By Peta Thornycroft in
Harare
Pensioners were out in force at Zimbabwe's supermarkets on Thursday, which is 10 per cent discount day for shoppers over 65. At a large store in Harare's northern suburbs, a former farmer's wife shoved a clattering metal trolley across a pot-holed car park.
She had spent more than 20 million Zimbabwe dollars on five small plastic bags of everyday groceries, about £25 on the black market but nearly £200 at the legal rate. She carried her money in a canvas holdall. Inflation is not so much out of control as heading into outer space. President Robert Mugabe's economy started upon its descent when he seized the land of white farmers in 2000. At each stage of decline those of us that live here think it can't get any worse; but it can, and it does. I was out of the country for eight nights recently and in that time the dollar dropped from 350,000 to the US dollar to 520,000. (The official rate is 100,000 to $1, but the only people able to obtain foreign currency at that rate are those in or close to the government). A beer drinker watching the World Cup final last weekend said that in 1997 he could have bought two luxury Korean cars for the price of a beer in Harare in July 2006. The new green 100,000 Zimbabwe dollar note is in short supply. The most available note is the 20,000, and these are held together by rubber bands in two million dollar packs. Ten tied together - enough for five bags of groceries - are the size of a brick. The supermarket queues are excruciatingly slow. The shop assistants suffer sore hands from all the counting. "It is frightening," said James Kawawa, 27, an assistant. "The tellers have to count over and over, as it is easy to make a mistake. We might take 800 million in a day. Everyone is tired of counting." Shopping is very different in Chitungwiza, a sprawling, working-class town about 15 miles south-east of Harare. No one uses a trolley; each shopper carries two items at most - one half of a spiced sausage, or four bones. "It's the middle of the month, so money is gone," an assistant said. "These are hard days. We are suffering." |
iafrica.com
Sat, 15 Jul
2006
Police are investigating claims that large scale corruption by border
officials is allowing Zimbabweans to stream into South Africa, the SABC
reported on Friday.
The broadcaster said hundreds of illegal
immigrants enter South Africa
through Limpopo's Beit Bridge border post
daily.
It said Nhlanhla Dube, a Zimbabwean citizen, had told the SABC's
office in
Polokwane that he bribed immigration officials from both countries
before
entering South Africa.
Dube was arrested after his first
attempt to cross on Saturday but he was
back in South Africa on
Friday.
An SABC news team found him hitch-hiking outside
Musina.
"I told those who are working (at the) border I haven't got
nothing but
basic money to pay them to cross the border," Dube
said.
"They wanted to me 500 000 Zim dollars. I pay them 500 000 to
(cross) the
border," Dube said in broken English.
The Department of
Home Affairs has not yet responded to queries, the SABC
said.
Sapa
Mail and Guardian
Michael Hartnack | Harare, Zimbabwe
15
July 2006 07:27
Zimbabwe's ruling party is planning a major
cleansing exercise
to remove elements who are tarnishing its image with bad
behavior, President
Robert Mugabe told leading party members Friday,
according to state radio.
"These cases of [members] wanting
to enrich themselves are
increasing in number. You are not being fair --
some people are just being
crookish," he was quoted as telling 400 members
of his Zimbabwe African
National Union - Patriotic Front central
committee.
"Zanu-PF is going to embark on a major cleansing
exercise to
remove those elements bent on tarnishing the image of the party
by their
wayward behaviour with their private and public lives," he
said.
The 82-year-old head of state, in power since
independence in
1980, has made similar threats during his 26-year rule but
has granted
amnesties in return for pledges of personal loyalty in the
past.
Much of the nation is suffering an electricity
blackout, lacking
foreign currency to import power from neighbours or keep
local generation
plants in full working order.
Zimbabwe's
economy has been in free fall since February 2000,
when Mugabe lost a
referendum on a new Constitution. Blaming 5 000 white
farmers for
orchestrating opposition, he ordered seizure of properties
covering 17% of
the country.
Food production, exports and the value of the
currency have
crashed, with inflation now over 1 000% and up to four million
Zimbabweans
reliant on international food relief.
