The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Monday, July 28, 2003 Posted: 9:52 PM EDT (0152
GMT)
Monday, July 28, 2003
Posted: 9:52 PM EDT (0152 GMT)
Riot
police respond to a run on a Zimbabwe bank Monday. Story Tools
|
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- First, the fuel began running out. Then food became scarce. Now, with inflation running out of control, Zimbabwe can't print its increasingly worthless money fast enough.
Banks on Monday were forced to limit -- and even refuse -- withdrawals, calling in riot police to patrol the lines of furious and frustrated Zimbabweans desperate for their money.
Bank executives said the cash shortage was the most severe they've seen anywhere. They said they were receiving less than 10 percent of the Zimbabwe dollar bills from the central bank they required to meet their daily withdrawals.
Chris Zhonde, a private security guard in Harare, said he was turned away from his bank Monday after being told it had no money for withdrawals.
As Zimbabweans waited in vain to cash their pay checks Monday, police at one downtown Harare bank were forced to use batons to prevent people from smashing their way inside.
The Reserve Bank said last month that amid the nation's continuing economic crisis it did not have enough hard currency to buy the special paper and seals needed to print new bills. Even if it did, its own printing machines would not be able to produce the estimated 1 million notes a day needed to ease the shortages.
The cash crisis came to a head Friday and Saturday when Zimbabweans, angry that they could not cash their paychecks, smashed windows at two banks.
On Monday, many banks had run out of bills. Others were rationing their supplies, allowing clients to withdraw Zimbabwean $10,000, roughly US$12 at the official exchange rate and less than US$4 at the black market rate. Other banks had set lower limits.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe estimates an average urban family needs at least Z$6,000 a day (about US$7 at the official rate) for food, shelter, power, transportation and other basics.
Bank officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were exasperated.
Banks in the hyperinflationary economies of South America and in Africa and former East bloc countries occasionally withheld cash to stop a run on money by panicked customers, they said, but they never heard of the bills running out.
The erratic supply of bills over the past few weeks spurred businesses and individuals to hoard notes, making the problem worse, the officials said.
Zimbabwe's largest note is Z$500 (60 U.S. cents at the official exchange rate).
The Finance Ministry has promised to issue a new Z$1,000 note in coming weeks, but desperate businesses have called for new notes as large as Z$50,000.
With cash in short supply, bars and clubs have begun accepting checks for drinks. But there could soon be a check shortage too, with banks saying they do not have the ability to print checks fast enough to keep up with the new demand.
Zimbabwe's economy is devastated, with unemployment at 70 percent and inflation topping 365 percent a year in the official economy and more than 700 percent when the thriving black market is factored in.
The country is suffering acute shortages of hard currency, and imports, such as gas, medicine and food. Fuel shortages have crippled industry and transportation.
The crisis is blamed partly on the state program that seized thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black settlers.
Foreign investment and aid has largely ended in protest of human rights abuses and last year's disputed presidential election, which gave President Robert Mugabe another six-year term. Mugabe has been president of the southern African country since independence in 1980.
By Michael Hartnack
South African newspapers seem convinced "something is
happening" in Harare,
with a prospect of Robert Mugabe retiring peacefully
and with dignity within
the next 12 months. Unfortunately, hopes of a
breakthrough are being aroused
on slender evidence and may have been
contrived to deceive the war-weary
Zimbabwean public and the exasperated
international community. It is an old
Mugabe ploy for forcing concessions
from his opponents: he raises false
hopes, and when they are dashed, he says
in effect: "Sorry, kids, it wasn't
my fault you never had your picnic - it
was that mean guy over there who
called it off." While Mugabe appears
receptive to talks about his
retirement, his apologists are spreading the
word in South Africa and
elsewhere that nothing must be said to upset him,
lest he change his mind
and resolve to stay, out of personal insecurity or
wounded pride. He is
thus, at one stroke, able to play for time and muffle
external criticism,
while seeking to make his domestic opponents appear
responsible for lack of
progress after nearly four years of horrific
bloodshed and economic
collapse.
As three bishops traipsed into
State House on Friday to see him, riot police
in Mutare beat back crowds who
broke plate glass windows in their
desperation to cash their month-end
cheques or obtain bank cheques to pay
routine bills. Paramilitaries with
batons, tear gas canisters and riot guns
were called out all round the
country to control queues. And the 1,3 million
in formal employment are
relatively fortunate. There is 60 percent
unemployment and several million
Zimbabweans have left because of economic
hardship rather than direct
political persecution. Those who got to the
front of the bank and building
society queues were fobbed off with Z$10
000 – sufficient to buy ten loaves
of bread if you could find any. Despite
Z$20 million fines imposed on four
bakeries earlier this month, suppliers
ignore the Z$255 a loaf controlled
price and charge anything between Z$700
and Z$1 200. It is the same story
with maize meal, Z$700 a kg when you can
find it, not the Z$200 official
price, and petrol, Z$1 500 a litre instead
of Z$450. The shortage of bank
notes resulting from the almost 400%
(official) inflation rate has been
matched by the banks' inability to print
sufficient cheque books. Like the
regime, the banks lack imported paper and
inks. Thus, any banking hall has
one queue snaking out of the door, up to
500 metres long, for the tellers,
and another only slightly less formidable,
of customers seeking bank counter
cheques to pay telephone and electricity
bills, school fees, or any large
debts. Economist John Robertson predicts
the situation "can only get worse"
while the regime refuses to address the
cause of the economic crisis, which
is essentially political.
After Friday’s two-hour talks, the ruling
Zanu PF propaganda supremo Nathan
Shamuyarira said the bishops "wanted a role
to facilitate dialogue" with
Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change. The prelates were
Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare of Manicaland,
president of the Zimbabwe
Council of Churches, Bishop Patrick Mutume, on
behalf of the seven-member
Catholic Bishops' Conference, and Bishop Trevor
Manhanga of the Evangelical
Christian Fellowship. Bakare said the bishops
"made a courtesy call on the
President to register our concern with what is
happening,’’ and urged talks
with the opposition. The President was fairly
responsive to our vision,"
said Bakare. The bishops wanted Zimbabweans "to
come up with a home grown
solution without getting some outsiders to tell us
what to do" so the
country might revert to "the Zimbabwe that it was before
this polarisation".
There is scant encouragement to be gained from Bakare's
narrow, xenophobic
tone – his reference to "before this polarisation"
suggests a yearning for
insular conformity which lay behind Zanu PF's dreams
of a one-party state
after 1980 independence. Once again, the churchmen
deliberately avoided any
attempt to say who is responsible for the looting
and terror which are the
root cause of the queues.
