Zim Online
Tuesday 09 January 2007
HARARE -
The Zimbabwe government has again promised to return land to former
white
farmers but the dispossessed farmers on Monday told ZimOnline that
only a
handful of them had been offered new farms out of hundreds that had
applied.
State Security and also Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa
earlier on Sunday said
his department would offer farms to "former (white)
farm owners who are
genuine farmers who desire to continue farming in this
country" and help
resuscitate the mainstay agricultural sector that has
collapsed since farm
seizures began in 2000.
The government, which
had vowed never to return land it seized from whites,
first backtracked on
that position last November when it gave 99-year leases
to about half a
dozen whites who were part of a group of about 100 black
farmers to receive
the life-long leases.
But the white-representative Commercial Farmers
Union (CFU) said in total
only a handful of former white farmers have been
given land out of 700 that
had applied to Mutasa's department following
earlier pronouncements by the
government that it would also allocate farms
to whites.
CFU spokeswoman Emily Crooks said: "The situation is that a
larger number of
farmers applied for land but the minister (Mutasa) has not
responded. Only a
couple of farmers were recently issued with offer
leases."
Mutasa was not immediately available to explain delays in
allocating land to
former white farmers many with vast experience to produce
food in short
supply in the country.
Zimbabwe has relied on food
imports since 2001 mainly due to failure by new
black farmers to maintain
production on former white farms.
Poor performance in the mainstay
agricultural sector has also had far
reaching consequences as hundreds of
thousands have lost jobs while the
manufacturing sector, starved of inputs
from the sector, is operating below
30 percent capacity. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
08 January
2007
With a February eviction deadline hanging over them,
Zimbabwe's few
remaining white farmers are asking the Harare government for
a few months'
reprieve to allow them to harvest the crops they have put in
the ground this
planting season.
Members of the Commercial Farmers
Union have told the Ministry of Lands that
they will sustain large losses if
Harare proceeds with plans to evict them
by the Feb. 3 deadline, as it is
not possible for them to harvest their
crops by that date.
But Lands
Minister Didymus Mutasa is adamant that the farmers must leave,
saying in a
statement issued to the press that only "genuine" farmers will
receive
letters of offer that will allow them to continue their farming
operations.
Only 30 white farmers have received the letters of offer - a
first step in
obtaining a 99-year farm lease.
Chief economist Prosper Chitambara of the
Labor and Economic Development
Research Institute said prospects for
economic recovery are being hampered
by the government's insistence on
pursuing its land reform program to the
bitter end.
Chitambara said
Zimbabwe stands to lose much needed foreign exchange
earnings as the "new
farmers" installed on properties seized from white
farmers since 2000 may
fail to bring in the tobacco, grain and other crops
planted by the white
farmers.
Commercial Farmers Union Executive Director Hendrik Olivier told
reporter
Blessing Zulu that Harare must give the white farmers time enough
to harvest
their crops.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
08 January 2007
05:52
The situation at Zimbabwe's main hospitals is now
critical,
reports said on Monday, as senior doctors joined juniors in a
strike
entering its third week.
Patients at Harare's two
main hospitals and hospitals in
Bulawayo are being turned away without
treatment, state radio said.
Only three doctors were on duty
in casualty wards, it added.
Struggling junior doctors went
on strike last month to press for
a 100-fold monthly salary increase, up
from Z$56 000 Zimbabwe ($224 United
States at the official exchange rate,
but only $22,40 at the widely used
parallel rate) to Z$5-million
dollars.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said last week
that the
junior or student doctors who, along with more than 100 Cuban
doctors man
almost all of Zimbabwe's health institutions, were about to
return to work,
but that promise does not seem to have
materialised.
Senior doctors also joined the strike on
Sunday, reported the
privately run Daily Mirror
newspaper.
"Imagine a professional like me failing to make
ends meet and
having to resort to cross-border trading for survival," one
senior doctor at
Harare Central Hospital told the paper. -- Sapa
Reuters
Mon 8 Jan 2007
13:28:27 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Wildcat strikes
for better pay that have hit
Zimbabwe could trigger wider work boycotts and
spontaneous street protests,
escalating political tensions in the crisis-hit
country, analysts said on
Monday.
Opposition attempts to organise
peaceful demonstrations against President
Robert Mugabe's government --
largely blamed for a deep economic crisis --
have failed so far, leaving
analysts asking if Zimbabweans are afraid to
face their leaders.
But
on Monday labour experts said angry workers may be taking the lead with
a
rash of recent strikes that could trigger street protests in a country
battling economic meltdown and an inflation rate now riding well above 1,000
percent.
That would set them on a collision course with the
government, which has
used the police and army to quash past
protests.
"The groundswell of discontent is there and the strikes could
just be the
spark that is needed for an explosion of anger that is bottled
up among many
Zimbabweans," Eldred Masunungure, a leading political
commentator said.
"The prospects of spontaneous and uncontrolled protests
is very real and the
end will not be predictable. There is nothing as
dangerous as unemployed but
skilled workforce, that is inflammable raw
material," said Masunungure.
Critics say Mugabe's politically driven
economic decisions have pushed the
country into seven years of recession and
left it with runaway unemployment
and rising poverty.
Mugabe's
government says Zimbabwe is the victim of unfair economic sanctions
led by
London and Washington aimed at toppling him from
power.
HOSPITALS, POWER SHUT DOWN
Public medical care in
Zimbabwe all but ground to a halt last week when
doctors at state hospitals
boycotted work to demand salary hikes of more
than 8,000 percent -- leaving
hospital waiting rooms jammed with patients
needing treatment.
Large
sections of Harare, including the central business district, were
briefly
blacked out on Thursday when workers at power utility ZESA Holdings
switched
off the capital to demand better pay.
Previous predictions of widespread
public protests against Mugabe have often
proved wrong. But rising
frustration among the country's workforce could be
a potent new
factor.
Government employees -- the majority of the country's workers --
earn an
average 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($400) while official figures show
that an
average family of five requires Z$228,133 a month not to be deemed
poor.
Bread ranges between $2.80 and $4.80, while a two litre can of
cooking oil
costs about $30 and a commuter bus fare costs around $4. Workers
also have
to contend with burst sewers, power and water cuts and collapsing
public
infrastructure.
Companies have battled to stay in business
while the government -- shunned
by foreign donors over controversial
policies such as the seizure of
white-owned commercial farms for blacks --
has no money to pay higher wages.
Zimbabwe industries are operating below
30 percent capacity, which they
blame on severe foreign currency shortages,
an unviable exchange rate and
official price controls.
The Zimbabwe
dollar is officially pegged at 250 to the U.S unit but trades
at around
3,000 on a thriving black market.
"MORE STRIKES IN
OFFING"
Economic analysts said there appeared little imminent hope for
hard-pressed
Zimbabwean workers, raising the stakes in the troubled southern
African
country.
"The ability to pay realistic wages is directly
related to the viability of
the business, but there are worrying signals
that government is keen on
price controls," Marah Hativagone, president of
Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce told Reuters.
But labour unions
were adamant, promising more industrial action to press
for better
pay.
"Ongoing job action is just a tip of the iceberg, more strikes are
in the
offing, especially in the public sector," said Lovemore Matombo,
president
of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and an outspoken Mugabe
critic.
