VOA
UN Envoy to Zimbabwe Criticizes Forced Resettlement
By
Studio 7
Washington
06 July 2005
The United
Nations special envoy looking at the humanitarian effects of the
government's slum clearance program has taken a strong position against
forced urban-to-rural resettlement.
Anna Tibaijuka, the Tanzanian
director of the Nairobi-based U.N. Habitat
agency, expressed the view after
a meeting in Bulawayo, on Wednesday with
the governor of Bulawayo
Province.
Correspondent Netsai Mlilo of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe gave
an account of
the envoy's visit to Zimbabwe's second city.
Meanwhile,
the Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry snubbed the envoy sent by the
African Union
last week. It issued a statement saying it could not organize
an itinerary
for Bahame Tom Nyanduga as its hands are full hosting the U.N.
envoy. The
ministry also said the African Union gave too short notice of his
arrival.
But Mr. Nyanduga told VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that he
has not officially
received this information, and that he intends to stay in
Harare pending the
outcome of intense negotiations between Harare and the
African Union.
Mr. Nyanduga sits on the A.U. Commission for Human and
Peoples' Rights which
issued a damning report on Harare's human rights
record in 2002. One
Zimbabwe human rights lawyer says Harare is loath to
receive Mr. Nyanduga
because it knows its slum clearance drive violates the
African Union
charter.
Reporter Blessing Zulu asked Mr. Saki to
expand on the relevant provisions
of the A.U. charter.
Destroy your home or the bulldozers will, residents
told
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations]
|
© IRIN
Residents in Epworth comply with an order to demolish
their homes |
JOHANNESBURG, 6 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The
Zimbabwean government has continued with its programme of demolishing illegal
homes, despite urgent calls by aid workers to halt the operation.
In
Epworth, an old settlement of around 300,000 people 15 km east of the capital,
Harare, residents began destroying their own homes on Tuesday rather than pay a
fee of US $150 per room if the job was done by government bulldozers.
Aid
workers told IRIN that the walls of houses and kiosks due for demolition had
been daubed with a large cross by police and local authority officials, in an
operation affecting over half the residents.
With no transport available
to the designated transit camp of New Caledonia, 20 km east of Harare, or back
to their rural areas, the displaced people were left to fend for themselves out
in the open in the cold of mid-winter.
"The situation is bad and we don't
know what to do - the people are desperate," said one NGO official who asked not
to be named.
"There has been no assistance since the operation started;
people need transport to their rural areas, food to eat and tents. Now it's very
cold at night," he added.
The initial clearance operation in Epworth
began on 20 June with the demolition of newer sections of the settlement,
leaving around 12,000 people homeless.
On Monday the police moved into
the centre of Epworth and began marking structures deemed illegal, although one
aid worker alleged this was done at the discretion of individual officers rather
than city council housing plans.
The target was extensions to legal
homes, "cottages" built by property-owners for renting out to tenants, the main
market and individual kiosks.
Residents in the older section of Epworth
said they had been given seven days to tear down their houses before the
bulldozers moved in; those in newer parts of the settlement were told they could
expect a final visit from the authorities anytime this week.
"These
[homes] had no approved planning, but for poor people - and considering the
semi-rural nature of Epworth - this was housing that could be easily formalised;
they were not shacks," an aid worker said.
The government has argued
that its cleanup programme, which has displaced 370,000 people, is part of an
urban renewal strategy that will eventually build 10,000 homes at a cost of $300
million. For the moment it wants people cleared from illegal settlements to move
to New Caledonia or transit centres in the eastern city of Mutare, and a yet to
be established facility in Bulawayo in the south of the country.
From
the transit centres people are supposed to move on to their rural areas, or
alternative locations, but for more than a month the vast majority have remained
in the temporary holding camps.
Critics point out that new housing
should have been provided before the demolitions began; most people, with little
opportunity to make a living in the rural areas, have chosen to stay put in
their communities even after their houses were destroyed.
"Discussions
between the UN and the government are ongoing to see if we can get funds to
assist the people," said Mohammed Abdiker, director of the International
Organisation for Migration in Zimbabwe, which is providing limited relief to
people in the transit centres.
"The humanitarian crisis is dire - we need
to do something as soon as possible to provide assistance to the people
displaced," he added.
Africa Fighting Malaria -
Media Release
6 July 2005
State in
Fear:
Zimbabwe’s Tragedy is Africa’s
Shame
Archbishop Pius Ncube, Dr Roger Bate
& Richard Tren
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of
Bulawayo calls on G8 leaders to exert pressure on President Mbeki to “act in the
interest of the suffering Zimbabweans and not the political elite”.
He supports the urgent call
by Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, for the United Nations to assist with the installation of an
internationally supervised, legitimate transitional authority to lead Zimbabwe
out of the present crisis.
Stressing the humanitarian
catastrophe in his country caused by the destruction of homes and informal
businesses, the Archbishop endorses the need for a comprehensive rescue
package.
This would include food,
fuel, medicine, foreign currency, support for up to 1.5 million people left
homeless and funds for rebuilding homes, marketplaces and informal street
markets destroyed ruthlessly by the Mugabe regime.
In a report released today on
Mugabe’s “Operation Murambatsvina” or “Operation drive out the filth”,
Archbishop Pius Ncube details the horrific human rights violations and
outrageous abuse of whole communities in Zimbabwe. This “operation” has devastated the lives of
poor Zimbabweans who were already starving and who now have no means of earning
a living.
He says that, after suffering
years of abuse and violence at the hands of the Mugabe regime, vast numbers of
poor Zimbabweans have now had everything they own or have ever worked for
destroyed.
Archbishop Ncube’s report is
co-authored with Dr Roger Bate of the Washington DC based American Enterprise
Institute and Richard Tren of the South Africa-based health advocacy group
Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM).
AFM has recently launched a
special fund which will direct monies to Archbishop Ncube’s church to assist
Zimbabweans devastated by what is widely know as the “Mugabe
Tsunami.”
According to Archbishop
Ncube, “the G8 leaders have an excellent opportunity, when meeting with African
leaders such as President Mbeki to hold him to account for his support and
collusion with the Mugabe regime.”
