Yahoo News
Sun Jul 8, 8:42 AM ET
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The Southern
African Development Community is preparing
an economic rescue package for
Zimbabwe which would include extending the
rand monetary area into the
impoverished country, reports said Sunday.
This is in an effort by the
14-nation regional bloc to stabilise the
exchange rate of the Zimbabwe
dollar and curb inflation, now estimated at a
world record 5,000 percent,
The Sunday Independent reported.
The SADC secretariat Tomaz Salamao was
tasked at a summit in March to study
ways and means through which the
regional trading bloc could assist in the
economic recovery of
Zimbabwe.
It was at the same summit where South African President Thabo
Mbeki was
mandated to mediate between President Robert Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF and the
opposition.
According to the new plan, Zimbabwe would
be included in the multilateral
monetary area (MMA), which now includes
neighbouring South Africa, Namibia,
Lesotho, and Swaziland, making the rand
a legal tender in Zimbabwe, the
paper said quoting unidentified
sources.
The neighbouring countries would also pump millions into the
Zimbabwe
reserve bank, effectively propping up the Zimbabwe dollar which has
become
almost worthless, and put its exchange rate with foreign currencies
at the
same level as the rand.
The paper said Salamao visited
Zimbabwe on Thursday last week to discuss his
plans with the government
after briefing SADC leaders at the African Union
summit in
Ghana.
Mugabe would first have to agree to fundamental political reforms
in the
negotiations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change due
to start
in Pretoria on Monday, if the plan is to go ahead, the paper
added.
No immediate response from government was available.
The
new efforts come as Mugabe embarked on drastic forceful measures to try
and
control runaway inflation, warning that his government would seize and
nationalise firms perceived to be profiteering excessively in a bid to
incite Zimbabweans to revolt against the state.
Several price
freezing violators were arrested over the weekend.
Zimbabwe is in the
throes of an economic crisis characterised by four-digit
inflation,
shortages of basic foodstuffs like cooking oil and sugar, and
massive
unemployment.
Reuters
Sun 8 Jul
2007, 11:08 GMT
JOHANNESBURG, July 8 (Reuters) - A regional body wants to
rescue Zimbabwe's
inflation-ravaged economy by switching to South Africa's
currency in
exchange for political concessions by President Robert Mugabe, a
newspaper
reported on Sunday.
South Africa's solid rand currency
could help stabilise an economic crisis
in Zimbabwe where inflation has
rocketed to 4,500 percent, South Africa's
Sunday Independent said.
It
quoted unidentified sources as saying the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) was working on a plan to extend the rand monetary union to
Zimbabwe.
The monetary union, under which currencies are pegged to
the rand, consists
of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and
Swaziland.
The plan would also involve the central banks in South Africa
and Botswana
injecting huge amounts of funds into their counterpart in
Zimbabwe, the
Sunday Independent said.
Mugabe's government this week
sought to curb galloping inflation, the
highest in the world, by ordering
prices of basic goods slashed by half, but
this sparked panic buying by
shoppers who emptied shop shelves.
SECRET TALKS
To gain the
rescue plan, Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party would have to agree
to major
political reforms in secret talks with the opposition due to start
in
Pretoria on Monday, the paper added.
No officials from the SADC or the
South African Foreign Affairs Ministry
were immediately available to
comment.
SADC Executive Secretary Tonaz Salamao briefed leaders of the
grouping about
the rescue plan on the sidelines of last week's African Union
summit and
visited Zimbabwe on Thursday to float the plan with the
government there,
the paper said.
Southern African leaders at a
summit in March asked South African President
Thabo Mbeki to forge a deal
between Zimbabwe's ruling party and the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
That followed sharply rising tensions after opposition leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai and dozens of other MDC members suffered serious injuries
after
being arrested by police at an aborted prayer rally in
Harare.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, said on
Saturday
there was no need to create a new constitution, a key demand of the
opposition ahead of elections next year.
Mugabe's government last
month proposed new changes to allow joint
presidential and parliamentary
polls in 2008, in which Mugabe has said he
will run.
The 83-year-old
veteran ruler has accused firms of raising prices as part of
plot to unseat
him and says the economy has been sabotaged by Western foes,
led by
Britain.
Washington Post
By ANGUS
SHAW
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 8, 2007; 6:19 AM
HARARE,
Zimbabwe -- Police arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown
on those
suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices by 50
percent,
the official media reported Sunday.
The mandated price cuts are a
desperate attempt to confront inflation that
has spun out of control during
Zimbabwe's economic crisis. The falling
prices have caused stampedes, panic
buying and near-riots by impoverished
Zimbabweans.
Among those
arrested in the latest sweep were the directors of Edgars, a
leading
clothing and fashion retailer, and supermarket and gas station
owners.
Also taken into custody were Michael Fowler and Zed
Koudanaris, directors of
the main food distributor and fast food chain, and
Gavin Sainsbury, chief
executive of the country's biggest producer of pork
products, the state
Sunday Mail reported.
Fowler and Koudanaris
pioneered popular branded bakery, pizza and take out
franchises in Zimbabwe,
including Nando's, known for its chicken dishes
across Africa.
No
information was immediately available on specific allegations against the
business leaders or where they were being held. Police holding cells are
notorious for filthy and harsh conditions.
The country's economic
crisis, the worst since independence from Britain in
1980, began with the
seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms
for redistribution to
blacks in 2000. The country's agriculture-based
economy collapsed as a
result.
Official inflation is running at 4,500 percent, the highest in
the world,
though independent financial institutions estimate real inflation
is closer
to 9,000 percent.
Business executives argue the price cuts
threaten to force them to shut
down. The government accuses them of being
part of a political and economic
campaign of "regime change" to bring down
longtime ruler President Robert
Mugabe.
On Saturday, two weeks after
ordering sweeping price cuts, the government
announced a new law enabling it
to enforce the reductions.
The Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece, said
police and price inspectors
raided gas stations still selling scarce fuel
Saturday, ordering them to
reduce the price by up to two-thirds.
It
said they thwarted an attempt by one gas station manager to shut off his
pumps by claiming a power outage. Another gas station was caught
disconnecting its power supply.
The newspaper said Industry Minister
Obert Mpofu ordered commuter bus owners
to reduce fares, some by
four-fifths, as gasoline prices were being lowered.
Private minibus
owners routinely ignore such orders, or take their vehicles
off the road,
also citing viability problems.
Store shelves remained empty of corn
meal, bread, meat and other basic foods
Sunday as police and government
inspectors continued raiding shops and
businesses to force them obey the new
price controls.
Police on Friday arrested 17 business leaders.
At
least 200 businesses already have been charged for alleged price
violations
and 40 market vendors were arrested for hoarding goods.
State radio on
Sunday quoted police spokesman Andrew Phiri as saying the
raids were not a
temporary measure but were a permanent enforcement of
government efforts to
curb inflation and fight profiteering by businesses.
In a speech to
supporters Friday, Mugabe warned manufacturers not to defy
the
government-ordered price cuts by cutting production or their businesses
would be seized.
The Scotsman
MURDO MACLEOD (mmacleod@scotlandonsunday.com)
AS
A member of team Charlie Four, Washington Mabada was taught to strike a
victim so he fell to the floor paralysed, ordered to rape a teenage girl and
help construct a concrete "jacket" for a member of the
opposition.