He
accused senior party members of seizing multiple farms under
his "fast track
reform" to dispossess whites, but said they had looted
infrastructure
without attending to production. A string of recent court
cases have seen
new black claimants disputing land and assets left by
whites.
Mugabe congratulated United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan
for refusing to act as an intermediary in the Zimbabwean
crisis, alleging
his proposed role had been a ploy by the British government
to
internationalise it.
"We applaud the secretary general
for refusing to be a tool of
sinister maneuvers, sinister desires against
Zimbabwe," said Mugabe.
Mugabe claims the economic collapse
is due to sanctions and
boycotts imposed by Britain, the United States, the
European Union and
international financial institutions, in revenge for his
farm seizures.
Referring to protests this week by campaigners
for urgent
constitutional reform, 200 of whom were arrested in three major
urban
centres, Mugabe alleged there were "foreign sponsored lobby groups"
aiming
to disturb peace and security.
"Let them take heed
of our pre-defined warning that any sinister
design to challenge the
authority of the government through any illegal way
will meet the full wrath
of the law," he said.
Draconian new security legislation
gives police power to ban any
public gathering, while anyone seeking to
"coerce the government" faces up
to 20 years in prison.
Five privately owned newspapers have been suppressed since 2002
and Western
observers say Mugabe's victories in presidential and
parliamentary elections
since June 2000 have been contrived by extensive
rigging and
intimidation.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Commission has
warned
Zimbabweans there will be extensive power cuts this weekend. Most
homes and
offices receive power for only a few hours each day, causing
extensive
disruption to work schedules. Sugar, bread and gasoline are
already in short
supply among many staples. - Sapa-AP
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
HARARE -
THE government of Zimbabwe should give the police more powers
to deal with
the impending street protests that are being organised by the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions and
their allies, President Robert Mugabe has said.
Mugabe yesterday
said the police should be given "extra" powers to
deal with the protesters
whom he said were being sponsored by foreigners to
destabilise the
country.He was addressing his party's Central Committee
meeting at the
party's headquarters in Harare.
"Let them take heed of our free
advice that any sinister efforts
designed to challenge the authority of
Government through any illegal way
will meet the full wrath of our law.
Those who will engage in it will
naturally be dealt with," he said to
applause from the floor.
"We shall not sit back and allow any group
of persons to circumvent
the democratic process and aspire to power through
illegitimate and
unconstitutional means.
"Those who seek to run
the country must get to the seat of government
by engaging the people
through an election. Any other means is rebellious
and shall be treated as
such," said Mugabe.
This is not the first time that Mugabe has
threatened to ruthlessly
deal with street protests being organised by the
opposition MDC. At the
country's 26th birthday celebrations, Mugabe used the
occasion to warn the
MDC founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai, that he was
dicing with death.
Mugabe's lieutenants like the powerful State
Security Minister,
Didymus Mutasa, have also threatened to unleash the
country's security
forces on the protesters if they heeded the call by the
opposition to go to
the streets.
The MDC says the streets
protests, first said would come as a "winter
of discontent", are meant to
put pressure on the Zanu PF government so it
can agree to go to the
negotiating table with the opposition and other
stakeholders so the country
can be extricated from its political and
economic crisis.
Mugabe, whose party has been at the helm of unleashing violence
against
opponents since losing the 2000 constitutional referendum, also
spoke about
the intra-party violence that has rocked the opposition MDC, in
particular
the recent attack on Harare North MP, Trudy Stevenson.
"MDC
violence and brutal behaviour is an evil we just have to remove
from our
body politic. We can't continue to have it and they must get that
warning.
No party that is dedicated to violence should be allowed to exist
in
Zimbabwe," he said.
Mugabe said the intra-party violence in the MDC
proved his party was
telling the truth when it said it too had endured
violence unleashed by the
opposition.
"It is this violence to
which we have always striven to draw the
attention of our detractors and
which lies deep and inherent in the MDC," he
said.
"Now our
detractors have come face to face with acts of the monster
they sired,
raised and pampered, and yet they are either silent or
equivocating about it
in their characteristic hypocritical manner.