Some
commentators have seized upon the comparative lack of anti-MDC rhetoric
in
Mugabe's speech to the annual opening of Parliament on July 22 as
another
sign of a thaw. But there was still no announcement of repeal of the
odious
Public Order and Security Act or the Access to Information Act, as
Mugabe
promised South African President Thabo Mbeki nearly two years ago.
Instead,
a crackdown is coming on non-governmental organisations "to prevent
foreign
interests from using them to subvert our sovereignty" and on students
and
staff of higher educational institutions. Despite all the
derelict,
weed-choked fields, and the shortages, Mugabe claimed the seizure
of 5,000
white-owned farms "had brought thousands and thousands of
hitherto
marginalised families back into the economic mainstream" and they
had "a new
sense of empowerment yielding a happy sense of ownership". The
reality is
that only a comparative handful have taken up their plots, having
no
resources or expertise to bring them into production. Mugabe said
"a
combination of the drought and sanctions" had created an adverse climate
for
business but did not explain the paradox of firms, particularly in
the
financial sector, that recorded healthy balance sheets and high
dividends.
More, and tougher, price controls are planned. Any economist would
have told
him this is typical of conditions of hyper-inflation. One
paint
manufacturer, for example, has halved its turnover but appears (on
paper) to
have doubled its profits. It is simply selling off old
production.
The Mugabe personality cult was taken to a new level when
he arrived at
Parliament and the presidential guard held up a gilded
one-metre square
portrait of him as some form of regimental colour. As a
gesture of goodwill
meant to be noticed in South Africa, the MDC members of
Parliament ended
their past boycotts of Mugabe's speech, and Tsvangirai went
to the
Distinguished Strangers' Gallery (with Mugabe's approval). The leading
Zanu
PF militant and self-styled ex-guerilla Joseph Chinotimba plonked
himself
down beside him, and the state-run press – the only ones allowed into
the
chamber - photographed Tsvangirai alongside the man implicated in
numerous
assaults on MDC members, and who invaded the courts when Zimbabwe
still had
an internationally respected judiciary. Mugabe's clear message is
that for
talks to succeed Tsvangirai must accept whatever place Mugabe allots
to him,
and endorse Mugabe's policies in the company of Mugabe's
henchmen.
Daily News
Ground laid for talks
LOCAL churches are
now awaiting written responses from the country’s
main political parties to
proposed talks that could result in a negotiated
settlement of the Zimbabwean
crisis, church leaders said yesterday.
They made the statements
after meeting opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) president
Morgan Tsvangirai for private talks at his
Strathaven home in Harare, as
efforts intensified to kickstart stalled
dialogue between the MDC and the
ruling Zanu PF party.
Tsvangirai met with Sebastian Bakare, the
president of the Zimbabwe
Council of Churches who is also Bishop of the
Anglican Church in Manicaland,
Bishop Patrick Mutume of the Zimbabwe Catholic
Bishops’ Conference and
Trevor Manhanga, the president of the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe.
The three bishops said they would next
month also appraise regional
peace-brokers President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa, Malawian leader Bakili
Muluzi and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo of the
progress of their peace
initiative.
The church leaders, who
last week met President Robert Mugabe, told
journalists in Harare yesterday
that they indicated to Tsvangirai that the
problems affecting Zimbabwe
transcended political and personal interests.
Also present at
yesterday’s meeting were MDC secretary-general
Welshman Ncube, his deputy,
Gift Chimanikire, and Isaac Matongo, the
opposition party’s chairman, who
were all “very serious and committed” to
resumption of dialogue, according to
the church leaders.
“We are saddened when we see people getting
hungry,” Bakare, the
leader of the church delegation, said when asked what
the three bishops had
told Tsvangirai.
“We feel moved when
everything seems to go out of control. We get
concerned when people continue
to suffer, when they are turned away from
hospitals because there are no
drugs. There is a lot of political
polarisation, HIV/AIDS and rising
unemployment. They have to talk to resolve
all these problems affecting
Zimbabwe.”
He said after the meetings with Mugabe and
Tsvangirai, the church
leaders were waiting for written responses to
proposals that dialogue should
resume between the MDC and ZANU
PF.
Talks between the two parties broke down last year when the
MDC
challenged Mugabe’s March 2003 re-election in the
courts.
Bakare added that formal talks had not yet begun but
the churches were
“setting firm ground”.
Manhanga said
written responses from the two parties could lead to a
formal meeting being
organised between the MDC and ZANU PF.
“This process started
several months ago,” he said. “The Church by its
nature does not make public
its moves because that has the potential to
destroy the trust, respect and
understanding that we are building.
“They have to clear their
problems in Zimbabwe, but those problems
have not been brought forward as
yet. We will set out the agenda once we see
their written responses. We have
asked both parties to submit their
responses.”
Manhanga
added that the churches’ initiative began last year when they
indicated their
concerns to the government, ZANU PF and the MDC, condemning
economic policies
and political mismanagement and highlighting the level of
suffering among
Zimbabweans.
He said the churches would undertake an outreach
programme next month
to appraise regional peace-brokers of their progress in
trying to find a
lasting solution to the Zimbabwean political
crisis.
“We will tell them the situation on the ground as we
have seen it. We
don’t want to lie to people that something is being done
when it is untrue.
The region needs to be told the truth,” he
said.
Asked if the churches believed the politicians would
really talk to
end Zimbabwe’s problems, Bakare said: “We are satisfied. The
two parties are
committed to the talks. It will be very unfortunate if they
deceive us. The
President told us on Friday to ‘come soon and rescue
Zimbabwe’. We could not
have misunderstood him.”
Staff
Reporter
Daily News
Torture victims demand $9 million from
Mohadi
TWO opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
activists
and a worker at a farm
belonging to the opposition
party’s legislator for Chimanimani
constituency, Roy Bennet, are demanding a
total of $9 million from Home
Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi for alleged
torture by state security agents.
The three men, Timothy
Mubhawu, who is the MDC’s chairman in
Manicaland province, party activist
Robert Chirwa and Amos Makaza, were on
separate occasions assaulted and
tortured by police and agents of the state’
s spy Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
A lawyer for the three, Trust Maanda, wrote
to Mohadi at the beginning
of this month demanding that his clients be paid
$3 million each as
compensation or they would sue Mohadi and Police
Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri.
Mohadi could not be reached
for comment on the matter by the time of
going to print last
night.
But the police wrote to Maanda saying they had opened an
inquiry into
the allegations that his clients were tortured.
“We acknowledge receipt of your notice. By copy of this minute we
are
initiating an inquiry into the
allegations you raised. Our
legal representatives shall be notified of
our stance in due course,” a
letter written to Maanda by the police read in
part.
Torture
is outlawed under Zimbabwe’s law but several opposition
activists have in the
past three years accused state security agents of
torture Human rights groups
in the country have also accused the police,
army and CIO of
torture.
