http://www.thetimes.co.za
Moses Mudzwiti Published:Jul
16, 2009
ZIMBABWE'S cash woes are expected to be laid bare today when
Finance
Minister Tendai Biti presents his mid-term budget to
parliament.
With a civil servants' strike looming,
Biti is expected to announce
improved benefits for state workers.
At
present, all civil servants earn the same - a paltry US100 (R812) a
month.
In February, when the unity government was formed, Biti said
the country
needed more than 8-billion to revive its battered
economy.
But few pledges from international donors have translated into
actual cash.
Today, the finance minister will give an assessment of the
performance of
the unity government against its agreed action
plans.
He will tell parliament how little money, if any, is in the
kitty.
Pressing demands include food aid and agriculture inputs for
winter crops.
Electricity supplies remain wholly inadequate. Hospitals
are still in need
of medication and funds to pay staff. Water supplies have
improved slightly,
but the levels are still nowhere near
adequate.
Civil servants have already made it clear they are ready to
down tools if
Biti cannot find the money to increase their
salaries.
The manufacturing sector has not been able to up production
from current
lows of about 10percent. Limited capital injections and regular
power cuts
were blamed for the status quo.
Unemployment remains high
at more than 90percent, and there is a shortage of
fuel.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Simplicious
Chirinda Thursday 16 July 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe's largest
political pressure group, the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), said
on Wednesday it was embarking on a
parallel process to produce a draft
constitution for the country after
disagreeing with the government on who
should lead the writing of the
charter.
The NCA said it would work
with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
and Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU). The national labour and
student movements are also
opposed to the unity government of President
Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai leading the
constitutional reform
process.
"The NCA with the special support of ZCTU and ZINASU will
convene the second
people's convention on Monday 27 July, 2009. Our agenda
is to get a genuine
process that will give our country a democratic
constitution," NCA chairman
Lovemore Madhuku told journalists in
Harare.
"At the convention we will launch under the banner of 'Take
Charge' and
thereafter take it to all people in the country," said Madhuku,
adding that
the convention will be attended by 3 500 likeminded Zimbabweans
with the
deep convictions that the constitution making process must not be
led by
politicians.
The NCA is a coalition of several civic society
groups and smaller
opposition political parties. The group has for years
campaigned for a new
and democratic constitution for Zimbabwe.
The
group and its labour and student partners have been traditional allies
of
both Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara's MDC parties.
But a
potentially costly rift has emerged between the allies after the
former
opposition MDC parties agreed with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF
party
to put Parliament in charge of drafting a new constitution for
Zimbabwe.
Without control of Parliament, the NCA will not be able to
make its draft
constitution into law. However, the NCA's move could prove a
devastating
moral and political body blow on its former MDC allies should
the
government-drafted charter turn out to be defective or less democratic
than
the one produced by the civic coalition.
The NCA, ZCTU, ZINASU
and the MDC - then a single party led by Tsvangirai -
successfully mobilised
Zimbabweans to reject a government-sponsored draft
constitution in
2000.
The divisions in the alliance could weaken the MDC's capacity to
wring
concessions from Mugabe and ZANU PF during the writing of the new
constitution.
Mugabe has said any new constitution should be based on
a draft constitution
secretly authored by the MDC and ZANU PF on Lake Kariba
and known as the
Kariba Draft.
Critics say the document leaves
largely untouched the wide-sweeping powers
that Mugabe continues to enjoy
even after formation of a power-sharing
government with Tsvangirai and
Mutambara.
Zimbabweans hope a new constitution will guarantee human
rights, strengthen
the role of Parliament and curtail the president's
powers, as well as
guaranteeing civil, political and media
freedoms.
The new constitution will replace the current Lancaster House
Constitution
written in 1979 before independence from Britain. The charter
has been
amended 19 times since independence in 1980. Critics say the
majority of the
amendments have been to further entrench Mugabe and ZANU
PF's hold on
power. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Patricia Mpofu Thursday 16
July 2009
HARARE - The state has summonsed prominent human
rights lawyer Alec
Muchadehama for trial on charges that he connived with
court officials to
have a group of political activists unlawfully released
from jail.
The development comes barely two weeks after a magistrate's
court declined
to place Muchadehama on further remand on the same charges,
citing lack of
evidence to suggest the lawyer could have committed the
alleged offence. But
the court said the state could summons the lawyer for
trial if evidence
became available.
The order to appear in court
issued on Tuesday indicated that Muchadehama,
who is representing several
members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
MDC party facing charges
ranging from banditry to terrorism, would be
jointly charged with a Harare
High Court clerk - Constance Gambara.
According to the summons,
Muchadehama is to appear in the magistrates' court
on July 28.
The
court papers say that on April 17 this year, Muchadehama and Gambara
connived to defy a court order by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu and unlawfully
released MDC activists Kisimusi Dlamini, Gandhi Mudzingwa and freelance
photographer Andrison Manyere from Chikurubi Maximum Security
Prison.
The state says Muchadehama and Gambara caused the release of the
three MDC
activists when permission to appeal against their admission to
bail by
Justice Hungwe had been granted, thus by that act both the accused
were in
contempt of Justice Bhunu's order.