Casual murder, extreme violence and the meting out of
degrading punishments
were all part of the day's work for the graduate of
Robert Mugabe's torture
academy.
Despite his training and his
newly-comfortable lifestyle, Mabada, who was
recruited as a poverty-stricken
teenager with four siblings to feed, dreamed
of escape away from his
Zimbabwean handlers. Last December, having earned
their trust, he boarded a
bus to neighbouring Botswana and is now in hiding
in Namibia. Although being
hunted by the Zimbabwean dictator's security
gangs, Mabada has decided to
tell all about his former life to the German
news magazine
Stern.
Mabada, 22, told the journal: "If I die, the world must know what
I have
done. Many nights I cried, but I was afraid to flee. I had seen the
places
where they brought traitors."
Mabada has revealed a world of
brutality and brainwashing, where young men
are trained to torture and kill
without remorse and where any lingering
doubts or misgivings are banished by
drugs and alcohol.
Selected for his ability to unflinchingly beat the
life out of victims
chosen by the Mugabe regime, Mabada says he was used as
a means to cement
the tyrant's grip on the country despite mounting
international condemnation
and a chronically mismanaged economy.
An
orphan whose parents had died of Aids, he had to provide for his four
siblings through odd jobs. His school marks were good and he hoped to go to
university, but didn't have the money.
So he was one of a number of
teenagers who signed up for an ideological
training programme - the
innocent-sounding National Youth Service - which he
hoped would pay for
education in return for patriotic work for the state.
The reality was a
school for thugs.
Mabada was sent to a camp in Bindura in the north of
the country where, for
months, the most he had to endure was physical labour
and long speeches by
party chiefs.
Then came his introduction to the
brutal world of Mugabe's torture gangs.
Mabada and three others were ordered
by an instructor into a room where a
naked 15-year old girl lay chained to a
table.
The official said: "This girl was working in the office and was
secretly
using the telephone. You are her punishment."
The boys were
handed cannabis joints to ease misgivings and went on to rape
their
victim.
Later that night, Mabada and a friend awoke from the haze of the
drugs and
realised what had happened. They attempted to flee but were caught
by guard
dogs and beaten as a punishment. His friend died.
Despite
his escape attempt, his senior officers still believed he had
"potential"
and he was chosen for special training. When he refused, he was
told: "There
is no place here for refusing. We pull the strings and you
dance."
He
continued his training as agent 18026 of Team Charlie Four, taking an
apprenticeship in the art of torture and political sabotage. He was taught
to kill or stun with a single blow and sent on his first
missions.
His first assignments were low-level sabotage designed to frame
opponents of
the regime. They involved attacks on railway lines and on the
houses of
members of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, which were then blamed
on the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
It was not
without rewards. The team were housed in a plush flat in an
eight-storey
block in the centre of Harare. In a country where food is now
expensive and
scarce, the group had fresh bread daily and fridge shelves
groaning with
fresh produce. They received regular drugs consignments and
the services of
prostitutes.
In January, 2006, Mabada and his team were summoned to a new
training camp
and led into a blood-stained room. Their instructor told them:
"Today, you
will learn how to torture."
A "practice prisoner" was
brought in and the team were ordered to beat him
up. The instructor
observed: "No one will miss him."
The body was dumped in the corner and a
second victim was brought in. The
team were told: "Stage two. This time hit
where it really hurts."
A third victim was given electric shocks, while
the instructors passed
cannabis and alcohol around the team.
On one
occasion, Mabada and a team of government commandos surrounded an
opposition
meeting and asked the 40-strong group of men and women who had
voted for the
MDC. When two men put up their hands, the agents told them
they could go
because they had been "honest".
The rest were ordered to drink alcohol
until they were "senseless" and
forced to have unprotected sex with each
other, changing partners at the
whim of the agents. In a country where a
fifth of the population is HIV
positive, the order was as good as a death
sentence.
Shortly before he fled, Mabada's team received their most
chilling order, to
fill a metal coffin containing a battered but living
opposition member with
concrete. They mixed the concrete and poured it in
until only the man's head
was free. They then carried the coffin to a
lakeside boat, where an agent
was waiting. When the boat returned, the
coffin was nowhere to be seen.
Last month, because of his long record of
brutality, Mugabe was stripped of
the honorary degree awarded to him for
services to education in Africa in
the 1980s by Edinburgh University
following a campaign by Scotland on
Sunday.
Last week, however, he
was still being allowed to parade his credentials as
a statesman, despite a
blistering attack on his rule by the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Bulawayo,
Pius Ncube, who said that the state of the country
was now so bad that
foreign governments, particularly Britain's, should
intervene to "remove"
the dictator from power. At an African Union summit in
Ghana, Mugabe was, as
usual, feted by his fellow African leaders, where he
promoted pan-African
unity.
Mabada says he has spoken out even though it will most likely lead
to his
death.
He said that after the evening with the murdered
opposition member he knew
he "couldn't handle it any more. Maybe it was the
look from that man in the
coffin. I don't know exactly. I just knew that I
had to get away, even if it
cost me my life trying".
African leaders
'turning a blind eye to brutal neighbour'
In April, human rights group
Amnesty called for an end the "culture of
impunity" that has been allowed to
build up, particularly among other
African leaders, around Zimbabwe's
violations.
UK campaigns director Tim Hancock said it was "clear" that
there are
incidents of torture in Zimbabwe and the organisation had called
on the
Mugabe government to improve the human rights situation.
"As
Zimbabwe commemorates 27 years of independence, many of its citizens are
either in police custody, nursing injuries inflicted by the police and other
state security agents, or are living in fear of daring to exercise their
right to peaceful protest," he said.
"Many Zimbabweans are spending
sleepless nights afraid of being abducted or
of being subjected to torture
simply for choosing to belong to an opposition
political
party."
Since 2000, there has been a rapid erosion of human rights in
Zimbabwe,
including destruction of the homes and livelihoods of 700,000
people in
2005.
On March 11 this year, police in Harare arrested
political opposition
leaders and other activists who tried to take part in a
prayer meeting. Many
were severely beaten at Machipisa police station. They
injured included
Morgan Tsvangirai of the main opposition party, the MDC,
who suffered a
fractured skull.
Zimbabwe is a country in free fall. Life expectancy is plummeting, while
inflation is rocketing. But the nightmare of life there is notoriously hard to
document. Photographer Robin Hammond evades Mugabe's murderous police to smuggle
out some extraordinary images.
See
Robin Hammond's photos of real life in Zimbabwe
Tracy McVeigh
Sunday July 8,
2007
The Observer
Intimidation, beatings, detention, imprisonment,
torture ... For ordinary Zimbabweans, whether dissenting voices, opposition
supporters, lawyers, white farmers, journalists, motherless waifs living rough
on the streets or those who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong
time, the threat from their nation's leaders and the uniformed thugs who work
for them is a permanent and paralysing fixture.
The remarkable photographs shown in the gallery above reveal a Zimbabwe rarely seen by outsiders. All the people who agreed to be photographed here knew that they risked their own safety. The Observer 's photographer Robin Hammond was threatened with arrest and violence and, only by twice paying hefty bribes to uniformed police officers, did he escape a beating and hefty prison sentence. But the vivid scenes he captures tell the story of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe - a once flourishing country brought to its knees by a despotic regime.