"The only way to push for concessions is through street
protests," he said.
VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
08 January
2007
Small scale gold miners in Zimbabwe say a government
crackdown targeting
illegal mines has left hundreds of thousands of miners
with no way of
supporting themselves. The government says it has arrested
about 20,000
illegal gold panners, who it accuses of selling their gold on
the black
market, but as Peta Thornycroft reports for VOA, many of those who
have been
detained say they have claims registered with the Ministry of
Mines.
The arrests began in late November and continue. Several small
scale miners
who are registered with the Ministry of Mines say they have
been stopped
mining.
They say the police and officials from the
central bank have closed their
mines and put them under guard.
Others
say their plants, which crush rocks for smelting, are being forced to
operate under police guard, processing mined material, they say has been
confiscated by the government from other small scale miners.
One
miner, who operates in western Zimbabwe and has a fully established
claim
and a processing plant, and who asked not to be named, was in
detention in
late December.
He said he saw several hundred legal and illegal miners,
some of them
handcuffed to each other, held in a fenced field next to the
Inyathi Police
station in Western Zimbabwe.
He said many of them paid
small fines just to get out of prison, including
some of his office staff
who had been repeatedly arrested.
Home affairs minister Kembo Mohadi said
the arrests were justified: "We can
not allow illegal activities," he
said.
Many illegal gold miners, known as panners, were formerly workers
on
Zimbabwe's once productive white-owned commercial farms. They lost their
jobs over the last six years when President Robert Mugabe confiscated 90
percent of white-owned farms.
Chamber of Mines chief executive David
Murangari confirmed the mass arrests,
accused the miners of serious
environmental damage in Zimbabwe. He said
however he was still investigating
arrests of the small scale, legal miners.
Zimbabwe police said they did
not believe some recent news reports which
claimed that three gold panners
had died during the round up. They did
confirm that one alleged gold panner,
Shepherd Mafiga, 23, died while
fleeing arrest.
Economist John
Robertson said Zimbabwe's skewed exchange rate meant many
people, including
illegal gold panners, traded both money and goods on the
black
market.
Last year, President Mugabe said the government would take over
51 percent
of all mines without compensation.
With 80 percent
unemployment, economists say most Zimbabweans are now forced
to make a
living in the informal sector.
Panners were accused by police last week
of desecrating cemeteries during
their desperate tunneling for
gold.
Zim Online
Tuesday 09 January 2007
MASVINGO - Two Zimbabwean men
were on Saturday detained at the army's
regional headquarters in the
southern town of Masvingo after they were found
in possession of suspected
United States army uniforms.
The two men who were only identified as
Beregede and Mararike, were arrested
by the police after they had allegedly
sneaked with the contraband through
the Beitbridge border post.
It
was still not clear yesterday whether the clothing material was indeed US
military attire.
Police spokesperson in Masvingo, Inspector Phibeon
Nyambo confirmed the
arrest but refused to discuss the matter in detail
saying the issue was now
in the hands of the army.
"It is true that
we arrested the two men after they were found in possession
of undeclared
material which included clothing material believed to be US
army
uniform.
"The two men told us that the items were sent to them by their
two sons
currently resident in the United States. After discovering the
suspected US
army attire, we handed over the issue to the army," said
Nyambo.
Sources close to the matter told ZimOnline that the two men, one
of whom
owned the vehicle which was used to transport the goods, failed to
agree on
payment procedure when they arrived in Masvingo last
Saturday.
The police were called to the scene after the two men had a
scuffle over the
matter. On arrival the police searched the vehicle and
found undeclared
goods which included motor vehicle spare parts and the army
uniforms.
The army uniform included about 30 pairs of new shoes, army
overalls,
trousers, shirts and belts. When the army was informed, it
impounded the
goods and took the two men in for questioning.
The two
men, who insist that the clothing was donated by their sons who are
based in
the United States for distribution at home, were still detained at
the
army's 4 Brigade headquarters in Masvingo yesterday.
4 Brigade commander
Brigadier Fakazi Muleya refused to comment on the matter
saying he does not
discuss security matters with the press. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
08
January 2007
The Combined Harare Residents Association has resolved
to 2007 budget
proposed by the state-appointed commission that runs
Zimbabwe's capital
city, and to challenge the reappointment of the
commission's chairwoman,
Sekesai Makwavarara.
At a weekend meeting
the association vowed to take action to voice
disapproval of the budget and
what the organization characterizes as an
"illegal" commission.
That
body has proposed a Z$495 billion (US$1.98 billion at the official
exchange,
or about US$150 million at the parallel market rate). This will
mean a 200%
rise in local taxes and surcharges in January, and a 150%
increase in
May..
The city council has already increased fees at hospitals and
clinics, and
burial charges are expected to rise sharply as of this
month.
Residents association spokesman Precious Shumba told reporter
Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the group has yet to
decide
specific actions.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington, DC
08 January 2007
HIV-AIDS activists in Zimbabwe have applauded
statements from government
officials saying their objective in 2007 is to
nearly triple the number of
people on antiretroviral drug treatment. The
state-run Herald newspaper last
week quoted HIV-AIDS national coordinator
Owen Mugurungi as saying the
government hoped to have 160,000 people
receiving ARV drug therapy, compared
with about 50,000
today.
Activists say the statement indicates that the government has
understood
that it is not enough to roll out prevention programs when
hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans are infected and thousands of them are
dying each
week for lack of treatment.
Nonetheless, organizations
involved in prevention, such as Populations
Services International, say the
decline in recent years in Zimbabwe's HIV
prevalence rate, now believed to
be around 18% of adults, came about due to
prevention programs.
PSI
Deputy Country Director Yasmin Madan tells reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyele
of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that although Southern African remains the
epicenter of the global AIDS pandemic, Zimbabwe stands apart due to its
focus on prevention.
The
Herald (Harare)
January 8, 2007
Posted to the web January 8,
2007
Harare
GOVERNMENT has named 141 illegal dealers and others
specialising in various
precious minerals that have since been confiscated
and forfeited to the
State.
In notices published in the Government
Gazette last Friday, Secretary for
Mines and Mining Development Mr Thabani
Ndlovu challenged all the people
whose names were listed to write to the
ministry proving legal rights to the
confiscated minerals.
The
notices were published in terms of the Precious Stones Act and the Gold
Trade Act.
"Any person claiming a legal right to any of this gold may
apply in writing
within two months from the date of publication of this
notice to the
Secretary for Mines and Mining Development . . . for delivery
to him or her
such gold.
"If no such person establishes a legal right
to any of this gold within the
aforementioned period, it may be disposed of
to the Secretary for Mines and
Mining Development," read the notice in
respect of seized gold.
A similar notice was also placed for seized
emeralds.
The seizure of the minerals comes in the wake of "Operation
Chikorokoza
Chapera/ Isitsheketsha Sesiphelile" to rid the country of
illegal mining
activities.
The blitz -- which is meant to restore
sanity in the mining sector -- has so
far netted 16 290 gold
panners.
About 3,2 kilogrammes of gold worth over $51,7 million and 4 876
pieces of
diamonds have been recovered since the launch of the operation on
November
21 last year.