According to Maanda, a police unit that was allegedly
being led by CIO
operative Tom Mwale assaulted and tortured Makaza at MDC
parliamentarian Roy
Bennet’s Charleswood Estate. Makaza works at the
farm.
Mubhawu and Chirwa were detained by police and allegedly
tortured for
six days during week-long demonstrations called by the MDC last
month.
Maanda said: “Our clients each suffered damages in the
sum of $3
million for the unlawful arrest, detention and the assault for
which the
defendants are jointly and severally liable.”
Staff Reporters
Daily News
Daily News staff receive threats
UNKNOWN
people who claim to be members of the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces (ZDF) have
threatened the Daily News with unspecified action for
allegedly undermining
the dignity of the ZDF.
In an unsigned letter faxed to this
newspaper last Wednesday
afternoon, the anonymous group accused the Daily
News and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of wanting to
“subvert” the ZDF.
The letter reads in part: “We members of the
defence forces would want
to categorically warn MDC and Daily News against
publishing abusive language
and cartoons that stand to undermine the dignity
of the defence forces.”
The letter, which does not specify the
offending cartoons or articles,
added: “If MDC and Daily News think that
members of the defence forces will
stand and watch our people loose (sic)
properties through MDC hooliganism is
daydreaming.
“Any
repeat of The Daily News and MDC trying to subvert soldiers may
result in us
visiting their premises. We will resist the MDC’s endeavours to
turn a
professional army into rebels.
“Be warned! Any repeat of any
stupid publication and abuse of the
defence forces may see action against any
publisher of such rubbish. Please
don’t cry foul.”
ZDF
spokesman Lameck Mutanda yesterday dissociated the security forces
from the
letter, saying if the ZDF wanted to raise any issues with the
newspaper it
would do so officially and not through anonymous letters.
Mutanda said: “That’s not our statement. We are a defence force and
when we
want to communicate, we do it officially. We don’t beat about
the
bush.”
The ZDF official added: “It’s an offence to claim
to be a soldier when
you are not.
“When you find those
people (who wrote and faxed the threatening
statement) we would like you to
let us know and they will be charged in
terms of the law for impersonation or
false pretences.”
The threats were reported to Harare Central
Police Station on Thursday
last week, but it could not be established
yesterday whether the police had
begun investigations.
Kay
Ncube of Harare law firm, Gill Godlonton and Gerrans, which
represents Daily
News publishers Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, said: “I
have been to the
police investigations section and it does not look like
someone has been
allocated to investigate the case.”
Police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena could not be reached yesterday for
comment on the
matter.
MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said his party had not
received a
copy of the threatening letter, which he dismissed as probably the
work of
rogue elements within the ZDF.
Nyathi said: “I don’t
think a professional army would make such a
threatening statement. If at all
it’s from the army, it must be from some
rogue elements.
“There are sufficient laws in this country and if anybody is
aggrieved, they
can seek redress through the legal channels.
“Threats have not
stopped the march of history towards change and
those who have tried it have
failed.”
The Daily News, the country’s only independent daily
newspaper, has in
the past been targeted for attack and harassment by
pro-government militants
unhappy with its bold coverage of national and
topical issues.
Copies worth $1.6 million of the paper and its
sister weekly, the
Daily News on Sunday, were seized and destroyed by
suspected members of the
ruling ZANU PF party during the MDC-organised mass
action last month.
\
In January 2001, the Daily News’
printing press was fire-bombed by
unknown people, while several of the
paper’s staffers have been physically
attacked by suspected ZANU PF militants
and self-styled war veterans.
To date, no one has been convicted
for the various crimes against the
Daily News, some of which were committed
in broad daylight. Staff Reporter
Daily News
NCA vows to defy meeting ban
MASVINGO –
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) says it will
go ahead with its
public meeting here saying High Court judge Justice Ben
Hlatshwayo was unfair
to refuse an application by the civic group seeking
the court to order the
police to allow the meeting to take place.
NCA chairman
Lovemore Madhuku told journalists here his group would no
longer seek police
or court permission to hold the meeting even if it meant
them being
jailed.
Madhuku said: “We will definitely hold our meeting to
push for a new
democratic constitution and even if it means we are going to
be arrested
then it means we are coming back to Masvingo to be
jailed.”
Under the government’s draconian Public Order and
Security Act
Zimbabweans must first seek permission from police before
holding political
gatherings.
Madhuku, who teaches
constitutional law at the University of Zimbabwe,
criticised Hlatshwayo
saying the judge had made an unfair ruling because of
personal differences
with the NCA, which at one time he was a member of.
Hlathswayo
last week rejected an urgent application by the NCA to have
police barred
from stopping the group’s meeting saying the police had to be
given a chance
to respond before the order sought by the NCA could
be
granted.
The police want the NCA meeting barred because
according to them the
time the meeting is scheduled to take place in the
evening is not conducive
for such a public gathering.
Madhuku said: “If the judge thinks he is a god we will show him that
he is
not. This time we will not go back to him if police bar us from
holding our
meetings, we will simply carry on with the
programme.”
The NCA’s spokesman, Douglas Mwonzora, said
Halthswayo should have
recused himself from hearing the NCA application
because of his previous
involvement with the organisation.
“Hlatshayo should have distanced himself from our hearing, it was not
proper
from him to handle our matter because of his history with our
organisation,”
Mwonzora said.
The NCA is a coalition of opposition political
parties, civic groups,
churches and labour that is campaigning for a new and
democratic
constitution for Zimbabwe.
In 2000, the NCA
successfully campaigned for the rejection by
Zimbabweans of draft
constitution sponsored by the government which critics
said would have
further entrenched President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF
party’s
rule.
Own Correspondent
Daily News
Leader Page
Bungling to create fresh food
crisis
ZIMBABWE could once again be gripped by a fresh food
crisis, thanks
to the inordinate delay by the government in appealing for
international aid
to feed half the country’s population.
Instead of quickly putting out an SOS to international agencies to
seek food
aid, the government has taken its good time to compile figures of
the
expected national food deficit, thus delaying the movement of such aid
to
Zimbabwe if and when it is found.
The estimated 5.5 million
Zimbabweans who could go hungry between
August and the next harvest in April
next year will find it hard to
understand that their own government has once
again failed to do the most
basic of functions in time.
Let
it be said that international aid agencies such as the World Food
Programme
have long alerted the government, however diplomatically, to the
urgent need
for it to quickly seek food aid because of Zimbabwe’s poor
harvests in the
past farming season.
But as has become the tragic norm,
government agencies charged with
collecting and collating basic information
such as Zimbabwe’s food output
have dragged their feet in doing their
job.
A cursory examination of virtually all problems afflicting
Zimbabwe
today will show – as the looming crisis will – that most of them are
created
by none other than those in charge of the stewardship of the nation,
who
seem unmoved by the worsening plight of the common man and
woman.
