• Call for Assistance to Displaced Farm Workers
• Police beat up women protesting against POSA
• Corpses donated to UZ
• NRZ forks out $400 m monthly to regional firms
• MDC confirms poll candidates
• Let’s have the fuel, please
• Zimbabweans cannot afford entertainment
• It’s what they do after war that counts
• Better to be puppet of the West, not East
• Organisation to rehabilitate violence and torture victims
• Bulawayo families surviving on one meal a day – survey
• NCA threatens poll demos
• Harare City is Broke
• Millions Lost Through Cheque Frauds
• Husbands justified in beating Zimbabwean wives
• Zimbabwe: Rival Political Parties May Hold Talks
• New Dual Fuel Pricing System On Cards
• Zimbabweans 'can't afford to bury their dead'
• I still belong to Zanu-PF: Tekere
• Succession: Mahofa lashes out

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

July 25, 2003
Posted to the web July 25, 2003

Johannesburg

More than 500,000 Zimbabweans have been forced to leave their homes since
the start of the government's controversial "fast track" land reform
programme, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has claimed.

In a recent report, "Displaced and forgotten: Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs) in Zimbabwe", the NRC estimated that since the government's takeover
of commercial farms began almost three years ago, some 240,000 farm workers
had lost their jobs.

Although some ex-commercial farm workers had been able to continue living in
farm compounds, "many of those without resources have become internally
displaced".

Food security was a key concern, since large numbers of farm workers had no
access to land during the 2002/2003 season, while internal displacement had
taken its toll on the most vulnerable members of the farm worker population.

"These are, in particular, people who are unattractive as labour for the new
farmers and who do not have the resources required to find long-term
resettlement opportunities. It includes, among others, the elderly,
female-headed households, orphans and people in poor health, e.g. HIV/AIDS
victims," the report stated.

Farm worker representative groups told IRIN that in some cases former farm
workers found themselves drifting from farm to farm seeking temporary
shelter and employment.

"We have noticed that people have found ways of coping. Gold panning is a
major activity in some parts, but also, families have resorted to selling
firewood and even their own personal assets. Unfortunately, there are those
who have turned to commercial sex as way of making money to buy food," Farm
Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) director Godfrey Magaramombe said.

Initially the situation was made all the more precarious as many labourers
were excluded from food aid programmes.

"That situation has been slightly remedied as donors have been forthcoming.
We are feeding about 100,000 ex-farm workers and about 160,000 children. But
our capacity is limited and we can only manage so far with the little
resources," Magaramombe said.

While farm workers were the majority of the casualties of land reform in
Zimbabwe, political activists, "especially during elections periods", also
faced continuous displacement, the NRC said.

"While in the past the [ruling] ZANU-PF youth militias and the war veterans
focused much of their violence on rural areas, since 2002 the capital,
Harare, and its suburbs (often opposition strongholds) as well as other
major cities have become the focus for the ruling party's campaign to
suppress the opposition," the NRC claimed.

IRIN was unable to obtain comment from the government on Friday.

Among its recommendations the refugee NGO called for a countrywide survey to
assess the needs and coping mechanisms used by ex-farm workers. However,
before such an assessment was conducted, the NRC called on the government
and the humanitarian community to agree on how to include farm labourers in
their food aid programmes.

There was also an urgent need to give ex-commercial farm workers access to
land and farm inputs before the 2003/2004 agricultural season.

"This could include more ex-farm workers being included in the government's
land distribution scheme as well as finding temporary solutions to use the
largely under-utilised land allocated for commercial farming." the report
said.

      The demonstration involved about 300 protesters from several local
civic organisations.

      Those arrested were still in police custody by late yesterday
afternoon.

      Two women, including one in her late 70s, were assaulted by riot
police who reacted to the protests.

      Police appeared to have been taken by surprise by the demonstration,
with the placard-waving protesters managing to march undeterred from the
Lobengula Street Mall and hand over a petition to the senior prosecutor at
the Magistrate’s Court at Tredgold Building.

      The group then marched to Egodini commuter omnibus rank, where they
were then intercepted by riot police.

      Police refused to comment on the incident yesterday.

      The demonstration, which was held under the banner of Concerned
Citizens of Zimbabwe, involved representatives of churches, the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), the National
Constitutional Assembly and other Bulawayo residents.

      Although the police had initially seemed to want to arrest WOZA
official Jenni Williams only, several other women voluntarily gave
themselves up in solidarity.

      The Daily News witnessed some of the women voluntarily getting into
police vehicles. A group of people followed the police vehicles to Bulawayo
Central Police Station.

      In their petition, the protesters demanded the repeal of POSA, which
critics say is being used to deny Zimbabweans basic rights enshrined in the
country’s Constitution.

      Human rights organisations say the legislation, which was enacted
before last year’s controversial

      presidential election, has hampered freedom of speech, the Press,
movement and assembly.

      Several civic organisation leaders, opposition party officials and
journalists have been arrested and charged using the legislation.