The MDC activists that
Muchadehama is said to have caused to be released
from custody are out on
bail and have appealed to the Supreme Court to have
their case dismissed
alleging that state security agents tortured them in
order to extract
evidence from them. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Andrew Moyo
Thursday 16 July 2009
HARARE - The militant Progressive
Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
yesterday declared it would take its
demonstrations over salary increments
to President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's offices
after an attempt by protesting members
to meet Public Service Minister
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro failed on
Monday.
PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou told ZimOnline that they felt
Mugabe, a
former teacher, would understand their grievances more than any
other person
in government but they would have to approach the PM before
staging
demonstrations at the veteran leader's offices.
Zhou said
about 200 teachers demonstrated in Harare on Monday under police
escort.
"We went to the Public Service Commission but because they
had already heard
that we were coming they all disappeared leaving only
secretaries manning
offices," said Zhou, adding that the protesting teachers
were insulted by
the secretaries.
"They asked us why we behaved as if
we were the only one in need of money."
The PTUZ leader said: "We have
discovered that Mukonoweshuro has renounced
his responsibility and is not
prepared to entertain us. So we have resolved
that demonstrations will now
target the President and the Prime Minister's
offices. We will start with
the PM's office. If nothing is done we will go
to the President's office,
one of the first successful teachers in
Zimbabwe."
Teachers have
been battling to get the government to review their current
earnings from
the US$100 monthly allowance that government pays all its
workers to US$454,
embarking on a Friday class boycott and threatening to
intensify the action
if government fails to address their concerns.
Last week, the PTUZ staged
demonstrations in several cities but were blocked
by the police in Mutare,
Gweru, Kwekwe and Chinhoyi, where they filed High
Court petitions to have
the police action declared null and void.
The courts were still looking
at the applications, according to Zhou.
"We have filed High Court orders
in these towns because police prevented
teachers from demonstrating, even
after initially approving our
applications. There was a 75 percent success,
75 percent school closures
were registered in these areas. In Harare we will
be demonstrating next
week," the PTUZ president claimed.
He said 150
PTUZ members had downed chalks in Masvingo, 130 had not gone to
work in
Bulawayo, 145 teachers were participating in the demonstrations in
Chinhoyi
and 85 teachers had gathered for the demonstrations in Kwekwe
before police
said they could not go ahead.
Demonstrations could not take place in
Harare because the PTUZ felt there
were so many programmes going on at the
time, including preparations for the
constitutional
conference.
Education Minister David Coltart told ZimOnline last week he
had received
reports of the demonstrations in Bulawayo but he had not heard
of any
reports in other parts of the country.
Coltart has in the past
met teachers' union leaders to urge them to be
patient as the government
tries to mobilise resources from donors to improve
salaries and working
conditions.
On Monday last week the largest union representing teachers
in the country,
the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (ZIMTA), threate
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-16
07:22:43
HARARE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai has won Spain's Cristobal Gabarron Foundation award for
Lifetime
Achievement (2009) for his message of reconciliation to the world
and his
fight for democracy.
He beat 17 other nominees from
Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Russia,
Spain and the United States to land the
international award that honors
people or organizations that "have been
outstanding in reaching achievements
that are an example to
humanity".
The announcement that Tsvangirai had won the award
was made last
Friday and presentation will be on October 9 in Valladolid,
Spain, a
statement from Tsvangirai's party the MDC said on
Wednesday.
The award is named after famous Spanish painter
Cristobal
Gabarron.
A panel of judges for the Lifetime
Achievement Award category
settled for Tsvangirai "because he is a statesman
for history to remember".
He launched a message to the world from Africa, a
message of reconciliation
and of the fight for democracy, the judges
said.
"Tsvangirai is an example of personal and political
generosity, a
beacon of hope for all of Africa. The whole world must lend
its support to
his striving for excellence and to the dignity of the people
of Zimbabwe,"
they added in their citation.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By Natasha
Hove
BINDURA - Five war veterans and their families who were allocated
plots
under the Zanu (PF)'s 2000 land grab have been served with eviction
notices
because they now support the MDC.
The five, Fanuel Musona,
Gift Lemon, Lyson Reason, Gift Mhembere and Lazarus
Malunga, received plots
at Foothills farm in Bindura in 2000. For the past
nine years they have
built homes and families on the land. But they have
now, together with
fellow settlers around the country, become victims of
Zanu (PF) zealots who
accuse them of turning against the liberation war
movement that allocated
them the plots.
MDC Foothills chairman, Collen Langton, confirmed the
eviction notices
against
the five war veterans were issued after they
were made to appear Chief
Negomo of Chiweshe village on charges of turning
against President Mugabe's
Zanu (PF).
"Though they are still residing
at the farm, the fate of whether they will
be
evicted or not in is in the
hands of the village court. The five are being
told that they will be evicted
because they now support the MDC. They have
been told to go to the MDC to
look for land," said Langton in an interview.