Yet these public officials are paid by the very same
ordinary
Zimbabweans to run the affairs of the state in a timely, transparent
and
accountable manner.
We have asked this question before
but we do so again: what kind of
planners does the government of Zimbabwe
have, if any at all?
What kind of planners do we have who have
to wait until foreign
currency reserves are depleted before they act? What
kind of planners do we
have who have to wait until the last drop of fuel is
used before they have
to import more?
What kind of planners
do we have who have to wait until Zimbabwean
banks run dry of cash –
Zimbabwean money for that matter, which is not
imported – before they print
more money in a country with hyper-inflation of
nearly 400
percent?
What kind of planners do we have who willy-nilly
uproot hundreds of
productive farmers and replace them with thousands of
peasants who have no
financial resources or farming skills, and yet these
planners still expect
Zimbabwe to have adequate food?
Put
differently, does Zimbabwe, with all its many holders of
doctorates in this
or that subject, have any planners at all?
Indeed, do you need
a doctorate in agriculture to know that it is
silly, if not an act of
madness, to fly around Zimbabwe ostensibly to assess
its crop
yields?
For all the real and imagined sins of one President
Robert Mugabe –
indeed he must take the blame for not sacking these
non-performing
officials – it is clear that he alone cannot and will not
possibly transform
these mere bookworms into planners that are needed by a
modern country.
In short, Zimbabwe desperately needs a new
public servant imbued with
a new culture of selfless public service, or the
country is really done!
If the public service is to lift its
performance and “independence
deliverables” to the nation, it is none other
than the Zimbabweans
themselves who must loudly and clearly demand this
service and refuse to
accept second-class treatment from their own
servants.
It is only when Zimbabwe has been truly transformed
into a society
that does not countenance shabby service, corruption and abuse
by anyone,
let alone by those funded by the public, that meaningful political
change
will take place and that those in power are held to
account.
That a public official could get away with insulting
the intelligence
of the nation by flying around Zimbabwe before declaring
that there will be
a bumper maize harvest is surely an indictment on who and
how we are.
Daily News
Leader Page
Humanity is unconquerable,
Mugabe
Man is the only being who refuses to be what he is, so
declared
Algerian-born writer Albert Camus.
When former
Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith emphatically stated
that President Robert
Mugabe and his ZANU PF party were gangsters, people
laughed it off, saying
that Ian Smith was just an ungrateful loser who was
furiously attempting to
harass and sabotage a black government that he had
earlier erroneously
predicted would never rule Zimbabwe in a thousand years.
Camus
believed that we can choose to become fully human – peaceful and
loving – if
we wish. If we wish.
We have now seen the government violently
seizing farms and property
without compensating the owners. We have seen
fellow citizens being murdered
by government and party supporters only
because they hold a different
opinion or wish for a new political
dispensation.
We have seen public funds being looted and
parastatals being robbed by
ZANU PF-appointed administrators. Journalists and
judges have been arrested.
And then Mugabe capped the confirmation of Smith’s
utterances by telling the
British and American governments: “Attack us, we
kill your children.”
It seems to me this man, our President,
has become a prisoner of his
own propaganda. Blackmail and kidnapping are
vices that should never be
associated with the head of state of a democratic
country. A head of state
is expected to protect the people and the
constitution. Surely this can’t be
Zimbabwe!
This, I
believe, is a classic example of what the American educator
Robert Macfee
Brown meant when he said: “Their rationalisations of their
policy become more
frantic, their attacks on their critics more strident,
their defence of their
actions more removed from the realm of reality.”
Here, I am no
longer concerned about leadership. We have an abundance
of
leaders.
I am greatly concerned about the absence of leadership
in Zimbabwe
today. We are in free fall. We are without a
leader.
Our supposed leader seems to believe he has nothing to
lose and is
busy trying to ignite an international conflagration as he
searches for a
way to justify his failed economics and leadership, his
government’s
behaviour.
He is attempting to take not only
Zimbabweans, but the international
community to Armageddon.
Zimbabweans, by nature, are peace-loving people, a national trait that
Mugabe
patronisingly repeats to the outside world once too often. We are
too
peaceful and that is why he is taking advantage of us.
Yet it is his supporters and sympathisers who have introduced violence
into
the midst of the pacifist Zimbabweans. And now this latest threat of
his
insinuates a desire to take the violence across our borders.
The heart of the matter is that he is literally making a citizen like
me an
unwitting accomplice in this premeditated, pre-declared act of
verbal
attrition.
Yet I never meant, thought, wished,
desired or intended to kill
anyone. I simply do not want any part of it. It
is not national policy. It
would appear the President, with his usual elastic
political ethics, is
intent on using everyone as a shield.
The President went public with his threat and we have become an
international
curiosity. There is cowardly silence from the politically
impotent President
Thabo Mbeki. There is no comment of censure from the
equally useless and
meaningless African Union. Does their silence mean they
support
Mugabe’s not so veiled threats to take and kill hostages?
Any
country is expected to defend itself when under attack. Zimbabwe
would be
justified if it retaliated during an attack by any foreign country.
What the
world cannot and will not accept is the singling out of innocent
civilians to
be killed in an effort to even the score with someone a country
is at
loggerheads with.
I don’t know about the President, but
Zimbabweans have no intention of
becoming international criminals since this
act would make us so. The
reprisals will be severe and
conclusive.
African leaders gathered in Maputo at the expense
of their starving
millions and with air tickets and stipends from foreign
governments. While
there, they caused the freezing of European Union (EU) aid
to their
countries, demanding that they can only accept donations, food
and
assistance if Mugabe is allowed to attend meetings between them and the
EU.
I can’t believe this; they should have asked me. I do not
know what
they want with Mugabe because Zimbabwe is not benefiting from
Mugabe’s
presidency. We are actually suffering because of him. Even then, I
thought
their leader Mbeki had told them to leave Zimbabweans to settle their
own
problems.
Do we need further proof that Africa is run by
gangsters who seem to
believe that their mission is to bring misery,
starvation and hardships to
the people? African presidents are suicidal
leaders willing to die for silly
and meaningless causes, as long as they can
take the continent down with
them. The arrogance of one man has almost
destroyed our nation. The seizure
of those farms was revenge for rejection.
The killing of innocents was a
signal to discourage the brave. Oh, how I wish
I was one of the brave!
I see familiar visions before me. I see
Saddam Hussein during the
first American war against him. I see him visiting
a besieged Western family
that was holed up in a hotel as hostages of the
Iraqis. I see the
all-conquering, towering Saddam extending his hand to shake
hands with one
of his hostages, a scared, frail 12-year-old boy. Saddam
survived that war
but he didn’t get away with it, did he? For what reason is
Mugabe implying
to kill people? Is it because he wants the world community to
leave him
alone while the killings, beatings, maimings and abuse of his own
people
continue?
