The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.

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ZNSPCA UPDATE 05 JANUARY 2003
UPDATE 05 JANUARY 2003
 
We would like to start the year off by thanking all of the wonderful people and organisations who stood by our Society and provided vital support for the Rescue Teams to enable them to carry out their very difficult and often heartbreaking work during 2002.  With very limited resources and of course time and manpower, we are not always able to personally thank each and every individual who has sent donations, messages of support, organised fund-raisers, obtained supplies or spread the word about what is taking place in Zimbabwe.  We do most sincerely thank you all for your incredible support and generosity - we could not have done it without you. 
 
2002 was not a good year for the animals of Zimbabwe.  Looking back over the reports, it is amazing that our teams did not give in, having faced so much unnecessary and totally unwarranted cruelty and abuse of the innocent animals who have been such helpless pawns in this interminable crisis.  We commend all those who have taken such great risks to rescue and protect animals in peril.
 
Many of you are already aware that Meryl Harrison and Addmore Chinhembe received the BBC Special Award on 27 December 2002 for their rescue work.  Meryl was invited to receive the award which she accepted "on behalf of all the animals who have lost their lives" since the start of the ongoing land dispute.
 
Sadly, our first report of 2003 is not an encouraging one.  On New Year's Day Meryl and Jimmy Zuze went to Mvurwi Police Station to follow up on a report that some cattle had been drowned by settlers.  The details on duty were unfortunately not helpful and denied any knowledge of the case.  No escourt was provided but the team bravely continued until they found the scene of the incident which took place on a cattle ranch.
 
The farm formerly supported some 6,000 head of cattle which have since been reduced to 1,000 head.  A War Vet had been inciting workers to strike in order to receive 'packages' from the farmer.  To achieve this, a group of workers drove a herd of weaners into a confined area enclosed by Msasa trees.  The area was deeply gullied, at the bottom of which rain water had accumulated.  There was no grazing or other source of drinking water.  The animals were thus confined for 5 days.  As the young animals became thirsty, they attempted to enter the gullies to reach the water and in so doing became stuck in the mud and drowned.  300 animals died in this most abhorrent and cruel manner before the herd was released.  The bodies of the dead young animals had to be pulled out of the thick mud with a Tractor.
 
On 3 January Meryl and Jimmy were called to Concession to rescue 5 dairy cows with calves.  The farmer had been severely beaten and was forced to leave.  The team will move the calves and have secured a truck to move the heifers.
 
On a positive note, the head of National Parks has requested a meeting with Meryl to discuss mutual concerns regarding wildlife.  Meryl has already secured an undertaking that no translocation of wildlife abroad will take place without ZNSPCA involvement.
 
It is hoped that if there is a lull in reports from farms that Meryl can proceed with the relocation of Billy (the Chimp) from Zimbabwe to Chimfunshi in Zambia.
 
Best regards to you all
 
Bernice
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Editor of Zimbabwe provincial newspaper jailed

      Harare

      07 January 2003 08:45

The editor of a Zimbabwean provincial newspaper in the south of the country
was arrested last week under the country's tough media laws, a regional
media watchdog said on Monday.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) said in a statement that Norna
Edwards, editor of the Mirror, a weekly paper published in the southern town
of Masvingo, was arrested on Friday and released on Sunday.

Edwards was arrested for a story that appeared in the paper on December 19,
according to Misa.

She will be charged for abusing journalistic privileges over a story on the
arrest of four opposition activists for allegedly organising a work
stoppage.

"The paper chronicled the events surrounding the arrest of the four and
their alleged ill-treatment by the police," said Misa. The section of the
law under which Edwards is being charged states that if a journalist
publishes falsehoods or fabricates information, this will be deemed abuse of
journalistic privilege. The reporter who wrote the story, Kennedy Murwira
was reportedly still being hunted down by the police.

At least a dozen journalists have been arrested since the new media law came
into effect in March last year.

Journalists in Zimbabwe will know this week if they are allowed to continue
to practise their profession, when the government-appointed media commission
is due to issue press permits. - Sapa-AFP
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Business Day

Winds of change blow anew

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenya's civil society proved more robust against intimidation than
Zimbabwe's
THE Kenyan election outcome provides important lessons on new dynamics in
African politics. Reflecting on the seismic results of Kenya's watershed
poll, analysts say the election demonstrates the winds of change are blowing
through countries that have for years constructed authoritarian barriers to
resist democratic currents.

In Ghana, Senegal and the Indian Ocean nation of Madagascar, long-serving
and antidemocratic ruling parties have in recent years been swept out of
power. Zambia did it in 1991.

Analysts say the Kenyan experience is also a serious warning to African
rulers, especially those in Zimbabwe, that the age of political repression
associated with former liberation movements could be under growing threat
from a variety of emerging democratic forces.

Brian Raftopoulos, an analyst with the University of Zimbabwe's Institute of
Development Studies, said the Kenyan election showed the bubbles of some
liberation aristocracies in Africa, which survived on revolutionary
posturing without delivering on their mandates, were now bursting.

"What is interesting about Kenya is that the opposition exploited the former
ruling Kanu's implosion and managed to make political capital out of the
country's economic woes," he said.

Observers say tribalism has always been used as a political tool in Kenya.
It is also particularly rife in Zimbabwe, where gullible voters are
brainwashed to accept that only people from certain regions and ethnic
groups are expected to rule.

Zimbabweans' failure to unite and act against the current dictatorship has,
in part, been attributed to tribalism, among other factors.

Former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, a Kalenjin who ruled for 24
uninterrupted years, was a master in tribal manipulation. But the Kenyan
opposition transcended tribal boundaries to unite and, as a result, win
resoundingly. Compared to Zimbabwe, Kenya's tribal composition is complex.
It has more than 40 ethnic groups belonging to three linguistic families.

Raftopoulos said that although the Kenyan situation was historically and
politically unlike Zimbabwe's, parallels and lessons could be drawn in
certain aspects. "In Kenya, Kanu had been weakened by its own implosion
before the election.