      Part of the petition handed over to the senior prosecutor in Bulawayo
yesterday reads: “We, concerned citizens, say time is up for POSA. Time is
up for silence and the time has come for us to be allowed to meet freely.

      “There is even talk of party dialogue, how will politicians speak
whilst the nation is forced into silence?”

      From Chris Gande

      Own Correspondent

      Harare Hospital mortuary, with a holding capacity of 146 bodies, has
been forced to squeeze more than 500 bodies into its cold rooms as a result.

      The hospital’s medical superintendent, Christopher Tapfumaneyi,
confirmed to The Daily News that the institution would donate the bodies to
the UZ’s anatomy department following a request by UZ vice-chancellor Levi
Nyagura.

      The hospital’s mortuary, he said, had become overcrowded and could not
hold any more bodies because of the high number of corpses that went
unclaimed.

      Tapfumaneyi said Nyagura had asked the hospital to donate the bodies
because the anatomy department had run out of bodies for research.

      “The UZ appealed to us that they had run out of bodies for their
research and we decided to donate to them the extra bodies we had,”
Tapfumaneyi said.

      “We have a lot of bodies that have been abandoned and unclaimed by
relatives for various reasons, including, for example, the cost of a
funeral. Some bodies have been in our mortuary for more than three years and
that is well beyond the time limit we should keep a body in our mortuary,”
he said.

      “The UZ guys will choose those that are suitable for the purposes from
the selection of bodies that are available.”

      But Tapfumaneyi said the UZ would only choose from the bodies that had
been targeted for pauper’s burial while the hospital would keep the rest of
the bodies that did not qualify for a pauper’s burial.

      Hospitals across the country have been complaining of overcrowding in
their mortuaries as bodies pile up in cold rooms.

      Hospital authorities have attributed the overcrowding in mortuaries to
 the high death rate caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is claiming more
than 2 000 lives a week in Zimbabwe.

      Relatives of the dead often fail to collect bodies of their families
because of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, which raised sharply the cost of
burials.

      Asked whether it was procedural for the hospital to donate the bodies
without approval of the relatives, Tapfumaneyi cited the Anatomical
Donations and Post-Mortem Examinations Act, which empowered government
medical officers to donate bodies to the university so that they could be
used for research at the medical school.

      According to Section 4 of the Act, any government medical officer is
authorised to donate the body of a deceased person to a government hospital
or medical school engaged in medical or dental education or research.

      But in donating the body, the medical officer should first get consent
from the relatives of the dead person but, where the relatives are difficult
to locate, the officer should have sufficient reason that the relatives
would not oppose the donation in future.

      Tapfumaneyi said a dead person would be declared a pauper first before
the hospital moved to donate the body to the medical school.

      “We have had no cases where relatives who took two years to claim
their dead relatives come to the hospital saying the donations or the
paupers’ burials were granted against their will. They would not have any
basis to appeal against the decision,” he said.

      Comment could not be obtained from Nyagura but a technician in the
anatomy department said it was the first time in about three years that the
department had asked for such donations.

      Former UZ vice-chancellor and social commentator, Professor Gordon
Chavunduka, recommended that the hospital must conduct a traditional ritual
when handing over the bodies to the medical school.

      “They must bring in a traditional religious leader to conduct a ritual
to enable the deceased’s spirits to go away in a peaceful manner,” said
Chavunduka, a supporter of African values and traditions.

      “We cannot ignore culture completely,” he said. “A spirit medium
should preside over the hand-over ceremony.” By Obert Matahwa Staff Reporter

      The national rail utility is relying on foreign firms to service its
routes because its own locomotives have been grounded due to poor
maintenance, sources told the Daily News.

      Although the NRZ has said it has been adversely affected by severe
foreign currency shortages, sources said the parastatal was paying railway
companies in Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa at “exorbitant”
rates and in hard cash.

      But several of the NRZ’s trains have been involved in accidents, some
of which have been fatal, because of poor maintenance of infrastructure
blamed on lack of foreign currency to buy spare parts.

      The sources said the NRZ had been leasing two locomotives from Camino
de Ferro Mocambique (CFM) and was paying $US800 (Z$659 200) per locomotive
per day to service its eastern region, which includes Mutare and Harare.

      The parastatal has also been leasing an unspecified number of
locomotives from Spoornet of South Africa, Zambian Railways, Botswana
Railways and the locally based Bulawayo Beitbridge Railway (BBR) to service
its Midlands and southern region branches.

      “We are paying at least US$1 600 (Z$1 318 400 on the official exchange
rate or Z$4.16 million on the parallel market rate) a day to CFM while the
other companies actually charge more than that,” an NRZ official told the
Daily News.

      The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added: “All in all,
we are paying a minimum of $400 million, but it usually goes up depending on
the services we would have got for a particular month.”

      NRZ corporate affairs manager Misheck Matanhire confirmed that
although the loss making parastatal was failing to raise foreign currency to
pay for spare parts to service its own fleet and rail system, the company
was paying for leased locomotives in hard currency.

      But Matanhire said leasing locomotives was supposed to improve the
services provided by the NRZ.