The charges against the
five war veterans are believed to be led by the Zanu
(PF) District Chairman
Jacob Chiripanyanga for Foothills Farm. He refused to
comment saying the
issue was before the village courts.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By STAFF
REPORTER
HARARE - Six Zanu (PF) governors will lose their jobs next month
- Cain
Ginyilitshe Mathema (Bulawayo), David Karimanzira (Harare),
Christopher
Mushowe (Manicaland), Titus Maluleke (Masvingo), Thokozile
Mathuthu
(Matabeleland North) and Angeline Masuku (Matabeleland
South).
Legal experts said the party was delaying the appointments as it
was scared
of losing Senate seats in Parliament. Provincial governors are ex
officio
members of the Senate.
Zanu (PF) has dilly-dallied since February
with the excuse that the new
governors will not be sworn in until towards
the end of August when the
departing governors complete one year of their
two-year contracts.
As four of the five MDC governors-designate are
already Parliamentarians,
three in the House of Assembly and one an elected
Senator, they will
relinquish their constituency seats in order to take up
their ex officio
seats, causing another four vacancies, three in the House
of Assembly and
one in the Senate, to be filled through
by-elections.
Tsvangirai has appointed governors for Bulawayo - Seiso
Moyo, Harare - James
Makore, Manicaland - Julius Magaramombe, Masvingo -
Lucia Matibenga, and
Matabeleland North -Tose Sansole.
Mutambara has
not yet named a governor-designate.
"The greatest impact will be on party
numbers in the Senate," said legal
expert Val Ingham-Thorpe. "Numbers of
elected Senators are fairly even at
present: Zanu (PF) has 30 seats, MDC-T
24 and MDC-M six, giving the combined
MDCs 30.
"Of nominated and ex
officio Senators, Zanu (PF) has 16, which will change
to 10, MDC-T four,
which will change to nine and MDC-M two, which will
change to three; thus
the combined MDCs' current six will go up to 12.
"Assuming that the MDCs
will vote together, this means that in the Senate
Zanu (PF) would only have
a majority if the 18 chiefs vote with them, which
has been traditional while
Zanu (PF) was the exclusive governing party."
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By Mxolisi Ncube
.
villagers threaten to fight back
JOHANNESBURG - A raging land dispute in the
Jibhi communal land of
Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North, is threatening to
turn nasty as villagers
early this week declared war on a local businessman.
(Pictured: Gibson
Ndlovu addresses fellow villagers at
Bruma.)
Villagers who spoke to The Zimbabwean accused the
businessman, Vuka Sibanda,
who comes from Somnene village on the
Tsholotsho-Plumtree boundary, of
fencing off a vital portion of their land
and declaring it his private
property. Sibanda, accused of being a Zanu (PF)
loyalist, owns
Tsholotsho-based Vukuzenzele trading stores, where he has a
general dealer,
a butchery and a grinding mill.
According to the
villagers, the land dispute began about two months ago,
when the businessman
visited their area in Jibhi village and offered local
traditional leaders
beer in exchange of fertile land in their village. The
five headmen, George
Nkezo, Micah Tshabangu, Soul Ncube, Kheva Ndebele and
Lameck Mpofu, refused.
Sibanda then threatened to take over the land
forcibly, claiming that he was
connected at the top.
"Simultaneously, his father was going around the area
showing people an
outdated map demarcating Plumtree and Tsholotsho and
claiming that they were
buying our land," said Stanely Ndlovu, a spokesman
for the villagers, most
of whom are currently working in
Johannesburg.
"A few weeks later, Sibanda came back with fake receipts,
claiming that he
had bought our land, and began to fence it off. He enclosed
the only
boreholes that we have."
The villagers said that Sibanda also
enclosed their cattle's grazing land
and where they fetched firewood,
claiming that all that area was his and
declaring that whoever touched it
would die.
"He had a local traditional healer - Zenzo Sibanda from the
Bhubhude area,
who followed behind spraying some herbs on the fence with a
flywhisk and
declaring that whoever touched the fence would die of evil
spells. "At some
of the homesteads, his fence went through the centre,
dividing people's
houses, with some inside and others outside his fence,"
added Ndlovu.
The businessman is also alleged to have employed more than
10 men from
Lupane, to terrify the locals and guard the land, which he has
now declared
his farm. Sibanda is also alleged to have threatened to come
back and fence
off the villagers' fields, which he would turn into an
irrigation area. In
an effort to have the dispute resolved amicably, they
wrote a petition to
the local councillor, Alois Ndebele (Zanu PF), the chief
and the Tsholotsho
District Administrator. "But nothing positive came out of
that as they all
seem to be on Vuka's side," said Ndlovu.
They
suspect this could be a campaign of retribution against them for their
continuing support for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC, adding that
the DA, Mbewe, has been avoiding their calls ever since they handed over a
petition in his office early last month. Two weeks ago, some of the South
African-based villagers went home and cut down the fence during the night.
But the police, driving Sibanda's Jeep, are said to have raided 250
villagers and abducted the headmen, all over 70 years of age. They were
detained at the businessman's shop for days, before being taken to Figtree
police station, where they were also detained for some days.