"But here, Zanu (PF) remained still relatively strong in terms of its
ability to use the state machinery and manipulate elections to remain in
power. What is needed for an effective challenge... is sufficient
coordination within the opposition and civil society as well as a clear
strategy of action."

After years of failing to win elections due to fragmentation and splitting
of votes, Kenyan opposition groups formed the National Rainbow Coalition led
by newly elected President Mwai Kibaki and scored a landslide victory
against Moi's Kanu.

Kanu, which had been in power since 1963, fielded Uhuru Kenyatta, son of
founding president Jomo, as its candidate in a move widely seen as a
desperate bid by Moi to evoke the late veteran nationalist's memory to
remain in power through a proxy successor.

Moi was barred constitutionally from standing again after serving his terms
under the democratic dispensation, which started with the advent of
multiparty politics in 1991. Before that, Kenya had been a de facto
one-party state.

Uganda's University of Makerere lecturer Andrew Mwenda said the Kenyan
election was crucial insofar as it provided lessons for different African
countries.

"Kenya's experience was shaped by specific historical and political
processes, which cannot be replicated in other countries, but provide a case
study for other countries to learn from. "In Kenya, the military was kept
largely out of politics and that is very important when it comes to the
ability of countries to hold free and fair democratic elections. Violence
this time was very low.... But in countries like Zimbabwe and Uganda,
leaders rely heavily on the army and violence to influence voters.

"While Moi was willing to accept the outcome of the election, the likes of
President Robert Mugabe and President Yoweri Museveni (of Uganda) always
threaten to reject results if defeated."

Whereas Moi and Kanu treated the opposition as competitors, Mugabe and Zanu
(PF) which often postures as the sole embodiment and articulation of
national interest and sovereignty treated them as enemies, Mwenda noted.

In the end, it appears there is still a long way for Zimbabwe to go before
it catches up with Kenya in terms of development of political processes and
practices.

Kenya's civil society proved more robust in the face of intimidation. The
thirst for democratic change in Kenya proved an unstoppable force against an
old regime with nothing left but its claims to a liberation legacy long
since forgotten by the majority of its voters.

Muleya is Harare Correspondent.
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Business Day

Pressure mounts on Zimbabwe

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The Zimbabwe government is under mounting pressure, especially from the
mining industry, to drop - or change - the new foreign currency regulations
brought in last November.
These regulations have, at least in theory, prevented mining companies from
selling some of their foreign currency earnings in the parallel market at
exchange rates of about Z$1,750 to the US dollar, rather than the hugely
overvalued official rate of Z$55.

But in the 2003 budget, last November, the government moved to stamp out the
parallel market by requiring exporters to transfer their foreign currency
accounts from commercial banks to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

This has meant that exporters must now obtain central bank approval before
using the 50 per cent of their export revenues that they are allowed to
keep.

The balance must be sold to the authorities at the official exchange rate,
and if they want to sell their hard currency they must do so at the official
rate.

This has meant that a base mineral exporter, who until November was
effectively earning more than Z$900 for every US dollar of exports, is now
getting only Z$55.

In the past 10 days, three mining groups have warned the government that
unless foreign currency rules are changed, they will no longer be viable.

Anglo American subsidiary Bindura Nickel Corporation, the country's leading
nickel producer, says the foreign currency regulations introduced in the
2003 budget "severely impact upon group viability".

Unless the situation is resolved "urgently", Bindura says it will not be
able to continue operating due to inability to meet its expenses.

In a similar statement, gold producer Rio Tinto Zimbabwe says "recent
monetary directives have rendered the company unviable".

Rio Tinto says it is optimistic that discussions between the government and
the Chamber of Mines, which represents mining houses, will produce a
satisfactory outcome.

A second gold producer, Falcon Gold Zimbabwe, says it is "uncertain whether
the industry can survive" the government's new regulations. Until the
industry is regulated and allowed to market its own production, the gold
mining industry will continue to shrink, it warns.

"If the gold support price is revised regularly, it is possible that the
group could survive the year ahead," Falcon said.

Zimbabwe's gold production is estimated to have halved since 1999 while the
volume of all minerals produced is down some 30 per cent from its peak in
1998.

The sole exception to the downward trend is platinum, whose producers -
chiefly South Africa's Impala Holdings - obtained favourable operating
conditions from the Zimbabwe government, which enables them to operate
offshore bank accounts.

Industry executives expect the government to back down over the regulations,
perhaps by using a similar approach to those for gold (which has a support
price) and tobacco (which has a subsidised exchange rate).

With tobacco earnings and exports set to fall sharply in 2003, the
government simply cannot afford a shutdown by major mining exporters -
especially of gold, ferrochrome, nickel and platinum.

Financial Times

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Guardian

Ministers warn of Zimbabwe violence

Paul Kelso, sports correspondent
Wednesday January 8, 2003


Ministers fear England's cricketers could be caught in the crossfire of
violent clashes between police and opponents of Robert Mugabe's regime if
their World Cup match with Zimbabwe goes ahead as scheduled on February 13.

At a crunch meeting tomorrow England and Wales Cricket Board officials will
be told of growing concern in Whitehall that England's match, and five
others due to take place in Zimbabwe, might be played out against a backdrop
of violence.

A group called Organise Resistance has pledged to stage demonstrations at
matches and it may be joined by supporters of the Movement for Democratic
Change, the main opposition group, which has had few opportunities to
express its views since it was defeated in a discredited election last year.
It is feared protestors will be dealt with harshly by police and troops.

"Opposition is almost illegal in Zimbabwe but these games will offer a
platform for legitimate opponents of the regime," said one minister.
"Demonstrators are treated abominably in Zimbabwe and they will be hit for
six, and worse, by the police. This is where the story is going to end, in
violence." Glenys Kinnock, a member of the European Parliament who is in
close contact with the MDC, said protests were "inevitable".

"For cricket to claim ignorance and operate in a moral vacuum is
reprehensible," she said. "Civil disobedience is low in Zimbabwe because the
level of oppression is high, but it is inevitable that people who are
frustrated and hungry will take the World Cup as an opportunity to express
their frustration and discontent.