      “It is worth noting that such an arrangement of hiring foreign
locomotives has been in existence for some time. This arrangement has
improved the NRZ’s current locomotive problems,” he said yesterday.

      “It is pertinent to mention that the NRZ fleet of locomotives was
reduced due to the shortage of foreign currency to import spare parts for
repairing the locomotives and wagons.

      “The NRZ requires a fleet of 150 different classes of locomotives for
use in both its shunting and mainline operations.”

      Sources said only a quarter of NRZ’s locomotives countrywide were in
operation and even these had to undergo frequent service checks due to
constant breakdowns.

      The sources also said the NRZ had been failing to recoup expenses
incurred as a result of the leasing of the locomotives because the
government insisted on the national rail service provider charging below
market fares.

      Matanhire said: “Although the NRZ is paying in foreign currency for
hiring locomotives from other railway organisations, it is also being paid
in foreign currency for transporting transit traffic and is therefore able
to service the account for hiring locomotives.

      “With regard to the maintenance of locomotives, the NRZ boasts of
having highly skilled manpower, which is capable of overhauling and
repairing its fleet of locomotives and rolling stock.”

      By Farai Mutsaka

      Chief Reporter

      He was confirmed alongside nine other prospective MDC Gwanda
councillors in the Nomination Court on Monday.

      MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said: “Mnkandla has already done a
lot in the service of the town. As an educationist and education
administrator, he headed Gwanda Government Secondary School for years before
taking up his current lecturership post at the Joshua Mqabuko Polytechnic.

      “At community level, he is still the chairman of the Gwanda District
AIDS Action Committee while the human rights fraternity knows him as the
Matabeleland South provincial chairman of the Zimbabwe Human Rights
Association.”

      The Nomination Court also confirmed Mqabuko Ndlovu, Busani Mhlanga,
Huggins Dube, Justice Sibanda, Misheck Ndlovu, Themba Nyoni, Ernest Nyathi,
Japhet Mkhwananzi and Petros Mukwena as MDC candidates for wards one to nine
respectively.

      Mnkandla will stand against incumbent mayor Rido Mpofu, who is seeking
a second term on a ruling ZANU PF ticket.

      Own Correspondent

      Deputy Energy and Power Development Minister Reuben Marumahoko was
yesterday quoted by the government Press saying that fuel shortages in the
country would soon be a thing of the past once a restructuring of the state’
s grossly inept fuel-buying company, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM), was completed.

      Marumahoko said a restructured NOCZIM would import fuel only for
government departments and its parastatals, while efficient and
resource-rich private oil companies would be responsible for importing fuel
for ordinary consumers.

      Long abused Zimbabweans will recall that the new fuel procurement
arrangement that Marumahoko is now touting as the final panacea to the fuel
crisis choking Zimbabwe was first mentioned by President Robert Mugabe
himself last year.

      Mugabe said then that the government would leave oil companies to
import fuel on their own because they were the ones who, at the end of the
day, stood to gain from fuel sales to the public.

      In fact, Mugabe mentioned again the new fuel buying arrangement when
he officially opened Zimbabwe’s Parliament on Tuesday this week.

      Mugabe said: “NOCZIM, after restructuring and refocusing, will be
competing with private oil companies in importing and distributing fuel
products through a dual pricing structure.”

      The time it is taking to restructure NOCZIM and allow a dual pricing
system for fuel so that private companies can be attracted to import diesel
and petrol is an indictment against the government.

      The fuel crisis has wrought so much havoc on industry and commerce,
already near total collapse because of the effects of a myriad other
ill-thought-out government policies, that one would have thought that ending
the fuel shortages would be the government’s first priority.

      And as if to illustrate the government’s inability to conduct proper
planning on anything no matter how critical, Mugabe and Marumahoko
contradicted each other, with the deputy energy minister telling the
state-controlled Herald newspaper that there would be no dual pricing of
fuel, which Mugabe had promised in his speech to Parliament barely 48 hours
before.

      It is because of this sort of bungling that millions of innocent
Zimbabweans must endure hunger and starvation due to the government’s
decision to take its sweet time to tell international donors that the
country requires 700 000 metric tonnes of food aid for the 2003/2004 period.

      Needless to say that this country was once self-sufficient in food
until the government decided in 2000 to embark on a poorly planned and often
violent land reform programme that has destabilised the country’s mainstay
agricultural sector.

      Food relief experts say it will take up to three months before the
first shipment of aid can be expected in the country. This when families in
some parts of the country worst hit by hunger say they have food only enough
to last them until next month.

      Surely, there could hardly be a clearer example that the government
has run out of ideas on how to rescue Zimbabwe from the economic hardships
that its policies and actions have driven this country into than its
mishandling of the fuel and food situation.

      But it remains the sovereign decision of Zimbabweans to continue
putting up with this shoddy treatment a little longer or to free themselves
from man-made misery.

      Each year, the CSO includes what it claims people use as peripheral
needs, which obviously would form an integral part of the life of every
individual anywhere else in the world.