President Mbeki’s recent
apparent change of heart on Zimbabwe following last week’s meeting with the
Movement of Democratic Change, which is calling for a transitional authority to
restore peace and democracy, should be seen against years of inaction and broken
promises.
The authors of the report
believe that aid, debt relief and other forms of assistance to African countries
should only be forthcoming if those African leaders defend the institutions of a
free society and basic human rights.
That these leaders have been
all but silent on the destruction of people’s property and livelihoods in
Zimbabwe suggests that they little respect for human rights and their demands
for assistance and support do not deserve to be entertained by the G8
leaders.
ENDS
“State in Fear” available in pdf format
from www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/state_in_fear.pdf
Contact
Details:
Dr Roger
Bate
Fellow
American Enterprise
Institute
UK Cell + 44-776-377-2538
rbate@aei.org
Richard
Tren
Director
Africa Fighting Malaria -
Johannesburg
+27 11 884
9578
SA Cell + 27 82 921
1081
rtren@fightingmalaria.org
Please contact either Dr
Bate or Mr Tren for interview requests with Archbishop Ncube.
Click here to read the report
Zim Online
Russian leader brands Mugabe a dictator
Wed 6 July
2005
JOHANNESBURG - Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rarely
speaks
about Africa and Zimbabwe in particular, has branded President Robert
Mugabe
a dictator and argued that aid would be of little value to Africa as
long as
the likes of Mugabe are in charge.
News agency reports
said Putin launched his first ever scathing attack
on Mugabe in Kazakhstan
before flying to the G8 summit in Scotland.
Putin said aid would be
useless if African leaders were corrupt, and
added: "We should not be afraid
to stop aid to dictators, like Zimbabwe's
Mugabe."
Mugabe has
long regarded Russia as one of his key allies and the East
European country
bankrolled ZAPU and ZANU PF's 1970s guerilla war of
independence from
Britain.
Russia remained Zimbabwe's key ally and main source of
weapons after
independence in 1980 and its officials have maintained silence
on rights
abuses in the country.
But Putin's tough remarks now
mark Mugabe's growing international
isolation even among his traditional
allies.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is hosting the G8
summit, has
already expressed concern that Zimbabwe would make it difficult
for him to
get his fellow leaders to agree to his agenda to double aid and
remove trade
barriers with Africa.
Mugabe's
senseless campaign of destroying informal settlements, which
has left nearly
one million people homeless, has sparked international
outrage and seems to
have given allies like Putin the impetus to condemn him
publicly. -
ZimOnline
Reuters
Judge calls for halt to Zimbabwean deportations
Wed Jul 6,
2005 7:49 PM BST
LONDON (Reuters) - A judge called on Britain on Wednesday to
halt
deportations of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers over worries about
their
possible treatment back home.
Mr Justice Andrew Collins also
warned courts should brace themselves for a
flood of legal challenges from
Zimbabweans fighting deportation orders.
The judge doesn't have powers to
halt deportations but his comments will add
further pressure on the
government after a more than 40 failed Zimbabwean
asylum seekers went on
hunger strike late last month.
The asylum seekers say they will be at
risk if returned to Zimbabwe. A
crackdown by President Robert Mugabe's
government has destroyed tens of
thousands of homes and businesses and drawn
fierce criticism from rights
groups as well as the United States and
Britain.
"It is difficult not to be concerned about the situation in
Zimbabwe and not
to be concerned that those returned there might be at
risk," the judge said.
Mugabe's government insists the campaign is simply
meant to remove
shantytowns and illegal markets which it says had become a
haven for
criminal activity.
The Refugee Legal Council, which offers
advice to refugees, told the judge
that evidence suggested asylum seekers
would be at risk if returned to
Zimbabwe, on the basis they had sought
asylum in Britain.
Justice Collins ruled the council should be given an
opportunity to present
its evidence to Home Secretary Charles Clarke. A
further hearing has been
schedule at London's High Court on August
4.
Until the matter has been "fully probed", failed asylum seekers should
not
be sent back to Zimbabwe, he said.
The purpose of Wednesday's
hearing had been to look at streamlining the
procedure for dealing with
challenges by Zimbabweans against orders that
they be returned.
The
judge said he could see no way around cases being judged on their
individual
merits rather than on bulk.
There are around 80 cases being
considered.
The number of asylum seekers and the costs of processing
their cases has
been a focus of public opinion and was a big issue the
country's last
general election.
The Times
July 06, 2005
Confusion over
halt to Zimbabwe deportations
By Mark Sellman, Times
Online
The Home Office policy of deportating all
Zimbabwean asylum
seekers was in disarray tonight after conflicting
statements by officials
and judicial pressure to halt the
removals.
The confusion came after an immigration
tribunal hearing in
London was told that forced removals had suddenly been
halted. Peter
Armstrong, a Home Office reporting officer, said during a bail
application
by two detainees on hunger strike that "Returns have been
halted."
But the Home Office insisted policy had not changed
and that
Zimbabweans will still be deported. One woman is scheduled to be
flown home
tomorrow night.
Earlier Charles Clarke, the
Home Secretary, said in a written
ministerial statement that the Home Office
continued to assess each asylum
application from Zimbabwe on their
"individual merits".
Mr Clarke said: "The Home Office
assesses cases on their
individual merits providing protection to those who
need it and seeking to
remove from the UK those who do
not.
"Each case is considered thoroughly before removal
proceeds and
any new information or representations are examined
accordingly." A Home
Office spokeswoman added: "The policy has not changed.
We are not providing
a running commentary on
deportations."
This came as a High Court judge called on Mr
Clarke to halt
further expulsions The judge acted after a Refugee Legal
Council (RLC)
representative told him there was evidence to suggest that
asylum seekers
were in danger of being ill-treated and abused in Zimbabwe
just because they
had claimed asylum in the UK.
Mr
Justice Collins said it could be "arguable" on the basis of
the RLC material
that it was unsafe to send back failed asylum seekers to
Zimbabwe.
The judge stressed that he was not saying that
was the case, but
he said the RLC should have the opportunity to put forward
its evidence and
it should then be considered by Mr
Clarke.