"Their behaviour is
part of the hypocrisy and double standards we have
come to associate with
the MDC's European godfathers, so comfortable with
lies," said
Mugabe.
On United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreeing to
support
mediation efforts by former Tanzanian president, Benjamin
Mkapa,
Mugabe said: "He is an African, a secretary general from
our
continent. We reminded him that we did not want him to be tarnished and
he
added: 'I am also your in-law.' It would have been sad, very sad indeed,
if
he had obeyed the bidding of the Blair government on
Zimbabwe."
"We have always respected the office of the UN
Secretary-General,
which is why we protected it and its African incumbent by
blocking a
mission, which would have compromised its integrity," he
said.
Mugabe said besides Annan, SADC had also endorsed Mkapa's
mediation
role between London and Harare.
"This is our fight
with the Blair government, a fight we will not
lose, shall not lose for
right is on our side," he said.
In his long speech, Mugabe also
threatened to root out corruption
within his party's seniors. He said there
was too much profiteering and
selfishness as senior party and government
officials sought to make quick
riches.
"People want to acquire
wealth through self aggrandisement? These
cases are increasing in numbers.
Tagarwa neiko? (what's got into us)" he
said.
Many Zimbabweans
remain puzzled as to why Mugabe continues to speak
about corruption within
his party and government but never seems to take
action.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
HARARE - The NCA
yesterday said it was deeply worried and concerned at
the manner in which
the Zimbabwe police continues to detain its members who
were detained after
they peacefully demonstrated on Wednesday for a new
people-driven
Constitution in the country.
In Harare, 128 people remained
detained at Harare Central police
station. The arrested include four women
with infants on their backs,
according to the NCA, which has been
campaigning for a new constitution
since 1999.
Speaking in the
afternoon yesterday, Madock Chivasa, the NCA
spokesperson said: "Only thirty
minutes ago, police were still preparing a
docket for the arrested NCA
members' case. The police only started preparing
the docket after NCA
members refused to pay fines, pointing out that they
are not guilt in any
way. We agree with our arrested cadres. As the NCA we
believe the police
should not force them to pay admission of guilt fines as
there is no crime
they have committed."
He said to demonstrate for a constitution
that can help bring
political, social and economic sanity to our
crisis-ridden country is a
noble national cause.
In Mutare
13 more NCA members were arrested Wednesday evening,
bringing those arrested
in the eastern border City to 26. Police in Mutare
have not yet formally
charged the NCA members despite the fact that they
have already spent two
days and two nights in police custody. The police
have not released the NCA
members on the pretext that they are still looking
for more "suspects".
"This is a fringe claim," said Chivasa. "We wonder who
these suspects are
and what crime they have committed. If the so-called
suspects are NCA
members, then the police are side stepping their real
mandate of
facilitating for the respect and upholding of the rights of
citizens."
In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest City, five
(5) NCA members who
had been arrested were released late last night after
police allegedly
coerced them to pay what were called Admission of guilt
fines.
"Considering that our members are innocent, we call upon the
police to
immediately and unconditionally release them. Or else we will go
back to the
streets to press for their release," Chivasa said.
"On a humanitarian note, we call upon the honorable ministers of Home
Affairs and Health to intervene and allow us to provide food and medication
for the arrested. We have failed to do this so far and the lives of our
members are in real danger. One of the members collapsed in cells at Harare
and is currently battling for life at Parirenyatwa hospital."
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
TRUDY Stephenson, the
Harare North MP of the Arthur Mutambara-led
faction of the MDC, was brutally
assaulted at the beginning of this month.
The assailants, if all
things were politically equal, would have been
easily identified as Zanu PF
youths. Unfortunately, the political landscape
in Zimbabwe is as unequal as
the election playing field has been for years.
Officially, the
youths were identified by the police, no less, as
youths of the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC.
Stephenson's picture, published with
undisguised relish by the
government-owned Herald newspaper, was a reminder
of such brutal attacks
during the campaign for the 2000 parliamentary
elections, quite likely the
most blood-spattered poll campaign since
independence.