      But apparently, Zimbabwe is not “anywhere else in the world” to
seemingly justify the breakdown of the monthly incomes to include
“entertainment and other leisure”.

      According to the CSO, Zimbabweans spend more than 60 percent of their
income on entertainment and other needs, with the remaining 30-something
percentage points being spent on food.

      This among other grave flaws on the statistics the CSO has always
furnished the nation, and indeed the world, with would fall short of making
informed presentations of the order of things here.

      In the first place, what is the average Zimbabwean’s idea of
entertainment today, when more than half the time those same people worry
about what they will put in their stomachs?

      A good number of people’s idea of social life has taken a severe
knock, and long gone are the days when people could throng the local
community halls and local stadiums for a weekend to remember.

      And these were the days when really good and extremely fulfilling
weekend wind-downers got some daredevils skipping work on Monday because of
a terrible hangover!

      The average Zimbabwean just does not have the disposable income that
would give them an outing each weekend even though they would have loved to
considering the mind-blowing depression they go through each day.

      When Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mtukudzi became the first musicians in
the country to have their shows pegged at $1 500 in local currency only last
year, many enthusiasts thought they were very exorbitant. But these same
people, feeling these artistes were indeed in that league that justified
such high entrance fees, still thronged the venues where either of those two
icons was performing.

      It is interesting, or rather disturbing, to note that the highest
entrance charge so far for a music gig in the country has not been what
others would, with a sense of pharisaic pietism, call “worldly music”.

      It has rather curiously been the spiritual kind which in the halcyon
days of such pioneers like Jordan Chataika and Freedom Sengwayo were
virtually free of charge. But then, we ought to let the devil tell his own
story, and indeed he has many to tell. But I digress.

      In any society in the free world, it has been noted since
entertainment was invented that in the absence of an outlet for letting out
steam and taking a detour from every day’s hectic schedules and many
headaches, the people thus deprived of all that and more pursue activities
that would be far from socially correct.

      In Zimbabwe, such has become the norm, and it is only them who are
literally cash-rich who would be found gyrating in the now very many sleazy
nightspots across the country as soon as the weekend announces its arrival.

      The majority meanwhile can no longer afford the unlimited swigs of
their favourite brews as even the spirits (chapomba) they turned to for a
quick psychedelic drift to another world would leave their children
starving. They have also become too dear.

      Ideally, the notion of entertainment would be presented as virtually a
sine qua non for a healthy state of mind.

      And even better yet, this in a world where revolutions driven by
advances in technology have presented man as a techno-wizard where movies
are downloaded from the Internet and the DVD has seemingly sought to take
the viewer right into the movie itself by its amazing visuals.

      But then, not many from the high-density streets would still claim to
have that in their homes, or even claim to have seen any DVD movie! Home
entertainment itself has become a thing of the past with the out-of-reach
prices of video cassette players, which only in 1997 went for what would be
a song at less than $10 000.

      Obviously with the erosion of the disposable income, it has not only
meant it is the basic commodities that have been taken away from the average
worker, but those very activities they used to enjoy during weekends.

      I was taken aback when Dan Tshanda came to Bulawayo a couple of months
back and some gainfully employed fellows could not afford to spend the
“paltry” (depending on who was talking) $2 500 charged as entrance fee.

      Breaking down the expenses, they felt they would still need close to
four or more times that given that they would not simply get down with the
pelvic gyrations without taking in the inebriating drink, which invariably
at such occasions goes for more than double the official price. For all the
toiling, the pittance that many get at the end of the month goes to food and
shelter. The third so-called basic necessity in man’s life, clothes, just
does not make it in the monthly budgets of the average Zimbabwean home
anymore. In the absence of the government deliberating on recommendations by
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
on what would be the favoured average monthly income, this trend is set to
continue. If the CSO then imagines the ordinary Zimbabwean still has money
to burn on entertainment activities, one has to wonder who it has as its
source of such grossly misleading information. It will be agreed that beer
has always formed the social life of blacks, be they well-oiled self-made
billionaires, the lowest paid guard or garden man. However, with the many
increases which have been effected this year alone, this has become an
enterprise that the average wage-earner would engage in only at their peril.
They would be rombes (non-achievers) for life. But, as if that was not bad
enough, these developments have not stopped that fraternity of
ever-ubiquitous dipsomaniacs from expecting a free drink from those who can
still afford the time out at the local watering hole. One has to wonder,
therefore, how long it will take for the locals here to get back the good
old days when real entertainment formed a part of the lives of the ghetto
souls. It will also be poignantly recalled that in the not-so-distant past,
schools would organise trips for school children to holiday resorts, with
parents forking out the monies without giving it a second thought. It was
only the children themselves who would willingly let pass that chance for
some reason, but looking back, it just indicates how badly that so-called
disposable income has been eroded by events here, namely bad governance and
what others have not very kindly called voodoo economics. One has to
empathise with those women whose husbands, because they can no longer afford
beer, now spend the weekend cooped up at home and inevitably monitoring what
they cook, how they cook it, who their friends are and generally getting on
their nerves all the time. So much for the entertainment the Central
Statistical Office talks about. By Marko Phiri

      Let me perhaps add one more point, along the lines of “the emperor’s
new robes”. Wasn’t it actually supposed to be the war veterans who were
going to bankroll the country by turning unproductive white-owned land into
successful farms?