Mines and Mining Development Minister
Ambassador Amos Midzi and Police
Commissioner Cde Augustine Chihuri last
month warned unscrupulous
businesspeople against enlisting villagers and
farm workers to engage in
gold panning saying the long arm of the law would
catch up with them.
So serious are illegal mining activities in the
country that some gold
panners in Shamva have desecrated and destroyed 54
graves after discovering
a gold belt that cuts through a cemetery.
The Raw Story
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Monday January 8,
2007
Harare- Police in Zimbabwe on Monday launched a manhunt for
a
suspected illegal gold dealer they say dragged a policeman for 200
metres on
the bonnet of his vehicle, state radio reported.
The incident happened at
Viking mine near the capital Harare on
Monday morning, the report
said.
The man, believed to be white, is alleged to have fled
from
investigating officers who had asked him for his mining
certificate.
The officers had earlier interrogated three miners at the
site who
allegedly claimed they worked for the suspect who paid them
9,000
Zimbabwe dollars (36 US dollars) a day.
The man sped away in his
Toyota Dyna, dragging with him a police
officer, the report said. The
policeman was allegedly thrown off the
bonnet after about 200
metres.
The police officer was fortunate not to have sustained
serious
injuries, the radio report said.
Ordered to stop up loopholes
in the smuggling of precious metals
and minerals, police in November launched
Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera (no illegal panning).
More than 19,000
people have so far been arrested for illegal
mining and smuggling.
©
2006 - dpa German Press Agency
By Lance Guma
08
January 2007
In a country struggling to cope with a critical shortage of
foreign
currency, the importation of a luxury car costing US$365 000 by the
reserve
bank governor of all people, has set tongues wagging. A few months
after
telling Zimbabweans he is yet to receive a salary from the Reserve
Bank,
Gideon Gono is reported to have taken delivery of the latest and
probably
fastest road legal sedan in the world. His Mercedes Brabus E-class
V12
Bi-turbo was imported directly from Germany. According to the weekly
Standard newspaper, 'the importation of the luxurious vehicle has infuriated
many workers at RBZ who were denied annual bonuses last November by Gono on
the grounds the bank did not have the money.'
The paper says there was a
virtual stampede at the bank offices in Harare as
workers tried to get to
the basement of the 23-storey building. The governor
is said to have ordered
the removal of the car from the parking bay
following the commotion. It's
not yet clear whether Gono has used the bank's
or his own personal money to
finance the purchase. What is clear though is
that even by the extravagant
standards of Zimbabwe's elite, the Brabus is a
bit too expensive. The car
set a new world record during the Auto Motor und
Sport magazine high-speed
tests in Nardo, Italy. The car is recorded in the
Guinness Book of World
Records as the "World's fastest sedan" with an
electronically limited top
speed of 330 kilometres per hour.
Critics have pointed to the purchase as
demonstrating how Zimbabwe's elite
operates in spite of the poverty
surrounding them. The scarce foreign
currency, they say, could have
purchased medicines and much needed hospital
equipment for example. Motoring
enthusiast and broadcaster John Matinde told
Newsreel, tongue in cheek, that
the car was probably the ideal machine 'for
Gono to watch starving peasants
from.' He pointed to the fact the governor
was not likely to enjoy the car's
top speeds given the state of roads in
Zimbabwe. 'People who buy that car,'
Matinde added, 'might as well purchase
a fuel station,' since it is a fuel
guzzler. Commenting on the US$365 000
price tag, he felt the money could
have helped build 'a couple of hospitals.'
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
By Tichaona
Sibanda
8 January 2007
A stalemate between government and private
schools over school fees will see
many primary and High schools in the
country going into voluntary
liquidation as they will certainly run out of
money before the end of the
first term, analysts warned on
Monday.
With the 2007 school term starting on Tuesday most private
schools could be
the first casualties of the determined policy by the
Ministry of Education
this year to limit school fees to levels well below
half their budgeted
costs.
Recently government appealed against a
High court ruling prohibiting it from
setting tuition for private schools
that fall under the Association of Trust
Schools. The High Court ordered
Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere in
November last year to stop
interfering with private schools in the setting
of tuition
fees.
Private schools are in favour of charging fees ranging between
Z$1,2 million
and Z$2 million but government wants the fees to be just above
Z$ 300 000.
Jameson Timbe, chairman of the Association of Trust Schools,
has repeatedly
pointed out that private schools do not make any profits nor
pay any
dividends. In recent years they have been budgeting very tightly
since any
surpluses or reserves would be eroded rapidly by
inflation.
Private schools traditionally offer parents smaller classes
for their
children. This drives up the staff costs and a wide range of extra
activities. The small classes, the high ratio of experienced teachers, and
the extra activities, which also involve extra staff, are what attracted
most parents to select such schools for their children.
Bongani
Nyathi, secretary-general of the Progress Teachers of Zimbabwe, an
international affiliate of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said
government is being unrealistic in blocking the school fees
hike.
'Every parent has a right to give his child good education, if
ministers
send their children overseas for the best education why not let
those in
Zimbabwe send their children to the best schools that they can
afford in the
country,' said Nyathi.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By
Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 01/09/2007 02:05:11
GIDEON Gono, the central
bank governor, cuts a lonely figure at the moment
in a country where
unresolved political issues have taken centre stage at
the expense of other
facets of life.
In a fortnight, Gono is expected to unveil his Monetary
Policy statement for
the first quarter as the economy rapidly slides into an
abyss.
What makes Gono's job interesting is the fact that he has shown
courage in
the face of a building political storm -- from both Zanu PF and
the MDC.
"I am not a chicken. Being in this job requires a strong nerve.
You talk of
me eyeing political positions, that is not true. There is no hot
seat bigger
than mine at the moment," he said last year.
But against
a background of a collapsed currency, galloping inflation and
negative
economic growth, Gono faces enormous challenges to turn around the
economy
and silence his growing army of critics.
Zanu PF officials -- themselves
blamed for the current economic morass,
political and social upheaval
Zimbabwe is currently going through -- have
perhaps been Gono's biggest
critics.
The ruling party, itself besieged with internal strife, sees
Gono as the man
who is destroying the economy through lopsided
policies.
At its All People's Conference, it laid the blame on the
central bank chief
who has had public spats with Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa over
unbudgeted expenditure.
"Whatever Gono does, he has to
get the confidence of the people. There
are not very many things he can do at
the moment. He can have the right
policies economically, but they need to be
backed by a good (political)
environment," said Economist John
Robertson.
"At the moment you need a political decision that can work.
It's not an
economic decision. What's required is to have the confidence to
say let's go
back to commercial farmers and commercial farms," Robertson
said.
He said Zanu PF had no ideas on the economy and its attack on Gono
over his
policies was a sign that it is misinformed.
Said
Robertson:"Zanu PF is basically misinformed. It does not understand
what
is needed. Economic policies are supposed to work irrespective of
the
quality of
politicians or politics. Nothing can work when under this
very suppressive
political environment."
While knives are rattling in
the background for Gono within Zanu PF where
some officials see him as
politically ambitious, inflation and the exchange
rate present the central
bank boss with headaches.
When he took office in December 2003, Gono
halted the galloping inflation
which stood above 600 percent to close at
around 220 percent in his first
year in office.