The judge directed that a court hearing over the
issue should be
held on August 4. In the meantime, suggested the judge,
failed asylum
seekers should not be removed "until this is sorted
out".
Earlier lawyers for the Home Secretary had told the
judge that
Mr Clarke had no evidence of any systematic abuse of failed
asylum seekers
returned to Zimbabwe.
Jenni Richards,
appearing for the Home Secretary, said Mr Clarke
was well aware of public
concern following reports from Zimbabwe and was
keeping the situation under
close observation.
The judge said there were 70-80
applications before the High
Court at the moment involving Zimbabweans
fighting removal on the grounds
that they fear for their lives or that they
would suffer inhuman and
degrading treatment.
During the
case the judge had angrily condemned the deportation
of a Zimbabwean woman,
who cannot be named for legal reasons, after a
mistake was made by
Securicor, who were responsible for escorting her out of
the country. The
woman, who was flown to Harare, was now "in hiding", said
the
judge.
He said the Home Office had cancelled the
removal directions
after the woman lodged an application for judicial review
with the High
Court.
But the fax sent by the Home Office
to Securicor was dealt with
by a temporary member of staff who was not fully
trained and did not realise
the significance of the
fax.
"How anyone could fail to appreciate the
significance of a fax
from the Home Office telling them removal directions
had been cancelled
frankly escapes me.
"Even a half-wit
would understand. All I can say is that I
sincerely hope nothing like this
ever happens again," said the judge.
Today's legal action
follows recent pressure to halt Zimbabwean
deportations after the Archbishop
of Canterbury and former Labour leader
Lord Kinnock joined the growing
chorus of concern.
Dr Rowan Williams said it would be "deeply
immoral" to send
failed claimants back to a country where they could face
persecution and
torture.
Lord Kinnock said it would be
better to let "a couple of dozen"
unjustified claimants remain in Britain
than risk sending back people who
needed protection.
Lawyers for the Zimbabweans are expected to argue when the case
comes on for
a full hearing that the removal directions made against them in
the past few
months are in breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the European
Convention on Human
Rights, which protect their right to life and not to be
subject to inhuman
and degrading treatment.
Earlier this week The Times reported
that Mr Clarke was under
growing pressure to explain why he assured the
House of Commons that
deported asylum seekers would come to no harm when
there was mounting
evidence that some had been tortured.
The Guardian
Zimbabwean hunger striker wins bail
Staff and
agencies
Wednesday July 6, 2005
A Zimbabwean asylum seeker who went on
hunger strike in a British detention
centre was granted bail today, as the
government confirmed that 33 other
Zimbabweans are still on hunger
strike.
Crispen Kulinji, a senior Zimbabwean opposition politician, claims he
faces
certain death if deported. The 32-year-old was released from custody
today
following a hearing at the Asylum and Immigration tribunal in
Birmingham.
Mr Kulinji, from Harare, was being held at the Campsfield
detention centre
near Kidlington in Oxfordshire. He said he would continue
his hunger strike
until all of his compatriots had been released. "Although
I have won the
battle, the war is still on. I am urging all the people left
behind not to
lose heart," he said.
The member of the Movement for
Democratic Change also urged G8 leaders to
help make changes in his
homeland. "If they are saying they want to make
poverty history, they should
also make dictatorship history," he said.
The government wants to send Mr
Kulinji back to Malawi as he entered the UK
using a Malawian passport. But
he claims the regime of Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe would be able to
track him down there.
Mr Kulinji won a temporary reprieve from being
deported last month after the
intervention of Labour MP Kate Hoey. Another
hearing will take place at the
tribunal on August 10.
Mr Kulinji's
case comes after a two-year blanket ban on all deportations to
Zimbabwe was
lifted last November.
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, confirmed today
that 33 other asylum
seekers from Zimbabwe were still on hunger strike in
protest at being
deported against their will. He said that none of the
hunger strikers had
yet needed hospitalisation.
"Food is available to
all hunger strikers and they are seen daily by a
medical practitioner to
check their condition," he said in a written
statement to MPs.
Home
office figures reveal that 106 failed asylum seekers are being detained
in
Britain awaiting removal to Zimbabwe. During the first three months of
this
year, 95 Zimbabweans were sent home.
The government has come under
increasing pressure over the removals, which
have been bitterly opposed by
MPs on all sides of the Commons. Media reports
say Zimbabweans who have been
returned to the country are being ill-treated.
Mr Clarke admitted today
that the government did not "routinely" monitor the
treatment of deportees
but said the situation in Zimbabwe was constantly
assessed by a variety of
sources.
In Strasbourg today, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, called
on Zimbabwe's
neighbours to follow the lead of the European Union and
condemn "the
gratuitous and violent actions" by Mr Mugabe against his own
people.
In recent weeks, Mr Mugabe has launched a so-called urban renewal
drive
aimed at clearing away shantytowns, markets and other structures
deemed
illegal. Aid workers and opposition leaders estimate the campaign has
displaced up to 1.5 million people.S
Zimbabwe police continue with demolitions in Bulawayo
Tichaona Sibanda
6th July 2005
Government has failed
to find alternative accommodation for the tens
of thousands of people who
are still homeless after the clean up operation
in
Bulawayo.
Despite this, police in the city continued on
Wednesday to demolish
houses in Luveve, Gwabalanda and Lobengula. Churches
in the city are now
overstretched with the number of people seeking
refuge.
Zimbabwe Standard journalist Savious Kwinika told us from
Bulawayo
that churches are now struggling to feed thousands of people
because
government has not been helping with anything at all.
He said: 'The UN envoy is expected in the city late in the afternoon,
but
this has not deterred the police from continuing with the
demolitions.'
Instead government has been busy trying to remove
people from the
streets to holding camps, away from the prying eyes of the
world.
A vetting exercise, for people needing new stands in the
Western
suburbs, had to be called off when word got around that the UN envoy
was due
to visit the city.
Kwinika said more than 5000 homeless
people turned and that government
officials called off the exercise, fearing
a visit by the UN envoy.