"Sport does resonate. This must be seen in the context of 8m people facing
starvation, more than half the population, and the people I speak to in
Zimbabwe find it very difficult to see how people can contemplate playing a
game in those circumstances. It amounts to collaboration with the regime."
The government has called on the ECB to boycott the match because of human
rights abuses by the Mugabe regime but has stressed it has no power to
prevent the team going. The ECB wants to fulfil the fixture, arguing that it
is hypocritical for it to be asked to take a stand when British companies
are doing business in Zimbabwe.

The ECB chief executive Tim Lamb returned from Australia overnight and will
spend the day preparing for the meeting, which will be attended by the
culture secretary Tessa Jowell and the Foreign Office minister Baroness
Amos.

Ministers are unlikely to be receptive to ECB demands for compensation. The
ECB says it could face a fine of up to £1m if England pull out of the match.

Richard Bevan, the managing director of the Professional Cricketers'
Association, will also attend the meeting so that the England team can be
independently briefed. The England captain Nasser Hussain has called for
guidance from the government, claiming the players are ill placed to make
moral judgments.

Before returning from Australia for the meeting Bevan criticised the
government for not making its objections known earlier.

"Back in March 2002 when the various nations were signing the participation
agreements, the British government said nothing to the ECB, nor asked for
any meeting to discuss the issue," he said. "There seems to have been no
government strategy planned to lobby the game and to address these key
issues. Changes to the structure of the tournament could possibly have been
made if pressure had been brought to bear earlier. With six weeks to go to
the start of a World Cup tournament which is spread over 44 days, the
government are just playing politics with cricket."

An Australian initiative to have all the games moved to South Africa has
failed to win support among International Cricket Council members.
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ABC News Australia

Wednesday, January  8, 2003. Posted: 09:36:19 (AEDT)

Committee keeps watch on Zimbabwe media laws
The World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) has expressed "deep concern" about
Zimbabwe's tough media laws.

The laws make it compulsory for journalists and media outlets to register
with a Government commission.

The committee, based in Virginia, says it "has observed with deep concern
the moves by the Zimbabwe Government to force journalists and newspapers to
register in terms of controversial new legislation that has been widely
condemned".

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which was
enacted last year, also bars foreigners from working permanently in Zimbabwe
as journalists.

In a statement, the WPFC also said it was "deeply concerned over the safety
of journalists who are denied registration".

It warns that "being deprived of their professional roles will lay them open
to attack by ruling party supporters and others opposed to their independent
journalism".

The committee, which has 44 affiliates on six continents, singled out the
case of Geoffrey Nyarota, a member of the WPFC's board of directors.

Mr Nyarota was fired from his job as editor of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's
leading independent daily newspaper in circumstances which the committee
says "raise suspicions that the Government had a hand in his dismissal".

At least a dozen journalists have been arrested since the new media laws
came into effect in March last year, mostly on charges of publishing
falsehoods.

"The WPFC warns the Zimbabwe Government that it and other international and
regional media organisations will exercise keen vigilance over media
developments in Zimbabwe and will hold the Zimbabwe Government responsible
should any harm from official quarters befall Nyarota and other
journalists," the statement said.
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Guardian

U.S. Weighs Sanctions Against Zimbabwe

Wednesday January 8, 2003 12:40 AM


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is leaning toward imposing
additional sanctions against Zimbabwe in response to alleged fraud in last
year's presidential elections and continued human rights violations, a
senior official said Tuesday.

The official, briefing reporters on the condition that he not be identified,
said a final decision could come this month. He said any new sanctions would
be financial in nature but he provided no details.

Last spring, the administration denied visas for certain Zimbabwean
political leaders and froze their U.S. assets. It also imposed a ban on the
transfer of U.S. defense articles.

An inter-agency group is studying the possibility of additional sanctions,
the official said. President Bush will make the final decision.

The United States has refused to recognize President Robert Mugabe's claim
that he won the presidential election last March.

Suggesting that Mugabe lost the election to opposition candidate Morgan
Tsvangirai, Secretary of State Colin Powell said last March the outcome did
not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people.

Besides the alleged electoral fraud, the official said Zimbabwean
authorities are denying food to the country's neediest citizens. He added
that there also has been a breakdown in law and order.

Another source of concern, the official said, are growing ties between
Mugabe and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The official did not elaborate.

According to the official, Mugabe's policies, coupled with a prolonged
drought, have devastated the economy, with half the country in need of
emergency food relief.

Of six southern African countries facing a food crisis, the official said
Zimbabwe's situation is the most difficult. Many destitute Zimbabweans are
fleeing across the border into South Africa, he said.
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Matabeleland Hard Hit By Drought



UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

January 7, 2003
Posted to the web January 7, 2003

Johannesburg

Zimbabwe's southwestern province of Matabeleland is one of the hardest hit
regions in a country suffering the worst effects of the regional drought.

World Vision Zimbabwe director Rudo Kwaramba told IRIN on Tuesday that more
and more people in the region were becoming vulnerable due to
drought-induced crop and cattle losses.



The reason Matabeleland appeared to be one of the hardest hit was that it
was normally a dry, arid region, Kwaramba said.

"They don't generally get rains anyway, even in a good year. We cannot say
conclusively whether Matabeleland South is worst off, but it's understood it
will be harder hit than other areas during a drought period," she noted.

Matabeleland is ranked at five on the rainfall scale in the country - one
being the wettest and five being the driest. "[Therefore], most of the
commercial activity in Matabeleland south is around cattle ranching as
opposed to cropping," Kwaramba said.

A World Vision statement said the drought, which "many are calling the worst
in half a century" was affecting 900,000 people in Matabeleland. World
Vision has been providing relief assistance to the region since February
last year.

"The affects of the drought are striking in the Matobo district in the
southern region, about 40 km out of [the second city of] Bulawayo. The land
looks dry and barren and a few, wilted crops are all that remain of farmers
efforts in the region," World Vision said.