But despite his well
publicised and televised monetary statements, Gono has
been forced to admit
that inflation remains the number one enemy.
Analysts say he has to
tackle inflation by moving the exchange rate at the
same level at which
inflation is peaking.
The local unit is currently pegged at 250 against
the US dollar and 475
against the British pound, yet at the thriving
parallel market rate, the
dollar is trading at 3000 and the sterling at
5000.
"Gono has to push the exchange rate to 1000 as a matter of urgency.
Thereafter
he can adjust the rate of the dollar at the same rate with
inflation," said
Robertson.
Robertson said in fact, Gono needs to
increase the interests rates to match
inflation.
"Interest rates must
move at the same rate as the rate of inflation. While
you say they are high,
they are actually low. They must be above 1000,"
Robertson
said.
Banks have complained that the interest rate regime is suffocating
them and
many might close in future if Gono does not revise the interest
rates. At
present, interests rates range between 300 percent and 500 percent
but the
distressed manufacturing companies are not able to borrow given the
punitive
rates on repayments.
Gono's eagerly awaited Monetary Policy
statement comes against a background
of soaring prices of basic commodities
as a result of the cost of borrowing
and
damaging black market foreign
currency rates.
Companies, especially the manufacturing sector which
opens next week, buys
its foreign currency on the parallel market for its
raw material and
transfers the
costs to consumers.
The Pricing
Commission, given the current malaise, does not function
effectively,
therefore Gono, in whatever he does, needs to look at
incentives for price
stability.
"Failure is not an option," is Gono favourite statement. Will
he live up to
it this time?
The vultures have been circling and
towering over him for two years now.
Gono
is viewed by Zanu PF
politicians as a man who is using his closeness to
Robert Mugabe to power
himself to Presidency. He rejects that he has any
political
ambitions.
The MDC views him as an overly ambitious man whose
relationship with the
media, has seen his failures being ignored at the
expense of cheap
publicity.
But others view Gono as a committed man
who has worked tirelessly in an
environment where politicians maximise on
their wealth at the expense of the
electorate.
The central bank chief
has on two occasions struck right cords with the
people.
He prolonged
the use of bearer cheques before phasing some of them out in
July
last
year. When he introduced new notes during the currency revaluation
exercise,
some labelled him a hero with the slogan From Zero to Hero printed
on high
street T-Shirts.
But will Gono rise to the expectations or this time he
will simply baulk and
collapse under a weight of expectations? Two weeks is
not far away!
The Local, Sweden
Published: 8th January 2007 12:00 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/6022/
How
many people are publicly employed in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Swedish Radio reported recently that foreign aid agency SIDA has spent 22
million kronor on finding an answer to this question. SIDA has not clarified
what this large sum of money has been spent on in one of the most corrupt
countries in Africa.
A total of 15 million kronor has been spent on
consulting fees in the
project, but no information has been given regarding
how many consultants
were hired and how this sum was
calculated.
This is, alas, not the only example of large sums
being wasted on foreign
aid. As foreign aid has been an integral part of the
economy of many African
countries, many nations in the region have been
accused of developing
so-called "vampire states". This term is used to
describe regimes that
literally live of the misery of their
inhabitants.
African head of states such as Jean-Bédel Bokassa in Central
Africa, Mobutu
Sese Seko in Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as
Zaire), Idi Amin in
Uganda and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe have all become
infamous for amassing
large private fortunes through exploiting their
countries. But these
individuals only represent the top of an iceberg of
corruption that
underlies many African states.
The generous foreign
aid policies of the western world worsen this problem,
since much of the
money that the corrupt bureaucracy feeds on comes directly
from aid. In a
similar way a large aid industry has been created in the
western world,
where tens of thousands of government officials and even more
people in aid
organizations are making a living out of the aid industry.
Those working
in the western aid industry are of course not as corrupt as
African aid
officials, but they still represent how the self interest of
those working
with aid has become an integral part of the foreign aid
industry.
Today when both the UN and the center-right government of
Sweden are calling
for more foreign aid, it is time to question the very
practice of foreign
aid. After the Second World War both South Eastern Asia
and Africa were
among the poorest regions in the world. Since then, African
countries have
relied heavily on foreign aid, socialism and state control of
the economy.
Since 1970 Africa has received over $400 million in aid. But
the foreign aid
has done little to reduce poverty. Rather, Africa has simply
stagnated.
The countries of South Eastern Asia have had a different kind
of political
development, where they have made free market reforms and not
relied as much
on foreign aid. By implementing property rights, allowing
people to start
businesses and maintaining the rule of law countries such as
South Korea,
Taiwan and Singapore have achieved great prosperity.
An
illustrative example is that South Korea was about twice as rich as
Zambia
in 1960. Since then Zambia has received 13 times more in foreign aid
per
capita compared to South Korea. Today however, South Korea is fully 38
times
richer than Zambia.
Many people simply see foreign aid as a way of being
kind to the poor, but
as history has shown us this policy often stands in
the way of economic
development rather than promoting it.
Here in
Sweden, we must not only put more pressure on SIDA to ensure that
the aid
does not simply feed corruption, but also ask ourselves if the
foreign aid
policies are helping at all. After decades spent hoping that
foreign aid
would lift Africa out of poverty perhaps it is time to end
aid-dependence
and attempt to persuade African nations to implement free
market reforms
similar to those in South Eastern Asia.
The Herald
(Harare)
January 8, 2007
Posted to the web January 8,
2007
Beitbridge Bureau
Harare
BEITBRIDGE District Hospital has
been hit by a serious shortage of drip and
5ml syringes forcing patients to
buy them from local pharmacies and
surgeries.
Sources within the
hospital last week said that the problem intensified late
November last
year.
The shortage has now forced patients to buy drips, which are
going for
between $15 000 and $20 000 a litre, from private
surgeries.
"The problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible since
we are now in
the rainy season where most people are affected by diarrhoea.
They would
need supplementary fluids," said one source.
A senior
official at the hospital said that their supplier was failing to
meet the
demand.
"It's only that the supplier is not giving us enough, otherwise
we normally
have enough in our stocks," said the official who was, however,
optimistic
that they would get their consignments in the next few
weeks.
Shortages at the hospital persist despite regular donation of
medical kits
by World Vision Zimbabwe.
Two lessons from my youth may be of use in
describing what is happening to
Zanu PF at this time. The first is what I
call the "Chicken Treatment". When
you have a dog that insists on attacking
the chickens and will not learn not
to in any other way, you can tie a dead
chicken (preferably of the dogs own
making) around its neck and leave it
there for a week or two.
The dog will soon be irritated by the carcass
and then will become quite
agitated - throwing its head from side to side as
it tries to get rid of the
thing around its neck - to no avail. When it
starts to stink it will become
quite frantic and when finally the chicken is
removed, the dog will run from
the carcass if it is shown to it. This is a
very effective treatment for
delinquent dogs.
The economy performs
such a role in Zimbabwe today. Zanu PF has been grossly
delinquent and in the
process has killed what was once a vibrant and
diversified economy. Today the
carcass of the economy is firmly tied around
its neck and do what it may; it
will not be able to throw it off. I think we
are into the third phase of this
particular exercise - panic and severe
distress.