Zimbabwe's affliction is not that its rampant inflation rate, food, fuel and power shortages are caused by natural disaster or lack of resources but, in the greater part, by a once-heroic figure who has treated his own people with criminal contempt. The 83-year-old Mugabe and his ministers hang on - to the dollars they stash through foreign-currency dealing, to the decent foreign schools they can send their children to, to the food they snatch from the starving, to the farms they grab and ruin, to the fistfuls of diamonds they purloin from the dwindling numbers of companies still interested in investing in this failing state, to power.It's said in whispered tones that Mugabe keeps files on his friends as well as his enemies, and, whatever the truth, it keeps levels of paranoia and fear high among his citizens. Police officers remain loyal despite the fact that they rarely see their wage packets these days thanks to a lack of cash in the public coffers, many are forced to hitchhike or walk everywhere and the temptation to demand bribes for imagined criminal offences is high. Rallies or gatherings are always brutally put down and Harare's wide open grid-style streets do not lend themselves easily to any form of mass uprising that could not easily be controlled by Mugabe's military.
The clampdown on the media is part of that repression. For journalists and photographers trying to throw a bit of light on the situation and give a voice to the impoverished people here, there is the kind of state hostility normally reserved for war zones.
In the past four years, some 100 reporters and photographers have been arrested. From the detention and deportation of The Observer 's Andrew Meldrum in 2003, just a month before Philimon Bulawayo, a photographer with the independent Daily News , was battered and detained, to the 2007 attack on Gift Phiri, a contributor to the London-based Zimbabwean, hospitalised after being beaten in police custody, and the murder of photographer Edward Chikomba, there has been little let up. Zimbabwe currently tops the list of countries that have forced the largest number of journalists into exile - 48 since 2001, according to a recent report.
Zimbabwe's independent newspapers are regularly shut down. Journalists, local or foreign, caught practising without a licence can be jailed for two years - or 20 years if they are found to have published anything disparaging about Mugabe.
Boldwill Hungwe, a photographer with The Standard, remains in hiding. Two months ago the paper published pictures of a badly bruised lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, tortured by police. The security forces had broken up a gathering of lawyers in Harare the previous week. After the photo was published the police called Hungwe and told him to turn himself in at the police station. He has been in hiding ever since.
His fear is hardly unfounded. In April, Edward Chikomba's body was found, a few days after he was abducted from his home by armed men. Chikomba was suspected of having leaked the footage that flooded the world's media - the 11 March police beatings of Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition-party members after they tried to hold a peaceful rally in Highfields, on the outskirts of Harare. Three other journalists who reported on the story were also arrested and beaten. And such violence is meted out without discrimination in Zimbabwe.
From the women and children picking their way through the city dumps to the doctors trying to run hospitals with no medicines or electricity, to the thousands of people who try to flee their impoverished lives by flooding over the border into an unwelcoming South Africa, every Zimbabwean is now a victim.
The Times
July 9, 2007
Rosemary Righter: Thunderer
In Africa's ubiquitous urban slums,
children play at Formula One racing with
bricks they push through the dust.
At the African Union summit in Accra last
week their leaders did much the
same. There was just one item on the agenda,
and it had nothing to do with
the persecution and slaughter of their
brethren in Darfur, Somalia, Congo or
(heaven forfend) Zimbabwe, let alone
the political and economic reforms that
could bring jobs and hope to those
urban slums. Africa's overlords had
weightier matters on their mind.
Urged on by that well-known African, the
gold-garbed Guide of the First of
September Great Revolution of the
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
they devoted the entire three
days to a "Grand Debate" on creating a United
States of Africa, complete
with a federal government with a 15-member
cabinet and a two million-strong
continental army under the command of - who
other than Muammar Gaddafi, who
has proposed himself as Africa's minister of
defence.
No matter that
all concerned knew that this was an exercise in futility that
would at best
end in a "road map" to union, destined to peter out in a dead
end. Asked
whether it was not more urgent to get their domestic houses in
order before
building this continental palace, or at least to practice
African unity
before preaching it.
Ghana's Foreign Minister replied: "Yes, we have
serious problems, people are
dying in places like Somalia and Darfur. But
people are dying everywhere in
the world, not just in Africa." Let them eat
grenades. Not bad, toasted.
It is more than 50 years since Ghana's Kwame
Nkrumah raised the pan-African
banner, arguing unsuccessfully for a federal
African government. Nkrumah
failed even to forge a permanent union with
neighbouring Mali and Guinea,
and in practice set about dismantling such
common West African institutions
as the British had left behind. Since
Nkrumah's day Africa's 53 states have
become more, not less, divided. Its
governments have signed countless
regional agreements, on human rights,
economic development and trade, which
they then ignore. They do not even pay
their dues to the African Union, thus
ensuring its
ineffectiveness.
Gaddafi will not give up bribing and bullying African
governments to support
his Big Idea because his African love affair is less
capricious than might
appear. It is his "insurance" against the day when his
barren land runs out
not only of oil, but also of water. Libya, he tells his
people, would cease
to exist in a US of Africa, but Libyans would have the
run of the "paradise"
of Africa's natural wealth. Africa's political
heavyweights know what he is
after. But they will not admit that pan-African
unity is make-believe. The
kids playing in the townships have a better grip
on reality.
Zim Online
Monday 09 July 2007
By Tsungai Murandu
HARARE -
Long fuel queues have resurfaced in Zimbabwe as filling stations
ran out of
petrol following a government directive to reduce prices by up to
60
percent.
Only a handful of garages in Harare had fuel at the weekend,
resulting in
long queues by desperate motorists.
The government on
Thursday ordered oil companies to slash prices of petrol
and diesel to $55
000 and $60 000, respectively, as part of a campaign to
contain
inflation.
Before the directive, a litre of petrol cost $150 000 while
diesel went for
$160 000.
The shortages are expected to worsen during
the coming week after current
supplies run out, fuel attendants warned
Sunday.
"We don't know when we will get the next supplies because it is
no longer
viable to continue importing at the new prices," said an attendant
at a
Harare filling station.
The bulk of Zimbabwe's fuel needs are
supplied by private companies which
get their foreign currency on the
illegal parallel market where each US
dollar trades at between 120 000 and
160 000 Zimbabwe dollars.
The fuel crisis comes amid fresh reports of
shortages of basic commodities
in shops around the country following a
freeze in prices imposed by the
government two weeks ago.
President
Robert Mugabe's government ordered shops to reduce prices on all
basic
commodities by 50 percent after accusing business of working with its
western enemies to foment an uprising in the country.
The directive
has since been extended to all commodities.
There were reports of chaotic
scenes at some shops in Harare and other major
cities as people took
advantage to buy grab cheaper priced goods on the
market.
Meanwhile,
16 more business leaders were arrested over the weekend for
defying the
government order to reduce prices. This brings to 33 the number
of business
executives who have been arrested under the price crackdown.
Last Friday,
Mugabe threatened to seize all firms that stop production in
defiance of the
government's order to slash prices. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 09 July 2007
By
Nqobizitha Khumalo
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwean companies have resorted to
importing coal from
neighbouring Botswana after the state-owned Hwange
Colliery Company failed
to meet national demand, ZimOnline has
learnt.