No one has ever won a battle against humanity.
Humanity remains
unconquered. Many have paid dearly for their attempts to
abuse humanity. And
the world today is not very tolerant of people who kill
defenceless
citizens. Today, injustices are illuminated and authority is
always being
challenged. And in our case, any attempt to correct the
situation must start
from here, with us. We do not wait for George Bush or
Tony Blair. The burden
of solving the predicament of our oppression is on us,
the same people who
carry the burden of being oppressed. We are not obscure;
we are real. We don
’t live in obscurity either, but even if we did, we are
assured that
obscurity would not be uninteresting.
Ought a man
to do what he admits to be right, or ought he to betray
the right?
(Socrates). Let’s free this country. It’s getting late,
fellow
Zimbabweans.
By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
Tanonoka Joseph Whande is a Zvishavane-based writer.
Business Day
Tsvangirai, Mugabe edge towards
talks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harare
Correspondent
ZIMBABWEAN church leaders trying to broker dialogue between
the ruling Zanu
(PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
indicated
yesterday a face-to-face meeting between President Robert Mugabe
and
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai could take place soon.
The
encounter is being seen as crucial to the resumption of talks between
the two
adversaries.
The church leaders met MDC leader Tsvangirai yesterday to
arrange for the
resumption of talks that collapsed last year. The meeting was
the next step
in a process designed to edge Mugabe and Tsvangirai closer to
direct talks .
After meeting Mugabe last Friday, an MDC spokesman
confirmed the meeting
with Tsvangirai but said the churches were handling the
issue.
Sources close to the meetings said the church leaders urged Zanu
(PF) and
the MDC to resume talks as a matter of urgency to arrest the
deteriorating
crisis.
"The message which the church leaders delivered
to Tsvangirai and his
delegation today (yesterday) is the same which they
gave to Mugabe and his
group last week," a source said.
"They said
there is a need to convene talks as quickly as possible to save
the country
from further political and economic agony. Both parties have
agreed to meet
soon."
Mugabe met the clerics in the company of one of his two deputies,
Joseph
Msika, Zanu (PF) national chairman John Nkomo and party spokesman
Nathan
Shamuyarira.
Tsvangirai's delegation included top MDC officials
expected to form the
upgraded negotiating team that will engage Zanu (PF)
when talks resume.
Catholic priest Father Fidelis Mukonori, who has been
involved in shuttle
diplomacy between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, has confirmed
that the two leaders
would be meeting "soon" for talks.
ZIMBABWE: IMF slams govt as consumers mob banks
IRINnews Africa, Tue 29
Jul 2003
Soaring inflation has produced a thriving parallel
market
JOHANNESBURG, - In a scathing report this week the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) laid the blame for Zimbabwe's economic
troubles squarely
on the shoulders of the government.
The Fund
said in an annual review of the country's economy: "[IMF]
directors observed
that this sharp deterioration primarily reflects the
government's
inappropriate macroeconomic and structural policies, in
particular loose
financial policies and increased regulation and
government
intervention."
Earlier this month the country's
Central Statistical Office pegged the
inflation rate for June at 364.5
percent, more than 64 percent up from the
previous month's high of 300
percent.
Zimbabwe's consumer council complained that the latest
jump in
inflation would put the price of basic commodities further beyond the
reach
of the urban poor.
The Fund noted that the impact of the
government's current economic
policies was exacerbated by the controversial
land reform programme, a
series of droughts and the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has estimated that 4.4
million
people in rural areas and 1.1 million in urban areas will require
food
assistance in 2003/04.
Another concern was the rapid
decline in investor confidence. The Fund
said the flight of foreign capital
from the country was largely due to
"concerns over political developments,
weak governance, corruption ... and
the selective enforcement of
regulations".
Foreign investors pulled an estimated Zim $17.3
billion (US $20
million) out of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) in the
first six months of
this year, more than five times the amount of funds
withdrawn by foreign
businesses last year.
Developments in
Zimbabwe had also impacted negatively on neighbouring
countries. Observers
say the worsening situation in Zimbabwe has affected
investor confidence in
the entire southern African region.
However, the government was
credited for its attempts to arrest the
economic decline. "[The] Directors
considered the government's recent steps
to adjust exchange and interest
rates and fuel and electricity, and ease
price controls, to be steps in the
right direction." But the magnitude of
the economic crisis would require
"significant further enhancement of the
scope and speed and stabilisation
efforts".
The government could not be reached on Tuesday for
comment.
In a related development, armed riot police were out in
force for a
second day as thousands of Zimbabweans mobbed banks in major
towns, unable
to access money or cash cheques, the Associated Press reported
on Tuesday.
The government has said the Reserve Bank had
insufficient funds to
import the special ink and paper needed to print more
money, thus causing
the shortage of bank notes.
The Herald
Innovative Measures to Curb Cash Crisis
Urged
The Herald (Harare)
July 29, 2003
Posted to the
web July 29, 2003
Harare
BANKS should come up with innovative
measures to curb the cash crisis being
experienced in the country, economic
commentators said yesterday.
They said the shortage of bank notes is a
direct attack on the social
stability of the country and, if not corrected
urgently, might lead to
widespread human suffering in the country.
The
shortage has gone on unabated for the past three months and, analysts
say,
this could well be viewed as a security threat to the country.
Dr Samuel
Undenge said the cynic attitude in people would continue if the
banks fail to
implement innovative measures that would see a decline in
transactions
involving the use of cash.
"People have the money and if they are assured
that they would get the
money, the situation would improve," he
said.
"This can only be achieved if banks review the entire system and
use a
'client friendly approach' to instill trust in their clients so that
they
would deposit cash into the banks," he said.
He said one method
of reviewing the system would be to encourage non-cash
transactions through
the speeding up of the cheque clearance period.
"Banks need to speed up
transactions that involve cheques. It is surprising
that banks still take,
for example, five days to clear a cheque that has
been issued from the same
bank. If cheques are cleared within, for example,
a day people would be able
to use their cheque books and engage in other
transactions thereby reducing
transactions involving cash.
"The entire banking system needs to be
reviewed in order to alleviate the
crisis or else those who are keeping large
sums of cash at their homes would
not make cash deposits," said Dr
Undenge.
With most people now employed by the informal sector because of
the
decreasing employment capacity of the economy, the cash crisis has
further
worsened the situation for them. The life-blood of the informal
sector is
cash, unlike their formal counterparts who can use cheques,
bank-to-bank
transfers and electronic or plastic money.
"Some people
in some of our banks may be very unhappy about the new strength
of the
informal sector because banks are not in control of this new money,"
said
businessman Mr Guy Georgias.
"For example, the informal sector is
responsible for the present boom in the
construction sector, with many new
buildings being erected in all our
suburbs, some banks may be upset that they
are not benefiting from this
boom.