The other lesson I
was taught as a child growing up in the eastern Matopo
hills was how to catch
a baboon. Each school holiday, it was my job to shoot
baboons raiding our
crops and to try and keep them away. Let me tell you
that is quite a task -
they are so skilled in watching out for threats of
any kind! Once you had got
in one shot, you never got another shot at them -
they would watch out for me
and stay well out of range. Even if the guards
and myself dressed in woman's
clothes they could tell the difference
immediately and scarper out of
sight.
So one day we put a few maize cobs in a drum with a small hole cut
in the
top. Baboons are very inquisitive and when the drum was placed in a
location
near the lands, they could not stay away. After a day or two, one of
the
more adventurous would stop, turn the drum over and then look inside.
The
smell of the maize plus the sight of those cobs would simply be too
much.
The baboon would reach in and grab a cob. Then they would discover that
they
could not take their hand out of the drum without losing their
loot!.
No matter what the threat - that baboon could then be approached
on foot and
captured because the drum was securely tied to a tree and they
would not let
go of the cob. We could then do what we wanted with the baboon.
On one
occasion we painted the animal with white enamel paint and when it was
dry,
let it go. She ran after her retreating troop who saw this apparition
coming
and simply took off in terror. We never did find out if she managed
to
persuade the troop that she was who she said she was, but the guards
nearly
died laughing.
Zanu PF chefs are similar to that poor baboon -
they see the goodies that
are lying around and they cannot help but grab what
they can. Such goodies
are tied to various things and these ties cannot be
hidden - so when Gideon
Gono goes out and buys a US$365 000 Mercedes Benz he
cannot hide the
acquisition - he also cannot let it go and it will eventually
lead to his
capture and humiliation. It is the same with assets that do not
belong to
those who have taken them from their rightful owners. When the time
comes we
will be able to identify the culprits quite easily. Painting them
and
letting them loose also sounds like a good idea! I am sure they will
also
find their erstwhile colleagues decidedly reluctant to be seen in
public
with those so identified and humiliated!
So the carcass of the
economy continues to rot around Zanu's neck. This week
we experienced the one
crisis I never thought we would ever see - we ran out
of maize meal. People
have stocks at home and we are getting in green maize,
but a severe shortage
of maize meal is the stuff that starts a revolution.
By my calculations
prices have doubled in the past six weeks - I saw an
estimate by the IMF in
Washington that they expect inflation to top 5 000
percent - under those
circumstances prices will double every week. When that
happens Zanu is going
to be one very unhappy dog.
But for all of that, the country is simply
glowing. I have not seen the bush
in such good shape for many years - a
combination of last season's rains and
this years early rains even if they
have not been adequate enough for crops.
The trees are in fine shape and the
flowering trees and shrubs just superb.
It has been, so far a superb cattle
season, dry but with enough rain to
bring up the grass and keep it
growing.
Here in Bulawayo the main problem is water. We are now down to
about 8
months supply at rationed levels and have had virtually no inflows to
our
dams. We need heavy rain to rectify this, as two of the five supply dams
are
empty. The government has been warned. Last year the City Council
asked
government to declare the City a water emergency area but this was
denied.
If the season carries on like this we could actually run out of
water
altogether. Right now the City is unable to deliver water to housing on
the
outskirts of the City where tankers and boreholes are the main source
of
water until the supplies recover.
Tomorrow firms start to reopen -
most factories will not open until the 15th
or later. When they do, they will
be faced with a very different situation
to the one they experienced in
December. Inflation is sharply higher,
shortages of just about everything are
more severe, electricity and coal
supplies are erratic and the exchange rate
regime is simply disastrous. If
we assume that the real exchange rate should
be somewhere in the range of
the parallel market then the Rand is trading at
400 to 1, the USD about 2
800 to 3 000 and the pound is nearly 5 000 to 1.
The official exchange rate
remains fixed at 250 to 1 against the USD. At this
rate the "tax" on
exporters is about Z$1 375 trillion, or greater than the
total value of all
other tax revenues to the State (and we have one of the
highest tax rates in
the world).
We will need all our ingenuity to
stay afloat in this climate. I hear that
another monetary statement by Gono
is about due - talk is of a new currency,
another slashing of zeros and an
attempt to control both wages and prices.
This will not only be a completely
futile exercise but will do more damage
to the economy. Still at least that
is not tied around the neck of the MDC -
it is Zanu who will have to deal
with that while the rest of us just learn
to hold our noses when those Chefs
fly by in their toys tied to trees that
will eventually halt their progress
and lead to their capture and
humiliation.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo,
7th January 2007
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 8 Jan
2007 (IRIN) - There are renewed fears that the Zimbabwean
government is
intensifying its campaign against the few remaining privately
owned media
organisations in the wake of severe press criticisms of its
human rights
violations, a dismal economic record and President Robert
Mugabe's plans to
extend his stay in power by another two years.
The government has
stripped newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube of his
Zimbabwean citizenship on
the grounds that he is Zambian, as his father was
born there and later
emigrated to Zimbabwe.
Media analysts told IRIN the Zimbabwean government
allegedly wanted to use
the citizenship issue as a means of closing down
Ncube's two Zimbabwean
newspapers or hand them to pro-government
individuals. "As a media owner in
Zimbabwe, you have to be a Zimbabwean
citizen; if you are not, you cannot
own more than 40 percent of a media
company," Ncube said.
According to the analysts, stripping Ncube of his
citizenship could force
the country's two remaining independent weekly
newspapers, which Ncube
publishes, The Standard and The Zimbabwe
Independent, a business
publication, to close, or enable the authorities to
hand control of the
newspapers to people sympathetic to the ruling ZANU-PF
party. Ncube also
publishes the South African weekly newspaper, The Mail
& Guardian.
Zimbabwe is home to the descendants of tens of thousands
of Zambians,
Malawians and Mozambicans who arrived in the country in the
mid-1950s as
migrant labourers during the British colonial Federation of
Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and
Nyasaland (now
Malawi), to work on farms and mines.
The government
contends that Ncube should have renounced his Zambian
citizenship and
"regularised" his Zimbabwean status in 2001 after the
Citizenship Act came
into force, barring dual citizenship.
Ncube, a Zimbabwean passport
holder, is contesting the removal of his
citizenship in the High Court, and
said he knows no home other than Zimbabwe
and all his actions were in
accordance with the new citizenship law.
"I took an oath before a
citizenship officer - that was three years ago. At
the end of the day, one
is puzzled and I don't understand what is going on,
and that is when
conspiracy theories set in," Ncube told the Mail &
Guardian.
"There is no entitlement on my part to Zambian citizenship
merely because my
father was born there," Ncube said in court papers. "He
was a citizen of
Zimbabwe at the time of my birth, as will appear from his
national
registration in Zimbabwe."
A high court judge issued an
order against the state in 2006, requiring it
to render null and void the
invalidation and withdrawal of Ncube's passport.
In 2003 Zimbabwe's Media
and Information Commission (MIC) banned the
country's largest selling
newspaper, The Daily News, and its sister
publication, The Daily News on
Sunday, and in 2004 shut down independent
newspapers The Tribune and The
Weekly Times, which were also seen as
critical of government
policies.