Meanwhile in Norton, police moved into the Knowe
Phase 3 area near Bulawayo
road and demolished several houses. It is also
reported that they are
revisiting certain areas and making sure all
structures destroyed have not
been
rebuilt.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Student accommodation time-bomb in Zimbabwe
By Lance
Guma
06 July 2005
Over 15 000 non-resident
students at the country's universities will
be stranded for accommodation
when colleges open on the 18th August. The
majority of students rent
cottages in the various towns and with police
demolishing most of these,
student leaders are predicting a major disaster.
Washington Katema,
University of Zimbabwe Students Union leader and Vice
President of the
Zimbabwe National Students Union slammed the operation as
'barbaric, satanic
and diabolical.
He said that universities were absorbing less
than a third of the
total student population and the rest had to look for
accommodation on their
own from private landlords. This is what made
cottages the easier
alternative as landlords prefer single people in their
homes. Meanwhile
Katema revealed that authorities at the Harare Polytechnic
have imposed a
curfew and are locking students up in their hostels after 9pm
at night.
It effectively means the freedom of students is curtailed
after 9pm
and they become prisoners in their hostels. He described the move
as a
serious fire hazard and a ridiculous attempt to control students. A
fire
could easily break out at the hostels and the evacuation of students
severely compromised. The National Students Union met the Dean of Students
who failed to give a proper explanation for the curfew. Katema bemoaned the
lack of financial resources as the main reason why they have lost the
ability to mobilize students nationally on such important issues. With run
away inflation most students are concentrating on basic
survival.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
UN Envoy to Zimbabwe disturbed by suffering in Mutare holding
camps
By Violet Gonda
6 July
2005
The Mayor of Mutare Misheck Kagurabadza has said the UN
envoy was
disturbed by the scenes that have greeted her. Government
officials had
tried to cover up the appalling conditions that people are
living under at a
holding camp at Sports Oval in Mutare. But when the envoy,
Anna Tibaijuka
arrived Friday night there were only two tents available
while scores of
people were sleeping in the cold. The envoy was told that
the rest of the
tents had been pulled down.
Victims at the
holding camp at the Sports Oval were allowed to give
their testimonies to
the mission. The envoy showed concern after she was
told that the victims
were being forced to go to the rural areas even though
many of them have no
homes in the rural areas.
Mr Kagurabadza said that he was impressed
that Tibaijuka showed
concern about the humanitarian impact. He said, "She
is not looking at the
symptoms but the source of the problem."
Kagurabaza told us that the effects of operation murambatsvina have
created
unemployment and severe homelessness in Mutare. He added, "so many
children
are not going to school because they have been
displaced".
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
DESPERATE URGENT APPEAL
RE : Lion & cheetah park
Lions at
Lions & Cheetah park have not eaten for five days due to
fuel
shortage
The Park has been offered 2 mombies a day & 300 kgs
chicken every two days
and these are being burnt because they can't be
collected or delivered. If
everyone donated 1 litre of petrol or diesel
these lions would be able to
eat. Please contact Paul on 011 613 953 or 072
2433/ 4 (try both 072 &
062 )
to organise a drop off point, if you can
help. Please, please, please don't
let these animals starve.
A bit of Bulawayo has gone
THE BULAWAYO FLOWER SELLERS
The Bulawayo
Flower sellers outside the City Hall in Bulawayo have been an
institution
for as long as I have been alive and trust me that is an
extremely long time
!!
A favourite and enchanting tourist trap featured in every tourist
publication on Bulawayo since the inception of the city. But now they are no
more thanks to the strange behaviour of the Government known as Operation
Murambatsvina !!
Gone is Ma Moyo with her colourful buckets of baby's
breath and carnations
brought in fresh each day from the Martins' farm -
Ponderosa which is now of
course no more at any rate....
And if Colin
and Judy did not have a wedding on that week, you could
sometimes get a
precious bunch of Saint Joseph's' Lilies from Ma Moyo which
was a real treat
for the home.
Gone is old Willie Ndlovu with his half dead roses and the
agapanthas he
used to "borrow" on his way to work every morning
!!
Gone are the predictable ready made posies and wreaths which were so
popular
for weddings, funerals and just to say "I love you" or just to say
"I love
Life".
On the northern end of the City Hall mall were the
curio sellers selling
everything and anything in wood, wire or
soapstone.
Gone is that awful rapscallion Solomon who would add four
zeros onto the
price of a wooden hippo the minute he heard an American
accent, but would
reduce it quickly when you spoke even a word of Ndebele
!!
Gone are the worm sellers who could discuss most knowledgeably the
merits
and de merits of the thin red worms as opposed to the fat brown
earthworms
in the art of catching tiger or bream at Kariba (in spite of the
fact that
they had never gone further than Nyamandhlovu in their lives
!!
Gone are the placid ladies who sat day in and day out, legs stretched
ramrod
straight in front of them, crocheting and knitting doilies and
tablecloths
festooned with pretty beads. Remember those little covers
weighed down with
blue, red or green beads, that were used to cover the milk
and the sugar
bowls back in the days when gentility was paramount
?
Gone are the touts and the tricksters, an integral part of the tableau
of
every society the world over, who would rush up to you and drag you over
to
someone else's stall where they would expertly talk you into believing
that
this particular hand- carved bowl was exactly the one you needed to
send to
Aunty Clara in New Zealand, and then he would fix his own inflated
price
which included his cut of the takings!
The wire toy sellers
will be missed too. Such ingenuity was displayed by
these dextrous young
men, who could fashion anything out of wire "borrowed "
from someone's farm
fence or from the telephone wires leading to someone's
property
!!
Gone are the livelihoods and possibly the very lives of people who
have
lived in Bulawayo, paid rental on their flower stalls, and who are now
totally destitute with no means of survival.
Artists, painters,
sculptors, wood carvers, floral artists, an incredible
wealth of talent has
been decimated in one ruthless sweep of absolute power.
News24
'Blair must pressure Mbeki'
06/07/2005 20:18 -
(SA)
Johannesburg - British Prime Minister Tony Blair should exert
pressure on
President Thabo Mbeki over developments in Zimbabwe, a new
report said on
Wednesday.