"The maize should be half a metre to a metre tall by now, but the land is
completely barren," Jonathan Moyo, World Vision field coordinator for the
Matobo district, was quoted as saying.

He explained that in many cases, farmers simply stopped planting once it was
clear the rains were not coming.

Compounding crop losses have been severe cattle losses. "I understand
there's an estimation that up to 20,000 head of cattle are in danger of
dying [because of] the drought," Kwaramba noted.

This would worsen an already bad situation.

"The necessary criteria for registering to receive food aid were based on
questions like how many cattle you have, so many people did not qualify for
food aid. These peoples' situations have now changed midway and they were
not [previously] registered for food aid.

"The numbers [of vulnerable people] have increased over the lean period,
which stretches from around December to March while people planted and wait
for the new harvest. But with the increasing dryness we will have a
situation, I think, which is going to become very difficult to manage,"
Kwaramba added.

More relief food needed to be brought in, and "other pressing issues, like
the outbreak of cholera, need to be attended too".

Another registry of beneficiaries needed to be compiled to capture the group
of people who were now in need of food aid who did not qualify for it during
the previous registration.

"In partnership with USAID [US Agency for International Development], World
Vision is registering more beneficiaries in Bulilimamangwe and Beitbridge
[in the south], we are also expanding the programme to Lupane and Bubi [in
the north] in partnership with WFP [World Food Programme]," Kwaramba said.

There was an urgent need for "a concerted effort to allow those who would
like to distribute food to get the necessary permits to bring food in and
distribute food ... churches are also interested in bringing in food [but
lacked the proper registration for doing so]", she added.

"If there are delays in registering [organisations] then there are delays in
bringing food in," Kwaramba concluded.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Drought Monitoring Unit in
Harare has warned that the 2002-2003 season could see below normal rainfall
for southwestern Zimbabwe. This has fuelled fear of further food shortages
next year, the World Vision statement said.

"The weather phenomenon, El Ni-o, is being blamed for below-average rainfall
across Southern Africa. According to the latest Famine Early Warning Systems
Network (FEWS NET) assessment, most of the region has only recorded between
1 mm and 10 mm of rain with even less rainfall occurring over portions of
South Africa, Zimbabwe and central to southern Mozambique.

"For many families living in Matobo and elsewhere in Zimbabwe, the wait
between now and the next harvest in March next year will be a long one.
Until then, many people will be relying solely on food aid to survive," said
World Vision.

Aid agencies estimate that almost seven million people in Zimbabwe require
food aid until the next harvest around March 2003.
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Daily News

      ZCTU slams wage, price freezes

      1/3/2003 10:45:05 AM (GMT +2)


      Business Reporter

      WAGE and price freezes are not the solution to the present economic
crisis facing the nation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said
yesterday.

      Wellington Chibhebhe, the ZCTU secretary-general in an interview said
that the problems needed political solutions.

      He said: "The issue is not only addressing the problems through wages
and prices but also to address the politics. There should be politics of
inclusion, not exclusion as at present."

      Chibhebhe said the government regarded anyone with opposing views as
an enemy when in fact every Zimbabwean was entitled to contribute their own
opinion.

      He said: "As a result we have a situation where laws were marathoned
through Parliament, for example the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy, Labour Relations Amendment and the Public Order and Security Acts."

      Chibhebhe said while Herbert Murerwa, the Minister of Finance and
Economic Development, had spoken during his budget presentation in
Parliament last November of reducing inflation from around 144 percent at
the end of November, a month later, this had ballooned to about 174 percent.

      He said: "Murerwa also admitted that price controls had failed but the
next day the government went on to impose more price freezes. Now more items
have been added on the list, but with higher prices."

      Chibhebhe said price freezes resulted in goods disappearing from the
shelves, only to resurface with a much higher price on the black market or
under different brand names.

      "But wages will never be paid at black market rates," he said.
      Chibhebhe said the ZCTU would continue fighting for cost of living
adjustments and a reduction in taxes. Zimbabweans are generally regarded as
the most highly taxed in the world.

      Reviewing the past year, Chibhebhe said: "This was a very difficult
year, given the fact that we were supposed to have fallen. There were more
negatives than positives. We were meant to sink."

      In his campaign for the presidential election in March last year,
President Robert Mugabe vowed to crush the ZCTU for its perceived support of
the opposition MDC.

      Chibhebhe said: "What he says normally becomes policy, so we are
saying we managed to swing through."

      He said despite the obstacles placed in its way, the ZCTU had
increased the number of its affiliate unions from 32 to 35, including the
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and the Civil Service
Employees Association.

      Admitting that the job stayaway called by the ZCTU after the
presidential election was not as successful as the ZCTU wanted, Chibhebhe
said: "People were and still are afraid of POSA. It was bravery to call for
a stayaway after the presidential election."
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Daily News

      Police arrest Zinasu leaders

      1/3/2003 10:21:06 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      ABOUT 40 heavily armed policemen stormed a conference room at the
Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management in Norton on 20
December, to arrest the entire leadership of the Zimbabwe National Students'
Union (Zinasu).

      The union was supposed to elect its new leadership at its annual
national congress.

      Paul Munjenge, the union secretary for legal affairs, said six police
vehicles carrying about 40 policemen arrived at the congress venue, bearing
a list of people they wanted to pick up.

      "The police invaded the conference room charging that the meeting was
unlawful and should be called off," Munjenge said.

      The police allegedly arrested Nkululeko Sibanda, the Zinasu president,
Itai Zimunya, the vice-president, Phillip Pasirayi, secretary for
information and publicity, Tapera Kapuya, Madock Chivasa, Victor Chimhutu,
Danford Damba, Collin Mapfumo, Brighton Makunike and Matthias Bhasera,

      The group was held at Norton Police Station for four days and were
made to pay fines of $3 000 each before being released on the Christmas Eve
following the intervention of their lawyer, Jacob Mafume.