The government has also used other avenues to muzzle dissenting
media: The
Daily Mirror, a privately owned newspaper, was taken over by the
Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO), part of the state security service,
while
the Financial Gazette, another weekly newspaper, was also bought out
by the
CIO.
Joy TV, the country's only independent television
station, had its licence
withdrawn; radio station Voice of The People had
its premises bombed by
unknown assailants and Capital Radio was
banned.
The MIC also recently hiked newspaper registration charges, which
could
force the few remaining community newspapers to close if they cannot
afford
the fees, media analysts said, and is also threatening to withdraw
the
accreditation of freelance journalist Nunurai Jena on the suspicion that
he
might be working for Voice of America, the US-based radio and TV
broadcaster, which the authorities have called an anti-government
organisation.
The action against the publisher has provoked
condemnation by The Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists (ZUJ), The World
Association of Newspapers, the World
Editors Forum, the Freedom of
Expression Institute and the International
Press Institute.
"What
this will do is to bring focus on Zimbabwe again on the issue of press
freedom. The government is always complaining about negative publicity, and
such developments will certainly bring the spotlight on Zimbabwe," said ZUJ
president Matthew Takaona.
Tafataona Mahoso, chairman of the MIC,
which been instrumental in the
closure of independent media organisations,
denied that stripping Ncube of
his citizenship would culminate in the
closure or seizure of his newspaper
interests.
"The MIC learned of
Ncube's difficulties from the press and has never in any
way been party to
this case. We wonder why the publisher [Ncube] would
choose to instigate
such a campaign of vilification against the MIC and the
nation," Mahoso said
in a statement.
However, the author of a column published in the
state-controlled newspaper,
The Herald, thought to be a senior government
official, signed off by
saying, "Trevor [Ncube], best wishes for 2007, the
year of closure."
By Violet Gonda
8 January
2007
Newspaper tycoon Trevor Ncube has been rendered stateless as a
result of
"backward citizenship" laws in Zimbabwe. The authorities in
Zimbabwe have
refused to renew his passport and stripped him of his
citizenship on the
grounds that his father was born in Zambia. Ncube told SW
Radio Africa that
this was done despite the fact that he had renounced his
father's Zambian
citizenship and taken an oath to become a Zimbabwean
citizen.
He said when he tried to complete the process to renew his
passport he was
told that the Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede had taken
over the case. The
latest action by the authorities means at present Ncube
is neither a citizen
of Zimbabwe nor Zambia.
The publisher of the
Mail & Guardian in South Africa and the Zimbabwe
Independent and The
Standard newspapers said; "In October last year I went
to the Zambian
embassy in Harare and I paid to have the so-called
renunciation done. I did
that process which I hated - I didn't like it
because I really think it's
un-necessary."
Although Ncube was born in Zimbabwe, the authorities say
he is a Zambian
citizen by descent. They claim he did not renounce his
Zambian citizenship
as required by law. But the publisher said when he took
his papers to the
authorities he was told the Registrar General would be
handling his case. "I
have renounced my so-called Zambian citizenship now
Tobaiwa Mudede is taking
away my citizenship. As I am speaking to you, you
are absolutely right - I
am stateless, and it's so unfair to be put in the
situation that I am being
put through. What for?"
Ncube believes he
is being denied his birthright and that there are people
in the system who
see him as a stumbling block to what they are trying to
do. The publisher
said this is basically to close down the little democratic
space that is
still being offered by the Zimbabwe Independent and Standard
newspapers.
Although state media reported the government-appointed
Media and Information
Commission will not close down his newspapers on the
grounds of his
citizenship status, Ncube said the intention is to harass,
intimidate and
terrify him.
His newspapers have been exposing the
Mugabe regime. It was his papers that
disclosed that state agents were
involved in the purchase of the weekly
Financial Gazette and papers owned by
another publisher Ibbo Mandaza.
Recently the papers were also in the
forefront of exposing corruption
involving senior government officials at
ZISCO. Ncube said; "It is these
kinds of issues that the authorities in
Zimbabwe wish were not published. As
a result they see me as a the person
responsible for these things.this is an
attempt in my view to soften
me."
Analysts say what this actually does is expose the backward
citizenship laws
in Zimbabwe that are primitive and need a major overhaul.
Ncube said the act
was introduced to disenfranchise farm labourers during
the run-up to the
2002 elections. He said they were seen as MDC supporters
and found as an
easy target because the majority of them had parents from
Mozambique, Zambia
and Malawi.
It is also reported that the law was
introduced in order to target white
children. Whites are seen as foreigners
by descent and the law would make it
easier for the regime to deny them
citizenship. The same law has seen human
rights campaigner Judith Todd being
stripped of her citizenship. It is now
being used to abuse and target
perceived enemies of the Mugabe regime.
Ncube added; "We are very
backward looking in this generation where
citizenship is used to enhance the
skills base of a country. This is a very
retrogressive what we are doing as
Zimbabweans."
We could not get a comment from the Registrar General's
office.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By
Jethro Mpofu
Last updated: 01/08/2007 23:26:50
THERE is dangerous
imaginism and pathetic wishful thinking circulating among
top perpetrators
of Gukurahundi who are currently leading Zanu(PF).
The guilty clique
imagines and wishes that the genocide that left more than
twenty thousand
civilians dead in Matabeleland will be forgiven and
forgotten, buried under
a huge mountain of imagined and false national
unity.
This is not
only unfortunate, it is also an embarrassing exhibition of
naivety coming
from experienced politicians.
In this short contribution, I propose to
state why the genocide, nicknamed
Gukurahundi to conceal its real anatomy
and content as mass murder and
genocide, will not be forgiven or forgotten
either by the victims or by all
men and women in the globe who oppose crimes
against humanity.
Gukurahundi will not be forgiven because the
perpetrators have not
apologised or shown any remorse.
Instead, they
have displayed arrogance and defensiveness that stinks to high
heaven.
Recently, Nathan Shamuyarira, a seasoned politician and spokesperson
for the
ruling clique, indicated that government does not regret the
genocide, since
it was an operation meant to protect Shona-speaking
civilians from the
Ndebeles.
Such a defence of the genocide, coming from such a powerful
politician in
the ruling clique, is clear in its implication that the
genocide was an
operation that the perpetrators can repeat any time. They
have no single
measure of regret.
Gukurahundi will not be forgotten
because the victims of the genocide are
still suffering the effects of the
mass human slaughter. In Matabeleland
today, there are hundreds of thousands
of young people who have failed to
attend school or get formal employment,
because they have no birth
certificates and no national registration cards,
as a result of their
parents being killed and buried without burial orders
and death certificates
during the period of the massacres.
These
young people have no passports and can never get passports, so they
cross
the Limpopo river, daily, challenging crocodiles, some of them being
killed,
as they go seeking general hand employment in South Africa. These
victims of
the genocide amount to more than two million Zimbabweans,
surviving as
undeclared economic refugees in South Africa.
There are also men and
women from Zipra, the armed wing of Zapu, who today
have still not enjoyed
the promotions and recognition for their contribution
to the liberation
struggle. Most senior positions in the army, police and
intelligence are
occupied by Zanla cadres, most of whom are being rewarded
for their
contribution to Gukurahundi, rather than to the liberation
struggle. These
men and women from Zipra are humiliated and frustrated by
attempts to erase
their contribution to the liberation of Zimbabwe from the
history of the
country.