"Just as the banks tried to destroy
the economy by flouting the in-duplum
rule, so now the cash has been
engineered to achieve the same objectives."
Mr Georgias is well known for
clashing with banks that were charging their
clients interest charges that
surpassed the principal amount borrowed, a
direct flouting of the in-duplum
rule.
Others say the central bank is responsible for monitoring the
supply of
money and should have forecasted this situation a long time ago and
acted
pro-actively.
The Reserve Bank two weeks ago injected $24
billion in the market but the
situation has remained critical with long
winding queues at most banks in
Harare.
Some banks have reduced
maximum withdrawals to as low as $5 000. This little
money involves a lot of
patience as it could take the whole day to get it.
This development has
increased scepticism, as people feel that making a bank
deposit would be
equivalent to forfeiting their money.
A Kuwadzana resident and owner of a
small business enterprise in the area,
Mr Peter Mupezeni vowed not to deposit
money in the banks until the
situation improved.
Various theories have
been put across on how the crisis could have come
about, with some saying it
was caused by traders externalising funds while
others accuse financial
institutions, retailers and the public of hoarding
bank notes.
The Herald
24-Member Iranian Business Delegation to Explore Business
Opportunities
The Herald (Harare)
July 29, 2003
Posted
to the web July 29, 2003
Harare
A 24-MEMBER business delegation
from Iran is in the country on a four-day
visit to explore business
opportunities.
The leader of the delegation, Mr Mahdi Hajzemian said the
businessmen were
from Isfahan, which is the second largest industrial city in
Iran after the
capital Teheran.
He said there were particularly
interested in areas of agriculture and
technical services.
"Our visit
is meant to be an eye opener for us as we explore opportunities
in different
sectors because the 24 members of the delegation are
representing a cross
section of industry.
"We have already contacted the Ministry of Mines and
Mining Development and
other Government departments to explore opportunities
in mining and textiles
sectors, among others," he said.
Mr Hajzemian
said Isfahan was famed for its ability to manufacture
industrial spare parts
and machinery.
The Deputy Minister of Industry and International Trade,
Mr Kenneth Manyonda
said the Government had appealed to the Iranians to
consider investing in
distressed companies and those that were closed with a
view of resuscitating
operations in partnerships with locals.
"We have
also asked them to consider the setting up of a tractor
manufacturing plant
in the country to assist new farmers who desperately
need capital," he
said.
The ZNCC Trade and Economic Affairs Committee chairman, Dr Samuel
Undenge
said the visit was an opportunity for local business people to
interact and
explore business opportunities that exist in the
country.
"As Zimbabweans, we should seize the opportunity to expand our
businesses
and markets beyond the existing traditional markets.
"This
is an opportunity that has presented itself and instead of mourning
that we
are not getting business opportunities, we should receive our
counterparts
with open hands so as to foster new development partnerships,"
he
said.
Dr Undenge said the scope for doing business in Iran was enormous
given the
size of the Iranian economy.
The delegation, which arrived
in the country on Sunday, has heard
presentations from several organisation
including the ZNCC, Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries, Privatisation
Agency of Zimbabwe, Export Processing
Zones Authority, the Zimbabwe
Investment Centre and the Industrial
Development Corporation.
Members
of the delegation were expected to hold talks with different
companies and
tour some factories within Harare.
The Iranians are expected to visit one
of the country's tourist resort areas
tomorrow.
The delegation, which
is the second to visit Zimbabwe over the past
18months, is in the country on
the invitation of the private sector led by
ZNCC, which has been
collaborating with the Chamber of Commerce in Isfahan.
The first
delegation, which was from Teheran, visited Zimbabwe in April
last
year.
Trade between Zimbabwe and Iran has remained low because of
the limited
interaction between businessmen from the two
countries.
According to trade statistics, total trade between Zimbabwe
and Iran fell
from a peak of US$8,5 million in 1999 to US$3,6 million in
2001.
Tobacco and asbestos have mainly dominated Zimbabwe's exports to
Iran, while
imports from Iran have largely been tractors and some industrial
machinery.
However, through a Joint Permanent Commission on Economic,
Trade, Technical,
Industrial and Cultural Co-operation held in Teheran, the
Government of Iran
extended a line of credit to Zimbabwe of US$15 million,
which is much more
than the total trade between the two countries.
The
credit facility is being used for the importation of tractors and
other
agricultural implements.
It would finance up to 85 percent of
the invoice value of imports from Iran,
which would see 440 tractors, 18
combine harvesters and 204 motorcycles
being assembled in the country by
Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries.
The Herald
Informal Sector Grows Rapidly As Formal
Shrinks
The Herald (Harare)
July 29, 2003
Posted to the
web July 29, 2003
Walter Muchinguri
Harare
ZIMABWBE'S informal
sector has grown rapidly over the past few years, at a
time the formal
economy has shrunk due to a myriad of reasons.
The emergence of the
informal economy has resulted in the disappearance of
most products from the
formal market into the informal chain where prices
are deregulated and
determined by demand.
This scenario has largely been precipitated by
the severe decline in net
investment in the productive sectors, weak medium
term export growth, and
internal macroeconomic resource imbalances that
involve a large transfer of
private savings into public debt, among
others.
Most of the income in the informal economy is unreported and
illegal
activities such as smuggling and fraud go
undetected.
According to the Jewel bank's quarterly review for the month
ending June, a
thriving informal economy is not peculiar to Zimbabwe alone
but has become
so much entrenched in many African countries to such an extent
that it has
become more like a parallel economy.
The financial
institution said on average, the informal economy in Africa
was estimated at
about 42 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 1999/2000.
"Zimbabwe,
Tanzania and Nigeria are at the high end with 59.4 percent, 58.3
percent and
57.9 percent of GDP respectively.
"At the lower end are Botswana with
33.4 percent and Cameroon with 32.8
percent," the bank said.
The Jewel
bank said that irrespective of the rankings, one thing for certain
was that
the informal economy was large and growing rapidly in Africa.
"Against
this background of a growing informal economy in many countries,
and mainly
in Zimbabwe where it is becoming "the economy" it, therefore,
becomes
imperative to find out why it is growing and consequently seek ways
to bring
all business back into the mainstream official economy," the
bank
said.
To begin with, a comprehensive definition of an underground
economy is quite
difficult due to the fact that it is always changing because
of varying
imperatives.
The evolving nature of this economy has been
so profound in the recent years
such that a number of names such as
underground, parallel or shadow economy
have been coined to describe
it.
Nevertheless, an informal economy includes not only illegal
activities but
also unreported income from the production of legal goods and
services,
either for monetary or barter transactions.
The underground
economy comprises all economic activities that would
generally be taxed if
they were reported to the tax authorities.