It also criticised African leaders for
failing to act against human rights
violations in the southern African
country.
"Recent reports that president Mbeki will finally act against
the Mugabe
regime and be supportive of a return to democracy should be seen
against
years of inaction and similar broken promises in the past," said the
report,
compiled by Anglican Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube, Roger Bate
and
Richard Tren.
Bate is a fellow of the American Enterprise
Institute, and Tren is
Johannesburg-based director of Africa Fighting
Malaria.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair should seize this opportunity to
exert pressure
on President Mbeki to act in the interests of the suffering
Zimbabweans and
not the political elite," the report said.
The
report, which examines the Zimbabwean government's Operation
Murambatsvina,
which literally means "drive out trash" and which the
government calls
"Operation Restore Order", called on leaders attending the
G8 meeting in
Scotland to insist on improving regional democracy, not just
fiscal
responsibility as a condition of debt aid.
The operation, which is touted
as a programme to rid the country of illegal
homes and businesses, has left
people homeless without notice, compensation
or alternative accommodation
during winter.
Among those targeted were an orphanage and a clinic
providing treatment and
home-based care for people with
HIV/Aids.
Rescue package
The report said that opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai had had meetings
with a number of African leaders,
including in Ghana, Mauritius and with
Nigerian president Olusegun
Obasanjo.
He requested an internationally supervised legitimate
transitional authority
to lead Zimbabwe out of the present
crisis.
This required a rescue package including food, fuel, medicine,
foreign
currency, support for displaced people and funds for the rebuilding
homes.
The aim of the discussions was to work with Mbeki and offer him
the solution
of the transitional authority (perhaps by agreeing an exit
strategy for
Mugabe, and a Truth Commission, not unlike South
Africa's).
Support from the transitional authority should come from the
UN and the EU
but most importantly from the African Union.
News24
Top Mugabe man quits over blitz
06/07/2005 16:42 -
(SA)
Harare - A former senior intelligence officer has quit
Zimbabwe's ruling
party over the demolitions campaign that has left hundreds
of thousands
homeless, saying the governing clique was "punishing the
people" for no
reason.
"After the elections when we thought there was
going to be sanity, we see
this massive move of destroying people's homes
and their means of
livelihood," Pearson Mbalekwa, a former member of
parliament and senior
member of Zanu-PF's central committee, told AFP on
Wednesday.
He becomes the first official from the ruling Zimbabwe African
National
Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) to resign since government launched
the
blitz in May, razing shacks, markets and nurseries and leaving hundreds
of
thousands homeless in winter.
"I found we were turning against and
punishing the people we were supposed
to represent.
"I asked myself,
'What for? What have these people done to deserve this? I
found myself
unable to continue my membership in Zanu-PF'."
Govt 'responsible for
slums'
A former top-ranking intelligence officer in Zimbabwe's security
police,
Mbalekwa said President Robert Mugabe's government was responsible
for the
proliferation of slums and makeshift market stalls across
Zimbabwe.
"We created the system, allowed things to go the way they were
going," said
Mbalekwa who served in Mugabe's government in various
capacities since
independence from Britain in 1980.
"We ignored city
by-laws for many years for political patronage."
Mbalekwa said he was
"watching the situation closely" before deciding on his
future.
On
Wednesday, officials from the lands ministry went to Mbalekwa's farm
outside
the central Zimbabwean town of Gweru and took away a tractor and
farming
equipment given to him under the government land reforms, Mbalekwa
said.
"This is part of a mission to punish me. They are on a mission
to destroy
me."
The government demolitions campaign has left between
200 000 and 1.5 million
people homeless according to the UN and the
opposition respectively.
Two toddlers died during demolitions at Harare
area slums in June and four
others were reportedly killed at the Porta Farm
settlement, west of the
capital, although police have denied that those four
deaths occurred.
Mugabe has defended the clean-up campaign, referred to
as tsunami in street
lingo, saying it was necessary to rid the country of
squalor and crime.
Zanu (PF) On Verge of Split As MPs Question Mugabe's
Blitz
Business Day (Johannesburg)
July 6, 2005
Posted
to the web July 6, 2005
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
DIVISIONS
within Zimbabwe's ruling party over the urban demolition blitz
widened
yesterday after a senior party official quit in protest against the
crackdown.
Top Zanu (PF) sources said yesterday that a number of
party officials were
exasperated by the government's Operation Murambatsvina
(Drive Out Rubbish)
and Operation Restore Order, which have affected up to
1-million people.
"There is a lot of anger and division in the party over
this ruthless
campaign, which has thrown people into the streets in the
middle of a chilly
winter," said a senior party official who asked not to be
named.
"The campaign has nothing to do with public policy issues and the
claimed
clean-up. It's a self-serving agenda of a misguided clique that
thinks it
can maintain power through vandalism."
A senior Zanu (PF)
MP and deputy minister, Phineas Chihota, shocked
parliament last week when
he said that displaced urban residents should
suffer because they are not
"indigenous".
Chihota claimed the displaced urban people could not go
back to their rural
homes because they were not Zimbabweans. Many
Zimbabweans in urban areas
originate from Malawi, Mozambique and
Zambia.
Angered by such remarks and the blitz, several Zanu (PF) members
were said
to be considering resigning over the issue.
Senior Zanu
(PF) central committee member and former MP Pearson Mbalekwa
quit the ruling
party last week over the campaign.
The move was also widely seen as an
unprecedented display of frustration
with President Robert Mugabe's
leadership failures.
Sources said that Mbalekwa's action could trigger
more resignations from the
party, now divided over the ongoing crackdown and
Mugabe's leadership.
Mbalekwa cited a number of reasons for his
resignation, including the
demolition blitz, the fuel crisis and
socioeconomic problems.
Mbalekwa, a former state security agent, said he
was "perturbed and
disturbed by the prevailing political and economic
developments".
People were "under siege, cornered by their very own
government, which is
doing nothing about the fuel crisis that has brought
untold suffering to
ordinary people", Mbalekwa said.
Sources said
Mbalekwa's unexpected resignation might signal further tremors
in Zanu (PF)
as the economy and social conditions deteriorate.