Last October's split in the MDC, precipitated by a
dispute over
whether or not the party should take part in the Senate
elections, had
always contained the potential to explode into
violence.
The bitterness generated by the rift among previously
tight
comrades-in-arms in the crusade against the hegemony of Zanu PF
reminded
older journalists of the nastiness which degenerated into violence
between
the two camps which emerged after the first split of the Zimbabwe
African
People's Union (Zapu) in the 1960s.
What followed were,
perhaps, not "rivers of blood" in the African
townships, but violence on
such a large scale most people believe the seeds
of an endemic pattern of
bloodshed in our politics were sown then.
Still, the eruption of
violence in the MDC, highlighted by the alleged
assault on the MP Priscilla
Misihaiarabwi-Mushonga, was a little unexpected.
The party had so
scrupulously promoted an image of non-violence most
people had tended to
attach the label of a latter-Mahatma Gandhi on the
person of Morgan
Tsvangirai.
It was not a big surprise that many critics gradually
saw the evil
hand of either the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) or
hired Zanu PF
thugs as the authors of the intra-party violence in the
MDC.
There have been arrests in the brutal attack on Ms Stephenson and
it
would be wise for all of us, as Nelson Chamisa said, to wait until the
law
takes its course.
Stephenson is a founder member of the
MDC. She was immortalized as a
campaigner for human rights when she was
filmed among mostly black people in
a wild victory dance after the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and
its allies defeated Zanu PF in the 1999
constitutional referendum.
The fact that she is the second woman MP to
be assaulted by youths
alleged to belong to Tsvangirai's faction is alarming
in the extreme.
This monster of violence in the fight for the hearts
and minds of MDC
members has to be struck down in its infancy before the
factions become
enmeshed in a tangle in which people won't be able to
distinguish the
victims from the villains.
Yet political
terrorism in Zimbabwe, per se, remains the preserve of
the State, through
Zanu PF and its various arms of subterfuge, violence and
mayhem.
For instance, there is now what I prefer to call the terrorism of
semantics.
Previously, successive ministers of finance did not hesitate to
describe the
parlous state of our economy as a "crisis".
Today, the official word
preferred is "challenges". Every Zanu PF
politician, from the President
down to the branch secretary in Makokoba,
will speak of "the challenges we
are facing".
I have even heard one or two captains of industry,
people accustomed
to using plain language in such situations, referring to
"the challenges"
the country is facing.
This is part of the futile
exercise in self-delusion which the
government has asked people to join it
since it launched its insanely bloody
land reform programme in
2000.
It has become almost a religion, this government terrorism for
people
not to be too outspoken about their plight.
In fact, the
penalty for being outspoken can be quite high,
particularly among
journalists, who are almost routinely being coerced by a
frightened
government to tell lies about their country.
Yet, in a very curious
way, the truth is being told by people you
would expect to be more
circumspect in their handling of this delicate
political commodity.
In choosing people of quite low-profile political backgrounds to
become
provincial governors, President Robert Mugabe may have shot himself
in the
foot, if not in the mouth too.
Both Ray Kaukonde and Willard
Chiwewe possess no political credentials
that could be described as
"conventional" or "sensational" in the ordinary
Zanu PF lexicon. True,
Kaukonde was provincial chairman of the party in his
bailiwick of
Mashonaland East before being elevated to provincial governor.
Recently, he must have embarrassed, not only government administrators
in
the province, but even his president, when he said publicly that no
projects
had been completed for a whole period, which meant that there could
be no
planning for the next period - because none of the previous projects
had
been completed.
I am not certain whether the projects were for a
two or five-year
period, but there were certainly not for six
months.
The implications of this revelation are enormous: an entire
government
administrative regime, charged with and paid for charting the
development
programme of an entire province, had gone to sleep at the
wheel.
In his turf of Masvingo, Governor Chiwewe, after touring an
area, said
in future the government ought to be more open in planning how a
project was
to be undertaken before pouring money into it.
The
implications were, once again, awesome: the origins of an entire
project had
not been thought through.