Zimbabwe sits on some of the biggest natural coal reserves in
southern
Africa.
A shortage of spare parts and equipment as well as
frequent breakdowns has
left the state power company struggling to meet
national demand.
A Hwange Colliery Company distribution sector chart seen
by ZimOnline at the
weekend, showed that the company was only meeting 52
percent of demand
leaving most companies to import coal from
Botswana.
While the national demand for coal was 380 000 tonnes per
month, Hwange is
only managing to supply 197 300 tonnes to Zimbabwean
companies leaving a
huge shortfall of 182 700 tonnes every
month.
According to the chart, Hwange is supplying the state's Zimbabwe
Power
Company (ZPC) with 153 000 tonnes of coal against the company's
monthly
needs of 180 000 tonnes.
The reduced coal supplies have
forced the state's electricity supply agency
to ration supplies resulting in
massive black-outs around the country.
The chart also reveals that Hwange
was supplying 9 000 tonnes of coal to the
Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company
(ZISCOSTEEL) against a monthly demand of 15
000 tonnes.
Contacted for
comment, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) President
Callisto
Jokonya said at least 50 percent of Zimbabwean firms were importing
coal
from Botswana as a result of the shortages.
"Hwange has failed to supply
industry with coal and most companies have
since 2005 been importing their
own fuel from Botswana," said Jokonya.
Hwange Colliery spokesperson
Clifford Nkomo conceded that the company was
facing difficulties in meeting
its targets but declined to discuss the
matter further.
A company
executive at Hwange who spoke to ZimOnline at the weekend said the
company
was in dire straits with most of the equipment recently acquired
from China
as part of Harare's 'Look-East' policy frequently breaking down
underground.
"The new machinery that government sourced is frequently
breaking down and
most of the mining equipment was frozen underground and
will need to be
rehabilitated.
"The situation is critical and we
have since resorted to importing coal
from Botswana. But with the price
controls issue, most companies will simply
stop doing so," said the official
who preferred not to be named.
Last week, Vice-President Joice Mujuru
toured Hwange Colliery and held
closed-door meetings with the company's
management. Mujuru later met
officials from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) and Hwange
in an attempt to address the power shortages
affecting the country.
The coal shortages have seen Hwange power station
and other smaller thermal
power stations in Harare, Munyati and Bulawayo
scaling down on their power
generation.
The energy crisis is only an
addition on a long list of hardships that
Zimbabweans have become accustomed
to as the country grapples with a severe
economic crisis described by the
World Bank as the worst in the world
outside a war zone.
The economic
crisis has seen inflation shooting to 4 530 percent, the
highest in the
world, deepening poverty and shortages of food and essential
medicines and
just about every basic survival commodity. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 09 July
2007
Own Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - President Robert Mugabe has said there is no need to
change
Zimbabwe's constitution in the clearest indication yet that he will
not give
in to opposition demands for a new constitution in talks taking
place this
week in South Africa.
State radio quoted Mugabe, accused by the
opposition of manipulating
Zimbabwe's British-drafted constitution to
tighten his grip on power, as
having told a weekend meeting of his ruling
ZANU PF party that the present
constitution was serving the country well and
there was no need to change
it.
"President Robert Mugabe says
the current constitution serves the
nation well and there is no reason to
change it," the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings' Newsnet reported at the
weekend.
Mugabe spoke as officials from ZANU PF and the main
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party began secret talks in
South
Africa under the mediation of President Thabo Mbeki.
The
Southern African Development Community (SADC) last March appointed
Mbeki to
lead efforts to resolve Zimbabwe's seven-year political and
economic crisis
by facilitating dialogue between the ruling ZANU PF party
and the
MDC.
Very little has been let out to the public about the talks
that are
taking place as Zimbabwe rapidly descends into ever-worsening
economic
chaos, with some analysts saying the negotiations present the last
chance to
save the southern African country from total economic collapse and
possible
anarchy.
However, the MDC has publicly made it clear
that its most critical
demand is a new democratic constitution that will
guarantee free and fair
polls next year.
Mugabe's government
has paid little heed to calls by the opposition
that the Mbeki-led talks
discuss a new constitution for Zimbabwe and instead
is moving ahead to
unilaterally amend the constitution to allow for the
holding of joint
presidential and parliamentary elections next year, a move
certain to
undermine the South African leader's mediation effort.
Zimbabwe,
which was once an economic model for Africa has plunged into
political and
economic crisis in the last seven years due to what critics
say are Mugabe's
controversial policies such as seizing white-owned
commercial farms to give
to blacks.
But Mugabe, who has held power for 27-years and plans to
stand for
another five-year presidential term in 2008, blames the deepening
crisis on
what he calls sabotage by western governments out to punish him
for seizing
white land. - ZimOnline
Mail and Guardian
Irin
08 July 2007 11:59
Zimbabweans are
switching to barter, payment in kind and the use
of foreign currencies, such
as the rand, instead of the local dollar to
survive hyperinflation and the
accelerating economic meltdown.
Zimbabwe's currency is still
pegged officially at Z$250 to one
US dollar; this week the informal market
price was about Z$130 000 to US$1,
although two weeks ago it had crashed to
Z$400 000 against the US dollar. In
January, US$1 was being traded for Z$3
000.
The country's inflation rate -- the highest in the world
-- is
officially at more than 3 700%, although independent economists
believe the
real rate of inflation is about 20 000% and could reach
1,5-million percent
by the end of the year.
Purses and
wallets have become redundant; Zimbabweans use
shopping bags, suitcases,
sacks and other large containers to carry cash.
Bank tellers are hidden from
view by huge piles of the increasingly
worthless currency as long queues
wait to withdraw as much as they can to
try to beat the galloping inflation
that has crippled the country, once a
regional economic
powerhouse.
Conversations in banking halls are drowned out by
the constant
drone of money-counting machines -- importing the machines is
one of the few
remaining growth industries, but this mini-boom could end,
because
Zimbabweans are increasingly forced to resort to bartering, payment
in kind
and using a foreign currencies.
"We pay for soya
beans and can swop one ton for a drum of fuel,"
said a recent advert in the
state-sponsored newspaper, The Herald; bartering
is becoming commonplace as
individuals, traders and markets seek an
alternative method of determining
value.
Thomsen Siziba, a newly resettled farmer in the prime
farming
area of Chegutu, Mashonaland West Province, said farm workers no
longer
wanted to be paid in cash, but rather in kind.
"The gazetted [monthly] wages for farm workers is about $70 000,
which
basically is not enough to buy two litres of cooking oil, which costs
$350
000, or a bar of soap, which costs $270 000, or a bottle of beer, which
costs $75 000," he said.
Siziba said farm workers knew
the economy was collapsing and "a
lot of the farm workers say they no longer
want long-term contracts, which
would tie them to me; the farm workers say
they would rather work for food
and clothing handouts instead of money,
which they say is now worthless".
More than a third of the
population will require food assistance
by early next year, a recent joint
report by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation and the UN World Food
Programme said.
Onward Chabvepi, a vegetable hawker in Harare
said he had lost
confidence in both President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF
government and
the local currency.
