah Muchinguri. Muchinguri lost to Trevor
Saruwaka in Mutasa
Central constituency.
Mashonaland East Governor and Resident Minister
Aeneas Chigwedere, remains
the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture.
Manicaland Governor and
Resident Minister Christopher Mushohwe will continue
as acting Minister of
Transport and Communications.
ZANU PF chief
negotiator and non-constituency senator Patrick Chinamasa is
now the acting
Minister of Finance, taking over from Samuel Mumbengegwi, who
lost to former
Masvingo governor, Josiah Hungwe in Zanu-PF primaries in
Chivi Senate
constituency.
Controversial former Agriculture minister Joseph Made, now
a
non-constituency senator, becomes the acting Minister of Water Resources
and
Infrastructural Development, taking over from Munacho Mutezo.
From Bloomberg, 7 January
Zimbabwe's stock exchange failed to resume
trading since reopening on Jan. 5
after the holiday break, said Emmanuel
Munyukwi, the bourse's chief
executive officer, without providing a reason.
"We don't know exactly when
trading will resume because we are still
investigating various issues,"
Munyukwi said by phone today from Harare, the
capital. Munyukwi couldn't
provide further details because he's still on
vacation, he said. Trade on
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange ground to a halt
after the country's Securities
Commission on Nov. 20 ordered stockbrokers to
submit audited financial
reports of their net worth by the end of December
2008. The commission on
Dec. 16 warned broking firms they would be closed if
they failed to meet the
deadline. Zimbabwe has world's highest inflation
rate, which the government
estimates at 231 million percent, spawned by a
decade of economic recession
that caused shortages of food, fuel and other
basic commodities.
Investors with cash in Zimbabwe prefer to buy
shares to avoid their money
losing value, helping some individual stocks on
the Harare-based exchange to
post increases of as much as 100,000 percent a
day last year, according to
Imara Holdings Ltd., a Gaborone-based brokerage.
Kingdom Stockbrokers, a
Harare-based broking firm, said trade hadn't resumed
on Jan. 5 as a result
of central bank measures announced on Nov. 17. "Trades
on the bourse are
supposed to be backed by a letter of confirmation from
bank CEOs, something
which will prove difficult to implement as CEOs would
argue that their hands
are already full at the moment," Kingdom said in an
e- mailed statement
today. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono in
November accused
banks in the southern African country of using fraudulent
checks to
artificially inflate share prices. Companies whose shares trade on
the
Zimbabwe bourse include Old Mutual Ltd., a unit of U.K. insurer Old
Mutual
Plc, Econet Wireless Holdings Ltd., Zimbabwe's biggest mobile-phone
provider, and Kingdom Meikles Africa Ltd., which has interests in the
leisure, banking and retail industries.
http://news.yahoo.com
Wed Jan 7, 8:26 am ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe has
delayed the opening of schools by two weeks,
state media reported Wednesday,
amid fears that teachers may not show up for
classes due to the country's
worsening humanitarian crisis.
Schools were set to open next Tuesday for
the new academic year, but
education secretary Stephen Mahere said in the
government mouthpiece Herald
newspaper that classes would not resume until
January 27 because last year's
exams were not yet marked.
"This
decision has been necessitated by the need to facilitate completion of
the
marking of 2008 public national examinations involving a significant
number
of teachers," he said.
The delay also gives the education ministry time
to consider requests by
schools to charge fees in foreign currency, the
newspaper said.
Teachers went on strike several times last year over pay,
as Zimbabwe's
stunning hyperinflation reduced their salaries to a
pittance.
This year, striking teachers warned they would not return to
work if they
were not paid in foreign currency. They are demanding a monthly
salary of
2,200 dollars.
"The position is that if there are no
salaries in US dollars, it will be a
problem or difficult for teachers to
return to work," said Oswald Madziva,
the national co-ordinator of the
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ).
"Postponing the school
calendar shows that government has admitted that
things are not in order,"
he told AFP.
Some teachers fled their classrooms amid the violence
surrounding a
presidential run-off election in June, while others stopped
showing up as
they resorted to selling goods on the streets in a desperate
bid to survive.
Inflation was last estimated in July at 231 million
percent, but outside
economists say it is now likely in the
trillions.
The central bank prints ever larger banknotes, sometimes
several times a
month, but still cannot keep pace with soaring prices. Many
shops now demand
foreign currency for their goods, effectively shutting out
ordinary
Zimbabweans.
The Times newspaper in South Africa said that
many schools also lacked basic
supplies and even running water amid a
cholera epidemic that has claimed
more than 1,700 lives since August.
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/3004#more-3004
A rumour has been circulating that ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply
Authority) would soon be demanding payment for all bills in forex.
I've
heard this from two sources. If true, it would mean that all
Zimbabweans
would have to settle their electricity bills in forex. OK for
those who have
access to forex, but not OK for the majorty who have no
access to real cash
at all.
A friend of mine checked it out, and was
told that this was not true.
However it is well known that ZESA is on its
knees, their experts trained in
dealing with huge power lines leaving the
country in their droves, so this
friend asked one ZESA guy how he was
coping.
He told her they were still being paid in Zim dollars but
inflation and the
cash shortages at the banks meant it was worthless to
them. Most would have
no choice but to take their skills elsewhere to a
country which had real
money so they could support their families. ZESA
knows this. It also knows
that when they lose these skills the light go out
in Zimbabwe - in homes,
hospitals, industry everywhere.
Their
solution? This guy told my friend that his last 'paycheck' was in the
form
of fuel coupons - one hundred litres worth. The fact that a government
parastatal recognises the no-value status of the local currency is telling!
How far did 100 litres take you, my friend jokingly asked him? It covered
one weeks' worth of the cost of living, leaving the rest of the month a
massive struggle. Zim dollars are not good enough, and 100 litres is not
enough. Mr Go'no-solutions needs to wake up fast.
This entry
was written by Still Here on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 7:53
pm
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
07
January 2008
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has expressed
concern that the
charging for mobile phone services in foreign currency by
all the major
networks is seriously impeding the right of Zimbabweans to
communicate. Many
people interviewed by Newsreel say they can no longer buy
airtime for their
phones because the little forex they manage to get has to
be used to buy
scarce basic commodities.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
recently granted the mobile networks permission
to charge in foreign
currency. This was after the networks complained that
they lost money to
hyper-inflation by producing monthly phone bills. MISA
noted the inability
of subscribers to buy airtime for their phones and said
this added to 'the
appalling state of fixed and mobile telephone networks in
Zimbabwe which has
seen subscribers failing to communicate as and when they
desire, despite the
high tariff charges.'
Although Zimbabwe's economy has virtually been
'dollarised' the majority of
workers still earn the near worthless Zimbabwe
dollars. MISA say they want
the 'Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ)
to act with the full understanding that
communication is a human right and
not a privilege and that
telecommunications remain key pillars of freedom of
expression and access to
information.'
This state of affairs however is not expected to worry the
Mugabe regime who
are acutely aware that information remains a powerful tool
for exposing the
excesses of any government.
There have also been
reports that police in Bulawayo arrested over 100
street vendors, shop
owners and transport operators who had charged for
goods and services in
forex, without central bank authority. The Zimbabwe
Times website quotes a
worker at the Bakers Inn outlet along Fort Street
saying they were forced to
close their shop while police arrested their
manager. They were later told
to pay a fine of US$20 000.
At the centre of the problem is that to get a
licence to sell in foreign
currency from the central bank costs between
US$20 000 and US$100 000. This
has effectively sidelined small businesses
who don't have the resources to
apply and also cannot afford to sell goods
in the worthless local currency
that daily falls in value. It's a 'do or
die' situation were the small
dealers have no option but take the risk of
selling their wares in forex.
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions has denied state media
reports that they are opposed to workers being
paid in foreign currency. A
statement from Acting Secretary General Gideon
Shoko said; 'The ZCTU
position is clear and says that all workers should be
paid in foreign
currency given the fact that shops are now selling their
goods in foreign
currency, even those that have not been licensed to do so.
Workers are even
forced to pay rentals and fares in foreign
currency.'
http://www.chronicle.co.zw
Wednesday,
January 07, 2009
Business Reporter
Consumers are
unlikely to benefit from the extension of the mandate of the
National
Incomes and Pricing Commission, a Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
official has
said.
CCZ regional manager for Matabeleland, Mr Comfort Muchekeza said there
was
need to show how consumers stood to gain from the extension of price
controls, judging from past failure by the commission to enforce price
controls.
The Minister of Industry and International Trade, Cde Obert
Mpofu last week
extended the mandate of the NIPC to monitor and control
prices by another
six months to 30 June.