      Munjenge said the MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai, was to have
addressed the congress after by an address on the government's programme of
national youth service by the Youth Development, Gender and Employment
Creation Minister, Elliot Manyika.

      Pasirayi yesterday said Fidas Muchemwa, the union's treasurer, was
ordered by the police to disburse money to delegates so that they leave the
congress venue immediately.

      "The police said they were working on political instructions to arrest
the student leaders and ensure that the congress would not go ahead," he
said. "We believe the motive was to prevent Tsvangirai from addressing the
students and possibly the fear that the MDC president would have outclassed
the minister."

      Manyika had not confirmed his attendance at the Zinasu congress at the
time it was held. Mafume said the police alleged that the congress was not
lawful but still arrested the entire executive of Zinasu.

      The general council of Zinasu will meet at the end of this month to
come up with a date for an extraordinary congress where elections for a new
leadership would be held, Pasirayi said.
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Daily News

      Mudzuri threatens to sue The Herald

      1/3/2003 9:15:42 AM (GMT +2)


      By Haru Mutasa

      THE Harare City Council has threatened to sue The Herald for
deliberately publishing "false and malicious" information on the water
supply situation in the city.

      The Executive Mayor, Elias Mudzuri, claimed the government controlled
newspaper had launched "a sustained vicious and libellous onslaught against
the council".

      In a letter addressed to Pikirayi Deketeke, the Editor of The Herald,
dated 30 December 2002, Mudzuri said the paper had deviated from the basic
principles of journalism of informing, educating and entertaining the
public.

      He said: "You bayed and are still baying for our blood and for heads
to roll with obvious relish and enthusiasm.

      "Instead of giving the public the facts as they stood and stand, you
chose to play to the gallery by attempting to whip up public outrage and
outcry and openly invited Minister Chombo to enter the fray with a hatchet.

      "Try as we could to present you with the facts, you showed no interest
and could not be dissuaded from launching a sustained vicious and libellous
onslaught against Council."

      The council has cited stories that it said were not correct.

      These included Council accepts blame for water disruptions - published
on 10 December, 2002, Mudzuri bungles procurement of chemicals - 9 December
2002, Mudzuri says council has banked cheque to be cleared today -10
December 2002, Mudzuri sits on tenders - 21 December 2002, Power struggle
rocks troubled Harare City Council - 30 December 2002
      In the letter Mudzuri said the council had refused to be intimidated
and be put on trial by the media and has demanded the paper unconditionally
retract the falsehoods it has been peddling within seven days, or risk a
legal suit.

      "Failure to retract . . . shall be deemed as a rebuff, accordingly we
shall in that event proceed to institute the (legal) action," he said.
      He said the council expected the apology to be given the same high
profile and prominence as the allegedly false stories mentioned.

      Deketeke's secretary confirmed her boss had received Mudzuri's letter
on Friday. She said he was busy but would return the call later.
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Eddie Cross, a prominent Zimbabwean, when asked to comment on this article,
said *name removed at writer's request - 16/7/03* is "talking twaddle".
Eddie continues: "Large Scale farmers grew on overage, about 40 per cent of
the maize in the country. In dry years this rose to 60 per cent plus because
of the influence of irrigation. The grew 95 per cent of the wheat and barley
which constitute 35 per cent of grain consumprion in the cities and about 20
per cent nationally. If we add these three grains together the farmers
actually contribute more than half the staple foods consumed each year.
 "When you add in beef (70 per cent), poultry (80 per cent), pig (90 per
cent), milk (90 per cent), fruit (80 per cent), vegetables (60 per cent),
oil seeds (85 per cent), beans (50 per cent), you get a totally one sided
picture on the food front. The only crop which is predominately small scale
is cotton - about 80 per cent all together. Tobacco is 90 per cent grown by
large scale farmers."
Could anyone reading this, who has an e-mail address to the Editor of the
Guardian, please pass it on.
John Redfern
"Change in Africa

Thursday January 2, 2003
The Guardian

For a long time I have been hearing from the western press that Zimbabwe was
once the "bread basket" or similar of Africa (Letters, January 1). I come from Malawi and I know Zimbabwe better than most western journalists.
White farmers in Zimbabwe do not grow food, they grow tobacco and other cash crops which are exported to Europe. Even when they grow maize (the staple food for black Zimbabweans), they use it to feed livestock........................." - "*name removed at writer's request - 16/7/03*
Los Angeles"
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Village Voice

Where Democracy Fails, Terrorism Grows in Sub-Saharan Africa
Invisible Jihad
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
January 8 - 14, 2003


hen Osama bin Laden first wanted to get America's attention, he chose to
attack a part of the world this country has learned to ignore-Africa. The
now infamous 1998 bombings of American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya left
224 people dead and made bin Laden a fixture on CNN. In November, his Al
Qaeda followers trained their sights on Africa again, sending suicide
bombers barreling into a Kenyan resort hotel and narrowly missing an Israeli
airliner with a shoulder-fired missile.
For advocates of Africa, terrorists' interest in the continent is alarming
but not surprising. After all, bin Laden himself lived in the Sudan for five
years after his native Saudi Arabia exiled him in 1991. Operations like his
generally find haven amid misery and failed governance, conditions Africa
had-and continues to have-in abundance. "The ingredients are just right for
a terrorist group to lay roots," says Gregory Meeks, a Democratic
congressman from New York and a member of the House Subcommittee on Africa.
"You have areas where there is simply hopelessness, where no one is paying
attention . . . places where we held up brutal dictators and did nothing to
help. You have what could be a planting field for terror."

Now the field may be ripe for harvest. On December 29, The Washington Post
reported that two Al Qaeda lieutenants took refuge in Liberia and Burkina
Faso after the embassy bombings. It was the first report of official
collusion between a sub-Saharan government and Al Qaeda. In choosing a place
like Liberia, where an autocratic president frustrates efforts at recovering
from seven years of civil war, or Burkina Faso, where life expectancy tops
out at 46.11 years, bin Laden's forces seek to replicate the freedom they
once enjoyed in the devastated reaches of Central Asia.