Two
uniformed police officers from Tsholotsho are now said to have been
assigned
to guard Sibanda, while also continuing to issue threats to
villagers, who
have been left with no water and firewood sources. Early this
week, about 40
South African-based villagers held a meeting in Bruma,
Johannesburg, where
they vowed to fight for their land.
"We suffered a lot under white rule,
under Gukurahundi and now there is
another small Gukurahundi in our area,
this cannot be," said Tshabangu. "We
want Vuka to know that he will only get
that piece of land upon our dead
bodies. We cannot allow our elderly to be
exploited by someone just because
he is very rich and is connected,
never.
"We are calling on the authorities to intervene and stop this land
dispute
before it gets nastier, because we will do everything in our power
to retain
our land that this man is trying to steal from us."
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By
CORRESPONDENT
HARARE - More than 50 journalists are facing arrest for
"undergoing military
training" in Zambia to topple the Zimbabwean
government. CIO and CID
operatives have informally quizzed several
journalists, urging them to 'come
out in the open' about their participation
in military and surveillance
training. These frivolous charges are
reminiscent of those brought against
human rights activist, Jestina Mukoko,
and some MDC members accused of
recruiting people for military training in
Botswana.
"I was accosted by a stranger outside my house when I
was going to work
recently. He asked why journalists had been receiving
military training in
Zambia. I said I was not aware of any journalists who
were receiving
military training. He was very intimidating. He said he was
aware that I had
received military training and he asked me to clear myself
by writing a
report on who organised the training. I am now afraid for my
life," the
journalist said.
Survival skills misunderstood
However,
The Zimbabwean can reveal that far from receiving military
training, a group
of journalists received basic training in covering
conflict-sensitive areas.
The workshops were held in Mutare and Lusaka,
Zambia in March 2009. The
training was provided by the International News
Safety Institute (INSI)
whose mandate is to provide journalists throughout
the world with survival
skills while on assignment.
Subjects covered included basic safety
training including home and office
security, surveillance awareness,
controlling bleeding and burns, covering
riots, treating broken bones and
the prevention of infectious diseases. All
participants received first aid
medical kits including water treatment and
anti-diarrhoeal
tablets.
Another journalist told The Zimbabwean that he had received a
threat from a
female detective at the Law and Order Section of the Zimbabwe
Republic
Police (ZRP).
"The officer who is known to me said she had seen
my name on a list of
journalists who had undergone military training in
Zambia. She said
investigations were still ongoing and warned me that it
would be in my
interest to make a true report of what subjects we covered
during the
military training. I told her that all we had done were basic
survival
skills while on assignment and I pointed out to her that safety was
very
important to journalists because of the nature of their job."
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By Paul
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Nkayi district hospital has been operating without an
ambulance
for two years. The hospital is the largest referral centre,
servicing 14
other clinics in the district. Due to the absence of an
ambulance, patients
cannot be transported to other referral centres when
necessary.
A visit revealed that the hospital was using a twin cab
instead of an
ambulance.
"The only ambulance that used to service the
hospital and the other 14
clinics in the district broke down two years ago
and nothing was done to
repair it. After that we started using the twin cab
as our ambulance, but it
is not very convenient for that type of work. We
therefore call upon the
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to come to our
rescue," said an
employee at the hospital.
The employee said that
other problems facing the hospital included power
cuts. The absence of
electricity was affecting the supply of water to the
district as the pump
would not work. This has put patients and staff at risk
of contracting
disease.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By
Chief reporter
HARARE - Zimbabwe is sinking into an abyss of corruption,
crime and greed,
with the triple threat spawned by deepening hardships
fuelled by the cash
crunch. More and more Zimbabweans are making ends meet
on the edge of the
law, and a small clique has become highly successful by
what is called
"kujingirisa" in slang or "running around and stitching
things together".
The phrase covers everything from hard work to
pick-pocketing, and from
money-changing to importing scarce basics.
Criminal activity and corruption
arising from economic hardship is dignified
by the euphemism "ari ku
dealer".
Zimbabwe's five-month-old inclusive
government has acknowledged that the
country has been hard hit by the
scourge common to many countries on the
world's poorest continent. Under the
Global Political Agreement, GPA, the
three parties are mandated to create an
Anti-Corruption Commission.
Parliament was sitting this week to select
commissioners who will sit on the
corruption watchdog. Its terms of
reference would include, among other
things, investigating cases of
corruption with a view to bringing the
culprits to book. The independent
commission has also been given the
exclusive mandate to prevent and combat
corruption at all levels of
government and institutions.
The global
political agreement says the new government is "determined to
build a
society free of violence, fear, intimidation, hatred, patronage,
corruption
and founded on justice, fairness, openness, transparency, dignity
and
equality." But analysts say dealing with graft will be no stroll in the
park, given how entrenched in corruption the entire political system
is.
Some of Zimbabwe's "survival vices" have emerged as tragi-comic,
others have
earned grudging admiration for creativity. But the almost
widespread
top-level corruption involves rigging of commercial bids and
issuing of
preferential treatments to individuals and organizations based on
tribe and
friendship.
Beggars and the jobless have turned commodity
shortages into an industry by
importing basics and charging desperate
consumers almost four times the
actual price; some prostitutes offer their
services to motorists spending
the night in their cars as they wait for fuel
at petrol stations, others got
filthy rich through a practice called
"burning money" yet others were
engaged in "changing money."