Speculation is rife
that a "third force" could arise from Zanu (PF) and
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) officials forming a power bloc.
Both Zanu (PF) and the MDC
are riddled with factionalism. This could lead to
the breakaway of blocs
from both sides to form a new party to challenge
Mugabe's
rule.
Mugabe's former information minister, Jonathan Moyo, has warned
that "an
natural political emergence of a third force among the people of
Zimbabwe
comprising the full spectrum of political persuasions is
inevitable".
Moyo said Mugabe's party had lost "political and moral
legitimacy" to rule
and was now surviving on a "de facto state of
emergency".
Reuters
Straw slams Zimbabwe, urges market access for Africa
Wed Jul
6, 2005 3:29 PM BST
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw launched a
withering attack on Zimbabwe's government on Wednesday,
while urging rich
countries to open their markets to allow Africa to lift
itself from poverty.
"In Zimbabwe the government has already trampled
over democracy and over
basic human rights," he told the European parliament
in a debate on Africa,
accusing President Robert Mugabe's government of
ruining the economy.
Global outcry has mounted over a government
crackdown on informal housing,
which rights groups say has displaced more
than 300,000 people.
"The government has now turned on the poorest and
most vulnerable in that
country, driving hundreds of thousands from their
homes and destroying their
livelihoods," Straw said ahead of a G8 summit in
Scotland where Africa will
feature high on the agenda.
"The problem
of Zimbabwe is not one of an intrinsic lack of resources nor
one of climate
but one of bad, very bad government."
He later told a news conference
that he sensed "a growing anger across the
European Union with the
gratuitous and violent actions of the Mugabe
government."
Straw told
the parliament the EU should end market-distorting agricultural
and export
subsidies, and open the markets of the developed world to African
products
as a way of helping the continent develop.
"The total national income of
sub-Saharan Africa countries is less than the
developed world -- the
European Union, the United States, Japan, a few other
countries -- spend on
farming subsidies," he said.
"We've got to deliver better access to
developed markets for the world's
poorest countries so as to make a reality
of the Doha development agenda,"
he said, referring to World Trade
Organisation (WTO) free trade talks.
"We should start with this
December's (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong. The
European Union, the United States
and other rich countries must honour their
commitments to abolish export
subsidies and do so to a clear and explicit
timetable," Straw
said.
Britain took over the EU's presidency on July 1, in the midst of a
dispute
over farm subsidies which has pitted Britain against France and
Germany.
EU budget negotiations collapsed last month after London refused
to give up
its rebate from the bloc's coffers without a guarantee from Paris
to support
an overhaul of subsidies.
Britain also heads the G8 group
of wealthy nations, and has put Africa as
well as climate change at the top
of the G8 summit opening on Wednesday in
Gleneagles, Scotland.
News24
Mbeki to wait for UN report
06/07/2005 10:24 -
(SA)
Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki has agreed with United
Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to wait for a report on Zimbabwe by UN
special
envoy before taking any course of action, SABC radio news
reports.
Mbeki and Annan held informal discussions on the matter at a
summit of
African leaders in Libya.
Meanwhile, UN special envoy Anna
Tibaijuka has added five more days to her
week-long visit to Zimbabwe to
hear what Zimbabweans say about the
situation.
President Robert
Mugabe's controversial Operation Muvabatsatsvina (Drive Out
Rubbish)
campaign, which has left 200 000 homeless, is in its seventh
week.
According to an Agence France Presse report, in the past week state
media
have been referring to the clean-up campaign in the past tense, saying
it
has been superceded by a reconstruction campaign.
However,
demolitions have carried on, read the report.
The BBC Africa website
reports that a former director of Zimbabwe's secret
police left the ruling
party over the "callous" destruction of people's
homes.
Former ruling
party MP Pearson Mbalekwa contradicted President Robert
Mugabe's assertions
that the operation had been planned long in advance,
read the
report.
"If there was a plan, we wouldn't have people sleeping under
trees or next
to rivers," it quoted him saying.
Mbalekwa, a former
senior director of the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), was a member
of Zanu-PF's senior body, the central committee, until
resigning last
Friday, the report read.
It added that Mbalekwa said neither the central
committee nor MPs were
consulted until the crackdown had already
begun.
"This thing was not planned, it was done haphazardly, thereby
causing a lot
of suffering to people," the BBC quoted him saying.
He
said he had no idea why the operation was being carried out.
"It puzzles
me and it puzzles all sane people," he told the BBC.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Governor ordered out of Parliament
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-07
HARARE Metropolitan
governor and resident minister David Karimanzira was on
Tuesday thrown out
of Parliament after he gate-crashed into the august House
while it was in
session.
After walking in, Karimanzira, who is not new to the House after
serving as
a Cabinet minister and governor for Mashonaland East, was
promptly spotted
by opposition MDC parliamentary chief whip Innocent Gonese,
who raised the
issue with Deputy Speaker Edna Madzongwe, chairing.
"There
is a stranger in the House," Gonese raised a point of order.
House leader and
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Patrick
Chinamasa then
approached Karimanzira.
After a short conversation between the two, the
governor walked out, amid
laughter from Members of
Parliament.
Karimanzira and his Bulawayo colleague Cain Mathema had stayed
away from the
Chamber since their appointments as metropolitan governors,
only for
Karimanzira to decide to claim a seat in the House on
Tuesday.
In an interview yesterday, Chinamasa said Karimanzira had probably
thought
that he was still a legislator, in the same manner he had been while
he was
governor for Mashonaland East.
He, however, added that
constitutional amendments would be brought forward
soon to allow the two
metropolitan governors to be Parliamentarians.
"I think there was an
oversight in not informing him that he was no longer
an MP. However, the
positions of the two governors (Karimanzira and Mathema)
would be
regularised through constitutional amendments," said Chinamasa.
Although
Karimanzira, the finance secretary in Zanu PF's Politburo, is a
provincial
governor, the constitution bars him from sitting in
Parliament.
Constitutionally, of the 150 Members of Parliament, 120 are
elected, 10
chiefs chosen by their electoral college, 12 non- constituency
MPs appointed
by the President and eight provincial governors.