"The prices of just
about everything are increasing every day. I
am not a sophisticated
economist, but one thing I know is that our currency
is now worthless and
that it is safer to convert most of the money I earn to
South African rands,
the US dollar or the Botswana pula, which are much more
stable
currencies."
A tenant in Belvedere, an upmarket suburb of
Harare, said his
landlord had given him notice that from July his rent
should not be paid in
Zimbabwean dollars, but in fuel, which currently sells
for about Z$220 000 a
litre. His monthly rent will cost him 80 litres of
petrol, or
Z$17,6-million.
Analysts said the growing use
of the South African rand or US
dollar for day-to-day trading was a
watershed in Zimbabwe's economic
malaise. "It's a clear sign that people no
longer have confidence in the
Zimbabwean dollar," said Professor Tony
Hawkins of the Graduate School of
Management at the University of
Zimbabwe.
He said the hyperinflation cycle, fuelled by the
government's
printing of money, has led to too much currency in circulation
and people
were opting to keep their money in foreign currencies that were
more secure.
"The key cause of inflation is government and
the central bank
printing money -- they are no longer publishing the figures
of the total
money in circulation," he said.
Hawkins said
although some people were engaging in barter trade,
the chances that it
would become widespread were minimal. "Logically, you
could see that
happening, but on a wider scale people prefer to sell their
products in
foreign currency, which is more secure and does not lose its
value."
Since 2000 more than a quarter of the population
-- more than
three million people -- are believed to have migrated to
neighbouring
countries in search of work, or further afield to England and
the United
States. Only one in five people in Zimbabwe is
employed.
Industry and International Trade Minister Obert
Mpofu said: "As
government we are concerned about the daily price increases
and we have set
up a task force that will work with security ministries and
curb the price
increases. They will also investigate the causes of basic
commodities
shortages, which are only found on the black
market."
By Daniel
Silke
(AXcess News) Cape Town - For the last few years, most observers of
Zimbabwe's plight regularly questioned how much further the country could
deteriorate before a political social and economic implosion set in. Well,
it has just plummeted to new depths of despair - as Africa looks on with
little political will to alleviate the long-suffering lives of its
ever-smiling people.
This week, soaring inflation (put at around
10000% per month) finally took
its toll resulting in huge price increases
and widespread food shortages
that, has finally, started to threaten the
cohesiveness of the Zimbabwe
regime.
Throughout its previous crises,
Zimbabweans had managed - somehow - to live
a relatively normal life by
putting food on their table (albeit more
sparingly). This week it all
changed. For the first time, the once-thriving
capital city of Harare
witnessed a retail meltdown which will affect
everyone - and most
importantly, President Mugabe's cronies who keep him in
power.
For
once, the economic meltdown can cause an internal political coup.
Ironically, it is not Zimbabwe's people who are rising up in anger and
taking to the streets in violent protest akin to the Orange Revolution in
the Ukraine more than two years ago. It is the simple fact that prices have
spiralled and stock shortages, as a result of panic buying, have resulted in
ordinary citizens wondering where their next meal will come from - or for
that matter, any basic supply and product.
What is more significant
is that this pending humanitarian disaster (already
playing itself out), is
simply not addressed by most of Africa's leaders.
Blinded by their historic
loyalty to Mugabe as a father figure of black
anti-colonialism and the
liberation from white minority tyranny, no-one has
been prepared to tackle
the octogenarian President. Even South Africa's
Thabo Mbeki, playing quiet
diplomacy for years and years, has seen his
efforts come to
nought.
The African Union, always trumpeting their new found adherence to
democratic
values and the rule of law, have failed dismally to address this
issue. The
much vaunted African Peer Review Mechanism which is supposed to
act as a
self-monitoring device to ensure open societies across the
continent is
barely worth the paper it is written on if Mugabe's excesses
remain
unscathed.
This week's economic crisis - the latest in a long
litany - does for the
first time make life tough for every Zimbabwean - even
the privileged and
protected. If opposition is to emerge in that country, it
now seems likely
that it will be from senior henchmen of Mugabe rather than
from the somewhat
moribund opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and its leader,
Morgan Tsvangerai.
Indeed, as the shelves or Harare's
stores deplete by the hour and as Mugabe
arrests shop-owners for not
unilaterally lowering prices (a decree he issued
to alleviate the plight of
the poor and buy some time and maybe even some
votes), the country lurches
towards self-implosion as a result of inflation
and economic
decline.
This is no popular uprising Ukraine-style. The implosion is
happening around
the regime as it battles to survive. No-one is knocking on
the doors of the
presidential palace and no-one is out in the streets.
Ordinary citizens are
locked in a battle to secure scare goods - it's the
battle on the retail
shelves that will be the key to the demise of the
Mugabe government.
Clever supporters of Mugabe are fast realising that a
change of President
(not necessarily government) will be needed to put goods
back on empty
shelves. Perhaps the opposition will have some say as events
deteriorate,
but the real likelihood is an exit strategy for Mugabe and his
replacement
by a more pragmatic ZANU-PF leadership.
This is the
solution that much of Africa wants. Keeping the ruling party
(however
corrupt) in power means that opposition remains marginalised. It
will be
better for many of Africa's insecure (and dubiously-elected) leaders
to deal
with a replacement for Mugabe but prop up the ruling party. By
encouraging
opposition, African leaders open themselves up to enhancing
opposition
within their own countries.
On a continent where 'free and fair'
elections are often tainted by
corruption and irregularities, even the much
vaunted new beginnings of the
'African Renaissance' are not quite ready to
admit and legitimise opposition
to standards enjoyed
elsewhere.
Zimbabwe is set for change. Ironically, it is unlikely to be
popularist in
any way. And, Africa wants it this way. Inflation might well
be the downfall
of Mugabe himself, but his opposition might have little to
gain in the long
run.
Editorial Note: Daniel Silke is an independent
political analyst and keynote
speaker based in Cape Town and is an
international news correspondent for
AXcess News covering South Africa. He
can be reached at
polanalyst[at]gmail.com
The Zimbabwean
(08-07-07)
By Marcus
Mushonga
HARARE:
DESPITE the low publicity in the voter registration
exercise, the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) has said Zimbabweans
are coming out in
their numbers to go and register in the 2008
elections.
According to a ZESN update published this week and based on the
organisation's secretariat observations in Harare, Mashonaland West and
Mashonaland Central the turnout has been high at centers that it has
visited.
"When the ZESN team visited the Mbare Netball grounds
registration centre on
Monday 2 July there were over 300 people queuing to
register as voters as
well as to obtain other identification documents,"
said ZESN in the update.
School children, said ZESN, were also milling around
waiting for their
opportunity to register as voters and an equally high
turnout was witnessed
at Nyachuru Secondary School in Mazowe District.
Mashonaland Central.
At Copley Farm in Mashonaland Central there were about
50 people waiting for
a chance to obtain identification
documents.
The organisatin said turnout was however low in Harare as
evidenced at Glen
Norah District Office when the ZESN team visited the
centre on Wednesday 4
July 2007.
"Most people at these centers claimed
that they had not seen the newspaper
adverts that publicized the voter
registration exercise. This was
particularly the case at Nyachuru Secondary
School, Copley Farm and Mhandu
Primary School in Zvimba District,
Mashonaland West," said ZESN revealing
that only five people at Mbare
Netball Grounds claimed to have seen adverts
in the newspaper.