After
the collapse of the vice after the official authorisation of
dollarisation,
some enterprising Zimbabweans have now responded to a
resultant severe
shortage in Rands by hoarding the South African legal
tender and selling it
for a fee.
The Zimbabwe chapter of the corruption watchdog Transparency
International
says the country is now classified as one of the most corrupt
in the world,
ranked 157 last year from 130 in 2006 in a "corruption
perception index".
"Our recent survey shows that over 80 percent of
Zimbabweans believe
corruption is rising as a result of the economic crisis,
and that because of
hardships even those who want to stay on the right side
of the law are
breaking some laws as a matter of survival," said an official
with
Transparency International Zimbabwe.
"There is a culture of
survival vices taking root." Fuel, currently in
critically short supply, is
found on the black market, in most cases at
exorbitant prices as compared to
the regulated official price. Those who
sell fuel informally deny they are
charging extortionate prices, arguing the
rates reflect a market where they
are forced to fork out a premium in bribes
to suppliers and
producers.
Police raid the black market every now and then. But while
they have noted a
big rise in crime - from bank robberies, house breaking to
robberies - they
have no figures yet. Just last week, Barclays Bank in
Bulawayo was robbed by
gun-toting criminals. The previous month Kingdom Bank
was raided. And the
robberies are being attributed to
dollarisation.
In addition to corruption and crime, Zimbabwe political
analysts say the
country has been hit by another scourge -
greed.
They point to primitive accumulation in government by the ruling
elite at a
time of record-drawing economic implosion and mass starvation.
And at the
centre of that plunder matrix is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,
which was
used as a conduit of State pruning by well-heeled government
officials and
other gravy train hangers-on.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/
Timothy
Chui
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The government has been
accused of protecting the rich and powerful after it
refused to prosecute
bodyguards for the daughter of Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe over their
alleged manhandling of two journalists.
On June 8 the Department of Justice
decided not to prosecute a police and an
intelligence officer serving as
minders to Bona Mugabe for the assault of
Sunday Times journalists Colin
Galloway and Tim O'Rourke outside her Tai Po
home February 13. Mugabe's
daughter is a student at City University.
In a separate incident in
January, Mugabe's wife Grace was granted
diplomatic immunity from
prosecution after allegedly punching Hong Kong
photographer Richard Jones
near the Kowloon Shangri- La where she had been
staying.
Director of
Public Prosecutions Grenville Cross told a Legislative Council
panel
yesterday that the bodyguards, Mapfumo Marks and Manyaira Reliance
Pepukai,
had acted reasonably having a genuine concern for the younger
Mugabe's
safety.
The two journalists had approached the doorstep of the Tai Po
residence
intent on delivering a letter and conducting interviews before
being
forcibly removed to the adjacent unit.
According to Cross, the
bodyguards were concerned about the two strangers
who approached
unannounced, and whose shifting purpose for the visit and
refusal to produce
identification led to their manhandling. One suffered
minor
injuries.
Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association Russell Coleman told
lawmakers th
e decision not to prosecute did not impact freedom of
the press.
However, legislators were unconvinced Mugabe's minders had
exercised sound
judgment in their use of force in the February
incident.
Democratic Party lawmaker and solicitor Albert Ho Chun-yan said
a
bodyguard's perception of a threat was subjective and could be
abused.
"The decision gives rise to ambiguity that bodyguards could take
action and
injure ordinary citizens whenever they are carrying out security
works," he
said.
Democratic Party legislator and solicitor James To
Kun-sun said: "If that's
the case, in the future ordinary citizens have to
make a detour once they
see wealthy people around."
Civic Party
lawmaker Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee said: "I don't see any evidence of
the
journalists trying to attack the person of Miss Mugabe or trying to
break
into the house or attacking anyone with their cameras." A police
investigation into whether the bodyguards had work permits is underway.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By
Martin
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says Zanu (PF) used the
ZBC to
broadcast "laughable lies" that the MDC, students, labour and other
civic
activists disrupted the constitution conference.
"The
rowdy and violent scenes that brought the constitutional proceedings to
a
standstill took place in front of cameras," read a statement from the MDC.
"These scenes are on record and footage is available showing Zanu (PF)
senior members Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwawo and Joseph Chinotimba
leading the mayhem. The three are certainly not and will never be MDC
members."
The party said it had no political interest in disrupting
the
constitution-making process, whereas Zanu (PF) had every reason to want
to
avoid a people-driven constitution "since they were resoundingly rejected
by
the people of Zimbabwe on March 29, 2008".
"The Zanu (PF)-induced
chaos is obviously meant to derail the
constitution-making
process and to
prevent the people of Zimbabwe from writing their own
constitution," said
the party.
"Zanu (PF) has not only walked out, but disrupted a roadmap
clearly defined
by SADC and the AU as the only route to having legitimate
leadership in
Zimbabwe.they have
publicly declared war against the people
of Zimbabwe who want a constitution
by
themselves and for themselves."
The MDC is now urging the Southern African
Development Community and the
African Union to immediately intervene.