The price control extension sees
schools and businesses having to apply to
the NIPC prior to any increases
that they would want to effect.
Basic goods such as bread, cooking oil, salt
and sugar have been earmarked
as products under control.
Mr Muchekeza
said previous efforts to control prices had not helped
consumers.
"We
witnessed a significant leap in prices late last year in spite of the
controls, some prices would jump from $100 million to $15 billion and
consumers need to know what benefits they will realise from controls this
time around."
He called for a sterner and yet reasonable approach to deal
with defiant
business people.
"We need to have the proper mechanism that
monitors a business' costs on
transport, duty and then derive the proper
percentage mark-up on it," he
said.
"At all costs we must avoid a
situation where we incarcerate defiant
businesses, because with that
approach we will not be able to lure investors
into the country."
Calls
have been growing from various quarters for the Government to do away
with
the price controls and to adopt a free market approach, as price
controls
have not been reflective of the hyper-inflationary environment.
A free market
economy is based on supply and demand with little or no
government
control.
Mr Muchekeza dismissed this ideal of having a free market economy
pointing
out that while it was the best in terms of encouraging competition,
Zimbabwe
at present lacked the capacity to adopt it.
"The problem is that
organisations at the helm of setting prices do not want
competition, a free
market only works well in the presence of competition
where we will see an
improvement in product quality and a fall in prices,"
he said.
He cited
the flat price of 10 rand for a loaf of bread by manufacturers as
an example
that no new competitor was entering the bread sector and offering
a
different price.
The Herald
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
7 January 2009
Harare - HARARE
City Council has increased rates by a shocking 10 000
percent with effect
from this month, a development that will see some
residents forking out as
much as $560 billion a month.
The council also raised licence fees
for flea markets, curio stands, flower
markets, food courts, porters,
grinding mills, wholesale and retail markets.
Mbare (National) residents
are now expected to pay an average of $200
billion monthly in rates to
council, up from about $10 million.
In some suburbs residents have
received invoices demanding $560 billion in
rates from $23 million the
previous month.
Licence fees for large stalls at Mupedzanhamo Flea Market
have been
increased to $644 billion with those for small stalls being pegged
at $552
billion.
Curio stand fees have been increased to $506
billion, while wholesale
markets will attract a monthly fee of $690 billion,
retail markets $276
billion and flower markets $69 billion.
Following
the increase, food court owners are now expected to pay a trillion
dollars,
phone shops and weekend flea markets $138 billion, other flea
markets $322
billion and cloakrooms $828 billion.
Grinding mill owners are expected to
pay $782 billion, porters $368 billion,
firewood vendors $69 billion and a
"simple structure" $138 billion.
To be put on the housing waiting list
one has to pay $17 billion and $13
billion for renewal.
One resident,
Mr Sam Geza, yesterday castigated council for the massive
increase in rates
which he branded "unreasonable".
"What it means is that landlords would
simply pass over the increased costs
on to their tenants. This is shocking;
where does council think we will get
such huge amounts from?" he
said.
He said only a few workers earned over $500 billion a month and
would
struggle to pay such rates.
At Mupedzanhamo Flea Market those
interviewed expressed displeasure at what
they described as council's
"insensitivity" to the prevailing economic
challenges facing business,
residents and the country.
"Following the sharp increases in stall fees, we
would be left with no
option but to revise the price of our wares and people
will not buy them. As
things stand, we risk losing business," said one
distraught trader.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/
7th
Jan 2009 15:15 GMT
By
Patrick Chikwande
THE recently gazetted exorbitant accreditation fees for
journalists and
media organisations are 'null and void' according to the
laws of Zimbabwe,
lawyers said Wednesday.
Zimbabwe journalists
working for foreign owned media organizations are
mandated to pay
US
$4,000 dollars annually to practice in the country while their media
organisations are expected to pay a total US$32,000 dollars as application
and accreditation fees.
The new fees were reported in the state-owned
Herald newspaper on Monday
citing a government gazette.
However,
lawyers argued that the Media and Information Commission (MIC) is
no longer
existent to announce accreditation fees.
The fees come hard-on-the-heels
of threats by the Zimbabwe government to
close foreign news bureaus for
Reuters, AP and AFP following the publication
of stories that quoted
President Robert Mugabe as saying cholera had now
been contained in the
country in December.
Writing in his column, the acerbic Nathaniel
Manheru, believed to be
Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, said there was
no need to have these
organisations, including the BBC, represented in
Zimbabwe when they did not
respect their reporters on the ground. Zimbabwe
did not need them, he
opined.
Said Manheru of the cholera stories he
said were penned elsewhere and not by
local agency reporters: "It is also a
loud way of telling those in authority
in Zimbabwe to please declassify them
as bona fide news organisations,
indeed a statement to say we can cover
Zimbabwe from our head offices,
without local staffers. The message has gone
home and is well taken."
The fees have been seen by many in the media as
the first step towards
making life difficult for the foreign media
bureaux.
The Zimbabwe parliament amended the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) which dissolved the Media and Information
Commission
(MIC) and created the Zimbabwe Media Commission and Zimbabwe
Media Council
(ZMC) respectively, which are yet to be
constituted.
Speaking at a media briefing, Dzimbabwe Chimbga, a lawyer
from the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said: "I don't see how you
(journalists)
should comply with a law that is non-existent. On the face of
it, it is null
and void. MIC is non existent."
Another lawyer, Selby
Hwacha of Dube, Manikai and Hwacha legal
practitioners, in a statement said:
"Legally therefore all accreditations or
registrations through or to the
erstwhile Media and Information Commission
are unlawful. By carefully
structured application, an order can be sought
which entitles journalists to
practice until a correct body is in place."
Meanwhile the Media Institute
of Southern Africa (MISA) has called for the
parliament of Zimbabwe to
urgently review the legality of the gazetted fees.
"The parliament of
Zimbabwe must urgently review the legality of the
gazetted fees for
registration and accreditation of journalists given the
ostensible fact that
the bodies it brought into legal being (the Zimbabwe
Media Commission and
the Zimbabwe Media Council) remain unconstituted yet
the Amendment Act of
AIPPA was passed into law through due process in March
2008," MISA said in a
statement.
MISA said the new fees for foreign media organizations and
local journalists
working for them 'smack of machinations to frustrate and
make it difficult
to operate in Zimbabwe.'
President Robert Mugabe's
government enacted AIPPA in 2002 forcing media
organisations and journalists
to register with a government appointed body.
This resulted in several
newspapers being closed down and some
correspondents of foreign newspapers
being deported.
http://www.radiovop.com
BULAWAYO, January
7 2209 - Some of the equipment donated by
neighbouring countries to help
fight the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has
been either stolen or vandalised,
health officials have revealed.
A number of countries from the
region gave the country different
kinds of equipment to fight the disease,
but it has emerged that some of it
did not reach intended beneficiaries,
with Bulawayo residents yet to receive
water treatment
tablets.
"Once we get the tablets we will hastily distribute
them to residents
so that they also can treat water at household level,"
said a council health
official.
In Beitbridge, some taps
and pipes donated by South Africa's
Department of Water Affairs have either
been stolen or vandalised.
Some pipes were reportedly stolen
from where they had been erected
while some are no longer functioning due to
vandalism, a situation which has
raised the concern of council
authorities.
The equipment, which included water tanks with a
capacity to hold 10
000 litres of water, taps and water treatment tablets,
was donated by the
South African government at the height of the cholera
outbreak.
The disease, which was first detected in August last
year, has since
claimed more than 1 500 lives countrywide, mostly in urban
areas. The
outbreak has largely been attributed to poor sanitation,
inadequate water
supplies and constant sewer bursts.
Beitbridge Town Council chairperson Samuel Mandebvu, confirmed that
some of
the donated equipment was already missing and some of it,
vandalised.
"We are really concerned about the vandalism
and theft of water taps
as the equipment is meant to assist the entire
community especially during
this time of cholera," he said.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, January 07
2009 - Lawyers representing human rights activist,
Jestina Mukoko, have
filed a constitutional court challenge as they
intensify efforts to secure
her release.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR),
said the constitutional
challenge, which cites Police Commissioner-General
Augustine Chihuri and
four other senior police officers, requests the court
to protect and enforce
Mukoko's rights, which should have been protected in
terms of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe.
"A Constitutional
Court challenge is also filed on behalf of Jestina
Mukoko (ref: Jestina
Mukoko v Commissioner-General of Police & 4 Others SC
293/09) seeking
the bench to protect and enforce various of her fundamental
rights which
have been breached during the course of her abduction and
detention, and
which rights should have been protected in terms of the
Constitution of
Zimbabwe.