      Instead, agricultural production has plummeted by close to 90 percent,
according to some reports. Now, the war vets cannot even fund their own
annual congress and there is not enough of a tax base from commercial
activity for the rest of the citizenry to fund anything.

      Since the war vets have no pension fund any more and no bounty from
the seized land, of course they have their begging bowls out. And who can
blame the indolent youths – most of whom have no prospect of ever holding
down a paying job in their lives – for wanting to get in the line with them
too?

      Who cares if the youths have to stretch the definition of a war
veteran to the limit? There has been a perception that the war vets are
somehow going to be “taken care of”, and anyone who can get in on that gravy
train is lucky.

      There are many sad ironies in the war vets’ plight. They fought to
free the country so that their children could grow up well-educated, with
prosperous jobs and then they would retire comfortably, regarded by one and
all as father figures.

      Now they must watch their children live in dire straits unimaginable
prior to the war. And, far from being independent from the colonising
powers, they have no option but to accept international food aid to avoid
famine.

      As we here in America are finding out in Iraq, it is sometimes not
what you do during the war that defines your status as a hero, but what you
do in the peace afterward.

      Perhaps many of the war veterans did not realise that the real test of
their mettle was to come after the end of the war.

      Gordon Hardman

      Colorado

      USA

      While the presence of the Movement for Democratic Change legislators
and party leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the House is certainly a positive step
towards reducing tension, let it not be regarded as a sign of weakness.

      I do not agree with the notion of making friends from the poor Third
World. While the opposition is accused on a daily basis of being a puppet of
the West, I think it’s better to be a direct puppet than to be an indirect
one with heavy links to Western puppets in the East.

      Take China, for example. The Chinese government has even relegated the
Taiwan issue to a political problem for their economic interests.

      Economics comes before politics! Our leaders should get to grips with
the dynamics of the world’s socio-economic climate.

      While making friends is not a bad idea, Zimbabwe’s economic problems
cannot be solved by getting along with poverty-ridden countries.

      Those same poor countries are also begging the West. Zimbabwe should
aim to get out of the Third World grouping and not sink deeper into it.
There is no comfort in poverty.

      In my opinion, it’s better to be a direct puppet of the West than to
be a puppet of another
     puppet. Let’s not misinform Zimbabweans that Eastern countries need
the West less than we do.

      True Zimbabwean

      United Kingdom

      The organisation, the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture
Victims, was formed last week by alleged victims of violence and torture.

      Opposition Movement for Democratic Change legislator Job Sikhala, who
is a member of the organisation, told the Daily News that the group was
apolitical.

      Sikhala, who has been arrested several times, told the courts in
January that he was tortured by state security agents while in police
custody.

      The Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims will be involved
in income-generating projects that will be funded by well-wishers.

      The projects are expected to help in the rehabilitation of the victims
of torture.

      Taurai Magaya, a member of the organisation said: “As torture victims,
we suffer from a variety of post-traumatic disorders. The majority of us
become hopeless, insecure, feel alienated from the society and most of the
time we live in despair.”

      “The society is bound to support torture victims and the victims
should be able to do things for themselves,” he said.

      Other members of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims
include Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer who was allegedly tortured
while in police custody early this year.

      Shumba, who was arrested while conducting a meeting with Sikhala, who
was his client at the time, left Zimbabwe for South Africa saying he had
received death threats.

      He has been tasked with highlighting the problems faced by victims of
torture in Zimbabwe and with securing funding for them from international
organisations.

      Sikhala said the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims was
formed because of increasing reports of people being tortured around the
country, especially while in police detention.

      The government has denied that state security agents are involved in
torture and the results of a court-ordered investigation into allegations of
torture in police stations have not been made public.

      “It (torture) has been practiced with impunity for a period dating
from the colonial times through the Smith regime and the Gukurahundi
violations in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces in the 1980s to the
present wave of organised violence, which has been particularly marked since
April 2000,” Sikhala said.

      According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, 1 061 cases of
torture were reported in the year ending in December 2002, with the majority
of victims not receiving any counselling or rehabilitation.

      Sikhala said the introduction of repressive legislation such as the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA) had contributed to the rise in alleged
torture cases.

      POSA, which was passed last year, has been used against opposition
party officials and supporters as well as civic group leaders and the
independent Press.

      “One such (repressive) law is the notorious Public Order and Security
Act, which gives considerable powers to the police,” Sikhala said. “As a
result, unlawful detention and arbitrary arrest is now the order of the day,
especially for those in opposition political parties and civic groups.”

      Staff Reporter

      The survey, whose results were released yesterday, was carried out to
investigate food supplies in selected high-density areas of Bulawayo because
most food donors have channelled their aid to rural areas, ignoring equally
starving urban-dwellers.