In
some areas people however expressed their determination to follow the
team
to next registration centers, described the time ascribed for voter
registration as being too short.
"The people were pessimistic that
they would be registered at the centers
considering the slow pace at which
they were being served. Some claimed that
they had been at their centres for
two days and were yet to be served."
Although registration for those between
16 and 18 was for free, said ZESN,
all those above 18 were supposed to pay
$25 000-00.
"Those seeking to replace lost Identity cards were
expected to pay $30
000-00. Some people who spoke to ZESN, at Copley Farm
and Nyachuru Secondary
School on this issue expressed concern that the
amount was too exorbitant
considering that they were poor and unemployed
peasants," read part of the
update.
ZESN in the update, however
emphasised the need to adequately equip the
mobile registration teams with
all the necessary resources in order for the
mobile registration exercise to
run smoothly.
It also suggested that a more comprehensive door to door
voter registration
exercise be carried out- CAJ News.
The Zimbabwean
(08-07-07)
By Trust Matsilele
JOHANNESBURG: SOUTH AFRICAN president,
Thabo Mbeki is set to meet Zimbabwean
president Robert Mugabe on the fringes
of the coming SADC heads of states
summit in Zambia to persuade him give
back some farms he seized from white
commercial South Africans in
2000.
The South African's business and investment coalition wants the
South Africa
government to sign a protection agreement with its counterparts
in Zimbabwe
.
The agreement might see some of the evicted white
commercial farmers with
South African citizenship getting their farms
back.
South Africa's Trade and Industry Minister, Mandisi Mphahwa,
confirmed the
worries of business people in the country and said he was
under pressure
from them to make sure that protection rights between the two
countries were
signed soon.
The recent pressure follows President
Mugabe's threats to nationalise all
foreign owned companies, which might see
billions of rands invested in
Zimbabwe falling into the hands of the ZANU PF
regime.
However, Mphahlwa has defended himself saying the failure of the
South
African government to sign the protection agreements with Zimbabwe
were
further worsened by Mugabe's ouster of Finance minister Herbert Murerwa
from
the ministry of finance.
"The replacement of finance minister
Murerwa by Samuel Mumbengegwi in
February did cost us a momentum, "added
Mphahlwa.
Political analysts have, however, commented that in an event
that Mugabe
continues pushing for the nationalisation of all foreign owned
companies
diplomatic relations between the two countries might get
strained.
The original draft agreement dealt with promotion and
protection of
investment between the two countries. This included the
protection of land
rights of South African farmers who own land in Zimbabwe
.
South Africa 's Implats one of the leading investors in Zimbabwe has
also
expressed concern about the government's failure to sign protection
deal in
time as it considered expanding,
"Eighteen months ago the
company was waiting anxiously for the agreement to
be finalised as it
considered expansion in Zimbabwean context of runaway
inflation and a
capricious government," said Bob Gilmour, Implats's
spokesperson.
IOL
July 08 2007
at 02:48PM
The Democratic Alliance on Sunday criticised the
government's stance
that Zimbabwe should be included at the Africa-Europe
summit in Lisbon later
this year.
The DA's spokesperson on
Africa, Joe Seremane, said in a statement:
"Many African governments believe
that they must support each other, no
matter how corrupt, undemocratic or
abusive they become, because the
supporters may also need support in the
future for their own misdemeanours.
"This approach undermines the
positive protocols and treaties that
enrich the African Union.
"Now the South African government is following this trend."
This
was extremely disappointing because South Africa should be
setting an
example on the continent, not supporting despots and dictators,
Seremane
said.
Instead of setting an example at the United
Nations Security Council,
South Africa voted against resolutions that would
have condemned various
governments for human rights abuses.
The
African Union's constitutive Act called on all African countries
"to promote
democratic principles and institutions, popular participation
and good
governance".
It appeared that the South African government had
forgotten this Act,
said Seremane.
"The DA feels very strongly
that our government should be standing up
for the democratic principles and
institutions for which we fought so
hard." - Sapa
IOL
July 08 2007 at 05:07PM
By Arthur Mutambara
There has
been much debate and discussion about the succession matter
in Zanu-PF and
its attendant factional activities.
In some quarters, the issue of
the Zanu-PF successor to Mugabe has
been lauded as the key to unlocking the
Zimbabwean crisis, while others have
postulated a reformed Zanu-PF as the
answer to our national challenges.
There is speculation that some of our
friends in South Africa would prefer a
reformed Zanu-PF government with or
without the opposition as a junior
partner.
The international
community, and western governments in particular,
have shown a keen interest
in the jockeying for position among Zanu-PF
factions, which seems to imply
that if any one of the factions were to
replace Mugabe successfully (by
whatever method) the international community
would consider normalising
relationships with Zimbabwe.
The thinking seems to
be that the problem is Robert Mugabe the person,
and that anyone else will
do just fine.
We seek to destroy this myth and challenge the
efficacy of a reformed
Zanu-PF strategy.
First and foremost,
the Zimbabwean crisis is bigger than the person of
Robert Mugabe. There are
institutional, structural and systemic dimensions
to the challenges we are
facing.
During the past 27 years, Zanu-PF has developed a distinct
socio-politico-economic culture and value system rooted in political
illegitimacy and poor governance, economic mismanagement, bad policies,
corruption, patronage, incompetence and disrespect for the rule of law. Yes,
Mugabe is the personification and cardinal symbol of this misrule. More
importantly, he is the mortar and glue that keeps the rot
together.
Dismantling this oppressive system and creating a
peaceful, democratic
and prosperous Zimbabwe will require more than the
demise of Mugabe, the
political player.
There are many
individuals and institutions linked to Zanu-PF that are
benefiting from the
status quo. They seek to continue milking this patronage
system with or
without Mugabe. None of the potential Mugabe successors in
any of the
factions or sub-factions have articulated a different value
system,
institutional framework or strategic vision. They have no
transformative
agenda. Their only value is simply that they are not Robert
Mugabe. Beyond
that it is business as usual.
In fact, some of the would-be
successors have corruptly and
primitively amassed more wealth than Mugabe,
have worse democratic
credentials, and have been directly involved in
heinous crimes against
humanity in Zimbabwe.
How can those in
the international community, including South
Africans - who claim to cherish
values of democracy, freedom and economic
prosperity - entertain or fathom
such a perverted succession?
A reformed Zanu-PF succession strategy
must be rejected purely on the
grounds of principles and values. The ANC and
PAC freedom fighters would not
accept a reformed apartheid
framework.
Jewish freedom fighters did not accept alliances with
factions of the
Nazi regime. Consequently, Zimbabweans will not sell their
souls on the
altar of convenience and compromise. We seek a total
institutional and
structural revolution rooted in the radical transformation
of our political
value system.
The second basis for rejecting a
Zanu-PF solution centres on the
doctrine of collective responsibility.
Zanu-PF has been in power for 27
years and Mugabe has been running the
country through his central committee,
politburo and cabinet.