"The application further seeks to have her released
and not further
prosecuted on the same charges pending a full investigation
into her
abduction and prosecution of all those involved," ZLHR said in its
abductees
daily update released Wednesday morning.
Mukoko,
a former newscaster has been detained for more than a month
since her
abduction from her Norton home.
The police, who initially
denied knowledge of her whereabouts, accuse
the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP)
director of recruiting Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) supporters to
undergo military training in Botswana.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
7th
Jan 2009 15:51 GMT
By NORDIC MINISTERS
NORDIC MINISTERS IN JOINT
STATEMENT: "THE MISRULE OF ROBERT MUGABE MUST COME
TO AN END AND RESPECT FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS BE REINSTATED IN ZIMBABWE"
THE Nordic Ministers for Foreign
Affairs met in Copenhagen on December 18th.
They decided on the following
joint statement on the situation in Zimbabwe.
The Nordic countries
(Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) have a
long tradition of
engagement with Zimbabwe and other countries in Southern
Africa. Our strong
partnership with countries in the region has historically
been built on
mutual trust, dialogue and the upholding of common values such
as democratic
principles and respect for human rights.
Against this background, the
Foreign Ministers of the Nordic countries are
appalled by the grave
humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe which continues to
deteriorate by the
day. The suffering of the people of Zimbabwe has recently
been further
aggravated by the outbreak of cholera. This curable disease has
already
demanded far too many lives. The neighbouring countries and
particularly
adjacent communities are affected by the cholera epidemic in
Zimbabwe as the
disease easily crosses borders. The Nordic countries will
continue to
provide humanitarian assistance to the people of in Zimbabwe.
The
authorities in Zimbabwe alone bear the responsibility for the tragic
situation the country is currently faced with.
Violence and
intimidation against the critics of the regime in Zimbabwe
continue
unabated. The recent disappearance of human rights defender Jestina
Mukoko
and the arrest of several members of the MDC are frightening examples
of the
human rights violations. The Nordic countries are worried about the
fate of
Jestina Mukoko and others and strongly demand that universal human
rights be
respected in Zimbabwe.
The political agreement between Zanu-PF and MDC of
15 September 2008 gave
rise to some hope for Zimbabwe's future. Regrettably
three months have
passed without the creation of a coalition government. The
Nordic countries
call on the parties to reach an agreement without delay
respecting the will
of the people of Zimbabwe expressed in the elections of
29 March.
Negotiations must be conducted in a sincere manner by all sides.
In this
respect the unilateral decisions to appoint new provincial governors
and to
confirm the appointment of the Governor of the Reserve Bank go
against this
spirit.
The Nordic countries call for an end to the
misrule of Robert Mugabe and of
the disrespect for democratic principles and
human rights - which are core
issues underlying the Nordic engagement and
support for the liberation
struggles in Southern Africa.
The Nordic
countries reiterate the importance of strong, energetic and
persistent
involvement in efforts to solve the crisis by the SADC, the
African Union
and the UN. The Nordic countries remain committed to
supporting the economic
and social recovery of Zimbabwe aiming for the
sustainable development of
the country once a reliable and credible
government has been formed and once
tangible signals have been shown in key
areas, in particular human rights.
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk/
How Zimbabwe's President plans to tackle his enemies
now
Those of us who believe in freedom in Zimbabwe should brace
ourselves.
According to police sources, we can expect a wide series of high
profile
arrests this month, as Robert Mugabe moves finally to eliminate all
official
opposition to his reign as the country's dictator.
A senior
member of the Harare CID, the law and order section, based at
police general
headquarters in Harare, has told me of plans to detain a
number of national
executive members of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC).
The charges against them will vary, but they will include
treason, attempted
murder, terrorism, sabotage and malicious damage to
property. The charges
will be backed up by a well-prepared case using
fabricated evidence and
bribed or threatened witnesses.
The so-called
evidence is being gathered by an unholy alliance of the police
and the spy
agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), and the
general thrust
of the charges will be to link the MDC with terrorism.
Members of the
military will also be heavily involved, with troops
testifying that they
were hired by the MDC to bomb police stations and to
attempt to assassinate
senior government officials and military commanders.
Some soldiers will
also testify that they were paid by the MDC to take part
in the military
riots that shook Harare last month.
"The idea is to build a strong case
which will accuse the MDC of
deliberately trying to spark public unrest, as
an excuse to depose the
President," the officer told me.
The MDC is
aware of the plans. Its national spokesman, Nelson Chamisa,
described any
such charges as "trumped up". Perhaps so. But that doesn't
mean they won't
stick. Justice in Zimbabwe is a tender plant, and Mugabe and
his men plan to
stamp all over it.
Posted on Wednesday, 07 January 2009 at 10:54
A comment on Dr
Gideon Gono's book, Zimbabwe's Casino Economy
- John
Robertson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To
close off this very difficult year I gave myself the very difficult task
of
reading Gideon Gono's book and writing some comments for you. My effort
is
attached and my only hope is that reading it will not be as painful for
you
as reading the book itself.
We have to hope for an early
breakthrough, especially now that the Zimbabwe
dollar has become virtually
worthless. Immediate challenges for government
are to get Parliament sitting
again so that a Budget can be passed and the
whole revenue and expenditure
process can be put back onto a legal footing.
For at least this reason, we
should see some strenuous efforts being made in
January, but the points in
my summing up paragraphs on the last page of the
attached will still need
urgent attention.
Whether they get the right kind of attention, from locals
as well as
foreigners, might well determine our future!
My most
sincere thanks to you for all your support during the year and my
warmest
good wishes go out to you for a better
2009.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Five
Curious Years result in a curious book - John Robertson
If you could
start a sincere discourse in which you could honestly declare -
* that
you have received the President's personal guidance at
least twice a week for
five years
* that you proudly hold a conviction that every one of
the
President's policy pronouncements met the highest possible
moral,
academic, philosophical and practical standards of excellence
* that you hold
a firm belief that the only reason for their failures
has been the imposition
of sanctions, and
* that Zimbabwe's survival of the international
sanctions
onslaught has led directly to your having achieved
major
breakthroughs in economic theory -
- you too could write a book
that would put an extraordinarily up-beat spin
on Zimbabwe's recent history.
You might also be able to persuade yourself
that, now that many banks in
developed nations are having to be rescued, the
brilliance of Zimbabwe's
monetary policies is no longer in doubt.
But first you would have to
successfully impose a few new definitions on
certain English words that
would completely destroy your claims if their
original meanings were to be
used.
The word "sanctions" is the main one. This word has to be redefined
to mean
any response from abroad that is not wholly supportive of Zanu
PF-policy
decisions, that does not respect the sovereign rights of the
party's
leadership to choose any policies they wish, or that shows an
unwillingness
to completely overlook Zimbabwe's failures to fulfil
contractual
obligations.
This means that if any government, donor
agency, international bank or
development institution finds that it is not
in agreement with Zanu PF
policy objectives, or is agitating for
long-overdue debt repayments, or is
dismayed by the conduct of party
officials, that body can be accused of
imposing sanctions.
And if any
lender expresses concern that new loans to Zimbabwe might not be
repaid, and
therefore sets tough conditions or refuses to lend Zimbabwe the
money, it
too can be accurately accused of imposing sanctions.
Points carefully
overlooked - Dr Gono's book is laced with numerous examples
of carefully
overlooked points - are that lenders are fully entitled to base
their
lending decisions on the assessed credit worthiness of borrowers,
whether
that assessment is based on past performance or current earnings
expectations.
Zimbabwe's score is dismal on both counts.
Consequently, loan refusals are
hardly surprising. In such cases, refusals
are standard practice for any
banker. As for the donors, NG0s and aid
agencies, Zimbabwe's government
disqualified itself from receiving direct
assistance by adopting and
endorsing conduct that violated human
rights.
The conduct concerned includes violent ruling party-supported actions
that
hit directly at civil liberties and made direct and deliberate attacks
on
entirely legal political movements that tried to attract support for
alternative political and economic policies. These attacks severely affected
investor confidence and further damage was done when the Zanu PF policies
began to sharply reduce Zimbabwe's foreign earnings by forcing the closure
of most of the farming companies that produced most of the country's
exports.
Unfortunately, these were the earnings that had supported
Zimbabwe's access
to credit. Continuing flows of revenue were needed to
repay the banks
offering continuing lines of credit for flows of imports,
and export
earnings were also needed to service longer-term debts. The rapid
fall in
earnings caused Zimbabwe to become a poor credit risk, so lines of
credit
were withdrawn.