      “There is . . . help in place for most rural parts from various
organisations. The same cannot be said of urban areas, hence the need to
carry out a near-comprehensive survey to highlight the general food
situation (there),” the survey said.

      Its publication follows reports that 179 people had died of
malnutrition in Bulawayo in the first four months of this year.

      “Due to the scarcity of maize-meal, many families (in Bulawayo) now
have tea in the morning and afternoon and sadza in the evening,” the survey
said.

      “It is of note that this tea is taken with nothing to go with it such
as bread, (which) is scarce or too expensive at the black market rate,” it
said.

      It noted that even the one solid meal a day in most city households
was not always available because of severe shortages of maize-meal.

      According to the survey, many families in Bulawayo suburbs such as
Lobengula, Old Lobengula and Njube are surviving only through the help of
bread winners abroad.

      The survey said 76 respondents interviewed complained of corruption
and favouritism in the selling of maize-meal. The residents, according to
the survey, complained that deliveries of maize-meal took an interval of at
least three months.

      The survey noted that in Makokoba, Nguboyenja, Mzilikazi and
Barbourfields, one percent of the population now depended on crime to make
ends meet.

      In the same suburbs, 91 percent of the people said they no longer
could afford to have three meals a day, which they used to have before the
onset of the food shortages.

      “For most people, they borrow maize-meal from neighbours or buy from
the black market, which sells at $400 per cup or $5 000 per bucket of
 maize,” the survey said, noting that the maize-meal price was beyond the
reach of already hard-pressed Bulawayans.

      It also revealed that apart from the increase in the levels of hunger
and starvation in urban areas, Zimbabwe’s galloping inflation – officially
pegged at nearly 400 percent – had fuelled crime and prostitution,
especially among the youth, as a means of income.

      “There is an increase in the number of child-headed households and
single-parent homes mainly headed by females,” the survey said, explaining
the increase in child prostitution.

      It said there was increasing overcrowding in most homes, especially in
Bulawayo’s older suburbs. CTJP was formed in 2001. Its members are the
Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the
Catholic Church.

      Own Correspondent

      Speaking at a public meeting here on Tuesday, Madhuku said his
organisation, which has been agitating for constitutional reform for several
years, would cause “chaos and disarray” during next month’s polls.

      He said the NCA was “greatly incensed by the government’s
unwillingness” to adopt a new constitution that would allow for a
“democratic dispensation in the country”.

      “The NCA believes that there cannot be any change of fortunes
politically unless a new and democratic constitution is effected,” Madhuku
added.

      “We have, therefore, resolved to tackle (President) Robert Mugabe’s
regime head-on, and in three weeks’ time, we will be going into the streets
to protest,” he added.

      Madhuku said his organisation had resolved to “cause chaos at the
polling stations to show that we are not happy with the current
 Constitution”.

      The government has, however, indicated that a new constitution is not
at the top of its list of priorities. A government-driven constitutional
draft was rejected in a referendum in February 2000.

      Madhuku said: “Opposition parties and the society at large must unite
and speak with one voice against Mugabe’s regime.

      “During the municipal elections, people must be out in full force to
cause chaos at polling stations as a way of expressing disgust at the
current Constitution. I think that’s the only language the government will
understand.”

      The NCA has in the past defied the draconian Public Order and Security
Act (POSA) to stage street marches, most of which have been suppressed by
the police.

      Demonstrations are outlawed under POSA, which critics say has made
illegal basic rights enshrined in Zimbabwe’s Constitution.

      Agrippa Madlela, president of a local opposition party, ZAPU, told
Tuesday’s public meeting that

      Zimbabwe’s political parties should unite to lobby the government to
adopt a new constitution.

      Madhuku?? added: “Zimbabwe needs a home-grown constitution and for
this to happen, opposition parties must come together, put their differences
aside and lobby for a new and democratic constitution.

      “Our Constitution has been savagely amended in the past to protect the
interests of one party – which is ZANU PF – and indeed one individual – who
is Mugabe.” he said

      Own Correspondent

The Herald (Harare)

July 25, 2003
Posted to the web July 25, 2003

Harare

HARARE city is broke and its expenditure exceeded income by close to $2
billion between January and June this year.

As a result, the city has suspended the implementation of new projects such
as the Glaudina and Hopley residential estates and the upgrading of Firle
and Crowborough sewerage treatment works.

Sources said the city was operating on a tight budget and it was feared the
council might not be able to pay its creditors and workers' salaries.

A number of measures have been proposed to redeem the situation, among them,
stepping up of revenue collection, reduction of purchases of non-essential
goods and suspension of purchases of furniture and equipment.

All departments will be asked to submit lists of essential requirements that
have to be bought, purchase of other items being deferred.

A letter written by chief accountant Mr Everisto Rukasha to city treasurer
Mr Misheck Mubvumbi read: "From January 2003, our monthly expenditure has
been exceeding our monthly income.

"To date, our expenditure is $11,430 billion compared to income of $9,472
billion from January 2003 to June 2003."