Last
year's appointment of governors for Harare and Bulawayo is not catered
for
in Parliament in terms of the Constitution, since they are a new
creation
under the Provincial and Administrative Act.
Therefore, they will not sit in
Parliament until the Constitution has been
amended.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Govt to table supplementary budget
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-07
THE government will soon
table a supplementary budget in Parliament to
finance obligations
necessitated by last year's drought and the current
clean-up exercise, a
cabinet minister told the House yesterday.
Minister of Finance Herbert
Murerwa did not specify when the supplementary
budget would be presented in
Parliament for debate.
"We are going to have a supplementary budget this
year. the role of the
government is to solve problems when they arise," said
Murerwa.
He added that when the current $8 trillion budget was tabled in
November
2004, government had not anticipated that it would carry out the
clean- up
exercise.
The Goromonzi MP denied assertions by MDC legislators
that the clean-up
exercise was destroying the informal sector, arguing that
the government was
re-organising the sector for it to operate within the
confines of the law.
Answering questions on the clean-up operation, local
government minister
Ignatius Chombo said it was not mandatory for the City
of Harare to hold a
council meeting to endorse the clean-up, as it was a
national programme
sanctioned by the central government.
Chombo was
responding to a question by Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson who
wanted him
to "provide the House with the minutes of the meeting held by the
commission
running Harare during which it resolved to implement Operation
Murambatsvina."
Chombo however, conceded that during the operation, there
may have been some
excesses, but added that where they happened, they should
be reported for
responsible authorities to take corrective measures.
He
added that at the moment it was difficult to state the number of people
affected by the clean-up or where they were resettled as the data was being
compiled.
The minister also said it was not true that the construction of
houses had
not been
envisaged as his ministry had submitted a
national
Housing Delivery Programme which sought to avail 150 000 stands to
the
people every
year.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Bulawayo housing list balloons to over 76
000
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-07
THE
Bulawayo City Council's housing list has ballooned to over 76 000 from
70
000 following the ongoing clean-up operation.
Bulawayo executive mayor Japhet
Ndabeni Ncube, revealed this week when he
addressed government officials
and city residents who attended a
groundbreaking ceremony of a housing
project that authorities say will go a
long way in easing accommodation
problems in the city.
Ncube said the clean-up exercise had worsened
accommodation crisis.
"Although some government officials would argue that
the operation was long
overdue and has sanitised the city in as far as
vending and illegal
structures are concerned, it (the operation) has had
some bad flashes as
well," Ncube said.
"I am saying so because the
operation has caused the waiting list at your
authority, the Bulawayo City
Council, to go up from the previous 70 000
people up to the current plus 76
000 people," he said.
Ncube added that the challenge to raise the required
financial capital for
the housing programme was now bigger, adding that the
weight could only be
reduced through the intervention of the
government.
"The onus is on all the stakeholders, the government included, to
make sure
that this issue of providing housing to the people becomes a
reality and not
simply a talk show. The people out there are waiting to see
what we are
capable of doing as leadership and not to just make political
rhetoric about
their problems," said Ncube.
Speaking at the same
occasion, Bulawayo Metropolitan province governor, Cain
Mathema pointed out
that the government was doing all it could to ensure
that the dream of
providing houses to all was realised.
The former Zimbabwean Ambassador to
Zambia also added that the government
had undertaken a programme that will
see the construction of 1 250 000 by
2008, of which 41 000 would be
constructed in Bulawayo by the end of the
year.
Mathema said: "The
primary objectives of this new operation code-named
"Operation Garikai/
Hlalani Kuhle is to address the problem of accommodation
nationwide."
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Clean-up cruel:
The Daily Mirror
Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-07
THE two-member United States
Congressional delegation visiting the country
to assess the current
political, economic and health conditions on Tuesday
described as "cruel",
the manner in which the government carried out
operation
Murambatsvina/Restore Order, but the government quickly dismissed
their
assertions.
Gregory Simpkins and Pearl-Alice Marsh who left yesterday but had
been in
the country since Saturday are both
professional staff members of
the US House of Representative International
Relations Committee
(HIRC).
"We are as astounded as anyone that this situation has developed this
way.
Even though the operation Murambatsvina has good intentions of
minimising
the parallel market, the way it
has been done is
absolutely
cruel. The way is shocking and has
been done in an
uncivilised
way," Simpkins said.
However, the Minister of State for
National Security, Didymus Mutasa who met
the delegation earlier on Tuesday,
dismissed
the accusations saying they were reflective of America's "big
brother
attitude." "They should just leave us alone, we are a sovereign and
independent state. We don't like their big brother attitude. They should
just leave us alone.
" If we are making mistakes, those mistakes reflect
on us and is none of
their business, we don't like their condescending
attitude," he said.
Ignatius Chombo, the minister of Local Government, Public
Works and National
Housing, whose ministry is overally in charge of the
operation said the
operation was planned and government had put in place,
measures to help
those
affected.
"They are not well informed on what
is on the ground, the programme was
planned as President Mugabe said and we
have also put in place measures to
help the people who were displaced, that
is why we have now launched
operation Garikai" he said.
Simpkins added
that it was disheartening that vulnerable people like those
living with HIV
and Aids, women and young children have been left in the
cold at this time
of the year.
Marsh said it was surprising that a black government was
treating fellow
blacks this way.
She said: " As a great grand daughter of
slaves I would not be surprised if
white racists treat us this way. It is
however, shocking when a black
government does this to a fellow black
man.The struggle shouldn't be against
our own people."
Simpkins also
mourned the decline in the economic fortunes of the country
after it had
been a leading light in the region.
Relations between Zimbabwe and the USA
have been low ever since the
government embarked on the fast track land
reform programme in 2000 with the
Americans accusing Zimbabwean authorities
of human rights abuses while the
Zanu PF government have in turn accused
them of pursuing a regime change
agenda.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Chiefs lack legal knowledge
The Daily
Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-07
CHIEF Mudzimurema of Marondera
says traditional leaders' lack of legal
knowledge was affecting the delivery
of justice in their areas of
jurisdiction.