But as an expression of his commitment to
support every Zanu PF policy
decision to the hilt, Dr Gono has passionately
declared that the land reform
policies that led to this decline are
irreversible. This has done nothing to
persuade potential lenders that
Zimbabwe has improved its prospects of
settling debt. They quickly decided
that Dr Gono's position on land reform
meant that the lost revenues flows
would not be restored, so new loans
should not be offered.
Land
reform has become a curious title for a process that caused Zimbabwe's
most
productive land to almost stop producing. As it was highly productive,
this
was not the land that needed reform. The rest of it did, or more
accurately,
the farmers on the rest of the land needed reform. In choosing
not to reform
these farmers, but merely to move them to the land from which
good farmers
were evicted, the ruling party caused this land to become far
less
productive.
Whatever anyone would prefer to believe, the simple fact is
that this land
has stopped delivering the former volumes of crops and the
former foreign
revenues that helped sustain the whole country.
To be
more specific, this land is no longer delivering the food, the jobs,
the
exports, the range of industrial inputs or the taxes that used to
support or
fund a large proportion of Zimbabwe's total economic activity.
And ever
since this land reform programme started, Zimbabwe has had to
import large
quantities of food that, with its loss of export earnings, it
could pay for
only by cutting other imports.
To now claim that aid agencies,
international banks and donor countries must
happily and unconditionally
accept the obligation to restore Zimbabwe's
spending power is to exhibit a
special form of arrogance. Zanu PF is
effectively declaring that those
capable of offering assistance have
obligations and those who need help
should never have to account for the
actions that placed them in
need.
Further, if the donor countries and aid agencies don't deliver on
these
obligations, Zimbabwe's leadership will be acting reasonably when it
accuses
them of imposing sanctions. In his book, Dr Gono inflates that
accusation
into a claim that these unkind donors and institutions have
engaged in
"sanitised terrorism" that is being carried out to demolish the
whole
economy.
However, another of the points that Dr Gono fails to
mention is the fact
that, far from imposing sanctions, aid agencies are now
actually supplying
food to about half Zimbabwe's population.
Had he
raised that subject, he might have had to try to explain why Zanu PF
considers aid to be a threat if it arrives in the form of food for
distribution directly to communities that the aid agencies themselves have
identified as vulnerable. Much as Zanu PF would prefer not to discuss this
issue, the facts here have become obvious: Zanu PF wants to be in control
over the distribution of all aid so that beneficiaries only of its choice
will receive it.
This is because part of Dr Gono's general thesis is
that the aid workers
have been complicit in conspiracies to bring about
"illegal regime change".
If a careful analysis of the dozens of references
to "illegal regime change"
were to be made, an honest conclusion would have
to be that Dr Gono believes
every suggestion criticising a Zanu PF policy
and observing that better
alternatives should be adopted, can be described
as an illegal effort to
unseat the government.
Only one explanation
for this belief can exist: Dr Gono is clearly convinced
that Robert Mugabe
is the only person with any legitimate right to claim the
role of Head of
State. On his apparent contention that this is an absolute
truth, Dr Gono
can claim that all challenges to President Mugabe's authority
are illegal,
and many are bordering on being acts of treason.
Whether linked to
sanctions or to regime change, the word "illegal" is
another that has been
given a new definition.
So great is the conviction that Zanu PF has sole
rights over the country,
the party wants to be able to demonstrate that its
supporters'
needs will be met, even if only by ensuring that opposition party
supporters' needs will not be met. Zanu PF claims to feel insulted when the
donors of food, medicine and aid of any other kind bring in the items as
direct imports and carry out the distribution themselves. This sidesteps the
preferred course of handing the money over to ruling party officials and
trusting them to spend it in the country's best interests. For "country",
read Zanu PF. This is another of the word definition changes.
Dr Gono
is accurate in describing the land reform programme as the starting
point
for explanations of Zimbabwe's current difficulties, but most
references to
land reform are accompanied by words such as historic,
irreversible and
inevitable. With considerable eloquence, Dr Gono shows that
he
unconditionally throws his weight behind the entire programme.
None of
his references mention the fact that land reform closed down
Zimbabwe's
biggest industry, or that this industry had been a highly
successful
contributor to the country's economy largely because of the
adoption of
methods and technologies that had evolved all over the world in
very recent
years.
When the country was colonised, most of these farming techniques
did not
exist. For that reason, Zimbabwe's high-tech, capital-intensive
commercial
agricultural sector is no more an expression of colonialism than
General
Motors or IBM are expressions of the colonial history of the United
States
of America.
More importantly, as the effect of land reform has
been to reduce farming
activity to patches of small-scale subsistence
cropping, often using
out-dated cultivation practices and almost always on a
small fraction of the
land that was "recovered" from large-scale commercial
farmers, the whole
programme has been a disaster. Dr Gono's unconditional
support for it,
whatever the cost, is therefore misplaced.
He, of all
people, should be looking for ideas that work.
A more accurate
description of what is needed to solve the whole land issue
could be
approached by starting with the fact that commercial farmers and
communal
farmers worked to entirely different systems, Commercial farming
companies
could lodge title deeds with banks in support of loan
applications. With
this financial backing, they could make use of rapidly
advancing
technologies and invest in developing their own skills.
Because the land
was marketable and the market value of land was known, bank
loan
applications were readily approved. These loans allowed the companies
to buy
expensive inputs and equipment, to learn how to apply the latest
scientific
breakthroughs and to pay wages to their employees through the
year, even
when they had no current income in the months between harvests.
The
system worked because the sale of successfully grown crops allowed the
farming companies to settle their debts and immediately start making plans
for the next season. Imaginative development works that often took many
years to complete could be funded by additional loans. Dams and irrigation
schemes not only helped companies remain efficient during poor seasons, they
also added to the collateral value of the property being pledged in support
of the loans.
The system also worked because of - not in spite of -
the fact that the
companies had placed the ownership of their land at risk
to obtain the
loans. To avoid any prospect of foreclosure, they had to be
successful. So
they worked as hard as they could to ensure
success.
But this system was thrown out with the cancellation of property
rights, the
destruction of the market for agricultural land, the forced
dissolution of
the farming companies and the allocation of the land
-
free - to resettlement farmers. With no title deeds to offer the banks and
the disappearance of the land's market value, the resettlement farmers could
not borrow money against it.
The inputs they needed had to be given
to them as handouts , or they had to
be heavily subsidised. But getting help
in the form of money to pay wages
proved impossible. The farmers ended up
cultivating only the small areas
they could manage with the help of wives
and children, in much the same way
as they had in the communal areas. But on
their new plots, they did not have
the help of a support network of their
extended families and friends.
Success in the normal sense eluded them,
but they measured their success by
a different standard. Bank foreclosure
was not a possibility, but each faced
a real threat of dispossession from
more senior member of the party. For
some this was best avoided by making
their plot look less desirable by
producing mediocre crops, but others felt
that demonstrations of fierce
loyalty to the party would better protect
them.
Neither of these helped crop yields, but farmers claiming they suffered
no
threat of dispossession could claim to be successful.
The word
"success" has therefore been redefined. Its new meaning permits the
use of
phrases such as "the successful land reform programme".
But the vast
majority of farmers did not achieve real success. Even backing
from the
business sector became less effective as the services of
agricultural
suppliers, with their bulk depots, workshops and technical
experts, went
into a steep decline. This soon added to the difficulties
faced by communal
farmers too, as it impacted on their access to inputs and
their costs. These
directly affected their levels of output and made food
shortages very much
worse.
The basic fact here is that two very different systems were at
work and they
delivered very different results. But for some reason,
Zimbabwe's
politicians believed they would be praised and rewarded for
choosing to
destroy the agricultural system that stood out as the most
successful in
Africa, and for replacing it with expensive and severely
disruptive
extensions of the subsidy-dependent less successful
system.
The rewards and praise have not been forthcoming. To the ruling
party, this
is clear evidence of disrespect for the sovereign rights of the
country's
leaders to formulate the policies it thinks fit without risking
international censure. This lack of respect amounts to sanctions that,
according to Dr Gono, have been motivated by an eagerness to promote regime
change. These sanctions, he claims, are a form of economic terrorism, the
purpose of which is to sabotage the ruling party's glorious efforts to
overcome the evils brought to this country by colonialism.
The hidden
claim that is implicit in the principal arguments put across by
Dr Gono is
that any decision ever taken by President Mugabe is never ever to
be
questioned, Whatever the decisions, Dr Gono's position would clearly be
that
he - and everybody else - has an obligation to accept all of them
without
question and find ways to make them work.
A distillation of page after
page of his basic thesis would be that
President Mugabe's decisions have
always been right and that every one of
them would have worked brilliantly
but for the imposition of sanctions. The
"illegal" sanctions, he claims,
were all designed to bring about "illegal"
regime change by causing the
collapse of the Zimbabwe economy.