Gukurahundi will also not be forgiven or forgotten because it
was not a
political accident, but a properly planned military incident. A
reading of
the primitive fourteen page tribal manifesto, authored by the
ruling clique,
explains how it was planned, how the Ndebele people were to
be marginalised
and expelled from Zimbabwean mainstream economic and
political life.
In Lupane recently, President Mugabe announced that he
was "angry" because
Lupane was developing at such a slow pace. He made the
same remarks earlier
last year when he visited Beitbridge, the border town
that, despite being
the corridor of massive trade between South African and
Zimbabwe, bringing
in billions of foreign currency, remains a dusty, dirty
growth point. It is
surprising that Mugabe is only now discovering that
development in
Matabeleland is moving at a snail's pace. In fact it is
surprising that the
President is surprised, since he is the one who has been
presiding over the
underdevelopment of the region.
In fact,
economically and developmentally speaking, Gukurahundi will not be
forgiven
or forgotten in Matabeleland because it still continues to this
day. As I
write, the entire population of Bulawayo is faced with a
disastrous and life
threatening water shortage. Last year, the city nearly
came to a standstill
as residents and industry, including hospitals, ran out
of water. Yet,
before every election, the President issues lyrical promises
of water to
come from the
Zambezi. It has been promises, and pledge after pledge to
develop the
region, but quietly the fourteen page tribal manual is
implemented to the
last word.
The economic, social and developmental
manifestation of Gukurahundi
continues unhindered largely because
Matabeleland has no leaders. The region
has become a sad political orphanage
since the passing away of Zapu. The few
former Zapu leaders who are in Zanu
PF have been reduced to Robert Mugabe's
prefects; they are there to silence
the people on behalf of Mugabe. They
conduct themselves like colonial
constables, whose brief is to represent
Mugabe in Matabeleland, rather than
to represent Matabeleland in government.
One of them was actually
recorded on Independence Day, 2006, making claims
that it is false to say
that Matabeleland is underdeveloped. The reason why
most of them remain in
government only as appointees rather than as elected
representatives, is
that the people of Matabeleland will not forgive them,
or vote for them.
Their only reason for remaining in government is "to
consolidate the unity
accord" and nothing else.
In fact, the so-called unity accord, which the
late Joshua Nkomo entered
into to save the lives of innocent civilians, has
been used to blackmail the
victims of Gukurahundi into silence. The
perpetrators of the genocide
mistake this silence for peace and calm. The
long and many speeches about
"our national unity" and the "peace" that we
must preserve at all costs, are
nothing but political gimmicks aimed at
calming and silencing the victims of
Gukurahundi,
while the fourteen-page
hatred plan is implemented.
It is not surprising that the perpetrators of
Gukurahundi are so eloquent
and poetic about how "old wounds should not be
opened", and how we should
"treasure our national unity". The victims have
been silent and absent. The
disciples of the fourteen-page manual are not
worried about the economic
refugees in South Africa. They are not worried
about the thirst and poverty
of the victims in Matabeleland, or imbalances
in the sharing of the national
cake. What they are worried about are "the
wounds" which must not be opened.
It is as true in reality as it is in
the proverb: "It is the axe that
forgets what it has done, but the tree that
has been cut does not forget"
It is wishful thinking, and amazing
imaginism coming from Zanu PF circles,
that Gukurahundi will ever be
forgiven or forgotten, hidden like an
embarrassing national family secret,
and not to be discussed or debated. The
truth is that, for the victims,
Gukurahundi is not a memory, but sill a
present reality, and that the much
wanted project of national unity will
never get started until a solution to
Gukurahundi becomes a reality.
Jethro Mpfou is a Bulawayo-based political
activist. Contact him at:
zululizayo@yahoo.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
08 January 2007
The minister for local government
Ignatius Chombo is facing strong
resistance from the owners of minibus
transport services who have continued
to charge Z$700 per trip after he
ordered them to reduce it to Z$400 per
trip last week. Appearing on state
television last Thursday, Chombo
threatened to revoke the permits of those
who do not comply.
But the operators say they cannot afford to reduce their
fares due to the
high cost of fuel on the black market. They also insist
they are still
charging fares below the Z$800 per trip maximum stipulated by
Chombo himself
when he issued them permits.
According to our Harare
correspondent Simon Muchemwa, who spoke to members
of the Omnibus Operators
Association, the government is failing to provide
them with enough
subsidised fuel as promised. He said much of the available
supplies are
being given to government officials and influential ruling
party members.
Muchemwa was told that operators are lucky to get 20 litres
per month. The
rest is sourced on the black market for an inflated price of
Z$3,500 per
litre. To make any profit operators must charge the minimum
Z$700 per trip
for the 20-25 kilometres to most high-density suburbs.
Muchemwa said
residents to Kuwadzana, Glen View, Budiriro and Glen Norah are
paying Z$700
per trip. Chombo issued permits to operators who service these
areas
limiting them to a maximum Z$800 per trip. In this regard, the
operators say
they are still within the specified limits. But according to
Muchemwa,
Chombo threatened them in his television address. He said he would
issue
orders to the police to arrest any operators who are overcharging.
Fuel
is expensive because it can only be bought in foreign currency which is
in
extremely short supply. Muchemwa said the filling stations were given
permission to source foreign currency from the black market by the Reserve
Bank Of Zimbabwe. Offices for forex dealers were opened at some filling
stations to facilitate this process. The filling stations in turn charge
highly inflated prices to make up for the forex rates they are facing. And
this is passed on to the omnibus operators who determine fares for each
trip.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By Jethro
Mpofu
Last updated: 01/09/2007 03:37:12
"WHEN a man must fall", the
Nigerians say, "he must fall where his pieces
can be picked up."
This
Nigerian piece of wisdom is pregnant with poignant lessons for
President
Robert Mugabe vis-a-vis the troubled Zimbabwean economic and
political
condition that is a pricky thorn in the global flesh.
The naked truth is
that President Mugabe is a tired man. It is also true
that he is a worried
man. Even truer is the fact that as Enos Nkala, a
former friend of his once
said, he is "a terrified man."
There is a whole world of Gukurahundi
wounds, mass graves, and angry
survivors behind the President. There is an
economy in an advanced stage of
decomposition. Victims of Murambatsvina, a
poorly paid civil service
community, making a nation specifically hungry for
political and economic
change.
The President of Zimbabwe through his
own political miscalculations and
economic blunders is between a rock and a
hard place. The president is also
a sorry victim of lies and flattery. His
apologists have lied to him, they
have compared him to Jesus the son of God.
They have misled him. They have
told him that if he leaves office Zimbabwe
will die, hence, the president
mistakenly believes that his continued stay
as the President of Zimbabwe,
let alone the leader of Zanu PF is patriotic
service to Zimbabwe, when
infact the opposite is true.
I seek, in
this short contribution to forward an argument that Mugabe and
his few but
powerful backers still have a chance to abandon any ambitions
and intentions
for a life presidency for Mugabe and save Zimbabwe a lot of
disorder and
unnecessary suffering. Even more importantly, they can still
save Mugabe
himself the embarrassment and the very bitter inconvenience of
the
consequences of over stretching the patience of the stoic Zimbabweans.