Examples of the underground
economy include office workers driving
unlicensed taxis at night, plumbers
fixing broken pipes for clients, getting
cash payments but not declaring
these to the tax collector, office workers
selling merchandise from the
location of their offices and unreported income
from
self-employment.
Thus in an underground economy labour has a second job
after or even during
regular working hours.
All these activities, both
legal and illegal, add up to billions of dollars
annually, but all out of the
gaze of taxmen and Government statisticians.
Taking into account amounts
of money involved in the informal economy, it is
imperative that policymakers
and Government administrators be informed on
the numbers involved, how often
underground activities occur and the size of
the activities so that they make
appropriate decisions on resource
allocation.
However, measuring the
size of the underground economy has proved difficult
as most of the people
involved in the underground are evasive.
Notwithstanding the lack of
information on the informal economy, its growth
and prevalence has profound
effects on the official economy, economic growth
and provision of public
services.
Studies have revealed that most underground economy
transactions tend to be
in cash and as such the rising activity is likely to
push up the demand for
currency.
Furthermore, the growth of the
informal economy causes production inputs
such as labour to partially move
out of the official economy thereby
depressing labour productivity and hence
the official growth rate of the
economy.
The underground economy also
has adverse effects on the provision of public
services.
It is argued
that transactions in the underground economy, rather than the
official
economy, keep state revenues lower than they would otherwise be and
this in
turn reduces government's ability to provide public goods
and
services.
In response to this, governments usually increase
individual and corporate
taxes.
However, higher rates of taxation,
when combined with the perceived
deterioration in the quality of public goods
and public administration or
under-investment in public infrastructure, may
motivate economic agents even
more strongly to move into the underground
economy.
Although studies are not yet conclusive on the effect of
underground economy
on economic growth, it is however, argued that the
underground economy
depresses the growth of Gross Domestic Product.
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE PR COMMUNIQUE - July 29, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our
Country:
"The lowveld of 'our country', and indeed most of Africa, is an
area where
man is still learning, with great difficulty and at great loss,
ways of
living with the many variables of an arid tropical environment.
The
original inhabitants, the bushman adapted to 'our country' by hunting.
They
left beautiful cave paintings all over the land. But they were displaced
by
invaders.
When this tribe (the Matabele) arrived, in 1837, they
swept the country
clean of many of its previous occupants. The tactics of
warfare, developed
originally by the Zulu Chief, Tchaka, had been too much
for the opposition
tribes to meet. Mercy was unheard of; fighting and raiding
were ways of
life. With the constant ravages of disease and the periodic
touch of
famine, there was no overpopulation. Wild animals were abundant,
people and
cattle few. Abused land could be abandoned for ultimate recovery,
because
fresh land could always be occupied.
With colonial rule the
scene changed. Fighting ceased to be a way of life.
Intertribal warfare came
to a halt. Murder was discouraged. The findings of
medical science were put
to good use and government prevented the periodic
decimations from
famine.
People and their animals became numerous. Game disappeared. By
1960 the
African population climbed from 530 000 to 2 590 000, and in
addition some
235 000 others of European or Asiatic ancestry were added.
Cattle numbers
increased to over 2 000 000. The rate of increase has nowhere
slacked off.
Reproduction has replaced warfare as a way of life.
With
the boost in population, the old ways of handling land were
wretchedly
inadequate. The shifting agriculture could no longer shift. Cows
cannot be
moved on to better grazing when the good grass has been eaten; it
has been
eaten elsewhere too. The new and empty lands are no longer new and
empty.
The African lands of the native area could only be described as
desolate.
No matter how miserable the land, somebody with his donkey, his
cows, and
his goats will try to wrest a living from it.
Most of 'our
country' is not suited to farming. No more than 29% is classed
as arable. No
more than 20% is suited to intensive agriculture. The
complexities of proper
land use take time and thought. They are easier to
ignore. It is too easy to
see that fire brings good grass; but too
difficult to believe that there can
be too much of a good thing."
- The Last Horizon - R.F. Dasmann - 1963
-
* Joshua Nkomo appears to have made very similar observations to
Raymond
Dasmann regarding the problems with communally owned land, indicative
of
thorough comprehension of the holistic nature of the problem.
* The
events over the last three and a half years have seen an extension of
the
very problems that Dr. Nkomo and R. Dasmann identified twenty and forty
years
ago respectively.
* It is of concern that some Qualified Professionals in
Agriculture, of
certain institutions have chosen to support the Government's
so called
"land reform policy."
In the future, these professionals may
well be asked to submit scientific
data or evidence for supporting what
appears to be a technically, socially
and economically unsound programme for
'our country.'
* With a population of over 11 000 000 the methods of
agriculture applied
are going to have a large bearing on the well being of
'our country.'
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE - July 29, 2003
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE - or is it -
a little too close to the bone and home?
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To:
New Chairman
From: Old Chairman
Date: Eve of Congress
Topic: EXERCISING
YOUR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
Brother,
I am anxious that you should not
fritter your opportunities by kow-towing
to the ridiculous whims and wishes
of the rank-and-file of our membership.
The constitution states clearly that
congress is the highest authority in
the Union. Among our members there are
still some troublemakers and
dissidents who believe that this entitles them
to take decisions which are
not in accordance with the policies laid down by
their superiors. You must
not let these malcontents rock the boat or
undermine your democratic
authority.
Remember always that you are in
charge. You have been put in your present
position by a long drawn out
democratic process which has been designed to
ensure that only the right sort
of people get to the top. Congress must
exercise its power, not to say what
ought to be done, but to authorise you
to do what you know ought to be done.
If you have any doubts about policy,
we will discuss it in private, as we
always have done. That's what the
executive committee is for. It is not
politic to allow doubts to be aired
in front of the rank and file of loyal
members, or for sensitive issues to
be discussed.....
As spokesman for
the Union, it is your duty to ensure that members say what
you want them to,
and only when you want them to.
Studying the agenda, I was pleased to
note how quickly you have learned the
ropes. I must draw your attention to a
few weak points, which could allow
discussion to get out of hand. Resolution
No. 5 looks particularly
dangerous - I presume you will be priming the
committee on how to field the
flak. But, if worst comes to the worst, I shall
be there to propose a
suitably ambiguous amendment which should create enough
confusion to get
the matter referred back to council for further
consideration. Delicate
topics are not suitable for congresses, which should
be kept convivial in
spite of all odds.
I doubt whether you will have
much trouble with the election of office
bearers this year. We fixed things
too well for them last year. The only
valuable chap at risk is your
vice-chairman. You must lay it on thick for
him. But for goodness sake don't
let him speak for himself. He is bound to
put someone's back up with that
scandalous and unfortunate rumour still
doing the rounds. Tell everyone what
a hard worker he is behind the scenes
and what a stickler he is for honesty,
integrity and detail - you know the
stuff. (By the way, did he do it? - I
would love to know!)