But despite the virtual collapse of the
economy, it is clear that Dr Gono
would argue that the sanctions have
failed. Because President Mugabe is
still the Head off State, he has
survived them. So Zanu PF can claim to have
triumphed against the "economic
terrorism" attacks launched against them by
the most powerful countries in
the world.
According to Dr Gono, this proves that Zimbabwe's state of
collapse is
nothing about which Zimbabweans should be embarrassed as it is
the fault of
those who imposed the sanctions.
Zimbabwe's leaders are
not the first to create a mythical threat and follow
this with the
generation of highly intrusive and oppressive regulations and
punishments,
which they claim to be essential to combat the threat.
Triumphant claims can
then be made that the non-existent threat has been
contained. Typically, the
full depths of the dishonesty are achieved the
reinforcement of the
oppressive regulations and punishments, supported by
the claim that these
remain necessary because, without vigilance, the threat
would certainly
return.
Whether the threat was identified as the certainty that the sun
would not
rise tomorrow unless an unfortunate family submitted to demands
that their
child should be sacrificed, or is now identified as the certainty
that
Zimbabweans will face hunger and deprivation unless the world calls off
sanctions and stops trying to depose its rightful leader, the real menace
amounts to something rather different: the determination of the governing
authorities to ensure absolute obedience by imposing and enforcing
oppressive policies.
But just as sacrificing children had nothing to
do with making sure the sun
would rise and everything to do with holding the
Aztec population in
subjugation, calls for the removal of wrongly defined
sanctions has nothing
to do with enriching the Zimbabwean population. It has
everything to do with
controls and restoring the leadership's access to the
foreign funding needed
to enforce them.
In one of the more
colourfully misleading paragraphs in his book, Dr Gono
claims: "The country
perspired under the gruelling yoke of colonialism for
close to one full
century. Before attaining political independence in 1980,
the country went
through a bloody armed struggle, as the impoverished
indigenous population
resisted, and fought and won over colonial forces."[1]
From this, he goes
on to describe the many reasons why colonial distortions
called for the
adoption of unconventional measures. However, it is the
carefully overlooked
distortions that have emerged since independence in
1980 that are very much
more in need of attention. Today, the population is
more impoverished than
it ever was during the colonial era, and as for the
"gruelling yoke", all
the evidence suggests that the colonial authorities
were never as harsh on
the population as Zanu PF is today.
The colonial era created the most
diversified economy and the best education
and health services of any
country in Africa. The result was one of the most
developed of all the Third
World's countries. As for the "bloody armed
struggle", this was sponsored
and funded by the USSR and Communist China for
their own ends. One day, an
accurate history will show that indigenous
people opposed the incursions in
numbers that greatly exceeded the total of
the so-called "colonial whites".
It is perhaps for this reason that Zanu PF
has recently passed legislation
prohibiting any possibility that any other
political party might obtain
support from abroad, the way its supporters
did.
Dr Gono's major fear
is that the sanctions claims will be proved wrong and
cause his whole thesis
to completely fall apart. So in efforts to prevent
debate that might draw
people towards such a dangerous conclusion, Dr Gono
makes numerous
pre-emptive strikes that are designed to demolish the courage
of his
critics. He does this by suggesting that any who deny the existence,
or the
penetrating damage of his long list of sanctions will risk being
ridiculed
for their stupidity, or worse still, they will risk being accused
of
economic sabotage.
Regrettably for Dr Gono, these ploys do not cause the
caution of lenders to
become definable as sanctions. Neither do they
encourage aid agencies to
offer assistance that can be shown likely to add
to the ruling party's
capacity to tyrannize the population, or would
directly compensate ruling
party members for the personal inconvenience
their damaging policies have
caused them.
All aid organisations face
requests from deserving cases, the needs of which
go far beyond the donor's
resources. The donors know they would face
criticisms from their own sources
if they were seen to be using their
limited funding to help delinquent
governments escape the effects of
self-inflicted problems, especially if
they show not the slightest intention
of changing course.
Without
question, Zimbabwe needs help, but the country will not be deserving
of help
before its authorities have acknowledged the actual causes of the
difficulties and have also made firm commitments to rectify them. And any
effort to identify the actual causes will take the debate right back to land
reform.
On the need for land reform, Zanu PF argues that their case
is proved by the
facts that the country was colonised and the land taken by
the colonisers
had to be taken back.
But this can be restated as a
different description that also rests securely
on facts: a very small
population saw its land colonised; new productive
methods bought in by the
colonisers helped that small population to become
very much bigger - twenty
times as big - and now that much larger population
is said to want the land
back.
It is worth mentioning here that independent studies have called
this
politically charged claim into question. The vast majority of the
population
is most concerned about job security, not land, according to an
extensive
survey carried out by the Helen Suzman Foundation. Now that the
land has
been returned to the people and so few of these same people can be
seen to
be trying to work it, the truth of the Suzman Foundation's findings
has
become starkly apparent.
But more crucial truths are that the
production methods, which were so
successful in building the population's
size, are still needed.
This is simply because the population is now far too
big to be sustained by
the pre-colonial methods of production. Population
growth rates have
increased all over the world in the past century and they
have ushered in
dramatic changes everywhere, not just in Zimbabwean. Most
populations know
they are in a new world, and they have moved up, moved on
with their lives
and moved with the times.
But Zanu PF clearly has no
intention of moving with the times. In
particular, it insisted on a return
to the pre-colonial land rights
arrangements. These were feudal in nature
and depended upon land being
allocated by politicians. Individual ownership
rights were not permitted
then and they are not wanted now.
Apart
from the fact that taking land off the market will permit those with
influence to get large pieces of it for nothing, the only reason that can be
discovered for attacking this system is that property rights are seen to
confer power onto property owners. Politicians see this as a threat because
they see themselves to have won power in order to wield power, not to share
power with people who have property rights. The answer, therefore, is to
prevent the dilution of the leadership's powers by declaring the land to be
the property of the State.
This is why land that was taken from the
destroyed companies has not been
sold to new owners. It has been allocated
to people who will never expect to
gain total control over it, but who will
remain acutely conscious of the
need to remain supportive of the leadership
to remain in occupation.
In other words, patronage figures largely in the
system.
In considering more directly the actual content of Dr Gono's
book, it is
this un-stated, but very real issue of patronage that underlies
the many
unfair, unjust and inaccurate accusations made against any and
every
business sector or individual that is not fully supportive of
government
polices.
One example is Dr Gono's treatment of the banks.
He points out that in the
late 1990s the banks were lending about 95% of
their loans to farmers, but
by 2003 this had fallen to around 10%, "spelling
a very precarious fate for
agriculture as the mainstay of the
economy"[2].
He carefully avoids mentioning that the collateral value of
the land has
been destroyed, so the security of title deeds to back the
needed loans no
longer exists. He offers no thoughts on why he believes the
banks should be
happy to lend to people who will not only be unlikely to pay
them back, but
might also seek protection from the ruling party to sidestep
their repayment
obligations.
In the same section, Dr Gono makes
reference to claims that Zimbabwe has
been isolated, condemned and demonised
by the Western world, and that this
has led directly to the withdrawing of
development funding and loans. This
justified his perceived need to move
away from the conventional
macroeconomic management ideas as "no thinking
central banker could simply
stick to the niceties of conventional wisdom and
expect a better or
meaningful outcome for Zimbabwe"[3].
The idea that
the suspension or absence of external assistance in some way
absolves a
central banker from the need to observe the rules of basic
arithmetic has to
set a new absurdity record.
Several themes recur throughout the book,
apart from the claimed sanctions
and their claimed "devastating" effects on
the economy. Shortages that
forced people to seek openings that involved
gambling on price, exchange
rate and market movements make up one of them,
and yet another is "recurring
droughts", which are also blamed for the low
agricultural production
figures.
Given the statistical fact that
rains in the past ten years have been better
than average and that most
storage dams have been full enough to deal with
the crops in the few
disappointing years, it might seem that the normal
definition of the word
drought has been replaced by any description of a
sequence of wet and dry
spells that did not meet various farmers' hopes that
the season would be
perfect.
However, while seasons can very seldom be described as perfect,
the claimed
frequency of droughts does not fit the facts. The country as a
whole has not
suffered a severe drought in the past ten years and apart from
a serious
lack of rains in the southern half of Zimbabwe in 2002 and a few
disappointing years, the seasons had every prospect of producing reasonable
crops.
But as government officials tried to track the effectiveness
of their
policies on those who received subsidies or input handouts, they
made a
practice of tracking down the beneficiaries and asking for details of
yields
and deliveries to the markets. For many of the farmers, this
presented a
problem, mainly because they had cashed in the seed, fertiliser
and fuel to
meet needs that were far too pressing to be dealt with by
planting crops
that might or might not come up.