And
maybe, by a very miraculous possibility, maybe, Mugabe will still be
afforded that respect which is afforded a repentant and apologetic former
dictator.
It is clear to everyone that a big part of the reason why
Mugabe is not
willing to leave office that easily and normally is his strong
wish to cling
to the legal immunity from prosecution that goes with the
office of the
president in a country like Zimbabwe. Also, the few but
powerful backers
that Mugabe still retains are people who share with him the
guilt of such
grave human rights offences like Gukurahundi genocide among
many others. At
the end of the day, Zimbabweans are at the mercy of a club
of guilty human
rights abuse perpetrators who will do all they can to escape
prosecution and
all other consequences that follow those who have murdered,
stolen and
massacred in todays' world.
Enos Nkala a close ally of
Mugabe during the Gukurahundi genocide period,
recently and also ironically
accused Zimbabweans of cowardice for failing to
stand up to Mugabe's
dictatorship. Nkala literally shouted at the patient
and enduring Zimbabwean
population for being sheepish and docile in the face
of rabid abuse by the
Mugabe regime. Nkala ended his shouting by announcing
that he is writing a
tell-all-book that he prefers will be published only
when he is
"gone."
This really confirms that Enos himself is a true Zimbabwean, a
coward who
prefers that his disclosures about Gukurahundi be published only
when he is
safe in the comfort and immunity of his grave. Anyway, Enos
Nkala's wish to
have the truth told when he is dead tells us a lot about the
behaviour and
intentions of all perpetrators of Gukurahundi that he was
working with. They
are doing everything possible, pulling all constitutional
strings and
political machinations to buy time until they die, so that they
escape
justice. Zimbabweans are indeed in the hands of the proverbial guilty
who
flee when no-one persues, or those who flee when no-one has started
pursuing.
In light of this, it is not only ordinary Zimbabweans who
need to be
liberated from the yoke of their oppressers and abusers. It is
not only
ordinary Zimbabweans who are troubled and worried. It is clear. The
troublers of Zimbabwe, those who have turned a golden economy into a coal
economy, those who have murdered and plundered need to be liberated from
their unfortunate condition and position.
In fact, Frantz Fanon, in
his useful book, "The Wretched of the Earth"
actually stated it that when
the oppressed free themselves from their
position of the oppressed, they
also free the oppressors from their position
of being oppressors. In short,
Zimbabweans of all shreds in the opposition
and within the ruling Zanu PF
must help Mugabe and his regime to retire,
otherwise to expect them to free
themselves and to negotiate themselves out
of power is to expect the
impossible. It is as good as to expect, as the
Nigerians say, "a mouth to
eat itself."
What is even more depressing and unfortunate is the fact
that everyone in
Zanu PF now ordinarily stands accused of bringing Zimbabwe
down economically
and otherwise. Yet , in reality, whether we like it or
not, there are men
and women in Zanu PF who do not only wish Zimbabwe well,
but have been and
are willing to join hands with all the others, in the
opposition and beyond
who will in word and indeed save Zimbabwe from
Mugabeism and its backers. In
fact, Enos Nkala, actually disclosed recently
that Mugabe does not run
Zimbabwe through Zanu PF structures of the central
committee, the politburo
or any organ, but, he said, Mugabe works with a
secret "Zezuru group" called
the "group of 26."
A tribal Ku Klax Klan
clique whose intention is to sustain and ensure Zezuru
rulership and
dominance in Zimbabwe's economic and political affairs. What
this means is
that some men and women in Zanu PF have been and are still
following blindly
as Mugabe and his G26 pursue their interests, interests
which are not
necessarily Zimbabwean. So, in truth all sons and daughters of
Zimbabwe have
a role to play in the new liberation struggle of recovering
Zimbabwe from
Mugabeists.
It is my humble prayer that in one of these Zimbabwean days,
Zimbabweans in
the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, Zimbabweans in the
Mutambara-led MDC,
Zimbabweans in the UPM, in the UPP, in the DP and other
political gatherings
will realise that they have that historical job to do.
To unite with all
other Zimbabweans, including a revolutionary remnant from
Zanu PF and come
up with a no-nonsense pro-Zimbabwe motion that will once
again restore
Zimbabwe to the international community, put Mugabeism to rest
and start the
task of building Zimbabwe.
Organisations like the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Women of
Zimbabwe Arise, Christian
Alliance, Zimbabwe National Students Union,
Progressive Teachers Union,
Bulawayo Dialogue, Bulawayo Agenda and many
other platforms of struggle in
Zimbabwe must be aware that this is the time
for a revolutionary conspiracy
in Zimbabwe, where all forces must join hands
in a motion that will usher in
a new political, economic and constitutional
order in
Zimbabwe.
Jethro Mpofu is a former University of Zimbabwe students leader
and
political activist, he writes from Bulawayo. Contact him at:
Zululizayo@yahoo.com
Toledo Blade
Article published Monday, January 8, 2007
I am an American living in Zimbabwe and I thank
you for your New Year's Eve
editorial on Zimbabwe.
You describe well
the impact of Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule
with one
exception: the implication that the majority Shona population
constitutes a
support base for Mr. Mugabe ("An opposition confronts him
internally, but it
has no chance against the army and the Shona majority,
which accounts for 80
percent of the population.").
The Shona majority in the country has been
as victimized, impoverished, and
brutalized by the Mugabe regime as other
ethnic groups.
The fact that 3 million Zimbabweans - a quarter or more of
the population
and a majority undoubtedly Shona - have fled the country over
the past six
or seven years is proof of this fact.
The frequent
well-documented incidents of government-organized violence and
torture
perpetrated against human rights defenders and the general
population
(Shona, Ndebele, of European and Asian descent, and other
ethnicities) is
further evidence.
K. Sturr
Harare, Zimbabwe
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 7 January
The first days of 2007 are not going well for President Robert
Mugabe. He is
on his annual holiday in Malaysia. Back home doctors are on
strike, some
nurses have also stopped work, and technicians at the Zimbabwe
Electricity
Supply Authority, ZESA shut down power to half of Harare last
week to
protest their poor wages. It wouldn't have made much difference to
many as
there are so many power cuts. There isn't much municipal water
around on a
regular basis in various Harare suburbs, and several towns, like
Marondera,
45 miles east of Harare, for example, hasn't had water since new
year. For
the last six years many people have said, "it can't get worse." It
did, and
it does, there is no bottom to economic collapse, economists always
say. But
the bad times are escalating fast. Bread more than doubled in price
in the
last three weeks, and on Saturday in Haddon & Sly, an old
supermarket in
central Bulawayo, the shelves were piled with stale bread as
so few can
afford to buy it any longer. Bread, like meat and milk, are now
luxury
items. Few shops around the country have any of the staple food,
maize meal
this week. One supermarket owner in Harare told me that for the
first time
he can ever remember he can't find a wholesaler anywhere with a
single bag
of maize meal. National grain stocks - if any - have become a
state secret
in Zimbabwe. So those of you in the west, look out for an
urgent appeal from
the World Food Programme soon. This year, as we say every
January, will be
the worst. It always is.