Mr Rukasha said because of the indebtedness, council had used all surplus
funds that had accumulated in 2002.

The council's investments were at an all time low of only $337, 959 million.

The investments were running at a deficit of $352,655 million as of June 30
this year.

Mr Rukasha recommended that the revenue division go out in full force to
recover all outstanding payments.

The Herald understands that a council school in Hatcliffe had its water
supplies cut over non-payment of bills.

The city had to resort to operating on overdraft during the time of former
Executive Mayor Solomon Tawengwa in order to pay workers.

Mr Rukasha said all finance officers should be made aware of council's
financial position and that the situation was to be reviewed every week.

The latest developments at Town House come at a time councillors are
demanding monthly allowances of $200 000 each, up from $15 000.

The new allowance would mean that council would have to fork out over $9
million every month, compared to $675 000 at present.

The MDC dominated council assumed office in March 2002 after the expiry of
the Chanakira Commission's term of office.

The Commission left behind a healthy financial position of $4 billion.

When the Commission took over the running of Harare, the city then had an
overdraft of over $100 million.

It also had debts of more than $299 million.

The overdraft and the debts were cleared in the first six months of the
Commission being in office.

Sources privy to business at Town House apportioned blame on councillors
whom they said did not listen to advice from officials.

"They view officials with suspicion and think we are out to bring them
down," said one official.

"They bring party politics to Town House and forget they are there to serve
the people."

Acting mayor Ms Sekesai Makwavarara refused to comment on the matter.

"I cannot comment on that one. I am not aware of that letter (from Mr
Rukasha to Mr Mubvumbi)," she said.

Harare executive mayor, Engineer Elias Mudzuri was suspended by the Minister
of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing early this year, for
alleged corruption and mismanagement of council affairs.

The Herald (Harare)

July 25, 2003
Posted to the web July 25, 2003

Harare

COMMERCIAL banks and individuals have been swindled of millions of dollars
in recent weeks through cheque frauds by conmen taking advantage of the bank
notes shortage gripping the country.

The conmen are said to have formed a network with bank employees to steal
bank cheques, which are then encashed at the country's major outlets and
auction floors.

Bank certified cheques are fully guaranteed by the financial institution
from where they originate and can not be dishonoured once provided for
encashment.

Usually, they are signed by the senior officials from the issuing commercial
institution and are accepted by all major outlets in Zimbabwe.

Police confirmed that fraud cases had increased in recent weeks although
they could not immediately supply the relevant statistics.

"It is true that there has been a significant increase in cases of cheque
fraud in recent months," said police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Oliver
Mandipaka.

"We have already stepped up a publicity campaign informing the public to be
cautious in their dealings especially those involving bank cheques as the
risk of being cheated is very high these days.

"Every effort is being made to bring most of those involved in these
unethical dealings to book," he added.

He said while many cases of bank cheque fraud had been reported, more went
unreported because some of the cheques would have been issued through
clandestine deals.

Asst. Ins Mandipaka said even commercial institutions were unwilling to
publicise cases of theft as they feared that doing so would bring bad
publicity to their operations.

"Most prefer to deal with the issue internally. It is only when the
prejudice of clandestine deals is higher that some commercial institutions
warn the public," said Asst. Insp Mandipaka.

Efforts to get a comment from officials of the Bankers Association of
Zimbabwe proved fruitless yesterday.

However, some bank executives said there had been incidents where entire
bank chequebooks have "vanished" from a number of branches.

"The stolen cheques are used by the conmen to purchase various products from
individuals and companies," said a senior manager with one of the commercial
banks.

Several commercial banks and building societies have already issued a series
of notices advising the public and merchants to exercise extreme caution
when accepting bank cheques purportedly issued by the respective
institutions.

Some of the banks that have issued such statements include Kingdom Bank,
Beverly Building Society and Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe Limited.

Officials from Barclays Bank said the cases of "fake" bank cheques had risen
dramatically over the last four weeks.

"The rate at which merchants and members of the public are bringing in
cheques that are being dishonoured is quite alarming.

"We advise these parties (merchants and public) not to release any goods
unless the cheques have been cleared," said one official who declined to be
named.

The clearing period for bank cheques issued within Harare was five days
whilst those outside the capital took up to 10 days to clear.

It has emerged that some conmen are actually printing and circulating bank
cheques similar to those issued by local banks.

Instances of bank cheque fraud have also spread to auction centres where
perpetrators are using fraudulent cheques to make purchases while using the
clearing period to make good their escape.

Auctioneers said they were still accepting bank cheques despite the
escalation in cases of bank fraud.

A spokesperson for Hammer and Tongues, Mr John Chitsamba and ABC Auctions'
managing director, Mr Mike Bremer said their companies were only accepting
bank-certified cheques.

"What we basically do is that when we receive a bank certified cheque from
someone, we actually phone the bank to confirm the validity of the cheque
and if everything is in order we proceed with the sale," Mr Chitsamba said.