What you were bound to ask yourself was
this: is this how the
government is being run? Is this how taxpayers'
hard-earned money is being
used, or being frittered away on ill-planned and
even unplanned projects?
Later, we were told, in a moment of
perhaps unplanned candour, by no
less a person than Vice-President Joice
Mujuru, that the Zanu PF provincial
chairpersons had little or no idea what
the much-ballyhooed National
Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP)
entailed.
They were all summoned to Harare to be given the low-down
on this key
element of the government's economic turnaround
programme.
Mujuru told Reuben Barwe, ZTV's chief correspondent, after
that
meeting, that the party was supreme, in relation to the government. But
the
NEDPP was not the brainchild of the party, was it? If it was, then how
come
its provincial chairpeople had no idea what kind of monster it
was?
The idea of the party being the bigger brother of the
government is a
hangover from the old Marxist-Leninist political system, now
universally
discredited, except in the People's Republic of China, North
Korea and
Zimbabwe.
Why Zimbabwe's ruling party clings to this
archaic political system
can best be explained by its pathological fear of
being defeated in a free
and fair election.
At the end of the
day, Zanu PF operates a system of political
terrorism which is subtle,
perhaps as soft as a police officer's caress with
a baton on your
chin.
Mugabe said the other day they would have declared a state of
emergency in view of the economic "challenges" brought about by the
so-called sanctions imposed on his regime by the West.
Yet to
many Zimbabweans, the effects of two laws passed by Parliament
since 2000
must certainly constitute the essence of a state of emergency.
Both
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)
and the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA) are so restrictive of the
people's
freedoms they would not normally operate outside a state of
emergency.
For instance, a commentator might find themselves in
real hot water if
they said something uncomplimentary about the news that
both Mugabe and is
wife, Grace, produced more crops in their respective
farms than anyone else
in their area.
This was revealed to
highlight the fact the two were "leading by
example". This is amazing:
neither could ever run out of fertilizer or
seed. Neither could ever
confront transport problems - neither could ever
face problems they would be
unable to overcome.
Another piece of news was how successfully the
commander of the
defence forces, Constantine Chiwenga, was running his farm.
What would be
absolutely amazing would be if he failed to run his
farm.
These, to some cynics, suggested a government desperate to be
believed, to be loved, to be accepted as doing a good job, to be admired by
the people for.whatever reason.
Towards the end of the week,
Mugabe told a news conference the
country, though facing enormous
"challenges", would "soldier on' until
victory.
In a way, you
were bound to feel sorry for the man: he must know the
odds against success
are enormous. There is still not enough foreign
currency to buy much that is
essential to boost the economy. His political
policies have long antagonized
those former allies who would readily have
come to the country's economic
aid.
Yet he has so entrenched in his own psyche the philosophy of
"going it
alone" he dare not back-track, and admit publicly that it was one
hell of a
mistake and has cost his people, his country and perhaps even his
innocent
neighbours an awful lot of potential to prosper.
Some
would call it the greatest act of political terrorism ever
committed by one
man against so many, for a very dubious cause.
New Straits Times, Malaysia
15 Jul 2006
news@nst.com.my
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KUCHING:
The police may have recovered RM500,000 worth of stolen goods but
what
caused a stir was the 2.32 million Zimbabwean dollars seized when three
suspects were detained.
Police are puzzled how the Zimbabwean
currency notes, valued at about
RM84,000, came into the possession of the
trio, who are believed to members
of a syndicate.
At a Press
conference on Thursday, city police chief Assistant Commissioner
Kassim
Yusop said the male suspects, both locals in their early 30s, were
restaurant operators at Jalan Ban Hock while the female suspect was a
Chinese national.
Based on a tip-off, police learned that the
syndicate would give out a cell
phone number to selected people who wanted
to buy goods at very low prices.
An undercover policeman then contacted
one of the suspects, who led him to a
terrace house in Jalan Durian
Burung.
When police raided the house, they found that the kitchen, two
bedrooms and
the living room were filled with the stolen goods, which
comprised mostly
LCD television sets, computers, car accessories, car stereo
systems and
electrical appliances.
Police also recovered RM15,000 and
the Zimbabwean currency notes.