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THE Central Methodist Church in central Johannesburg, refuge for hundreds of homeless foreigners, has also become a safe haven for opportunistic criminals.
Bishop Paul Verryn, who oversees the church, concedes he has a problem on his hands.
Sowetan was guided around hidden corners of the church by a man who identified himself as Gideon.
Walking along corridors to the basement he warned us to watch out for a group we passed. He identified them as cellphone thieves.
“Many people have fallen victim to these gangsters but are too scared to tell Verryn,” Gideon said.
“These gangsters engage in criminal activities outside and then come here to hide. No one challenges them because everyone is too afraid.”
The dark nooks and crannies of the cavernous church are such that even by day I would have felt unsafe without Gideon.
He said the gangsters we passed were called the Sowetans. They spent most of their days hanging around the stairs at the back of the church, out of visitors’ sight.
Residents said the Sowetans seldom bothered them in the church and conducted most of their activities outside. Some of the gangsters are South Africans.
Verryn said he knew about the gang and had on several occasions tried to rid the church of the criminals.
“The police arrest them but we find them in the building again,” Verryn said. “I don’t understand it.”
He said he had an agreement with the police to patrol the church at least once a week because criminals used it as a safe haven.
“Criminals are not welcome in the building,” Verryn said. “Once there were people charged with rape in the church and the police opposed bail because of this problem.”
Talk Radio 702 reported yesterday that one resident had recently been stabbed in the chest and similar incidents occurred frequently.
It is clear criminals find rich pickings among the defenceless, homeless migrants and refugees at the church.
“Things are clearly not getting better in Zimbabwe,” Verryn said.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
15
July 2009
By The Editor
If President
Robert Mugabe is serious about the government of national
unity, the time
has now come for him to ditch those who are opposed to it
and work with
those who are willing to join him in a truly inclusive
arrangement.
His comments after the disruption of the Constitutional
Conference on Monday
are most welcome:
"We feel disturbed and we have
a sense of abhorrence of what happened,"
Mugabe said. "Don't forget that we
are coming from different political camps
and there is always a pull
back...but this must not stop the
constitution-making
process."
Knowing Mugabe as we do, we suspect these are mere crocodile
tears. But, for
the sake of our beloved Zimbabwe, we are always prepared to
give him the
benefit of the doubt.
He can easily prove his sincerity
by one simple act. He should sack his
minister of youth, Saviour Kasukuwere,
and his nephew Patrick Zhuwawo, a
deputy minister, who reportedly entered
the conference chamber leading a mob
of drunken Zanu (PF)
youths.
While we earnestly hope Mugabe will do this, we very much doubt
that he
will. In the absence of any clear signal from him to the contrary,
we will
be forced to conclude that a nudge is as good as a wink and his
loyal thugs
will continue to wreak havoc throughout the country - according
to plan.
Since the constitutional reform process got underway, it has
been dogged by
problems - all of them emanating from Zanu (PF). Their MPs
wanted the whole
thing delayed. Then they wanted more money. Then they
wanted the Kariba
Draft to be adopted as the new constitution.
At the
same time, party thugs throughout the country ratcheted up the
violence
against MDC supporters, terrorising teachers, forcing youths to go
for
indoctrination, evicting former war vets who had begun to support the
MDC
and generally causing chaos.
In addition, the police, partisan as ever,
have been harassing MDC
supporters and arresting their MPs on various
trumped-up charges. And yet,
at the conference on Monday - where they were
needed to restore order - they
stood by like spectators and didn't lift a
finger.
Perhaps most telling of all was the walkout by senior Zanu
ministers Patrick
Chinamasa and Emmerson Mnangagwa as the crazed party
youths entered the
conference centre. Neither of them made any attempt to
take the microphone
and exert their undeniable authority to restore order.
http://online.wsj.com
JULY 16,
2009
A change in land policy
would wreak havoc on the economy.
By MARIAN L. TUPY and MICHAEL KRANSDORFF
From today's Wall Street Journal
Europe.
"The road ends here," reads a
makeshift sign in the middle of the highway
connecting Bulawayo with South
Africa. For many miles, the once busy
commercial artery between Zimbabwe's
second largest town and its main market
has simply ceased to exist.
Motorists have to wind their way on an
improvised gravel path through the
open bush. All along the route, they can
observe once productive farms lying
abandoned and once productive farm
workers scavenging for food.
The
dilapidated state of infrastructure and widespread poverty are the
results
of the destruction of property rights and the rule of law by the
government
of Zimbabwe. Yet South Africa's new Minister of Land Reform and
Rural
Development, Gugile Nkwinti, clearly has not been to Zimbabwe in
recent
years. Speaking in parliament late last month, he announced that the
ANC
government would scrap its current "willing buyer willing seller" land
redistribution policy, which allows the government to acquire land only at a
market price and only with the consent of the land owner, and replace it
with "less costly, alternative methods of land acquisition." The new policy
will almost certainly include some form of land expropriation that could
spell disaster for the South African economy.