Debating in Parliament on
Tuesday, Mudzimurema said higher courts overturned
most of the chief's
rulings because of mis-application of law.
"VeMinistry of Justice
murikutiregerera. Tikatonga munhu tinomuti
unobhadhara. Akarega tinomutorera
zvinhu zvake iye oenda kunamagistrate uyo
anouya oti tiri wrong. Tiri vanhu
varikungo tonga, sekunge Kangaroo Court
(The Ministry of Justice, Legal and
parliamentary Affairs you are letting us
down. If we decide that someone
must pay compensation and when he fails we
confiscate his property. After
confiscating his property, he goes to the
Magistrate Court. The magistrate
says the chief was wrong. We are people who
are just presiding; it is now
like a Kangaroo Court)," said Mudzimurema.
Mudzimurema also praised the
ongoing clean- up operation saying it had
resulted in cleanliness in urban
areas.Turning to some problems faced by
rural communities, the chief pointed
out cattle rustling as one of the major
drawbacks. He alleged that sometimes
thieves commit the crime in the
presence of law enforcement agents.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Zim far from meeting WHO target
The Daily
Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-07
WITH just six months before
year-end, Zimbabwe might not meet the World
Health Organisation (WHO)'s
target of providing affordable HIV and Aids
therapy to at least 100 000
people.
Since the inception of the government's antiretroviral (ARV) rollout
plan
last year, at least 16 000 people have benefited - 84 000 shy of the
WHO's 3
by 5 initiative target.
The 3 by 5 initiative, which was set in
2001 - aims to provide life
prolonging antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs to 3
million people living with HIV
and Aids in developing countries by the end
of the year.
Former chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Health, Blessing
Chebundo yesterday said Zimbabwe was far from reaching the
target
attributing the failure to lack of foreign currency to import raw
materials
for manufacturing the ARVs. "We are far from reaching the quarter
way
because of foreign currency shortages hindering the manufacturing
industry
to produce adequate antiretroviral drugs as cited by the companies
manufacturing ARVs," said Chebundo.
He added that the government should
have prioritized the issue of ARVs by
pooling alternative resources to
ensure that the drugs were made available
at affordable costs to infected
people since HIV and Aids was declared a
national disaster.
Public
Personalities Against HIV and Aids Trust (PPAAT) founder member,
Tendayi
Westerhof had this to say: "Obviously, Zimbabwe would not meet WHO 3
by 5
target considering that this is 2005 and we are almost half way through
the
year yet we have to provide ARVs to 100 000 people by the end of the
year."
She attributed the failure by Zimbabwe to meet the initiative to
stigma and
lack of treatment literacy among Zimbabweans.
Westerhof said
people were still reluctant to go for voluntary counseling
and testing,
which is a prerequisite for one to be on ART hence impacting
negatively on
ARV intake.
She said lack of knowledge among infected people on advantages of
ARVs was
another barrier to reaching the initiative.
"Although the costs
of ARVs have gone down because they are now manufactured
locally, they have
not yet gown down to what we expect for ordinary
countryman," said
Westerhof.
The former model was however, quick to appreciate the efforts by
government
in making ARVs accessible and affordable to ordinary
Zimbabweans.
She complimented the decentralisation of the government's ARV
rollout
programme to provincial, district and some mission hospitals as a
welcome
development in provision of HIV therapy.
She said Zimbabwe should
be applauded for significant strides made in ARV
provision.
Zimbabwe
started off with only two central hospitals - Mpilo and Harare -
but now
more than 20 sites dotted across the country are administering the
life
prolonging drugs to achieve universal treatment.
Statistics released in June
last year during the National Aids Conference
indicated that about 5 000
people were on ART but to date around 16 000
people are benefiting from the
programme.
A local pharmaceutical company also becomes the first ever
indigenously
owned pharmaceutical company to offer Antiretroviral drugs
(ARVs), a move
Westerhof described as a welcome development in provision of
affordable
therapy.
Another HIV and Aids activist with Zimbabwe Activists
for HIV and Aids
(ZAHA), Believe Dhliwayo attributed the failure by Zimbabwe
to meet the
target to the process at national level.
Dhliwayo said the
process was too abstract such that organisations had to
ascertain certain
things before implementation takes place, hence impacting
on the number of
people on ARVs.
He hoped that with funding made available by the Global Fund
to Fight Aids,
Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) more people were going to
benefit from the
scheme.
A United Nations special envoy in Africa,
Stephen Lewis backed a report
released by WHO on the progress made by
countries in reaching the 3 by 5
initiative saying some African countries
would not meet the target.
The WHO report identified Zimbabwe as one of the
African countries, which
will not meet the 3 by 5 initiative.
The other
countries are South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia and India
that
represent fully half of the unmet treatment needs.
"The numbers for the other
African countries (Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia
and India) while smaller are
proportionately even more grim. This is where
the international community
must rally urgent support," said Lewis.
VOA
Zimbabwe Currency Stabilizes as Informal Market
Dwindles
By Chris Gande
Washington
06 July
2005
The Zimbabwe dollar has regained some ground against the
U.S. dollar since
the start of Harare's offensive against the black market
in foreign
exchange. At one point the U.S. dollar fetched 30,000 Zimbabwe
dollars, but
has slipped to Z$20,000 per U.S. dollar.
The Zimbabwe
dollar's recovery won't last, though, according to Lucy
Sibanda, who has
worked in the parallel currency market for six years.
Before Operation
Restore Order she operated from a stall in the Bulawayo
forex mart known as
the World Bank. But she has adapted to the new
circumstances for informal
traders.
Reporter Chris Gande of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke with
Mrs. Sibanda
about the currency and her business.
Economist Eric
Bloch, a member of the board of advisors of the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe,
offers a different outlook for the exchange rate. He says the
recovery in
the Zimbabwe dollar spells the beginning of the end for the
parallel market.
Exchange rates had gotten out of hand, so much so that
customers refused to
pay sky-high rates for dollars. Now, he says, flows
through the RBZ's
Homelink scheme are picking up.
Mr. Bloch explained his views to reporter
Chris Gande.