"During the raid, police also recovered
three pedigree dogs at the house and
we will establish if the dogs were also
stolen pets," Kassim said.
On Monday, a pet shop at Rubber Road was
broken into.
Police believed that the suspects were responsible for at
least two other
robbery cases at Jalan Sekama and Jalan Song Thian
Cheok.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
14 July
2006
France's ambassador to Zimbabwe urged the government of
President Robert
Mugabe to mend relations with its own population before
launching
international initiatives. Envoy Michel Raimbaud was reported to
have made
the statement in a Bastille Day speech in Harare marking the July
14 French
national holiday.
Among those present at the diplomatic
occasion were Zimbabwean Deputy
Foreign Affairs Minister Obert Matshalaga
and opposition leaders including
Secretary General Tendai Biti of the
Movement for Democratic Change faction
of Morgan Tsvangirai, the party's
founding president. The rival faction is
headed by Arthur
Mutambara.
Raimbaud's comments alluded to Mr. Mugabe's naming of former
Tanzanian
President Benjamin Mkapa to mediate discussions between Harare and
London.
The premise of the talks proposed by Mr. Mugabe is that the
Zimbabwean
economic crisis arose from sanctions imposed by Britain in
response to
Harare's radical land reform program. But British diplomats say
bad policies
and poor governance in Harare are to blame.
Raimbaud's
comments indicated Britain is not alone in its analysis.
Elsewhere,
diplomatic sources said United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan, who was
elbowed out of the picture by Mr. Mugabe at the recent
African Union summit
in the Gambia, still wants a wider role for the U.N. in
resolving Zimbabwe's
crisis.
Annan is said to have indicated his hope that the Harare
government will
heed the recommendations of Ibrahim Gambari and Agostinho
Zacarias,
respectively the U.N.'s top political officer and the U.N. country
representative in Zimbabwe. Working behind the scenes, Gambari and Zacarias
are said to have urged that Harare drafte a new constitution, hold fresh
elections and repeal repressive press and security laws.
U.N. sources
said they hope Mkapa will reach out to the world organization
for
help.
For perspective on the evolving diplomacy around the Zimbabwean
crisis,
reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke with
senior
political analyst Sydney Masamvu of the Pretoria office of the
International
Crisis Group.
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1
Dear JAG,
Please could you pass this warning out to others so
that they may be warned
of these fraudsters
During the month of June a
white name calling himself 'Michael Stuart' (not
sure if it is his real name)
drove out to our butchery and enquired after
some cattle to be slaughtered
for his butchery in Mazowe. He wanted to us
to kill and slaughter
approximately 10 head equating to over 2 billion
dollars. We agreed on the
number of head and price and told him we would
give him the meat once the
money was in our account.
On the Friday he kept insisting he had
deposited the money into our account
and he eventually drove out to the
butchery on Saturday morning with a
bank-stamped RTGS form showing that the
transfer had been submitted to the
bank. In case you are not aware any RTGS
submitted to Barclays bank after
12 on a Friday will not reflect in your
account until the following Tuesday
morning as RTGSs are not processed on a
Saturday. We had killed five of the
cattle chosen and nearly gave them to
him after seeing the RTGS but we
decided to wait until Tuesday to see if the
money had gone in. Sure enough
no money went in and needless to say he never
phoned again and we cannot get
hold of him on the cell number he was using.
The number is 023 283671
He came out to the butchery twice, both times
with African men with him
saying they were his farm managers. He said he was
from Makaka Estate in
Mazowe but one time said it was in Shamva. They were
driving two white cars,
one an old type Nissan and another Mitsubishi - no
other details on cars.
If anybody has seen or been approached by
something similar tell others so
we can be pre-warned of people like this
guy.
Do not take the sighting of an RTGS stamped by a bank as proof that
money
has gone into your account.
We were
lucky.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2
Dear JAG,
Well said Cathy, it is time that a serious alliance
with one agenda was
formed of all parties, churches, labour Unions and our
democratic allies in
this small world to end this evil regimes reign of
terror once and for all.
Regards
Gerry
Whitehead
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.