Yes, he has dominated these institutions, but members of these three
organs
must take collective responsibility for Zimbabwe's problems. Zanu-PF
leaders
involved with Mugabe up to the Unity Accord of 1987 are collectively
responsible for the mass murders in Matabeleland, during which 20 000
innocent Zimbabweans were massacred. How can anyone who had a position of
authority during a period of such heinous violation of human rights have the
moral authority to lead our country?
Over the years, Zanu-PF
has destroyed our economy and violated our
human rights with impunity. All
its leaders are linked and married to the
party's vices. Currently, there is
an unprecedented economic crisis, social
degradation and brutal repression -
leading towards complete collapse and
paralysis of our nation.
We cannot place responsibility for this on one man, Robert Mugabe.
Those men
and women in his organs of power must take collective
responsibility for the
fate of our nation. No one among them is qualified to
replace Robert Mugabe,
as a solution to our national tragedy.
The third argument against
the pretenders to Mugabe's throne is that,
in addition to being content-free
in terms of alternative vision, values and
economic strategy, they lack
courage. They are spineless cowards.
Assuming that some of them
have disagreed with Mugabe on strategy, why
have they not challenged him?
The current crisis is a case of the chickens
coming home to roost. Where
were these unimaginative cowards, opportunists
and morons, who now wish to
replace Mugabe, when he was carrying out his
human-rights
violations?
And where are they today when the economy is in free
fall, and the
population is going through unprecedented suffering and
turmoil. They are
silent. Political activists and their leaders are being
brutalised, tortured
and murdered. They don't say a word.
If
you cannot stand with the people in their bitterest hour of need,
how dare
you envisage yourself as a potential leader of the nation? If you
cannot
stand up for your beliefs or what is just because you do not want to
sacrifice your position at the feeding trough or because it will endanger
your political ambitions, then you are nothing but a spineless coward. The
integrity and true character of a person is judged by where he or she stands
during invidious moments of crisis.
Zimbabweans will not be led
by a coward.
It is not our intention to disqualify Zanu-PF leaders
from the
democratic process. We are saying: let us make the electoral
processes
transparent, level the political playing field and create
conditions for
free and fair elections. The future of Zimbabwe will then be
determined by
its citizens.
Those who govern must do so with
the consent of the governed.
Considering the arguments presented
against a reformed Zanu-PF within
the context of a devastated economy, an
impoverished majority and
dehumanised electorate, while taking cognisance of
the level of discontent
in the country, it is clear that people will choose
a clean break with the
disempowering past as they seek to build a new,
peaceful, democratic and
prosperous nation.
The people should
and will reject a reformed Zanu-PF in a free and
fair
election.
.. Professor Arthur Mutambara heads one of two
formations that make
up the Zimbabwean opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change
This article was originally published on page
15 of Sunday Independent
on July 08, 2007
www.fredericknewspost.com
Letters to the Editor
Originally published July 08, 2007
Surely,
it is time to put something to rest. The United Nations (the term
itself an
oxymoron), is simply a pitiful piece of useless New York real
estate.
The situation in the African nation of Zimbabwe, along with
its Hitleresque
leader Robert Mugabe, has become the poster child for U.N.
impotence.
Once a proverbial bread basket for the region, Zimbabwe has
become a ghostly
shadow of unimaginable poverty, murder, rape and plunder.
Mugabe began his
reign of terror a number of years ago with a land
"redistribution program"
that simply allowed his thugs to seize the
prosperous farms that were at the
heart of the national prosperity. Some,
even in this country, gave his
actions a tepid nod of approval.
----
Now, millions face disease and starvation. The situation is so bad
that
Archbishop Pius Neube has requested that Britain invade his own
country! A
friend who recently visited Africa spent some time near the
border with
Zimbabwe. He described once flourishing hotels now overgrown
with
vegetation, debris scattered about, windows broken. Commerce is dead,
replaced by terror. It is a nation collapsing while the rest of the world
barely takes notice.
More attention is given daily to the possible
future perils of "global
warming" than the hundreds of children who will die
in Zimbabwe in the next
week. Talk about an "Inconvenient Truth!" This is
here, this is now and the
world does just what it did in 1939 and on
numerous occasions since ...
absolutely nothing. ------
TOM
FRYE--
Laytonsville
07/07/07. A lovely sunny day after weeks
of wet weather. We were able to
offer some sun-kisssed singing, dancing and
drumming to the hundreds of
thousands of people thronging central London for
the launch of the Tour de
France cycle race - the first time the race has
started from London. We
were glad to welcome Jean-Francois, our long-term
French supporter, now
based in South Africa. It was appropriate that he
joined us at the same time
as the Tour de France. Jean-Francois helped in
our campaign to prevent
Mugabe's visit to the Franco-African summit in the
south of France in
February. His elegant translation of the Vigil's letter
to President Chirac
may have helped sway the French decision. (Part of his
translation was
adopted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe in
their letter to
France.)
We now have a battle with the Portuguese
over the planned AU-EU summit in
December. Despite the current talks
underway in Pretoria, the South Africans
are insisting that Mugabe be
invited and the Portuguese have indicated they
might well give in. The
Vigil is putting the case against this in a letter
to the Portuguese
government. We are hoping to find a Portuguese
Jean-Francois. Just in case,
we are advising supporters to get their travel
papers in order to mount a
protest in Lisbon - perhaps another attempt at a
citizen's arrest for what
the Sunday Times calls "a hidden genocide".
Vigil Co-ordinator Dumi, who
recently won the right to stay in the UK, is
not through the woods yet. He
is trying to get a national insurance number
to allow him to work but the
Home Office has lost all his paperwork! Many
of our asylum seekers report
similar experiences. We despair of the Home
Office.
There was anxious
discussion at the Vigil about the shopping collapse in
Zimbabwe. Just about
everyone here is sending money home to help family but
we know nothing we do
can be enough. Not a good time to be told by a
passer-by "Why are you f.ing
here. Go back to your f.ing own country."
Considering the large number of
immigrants coming to the UK we get very few
racist comments from the
British. In our experience much more racist
invective comes from
Afro-Caribbean supporters of Mugabe. Today however was
an exception -
perhaps fuelled by the recent attempted terrorist attacks in
London and
Glasgow?
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 86 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
- Monday,
9th July 2007, 7.30 pm. Central London Zimbabwe Forum will
discuss the
campaign to stop the Portuguese inviting Mugabe to the AU-EU
summit in
Lisbon in December. Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28
John Adam
Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go
down a
passageway to John Adam Street, turn right and you will see the
pub)
- Friday, 17th August 2007, 12:00 - 14:30. The Zimbabwe
Solidarity
Campaign (ZSC) in Belfast plans to hold a Vigil outside City
Hall, Belfast.
All supporters welcome. The ZSC has agreed with Ian Paisley
Jnr that they
will present their petition to Stormont on 10th September -
more information
to follow.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday
from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by
the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will
continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held
in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
You are
receiving this because you have attended the Vigil or contacted the
website. Please advise us if you wish to be removed from this list.
The Zimbabwean
(7-07-07)
JOHANNESBURG:
AOUT 350 veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation
struggle who snubbed a war
veteran's meeting held in Masvingo a fortnight
ago which required them to
join a reserve army ahead of the crucial next
year's polls had their
pensions and monthly allowance
cancelled.