The central bank, in a bid to address the current cash shortages bedeviling
the financial sector is encouraging the use of plastic money and non-cash
transactions that include the use of cheques.

The country has been experiencing an acute shortage of cash for the past
three months, forcing banks to reduce withdrawal amounts for their clients.

In a bid to curb the cheque fraud, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe this week
increased the amount for special clearance to $1 million from $250 000.

      Men are within their rights to beat their wives if they argue, neglect
the children, refuse to have sex, burn food or leave the home without
permission, most of the women surveyed said.

      "If nothing is done, the next generation of women may be just as
likely to believe that wife-beating is acceptable behaviour since younger
women seem to be more accepting of wife-beating," Michelle Hindin of the
Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore said in a
statement on Friday.

      Hindin's team reviewed data from a 1999 World Health Organisation
survey of 5,907 Zimbabwean women aged 15 to 49.

      Women aged 15 to 24 were 2-1/2 times more likely than women aged 45 to
49 to believe that wife-beating was justified, researchers found. But among
the older women, more than half said wife-beating was often acceptable.

      Poor, rural women, those with less than a secondary education and
those with lower occupational status were more likely to say their husbands
had the right to beat them.

      "Interventions that promote joint decision-making might be a promising
strategy for increasing women's views towards equality in marriage, while
promoting men's views that household disputes should be settled with
negotiation, not violence," Hindin said.

After a week of reduced political tension in Zimbabwe, efforts are under way
to get talks started between the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, the MDC.

The state-controlled broadcaster and newspapers loyal to the ruling party,
have toned down their criticism of the opposition this week.

According to political analysts, this was a response to the MDC's agreement
to attend President Robert Mugabe's speech on Tuesday at the opening of
parliament. Since Mr. Mugabe's disputed election victory last year,
opposition legislators have walked out before he addresses each new session
of parliament.

Two weeks ago President Bush and South African president Thabo Mbeki agreed,
on a public platform in Pretoria, that the Zimbabwe crisis needed urgent
resolution, leading to new elections.

Since then there have been increased contacts between the opposition and
ruling parties.

The MDC's justice spokesman David Coltart said this week that if substantive
talks begin the MDC will suspend, but not cancel, its legal challenge to Mr.
Mugabe's re-election. The MDC and most foreign observers say the election
was rigged.

The MDC has appointed a negotiating team, led by its secretary-general
Welshman Ncube. Mr. Ncube is one of three top opposition leaders who are on
trial for treason. The opposition has also chosen various technical teams to
support its frontline negotiators. It says it is ready to begin talks, as
soon as Zanu PF is ready.

Zanu PF has not yet selected a negotiating team. In addition, party leaders
have not decided who among them will replace President Mugabe. If Mr. Mugabe
retires, fresh presidential elections have to be held within 90 days.

Political analysts believe Zanu PF has no candidate who could win a fair
election against the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

One of the early points for negotiation will be the opposition's demand that
repressive security legislation be dropped immediately, in order to allow
free political activity.

Economists across a wide range of opinion said this week that negotiations
are urgent as there is almost no food or fuel in Zimbabwe.

On Friday, pay day for most employed people, there were long queues snaking
around banks and building socities across the country. But only a few people
were able to draw cash from their salary checks, because there are almost no
banknotes available.

The Herald (Harare)

July 25, 2003
Posted to the web July 25, 2003

Harare

THERE will be a dual fuel pricing system once the restructuring of Noczim is
finished, with the Government and critical economic areas being able to buy
cheaper fuel from Noczim than that imported by oil companies for the general
public.

The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Cde Amos Midzi, yesterday said
Noczim would charge one price to Government departments, parastatals and
critical economic areas, while private oil companies would charge a
different price for the public.

"Noczim will be supplying at a price that will not be the same with the
price charged by private players," said Cde Midzi.

"The policy has not changed from targeted subsidisation and the Government
would continue to subsidise Noczim."

Cde Midzi said critical economic areas that would be supplied by the Noczim
include public transport.

He said negotiations were underway between the Government and oil companies
on several issues in preparation for the total deregulation of the industry.

"This touches on the regime of pricing and the management of the new
dispensation after deregulation."

Officially opening the Fourth Session of the Fifth Parliament on Tuesday,
President Mugabe said there would be a dual pricing structure for fuel once
the restructuring of Noczim was completed.

"On the other hand, Noczim, after restructuring and refocusing will be
competing with private oil companies in importing and distributing fuel
products through a dual pricing structure."

"What I want to inform the nation is that the President clearly enunciated
and said the policy. As Government we are going to implement the policy as
enunciated because there should be a dual price regime."

The Government recently increased the prices of petrol from $145,20 a litre
to $450 and diesel to $200 a litre from $119,43.

But some service stations were reportedly selling petrol at $1 500 a litre,
almost the same price it cost on the black market.

Zimbabwe has been facing fuel shortages since 1999 when foreign currency
shortages began affecting the country.

The shortages eased after the Government and Libya signed an agreement under
which Tripoli supplied 70 percent of the country's fuel needs.

The deal had some problems, but was renewed last month.