Because they could
not admit to this unpatriotic conduct, many of them
claimed that they had
planted their crops, but were wiped out by drought.
Thousands of separate
reports claiming that droughts had affected the length
and breadth of the
country were enough to confirm to the authorities that
all their sterling
efforts had been rendered ineffective by drought. The
authorities have
eagerly accepted the claims because having to admit that
the fault might lie
with their policies was a far less acceptable
alternative.
Dr Gono
makes strenuous efforts to justify his claimed ability to "think
outside the
box" and to break free of conventional thinking, which he
clearly believes
to be too restrictive to be useful, especially in
Zimbabwe's extraordinary
circumstances. In Chapter Three, he accurately
describes the workings of a
market economy, but his purpose is to draw
together some of its essential
strands only so that he can trash them.
He expounds upon the forces of
supply and demand, but suggests these can be
damaging and frequently need to
be countered by government interventions and
subsidies. The pricing of
foreign exchange, he suggests, should certainly
not be left to market forces
when the central bank's authority can set its
correct price, while the need
to balance liquidity requirements with the
value of productive assets has to
be done in a way that will ensure that
prices are not influenced by the
levels of liquidity.
He goes further to link these concepts to western
thinking and the
Protestant Work Ethic, which is all solid stuff, but it
turns out that even
this is designed to set the ideas up for dumping. The
capitalist Protestant
Work Ethic is condemned because of its linkage to
European or Western
thinking, and the condemning point is that it was the
Europeans who did all
the colonising in Africa.
His second point is
that the principles of the Protestant Work Ethic are not
working anyway. As
proved by the recent banking crises in Britain, Europe
and the USA, they
have been abandoned, he says, in favour of the economics
of "manipulative
gambling akin to the workings of a casino"[4].
The extraordinary choices
of examples, accusations, revelations and
behaviour patterns that he then -
in several chapters - expounds upon to
substantiate his claim that Zimbabwe
has been failed by the Western
capitalist system is marked by one remarkable
omission: the massive
Zimbabwean distortions that have been deliberately
generated and imposed by
the authorities in general and the Reserve Bank in
particular.
According to Dr Gono, he had no option but to intervene when
foreign
currency scarcities caused exchange rate movements to add to costs,
but he
does not admit that the never plentiful supplies of foreign currency
were
drastically reduced because government policies caused massive
shrinkages in
export earnings. The cause of the problem was the loss of
exports; the
foreign exchange scarcities were an effect. Another the effect
was rising
prices.
Bringing in controls and regulations to influence
effects rather than causes
simply caused distortions. When one of the
treatments of the symptoms was to
demand that government should have access
to foreign exchange at
preferential rates, it opened the door to
increasingly corrupt
arbitrage-related deals, but when senior politicians
and public servants
were granted an even more attractive privileged rate of
exchange, the
distortions increased and the opportunities for highly
profitable
manipulations multiplied vigorously.
Large-scale business
transactions that were dependent upon the existence of
different exchange
rates led to schemes and scams that involved imports of
food, fuel, luxury
as well as utility vehicles and farm equipment. On the
export side, the
access to low-cost US dollars permitted influential people
to acquire
fabricated gold products at the same effective discount, and
these were
exported along with unknown quantities of foreign currency, but
the Reserve
Bank's imposition of low prices for gold from the mines allowed
it to claim
some sort of balance.
All of these distortions could have been overcome
by adopting a single
market-related exchange rate. Dr Gono's frequently
repeated remarks
disparaging the workings of markets seem to place the very
idea of having
the market set the rate beneath contempt, but at least part
of his antipathy
to the idea seems more likely to come from his
unwillingness to accept that
government should have to compete for foreign
currency against all other
market participants.
Of even most
importance, however was and is the fact that the people best
placed to
manipulate and profit from controls, regulations, preferential
exchange
rates and a variety of privileges, such as duty-free imports, are
those
closest to him in positions of authority. In launching his frequent
attacks
on the business sector, Dr Gono appears all the time to be directing
attention away from the far greater levels of exploitation and obscene
profit-making taking place within the ranks of those who make the rules and
claim the right to privileges.
Part of his problem seems to be that,
while such conduct is described as
corruption when carried out by the
business sector, the same conduct, if
admitted, would be described as the
legitimate exercise of the privileges of
office. As sweeping legislation
that would stamp it out cannot be imposed
because so many would claim
exemption, and as the controls and regulations
are needed to sustain the
privileges for the important few, Dr Gono is left
with the only option of
heaping accusations and more controls onto private
sector
activities.
A glaring omission in Dr Gono's book is any form of analysis
on the possible
effects of the controls. He could have made mention of the
extent to which
the wholly unjust price controls imposed at the end of June
2007 forced most
local manufacturers to scale down their operations and many
to close
altogether.
He could have described the way that interest
rate controls have completely
destroyed any inclination to save money, and
have dramatically changed the
business habits of borrowers.
He could
have mentioned the sequestering of corporate Foreign Currency
Account
balances by the Reserve Bank and then the official siphoning of
these sums
to meet official spending needs. To sustain their operations, the
affected
businesses had to bid in the unofficial market for the hard
currency they
needed. He could have mentioned that the rising demand forced
up the price
of foreign exchange, and then the prices of everything that was
bought with
that money.
He could have admitted that these companies were victims of
the
officially-approved appropriation of their foreign currency balances,
but
instead he hoped to persuade the public that these were the profiteering
and
greedy companies that were responsible for Zimbabwe's world
record-breaking
inflation rate.
He could have acknowledged that a
fundamental requirement of sustainable
business is that goods should be sold
at prices that exceed their costs of
production, but instead his belief in
state intervention had him defending
his extremely low cost BACCOSSI, or
Basic Commodities Supply-Side
Intervention loans, which allowed producers to
continue selling at prices
below production costs by closing the recurrent
revenue / expenditure gap
with borrowed money.
He could have
acknowledged that, as a banker, he would not normally approve
such business
practice, but has recommended it in Zimbabwe's situation
because the Reserve
Bank was able to fund such loans with obscenely high
Statutory Reserve
Ratios. These were claiming, interest free, 50% or more of
all typical bank
deposits. The low cost loans to agriculture, the ASPEF or
Agricultural
Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility, and the PSF or
Productive Sector
Facility were funded with money effectively confiscated
from banks in the
same way.
He could have admitted that these loans, at deeply negative
real rates of
interest, were releasing the borrowers from the need to
achieve high
efficiency levels because they were getting the money virtually
for nothing.
He invited them to make the most of the inflation that was
vigorously
eroding the value of the repayment commitments before they had to
be met.
He could have admitted that the whole scheme depended upon
inflation
continuing at a very rapid pace, and on depositors being bound, by
a lack of
options, to continue depositing money in the banks.
He
could have admitted that the whole process has rapidly destroyed the
entire
country's savings stock. He could have gone on to say that his
policies have
demolished the normal functions of savers and lenders, whose
funds used to
be tapped by investors who were engaged in creating new
productive
capacity.
He could have admitted that, at enormous cost to Zimbabwe, his
policies have
brought productive investment almost to a halt. Now almost all
business
activity involves importing, buying and selling, not making the
goods here.
Zimbabwe is now far less a nation of producers of goods, and
much more a
nation of traders.
He could have admitted that as so much
of the activity has slipped into the
informal sector, its contribution
cannot now be measured, its conduct cannot
be monitored or regulated and its
profits cannot be taxed.
He could have admitted that in carrying out his
statutory functions in terms
of the RBZ Act, his efforts to regulate the
Zimbabwe's monetary system has
rendered the system almost unworkable, that
his efforts to achieve and
maintain the stability of the Zimbabwe dollar
have resulted in a failure of
world record proportions, and that his moves
to ensure the smooth operation
of the payments system have left it operating
anything but smoothly.
On top of these, his policy measures to foster the
proper functioning of the
financial system have sidelined the banks and seem
likely to soon impoverish
what is left of the insurance companies and
pension funds.
Dr Gono does have serious grounds for complaining about
unacceptable conduct
and had good reason to condemn speculative trading on
the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange, especially when it was intended to generate
profits of
quadrillions on the strength of cheques written against
insufficient bank
balances. However, his attacks on the stockbrokers, the
banks and the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange seem at this stage to be wholly
unfair. People who
wrote cheques for sums they did not have were breaking
the law, but the
sweeping accusations against any who were acting on their
instructions would
be legitimate only if collusion could be
established.