South Africa's current
land problems hark back to colonial times, when
native lands were
expropriated from their rightful owners, usually without
compensation. The
1913 Natives Land Act preserved some 87% of the country's
land for the
exclusive use of the white minority. Since coming to power in
1994, the ANC
government has made land restitution and redistribution its
priorities. The
government aims to transfer 30% of commercial agricultural
land to black
South Africans by 2014. As of today, only 5% of the land has
actually been
distributed.
The ANC has blamed the failure of the current land
distribution policy on
high prices and obstinate farmers. Some land has
appreciated in value
because of foreign investment in game reserves and real
estate. Such price
appreciation should be seen as a sign of investor
confidence as well as a
source of much needed foreign
capital.
According to Mr. Nkwinti, however, "It shouldn't be a situation
where we
can't get land because it's too expensive because it's owned by
Americans,
by Germans, by other Europeans and people outside this country,
and not
Africans. . . ." "To redress [the] imbalances of the past," Mr.
Nkwinti
continued, "the government must have enabling laws that can allow
the pace
and the price of land acquisition to be in the hands of the state,
rather
than in the hands of the seller."
But land redistribution has
failed not because of a faulty policy, but
because of the ANC's own
incompetence. The land reform bureaucracy has a
reputation for inefficiency
and lack of delivery. Since 2005, it has not
been able to spend its own
budget. In 2006, there were 1,000 vacancies in
the Department of Agriculture
and Land Affairs. It is well-known that the
lack of skills and capacity in
government are partly a result of the
politicization of the civil service
and affirmative action.
Even when the government has succeeded in
distributing land, much of it has
ceased to be economically viable.
According to the government's own
statistics, some 50% of land reform
projects have failed. A once thriving
potato farm in the KwaZulu-Natal
Midlands is now a makeshift soccer field. A
former tea estate in
Magoebaskloof in Limpopo has become an overgrown
forest. The list goes
on.
Many of the new land owners have no farming or management skills.
They have
nothing invested in the land because the government gave them
their farms
for free after buying the land from the original owners.
Furthermore, the
uncertainty over the future of farmland has led to a fall
in agricultural
production. There was, for example, a 7.3% fall in maize
plantings in the
2008-09 season. And that was at a time when food prices
were soaring.
A policy of expropriation and restriction on private land
use will only
aggravate the decline of South African agriculture. The
weakening of
property rights in the agricultural sector will raise questions
over the
government's commitment to defend property rights in other parts of
the
economy. That will discourage new investment and thwart the much needed
economic growth.
A new approach to land reform in South Africa
requires privatization, not
expropriation. Some 25% of South African land is
owned by the government.
Some of it belongs to nature reserves or is of a
low agricultural quality.
But no serious attempt has been made to determine
the viability of the
government land for redistribution. Fifteen years after
the ANC took over,
only one-third of state land has been
audited.
Land expropriation does not lead to justice or prosperity. As
the case of
Zimbabwe shows, it is a road to economic destruction. South
Africa must turn
back now before it is too late.
Mr. Tupy is a policy
analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Global
Liberty and Prosperity.
Mr. Kransdorff studies at the Harvard Kennedy School
in Cambridge,
Mass.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=19852
July 16, 2009
By Geoffrey
Nyarota
THE leaders of Zimbabwe's Government of National Unity, the
leaders of SADC
and AU as well as the international community all agree that
the Global
Political Agreement must be implemented as a matter of priority
and as
matter of our country's national survival.
For some reason
real, meaningful and progressive movement in this regard has
so far remained
tantalizingly elusive.
For this totally unsatisfactory state of affairs
the two major players in
the government of national unity, President Robert
Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, each in his own peculiar way,
are largely to blame.
Despite the assertions of those within the GNU,
including the President and
Prime Minister, that real progress is being
made, it is clear there are
forces that are determined to fight to preserve
a totally unacceptable
political status quo'. Monday's fiasco at the
beginning of the
All-Stakeholders Constitutional Conference was a dramatic
reminder of this
sad reality.
The immediate appeal by both the
President and Prime Minister for calm and
the calls for unity, with the
President going as a far as to assert that the
government would "not brook
any further nonsense", were most welcome.
While it constitutes a clear
departure from normal practice, the President's
reaction is, however, hardly
reassuring, given the current lethargy in the
implementation of the GPA and
given the impunity with which the rule of law
has on previous occasions been
breached.
For all intents and purposes Zimbabwe does not have any
meaningful law and
order regime, as enshrined in the Constitution and as
defined in the
comprehensive definitions that cover all aspects of the GPA.
Both Zanu-PF
and both MDC parties are signatories to the GPA, a document
whose
implementation is formally guaranteed by both the SADC and the African
Union
(AU).
Those who walk in the corridors of power are anxious to
assure us that
meaningful progress is being made and while the President and
Prime Minister
urged those attending last week's investment conference in
Harare that now
was the time to invest in Zimbabwe - and indeed it should be
- the concerns
of potential investors are legitimate and need to be
addressed in the
interests of progress and national development.