Another good ploy will be to get him to bring his
wife along. With a torso
like that and a bit of glad-eye at the cocktail
party, I reckon she's worth
every bit of 15 votes. While we are on the
subject, does your missus mind
sitting next to the Minister?
See you
there,
Oom Koos.
- "Ploughing a Furrow" - S.A. Farmers' Weekly, July
30, 1980 - (abridged)
The more things change - the more things stay the
same???
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1: Tarmac Tales for the forum?
A rose grower needed $5 million to pay
wages. He got it from his bank, but
they charged him $750000 for the pleasure
of it.
On Saturday there was no business at mother's fast food outlet,
because
hungry people could not get cash to buy food. There were thousands
of
people queuing all over the village outside the banks. Today the
riot
police were out in force.
When my son and friend finished playing
golf on Saturday, they called in at
the Service Station to get a drink or
something. There was a Santana parked
outside and a drunk policeman
recognised my son. "You come from 'a well
known' restaurant, don't you? Buy
us some drinks."
Son said, "No."
The police followed him in, and
put their purchases on the counter with
son's. Son paid for his own stuff and
left the shop. Whereupon the
policemen picked their stuff up as well and left
the shop without paying
for it. What could the shopkeeper do?
On
Sunday evening, Tickey and a couple of waiters from the restaurant
were
sitting in a car, in the village when they were approached by police.
"You
are MDC supporters, pay a fine of $3000." The waiters ran away, but
Tickey
was arrested. Because they didn't have a receipt book, he was taken
to
another town 30km away, where he paid his fine. What could he do? If he
had
protested, he would have been beaten up and locked up for the night
and
released the following day without being charged. Easier just to pay
the
fine.
This is the extent of the break down of Law and Order.
Everyone is too
frightened to stand up against the corrupt law officers.
There are supposed
to be Mayoral and Council elections soon. So it is a
signal for the
officials to just do their own thing.
When the town
council discovered that a vegetable exporting company
employee had got his
name down in the nomination court as an MDC candidate,
hundreds of company
workers were stopped from getting on the buses to go to
work that day. When
is it all going to
end?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
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Zimbabwe Held Al-Qaida
Suspects Before Release In Sudan
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP)--Five terror suspects arrested and deported from Malawi last month were held in Zimbabwe for nearly a month before being sent to Sudan and freed, the wife of one of the men said Tuesday.
Their reported detention in nearby Zimbabwe further clouds the already strange journey of the men, who are accused of funneling money to al-Qaida.
The five, a Saudi, a Kenyan, two Turks and a Sudanese, were arrested by Malawian officials last month with the help of the CIA. Despite a Malawi court ruling forbidding the government from deporting the five, they were reportedly turned over to U.S. officials and taken out of the country.
Last week the men surfaced in the north African nation of Sudan, which is on the U.S. list of countries that support terrorism, and freed, according to Sudanese officials and relatives of the men.
Ella Ulusam said her husband, Arif, one of the Turkish suspects, called her from Istanbul and told her the men had been taken to Zimbabwe, a country that has shaky relations with the U.S., where they were questioned by U.S. and Malawian officials and cleared of any links to the terror group.
After nearly a month in Zimbabwe, the men were flown to Sudan via Uganda, she said.
"He told me, apart from the trauma of being arrested at night with no reason, they were treated well and are all in good health," she said.
U.S. and Zimbabwean authorities said they had no idea if the men had been in Zimbabwe.
"We are surprised by the reports that they have been here," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said.
"We don't know about this," said Lucy Hall, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Harare.
The arrests of the five and their removal from Malawi had sparked protests among the country's Muslims, who make up about 20% of the population. Angry mobs attacked churches and the offices of at least one U.S. aid group.
Ella Ulusam said President Bakili Muluzi had invited her and Salidali Issa, the wife of suspect Sheik Mahmud Sardar Issa, to his home over the weekend to apologize for the affair.
"He just said he was sorry, it was not the Malawi government, it was all the Americans. That's all he said," Ulusam said.
Muluzi also told them that "if they want to come back, he will make sure they are safe," said Ulusam, a Malawian with a 2 1/2-year-old daughter by her husband.
Muluzi's office declined to comment on the meeting.
Soon after the men were arrested last month, Muluzi denied he had been under American pressure, saying the nation acted against the men because it had an obligation to assist in the global fight against terror.
Salidali Issa said Muluzi told her he was ashamed of the incident.
"He said this was not supposed to happen in Malawi," she said.
Dow Jones Newswires 07-29-031218ET
SOKWANELE
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
PROMOTING NON VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY.
SOKWANELE
is concerned at the perception that many people have of recent
events. Expectations were high and many felt that these were not met by the way
in which events transpired on the ground. There appear to be two major causes of
depression and disappointment of late.
Firstly the outcome of President
Bush's recent visit to SA.
Bush set out to achieve two main
objectives and succeeded:
1. Fresh Elections for Zimbabwe (RGM
must resign to pave the way)
2. Urgent attention to the Zim
crisis.
Bush has placed the onus firmly on
Mbeki by referring to him as his POINT MAN, the grid iron player who performs a
proactive and accountable role to set up the game plan to score a goal as soon
as possible.
Furthermore the press mislead the
public by misinterpreting what Bush actually said at the closing press
conference. His words were....Mbeki can be an honest broker (if
you do the right thing)..... not IS and honest
broker.
These are subtle remarks carefully
placed to send a clear message.
The US has made it clear that,
although "agreement" has been reached with Mbeki, there is no change in US
strategy on Zim. This was demonstrated this week by Bush's reference to the
seven ROGUE STATES which included North Korea, Iran and
Zimbabwe, the only state in Africa despite the problems in Liberia, Congo, Sudan
and so on. The Americans are deliberately targeting the authority, not the
nation as such.
Another point to consider is Mbeki's
closing statement when he said that he was grateful that the US would fund the
transition in Zimbabwe. He is in no position to do it himself and concedes the
role that the US will play.
Secondly,
the Au and it's election of RGM to
the position of ONE of the five Vice Presidents. RGM wanted the top job and the
AU action is consistent with Mbeki's Quiet Diplomacy and the exit plan for
mugabe. It also saves face without granting him any substantive
position.
Beside which, the AU has earned very
little respectability internationally or within Africa. Look at their record in
solving the many crisis in such countries as Liberia, Sudan and the Congo.
Consider the number of despots and dictators who constitute the
AU.
There is a plan and the road map for
Zimbabwe is beginning to unfold. The Americans are utterly determined to achieve
their goal of a transition to democracy.
SOKWANELE says, have faith and dig
deep. Show your strength and determination in defying the odds and be a
winner!
Stand firm, Stand
together!!
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