Masvingo province ahs 400 registered war veterans but less
than 60 attended
the meeting held at 41 brigade a few kilometers out of
Masvingo city. As
punishment the government cancelled them on the list of
war veterans who
benefit from the monthly allowances.
The ruling
party has announced a drive to force war veterans and retired
soldiers to
register for a reserve army which analysts say want to beef up
its violence
machinery ahead of the critical harmonized elections next year.
Two war
veterans who spoke on condition of anonymity said that scores of war
veterans and retired soldiers who snubbed the calls had their names
deliberately skipped on the list of beneficiaries and as a result missed
their salaries.
"Less than 60 war veterans attended the meeting and
those who were there
said they registered their names on the list of the
reserve army which need
to be retrained before they are deployed into the
rural areas to unleash
violence during next year's polls.
"As I speak
right now those who joined the reserve force had their monthly
allowances
increased significantly and they are now getting100 000 less the
amount paid
to the serving army members of the rank of their retirement," he
said
As
a response to mounting Challenge ahead of next year's watershed
elections,
and in the face a recent alleged foiled coup plot president
Mugabe has
mooted the idea of rerecruting former liberation fighter as a
reserve force
as paranoia continue to grip the ageing leader.
Zimbabwe liberators platform,
chairperson, Femias Chakabuda lambasted
government for abusing war veterans
in a bid to cling on to power.
"War veterans liberated Zimbabwe so that every
body will participate in free
and fair elections. What the government is
doing is a clear abuse of the
veterans of our struggle for independence.
They played their roll and
liberated the country and they should not be used
as symbols of violence to
their own people because Zanu pf want to stay in
power," said Chakabuda.
The liberation war fighters were in 1997 given hefty
gratuities of $50 000
which then was a lot of money that could buy a car and
a modest house in
town. Economist says that that was the turning point of
the economic demise
of Zimbabwe because of the massive printing of
unbudgeted money, which
triggered inflation- CAJ News.
The Zimbabwean
(07-07-07)
GLEN View residents this week petitioned the City of
Harare over the
collapse in service provision, threatening to unleash a
series of actions
against the municipality including intensifying a rates
boycott campaign.
The major concerns that are cited in the petition include
the illegality of
Harare Commission, refuse collection and the persistent
water cuts that
residents are experiencing.
Residents are unhappy with
the proposed supplementary budget and yet
residents had rejected Harare 2007
City Budget. The petition was also copied
to the Ministry of Local
Government.
In another development, Budiriro residents invaded the local
District
Offices protesting against the prolonged water cuts they are
experiencing.
Scores of residents holding empty buckets marched around the
offices singing
protest songs on the 30th of June 2007.
The demonstration
lasted two hours and no one was arrested. - CHRA
The Zimbabwean
(07-07-07)
CITY suburbs have been
turned into villages due to continued power and water
cuts that have been
imposed by the two State-controlled parastatals, ZESA
and ZINWA.
Areas
like Mandara have gone for more than six months without water. Most of
the
residents there now rely on their boreholes. But ZINWA continues to send
water bills and yet they do not get the water at all.
ZESA has also made
life difficult for residents by turning the City of
Harare into an African
Village by imposing the prolonged power cuts.
Residents have now resorted to
using firewood which is mostly unaffordable.
Mabvuku residents have dug wells
in the swampy areas on the outskirts of
Tafara while those in Waterfalls and
Glen View Ward 1 drink contaminated
waters of Mukuvisi River.
Ironically,
the two parastatals still send monthly bills to residents asking
them to pay
for apparently non-existent services, a clear case of daylight
robbery.
ZINWA is ignoring burst sewer and water pipes that are scattered
all over
Harare suburbs, and, on the other hand, ZESA always excuses itself
from
replacing stolen cables and transformers. - CHRA
The Zimbabwean
( 07-07-07)
Beloved
Chiweshe, the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe National Students
Union and
Munjodzi Mutandiri, were arrested by a plain clothed member of the
dreaded
spy agency, CIO in a commuter omnibus and surrendered at Southerton
Police
Station.
According to Beloved Chiweshe the Secretary General of
ZINASU who was among
the two students, the incident occurred late Thursday
night. The Southerton
Police handed them over to the Law and Order members
at Harare Central.
The two who were on their way home had just boarded a
commuter omnibus when
two unidentified men, presumably members of the
infamous Central
Intelligence Organisation are reported to have
unceremoniously disembarked
them .The two were then force marched to a
waiting vehicle into which they
were bundled before being driven away to a
secluded place near Irvines farm.
It was at this point that their captors
subjected them to all forms of
torture, beating them up regardless. And in
a bizarre incident, the two
were forced to swim in a sewerage pond.
According to Chiweshe, the men
would order them to stay under the sewage
water for sometime. They only
stopped after Munjodzi had
collapsed.
This abduction comes in the wake of some brutal attacks
perpetrated against
student leaders at Masvingo State University . The
Students Solidarity Trust
as an Organisation strongly condemns these
systematic acts of torture and
inflicting terror against vulnerable and
defenseless students.
This is a sad and deplorable state of affairs which
goes against the grain
and spirit of a truly democratic society. According
to articles on the
Convention against Torture, torture is outlawed and
cannot be sanctioned or
sustained in any democratic space. An exhibition of
such arbitrary and
despotic tendencies is unjustified and unacceptable. This
kind of human
rights abuse should not be allowed to go
unchecked.
STOP THE TORTURE
The use of torture as an instrument of
coercion by the government of
Zimbabwe has become so pervasive and
institutionalized - it qualifies as a
way of doing things.
As
Zimbabweans join the rest of the world in commemorating the International
Day against torture, Zimbabweans are faced with the stark reality of torture
as a means of crushing dissent.
As it were, the legacy of Ian Smith
is still abound in "independent"
Zimbabwe today. As the nationalist leaders
fought a tenacious war with the
oppressive Smith regime for the attainment
of independence, they faced
relentless torture in a bid to cow them into
submission. Many of our
leaders today have harrowing experiences of torture
and how dehumanizing and
degrading it is to the human spirit.
Yet
Zimbabweans who dare to speak out against the oppressive policies of the
government face torture!
Article 2 of the Convention against Torture
places an obligation on State
members to prevent torture because it
represents the most basic denial of
human dignity which lies at the very
heart of the concept of human rights.
Acts of torture can also infringe on
the rights to security of person, the
right to equality and the right to
life itself.
Students and many other perceived 'enemies' of the state
have suffered
torture at the hands of state security apparatus. In many
cases, innocent
people have been tortured before proven guilty. In Zimbabwe
, perpetrators
of torture have been generally known as the police, secret
police, army and
vampire-like paramilitary forces (youth militias and war
veterans - with the
aid and protection of the state.
Even more
worrying within the students' community is that acts of torture
are now
being perpetrated by campus security. Recently, they have been on
the
forefront of assaulting and torturing legitimate student activists and
have
assumed throle of pseudo-military juntas, spreading terror at
institutions
of higher learning
The Students Solidarity Trust calls on the
government to desist and impress
on the security apparatus to desist from
using torture as means of
investigating suspects and stifling legitimate
citizen's participation in
the political affairs of their country. There is
an inherent need to train
law enforcement agents from instigating acts of
torture. The code of
conduct of such officials shall serve and protect the
community at all
times.