"The terror took root in Afghanistan partly because it was a failed state,"
says Lloyd J. Dumas, professor of political economy at the University of
Texas at Dallas. "There was enough lawlessness to do what the terrorists
wanted to do. There have been places in Africa where there is so much chaos
and violence, and so many contending groups, that terrorists could find
haven."

In addition to being chronically underdeveloped, countries such as Nigeria
have significant Muslim communities, some of which have become radicalized
and have clashed violently with rival faiths. "You can talk about . . .
Eritrea, Ethiopia, and clearly the Sudan. Look at Nigeria, where there is a
large Islamic population. Terrorists will use Islam as an entrance," says
Representative Meeks.

Four days before hijackers reduced the World Trade Center to ash and memory,
Muslims and Christians in the Nigerian town of Jos attempted to reduce each
other simply to ash. Many of the town's Muslims had gathered that day for
Friday prayer. Rioting began after Muslims refused to move from a street. By
the time it ended, churches had been torched, authorities were teargassing
mobs, and hacked bodies lay burning in the street. Some 500 people were
dead. "I wonder what sort of Muslims and Christians start burning churches
and mosques-places where God is worshiped," Nigerian president Olusegun
Obasanjo said after sending in the army to quell the discord. "True
believers in God cannot start killing other human beings."

Islam has been a presence in sub-Saharan Africa for over a millennium, so
jihad is nothing new to the continent. More recently, Africa's widespread
political unrest and economic instability have made many of its countries
candidates for the next Afghanistan. Former African dictators like Mobutu
Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Daniel arap
Moi of Kenya spent decades murdering dissidents and fleecing their nations
to the tune of millions-and did it largely with the backing of the American
government, which saw supporting them as means to stave off the advance of
communism.

In addition, Western corporations seeking to profit from the continent's
formidable natural resources haven't been the most respectful of guests.
Shell Oil, perhaps most notably, has been implicated in wreaking
environmental and societal havoc on Nigeria's oil fields.

But while big business has paid attention to potential riches, American
policy makers have looked the other way. So far the Bush White House has
followed the lead of previous administrations in ignoring the endless string
of African disasters, from recurring famine to the burgeoning AIDS crisis.
Most recently, President Bush canceled a five-nation tour of Africa
scheduled for this month. "Like every preceding administration, this one has
been about lip service and not about development in Africa," notes Karl
Schonberg, professor of international politics at St. Lawrence University.

The combination of American apathy and Cold War politics has sown seeds of
anti-Americanism in Africa, and some are sprouting. Robert Mugabe has
managed to extend his dictatorship in Zimbabwe largely through anti-Western
propaganda and racism. In retaliation for the embassy bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania, America mistakenly bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, a move
which only fanned that country's smoldering hatred of the West. In Nigeria,
anti-Americanism mixed with ethnic and religious strife has repeatedly
proved deadly. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after September 11, the
Islamic stronghold of Kano-a town where Osama bin Laden posters are openly
displayed-erupted in rioting. The disturbances began as peaceful protests,
but ended with murder. The body count crested 100.

Still, some observers aren't quite ready to hit the panic button. "There are
several states in Africa that are in very severe states of ungovernability,"
says Patrick Gaffney, professor of anthropology at Notre Dame. "They are
like Afghanistan in structure, but they wouldn't have the ideological
parallels." Gaffney notes that extreme fundamentalist Islam has not gained
the same sort of traction in sub-SaharanAfrica as in the Middle East.

But in seeking a new base of operations in Africa, Al Qaeda may care less
about religious identity than the bottom line. According to the Washington
Post report, the two lieutenants paid Liberia's authoritarian ruler Charles
Taylor $1 million for safe haven, then cornered the market on the country's
diamond trade in hopes of financing weapons purchases for Al Qaeda. While
Taylor isn't a guy you'd have over for coffee and crumpets, neither is he
another Mullah Omar. The secular Liberia has never been a beacon for
fundamentalism. But it has been a beacon for states that exist in name only.
Gutted by war and corruption, Liberia is exactly the sort of failing state
where terrorists could set up camp and disappear from global view.

Making Liberia an exception for the continent as opposed to the rule may
necessitate a shift in U.S. foreign policy. Advocates for Africa say that as
the government extends the mailed fist to Iraq, it must also extend a velvet
hand to countries teetering on the brink. Secretary of State Colin Powell
recently acknowledged as much after pledging $29 million for modernizing the
Arab world. "Hope begins with a paycheck," said Powell. While the Bush
administration may be well aware that Africa could become the new home of
its greatest enemy, the political will-and indeed the democratic will-to
prevent that may be lacking.

"I think if you spoke with people in the administration, they would say,
'Yes, we know.' But whether they can deliver in an era where there is
intense pressure to increase defense spending is not clear," says Schonberg.
"Foreign aid is never popular, and the problem of development just seems so
insurmountable. I think it would be very hard, if only for no other reason
than the fact the economy here wasn't doing well."
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ZIMBABWE: World Vision resumes feeding

JOHANNESBURG, 8 January (IRIN) - A relieved World Vision (WV) on Wednesday said it had resumed its feeding programme in the Beitbridge area in southern Zimbabwe following a month-long delay in the delivery of food aid from the United States.

WV Zimbabwe said its operation was suspended in Plumtree and Beitbridge because consignments of food aid from the United States had not arrived on time.

WV Zimbabwe Director Rudo Kwaramba said feeding had resumed in Beitbridge on 6 January. The programme in Plumtree would resume early next week in the Bulilimamangwe district.

"There was a logistical delay, which meant we had to suspend operations for the month of December. We have received 7,000 mt of cornmeal and 920 mt of kidney beans. We still had in stock vegetable oil to make up the full ration. The programme will continue to target the most vulnerable in the affected districts including families with chronically ill
people," Kwaramba told IRIN.

Kwaramba said WV fed close to 200,000 people in Beitbridge and Plumtree.

The current consignment was expected to last four months, however, Kwaramba said a further delivery later in January would go toward extending the organisation's feeding programme in the two areas.