But Dr Gono should also accept that the behaviour would not
have been even
contemplated if the distortions caused by the massive
imbalances between the
supply and demand for foreign currency were not so
serious, if interest rate
returns made the money market as suitable an
investment option as the equity
market, if the options facing holders of
rapidly depreciating Zimbabwe
dollars extended beyond the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange and if the Zimbabwe
dollar was not crashing in the first
place.
The fact that all of these issues have generated antisocial or
unpatriotic
behaviour might be reprehensible, but it should not be
surprising. People
will always be inclined to protect what they have, and
most of what
Zimbabweans have left today has never been more in need of
protection.
Perhaps we should not be surprised that Dr Gono has filled
his book with
explanations and accusations that are intended to exonerate
the President,
the government and the Reserve Bank, but it is this that is
most
reprehensible. Attacks on incorrectly identified causes will not solve
the
problems.
All of the primary causes and most of the secondary
ones too have been
deliberately overlooked or hidden because of their
political objectives or
origins, but we will not solve the problems until we
correctly identify them
and deal with them in more constructive
ways.
Sanctions are not among these causes, and neither are droughts,
regime
change conspiracies or attempts to sabotage the economy. The reason
for the
foreign exchange scarcity is not because the lending and development
institutions have backed off, it is because Zimbabwe almost completely
scuttled its principal foreign exchange-earning sectors. Our sharply reduced
ability to earn foreign exchange certainly made the possible lenders very
reluctant, but they became much more so when a large proportion of the funds
we wanted to borrow had to be spent on goods for consumption.
Also,
the country's officially supported behaviour did nothing to inspire
their
confidence. The collateral value of agricultural land was destroyed,
removing completely the security that used to back the vast majority of bank
loans. The process caused the dispossession of highly motivated and
productive people, but the allocation of their physical assets to people
with fewer skills and almost no motivation to work hard for assets they got
for free had entirely predictable results: output dropped to levels not seen
since the 1950s.
As this dispossession process was accompanied by
wholly unacceptable attacks
on commercial farmers and their employees, and
as these were carried out by
militia groups who could carry out violent and
disgraceful acts with
impunity because of their backing from the ruling
party, reactions began to
surface from the international community. When
opposition party efforts to
bring about entirely legal regime change through
the ballot box were dealt
with extremely harshly, the international
community took exception to the
contempt the Zimbabwean authorities had for
their own people as well as for
the international treaties signed by
Zimbabwe to uphold human rights.
Political sanctions were imposed on
identifiable culprits and their
supporters, but until mid-2008, not a single
one of the sanctions had any
bearing on Zimbabwe's economic performance.
Since then, the disappearance of
bank note paper is about the only economic
sanction that has affected
everybody.
If you were to remove from Dr
Gono's book the paragraphs that rest on his
claims about illegal sanctions,
illegal regime change conspiracies, economic
sabotage and droughts, and if
you were to also take out the
self-congratulatory explanations of all the
policy measures he devised to
deal with unsubstantiated claims that the
country was suffering the effects
of ruthless attacks by economic
terrorists, I regret to say there would be
not much left to
read.
However, he does offer an interesting account of the sequence of
events over
the past five years, and provides interesting detail on the
banking crises
that led to curatorships, mergers and takeovers. Also, the
extent to which
the Reserve Bank has actually become the principal executive
authority in
government becomes evident. As tax revenues fell and the
separate ministries
became dependent on the so-called quasi-fiscal
expenditures for their
funding, the Reserve bank was able to apply
increasing amounts of leverage
to direct or regulate almost every facet of
public sector activity.
Far from sticking to core functions, the Reserve
Bank has become the
country's major procurement agency for just about
everything
- cheap handcarts, expensive agricultural machinery, vehicles,
food and
medicines.
Dr Gono has accepted a second five-year term as
Governor, but this term is
starting with what seems inevitable - the total
collapse of the Zimbabwe
dollar. Nobody wants to be paid for anything in
Zimbabwe dollars, and Dr
Gono has even had to use his executive authority to
force various
parastatals to accept Zimbabwe dollars in payment for things
like
electricity, water and telephone charges. However, public servants
including
employees of the Reserve Bank also don't want to be paid in
Zimbabwe
dollars, and Zimbabwe's problem is that it is earning even less
foreign
currency now, following upon the fall in world metal prices and the
suspension of operations on many Zimbabwean mines.
US dollars are in
use all over the country, but their quantity is
insufficient to support
salary payments across the board. All the shops that
have managed to acquire
reasonable stock have done so by paying foreign
exchange for imports and
have no option but to seek payment entirely in hard
currency. Before long,
those without it will be unable to meet basic needs.
But US dollars are
not accumulating within the country, and they are not
circulating for long
as the shops receiving them must send them abroad to
pay for new stocks. The
amount coming is has fallen because of the increased
economic uncertainties
overseas and in South Africa, so funding from the
Diaspora might not make
the needed difference.
The only thing that will is financial assistance
from abroad. However, many
changes will be needed before that becomes a
possibility. Even Dr Gono's
frequently repeated claim that the developed
world's governments should now
take him seriously because they are employing
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's
strategies to rescue their undercapitalised banks
will impress none of them.
While Europe and North America are fearful
that they will see annual
inflation rise from 3% to perhaps 8%, Zimbabwe's
estimated December figure
of more than one sextillion percent suggests that
no useful comparisons can
be made.
However, the real difference is
that none of these countries deliberately
closed down their biggest
industries, destroyed most of their sources of
tax, wiped out their biggest
sources of export revenues, rendered their
largest employment sector jobless
or absorbed and spent their country's
total domestic savings.
These
are the actions that the Zimbabwe authorities did take. And despite
the
price being so high, Dr Gono, eagerly supported by the rest of the
government, is still defending the policy choices that caused the
damage.
So far, it is clear that we have done nothing to become deserving
of the
needed help. I regret to have to close this comment with the thought
that Dr
Gono has said nothing in this book that will improve our prospects
of
getting that help.
Despite the difficulties, please accept my very
best wishes, first for your
survival and, very soon, your increasing
prosperity during 2009.
Kindest regards,
John
Since Zimbabwe's disputed elections last year, many women have been bravely protesting their country's political and economic free-fall. Now, one of them is awaiting trial and Mugabe preparing to govern alone. Hope is fading fast.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)--For all those holding their breath for power-sharing in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe's recent bluster that "Zimbabwe is mine" weighs far more than any of neighboring South Africa's misguided diplomacy.
The grim reality is that dictators don't like to share.
The power-sharing agreement signed in September among the three would-be leaders of Zimbabwe--Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, challenger Morgan Tsvangirayi's Movement for Democratic Change and an offshoot faction of the Movement for Democratic Change--is now a tattered piece of paper on the floor, crumpled and much stepped on by muddy boots.
Mugabe, after 29 years of dictatorship, is quite clearly unwilling to relinquish his power. Tsvangirayi has been trying to unseat Mugabe democratically since 2002. His party desires a peaceful and transparent transition.
The stakes are higher now, with an increasingly disturbing disregard of human life by the ZANU PF government. Cholera is a new enemy--a preventable disease that strikes discriminately, killing poor people, who typically live in areas where sanitation systems have broken down or where there is no access to clean water or adequate health facilities.
The effects of the epidemic which broke out in November 2008 are devastating. According to the World Health Organization, 33,579 cases of cholera were recorded as of Jan. 4, and at least 1,600 have died.
Extraordinarily, life goes on.
For many Zimbabweans, there is no option except to get on with it. But behind each pleasant greeting and sigh of resignation, there is an increasing unease. No one says a word, but it is felt as people pass each other in the street. There is a distinct sense of expectation unfulfilled.
What follows is based on online radio broadcasts, blogs and journalists who have been reporting in the region.
Some Stand UpBut not everyone is content to play-act.
Activists, human rights groups, lawyers and community organizers exist and thrive in the ever-widening cracks in the autocratic regime. Many have peacefully faced a state agent's AK47 armed only with courage and a conviction of what they know is right.
Women have figured more prominently in the resistance over the past 10 years and have become increasingly visible. Often they face the police with the bearing and confidence of mothers, grandmothers and older women who deserve traditional respect.
One of them is Jestina Mukoko. The Harare-based Zimbabwe Peace Project nonprofit group that she heads has been documenting political violence and human rights abuses since 2000.
The project made sure the world heard about Abigail Chiroto, wife of Emmanuel Chiroto, who won the important position of mayor of Harare, the nation's capital, last March, when elections also swept other members of his Movement for Democratic Change party to a majority in the parliament.
Last June, a gang of armed state agents drove three white, unmarked cabs to the Chiroto home. They came to abduct and torture Emmanuel for being a member of the opposition who had unseated a ZANU-PF incumbent. Such practice is now standard procedure in this fallen democracy.