Yes,
there are some signs of progress. Supermarkets and shops that stood
empty
and forlorn only a few months ago now have stock on their shelves and
the
presses at Fidelity Printers, which ran day and night while printing
worthless Zimbabwean dollars, have finally been silenced. Meanwhile,
sterling efforts are being made to revive the education and the health
sectors and kick-start government and local government departments, as well
as implement food distribution and other humanitarian aid
programmes.
However, this is but tinkering unless and until there is
wholehearted
agreement and commitment to and support for the full
implementation of the
matters clearly outlined and signed in the
GPA.
The MDC leaders should, however, guard against prematurely patting
themselves on the back, always mindful that when they set out to challenge
Zanu-PF's dictatorship in 1999, the shops were fully stocked and the schools
and hospital were fully functional.
So the re-opening of schools,
while commendable, was certainly not on the
original MDC agenda of action.
Restoration of full democracy and the
concomitant upholding of law and order
were certainly on that original
agenda.
Unless and until investors
can be convinced that law and order finally
prevail, that their investments
and assets will not be summarily seized as
continues to be the case in some
sectors, that our leaders are serious about
uniting a nation that stands
divided by the continuing biased and partial
behaviour of the security
forces, the judiciary and the state-owned media,
practical solutions and
sustainable investment will not be easily
forthcoming.
Both Mugabe
and Tsvangirai cannot afford to overlook or underplay these
issues without
exposing our long-suffering nation to continued risk or
peril.
While
Zimbabwe needs billions of dollars in investment capital to revive the
economy, no capital investment is necessary to underwrite the climate of
political tolerance, press freedom and judicial impartiality which are a
prerequisite for the government of national unity to achieve its desired
goals.
For example, without genuine media freedom and a free flow on
information
and ideas, the just launched constitution-making process will
not achieve
the required level of success.
The Prime Minister's
recent tour of the United States and European capitals
met with mixed
success. The idea was, however, commendable in principle, for
purposes of
re-establishing relations with the international community. The
former
Mugabe government had become largely ostracized on account of the
belligerence of its foreign policy and its intransigence at
home.
Many observers find it surprising, however, that after the
extensive
international travels that marked Zimbabwe's formal re-engagement
with the
wider international community, the Prime Minister has not yet made
any
effort or planned a courtesy visit to Pretoria to personally brief
President
Jacob Zuma on the situation in Harare.
A one-to-one meeting
would accord the South African President an opportunity
to come to terms
with the very clear and consistent messages he was given
about the
continuing need for the GPA to be fully implemented. Such briefing
by
Tsvangirai would be totally without equivocation in seeking to appraise
Zuma
on the major obstacles being encountered in seeking to implement all
the
terms of the GPA.
The Prime Minister should embark on a similar
initiative at the regional
level. It is the SADC that, with the mandate of
the AU, presided over the
negotiation and the signing of the GPA, whose
process of implementation has
become a cause for
consternation.
President Zuma must be more involved in seeking a final
solution to the
ongoing crisis in his formal capacity as the current chair
of SADC. By the
way, he holds this position only until the end of this month
when the baton
passes on to President Dos Santos of Angola, a long-standing
ally of
President Mugabe.
That the Prime Minister recently remarked
that there was no need to involve
the SADC and that the GNU was working
things out on its own was clearly an
act of wishful thinking. Such a false
sense of security about the prospects
of the GNU resolving outstanding
issues without external intervention throws
up genuine concerns about likely
misconceptions in the cloistered confines
of the upper echelons of the
GNU.
The shocking realities on the ground tell their own tragic
story.
After all, given the continuing and flagrant breaches of the GPA,
the
present unsatisfactory arrangement will have to be referred to SADC and
perhaps even to the AU as its co-guarantors, however much the President and
Prime Minister may claim otherwise.
The Prime Minister must recognise
the leading role of South Africa in the
region and the apparent wish of the
South African government to reaffirm its
ongoing commitment to its
neighbour. While meaningful international
relations are crucial, Zimbabwe
needs its regional allies now more than
ever, not least because they
insisted the GPA be signed and implemented.
Furthermore, indications are
that the new South African administration is
more ready to play a
constructive role than has previously been the case.
The Prime Minister,
more than the President, needs to be proactive in
seeking to test the
waters? He must demonstrate that he and the MDC have now
overcome their
original suspicion of the SADC leadership, which suspicion
was
understandable at the time.
Above all, Messrs Mugabe, Tsvangirai and
Mutambara must also demonstrate
that at all times they seek to fulfill or
satisfy the aspirations and
expectations of the long-suffering people of
Zimbabwe ahead of their own
personal interests.
Zimbabweans urgently
need and deserve better than the current political
charades, such as those
witnessed on Monday at the Harare International
Conference Centre. The
madness that descended on that august conference
venue is not the Zimbabwe
that sacrifices were made and lives lost during
the liberation
struggle.
President Mugabe must finally drill in the heads, especially of
the war
veteran community, the message that no one citizen of our country is
more
Zimbabwean than another.
We fought for equality and equality we
must have.
Regarding the JAG communique 7/14/2009....What the hell is wrong with the
MDC? I thought they would help the farmers. The MDC should fight back or
the new government should fight back and get rid of the invaders and
lawbreakers. I think its tragic. Just know that people in the USA are
aware of your situation.
Mel