Aid agencies estimate that almost seven million people in Zimbabwe require food aid until the next harvest around March 2003.

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DOCUMENTARY ON ZIMBABWE CHANNEL 4 - UK TV
 
MUGABE'S SECRET FAMINE  ICC Please take note. You may be secure. What about the security of 12m Zimbabweans?
 
This very good documentary on Zimbabwe will be flighted on Channel 4 in UK on Sunday, 12th January 2003 at 8.00 pm.
 
Please advise all your overseas family and friends to tune in or tape it. I have asked our contact to advise when it will flighted by Satellite and will advise when it can be viewed in Zim. and Southern Africa as soon as info arrives.
 
Mike Lander
 
Comment from contact :-  Last night we had the opportunity to see the above documentary which will be flighted on Channel 4 Sunday 12th January at 8.00pm.
 
This is an excellent documentary, filmed entirely with minature cameras. Peter Oborne who went undercover in Zimbabwe is also Political Editor of the Spectator Magazine.

I urge you all to take time to view this documentary and if unable to -TAPE  it.

 Regards
 
Graham
And from the Britsh Radio Times :- 8.00 - 9.00 Mugabe's Secret Famine

Zimbabwe is in economic freefall and its hitherto self-sufficient people are on the brink of starvation. Yet, outside the country, information is scant as President Robert Mugabe has banned all foreign media. Peter Oborne of The Spectator enters the country undercover to search for the truth behind the rumours and ask how the British Government should react.  He claims the famine is man-made, with Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party using a food shortage partly caused by drought to kill off the opposition, much as Stalin didwith the kulaks in the Soviet Union in the early1930s. 
 
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BBC
 
Wednesday, 8 January, 2003, 17:40 GMT
Opposition march broken up in Harare
Riot police in Harare
Police have wide powers to stop protests
Four opposition supporters in Zimbabwe have been arrested after demonstrating in support of the Harare mayor, Elias Mudzuri.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it hoped to have 2,000 people at the demonstration, but the police banned the protest, and arrested those who turned up.

Food queue
Food shortages are common in Harare
Earlier this week the government announced it was introducing a new post of governor to run Zimbabwe's two main cities - Harare and Bulawayo - both of which are at present controlled by MDC mayors.

The opposition has condemned the government for the arrests, and what it says are police assaults on passers by.

Under tough new security laws, the police must approve all planned demonstrations.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the MDC activists had been arrested for carrying placards, reports the French news agency, AFP.

'Laughable'

The arrests were a "violation of residents' constitutional right to express themselves," said the MDC's Local Government spokesman Gabriel Chaibva.

Robert Mugabe
Mugabe has tightened control on urban areas

Zimbabwe's eight largely rural provinces already have governors, who also sit in parliament and have wide powers.

Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo denied that the new governors would make the opposition mayors redundant and said they would coordinate development.

But MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyati told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that it was "laughable" for the government, which had presided over a 22-year decline in services, to say it would now turn things around.

The new governors would usurp the powers of the elected mayors, he said.

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VOA

S. African Minister Meets With Government, Union Leaders in Zimbabwe
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
08 Jan 2003, 15:30 UTC




South Africa's labor minister is in Harare for what is seen as a visit to
assess the political situation in Zimbabwe.

Minister Mdladlana said the purpose of his mission was to finalize a labor
agreement between Zimbabwe and South Africa that is to be ratified in June.

But Mr. Mdladlana will be in Zimbabwe four days and he will be meeting with
more than government officials. He is scheduled to hold talks with leaders
of Zimbabwe's General Agricultural Plantation Workers Union, the union of
Zimbabwe's farm workers.

Union leaders have made it known they plan to tell Mr. Mdladlana that the
government's land reform program has been an abysmal failure, all but
halting agricultural production and leaving hundreds of thousands of
commercial farm workers jobless.

The South African labor minister's trip to Zimbabwe follows a meeting in
Pretoria before Christmas between South Africa's foreign minister, Nkosozana
Dlamini Zuma, and a government delegation from Harare.

South Africa has been widely criticized by Western countries for failing to
use its position to pressure Zimbabwe to return to the rule of law. South
Africa says it is engaged in quiet diplomacy.

Civil rights groups in Zimbabwe said they see no evidence of that diplomacy.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change recently said South Africa's
support of the Zimbabwe government was hurting the human rights situation.

But political analysts in Zimbabwe said that Mr. Mdladlana will be in
Zimbabwe long enough to see for himself, and to advise his government, that
the crisis in Zimbabwe is deepening.
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Daily News
'Green Bomber' terror must be confronted

      1/8/2003 2:54:12 PM (GMT +2)



      FEW people have ever believed that the youths graduating from the
Border Gezi training centres would be deployed to help old women and
schoolchildren cross the streets, remove the muck from blocked lavatories in
old people's homes or protect newspaper vendors from marauding so-called war
veterans planning to seize and burn the papers.

      Most people with any understanding of African politics would have
guessed the government's grand design in introducing the so-called national
service: to boost its capacity for political terror. It was not a
coincidence that the youths, at least informally, started their operations
during the 2000 parliamentary election under the guidance of the late Border
Gezi, who was credited with wiping out all opposition against Zanu PF in his
stomping ground of Mashonaland Central province.

      By the time of the presidential election campaign of 2002, after Gezi'
s death in a car accident along the Masvingo-Harare road, the youths had
become an ugly feature of Zanu PF's campaign strategy. They set up bases
from which they apparently launched sorties into difficult constituencies to
terrorise voters into voting for Zanu PF candidates.

      Later, some of them were accused of raping women old enough to be
their mothers. There were reports of rampant sexually transmitted diseases
spreading in some of the camps. Parents raised a hue and cry, but their
protests were probably too late: the rot had set in and the youths were on
the loose.

      In Chitungwiza last Sunday, the youths clashed with the police outside
a shop where desperate, hungry residents were about to buy scarce
maize-meal. A number of them were arrested after they had allegedly injured
a number of policemen.