Abigail Was KilledWhat happened next has come to me through online radio broadcasts, blogs and journalists who have been reporting in the region.
Emmanuel was not home, but Abigail was. As the cars pulled up, everyone on the premises immediately fled, fear in their eyes. Abigail was left behind, frantically searching for her 4-year-old son. The state agents were in no mood for disappointment. They petrol-bombed their house and abducted Abigail and her son. Days later her burned, lifeless body was found at a nearby farm, still wearing a blindfold. Her son is lucky to be alive, but now lives a life without his mother's love and protection. Emmanuel went into hiding.
Mukoko is part of a brave group of women that includes Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu of a group called WOZA, which stands for Women of Zimbabwe Arise. They are boldly pro-democracy and protest peacefully.
Last year, Women of Zimbabwe Arise activists whimsically handed out red roses to police on Valentine's Day in a protest designed to "disarm" officers who routinely use tear gas, fists and clubs to dismiss peaceful protests.
Facing DangerWithout women like Mukoko, Williams and Mahlangu, the already dim light of hope in Zimbabwe would have flickered out long ago. But standing up is very dangerous. At 5 a.m. on Dec. 3, 15 armed men in plain clothes turned up at Mukoko's home just outside of Harare. Still in her nightgown, she answered the door. Silently and swiftly she was taken away. Her whereabouts were unknown for three weeks.
Her son immediately alerted civic society groups who demanded her release. The state remained tight-lipped, denying involvement in her disappearance but also refusing to investigate it. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has been putting pressure on the region to intervene in Zimbabwe, joined others in expressing concern about her wellbeing.
The police had denied knowledge of her whereabouts but on Dec. 24 they brought Mukoko and 31 other activists before the high court on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government, a ludicrous and unsubstantiated claim.
In her first public appearance since the abduction, Mukoko's face and body appeared swollen and bruised. BBC video footage showed her looking stoical as she was led into police custody, showing a peace and calm in the face of those who had brutalized her.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a Harare-based activist group, demanded her immediate release to receive medical treatment.
Judge Alphias Chitakunye allowed a doctor to examine her but ordered her to Chikurubi maximum security prison to await trial immediately afterward.
Mukoko spoke to her lawyer, respected human rights activist Beatrice Mtetwa, of her ordeal.
Mtetwa knows about police brutality firsthand. She was assaulted while in police custody in 2003. According to South African news reports, Mukoko described being beaten repeatedly on the soles of her feet with a hard, rubber object. She spoke of being interrogated while being forced to kneel on gravel, blindfolded. All the while state agents beat her. They were drunk and their fists struck again and again.
The rule of law in Zimbabwe exists now as a formality without meaning.
Last week, Mugabe dissolved his cabinet in preparation for forming a new, exclusive government. But for Zimbabweans engaged in the daily hustle for survival, government means nothing. Hope is fading. There is nothing left except a strong need for survival, violence and, above all, the perseverance of the women of Zimbabwe.
The author is a writer and sociologist who lives in New York. She is currently working on a memoir about growing up in Zimbabwe. Her name is withheld because criticism of the government puts her at risk of government persecution.
http://www.iol.co.za
January 07 2009 at
04:07PM
By Christina Taylor
When Miriam left her home
and two children in Zimbabwe in October 2008
she thought she would soon
return from South Africa with much-needed food.
Instead, unable to
afford the bribes necessary to cross back into
Zimbabwe, she was stuck in
South Africa for six weeks.
Her 12-year-old daughter Providence and
nine-year-old son Victory
remained without supervision, drinking from a dam
suspected to be
contaminated with cholera and eating wild fruit that
Zimbabweans call
"donkey food" because human stomachs struggle to digest
it.
Miriam and her husband, Masiiwa, spent October and much of
November in
a small hovel in Masiphumelele until an advert of Masiiwa's,
asking for
work, caught the attention of Capri residents Annie and Dave
Rattle.
"Six days later, we were on the road to Zimbabwe," Annie
Rattle said.
The couple had been looking for a
gardener but on hearing of the
children insisted on helping Miriam to fetch
them.
"You couldn't bear the thought of those kids starving," she
said.
The Rattles and a friend spent R25 000 fetching the children.
They
flew with Miriam to Johannesburg, drove to Zimbabwe and paid bribes for
the
children's documents.
Rattle said the children had
been "starving" when they had arrived.
There was no food in their area and
other Zimbabweans had been unable to
help.
"If we hadn't got
there when we did I think the children might be
dead," she
said.
Rattle and her friend were briefly detained during the trip
but, after
help from NGOs and other individuals, managed to get the two
children into
South Africa in three weeks.
Miriam and her
family now live on a smallholding in Sun Valley in a
caravan that was
donated by a friend of the Rattles.
Masiiwa earns R850 a week
working two days for the Rattles and another
three for other
families.
School for Providence and Victory will have to wait until
Miriam, a
former nurse aide, can find work. The Rattles, who already sponsor
the
education of their housekeeper's three children, are unable to afford
more
school fees.
Masiiwa, a former teacher of English,
religious studies and commerce
in Zimbabwe, said he hoped to resume LLB
studies at Unisa and one day return
to his country to "assist those who are
downtrodden".
a.. Miriam and Masiiwa have asked that their
surnames not be
published. They wish to return to Zimbabwe when it is more
stable and fear
for their safety in the meantime.
This
article was originally published on page 2 of The Mercury on
January 07,
2009
From The Star, 7 January
Murderous attack on foreigners - but police deny it's
xenophobia
Vivian Attwood and Slindile Maluleka
African
refugees and asylum seekers are living in terror after three
foreigners died
when they were forced from the sixth-floor windows of a
block of flats .
allegedly by members of a community policing forum. Victims
say the attacks
in Durban's Maude Mfusi Street on Sunday were driven by
xenophobia, but
police deny this, saying there had been a CPF anti-crime
drive in the area,
The men who died had official refugee status, and were
looking for work to
support their families. Zimbabwean Victor Zowa (24) died
on impact. He would
never see the son his wife gave birth to in Zimbabwe two
weeks ago, said his
brother Raymond. A second, as yet unnamed man, also
believed to be from
Zimbabwe, died soon after rescue workers arrived. Said
Omari (22), from
Tanzania, died of his injuries in hospital yesterday
afternoon. Several
other asylum seekers were injured when the drain pipe
they were climbing
down to escape their attackers collapsed.
Human rights activists have
called for a full police investigation into the
incident. After several
police spokespersons declined to comment on the
incident, KwaZulu Natal
police spokesperson Muzi Mngomezulu finally said the
attack was not being
regarded as xenophobic in nature. "It was the CPF of
the area who were on a
venture for criminal elements because people in that
building are alleged to
have committed robbery and housebreaking."
Mngomezulu said a case of murder
and attempted murder had been opened. No
arrests had been made. The CPF
chairperson for the area, who declined to
provide his name, said he was
unaware of the incident because he had been
out of the area. Witnesses said
the armed mob responsible for the attack
were locals. They brandished bush
knives and knobkerries, blew vuvuzelas and
demanded that the kwerekwere (a
derogatory term for foreigners) jump from
the building or they would push
them. Those who didn't jump were flung out
and fell to their deaths in a
narrow passage six floors down, witnesses
said.
Businessman Omar
Osman is the owner of the apartment block, known as Venture
Africa, where
the xenophobic attack occurred. The building is a haven for
refugees who are
referred there by, among others, Lawyers for Human Rights,
the Menonite
Central Committee and Refugee Pastoral Care. According to
Osman, the trouble
began on Saturday, before exploding into mayhem on
Sunday. "At about 11.30pm
(on Saturday), my manager contacted me to tell me
that armed men had entered
the dormitories and were demanding to know who
was a kwerekwere. They said
they were working with the police. When I asked
officers at the Broad Street
police station . to intervene, the officer on
duty told me: 'They are from
the forum. Don't worry about it. After a while
the intruders left, but they
were back on Sunday, and it resulted in this
terrible
tragedy."
Osman's manager, who has requested anonymity in fear for
his safety, said:
"At 10.45pm the gang came back, and started beating men,
women and children.
There was a stampede, screaming, the sound of breaking
glass. It was a
nightmare. Everyone feared for their lives." The manager
called Osman. "He
said there were bodies in the courtyard, that people had
been thrown from
the windows," Osman said. He said he didn't understand why
the people were
attacked. "These are other Africans. They come here for
shelter from the
horrors they have experienced in their own countries, and
this is how we
treat them." The SA Human Rights Commission condemned the
incident.
Chairperson Jody Kollapen said: "It is clear from the xenophobic
attacks
last year that we still have a long way to go."