      We all wait to see how much justice still exists in this country when
the case against the youths is finalised. In the past, a number of such
cases have evaporated into thin air before they were disposed of in court.
That too is characteristic of a certain aspect of African politics which
dates back to the Young Pioneers of the Malawian dictator, Kamuzu Banda in
the 1960s. He, of course, had taken his cue from Adolf Hitler and Benito
Mussolini, who used the youths in their Nazi and fascist campaigns,
respectively, before the Second World War, during which they both perished
in ignominious circumstances.

      The so-called Green Bombers are no different from the young political
thugs used by other dictators in the past to terrorise people into
supporting them. Zanu PF is aware that it is no longer the party which
enjoyed overwhelming support among Zimbabweans. It could use peaceful
methods to boost its popularity, but that would be out of character.

      The Green Bombers could turn out to be the party's trump card in every
by-election until 2005.

      How do the people confront the youths to neutralise their effect on
the political direction of this country?

      Officially, we are told they are ordinary citizens without any special
legal powers. If that is the case, then every citizen ought to reserve the
right to deal with them decisively whenever they break the law, as they did
in
      Chitungwiza.

      But the bigger picture involves Zanu PF's jittery response to the
political challenge of the opposition. For instance, there has been talk of
people being asked to take "loyalty" or "patriotism" oaths or some other
such outrageous pledge.

      All this is very dangerous for Zimbabwe, most of whose people are
poor, hungry, jobless and unable for the moment to hope for any improvement
in their livelihood.

      It may not be long before the people decide that enough is indeed is
enough.
      The Green Bombers could feature in the first real test of the people's
resolve to confront their fears of repression.

ily News
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Immigration Officers to Undergo Security Training



The Herald (Harare)

January 8, 2003
Posted to the web January 8, 2003

Harare

IMMIGRATION officers will undergo security training similar to that of
police at the end of this month, the Minister of Home Affairs, Cde Kembo
Mohadi, said yesterday.

In an interview, the minister said the immigration officers would be
recruited for training in batches according to their positions.

The ministry had already submitted its proposals for the training programme
while the police were to assist in the various security aspects.

The programme is being implemented in the light of recent global terrorism
threats and the need to flush out undesirable elements from the country.

"It is a requirement that immigration officials receive such training
because they are responsible for vetting all sorts of people with different
motives.

"Some come with the aim of destabilising the country while others are
criminals who bring drugs into the country," said Cde Mohadi.

The minister said the training programme would expose immigration officials
to various networks in the region and enable them to trace and identify
undesirable individuals coming into the country.

He said some people with criminal records and some under- qualified
expatriates had in the past entered the country owing to the laxity of
security at the ports of entry.

Cde Mohadi said there was need for close liaison of all security departments
in the country to ensure that peace and tranquility is secured.

The training programme would ensure that the country's peace and stability
is maintained without undermining their professional conduct in the manner
of receiving visitors coming into the country.

He said the training programme was in line with similar programmes all over
the world where borders were manned by police officers.

Cde Mohadi dismissed reports that the British intelligence wanted to remove
the Government, saying whoever wanted to cause mayhem in the country would
have to be prepared to face one of the most formidable and well-trained
security personnel in the region.
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MSNBC

Zimbabwe bosses offer Mugabe economy survival plan

By Cris Chinaka


HARARE, Jan. 8 - Zimbabwe's struggling business community has presented an
industrial survival plan to President Robert Mugabe's government which
analysts say is a last-ditch bid to save the country's crumbling economy.
       The rescue plan, details of which came to light on Wednesday,
includes proposals on how to tackle food, fuel and other shortages and a
broader economic crisis which Mugabe blames on his domestic and foreign
opponents.
       Zimbabwe's economy is in its fourth year of recession. Unemployment
in the formal sector has doubled to 70 percent in the last 10 years,
inflation is at a record 175.5 percent, the country has no foreign currency
reserves and has suffered intermittent fuel shortages for three years.
       But political and economic analysts say the fate of the private
sector plan -- which industry officials say was submitted to Mugabe's
deputies three weeks ago -- is uncertain.
       Although the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), which
submitted the plan, and the government have not published full details,
local newspapers say it calls for interest rate and tax incentives for
farmers and exporters, as well as changes to foreign currency and fuel price
regulations.
       The rescue plan also advocates realistic price controls and prudent
management, and for a boost in energy production and supply to help
companies threatened by rising input costs.
       The CZI says over 600 companies have been forced to close in the last
three years due to unrealistic price controls and high import costs on
industries forced to buy expensive foreign currency on the black market due
to shortages.
       ''The plan contains some sound proposals critical to reviving the
economy, but the bottom line is that all these suggestions depend on the
government's attitude, and so far there is no sign that the government wants
to change its policies,'' said a bank economist.

GOVERNMENT ''OPEN MINDED''
       But senior officials in Mugabe's administration said on Wednesday the
government was studying the proposals with an open mind.
       ''The government is actively looking at a number of proposals on how
to help various sectors of the economy, and the plan you are referring to is
among those under consideration,'' one official told Reuters.
       CZI president Anthony Mandiwanza on Wednesday confirmed he had met
Vice-President Simon Muzenda two weeks ago over the rescue plan, but
declined to discuss details.
       ''Both the government and industry understands that there is need to
work together for our country and our economy...and that in our situation,
this is very urgent,'' he said.
       Zimbabweans are grappling with shortages of many basic goods,
including bread, milk, cooking oil and sugar. Nearly half the country's 14
million people are facing severe food shortages which Mugabe's critics say
have been exacerbated by state seizure of white-owned commercial farms for
redistribution to landless blacks.
       Mugabe, who has been in power since the former Rhodesia gained
independence from Britain in 1980, blames the crisis on drought and economic
sabotage.
       Eric Bloch, one of Zimbabwe's leading economic commentators, said the
plan might be a last life-line for Mugabe.
       ''The situation is desperate and the hope is that government will
realise that there is no option other than to do the right thing,'' he said.
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